Cynicism on Prevalent Education System in the Fictions of Chetan Bhagat

International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, Volume 2(5), ISSN 2394-9333 www.ijtrd.com Cynicism on Prevalent Education System in the Fictions of Chetan Bhagat

Ms.Neha Anand Lecturer, Department of Humanities, College of Engineering, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad, India

Abstract-Education, a rudimentary human right, a pri-eminent driver of human and economic development,bolsters personal integrity and shapes the societies in which we breathe.Corruption in education is a solemncanker thatsabotages the quality and availability of schools and universities.Corruption, the exercise of misusing one’s supremacy and position to attainassorted illegal ends, comes into existence when the officials make use of their office as a means to serve their morally wrong personal objectives. Opening new edifying institutes stipulates to widen education and lessen corruption but even the thought of giving life to these institutes is not without the stigma of corruption. The society, in present scenario, witnesses the system in which thousands of crooks are there who corrupt the system by disheartening the assiduous students and encouraging the frauds. As there is nothing but education which can make or mar the future of the whole country, numerous novelists, time and again, show their concern towards this besmirchment. Chetan Bhagat’s novels raise mirror to society in true sense. The present paper is an attempt to show the real facet of today education system where this temple of education is no more a pious place, where all the students are not treated without any discrimination. In fact they are, in one hand or other; suffer due to the system that takes breath under the ridge of education. The present paper is a study of Five Point Someone and Revolution2020 of Chetan Bhagat in which the author passes satire on the existing education system in India.

Keyword- Satire; Education; System; Corruption; Ambition; Prey

The seeds of edification were inseminated in India with Gurukul System, the type of school with residentiary nature where Shishyas or students and the Gurus or teachers were hanging their hats in contiguity within the same house. Vedas, élan vital of Indian Culture, holds important place in education System with the faith that education is not an abstruse appellation rather it is conspicuous in the cultural, fiscal, individual, rational, scientific, societal and devout encroachment. During the Vedic Age teaching of the four Vedas, the hymns and ritual practices along with the pronunciation of the Vedas and their implication, phonology, metrics, elementary grammar, and etymology were taught. That was the span when Gurukuls were mused as devout as temple and teacher as God. The Guru or teacher, an affectionate father, an effective teacher, and a person of high moral and spiritual qualities,a disciplined man was expected to teach with his heart and soul, to devotehis life to the cause of teaching in the missionary spirit of self-sacrifice. The teacher or acharya shoulder not only the bag of imparting knowledge – religious as well as secular, but also of sculpting the character and persona of the disciples of his asrama. He led a disciplined life.

This was the era when India, having credit as a glorious centre of culture, an educational hub,with its charismatic quality, fascinated the studentsall over the globe.In the words of Albert Einstein, “We owe a lot to the Indians who taught ushow to count without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could havemade.” This word shows the importance of Vedic period and ancient Indianeducation.

As the time creeps by, everything covers itself with the veil of transformation and modification where some gets thecredential of betterment; some are unfortunate enough to follow the path of degradation.Needless to say, as it has been assimilated by the person of different shades, the situation of education hails from the latter category.

In present time, educational institutions with their primitive accentuation on moneymaking, materialism, reversing to the perception of complete human expansion,put emphasis on encumbering theconcepts on students which they cannot digest; as a consequence, theconcepts never hail from them

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Chetan Bhagat, a extrusive ink slinger, anextolled spokesmanwith his peerless possession in the cosmos of most prominent Indo Anglican authors ,enjoys a well reputed position in various fields ,reserves a perennial place in the hearts of his readers with six best sellers to his credit. Writing columns for English and Hindi newspapers-The Guardian, The Times of India, and Dainik Bhaskar, his bull’s-eye are invariably on youth’s career through their aspiration, ardour in conjunction with some burning issues planted on national development.

Hisinaugural novelFive Point Someone plays tenpins around three friends and their life in the IIT. The trio Hari Kumar, Ryan Oberai and Alok Gupta are centroidal characters who pop up as failures to cope with the grading system of the IIT thereuponproject their image as five pointersby cause of their low five point something GPAs. The novelette confabulates theplight of Indian educational system, where students are asked to mug up the subjects in order to score more grades, where the studentsare greasing their elbowsto get higher grades tobe bequeatheda highly paid job. One thing leads to another. The constant sack of stress on the student compels themto march on the path of unfair means.

In theepoch of cut-throat competition, nothing is safe and sound from corruption and so with education system as well. The trio are the students of that system where professor don’t allow any change in system, but the three are not muggers in fact they are the harbingers of innovative ideas, precursors of youth calling approach and icons of liberty.

