For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Adult Education and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

Adult Education and Mahatma Gandhi

The remedy being known for the main disease the next thing is to find out the way of applying the remedy. And it will at once strike any intelligent person that the way is adult education answering the deficiencies which everyone acknowledges and which everyone would gladly remove at the earliest possible moment. This education can only take the shape of giving practical demonstrations by conducting model dairies, model tanneries and model breeding farms. As I have shown in these pages the three things can be economically combined and run together. 1 If you can solve the problem of adult education, it would indeed be excellent. I would like you to be in regular correspondence with Kakasaheb. In such matters, excessive diffidence in oneself disappears on its own and with experience of work. 2 They should deem the disaffiliation of their library as a blessing in disguise and make it thoroughly national in character and a center for spreading adult education. 3

I swear by adult education and many other things even as you and Millie do but may one leave swadharma even for a better dharma. The irons I have in the fire are more than enough for me. But through the Vidyapith we are floating adult education also. And I cannot give it the attention I would if I was free. If you have ideas and leisure write a considered, instructive, not critical, article showing the way and I shall publish it in Young India. 4 But may one leave swadharma even for a better dharma. The irons I have in the fire are more than enough for me. But through the Vidyapith we are floating adult education also. And I cannot give it the attention I would if I was free. If you have ideas and leisure write a considered, instructive, not critical, article showing the way and I shall publish it in Young India. 5 The village worker has also to touch the social side and gently persuade the people to give up bad customs and bad habits, such as untouchability, infant marriages, unequal matches, drink and drug evil and many local superstitions. Lastly comes the political part. Here the worker will study the political grievances of the villagers and teach them the dignity of freedom, self-reliance and self-help in everything. This makes in my opinion complete adult education. But this does not complete the task of the village worker. He must take care and charge of the little ones and begin their instruction and carry on a night school for adults. This literary training is but part of a whole education course and only a means to the larger end described above. 6

Relief measures can themselves be preventive. Thus, instead of giving doles, organizers can organize local industries and invite the sufferers to engage in them. No one who is not disabled should be fed unless he performs his allotted task. In my opinion, intelligent labour is for the time being the only primary and adult education in this land of starving millions. Literary education should follow the education of the hand the one gift that visibly distinguishes man from beast. It is a superstition to think that the fullest development of man is impossible without knowledge of the art of reading and writing. That knowledge undoubtedly adds grace to life, but is in no way indispensable for man’s moral, physical or material growth. It is, therefore, to be wished that the graduate correspondent and all the workers whom we can muster together would live in the midst of the sufferers and apply themselves to the constructive task of finding work on the spot for them, so as to enable them to feel the dignity that belongs to the man who earns his bread honestly. 7

Just now I am endeavouring to concentrate at the centre and the neighbouring village to give myself and co-workers first-hand instructions. Other workers in other centres are also carrying on work likewise. When we have taken the preliminary training then I will go on an all-India tour, if necessary. Remember this is a question of a kind of adult education on a mass scale. It cannot be given without previous preparation. I have said all that I have to say about the All- India Village Industries Association. 8 A philanthropic body like the A. I. V. I. A. cannot shirk a consideration of the problems involved in the questionnaire. If the true solution appears to be impracticable, it must be its endeavour to make it practicable. Truth is ever practicable. Thus considered the programme of the Association may fittingly be called adult education. 9 I propose to convert by patient persuasion. This is a kind of practical adult education to be put to use as it progresses. The centre is automatically shifted from the cities to the villages. They will be taught to know what they should want and how to obtain it in the shape of sanitation and hygiene, improvement of material conditions and social relations. If this primary education is taken by them in its fullness everything else follows. But in indicating the ideal I have told you of the difficulties of this stupendous task for you should know that we have smaller, more illiterate villages even than Segaon, where people hug their ignorance and dirt as they do their untouchability. 10

The only way I know to prevent such a catastrophe is for the 35 crores to be industrious and wise. This they can only be if they will take up the spinning-wheel and the other village industries. They will not take to them unintelligently. I can tell you from experience that the effort means adult education of the correct type and requires possession of patience, moral fiber and a scientific and practical knowledge of the industry the worker seeks to introduce in the village of his choice. 11 Indeed in my opinion what we have reason to deplore and be ashamed of is not so much illiteracy as ignorance. Therefore adult education, too, should have an intensive programme of driving out ignorance through carefully selected teachers with an equally carefully selected syllabus according to which they would educate the adult villager’s mind. This is not to say that I would not give them knowledge of the alphabet. I value it too much to despise or even belittle its merit as a vehicle of education. I appreciate Prof. Laubach’s immense labours in the way of making the alphabet easy and Prof. Bhagwat’s great and practical contribution in the same direction. Indeed I have invited the latter to come to Segaon whenever he chooses and try his art on the men, women and even children of Segaon. 12

This however, is the negative part. Voluntary organizations especially manned by women will work in the labour areas. They will visit those who are addicted to drink and try to wean them from the habit. Employers of labour will be expected by law to provide cheap, healthy refreshment, reading and entertainment rooms where the working men can go and find shelter, knowledge, health-giving food and drink and innocent fun. Thus prohibition means a type of adult education of the nation and not merely a closing down of grog shops. 13 If we can achieve prohibition within the next three years, and if we can demonstrate to the world that we can do without the military in the provinces, we shall have raised India’s name to a height that it had never reached before and to which no nation has yet reached. The task of making people sober is a task of the most vital importance and no amount of energy devoted to it is likely to be wasted. It will at once be a kind of true adult education and a means of improving the taxable capacity of the citizen. 14

The primary need of those who are come of age and are following an avocation, is to know how to read and write. Mass illiteracy is India’s sin and shame and must be liquidated. Of course, the literacy campaign must not begin and end with knowledge of the alphabet. It must go hand in hand with the spread of useful knowledge. But municipal bodies should beware of trying to ride two horses at a time, or else they are sure to come a cropper. 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. 15 This revival cannot take place without an army of selfless Indians of intelligence and patriotism working with a single mind in the villages to spread the message of the charkha and bring a ray of hope and light into their lusterless eyes. This is a mighty effort at cooperation and adult education of the correct type. It brings about a silent and sure revolution like the silent but sure and life-giving revolution of the charkha. 16

Justice in Aundh is therefore cheap, swift and effective. In the panchayat’s of two Talukas alone 197 criminal and civil suits have been disposed of. In 75 per cent of civil suits and 50 per cent of criminal cases no pleaders were engaged. The witnesses had to be paid nothing, being themselves on the spot. There was thus great saving of time and money. Most cases were decided at a single sitting. The whole village turns out at the hearing of cases. Hence lying is rare, because it can be easily detected. Therefore many cases are compromised out of court. This method of dealing out justice is itself great adult education. 17 Adult education will follow in the wake of basic education as a matter of course. Where this new education has taken root, the children themselves become their parents’ teachers. Be that as it may, the village worker has to undertake adult education also. 18

This has been woefully neglected by Congressmen. Where they have not neglected it, they have been satisfied with teaching illiterates to read and write. If I had charge of adult education, I should begin with opening the minds of the adult pupils to the greatness and vastness of their country. The villager’s India is contained in his village. If he goes to another village, he talks of his own village as his home. Hindustan is for him a geographical term. We have no notion of the ignorance prevailing in the villages. The villagers know nothing of foreign rule and its evils. What little knowledge they have picked up fills them with the awe the foreigner inspires. The result is the dread and hatred of the foreigner and his rule. They do not know how to get rid of it. They do not know that the foreigner’s presence is due to their own weaknesses and their ignorance of the power they possess to rid them of the foreign rule. My adult education means, therefore, first, true political education of the adult by word of mouth. Seeing that this will be mapped out, it can be given without fear. I imagine that it is too late in the day for authority to interfere with this type of education; but if there is interference, there must be a fight for this elementary right without which there can be no swaraj. Of course, in all I have written, openness has been assumed. Non-violence abhors fear and, therefore, secrecy. Side by side with the education by the mouth will be the literary education. This is itself a specialty.

Many methods are being tried in order to shorten the period of education. A temporary or permanent board of experts may be appointed by the Working Committee to give shape to the idea here adumbrated and guide the workers. I admit that what I have said in this paragraph only points the way but does not tell the average Congressman How to go about it. Nor is every Congressman fitted for this highly special work. But Congressmen who are teachers should find no difficulty in laying down a course in keeping with the suggestions made herein. 19 Again, I must have my eye on the children right from their birth. I will go a step further and say that the work of the educationist begins even before that. For instance, if a woman becomes pregnant, Ashadevi will go to her and tell her: ‘I am a mother as you will be. I can tell you from my experience what you should do to ensure the health of your unborn baby and your own.’ She will tell the husband what his duty towards his wife is and about his share in the care of their expected baby. Thus the basic school teacher will cover the entire span of life. Naturally, his activity will cover adult education. Some work for adult education is being done in many places. It is mostly concentrated among mill-hands and the like in big cities. No one has really touched the village. Mere three Rs and lectures on politics won’t satisfy me. Adult education of my conception must make men and women better citizens all round. To work out the syllabus and to organize the work of adult education is a more difficult task than preparation of the seven years’ course for children. The common central feature of both will be the imparting of education through village crafts. Agriculture will play an important part in adult education under the basic scheme. Literary instruction must be there. Much information will be given orally. There will be books more for the teachers than the taught. We must teach the majority how to behave towards the minority and vice versa. The right type of adult education should teach good neighborliness and cut at the very root of untouchability and communal problem. 20

