Saturday, May 25, 2013

Education and Social Cohesion

It is widely accepted that one of the prime objectives of public education is to strengthen social cohesion and promote national integration. In this respect, Indian education system has faced (and is facing) unprecedented challenges. Let me explain:

In  the  early  20th  centurit  was  widely  accepted  that  a  nation  should  be  highly homogeneous for social stability. Therefore, when the new world order was created by the westerners following the World War-II, the international borders were drawn mainly, based on linguistic,  ethnic,  religious  or  regional  divides.  A  country,  having  all  sorts  of  diversity  and differences, was simply considered unnatural and destined to be a failure. Following this logic, when the question was raised about an independent India’ the British intellectuals had severe doubts.


Sir John Strachey, who was a member of Governor General’s Counsel of British Raj, said India is merely a label of convenience, a name which we give to a great region including multitude of different countries. The differences between the countries of Europe are much smaller than those between countries’ of India. Scotland is more like Spain than Bengal is like the Punjab. The most essential thing to learn about India that there is not, and never was an India, or even any country of India possessing, according to any European ideas, any sort of unity, physical, political, social or religious.

While addressing his Cambridge audience, he added “It is conceivable that national sympathies may arise in particular Indian countries, but that they should ever extend to India generally, that men of Punjab, Bengal, Bombay and Madras, should ever feel that they belong to one Indian nation, is impossible.
Views such as these were widely prevalent among the British. And politically the most important of these was undoubtedly Winston Churchill. In 1930-31, while speaking at the Albert Hall on Our Duty to India, he said

to abandon India to the rule of the Brahmins (his reference to the Congress Party) would be an act of cruel and wicked negligence. If we leave, the entire gamut of public services createby us the judicial, medical, railway and public works departments would perish, and India will fall back quite rapidly through the centuries into the barbarism and privations of the Middle Ages.
Though   the   abov comment see arrogan (and   ful o ignorance)   today the hopelessness about one big India’ was common among Europeans. The idea of India was challenging the conventional idea of a nation in Europe. Even today, there are many axes of conflicts in India:


Religion: Today a vast majority of the billion-plus Indians are Hindus (approx. 83%). But, India also has the second largest population of Muslims in the world about 140 million (only after Indonesia; though Pakistan is likely to overtake due to its high population growth-rate). Also, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains are in substantial numbers.

Caste: In four varnas (place that jati occupies in social stratification) fit 3000 and more jatis (group one is born into), each challenging those, in the same region, that are ranked above it, and being in turn challenged by those below.

Language: The constitution of India recognizes 22 languages as official’. According to Census of India of 2001, 29 languages are spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 languages (234 mother tongues) by more than 10,000 speakers. 1962 Census recognized 1961 mother tongues. In the past, people speaking one language have fought with those speaking another. Also, many Indian states are created on linguistic bases. Therefore, linguistic conflicts often translate to regional prejudices.

Regionalism:  Some  regions  of  India  have  still  not  being  integrated  completelin  the national narrative. Feeling of alienation can be found in Kashmir valley and parts of Northeast. Also, conflicts have sparked between people of northern and southern states; and more recently, between Marathis and people of Uttar Pradesh / Bihar.
  
Class: India has massive disparities. Although, the number of people coming out of poverty is rapidly increasing (poor population under 22% by 2015); still the economic divide has only increased  (if  not  unchanged)  over  the  period  of  time.  The  percentage  sharof  Indias  55 billionaires is about 15% of its GDP. On one hand India has about 1.3 lac millionaires, and on the other hand the number of poor people living in eight states of India (about 420million) is highethan the total number of poor in 26 poorest African countries (410 million). These asymmetries have fuelled many movements of opposition.

 In addition, most of the times, the conflicts are confusingly convoluted, where a group of people of particular region, speaking particular language, object practices of a particular religion to target the other side. Currently, one of the biggest internal security treats for India is Naxalism, which transcends many axes of conflicts.

A complicated mixture of exploitation of labour and rights of native people in mineral rich states, classism and casteism triggered Left-wing extremists to wage war against the Indian state. According to an estimate (Sahni & Singh, 2010), one third of India can be described as a conflict- zone at present.

Yes, India has seen its darkest days – the bleeding partition and the greatest human migration, the wars with its neighbours, horrifying droughts and natural disasters, numerous communal riots  and  secession  movements,  deadliest  terrorist  strikesfinancial  collapses  and international sanctions, and heavily armed insurgencies. However, India has remained intact. Its pluralist and tolerant social-fabric has absorbed all blows.
  
A country, which was considered extremely poor, illiterate, and too diverse to self-govern and was predicted to result into a chaos within months, has emerged as one of the global powers today. Since independence, India has grown strength to strength. Its political and social stability has repeatedly surprised political/social scientists. Though the overall social stability and conflict resolution may have political, economic, security and cultural dimensions, education has certainly played a significant role.

 To its credit, the Indian education system has done a fair job so far, especially in accommodating religious, linguistic, and cultural diversities. This was mainly achieved by the decentralization of the educational system to the state level. However, as we discussed above, there are substantial threats to stability. A lot can be and should be done through mass-education to strengthen Indias social fabric and make the experience of formal education relevant for all kids. In the following paragraphs, I present my take on the same.

History and Geography Education: One of the finest educationists of the 20th century, John Dewey had  famously stated   History is  not  the  storof  heroes,  but  an  account  of  social development; it provides us with knowledge of the past which contributes to the solution of social problems of the present and the future(as quoted in Bartlett, 2008).
The objective for history should not be to glorify certain kings and describing wars, but to understand how wars are devastating for societies and why and how that must be avoided. History curriculum  should  put  higher  emphasis  on the  lives  and  struggles  of  the  ordinary  peoplof respective times, the challenges that they faced and the solutions they obtained. Class discussions should explore the lessons that we can learn from our predecessors as a society.

