Awaiting changes to a syllabus of hate

Jun 9th, 2009 | By editor | Category: Opinion, Viewing News from The Hindu

All the focus is on madrasa reforms but Pakistan’s schools are also seen as encouraging extremism, while the government has shown little urgency about implementing a revised curriculum.

Nirupama Subramanian

On a recent weekday afternoon, a small group of youngsters gathered at a meeting hall in Islamabad to discuss how to combat extremism, militancy and terrorism in Pakistan. Listed were top-notch speakers, including two members of Parliament and the well-known physicist, Pervez Hoodbhoy.

Dr. Hoodbhoy, who teaches at the Quaid-e-Azam University in the Pakistan capital, spoke passionately and at length, on a theme that he has worked to highlight for years: the education imparted to Pakistani children is flawed and encourages extremism, intolerance and ignorance. He showed the group, mostly undergraduate students, slides from an illustrated primer for the Urdu alphabet he picked from a shop in Rawalpindi: alif for Allah; bay for bandook (gun); tay for takrao (collision, shown by a plane crashing into the Twin Towers); jeem for jihad; kay for khanjar (dagger); and hay for hijab.

This was not a prescribed textbook, but another set of slides he showed had excerpts from a 1995 government-approved curriculum for Social Studies, which stated that at the end of Class V, the child should be able to acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against Pakistan; demonstrate by actions a belief in the fear of Allah; make speeches on jehad and shahadat (martyrdom); understand Hindu-Muslim differences and the resultant need for Pakistan; India’s evil designs against Pakistan; be safe from rumour-mongers who spread false news; visit police stations; collect pictures of policemen, soldiers, and National Guards; and demonstrate respect for the leaders of Pakistan.

“Instead of teaching our children about the nice things in this world like the colours of flowers, about the wonders of the universe, we are teaching them to hate,” he said. The school curriculum was one reason, he said, why Pakistanis were in denial that the militants and extremists now terrorising the entire country were home-grown products, and why many tended to externalise the problem with conspiracy theories about an “external” hand.

At the end of the discussion, which included a question-and-answer session, the group was asked how many thought Pakistan’s present problems were the consequence of an “Indian hand.” A quarter of the group put up its hands. Next, the students were asked how many thought the problems were the result of an American conspiracy to destabilise Pakistan and deprive it of its nuclear weapons: more than three-fourths of the group sent their hands up without a moment’s hesitation.

The irony was that this was the “youth group” of a non-governmental organisation, the Liberal Forum of Pakistan. The students had reserved their maximum applause for a speaker who projected the widespread line that Pakistan’s problems began only after 2001, and are the fallout of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

“Was there a single incident of terrorism before that? A single suicide bombing? No.” he said. The speaker was an official of the Ministry of Youth Affairs.

In the search for solutions to the crisis sweeping Pakistan and threatening to tear it apart, the international community has tended to focus on madrasas as “terrorist factories.” But for Dr. Hoodbhoy and others who have been fighting a long battle for urgent changes in Pakistan’s national school curriculum and the prescribed school textbooks, children getting a government-approved education in the public school system are at equal risk.

“Madrasas are not the only institutions breeding hate, intolerance, a distorted world view. The educational material in government-run schools do much more than madrasas. The textbooks tell lies, create hatred, inculcate militancy…” This was the damning conclusion of a landmark research project by the Islamabad-based Sustainable Development Policy Institute.

For three years, 30 scholars commissioned by SDPI pored over textbooks in four subjects taught for Classes 1 to 12: Social Studies/Pakistan Studies, Urdu, English and Civics. The startling findings of their labour came out in a 2004 publication, “The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan.”

The much-written about research unleashed a huge debate on what was being taught in Pakistan’s schools, and became the basis for a major revision of the national curriculum undertaken by the Musharraf regime in 2006. The new curriculum has made several big changes. There is a conscious move to teach tolerance and respect for diversity, and the open vilification of India is absent. It also does not insist on imposing Islamic religious teaching on non-Muslim students. Religion is to be taught in focussed courses, rather than being infused in Social Studies, Civics, Urdu and English.

