Empowerment of the Depressed class through religion and education
Empowerment of the Depressed class through education
View of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar about Education
“It is the education which is the right weapon to cut the social slavery and it is the education which will enlighten the downtrodden masses to come up and gain social status, economic betterment and political freedom”
“Education is something which ought to be brought within the reach of every one.”
“The object of primary education is to see that every child that enters the portals of a primary school does leave it only at a stage when it becomes literate and continues to be literate throughout the rest of his life.”
Ambedkar’s Vision of Education
Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar was an educational Pragmatist. His educational philosophy stresses the development of person and his environment.
He was highly influenced by the John Dewey’s philosophy of education. He emphasized education as one of the basic need for human.
According to him education is not only a ladder for social mobility but also opens the doors for their modernization. Ambedkar was largely concerned about the empowerment and political struggle of the depressed classes.
He believed that education was the only mean of get rid of their mental sluggishness and satisfaction with their prevalent pathetic conditions.
Babasaheb envisaged that education was a powerful instrument for the change of the lives of untouchables and women.
According to him any social transformation is incomplete till we wipe out gender discrimination in the society. And this is only possible only through appropriate education and gender sensitization.
He believed that education would enlighten the downtrodden and bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.
He acclaimed that the lack of education was the foremost cause for the backwardness of underprivileged people.
He recognized the importance of education in shaping the future. He put all his efforts to guarantee the educational without any discrimination to all the citizens of independent India.
Dr. Ambedkar gave the slogan of Educate, Agitate and Organize. The slogan has a deep rooted meaning that can be understood as under:
Educate
As education directly influence the human civilization, it is essential to educate each and every citizen of the country.
Therefore the education is indispensable for the state to realize the goal of growth and sustainable development.
Agitate
Agitate is mental uprising not physical agitation.
According to Ambedkar an educated man, by understanding his thoughts and strategy can initiate agitating mentally.
The agitated mind would drive educated people to form associations/organizations and eventually they would take action to fix the problems.
Organize
Educated and agitated minds will certainly organize for a common mission.
All of us must get ourselves educated resulting in agitating thoughts so as to collectively organize.
The agitated minds for a universal mission would help the people to unite, strive & struggle for the common goal.
Empowerment of the Depressed class through religion
The potential of religion as a resource for well-being is examined, with special focus on prevention, healing, and empowerment pathways of influence pathways operative both inside congregations and in outreach to the community beyond the congregation.
Concerning the prevention pathway, religion offers potentially important access to families and children, and the resources of support, lifestyle values, community access, and volunteers.
For the healing pathway, religion offers unique and powerful means and vantage points for influencing cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.
Concerning group empowerment, religion has the potential to facilitate groups’ critical awareness of oppressive forces, to offer compelling alternative visions and cultural values, and to mobilize human and institutional resources.
Psychologists are encouraged to focus more effort on learning from and working with religion and religious organizations to enhance their potential for prevention, healing, and empowerment in the community
Empowerment through religion: religion’s survival strategies in democratic politics
In contemporary Western world religion has long lost its status of a default legitimating formula and has been relegated, in liberal political philosophy, to the private sphere. Institutionally, religious organizations have been largely separated from government institutions.
Despite these adverse circumstances, religion – both as a system of ideas, values and norms and in its institutional expression – has adopted effective survival strategies guarding it from social and political marginalization.
Religion has been accorded special status among other ideologies. In science, it results in a sort of methodological agnosticism, which treats religious and scientific statements as belonging to two incommensurable spheres.
In politics, religious organizations are often granted special legal status among other political actors and religious freedom has been constitutionalized as a special case of general freedom of expression.
As judicature and political practice show, religious arguments can often trump non-religious claims when fundamental value conflicts arise.
In their political activity, religious organizations have used strategies characteristic for other political actors (lobbying, mass mobilization etc.), thereby gaining democratic legitimacy, as well as unique, religionspecific strategies.
Armed with these and other empowering tools, religion can continue to influence democratic political systems in significant ways.
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