EQUALITY,
FREEDOM & FRATERNITY: INDIAN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION SYSTEM – A CRITICAL
APPRAISAL
Veteran
Major P M Ravindran
WE,
THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a
SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC, REPUBLIC and to secure to all its
citizens: -
JUSTICE,
social, economic and political;
LIBERTY
of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY
of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all;
FRATERNITY
assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the
nation;
IN
OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November 1949, do HEREBY
ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.
- The Preamble, Constitution of India
Introduction
Equality, liberty and fraternity- three terms made popular by
the French Revolution are now recognised the world over as the touchstones of a
welfare society. They have of necessity found their place in our Constitution
also though only in its preamble. On 2nd September 1953, while making a
statement in the Rajya Sabha (Parliament) Dr. Ambedkar gave this following
clarification: “People always keep on saying to me, so you are the maker of the
Constitution. My answer is I was a hack. What I was asked to, I did much
against my will. I am quite prepared to say that I shall be the first person to
burn it. It does not suit anybody.” Earlier, on 19 November 1949, Seth Damodar
Swarup had said in the Constituent Assembly of India itself that 'this
Constitution … may be heaven for the lawyers, and may even be the Magna Carta
for the capitalists of India, but so far as the poor and the tens of millions
of toiling, starving and naked masses of India are concerned, there is nothing
in it for them.'
Almost 70 years down the road, does anybody need any
validation for Seth Damodar Swarup’s assertion?
Interestingly, the Preamble of the Constitution is considered
only as a legitimate aid in the construction of the provisions of the
Constitution. And, rightly so! But those who have been given the authority to
interpret the laws, to be specific, our judges, had introduced ambiguity even in
the interpretation of this simple concept. Two factors have been introduced:
one, that if an enactment is itself clear and unambiguous, no preamble can
qualify or cut down the enactment*1 and two, the
Preamble of an Act, is not recognized as part of the Act because it is not
enacted and adopted by the enacting body in the same manner as the enacting
provisions. The second factor was wrongly applied to hold that the Preamble of
the Constitution was not part of the Constitution by our apex court in the
Berubari Union case in 1960*2. But in 1973, when the constituent history of
the Preamble was brought to the notice of the court in the Kesavananda Bharati
case *3 it held that the preamble to the Constitution was part of
the Constitution and the observations to the contrary in Berubari Union case
was not correct!
The Part and the Whole
Equality, liberty and fraternity being the objectives of
governance in any and every welfare society, its analysis in the context of a
limited sphere of activity- Indian University Education System- can be
considered as an effort to understand only a part of the whole. And it cannot
be done without at least conceptualizing the whole.
Equality, liberty
and fraternity in the Society.
To understand to what extent the concepts of equality,
liberty and fraternity have taken roots in our society let us start from where Seth
Damodar Swarup left.
Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative index for
measuring the state of development in a country. It combines factors like life
expectancy, literacy, education and standard of living. India stands at 133rd
place amongst 195 countries as per the list published in 2008 based on data of
2006. In comparison China is at 90th place, Sri Lanka at 104th, Iran at 84th
place, Egypt at 116th place and Congo at 130th place. As per 2016 HDR
*1. Powell v Kempton Park
Race Course Co and Attorney General V HRH Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover
([1899] AC 143 at 153 and [1957] AC 436, 467-68)
*2. Berubari Union and
exchange of Enclaves, AIR 1960 SC 845, 856
*3. Kesavananda Bharati v
State of Kerala, (1973) 4 SCC 225; AIR 1973 SC 1461
(Page 200) India stands at 131 with medium human development.
In comparison Vietnam is at 115, Iraq at 121, Bangladesh at 139 and Pakistan at
147*4.
We are told that we
are the third largest economy in the world (behind the US of A and China). What
we were not told is that our per capita GDP (PPP) is only $1709.4 per year
against the world average of $10,150.8. In comparison the U S of A has $ 57,466.8, China has $ 8,123.2, Vietnam has $2,185.7, Iraq has $4,609.6,
Bangladesh has $1,358.8 and Pakistan has $1,468.2*5. Interestingly,
as per a similar report by IMF *6 India does not figure in the list
of first 50 either in the nominal or PPP rankings for 2016 or the projected
figures for 2020. Luxembourg and Qatar are at the top positions on nominal and PPP
basis, respectively in 2016. With per capita income of $105,829 Luxembourg is
10.26 times richer than world's $10,313. But in PPP terms, Luxembourg is only
6.24 times richer than world's $16,329. In PPP terms, Qatar has GDP per capita
of 129,727, 7.94 times higher than world. It is at 6th position in nominal
ranking.
Our infant mortality rate is 55 per 1000 live births. In
comparison the rate is 23 for China, 11 for Sri Lanka and 53 in Nepal. The
world average is 48.8 per 1000.
Our literacy rate is 65.2% and places us at 159th out of 195
countries. The rate is 93% for China, 90.8% in Sri Lanka and 71% in Egypt.
As per UNDP list India has 28.5% people below the poverty
line. In comparison, China has 4.6%, Egypt has 16.7%, Malaysia has 15.5% and
Sri Lanka 25%.
Is there anything in the above figures for us to be proud of?
*4. Human
Development Report 2016, United Nations Development
Programme
*5.
World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files
accessed at https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD
*6. International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook
(October-2016)
accessed at http://statisticstimes.com/economy/projected-world-gdp-capita-ranking.php
India became independent in 1947. No doubt the colonizers had
looted us thoroughly before they left and to be sure they did not leave us in
any better shape than when they had come as is touted by some quarters. China
became independent in 1950. China had been devastated by Japanese occupation
from 1935 to 1945 and 38 years of civil war between the Nationalists and the
Communists. Yet China is far ahead of us in every sphere. Why is it so? The
answer is simple. China has had more effective governance than what we have
had. The Chinese leaders were more nationalist than ours. Our people in
government have rarely been able to put the interest of the nation above that
of self, dynasty or the party. My interventions using the Right to Information
Act have convinced me sufficiently to assert that all our public servants are
idiots or traitors unless proved otherwise!
To quote theirreverent1
*7 ‘We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers
destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom,
the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, our banks destroy our
economy, our citizens live in willful ignorance and reek of cowardice.’
Justice gone
missing.
Of all coincidences, this is one coincidence-‘Justice’
missing from the subject here and in real life too (as I believe and can vouch
for)- that caught my attention right from the word go. Yes, that’s right.
Justice, ensuring which is the fundamental duty of any government, is really
missing in our society. While equality, liberty and fraternity go hand in hand,
they can do so if and only if they are founded on the factors that can be
identified as social, economic and political justice. What prevails in our
country is only a shadow of political justice in that the electorate gets to
vote periodically for a candidate of their choice, to represent them in the government.
However, after the vote is cast whether any of these representatives really
represent the interests of those who elected them is a big question. If I were
to answer that question honestly, it would be a big NO!
*7. Comment at http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/why-does-the-u-s-government-treat-military-veterans-like-human-garbage
Of social and economic justice one would be justified in
doubting if they exist at all. Even in a fully literate and politically
conscious state like Kerala where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have
led the government every alternate 5 years, reports have appeared in the media
of certain sections of the society being treated as untouchables even as late
as in the last six months!
On the economic front, there have been reports that in India
more than half of its GDP is with less than 1 percent of the population!
Aravind Kumar, Jurist and lawyer, rightly wrote*8
that ‘Justice is an
intrinsic human need. We suffer much privation but we cannot suffer being
wronged. Absence of justice, we must not forget, is one of the causes of crime.’
And Renuka Narayanan, journalist, wrote*9 that ‘When
we transformed from subjects to citizens, we forfeited our rights it seems,
since what happens in our country now in the name of law is often rank
injustice.’
