Hereditary Education Policy
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Hereditary Education Policy or Kula Kalvi Thittam is an education policy introduced by Rajaji as Chief Minister of Madras State in 1952.[1]As per this policy schools will work in the morning and students had to compulsorily learn the family vocation in the afternoon. A Carpenter’s son would learn Carpentry, a priest's son chanting hymns and a barber’s son hair cutting and shaving after school in the afternoon. Now Hindu profession had evolved around caste system, particular castes did only particular professions and it was Varna based where the Brahmin was the highest in the order and learned the vedas, the Kshatriya ruled the country, Vaishya trading whereas the shudra(Dalit) was considered untouchables and was the lowest in the order and was to do manual work and denied education .[2][3]. It was seen as a Casteist Education policy or Communal education policy aimed at maintaining maintaining caste hegemony.
Periyar Ramasami and other leaders saw this as clever ploy against the Dalits,Scheduled Castes and Tribes and Backward Classes as there first generation was getting educated only then. Their children had just begun to attend school after centuries of denial of educational opportunities under the rigid Hindu caste system .[4]This was seen as a ploy to ensure the domination and monoploy of Brahmins.[5][6]In 1920 when the Justice Party came to power Brahmins occupied about 70% of the high level posts in government and after reservation was introduced by the Justice Party reversed this trend and allowed non-brahmins to raise in the government in Madras Presidency[7] The ulterior motive behind the scheme is that the children of non-brahmins should undertake only the manual jobs of their ancestors such as washerman, barber, scavenger, cobbler etc.and they should not aspire for any higher education or for any white collar employement, which only Brahmins can claim as their exclusive privilege.[8]. They should follow there parents professions and remain in there low status and lowly paid professions. Further it was felt that it was for the Parents and students themselves to decide what they wanted to be and not the government.Rajaji's policy was also opposed within the congress party by leaders like Kamaraj. Rajaji had also closed down nearly 6,000 schools, citing financial constraints. There was severe opposition from within the Congress party and the opposition were trying to bring a no confidence against Rajaji over the issue. Rajaji quit over this policy. Kamaraj removed the family vocation based Kula Kalvi Thittam (Hereditary Education Policy) introduced by Rajaji in 1954. Six thousand schools closed down by Rajaji were revived and 12,000 schools added by Kamaraj[9]
[edit] References
- ^ http://sify.com/news/politics/fullstory.php?id=13569138
- ^ http://www.gurjari.net/ico/Mystica/html/varna.htm
- ^ http://www.hindunet.org/varna/
- ^ http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/periyar.htm
- ^ http://www.holycrossjustice.org/pdf/Integral%20Liberation/June%202006/The%20History%20of%20Reservations%20in%20India.pdf
- ^ http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375407284&view=excerpt
- ^ http://www.tehelka.com/story_main17.asp?filename=Ne042206superiority.asp
- ^ http://www.themronline.com/200308m1.html
- ^ http://www.periyar.org/html/dk_movement_eng.asp
[edit] External links
- http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-periyar280603.htm
- http://164.100.24.167/rsdebate/synopsis/194/29112001.htm
- http://www.buddhiwadi.org/periyar.htm
- http://www.dr-ambedkar.com/writings/38A.%20Who%20were%20the%20Shudras%20Preface.htm
- http://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/random042/99031807.html
- http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/socialscientist/text.html?objectid=HN681.S597_252-53_087.gif
[edit] Further reading
- Rajaji, a Life by RajMohan Gandhi ( Chapter Downfall mentioned as Caste based education Policy)
