It was the first day of my Higher Secondary education. I was in a new school. I was trying to get to know the people around me. Then from somewhere the Chemistry teacher arrived. Instead of asking for an intro, he had asked a question to get to know the collective opinion of the students, "Why are you people coming to school".
Initially I thought he was sarcastic with that question. As people started to answer the question, I was planning to do a show-off. All the answers were similar to this, "I wanna get a good job, get settled in life etc". I framed the sentence this way to make it sound different, "Learning is the ideal way to earn money to make a living and make the country rich. So, I am here to learn".
His immediate reply was, "Leave all the patriotism, It is about money at the end". I had to agree it, because it sounded true to me. Then from the far end of the class, a voice arose. She said, "I am here to develop a character". She had clearly won the appreciations from the teacher and other students.
That seemed to have answered the question which was running in my mind ever since I was a child, "Why should I go to school, when I can learn the subjects that I like on my own". It was to develop a character.
When I started to think a while about it, I had realized how great the pre-colonial education in India, which valued studies, research, self-discipline and moral values equally. We had completely lost our track during the British era. We have valued knowledge gaining more than knowledge sharing. We had started to make a business out of our knowledge and ended up becoming greedy.
Then there came a group of uneducated idiots, who had corrupted our politics so much. When India focuses on 100% literacy, doesn't it matter to a politician to have a degree in social science and humanities?
Initially I thought he was sarcastic with that question. As people started to answer the question, I was planning to do a show-off. All the answers were similar to this, "I wanna get a good job, get settled in life etc". I framed the sentence this way to make it sound different, "Learning is the ideal way to earn money to make a living and make the country rich. So, I am here to learn".
His immediate reply was, "Leave all the patriotism, It is about money at the end". I had to agree it, because it sounded true to me. Then from the far end of the class, a voice arose. She said, "I am here to develop a character". She had clearly won the appreciations from the teacher and other students.
That seemed to have answered the question which was running in my mind ever since I was a child, "Why should I go to school, when I can learn the subjects that I like on my own". It was to develop a character.
When I started to think a while about it, I had realized how great the pre-colonial education in India, which valued studies, research, self-discipline and moral values equally. We had completely lost our track during the British era. We have valued knowledge gaining more than knowledge sharing. We had started to make a business out of our knowledge and ended up becoming greedy.
Then there came a group of uneducated idiots, who had corrupted our politics so much. When India focuses on 100% literacy, doesn't it matter to a politician to have a degree in social science and humanities?
At the same time, are the educated people doing the right thing? They are seeing education as an investment to become rich in the long run. Scientists, engineers, doctors and other science students, who understand the universe better than a layman, are not concerned about environment at all. They are making money by making extra-ordinary technology. The excuse for them being, "I am a science student. It is the responsibility of a social science student to take care of the world. Not mine".
Then the businessman, who clearly know, what it would take to make an collective growth of the society, spend most of their time in making people buy whatever they had made.
Then the religious leaders, who believe that mere prayers would make a better life. When the Abrahamic religions popularize their religious saying that their particular God would give them more wealth, the Indian religions are getting drifted towards taking up alien principles into their religions. What is wrong with Hinduism and Buddhism? Shouldn't their religions be telling the followers, "God wouldn't care for you, if you don't care about every other living being". The every religion modern philosophy of "Do prayers and chant God's name to get a better life" is not a solution for God's sake.
Everyone has simply failed to take up some responsibility on their own. We have faced it's results in Thoothukudi Sterlite protests. It doesn't matter what the people have done. It is wrong that the police had opened fire at the public, They might not be innocents, but does that mean that they should get killed?
Then the businessman, who clearly know, what it would take to make an collective growth of the society, spend most of their time in making people buy whatever they had made.
Then the religious leaders, who believe that mere prayers would make a better life. When the Abrahamic religions popularize their religious saying that their particular God would give them more wealth, the Indian religions are getting drifted towards taking up alien principles into their religions. What is wrong with Hinduism and Buddhism? Shouldn't their religions be telling the followers, "God wouldn't care for you, if you don't care about every other living being". The every religion modern philosophy of "Do prayers and chant God's name to get a better life" is not a solution for God's sake.
Everyone has simply failed to take up some responsibility on their own. We have faced it's results in Thoothukudi Sterlite protests. It doesn't matter what the people have done. It is wrong that the police had opened fire at the public, They might not be innocents, but does that mean that they should get killed?
We are fighting so much in Courts to eradicate death penalty even for the most dangerous terrorists. Did we do the right thing, when people had fallen on the road because of our bullets?
When both sides had breached their code by indulging in violence, we see on the other side the movies that justify violence. We see that movies portray violent beings as heroes. They are trying to express that peace cannot be brought in a non-violent way.
Guys! Gandhi had quit the Non-Cooperation movement just because people had moved away from their non-violence code. Isn't that a lesson to be learnt from the past?
Shouldn't we care more about morals and humanities than making profits for a better living?
When both sides had breached their code by indulging in violence, we see on the other side the movies that justify violence. We see that movies portray violent beings as heroes. They are trying to express that peace cannot be brought in a non-violent way.
Guys! Gandhi had quit the Non-Cooperation movement just because people had moved away from their non-violence code. Isn't that a lesson to be learnt from the past?
Shouldn't we care more about morals and humanities than making profits for a better living?
