NATIVE CHARM
EDUCATION AND ITS INSTRUMENTS
Education and the military-industrial complex
Education has been defined in various ways by authorities. To day, it has come to mean teaching and learning in a formal atmosphere, controlled by institutions. The subjects taught are determined by political and economic (market) interests. In the end, the system seeks to make people compliant to the will of the ruling powers, and participate in the economic machinery as determined by the powers. Thus it is said that in the US, the system serves the military-industrial complex. No matter what is the rhetoric of the parties of the left or the right, the system has not changed its character in the last 60 years since President Eisenhower invented the phrase "military industrial complex".
President Eisenhower warned us about the "military industrial complex" in his farewell address in 1961. In the half century since then, the complex has become even more powerful.
Picture in the Public domain, via Wikimedia commons.
Traditionally , education served two broad purposes: as a vehicle of transmission of the culture of the people, defined in broad terms, and as a compass and guide for organising the personal and social life of the individual. It involved making a living, but more than that, it involved living a worthy life. Swami Vivekananda called it "man-making education."
In modern times, other objectives are held as the aim of education: democracy, enlightenment, freedom, dignity, realisation of human potential, etc. All these end up subject to the current political dispensation. Thus, in modern democracies, one ends up voting for one of the political parties which represent different positions in the given political spectrum. There too one counts only if one aligns with the dominant groups which are likely to get power. In India, of course no ideology matters as alignments occur on other considerations like caste and community. No Indian political party has a definite economic agenda or a positive programme. And in any country, once the election process is over,the votes are counted and the govt is installed, the average voter or citizen ceases to count.. And in the election process itself, education or competence does not matter. An ordinary taxi driver with an education level of 8th standard has the same vote like the professor of political science in the university. And both are ignored by the party machinery in favour of the candidate of the right caste or community. So how does education promote democracy in practice?
Education as the tool of politics
That the process of education has become an instrument in the hands of the governing elements has been noted all over the world. We have gradually lost the notion of general "society" or community, and vested interests have taken over. In politics, the leftist elements have taken over the American academies, and their agenda consists of promoting secularism ( ie, anti-Christian attitudes), multi-culturalism (ie downplaying the Anglo-Saxon tradition and promoting minority interests), extolling non-Western traditions (ie deprecating Western civilisation) etc. In short, the system is working to uproot the elements that contributed to making the West what it has been. In the process it is changing the cultural and literary icons. What is considered "Classical" elements are discarded. For instance, Shakespeare and Milton, Dickens and Hardy are dethroned in favour of modern writers. And the old authorities are subjected to new interpretation in terms of later, modern ideas. Hence we have movements like Marxism, Feminism, Freudian analysis, Historicism, Post-colonialism. Deconstruction etc even in understanding old literature. A poem or novel is not read and enjoyed as a poem or novel, but seen and analysed in terms of these newer ideas! We can see that the same trend is catching up here- or why do we have our Amartya Sens and Ramachandra Guhas?
Ills of education
Other thinkers like Ivan Illich have pointed out that the substance of our education is only to make people passive consumers of the economy and thus help maintain the ruling orthodoxy- whatever it is.
Psychologists like R.D.Laing pointed out in the 70s that our educational system was preparing us for mental institutions, rather than universities!
Our own thinkers like Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi spoke and wrote about the ills of modern education and suggested remedies. But we have embraced foreign ideals even more tightly after Independence than during the colonial period.
In the result, man becomes an economic animal subject to political control and manipulation. This is all modern societies are about.
Education and life
In contrast all the pre-modern societies were concerned with the purpose of life. In the many different ways, they understood that man had a destiny which was more than the fate of the body. Life was organised around this idea, and it was religion which supplied the vital link. Man has to live, but for what? What is the meaning of our art and science, literature and culture if in the end one has to simply kick the bucket and everything ends with that? What is the point in boarding the latest plane, if it has no destination to reach? Only to take rounds in the sky till the fuel gets exhausted?
Education in the olden days equipped man for life. This we see in all countries and cultures, in pre-modern days. Education was not equated with literacy. People knew things, without learning to read and write. The meaning of education was broader than knowing the letters and numbers, though letters and numbers also counted..
In fact education meant transmission of ideas, and cultures.
To some extent, the former depended on literacy of a few, but the latter went beyond formal education. I can think of two outstanding examples.
Education and culture
One is from Imperial Athens in the 5th century BC, ie before the time of Socrates and Plato. There was already an array of philosophers and a range of philosophies. More than that, the citizens were expected to share and follow certain broad values which were inculcated through drama, as part of a religious festival, funded by the State!
The Tragedies were staged as part of an ancient ritual in honour of Dionysus.
