What is wrong with saffronisation of education, vice president asks

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has asked people of India to give up their “colonial mindset” and learn to take pride in their own identity.

Naidu called for total rejection of the Macaulay system of education, saying that it imposed a foreign language as the medium of education in the country and confined education to the elite.

“Centuries of colonial rule taught us to look upon ourselves as an inferior race. We were taught to despise our own culture, traditional wisdom. This slowed our growth as a nation. The imposition of a foreign language as our medium of education confined education to a small section of the society, depriving a vast population of the right to education,” Naidu said in his address after inaugurating the South Asian Institute of Peace and Reconciliation, at the Dev Sanskriti Vishwa Vidyalaya in Haridwar.

“We should feel proud of our heritage, our culture, our forefathers. We must go back to our roots. We must give up our colonial mindset and teach our children to take pride in their Indian identity. We must learn as many Indian languages as possible. We must love our mother tongue. We must learn Sanskrit to know our scriptures, which are a treasure trove of knowledge,” the VP said.

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Encouraging youngsters to propagate their mother tongue, Naidu said, “I am looking forward to the day when all gadget notifications are issued in the mother tongue of a respective state. Your mother tongue is like your eyesight, whereas your knowledge of a foreign language is like your spectacles”

Naidu said Indianisation of the education system is central to India’s new education policy.

“We are accused of saffronising education, but then what is wrong with saffron? Sarve bhawantu sukhinah (all be happy) and vasudhaiv kutumbakam (the world is one family), which are philosophies contained in our ancient texts, are the guiding principles of India’s foreign policy even today,” the VP said.

(With inputs from Agencies)