7

On Students and Teachers

Many students feel that it is not necessary to pay much attention to the body. This is a great mistake. Regular exercise for the body is absolutely necessary. What can be expected of a student who has not the wealth of the body? Just as milk cannot be kept for long in a paper or cardboard container, so also education is not likely to remain for long in the paper-like (delicate) bodies of our students.

The body being the abode of the spirit, is holy. We must protect it. Walking regularly and zestfully for an hour and a half in the morning and for the same period in the evening keeps it healthy, and the mind fresh. The time thus devoted is not wasted. Exercise and rest invigorate both the body and the intellect, enabling one to learn things more quickly. I think expensive games like hockey and cricket are not advisable for a poor country like India. We have a number of inexpensive and interesting games of our own.

The daily life of the student also should be above reproach. He alone can experience true delight whose mind is pure. Indeed, to ask him to seek delight in worldly pleasures is to deprive him of the real delight which is his. He who has resolved to rise higher does indeed rise higher. Ramchandra wished for the moon and he got it because his mind was pure.

Looked at in one way the world appears illusory; in another, quite solid and real. Students should regard it as the latter because they have to use their energy for the good of humanity and do brave deeds in this world. He who declares the world to be illusory without getting at the real truth, claims to have renounced it and then acts as he likes in disregard of moral laws, is not a jnani; he is merely a self-deluded fool even though he may be a Sannyasi.

Now I come to Dharma. Where there is no dharma, there can be no knowledge, wealth, health etc. Where there is no dharma, life is totally barren. There can be no progress. In our present scheme of education there is no place for the teaching of dharma. It is like a barat (wedding party) without the bridegroom. Students cannot experience pure joy without a knowledge of dharma. In order to have this experience it is necessary to study the shastras, to reflect over their teaching and to act thoughtfully. Smoking a cigarette or indulging in useless gossip as soon as one gets up in the morning does good to nobody. Nazir has said that even the birds sing the name of the Lord morning and evening, but we waste our time in sleeping. It is the duty of every student to somehow acquire the knowledge of dharma. Whether this is taught in schools or not, it is my prayer that students will try to introduce the substance of dharma in their life. What exactly is dharma? What should be the concrete method of imparting knowledge concerning it? We cannot discuss these questions here for lack of time. However, from experience, let me tell you to read the Gita and Ramayana with understanding, for you have a real jewel in the latter. Make use of its teachings. But remember that you have to study these two books in order to learn the secret of dharma. The seers who wrote these works had no intention of writing history. They desired only to impart teaching of dharma and neeti, i.e., the rules of good conduct. Crores of people read these books and try to pattern their lives upon them. They study them with a pure heart and carry on their work sustained by the strength and joy which they derive from these two books. For Muslim students, the Koran is the best book in this respect. They should study it in a spirit of religious humility, and try to understand its message. I also recommend that both Hindus and Muslims study each other’s religious scriptures with humility and try to understand them, for this in turn will create a better understandings of one community by the other.

From this most absorbing question I shall pass on to topics of more worldly interest. I have often been asked whether students should take part in politics or not. I will let you know my opinion about it without going into the reasons. Politics may be divided into two parts; first, the study of its science; second, political action. It is certainly necessary for students to study the former, but dangerous to embark on the latter. Students may attend political meetings or the sessions of the Congress in order to learn the science of politics, since they are useful in giving them object-lessons in the subject of their study. Students should have complete freedom to attend such meetings and conferences, and efforts should be made to remove the bans which have recently been placed on attending these. Students should, however, refrain from speaking or giving their opinion on the questions discussed at such assemblies. But they may serve as volunteers if this does not interfere with their studies. No student can afford to miss the opportunity of serving Malaviyaji if it comes his way. Students should avoid party politics. They should observe neutrality and not align themselves with this or that group, and should also cultivate respect for all leaders without any distinction. It is not for students to discuss their merits and demerits, and assess their comparative worth and importance. Students are concerned only with seeking and acquiring virtues wherever they can find them; they have to learn to worship the virtues.

