Pitambar Pant, Caning and Virtual Reality

Pitambar Pant, Caning and Virtual Reality

Indian Holocaust My father`s Life and Time - FIVE

Palash Biswas

I am very happy today. My young friend Ronnie, Aneek Roychowdhaury, a eighteen year boy, has been selected for admission in Indian Statistical Institute, kolkata, He has cleared IIT and joint Entrance examinations with higher ranks but he was determined to get in ISI. His Parents Dr Ajit Roychowdhury and Mrs Roychowdhury was quite tense as he was reluctant enough for refusing Engineering or Medical options.


Ronnie told me that thousands and thousands of doctors and engineers get through every year but he wants to do something basic and original. His priority happens to be research and higher studies. he had mad up his mind for higher studies provided not being selected for ISI. Ronnie write very well. he could have been a very good creative writer. Roychowdhuries belonged to Barishal district now in Bangladesh. Half of the family is still stranded there.

Ronnie`s grandfather has given away his Zamindary for public welfare. the family runs several colleges and education across the border. Senior Roychowdhury was Mahamahopaddhyay and the legal consultant for Bangladesh government in Hindu affairs. He is no more. Bangladesh declared National Mourning on his demise. This family is liberal enough to allow intercaste marriages. A niece of Dr Roychowdhury, Jayanti works as a lecturer in Dhaka University and she is married to a scheduled caste educationist. We are glad to be neighbours.

I am writing about Ronnie not for his success or family glory or our personal relations. I am influenced by his clear vision. I am influenced by his personality.

Contrarily my only child, Tussu, Excalibur Stevens, a 22 year guy is still confused and has no vision at all.

I see all the girls, those in our locality, in friendly families and acquaintances to do well in studies and quite serious in their career. I often have a little chat with them.

But most of the boys, including the friend circle of my son are never so good in studies . Neither they look serious enough in career or life.

Most of them are often engaged in video games and chatting and hanging around with either computer or mobile phones.

What I realised, it seems like that the girls are keen to break the sickles of domestic enslavement and they identify the studies with their quest for freedom. But the boys are enough free not for longing for it anymore. They get everything without any struggle. They run for brands and style. Enjoyment and present day happen to be the ultimate horizon for them.

Ronnie seem outstanding. He studied in Ramakrishna Mission, Rahra in Khardah. He secured a moderate Marks sheet with eighty percent only. but neither he nor his parents did seem a little bit worried. We all knew Ronnie and his calibre.

What I insist, I don`t understand much the psyche of the Post modem neo capitalist generation next, the faces of Future, lost in virtual reality. Bengali literary mag `Desh’ is publishing a serial Novel titled `PALTA HOWA’, involving a string of Generation Next including teenagers and young men and ladies. I read it regularly despite it is somewhat soft porn and portrays copulation better than the psyche of the generation next. I try to understand them in communities and groups. I fail, I am afraid.

I see them dating freely in Millennium park on the bank of Ganges, in parks, trains and public places including offices. They are free of any psychological bondage, tradition, discipline or taboo. But the most wanted vision is absent. They live the life Today only.

In this background, I go back often in my childhood. In my college days and Universities. The younger environment during pre liberation and post independence days were strikingly different. We may not expect any Student Movement like the Paris Students` movements in sixties as well as a few years back. No La Chino was may be created by any Godard with this generation. It may not mobilise itself like the students mobilised themselves under JP`s leadership. I don`s see any possibility of thundering Spring of Naxalbari next time. Generation next is nowhere linked with this world or time. It never cares for family or relationship. And it worries me most.

I pity these girls and boys as they are deprived of the schooling we got.

The society has lost the teachers.



Sometimes back, I read a short story about a School Master, `PANDIT MOSHAI’, written by Tara Shankar Bandopaddhya. The school master was a poor Brahman. He was appointed in a school run by the Zamindar. He was chosen, in fact for his cooking abilities and was made the in charge of the Kitchen of the Zamindar. Zamindar, based in Kolkata rarely visited the place. Last time while the Zamindar visited the village, the School Master was caught red handed stealing rice, ghee and vegetables. It was turned to be a rare case of the love of a teacher for his student. The school was unrecognised but the students of the school were famous to get scholarship. One of the children was the most poor. But he was the most intellectual. The schoolmaster stole just because he wanted to manage proper nutrition for the child.



In my Junior High school days while I was a student of class Eight, I led an agitation against the Principal, Mr KL sah. Because our Bengali question paper was printed in Devanagari instead of Bengali. Simply because , there was no Bengali Printing press.It was in 1970. My father Pulin Babu was arrested in language movement, the famous Bhasha andolan in Dhaka. Tushar kanti Ghosh, the editor of Amrita Bazar patrika got bailed him out. Pulin Babu was in the management committee of the school and very friendly with Mr KL Sah. Sah introduced Uniform in the Zila Parishad school. It was a Private junior High School run by the Udvastu Committee. The school was upgraded to High school and later on to a government Inter College. But the refugees were agitated as the school was taken over by the District Board. While I was in Primary School in Haridaspur, an agitation was launched against the district board acquisition. My father supported the acquisition. But it was a fierce movement and all the board appointed teachers were thrashed and driven away. One night, the agitators raided in the quarter of the Principal MR Sah. The sah couple caught the night raiders and three students were restricted. Thus, the question paper issue was too hot. Our Agriculture teacher Mr Gola Singh was controversial enough for awarding rigorous tasks on field and punishing the students physically. He was the incharge to maintain discipline. We sought for the dismissal of the Principal and mr Gola Singh. Terai Udvastu committee chairman Radhakant Mandal was dead. All India Udvastu Committee was constituted and Pulin Babu was chosen President. Haripad Biswas was the Challenger. His son Amal Biswas defeated my father`s lieutenant Kumud Ranjan Mallick in the Sarpanch elections.

Father pleaded in defence of the Principal and said that he did not intend to insult either Bengali Language or Bangla nationality.



But Haripad Biswas and his supporters were reluctant. They were supported by the most of the Bengali population. I was chosen as leader simply to challenge my father and his supporters. But I was dare devil enough to lead and convince others.

Shyam Lal Verma was the district Board president and was very close to my father.

The strike continued for a long month without any result. We were studying in open air classes arranged by rivals. My Thamma as well as my villagers,neighbourhood and all the supporters of my father were shocked by my leadership. My father slapped me while I was leading a procession on the first day of the strike. It was the last interference by my father. he never interfered with my decision.



At last Verma came and assured that the Principal was to be replaced. The strike was withdrawn. I passed class Eighth virtually reading nothing. But the Principal was not replaced. instead three High school students were restricted. It was just a betrayal for us. It hurt me as no action was taken against me and I was studying in the school in class Nine. Meanwhile, all the naxalites shifted in Terai escaping Bengal repression, Very soon, I was in close touch with all of them. In 1971, while my father was busy in East Pakistan and later Bangladesh and Mrs Indira Gandhi was described as reincarnation of Goddess Durga, I turned naxalite. Red book was my holy Book. My father did not intervene. I concentrated on studies other than my course. The Principal KL Sah loved me very much. As there was no first class in last five years. I was his choice. I knew it and revolted. Despite my first Boy record, I tried my best to fail in class ninth exams. Instead of school Uniform, I used to wear all Black dress.

But Mr Sah was not hopeless. He visited my home, the rest house in our fields in Basantipur three miles away. A chaprasi would accompany him. They would raid everywhere and would get all the unexpected books.



In the exams, I deliberately did very bad. Wrote anything except the right answer. But I passed the exams. Later, the refugee leader from Shaktifarm, Mr Deben Acharay came and he convinced me to shift in Government High school in Shaktifarm. Where I once again revolted and got admission in class Nine to ensure the loss of One Year to punish my father who supported KL Sah.



But KL Sah never forgot me. I always remained his favourite student. he forgave me. I returned to the school in Dineshpur as soon as Mr sah was replaced by Mr Dalakoti. I passed
High School in First division. Mr sah was the happiest man in this world.

Pitambar Pant was also known for his raids. he could visit our home and fields anytime and could locate us anywhere.

Even in my college days, during Graduation and Post graduation, I had been under close surveillance of my Primary Teacher. I always respected him. I never disobeyed my Primary teacher. Though in the University, the Professors in all disciplines and even the Vice Chancellor were scared of me. I did not apply for lectureship in DSB college despite the Department Head recommended me and new colleges needed lectures in English department. The university was looking for English lecturers for at least a dozen colleges. I was called for and could have been accommodated with different life story. Because we mishandled the Vice chancellor during agitations, I was reluctant to ask for Job face to face him. the man was the only appointing authority.



