Eleutheromania – A strong desire for freedom

Thanks Kapil Uncle

I was once listening to one of the Osho’s dialogues on tape in the Osho meditation centre. Although quite skeptical to his views then, I was however impressed by one of his arguments. The context was about solving all the worldly problems caused due to human frustration and suppression of desire. What Osho was suggesting was total freedom to human. No bondages what so ever. I, like that questioner, was quite baffled with this answer. What if the humans went out of control? Desires set free will cause wild fires all through the world. There would be nothing but chaos everywhere. But that silent giant quieted all our queries. He sarcastically remarked, “Has all the control of your society till this time done anything good to humanity. Aren’t there crimes, violence, conspiracies, violence etc. everywhere? Covering the mouth of volcano is not the solution. Let the man free. Soon all his desires will dry and he will find the peace which is birth right.”

“So, if the solution is so easy then why not the society adopts it .”, asked the questioner. “Because, society is habituated to this control. And old habits die hard.” was the answer.

After so many years of pain and agony borne by the tender minds of Indian children at last one man has shown the courage to free them from this non-essential hell. Kapil Sibbal, the man of the hour, is determined to scrap the 10^th board exam (… and perhaps 12^th too). Only prayer to God is now that this bill passes without any hassle in parliament and all state boards nod their head on it. However, what amazes me most that there are some people who are still against this noble step. Notably this opposing lobby mostly consists of teachers and principals. We can understand their pain. How, in the name of God, will they be able to scare and control the children now? Their whole business was based on the paradigm of feeding these innocent minds with all the cramming so as to vomit them in the answer sheets in board exams. It was the whole issue of prestige for them when they could present their meritorious students as trophies in all forms of media so as to draw more students to their butcher shop.

However as Amritya Sen point out in his book “Argumentative Indians”, we Indians are fond of debating all the issues under the Sun. So like a competent adversary I would like to blast all the funny arguments put forth against this bill.

• It will degrade our education system:
  

  It’s lamest of all the arguments. Since our independence we are running this white collar producing machine invented by British also known as education system without any commendable changes (…leaving the Rajiv Gandhi era, who first understood the plight of children of this country and brought changes much awaited.) Even the British have abandoned this silly marks based system to adopt grading and pointer system. Also the antonym of degradation is up gradation. Now, pray, all those intelligentsia against the bill, when was the last time your education system was updated. Whereas foreign students have innumerable choice of subjects including specialized ones, we are still in the Bermuda triangle of science, commerce and arts. Also, what about all those age-old laboratories? With the constant focus towards cracking the written exams and the practical marks in hand of institutes, labs are the areas which have been neglected most. Also check out your course material. Being a geek, at least I can comment on the IT facet of education. Frankly speaking nothing noteworthy is present in that prehistoric syllabus. This may be one of the reasons whereas the West produces IT wizkids in teens ours understand the computers in post graduation. I won’t speak about the sports. It appears to be officially out of Indian education system; a serious crime against the hallowed cradle of board merits. Summarily, how can one downgrade a system which is already so downgraded?

  
  

• We need a common standard to judge all students:
  

  A very simple answer, “Everyone is unique”. Nothing can be more flawed than judging two persons on same criterions. You may be good at arts, I may be at Maths. However the irony of matter is that we both have to take exam for History, a specialty of some other student. Let’s understand this contradiction with some other example. Imagine our defense force consisted with only air forces, no navy, territorial force etc. Why because there is only one standard: Everyone should know flying. What comedic and harmful defense that might be. Even a person with slight acquaintance with chess might know that every piece is special and it’s their combination that creates the magic. But who will make our intelligentsia aware of this fact. According to them everyone should know everything. They might learn from those Russian or Chinese gymnasts who are disciplined and focused on their talent since their early childhood to a point that they might remain ignorant about other subjects (…most of them can’t even speak basic English). However, they do bring gold to their countries. And here are we, 2 billion in strength but one Gold. Why? Simply, because our children were busy preparing for their board examinations or something similar. God, may these opponents of bill be enlightened about something called personality tests (Myer Brigg’s for e.g.). Person does best in area he likes rather than he is forced too.

  
  

• What about the competition:
  

  It’s the ace in the opponent’s deck. Use “the survival of the fittest” card. Its scientific, it’s logical, it’s a total bombshell on all those freedom lovers. But, sadly, they are again mistaken. Mistaken, how history has been in understanding Darwin. First of all when he said fittest he meant FITTEST and not strongest or some sort of mass murderer. It included those individuals who could use their inherent talent to survive the adverse situation and continue their heritage. He never meant creation of someone like Hitler, the super-man, the best of all. “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer“, sounds so similar to, “One student, One Board, One topper”. And the result of such megalomania we know very well. Secondly, it was the conclusion of his research on all species still in their basic wild surrounding. We are no longer some wild animals. We believe in shedding violence for betterment of society. Then why this violence in form of tension, depression, low self esteem on the little innocent minds. Or, are we still beast inside feeding on their agonies so as to forget ours.

  
  

• We won’t change:
  

  Don’t be surprised by such argument. Probably it will be the one most heard. It’s very typical of all those in power; the dictatorship of Iran is latest eg. This reminds me of one of the Dickens’ story. A prisoner after spending 20-30 years in prison is afterwards found not guilty of his crime. He is then set free with words of regret. After taking his belonging he walks out of the main gate in to the free world for the first time in so many years. Suddenly a whole flash of sunlight falls on him. Breezes of freedom touch his skin. His feet start to tremble. Suddenly, he turns back and runs back in to prison. Guards become totally astonished with his step and ask him for explanation. With tears in his eyes and fear on face he replies,” I am habituated to prison. I can’t face freedom. I can’t change.” Most of you might have understood what I am hinting at. But the times have changed. You can’t control with brutal force alone. Sooner or later a tsunami of fresh and young minds will come who will overthrow this rotting system once and for all. Fall of board exams is just the beginning.