The dream — post-independence — was that there would be more peace, intense social cohesion, ever-increasing harmony. However, it is the other way round. We have far more violence, bigotry, distrust and unrest in the country
National Education Day could best be utilised to analyse the causes that have resulted in the dilution of quality and skill acquisition. After the partition of India, the expectation from the ruling dispensation was of strict adherence to the principles and guidelines given by Mahatma Gandhi that could alone ensure respect for diversity and social and religious cohesion.
Universalising education was the master key. India needed an education that was ‘rooted to its culture and committed to progress’. Great stalwarts around Mahatma Gandhi realised the criticality of ensuring the best features of Indian tradition: Equal respect for all religions, beliefs and diverse practices gets its traditional due. Muslims, who refused to migrate to the promised paradise called Pakistan, loved India and its tradition of unity in diversity. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, one of the stalwarts of the freedom struggle and a great scholar of international repute in matters of religions and spirituality, elaborates it: “The acceptance of unity in diversity has been (India’s) motto throughout the ages. The essence of this principle is a large and wide-hearted
toleration in which differences are recognised and given their due. The Indian genius has always recognised that truth as many faces and conflict and hatred have arisen because people claim a monopoly of truth and virtue.” One wonders why India has not paid due attention to the perception of the Maulana who had, in his own way, strived hard to prepare people who understood the Indian diversity in its full glory and glare. Maulana’s concern to see India as a nation of people proud of their heritage and, simultaneously, also of their readiness to accept and acknowledge all that contributes to the growth and well-being of India and its people.
There are occasions when, one single sentence or a small statement could project the total personality of a visionary leader. Here is an example from his presidential address delivered in the 1940 annual session of the Indian National Congress: “I am a part of this indivisible unity that is Indian nationality. I am indispensible to the noble edifice and without me, this splendid structure of India is incomplete. I am an essential element which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim.” Sadly enough, India was partitioned but Maulana remained steadfast in his views. He became the first Education Minister of India. Apart from the formal celebrations of the National Education Day every year on November 11, it would be prudent that the contemporary relevance of Maulana’s views is thoroughly discussed and incisively debated amongst the policy makers and implementers. Education, in its present shape, is certainly not ‘bringing out the best from the body, mind and spirit’!
During the last over-six decades, India has much to project as its achievements are under progress and development. This includes the international chorus about India being a young nation that could provide skilled manpower to the nations facing ‘ageing societies’! We have a far-more literate, modern and forward-looking India today than in Maulana’s times. There is the other side as well: We have far more violence, bigotry, distrust and unrest in the country today than fifty years ago. The dream — post-independence — was that things would just be the other way round: More peace, intense social cohesion, ever-increasing religious harmony, peace, mutual trust and equal distribution of the fruits of progress and development. Obviously, something has gone wrong during the intervening period. It deserves to be analysed and pragmatic remedial steps should be initiated to redress the situation.
Did Maulana anticipate the negative developments of tomorrow in his timesIJ A couple of instances would indicate that he was a visionary scholar who understood and contributed effectively in the freedom struggle and in the much-needed transformation towards a fully literate India comprising of a just and value-based society. Addressing a meeting of the vice-chancellors of Indian universities in Delhi on November 3, 1951, Maulana said: “The basis of our life is still agriculture and a vast majority of our people depend on agriculture for their livelihood….Our agriculture graduates are fit for almost everything except becoming agriculturists themselves.” Even in times of globalisation, vast number of Indians remain dependent on agriculture, which has continuously remained ignored. The growth rate in this sector is abysmally low.
The result: Young persons are migrating to cities and towns and often leading a far miserable life which they could have improved upon if agricultural operations were given the much needed support. He had suggested a way out to overcome the deficiency by giving an extra bias to agriculture in school education and introducing agricultural education in the universities: “In addition, schools and colleges in the rural and semi-rural areas must encourage all students — whatever may be their subjects of study — to devote a part of their normal scholastic routine to work on land. For schools and colleges in cities and towns, I would suggest their adoption of villages where students may participate in a programme of complete reconstruction of village life.”
The Maulana gave a great and scholarly speech while inaugurating the symposium on the Concept of Man and Philosophy of Education in East and West, New Delhi, December 13, 1951: “The Greek approached the concept of man from an external point of view. Hence we find that, from the early times, Greek philosophy devotes far greater attention to what man does than what man is.”