It was 1st August a Sunday and after some morning rituals I was in front of the Television to catch up on some programs, news and sports events missed in the busy week gone by. A news channel was showing what happened in the television “shows” during the past week. It was shocking to see a news channel in a huge country like India had nothing important or relevant to broadcast and was showing what happened in TV shows during last week. I initially thought it was one such news channel but found most of them doing that.
After some time the focus shifted on the Friendship Day celebrations and which celebrity celebrated it and who did not. Whose friendships in Glamour world lasted and whose broke and why.
After this valuable information I ventured out for the evening stroll. The nearby ice-cream parlor was buzzing with college/school students celebrating Friendship Day by tying friendship bands. It was very nice to see them as it reminded me of my college days. But as I was thinking of my college and school days it struck me that there was another important occasion which we must remember. It was the Death Anniversary of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. I instantly recollected that on 1st august 1920 this great man died and I felt proud as I remembered the year as well. Suddenly looking around the bunch of students I thought whether they even remembered him today; forget paying respects and more so learning from his experiences. I started to think why wouldn’t those news channels who were updating viewers on some stupid TV shows did not even bother to mention about Tilak even in their news broadcasts, why wouldn’t these guys who were so fresh from their schools could not even remember such a great statesman. I smiled on the irony of the title conferred upon this great man “Lokmanya” means one who is accepted by the people and now is someone even remembering; forget accepting…….. Didn’t they study History in school? I asked myself………………
HISTORY…… when I say this word what is the first thought that comes to our mind, if we do a survey and collect samples of different individual’s answers then we will receive some of the below responses:
1. There was a useless paper during my school days, which I struggled to mug up and/or a sleepy lecture of a subject during school days.
2. Those dates which we had to remember during our exams and/or I never scored in this paper.
And some more similar responses to the ones above…………
If we then summarize the above responses we find, the opinion that comes in forefront is that “History” was a paper in school days which was compelled upon to study and in which we had to score well to get higher percentages though I never ad any practical application of the subject in my entire life.
There will be very few who would say I Loved History and/or I studied History in the Literal meaning and sense of the word Study. I think most of us have this notion about History that it was a sheer burden imposed upon us as kids; we had no say whatsoever in what we wanted to study in school. I always believed that what happens after school is a different question but the educational content during our school days was very apt, adept in building successful careers.
I think the primary reason behind this is the upbringing. The importance of knowing our own history is not imbibed upon us to say the least. Our parents did not properly emphasize upon the importance of history. Even career options that are showcased to us and the examples put forward in front of a child are such which do not need History and sometimes completely undermines it. It’s also the most weakest and/or disliked of subjects of the either or both parents in their school days.
Have we ever heard of a story from our history books as child? We always hear and tell about Ramayana, Mahabharata or any other fairy tale but no stories from our own History. Its such an irony that when we say to ourselves that we should learn from our past mistakes or learn from the past Project “history” but we don’t see the importance of learning History that made, formed and influenced our society. We are too self-centric in that regards that we hardly care about these sociological influences upon us. There are some things which have a bad or ugly influence on society. We hardly learn from our History to change those prejudices rather, we knowingly-unknowingly have passed it across to generations in free India.
There are many reasons for this lack of interest, inquisitiveness in knowing and studying our own history. The first and foremost that comes to my mind is the complete lack of seriousness and regards our households or earlier generations have for our country and its history. I have not seen a single household where our “NATION”, Society, civic responsibilities are discussed, spoken seriously. The first thing that we see as a child is that 15th August, 26th January (leave aside 2nd October) are holidays and are meant for rest or get together with friends/relatives. The importance of these days in our lives are not spoken and remembered but in turn what is remembered is a holiday. We are more excited when it comes on a weekday and our spirits are dampened when it comes on weekend. We are not excited for its 15th Aug or 26th Jan, we are excited because it’s a compulsory holiday for one all. We have grown up watching this attitude towards our Independence Day.
