Decolonization(s) and Education. Daniel Maul

with the home life, so that a boy as he learns may react upon his immediate surroundings.⁶⁸

      Gandhi argued that:

      The curriculum and pedagogic ideas which form the fabric of modern education are foreign, and till they are repudiated there never can be national education. The force that maintains society together is a series of high loyalties, loyalty to faith, calling, parents, ←58 | 59→family, dharma. The ancient educational system in India certainly maintained a long tradition of pride and service.⁶⁹

      Elaborating on this, Gandhi explained that:

      When our children are admitted to schools, they do not need slate and pencil and books, but simple village tools which they can handle freely and remuneratively. This means a revolution in educational methods. Only, reading and writing would come during the last year when really the boy or girl is ready for learning the alphabet correctly. Text-books especially for children are for the most part useless when they are not harmful.⁷⁰

      These were exactly the issues that the nationalists and particularly Tilak had campaigned on for four decades. The only difference was that Tilak openly advocated it for the lower castes and classes, while defending the right of affluent Brahmins to modern education. Gandhi tactically avoided this mistake. He remained silent on higher education and did not ask for the abolition of English in higher education and the universities but directed his educational experiment to the masses.

      The schools established by Gandhi and his supporters were called ‘self-supporting’ schools. The children as young as 6 years had to spin yarn which was sold and the money thus earned was used for giving salary to the teachers and upkeep of the schools. Gandhi declared that “if every school introduced spinning, it would revolutionise our ideas of financing education.” He calculated that:

      The boy works at the wheel for four hours daily, he will produce every day ten tolas of yarn and thus earn for his school one anna per day. […] A boy can earn 1-10-0 per month and a class of 30 boys would yield an income of 48-12-0 per month.⁷¹

      Since the people who supported the non-cooperation movement did not show similar enthusiasm for his educational activity, Gandhi tried to convince them. He told the people that “of all the superstitions that affect India, none is so great as that a knowledge of the English language is necessary for imbibing ideals of liberty, and developing accuracy of thought.”⁷² He also asserted that “the government schools have unmanned us, rendered us helpless and godless.”⁷³