Question

Mahatma Gandhi thought that the promotion of literacy was the most important aim of education. State whether true or false.

Answer 1

Answer: The given statement is false. Gandhi did not think that promotion of literacy was the sole aim of education. Mahatma Gandhi argued that education should aim to developthe soul and mind of a person.

• Gandhi said literacy was not the beginning of education nor the end of education.
• As per Gandhi education should draw out the best in man and child, in spirit, mind and body.
• Gandhi said literacy in itself is not education.
• Gandhi said he would begin educating a child by teaching handicraft, enabling a child to produce right from the moment it begins its training.
• Gandhi said a child should be taught wherefore and why of every process, handicrafts have to be taught scientifically and not merely mechanically.
• In the minds of Indians colonial education created a sense of inferiority as per Mahatma Gandhi.
• Gandhi said Western education destroyed the pride that the Indians had in their own culture and created a sense of superior feeling about the Western civilisation.
• Mahatma Gandhi said colonial education cast an evil spell on Indians, it enslaved Indians, it was sinful and said there was poison in this education.
• The admiration for British rule started rising among Indians educated in colonial instititions.
• Mahatma Gandhi needed an education system which would help Indians recover their self respect and sense of dignity.
• To show to the British that Indians were no longer willing to be enslaved, Gandhi urged the students to leave educational institutions during the national movement.
• Mahatma Gandhi said Western education did not pay attention to practical knowledge or lived experience rather it gave importance to textbooks. He said it did not focus on oral knowledge but rather focused on writing and reading.
• As per Gandhi, literacy which means simply learning to write and read is not education.
• As per Gandhi, people had to learn how different things operated, how to learn a craft and how to work with their hands, is education. This would increase the capacity to understand and develop their mind.
• Mahatma Gandhi was of the strong opinion that the medium of teaching has to be in Indian languages.
• As per Gandhi, education in English made them strangers in their own lands, distanced them from their own social surroundings and crippled Indians.