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𝔸𝕟𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕘 𝕊𝕙𝕦𝕜𝕝𝕒

@Anuraag_Shukla

26 Jun

~ Sri Aurobindo and Religious Teaching in Schools

There is a strange idea prevalent that by merely teaching the dogmas of religion children can be made pious and moral. This is an error. [1/5]

This kind of practice either leads to mechanical acceptance of a creed having no effect on the inner and little on the outer life, or it creates the fanatic, the pietist, the ritualist, or the unctuous hypocrite. Religion has to be lived, not learned as a creed. [⅖]

The singular compromise made in the National Education of Bengal, making the teaching of religious beliefs compulsory, but forbidding the practice of anuṣṭhāna or religious exercises, is a sample of the ignorant confusion which distracts men’s minds on this subject.[⅗]

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𝔸𝕟𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕘 𝕊𝕙𝕦𝕜𝕝𝕒

@Anuraag_Shukla

25 Jun

“keshe makhho Kuntalin, rumaletey Delkhosh, paaney khhao Tambulin, dhanya hok H. Bose”

It was Hemendramohan Bose who pioneered conceptually sophisticated, culturally aware, and aesthetically appealing advertising long before a real consumer society had come into being in India.

Unlike other contemporary brands, Hemendramohan Bose's advertisement campaigns used to have human figures that were mostly Indian, especially women with long & luxuriant hair or ‘real’ people like Surendranath Banerjee and Lala Lajpat Rai or Rabindranath Tagore.

Where Bose truly left his mark, however, was in dreaming up the Kuntalin Prize, which was the first example of ‘product placement’ in India.

For Kuntalin Prize, entrants were invited to send in short stories which were judged by an expert and published in an annual volume.

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𝔸𝕟𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕘 𝕊𝕙𝕦𝕜𝕝𝕒

@Anuraag_Shukla

22 Jun

How brilliantly Sri Aurobindo, using Indic terms, makes the case for a new education.

First, he recognizes the problem. India faces a great deficiency of knowledge, which is the result of an education meager in quantity and absolutely vicious in method and quality. [1/12]

He argues that education in its current form may create the accurate and careful scholar, the sober critic, the rationalist and cautious politician, the conservative scientist, that great mass of human intelligence which makes for slow and careful progress. [2/12]

It does not create the hero and the originator, the inspired prophet, the mighty builder, the maker of nations; it does not conquer nature and destiny, lay its hand on the future, command the world. [3/12]

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𝔸𝕟𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕘 𝕊𝕙𝕦𝕜𝕝𝕒

@Anuraag_Shukla

11 Jun

Sri Aurobindo's Integral Education in Practice:

In any task of creation, there is the presence of five elements; Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether. These elements are represented (symbolically) by Student, Teacher, Knowledge, Language, and Environment in education.

Every student, like a piece of clay (earth), has his own intrinsic quality (svabhava). Some are malleable, but some are stiff. Yet every piece of clay comes with immense possibilities. One has to act according to the temperament of that piece of clay to make it grow/flourish.

Then comes the water, represented symbolically by the teacher here, who pours himself into the earth, nourishing it, making it soften, and helping it mold itself the way it wants. The quality and the quantity of water need to vary according to the nature of the clay.

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𝔸𝕟𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕘 𝕊𝕙𝕦𝕜𝕝𝕒

@Anuraag_Shukla

6 Jun

Nowhere the inconsistencies and contradictions of colonial policies are more evident than in the educational policies. While initially, the colonial officials showed hesitation in investing in education, soon they realized that education could become a tool to legitimize power.

While the colonial educational policies were meant to create a mimicry- complete assimilation of the local population to the culture of their colonial masters in dress, behavior, language, and ways of thinking, they were challenged by nationalist institutions of that time.

Ashis Nandy argues how even these nationalist institutions were later captured by ruling elites who used them for their political and ideological interests. Even in the post-colonial polity, it was the 'colonial consensus' that defined the workings of educational institutions.

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𝔸𝕟𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕘 𝕊𝕙𝕦𝕜𝕝𝕒

@Anuraag_Shukla

4 Jun

Finished reading this brilliant essay on Tagore’s Perspective on Decolonizing Education. The article discusses 'at length Tagore’s philosophy of education, as well as his concrete efforts to establish an alternative model of a school and a university.
oxfordre.com/education/view…

Tagore was a polymath who spent most of his adult life building a school and a university, alongside creating an impressive opus of literary and artistic work. However, Tagore was himself unsuccessful within the mainstream school and higher education system of British India.

Tagore's critique of Colonial Education:

Tagore wrote his first critical essay on education, শিক্ষার হেরফের (“Sikshar Herfer”), in 1892, which was later published by Visva Bharati University in English as “Vagaries of Education” (Dasgupta, 2009, pp. 440–441).

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