When we are young the first lessons of character, honesty, moral ethos and cultural probity are enunciated to us at home, by our parents and primarily by our mothers. A mother is usually seen as the force that chisels or shapes the children according to the propensity of our religious and cultural fibers. This begins our education of character and morality, however, this initial impetus is textured into a full blown momentum and embodied into our lives as our character at schools, making schools the next in the character building of an individual. Together these two institutions, the family and school, in synchrony give rise to the finest of the individuals with virtuous and conscientious character.
I remember when I was in school most of our teachers, irrespective of what they taught, would every now and then bring up some topic or story which taught of cultural and moral precedence. Hence, effectuating the double role of the schools- academic education and moral ethos, thereby, imparting a complete education to the students, making us able to differentiate between right and wrong in accordance to our religious and cultural framework. Having said that, we need to understand that morality or ethics are actually never changing aspects of the human logic and reasoning. For example, if killing someone was wrong in the past it cannot be right at present or in future or if stealing from someone was wrong it cannot change. Similarly, if lying is wrong today, we can’t go about lying tomorrow without having the remorse for our actions. Hence, moral values remain constant even with the advancement of the Human race.
What prompted me to write this piece is a 35 seconds video clip short during the “Bal Mela” event on October 20th, 2012 at Delhi Public School (DPS) Srinagar. It shows the young students of DPS, boys and girls dancing together, freestyle on a hip-hop in a deluged circle while others are watching. This video has already received almost 2000 hits and seems to be a hot topic of discussion, as is evident by the flow of responses it is receiving.
It serves as a call for us to investigate and ratify whether our schools are still delivering on the fore-fronts of the character building and upholding moral and cultural values besides the academic progression of our young ones. It is evident from the growing incidence of immorality and felony among young people in Kashmir that our schools and families have somewhere failed to synchronize the two and to conduce a healthy young generation as a whole. This may be as a result of behemothic emphasis on the race to excel in the academics to stand upfront among the elite and negligence on the other part of the education. Hence, not only the schools but also family system of education is at blame.
In the above context, it is very unfortunate to see an elite school bolstering the idea of imbibing a culture, which is foreign to us, into our youth and besmirching the local cultural insights and thereby playing the cultural aggression card. We need to realize that it is within the boundaries of a schools that the youth learn to regard and uphold their cultural, moral and religious values. More-of it is important to know that the rationale sense and decision making of an individual are based on what is fed to him during his/her school days. So he/she sees the right or wrong accordingly. And, thus, in the present case, the boys and girls who are coerced to dance today in their schools, that too with free gender mix, will not see it wrong tomorrow, much against our cultural, moral and religious jurisprudence.
In the wake of such events it is important to comprehend what our young and future generations are going to be like with our cultural, religious and moral tenets diluted by the alien cultural propagandism. And, hence, every effort would be needed from both family system of education as well as schools to counter the onslaught of antipodal cultural and moral indoctrination into our youth and at the same time preserve and promulgate our own cultural, religious and moral facets.
Published By Greater Kashmir on November 7, 2012
"Jehlum" 