MODERN EDUCATIONAL THINKERS - Utkal University

[Pages:140]M.A Education

MODERN EDUCATIONAL THINKERS

Paper-XI

Author

S. P. Pani & N. R. Dash

D.D.C.E. Education For All

DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE & CONTINUING EDUCATION UTKAL UNIVERSITY, BHUBANESWAR-751007

Modern Educational Thinkers

Paper-XI

Author :

S. P. Pani & N. R. Dash

Published by :

DIRECTOR, DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE & CONTINUING EDUCATION UT KAL UNIVERSITY, VANIVIHAR, BHUBANESWAR-751007 Phone No.: 0674-2376700

? Copyright : PUBLISHER

Published : 2014

Copies : 500 nos.

Printed at :

inteCAD

442, Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneswar - 751 007 Tel. : 0674 - 2544 631

D.D.C.E. Education For All

DIRECTORATE OF DISTANCE & CONTINUING EDUCATION UTKAL UNIVERSITY : VANI VIHAR BHUBANESWAR:-751007

From the Director's Desk

The Directorate of Distance & Continuing Education, originally established as the University Evening College way back in 1962 has travelled a long way in the last 52 years. `EDUCATION FOR ALL' is our motto. Increasingly the Open and Distance Learning institutions are aspiring to provide education for anyone, anytime and anywhere. DDCE, Utkal University has been constantly striving to rise up to the challenges of Open Distance Learning system. Nearly ninety thousand students have passed through the portals of this great temple of learning. We may not have numerous great tales of outstanding academic achievements but we have great tales of success in life, of recovering lost opportunities, tremendous satisfaction in life, turning points in career and those who feel that without us they would not be where they are today. There are also flashes when our students figure in best ten in their honours subjects. In 2014 we have as many as fifteen students within top ten of honours merit list of Education, Sanskrit, English and PublicAdministration, Accounting and Management Honours. Our students must be free from despair and negative attitude. They must be enthusiastic, full of energy and confident of their future. To meet the needs of quality enhancement and to address the quality concerns of our stake holders over the years, we are switching over to self instructional material printed courseware. Now we have entered into public private partnership to bring out quality SIM pattern courseware. Leading publishers have come forward to share their expertise with us. A number of reputed authors have now prepared the course ware. Self Instructional Material in printed book format continues to be the core learning material for distance learners. We are sure that students would go beyond the course ware provided by us. We are aware that most of you are working and have also family responsibility. Please remember that only a busy person has time for everything and a lazy person has none. We are sure you will be able to chalk out a well planned programme to study the courseware. By choosing to pursue a course in distance mode, you have made a commitment for self improvement and acquiring higher educational qualification. You should rise up to your commitment. Every student must go beyond the standard books and self instructional course material. You should read number of books and use ICT learning resources like the internet, television and radio programmes etc. As only limited number of classes will be held, a student should come to the personal contact programme well prepared. The PCP should be used for clarification of doubt and counseling. This can only happen if you read the course material before PCP. You can always mail your feedback on the course ware to us. It is very important that you discuss the contents of the course materials with other fellow learners.

We wish you happy reading.

(S.P. Pani)

