September 6:

“I admit that my proposal is novel. But novelty is no crime.”

–Gandhi (Harijan, September 18, 1937)

A controversial element in Gandhi’s vision for primary education was that it should be self-supporting. Students, as they learn a craft, should be able to earn the funds necessary to cover the costs of schooling, instead of having it funded by the government (or, as often in India, a philanthropist). Some people argued with him that it was an unkindness to children that they should have to pay for school. But Gandhi is not arguing that only some people must pay and others not, nor is he suggesting that families pay for their children’s education, giving some children an advantage over others — ideas that he systematically rejected. The seed of his thinking lies in two nonviolence principles: swadeshi and bread-labor. Swadeshi, or localism, meant that an institution is unexploitable when it is not dependent on anyone or any system outside it. If the institution is doing its work well, the students will be happy to keep hiring teachers to help them develop their minds, hearts and hands — and feel empowered in doing so. And bread-labor is the concept that suggests that it is our duty to be involved in the production of the goods that meet our basic needs. When we make such needs the responsibility of others, we give away our power and make ourselves vulnerable.

But there was another problem: during the time that Gandhi was proposing self-supporting schools, the country’s public schools and primary education were supported by a liquor tax. The more Indians drank liquor, the more money was available for education! And remember: what they were learning in those schools was Macaulay’s system, to make civil servants for the British regime. This was an intentional strategy to keep Indians from rising up against the Raj.  In his words, “it must be shameful and humiliating to think that unless we got the drink revenue, our children would be starved of their education.” So, if you were Gandhi, what do you offer in a situation like this one? You call for abstaining from alcohol (which he did) and you reject government funding for your schools, or anyone’s, and seek a system that encourages personal responsibility and empowerment at all costs. You show young people that they can do things their own way, with better, more transformative results. If this be novelty, let us make the most of it.

Experiment in Nonviolence:

Find out how schools are funded in your region and another place in the world. What kinds of decisions do the people or government who fund the school get to make about what is taught in the school?