Educational contribution of Mahatma Gandhi

[Kalyani Hingwe]

Educational Contribution

MAHATMA GANDHI

 

 

Kalyani Hingwe

 

Rasika Deshpande

 

Priyanka Ramteke

 

Kalyani Bhute

 

Sneha Dhande

 

Rekha Tharad

 

Heena Sommaiya

 

Vaishali Dharmadhikari

 

Jasvinder Panesar

 

INDEX

 

Introduction

 

Basic Education

 

Curriculum

 

Principles

 

Idealism

Naturalism

 

Pragmatism

 

Biography

 

Conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

·      Introduction

 

§        Mahatma Gandhi

 

Ø     MAHATMA-“Great Soul”, an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore.

 

Ø     In India his also called “Bapu”, and officially honored as the Father of the Nation.

 

Ø     Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born 2 October 1869 in Porbander

Ø     Kathiawar, Gujarat, a coastal town which was then part of the Bombay Presidency, British India.

 

Ø     He was born in Kirti mandir, Porander.

 

Ø     His father Karamchand Gandhi was the Diwan of Rajkot, who belonged to

Ø     The Hindu Modh community, a small princely

Ø     State in the Kthiawar Agency of British India.

Ø     His Grandfather was Uttamchand Gandhi, called Utta Gandhi. His mother, Putlibai, who came from Hindu Pranami Vaishnava community, she was a very courteous and kind hearted lady.

 

Ø     The Growing up with a devout mother and the Jain traditions of the region, the young Mohandas absorbed early the influences that would play an important role in his adult life; these included compassion for sentient beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance among individuals of different creeds.

 

Ø     The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and Maharaja Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood.

Ø     In his autobiography, he admits that it left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times

Ø     Without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with Truth and Love as supreme values is traceable to this epic character

 

 

 

 

Ø     In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionately to "Ba") in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region.

Ø     Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900.

Ø     At his middle school in Porbandar and high school in Rajkot, Gandhi remained an average student. He passed the matriculation exam for Samaldas College at Bhavnagar, Gujarat

 

 

Ø     On 4 September 1888, Gandhi traveled to London, England, to study law at University where he studied Indian law and jurisprudence and to train as a barrister at the Inner Temple.

^Ø        His time in London, the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he had made to his mother in the presence of the Jain monk Becharji, upon leaving India, to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat, alcohol, and promiscuity.

Ø     Although Gandhi experimented with adopting "English" customs—taking dancing lessons for example—he could not stomach the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady, and he was always hungry until he found one of London's few vegetarian restaurants.

Ø     Influenced by Salt’s book, he joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its executive committee, and started a local Bayswater chapter.

Ø     Some of the vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical, which had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu literature.

Ø     They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the both in translation as well as in the original. 

 

Ø     Not having shown interest in religion before, he became interested in religious thought and began to read Hindu, Muslim and Christian scriptures.

Ø     Gandhi was called to the bar on 10 June 1891. Two days later, he left

Ø     London for India, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in

Ø     London and that his family had kept the news from him

Ø     His attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed and, later, after applying and being turned down for a part-time job as a high school teacher, he ended up returning to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants, a business he was forced to close when he ran foul of a British officer.

Ø     In his autobiography, Gandhi refers to this incident as an unsuccessful attempt to lobby on behalf of his older brother.

 

Ø     It was in this climate that, in April 1893, he accepted a year-long contract

 

Ø     From Dada Abdullah & Co., an Indian firm, to a post in the Colony of Natal,

 

Ø     South Africa, then part of the British Empire.

 

 

 

Basic Education

Ø     Basic education refers to the whole range of educational activities taking place in

Ø     Various settings (formal, non formal and informal), that aim to meet basic learning needs.

Ø     According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), basic education comprises primary education (first stage of basic education) and lower secondary education (second stage).

 

Ø     In countries (developing countries in particular), Basic Education often includes also pre-primary education and/or adult literacy programs.

 

 

Ø     All education to be true must be self-supporting, that is to say, in the end it will pay its expenses excepting the capital which will remain intact.

 

Ø     In it the cunning of the hand will be utilized even up to the final stage, that is to say, hands of the pupils will be skillfully working at some industry for some period during the day.

 

 

Ø     All education must be imparted through the medium of the provincial language.

 

 

Ø     In this there is no room for giving sectional religious training. Fundamental universal ethics will have full scope.

 

 

Ø     This education, whether it is confined to children or adults, male or female, will find its way to the homes of the pupils.

 

Ø     Since millions of students receiving this education will consider themselves as of the whole of India, they must learn an inter-provincial language. This common inter-provincial speech can only be Hindustani written in Nagari or Urdu script. Therefore, pupils have to master both the scripts.

 

Ø     Given the right kind of teachers, our children will be taught the dignity of labors and learn to regard it as an integral part of and a means of their intellectual growth and to realise that it is patriotic to pay for their training through their labor.

 

Ø     The core of my suggestions in those handicrafts are to be taught, not merely for productive work, but for developing the intellect of the pupils.

