Education, to Gandhiji, was a means to achieve perfection of individuality on the one

hand and an instrument of service to the nation on the other. Thus, individual and social
both the aims of education were considered by him equally important. "By education
mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man-body, and spirit", he said.

This in other words meant development of whole child, the whole personality of the
child. Harmonious development of all the aspects of human personality such as
physical, intellectual and spiritual was emphasized by him as an individual aim of
education.

Emphasizing the social aim of education he said that the individual has a responsibility
to work for the welfare of the whole society. "Willing submission to social control and
restrain for the sake of the well-being of the whole society" were considered by him
important attitudes to be developed in the people through education.

Good of the individual and good of the society were interdependent. So education
should be both for the child as well as for the state.

Education, to Gandhi, was something more than literacy. Though he did not belittle the
importance of vocational aim of education, self-realization and knowledge of the
Ultimate, God was considered the ultimate aims of education.

Emphasis on vocational aspect led him to say that education has to be self-supporting, a
theory which culminated into his system of basic education.

Cultural refinement of human personality through education was also considered

important by Gandhiji. But, it was Indian culture that was emphasized by him. Culture,
according to him was in quality of the soul which was reflected in all aspects of human
behavior. For achieving this kind of cultural refinement he emphasized the study of the
Geeta and the sacred books of all other religions.

Gandhi attached much importance to character education and moral development of the
child through education. This would mean to him development of such qualities in the

1
individual as purity of personal life, self-restraint, and service of humanity, courage,
strength of conviction, righteousness and sense of responsibility. The attitude of
"Ahimsa", non-violence was the supreme value to be developed in the people through
education.

The ultimate aim of education according to Gandhiji is the Self-Realization. All other
aims are important as they lead to self- realization. Self-realization, to him, means
realizing that the ultimate reality, the Truth is the universal soul, some unknown
supreme power and that the man is only a spark of that which fuses with that supreme
ultimately.

The Curriculum

Gandhiji considered elementary education the most important phase of the educational
system. He, therefore, expressed his views only about the curriculum of primary stage
curriculum. About this stage he said that intellectual development alone should not be
emphasized.

The curriculum should be so designed that it caters to the development of all the aspects
of child personality. Physical, social, moral and spiritual development, too, are
important.

Hence, there should be provision in the curriculum for activities, experiences and
subjects of knowledge that can help achieve these developments also.

He, then, suggested making the curriculum activity centre by introducing teaching of
some craft like spinning, weaving, handicraft, book craft, art, agriculture, and pottery
etc., whichever is close to the child's life in his environment. Besides, he recommended
that mother tongue should be the medium of instruction at this stage.

It was also suggested by him that mathematics, social studies, drawing and music
should necessarily included in the curriculum. General science including biology,
chemistry, physical science, hygiene, nature study, physical education and general
knowledge of astronomy were also recommended to form the basis of the curriculum.

2
He also suggested that upto class boys and girls should be subjected to the same
curriculum. But, after that girls should be taught home science instead of general
science.

Method of Teaching

Gandhiji once wrote in Young India (1921) that "schools and colleges should become
almost, if not wholly, self-supporting". He, then emphasized that teaching should be
done through arts and crafts, work and play, voluntary activity and self-chosen activity.

Gandhiji said that the method of teaching should be such as it provides to the child
freedom, a chance to come into closer contact with the teacher, a chance to be an active
investigator, observer and experimenter.

Craft-centre teaching and correlation method may be said to be the most important
ingredients of the educational method Gandhiji suggested. Correlation method would
mean relating the knowledge, of each subject being taught to the craft on the one hand
and to the child's life on the other.

Gandhi, emphatically, demanded that craft should be made the center of all education,
centre of the school life. The idea, afterwards, found an expression to the Basic
Education System which was introduced in all the states of the country.

Some writers have tried to put labels on Gandhiji as a naturalist, an idealist and a
pragmatist. In fact we find elements of all these three philosophies in his views on
education. But, basically, he was an idealist.

His emphasis was on character formation and spiritual development of the child. He
himself lived a spiritual life and stood for higher values throughout his life. The good of
the society, according to him, was contingent upon the goodness of each individual.

The perfect and spiritually developed individuals alone ' could constitute an ideal
society. So he emphasized that education should lead the individual to self-realization,

3
realization of God and should develop in him attitudes of self-control, social service,
ahimsa, sacrifice righteousness, brotherhood.

These are all higher values like the idealistic he also emphasized that education should
be used to cultivate these moral and spiritual values in the people.

There are elements of naturalism and pragmatism too found in his educational
philosophy. He considered the child an important element in the process of education
and emphasized, like the naturalists, that education should conform to the nature of the
child. The child should be allowed freedom.

He should be taught in natural environment for "drawing out the best in the child". Like
the naturalists, he also said that education should aim at the development of all aspects
of child's personality.

Activity, play, experimentation and own experience as the strategies of education were
emphasized by Gandhiji also like, the naturalists. He also considered books as the
means of imparting knowledge to young child unimportant. Thus, several ideas of
naturalism are found expressed in Gandhiji's educational philosophy also. Yet, it cannot
be said that he was a naturalist only.

Some elements of pragmatic philosophy may also be seen in Gandhiji's educational

philosophy. His emphasis on making education self-supporting and preparing
individuals for vocation, craft-centered education, activity centre, teaching, learning
through child's own experience and experimentation, correlated teaching clearly brings
him closer to the pragmatists.

4
Gandhiji with his Divya Chakshu excelled in understanding the Indian people, the Indian nation
and the Indian national heritage. The entire world accepts the clarity of his perception and his
assessment of the shape of future trends so much so that with the passage of time the relevance
of his thoughts and ideas is gaining greater significance globally.

Born during the first phase of industrial and scientific revolution and living through its second
and third stages, Gandhiji saw both the positive and humane aspects of science and technology as
well as their destructive possibilities and potentialities for misutilization which could lead to a
growing wedge between the haves and have nots and hence to destruction. Realizing
something definitely wrong with the consumeristic way of life that many people were chasing in
a society oriented to violence, exhibitionism, consumerism, a life far removed from Nature and
moving in a direction that was not conducive to a balanced life or would promote equality of
opportunity amongst people of different nations, races, castes, colours and creeds, Gandhiji
began his quest for the alternatives which got even further reinforced and broadened with his
experiences in South Africa.

Gandhijis innovative approach to political activism, passive resistance, belief in non-violence,

firm faith in satyagraha against oppressive regime came as the biggest surprise to one and all
across the globe. People became curious and attentive when he not only preached but also
practised his doctrine in action as part of his personal life as a staunch believer in personal
example than in mere precept, that efforts have to be made to eliminate the misdeeds of the
oppressor rather than the oppressor himself. Truth, non-violence and satyagraha were
successfully used and their credibility as an effective instrument of the social and political
transformation was established. Though the world saw the success of his faith, strategy and effort
in achieving his goals yet the Mahatma himself was not fully satisfied.

5
Like many great thinkers, prophets and philosophers, Gandhiji was convinced that injustice,
violence and oppression manifest from human heart and that education can play an effective role
in developing a wholesome human personality capable of resisting war, violence, injustice and
oppression and building a social order wherein man can live in peace and harmony with others.
Since education is a potential instrument of man-making and social engineering, he concentrated
on an education that could draw out the best in the childbody, mind and spiritfor developing
a peace loving human personality. Gandhian philosophy is, indeed, rich in its educational and
social values. It can transform the destiny of man and is capable of establishing an alternative
social order if it is practised sincerely and honestly in its true perspective.

Gandhijis educational philosophy, which evolved during his lifetime in the form of Gandhian
School of Educational Thought, has not received adequate attention in policy formulations
during last five decades. Globally, it is being realized that his views were dynamic and futuristic
in nature. Fully understanding inadequacies of our over-dependence on the alien model of
education and the needs of the weakest, the poorest and the neglected, he evolved an indigenous
strategy to provide equality of opportunity and success to each and every individual of this
category.

NCTE lays great emphasis on the contribution of Indian educationists and thinkers and has
undertaken a project to acquaint teacher educators with their thoughts. Since Gandhiji has written
practically on every aspect of human life and his writings, particularly on education, are full of
incisive insight, practical experiences and pragmatic foresight, I cherished the idea of having an
anthology of his writings on Education compiled which I relish to present in the form of this
book. It traces, in brief, Gandhijis experiments in South Africa and in India and presents his
thoughts on various stages of education, from pre-primary to higher education. The richness of
his ideas on language learning, womens education, physical education, textbooks and most other
aspects of learning provide an insight into the vastness of his vision and the expanse of his
thought-process.

This compilation will hopefully benefit teacher training institutions, teacher educators and
teachers in understanding Gandhijis message and its universal appeal and application in
Education at all levels.

6
Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself. What better book can there be than
the book of humanity?

-M.K. GANDHI

If you practise the three virtues1 if they become part of your life
so far as I am concerned, you will have completed your educationyour training. Armed with
them, believe me, you
will earn your bread in any part of the world and you will have paved the way to acquire a true
knowledge of the soul, yourself and God. This does not mean that you should not receive
instruction in letters. That you should and you are doing. But
it is a thing over which you need not fret yourself. You have
plenty of time for it and after all you are to receive such
instruction in order that your training may be of use to the
others.

Letter to Manilal Gandhi, 25 March 1909 (CW 9, p. 205)

Wholesome Educational Environment

That boy will grow into a courageous, healthy and service-minded boy, provided he gets a
wholesome, environment.1 His body as well as his mind will develop in right proportion. He will
be free of any fraud or immorality. Staying in the village he will serve the villagers and will be
content to live on the subsistence provided by the villagers. Through his service and the
knowledge acquired by him he will provide proper guidance to the people around him and thus
train more young men. I expect that a student trained under the Nayee Talim would develop on
these lines.

Talk with Manu Gandhi, Biharni Komi Agman (Translated from Gujarati)

21 April 1947, p. 238 (CW 87, p. 326)

Education Through Craft

7
Speaking about education through a craft Gandhiji said:

"If such education is given, the direct result will be that it will be self-supporting. But the test of
success is not its self-supporting character, but that the whole man has been drawn out through
the teaching of the handicraft in a scientific manner. In fact I would reject a teacher who would
promise to make it self-supporting under any circumstances. The self-supporting part will be the
logical corollary of the fact that the pupil has learnt the use of every one of his faculties. If a boy
who works at a handicraft for three hours a day will surely earn his keep, how much more a boy
who adds to the work a development of his mind and soul!"

Harijan, 11 June 1938 (CW 67, p. 115)

Basic School Product

Shri Aryanayakam brought nine boys of the 7th class to meet Gandhiji. These had all practically
completed their seven years course in the Sevagram Basic School. They were village lads from
Sevagram and the neighbouring villages. Compared to those whom one sees working in the
fields and who have never been to school, they were a heartening result of a first endeavour.
They were clean, well-groomed, disciplined well-mannered. Gandhiji cracked a few jokes with
them which they entered into with merry laughter. One of them had the temerity to ask Gandhiji
what type of boys of fourteen he expected to be turned out after a seven years course at a Basic
School? Gandhiji seized the opportunity of telling them that if the school had done its duty by
them, boys of fourteen should be truthful, pure and healthy. They should be village-minded.
Their brains and hands should have been equally developed. There would be no guile in them.
Their intelligence would be keen but they would not be worried about earning money. They
would be able to turn their hands to any honest task that came their way. They would not want to
go into the cities. Having learnt the lessons of co-operation and service in the school, they would
infect their surroundings with the same spirit. They would never be beggars or parasites.

Harijan, 8 September 1946 (CW 85, pp. 199200)

Village Schools

8
"The cruelest irony of the new Reforms lies in the fact that we are left with nothing but the liquor
revenue to fall back upon in order to give our children education," said Gandhiji in one of the
numerous talks he has been giving on the subject, ever since the Congress Ministers took up
office. "That is the educational puzzle but it should not baffle us. We have to solve it and the
solution must not involve the compromise of our ideal of prohibition cost whatever else it may. It
must be shameful and humiliating to think that unless we got the drink revenue, our children
would be starved of their education. But if it comes to it, we should prefer it as a lesser evil. If
only we will refuse to be obsessed by the figures and by the supposed necessity of giving our
children the exact kind of education that they get today, the problem should not baffle us." That
explains Gandhijis emphasis on our educationists putting their heads together in order to evolve
a system of education which is at once inexpensive and also in consonance with the needs of our
vast rural population.

"Then you would really abolish what is called secondary education and give the whole education
up to matriculation in the village schools?" asked a questioner in great surprise.

"Certainly. What is your secondary education but compelling the poor boys to learn in a foreign
language in seven years what they should learn in the course of a couple of years in their own
mother-tongue? If you can but make up your minds to free the children from the incubus of
learning their subjects in a foreign tongue, and if you teach them to use their hands and feet
profitably, the educational puzzle is solved. You can sacrifice without compunction the whole of
the drink revenue. But you must resolve to sacrifice this revenue first, and think of the ways and
means about education later. Make the beginning by taking the big step."

Harijan, 21 August 1937 (CW 66, p. 57)

Self-supporting Education

In spite of the weak state of his health and the quantities of rest that he needs, Gandhiji has
shown his readiness to discuss his theory of self-supporting education with anyone who has
thought about the subject and wants to contribute his share to making the new experiment a
success. The discussions have been, in view of his health, necessarily few and brief, but every
now and then something new has emerged, and whenever he has talked, he has had some fresh

9
suggestion to make and fresh light to throw. Thus on one occasion he sounded a warning against
the assumption that the idea of self-supporting education sprang from the necessity of achieving
total prohibition as soon as possible. "Both are independent necessities," he said. "You have to
start with the conviction that total prohibition has to be achieved revenue or no revenue,
education or no education. Similarly, you have to start with the conviction that looking to the
needs of the villages of India our rural education ought to be made self-supporting if it is to be
compulsory."

"I have the first conviction deep down in me," said an educationist who carried on the discussion.
"Prohibition to me is an end in itself, and I regard it as a great education in itself. I should,
therefore, sacrifice education altogether to make prohibition a success. But the other conviction
is lacking. I cannot yet believe that education can be made self-supporting."

"There, too, I want you to start with the conviction. The ways and means will come as you begin
to work it out. I regret that I woke up to the necessity of this at this very late age. Otherwise I
should have made the experiment my self. Even now, God willing, I shall do what I can to show
that it can be self-supporting. But my time has been taken up by other things all these years,
equally important perhaps; but it is this stay in Segaon that brought the conviction home to me.
We have up to now concentrated on stuffing childrens minds with all kinds of information,
without ever thinking of stimulating and developing them. Let us now cry a halt and concentrate
on educating the child properly through manual work, not as a side activity, but as the prime
means of intellectual training."

"I see that too. But why should it also support the school?"

"That will be the test of its value. The child at the age of 14, that is, after finishing a seven years
course, should be discharged as an earning unit. Even now the poor peoples children
automatically lend a helping hand to their parentsthe feeling at the back of their minds being,
what shall my parents eat and what shall they give me to eat if I do not also work with them?
That is an education in itself. Even so the State takes charge of the child at seven and returns it to
the family as an earning unit. You impart education and simultaneously cut at the root of
unemployment. You have to train the boys in one occupation or another. Round this special

10
occupation you will train up his mind, his body, his writing, his artistic sense, and so on. He will
be master of the craft he learns."

"But supposing a boy takes up the art and science of making Khadi. Do you think it must occupy
him all the seven years to master the craft?"

"Yes. It must, if he will not learn it mechanically. Why do we give years to the study of history or
to the study of languages? Is a craft any the less important than these subjects which have been
up to now given an artificial importance?"

"But as you have been mainly thinking of spinning and weaving, evidently you are thinking of
making of these schools so many weaving schools. A child may have no aptitude for weaving
and may have it for something else."

"Quite so. Then we will teach him some other craft. But you must know that one school will not
teach many crafts. The idea is that we should have one teacher for twenty-five boys, and you
may have as many classes or schools of twenty-five boys as you have teachers available, and
have each of these schools specializing in a separate craftcarpentry, smithy, tanning or shoe-
making. Only you must bear in mind the fact that you develop the childs mind through each of
these crafts. And I would emphasize one more thing. You must forget the cities and concentrate
on the villages. They are an ocean. The cities are a mere drop in the ocean. That is why you
cannot think of subjects like brick-making. If they must be civil and mechanical engineers, they
will after the seven years course go to the special colleges meant for these higher and
specialized courses.

"And let me emphasize one more fact. We are apt to think lightly of the village crafts because we
have divorced educational from manual training. Manual work has been regarded as something
inferior, and owing to the wretched distortion of the varna we came to regard spinners and
weavers and carpenters and shoe-makers as belonging to the inferior castes, the proletariat. We
have had no Cromptons and Hargreaves because of this vicious system of considering the crafts
as something inferior, divorced from the skilled. If they had been regarded as callings having an
independent status that learning enjoyed, we should have had great inventors from among our
craftsmen. Of course the Spinning Jenny led on to the discovery of water-power and other

11
things which made the mill displace the labour of thousands of people. That was, in my view, a
monstrosity. We will by concentrating on the villages see that the inventive skill that an intensive
learning of the craft will stimulate will subserve the needs of the villages as a whole."

Harijan, 18 September 1937 (CW 66, pp. 1379)

The Best System

At the end of the Educational conference held at Wardha, (1937), Gandhiji remarked in the
course of a talk with the members of the Executive Committee," I have given many things to
India. But this system of education together with its technique is, I feel, the best of them. I do not
think I will have anything better to offer to the country."

Problem of Education, Introduction, p. v

Manual Labour

"One of the complaints that has been made by one of you," Gandhiji remarked, "is that too much
emphasis is laid here on manual work. I am a firm believer in the educative value of manual
work. Our present educational system is meant for strengthening and perpetuating the imperialist
power in India. Those of you who have been brought up under it have naturally developed a taste
for it and so find labour irksome. No one in Government schools or colleges bothers to teach the
students, how to clean the roads or latrines. Here, cleanliness and sanitation form the very alpha
and omega of your training. Scavenging is a fine art you should take pains to learn. Persistent
questioning and healthy inquisi-tiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind.
Inquisitiveness should be tempered by humility and respectful regard for the teacher. It must not
degenerate into impudence. The latter is the enemy of the receptivity of mind. There can be no
knowledge without humility and the will to learn.

"Useful manual labour, intelligently performed, is the means par excellence for developing the
intellect. One may develop a sharp intellect otherwise too. But then it will not be a balanced
growth but an unbalanced, distorted abortion. It might easily make of one a rogue and a rascal. A
balanced intellect presupposes a harmonious growth of body, mind and soul. That is why we give

12
to manual labour the central place in our curriculum of training here. An intellect that is
developed through the medium of socially useful labour will be an instrument for service and
will not easily be led astray or fall into devious paths. The latter can well be a scourge. If you
grasp that essential point, the money spent by your respective governments in sending you here
for training will have been well-spent."

Harijan, 8 September 1946 (CW 85, pp. 199200)

Reorientation of University Education

Gandhiji remarked at the Conference of Education Ministers in Poona that

what he had said about adult education applied to University education. It
must be originally related to the Indian scene. It must therefore be an
extension and continuation of the Basic Education course. That was the
central point. If they did not see eye to eye with him on that point, he was
afraid they would have little use for his advice. If, on the other hand, they
agreed with him that the present University education did not fit them for
independence but only enslaved them, they would be as impatient as he was
to completely overhaul and scrap that system and remodel it on new lines
consonant with the national requirement.

Today the youth educated in our universities either ran after the Government
jobs or fell into devious ways and sought outlet for their frustration by
fomenting unrest. They were not even ashamed to beg or sponge upon
others. Such was their sad plight. The aim of University education should be
to turn out true servants of the people, who would live and die for the
countrys freedom. He was therefore of opinion that University education
should be co-ordinated and brought into line with Basic Education, by taking
in teachers from the Talimi Sangh.

Harijan, 25 August 1946

Medium of Instruction: Mother Tongue

13
I am hoping that this University1 will see to it that the youths who come to it will receive their
instruction through the medium of their vernaculars. Our language is the reflection of ourselves,
and if you tell me that our languages are too poor to express the best thought, then I say that the
sooner we are wiped out of existence the better for us. Is there a man who dreams that English
can ever become the national language of India? (Cries of Never) Why this handicap on the
nation? Just consider for one moment what an unequal race our lads have to run with every
English lad. I had the privilege of a close conversation with some Poona professors. They
assured me that every Indian youth, because he reached his knowledge through the English
language, lost at least six precious years of life. Multiply that by the number of students turned
out by our schools and colleges and find out for yourselves how many thousand years have been
lost to the nation. The charge against us is, that we have no initiative. How can we have any if we
are to devote the precious years of our life to the mastery of a foreign tongue? We fail in this
attempt also. . . . I have heard it said that after all it is English-educated India which is leading
and which is doing everything for the nation.

It would be monstrous if it were otherwise. The only education we receive is English education.
Surely we must show something for it. But suppose that we had been receiving during the past
fifty years education through our vernaculars, what should we have today? We should have today
a free India, we should have our educated men, not as if they were foreigners in their own land,
but speaking to the heart of the nation; they would be working amongst the poorest of the poor,
and whatever they would have gained during the past fifty years would be a heritage for the
nation (Applause). Today even our wives are not sharers in our best thought. Look at Professor
Bose and Professor Ray and their brilliant researches. Is it not a shame that their researches are
not the common property of the masses?

Speech at Banaras Hindu University, 6 February 1916

Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, pp.31820

(CW 13, pp. 21112)

Education for Life

14
As to adult education, Gandhiji observed that it had become clear to him that the scope of basic
education had to be extended. It should include the education of everybody at every stage of
life.1

A basic school teacher must consider himself a universal teacher. As soon as he comes in contact
with anybody, man or woman, young or old, he should say to himself: Now, what can I give to
this person?

Higher Education for Women

After primary education, a girl gets another four to five years of secondary education. Expressing
his views on the question as to whether in this period she should be taught through English or the
mother tongue, Gandhiji said: "I feel that teaching English to them under the circumstances
would be like killing them. It will never be possible for hundreds of thousands of women to think
or express their thoughts in English; and even if it were possible, it would be undesirable.

"If the women for whom we are drawing up this plan are imparted higher education through the
mother tongue, they could make their homes as bright and beautiful as gold. Not only that, they
could also exert their good influence on their uneducated sisters and thus render valuable service
to them as well."

Modern Girls Education

I was really surprised to see the stride that education among girls had taken in the State of
Travancore. It was a perfect eye-opener to me. The question has always occurred to me: "What
will India do with its modern girls?" I call you modern girls of India. The education that we are
receiving in these institutions, in my opinion, does not correspond with the life around us, and,
when I say life around us, I do not mean the life around us in the cities but the life around us in
the villages. Perhaps some of you girls, if not all of you, know that real India is to be found not
here in the very few cities but in the seven hundred thousand villages covering a surface of 1,900
miles long and 1,500 miles broad. The question is whether you have any message for your sisters

15
in the villages. Men do not need the message perhaps so much as the women, and I have long
before come to the conclusion that unless women of India work side by side with men, there is
no salvation for India, salvation in more senses than one. I mean political salvation in the
broadest sense, and I mean economic salvation and spiritual salvation also.

Speech at Womens College, Madras, 24 March 1925 (CW 26, pp. 39596)

Curriculum for Girls Education

Women must learn as part of elementary education at least their own mother tongue, Hindi if it is
not their mother tongue, enough Sanskrit to be able to understand the drift of the Bhagavad Gita,
elementary arithmetic, elementary composition, elementary music and child-care. Along with
this, I think they should know well the processes up to the weaving from cotton. When a woman
receives this education she should have an environment that will shape her character and enable
her to see clearly the evils in society and to avoid them. I have not mentioned religious education
separately as it is acquired by practice and would be covered by general reading. Truly speaking,
it is a part of the elevating company of a teacher. This is about girls. The education of a widow or
a married woman is of course a different matter.

Letter to Aanandibai, 22 August 1927

(CW 34, p. 384) (Translated from Gujarati)

Education to Women

Today we have assembled for the opening of a girls school. I have made a thorough study of
child education. I could say the same thing about girls education. But how can experts accepts
this? Today, even I cannot make that claim. In the prevailing state of affairs it is not easy to talk
about girls education. Everyone may well claim that he is capable of giving education to girls. I
will however ask him whether he has imparted true education to his daughter or his wife. How
can he who has not observed his dharma towards his wife, sister, mother or mother-in-law, set
out to teach the daughters or sisters of others? They may well become B.As. or M.As. but I shall

16
put them to the same test. I should like to know what kind of husbands and fathers those who
write books on girls education are.

Speech at Inauguration of Vithal Kanya Vidyalaya, Nadiad, 31 May 1935

(CW 61, p. 118)

Co-education

In theory, we are quite in favour of boys and girls receiving education together. But, in practice,
it is impossible to ignore deep-rooted habits or prejudices. Experience has shown that Indian
parents, as a rule, will not allow their daughters to mingle with boys at a school or elsewhere.
And, whenever a forcible mixture takes place, the result is ludicrous in the extreme. Both the
boys and girls feel awkward. "Let them", shouts the unthinking reformer. "They will soon be at
home, if left alone." But the parents will not wait for the process. They are not reformers and
they will not allow experiments to be made at their childrens expense.

Indian Opinion, 19 August 1911 (CW 11, p. 145)

Co-education not Compulsory

As for co-education, the Zakir Husain Committee has not made it compulsory. Where there is a
demand for a separate school for girls, the State will have to make provision. The question of co-
education has been left open. It will regulate itself according to the time-spirit. So far as I am
aware the members of the Committee were not all of one mind. Personally I have an open mind.
I think that there are just as valid reasons for as against co-education. And I would not oppose the
experiment wherever it is made.

Harijan, 16 July 1938 (CW 67, p. 175)

Co-education in Training Schools

Shri Avinashilingam, the Education Minister of Madras, felt that the co-education policy of the
Talimi Sangh was not suitable to Madras. He had no objection to co-education among children

17
and among grown-ups, when they knew their own minds. But he was not in favour of co-
education at the impressionable age of 15 or 16 when most of the girls came to training schools.
Gandhiji, however, disagreed. "If you keep co-education in your schools but not in your training-
schools, the children will think there is something wrong somewhere. I should allow my children
to run the risk. We shall have to rid ourselves one day of this sex mentality. We should not seek
for examples from the West. Even in training-schools, if the teachers are intelligent, pure and
filled with the spirit of Nayee Talim, there is no danger. Supposing if some accidents do take
place, we should not be frightened by them. They would take place anywhere. Although I speak
thus boldly, I am not unaware of the attendant risks. You, as a responsible Minister, should think
for yourself and act accordingly."

