FUTURE EDUCATION SYSTEM

                                 FUTURE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Any education system (शिक्षा प्रणाली) must be the implementation of a well thought of education policy (शिक्षा नीति). But just a cursory glance on all the efforts made in this direction will prove that it has become more a game between policy and system where education has been made the football. Due to historical reasons beyond our control we have been caught in such a vicious web that any talk (mine including) on the future education system in the absence of a policy will continue to be easily categorized as an intellectual joke for the following reasons:

a)     Inefficacy of the political system

b)    Inability and refusal to identify and address the root cause of weaknesses in the present system

c)      Emergence of additional factors due to regional and global environmental changes

d)    Tendency  to provide instant solutions

Somehow I am of the opinion that education cannot be seen in isolation. It is just one part of knowledge that manifests itself in three more other forms namely political, financial and social. All these parts must work in cohesion for the desired results.

INEFFICACY OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

a)     Education is in concurrent list of that political system that has a life of zero to five years in which the political parties with different ideologies and approaches play the mischievous game of power, are at liberty to confront, discard and condemn each other’s policies and ultimately follow and implement their whims. Perhaps, it was well thought of by the constitution makers that in matters education, the CENTRE lays down the policy guidelines and the States draft their systems. In the absence of guidelines each set of governance at centre and state level starts hopelessly demonstrating its keenness that turns out to be fake in tackling of the educational issues. The result is chaos, education in shambles. Five years is too short a time to frame, test and implement an education policy. Even a party with 60 years of continuity could not come out with an educational policy. There was some बुनियादी तालीम of 1947 and helplessness of accepting a reservation policy, rather a political policy, for 10 years only to apply instant balm to the deprived with a provision to replace it by educational “schools”. The laments of Mr. Chagla as education minister about schools as “hovels” are still relevant about that education policy. Then there were views about experiments by Radhakrishnan Commission of 1948-49 for higher education and Mudaliar Commission for secondary education. It was, Kothari Commission of 1964-66 and the jokes of 10+2+3 = are still fresh; though he was the person who had spoken about some comprehensive education policy for the first time after around 20 years of independence. Based on this Commission some National Policy on Education (NPE) राष्ट्रीय शिक्षा नीति was adopted by parliament after another 20years in 1986. I think it is dumped in some hovel (कोठरी) now. An exhaustive NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK (NCF) was designed in 2005 say after another 20 years to take forward some Education Policy. Then a bureaucratic report was prepared of the Working Group on Private Sector participation including PPP in School Education for the 12thFive Year Plan (2012 to 2017).   The Plans have been shelved now but the vultures have emerged and have converted education into a roaring business.  In between there are patching works here and there for systems but never based on a policy. (Refer appendix A) And now some new education policy in 2017 to be framed by Kasturirangan committee moving from and inclusive of सर्व शिक्षा अभियान of earlier BJP government to समग्र शिक्षा अभियान of the present government.

b)         In this political system the educational issues are decided by the non-educationist political bosses who can be illiterates and the bureaucrats who vie with each other in attaining the best levels of “your most obedient servant”- one of the roles imagined by the Macaulay philosophy. The legislature being the momentary replaceable organ of the governance and the quasi-permanent executive tend to be pliable to become hand and glove with each other for reasons other than education.   

c)         The ministries of governance in this political system have been categorized mainly as SIGNIFICANT and NON-SIGNIFICANT depending upon the POWER it wields or the CREAM it generates, the मलाई वाला as they call it. All the efforts are put in by the holders to make their ministry as lucrative as possible by fair or foul means. Meaningful governance of the issues is thrown to the backyard. Education being a non-lucrative ministry was just there to fill a vacancy till it also fructified to be a high yielding business or a great vote catching enterprise under Human Resource Development. Political system is not conducive to give an education policy that can produce educationists. It can produce only copiers because the political system itself is a copy and so are the education system and the rest of our systems of our existence. I know it is a damaging statement about our intelligentsia. But the painful results of prolonged apathy towards education are all around to see; a doctorate or a technical graduate under each stone you happen to pick up, an education shop in each street, mushrooming of one room universities, teacher-less, student-less, building and infrastructure-less schools but still drawing government grants and scholarships, highly paid government school teachers employing proxies on meager payments and doing their business, lowly paid private school teachers and parents preferring them as the name is some public school teaching in English medium. Heinous crimes are resorted to by the teachers and the children and both making each other hostages for silly reasons.  Enmasse copying is the accepted practice and the students consider it freedom to go on strike if they are asked to fulfill the minimum percentage of attendance.  The aim is not education but making fast buck through duping parents and children alike by opening schools in each street of a town or by opening franchisee schools in order to fleece the middle income group parents or by opening air-conditioned schools and universities in sprawling campuses to invite parents who don’t have time to invest on their children but have plenty of money, considering it investment. Anyway a product of such schools is learning and itching to fleece only because that is what they have been taught and groomed through in the name of success. It is ultimately conversion of education into a dirty industry by corporate and unscrupulous people of all hues who are experts in adulteration only. So much so that the idea of privatization of schools is being actively debated and becoming a reality through various forms of again copied and discarded systems of the west like (PPP)  PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP/PARTCIPATION and OUTSOURCING for it takes the burden away from the government and greases the palms of the people in authority.  The children can’t be equated and treated like roads and ports. It is relevant to quote Fred Van Leeuwen here. “Is education about giving each child, each young person, the opportunity to develop his or her full potential as a person and as a member of society? Or is education to be a service sold to clients, who are considered from a young age to be consumers and target for marketing?” Education and children should not be treated as commodity. We are actually heading for a catastrophe.  

Overall this political system is incapable of giving any worthwhile education policy as it lacks understanding of aim, structure, competence and time. It can only give rise to adhocism that we are suffering from at present. By appending the tag “policy” to the word education does not in any way qualify it to be so unless the aim is clearly defined.

 SOLUTION FOR POLITICAL INEFFICACY

It is obvious that for any education policy to be framed a new mechanism has to be designed where any political system is bound to facilitate and implement it and not become helpless or an intentional obstacle. And it can be done provided there is will.

INABILITY AND REFUSAL TO IDENTIFY AND ADDRESS THE ROOT CAUSES

For this we will have to go into history. Any education policy must take into consideration the historical facts. Dumping them aside for reasons of complacency or not relevant any more is not only suicidal but the efforts will turn out to be a wild goose chase only.  It will always be a painful fact of at least last eight / nine hundred years of history that we could never frame an indigenous education policy. We just let the things happen as these were decided by the invading settlers / rulers. They made us believe that for any ruler education is not only a great vehicle for change it is an ideal weapon also for governance. No doubt, education can be used / misused for these limited aims of change and governance; it is actually the most potent armour to meet the challenges of change that will happen come what may, in any field of human activity. To know what all happens in what all ways leads us to know the dimensions of truth – a second name for knowledge. The function of education policy is to design a system that makes the things happen that way only to arrive at the known truth. This concept of our understanding of education was completely demolished by the invaders’ policies. Now, it is not even a thing of the past. We also must have had education policy before the arrival of the invaders as there are enough proofs of great kingdoms, universities, GURUKULS and religious institutions. The Muslims and the British invaders successfully utilized it as a weapon though with a slight difference with each other as a policy for ruling only over the vanquished subjects. Our problem is that while thinking of designing a future education policy we refuse to learn from the mindset and experiments of the invaders or from the follies that we had in our indigenous systems that led to our slavery. Actually, the self imposed imported political system doesn’t permit it and now for extraneous reasons we are being fooled to regale in the imported slogan democracy that is not at all democratic, for the electorate is nowhere an entity in the next five years after an election.

EDUCATION POLICY/ SYSTEM OF THE MUSLIMS

The invading Muslims had a unique military strategy of conquering land after lands. After conquering a village they forced conversions on landholder peasants as this population had resisted their military advances to save their land that was the symbol of authority then. In their next adventure they used this converted population as the shield by keeping them in front and later becoming the guardians of the children and the widows of the vanquished as Islam permitted four marriages for this reason only. The invaders found the local feudal landlords and princely states quite friendly due to personal jealousies and intrigues, so they easily became settler rulers. As SULTANS of Delhi they believed in spreading religion through force and religion permitted it as JIHAD, a holy duty. They burnt and destroyed the existing temples of learning and forced conversions wherever they could. To run the governance machinery wherever their hold became absolute they established MAKTABS, MADARSAS and MOSQUES for religious expansionism to create a patronizing populace for administrative convenience. Such institutions were permitted to have funds known as ZAKAT for advancing religious teachings. They found the general public unconcerned, may be quite accommodating, as the population was used to hundreds of religious sects and cults that were taking birth daily and the kings having their religions as guiding force for governance.  For a common man religion was just a spiritual thought process in search of God worth daily deliberations and not the concept of extermination of the non-believers (काफ़िर).Moreover the converted population also had the same lineage making the interaction smooth. In fact, the interaction gave birth to another sect called SUFI among Muslims and the SUFIS are not considered Muslims by Muslims. Amir Khusro, a Sufi poet is considered precursor in giving birth to ‘Hindi’ language that became KHADI BOLI (खड़ी बोली) of Hindi literature. Persian was made the court language and Urdu in Arabic script, a mixture of Persian and local dialects came up as lingua franca. The term ‘Hindu’ coined by the invaders for nonbelievers in Islam came in circulation and the subjugated population accepted it as its religion and its identity. The subcontinent BHARATVARSH (भारतवर्ष) became HINDUSTAN (हिंदुस्तान) and Mughal kings became SHANSHAHE HINDUSTAN (बा अदब बा मुलाहिजा शहंशाहे हिंदुस्तान). Mughals also continued with a policy of repression and destruction and forcible conversion wherever they could. History is replete with examples of terror and torture during Akbar, Jahangir and ShahJahan rules. It is beyond logic to conclude that all those who converted or were forced to convert became cruel and dogmatic instantly. Brainwashing does take time. After all they belonged to the same forefathers who had taught them to be tolerant and adjust to the extent of becoming even slaves. There must be people who most probably could not help appreciating thought oriented indigenous system that produced KABIR. JAYASI, RAHIM and RASKHAN in their folk only - the shining stars of Hindi literature. Such people were always there and will always be there as long as humanity prevails. The rulers appreciated them, more to prove their magnanimity, rather than emergence of a new civilization due to confluence of “Ganga and Jamuna”-a coined slogan of today.  Rulers cannot get out of the mindset that they are superior because of their civilization that made them conquerors only because the subjugated were inferiors.  History was accordingly distorted and they became great rulers.  The richness of indigenous philosophy attracted DARA SHIKOH, the eldest son of the emperor and he translated the UPNISHADS in Persian later on to be translated into other western languages. He can thus be easily credited as a pioneer in introducing the Indian thought process and philosophy to the west. He paid for his thinking by his life when Aurangzeb, usurped the throne. Aurangzeb behaved like present day terrorists of ISIS, JAISH, AL-QUAIDA, Taliban and such organizations which consider it their pious duty permitted by religion as true followers of Mohammad to annihilate not only all non-believers of Islam but  those Muslims also who don’t accept their version of Islam. He dreamt like Jinnah of creating and converting this land for Muslims alone. Surprisingly Jinnah himself, unlike Aurangzeb was never a practitioner of Islam. He was a complete product of British education system like our first Prime Minister Nehru. In short, twisting the history and terror were used as weapons of education policy. Terror came in handy being an inbuilt mechanism permitted and always implemented for propagation of Islam. Terror further induced many new social evils in our society that was already besotted with angularities created by prevailing so called religions and education systems. Girl education vanished; polygamy accepted, women hiding themselves behind the veils were   appreciated and it became approved custom. Child marriage was resorted to and the widows were considered bad omen. Their heads were shaven off and left to fend for themselves who mostly became prostitutes at Varanasi. Or they were forced to accept death on husband’s pyre and thus SATI custom (सती प्रथा) was eulogized. The fear of molestation led to down gradation of women - an accepted status in Islam but a complete negation of our value system where “worship of women is worship of gods” (यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता).   

