Here, it should be made clear that the goodness of education is barely tied to either metropolitan locality or the grandeur of architecture.
Let me illustrate it with the big picture of a piece of human history.
The modernizing West, while having the best educational institutions of the times, could only perpetrate manslaughters, banditry, human trafficking, drug peddling and devastation of flora and fauna around the globe. And, finally, it fell to the all-devastating two world wars, bringing untellable miseries to itself.
After the great war, nay, the most devilish enterprise of modern education, the two superpowers sporting the so-called most glorious institutions of learning, stunted generations of people worldwide in their Cold War campaigns.
The core value of education is Dharma as how Goswami Tulsidas defines it:
'परहित सरिस धर्म नहीं भाई, परपीड़ा सम नहीं अधमाई'
(Doing good to others is only worth doing, nothing is unbecoming like causing pain to others)
Kabir also brings much clarity to the objective of education :
पोथी पढ़ि-पढ़ि जग मुआ, पंडित भया न कोय, ढाई आखर प्रेम का, पढ़े सो पंडित होय।
(Despite exhausting themselves by reading books, none could become learned; those who study four letters of love become learned.)
The fact is that true education leads one to overcome hatred and fear and equips one to engage with the realities for the betterment of one and all. There should not be confusion while it is about promoting the good, it is also about fighting the evil.
But, knowing what is good and evil is again very tricky. And that is the challenge of education.
Niraj Kumar Jha
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