WORLDWIDE FUNCTION OF BASIC EDUCATION
J.C. KUMARAPPA
(Summary of a Speech at Basic Schools’ Anniversary, Gandhi Niketan, 4th May, 1955.
Source: Kumarappa Papers, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)
In the world we are not living by ourselves; we are living amongst various types of people using various kinds of philosophies. There are two main things that we have to bear in mind; our actions and our ideologies that are utilized for our own personal happiness on the one hand, and on the other, the way our life affects the world at large.
The Western Education that has been brought to us is a very good system, but it aims at self-indulgence and personal happiness. They have emphasized to a large extent the personal requirement, which may exterminate others so that the exploiters may prosper. Therefore, Western education is one based on exploitation of our own neighbours.
It is a good thing to acquire knowledge—knowledge of science, for instance, is necessary, but it should not be used so that we may control nature. Why control nature? So that we may use it for the destruction of others? And it has now come to the stage where, with the modern developments in Western countries, several people are making bombs to destroy other countries. They are ignoring the possibility that in the process they may destroy themselves.
Our country, on the other hand, has a different philosophy and has to progress in another direction. Here we have no emphasis on self-indulgence, but it is to a certain extent on self-renunciation. That is, we do not want to lay emphasis on the physical side of life, we want rather to live on the sharing side of human existence, which, we may call, the spiritual side. I have mentioned these in the form of different types of psychologies in human set-up in my book, “Economy of Permanence.” The jungle form of life is imperialism, which I have described as the “parasitic” existence. That is the type of existence the Western countries are leading. By exploiting some of the under-developed countries they live well. This culture is what we have developed under the Western type of Education.
In India, we have to develop a culture of mother-service, free of exploitation and based on giving, just as the mother looks after the child even at the risk of her conveniences. She sacrifices her pleasures for the benefit of the child without any desire of return. This is what we need and that is “Sarvodaya.” Therefore, what we want to do is to develop another type of education which will give us the culture of motherhood and not the fangs of the tiger which kills the weaker animal and the claws to tear its prey to pieces. We do not want to develop such a type of education. What we want in our country is “the mother” type, in which every one of us will act like the mother, in which there is within us a feeling for the other person.
A few months ago I saw in London a small girl of 9 years pushing a perambulator in which there was a baby of about 5 months. There was also a boy about 5 years old walking by her, probably her brother. When they had walked along for a little distance, resting the handle of the perambulator against her stomach the girl pulled out from her waist a little bag evidently containing some sweets. This little boy also suddenly shipped out a little toy revolver from his trouser pocket, aimed it at her and said, “Your purse or your life.” Of course, the little girl knew her brother was only playing and smilingly gave him some sweets. The little boy’s act depicts the civilization the Western type of education has created by attempting to “conquer’ nature in the interests of self-indulgence. But the mother type of education is depicted by the part played by the girl. Even when the boy pointed the gun towards the sister, she showed kindness and gave him sweets!
What we want to develop is not the gun type, but to show kindness even when evil is done to us. That is Sarvodaya. For this purpose, we have to educate our children not from the himsa point of view to control others, but to develop the good in human nature and control ourselves. Book knowledge, therefore, will not be useful. Children should learn from the teacher as the child learns from his mother, and that means every teacher should not consider teaching as a job, but as a mission. He should bring up the child as a mother does.
A modern educated young man came to us and asked, “Should the basic Training Schools also have such examinations as we have in the colleges and schools? I replied that examinations there must be, but they should not be for the pupils; they should be directed towards the teachers, as to how far they have been able to impart this spiritual outlook in the children, and whether the teacher has those qualities in himself. Roadside petrol pumps pump petrol into cars. The indicator shows the gallons put in: one, two, three and so on and, according to the meter, we pay for the petrol. Similarly, the Western type of education is developing this petrol pump type of teachers, who only pump knowledge into the head of children in quantities: Matriculation, Intermediate, B.A., M.A., L.T., and so on, and according to that you get bigger salaries! That should not be the case here. We are human beings. Machines work according to the contents we put into it, but man is not a machine. It is the graded culture that western education has brought to us. Merely pumping knowledge into the children’s head is not our purpose. A Basic Education teacher should be a man of character. He should develop the individual potentialities of the children and at the same time bring in a spirit of understanding to share his life with the others.
Only the other day, I received a letter from a Lecturer of a Basic Training College. The water-mark in it showed that it was made in Austraia. Using such paper is not supporting anybody in India, or sharing the life of those around him. Therefore I would fail him in his examination! The purport of the letter, I may tell you, is that he had been to the Puri Sarvodaya Sammelan and said he enjoyed my speech on the “Economics of Sharing.” I wrote back to him that when he purchases foreign made articles he is not sharing his life with anybody in India.
So what we have to do in Basic Schools is to inculcate this spirit of sharing in the pupils, that when we use locally-made articles our lives become part of the neighbours’ lives. This is the essence of Basic Education. If paper is made locally, we must use that paper. If articles of our day-to-day requirements are made by our neighbours, we must patronise them and use them. And that forms the sharing of your life with your fellow beings. That is why Basic Education is closely associated with Khadi and all other village industries. So Basic Education is not for mere acquisition of knowledge, but to train to share our lives with our neighbours. Western education, which aims at conquering nature so as to be able to satisfy our own requirements by exploiting others, does not impart this spirit of sharing in pupils. In Basic Education, on the other hand, we live with nature and learn as we toil.
So in Basic Education we have not got to learn from text books only, but from the teacher, who should become a mother to the children. Basic Education, therefore, is not judged through examinations as to the extent to which it has developed the brain and mind of the individual pupil, but it has got to be observed from the day-to-day activities of the pupils. So we should rather examine the teachers, as to how far they have been able to inculcate that spirit of sharing in the pupils. Western system of Education is formulated to get the best out of one’s surroundings for oneself, while Basic Education is to enrich life by sharing—halve our sorrows and double our joys.
This sharing of life is the essence of Basic Education, which I want all of you, teachers in Basic Education, to remember when you discharge this great responsibility. In effect, you will have to transform yourselves into an ideal mother to the children, and the children will learn from you and you will be their textbooks. Thus you must make ideal citizens of your children committed to your charge, and I trust you will all strive towards this ideal. The only difficulty is that at present many of us are brought up under the Tiger Economy and if we want to come under the Mother Economy, we have a great deal to unlearn and a great deal to develop.