OUR
CONCERNS:
The
Centre was established in 1991 to promote ethics and human
values in higher education. It draws inspiration from the
educational philosophy of our illustrious founder, Pandit
Madan Mohan Malaviya. In proposing the scheme for B.H.U he
wrote in 1905:
“… mere industrial advancement cannot ensure
happiness and prosperity to any people; nor can it raise them
in the scale of nations ….. Formation of character is even
more important for the wellbeing of the individual and of the
community than cultivation of intellect. Hence it is that the
proposed university has placed formation of character in youth
as one of its principal objectives. It will seek not merely to
turn out men as engineers, scientists, doctors, merchants,
theologists, but also as men of high character, probity and
honour …. It will be a nursery of good citizens instead of
only a mint for hallmarking a certain standard of
knowledge.”
Unfortunately this lofty vision of our founder remains
unrealised. The character and the value - temper of the
educated classes who run modern
We urgently need to evolve an effective strategy to
meet the value crisis of our times. An important component of
that strategy will be to institute effective schemes of value
education at all levels, particularly at the level of the
university. Education is not merely a process of information
transmission, nor of imparting specialised professional skills
for earning a living. It should also help young person grow up
as good and responsible human persons; persons who seek
meaning and fulfillment in devoting their knowledge and skills
for the service of society. Imparting such an education
requires proper grounding in ethics and human values.
To be able to develop and run the Centre along the lines indicated above, we need substantial amount of resources. At present the Centre is housed in an old building. The space available is adequate for office work and for accommodating the small number of academic staff working voluntarily for the Centre. But we urgently need a well equipped auditorium and a seminar hall for conducting increasing number of workshops, seminars and lectures. The estimated cost of creating such a facility is rupees one crore. We also need to create an endowment fund of rupees two crores to hire permanent staff, and to offer academic fellowships to scholars. A permanent endowment fund will enable us to operate the Centre on a sustainable basis.
It has been a tradition of our university, set by our founder, to rely more on public support for its programmes than on the government funding. In the same spirit we appeal to all those who share our concerns to come forward and help us generate resources needed for the centre. We specially appeal to our alumni to help their alma-mater in this noble cause.
Donations may please be made out in the name of Registrar BHU, payable at Varanasi and sent to the Co-ordinator, Malaviya Moolya Anusheelan Kendra, Shyama Charan De Niwas, Malaviya Bhawan campus,Banarash Hindu University Varanasi-221005.
Such donations are exempt from income tax under section 80 (G)
To operationalise this philosophy of education, the Centre has evolved several formal and nonformal programmes of value-education.
1.A three credit elective course on ‘Human Values’ is offered to the engineering students of IT-B.H.U since 1998. Efforts are being made to develop courses on Engineering Ethics, Environmental Ethics and Bio-Ethics for the students of engineering and science disciplines. Similar teaching programmes will be developed for students of other disciplines also. The long term goal is to ensure that every student admitted to the university gets to study at least one course related to ethics and human values.
2.A workshop on "thou ewY; ,oa ekuoh; {kerkvksa dk fodkl" (Life- Values for Integrated Human Development) is conducted every year. The total workshop time is about fifty hours, spread over five weeks. It draws students from all disciplines.
3.Specialised workshops of about thirty hours duration are conducted for students, teachers and officers of the university.
4.A one week
full time workshop on "Human Values for Pursuit of Excellence” is conducted for executives of the
corporate world.
5.In addition, the centre organizes lectures and seminars on value related themes. It also publishes a bi-yearly journal, ‘ewY; foe'kZ [Moolya Vimarsha) containing articles on value issues of current relevance.
Trying to improve the value temper of the individual persons is one way of responding to the modern value crisis. Another equally important need is to find ways to resolve the value problems created by the modern technological society; its preferred life-styles, its industrial and commercial institutions, and the economic and political forces shaping it. They are threatening social and human wellbeing globally. But the problem is more acute for a country like ours, with a distinct worldview, a long and refined cultural tradition, and which is simultaneously trying to develop as a modern nation. The value tensions and conflicts inherent in this process of change need thorough scholarly enquiry. To do that we need to create a community of scholars who would critique the modern institutions and systems from the viewpoint of ethics and human values. Value enquiry at the societal and systemic levels is a neglected aspect of the traditional Indian thought on values. We would like to develop the Centre to play a positive role in this new areas of scholarship.
A.N.Tripathi, S.N.Upadhyay
Former Prof. of Electrical Engg., Director,IT-BHU
IT-BHU and former Co-ordinator, Malaviya Center for Ethics
Malaviya Center For Ethics and Human Values
and
Human Values