The Exceptional Indian

Proud are the nations that are rich in social values, culture and compassion. These nations have realised that their future lies in inculcating these values in children at the most impressionable age — from three years to ten. Primary schools are where children learn about character, integrity, empathy and social values that become ingrained in them for the rest of their lives. They learn to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, what it means to be fair and considerate. All these qualities become a way of life.

India is a good example of what happens when a nation neglects this truth. Since Independence, successive governments have concentrated on establishing the IITs, the IIMs, AIIMS and other institutions of higher learning. We are proud of them, and rightly so. But in our rush to build the pinnacle, we forgot the foundation.

Today, India boasts of having, next to China, the largest population of young teenagers in the world. But have these young citizens grown up to be responsible and considerate? In most cases, they have not. When success is measured only in money, things go wrong. Individuals become selfish and look only at their own gains. Society becomes ferociously competitive and “win at all costs” becomes the formula. Corruption seeps in like termites into the social fabric — into institutions, government departments, every corner of public life. This is not a failure of intelligence. It is a failure of character formation.

And character is formed — or not formed — in the primary school.

What Japan Understood

Japan is a great example of what is possible when a nation gets this right.

In Japanese schools, it is all about character building right from the time the child begins to read and write. It is all about growing up together, learning to be respectful, kind and generous. Children grow up caring for each other. Subjects and academic learning follow later. They are taught how to respect elders and peers, how to take care of their bodies and their environment. Cleanliness and hygiene are a very important part of growing up. Most schools have no janitors — the students clean their own spaces and classrooms. Respect is shown by bowing to elders. Patience and tolerance become part of their lives.

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The house, the school, the community, the town, the state — all become everyone’s responsibility to keep clean and unpolluted. Care is taken for the rivers, streams, forests and everything around them. All this happens because these values become a way of life at a very early age. It is as if, before they learn mathematics, science and technology, they learn that rivers and forests are the lungs of the environment they live in.

The world saw this most vividly at the Football World Cup, when Japanese supporters — having watched their team play — stayed behind to clean the stadium before leaving for home. A small act. But it said everything.

And consider this: after the devastation of the Second World War, Japan chose to make the building of the character of its citizens more important than the building of infrastructure, industry and technology. The economic miracle that followed was built on that foundation — on discipline, respect for the environment, pride in one’s work, however small or large. If these qualities are present in the people, the rest follows.

If Japan could do it, so can we.

Where Is India Headed?

Let us be honest about where we are.

Our rivers — the Ganga, the Yamuna, rivers that civilisations were built upon and that generations considered sacred — are among the most polluted waterways on earth. Forests are disappearing fast. In our cities, air purifiers have become as essential as daily commodities. The newborn child in many of our urban environments is breathing air where every breath is like puffing on a cigarette.

Animals are coming into conflict with people. There have been innumerable incidents where elephants, leopards, bears and tigers have come into contact with humans, with tragic results on both sides. The forest cover is shrinking and wild creatures have nowhere else to go.

Imagine a nation where children have never seen a clean river, never seen a clear sky, never seen stars at night. They grow up believing that this is simply the way the world is. That pollution, deforestation, contaminated water — these are the natural condition of life.

This is not the natural condition. It is the consequence of choices. Choices made because generations of children were never taught, at the age when such lessons stick, that trees are not commodities, that a river is not a drain, that the forest is not a problem to be cleared but a gift to be protected. If we do not make serious efforts to stem the rot, we will have no fresh water to drink and only foul air to breathe. We need a movement like Fortress India to wake people from their slumber before it is too late.

What the Founding Educators Understood

I started teaching at one of India’s great residential schools in the late 1960s. One thing about the philosophy and foundation of the school struck me from the very beginning.

The school had been established in the mid-1930s. Its founding headmaster and senior British staff had a very clear vision: not to mould young Indians into Englishmen, but to produce proud Indians who would engage with the world on their own terms — Indians who could stand up for themselves against all odds. The founding headmaster, Arthur Foot, refused an offer of membership to the Doon Club because the club was restricted to whites only. In colonial India, it required real conviction to take such a stand.

Arthur Foot used to say that if, at the time of graduating from school, a student could not clearly differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, he or she had had no education. To him, and to the educators of that era, character building was the most important part of schooling. The values they taught were not soft values. Respect for diversity. The discipline of sport and the humility that sport teaches. The habit of reading and questioning. These are the qualities that produce exceptional human beings.

What Sport Teaches That the Classroom Cannot

Building character is rarely done within the four walls of a classroom.

Most parents today believe — and this is most unfortunate — that playing games and taking part in extracurricular activities are a waste of time. They would rather the child study for the examination. They are wrong.

Team games and activities teach students to be considerate, compassionate, humble. Leadership emerges from all of this. A child who has never faced failure has not been properly tested. Failure should bring out the best in us. Sportsmen are often the most resilient people in a society — fighters, brave, capable of getting up and going again.

I remember a time in school when there were no individual prizes at sports events. Every runner, every swimmer, every player contributed points to the house. Not to himself. This did not make people selfish. It made them work as a team, care about each other, share the burden and the glory equally.

The discipline that brings an entire school house together like nothing else is the cross country race. Every runner contributes to the trophy. The slowest and the fastest matter equally. Fitness has to become a way of life — not just for sport, but for the nation to thrive. By and large, Indians do not believe in exercise or in keeping themselves fit. Diabetes is rampant. We must make people aware that fitness is not vanity. It is responsibility.

