Saffronisation of Education underway in Karnataka?

From IBN Live

Dwarakanath sees saffron conspiracy

BANGALORE: Strong comments were made against the State government’s decision to close down schools which do not have enough students on Monday at a meeting organised by the Save Government Schools Forum.

The speakers at the meeting called the move ‘a Saffron conspiracy to enslave Dalits.’ “When the Aryans came here, they had two ways to dominate over the others. One was to severely handicap the Dalits. The other way was to snatch away knowledge from them. The government is taking the second way by closing the schools, so that Dalits and other backward class children are deprived of education,” said former chairman of Karnataka State Commission of Backward Classes Dr C S Dwarakanath.

Dwarakanath delved into the circumstances surrounding the decision taken to close down the schools. “We have to look at several things before talking about the closure. The Sangh ideology is very evident. The new syllabus for class 5 is highly saffronized. The RSS concept of Akhand Bharat is back and Dronacharya becomes a hero in the Ekalavya story - a subliminal attack on the oppressed classes,” he said.

“The entire education system is in the hands of the Sangh today. So much that the Higher Education Minister V S Acharya, who is a doctor, spoke in favour of Made Snana. Besides, everything is planned in a phased manner. We must realise that there is no science and English subjects in rural areas. This is their way of oppressing the Dalits,” said Dwarakanath.

The Actual Reason?

Dwarakanath opined that the move to close the schools was a means to empower the Ashram Schools that are currently admitting the children of the nomadic tribes. “Everybody knows the relationship between spiritual mutts and the BJP. Most of the Ashram Schools are run by the Mutts, and we can only imagine what they learn there. The closure is an aim to merge the schools with the mutts, so that the government can inject more funds, and infuse saffron ideology into the children,” he said.�

‘Planned Conspiracy’

Providing a historical perspective to the deprivation of education to Dalits, senior advocate in Karnataka High Court and human rights activist S Balan said, “Look at it historically. Calls for free and compulsory education have been made by Jyotiba Phule, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and also by Dr B R Ambedkar. All their calls have fallen on deaf ears. From 1991 till now, we have seen mass commercialization of education, which is reaching only the privileged,” he observed.