Food is a symbol of our culture on a wide scale. Each one of us is raised eating the food related to our culture, we get recognized in other countries who we are based on our food habits. Food gives us national identity. Food is not only associated with happiness and health, but it also becomes what we seek throughout our lives. In challenging times food comforts us. Food culture globally is influenced by factors such as the local landscape and weather. For this reason, they vary in each country.

Cooking leads to healthier relationship with food; when cooked at home, it tends to be cheaper than eating out. When family members and guests compliment the food cooked by you the feeling is very satisfying. 

Food is integral part of our life. Sharing food with those we love is part of what makes us human. Globalization has made the world a global village. As the world grows smaller, it’s become easier to enjoy food from different countries, and many cultural traditions have developed around the celebration of food at religious holidays and family gatherings. We connect with our culture or ethnic group through food patterns. Food is often used as a means of retaining cultural identity. People from different cultural backgrounds eat different foods. The areas in which families live and where their ancestors originated influence food likes and dislikes.

Food culture consists of collective habits, rituals, beliefs, values, lifestyle, and practices around producing, procuring, and intaking food. The history of food defines our connections with our families, friends, and country at large. Food history is an interdisciplinary field that examines the history, the cultural, economic, environmental, and sociological impacts of food and human nutrition. It is distinct from the more traditional field of culinary history, which focuses on the origin and recreation of specific recipes.

If you are in Thailand, do not use a fork to push food into your mouth. Thailand offers a variety of delicious cuisines. One is spoilt for choice when it comes to the vast array of food items that are found in almost every nook and corner in Thailand. Just remember one thing – in this country, it is considered rude to use a fork to put food into your mouth. The people here believe that the fork must be used only to push food into the spoon. You can then use the spoon to eat the food.

Pakistanis will often use their hands to eat rather than cutlery. However, it is considered bad etiquette to pass, serve or spoon food to one’s mouth with the left hand. It should be used to hold the plate or assist the right hand in serving food. Pakistanis often offer their guests additional helpings of food.

In Vietnam, during the meal, make sure to pass dishes to another person using both hands. When getting a serving of food, place the portion in a bowl or on a plate. If eating from a bowl, lift the bowl close to your face and not let it sit on top of the dining table as this will be considered an act of laziness.

In the Middle East, never use your left hand while eating. Make sure you do not eat with your left hand while you are there. This is primarily because people in the region associate the left hand with other functions such as washing, bathing, and using the restroom. So, if you reach out for food or eat with your left hand, it might seem disrespectful and unhygienic.

Indian cuisine reflects an 8,000-year history of various groups and cultures. Indian food is heavily influenced by two religions – Hinduism and Islam. It is influenced by cultural choices and traditions. Historical events such as invasions, trade relations, and colonialism have played a role in introducing certain foods to this country. Trade with British and Portuguese influence added to more diversity in Indian cuisine.

Food portrays culture of a country.  Food brings people together. The French know this better, and they cherish the time they get to spend with each other over a meal. In fact, UNESCO declared French cuisine a “world intangible heritage”. The French believe that taking a meal should be done in the company of others to relax and enjoy the meal. That applies to workmates, families, and any kind of foodie event. Usually, a French meal will take at least 2 hours and is pretty much always accompanied by wine or cider depending on which part of the country you are in.  

World intangible heritage also involves oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe and traditional craftsmanship.

Cooking engages our senses, it activates memories. The aroma of a dish can remind us of our grandparent’s house, or a favourite restaurant during a vacation. Food allows us to immerse in these memories. Also, cooking is a therapeutic way to relieve stress and boost mood. When we cook, we are constantly focused, prepping ingredients, stirring the ingredients, adjusting the seasoning, and monitoring the cooking process. All of this is helpful to divert any stress or anxiety. It is like meditation, with tastier outputs.

When we visit any cultural-based festival for instance a Russian festival, Malaysian festival, or an Italian festival we find that food is the festival’s focal point. This is because eating food is a social act, also, eating is part of how we become human. It is as important as speaking and taking care of ourselves. What we eat, makes us the kind of human we are.

