Inaugural Memorial Lecture

The memorial lecture has been instituted in the name of Dr. K. R. Shroff (1921 -1987) who received his MRCP (Member of Royal College of Physicians) at London in 1950 before returning to India. He was associated with Civil Hospital at Ahmedabad as an honorary physician and associate professor for over 25 years. Apart from being a fine clinical teacher, he was a generous human helping poor patients and medical students without their knowledge. Considered one of the top 3 leading physicians of his time, he had an uncanny ability to diagnose ailment accurately that earned him tremendous respect from his patients, peers and friends. He has also authored a book in Gujarati for general medicine. This annual memorial lecture series by Calorx Teachers’ University is a tribute to the hall mark of this teacher who even after two decades of his death, is remembered with great reverence and affection by his students. He was a unique reservoir of knowledge, an outstanding teacher and a mentor. The first memorial lecture was delivered by Hon. Justice P. N. Bhagwati on “Human Rights and Education” on 6th September 2009 in the august presence of Hon. Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Narendra Modi.

Speech of Justice Shri P.N. Bhagwati
Distinguished members of the podium, teachers and students. I seek forgiveness of Shri. Narendrabhai to speak in English and not in Gujarati though Gujarati is my mother tongue. The subject given to me today is Human Rights and Education, but I am going to speak more about education than about Human Rights. I am thankful to the organizers of this conference for inviting me to inaugurate this conference and particularly I am happy to share this podium with such a distinguished person as Narendrabhai, the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He has, during the period of his tenure Stewardship as a Chief Minister, changed the face of Gujarat. The Gujarat that I left in 1973 when I went to join the Supreme Court and became Chief Justice of India was totally different from the Gujarat which I see today. It has changed considerably under the dynamic leadership of Narendrabhai. Today, when I went round I was delighted to find so much progress. I was really amazed to see how Gujarat has progressed. How it has increased in its prosperity and how about 90% of the rural population has received the benefit of electricity and has become rich Erich. This is an achievement which is something remarkable which no other Chief Minister can boast off. And I am therefore extremely happy to be about to share this platform with Narendrabhai. It’s really an honour. This inaugural lecture marks the beginning of a lecture series intended to perpetuate the memory of DR. K.R.Shroff who was in his own time a leading Physician, in the period of lexicon. He worked as an honorary Physician and Associate Professor in the Civil Hospital for over a quarter of a century. During this period he served large number of poor ailing patients, who could not afford the luxuries of today’s lexicon and he earned their blessings. It is rare to find a doctor serving the poor and the down trodden in the country. And this particularly without expecting any returns. He was a highly philanthropic doctor, who served the poor people, who saved them from fever, from illness, with unprecedented devotion. Today we are recalling a great service rendered by him in the cause of the people and let us resolve that we in our own respective walks of life will follow the same traditions which he established during his lifetime because it is ultimately a tradition of service. Service of ourselves, that’s the one message which our culture has given to us. We all should always serve humanity. And love all and serve all is the message given to by our greats of the past. Coming now to the topic of today’s discussion, today’s conference. Today is Teacher’s Day when we have assembled here to discuss the role which the teachers ought to play in the life of the Nation in molding the youth of the country and reshaping the destiny of the Nation. They have to play a vital role in molding the future of the Nation as was pointed by our respected Narendrabhai that teachers have a very vital role to play because they are the molders of the future. They mold the destiny of the country. The teachers have a very important role to play in Nation building process. A role which is often not appreciated by people and particularly by the intellectuals because in our social ladder often we do not give a right place to the teacher. Which has been pointed out by Mr. Chhaya. Very often so far we find that, the person who passes out, do graduation, tries to find employment elsewhere and they do not get admissions or other profession they turn to a teaching profession. The result that we have is the need to improve the poor standard of teachers because; teachers are the backbone of the Nation. Unless there are good teachers how are there going to be good students. After all the character building takes place in the schools and character is the most essential. And without character no Nation can survive. Today, India has survived with 5000 years because of its great ancient history starting from the Vedic time. The teachers must read history. How in India, how our Ancient and Vedic peers looked upon the teaching profession system of Guru shishya parampara. Gu-means illness or evil and Ru-means who cures the illness. So Guru cures the illness of the mind and Guru performs a very important function that is why, we say that our whole series of verses praises the role of a Guru. When we talk of a teacher he is the Guru. He has to mold the character in the student. I mean in the early stage the students are mend able. He is amendable to all sources. Very often in India due to poverty they do not get the right opportunity. The character is the most important thing. Without character, life is not worth living. The most important task of the teacher is to build character. Teach them the two great ideals, one the ideal of renunciation (tyag) I don’t mean going away but of the self motivation. You must live for others and be subordinate in yourself to the interest of others. Tyag and Seva are the ideals and the teacher has to inculcate these two into the students and service to humanity. That is the great message given by Gandhiji and other great leaders. Service amongst oneself is the motive. This is the land which to remember, that we are born. In a land of sages, saints and seers. We should feel proud of being sons of India. It is a great privilege to be born in this land. You must be proud of being Indians and inculcate this spirit in your students. Let them feel that they are inheritance of great culture. The culture which survived for 5000 years. And all other cultures have perished and our culture is still alive and living, inspiring lives of millions of people. Then that culture the essence of that culture you must instill in your students. Apart from this their knowledge which you teach them, the very instructions that must ultimately ripen into knowledge and knowledge into wisdom. Today, we are guided rather misguided by the west. It gets into our heritage. I want you teachers, to instill in the minds of the students what a great heritage they have. Teach them about Indian heritage and culture. There are number of books which tell you about that and let those students be proud of being Indians. That is the most important. Today India is guided by the west. We always tried to imitate the west. They always say Americans do this the Indian must do it, this is a wrong approach. We have our own culture and vitality and strength. Rest all forget it. I want the young people to bear this in mind. Then we can bring back the nation glory. It was at the height of the world civilization today we have gone down. Our teachers have to perform this very important task apart from instruction in science, maths or law that is all right but it must be coupled with this inspiration of vital value of life- That is the real function of a teacher. That is what I want. I am very glad to get the opportunity to speak, a rare opportunity to speak to teachers and unfortunately today the teaching profession has been looked upon as the last resort. They are looked down upon by the society. It is wrong. Guru was at one time the most respected person in India. And Guru was also worshiped. We created Gurukuls where students had to stay there under the Guidance and spiritual materials by the Guru. The guru instructs the values of life. That is unfortunately gone. But you have to play the role of a Guru. Don’t go and give lectures, take them in confidence, teach them, guide them. Teach them values. That is your function. I am very glad that this institution has been set up for the purpose of training of teachers and I am glad that it is after 12th standard they will go for the bifurcation and one has to decide whether one is going for the teaching profession or not. Because we must devote ourselves to teaching and there various subjects are going to be included and even Indian culture should be one of them in my opinion. Unless you know your culture, you won’t have the sense of patriotism, you must feel proud to be an Indian that is what I want. And I am sure that in times to come, this Institution is going to produce teachers who are able to cater to the vast majority of students and make them real Indians. With these words I convey my best wishes to the growth of this Institution. .