Demonizing Patriarchy: Enforcing PINK safety manual

‘Liberals’ of our country have apparently chosen the concept of ‘patriarchy’ to satiate the escapist mindset existing in our society. They use the idea of ‘patriarchy’ to blame it for being the reason of all evils in the society. I just wonder, such a faulty vision only provides them some superficial satisfaction with little intention to outline a roadmap to carry out reforms. This concept has originated outside India primarily to attack the ‘family structure’ as the concept of ‘patriarchy’ believes that ‘family’ is basically a unit created to execute ‘exploitation’. Family for them is a place created by the patriarch society to exploit women, child and weaker components of the unit. As a matter of fact, in Indian context, ‘family’ is an idea that has worked to save and protect the interest of the disadvantaged components of the unit. This one-sided abuse of the concept of ‘family’ gets reflected in the approach wherein instead of carrying out an evaluation and assessment of the system that we are in, instead of talking ‘also’ about the advantages of the system that exists at present, the focus has always been on painting ‘family’ as the main culprit of the system. In this background therefore, ‘patriarchy’ is the characteristic of a society that can be entirely understood only when you are viewing the society with a negative mindset. Unfortunately, those who refuse to notice any of the positives of a ‘family based society structure’ feel inherently resonated with the expressions of anti-patriarchy expletives and with no better alternative to offer, they prefer to break this structure in a blind hope that the new structure cannot be as bad as it exists at present. In the context of our society however, those who are exaggeratedly frustrated with ‘whatever order' that exists in our society and those who feel that they are not allowed to live their adventurous fantasies on the demand of respecting that 'order', feel compelled to misuse the term ‘patriarchy’ and then to take advantage of the chaos created out of that.

The idea of ‘patriarchy’ has been identified with a misplaced believe that men and women can form parallel structures in a society and that it is only the bad effects of ‘Patriarchy’ that has dwarfed the extent and broadness of the area associated with women when it is compared with that of the men. Whereas the fact is, that instead of being parallel they constitute different parts of a circular construct. No one can be a substitute for the other and both have many different aspects of social and family issues to deal with. In their skewed narration, ‘patriarchy’ assumes that both the parts are exactly identical and quite illogically are blinded to the realty that they are indeed ‘different’. The fact that they have different collective aspirations, that they both prefer different ways for enjoyment, that they have different fantasies to deal with and that they both have different demands to meet – is completely ignored and hushed up in this new approach of demonizing ‘patriarchy’.

Among many of their ill-conceived constructs, the one that I would take up here is their complete rejection for a safety manual for women in the name that men do not have such a manual. This issue has caught our attention like never before after Amitabh drew our attention on the issue very effectively during the narration he presented in the film PINK. Please think again, before accepting this assertion blindly. Men are also expected to follow a safety manual but that is, of course, different from that of the women. Children again, have their own safety manual. And even among them, Girls have a manual different from that of the boys. Old men and women have another set of safety manuals. So, what exactly is the problem? And therefore, instead of derailing this discussion and jumping on the issue of why do these manuals exist at all, let us discuss the ‘real issue’ of why do we have different manuals for each of these categories - as it is often objected to by the ‘liberals’ when they are in some senses relatively. Yes, why are these manuals different? Let me ask now, are the threat concerns same for these categories? Do all these categories have identical aspects and similar dimensions of threats? Would you feel equally enraged, equally devastated and equally shattered when the threats, unfortunately, happen to come true in the two cases? You cannot have the same safety manuals of a bank account that has a facility of an online transaction with those that are not registered for such a facility. When the threat concerns are different, it is only logical to have different set of safety manuals. `Realistically speaking, the day when we all would feel equally shattered in the two cases, even the safety manuals would merge into one. But till then, they will and they should remain different.

