Remembering the valorous saga of Maangarh Dham
Author: Arjun Ram Meghwal
The Nation is taking giant leaps multi-dimensionally, striding to realise the fullest potential of proud citizens. The Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an apt moment to introspect ourselves and bring out the masses' consciousness for scaling new heights for the Nation. India's freedom struggle has numerous sagas to reflect the awakened consciousness of freedom fighters that widen the scope of activities of all stakeholders in the nationalistic movement. The unsung heroes have sacrificed their lives for the prestigious realm of the motherland. The recently celebrated 2nd ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Divas’ on 15th November, i.e., the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda recollected the valour and heroic deeds of tribal freedom fighters. The 17th November, reminds the sacrifice of courageous tribal martyrs under the leadership of Govind Guru, fighting bravely against the British rulers.
Govind Guru, born in a nomadic family in the Dungarpur-Banswara region of Rajasthan, imbibed the teaching of Swami Dayanand Saraswati and rose to mobilise the Bhil tribes through their socio-religious upliftment. An accurate propagator of Indian tradition and ideals, at 25 in 1883, he founded the ‘Samp Sabha’ to promote unity and harmony among the tribals. These socioeconomic measures were simultaneous to the British raj's organised loot from India and their increasing insensitivity to the concerns of locals and indigenous people. From 1903 onwards, Maangarh Hill became a famous place for the annual congregation in the form of a fair for Bhils and other tribes of the region.
The demand for self-rule in India gathered enormous currency in the 1st decade of the twentieth century. Divide and rule policy, the resultant Bengal partition and wealth draining mechanism, had busted the moral foundation of the British regime. Govind Guru had also laid down a demand to reduce the revenue collection rate from tribals in the famine-affected circumstances and to stop their encroachment on religious freedom and cultural aspects of India. As part of the freedom struggle, the Bhil community and other tribals engaged in a long standoff with the British.
In 1913, on the full moon day of 17th November, Mangarh hill witnessed a mass gathering of more than 1.5 lakh Bhils to pay their allegiance to the guru, to fulfil their spiritual desire and to look for a way out to end British hegemony. The illegitimate revenue collection was a clear-cut exhibition of their oppressive attitude and injustice measures. The ‘Bhuretia Nhi Manu Re’ (I will not accept the tyrannical rule of white people, i.e. Britishers) song has become a mouthpiece for tribal people. Thus, Govind Guru’s call for taking on injustice laid the foundation for the Civil Disobedience Movement against British rule.
Sensing the congregation of such a large scale, the British deputed seven companies to surround the entire Maangarh hill and tried to suppress the tribal agitative measures with the fear of bullets and cannons. The awakened consciousness of the masses, augmented by spirituality, seems nowhere close to accepting the Britishers' adherence to evacuate the hill area. Their confidence and spirit for protecting the motherland overpowered the bullet's fear. The insensitive Britishers ordered the mass shooting, and in this inhuman act, more than 1500 tribal freedom fighters laid down their lives this day. Britishers' moral legitimacy continuously kept eroding through the Jallianwala Bagh massacre after six years of the Mangarh hill incident and other inhuman approaches & measures to break the social & economic fabric of India.
The sacrifices of these unsung heroes of the freedom struggle have up-scaled the morals of nationalistic fraternity. It has provided a lens to view independence as a legitimate and rightful necessity. This spirit has groomed everyone in toto for duty-fully playing their active role in owning a free India. After 75 years of Independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call for Amrit Kaal’s Panch Pran with the Goal of Developed India, removing traces of a colonial mindset, taking pride in our roots, Unity, and inculcating a sense of duty. The indelible role of tribals’ from freedom struggle to nation building is an inspirational story. Tribal culture, harmony and sustainability with nature, environment-friendly lifestyle and zeal to protect nature are worth emulating and lessons for the elite class and developed countries discussing ways and means to reduce carbon footprints.
The recently held ‘Maan Garh Dham Ki Gaurav Gatha’ event on 1st November at Maangrah hill witnessed the presence of PM Narendra Modi, Chief Ministers of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and, more importantly, the descendants of tribal freedom fighters who have assembled in 1913 on the same hill. Now, Maangarh Dham will be developed with the cooperation of the State government of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, as a national memorial showcasing tribal legacy and their rich cultural heritage. Its development as a National tribal destination will become a significant milestone in recognising the tribal contribution in Nation Building. Additionally, the Government is already setting up tribal museums in ten states, i.e., Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, MP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Kerala, to recognise the contribution of tribal people to society and increase awareness about their sacrifices in the freedom struggle.
