A way out By Pawan Kumar Gupta
A way out By Pawan Kumar Gupta
A way out By Pawan Kumar Gupta
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Volume I, Issue II<br />
LEAD LEAD ARTICLE<br />
ARTICLE<br />
Ailaan<br />
Ailaan<br />
NCRI Newsletter<br />
Questioning modern education: A <strong>way</strong> <strong>out</strong><br />
<strong>By</strong> <strong>Pawan</strong> <strong>Kumar</strong> <strong>Gupta</strong><br />
Violence at the individual level has al<strong>way</strong>s been there but violence perpetuated by the systems has<br />
surpassed all proportions in the last few centuries. The power of the modern systems rests with its<br />
remoteness and faceless nature. This is both frustrating for those few who try to understand and<br />
struggle to find a <strong>way</strong> <strong>out</strong> and mesmerising for the remaining. The irony is that the victim or the<br />
exploited has unknowingly become an accomplice in this game; and those who see the game, are<br />
often too self conscious to openly criticize it, unlike the Mahatma, as they find themselves<br />
enslaved by its trappings, in one <strong>way</strong> or the other. On the whole the modern systems encourage the<br />
violent and competitive tendencies existing in individuals.<br />
Human beings have invented categories, just like they have invented instruments and systems for<br />
convenience to achieve a certain specific purpose. But reality is not a construct. It is a given. To<br />
understand the reality, as it exists, we human beings need education and to facilitate the process,<br />
we invent categories and subjects. Categories and subjects are only a means to achieve a certain<br />
objective – to understand reality and then according to this understanding of reality, to establish<br />
meaningful relationships with various components in existence – the material world, the pranic<br />
world, the kingdom of birds and animals and the human beings.<br />
Reality exists. It IS. We can only try to understand and experience it, we can not create it. We use<br />
different means – subjects, categories, instruments – for this purpose. But we have an option. We<br />
can experience reality the <strong>way</strong> it IS or we can perceive reality as different from the <strong>way</strong> it IS.<br />
We have the freedom either to assume reality or to understand and experience it – the <strong>way</strong> it IS.<br />
Words and meanings are distinct. Words are only indicative of the meaning – the reality. The<br />
priority is of the meaning, which is beyond language. Meaning is the objective, words are only a<br />
means. Meanings exist whether we understand or not, while words are a construct to depict the<br />
meaning. Words are restricted in language, while meanings are beyond language. Meaning has a<br />
higher value than words. But modern education perpetuates the myth that words are meanings and<br />
are the same; that they are synonymous. If the distinction is not clear we get trapped by words (and<br />
the meaning that gets imposed on these words as different from the real). In that case under false<br />
assumption, we under-evaluate meaning and over-evaluate the word.<br />
Modernity is adept at creating similar confusion between reality and construct, between the<br />
objective and the means, between the real and the apparent.<br />
“No man is above the law and no man is below it.”<br />
~ Theodore Roosevelt<br />
Continued……<br />
NCRI 27 February 2010
Volume I, Issue II<br />
Ailaan<br />
Ailaan<br />
NCRI Newsletter<br />
So modern categories have assumed or imposed meanings as different from the reality. Instead of<br />
using categories for our purpose we start getting used by the categories. This gives modernity the<br />
power over our minds, over our aspirations, desires and thus over our actions.<br />
The paradigm of Values is different from the paradigm of Price. Values are based on reality and<br />
are intrinsic, are nirapeksha, while the other is an imposition, based on comparison – sapeksha.<br />
Values are fixed, definitive and intrinsic and beyond time and space – they do not depend on the<br />
individual or societal preferences. For instance, the Value of clothing is its ability to provide<br />
protection to the body whether we prefer a particular kind of clothes or not. Price depends on<br />
external factors and is impacted among others, by both time and space. Modern education creates<br />
confusion between these two paradigms by equating the two thus over-evaluating the paradigm of<br />
price and under-evaluating the paradigm of value. Thus:<br />
∗ Words get equated with or even supersedes the meaning;<br />
