Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 51 care and attention. The teachers were not to wait for Mussalman and Parsi agents to send their children but it was necessary to invite such parents to send their children. A national teacher must become a Swaraj missionary within his own sphere. He should know the history of every child under his care and know the children not in his school. He should know their parents and understand why they did not send their children to his school. He would do all this work not in an intolerant spirit but lovingly. Thus and thus only would national schools be truly national in terms of the Congress resolution. “The difficulty of the task is unmistakable. This Government has made everything mercenary. Character is no test for anything. Mechanical ability to go through a superficial syllabus is the sole test. Every profession has been degraded to mean a career. We become lawyers, doctors and school- masters not to serve our countrymen but to bring us money. The Vidyapith therefore had to recruit for teachers in such a soul-killing atmosphere. The majority of the teachers have had to rise superior to themselves and their surroundings. The wonder is that they have at all responded to the call of the country. “But now after nearly four years’ experience, we must turn over a new leaf. We cannot afford to remain at a stand- still and not sink. We must therefore insist upon the boys and girls plying the charkha for at least half an hour daily. It is an education of no mean sort for thirty thousand boys and girls and eight hundred teachers to be spinning i.e., laboring for the country for half an hour every day. It is a daily practical lesson in patriotism, useful toil and giving. That a boy should begin giving even during his education without expectation of return is an object-lesson in sacrifice he will not forget in after-life.
52 ƒ GANDHI ON EDUCATION And to the nation it means a gift of 1875 maunds of yarn per month. It will supply at least one dhoti each to 5000 men. Apart from every other consideration, let every teacher work out the value of the lesson learnt by each child in thinking that he or she with five others may be spinning in one month yarn enough for supplying one dhoti to each of his countrymen rendered naked during the recent floods in Madras. “The reason however for the ill-success of the construc- tive part of the Congress programme in the national schools must be told. Painful discovery is being made that we who are the chosen of the people have not even learnt spinning. The school masters as a class have hitherto taken no steps to qualify them- selves as carders and spinners. No wonder if they are not then able to enthuse their pupils and if the charkhas are everywhere conspicuous by their absence. “It is however most gratifying that resolutions suggested for remedying the defect were all adopted by an overwhelming majority. Industrial occupation for teachers and pupils is a new thing for us. The want of response is therefore perhaps natural. But now that the teachers have adopted the resolutions, it would be a serious reflection upon them if they fail to live up to them. If the teachers will it, I do not doubt that the majority of the parents will not grumble about their children learning the noble art of spinning and giving half an hour each daily to the nation and sitting side by side with ‘untouchable’ children. And what Gujarat teachers have resolved to do will, I hope, be adopted by the national teachers throughout the country.”
Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 53 9. STATE OF PRIMARY EDUCATION9 “Pandit Gangaram Sharma’s letter reproduced else- where is a seasonable contribution to the question of national education. He has even been making a useful experiment in primary education in the Punjab, and is able to throw a flood of light on this very important problem. His refusal to take Govern- ment grant and affiliate his school makes his scheme specially attractive. It has received the blessing of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviaji and Mr.Shastriar. the programme is ambitious and well thought out. The scheme is inexpensive. My fear is that is is overweighed with too man items. But one has hardly the right to criticize an experiment without careful study on the spot. I question the advisability of introducing a knowledge of English in any scheme of primary education. In my opinion millions of boys and girls of this country do not need to know English at all. They need ideas rather than languages. And I would give even little children ideas about Swaraj and other essential matters without their having to wait for higher literary knowledge. The present system and method of education fill a boy with many useless facts and leave him without proper mental development till he begins to receive a high school training. Thus we have come to think quite unwarrantably that we cannot imbibe true ideas of liberty, religion etc. without a knowledge of English, and have therefore made of it a fetish. “The most interesting part of Pandit Gangaram Sharma’s letter lies in the information he imparts about the difficulties placed in his way by the local officials and the starting figures he produces regarding the ‘progress’ of primary education in the Punjab. It would appear that in 1844, in a population of 127 lacs, there were 30,000 indigenous schools, catering for 4 lacs of children. In 1918-19, with a population of 190 lacs,