For example, in Japan slurping is showing appreciation for food. It shows you loved the meal. Often, in many countries, making sounds while eating is considered ill-mannered. And slurping is a big NO. However, in Japan, slurping noodles and soup is considered acceptable, many believe it improves its flavour. Additionally, it is meant to express that the dish is being greatly enjoyed. The middle of the table is the most honoured position, and the second most important person seated next. The host sits at the middle of the table on one side, and the honoured guest in the middle on the other side, opposite the host. The honoured guest sits on the side of the table farthest from the door.

Italians don’t pair fish with cheese The Italians are known for their love of food and are famous for their cheese like parmesan cheese and mozzarella. However, never ever try to mix cheese and seafood, while you are there. It is considered a culinary disaster in Italy.

In South Korea, when people assemble for a meal, they wait for the eldest person at the table to eat first, before the others join in. This is believed to be a great sign of respect for the elders.

In China, you must not leave your chopsticks upright in a bowl. This is offensive as this is a common practice during funerals when the Chinese make offerings to the departed soul. It is also considered rude to place your chopsticks pointing in someone’s direction. Finishing the food on your plate is considered rude in China. Even if you find the meal delicious, it is important that you leave a small portion behind. This is a way of complimenting the host that he has fed you enough. 

In Chile, people try to eat almost everything with a fork, spoon, and knife. Even if the food involves items that can be enjoyed more with the hands like chicken drumsticks and wings, it is customary to use a fork and a knife. Here, people believe that food should never be eaten with one’s hands.

If you are in Russia, if you put your hand on the lap while eating, it is a bad manner. You can put them on the table or anywhere else but not on the lap. So, think before you eat, when in Russia.

In Tanzania, being on time for your meal is an insult to the host. If you want to be polite, show up late and they will appreciate the gesture.

The history of the country also has an impact on the food culture and traditions of the people living there. In United States, you can easily see how layers of food culture have created the melting pot of cuisines that exists in the USA today. American cuisine is influenced by Europeans and Native Americans in its early history between 1492 and 1800. Colonisation brought European ingredients and cooking styles to the America. Today, there are several foods that are commonly identified as American, such as hamburgers, hot dogs, potato chips, macaroni and cheese, and meat loaf.

Conclusion

People connect to their cultural through food recipes and patterns. Food is a means of retaining cultural identity. People from different cultural backgrounds eat different foods. The upbringing and part of globe in which families live and where their ancestors originated influence food like and dislikes.

One of the famous English Novelist George Orwell’s quotes “Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” This quote is so apt in case of Indian History.

History is the study of the past which is formed on collective memory. Family history is the story of who we are, where we come from, it helps us compare our present and future possibly to understand where we are headed. Nothing is more mind boggling than learning and discovering more about our ancestors, celebrating family traditions, embracing our culture, and understanding our roots.

Our national history makes us more resilient because it is essential for all of us in understanding ourselves and the world around us. There is a history of every field and topic; from medicine, music, art, education, architecture, fashion, food, religion and many more facets of life. To know and understand history is absolutely necessary, even though the results of historical study are not as visible as they are expected to be.  

Sri Adrishya Kadasiddeshwar Swami of Kaneri Mutt while speaking in Vishwa Hindu Parishad has said that history textbooks across the country did not contain the actual account of Indian history and he has urged the Union and State governments to change history books to reflect on Indian values and record the right kind of history.

Many historians say it’s a myth that India’s freedom struggle was non-violent. India’s founding story deliberates upon an unrealistic national philosophy simply for political ideology. This unrealistic story has wavered our national spirit.

Historians have manipulated the very facts; hard facts are brushed under the carpet. Wrong people are made our national heroes while real heroes are not given their due credit in our history text books. India represents a core Asian tradition as well as one of the oldest strands in the fabric of world civilization. Indian religions, philosophies, art, literature, and social systems have played a fundamental role in defining the human heritage, and they merit a proper discussion in a world history survey. Why was our rich heritage brushed aside? 

