JULIAN D’ CRUZ
PANJIM: In a move reminiscent of the controversial Goa Liberation CD released during the previous BJP regime years back, the Education Department has officially endorsed a controversial essay competition initiated by a private Samiti that seeks to buttress the point that English is the reason the Colonial powers managed to conquer the country and impacted Indian culture detrimentally.
Eyebrows have been raised once again as Education Department has endorsed such an essay contest for school children during school hours, that seeks to show and raise a debate among impressionable minds against all that is foreign, including English. This being done by a private organisation, arguably with the tacit blessings of the government which comes at a time when the English as a medium of instruction is a major bone of contention between the government and a section of schools.
The competition has been organised by the Patanjali Yog Samiti through its branch in Goa and has targeted 400 schools in Goa. The topic for the essay competition is ~ ‘Macaulay’s Address in British Parliament in 1835.’
Surprisingly the organization, which has branches in other parts of the country is organising this contest through its State branch, only in Goa.
While the organisers claim the competition is aimed at projecting how Lord Macaulay tried to destroy India and Indian culture, the conduct of the contest seems to have a hidden agenda which is allegedly of brain washing young students of how English language has an impact on Indian culture.
In fact, a debate is already going on online whether Lord Macaulay made such a speech in British Parliament and historians in Goa seek to know how the government is allowing such an unproven speech to be a title for an essay contest.
The organisation has personally visited schools and distributed pamphlets with a circular issued by the Department of Education requesting heads of institutions to allow students of classes VIII, IX and X to participate in the competition.
The circular says the competition can be held in the school premise during working hours for 30 minutes i.e one period at school level, and taluka level competition will be held in the evening when classes will not be disturbed.
The first round of the contest was held on September 24
(Tuesday) at the school level and the next two rounds are scheduled on October 4, 2013 at the taluka level and October 10 at the State level.
In the first seeds of a reaction, the Archdiocesan Board of Education (ABE) has already directed its schools not to participate in the competition.
A source in the ABE said, “We directed all our schools through our zonal convenors not to participate in the contest,” adding further that it was surprising how the Education Department allowed to conduct such a contest.
Suraj Kanekar who is conducting this contest for the Patanjali Yog Samiti (Goa), however, claims that there has been a good response to the contest although he seemed unaware that ABE schools had boycotted the same.
We got Kanekar’s views through a parent where he denied that there being any hidden agenda and the only objective, he said, “We are trying to show how Lord Macaulay tried to destroy Indian culture in many ways.”
Interestingly, at school level the essays are allowed to be written in four languages of Hindi, Marathi, Konkani and of all the languages English itself, which appears to be an glaring irony.
The taluka level competition will be held between the students selected at the school level and three prizes will be awarded at taluka level. The first three prizes range from Rs 1000, Rs 700 and Rs 500.
Likewise, at the taluka level five students would be selected from each taluka and final essay competition would be held at the State level. The prizes for this range from Rs 5000, Rs 3000 and Rs 2000 and two consolation prizes of Rs 500 each.
“I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief… we would never conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”
~ A para from Lord Macaulay’s address in British Parliament which now been published in pamphlets and distributed to around 400 schools in Goa attached to a Education Department’s circular.