In India’s growth trajectory, leaving behind a tribal legacy will always turn out as a glass half-full. Now with the initiatives taken by the Modi government, the tribals are marching with matched shoulders in the mainstream development agenda of the Government. The Nation feels elated to have Droupadi Murmu, first tribal leader, as the Republic’s President. The Union Council of Ministers is also jewelled with eight tribal ministers. The pro-poor welfare measure, people-centric policies and governance approach to achieving full saturation by extending benefits to intended beneficiaries have facilitated their ease of living.
The building of Eklavya Model residential School, dedicated scholarship scheme for students, Adivasi University, focussed emphasis on curbing sickle cell anaemia, Mission Indradhanush, development through Tribal research institute, removing bamboo from the definition of a tree, Ayushmaan Bharat, PM Awas Yojana among other are helping to bloom the potential of tribal masses. Strengthening the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocity) Act through amendments has made effective deterrence to atrocities against them. The idea of Social Justice is getting new meaning under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Today we pay our homage to the Martyrs of Maangarh by remembering the supreme sacrifice of unsung freedom fighters. Let’s align our values with the morals of freedom fighters to reveal altogether different perspectives to building a new India, a global leader emerging as a pragmatic trouble-shooter on contemporary international challenges. Let’s scratch our past, carry forward the indomitable legacy and learn from cultural values to earn a shining future. It’s time to mindfully churn and act concerned about building a Developed India. /PIB/
(The writer is Union Minister of State for Culture and Parliamentary Affairs, and represents Bikaner constituency in the Lok Sabha)
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NEP-2020 aspires for inclusive excellence in school education
Rajeev Ranjan Roy
The New Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020), unveiled recently, aims at achieving excellence in school learning by imparting quality, affordable and inclusive education to all, with an extra emphasis on those children coming from socially and educationally disadvantaged groups of the society. It is a futuristic endeavour towards building Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat. The previous education policies largely focussed on the issues of access and equity in giving school education, while the NEP-2020 commits to laying the foundation of a vibrant Bharat where no one is devoid of a kind of school education, which helps every student become an asset for the nation in a true sense. The unfinished agenda of the National Policy on Education 1986, which was modified in 1992, has been effectively dealt with in the NEP-2020 along with the vision behind the Right to the Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which “laid down legal underpinnings for achieving universal elementary education.”
Given the undisputed role of education in nation building, the NEP-2020 rightly lays the stress on standardization and accreditation of school infrastructure and teachers as well, since education with accountability, transparency and affordability is the need of the hour, and hence the need to “empower schools, teachers with trust, enabling them to strive for excellence and perform at their very best, while ensuring the integrity of the system through the enforcement of complete transparency and full public disclosure of all finances, procedures and outcomes.” Since private sector is significantly present in the field of school education, the idea to promote ‘not-for-profit’ entities is a unique feature of NEP-2020, which at the same time intends to promote private philanthropic efforts for quality education, thereby affirming the public-good nature of education, while protecting parents and communities from arbitrary increase in tuition fees.
An equally important area, which has got due attention in the NEP-2020 is the need for efficient resourcing and effective governance through school complexes and clusters, a significant initiative in view of the fact that nearly 28 per cent of India’s public primary schools and 14.8 per cent of upper primary schools have less than 30 students. The average number of students per grade in the elementary schooling system – Grades 1 to 8 – is about 14, with a notable proportion having below six students during 2016-17, the year which also had 1,08,017 single-teacher schools, and majority of them – 85,743 – being primary schools taking care of Grades 1-5 children. It was, therefore, a pressing need to evolve a mechanism for establishing a grouping structure, say, school complexes, consisting of one secondary school together with all other schools, which lead to greater resource efficiency and more effective functioning, coordination, leadership, governance, and management of schools in the cluster. This will not only ensure optimum utilisation of resources, but will also foster the sense of oneness and togetherness among the school children, who are the future of the nation.
What further makes the New Education Policy-2020 uniquely special is its pledge for equitable and inclusive education for all, one of the great dreams of our founding fathers. Education, as the NEP-2020 rightly envisions, is “the single greatest tool for achieving social justice and quality.” Inclusive and equitable education, indeed an essential goal in its own right, is also critical to achieving a social order where every citizen has “the opportunity to dream, thrive, and contribute to the nation.” Quality, affordable and ethical education to all is the first move to break multiple social and economic barriers, which sow the seeds of exclusion, discrimination and exploitation against our own people on different parochial considerations.