Unfortunately, so far, no move has been made to introduce new textbooks that reflect the changes.

“The revised curriculum is a huge departure from the earlier one. But whether the changes it prescribes will be implemented at all is not clear to us. The more it is delayed, the less and less we are sure it is going to come,” said A.H. Nayyar, research fellow at SDPI and one of the initiators of the project.

The changes in the curriculum are up on the Internet site of the Ministry of Education. For Grades 4 and 5 Social Studies, the curriculum has dropped the learning outcomes prescribed by the 1995 and 2002 curricula, focussing instead on providing an “unbiased” education that aims to build informed citizens equipped with analytical skills and “values such as equality, social justice, fairness, diversity, and respect for self and diverse opinions of others.”

The SDPI recommendation that history be taught as a separate subject instead of being lumped into Pakistan Studies was accepted by the framers of the revised curriculum. So, for the first time, a curriculum has been framed for history as a separate subject from Grades 6 to 8.

In contrast to the earlier approach in the Pakistan Studies curriculum, in which the history of Pakistan begins with the day the first Muslim set foot in India, the revised curriculum includes a study of the Indus valley civilisation, of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and of the ancient Maurya and Gupta dynasties.

The curriculum appears keen to emphasise a composite South Asian history from which Pakistan took birth including the “joint Hindu-Muslim” efforts in the struggle for independence. The Pakistan Studies curriculum for Grades 9 and 10 wants children to learn about the multicultural heritage of Pakistan and “get used to the idea of unity in diversity,” a big no-no earlier.

The revised curriculum also has a component on “peace studies” and conflict resolution.

One reason new textbooks based on the revised curriculum have not come out yet, Dr. Nayyar speculated, may be that the 1998 national educational policy introduced by the shortlived Nawaz Sharif government, remains in force till 2010. The Pakistan People’s Party-led government could be waiting to introduce its own education policy, and usher in the changes to the curriculum and the textbooks along with this, he said.

Even the draft new education policy is ready, based on a two-year-old White Paper. It too reflects a major shift from the 1998 policy, which laid down that education should enable the citizens to lead their lives as true practising Muslims according to the teachings of Islam as prescribed in the Quran and Sunnah. It also made the teaching of Nazra Quran a compulsory subject from Grades 1 to 8, and the learning of selected verses from the Quran thereafter, in clear violation of the Constitution that Islam will not be imposed on non-Muslims.

By contrast, the draft new policy makes it clear that only Muslim children will be provided instruction in Islamiyat, while minorities will be provided an education in their own religion. The new policy will provide the framework for the implementing the new curriculum and introducing new textbooks.

The bad news is that in April, the federal Cabinet put off approving the draft indefinitely. Only after the Cabinet approves the policy can it be placed before Parliament. A report in Dawn newspaper said the Cabinet wanted the Education Ministry to make the policy “more comprehensive, covering every aspect of education sector which needs improvement along with an implementable work plan.” But no urgency is visible in the Ministry to get cracking on this task. Another concern is that the Education Minister is not known for his progressive views, especially on gender issues.

“My fear,” said Dr. Nayyar, a soft-spoken physicist who retired from teaching at the Quaid-e-Azam University some years ago, “is that the government may not have the political strength to bring in a progressive education policy. They may succumb to pressures of various kinds and end up bringing in a hopelessly muddled policy.”

Yet the need for reforms in education has never been as urgent and necessary as now. As Dr. Hoodbhoy has pointed out in several recent articles, while a physical takeover of Pakistan by the Taliban may be a far cry, extremist ideology has taken root in young minds across the country, thanks to a flawed education system.