DIRECTOR

Content

1. UNIT I M.K GANDHI : BASIC TENETS OF BASIC EDUCATION

1

2. UNIT II VIVEKANANDA : MAN MAKING EDUCATION

31

3. UNIT III RABINDRANATH TAGORE (1861-1941)

56

4. UNIT IV AUROVINDO : INTEGRAL EDUCATION,

86

ITS BASIC PREMISES ; STAGES OF DEVELOPMEN

5. UNIT V GIJUBHAI BADHEKA ( 1885 -1939 )

115

6. UNIT VI GOKHALE, GOPAL KRISHNA (1866-1915)

124

UNIT - I M.K Gandhi : Basic tenets of Basic education

A Brief Life-sketch

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1949) was born on Octobor 2, 1869 at Porbandar on the Western coast of India. He was the sixth and youngest child of his parents. His family belonged to the Baina or trader caste and its members were originally grocers, but his grandfather Uttamchand Gandhi and father Karamchand Gandhi occupied the high office of the diwan (Chief Minister) in the Kathiwar princely state. Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Kaba Gandhi, was courageous, truthful, generous but keen practical wisdom. Thought a Vaishnava, he had great reverence for Jainism and other sects of Hindusim. He also had many Muslim and Sufi friends also. Mohandas, thus, grew up in an eclectic atmosphere. The strongest formative influence on young Mohandas, however, was that of his mother Putlibai. She was deeply religious and orthodox in temperament. She would not take any food until she said her prayers, and she used to visit temples regularly. She was very scrupulous in the observance of rituals like vows and fasts. ''Once in a cloudy weather, she vowed not to eat till she saw the sun. the children watched for the sun to appear and rushed into tell her when it did. By the time she got outside to look, it had vanished again. 'It does not matter', she said, 'God does not want me to eat today.'" She was, on the other hand a sparkling Conversationalist and a welcome guest at the princess' courts. Her children adored her. "In her moral guidance she at least tried to be positive rather than prohibitive. She taught Mohan the importance of telling the truth and sticking to his undertakings."

Young Mohandas was first admitted to the pathshala or primary school at Porbandar. When he was seven he accompanied his father to Rajkot and there he attended, first, a pathshala and then a school and at. The age of twelve he was admitted into the High School III the town. "He was a mediocre student shy and slow to mix. Every day he walked to school and ran home, trying to be exactly punctual, neither early nor late." However, progress reports of school never contained any unfavourable comments about him. He would do his best to prepare his lessons and never told lies to his fellow pupils or to his teachers. Mohandas, once, read a drama book named Shravana Pitribhakti (Shravana's devotion to his father) and greatly enjoyed reading it. He thought of emulating Shravana's filial devotion. As a child he used to act out the role of Harishchandra to himself for "times without number". The idea of truth as supreme good was thus early implanted in him and appears to have grown naturally in him as a tree or a flower. His love for nursing the sick and compassionate attitude towards poor and down-trodden section of the society, might have been the result of Mohandas's long experience of attending to his sick father.

Like most growing children, Mohandas also passed through a rebellious phase. In his adolescence he tried meat eating, smoking and petty pilfering; but he not only confessed his chicanery before his parents immediately but also resolutely refrained from repeating such practices, having once discovered the pitfalls. His father was also loving and gentle when Mohandas most needed him in a crisis of conscience.

Mohandas was married at the age of thirteen to Kasturbai, the daughter of Gokuldas Makanji, a merchant Porbandar. The marriage had been settled six or seven ars back by the two families, the bridegroom and the ride having had no say in the matter. Kasturbai and Mohandas were of the same age. They settled down in the family home at Rajkot. Being motivated by the vow of life-long fidelity to each other,

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Mohandas in traditional Indian way always expected Kasturbai to seek his permission for her every movement. He would read pamphlets giving advice on happy marriage and applied the bits that appealed to him. Full of ideals, he expected Kasturbai to be as faithful to him as he was to her. No doubt she was. But his perfectionism at this point, took the form of infantile jealousy. He resented her going anywhere without him, even to the temple or on visit to friends. Sometimes his restrictions imposed on her were arbitrary and Kasturbai in her own quiet and passive way resisted them. Later, Gandhi recollected the situation and felt that the lessons of non-violence and passive resistance were learnt by him from her quiet practice of submission to suffering.

At eighteen Mo,handas passed the matriculation examination and got admitted to Samaldas College at Bhavnagar. There he could not intelligently follow the lectures delivered by the professors and that is why he did not find any interest in his studies, and felt worried about his future. Afamily adviser suggested that obtaining a Barrister's title from England was easier as well as more lucrative, compared to the rigors of earning a B.A. degree in India. After a great deal of discussion it was agreed that Mohandas would go to England for three years to earn the barrister's title. His mother was at first hesitant because she had heard that young men going to England went astray, ate meat and drank wine and committed many such indiscretions. However, Mohandas obtained mother's Consent after taking vows that he would not touch meat, women and wine. To raise the necessary funds, his brother sold some of the family land and his wife sold most of her jewelry. When he was about to depart, the community decreed that anyone who crossed the seas, or anyone who assisted someone in the crossing of the seas, would be an outcast. Mohandas tried to plead with them, but to no avail. Finally, with the help of a third party and at the risk of being an outcast, he succeeded in getting the funds released and buying the ticket. Thus he left India in September 1888 at the age of 18.

