Prof K S Chandrasekar
India has celebrated its 75 years of freedom on 15th August 2022, and by 2047 it will be a ‘Century of Independence for India’. This period from 2022 to 2047 has been earmarked as “Amrit Kaal”. The journey from 2022 till 2047 is being referred to as the ‘Amrit Kaal,’ a term primarily coined by Hon Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Amrit Kaal is the period to attain the resolutions for ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.’ Therefore, the action plan for the next 25 years shall focus solely on the vision for India to be a global super power and developed nation in 2047. India has made tremendous achievement since 1947 in terms of economic growth, health, education, employment, urbanization, technology, infrastructure and development. India is soon going to become a $5 Trillion economy and become the third largest economy in the World and will be heading for an estimated $40 Trillion economy by 2047.
It is important to notice that the per capita income of the country in 1990 was $391 as opposed to China which had only $319. By 2023, India had only $2600 while China galloped to $ 13700. This vast difference in the per capita income was attributed to the growth in manufacturing over the years as Made in China took the world by storm. The developments now on “Make in India”, enabling more “Made in India” available across the world has started gaining traction with the visits of Hon. PM across the world. Services have become a major boost in the economy while manufacturing took a back seat. With the availability of resourceful technical manpower, it is time to focus on manufacturing and ensure that Amrit Kaal is achieved. For this, the higher education in India needs to grow much bigger. Central Government time and again through the UGC, AICTE are trying their level best to bring in changes in the higher education scenario by giving level playing ground for all institutions irrespective of whether it is public or private. This is an excellent move which will ensure all people concerned are contributing.
One of the important aspect is how the “Bharathiya gyan” has to be promoted so that by 2047 there should not be any colonial mind set and India on its own is developing and practising its plan indigenously. The present text books are fully on the western context. There is nothing wrong in learning through the same but our younger generation should be able to appreciate the Indianness which is crucial in achieving our goals by 2047. For example, in the field of Architecture, the learnings are primarily focussed on the western construction and planning methodology whereas India have been practicing local resource management and planning for centuries. The clamour for western needs to first die. We should know how to coexist along with the MNCs and at the same time appreciate Indianness.
UGC by ensuring that “Indian knowledge System” being introduced as part of the National Educational Policy 2020 has spearheaded the need to substitute the Colonial mind set. At the school level, the Indian knowledge system needs to be introduced removing the colonial mind set. The pains of the freedom struggle are not known now to the generation alpha or beta. This requires audio visual screening across all schools on regular basis which should spur the new generation to achieve the goals. Renaming of places has started at the right earnest to ensure that the past colonial aspects are changed. Even those French and Spanish colonies have now completely come out of their colonialism. There is a need to promote and euologise the natives than looking at international and western heroes. It is accepted that there are many stalwarts. But the Indian stalwart’s needs to be first recognised and then the rest needs to be considered.
According to Ministry of Education, The Indianness is sustainable and strives for the welfare of all. It is important that we regain the comprehensive knowledge system of our heritage and demonstrate the ‘Indian way’ of doing things to the world. This requires training generations of scholars who will demonstrate and exemplify to the world a way of life so unique and peculiar to our great civilization. The NEP, 2020 recognizes this rich heritage of ancient and eternal Indian knowledge and thought as a guiding principle. The Indian Knowledge Systems comprise of Jnan, Vignan, and Jeevan Darshan that have evolved out of experience, observation, experimentation, and rigorous analysis. This tradition of validating and putting into practice has impacted our education, arts, administration, law, justice, health, manufacturing, and commerce. Now the UGC is providing university status to that institutions which are focussing on vedas, Indian way of living, gurukula system etc.,. which is a welcome move.
There needs to be a clear plan on a decadal basis to reform and restructure the higher education and at the same time focussing on the primary and secondary education. There is a need for promoting native languages. The three language formula is one such. There are many languages in northern part of India which are not being given the sufficient space. For example, Dogri as a language in Jammu region needs more attention and protection of its scripts and dialects. Even the newspaper brought out in Dogri is not more there. More than 50% of the world’s endangered languages are located in just eight countries like Brazil, Mexico, India, Australia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Cameroon. Language death can be the result of language shift in which ethnic group members no longer learn their heritage language as their first language. It has become a fashion for people not to speak their native language and focus on English and other languages. This requires a change of approach. Central and state governments must specifically develop language schools and provide opportunities for them.
CESS in their study clearly gave directions on how to ensure Indian knowledge system in place and slowly removing colonial mind sets. They mention that Compulsory IKS courses for UG programme is the need of the hour. For UG programmes in medicine optional to take a credit course is a good initiative especially for BAMS course students of Ayurveda take modern Physiology as a compulsory subject along with traditional paper “Sharira kriya”. Concerns need to be addressed with HEIs who have integrated UGs programs for seamless integration of IKS foundation courses. Since majority of the higher education institutions are coming under the implementation of NEP, the classification of UG and PG boundaries will be agile in nature. Providing the IKS courses in an optional mode will facilitate seamless integration, because compulsory leads to resistance and lack of acceptance especially the technical and professional courses. There are few PG courses IKS can be made compulsory. Courses like Indian music, Indian philosophy, Ayurveda, Astronomy, Mathematics, Quantum Physics, Consciousness studies, Homeopathy, Unani, Yoga sciences and Naturopathy. IKS need to be made compulsory. It is to be suggested that integration of IKS courses can be brought into technical and professional disciplines like Metallurgy, Textile, Law, Agriculture and Medicine through evidence-based approach.
With the arrival of 4 year under graduation and its eligibility to do doctoral programs, there will be more students opting for research. Earlier only 0.4% qualifies through research programs. But this initiative will ensure more students be part of research. M.Phil. has been discontinued. Two year PG programme will soon pave way for one year PG and the takers for the programme will be less as the institutions and industries will start taking students from 4 year degree. There will be level playing ground in the higher education and then second decade of the Amrit kaal needs to be fostering research and teaching on Bharathiya gyan. This will ensure the higher education with its high population in our country tune to the Indianness and progress further.
“To be a global super power, one needs to be Atmanirbhar shirking the colonial foot prints and drive on its own”.
(The author is Vice Chancellor, Cluster University of Jammu)