Write in Breif the measures taken for protection of secularism in India.
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The other alternative is education, which according to some is a more important solvent than perhaps even economic improvement.
1. Education:
Today, the world over, education is considered to be the best agent for promotion of rational and scientific values and attitudes. While a total faith in education’s modernising role may be somewhat exaggerated, nevertheless, States that are in the process of nation-building rely considerably on education to modernise the out-look and world- view of their population.
In India, our hopes of building a secular society largely rest upon the millions of school and university students, who are today being exposed to modern science, rationality and humanism. The secular approach of the State, insofar as prevention of any discrimination in education against minorities is concerned, is quite evident.
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However, these steps do not guarantee that the content of education, which ultimately is more vitally linked with the dissemination of values, would be necessary such as to be conducive to imparting secular values and attitudes. But, fortunately, there exist mechanisms and agencies to take care of this also. Thus, such bodies as the National Council for Educational Research and Training prepare text-books for schools, which emphasise values that are consistent with our secular ideals.
Furthermore, from time to time, books are examined by experts to ensure that lessons likely to promote negative feelings about any group are not allowed to continue. Complaints, in this regard, from any quarter, are given serious attention and lapses that may have crept in are checked and removed. These are important measures to ensure dissemination of knowledge and values that are free from prejudices and biases against any group or community in our society.
Apart from this, frequent seminars and conferences of experts are organized to see how values and attitudes those constitute the positive and constructive aspects of our national heritage and which promote secularism, can be transmitted through education. This step also ensures that the content of our education is not devoid of any values at all; education without values is soulless and leads the learners nowhere.
Further, the recently formulated National Policy of Education – 1986 has also taken cognizance of the fact that through education we must fight and eliminate such evils as obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition and fatalism. The categorical recognition in our educational system, of these problems has, for the first time, drawn formal attention to conditions that thwart the development of a secular society in India.
2. Voluntary Agencies:
Mere education is not enough to promote secular attitude among people, if the society continues to be in the clutches of obscurantism, superstition and fundamentalism.
Movements for social reform will have to be organized and public opinion mobilized: Minorities should be encouraged to participate in the mainstream of national life. Social reform is a spirit of social ‘justice and equality must pervade all sections of the population.
Religion should not be allowed to hinder the spread of these values. The work of voluntary agencies and associations (e.g. women’s movement). Science for the People’s Movement are as important in this regard as State action.
3. Social Engineering:
True secularism is a style of thought and a way of life. Secularisation presupposes deep and thorough going psychological transformations which, in their turn, are dependent on institutional change. Admonition and exhortations are, at best, instruments of limited utility. Unaccompanied by substantial social change and massive educational support, they can attain little.
The secular mind is characterised by rationality, empathy and psychic mobility. If calculated on rational end means bases, it stipulates strategies on a wide canvas. These attributes can thrive best in an open society. They are sustained by cultural ethos of intergroup understanding and co-operation. To reorder group allegiances and to restructure their patterns of interaction a larger national identity, rooted in interests, is essential.
1. Education:
Today, the world over, education is considered to be the best agent for promotion of rational and scientific values and attitudes. While a total faith in education’s modernising role may be somewhat exaggerated, nevertheless, States that are in the process of nation-building rely considerably on education to modernise the out-look and world- view of their population.
In India, our hopes of building a secular society largely rest upon the millions of school and university students, who are today being exposed to modern science, rationality and humanism. The secular approach of the State, insofar as prevention of any discrimination in education against minorities is concerned, is quite evident.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
However, these steps do not guarantee that the content of education, which ultimately is more vitally linked with the dissemination of values, would be necessary such as to be conducive to imparting secular values and attitudes. But, fortunately, there exist mechanisms and agencies to take care of this also. Thus, such bodies as the National Council for Educational Research and Training prepare text-books for schools, which emphasise values that are consistent with our secular ideals.
Furthermore, from time to time, books are examined by experts to ensure that lessons likely to promote negative feelings about any group are not allowed to continue. Complaints, in this regard, from any quarter, are given serious attention and lapses that may have crept in are checked and removed. These are important measures to ensure dissemination of knowledge and values that are free from prejudices and biases against any group or community in our society.
Apart from this, frequent seminars and conferences of experts are organized to see how values and attitudes those constitute the positive and constructive aspects of our national heritage and which promote secularism, can be transmitted through education. This step also ensures that the content of our education is not devoid of any values at all; education without values is soulless and leads the learners nowhere.
Further, the recently formulated National Policy of Education – 1986 has also taken cognizance of the fact that through education we must fight and eliminate such evils as obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition and fatalism. The categorical recognition in our educational system, of these problems has, for the first time, drawn formal attention to conditions that thwart the development of a secular society in India.
2. Voluntary Agencies:
Mere education is not enough to promote secular attitude among people, if the society continues to be in the clutches of obscurantism, superstition and fundamentalism.
Movements for social reform will have to be organized and public opinion mobilized: Minorities should be encouraged to participate in the mainstream of national life. Social reform is a spirit of social ‘justice and equality must pervade all sections of the population.
Religion should not be allowed to hinder the spread of these values. The work of voluntary agencies and associations (e.g. women’s movement). Science for the People’s Movement are as important in this regard as State action.
3. Social Engineering:
True secularism is a style of thought and a way of life. Secularisation presupposes deep and thorough going psychological transformations which, in their turn, are dependent on institutional change. Admonition and exhortations are, at best, instruments of limited utility. Unaccompanied by substantial social change and massive educational support, they can attain little.
The secular mind is characterised by rationality, empathy and psychic mobility. If calculated on rational end means bases, it stipulates strategies on a wide canvas. These attributes can thrive best in an open society. They are sustained by cultural ethos of intergroup understanding and co-operation. To reorder group allegiances and to restructure their patterns of interaction a larger national identity, rooted in interests, is essential.
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