(From an editorial)
Merit as criterion
The Mysore University’s decision to regulate the award of scholarships and medals on the basis of merit and not on that of caste or creed deserves high commendation. That the criterion of caste and religion has little place in this matter should be obvious to anyone. Still many State Governments continue to foster such barriers by making a vested interest of them and the Mysore Government are perhaps the worst sinners in this respect, their regulations for admission to professional colleges and appointments in public service still being governed by strained and arbitrary definitions of backwardness based on castes and sub-castes, rather than on economic disabilities or on the candidates’ academic merit. Politicians, who whip up communal feelings to secure votes, feel bound to foster them in order to retain their hold on constituencies and their championship of caste interests aggravates the social malaise further. It becomes a vicious circle and it takes courage, loyalty to standards and a patriotic spirit to break it at some stage.
Switch over from English
Dr. K.L. Shrimali, Union Minister for Education, expressed the hope in the Lok Sabha on June 20 that by the end of the Third Plan the universities would be able to switch over from English to the regional languages at least at the undergraduate level. Preparations for the change-over were in progress. Dr. Shrimali was speaking in the debate in the House on the report of the University Grants Commission. He assured members that efforts would be made for greater co-ordination among different universities in regard to professional studies.
Billy Graham’s warning
Evangelist Billy Graham told an audience of 116,000 at Chicago on June 18 that “America has gone on a sex binge that has no parallel in history.” Speaking at an outdoor rally Dr. Graham warned that “divorce is shattering families – the heart of any nation. He said that just as “vaunted, shrewd, clever, sophisticated Rome fell”, as the result of moral and religious decay, “America can fall also.”
