Drop Out And Self-Study

Yesterday, I received a shocking letter from Hema Narang, a young student in Delhi, describing the horrors of her first day in Jawaharlal Nehru University. Here is the full text of that letter:

Dear Sauvik,

I am a regular reader of your blog 'Antidote'. I have also attended one of your sessions on Free Trade in the Liberty and Society Seminar organised by Prabodh. I have just completed my graduation in Political Science and cleared my entrance for masters in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). I wanted to share with you my first day at JNU.

Last week, I attended the first lecture in which the professor was teaching us about the Indian Constitution. Endless times he repeated that 'Right to property is an anti-poor right... it should be completely scrapped from the Constitution... which should have rights like right to work and leisure. The Constitution is a classist document...' Apart from this, his favourite issue was: Reservations, and why the creamy layer should NOT be debarred from them, and how there should be more sub quotas within quotas. This was not all! He gave a completely lame (actually very stupid!) argument against globalisation. He said that all the corruption that is happening in the Commonwealth Games is because they can import machinery from outside! (Intellectual Bankruptcy!) All over the JNU campus one only sees posters against capitalism, SEZs, MNCs and whatnot.

It is really difficult to study at such a place (I can't understand why it's the best course and JNU one of the top universities!). It's not an 'educational institution'. It's a place where young people are actually being 'indoctrinated'! It's extremely sad because young minds are like blank slates and JNU is showing them only one side of the picture (which is not fair!). It's totally unjustified. I have not taken admission to learn about leftist ideology! It is my personal choice to study the author I like, but as an educational institution JNU should be acquainting me with all the perspectives to an issue. Taking admission was in itself a big hassle. I had to fill up 10-12 forms writing the same information (the forms had to go to different departments). I'ts a highly bureaucratic structure and one is totally at the mercy of the babus! What's more saddening is that you don't have an alternative...there are hardly any good universities in the country.

In Liberty,

Hema

So, I hope all you bright young people who are reading this get the full import of what I have been saying all along - that Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi is an "intellectual bodyguard of the House of Nehru"; and that all the fuss he is making about "education" is nothing but an evil plan to destroy your intellect. In my reply to Hema, I said:

Why don't you drop out and save your intellect, your time, and your money?

To "drop out" of State-sponsored education does not mean an end to learning. Most certainly not. All it means is that you yourself take full responsibility for what you feed your mind. You no longer depend on nor trust The State and its "bureaucrat-professors" to teach you. You search for knowledge on your own. You study it yourself. You educate yourself. I have tendered this advice to many, many students over the years. Those who have followed it have all benefited.

My position on this vital subject of education is fully consistent with classical liberalism of old. In my The Essential Frederic Bastiat (free download here), the last essay is actually a "manifesto" that Bastiat wrote when seeking to get elected to Parliament. This manifesto is a newly discovered resource, and does the volume proud. In his manifesto, on the subject of education, this is what Bastiat says:

If you want to have theories, systems, methods, principles, textbooks and teachers forced on you by the government, that is up to you; but do not expect me to sign, in your name, such a shameful abdication of your rights.

This has been my consistent position all along: that The State has no role in education.

I also do not think that the solution to this problem lies in pursuing expensive courses in foreign universities. Anyway, most Indian students cannot afford this. Rather, the real solution is to make full use of the Internet. Today, because of the Internet, a huge amount of literature on classical liberalism and modern libertarianism is available free online, as, for example, at the Mises Institute website. If they drop out of the "official" education system, then students will have lots of time to pursue worthwhile studies, much of it that is not taught even in the great "Ivy League" colleges of the USSA.

Remember, to be a worthwhile "citizen," you must be armed with the knowledge necessary to challenge State authority. State-sponsored education can never get you there. It will only make you a dumb commoner, who believes all the lies the State spouts.

Anyway, I am glad to report that Hema is planning to drop out of JNU.

I have saved one soul.

To conclude: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes, set in Victorian England, are especially instructive in one respect: Holmes is a "Mr."; his sidekick Watson is a "Dr."; and his biggest enemy, the evil genius Moriarty, is a "Professor." Yes, professors can be evil - and many are. So beware.

I once wrote a great piece referring to Chacha Manmohan as Professor Moriarty. You can read that article here.