I watched Arnab Goswami’s discussion with Sanjeev Sanyal on Republic Television on 8^th Jan 2023. Sanyal is an Indian economist and a famous historian. He is a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, and has helped prepare six editions of the Economic Survey of India starting in 2017.  Arnab and Sanjeev Sanyal were discussing gist of Sanyal’s recent book “Revolutionaries” published by Harper Collins.                   

He writes in his book that the history of India’s struggle for freedom is usually told from the perspective of the non-violence movement. How can we just brush off the facts of armed resistance to colonial occupation? Could it ever be possible without bloodshed? Sanyal  names Vinayak Savarkar, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rashbehari Bose, Bagha Jatin, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose who were most prominent and contributed significantly to the freedom struggle. are still widely remembered. Their story is almost always presented as acts of individual heroism and not as part of a wider movement that had any overarching strategy or significant impact on the overall struggle for Independence. Many great freedom fighters have fought, lost lives leaving little trace of their heroic deeds. We the people have forgotten many heroes and their struggles, especially among the peasant and tribal populations. 

Sanyal says that the revolutionaries were part of a large network that sustained armed resistance against the British Empire for half a century. Besides India, they created a wide network in Britain, France, Thailand, Germany, Persia, Russia, Italy, Ireland, the United States, Japan and Singapore. At various junctures, they received official support and recognition from the governments of some of these countries. Even the internal dynamics of the Indian National Congress of the time cannot be understood without the revolutionaries, who enjoyed widespread support within the organization. India’s freedom struggle was not a small-scale movement of naive individual heroism but one that involved a large number of extraordinary young men and women who were connected in multiple ways to each other and to the evolving events of their times. It was a glorious and extensive event panning over almost seven decades.

As an appreciator of history, I always feel dejected the way the Congress downplayed Sardar Patel’s struggle in implementing strategies and his stanch attempts to integrate the princely states into the Indian federation.  In true sense injustice was done to the ‘Iron Man of India.’ And I always feel India’s destiny would have changed if Sardar Patel would be our first Prime Minister because he rose from the grassroot level and he knew the nation. He was not anglicized. 

I profoundly agree with George Orwell’s quote. And, it is so obvious that the Britishers twisted history of India as a tool for demoralizing the natives. Since almost all our leaders in pre independence era were educated under the British system. The prejudiced history had tremendous impact on the psyche of our leaders such as Jawaharlala Nehru. I suppose
while learning slanted history he developed an inferior view of the country.

The British twisted the history of India by misinterpreting the outline; in a letter dated December 16, 1868 the famous Indologist Max Muller wrote to the Duke of Argyll, the then Secretary of State of India, ‘India has been conquered once, but India must be conquered again and that second conquest should be a conquest by education’. Please try to understand how Britishers planned our downfall and to a great extent they succeeded. Prof. Max Muller was not just a philosopher; he was also an examiner for the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination. Teaching the Indian students falsified history played a great part in this ‘second conquest’. 

Conclusion

Recognising unsung heroes is an essential step towards restoring the historical narrative of India. The story of non-violence does not go well it is denialism. Ironically India’s romancing of non-violence as an effective political instrument has crimped national security policy since independence. The country felled to nonviolence during the Sino-India war in 1962. Luckily the burden of its idealistic national philosophy has changed since past decade.

Our past cannot be undone. History is not only about lauding past events or heroes. It is also about understanding why something that troubles us today has happened in a particular period and has been haunting since that period. Why we Indians allowed Mughals and British rule us for centuries? The answer is we were dominated because Hindu rulers were never united.

When you remember your school and college days, what do you recall the most? I am sure you must be remembering some of those great teachers for their delightful classes, some for their sense of humor, and some for their craft, for their methodology of teaching and for their compassion and many more virtues of theirs.

Can we forget names of our teachers, can we forget their personalities? No, we cannot for a simple fact that they are an element of our life like our parents and siblings are. I think we all literally characterize the subjects with some good teachers we had; Maths, Language, History, Geography, Science, Civics, Drawing, Craft, Physical Training – all of these and many more in later years. A competent teacher has the enchantment – he/she can make the class fall in love with a subject. What students take away from a school/college usually centers on teachers who can instill passion and inspiration for the subjects! It’s difficult to measure success, and in the world of academia, educators are magicians who continually find new methods, new techniques, of re-evaluating how to quantify learning.

