Title
Author(s)
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Mahatma Gandhi’s Views on Education : With Special
Reference to ‘Nai-Talim’ or ‘Basic Education’ (South
Asia of the Twenty-first Century)
Varkey, Thomas Njaralamkulath
上智アジア学, (29)
2011-12-27
紀要/Departmental Bulletin Paper
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http://repository.cc.sophia.ac.jp/dspace/handle/123456789/339
61
The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies No.29 (2011)
Mahatma Gandhi’s Views on Education:
With Special Reference to ‘Nai-Talim’ or ‘Basic Education’
Thomas Njaralamkulath VARKEY＊
Ⅰ. Introduction
Mahatma Gandhi started developing his views on education in the context of his Indian
independence movement, both in South Africa and in India. Gandhi’s philosophy of
education which is known as Nai Talim or Basic Education was a result of his scientific
research of theories of economics, politics, child development and the successful
experiments of his ideas on education in South Africa and in India.(1) Through his Basic
Education, Gandhi aimed at a holistic education of individuals, making India self-reliant,
creation of peaceful communities all over India based on non-violence and political freedom
of India from the British. This article is an attempt to appreciate the contemporary relevance
of Gandhian ideas of education not only in India but also in many parts of the world where
the present education system has failed to achieve a holistic education of individuals, selfreliance of both, individuals and their societies, as well as a non-violent and peaceful
society.
＊ Student, Graduate School of Linguistics, Sophia University.
076
Ⅱ. Development of Gandhi’
s Views on Education
Mahatma Gandhi’s Views on Education
Gandhi’s views on education were greatly influenced by the self-sufficient village
system of ancient India. Despite the many foreign invasions, propagation of new religions,
and changes in ruling dynasties, India’s civilization maintained its continuity in its essential
and fundamental institutions. One of the main reasons for this was that social life in India
was always organized around its villages. The villages were sustained and supported by
agriculture and cottage industries – a self-sufficient village economy. Gandhi always had a
great appreciation for the self-sufficient past of Indian villages, and this ‘self-sufficiency’
became one of the fundamental features of his ‘Basic Education.’
Gandhi’s experience of experimenting with his ideas on education in South Africa gave
him great confidence in introducing his ideas in India as well. In 1904, Gandhi established
the Phoenix settlement in South Africa which resulted in his belief in hand-power over
machine-power, hence, in self-reliance. Success at the Phoenix settlement encouraged
Gandhi to start the Tolstoy Farm in 1910 where he taught everything through manual work.
These two experiments together contributed to organizing his curriculum around crafts to
make schools productive and self-sufficient. With this experience Gandhi started the
Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad, Gujarat Vidhyapeeth, National College in Bengal,
National University at Ahmedabad, Kocharab Ashram, Shantiniketan, and finally Sevagram
near Wardha where he proposed his Basic Education in 1937.
Gandhi’s extensive travel through the villages of rural India and his insights into the
socio-political, economic, and cultural realities of the British India were a third influencing
factor that formed Gandhi’s philosophy of education. The political and business interests of
the British not only changed the nature of the traditional Indian villages but also destroyed
their self-sufficient character. The industrialization brought on by the British which
supported only the metropolises of India and England crippled the cottage industries of
traditional Indian villages; thus the ‘charkha’ – the spinning wheel – the symbol of the rural
cottage industry, started malfunctioning. Peasant villagers were transported to distant lands
for the industrial interests of the British, leaving the Indian peasants permanent tenants of
the industrial lords. In this context, Gandhi took upon himself the mission of introducing an
alternative educational system rooted in Indian culture and tradition, to help India move
away from the Western concept of progress, and more importantly, “towards an alternative
form of development that is more suited to its land and people.”(2) He wanted to regain the
lost economic self-sufficiency, autonomy, and political dignity of Indian villages.
Ⅲ. Aims of Gandhian Education
True education, for Gandhi, is that “which leads to freedom-liberation.” (3) This
liberation is of two kinds: the one that liberates us for all time and the one that is shortlived. According to Gandhi, liberation of our souls (moksha) and liberation of individuals
(character-building) are two long lasting liberations while liberation of a nation (nationbuilding) is short-lived.(4) According to Gandhi moksha is the ultimate liberation human
077
The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies No.29 (2011)
beings must aspire for in this world. In his view, freedom in the worldly sense is necessary
for us to attain moksha.(5) One must also be rid of all kinds of fears in order to attain the
ultimate moksha.