Compared to the 1.5 million who study in madrasas, an estimated 20 million children are enrolled in government schools. Dr. Nayyar laments that in the five years since the publication of the SDPI report, children who were 11 years old at the time have completed their matriculation. They read the old textbooks, and learnt a way of thinking about themselves and the world that will prove hard to change.

“Another generation has been lost because the process has taken too long,” he said. And until the new textbooks are introduced, millions of children will continue to learn in their Urdu lessons in schools about the differences between Hindus and Muslims in a hatred-generating way, about “India’s evil designs against Pakistan” in their Social Studies, and that Bangladesh was a result of a conspiracy by India with assistance from “Hindus living in East Pakistan.”

Donation in colleges

Extracted from Times of India Dated 4th June 2009, Chennai Edition.

Extracts from various pages are put below. The title of each extract is put in large bold letters

TIMES IMPACT

Centre orders probe, TN sends notices to 2 medical colleges

Day After TOI Expose On Capitation Fees, Threat Of Derecognition

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi/Chennai: The Times of India’s expose of medical seats being put on sale for Rs 20-40 lakh by colleges in Tamil Nadu has triggered a probe into the scam by the Union government. Both the HRD and health ministries on Wednesday said they were examining the expose and, if it was found correct, would take action, including derecognising the colleges.
Expressing his shock at the expose, which was jointly done by TOI and Times Now, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, ‘‘We are trying to get hold of the evidence. I have asked Times Now to furnish me the tapes. As soon as we verify the facts, action will be taken.’’
Union health secretary Naresh Dayal said the colleges would be derecognised if the evidence against them was established. He said, “Such incidents are very disheartening and need to be seriously curbed. If the evidence is correct, we will take action like derecognising such colleges.’’ The Medical Council of India, the regulator for medical education, dubbed the sale of medical seats an “unpardonable act” and called an executive committee meeting to discuss the issue.
Meanwhile, the TN health department has decided to issue showcause notices to Sri Ramachandra University and Shree Balaji Medical College for violating the TN Act and SC ruling banning capitation fee. “We will initiate criminal proceedings if they are guilty,” said state health secretary V K Subburaj.
MONEY TALKS, MERIT WALKS
“I have never been the chairman. Once I was a trustee. Before election I quit. I have absolutely no connection with the college or the trust” Jagathrakshakan
“This is how corruption in medicine starts early. The student all his life will work as a corrupt doctor to raise back the money he gave as donation”
—Naresh Dayal, HEALTH SECRETARY ‘‘We are trying to get hold of the evidence. I have asked Times Now to furnish me the tapes. As soon as we verify the facts, action will be taken.’’
—Kapil Sibal, HRD MINISTER

CANDID CAMERA: TV grabs show administrative officer of Shree Balaji Medical College Johnson (right) and deputy registrar of Sri Ramachandra University A Subramaniyan (above) negotiating capitation fees for admission

TANGLED WEB: The website of Shree Balaji Medical College and Hospital not only clearly mentioned Jagathrakshakan as its chairman, it also carried a message from him for new students

Jagathrakshakan

MONEY TRAMPLES MERIT IN THIS RACE

Missing A Govt Seat By A Few Marks Could Mean Coughing Up Half-A-Crore Of Rupees. Thus, Many ‘Doctor Dreams’ Die
High Scorers Often Lose Out To Deep Pockets