Harijan, 9 November 1947 (CW 89, pp. 33233)

Wrong Apotheosis of Women

He next dwelt on a topic on which he had spoken in the Subjects Committee, but could not have
any resolution thereon as he did not find the proper atmosphere. The occasion was a letter
addressed to him by the ladies in charge of a womens movement called Jyoti Sangh. The letter
enclosed copy of a resolution they had passed condemning the present-day tendencies in
literature regarding the presentation of women. There was, Gandhiji felt, considerable force in
the complaint, and he said: "The gravest of their charge is that the present-day writers give an
entirely false picture of women. They are exasperated at the sickly sentimentality with which you
delineate them, at the vulgar way in which you dwell on their physical form. Does all their
beauty and their strength lie in their physical form, in their capacity to please the lustful eye of
men? Why, the writers of the letter justly ask, should we be eternally represented as meek
submissive women for whom all the menial jobs of the house-hold are reserved, and whose only
deities are their husbands? Why are they not delineated as they really are? We are, they say,
neither etherial damsels, nor dolls, nor bundles of passions and nerves. We are as much human
beings as men are, and we are filled with the same urge for freedom. I claim to know them and
their minds sufficiently well. There was a time in South Africa when I was surrounded by
numerous women, all their men-folk having gone to jails. There were some sixty inmates and I

18
had become the brother and father of all the girls and women. Let me tell you that they grew in
strength and spirit under me, so much so that they ultimately marched to jails themselves.

"I am told that our literature is full of even an exaggerated apotheosis of women. Let me say that
it is an altogether wrong apotheosis. Let me place one simple test before you. In what light do
you think of them when you proceed to write about them? I suggest that before you put your
pens to paper, think of women as your own mother, and I assure you the chastest literature will
flow from your pens even like the beautiful rain from heaven which waters the thirsty earth
below. Remember that a woman was your mother before a woman became your wife. Far from
quenching their spiritual thirst some writers stimulate their passions, so much so that poor
ignorant women waste their time wondering how they might answer to the description our fiction
gives of them. Are detailed descriptions of their physical form an essential part of literature, I
wonder? Do you find anything of the kind in the Upanishads, the Quran or the Bible? And yet do
you know that the English language would be empty without the Bible? Three parts Bible and
one part Shakespeare is the description of it. Arabic would be forgotten without the Quran. And
think of Hindi without Tulsidas! Do you find in it anything like what you find in present day
literature about women?

Harijan, 21 November 1936 (True Education, pp. 179180)

Make Schools Ideal

To teachers, Gandhiji said that they must not make any use of books for imparting education, as
books spoiled eyes and blunted the intellect. He himself had experienced that. He understood that
in Russia they were conducting one thousand schools for peasants and that they were giving
education without the aid of books by making all possible use of the senses. He asked them to
clean their own houses and streets themselves and not to depend on others for doing the same.

Concluding, Mahatmaji asked them to make their schools ideal in every way, so that the boys
and girls of the mill-owners might envy them and the mill-owners might be tempted to send their
children to the labour schools. On truth depended the foundation of education, and they must
always resort to truth.

19
The Hindu, 31 March 1928 (CW 36, p. 166)

MAHATMA GANDHI ON EDUCATION

Mahatma Gandhi on education. His critique of western, particularly English, education was part
of his critique of Western civilization as a whole. Barry Burke explores his vision.

The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We assess the value of
education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange
market. We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more. We
hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say,
do not have to earn; so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no
hope of our ever knowing the true value of education. (M. K. Gandhi True Education on the
NCTE site)

In a piece published some years ago, Krishna Kumar, Professor of Education at Delhi University,
wrote that no one rejected colonial education as sharply and as completely as Gandhi did, nor
did anyone else put forward an alternative as radical as the one he proposed. Gandhis critique
of Western, particularly English, education was part of his critique of Western civilization as a
whole. There is a story that, on arriving in Britain after he had become famous, someone asked
him the question: Mr Gandhi, what do you think of civilization in England? to which he replied
I think that it would be something worth trying!

20
Early life

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbander on the West coast of India. He
had a reasonably conventional middle class Indian upbringing. His father (Karamchand) was the
senior official (dewan or prime minister) of a small Indian state (Porbandar) before moving on to
be the chief karbhari(adviser) in the principality of Rajkot. He looked to his son to follow in his
footsteps. Gandhi went to school, did not particularly excel at anything but learned the things
that were expected of him. He married in 1882, aged 13. His wife, Kasturbai Makanji who was
also 13, was the daughter of a local merchant and was chosen for him. (Gandhi was later to speak
strongly of the cruel custom of child marriage). At the end of his formal schooling he decided
that he wanted to be a lawyer. To do this he had to come to England to enroll at the Inner Temple.
He was called to the Bar in the summer of 1891. On his return to India, he found that he could
not make a successful career as a lawyer so he moved to South Africa in 1893.

His experiences in South Africa changed his life. While he was there, he came face to face with
blatant racism and discrimination of a kind that he had never witnessed in India. The humiliation
he felt at the hands of officials turned him from a meek and unassertive individual into a
determined political activist. He had originally gone to South Africa on a one year contract to
work for an Indian law firm in Natal Province. There he took up various grievances on behalf of
the Indian community and gradually found himself first as their advocate on civil rights issues
and finally as their leader in a political movement against racial discrimination and for South
African Indian rights. His methods were unusual. He launched a struggle against the authorities
which in keeping with his strict Hindu beliefs was based on a strict adherence to non-violence.
This meant that it consisted of passive resistance the peaceful violation of certain laws, the
courting of collective arrests (he urged his followers to fill the jails), non-co-operation with the
authorities, boycotts and spectacular marches. These methods were later to be perfected back in
India in the fight for independence from the British Empire.

Gandhis ideas were gradually perfected as a result of his South African experiences. Throughout
his life, the ideas he formed in these first few years in South Africa were to be developed to fit
various changed circumstances in the fight for Indian independence. They were, however, set
within a global context of a total rejection of modern civilization. His rejection of modern or
Western civilization was all encompassing. He described it as the Kingdom of Satan polluting

21
everyone it touched. Modernization in the form of industrialization, machinery, parliamentary
government, the growth of the British Empire and all the things that most people regarded as
progress, Gandhi rejected. In opposition to modern civilization he counter posed ancient Indian
civilization with its perceived emphasis on village communities that were self-sufficient and self-
governing. He was concerned with the stranglehold that Western civilization had over India. The
materialistic values that the British Raj imposed on India had to be countered by the spirituality
of Ancient India. Time and time again throughout his life he would return to this theme of the
need to revert to what he called their own glorious civilization which was far superior to
anything modern society could offer.

Swaraj and Swadeshi

What Gandhi was looking for was what he called swaraj and swadeshi. These two terms taken
together represent the type of society that Gandhi was looking for.Swaraj, very badly translates
as independence/autonomy/home rule/self rule.Swadeshi can be translated as self-sufficiency or
self-reliance.

Swaraj for Gandhi was not simply a question of ousting the British from India and declaring
independence. What it implied was a wholly different type of society. He did not want the British
to be replaced by Indians doing exactly the same. If that was all they achieved, they would not
have achieved true freedom but merely the same type of government run by a different set of
men. He wanted the value system and life style of the British Raj to be done away with and
totally replaced by a simpler, more spiritual, communal life. This new type of society, reflecting
the old values of pre-colonial days, was to be based on the village. He stated that:

[I]ndependence must begin at the bottom. Thus every village will be a republic having full
powers. It follows, therefore, that every village has to be self-sustained and capable of managing
its affairs. Thus, ultimately, it is the individual who is the unit. This does not exclude dependence
on and willing help from neighbours or from the world In this structure composed of
innumerable villages, there will be ever-widening, never-ascending circles. Life will not be a
pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom.

22
Gandhis vision for a new India entailed that every religion has its full and equal place. (He was
totally opposed to the partition of India). Equally, there would be no room for machines that
would displace human labour and that would concentrate power in a few hands.

In his Collected Works there is a passage, written in 1942, that amplifies his ideas on the role of
the village. He states that my idea of village swaraj is that it is a complete republic, independent
of its neighbours for its own vital wants, and yet interdependent for many others in which
dependence is a necessity. He continues:

Thus every villages first concern will be to grow its own food crops and cotton for its cloth. It
should have a reserve for its cattle, recreation and playground for adults and children. Then, if
there is more land available, it will grow usefulmoney crops, thus excluding ganja, tobacco,
opium and the like. The village will maintain a village theatre, school and public hail. It will
have its own waterworks, ensuring clean water supply. This can be done through controlled wells
or tanks. Education will be compulsory up to the final basic course. As far as possible every
activity will be conducted on the co-operative basis. There will be no castes such as we have
today with their graded untouchability. Non-violence with its technique of non-cooperation
will be the sanction of the village community. There will be a compulsory service of village
guards who will be selected by rotation from the register maintained by the village. The
government of the village will be conducted by a [council] of five persons annually elected by
the adult villagers, male and female, possessing minimum prescribed qualifications. These will
have all the authority and jurisdiction required. Since there will be no system of punishments in
the accepted sense, this [council] will be the legislature, judiciary and executive combined to
operate for its year of office.

Gandhi was quite certain that any village could become such a republic straight away without
much interference even from the colonial government because he beleived that their sole
effective connection with the villages was the collection of village taxes. All that was needed was
the will to do it. He referred to his ideal state as one of enlightened anarchy in which each
person will become his own ruler. It is interesting to see that throughout his writings on the
autonomous self-sufficient village communities we see echoes of the anarchist lifestyles
proposed by such writers as Tolstoy or Thoreau in the nineteenth century.

23
On education

Given Gandhis values and his vision of what constituted a truly civilized and free India, it was
not surprising that he developed firm views on education. Education not only moulds the new
generation, but reflects a societys fundamental assumptions about itself and the individuals
which compose it. His experience in South Africa not only changed his outlook on politics but
also helped him to see the role education played in that struggle. He was aware that he had been
a beneficiary of Western education and for a number of years while he was in South Africa he
still tried to persuade Indians to take advantage of it. However, it was not until the early years of
this century, when he was in his middle thirties, that he became so opposed to English education
that he could write about the rottenness of this education and that to give millions a knowledge
of English is to enslave them that, by receiving English education, we have enslaved the
nation. He was enraged that he had to speak of Home Rule or Independence in what was clearly
a foreign tongue, that he could not practice in court in his mother tongue, that all official
documents were in English as were all the best newspapers and that education was carried out in
English for the chosen few. He did not blame the colonial powers for this. He saw that it was
quite logical that they would want an elite of native Indians to become like their rulers in both
manners and values. In this way, the Empire could be consolidated. Gandhi blamed his fellow
Indians for accepting the situation. Later in his life he was to declare that real freedom will
come only when we free ourselves of the domination of Western education, Western culture and
Western way of living which have been ingrained in us .. . Emancipation from this culture would
mean real freedom for us.

As we have seen, Gandhi had not only rejected colonial education but also put forward a radical
alternative. So what was this alternative? What was so radical about it?

First of all, I need to say a word about Gandhis attitude to industrialization. He was, in fact,
absolutely opposed to modern machinery. In his collected works, he refers to machinery as
having impoverished India, that it was difficult to measure the harm that Manchester had done to
them by producing machine-made cloth which, in turn, ruined the internal market for locally
produced handwoven goods. Typically of Gandhi, however, he does not blame Manchester or the
mill owners. How can Manchester be blamed? he writes. We wore Manchester cloth and this is
why Manchester wove it. However, he notes that where cloth mills were not introduced in India,

24
in places such as Bengal, the original hand-weaving occupation was thriving. Where they did
have mills e.g. in Bombay, he felt that the workers there had become slaves. He was shocked by
the conditions of the women working in the mills of Bombay and made the point that before they
were introduced these women were not starving. He maintained that if the machinery craze
grows in our country, it will become an unhappy land. What he wanted was for Indians to
boycott all machine-made goods not just cloth. He was quite clear when he asked the question
What did India do before these articles were introduced? and then answered his own question
by stating Precisely the same should be done today. As long as we cannot make pins without
machinery, so long will we do without them. The tinsel splendour of glassware we will have
nothing to do with, and we will make wicks, as of old, with home-grown cotton and use
handmade earthen saucers or lamps. So doing, we shall save our eyes and money and support
swadeshi and so shall we attain Home Rule.

Within this context of the need for a machine-less society, Gandhi developed his ideas on
education. The core of his proposal was the introduction of productive handicrafts in the school
curriculum. The idea was not simply to introduce handicrafts as a compulsory school subject, but
to make the learning of a craft the centrepiece of the entire teaching programme. It implied a
radical restructuring of the sociology of school knowledge in India, where productive handicrafts
had been associated with the lowest groups in the hierarchy of the caste system. Knowledge of
the production processes involved in crafts, such as spinning, weaving, leather-work, pottery,
metal-work, basket-making and bookbinding, had been the monopoly of specific caste groups in
the lowest stratum of the traditional social hierarchy. Many of them belonged to the category of
untouchables. Indias own tradition of education as well as the colonial education system had
emphasized skills such as literacy and acquisition of knowledge of which the upper castes had a
monopoly.

Gandhis proposal intended to stand the education system on its head. The social philosophy and
the curriculum of what he called basic education thus favoured the child belonging to the
lowest stratum of society. in such a way it implied a programme of social transformation. It
sought to alter the symbolic meaning of education and to change the established structure of
opportunities for education.

25
Why Gandhi proposed the introduction of productive handicrafts into the school system was not
really as outrageous as may appear. What he really wanted was for the schools to be self-
supporting, as far as possible. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, a poor society such as
India simply could not afford to provide education for all children unless the schools could
generate resources from within. Secondly, the more financially independent the schools were, the
more politically independent they could be. What Gandhi wanted to avoid was dependence on
the state which he felt would mean interference from the centre. Above all else, Gandhi valued
self-sufficiency and autonomy. These were vital for his vision of an independent India made up
of autonomous village communities to survive. It was the combination of swaraj and swadeshi
related to the education system. A state system of education within an independent India would
have been a complete contradiction as far as Gandhi was concerned.

He was also of the opinion that manual work should not be seen as something inferior to mental
work. He felt that the work of the craftsman or labourer should be the ideal model for the good
life. Schools which were based around productive work where that work was for the benefit of
all were, therefore, carrying out education of the whole person mind, body and spirit.

The right to autonomy that Gandhis educational plan assigns to the teacher in the context of the
schools daily curriculum is consistent with the libertarian principles that he shared with Tolstoy.
Gandhi wanted to free the Indian teacher from interference from outside, particularly
government or state bureaucracy. Under colonial rule, the teacher had a prescribed job to do that
was based on what the authorities wanted the children to learn. Textbooks were mandatory so
that Gandhi found that the living word of the teacher has very little value. A teacher who teaches
from textbooks does not impart originality to his pupils. Gandhis plan, on the other hand,
implied the end of the teachers subservience to the prescribed textbook and the curriculum. It
presented a concept of learning that simply could not be fully implemented with the help of
textbooks. Of equal, if not more importance, was the freedom it gave the teacher in matters of
curriculum. It denied the state the power to decide what teachers taught and what they did in the
classroom. It gave autonomy to the teacher but it was, above all, a libertarian approach to
schooling that transferred power from the state to the village.

26
Gandhis basic education was, therefore, an embodiment of his perception of an ideal society
consisting of small, self-reliant communities with his ideal citizen being an industrious, self-
respecting and generous individual living in a small co-operative community.

For informal educators, we can draw out a number of useful pointers. First, Gandhis insistence
on autonomy and self-regulation is reflected in the ethos of informal education. Gandhis
conception of basic education was concerned with learning that was generated within everyday
life which is the basis on which informal educators work. It was also an education focused on the
individual but reliant on co-operation between individuals. There is also a familar picture of the
relationships between educators and students/learners:

A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from
them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples is, in my opinion,
worthless. Whenever I talk with someone I learn from him. I take from him more than I give
him. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his students. If you will teach your
pupils with this attitude, you will benefit much from them. (Talk to Khadi Vidyalaya Students,
Sevagram, Sevak, 15 February 1942 CW 75, p. 269)

Lastly, it was an education that aimed at educating the whole person, rather than concentrating
on one aspect. It was a highly moral activity.

References

Chadha, Y. (1997) Rediscovering Gandhi, London: Century.

Gandhi, M. K. (1977) The Collected Works, Ahmedabad: Navajivan.

Gandhi, M. K. (1997) Hind Swaraj and other writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kumar, K. (1994) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in Z. Morsy (ed.) Thinkers on Education

Volume 2, Paris: UNESCO.

Links

Gandhi On Education: excellent collection of quotes from the National Council for Teacher
Education

27
Mahatma Gandhi: The Complete Information provides information on his philosophies,
struggles, biography etc. Also has the beginnings of an net edition of his collected works.

THE RELEVANCE OF MAHATMA GANDHI'S EDUCATIONAL

PHILOSOPHY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

This paper has two parts. In the first part, I attempt a critical overview of
Mahatma Gandhis educational philosophy and, very briefly, try to assess its actual
implementation since it was first proposed. In the second part, I shall try to apply
the educational ideal of Gandhiji to what I perceive as the needs of the coming
decades.

Most of Gandhis important writings on education have been compiled and edited
by Bharatan Kumarappa in two slim books, Basic Education (1951) and Towards
New Education(1953). These writings are mostly miscellaneous, consisting of
letters, speeches, extracts from books, and so on, but together they may be taken to
constitute a coherent philosophy of education. The most significant single
document in all of Gandhis writings on education is probably the Inaugural

28
Address that he delivered at the Wardha Conference of 1937. Perhaps, it is not
accidental that we are meeting at the same venue sixty-two years later. I shall
come back to this Inaugural Address, in which Gandhi is reported to have spoken
for 85 minutes (Varkey 4). But first, let us try to understand, briefly, what this
conference was about.

The Wardha conference was held under the auspices of the Marwari Education
Society (later renamed as the Nava Bharat Vidyalaya) at Wardha on 22nd and 23rd
October 1937. Jamnalal Bajaj was the President of this Society, which held the
conference to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the society and of the Marwari
High School of Wardha. The idea was to give Gandhi a national platform to
launch his ideas of education. Gandhi was the President of the conference, which
was attended by well-known educationists and ministers, including B. G. Kher,
Premier of Bombay Presidency, Zakir Hussain, Principal of Jamia Millia, Delhi, P.
Subbarayan, former Minister for Education, Madras, Viswanath Das, former
Minister for Education, Orissa, Ravishankar Shukla, former Minister Educationa
Minister, Central Provinces, Jamnalal Bajaj, J. C. Kumarappa, Kakasaheb Kalelkar,
and a number of other eminent educationists and associates of Gandhi.

The Agenda, formulated by Gandhi, contained four propositions, which may be

summarized as follows: 1. The present system of education does not meet the
requirements of the country.... 2. The course of primary education should be
extended at least to seven years and should include the general knowledge gained
up to the matriculation standard, less English and plus a substantial vocation. 3.
For the all-round development of boys and girls all training should as far as
possible be given through a profit-yielding vocation. 4. Higher education
should be left to private enterprise and should be to meet national requirements
whether in the various industries, technical arts, belles-letters or fine arts (Varkay
3-4).

At the conclusion of the conference, four Resolutions were adopted.

These had been proposed by a committee, which worked through the night, under
the Chairmanship of Zakir Hussain. The resolutions were: 1. That...free and
compulsory education be provided for seven years on a nation-wide scale. 2

29
That the medium of instruction be the mother-tongue. 3. That ... the process of
education ... should centre around some form of manual and productive work....
4. That...this system of education ... be gradually able to cover the remuneration
of the teachers (ibid 5-6). Afterwards a committee was formed to design a suitable
syllabus and to submit its report to Gandhi. This report was submitted in
December 1937. Thereafter, a second Report was published in 1938, with detailed
clarifications and replies to objections raised against the first Report. This second
Report contained detailed syllabi for three subjects, or crafts as Gandhi would have
preferred to call them: agriculture, spinning, and weaving.

So, all these documentsGandhis Inaugural Speech, the Agenda, the

Resolutions, and the two Reports that followed, make up the kernel of Nai Talim or
the New Education, that later became famous all over India.

What I propose to do here is not to examine these texts in great detail, but
focus instead on Gandhis underlying principles of education upon which they
were based. This will enable us to escape from an engagement with the nitty-gritty
of the syllabus or of several other practical aspects of the scheme such as funding.
In fact, most the objections and criticisms were aimed at these aspects while very
few questioned the basic philosophy behind them. The latter is clearly voiced by
Gandhi in his aforementioned Inaugural Address, to which we can now turn for a
more detailed look.

Gandhi begins by explaining that his educational agenda includes both primary as
well as higher or college education, but his emphasis is clearly on the former. Also
that his ideas are an outcome of his extensive travels through Indian villages and
his experience of rural life in South Africa (see Varkey 19-20). In other words,
Gandhis educational philosophy was born out of his intense need to better the
condition of rural India. As Kumarappa puts it, Gandhiji saw that the only way of
saving the nation at that juncture was to revive village economic life and to relate
education to it. Education ... was to be based on village occupations. The child
was to be trained to be a producer (Editors Note to Basic Education: iii).

30
 The first major point Gandhi makes in the Inaugural Address is that the
prevalent system of education is defective: I am convinced that the present
system of primary education is not only wasteful but positively harmful (Varkey
20). I suppose, we can still assent to this basic truth that Gandhi observed. His
reasons for advancing such a claim are, however, equally important: Most of the
boys are lost to the parents and to the occupation to which they are born. They
pick up evil habits, affect urban ways and get a smattering of something which
may be anything but education (ibid). Gandhi goes on to ask, What then should
be the form of primary education? and answers his own question with what is the
quintessence of his educational philosophy: I think the remedy lies in educating
them by means of vocational or manual training (ibid).

The rest of the speech goes on the elaborate upon and explain the salient
features of this scheme. First of all Gandhi tells that he came upon this method
through his educational experiments in Tolstoy Farm, where he himself learned
shoe making from his associate Kallenbach, who had been trained in a Trappist
monastery (ibid). After telling us about the source of this ideas, he then clarifies
that what he advocates is not the teaching of some handicrafts side by side with
so-called liberal education. I want that the whole of education should be imparted
through some handicraft or industry (ibid). I think this is the key sentence to
which we will have to turn our attention in the second part of this paper. Gandhi
believes that in the medieval ages, where education was craft-centred, there was
little attempt to develop the intellect of the pupil (20-21). He therefore advocates
the imparting of the whole art and science of a craft through practical training and
there-through imparting the whole education (21). He give the example of takli-
spinning, through which a student will not only garner knowledge of various
varieties of cotton, but of different soil-types, of the ruin of native industries under
colonialism, of the history of British rule in India, and of basic arithmetic (ibid).
We might add that the pupil would also learn hand-eye coordination, besides
developing his or her skills in concentration, balance, and physical intelligence. So,
clearly, what Gandhi had in mind was a sort of holistic or composite education
structured around the learning of a craft. Of course, the example of the takli is no
accident. Gandhi was convinced that spinning was the panacea for Indias woes:

31
the takli is the only practical solution of our problem, considering the deplorable
economic conditions prevailing in the country (21). Gandhi advocates that
primary education itself should focus on the takli and he actually devices a syllabus
to that effect. But, mercifully, he also leaves it to the Congress Ministers to decide
whether to accept or reject it (ibid). Gandhis emphasis on spinning was not all
that irrational or fanatical; he believed that students would earn as they learned if
they spun regularly. He thought that they could actually produce enough to
support their teachers salaries! Besides, the cloth that they manufactured could be
consumed by the students themselves and by their families. Gandhi envisaged a
seven year course in primary education centred on spinning, which would
culminate with lessons in weaving, dyeing, and designing (Varkey 22). By the end
of the process, the pupil would have trade that would support him or her for life.
At least that was the aim and the ideal.

Gandhi also insisted that his scheme for primary education would include
the elementary principles of sanitation, hygiene, nutrition, besides compulsory
physical training through musical drill (ibid). Gandhi refutes the charge that he is
opposed to literary training, and rejects the accusation that his scheme would
result in the exploitation of children. Is it burdening the child to save him from
disaster? he asks. Besides, he argues, the takli is an effective toy, not just the
source of livelihood (ibid). Unlike the present system which is wasteful,
unaffordable, and alienating, Gandhi argues that his scheme would make students
strong, confident, and useful to their parents and their country. Gandhi adds that
his system would lead to communal harmony because it would be the same for all;
it would this be practical religion, the religion of self-help (Varkey 23). Gandhi
believes that his plan springs out of non-violence (ibid). It has the capacity to
make students true representatives of our culture, our civilization, of the true
genius of our nation (Varkey 23-24). We are not to follow Europe, Russia, or
America, Gandhi says, because their systems are founded on violence and
exploitation (Varkey 24).

When we examine the main ideas in this Inaugural Address, we find that
they were in Gandhis mind for several decades. Though Nai Talim itself was
launched in 1937 as weve just seen, Gandhis experiments with education, which
32
began on the Tolstoy farm, were at least 30 years old. Similarly, the basis of many
of his later ideas can be found in Chapter XVIII of Hind Swaraj (1909), that bible
of non-violent revolution, which also contains most of the essential elements of the
entire Gandhian violent arsenal. In this chapter, Gandhi clearly defines what he
means by education. It is not merely a knowledge of letters (87). Quoting
Huxley, Gandhi says that that person is properly educated whose body is the
ready servant of his will...; whose intellect is clear...; whose mind is stored with a
knowledge of fundamental truths of nature...; whose passions are trained to come
to heel by a vigorous will...; (88). Gandhi is against the prevalent model of higher
education because it alienates the student from society and stuffs him with largely
irrelevant imported information. He his totally against the widespread use of
English as the medium of instruction: To give millions a knowledge of English is
to enslave them. ... Is it not a sad commentary that we should have to speak of
Home Rule in a foreign tongue? (90). Gandhi later reserved a more limited place
for English as a language of international communication. Gandhi also
disapproved of the pretension of learning many sciences advocating instead
religious, that is ethical education (92). In brief, in Hind Swaraj, Gandhi
considers character-building, what is today known as value-education, as the
foundation of his idea of education. And this foundation had to be built in
primary education itself and ought to be compulsory.

Of course, we need to remember that Gandhis views were grounded in a larger

perspective which might be termed anti-industrial, if not anti-modern. As
Kumarappa puts it, Gandhi was convinced that machine civilization ... brought
enslavement and exploitation of vast sections of a nation and of industrially
backward peoples (Basic Education iv). So education was one of the several
planks of his larger civilizational agenda, in which the independence of India was
the main thrust. Gandhis educational ideals were thus meant to transform
backward, illiterate, exploited, desperately poor peasants into self-confident and
self-respecting citizens of a new community and nation. In that sense, Gandhi was
the least elitist and most practical of our major educational thinkers of this century.
Gandhis idea of culture can be summed up in his reply of to Rabindranath Tagore:
I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be

33
stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as
possible. I refuse to live in other peoples houses as an interloper, a beggar or a
slave, Young India 1-6-21 (quoted in Towards New Education 9-10).

I think I would be useful to restate briefly the various facets of Gandhis

educational philosophy as outlined above, reducing them to the following cardinal
postulates: 1) Education means all round development; it is best obtained through
action. 2) Education has to be through a craft, not merely through books and
abstractions. 3) The basis of true education is character building; an educated
person should become an ideal citizen. 4) Education should be self-supporting as
far as possible and also equip the pupil to better his own economic conditions. 5)
Education should be based on non-violence and should work for communal
harmony. 6) The medium of instruction should be the mother-tongue, not
English. 7) Primary education should be free and compulsory for all children and
should last for at least seven years. 8) All educational planning should be
undertaken with the rural Indian masses in mind; in other words, education should
not be elitist, but popular in its character.

This is not the place to go into a detailed history of what happened to Nai
Talim. Several states adopted the scheme even before independence, when
Congress governments came to power, and there were several schools set up
specifically to carry it out. And yet, today, Nai Talim is dead. I dont know of a
single institution in India where we can find it in practice. The reason is simple.
The school boards follow a totally different system in which bookish knowledge is
paramount. Therefore, no school, unless it wishes not to be affiliated to a
recognized board, can afford to function purely on Gandhian lines. Even schools
founded on Gandhian ideals do not follow Nai Talim. Instead, they have a
superficial Gandhian veneer to them, found in such features as the all-religious
prayer, the wearing of Khadi, the token insistence on manual labour, and the
teaching of a supplementary craft such as spinning or carpentary. There is not a
single institution that I know of where the whole of education is imparted through
a craft. Similarly, far from being self-supporting, education has become almost the
sole financial responsibility of the state. Funds are always in short supply, with the
result that we are hardly closer to achieving a decent standard of literacy than we
34
were fifty years ago. India has the largest number of illiterates in the world.
Higher education is a white elephant; elitist, state-funded institutions produce
students who escape to greener pastures at the first opportunity. It is with these
facts in mind that we should approach the question of the relevance of Gandhis
educational ideas in the coming millennium.

From the foregoing discussion, it will be clear that certain fundamental

principles are intrinsic to Gandhis educational philosophy. These principles
include equity, social justice, non-violence, human dignity, economic well being,
and cultural self-respect. All of these can be subsumed into the broader, umbrella
term of Swaraj. If we think of the coming decades from the point of view of
Swaraj, well see that there is much work to be done. In our country, especially, it
is obvious that we are very far from achieving the ideal of Swaraj. There is
tremendous inequality and injustice in our society. There is also an unconscionable
gap between the rich and the poor. In addition to the old division of India and
Bharat, we now have the third category of an international super class, resident in
India, but living really in dollarized, global, air-conditioned habitat. Coming to
education, each of these classes and sub-classes are marked by their own brand and
type. Of course, the vast under class of over 400 million souls has no access to any
sort of proper education at all. For them, only a Gandhian model, which requires
the least amount of capital outlay, may do.

In other words, I would argue that the new century will be pretty much the
same as the older ones for the poorest of the poor. It will also be marked by
exploitation, violence, insecurity, poverty, hunger, and disease. For these, only a
Gandhian model, or some modification thereof holds out some hope. In recent
times, the work of Swadhyaya, based as it is on a concept like Kriti-Bhakti, comes
to mind as an example of what might work. Pandurang Shastri Athavale, or Dada,
told a small group of which I was a part, how the Collector of Rajkot approached
him for his help in making Rajkot District 100% literate. At first, Dada replied:
This is not my job. But, later, after some persuasion, agreed to help. Dada told
the Collector: This is how well do it. Lets divide the district into two parts.
You take the responsibility for one part, and I will take the responsibility for the
other. You make your half literate, Ill make mine. But Ill adopt my own
35
methods. Ill teach my wards shlokas, proverbs, stories, or whatever I think fit, but
Ill make them literate. Lets compare our results after one year. Anyone might
have guessed what the outcome of that friendly competition was. Dadas half
became literate in eight months time, while the Collectors half has probably not
yet achieved its target. This example serves to highlight the inadequacy of the state
apparatus in achieving social goals. Swadhyaya, which is based on a spiritual
volunteerism, worked where paid government employees failed. I consider the
methods of Swadhyaya to be Gandhian in that they are based on an inner
awakening of the agent and the target of change rather than on external
blandishments or subsidies.

Of course, coming back to the content of Nai Talim, it seems to me that

the emphasis on learning through craft may be retained, but perhaps modified to
suit the times. Perhaps, computer education could be imparted on the Nai Talim
model, as a revenue generating learning tool and toy for children, instead of the
takli. I know this idea would sound shocking, even blasphemous, to traditional
Gandhians, but perhaps Gandhi might have been the first to take to some of
revolutionary changes in communications technology that are impacting our world.
Gandhi himself made extensive use of the telegraph, if not the telephone in his
work. Of course, Gandhian questions about the economic configuration and
impact of any new technology would have to be taken into account. Who has
invented the technology? Whose interests does it serve? I am afraid, the answers
to these questions will reveal how the powerful produce and deploy technology to
maintain their positions. And yet, the genetic structure of all technologies is not
the same. Some have the power to reduce inequality, while others are programmed
to increase it. If the personal computer is seen as a tool which empowers
individuals rather than corporations or governments, then I am sure we shall not
miss its potential to make our world a better place. Similarly, the internet has
already created a borderless virtual world. Once again, we see a battle by the
commercial interests to take control of this new technology, but there is so much
free information and free ware available that their designs will not be entirely
successful.

36
 What I have been suggesting is that when we regard the onset of the new
Millennium, we are confronted with at least two contrasting possibilities. On the
one hand the world order struggling to be born will be as bad as or worse than the
one which controls our lives today. We may even conjure up dystopias in which
cloning, organ harvesting, and computers rule become realities. On the other hand,
we might be more hopeful and optimistic, praying for a healthier, happier, and
more prosperous tomorrow, with less inequality and human misery, a world
without wars and disease, without starvation and suffering.

Gandhian educational ideas, founded as they are on certain eternal

principles, will not lose their fundamental relevance in the years to come. Our
planners will have to think of a self-supporting primary education, which will
improve the lot of the poorest of the poor. That such an education would be based
on action, problem-solving, and practical activity, rather than mere book learning is
also perfectly valid. An integral education, which allows the whole being of a
person to grow, an education which emphases character-building and cultural
identity, is once again, obviously desirable. It is equally clear that we have failed
miserably in our state-sponsored schemes to provide free, compulsory primary
education to all. The Gandhian model, therefore, retains its relevance and
attractiveness. However, whether such an education can be imparted solely or
primarily through the learning of a craft, and whether the potential beneficiaries or
the state will accept it remains to be seen. Finally, the Gandhian model needs, in
my opinion, a built-in mechanism of absorbing or confronting the newer and newer
technologies that are emerging each day. As it stands, it seems to be somewhat
backward looking, or at any rate, designed for a static societie in which stable
ancestral occupations persist from generation to generation. I think that the
coming age will be one of phenomenal and unprecedented change. But this does
not mean that the perennial values that Gandhi lived by and advocated will lose
their influence. What this does mean is that we shall have to find newer and newer
ways to interpret, understand, impart, and live them out.

37
 Gandhi's Critique Of Education

Paper being presented at Seminar on Fresh Look at Hind Swaraj Being organized

by the Gandhian institute of Studies; Varanasi, from April 20 to 22, 1982.

One of the greatest tragedies of modern India is that we have completely

misunderstood the true meaning of the word swaraj as used by Gandhi. He

stated very clearly that Real home-rule is self-rule or self-control. In other

words, our freedom lies not in merely liberating ourselves from foreign rule but

from the rule of the passions. This basic fact has been overlooked by us, with the

result that India after independence has been totally different from the India of

Gandhis dreams.

But Gandhi was wise enough and shrewd enough to anticipate this development.

I know that India is not ripe for it, he admitted as early as 1921 in his Word of

Explanation to Hind Swaraj, and added that while he was working in his individual

capacity for swaraj as defined in terms of selfrule, his corporate activity was

devoted to the attainment of Parliamentary Swaraj in accordance with the wishes

of the people of India.

But times are changing fast. From many different corners of the world, there are

indications that the human race is, at long last, getting ready to listen to the true

(rather than purely political) meaning of the word swaraj. As Marilyn Ferguson has

explained at length in her wonderful book, The Aquarian Conspiracy, a

38
leaderless but powerful network whose members have broken with certain key

elements of Western Thought is at work to bring about a major but silent

revolution of a staggering nature, and with profound consequences for all of

mankind. Unfortunately, India has so far lagged behind in this awakening, but this

seminar itself may be an indication that a re-appraisal of Gandhis true message

could perhaps be round the corner.

Nothing of what Gandhi has said in Hind Swaraj can really be understood

properlyin fact, the whole thesis is liable to be distorted dangerously unless the

true meaning of Swaraj is taken into account. This applies to his denunciation of

modern gadgets and technology such as the railways, to his warning against

lawyers and doctors, to his condemnation of western civilization, to his advocacy

of nonviolence. But most important of all, it applies to his views of education. To

most of us, educated as we are along the western pattern, his declaration that

education of this kind is simply no use may seem shocking, but that is because

our modern education has blinded us to certain important facts. So, as a first

step, let us take a brief look at that basis of the education that we have received.

The basis of modern education is traceable to the philosophy of Rene Descartes

(1596-1650), who made a strict partition between mind and matter, treating them

as totally independent compartments. This partition enabled him to come up with

the reductionist approach to questionswhat these days is called the analytical

39
facultyand it is this faculty that forms the basis of all education today. This

Cartesian partition turned out to be a wonderful method for studying the

behaviour of matter, and starting with Newton (who based his work on the

philosophy of Descartes) we made startling discoveries and much progress in this

direction. As Descartes himself predicted, his method seemed to give us the key

to man becoming the master and possessor of the Nature. So effective was his

method, and so intoxicating its success, that his reductionist approach is

practically identified these days with education itself, and rules the roost in all

disciplines both in the physical and social science.

There is one single word with which the revolution that Descartes, and later

Newton, brought about is identified: think. It is word that is considered sacred in

modern education, and undoubtedly the thinking capacity of man has increased

by leaps and bounds over the last 400 years. But if we reflect carefully, we will

realize that we are taught to think primarily about things, very rarely about the

thinking process itself. In physics we are taught to think about sub-atomic

particles of incomprehensibly small sizes and speeds incomprehensibly large, but

what makes us comprehend such incomprehensible thingsthat delicate link

between mind and matteris hardly touched upon. In the medical sciences we

are taught to think about things such as muscles and nerves, organs and skin but

the wonderful faculty that gives life to these, the consciousness that distinguishes

the live body from the dead, is considered out of bound to science. Even in

40
psychology, supposedly the science of the mind, we try to analyze the others

mind, not our own, and the fact is we can never understand the functioning of

anyones mind until and unless we understand our own.

So modern education teaches us to think about everything but the thinking

process itself. We thus remain ignorant of our own inner selves, especially of how

much of a slave we are to selfish motives, to passions, to the meanest of inner

drives. We perform what we are convinced are good acts, unaware that at the

bottom of our motivation is a desire for reward, for recognition, for honour, for a

good return on investment made in the form of a temporary sacrifice. So,

instead of serving others through these good acts, we end up serving our own

ego. And bad acts are performed in abundance, for the simple reason that we do

not recognize them to be badour education has provided us no facility for such

recognition. Herein lies the key to understanding one of the greatest problems of

our age: the yawning gap between the preaching and practice of our ideals.

Thinking at an abstract level has enabled us to identify ideals such as equality,

liberty, fraternity, etc. as being desirable, but because this thinking is rooted in

things outside of us, we look upon others rather than ourselves as responsible for

putting them into practice. When we ourselves deviate from these ideals, we are

hardly even aware, for we are totally unaware of how our mind has deceived us

into these violations.

41
In order to really put those ideals into practice, a necessary but not sufficient

condition is to learn to think about our own thinking, the operation of our inner

self. This enables us to recognize how far we are removed from the ideals that we

subscribe to in theory. Then comes the next, and critical step: to learn to control

our own thinking. Only one who is a master of ones own thoughts, rather than a

slave to them, can truly practice any ideal. Mastery over ones thoughts results in

subduing ones passions and ushers in the selfrule that Gandhi was referring to

when he talked of swaraj. Education required for such mastery is very different

from that which emanated with Descartes philosophy, and leads in the direction

of becoming master and possessor of ones own Nature rather than merely

control over the material bodies and forces around us.

Fortunately for us, such an education process does not have to be invented, but

merely rediscovered. It formed the fountainhead of the teachings of the saints

and sages of all religions, and is the quintessence of Indian thought. In the golden

ages of the past, it may not have been by Indians at large, but it certainly was

available to the genuine seeker. That is why Gandhi insisted that the civilization

India has evolved into is not to be beaten in the world. He was not referring here

to institutions such as the caste system, but to the education processes by which

a human being (and hence society) could become truly civilized. At the heart of

this education process is a set of practices by which we can become universal, can

learn to identify with every being rather that just with the narrow self (which,

42
incidentally, is the highest expression of ecology, a word fast becoming popular

these days). It is these practices, spiritual in their essence, that formed the basis

of every thing that Gandhi did or said, especially in the field of education. Our

meager efforts to keep alive his concepts of basic education, bread labour etc.

have been a failure precisely because we have lost sight of his (and our) spiritual

moorings.

As Gandhi made very clear, spiritual education does not exclude the analytical

variety that we are used to these days. The important point to be borne in mind is

that analytical education by itself does not enable us to become better (i.e., more

humane) human beingsas is evident from the fact that in the modern curricula

there is scope for learning about and putting in to practice everything ranging

from space shuttles to micro-chip processors, from genetic engineering to heart

transplantsbut not simple human values such as compassion, love, honesty,

morality or even wisdom. Gandhi did give the reductionist or analytical approach

to education its place, as he put it, but only in a framework wherein we have

brought our senses under subjection and put our ethics on a firm foundation. He

was, in effect, echoing Buddhas advice:

Learning is a good thing but it availeth not. True wisdom is obtained by practice

only. Practice the simple truth that the man there is thou. In this lies happiness, in

this lies immortality.

43
Education processes by which the simple truth that the man there is thou (which,

incidentally, mounts to the same as Christs famous dictum: Love thy neighbour

as thyself) can be realized form the basis of all mystic training, but has been

sadly neglected in modern civilization. Surprisingly and fortunately, exciting

developments in modern sciences are pointing the way back to them. It began

with two revolutions that shook the foundations of the Newtonian-Cartesian

paradigm in physicsquantum theory and relativity theory. The fact, the giants

responsible for these theories made pointed references to the education processes

that Gandhi had in mind in Hind Swaraj. For example, Erwin Schroedinger has

explicitly suggested in his book What is Life that quantum theory is leading us to

the non-dualistic frame work of the Upanishads. Niels Bohr was so impressed by

the yin-yang symbol and its resemblance to quantum theorys complementarily

principles that he included it in his coat of arms. And the great Einstein went to

the extent of declaring that I do not arrive at the fundamental laws of the

universe through my noblest mainspring of scientific research. Further, he defined

this cosmic religious experience in terms that are very much in accordance with

the education processes towards attaining the advaita state as taught by our

ancient sages:

The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and

marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of

thought. Individual existence impresses him as a sort of prison and he wants to

44
experience the universe as a single significance whole.

Until recently, these hints by Einstein, Bohr, Schroedinger, etc., were ignored by

the educated world: they were too revolutionary to be handled within the existing

framework. Just as India was not ripe for Gandhis concept of swaraj, the world of

science was not ready to face up to the deep philosophical implications of

relativity and quantum theory. But in the last ten years, a number of brilliant

scientists are at work ushering in a new worldview, a new paradigm that would

on the one hand reflect the discoveries of 20th century science and on the other

hand provide an eminently suitable background for implementing Gandhis ideas

regarding education. For example, there is that young Austrian physicist Frit jof

Capra, who has caused quite stir with his book The Tao of Physics which

beautifully brings out the striking parallels between modern physics and

mysticism. There is the renowned psychologist Robert Oranstein from the

California Medical Center, whose research attempts to explain mystic teaching in

terms of development of the right hemisphere of the brain, relegating our present

education to an imbalanced development confined to the left hemisphere. Then

there is Arthur Young, inventor of the bell helicopter, who has spent over 30 years

to develop a revolutionary theory of evolution using 20th century science as its

basis: a theory in which, as in ancient thought, every human has the potential to

become divine by taking to the mystic education processes that overcome the

ego. E.F. Schumacher, father of the appropriate technology concept, had also

45
 strongly recommended (in the book he wrote just prior to his death) the adoption

of this kind of education as the only solution to our individual as well as social

problems. The list of brilliant minds who are working in this direction is long, and

includes such well-known personalities as the physicist David Bohm, the

neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, the psychologist Carl Rogers and astronaut Edgar

Mitchall.

M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. 18

True Education
What is the meaning of education? It simply means a knowledge of letter. It is merely an
instrument, and an instrument may be well used or abused.
Therefore, whether you take elementary education or higher education, it is not required
for the main thing. It does not make men of us. It does not enable us to do our duty.
In its place it can be of use and it has its place when we have brought our senses under
subjection and our ethics on a firm foundation.
Our ancient school system is enough. Character building has the first place in it and that
is primary education. A building erected on that foundation will last.
Chapter-18: Education

Reader :In the whole of our discussion, you have not demonstrated the necessity

for education; we always complain of its absence among us. We notice a

movement for compulsory education in our country. The Maharaja Gaekwar has

introduced it in his territories. Every eye is directed towards them. We bless the

Maharaja for it. Is all this effort then of no use?

Editor :If we consider our civilization to be the highest, I have regretfully to say

that much of the effort you have described is of no use. The motive of the

46
Maharaja and other great leaders who have been working in this direction is

perfectly pure. They, therefore, undoubtedly deserve great praise. But we cannot

conceal from ourselves the result that likely to flow from their effort.

What is the meaning of education? It simply means a knowledge of letters. It is

merely an instrument, and an instrument may be well used or abused. The same

instrument that may be used to cure a patient may be used to take his life, and so

may a knowledge of letters. We daily observe that many men abuse it and very

few make good use of it; and if this is a correct statement, we have proved that

more harm has been done by it than good.

The ordinary meaning of education is a knowledge of letters. To teach boys

reading, writing and arithmetic is called primary education. A peasant earns his

bread honestly. He has ordinary knowledge of the world. He knows fairly well how

he should behave towards his parents, his wife, his children and his fellow

villagers. He understands and observes the rules of morality But he cannot write

his own name. What do you propose to do by giving him a knowledge of letters ?

Will you add an inch to his happiness? Do you wish to make him discontented

with his cottage or his lot? And even if you want to do that, he will not need such

an education. Carried away by the flood of western thought we came to the

conclusion, without weighing pros and cons, that we should give this kind of

education to the people.

Now let us take higher education. I have learned Geography, Astronomy, Algebra,

Geometry, etc. What of that ? In what way have. I benefited myself or those

around me? Why have I learned these things ? Professor Huxley has thus

47
defined education: "That man I think has had a liberal education who has been

so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will and does with

ease and pleasure all the work that as a mechanism it is capable of; whose

intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine with all its parts of equal strength and in

smooth working order... whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the

fundamental truths of nature... whose passions are trained to come to heel by a

vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience... who has learnt to hate all

vileness and to respect others as himself. Such a one and no other, I conceive,

has had a liberal education, for he is in harmony with nature. He will make the

best of her and she of him."

If this is true education, I must emphatically say that the sciences I have

enumerated above I have never been able to use for controlling my senses.

Therefore, whether you take elementary education or higher education, it is not

required for the main thing. It does not make men of us. It does not enable us to

do our duty.

Reader :If that is so, I shall have to ask you - another question. What enables

you to tell all these things to me? If you had not received higher education, how

would you have been able to explain to me the things that you have?

Editor :You have spoken well. But my answer is simple: I do not for one moment

believe that my life would have been wasted, had I not received higher or lower

education. Nor do I consider that I necessarily serve because I speak. But I do

desire to serve and in endeavouring to fulfill that desire, I make use of the

education I have received. And, if I am making good use of it, even then it is not

48
for the millions, but I can use it only for such as you, and this supports my

contention. Both you and I have come under the bane of what is mainly false

education. I claim to have become free from its ill effect, and I am trying to give

you the benefit of my experience and in doing so, I am demonstrating the

rottenness of this education.

Moreover, I have not run down a knowledge of letters in all circumstances. All I

have now shown is that we must not make of it a fetish. It is not our Kamadhuk. In

its place it can be of use and it has its place when we have brought our senses

under subjection and put our ethics on a firm foundation. And then, if we feel

inclined to receive that education, we may make good use of it. As an ornament it

is likely to sit well on us. It now follows that it is not necessary to make this

education compulsory. Our ancient school system is enough. Character-building

has the first place in it and that is primary education. A building erected on that

foundation will last.

Reader :Do I then understand that you do not consider English education

necessary for obtaining Home Rule?

Editor: My answer is yes and no. To give millions a knowledge of English is to

enslave them. The foundation that Macaulay laid of education has enslaved us. I

do not suggest that he has any such intention, but that has been the result. Is it

not a sad commentary that we should have to speak of Home Rule in a foreign

tongue?

And it is worthy of note that the systems which the Europeans have discarded are

the systems in vogue among us. Their learned men continually make changes.

49
We ignorantly adhere to their cast-off systems. They are trying each division to

improve its own status. Wales is a small portion of England. Great efforts are

being made to revive a knowledge of Welsh among Welshmen. The English

Chancellor, Mr. Llyod George is taking a leading part in the movement to make

Welsh children speak Welsh. And what is our condition? We write to each other

in faulty English, and from this even our M.A.s are not free; our best thoughts are

expressed in English; the proceedings of our Congress are conducted in English;

our best newspapers are printed in English. If this state of things continues for a

long time, posterity will- it is my firm opinion - condemn and curse us.

It is worth noting that, by receiving English education, we have enslaved the

nation. Hypocrisy, tryanny, etc., have increased; English-knowing Indians have

not hesitated to cheat and strike terror into the people. Now, if we are doing

anything for the people at all, we are paying only a portion of the debt due to

them.

Is it not a painful thing that, if I want to go to a court of justice, I must employ the

English language as a medium, that when I become a barrister, I may not speak

my mother tongue and that someone else should have to translate to me from my

own language? Is not this absolutely absurd? Is it not a sign of slavery? Am I to

blame the English for it or myself? It is we, the English-knowing Indians, that

have enslaved India. The curse of the nation will rest not upon the English but

upon us.

I have told you that my answer to your last question is both yes and no. I have

explained to you why it is yes. I shall now explain why it is no.

50
We are so much beset by the disease of civilization, that we cannot altogether do

without English-education. Those who have already received it may make good

use of it wherever necessary. In our dealings with the English people, in our

dealings with our own people, when we can only correspond with them through

that language, and for the purpose of knowing how disgusted they (the English)

have themselves become with their civilization we may use or learn English, as

the case may be. Those who have studied English will have to teach morality to

their progeny through their mother tongue and to teach them another Indian

language; but when they have grown up, they may learn English, the ultimate aim

being that we should not need it. The object of making money thereby should be

eschewed. Even in learning English to such a limited extent we shall have to

consider what we should learn through it and what we should not. It will be

necessary to know what sciences we should learn. A little thought should show

you that immediately we cease to care for English degrees, the rulers will prick up

their ears.

Reader :Then what education shall we give?

Editor :This has been somewhat considered above, but we will consider it a little

more. I think that we have to improve all our languages. What subjects we should

learn through them need not be elaborated here. Those English books which are

valuable, we should translate into the various Indian languages. We should

abandon the pretension of learning many sciences. Religious, that is ethical,

education will occupy the first place. Every cultured Indian will know in addition to

his own provincial language, if a Hindu, Sanskrit; if a Mahomedan, Arabic; if a

51
Parsee, Persian; and all, Hindi. Some Hindus should know Arabic and Persian;

some Mahomedans and Parsees, Sanskrit. Several Northerners and Westerners

should learn Tamil. A universal language for India should be Hindi, with the option

of writing it in Persian or Nagari characters. In order that the Hindus and the

Mahomedans may have closer relations, it is necessary to know both the

characters. And, if we can do this, we can drive the English language out of the

field in a short time. All this is necessary for us, slaves. Through our slavery the

nation has been enslaved, and it will be free with our freedom.

Reader :The question of religious education is very difficult.

Editor :Yet we cannot do without it. India will never be godless. Rank atheism

cannot flourish in this land. The task is indeed difficult. My head begins to turn as

I think of religious education. Our religious teachers are hypocritical and selfish;

they will have to be approached. The Mullas, the Dasturs and the Brahmins hold

the key in their hands, but if they will not have the good sense, the energy that we

have derived from English education will have to be devoted to religious

education. This is not very difficult. Only the fringe of the ocean has been polluted

and it is those who are within the fringe who alone need cleansing. We who come

under this category can even cleanse ourselves because my remarks do not

apply to the millions. In order to restore India to its pristine condition, we have to

return to it. In our own civilization there will naturally be progress, retrogression,

reforms, and reactions; but one effort is required, and that is to drive out Western

civilization. All else will follow.

52
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Educational philosophy of Mahatma Gandhiji

Unit-2 Educational thinker mahatma Gandhiji

When we talk about Gandhiji, automatically certain ideals come to our mind i.e.
truth, nonviolence, simplicity, love for all, leadership, dignity of labour and
implementation or practicising ideas rather than just propagating them. These
ideals or qualities reflected to educational philosophy of Gandhiji.

Definition:-

By education I mean all-around drawing out of the best in the child and man-
body, mind and spirit. Literacy according to him is neither the end of education nor
even the beginning. It is one of the means whereby man and woman can be
educated. Literacy in itself is not education.

Gandhiji emphasized certain ideals, practical work and the potentiality of students
in education. It is education through which we can find out the potential of the
students and teach them certain ideals which will help them to be a good citizen
and through practical activities students will be in a position to think practically
and they will be attentive and active, this will help them to mould their character.
Thus Gadhian education has been characterized as encompassing the head, the
heart and the hands that means the all-around development of child. According to
53
him education is that which draws out and stimulates the spiritual, intellectual and
physical faculties of children. Thus Gandhijis purpose of education is to raise man
to a higher order through full development of the individual and the evolution of a
new man.

Aims of Education :-

1. Bread and Butter aim:

Bread and Butter aim refers to utilitarian aim which is an immediate requirement.
Gandhiji focused on education that provides learning while learning. This has to be
a tool with each and every learner. she can remove unemployment keeping in mind
the poverty and unemployment of India. Gandhiji focused and suggested industrial
training and development of manual skills and handicraft as subject of education
which will give satisfaction to the educand of his earning and self reliance but also
it will be proved as a support to his/her family and nation at large.