In the right urge of making the society accept an aberration, you cannot justify making that as a rule. In order to make the society accept acts of consensual sex among friends, any effort to encourage the same must also be opposed. In order to make the society accept adultery (of both the variations) as an inescapable reality, you cannot glorify such an act to be encouraged and emulated by all. And in order to make the society realize the unnecessary demand of retaining ‘virginity’ one cannot justify glorifying ‘loss of virginity’ and encourage people to lose it on the day they acquire adulthood. One must realize the positives of our family based society structure and then ask for a genuine liberty and scope of freedom without giving an impression that a section needs a freedom only to match the other section. In fact, we have already erred in doing so. People of both the genders of my generation (those who are parents of grown-up individuals) would agree that ‘boys’ in our days were subjected to a lot more restrictions as compared to what we now pose on them. Many of the arguments that have led to such a situation originate from the approach that when girls of today’s age were being allowed to have more freedom ‘boys’ started demanding even more by putting across the justification that now ‘even’ girls are doing this much and so they are ‘entitled’ to get more. That was the aspect that the society ignored completely while providing the space of freedom rightly to the girls. That the society, inadvertently allowed a relaxation in the safety manuals for men in the name of putting off some of the obsolete restrictions on women – is where we have collectively erred. We must rein the boys back to the stage of our generation to keep the advantages of our family based system intact and correct the obsolete approach of putting unnecessary restrictions on women so that our society remains as healthy as earlier. 

A visit to Khajuraho Temple Complex

My recent visit to the Khajuraho temple complex left me completely perplexed. At the first sight itself, it is impossible not to get completely stumped at the architecture of the temple complex and the beauty of the sculptures built on those temples. Temples and the carvings on them are so artistic that each corner of the complex will just leave you awestruck. And these artistic marvels just induce a sense to do something to preserve these divine works. But what bothered me was that face of not even a single sculpture could be found complete. They all, without exception, show clear evidences to have been faced hammer of destruction on their faces. None of the faces carved in the stone has been left with complete features. I have absolutely no doubt therefore, that the left-liberal historians have been working on a mission just to establish an impossible proposition as truth. They have taken up a herculean task to de-demonize the Mughal period cruelties that were carried out in the name of religion. And even if I leave aside the issue of destruction of these artistically precious structures, it is also difficult to imagine the kind of culture that could have accepted such temples in those times.

Our historians have shoved down so much hatred for our past into our mind that they have almost convinced us that we never had a past to be proud of. Just imagine, even the ‘modern’ British who discovered these temples had a horrifying time conjecturing for a possible justification of such sculptures that are openly and artistically carved on the walls of temples. The more I tried to analyze the more I am convinced that we are completely disconnected with the society that prevailed those days. Do we exactly belong to that society? Isn’t there a clear discontinuity in our evolution process? Have the invaders eliminated an entire generation, an entire culture and a developed society. Are we only the ‘left-overs’ whom they did not found worth-eliminating. It is difficult to reject that the invasion eliminated a society that was so open, so peace-loving, so divine and so religious that they failed to devise ways to face the Mughal Rakshasas.

Only a developed society can have flourishing arts and culture. Only a peace loving community that was never prepared for such a catastrophe could be so rich in arts and culture. Imagine the society which had accomplished artists in abandon. I am afraid, the manner in which our history books have presented our past, they leave us with more questions than the answers in the end. And that gives others a scope to provide us another equally (un)convincing theories and conjectures. Genuine and open minded research has not been done in ‘History’ till now. It is high time that our history books are written in a manner so that we can get answers to our genuine queries instead of misusing ‘history’ with a purpose to control our future. 

Unresolved issues and Inappropriate Celebration

I am amazed at the celebration mode of some DUTA leaders on the news of change in ministry. This news was celebrated as if DUTA has been able to resolve any of the major issues that are concerning and bothering the teachers in general. It is more than clear now that ‘their’ disproportionate sense of achievement would get 'completed' only with the exit of NDA government. The scale and extent of celebration only proved what some of us have often been reiterating in our assessment that DUTA has been derailed from its primary focus. It is lately being used more as a platform for venting out their politically motivated desire and outbursts of opposing and defaming the government at the Centre.

The hard reality is that the present government was greeted by a list of long pending chronic problems that were started and then left unresolved by the UPA government. The problems of unmanageable number of adhoc teachers and the un-implementable nature of API-PBAS scheme both were inherited by this government from the earlier regime.

