A grand unified theory for a multicultural,integrated curriculum using music for world peace.
The music therapy and a curriculum of advaitha for world peace ,which I advocate,is based on the following :- I do admire Albert Einstein ,not for his contributions to science alone.But for the way he outgrew all the marginalisations he faced during his lifetime so that he emrged as the Person of the century in 2000 selected by Times magazine,as against Roosevelt and even our own Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.Why this special admiration for him ?
The example of Einstein who was born in a marginalized community of the time ,but came up in life with all those marginalisations should be our model,not of some feminist women(from Kerala itself,whom I do not want to name) who even after being famous and well acclaimed ,still goes on increasing the gaps in society by repeated complaints about the society,the loved ones, and the male-dominated power games.Even if the trials and tribulations exist,I would prefer to overcome them by my cheerful countenance at all odds and by my achievements ,rather than complaining forever against injustices as they have been doing .(real as well as imaginary!!)
This admiration of mine , is also applicable to personalities like Yesudas,who came up in life and profession,as a colossus ,against all odds in life.Apart from musical contributions,he has given a model of such rare courage and of a character of stability.It is not just a person’s fame,wealth or professional contributions,but also the life and the ideals in life which the next generations see and emulate and admire.Therefore,intellectual women like me admire men like Einstein and Jesudas,rather than the above mentioned women writers and activists .For me,the male/female divide is only a construct and intellectually in advaithic framework all Athman/Brahman/Souls are One .This practical advaitha or grand unification is applied in all my projects and ideas and in curricular plannings.
What is the aim of life and education?
Happiness is the aim of all human activities ,including learning.Happiness is dependent on contingencies like health,wealth,reputation,friendships,love etc.But ,for all these to have in a balanced way,humans need an intellect to think,and reason and do accordingly in a systematic way.This contemplative thought about the greatest bliss and the means to achieve it ,is thus the aim of life and education and whether our educational curriculum is giving this faculty of developing happiness becomes important for a educationist.This is the intellectualist position of all curriculums .In Indian education this was important as the Upanishads say all meemams(research or enquiries)are due to the Aananda (bliss/happiness)that one derives from it.Aristotle also believed that theoretical or contemplative thought and capacity for it is happiness.There the east and west philosophy meet.Happiness is not the subjective wellbeing(SWB)of contemporary psychology and it is not a temporary phase of happiness that one seeks.When one does not have wealth ,he/she feels wealth is needed for happiness.When health is lost ,then people say that health is the most needed for happiness.The fact is that all these contingencies can be achieved by a judicious systematic life and thoughtful logical way of conducting in the world and this is the valuebased education system which gives continuous happiness ,including food sufficiency , agroeconomy bringing in its turn a socioeconomical system where people have a healthy life.The here and hereafter are thus harmoniously blended in a valuebased education where science and spirituality have no difference..This is a platform where both atheists and God-believers can meet since atheists like Bertrand Russel and H.G.Wells were awed by the mysteries of universe just as any traditional spiritualist .The order of universe is something that harmonises all living things into a bond of comradeship ,and it does not include only labourers or any one community ,let alone humans alone.The birds,animals,and the smallest life form has a place on this orderly universe and its oneness with the inanimate world is science as well as spirituality.Thus entire chara and achara worlds (moving and nonmoving ) are one in the thinking mind of a person who has come to the classroom of my valuebased education system.There we have to find a meaning of all meanings.Happiness is not just absence of pain as Stuart Mill wrote,just as health is not merely absence of disease.
Hume said celibacy,fasting,penance,self-denial,humility ,silence and solitude are virtues of monks and they serve no purpose for human beings and these does not make a person a valuable member of society.But we have found a living example in Gandhi contradicting Hume’s statement.Gandhi demonstrated all such monkish virtues quoted by Hume and had proved himselves to be the most valuable individual the world had produced in the last millennium .How his values had been valued by entire world and how it had been useful to all who came near him itself bear testimony to this.It had served a purpose to millions of people in more than one continents ,as all of us know.