 

Ø     Surely if the state takes charge of the children between seven and fourteen and train their bodies and minds through productive labor, the public schools must are frauds and teachers idiots, if they cannot become self supporting.

 

 

Ø     When it is remembered that the primary aim of all education is or should be, the molding of the character of pupils, a teacher who has a character to keep need not lose heart.

 

Ø     In the schools I advocate, boys learn in high schools less English but plus drill, music, drawing, and of course, a vocation.

 

 

Ø     I am a firm believer in the principle of free and compulsory primary education for India. I also hold that we shall realise this only by teaching the children a useful vacation and utilizing it as a means for cultivating their mental, physical and spiritual faculties.

Ø      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.

 

Ø     If we want to impart education best suited to the needs of the villagers, we should convert it into a training school in order that we might be able to give practical training to teachers in the needs of the villages.

 

Ø     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.

 

Ø      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.

 

 

Ø     Then as to primary education, my confirmed option is that the commencement of training by teaching the alphabet and reading and writing hampers their intellectual growth.

 

Ø      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.

 

 

Ø     Question may be asked how intelligence can be developed through the takli or the spinning 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 round he spins and the method of finding the evenness

Ø     And strength of his yarn, you hold his interest and simultaneously train his hands, his eyes and his mind.

 

Ø     I should give six months to this preliminary training. The child is now probably 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.

Ø     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 as a fine art.

 

Ø     We kill it by imposing the alphabet on little children and making it the beginning of learning.

 

 

Ø     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 its time.

 

Ø     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.

 

 

Ø     I want to resuscitate the villages in India. Today our villages have become a mere appendage to the cities.

 

Ø      They exist as it were; to be exploited by the latter and depend on the latter's sufferance.

 

Ø      This is unnatural. It is only when the cities realise the duty of making an adequate return to the villages for the strength and sustenance which they derive from them that a healthy & moral relationship between the two will spring up.

 

Ø     And if the city children are to play part in their 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.

 

 

Ø     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.

 

 

Ø     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.

 

Curriculum

"A good education should enable men, to release, to

Mature to discipline the human mind and spirit"               John H.Fischer

Ø     For Mahatma Gandhi, education means drawing out the best in child's body, mind and spirit.

Ø     The aim of Mahatma, keeping with Mahatma Gandhi's view to provide an education that helps one's journey through life. It must help one to be self - reliant, independent but selfless as well.

The school's curriculum is well conceived and formulated for each level of learning.

Ø     The Physiological, Psychological, intellectual, emotional, aesthetic and spiritual growth of the child receives the top priority when the curriculum is planned.

Ø     Individual and social needs of the child are given due attention too.

Pre - School:

The curriculum at this level includes basic language skills and first hand experiences which help in developing muscular coordination, sensory training personal health activities and social skills.

Ø     Students are taught toilet habits & to keep themselves clean. They are taken out on a nature walk frequently where they observe plants, animals and birds which provide the base for scientific experiences. 

Ø     A lot of fun -filled cum learning activities like Sand play, Water play, using Montessori materials to arithmetic and languages, brushing the teeth, setting the table for breakfast etc, form a desirable part of the curriculum.

Ø     While 3RS are introduced at this stage, the curriculum also includes conversation, story telling, role-play and enacting for developing expression. Field trips are also planned regularly to break the monotony of the classroom atmosphere.

Slokas, songs of all major religions and patriotic songs make a programmed of the daily routine of the school. Letters and words are introduced in a systematic manner. Learning on the whole becomes a kind of edutainment at Pre Primary level.

Elementary level:

Mahatma, no exaggeration offers an exemplary primary education through innovative teaching strategies.

Ø     No text books are prescribed for classes I to V other than for English, Language and mathematics, Teaching and resource materials prepared by teachers form the core of curriculum which is primarily helpful in the process of adjusting the child to the environment in which he functions from day today and in the environment in which he will have to organize his activities later. 

Ø     Skills like communication skills, Social skills and activities that improve interpersonal skills are introduced at this very level.

Ø     Roseau says “By relieving school children of their books I take away the chief cause of their misery" The curriculum unfolds his natural powers and helps him to meet his natural needs. Spontaneous, purposeful and social activities are incorporated into our flexible curriculum that is updated each year.

Middle school:

Middle school students use books, on par with the recommendations of the Matriculation Board. Besides the text books, the curriculum at this stages includes a number of activities that aim at developing capacity for clear thinking, receptivity of new ideas, clarity in speech and writing for discussion, persuasion and peaceful exchange of ideas. It also helps them to tap the sources of creative energy in students, so that they may be able to appreciate their cultural heritage. 

Ø     Students work independently on academic projects, present papers, participate in discussions and exhibit their histrionic talents. The middle school curriculum in Mahatma, therefore ensures acquisition of a broad based general education consisting of science, mathematics, social sciences, languages and experiences that help in exploring the world of work, and understanding the realities of life in order of prepare for a confident entry in to the world outside school.

High School, & Higher Sec. Education:

X, XI, XII graders are mostly into curriculum in the strict sense of the word. X students use the text books prescribed by the Matriculation Board and higher secondary is affiliated to the State board of Education of Tamil Nadu. More emphasis is placed on completing the syllabus on time and preparing the children for the board exams as in any other good school. But the education offered at this level is not isolated from life. It gives the students insight into the everyday world in which they live.

Ø    
The non -cognitive aspects of students such as their practical attitudes, emotions, appreciation, aesthetic tastes are given due importance and consideration.

Curriculum on Toto:

1. it relates education to productivity.
2. Hastens the process of modernization.
3. Strengthens social and national integration.
4. Builds character by activating social, moral and spiritual values.
5. Develops aesthetic sense of a sincere appreciation of the social and cultural achievements of one's country.
6. Gives a place of honor to the subjects like art, craft, music, dance and the development of hobbies.

Ø     Salient features:

1. Field trips
2. Educational tours
3. Value camps
4. Going beyond text and helps in logical & lateral thinking.
5. Integrates art, craft, and music in to curriculum.

Principles

Ø     Truth

Ø     Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya.

Ø     He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself.  He called his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Ø     Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities.

Ø     Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth". He would later change this statement to "Truth is God".

Ø  Thus, Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is "God"

Ø     Nonviolence

 

Ø     Although Mahatma Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of non-violence; he was the first to apply it in the political field on a huge scale.

Ø     The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain, Jewish and Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Ø     He was quoted as saying:
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."

In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes in envisioning a world where even government, police and armies were nonviolent. The quotations below are from the book "For Pacifists."

The science of war leads one to dictatorship, pure and simple. The science of non-violence alone can lead one to pure democracy...Power based on love is thousand times more effective and permanent than power derived from fear of punishment....It is a blasphemy to say non-violence can be practiced only by individuals and never by nations which are composed of individuals...The nearest approach to purest anarchy would be a democracy based on non-violence...A society organized and run on the basis of complete non-violence would be the purest anarchy

I have conceded that even in a non-violent state a police force may be necessary...Police ranks will be composed of believers in non-violence. The people will instinctively render them every help and through mutual cooperation they will easily deal with the ever decreasing disturbances...Violent quarrels between labor and capital and strikes will be few and far between in a non-violent state because the influence of the non-violent majority will be great as to respect the principle elements in society. Similarly, there will be no room for communal disturbances....

A non-violent army acts unlike armed men, as well in times of peace as in times of disturbances.

Ø     Theirs will be the duty of bringing warring communities together, carrying peace propaganda, engaging in activities that would bring and keep them in touch with every single person in their parish or division. Such an army should be ready to cope with any emergency, and in order to still the frenzy of mobs should risk their lives in numbers sufficient for that purpose. ...Satyagraha (truth-force) brigades can be organized in every village and every block of buildings in the cities.

 If the non-violent society is attacked from without there are two ways open to non-violence. To yield possession, but non-cooperate with the aggressor...prefer death to submission. The second way would be non-violent resistance by the people who have been trained in the non-violent way...The unexpected spectacle of endless rows upon rows of men and women simply dying rather than surrender to the will of an aggressor must ultimately melt him and his soldiery...A nation or group which has made non-violence its final policy cannot be subjected to slavery even by the atom bomb.... The level of non-violence in that nation, if that even happily comes to pass, will naturally have risen so high as to command universal respect.

In accordance with these views, in 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people (Non-Violence in Peace and War)

"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity.

Ø      You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions...If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them.

Ø      If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."

In a post-war interview in 1946, he offered a view at an even further extreme:

"Hitler," Gandhi said, "killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time.

Ø     But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs... It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions."

However, Gandhi realized that this level of nonviolence required incredible faith and courage, which he believed everyone did not possess. He therefore advised that everyone need not keep to nonviolence, especially if it were used as a cover for cowardice:

"Gandhi guarded against attracting to his Satyagraha movement those who feared to take up arms or felt themselves incapable of resistance.’

Ø     I do believe,' he wrote, 'that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.'"

"At every meeting I repeated the warning that unless they felt that in non-violence they had come into possession of a force infinitely superior to the one they had and in the use of which they were adept, they should have nothing to do with non-violence and resume the arms they possessed before. It must never be said of the Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become or been made cowards under Bad shah Khan's influence. Their bravery consisted not in being good marksmen but in defying death and being ever ready to bare their breasts to the bullets."

Gandhi also came under some political fire for his criticism of those who attempted to achieve independence through more violent means. According to a report in the Frontline magazine, he did plead several times for the commutation of the death sentence of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev including a personal visit on 19 March 1931 and in a letter to the Viceroy on the day of their execution, pleading fervently for the commutation.
Winston Churchill said that it was "nauseating" to see Gandhi, "a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the Middle East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace.  ... To parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor".

He continued this argument in a number of articles reprinted in Homer Jack's The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings.

Ø     In the first, "Zionism and Anti-Semitism," written in 1938, Gandhi commented upon the 1930s persecution of the Jews in Germany within the context of Satyagraha. He offered non-violence as a method of combating the difficulties Jews faced in Germany, stating,

If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest Gentile German might, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment.