EDUCATION POLICY OF THE BRITISH

The British as foreign rulers and not settlers had a very clear cut aim and that too as a sanctimonious “white man’s burden”: to destroy the existing education systems (indigenous and Muslim) by replacing these with a system that gives birth to a group of people who are “brown in blood and color but British in morals, tastes, opinions and intellect”. Europeans settlers actually believed in physically exterminating not only the civilizations Maya, Aztec and Inca in America but the aborigines’ enmasse as seen in the continents of America, Australia and Africa. It was a racist approach in thought process. For British it was further necessitated due to fear created by revolt of an Indian soldier Mangal Pandey in 1857 to bring an instrument of Indian Army Act 1860 to ensure a subservient army of natives to help them rule. This army was trained to understand loyalty as a reward by showing allegiance to a person only or being a member in a chain of allegiance to persons having a British at the top. For the British, loyalty was not to a person but to a concept i.e. CROWN. That way a slave Indian soldier was convinced to have deemed to be loyal to the crown.   No doubt we had accumulated social evils through a long history of existence and another evil of racist approach was added through this thought process. As conquerors they also preferred to imagine that they were superior (they were senior age wise to Islam), and could not understand that kingdoms come and go as a law of change. We could not understand that both Muslims and British were   just born primitive civilizations struggling to come out of the initial pangs of evolution but as rulers their policies of education further inhibited us in framing indigenous policy. Besides, they also indulged in religious conversions but through enticement. Charity was introduced as virtue and cover for conversion in education system. To perpetuate the foolishly created social divisions we already had accepted and practiced charity as a virtue in our mindset for imaginarily created karmic theory but actually for selfish reasons. The British also distorted history; felt belittled when Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro civilization was excavated as they could never think that there were civilizations existing before Macedonian. Today they would have been completely rattled by the excavations at Barnava in Meerut or by the probability of river bed Saraswati in Yamunanagar, or by the dating of findings of lost city Dwarka in sea bed or Ram Setu. In fact, today also western thought finds it difficult to go beyond the philosophies of Plato and hence created the theory of Aryan invasion that is no more accepted as valid now, artificial north south divide besides making full use of our already divided social structure of castes and sub-castes. They didn’t know about it as a gross misinterpretation and selfish execution by us only of Vedic concepts of VARNA (वर्ण) but understood very well that repeatedly following a profession generation after generation does establish traits in groups of people known as castes in India. They made practical studies to know them as knowledge and fruitfully applied for the aims of governance. To get a job done they knew to “invite a Brahman, tip a Kayasth, praise a Jat and beat a Bania”.  British projected our epics into myths and Vedas into songs of shepherds. Sanskrit and Arabic were no languages for Macaulay. For him our knowledge of science, astronomy, medicine history and religion were all false and to be laughed at. They used the word “Hindu” and “Indian” derogatorily. They introduced in education system classrooms, three Rs’ (reading, writing arithmetic), yearly syllabi, examinations and evaluation. Public (read Government) school system as opposed to private schools was introduced to denigrate the existing Gurukul, Sanskrit colleges and thus the seeds of ‘education for salaried jobs only’ were sown and it has gradually become the mindset of students and parents alike. Then west happened to know another branch of knowledge ‘psychology’ and they added the words intelligence, aptitude, interest, motivation, competition and success etc to the education policy. West is getting out of it and understands the nonsensical aspects of these words except the word SUCCESS as the knowledge progressed. They added another dimension to it as not only ability to exploit but get exploited with a view to somehow earning money only.  We got stuck with these words as it suited our concepts of caste superiority and individual differences as gods’ will. Today the students, teachers and the parents are reeling and reeking under the weight of these presumably intellectual words and busy outsmarting their fellow beings and people running this as industry are having hay day; all aware that demand and supply are terribly mismatching and will always remain so, if the aim of education is to get government jobs only. A class of disgruntled population is rapidly looming large and can play havoc. Now the name PUBLIC school stands for elite (unaffordable by public) Private school and Government schools have gone into disrepute. Not that we were unaware of this damage slowly creeping through during British rule. This system also produced politicians, scholars, critics and admirers alike. We became victims of the misconception spread that British education system produced social reformers and politicians who got us independence. But they were reformers not because of the system. The majority was of innumerable many that had not gone through the system and still reformers and freedom fighters of repute. Yes, the political leaders were actually handicapped in their vision because of the distortions made by the British education system as a policy. They were conditioned by the philosophy of “Rights” as they were denied the excellence of our duty oriented indigenous systems that had produced great kingdoms and civilization that had attracted the invaders.  There were concerns and solutions suggested and implemented by social reformers like Swami Dayanand and his movement ARYA SAMAJ who tried to revive Gurukuls and established the chain of DAV schools. Swami Shraddhanand took note of the conversions also and started a movement of taking and accepting them back to the fold. Rabindranath Tagore by establishing Vishwabharti tried to get out of classroom education. Ishwar Chand Vidyasagar and Savtribai Phule along with husband Jyotirao Phule advocated reforms within Hindu religion about widow remarriage. Swami Vivekananda founded Ramakrishna Mission for individual and social upliftment and introduced to the west the concept of considering the entire humanity as one (VASUDHAIV KUTUMBKAM वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम) - a Vedic dictum through preaching of VEDANT philosophy. Raja Ram Mohan Rai founded Brahmo Samaj, worked for abolition of sati, polygamy and child marriage. He was the first man to demand property inheritance rights for women, established Hindu college, Anglo Hindu school Vedanta College, Scottish church college, and advocated induction of western learning into Indian education. Govind Ranade a founding member of Indian National Congress, dean of arts department at Bombay University, campaigned against child marriage and supported widow marriage. Bhimrao Ambedkar, who later on contributed significantly to the Indian Constitution raised the voice and kept on struggling against caste system. BHU and AMU were established to assert the identity but the cankerous process had set in. The British education policy has now bludgeoned and percolated to the majority population through the process of identification even to the illiterate masses that blindly accept “whatever comes from the west is superior”. A complete cultural damage it is and English has become the link language.

PREVAILING EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN INDIA BEFORE THE INVADERS

To facilitate study and to arrive at conclusions from the available sources, it will be helpful to divide this in two distinct periods, first the ancient or Classical Bharat before the arrival of Jainism and Buddhism without committing the mistake of understanding these as Hindu (Religion) Bharat and second after it- the Medieval Bharat till the arrival of Muslims.

EDUCATION SYSTEM OF CLASSICAL BHARAT

In this period all educational, literary and research efforts are available in two forms, SHRUTI (श्रुति) meaning ‘that is to be heard’ and SMRITI (स्मृति) meaning ‘that is to be remembered’. Four Vedas viz RIGVED (ऋग्वेद), YAJURVED (यजुर्वेद), SAMVED (सामवेद) and ATHARV VED (अथर्ववेद) were called SHRUTI and rest of the literature as SMRITI trying to find out the subject matter of Vedas. The exact period of writing the Vedas, its authors or its compilers is a subject of research. These are just capsules called MANTRAS (मन्त्र) or formulae heavily loaded with knowledge discovered till then and subject to interpretation. The fact remains that during the period of classical Bharat the contents of Vedas were being debated and discussed and were the only literary practice and pastime. In fact, our efforts till date are also in this direction only. It fairly gives an indication of syllabus and methodology in this period. I am neither a scholar of Vedas nor have competence of understanding the intricacies of Sanskrit language. But I am convinced after reading post Vedic literature that the Vedas definitely deal with following fourfold aspect of knowledge and these are with a proviso from the writers that “we have found this much and you keep on finding as the knowledge is limitless (NETI NETI नेति नेति) meaning there is no end to it”:

a)     Knowledge  of self (ATM GYAN आत्म ज्ञान),

b)    Knowledge  of universe (BRAHM GYAN ब्रह्म ज्ञान),

c)     Methods  of finding out these aspects of knowledge and

d)    Methods  of applying this found out knowledge

There were  various efforts by various scholars over a prolonged period just to discover the subject matter of Vedas known as SHRUTI (श्रुति) then (meaning which is to be heard), as these were supposed to be passed on from one generation to the next through recital. Rote was the methodology and a normal practice. Does it mean that civilization that created Vedas had vanished due to some unknown reasons to be found out and left Vedas, the knowledge found out by them regarding the creation of universe in some soft copy form and the civilization coming after had no alternative left except to memorize it up and keep on passing it on to the generation after generation hoping some day it will be deciphered? This period can thus be easily understood as Post Vedic period. For this people must have been conditioned to believe and today also we are used to the cliché that the knowledge in Vedas is divine, it is unique, it is the ultimate and it is the highest because it has been given directly by God BRAHMA (ब्रह्मा) to a chosen few. Thus the meaning of SHRUTI was changed to mean “which was heard”. We understood the human nature being gullible and susceptible to ignorance very well and became guilty of passing on this idea to the west as it was gainfully imbibed by the religions started by Moses, Jesus and Mohammad who became sons of God and were accepted as authentic and trustworthy for this reason. The knowledge in Vedas is definitely par excellence but it is so not because it is given by some imaginary personalized God to chosen ones. It should be so because it must be the creation of some highly evolved human civilization that became extinct due to some yet to be discovered reasons. The perfection achieved by Sanskrit the medium, from all angles of linguistic excellence is in itself a testimony of thousands of years of evolution of the language of Vedas. It has been adorned by nine RASAS (रस) and thousands of prosody (छन्द) and ALANKARS (अलंकर). In today’s’ research it has been accepted as the best suited language due to its sound system or for computer algorithms. English with one thousand years of history appears to be so lame with no concept of RASAS (रस) and a few adornments of simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia and a couple of Miltonic like meters. Sanskrit must have conceived, germinated and given the ideas that we are still unable to comprehend as we have not evolved to that level of civilization linguistically, socially, scientifically and ethically. Yes, I am not only talking about tomorrow but having reservations about the concept that present day civilization is the only human civilization in our evolution process since we have been able to guess its history of say 5000 odd years only. Civilizations must have come and gone and we are waiting for the present civilization to go due to global warming. If not today, tomorrow we will conclude that we might have intentionally converted Vedic knowledge into a kind of spiritual knowledge as this was the ideal way under the circumstances to preserve it. But it is damaging if we tend to continue with our obsession of finding out spiritual knowledge alone in these texts. The only reason of doing so is the blind acceptance of “divine origin” and tomorrow it will be thrown into the waste paper basket for the simple reason of being unscientific. Our routine strain will be that anything unscientific cannot be a Vedic thought. Then only our conclusions about Vedic knowledge will be really miraculous yet explainable. This will be the starting point in the direction of our evolution also and take us to the heights of that civilization symbolized by the authors of Vedas who believed in achieving desirelessness in doing their duty and preferred to remain unknown, quite contrary to the present day mentality of copy rights etc. The basic quest of finding out the subject matter of Vedas led to the following developments that shaped the social structure and had significant effect on formation of education policy and the systems of classical period of Bharat and the period coming after this.

a)                BIRTH OF SPIRITUALISM.

