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Man-making education
 What we want is strength, so believe in yourselves...What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, said the great son of India, Swami Vivekananda. Arise! Awake! was his call to the youth of the nation.
Now, 140 years after his birth,102 years after his death, the question to be asked is - Have the youth done their due? Have they fulfilled Vivekananda's dreams?
From freezing in the Himalayan mountains and defending their country to working hard in software companies; from playing sport at the highest level to making huge strides in USA; Indian youth have made big marks in the sands of time. They have, time and again, proved to the world that the average, hardworking Indian is a lot better than people from many developed countries.
Education: Indians from the IITs and the IIMs have made remarkable progress, and have made people all over the world sit up and take notice of them. Indians have been superb scientists, daring doctors, astonishing architects and marvellous mathematicians.
Do these Indians, who pass out from premier institutions and as-usual go abroad, fulfil Vivekananda's dreams of having acquired man-making education that Vivekananda craved for? Indian people know their science and arts, but do they have the right ambience for a character-building education?
Character-building and man-making aren't a course or a degree but they have to be imbibed from the educational institutions. It should exist in the structure of the institutions as a whole; the teachers should have it in them and impart it to the students.
If all this takes place, Vivekananda's dream will become a reality.
Srinivasa Ramanujam
Published on 14th Jan, 2004
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