Chaman Lal

Madan Lal Dhingra was the first Indian patriot to be executed in London hundred years ago. No one seems to be concerned to remember him. Except Hindu, no media even put three lines on him. Electronic media is not interested in focussing on patriots. Who shall think of these martyrs? Rajya Sabha M.P.Moinul Hasan raised issue in the house.17th August  and there is complete silence all around.

Madan Lal Dhingra is perhaps first Indian freedom fighter, who was executed in London on 17th August 1909. But it is strange that no one in public or Govt. has paid any attention to commemorate the event. Brief life sketch of Madan Lal Dhingra is being given here to draw attention towards his martyrdom, a century ago, for the freedom of the country.

Madan Lal Dhingra was born on 18th February 1883 in Amritsar in a very rich family. His father Dr. Ditta Mal retired as Govt. Civil surgeon and had twenty one houses in katra Sher Singh and six bunglaws on G.T.Road.Dr. Ditta Mal had shifted from his village Sahiwal in Sargodha district, now in Pakistan in 1850 and he held 10 bigha land and a haveli in his ancestral village. He was Rai Saheb title holder from British Govt., he had six buggies and his car ran on Amritsar roads, the first Indian to have this privilege in the city. He had seven sons and one daughter. Three of his sons were trained medical doctors and three were Barristers-Bar at Law. One of his brother Dr. Bihari lal Dhingra was notorious as Prime Minister of Jind state for his cruelties on people. It was in such family that a rebellious son was born, who did physical labour while doing his Bsc from Lahore, where he got influenced by Pagdi sambhal Jatta movement of Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh, uncle of Bhagat Singh. Later he went to England for higher studies on a ship, reaching London in two months from Bombay. He took admission in engineering course and became involved in Indian freedom struggle. He was influenced by Shyam ji Krishan Verma and Veer Savarkar. While Veer Savarkar, who came to England on a scholarship established by Shyam ji Krishan Verma, also reached in 1906, same year Dhingra reached. Both were of same age group, but Savarkar was inclined to Hindutva ideology. Shyamji Krishan Verma was more liberal and rational in his views, but he had to leave for Paris as British Govt. was harassing him a lot. Madan Lal Dhingra was now under the spell of Savarkar and it was he, who inspired him to shoot Curzon Wyle, who was notorious for using Indians to serve as informers for Britishers in England. Pistol for this purpose was also provided by Savarkar to Dhingra, who shot Wyle dead in June end 1909 and after one and a half month trial, he was executed on 17th August 1909 at the age of 26years plus.

Bhagat Singh wrote about Madan Lal Dhingra in his sketches about revolutionary freedom fighters.It is the duty of the nation at both Govt. and peoples level to commemorate the event in befitting manner. National Programme implementation committee to implement Govt. policies on national anniversaries should come out with detailed plans in this regard, while people’s organizations should chalk out their own commemorative programmes in this regard. Dhingra was perhaps first Indian freedom fighter to be executed on British soil,31 years later Udham Singh followed the same path an was executed on 31st July 1940 under almost similar circumstances.

[The writer is Professor , Centre of Indian Languages, JNU, New Delhi-110067-09868774820]

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Education as commerce

Professor Manjit Singh

THE present system of higher education, like many other institutions, has inherited its legacy from the pre-independence days. This system worked well during the early days for two reasons: commitment of the teachers who took their profession as mission and proper functioning of the systemic auditing in-built into the institutions of learning. Moreover the purpose of higher education was also limited by the nature of challenges posed by the given level of development at the global level.

Since independence not only the science and technology have made major strides, there is a total transformation within our social fabric, thanks to the high tide of consumerism and commoditisation of life. The original institutional framework of higher education is now becoming a fetter in the growth of knowledge and its social relevance. Nowhere the tension of this crisis is being felt more strongly than in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and thus the constitution of the National Knowledge Commission with the blessing of the Prime of India.

Part of the crisis in higher education is due to the commercialisation of education and linking it with the job market. Consequently, subjects relating to culture, literature, art and aesthetics, the real space to train emotions, are becoming unpopular and are the last choice of the parents and their wards. The most brilliant students opt for technical and professional education; some of them also look for their career in the Indian Administrative/ Civil Services. When education, like any other ‘business’ is reduced to economic means it is fraught with the dangers of producing lopsided society what Herbert Marcuse called ‘one dimensional man’. Economics sans social ethics is a sure route to generate imbalances in society that tend to precipitate into new political challenges. It is, therefore, important to delink education from its predominantly economic value and incorporate the significance of its social, cultural and aesthetic value.

