Kanya Gurukul 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];

[e-mail]                                    

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

 

Kanya Gurukul and Mahatma Gandhi 

 

I hope you have spoken about it to Vidyavati. But you must discuss it freely with Principals Ramdev and Sethi. Principal Ramdev is her guide and if he is convinced, immediate improvement can be made. I propose to send him the relevant extract from your letter. That will make your position quite clear. The insanitation, the indiscipline must go. The anti- Muslim feeling is a more difficult proposition. But you have to do your duty. Little girls’ minds must not be poisoned if we can help it. But whilst you will talk about these things, you will remember your limits. You have gone out to learn Hindi and to observe and gain experience, not to reform or teach. Yours will, therefore, be remarks only by the way and merely as suggestions either for acceptance or rejection. Your own conduct is sufficient effort for reform otherwise. I am writing this on the moving train during my silence which finishes at 9 p.m. 1  

It is good that you visited the Kanya Gurukul. When you write to Champavatibehn, please ask her to keep me informed about the institution. I am pleased that none of your girls is scared of the thieves. I wish that we while at the Ashram do not live in fear. 2 Vasumatibehn has left to join the Kanya Gurukul at Dehra Dun. At present, eighty men, women and children have their meals in the joint kitchen. The kitchen will shift tomorrow to the hostel kitchen. The present kitchen will cease to be a kitchen and will be turned into a women’s section. Such things happen all the time. There was problem of lack of space which has been solved for now. 3

Some can contribute their share by working as labourers, while for those who are unable to do so, or though being able do not find such an opportunity, the way is open on such occasions to give up certain pleasures for a specific period of time. If they are addicted to anything, they can save money by giving up their addiction for a short or long period or they may give up an item of food, as was done by the women-teachers and girls of Kanya Gurukul in Dehra Dun at the time of the struggle in Bardoli. Hence there are many ways open to those who wish to contribute to this Fund. We have formed an evil habit that we do not contribute anything until someone approaches us for funds. It is to be hoped that no one will wait for people to approach him for donations in the case of a memorial for a patriot like Lalaji. 4 

It has the Kanya Gurukul, an offshoot of the Kangri Gurukul and conducted amid great difficulty by Shrimati Vidyavati Devi. And when Gandhiji reached Dehradun it was holding a political conference with Sjt. Purushottamdas Tandonji as its President. Gandhiji was to stay there only for a day. The programme therefore was fairly crowded. It commenced with the laying of the foundation-stone of Shri Shraddhanand Abala Ashram on a spacious plot of ground. In laying the foundation-stone Gandhiji laid stress on the necessity of making the inmates of such institutions feel as members of a family with the manager as father or mother. He therefore added: ‘The foundation of such ashrams is laid not in brick and mortar but in securing the services of a manager who would eat with the inmates and live with them as their father? Friend and guide,’ Addressing the many women who had gathered there Gandhiji said, ‘If you truly revere Shraddhanandji memory you will provide from among you a mother for this place. That men mostly manage such institutions is but a penance they are doing for having grossly neglected the education and training of girls and otherwise deprived women of the opportunity of bettering themselves.  The next day on his way to Mussoorie he went to the Kanya Gurukul. The girls recited in a beautiful voice an address composed in Sanskrit. There was then a neat little speech by Shrimati Vidyavati recounting her trials and difficulties.

This was followed by a spinning competition in which Gandhiji, Shrimati Kasturbai and Shrimati Mirabehn had joined There was a big bundle of yarn too spun by the girls f or Gandhiji which he returned asking them to turn it into khadi and then send it to him. In blessing the girls Gandhiji hoped that the institution would have its own abode instead of as now having to live in a state of uncertainty and suspense.  From the Kanya Gurukul we took on the way a purse from motor drivers’ association and then halted at Rajpur where the late Dr. Keshav Dev Shastri had his sanatorium and where Mrs. Shastri with her sister though American is living the life of a strict Hindu widow. There were living there for the vacation over hundred boys of the Kangri Gurukul School. Gandhiji unveiled there the portrait of the late doctor and planted a tree in his memory. He received too an address from the boys and a pile of yarn which the boys had spun as also a purse which the boys had collected by their own labour. 5

