{"id":1101,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:33","slug":"62-national-education-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/02-karmayogin-volume-02\/62-national-education-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-62_National Education.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\nNational Education<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nF<\/span><\/font>ROM
\n<\/span><\/b>the
\nbeginning of the national movement, in spite of its enthusiasm, force, innate
\ngreatness, a defect has made itself apparent, a fatality of insufficient
\neffectiveness has pursued it, which showed that there was a serious flaw somewhere
\nin this brilliant opening of a new era. The nature of that flaw has been made
\nmanifest by the period of trial in which, for a time, the real force which made
\nfor success has been temporarily withdrawn, so that the weaknesses still
\ninherent in the nation might be discovered and removed. The great flaw was the
\nattempt to combine the new with the old, to subject the conduct of the
\nresurgence of India to the aged, the cautious, the hesitating, men out of
\nsympathy with the spirit of the new age, unable to grasp the needs of the
\nfuture, afraid to apply the bold and radical methods which could alone
\ntransform the nation, sweep out the rottenness in our former corrupt nature
\nand, by purifying Bengal, purify India. It is now apparent that it was the
\nNationalist element which by its energy, courage, boldness of thought,
\nreadiness to accept the conditions of progress, gave the movement its force
\nand vitality. Wherever that force has been withdrawn, the movement has
\ncollapsed. The older men have shown themselves utterly unable either to supply
\nthe moral force that would sustain the forward march of the nation or the
\nbrain-power to grapple with national problems. In Swadeshi the force of
\nsentiment supplied, and the persistence of the great mass of silent nationalism
\nin resisting any attempt to draw back from boycott has preserved, the movement
\nto prefer indigenous and boycott foreign goods, but the withdrawal of active
\nNationalist endeavour has resulted in the stoppage of progress. Swadeshi
\nmaintains itself, it no longer advances. National Education languishes because
\nthe active force has been withdrawn from it; it
\ndoes not absolutely perish because a certain amount of Nationalist
\nself-devotion has entrenched itself in this last stronghold and holds it
\nagainst great odds and under the most dis-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 336<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\ncouraging circumstances. A certain amount only, \u2014 because part of the active
\nenthusiasm and self-sacrifice which created the movement, has been deliberately
\nextruded from it in obedience to fear or even baser motives, part has abandoned
\nit in disgust at the degeneration of the system in incapable hands and the rest
\nis now finding its self-devotion baffled and deprived of the chance of success
\nby the same incapacity and weakness at headquarters.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The National Council of Education, as it is at present composed,
\nhas convicted itself of entire incapacity whether to grasp the meaning of the
\nmovement or to preserve or create the conditions of its success. To the
\nmajority of the members it is merely an interesting academical experiment in
\nwhich they can embody some of their pet hobbies or satisfy a general vague
\ndissatisfaction with the established University system. To others the only
\nvaluable part of it is the technical instruction given in its workshops. The
\ntwo or three who at all regard it as part of a great national movement, are
\nunnerved by fear, scepticism and distrust and, by introducing the principles
\nof Chanakya into its public policy, are
\ndepriving it of the first condition of its continued existence. It is folly to
\nexpect that the nation at large will either pay heavily or make great
\nsacrifices merely to support an interesting academic experiment, still less to
\nallow a few learned men to spoil the intellectual development of the race by
\nindulging their hobbies at the public expense. That the people will not support
\na mere technical education divorced from that general humanistic training which
\nis essential to national culture, has been sufficiently proved by the failure
\nof Mr. Palit’s Technical College to command
\nadequate financial support. Unless this movement is carried on, as it was
\nundertaken, as part of a great movement of national resurgence, unless it is
\nmade, visibly to all, a nursery of patriotism and a mighty instrument of
\nnational culture, it cannot succeed. It is foolish to expect men to make great
\nsacrifices while discouraging their hope and enthusiasm. It is not intellectual
\nrecognition of duty that compels sustained self-sacrifice in masses of men; it
\nis hope, it is the lofty ardour of a great cause, it is the enthusiasm of a
\nnoble and courageous effort. It is amazing that men calling themselves educated
\nand<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 337<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