Spiritualism is the result of interpretation of various Vedic words. Secondly, giving routine words such a spiritualistic coloring that these  appear to be highly technical but in fact pedantic only as these fail the basic test of  uniform universal understanding Thirdly, coining such words for explanation of Vedic Sutras that have not been  mentioned anywhere in Vedas. From the subject matter of Vedas some interpreted self (आत्म) of ATM GYAN (आत्म ज्ञान) as soul / spirit, making it ATMA GYAN (आत्मा ज्ञान) and universe (ब्रह्म) of BRAHM GYAN (ब्रह्म ज्ञान) as a personalized God BRAHMA making it BRAHMA GYAN (ब्रह्मा ज्ञान). The study of soul (आत्मा ज्ञान) and the study of various gods overall gave birth to a new subject of spiritualism ADHYATM (अध्यात्म). A kind of deductive approach reigned supreme. First a law was created to be accepted as faith then unverifiable and miraculous material to prove its existence was quoted as well as created and any experimentation was discouraged. Thus the theory of KARMIC disposition and births / rebirths was born as extension of soul. Charwak (चार्वाक) tried to dispel it (भस्मि भूतस्य कुतो: पुनर्जन्म) meaning ‘once dead and consigned to flames how can one take birth again’. And the views of spiritualism prevailed due to the elements of non-verifiable miracles, gullibility, and smart social, political and pedagogical management. It was ensured that human beings were further conditioned to eliminate those who come in the way of spiritualism. Non believers were laughed at as ignorant people on the authority of Vedas concept only of AVIDYA (अविद्या). Since BRAHMA had been discovered, he was made to create three classes apart of his children namely DEVTA (देवता), RAKSHAS (राक्षस) as enemies to each other and human beings as helpless  MANAVAS  (मानव) sandwiched between always looking up to DEVTAS for boons (वरदान) and blessings and scared of their curses (श्राप). The Vedic formulae (मंत्र) were so explained to be understood as invocations to some or the other god or goddess. Human beings (MANAV मानव) were exhorted to be inimical to RAKSHAS (राक्षस) who were considered anti spiritualism. Ram and Lakshman as students only in Ramayan were deputed by sage Vashisth to kill Rakshasas who were creating obstacles in performing their HAVAN (हवन).  The word DEVTA in Vedas meaning a person or a thing giving something without expecting returns was substituted with self-created gods and goddesses who were further endowed with unimaginable power. Thus a race started where nonexistent gods and goddesses were found out in Vedas and even gods taking birth as human beings to allay the human sufferings known as incarnation of some god ie. AVTAR (अवतार) were created. The Vedic concept of experimenting, most probably known by Vedic words as YAGYA (यज्ञ), HAVAN (हवन) and AGNIHOTRA (अग्निहोत्र) etc, finding out DEVTAS (देवता) in properties of benevolence of thousands of natural objects / elements in SELF (आत्म) and UNIVERSE (ब्रह्म), to come over likely obstacles ie RAKSHAS (राक्षस) - were all relegated to the background and substituted by imaginary words and rituals. Was it an excellent psychological approach for primary aim of preserving Vedas through rote? Was a specific class of people to be known as BRAHMANS created for this job only and no other worry, since it would have been impractical to engage the entire population entrusted the job of rote? Was it based on the principle given by Vedic knowledge only that “for knowledge one must become DESERVING (सुपात्र) first”? Whatever the intention - it degenerated into nonsense.  VEDVYAS stamped the concept of spiritualism in Vedas through his literary works, Mahabharata, Purans and Brahmsutras. In Mahabharata there is no existence of Rakshasas as a group fighting the Devtas or Manavas. Performance of duties became paramount in deciding the birth of the next life after death as per Karmic dispensation. Perhaps by this time the spiritualism had established itself firmly. VYAS too was considered one of the incarnations. He deputed four of his disciples each given the responsibility of one Veda each to spread the thought of four Vedas. In other words education meant simply passing on of Vedic mantras and spiritual interpretation to the next generation with a view to inculcating high moral values. By the turn of the end of medieval period these branches multiplied into thousands to be destroyed by Muslims all over Bharat with only a few remaining today. However, considering mother, father, guest and teacher also as real gods continued to be accepted as Vedic dictum.  (मातृ देवो भव, पितृ देवो भव, अतिथि देवो भव, गुरु देवोभव). The word   GURU meant the “Remover of Darkness” and commanded the respect from all as he was given the role of the compere / stage manager of spiritualism.

b)                NO EVIDENCE OF BIRTH OF ANY RELIGION BY NAME                  

In fact there isn’t any evidence of BIRTH OF ANY RELIGION meaning DHARM (धर्म) in this period as we understand today. It can be strange and interesting for many that all aspects of a religion as understood today were being practiced daily in this period but it was not a restricted practice to be identified by name as a RELIGION like Hindu, Sanatan or Vedic. Perhaps they knew that if a thought is associated with a name it loses dynamism so essential for its survival. The concepts of God, soul, ethics and rituals etc were part of existence but not the instruments of propagation of some religious philosophy by name. For creating allegiance amounting to blind acceptance a new word ASTHA (आस्था) meaning faith was coined and these words were circulated as the symbols of humanity striving to achieve excellence in inculcating virtues in self and society. Propagation of any religion by name was never the aim of education in this period. The word DHARM was used either as it was given in RIGVED to mean ‘PROPERTIES’ (गुण) of various elements or as it was given in YAJURVED to mean “DUTY” (कर्तव्य). Morality as part of character building was stressed and a subject of study and its inculcation in students was a virtue. It was the DHARM (duty कर्तव्य) of a teacher to develop DHARM (गुण) and identify his students’ character wise. In Ramayan, sticking to moral values only make Ram an ideal icon (मर्यादा पुरुषोत्तम). Yudhishthir refuses to proceed further in his studies as he thinks that understanding TRUTH is practicing it.  Sanjay begins his narration in GEETA “कुरुक्षेत्रे धर्मक्षेत्रे” and Dhritrashtra understands it immediately that everybody in the battlefield was fired by his sense of duty (DHARM) to indulge in action. All the characters in Mahabharata were so created as to appear the epitome of some or the other virtue /vice. The canvass is so vast that no human virtue and vice has been left unexplained.  This aspect of character building as the policy of education is now completely lost.

c)                 DOWNGRADATIONS OF UPVEDAS:

The pure scientific derivations from the Vedas were also debated and found out in this period. The subjects found out were medicine (AYURVED आयुर्वेद), archery (DHANURVED धनुर्वेद), the dimensions of sound as energy (GANDHARV VED गन्धर्व वेद), and architecture and civil engineering (STHAPATYA VED स्थापत्य वेद). But due to eminence given to spiritualism as higher knowledge in Vedas, the scientific knowledge was not only relegated to secondary knowledge known as UPVED (उपवेद) but advocated as not even worth pursuing. Thus the scientific knowledge did remain but a non-preferred subject matter. Skill development in archery was followed a subject for KSHATRIYA (क्षत्रिय). However, GANDHARV VED (गन्धर्व वेद) due to its music being helpful in rote must have been actively pursued.   Surprisingly Christianity and Islam again copied here; though without having any scientific knowledge like UPVEDAS at their command but still going a step further by stoning to death or torturing in prisons people like Marconi and Copernicus who dared thinking differently than higher spiritual knowledge as understood by them. The church has atoned for its folly now after three / four hundred years. The damage it has caused to our psyche is untold. We try to foolishly gloat over on modern inventions by oft heard sentence, “Oh, it was already there known to us”. And we never think if it was our knowledge then why we didn’t invent or discover it. And now we are trying to cover it by inventing another tem “scientific spiritualism” and feeling shy of accepting our awareness of spiritualism and science as two distinct branches of human thought process where arriving at wrong conclusions and rectifying is a normal process of acquiring knowledge and its progress. Though the SOUL- the basis of and as described by spiritualism has not yet been seen or discovered by anyone but who knows it might become a reality in some form of energy or the other tomorrow. There are many things that exist and are not visible and don’t even need space like MANOVRITTI (मनोवृत्ति) and CHITTYVRITTI (चित्तवृत्ति) we discussed and debated on the authority of Vedas only and here our conclusions far outweigh the modern concepts of psychology. For that we must be willing to rectify our concepts of spiritualism and stop believing in its finality like man oriented religions of the west. In a thought oriented process that we only introduced to the world; there are always contributions and that’s how the knowledge progresses.  

d)                BIRTH OF VEDANGS

They also knew that to comprehend Vedas it was essential to know Vedangs (वेदांग) as without the knowledge of Vedangs loaded heavily with scientific approach it was not possible to analyze and decipher Vedas. These were Etymology (निरुक्त), prosody (छन्द), sound system inherent in the science of proper articulation and pronunciation (स्वर शिक्षा), astronomy (ज्योतिर्विज्ञान गणित) and grammar (व्याकरण). Yaskacharya who studied etymology concluded that he couldn’t comprehend the meanings of nearly 400 words used in Vedic hymns. Today we are at a loss of finding even the correct pronunciation of certain vowels and keep on fumbling for consonants. The spiritual approach added another Vedang and called it KALP (कल्प) concerning the study of rituals and ceremonials and converted the Vedang Astronomy (ज्योतिर्विज्ञान) into Astrology (ज्योतिष). In other words excellence of language was asserted with freedom to interpret lexicon arbitrarily to create faith in never to be proven miracles of spiritualism. A distinct class of linguist experts came into existence by first misinterpreting the very term VARN (वर्ण)   and then giving gradations from the highest to the lowest and lastly, attributing to themselves the highest status of BRAHMAN (ब्राह्मण) as RISHI (ऋषि) teachers. This arbitrariness degenerated into caste system and the linguist expert of yore became a linguist snob knowing only the mumble jumble of some Vedic and non-vedic hymns for performing certain rituals and not even understanding the meanings of his recitals. Surprisingly here again we are torch bearers. A fanatic Muslim doesn’t know Arabic the language of his holy book Quran and a Christian doesn’t know Latin the language of Bible,   

e)            BIRTH OF SPIRITUAL SCIENTIFIC AND MYSTICAL       TREATISES

The works under this head were categorized as SMRITI (स्मृति) meaning human efforts. They wrote Brahmans (ब्राह्मण) that were a kind of epilogues to each Ved. In Aranyaks (आरण्यक) and Upnishads (उपनिषद) there   are discussions about hundreds of selected topics from Vedas. In Shastras (शास्त्र)  KANAD dealt with probability and particles in Vaisheshik (वैशेषिक). Nyaya (न्याय) by GAUTAM noticed a system of justice on which the entire creation is based. PATANJALI discussed in his Yog (योग) universal laws of existence and creation and laid out the most scientific, ethical and flawless method of indulging in any task either research or application. In Sankhya (सांख्य) KAPIL noticed the principles of statistics in Vedas. The exact period of Kanad, Gautam, Patanjali and Kapil is not known but their works appearing to be having scientific essence are still being manipulated to be the spiritual dissertations. Such was and is the influence of spiritualism on our thought process. Purv Mimansa (पूर्व मीमांसा) by Gemini dealt with rituals. Vyas finalized spiritualism, mysticism and miracles through his Purans (पुराण)    Uttar Mimansa (उत्तर मीमांसा) or Vedant (वेदांत) and BrahmSutras (ब्रह्मसूत्र). In literature the immortal epics Mahabharat by Vyas and Ramayan by Valmiki were created to be known as ITIHAS. MANU SMRITI (मनु स्मृति) dealt with rules and law to be followed by the society.  

f)                  BIRTH OF SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND RITUALS

