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)
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