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B.A English Literature
3rd Year 6th Semester
Indian Literatures in English
Unit - 1
2.2 “Gandhiji as a School Master” by Mahatma Gandhi
About Writer:
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat, India. He became one of the most respected spiritual and political leaders of the 1900's. Gandhi studied law at the University of Bombay for one year, then at the University College London, from which he graduated in 1891, and was admitted to the bar of England. His reading of "Civil Disobedience" by David Thoreau inspired his devotion to the principle of non-violence. Gandhi was shot three times in the chest and died while on his way to a prayer meeting, on January 30, 1948. He is referred to as 'the father of the Nation' in India. The title "Mahatma" (meaning "great-souled") was given to him in 1915 by his friend Rabindranath Tagore.
About Prose:
The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Gujarati: Satya Na Prayogo athva Atmakatha, lit. 'Experiments of Truth or Autobiography') is the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, covering his life from early childhood through to 1921. It was written in weekly installments and published in his journal Navjivan from 1925 to 1929. Its English translation also appeared in installments in his other journal Young India.
Text:
The reader will, I hope, bear in mind the fact that I am, in these chapters, describing things not mentioned, or only cursorily mentioned, in the history of Satyagraha in South Africa. If he does so, he will easily see the connection between the recent chapters.
As the Farm grew, it was found necessary to make some provision for the education of its boys and girls. There were, among these, Hindu, Musalman, Parsi and Christian boys and some Hindu girls. It was not possible, and I did not think it necessary, to engage special teachers for them. It was not possible, for qualified Indian teachers were scarce, and even when available, none would be ready to go to a place twenty-one miles distant from Johannesburg on a small salary. Also we were certainly not overflowing with money. And I did not think it necessary to import teachers from outside the Farm. I did not believe in the existing system of education, and I had a mind to find out by experience and experiment the true system. Only this much I knew - that, under ideal conditions, true education could be imparted only by the parents, and that then there should be the minimum of outside help, that Tolstoy Farm was a family, in which I occupied the place of the father, and that I should so far as possible shoulder the responsibility for the training of the young.
The conception no doubt was not without its flaws. All the young people had not been with me since their childhood, they had been brought up in different conditions and environments, and they did not belong to the same religion. How could I do full justice to the young people, thus circumstanced, even if I assumed the place of paterfamilias?
But I had always given the first place to the culture of the heart or the building of character, and as I felt confident that moral training could be given to all alike, no matter how different their ages and their upbringing, I decided to live amongst them all the twenty-four hours of the day as their father. I regarded character building as the proper foundation for their education and, if the foundation was firmly laid, I was sure that the children could learn all the other things themselves or with the assistance of friends.
But as I fully appreciated the necessity of a literary training in addition, I started some classes with the help of Mr. Kallenbach and Sjt. Pragji Desai. Nor did I underrate the building up of the body. This they got in the course of their daily routine. For there were no servants on the Farm, and all the work, from cooking down to scavenging, was done by the inmates. There were many fruit trees to be looked after, and enough gardening to be done as well. Mr. Kallenbach was fond of gardening and had gained some experience of this work in one of the Governmental model gardens. It was obligatory on all, young and old, who were not engaged in the kitchen, to give some time to gardening. The children had the lion's share of this work, which included digging pits, felling timber and lifting loads. This gave them ample exercise. They took delight in the work, and so they did not generally need any other exercise or games. Of course some of them, and sometimes all them, malingered and shirked. Sometimes I connived at their pranks, but often I was strict with them. I dare say they did not like the strictness, but I do not recollect their having resisted it. Whenever I was strict, I would, by argument, convince them that it was not right to play with one's work. The conviction, would however, be short-lived, the next moment they would again leave their work and go to play. All the same we got along, and at any rate they built up fine physiques. There was scarcely any illness on the Farm, though it must be said that good air and water and regular hours of food were not a little responsible for this.
A word about vocational training. It was my intention to teach every one of the youngsters some useful manual vocation. For this purpose Mr. Kallenbach went to a Trappist monastery and returned having learnt shoe-making. I learnt it from him and taught the art to such as were ready to take it up. Mr. Kallenbach had some experience of carpentry, and there was another inmate who knew it; so we had a small class in carpentry. Cooking almost all the youngsters knew.
All this was new to them. They had never even dreamt that they would have to learn these things some day. For generally the only training that Indian children received in South Africa was in the three R's.
On Tolstoy Farm we made it a rule that the youngsters should not be asked to do what the teachers did not do, and therefore, when they were asked to do any work, there was always a teacher co-operating and actually working with them. Hence whatever the youngsters learnt, they learnt cheerfully.
Literary training and character building must be dealt with in the following chapters.
Summary:
‘As Schoolmaster’ is an extract from Gandhi’s autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. This chapter gives us Gandhi’s views on education. Gandhi, while he was in South Africa, had established a settlement in Johannes berg called ‘Tolstoy Farm’. It was a cooperative colony and was inspired by the Tolstoyean ideas. The present chapter is about Gandhi’s attempts to provide a better education to the inmates of the farm, which becomes an enunciation of Gandhi’ seducational philosophy.People belonging to different religions lived in the Tolstoy Farm. They lived together like one family and Gandhi occupied the place of the father in the family. So he found it his responsibility to give education to the children of the farm. Gandhi was not satisfied with the current system of education there as that was giving children only three ‘R’s which included reading, ‘riting’ and ‘rithmatic’. So he decided to find out a comprehensive system of education that would provide the children an all round development. Gandhi found this a difficult task as the children were brought up in different conditions and environments and they belonged to different religions.
Gandhi strongly believed that moral training should be given to all children alike. He regarded character building as the proper foundation of their education and once this foundationwas laid, they could learn all the other things themselves or with the assistance of friends. For giving the literary training, Gandhi got the help of Mr. Kallenbach and Sjt. Pragji Desai, the close associates of Gandhi in South Africa. Gandhi gave importance to thebuilding of the body also. All the works in the farm, from cooking down to scavenging, were done by the inmates. Some engaged in gardening also. All these works gave the students much delight and ample exercise. Thus the children were able to build up a fine physique and therefore the instances of illness were very rare in the Farm. Gandhi always ensured good air, water and regular hours of food for the inmates of the Farm.
Gandhi gave importance to the vocational training also. They made children trained in shoe making, carpentry, cooking and the like. It was a system in Tolstoy Farm that youngsters were not asked to do anything which was not done by the teachers. Teachers were working with the students and they became role models for them and thus students learned cheerfully.
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