India’s education system may be producing competent engineers, doctors and chartered accountants, but it is failing to adequately equip people with a broader understanding of history, science, literature and culture, poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar said on Saturday, warning that the ‘widening gap’ between professional education and general knowledge was being filled by misinformation, regressive ideas and misplaced beliefs.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the Symbiosis Literary Festival 2026 at Symbiosis Ishanya Bhavan in Viman Nagar, Akhtar called for a more holistic approach to education that enables students to look beyond their chosen disciplines. Questioning the priority successive governments had accorded to education, Akhtar referred to the Kothari Commission’s recommendation in the 1960s that at least 6% of the budget be allocated to education. He also raised concerns over shrinking vocabulary, weakening engagement with literature and the arts, and a growing disconnect from India’s cultural and intellectual heritage. “There is a battle of education, knowledge and understanding, and there is a big fall.
It’s a huge cliff,” he said, pointing to the disparity between professional competence and a broader understanding of the world. “You can’t become an expert in everything, but you should not be too ignorant about that aspect,” he said, stressing the need for education that builds intellectual curiosity across disciplines. He said education spending had consistently fallen short of the importance it deserved, regardless of which political party was in power.
“Words are not thought. But how do you build thoughts clearly? “What is poetry?
Words, he said, were not thoughts themselves, but were essential tools for expressing and developing them. You have to have enough words,” he said, comparing vocabulary to the bricks required to build a house. It is the music of language,” he said, emphasising that talent needed to be refined through sustained reading and practice.
Akhtar also pointed to what he described as a decline in vocabulary among younger people compared with earlier generations.
