Get the taste of Indian culture and win an award too. This is what the BSGP wing of Gayatri Parivar has been doing for the past 20 years. With the advancement of time, the examination pattern has changed, having the latest multiple choice pattern. However, the objective remains the same – acquaintance of students more and more with the essence of Indian culture.
At the university level essay competition held by the wing this week, student of HEPC college of Haridwar won the first prize while two students from Roorkee bagged the second and third positions. At the school level, the competition is held from class 5 to 12. For the open category, even university students can apply. The examination is conducted across the country.
Ironically enough, though India is credited with the most developed culture of the world the students of the country do not pride themselves on the fact. This was what pained the head of Gayatri Parivar Pranav Pandya who formed another wing of the socio-cultural-spiritual organisation and thus launched the Bhartiya Sanskriti Gayatri Pariwar. Speaking to The Pioneer, Pranav Pandya said, “Through painting, essay and other competitions, we assess the knowledge of Indian culture of the students. Komal and Priya Saini from Roorkee won the second and third awards while Khushboo from HEPC college of Haridwar won first prize for best essay on Indian culture.”
Dwelling upon what propelled them to start this assessment programme, Pandya said, “The founder of our institution Shri Ram Sharma Acharaya was of the firm view that in this era of materialism, personality development is a must. Knowledge of the Indian culture helps build a robust and balanced personality. But the sad fact is that the students cannot get the multiple flavour of the myriad attributes of the timeless ethos and heritage of Indian culture at one place. Thus, we have tried to collect some of these features at one place as a question bank.”
Head of BSGP H P Singh said, “From 2009, a change in the mode of examination was made in keeping with the times. For the first time, use of OMR (optical mark reader) system of examination was introduced. In this fast age, the students just want tick mark questions and in a few minutes they are done with it.”
Notably, lakhs of students have participated in the contests held by BSGP till date. “There is no system of regular class room teaching for this examination. Neither is it required. Questions are based on the books and other study materials supplied by the students for different classes (class 5th to 12th). A student of a school of any State in India can appear in this examination. The questions are purely objective in nature. There is only one paper of one hour duration. The questions test the knowledge of Indian culture and civilisation of the student. A contributory amount of Rs 30 per participant was charged towards the cost of book materials,” he added.