Yes, the MHRD failed to address these issues effectively and this could be one of the factors that could have led to the change in the ministry. However, it would dishonesty if the efforts made by the MHRD in getting these long-pending problems resolved, are not acknowledged. Although it is true that all the efforts in terms of 3rd, 4th amendments and further clarifications carried out to address the issue were quick like never before but in the final analysis those were proved only to aggravate the problems due to factors that the new minister will face as a challenge. I hope the new minister would be able to take control of the forces working within the system against the government.

Interestingly, even groups active under DUTA can not absolve of from their contribution in getting these two problems to this alarming stage. While AADityans can hardly save themselves from the blame of directly supporting the regimes that created this huge pool of adhoc and un-promoted teachers, DTF also can not wash their hands off from the fact that they did not launch any effective attack despite having DUTA’s functioning under their major control. NDTF, on the other hand, have no such history of helping factors that led towards building up of these problems.

I am a proud NDTF activist who can claim that NDTF, after the present government came into power, actually played a significant role in DUTA to ensure continuation of adhoc teachers in the last few semesters besides getting the permanent appointments started. And after the change of ministry, we will keep our efforts going with a greater hope of resolution of all our problems to the satisfaction of teachers.

Breaking a Myth - Air-conditioning of Campus costs a fortune

It is ‘normally assumed’ that making an entire college building air-conditioned would burden the students with unreasonable increase in fees, but I am afraid – this is only a myth created by those who love to exploit this ‘common sense’ by offering such a justification for the huge fees that they charge from the students. As it might be shocking to know that making all the classrooms & Labs of a college air-conditioned would actually cost less than Rs. 500 per students annually!

I was driven to write this piece when I came two know about the recent turmoil that Hindu College observed when they decided to charge a hefty fees for their newly constructed Girls’ Hostel – many steps more than what Boys are being charged. The justification offered in support of this differential fee structure was that the new structure was proposed to be air-conditioned.

Surprisingly, generally speaking, it is a commonly established and accepted fact that an educational institution that has air-conditioned class rooms can sustain its infrastructure only by charging fees in lacs. I am here to break this myth. I would pick up the case of my college that has around 5000 fees-paying students, around 50 class rooms and approximately 20 labs. To start with, I can assure you that if I dump 150 air-conditioners in my college, the administration will face huge difficulty in finding a place to install all of them (given that the college already has some air-conditioners installed in the office and some computer labs). Now let me place some basic calculations here. It would be perfectly realistic to assume that purchase and installation (including cabling) will cost approximately 50 thousand per AC. Therefore the total cost of installation of these 150 ACs will be 150x50,000=75,00,000. And thus, the cost incurred per student will be a one-time contribution of 75,00,000/5000 = 1500 (Rs.). It is clear that we need only a single contribution of Rs. 1500 per student to ensure air-conditioning of the entire college building. Moreover, if our college decides to do this in a span of three years, we need a contribution of Rs. 500 per student to achieve our target in a time-bound 3-year time.

Now, another greater myth is on the running cost of these ACs. Let me try to break this myth too. On an average, our college can claim to have not more than 180-200 teaching days in a year. And discounting the winter days when ACs are not required, we may need these ACs in the class rooms only for about 150 days and that too from 9 AM to 5 PM (8 hours a day). This generous estimate makes these 150 ACs run for 150x150x8 = 1,80,000 hrs. On an average this would consume 2,70,000 units of energy costing Rs. 25 lac maximum. This, when distributed on the 5000 students would come to 25,00,000/5000 = Rs. 500 per student per annum! Given that colleges are already charging a minimum of Rs. 10 thousand per annum from the students, it is only a lack of vision that has pulled the college administration back from making the campus air-conditioned. On the contrary, colleges have often given an impression that air-conditioning the campus would cost them fortune. Myth have got built up by the incident like Hindu College that proposed to charge about Rs. 1,20,000 per student as compared to Rs. 80,000 per student primarily for air-conditioning. A whooping difference of Rs. 40,000 per students annually is not only ethically unjustified but that also help create the ‘Myth’ that I have pointed out here. When AC can be for all – it is conspiratorially being utilized with a motive to create and maintain a division between an Elitists’ and a supposedly Commoners’ institution.

