The HRD minister has indicated that India will have a new Education policy announced in December 2017. Kasturirangan, a former scientist with ISRO, is heading the committee. The RSS/BJP Government had already undertaken many policy changes and muted many changes in the existing institutions, beginning with the saffronisation of the institutes meant for the development of the country. The area of education is important for the democracy and the survival of the country, but the question is whose survival in the country?

The education policy in India has been always coloured by the saffron forces. It has been seen that attempts have been made to twist and bend the facts in favour of those supporting the Brahminical agenda in India. The Brahmanisation of education in India needs thorough de-brahmanisation and only this and only this alone can lead to the destruction of brahminical mythos and ethos dominating minds of the majority of the Bahujans who are the victims of the Brahminical machinations.

The education means shifting the consciousness of people so that they become more responsible to each other as the fellow human beings. At its heart lies the feeling of being part of the same family and cultivate an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow human beings. India needs new consciousness if Indian republic which means democracy is to survive and democracy is the way to solve the problem facing the nation. Influenced by his teacher at Columbia University, John Dewey, whose book “Democracy and Education” had a far-reaching impact, Babasaheb Ambedkar did not confine the process of education and by the imperative process of democratisation only to four walls of the classroom.

Babasaheb Ambedkar sought to use all the domains of public intercourse to shift the consciousness of the nation. In the history of India, the Buddha shifted the consciousness of the nation and his “enlightenment project” liberated “women” and “backward classes” en mass. He liberated them all and ushered the Shudra kings like Ashoka to become the emperor of peace that changed the course of human history. Babasaheb Ambedkar attempted to break the iceberg of ignorance by challenging the brahminical caste-infested consciousness and sought to create new revolutionary consciousness with the majority of the backward classes and women in mind.

Professor G.N. Davy’s short but penetrating book on the current situation in India, A Crisis Within, comes to the conclusion that if India is to avert any threat to its nationhood, it must follow the mantra given by Babasaheb Ambedkar: educate, agitate, and organise. In the light of above discussion, when it comes to democratisation of India, the real aspiration of Indian constitution, education of the masses is the most fundamental step and that education must be new and revolutionary which will liberate them from the slavery of the minority “Brahmin-Banias” and make them agitate with organised energy to bring in true democracy in India.

Surely, the New Education Policy of RSS/BJP will be exactly opposite to this framework and that is why a nation-wide stir of the Bahujans against it should be the logical step.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale