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SHIKSHANTAR: The Peoples’ institute for RETHINKING EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT |
AN ILLITERATE’S
DECLARATION
TO THE LITERACY
PREACHER
by
First Published in 1996
(Adapted and Translated from
Mewari Dialect
by Shri Dayal Chandra Soni and
Vidhi Jain)
CHAPTER
1: THE DAY DAWNS EVEN IN THOSE PLACES WHERE THE ROOSTER DOES NOT CROW
1. Listen to me O’
Preacher, Campaigner of Literacy and School Education! Listen to me O’
Liberator, Benefactor of the down-trodden, poor illiterates and the uneducated.
2. Since you have
come to my village and my home as a guest, I welcome you and I very much
appreciate your visiting me.
3. I am grateful to
you for the slogans you have shouted, the songs you have sung and the drums you
have sounded to awaken me.
4. I am also grateful
to you for your having undertaken this journey on-foot, for you foregoing the
comforts of the city to see me.
5. I am again
grateful to you for being so worried about me. I have given my full attention to
all of your preachings.
6. If I understand
your basic mission, you believe that we are ‘illiterate’ and ‘uneducated’ -- a
‘black spot’ on the nation. And because of this, you are deeply ashamed of us.
10. Up until today, you
alone have spoken and I have been a silent and respectful listener of your
sermons. But today, it is your turn to pay attention and listen to what I have
to say.
11. Please take note:
I too write the alphabet but not on a slate or on a piece of paper as you do. I
write my alphabet on the surface of the fertile soil of my fields -- my spade
is my pen. The fruits of my alphabet quell your hunger. You gobble them up
happily and without complaint.
12. On the other
hand, you hold a pen in place of a spade and dig your alphabet on paper. What
is produced by this paper farming of yours is a mystery to me. Do you even know
what grows there?
13. You always
maintain a clear and deliberate distance from the milk-yielding cows,
she-buffaloes and she-goats, but at the same time you find it difficult to
resist consuming dairy products such as milk, butter and curd.
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14. There is a marked
difference between our life styles. While I am engaged in productive activities
all day and night, you are engaged only in consuming what I produce. Yet I lead
a more peaceful and content life, while you constantly complain and create
trouble in society with your insatiable discontent.
17. My activities and
my interactions provide me with rich learning opportunities on a daily basis.
On the other hand, you are unable to tread the path of education without
direction and coercion from your classroom teachers.
18. Whereas your
education is restricted only to your books, my whole existence is a rich garden
of learning.
19. Your school is by
no means a source of real learning. Your school is nothing but a trader in the
commodity of education. The real source, or the mine for learning, is the WORK
in which one is engaged and whose company I constantly live in.
20. Since you are not
aware of my educational achievements, let me tell you that I am a specialist in
agriculture, I am an expert in dairy work and I am a scholar in my local
dialect.
21. My learning is
apparent and authentic in itself. I do not worry about being awarded any
certificates to prove this.
24. Mother learning
is not a captive in the prison of the schools. Nor is the basic knowledge of
life contained in and restricted to the jumble of the alphabet and numerical
figures.
25. Like the
all-pervasive God, learning is present in every atom of this universe. Learning
is an unstoppable or ceaseless activity of devotion.
26. Learning, in its infinite forms, is a universal phenomenon. The stereotyped, monotonous and uniform pattern of education in your school is not suitable for supporting the multiple faces of learning.
27. Dawn and daybreak
take place even where there is no cock to crow and announce the morning. In the
same manner, learning too takes place and goes on freely even where you do not
start and run a school.
34. Yet I would not
be so arrogant as to deny my need to further my education. But how can I agree
to your claim of deserving to be my teacher? In my mind, you are not properly
equipped to take on this role.
CHAPTER
2: IF THE SCHOOLED PEOPLE WERE REALLY EDUCATED, WE WOULD NOT NEED SUCH A LARGE
POLICE FORCE
38. Dear Literacy
Missionary, My Brother! I am sorry to say that you do not know the real
definition of education. That is precisely the reason why you consider yourself
to be educated.
39. Real education is
not about changing one’s attire or their spoken language. True education is
that which clarifies and elevates one’s moral conduct and one’s character.
40. The educated
person would not consume without himself taking part in producing. The educated
person would not only selfishly seek to acquire things; he would also give or
contribute something. The educated person would reduce his needs and
necessities to their bare minimum.
41. The educated
person would first serve to others before feeding himself. And he would not
desert his tired and exhausted companions. He would seek to care for them.
42. The educated
person would not pose to be a valiant hero in the presence of a weak person,
nor would he be submissive to a person stronger than himself.
43. Learning consists
of doing one’s duty with devotion. Learning is to strive to attain Truth,
Auspiousness and Beauty (Satyam, Shivam,
Sundaram) in life.
44. Learning is not
limited to the acquisition of knowledge or skills, nor does it lie in a
collection of certificates or the passage of exams.
46. Real learning
cannot be evaluated within the short period of three hours which are allotted
for answering the questions asked in an examination. The real test of learning
extends up to the time when a person breathes his last breath.
47. An educated
person does not require a watchman to stop him from doing anything immoral. He
is his own watchman to guard himself from wrong-doing. He sticks to truth as
his protector of morality and does not waver from it.
48. A person who is
trustworthy and illiterate is far more educated than one who is not trustworthy
but literate.
CHAPTER 3: THE
SCHOOL DESTROYS OUR INNATE COOPERATIVE SPIRIT
56. The course of
school education is opposed to the innate nature of children. They come with a
longing for play and outdoor activity. That is why children are not enthusiastic
about the school.
58. But having
realized that the children are not naturally interested in the school course,
the school management mercilessly uses the whip of competition and rivalry to
motivate friends in the same class. Thus, in the absence of genuine interest,
the school creates an artificial interest around the curriculum, interest which
is based more on anxiety or fear than on the passion to learn.
59. That is why
whether or not he learns anything in school, a schooled student is destined to
get caught up in a vicious cycle of rivalry and competition.
60. In this manner,
each student is made a secret enemy of his other classmates. Thus, mutual love,
trust and the spirit of cooperation are killed and buried in the grave of
competition.
61. A sense of
equality and the virtue of contentment get burned in the oven of the school.
68. The schooled
person of course knows how to get served by others but does not know how to
serve others. He is endowed only with a cynical logic and rationality, with
which he tries to degrade and minimize the contribution of others.
69. The school
motivates its graduates to run over others, to abandon all sensitivity and
compassion for others.
70. Let me eat while
the others cook, let me speak while the others listen. Let me measure, weigh
and judge others but let not anyone else measure, weigh and judge me. Such is
the attitude of the schooled person.
71. Only I matter and
I am important. Others are neither important nor do they matter. Let the crops
of the others be destroyed without irrigation but let my garden be green and
flourish. This is how the schooled person behaves.
72. The real problem
of today’s society is not that the working class is illiterate. In fact the
real problem is that the schooled people of our society are averse to
work, particularly to any sort of
physical labor.
74. O my Literacy
Teacher, had you been successful in removing the anti-manual labor mentality of
the schooled folk, you could also have succeeded in removing the illiteracy of
the laboring class.
75. The school not
only inculcates a hatred for physical labor among its participants, it also
inculcates in them an attitude of not working seriously, even in their academic
or official commitments.
76. The schooled
person feels that all of the serious work that he should do in his life, he has
already completed by preparing for and passing his school or college
examinations. Therefore, he has no incentive or will to use his mind outside of
what is prescribed by the education authorities.
CHAPTER
4: LEARNING IS A CHARACTERISTIC NOT ONLY IN HUMANS BUT IT ALSO PERVADES NATURE.
82. It is wrong to
think that learning is a feature only of human life. Nature itself is full of
learning processes. Your fear that learning is absent or non-functional without
schools is totally misplaced.
83. For the billions
of years, Nature itself is undergoing a learning process. It is also engaged in
continually educating its living and non-living creations.
84. Had Nature not been
educated, it would not stick to any law of self-discipline. There would not be
a day in the day-time and a night in the night-time.
85. From the very
beginning of this world, each stone has sought to shape itself under the flow
of the river water to perfect rotundity, so that it is valued and worshiped as
the idol of Lord Shiva. The sculptors equipped with the hammer and other tools
of carving an idol came to the world stage much later.[1]
86. Tell me: where
did the moonlight learn to raise the tides in the ocean? Who shows the meeting
point with the sea to the flowing rivers?
87. Tell me: where do
the twigs of a plant learn to express their joy through flowers? Who teaches
the wasp to sing a hymn when it greets the flowers?
89. Tell me: where
did the peacock learn to dance and the cuckoo learn its sweet musical song?
90. And tell me: who
teaches a mother to lovingly nourish and raise her infant, which was once a
burden in her womb and painful delivery! What sort of education converts the
blood of the mother's body into the milk of her breasts!
91. You are wrong in
thinking that the gardens are educated and the forests are devoid of learning.
You do not know how well educated the forests are.
93. But prompted by
misunderstanding, so moved by pity, you have undertaken the monumental task of
‘gardenizing’ all the forests.
CHAPTER
5: YOUR SCHOOLS ARE CONCEALED ENEMIES OF MY LOCAL LANGUAGE AND MY FOLK CULTURE;
THERE IS NO COMMON GROUND FOR OUR COMING TOGETHER
98. O’ preacher of
school education and literacy! Let me ask which schools taught Prince
Siddhartha to abandon his legitimate right to the throne. And also let me know
which university conferred on him the title of ‘Buddha’!
99. Also tell me
about the university in which Vedvyaas, the author of the Mahabharata, got his
education? Please tell me where the saint-poets of India -- Tulsidas, Soordas,
Meera Bai and Kabirdas -- were educated.
100. What would have
happened if these great poets had been educated in the modern, English medium
convent schools? What if they had accepted the English language to be
preferable over their own?
102. The result? They
would not have produced such great literature because they would not be able to
attain the required mastery and self-confidence in English. And they would have
considered it below their educational dignity to produce literature in their
own language.
106. Spontaneous
self-confidence can never be attained in an alien language.
117. The basic
purpose of education is to allow the unique personality of each student to open
up, to help the flower of his special genius bloom. But the school of today
does not in any way fulfil this primary purpose of education.
120. The pillars of
education lie in the local folk culture and the local language. But alas O’ Preacher
of Education, Missionary of Literacy, you have ignored and negated this basic
principle of education.
122. In the older
times there were crusades for religious conversions. Today's schools are also
engaged in a vicious crusade against the people's own local culture and their
own traditional and spontaneous forms of communication.
123. But, the local
folk culture and the locally spoken language constitute the vital blood on
whose power these illiterate and unschooled people thrive. This blood empowers
them with hope and dignity to struggle against harsh physical conditions and
deprived atmospheres.
124. The content of
your school education sucks away the vital blood power of these deprived
people. It also kills their self-confidence.
125. In my local
dialect lie the sacred herbs that protect and nourish my life. But you, O’
Literacy Missionary, try to rob me of those very herbs that sustain me as a
price to be paid for the few alphabetical symbols you teach me.
126. But the fact is
that even if I abandon my local dialect and adopt the Indian national language
(Hindi) as my medium of literacy and education, I know I shall still not be
able to keep your company. You have deserted not only the local dialects but
also the national language (Hindi) in your insecure pursuit of English.
129. I know that
ultimately you will desert me and join the English speaking team. You shall
never keep company with me.
130. So, where is the
common ground to come together? We belong to different classes and this class
difference is not going to end. So, please enjoy the cool shades to which you
can escape and leave me to suffer my own fate, to bear the heat of the shining
sun.
CHAPTER 6 –
MACAULAY NEVER INTRODUCED SCHOOLS WITH THE INTENTION OF UNIVERSALIZING THEM
131. The underlying
principles of your Western education are based Darwin’s theory that one has to
struggle for his existence. He has to fight against everyone else and put them
down for his own victory and survival.
132. This crude cult
of jealousy and enmity among all fellow beings lies in the roots of these
present-day schools. Today, this cult of jealousy, cut-throat competition and
rivalry is more acute in the functioning of our schools than it was in the
older days.
133. Schools are
concerned only with the winners in their competition. They are not at all
worried about those who have been defeated then discarded.
140. Why does the
school not accept responsibility for the student who has failed in the
examination, or who has not been selected for a job interview?
142. In fact, today's
school is just a place for organizing a lottery. It engages in a form of
gambling in which the poor common people are destined to lose.
144. Therefore, the
choir song praising the school is a deception, a form of false propaganda. And
the illiterate person who keeps himself away from schools is perfectly
justified to do so.
145. In fact, today’s
schools are more vicious and polluted than when Macaulay introduced this school
system as an essential and vital strategy for British rule.
146. In fact, even
the British imperialist Macaulay did not envisage that the school system he
introduced in India would be suitable for universalizing education in India.
But you, proving yourself to be worse than that British imperialist, are
promoting that very education in the democratic sovereign nation of India
today.
152. But thank god
that the rural people of India possess the clear and discriminating judgement
necessary to have correctly judged the value and the utility of the present day
school.
CHAPTER
7 – THE CULTURE OF BOSSISM IS SITUATED IN AND PROPOGATED BY SCHOOLS
153. The schools
create an atmosphere in which the students learn to dream about their future
lives as full of control over others, Thus, the school gives the impression
that bossism and power to rule others is the ultimate aim of human life.
164. The true aim of
education is to turn the human being towards God or Truth. But today education
aims to turn the educated toward authoritarianism.
165. Thus, the
schools of today have changed the concept of human life. They have wiped out
the real aims and values of life and established false and meaningless ones.
167. And that is why
the mind of the human being is polluted. In addition, in the name of
development, the physical environment has also been polluted.
168. The basic aim of
life is to grow from darkness to light, from untruth to truth and from
mortality to immortality. But due to the influence of the present schools,
these basic aims and values of human life are vanishing.
170. That is why
schooled people have no limits in their consumerism and are constantly vying
for supremacy. Nature is being destroyed. This has lead to a lot of discontent
and suffering in modern society.
173. Therefore, the
first role of education today should be saving humanity from the wrong paths of
life, paths that the school has encouraged. Secondly, education should aim at
turning the human ambition towards the inner spiritual world.
175. O’ Literacy
Preacher, tell your school authorities that human beings do not have to compete
against each other; rather each human being should struggle against himself and
improve his own weaknesses.
178. Therefore, My
Brother, you should stop interfering in my life. First take care of fully
understanding and improving your own self.
CHAPTER
8 - RESPECT THE PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES WHETHER SCHOOL
EDUCATION IS BENEFICIAL TO THEM OR NOT
179. Learning is
implicit in the flow of life. It cannot be fully captured in the prison of
schools.
180. Agriculture
depends entirely on the rainwater provided by nature and only a little on the
irrigation structures provided by the government.
182. Similarly, no school
can provide the amount of learning that a human being engages in the process of
his own life outside of school.
183. Schools are very recent structures; they came into existence only the day before yesterday. Man, on the other hand, has been learning ever since he began his existence on earth.
185. So, if one opens
a school, you should open it in the spirit of opening a "drive-through
water shed" providing free drinking water to thirsty travelers in the
summer heat. Here you provide free drinking water only to those travelers who
voluntarily choose, out of their own need, to approach you for drinking water.
But while serving water, you should abstain from preaching about the utility of
water and your great service to humanity.
186. If your water-serving
station will provide good and clean drinking water to the travelers, they will
use your services voluntarily. But, if the water you provide is not pure and
cold to quench the thirst of the summer traveler, nobody will come to you.
188. Saint poet Tulsidas
(who was the author of the Ramayana in Hindu mythology) wrote that even birds
and animals understand what is good or bad for them. So why do you think that a
citizen of India, who has the right to exercise his vote during elections, does
not understand the value of your literacy and school education?
189. Even illiterate
people are living human beings who can decide for themselves whether to become
literate or to join a school. You must respect the right of the illiterates to
make their own decisions.
191. Do not interfere
in other people's life in such an aggressive manner. Do not suffer from the
false pride that you are the ultimate saviour of downtrodden people like me.
197. People like me
who are always self-disciplined and contributing their share of work to the
world, cannot be deemed ‘uneducated.’ How and when did you earn the right to
call me uneducated?
199. You are well
aware that schools were established as tools for foreign rule in India. You are
also aware that the pattern of these imperialistic schools has not been changed
since then.
201. Although that
imperialistic foreign rule has been uprooted, the schools of today are still
wedded to the same conceptual framework of control and governance.
202. “How will my
child get out of working and toiling in labor intensive employment? How can he
enter into the comfortable class of nonproducing and exploiting elites?” These are the main educational concerns of
parents who have been pushed to send their children to these schools designed
by the British.
203. The schools are
encouraging the exploited classes to convert themselves into exploiters. The
hidden agenda of the schools and its preachers is to curb the possibility of a
revolt against the education system which was inherited from the imperialistic
foreign rule and is still intact.
213. O’ Preacher of School Education! Do not try to misguide me about the utility of your school education as I have already suffered because of it. My children, after going to your school, neither got any "desk and chair" jobs nor are they able to work with me in the fields.
CHAPTER 9 -
EDUCATION ONCE RULED THE STATE BUT NOW IS SUBMISSIVE TO IT
214. The most vital
difference between the old "Gurukuls" (teaching homes) and schooling
today is that the former were guided by the gurus (the teacher sage or hermit)
whereas the latter is totally controlled by the government.
215. Because the
entire educational system is fully dependent on government funds, the so-called
masters have been reduced to mere slaves of the government. Whereas in olden
times, government leaders were deferential towards gurus, that position has now
been reversed.
216. Today, when even
the students do not accept the teachers' authority, how can we expect the
government to respect them? The teacher's relationship with the public is
diminishing as he continually transferred from place to place.
218. In those
countries in which the teacher has an autonomous role, the government machinery
is not able to spread its influence in an unlimited and unfocused manner. If
teachers were able to stimulate critical thinking among the people, it would
reduce their dependence on the state apparatus.
222. Do not confuse
the spread of school education with the spread of real learning. It is nothing
but a means of spreading the network of government machinery and disempowering
community life in the Indian society, as people lose all initiative to support
and manage themselves.
232. In the ancient
educational system, the hermitage of the guru had a loving family-like
atmosphere for all its disciples. In that atmosphere the weaker students
received the same attention, affection and importance as was given to the
brighter students.
233. Take the example
of Lord Krishna who came from an affluent family and his friend Sudama who
belonged to a very poor family. It was much more than the mere classroom
interactions that allowed for such a deep friendship to develop between them.
Rather, it emerged from valuable collaborative exercises, such as collecting
wood-fuel for the hermitage, encouraged by their Guru Sandeepani.
234. One day when
they went to collect wood in the deep forest, Krishna became hungry. They
stopped in Sudama’s little hut, where he embarassingly offered Krishna a few
unroasted grains of rice which was the only food available. When Krishna
graciously accepted it, a new relationship grounded in mutual respect and
understanding emerged between the two of them.
235. Therefore, only
real learning can bind the poor and the rich into friendship and remove the
gulf that exists between them by uniting them.
236. In the hermitage
education, the natural atmosphere of the home was maintained and nothing
irrelevant to their lives was imposed onto the pupils in the educational
syllabus.
238. Education in the
gurukuls was not restricted only to subjects connected with worldly affairs;
rather, it extended more into the realms of inner human life.
239. That was why
students educated in that system never treated their fellow students as
potential rivals, instead they indulged themselves into more meaningful
processes for self-realization and self-improvement.
241. Students that
lived through that system, even if he was a weaver (namely, the great poet
saint Kabir) or a shoemaker (namely, the great poet saint Reydaasa) received
more recognition and respect from the public than kings did.
CHAPTER
10 - BY FAILING TO RECOGNIZE WORK AS A MEANS OF EDUCATION, THE SCHOOLS ARE
DEVALUING THE ADVENT OF DEMOCRACY IN INDIA.
247. Ever since human
beings started living on this planet, they have been continuously learning
through their daily work and production activities.
252. It is through
work that man began to understand nature and the human mind.
255. Work stimulates
one’s curiosity, critical thinking and awareness. It is through work that man
realizes the real problems of life and discovers his own ways of solving them.
259. No child can
become curious to learn, eager to listen and ready to receive knowledge without
work which stimulates these processes within him.
269. Work is at the
roots of the tree of education, but schools have removed these roots from
education.
CHAPTER
11 - THE ANCIENT FAMILY STRUCTURE AS A BIRTHPLACE FOR LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
272. The ancient
family in India was much more than a den for breeding children. It was a
learning center where work and growth continuously and simultaneously took
place.
274. Just as a tree
sucks its nourishment from the soil, the child used to imbibe education from
his participation in the routine activities of family life.
277. Education is not
just a preparation for future life but life is about learning in many different
ways.
282. The parents have
the first right to make decisions regarding the education of their offspring;
thus, they must assume their natural role as teachers. External schoolteachers
should serve only as a complement to the parents.
293. But, mark the change! Education which used to be a free, joyous and spontaneous process in family life has now become a commodity to be bought and sold in the open markets. It is available in different shades and patterns to suit the financial capacities of the purchaser.
CHAPTER 12 -
PLEASE STOP BEATING YOUR DRUMS NOW
308. I once had a
dream in which I saw and spoke with Mother India. I shared with her my feeling
that India is now overpopulated. But she did not agree. She said that if this
wrong kind of school education is stopped, overpopulation will no longer be a
burden.
312. She said the
productive population of non-schooled illiterates is no burden on her. Ten
uneducated and illiterate persons who are engaged in production are less of a
burden than a single unproductive and over-consuming schooled person.
329. She said that
the problems of today do not arise because of the natural learning environment
that she created, but they arise due to the lack of any education reform in
your schooling system.
331. O’ friend, I am too tired to converse with you any more. It is already too late in the night. So please allow me to leave and rest.
333. Listen to my
very honest suggestion, please do not beat your drums of literacy and
schooling. It will only backfire, and you will be subjected to listening to
more harsh and painful realities about your school system and literacy
campaigns.
* * *
The
author was born in 1919 in Salumbar, a small town in Mewar, Rajasthan. Having
received intensive training in ‘Basic Education’ under well known people such Mahatama
Gandhi, Zakhir Hussain, Vinobha Bhave and Khwaja Galamusadan, he worked as a
teacher for several years at Vidya Bhawan, a small school founded in 1931 in
Udaipur, based on Gandhian philosophy and principles of community service. In
the 1960s, the author left Vidya Bhawan because of his controversial views and
made a living through tutoring, freelance writing and eventually set up a small
flour grinding mill in his house. He later worked at Seva Mandir, an NGO in
Udaipur, on a literacy campaign for rural areas. He was chosen to represent
India in the Canadian World Literacy Programme and made a positive contribution
to adult education.
During the past 60 years, the author
has written more than 300 essays and published around 25 books on basic education,
non-formal education, adult education, women’s education and public
administration. In 1992, he was given the ‘Madan Mohan Malviya Award’ for his
book on non-formal education.
At present, the author lives with
his wife in Udaipur and runs a small flour grinding mill in his home. His
address is: 26 Vidya Marg, Devali, Udaipur 313001 RAJASTHAN, INDIA.
[1] The underlying, deeper meaning of this verse is that a human being, by his very nature, has been striving to realize his perfection ever since he appeared on this earth even when there where no schools, no teachers and no books to guide or educate him.