Ø     And for doing this I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance, but would have confidence that in the end the rest was bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy...the calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities.

Ø     But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the God-fearing, death has no terror.

Gandhi was highly criticized for these statements and responded in the article "Questions on the Jews" with "Friends have sent me two newspaper cuttings criticizing my appeal to the Jews.

Ø     The two critics suggest that in presenting non-violence to the Jews as a remedy against the wrong done to them, I have suggested nothing new...what I have pleaded for is renunciation of violence of the heart and consequent active exercise of the force gener renunciation

Ø     Gandhi's statements regarding Jews facing the impending Holocaust have attracted criticism from a number of commentators. Martin Buber wrote a sharply critical open letter to Gandhi on 24 February 1939. Buber asserted that the comparison between British treatment of Indian subjects and Nazi treatment of Jews was inappropriate; moreover, he noted that when Indians were the victims of persecution, Gandhi had, on occasion, supported the use of force.

Gandhi commented upon the 1930s persecution of the Jews in Germany within the context of Satyagraha.

Ø      In the November 1938 article on the Nazi persecution of the Jews quoted above, he offered non-violence as a solution:
The German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel

       history.

Ø     The tyrants of old never went as mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war.

Ø     A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province. But if there can be no war against Germany, even for such a crime as is being committed against the Jews, surely there can be any alliance with Germany.

How can there be alliance between a nation which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one which is the declared enemy of both?

Vegetarianism

As a young child, Gandhi experimented with meat-eating. This was due partially to his inherent curiosity as well as his rather persuasive peer and friend Sheikh Mehtab.

The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus are vegetarian and so are almost all Janis.

The Gandhi family was no exception. Before leaving for his studies in London, Gandhi made a promise to his mother, Putlibai and his uncle, Becharji Swami that he would abstain from eating meat, taking alcohol, and engaging in promiscuity. He held fast to his promise and gained more than a diet: he gained a basis for his life-long philosophies. As Gandhi grew into adulthood, he became a strict vegetarian. He wrote the book The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism and several articles on the subject, some of which were published in the London Vegetarian Society's publication, The Vegetarian. During this period, the young Gandhi became inspired by many great minds and was befriended by the chairman of the London Vegetarian Society, Dr. Josiah Old field.
Having also read and admired the work of Henry Stephens Salt, the young Mohandas met and often corresponded with the vegetarian campaigner.

Ø     Gandhi spent much time advocating vegetarianism during and after his time in London. To Gandhi, a vegetarian diet would not only satisfy the requirements of the body, it would also serve an economic purpose as meat was, and still is, generally more expensive than grains, vegetables, and fruits.

Ø     Also, many Indians of the time struggled with low income, thus vegetarianism was seen not only as a spiritual practice but also a practical one.

Ø     He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a form of political protest.

Ø     He refused to eat until his death or his demands were met. Gandhi noted in his autobiography that vegetarianism was the beginning of his deep commitment to Brahmacharya; without total control of the palate, his success in Bramacharya would likely falter.

Gandhi also experimented with fruitarianism, stating in his autobiography, "I decided to live on a pure fruit diet, and that too composed of the cheapest fruit possible ... Raw groundnuts, bananas, dates, lemons and olive oil composed our usual diet." However, late in life he broke his discipline and started taking goat's milk on the advice of his doctor. This lapse of discipline bothered him to his dying day, and he wrote, "The memory of this action even now rankles my breast and fills me with remorse, and I am constantly thinking how to give up goat's milk." He never took dairy products obtained from cows because of his view initially that milk is not the natural diet of man, disgust for cow blowing, and, specifically, because of a vow to his late

Nai Talim, Basic Education
Nai Talim is a spiritual principle which states that knowledge and work are

Ø     Not separate. Gandhi promoted an educational curriculum with the same name based on this pedagogical principle.

It can be translated with the phrase 'Basic Education for all'. However, the concept has several layers of meaning.

 

Ø      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.

 

Ø      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 life-long character of education, its social character and its form as a holistic process.

 

Ø     For Gandhi, education is 'the moral development of the person', a process that is by definition 'life-long'.

 

 

 

Bramacharya

 

 

 

Ø     When Gandhi was 16 his father became very ill. Being very devoted to his parents, he attended to his father at all times during his illness. However, one night, Gandhi's uncle came to relieve Gandhi for a while. He retired to his bedroom where carnal desires overcame him and he made love to his wife.

 

 Shortly afterward a servant came to report that Gandhi's father had just died. Gandhi felt tremendous guilt and never could forgive himself. He came to refer to this event as "double shame."

 

Ø     The incident had significant influence in Gandhi becoming celibate at the age of 36, while still married.

This decision was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Brahmacharya — spiritual and practical purity — largely associated with celibacy and asceticism.

Ø      

Ø     Gandhi saw Brahmacharya as a means of becoming close with God and as a primary foundation for self realization. In his autobiography he tells of his battle against lustful urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood bride, Kasturba.

 

Ø     He felt it his personal obligation to remain celibate so that he could learn to love, rather than lust. For Gandhi, Brahmacharya meant "control of the senses in thought, word and deed.".

