MAHATMA GANDHI:

From ignorance, lead me to truth. From darkness, lead me to light. From death lead me to immortality. Oh! Peace, Peace, Peace.

In 1948, January 30th late evening Prime Minister Jawaherlal Nehru delivered a speech over AIR, spontaneously: “Friends and Comrades! ...that the light has gone out of ourselves...I do not know what to tell you or how to say it.” Then through out Nehru compares Gandhi to an eternal beacon, predicting that a thousand years later that light will be seen… the World will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts. In 1986 the Pope Saint John Paul II referred to Nehru’s eulogy. “The light that shone in this country was no ordinary light. The light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country many more years.” Through these words the Pope had expressed the conviction of the whole World. It is only for a brief moment the light seemed to have gone out. Yet, his teachings and the example of his life live on in the minds and hearts of millions of men and women. It is the great truth that the light of Mahatma Ji is still shinning and the heritage of him speaks to us still. He is the Most beloved son of Bharath and the private property of this great nation and the great soul of India. He was a private man without wealth, without property, without official title or office. He could boast no scientific achievements or artistic gift. The little brown man wore the traditional Indian Dhoti and Shawl, woven with yarn hand spun on a Charkha. He is the one who is in the loin-cloth who led this country to freedom. He ate simple vegetarian food. From that day till today Mahatma Ji had become the spokes man for the conscience of mankind, a man who made humility and simple truth more powerful than Empires. He is “Bapu’ which means ‘father’. and ‘Jathi Pitha’ means ‘father of the Nation’. This great man was born on 2nd October 1869, in Porbandar, the coastal Gujarat. In 1921, he was assumed leadership of the Indian National Congress. In 1930, he led the famous 400 kms Dandi Salt March, challenging the salt tax imposed by the British. In 1942, he led Quit India. Once he said, “Truth alone will endure all the rest will be swept away before the tide and time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of truth.” He was a versatile man as the politician, philosopher, socialist, speaker, writer and the educationist, imprinted his views on different subjects are well accepted. Gandhi Ji is counted amongst the greatest educationists of the World. He was well aware of the importance of education in building modern India. He stressed on traditional spiritual attitude with the total development from education. The thought of Gandhi Ji on education is the basic way of life for all. He stressed on total development of a student and to bring all round the best in the students, that is, intellect, body, mind and spirit. Literacy is only a means of education. Students should learn the lessons of love, truth, justice, cooperative endeavour, equality, and brotherhood of person and social service. For him the aim of education is moral, spiritual and character development to attain a new humanism based on non-acquisitiveness, non-violence and truth to develop democratic qualities by keeping them in democratic environment. In the absence of education the total condition of messes was pitiable. He supported the child-centered education. He respected the personality of the child. He believed education is for the child and not child for education. For him education should be enable the students to become self dependent in their lives. Gandhi Ji said, “That education should enable the child to meet the future needs of his life. Education should be an insurance against unemployment less theoretical and more technical… give them the education of various trades so that they can become capable of fulfilling their basic necessities of life.” He suggested languages like Hindi, Sanskrit and Mother Tongue, arts, history, geography, political science, economics, mathematics, science, philosophy, agriculture, technology, commerce, sports, astronomy, music, painting, drawing and physical education etc to be included in the curriculum. He gave place to activity oriented curriculum in the basic education such as agriculture, wood work, metal work, leather work, spinning and weaving etc. Handicraft should be given central place in the curriculum. To him, ideal teacher must learn the art of effective teaching, they should have the qualities of characters, truthfulness, nobility, humility, tolerance hard working etc. Students need an aspiration, aptitudes, abilities should be carefully diagnosed activity oriented education. He was really a man of vision.

 Literacy according to him is neither the end of education nor even the beginning. It is one of the means where man and woman can be educated so literacy in itself is not education by this very definition. The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly 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. (M. K. Gandhi True Education on the NCTE site)

On 30th January, 1948, 5;14 pm a hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse who assassinated this saintly humble man by firing 3 bullets into his chest at point-blank range. The whole had lamented his passing including Pope Pius XII. Still Mahatma Gandhi is living in the hearts of every citizen of India and imprinted in our heart of heart as like all the Indian currencies. On the occasion of his septuagenarian Albert Einstein sid, “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”. Jai Hind!