The novel is a satire on those professors who can’t satisfy the queries of star students.

Prof Dubey mentions “the definition of machine is simple. It is anything that reduces human efforts. Anything, so, see the world around you and it is full of machines.”

Onhearing this a student named Rayan asks:

Sir what about a gym machine, like a bench mark or something? “What about it?” Prof Dubey stopped beaming. “That doesn’t reduce human effort. In fact it increases it.”.... “Perhaps it is too simple a definition then?” Ryan said in a pseudo-helpful voice. “What are you trying to do?”... “Are you saying that I am wrong?” “Watch it son. In my class, just watch it.” was allProf Dubey said.

Through this novel author brings out the limitations of institutions mainly the IIT. The limitations of IIT are brought out vividly through Ryan. He remarks that there is no creativity in these institutions. He says, “You know guys, this whole IIT system is sick. Because, tell me how many great engineers and scientist have come out of IIT? I mean that is supposed to be the best college in India, the best technology institute for a country of billions. But has IIT ever invented anything? Or made any technical contribution to India? Over thirty years of IIT, yet, all it does to train some bring kids to work in multinationals. I mean look at MIT in the USA… What is wrong in the system…This system of relative grading and overburdening the system? I mean it kills the best fun years of yours of your life. But it kills something else. Where is the room for original thoughts? Where is the time for creativity? It is not fair.”

IIT system is nothing but a mice race. It is about mindlessly running a race for four years.According to him, the present educational system suppresses talent and individual spirit. It gives priority only for their marks and not for any creativity. Mainly, teachers judge students based on their marks. It creates in them a deep mental stress. It even provokes them to commit suicide

The higher grades, the brighter students they will be considered. The extreme pressure on the students can be seen when a professor made a remark at the end of his class: “Best of luck once again for your stay here. Remember, as your head of the department Prof. Cherian says, the tough workload is by design, to keep you on your toes. And respect the grading system. You get bad grades, and I assure you- you get no job, no school and no future. If you do well, the world is your oyster. So don’t slip, not even once, or there will be no oyster, just slush.”

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Bhagat’sendeavor is not to pick holes in the IITs, he wants to unmaskthe absurdity of the Indian educational system which, beyond the shadow of doubts.gives priority only for the marks and not for any creativity, and puts an end on student’sflair and individual spirit. The Indian educational system, in the company of its aim of mugging up rather than learning, with its manic notion that “education in today’s society is that if one getsa high degree, italone will help him to lead a luxurious life”, is far-flung from practical teachingwhere the institutions, incontrary of making the studies enchanting, are making students hate studies more as they go higher and higher in educational proviso. Resultantly, thestudents study not because theycovet to but because theyhave to. ChetanBhagat,all the way through this novel,transmits the message thatstudents,to define themselves, should not convert to “machines”rather theprominence should be on learning in lieu of on just “remembering specifics” and receiving full marks in the assessment.It is like cheery on cake for the career of student to get into the IIT, but it is not the end of the world if one hits the skids to get it. Edification should be of that sortthat canbe the guidance to students to inspire their creative power,that can formulatestudentsbetter inhabitant, byshaping their character, and more prominent professionals by getting a hold of good equivalence between theory and practice.

“Learning by doing”practice will be able to serve the purpose .as it helps thestudents to throw away the habit of mugging, to apprehend the things in genuineway, toscrutinize the thingsmeticulously andto catch on solutions

Bhagat’s another cliff-hanger, Revolution 2020, also makes sense of corruption apparent in education systemwhereinpeople, with supremacy, bring into play their influence to grapple the desired designation, where people are greasing their palm at every nook and corner and how the people with adequate land are capable to open educational institutes.

The three pillars of the story,Gopal, Aarti and Raghav are the representatives of their categories.The novel, in true colours, shows the actuality of present education system which is no less than a metonym of corruption. Education, one of the fundamental objectives of development, makes person a trueintellectual, acandid decision-maker by delivering himdogma from the external world, catechizing him to rationalize, and apprising him with history of gone by days, with the cause of making him a better arbitrator of present.Edification, is imperative, to raise him out of poverty and to empower him.

The stature of the corruption is that anybody, by dint of his so called social prestige, can get the approval of institute. In Revolution 2020 the person, Gopal is the “most uneducated director” (pp.03) of GangaTech college of Engineering and MBA coaching centrewhich areapprobated through corruption, hook up of corruption from top to bottom and as a result who has never been to college, gets the opportunity of being the director of the institute.

“You want me to open a college? I haven’t even been to college”.(pp.120) “Most people who own college in India haven’t stupid people go to college. Smart people own them” (pp120)

Gopal, with his full entrustment in corruption, gives credencethat for politicians, there can be no other metierbut education to sink their black money into the private colleges or institute to convert itinto white.