Hume includes humour,recreation,enjoyments of fun in his definition of happiness.But to have them,one needs to be permanently happy as Gandhi was.Gandhi had a rare sense of humour which no one else had.And about recreation and enjoyment of fun that is relative to different individuals depending upon their tastes and temperaments.Different games and pastimes are for that .And the individual as well as regional differences are there in them.(Which one can learn just by being in a special region and culture without any difficulty as we will see below regarding kolam etc by south Indian girls).Robert Lane noticed that in western societies income,education,health and intelligence have increased after the second world war ,but they have not made them more happier than their ancestors.So happiness is something related to the internal thoughts of bliss and its understanding ,rather than external factors which we can aquire by positive thoughts.
The need for money is never satisfied by individual or by policy makers of Government as we see from their request for more and more funds.So how can one achieve happiness with money ?When will new luxuries and technologies and commercialism which require more and more markets cease to satisfy all human beings to be happy with them ?And about health ,after all the years of costly research tools and discoveries what had medical science done to increase happiness of humanity?The cost of treatment does not give the result which they are expected to give and people are left penniless with a hospital stay and new disorders are detected as sideeffects of new research processes and medicines.And even doctors are unhappy and unhealthy.How can such a community give health and happiness to all ?The health propagandas are making people fearful and maniacs only.Satisfaction from health needs also is unlikely in such a background.How much the educationists,social workers and Governments areable to cope with such situations when they themselves are in a dilemma not knowing what to do except taking aids from center,world bank or from any other source they get hold of.(knowing very well that it will only save their faces for the short period of their political power and it is not a permanent solution for the nation or world).As a doctor I started to think about these from 1972 onwards.I was concerned about the problems my region as well as my profession and my nation face in these fields.The lack of nutrition,use of chemicals causing diseases in children and adults naturally leads one to food production,agroeconomy and its status in our nation.The waterborne diseases and impure water supply and problems concerned with water conservation and judicious use is also related subject .The poverty and lack of education and the cost of living and of medicines were directly felt by me and my husband while we were working in Calicut Medical college.And we worked out a system of helping as many people as possible by spending one person’s salary for it .If Humes definition is correct we would be considered as people who sacrificed enjoyments of fun,recreations that cost money and also luxuries (so that we can help another soul)and we are not useful citizens of society.But if we take Gandhi’s definition we are the most useful citizens to this nation and world.That we can leave for posterity to debate and decide.We will return to our integrated multicultural curriculum and valuebased education with music therapy as its inseparable part .
When we are thinking about a multicultural integrated curriculum for entire humanity we have to define some aspects of it and how they are controlled by the political powers.This we can call the politics of education,because ultimately it is the political power which determines what is to be taught or not taught.
In his article on “Beyond Eurocentrism”Prof Ram Mahalingam of Uty of Michigan(ch 10 pp189-198.Multicultural curriculum Mahalingam Mcarthy Routledge 2000) has observed that Indian Mathematics had always been a product of the elite ,hierarchical society and Brahmins and Kshatriyas were mathematicians of India while labourers and women were not given Mathematics education.Unfortunately this is not a truthful observation.He quotes from Manusmrithy (translated by Doniger 1991) but that translation alone cannot prove anything.Especially since he himself has quoted two examples (One of Kolam and other of Pallamkuzhi,both sports of women of South India )which requires lot of mathematical skill and geometrical awareness and abstract thinking.In North India the play called Leela(Gyan-Choupad) and the Dhooli chouki and other types of Chowki also are of this type .And the study of Music which involves abstract mathematics also is well documented from ancient times.The labourer class were responsible for counting and reporting and making complex calculations of the grain produce,cattle ,classification of weight and measures and also of taxation etc and these were taught right from Kudipallikooda level to all children by a local teacher.The children learned all these as games (due o their age this is the best educative method) and that is how kolam and pallanghuzhi and Lela,Chowki,stories (purana,Ithihasa)were taught in primary level schools of India .This was available to all alike .The secondary education they had from a local Guru according to their talents and practical needs .That is what we now call a professional education so that the person will have a job and a livelihood (Vocational).This usually starts at home with his own father/uncle/mother etc and then if the child is enthusiastic the best Guru is selected by parents themselves so that they get trained.The abstract subjects like mathematics,science etc were always chosen by only a few .It never had been a mass popular subject.It is taught only to those who are really receptive and to pursue a graduate/postgraduate level training in that particular subject.It is this specialized study that was lacking among women and labourers.This is not because of any hindrance to study but because majority does not like subjects like that.Even today it is like that.
