8 Rabindranath Tagore and Adult Education in Rural Reconstruction

Nandita Mondol

Content Outline

1.    Learning objectives

2.    Introduction

3.    Prelude of Sriniketan experiment :

4.    Establishing  Sriniketan and initiation of adult education:

5.    Summary

1. Learning objectives

After this module learner will be able to,

1.    Explain the importance of adult education in respect of a developing society

2.    Analyse the contribution of Sriniketan experiment of Tagore in adult education system of India

2. Introduction

Tagore’s educational writings are mostly scattered in his voluminous literature in independent essays, numerous speeches and invaluable letters. A small number of which have been collected in books and journals, very less have been through the lens of researchers as these were in Bengali and have not yet been translated into English. His literary genius has been overpowered his work on education.

Siksar Herpher, written while he was just 31 years old, is considered as first ever comprehensive criticism of educational system of the country at that time. He was staunch believer in the value of education as the most fundamental prerequisite of the progress of a nation. While he welcomed the desire for self-determination in education, he appealed to his country men to consider national problems in an objective and rational manner and to focus on national reconstruction with the village as the center. He kept on writing about the subject in the editorial columns of Sadhana under the general title of Prsanga Katha. In 1905, in the article titled ‘Purvaprasner Anubritti’, he argued:

“it is necessary to remember that if we place education in the hands of government, they will attempt through that education to fulfil their own interests and not ours. They will so arrange that a farmer may remain farmer in his village; they will not bother to make him a true citizen of India. We can impart education according to our desire only if we take education in our hands. It is absurd both to beg and to order”

(Rabindra Rachanavali, V. XII, p.516)

A much stronger statement of Tagore’s educational philosophy is found in his article ‘Siksa-Samsya‘(June, 1906). According to his opinion, true national education is one which is originally linked with the life of a nation and which is natural process through the accumulated endeavours and the cherished ideals and traditions of the people of the land (Singh and Singh Rawat, 2013). His thoughts couldn’t match up with then official policy of National Education Council having idea of launching western type of political agitation which mainly appealed for favours to the ruling power during colonial period. After initial excitement of the movement subsided, Tagore drifted from this western thoughts towards building his own evolving ideology. His writing on this direction reflected in ‘Tapovan‘ (January, 1910) where he introduced a new idea of the education of feeling, Bodhersadhana, and he clearly distinguished it from the education of the senses and the education of the intellect. This education of feeling consists of realisation of ma’s bond of union with the universe through the spirit, through the soul, through the deeper intuition of feeling. Tagore visualised the education system of India to attain the characteristic truth of her civilisation pursued through centuries by her prophets, thinkers and saints and “that truth is not commercialism, imperialism or nationalism; that truth is universalism” (Tagore, 1351 B.S., p.100).

A letter of Tagore titled “Siksabidhi” – The Method of Education reflected philosophy of educational method in the context of then existing socio-political and educational conditions of India. He said that education can be imparted only by a teacher and never by a method. “Man can learn only from a man. Just as a water tank can be filled only with water and fire can be kindled only with fire, life can be inspired only with life…The mere pill of a method instead shall bring us no salvation” (Tagore, 1351 B.S., p. 128). The above discussion brings home the point that Tagore visualised education as not mere an equipment to progress in life materialistically but a process of ‘making‘ of human being amidst its natural surroundings where life has deep-rooted relationship with its entire ecology.

This idea of eternal link between life and education culminated as Sriniketan experiment in later part of his life where he tried to build a constant interaction between peasants of the villages around Santiniketan, with the students.

3. Prelude of Sriniketan experiment

At the end of 1880s, as directed by his father, Tagore had shouldered the responsibility to look after the family estates in Selaidah and Potisar (now in Bangladesh). Thus began his navigation with village-folk, mostly the underprivileged. He spent his days and nights on board of a house boat on the river Padma, and observed the varied landscape of countryside bequeathed with the natural offerings of six seasons of Bengal and the way local people got entwined their lives with nature. He not only achieved the pinnacle of his literary creation in that milieu but got aligned with the local people in their pain of daily drudgery and struggle against the freaks of nature, atrocious stoicism of State, casteism, wraths of feudal lords, communalism, colonialism – all of these made him empathise with hapless poor village folk of Rural Bengal.

in 1889, Taore got the responsibility to take care of his landlordship in two blocks of two district of undivided Bengal. One was in block Birahimpore, headquarter at Selaidah in District Kusthia and the other was in block Kaligram, headquarter at Potisar of District Rajshahi. He persuaded the peasants in his estate at Potisar to organise themselves into a welfare community known as Hitaishi Sabha. it covered 125 villages with a population around seventy thousand. The Sabha raised its own funds to which the Tagore estate contributed. It started maintaining its own schools, hospitals and other centres of common welfare. In Selaidah and Potisar, both the places Tagore didn’t create any separate institution but gather the people and got done all the work through them. Perhaps here his belief got shaped on the principles of self-help and enlightenment for the future programme of rural reconstruction which reinforced by painful memories of his own school days- where mechanical, lifeless rote learning was the order of the day – obliged him to take upon himself the role of an educationalist and social reformer.

