Raju Korti
It is not hard to marginalize people when they've already done it all by themselves. The Government of Maharashtra has only lent its mite to the cause with a belated show of conscience whose timing is highly suspect.
With an existence teetering on the brink of almost oblivion in the present political situation, the incumbent coalition in Maharashtra now wants to stoop and conquer. Desperation has driven it to play a beaten rhetoric that makes it believe it will turn a new page in the history of Education. More than a century later after her pioneering efforts in fighting totalitarianism in caste and other social evils, it has decided to rename the University of Pune after social reformer Savitribai Phule.
For the moment, let us keep aside the quintessential Punekar, notorious for his exaggerated sense of edification and holier than thou approach to everything that is even remotely cultural. With due regards to them, I have many friends and relatives there who sincerely believe that the city they were privileged to be born in is the sole repository of quality education and exemplary culture. Some of that conviction, you need to grudgingly admit, is well placed though.
By all accounts, renaming the University of Pune after Savitribai Phule, apparently justifiable though, is meant to serve and subsidize the minds of certain classes that I need not name. That the move was supported by the likes of Chhagan Bhujbal, the self-proclaimed champion of the downtrodden, does not come as a surprise. As someone who owns a well known educational institution in the upscale western suburb of Bandra in Mumbai, he could have showed that Education, like Charity, begins at home.
The thumb rule is simple. For all populist schemes we have the Gandhis. The lesser ones can keep all the Ambedkars and Phules. Deprivation spawns a privilege of another kind!
Among India's greatest ironies is all those who have been lamenting ill-treatment because of their caste are now bending backwards in keeping casteism alive and throbbing. If someone believes that this is a social quid pro quo of sorts, there cannot be anything more counter-productive. While the Congress has crossed all limits of propriety on the issue of castes and reservation, other parties haven't given a great account of themselves, either choosing to be silent or accepting the fait accompli as political expediency. Who will want to rub a major constituency the wrong way? More so when it has the potential to be a game changer in electoral fortunes?
There is nothing wrong in naming institutions after great personalities but when it has political overtones and reeks of shady electoral motives, such moves only intensify the divide.
Recall the violence that preceded the renaming of Marathwada University after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. In the dirty game politicians played to nurture a vote bank, scores of people lost their lives fighting a cause that was of no tangible help to them anywhichways. The renaming served no purpose and has made no material difference to the university's status.
A friend who has done considerable research on the issue points out that this is a post 70s phenomenon. Something like this would have been unimaginable in the erstwhile (bilingual) Bombay State when Morarji Desai, an ardent advocate of Shivambu, was the chief minister. Times have changed but mindsets refuse to. Caste will remain a milch cow for self-seeking politicians in a country where photos of Ambedkar, Phule, Indira Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi (not necessarily in that order) are an established norm in all government offices.
Mere renaming of the universities cannot bring about a change in the education system. What these institutions need are proper infrastructure, adequate finances and good faculties. Universities should ideally become the hub of academic research. Instead, we have vice chancellors who are political appointees.
Renaming may be the name of the game but it is like applying butter to a stale bread. Whether the new label head for Pune University works -- if it at all does -- is anybody's guess.
PS: An interesting link:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/universities-ours-and-theirs/article3743238.ece
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| Pune University: A grab from its website. |
With an existence teetering on the brink of almost oblivion in the present political situation, the incumbent coalition in Maharashtra now wants to stoop and conquer. Desperation has driven it to play a beaten rhetoric that makes it believe it will turn a new page in the history of Education. More than a century later after her pioneering efforts in fighting totalitarianism in caste and other social evils, it has decided to rename the University of Pune after social reformer Savitribai Phule.
For the moment, let us keep aside the quintessential Punekar, notorious for his exaggerated sense of edification and holier than thou approach to everything that is even remotely cultural. With due regards to them, I have many friends and relatives there who sincerely believe that the city they were privileged to be born in is the sole repository of quality education and exemplary culture. Some of that conviction, you need to grudgingly admit, is well placed though.
By all accounts, renaming the University of Pune after Savitribai Phule, apparently justifiable though, is meant to serve and subsidize the minds of certain classes that I need not name. That the move was supported by the likes of Chhagan Bhujbal, the self-proclaimed champion of the downtrodden, does not come as a surprise. As someone who owns a well known educational institution in the upscale western suburb of Bandra in Mumbai, he could have showed that Education, like Charity, begins at home.
The thumb rule is simple. For all populist schemes we have the Gandhis. The lesser ones can keep all the Ambedkars and Phules. Deprivation spawns a privilege of another kind!
Among India's greatest ironies is all those who have been lamenting ill-treatment because of their caste are now bending backwards in keeping casteism alive and throbbing. If someone believes that this is a social quid pro quo of sorts, there cannot be anything more counter-productive. While the Congress has crossed all limits of propriety on the issue of castes and reservation, other parties haven't given a great account of themselves, either choosing to be silent or accepting the fait accompli as political expediency. Who will want to rub a major constituency the wrong way? More so when it has the potential to be a game changer in electoral fortunes?
There is nothing wrong in naming institutions after great personalities but when it has political overtones and reeks of shady electoral motives, such moves only intensify the divide.
Recall the violence that preceded the renaming of Marathwada University after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. In the dirty game politicians played to nurture a vote bank, scores of people lost their lives fighting a cause that was of no tangible help to them anywhichways. The renaming served no purpose and has made no material difference to the university's status.
A friend who has done considerable research on the issue points out that this is a post 70s phenomenon. Something like this would have been unimaginable in the erstwhile (bilingual) Bombay State when Morarji Desai, an ardent advocate of Shivambu, was the chief minister. Times have changed but mindsets refuse to. Caste will remain a milch cow for self-seeking politicians in a country where photos of Ambedkar, Phule, Indira Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi (not necessarily in that order) are an established norm in all government offices.
Mere renaming of the universities cannot bring about a change in the education system. What these institutions need are proper infrastructure, adequate finances and good faculties. Universities should ideally become the hub of academic research. Instead, we have vice chancellors who are political appointees.
Renaming may be the name of the game but it is like applying butter to a stale bread. Whether the new label head for Pune University works -- if it at all does -- is anybody's guess.
PS: An interesting link:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/universities-ours-and-theirs/article3743238.ece
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