Let us break this myth and encourage college administrations to think of ways to get the entire campus air-conditioned. One must never forget that air-conditioned class rooms not only can encourage attendance in the classrooms but it would also provide the students the much-required comfortable environment during their tense, hot and anxious examination days. 

Teachers’ struggle needs to stay at peak

During our semester struggle we witnessed massive turn outs of teachers in the DUTA programs and activities. All shades of teachers participated in the united struggle against the proposed system and its contradictions. But, what did we get in response to our activism? Even a supposedly ‘weak’ UPA government functioning at the mercy of left and their likes did not pay any heed to our concerns. The government turned deaf and dumb. The University authorities and the government started acting tougher. Even principals were targeted in order to teach teachers threat-lessons. A series of threatening letters were issued by the registrar of the university. And those threats were not in air as many teachers were served explanation calls. Authorities started spreading terror by issuing show cause notices to the agitating or otherwise teachers, individually. And to add to this, many of the activists even suffered wage cut for a few days. Later, buoyed at the absence of effective opposition to these repressive measures, the government and the university completely ignored teachers’ apathy when they decided to steamroll FYUP in DU. Teachers’ participation became thinner and thinner and reached the stage of mere tokenism.

During the ongoing united struggle of teachers however, the circumstances and events are all different. From the day one, a visible movement in the government was noticed to address our major concerns on Workload and API scores. Although the present government has far more stability in terms of the numbers, assurances started pouring soon after a combined struggle was launched by the teachers. Promises were being made addressing our real concerns. The government undoubtedly appeared responsive this time. What could be the difference? A simple analysis would convince you that this time not only the feedback mechanism was working better but even the opinions received by the government from the feedback sources were respected by them.

Don’t even dare to conclude that teachers could have achieved this response without our united show of strength. We must not make the blunder of feeling complacent about the developments. Instead, I want this analysis to give us the hope, energy and strength this time (that was entirely missing during our earlier struggles) to fight this battle and conclude it on a victorious note. There is a clear chance that our struggle will end on a satisfactory note for the first time after more than a decade of our combined sufferings. We continued to suffer denial of promotional avenues during the entire sixth pay period, we were snatched off the opportunity for holding selection committees for permanent appointments and to top them all even our pension schemes were turned into unnecessary controversies. We were forced to accept the original draconian UGC notification and its two successive amendments earlier. But this time, buoyed by the positive responses from the right quarters, we could think of demanding withdrawal of not merely the third amendment but the original notification itself that can hopefully pave the way to help all sixth pay beneficiaries to get the benefit of promotion scheme that existed during the popular fifth pay scales. However, the analysis will not be complete if I will fail to point out that during our earlier struggles what probably was disheartening to notice was that those who were supposed to convey our concerns to the government were either seen as helpless bunch of teachers or were seen coming out in blatant support of ‘their’ government. Undoubtedly, teachers are visibly hopeful this time only because besides the honest unity in our united struggle even these factors seem to be working in our favour this time.

Let us fight together as always, but let us fight with real hope of victory this time. Because the only way that we can fail now is that if our leadership fails to remain honest and committed to the welfare of the teachers and succumb to their otherwise compelling urge to indulge into unnecessary and divisive political games.

Let us put an end on further exploitation of Adhoc Teachers

It is difficult to remain unmoved and disconnected at the apathy that our adhoc teachers have been facing for the last decade or so. They were ‘used’ to bring about Semesterization in the university; they were later ‘misused’ to steamroll FYUP over here and were ‘abused’ and ‘forced’ to come out in support of FYUP when it was being rolled back; and finally they were completely ‘ignored’ at the time of introducing CBCS. But this is only one side of the story. The darker side of this story is that they were being abused and exploited not only by the immediate college and university authorities but even by those leaders who were supposed to protect them from their misery and agony. Only after the Centre saw the popular Modi government coming into power, some appointments could take place, although the numbers are far from reporting to any satisfactory level. Now it is widely acceptable that there were enough reasons for the then government and their allies to keep these teachers as adhoc teachers just to fulfill their conspiratorially desires and designs.

