A Republic with knowledge-allergy | Girish Nikam

Published on 28-01-2008 In National

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A Republic with knowledge-allergy

On the Republic Day, a leading national English newspaper made young and famous people take a history test. And the results were appalling to say the least! One rich and famous hairstylist was asked how is Republic day different from Independence Day, and his reply--- "on R-Day we have parade whereas on Independence Day hardly anybody does anything"!!

More interesting was a leading fashion designer who said, "This one falls in January and that one in August. Independence day is about hoisting your flag, it is about celebrating our country's birthday. Republic Day is something about our amendments, the other is about Constitution"!!!

Four students, including one in school, two in college and another a final B Tech student was asked who is the first woman President of India. I am sure many of us would think, what a dumb question! Surprise, surprise—or really is it? --- Not one got it right! One said Indira Gandhi, another first said Indira Gandhi and then amended it to Sheila Dikshit, the B Tech student thought it was Sarojini Naidu and the schoolboy was honest—he did not know.

The next quiz question was, what is Republic Day? The B Tech student again took the cake-----" Long back something political happened on this day"!! For a MA student, it meant "more traffic on the roads and lots of jhanjhat to the citizens! One TV actor got it right, while the other confused it for Independence Day.

Now what does this indicate? As someone for whom gathering facts is not only a necessity but also an obsession, it is amusing alright, but more so it is distressing. The huge cynicism towards acquiring knowledge and especially on current affairs is spreading like a disease. And it has now become a fashion to cock a snook on those who would talk of acquiring knowledge for the sake of it.

There was a time in the recent past when general knowledge books sold like hot cake, and that was when Amitabh Bachchan and later Shah Rukh Khan hosted "Kaun Banega Crorepathi". But mind you all that scramble for acquiring knowledge was not for the sake of it, but to make a quick crore!

It is becoming increasingly evident that as we grow older as a nation and richer as a country, we are also becoming poorer knowledge-wise and that it is happening in a knowledge age, is quite an irony. As someone who interacts with young students constantly, it is becoming more and more evident that the younger generation by and large has no time to read and lesser time to acquire knowledge for the sake of it. It is also interesting that as circulations of newspapers have grown exponentially in the last decade, it seems that it is more bought than read.

And this lack of thirst for knowledge for the sake of it, despite its much easier accessibility through various modern communication forms, is also an irony. Of course knowledge for most people means knowing about what is necessary to earn a living or better their income.

Beyond that, "who has the time" is a constant refrain.

Internet and its wide spread has meant a lot of disinformation, instead of information. Every day when one opens the mailbox, there are those inevitable mails, which are designed to create dis-trust, hatred, and fear. One such landed in the mailbox, the other day, forwarded by one of my readers. The anonymous article cried about the anti-hindu bias of the Indian Media, especially the English media! And the reason apparently the anonymous writer "revealed" was either Saudi Arabia or other Muslim countries and agencies or Christian evangelical agencies abroad funded them all! And unfortunately those who would like to believe such absolutely baseless propaganda, goes on a "forward-ing" binge. In fact with the advent of Internet, the information age is increasingly becoming the dis-information age.

For a democracy to prosper and grow solid roots, one of the necessary musts, is awareness among its citizens. The cynicism, which we encounter towards knowledge as the quiz above points out, is a sure sign of the decay which is setting in. As the literacy level grows, it is essential that the citizen's level of understanding of his country and also his duties grow. But sadly what we are witnessing is the inverse. And it is more unfortunate as people acquire degrees and wealth their interest in the functioning of the Government and the Society at large goes down.

This is accompanied by the cynicism towards politicians, and branding all of them corrupt, inefficient and untrustworthy. But surely some politicians must have done something good, for this country to have reached the levels we have, in these 60 years. And by the way what is our contribution to an orderly, corruption-free, efficient society? As a nation we refuse to take blame on ourselves when the system does not work or works only when it is "oiled". Every time there is a natural disaster, a scam, or whatever, everybody points a finger at the Government. But what do we do, to avert it or overcome it? Zilch.

However, to end on a positive note, during one of the recent visits to Gujarat, a visit to Surat, the diamond and textile-trading city, was revealing. One was overwhelmed by the civic consciousness of it citizens. One cant find a cow or even a dog on the road and virtually the city is litter-free. A resident pointed out when the city was flooded a couple of years back, every citizen came out in the open with a broom in their hands and cleaned up their localities. They did not wait for the Municipal Corporation, which of course gave them a helping hand. Now that is citizenship at its best.

Now can we hope as we enter the seventh decade of our existence as a nation, we as citizens will become more informed, more conscious of our duties and less cynical of acquiring knowledge, for the sake of it?

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