But I never dared to say anything against Pitambar Pant or Tara Chandra Tripathi. Mr pant retired and I could not contact him further. But I maintained live contact with Mr Tara Chandra Tripathi.


The Education system is corporationised. MNCs dictate the destiny of the Generation next, not the teachers. The so called teachers are much trained for running an education business than in teaching. We had no tuition, no coaching. but it never stopped us getting higher education.

Just Twelve pass and some vocational training with speaking English is the modern day career for any student in general. higher education and research work have been made irrelevant. The Generation Next seems to be either illiterate or semi literate. It cares for techniques and information. Infinite flow of MP3 version of XXX infractions has taken over the generation Next. The State itself sponsors the Blue revolutions with all the electronic and print media.

I still visulise Pitambar pant and his caning.



It makes me happy to feel the stinging pain of caning.



It was perhaps in 1961 , when madam Christie handed me over to Pitambar Pant, the religious Brahma from Pithoragrgh , Kumayoon. Despite being a boy belonging to a dalit refugee family I always had the support from the affluent Brahman families in Terai and Hills. Basanta Kumar Bannerjee belonged to a freedom fighter family from Banaras. His brother, Manindra Nath Bannerjee had been hanged by the British. Bannerjees had been always friendly with our family. I had the privilege to get entry in his library. Where from I learnt all about European history and world Wars, Netaji and the revolutionaries of Independence struggle.



Ramjee Roy was another freedom fighter from Deoria. He fought the Loksabha Elections against KC Pant in 1967 General elections. We supported him. i accompanied the freedom fighter in his election campaign while I hardly passed my primary school. It was a very effective schooling in practical politics.Ramji Roy maintained the relation lifelong, even after the demise of his dear friend, the leader of Dhimri Block Peasant Uprising, Pulin Babu.



When I just entered in Zila Parishad Higher Secondary School, English teacher Suresh Chandra Sharma and Hindi teacher Mr sual got me. Both of them were Brahman. Another Brahman, Prem Prakash Budhlakoti, taught me all about Marxism while I was studying in junior classes. In GIC Nainital, Tarachand Tripathi changed the course of my life. Whatever I turned to be in my life, it is just because of Mr Tara Chandra Tripathi. who guided me in systematic studies in different disciplines. I had been residing at his home during my undergraduate days. Ms Beena Pandey, the Biology teacher in our High school was the first lady out of our family circle who was intimate enough. I still remember madam Christie. But I can see the face of Ms Beena Pandey, the young lady in early twenties, very clear. Then, during my Graduation and post graduation days, Mrs Madhulika Dexit of English Department was the first individual who recognised my vision and ambitions as well. Most of my teachers were Brahmans. They taught me all about nationality and nationalities. I was quite acquainted with Uttarakhandi Nationality from my schooldays. I was acquainted to Marxism and knew all about Class struggle. Thus, I never felt handicapped or suffered any kind of inferiority complex for my refugee, Dalit background.



I was born and brought up amongst different nationalities in Terai and Hills. Teari in Nainital was itself a MINI India. Sikhs and Bengalies were rehabilitated side by side, quite different two nationalities. In Chittaranjanpur,in my first school, I had to study with Sikh children. My village basantipur has best Sikh neighbours in Amar Pur, Arjunpur, Jafar Pur, Bindu Khera. Bab Ganesha Singh of Arjuna led the Dhimri Block Uprising along with Harish Dhondiayal and Liladhar Pathak, both of them Kumayooni, Chowdhury Nepal Singh, a Jat and so on. Rajmangal Pandey, a central minister in Janata Party Government in 1977 had his farm in Prem Nagar. I had been among them. Ex MLA Deb Bahadur singh from Gorakhpur and Bharat Bhushan of Deoria, who defeated KC Pant in 1977 loksabha elections, were two other politicians apart from Ram Dutt Joshi, Shyam Lal Verma, ND Tiwari and KC Pant, who had been close to us.



In fact, our family landed in a different United province, Uttar Pradesh. Gobind Ballabh Pant, Dr Sampurnand happened to be our chief minister. Sarojini Naidu was the first governor. I saw Chandra Bhanu Gupt and Sucheta Kriplani, a Bengali and close associate of Bapu were the chief ministers when we were growing. Pdt. Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Mrs Indira Gandhi were the prime ministers who belonged to UP. It was a different UP. I am proud to say that after the partition holocaust, we were lucky enough to be accomodated in Nainital in Uttar Pradesh. The partition victims in UP and Uttarakhand always felt at home away from home. We never realised ourselves as refugee or Dalit or underclasses. Though we were well aware of our Bangla Nationality.

