New Delhi: Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has blamed the education policy of British thinker Thomas Macaulay for cutting youth from their cultural roots and indiscipline among them in the country.
Dr Pokhriyal was addressing the inauguration of the book ‘Untouchables-free Samaras Bharat’ by socialist and thinker Indresh Kumar, a pracharak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts here on Sunday.
The event, organised by Prabhat Prakashan, was chaired by Ram Bahadur Rai, President of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel was special guest of the programme through video conferencing. Dr Sachchidanand Joshi, Secretary Member, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Prof Kala Nidhi, Dean and Head of Department at the Centre, also attended.
Describing the book as essential reading for researchers, the Education Minister said that when he was asked the reason for indiscipline among the younger generation, he cited Macaulay’s flawed education policy as the reason for cutting the cultural roots of the learners. He said that the world today accepts Sanskrit as not just a language, but the source of all knowledge and science, so we should not be deprived of it now.
In his inspiring address, Mr Indresh Kumar said there was no such thing as birth or karmana caste-system anywhere in the Sanatan culture, but this distortion, which developed over time, made “44 pieces of the country and 48 crore people became heretics”.
He said “whenever we talk of rights, then a bloody struggle is born and history is bloody. And whenever we are oriented towards duties and following the path of renunciation, then the character of Rama is established in the society and Rama-Rajya comes. The entire life of Lord Rama is created by his works, so we consider him as God.