The National Commission to review the working of the
Constitution, a judiciary-headed, judiciary-heavy body*10, which
submitted its report in 2002, has stated that 'Judicial system has not been
able to meet even the modest expectations of the society. Its delays and costs are frustrating, its
processes slow and uncertain. People are
pushed to seek recourse to extra-legal methods for relief. Trial system both on the civil and criminal
side has utterly
*8. 'Needed high speed legal
redressal'-Aravind Kumar, Jurist and lawyer, Pioneer, Kochi,01 Aug 2006
*9. 'Human rights, the genesis of
justice is from religion' under 'Faith Line' by Renuka Narayanan, The New Indian
Express of 20 Dec 2004
*10. A 11 member
Commission (including the chairman) of whom 4 (M.N. Venkatachaliah, the
Chairman, B.P. Jeevan Reddy, R.S. Sarkaria and Kottapalli Punnayya) were judges
of the Supreme Court/High Courts, 2 (Soli J. Sorabjee and K. Parasaran) were
advocates, 2 (P.A.Sangma and Sumitra G. Kulkarni) were political nominees, 2
(Dr.Subhash C. Kashyap and Dr. Abid Hussain) were bureaucrats and just one
(C.R. Irani) was a representative from the media! A citizen’s review of the Report is available
at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2011/03/report-of-ncrwc-citizens-review.html
broken down.' Also, 'Thus we have arrived at a situation in
the judicial administration where courts are deemed to exist for judges and
lawyers and not for the public seeking justice'.
The above quote would be incomplete without reproducing here
what Dr.Subhash C Kashyap has written in his Notes to the above Report: 'The
Chapter 7 of the Report is titled 'The Judiciary'. This chapter particularly is seriously flawed
and distorted. The much needed Judicial Reform issues have not been even
touched or these got deleted in the final draft.'
Thus, ‘the whole’ can be summarized in the following words:
Law makers without any
prescribed qualities, qualifications or experience, their men Fridays
(popularly known as bureaucrats, who are required to help them in decision
making by collecting and collating data and maintaining records) without any accountability and a judiciary
which has the scope for the most whimsical decision making being held not only
without accountability and beyond criticism but also protected by a totally
illogical and weird armor called contempt of court, are the essential features
of our Constitution, the Bible for our governance!
The Educational System Muddle
Muddle? It is certainly not an approved manner of approaching
the main topic. But then why should one beat around the bush? Apart from
enforcing law and order, health and education are the only services that the
government of a welfare state should have taken upon itself to deliver directly
to the people. But how has it been India? Right from telephone and gas
connections to road, rail and air transportation the government has had its
fingers in every possible commercial activity and, I may add, with disastrous
consequences!
There are, or may be there should be, three objectives to
higher education: one, fine tuning the art of learning (by self and as a
continuous process), fine tuning social skills and acquiring competence needed
to earn ones living, or in other words, finding a job. And in the context of
the subject being discussed, there is a need to ensure that there is equality
of opportunity to access higher education, the liberty to choose any subjects
of one’s choice and to interact freely with each other as members of a
fraternity.
Education as a
Right.
It was only 62 years after independence that this country got
its Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act. The Act, notified in the
Gazette of India on 27 Aug 2009, provides for free and compulsory education for
all children in the age group 6 to 14 years. The National Education Policy is
still in embryonic state. While the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) was set
up by the UGC in 1994 to accredit universities and institutions of general
higher education as well as to certify for educational quality and the National
Board of Accreditation (NBA) was established by the All India Council of
Technical Education (AICTE) in 1994 to accredit programmes and institutions, themes and
questions for Policy Consultation on Higher Education were released only on 21
Mar 2015*11. But while we wait for policies let us look at what has
been happening on the ground in the past.
Access to Higher Education- the admission process
National Eligibility cum Entrance
Test (NEET) was made compulsory for admission to MBBS and BDS courses with
effect from academic year 2016. This was a step in the right direction but due
to the last minute promulgation of the orders resulting in opposition from
various quarters it was made mandatory only from the academic year 2017 with
the final seal of approval coming from the apex court. But in Tamil Nadu, a
student, S Anitha, who had got 1176 marks out of 1200 in the Plus 12 committed
suicide because her dream of becoming a doctor had been dashed to the ground.
Tamil Nadu had been using the marks of Plus 12 as the only yardstick for MBBS
admissions. But in neighbouring Kerala the problems arose from a different
source- the apex court decision empowering private medical college managements
to charge Rs 11 lakhs as fees per year for 85 percent of the seats and Rs 20
*11. Annexure
–II, Themes
and questions for Policy Consultation on Higher Education,
Consultation
Process for New Education Policy, Departments of School Education & Literacy and Higher Education, Ministry
of Human Resource Development. Can be accessed at the website of MHRD
lakhs for the remaining 15 percent
seats reserved for NRI students! But that is not the only issue. There are
confusions galore there. But it is nothing new because ever since self financing
colleges were introduced in 2002-2003 by the AK Antony led UDF government
admission time has been harrowing for both the students and their parents.
