Mohan Bhagwat backs NEP, explains how British education 'broke India's self respect'

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat backed the Centre's National Education Policy (NEP) on Wednesday asking Indians to feel pride in the traditional knowledge of their ancestors. Speaking at a book launch event of National Book Trust (NBT), Mohan Bhagwat stated that the education policy of the British which relied heavily on foreign languages such as English had broken the nation's self-respect which could be rebuilt through the weightage that NEP was giving to Indian languages. 

Traditional knowledge is India's pride: Mohan Bhagwat

"India's pride is its traditional knowledge. India was born to share its knowledge tradition with the whole world... The ocean of information about India should be translated into all Indian languages and should be widely publicised," he said. . "I would say why do we have to copy any other country... we should do things our own way," he added.

The RSS leader asserted that it was important to revisit our roots and break away from the 'yes-men' mindset that had been drilled in us during colonization. The leader stated that the post-Independence process of breaking out of the mindset had been terribly slow and things had not really changed much. "What is the point if whatever is taught in our country does not talk about the great deeds of our people. Our education policy didn't talk about this," he said. 

Governor of Kerala Arif Mohammad Khan was also present at the launch event of the book-- 'Bharat Vaibhav'. The governor asserted that India's 'confidence as a nation would only be awakened if it began taking pride in its culture. "Indian culture is eternal and it is our collective responsibility to try our best to imbibe it in our lives and pass it to our future generations as well," he said.

(With Agency Inputs)