GUJARAT GOVERNMENT VIOLATES THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN
-Fr.
Cedric Prakash sj*
The Gujarat Government has done it
again! That it does so, is on expected lines; but that it is doing so, by
throwing all caution and Constitutional propriety to the wind, should be a
cause of great concern to every citizen who values the principles of democracy
and pluralism, which are the heart and soul of India. The topic in question is
the approval and introduction of nine books (eight of which are written and
edited by Dina Nath Batra) in more than 42000 Government-run primary and
secondary schools all over Gujarat.
In a circular dated June 30th,
2014, the Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) states, “These books on supplementary literature are
aimed at imparting quality education. They will be provided free of cost to all
government primary and secondary schools, public libraries and will be also
available at GSSTB, Gandhinagar, for individuals interested in these
books. These are to be incorporated from
this academic session.”
Dina Nath Batra has earned his “fame” as
the founder of the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti and who thinks that he and his
organization will “save” the Hindu religion and culture. Sometime ago, he
succeeded in getting ‘Penguin’ to pulp the famed historian Wendy Doniger’s book
on ‘The Hindus: An alternative History’
and later because of his threats, ‘Orient Black Swan’ undertook ‘a
comprehensive assessment’ of Megha Kumar’s book, ‘Communalism and Sexual Violence: Ahmedabad since 1969’.
Batra, at 85 years - has become the
rallying point for the right-wing forces in the country; today they leave no
stone unturned to seize every opportunity they get to mainstream the Hindutva
ideology; manipulating the educational system is an easy first step for them.
It is interesting to note that these
books were officially published (in Gujarati) in January 2014 with laudatory
messages from the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi (today the Prime
Minister of India) and also from the Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh
Chudasama and his ministerial colleagues Prof. Vasuben Trivedi and Mr. Nanubhai
Vanani. After a formal launching in March 2014, they were kept in cold storage
till after the General Elections and very surreptiously introduced in the
schools only early in July 2014!
The set of nine books are ‘Shikshan nu Bhartiyakaran’
(Indianisation of Education), ‘Tejomay
Bharat’ (Shining India), ‘Prernadeep’
1, 2, 3 and 4 (Inspirational Light), ‘Vidyalaya:
Pravrutiyon nu Ghar’ (School: House of Activities), ‘Shikshan ma Triveni’ (Trinitarian Education) and ‘Vedic Ganit’ (Vedic Maths). The titles
in themselves are seemingly innocuous but a careful analysis of these books indicate
that their contents are capable (according to a well-known intellectual) of taking
India “back into the dark ages”. The
books are replete with myths and falsehoods, with superstitions and prejudices,
with gross distortions and manipulations - propagating an ideology which is
fascist and totally against the grain of all that Indian culture represents:
inclusiveness, pluralism and the rights of all.
The books are clearly violative of
Articles 28 and 29 of the ‘UN Convention
of the Rights of the Child’ since their contents are not only sub-standard
but are also not a source of qualitative, accurate and objective knowledge to a
growing child. Unfortunately, the children who are targeted by these books are
those who go to Government schools (and most of them are surely from the poor
and marginalized sections of society); the major objective of those who
propagate such pervert knowledge seems to keep these sections of society ‘in
the dark ages’.
The contents of these books will surely
shock any right-thinking citizen!
‘Racism’ seems to be high on the agenda. An anecdote entitled ‘Courageous Gurudevsinh’ in Prernadeep – 2 (pg. 3) reads thus “An aeroplane was flying at a height of
thousands of feet. A strong and well-built Negro reached the back door of the
plane and attempted to open it. The air hostess stopped him. The strong Negro
knocked down the delicate-bodied air hostess.
“Beware, if any one dares to move forward towards me”. An Indian jawan (soldier) came forward and
hit him such a sweeping blow that the Negro’s firm feet were shaken. The Negro
tried all kinds of boxing stunts but the grip of the Indian youth was so firm
that the Negro could not free himself.
In the meanwhile, the pilot also joined the jawan and both of them gave
him a good thrashing and tied him up with a rope. The murderous terrorist
struggled like a tied up buffalo. The plane landed at Chicago. All the
passengers alighted safely and expressed their gratitude to the Indian jawan. The
Negro turned out to be notorious criminal in the Chicago police records. The
one who had the Negro arrested was an Air-India employee Gurudevsinh.”