54 ƒ GANDHI ON EDUCATION there were only 933 indigenous schools and 4171 Government schools, catering in all for 239,332 children. If the figures are correct, the state of primary education in the Punjab is worse now than it was in 1849 i.e. before British occupation. Yet are told that if we nationalize education, we cannot finance it? “There are other equally damaging figures and facts Pundit Gangaram Sharma has shown me. I must deal with them later.” 10. AHARAM IDEAL OF EDUCATION10 “I have my own perhaps peculiar views on education which have not been accepted by my colleagues in full, and here they are : “1.Young boys and girls should have co-education till they are eight years of age. “2. Their education should mainly consist in manual training under the supervision of an educationist. “3. The special aptitudes of each child should be recognized in determining the kind of work he(or she)should do. “4. The reasons for every process should be explained when the process is being carried on. “5. General knowledge should be imparted to each child as he begins to understand things. Learning to read or write should come later. “6. The child should first be taught to draw simple geometrical figures, and when he has learnt to draw these with ease, he should be taught to write the alphabet. If this is done,
Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 55 he will write a good hand from the very first. “7. Reading should come before writing. The letters should be treated as pictures to be recognized and later on to be copied. “8. A child taught on these lines will have acquired considerable knowledge according to his capacity by the time he is eight. “9. Nothing should be taught to a child by force. “10. He should be interested in everything taught to him. “11. Education should appear to the child like play. Play is an essential part of education. “12. All education should be imparted through the mother tongue. “13. The child should be taught Hindi – Urdu as the national language, before he learns letters. “14. Religious education is indispensable and the child should get it by watching the teacher’s conduct and by hearing him talk about it. “15. Nine to sixteen constitutes the second stage in the child’s education. “16. It is desirable that boys and girls should have co-education during the second stage also as far as possible. “17.Hindu children should now be taught Sanskrit and Muslim children Arabic. “18. Manual training should be continued during the second stage. Literary education should be allotted more time as is necessary.
56 ƒ GANDHI ON EDUCATION “19. The boys during this stage should be taught their parents’ avocation in such a way that they will by their own choice obtain their livelihood by practicing the hereditary craft. This does not apply to the girls. “20. During this stage the child should acquire a general knowledge of world history and geography, botany, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. “21. Each child should now be taught to sew and to cook. “22. Sixteen to twenty-five is the third stage, during which every young person should have an education according to his or her wishes and circumstances. “23. During the second stage(9-16) education should be self-supporting; that is, the child, all the time that he is learning, is working upon some industry, the proceeds of which will meet the expenditure of the school. “24. Production starts from the very beginning, but during the first stage it does not still catch up with the expen- diture. “25. Teachers should be paid not very high salaries but only a living wage. They should be inspired by a spirit of service. It is a despicable thing to take an Tom, Dick or Harry as a teacher in the primary stage. All teachers should be men of character. “26. Big and expensive buildings are not necessary for educational institutions. “27. English should be taught only as one of several languages. As Hindi is the national language, English is to be used in dealing with other nations and international commerce.”
Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 57 11. SELF-SUPPORTING EDUCATION11 “The Almoda District Board address, which narrated the story of how it educated the children under its charge, and its very laudable attempt to instruct the boys in wool-spinning and weaving, prompted me to repeat with greater emphasis than hitherto the opinion expressed before by me that educa- tion should be self-supporting. The opinion has gathered force during my wanderings. If the state has to bear the cost of education of millions of children it will never be able to raise enough money by any conceivable measure of taxation. That it is the primary duty of the state to bring to its schools every boy and girl and give them proper, not perfunctory(as now), education is an axiomatic truth. But in a country like India such education must largely if not wholly pay itself. And if we could but shed the hypnotic spell which our English tutors have cast over us, we should not find any difficulty in discovering ways and means of achieving the end. With the best motives in the world, the English tutors could not wholly understand the difference between English and Indian requirements. Our climate does not require the buildings which they need. Nor do our children brought up in predominantly rural environment need the type of education the English children brought up in surroundings predominantly urban need. “When our children are admitted to schools, they need, not slate and pencil and books, but simple village tools which they can handle feely and remuneratively. This means a revolu- tion in educational methods. But nothing short of a revolution can put education within reach of every child of school going age.