Education, the key to the next generation’s future, particularly for the poor, a linchpin of mercantile and societal development, a human right beneath international law and a congenital guarantee in most countries in present scenario, is wounded from political and bureaucratic meddling.Packed like sardines class rooms, poorly maintained primary schools, absent institutors, depletion of textbooks and supplies, and unendurable high fees and expenses are adding fuel to fire.

Now a days, the temple of knowledge, where all pupils should be ranked all and sundry,treats them more on the parents' purse and social cachet than the knack, endeavour and merit of the student.Majority of students, in existing education system, think about themselves that “I imagined myself in a sea, along with lakhs of other low-rankers, kicking and screaming to breathe. The waters closed over us, making us irrelevant to the Indian education system.” (p.24)

Corruption, unquestionably, holds all the rights to be acknowledged as the first and foremost reason of worst condition of edification.Government, without having second thought of consideration, has been giving approval

IJTRD | Sep - Oct 2015 Available [email protected] 3 International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, Volume 2(5), ISSN 2394-9333 www.ijtrd.com to self –financing private institutions which have their deep roots in corruption and can be termed as commercial private education institutions which aim atmaking degrees into a commodity and selling them at highest bid.

“Sixteen hundred students now, chetan-ji, across all batches. Each paying one lakh a year. We already have a sixteen-crore turnover. And you inaugurated the MBA coaching today. That’s another new business.”(p.03).

Nevertheless opening new edifying institutes stipulates to widen education and lessen corruption but even the thought of giving life to these institutes is not without the stigma of corruption. The motive of the capitalists, who pose to bealtruisticand big heartedin the direction of the society and career of students, focuses on no more than lucre and niggardliness. Being aentrepreneurial,Chetan Bhagatgives fair warning the society not to be fully crookedmore than ever in the field of education. Conversing to India Real Time (IRT) he says,

“I saw corruption at almost every level. While I am a capitalist at heart and I have no problems with commercialization as such, I believe that while it‟s okay if education becomes a profitable business, it‟s not okay if it becomes corrupt. You can make money...everybody makesmoney, but the moment you enter into a corrupt mindset, it has dangerous consequences –especially in education. If you have corruption in education, you end up with a whole generation that is not trained properly

All academic institutes are at the feet of regulatory bodies like UGC, AICTE,MCI which form rules, regulations and guideline from time to time to standardize the functioning of educational institutes. But regardless of these bodies, the truth that breathes in institutes are vice versa where nothing has any alliance with the norms, where faculty members are compelled to sign on sworn statement that they are being salaried as per UGC scale, although they are not even paid half of the amount, recommended by the government. Subsequentlythe teachers, with half heartedness, teach just for the sake of formality.

“Which faculty goes to teach every day in private colleges? Don’t worry I will tell the AICTE inspectors I am there every day”. (pp.157)

AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) assessment, the true observation of the substratumor the system to appraise whether it suits the bar which is obligatory toendow with education to the students or not, has gone through under remarkable change asat present it puts emphasis on the defalcation of the system not with the aim of having any improvement in education system but to increase the amount of the bribe. Where the team wants to grease as much palm as they can,the management greases its elbows to sidetrack their attention from the drawbacks towards papers, breakfast or lunch .When the inspector asks, “How many lathe machines are there in your machining lab?” (R 165) and wishes to check them by hand, Srivastava, the dean bewilders his mind by saying, “Eight… we will take a round later… why walk around in the heat?” (165).When Bhansali, aassociate of inspection team, pops the question regarding the qualifications of Gopal, he responsesqueerly“I have built this college… I have hired the best faculty.” (165).While giving the envelopes for getting the approval soon, Srivastava asks Gopal for the amount of money that has to be offered to the taem, Gopal says, “Two for Yadav, and twenty five each for the rest,” 166) Even then Srivastava enforces, “Make it fifty for Bhansali” (166).

Without being blessed with the obligatory amenities, infrastructure, skilled faculty members,even basic facilities for essentials like water, electricity, ventilation, toilets, sewerage ,these institutes are going on and on in giving births to more than a few courses together with engineering, medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy and management disciplines where student even with lowest percentage can get the admission without any bottle neck resulting intoa flock of unwaged youth, a herd of money minded machines, a drove of unskilled, untrained and unpaid professionals.