In Prernadeep – 3 (pg. 8) there
is an obnoxious passage citing our former President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan “Once Dr Radhakrishnan went for a dinner. There was a Briton at the event who
said, “We are very dear to God.” Radhakrishnan laughed and told the gathering,
“Friends, one day God felt like making rotis. When he was cooking the rotis, the
first one was cooked less and the English were born. The second one stayed longer on the
fire and the Negroes were born. Alert after His first two mistakes,
when God went on to cook the third roti, it came out just right and as a result
Indians were born!””
There are several stories /
examples that advocate shunning of anything that is ‘western’; so an Indian according to Batra’s philosophy should not
blow candles on one’s birthday but instead feed cows and listen to songs
produced by Vidya Bharati (the RSS mouthpiece); he cites the example of Swami
Vivekanand who apparently told an Englishwoman that he wore foreign shoes
because that was where foreigners were meant to be – on his feet! While trying to propagate a disdain for anything ‘western’,
Batra’s fantasies include that the motor car was invented first by the Indians
during the Vedic period; research on stem cell began in India thousands of
years ago, because in the Mahabharata, it is said that a holy man was able to
convert a mass of flesh into hundred babies or Kauravas; that India has been
using television, centuries before the rest of the world invented it because
again in the Mahabharata it is written that Sanjaya sitting in the Hastinapur
palace would give a live telecast of the Mahabharata battle to Dhristarashtra (who
was blind) by using his ‘divya shakti’ (divine powers).
In keeping with the general trend
of these books, it is natural that the English
language should come under attack. Sanskrit shlokas are freely used
throughout. He takes a categorical stand
against the domination of the English language which he feels has sidelined the
learning of Sanskrit. When the children
do not know Sanskrit, he believes they will not be able to imbibe the pure ‘Indian
culture’ and the vast knowledge that comes from the great epics. Added to Batra’s philosophy is the manner in
which the Gujarat Government is also trying to promote Vedic Maths among the
students.
The books are very communal in nature. Muslims and
Christians are sometimes blatantly and other times subtly denigrated. Prernadeep
– 2 narrates how Swami Vivekanand systematically exposed the selfishness and
evil deeds of Christian missionaries (pg. 45).
Tejomay Bharat emphatically states “it
is better to die for one’s religion; a foreign religion is a source of sorrow”
(pg. 118). The caste system gets
legitimized in several ways; though the British are to be blamed for giving the
lowly name ‘Shudra’.
The books also suggest the
redrawing of geographical boundaries. Batra suggests that the students should now
think of ‘Akhand Bharat’. In Tejomay
Bharat, he says “Students, how would you
go about drawing a map of India? Do you
know that countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma are part of undivided India? These countries are part of Akhand Bharat.” (pg.49). In another chapter, the students are told that
“a divided India is a lie, whereas
undivided India is the truth; the division of India is unnatural and India can
easily be united again.”
Inspite of his unabashed attack
on “western” culture, language, inventions, people and even on what he calls “non-Indian”
religions, Batra seems to ignore the fact that all his books are being printed
in printing presses invented by the West.
He does not call for a ban on the railways or on industries, he does not
speak against cricket or tennis or for that matter against the computers,
mobile phones and thousands of other things which India has happily adopted
from the West. While PM Modi has blessed Batra and his books, it would be
interesting now to see what is Batra’s take on Modi’s invitation to the rest of
world “to come and make in India” from
the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day. Very significantly, ‘Manogat’ (August 2014), the
BJP mouth-piece, openly endorses Batra’s books and its contents; highlighting
their two-pronged strategy, ‘to
simultaneously run with the hare and hunt with the hound’.
Much of the content of Batra’s
books are laughable and could even pass off as third-rate joke books; but the
attacks both direct and subtle on several sections of society are certainly no
laughing matter. Given the fact that they target formative minds should be
serious enough for civil society to voice their protests strongly on this
matter. Mitali Saran in a very telling
article entitled ‘Back to School’ (Business Standard, Ahmedabad August 2/3,
2014) sums it up “A poor education
teaches children disdain, excessive pride, exclusionary or majoritarian
thinking, outright fiction in place of facts, and an inability to tolerate
dissent or to think for themselves.”
Can we continue to remain silent
when, the Gujarat Government violates the ‘Rights of a Child’ – in such a
blatant manner?
21st
August, 2014
(*
Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is the Director of PRASHANT, the Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights,
Justice and Peace)
Address: PRASHANT, Hill Nagar, Near Kamdhenu Hall,
Phone:
(079) 27455913, 66522333 Fax: (079) 27489018 Email: sjprashant@gmail.com www.humanrightsindia.in
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