Miffed's Scribblings

At the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, 125 years ago, Swami Vivekananda delivered his landmark address, about the need for harmony of religions. He spoke not only about universal toleration but of acceptance of all religions as true; he appealed to all religious and spiritual leaders to shun all forms of religious fanaticism, persecution, and violence. He will be remembered not only in India but throughout the world as the Messiah of Tolerance and India’s Prophet of Harmony of Religions. Swami Vivekananda’s perspective was inspired by his guru, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who promoted the doctrine of ‘Jato Mat, Tato Path’ which recognizes the potential of all religions to act as means of attaining spiritual enlightenment: ‘Ekam sad vipraha bahuda vavanti.’ Vivekananda would narrate the story of ‘kupa manduka’, frog-in-the-well, as being illustrative of the closed minds of religious bigots. He believed that holiness, purity, and charity are not exclusive domains of any par...

Gandhi was a hero and a great ambassador of the modern higher education. In his article titled ‘National Education’ published in Young India on September 1, 1921, he wrote that it might be true regarding other countries but in India where 80% of the population is occupied with agriculture and 10% of it with industries, it is an offence to make education merely literary. The great idea of the line is that education is much more than to gain literacy knowledge. Gandhi always talked about India as an agrarian country. Most of the Indian industries are based on agriculture. Therefore, Gandhi wanted more and more self-financed agriculture colleges should be opened and they should be attached to related industries. Gandhi thus stressed the self-reliance of the country and advocated self-sufficiency of the colleges and universities. Mahatma Gandhi was never in favour of government aid to boost education. He, however, wanted the university's control over the colleges and that of the gove...