2. Cultural Aim:-

According to Gandhiji cultural aspect of education is more important than the

literacy. Culture is the foundation, the primary thing which the girls ought to get
from here. It should show in the smallest detail of your conduct and personal
behavior, how to sit , how to walk, how to dress etc. it is the education through
which students or everyone learn the glorious culture of the country-India, its
incredible arts, religions and so on. Education is the device which makes them
familiar with our great culture and it is to be taught that how do they adopt and
what is the importance of value of our culture. Thus Gandhiji laid much emphasis
on cultural aim of education and recommended that Gita and Ramayana to be

54
taught as a means of introducing students to their rich cultural and spiritual
heritage.

3. Harmonious development:-

Education should develop all the three levels i. e. 3RS- read, write and arithmetic.
The education should help in feeling what is taught and what happens to him and
to express, what he feels and also what he wants to do. So all the faculties of
person should be developed. Writing and reading will make him literate and
arithmetic will help in calculating day-to-day expenses and more importantly it
will help in logical thinking and analyzing things.

4. Moral Aim:-

Education should make person aware of what is right & wrong. It inculcates in us
values and manners and moulds our character. Gandhiji focused more on character
building than on literacy. According to him development of personality was more
significant than accumulation of intellectual tools and academic knowledge. And
we also believed that an education should be taught non-violence, truth, and
importance of thoughts, word and deed.

5. Social and individual Aim:-

The aim of education of Gandhiji is both social and individual. He wanted

individual perfection and a new social order based on Truth & Non-violence.
Education trains an individual and makes him an ideal citizen who will help his
nation. An individual learns so many things from surrounding, culture, society and
so on and he progresses simultaneously society progresses because the individuals
growth is nothing but the growth of the society and nation.

6. Ultimate Aim:-

55
Self-realization is the ultimate aim of life as well as of education. Through
education everyone understands about themselves and get answer of the universal
question who am I? It is the education which helps them to understand their
existence and its purpose. It is the spiritual education which provides knowledge of
God and self-realization. The individuals recognize their potentials or abilities and
prove them as ideal citizens of their nation via education. It is the education which
makes them familiar with spirituality and different religious and finally every
individual realize what they are? This is the self-realization- the ultimate aim of
education. In the words of Gandhiji- true education should result not in material
power but in spiritual force. It must strengthen mans faith in God and not awaken
It. he further adds Development of the whole-all were directed towards the
realization of the ultimate reality the merger of the finite being in to infinite.

Features of Basic Education:

Free and compulsory Education:-

Gandhiji advocated free and compulsory education for all because within the age
of group 7 to 14 everyone enables to read, write, and count the basic expenses or
sums. If the education is not free and compulsory then students who are coming
from poor families remain illiterate who will be the future of India. He wanted to
combine the primary with secondary education and called: it English less
Matriculation

The curriculum:-

According to Gandhiji curriculum of the basic education should be consisted of the

craft, the mother tongue of the students, social studies, natural science and music.
He introduced the following subjects:-

56
1. The craft:

Gandhiji believed in the utilization of swadeshi things so the Basic National

Education aimed at providing education through the medium of craft or productive
work. The basic craft which may be agriculture or spinning and wearing or card
board, wood and metal work, gardening, leather work etc. His curriculum was
activity centered which should transform the schools in to place of work,
experimentation and discovery.

2. Mother Tongue:-

Gandhiji emphasized the mother tongue to be the medium of instruction. Mother

tongue would enable the children to express themselves effectively and clearly. If a
student/child learns through mother tongue then he can easily learn ethical and
moral values and importance of national heritage. According to him if English is to
be taught as medium of instruction then it hinders the development of
understanding and clarity of thoughts/ideas.

3. Subjects:-

Gandhiji emphasized mathematics, social studies, general science including nature

study botany, zoology, chemistry, astronomy, hygiene, physical culture and
knowledge of stars. According to him mathematics helps the students to solve the
numerical and geometrical problems connected with craft and community life and
in teaching of mathematics emphasis were laid on practical measuring and field
work. Teaching of mathematics helped the students to develop their reasoning
capacities.

Social studies was a combination of some subjects like History, Geography, Civics
and Economics. It was introduced to enable the students to understand and

57
appreciate their own culture and also to understand nature and function of family
state and the nation and their inter-relationship.

General science is necessary from the point of view of knowing our health,
hygiene and also to think logically the cause and effect relationship. It gives
students an intelligent and appreciate outlook on nature. It forms in the students the
habit of accurate observation and of testing experience by experiment. Domestic
science was initially for both boys and girls but how it is limited to girls only. It is
necessary to learn about how to manage house and its expense.

Drawing and music were included in the curriculum to develop creativity in boys
and girls. Drawing has its importance at three levels, it develops expression skill
through drawing, it touches to imaginative faculty of mind and also focuses on
aesthetic sense to appreciate art at both level- artists and interpreters level.

Basic curriculum includes three things:

1. Physical environment i.e. seen and felt which compresses biology, botany,
zoology, geography and astrology.

2. Childs social environment which contain his interaction with society- his work
as individual and as a member of society.

3. The childs craft work which helps in knowing craft- how to weave, learning to
do something which lead to productivity.

Basic Education:

1. Free and Compulsory Education:-

Gandhiji regarding basic education or bunyadi talim, has given his views that
education is i.e. elementary education should be free of charge and all should get

58
educated so that they can do minute calculations of daily life expense, read and
write. This is necessary because this will make a person live independently.

2. Mother tongue as a medium of education:-

Gandhiji emphasized the mother tongue to be the medium of instruction. Mother

tongue would enable the children to express themselves effectively and clearly. If a
student/child learns through mother tongue then he can easily learn ethical and
moral values and importance of national heritage. According to him if English is to
be taught as medium of instruction then it hinders the development of
understanding and clarity of thoughts/ideas.

3. Craft centeredness:-

Learners should get exposure to learn skills and craft like knitting, weaving,
agricultural activities, cooking which make them self-dependent because they will
not only earn on their own but also develop three domains:-

1. Physical Domain by doing physical work like agriculture which will give good
physical exercise.

2. Psycho-motor Domain- by developing social skills- how to behave, how to work

in groups; how to co-ordinate.

3. Cognitive Domain- by developing thinking skill, analyzing, estimating- what

would be the expense to prepare craft and how much material will be required.

Gandhiji also suggested there should be any inferiority or superiority regarding

work. We should do every work/everything with the thinking that those works are
mine and they have value whether it is sweeping or working in an office.

4. Self-sufficiency:-

59
Basic education should provide such training that one can realize that immediate
aim- earning- after or during basic education. Earning for ones own self and
satisfying ones needs.

5. Co-related teaching:-

Gandhiji considered knowledge as a whole that is each and every subject

interrelated. While doing craft work, it requires economical skills to buy material
and to keep estimate how much it would require. It will also require mathematical
skills to calculate the earnings and so on. As the subject should be taught which
will lead to all-round development, students should develop love for subjects to
learn them.

6. Non-violence:-

One of the aims of basic education is to prepare ideal and responsible citizen who
will develop virtues like non-violence so that they are not attracted by violence and
other anti-social activities. If each would try to inculcate this value then there will
be peace and harmony among the citizen of India. There will not disagreement and
it will good understanding with each other.

7. Ideal citizen:-

Education makes man to think from broader and ideal perceptive therefore
Gandhiji focused on preparing ideal citizens of the nation who are responsible and
sensible to nation, duties and rights. Education of civics will give them civic sense-
rights and duties to the nation, how government works and it exist. History will
make them aware of golden days as well as of the bravery of the nation, heroes
who fought for the freedom of India which will lift their nationalistic feeling.

Basic education and the Teacher:

60
The teacher has higher responsibilities. He has to develop values among the
learners. The teacher should follow morality. There should not be any dark patch
on his character because he is role model for many students. Gandhiji
says-education of the heart could only be done through the living touch of the
teacher. Education becomes effective and faithful only to the extent to which there
is personal touch between the teacher and the taught. It will be very difficult to
achieve character building in the absence of devotion to the teacher. He should
have devotion to duty, to the students and to God. He is to play the role of a
mother. An ideal teacher in Gandhijis word is the mother teacher. He says I used
the word mother teacher because the teacher must really be a mother of children.

Gandhiji as an idealist:-

Gandhiji had very high ideals that he followed ideals like simplicity, truthfulness,
non violence. He had not only there principles in mind but also plasticized them in
his life.

Gandhiji as a pragmatist:-

Pragmatist is one who solves problem in a realistic way. Gandhiji believed that the
best way to learn is by doing and it is believed that when you learn by doing you
remember 90% and it leads to knowledge. Pragmaticism is the hallmark of
Gandhian philosophy.

Gandhiji as a naturalist:-

He believed that Nature is the best source of knowledge.

61
Nai Talim
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The principal idea is to impart the whole education

of the body, mind and soul through the handicraft

that is taught to the children.
Mahatma Gandhi

Nai Talim is a spiritual principle which states that knowledge and work are not separate. Mahatma
Gandhi promoted an educational curriculum with the same name based on this pedagogical
principle. [1]

It can be translated with the phrase 'Basic Education for all'. However, the concept has several
[2]

layers of meaning. It developed out of Gandhi's experience with the English educational system and
with colonialism in general. In that system, he saw that Indian children would be alienated and
'career-based thinking' would become dominant. In addition, it embodied a series of negative
outcomes: the disdain for manual work, the development of a new elite class, and the increasing
problems of industrialization and urbanization.
The three pillars of Gandhi's pedagogy were its focus on the lifelong character of education,
its social character and its form as a holistic process. For Gandhi, education is 'the moral
development of the person', a process that is by definition 'lifelong'. [3]

Education[edit]

Gandhi's model of education was directed toward his alternative vision of the social order: "Gandhis basic education was, therefore,
an embodiment of his perception of an ideal society consisting of small, self-reliant communities with his ideal citizen being an
industrious, self-respecting and generous individual living in a small cooperative community. Nai Talim also envisaged a different
role for the teacher, not simply as a professional constrained by curricula and abstract standards, but rather as a person relating
directly to the student in the form of a dialogue: "A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns
more from them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples is, in my opinion, worthless. Whenever I talk with
someone I learn from him. I take from him more than I give him. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his
students. If you will teach your pupils with this attitude, you will benefit much from them. Gandhi's disciple, Vinobha Bhave,
developed the idea further as a means of social transformation: "The crux of Nai Talim lay in overcoming distinctions between
learning and teaching, and knowledge and work. Vinoba discusses the need to redefine the relationship between teacher and
student, "they must each regard the other as a fellow worker..." Instead, the teacher was to be skilled in a kala/hunar (and to derive
sustenance from this and not a teaching salary). The student was to live, work and grow with the teacher and his/her family. In this
process s/he would learn the kala/hunar the skill as part of a way of life, code of ethics, web of relationships, etc.". [4] Finally, Nai
Talim was conceived as a response to one of the main dialectics of modernity as Gandhi saw it--the dialectic between human being
and 'machine' or 'technology': "In this dialectic, man represented the whole of mankind, not just India, and the machine represented
the industrialized West."[5] It is for this reason, among others, that Gandhi placed such central emphasis in his pedagogy on the role
of handcrafts such as spinning; they symbolized the values of self-sufficiency or Swaraj and independence or Swadeshi.

62
Handicrafts[edit]
Traditional and colonial forms of education had emphasized literacy and abstract, text-based knowledge which had been the domain
of the upper castes. Gandhi's proposal to make handicrafts the centre of his pedagogy had as its aim to bring about a "radical
restructuring of the sociology of school knowledge in India" in which the 'literacies' of the lower castes--"such as spinning, weaving,
leatherwork, pottery, metal-work, basket-making and book-binding"would be made central.[6] The other aim of this use of
handicrafts was to make schools financially and socially independent of the statean even more radical concept. Thus in his
influential article on education in Harijan in 1937 he argued: "By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and
man-body, mind and spirit. Literacy is not the end of education nor even the beginning. It is only one of the means by which man
and woman can be educated. Literacy in itself is no education. I would therefore begin the child's education by teaching it a useful
handicraft and enabling it to produce from the moment it begins its training. Thus every school can be made self-supporting." [7]

History[edit]
Gandhi's first experiments in education began at the Tolstoy Farm ashram in South Africa.[8] It was much later, while living at
Sevagram and in the heat of the Independence struggle, that Gandhi wrote his influential article in Harijan about education. In it, he
mapped out the basic pedagogy:

I hold that the highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education. O

I attach the greatest importance to primary education, which according to my conception should be equal to

A national education conference was held at Wardha on October 2223, 1937. Afterwards two model schools were opened
at Wardha and nearby Segaon. Post-basic education and pre-basic education schools were developed after Gandhi's death.

The National Planning Commission set up by the central government expressed its opposition to Gandhi's vision of Basic Education
on several grounds. The Nehru government's vision of an industrialized, centrally planned economy had no place for 'basic
education' or self-supported schools, rather it reflected the "vision of a powerful and growing class of industrialists, their supporters
in politics and intellectuals with high qualifications in different areas, including science and technology." [6] A further detailed history of
the attempts to implement basic education in India is given by Marjorie Sykes, The History of Nai Talim. Finally, as has been noted
by Krishna Kumar, "the implementation of Gandhis plan could not survive the development decade of the 1960s when the Indian
economy and its politics entered into a new phase featuring the penetration of Indian agriculture by the advanced economies of the
West and the centralization of power."

Quotations[edit]
"Basic education links the children, whether of cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India."

"The principal idea is to impart the whole education of the body, mind and soul through the handicraft that is taught to the children.
(Mahatma Gandhi)

"An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other, is a
misnomer."(Mahatma Gandhi)

"The aim of university education should be to turn out true servants of the people who will live and die for the country's
freedom."(Mahatma Gandhi)

"The schools and colleges are really a factory for turning out clerks for Government."(Mahatma Gandhi)

The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We assess the value of education in the same manner as
we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange market. We want to provide only such education as would enable

63
the student to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say, do not
have to earn; so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of
education. (M. K. Gandhi True Education on the NCTE site)

NAI TALIM AS RESISTANCE

Nai Talim was crafted in 1937 by Gandhiji, with a vision of resistance both against
the British model of schooling and against the larger colonial political-economic
structures. Post-Independence, Vinoba Bhave took up the agenda of Nai Talim as a
vehicle for dissolving the model of governance in India, like the "worm that devours
the wood in which it is born. He also viewed it as a constructive initiative to facilitate
village industries, equitable distribution of land, destruction of caste/sectarian
barriers and the learning for life." The evolution of this new social order was to be an
iterative process, beginning with the dismantling of the existing parasitic systemic
frameworks and institutions.

To these ends, Shiksha was to be geared around self-sufficiency (individual and socio-
economic), dignity of labour, fearlessness and non-violence. Says Vinoba, "We can
live rightly only when we earn our livelihood by bodily labour. If we do not do this,
we are a burden for other people to carry on their backs, and our lives cannot be free
of violence." This meant that institutions introducing modernized forms of class
distinctions (particularly between physical and mental labour) were to be challenged.
Simultaneously, social cleavages on the basis of religion, caste, etc. were to be
bridged. Nai Talim teachers were to be proactive on both of these fronts.

The crux of Nai Talim lay in overcoming distinctions between learning and teaching,
and knowledge and work. Vinoba discusses the need to redefine the relationship
between teacher and student, "they must each regard the other as a fellow worker..."
As opposed to schooling, Nai Talim was to give a secondary place to having

64
individuals exclusively to teach and to learning only from textbooks. Instead, the
teacher was to be skilled in a kala/hunar (and to derive sustenance from this and not
a teaching salary). The student was to live, work and grow with the teacher and his/her
family. In this process s/he would learn the kala/hunar the skill as part of a way of
life, code of ethics, web of relationships, etc.

The emphasis on craft has led to several misconceptions. Nai Talim was not about
merely giving children some handicraft to learn (as an extra-curricular activity), or
learning a skill in exclusion of larger knowledge-sharing and thinking processes
(vocationalization). Rather, knowledge and work were to be seen as an organic whole.
Vinoba clarifies, "The business of stitching a fragment of knowledge on to a fragment
of work is not Nai Talim."

Vinoba suggests that each village gram panchayat develop its own curricular content
and children become acquainted with local geography and history. Ignoring this
emphasis on contextual learning, a standardised project called Basic Education was
replicated by the Government throughout India. By binding this generative seed-
thought within the walls of rote learning, examinations and certification, India has
achieved what Vinoba feared the defining of Nai Talim as a prescribed and stagnant
model.

Also, Nai Talim was misinterpreted as only being for the villages/villagers. Vinoba is
emphatic that the ends of education cannot be met if "village children (are brought up
to) serve the country while town children are brought up to loot their country!" While,
the learning processes in towns were to differ from those in villages, the ends were to
remain consistent reinforcing the interdependent and nurturing relationship
between towns and villages.

65
Today, several groups around the country are trying to revive Nai
Talim. Unfortunately, their emphasis remains only on the rural poor, and on
vocationalization for income generation. They fail to realize that unless the vision and
practice of Nai Talim is liberated from the Western techno-economic paradigm of
Development, Democracy, and Progress, their efforts will remain sterile.

Source: Bhave, V. Thoughts on Education. Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan, Varanasi,

1996.

Gandhijis View

One man who always stood for peace and valued it above political and ideological
conflicts, Mahatma Gandhis views on education were always focused on an all-
round education, not just literacy. He stressed on the development of a child as a
whole, not just the mind. Foradian brings to you some of the epoch making views
of Gandhi on education. Read on to find what the greatest man had to say about
education:

By education, I mean an all-round drawing of the best in child and man in body,
mind and spirit.

The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We assess
the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of
shares in the stock-exchange market. We want to provide only such education as
would enable the student to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the
improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say, do not have to
earn; so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no
hope of our ever knowing the true value of education.

66
A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns
more from them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples is,
in my opinion, worthless. Whenever I talk with someone I learn from him. I take
from him more than I give him. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a
student of his students. If you will teach your pupils with this attitude, you will
benefit much from them.

Literacy in itself is no education. Literacy is not the end of education or even the
beginning. By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child
and man-body, mind and spirit.

Basic education links the children, whether of the cities or the villages, to all that is
best and lasting in India.

Love requires that true education should be easily accessible to all and should be of
use to every villager in this daily life. The emphasis laid on the principle of
spending every minute of ones life usefully is the best education for citizenship.

Education should be so revolutionized as to answer the wants of the poorest

villager, instead of answering those of an imperial exploiter.

Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for
acquiring learning of any kind.

True education must correspond to the surrounding circumstances or it is not a

healthy growth.

What is really needed to make democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but
right education.

67
Gandhiji and Education

Some of Gandhijis most strongly and unambiguously expressed views are on education, and this is to be
viewed in the immediate context of English medium education that the British induced in India, and the
larger context of foreign language education at the cost of vernaculars. Gandhiji has emphatically said
that he has nothing against English language and its noble literature, but he is against education in
English in India.

This form of education was a systematic psychological assault, in which being educated in English and
being able to speak in English with the English was considered the ultimate badge of honour. Gandhiji
was against this form of psychological servitude. He termed English medium as foreign medium, and held
a firm view that this foreign medium has made us foreigners in our own land. This, he considered the
greatest tragedy amongst all others that the British had inflicted on the collective Indian psyche.

Language apart, Gandhiji also found the piecemeal approach towards education in India and the world
wanting. It was incomprehensible for Gandhiji that any education system could impart learning that only
benefited the mind or the intellect, in total disregard of physical and moral development. He viewed
education as an integrated approach to allround personality development that emphasised on physical
training and high moral ground along with intellectual and cognitive development. Gandhiji distinctly
divided between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. He has said,
Literacy in itself is no education.

Gandhiji also closely aligned morality with education. He believed that knowledge without is evil, it can
erode the society like a malicious worm. Also incorporating Platos conception in this theme, Gandhiji
opined that education should be the stepping stone to knowledge and wisdom that ultimately help the
seeker on the spiritual path. Education was not a narrow means of making careers and achieving social
status, but also seeking a larger role for self and society. Thus, it transpired that education should not only
produce learned minds, but enlightened souls too. Gandhiji also adhered to Hindu scriptures which
propagated strict discipline and self restraint, including observance of celibacy during student life.

Gandhijis education was to be essentially generative, which can be passed on from an educated person
to the uneducated one in a selfless spirit. Herein came the inevitability of vernacular education, because it
was only through local mediums that education could become more penetrative in a multilayered,
impoverished and vastly deprived society. An educated youth could teach his illiterate parents or siblings
in the family only if his education was in local medium. Likewise, community level formal or informal
education could also be facilitated in villages through vernacular medium only. It is in this broad context
that Gandhiji was opposed to foreign medium education in India. He thought that such elitist education did

68
not meet the requirements of the country, there was no connect between education and home life, or
village life.

As regards the youth falling prey to vices small and big during student life, Gandhiji simply found it an
unnecessary and avoidable nuisance. How can a single student foul his mouth by converting it into a
chimney, he said of the smoking habit.

Nai Talim

The above loose structure of thoughts on education, Gandhiji conceptualised in his revolutionary Nai
Talim or Basic Education for All, in 1937. Marjorie Sykes, an educationist devoted for life to Gandhiji and
Nai Talim pedagogy, writes in her book The Story of Nai Talim, that in Gandhijis perception, this
curriculum aimed at preparing a good society, not just a literate and/or educated one. Seen from the
context of an education system specially developed for a newly born democratic nation, it can be said that
Nai Talim aimed to fructify education that gave freedom; freedom from ignorance, illiteracy, superstition,
psyche of servitude, and many more taboos that inhibited free thinking of a free India. In Gandhijis words
and vision, Nai Talim was aimed at becoming the spearhead of a silent social revolution.

The range of teaching tools that Gandhiji prescribed to actualise Nai Talim were as revolutionary and
unconventional as the concept itself.

For holistic development of body, mind and soul, he firstly emphasised on useful and purposeful physical
labour. Mind is a part of our body, and so are hands, legs, torso, spine. If the mind develops at the cost of
the rest of the body, it would be so callous! Moreover, it would result in uncoordinated growth, and that is
not what Gandhiji wanted India to become, a nation of strong minds and weak bodies, or vice versa. With
the addition of heart or soul, the mindbodysoul combine completes Gandhijis vision of inclusive,
coordinated education.

Handicrafts, art and drawing are the most fundamental teaching tools in Nai Talim pedagogy. Herein, their
function is not visualised too literally as a cottage industry vocation, but as a means of engaging young
minds in a learning technique that is timeproven, informal, unstressed, and full of ageless wisdom.
Spinning and weaving, which can be aptly deduced to spinning khadi, were Gandhijis favourite
techniques for implementing Nai Talim.

Gandhiji was so confident about the efficacy of this method that he professed teaching through art and
craft even before teaching alphabets. He deduced that it was easier for a child to distinguish between
wheat and chaff, than between A and Z. Moreover, it facilitated faster learning, One imparts ten times as
much in this manner as by reading or writing. Lastly, it was much more economical to impart learning
through handicrafts than through classroom lessons.

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The Nai Talim pedagogy thus sought to create free and enlightened individuals, who would then constitute
a good society, not just a free country.

Gandhi's Views On Education

Education As Per Mahatma Gandhi

Medium Of Education

I find daily proof of the increasing & continuing wrong being done to the millions by our false de-
Indianizing education.

We seem to have come to think that no one can hope to be like a Bose unless he knows English. I
cannot conceive a grosser superstition than this. No Japanese feels so helpless as we seem to do....

The medium of instruction should be alerted at once, and at any cost, the provincial languages being
given their rightful place. I would prefer temporary chaos in higher education to the criminal waste that is
daily accumulating.

Education through a foreign Language entails a certain degree of strain, and our boys have to pay dearly
for it. To a large extent, they lose the capacity of shouldering any other burden afterwards., for they
become a useless lot who are weak of body, without any zest for work and imitators of the West. They
have little interest in original research or deep thinking, and the qualities of courage, perseverance.
bravery and fearlessness are lacking. That is why we are unable to make new plans or carry our projects
to meet our problems. In case we make them to fail to implement them. A few who do show promise
usually die young.......

We, the English educated people alone are unable to assess the great loss that this factor has caused.
Some idea of its immensity would be had if we could estimate how little we have influenced the general
mass of our people.

The school must be an extension of home there must be concordance between the impressions which a
child gathers at home and at school, if the best results are to be obtained. Education through the medium
of strange tongue breaks the concordance which should exist. Those who breaks this relationship are
enemies of the people even though their motives may be honest. To be a voluntary victim of this system
of education is as good as the betrayal of our duty towards our mothers. The harm done by this alien type
of education does not stop here; it goes much further . It has produced a gulf between the educated
classes and the masses. The people look on us as beings apart from them.

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It is my considered opinion that English education in the manner it has been given has emasculated the
English educated Indian, it has put a severe strain upon the Indian students' nervous energy and has
made of us imitators. The process of displacing the vernaculars has been one of the saddest chapters in
the British connection. Ram Mohan Rai would have been a greater reformer, and Lokmanya Tilak would
have been a greater scholar, if they had not to start with the handicap of having to think in English and
transmit their thoughts chiefly in English. Their effect on their own people, marvelous as it was, would
have been greater if they would have been brought under a less unnatural system. No dought they both
gained from their knowledge of the rich treasures of English literature. But these should have been
accessible to them through their own vernaculars. No country can become a nation by producing a race
of imitators.

English is today studied because of its commercial and so called political value. Our boys think and
rightly in the present circumstances, that without English they cannot get Government service. Girls are
taught English as a passport to marriage. I know several instances of women wanting to learn English so
that they may be able to talk in English. I know families in which English is made a mother tongue.
Hundreds of youth believe that without the Knowledge of English. freedom of India is practically
impossible. The canker has so eaten into the society that in many cases the only meaning of education is
Knowledge of English. All these are for me signs of our slavery and degradation. It is unbearable to me
that the vernaculars should be crushed and starved as they have been. I cannot tolerate the idea of
parents writing to their children, or husbands writing to their wives, not in their own vernaculars but in
English.

The foreign medium has caused brains fag, put an undue strain upon the nerves of our children, made
them crammers and imitators, unfitted them for original work and thought, and disabled them for filtrating
their learning to the family or the masses. The foreign medium has made our children practically
foreigners in their own lands. It is the greatest tragedy of the existing system. The foreign medium has
prevented the growth of our vernaculars. If I had the powers of a despot, I would today stop the tuitions of
our boys and girls through a foreign medium and require all the teachers and professors on pain of
dismissal to introduce the change forthwith. I would not wait for the preparation of Text books. They will
follow the change. It is an evil that need a summary remedy.

