Regenerating Our Creativity in India
I was good at singing when I was in 5th grade. But whenever I sang in front of my class I was always de-motivated by everyone, who said, "You don’t know how to sing! Just sit quietly." I was also very curious to know who I am, why are we living, and what is a meaningful life? When I asked my teachers such questions, they totally dismissed me and said, "These questions will not come in your exam. Just cram whatever the text book says." Similarly, whenever I played the harmonium, my family members were always screaming, "What nonsense are you playing! It is not your cup of tea. Keep it aside." I was interested in exploring and experimenting with different ideas, but each time I tried to do so, I was forced by my peers, my teachers, and my family, to do things in a conventional manner.
When I failed in 12th grade, my family members and other friends made comments that implied that I was a failure and good for nothing. These comments tortured me deeply. Shortly after, one of my cousin brothers, who was good at crafts and had an excellent sense of humor, committed suicide due to examination fear and family pressure. His only fault was that he did not do well on his 12th grade examination paper. We lost a person who could have spread happiness all over the world.
The incidents I have been describing are not only limited to me or my brother. The majority of children and youth in India today are facing such problems. They are constantly being suppressed and frustrated by their families, schools, and peer groups. Every human being is a potential creator, thinker and experimenter. But often, our vast human potential remains hidden due to lack of opportunities, oppressive surroundings, and mechanical thinking/living. How do we get beyond these obstacles to create a united, peaceful, loving and creative India?
The Demise of Creativity
India, a civilization of diverse cultures, languages, and spiritualities, is a unique role model for the development of indigenous creative forces. According to Devi Prasad (Art: The Basis of Education. NBT,1998), "traditional India did not compartmentalize art and life." The pursuit of knowledge included wisdom, a capacity of discretion, control over the ego, humility, truthfulness, self-dignity, social service, and creativity. For centuries, people explored and shared the meaning of life through creative living expressions and divine creative power in various forms: chores, relationships, farming, cooking, decoration, festivals, games, crafts, music, dances, prayers and yoga. Yet, today, there seems to be a dearth of people who value and seek out creativity in their daily living. In fact, instead of developing and nurturing creative processes in our lives, we are being mechanically conditioned to become more egoistic, rigid, insecure, and dishonest. I see several institutions as responsible for this demise.
Factory schooling: In the present model of factory-schooling, no more than 4-5% of pupils are declared ‘successful’ or ‘educated’. Yet of these, very few can creatively think/judge/analyze/synthesize by themselves. The imposed standardization of MLLs force us to ‘fit’ into the system — to all follow the same goals in exactly the same way. In the name of examinations, children’s diverse abilities/potential/talents are judged in just a three-hour, extremely limited didactic question paper, which punishes students for their creative answers. Pre-occupied with perfoming in the exam, a child’s mind is full of tension, fear, and depression. When we can see that schools are nearly as inhumane as prisons and that they nurture a false sense of superiority/inferiority, why do we continue to send our children to them?
Mass Media: Today, what we should wear, eat, buy, do, is defined by the mass media. We no longer think for ourselves; instead we copy those whom we see— who themselves are usually copying from someone else. The media also makes us passive observers. We are so busy watching others perform, that we have neither the time nor the inclination to reflect or to do things ourselves. Moreover, the mass media manipulates our diverse senses of aesthetic and beauty. In today’s world, for example, the creative expression of women has been reduced to distorting and destroying one’s face and body to win beauty contests. How can we engage with the media in ways that offer us opportunities to develop our aesthetics, imagination and creativity?
Family and Samaj: In the name of samaj (community/society), we are constantly told to behave in ‘the right way;’ that is, to be ‘respectful’, to be ‘silent’ and ‘submissive’, and to seek ‘security’. Samaj tells us to remain within certain ‘safe’ boundaries that close us off to diversities which may threaten our narrow identity. It has become a rat race, where people are forced to blindly follow a path of greed, competition and materialism. ‘Success’ is judged by how much money one has, rather than by creativity or compassion. Can we create such a samaj where creativity is valued and everyone has the chance to explore their unique human potentials?
Today there are very few constructive or open channels for children and youth to fully express themselves. All around us, the world is pressuring us to think in one way: one uniform, one hairstyle, one language, one culture, one identity, one Truth. How do we get out of this system which is designed to homogenize us and kill our diversity?
Rediscovering Creative Living
To adapt from Paulo Freire (quoted in bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress. Routledge, 1994), creative living is a process "to begin always anew, to make, to reconstruct, and to not spoil, to refuse to bureaucratize the mind, to understand and to live life as a process — live to become." Facing the challenges of the future will indeed depend on an artistic, aesthetic, and creative attitude towards life. Though we have much to learn from the past, we cannot copy it. Generating (and regenerating) ‘Creative Indias’ will depend on our ability to engage in processes of learning, unlearning and relearning. We can begin these processes together by initiating the following steps:
- Very little research has been done on creativity in India. We must carry out applied research on indigenous creativity that can nurture common peoples’ aspirations and that can transform the ‘systems’ before us.
- Instead of simply adding a ‘creativity’ subject to an already homogeneous/stifling curriculum, policymakers, teachers, parents, students must collectively begin to rethink both the vision of education and its structure.
- Schools can create a pro-creativity learning environment by eliminating competitions and by developing more participatory self-assessment techniques.
- As individuals, all of us must introspect and reflect on our own creative potential and how it can be applied for the regeneration of Self and community.
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