Maharashtra: Military Training for School Children!

“I have seen in Japan the voluntary submission of the whole people to the trimming of their minds and clipping of their freedom by their government, which through various educational agencies regulates their thoughts, manufactures their feelings, becomes suspiciously watchful when they show signs of inclining toward the spiritual, leading them through a narrow path not toward what is true but what is necessary for the complete welding of them into one uniform mass according to its own recipe. The people accept this all-pervading mental slavery with cheerfulness and pride because of their nervous desire to turn themselves into a machine of power, called the Nation, and emulate other machines in their collective worldliness.”

-Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism

The richest state in the Indian union, Maharashtra, has embarked on a new initiative in the field of school education. It would provide basic military training to school students starting from Class 1, to promote  “patriotism, discipline, and physical fitness among young learners from an early age”. Around 2.5 lakh ex-servicemen would be involved to deliver this training which will be introduced in a phased manner.

Undoubtedly, in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, this proposal will be able to gather enough eyeballs in the rest of the country and it would not be surprise that few other Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states would implement similar schemes in education.

This proposal is worrying at many levels.

One, as noted by experts and educationists, a state where the complex crisis in education is reflected in poor infrastructure, shortages of teachers and mounting challenges in policy implementation, which leads to  falling scores, shrinking classrooms, and the lack of access to basic amenities in many schools, this move can further aggravate the crisis, as a portion of already scarce resources and time meant for studies would be devoted to this scheme.

Two, amid growing concerns among educational activists and concerned citizens about the closing of thousands of government schools during past decade because of resource constraints as well as other policy changes  -- which has clearly led to violation of Right to Education (RTE)-- depriving children of education.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) has already presented a grim picture for Maharashtra, and this proposal seems to be an attempt to gloss over the basic malaise that afflicts the school education.

Three, this further vindicates the absence of a long-term vision about education among the ruling circles in the state -- ruled by the BJP with its allies --  which is already under the scanner for abrupt surrendering of its own school curriculum and textbooks and adoption of the curriculum developed by CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) without any widespread consultation. It is being estimated that this move will immediately affect more than 2.1 crore students and 6.8 lakh teachers in more than 1.11 lakh schools under the state board. 

Four, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this scheme is that the idea to introduce military training, starting from kids as young as 3-4 years would slowly defeat the very purpose of education, which intends to break various shackles on the children's minds imposed by society, family and state etc.

Whereas experts talk of the purpose of education as replacing an empty mind with an open one, the very idea of disciplining the kids at a younger age will not only crush creativity but would slowly get reduced to what Rabindranath Tagore cautioned us about “voluntary submission of the whole people to the trimming of their minds and clipping of their freedom by their government.”

Five, another problematic aspect of military training starting from kids is that it would create unnecessary fear in the minds of children about the ‘unknown enemy’ further stifling its impressionable minds and can also culminate in various psychological problems.

“The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary purpose of our public schools... The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation.”

Thomas A. Edison [ American Inventor, 1847-1931]

Looking at a qualitative leap of sorts this scheme intends to usher in the field of school education, it was expected that the Maharashtra government would facilitate widespread conversation about it in the society and would look at the pros and cons of any such move, seek advice and opinion from educationists about the need and viability of this scheme, and then take a considered decision.

There is no news in the public domain about any such dialogue, discussion at a broader level.

The absence of any broad-based conversation coupled with the speed with which the BJP-led government in the state plans to move in this direction, makes it evident that is determined to go ahead with this scheme and does not want any questions asked.

Close watchers of the field of education tell us that this move to introduce military training since class I seems to be basically an extension and implementation of the vision proposed by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) a few years ago to incorporate aspects of the Sainik School model into other schools, including Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, to promote “holistic development of students.” It suggested integrating rigorous physical training, discipline, and patriotic values, common in Sainik Schools, into these other schools.

As an aside, it might be noted that since Independence, we have established various educational commissions -- right from the first of its kind Radhakrishnan Commission to Kothari Commission etc., mainly involving educationists to propose changes in the school as well as college-level education, and here under the Narendra Modi dispensation, such practices are being discontinued and bureaucrats/experts in the PMO (Prime Minister’s office) are being authorised to advise and suggest necessary changes.

What we have observed is that benefitting from this debatable proposal in a controversial and much reviled decision, the Union government under Prime Minister Modi seems to have moved a step further. It has “decided” to hand over “67 per cent of Sainik Schools to the Sangh Parivar (and its allied organisations who are self-acclaimed majoritarian and unconstitutional), BJP politicians and allies. This investigation was undertaken by meticulous examination by the Reporter’s Collective  and became public on April 3, 2024. 

There is no denying the fact that this very idea of a militarised model of ‘discipline’ and ‘patriotism’ among schools, colleges and universities has become quite popular during the past decade, with the ascent of a Hindutva Supremacist regime at the Centre.

It was just a reflection of this thinking that the then Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jagadish Kumar, had, at a political event at JNU, commemorating ‘Kargil Divas’, requested the two National Demoratic Alliance ministers present to procure a decommissioned Army tank for the University campus. His claim was that such a tank was needed to “inculcate love for the Army” among the students. On the same occasion, two of the speakers (former Army officers) congratulated the regime of the day for the “capture” of JNU and spoke of capturing other universities next.

This controversial proposal of installing a tank in JNU had received widespread condemnation from students, educationists as well as broad masses of concerned citizens:

- It was seen as the Vice Chancellor revealing his real agenda which intends to snub and silence the dissenting student community.

- It was underlined that aim of universities and other educational institutions is not to 'produce soldiers or obedient subjects marching and saluting on parades', they are meant and tasked with 'producing informed, enquiring, and dissenting citizens.'

A chain of military schools and defence academies already exists and interested students can be admitted to such institutions for such training from early young age

- Respect for soldiers does not require silence on part of the ordinary citizen about their government, about the necessity of wars, or even about the conduct of the country’s armed forces and police towards unarmed people.

It was emphasised that the world over, ordinary citizens have shown their respect and concern for soldiers by speaking out against wars waged by governments.

It is rather troubling to note that the Maharashtra government's move to introduce military training since class 1 has not received the attention it deserves.

Neither is there much scrutiny about the manner in which the government intends to gloss over its wider failures in the field of education with the introduction of this populist move, nor is there an attempt to see it as a first decisive step in the direction of militarisation of Indian society. It also gels with the overall understanding of the saffronites about “militarising the society” supposedly to fight what its leaders term as “internal enemies”.

Perhaps it needs repeating that like every exclusivist ideology/organisation/formation that claims to be centred around a particular religion -- be it Islam, Zionism, fanatic Buddhism – Hindutva has always entertained a dream of preparing/arming its followers to fight the ‘others’ and slowly, albeit not so silently, moving closer to usher in its dreamland of Hindu Rashtra. Its ideologues/leaders have been candid enough to point out to the faithfuls who the ‘internal enemies’’ are and the ways to deal with them or exterminate them.

The writer is a veteran independent journalist. The views are personal.