Among the many evils of foreign rule, this blighting imposition of a foreign medium upon the youth of the
country will be counted by history as one of the greatest. It has sapped the energy of the nation, it has
estranged them for the masses, it has made education unnecessarily expensive. If this process is still
persisted in, it bids fair to rob the nation of its soul. The sooner, therefore educated India shakes itself free
from the hypnotic spell of the foreign medium, the better it would be for them and the people.

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This article is taken from the book "The Selected Works Of Gandhi"
Vol. 6 The Voice of Truth

To Students
Character cannot be built with mortar and stone. It cannot be built by hands other than your own. The Principal and

the Professor cannot give you character from the pages of books. Character building comes from their very lives and

really speaking, it must come from within yourselves.

Put all your knowledge, learning and scholarship in one scale and truth and purity in the other and the latter will by

far outweigh the other. The miasma of moral impurity has today spread among our school going children and like a

hidden epidemic is working havoc among them. All your scholarship, all your study of the scriptures will be in vain

if you fail to translate their teachings into your daily life.....

If teachers impart all the knowledge in the world to their students but inculcate not truth and purity among them,

they will have betrayed them and instead of raising them set them on the downward road to perdition. Knowledge

without character is a power for evil only, as seen in the instances of so many talented thieves and 'gentlemen

rascals' in the world.

As to use of the vacation by students, if will they approach the work with zeal, they can undoubtedly do many

things. I enumerate a few of them:

1. Conduct night and day schools with just a short course, well conceived, to last for the period of the vacation.

2. Visit Harijan quarters and clean them, taking the assistance of Harijans if they would give it.

3. Taking Harijan children for excursions, showing them sights near the villages and teaching them how to study

Nature, and generally interesting them in their surroundings, giving them by the way a working knowledge of

geography and history.

4. Reading to them simple stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

5. Teaching them simple Bhajans (Devotional Songs).

6. Cleaning the Harijan boys of all the dirt that they would find about their persons and giving both, the grown-ups

and the children simple lessons in hygiene.

7. Taking a detailed census in selected areas of the condition of the Harijans.

8. Taking medical aid to the ailing Harijans.

This is but a sample of what is possible to do among the Harijans. It is a list hurriedly made, but a thoughtful student

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will, I have no doubt, add many other items.

You are the hope of the future. You will be called upon, when you are discharged from your colleges and schools, to

enter upon public life to lead the poor people of this country. I would, therefore, like you, students, to have a sense

of your responsibility and show it in a much tangible manner. It is a remarkable fact, and a regrettable fact, that in

the case of the vast majority of the students, whilst they entertain noble impulses during their student days, these

disappear when they finish their studies. The vast majority of them look out for loaves and fishes. Surely there is

something wrong in this. There is one reason which is obvious. Every educationalist, every one who has had

anything to do with the students, has realized that our educational system is faulty. It does not correspond to the

requirements of the country, certainly not to the requirements of pauper India. There is no correspondence between

the education that is given and the home life and the village life.

These are not necessities of life. There are some who manage to take ten cups of coffee a day. Is it necessary for

their healthy development and for keeping them awake for the performance of their duties? If it is necessary to take

coffee or tea to keep them awake, let them not drink coffee or tea but go to sleep. We must not become slaves to

these things. But the majority of the people who drink coffee or tea are slaves to them. Cigars and cigarettes,

whether foreign or indigenous must be avoided.

Cigarette smoking is like an opiate and the cigars that you smoke have a touch of opium about them. They get to

your nerves and you cannot leave them afterwards. How can a single student foul his mouth by converting it into a

chimney? If you give up these habits of smoking cigars and cigarettes and drinking coffee and tea you will find out

for yourselves how much you are able to save.

A drunkard in Tolstoy's story is hesitating to execute his design of murder so long as he has not smoked his cigar.

But he puffs it, and then gets up smiling and saying, "What a coward am I !" takes the dagger and does the deed.

Tolstoy spoke from experience. And he is much more against cigars and cigarettes than against drink. But do not

make the mistake that between drink and tobacco, drink is a lesser evil. No. If cigarette is Beelzebub than drink is

Satan.

The students should be, above all humble, and correct....The greatest to remain great has to be the lowliest by

choice. If I can speak from my knowledge of Hindu belief, the life of the student is to correspond to the life of

a Sanyasi up to the time his studies end. He is to be under the strictest discipline. He cannot marry, nor indulge in

dissipation. He cannot indulge in drinks and the like. His behaviour is to be a pattern of exemplary self-resistant.

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Source: "The selected works of Gandhi", Vol. 6, The Voice of Truth

Basic Education (Buniyadi Shiksha)

The ancient aphorism "Education is that which liberates", is as true today as it was before. Education here does not

mean mere spiritual knowledge, nor does liberation signify only spiritual liberation after death. Knowledge includes

all training that is useful for the service of mankind and liberation means freedom from all manner of servitude even

in the present life. Servitude is of two kinds: slavery to domination from outside and to one's own artificial needs.

The knowledge acquired in the pursuit of this ideal alone constitutes true study.

Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisites for acquiring learning of any kind.

Inquisitiveness should be tempered by humility and respectful regard for the teacher. It must not degenerate into

impudence. The latter is the enemy of the receptivity of mind. There can be no knowledge without humility and the

will to learn.

Education must be of a new type for the sake of the creation of a new world.

Everyone of us has good inherent in the soul. It needs to be drawn out by the teachers, and only those teachers can

perform this sacred function whose own character is unsullied, who are always ready to learn and to grow from

perfection to perfection.

Useful manual labour, intelligently performed is the means par excellence for developing the intellect....A balanced

intellect presupposes a harmonious growth of body, mind and soul....An intellect that is developed through the

medium of socially useful labour will be an instrument for service and will not easily be led astray or fall into

devious paths.

Craft, Art, Health and education should all be integrated into one scheme. Nai Talim is a beautiful blend of all the

four and covers the whole education of the individual from the time of conception to the moment of death....Instead

of regarding craft & industry as different from education, I will regard the former as the medium for the latter.

Our system of (Basic) education leads to the development of the mind, body and soul. The ordinary system cares

only for the mind.

The teachers earn what they take. It stands for the art of living. Therefore, both the teacher and the pupil have to

produce in the very act of teaching and learning. It enriches life from the commencement. It makes the nation

independent of the search for employment.

It is popularly and correctly described as education through handicrafts. This is part of the truth. The root of this new

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education goes much deeper. It lies in the application of truth and love in every variety of human activity, weather in

individual life or a corporate one. The notion of education through handicrafts rises from the contemplation of truth

and love permeating life's activities. Love requires that true education should be easily accessible to all, and should

be of use to every villager in his daily life. Such education is not derived from, nor does it depend upon books. It has

no relation to sectional religion. If it can be called religious, it is universal religion from which all selectional

religions are derived. Therefore it is learned from the Book of Life which costs nothing and which cannot be taken

away from one by any force on earth.

I hold that, as the largest part of our time is devoted to labour for earning our bread, our children must from their

infancy be taught the dignity of such labour. Our children should not be so taught as to despise labour. There is no

reason why a peasants son after having gone to school should become useless as he does become, as an agricultural

labourer.

Literary education should follow the education of the handthe one gift that visibly distinguishes man from beast.

It is a superstition to think that the fullest development of man is impossible without a knowledge of the art of

reading and writing. That knowledge undoubtedly adds grace to life, but it is in no way indispensable for man's

moral, physical, or material growth.

Man is neither mere intellect, nor the gross animal body, nor the heart or soul alone. A proper and harmonious

combination of all the three is required for the making of the whole man and constitutes the true economics of

education....

I hold that true education of the intellect can only come through a proper exercise and training of the bodily organs,

e.g., hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, etc. In other words an intelligent use of the bodily organs in a child provide the

best and quickest way of developing his intellect. But unless the development of the mind and body goes hand in

hand with a corresponding awakening of the soul, the former alone would prove to be a poor lop-sided affair. By

spiritual training I mean education of the heart. A proper and all-round development of the mind, therefore, can take

place only when it proceeds pari passu with the education of the physical and spiritual faculties of the child. They

constitute an indivisible whole. According to this theory, therefore, it would be a gross fallacy to suppose that they

can be developed piecemeal or independently of one another.

By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and manbody, mind and spirit. Literacy is not

the end of education nor even the beginning. It is only one of the means whereby man and woman can be educated.

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Literacy in itself is no education. I would therefore begin the child's education by teaching it a useful handicraft and

enabling it to produce from the moment it begins its training. Thus every school can be made self-supporting, the

condition being that the State takes over the manufacture of these schools.

I hold that the highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education. Only

every handicraft has to be taught not merely mechanically as is done today but scientifically, i.e., the child should

know the why and the wherefore of every process. I am not writing this without some confidence, because it has the

backing of experience. This method is being adopted more or less completely wherever spinning is being taught to

workers. I have myself taught sandal-making and even spinning on these lines with good results. This method does

not exclude a knowledge of history and geography. But I find that this is best taught by transmitting such general

information by word of mouth. One imparts ten times as much in this manner as by reading and writing. The signs

of the alphabet may be taught later when the pupil has learnt to distinguish wheat from chaff and when he has

somewhat developed his or her tastes. This is a revolutionary proposal, but it saves immense labour and enables a

student to acquire in one year what he may take much longer to learn. this means all round economy. Of course the

pupil learns mathematics whilst he is learning his handicraft.

Given the right kind of teachers, our children will be taught the dignity of labour and learn to regard it as an integral

part and means of their intellectual growth, and to realize that it is patriotic to pay for their training through their

labour. The core of my suggestion is that handicrafts are to be taught, not merely for productive work, but for

developing the intellect of the pupils. Surely, if the State takes charge of the children between seven and fourteen,

and trains their bodies and minds through productive labour, the public schools must be frauds and teachers idiots, if

they cannot become self-supporting.

When it is remembered that the primary aim of all education is, or should be, the molding of the character of pupils,

as teacher who has a character to keep need not lose heart.

In the schools I advocate, boys have all that boys learn in high schools; less English but more drill, music, drawing,

and of course, a vocation.

I am a firm believer in the principle of free and compulsory primary education for India. I also hold that we shall

realize this only by teaching the children a useful vocation and utilizing it as a means for cultivating their mental,

physical and spiritual faculties. Let no one consider these economic calculations in connection with education as

sordid or out of place. There is nothing essentially sordid about economic calculations.

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If we want to impart education best suited to the needs of villagers, we should take the Vidyapith (Literary seat of

learning; University) to the villages. We should convert it into a training school in order that we might be able to

give practical training to teachers in terms of the needs of the villagers. You cannot instruct the teachers in the needs

of the villagers through a training school in a city. Nor can you so interest them in the condition of the villages. To

interest city-dwellers in villages and make them live in them is no easy task. I am finding daily confirmation of this

in Segaon. I cannot give you the assurance that our year's stay in Segaon has made of us villagers or that we have

become one with them for the common good.

Then as to primary education, my confirmed opinion is that the commencement of training by teaching the alphabet

and reading and writing hampers their intellectual growth. I would not teach them the alphabet till they have had an

elementary knowledge of history, geography, mental arithmetic and the art (say) of spinning. Through these three I

should develop their intelligence. Question may be asked how intelligence can be developed through

the takli (Spindle used in spinning with the fingers without the use of the spinning wheel) or the spinning wheel. It

can to a marvelous degree if it is not taught merely mechanically. When you tell a child the reason for each process,

when you explain the mechanism of the takli or the wheel, when you give him the history of cotton and its

connection with civilization itself and take him to the village field where it is grown, and teach him to count the

rounds he spins and the method of finding the evenness and strength of his yarn, you hold his interest and

simultaneously train his hands, his eyes and his mind. I should give six months to this primary training. The child is

probably now ready for learning how to read the alphabet, and when he is able to do so rapidly, he is ready to learn

simple drawing, and when he has learnt to draw geometrical figures and the figures of the birds etc., he will draw,

not scrawl the figures of the alphabet. I can recall the days of my childhood when I was being taught the alphabet. I

know what a drag it was. Nobody cared why my intellect was rusting. I consider writing a fine art. We kill it by

imposing the alphabet on little children and making it the beginning of learning. Thus we do violence to the art of

writing and stunt the growth of the child when we seek to teach him the alphabet before his time.

What kind of vocations are the fittest for being taught to children in urban schools? There is no hard and fast rule

about it. But my reply is clear. I want to resuscitate the villages of India. Today our villages have become a mere

appendage to the cities. They exist, as it were, to be exploited by the latter and depend on the latter's sufferance. This

is unnatural. It is only when the cities realize the duty of making an adequate return to the villages for the strength

and sustenance which they derive from them, instead of selfishly exploiting them, that a healthy and moral

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relationship between the two will spring up. And if the city children are to play their part in this great and noble

work of social reconstruction, the vocations, through which they are to receive their education ought to be directly

related to the requirements of the villages. So far as I can see the various processes of cotton manufacture from

ginning and cleaning of cotton to the spinning of yarn, answer this test as nothing else does. Even today cotton is

grown in the villages and is ginned and spun and converted into cloth in the cities. But the chain of processes which

cotton undergoes in the mills from the beginning to the end constitutes a huge tragedy of waste in men, materials

and mechanical power.

My plan to impart primary education through the medium of village handicrafts like spinning and carding, etc., is

thus conceived as the spearhead of a silent social revolution fraught with the most farreaching consequences. It will

provide a healthy and moral basis of relationship between the city and the village and thus go a long way toward

eradicating some of the worst evils of the present social insecurity and poisoned relationship between the classes. It

will check the progressive decay of our villages and lay the foundation of a more just social order in which there is

no unnatural division between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' and everybody is assured of a living wage and the right to

freedom. And all this would be accomplished without the horrors of a bloody class war or a colossal capital

expenditure such as would be involved in the mechanization of a vast continent like India. Nor would it entail a

helpless dependence on foreign imported machinery or technical skill. Lastly, by obviating the necessity for highly

specialized talent, it would place the destiny of the masses, as it were, in their own hands. But who will bell the cat?

Will the city-folk listen to me at all? Or, will mine remain a mere cry in the wilderness? Replies to these and similar

questions will depend more on lovers of education living in cities than on me.

As to the necessity and value of regarding the teaching of village handicrafts as the pivot and centre of education I

have no manner of doubt. The method adopted in the institutions of India I do not call education, i.e., drawing out

the best in man, but a debauchery of the mind. It informs the mind anyhow, whereas the method of training the mind

through village handicrafts from the very beginning as the central fact would promote the real, disciplined

development of the mind resulting in conservation of the intellectual energy and indirectly be spiritual.

In my scheme of things the hand will handle tools before it draws or traces the writing. The eyes will read the

pictures of letters and words as they will know other things in life, and the ears will catch the names and meanings

of things and sentences. The whole training will be natural, responsive, and therefore the quickest and cheapest in

the land. The children of my school will therefore read much more quickly than they will write. And when they

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write they will not produce daubs as I do even now (thanks to my teachers) but they will trace correct letters even as

they will trace correct figures of the objects they may see. If the schools of my conception even come into being, I

make bold to say that they will vie with the most advanced schools in quickness, so far as reading is concerned, and

even writing if it is common ground that the writing must be correct and not incorrect as now is in the vast majority

of cases.

Basic education is meant to transform village children into model villagers. It is principally designed for them. The

inspiration for it has come from the villages. Congressmen who want to build up the structure of Swaraj from its

very foundation dare not neglect the children. Foreign rule has unconsciously, though none the less surely, begun

with the children in the field of education. Primary education is a farce designed without regard to the wants of the

India of the villages and for that matter even of the cities. Basic education links the children, whether of the cities or

the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India. It develops both the body and the mind, and keeps the child rooted

to the soil with a glorious vision of the future in the realization of which he or she begins to take his or her share

from the very commencement of his or her career in school.

The utterly false idea that intelligence can be developed only through book-reading should give place to the truth

that the quickest development of the mind can be achieved by artisan's work being learnt in a scientific manner. True

development of the mind commences immediately the apprentice is taught at every step why a particular

manipulation of the hand or a tool is required. The problem of the unemployment of students can be solved without

difficulty, if they will rank themselves among the common labourers.

We have up to now concentrated on stuffing childrens' minds with all kinds of information, without ever thinking of

stimulating and developing them. Let us now cry a halt and concentrate on educating the child properly through

manual work, not as a side activity, but as the prime means of intellectual training...

You have to train the boys in one occupation or another. Around this special occupation you will train up his mind,

his body, his handwriting, his artistic sense, and so on. He will be a master of the craft he learns.

Literary training by itself adds not an inch to one's moral height and that character building is independent of literary

training.

Let the students realize that learning without courage is like a waxen statuebeautiful to look at but bound to melt

at the least touch of a hot substance.

Music should form part of the syllabus of primary education. I heartily endorse this proposition. The modulation of

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voice is as necessary as the training of the hand. Physical drill, handicrafts, drawing and music should go hand in

hand in order to draw the best out of the boys and girls and create in them real interest in their tuition.

A wise parent allows the children to make mistakes. It is good for them once in a while to burn their fingers.

I attach the greatest importance to primary education which according to my conception should be equal to the

present matriculation less English. If all the collegians were all of a sudden to forget their knowledge, the loss

sustained by the sudden lapse of memory of say a few lakhs of collegians would be as nothing compared to the loss

that the nation has sustained and is sustaining through the ocean of darkness that surrounds three hundred millions.

if such education is given, the direct result will be that it will be self-supporting. But the test of success is not its

self-supporting character, but that the whole man has been drawn out through the teaching of the handicraft in a

scientific manner. In fact I would reject a teacher who would promise to make it self-supporting under any

circumstances. The self-supporting part will be the logical corollary of the fact that the pupil has learnt the use of

every one of his faculties. If a boy who works at a handicraft for three hours a day will surely earn his keep, now

much more a boy who adds to the work a development of his mind and soul!

English is today admittedly the world language. I would therefore accord it a place as a second, optional language,

not in the school, but in the university course. That can only be for the select fewnot for the millions....It is our

mental slavery that makes us feel that we cannot do without English. I can never subscribe to that defeatist creed.

I must not be understood to decry English or its noble literature. The columns of the Harijan are sufficient evidence

of my love of English. But the nobility of its literature cannot avail the Indian nation any more more than the

temperate climate or the scenery of England can avail her. India has to flourish in her own climate, and scenery, and

her own literature, even though all the three may be inferior to the English climate, scenery and literature. We an our

children must build on our own heritage. If we borrow another, we impoverish our own. We can never grow on

foreign victuals. I want the nation to have the treasures contained in that language and, for that matter, in other

languages of the world, through its own vernaculars. I do not need to learn Bengali in order to know the beauties of

Rabindranath's matchless productions. I get them through good translations. Gujarati boys and girls do not need to

learn Russian to appreciate Tolstoy's short stories. Then learn them through good translations. It is the boast of

Englishmen that the best of the world's literary output is in the hands of that nation in simple English inside a week

of its publication. Why need I learn English to get at the best of what Shakespeare and Milton thought and wrote?

I do not believe that the State can concern itself or cope with religious education. I believe that religious education

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must be the sole concern of religious associations. Do not mix up religion and ethics. I believe that fundamental

ethics is common to all religions. Teaching of fundamental ethics is undoubtedly a function of the State. By religion

I have not in mind fundamental ethics but what goes by the name of denominationalism. We have suffered enough

from State-aided religion or State Church. A society or a group, which depends partly or wholly on State aid for the

existence of its religion, does not deserve or, better still, does not have any religion worth the name.

"Should religious instruction form part of the school curriculum as approved by the State? Do you favour separate

schools for children belonging to different denominations for facility of religious instruction? Or should religious

instruction be left in the hands of private bodies? If so, do you think it is right for the State to subsidize such

bodies?"

I do not believe in State religion even though the whole community has one religion. The State interference would

probably always be unwelcome. Religion is a purely personal matter. There are in reality as many religions as

minds. Each mind has a different conception of God from that of the other.

I am also opposed to State aid, partly or wholly, to religious bodies. For I know that an institution or group which

does not manage to finance its own religious teaching, is a stranger to true religion. This does not mean that the State

schools would give ethical teaching. The fundamental ethics are common to all religions.

A curriculum of religious instruction should include a study of the tenets of faiths other than one's own. For this

purpose the students should be trained to cultivate the habit of understanding and appreciating the doctrines of

various great religions of the world in a spirit of reverence and broad-minded tolerance. This if properly done would

help to give them a spiritual assurance and a better appreciation of their own religion. There is one rule, however,

which should always be kept in mind while studying all great religions and that is, that one should study them only

through the writings of known votaries of the respective religions.

Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated. This can never be done by packing

ill-assorted and unwanted information into the heads of pupils. It becomes a dead weight crushing all originality in

them and turning them into mere automata.

The suggestion has often been made that in order to make education compulsory, or even available to every boy or

girl wishing to receive education, our schools and colleges should become almost, if not wholly, self-supporting, not

through donations or State aid or fees exacted from students, but through remunerative work done by the students

themselves. This can only be done by making industrial training compulsory. Apart from the necessity which is daily

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being more and more recognized of students having an industrial training side by side with literary training, there is

in this country, the additional necessity of pursuing industrial training in order to make education directly self-

supporting. This can only be done when our students begin to recognize the dignity of labour and when the

convention is established of regarding ignorance of manual occupation a mark of disgrace. In America, which is the

richest country in the world and where, therefore, perhaps there is the least need for making education self-

supporting, it is the most usual thing for students to pay their way wholly or partially....

If America has to model her schools and colleges so as to enable students to earn their scholastic expenses, how

much more necessary it must be for our schools and colleges? Is it not far better that we find work for poor students

than that we pauperize them by providing free studentships? It is impossible to exaggerate the harm we do to India's

youth by filling their minds with the false notion that it is ungentlemanly to labour with one's hands and feet for

one's livelihood or schooling. The harm done is both moral and material, indeed much more moral than material. A

free scholarship lies and should lie like a load upon a conscientious lad's mind throughout his whole life. No one

likes to be reminded in after life that he had to depend upon charity for his education. Contrarily where is the person

who will not recall with pride those days if he had the good fortune to have had them when he worked in a carpentry

shop or the like for the sake of educating himselfmind, body and soul?

The aim of university education should be to turn out true servants of the people who will live and die for the

country's freedom. I am therefore of opinion that university education should be coordinated and brought into line

with basic education.

I would revolutionize college education and relate it to national necessities. There would be degrees for mechanical

and other engineers. They would be attached to the different industries which should pay for the training of the

graduates they need. Thus the Tatas would be expected to run a college for training engineers under the supervision

of the State, the mill associations would run among them a college for training graduates whom they need. Similarly

for the other industries that may be named. Commerce will have its college. There remains arts, medicine and

agriculture. Several private arts colleges are today self-supporting. The State would, therefore, cease to run its own.

Medical colleges would be attached to certified hospitals. As they are popular among moneyed men they may be

expected by voluntary contributions to support medical colleges. And agricultural colleges to be worthy of the name

must be self-supporting. I have a painful experience of some agricultural graduates. Their knowledge is superficial.

They lack practical experience. But if they had their apprenticeship of farms which are self-sustained and answer the

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requirements of the country, they would not have to gain experience after getting their degrees and at the expense of

their employers.

There seems to be a mania for establishing new universities in the provinces. Gujarat wants one for Gujarati,

Maharashtra for Marathi, Carnatic for Kannad, Orissa for Oriya, Assam for Assami and what not. I do believe that

there should be such universities if these rich provincial languages and the people who speak them are to attain their

full height.

At the same time I fear that we betray ourselves into undue haste in accomplishing the object. The first step should

be linguistic political redistribution of provinces. Their separate administration will naturally lead to the

establishment of universities where there are none....

There should be a proper background for new universities. They should have feeders in the shape of schools and

colleges which will impart instruction through the medium of their respective provincial languages. Then only can

there be a proper milieu. University is at the top. A majestic top can only be sustained if there is a sound foundation.

Though we are politically free, we are hardly free from the subtle domination of the West. I have nothing to say to

that school of politicians who believe that knowledge can only come from the West. Nor do I subscribe to the belief

that nothing good can come out of the West. I do fear, however, that we are unable as yet to come to a correct

decision in the matter. It is to be hoped that no one contends that because we seem to be politically free from foreign

domination, the mere fact gives us freedom from the more subtle influence of the foreign language and foreign

thought. Is it not wisdom, does not duty to the country dictate, that before we embark on new universities we should

stop and fill our own lungs first with the ozone of our newly got freedom? A university never needs a pile of

majestic buildings and treasures of gold and silver. What it does need most of all is the intelligent backing of public

opinion. It should have a large reservoir of teachers to draw upon. Its founders should be far-seeing.

In my opinion it is not for a democratic State to find money for funding universities. If the people want them they

will supply the funds. Universities so founded will adorn the country which they represent. Where administration is

in foreign hands, whatever comes to the people comes from the top and thus they become more and more dependent.

Where it is broad-based on popular will, everything goes from bottom upward and hence it lasts. It is good looking

and strengthens the people. In such a democratic scheme money invested in the promotion of learning gives a

tenfold return to the people even as a seed sown in good soil returns a luxuriant crop. Universities founded under

foreign domination have run in the reverse direction. Any other result was perhaps impossible. Therefore, there is

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every reason for being cautious about founding new universities till India digested the newly-acquired freedom.

I have never been an advocate of our students going abroad. My experience tells me that such, on return, find

themselves to be square pegs in round holes. That experience is the richest and contributes most to growth which

springs from the soil.

The dry knowledge of the three R's is not even now, it can never be, a permanent part of the villager's life. They

must have knowledge given to them which they must use daily. It must not be thrust upon them. They should have

the appetite for it. What they have today is something they neither want nor appreciate. Give the villagers village

arithmetic, village geography, village history, and the literary knowledge that they must use daily, i.e. reading and

writing letters, etc. They will treasure such knowledge and pass on to the other stages. They have no use for books

which give them nothing of daily use.

Source: "The selected works of Gandhi", Vol. 6, The Voice of Truth

Gandhi jis view on Education

An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the

other, is a misnomer.

Education should be so revolutionized as to answer the wants of the poorest villager, instead of answering those of

an imperial exploiter.

Education in the understanding of citizenship is a short-term affair if we are honest and earnest.

Basic education links the children, whether of cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India.

Is not education the art of drawing out full manhood of the children under training?

Literacy in itself is no education.

Literacy is not the end of education nor even the beginning.

Literacy education should follow the education of the handthe one gift that visibly distinguishes man from beast.

Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated.

True education must correspond to the surrounding circumstances or it is not a healthy growth.

What is really needed to make democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but right education.

National education to be truly national must reflect the national condition for the time being.

The function of Nayee-Talim is not to teach an occupation, but through it to develop the whole man.

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I believe that religious education must be the sole concern of religious associations.

By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and manbody, mind and spirit.

By spiritual training I mean education of the heart.

Experience gained in two schools under my control has taught me that punishment does not purify, if anything, it

hardens children.

