For the love of histoire

       Professor Shahid Amin's emphatic piece, "Hardly Unanimous, Mr. Thorat", The Hindu, July 13, 2012, hints at profound paradoxes in the society of our nation which in the times to come will pose a serious challenge. He beautifully points out the contradictions between "the celebration of the enabling learning curve of the 'average' schoolchild" and "the violence inflicted by precisely such homogenisations on the radically different life experiences of children from disadvantaged groups".

       To lighten the burden of jargon on my beloved readers, all I want to highlight is that the education system of our country and the ones who profess to ‘streamline’ it are intentionally sweeping things under the carpet. As a faculty in a State University located in the middle of the sand dunes far away from the posh intelligentsia salons of Delhi and Kolkata, I grapple with ‘field challenges’ almost on a routine basis. I consider myself fortunate to have experienced these things at close quarters.

        Most of my dear students in the M.A. previous class are Dalits. They are one of the most laborious lots I have come across (more so than the Mick Jagger fans whom I taught at my alma mater a year ago). They lack in nothing but confidence. I work hard daily to instill that fluency in them. They were unfortunate to have never attended regular schools. Moreover, some of them found the syllabus irrelevant and atrocious.

       The remedy lies in a simple fact: lets be honest. In a democratic set up like ours, the least we can do is to be genuinely unanimous by raking in all the diverse and\or divergent views and opinions. This cannot be more relevant than to the field of education. In a nation that has dissimilarities ensconced in its warp and weft, it would be unjust to impose a mainstream homogenised education upon vast multitudes of children and adolescents hailing from various cultural hues and more importantly, from discriminatory pasts. The system and our awareness needs to be educated in their history.