The articles I wrote on Indus valley culture ,the weights and measures used by them etc show how the labourers and women have to know mathematics of utilitarian type and how the abstract concepts had been devised by the elders with more specialized knowledge in the subject.Manu’s laws can be equated to the rules and regulations of the civil and criminal courts and not to religion or spirituality of India.But unfortunately Manu is quoted by many as the spiritual/religious authority of India.The laws and regulations of any nation have a precedence of experience of disturbance of law and order by certain procedures and a defencive to prevent such occurrences further .The law is made for human beings to ensure peaceful living and not for disrupting it.So,the laws are applicable only to conditions/cases where there is a disputed situation.
What Mahalingam says about Kolam and Pallanghuzhi is my concern here.Kolam artists learn it from their mothers,sisters(traditional family transfer of knowledge) and to become competent kolam artist one has to have geometrical knowledge,strategic understanding of how to transfer knowledge to actual practice,make decisions on the spot depending upon available space so that she can reduce or increase size in proportion.Thus a complex abstract thinking and its practical application is taught as a traditional transfer of knowledge as an art,and a game for each girlchild.So how can we say that such knowledge was denied?
Then about Pallankuzhi:-Played by 2 people.Eachhas 7 cups and each cup has 6 beads .(42).Each has to distribute beads,one in each cup in clockwise direction.Then pick up next cup and start agin until she reach an empty pocket.The player can take beads next to empty cup.The game continue till all cups emptied.With whatever beads won ,they restart game.
This game involves distribution and regrouping of numbers and an excellent memory for recognizing various positions of game as in chess. The distribution and regrouping is what is called a prasthaara ,and this is done in both music and astronomy in advanced mathematics.This is taught as a game means it is an educational excellence of the teacher who devised it ,is my view.But Ramalingam considers it is a gender marginalization for women .Probably being a male (as well as a Brahmin himself from the name)he is misunderstanding /misrepresenting the ability of a girlchild to pick up such abilities earlier and faster than a male and he fails to see that even a lowborn labourer can play and understand suchhigher functions of mathematics through a simple game .The educational psychologists were really good in their selection of teachers from each household(as traditional/parent to offspring)so that the brain development starts at home as a primary school.
Such subaltern or region-specific teaching methods occur in all regions,all languages and all communities and when sage Mathanga speaks of Desi Tradition he means this(Brihadhesi of Mathanga .Dr .V.S.Sharma 2009 KeralasangheethaNataka Academi).When such dsi practices are codified and made universalized by proper theories and proper order then it is called Margi and this is what is done by curriculum committees /universities etc which have finally to be agreed and implemented by the Government (whether modern or ancient).Therefore ,when a regulation comes it is after ceveral millennia of development of a cultural tradition transferred by local people /men and women.Unless we know this the separatisms will go on and gaps between classes will remain and a classless glbal society will remain a dream.Hence the philosophy of advaitha came up in India for all to be loved and valued equally.That is the spiritual tradition of India .
Social epistemology being an enquiry to improve knowledge production and distribution,the way of distribution to all alike ,even to children as games etc has to be appreciated and valued in Indian mathematical consciousness.As Mahalingam suggests the native subaltern mathematician also is an active participant in multiculturalist discourses and our cultural legacy and knowledge systems are equally important and we know it perfectly well ,and instead of complaining perpetually about some imagined marginalization,by some imaginery elite class ,we (Women of India,like me )are taking up our issues boldly and with a knowledge that if we were marginalized it was not because of any one else,but by our own lack of interest to pursue such subjects as mathematics .Only by this step the marginalized societies(whether women or labour class)can make the classless society a reality .By self-marginalisation and complaint forever the separatism and gap will remain forever.Thus the concept of Eurocentrism is not an issue for a globally thinking mathematician of India who has studied both systems and compared it.This is my personal experience and opinion.I don’t feel a marginalized woman ,but I acknowledge the fact that many women do not like the subjects which I address to because of their own choice and not by the restrictions of Government or society to pursue them.People love a life of easy going.To pursue sciences seriously one needs a concentrated one-pointed devotion to that .That is the reason for self marginalization in many groups now and this must have happened in ancient societies as well.