Towards the end of his life, it became public knowledge that Gandhi had been sharing his bed for a number of years with young women.

 

Ø      He explained that he did this for bodily warmth at night and termed his actions as "nature cure". Later in his life he started experimenting with brahmacharya in order to test his self control. His letter to Birla in April, 1945 referring to 'women or girls who have been naked with me' indicates that several women were part of his experiments. He wrote five editorials in Harijan discussing the practice of brahmacharya.

As part of these experiments, he initially slept with his women associates in the same room but at a distance. Afterwards he started to lay in the same bed with his women disciples and later took to sleeping naked alongside them.

 

Ø     According to Gandhi active-celibacy meant perfect self control in the presence of the opposite sex. Gandhi conducted his experiments with a number of women such as Abha, the sixteen year old wife of his grandnephew Kanu Gandhi.

 

Ø     Gandhi acknowledged "that this experiment is very dangerous indeed", but thought "that it was capable of yielding great results”. His nineteen year old grandniece, Manu Gandhi, too was part of his experiments. Gandhi had earlier written to her father, Jaisukhlal Gandhi, that Manu had started to share his bed so that he may "correct her sleeping posture". Gandhi saw himself as a mother to these women and would refer to Abha and Manu as "my walking sticks".
Gandhi called Sarajevo, a married woman with children and a devout follower, his "spiritual wife"

.

Ø      He later said that he had come close to having sexual relations with her. He had told a correspondent in March, 1945 that "sleeping together came with my taking up of bramhacharya or even before that"; he said he had experimented with his wife "but that was not enough”.

 

Ø     Gandhi felt satisfied with his experiments and wrote to Manu that "I have successfully practiced the eleven vows taken by me. This is the culmination of my striving for last thirty six years. In this yajna I got a glimpse of the ideal truth and purity for which I have been

Ø     Striving".

Gandhi had to take criticism for his experiments by many of his followers and opponents. His stenographer, R. P. Parasuram, resigned when he saw Gandhi sleeping naked with Manu.

 

Ø     Gandhi insisted that he never felt aroused while he slept beside her, or with Sushila or Abha. "I am sorry" Gandhi said to Parasuram, "you are at liberty to leave me today." Nirmal Kumar Bose, leading anthropologist and close associate of Gandhi, parted company with him in April, 1947 post Gandhi's tour of Noakhali, where some sort of altercation had taken place between Gandhi and Sushila Nayar in his bedroom at midnight that caused Gandhi to slap his forehead. Bose said, "There was no immorality on part of Gandhi. Moreover Gandhi tried to conquer the feeling of sex by consciously endeavoring to convert himself into a mother of those who were under his case, whether men or women". This maternal emphasis has also been pointed out by Dattatreya Balkrushna Kalelkar, a revolutionary turned disciple of Gandhi.


Simplicity

Gandhi earnestly believed that a person involved in public service should lead a simple life. He first displayed this principle when he gave up wearing western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. When he returned to India he renounced the western lifestyle he led in South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice.

Gandhi dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). He and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun on a charkha, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. The Swadeshi Movement held that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Gandhi and simplicity was a sign and expression of swadeshi principles. Consequently, the charkha was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress. He subsequently wore a dhoti for the rest of his life to express the simplicity of his life.

The practice of giving up unnecessary expenditure, embracing a simple lifestyle and washing his own clothes, Gandhi called "reducing himself to zero”. On one occasion he returned the gifts bestowed to him from the Natals for his diligent service to the community.

Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace and made him a better listener. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mauna (Sanskrit — silence) and shanti (Sanskrit — peace). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.

After reading John Ruskin's Unto This Last, he decided to change his lifestyle and create a commune called Phoenix Settlement.

 
    Faith

 

Ø     Gandhi was born a Hindu and practiced Hinduism all his life, deriving most of his principles from Hinduism.

 

Ø      As a common Hindu, he believed all religions to be equal, and rejected all efforts to convert him to a different faith.

 

Ø     He was an avid theologian and read extensively about all major religions. He had the following to say about Hinduism:

Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being...When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad-Gita , and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita Gita.

Gandhi wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita Gita in Gujarati. The Gujarati manuscript was translated into English by Mahadev Desai, who provided an additional introduction and commentary. It was published with a Foreword by Gandhi in 1946.

Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth and love (compassion, nonviolence and the Golden Rule). He also questioned what he saw as hypocrisy, malpractices, and dogma in all religions, including his own, and he was a tireless advocate for social reform in religion. Some of his comments on various religions are:

Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me.

Ø     If untouchables could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'être of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavoring to convert me, so were Muslim friends.

 

Ø     Abdullah Seth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty.
—Gandhi's autobiography

As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.

The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind.

I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

God has no religion.

Later in his life, when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied, "Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew."

In spite of their deep reverence to each other, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore engaged in protracted debates more than once. These debates exemplify the philosophical differences between the two most famous Indians at the time. On 15 January 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and caused extensive damage and loss of life.

 

Ø     Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans, people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of untouchability may be.