Educational institutions cannot be allowed to run in the same fashion as any other enterprise for making profit as the very purpose of education is to shape a holistic personality of the students through a continuous enrichment of their critical faculty.  The present examination oriented system of education is highly demotivating, non-participative, and a colossal waste of time, both on the part of students and teachers. The entire exercise of learning within institutes is the first casualty and we end up producing irresponsible and insensitive youngsters who are in a hurry to make strides in the world of consumerism without committing to make proportionate efforts for the same.

The top down suggestions as prescribed in the report of the National Knowledge Commission followed by the report by Yash Pal Committee for Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education have tried to find alternative in the change of guard; While Yash Pal has proposed new regulatory body, National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), NKC has suggested an Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE). These are mere cosmetic changes suggesting to treat the symptoms of the problem, and not the problem itself. Can we have a knowledge society in a country where systematic efforts have been made for centuries to exclude people from having knowledge? It is a society where having access to knowledge by the ordinary people was a penal offence and this attitude of Indian elites is yet to be ‘renovated’. Moreover, unless we find answers to the growing inefficiency and irrelevance of the existing system of regulation and deliverance, it is difficult to believe that the new system of regulation would overcome the current bottlenecks.

In both the above reports there is emphasis on encouraging holistic education by breaking down the present departmental barriers. There is also strong recommendation to make education socially relevant by establishing organic link between the people and the institutions of higher learning. There are suggestions to reorient pedagogy to meet new challenges of knowledge based society.  Yash Pal Committee has also made strong recommendation to give autonomy to the academic institutions of higher learning. It has made important suggestion that instead of opening India to the foreign universities to make business in academics, invite foreign scholars to our universities for the benefit of our students.

The Indian experience of growth, including education, shows that the rot is much deeper than depicted by the reports. The Ministry of Education was a far better nomenclature than the present one of Ministry of Human Resource Development. Why youth should only be prepared as a resource ready to be used for the ends over which it has no control? If the idea of education is also to develop a holistic personality of the youngsters, fully equipped to take up new global challenges, then the elementary education cannot be separated from secondary school education, and similarly the undergraduate education cannot be divorced from post-graduate education within the institutes of higher learning. In fact, in a castiest society like India, where pre-modern social structures leave strong impact through pre-school socialisation within the family can hardly be under estimated. In order to carry out successful structural and pedagogical reforms within higher education in India, in the hope of creating a knowledge society, it is therefore important to take into account the holistic view of education, including the nature of social structure within which it has to operate.

[The writer is professor of sociology  at the Panjab University, Chandigarh India]

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Unified India: Some distortions

Vinod Anand

WITH a population of much more than 1 billion, India is a secular country with many religions and beliefs. castes, and faiths, no matter how we look at it. It is truly rich in its various cultures. All the religions and cultures are highly unified, though diverse. North or south, India reflects the same image. In fact, there is unity in diversity in terms of language, religion, literature and art, cultural and ethnicity. There are 200 languages, 1652 dialects, one million sign languages. There are many religions (like Hinduism- 80 % of the population, Islam - about 13%,  of the population, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism - about 2% of the popultaion. All these religions have many rituals too. There are many castes  and creeds. In the context of  of caste, in ancient India there had developed a social system in which people were divided into separate close communities.  The origin of the caste system in Hinduism has affected the whole Indian society. The caste system shows a simple division of society in which there are four castes arranged in a hierarchy and below them the outcast. But socially the caste system was more complicated, with much more castes and sub-castes and other divisions. Legally the government disallows the practice of caste system and there is a policy of affirmative discrimination of the backward classes.

There are also many arts such as dance, music, folk music, handicrafts, painting and sculpture The art of painting & sculpture has long tradition. It has originated from the Stone age period. For e.g. Ajanta Ellora caves, Elephanta Caves, Nalanda and many other excavations all over. Each religion has many festivals. There are a variety of costumes and food (essentially related to agriculture and environment, and depending on climate, physical feature & traditions of the respective regions).

