Education should not enhance social inequity: Irfan Habib

NEW DELHI - Historian and author Irfan Habib Friday said education should not be oriented in a way that enhances social inequity and leads to rich getting richer.

Delivering the first Sudeep Banerjee Memorial Lecture ‘Our Present and Our Past’ here, Habib said there should be pride in the country’s past but sight must not be lost of its weaknesses, including the caste system.

Habib said the best tribute to Sudeep Banerjee would be to stand erect in the battle of ideas and oppose communalism and globalisation.

Sudeep Banerjee, who passed away in 2009, was chancellor of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration and former secretary of the humanr esource development (HRD) ministry.

Habib said there was a need to fight the policies of globalisation so that the income gap between the rich and poor does not increase. He also laid emphasis on gender equality and easy access to knowledge.

He said Sudeep Banerjee had a vision of India’s future and culture which included pride in the past but which also acknowledged its weaknesses.

Banerjee’s vision of India laid emphasis on equality and justice to the poor, women and other people who are oppressed, Habib said.

“His particular enthusiasm was to orient education in that direction,” he added.

Professor Mushirul Hasan, former vice chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia, who chaired the lecture, said Sudeep Banerjee’s vision was eclectic and broadminded.

The lecture was organised by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT).