Shiksha vs Punishment?

Do you know that there is a big difference between handling a mistake and punishing a crime?
Long before 1900, the then British masters commandeered the Indian education system. They were used to resorting to force whenever their students did not understand them. Actually, they did not even have different words for the treatment for :
a. students when they made mistakes (SHIKSHA) and
b. criminals when they were punished for a crime (DAND)

In Ancient India, teaching had always been a refined art and the gurus loved all their shishya(s) immensly. The correct word for guru is teacher. (The word Master can NEVER capture the essence of the word guru. Master is another bad word denoting a power relationship. Power was irrelevant to a teacher-student relationship which was full of love.) Whenever someone made a mistake he was given a Shiksha by his guru which tended to make sure that s/he did not repeat the same mistake again. Making a student solve the same math problem 100 times is not a punishment, it is a shiksha (teaching dose) about the problem!.

Crimes were awarded a dand. This was awarded by the King (or administration) and it carried a shame or guilt factor. A person committed a crime when he went against the law. Teachers could / can / should do only one thing : Teach! Punishing someone is not their role at all.

When the cane-brandishing British masters (with sayings like 'spare the rod and spoil the child') came to India, they did not differentiate between these two entirely different things; so they used the same (dirty) word for both : Punishment.

We in modern India have been stupid enough to follow them to a point that we have lost the delicate sensibility between these two things ourselves. Our teachers too today behave like 'masters'. Prefix the word 'ring' and you get the correct description of what these fellows exactly were (sometimes are): Animal trainers.

May my students and fellow-teachers understand the difference!!!


Atul Kherde
Zhen Reflections : May 17, 2003
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