Antony had permitted such colleges with the promise that two self financing
college will be equal to one government college, implying that 50 percent seats
in each college will admit students with fees as in government colleges. But
the managements of such colleges renegaded quoting apex court orders that there
cannot be two different fess structures in the same college as it would amount
to cross subsidy! Soon a Committee was constituted with a retired judge of the
high court heading it, to fix the fees and monitor the admission process. Now
there were four different fees- General merit quota, General non-merit quota, management
quota and NRI quota in the same college and not a murmur of protest has been
heard. The disputes at every admission stage thereafter have been on the
distribution of seats and rate of fees. And
here, since we are on the topic of
equality, freedom and fraternity in Indian University Education System there
are two questions that need to be addressed- why have AIIMS and JIPMER been
excluded from NEET? And why have similar common entrance examinations not been
introduced for other professional courses?
Quality of higher education- Ranking
institutions and disciplines.
After entrance examinations
comes the quality of education in our institutions of higher learning. A
16-member Core Committee, appointed by the Ministry of Human Resource
Development, under the chairmanship of Secretary (HE), evolved the National
Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) over a period of one year during 2014-15.
And the Department of Higher Education under MHRD has come out with their
rankings for 2017. Prakash Jawedkar, Minister for HRD has expressed the
intention of the government to ‘divide the universities in three
categories - A, B and C -on the basis of various criteria including their NIRF
rankings’*12. NIRF
however covers not merely universities but also colleges and
*12. India Rankings 2017, National
Institutional Ranking Framework, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of
Human Resource Development, Government of India.
even discipline wise
ranking is provided. Right now getting the ranking is a voluntary process and
hopefully it will be a necessary factor for educational institutions to even
survive in the competitive world of commercialized education.
Cost of higher education-prohibitive.
While standardizing
admission criteria and ranking of institutions/disciplines provide a level
playing field as far as having access to education of one’s choice is
concerned, the issue of affordable cost remains to be addressed. In this
context the decision of the apex court to allow private medical colleges to
charge Rs 11 lakhs per annum as fees is a blow to the aspirations of students hailing
from amoung more than 90 percent of the population. At the same time it has
been reported in the media that amoung the top 20 rank holders in the All India
Civil Services Examination of 2017 nineteen are engineers and also that engineers
constitute half of all those who cleared the exam*13! While there
may be nothing objectionable in individuals changing tracks but the current
figures really question the logic of selecting the right person for the right. The skill set required for pursuing a
profession like engineering and conducting the business of administration are
definitely not comparable. So the present situation offers a new perspective on
our education system and available job opportunities. One perspective is that
for engineers the available job opportunities in the field of their expertise
are less lucrative than being a administrator with the government. But think of
the administration in government and the skill set required for it and one
feels compelled to question the selection process and the compensation offered.
Suffice to say that the babus in government, led by the members of the Indian
Administrative Service, primarily need a skill set- making briefs and answering
comprehension questions that one acquires in the high school- to enable
decision makers to make the right decisions with the least effort. And the cost
to the exchequer for such a mundane job should be definitely enviable to make
engineers opt for it ditching their first love!
*13. 19 of 20 UPSC toppers
engineers, constitute half of those who cleared exam: Govt, India TV, 3rd Aug,
2017.
Reservations- murdering equality, liberty and fraternity in one
stroke.
I have read reports about
foreigners mocking India for its Hindu rate of growth and now we ourselves are
acknowledging that we have become a country where everyone is competing to be
backward. Whether politically correct or not there is no gainsaying that
reservations only breed incompetence. In a fast and competitive society it
would be fatal to compromise on competence to perform whatever one is required
to perform. Equally true is the fact that there is a need to provide support to
those who had been on the fringes of the society in the past and need to be brought
into the mainstream. And the only way of
doing it is by helping them acquire the competence they need to perform the
tasks they would like to perform. To illustrate, if an adivasi boy or girl
wants to become the Collector of his/her district, train him/her to qualify in
the Civil Services Exams on his/her own steam. Reserving a few posts of
District Collector for an incompetent person will be a sure shot way of ruining
not merely the district administration but the whole district!
