CONVOCATION ADDRESS - RAVINDRA BHARTI UNIVERSITY, CALCUTTA

Delivered by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer - 8th May 2003

His Excellency the Governor of West Bengal, Madam Vice Chancellor,

I am grateful to Madam Bharti Mukerjee for inviting me to deliver this year's convocation address. I always consider it a great privilege to address students and teachers and to interact with them. Our universities are supposed to be temples of knowledge and these universities produce great minds and it is on these great minds that the future of our country depends. These temples of knowledge should not be allowed to become, as a noted American philosopher Herbert Marcuse put it, centres of acknowledgement. These universities should be centres of cognition, not of recognition.

However, it is a sad commentary on state of affairs today that our educational institutions are becoming not only centres of acknowledgement, instead of that of knowledge, they are unfortunately producing one dimensional man. Also, our educational institutions are increasingly becoming centres of communalism and fundamentalism. Knowledge should liberate us from all prejudices and make our mind rational and open towards others. However, today what is imparted in the name of knowledge is nothing but bigotry, which closes our minds towards others.

The educational system is supposed to impart to us values like equality of all human beings, justice, truth, compassion and non-violence. However, our educational institutions are becoming centres of fundamentalism, violence and discrimination towards others. This should make us reflect deeply on the malady and we should do our best to transform our educational system.

Ravindra Bharti University has been set up to perpetuate the best of traditions Ravindranath Tagore stood for. He was one of the greatest minds of twentieth century India and he stood for what is best in our culture. The students and teachers of this university should be justly proud of their association with this premier educational institution and should do their best to promote the values Ravindranath Tagore stood for. This university should become a great centre for excellence in all fields of knowledge. It should not only produce great thinkers but also great persons of character known for their learning, liberalism and tolerance.

We have entered twenty-first century and are proud of it. However, if we reflect for a moment we feel what is there to be proud of? This century has begun with great deal of violence. We had 9/11/2001 attack on New York Trade Towers and Pentagon in which more than 3000 people were killed. The U.S. imperialists attacked Afghanistan and killed thousands of civilians no one knows how many. The U.S. never disclosed figures. And now USA invaded Iraq under the false pretext of Saddam Husain possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

And even after war is over not a single WMD has been discovered. Now President Bush is talking of 'liberating' Iraq and giving people of Iraq the 'gift of freedom' and he said that 'freedom is beautiful'. The question is whose freedom? Is it liberation of the people of Iraq? Do people of Iraq think that they have been liberated? Or is it that USA is now free to exploit the rich oil resources of Iraq and to dominate entire Middle East. Is it liberation from or domination of US imperialism?

Can you liberate people by bombing them and by decimating them? The US imposed sanctions on Iraq for last 10 years and because of these sanctions more than half a million children died. The experts tell us that the USA had used during 1st Iraq war in 1990 nuclear tipped missiles, which spread cancer among the young children. And the Assistant Secretary of State Christine Rocca, in reply to a question about the death of half a million children, said it was the price worth paying. Who paid the price?

And for whom? It is the people of Asia and Africa, poor and downtrodden, who pay the price so that American people can continue to enjoy the good things of life. And people of America accept such things.

Are these the values imparted by the education system in America? Can a really educated mind accept such violence against innocent people? Is education system devised to serve vested interests? It obviously appears to be serving vested interests. The vast military-industrial complex need minds conditioned to accept legitimacy of these interests. Freedom does not mean freedom of people but of these powerful interests to exploit the poor and condemn them forever to live life of poverty and deprivation. There is no people's democracy and people's role in governance. These are only beautiful words, words representing universal values but serving the interests of ruling classes. A real educated mind will not accept such state of affairs.

It is unfortunate that education is more and more catering to narrow but powerful interests. Such education system fails to inculcate great human values. Today it is narrow specialisation, which is far more rewarding financially, at the cost of liberal values. No wonder than that it is such trained specialists who develop inclination towards extreme kind of fundamentalism.

It is modern educated youth who are turning towards fundamentalism of extreme kind. These fundamentalists come from modern universities and not from madrasas, pathshalas or seminaries. Those involved in attacking the trade towers on 9/11 were trained pilots, doctors and engineers, not traditional mullahs. Thus it is modern universities which, for one reason or the other, are breeding fundamentalists. We have to reflect deeply why it is so? Why universities are producing such narrow mindset? It is more for conflict of interests they cater to.

Samuel Huntington wrote a book Clash of Civilisations. He tries to prove in this book that these Islamic and Western civilisations do not have any harmony of values and they clash each other due to their very nature. This is not only a superficial approach but such a thesis is fundamentally flawed. This thesis has been developed to cater to interests of American ruling classes. It is really a sad commentary that professors, who are supposed to be treasure of knowledge in their field, write to serve certain interests. There is no such clash between the civilisations. Civilisations are based on values, not on interests. And values do not clash. It is clash of interests which motivated American ruling classes to use a professor from Harvard University to write such superficial work.

The education system should never be made subservient to powerful interests. If an education system is made to serve some interests humanity and human values will be in serious danger. Education system should only serve values, values of equality, justice, peace and compassion. The human values can flower only in the absence of injustice, violence and clash of interests.

If we have to fight fundamentalism, fanaticism and narrow sectarianism we have to promote liberal human values through our educational system. We in India are experiencing worst form of fundamentalism today. Communalism is bordering on fascism. There is great danger to peace and security in our country. What happened in Gujarat an year ago is clear proof of communalism and fundamentalism crossing all limits and using brutal violence against a minority community.

Who do we blame for all this. Of course a political party and its ideology is greatly responsible for this. But our education system also has to take a measure of blame. In the name of knowledge we are spreading worst kind prejudices against the religious minorities. Our textbooks, particularly those of history, have become source of myths and misinformation. These books create an atmosphere of intolerance and hatred.