presuming to
\ndabble with public movements should be blind to the fact that the success or
\nfailure of National Education is intimately bound up with and, indeed,
\nentirely depends upon the fortunes of the great resurgence which gave it birth.
\nThey seem to labour under the delusion that it was an academical and not a
\nnational impulse which induced men to support this great effort, and they seek to save the institution from a
\npremature death by exiling from it the enthusiasm that made it possible. They
\ncannot ignore the service done by that enthusiasm, but they regard it merely as
\nthe ladder by which they climbed and are busy trying to kick it down. They are
\nreally shutting off the steam, yet expect the locomotive to go on.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The successful organisation of the Bengal National College in
\nCalcutta was the work of its able enthusiastic Superintendent aided by a body
\nof young and self-sacrificing workers. The
\nNational Council which nominally controlled, in reality only hampered it; all
\nthat the Council contributed to the system, was its defects. The schools in the
\nMofussil were created by the enthusiasm, of the Nationalist Party, the propaganda of its
\nleaders and the ardent self-devotion of little bands of workers who gave their
\nself-sacrifice and enthusiasm to lay the foundations. The Nationalist Council
\nhas never lifted a single finger to help the Mofussil schools, beyond doling
\nout unsubstantial grants to maintain them merely as necessary feeders of the
\nCalcutta institution. But unless a movement of this kind is supported by wise organisation and energetic propagandism
\nemanating from an active central authority, it must soon sink under the weight
\nof unsolved problems, unsurmounted
\ndifficulties and unamended defects. The
\ncurriculum of the Council is extraordinarily elaborate and expensive, and
\ninvolves a great outlay for the formation of library, laboratory, and
\nworkshops, and, arranged as it is on the vicious Western system of driving many
\nsubjects at a time into the growing intellect, is slow, cumbrous, a strain on
\nthe mind of the students, wasteful of time, impossible without an unusual
\nnumber of good teachers. The financial problem created is one of crushing
\ndifficulty, yet the Council think they have done their duty when they have
\ncreated the problem and do not seem even<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 338<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

to dream that
\nthere is any call on them to solve it. Even
\nfor the Calcutta College in whose maintenance they are more keenly interested,
\nthey can only make feeble and spasmodic efforts when, as annually happens,
\nthere is a deficit in the budget. The academical problem of teaching so many
\nsubjects in so short a time without outdoing the exploits of the Calcutta
\nUniversity as a brain-killing and life-shortening machine, does not seem to
\noccur to these lofty and secluded minds. They are content with creating the
\nproblem and maintaining it by their system of examinations. Even if funds were
\nforthcoming, there would still be the necessity of providing a regular and
\nplentiful supply of teachers trained in an entirely new system of instruction.
\nThis urgent problem the Council has systematically ignored, and not even the
\nelementary steps of establishing a Teachers’ Training Class in Calcutta and
\nissuing a series of suitable books in the vernacular has been attempted. The
\nonly problems which the Council seems willing to grapple with are, first, the
\nproblem of supporting National Education without incurring the wrath of the
\nofficials and, secondly, the problem of evading the spirit of the clause which
\nforbids it to subject itself to any form of Government control, while
\nobserving the letter so as to prevent the invalidation of its endowments.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

But if the National Council is content to fail in its duty, the
\ncountry cannot be content to allow this great educational enterprise to
\nperish. We do not know how or by whom the Council is elected. It seems to have
\nfollowed the example of so many bodies in India which have started as
\ndemocratic institutions and ended as close corporations self-electing and
\nself-elected. But if it is impossible to alter the component character of this
\nbody and put into it keener blood and clearer brains, some other centre of effort must be created which will undertake to
\ngrapple with the problems of National Education, the supply of trained and
\nself-devoted teachers and of books which will guide them in the imparting of
\nknowledge on new lines; the reawakening of interest, hope and enthusiasm in the
\ncountry, the provision of the necessary funds to the mofussil
\nschools, the forcing on the Council by the pressure of public opinion of a more
\nrational and a more<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 339<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

national system of
\nteaching. But the first condition of success is the reawakening of the national
\nmovement all along the line, and this can only be done by the organisation and
\nresolute activity of the Nationalist Party.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 340<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\n\t
\n\tHOME<\/span><\/a><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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