Needless to say efforts were made in the past as well to bridge the educational chasm between socially and educationally disadvantaged groups (SEDGs) and the children of top social strata, but the desired results remained elusive. SEDGs account for the country’s overwhelming population, but their children’s share in quality school educational institutions has been minimal over the years. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) needs to be handled more comprehensively. According to the Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2016-17 data, about 19.6 per cent of students belonged to Scheduled Castes (SCs) at the primary level, but this fraction fell to 17.3 per cent at the higher secondary level. These enrollment drop-outs were more severe for ST students (10.6 per cent to 6.8 per cent), and differently-abled children (1.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent), with even greater declines for female students within each of these categories. Thus, there is no scope for any complacency on the part of the government. A series of interventions including better facilities, more and more hostels, scholarships and other enabling support have been provisioned in the NEP-2020 so that the idea of ‘learning for all’ is realised in a more comprehensive manner.
Teachers are not only an integral part of an education system, but the most important stakeholder in the entire gamut of things. Their quality and ability to teach school students, when they are in their formative age, become something of paramount importance. From their recruitment to training, every precaution needs to be taken to ensure that school education is not rendered to a mere formality, but becomes a game changer. The New Education Policy-2020 comes with a basket full of tools and parameters to ensure holistic training and upgradation of teachers and their teaching skills in a sustainable manner. From continuous professional development (CPD) to career management and progression (CMP), the NEP-2020 vouches for a set of common guidelines – National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST), which will be put in place by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in its restructured new form as the Professional Standard Setting Body (PSSB) under the General Education Council. This exercise will be carried out in consultation with National Council Educational Research and Training (NCERT), SCERTs, teachers from across levels and regions.
The teacher education will also undergo a sea-change. By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. that teaches a range of knowledge content. Today B.Ed. teaching is most poorly regulated in our country ever since the standalone B.Ed. colleges were allowed to be opened up in the private sector. It is high time to take B.Ed. teaching more than seriously. The NEP-2020 stipulates that by 2021, a new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE-2021) will be formulated by the NCTE. NCFTE, which will also factor in the requirements of teacher education curricula for vocational education, will be revised once every 5-10 years.
In conclusion, the NEP-2020 visualizes to impart a school education which lays the foundation of a self-reliant India and also to help our country emerge as a knowledge hub. From the foundation of learning to foundational literacy and numeracy to checking drop outs and ensuring universal access to education for all and at all levels to the restructuring of school curriculum, India is in for a metamorphosis in the field of school education, recognizing, identifying and fostering the unique capabilities of each student. Tools such as multi disciplinarity, emphasis on conceptual understanding, creativity and critical thinking, ethics and human and constitutional values, full equity and inclusion, and light but tight regulatory framework are bound to do wonders. Education is a public service, a rare pursuit in nation building, which should be holistic and inclusive and must make one take pride in India and its rich, diverse, ancient and modern culture and knowledge systems and tradition. The NEP-2020 aspires so, indeed!
( The writer is a senior journalist and author. The views expressed are strictly personal.)
NEP-2020 aspires for inclusive excellence in school education
Rajeev Ranjan Roy
The New Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020), unveiled recently, aims at achieving excellence in school learning by imparting quality, affordable and inclusive education to all, with an extra emphasis on those children coming from socially and educationally disadvantaged groups of the society. It is a futuristic endeavour towards building Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat. The previous education policies largely focussed on the issues of access and equity in giving school education, while the NEP-2020 commits to laying the foundation of a vibrant Bharat where no one is devoid of a kind of school education, which helps every student become an asset for the nation in a true sense. The unfinished agenda of the National Policy on Education 1986, which was modified in 1992, has been effectively dealt with in the NEP-2020 along with the vision behind the Right to the Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which “laid down legal underpinnings for achieving universal elementary education.”
Given the undisputed role of education in nation building, the NEP-2020 rightly lays the stress on standardization and accreditation of school infrastructure and teachers as well, since education with accountability, transparency and affordability is the need of the hour, and hence the need to “empower schools, teachers with trust, enabling them to strive for excellence and perform at their very best, while ensuring the integrity of the system through the enforcement of complete transparency and full public disclosure of all finances, procedures and outcomes.” Since private sector is significantly present in the field of school education, the idea to promote ‘not-for-profit’ entities is a unique feature of NEP-2020, which at the same time intends to promote private philanthropic efforts for quality education, thereby affirming the public-good nature of education, while protecting parents and communities from arbitrary increase in tuition fees.