After reading History books in school and some from the library, a strange feeling of disconnect is felt in between us and the people involved then. Initially I thought the difference may be ideological or it’s just a mere generation gap but later I realized we don’t even feel proud of reading our history. We do what I term it as “Critical Reading” of our history and very conveniently forget that we are now talking in the hindsight. I tried putting myself in the shoes of those leaders, people and think, could we in those times would have done things differently. The next thought that came to the mind was; are we now even making an effort to do things differently or change things around us. The answer is no and we will be criticized or rather blamed for not doing anything. I think its better to do things and get criticized rather than not doing anything at all.
This unfortunately does not change when we go to school as well. First mistake that our system does is teaching “Localized History”. Localized History means History taught in Maharashtra is probably not taught in Arunachal Pradesh or Mizoram or far north eastern states in India. I think the seeds of disorientation from “One Country” ideology and state-wise orientation are sowed here. History should be common, it should touch every aspect of India, every state of India, and it should be India’s History and not state’s History. I don’t mean that we should not be told about our state or province but the way it should be done has to be changed.
The other problem with History books is that they state the happenings in chronological order but don’t state the reasons of why it happened. It looks like an FIR of our History with a mention of every major incident, event and character involved in that event. It does not mention the ideology behind it. It does not promote the intentions, the ideas, reasoning and neither projects the patriotism. The consequence of this is that it does not create respect, honor neither it creates a patriotic feeling of India-ness. The unfortunate part of those History books is that it merely tells us what was the History but does not influence our actions to create a better History for our future generations to learn.
One more important thing that I found wanting in those books is over emphasizing of one particular individuals contribution in a particular event in History. It was an effort of a united India and it’s time that it should be projected that way. The importance of being united is lost. This does not mean we should undermine the great leaders but those leaders should be used to build the characters of the students rather than projecting them to be some one extra-ordinary that we cannot be like. They should be projected like one of us and the students should relate with them. As a student if I start to relate with my leaders then I shall try to emulate at least some of their qualities if not all.
Another variation that can be done is by changing the syllabus of History as the students approach their SSC. Computer syllabus for example changes with any advent of new Langauges or Technology, we should also change our History syllabus to include recent events. Events like Babri Masjid demolition, the Mandal Commission, Operation Blue Star and its consequences, Emergency of ’77 etc. should also be told to students as that will bring the Modern India into perspective and as a student I shall relate to those incidences much more than the incidences in past century. We could probably give ourselves a chance of harvesting a generation who not only knows but also have “studied/Learnt” History.
These I think are the primary reasons why we grow up to become irresponsible, corrupt citizens who want all the benefits, rights but don’t want to work for it. We want the nation, the government to work on their relationship with people but as people are we working on these relationships. I think this is why we all feel disconnected from our own country at times. To bring us together we need a Kargil or 26/11 to happen and then and only then we feel together or part of one big nation. Do we need an adversity forced upon us to get together? Can India not be the reason for us to come together?
After some time the focus shifted on the Friendship Day celebrations and which celebrity celebrated it and who did not. Whose friendships in Glamour world lasted and whose broke and why.
After this valuable information I ventured out for the evening stroll. The nearby ice-cream parlor was buzzing with college/school students celebrating Friendship Day by tying friendship bands. It was very nice to see them as it reminded me of my college days. But as I was thinking of my college and school days it struck me that there was another important occasion which we must remember. It was the Death Anniversary of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. I instantly recollected that on 1st august 1920 this great man died and I felt proud as I remembered the year as well. Suddenly looking around the bunch of students I thought whether they even remembered him today; forget paying respects and more so learning from his experiences. I started to think why wouldn’t those news channels who were updating viewers on some stupid TV shows did not even bother to mention about Tilak even in their news broadcasts, why wouldn’t these guys who were so fresh from their schools could not even remember such a great statesman. I smiled on the irony of the title conferred upon this great man “Lokmanya” means one who is accepted by the people and now is someone even remembering; forget accepting…….. Didn’t they study History in school? I asked myself………………
HISTORY…… when I say this word what is the first thought that comes to our mind, if we do a survey and collect samples of different individual’s answers then we will receive some of the below responses:
1. There was a useless paper during my school days, which I struggled to mug up and/or a sleepy lecture of a subject during school days.
