India has always been a
politically colourful country. Even in medieval India, the princely states
engaged in political diplomacy to either exist peacefully or join forces. The
roots of foreign rule in India also lies in the political mal-function of
erstwhile rulers. In modern India, the freedom struggle owes a lot to the
political activism of the various leaders who helped shape the country and
create an independent future. Many of these leaders were products of student
political movements. It was a time when the youth had an option to either
follow the British by the letter, or, join the movement. The question in modern
times is this: is it still required for the students to focus on politics?
I believe that knowledge of
current affairs is paramount in many fields especially for those who are
preparing for civil services exams. Even those who are not participating in the
exams may find it useful to collect the information about the “who’s-who” of
the country. Students of today will eventually be elemental in running the
country; awareness about which political party is claiming to have done
something and promising to do what more, will help them cast the correct vote.
In a democracy like India, with limited natural resources and a huge
population, good governance is as important as the citizens fulfilling their
duties.
Having said that, what about the
active participation of students in politics? In an earlier time, 70 years ago,
it was not only required, but, imperative. In modern times, in my opinion,
student participation in politics should be discouraged. To support my opinion
let me draw the reader’s attention to Lucknow University, Banaras Hindu University
and more recently, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aligarh Muslim University and
Jamia Milia Islamia. There was a time, when the education at these universities
was at par with the world. Some students continue to make contributions,
however a larger majority is less and less interested in actual education
(there are more than one reasons for this) and more in the political movements
that are almost a continuous occurrence at these places now. Most of these
centrally funded universities have very low fees and attract some of the very
best talents (questionable) as faculty. These investments from the tax-payers’
money is wasted in activism.
In my opinion, again, students
can and should make true contribution through their superior knowledge acquired
through education and utilise it to change the country and solve its problems.
Law students can focus on improving judicial system, science and technology
students must innovate to create and emulate technology for the betterment of
the country. History students can help either to uncover any lost information
in time or simply in preserving knowledge of the old the world. Political
science students can study the political workings of the parties in the country
and around the world. Everyone should be allowed to take part in active
politics, but only after completion of their education. Once they have
developed a good understanding of the pros and cons of any political idea,
which can be done through a combined understanding of all aspects of education itself;
they are to be deemed eligible to enter active politics. For example, what
affect can a mathematics student have on the relationship between India and the
U.S.? Think of the butterfly effect. A mathematician may come up with a theory
or formula that may affect some product manufacture/marketing eventually
affecting trade between the countries.
As an artist would say, beauty
is in the details. We can see lot of protests in the country going on in
the country today. Some of the protesters don’t even know what they are protesting
about. On the flip side, some have raised some very valid doubts that would be
the long term consequences of applying the laws in the country. Those in
support do not see these effects. Thus, education of both sides is necessary.
Violence caused by protesters, especially student protesters is un-called for.
These students are either wasting their future or do not see one anyways, hence
the participation in anarchy. Only benefactors of the fate of these students
are politicians who themselves are not affected by these protests. Thus I
emphasize that students should refrain from political activities.
Now I will focus specifically on
the IITs. IITs were setup with the sole purpose of ensuring that the best minds
of the country (inclined to science and technology) can forget all distractions
and focus on mastering one or more fields of engineering to either provide
specialised workforce to the country, specifically or to the world, in general.
Let us not delve on the fact that mostly everyone aims at acquiring a degree
and then a high salaried job. The original idea was that these technocrats will
create technologies and jobs for the people of India. I am not sure what went
wrong and where, but, IITs have become more of another industry - on one hand
they drive the coaching industry, on another they act as coaching centres for
foreign universities. At the same time, I should not downplay the efforts by
almost all IITs to incubate tech-startups that can generate jobs. Although we
have not seen companies of the scale of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Mathworks,
Bosch, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc., but, for a country independent for only
70 odd years, we are doing great on the technology front, and by the way, most
of these companies employ graduates from IITs.
To conclude, I can only say
this: our country has many problems, some caused due to politics, some due to
finances, some due to natural resources, population, lack of technology etc.,
but, compromising with all-round whole hearted distraction-free-education, is
not a viable solution if we want to make India a developed country and a world
superpower. Indeed, we need ever more educated people in politics, but,
individuals should join politics only after completing education and not
while attaining it. Students of IITs, specifically, should not take active
part in politics and focus on the primary goal that the country expects from
them. A lot depends on what path the bright minds of our country choose.