Public domain via Wikimedia commons.
Dionysus was the Greek god of wine, wine making, ritual madness, religious ecstasy and theatre and drama.
This is a Roman statue of Dionysus from 2nd century. In RomE, he was called "Bacchus".
Copyright Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia commons via Wikimedia commons.
The tragedies dealt with the life of heroic epic and legendary characters drawn from the archaic past, but had meaning for contemporary life. The Greeks held that watching and reflecting on the tragedies reformed our character and led to the cultivation of virtue.
For four days, three tragedies and a light comedy were enacted each day. Leading authorities were asked to write tagedies for the occasion, and it was a competion in which the best drama was chosen for award. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides are thus three of the greatest dramatists whose works have survived and influenced the literature of the West for the last 2500 years! Of course the epics of Homer are the fountainhead. We can guess their influence when we know that the vital concepts of Freud ( like Oedipus complex) are based on Greek drama! This shows how cultural continuity has prevailed in spite of political and linguistic division and strife across centuries. Even scientific concepts can be explained and understood in terms of dramatis personae!
Theatre at Delphi where the dramas were staged.
By JarekPT (Own Work)[GFDL (CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0 Creative commons wia Wikimedia commons.
India had her way!
The other example is from our own country, of over sixty years ago. The school syllabus was light and not yet secularised. So we learned about many of our epic and legendary characters and stories. The lightness of syllabus left us lot of time for extra-curricular learning. Games meant not just cricket or foot-ball but many indigenous varieties. There was no TV and not much of cinema or radio. So, cultural activity meant learning some form of art like music! It meant real body and mental activity, not like a video game.
There were two other activities which involved interaction of the yougsters and the elders. One was the discourses on religious themes organised three or four times a year during festivals like Navaratri, Ram Navami, Gokulashtami,etc. Pundits used to come from big centres like Madras, Trichy, Tanjore,Madurai, etc. They would give discourses on our epics and puranas,for a week or ten days at a time, but would also expound our religious and philosophical ideas. It would be a combination of literature in Sanskrit , Tamil and other Indian languages, with music and dramatics in various languages. The elders would bring the youngsters from their families. This was not confined just to Brahmins- all asthika families, of all castes like Chettiars, Pillais, Mudaliars would participate.
Sri Kripananda Variar giving a discourse, in the presence of Kanchi Paramacharya.
This is taken from murugan.org. copyright status not stated. Thanks.
In fact the different communities would take the lead in organising the celebrations. If the Brahmins organised Sankara Jayanti in the choultry, inviting some Swamiji, the Senguntha Mudaliars would celebrate Thai Poosam in their temple, inviting Kripananda Variar for three days; the Chettiars would organise the Car festival and hold Ramayana discourses; the Komutti Chettiars would organise Navaratri in the Kanyaka Parameswari temple with music and dance. We school boys and our elders would attend all festivals! There were other groups celebrating other fesivals like Kartikai, Shivratri etc. Whichever was the organising group, the participants were the same, more or less! And organisers of one would be the honoured invitees in the others!
While this was a broader arrangement, there was a somewhat narrower form too. Some teacher in the school would be a devout Saivite or fond of Kamba Rmayana and he would gather some boys for classes for Tevaram, and Ramayana. For the Brahmin boys, there would be someone else to organise other things. I was lucky in that I could participate in all. Thus one Sivaprakasa Mudaliar conducted Tevaram classes on Mondays, which I could attend. One Balasubramanya Iyer,the father of a classmate, an accountant in Post office conducted classes in Vishnu Sahasranamam on Sundays. He would also hold competition, so the boys were quick to learn. Then, one advocate, Sitarama Iyer, a Telugu Brahmin, conducted Sampradaya bhajans at his residence every Saturday which we boys would attend- we had formed a group by then. He was a good singer and he would sing many kritis in many languages, so that we became familiar with most songs of the Bhajanotsava Manjari just by listening- in Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, etc. We also became familiar with many slokas on various deities without any distinction! And we learned about so many saints and sages from all over the country! Then, we had early morning street bhajans on all the thirty days in the month of Mrigasirsha.Just imagine! All this was learned totally informally, outside the class room, without any inducement- except perhaps the prasad we would get in the end! And it involved no expense! And we got some exposure to religious disciplines! This was liberal education at its best!
A traditional (Sampradaya) bhajan in progress!
This is by Shencottai Harihara Subramanian and party, in the US.
From: www.atlantadunia.com. Thanks.
This is all with modern trappings. Those days, we had no mike and on most days, we had only mridangam and harmonium for accompaniment, along with jalra and the chiplas!
An additional bonus with this advocate was that he had a very pious disposition and would extend hospitality to any Sadhu or holy man visiting our place. The first Hindu monks we had exposure to were of the order of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh! We were very pleased with their simple discourses and the message of Swami Sivananda: Serve, Love, Give, Meditate, Realise! What an inspiring message to get at that impressionable age of 12/13! And we had exposure to Anjaneya Upasakas, Sri Vidya Upasakas, etc. It was a thrilling time.( Even now, recalling those days after 60 years, I feel thrilled!)
Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. His messages were simple and direct.
This picture from www.divyajivan.org. Thanks
Later on, when I went to college and joined service, I met boys of my age and I found that most of the boys from middle class homes had had similar exposure! Of course, those from more orthodox backgrounds had exposure to Vedic literature which we lacked.
Consumer culture takes over!
Later, the whole system collapsed with the changes in the political and educational systems. I could not provide such an environment to my children in the 70s and 80s, though they did have some exposure. Today, such things are celebrated with more ostentation, but how many youngsters participate?Today, the very atmosphere is different, with too many distractions. Forget the TV; the cell phone is engaging even a 4-year old! Older boys and girls do not part with it even in the bathroom!
This addiction starts young!
Picture from webfreebies4u,blogspot.in.
We do not look at these things as part of education. Yet how far they contribute to cultural cohesion, and unity of vision! They make the real nation. And they provide a total orientation to life of an individual as a whole! What ancient Athens sought to achieve through state sponsorship of drama festivals, we achieved more effortlessly, almost informally! Culture is always imbibed, never taught or learnt formally!
The self-styled secular govt should not be expected to give any encouragement. But even the Hindu religious circles are not equal to the task. What is required is not some grand scheme,involving big people, but informal, local arrangements . In this sense, we of our generation have failed to provide proper "education" to our youngsters. Everyone thinks someone else would do it!
NOTE:1
Here, I have mainly covered things from the boys' angle. It is not that girls were left behind in extra curricular activities. But the forms and instruments of their education were different. The girls got used to attending domestic chores. They studied music formally at home. Girls from wealthy families in cities learned dance. They learned crafts such as needle work, knitting, crochet, etc. They had their field day in the month of Dhanus (Mrigasirsha) when they vied with each other in decorating the front of the house with different rangolis (kolam) on the floor, on each day of the month, reaching a peak on the Sankranthi day. Then during Navaratri, they displayed all their arts and crafts of music, drama, dance, fancy dress, etc.Certain festivals like Gauri puja, Varalakshmi Vratam, were special for them. Even their games and sports were different.The girl at home was a nurse, a baby sitter, monitor for the younger siblings, assistant to mother, and often the darling of the father.One thing has to be remembered: those days 60 years ago, the society did have a different conception of the role of women in society,and they were trained accordingly. We can't fault it with today's ideas. Women were the gentler, not necessarily the weaker, sex. Now they would deny it. If nature (biology) does not require them to bear and deliver children, they would deny all differences with men! Vivekananda replied to the American critics that India honoured its women as mother, while the US celebrated them as wife. Now, under the impact of modern education, women are taught to look upon marriage as a limitation on their freedom, and motherhood as an unavoidable burden! Child birth itself is treated as an illness, requiring hospitalisation! The roots of the family are thus being sundered.
It would seem that in the old order, men were trained for public responsibilities, and women for managing homes. Now it is all mixed up, as a result of modern education. (I am not here offering any criticism, but merely pointing out the facts.)
NOTE: 2
It may appear from the above that these cultural activities were confined to the Brahmins, and others were excluded. But it was not so. Any one could attend a discourse, and participate in the bhajan, or take part in the other classes.However, only boys from certain families which had "Brahmanical" values like the Mudaliyars, Chettiars, Pillais, Naidus and Reddys wound find them attractive. Even among the Brahmins, Madhva and Iyengar boys would generally keep aloof, and participate only in the functions of their denominations. It would be very interesting. The Iyengar boy, even if he attended the bhajan would only sing the songs on Vishnu, Krishna, Rama, Lakshmi, Hanuman etc and would not sing on other deities. He would not even participate in Radha Kalyanam! The Madhva boy was better, but he would not sing about gurus from traditions other than his own! The Madhvas in our place later rallied round Sri Raghavendra and conducted bhajans on Thursdays. Likewise, many non-brahmins had gathered round Satya Sai Baba and conducted their own bhajans on Thursdays. Interestingly, the lead here was taken by a Brahmin Tamil pundit who had been a "rationalist" and follower of EVR in his younger days! (He was also our Tamil teacher in school, and used to talk against religion!)
The other non-brahmin sections had their own festivals and forms of art. They would celebrate Mariamman festival, especially before summer began, and for days distribute gruel to the public. They would celebrate festivals of Angala Parameswari and organise dramas. Curiously, many of these related to incidents from the Mahabharata, and would celebrate Bhima, Arjuna and their exploits, along with celebration of Draupadi amman!
But their big moment was during Sankranti or Pongal. For over 15 days there would be festivities with competitive sports, involving display of native martial arts, with sticks and swords, wrestling, etc.Two of my schoolmates, Thangavelu and Perumal were champion fighters with the stick ( Silambam) It would culminate with the "gooli aattam" which involved bringing in a stud bull from the nearby forest villages and two groups of youth trying to control its run from either side with ropes round its neck. It was rather risky, and animal rights activists and the judges would cry of cruelty today (though they would kill any number of cattle, goats and chicken and other birds for their stomach!) Prominent local non-brahmins would be honoured . Our own immediate neighbour was the "Oor Gounder"- he had been the village chieftain before it expanded, and he would be garlanded, honoured and taken round the town, and he would inaugurate and conduct the festivities. There would be music, especially local drums and percussion instruments like Taarai, tappattai, etc. The wind instrument used would be like a small Nadaswaram, but its notes would be shrill. Then there would be other items like the "horse dance" ( one would have seen it in the film Chandralekha)- later made popular in the name of "Puravi natyam" by T.C.Sundaramurti, its noted exponent.
In sum, people at every level had developed cultural activities of their choice, and it is naive pedantry to call something classical and judge everything by its standards.Obviously, art finds its own level and a hundred ways of expression. I had not kept any notes, or I could have related many more incidents.
Sadly, Dravidian politics and the cinema-TV-Video culture have maimed and mutilated many of the native arts.
NOTE: 2
It may appear from the above that these cultural activities were confined to the Brahmins, and others were excluded. But it was not so. Any one could attend a discourse, and participate in the bhajan, or take part in the other classes.However, only boys from certain families which had "Brahmanical" values like the Mudaliyars, Chettiars, Pillais, Naidus and Reddys wound find them attractive. Even among the Brahmins, Madhva and Iyengar boys would generally keep aloof, and participate only in the functions of their denominations. It would be very interesting. The Iyengar boy, even if he attended the bhajan would only sing the songs on Vishnu, Krishna, Rama, Lakshmi, Hanuman etc and would not sing on other deities. He would not even participate in Radha Kalyanam! The Madhva boy was better, but he would not sing about gurus from traditions other than his own! The Madhvas in our place later rallied round Sri Raghavendra and conducted bhajans on Thursdays. Likewise, many non-brahmins had gathered round Satya Sai Baba and conducted their own bhajans on Thursdays. Interestingly, the lead here was taken by a Brahmin Tamil pundit who had been a "rationalist" and follower of EVR in his younger days! (He was also our Tamil teacher in school, and used to talk against religion!)
The other non-brahmin sections had their own festivals and forms of art. They would celebrate Mariamman festival, especially before summer began, and for days distribute gruel to the public. They would celebrate festivals of Angala Parameswari and organise dramas. Curiously, many of these related to incidents from the Mahabharata, and would celebrate Bhima, Arjuna and their exploits, along with celebration of Draupadi amman!
But their big moment was during Sankranti or Pongal. For over 15 days there would be festivities with competitive sports, involving display of native martial arts, with sticks and swords, wrestling, etc.Two of my schoolmates, Thangavelu and Perumal were champion fighters with the stick ( Silambam) It would culminate with the "gooli aattam" which involved bringing in a stud bull from the nearby forest villages and two groups of youth trying to control its run from either side with ropes round its neck. It was rather risky, and animal rights activists and the judges would cry of cruelty today (though they would kill any number of cattle, goats and chicken and other birds for their stomach!) Prominent local non-brahmins would be honoured . Our own immediate neighbour was the "Oor Gounder"- he had been the village chieftain before it expanded, and he would be garlanded, honoured and taken round the town, and he would inaugurate and conduct the festivities. There would be music, especially local drums and percussion instruments like Taarai, tappattai, etc. The wind instrument used would be like a small Nadaswaram, but its notes would be shrill. Then there would be other items like the "horse dance" ( one would have seen it in the film Chandralekha)- later made popular in the name of "Puravi natyam" by T.C.Sundaramurti, its noted exponent.
In sum, people at every level had developed cultural activities of their choice, and it is naive pedantry to call something classical and judge everything by its standards.Obviously, art finds its own level and a hundred ways of expression. I had not kept any notes, or I could have related many more incidents.
Sadly, Dravidian politics and the cinema-TV-Video culture have maimed and mutilated many of the native arts.
No comments:
Post a Comment