But the adult education and the preparation of school masters should pay from the beginning, barring of course the expense of the permanent teaching staff. I can argue this out and prove it but I must not do so now. It will tax me unnecessarily. I hope that all those whom we have taken just now have been taken on that basis. 21 If this is so for the education of boys and girls, then adult education must also be self-supporting. If we believe that it is difficult to convince adults about the value of education, then I have to say that this is nothing but an old illusion. And the teaching of the three R’s in adult education is no part of our Nayee Talim. The meaning of adult education is that we will give them, through their own language, all-round education of a pure and socially useful life. And if they do not easily become self-supporting, in my view there is some serious defect in that education. We should not also forget that complete cooperation should be the basis from the very beginning. Those who know the full meaning of co-operation will raise no doubts about self-reliance. 22

I am of the opinion that the fund that we have will be enough for the training in handicrafts and adult education. If both the activities go on together the expenses will be lessened. These funds should not be made to cover the other five activities. This does not mean that we are not to pursue those five activities or that they are of secondary importance. We shall conduct them with a separate fund. If we think of all the seven activities we may not be able to deal with anyone. I am therefore of the opinion that this fund should be earmarked only for the two activities. Even when the fund grows later on, it should be limited to only the two activities. Of course all this requires hard work and intelligence. 23 I do not believe that children are either good or bad from their very birth. Some tendency is there, but we have to mould them. This means that an infant starts learning right from the time of conception. At that time I would teach the mother. That would be a part of adult education. The training of the infant begins from that stage. We have to train the future generation on these lines. Till the child is separated from the mother, I would teach the mother. The infant is ever moving its hands and feet and is able to do something. If we are able to take under our care children of two or two and a half years of age and if they learn to move their hands and feet according to our method, I cannot set any limits to their progress. 24

I have seen that if we want to impart education with good foundation, basic education is necessary. And it can only be given through Nayee Talim. Unless we adopt Nayee Talim crores of India’s children cannot be educated. Adult education will also come within its scope automatically. Similarly we will have to adopt the national language. We are too much enamored of English. Only yesterday I have vent to my thoughts regarding English. It is because of out infatuation with English that we have neglected our national language, which is inexcusable. A worker, who knows the national language, will not bother himself about the controversy of Persianized Urdu or Sanskritized Hindi but will speak a language which is easily understood by local people. He will learn the local language of the village selected by him and try to inculcate respect for the national language among the people there. Thus one who learns a new language loses nothing, on the contrary his knowledge increases thereby. 25 Students should go to their own villages and acquaint the people with the happenings in the outside world. They should set up civil defence squads. They should realize how ill-informed we are with regard to shortages of food and clothing. They must find out how, if we so desire, we can get over these shortages and then convince others about it. They should teach the villagers, as best as they can all the processes of cloth-making starting with the sowing of cotton to the weaving of cloth. They should give particular attention to sanitation of the villages. They must get latrines put up at convenient places so that people do not ease themselves just anywhere. People should be instructed to cover night-soil properly with earth. The villagers should be taught how night-soil can be turned into good manure. They should be persuaded to take to adult education and to give education to their children. 26

I greatly appreciate your staying on there. You are gaining direct experience. You will find in it the key to adult education. Adult education in my opinion is a very important matter. It puts us to test. Preserve good health, both physical and mental. I notice it every moment that perfect mental health ensures physical health. 27 Of all the numerous letters and telegrams received for the Charkha Jayanti, a letter in Hindustani received from the Indore Adult Education Association most arrested my attention. The purport of it is that the Association in question instead of wasting time in performing some flattering function, devoted the Jayanti week to doing urgent and useful work, i.e., young and old, rich and poor, official, and nonofficial, banded together in destroying a noxious weed harmful to man and beast. If such co-operation became the abiding feature of any locality, it would constitute the best education for young and old and change the face of the society in which it was done. 28

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