It was always a combined indigenous community. We always had a joint front. We were never discriminated or alienated. We were in the mainstream from the beginning. I am afraid to say that the east Bengal refugees who were lucky enough to get accommodation in West Bengal, the so called home of Bangla nationality are still deprived to be a part of the mainstream.

The psyche I inherited from my teacher, could not be transferred to my son. It is subjectively True as well as generally. The Generation Next of either Uttarakhand or Uttar Pradesh could not inherit our legacy of a combined Community.

I repent that I could not finish my Hindi Novel, `America Se Savdhan’ (Beware of America), which I began in 1990 and given up in 1997 after publication of almost 110 episodes. Now I have no time, no space, no money, no friend and no publisher on my side. I may not finish it in future. Life won`t allow me. Initially I intended to dedicate different parts of this novel to my teachers. First was to be dedicated to Pitambar Pant, my Primary teacher. The Second one was reserved for Mr tara Chandr Tripathi, my GIC teachers.


Piatambar Pant was the only teacher in Haridaspur Primary Pathshala, half a KM away from my village. He managed to teach all the Five classes simaltaneously.


When I landed in his school as a student of first standard, it was situataed in Green Fields of rice paddies. A thatched school it was. My cousin Meeradi and her friend Debla di were in class Four. Both of them were married away in 1962. Since then I was alone in the school. Though, I had been always first in my Primary , junior and High School Classes, I was injected with a notorious habit of asking questions, relevant or irrelevant. It was not enough. i used to debate violently. I am lucky that most of my teachers not only did bear with it but they encouraged me. I was often handed with new books, literature or at least a book list. In DSB College, our English lecturer in the department of English, Captain LM Sah ensured my free entry in the College library like any professor while I was a student of M.A English, first year.

We shifted to the roadside single long room thatched school very soon. Pitambar Pant was very strict. I remember that he used to get Rs Seventy per month and the payment was never regular. He used to get the payment in months. The villagers would supply his ration always. Mr Pant was ther with his two sons, Bhuvan and Jagdish. Bhuvan was studying in the Junior High school. Jagadish was with me since first standard. We were togeteher until we passed High Schools. Both Bhuvan and jagadish became teachers later.



Jagadish had a tail in his head, the Chutia as the Hindus maintain a lengthy string of hair on head to certify Hindutva. Mr pant would use it as a tool whenevre he divereted from the dictated ways of study.



I was often selected as class monitor. But it turned out to be horrible for the people around and the teacher as well, always. Different ideas of mischief cropped well in my mind and I would inflict all this mischief in other students. I would lead any awesome adventure. Suppose, we could jump in the river without knowing anything about swimming!



We cold lit the pitch, the black liquid meant for metalled road which was in progress. We could harm the rice paddies anytime swimming in the floodded fields. We could destroy the boundary walls simply breaking the fences. We could loot any garden full of Mangoes or Guavas. We could run away with any amount of suger canes from the lorries stranded or running on the road. We could run away from the school anytime while the teacher was busy otherwise.



The punishment was sever. We had to get the canes from Jungle , knowing well the ultimate result. I was always punished for my mischiefs, never for my studies. Instead, Mr Pant was always careful to prepare me in advance. I was always made up for advance courses.



It was lucky for me that My father Pulin Babu used to be away anywhere countrywide or across the border with his all time mobilisation. Otherwise, the punishment had to be double. As Pulin Babu was a father who met my teachers daily to get the progress report anytime. he had been friendly with all my teachers.But it happened rarely as he used to be always out of station. My Chhoto Kaka,uncle was very loving who supported me in any condition and supplied me with all classics. I had to accompany him in his fishing adventure or Jatra show. I was not little bit afraid of him. My Jethamoshai, the Elder uncle had to look after the Agro sector and he was always busy with music. It spared us very much. We never were interfered by the womenfolk as they were too busy with their kitchen.



But I had to read aloud. I invented a rare tactic to encounter this problem. We all used to read anything out of course. We used to read aloud collectively. thus, it was quiet impossible for our rural people to understand anything amongst the chorus.


