Cows and children's well-being have always obsessively concerned the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Madhya Pradesh. While the former now invite less attention from the state, following the fall from grace of their chief advocate, the young have no such respite. It is to assist the flowering of the patriotic fervour in them that the government recently decided to remove nursery rhymes written by 'foreigners' from the school syllabi. The same thoughtfulness on the part of the chief minister, Mr Shivraj Singh Chauhan, has prompted his government to include surya namaskar or the early-morning sun salute as a mandatory part of the curriculum. Large sections of the population in the state, wary of the saffron government's intentions, have naturally disputed the imposition of this so-called health regimen. The high court, by declaring in an interim order that the programme could not be made compulsory for all, has only taken cognizance of the directive's potential to hurt religious sentiments and cause social disruption.

The Madhya Pradesh government may refute allegations of bias in its sudden motivation to force children out of bed early, but it is unlikely to have too many willing to buy that claim. Its repeated directives to schools and offices - making the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory, the lifting of the ban on civil servants' participation in sangh activities, its recent anti-conversion drive - all point to its single-minded agenda of Hinduization. Children in Madhya Pradesh's schools do need the attention of the government. But instead of manipulating the syllabi, extending school holidays to accommodate Hindu festivals or telling students what they should sing and when, the government would serve their interests better if it got them more trained teachers and more classrooms to study in. Perhaps the government should also consider if education needs to be made a joyless chore of ritual learning.

The Telegraph
January 26, 2007

Editorial