In terms of housing also there is diversity. For example, in the rural areas, many houses have wattle and daub walls. Some houses have tiled roofs. In areas of heavy rainfall, the houses have slopping roofs .In the places with scanty rains have houses with terraced roofs .In big cities, multi – storey buildings are seen.

The essence is that India has a very long history dating back to the Stone Age. With time, large number people of different countries (like Mongolia, Greece etc.) and regions came to India and settled here, and this evolved the composite Indian Culture.

It is all this diversity which has created a sense of unity among the Indians. This diversity has enriched our social life. It is a big trait of India, and we should be proud of it. We call it Indian ness.

We have a good world-wide image of a highly unified country, but within the country it does not appear to be so  in the sense that some religions, castes, creeds, tribes, and a few sections of the society ( especially the poorer lot) do not get equal opportunities in all respects and  are seen to be greatly excluded from others because of many reasons like our political set-up and its major role players who always focus on their own survival as leaders and political entrepreneurs, and try to enhance their voting power, especially before the elections, and create unnecessary differences amongst the various religions and so on. Inter-community clashes have never found widespread support in the social mainstream, and it is generally perceived that the causes of religious conflicts are political rather than ideological in nature.

Marginalisation of the poorer lot by the so-called rich and super rich people to show their status tom them;

Severe income disparities in the country also have an adverse effect on the unified India.

The way out to solve this problem is not that easy, but apart from the concerned public authorities and other agencies managing human empowerment,  we as individuals should also provide full support to all strategies to maintain our age-old traditions and values that have made us ‘Indians’ in a highly comprehensive sense. We have to get away from rigid identities. Besides, The Constitution of India declares the nation to be a secular republic that must uphold the right of citizens to freely worship and propagate any religion or faith (with activities subject to reasonable restrictions for the sake of morality, law and order, etc).

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Rights and responsibilities: Indian scenario

Vinod Anand

IN fact, an Indian Citizen should read the Constitution of India and should make himself well aware of his Fundamental Responsibilities and Duties. It is the duty of every citizens of India to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem;

to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;

to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;

to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;

to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;

to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;

to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures;

to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;

to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;

to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.

to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.

The rights and duties as mentioned above are highly general, but there are also specific rights and responsibilities in various contexts. For example, when one travels say in the Indian railways, one has many responsibilities and rights. These are clearly elaborated in the railway time tables, but we do not go through it and keep silent no matter what happens. As a student in any educational institution, once again there are many specific rights and responsibilities to which a student I supposed to adhere, buy once again no one, even parents, are aware of these rights and responsibilities. It is really surprising! There are many other contexts that enumerate rights and duties of individuals.

There is a vast difference between the listed rights and responsibilities and their practice in real life. In essence, there is a difference between precepts and practice. Whatever is desired is not actually achieved. Our constitution is highly ‘ideal’, it does not talk of reality. There is nothing wrong being an ideal, but what is said must be effectively enforced, it is not strictly followed by the citizens. The basic reason behind all this is the poor governance and ineffective enforcement of law and order in the society.

There is another reason which is linked with the fact that most of the Indians are not   aware of these rights and responsibilities, both general and specific, not because of say illiteracy and poverty, but because we, by and large, are not so loyal to our country. We are surely loyal and trustworthy within our households, but once we are out in public, every thing is lost. It is once gain unfortunate!

It will not be out of place to mention here is that, despite the vice that has been mentioned above in the context of  rights and responsibilities, and their, especially in public life, Indians have many virtues For example, we still live within their means, save whatever we can by living frugally, go for discretionary rather than contractual savings, do not mortgage our assets or future income, and above all, do not, in any way, try artificially or illegitimately, to make our poverty ‘concealed’ or ‘disguised’. We are highly tolerant and God-fearing, we accept our fate and the given circumstances, and maintain our self-respect to live with honour in our own ways. These attributes of the people in India despite their hardships have to be highly appreciated, as they undoubtedly constitute something very unique towards the concept of what we term as Indianness. In no other country of the world perhaps the people will have such tolerance and faith for living their lives without losing their self-respect. But, surprisingly these virtues work only within the periphery of one’s household. Once someone goes in public all these virtues get lost. The same people exhibit indiscipline, misdemeanour, and severe lack of public responsibility in public life.

Let us hope that effective governance and strict and deterrent punishment for people who do not live up to the tenets of public responsibility will gradually improve the scenario in the country.

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