Secular Education For National Integration (An Old And Rare Book)

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I am delighted to introduce Prof. R. K. Yadav's monograph on "Secular Education for National Integration" I feel it is a timely addition to the existing literature on the topic. Perhaps, at no time in the history of the Indian Republic there were so many divisive and fundamentalist forces active as today, threatening the very secular fabric of our nation. At a time like this, it is a moral duty incumbent on every citizen and all institutions, governmental as well as private, to strive to strengthen the secular nature of our nation. Without this strong secular foundation, national integration will always tend to remain an elusive goal-and it has remained so for the last forty years since Independence. It is no exaggeration to say that educationists in this country, by and large, have given only scant attention to this important aspect of our nation. When we consider education as the main organ of the country for enlightening the citizenry on important issues and thus of changing national perceptions and attitudes, it cannot but address itself to this problem in an urgent way. By bringing out this monograph at this time, it is hoped, that it will act as a catalyst to start off further thinking on the topic.

Prof. R. K. Yadav has been associated with this Centre in various capacities, a member of its Advisory Committee, a member of the Board of Studies and a Visiting Fellow. The present monograph has its origin in the series of lectures on secular education that Prof. R. K. Yadav gave at this Centre when he was a Visiting Fellow in February, 1987. I am extremely grateful to him for allowing the Centre to publish his lectures as a monograph and for carefully rewriting the material for this purpose.

M. S. YADAV

Head

Centre of Advanced Study in Education

Dean Faculty of Education and Psychology

August, 1988

Baroda

To correct the notion that words are "pictures" or "names" or "Platonic objects" Wittgenstein described words as "tools". And tools are used to carry out an "activity". Therefore, meanings of words depend upon "the way they are used". In this monograph I have tried to explain how secularisation of education was being, and is being, carried out in various countries in consonance with the historico-cultural forces there. In the euphoria of freedom the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution ignored the inherent dangers of imparting religious education" or "education about religions."

I have also expressed my views "freely and frankly", thanks to the authorities of the Centre of Advanced Study in Education (CASE) for giving me permission on what are called "minority institutions", which I consider nurseries of communalism and religious fundamentalism. In this connection I would like the readers to heed the warning given by social scientists from Holland.

For the publication in the form of a monograph the series of lectures I delivered in the CASE I am thankful to the M S. University of Baroda.

R.K. Yadav

April, 1988