This is in response to the column “Scourge of communalism and voices of sanity in India” by Aijaz Zaka Syed. I agree with the author that India’s plural ethos are under tremendous threat as the majority is increasingly becoming indifferent to the plight of the minorities in the country.
If you look at all those non-Muslims who have been mentioned in the article — who speak out against the discrimination meted out to the minorities — they have special backgrounds in education that imparts ethics, reasoning, philosophy and critical thinking. The issue here is not about morality, it has to do with ignorance. The nation for the past 20 years has produced so many untrained minds that have never actually studied the subjects mentioned above.
Forget Socrates, Plato, Emerson and all the Western philosophers, the youths in India have never read the writings of philosophers from their own country. Everyone from India thinks he or she knows about Gandhi but they have never read a page from his writings. There are generations of supposedly “well educated” individuals living in India, but the majority of them are dumb as a post when it comes to social sciences. They can probably solve calculus problems but they don’t know how to spot social fallacies.
There has been a big decline in the intellectual ethos after the founding fathers of India passed away. I attribute their intellectual capabilities to the fact that most of them studied abroad in the UK or in an education system that gave the social sciences a priority. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that natural sciences are just as important or in fact more if you want the society to progress materially. Though in India’s case, more social sciences need to be brought into the educational system.
India needs to develop strong foundations in its educational system, especially the social sciences. If not, it is a really uphill battle to change people’s mindset in favor of pluralism. — Rohit, By e-mail
India’s pluralism faces threat