Teaching as a process is so interwoven and complex, that it is difficult to be explained.  It has three important sources. First and foremost, each subject taught is as large and complex as life, therefore the familiarity of the subject is always flawed and partial. No matter how a teacher devotes himself/herself to reading and research, teaching requires a command of content that always evades some student’s grasp. Second, the students themselves are larger than life and even more complex. To understand them, their capacity as learners and their queries and respond to them wisely in the moment, requires a fusion of Einstein, Freud and Edison! A teacher achieves this with lots of hard work. Let’s not undermine their commitment and their craft; like we mature as students they also mature as teachers. They need time. It takes few years for them to grasp the teaching-learning process and techniques.

Third, if students and subjects account for all the complexities of teaching, the teachers have to literally be on their toes to keep up with the class which often consists of some bright, extraordinary, some average and some laggards. Isn’t it challenging for a teacher to keep pace with variety of students? Some are mischievous, some are feeble, some are fighters, and some are sensitive – the teacher knows it all. He/she learns enough techniques to stay ahead of the student psyche. But there is another reason for these complexities – friends they teach us the way they are. After all, they are not robots, they are human like us. Like all of us even they have their whims and fancies.

Teaching is a truly human activity. Everybody cannot teach; it emerges from one’s inwardness, for better or worse. In my opinion a teacher projects his/her inner personality, their soul onto their students. In their interaction with the class which is usually very short in schools (a class is conducted for 30-45 minutes) they mold the young and supple hearts. They try to correct the thinking of the children, their character, their spirit and their disposition as citizen of a nation. The teachers give the world entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, and chartered accountants, CEOs, Prime Ministers and Presidents! They grow with their students.

Successful teachers have clear objectives. They have a sense of purpose; they see a big picture because they have a full class before them. Every child is unique, the teacher looks at the topic from every child’s point of view. A teacher who doesn’t listen to students fails and one who always listens to students will ultimately fail. It is no simple endeavor to know when to listen and when not to listen. Unconstructive energy zaps creativity and it makes a nice breeding ground for fear of failure. Good teachers have an upbeat mood, a sense of vitality and energy; they see past passing setbacks to the end goal. Positivity breeds creativity. Remember, they always want their students to succeed.

Humor and wit enlightens the class; it reduces stress and frustration, and gives students a chance to look at their circumstances from another point of view. All of us remember humorous teachers don’t we?

In order to avoid becoming the stuck and stubborn teacher, good educators take time to reflect on their methods, their delivery, and the way they connect with their students. Reflection is necessary to resolve some awkward issues in class rooms. Good teachers always give emotional support to their students. They understand that learning does not happen in a vacuum. Depression, anxiety, and mental stress have a severe impact on the educational process. A good teacher takes the whole person into account. When a child is suffering trauma in his life, the teacher reaches out with all might. And that’s a true teacher.

Friends, teacher’s job are not an easy job.  Most often their roles are undermined by cruel world. Their vacations, their pay scales are always discussed without understanding their responsibility –all of these ignorant and annoying comments just go to show that people who aren’t in education simply can’t understand all of the work that goes into being a classroom teacher. Teaching is simultaneously instilling in a child the belief that he can accomplish anything he wants while reprimanding him for producing shoddy work.

I can’t resist giving example of an ever beautifully made movie on teachers “To Sir with Love” in 1967 which stars Sidney Poitier as Mark Thackeray, an engineer who takes a temporary teaching job. The kids are rough, arrogant and uninterested in school, and ignorant to the possibility that they could become more than they are. The gentlemanly Mr. Thackeray, called “Sir” by his students, is as much a culture shock to them as they are to him.