I consider writing as a fine art. We kill it by imposing the alphabet on little children and making it the beginning of

learning.

I do regard spinning and weaving as the necessary part of any national system of education.

The aim of university education should be to turn out true servants of the people who will live and die for the

country's freedom.

A balanced intellect presupposes a harmonious growth of body, mind and soul.

Love requires that true education should be easily accessible to all and should be of use to every villager in this daily

life.

The notion of education through handicrafts rises from the contemplation of truth and love permeating life's

activities.

The fees that you pay do not cover even a fraction of the amount that is spent on your education from the public

exchanger.

Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind.

If we want to impart education best suited to the needs of the villagers, we should take the vidyapith to the villages.

In a democratic scheme, money invested in the promotion of learning gives a tenfold return to the people even as a

seed sown in good soil returns a luxuriant crop.

All education in a country has got to be demonstrably in promotion of the progress of the country in which it is

given.

The schools and colleges are really a factory for turning out clerks for Government.

The canker has so eaten into the society that in many cases the only meaning of education is a knowledge of

English.

The emphasis laid on the principle of spending every minute of one's life usefully is the best education for

citizenship.

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 Gandhi On Value Education

By Ravindra Kumar

MAHATMA GANDHI'S name requires no introduction because of his invaluable contribution

to the national liberation movement of India. His reputation as a true nationalist as well
as an internationalist shines like the sun itself. But in the academic sense of the term, he
is not considered a great scholar or an educationist. We have not been enlightened by his
views on education or on the problems relating to it, through any particular book written
by him. There is no special research article available which could have given us a glimpse
of his ideas or suggestions on the education system, except his occasional articles on the
future of education in India written in a very simple manner. The same thing applies to
the views he expressed on the subject now and then.

Despite this fact, the few articles that Gandhi has written in the simplest manner, and the
views he expressed on education as a common man are of utmost importance. They
provide us with a guideline to proceed towards value education. Not only this, if we apply
them even in the modern perspective, they can definitely give a new dimension to our
education system.

Gandhi once said: "Education means all-round drawing out of the best in child and man
body, mind, and spirit." As such, education becomes the basis of personality development
in all dimensionsmoral, mental, and emotional. Therefore we can say that in the long
run education forms the foundations on which the castles of peace and prosperity can be
built. Since ancient times, it is said "Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye," which means that with
education we finally attain salvation. This small Sanskrit phrase essentially contains the
thought and essence of Value Education that is relevant in all perspectives. This very
concept, when applied to the simple but refined approach of Mahatma Gandhi, can
provide us with a new dimension of educational development. As such, while analysing
the views of Mahatma Gandhi, we can examine his views under two main heads: morality
and ethics.

Moral and ethical knowledge is the first point on which Mahatma Gandhi's concept of
value education is based. Any education system that lacks these two cannot be termed as
good. The reason behind such a thought is that, without morality and without ethics, no
student, in a real sense, can be considered to be healthy in mental and physical terms
because, for it, self-control and good character are essential. A person who is not a

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moralist and who does not differentiate between right and wrong cannot rise to the
essential level of a true student. The the attainment of spiritual growth that has been
described by Mahatma Gandhi as an essential part of education can be gained only
through morality and ethics. Seeing it through another viewpoint also proves the same
thing, because when we consider education as a means of attaining salvation and also as
a support on the pathway to liberation, we cannot differentiate it from spiritualism.

Mahatma Gandhi laid down some rules for students so as to ensure that morality and
righteousness always be considered as an essential part of education so that every
student shall gain in terms of knowledge and spirituality. He said that, on the one hand,
where students should gain education under the strict regimen of high morals, self-
control, and right thinking; on the other, they should also be expected to provide service
to the society in general. This includes their respect towards parents, teachers and
elders, love for children, following of social traditions and constant awareness towards
their duties and responsibilities.

In order to strengthen morality and ethics in students, Mahatma Gandhi advocated the
introduction of religious education. This kind of education brings the values of
forbearance, tolerance, and reverence in one's character. And, in turn, these values are
an indivisible part of ethics. Explaining the importance and need of religious education,
Gandhi writes inYoung India of 6 December 1923: "A curriculum of religious instructions
should include a study of the tenets of faiths other than one's own. For this purpose the
students should be trained to cultivate the habit of understanding and appreciating the
doctrine of various great religions of the world in a spirit of reverence and broadminded
tolerance."

Mahatma Gandhi calls upon all teachers to impart proper education of morality and ethics
to students both at the school and at the college levels. In this regard while suggesting
some guidelines for teachers, he says that it is the duty of teachers to develop high
morals and strong character in their students. If teachers fail to do so, it means that they
depart from their social and national responsibilities and, as such, they are also insincere
towards their noble profession. He said that a teacher should lay an example to be
followed before society and students. This can only be done when he himself leads his life
with high standards of morality and strong character. An ideal teacher should be free
from any addiction. He needs to be polite and should set an example of simple living and
high thinking. He should also remember that wasting time is a sin; therefore, he should

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be aware of his duties towards students and society. Moreover, he should have a good
reputation in society. Therefore it is the foremost duty of students, as well as of teachers,
to make certain that moral and ethical knowledge continues to be an integral part of the
educational process. By doing so, they can contribute to the development of value
education.

Another important aspect of Mahatma Gandhi's value education is basic or technical

education. The word buniyadi (or basic), which Mahatma Gandhi used in the third and the
fourth decades of the twentieth century, meant knowledge or education that could help
rural people in the promotion of village handicrafts or to establish cottage industries. The
ultimate purpose behind his attempt was to make young men and women self-reliant in
the economic field. Even in the modern perspective, his idea of buniyadi or basic
education is applicable and it does not clash with the concept of today's job-oriented or
technical education.

In fact, Mahatma Gandhi wanted the students to prepare themselves for technical
knowledge right from the days of their primary level of education. In this regard, his logic
is not only important but adaptable; it can prove to be a milestone in the direction of
value education.

It is not that Mahatma Gandhi did not talk of all-round or complete education on different
occasions. He definitely spoke of imparting education based on curriculum; he, more or
less wrote about graduate and postgraduate levels of education. Not only this, as I have
just discussed, he laid emphasis on moral and ethical knowledge, which is helpful for
character building and for the physical and mental development of a student from the
very beginning of his education. He clearly believed that without a healthy body; the
mind could not be developed fully.

It is but obvious that when a child starts his formal education, he enters at the primary
level and, step by step, at an age of twenty or twenty-two, he graduates from university.
After so many years, if he does not find a goal or lacks a direction to begin his career,
then what could be the use of such an education? What is the use of the degree that he
has in his hand? After obtaining a degree, students should have a clear direction for their
future; they should have no doubts towards their future goal and should be full of self
confidence. Side by side, they should be self-dependent and capable of tackling
unavoidable day-to-day problems. They must not be worried about a suitable job.

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But, in reality, these days we see that our younger generation is directionless. Our youths
are diverted and a feeling of helplessness and dejection is prevailing on them. According
to a survey, there are millions of men and women who, even after completing their
studies at graduation, post graduation, and doctorate levels, fail to seek an employment
of their choice. Is it not a failure of our social and educational system? Even after
spending the golden years of one's life in attaining higher education, our youths are not
self-dependent. As such, how would they be able to get rid of their day-to-day problems
and how would they contribute to the society and the nation? Therefore it is a challenge
not only before the youths of this country but also before the educationists, scholars, and
those in the government to solve this problem.

To tackle this problem, Mahatma Gandhi's views can be of great help. In this reference,
he has said that there is a need of result-oriented education. He said that every child has
some special qualities that can also be termed as inherited traits of personality; so at the
primary level, a student's quality and worth should be identified by his teacher. A student
should gain education according to a curriculum and moral guidance and as such also
improve his physical strength. But the teacher should watch and identify his quality that
could be of help in his later life.

For that purpose, it is necessary that after completing studies up to a certain level, he
must, in addition to the three kinds of educationgeneral (according to syllabi), moral,
and physicalbe provided facilities to gain technical knowledge in accordance with the
special trait that has already been identified in his personality by his teacher. Since by
nature he has interest in that knowledge, he will easily gain it; he will become adept in
that. When he completes his study up to graduate level and with this extra knowledge
comes out of a college or university, he would have a direction. As such, even if he does
not get a private or government job, he would manage to get through some sort of self-
employment on the basis of his technical knowledge. At least, then, his education would
be considered as result-oriented.

This is Gandhi's view-point pertaining to value education which should be applied in a

wider perspective. Its worth lies in the fact that education should necessarily be helpful in
employment and its foundations should be laid on morality and ethics. We who are
concerned with education need to think over Gandhi's views on education. We have to
apply Mahatma Gandhi's ideas according to the present circumstances of our country and
also as per the demands of time.

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 Gandhi's concept of education and its ethical perspectives for the
development of peace

Gandhi was a utopian; he tried to bring the Kingdom of God on the earth (Ram
Rajya) where truth and non-violence would be guiding principles. His utopianism
arose out of his love for humanity. Gandhi was humanist, shall we say from the first
moment of his self consciousness.1 He firmly believed that the goodness of the
individual formed the constituent part of the goodness of the society. Like John
Ruskin, he considered man is the most important to bring a peaceful and
harmonious society. He says, The individual is the one supreme
consideration.2 Man is neither mere intellect, nor the gross animal body, nor the
heart or soul alone. A proper and harmonious combination of all the three is
required for making of the whole man and constitutes the true economics of
education.3 His concept of political system is closely connected with education. In a
good political system, there must be the element of goodness necessarily present in
every man. There is the need of a proper education system to the individuals in
order to bring out such element of goodness. He talks about education is more
comprehensive than that of the literal meaning. He says, By education I mean an
all round drawing out of the best in child and manbody mind and spirit. Literacy is
not the end of education not even the beginning. It is one of the means whereby
man and women can be educated. Literacy in itself is no education.4

He thought that education is closely associated with the socio-economic

development of the society. He took up scheme for basic education in which
vocational training or work experience is the utmost important. It is due to the fact
that it stimulates the human mind for creative thinking or dignity of manual labour.
He thought that such creative thinking should be taken up from primary to higher

90
level education. His view on basic education is greatly influenced by his philosophy
of satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), firm belief in God, dignity of labour. The
Kothari Commission also followed Gandhis ideal of vocational training in education.
This commission says, We recommend that work experience should be introduced
as an integral part of all India educationgeneral or vocational. We define work
experience as participation in productive work in school, in the home, in a
workshop, on a farm, in a factory or in any other productive situation.5 This
commission re-emphasizes the Gandhian principle of learning by doing in the
modern education. The main aim of education is the development of human
personality. He expanded fourfold personality in the individual that is body, mind,
heart and spirit. True education stimulates the spiritual, intellectual and physical
strength of the individual. His view on education of heart which brings the idea of
sympathy, fellowship and deep feelings of love. The aim of education is not only to
produce good individual but also one must understand ones own responsibilities in
which one lives. It is closely related to Hindu concept of varnashram dharma. One
who understood his or her responsibilities would lead to the spirit of social
consciousness and social mindedness. Then, all the activities of such persons will
have a social content as well as co-operation to others.

He talks about education in terms of discipline. It is regarded as one of the most

important parts and parcels of education. Without discipline, the sound education
system is impossible. It is a quality that ones self can lead to the regulation of ones
intellectual, moral, spiritual and social behaviour. It is stated that the goal of
education consists of character-building. Such character-building requires the moral,
intellectual and social behaviour under all circumstances i.e., strength of personality,
the virtue of compassion, kindness, fair-mindedness and the spirit of dedication.
Gandhi strongly holds that education is not end in itself but it is the most powerful
weapon which creates all persons of genuine characters. There is degeneration of
education when the qualities of truthfulness, firmness, tolerance are absence from
it. True education is life process which helps in cultivating the spirit of co-operation,
tolerance, public spirit and a sense of responsibility. All these qualities are
considered as disciplines for the development of human personality. Such disciplines
can create the harmonious balance between the individuals and social aim of
education. His principle of learning by doing tries to stimulate the individuals mind
to think creatively, independently and critically. His great emphasis on work-culture
to the students from the primary stage to higher stage is to enable the students to

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start producing from the time he started his training. So, his primary information of
basic education is Head, Heart and Hand rather than Reading, Writing and
Arithmetic.

Gandhi also maintains that education is essential for the attainment of the goal of
peace. It can be attained only through morality and ethics. According to Gandhi,
education is the realization of the best in man - body, soul and spirit. He maintained
that education must be based on ethics and morality. Ethics and morality are
integral to Gandhis life. All his thoughts, actions and speeches are based on these
two concepts. From the ethical perspective, education may be considered as a
means of attainment of salvation. It helps to the path of the complete peace. Peace
is the absence of violence and hostile thought. As a daily practitioner of non-
violence, Gandhi right from his earlier stage considered that non-violence is an
indivisible, important and essential part of education. We cannot be separated
education from ethics, morality and spiritualism. For this purpose Gandhi has given
some rules for all students so as to ensure that morality and righteousness always
be considered as an essential part of their education. Regarding this, such rules can
make to right thinking, self-control, service to the society, respect to others and
constant awareness for their duties and responsibilities.

Today, the world is suffering from immense crisis from many sides. Crimes, conflict,
hatred and distrust between one community and another, hunger, unemployment,
poverty and literacy, paucity of resources and pollution of environment,
deforestation and desertification, swelling number of migrants and refugees, ethnic
and sub-national violence, terrorism, drug trafficking, AIDS etc., all these altogether
make a grave danger to peace. The present day crisis is greater than the crisis that
occurred during the time of Gandhi. The world is now full of violence. With the
advancement of science and technology human being has invented many new
technologies which are very helpful in our life. In some other ways, some
selfish people who used it as a weapon for gaining his desire wish and pleasures. An
action done under the motives of selfishness is a kind of violence. Purity of means is
an essential condition of realizing good ends. If a good end is to be attained, it is
also essential that the means adopted for the realization of the end is also good. He
says, if one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.6 End and
means are the two important concepts in Gandhian philosophy which play very
important implication for his doctrine of truth and non-violence. His principle of

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aparigraha is one of the most important to bring simple and peaceful living, co-
operation with one another. However, in our present day society we are facing so
many conflicts. One of them is based on our knowledge which has been separated
from work-ethics. Knowledge is separated in thought, in life as well as in market
values by faulty psychology, faulty sociology and faulty economics respectively.
Education plays an important role which helps to equip individuals with the skills and
attitudes that are necessary in order to adapt in changing situations and to add the
creative spirit in the task of social change. Work and knowledge should go together
is the Gandhian principle of education. The educational systems try to develop the
individual soul and mind, courage and self-reliance, cultivate the highest intellectual,
scientific, moral and ethical accomplishments.

Gandhis concept of education is of quite significance in the contemporary situation.

His philosophical concept of education is entirely based on the development of
human personality, to maintain the discipline, to create the manual work with
learning and to develop the culture of the peace. He was a great educationist and an
individualist par excellence. He knew that education is the most important means in
the society which can be used as an instrument of socio-economic progress,
material advancement, political evolution and moral development of an individual.
Gandhis whole philosophy and work was based on ethics and morality. His concept
of education is also founded on ethics and morality. It may be said that his concept
of education has full of religious ideas. His idea of religion is different from common
concept. His concept of religion is service of humanity. For the spirit of religions he
propounded Nai Talim or basic education. This new education system, Archarya
Kriplani says, is the coping stone of Gandhis social and political edifice. His
philosophical thought on education is highly pedestal that creates the socio-
economic development of the society.

We can draw a conclusion that his concept of education is not only the eradication of
illiteracy but learning by doing. He preaches the doctrine of simple living and high
thinking. His education system are greatly emphasizing the culture of peace, sincere
work, dedication of the cause of the nation, social minded, friendliness, right
feelings, economic advancement, physical improvement and socio-cultural progress.
It is based on work-centre education which can provide the necessary economic
self-sufficiency and self-reliance.

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What were Mahatma Gandhi's views on Education?
Education is backbone of society and is largely responsible for is upliftment.
Gandhi was a critic of traditional education and viewed that "By education, I
mean an all-round drawing of the best in child and man in body, mind and
spirit."

His Wardha scheme was pointer in this direction. Accordingly, these should
be the basic tenets of Gandhian education.

Free primary education:

Gandhiji advocated for free and compulsory education for all-boys and girls
between 7 and 14 years. Education should be imparted in primary level in
the student's mother tongue. A free primary universal education is to be
imparted to all the children in the village. This will make the backbone of a
country strong.

Place of vocational education:

A love for manual work will be injected in the mind of children. This is not a
compulsion but the child will learn it by doing. Being free from mere bookish
knowledge, a student should resort to manual work. He, thus, put emphasis
on vocational and functional education.

94
Earning while learning was the motto of this education. This wills increase
the creativity in a student. As Gandhi wanted to make Indian villages self-
sufficient units, he emphasised that vocational education should increase the
efficiency within the students who will make the village as self-sufficient
units.

Emphasis on morality:

By education, Gandhi meant the improvement of morality within a student.

Without being bookish, a student should adopt certain moral ethical codes
like truth, nonviolence, charity and so on which will illumine his character.
Thus a character building through education was a prime concern for Gandhi.

Non-participation in politics:

Gandhiji wanted to keep the students away from politics. If students will
participate in politics, they will be pawn at the hands of the politicians who
will utilize them for fulfilling their desire. This will hamper the development
of a student and his education will suffer a setback. So, he advised the
students to keep themselves completely away from politics.

Women education:

Gandhi was a protagonist of women education. He advocated that three

should be no distinction in equality of status between men and women in
society. He vehemently opposed Purdah system and widowhood. He
wanted to free women from social serfdom. So, the number of girl students
considerably rose in various educational institutions inside the country. Thus,
Gandhi emphasised the need of women education to improve the lot of
society.

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Gandhi's idea on education is a novel one. His idea of vocational education
was unique which even now-a-days is being promoted by the government in
India.

Gandhi's Sarvodaya:

Sarvodya is otherwise known as Gandhian Socialism. It is the around

development of an individual. This idea came to the mind of Gandhi when he
was translating John Raskin's book 'Unto the Last'. It includes the following
features.

Upliftment of all:

Gandhian Sarvodya is a principle which is universal. It is a new approach of,

socialism. It was against the principle that growth of majority in the society
will improve the condition of the society. On the other hand Gandhi
envisaged that all the individuals have equal importance in the society and
so upliftment of every man in the society is a vital necessity.

Ideal social order:

Sarvodaya brings to the forefront an idea social order. It includes .several

socio-economic programmes. Eradication of poverty, removal of
untouchability, promotion of widow remarriage, introduction of Khadi,
welfare of the cows etc. By improving these aspects, Gandhi pointed out that
the social order can be regulated and socialism can be attained.

Good for one and all:

Sarvodaya aims at good for one. By that, good for all will be attained. It is
not the good or welfare of the greatest number improving the lot of

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majority; rather it aims at the welfare of all. This aims at all round
development of the individual, society and nation,

Application in economic field:

Gandhi applied the principle of Sarvodaya in the economic field. He wanted

to improve the morality and spirituality of the rich people. That is why he
had advocated trusteeship which aimed at giving away the surplus by the
rich for the upliftment of the lot of society.

Application in political field:

Mahatma Gandhi applied the principle of Sarvodaya in the political field. His
idea of Swaraj (sec three types of Swaraj discussed earlier), concept of basic
education, self-governing village units etc. included the idea of sarvodaya.

Thus, Gandhian idea of socialism or Sarvodaya was unique in its style. Free
from violence, a State should march with this idea. It formulated the
principle of economic equality "from each according to his bread-labour and
to each according to his need." The ardent followers of Mahatma Gandhi like
Vinova Bhave and Jayprakash Narayan championed the cause of Sarvodaya
in India.

Education

Literary education is of no value, if it is not able to build up a sound

character.
~ Mahatma Gandhi (born: 1869-10-02 died: 1948-01-30 at age: 78)

There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything
great and enduring and that discipline will not come by mere academic

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argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of
adversity.
~ Mahatma Gandhi (born: 1869-10-02 died: 1948-01-30 at age: 78)

Quotes tagged as "education" (showing 1-30 of 3,000)

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi

Women's Education

Women's Education

Man and woman are of equal rank but they are not identical. They are a peerless pair

being supplementary to one another; each helps the other, so that without the one the

existence of the other cannot be conceived, and therefore it follows as a necessary

corollary from these facts that anything that will impair the status of either of them will

involve the equal ruin of them both. In framing any scheme of women's education this

cardinal truth must be constantly kept in mind. Man is supreme in the outward activities

of a married pair and therefore it is in the fitness of things that he should have a

greater knowledge thereof. On the other hand, home life is entirely the sphere of

woman and therefore in domestic affairs, in the upbringing and education of children,

women ought to have more knowledge. Not that knowledge should be divided into

watertight compartments, or that some branches of knowledge should be closed to any

one; but unless courses of instruction are based on a discriminating appreciation of

these basic principles, the fullest life of man and woman cannot be developed.

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 Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, pp. 425, 426 ; 20-2-1918

Women and English Education

I do not believe in women working for a living or undertaking commercial enterprises.

The few women who may require or desire to have English education, can very easily

have their way by joining the schools for men. To introduce English education in schools

meant for women could only lead to prolonging our helplessness. I have often read and

heard people saying that the rich treasures of English literature should be opened alike

to men and women. I submit in all humility that there is some misapprehension in

assuming such an attitude. No one intends to close these treasures against women

while keeping them open for men. There is none on earth able to prevent you from

studying the literature of the whole world if you are fond of literary tastes. But when

courses of education have been framed with the needs of an entire society in view, you

cannot supply the requirements of the few who have cultivated a literary taste.

Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, pp. 426, 427; 20-2-1918

Illiteracy among Women

As for illiteracy among the women, its cause is not mere laziness and inertia as in the

case of men. A more potent cause is the status of inferiority with which an immemorial

tradition has, unjustly branded her. Man has converted her into a domestic drudge and

an instrument of his pleasure, instead of regarding her as his helpmate and 'better

half'! The result is a semi-paralysis of our society. Woman has rightly been called the

mother of the race. We owe it to her and to ourselves to undo the great wrong that we

have done her.

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 Harijan, 18-2-1939

Speech of Mahatma Gandhi in Indore

Mahatma Gandhi went to Indore and gave a speech there. Mahatma Gandhi spoke,
"Our most venerable and selfless leader Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya has not
found it possible to attend this conference. I had requested him to come if he could
and he promised to do so. But though he has not been able to come he has sent us a
letter. I was sure that in case he did not come, he would send a letter stating his
views, and it would be possible for me to read it out to you. I have received the
letter today. I had asked the reception committee to secure views of scholars on
two questions in regard to Hindi. Panditji in his letter has replied to these two
questions. The question of language presents a big and indeed a very important
problem. Even if all the leaders were to devote themselves entirely to this task
turning away from everything else, they well may. If on the other hand, we were to
regard it as of secondary importance only and to direct our attention away from it
then all the enthusiasm which people now feel for it and the keen interest they are
taking in it at present would be in vain.

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 Language is like our mother. In fact I have no real interest in this sort of a
conference. It will be a three days' pageant after which we shall disperse, go away
to our respective places and forget all that we said or heard. What are needed are
the urge and the resolve to do things. The president's speech cannot give you that
urge. It is something which you have to create for yourselves. One of the charges
made against us is that our language lacks spirit. Where there is no knowledge
there is no spirit. We have neither the urge to know nor to do things. It is only
when we acquire dynamic energy that our people and our language also will
acquire it. We cannot get the freedom we want through a foreign language for the
simple reason that we are not able to use it effectively. I am pleased to know that in
Indore you carry on all your dealings through Hindi. But excuse me please the
letter I have received from your Chief Minister is in English. The people of Indore
perhaps do not know but I will tell them that here the courts entertain petitions
written in English. I ask why it should be so in Indore. I admit that this movement
the movement for the adoption of Hindi cannot yet succeed in British India, but
there is no reason why it should not succeed in the Indian States. The educated
classes, as Pandit Malaviyaji has pointed out in his letter, have unfortunately fallen
under the spell of English and have developed a distaste for their own mother
tongue,. The milk one gets from the former is adulterated with water and
contaminated with poison, while that from the latter is pure.

It is impossible to make any advance without this pure milk. But a blind person
cannot see and a slave does not know how to break his fetters. We have been living
under the spell of the English now for the past fifty years. In the result our people
have remained steeped in ignorance. The conference must give special attention to
this part of the problem. We should see that within a year conditions are created
when not a word of English will be heard in any of our political or social

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conferences, in the Congress, in the provincial assemblies and the like. Let us
abandon the use of English entirely. English has attained the position of a universal
language. But that is because the English have spread and established themselves
throughout the world. As soon as they lose that position, English will shrink in its
extent. We should no more neglect and thus destroy our own language. The English
insist on speaking their mother tongue and using it for all their purposes. Let us do
the same and thus raise Hindi to the high status of a national language. Only thus
shall we discharge our duty to it. Now I will read out my written speech. You have
done me great honour in conferring on me the presidentship of this conference. I
know only too well that from the point of view of the knowledge of Hindi, my
qualifications for this honour are almost nil. The only thing which may be said to
qualify me for it is my boundless love of Hindi.

I hope that I would always be able to pass this test of love. The extent of a
particular literature can only be reckoned on the basis of the region where that
language is spoken. If the region of Hindi remains confined to the Northern part of
India, the extent of its literature must remain limited. But in case it becomes a
national language, the expanse of its literature will become as wide as the country.
If we want that high-souled men from the East and the West, from the North and
the South, should come to take a dip in the sea of this language, it is obvious that
the sea must acquire sufficient importance. Therefore the place of Hindi from the
point of view of developing a national literature needs to be considered. It is
necessary to give some thought to the definition of the Hindi language. I have often
said that Hindi is that language which is spoken in the North by both Hindus and
Muslims and which is written either in the Nagari or the Persian script. This Hindi
is neither too Sanskritized nor too Persianized.

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The sweetness which I find in the village Hindi is found neither in the speech of
the Muslims of Lucknow nor in that of the Hindu pundits of Prayag. The language
which is easily understood by the masses is the best. All can easily follow the
village Hindi. The source of the river of language lies in the Himalayas of the
people. It will always be so. The Ganga is arising with the village Hindi which will
flow on forever, while the Sanskritized and Persianized Hindi will dry up and fade
away, as does a rivulet springing from a small hillock. The distinction made
between Hindus and Muslims is unreal. The same unreality is found in the
distinction between Hindi and Urdu. It is unnecessary for Hindus to reject Persian
words and for Muslims to reject Sanskrit words from their speech. A harmonious
blend of the two will be as beautiful as the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna
and last forever. I hope that we will not waste our energy and weaken our strength
by entering into the Hindi-Urdu controversy. There is, no doubt, difficulty in regard
to script. As things are, Muslims will patronize the Arabic script, while Hindus will
mostly use the Nagari script. Both scripts will therefore have to be accorded their
due places. Officials must know both scripts. There is no difficulty in this. In the
end, the script which is the easier of the two will prevail.