The identity of MANU who wrote MANUSMRITI (मनुस्मृति) is not established. There are many Manus in spiritual literature. There are 14 Manus in whose name calendar years known as MANVANTAR (मन्वंतर) of the life of earth has been calculated.  Then there are kings and RISHIS (ऋषि) with this name. Whosoever he was, his voice was heard as the society was agog with spiritualism and everybody was at liberty to interpret Vedas arbitrarily as discussed earlier. He was even considered by confusion the first law giver and an incarnation. He created four groups of people existing in the society meant for doing their assigned jobs as punishment or reward given by gods based on the deeds (कर्म) of their previous births. Thus KARMIC (कार्मिक) theory was born. On top were placed BRAHMAN (ब्राह्मण) as RISHI (ऋषि) teachers, second came KSHATRIYA (क्षत्रिय) as rulers and soldiers, then VAISHYA (वैश्य) as farmers, producers of wealth and lastly SHUDRA (शूद्र) as condemned lot for menial and scavenger jobs. The job description kept on changing and acquiring different meanings in coming periods as these VARNAS degenerated into caste system. This dispensation was considered destiny (भाग्य) another acronym for helplessness of human beings who were advised to keep on doing hard work without expecting results as the rewards or punishments were the prerogative of gods and predestined. For this he quoted PURUSH SUKT (पुरुष सूक्त) of Rigved as authority and this arbitrary interpretation was accepted. Since a gradation had started it degenerated into caste system and further classification in higher and lower status even among four groups. A ritual of HAVAN (हवन) was recommended as daily practice presumed a technique for finding out and application of the subject matter of Vedas. HAVAN was a system of worship in which people sit around fire and keep it burning by putting some articles of flavor in it along with recitation of Vedic mantras presuming it to be an invocation to created gods.  Concept of mostly HAVAN oriented rituals was born as we had really started getting scared of our created gods and stated worshipping them. Discarding PURUSHARTH (पुरुषार्थ) meaning hard work and finding shortcuts became the way of the world. Another   concept MOKSH (मोक्ष) was created that meant freedom from the cycle of births and rebirths of a soul besides heaven (SWARG स्वर्ग) and hell (NARK नर्क).  MOKSH was recommended to be achieved in two ways. First by doing  TAPASYA (तपस्या) meaning repeating a MANTRA (मन्त्र) umpteen number of times by remaining hungry and thirsty till the god appears in front of you and grants you the boon and secondly, by CHARITY. In TAPASYA a kind of pseudo effort has been eulogized in which the individual soul achieves meeting called YOG (योग) with the superior soul. Charity was so defined that it bred insensitivity and inaction.  This too was a short cut to hard work. Both are antithesis to educational aims and need surgical attention while framing an education policy. In this period charity was ordained as a duty (DHARMARTH धर्मार्थ) and for earning spiritual merit (PUNYARATH पुण्यार्थ), a kind of atonement for the sins committed. Both ways ultimate beneficiary was the teacher as BRAHMAN. In later periods it became the professional financial management activity of a caste BRAHMAN for its survival. In fact, it attracted the invaders again and again and enslaved us finally. In post classical period there was unimaginable wealth collected in temples through charity and definite inability of any god to protect it through any TAPASYA or HAVAN of devotees. Today also it remains an attraction for economic raiders a new procedural name for invaders.

(g) BIRTH OF GURUKUL SYSTEM, VILLAGE TEACHERS  

Spiritualism firmly in saddle, a Gurukul system of imparting education was started. There is abundant mention of class of teachers in ascending order vying with each other for excellence and known as RISHIS (ऋषि), MAHRISHIS (महऋषि), and RAJRISHIS (राजऋषि) and BRAHMRISHIS (ब्रह्मऋषि). VISHWAMITRA (विश्वामित्र) being a Kshatriya king kept on struggling for BRAHMRISHI status but VASHISHT a BRAHMAN by caste will not accept it. PARSHURAM (परशुराम), a BRAHMAN by caste and known as destroyer of KSHATRIYAS will impart education to BRAHMANS only. DRONACHARYA was an employed teacher for PANDAVAS and KAURAVAS who accepted the job to punish DRUPAD, a king who was his co-trainee in Gurukul and he was a poor Brahman then. In SANDIPANI’S Gurukul KRISHNA and poor SUDAMA studied together. There is thus evidence of types of Gurukul run by individual teachers RISHIS (ऋषि), imparting skills of a warrior and developing character qualities.  Philosophy known as SHAASTRA(शास्त्र) and weapon training known as SHASTRA(शस्त्र) were  thus the two subjects taught in Gurukul. Ethics, justice and morality became engrossing subjects. There is also evidence of girls’ education and the names of Gargi and Maitreyi stand out prominently. The students were supposed to live in ASHRAM with their GURU and help in looking after the management. The tradition of unflinching respect towards the teacher was born. The admission age and stay differed for the students of different castes.  In Gurukul system of education, a student, with a virtuous aim of developing humility was expected to beg with invocations of the words “BHAVATI BHIKSHAM DEHI” (भवति भिक्षाम देहि) – meaning “give me alms”. The invocations were of different order for three different groups of castes i.e. Brahman, Kshatriya and Vaishya. The Shudras were not permitted to get education. It was to facilitate the recognition for the charity givers. In other words, the system was reinforcing the perpetuation of the evils of karmic dispensation only. The humility thus remained a pretext only and the system of charity further widened the chasms of the society. Today charity gives birth to illegal activities and endorses them too.      

EDUCATION SYSTEMS OF MEDIEVAL BHARAT

The prominent education systems that must have affected and shaped the thought process of Bharatvarsh were in the period between advent of Jainism /Buddhism and arrival of Muslims. It is a period of intense actions and reactions in a society that was reverberating with multitheism. This period is basically an interesting history of struggle between the concepts of Classical Bharat and new concepts born as various  religions, both asserting even ferociously, one for survival and the others for acceptance with the help of preachers and kings.. To begin with, the authority of Vedas was rejected. There was an outright revolt against the concepts created in Classical Bharat. The prominent developments were:

a)     The concept of religion was born.

b)    Authority  of Vedas was rejected

c)     Contributions  of Upvedas flourished

d)    Reemergence of classical approach with temple culture

THE CONCEPT OF RELIGION WAS BORN.

The main man oriented religions with names as such Jain, Baudh were born as reaction to Vedic concepts. Thousands of gods created in Classical Bharat period were figments of imagination and the thought became so bizarre that the first religions that came in existence in Medieval Bharat viz Jainism and Buddhism were atheistic religions.  A new kind of Spiritualism was born in which God, gods and goddesses vanished. The concept of religion was born meaning DHARAM (धर्म) as we understand today by using the word DHAMMAM(धम्मम) in accepting Bauddhism as his/her religion (धम्मम शरणम् गच्छामि).  Atheistic religions refused to accept the authority of Vedas. This antagonism to Vedic authority continued in the periods coming after this period also. Sikhism was born in Muslim period. Since the concept of religion had taken birth various religions as MAT MATANTAR (मत मतान्तर) like BRAHMITES, VAISHNAVITES and SHAIVITES were also born as a counter to Jainism and Buddhism. These religions fought among them also, even bloody battles for supremacy. All  these religions flourished with kingdoms supporting them.

AUTHORITY OF VEDAS WAS REJECTED

Besides rejection of gods, the next target was caste system created by misinterpretation of Vedic VARNAS (वर्ण) leading to social discrimination and evil practices.  People started moving from one social order to another order by changing vocations for profit, convenience, ease or availability, or converting to new faiths (आस्था) that had taken the name of religions. Vaishyas(वैश्य ) redefined their role as account holders and business managers and became traders  and gave up the role of agricultural producers, the role that was taken over by Kshatriyas and some Brahmans since all could not have become rulers, soldiers and teachers due to limited requirement. Land holding thus became a symbol of authority and prestige. Powerful kingdoms like Nand and Maurya were created by so called lower order VARNAS and CHANAKYA, author of ARTHSHASTRA and a BRAHMAN became architect of destroying one and creating another.   

SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF UPVEDAS FLOURISHED

Since it was a period of rejection of spiritualistic approach to Vedas the words ATM (आत्म) meaning self as human body and BRAHM (ब्रह्म) meaning universe became the subjects of study and enquiry. Neglected subjects of UPVED (उपवेद) and VEDANG (वेदांग) during classical period were followed with renewed vigor. PANINI (पाणिनि) a master grammarian, through his ASHTADHYAYI (अष्टाध्यायी) explained the intricacies of Vedic Sanskrit. CHARAK as physician found out the medicinal benefits in plants and herbs.  SUSHRUT as surgeon diagnosed the human body from a surgical angle. He even designed various surgical instruments keeping in mind the principle to approach the different parts of the body. His designs were used in 18 th century with more advanced metallurgy and are being designed today also with the same principle. The knowledge about production of iron, zinc and gold silver etc give a fair idea of advances in the field of metallurgy.  Iron pillar at Mehrauli is still a subject of metallurgical research for the scientists.  Aryabhatt in late 5century introduced zero and decimal system. Varahamihir of Gupta age was a scholar of botany, astronomy, military science, civil engineering. Indian calendar introduced by VIKRAMADITYA and based on astronomical calculations is still relevant and used officially. All these efforts were to prove that meaningless penance TAPASYA (तपस्या) of classical period was a hoax and misinterpretation of Vedic TAP (तप) meaning (पुरुषार्थ). Actually GAUTAM BUDDH’S first realization under BODHI tree after doing hard penance (TAPASYA) of remaining hungry and thirsty was to keep the body fit and healthy if the intention is to achieve something.

CLASSICAL APPROACH - REEMERGENCE WITH TEMPLE CULTURE

Struggle ensued for supremacy between man oriented religions and Classical Spiritualism. JAINS and BAUDHS had created MATHS (मठ) and VIHARS (विहार) to attract and spread their philosophy. Spiritualism saw a ray of hope here and started constructing temples and God Vishnu was placed in it. A culture of temples and MATHS (मठ) was born for placing icons of innumerable gods with all kinds of funny shapes. Along with Havan new techniques of worship of the deities were introduced like POOJA (पूजा) with different kinds and styles of offerings and ARTI (आरती) - again nonexistent words in Vedas. These temples became centers of ill gotten and unaccounted wealth distributing knowledge. In latter half of this period in NALANDA university more than 100 dissertations were discussed daily and the subjects covered Vedas, logic, grammar, buddhisht and vedic philosophy vaisheshik, nyaya, yog , sankhya, mimansa, vedant ,morality and law. Thus spiritualism accepted Gautam Buddh also and made him an incarnation (AVTAR अवतार). Jagatguru Shankracharya in eighth century was successful in reestablishing the supremacy of classical spiritualism and propagate it systematically in an organized way by opening four MATHS (मठ) educational institutes for religion at Shringeri, Dwarka, Govardhan in Odissa and Jyotirpeeth in south, west, east and north of Bharat.

This period saw the rise of universities of international repute beginning  from Takshila in 8century BC to Nalanda Valabhi, Vikramshila, Jagaddala, Odantapuri in 8century CE where even the students from abroad were attracted. Besides, there were monasteries, vihars, maths and schools in each village with a teacher and for higher learning there were king’s capitals, Kannauj Dhar Mithila, Ujjayni or holy places Varanasi, Ayodhya, Kanchi, Nasik. Nalanda with 1500 teachers was maintained out of revenue of 100 villages.

 Whatever happened during this period was either obliterated or distorted and presented by the invaders as unknown dark ages. Only a passing reference was taught about the great and powerful kingdoms of Puru, Vikramaditya, Ashoka, Nanda and Maurya dynasties, Guptas and Wardhans and a trade route to Basra and beyond in west. Nothing was made known about Cholas, Pallavas, Pandyas and Chalukyas when the expanse of Bharat extended up to Burma and Indochina ruled by Indian kings in Southeast Asia. But we were made to believe a funny story to make Alexander the Great and his tactics superb; whereas it was actually a failed adventure in his very first foray towards a very powerful Bharat that forced him to retreat.

EMERGENCE OF FACTORS DUE TO REGIONAL AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES

Having failed to think about any education policy during invaders period we were confronted in free India by peculiar problems of regional and global environmental changes. We could not frame an education policy without taking into consideration two factors. First   the fast explosion of knowledge globally and secondly, a peculiar problem of ours i.e. fast explosion of population. Both the facts confused us as we were politically immature, economically beggars and socially so fragmented that we could never pay attention to education. The dynamism required was absent. We refused to analyze even the beneficial features of our ancient Vedic education policy whereby education, economics, governance and social systems have to work in unison as we were either unaware or considered these condemnable and kept on storing those ideas and wares that had been discarded by the west. First we copied socialism and created failed PSUs. Now in the name of liberalized economy we are giving resources and wealth in a few hands – again a blind copy of capitalism. We have actually become the junkyard of waste.

