[Reader-list] Kabir in the Classroom

[Chintan Girish Modi]

Some excerpts from
http://www.teacherplus.org/interventions/initiating-kabir-in-the-classroom

*Kabir in the Classroom*

What might Kabir, a 15th century saint-poet, have to offer present day
schools? This question has been central to the Kabir Project’s recent
explorations in the field of education. As part of our ongoing work with
schools and interactions with educators, we have mapped out some broad areas
to explore further and build on the developing insights. Instead of making a
package for instant delivery to schools, the emphasis is on building
relationships with them and coming up with ideas suited to the needs,
context and culture of each school. The resources we draw on include the
poetry of Kabir, the musical renditions of it by various folk and classical
singers, the Kabir films made by Shabnam Virmani, children’s books, and
anything else that we can lay our hands on. There is a strong intention to
collaborate with other organizations and initiatives dedicated to peace,
nonviolence and harmony.


While Kabir’s poetry grew out of his response to the concerns of his time,
it continues to speak to us in the present day. The critical spirit of his
words is a refreshing change from empty gestures of solidarity that come in
the guise of proclamations about all human beings being part of one large
family. *Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai, Hum Sab Hai Bhai Bhai* is something we
often hear as part of national integration speeches, but how often do we
initiate conversations about these differences in school? How can we embrace
when we are not prepared to engage with ‘different-ness’? An appreciation of
a shared humanity that binds us all can come only from interrogating what
led to these divisions in the first place. This brings us to exploring the
territory of labels, stereotypes, selfhood, othering, caste, religion, and
so on. Our aim is to encourage children to examine the nature of conflict,
its causes and how it can be overcome. And this seems especially important
in a world where polarities are rigidly marked and identities are quickly
consolidated, on the basis of something as fleeting as thought and opinion.


Our discussions of diversity also extend to Kabir himself. There is not one
single Kabir, but many Kabirs. He has been appropriated in sacred and
secular spaces. His poetry is sung in folk and classical idioms. Visual
representations of him vary widely. There are many different versions of
stories surrounding his birth, life and death. However, this multi-faceted
reality does not feature in the textbooks that children read, where the life
story of Kabir is framed in a fixed, rigid way. Students do not get a taste
of the multiplicity of Kabirs that flow around them. At a recent workshop
with Rajghat Besant School in Varanasi, a student remarked, “I had just
heard that Kabir was born to Muslim parents and brought up by a Brahmin
widow. After watching Had-Anhad, I have been exposed to such varied
perceptions – Muslim, Dalit, and Hindu.” Students may get thrown off by
competing versions of reality because they are usually served only one
version as the truth. However, it is vital that we expose them to the idea
that history is not fixed and final, but always framed by the persons
narrating it. And that reality is a complex thing, it is not black and white
or clear-cut.


While environmental education has become a buzzword in schools, it is
approached mostly through the lens of science. The assumption is that of
human beings and nature as separate entities in conflict with each other
because of competing priorities. We want to infuse this space with the
energy of mystical poetry and folk traditions that enable us to see the
place of human beings in a deeper, connected ecosystem. What sparked off
this idea was the story of a brave little parrot dousing a raging forest
fire, which we encountered in a Kabir bhajan sung in Rajasthan.


As we began to develop the idea of Kabir and ecology, it occurred to us how
much of the wisdom that flows through his poems is drawn from the
environment around him. Images of nature abound in his poetry, and he
exhorts us to see the relationship between inner and outer ecologies. The
mess that we have made of our surroundings is perhaps a reflection of the
mess that lies inside of us. And we perhaps don’t care enough for the
environment because we see it as separate from us. The poetry of Kabir and
other mystics also urges us to question values like acquisitiveness and
competition that have become such an integral part of our lives that we have
lost the ability to see how our actions impact our inner and outer worlds.


The Hindi classroom has traditionally been the space in which most students
encounter the poetry of Kabir. This space can be redeemed from the drudgery
of how poetry gets taught in our schools – where poems get looked at as
artifacts produced by some creative genius, meant to be memorized by low
mortals who can barely get at the meaning through a simplistic paraphrase.
We want teachers and students to appreciate the fact that poetry is not
frozen in textbooks but often quite rooted in people’s everyday lives.
Engagement with poetry need not be a complicated literary task. The joy is
in discovering how poems speak to us in our own situations. Our attempt is
to introduce students to the rich folk singing traditions that bring alive
the power of Kabir’s poetry in languages like Malwi, Kutchi and Marwari
often subsumed under the label of ‘Hindi’ , yet different from the language
of their textbooks. There is a different quality to the engagement and
enjoyment that is possible through an exposure to the folk music traditions
of India that have carried this poetry to us over five centuries.


To read the entire article, visit
http://www.teacherplus.org/interventions/initiating-kabir-in-the-classroom