विद्यां ददाति विनयं, विनयाद् याति पात्रताम्।
पात्रत्वात् धनमाप्नोति, धनात् धर्मं ततः सुखम्॥

“Education sows the seed of “Moral Character”. Character readies you to learn “Life and Livelihood Skills”. Skills help you in contributing to society and create “Wealth”. Wealth allows you the comfort to practice “Dharma” through which you realize your ultimate nature which is “Happiness”.

This shloka from “Hitopadesha” reflects cultural ethos of Indic education. While deeper philosophical import is limited by translation, yet one cannot miss the practical hierarchy of objectives and its alignment with the ultimate goal of realizing “Satchitananda”. This in essence sums up the ethos of Indic education.

MAKING INDIA A HIGHER EDUCATION EXPORTER

To trigger a forest fire or light a lamp to banish darkness?

Another National Education Policy (NEP 2020) has been adopted and implementation will begin. A task more onerous than even defense, space or nuclear programs. For it is only a few times a nation can afford itself an opportunity as momentous as this. To change its education policy. Steps taken today will decide future texture of our society and change affected will be irreversible and generational. So, what kind of spark will the NEP ignite? We need to be certain about the answer and we can ill afford to be casual. Any misstep will be brutally assessed by future.

Why not an indigenous education system that is uniquely ours?

Our current education system operates within a paradigm of historical context when intent was to subjugate and not free. The new approach has to be in a fresh context. Perhaps with a Dhoni like maverick intent. Without a need to be politically correct or to borrow piecemeal and concoct something inadequate or to even pick trends just because they are popular. Every paradigm must be questioned. For example, why 10+2 or 5+3+3+4 why not 7+7+7+7?  But more on this later.

We have for far too long force fitted borrowed education systems ever since we discarded our own to solitary incarceration. It is time now to confidently curate something indigenous on the lines of what had served us in glory. Indigenous attempts ultimately prove to be robust. Take for instance, our space and nuclear programs or even the white and green revolutions.

And who knows, like yoga, even the world may adopt what we come up with. At least lets begin! 

Incarcerated in a 1000-year-old prison 

Amidst our annual cycle of celebrating Republic and Independence Day’s, we have missed opening doors to a prison where education has been locked up since a millennium. Every so often it cries for attention, but in the din, we miss noticing and hearing its cries. It’s been 75 years since, but it still languishes. Eagerly waiting to break free and allow its wisdom to once again nourish the intellect of our nation. Let us allow that to happen at least this time.

Is “OUR” education system really ours?

In the context of organically evolved systems, no. What we see today is a precipitate of what was left post many assaults that it bore for 1000 years. In fact, the battle scars, cuts and bruises of these assaults are construed as todays educational system.

Organically evolved systems whether social, political or economic evolve over millennia. They are essentially a codification of convenient practices followed by a set of people in a finite geography over a long period. They are rooted in the culture of that society, are mature, robust & flexible and have the innate wisdom to remain contemporary – until and unless they are deliberately disturbed by abnormal external stimuli.

Like Most Indic systems “our” education system was an organic system unique in structure and content. The system aligned with physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual development of the student. At a correct stage of physical development and after the “Upnayanam” ceremony a child was sent under tutelage of a revered “Guru” at his “Gurukul”. A Guru had deep experiential wisdom to identify a child’s proclivity based on “Gunas” or inherent qualities; “Rajas”, “Tamas” and “Sattva”. While strengthening a student’s moral character, a Guru traced furrows in the delicate mind using a scientific process that involved rituals, storytelling, mantra chanting, physical exercise and such. This process helped channelize potential of a child’s Gunas in a way that would help later in the chosen field of occupation. Once a Guru was satisfied of intellectual readiness, the student would be advised to proceed for apprenticeship under an “Acharya” who was an expert in a chosen field of craft.

And this system worked. It produced masters of the likes of Aryabhat, Panini, Patanjali, Sushrut, Charak and Kanad. It gifted us advanced treatise’ in mathematics, astronomy, surgery, alchemy, medicine, economics, philosophy and more. It gave us incomparable artistic master pieces in sculpture, painting, music and dance that have stood the test of time. The system must have enabled fluid interplay of theory and application. After all what can explain scientific architecture, astronomy, ship building, propellants etc. that stand testimony even today. It must have also supported practical mercantile pursuits in an era of vibrant domestic and international trade.

But all this was before its destiny was inorganically assaulted.

A short trip inside the 1000-year-old prison

At the beginning of second millennium when Indic education experienced inorganic disturbances induced by extraneous cultures it was caught unawares. Mainly due to two reasons. Statecraft and political disunity.

First, our education system served a self-sufficient, composite and homogenous society not known for colonizing or martial expansion. It was therefore never a part of organized statecraft and remained largely in private domain. Classics like Kautilya’s Arthshastra corroborate this. Kingly grants, private donations, seva and apprenticeship served the modest economic needs of this system. So, when it was exposed to machinations of organized statecraft it never retaliated and succumbed.

Second, post Gupta Empire subcontinent saw multiple kingdoms emerge. Although different schools of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and their education systems were prevalent, the subtext was always Indic. Organic evolution would have eventually ironed out the differences through dialectics as exemplified by later debates between Adi Shankara and Mandana Mishra. But it was not to be. Polity had weakened and was ripe for external attack. And by incidence “our” education system was caught in a series of ideological onslaughts.

1: The physical onslaught

Since education was in private domain and its ultimate objective was congruent with that of spiritual, the system was inextricably linked to the temple ecosystem. It is no coincidence that Kashi, an important spiritual center was also a significant center of learning and so were Kanchi, Ujjain, Sringeri and others. Even great universities like Nalanda, Vikramshila, Vallabhi, Pushpagiri etc. had spiritual connect as their iconography indicates.

Turkic-Afghan invasions began at the start of the second millennium. Since their culture was iconoclastic, temples were in their direct line of attack. These temples not only supported the spirit of our education but also were a repository of physical infrastructure like classrooms, books, libraries, teachers’ quarters etc. All of this suffered collateral damage. At times destruction was of epic proportion. Bakhtyar Khilji’s razing of Nalanda would make the recent incident at Bamiyan look like a harmless paper cut! Anyway, this destruction continued with varying intensity till the time of Aurangzeb. Temples were razed and replaced with mosques, paathshalas, tols and viharas with maqtabs or madarsas and content and pedagogy developed over millennia with that which was fairly recent and uni-dimensionally religious.

2:  The mental onslaught

“…..a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia” – T B Macaulay

Barring a hiatus of 70 years when Marathas ruled a larger part of the sub-continent and tried to rebuild temples and related educational ecosystem, British began the mental onslaught. And they began with a presumption that everything oriental was inferior.

Education was an effective tool of their statecraft and unlike the earlier onslaught their style was suave and beguiling and targeted the delicate mental sheath. To realize their objective the British found willing partners in missionaries who had already arrived on our shores. Education in any case was their preferred route to evangelize, especially the Jesuits. The Church and administration found convenient complementing objectives. Once again Indic education was caught in the crossfire. Objective of education switched from that of self-development to subjugation and conversion. And those who aligned were given a passport to a better livelihood.

3: The intellectual onslaught

Third in the assault trilogy came from the left. Left movement was active at the turn of the previous century. In the tumultuous years leading up to our independence, the left had significant influence in policy making. Even Indian National Congress (INC) had a left faction in the Congress Socialist Party (CSP).

Left ideology does not subscribe to ethno-nationalism so there was no way Indic education would find favor with them. In fact, since left relied heavily on student movement they significantly influenced the education system to suit their ideology. Most universities ended up with a left tilt which later even manifested in our choice of economic models, industrial planning and foreign policy.

The after effect of the intellectual onslaught continues till today and is perhaps the reason why many who arrogate to themselves the “intelligentsia tag” belong to the left!

4: Post Independence Self Goal

As if onslaught by extraneous ideologies was not enough, we continued to mete out similar treatment and perhaps with more disdain after Independence. The couplet attributed to Firaq Gorakhpuri best encapsulates the travesty:

हमें तो अपनों ने लूटा, गैरों में कहाँ दम था,
मेरी कश्ती वहां डूबी, जहां पानी कम था…

Roughly translated; “what others could not achieve in my destruction my own excelled at it….” The first three decades were in fact an abridged version of what had transpired over a millennium.

The nation’s first education minister for eleven years was Maulana Azad an eminent Islamic scholar born in Mecca, followed by BL Srimali, Humayun Kabir (editor of Azad’s Biography), Muhamandali Chagla and for a little time Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Whether they succeeded in laying a strong foundation is left to individual judgement but in the context of introducing Indic education they surely did not.

The end of tenure of the first five culminated in setting up of the Kothari commission to sketch contours of our education system. But by now ignoring Indic education was institutionalized! The commission in its core and consultative committee had “experts” from every part of the western world. From US, UK, France, Sweden, Russia and even Japan… but not a single Indic scholar! Western education returned simply through the back door as Indic was ignored.

And finally, after the congress split in 1969 and after Mrs. Gandhi came back to power, left exercised significant political clout. Nurul Hassan a committed leftist headed the education and culture ministry for 5 years up to the emergency years. This period many concur was of systematic academic brutalization of Indic education, especially history and humanities.

Some honest attempts were made by Rajiv Gandhi, Narsimha Rao and Atal Bihari governments. But what had been ruined over a millennium would take some serious business and finisher like intent to rebuild. The Modi govt. chose Smriti Irani to do just the job, Prakash Javadekar followed and now the onerous responsibility falls on Dr. Ramesh Pokhrial “Nishank”.

Indic education expectantly waits to be pulled out of a 1000-year-old prison!

The soul is still alive

Attacks, whether physical, mental or intellectual can never destroy the soul and Indic Education is the soul of “our” education system. It still peeps from beneath all that debris. Credit perhaps goes to Indic values nurtured at home and imparted through rituals, puranic literature etc. Every so often its strength manifests when CEO’s, businessmen and leading personalities attribute their success to these values.