The Primary school set the mood of my psyche. I was much more aware of nationalities and knew nothing about caste system. Only after I transferred in Bengal, I became acquainted with the curse of Manusmriti. First time I felt the discrimination in lifetime!



I, personally, feel the tense communication gap with the youth force around me. My only son Tussu will be twenty three years old on 3rd September next. I have not any link with him . However he lives with us. He avoids every opportunity ofdialogue. He is busy with his personal computer and does not like any talk at all. This isn't the tension derived from differing expectations regarding communication, professionalism, and organization. This isn't even the normal parent/child relation. And I feel parents all over the world, particularly, in India face the same intriguing problem with their post modern children.

The faces of future seem to be lost in virtual reality!



Mobile, video games, Hollywood films, wwf and chatting and downloading with personal computer is the whole world for this helpless lot. They never care for relationship or liabilities. We the parents have to pay for whatever they want. Some of them are , no doubt, very brilliant. But they believe very strongly that the history is dead and dead is the ideology. Thus they have to do nothing as far as the society and the nation are concerned.Have you come to the stark realization that most parents interpret their worlds and faiths through the lens of modernity while their children see the same landscape through postmodern lenses?



May be, you realized this fact and figured out that you must rethink some of your convictions and retool your methods in order to disciple today's teens.



But we also see the career oriented generation to shout slogan on streets, demonstrate against state power with as much violence as allowed, clash and scuffle with police, sitting on indefinite hunger strike and even, joining Naxals or any anti state group as they do in the entire north east.



They are not anarchist.



Not nihilist.

Not idealist.



But, sometimes, they come out and challenge the State Power, Establishment and we, the Parents.



But it seems to me that they are still far away from Reality and live in virtual reality.



We saw the French government to rectify the objectionable labour law enacted as entire student force in France rose against.



We also know the history of students movements in countries like US, China,Indonesia, Nepal, Germany, Mexico.



where do our own students stand?



We have seen the latest development of anti quota movement.



Where do the brilliant students hide , until and unless their own career is not in danger?



Reservations in educational institutions have become a tool in the hands of all political parties to garner votes among the socially and educationally backward classes of Indian society.



The statement made by the HRD Minister Arjun Singh on implementation of 27 per cent reservation in central universities and even in institutes of academic excellence, such as IITs and IIMs is highly regrettable.Institutions of academic excellence should be free from any sort of reservation. Only academic merit should be the criteria for admission to such institutions.

The student force cry helplessly that domestic vote bank politics should not be allowed to deteriorate the standards of these institutions of academic excellence, but the bill was passed in the Rjya Sabha and presented in the Loksabha. Now it happens to be decided in the Parliamentary standing committe.



Without the mass participation of student force and urban youth, rising Naxal violence over the years is now emerging as the single largest internal security challenge for India, as the ruling classes put it. They seem to be satisfied this time as their own brilliant children have nothing to do with this revolt against the state. The demand for crushing Naxalites have become a hype already and recently Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted that growing Maoist insurgency was fast emerging as a big threat for the nation. According to reports the 'Naxals' as Maoists are addressed to in local parlance, have now spread to huge swathes of the country's hinterland in south, central and east India in recent years.The insurgency, named after the town of Naxalbari where it emerged in 1967, is thought to affect 165 of the country's 602 administrative districts in a "red corridor" stretching from the southern tip of India all along its eastern half and up to Nepal.



Thousands of people have died in nearly 40 years of Maoist violence including hundreds of policemen. Reports say 157 people had been killed in Maoist-related violence this year alone, up from 114 in the first quarter of 2005. Last November, Bihar authorities were shaken by a Naxal attack on a Jehanabad prison. Some 250-rebel prisoners were freed, and a paramilitary leader was executed. There were several major incidents in the first quarter of 2006. In early March, rebels hijacked a train in Jharkhand and held 40 passengers hostage.



There is hardly any ideological debate in this matter. The youth of today is not concerned whatever the Naxals say. But in sixties and seventies, students did cosist as the major force of the agrarian revolt in India.



We had a hero named Amitabh Bachchan , popularly known as angry young man. He had been an odd personalty, fighting against his time and environment.



Those were the days of seventies, just after the thunder of spring failed in West Bengal.



We had also a Romantic superstar Rajesh Khanna with his films like Aanand and Namakharam, Aaradhana and Amar Prem.



We had enjoyed the melancholy of self destruction in Devdas with the self destruction of Dilipkumar as Devdas.