TENDENCY TO PROVIDE INSTANT SOLUTIONS 

In the absence of policy and guidelines instant solutions are the only recourse. We keep on doling out charity schemes, election time enticements and justifying in the name of welfare. We have got badly caught in a web of extending reservations thus creating a class of good for nothing people. Instead providing facilities for real welfare to weed out evils created by the products of caste system about which Swami Vivekanand remarked, “Kick out these priests who have always been obstacles to progress” we didn’t mind adding a few more incompetents to the plethora of already existing ‘good for nothing’ but influential people catapulted to this status by helplessness of our copying a political system. The result - education suffered, governance suffered and our national character suffered as we could not even start thinking and working on the lines of being Indian first. But we could foolishly gloat on the status of being the largest democracy in the world and could not notice the west laughing and mocking on us in its sleeves.

EDUCATION IN INDIA AFTER INDEPENDENCE

We after independence displayed naive ignorance towards forming an education policy and continued the process given by the invaders to misuse it further for political gains as a weapon for governance. We refused to identify and assess the damage done by the invaders’ education policies. We had really become so moron that we could not analyze that if we were really so uncouth, uncivilized and their ‘burden’ then why still so rich materially and culturally that Europe was obsessed with the efforts of just finding out alternative routes only to reach India. It was because we were accommodative and tolerant that Islam could find roots here. The invaders as per their levels of civilization achieved so far by them in their process of evolution, had hammered the idea that as slaves we didn’t have any rights. We had become the products of an educational system introduced by a ruler for the ruled. We were exposed to the British democracy, its political parties and the European political history. The Indian student community then was very much inspired by this concept of democracy. As freedom fighters or the servants of the British Raj they were enamored by the human rights that were denied to them being slaves. For them independence meant acquisition of those rights enjoyed by a ruler. On the top of it the fathers of the constitution were aware and victim of the inequalities of social practices brought by religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. They were seized with added problems of religion based bifurcation, minority rights and socialism. Thus for them the Fundamental Rights became the paramount concern. That’s why our fundamental rights have their origins in many sources, including England’s Bill of Rights, United States Bill of Rights and France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man. The tragedy is this reluctance of addressing to duties still persists when we bring in amendments in the form of RTE-Art21A which is actually explained in purport as Duty of the State. But when we use the term Fundamental Duties in 42 Amendment, we consider our constitution coming into conformity with Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 1936, the congress leaders committed themselves to socialism and leaders took examples from the erstwhile constitution of USSR for fundamental duties of the citizens as a patriotic responsibility. We do so for the simple reason of being victim of that very education system that makes us accept anything from the west as superior and a symbol of evolving civilization for humanity at large. We refuse to accept that this continent was once the cradle of civilization and we refuse to diagnose the reasons of its fall and learn from it. We are heading towards a catastrophe if we don’t stop persisting with the idea of making education a right. In USA it is the parents’ duty. Let’s go a few steps further and make it the duty of the state, the corporate and all parents and would be parents and above all the duty of students. This is the ethos of Indian civilization. Let us accept and implement it.    Perhaps, it was our political helplessness also at that time as the British very craftily had fractured India into 564 pieces and two nations by exploiting the foolish selfishness of the class of people who knew India through western English window only and were thoroughly colored by the western education. After independence the political leadership was shy of being vocal about the terror fact of invading Islam through which it had spread itself. We invented the terms ‘secular’ ‘minority’, ‘a terrorist doesn’t have any religion’, ‘Hindu terrorism’, ‘Ganga Jamuni civilization’ etc to appease and to garner votes and to let fools live in their paradise who believed in the finality of Quran and refused to accept the basic principal of unlimited nature of knowledge and dynamic nature of human beings in search of it. As Hindus we already had our umpteen finalities in faith (ASTHA आस्था).  We wanted to sound friendly to the communist ideology-an already discarded system and the term ‘socialist’ was coined. The terms ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ were incorporated in the preamble after 26 years through 42 Amendment and added ‘integrity’ to the ‘unity’ presuming it will please everyone. Thus a mini constitution was promulgated during emergency. The travesty is that even today people including the inventors are unable to explain these terms. The new rulers gradually came to know the unlimited money and immense power benefits of a self imposed, copied political system. Accordingly, they too distorted history like the invaders and exploited like British the religion, caste, region divides and faith angularities of the majority population. It was actually the time to take stock of the Muslim, British and the follies of our education systems and at least laying a policy that ensures a system engaged in cleansing of these defects. But mesmerized we were, confused we were to think about any policy of education. Now the political upheavals being part of the system have further complicated the issue of education and will continue doing so. Since the country had been divided because of religion, it has now become a race of constructing mosques and temples. Once the battle started by the adherents of spiritualism against man oriented religions has come up again in new form.  In latter half of Medieval Bharat period they had accepted teachings of Buddha, Mahavir as home grown spiritualism and thus their part only. In Muslim period they found the word Hindu and politics today has become the expertise of exploiting religious feelings of the populace to garner votes only. The spiritualist Hindu has become more confused and doesn’t know whom to accept in his fold. Education will never become our priority and the political system permits it. Having known the damages done to our morals, ethics, sense of justice through systems beneficial to the foreign rulers only, we still squabble about an education policy of this or that political party even after knowing very well the inefficacy of  this political system. Then mischief in our political intentions is clear. We also want to be the rulers only of our own people   It is actually the time for a surgical operation if we want to exist not only as a nation but as a torch bearer to the entire world that we had been once. The basic principles of our education policy must be such that it will ensure eradication of evil filtered in our education system by the invaders and our misinterpretation of Vedic knowledge.   The new rulers have gradually become wiser about the selfish interests.  Changing of reins from one political party to another simply means legally handing over power from one group of thugs with no educational qualification requirements to another who are generally related or have the same aim of exploitation through sticking to power. Independence just changed our rulers only. Mentality of exploitation remained the same. From slaves we have become permanent mental slaves heading for complete annihilation because if you want to destroy a nation you have to destroy its education system only.

“The collapse of education is the collapse of a nation”- Nelson Mandela

EDUCATION POLICY AND VARNASHRAM SYSTEM AS EXPLAINED IN VEDAS-SUGGESTED INDIGENOUS SOLUTION

A well thought of education policy is to educate the next generation by passing of whatever little has been found out till date through human efforts of research and experience from the unknown unlimited store of knowledge scattered all around us for the purpose of further addition by a continued preservation process and its use for improving survival needs. Such an enormous, essential, grueling and impossible looking task was converted by Vedic authors into a very simple and attractive vocation in a scientific way by appealing to all time present human emotions and sense of judgment. The system designed to achieve this goal is known as VARNASHRAM SYSTEM (वर्णाश्रम व्यवस्था). But it is interesting to study how we spoiled it and made it unrecognizable through our spiritualistic approach.  In Vedas an individual and education are both instruments of society at large. It is not in isolation either for an individual or as a subject as it has become now. The system, in fact, advocates involvement of all the people all the time in such a highly satisfying way that all our systems being practiced today appear to be primitive, hollow and childish. In Vedic approach, the involvement of all the people all the time is for performance of duties and not for some imaginarily created rights leading to bloodbath and destruction. This is possible only when initiative, a sense of duty in an individual is identified, developed and appreciated.  In Vedas there are guidelines for an education system, a political system, an economic system and a social system Since these four systems have been explained under a common system, these have to work in unison and facilitate each other. It is not possible to concentrate on any one, say economic system only (that is generally the mistake committed) and expect the aim of progress to be achieved. We are aware of the pitfalls and damages done to human society wherever any one system out of these four has been mistakenly chosen to clean the society. Actually the execution becomes easier since the aim of human progress can be achieved better if the policy guidelines are the same for all. The formulae for VARNAS (वर्ण) concept have been given in Rigved and for ASHRAMS (आश्रम) in Yajurved. The key word for any achievement is through putting in efforts meaning DUTIES known as PURUSHARTH (पुरुषार्थ)-. No achievement is possible without efforts. Anything acquired without an effort has dangerous portends. This is the first principal of this system. Easy come easy go. Secondly, nothing should be given to an undeserving as it can bring disaster for all. Again to deserve one has to put in efforts. ‘Effort’ and ‘Deserving’ concepts have both become glaring casualty in our approach not only towards education system but towards political, economic and social systems as well. Thirdly, the authors of Vedas knew very well that human mind in its process of evolution and confronted by miracles around all the time tends to convert these into a matter of faith till the time taken for further evolution that resolves it as knowledge of “Wh” words . So again there is significance of efforts only that are put through time. It does not mean helplessness. It only means more efforts by education and political systems as these are the influencing systems as discussed in succeeding paragraphs.

VARNASHRAM SYSTEM-THE BASICS OF VARN (वर्ण)

 In Rigved there are hymns known as PURUSH SUKT (पुरुष सूक्त) that define ISHWAR (ईश्वर) that stands for KNOWLEDGE and we all know and always use the adage “God is knowledge”(ईश्वर ही ज्ञान है) or vice versa. The salient conclusions of these SUKTS are:

a)     God (ISHWAR ईश्वर) is manifestation of knowledge and has four VARNAS (वर्ण) as its parts.

b)    God  cannot exist in personalized form and  VARNAS (वर्ण) cannot be castes

c)     Teacher (BRAHMAN), soldier and ruler (KSHATRIYA), the two VARNAS must conquer the desire for money to deserve their roles.

d)    VARNAS indicate interdependence of systems

e)     Efforts (PURUSHARTHपुरुषार्थ) lead to achievement

f)      ASHRAM (आश्रम)  system explains preservation and progress techniques

GOD (ISHWAR ईश्वर) IS MANIFESTATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND HAS VARNAS AS ITS PARTS.

