Are young students fit enough to learn Gita?

GN Bureau | August 5, 2013



The Madhya Pradesh government has some noble plans for the children of the state. Kids will do Surya Namaskar, read RSS-affiliated Devputra and also learn Bhagvad Gita. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government is so considerate towards the students from the minorities who cannot be expected to be well-versed in the Sanskrit language that a special arrangement is made for them: they will be taught the scripture – which a court has held as philosophical rather than religious – in English and Urdu.

Also read: Gita for dummies: Or the difference between religious politics and communal politics

One response to this scheme of things is the question of equality of all religions: Why not teach the Bible and other scriptures too? Another, more pertinent, question is: Is a class 1 or class 2 student capable of understanding the subtleties of the Gita? The next question would be: Are those behind this decision leading their lives by the Gita?

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