There is no doubt that there ought to be a common language for mutual

intercourse between the different parts of India. Once we forget the Hindi-Urdu
controversy, we shall realize that for Muslims throughout India Urdu is the lingua
franca. This proves that since Moghul times, Hindi or Urdu was well on its way to
becoming the national language of India. Even today, there is no language to rival
Hindi in this respect. The question of national language becomes quite easy of
solution once we give up the Hindi-Urdu controversy. Hindus will have to learn
some Persian words while Muslims will have to learn some Sanskrit words. This
exchange will enrich and strengthen the Islamic language and provide a very

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fruitful means for bringing Hindus and Muslims closer together. In fact we have to
work so hard for dispelling the present fascination for the English language that we
must not raise the Hindu-Urdu controversy. Nor must we fight over the script. Why
English cannot become our national language, what harm results from the
imposition of English on our people, how our people have suffered and their
development has been retarded by the adoption of English as the medium of
education. I have dealt with in my speeches at Broach and Bhagalpur.

I will not therefore repeat myself here. Indeed there is no doubt that Sir
Rabindranath Tagore, Smt. Besant, Lokamanya Tilak and other respected and
influential persons entertain similar views regarding this question. There will
certainly be difficulties in the way of the achievement of our purpose but it will be
for this body to tackle them. Lokamanya Tilak has indeed expressed his views in
this regard not only in words but also in action by starting a Hindi section in his
papers the Kesari and The Mahatma. The views of Bharat ratna Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya on this question are well known. Still, unfortunately, some of our
learned leaders hold that for at least some years to come English must remain the
national language. We will respectfully request these leaders to consider that this
unreasonable attraction for English is causing much hardship to our people, as they
get little benefit out of the knowledge of their English-educated countrymen
between whom and them a wide gulf has been created through English. It is
unnecessary to say that I do not hate the English language.

I myself have benefited from many of the precious gems of the great treasure of
English Literature. We have also to acquire knowledge of science and suchlike
through the English Language. Knowledge of English is therefore necessary for us.
But it is one thing to give it its due place and quite another to make a fetish of it. It
is clear that our purpose will not be achieved merely by accepting that Hindi-Urdu

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should be our national language. We have to consider how we may achieve this
goal. The scholars who have graced this assembly by their presence will certainly
have something to say on this point. I will make a few suggestions on how we may
spread this language. There must first be a handy book--sort of a "Hindi Teacher"
which will meet the needs of those who want to learn Hindi. I have seen a small
book of this type for those who want to learn Hindi through Bengali. There is one
in Marathi also. But I have not seen any such books for other regional languages.
This is as easy to do as it is necessary.

I hope that this Sammelan will soon take up this work. Of course, these books
should be written by learned and experienced writers. The greatest difficulty will
be felt in the case of the Southern languages. No effort whatever in this direction
has yet been made there. We must train good Hindi teachers to take up the work.
There is a great scarcity of such teachers. I have secured one such teacher from
Prayag through your popular secretary, Bhai Purushottamdas Tandon. Similarly, I
have not yet seen a single complete grammar of the Hindi language. Such as exist
in English and have been written by foreigners. One of these grammars is by Dr.
Kellogg. There must be a good Hindi grammar which can compare favorably with
similar grammars of other Indian languages. It is my humble request to scholars
who love Hindi to make up this deficiency. In our national Councils Hindi alone
should be used. Congress workers and leaders can and should do much in this
respect. I would suggest that this Conference should make a request to this effect to
the Congress at its next session. In our legislative bodies to the entire proceedings
should be conducted through the national language. Our people cannot have
training in political affairs so long as this is not done. Our Hindi newspapers are
doing something in this respect but the education we want to be imparted to our
people cannot be given through translations.

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 Similarly in our courts to the national and provincial languages must be used.
Under the existing set-up people are being deprived of the education which they
can easily receive from those who administer justice. The Princes can promote the
national language in a way in which the English Government cannot. In the Holkar
State, for example, in the Council and in the courts, Hindi and the provincial
language alone can be used. The encouragement they thus give to the national
language will go a long way in helping it progress. In the schools of this State the
entire education from the beginning to the end should be imparted through the
mother tongue. In this way our Princes can render much service to the language. I
hope that Maharaja Holkar and his officials will take up this work enthusiastically.
It will be a sad delusion to think that we can achieve our objective merely through
conferences. Single-minded devotion and constant application alone will bring
success. Only when hundreds of selfless scholars regard this work as their own can
it be accomplished.

What I regret is that even the provinces which have Hindi for their mother tongue
do not seem to show any enthusiasm for its promotion and propagation. The
educated classes in these provinces continue to use English for purposes of
conversation and correspondence. A friend has written to me that our newspaper
proprietors do all their work in English; they keep their accounts, too, in English.
Englishmen living in France use their mother tongue in all their dealings. Is it not a
pity that we carry on even some of our most important activities in English? It is
my humble but firm opinion that unless we give Hindi its national status and the
provincial languages their due place in life of the people, all the talk of swaraj is
useless. It is my fervent hope and prayed to God almighty that this Sammelan may
be an instrument for the solution of this great question confronting India."1

106
Mahatma Gandhi spoke, "We often think that changes of the kind that take place
in Europe will also occur in India; that when some big transformation comes about,
people who know beforehand how to prepare themselves for it win through and
those who fail to take account of this are destroyed; that mere movement is
progress and that our advancement lies in it. We think that we shall be able to
progress through the great discoveries that have been made in the continent of
Europe. But this is an illusion. We are inhabitants of a country which has so long
survived with its own civilization. Many a civilization of Europe is destroyed, but
India, our country, survives as a witness to its own civilization. All scholars agree
in testifying that the civilization of India is the same today as it was thousands of
years ago. But, now, there is reason to suspect that we no longer have faith in our
civilization. Every morning we do our worship and prayer, recite the verses
composed by our forbears, but we do not understand their significance. Our faith is
turning in another direction. So long as the world goes on, the war between the
Pandavas and the Kauravas will also continue. The books of almost all the
religions say that the war between the gods and Satan goes on forever.

The question is how we are to make our preparations. I have come here to tell you
that you should have faith in your civilization and keep to it steadfastly. If you do
this, India will one day hold sway over the entire world. Our leaders say that, in
order to fight the West, we have to adopt the ways of the West. But please rest
assured that it will mean the end of Indian civilization. India's face is turned away
from your modern trend; that India you do not know. I have travelled much and so
come to know the mind of India and I have discovered that it has preserved its faith
in its ancient civilization. The swaraj of which we hear will not be achieved the
way we are working for it. The Congress-League Scheme, or any other scheme
which is even better, will not get us swaraj. We shall get swaraj through the way in

107
which we live our lives. It cannot be had for the asking. We can never gain it
through copying Europe. That European civilization is Satanic we see for
ourselves. An obvious proof of this is the fierce war that is going on at present. It is
so terrible that the Mahabharata War was nothing in comparison. This should be a
warning to us and we should remember that our sages have given us the immutable
and inviolate principles that our conduct should be godly and that it should be
rooted in dharma.

We should follow these principles alone. So long as we do not follow dharma, our
wish will not be fulfilled, notwithstanding all the grandiose schemes we may
devise. Even if Mr. Montagu offers us swaraj today we can in no way benefit from
that swaraj. We must make use of the legacy left us by our rishis and munis. The
whole world knows that the tapasya that was practiced in ancient India is found
nowhere else. Even if we want an empire for India, we can get it through no other
method but that of self378 discipline. We can be certain that once the spirit of
discipline comes to pervade our lives, we shall be able to get anything we may
want. Truth and non-violence are our goal. Non-violence is the supreme dharma;
there is no discovery of greater import than this. So long as we engage in mundane
actions, so long as soul and body are together, some violence will continue to occur
through our agency. But we must renounce at least the violence that it is possible
for us to renounce. We should understand that the less violence a religion permits,
the more is the truth contained in it. If we can ensure the deliverance of India, it is
only through truth and non-violence.

Lord Willington, the Governor of Bombay, has said that he feels greatly
disappointed when he meets Indians for they do not express what is in their minds
but only what would be agreeable to him, so that he never knows the real position.
Many people have this habit of hiding their own sentiments while in the presence

108
of an important person and suiting their talk to his pleasure. They do not realize
how cruelly they deceive themselves and harm the truth. One must say what one
feels. It is impertinence to go against one's reason. One must not hesitate the least
to tell what one feels to anyone, be he a Minister of the Government or even a
more exalted person. Deal with all with truth and non-violence. Love is a rare herb
that makes a friend even of a sworn enemy and this herb grows out of non-
violence. What in a dormant state is non-violence becomes love in the waking
state. Love destroys ill will. We should love all-whether Englishmen or Muslims.
No doubt, we should protect the cow. But we cannot do so by fighting with
Muslims. We cannot save the cow by killing Muslims.. We should act only through
love; thus alone shall we succeed. So long as we do not have unshakeable faith in
truth, love and non-violence, we can make no progress. If we give up these and
imitate European civilization, we shall be doomed. I pray to Suryanarayan1 that
India may not turn away from her civilization. Be fearless. So long as you live
under various kinds of fears, you can never progress, you can never succeed.
Please do not forget our ancient civilization. Never give up truth and love. Treat all
enemies and friends with love. If you wish to make Hindi the national language,
you can do so in a short time through the principles of truth and non-violence."2

English Education

English Education

Reader : Do I then understand that you do not consider English education

necessary for obtaining Home Rule?

Editor (Gandhiji) : My answer is yes and no. To give millions a knowledge of

English is to enslave them. The foundation that Macaulay laid of education has
enslaved us. I do not suggest that he had any such intention, but that has been the

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result. Is not a sad commentary that we should have to speak of Home Rule in a
foreign tongue?

And it is worthy of note that the systems which the Europeans have discarded are
the systems in vogue among us. Their learned men continually make changes. We
ignorantly adhere to their cast-off systems. They are trying each division, to
improve its own status. Wales is a small portion of England. Great efforts are being
made to revive a knowledge of Welsh among Welshmen. The English Chancellor,
Mr Llyod George is taking a leading part in the movement to make Welsh children
speak Welsh. And what is our condition ? We write to each other in faulty English,
and from this even, our M.A.'s are not free ; our best thoughts are expressed in
English ; the proceedings of our Congress are conducted in English ; our best
newspapers are printed in English. If this state of things continues for a long time
posterity willit is my firm opinioncondemn and curse us.

It is worth noting that, by receiving English education, we have enslaved the

nation. Hypocrisy, tyranny, etc., have increased ; English-knowing Indians have
not hesitated to cheat and strike terror into the people. Now, if we are doing
anything for the people at all, we are paying only a portion of the debt due to them.

It is not a painful thing that, if I want to go to a court of justice, I must employ the
English language as a medium ; that, when I become a Barrister, I may not speak
my mother tongue, and that someone else should have to translate to me from my
own language ? Is not this absolutely absurd ? Is it not a sign of slavery ? Am I to
blame the English for it or myself ? It is we, the English-knowing men, that have
enslaved India. The curse of the nation will rest not upon the English but upon us.

I have told you that my answer to your last question is both yes and no. I have
explained to you why it is yes. I shall now explain why it is no.

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We are so much beset by the disease of civilization, that we cannot altogether do
without English education. Those who have already received it may make good use
of it wherever necessary. In our dealing with the English people, in our dealings
with our own people, when we can only correspond with them through that
language, and for the purpose o knowing how much disgusted they (the English)
have themselves become with their civilization, we may use or learn English, as
the case may be. Those who have studied English will have to teach morality to
their progeny through mother tongue, and to teach them another Indian language ;
but when they have grown up, they may learn English, the ultimate aim being that
we should not need it. The object to making money thereby should be eschewed.
Even in learning English to such a limited extent, we will have to consider what we
should learn through it and what we should not.

Hind Swaraj (1908), Ch. XVIII

Education for Manufacturing Clerks

You, the students of Madras as well as the students all over India, are you receiving
an education which will make you worthy to realize that ideal and which will draw
the best out of you, or is it an education which has become a factory for making
Government employees or clerks in commercial offices ? Is the goal of the
education that you are receiving that of mere employment whether in the
Government departments or other departments ? If that be the goal of your
education, if that is the goal that you have set before yourselves, I feel and I fear
that the vision which the Poet pictured for himself is far from being realized. As
you have heard me say perhaps, or as you have read I am and I have been a
determined opponent of modern civilization. I want you to turn your eyes today
upon what is going on in Europe and if you have come to the conclusion that

111
Europe is today groaning under the heels of modern civilization, then you and your
elders will have to think twice before you can emulate that civilization in our
Motherland. But I have been told : "How can we help it, seeing that our rulers
bring that culture to our Motherland ?" Do not make any mistake about it at all. I
do not for one moment believe that it is for any rulers to bring that culture to you
unless you are prepared to accept it, and if it be that the rulers bring that culture
before us, I think that we have forces within ourselves to enable us to reject that
culture.

Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, pp. 312,313 ; 27-4-15

English Education

It is my considered opinion that English education in the manner it has been given
emasculated the English-educated Indian, it has put a severe strain upon the Indian
students' nervous energy, and has made of us imitators. The process of displacing
the vernacular has been one of the saddest chapters in the British connection.
Rammohan Rai would have been a greater reformer, and Lokamanya Tilak would
have been a greater scholar, if they had not to start with the handicap of having to
think in English and transmit their thoughts chiefly in English. Their effect their
own people, marvelous as it was, would have been greater if they had been brought
up under a less unnatural system. No doubt they both gained from their knowledge
of the rich treasures of English literature. But these should have been accessible to
them through their own vernaculars. No country can become a nation by producing
a race of imitators. Think of what would have happened to the English if they had
not an authorized version of the Bible. I do believe that Chaitanya, Kabir, Nanak,
Guru Govindsing, Shivaji, and Pratap were greater men than Rammohan Rai and
Tilak. I know that comparisons are odious. All are equally great in their own way.

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But judged by the results, the effect of Rammohan and Tilak on the masses is not
so permanent or far reaching as that of the others more fortunately born. Judged by
the obstacles they had to surmount, they were giants, and both would have been
greater in achieving results, if they had been handicapped by the system under
which they received their training. I refuse to believe that the Raja and the
Lokamanya could not have thought the thoughts they did without a knowledge of
the English language. Of all the superstitions that affect India, none is so great as
that a knowledge of the English language is necessary for imbibing ideas of liberty,
and developing accuracy of thought. It should be remembered that there has been
only one system of education before the country for the past fifty years, and only
one medium of expression forced on the country. We have, therefore, no data
before us as to what we would have been but for the education in the existing
schools and colleges. This, however, we do know that India today is poorer than
fifty years ago, less able to defend herself, and her children have less stamina. I
need not be told that this is due to the defect in the system of Government. The
system of education is its most defective part.

It was conceived and born in error, for the English rulers honesty believed the
indigenous system to be worse than useless. It has been nurtured in sin, for the
tendency has been to dwarf the Indian body, mind and soul.

Young India, 27-4-''21

Reply to Tagore

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed.

I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as
possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. I refuse to live in other
peoples' houses as an interloper, a beggar or a slave. I refuse to put the unnecessary

113
strain of learning English upon my sisters for the sake of false pride or
questionable social advantage. I would have our young men and young women
with literary tastes to learn as much English and other world languages as they like,
and then expect them to give the benefits of their learning to India and to the
world, like a Bose, a Roy or the Poet himself. But I would not have a single Indian
to forget, neglector be ashamed of his mother tongue, or to feel that he or she
cannot think or express the best thoughts in his or her own vernacular. Mine is not
a religion of the prison-house. It has room for the least among God's creation. But
it is proof against insolence, pride of race, religion or colour.

Young India, 1-6-1921

Translations from English Literature Enough

In asking our men and women to spend less time in the study of English than they
are doing now, my object is not to deprive them of the pleasure which they are
likely to deprive from it, but I hold that the same pleasure can be obtained at less
cost and trouble if we follow a more natural method. The world is full of many a
gem of priceless beauty ; but then these gems are not all of English setting. Other
languages can well boast of productions of similar excellence ; all these should be
made available for our common people and that can only be done if our own
learned men will undertake to translate them for us in our own languages.

Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, pp. 426-28 ; 20-2-1918

Gandhi's Thoughts on Education

M.K Gandhi believed in an education system that brought the best out of a person's
body, mind and spirit. A true patriot, he was aware of the deep seated problems of
dissemination of education in English medium. Worried about the way Indians

114
were becoming imitators of the West, he propagated education in vernacular
languages so as to avoid a "de-Indianizing education". Adamant to make Indians
come out of the false belief that just learning English language was education and
that was the only means of getting a job, he argued that education in English
medium could not let the English speaking Indians influence the masses. He
preached an education which made the students original, gave them the courage to
think themselves and innovate based on their ability to research and application.

Speech At Montessori Training College

Mohandas K. Gandhi

London , [ October 28, 1931 ]

(Note: Dr. Maria Montessori met Mahatma Gandhi in the beginning of October, 1931
in London . And on October 28, 1931 Gandhi spoke at
the Montessori Training College , London where
Dr. Montessori was also in attendance. The following is the text of Gandhis Speech,
which was published in the weekly newspaper, Young India , on November 19, 1931. For
further information and/or discussions on this topic, please contact Shall Sinha
at shall@ssinha.com )

Madame, you have overwhelmed me with your words. It is perfectly true, I must admit it in all
humility, that however indifferently it may be, I endeavor to represent love in every fiber of my
being. I am impatient to realize the presence of my Maker, Who to me embodies Truth, and in
the early part of my career I discovered that if I was to realize Truth I must obey, even at the cost
of my life, the law of love. And having been blessed with children, I discovered that the law of
Love could be best understood and learned through little children.

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Were it not for us, their ignorant poor parents, our children would be perfectly innocent. I believe
implicitly that the child is not born mischievous in the bad sense of the term. If parents would
behave themselves whilst the child is growing, before it is born and after, it is a well-known fact
that the child would instinctively obey the law of Truth and the law of Love.

And when I understood this lesson in the early part of my life, I began a gradual but distinct
change in life. I do not propose to describe to you the several phases through which this stormy
life of mine has passed, but I can only, in truth and in perfect humility, bear witness to the fact
that to the extent that I have represented Love in my life, in thought, word and deed I have
realized the peace that passeth understanding. I have baffled many of my friends when they
have noticed in me peace that they have envied, and they have asked me for the cause of that
priceless possession. I have not been able to explain the cause by saying that, if my friends found
that peace in me, it was due to my attempt to obey this, the greatest law of our being.

It was in 1915 when I reached India , that I first became acquainted with your activities. It was in
a place called Amreli that I found that there was a little school being conducted after the
Montessori system. Your name had preceded that first acquaintance. I found no difficulty in
finding out at once that this school was not carrying out the spirit of your teaching; the letter was
there, but whilst there was an honest - more or less honest - effort being made, I saw too that
there was a great deal of tinsel about it. I came in touch, then, with more such schools, and the
more I came in touch, the more I began to understand that the foundation was good and splendid,
if the children could be taught through the laws of nature - nature, consistent with human dignity,
not nature that governs the beast. I felt instinctively from the way in which the children were
being taught that, whilst they were being indifferently taught, the original teaching was
conceived in obedience to this fundamental law. Since then, I have had the pleasure of coming
across several of your pupils, one of whom had even made a pilgrimage toItaly and had received
your personal blessings. I was looking forward to meeting the children here and you all and it
was a great pleasure to me to see these children.

I had taken care to learn something about these little children. I had a foretaste of what I saw
here, in Birmingham , where there is a school between which and this there is a difference. But I
also saw that there also human nature was struggling to express itself. I see the same thing here

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and it was a matter of inexpressible joy to me that from their childhood the children were
brought to understand the virtue of silence, and how, in response to the whisper from their
teacher, the children came forward one after another in that pin-drop silence. It gave great joy to
see all those beautiful rhythmic movements and, as I was watching those movements of the
children, my whole heart went out to the millions of the children of the semi-starved villages of
India, and I asked myself as my heart went out to those children, Is it possible for me to give
them those lessons and the training that are being given under your system, to those children?

We are conducting an experiment amongst the poorest of the children in India . I do not know
how far the experiment will go. We have the problem of giving real vital education to these
children of India 's hovels, and we have no material means. We have to fall back upon the
voluntary assistance of teachers, but when I look for teachers, they are very few, especially,
teachers of the type wanted, in order to draw the best from the children through understanding,
through studying their individuality and then putting the child on its own resources, as it were, on
its own honor. And believe me from my experience of hundreds, I was going to say thousands, of
children I know that they have perhaps a finer sense of honor than you and I have.

The greatest lessons in life if we would but stoop and humble ourselves, we would learn not from
grown-up learned men, but from the so-called ignorant children. Jesus never uttered a loftier or a
grander truth than when he said that wisdom cometh out of the mouths of babes. I believe it; I
have noticed it in my own experience that, if we would approach babes in humility and in
innocence, we would learn wisdom from them.

I must not take up your time. I have simply given you what is, at the present moment, agitating
me, namely, the delicate problem, considered in human terms, of drawing out the best from these
millions of children of whom I have told you. But I have learned this one lesson - that what is
impossible with man is child's play with God and, if we have faith in that Divinity which
presides over the destiny of the meanest of His creation, I have no doubt that all things are
possible and in that final hope I live and pass my time and endeavor to obey His will. Therefore,
I repeat that even as you, out of your love for children, are endeavoring to teach those children,
through your numerous institutions, the best that can be brought out of them, even so I hope that
it will be possible not only for the children of the wealthy and the well-to-do, but for the children

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of paupers to receive training of this nature. You have very truly remarked that if we are to reach
real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin
with children and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won't have the struggle, we
won't have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace,
until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which,
consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering.

Young India , 19-11-1931

_____________

Interview With Maria Montessori

LONDON ,

[On or before October 9, 1931 ]

Gandhiji greeting her, said, We are members of the same family.

I bring you the greetings of children, said Madame Montessori.

GANDHIJI: If you have children I have children too. Friends in India ask me to imitate you. I
say to them, no, I should not imitate you but should assimilate you and the fundamental truth
underlying your method.

MADAME MONTESSORI: As I am asking my own children to assimilate the heart of Gandhiji.

I know that feeling for me over there in your part of the world is deeper than here.

GANDHIJI: Yes, you have the largest number of adherents in India outside Europe .

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 The Educational Theory of Mohandas Gandhi

OVERVIEW

Mohandas Gandhi was "a great thinker in beggar's garb," an activist whose method of social
reform was simultaneously radical, novel, and timelessly simple (Gutek, Gerald, 1997, pg. 351-
367). The socio-cultural context in which Gandhi lived and worked made his method of enacting
change uniquely powerful; in one of the most populated nations on the planet, at a time when
world conflicts were raging, Gandhi used peaceful means to affect a revolution of cultural and
political change for the Indian nation that resonated around the world. His experience in South
Africa not only changed his outlook on politics but also helped him to see the role education
played in that struggle (Garse, Sharma, 2010.)

In order to understand Gandhi's contributions to education it is important to understand

"The Great Soul" in his full context of time and place in the world. What Gandhi did in word and
deed was much like a pebble dropped into a still pond; his views on human rights and cultural
dignity reverberate still among social activists, and his approach to civil unrest was duplicated by
many contemporary leaders.

COLONIAL HISTORY OF INDIA

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In order to break Dutch control of the spice trade, Britain established the British East India
Company in the 1600s; over the next three-hundred years Britain assimilated and gained control
over Indian infrastructure, from its roads and economy to its deepest social structures
(www.iloveindia.com.) For a century and a half, India was ruled by the British East India
Company, a trade group of merchants incorporated and given monopoly privileges on all trade
with the Indies. Beginning as emissaries of King James I in 1615, the Company established
massive trading posts in cities such as Madras, Calcutta and Bombay and was gradually
transformed from a trading venture to a ruling enterprise (Lal, 1997).

British expansion in India grew, and the native people were subjected to the whims of the British
colonialism that involved a strict system of monopolization to afford greater profits for the
English. But around the turn of the Nineteenth century the move towards Indian independence
began to gather steam. The leader and embodiment of this movement eventually came to be
Mohandas Gandhi.

By 1920, Gandhi had become the prominent leader of the Indian National Congress, a thirty-five
year old group lobbying for independence. For the next few years, his non-violent protests and
boycotts of British policies and products involving thousands of people made enormous waves.
The English authorities were not quite sure how to deal with Gandhi, because the people of India
revered him. For instance, in March 1930 Gandhi implemented his most famous incidents of
satyagraha, or peaceful coercion, the Salt March. Thousands hiked more than 200 miles with him
to the sea where together they made salt - a product monopolized by the British and deemed
illegal to make or sell otherwise. Gandhi believed that such actions were not intended to
embarrass the wrongdoer (the British) but rather to convert their motives so that they act from a
new understanding (Nanda, B., 2010).

Gandhi preached passive resistance, believing that acts of violence against the British only
provoked a negative reaction whereas passive resistance provoked the British into doing
something. To Gandhi, non-cooperation was not a passive state, but an intensely active one that
held the promise of the conquest of the adversary by personal suffering. (Nanda, B., 2010)

RELIGION IN INDIA

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Historically, India is a nation at the confluence of many religions: Hinduism, Buddhism,
Sikhism, Jainism, and Islam. Today, while Hindu, Jain and Buddhism are considered the ancient
religions, almost 80% of Indians are Hindu, and 12% practice Islam (Aharon, D., 1998)

In India the word dharma is used to mean religion, but it should be noted that in Hinduism
dharma has a much wider connotation. The word dharma comes from the root dhre, which
means to sustain. Dharma is thus the greatest sustaining force or the binding force of the
society. The goal of dharma is to create mental and spiritual fellowship among all men and to
regulate its relation with all living entities. Any religion, any custom, any creed could be brought
under its fold. Gandhi's dharmic concept of religion, therefore, brought under its fold people
belonging to different religions (Kamat, K., 1996).

Though born Jain, Gandhi practiced Hinduism, and used his faith as his staff; he relied greatly on
the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, and credited the ancient text as being the source of his
understanding of dharmic philosophy. The Gita, or universal mother as Gandhi referred to it, is
a Hindu poem involving the god Krishna and a warrior disciple. It was the Krishna of the
Bhagavad Gita that Gandhi saw as wisdom personified, and the dialogue of Krishna that Gandhi
used as an everyday guide to life. (Kamat, K., 1996).

Gandhi read the Bible while he was a law student in England, and the life of Christ and the
Sermon on the Mount went straight to his heart. Gandhi described Jesus as the

"hellip; the greatest passive resister the world has ever seen" (Wofford, H., 1955), and the
words of the Sermon infused his thinking. The idea of returning love for hatred and good for
evil, to turn the other cheek. captivated him. In fact, years later Dr. Martin Luther King also
cited the messages of the Sermon on the Mount as a guiding resource (Lecture 25,
www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/twentysix.html).

Raised by a devout mother in the Jain traditions of the region, Gandhi observed early the
influences that would play an important role in his adult life including vegetarianism, fasting for
self purification, and mutual tolerance between individuals of different creeds
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi). It is believed that Jainism is one the

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worlds oldest religions, predating Hinduism; the main tenets of Jainism are five basic ethical
principles, or vows: non-violence, truth, non-stealing, celibacy and non-possession
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jainism). .

Gandhi, in his later writings, described himself as a Hindu and stated "Hinduismhellip;entirely
satisfies my soul, and fills my whole being." (Harijan, 1937) Gandhi used his devout Hindu
beliefs as a bridge to understanding other religions and finding the universal constants that
underlie most belief systems. For instance, Gandhi's interest in Christianity was leavened with
his Hindu perspective. "I regard Jesus as a great teacher of humanity, but ... God cannot be the
exclusive Father and I cannot ascribe exclusive divinity to Jesus" (Harijan, 1937).

GANDHI'S LIFE

Gandhi was born in 1862 in Porbandar, a small town on the Western coast of India. His father,
Karamchand Gandhi, was the diwan (Prime Minister) of Porbandar state, a small princely state
of British India. Married at 13, and educated as a lawyer in England, Gandhi quickly turned his
legal experience and his colonial education into an opportunity to be an agent for social
transformation (Garse, Sharma, 2010). In London, Gandhi joined the Vegetarian Society and
became intrigued with religious thought and became fascinated with studying Christian scripture
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi).

Gandhi was called to the bar in June, 1891, and left London for India. He failed to establish a law
practice in India on his own because, in Gandhi's own words, he "hated public speaking and was
not very good at court appearances." (Ghosh, S. 2003) Gandhi was forced to close a business of
drafting petitions for litigants when he ran afoul of a British officer. In April, 1893, he accepted
an offer for a post in the colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British Empire
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi).

In South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination directed at Indians. This was a turning point in his
life, awakening him to social injustice and influencing his subsequent social activism. It was
through witnessing first-hand the racism, prejudice, and injustice against Indians in South Africa
that Gandhi started to question his peoples status within the British Empire and his own place in
society (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi).

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With his colonial education Gandhi had a unique perspective on the issues facing British
dominion of Indian society. Schooled in the British way and from their perspective, Gandhi
understood the depth of oppression that Indians would suffer if they could not eventually break
free of British rule. Passive resistance, or ahisma, was Gandhi's method of protest, and it was this
radical and approach to opposing oppression that ultimately paved the way for Indian
independence (Garse, Sharma, 2010).

Under British dominion, formerly self-sufficient Indian villages came to rely on British goods
and services and the deeply ingrained social caste system became even more divisive.
Educationally, village India remained illiterate and ignored, as the British language and western
attitudes were introduced to the educated Indian elite (Garse, Sharma, 2010).

Gandhi's dissatisfaction with what he perceived as social injustice caused him to examine the
flaws in the social, educational, financial, and political systems at work in his world. The rigid
caste system in India had, for generations, vilified physical labor in favor of intellectual work;
physical labor was relegated to the lower caste only. Once British rule took over, education in
India further moved from a moral/physical emphasis to an intellectual one. Gandhi realized that,
in order for substantive change to come to his people, cultivation of the individual would have to
be thorough and integrative, and that physical skills would have to be taught. (Garse, Sharma,
2010).

His reputation as a true nationalist as well as an internationalist is very obvious. In the

academic sense, he is not considered a great scholar or an educational theorist. Gandhi has not
expressed directly his views on education or on the problems related to it, through any particular
book. There is no special research article available, which could have given us a glimpse of his
ideas or suggestions on the education system (www.gandhifoundation.net, 2010).

INFLUENCES ON GANDHI

Gandhi openly credited three people as sources of inspiration and guidance: Raychandbhai by his
living contact; Tolstoy by his book, "The Kingdom of God Is Within You"; and Ruskin by his

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"Unto This Last." Besides these three personalities, the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible texts were
life long resources for him. (Garse, Sharma, 2010)

Shri Raychandbhai was a businessman whom Gandhi met on his return to India from London.
Gandhi found his new friend to be of great character and learning, and throughout his life the two
men were mutual confidants (Garse, Sharma, 2010).

Gandhi read Ruskin's Unto The Last, and said, "I could not get any sleep that night. I was
determined to change my life in accordance with the ideals of the book." He later translated the
book and called it Sarvodaya (the well-being of all). Ruskin's book influenced Gandhi's concept
of soul-force as a substitute for physical force and changed him as a person. It brought "an
instantaneous and practical transformation" in his life. From Ruskin, Gandhi learned that the
good of the individual is contained in the good of all; that the lawyer's work has the same value
as the barber; that all have the same right of earning their livelihood; that the life of labor as a
tiller of soil or the craftsman, is the life worth living (Shuthka, N., 2002).

The most public figure with whom Gandhi established a rapport was the Russian novelist and
thinker Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy, forty-one years Gandhi's senior, was well known for his novels
Anna Karenina and War and Peace. It was his spiritual writing, The Kingdom of God is Within
You that Gandhi found inspirational. In the preface to The Kingdom of God is Within You,
Tolstoy specifically states that his intent is to examine the notion of non-resistance to evil by
force. (Tolstoy, L. 1893).

In 1909, Gandhi had read in a local newspaper Tolstoys Letter to a Hindu, a letter to Indian
revolutionary Tarak Nas published in the Free Hindustan. In the letter, Tolstoy counsels non-
aggression, stating, "[When Indians] seek liberation from subjection to the Englishhellip; one
thing only is needfulhellip; the law of love, which brings the highest happiness to every
individual as well as to all mankind." A response to this letter led Gandhi to establish a
correspondence with Tolstoy. (Tolstoy, L., 1893)

Gandhi and Tolstoy had much in common; in later years they both were considered prophets of
their respective time, society and culture. Tolstoys ideas about renouncing force as a means of
opposition were akin to Gandhi's own thoughts, although he did not share Tolstoy's intense
dislike for organized government. (Bhana, S., 1975) Tolstoy manifested independent thinking,

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profound morality and truthfulness, and his ideals of 'resist not evil' and nonviolence struck deep
chords with Gandhi. Gandhi began to mould his life according to the ideas of Tolstoy. (Shuthka,
N., 2002)

Gandhi wrestled with the conflicting yet similar messages of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and
Sikhism - all of these religions had elements Gandhi understood as well as principles he could
not accept. For instance, Gandhi questioned the claim that Jesus was the only son of God. "If
God could have sons, all of us [are] his sons." (Gandhi, M.K., p. 136)

Such profound religious consideration on Gandhi's part resulted in his establishing two
communities where he attempted to put his religious, social and political philosophies to work. In
1904, he established the Phoenix Settlement in the Natal province of South Africa based on
Ruskins writings; in 1908, he established the Tolstoy Farm just outside of the South African
capital of Johannesburg. These family farms, or ashrams, allowed Gandhi to experiment with the
kind of communal living that he had seen in 1895 among Trappist monks. (Bhana, S. 1975)

Tolstoy Farm consisted of men, women and children for long, short, and irregular intervals, who
were Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Parsee, white or Indian; who spoke Hindi, Tamil, and English.
There were around 40 young men, 2 or 3 old men, 5 women, and 20 to 30 children. The ashram
was a heterogeneous microcosm in which his leadership would prepare him for his role in the
political macrocosm of India. (Bhana, S., 1975).

As Gandhi explored and refined the practical application of his philosophy, his concept (and
perhaps most significant social contribution) of satyagraha was developed. Simply put,
satyagraha is a method for resolving conflict. Focusing on conflict resolution, Gandhi thought,
would "...liquidate antagonisms, but not the antagonists themselves." (Easwaran, E.,pg. 155).
Satyagraha became the underpinning for many social reformation movements, and was
specifically cited by Dr. Martin Luther King in a 1959 speech:

"I am convinced that the method of non-violent resistance is the most potent weapon available to
oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and human dignity." (www.mlkonline.com)

I: The Theory of Value

What knowledge and skills are worthwhile learning?

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 Gandhi put immense emphasis on moral and ethical knowledge. According to him, an
educational system that lacked these two could not be termed as good. The reason behind such a
thought was that without morality and ethics, no student, in a real sense, can be considered
healthy in mental and physical terms. Spiritual growth, described by Gandhi as an essential part
of education, can only be attained through learning morality and ethics. On the one hand where
students should gain education under the strict regimen of high morals, self-control, and right
thinking, on the other, they should also be expected to provide service to the society in general.
(Kumar, R., 2008)

One component of spiritual training that Gandhi valued was physical work and vocational
training; these disciplines allow individuals to shed reliance on others and develop intellectually,
spiritually, and physically. (Garse, Sharma, 2010) Gandhi believed the universe was subject to
unalterable laws that "hellip;govern everything and every being that exists or lives."
(Chattopadhaya, K., 1986) Human beings, then, needed to cultivate the mind, body, and heart in
a harmonious manner; only then, Gandhi believed, could change come to the immoral political
and social conditions that violated the spiritual dignity of individuals (Chattopadhaya, K. 1986)

According to Gandhi, the skills that were worthwhile learning were handicrafts, literacy, and the
acquisition of knowledge. He was opposed to modern machinery, saying:

"Knowledge of the production processes involving crafts such as spinning, weaving,

leatherwork, pottery, metal work, basket making, and bookbinding have been the monopoly of
specific caste groups in the lowest stratum of the traditional social hierarchy." (Burke, 2000)

Gandhi felt that people were not workers but slaves if they worked with modern machinery, and
instead referred to it as contributing factor to the impoverishment of India. Gandhi maintained
that, "if machinery craze grows in our country, it will become an unhappy land." (Burke, 2000)

For instance, the manufacture of clothing was a critically important skill to many Indian villages;
beginning with the cultivation of the cotton crop, its harvesting, and ultimate weaving into fabric,
such steps provided an education that was both active and useful. Gandhi believed that such craft

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education satisfied a basic human need and provided "purposeful, creative, and socially useful
education." (Gandhi, M.K., 1947)

What are the goals of education?

In his own words, Gandhi felt that

"...under ideal conditions, true education can only be imparted by the parents...with a minimum
of outside help." (Gandhi, M.K. 1957)

Gandhi experimented with educational concepts during his time at the Tolstoy Farm ashram in
South Africa. Viewing the Tolstoy ashram as a "family" farm, Gandhi viewed himself as the
"father" responsible for the education of all children living there. His main goal as
"paterfamilias" was to build a firm character in the children, in the expectation that a sound
foundation would allow them to further learn what they needed from others (Gandhi, M.K.,
1957)

Gandhi felt that the goals of education were to develop and prepare Indians for society. Given
Gandhi's values and his vision of what constituted a truly civilized and free India, it was not
surprising that he developed firm views on education. Gandhi believed that education not only
moulds the new generation, but also reflects a societys fundamental assumptions about itself and
the individuals that compose it. (Burke, 2000)

Gandhi's experiences in South Africa not only changed his outlook on politics, but also helped
him see the role that education played in that struggle. He became so opposed to all aspects of
English education that he consistently referred to it as "rotten." (Burke, 2000)

In order to strengthen morality and ethics in students, Gandhi advocated the introduction of
religious education. He believed that this kind of education brought the values of forbearance,
tolerance, and reverence in ones character. In turn, these values are an indivisible part of ethics.
Explaining the importance and need of religious education, Gandhi wrote in "Young India" in
December, 1923,

"a curriculum of religious instructions should include a study of the tenets of faith other than
ones own. For this purpose, the students should be trained to cultivate the habit of understanding

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and appreciating the doctrine of various religions in the world in a spirit of reverence and broad-
minded tolerance." (Kumar, R., 2008)

While Gandhi's main contributions are often identified as political and spiritual, his philosophy
for a basic education was based upon the goal of freeing India from colonial domination. By
empowering the individual spiritually, physically, and intellectually, Gandhi felt that collective
India would become stronger. By cultivating an appreciation for physical labor, Gandhi hoped to
free his people from a stigma of oppression and reliance on outsiders for survival. With these
tools, the people of India would be able to be morally resistant to foreign domination, and be
better prepared to self-govern and sustain their society (Gandhi, M.K., 1947)

II: Theory of Knowledge

What is knowledge?

"It is unwise to be too sure of ones one wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the
strongest might weaken and the wisest might err." -- M.K. Gandhi

Gandhi was explicit in his writings and actions about what he believed to be "knowledge,"
and was even credited with having identified "knowledge without character" as one of the seven
human blunders that cause violence in the world. More specifically, Gandhi stated, "...knowledge
includes all training that is useful for the service of mankind." (Gandhi, M.K. 2010)

Moral and ethical knowledge is the first point on which Gandhi's concept of value education is
based. Gandhi believed that any education that lacked these two elements could not be
considered adequate. Gandhi reasoned that without morality and without ethics, no student in a
real sense could be considered healthy in mental or physical terms. A person who is not a
moralist and who does not differentiate between right or wrong cannot rise to the essential level
of a true student. (Kumar, R., 2008) For instance, knowledge was the learning of crafts, subjects
in school, and being self-sufficient. Gandhi felt it was important to learn a craft such as weaving,
without the influence of modern machinery. (Burke, 2000)

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Gandhi proposed the introduction of productive handicrafts into the school system because what
he really wanted was for the schools to be as self-supporting as possible. There were two reasons
for this: first, a poor society such as India simply could not afford to provide education for all
children unless the schools could generate resources from within. Secondly, the more financially
independent the schools were, the more politically independent they could be. Gandhi wanted to
avoid dependence on the state that he felt would mean interference from the central government.
(Burke, 2000) Above all else, Gandhi valued self-sufficiency and autonomy. These were vital for
his vision of an independent India made up of autonomous village communities to survive.

How is knowledge different from belief?

It is difficult to separate belief from knowledge in studying Gandhi's philosophy, as the two
concepts were unquestionably intertwined. In Chapter XVIII of the Hind Swaraj (Gandhi, M.K.,
1909), Gandhi definitively stated his definition of education:

"The person who is properly educated whose body is the ready servant of his will; whose
intellect is clear; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the fundamental truths of nature."
(Gandhi, M.K., 1909)

Braided into Gandhi's view of education was the necessary spiritual foundation to ensure the
success of education.

"A proper and all-around [education] can take place only when it proceedshellip;with
thehellip; spiritual faculties of the child." (Gandhi, M. K., 2010)

Gandhi is described as a holistic, pragmatic, idealistic, and farsighted educational reformer.

While his agenda for education has all but been abandoned in India today, his spirit and ideals
remain perennially relevant to many cultures and societies dealing with social change. (Gandhi,
M.K., 2010) In his autobiography, Gandhi wrote that "truth" was the sovereign principle that
governed his actions and by which he was eternally bound. Thus, "truth" was his prime belief,
the underpinning of all precepts Gandhi wrote, spoke, and acted on. "The truth is not only
truthfulness in word," Gandhi wrote, "but truthfulness in thought also."(Burke, 2000)

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What is a mistake? A lie?

Gandhi's lifelong quest for the truth was the lens through which he made his observations on
mistakes and lies. In a conversation with his grandson, Arun Gandhi described what he believed
were seven "blunders," or mistakes, mankind commits that cause violence in the world: Wealth
without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Commerce without
morality; Science without humanity; Worship without sacrifice; and Politics without principles.
Arun later added an eighth mistake: Rights without responsibility.

These mistakes, as abbreviated by Gandhi, have been used and reused in contemporary culture
and literature. In fact, the best seller Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
is based on Gandhi's seven principles with a contemporary twist. Covey lists Gandhi as one of
his personal heroes (Covey, S., 2010) and lists as one of his own mission statements Gandhi's
comment, "I shall conquer untruth by truth."

III: Theory of Knowledge

What is a human being?

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty." - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi saw humanity as an indivisible, organic whole, tied together by the expectation that
every man is responsible to and for others and to be deeply concerned about how others lived
(Parekh, B., 2010) Gandhi had a clear understanding of the interdependence of human beings
and the ways in which the behaviors of oppression and domination were maintained (Parekh, B.,
2010)

With this view of the human "whole," Gandhi made the argument that every human action
simultaneously affects the welfare of both the collective society and the individual. This
implied, Gandhi felt, that no man could injure another without inflicting it on himself as well.
"To slight a single human being," Gandhi said, "is to harm not only that human but with him the
whole world" (Parekh, B., 2010)

How does it differ from other species?

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Gandhi gave much thought to the idealized human being. In his reflections on the main Hindu
spiritual text, the Bhagavad-Gita, Gandhi recognized the qualities by which the "perfected man"
could be identified (Gandhi, 1988) In "The Message of the Gita," Gandhi wrote, "All embodied
life is in reality an incarnation of God," and went on to explore the philosophical implications of
mankinds ability to embody God-like qualities (Gandhi, 1988)

Gandhi went on to further explore the eternal struggles faced by mankind as living beings. In his
autobiography, Gandhi stated that while man in his primal state knows no self-restraint, civilized
man is different because he is capable of self-restraint (Iyer, R., 2010, Gandhi, 1962)

Gandhi wanted to impress upon his countrymen the value of their ancient culture. For example,
one of Gandhi's most subtle yet powerful acts was to begin the liberation of the lower castes.
Once called "those who cannot be touched," Gandhi began to call this outcast group Harijans, or
Children of God. His message to his own people, and to the British imperialists as well, was that
"when you weaken others, you weaken yourselves, and weaken the entire nation" (Eswaran, E.,
1997)

This perspective also formed Gandhi's criticism of the subjugation of individuals and societies.
Gandhi argued that social domination rested on simple misunderstandings of human nature, and
that every human being owed to others his full share of collective responsibilities (Parekh, B.,
2010)

What are the limits of human potential?

Gandhi's thoughts surpassed his time and culture, echoing on to inspire new generations of social
activists around the world. In the 1960s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said of Gandhi, "If humanity
is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, and acted, inspired by the vision of
humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own risk"
(www.Gandhi'serve.org). At the turn of this century a more contemporary voice, HH The Dalai
Lama, similarly embraced Gandhian philosophies. "He made every effort to encourage the full
development of the positive aspects of the human potentialhellip;it is my prayer that, as we
enter this new century, nonviolence and dialogue will increasingly come to govern all human
relations" (www.Gandhi'serve.org).

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While many thought that only Indias freedom was the main goal of Gandhi's life work, the larger
view shows that his philosophy and his actions were rooted in Gandhi's belief in the unity of
human life. Gandhi's view of humanity as "the synthetic whole" meant that it could not be made
divisible into spheres like social, religious, political, moral or ethical nor classified in levels like
individual or collective, local or international. Instead Gandhi viewed society through the
principle of dharma, a contiguous whole bound by the sustaining force of the society. (Kumar,
R., 2007)

IV: Theory of Learning

What is learning?

"Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first for acquiring learning of any
kind." - Gandhi

Gandhi felt that learning included the acquisition of information and training that is useful for
the service of mankind; specifically, the core of Gandhi's educational proposals was the
introduction of productive handicrafts in the school curriculum. The idea was not simply to
introduce handicrafts as a compulsory school subject but to make the learning of a craft the
centerpiece of the entire teaching program. Gandhi's proposal intended to stand the education
system on its head. The social philosophy and the curriculum of what he called "basic education"
thus favored the child belonging to the lowest stratum of society, thus implying a transformation
of social perception. (Burke, 2000)

How are skills and knowledge acquired?

Gandhi's concept of basic education was concerned with learning that was generated within
everyday life, such as schools based on productive work for the benefit of all. It was also an
education focused on the individual but reliant on cooperation between individuals. (Burke,
2000)

According to Gandhi, the skills that were worthwhile learning would enable a poor society such
as India to become first financially independent, then politically independent. Above all else,
Gandhi valued self-sufficiency and autonomy; these were vital to his vision of an independent
India made up of autonomous village communities.

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Gandhi wanted to free the Indian teacher from interference from outside, particularly from
government or state bureaucracy. Under colonial rule the teacher had a prescribed job to do that
was based on what the authorities wanted the children to learn. Gandhi, instead, saw basic
education as the embodiment of his perception of an ideal society consisting of small, self-reliant
communities with his ideal citizen being an industrious, self-respecting and generous individual
living in a small, cooperative community. (Burke, 2000)

V: Theory of Transmission

Who is to teach?

The right to autonomy that Gandhi's educational plan assigns to the teacher in the context of
schools daily curriculum is consistent with the libertarian principles he shared with Leo Tolstoy.
Gandhi wanted to free the Indian teacher from the slavery of the bureaucracy. The schoolteachers
job had come to be defined under colonial rule as one transmitting and elucidating the forms and
content of knowledge selected by bureaucratic authorities for inclusion in the prescribed
textbooks. Gandhi wrote,

..."if textbooks are treated as a vehicle for education, the living word of the
teacher has very little value. A teacher who teaches from textbooks does not impart originality to
his pupils." (Kumar, K., 1999)

Gandhi's basic education plan implied the end of the teachers subservience to the prescribed
textbook, and the curriculum. More important, however, was the freedom and authority that the
basic education plans gave to the teacher in matters concerning the curriculum. It was a
libertarian plan inasmuch as it denied the State the power to decide precisely what the teacher
must do in the classroom. In accordance with his wider philosophy of social life and politics, this
aspect of Gandhi's educational plan implied a dramatic reduction of the States sphere of
authority. (Gutek, G., 1997, p. 363)

By what methods? What will the curriculum be?

In expressing his educational philosophy, Gandhi defined education as the "all-round drawing
out of the best in child and man- body, mind and spirit." Gandhi in India of My Dreams,
expressed his vision of the new India:

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"I hold that the true education of the intellect can only come through a proper exercise and
training of the bodily organs, e.g. hands, feet, ears, nose, etc. In other words, an intelligent use of
the bodily organs in a child provides the best and the quickest way of developing his intellect.
But unless the development of the mind and body goes hand in hand with a corresponding
awakening of the soul, the former alone would prove to be a poor lop-sided affair. By spiritual
training I mean education of the heart. A proper and all-round development of the mind,
therefore, can take place only when it proceedshellip; with the education of the physical and
spiritual faculties of the child. They constitute an indivisible whole. (Gutek, 1997, p. 363)

For Gandhi, an education that integrated and harmonized the human faculties should be
craft centered. Gandhi said he would "begin the childs education by teaching it a useful craft and
enabling it to produce from the moment it begins its training." Accordingly, in Gandhi's plan for
basic education, primary schooling was compulsory for all children between the ages of seven
and fourteen and conducted in the childs own language. The craft used in the particular school
was to be one of the major occupations found in India and all the instruction was to be correlated
to the particular craft. Further, Gandhi believed that the sale of the items produced in the schools
would make education productive and self-supporting. (Gutek, 1997, p. 364)

Gandhi's philosophy of basic education was also an element in his design for a new India.
Like other social reformers, Gandhi saw education as a method of social reconstruction that
would improve both individuals and their society. By involving the child as a participant in an
interacting educational and productive group, basic education would counteract the ingrained
Indian attitude that relegated physical labor to lower castes and also the modern tendency to
antisocial individualism. (Gutek, 1997, p. 364)

Basic education, according to Gandhi, would inculcate a spirit of cooperation, unity, and group
responsibility. Gandhi conceived of the school as a miniature society where children as social
participants had rights and responsibilities. Gandhi saw basic education as providing a common
educational foundation that would reduce the gap between urban and rural India. He said, "Craft
education will provide a healthy and moral basis of relationship between the city and the village
and thus go a long way towards eradicating some of the worst evils of the present social
insecurity and poisoned relationship between the classes". (Gutek, 1997, p. 364)

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VI: Theory of Society

What is society?

Gandhi was direct in his rejection of Western or "modern" civilization, and extended his
rejection to encompass those elements that are commonly considered "social progress." (Burke,
2000) Specifically, Gandhi took issue with which could be summed up in two axioms embraced
by Western culture: "might is right" and "survival of the fittest." (Heredia, R., 1999) Instead,
Gandhi felt that being civilized meant humans acting in a way that led to duty, a concept in
contrast to his understanding of Western values. As set forth by Gandhi, this position opened up a
series of "ethical issues" between the colonizer and the colonized, the dominant and the
dominated, the oppressor and the oppressed.

Gandhi was gifted in imbuing spirituality into understanding the mechanics of social operation.
For instance, in his book Hind Swaraj, Gandhi defines civilization in the context of a disease,
and states, "The true test [of civilization] lies in the fact that people living in it make bodily
[comforts] the object of life." In the same text, Gandhi rails against his perception of European
"civilization," going so far as to call it "satanic." (Gandhi, 1909)

What institutions are involved in the educational process?

Gandhi felt that a Western education was a "false education," one that did not comport with his
belief that being "civilized" is enabling one to do their duty. (Gandhi, 1909)Gandhi claimed that
he had freed himself of the ill effects of his own "false education" and in so doing illustrated its
"rottenness."

In Hind Swaraj, Gandhi makes the argument that Indians receiving an English education has
"enslaved a nation." Gandhi illustrates this point in a simple yet powerful irony - though the
concept of "swaraj" is to establish home rule in India, it was largely disseminated and discussed
in English. (Gandhi, 1909)

Gandhi goes on to specifically identify segments of education that he felt defeated his vision of
home rule, and spoke strongly on the corruption of Indian education. For instance, he called
religious educators "hypocritical and selfish." Language was also problematic; those Indians

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whose education was English "have enslaved India; the curse of the nation will rest not upon the
English but upon us." (Gandhi, 1909)

VII. Theory of Opportunity

Who is to be educated? Who is to be schooled?

There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring,
and that discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic.
Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity - M. K. Gandhi

It is important to note the distinction between education and schooling. While Gandhi wanted
his Tolstoy Farm ashram experiments to be models of education, he ventured into curriculum
models in more formal schooling arrangements. For example, Gandhi said that education at
Tolstoy Farm should concern itself with the "culture of the heart or the building of the character."
However, he was more specific about schooling, stating that the Tolstoy programs taught
"manual and mental training," such as gardening, farming, and the like. (Bhana, S., 1975)

Gandhi's social philosophy and ideas on a basic education favored the child belonging to the
lowest stratum of society. In so doing, Gandhi was able to promote a social transformation by
altering the symbolic meaning of education and thereby changing the established structure of
opportunities for education.

Tolstoy Farm allowed Gandhi the chance to experiment with implementation of his ideas on
education and schooling. Called a "heterogeneous microcosm," the Farm worked on the basic
premise Gandhi believed that "hellip;it should be an essential of read education that a child
should learn to conquer hate by love, untruth by truth, and violence by self-sacrifice." Gandhi's
goals in education of young minds were similar to his insistence on what adults should strive for
in their lives. (Bhana, S., 1975)

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