| Vol. V, No. 48 Sawan 6, 2009, July 14, 1952 Four Annas. Air-/4/6 |
The war of Ideas that is raging up and down the length and breadth of the world between the Communist and the Democratic ideologies is being waged mainly in the field of education, for both sides realsie that the battle will be won or lost in the schools, colleges and Universities. The future belongs to the world’s youth, and upon the ideals and values the rising generation acquire during the formative period.
| ….IT Happened * Mysterious General Auchinleck has long protested that he is there in Pakistan only to organize his woollen Carpets Factory. The Pakistan Government has now decided to grant him a sum of Rs 3,00,000 for the woollen factory. The site of the factory is to be the 300—strong village of Bolari in Karachi district. That there is no wool and only sand anywhere near Bolari is irrelevant to the carpettering general. And it is only an accident that Americans are busy building a military base in Bolari. * During the last for night New Delhi repeatedly requested Shaikh Abdullah to talk over matters, Every time he refused. We contribute Rs 60,00,000 annually to Abdullah’s National Guards. Thought not under army control, they are posted on the border. Some of them run away to Pakistan with our arms and ammunition. * The Congress is supposed to be working out a classless society. Here is an instance. Three new colonies for government servants have been built in the capital. But one of them is reserved for officers, another for clerks and the third one for peons. And to emphasise that they mean what they say, the three colonies have been named Man Nagar (Town of Honour) Vinaya Nagar (Town of the Humble) and Seva Nagar (Town of Menials)! |
Red Education
This truth has been clearly realized, and acted upon in Communist countries where the State has a stranglehold on educational theory and practice, and where the indoctrination of youth in Communist ideology is efficiently and systematically carried out from the cradle to the grave. Teachers in Communist educational institutions have all to be exemplary party members and any taint of democratic ideas, or academic independence, or the slightest departure from the ‘party line’ in education would cast them not only their jobs but their lives. Hence at every stage of his education a child is ‘conditioned’ to be a Communist.
In Democracies
No such thorough going and logical policy of centralized control and conscious indoctrination has characterized the educational policy in Democratic countries, which are generally content to lay down certain broad principles and objectives, and to give the schools and teachers more or less complete liberty to achieve them as best as they can.
What is to be Done?
But what? That is the question. In America prominent educationists, and the community at large, last year decided, almost unanimously, that professed and militant Communists should not be allowed to teach in educational institutions, and all such teachers have been dismissed from the public schools. At the same time it was felt that a critical knowledge of the theory, practice, and methods of Communism, should be a part of every youth’s education especially at the University stage, and that, as a corrective and counter-balance, every student should be consciously and conscientiously convinced of the superiority of Democratic ideals.
Rational Solutions
To continue to allow Communist teachers and professors to poison the minds and souls of the youth would be little short of suicidal. But a red witch-hunt, involving hasty and ill-judged action, should at all costs be avoided, Teachers and professors suspected of being active and militant Communist propagandists should be given a fair trial not by the Courts but by a tribunal of their peers.
The Ultimate Needs
We must ensure that students are convinced in theory and by living it that the democratic way of life is the best possible for individual growth and happiness and social well-being. And above all, teachers aflame with a passion for democratic ideals, must instill into the youth of tomorrow by word and example burning faith in liberty, fraternity and equality, under God, for these alone will protect them from the ever-growing Communist menace.