Karthika Gopalakrishnan | TNN

Chennai: Apart from rampant profiteering, the capitation fee scam has an ugly side which damages the very basis of the merit system. Middle-class students, who achieve high scores in Class XII but miss a seat in a government-run medical college by a few marks, often find themselves unable to cough up the huge sums required for entry into a private institution. Instead, the slot goes to a mediocre candidate who is able and willing to pay Rs 20-40 lakh.
Tamil Nadu, for instance has 15 government medical colleges with a pool of 1,745 seats which are decided on the basis of marks. In addition, there are another 15 which are privately run; some of them have a government quota, but most don’t.
In effect, more than 1,000 seats are filled up by private managements whose only criterion for admission is the ability to pay capitation fees. Where does that leave a student who misses out on admission in a government college by a few marks?
Hannah Lois Dorothy of CSI Baines School, Kilpauk, for instance, stood first in her school. “I have an aggregate of 191.25/200 (95.6%) in Physics, Chemistry and Biology but the government cutoff score for medicine is around 196 (98%). I have written entrance exams for a few medical colleges. But I cannot afford to pay the capitation fee ranging between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 30 lakh to get a seat,” she says. Such students, unable to pay capitation fees for a seat despite scoring well, may have to settle for a different field of study. In Hannah’s case, she is considering engineering as an option.
Principal K Mohana of Modern Senior Secondary School, Nanganallur, says the bigger tragedy is that bright students who are genuinely interested in serving society are often robbed of the chance of studying medicine because they are unable to pay hefty donations. “Since it is harder in CBSE schools to score as high an aggregate as the state board schools, most CBSE students prefer Engineering over Medicine,” she said.
According to Shanmuga Sundara Pandian, whose daughter Lalitha Rajalakshmi plans to appear for counselling for a medical seat, the system is especially unfair to middleclass families. “I think 195/200 (97.5%) is a very good score. Students will have worked very hard to get here. But if they miss out on a seat, it is unrealistic to expect middle class parents to spend lakhs on donation,” said Pandian.
“Private medical colleges charge Rs 40 lakh as capitation fee in addition to the fee. By the end of an MBBS course, a parent shells out close to Rs 1 crore. Who is ready to pay that much? Even though students may be very bright, it is merely a dream for middle-class families to be able to let their child study medicine,” he said.
— With inputs from
Lakshmi Kumaraswami

LAMENT DECLINE IN MEDICAL SERVICES

Patients will stand to suffer if stringent law not in place: Docs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: Terrible. That’s how the fraternity of doctors feels about the impact of capitation fees on medical education. The death of merit has led to a progressive decline in medical services, say most experts in the field. In days ahead, unless suitable legislative amendments are brought, the patient is the one most likely to suffer, goes the consensus.
“It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen,” says surgical gastroenterologist Dr R Surendran, who is the head of department in Chennai’s Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital. “What adds to the problem of quality is that many of the private medical colleges don’t have patients or faculty. In a few years, we would have doctors who can’t even measure blood pressure,” he said.
Many of his colleagues agree. “When you pay capitation fees to join a medical college, you make a wrong start,” says Dr George Thomas, editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics.
“Though many things can be bought with money in India, commercialising health and education leaves us with no hope. Doctors unlike professionals are treated well in the society. No doctor
starves for food. Every doctor is treated with respect by patients. They surrender themselves with hope of cure. And for this social obligation, every doctor should stick by ethics,” he says.
Given the autonomy which deemed universities currently enjoy, anyone with 60% marks in Class XII and enough cash can get an MBBS seat. To make matters worse, the country is estimated to have a requirement for two lakh additional doctors every year but is able to produce only 32,000 MBBS graduates.
With the demand-supply gap being so vast, the government is seen as reluctant to impose restrictions that may slow down the growth of the medical education sector. However, some are of the view that too much is being made of the issue since students who pay capitation fees are eventually forced to raise their standards in keeping with the needs of the profession.
“There are meritorious students in medical colleges who underperform because they don’t like the stream while some who have paid have the eagerness to learn,” sayS former vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University K Anandakannan.