In this reference Bhagat writes in his article, The Bootlegging of Education, “Thousands have opened up in the last decade. In NCR alone, there are over a hundred MBA colleges now. With such proliferation quality standards vary widely across these institutes. While there is demand for them given our large student pool, what they are teaching and what students are learning is another matter. To ensure quality, the government has put in place procedures like elaborate approval processes and regular inspections. However, these are abused and corruption is rife. Many private college owners have personally admitted to methat they had to pay bribes at every stage of opening the college-from getting land and building approvals, to approving the

IJTRD | Sep - Oct 2015 Available [email protected] 4 International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, Volume 2(5), ISSN 2394-9333 www.ijtrd.com course plan and to set fee structures. Corruption in the private education sector is such a norm that nobody in the know even raises an eyebrow anymore” Babus are also uncovered to be very adroit in taking inducement and in bargaining. Sinha, the deputy- corporator in VNN accepts a mammoth amount only for getting consent to open the college. In this affair of bargaining Gopal asks Sinha, “No concession for Shukla ji?” Sinha replies, “This is already half of what I take.” Gopal says “Eleven?”… Then Sinha pertinently says, “Twelve and a half. Done! Do not embarrass me before my big brother.”(140) .The corrupt people, with their dual faces,want to show them dead honest. They don’t hesitate in going to even the lowest way of giving and takingbribe. When the bulldozer comes for annihilation, Shukla ji advises Gopal, “…Put the notes in an empty cement bag, topped up with sand…His colleagues should not see it. He has a solid reputation.” (193).

Teachers are considered greater and more imperative than one and all in our society. Butthe present society witnesses the system which from tip to top,is corrupted. The focus of all the people linked with education, in one way or the other,is on the money by forgetting theirethicalsense of duty. In the very beginning Prof M C Srivastava is chosen as a dean of the new established college. After anpertinent and open bargaining he was settled for a one lakh cash seventy thousand cheque package per month. Instantaneously he offered to help them hire other faculty, for remuneration ranging from thirty to eighty thousand a month depending on experience and the degrees they possessed and very cunningly says, “I‟ll charge ten thousand per hire as search fee, apart from my salary…I will come to campus three days a week…I am the dean, that is why three days. Else, once a week is enough.” (157)

Students, who are expected to be surrounded by study material, have their rooms full of “Beer bottles outnumbered, cigarette butts exceeded pens. The walls had posters of scantily-clad women.” (pp.80)

Adegree is the most exorbitant piece of paper most people ever earn. Despite the fact that it’s merely a flimsy splinter of dead tree marked with a stamp and signed by the lords of higher education, it’s also a symbol of the hard work -- the blood, sweat, and tears -- that went into being admitted.With the purpose of minting money, thecorrupt institutes have started the tradition of Entrance Test which is alike “AIEEE tsunami”(pp.24) and take admissions according to their own interest, getting donation under the name of management seats quota“If you have the cash, you are welcome” (pp.57).

Selling and purchasing degrees have taken the shape of successful business which many students have ability to perform their best but this educational privatization is indirectly depriving the child from taking education. Many reputed institutions demand very high charges for admission fees and hostel fees, saying that this is management quota fee. Talented students or backward class student try to take loans which again create a problem for them. This problem makes their life worse and some who do not find a way out of this problem often ends their life “He didn’t get through, so he killed himself”.(pp.53) The suicide rate is increasing every year in students who do not get their desired institutions.

Conclusion-Corruption in education system, for the folks of any nation, might be the nastiest nuisance. Five Point Someone and Revolution 2020, very empirical to the present picture, unshelter all the loop holes of our contemporary education system. If the same system prevails for long, despite the fact of having the best degree, the endeavour of youth for getting desired vocation, will go to dogs. In this context, Bhagat, as a youth icon, says, “I have nothing against commercialization of education. Commerce and business are a good thing. However, when it comes to education, it needs a sense of ethics and quality. Good people must be incentivized to open colleges. Say, by a simple policy fix like allowing private institutes to make a profit. This would mean companies like Infosys and Reliance might open colleges, perhaps on a large scale, as shareholders will approve the huge investment required. If these companies open colleges at least they will be of a certain standard. Competition can ensure that the ability to make profits never turns into greed. But if the business model is sustainable, many good players would be attracted to this sector”.

References

 Bhagat, Chetan: “Five point someone”, Rupa & Co. Delhi, 2004.  Bhagat Chetan, "Revolution 2020", Rupa Pub. India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India, 2011

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 http://educational-system.blogspot.in/2013/09/vedic-education-gurukula-system-of.html  Bhagat, Chetan. Interview by Prasanth G.N. The Hindu: Online Edition of India’s National Newspaper,Sat, 26 Nov 20  The Times of India, October 8, 2011  http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/09/19/qa-chetan-bhagat-on-his-new-book/  The Times of India, Oct 8, 2011.

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