“सा fवद्या या fवमुक्तये।”
Sā vidyā yā vimuktaye — That alone is knowledge which liberates.
Growing up in the Indian schooling system is an experience just as tiring as it is unique. In any average private K-12 school of a tier 2 or tier 3 city, you will find forty students stuffed in an old classroom with rickety desks and less than adequate lighting. For most of us who lived through this experience, those classrooms remain the places where we made some of our best memories, but that does not excuse the reality of ‘holistic’ education in our schools. In these schools, you will also find teachers who are in every way a product of their time, who know their subjects like the back of their hand and perhaps know disciplining kids even better, at least that’s what they’ll tell you if you ever ask them. Although I doubt anyone will ever need to ask them, because before you even learn their name, you will learn a thing or two about their disciplinary ideals.
Indian school children, all the way from first grade to the end, are taught the same basic ideas. Always trim your nails thoroughly, divide your hair a certain way, oil and braid it with the prescribed ribbons in the prescribed ways, button up your collars and forget about wearing even a hint of makeup or jewellery, unless you want a reprimand in front of everyone in the school assembly, or worse, a call home, where you know your parents are planning to spend the next few days chastising you for the same. It is a no-win situation for the students either way. The same students who then leave their schools and go on to universities in foreign cities, feeling like aliens in a world where they do not know how to dress, act, talk and behave. You see, scrubbing nail paints off their fingernails or waiting for mehendi to fade off their hands before going back to school doesn’t exactly prepare you for finding your identity and living a proper adult life. Do we really expect boys to have a buzz cut all their lives or for girls never to apply cosmetics or get their makeup done? I don’t recall the last time I saw a fully grown woman in pigtails, do you?
Indian schools may preach holistic education models, but this type of military disciplining exposes a deep-seated, depressive mindset, stemming from colonial roots. Thomas Macaulay didn’t just take away linguistic identity from indian students when he set about to reinvent the
system to create a class of Anglicised clerks; in fact, he worked to take away all forms of cultural identity from their education. Even the most basic elements that most of us do not question, such as the existence of school uniforms, are a relic of medieval England. Something which once made sense, served a purpose, but is now dated enough to be discarded. Ties, collared shirts and blazers are perhaps still well utilised in the cold, white landscapes of British boarding schools, but I still don’t have an answer as to why we were made to dress like that in the sweltering North Indian heat. Further, the gender segregated uniforms in some schools, such as shirts with trousers for boys and salwar-kameez for girls, give out a subtle yet clear patriarchal message about the division of roles and the appropriateness of modernity. Colonial education was designed purposefully to raise docile, mild-mannered and submissive men, who knew the limited prospects of their future. How is it that we are still imparting those teachings to kids who we believe to be the future of our nation?
Let’s focus on the psychological impacts of this. I have seen students being stopped on exam days at the school gates for wearing the wrong jackets over shirts on a windy day, and girls being stopped in corridors, sent to get their hair braided by the housekeeping staff. Boys are humiliated for trying out a new hairstyle and wearing non-uniform sports shoes on days when they have a games period. Girls are often questioned on their intent simply for trying to style themselves a different way; their character is judged based on their skirt length.
We as students are told that these actions are easier to understand when we get older, and yet, at the end of my school life, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. This moral proposing and public shaming starting right at the school level creates a creeping fear, possibly for life. How do we expect these students ever to find their personal identity? Mistaking conformity for discipline over and over again eventually leads to a stagnant and ultimately futile system. Moreover, it erodes an already fragile cultural identity in impressionable teenagers. When the people you look up to look down on your traditions, when you are scolded for things like applying henna and wearing bindis, that is what you grow up to do as well. Our oppressors used these methods to suppress cultural pride. We call ourselves the most diverse country in the world, so what does partaking in those same customs today say about us?
This also presents a stark contrast to schools and universities abroad, which are actually making changes to encourage acceptance of cultural heritage and diverse backgrounds.
Whether that is moving away from uniforms or allowing coloured hair and accessories, or provisions such as the UK’s Equality Act that prevent uniform policies from discriminating based on gender or religion. How do we expect our students to compete on the world stage while being treated so differently from their global peers?
It’s not to say that India has not made efforts in the right direction. The NEP 2020 AND NCF 2023 both emphasise the value of holistic education that includes respecting and promoting diversity, as well as India’s age-old cultural traditions within classrooms. These policy guidelines are intended to work towards well-rounded development of a child, and not just building a silent machine that earns grades. However, as in most cases, the paperwork doesn’t match practicality. Ground reality of our schools remains unchanged. Even strict legal provisions such as the Right to Education 2009, which makes it illegal for schools to humiliate students over dress code violations, do not make much of a difference.
Even if we set all of the above problems aside, the most significant fault of this way of doing things is that it prevents the students from learning what true discipline means. It stops them not only from understanding the basic aspects, such as how to groom themselves and find their identity, but also from learning the importance of ethical and moral values. The same teachers who stop asking students to fix their shirts that are not tucked in properly are the ones who ignore racist and misogynistic remarks. These same students then go on into the world without proper aesthetic or civic sense, and then the rest of us get to complain about it every time we see it happening. But apparently no one cares enough to tackle the actual root of the problem.
These mistakes of the past must be corrected for the future. Starting from reframing the very idea of ‘discipline’ and understanding what children truly need to prepare for the rest of their lives. Teachers need to be trained on empathy, teenage psychology, identity expression, emotional intelligence, and gender sensitivity. Parents, too, must learn the reasons behind non-conformity and rebellion, and how important it is to help children find their own identity from an early age.
The students stuffed in those small towns and cities, who strive to study under the dim light in dingy classrooms with old teachers, have new visions and dreams, which educators must see as their prerogative to help them fulfil. It is necessary to set aside convictions and let go
of arrogance, to be open to new ideas in this ever-changing world, and to adapt teaching methods accordingly. The true purpose of education is to create equal citizens, not subservient clerks with no ambition. We must not let the errors of the past rule the fate of our future. As Seneca wrote, ‘Non scholae sed vitae discimus.’ We learn not for school, but for life.