What is a priority: Nation or religion

The purpose of education is to enable an individual to live life with a mission to enjoy the same and let others do the same in the best possible manner. Education should help an individual to know the world in a better way than narrowing the thinking and approach. The other important lesson which should be learnt through education is the love for the nation and the living beings. The world is advancing at a fast pace and the individuals are finding it difficult to cope with the same. In this situation, proper education only can help the people to become self reliant and a source of positive energy for the country. The curriculum of the school and the college education must include the teaching of various philosophies like service before self. The other important aspect is the confidence and the belief in one`s ability and the potential of doing better for humanity.

 Education should have a long term goal and the smaller problems of the day to day life should not be an element of hindrance or obstacle for the policy makers. An individual cannot grow without the growth of the nation and to achieve that a uniformity should be maintained. No country can be proud of its GDP without making sure that all citizens are getting their due and also contributing significantly for the growth of the nation.  What I am trying to put across is that all members of the community should have a respectable and evident share in the growth of the nation. Religion may be of great importance to many people and it may not be of any significance for some but it does not mean that we cannot exist in harmony and brotherhood. There are so many things which are common in all human beings and let us try to be happy with that in spite of having differences based on religion or the caste. Our country has been suffering because of misuse of  religion and the caste. The caste system is so deep rooted that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the people to control it or get it eroded from the society. There are many problems which are the direct result of the castism in the society and this takes a bad shape when the caste and the region or the religion becomes the identity for the individuals. I would like mention one example here. As per the news report a youth was mishandled by a government official without his mistake. The issue was raised in media and rightly so, but the most disturbing fact was the highlight that he belonged to a particular caste. What I think is that the humiliation of any human being is to be condemned irrespective of the caste or religion one belongs to. Our father of the nation always talked and worked for the nation by advocating equal rights and opportunities for all the people. He did not want that caste should be hurdle in the opportunities for the individual to grow and live healthy life.  You all would remember the issue raised in the parliament of the country and which was debated upon. It was decided to remove one particular cartoon from the books published by the premier educational body of the country which decides the direction of the education in the country.  Again the issue should have been discussed whether this is right to have such cartoon or not but then some people tried to play the caste card here also. Let the nation debate, whether to continue to put caste and religion ahead of the country is or not.  The education system should be such that even if we continue to identify an individual with a particular caste it should not dilute our respect and the duty towards our nation. The nation always be esteemed and the rest of the things and the factors should be secondary. When we go out of our country, we are called as Indians and not as Hindu, Muslim or Brahmins and schedule caste etc. Let our education be such that it teaches us to be inclusive in our approach than being exclusive. We all know it very well that integration joins and the differentiation breaks the things into pieces. Education should help us to develop ourselves to grow as individuals as well as a society. Education should not aim at producing just the earning machines but learning human beings. This is possible when all concerned work together keeping in mind the big picture of the growth of the country than individuals only.

Recently, I was out in a country which is considered to be a super power and tried to understand what made that country to have that elite a status in the world. The most important thing was the respect for nation and the people who sacrificed for the cause of the country. The second was the commitment towards the duty assigned to the citizens of the country. The feeling of ` we ` was always over and above `I`. In other words, we can say the national character and the work culture are the most important factors which made this country what it is today. Even in that country the father of our nation is given a lot of respect and they have the statue of Gandhiji at a very prominent place.  When our guide was telling us about the place, he very proudly mentioned about Gandhiji and took us near hie statue. There I had feeling, if we can get rid of the caste system and identify ourselves as Indians only. The best way to do that may be to suffix our first name by a common surname and why not we identify ourselves as the descendent of Gandhiji and call ourselves as Ram Gandhi, Gopal Gandhi, Akhtar Gandhi, Alex Gandhi or Harpreet Gandhi. These are my views without any bias towards anybody as individual or as groups.  This may appear to be ideal situation but can we think of harbouring a change? Looking forward for your most valuable feedback and response.