The recent UGC notification, in a single stroke, quite shockingly has swept the entire floor under their feet. For these ‘technically’ adhoc but arguably more hardworking and sincere teachers, the draconian UGC notification came as more than any shock; it was more than disturbing; much more heartless, unbelievingly mindless and absolutely ruthless. It was shocking too as the government that can easily take credit for getting the permanent appointments started after almost a decade and was instrumental in issuing directives after directives to the universities to fill up all their vacancies sooner than possible time was seen as pushing them off the hook into a deep valley. Till now the adhoc teachers were always somehow lured/forced into avoiding siding with DUTA’s call, but that was not to be true this time. The erroneous workload calculations as given in the draconian UGC gazette notification have left them with no choice but to join DUTA’s call. Unlike earlier DUTA’s calls, adhoc teachers joined us this time and as a consequence we could boycott the evaluation work completely. With the 4500 strong adhoc teachers joining us having no choice, the participation of teachers in the GBM was seen as unprecedented.  Riding on the wave of the panicked adhoc teachers the spontaneous show on the street also recorded a huge turnout of teachers when DUTA gave a call this time. The primary reason for this resounding success of DUTA’s call was the scale at which our adhoc teachers participated in these events as it was clear that with this notification, they were left with nothing more to lose.

But I can sense some insensitive leaders trying again to cook their food on the activism of these young teachers. I am afraid as they might like to keep their cooking pans on the burning emotions of these adhoc teachers to find strength in order to fight their narrow political battles. A section of teachers has already started mixing this problem with other issues that happened in Hyderabad, IIFA, JNU or in Ram Lal Anand college. Some others have started finding fire in the cold smoke that was left after the present government decisively burnt their dynastical aspirations in the last elections. These leaders are probably suffering from selected amnesia as they have failed to admit that the root cause of all these problems have been inherited by the present NDA government and are not their own creation. Conspiring to build up a movement against the central government by keeping the ‘fear’ alive among our young friends would be a complete dishonesty on our part. Let us not push our adhoc teachers again into another blind well after they came out of the one in which they were compelled to stay for a good 7-8 years.

Let us put the issue of Permanent Appointments on the highest priority.  We must not compromise on the issue of workload estimates and procedures. We, who are riding on the wave of an unprecedented spurge in the DUTA activism, must utilize this mandate to completely do away with this politics of exploitation against these teachers. Since the MHRD has been more than clear in her message that the existing workload will not be disturbed at all costs, let us engage her in a meaningful dialogue to stop this politics of exploitation in Delhi University. Instead of deriving strength from the fear of these teachers to build up a movement against the government let us put an end to their exploitation as they have no one but to look at DUTA for this. Yes, API-PBAS is promoting negativity, spurious research and fake publications and we must fight to get a scientific, acceptable and fresh way of promoting hardwork, sincerity and excellence among teachers – but not at the cost of prolonging the apathy of adhoc teachers.

Fire All of Them Summarily

The Arun Nigvekar committee was constituted with a purpose. We are witness to the fact that Delhi University has failed to devise a logical way to implement the promotional scheme proposed and recommended in the sixth pay revision. Teachers of this university have been stranded without promotions for almost the last decade. When it was felt that the provisions of sixth pay recommendations with regard to promotions are primarily encouraging pseudo-research and promoting mushrooming of fake publications, the UGC decided to constitute this committee. When it was established beyond all doubts that the API-PBAS scheme is spelling disaster in the field of higher education, this committee was constituted to suggest ways to arrest the declining standards in research activities as a result of this faulty promotional scheme. When teachers began to feel that in order to secure promotions, they needed to give less importance to their teaching assignments and more to the activities that can lead to score API points, they were forced to engaged in all such activities that promised them to somehow accumulate these points. And the committee came into existence only when it became more than clear that for whatever purpose the API-PBAS system was invented, it had got completely defeated.