The first guideline is that THIS knowledge (ईश्वर) can manifest itself in four ways only known as VARN (वर्ण) literally meaning color. There is no fifth color it can be seen or used.  When knowledge is seen the term VARN means it is seen as colour and when knowledge is used the term VARN represents a person. Briefly speaking knowledge can be used in four possible ways only and for the best utilization there can / must be four kinds of specialists to use it. The VARNAS are as follows:

a)     BRAHMAN (ब्राह्मण)-means knowledge to be seen for knowledge sake where as a person the tasks are research, acquiring, imparting and preserving knowledge for use in present and future for all the VARNAS. In short he is a teacher and represents Education System as a User and can as well be known and understood as SHIKSHAK (शिक्षक)

b)    KSHATRIYA (क्षत्रिय) - means knowledge to be seen for governance sake where as a person the tasks are providing defence through soldiering and political governance of the state so that all the VARNAS feel that they can indulge in their tasks with ease, comfort and assurance of protection 24x7. In short he is a protector and represents Political System as a User and can as well be known and understood as RAKSHAK (रक्षक)

c)     VAISHYA (वैश्य)-means knowledge to be seen for creating wealth sake where as a person the tasks are devising, executing, utilizing and creating resources through trade, agriculture and industry for increasing wealth by increment plans and opportunities for fulfilling the requirements of all the VARNAS. In short he is a wealth creator and represents Economic System as a User and can as well be known and understood as POSHAK (पोषक)

d)    SHUDRA (शूद्र)-means knowledge to be seen for provision of innumerable services sake where as a person the tasks are using like VAISHYAS the created wealth for livelihood by providing skilled and unskilled services, skills development, technical expertise in various fields, provision and handling of material for helping and providing services for all the VARNAS. In short he is a service provider and represents Social System as a User and can as well be known and understood as TOSHAK (तोषक)

[SHIKSHAK (शिक्षक), RAKSHAK (रक्षक), POSHAK (पोषक) and TOSHAK (तोषक) are the nomenclatures given by me as the Vedic names actually convey these ideas]

GOD CANNOT EXIST IN PERSONALIZED FORM AND VARNAS (वर्ण) CANNOT BE CASTES

The above explanations completely destroy the concept of a personalized God (ISHWAR ईश्वर) coming into existence from these formulae (SUKTS सूक्त). In a person’s (पुरुष PURUSH) body these four aspects have been compared allegorically with head as BRAHMAN (ब्राह्मण), chest and hands as KSHATRIYA (क्षत्रिय), belly as VAISHYA (वैश्य)- and legs and reproduction parts as SHUDRA (शूद्र). All persons have these parts in their bodies. It means that all persons are Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, a bundle of knowledge at the same time. And of course, we all use knowledge for these functions only throughout our lives. A person performs all these four roles for his children and is capable of any role if need demands in the society. Considering these as castes is a degeneration of the concept arrived by misinterpretation. The above explanation destroys the myth that human beings belong to four castes as higher Brahman to lower Shudra in status as per their birth. The placement positions of these parts in a human body from top to bottom cannot be considered as higher to lower order of human beings. A personalized God cannot have SHUDRAS as the unalienable part of his body whom he doesn’t permit even to enter His temples and none of us can live without touching, massaging and using the body parts representing SHUDRA. It thus destroys the evil of untouchability. The maximum number of human population earns its living by providing umpteen numbers of services only. Doctors, engineers, Brahmans providing ritual services at birth, marriage and cremation, entertainers, hoteliers, transporters, repairers, shopkeepers, vendors, maids, nurses, cooks, guards, peons and thousand kinds of services provider of skilled /unskilled nature etc. all fit into this definition of SHUDRAS only. And they are great friends without whom no satisfaction can be arrived at. (मित्रं विना नास्ति शरीर तोषणं therefore, the name TOSHAK तोषक).  SMIRITI (स्मृति) literature committed the mistake of interpreting the terms ISHWAR (ईश्वर) and VARN (वर्ण) for a person only because the word PURUSH meaning a person was used for the formulae.  The word PURUSH in these hymns meaning - a person just came handy to misinterpret and justify ISHWAR meaning a personalized god.  

TEACHER (BRAHMAN), SOLDIER AND RULER (KSHATRIYA) MUST CONQUER DESIRE FOR MONEY TO DESERVE ROLES

 Knowledge for its progress and preservation must be a process of specialization in these four colours. If these are the only possible four areas of knowledge existence then education must aim to produce specialists of these fields and find out the best percentage required in each field to run the society and state smoothly.  For being specialists there must be laid down qualification requirements. It was their considered opinion that a teacher (शिक्षक) and a soldier / ruler (रक्षक) must be above the desire for money if they want to fulfill these responsibilities. For this human nature was studied in details under the head ATM GYAN (आत्म ज्ञान). It was found out that human beings in their process of evolution have acquired, mastered, rejected, improved upon umpteen numbers of desires known as VRITTIS (वृति) for their survival. It was further found out that desire for money (वित्तेष्णा) gets increased by acquisition of capabilities. And there is no harm in it being human nature and it must be made use of by the remaining two Varnas POSHAK (पोषक) and TOSHAK (तोषक)  (VAISHYA वैश्य and SHUDRA शूद्र) comprising the maximum of population. It is one of the most common desires that have come into human beings only as natural stages of sequential existence with fixed properties and symptoms. This was called the LAW OF APARINAMI (अपरिणामी सिद्धांत) But it was also found out that it was possible to identify a negligible percentage of population that will not indulge in desire for money (वित्तेष्णा) under any circumstances and can be trained by a process of YOG mentioned in RIGVED for management of knowledge or for functions of soldiering and governance. In today’s context this population will include teachers, soldiers, government servants belonging to executive, judiciary of all class / pay bands and legislatures of the Centre and States. This population cannot be more than 5% of the total. The educational policy must have a system of identification techniques for those 5% and secondly, must design a dynamic syllabus and methodology for them. These functions of teaching ruling and soldiering cannot be left in the hands of untrained. This does not mean that they will not have any need for money. Actually the provision was well thought of. All their needs were supposed to be taken care of by the remaining 95% population or the mechanisms of State with a so efficient provision that never an exigency should occur where they had to beg for it. As it is we are doing that only today but we have been forced to do it selectively without our consent. Thus those who are trained for knowledge will become ideal teachers, researchers, compilers or facilitators of knowledge to be known as BRAHMANS (शिक्षक). Similarly those who are trained for soldiering and governance will become ideal rulers to be given the duties of KSHATRIYAS (रक्षक). A person having no desire for money and assured of no worry on this count can definitely achieve wonders for the society and if we just glance a cursory look at any history of any human society such individuals only have influenced it and contributed towards its progress. Now imagine what all miracles may happen, if not such individuals who have so far been coming accidentally only; but if a system of education and governance is evolved comprising of such individuals only. All our present systems will look terribly wanting in front of it and surely get inspired. And that’s what has been suggested by this Vedic knowledge. And it is not impractical. Rather, it will be too much an underestimation if we presume that we do not have even 5% of human beings who are above the desire for money. Moreover, the system lays down the methodology for all human beings to ultimately achieve this desirelessness (निष्पृह्यता). This is spiritualism.  Thus there are just two broad groups of human beings one having the desire for money (वित्तेष्णा) and using it for training to get out of it ultimately and the other not having / trained to not having it. So it is the decision of the individual in which group he wants to be.  The majority will always be choosing the professions of VAISHYA and SHUDRA 

VARNAS INDICATE INTERDEPENDENCE OF SYSTEMS

It further means that as these parts of the body are inter-dependent and no part can exist independently so should be the systems represented by them.  Any part functions perfectly for self and the others only when the rest are in place. The systems represented by these parts should, therefore, work in unison to achieve desired results. Our problem is that first we don’t even know  that there exists an ideal, most practical indigenous system and secondly, we don’t want to know that we are botched by imported systems that don’t suit our ethos and  further confuse us beyond repairs if we insist upon following them. How?  Let us now examine the functions of existing political system, economic system and social system in the context of present day arrangements and the likely problems to be tackled.

Present Political System:  The model of political governance where the constant aim should be raising the all round standards of the people that can be achieved by unhindered education and not by instant sops or charity with the name and pretexts of welfare measures. Here, accidentally, we have been forced to impose on ourselves the western concept of democracy that is just a primitive way of looking and tackling the problems. It has three organs of legislature, executive and judiciary, these too, supposedly independent of each other. But in practice legislature wants a committed executive and a committed judiciary and we have seen the President, the highest constitutional head can be a rubber stamp and the country can be run without a Prime Minister.  In this concept there is no place for defence forces as it appears in the book. I could not find a single defence man who knew what organ of governance he belonged to though he keeps on coming to the aid of civil machinery that keeps on failing every now and then. Those who tried to find out their role in governance met the worst kind of disgrace. But in practice, western democracies apply in their governance strategy a very honorable role as thought of in our VARNASHRAM system for KSHATRIYAS (रक्षक) where no governance is possible without an exalted and highly respected element of soldiering. The west knows that a nation cannot be economically strong and maintain its strength unless it is militarily strong to deter. The technical advancement in deterrence weapons can reduce the strength of personnel but it is the man behind the weapon that counts ultimately and victory means occupation by numbers. US learnt this lesson in Korean War when it was literally thrown into the sea by sheer numbers. The idea of independence of organs of democracy militates against the very concept of Governance which is a function of working of various agencies in unison including army. Here we have gone terribly wrong and confused. The reasons are from silly to laughable. It will be an interesting mistake to conclude how and why our general principle of copying everything from the west got violated here. Actually it didn’t. Army continued with the ingrained concept of loyalty to a person as discussed earlier and officer class thoroughly bred with Chetwode motto ‘country comes first’ never understood that army as institution was in the process of engineered degradation. On the other hand, civil authority acquired a fear psychosis from the British who witnessed a formidable army INA supported by the revolts of a Naval unit and an Army unit by joining it in Burma. The revolt was of course against the British and for SUBHASH BOSE the highest charismatic leader of freedom struggle.  Rather it was miscalculated by a very popular Prime Minister Nehru that there was no need for army in free India without taking into consideration the creation and presence of a permanent inimical neighbor. The policy encouraged the expansionist designs of another neighbor that was ruled by communist ideology and was as old in independence. We had to pay heavily for it. Further here in our governance model we had squabbles. The ignorant and illiterate Legislature rattled the guiding motto ‘civil authority is supreme’ but didn’t know which civil authority. Parliament is supreme. Legislature is supreme and Supreme Court is of course supreme. President is Supreme commander. Prime Minister is executive head; therefore, he is supreme but scared to imagine any role for army - the only Indian aspect present in our democracy. In this confusion a technically qualified and talented Executive organ of governance established itself supreme by paying backhand compliments to the Legislature and by mischievously designing the degradation of army about which both legislature and Executive had faithfully but erroneously presumed as obstacle in their governance design. The fear of army was further reinforced when it created Bangla Desh in 1971 and its exploits were frittered away by a very charismatic PM Indira Gandhi and under her stewardship only army was further degraded pay pension wise in third Pay Commission of 1973. By supremacy only aspect of paying less and less for more hazardous and vital services was hammered in each pay commission and never realizing that it was being done to their army only and not to British army. Fear did not permit them to appreciate that cruel jokes were being played on that institution that had built in subservience in the form of loyalty to a person. In this game of ignorance , a private organ ‘the press’ calling itself  the fourth independent organ but knowing full well its survival as hand maid of three organs only, keeps on fuelling intentional mischievous paid rumors to scare the  unknown self decorated ‘supreme civil authority’ to beware of  army.  The present BJP government had begun well with assuaging the feelings of army but then suddenly developed cold feet. Now army has been forced to start diluting the rank structure hoping it will achieve financial parity with civil services-a dangerous trend where a soldier starts asking for his dues. Do we want our army also become a bread manufacturing enterprise like Pakistan?  Instead, every organ of governance becoming above the desire for money, army is also being forced to become like civil organs. It is relevant to quote Chanakya here. “A soldier guarantees that a State continues to exist as a State. To this man, O rajadhiraja, you owe a debt ; please ,therefore see to it, on your own, that the soldier continuously gets his dues in every form and respect, be they his needs or wants, for he is not likely to ask for them himself”.  The political system is definitely lacking cohesion. It cannot carry its three organs together as all these pull in different directions because none of them is tested on only one qualification of being above the desire for money and rightly gets scared of army the only organ of governance where selection and training are governed by this virtue only- a must for any ruler as ordained in vedic knowledge.  It cannot be achieved by a system of adult franchise that has become a mockery for democracy. It revolves around vote politics of parties only and interests of country or welfare of voters are never a priority in this system. . And look at the travesty we rigidly follow the Vedic formula of looking after every need of just one organ called LEGISLATURE (numbering about 5000 MLA and MP) who have taken over the role of Vedic rulers ie KSHATRIYAS, considering them supreme, and spend billions on just maintaining it for five years. Besides their maintenance we spend billions in their election process.  That way in our political system we have catered for each and every need of an organ Legislature that is just .00037% of population and executive has cunningly created a facility to have as much they want over and above the salary and perks for self and Judiciary as given in VARNASHRAM SYSTEM for rulers less Army but have not bothered to ensure that they are above greed.  Rather it is other way round.  We became copiers and happened to choose a system where these 5% have just acquired the opposite qualification of possessing not the desire but the dirtiest form of avarice possible for money only The political system is such that it breeds a legislature full of greedy people who are there to satisfy their next to impossible unsatisfying avarice, percolating their desire down to the lowest in governance ladder and ultimately infecting a common man and forcing him to get involved with corruption.  They can never be the representative of a common man. “Democracy is a government of the people ,for the people and by the people”- said Abraham Lincoln, but he never meant it to be a government of .00037 % of forcibly elected leeches calling them representatives of people and who consider them supreme civil authority not answerable to anybody. And we call it democracy and we want progress!

