Concept of Secular Education in India

About The Book

The principal objective of the book is to evolve a positive attitude. to secularism the true meaning of which is not total neutrality to religion but to have an objective understanding and to foster a spirit of oneness out of all divisive tendencies and diversities. To find out the positive meaning of the concept, the book concerns with historical, philosophical, comparative and empirical investigations of the development of the concept. The findings of these are that there has been a considerable amount of secular and non-religious education running parallel to religious education for building up economic life of the people.

As regards the findings of the study this concept involves five most essential ideals which seem appropriate for all religions:

-respect for all religions

-promotion of rational and objective outlook in life, freedom from all narrowness and fanaticism,

- tolerance of other's opinion, and

- dutifulness to self and society.

It looks, the problems in India, are rather problems of blending of the old culture and tradition with the new concept of progress and modernisation. It is to be admitted that rapid progress of secularism in man and in more areas of life has become inevitable. It has become a necessity in India's class conscious and heterogenous society.

About The Author

Ms. Muktishree Ghosh (b. 1924-) started her career as an Assistant Teacher in Victoria Girls H.E. School. In course of time, she rose to the position of Head Mistress of the school. She was quite ambitious and continued her further studies. She even started her Ph.D. course at the Delhi University in Philosophy but unfortunately she could not complete the degree. She joined Lady Kean Girls' College as a lecturer in philosophy and later she became the principal of Rabindra Sadan Girls' College, Karimganj, Assam.

Throughout her teaching life she had varied experiences regarding different areas of education and their problems. She regularly contributed articles on education to well-known professional Journals such as Publications Syndicate. Delhi, Educational India, Madras, Akhil Bharat Patrika (in Bengali), the Monthly Journal of Sri Aurobindo Society, Calcutta, among several others.

Preface

It is with great diffidence that the present study of one aspect of Indian educational development is being presented. To some the present study i.e. "the concept of secular education in India," may appear as merely superfluous or even unnecessary as they think it no problem at all. There is, however, room for much thinking over this problem, for reinterpretation and evaluation of the past and for analysis, confirmation and modification of views so far held. There is room for discovering new ideas bearing on the religious neutrality or secular policy of the government and for bringing out the importance of secularism in education in the total perspective of India's political and social changes.

This study concentrates attention on the development of secular ideas and principles in the whole history of education in India with special reference to the influencing factors that were effective in the present development of the concept. Political motives have usually been attributed to the British government's intention of following the policy of "divide and rule" and it has often been maintained that it was this which stood in the way of the development of a national system of education. New data have been presented in the present study in respect of the early development of the concept of secularism making it possible to build up a connected series of events which has contributed in no small way to the present idea of secularism in education. This has so far received no attention in the history of education in India.

Introduction The concept of secular education is a key concept in the field of educational thought in India today. Different conflicting views over the problem range from one extreme to the other. But the proper meaning of the term "Secular Education" can never be explained without reference to the proper context of the secular state - the modern and pragmatic development of democratic ideas. Secularism is the means anything and if it is to prosper must be based on secular, rational non-religious and non-communal principles of conduct in all public activities." India has chosen the path of democracy and the concept of the secular state has assumed great importance in India ever since the country achieved Independence on 15th August, 1947, though some speculation in that direction had already started as early as 1930. The question was immediately raised "What kind of state was free India to become? Would the policy to be established under the New Constitution treat various religions equally? Providing freedom of worship for all communities? Might not the dominant community so frame the constitution of free India as to monopolize privileges to the disadvantages of minority communities? Was the newly created state to be identified with any particular religion?

Book's Contents and Sample Pages