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MUMBAI, INDIA, February 18, 2005: Kshitij Garg, age 9, is a lanky boy, quiet and soft-spoken. His favorite hero is a complete contrast to this. “I like Hanuman because of his extraordinary strength. One day, I would also like to be as huge and powerful as him,” he says. Typically, his favorite part of the classic Hindu epic Ramayana is when Hanuman reduces Lanka to cinders. But in the age of playstations and raunchy music videos, how does he know so much about the epic? Well, Garg scored the highest (98 per cent) in the Ramayana Yojana exams conducted in 227 schools across Mumbai and Thane on January 28. The results were declared on Wednesday. The Ramayana Yojana–an initiative of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)–offers the study of the Ramayana as a comprehensive alternative to Value Education. “Our students really enjoy the course,” says Garg’s headmistress Priyanka Rajani, principal of the Hindi-medium Vidyanidhi High School, Vile Parle (West). “And our teachers conduct sessions in a number of fun methods. Sometimes, we use skits, sometimes poster competitions. It’s so much fun for the teachers, too.” Vidyanidhi also received the annual award for best overall response to the program.



In its second year, the Rama Yojana initiative recorded a massive increase in participation, with 37,059 students taking the objective examination on January 28. That’s an increase of 100 schools over the first year’s total of 127. “We were concerned about the dying sense of culture in our children,” says VHP Secretary Mohan Salekar. “So we decided to do something about it. We now offer subsidized study material to interested schools and guidance to teachers. We have also requested schools not to project Rama as a deity but rather as a national hero, like Lincoln is regarded in America.” The secular approach has won universal appeal, with nine civic schools, two convents and a whopping 216 private schools taking up the offer in four languages–English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati–for students of Stds V, VI and VII.

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