The Sainik Schools are a system of public schools in India, established and managed by the Sainik Schools Society (SSS) under the Ministry of Defence.
The purpose of the Sainik Schools is to prepare students academically, mentally and physically for entry into the National Defence Academy (NDA) and Indian Naval Academy (INA). Until 2021, the Sainik Schools were run and administered by Centre and State governments under Sainik Schools System (SSS), an autonomous body of the Ministry of Defence. However, in 2021, the BJP government issued orders allowing the private entities to manage the Sainik Schools through public-private partnership. There were previously 33 such institutions in India but in 2021, the Modi government expressed the intent to open 100 more such schools across India.
It is pertinent to mention that the BJP government showed interest in 2019 to run Sainik schools under its education wing, Vidya Bharat, whose aim is to raise a generation committed to the Hindutva ideology. So far, the government has handed over almost 62% of schools to the RSS affiliated groups. Out of these, 8 schools are managed by RSS, 11 schools are owned by BJP leaders, or managed by registered Trust under their chairmanship, or belong to friends & close political allies of BJP while 6 schools have close ties to Hindutva organizations or far-right leaders. Only 15 schools registered with private entities do not have any direct linkage with Hindutva. It is important to note that not a single school is run by a non-Hindu group or person.
The coupling of an extremist ideology with military training is a volatile combination, especially in a region like South Asia.
The government’s decision to run schools under PPP has opened doors for the RSS-affiliated organizations and the BJP like-minded groups to gain control over the curriculum and the overall school culture. Considering that a significant number of students pass out from these schools year after year, the BJP government, by instilling the poisonous Hindutva ideology in young minds, plans to gradually normalize it and extend it to the wider sections of the society. Young, impressionable minds exposed consistently to Hindutva ideology during formative years will potentially develop more extreme views, lacking acceptance for religious and political dissent and emboldening the already existing extremist groups. This is likely to create a more religiously and politically polarized society, pushing the minority groups and Hindutva opposed political parties to the sidelines. One would not be wrong to call it Modi’s strategy of killing two birds with one stone; crushing the BJP rival parties and constraining the religious minorities. Clearly, this, in the long-run, will prove to be cancerous for the already suffering pluralistic and democratic tapestry of Indian society.
This decision not only threatens the internal fabric of Indian society but also poses serious threats to the peace of the entire region. It is worth mentioning that 20-40% of the cadets in the National Defence Academy hail from the Sainik Schools, depicting that these institutions have a significant influence on the mindset of the Indian military leadership.
The coupling of an extremist ideology with military training is a volatile combination, especially in a region like South Asia where two nuclear-armed states, Pakistan and India, are deeply hostile to each other. Such an ideological shift by the BJP government could lead to more aggressive policies, heightening the risk of quicker escalations between the two nations and sabotaging the stability of the entire region.
The writer is a freelance columnist.