Jaipur: It’s a quiet morning at Jaipur’s Pitambara Peeth, save for younger voices synchronously chanting the Gayatri Mantra. A watchful guru corrects any deviation from the rhythm. Situated on the outskirts of town, this non secular centre is residence to considered one of Rajasthan’s 26 government-aided Ved Vidyalayas — free residential colleges devoted to producing the Hindu clergymen of tomorrow.
Right here, boys between the ages of 10 and 17 examine historic texts and obtain rigorous coaching over the course of 5 years to turn out to be the long run “protectors” of Sanatana Dharma, say college students and lecturers.
Along with their pursuit of Vedic information, the boys should additionally attend a typical college. To suit all of it in, each minute of their schedule is tightly mapped from 4.30 am till bedtime at 10 pm.
“We are going to get numerous time to look at tv and use our telephones later in life. However that is the time to do laborious work and to serve Veda maata correctly,” says 17-year-old Pitambara pupil Govind Mishra, who comes from the state’s Sikar district.
“My father is a pandit. My grandfather is a pandit. I used to be impressed by them. I feel individuals in our technology must be desirous about Sanatana Dharma,” he provides.
It’s a trigger for which the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress authorities has been delivering loads of assist of late.
The 2023-24 state price range was a lot hyped for its slew of welfare measures, but it surely additionally reserved a major slice of the pie for Hindu non secular and cultural causes.
One of many proposals on this price range was to open Ved Vidyalayas in 13 districts the place these colleges should not have a presence but.
The cited cause was “encouragement and safety” of “Vedic sanskriti”. In line with authorities figures, eight of the prevailing 26 colleges have been opened after 2018, when the Gehlot dispensation got here to energy.
With Rajasthan going to the polls later this 12 months, political analysts consider the state Congress is happening a concerted “Hindu push” to counter the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP).
“This (Hindu push) will not be new within the Rajasthan Congress, however this time it’s going the additional mile. It’s to counter the BJP’s declare that Congress will not be pro-Hindu. In Rajasthan society, it’s one thing that will probably be appreciated,” says political analyst Suhas Palshikar.
ThePrint visited two Ved Vidyalayas on the outskirts of Jaipur— the Sri Guru Kripa Ved Vidyapeeth on the Pitambara Peeth and the Narvar Ashram Seva Samity Ved Vidyalaya on the well-known Sri Khole Hanuman Ji temple — to know how these colleges perform, the lives of the scholars, and the political messaging behind all of it.
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Gruelling schedules, desires of being ‘bada pandit’
Self-discipline is the bedrock of life at a Ved Vidyalaya, the place college students should juggle an everyday educational schooling with Vedic instruction.
The boys rise at 4.30 within the morning and are prepared by 6am for the day’s first recital of the Gayatri Mantra, which takes place on the temples these colleges are based mostly out of. Breakfast is served at 6.30am.
Half an hour later, the scholars head to highschool, the place they examine typical topics resembling maths, English, and Hindi.
At 1.30 pm, they return to the ashram for lunch, usually comprising objects like upma, dalia, and halwa.
After an hour and a half of relaxation, their Vedic coaching begins. For 2 hours, from 4pm to 6pm, the youngsters are taught the texts of the Shukla Yajurveda, mantras, practices for numerous rituals, and different abilities like astrology.
There’s an hour-long sports activities interval thereafter, earlier than the Gayatri Mantra is recited once more within the night. Dinner is served at 8pm, after which it’s time to finish college homework earlier than the lights exit.
It’s loads for a kid, however many college students say their sense of goal retains them going.
Throughout ThePrint’s go to to Pitambara Peeth, college students dressed of their red-and-yellow uniform recite the Gayatri Mantra. Whereas the youthful lot fumble, the older ones appear extra in management.
A lot of the college students come from a low-income background. Certainly one of them is 14-year-old Ankush Sharma, who has been on the ashram for a 12 months. His father is a taxi driver.
When requested if he misses residence, Ankush says sure, with a shy smile.
“I miss my dad and mom however dheere dheere handle ho jaata hai (slowly we be taught to handle). The senior college students assist us out,” he says.
At Narvar, 12-year-old Ankit Pateria, whose father drives a rickshaw, misses residence too.
“I cried after I left residence, but when I’ve to check, I would like to do that. Our guruji defined to me that I ought to regulate. He requested me to see the senior college students, who guided us,” says Pateria, wearing a spotless white dhoti and kurta, the establishment’s uniform.
A 12 months since his arrival, Pateria says he has settled in.
“Our schedule could be very tiring however we do it. I like learning the Vedas. I need to be a bada pandit (large priest) and, if potential, a Sanskrit instructor too,” he says.
His schoolmate Tushar Sharma, 17, nurtures related ambitions. In his fifth and remaining 12 months on the Ved college, he has acquired information of kramkand (Vedic ritualistic practices), memorised mantras, and learnt find out how to do completely different sorts of pujas.
“My dad and mom wished me to do panditayi and I revered their needs,” he says. “I need to examine Sanskrit in school. Hopefully then I’ll turn out to be a dharam guru or a Sanskrit instructor.”
Different college students are keen to skip school and focus solely on turning into pandits, resembling Bhawani Shankar Gautam, who’s in his fifth 12 months at Pitambara.
“I’m extra desirous about my faith and my Sanatana Dharma. My uncle was once a pandit. After his loss of life, my household wished me to take up the mantle. My father despatched me right here. I like residing this life,” he says.
How Ved Vidyalayas work
The Ved Vidyalayas, first introduced through the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP regime of 2006-07, have been set as much as promote conventional Vedic schooling.
Every establishment is run by a spiritual belief that’s accredited to the Sanskrit Academy, which comes below the Division of Artwork & Tradition of the Rajasthan authorities.
The Ved Vidyalayas provide a five-year residential course, and college students can enroll solely after they’ve handed Class 5 at an everyday college.
Admission is proscribed to a most of fifty college students over a interval of 5 years, or 10 college students per 12 months.
In line with sources within the Sanskrit Academy, choice is given to Brahmin boys, however non-Brahmins are allowed to enroll as properly.
“After they enroll, all of them are made to do the janeu (sacred thread) ceremony. After that they turn out to be dwij (twice-born),” says a functionary on the academy.
“It’s not vital that each one mahants or clergymen need to be Brahmin. For instance, Vishwamitra was a Kshatriya. However performing the ceremony is necessary with a view to be a pupil of the Vedas,” he provides.
The colleges work on a Public Non-public Partnership (PPP) mannequin. The non secular and religious organisations maintain the infrastructure and services. The state authorities, then again, supplies a stipend of Rs 500 monthly to every pupil, a month-to-month wage of Rs 8,000 to lecturers, and a month-to-month miscellaneous allowance of Rs 800 to every college.
“Throughout their time right here, the scholars be taught the madhyandina shakha of the Shukla Yajurveda. It has 40 chapters and nearly 2,000 mantras. Together with that, they’re educated on find out how to do yagyas, astrology, and different issues,” says Pawan Kumar Sharma, a instructor at Narvar, including that the scholars are additionally mandatorily enrolled at common colleges in order that they’ve modern-day abilities too.
“There’s a scarcity of excellent pandits in society at this time. We’re creating future pandits. Being a dharam guru is a profession choice for them. Additionally they could be Sanskrit lecturers. These are the children who will occupy these esteemed positions sooner or later,” Sharma says.
The kids are charged no charges for his or her 5 years on the Ved Vidyalayas. Throughout this time, the belief additionally pays for his or her common college schooling.
‘Saving Sanatana parampara’
The driving goal of the Ved Vidyalayas is to safeguard Indian tradition and protect Sanatana Dharma, in line with Hridyesh Chaturvedi, organisational secretary of the Rajasthan Sanskrit Academy.
“There are about 650 college students in Ved Vidyalayas throughout the state at this time. It is very important protect the guru-shishya parampara (teacher-disciple custom) of the Vedas. For this goal, the academy created a scheme whereby the brand new technology could be taken to the Vedas,” he says.
We now have a practice that’s hundreds of years previous — the Sanatana parampara— and it might probably solely be saved by saving the Vedas,” he explains. “The Vedas are the DNA of Indian tradition. If we are able to’t save the DNA, we gained’t have the ability to save our tradition.”
Chaturvedi claims that earlier than the British parliamentarian Lord Macaulay launched Western-style schooling through the 1800s, conventional gurukuls have been purposeful in India.
“The nation needed to settle for the English, trendy schooling system attributable to British rule. However that must be modified,” he says.
“Now we see English schooling as a standing image. We predict that if our youngsters don’t be taught English, they’ll be left behind. It’s due to this that the Rajasthan Sanskrit Academy began opening Ved ashrams within the state. We requested non secular and religious organisations to assist us and motivated them. Our society must be motivated by these organisations,” he provides.
Braj Mohan Sharma, a mahamantri (temple chief) with the Narvar Ashram Seva Samiti, says that he’s concerned within the venture as a result of “the brand new technology has gone astray”.
“There are international businesses at work in India. You need to have seen the cases of conversion. The Christians and minorities need to develop in quantity and turn out to be the bulk. That’s why they’re taking the brand new technology within the flawed route. We should always give our youngsters the schooling that they should maintain the tradition and faith they’re born into,” he says.