A child who has not learned to lose has not been properly educated, whatever his examination marks might say.

Empathy — the Quality We Are Losing

There is a quality I see diminishing around me, and it concerns me greatly. Empathy. The ability to feel what another person feels, to be moved by another person’s difficulty, to put someone else’s need before your own convenience.

Bullying in schools could be stopped almost entirely if every child were taught to be kind to every other. It is that simple. Kindness, tolerance and genuine respect for what others believe, what they eat, how they live — these are the values that hold a society together.

A teacher once told me, on the occasion of his retirement, about his very first day at work. He had arrived at a new school and was stuck in his room because of heavy rain with no umbrella. Suddenly, through the mist, he saw a man approaching with an open umbrella above his head and another tucked under his arm. The man walked up and said that the headmaster had sent the umbrella in case he didn’t have one. The teacher said he was completely bowled over. He was ready at that moment to pledge his life to the school. That is what empathy does. It does not merely help. It transforms.

Our society needs role models who care, who are kind and understanding, who can carry everyone along with them. We need to stop being inconsiderate and selfish, stop being jealous and vindictive, and be willing to share.

The present mentality in too many parts of Indian society reminds me of the story of the Indian crab. A container of crabs was left half full of water — quite safe, none of them in danger. But not one crab could get out, because the moment one began to climb towards the rim, the others pulled it back. We must stop pulling each other back. Children need to work together, build relationships, trust one another. In today’s world, where loneliness has become one of the great hidden killers, we need to create around us people who give us a feeling of security and well-being. As we become more attached to our gadgets, genuine relationships are becoming rare. This must change.

Diversity — India’s Greatest Strength

India’s greatest strength has always been its diversity. We are blessed and enriched by having people of all faiths living together — Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist. This living together of all faiths, this harmony, needs to be taught at a very young age. One must learn to respect other religions, other opinions, other eating habits, all that is diverse.

An Exceptional Indian is someone who can sit comfortably and eat with friends of all faiths, who enjoys the festivals of every community, who is willing to learn and share without embarrassing himself or others.

Unfortunately, the knowledge of India beyond one’s own state is very limited. People in the west, east and south do not know the Northeast — its people, its culture, its extraordinary environment. This ignorance of one’s own nation is a failure of belonging. And belonging is the root of responsibility. One who does not know his country cannot be expected to protect it.

Fortress India — Waking Up Before It Is Too Late

This is why I have joined Fortress India — a national movement whose mission is to reconnect Indians, especially the young, with the land, history, ecology and values that define us.

It is not about building walls. It is about building awareness. It asks a question every Indian should be asking: where are we headed, unless we wake up?

Fortress India works across five verticals — geography, military history, the environment, institutional integrity, and knowledge. The Indian Army’s Central Command has signed a memorandum of understanding embracing all five. I have been given responsibility for the Education vertical, and I take it as the most serious work I have done.

The story of the Indian soldier — his sacrifice, his discipline, his commitment to something beyond himself in all kinds of terrain and in all conditions — is one of the richest repositories of values this nation possesses. A young person who has never encountered that story has been denied something important.

The task is huge. It requires self-belief, resilience and patience. Rome was not built in a day. But Japan showed us it can be done. If Japan could rise from devastation to become one of the most civic, disciplined and environmentally conscious societies on earth, we as a nation can and must find our own way there.

What We Must Do

To begin with, we must invest very seriously in the education of the three and four year olds. If we do this with real concentration over five to six years, we will have children who, when they grow up, carry integrity, empathy and social values as a way of life. This is not difficult. It is a choice.

We must value the primary school teacher as the most important educator in the nation. She is presently the most undervalued person in our education system. This has to change. If we carry on as we are, we will build impressive structures on unpredictable foundations.

We must bring the environment into the classroom — not merely as a chapter in a science textbook, but as a living relationship. Children should understand what a disaster it would be if we do not look after the rivers and forests, what harm comes when we treat natural resources only as sources of monetary gain.

We must make sport, fitness and community service a central part of school life, not an afterthought. Children need to travel, to encounter other cultures, to understand that India is vast and its variety is its glory.

And we must teach children to be genuinely curious about each other — about faiths, languages, food, festivals. Not merely tolerant but genuinely interested.

None of this is beyond us. All of it is necessary.

The Exceptional Indian

The Exceptional Indian we need is not primarily a great personal achiever. We need citizens who believe in preserving nature, who are proud of where they come from, who have a strong sense of belonging. Citizens who carry on their work with integrity and compassion and a genuine concern for the people around them.

We need role models who are kind, tolerant and good human beings. Not exotic qualities. Not unreachable ones. The qualities that the best Indians have always possessed and that the best of our schools have always tried to nurture.

We must recognise that a nation is only as good as the social values it instils in its youngest citizens. Let us act accordingly. Our rivers are telling us something. Our skies are telling us something. The fragmentation of our society is telling us something.

It is time to listen. And it is time to act.

Rajinder Pal Devgan taught at the Doon School, Dehradun, for 27 years and has served as Principal of Yadavindra Public School, Patiala, and Founder Principal of international schools in Indonesia and India. He is Chairman of Learning Forward India and a member of the Advisory Panel of Fortress India.