An equally important area, which has got due attention in the NEP-2020 is the need for efficient resourcing and effective governance through school complexes and clusters, a significant initiative in view of the fact that nearly 28 per cent of India’s public primary schools and 14.8 per cent of upper primary schools have less than 30 students. The average number of students per grade in the elementary schooling system – Grades 1 to 8 – is about 14, with a notable proportion having below six students during 2016-17, the year which also had 1,08,017 single-teacher schools, and majority of them – 85,743 – being primary schools taking care of Grades 1-5 children. It was, therefore, a pressing need to evolve a mechanism for establishing a grouping structure, say, school complexes, consisting of one secondary school together with all other schools, which lead to greater resource efficiency and more effective functioning, coordination, leadership, governance, and management of schools in the cluster. This will not only ensure optimum utilisation of resources, but will also foster the sense of oneness and togetherness among the school children, who are the future of the nation.
What further makes the New Education Policy-2020 uniquely special is its pledge for equitable and inclusive education for all, one of the great dreams of our founding fathers. Education, as the NEP-2020 rightly envisions, is “the single greatest tool for achieving social justice and quality.” Inclusive and equitable education, indeed an essential goal in its own right, is also critical to achieving a social order where every citizen has “the opportunity to dream, thrive, and contribute to the nation.” Quality, affordable and ethical education to all is the first move to break multiple social and economic barriers, which sow the seeds of exclusion, discrimination and exploitation against our own people on different parochial considerations.
Needless to say efforts were made in the past as well to bridge the educational chasm between socially and educationally disadvantaged groups (SEDGs) and the children of top social strata, but the desired results remained elusive. SEDGs account for the country’s overwhelming population, but their children’s share in quality school educational institutions has been minimal over the years. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) needs to be handled more comprehensively. According to the Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2016-17 data, about 19.6 per cent of students belonged to Scheduled Castes (SCs) at the primary level, but this fraction fell to 17.3 per cent at the higher secondary level. These enrollment drop-outs were more severe for ST students (10.6 per cent to 6.8 per cent), and differently-abled children (1.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent), with even greater declines for female students within each of these categories. Thus, there is no scope for any complacency on the part of the government. A series of interventions including better facilities, more and more hostels, scholarships and other enabling support have been provisioned in the NEP-2020 so that the idea of ‘learning for all’ is realised in a more comprehensive manner.
Teachers are not only an integral part of an education system, but the most important stakeholder in the entire gamut of things. Their quality and ability to teach school students, when they are in their formative age, become something of paramount importance. From their recruitment to training, every precaution needs to be taken to ensure that school education is not rendered to a mere formality, but becomes a game changer. The New Education Policy-2020 comes with a basket full of tools and parameters to ensure holistic training and upgradation of teachers and their teaching skills in a sustainable manner. From continuous professional development (CPD) to career management and progression (CMP), the NEP-2020 vouches for a set of common guidelines – National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST), which will be put in place by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in its restructured new form as the Professional Standard Setting Body (PSSB) under the General Education Council. This exercise will be carried out in consultation with National Council Educational Research and Training (NCERT), SCERTs, teachers from across levels and regions.
The teacher education will also undergo a sea-change. By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. that teaches a range of knowledge content. Today B.Ed. teaching is most poorly regulated in our country ever since the standalone B.Ed. colleges were allowed to be opened up in the private sector. It is high time to take B.Ed. teaching more than seriously. The NEP-2020 stipulates that by 2021, a new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE-2021) will be formulated by the NCTE. NCFTE, which will also factor in the requirements of teacher education curricula for vocational education, will be revised once every 5-10 years.
In conclusion, the NEP-2020 visualizes to impart a school education which lays the foundation of a self-reliant India and also to help our country emerge as a knowledge hub. From the foundation of learning to foundational literacy and numeracy to checking drop outs and ensuring universal access to education for all and at all levels to the restructuring of school curriculum, India is in for a metamorphosis in the field of school education, recognizing, identifying and fostering the unique capabilities of each student. Tools such as multi disciplinarity, emphasis on conceptual understanding, creativity and critical thinking, ethics and human and constitutional values, full equity and inclusion, and light but tight regulatory framework are bound to do wonders. Education is a public service, a rare pursuit in nation building, which should be holistic and inclusive and must make one take pride in India and its rich, diverse, ancient and modern culture and knowledge systems and tradition. The NEP-2020 aspires so, indeed!
( The writer is a senior journalist and author. The views expressed are strictly personal.)