“If these youngsters turn out to be succesful then I do know that Brahmins and pandits may even go overseas and turn out to be profitable. That’s the message that even Modiji is attempting to offer,” he provides.
‘Congress is attempting social engineering’
Aside from the proposal to broaden the state’s community of Ved Vidyalayas, the Gehlot authorities’s 2023-24 price range additionally pitched a plan to “promote Sanskrit schooling”. The federal government introduced the organising of 16 Sanskrit Mahavidyalayas (schools), with the intention of ultimately having one such establishment in each district of the state.
In line with officers on the Sanskrit Academy, Rs 85 lakh was allotted for organising the 13 Vedic colleges introduced within the 2023-24 price range. The Sanskrit Mahavidyalayas, then again, are below the Division of Sanskrit Training (a wing of the Training Division), which has a better price range for Vedic schooling.
As well as, improvement packages, price Rs 100 crore every, have been additionally introduced for 3 essential non secular websites — Govind Devji Temple in Jaipur, Pushkar in Ajmer, and Beneshwar Dham in Dungarpur district.
Notably, final October, Gehlot inaugurated what he termed the world’s “tallest” Shiva statue in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand. Yoga guru Ramdev in addition to leaders of the BJP have been current on the unveiling of the 369-foot statue. Throughout the occasion, Gehlot claimed that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was a “Shiva bhakt”.
Taken collectively, specialists say, these developments level to a wider technique that the Congress has adopted to dislodge the BJP from its place as a “thekedaar” (custodian) of Hinduism. That is particularly evident in two different states that may vote on the finish of the 12 months— Chhattisgarh, the place the Congress is in energy, and Madhya Pradesh, at present dominated by the BJP.
Whereas the Chhattisgarh Congress has adopted Ram and the cow as two of its principal planks, the Madhya Pradesh Congress has instituted a pujari prakosht (priest cell) and even held a dharm samvaad (non secular convention) at its state headquarters earlier this month.
Chatting with ThePrint, Rajasthan Congress leaders appear divided over the efficacy of their technique, ostensibly geared toward countering the BJP’s Hindu-Muslim polarisation ways. Whereas some senior leaders argue that the BJP has systematically erased the Congress’s previous report of serving the Hindu neighborhood, others contend that the BJP’s ideological grip is simply too robust for the Congress to make a major dent.
Amid this debate, the Gehlot authorities has adopted a “governance-centric” strategy, prioritising improvement and public welfare, whereas additionally attempting its hand at social engineering.
Political analyst Suhas Palshikar, quoted earlier, says that this technique can solely acquire traction in locations the place the Congress has the mandatory on-ground organisation — and in Rajasthan, the Gehlot faction does.
“The Hindu inhabitants (in Rajasthan) is roughly divided between the 2 events. The Congress is doing this solely to make sure that the BJP doesn’t make good points by taking part in on its Hindu id,” he provides.
Rajasthan-based political analyst Manish Godha additionally factors in the direction of numerous “boards” that the Gehlot authorities has arrange after coming to energy in 2018. Amongst these is the Vipra Kalyan Board, arrange for the welfare of Brahmins.
“We noticed this much less within the final Congress regime. It’s positively extra on this regime,” says Godha.
“The federal government has a division for devasthans, which offers with state-aided temples. This particular division has organised numerous occasions throughout this authorities’s tenure,” he provides.
In line with Godha, the Congress is attempting to shift the narrative that it’s not as “critical” about Hindus because the BJP.
“The Congress is most positively taking a look at social engineering. Aside from the Hindu push, they’ve not too long ago additionally created a board for Sikhs. Earlier than that, there was one for backward castes,” Godha factors out. “Within the final 4 or 5 months, at the least 4 such boards have been made.”
‘What we get from govt will not be sufficient’
Even because the Gehlot authorities tries to attraction to its Hindu constituencies, whether or not or not these efforts are perceived as “sufficient” is up for debate.
Within the Ved Vidyalayas, as an example, there may be some dissatisfaction concerning the allocation of presidency funds.
Whereas the Sanskrit Academy implementing the programme is part of the federal government, its officers say the price range for Ved Vidyalayas must be elevated.
“What we get from the federal government will not be sufficient. We, on the Sanskrit Academy, try to inform the federal government that wage for lecturers ought to enhance,” says Chaturvedi. “They should at the least be paid minimal wages to have a dignified existence.”
Additional, says Chaturvedi, non-public non secular organisations mustn’t need to foot a better share of the venture’s prices than the federal government.
Lecturers, in the meantime, declare that their salaries haven’t saved up with rising prices.
“We all know what the market costs are. We should always at the least get as a lot as is required to run our households,” says instructor Pawan Sharma.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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