[Reader-list] Discussion

[Ravi Kumar]

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MARXIST STUDIES
(DELHI CHAPTER)

E-Mail: iims_delhi at hotmail.com

 



A DISCUSSION ON

Education and the Process of Fascization in India
FACILITATOR: DR. AVIJIT PATHAK (Associate Professor, JNU)

 

The RSS with varieties of organisations having similar ideological and organisational make-up has been active since pre-independence days, continuing its task of preparing grounds for the evolution of consensus regarding its politics. It is this groundwork that has made the task of organizing masses difficult in opposition because of the nature of ideologico-political hegemony generated through the activities of these forces. The political strategy of these formations made them target specifically education as an instrument of consensus creation or hegemonisation. Apart from drawing people through activities apparently 'social and cultural' they began their work in hinterlands as well as urban centres in education, drawing a well thought out plan. Their "innovative" Ekal Vidyalayas, Saraswati Shishu Mandirs etc. feeding on and shaping the traditional pedagogical symbols go hand in hand with their continuous efforts to impose their own epistemological framework in higher and specialised disciplines. Because of this groundwork perhaps the BJP now is being able to carry forward the institutional changes so overtly and without hindrance excepting a few reactive voices from the progressives. They have been able to engage both "rural and urban-type intellectuals", preachers of moralism and technicalism in their hegemonic build-up, producing a peculiar Janus-headed "reactionary modernism". 

The counter-hegemonic endeavours perhaps have failed to evolve partly due to the co-opting 'eclectic' nature of the polity, which evolved after the Independence. The fallacious understanding of the character of the RSS, BJP and all their cohorts and their relationship with the dynamic politico-economic needs of capital and its agencies in the Indian society have failed the enduring subjective preparation needed to curb the system which sustains the fascist tendencies. This same fallacious understanding allows the cooption of potential oppositional forces and in turn gets reproduced further in the process.

Hence, the rapid spread of fascistic tendencies, their incorporation in our day-to-day life, gradual dominance of everyday symbols evoked by them in form of manipulated figures of leaders and sants etc., as well as overwhelming presence of a new lexicon in our daily life constitute the present conjuncture. Education and pedagogy are essential instruments that have effectively put forward the agenda of the right reaction. As a counter offensive the experiments carried out on educational front have either been co-opted in the mainstream framework of status quo which turns to soft hindutva (as in case of Madhya Pradesh) and seeks to redefine and get an edge over the RSS family over the issue of Hindutva or they have failed to enter into any form of effective dialogue with people which led to popular indifference towards fascization of education culminating in cosmopolitan protests of a few. What can be possible counter-culture against this - a strategy that bases itself on dialogicity/criticality with the masses so as to reach and read those embedded mental structures and evolve a consensus over the perils of fascization? There is an urgent need to engage in dialogue over such pertinent issues of relationship of fascism and education as well as the possibilities of intervention.

GANDHI PEACE FOUNDATION (NEAR ITO)

Deen Dayal Upadhayay Marg

3.00-6.00 PM, 13TH APRIL 2003 (Sunday)

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