4. Establishing Sriniketan and initiation of adult education:

Rabindranath Tagore as a poet, thinker, teacher, playwright, philosopher had an unfathomable knowledge of the society and mankind as the base of universalism. He founded Santiniketan in natural surrounding thereby giving a vent to his dream of weaving life with education. During his journey of life to discover the emergence of ideal bond between ‘mankind’ and ‘society’ he visited Japan in 1916. By 1918, December 18, he narrated his ideas about Visva Bharati, an ideal seat of learning, as follows:

“To seek to realise in a common fellowship of study the meeting of East and West, and thus ultimately to strengthen the fundamental conditions of world peace through the establishment of free communications of ideas between the two hemispheres”

While the constitution of Visva Bharati was still being made, the work at Sriniketan was at its nascent stage. Although by that time Poet had already tied up with Surul Samiti (Association) situated in the village Surul , next to Sriniketan, it culminated a full phased Rural Reconstruction, Sriniketan only by 19th November, 1921. Under the leadership of Leonard Elmhirst, a British Agroeconomist from Cornell. the first ever meeting held to initiate the work in rural reconstruction. This meeting was considered as the meeting of provisional Board of Directors, Department of Agriculture.1 The framework of rural reconstruction and its activities were planned in this meeting itself where it was decided that Elmhirst would be the Director to initiate the work at Surul-Sriniketan. Later during December, 1921, an estimate of expenditure was prepared and eventually the journey of Srinikaten started on February 6, 1922.

Sriniketan witnessed the creation of different departments as required gradually. Initially it had only two departments that were Surul department and Village Welfare Department. Later Craft school (Silpabhavan), Village Economics (Gramsamiksha), Sikshasatra etc were created. Rural reconstruction was looked after by the Village Welfare Department. This was the department which brought forth the activities like health, creation of cooperative societies, Night school, welfare of untouchable and tribal, women welfare etc to take care of village development holistically .

The revolutionary attempt that had been taken during this phase was to start a Chalantika Granthaghar (mobile library) in 1925 with 200 books(Sinha, 2010). It was introduced to reach women in villages who were not allowed to step out of their homes. Cycles were used as the vehicle to reach the women for long and later part the cars were procured to sustain this endavour. But unfortunately it was noticed that elites of rural Bengal tried their level best to capture the benefits of such initiative and not letting it to spread among commons (Sinha, 2010).

Tagore’s idea of adult education was never been an isolated plan but always a part of larger agenda of rural reconstruction where the adult education evolved naturally. In search of the root of such thinking, we got an indication of the very idea of adult education as part of education system itself in Bhandar Magazine edited by Rabindranath. Tagore’s elder brother wrote a piece titled ” Loksikshar Upay” ( “The Way to Adult Education”). In this article Jyotirindranath Tagore, the elder brother of Tagore, emphasised that ” knowledge and science, arts and crafts and inculcation of expression — these are not merely for inculcation – if it is not being spread among the commons and inculcate then there is no well being of us.” (Sinha, 2010, translated) .

Conspicuously Elmhirst proposed to start peripatetic university to reach the men and women in rural Bengal where education would knock at the door of the people (read men and women) who are underprivileged and marginalised. Tagore’s idea of adult education got enriched with such proposal and he was determined to reach the totally marginalised people , men and women who were illiterate, orphan and socially being existed at the bottom of society at that point of time.

In 1924, in Prabasi magazine Tagore made an appeal to the citizens of the country for financial assistance for women’s education. Although it didn’t receive much of attention from his countrymen, he continued his efforts. In 1930 he travelled to Russia and in his “Letter from Russia” he praised the initiative “How this education is spreading with great energy in all parts of the society here surprises me – not only in number but in fullness and without work. Not only in white Russia but also among the half-enlightened peoples of Central Asia, they are spreading education like a great flood — there is no dearth in their endeavour so that these people receive the best of the latest scientific discovery”. (source : Latter from Russia, 1930).

In February 1936, he addressed Education conference in Calcutta during Bengal Education Week, in which he pleaded for Home University scheme. He made the observations therein ” if examination centres are started in towns and cities of different states those men and women in the country who are for various reasons deprived of the benefit of school education, then many will feel encouraged to educate themselves at home in their leisure hours. Their education can be properly directed if their syllabus and textbooks are clearly prescribed from the lowest to highest stages. The degrees that will be awarded through these examinations will be valuable insofar as they will bring social prestige and will be useful for earning a livelihood….” (Tagore, 1936, pp.38-39).

On 18 September, 1936 he wrote to then Education Minister of Bengal, Sir Azizul Haque for changing the law for promotion of Distance Educationin Bengal by incorporating … possible provisions (Ansaruzaman, 2011; Rahman and Panda, 2011, Rahman et al,

2011). It has been reported that the government did not implement Tagore’s Distant Education model in Bengal. That time, it was reported, there was no open university or there was no well-established distance education centres in the world.

Eventually while Tagore’s proposal was turned down by the education ministry of Bengal

,  he placed it before the authorities of Visva Bharati who undertook to organise mass education on the line suggested by him in 1936. Hence finally Lok Siksha Samsad started its sojourn in 1936. There were three examinations, Adya, Madhya and Upadhi which were roughly corresponding to the Matriculation, Intermediate and B.A. standard. Although initially the work of this department was directed by Santiniketan, later it got shifted to Sriniketan and merged with Rural reconstruction officially in 1943. Bhubandanga, Surul and Mahidapur- these three villages were the first places where from Sriniketan experiment for adult education started its sojourn.

The syllabus included Bengali language, Bengali literature, History, Geography, Arithmetic, General knowledge, Elementary Hindi, Hygiene and Science in different combinations for different standards. Under Tagore’s direction and editorship Visva Bharati undertook the publication of a series of books in Bengali known as Loksiksha- Granthamala, on various subjects of scientific and general interest, specially written in easy language for general public (Pal and Bairagya, 2015).

There were six subjects division of Visva Bharati publication which were earmarked to be led by six set of different experts. These six divisions were like Philosophy (Editors Acharya Brajendra Nath Sil and Narendranath Sengupta), Science (editors Ramendrasundar Trivedi and Pransanta Chandra Mohalanabis), History, Geography and Economics (Editor Jadunath Sarkar), Literature and History of literature (Editor Pramatha Chaudhury), Art (Editors Ardhendu Shekhar Ganguly and Surendranath Thakur and Educational Science (temporary Editor Rabindranth Tagore) . There were eight types of instructions like books cannot be more than 200 -250 pages, language should be easy and the prices should be limited to 12 Anas.

To reach such publication to its logical destinations, ie. the users at the villages, Tagore arranged to reach these in the rural reconstruction centres at the villages so that people could get the access of these books. The process of publication was headed by the head of the department of Visva Bharati Publication Charu Chandra Bhattacharya and Pulin Bihari Sen. The first book from this initiative was of Tagore’s, named ‘Pather Sanchay’. Books were kept at the rural reconstruction centres in almost 15 villages in 1949 as it was mentioned in the Chalantika Granthaghar’s report. These centers were located in Jadavpur, Noadanga, Sheetalpur, Santhalpara, Goalpara, Laldaha, Albandha, Gopinathpur, Adityapur Mahisdhal, Paruldanga-khoskadampur, Ballavpur, Bhubandanga and Binuria (Sinha, 2010).

He ushered many changes in Visva Bharati regulations to get the Lok Siksha Samsad as recognised academic body.

Act of Lok Siksha Samsad in THE VISVA-BHARTI ACT, 1951 NO. XXIX OF 1951:

“7A. Notwithstanding anything contained in section 7, the University may establish and maintain, at any place in India examination centres for home study courses conducted by its Lok Siksha Samsam (People’s Education Council) and recognise, for such purposes as may be provided in the Ordinances, the certificates awarded by the said Lok Siksha Samsad (People’s Education Council) on the results of examinations conducted by it” (Source: THE VISVA-BHARTI ACT, 1951 NO. XXIX OF 1951, 1. Ins.by Act 60 of a961, s, 7.83).2

About the certificates and residence of students of People’s Education Council there were information from THE VISVA-BHARTI ACT, 1951 ACT NO. 29 of 1951 “The purposes for which certificates awarded by the Lok Siksha Samsad (People’s Education Council) of the University may be recognised by the University;” “32, Residence . Every student of University 1* [other than a student of its Lok Siksha Samsad (People’s Education Council)] who shall reside in a [Chtravasa]2* or under such conditions as may be prescribed by the Statutes and the Ordinances.”

One conspicuous point of this endeavour of facilitating adult education was the continuous efforts of rectification of the examination processes. Tagore himself was part of the process by creating the question papers which not only required the students to learn the respective subjects to answer but also incorporate the capability to be creative enough to express one’s own thinking through such answers. Professors from

2  http://www.teindia.nic.in/mhrd/50yrsedu/x/7H/8E/7H8E0101.html

Santiniketan used to meet the students at theses rural reconstruction centers to discuss with the students from vicinity and they never charged the fees for such a contribution.

