Let My Class Be A Rainbow

  All students are the same for every teacher. It must be treated that way. But what if this sameness is a monochromatic vision of superficial bookish imposition! What if this sameness, oneness uniformity goes against the synthetic ethos of the idea of India. Uniform dress code is such a monolithic idea. Should our classrooms not reflect the very idea of India that we all belong to?

India is a strangely diverse country. We are united in our diverse way of living. A classroom is the microcosm of a society we live in. Why do we need a uniform? Is it not stark opposite to the society we live in. Can we not make our classrooms an everyday Go As You Like competition stage? Where Rahim can wear dhoti and Ram will wear kurta. Fatima can wear a bindi and Ruma can wear a hijab. Is not the uniform dress code a regressive idea of monotony too. I want to make the mistake of mistaking Shila as Suzan and Fatima as Falak. I want my students to know hijab is a piece of cloth their friends wear. I want them to be inquisitive about it . I want them to ask their muslim friends about it themselves. I want Rahima to ask Ram about why he has tied the dhaga after puja. I want Ram to ask Suzan about the cross she has in her gold chains. Let them know each other through the customs, rituals they go through in their home. Let them accept themselves with the attires, with the dresses they wear. Let them understand each other in their entirety. Not an ignorant Indian who doesn’t even know how a man of another religion prays for the departed soul(The hullabaloo regarding Shahrukh khan’s gesture in the funeral of late Lata Mangeshkar ). Let them know each other not through their books only but through realities.

We as Indians are more prone to ideology perhaps than reality. We ask our children not to take any shortcut but we ourselves take the shortest route to success. We ask our children not to be corrupt while we adults have already made India the most corrupt nation. We confine our knowledge to books and only use them to attain economical and professional goals. To evolve as a human being is always our last priority. So we teach our children to be doctors and engineers and so on and so forth. Not a good human being. We recite poems of great poets but we don’t follow the ethos in reality. We read we are united in our diversity but not let our educational institutions be diverse, to be synchromatic.

The beginning of the very idea of uniform dress code is a colonial idea. The word itself is a very narrow word which stands opposite to the various colors which our country cherishes. The votaries of the uniform often say it promotes secularism, oneness. But Is not India a secular nation in her acceptance of diverse religious cultures, celebrations, rituals? We are not secular in shunning all cultures and becoming an all boring one culture oriented nation.

Let our children learn our rainbow secularism in the classroom. Let them sit together embracing each other’s practices and reality. Let them come with every religious symbol they want to and choose to come with. Don’t push them into a fancy world as if we all are monotonously the same. This idea of sameness will only lead them to believe a Dua ( reciting  verses from the holy Quran for the well-being of the near and dear ones)  as spitting and will only help those barking media who are spitting venom in the name of news 24×7. And please don’t let them be like us, adults who are devouring the news and shouting for hatred. Let my classroom be a rainbow, not a boring imaginary world where we don’t actually belong to in reality. Let them be secular in accepting each other’s dresses, tiffin boxes. Let them be stars of various colors of this wonderful diverse colorfully united nation.

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