The voyage proved an ordeal. His experiences during the voyage were symbolic of those he was to undergo in the next three years. He was still affected with the crippling shyness, which had marked his childhood, a sense now compounded by his poor English. Most of the passengers in the ship were English and he found it almost impossible to understand them or converse with them. However, on arrival in London, a family friend gave him sound advice on how to behave politely in England, and also helped him find accommodation.

In London, Gandhi had to dea not only with his limited diet and shyness, but also with tremendous cultural shock. He tried to overcome all these by throwing himself into an overt strategy of westernization, attempting to learn all the skills and graces he thought befitted an English gentleman. He started out on lessons in French, dancing, violin and elocution. Even, new suits were ordered from the most fashionable tailors in London. However, this proved a passing phase. Gandhi soon gave up the unequal struggle with music and dancing, abandoned elocution and began to think seriously about legal study. There was a rebound from extreme extravagance to meticulous economy. At the same time he learned to walk everywhere within London wherever possible. This habit saved him money on fare and also toughened his physique. Another habit which he acquired in London and which later stood him in good stead as a public man handling considerable public funds was that of keeping regular accounts. He used to keep daily account of every farthing he spent in London.

Vegetarianism, practiced out of deference to his parents, though an inconvenient obligation in London, became a mission for Gandhi, the starting point of a unique discipline of body and mind, which transformed his life and personality. In fact Henrys

Salt's book Plea for Vegetarianism opened to him a whole new world of thought, linking diet with morality, religion and science. He began to ponder on the relations between men and animals, on the role of food as strictly a means of life rather than an enjoyable experience. He also became the convener and the secretary of a vegetarian club in Bayswater and acquired the first and fundamental lessons of establishing and managing an organization.

During the three years of his stay in England, Gandhi witnessed the Anarchist, the Feminist, the Theosophical movements that shook the foundations of the old world. "England was a liberating experience for the nineteen year old youth. In his three years in London, he confronted for the first time the social and revolutionary theories prevalent in Europe, an impressive body of Western literature, and Western people interested in Indian religious tradition." His first reading of the Bhagavad Gita in 1889 Was Sir Edwin Arnold's translation, The Song Celestial. The Gita seemed to him even at that early age to be 'of priceless worth, but it was only, some years later that it came part of his daily reading. He writes in his Auto biography: "The book struck me as one of priceless worth. The impression has ever since been growing on me with e result that I regard it today as the book of par excellence or the knowledge of truth." During the same period he read The Light of Asia, another book of Sir Edwin Arnold n Buddha and Blavatsky's Key to Theosophy and the Bible. He was highly impressed by the 'Sermon on the Mount' with its message of supreme forgiveness and non-violence. His young mind tried to unify the teachings of the Gita, The Light of Asia and the Sermon on the Mount. The themes of compassion, non-violence and self renunciation from various religious sources began to combine in his estimation as the highest manifestations of religion. He later declared, "Renunciation was the highest form of religion appealed to me greatly."

Gandhi passed the bar examination with ease and returned to India and his family in 1891. Homecoming was not the joyous or triumphant experience for which he might have hoped. He was already anxious about his ability to practice law, uneasy about his caste's likely attitude to him, but the bitter blow, which awaited him was the shocking news of the sad demise of his mother. The family had kept it secret from him while he was abroad. In India, Gandhi briefly attempted to practice law but in his professional life he experienced nothing but setbacks. Seeing no promise for a career in India, he accepted an offer of appointment as a legal counselor of a big firm in South Africa and so, in May 1893, at the age of 23 he left India for South Africa.

After six weeks of voyage Gandhi landed at Durban. Within a few days of his arrival in South Africa Gandhi had his first experience of racial discrimination while traveling from Durban to Johannesburg, a journey of 24 hours by train and horse buggies. Although Gandhi had a first class ticket, he was asked by the conductor to move to the coach, because the South African Railway did not allow coloured people to travel first class. Gandhi refused to move and was eventually thrown out of the train at night, at a small station named Maritz burg, during the peak of winter. That incident greatly awakened him. Until that time he had been deeply engrossed in his personal matters, his own career, his own finances, his own family, etc. But that incident compelled him to think of the plight of others, especially of those who were less privileged than him. During that long, dark and cold night, Gandhi resolved to do his best to eliminate discrimination. The following passage describes Gandhi's mind: "The iron entered his soul. In retrospect, this incident seemed to him as one of the most creative experiences of his life. From that hour, he refused to accept injustice as a part of the natural or unnatural - order in South Africa. He would reason, he

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would plead; he would appeal to the better judgment and the latent humanity of the ruling race; he would resist, but he would never be a willing victim of racial arrogance. It was not so much a question of redeeming his own self-respect as that of his community, his country, even of humanity." Gandhi spent that whole night on the dark platform, alone, and shivering in the cold. The next morning he filed a protest but was ignored. He took the next available train and somehow managed to reach his destination.

Soon after reaching his destination, Gandhi convened a meeting of the Indian residents of Pretoria. He began studying their situation and representing their rights for fair treatment in the courts. Throughout that year Gandhi worked equally hard on two fronts: fighting the authorities on legal grounds for the elimination of discrimination, and educating the Indians to become better citizens. In the meantime he also devoted a good deal of his time working on the case, for which he had been engaged and succeeded in negotiating a mediated settlement.

As Gandhi was about to leave South Africa in 1894 having completed the legal assignment, he noticed in the paper a reference to a bill before the Natal Assembly to dis-enfranchise the Indian voters. When the implication of the bill was pointed out, the compatriots, i.e. the Indian merchants pleaded with him to stay on in Natal to take up the fight on their behalf. Gandhi then decided to stay there as long as it took to keep fighting. He remained in South Africa for the coming 21 years that is till 1914, except for brief visits to India. He enrolled himself as an advocate in the Natal courts and sought greater civil rights for Indians in South Africa. He wrote petitions, letters to the editors, letters to the legislators and collected thousands of signatures. He organized a political party called Natal Indian Congress and educated the Indians to be law-abiding citizens and also insisted on fair and just treatments. During his stay in South Africa Gandhi led numerous passive resistance movements, called them Satyagraha and under his leadership large number of Indian indentured labourers and petty traders courted arrest during the agitation. Gandhi fought numerous cases on legal grounds and although he won many, the net change in the status of the conditions of the Indians was minimal, because the government kept on introducing and passing new bills, which effectively annulled every victory. He published in 1896 the famous Green pamphlet titled The Grievances of the British Indians in South Africa.

In 1903, after having lived and worked in South Africa for 10 years, Gandhi started a weekly newspaper, The Indian Opinion in which he published accurate information about the living condition of the Indians for the purpose of educating the general public. The weekly writing for his papers exerted profound influence on him. It became a training ground for him in self-restraint and a means for the study of human nature in all its casts and shades. Writing for the paper also helped him to clarify his own ideas and visions, to stay on track, to be consistent and to assume full accountability for his actions and words. At the same time Gandhi was undergoing some personal changes in his life. After reading John Ruskin's Unto this Last he resolved to simplify his life. He gave up all luxuries and moved to a farm where he tried to grow his own food and live by the land. He tried to replace all machine _ power with manual power. He continued with his experiments in dietics, health care and education. Around the same time he also took a vow of celibacy.

Between 1906 and 1914 Gandhi refined his technique of Satyagraha, trained his followers in its use, cultivated an exceptionally high level of his own moral character and influenced all his followers to strengthen theirs at the same time. "Satyagraha in Gandhi's hands was not just a matter of courageously breaking the law at issue; it was also an occasion for a range of symbolic acts which would enhance the

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