While Lok Siksha Samsad started its journey with two centers , it grew over the time. Other than undivided Bengal, the centers were opened in Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Bombay. In 1941 there were altogether 11 centres which grew in 1942 to 64 and in 1943 109. Partition was blow to this endeavour. Most of the adult education centres were in East Pakistan and due to Partition, it did become impossible to continue there.

It was reported in Annual report of Loksiksha that while in 1948 there were 933 centres, in 1949 it grew upto 986. Since the numbers of centers were increasing formation of Pathachakra consisting of the adult education students were given priority to expand the light of education among commons. While there was a steady increase in students number as it was reported in 1951 as 1,91,528. But 1954 and 1959 registered only 998 and 674 as students respectively (Sinha, 2010).

The examination centres were arranged in different places like educational institutions, libraries, literature academy etc. This initiative received the blows thereafter. The decentralised examinations centres were withdrawn first by Visva-Bharati for economic reason and the examinations were arranged only in Santiniketan. Then the students of adult education scheme were denied to participate in convocation and thus lowering the position of Lok Siksha Samsad itself. This decision reflected that adult education was not equal to conventional education. And the final nail on the coffin came as in 1969, Visva Bharti authority declared (Lo 16/37/69-70 dated 30.8.69) that the titles given by Lok Siksha Samsad was going to be considered as eligibility only for job opportunities but not for higher studies.

Contextually, adult education was conceptualised by Tagore as social reconstruction through rural reconstruction to build a strong contingent of able citizen for the country. In that dream to be achieved Tagore emphasised to bring ‘life’ in ‘education’ to create an ideal ‘society’. Over the years, the changes that had been brought forth into the system in different pretext didn’t really facilitated the foundation rather necessarily weakened the efforts and thereby crushed the very ‘dream’!

5. Summary

According to Tagore, true national education is one which is originally linked with the life of a nation and which is natural process through the accumulated endeavors and the cherished ideals and traditions of the people of the land (Singh and Singh Rawat, 2013). Tagore visualised education as not mere an equipment to progress in life materialistically but a process of ‘making’ of human being amidst its natural surroundings where life has deep-rooted relationship with its entire ecology. At the end of 1880s, as directed by his father, Tagore had shouldered the responsibility to look after the family estates in Selaidah and Patisar (now in Bangladesh). His experience in Selaidah and Patisar had fuelled his endeavour in initiating the adult education in and around Sriniketan, which is known as Sriniketan experiment. And finally Lokshiksha Samsad (People’s Education Council) started its journey in 1936 under the aegis of Visva

Bharati University. it spread almost through entire undivided Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Bombay. Mobile libraries had been introduced to cater to marginalised section of people and rural reconstruction centres in villages were used to hold in person sessions by the educationists from different academic disciplines. Books were specially written and arranged in a manner to make it accessible by the common man. Examination centres were arranged in village rural reconstruction centres so that students did not need to travel.

Later Visva Bharati authority delineated the degree given by Lok Shiksha Samsad for entering the higher studies although it maintained the status of these degrees as eligible for job opportunities. This was a great blow to adult education experiment in India.

References

• Ø Bhattacharya ,A 2013 Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi Their Thoughts On Education From A Postcolonial Perspective . postcolonial Directions in Education. 2(1), pp. 100-144, 100 ISSN 2304-5388, Jadavpur University, Calcutta.
• Ø Sugata 1962 A Poet and a Plan Tagore’s Experiment on Rural Development, Thacker and Spink, Calcutta
• Ø Kripalani, K 2005 Tagore – A life. National Book Trust of India, ISBN 978-81-237-1959-7  K.Elmhirst, 1975 Poet and Plowman V.B.,p. 30.

• Ø Pal,Tapas. 2015. People’s Education Council of Rabindranath Tagore; A model of Distance Education. European academic Research . Vol III issue 2 May. Jgate
• Ø Singh Ravi and Rawat Sohan Singh 2013 Rabindranath Tagore’s Contribution in Education. VSRD International Journal of Technical and Non-Technical Research. Vol. IV ISSUE VIII August
• Ø Sinha, Dikshit 2010. Rbindranather Pallypunarghathan Prayas. Pashimbanga Bangla Academy. Calcutta.
• Ø Tagore, Rabindranath 1930 Rashier Cheethi (Letters from Russia), Rabindra Rachanabali
• Ø http://www.teindia.nic.in/mhrd/50yrsedu/x/7H/8E/7H8E0101.html