It is the duty of students to respect elders, to consider what they say, and follow their advice whenever possible. He who has not learnt to respect others cannot hope for respect from them. An attitude of insolence ill becomes students. Here, I should like to point out a phenomenon which is taking place in the India of today. Older folk are disregarding the standard of conduct expected of them. They seem to be oblivious of the fact that in their behaviour and conduct they set a model for the younger generation. What are the students to do in the circumstances? I cherish the hope that they will cultivate and acquire the spirit of dharma. When confronted with a clash between their loyalty to dharma and obedience or respect to elders, students should remember Prahlad. Placed in certain circumstances which were distasteful to him, this boy respectfully disobeyed the commands of his father. In the same way, we can also respectfully refuse to obey the elders if the circumstances warrant it. But any disrespect shown to them
beyond this will be wrong. Disrespect to elders leads to the ruin of the community. The right of the elders to respect does not depend merely on age, but also on knowledge, experience and wisdom. Where the latter are absent the right depends simply on age. But nobody worships mere age.

Another question is: How can students serve the country? First, by carefully acquiring knowledge and, while doing so, keeping up their health, for both these will be needed in the service of our country. If a student does this he certainly serves his country. We can easily do much useful work without any great effort on our part if we would just try to live a good and useful life. I shall now tell you of one job which all of you can do quite easily. You must have seen my letter in the newspapers about the difficulties of the third class passengers. I suppose most of you travel third. You must have then noticed that these passengers spit in the compartment; they also expectorate betel leaves and tobacco which they go on chewing; throw the skins of oranges and bannanas and other leavings on the floor of the carriage; do not use the latrine carefully and foul it, and smoke bidis and cigarettes without any regard for the inconvenience of fellow-passengers. Students should explain to such passengers, when they travel, that doing these things is not only bad manners, but also unhygienic. You can explain the ill effect of creating this filth. Most passengers respect students and listen to what they have to say with attention. They should not then miss these opportunities of explaining the rules of hygiene to our masses. The eatables sold at stations by vendors are often dirty. It is the duty of students, when they see any such uncleanliness, to draw the attention of the traffic manager to it. And take care that you write to him in Hindi. It may be that the traffic manager will ignore your request. But when he receives many such letters, he will be forced to pay attention to it. This can be done without much effort, but it will yield important results.

I have spoken about the habits of chewing betel leaves and tobacco. In my opinion, both are harmful and unclean. Large numbers of Indian men and women have become the slaves of these evil habits. We have to get rid of this slavery. A stranger visiting India would surely feel that we go on eating some thing or the other throughout the day. That the betel leaf, possibly, helps to digest food may be conceded, but food taken in accordance with the laws of health gets digested without any help from it. Moreover, there is hardly any agreeable taste in the betel leaf. And tobacco-chewing must be given up as well. Students should always practise self-control. The problem of smoking is a difficult one to tackle. Our rulers have set a bad example in this matter. They are used to smoking irrespective of time and place. This has led us to consider it a fashion, and to turn our mouths into chimneys for ejecting the smoke. There are many books by competent writers to show that smoking of tobacco does great harm. We call this age Kaliyuga. Christians believe that Christ will reincarnate Himself when such evils as selfishness, immorality, addiction to drugs and drink etc. becomes rife in the life of human beings. I do not say how far we can concur in this belief. Yet, I do feel that the world is suffering a great deal from such evils as drink, tobacco, opium, ganja, bhang(hemp) etc. We cannot exactly assess the harm which these are doing to us, because almost all of us are caught in their widespread snares. It is my fervent prayer that you, the students, keep away from them.

The purpose in my making and your hearing these speeches is that you should learn something from them and put it into practice. How many of you following Smt. Besant’s advice, have adopted the Indian mode of dress, simplified your food and given up unclean habits? Or acting on Prof. Jadunath Sirkar’s advice, how many of your have spent your summar vacation in teaching poor students without any charge? Many such questions may be asked. I do not want a reply now. But you may reply these questions to your conscience.

Presidential Speech, 17th Session of the Bihar Students’ Conference, Bhagalpur, 1917, (CW 14, pp. 137–39)

The life of students is similar to that of Sannyasis. You must therefore live in complete purity and celibacy as befits a brahmachari. The two civilizations—the old and the modern—are at present vying with each other or for supremacy over the student community. The old civilization lays stress on self-control. It proclaims that the more a man reduces his wants consciously and with full understanding of what it means, the greater is his progress towards higher living. Whereas modern civilization holds that progress lies in increasing one’s wants. There is the same difference between control and abandonment as between dharma and adharma or the right and wrong way of living. The method advocating control accords an inferior status to the trappings of material living, and rightly gives more importance to the quality of our thoughts and emotions or spiritual and mental well-being. There is the danger, at present, of our people being carried away by the lure of the newer civilization and throwing away the older one. Students can do a lot in warding off this danger. For instance, the students of this University will be judged not by what they know but by what they do. Therefore, teaching and practice of dharma should be given prior consideration in the scheme of education at this University. Students should offer their whole-hearted co-operation in achieving this object. I, personally, feel that we shall not derive any real benefit from political reforms unless we first arrive at a clear conception of dharma, or the right way of individual and social life for us in India. For it is not these reforms which will create and establish dharma but dharma which will show up the defects of the former and help us in removing them.

Speech delivered before the students of the Hindu University

Navajivan, 29 January 1920 (True Education, pp. 208–09)

I have come in contact with thousands of students during the last ten years. They have confided their innermost secrets to me and have given me the right to enter their hearts. I know therefore all your difficulties and every one of your weaknesses. I do not know whether I can render any effective help to you. I can but be your friend and guide, attempt to share your sorrows and give you the benefit of my experience, though you must know that the only help of the helpless is God. There is no greater punishment or misery for man than that his faith in God should be blasted. And I confess to a deep sense of sorrow that faith is gradually disappearing in the student world. When I suggest to a Hindu boy to have recourse to Ramanama, he stares at me and wonders who Rama may be; when I ask a Musalman boy to read the Koran and fear God, he confesses his inability to read the Koran and Allah is a mere lip-profession. How can I convince such boys that the first step to a true education is a pure heart? If the education you get turns you away from God, I do not know how it is going to help you and how you are going to help the world.

Young India, 4 August 1927 (True Education, p. 225)

In response to the request of a Calicut professor I shall now proceed to say something about cigarette smoking and coffee and tea drinking. These are not necessities of life. There are some who manage to take ten cups of coffee a day. Is it necessary for their healthy development and for keeping them awake for the performance of their duties? If it is necessary to take coffee or tea to keep them awake, let them not drink coffee or tea but go to sleep. We must not become slaves to these things. But the majority of the people who drink coffee or tea are slaves to them. Cigars and cigarettes, whether foreign or indigenous, must be avoided. Cigarette smoking is like an opiate and the cigars that you smoke have a touch of opium about them. They get to your nerves and you cannot leave them afterwards. How can a single student foul his mouth by converting it into a chimney? If you give up these habits of smoking cigars and cigarettes and drinking coffee and tea you will find out for yourselves how much you are able to save. A drunkard in Tolstoy’s story is hesitating to execute his design of murder so long as he has not smoked his cigar. But he puffs it, and then gets up smiling and saying, ‘What a coward am I,’ takes the dagger and does the deed. Tolstoy spoke from experience. He has written nothing without having had personal experience of it. And he is much more against cigars and cigarettes than against drink. But do not make the mistake that between drink and tobacco drink is a lesser evil. No, if cigarette is Beelzebub, then drink is Satan.

Young India, 15 September 1927 (True Education, pp. 234–35)

Three students write: "We desire to serve the country. Kindly tell us through the columns of the Navajivan how we can do so without having to leave our native place or our studies." These students have given their names, age and addresses. They say, "Please do not disclose our names and addresses. Nor should you write to us direct to our addresses. The conditions in which we are living are such that we cannot even send for letters." I consider it difficult to give any advice to such students. What can I say to those who have not the freedom even to receive replies to their letters? However, I can say this much: Self-purification is the best service one can render to the country. Have these students attempted such self-purification? Are their hearts pure? Have they been able to keep away from the evils prevailing amongst students? Do they observe the vow of truth? Seeing that they are afraid even to get a reply to their letters, there appears to be something gravely wrong in this situation. The students should cast out fear. They must learn to put their views to their elders firmly and courageously. Do they use Khadi? Do they spin? If they spin and use Khadi they may be said to be taking part in the service of the country. Do they attend on an ailing neighbour in their leisure hours? Do they, if things are messy about them, or streets dirty around their home, snatch time from their work and clean them with their own hands? Many more such questions could be asked and if they can answer them satisfactorily, they may be said to be serving the country even now.

Navajivan, 8 July 1928 (True Education, pp. 238–39)

As to the use of the vacation by students, if they will approach the work with zeal, they can undoubtedly do many things. I enumerate a few of them:

This is but a sample of what is possible to do among the Harijans. It is a list hurriedly made, but a thoughtful student will, I have no doubt, add many other items.

I have so far confined my attention to the service of Harijans, but there is a service no less necessary to be rendered to caste-Hindus. The students can often in the gentlest manner possible carry the message of anti-untouchability to them in spite of themselves. There is so much ignorance which can be easily dispelled by a judicious distribution of clean authentic literature. The students can make a survey of those who are for abolishing untouchability and who are against and, whilst they are making this survey, they may take note of wells, schools, ponds and temples open to Harijans and of those closed to them.

If they will do all these things in a methodical and persistent manner, they will find the results to be startling. Every student should keep a log-book in which he should enter the details of his work, and at the end of the vacation a comprehensive but brief report of the results of their labours could be prepared and sent by them to the Servants of Untouchables Society of their province. Whether other students accept all or any of the suggestions made here, I shall expect my correspondent to give me a report of what he and his associates have done.

Harijan, 1 April 1933 (True Education, pp. 246–47)

The first thing the students had to learn was humility, without which they could not make a good use of their attainments. They might achieve academic distinction and secure high office, but if they would devote their learning to the service of man, humility was absolutely necessary. There was a vast number of bright students among them but they scarcely existed for the poor long-suffering Indian villager. The ideal all the world over was that man’s intellectual and spiritual gifts were designed for service and that he should use his hands and feet in order to obtain his livelihood. In ancient times, jurisconsults charged their clients nothing for their advice, and even now barristers could not sue a client for fees, which were called their honorarium. If the students wished to serve the country, it would not do for them to become imitation sahebs, like the jackdaw in the fable, dressed up in peacock’s feathers. They should realize that they had to serve a nation whose average income per head was 40 rupees, according to Lord Curzon. They could render this service only if they were satisfied with a coarse piece of Khadi and gave up all ambition of living in expensive European style. They should, as men of culture, also be ashamed of exacting large sums of money as dowry from their prospective father-in-law.

Speech delivered to students at Karachi

Harijan, 27 July 1934

When it is difficult for millions even to make the two ends meet, when millions are dying of starvation, it is monstrous to think of giving our relatives a costly education. Expansion of the mind will come from hard experience, not necessarily in the college or the school-room. When some of us deny ourselves and ours the so-called Higher Education, we shall find the true means of giving and receiving a really Higher Education. Is there not, may there not be, a way of each boy paying for his own education? There may be no such way. Whether there is or there is not such a way is irrelevant. But there is no doubt that when we deny ourselves the way of expensive education, seeing that aspiration after Higher Education is a laudable end, we shall find out a way of fulfilling it more in accord with our surroundings. The golden rule to apply in all such cases is resolutely to refuse to have what millions cannot. This ability to refuse will not descend upon us all of a sudden. The first thing is to cultivate the mental attitude that will not have possessions or facilities denied to millions, and the next immediate thing is to re-arrange our lives as fast as possible in accordance with that mentality.

Young India, 24 June 1926 (Towards New Education, pp. 100–01)

It is a gross superstition to suppose that knowledge can be obtained only by going to schools and colleges. The world produced brilliant students before schools and colleges came into being. There is nothing so ennobling or lasting as self-study. Schools and colleges make most of us mere receptacles for holding the superfluities of knowledge. Wheat is left out and mere husk is taken in. I do not wish to decry schools and colleges as such. They have their use. But we are making altogether too much of them. They are but one of the many means of gaining knowledge.

Young India, 25 May 1931 (Towards New Education, pp. 101–02)

A student asks:

What should a matriculate or an under-graduate who is unfortunately father of two or three children do in order to produce a living wage, and what should he do when he is forced to marry against his will and before even the age of twenty-five?

The simplest answer that occurs to me is that a student who does not know how to support his wife or children or who marries against his will has studied to no purpose. But that is past history for him. The perplexed student deserves a helpful answer. He does not say what his requirement is. If he does not pitch it high because he is a matriculate and will put himself in level with an ordinary labourer, he should have no difficulty in earning a livelihood. His intelligence should help his hands and feet and enable him to do better than the labourer who has had no opportunity of developing his intelligence. This is not to say that the labourer who has never learnt English is devoid of intelligence. Unfortunately labour has never been helped to develop the mind, and those who pass through schools do have their minds opened even though under a handicap not to be found in any part of the world. Even this mental equipment is counterbalanced by false notions of dignity inculcated during school and college days. And so students think that they can earn their living only at the desk. The inquirer has therefore to realize the dignity of labour and seek the maintenance of himself and his family in that field.

And there is no reason why his wife should not add to the family income by utilizing her spare hours. Similarly if the children are at all able to do any work, they too should be inspanned for productive work. The utterly false idea that intelligence can be developed only through book reading should give place to the truth that the quickest development of the mind can be achieved by the artisan’s work being learnt in a scientific manner. True development of the mind commences immediately the apprentice is taught at every step why a particular manipulation of the hand or a tool is required. The problem of the unemployment of students can be solved without difficulty, if they will rank themselves among the common labourers.

Harijan, 9 January 1937

I have never been an advocate of our students going abroad. My experience tells me that such, on return, find themselves to be square pegs in round holes. That experience is the richest and contributes most to growth which springs from the soil.

Harijan, 8 September 1946

If there is one compact students’ organization, it can become a mighty instrument of service. Their objective can only be one: Never for the purpose of finding a lucrative career but fitting themselves for the service of the motherland. If they were to do so, their knowledge would attain a great height. Agitation is only for those who have completed their studies. While studying, the only occupation of students must be to increase their knowledge. The education, as it is prescribed today, is detrimental, conceived in terms of masses of India. It is possible to show that the present education has been of some use to the country. I regard it as negligible. Let no one be deceived by it. The acid test of its usefulness is this: Does it make, as it should, an effective contribution to the production of food and clothing? What part does the student world play in allaying the present senseless slaughter? All education in a country has got to be demonstrably in promotion of the progress of the country in which it is given. Who will deny that education in India has not served that purpose? Hence, one purpose of the organization should be to discover the defects of the present education and seek to remove them, so far as possible in their own persons. By their correct conduct they will be able to convert to their view the heads of education. If they do so, they will never be entangled in party politics. In the revised scheme, constructive and creative programme will naturally have its due place. Indirectly, their action will keep the politics of the country free of the spirit of exploitation.

Harijan, 7 September 1947

Gandhiji referred to a letter by some students saying that the proposed students’ strike on the 9th was being organized by the Communist students, not Congress students. Gandhiji said that while he congratulated the Congress students who had dissociated themselves from the proposed strike, he would reiterate what he had already said about such strikes, viz. that for students there should be no party politics. There should be no Socialist, Communist, Congress and other groups among students. They should be all students first and last determined to gather as much knowledge as possible and that for the sake of the service of the people, not for the sake of getting jobs.

Harijan, 18 January 1948

My ideas about education are very exacting. If we want to pour our souls into the pupils, we should constantly exercise our mind on how to teach them. We should not get angry with them. Passing on to them in the best possible language from day to day whatever we wish to give them, will take up much of our time. Moreover, we must for the present think of teaching methods as well. Everything will have to be taught in a new way.

The teachers will have to come together at least once a week to exchange ideas and make such changes as may be called for. The intelligent students should be consulted and their suggestions invited about methods of teaching.

The students’ health is the collective responsibility of the teachers; the main responsibility, however, will rest on the teacher in charge of hygiene.

The teachers should read up the subjects in the curriculum which they do not know. Especially Hindi. I can see from my work here how very essential Hindi is. I find that I shall have to ask for volunteers from other places. Difficulties will arise about those of them who do not know Hindi. I see it proved every day that education is altogether incomplete without Hindi.

Letter to Narahari Parikh, 17 May 1917 (CW 13, p. 399)

So long as education in the country is not imparted by persons of integrity and conditions are not created in which the highest knowledge will be available to the poorest of Indians, so long as a perfect confluence of education and dharma has not taken place and education has not been brought into relation with conditions in India, so long as the intolerable burden imposed on the minds of the young by imparting education through a foreign medium has not been lifted, so long will there be no upsurge of national life; there is no denying this.

Purely national education should be imparted in the regional language. The teachers must be of a high calibre. The school should be situated in surroundings where the student has fresh air and water, where he enjoys peace, where the building and the adjoining land are object lessons in healthful living; and the educational pattern must be one which will instruct (the pupil) in the main professions and religions of India.

As the second condition for the success of national education we need teachers of good character. I congratulate the head master and other teachers of this high school who have made a sacrifice for the sake of their dharma and their country, and I ask of them that in their work henceforth they show the same spirit which has prompted their self-sacrifice. Once you are absorbed in your work, money will come in of itself. Your executive committee will be able to raise funds with ease. Even if they have nothing else than clean ground to sit on, the boys of national schools will be able to hold their own against other boys and, if their teachers are men of character, will acquire a greater spirit of manliness than the pupils of the more pretentious Government schools.

Navajivan, 10 November 1920 (CW 18, p. 419)

You are embarking upon a new career. You are turning over a new leaf. You are shouldering a great responsibility. You are counting yourselves among the makers of India of the future. And if you realize this responsibility, I have no doubt, you will dispel all these fears which have been expressed in other parts of India. Those who know Bengal well are in the position also to testify that Bengalis on many an occasion have not been found wanting; and for my part I shall certainly decline to believe that those students who have responded and who will join this institution will be found wanting. I shall hope also that the professors and the teachers will prove true to their trust. What I said in all humility to the professors and teachers at the time of performing the opening ceremony of the Gujarat National College, I am tempted to repeat here; that the success and failure of this institution will very largely depend upon the honest exertion that the professors and teachers may put forth. At this critical moment in the history of our dear country every one of us, who intends to mould the young mind of the country, has a serious responsibility, and if the professors and the teachers are found asleep, if they are overtaken with doubt, if they are overtaken with fear as to the future, God help the students who come under their charge. And I shall pray to the Almighty that he may bless the professors and teachers with wisdom, with courage, with faith and hope.

This conference was held and is now over. It should be regarded as an important conference from the point of view of teachers and the general public too. But these are not days when either of them would attach importance to it. The value of teachers is recognized neither by the public nor by the teachers themselves. They are valued according to their salary. A teacher is paid less than an ordinary clerk. Hence, in practice, a teacher is valued less than a clerk. Is it for this reason that we refer to a teacher as Mehtaji?

If it is so, how can we expect that the teachers’ worth will ever rise? Can anyone raise the salaries of seven lakh teachers in seven lakh villages? If the salaries of so many teachers do not rise and if it is considered necessary to raise them, we should rest content with employing high-paid teachers in a few villages and allowing the rest to go without education. We have been doing this since the establishment of British rule. We realize that this practice is wrong. Hence let us find out a scheme which can cover all villages. Under this scheme, teachers will not be valued according to their salaries and work. Teachers themselves will place more value on their teaching work than on their salaries. In short, teaching should be regarded as the teachers’ dharma. The teacher who takes his food without performing the sacrifice should be looked upon as a thief. If that is done, there will be no shortage of teachers and yet they will be valued a million times higher than millionaires. By changing his outlook, every teacher can enjoy that position even today.

It is up to the teachers to make a success or failure of this conference. The key to success lies in the teachers’ pledge.

If the teachers would forget the question of their livelihood and think only of their duty, the schools will come to have new vitality and become truly national, and then alone will they be of use to the national movement. It is the first lesson for the young and the old, for men and women, that they should remain loyal to a pledge once they have accepted it.

Experience shows that students’ interest in a subject is sustained not by the subject-matter but by the teacher. My own experience has been that one teacher used to bore me to sleep while teaching chemistry, whereas another teacher kept me wide awake and interested in the same subject. The former, who talked and talked without clarifying the topic, was not liked while, as the other teacher elucidated the theme, one wished that his period should never end. The topic was the same as well as the students. Instruction by one, however, was absorbing and by the other insipid. The spinning-wheel holds a jar or nectar. In the Dakshinamurti Bhavan, it appears, there are teachers who can reveal this.

Navajivan, 17 August 1924 (CW 25, p. 5) (Translated from Gujarati)

As this teacher has answered his own questions, my task is simplified. What I had said could not possibly mean that ten teachers or a single teacher should rest after teaching only one child. My contention is that not merely ten but even twenty teachers should not forsake a solitary student or leave a school but should try to increase their number. When plenty of students are available, the teacher should draw an allowance sufficient for his living, but his true test lies in his ability to accept nothing and starve to death if the need arises, and let his dependents also starve to death. Such a teacher sacrifices his relations, his parents, his children, his all for his work. What do those who practise other professions do when they incur heavy losses? If a person does not find a job despite all possible efforts, he lets his dependents starve along with himself; this should be the case with the teachers in national schools. This would make our dependents work for their livelihood. When teachers are idle for want of students, they should, of course, take up some other activity, but even while doing so, they must try to revive the school.

I ask their teachers to cultivate their hearts and establish with the students a heart-contact. I have felt that the teachers’ work lies more outside than inside the lecture-room. In this work-a-day life where teachers and professors work for the wages they get they have no time to give to the students outside the class-room, and that is the greatest stumbling-block in the development of the life and character of students today. But unless the teachers are prepared to give all their time outside the class-room to their students, not much can be done. Let them fashion their hearts rather than their brains. Let them help them to erase every word out of their dictionary which means disappointment and despair.

Young India, 4 April 1929 (CW 40, p. 120)

The students’ minds must not be caged nor for that matter those of the teachers. The teachers can only point to their pupils what they or the State considers is the best way. Having done so they have no right to curb their pupils’ thoughts and feelings. This does not mean that they are not to be subject to any discipline. No school can be run without it. But discipline has nothing to do with artificial restraint upon the students’ all-round growth. This is impossible where they are subjected to espionage. The fact is that hitherto they have been in an atmosphere subtly anti-national where it has not been openly that. This should now be dispelled. The students should know that the cultivation of nationalism is not a crime but a virtue.

Harijan, 18 September 1937 (CW 66, p. 141)

What we need is educationists with originality, fired with true zeal, who will think out from day to day what they are going to teach their pupils. The teacher cannot get this knowledge through musty volumes. He has to use his own faculties of observation and thinking and impart his knowledge to the children through his lips, with the help of a craft. This means a revolution in the method of teaching, a revolution in the teachers’ outlook. Up till now you have been guided by inspector’s reports. You wanted to do what the inspector might like, so that you might get more money yet for your institutions or higher salaries for yourselves. But the new teacher will not care for all that. He will say, ‘I have done my duty to my pupil if I have made him a better man and in doing so I have used all my resources. That is enough for me.

Harijan, 18 February 1939 (CW 68, pp. 374–75)

You can teach best by identifying yourself with your students. In order to do so, the teacher must prepare himself fully in the subject he has to teach.

Navajivan, 11 April 1926 (CW 30, p. 322)

The suggestion which the writer has made to teachers is certainly sound. But where there are forty to fifty children in a class and the relationship of the teacher with the pupils is confined to class-work lessons, how will it be possible for the teacher, even if he so wishes, to establish any spiritual relationship with so many children? Again, when six or seven teachers teach six or seven different subjects, which of them can assume the responsibility to give them moral instruction?

Lastly, how many teachers can we come across who will guide the children along the path of morality or win their confidence? This indeed raises the whole question of education, but it cannot be discussed here.

Navajivan, 26 September 1926 (CW 31, p. 454)

To teachers, Gandhiji said that they must not make any use of books for imparting education, as books spoiled eyes and blunted the intellect. He himself had experienced that. He understood that in Russia they were conducting one thousand schools for peasants and that they were giving education without the aid of books by making all possible use of the senses. He asked them to clean their own houses and streets themselves and not to depend on others for doing the same.

Concluding, Mahatmaji asked them to make their schools ideal in every way, so that the boys and girls of the mill-owners might envy them and the mill-owners might be tempted to send their children to the labour schools. On truth depended the foundation of education, and they must always resort to truth.

The Hindu, 31 March 1928 (CW 36, p. 166)

I have made no use in this article of the word ‘teacher’. A teacher is a mother. She who cannot take the place of a mother can never become a teacher. A child should not feel that it is receiving education. The child whose mother’s eyes follow it everywhere is receiving education all the twenty-four hours. A child who sits six hours in a school may not be receiving any education at all. In this topsyturvy life, perhaps we may not find women-teachers. It may well be that child education is practicable at present only through men-teachers. Then the men-teachers will have to acquire the noble status of a mother and ultimately the mothers will have to get ready for this job. But if my concept is right, any mother if she has love in her heart can become fit with a little assistance. And while preparing herself she will prepare the children as well.

Navajivan, 2 June 1929 (CW 41, p. 9) (Translated from Gujarati)

If a student develops contempt for national education whom would you hold responsible?

Generally, the teachers and the students both are responsible, but more often the teachers.

Should a teacher marry a girl who is his student? Likewise, should a boy marry a girl studying in his class?

I at any rate would consider both very improper. A girl who is my student should be as safe (with me) as my daughter, and a girl in my class as safe as a sister. That pure brother-and-sister relationship is the only proper relationship between boys and girls studying together. This is all I should like to say in reply to this question, but it is an important enough question for a fuller discussion. I have no doubt in my mind about the correctness of my reply to the first question. With regard to the second, however, I see some difficulties in these modern times when thousands of boys and girls attend the same school. In any case, in every institution that I have managed I have insisted on the foregoing rule being followed and the results have always been happy.

