Education Policy Bent to Promote a Hindu Rashtra Agenda
G Ramakrishnan
ANYONE who wishes to pursue PhD research in India must appear for the UGC-NET (National Eligibility Test), which, until 2024-25, was conducted to determine the eligibility of Indian nationals for the posts of ‘Assistant Professor’ and ‘Junior Research Fellowship and Assistant Professor’ in Indian universities and colleges.
In 2024, the union government – under the guise of “standardising” and “enhancing” the quality of research programmes – made NET scores a key criterion for PhD admissions. State-run universities and colleges, managed by the higher education departments of state governments and funded publicly, far outnumber central universities and institutions. Until now, these institutions followed their own established criteria and procedures for selecting PhD candidates. With the new UGC mandates, however, state-level institutions are being gradually compelled to incorporate NET scores into their admission processes. Such extreme centralisation will only restrict students from poorer and underprivileged sections – especially those belonging to SC/ST communities – from pursuing research careers.
On the one hand, in its bid to enforce the NEP, the union government mandates NET even for PhD admissions. On the other hand, it grants sweeping exemptions in institutions such as the IITs. A striking example is the newly introduced Setubandha Vidwan Yojana, which waives the requirement of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) scores for students who have studied Sanskrit in traditional Gurukuls. The scheme – its name translating to “Bridge Builder Scholar Scheme” – offers students without formal academic degrees the opportunity to earn recognised qualifications and receive generous scholarships for research at premier IITs.
According to a Times of India report dated July 29, the scheme is “backed by the Ministry of Education and implemented by the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) division of the Central Sanskrit University” and offers fellowships of up to Rs 65,000 per month across 18 interdisciplinary fields – ranging from Ayurveda to cognitive science, and architecture to political theory, grammar to strategic studies, performing arts to mathematics, physics, and health sciences.
The basic eligibility for admissions to research programmes, is 10+2+3+2 years of high school and higher education, plus now on top of these 17 years of rigorous scientific studies, the union government mandates NET scores, saying it is much required for standardisation of quality in research. The same government now says that, eligibility based on a minimum of five years of rigorous study in a recognised gurukul and demonstrable excellence in Shastras or traditional knowledge is enough for admissions to IITs’ research programmes. Who will get dropped out through the mandatory NET process for PhD admissions and who will be boarded on through the appalling scheme of Setubandha Vidwan Yojana? The union governments’ outwardly antithetical approaches to scientific research, in-fact contributes to the same project of RSS – an eternally divided society based on caste, varnashrama system. The new NET based admission system will make it extremely tough for those who are stuck in the bottom most layer of the society (due to centuries of oppression), to access research opportunities, i.e., this NET will filter out the students from the poor and marginalised sections. At the same time, NET increases the opportunities for those students from the elite sections of the society to encroach the research space. The Setubandha Vidwan Yojana is serving on a golden platter the highly sought after research opportunities in IITs to a particular Sanskrit knowing section who claim authority over vedic shastras. It is obvious who that section is.
Gurukul system of learning – an ancient system of learning which is said to have originated during the vedic period, around 1500 B.C., is based on oral tradition, focusing on memorisation and recitation. It was a system that openly kept the non-brahmins out of the education system. We have heard of the notorious Eklavya-Dhronacharya story which bears strong testimony to the cruelties of the caste and varnashrama system. It is generally claimed that the gurukul study includes an array of subjects covering language, grammar, some science and mathematics etc., however, mantras memorising and mantras chanting constitutes what is called ‘learning’ in those gurukuls. Allowing these mantra memorising and chanting gurukul ‘learners’ into the research areas of IITs means – downgrading the global standards achieved by IITs in education and research so far, particularly in engineering and technology. This will cause huge damage to the research eco-system and human capital of India, which in turn will hamper the industrial and economic development of the nation.
Our Indian Constitution emphasises on the development of scientific temper as a fundamental duty of every citizen. Article 51A(h) mandates every citizen of India to "develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform". This mandate calls for a society built on rational thinking, critical inquiry, and a commitment to scientific progress through scientific methods. However, the RSS led BJP through its National Education Policy 2020, attempts to corrode the scientific systems currently in place to ensure a rational and equal society, replacing them with ‘Indian Knowledge Systems’ to ensure a Manuwadi society, an irrational and unequal society. That is precisely the hundred-year-old dream of RSS.
One university in Maharashtra namely the SNDT women’s university which claims itself as the first women’s university in South Asia and which is founded in 1916 has devised the curriculum for a UG course, namely, “Inception of Indian Knowledge System” as per NEP 2020. Vedic Dharm and Shad Darshan (six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy within Hinduism), Vastu-Vidya – are subjects of learning enshrined in the course! This shows what is in store for us when we allow the so- called ‘Indian Knowledge Systems’ to take over our educational, scientific and research institutions. The guidelines for incorporating “Indian Knowledge Systems” (IKS) in higher education curricula were issued in June 2023. It prescribed that every student enrolled in a UG or PG programme should be encouraged to take credit courses in IKS amounting to at least 5 per cent of the total credits. What does this mean? Every student who enrols for a UG/PG programme should be encouraged to learn and subscribe to the philosophy of RSS under the guise of IKS. The RSS led BJP government since 2014 has been engaged frantically to implement the agenda of establishing Hindu Rastra.
M S Golwalkar, the man who laid the ideological foundations for RSS, acclaimed Manu as the ‘first and greatest law giver of the world’ who ‘lays down in his code, directing all the peoples of the world to go to Hinduism to learn their duties at the holy feet of “eldest born” Brahmins of this land.’ The RSS urged the Constituent Assembly of India to frame the Constitution based on the principles of manusmriti which was discarded by Dr Ambedkar and the Constituent Assembly. Upset by the secular nature of the Constitution, M S Golwalkar publicly lamented that the Indian Constitution is “Unbharat”. Now, through NEP, this is precisely where the RSS led BJP government is leading India to – i.e., to the manuvadi Hindu Rastra, a varnashrama society suited and bent to the needs of neo-liberalism.
Education policy of a country decides the future of its youth and the future of the country itself. Moreover, education is a concurrent subject in India. But the BJP government neither discussed in the Parliament nor consulted with the states regarding NEP.
The democratic and secular forces of India should muster all their strength to wage a relentless war against the RSS design.