LEGAL DOOR

Donation business thrives on lack of clear-cut norms

A Subramani | TNN

Chennai: It is impossible to bottle the capitation fee genie in the absence of clear-cut punitive norms, say jurists. Judgments at various levels notwithstanding, the mode of regulating or penalising a privately-run educational institute which demands or accepts capitation fee remains unclear, they say.
States such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have enacted laws to ban educational donations based on Supreme Court judgments, but action against offenders can only be in the nature of recommendations to central agencies. The Tamil Nadu Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Collection of Capitation Fee) Act 1992, for instance, contains directions for educational institutions to maintain financial data, academic records, etc, but does not talk about punishment if guidelines are flouted, pointed out a senior jurist. “If an institution is found guilty, the state can only recommend to the All India Council for Technical Education or Medical Council of India or University Grants Commission for appropriate action, which includes disaffiliation,” S Prabakaran, president of Tamil Nadu Advocates’ Association (TNAA) said.
The mushrooming of private colleges over the past decade and the government’s increasingly hands-off approach to higher education is seen to be the prime factors. A jurist said the UGC makes noises once in a while but never carries out genuine inspection to verify infrastructure amenities of institutions and examine admission or fee-related issues in depth. Rarely, if ever, are complaints or petitions against educational malpractices entertained by state administrations or legal forums.
One exceptional case cited in TN is that of a student named Sasikala. Daughter of a vegetable vendor from Pappireddypatti in Salem, Sasikala had enough marks to be admitted for MBBS under the government quota. Still, a city-based college denied her a seat in 1989-90 as she was unable to cough up a few lakhs as capitation fee. The girl moved Madras High Court. However, Sasikala could not get any interim relief and a whole academic year went by even as the case was pending in the court. In 1990-91 she got a medical seat at the Chengalpattu Government Medical College, and she decided to join it. The private college, utilizing the opportunity, opted for an out-ofcourt settlement and offered a decent sum as compensation if she withdrew the case. The case was withdrawn.
A couple of years ago, another student, though admitted under the government quota which entails payment of only the state-stipulated fee, was similarly unable to join a private medical college as the management demanded an additional Rs 5 lakh. The student had no option except to approach courts as the admission deadline was to expire the next day.
A bench, specially constituted by then chief justice A P Shah, heard the matter and warned the college of severe action if it denied admission to the student. The college, which neither admitted making a demand for capitation fees nor offered seat to the student, did relent in the end and let the student in.
The bench used the opportunity to lay down exhaustive guidelines on publication of marks, merit lists and fee details on the college website. It also stipulated that fees should be collected only through demand drafts or cheques.
Notwithstanding such intervention by courts, donations continue to be charged freely. Now in order to help tighten norms, Prabakaran said the TNAA would soon file a writ petition to direct the statutory oversight committees to bring deemed universities also under their wings, both for admission and fee structure regulation.
subramani.a@timesgroup.com

Cancel licences of tainted univs if found guilty: TN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi/Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has instructed the health department not to hesitate to send recommendations for cancellation of the licences of two deemed universities — Sri Ramachandra University (SRU) and Shree Balaji Medical College — to the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Union Grants Commission (UGC) if they are guilty.
Officials of these universities were caught on camera asking for capitation fees of Rs 20-40 lakh, in violation of the Tamil Nadu Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Collection Capitation Fee) Act 1992 and Supreme Court rulings against capitation fee.
State health minister M R K Panneerselvam also promised action against the two colleges, one of which is run by a party colleague and central minister. Officials in the HRD ministry pointed out that capitation fee was banned by both the Supreme Court as well as the Tamil Nadu government. Although medical education does not come under the HRD ministry, officials said action could be taken through coordinated action between the HRD and health ministries. At the HRD end, the UGC can withdraw the deemed university status of these institutes.
MoS health Dinesh Trivedi told TOI that “capitation fee introduces corruption early in a medical student’s life”. Having paid a huge amount to enter medical college, doctors are tempted to lower their moral guard when they start to work in order to recover the amount. Trivedi said, “This is a shocking expose. Not just medical standards go for a six, but corruption among the medical fraternity starts from here.”
“Merit is completely overlooked as poor students can never pay up. Not only the health ministry but also the Income Tax department must deal with such cases sternly,” he said
Medical Council of India chairman Dr Ketan Desai said, “Taking money against medical seats is an unpardonable act. If council members agree after going through all documents provided to us by TOI, we will order an inquiry into the scandal. Since the colleges in question are deemed universities, we will recommend to the UGC to derecognise them.”