Gandhi took a keen interest in theosophy. He empathized with theosophy's message of "universal brotherhood and consequent toleration", as he put it in 1926.

Swaraj

Gandhi was a self-described philosophical anarchist and his vision of India meant India without an underlying government. He once said that "the ideally nonviolent state would be an ordered anarchy."

 

Ø     While political systems are largely hierarchical, with each layer of authority from the individual to the central government have increasing levels of authority over the layer below, Gandhi believed that society should be the exact opposite, where nothing is done without the consent of anyone, down to the individual.

Ø     His idea was that true self-rule in a country means that every person rules his or herself and that there is no state which enforces laws upon the people.

 

Ø     This would be achieved over time with nonviolent conflict mediation, as power is divested from layers of hierarchical authorities, ultimately to the individual, which would come to embody the ethic of nonviolence.

 

Ø     Rather than a system where rights are enforced by a higher authority, people are self-governed by mutual responsibilities.

 

Ø     On returning from South Africa, when Gandhi received a letter

   Asking for his participation in writing a world charter for human                        rights, he responded saying, "in my experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human duties.”

 

Ø     A free India for him meant the existence of thousands of self sufficient small communities (an idea possibly from Tolstoy) who rule themselves without hindering others.

 

Ø     It did not mean merely transferring a British established administrative structure into Indian hands which he said was just making Hindustan into Englistan.

 

Ø     He wanted to ultimately dissolve the Congress Party after independence and establish a system of direct democracy in India, having no faith in the British styled parliamentary system.

 

WARDHA   SCHEME OF EDUCATION

Ø     This principle of non violence was the basis of gandhiji’s scheme of basic education.

Ø     Through this scheme he wanted to develop those qualities in future citizens of India which he considered necessary for building a non violent society.

Ø     His system of education wanted to root out exploitation and centralization in society and create non violent social order.

Ø     In 1937, Gandhiji evolved a scheme popularly known as the Wardha Scheme of basic National Education This Wardha Scheme was based on same principles of education which were listed by Gandhiji in a paper in 1932 in Yerwada jail. This postulates were as follows:

Ø     Boys and girls should be taught together.

Ø     Their time should be mostly spent on manual work under the supervision of teacher.

Ø     Work should be entrusted to each boy and girl after ascertaining his or her inclination.

Ø     General knowledge should be imparted to the child as soon as he is able to understand things.

Ø     Children should not be compelled to learn anything.

Ø     All education should be imparted to the children through mother tongue only.

Ø     The process of teaching should be conducted in a play way, for play in an essential part of education.

Ø     The hand of the child should be learning to draw geometrical figure before he learns to write, that is good handwriting should be taught from beginning.

Ø     The child should learn to read before he is able to write.

Ø     The second stage of the child’s education begins when he is at eleven to sixteen.

Ø     He should acquire general knowledge of world’s history, geography, botany, geometry, algebra arithmetic.

Ø     A boy or a girl at sixteen should know sewing or cooking.

Ø     In the third stage which begins at sixteen and ends at twenty- five, a young man or women should receive education of his or her choice.

Ø     Teachers cannot possibly have big salaries; they must get enough to maintain themselves.

Ø     English can and should have palace in the syllabus only as a language.

Ø     On 23^rd October, 1937, a conference was organized at wardha to finalist the basic system of education. According to this the child should be provided with free education for seven years. Mother tongue should be the medium of education. A booklet was published by Government of India to popularize Gandhi Ian system of education entitled Understanding of basic Education.

Ø     Activities involving basic and personal and community cleanliness are vital in basic school. It is essential to train them properly in good habits.

 

 

                                                                                

 

 

 

Idealism

Ø     An Idealist: Gandhi was idealist and this is evident from the following points

Ø     Gandhi believed in God. To Gandhi, God is the ultimate reality.

Ø     Gandhi believed in absolute values. There is such a thing known as truth, beauty and goodness. Gandhi always spoke truth.

Ø     Non –violence was a creed with Gandhi as an idealist. He was ready to die for this ideal.

Ø     Non –violence was a weapon of the strong.

Ø     His life was a sacrifice.

Ø     Gandhi believed in earning one’s own living. He loved to work with his own hands.

Ø     He believed in morality. Idealists only think of moral and religious education. Morality should be practiced.

Ø     Gandhi was broad minded in religious views. He was tolerant of all other religions and views.

Ø     His life was his message .Whatever he preached he practiced .He set example before others to emulate.

 

Naturalism

 

Ø     Gandhi believed that the nature of the child was good. Gandhi was simply following Rousseau.

Ø     Gandhi wanted that education should be child centered.

Ø     He gave due importance to the child.

Ø     The nature of the child is that child is active.

Ø     The child cannot sit still.

Ø     The interest of the child must also be taken into consideration.

Ø     We should not bore the child with lectures.

Ø     The child is free.

Ø     Gandhi believed in the freedom of the child.

Ø     Natural Surroundings: Gandhiji wanted children to be educated in natural surroundings

Ø     The atmosphere should not be restricted.