Gandhi says true education should also train students to be fighters for freedom.(6) For
Gandhi, liberation means freedom from all manner of servitude. Servitude is of two kinds: a
nation’s or an individual’s slavery to the domination from outside and slavery to one’s own
artificial needs.(7) In this sense, for Gandhi, the freedom of India is not only freedom from
the British rule but also freedom from all sorts of evil and bondage. The knowledge
acquired in the pursuit of this ideal alone constitutes true education.
Gandhi believed that education is neither the knowledge of letters nor is it for earning
livelihood but for character-building. (8) He says, “formation of character should have
priority over knowledge of the alphabet. If this order is reversed, the attempt would be like
putting the cart before the horse and making it push the cart with its nose, and would meet
with the same success as the latter course.”(9) Gandhi said, “to think of education as a means
of earning a living betrays an unworthy disposition of mind. The body is the means of
earning a living while the school is the place for building character,” he continues saying,
“Self-respect and character are above means of livelihood or a career.”(10) Gandhi also
considered nurturing all human virtues such as kindness to all, service of humanity,
fearlessness, quest for truth, self-control, humility and so on, are indispensible parts of
character-building. Character-building for Gandhi also meant knowledge of duty. He says
“he who does his duty is all the while studying.”(11) He points out that an illiterate peasant
with his simple knowledge of the world earns his daily bread honestly. He knows fairly well
how he should behave towards his parents, his wife, his children and his fellow villagers.(12)
Through ‘Basic Education’ Gandhi wanted all children in India to seek truth and peace.
Basic Education teaches children how to put their minds and senses to good use. A child
who has received such an education “will not use his hands for stealing or for killing flies
nor for beating up his companions . . .”(13) Gandhi says a child has made good progress in
education only when he “can understand the difference between truth and untruth, worth
and worthlessness and chooses the good and the true, while rejecting the bad and the
untrue.”(14) Gandhi says one who has undergone his Basic Education will have a clear
intellect, his body will be a ready servant of his will, his mind will be stored with the
knowledge of the fundamental truths of nature and his passions will be trained to follow his
will.
According to Gandhi, true education should contemplate the whole of human
existence. Gandhi holds the view that man is made of three constituents, body, mind and
spirit. Of them, spirit is the one permanent element in man. The body and the mind function
on account of it.(15) True education should help us to know the atman, the true self, God and
truth. Every branch of knowledge should have as its goal knowledge of the self.(16) Gandhi
says that a proper and harmonious combination of the intellect, the body and the heart or
soul is required for the making of the whole man and constitutes the true economics of
education. He believes that true education of the intellect can only come through a proper
exercise and training of the bodily organs. “But unless the development of the mind and
body goes hand in hand with a corresponding awakening of the soul, the former alone
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Mahatma Gandhi’s Views on Education
would prove to be a poor lopsided affair . . . They constitute an indivisible whole. ”(17)
Finally, education should be undertaken with the aim of equipping oneself for service
– service to one’s nation and service to the whole of humanity. Gandhi says he has not
found anyone who found unbroken joy in life through literary pursuit alone without
devoting himself to service. (18) Gandhi insists that education must be related to the
conditions of one’s surroundings. “Without the right kind of education, the community will
not only remain backward, but become increasingly so.”(19) Gandhi says, “Knowledge is
justified only when it is put to good use and employed in the public cause.”(20) Education
should incline one to do nothing but national service when studies are over. Gandhi
observes that the outcome of education must be that the student becomes an ideal citizen, an
ideal patriot and an ornament to his family, his community and his nation.(21) If education
does not lead an individual to these, Gandhi says, “it must be taken that the money spent on
education has been wasted.”(22)
Ⅳ. Criticism of the British Education System
Gandhi’s first-hand experience of the British education system both in South Africa
and in India led him to a complete rejection of it on political grounds due to its manipulative
nature. He criticized British education for producing ‘colonial citizens’ who would work for
the perpetuation of British rule in India. Addressing students of Banaras University, Gandhi
said, “it is my firm conviction that the main reason why the present regime goes on and
continues to perpetuate the atrocities it does, is that we have come under the spell of its
education. Before its intrusion we were self-reliant and not dependent as we are today.”(23)
Gandhi not only blamed British education for India’s enslavement, but also felt the need to
sacrifice the same for India’s freedom. He sums up by saying “as long as we are not
prepared to sacrifice the type of education we are receiving at present, it will not be possible
for us to achieve freedom for our country.”(24) As an alternative to the British education,
Gandhi puts forward his new vision of education (Basic Education) that would liberate not
only individuals from all types of slavery, but also the nation.
According to Gandhi, true education should teach us to follow truth and cultivate
devotion for our country,(25) but the British not only denied India its political freedom which
is its right but also made its citizen slaves of British education and the western materialistic
culture. He also observed that true education should enable students to respond to their
surroundings positively and creatively, but British education created only political slaves
who just knew how to imitate their masters and to work for them as slaves. Gandhi believed
that the British, by denying India its political freedom delayed also the ultimate liberation
of each individual. This makes Gandhi call the British system satanic and sinful and he calls
for a total rejection of it.
Gandhi rejected the British education system on the ground that it created only otherdependent individuals – means for the imperialist control of India – while true education in
his view should make self-reliant and free citizens. According to Gandhi, “an individual
becomes free only when he is self-reliant and has the capacity for self-rule,”(26) an ability
The major characteristics of Gandhi’s views on education (Basic Education), could be
summarized into the following five points:
(1) Education for Liberation
‘Education is that which liberates’ (Sa Vidya Ya Vimukta Ya), is the central principle of
Gandhi’s philosophy of education. According to Gandhi, “knowledge includes all training
that is useful for the service of mankind and liberation means freedom from all manner of
servitude even in the present life.”(29) However, liberation for Gandhi was essentially
spiritual, and he believed that education must show the way to the attainment of spiritual
liberation. He believed that the spiritual liberation of an individual was possible only when
the individual was existentially liberated, in the political, economic, and social aspects of
his life. Emphasizing the need for existential liberation, Gandhi states, “on the principle that
the greater includes the less, national independence or material freedom is included in the
spiritual. The knowledge gained in the educational institutions must, therefore, at least teach
the way and lead to such freedom.”(30)
Gandhi’s Basic Education also aimed at liberating pupils from economic and
psychological dependence. Basic Education liberates a student from his existential needs,
by making him self-reliant through empowering him with certain crafts. This enables him
to pay partly or wholly for his education, a fact that liberates him from economic
dependency. This self-reliance during schooling makes him psychologically free as well.
Gandhi considered free education sponsored by someone or the state as negation of the
freedom of an individual. He declared, “A free scholarship lies and should lie like a load
upon a conscientious lad’s mind throughout his whole life. No one likes to be reminded in
after life that he had to depend upon charity for his education.”(31) Gandhi believed that
liberation from existential dependence would pave the way for essential or spiritual
liberation.
The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies No.29 (2011)
Ⅴ. Characteristics of‘Basic Education’
079
that could only be nurtured through proper education. Gandhi observed that the British
education system only aimed at producing ‘colonial citizens’ with British tastes and values
who would propagate and practice Western culture in India. Gandhi believed that the British
concept of education and development was based on Western, materialistic civilization,
which served only to alienate Indian citizens from their society, their culture, and their ageold self-sufficient village traditions. He also complained that because of the British
education system, “most of the boys are lost to the parents and to the occupation to which
they are born. They pick up evil habits, affect urban ways and get a smattering of something
which may be anything but education.”(27) Gandhi says that he has no faith in the British
education system which “produces men of learning without the backbone of character.”(28)
Gandhi criticized the British education system also for only filling the minds of students
with information and not educating their minds and care for their spirits. Gandhi rejected
the British education for it was not holistic in its approach and cared only for the intellect.
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Mahatma Gandhi’s Views on Education
(2) Social Revolution through Craft Centered Education
Gandhi viewed Basic Education as an effective means for silent social revolution. He
insisted that the introduction of handicrafts into the school curriculum will bring in a silent
revolution and “it will check the progressive decay of our villages and lay the foundation of
a juster social order in which there is no unnatural division between the ‘haves’ and ‘havenots’ and everybody is assured of a living wage and the right to freedom.”(32) Gandhi
dreamed of setting-up a non-violent social order through this silent social revolution, and
also through forming cooperative yet independent enlightened free individuals through his
Basic Education plan, in the new independent India.
