Rabindranath Tagore and Adult Education in Rural Reconstruction Module Details
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Rabindranath Tagore and Adult Education in Rural Reconstruction Module Details 1. Subject Name Adult Education 2. Paper Name Adult Education in India: National and International perspectives 3. Module number 1.8 4. Module Name Rabindranath Tagore and Adult Education in Rural Reconstruction Prof. VandanaChakrabarti, Director, Lifelong Learning and Extension, 5. Principal Investigator SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai Prof. VandanaChakrabarti, Director, Lifelong Learning and Extension, 6. Paper Coordinator SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai 7. Content writer NanditaMondol, Affiliated to TISS, Mumbai Prof. Asoke Bhattacharya, Principal, CJMC College, Moradabad, Uttar 8. Content Reviewer Pradesh 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 1 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 2 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 3 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.