Campus Politics or breeding ground for criminals for political
parties?
Campus politics is sought
to be encouraged with the view of grooming the future citizens for fulfilling
their responsibilities in a democratic society. But on ground it can be seen to
have got reduced to a recruiting ground for criminals in political parties. The
destruction of public property can alone suffice to brand the campus politics
as an irresponsible and anti social activity and ban them. Students can b seen
going on rampage for reasons like increase in concessional bus fare, tuition
fees and of late even for their right to destroy the country! How many times
has anyone seen or heard students protesting vehemently for regular updating of
syllabus, better libraries and facilities for extracurricular activities, regular
classes and timely conduct of exams and announcement of results?
Education vs Employment Opportunities.
As per a report*14
13.3 per cent of India’s population in the age group of 15-29 years were
unemployed. Yet, as our unemployment figures continue to rise, almost every
industry, be it manufacturing, technology, hospitality or corporate, is facing
a shortage of skilled workforce. The same report continues: 47 per cent of
Indian graduates are not qualified for any industry job and more than 70 per
cent of our engineering graduates are not employable! According to Aspiring
Minds National Employability Report, which is based on a study of more than
1,50,000 engineering students who graduated in 2015 from over 650 colleges, 80%
of the them are unemployable.
Interestingly, Kerala,
with it’s higher than national average literacy rate, has an unemployment rate of
7.4 per cent, which is much higher than the national average of 2.3 per cent. According
to Labour Bureau's "Third Annual Employment & Unemployment Survey
2012-13" released on 29 November 2013, unemployment rate amongst
illiterate youth is lower than educated youth.
3 Reasons Employers Say They Don’t Hire Youth. *15
Youth Seem Too Entitled. Employers frequently say that
whether they’re high school dropouts or college graduates, youth today seem too
entitled. No matter their station in life, they think they should have
rewarding work, ideal workplaces, fair pay, good benefits, and substantive
advancement opportunities. In return, they don’t want to work as hard, as long,
or as meaninglessly as their parents or grandparents did.
*14. Unemployed or
unemployable? By Ketan Kapoor in the Hindu dated 22 Dec 2013 at http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/careers/unemployed-or-unemployable/article5486730.ece#!
*15.
Why Youth Are Unemployable Posted by
Adam at https://adamfletcher.net/why-youth-are-unemployable/
Adam
Fletcher is a speaker on engaging young people in business, education, and
communities. He is also the author of several books, including Ending
Discrimination Against Young People. Learn more about him by visiting
adamfletcher.net.
Youth Are Too Apathetic. With their obsessive amount of
piercings, tattoos, and poor clothing, employers say youth constantly show that
they are indifferent to common workplace expectations for appearance.
Reflecting that indifference, youth today don’t respect the predominant
Protestant Work Ethic that has dominated successful businesses around the world
for more than 400 years. Many bosses say that young workers’ apathy shows in
monumental ways when they simply don’t exert the energy needed to get the job
done.
Youth Just Aren’t Ready. Despite all their education and
education reform, tutoring, youth programs, and other entitlements youth enjoy
today, employers consistently report that youth aren’t showing up for work
ready to get the jobs done. Instead, they’re under-skilled and
less-than-willing to learn what they need to in order to perform the most
menial labor.
Learning to Earning…
In order to create
employment opportunities for blue-collar jobs, to begin with, the National
Skill Development Council (NSDC) has planned to target 25 million youth for
training in various skill-based jobs over the next 10 years*14.
While government still
needs to work out to remove hurdles to economic activity by not only merely simplifying
regulations but going for smart regulations, the quality of public education
must be enhanced and licence raj should be totally dismantled to enable entrepreneurs
exploit fleeting opportunities that they come by. The increase in wages in
China had opened the door for export-led garment industry and other labour
intensive industries of India to generate millions of jobs. According to a report
of World Bank “Stitches to Riches?” even a 10% growth in garment price of China
will create 1.2 million jobs in the Indian garment industry*16.