The Nigvekar Committee was given the assignment of addressing a specific issue but for some reasons it seems to have lost its direction and purpose completely. Instead of its report opening a debate on the new system of scoring points for promotions, teachers are now being compelled to agitate on the inexplicable increase in their workload as a result of recommendations of this very committee. While proposing the new scheme of scoring points, the Arun Nigvekar Committee appears to have attached an appendix to the document and a few explanations therein that are found to be completely unacceptable from all point of views. The increase in the workload as indicated in the UGC Gazette Notification 2016 is a prescription of disaster for the higher education. No government in its right senses can think of increasing workload almost by fifty percent! With one stroke, no government would have dared to leave almost half of the teaching strength with no choice but to come on the streets. How couldn’t they speculate the damage done by such a notification that is bound to leave teachers with nothing more to lose further? Don’t they understand that sudden loss of job for a sizable lot of teachers will be the direct result of implementation of this draconian notification?          
           Wasn’t that stupid to assume that such a massive increase of workload would not stir up the teaching community? Was that difficult to speculate the unrest that it has caused in the university system? Anyone could have predicted complete unanimity among teachers on issues of bread and butter. Who, on earth, has found the complete boycott of evaluation work as surprising? How could one assume that even after all the adhoc teachers are left with no other option but to agitate, they would keep quite? Was that sane to expect teachers to offer their neck when the gazette exposes the shining sword to axe their livelihood? Tell me who can extract any positive from this third amendment without seeing the writing on the wall?     

         I can smell a rat in this. There is something that is hidden more than what appears exposed in the open. I would refuse to reject the possibility of a game of mischief played by political players to suit their politics. Those who were trying hard to find an issue to mobilize against this government have been awarded the same with this UGC Gazette notification.In fact asking complete withdrawal of this notification would be an incomplete demand to accept even from the government’s perspective. To save the government from further such unnecessary embarrassments, they must investigate how it came to this stage in the first place. There is no alternative – instead of firing half of the teaching community – they must fix up responsibility of this obvious and unpardonable lapse immediately and fire all of them summarily.

Dr. Ambedkar preferred living as a HINDU

Some facts are often overlooked by those who are in a habit of over-exploiting the statement - “Though I was born a Hindu, I solemnly assure you that I will not die as Hindu” - of Dr. Ambedkar. This statement showing an unwavering determination for conversion was given by Dr. Ambedkar in 1939. Isn’t that intriguing to notice that he formally adopted Buddhism only in 1956 - after more than 20 years of his explicitly expressing this intention? Unfortunately he left us only after a few months of his converting to Buddhism, without explaining the real reason behind this inordinate delay. If allowed to extrapolate, how wrong will it be to assert that he only tried to keep his words that apparently he was not very keen to? Otherwise, what kept him postponing the implementation of his plans and made him wait for 20 long years? 

To say that he was not being allowed to take a call, will be an exhibition of dishonesty. Those days, Hinduism was not known for offering any ‘external’ pressure on those who intended to convert and people kept themselves away from pressures of conversion following entirely their own convictions. Instead, Hinduism was known to offer resistances through a strategy of non-acceptance to those who wanted to convert back. Isn’t the choice of ‘Buddhism’ also baffling? Wasn’t that one of the most ‘friendliest’ to Hinduism - available to him at that time? Wasn’t Dr. Ambedkar aware of the fact that outside this country, people were used to identifying all non-Muslims - primarily as Hindus? Didn’t his nationalist urge encourage him to choose Buddhism as compared to Islam and Christianity? In this analysis however, I find communists in a contradicting self-defeating cameo role. They have intended to exploit the legacy of Dr. Ambedkar in a rather dishonest manner. Like Ambedkar even communists are also known for expressing their extreme dislike for Hinduism but they are known to showcase ‘Islam’ as a better option. Their dishonesty however becomes evident as, only when they get cornered, they argue that they are against all religions but unlike Ambedkar their selectively use of ‘Islam’ against Hinduism to prove a point is the obvious contradiction between the two approaches. Ambedkar's approach was positive - to find solutions within us whereas Communists' approach is entirely negative - to ensure destruction.

To conclude, Dr. Ambedkar was born a Hindu and yes, he died not as a Hindu, but it would be difficult to challenge an assertion that he actually preferred living as a Hindu. Ambedkar’s approach was that of a reformer’s whereas Communists’ approach has been of a destructor’s. 

An open discussion on communal behavior

Please forgive me for deciding not to quote from the holy books of any of the religious texts for such a discussion as I firmly believe that all such books propagate the message of peace in their primary narration and therefore the discussion most often ends up inconclusive. On the other hand, behavior of communities have always remained marked different for reasons that often extend beyond their religious preaching. Probably the instinctive behavior that a community develops is primarily a function of its past tradition, ancestral practices and by witnessing its own surroundings.

