Kauravas and Pandavas, the members of royal family of Hastinapur were trained in archery by their great guru Dronacharya. Arjun was the most proficient and favoured disciple of Dronacharya who excelled others in archery.While Guru Dronacharya imparted training in archery to the royal princes, a Bhil (scheduled tribe) youth Eklavya approached and requested the guru to include him as a trainee archer, but as he was from the low caste, the guru refused to accept him as a disciple. Eklavya did not give up, but was firm in his determination to learn archery. He practiced archery in the presence of Dronacharya’s statue and became a great archer. He then displayed his proficiency before guru Dronacharya. Astonished Dronacharya was impressed and asked him who his guru was. Eklavya humbly replied that he treated Dronacharya’s statue as his guru and thus he learnt the art. On this, Dronacharya demanded his right hand thumb as guru dakshina, Eklavya did not hesitate and promptly cut off his thumb and happily placed it at the feet of Dronacharya. It is for years now that, unmindful of this well known story, the govt. of india is giving away awards in the name of dronacharya who had not only discriminated between low and high caste, but at the same time committed most inhuman act by asking Eklavya his thumb as guru dakshina, which reduced him to become insignificant in the history of great archers of ancient India. it is further desired that coaches and teachers should be fair and impartial towards all their trainees and students unlike guru Dronacharya. Now, would it be possible for the government and SC/ST commission to make proper substitution of the name and also undo the wrong we have been doing by giving awards in the name of Dronacharya during all these years?