58 ƒ GANDHI ON EDUCATION “It is admitted that the so called knowledge of the three Rs. That is at present given in Government schools is of little use to the boys and girls in after life. Most of it is forgotten inside of one year, if only for want of use. It is not required in their village surroundings. “But if a vocational training in keeping with their surrounding was given to the children, they would not only repay the expenses incurred in the schools but would turn that training to use in after life. I can imagine a school entirely self- supporting, if it became say a spinning and weaving institution with perhaps a cotton field attached to it. “The scheme I am adumbrating does not exclude literary training. No course of primary instruction would be considered complete that did not include reading, writing and arithmetic. Only, reading and writing would come during the last year when really the boy or girl is the readiest for learning the alphabet correctly. Handwriting is an art. Every letter must be correctly drawn, as an artist would draw his figures. This can only be done if the boys and girls are first taught elementary drawing. Thus side by side with vocational training which would occupy most of the day at school, they would be receiving vocal instruction in elementary history, geography and arithmetic. They would learn manners, have object lessons in practical sanitation and hygiene, all of which they would take to their homes in which they would become silent revolutionists. “The District Board of Almoda and any other such Board which is unhampered by restrictions and which has a clear nationalist majority may try the experiment if it has faith and some members who will make it their business to see it through. Above all it is a question national educational institutions must
Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 59 tackle if they would justify their existence. They have to conduct original researches, not reproduce clumsy imitations of those which they condemn and seek to replace. “No originality is claimed for the method advocated here. Booker T.Washington tried it with considerable success. If I recollect rightly, even the higher education he gave was self-supporting. In America it is the most usual thing for even college boys to pay fully for their education by engaging in some kind of remunerative work. The plan is different but the idea underlying is not.” 12. A MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISE12 “The reader will find elsewhere the text of the correspon- dence between the municipality of Nadiad and the Government of Bombay as represented by the Collector of the District of Kaira in which Nadiad is situated. Nadiad is an important town in Gujarat with a population of about 35,000. Its municipality has an elected chairman and contains a majority of elected members. Nadiad is noted for its educational activity and has the honor of having produced some of the best educated sons of Gujarat. The town has two high schools. Its aided high school has been nationalized. The municipality runs several primary schools which instruct over five thousand children. “The question before the citizens was to nationalize all the primary schools. The ratepayers, instead of withdrawing the children from these schools. Passed a resolution calling upon the municipality to nationalize the primary schools. They were in receipt of a yearly grant of Rs.21,000 and were naturally under the control and supervision of the Education Department. The municipality, therefore, resolved in accordance with the
60 ƒ GANDHI ON EDUCATION instructions of the electors to nationalize the schools and informed the government accordingly. It will be noticed that the municipality in its proceedings has directly referred to the Congress resolution on Non-co-operation and has adopted this bold policy in furtherance of the attainment of Swaraj. “There was the technical point about the municipality’s statutory obligation to conduct schools under the direct super- vision of the Government. On this the municipality’s attitude is thus stated. “It is in complete sympathy with the movement of Non-co-operation designed for the attainment, among other things, of full Swaraj and so long as this municipality remains in existence, it will be its bounden duty to help the people of Nadiad in achieving the national purpose….So far as the legal difficulty is concerned, it is respectfully suggested that sec. 58, if it runs counter to the express wish of the residents of Nadiad, must automatically remain in abeyance because if the Board correctly understands the temper of the people of Nadia, they are clearly determine to have nothing to do with Government control over the education of the children, and it need hardly be pointed out that the Board is in full sympathy with the determination of the people. “No one can take exception to the admirable spirit of the people or the correctness of the attitude of the municipality. Of course, the Government may if it dare, disband the municipality. But any such disbandment must be futile if the rate-payers are determined not to have government control over the education of their children. This is a peaceful revolution on a small scale. The success of the movement is due to the cohesion of the people and their ability to manage and finance the education of their children. Violence being eschewed, the people of Nadiad are able to give an education in Swaraj to their children. What is
Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 61 true of the municipality regarding the education of the children is true of the whole of India in every other respect. “When the people have one mind, ability of manage- ment, and recognize the necessity of non-violence, if only as a business proposition. Swaraj is won Finance is a matter of little consideration. For the Government does not bring money from heaven. It receives, to paraphrase an expressive Gujarati saying, an anvil weight of metal and returns a needle weight. And the pity and the disgrace of it is that, even with that niggardly donation, it imprisons and emasculates the tender mind of the nation. Were it not for self-delusion, we would at least refuse to be party to the ruin of our own children. The municipality of Nadiad has shown how easy the whole process of nationalization of education is; :ala Daulat Ram’s articles have shown how easy the question of finance is, and how the ordinary fees are almost enough to conduct all our educational institutions. I hope that the object-lesson given by the mu- nicipality of Nadiad will not be lost upon other municipalities similarly situated.” 13. THE HALLUCINATION OF SCHOOLS AND COL- LEGES13 “Much is being said and written against the proposed boycott of Government-controlled schools and colleges. The proposal has been describe I as ‘mischievous’, ‘harm- ful’, ‘opposed to the best interest of the country’ @c. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviyaji is among its most uncompromising opponents. “I have been taxing myself to the best of my capacity in order to discover my error. But the effort has resulted in
62 ƒ GANDHI ON EDUCATION deepening my conviction that it is sinful to receive any education under the control of the present Government, no matter how high its quality may be, even as it would be to take the richest milk when it is tainted with poison. “I ask myself why some see the truth of the proposi- tion quite clearly whilst others, the accepted leaders, condemn it as an error. The answer I have been able to find is that the latter do not consider the present system of government as an unmixed evil as the former do. In other words, the opponents do not sufficiently realize the significance of the Punjab and the Khilafat wrongs. They do not feel as the others do that these wrongs show conclusively that the sum total of the activity of the present Government is injurious to national growth. I know that this is a serious statement to make. It is unthinkable that Malaviyaji and Shastriar cannot feel the wrongs even as I do. And yet that is precisely my meaning. I am positive that they will not put their children in a school where there was any likelihood of their becoming degraded instead of being elevated. I am equally positive that they would not send their children to a school managed, controlled or even influenced by a robber who had robbed them of their possessions. I feel that the nation’s children suffer degradation in the government schools. I feel that these schools and colleges are under the influence of a Government that has deliberately robbed the nation of its honor, and therefore the nation must withdraw its children from such schools. It may be that some learning even in such schools may be able to resist the progress of degradation. But it cannot be right to countenances national humiliation going on in the schools because some have risen above their environment. In my opinion it is self-evident that the honored leaders of the nation-today do not realize that the Government controlled
Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 63 schools are trained in the manner described by me. “It may be urge that the schools are no worse today than they were before the Punjab wrong or the Khilafat breach, and that we tolerated them before these events. I admit that the schools are not much worse now than before. But so far as I am concerned, the knowledge of the Punjab and the Khilafat betrayal has revolutionized my view of the existing system of Government. My ignorance of its inherent wickedness mad the system tolerable to the extent of my not rising against the schools. And that is just the reason why I fear that those who oppose the proposed boycott of the schools on the ground of its harmfulness, do not put the same valuation on the Punjab and the Khailafat wrongs that I do. “And so I congratulate Messrs. S.B.Tilak, Patel, Tripa- thi and others on their having given up their colleges even as they were on the point of finishing their education. That is also why I congratulate Misses Desai and Patel for their having left their high school. It is perhaps not generally known that these high-spirited girls left the schools of their own accord as have the young men. “I have no hesitation in wishing that the youth of India, both boys and girls, will, if they have felt personally the deep humiliation of atrocities of the Punjab, or understood the meaning of the violation of the Khilafat pledge, without any further reflection, empty the government-controlled schools and colleges. The moral education that ehy will gain in a moment when they take that step will more than make up for the temporary loss of literary education. For the day that the boys and the girls empty the Government-controlled schools will be the day that will mark a very definite advance towards the goal.
64 ƒ GANDHI ON EDUCATION It will mark a revolution in the national thought. It will mark our freedom from the hallucination of schools and colleges. Is not the nation able to take charge of its won education without an Government intervention, protection, advice or grant. Abandonment of the present schools means consciousness of our ability to educate ourselves in spite of Himalayan difficulties.” 14. SEXUAL PERVERSION14 “Some years ago the Bihar Government in its educa- tion department had an inquiry into the question of unnatural vice in its schools, and the Committee of inquiry had found the existence of the vic even among teachers who were abusing their position among their boys in order to satisfy their unnatural lust. The Director of Education had issued a circular prescrib- ing departmental action on such vice being found to exist in connection with any teacher. It would be interesting to know the results, if any, issuing form the circular. “I have had literature too sent to me from other pro- vinces inviting my attention to such vice and showing that it was on the increase practically all over India in Public as well as private schools. Personal letters received from boys have confirmed the information. “Unnatural though the vice is, it has come down to us from times immemorial. The remedy for all secret vice is most difficult to find. And it becomes still more difficult when it affects guardians of boys which the teachers are. ‘If the salt loses its savor, where with shall it be salted?’ In my opinion departmental action, necessary as it is in all proved cases, can hardly meet the case. The leveling up of public opinion alone
Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 65 can cope with the evil but in most matters there is no such thing as effective public opinion in this country. The feeling of helplessness that pervades political life has affected all other departments. We therefore pass by many a wrong that is being perpetrated in front of us. “A system of education that puts an exclusive emphasis on literary equipment not only is ill adapted to deal with the evil but actually results in promoting it. Boys who were clean before they went to public schools have ben found to have become unclean, effeminate and imbeile at the end of their school course. The Bihar Committee has recommended the ‘instilling into the minds of boys a reverence for religion.’ But who is to bell the cat? The teachers alone can teach reverence for religion. But they themselves have none. It is therefore a question of a proper selection of teachers. But a proper selection of teachers means either a much higher pay than is now given or reversion to teaching not as a career but as a lifelong dedication to a sacred duty. This is in vogue even today among Roman Catholics. The first is obviously impossible in a poor country like ours. The second seems to me to be the only course left open. But that course is not open to us under a system of government in which everything has a price and which is the costliest in the world. “The difficulty of coping with the evil is aggravated because the parents generally take no interest in the morals of their children. Their duty is done when they send them to school. The outlook before us is thus gloomy. But there is hope in the fact that there is only one remedy for all evil, viz., general purification. Instead of being over whelmed by the magnitude of the evil, each one of us must do the best one can by the scrupulous attention to one’s own immediate surroundings
66 ƒ GANDHI ON EDUCATION taking self as the first and the immediate point of attack. We need not hug the comfort to ourselves that we are not like other men. Unnatural vice is not an isolated phenomenon. It is but a violent symptom of the same disease. If we have impurity within us, if we are sexually depraved, we must right ourselves before expecting to reform our neighbors. There is too much sitting in judgment upon others and too much indulgence towards self. The result is a vicious circle. Those who realize the truth of it must get out of it and they will find that progress though never easy becomes sensibly possible.” References : 1. Written for Young India on March 16, 1922. 2. Of Gujarat Mahavidyalaya, which appeared in Young India on June 17, 1926. 3. Reply to a correspondent of Lahore, who originally writing in Hindi, asked, “Hindu Muslim founds and the feverish activity over the council elections have thrown the non co-operating students off their balance. They have sacrificed much. Its service is their watchword. They are today without a helmsman. They cannot enthuse over councils. They do not want to take part in the Hindus Muslim feed. They are therefore drifting towards a life of simlessness and worse. Must they be allowed thus to drift? Pray remember that ultimately you are responsible for this result. For though nominally they obeyed the Congress call, in reality it was you they obeyed. Is it not up to you now to guide them? 4. Mahatam Gandhi’s address, originally in Guarati, at the Samaldas College, Bhavnagar, Gujarat in January, 1920.
Dr.Sauvakon Junphongsri ƒ 67 5. A short write-up appeared in Young India on June 9, 1927. 6. An article appeared in Young India on August 6, 1925. 7. An article written for Young India on July 24, 1924. 8. Of Gujarat Vidyapeeth. An article appeared in Young India on August 7, 1924. 9. Written as reply to a letter by Gangaram Sharma in November, 1920. 10. Appeared in True Education by M.K.Gandhi, 1959. 11. An article appeared in Young India on July 11, 1929. 12. Written for the issue of Young India on February 9, 1921. 1 3. An article published in Young India on September 29, 1920. 1 4. A short article written for Young India on June 27, 1929.
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