Class V social studies, We were reading about the climate zones in the world and about Saudi Arabia in that context. We were discussing how in all the chapters one wouldn’t read much about the changes came with modernity in those societies and only about the traditional communities which are defining that country or setting it apart from other countries be it Eskimos of Greenland or Boudiens of Saudi Arabia. The bell rang and I was in a hurry to leave for my next class thinking that by that time I would reach Class I there might be a riot! I turned around to exit and suddenly I heard a call, “Sarita aunty” (that’s how they call you even if you are 18 years old! By the way I am not!) “I want to talk about something. What would somebody in Africa read about India? Which community will represent us?” There was a spark in her eyes as I saw that she already had an answer somewhere… I requested her to walk along as I had to reach another classroom. She did so. I asked her to recall the advertisements selling the idea of India to the travelers abroad. She replied, “But that’s a religious image. Indians can’t be represented by one community.” I agreed and next day we discussed the point in the classrom…
The conversation left me with another level of questions. Apart from its socio-political connotation that the dominant group creates the representing image it reminded me of a prototype. It may be a natural cognitive process to encapsulate the maximum features of a category of people in one image in order to reduce the load on memory even if it excludes a lot...It may be easier for Primary class children to know things in lesser details.
But then why deprive children of the complexity they see around in any case? May be prototypes are required when it comes to simplifying the information but rather than saying that this is how all the people in a particular country are, one can include the recognition to other communities in the text saying that there are number of communities, sects and religion and we will read about 'one of them'. There should be a space in the classroom where children can explore and share about communities other than discussed in the textbook.
In these chapters one can see that as modernity and development is reaching various countries the housing, food choices and lifestyle of the natives are also changing. For good or bad is something one can judge later but when one is dealing with it in a classroom one should discuss about the homogenizing process of modernity without bailing the bizarre, conventional and suffocating practices of traditional societies off. So the question is whether one should hold on to one’s outer aspects of identities or should move towards the inner qualities of democracy and respect for others in society? Is the issue of identity more important than the liberal ideas of living a more rational life first? Or both can be retained and developed? Can there be recognition of the differences without the space minorities demand for themselves? Can there be rationality emerging from traditional societies as a process the way it took its own time and emerged in the West?