Ø     Gandhi had his ashrams in open places.

Ø     This very fact is reflected in his education.

Ø     Let village children to be educated in villages.

Ø     This gives them the first hand experience.

 

Pragmatism

Ø  The word Pragmatism has been derived from Greek word ‘Pragma’ which means action.

Ø     It is an American School of Philosophy.

Ø     Charles Pierce, William James and John Dewey are its founders.

Ø     They believe in action and not in contemplation, and for them, reality is changing.

Ø     There is no such thing as absolute values.

Ø     Gandhi comes out as a Pragmatic thinker. Gandhi believed in action. This is reflected in his “Satyagrahas”. That way Gandhi was a real Karamyogi.

Ø     Gandhi did not believe in verbal education. His scheme of education is based on activity.

Ø     The craft centered education is pragmatic education .It is also self supporting education.

Ø     Gandhi believe in learning by doing .It is activity all the way. 

Ø     Activity, expression and construction are the fundamental principles of their teaching methods. Gandhi was a Democrat. He believed in the freedom of the man.

Ø     Learning should be in co-operation with the society. It cannot take place in isolation.

Ø     So we can conclude that Gandhi was idealist, naturalist and pragmatist -all rolled into one.

 

Biography

                                                                           

v    Born: October 2, 1869
Martyrdom: January 30, 1948.
Achievements: Known as Father of Nation; played a key role in winning freedom for India; introduced the concept of Ahimsa and Satyagraha. 

Mahatma Gandhi popularly known as Father of Nation played a stellar role in India's freedom struggle. Born in a Bania family in Kathiawar, Gujarat, his real name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (M.K. Gandhi).

 

v    The title Mahatma came to be associated with his name much later. Before Gandhiji's arrival on the Indian political scene, freedom struggle was limited only to the intelligentsia.

v    Mahatma Gandhi's main contribution lay in the fact that he bridged the gulf between the intelligentsia and the masses and widened the concept of Swaraj to include almost every aspect of social and moral regeneration.

v    Paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his death, famous scientist Albert Einstein said, "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a man as this walked the earth in flesh and blood". 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, a small town on the western coast of India, which was then one of the many tiny states in Kathiawar. Gandhi was born in middle class family of Vaishya caste.

 

v    His father, Karamchand Gandhi, was a Dewan or Prime Minister of Porbandar. His mother, Putlibai, was a very religious lady and left a deep impression on Gandhiji's mind. Gandhiji was a mediocre student and was excessively shy and timid. 

Gandhiji was truthful in his conduct right from the childhood. There is a very famous incident in this regard.

v    A British school inspector once came to Gandhiji's school and set a spelling test.

v    Gandhi spelled all the words correctly except kettle. The class teacher noticed the mistake and gestured Gandhiji to copy the correct spelling from the boy sitting next to him.

v    Gandhi refused to take the hint and was later scolded for his "stupidity". 

Gandhiji was married at the age of thirteen to Kasturbai. He was in high school at that time. Later on in his life, Gandhiji denounced the custom of child marriage and termed it as cruel. After matriculating from the high school, Gandhiji joined the Samaldas College in Bhavnagar.

v    After the death of Gandhiji's father in 1885, a family suggested that if Gandhiji hoped to take his father's place in the state service he had better become a barrister which he could do in England in three years.

 

v    Gandhi welcomed the idea but his mother was objected to the idea of going abroad. To win his mother's approval Gandhiji took a solemn vow not to touch wine, women and meat and remained true to it throughout his stay in England.

Gandhiji sailed for England on September 4, 1888. Initially he had difficulty in adjusting to English customs and weather but soon he overcame it.

 

v    Gandhiji completed his Law degree in 1891 and returned to India. He decided to set up legal practice in Bombay but couldn't establish himself.

                                                                                             

v    Gandhiji returned to Rajkot but here also he could not make much headway. At this time Gandhiji received an offer from Dada Abdullah & Co. to proceed to South Africa on their behalf to instruct their counsel in a lawsuit. Gandhiji jumped at the idea and sailed for South Africa in April 1893.

It was in South Africa that Gandhiji's transformation from Mohandas to Mahatma took place.

 

v    Gandhiji landed at Durban and soon he realized the oppressive atmosphere of racial snobbishness against Indians who were settled in South Africa in large numbers.

 

 

v    After about a week's stay in Durban Gandhiji left for Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, in connection with a lawsuit. When the train reached Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal, at about 9 p.m. a white passenger who boarded the train objected to the presence of a "colored" man in the compartment and Gandhi was ordered by a railway official to shift to a third class.

v    When he refused to do so, a constable pushed him out and his luggage was taken away by the railway authorities. It was winter and bitterly cold. This incident changed Gandhiji's life forever.

v    He decided to fight for the rights of Indians. Gandhiji organized the Indian community in South Africa and asked them to forget all distinctions of religion and caste. He suggested the formation of an association to look after the Indian settlers and offered his free time and services.

