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Saffronised Saraswati has students in a bind

Suhasini Haider in New Delhi

The state education ministers meet in the capital had just convened. The national anthem been sung, and immediately thereafter the choir struck up the Saraswati Vandana, an invocation to the Hindu goddess of learning. And things have gone downhill from there, with half the invited ministers of education from various states walking out in protest against what they perceived as the 'Hindu' agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (rather, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

The BJP, primarily a red-faced Human Resource Development Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, claimed the protest had less to do with the offending hymn and more to do with politics. Of course, the conference itself should have had little to do with politics -- it was convened to discuss reforming the educational system.

Surprisingly, there was no evidence at the conference of those affected most by changes in their curriculum: the students themselves. A sample of students at schools and colleges in Delhi shows that the next generation is quite aware and concerned about the happenings at the conference.

Urvashi Seth, a tenth standard student who followed the proceedings through the newspapers, feels the initial controversy over presenting the hymn at the start of the conference was unnecessary.

"It's just an auspicious way of starting something, nothing to get worked up about," she says.

John Thangaraj, a Catholic student who graduated from Delhi's St Columba's school agrees, saying, "Everyone thinks of Saraswati as a goddess of learning. So what's wrong with starting the conference with the Saraswati Vandana?

On the other hand, Shaan Thadani, a Modern School graduate who is now at Delhi University, objects to the hymn. "It's rude (for the delegates) to have walked out, but by playing the Vandana, the BJP is showing itself as a party of fascists. Otherwise, in a situation like this where they were in a minority, why were they still trying to force their agenda on everyone else?"

Some of the proposals in the 14-page annexure to the government's draft policy draw loud complaints from these students, among them a plan to separately train girls in home-keeping.

"What?? No way," said one little schoolgirl. "What about the boys? Don't they want to each them too," asked another.

The maximum complaints are about the HRD ministry's recommendation that Sanskrit be taught compulsorily from classes III to X. It is a subject few have taken to, and almost none feel good about other than for the purpose of scoring better. In any case, these students see the whole three-language formula (English, Hindi, and a third language) as a ridiculous burden. "English and one Indian language are more than enough," says John Thangaraj, "And studying Sanskrit is a sheer waste. It's obsolete."

However, striking a different note is educationist Vibha Parthasarathi, principal of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, who introduced Sanskrit as a fourth language in her school and made it compulsory for classes V to VIII. She says she is convinced of the benefits of teaching Sanskrit, though she realised it only in hind-sight.

"Sanskrit is the mother of most Indian languages," she says, "And taught correctly, without religious overtones, it has proved extremely beneficial to our students. After all, most of what the shlokas teach are purely principles of humanism. Respect for Sanskrit is respect for something which is ours, and that is a sentiment that should be imbibed by all children."

The most sweeping of changes that were proposed at the conference were through the proposal to "Indianise, nationalise and to spiritualise" the curriculum. To this end Dr Joshi has endorsed a recommendation by his "panel of experts" to introduce Vedic studies in the curriculum.

Surprisingly, the same students who were all for throwing Sanskrit out of their education were extremely positive about the possibility of studying the Vedas, even Yoga. For Mustafa Imam, a 21-year-old philosophy student, the Vedas would be a welcome addition to his course.

"We are overburdened by symbols and images of the West; we must learn about our own ancient texts. So it's okay, so long as this talk of spiritualising and Indianising education is well-intentioned...." He doesn't finish, but what he is trying to say is also the concern on many educationists' minds.

There is the feeling that a thrust in the direction of "spiritualising" might be manipulated to become a push for religion in education, and, that, everyone seems to agree, is wholly undesirable. After all, only last year, historians in Delhi were flabbergasted to find that the BJP had asked for the removal of a picture of the famous dancing girl statuette of the Harappan civilisation on the grounds that it was "obscene".

That kind of logic can have frightening reverberations. "Nobody would mind studying more about India, but our education should be forward-looking. We can't constantly be looking at ancient Indian history," concludes Shomiko Raha, who topped history in college.

Shivani, a counsellor with Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, feels that teachers in the country will be handed a very dangerous instrument in the form of "spiritual education".

"If it is taught by genuine secularists, who are able to make the differentiation between religion and spirituality, it would be a good thing, but how can you ensure that? It's a difference that most teachers may not understand."

One point that seems to find agreement all around is the fact that even 51 years into India's independence, the curriculum still contains many subtle and some not-so-subtle biases inherited from our colonial past. The draft proposes to correct these, which is would be popular with all.

"The first thing we learn is a colonial leftover," says Rani Sarma, a history teacher at Springdales school, "We say A for Apple. Few children, in say, rural Tamil Nadu have ever seen an apple (it isn't grown there). It would be more to the point if we said B for Buffalo!"

Vibha Parthasarathi agrees: "Our students are made to call countries as close as Indonesia and Malaysia as the Far East, and the Arab countries which are actually to our West, are referred to as the Middle-East. It's ridiculous."

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