I, therefore, decided to send her to Vidyavati of the Kanya Gurukul at Dehradun. But as soon as I started thinking about the matter last night, I felt I might ask your opinion too. Would you prefer that she should be taught here? Or would you like some other arrangement? Give me your considered opinion. 6 Nirmala studies at the Kanya Gurukul, Dehradun. I am aware of numerous attacks on me. I do not read them. The praises too are full of exaggerations, Then why not the attacks? Praise does not raise us. Condemnation does not take away anything from us. Then why should we be happy or miserable about it? We shall reap as we sow 7

My attention was first drawn to such writings by the girls of Mahila Ashram, Wardha, and recently by my daughter in- law who is studying in the Kanya Gurukul at Dehra Dun. Though she is not illiterate, she had never come across such obscenity as she found in some of her text-books. She appealed to me for assistance. I have been moving the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan authorities. But big institutions move slowly. Monopolies grow up. Self-interest of authors and publishers prevents reform. The altar of literature claims incense. My daughter-in-law suggested, and I at once fell in with her suggestion, that she would risk failure at her examination and omit to learn the obscene or erotic passages. This is a mild strike on her part, but a quite good and wholly effective one for herself. But this is an occasion which not only justifies a strike on the part of students and pupils; it is in my opinion their duty to rise in revolt against such literature being forced on them. 8

Shri Dharma Dev Shastri of Kanya Gurukul, Dehra Dun, and then Acharya Dev Sharma Abhaya of Gurukul Kangri have written to me to say that my reference in my article “Filth in Literature” to my daughter-in-law, who is studying in the Kanya Gurukul and who wrote to me about the filth she found in certain text-books prescribed for her examination, has been interpreted in some quarters to mean that the Arya Samaj authorities countenance such literature. Both the friends repudiate the suggestion in emphatic terms. Acharya Dev Sharma Abhaya tells me that the Gurukul authorities were so meticulous about the matter that even for the works of classical poets like Kalidas they insisted on expurgated editions being printed before they would allow their students to study even a celebrated classic like Shakuntala. What has, however, happened is that, of late, they have allowed their students to prepare for Sahitya Sammelan examinations which tolerate books containing unclean literature? I understand that the Gurukul authorities have brought the matter to the notice of the Sammelan management and asked them to withdraw the text-books which contain objectionable references. I hope that they will not rest satisfied till they have succeeded in their battle against unclean literature forming part of students’ text-books. 9 

The death of Acharya Ramdev removes from our midst a notable Arya Samaj leader and worker. Next to Swami Shraddhanandji he was the maker of Kangri Gurukul. So far as I know he was the Swamiji’s right-hand man. As a teacher he was very popular. Latterly he had thrown himself with his characteristic energy in the running of the Kanya Gurukul in Dehradun and was the guide and supporter of Kumari Shri Vidyavati. He was her only collector whilst he was alive. She did not have to worry over the financial side of the institution. I know what an irreparable deprivation his death is to her and her institution. The Gurukul should be put beyond financial stress by those who knew the late Acharya, who value female education, and who know the worth of Kumari Vidyavati and the institution. Such a collection would be a most suitable memorial to the departed Acharya. 10

 

References:

 

1. Letter to Mirabehn, January 10, 1927
2. Letter to Gangabehn Jhaveri, May 14, 1927
3. Letter to Ramdas Gandhi, Before June 19, 1928
4. Navajivan, 9-12-1928  
5. Young India, 31-10-1929
6. Letter to D. B. Kalelkar, August 28, 1937
7. Letter to Avantikabai Gokhale, September 16, 1938
8. Harijan, 15-10-1938
9. Harijan, 12-11-1938
10. Harijan, 30-12-1939