2. Those dates which we had to remember during our exams and/or I never scored in this paper.
And some more similar responses to the ones above…………
If we then summarize the above responses we find, the opinion that comes in forefront is that “History” was a paper in school days which was compelled upon to study and in which we had to score well to get higher percentages though I never ad any practical application of the subject in my entire life.
There will be very few who would say I Loved History and/or I studied History in the Literal meaning and sense of the word Study. I think most of us have this notion about History that it was a sheer burden imposed upon us as kids; we had no say whatsoever in what we wanted to study in school. I always believed that what happens after school is a different question but the educational content during our school days was very apt, adept in building successful careers.
I think the primary reason behind this is the upbringing. The importance of knowing our own history is not imbibed upon us to say the least. Our parents did not properly emphasize upon the importance of history. Even career options that are showcased to us and the examples put forward in front of a child are such which do not need History and sometimes completely undermines it. It’s also the most weakest and/or disliked of subjects of the either or both parents in their school days.
Have we ever heard of a story from our history books as child? We always hear and tell about Ramayana, Mahabharata or any other fairy tale but no stories from our own History. Its such an irony that when we say to ourselves that we should learn from our past mistakes or learn from the past Project “history” but we don’t see the importance of learning History that made, formed and influenced our society. We are too self-centric in that regards that we hardly care about these sociological influences upon us. There are some things which have a bad or ugly influence on society. We hardly learn from our History to change those prejudices rather, we knowingly-unknowingly have passed it across to generations in free India.
There are many reasons for this lack of interest, inquisitiveness in knowing and studying our own history. The first and foremost that comes to my mind is the complete lack of seriousness and regards our households or earlier generations have for our country and its history. I have not seen a single household where our “NATION”, Society, civic responsibilities are discussed, spoken seriously. The first thing that we see as a child is that 15th August, 26th January (leave aside 2nd October) are holidays and are meant for rest or get together with friends/relatives. The importance of these days in our lives are not spoken and remembered but in turn what is remembered is a holiday. We are more excited when it comes on a weekday and our spirits are dampened when it comes on weekend. We are not excited for its 15th Aug or 26th Jan, we are excited because it’s a compulsory holiday for one all. We have grown up watching this attitude towards our Independence Day.
After reading History books in school and some from the library, a strange feeling of disconnect is felt in between us and the people involved then. Initially I thought the difference may be ideological or it’s just a mere generation gap but later I realized we don’t even feel proud of reading our history. We do what I term it as “Critical Reading” of our history and very conveniently forget that we are now talking in the hindsight. I tried putting myself in the shoes of those leaders, people and think, could we in those times would have done things differently. The next thought that came to the mind was; are we now even making an effort to do things differently or change things around us. The answer is no and we will be criticized or rather blamed for not doing anything. I think its better to do things and get criticized rather than not doing anything at all.
This unfortunately does not change when we go to school as well. First mistake that our system does is teaching “Localized History”. Localized History means History taught in Maharashtra is probably not taught in Arunachal Pradesh or Mizoram or far north eastern states in India. I think the seeds of disorientation from “One Country” ideology and state-wise orientation are sowed here. History should be common, it should touch every aspect of India, every state of India, and it should be India’s History and not state’s History. I don’t mean that we should not be told about our state or province but the way it should be done has to be changed.
The other problem with History books is that they state the happenings in chronological order but don’t state the reasons of why it happened. It looks like an FIR of our History with a mention of every major incident, event and character involved in that event. It does not mention the ideology behind it. It does not promote the intentions, the ideas, reasoning and neither projects the patriotism. The consequence of this is that it does not create respect, honor neither it creates a patriotic feeling of India-ness. The unfortunate part of those History books is that it merely tells us what was the History but does not influence our actions to create a better History for our future generations to learn.