How terrorists are made?(Story of a terrorist)

How Lashkar funded transnational terror campaign
Praveen Swami

• Oman millionaire, Kerala computer engineer, Pakistani jihadists facilitated attacks from Muscat to Mumbai and Bangalore
• Nawaz’s jihadist engagement began when he was just 18
  Landmarks in Oman were on the terror radar

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Back in 2006, the lives of a millionaire Omani businessman and a struggling computer technician from Kerala intersected with the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s battle-hardened jihadists. Even now, six months after the arrest of Ernakulam-born Sarfaraz Nawaz and Muscat entrepreneur Ali Abdul Aziz al-Hooti, investigators in India and Oman are struggling to understand the complex networks that emerged: networks that they are discovering bound together Indian Mujahideen attacks in southern India with the Lashkar’s assault on Mumbai and a series of planned bombings in West Asia.
Nawaz’s jihadist engagement began when he was just 18 years old. He joined the Students Islamic Movement of India in 1995, and was elected to its central committee five years later. His contemporaries included many who later played key roles in building the Indian jihadist movement among them, Safdar Nagori, Peedical Abdul Shibly and Yahya Kamakutty.
Like the overwhelming majority of SIMI members, though, Nawaz chose a life of middle-class respectability. He obtained a computer networking qualification from an institute in Kochi, married and, with the help of relatives, found a job in Oman.
During a visit home in 2006, however, Nawaz heard a sermon that dragged him back into the world he had escaped from. Tadiyantavide Nasir known to his followers as Haji Umar delivered a speech casting jihad as a central imperative of Islam.
Inspired by the speech, Oman authorities have since discovered, Nawaz set about making contacts with jihadists in Muscat. Friends at a local mosque put him in touch with al-Hooti, a successful automobile components dealer, who also owned a string of Internet cafés.
Born to an Indian mother, al-Hooti’s radicalisation had been driven by stories of atrocities against Muslims he heard on visits home to Maharashtra. Before he turned 30, al-Hooti had had twice trained at Lashkar camps in Pakistan and emerged as the organisation’s key point-man in Oman.
Working with Lashkar intelligence operative Mohammad Jassem, also known by the alias Tehsin, al-Hooti used his businesses as camouflage for an elaborate operation that funnelled funds to jihadists in India and volunteers into Pakistan for training.
Ali Asshama, a Maldivian national who along with Bangladesh-based Lashkar commander Faisal Haroun helped set up the Lashkar’s Indian Ocean networks, was among al-Hooti’s wards. Haroun and Assham are thought to have crafted the 2006 landing of assault rifles intended to have been used in a terror attack in Gujarat, as well as an abortive 2007 effort to land eight Lashkar fidayeen off Mumbai.
Early in 2007, al-Hooti and Jassem also arranged to ship Mumbai resident Fahim Arshad Ansari from Dubai to a Lashkar camp in Pakistan through Oman and Iran. Ansari is now being tried on charges of having generated the videotape of Mumbai’s streets which was used to train the Lashkar assault team that carried out the November massacre.Multiple targets
By 2007, Oman authorities say, the pro-western Emirate itself had begun to figure on al-Hooti’s list of targets.
In June that year, al-Hooti held discussions with Lashkar sympathisers in Oman on the prospect of targeting prominent landmarks in Muscat, among them a British Broadcasting Corporation office, the Golden Tulip Hotel, and a spa in the upmarket Nizwa area. No final operational plans were made, but Oman authorities found enough evidence to sentence al-Hooti to life last month.
Meanwhile, Nasir made contact with Nawaz, asking for money to fund a series of bombings in southern India. Nasir also needed cash to send volunteers from Kerala to train with the Lashkar.
Nawaz turned to the Lashkar for logistical help. Between March and May, 2008, the Karnataka police believe, al-Hooti transferred an estimated $2,500 for Nasir’s use to a Kannur-based hawala dealer. Lashkar commander Rehan, one of al-Hooti’s associates, arranged for Nasir’s recruits to train with a jihadist unit operating near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
From July, though, the plan began to slowly unravel. First, the bombs planted in Bangalore failed to work properly. Then, in October, five of Nasir’s volunteers were caught in an Indian Army ambush. Four were killed; the fifth man, Purathur resident Abdul Jabbar, was arrested. Even as the Andhra Pradesh police closed in on Nasir, al-Hooti and Rehan helped arrange his escape with the help of the Lashkar’s top resident agent in Bangladesh, Mubashir Shahid.Lashkar International
West Asia-based jihadists have long played a role in financing the Lashkar’s operations against India, while the Pakistan-based group, in turn, has been seeking a role in the region.
Saudi Arabia-based Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmad Bahaziq, for example, has been indicted by the United Nations Security Council as a key financier of the Lashkar’s infrastructure in Pakistan. Bahaziq, who like al-Hooti, was born to an Indian mother is believed to have been arrested by Saudi Arabia in 2006. There has been no public word, however, on the status of his trial.
Back in 2004, British troops in Iraq detained top Lashkar commander Danish Ahmad who, using the name Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil, had for many years trained cadre for covert operations against India. Since Danish’s arrest, which was first reported in The Hindu, Lashkar operatives have been involved in operations in Australia, the United States of America and even the Maldives.