Navajivan, 20 October 1921 (CW 21, pp. 328–29)

However, the teachers have asked for advice and I can but place it before them so that each may then respond to the best of his ability. The unfortunate position is that educated Indians take to teaching not for the love of it, but because they have nothing better and nothing else for giving them a livelihood. Many of them even enter the teaching profession with a view to preparing for what they regard as a better thing. The wonder is that in spite of this self-imposed initial handicap so many teachers are not worse than they are. By well-ordered agitation, no doubt they may better their pecuniary prospects, but I see no chance even under a swaraj government of the scale of salary being raised much higher than it is today. I believe in the ancient idea of teachers teaching for the love of it and receiving the barest maintenance. The Roman Catholics have retained that idea and they are responsible for some of the best educational institutions in the world. The rishis of old did even better. They made their pupils members of their families, but in those days that class of teaching which they imparted was not intended for the masses. They simply brought up a race of real teachers of mankind in India. The masses got their training in their homes and in their hereditary occupations. It was a good enough ideal for those times. Circumstances have now changed. There is a general insistent demand for literary training. The masses claim the same attention as the classes. How far it is possible and beneficial to mankind generally cannot be discussed here.

Young India, 6 August 1925 (CW 28, pp. 34–35)

Students must not be given corporal punishment. But there should be such a rapport between the teacher and the taught that if the teacher punishes himself in some way the children, because of their affection for him, should feel sorry, their hearts should melt and they should change for the better. I am not talking in the air. This has been my personal experience. Mothers also can reform their children in the same way. In South Africa I had looked after Hindu, Muslim and Parsi boys and girls. During those days I remember having only once beaten a pupil. But it was my experience that my non-violent method was more successful. If the children have affection for their teacher they are bound to feel sorry when they find the teachers suffering on their account. That would soften them. But if in spite of that there is a difficult pupil, we should non-co-operate with him. But that is another method. The former is the better method.

Letter to a Teacher, 15 April 1947

Biharni Komi Agman, pp. 202–03 (CW 87, pp. 283–84) (Translated from Gujarati)

I am a teacher in a school. I have not as much character, love of truth and brahmacharya as a teacher should have, though I am striving to achieve them. Under the circumstances, would you advise me to resign?

I believe that in the absence of sufficient strength of character it is well to resign your post as teacher. But, discrimination is necessary. Resignation is not necessary if the defects are likely to be overcome. No one is perfect. Character in teachers is not much in evidence today. One may well feel satisfied if one remains watchful in one’s work and continuously strives to improve oneself. But there can be no single rule which would cover all such cases. Everyone must think for himself and do what is best.

Navajivan, 27 September 1925

We have to fall back upon the voluntary assistance of teachers, but when I look for teachers, they are very few, especially, teachers of the type wanted, in order to draw the best from the children through understanding, through studying their individuality and then putting the child on its own resources, as it were, on its own honour. And believe me from my experience of hundreds, I was going to say thousands, of children—I know that they have perhaps a finer sense of honour than you and I have. The greatest lessons in life—if we would but stoop and humble ourselves, we would learn not from grown-up learned men, but from the so-called ignorant children. Jesus never uttered a loftier or a grander truth than when he said that wisdom cometh out of the mouths of babes. I believe it, I have noticed it in my own experience that, if we would approach babes in humility and in innocence, we would learn wisdom from them.

Speech at Montessori Training College, London, 28 October 1931

(CW 48, pp. 239–40)

If the teachers have secret relations with their girl students and later when such relations can no longer be kept concealed legalize them with marriage, this cannot be said to have sanctified those relations. It is my firm belief that just as a brother and a sister cannot have a husband–wife relation even so a teacher and his girl-student too cannot have a husband–wife relation. This is a golden rule and its non-observance can only result in the destruction of the institution. This rule serves as guarantee for the protection of the girls from their teachers. The teacher’s is a high office and it enables him to exercise great influence upon the boys and girls in his charge. They regard what he says as gospel truth. They are not likely to suspect him of any illicit designs and he must, therefore, observe these essential rules. Where the welfare of the soul as distinct from the body is of greater importance such relations (as marriage between the teacher and his girl-student) are inadmissible and must be so regarded.

Harijanbandhu, 29 November 1936 (CW 64, p. 91)

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 is, 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.

Talk to Khadi Vidyalaya Students, Sevagram