Gandhi did not want to teach some handicraft side by side with other subjects but
emphasized that “the whole of education should be imparted through some handicraft or
industry.”(33) Gandhi gave the example of Takli-spinning, through which “a student will not
only garner knowledge of various varieties of cotton, but of different soil-types, of the ruin
of native industries under colonialism, of the history of British rule in India, and of basic
arithmetic.”(34) Besides these, the students will also learn hand-eye co-ordination, improve
concentration, balance and physical intelligence. The fruit of this education is that an
individual becomes self-reliant and confident in himself/herself.
Gandhi replaced textbooks with handicrafts and made them an essential means of
learning. “The education given through crafts is educative in its academic and social sense,
remunerative in the sense that it makes the learner self-supportive and it is liberative in its
existential and essential dimensions.”(35) Gandhi believed his Basic Education will help to
develop values such as respect for manual labor, sense of co-operation, feeling of being
mutually helpful, economic self-reliance, team spirit and sincerity in children. Moreover, he
was confident that craft-centered education would inspire people to think beyond the
divisions caused by caste and class in Indian society and would lead to communal harmony.
(3) Education through Mother Tongue
Gandhi believed that the foundation of education should be laid through one’s mother
tongue. “I am certain that the children of the nation that receive instruction in a tongue other
than their own commit suicide. It robs them of their birthright. A foreign medium means an
undue strain upon the youngsters; it robs them of all originality. It stunts their growth and
isolates them from their home. I regard, therefore, such a thing as a national tragedy of first
importance.”(36) Gandhi argued that by making English the only medium of education not
only wastes at least five years of a student’s life but his capacity to think also is affected. On
the other hand, if one’s mother tongue is used as the medium of education, one would
readily learn the best thoughts in his own language and be spared of the burden of a foreign
language.
Gandhi was not against teaching English at school as a foreign language, but he was
against using English as the only medium of education at schools. He said, “let us learn
English as a foreign language in the same way that a French-man learns it. If we learn
English only to that extent, we shall not have to carry the burden of thinking in English,
speaking or writing it with correctness.”(37)
Ⅵ. Conclusion
The most innovative aspect of Gandhi’s Basic Education was the introduction of
productive handicrafts in the school curriculum. Making crafts the axis of both teaching and
learning, radically departed from both the British and Indian educational traditions.
Productive handicrafts in the Indian tradition had been associated with the lowest castes in
the social hierarchy. In fact, in India the lowest castes were denied education for centuries.
“In symbolic terms, by proposing the introduction of productive skills and the knowledge
associated with them in the curriculum, Gandhi was advocating the allocation of a
substantive place in education to systems of knowledge developed by, and associated with
the oppressed groups of Indian society.”(43) It is fitting to remember here what Gandhi’s
expectations of his Basic Education were, “This work of basic education is the last work of
my life. If, by the grace of God, it is completed, Hindustan will be totally transformed.”(44)
The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies No.29 (2011)
(5) Craft-centered Education for Self-supportive Value
‘Self-supportive’ is one of the central characteristics of Gandhi’s Basic Education.
Gandhi, from his experience of traveling through Indian villages, was convinced that formal
schooling was too expensive and impossible to achieve (if it was made compulsory) for the
millions of poor children in India. He states, “it seems to be generally admitted that without
the new or Basic Education, the education of millions is well-nigh impossible.”(40) He also
insists on self-supportiveness achieved through the remunerative work done by the students
themselves, “our schools and colleges should become almost, if not wholly, self-supporting,
not through donations or through state aid or fees exacted from students, but through
remunerative work done by the students themselves.”(41) He claims that his Basic Education
through crafts forms a whole man, “Vocation should serve a double purpose – to enable the
pupils to pay for their tuition through the product of their labor, and at the same time to
develop the whole man or woman in him or her through the vocation learnt at school.”(42)
081
(4) Craft-centered Education for Educative Value
‘Educative’ refers to both academic and attitudinal education. Through Basic
Education, Gandhi aimed at imparting knowledge and instilling skills (academic education)
to the students through craft-centered education and the development of positive attitudes
(attitudinal education) toward work and manual laborers, and a spirit of readiness in
shouldering social responsibilities. In his view, the goal of education was not merely to
produce individuals with intellect but also to make them sensitive towards their social
responsibilities. For Gandhi handicrafts were not merely a means to productive work, but
also a means for developing the intellect. He was convinced of the correlation between the
intellect and manual training, – “training in arts and crafts offers full scope for the
development of the intellect. And I venture to claim that without it the development of
intellect is impossible.”(38) Gandhi says, “a boy who works at a handicraft for three hours a
day will surely earn his keep, how much more a boy who adds to the work a development
of his mind and soul.”(39)
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Mahatma Gandhi’s Views on Education
Despite the many positive aspects of Gandhi’s Nai-Talim, the concept is almost dead
today. Even the schools established for the propagation of the Gandhian philosophy of
education do not follow Nai-Talim today. Today when the government of India boasts of its
economic development even amidst the global financial depression it is shameful to see
thousands of schools in Indian villages struggling to meet even the basic needs of a school
such as proper classrooms, library, laboratory, toilets, and even sufficient number of
teachers. India still has the largest number of illiterates in the world. It is saddening to see
the self-sufficient and peaceful independent India of Gandhi’s dream far from reality. On
the contrary, the independent modern India today is still struggling with age old problems
like high unemployment, social and communal unrest, high infant mortality, illiteracy etc..