This generation is also involved with Devdas without the classic black and white tragedy. Tragedy is there with full of colour. It is Sanjay Leela Bhansali Shahrukh Khan version of Devdas.



This generation seems to be colorblind. They may not identify all the colors , but they ars always busy with color monitor.



It is a good time for Hollywood in India. It is time for Terminator, Rambo and all the Special effects and Robots. It is a time for Love story 2050.



Our own children turn to be Terminator or Rambo. Gone are the days of Sherlock Homes, Stayajeet Ray, the wonderful world of Charles Dickens and Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhya and even James Bond. Romance and revolution of sixties and seventies are quite absent. Absent are Icons of national heroes.



Generation Next has no Hero. No Heroine.



Icons are the perfect combination of animation, video game and special effects. A Jurassic Park is created with perfect disaster plan.



No Pitambar Pant or no Tarachandra Tripathi available around!



Who would dare for caning?



The time lacks Discipline.



The Time lacks vision!



We have an excellent film Rang De Basanti with the tagline : Awakening generation and we see the generation involved with an issue like mig accidents.the Bollywood film industry of India. It was released on 26th January 2006; it was directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (of Aks fame). The film stars Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Madhavan, Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni, British actress Alice Patten, Waheeda Rehman, Om Puri, Kiron Kher and Anupam Kher. The music is by A. R. Rahman and the album went on to become a chartbuster.

The story line is excellent and the treatment is very good. The director does not sidetrack the issue at all. But in reality , there is no student movement in India dealing with the burning question the nation or the people face. Anti corruption movement is absent since the decline of JP movement in seventies. The Naxals and anti establishment elements of yesterday are well established in the wings of power. The JP movement vanished with the Janta government and we see Laloo, Nitish, Sharad Yadav, Sushil Modi, all heroes of JP movement in Bihar clash with each other in power politics.



Struggling British filmmaker Sue (Alice Patten) comes to India after she reads the diary of her grandfather, who served in the British Force during India's struggle for Independence. She comes to India in order to make a short film about some of the heroes of the Indian Independence Movement, including legends such as Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad. The hitch at this point is that the youth of today do not read the history and they know nothing about the heroes of independence. On the other hand, the history of independence has been made irrelevent. So that ,with the help of her friend Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) in New Delhi, she sets out to find actors suitable for the roles. Sonia introduces Sue to some of her male friends:



Daljeet Singh aka "DJ" (Aamir Khan)
Sukhi (Sharman Joshi)
Karan (Siddharth)
Aslam (Kunal Kapoor)


Sue convinces them to act in her film. Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarni), a political party activist, later joins the group though he is initially disliked by the other boys on account of his Hindutva beliefs and contempt of Aslam, who is a Muslim. This scenerio is picked up with the prevailing communal equation of India with the background of Gujrat riots. We simply forget that since the first struggle of Independence in 1857, Muslims have been equally involved with Hindus. In Rang de Basanti, It seem to be a quota only.



As the young men learn their lines and learn more about the history of the Independence movement, they realize that, unlike the men they are playing, they have lived completely for their own pleasures and have ignored India's pressing problems. They lack the spirit of patriotic self-sacrifice.Just as they are beginning to form some higher ideals, they are forced to deal with a real-life tragedy in their midst. Sonia's fiancé, Ajay (Madhavan), is an Indian air-force pilot. He is killed during routine practice when the MiG he is flying, crashes. The friends soon come to realize that Ajay, in fact, chose to steer the plane away from densely populated Ambala city instead of ejecting himself from the plane to save his own life.



The government proclaims that the crash was caused by pilot error. But Sonia and her friends know that Ajay was a seasoned pilot, also that there have been many MiG crashes of late -- too many to be due to pilot error. They discover that the crash was due to a corrupt defence minister (Mohan Agashe), who had signed a contract for cheap, spurious MiG spare parts in return for a large kickback.



Not content to accept this as "just the way things are done", the group decide to protest peacefully. Police forcefully break up their protest. The young men decide to emulate the exploits of their new heroes, Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad, fighting corruption just as Singh and Azad fought the British. Violence ensues.





Amartya Sen on what ails India's education system










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February 05, 2007
Amartya Sen is man of many parts -- Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, honorary doctorates from major universities across the world, and author of books including The Argumentative Indian (2005), and Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (2006) besides research in philosophy, welfare economics and the economics of peace and war.

