Recognize-Restructure-Reorganise, this is the theorem that the very education system of current scenario demands. The British devised various techniques to eradicate the ancient Indian education system and ended up dismissing significant real facts about India and its history. Time has evolved but nothing changed upfront. The Hindu religion that is somehow based and cultivated on rituals and traditions provided a way to the British rulers to practise a sense of superiority over the people and devised various ways to actually demean India’s culture, tradition and religion. They saw their presence in India as “divinely destined” for civilising the indigenous and tried to stamp out Indic-ness (culture, religious beliefs, and educational system).
The British used two strategies to attain their goals. Firstly they pointed out defects in the Indian education system. According to them, Indian educational books were full of myths, beliefs and superstition instead of scientific theorems, which further opened a gateway to the English type of education, which was based on Macaulay’s ideas and was a highly Christianized system of learning and projection. Secondly, they launched a well-planned systematic campaign to denigrate old Indian knowledge by insulting its culture, ancient scientific knowledge, ancient medical sciences, customs, traditions, education, and so on.
As Macaulay, who designed this clever technique, arrogantly declared in his ‘Minute on Indian Education’, written in 1835, that Hindus had nothing in their favour save “false history, wrong astronomy, false medicine in combination with a fake religion”. This deviously devised the mission of deleting old Indian history which was too complex for most Indians to comprehend at that time. This is best expressed in a letter written by Lord Canning during the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny: “As we must rule 150 million people by a few Englishmen, let us do it in the manner most suited to leave a good impression. When compared to Hinduism, which appeared jaded, inert, and weighed down by centuries of invasions and internal warfare at the time, many Indians found the European civilization, which was youthful and energetic, appealing. Seeing an opportunity in the vacuum, Macaulay published his teachings and triumphantly said to his father in 1836, “Our English schools are prospering marvellously. This schooling has had a tremendous impact on the Hindoos. No Hindoo who has gotten an English education has ever remained honestly committed to his religion. It is my absolute confidence that if our educational plans are implemented, there would not be a single idolater among the respectable classes”. While Macaulay’s dreams did not come true and Hinduism did not disappear as he had predicted, his English education system did generate an Anglicised English speaking sector of India that became somewhat Christianized. But the theorem devised by Britishers still prevailed in their minds, suppressing the Indians with English education and further employing them as their clerks or handymen in their respective departments.
Levelling with Macaulay came Thomas Babington Macaulay who supported the replacement of Persian by English as official language, rolling English in all schools and making teaching instructions thoroughly in English. He believed in disrupting or, we can say, developing from a very young stage. These distortionists took over the entire educational field and firmly believed in the phrase “catch them young”. They made rapid changes in school-level textbooks, where brutal Islamic invasions and fanatical Christian missionaries’ acts were whitewashed and softened down to even glorify these invaders and fanatics. The Indus-Saraswati civilization (Sindhu-Saraswati civilization) gradually gave way to the Indus valley civilization, and the Saraswati river became a legendary river (all from the 1980s).
The Aryan Invasion theory or narrative was gradually reintroduced into school textbooks in order to demonstrate that Indians were not indigenous to India and to establish a schism between northern Aryans and southern Dravidians. Mughal dynasties were highlighted in history classes from 8-9. While just a few Hindu dynasties were taught about, they were skillfully crafted to keep students mature enough to recall what they learned as history. All of the well- crafted propaganda tales were employed as brainwashing weapons to glorify the invaders and instil a sense of self-loathing and contempt for their own Indian faith. All materials about ancient India’s achievements in science, technology, architecture, art, medical sciences, and other subjects was removed from both school and higher education levels, and the claims that ancient India discovered or developed anything were criticised and debunked during debates.
The induction of English education system devised by Macaulay is best summed up by Swami Vivekananda in these lines “The child is taken to school, and the first thing he learns is that his father is a fool, the second thing that his grandfather is a lunatic, the third thing that all his teachers are hypocrites, the fourth, that all the sacred books are lies! By the time he is 16, he is a mass of negation, lifeless and boneless. And the result of that fifty years of such education has not produced one original man in the three presidencies”.
There had been many more strategies developed to improve the education system of India but many of them failed miserably and others like the Sargent Scheme never got implemented. The distortions of Indian culture still persist in today’s world where one’s language such as Sanskrit is losing its presence in textbooks. There have also been many structural changes in the society related to education but the abstract still prevails. Inclusion of great warriors and glorifying their sacrifices in student textbooks is the need of the hour.
Sanjay Yadav
Sanjay Yadav is a MBA-RD professional by education. He has completed his education in Bachelor of science with PCM from Ewing Christian College(AU. He is an avid reader and loves to play online games in his free time.
What i do not understood is in fact how you are no longer actually much more smartly-appreciated than you might be right now. You are so intelligent. You realize therefore significantly in relation to this topic, produced me personally consider it from a lot of varied angles. Its like women and men are not interested except it is something to do with Girl gaga! Your individual stuffs outstanding. Always handle it up!
I really like your writing style, fantastic information, appreciate it for putting up : D.
Thanks a lot for sharing this with all of us you really know what you are talking about! Bookmarked. Please also visit my website =). We could have a link exchange contract between us!
Have you ever thought about including a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is important and all. However think about if you added some great images or videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and videos, this site could definitely be one of the most beneficial in its field. Wonderful blog!