To Sir, with Love is like a time capsule of the late 1960s: Sentimental optimism contrasts with the grittiness of poverty, illiteracy, teenage rebellion, and rapid social change. There is a sense that Mr. Thackeray’s class is staggering wildly toward dead-end or delinquent adulthood, and he has a few short weeks to reach at least some of his students before they are lost. His greatest asset as a teacher, though, has nothing to do with cutting-edge curriculum or teaching “best practices.”

It is culture. “Sir” is a living example of another world which his students could choose to enter, if only they could see themselves in it. Through him they experience, for the first time, what it is to have dignity. As the teenagers begin to awaken to their own self-worth, they start to grasp why people have manners, respect others, and behave in ways that draw respect in turn. They take interest in the written word and the process of intellectual inquiry. This movie shows how education is more than transmission of facts; it’s an invitation to explore the world of the soul, of human creative capacity, and of the physical universe. It shows when the right adult (teacher) comes in a misguided teenager’s life at the right time how things fall in the right place.  Please do watch this movie to understand a teacher.

Today I salute my all teachers from the core of my heart; for they made me what I am today. I am indebted to all of them. They truly have transformed my life.

]]> https://drvidyahattangadi.com/a-big-salute-all-our-teachers/feed/ 0 https://drvidyahattangadi.com/lets-preserve-our-rich-heritage/ https://drvidyahattangadi.com/lets-preserve-our-rich-heritage/#respond Fri, 15 Aug 2014 02:48:35 +0000 http://drvidyahattangadi.com/?p=1206 Let’s Preserve Our Rich Heritage

Our heritage is all that has been passed to us by previous generations. Heritage refers to something inherited from the past. The word has several connotations. Natural heritage refers to, an inheritance of fauna and flora, geology, landscape and landforms, and other natural resources. Cultural heritage refers to the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society – man-made heritage. Food heritage refers to recipes and ingredients and procedures of cooking, industrial heritage refers to monuments from industrial culture. Virtual heritage refers to an ICT (information and communication technology) work dealing with cultural heritage. Inheritance of physical goods after the death of individual; of the physical or non-physical things inherited. Heredity refers to biological inheritance of physical characteristics. Birthright refers to something inherited due to the place, time, or circumstances of someone’s birth. And, Kinship refers to the relationship between entities that share a genealogical origin.

It is all around us. It is in the houses we live in, our educational institutions, our places of work, the transport we use, our places of worship, our parks, our gardens, beaches, the places we go to for our social life, in our language, literature, music, sports, in the ground beneath our feet, in the shape of our landscape and in the placing and arrangement of our fields, villages, towns and cities. Heritage is also found in our moveable possessions, from our national treasures in our museums, to our own family businesses, and in the intangible such as our history, traditions, legends and language. While all that we inherit is strictly our heritage, the term has become synonymous with the places, objects, knowledge and skills. I strongly feel that we must learn to value our inheritance for reasons beyond their mere utility and their functional use.

This is because each heritage is unique and exceptional; it is the responsibility of the current generation to preserve it. It’s so sad that due to us – the citizens of this nation and our government’s sloppy attitude we have lost a lot of historical, geographical, cultural heritage. This clearly shows we lack respect for our history. In order to build a great future every nation must connect with its past. Our past is loaded with brilliance, heroism, ethnicity, empires, inventions, also a lot of suffering and sorrows. The peaceful native people were massacred and virtually wiped out by invaders. Our history has experienced slavery in its most brutal and oppressive form. I have this strong belief that all generations born after independence have taken governance, rules and regulations, law & order for granted. They grew up in a very different world where a transition began towards Western culture.

We achieved independence but forgot the freedom fighters, we won so many wars but forgot the warriors, we believe in equality today but forgot those great rebellions who struggled for it,   and we are enjoying industrialization today but forgot the first generation of industrialists who had to bear the brunt of the Britishers; who were not given good treatment and equal chances. We have some of best musical inheritance, paintings, artifacts which we are hardly bothered about. We are so callus to not even make a mention of all those mammoth contributions made by thousands of people to create a powerhouse economy in our country due to which we can boast of many other laudable achievements today.

Our national accomplishments are the result of long journeys and numerous processes. It is these processes and journeys that we have no detailed records of and the very few persons who still remember may not be around much longer. There were long and sometimes painful steps that had to be taken to create the country we have today.

India is home to some great traditions. What are they? The first is spirituality of India. Nowhere else in the world will you find such profound and deep spirituality that can win over the hearts of people and make them blossom from within. The second is Ayurveda, it is such a unique tradition in which the medicines have no side effects, and only work to protect and enhance our mind and body. The third is Yoga; regardless of the country, people all over world are rapidly adopting and incorporating Yoga in their lives. The fourth tradition is music. India is home to so many different types and schools of music. I don’t think in any other part of world you will find such a rich diversity in music and dance.

The other mentionable heritage is of the language and dialect. You will find that after every 200-300 kilometers, the language or the dialect changes; the music and dance changes; the local culture and beliefs change. You will not find such diversity anywhere else in the world. Music, dance and drama (full of Navarasas) are inseparable from our culture. How can we forget our food? India has a fantastic basket of variety of recipes across the country. Next is our dressing and attire; you will see such a variety of clothes and dressing styles, and even the opulence of ornaments and accessories worn along with them. We decorate our idols in temples also with beautiful fabrics and ornaments. Due to such fascinating diversity in all aspects of life Indian tourism stands tall in the world. I have to mention proudly about our Sanskrit language. Do you know that Sanskrit fits the bill to become a computer language? Forbes in 1987 reported that Sanskrit is very suitable to use in computer as a programming language, because of its perfect syntax. Interestingly, Sanskrit has very little room for error as well. We have to take all efforts to nurture and conserve Sanskrit by compulsorily teaching it from primary standards in schools.

Our national anthem mentions about all regions, language, geographical inheritance, natural resources and culture of India and it advocates the people of India to preserve and cultivate its rich cultural heritage.

Albert Einstein said “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”

Max Mueller, German scholar has quoted “If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India”.

Anthropology, as a discipline of Humanities can do quite a lot in treasuring and nurturing our rich heritage. Universities can take some positive steps to stimulate Anthropology branch with adequate facilities and infrastructure; so that many youngsters opt for this branch of study. Besides collecting and preserving the narrative of our past, we should also be proud of it. We lack any real nationalism and pride. This is ruthlessly demonstrated in the way we treat our environment, how shabbily we have kept our heritage monuments, forts, architectural sites. We are very poor because we have not preserved our rich heritage.

Ignorance and shame regarding our own country is not only limited to the younger generations, the older generations are no less to hold closer the western culture with much fervor. Look at any Indian soap operas – they project unreasonable and unsound culture and customs.

I feel unless we wake up from our deep slumber to accept who we are, our authenticity, and begin to take pride in it, we may lose whatever little inheritance is left with us. We should take enormous efforts to maintain our uniqueness of heritage. We cannot displace our past, and if do so, we will become a bland and soulless country.

Can you imagine a society in which arts and humanities do not exist; can you imagine your world without music, art or literature? If religion and philosophy would be absent, the study of history would be nullified, and intellectual debate would never happen. How dry our world would be without passion of humanities. We all give maximum importance to science, math, and technology and consider the arts as a lesser branch of study; we naively discount the value of the humanities and attempt to minimize their importance in education. But, the fact is they are so significant in our daily life.

The humanities are one of the academics disciplines  that study human culture, using techniques that are of significance; these techniques are mostly exploratory. Humanities have a significant historical element as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences. The humanities branch includes ancient civilization, literature, philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, communication studies, cultural studies, law, linguistics, religion, visual and performing arts such as music and theatre. The humanities are also referred as social sciences.  Scholars in the humanities are described as humanists; this term also describes the philosophical position of humanism.

Humanities education gives insights into how their society is different

Humanities education gives students insights into how their society is different. The world consists of several religions, cultures and races. Educators also list several other benefits to the study of the humanities. Since the humanities involve the gaining of large amounts of information about the world and humanity, it requires that students develop critical thinking skills in order to process and analyze the information. This is a skill that translates into other realms of a student’s life, and it can provide benefits to other areas of study.

