It is not the State's Business to Write and Rewrite Textbooks
In a democratic system, a change of regime is legitimate. It has happened in the past and will happen in the future too. Any change that takes place must be consistent with the spirit and letter of the Constitution. I say this because India is not an ordinary nation state. It has developed and evolved over a period of time. And its social structures, its intellectual and cultural lives have been nurtured by different sections of the society. All of which, though separate in many ways, have contributed to the making of India. If you forget this and begin to imagine that you can appropriate a certain legacy, and through the state machinery you can perpetuate and promote that legacy, you are already creating fissures.
The aim of any government is to strengthen the unity of the society, to ensure that the diversity of the country is preserved. And India is seen as India in a way that perhaps Jawaharlal Nehru saw in The Discovery of India—a mosaic of culture and community. I also think that the makers of the Constitution had the good sense to visualise a country during the very grim time of Independence. They could have opted for a Hindu state, which was the easiest thing to do. But they didn’t because they did not want to break the cultural and civilisational unity of the country, something that Mohammed Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League had already done.
They [the Constitution makers] wanted to keep intact whatever was left to them. And for well over three decades, they managed to do so. ‘Unity in diversity’ was not just a slogan; it conveyed the aspirations of the people, who wanted to live together and respect each other’s culture, religion and way of life.
And that is the general framework within which the future of a nation like ours has to be examined, discussed and promoted.
BJP is clearly a right-wing government and has all the faults of a right-wing government. A right-wing government is not desirable in any society, more so in a country like ours with its uneven growth. It is a different country where you have to depend on a welfare system. It is all very well for me to sit in an AC room and pontificate on how subsidies should be withdrawn. But think of the 60 percent of the population that is below the poverty line; don’t we have any obligation towards them? We talk of bringing people to the mainstream. But right-wing economic policies do everything to keep the mainstream away from the poor. So in slogan, mainstream is there, but in practice, it makes sure that the mainstream includes only the rich.
Every government has an ideology. There is nothing wrong in being ideological. But again, the ideology of a national government as against that of a state government is different; it has to be consistent with the interest of the nation. It should not reflect sectarian or communitarian interests.
But the BJP is trying to do just that. The damage has been done with the appointment of the Indian Council of Historical Research chairman [Yellapragada Sudershan Rao] who is committed to a totally different world view that is divisive. This is a pointer to what might happen later. I think we need individuals who can provide leadership and infuse dynamism in our institutions. We don’t need these kinds of ideologues who have a sectarian view on so many matters. These offices should be manned by men of academic excellence.
The whole business of inventing heroes in education has dangerous consequences. Because heroes are pitted against enemies and heroes emerge out of enemies. Fortunately, Gandhi, Nehru or Patel don’t emerge out of enemies. But Maharana Pratap does, Prithviraj Chauhan does, Shivaji does. These heroes have become exemplary in a society which is increasingly becoming polarised. So education, instead of narrowing the divide, and creating a common perspective on history and contemporary life, has led to a drift. The task of education should be to promote common citizenry. So when one votes in an election, one votes as a citizen and not as a Hindu or a Muslim or a Brahmin.
(This story appears in the 22 August, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)