 I  personally  think  the  kings  and  politicians  are  highly  overrated  in  our  history  books. Similarly, geography requires a makeover and needs to aim at conveying how geographical factors affect human lives, culture, economic investments, developmental plans of governments and respective environmental issues; and how the interlink of all factors in different parts of the nation and the world are different from (and similar to) the learners geographic region. Post world- war  while exploring factors contributing to mass-madness,  Dewey suggested  that  the  history curriculum was used to inculcate strong nationalistic values even at the cost of antagonizing other countries across participating nations. Misinterpretation of history may lead to sentiments of victimhood and desire for revenge or illusion of superiority or inferiority with respect to people of other culture and region. We have to be highly cautious in preventing these subjects biasing childs mind against certain groups of society.
  
It is worth mentioning that some of the geographical areas of India are not well include in the social science textbooks. More specifically, the chapters of Indian history hardly cover anything on the seven north-eastern states. This trend continues even at the university level as reported by Tyagi (2013). As a result of this negligence, people of other regions often have very little understanding of the northeast.

 Gender Equality & Sexual Orientation: Though there has been an emphasis on gender equality in school-curriculum in recent decades, schools can do a lot more in this direction. The social struggle and suffering because of ones gender (e.g., being a woman, or a transgender) is hardly conveyed to the younger generation.

It is fairly possible that a formally educated young male (or female) has absolutely no idea o the   difference   between   flirting eve-teasing   and   sexual-harassment   and   thei legal consequences. Furthermore, the education system keeps a blind-eye toward homosexual, bisexual and transgender community.

Note that the World Health Organization (WHO), Medical Council of India (MCI), Indian Psychiatric Association (IPA), Indian Medical Association (IMA), American Medical Association (AMA), the American Psychiatric Association, and numerous other authoritative institutions across the world have stated that homosexuality is not a disease and sexual orientation is not a choice. However, the religious figures like Baba Ramdev or Zakir Naik publicly condemn homosexuality, while the educators and policy makers remain silent spectators.

Being  aware of  Hidden Curriculum: Even when the stated curriculum and educational objectives are egalitarian, childrens educational experiences may not necessarily be the same because of the biased behaviour pattern of the teachers, peers, and the social-structure of the school in-general. Educational theorists term these prejudiced practices of schools as hidden curriculum. Unfortunately, the hidden curriculum of various Indian social contexts has not been systematically studied. Nonetheless, my personal experiences suggest that, overall, the schools tend to reinforce the inequalities of the Indian society.

 Creating Places (and occasions) where Children/ Youth of Diverse Background Interacts: In most cities, the Hindus and Muslims are increasingly living in separate areas with passage of time. People  from  different  castes  still  live  in  different  streets  in  most  villages  throughout  India. Moreover, privatization of education has segregated children along class-lines. Considering all these factors, our schools have hardly remained diverse. As a consequence, the younger Hindus are losing contact with their Muslim counterparts and vice-versa. It is fairly possible that an upper middle class child has never interacted with a child who does not speak English or does not have a computer at home. Needless to mention that it is a likely scenario where a rich kid feels closer to the kids of developed nations and perceives other Indian kids from lower class as worth staying away.

 This is a dangerous trend. Most of the biases and bigotry have roots in ignorance and lack of empathy for the other group. If an individual is well aware of the way of living, set of beliefs, and the hardships and day to day challenges of the other set of people, s/he will be more likely to see the commonalities and respect the differences. Therefore, we need to create places where children of all diverse backgrounds (religion, caste, & class) can connect with each other on regular basis.

That  will  be  a  social-investment  which  will  prevent  further  compartmentalization  and segregation and ensure social cohesion. Coming back to where we began On the 15th of August
1947, the world witnessed the beginning of one of the most courageous experiments of human history. India came into being as a sovereign, socialist, pluralist democratic nation. The idea of India is not just a triumph oIndians, but of all of  the mankind as its existence retains the hypothesis that we all can live together and grow. However, India has to constantly keep (re)discovering the binding forces across all possible social-divides. Clearly, its education system continues to face one of the toughest challenges possible.

Note: the quotations in the article are from Ramachandra Guha's classic book 'India AfteGandhi: A brief history of the world's largest democracy'.


References

Bartlett, L. (2008). John Dewey and Peace Education. In Bajaj M. (Eds.) Encyclopaedia of peace education. Teachers College, Columbia University. Retrieved from: http://www.tc.edu/centers/epe/entries.html
Guha, R. (2007). India after Gandhi. Pan. 
Sahni, A., Singh, A. (07/24/2010). Posturing won't help in fight against Naxals. Retrieved fromhttp://news.rediff.com/report/2010/apr/07/posturing-wont-help-in-fight-against-naxals.htm
Tyagi, A. (05/13/ 2013). I Studied History For 5 Years, But There Was Not A Single Chapter OThe History Of The Northeast. Retrieved from: http://tehelka.com/i-studied-history-for-5- years-but-there-was-not-a-single-chapter-on-the-history-of-the-northeast/
.Youtube videos:

1) IndianExpressOnline. Idea Exchange: Homosexuality is a disease, explains Ramdev. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBx6h5UoazU
2) 4youIslam. Will Islam punish a people who is genetically Homosexual? Dr. Zakir Naik. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEUAo4tQ4m0

I welcome your comments.