∗ Understanding the other gets confused with Agreeing with the other;<br />
∗ Training gets equated and confused with Education;<br />
∗ Information with Knowledge;<br />
∗ Empirical knowledge/ traditional knowledge become Superstition;<br />
∗ Subjects and Categories take precedence over Objective/ Knowledge and Experience;<br />
∗ Means get confused with objective;<br />
∗ No distinction is made between Believing or Assuming with<strong>out</strong> knowing and Knowing;<br />
∗ Perceiving gets equated with knowing;<br />
∗ Provisional with the Definitive;<br />
∗ Appearance (lagna) or Doing (karma) with Being (hona);<br />
∗ Arrogance with Self esteem;<br />
∗ Confidence based on comparison (sapeksha atma vishwas) with nirapeksha atma vishwas<br />
∗ Freedom (man marzi) with swatantrata (self organized);<br />
∗ Reasoning and Logic with Experiencing and Understanding;<br />
∗ Philosophy (a category) with Darshan (which is beyond category);<br />
∗ Different with Opposite;<br />
LEAD LEAD ARTICLE<br />
ARTICLE<br />
∗ “Development” with Real progress/ contentment;<br />
This is how modern myth is created – at one level it falsely equates higher value with a lower one<br />
by imposing the transient or provisional over the definitive and at other level it creates false<br />
categories and creates artificial oppositions. This starts in school when we teach “opposites”.<br />
Black vs white; Day vs Night but it does not stop there.<br />
“Authority with<strong>out</strong> wisdom is like a heavy axe with<strong>out</strong> an edge.”<br />
~ Ann Bradstreet<br />
Continued…<br />
NCRI 28 February 2010
Volume I, Issue II<br />
Ailaan<br />
Ailaan<br />
NCRI Newsletter<br />
It goes on.. Man vs woman. Boy vs Girl, East vs West and later on gets translated into Hindu vs<br />
Muslim, Developed vs undeveloped etc. etc.. Adjectives are another big problem if do not teach<br />
them with the awareness that they are relative, that they are subjective.<br />
The over emphasis of modern science - which has cast its influence on all disciplines of learning -<br />
on reasoning and has conditioned the mind to be only satisfied with an apparently reasonable<br />
sounding answer to the ‘why’ is another obstacle to seeing reality in its totality. Observation and<br />
experiencing a phenomena in its totality is not appreciated while a partial answer to ‘why’ satisfies<br />
people trained in modern education. We are conditioned to think we know when actually we are<br />
only believing. The over emphasis on ‘Why’ and ‘How’ has underplayed the importance of What.<br />
In the Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas (SIDH) we have tried to challenge some<br />
of these categories and assumptions of modern education. The emphasis is on ‘how to think’ rather<br />
than ‘what to think’. Rather than teaching what the Mahatma said we try to understand why he<br />
may have said what he said:<br />
why he never ever used the word ‘development’ in his writings or speeches with<strong>out</strong> first<br />
qualifying it; we try and understand the assumptions behind the word “development”;<br />
what is the relationship between non-violence and courage to be, to be able to say no; to not be<br />
restricted by categories even of the man made law, if need be;<br />
what is the difference between opposing and non cooperation/ ignoring;<br />
what is the difference between sameness and equality;<br />
what is value;<br />
what is the difference between angreziat and angrezi;<br />
the difference between respect or trust and its demonstration;<br />
what are systems and how they (unknowingly) mould our thinking and actions;<br />
what are categories and how they may (unknowingly) influence us;<br />
what is the difference between getting influenced and getting inspired;<br />
how we can teach with<strong>out</strong> textbooks by using the local – environmental and cultural – context;<br />
and lastly we try to refrain from using “should” in our schools.<br />
We feel it is extremely important today to challenge the myths and categories created by<br />
modernity through education. This is the only <strong>way</strong> <strong>out</strong> and to pave the path towards real freedom.<br />
Our experience is that it is possible to teach these things even to children. Once we are able to do<br />
this “Hind Swaraj” becomes easy to understand.<br />
LEAD LEAD ARTICLE<br />
ARTICLE<br />
<strong>Pawan</strong> <strong>Kumar</strong> <strong>Gupta</strong>, Director, Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas, Mussoorie.<br />
“With<strong>out</strong> feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish man from beasts?”<br />
~ Confucius<br />
NCRI 29 February 2010