                It is an open fact that residents of this land never required words like ‘communal riots’ or ‘communal harmony’ till the medieval period when Muslim rulers arrived over here. Not that this land was then a land of singular belief as more than many kinds of religious practices and beliefs existed in this part of the earth even before Islam arrived here. But yes, it is also true that the harmony that existed traditionally always over here, have remained on a real test only since then. It would be however, dishonest not to admit that medieval period Muslims rulers of India were probably different from their fellow-counterparts in other countries. There are enough evidences to show that even they did/could not implement their instinctive communal style of governance which they followed almost everywhere else in other neighboring countries. That they practiced ‘communal harmony’ over here therefore only proves the huge influence of the traditional non-Muslim population (loosely identified as ‘Hindus’ since then) on them. Can anyone deny that we started using the word ‘communal harmony’ probably to express a peculiar human-behavior that sprung up here only after the arrival of Muslim rulers? And isn’t that true that the word ‘communal riots’ itself, discovers its meaning only at a place where Muslims are present?

As a matter of fact, while ‘communal harmony’ was a routine behavior expected from the non-Muslims, the ‘unlike Muslim-behavior’ of the Muslim rulers of India caught more attention of some ‘narrator’ since such deviations in their style of governance in favor of ‘communal harmony’ were completely unexpected and entirely unheard of. As per our ancient traditions, before the arrival of Islam, fights over differences in religious practices of different religious communities were always a temporary issue and traditionally all such differences were ultimately settled without leaving any deep divide among different communities. However, it cannot be denied that unlike all other ‘benign’ religious differences within the non-Muslims, unfortunately the Muslim & non-Muslim divide has always remained potentially explosive and exploitable.

Strangely, the communists’ narrative of India paints an entirely opposite picture of this issue. They have always shied away from giving the non-Muslims their due credit to have established a tradition of practicing religious harmony on this land. And instead, they have never hesitated from exaggerating the indicative/token practices of religious harmony by Muslims. In the process they (un)intentionally hurt the sentiments of the real reason behind this influence on the Muslims. Extinction of non-Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh provides enough evidences to prove this point beyond all doubts. To conclude, we must accept that while the practice of communal harmony comes natural to the non-Muslims, Muslims are used to showing such behavior only in the presence of non-Muslims.  

Left with Suicidal tendencies – Rohith’s death

There is absolutely no doubt that the ‘caste system’ is an unjust, inhuman and a ‘real’ discriminatory practice that is still being negotiated by the Dalits and other discriminated sections of the society. Nevertheless, any conclusion presuming Dalits to be necessarily anti-Hindu by default would be a blunder. In fact, Dalits are not anti-Hindu and instead they are ‘more Hindu’ than the upper castes themselves. As a matter of record, but for Dalits, Hinduism could not have survived the continuous onslaught by the invaders over the past few centuries. However they feel disappointed as they have unjustifiably been denied their due place, proper recognition and a dignified status in the society. For example, their genuine grudge against the temples is not that they exist and are built, but instead they want to enjoy dignified entry in them.

Unfortunately the Dalit movement in India has been hijacked by the left. In their frustrated quest to paint Hinduism merely as a repressive social construct, leftists relish denouncing everything that a Hindu likes to be proud of. They fail to realize that all sections of Hindu society do not have the luxury to abuse their past, condemn their history and shame their origin. The ‘upper castes’ with rulers’ background find this challenge glamorous enough as they often derive a sense of ‘greatness’ in abusing their own past. On the other hand, the discriminated castes feel hurt and devastated in doing the same. Making them to disrespect their Gods, worshipped by their own ancestors and family members, is depressing in itself but forcing them to worship their ‘Asuras’ creates an emotional disillusion for them. Snatching their Hindu-pride and at the same time demeaning their past often force them to pass through an emotional crisis similar to that of Rohith’s.

