NEWS ANALYSIS: Let there be heroes in education!

 By Kartik Lokhande

July 26, 2015 marked the 16th anniversary of India’s military triumph over Pakistan in Kargil theatre. Ther were documentaries on television channels, columns full of articles in newspapers and magazines, flood of photographs on websites and social sites, and talk-talk-talk in various corners of the country. All of them in all of these said, all this is aimed at remembering our heroes.

But, the pertinent question to ask here is – Do we really want these real-life military heroes to be remembered? The answer to this question is a clear ‘NO’. For, if we as a nation wanted to remember these heroes, hadn’t we made efforts to include their real-life stories of valour in our school and college curricula? Previously, during our school days, we were taught the story of Abdul Hamid, Company Quarter Master Havildar, who had performed super-human act of destroying five Pakistani tanks in the 1965 India-Pakistan war. The martyr finds no place in present-day schools that teach students how to be network-centric, how to use Internet, how to present themselves, how to communicate in English only.

In the process, the schools are indirectly teaching the students how to forget glorious chapters in the history of independent India. As a result, when these students grow up, they focus more on competitions about ‘self-development’ and not national development. They start according the importance of ‘one of the boring subjects’ to history, and India’s war history or real-life heroes are simply forgotten. In the process, they get alienated from the fact that India’s independence was not only hard-earned but also protected with supreme sacrifices of many.

The case of colleges is even poorer. In schools, students at least get to celebrate Kargil Vijay Diwas or such occasions. In colleges, barring some honourable exceptions, most students are not present even on Independence Day or Republic Day; forget about celebrating days of India’s military triumph or remembering the war heroes. The students in colleges are tech-savvy today and feel it glorious to share on social sites whether they are wearing new ear-ring or new jacket or enjoying brand of beer. Sadly, most of them are least interested in finding out about India’s war heroes who have made the supreme sacrifice in protecting the hard-earned independence and geographical integrity of India; leave alone sharing ‘posts’ about real-life heroes.

Almost none (though there are only a few respectable exceptions) of the schools or colleges organises competitions on story-telling or writing essays about India’s war heroes. Even in public space, as mentioned above, except for celebration of ‘days’, nothing is being done with a lasting impact. Unfortunately, most of the war heroes and martyrs attract only sporadic eulogies from political leaders. The younger generation of Indians is growing up eulogising the cinematic heroes and foreign heroes, as their syllabus does not include the stories of Indian heroes.

As far as television space is concerned, previously, the good old Doordarshan did some good work in this regard in what could be called its Golden Era. For instance, Chetan Anand directed a series ‘Param Vir Chakra’ in the 1980s. It was sort of a biopic series on winners of India’s highest military honour for gallantry – Param Vir Chakra. I still have some memories of the series. Sadly, no such effort was made thereafter. Whatever movies were made, mostly revolved on high emotional quotient. Only a rare few movies were made with factual details.

I do not remember any full-scale biographical movie made on any of the countless military heroes. There is a huge list of war heroes whose life is inspiring and worth a film – right from top officers Field Marshal K M Cariappa, Field Marshal S H F J Manekshaw, Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh, General K S Thimayya, Lt Gen Nathu Singh, Lt Gen S P P Thorat, Brigadier Mohd Usman and others to 2nd Lt Rama Raghoba Rane, Subedar Joginder Singh, Lance Naik Albert Ekka, Captain Vikram Batra to others.

National Policy on Education, too, never gave a serious thought to this aspect. Most of the debate around National Policy on Education centres around abstraction with very few concrete and specific suggestions being made. Education has to be such that it shapes ‘national character’ of students. Education has to be such that it encourages students to join any of the fields to serve the nation first. And, to inculcate that sense among impressionable minds, what else could be of better use than the inspiring stories of real-life heroes of India in different fields including those in military area.

Will this change? Answer is difficult. However, if the demand for including the chapters on greatest of military heroes of India in education becomes a peoples movement with active involvement of schools and colleges, is it impossible? 

(27-07-15)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chanda boy Dr Vipin Itankar is UPSC topper in State

Hinganghat: Here rests the great surveyor of India...

Eknath Ranade, the man with ‘Rock’ solid determination