Present Economic System: As per Vedic system knowledge should be used to generate wealth to be used by all the four purposes. The generator of wealth is Vaishya. This role in the present system is performed by the State, the corporate, the small, medium and large scale entrepreneurs and the farmer. The State performs its role one by itself becoming large scale producer and secondly by  producing wealth in publishing the currency notes based on some  principles of gold reserve and hoping it will recover it through taxes and service costs and thirdly, providing capital in various forms to corporate and entrepreneurs responsible for producing wealth for the benefit of all. Our economic system has kept on oscillating from some unknown form of Socialism where individual earnings were taxed up to 97% to again some unknown Liberalized economy where taxes have been reduced to 30%. In both the cases a special class of people came into existence that amassed and monopolized wealth by illegal means and avoiding individual taxes. In order to escape penal actions this class indulged into money laundering, creating nonproductive farms-agriculture being tax free, donating to tax exempt political parties and temples or stashing it in foreign banks. The basic concept as envisaged in VARNA system of generating wealth for governance, education and social systems is always thought of on paper to begin with but it was scuttled by this new class for the simple reason that the political system of the State was manned by those people who were not above the desire for money and gradually became the sponsors of corruption. The machinations of this neo-rich class reduced the wealth generating ventures into failed PSUS’ and rise in NPA of bigger sharks. The  State was thus forced to produce paper currency as its only mode of generating wealth leading to inflation and to curtail, it had to resort to increasing backbone breaking taxes all round and then political system playing with it by marginal cuts and increase in direct / indirect taxes to fool the population with a view to garnering votes only. GDP became a paper game. The political system had made the soldier a target earlier and here the farmer, a significant real producer of wealth became the unintentional victim and easy target for exploitation by the traders and the businessmen who were actually supposed to be wealth generators. The wealth was generated but restricted to the manipulators only. The interesting coincidence is that both soldier and farmer have honesty as their shield and neither they nor their honesty is the part of the governance. In such a hopeless situation we again looked towards the west and hoped that corporate would do some miracle. But a Corporate ceases to be a corporate if its product is not profit oriented. No corporate will ever prioritize an egalitarian goal. Today the mantra is to somehow convert every corporate effort into an industry even by stretching it to ridiculous and harmful limits. Marketing and branding have become the catch words to promote gullibility in general population and for conditioning the educated youth to serve as robotic instruments only to further the corporate interests. Even charity is an industry for it and education the most attractive business. This trend must stop. It can actually be reversed. A proper understanding of skill development and education can be profitably and usefully executed here. Since the corporate depends heavily on the technical and skilled workforce the responsibility of technical and skill development at all levels should rest on the corporate; and this too as its need for survival and not as a money spinning venture by collecting a hefty lump sum in the beginning only from a trainee. Today, a corporate easily ensnares a workforce educated and trained at state and self expenses. Liberalization and knowledge based economy are excellent principles of a progressive civilization but these should not be monopolized by a corporate thereby, breeding insensitivity and killing initiative so laboriously intended to be cultivated by education and so essential for human spirit for any activity of entrepreneurship in any field. The present government of PM Modi has taken some economic steps of far reaching consequences but reaching far is possible only when political, educational and social systems work cohesively. Political system is unproductive, education system is missing and social system is being fragmented irreparably. Further one swallow surrounded by all the vultures around doesn’t make the summer. It can only give temporary lease of life to a nearly dead system that it had been brought to by corruption and accepting it since it is an international phenomenon.    

Present social system: The social system represented by the SHUDRA VARN of knowledge known as service providers is the largest component of human population. They all provide various kinds of services and give the most needed contentment. Hence I have called them TOSHAK. But so deep rooted are our prejudices that many born in higher castes traditionally like shopkeepers, doctors, engineers or ritual service providers, will never accept to be identified as SHUDRAS. The traditional low castes cannot be addressed as such because the law forbids using caste conveying words. Mahatma Gandhi gave the new name HARIJAN, meaning the people of God. Dr Ambedkar didn’t compromise with Gandhi and his party Congress could be a spokesperson for SHUDRAS. In independent India, the evils perpetrated by religion based caste system were well recognized by tabulating scheduled castes, tribes and backward castes in the constitution. The measures took by the state were reservation, subsidy, ration, public distribution system and heavy taxation for socialistic activism and exemption on charity. In fact the state had indulged unwittingly into charity measures only that were once propagated by the religion’s karmic theory giving birth to poisonous caste system. It had to backfire and resulted into corruption, violence. Reservation policy has degenerated into law and order problem the political system prefers to shut its eyes fearing adverse consequences. Now there are two castes in Kerala and Tamilnadu who don’t want reservation and are agitating against it. The cunning partition of the country created another class called the MINORITY. It was officially accepted so by the ruling party knowing well that the so called majority Hindu was traditionally divided on various castes, sub-castes, regional and religious lines which were actually groups of hundreds of minorities not ready to accept each other as Hindu. Invaders had fruitfully made use of this division only to subjugate us. The political system chosen by us again became the culprit to put education in the backyard and devised means of appeasement of combination of this or that minority group to ultimately come to power by somehow garnering only 17 % to 30% of votes. So the vedic dictum of working with system in unison remained a lip service only or a political slogan to be exploited during election time.  

EFFORTS (PURUSHARTHपुरुषार्थ) LEAD TO ACHIEVMENT

It further destroys the Karmic dispensation of making a person helpless in front of gods and goddesses created by him only and gives him the confidence that education alone can make him an expert in any of the four fields of knowledge, and there is nothing like “destined”- decided by the deeds of never to be known previous births- a cankerous social evil. Excellence is achieved by a BRAHMAN and a KSHATRIYA when they are above the desire for money and VAISHYAS and SHUDRAS achieve excellence when they are fired by the desire for money and it is inbuilt.  The first two being limited in numbers naturally and as per requirement cannot keep on multiplying as a progeny. Their offspring cannot automatically become Brahmans and Kshatriya by accident of birth. The concept of desire was further studied and it was found out that it was scientifically impossible to produce a Brahman or Kshatriya by the process of genetic mutation because they have to acquire and maintain the ability of not becoming a victim to the desire for money by PURUSHARTH (पुरुषार्थ) only through a well designed technique of YOG. The west accepts and condones by making laws for same sex marriage, adultery, live in relationship because the modern science gives the inbuilt DNA as the driving force beyond human control for such actions. We, as usual, are trying to copy it. The Vedic science also accepts the presence of the desires as inbuilt part of mind and explains it under MANOVRITTI (मनोवृत्ति). These are just weapons and recommends it as one of the aims of education to develop the will to choose from the hundreds of desires acquired through evolution for a well thought objective. Vedic knowledge considers it a natural process of formation, selection, rejection and acquisition when passing through stages of sequential existence.  It goes a step further where desirelessness not only can be but has to be cultivated for smooth running of the society. For Vedic law givers human beings cannot be equated with animals that too have been equipped with DNA for survival only. They believed even animals could be trained to discard or acquire new DNA traits. Therefore, they found out the additional equipment CHITT VRITTI (चित्तवृत्ति) in human beings and designed a complete system of YOG and concluded that efforts only can nullify desires (पुरुषार्थ शून्यानाम गुणानाम). (For details my effort YOG-THE ULTIMATE OF ALL ULTIMATES)

ASHRAM SYSTEM- PRESERVATION AND PROGRESS TECHNIQUES OF KNOWLEDGE

Since knowledge can be used in four possible ways only, a system has to be designed whereby the maximum advantage accrues to the human beings. The system is given by the concept of ASHRAM (आश्रम) given in YAJURVED and it ensures preservation and progress of knowledge in a very scientific and natural way. It has been designed on the concept that education is a lifelong process. ASHRAM system gives the guidelines for living a life of hundred years (जीवेम शरद: शतम्) through four periods of life of 25 years each named as follows:

a)     BRAHMCHARYA ASHRAM - ब्रह्मचर्य आश्रम

b)    GRIHASTH ASHRAM -  गृहस्थ आश्रम

c)     VANPRASTH ASHRAM - वानप्रस्थ आश्रम

d)    SANYAS ASHRAM - सन्यास आश्रम

AIMS OF ASHRAMS

Aim of this system is twofold:

a)     To fulfill the duties explained in each ashram

b)    Everybody striving to become a teacher - BRAHMAN (ब्राह्मण) ultimately in SANYAS ASHRAM.

Vedic knowledge does not recommend for human beings a life that gets into the rut of primitive postures of demanding rights. They concluded and rightly in the process of social evolution that any right has a corresponding duty of someone to grant it. It is generally a functionary of state or society who is at liberty to deny it. So right becomes a sweet sounding toy only for which one may get into conflict and violence and glorify it. On the other hand Duty is a self chosen discipline inculcated by education. If all fulfill their duties there will not be any need of anyone to demand rights. The rights will just evaporate and it will become an unknown concept to be laughed at. For this the duties of all must be well defined and that is what has been done in VARNASHRAM system of Vedas. There are duties of a teacher, of a soldier, of a ruler, of a wealth creator and of a service provider- means covering all the people in all the VARNAS. Besides, it is the duty of all involved in all the four ASHRAMS to ensure that life is facilitated to be lived that way. And education is the only tool with a very comprehensive role to achieve it and remind everyone at each stage of existence.

DUTIES IN BRAHMCHARYA ASHRAM - ब्रह्मचर्य आश्रम

In BRAHMCHARYA ASHRAM a child grows up with a sense of duty to acquire knowledge, to give respect to all animate and inanimate facilitators. Next   it is the duty of the state and society to provide everything that is needed for education that will help him to decide for himself the VARNA of his choice.    

The parents come first where we are a confused lot. We know ideal aphorisms through our culture but don’t want to know how these got corrupted through history. A stage has come where we want to get rid of parenting. We rattle out मातृ देवो भव, पितृ देवो भव, but forget mother, father are gods because they are the first teachers and therefore, गुरु देवो भव and we owe a debt to them from which we can never be absolved. It is the duty of parents and teachers to shape the offspring for his / her duties. Such a mind does not involve in violence as is the general trend today in the name of freedom without understanding freedom. It is the duty of a teacher to encourage asking questions and diversify the horizons and satisfy his students. In turn it actually becomes more the duty of a student to satisfy himself about his achievement as he has to face the world tomorrow. He is the best judge of himself. That is the only way of developing initiative that helps him to face the challenges of change. It is not the duty of a teacher that has unfortunately come to be, to feed all students with one particular answer and then judge them for this limited feed and certify them. It amounts to actually producing copy cats and encourage certificate selling shops. It is most unscientific and primitive way and mistakenly taken to be the passport to employment and success. The employing agencies don’t trust certification and still have their own systems.  Then why have certification that is responsible for cheating, leaking of question papers,  untrustworthy evaluation and all kinds of corruption and malpractices employed by teachers, parents, students and unsocial elements.

In this Ashram teachers’ certification should be a specialized task of identification and training of those 5% who don’t have desire for money as they have to be absorbed for the duties of a Brahman and Kshatriya. Presently there is no system of judging and training except in case of defence officers where some semblance of this character trait is judged and he is trained for; but tragedy is that he is not part of governance. His role has been reduced to “Tommy shoo and Tommy come back”. Though we had the GURU MANTRA of an ideal weapon BRAHMASTRA (ब्रह्मास्त्र) in our indigenous armory of finding out only a negligible population for ideal running of the affairs of state and society yet we frittered it away and could not even notice its presence. And we expect PROGRESS?