The Hindu 28th May 2009

Vaiko warns of bloodbath in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko on Wednesday warned that Tamil Nadu would witness a bloodbath even if the slightest harm befell Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader V. Prabakaran.
Addressing a meeting here to condemn the killing of Sri Lankan Tamils, the MDMK leader said the mind of the people in Tamil Nadu had become a “volcano.” It was now a long time since they had forgotten the Sriperumpudur incident (assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi), he said.
Prabakaran had a place in the hearts of Tamils the world over and they would not tolerate the slightest harm to him, Mr Vaiko said, adding people in Tamil Nadu also would not have a different attitude.
He said they would not be cowed down by the police and guns. The LTTE and its leader Prabakaran could not be defeated in the war.
Recalling the shoe-throwing incident at the news conference of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, he said the self-respect of the Tamils was manifested in the self-immolation of 12 persons. The Sikhs could only hurl a shoe, “but here we have people who can get bombs. The next generation of youth will not be like me,” he later told reporters.
Mr. Vaiko said the sea between India and Sri Lanka could not permanently prevent the Tamil youth from visiting that country with arms. “If the Argentine-born Che Guevara could fight for the Cubans, why not the youth from Tamil Nadu for the Tamils in Sri Lanka, with whom they have an umbilical cord relationship,” he asked.
Mr. Vaiko said “India would not remain one country” if Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa did not stop the war and if India did not urge him to stop the war.

Poisoning the minds of children

“Wherever they went, they had a sword in their hand. Their army went like a storm in all the four directions. Any country that came their way was destroyed. Houses of prayers and universities were destroyed. Libraries were burnt religious books were destroyed. Mothers and sisters were humiliated. Mercy and justice were unknown to them.”

This is what lakhs of children going to RSS-run schools will learn about Islam, at the tender age of nine, from their textbook Gaurav Gatha for class four published by Saraswati Shishu Mandir Prakashan (an RSS-run publishing house).

As visible proof of Muslim atrocities the same book also teaches:

“Delhi’s Qutb Minar is even today famous in his (Qutbuddin Aibak’s) name. This had not been built by him. He could not have been able to build it. It was actually built by emperor Samudragupta. Its real name was Vishnu Stambha…. This Sultan actually got some parts of it demolished and its name was changed.”

