PM Modi has regularly referred to the need for us as Indians to get back to our own culture and languages. The New Education Policy fortunately also encourages regional languages.
In June 1834, Thomas Macaulay came to Ooty in India and spent under a year as a British historian and educationist. By 1835 after returning to London, he formulated an education policy for all colonies, but he knew that it would particularly be more important to establish his theory of English language and culture in the crown jewel which was, India. This policy was spread out quickly by the British and got known as Macaulayism, which amounted to thrusting the English language and customs; while simultaneously taking away the local language and customs from the colonial subjects. It became convenient to get Anglicised in this way as it was then easier to be an officer or servant in the service of the King Emperor. This was colonialism at its best and it came to stamping out the desire for your own culture and replacing it with English and all the allied educational syllabi.
Now since a few years, Prime Minister having realised this, has regularly referred to the need for us as Indians to get back into our own culture and languages. The New Education Policy fortunately also encourages regional languages.
Simultaneously also now there is a renaissance of Indian cultural revival. Many enlightened citizens are bringing back Indian art, Indian culture, Indian textiles, Indian clothing, Indian classical dance and most importantly an attempt to look at our own history and religion through the Indian lens. We are on the right track and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is further strengthening it.
To remove “ghulami” and the colonial mindset is at best a general statement. There are 100 ways of adopting new strategies to change our society, our laws, rules, and governance systems so as to shed the colonial hangover. Of the many steps that still need to be taken, a few are listed below. On any of the points mentioned below a chapter could be written, but for the time being, it is best to highlight these few areas in the hope that improvements will continue and, in some cases, even legislation may be considered.
- At the cost of repetition, our Administrative Services are constituted from among our finest young talent. This is then the bureaucracy that runs our country appropriately according to “Rules”. So we have a system that always ensures the valuable aspect of “Administration”. We have inherited the easiest way out by following the British colonial system and therefore the aspect of “Facilitation” is unfortunately left out. The British did not do this for the Indian “Subjects”.
It is understandable that if a bureaucrat is honest, but then tries to help an industrialist or just any Indian citizen, then he or she, can be accused of giving unfair advantages. This could mean an inquiry against that person, and here lies the weakness in our system. The honest officer is afraid to help. Facilitation becomes a mirage. Our government machinery in addition to administration should facilitate, but currently there is no way for such decisions to be taken, which would not attract suspicion.
The government is indeed trying to solve this by bringing in various procedural practices that will enable facilitation, such as but not limited to, faceless Income Tax, 85% payment on successful arbitration in spite of continuing litigation (Vivad se Vishwas), and even withdrawal of minor cases from the CLB/SFI. Here it is important to note that the continuing litigation is mostly done by the Central government and the state government. A marvellous circular by the Finance Ministry refers to the State / Central governments, bravely but honestly, as “Compulsive Litigants”. If this aspect is also tackled it will enable people to expend their energies on more productive tasks rather than fighting their own Government, especially even after winning at the stage of Arbitration. * Needless to say, the judicial system is the other area where, on one hand many difficulties, and the inevitable impasse, get resolved by activism. But at the lower levels of courts in the districts there is a never-ending delay to even get a date. A judge or some lawyer, can merely be missing, and the next date is three months away. This for many average citizens especially in villages and small towns, means that it is fair to assume that to get resolution, one lifetime may not be enough. As a parallel, how many persons do we have in jails, who are still not convicted, but disastrously await the next date. Is this not colonialism? - Coming back to the state of the floods and water mismanagement. In addition to what I have earlier written it should suffice to say that our ministries and government machinery have all the knowledge but shirk the ability to apply the knowledge. Simply put, everyone seems to be “reacting” to a situation rather than “anticipating” the possible situation. Merely using the NDRF each time is proof that not enough attempts have made to reach a point where the NDRF is not necessary.
- If we are to shed the colonial era, we must also look at our cultural image. Have you ever tried Indian restaurants abroad? First of all, perhaps 80% of the restaurants in the UK are run by Bangladeshis to their own individual standards of each family restauranteur. There are many restaurants which slapdash chillies only because the western world thinks that all Indian food is made from “chilli”, without realising that there are 30 other spices. As an example, the restaurants in Vancouver and many other cities are a letdown to our Indian food standards and quality. Yet they charge exorbitantly high at what they think should be the rates and make them equivalent to Western dishes in prices.
Is it not possible for the Indian Ministry of Culture to get involved? After all it is a matter of the nation’s image. Can we not have some standards for Indian food. Especially when Chinese, French, Italian and many other cuisines have not forgotten their quality standards? While we cannot insist on what an Indian restaurant serves in other countries, we can still have a full proof system of voluntary quality certification by some Indian department/standards for every Indian restaurant abroad (that wants to be certified). This would mean a certificate hanging on the wall for a restaurant that meets the standards regardless of whether it is run by an Indian, Bangladeshi, or any other nationality. There is a restaurant in Nantes run by French family with extremely good Indian food. Obviously, a bona fide certificate of quality would attract even more customers.
If we had a system of certifying good quality in Indian restaurants abroad, then surely an industry in India would come up to supply those restaurants with quality inputs, masalas, spices, etc. Chinese restaurants all over the world import ingredients from China and maintain quality. For them this a huge self-sustaining industry. - Indian heritage and legacy are not limited merely to food or even dance, textiles and music. We have many other valuable items which should be collected and placed in museums. The Indian government (is it the Ministry of Culture?) should be more active in supporting museums and in fact encouraging them. There could be museums on village handicrafts, wall art, and many other items. We all know that when anyone goes abroad the chances are that he will have seen a museum somewhere in the Western world. We should also protect our culture, and this needs government support and not interference. We would have more museums, not only for the visitor, but also our own growing children who would learn and be aware of their legacy.
- One area that is most irksome is the desire of the bureaucracy through a testosterone-filled aggressive mentality to destroy automobiles. This happens because some old automobiles are polluting. But many old automobiles are non-polluting. Yet the fact that all automobiles over a certain age are to be scrapped in the NCR is because even the government cannot trust or manage to issue honest certificates for non-polluting automobiles. It is assumed that a pollution certificate can be obtained through a bribe; so, then what is the role of the government apart from destroying all automobiles? Or is it that the automobile manufacturing industry couldn’t care less for this aspect for Indian heritage? Everywhere in the world, automobiles are considered heritage, and are displayed, if not deployed. In more ways than one, they carry the history of social change. But we are content to destroy and wipeout. In any case, do automobiles pollute more than millions of gensets? Does anyone bother?
- We can even have museums on ancient Indian transport forms, like Bullock Carts, Horse Carts (Ekka), Donkey Carts and the like. These are random ideas. Why not also have a museum on all the types of roof tiles used so wonderfully in the coastal areas particularly Southern India.
- Another disaster was to cut and destroy the National wealth of 12,500 Steam Locomotives (Broad Gauge and Meter Gauge). Why does our culture, heritage conscience not be alert? Each loco could have stood on the campus of a University or School (as in the rest of the world). But Alas is Macaulay winning.
I could go on for the list is endless, but now I rest my pen.
Darshan Singh is an entrepreneur who has worked in quite a few key areas that have been critical to the process of nation-building, including the railways and oil and natural gas exploration. He is also an educationist, currently the Chairman of the Welham Boys’ School in Dehradun.