Research into the human experience adds to our knowledge about our world. Through the work of humanities scholars, we learn about the values of different cultures, about what goes into making a work of art, about how history is made. Their efforts preserve the great accomplishments of the past; help us understand the world we live in, and give us tools to imagine the future. This has given birth to Futures Studies which is also called futurology and futurism. It is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them.

Today, humanistic knowledge continues to provide the ideal foundation for exploring and understanding the human experience. Investigating a branch of philosophy might get us thinking about ethical questions. Learning another language helps us gain an appreciation for the similarities in different cultures. Contemplating a sculpture makes us think about how an artist’s life affected his/her creative decisions. Reading a book from another region of the world helps us think about the meaning of democracy and its importance for our survival. Listening to a history course helps us understand the past, while at the same time it offers us a clearer picture of the future.

A report commissioned by Oxford University’s Humanities Division found that numbers of Oxford graduates of English, History, Philosophy, Classics and Modern Languages are employed in key economic growth sectors of finance, media, legal services and management. This number rose substantially between 1960 and 1989. By the end of the period, 16-20% was employed in these sectors. It is believed to be the first report of its kind as it evaluates the contribution of the study of the humanities to boost the economy by looking at career paths and mid- and end-career destinations of graduates, rather than the three years immediately after graduation as used by the government’s Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

The research has involved using the University of Oxford alumni database to examine the employment history of 11,000 Oxford humanities graduates who matriculated between 1960 and 1989 to give full career paths to track, and has also involved focused in-depth interviews with 50 alumni, thereby engaging quantitative and qualitative measures of humanities graduates’ impact on the British economy and society. The head of humanities at the University of Oxford says that it is widely recognized that the humanities have intrinsic value as well as utility in the well-being of the world and it has a great impact and value in any economic crisis.

Mark Edmundson – a renowned Professor of English at University of Virginia says that serious thinkers opt for Humanities to broaden their minds and learn to how to live the rest of their lives. A serious thinker himself, Edmundson has felt firsthand the pressure on colleges to churn out a productive, high-caliber workforce for the future. Through his articles and paper presentations he reminds us that there is more to education than greater productivity. With prose exacting yet expansive, tough-minded yet optimistic, the liberal arts are more important today than ever. Titled as “Why Teach”?  Edmundson’s collected writings on the subject, including several pieces that are new and previously unpublished. What they show, collectively, is that higher learning is not a rut – some staid. It is a necessary remedy for our troubled times. Why Teach? is thus brimming with the wisdom and inspiration that make learning possible. When it comes to choosing a career, we all ask this common question – will humanities help me achieve a desired career in life? It depends on what that career is. Humanities will enable you to advance in writing skills, speaking skills and thinking. And, most importantly it will strengthen your ability to recognize further opportunities to learn. It will give you the ability of researching – to find information and ideas, and the ability to critically distinguish between various sources of ideas. It will help you structure your thoughts coherently and express yourself in ways that are appropriate to the occasion. It will help you build up reading skills which will further give you an ability to understand language and systems of meaning, whether they occur in literal texts, or in other forms. Humanities students learn to read images, culture, and a host of other things, besides written texts. It will make you adaptable – your ability to apply knowledge skills to vide variety of contexts.

And here’s another thing to keep in mind – the humanities today are not the humanities of the past. Sad, but the image that many people have of humanities is of a pursuit that has no relation to practical human concerns. The fact is humanities disciplines are involved in research projects of all sorts, with just about every discipline in the university. Philosophers work with scientists and engineers, historians work with medical professionals, creative writers work with digital media engineers. The fact is every technical and scientific discipline, at some point or other, must help the humanity and hence becomes a humanities discipline! Every scientific advance is an advance for humans, and is meaningful in our history, for the betterment of our lives. Every invention happens within the context of human meaning. Every business trades on human narratives and human desires as expressed through language and symbol. The humanities matter everywhere. This discipline of studies therefore is far from being marginal. It is central to all human life.

In the words of Terry Eagleton – a prominent British literary theorist and critic “The humanities should constitute the core of any university worth the name.” So, guys stop underrating importance of Humanities.