An ancient Sanskrit saying says, woman is the home and the home
is the basis of society. It is as we build our homes that we can build our
country. If the home is inadequate -- either inadequate in material goods and necessities
or inadequate in the sort of friendly, loving atmosphere that every child needs
to grow and develop -- then that country cannot have harm ony and no country
which does not have harmony can grow in any direction at all.
That is why women's education is almost more important than the
education of boys and men. We -- and by "we" I do not mean only we in
India but all the world -- have neglected women education. It is fairly rece
nt. Of course, not to you but when I was a child, the story of early days of
women's education in England, for instance, was very current. Everybody
remembered what had happened in the early days.
I remember what used to happen here. I still remember the days
when living in old Delhi even as a small child of seven or eight. I had to go
ou t in a doli if I left the house. We just did not walk. Girls did not walk in
the streets. First, you had your sari with which you covered your head, then
you had another shawl or something with which you covered your hand and all the
body, then you had a white shawl, with which every thing was covered again
although your face was open fortunately. Then you were i n the doli, which
again was covered by another cloth. And this was in a family or community which
did not observe purdah of any kind at all. In fact, all our social functions
always were mixed functions but this was the atmosphere of the city and of the
country.
Now, we have got education and there is a debate all over the
country whether this education is adequate to the needs of society or the needs
of our young people. I am one of those who always believe that education needs
a thorough overhauling. But at the same time, I think that everything in our
education is not bad, that even the present education has produced very fine
men and women, specially scientists and experts in different fields, who are in
great demand all over the world and even in the most affluent countries. Many
of our young people leave us and go abroad because they get higher salaries,
they get better conditions of work.
But it is not all a one-sided business because there are many
who are persuaded and cajoled to go even when they are reluctant. We know of
first class students, especially in medicine or nuclear energy for instance, they
are approached long before they have passed out and offered all kinds of
inducements to go out. Now, that shows that people do consider that they have a
standard of knowledge and capability which will be useful any where in the
world.
So, that is why I say that there is something worthwhile. It
also shows that our own ancient philosophy has taught us that nothing in life
is entirely bad or entirely good. Everything is somewhat of a mixture and it
depends on us and our capability how we can extract the good, how we can make
use of what is around us. There are people who through observation can learn
from anything that is around them. There are others who can be surrounded by
the most fascinating people, the most wonderful books, and other things and who
yet remain quite closed in and they are unable to take anything from this
wealth around them.
Our country is a very rich country. It is rich in culture, it is
rich in many old traditions -- old and even modern tradition. Of course, it has
a lot of bad things too and some of the bad things are in the society --
superstition, which has grown over the years and which sometimes clouds over
the shining brightness of ancient thought and values, eternal values. Then, of
course, there is the physical poverty of large numbers of our people. That is
something which is ugly and that hampers the growth of millions of young boys
and girls. Now, all these bad things we have to fight against and that is what
we are doing since Independence.
But, we must not allow this dark side of the picture which, by
the way, exists in every country in the world. Even the most rich country in
the world has its dark side, but usually other people hide their dark sides and
they try to project the shining side or the side of achievement. Here in India,
we seem to want to project the worst side of society. Before anybody does
anything, he has to have, of course, knowledge and capability, but along with
it he has to have a certain amount of pride in what he or she is doing. He has
to have self-confidence in his own ability. If your teacher tells, "You
cannot do this," even if you are a very bright student I think every time
you will find, it will be more and more difficult for you to do it. But if your
teacher encourages saying, "Go along you have done very good work, now try
a little harder," then you will try a little harder and you will be able
to do it. And it is the same with societies and with countries.
This country, India, has had remarkable achievements to its
credit, of course in ancient times, but even in modern times, I think there are
a few modern stories, success stories, which are as fascinating as the success
story of our country. It is true that we have not banished poverty, we have not
banished many of our social ills, but if you compare us to what we were just
about 27 years ago, I think that you will not find a single other country that
has been able to achieve so much under the most difficult circumstances.
Today, we are passing through specially dark days. But these are
not dark days for India alone. Except for the countries which call themselves
socialist and about which we do not really know very much, every other country
has the same sort of economic problems, which we have. Only a few countries,
which have very small populations, have no unemployment. Otherwise, the rich
countries also today have unemployment. They have shortages of essential
articles. They have shortages even of food.
I do not know how many of you know that the countries of Western
Europe and Japan import 41 per cent of their food needs, whereas India imports
just under two per cent. Yet, somehow we ourselves project an image that India
is out with the begging bowl. And naturally when we ourselves say it, other
people will say it much louder and much stronger. It is true, of course, that
our two per cent is pretty big because we are a very big country and we have a
far bigger population than almost any country in the world with the exception
of China. We have to see and you, the educated women, because it is great
privilege for you to have higher education, you have to try and see our
problems in the perspective of what has happened here in this country and what
is happening all over the world.