*16. Youth want jobs not
quota, it will not remove frustration of unemployed people
By Radhika Rathore, 2 May,
2016 at https://www.naukrinama.com/youth-want-jobs-not-quota-it-will-not-remove-frustration-of-unemployed-people/
8 Steps to Youth Employability*15
Accept Responsibility. If you actually believe youth
are unemployable, you are actually responsible for that condition, as well as
for addressing it. If just 10% of all adults everywhere accepted responsibility
for doing something different, youth unemployment would become rare around the
world. No matter if you are a parent, a teacher, a police officer, business
owner, politician, store manager, or simply a neighbor, you have a role to
play. Read on to learn what that is.
Teach Young People About Mindsets. From birth, teach all
young people everywhere to be willing to learn. Build lessons in how we think
into early childhood development programs, and mandate all educators teach
about learning styles and mindsets, and more.
Promote Practical Hopefulness. Many adults have largely given
up on young people today, whether they recognize it or not. Instead of piping
false hope across social media and television, we have to promote practical
hopefulness that engenders real action.
Create Partnerships. As they enter their teen years,
actively engage every young person in every community in an equitable
partnership with an adult, whether as a mentor, in an apprenticeship, or
otherwise.
Build Connectivity. Throughout their youth,
continuously connect and reconnect every young person throughout their
community through active learning, volunteerism, and otherwise.
Redo Education. Re-envision the core curriculum of schools
to focus on practical, applicable skill-based and knowledge-building learning,
rather than large topical swaths that are seemingly devoid of practical
applications to students themselves. Student voice should be at the center of
ALL education.
Promote In-person Internet. Weave together online
identities with in-person identities. With the ubiquity of the Internet today,
its increasingly vital that young people move seamlessly within their social
networks, whether on the Internet or in real time.
Foster Entrepreneurial Lifestyles. Entrepreneurship is
about more than work; its about life. More commonly than ever, society accepts
that change is the only constant. Teaching young people to make the most of
that is one of the best ways to make youth employable.
Stop Fighting Change. There’s so much resistance to
diversity, to people who aren’t white or wealthy or male or straight or
educated or accessible to the mainstream. We must stop fighting the impending
changes our world inevitably holds for all of us, and instead embrace them ALL.
We can guide and move some change, but at the least, we must simply accept it.
Make Lifelong Learning An Accessible Expectation. There
is a lot of value to teaching oneself and learning what you want to, when you
want to. However, in our increasingly commodified societies we’re making
lifelong learning more and more expensive and inaccessible. We should throw the
doors everywhere open for everyone, all the day. Andrew Carnegie knew the value
of this; we should acknowledge that’s more important today than ever.
Perhaps the most
important thing we can do is the first thing on this list: Accept
responsibility, because from that place we can change the world.
Conclusion
Equality, freedom and
fraternity are not merely some ideals to be touted by opportunists when it suits
their convenience. They are mindsets to be imbibed from the day one starts
interacting with the society. We are not living in an ideal world and that is
why we have set up a system of governance with well defined tasks and empowered
and equipped to fulfill those tasks. The cost to the citizen for sustaining the
government is considerable. The accountability and transparency required in
government functions are practically nonexistent. The subversion of the Right
to Information Act, the only pro-democracy, citizen friendly law of the
country, could be a case study for how every public servant in this country
continue to treat the citizens as subjects, quite often worse than the way they
were treated even by the colonists! The youth of today, in our educational
institutions, have the onus of retrieving the situation for themselves. Ramdhari
Singh Dinkar*17, Hindi poet, essayist, patriot and academic, had once
said that when youth walk, the ground beneath should tremble. But it would be important for them to also
understand that everyone’s freedom ends where the other man’s nose begins. And
also about what Jesus Christ said about doing unto others what you expect
others to do unto you! And lastly, lest one is totally mistaken for a pacifist,
here is our poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore guiding us through an
exhortation: "Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in
facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to
conquer it. Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own
strength. Let me not cave in."
(4996 words)
*17. His poem ‘Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai’ (Vacate the
throne, for the people are coming) was used by Jayaprakash Narayan to inspire
the people during his fight against the Emergency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramdhari_Singh_Dinkar
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