Karnataka Government plans To Impose Gita On Students
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
22 July, 2011
Countercurrents.org
If India has the biggest problem today, it is Brahmanism and its attempt to dominate all forms of our social-political and cultural life. It comes through various patterns in India. Its main agenda is to inculcate brahmanical values so that it could retain its hegemony in political life which is fast changing because of the growing assertion of the marginalized communities and their participation in political power through democratic means.
It is interesting that when we talk about India and Indian state, very few of our friends realize the fact that Indian state is nothing but a complete tool of the brahmanical mindset. Most importantly, even the opposition space, the so called revolutionary forces in India is brahmanical in their jargons and deeds. Therefore, you can not fight against the brahmanical oppression unless we understand the nature of its working and how it is expert in creating distortions, rumors and character assassinations.
When Karnataka’s education minister asked all the educational institutions to teach Bhagwad Gita in the schools, he was not only violating the secular principals of the state but also creating disharmony among different sections of our population. It is easier to term what is wrong in Gita that many of secular friends too subscribe that it is a very secular book. One does not know what is secular in Gita which boast of caste identity, support varna system and perpetuate violence. Secondly, if Gita is being taught in the school then what is wrong with students from other religion and jaatis asking to be taught their religious books? And we can think of what kind of students would we be creating in schools once they read all these religious scriptures which do not have any place in modern world. These religious books created so many thousands years back remain unchanged and perpetrated caste and gender discrimination. Do we want our children to study these books of racial and gender discrimination?
The Sangh Parivar has its long agenda. They know it well that political power today is nothing in front of the enormous power that media wields and equally important to target the minds of the young children through school curriculum. Once you change the naïve mind and fill it with dirt about Muslims and Christians terming them as foreign origin, the impact would be great. For Gita gyan, we will need Brahmins who would talk about great Indian values and traditions. That is why they started their Saraswati Shishu Mandirs and Eklvaya Vidayala at the villages. These school preach brahmanical values, justify caste system as scientific and based on merit while perpetrate gender differences, Children are asked to celebrate all the festivals who are mostly gender biased and promote caste system.
The aim of putting Gita is to bring the Brahmins top at every level so that they remain at the helm of power which political they have lost due to democracy. So, brahmanical system is more dangerous than Islamic jehadis that way as this system work crookedly and in the name of culture and merit. When a priest justify caste system or varna vyavstha as scientific and based on merit, then you can understand their mind. One can ask there are hundreds of Brahmin poor but none of these poor are engaged in manual scavenging. What is the merit of one particular community in doing this work? There are brilliant shudras and Dalits, many of them Sanskrit scholars but can they become priest at Tirupathi and Badrinath or Varanasi or Jagganathpuri. Have we not seen how the Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes was not allowed to enter temple in Puri, in Orrisa.
There are two important factors related to Karnataka government’s order. The first one is that it violates the rights of the non Hindus who are not interested in Gita. Will the government allow the other religious books such as Quran, Bible, Guru Granth Saheb and other texts to be taught in the schools? Will the Hindus study all these text? Why do we want our student to study so many religious books which are ultimately not going to help them? To become a good human being one need not to read all these texts which violates principles of humanity and human rights. So, from the point of India’s diverse population, the idea of Karnataka’s education department create differences among various sects of India. It clearly demarcates the people who do not believe in Islam and Christianity as ‘Indians. It is a dangerous connotation. Can our government allow this discrimination between its children?
Our educational system is corrupted with brahmanical biases. At the time when we should seriously think of secularizing our education by inculcating the spirit of diverse Indian values and at the same time allowing our children to question the wrongs in these religious texts, we are making them new fundamentalists who are educated, wearing tie, speaking wonderful English but deep in their contempt towards minorities and Dalits.
Even if we do not take the issue of minority’s right, the Gita Darshan is dangerous for social justice and equality. Where would you found book that justify discrimination. That whatever you are today is because of your karma in the previous birth. It means that a person who is poor, physically challenged or born in untouchable community does not have any right to complain since it is the outcome of his ‘misdeeds’ in the previous birth. None can ask question for constitutional changes and new laws as everything is related to your previous birth.
Secondly, Gita is a book that justifies violence and claim that it is not violence. One can only explain how Krishna guide Arjuna in the battlefield when the latter does not want to fight against his own relatives, saying that how would he kill his own uncles and cousins. He says ‘Nainam chhidanti shastrani, nainam dahati pavakah, nachainam cladinayti aapah, na shoshiyati marutaha’, which literally means that this soul is immortal, no fire can burn it, no arms can pierce it, no air can dry it.. No water can wet it.. it is immortal. It means if a person has committed a murder, he can easily go the court and swear putting his hand on Gita saying ‘Judge Saheb, I never murdered any one. How can I do that ? I can only murder the body. the soul is always there. Please judge sahib, there is no conspiracy, I am not lying. I swear by Gita’. And he may be right.