Envisioning an indigenous education system for the world

Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Hopefully “our” education will not be condemned inside another ideological prison. At least let’s make a beginning. Let’s integrate all from around the world but why isolate what was ours.  Rather than a “New system with Indic flavor” why not a “Indic system with a global flavor”.  few checkboxes to break-free from the many paradigms:

“Structure” – beyond the paradigm.

Why not a 7+7+7+7 Indic format instead of 10+2 or 5+3+3+4 or some other? Indic scholars will vouch for its relevance and alignment with physical and mental development. Why stay with formats that emerged from contextual needs of another society? Specifically, post industrial revolution Britain and cultural revolution France which were merely transplanted elsewhere. Similarly, if Germany and Italy could conceptualize a Kindergarten and Montessori, shouldn’t we attempt something original?

“Content” – remove the debris of ideology.

There is popular awareness about content manipulation in history and humanities. But even hard sciences like math, physics and chemistry were not spared of ideological bias to establish academic hegemony of western science over eastern. In math for example, “pratyaksha pramana” or cognitive proof an accepted concept in Indic math was discarded in favor of axiomatic concepts of formal western math. Fun transitioned to boring formulae. Perhaps this is the reason why our kids prefer soft subject over math and hard sciences!

“Liberal” – Lets ensure it is not a red herring.

Liberal education seems to be a popular trend. But what does it really mean? There seem to be more connotations than a definite answer. Closest it is brought to construe is either “a move away from hard sciences” or “to facilitate easy switch between subjects” or “that which allows one to be a generalist and specialist at once”. In absence of any formal definition, perhaps the real reason then for its recent popularity is the one mentioned in the previous point, waning interest in hard sciences due to content manipulation. Or is the real word “holistic”? If so then “our” values forever espoused holistic. Who could be a better example than Dr. Kalam? A rocket scientist and a veena exponent! Let’s not merely borrow a trend because it is popular.

“Rote-Learning” – there is a case for this too.

The enthusiasm to diss rote learning is only matched by the popularity for liberal learning. But the derisive enthusiasm to project it as something Indic is mischievous. Rote learning in its “current context” belongs to the systems that we borrowed from. In its “Indic context” it was a deliberate academic tool at a particular stage of mental development. It was designed on the lines of concepts like “Mantra Sadhana” with mathematical meterage and scientific ability to impact energy flow in a desired direction. Such deeper significance needs intelligent consideration lest we throw away the baby with the bathwater in our misplaced enthusiasm to be politically correct.

“Skill Education” – is not blue collarization

Another popular trend. But when and how did the current system become unskilled? And what exactly do we mean by that term? Training beauticians and motor mechanics or producing job ready work force is not skill education. That is vocational education. If we continue to confuse the two, we will walk right back into the trap of history. Skill education in the Indic context is about “transitioning theory into useful application” and not about “transitioning education into a job” The former is about effort whereas the latter about result. “Indic” education was never devoid of skill that it needed any specific emphasis. Epic theoretical treatise’ had their accompanying applications arms in every subject ranging from architecture to surgery. Skill was integrated in our education philosophy. Why sciences, even our spiritual theory had an applied arm in Yoga!

“Teachers” – from Shishukul to Gurukul, let’s get the focus back.

The famous shloka “Gurur Brhama, Gurur Vishnu…” exemplifies importance accorded to teachers by the Indic society. Students sought teachers in our system. It is a travesty of industrialization of education that teachers now seek students. Institute takes precedence over teachers. Landbank ownership and access to funds are qualifying criteria to become an “educationist” and not an internal calling to nurture minds. Anyways, EdTech has disrupted education and it is only a matter of time that teacher will be back centerstage. And good teachers will possibly overtake the best of institutes even in commercial success. Even the concept of “Pupil Teacher Ratio” should be reassessed in the context of EdTech. Emphasis should shift from quantity of teachers to quality teachers.

Measurement – not just about “how much” but “in what direction”

Budgetary allocation as a fraction of GDP may not be a correct measure to assess attention given to education. After all investment in education can never be measured in terms of project IRR’s and ROI’s. A fresh set of measurement need to be configured. It is not about “how much” is being spent but “where and in what direction and with what results”. For example, the future of education is more about digital and less about physical infrastructure. Budgetary allocation for a massive cloud based virtual university by the government will prove more efficient and effective than for brick and mortar.

Funding – allow market access

Contributing to the cause of education is not alien to our society. Many may want to invest if stock and bond market access is allowed in this sector. And in an altruistic spirit they may even accept a lower but fair return.

Statecraft – consider education as a potent “Soft-Power”

“Our” education suffered because it was never a part of statecraft. An indigenous education system can be an effective global soft power like yoga and entertainment. There is something unique about the Indic ethos that makes even our armed forces a preferred choice for deployment amongst peacekeeping forces around the world!  Reason is, we as a society do not harbor any expansionist or imperialistic intent and believe in the concept of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam”. The world is one family….

And what could be better than an indigenous Indic education for the world to realize that………and we can’t afford to delay. Borrowing from a poem penned by the minster himself….

नहीं देर करना,सागर में तरना……

हे शक्ति! आ तू इन्हें दीप्त करना

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