One more important thing that I found wanting in those books is over emphasizing of one particular individuals contribution in a particular event in History. It was an effort of a united India and it’s time that it should be projected that way. The importance of being united is lost. This does not mean we should undermine the great leaders but those leaders should be used to build the characters of the students rather than projecting them to be some one extra-ordinary that we cannot be like. They should be projected like one of us and the students should relate with them. As a student if I start to relate with my leaders then I shall try to emulate at least some of their qualities if not all.
Another variation that can be done is by changing the syllabus of History as the students approach their SSC. Computer syllabus for example changes with any advent of new Langauges or Technology, we should also change our History syllabus to include recent events. Events like Babri Masjid demolition, the Mandal Commission, Operation Blue Star and its consequences, Emergency of ’77 etc. should also be told to students as that will bring the Modern India into perspective and as a student I shall relate to those incidences much more than the incidences in past century. We could probably give ourselves a chance of harvesting a generation who not only knows but also have “studied/Learnt” History.
These I think are the primary reasons why we grow up to become irresponsible, corrupt citizens who want all the benefits, rights but don’t want to work for it. We want the nation, the government to work on their relationship with people but as people are we working on these relationships. I think this is why we all feel disconnected from our own country at times. To bring us together we need a Kargil or 26/11 to happen and then and only then we feel together or part of one big nation. Do we need an adversity forced upon us to get together? Can India not be the reason for us to come together?
6 comments:
Though on majority level, u r right, there are changes happening in India.
E.g. CNN IBN has many programs to educate people.
Check the advertisement of KBC-4, 'Akbar ka baap kon tha?'
Check out popularity of the recent history based movies/serials... e.g Jhasi ki Rani
Yes! %wise it may be still in one digit, but this share is not shrinking but growing every year.
Now let me talk about blogging,
If I didn't know you, I would have said good blog. But If I see the guy I know, this writing is still disappointing.
I know you are great narrator and equally good writer. Hopefully one day I will see post on the blog, I can feel that your soul is writing.
Enjoy blogging!
The idea that these fairly modern events should be incorporated into these history textbooks is interesting. But a mere mention in the textbooks should not be adequate. That should give way to open discussion about these topics,debates etc. But that looks difficult given the number of students in the classroom.
Great write up Ash..feels nice to see that there are souls who invest time and hope to bring about a change! Absolutely wonderful!
Ashish - I second your thought about 'Localized History'.. You might laugh at this but I donot know much about Shivaji and his reign, or i wasn't even taught about Tilak..Thats because I went to schooling in eastern and southern India. So I approve your idea about teaching 'History of India' and not of that particular state.
Secondly, I also think that educational system in India should be updated to make History and other subjects interesting to students.
From what I have seen and from my own experience, history and many other Subjects are merely 'studied' for the sake of getting good marks. Here I use the word 'Studied' because we are merely studying and not 'learning' anything from it.
This method of studying might help us score marks, without realizing that the future consequences could be grave..
The students are not to be blamed for this..The whole educational system needs a refurbishment. History and all subjects should be made interesting.. One approach to this cud be through project work.
Instead of teachers teaching a History chapter in 1 hr period from the 'PRESCRIBED' Book, the chapter/lesson could be given as a project to the student (unsure if thats how its done these days, but at least in my times it want like this).
In this way students would use different resources like internet/different books/papers or word of mouth, rather than just 'studying' from one prescribed book. And because the student has made an effort to collect information , the knowledge gained through this will remain for long.
And just as you said, I agree that recent events should also be included.. not to forget the 26/11 event by 'KASAB'.. Don't know why I am getting so obsessed with this man..Gigglesss :))
And yes..now I see all the reasons for why I never liked studying history. Nice!!!!
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