How Krishna justify Kshatriya dharma saying it is the duty of Kshatriyas to fight and one should not worry about who is in front of him whether Guru or uncles or cousins. It is the duty and every body has to work according to their dharma. Dharma means doing your duty according to their varna.
A book which justifies all that which is constitutionally prohibited in India can not be taught in the schools. It is important to break the myth built around these religious text books which are nothing but creating mental slavery among our youths. These books have no place in modern society. If India has to progress, it need to put these books into the dustbins and allow the children to study human relationship, diversity and explore nature, understand science and not become slave to the defunct ideas that has no basis in the modern world.
In the greater interest of modern education, we need to make our children free from these dogmas which can have more damaging effect on their mind. Of course, there will be forces who want to take India back. India is under assault from various sides. Frankly speaking who ever is killing people, bombing our cities is not a friend of our society. Whether they are Islamic or non Islamic, at the end, they are helping the brahmanical nationalists of India who want to control our mind and action as they are afraid of our political democracy which is fast slipping out their hand and these are the ways they want to control. The very aim of control the vast majority of shudras and ati-shudras and indirectly threatening them of dire consequences if they embrace any ‘religion’ which is ‘unIndian’ as being described by the Minister for education in Karnataka. He must answer the question as where have the Aryan come from. It is now important that we restart this debate of Aryan Invasion theory and we must seek apology from the Indian leaders or Hindu leaders of all the political parties for destroying the beautiful art work during Buddhist and Jain period. We must seek apology from them as what have they given to Shudra and Atishudra and they need to apologize for their misdeeds.
Question is just by opening up a debate with Muslims and Christians, the Sangh Parivar want to ensure that it lead the debate and become the custodian of Indian culture and Indian nationhood. It must be rejected wholeheartedly. The various offshoots of Sangh Parivar that have emerged through various actions in India must be challenged. Corruption and nepotism are big issues but not bigger than the unity and integrity of India. Let us be clear on this front. Let the youths of this country rise and reject all those champions of our morality who have tons of gold in their mutths and temples. It is indeed the greatest demand of the hour to look the agenda of such forces which are hell bent to have a ‘united’ India where Muslims, Christians suffer and Dalits and shudras are told to believe in Karma and work according to their varna dharma so that they could get birth in a better ‘jaati’ next time. The time is ripe to hit at the bottom and reject all those offers of bringing Gita and Ramayana in our personal and national life. All these dharmgranthas need rereading and reanalysis so that our children know how stories were cooked and why they were degraded for no faults of there. Let this debate be not confined to Muslims and non Muslims or Christian verses Hindus. It is basically a debate between Aryans and Non Aryans. Muslims and Christians are soft target but the real agenda is to control the Dalits and OBCs. Unless they debrahmanise themselves, such forces will always remain active and play havoc with our national life. A rainbow coalition based on strong ideological ground of equality, fraternity and respecting diverse view points and cultural values is the need of the hour. A new India can not be built with religious thugs taking main stage and dictating our personal choices and influencing the young mid with their perverted thought of we verses them. Can such an India ever claim to be a nation which respect human rights of individuals irrespective their caste, religion or linguistic affiliations. By continuously keeping these issues to debate, the Sangh and its offshoot organizations want to be creating suspicion among people from different communities and create an agenda helpful to their caste forces whether they remain in BJP or their friendly circle. The aim is not to help the Hindutva parties but all those who can enhance Hindutva and provide it credibility. That is why, it need to be emphasized so many time, the real danger to Indian polity is emerging from such forces which want to convert India into a theocratic state though at the moment it would be through parliamentary democratic system and by controlling our culture and media. In the name of freedom of expression, we will witness all those trials and titillating news which suits the brahmanical interest and any body opposing it would be termed as anti national. Such situations are worst than the government imposed emergency as today the extra constitutional forces of Hindutva have power to spread lies and rumors through these means. The only answer to this is challenge their cultural values, challenge their religious text and reject them one and for all. We do not need Gita is nothing but manuwad which is antithesis of our modern constitution which we need to protect at all cost so that this country can remain united and each one of can enjoy fruits of its progress irrespective of our religious and caste identities.
Government schools are not meant for religious education. There should be secular education there. If Sangh want to educate its children, it can do the Gita path in the Saraswati Shishu Mandir in a very similar faishon as Muslims have Madarasas and Christian can have their theological colleges. There is no conflict here except the fact that any victim can challenge them. The national schools, government institutions must reflect secular nature of our constitution and should have no place for such religious books or other thing of a particular religion which hurt others. Let these schools prepare our children to understand science, nature, rivers and society so that they can be better citizens of the country and understand the dangers of religious fanaticism.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
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