There is today great admiration for certain things that have happened
in other countries where the society is quite differently formed, where no
dissent is allowed. The same people who admire that system or the achievements
of that system are the ones who say there is dictatorship here even though, I
think, nobody has yet been able to point out to me which country has more
freedom of expression or action. So, something is said and a lot of people
without thinking keep on repeating it with additions until an entirely
distorted picture of the country and of our people is presented.
As I said, we do have many shortcomings, whether it is the
government, whether it is the society. Some are due to our traditions because,
as I said, not all tradition is good. And one of the biggest responsibilities
of the educated women today is how to synthesise what has been valuable and
timeless in our ancient traditions with what is good and valuable in modern
thought. All that is modern is not good just as all that is old is neither all
good nor all bad. We have to decide, not once and for all but almost every
week, every month what is coming out that is good and useful to our country and
what of the old we can keep and enshrine in our society. To be modern, most
people think that it is something of a manner of dress or a manner of speaking
or certain habits and customs, but that is not really being modern. It is a
very superficial part of modernity.
For instance, when I cut my hair, it was because of the sort of
life that I was leading. We were all in the movement. You simply could not have
long hair and go in the villages and wash it every day. So, when you lead a
life, a particular kind of life, your clothes, your everything has to fit into
that life if you are to be efficient. If you have to go in the villages and you
have to bother whether your clothes are going to be dirty, then you cannot be a
good worker. You have to forget everything of that kind. That is why,
gradually, clothes and so on have changed in some countries because of the
changes in the life-style. Does it suit our life-style or what we want to do or
not? If it does, maybe we have to adopt some of these things not merely because
it is done in another country and perhaps for another purpose. But what clothes
we wear is really quite unimportant. What is important is how we are thinking.
Sometimes, I am very sad that even people who do science are
quite unscientific in their thinking and in their other actions -- not what
they are doing in the laboratories but how they live at home or their attitudes
towards other people. Now, for India to become what we want it to become with a
modern, rational society and firmly based on what is good in our ancient
tradition and in our soil, for this we have to have a thinking public, thinking
young women who are not content to accept what comes from any part of the world
but are willing to listen to it, to analyse it and to decide whether it is to
be accepted or whether it is to be thrown out and this is the sort of education
which we want, which enables our young people to adjust to this changing world
and to be able to contribute to it.
Some people think that only by taking up very high jobs, you are
doing something important or you are doing national service. But we all know
that the most complex machinery will be ineffective if one small screw is not
working as it should and that screw is just as important as any big part. It is
the same in national life. There is no job that is too small; there is no
person who is too small. Everybody has something to do. And if he or she does
it well, then the country will run well.
In our superstition, we have thought that some work is dirty
work. For instance, sweeping has been regarded as dirty. Only some people can
do it; others should not do it. Now we find that manure is the most valuable
thing that the world has today and many of the world's economies are shaking
because there is not enough fertilizer -- and not just the chemical fertilizer
but the ordinary manure, night-soil and all that sort of thing, things which
were considered dirty.
Now it shows how beautifully balanced the world was with
everything fitted in with something else. Everything, whether dirty or small,
had a purpose. We, with our science and technology, have tried to -- not
purposely, but somehow, we have created an imbalance and that is what is
troubling, on a big scale, the economies of the world and also people and
individuals. They are feeling alienated from their societies, not only in India
but almost in every country in the world, except in places where the whole
purpose of education and government has to be to make the people conform to
just one idea. We are told that people there are very happy in whatever they
are doing. If they are told to clean the streets, well, if he is a professor he
has to clean the streets, if he is a scientist he has to do it, and we were
told that they are happy doing it. Well, if they are happy, it is alright.
But I do not think in India we can have that kind of society
where people are forced to do things because we think that they can be forced
maybe for 25 years, maybe for 50 years, but sometime or the other there will be
an explosion. In our society, we allow lots of smaller explosions because we
think that that will guard the basic stability and progress of society and
prevent it from having the kind of chaotic explosion which can retard our
progress and harmony in the country.
So, I hope that all of you who have this great advantage of
education will not only do whatever work you are doing keeping the national
interests in view, but you will make your own contribution to creating peace
and harmony, to bringing beauty in the lives of our people and our country. I
think this is the special responsibility of the women of India. We want to do a
great deal for our country, but we have never regarded India as isolated from
the rest of the world. What we want to do is to make a better world. So, we
have to see India's problems in the perspective of the larger world problems.
It has given me great pleasure to be with you here. I give my
warm congratulations to those who are doing well and my very good wishes to all
the others that they will also do much better. This college has had a high
reputation but we must always see that we do better than those who were there
before us. So, good luck and good wishes to you.
Veerapagupathy,
Chothavilai Beach,
Thengamputhoor,
Kanyakumari.
+91-04652-221337
+91-9500946903
Email:aveholidayhome@gmail.com
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