Higher education is still a dream for millions of poor children in India.
Even after Sixty years of independence, the government of India with its state-funded
education system neither could reach a hundred percent literacy rate, nor could it succeed in
ensuring employment to all. The irony of the modern education system is that even after
graduating from a university, most students are not fit for any profession. No Indian can
forget that India is still home to the largest number of illiterates, according to UNESCO.(45)
Present-day India is still far from attaining the goal of the self-reliant and independent India
that Gandhi envisioned. Only a Gandhian model of education – one that makes a student
productive and self-reliant – holds out some hope for modern India. Gandhian educational
ideas that are founded on eternal principles will retain their fundamental relevance, as long
as education remains unaffordable, unproductive and non-liberating.
Notes
(1) Dehury, Dinabandhu 2008, p. 2.
(2) Babu, Ramesh B. 2011, p. 45.
(3) Sing, M.K. 2008, p.6.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Ibid., p.38.
(7) Ibid., p.18.
(8) Gandhi, M.K. 1962, p.82.
(9) Sing, M.K. 2008, p.8.
(10) Ibid., pp. 36-37.
(11) Cited in Birla, G.D. ‘The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi’, 1977, p. 37.
(12) Sing, M.K. 2008, p.4.
(13) Ibid., p.8.
(14) Ibid., p. 9.
(15) Iyer, Raghavan. 1987, p. 378.
(16) Sing, M.K. 2008, p.14.
Birla, G.D., The Collected Works of Mahatma Ganchi, Bombay:Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan,
1977
Dehury, Dinabandhu, Orissa Review, December, 2008
Duncan, Ronald, Gandhi: Selected writings, New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1971
Krishna Kumar, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, UNESCO: International Bureau of
Education, 1999, p.1, http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/
publications/ThinkersPdf/gandhie.PDF
Gandhi, M. K. Problems of Education, (compiled), Ahmedabad: Navjivan Publishing
House, 1962
The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies No.29 (2011)
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083
(17) Ibid., p.16.
(18) Ibid., p.43.
(19) Ibid., p.34.
(20) Ibid.
(21) Ibid., p.39.
(22) Ibid., p.34.
(23) Cited in Birla, G.D. ‘Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi’, 1977, p. 37.
(24) Gandhi, M.K. 1962, p. 14.
(25) Sing, M.K. 2008, p.7.
(26) Babu, Ramesh B. 2011, p. 46.
(27) Varkey, C. J. 1940, p. 46.
(28) Sing, M.K. 2008, p.9.
(29) Gandhi, M.K. 1962, p. 69.
(30) Ibid., p. 188.
(31) Ibid., p. 296.
(32) Ibid., p. 275.
(33) Varkey, C. J. 1940, p.48
(34) Ibid.
(35) Ramesh Babu B. 2011, p. 84.
(36) Iyer, Raghavan. 1987, p. 380.
(37) Ibid., p. 383.
(38) Gandhi, M.K. 1962, p. 237.
(39) Sing, M.K. 2008, p.81.
(40) Gandhi, M.K. 1962, p. 237.
(41) Ibid., p. 261.
(42) Ibid., p.296.
(43) Krishna Kumar, 1989, p. 70.
(44) Singh, M.K., 2008, p. 80.
(45) Cited in The Deccan Herald, January 19, 2010.
084
Mahatma Gandhi’s Views on Education
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