The ‘left’ rob ‘Dalits’ off their glorious past so much so that unless they are in a constant state of agitation and turbulence, which is an unnatural terrorists’ state, it becomes impossible for them to survive. And as and when they calm down, they feel miserable and culturally devastated. Dalits, who start believing in left ideology, are left with only a few options – either revolt and opt for the path of destruction and terror or stop believing in their ideology or commit suicide. Being Indian (Hindu) by heart, they rarely follow the first option. The disenchantment against ‘left’ often grows so unbearable for them that in search for pride and identity, instead of Marx, they begin looking up to their own Dr. Ambedkar. But in this process, irreversible emotional damages are caused resulting in situations similar to those that led to the unfortunate end of Rohith. The moment you start feeling yourself as empty, worthless and meaningless and realize that there is no aim worth pursuing in your life, you end yourself.

You need the luxury of having an alternate supporting mechanism at your disposal so that you are able to negotiate the ever-contradicting, self-destroying and frustration-generating arguments pursued typically by the Indian-leftists. With all their negativity, Indian leftists – are able to retain these characteristics only if they are able to get a space in academia or politics – otherwise the ‘Left’ inside them die out sooner or later. This is because the only skill they are able to develop, while living with left-ideologies, is how to find enough reasons to hate their own origin. It is therefore not surprising that although leftists vociferously sell themselves as being champions of the Dalit’s cause, they have not been able to improve the condition of Dalits even wherever they were in a position to do so.

RSS, on the contrary, without the support of the government, carries out several positive initiatives in helping the socially discriminated sections of the Indian society in achieving their aims through non-governmental organizations like Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Sewa Bharti, Samkalp and others. RSS attempts to share the common glorious past with Dalits that helps them transform into proud individuals – one of the essential characteristics required to progress. RSS initiatives have helped many Dalits in realizing their dreams of occupying policy-making positions. Compared to these the ‘left’ have used only the government-run academic institutions to spread their political influence and that too only by exploiting the discriminated class so that they can be disconnected from their roots.

Idea of Self-Regulation

The idea of regulation in the Education has been generating enough discussion for a very long period in India. CBSE, UGC, AICTE, NAAC and similar authorities have been created with similar intentions by the government of India. While these institutions have failed to deliver on several fronts one aspect that has caught the largest share of attention in this regard is their concern to regulate the quality and performance of teachers in educational institutions.

Let me not hesitate in accepting a fact that teaching has gradually been evolved as a profession from an era when it was considered primarily as a mission. It is also true that teachers now demand favorable environment to perform from an era when they looked only for an opportunity. And, it will also not be a wrong assertion that teachers earlier used to command greater respect in the society than they do in the recent age. Unfortunately, on the issue of regulation, much of the deliberation takes place on how to regulate performance of teachers while the desired stress to be given on the regulation of management of the educational institution gets entirely overlooked. But here, I am addressing the issue of regulation for the teachers.

There is no denying to the fact that in the modern age when teaching is considered more as a profession one cannot escape from getting it governed through some way of regulation. Teachers must be allowed to ask and demand but they must also be answerable at the same time. Unfortunately, attempts to put some kind of regulation for teaching have invariably been proven to be counterproductive in the final analysis. The mechanism of API scores has been the latest blunder. To force teachers to submit daily reports is another idea that is equally bizarre. The idea of installing bio-metric attendance system and similar attempts of peeping into the classrooms has similar dangers.

In fact, such practices encourage teachers to pay greater attention on responding to these mechanisms of evaluation rather than making greater efforts to improve their basic performance skills. More than offering an environment where poorly performing teachers could find reason to improve themselves these measures serve as spirit dampeners for better performing teachers and even hurt the sentiments of conscientious teachers – and that is hardly affordable. It is probably lesser true for others but, in case of teachers, one must encourage the idea of self-regulation to achieve desired results and improvement. Unfortunately, teachers have shown little interest to put a system of regulation on their own and therefore, out of all the possibilities, the next best option is to get the performance of teachers evaluated by the students themselves. One can think of putting a minimum number on the feedbacks if these are to be picked up for extracting any meaningful statistical inference. One can also put a threshold on the attendance of the students for making them eligible to submit a sensible feedback. But, I see no alternative to this if we teachers would like to have respite from the mindless implementation of continuous counterproductive mechanisms in this regard.