While thus demonising the Muslims, strangely it does not occur to the Hindu communalists how apt the above description is of what they themselves have been up to in Gujarat, Pune and Ayodhya in recent years. In Pune, the library of the Bhandarkar Institute was vandalised, in Gujarat mothers and sisters were humiliated and murdered, and in Ayodhya the Babri Masjid was demolished.

In the understanding of the Sangh combine (Parivar or family connotes a decent, humane value and cannot be associated with organisations that promote hatred and murder) led by the RSS, the role of Christians is no better than that of the Muslims.

The RSS-run Vidya Bharati Sansthan, which claims to be engaged in providing to the young generation education in religion, culture and nationalism, has the following to teach children about Christians in book no. 12 of a series published by the Sansthan. Followers of Christianity are portrayed as anti-national and a threat to the integrity of India and it is said:

“It is because of the conspiratorial policies of the followers of this religion that India was partitioned. Even today Christian missionaries are engaged in fostering anti–national tendencies in Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal, Bihar, Kerala, and other regions of our country because of which there is a grave danger to the integrity of present day India.”

Warnings unheeded

The heavy cost the nation had to pay for this kind of poisoning of the minds of young children ( a poisoning aided by the BJP using state power whenever and wherever they got hold of it) was seen in Gujarat during the mass murders following Godhra and in Orissa recently. For years before the Godhra riots secular activists like Teesta Setalvad had been warning repeatedly that if the communal hatred being taught to Gujarat children went unchecked, then Gujarat was heading inevitably towards the kind of communal carnage it witnessed in 2002.

After all the children in Gujarat who were exposed to the RSS type of education were not only learning to see the enemy in Muslims and Christians, they were also learning how to deal with it.

Children reading the Gujarat State Social Studies text for class IX would learn:

“apart from the Muslims even the Christians, Parsees and other foreignersare also recognised as the minority communities. In most of the states the Hindus are in minority and Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are in majority in these respective states”.

In the Gujarat State Social Studies text for Std. X, which virtually eulogises fascism and Nazism, the children would learn how to deal with these ‘foreigners’ who are making the Hindus a minority in their own country.

“Internal Achievements of Nazism: Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time by establishing a strong administrative set up. He created the vast state of Greater Germany. He adopted the policy of opposition towards the Jewish people and advocated the supremacy of the German race. He adopted a new economic policy and brought prosperity to Germany….He instilled the spirit of adventure in the common people.”

That in order to maintain the purity and supremacy of the ‘Aryan’ race millions of Jews were butchered was not even thought worthy of mention.

After all, the RSS ideologue, Guru Golwalkar, had categorically stated inWe or Our Nationhood Defined, p. 55-56:

“German race-pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the semitic racesthe Jews. Race-pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for use in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.”

These are only a few samples of the kind of ideological poisoning that is undertaken by the RSS and its allies. We have in our book RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal Project, Sage, New Delhi, 2008, (authored by Aditya Mukherjee, Mridula Mukherjee and Sucheta Mahajan, all Professors of History at JNU) tried to show extensively how the vicious Hindu communal propaganda not only led to the murder of one the greatest living Hindus, Mahatma Gandhi, but even today threatens the very survival of the great legacy of our freedom struggle — a secular, multi-cultural democratic state.

No regulatory framework

No civilised country in the world today will permit racism (communalism is akin to racism and anti-semitism) to be propagated at the popular level, especially at the child’s level. It is shocking that more than sixty years after independence hate speeches can still be given during mass election campaigns threatening to cut off the hands of Muslims. It is totally unacceptable that our children are still exposed to hatred towards other communities despite secular governments making promises about “detoxifying” the education system. A promise last made in 2004 when the victory of the secular forces provided a historic opportunity to combat communalism and to restore the civilisational values of the freedom struggle which were getting severely eroded under BJP rule. However, more than four years later, schools are free to choose any textbooks they please and there is no regulatory framework in place for whetting textbooks before they can be used.

(The writers are professors of history at Jawaharlal Nehru University.)