The importance of character building

When PM Gilani apologised for the nationalisation of schools, he forgot it was a critical part of the PPP manifesto.

Mr Gilani, in one of his more buoyant and charitable moments, recently said that the PPP government made an unfortunate mistake in 1972, when it nationalised schools and colleges. It was a neat way of turning a puce, bulgy-eyed, table-thumping subject on its head, with an apology delivered sotto voce. What is rather odd is that the prime minister seems to have cheerfully forgotten that nationalisation was a critical part of the PPP election manifesto. The party was, after all, supposed to be following the path of socialism, even though much of the strength of the party came from the feudal class whose members had never heard of Karl Marx.

It wasn’t really Mr Bhutto’s fault if the country was infested with incompetent and corrupt officials. Though the driving force behind many private schools and colleges was, as still is, greed rather than altruism, they do, at least, some good and manage to turn undisciplined youngsters into decent and useful citizens. Nationalising these houses of learning, especially those run by the missionaries, did incalculable damage. Some of the people who took over, while they were emblematically verbose in their front-porch loquacity, didn’t really have a clue about how to proceed.

Things are rather different in India where the public school system was and still is one of the finest in the world. When this writer was invited to a reunion of the old boys from his school it made him nostalgic about Panchgani, that verdant strip of paradise in the western ghats of India.

It was there, in the grounds of St Peters, that one first became acquainted with the meaning of honour and humility, learnt the difference between right and wrong and heard about the role of the Indian nationalist leaders in the freedom movement. There was a whiff of Independence in the air and their names kept popping up like ripe corn, when trudging gamely through the monsoon slush on the way back from a chilly wet soccer match, or chasing dragon flies in the twilight of a warm summer evening. Political awareness started at an early age in the war years.

There were princes and toffee-nosed twits who feigned upper crust bonhomie, the offspring of Bombay’s bourgeoisie and the sons of lesser mortals who laboured in the railways, police and customs. But when the lads picked up bat and bowl on the cricket field it was always St Peters versus the rest of the world. The importance of character building, the meaning of fair play, fighting for the underdog, and keeping a stiff upper lip when the chips were down were instilled in the students by the principal and teachers. So the next time the prime minister lands up in a place of learning he shouldn’t apologise. He should talk about the legacy the British left behind, which we have unfortunately squandered.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2010.