Positioning Gandhi's Basic Education in Tharuhat of West Champaran

Positioning Gandhi's Basic Education in Tharuhat of West Champaran

Abstract

The Tharuhat of West Champaran Bihar  is an area inhabited by the Tharu Tribe. They have been declared Schedule Tribe in 2003 itself where as their brethren of Uttar Pradesh (Now Uttarakhand also) are enjoying the status of ST since long. This has led to the extreme exploitation of the simple and innocent tribe of West Champaran. The Tharuhat has remained neglected and ignored for decades in every respect particularly in the field of education. The government is celebrating Gandhi's Satyagraha Centenary Year. This gives an opportunity to analyze  the prevailing situation of education specially in the light of Basic Education (Buniyaadi Shiksha) founded by Mahatma Gandhi in Champaran.

At the outset, let me first congratulate   NUEPA  for organizing National Discussion Meet on "Gandhian Educational Ideas in Policy Perspective " to commemorate centenary year of 'Champaran Satyagraha' for developing a proper understanding of the relevance of Gandhian educational ideas specially in the light of current and emerging issues and challenges. And also let me extend my sincere thanks for inviting me as a participant in this historic meet on a historic topic.

I selected this topic because I was born in Bettiah, head quarter of West Champaran of Bihar, and as a part of my PhD from JNU, I chose to work on the Tharus of West Champaran - little known, perhaps unknown and un -highlighted or low lighted tribe of Bihar in the 20th century. Purpose was to document the rich and unique social organization and culture of the Tharus. "Documentation of various facets of tribal society is very much essential before they are totally eclipsed by the rapid process of globalization." The association with the Tharus and the land of Tharuhat which started in the eighties of the last century is still continuing even today.


The Nation,  and specially Bihar is celebrating the Centenary Year of Gandhi's Satyagraha in Champaran. The arrival of Mahatma Gandhi on the historic land of Champaran in 1917 was a historic  event . He came to Champaran to assess the real condition of Indigo-planters  and accordingly made an effort to assuage their pain and sufferings. Mahatma Gandhi fought for the cause of Indigo-planters who were tremendously tortured and hugely exploited by the Britishers.

In the process of his struggle against the Britishers for the genuine demands of Indigo-planters he started knowing and understanding the people of Champaran and experiencing the real problem of the region. As he started experiencing he came to realize that if one wanted to work sincerely in Champaran, education should spread in all the villages. 

Though it is true that Gandhi's experiments with education started from Africa with his association and engagement in various activities in Tolstoy form, and also his working together with his friend Mr Kallenbach but the seed of Basic Education was sown when he came to Champaran.

Mahatma Gandhi always dreamt that children should not be left at the mercy of simple teachers. May be little bit less educated but the teachers must possess strong character. Gandhiji was very clear as far as education is concerned. He wished all-round development of a person through education. It includes mental, physical, intellectual, and spiritual development apart from bookish knowledge.

Before opening such schools, Gandhiji decided the qualities of teachers. He looked for all such volunteers who can prove their utility in all the spheres of social life. They should be capable enough in working efficiently in the field such as health, sanitation, dignity, social harmony. 

"We want volunteers who are young, dependable & reliable, sincere and laborious, those who do not hesitate  even in lifting spade for making new roads in the village."

Gandhiji envisaged a different role for the new teacher. A teacher, according to him, should not simply be a professional constrained by curricula and abstract standards but rather be a person relating directly to the student in the form of a dialogue. " A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples in, in my opinion, worthless. Whenever I talk with someone I learn from him.I take from him more than I give him. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his students. If you will teach your pupils with this attitude, you will benefit much from them."

Vinoba Bhave, the disciple of Gandhi, developed the idea further as a means of transformation, " The crux  lay in overcoming distinctions between learning and teaching, and knowledge and work. " He discusses the need to redefine the relationship between teacher and student, " they must each regard the other as a  fellow worker...  Instead the 'teacher' is to be skilled in kala or hunar and to derive sustenance from this and not a teaching salary. The student should live, work and grow with the teacher and his or her family. In this process he or she would learn the kala or hunar - the skill as part of a way of life, code of ethics, web of relationship."

Gandhiji placed central emphasis in his pedagogy on the role of handicrafts such as spinning as they symbolized the values of self-sufficiency. His aim was to bring about a radical restructuring of the sociology of school knowledge in India in which 'literacies' such as spinning, leatherwork, pottery, weaving, metal-work, basket-making and book-binding would be made central. The other aim of this use of handicrafts was to make schools financially and socially independent of the state.

In one of his article on education in Harijan he opined" By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man  - body, mind and spirit. Literacy is not the end of education nor even the beginning. It is only one of the means by which man and woman can be educated. Literacy in itself is no education. I would therefore begin the child's education by teaching it a useful handicraft and enabling it to produce from the moment it begins its training. Thus every school can be made self-supporting."

" The principal idea is to impart the whole education of the body, mind and soul through handicraft that is taught to children. An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eschew the other, is a misnomer."

" The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what true education is. We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange market. We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say, do not have to earn, so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education."

Basic education of Gandhi was an embodiment of his perception of an ideal society. The society which will consist of small, self-reliant communities with his ideal citizen being an industrious, self-respecting and generous individual living in a small cooperative community.




First such school, which was based on the idea of Basic Education of Gandhiji, was opened in Barharwa Lakhansen village situated around 32 Km east of Motihari on 14th November 1917.This school had the privilege of having teachers like Mumbai-based  Shri Baban Gokhale, an engineer trained in Europe and his wife Smt Avantikabai Gokhale.

Mahatma Gandhi was of the view that education should instill moral values in the children and make them cultured. Knowledge from books are only means for achieving this end.In addition, children should be given industrial training so that such training offer them opportunities for livelihood.

Another such school was opened in Bhitiharwa village, almost 55Km north of Bettiah on 20th November 1917 by Gandhiji. Kasturba Gandhi herself worked as teacher in this school for months together. On the centenary year of Gandhi's Satyagraha Government of Bihar has rebuilt the school and assured the supply of electricity. Kasturba Gandhi Aavasiya Vidyalaya is also being run in the campus.

Third school was opened in Madhuban on 17th January 1918. This school was  run by Shri Narhari Dwarika Das Parikh and Shri Mahadev Haribhai Desai at that time. Professor Kriplani and Shri Vishnu Sitaram Randive (Appaji) also worked here for some time.

Based on these experiences related to education in Champaran, Gandhiji laid the foundation of Basic Education ( Buniyaadi Shiksha). He mapped out the basic pedagogy, " I hold that the highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such system of education. Only every handicraft has to be taught not merely mechanically as is done today, but scientifically i.e. the child should know the why and wherefore of every process......  I have myself taught sandal-making and even spinning on these lines with good results. This method does not exclude a knowledge of history and geography.But I find that this is best taught by transmitting such general information by word of mouth.One imparts ten times as much in this manner as by reading and writing.The signs of the alphabet may be taught later....  Of course, the pupil learns mathematics through his handicraft." (Harijan, 31st July 1937)

  Gandhiji presented outlines of this scheme on education in Akhil Bharatiya Rashtriya Shiksha Sammelan organized in Vardha in October 1937. Consequently "Vardha Shiksha Yojana Samiti" was formed under the Chairmanship of Dr Zakir Hussain. This policy of Education System of Gandhiji is popularly known as Basic Education, Buniyaadi Shiksha or Nai Taalim. 

Basic Education is basically democratic and socialistic in nature as in it class and caste distinctions get dissolved. It trains the child in democratic way of living and develops the path for equalization of educational opportunity. Basic Education bulldozes the barriers between educated and the non-educated, between manual work and intellectual work, between the village and town, between the poor and the rich.

Basic Education is activity-oriented education. Here the child is not a passive recipient of knowledge but active participant in the leaning process. It encourages learning by doing. The child is the centre of activity in this scheme of education. 

Basic Education is based on the cultural heritage and social values of the country. All educational activities and lessons are correlated to a basic craft. Correlation takes place among social environment, physical environment and craftwork. 

Basic Education also aims at rural reconstruction, and latent industrial and agricultural revolution and thus proposes to solve the problem of unemployment. It recognizes the dignity of labour and helps to develop total personality of the child.

There are twenty nine Basic Schools (Buniyaadi Vidyalayas) in Champaran out of three hundred twenty one in whole of Bihar. But these schools founded on the principles of Basic Education founded by Mahatma Gandhi is in bad shape. Failure of Basic Schools to preach students Gandhian principles is a sad commentary on the state of affairs. The Basic Schools have been opened with the primary objective of creating awareness among the villagers, for instilling courage and confidence among the people and also for generating employment. But the successive governments  have payed little attention to Basic Education. There is acute shortage of able and qualified teachers due to defective education system. Instances of encroachment by few powerful people in the campus of such schools have become  order of the day. The temples of education have fallen prey to anti-social elements due to the absence of proper boundary. Set up by Gandhiji to provide education along with training in spinning, carpentry, farming and weaving , the Basic Schools have failed miserably.

Scenario in the Tharuhat of West Champaran is even more pathetic. Tharuhat is  land  from East to West all along the Indo-Nepal border inhabited  by Tharu tribe. The land alongwith the tribe has been totally neglected but mostly exploited. Bhitiharwa, a place in Gaunaha Block near Indo-Nepal border, where Gandhi and Kasturba set up an ashram in 1917 situation is far from satisfactory.

 The Tharus have been looked down upon, grossly misunderstood and crowned with title such as 'Bagad", 'Junglee' i.e fool and uncivilized. They have been living in utmost inhospitable condition in the densely forested region where ray of development is also scared to dawn.

