Insights that stand test of time

Traditional fishermen, who normally use small boats made of wood called ‘catamarans’ on the east coast of India, discover schools of fish from the whistle they hear. Larger and mechanised vessels, operated by businessmen, are known to follow them and exploit the harvest offered by that discovery, at the expense of the traditional fishermen. Although many modern techniques and gadgets exist for spotting shoals of fish, the efficacy of the traditional method remains unmatched. The miraculously skillful, and precise, methods of surgery that existed in ancient India, the wonder drugs that have tackled the most dreaded diseases in Unani, Ayurveda and Siddha, and the remarkable impact of homoeopathic medicines, especially in certain types of complaints, are only too well known to bear repetition

The Godavari Express is a very popular overnight train connection between Visakhapatnam, the industrial hub on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh state, and Hyderabad, the capital city of Telangana state. It was that train that Usha, my Home Minister, took, while returning from a holiday to Vizag (as Visakhapatnam is popularly known), where she had gone to meet her old college friends. Seated opposite her, in the compartment, was an apparently illiterate farmer from the neighbouring East Godavari district. Usha watched, fascinated, as the gentleman issued instructions to his farmhand on his cell phone. The long monologue covered an exhaustive gamut of measures to be taken, which included steps such as the seed to be sown, the brand and quantity of the fertiliser to be used, brand, timing and dosage of pesticide to be sprayed, in case of a pest attack and after harvest, the arrangements to be made for safe and effective storage of the produce till the price is right in the market.

An activity that keeps me busily engaged, these days, is delivering lectures to different types of audiences on various subjects. Ethics, Governance, Agriculture, and Disaster Management are the subjects I normally cover. It was while talking recently to a group of middle level functionaries belonging to the State Civil Service of Odisha state that I dwelt briefly on the subject of Agriculture Extension.

I began by telling that the group that India at age 75 had many commendable accomplishments to her credit. Still many, major challenges remained to be addressed. A bloodless freedom movement unique in the history of the world, the functioning of constitutional and statutory institutions, such as the Supreme Court, the Union Public Service Commission and the Election Commission, and the achievement of food security, were some of the achievements which redounded to her credit. However, the persisting backwardness of certain regions, lack of access to basic human requirements such as literacy, health, housing, and clothing, honour killing of women, and suicides by farmers on account of economic distress, on the flip side, were phenomena that leave us with a feeling much more needed to be done. In conclusion, nevertheless, I reassured the group by conveying my feeling that, on the whole, Mother India has every reason to be proud and satisfied about her accomplishments, the worrying residual agenda notwithstanding.

Another remarkable feature about India is the veritable storehouse of information and knowledge that has been passed on, as a precious legacy, from generation to generation from ancient times, in many areas such as agriculture, mathematics, astronomy, culinary art and medicine.

Those familiar with the subject of fishery, for instance, will have heard that traditional fishermen, who normally use small boats made of wood called ‘catamarans’ on the east coast of India, discover schools of fish from the whistle they hear. Larger and mechanised vessels, operated by businessmen, are known to follow them and exploit the harvest offered by that discovery, at the expense of the traditional fishermen. Although many modern techniques and gadgets exist for spotting shoals of fish, the efficacy of the traditional method remains unmatched.

During my stint in the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation in the Ministry of Agriculture, Government India, I once heard an interesting story from Dr K K Das, a colleague, in the sister department of Agriculture Research and Education. One morning, as Das was walking along the fields of a village in Assam state, he saw a farmer crouched in front of a plant, and straining to hear something. When asked what he was doing, the farmer replied that the day on which the plant emits a musical note is the day for spraying the pesticide! So much, then, for methods like counting the number of insects, and determining what is called the Economic Threshold Level, for the same purpose!

Similarly, some bandwidths in the radio, and many channels in the TV, are dedicated to lessons in the culinary arts. Demonstrations are made on precisely what requirements are needed, how much of which ingredient should be used and how mixed with other such ingredients and the method of cooking such as roasting, grilling, frying, or baking in order to produce the correct colour, taste, and appearance for the final dish, say the South Indian sambar. As a teenager, I remember seeing my mother preparing the same dish, using her cupped fist for a measure, and instinct in the place of the electric oven to create the precise amount of heat required. A technique handed down, by word of mouth, for generations!

I recently surfed the net, as the expression goes, for information about the relative efficacy of the methods of treatment of diseases, such as Allopathy, Homoeopathy, Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani. And, not surprisingly, I found that nearly all of them are equally popular around the world today. The miraculously skilful, and precise, methods of surgery that existed in ancient India, the wonder drugs that have tackled the most dreaded diseases in Unani, Ayurveda and Siddha, and the remarkable impact of homoeopathic medicines, especially in certain types of complaints, are only too well known to bear repetition. And those, who are familiar with life in the rural areas, will vouch for the indisputable efficacy of home remedies for treating snake bites, scorpions stings, burns and the common cold and combating the mosquito menace.

Gandhi, Nehru and Patel were, no doubt, highly educated and successful before taking to politics and spearheading the freedom movement. I have known political leaders who were not highly educated, but were very popular with the public, and successful administrators. J Vengala Rao, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh state in the late 1970s, was one. Likewise, T Anjaiah, a labour leader with little formal education, and with the humblest of background, also rose to become the Chief Minister of the same state.

The word ‘education’ owes its origin to the Latin source of ‘educer’, meaning to ‘draw out’. That is why education is normally described as a process of drawing out and not putting in. Drawing out, in other words, the innate skills and talent, which pupils possess, rather than forcing down information and knowledge down their throats.

The process of education has over the centuries has, in a manner of speaking, come full circle. While the most modern and advanced technology and equipment are in use in the classroom today, a resurgence of the ancient concept of Gurukuls is also to be seen. In fact, given the advent of the digital era, and the sea change in the needs of people, in terms of the requirements for leading healthy and happy lives, the word ‘education’ has itself undergone a spectacular transformation. As we saw at the beginning of this piece, literacy is no longer the stepping stone for education. The process of acquisition of instruments, or knowledge, or information relevant to one’s occupation, either from a teacher or a source, such as the internet, or the print or electronic media, is fast becoming the true definition.

Playing down the exaggerated importance of formal education, the inimitable humorist, and author, Mark Twain, once famously observed, – “I never let my schooling interfere with my education.” A story that is told, probably apocryphal, is that Alexander Pope made a clear distinction between the end of his schooling and the beginning of his education!

(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)