He is the recipient of many awards including "Bharat Ratna" and Nobel Prize in economics. He will be speaking at the Nasscom Summit 2007 in Mumbai on February 7. In an email interview with Leslie D'monte, he explains why he's not satisfied with the current state of India education. Here are the excerpts:

What positives do you see in today's Indian education system?

Positives? First, our higher education system is widespread, and while the quality of it is very mixed, there are still a lot of people getting reasonable higher education.

Second, in some fields, especially in technical education, the quality of what is offered is indeed fairly high. Against these "positives" stand the huge neglect of primary education and also secondary education, and of course - as already mentioned - the highly variable
quality of university education (some of it not worthy of that name).

What are the major pitfalls?

The pitfalls of illiteracy include functional handicap, intellectual deprivation, and social disadvantage. When large groups are systematically neglected, like girls, especially from economic and social underdog families, the social penalties are gigantic.

Is technology is gradually helping in taking education to the masses?

The main causes of our uneven and highly unequal educational system are not technological underdevelopment but political and social neglect.

It is, of course, important for those who are masters of contemporary technology to take deep interest in removing the educational neglects that plague the country, but they have to look for the diverse ways and means of helping, rather than sticking only to their identities as "high technologists"!

Any sector that become as rapidly - and as convincingly - prosperous owes something to the rest of the society as well, but that is not the same thing as looking only to technology to solve all problems.

Technology can certainly help the spreading of education, for example in making the schooling of maths easier and faster, and even in monitoring the attendance and accountability of teachers and of school officials (I remember Ramadorai of Tata Consultancy Services explaining to me the possibility of using smarter technology in that work), or in making communication of elementary maths easier, but it is not the lack of a
"technological magic bullet" that is holding everything up.

We need IIMs and IITs and we simultaneously need to provide for primary and secondary education. What steps should the government take to ensure that neither one is promoted at the expense of the other?

The main "step" to take is to get on with it! The government has to speed things up. However, the government is not the only agency involved. Not only more money is needed in schooling - not just through raising salaries of teachers and officials - but also better organisation of teaching and better practices (not minimal schooling with maximal private tuition!).

For this we need cooperation between many agencies: governments (at different levels), teachers' unions, parent-teacher committees, civil society in general.

We have gone into some of these issues in a few small reports of the Pratichi Trust - a small Trust that I was privileged to set up in 1999 with the help of my Nobel money, one in India and one in Bangladesh.

The Indian Trust is particularly involved in elementary schooling and elementary health care (the Bangladesh Pratichi Trust has tended to concentrate especially on gender equity, including the training of young women journalists from rural background).

Aside from policy revisions we have suggested, the Indian Trust organises regular parent-teacher meetings at the state level (so far only in West Bengal though - we are still a small Trust), and we have also started arranging collaborative meetings with the teachers' unions to get their help in making the schools more effective and with greater accountability. The government does, of course, have a huge part to play, but other people and other organisations also have responsibility. Powered by
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China is far ahead of India in primary education with literacy rates more than 85% compared to Indias less than 65%. However, an analysis of statistics tends to prove that China has acquired a considerable lead over India even in higher education. Another interesting aspect about China is that it is well ahead in professional education. India, on the other hand, still leads in the non-professional education.

When one compares the number of graduates in India in 04 with China in 2003, the figures are revealing. India graduated 24.6 lakh students ahead of China at 18.8 lakh. India also has 11.5 lakh arts graduates compared to China which lags at just 5 lakh. Science graduates in India at 5.4 lakh are far more than Chinas very meagre 1.73 lakh.

But China is far ahead of India in professional education. For instance, China churned out 6.44 lakh engineering graduates compared to just 1.55 lakh graduates from India. Medicine presents an even starker contrast. China churned out 1.1 lakh medical graduates compared to a mere 25,000 from India. And, very interestingly, the nominally Communist China turns out 2.8 lakh management graduates compared to 64,000 from India.

China has been working at its educational statistics for the past decade and more. For instance, the funding for education has increased by almost eight times since 1991. India has several lessons to learn from China in the way it has handled higher education, especially its focus on professional education.

India could do with more institutes for professional education. A recent ETIG analysis had concluded that India has a severe scarcity of doctors, especially in northern states.

The fact that China annually generates more than four times the doctors that India does only strengthens the view that India needs to work at increasing the output from its professional educational institutions, especially medicine.

Source : Online Resource



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