Dignity of Labour

Points: Manual work not inferior — Self-help In western countries false notion of dignity in India — Dignity of Labour should be taught.

              ‘Labor is sacred, labour is honorable’, wrote Carlyle. By ‘labour’ he meant manual labour. Manual or physical work is not inferior to intellectual work. We need both.
              In western countries, all household works are done by the people themselves. There is no porter to carry luggage. A passenger’ has to carry his own bag. There is no ‘servant’, and nobody can hire a servant or a cook for his personal service. Institutions like hospitals employ persons like nurses bit they are employees of institutions, not personal servants. The dwellers of a house have to clean their own floors and wash their own bathrooms. Everybody is self-helping there. Unfortunately, many people in India still think that manual labour is not dignified. This is a false notion. It is ridiculous to think that a clerical job alone is a good job. Neither agriculture nor industry can develop if the educated people stay away from them.
              Dignity of labour should be taught from childhood, if every child is asked to do his or her own work it will be good for the child. A self-helping person has to do a lot of things, some physical, and some intellectual. Both are necessary and dignified. What is undignified is to depend on others. What is immoral is to prosper on others’ labour.

Students and Politics

Points: Need of political awareness in a democracy — A student’s primary object: study — Partisan politics to be avoided.

             India is a democratic country. In a democracy, political consciousness should be universal. Every adult citizen takes part in our country’s election. If he is not aware of the political crosscurrents he cannot exercise his vote properly. Students are future citizens. Student life should be an apprenticeship for adult life. So students should be familiar with the national politics in all its varieties.
             But the primary objects of student life is to acquire knowledge. If a student becomes actively involved in politics and becomes a member of this or that political party, he is sure to devote less time for study. Political parties should stop recruiting their party members from colleges and universities. They should wait till the students have completed their formal education. When India was not free, students’ participation in the national liberation struggle was all right. But in free India we should think deeply over the whole issue.
             Students’ unions and clubs should have various social activities.  They should be allowed to run their own clubs, magazines, wallpapers etc. In western countries, students often run their own campus news papers. We can introduce many such things in our schools and colleges. Partisan politics generates more heat than light and brings in narrowness and one-sidedness. Political debates, studies, discussions and writings are all right, but direct and active politics may not be good for the students.