It can be convincingly and forcefully said that the Thraus are not 'Bagad' or fool devoid of any culture of their own. They are till today very simple, innocent and hospitable community. Even after lack of proper education facilities they are not uncultured or uncivilized but they have their own unique and matchless culture with peculiar kind of tenacity and vitality not to be found among other tribes. They are the original inhabitants of the Tarai and living their since time immemorial.

Though the main occupation of the Tharus has been agriculture as they own vast stretches of land, mostly afforested near Someswar hills. There was no dearth of labour as it was easily available in the joint family. But now the situation has changed . Self-sufficient Tharu family has been disintegrated due to various reasons and their dependence on agriculture has been eroded. Members of the most of the Tharu families are turning into landless labourers. This is really a disturbing trend as their economy is in shambles.They have been alienated from their land and there is no alternative source of employment. Bajis or non-Tharus , in the form of big farms, have devoured much of their land. Forest based industries would have been very advantageous for them but due to apathy from the government and policy makers no initiative appears to have been taken so far. Tharus still shirk from establishing any business because of technical and procedural complexities associated with it. There are a few educated youths but there are no employment opportunities available in the Tharuhat. In this kind of a situation presence of Basic Schools with all the basic qualities as propounded by Mahatma Gandhi would have made these simple tribes self-reliant.

Non-inclusion of the Tharus of West Champaran in the Schedule of Constitution for over more than five decades has substantially contributed their backwardness. Due to the cheap politics  lives of lakhs of Tharus have become hell. Most of them have become homeless, shelter-less and landless on their own land Tharuhat. But their fight and struggle for being given Schedule Tribe status continued in a peaceful manner perhaps taking example of Mahatma Gandhi who fought for the just causes of Indigo Planters on the same land against the unjust and barbaric rule of the British with his weapon of Satyagraha and non-violence. Unjust and barbaric rules still continues but this time rulers are not the foreigners but the people from their own country, own state, own district, nay own locality. The Land of Tharus has remained neglected and ignored for decades.

The Tharuhat - land of the great Tharus has not seen the ray of development in the 20th century even after almost five decades of India's Independence - what to speak of education specially Basic Education of Mahatma Gandhi. In some of the Basic Schools children even do not know Mahatma Gandhi.

The State of Bihar was again divided and a new state Jharkhand was born on 15th November 2000. Thus major tribes of erstwhile Bihar have now become Jharkhandi. In the meantime one another important event took place. After continuous and peaceful struggle the Tharus of West Champaran, who were earlier OBC, became Schedule Tribe in January 2003 and consequently major Schedule Tribe of Bihar.

These two significant developments in the beginning of 21st century have led to the large scale changes in the Tharuhat. Apart from developing other infrastructural facilities, a number of schools started coming-up in the land of the Tharu tribe. The Tharuhat witnesses opening of residential schools also specially for girls as we do find in Bakhari Baazar village in the Ramnagar block.


But even today, hardly do we find any Basic School in West Champaran carrying the objectives of Basic Education as propounded by Mahatma Gandhi. The relevance of Basic Education has not outlived its utility. In fact its mission and objective appear to be all the more important in the present situation where youths are becoming disoriented and disorganized, becoming job seekers rather than job givers, busy collecting certificates rather than developing their skills, becoming immoral and arrogant rather than disciplined and cultured, drifting away from virtues towards vices, getting alienated from oneself and swayed away by suicidogenic impulses. It is just because the primary education is defective, just because it emphasizes literacy, just because it focuses on abstract and text-based knowledge.

In the centenary year of Gandhi's Satyagraha, the administration and  government of Bihar are having a re-look at the Basic Schools ( Buniyaadi Vidyalayas). They are for the revival of Basic Education. Let us hope something concrete and positive will be done in this direction on the lines of pedagogy of Gandhi,  specially in the land of the Tharus -Tharuhat  which is not only fertile in terms of land but also in terms of human resources and culture including handicrafts such as basket-making, pottery, metal-work, weaving. 


References :

1. CW : 'Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi' (1958-94),              Vols 1-100 , Publication Division, New Delhi

2. Harijan: Mohandas Gandhi's Publication:1933-48

3. Kumar, Ajay. 2002. " A Tribe Unscheduled".ANALYSIS:                                    Monthly News Magazine, New Delhi:                                      November, 18-19
4. Kumar, Ajay. 2006. " Tharus of West Champaran": A                                         Tribe  Unhighlighted". YOJANA: A                                       Development Monthly. August, 88-90

5. Kumar, Ajay. 2010 : "Pattern of Social  Change among                                        the Tharus of West Champaran in                                         Bihar "  PhD Thesis (2010) , JNU ,                                         New Delhi                                               Available on net shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in › handle

6. Pfeffer, G & D.K.Behra. 2002. Contemporary Society                                      Tribal Studies.Concept Publishing                                         Company: New Delhi



Paper Presented at National Discussion Meet on "Gandhian Educational Ideas in Policy Perspective : Relevance, Challenges and Prospects" Organized  by Department of Education Policy of National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) , New Delhi during October 3-5, 2017 in NUEPA , New Delhi     

                                            

Thank You Very Much.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat