Malaviya, a name almost synonymous with higher education in the country, has been a visionary par excellence. While BHU bears testimony to his vision, his views regarding values are perhaps more relevant today when corruption threatens to shake up the 64-year-old democracy. Never before was the middle class so agitated on the issue of corruption in public life and the India political class so vulnerable. Against this backdrop it will be relevant to quote Malaviya.
“Mere industrial advancement cannot ensure happiness and prosperity to any people; nor can it raise them in the scale of nations... Formation of character is even more important for the well-being of the individual and of the community than cultivation of intellect. Hence the proposed university (BHU) has placed formation of character in youth as one of its principal objectives. It will seek not merely to turn out men as engineers, scientists, doctors, merchants, theologists, but also as men of high character, probity and honour... It will be a nursery of good citizens instead of only a mint for hallmarking a certain standard of knowledge,” Malaviya said in 1905.
None will doubt that this lofty vision of the saintly founder remains unrealised. Indian society has been facing its worst-ever value crisis since Independence as cases of corruption are being exposed one after another. We are witnessing an all-pervasive crisis of values in almost all walks of life, our scientific, technological and economic progress notwithstanding. Growth rate stories and GDP figures are hardly reassuring when ministers and top bureaucrats land up in jail on graft charges. It was this erosion of values that Malaviya wanted to guard against when he proposed the establishment of BHU.
The university, for him, was not merely an institution for imparting knowledge. Also, it was not only a means to impart professional skills for making a living. The main aim of education, according to Malaviya, was to transform young individuals into responsible human beings.
Malaviya not only preached others, he was also an epitome of values in his personal life. He believed in universal brotherhood, religious tolerance and welfare of humanity. He treated religion as a medium which would make man liberal, tolerant and accommodative. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had once said that Malaviya was one of those giant who laid the foundation of modern Indian nationalism and built the noble edifice of Indian freedom. And, this ‘Pandit’ was not unduly respectful of the other.
The writer can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com
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