When we devise a multicultural integrated curriculum ,it is meant for all ,but who is interested in it and who pursue it is not in our control is what I mean as a modern educationist.If we are efficient,we should therefore introduce games,musical experiences etc into curriculum which will give the desired effect to all .The theoretical aspects will remain always the fields of the elite.But its practical effects will reach all.
Ethnomathematicians recognize at least 2 areas of mathematical literacy.
1.School mathematics
2.Mathematics of a given cultural group
As small children have mathematical knowledge of their cultural group from parents and Kolam,Pallanghuzhi etc are reflections of those.When this is replaced by the modern school mathematics (as in India)the ancient traditional mathematical knowledge is left as a game and not pursued further as a system of mathematics.This is a natural outcome of replacing ethnomathematics by a new Eurocentric one as Mahalingam calls in his article.The traditional mathematical knowledge is not included in the curriculum of modern Indian schools/universities.Therefore ,it is now that the marginalization of Kolam,Pallankuzhi etc as ethnical curiosities ,has happened if we think logically.Not by the Brahmin/Kshathriya times .The kolams patterns in Indus valley civilization sites show how important this had been even in those remote times .The modern technologies and modern weights and measures etc when compared to Indus valley system gives us evidence of how human consciousness and knowledge has evolved beautifully over several millennia in a region ,and how that had stimulated technology and advancement of sciences in another rregion(when Europe came in contact with India).Thus we realize how an indigenous knowledge has given rise to Eurocentric knowledge.One is a continuation of another and there is no gap between them.But to know this one has to come in contact with both.study both.The cultural gaps are only differences in knowledge and communication,related to languages and to specialized interests of each human being and society from one another.The professional specialization is another factor in separating us.But ,with a little bit of compassion and love for all we will be able to overcome such gaps .This is the basics of my integrated,interdisciplinary ,multicultural curriculum which is a practical way of a grand unification of all sciences,arts,cultures etc for world peace.
The curriculum is guided by health,fundamental processes,a worthy homelife,a vocation for livelihood,a enlightened citizenship ,and worthy use of leisure time ,and a humanitarian value of compassion to all creation.These increase our selfesteem and are important for satisfaction and happiness.The nonending desire is the cause of sorrow while a fruitful life like this is the doorway for happiness.It educates one to be useful to society,home,nation and world at the same time remaining happy and facing life with courage and with a compassionate heart,enjoying every moment of it .It should come from a co-operative effort of all citizens of world and from all of us alike and every single person is valued for being a contributor to this cause and it is not money alone which is contribution,but ideas,thoughts,suggestions,service to community and also commitment and model one gives to posterity which is valued by all alike.
Education is for happiness and peace of individuals and of society and of entire world.
We have seen people who are never satisfied with anything in life ,even if they have everything-Money,power,good education,god family ,good husband/wife and children .Yet they go one complaining about everything .There is another group who are really deprived of such things and need them .The complaints they raise are for their rightful share on this earth.Only if an educator/administrator can differentiate between these two we can achieve a balanced economy and a balanced wellshared system of rights and duties.This must be the first aim of any educative system and administration.How to strike a balance is the real question that one should address oneself.All our strategies should be based on this.All human beings need basic amenities and for that each one should have enough food ,health and energy for work and job opportunities.The food reserve depend upon food productionand in a world with increasing population food production cannot be neglected.The decision to make a tropical country with enough geographical features for natural vegetation,biodiversity ,and food for all into a concrete jungle is detrimental to entire world.The deserts should be made into construction sites .The fertile lands and forests left as such so that the water tables,the food reserves and the natural resources for all life forms as well as tourism benefits will increase .If we stick on to this policy ,and then give our priorities as food,health,education,and job in a comprehensive way ,we can achive protection of our ecotraditions and culture and yet be global citizens sharing our products for those are not having them.Thus we can make education and sociopolitical awareness into powerful tools for happiness and peace.
Ref
1. Multicultural curriculum .New directions for social theory and practice.Ram Mahalingam ,Cameron McCarthy .Routledge 2000
2.Happiness and education.Nel Noddings .Stanford uty.Cambridge uty press.2003
3.Brihadhesi .Mathangamuni.Translation.V.S.Sharma .Keralasahitya academy.2009.
4.Essential Einstein.Everything you need to know about the world’s most acclaimed genius.Shana Priwer & Cynthia Philips PhD.David & Charles Ltd 2007.
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