September 2001
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David and Goliath A national convention organised by SAHMAT triggers fresh debate on the communalisation of education BY TEESTA SETALVAD It was a case of David taking
on Goliath. It took a three-day national convention organised by
The states of Karnataka,
Rajasthan, Delhi, Pondicherry, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar
and West Bengal were unequivocal in not simply endorsing the statement
but making sharp individual presentations on the occasion. Days after the
Convention Against the Communalisation of Education, the chief minister
of West Bengal, Buddhadev Bhattacharya took the initiative to call a state
education minister’s meet, something that in fact the Union HRD ministry
is constitutionally bound to do.
It has been repeatedly pointed out by Communalism Combat and KHOJ, which have made this issue a subject of a two-year-old campaign (see CC, October 1999, January 2000, January 2001), that the systematic homogenising of public discourse including clear attempts to introduce a divisive ‘us’ versus ‘them’ discourse within school texts, especially those dealing with history, contains within it a dangerous potential that is already discernible in the text books of different state and central educational boards. Even after the Rajasthan government had endorsed the statement at the SAHMAT convention, anomalies contained in the textbooks in that state came to light. This also resulted in the arrest of the textbook publisher and an enforced revision of the textbooks overnight. While the nation-wide campaign had managed to focus attention on this critical agenda, two dissenting notes threatened to sidetrack the campaign. The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, whose support to the campaign was earlier evident in the presence of his education minister, R. Solomon at the Sahmat convention on August 6, 01 came out with a public statement expressing support to the introduction of ‘Vedic Astrology’ at the university level. At the same time, the chief minister of Kerala, AK Anthony struck another dissenting note by attempting to draw a distinction between the use of the word ‘saffronisation’ and ‘communalisation’ of the education policy. He argued that the colour saffron has strong emotional resonances for Hindus, and attacking the new education policy using the word “saffronisation” could alienate majority sentiments. Having expressed such views on “Vedic Astrology” and the issue of “saffronisation”, where the two chief ministers and the Congress party stand on the serious issue of the communalising of education remains to be seen. Meanwhile, a strong statement signed by over 100 leading Indian scientists against the introduction of esoteric subjects at the university level reads thus: “The scientists and mathematicians are deeply concerned that the essential thrust behind the campaign to introduce so-called ‘Vedic Mathematics’ and ‘Astrology’ at the university level by the UGC has more to do with promoting a particular brand of religious majoritarianism and associated obscurantist ideas than with any serious development of mathematical or scientific teaching in India... So Called Vedic Mathematics is neither Vedic nor mathematics… and will condemn particularly those dependent on public education to a sub-standard mathematical education and will be calamitous to them.” Among the prominent astronomers and scientists who signed the statement are JV Narlikar (director, Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics), Yashpal (eminent space scientist and former chairperson, UGC) SG Dani (senior professor, School of Mathematics, TIFR). |