Nothing to do with Amartya Sen

Forget all the nonsensical allegations being made by social media trolls about elitist education in India and about the likes of Amartya Sen and Nalanda University. Let us talk about what is being taught in normal even so called elitist schools in the country. I am not even going into the curriculum here, the setting of which can swing from leftist to rightist depending on who are in charge, but of the general quality of information being imparted. Why is no one making an issue of that? 

Let me quote three, out of many, incidents that I have come across - the first one involves a teacher, at one of the costliest schools in Delhi, teaching class III students that the reason ears maintain balance is because there are two of them. Her logic was that the left one balances out the right one and so human beings remain upright. This is science for you in 21st century India. The second example is of a History teacher, at another premier school in the capital, teaching class VIII students that the British introduced India to corruption. By her teaching and logic, all the corruption that is there in India is because of the British.  The third instance is that of a Geography teacher explaining to Class VI that the Sun does not rotate on its own axis, or else there would be darkness. 

Indeed there already is darkness in the way we are building our society. Not just education which is by rote and imparted by mediocre teachers, even at the better known schools and institutes across the country, but in how the basic moral fibre of civilisation is being redrafted. Information has become free over the digital superhighway and lazy teaching modules, at the school level, encourage students to go on the net and conduct unsupervised "research" where unverified and bigoted source material abounds.

Across their environment, impressionable young minds are being subject to a bombardment of opinion and not facts. Add to this the impact of social media where higher rate of fire is considered a mark of veracity, so all the more chances of imbibing mere opinion as certified fact. It is indeed a celebration of free will and spirit that social media has become the great equaliser.

Everyone has an opinion and now everyone also has the means to air them - this is good, but what is not good is that in a society where basic civic sense and morality is on a downward spiral the greater percentage of opinion being aired perpetuates the basic lack of respect for another human being and another's point of view. It is simple logic that brawn will be more visible than brains and when that brawn is transferred to noise there is bound to be more of it than intelligent discourse.

Social media has become so powerful that the older media forms, chasing the "instant" dream, have begun quoting social media trends as the dominant voice of opinion. Where in earlier days publications and TV channels would seek out experts in the field, today they simply quote tweets and not necessarily from knowledgeable persons further perpetuating moral and intellectual degradation. Bombarded by this false sense of being "informed", the impressionable minds of India's future are latching on to these blinkered opinions and values and are shaping their own in the same mould.

A culture dominated by rampant aspirations and unabashed aggrandisement provokes the "why not me?" syndrome.  No longer is knowledge a goal, it is the "degree" that matters solely because of its intrinsic value in garnering materialistic benefits for the holder. Not just respect for knowledge but respect for law and the rule of law is fast degrading. Mob justice and populist measures are celebrated in politics, over media and in drawing rooms across the country. The "angry young man" syndrome of a Bollywood pot-boiler of the 1980's has synthesised into an "angry young nation" sort of posturing.

Taking the law into one's own hands is now common stance - thankfully it has not yet degenerated into killing off room full of detractors. Do try and recount how many times in the recent past have you seen flashing on your TV screen, courtesy news channels, so called ordinary people meting out "justice" on the streets?  The most recent such incident that of a traffic policeman in Delhi being slapped, kicked, abused and assaulted, all because he stopped an underage driver.

But visuals of eve teasers being beaten up, rapists being lynched, pick-pockets and thieves being tied to poles and thrashed to death have become staple feed on TV news broadcasts - the ubiquitous cell phone cameras recording in detail the suspension of law enforcement powers vested in the State. It is also usual for news mediums in the country to project the view that this is real justice: the whole angle of reportage bolstering an underlying "serves them right" sort of a feeling. 

And while it is true that might in a democracy resides with the majority, what happens when this majority, more aware now than ever before of the power that it wields, becomes crass, self centred and morally drained? It stops heeding the basic tenets of a benevolent, compassionate and progressive society that seemed to be the goal of those who fought to forge an independent identity for India.

But constantly harping on lost glory of a thousand years ago, before the "invaders" came and spoilt everything, really does not make any sense. Not being able to see beyond the inflated nose of chest thumping xenophobia does paint a picture of India where "Right" is might and to hell with anybody who disagrees. Amartya Sen included.