Posted: March 24th, 2024

Gandhi the Educator

Gandhi was a prolific writer. One of Gandhi’s earliest publications, Hind Swaraj, published in Gujarati in 1909, is recognised as the intellectual blueprint of India’s freedom movement. The book was translated into English the next year, with a copyright legend that read “No Rights Reserved”.  For decades he edited several newspapers including Harijan in Gujarati, in Hindi and in the English language; Indian Opinion while in South Africa and, Young India, in English, and Navajivan, a Gujarati monthly, on his return to India.
Later, Navajivan was also published in Hindi. In addition, he wrote letters almost every day to individuals and newspapers. Gandhi also wrote several books including his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Gujarātī “સત્યના પ્રયોગો અથવા આત્મકથા”), of which he bought the entire first edition to make sure it was reprinted.
His other autobiographies included: Satyagraha in South Africa about his struggle there, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, a political pamphlet, and a paraphrase in Gujarati of John Ruskin’s Unto This Last.  This last essay can be considered his programme on economics. He also wrote extensively on vegetarianism, diet and health, religion, social reforms, etc. Gandhi usually wrote in Gujarati, though he also revised the Hindi and English translations of his books.

Gandhi’s complete works were published by the Indian government under the name The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1960s. The writings comprise about 50,000 pages published in about a hundred volumes. In 2000, a revised edition of the complete works sparked a controversy, as it constituted large number of errors and omissions. The Indian government later withdrew the revised edition Concrete Definition to Aims, Goals and Objectives of Education :
If education is the foundation of all growth and progress, then aims, goals and objectives are the four interconnected and most significant components that gives direction to educational outcomes through the curricular content, syllabus and evaluations.
These four components are highly influenced by four interconnected foundation blocks namely, epistemology (the nature of knowledge), society/culture, the individual, and learning theories (Zais, 1976). But since aims, goals, and objectives, collectively as a component of curriculum provide direction and focus for the entire education programme, they are particularly sensitive to these four fundamental forces. It was Gandhiji, who in 1937 first recognized the interconnectedness of the eight curricular forces and questioned the futility of the British education system. Based on his wisdom and successful experiments with education in South Africa, he put forth a Basic Education Plan which had the merit of achieving one aim of peace and freedom, for which all mankind yearns today.
Also, recognizing the futility of a centralized plan and control in implementing programmes, he also outlined a comprehensive but decentralized model to be implemented by the village Republics. The vital objective of his model was to develop productive and social skills among the masses. To the centre, remained the overall responsibilities of coordinating and guiding the work of the states so that national policies could evolve from the grassroots.
The Basic Philosophy
(a) True education is all-round development of the faculties, best attained through action. It bases itself on the fact that knowledge and understanding develop in relation to problems set right by action. Information thrust on the mind only burdens the memory and causes intellectual indigestion, casting learning into oblivion.
(b) Education must be concrete and inter connected, not abstract or given in isolated sections. Concrete education allows the learner to manipulate problems or sets of problems and study their relationships, character and artistic sense. It allows the mind, heart, hand and eyes to work simultaneously in a correlated manner, resulting in a harmonious and well-balanced personality.
(c) Education must be imparted in the child’s mother tongue and organically connected with the child’s Social and Cultural environment.

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