For number of years certain political forces are propagating hatred against minority communities. It was attitude of hatred and intolerance, which ultimately led to partition of our country. And it is highly educated people who were responsible for bringing about partition of our country. The illiterate masses were only the victims, not the perpetrators of violence. Thus the interests of ruling classes clash and helpless masses suffer. Now it is more than half a century since our country was partitioned. But some vested political interests keep on reviving its memories and perpetrating communal violence for political benefit.

In all the communal riots which have taken place in independent India medieval history on one hand, and memories of partition, on the other, has been misused by communal forces. Our history textbooks have not been changed for last fifty years deliberately so that they can serve the purpose of communal forces. There are committed secular historians who even wrote proper history textbooks for school children so that they may develop proper knowledge of history. However, these history textbooks were marginalised by those who have communal mindset.

It is based on such history textbooks that the Babri Masjid- Ramjanambhoomi controversy acquired such massive proportions that three general elections were fought on that basis. What a tragedy that in a country like India where problems of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy are so massive, an obscurantist issue like that of Mandir-Masjid controversy acquired such massive proportions. The powerful vested interest represented by communal forces want us to remain engaged in such controversies so that economic changes favouring the ruling classes could be easily made. Without distributive justice we cannot have real democracy. A qualitative democracy should empower the powerless and give voice to the voiceless. A democracy should be transformative democracy, not merely symbolic democracy as we have today.

Democracy should tend to be transformative by the very nature of the system. It can, left to itself, transform an unjust system into a just one. It is for this reason that vested interests to render democracy impotent manipulate people to vote on the basis of religion and caste, rather than on the basis of issues. Religion is used as a powerful tool to achieve this end and so far communalists and fundamentalists have eminently succeeded.

The whole education system has been so designed as to serve this purpose. Our education system builds communal tension in the minds of students rather than cleansing them of prejudices. It makes them intolerant towards other communities and then these minds are used for creating communal conflict so that real issues are never debated. Our media - both print as well as electronic, reinforces these prejudices and helps intensify communal conflict.

Thus there never was greater need to transform education system so as it transforms the character of the students. An education system, which does not impart human values and a new vision for life, cannot serve a real educative purpose. It is so unfortunate that 50 years after independence we have not tried seriously to refashion education system. On the contrary we have made it a degree worse.

There is another problem we have to seriously ponder over. Education system is being completely commercialised. In fact now it is being turned into an industry. The emphasis is not on imparting learning but preparing students for examination. Tuition classes are thriving and classrooms are empty. The rich go to these tuition classes while the poor stagnate in the classrooms where teachers are just not interested in teaching.

The education system is thus heavily slanted in favour of the rich and rich are keen to acquire professional skills to improve their chances of earning. The interest in liberal arts and humanities is going down steeply. It is not moneymaking proposition. I am sure Ravindra Bharti University set up to fulfil grand vision of Ravindranath Tagore would set up a new example in promoting new vision for India, in disseminating real learning and a tolerant outlook.

Universities like yours should produce thinking liberal minds, minds, which would dedicate themselves to fight narrow sectarianism and fundamentalism. We need minds which are ever active in quest for truth and sensitive to others suffering. A mind which will encourage dissent and which will accept the otherness of the other and explore this otherness with keen interest. We should study history not to seek revenge for what wrongs were committed by the other but to know our past and to avoid what was wrong. The study of the past should not induce in us a false sense of pride but should enable us to reflect on our achievements and failures. What is healthy in the past should be accepted creatively and what is harmful should be rejected unhesitatingly.

It is very important to prepare such minds for the better future of our country. Our country is bewilderingly diverse and diversity is our strength. The communal and fundamentalist forces consider diversity as weakness. Fundamentalists talk of Hindu Rashtra or Islamic nation and reject diversity. We should promote diversity and pluralism through our education system.

The whole emphasis should be on democracy, diversity and dialogue. Democracy cannot be sustained without diversity (as a homogenous society tends to be authoritarian) and diversity cannot be sustained without dialogue (diversity means presence of others and to understand others we need dialogue). An authoritarian culture puts emphasis on monologue while a democratic culture demands dialogue and dialoguing means acceptance of diversity.

The Rabindra Bharti University embodies the ideals of Ravindranath Tagore who stood for liberal and tolerant values and who had extremely sensitive mind. Thus this university should be a role model for imparting these values to its students. I have great hopes in this university set up in the name of such great son of India. Let it be a model university, which will transform the character of education system and fulfil a vital need.

We need education to impart a new vision of life and to produce citizens, which would make our society a vibrant civil society. It is society, which should determine the character of our politics. Today it is otherwise - it is politics, which determines character of our civil society. This reverse equation is destroying the very character of our democracy.

A vibrant civil society cannot come into existence without critical approach. The communal and fundamentalist forces demand submissive rather than critical approach. They can live only with culture of submission. Our education system should not encourage submissive attitude in any case. No meaningful progress is possible with blind submission to the authority. I would even say at the risk of being criticised that one has to have subversive attitude towards status quo. Creative change is possible only with subversion of status quo.

All great reformers have always subverted status quo and created new society, a new human person. A thinking mind will always strive to bring about change. Change is the law of life and dynamics of life. A creative mind always thinks afresh and remains engaged with the process of change. A status quoist culture cannot create a new human person. Those who remain engaged with the past cannot build future. And those who submit to status quo destroy it.

are real atheists. Tagore saw God in toiling workers in Geetanjali as these toiling workers work for changing the world, for creating new future for the humankind. Let us join this constant endeavour for creative change and a New World every moment of our life.