Educating Indian Peasants Essay

India is one country that is endowed with a rich culture that not only influences individuals but also social groupings and structures. Religion is one cultural aspect that is very influential and this paper seeks to shed light on its role in education as well as the forms of educational systems in India. The two basics forms of education are traditional education and elementary education. Traditional education can be defined as the passing of knowledge from a guru or spiritual leader to a student. The transmission of knowledge here is oral such that writing materials are not present. The venue in which this is done is known as a gurukul, which was usually the residential place of the leader or sage, and among the subjects taught were religion, Philosophy and mathematics. (Pomelil). This form of education was only accessible to certain castes that were higher that others. These castes were religious in nature where there also existed the untouchables who were mostly poor and oppressed by those of the higher castes. Traditional education was usually free but it is said that rich families gave tokens of appreciation to the gurus on completion of the studies. Discrimination and segregation are some of the characteristics that can be pegged on this education system. Religion comes in where it consoles those in the lower castes that after their death thy will re-incarnate to one of the high castes. Krishna, an Indian god is said to have reincarnated and gone through traditional education in his childhood. Robert,2003). Elementary education on the other is all inclusive and is carried out in schools. Castes do not have any importance because every one is given an equal opportunity to learn. In India those in lower castes were known as dalits and they were the main source of labor to those in higher castes. Elementary education was introduced so as to promote equal accessibility as well as universality to for everyone. Without elementary education the Indian peasants will only be revolving around the vicious cycle of poverty because of lack of empowerment that would enable them improve the standards of their own living. According to Robert, 2003, dalits were viewed and made to believe that they were not better than those in the higher castes but studies show that when dalits got into a competition with higher caste members, dalits only performed badly when their status was made obvious before the competition, while they even did better or scored same points when their social affiliation was not mentioned. Schools are available to all because they are not usually very far apart. Elementary education is the only way to empowering Indian peasants or Dalits because the World is rapidly changing and individuals are now rewarded by merit. Ascribed status is losing its popularity to a status that has been worked for or earned.