DUTIES IN GRIHASTH ASHRAM - गृहस्थ आश्रम

After completing his education a student is entering a status of married life where he is going to apply his knowledge in any of the four possible roles prescribed by VARNAS. Besides the duties prescribed for the VARNA of his choice  the range  includes added duties of a  father / a mother, a brother / a sister, a son / a daughter, a relative, a guest,  a citizen, an employer / employee, master / servant, a businessman, an entrepreneur and a learner who has to keep record of his experiences. The aim is to thoroughly utilize and keep on testing his desire level for money as a duty if he is from the VARNAS of VAISHYA or SHUDRA. It also means through deduction that if a person doing the duties of a teacher or a ruler / soldier VARNAS  and  recording his experiences feels somebody has come very near his level of desire for money and can succumb, he should immediately quit. A BRAHMAN and KSHATRIYA are supposed to be above the desire for money. Just apply this on our present set up and we expect PROGRESS?

DUTIES IN VANPRASTH ASHRAM - वानप्रस्थ आश्रम

This period marks the beginning of time when the offspring of a person are coming of age after finishing the duties of BRAHMCHARYA ASHRAM. The probability of their choosing the VARNA of their father ie VAISHYA or SHUDRA is very high being 95% of population. The duty of the person coming to this ASHRAM is now to pass on the knowledge gained through experience to his offspring only as a family secret so that time is saved. Besides the acquisition and progress of knowledge this provision is for another reason also. A person who has so fondly followed his passion of desire for money for the last 40 odd years gets further satiated by this action. What about Brahman and KSHATRIYA children? Since Kshatriya and Brahman had already been performing the duties that required them to be above the greed of money, and a little probability of children becoming desirous of their fathers’ Varna (unlike today), they can always jump to Sanyas Ashram if need of the society so demands at this age.    

DUTIES IN SANYAS ASHRAM - सन्यास आश्रम

 Now a person is 75years of age. He has seen lot of turbulence and ups and downs of life. He has now developed an opinion about his selfish pursuit of desire for money and its consequences. It is his duty now to pass on the knowledge gained to the entire society. In today’s parlance he becomes a visiting professor and his depleted needs become the responsibility of the society. He is now performing the duties of BRAHMAN VARN and knowledge keeps on adding and progressing through life long experiments. The shortage of teachers, a general lament these days is immediately finished if this resource is utilized properly. And all of them are qualified to impart at least basic knowledge of literacy besides their specialization. I must add from my experience at this age of 82 that they all really want to talk as they are starved of it. And this is the real meaning of VIDYA DAN (विद्दा दान) ie giving knowledge and not “giving for knowledge” as charity. This will solve many other social problems for which we are again looking west for social security schemes and the children looking for outsourcing funeral. Let old people become an asset, live an honorable life as a part of a greater family. The concept of a person becoming a SANYASI in BRAHMCHARYA ASHRAM only is not a Vedic thought. It was started by manmade religions in medieval BHARAT as a reaction to Vedic authority of SPIRITUALISM of classical BHARAT and gross misinterpretation of the term BRAHMCHARYA (ब्रह्मचर्य). The result is we have all kinds of BABAS and SADHVIS today disbursing knowledge called GYAN (ज्ञान) for a price in the name of charity and they are flourishing because our political system wants to garner votes and doesn’t mind them. And we want PROGRESS?

FRAMING AN EDUCATION POLICY, THERE IS STILL HOPE

There are only two possible approaches.

First let the things continue as it has been happening for the last nine hundred years knowing very well that it is under a copied and corrupted political system only the rest of our systems have collapsed. “Let anyone be the king, I am not going to become queen; I shall remain a maid only”. (कोऊ नृप हो हमें का हानि, चेरी छोड़ ना होऊं रानी) and consider it our destiny as ordained by misunderstanding religion  and wait for an incarnation to come as promised  in Geeta “यदा यदा ही धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत:...”.

Secondly, let the world again know from Bharat that there are better systems available for human existence than a right oriented lame democracy, an exploitation based economy, a suffocating, restricted and chained education and a destruction based society. Let the world get motivated when it sees that we are actually practicing it. So “Arjun Get Up. Doing your duty is in your hands only” (अर्जुन उत्तिष्ठ: कर्मण्येवधिकारस्ते). Let this only be the ‘voice of people voice of God’.(जनता जनार्दन की हुंकार “vox populi vox dei” , आवाज़े खलक़ नक्काराए ख़ुदा),

Yes, there is still hope and my hope is based on the views expressed by the children, youth and old alike of all stratas of society. They all feel:

1)     We have become copiers and we have lost our heritage of teaching the entire world the vastness of knowledge. We are now being used only at national and international levels.

2)     Our political system with three organs is the culprit. It is unrealistic, incapable of looking after not only education but rest of the systems in this form.

3)     It is a criminal waste to spend billions on electing and maintaining .00037 % of population for incompetent persons turning into legislators through muscle, money and drug as our representative. This rotten organ must be overhauled.   

4)     We must understand that knowledge can be used for four functions only ie   Educational, Political, Financial and Social.  These systems must work in cohesion if all round progress is the aim.

5)     Choosing any one out of these four systems for progress is selfish, ridiculous, and unscientific and is responsible for maximum bloodbath in human society.

6)     We should not, therefore, single out Education only as our priority. Such an effort will lead to education becoming a breeding ground for immorality.

7)     Armed Forces must be part of a Political system with utmost respect for it. Otherwise both will soon crumble.

8)     A Teacher (शिक्षक) representing Education System and a Ruler Protector (रक्षक) representing Political System must be above the desire for money.

9)     We can always design a method of identifying 5% of population which is above the desire for money, to perform the duties of SHIKSHAK and RAKSHAK.

10)A Wealth Creator (पोषक) representing Economic System and a Service Provider (तोषक) representing Social System must gradually come out of the desire for money as suggested in ASHRAM system and must fulfill the role of a teacher in SANYAS ASHRAM.

11)We must become duty oriented society and get out of the primitive mentality of demanding rights.

12)It is the duty of the state and society to provide facilities for completely free education for all and infra structure for education in villages, towns and cities; location calculated on the basis of population. We should have smart villages too in this respect.

13)Reservation and its continuation must be abolished.

14)Schools should devise their syllabus so that students can diversify after 8,10 and 12 years of schooling to skill providing, technical and higher education hubs which also have 1 to 5years of syllabus with competent staff  to function as mentors to be readily available  

15)The location and number of hubs is again to be calculated for number of schools, proximity and requirement basis.

16)Since the skilled and technical workforce will be absorbed by the corporate , it should bear the expenses of these hubs in consultation with state governments fixing the amount according to work force employed / required 

17)Games, sports and co-curricular activities should be the part of schools and hubs at each level.

18)It is the duty of parents to ensure that their children are encouraged to attend schools

19)It is the duty of teachers to provide friendly and congenial environment to the children and develop the ability of self judging of understanding in the children by the time they finish 5/6 years of school education.

20)It is the duty of a student to avail the facilities available in hubs

21)It is the duty of the students to equip themselves with the armor of education and decide for them whether they have done so or not.

22)Evaluation, examination competition among children must vanish from education system. As it is no employer trusts the certification today and employs its own technique to judge and employ.

23)Defence forces already have their exhaustive techniques to judge the qualities and one being above the desire for money and their network of training academies to develop further. It must extend to legislature, executive and judiciary organs so that nobody with desire for money enters these services responsible for governance

24)It is the duty of everyone to ensure that Education does not become a business activity

25)It is the duty of everyone to ensure that Education doesn’t drift into a charity activity.

26)Remedial measures including preventive and punitive must be taken. A policy must undo the damages done by the invaders and our systems

27)The principle of the supremacy of the civil authority must be upheld. But it is nonsensical to remain under imaginary fright created by the British, of our own defence forces and give them step motherly treatment and then legislature and executive organs have the temerity to even fighting and appealing against them in courts.  

28)There should be a penal law for identifying anyone by any VARNA castes as is applicable for SC/ST/OBC now. We should be identified by the duty of our using knowledge as SHIKSHAK (शिक्षक), RAKSHAK (रक्षक), POSHAK (पोषक) and TOSHAK(तोषक). The classical period interpretation of VARNA equivalents degenerated and understood as castes can be dispensed with as these have done maximum harm due to misunderstanding. 

29)No system should encourage blind faith and superstitions, must be   replaced with scientific outlook?

30)There are individual institutions being run by conscientious people with some missionary zeal on above lines like shunning business, charity, superstitions, rituals etc. these can be great help in advice and execution

31)There is an institution that I visited GPP School at Palwal, Haryana run on business lines by a retired Air Force officer Sqn Ldr Y Singh with a challenging claim of efficiency of running it at half the cost of government institutions and it is a highly sought after school due to its excellence in providing present day education. Services and advice of such officers can go a long way in routing corruption from the state schools and ultimately running them economically and efficiently

                                             Annexure-1

भारत में स्वतंत्रता के बाद बनी शिक्षा समितियां और आयोग

1.     डॉ. एस. राधाकृष्णनन् आयोग – साल 1948-49 – विश्वविद्यालय अनुदान आयोग (यूजीसी) की स्थापना।

2.      मुदालियर शिक्षा आयोग  – साल 1952-53 – इसे माध्यमिक शिक्षा आयोग भी कहा जाता है

3.     डॉ. डीएस कोठारी आयोग – साल 1964  – इसमें सामाजिक उत्तरदायित्व व नैतिक शिक्षा पर ध्यान दिया गया

4.     राष्ट्रीय शिक्षा नीति मई 1986 संसद द्वारा पारित जिस पर पुनर्विचार – 1992 – एक सजग व मानवतावादी समाज के लिए शिक्षा का इस्तेमाल। इसे आचार्य राममूर्ति समिति भी कहा जाता है

5.     एम. बी. बुच समिति – साल 1989 – दूरस्थ शिक्षा माध्यम पर बनी पहली शिक्षा समिति।

6.     जी.राम रेड्डी समिति – साल 1992 – दूरस्थ शिक्षा पर केन्द्रीय परामर्श समिति

7.     प्रोफ़ेसर यशपाल समिति – 1992 – बोझमुक्त शिक्षा की संकल्पना

8.     रामलाल पारेख समिति – 1993 – बीएड पत्राचार समिति

9.     प्रो. खेरमा लिंगदोह समिति – 1994 – पत्राचार बीएड अवधि 14 माह तय की गई

10. प्रो. आर टकवाले समिति – साल 1995 – सेवारत अध्यापकों हेतु पत्राचार से बीएड

11. राष्ट्रीय ज्ञान आयोग – 2005 – ज्ञान आधारित समाज की संकल्पना व प्राथमिक स्तर से अंग्रेजी माध्यम में शिक्षा को अनिवार्य करने की सिफारिश की गई

12. राष्ट्रीय पाठ्यचर्या की रूपरेखा एनसीएफ-2005

13. जस्टिस जे एस वर्मा समिति – साल 2012 – शिक्षकों की क्षमता की समय-समय पर जाँच

14. राष्ट्रीय शिक्षा नीति – 2017 – राष्ट्रीय शिक्षा नीति, 2017 का मसौदा तैयार करने के लिए प्रख्यात अंतरिक्ष वैज्ञानिक एवं पद्मविभूषण डॉ. के. कस्तूरीरंगन की अध्यक्षता में 9 सदस्यीय समिति का गठन किया गया है। इसकी रिपोर्ट जून, 2018 तक आने की उम्मीद जताई जा रही है

Contact details:  Lt Col Ranvir Singh

WhatsApp Mob-7579497609

Mob- 919319635728, Landline 01126911596

Email - ranvir.singh.gulia@gmail.com