Gujarat Governor Om Prakash Kohli Gujarat Governor Om Prakash Kohli

Gujarat Governor Om Prakash Kohli on Saturday hit out at debate on secularism in the country alleging there were organised attempts at fomenting hatred among youth towards religion and blamed the current education system for it.

“Religion is a very complex issue. Nowadays, lots of organised attempts are being made to breed hatred among the youth towards religion so that younger generations come to hate it. They are taught that religion means panth (sect) but it does not mean so. They are told religion means traditions but it is not so. They are told religion means karma-kand (rituals), but it is not so. Thus, hatred is being bred in minds of younger generation towards religion by misguiding them. If I tell someone that I follow a religion, I am told I’m kampadh (not fully educated) and the one who hates religion, keeps away from religion is termed secular,” Kohli said while delivering a speech at 50th convocation of Saurashtra University (SU).

By virtue of being the governor of the state, Kohli is also the chancellor of SU and was presiding over the convocation of the varsity.

Quoting from Bhagvat Gita, Kohli asked students and parents if Krishna was communal when he preached that he would return to reestablish dharma. The governor further said that by religion, Lord Krishna meant order, system, value, culture—the system which supports life. “Our educated youth should practice this religion and not shy away from it. Students graduating from our universities should be proud about their religion and should connect with it,” the governor further said.

He also quoted Gujarati saint poet Narsinh Mehta to define that the one compassion was true practitioner of a religion. “After getting education, do you want to work for your personal gain only and towards selfish end. Is there anything like social responsibility of eudcation, educated youth? When you are graduating out of this university, I appeal you all to think about this,” he said.

The governor lamented the fact that India has failed to become a developed country even after around 70 years of independence and asked students to work towards making the country a developed one. He further said education had been deprived of quality and that there was need to mend it. The education which does not teach one to earn livelihood was is irrelevant, he added.

“More seriously, (present) education is disconnecting us from our own selves. It is disconnecting us from our tradition, heritage, Sanskrit, from the sense that India was great, our civilisation, culture and our roots,” Kohli said.

He blamed the 190 years of British rule in the country for the present state of affairs. “Muslims ruled India for around 900 years. They did physical conversion by force. But British ruled us for 190 years and converted us mentally. (Thomas) Macaulay influenced so much that we have not come out of it even so many years after independence. We still feel pride in imitating and copying someone. We still take pride in something being foreign and not Indian,” he said adding our education system should reconnect our youth to our roots, values, ideals, traditions, culture etc.

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