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III. Secular Education :
Today in India, a debate has been triggered off on the
a feasibility and educational institutions. Netaji Bose's
response to this contentious issue, was unequivocally
negative. 'A booklet entitled Religious instruction
by the Department of Education and Culture' published
by the Azad Hind Government in November 1944, quoted
Bose as saying that religious instruction leads to religious
patriotism. It was in the teaching of history and religion
more than anything else, that instruction could become
positively harmful to nationalism. Subhas was of the
decided view that 'No scheme of national education would
be considered complete, which does not have the active
teaching of patriotism and nationalism as one of the
subjects in its regular course of study. It is an absolute
necessity that the little Indian mind from its very
infancy, should be taught to be an Indian first, last
and all the time'. The Provisional Government actualized
the concept of national education through the systematic
inculcation of patriotic sentiments and enkindling of
national pride. The goal of Subhas was to emancipate
youthful minds, from irrational dogmas and superstitions
and pave the way for a scientific bent of mind. One
may aptly recall here, Subhas's statement at Maharashtra
Provincial Conference at Poona on 3/5/28 that the remedy
for fanaticism lay in secular and scientific education.
What better panacea can one propose for present day
India? Currently the issues of religious instruction
and value education in educational institutions, has
gained currency. While religious instruction of any
kind, is reprehensible, value education cannot be rejected
outright. For, it is only through the inculcation of
human and secular values, that emancipation of the mind
can be possible. Certain codes of conduct and principles
need to be implanted in youthful hearts at a very early
stage. Even the proponents of national education in
the days of the Swadeshi movement emphasized the need
for value indoctrination. Religious instruction in a
country like India, is bound to produce deleterious
consequences because glorification of a particular religious
denomination inevitably foments fanaticism. If respect
for all religious is taught, religious instruction becomes
a benign force. This however is not so easy to envisage,
because educational institutions belonging to a particular
religious denomination, would find a certain religious
overtone inescapable. Thus, the emphasis should be on
value education which would instill in young people,
the conviction that one's mode of life is of greater
importance than his religion. As Alexander Pope had
said 'For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight.
He cannot be wrong whose life is in the right'. This
is the essence of true secularism, of which Subhas Chandra
Bose was the most shining embodiment.
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