Teachers Training and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

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- [e-mail];

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

 

 

Teachers Training and Mahatma Gandhi

 

At the request of Shrimati Ashadevi, Gandhiji delivered a short address to them on the 19th instant, to explain the meaning of New Education. He described in a few words how the Basic Education scheme was born. In 1937 when the Congress took up power for a short term, as it afterwards turned out, in seven out of the eleven Provinces they were confronted with the question of popular education. His advice was sought. Like many others, he had been dissatisfied with the present system of education. He felt that if education was to be linked with the living needs of the masses inhabiting the villages of India, it ought to be imparted through a basic craft. He had no practical experience of agriculture. But he was saturated with the idea of the charkha which he had identified with village life. He, therefore, suggested that it should be used as a medium for the children’s education. The idea appealed to Shri Aryanayakam, Shrimati Ashadevi and Dr. Zakir Husain and through their effort the Hindustani Talimi Sangh was founded. Originally this New Education was intended to cover only the first seven years of a child’s education, viz., from the seventh to the fourteenth year. The experiment had already completed six years and was now entering upon the seventh.

As a result of further thought, he had come to the conclusion that this education should cover the whole of life from the moment of conception to the moment of death. Referring to the prayer which had been recited at the beginning of the proceedings, he observed: There are several things in this prayer which are worthy of your note but I want to draw your attention to that particular portion of it which pledged the recite to adherence to Truth in speech and action under all circumstances and at all times. One mantra means: “Lead me from untruth to Truth, from darkness to Light, from death to Immortality.” Similarly the Islamic prayer, which has just been recited, is an outpouring of the soul for Light and for being guided on to the straight path of Truth and Righteousness. This quest for Truth is the Alpha and Omega of all education. After finishing your training here you will go back to your respective Provinces to propagate this New Education. You will keep this ideal of devotion to Truth before you. Your work will be that of pioneers. There will be no one to help or guide you with his previous experience. You shall have to grope your way all by yourselves.

It is, therefore, not an easy task that you have before you. Then this New Education will not help you to get big jobs carrying high salaries and emoluments. But yours will be the privilege to go among and serve the villagers in their villages. Palatial buildings and costly equipment can, therefore, have no place in your scheme of work. The school of my conception is one where classes are held in the open under the shade of a tree. I know that it cannot be realized at present. Some shelter will be necessary, perhaps always for protection against the sun, wind and rain. True education can only be given under conditions of utmost simplicity. Pointing to the building in which they were assembled, he continued: All the buildings here in the Talimi Sangh are built of local material and with the help of local artisans. We have thereby established a living link between ourselves and the people. That by itself is an education for the people and constitutes the foundation of our future educational work. If you thoroughly assimilate this ideal of simplicity and its importance in the New Education, you will have justified your training here. You will then appreciate your work. That work consists of cleaning up. Cleanliness of the mind and body is the first step in education. Prayer does for the purification of the mind what the bucket and the broom do for the cleaning up of your physical surroundings. That is why we always commence our proceedings with prayer. No matter whether the prayer we recite is the Hindu prayer or the Muslim or the Parsi, its function is essentially the same, namely, purification of the heart. God has innumerable names but the most beautiful and suitable in my opinion is Truth. Let Truth, therefore, rule every action of our life, be it ever so insignificant. Let every morsel of food that we eat be sanctified with His name and consecrated to His service. If we eat only to sustain the body as an instrument of His service not only will it make our bodies and minds healthy and clean, the inner cleanliness will be reflected in our surroundings also.

We must learn to make our latrines as clean as our kitchens as with the individual so with society. A village is but a group of individuals and the world, as I see it, is one vast village and mankind one family. The various functions in the human body have their parallel in the corporate life of society. What I have said about the inner and outer cleanliness of the individual, therefore, applies to the whole society. In the mighty world, man, considered as an animal, occupies but an insignificant place. Physically, he is a contemptible worm. But God has endowed him with intellect and the faculty of discrimination between good and evil. If we use this faculty to know God we become a power for good. Abuse of that talent converts us into an instrument of evil, so that we become like a scourge and a plague and fill this earth with strife and bloodshed and unhappiness and misery. The struggle between the forces of good and evil is ceaseless and eternal. The former have truth and ahimsa as weapons against the letter’s falsehood, violence and brute force. There is nothing more potent in the universe than God’s name. If we enthrone Him in our hearts and keep Him there always, we shall know no fear and lay for ourselves rich treasure in life. 

 

Reference:

 

The Hindu, 5-12-1944