During his stay in South Africa, Gandhiji's life underwent a change and he developed most of his political ideas. Gandhiji decided to dedicate himself completely to the service of humanity. He realized that absolute continence or brahmacharya was indispensable for the purpose as one could not live both after the flesh and the spirit. In 1906, Gandhiji took a vow of absolute continence.

 

v    In the course of his struggle in South Africa, Gandhiji developed the concepts of Ahimsa (non-violence) and Satyagraha (holding fast to truth or firmness in a righteous cause). Gandhiji's struggle bore fruit and in 1914 in an agreement between Gandhiji and South African Government, the main Indian demands were conceded.

Gandhiji returned to India in 1915 and on the advice of his political guru Gopal Krishna Gokhale, spent the first year touring throughout the country to know the real India.

 

v    After a year of wandering, Gandhiji settled down on the bank of the river Sabarmati, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, where he founded an ashram called Satyagraha Ashram. Gandhiji's first satyagraha in India was in Champaran, in Bihar, where he went in 1917 at the request of a poor peasants to inquire into the grievances of the much exploited peasants of that district, who were compelled by British indigo planters to grow indigo on 15 percent of their land and part with the whole crop for rent. Gandhiji's Satyagraha forced British government to set up a inquiry into the condition of tenant farmers. The report of the committee of which Gandhi was a member went in favors of the tenant farmers.

 

v    The success of his first experiment in Satyagraha in India greatly enhanced Gandhiji's reputation in the country. 

In 1921, Gandhi gave the call for Non-cooperation movement against the ills of British rule. Gandhiji's call roused the sleeping nation. Many Indians renounced their titles and honors, lawyers gave up their practice, and students left colleges and schools. Non-cooperation movement also brought women into the domain of freedom struggle for the first time. Non-cooperation movement severely jolted the British government. But the movement ended in an anti-climax in February 1922. An outbreak of mob violence in Chauri Chaura so shocked and pained Gandhi that he refused to continue the campaign and undertook a fast for five days to atone for a crime committed by others in a state of mob hysteria.

Gandhiji was sentenced to six years imprisonment but was released in 1924 on medical grounds.

 

v    For the next five years Gandhi seemingly retired from active agitational politics and devoted himself to the propagation of what he regarded as the basic national needs, namely, Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability, equality of women, popularization of hand-spinning and the reconstruction of village economy.

On March 12, 1930 Gandhiji started the historic Dandi March to break the law which had deprived the poor man of his right to make his own salt. On April 6, 1930 Gandhiji broke the Salt law at the sea beach at Dandi.

 

v    This simple act was immediately followed by a nation-wide defiance of the law. This movement galvanized the whole nation and came to be known as "Civil Disobedience Movement". Within a few weeks about a hundred thousand men and women were in jail, throwing mighty machinery of the British Government out of gear.

 

v    This forced the then Viceroy Lord Irwin to call Gandhiji for talks. On March 5, 1931 Gandhi Irwin Pact was signed. Soon after signing the pact Gandhiji went to England to attend the First Round Table Conference. Soon after his return from England Gandhiji was arrested without trial.

After the outbreak of Second World War in 1939, Gandhiji again became active in the political arena. British Government wanted India's help in the war and Congress in return wanted a clear-cut promise of independence from British government.

 

v    But British government dithered in its response and on August 8, 1942 Gandhiji gave the call for Quit India Movement. Soon the British Government arrested Gandhiji and other top leaders of Congress. Disorders broke out immediately all over India and many violent demonstrations took place. While Gandhiji was in jail his wife Kasturbai passed away. Gandhiji too had a severe attack of Malaria. In view of his deteriorating health he was released from the jail in May 1944.

Second World War ended in 1945 and Britain emerged victorious. In the general elections held in Britain in 1945, Labors Party came to power, and Atlee became the Prime Minister.

 

v    He promised an early realization of self Government in India. A Cabinet Mission arrived from England to discuss with Indian leaders the future shape of a free and united India, but failed to bring the Congress and Muslims together. India attained independence but Jinnah's intransigence resulted in the partition of the country.

 

v    Communal riots between Hindus and Muslims broke out in the country in the aftermath of partition. Tales of atrocities on Hindus in Pakistan provoked Hindus in India and they targeted Muslims.

 

v    Gandhiji worked ceaselessly to promote unity between Hindus and Muslims. This angered some Hindu fundamentalists and on January 30, 1948 Gandhiji was shot dead by one such fundamentalist Nathu Ram Godse while he was going for his evening prayers. The last words on the lips of Gandhiji were Hey Ram.

                                                                                                   

 

Conclusion

 

 

Some say that Gandhi was a saint who tried to become a politician; some others say that he was a politician who tried to be a saint.

Gandhi himself had agreed with the latter, because he had always struggled to remove all kinds of injustice from society.

Above all, he was a humanist and a great philosopher. He was a proponent of unity and harmony, who wanted Satyagraha to be a means of satisfaction for both rival parties, not a means for division and further struggle. Gandhi did not want the oppressors to be defeated with moral and nonviolent means.

With his behaviors and way of life, he wanted to teach them a lesson in order to make them realize their mistake and change heart.

He said: "All my actions have their source in my inalienable love of humankind."