RABINDRANATH TAGORE’S VIEWS ON EDUCATION

“At half past ten, in the morning the factory opens with the ringing of a bell, and then as the teachers start talking, the machines start working. The teachers stop talking at four in the afternoon when the factory closes and the pupils then go home carrying with them a few pages of machine made learning”.

This statement made by Rabindranath Tagore almost a century ago finds relevance even today and speaks volumes on the nature of the ‘education’ that we as ‘students’ are subjected to. The problems plaguing the current educational system are the same as the ones which Rabindranath Tagore observed in his times.

Tagore’s approach to education was unique in its approach to it. It gave much emphasis to the ‘freedom of thought’ and imagination. Tagore’s idea of education was driven by interest rather than need as is prevalent today. One would simply seek to learn what interested him and hence would be sincere in his efforts towards it. Speaking on the place of religion in the education system, Rabindranath Tagore said, “Nature and human spirit, wedded together, would constitute our temple and selfless good deeds, our worship”.

Tagore was sensitive to the plight of the peasants in Bengal and realized that the only way by which people could discover the bond that held them together as a society was through education. Hence, he advocated the cause of education to bring in the strength required for being self-sufficient, local governing bodies to the villages. Tagore considered the lack of education to be the main obstacle in the way of India’s progress and at the root of all its problems. The prevailing, colonial education system he found unsatisfactory since the only objective it appeared to serve was to produce clerks to man government offices and British businesses in India. The basic objectives of any worthwhile national education system, such as promoting creativity, freedom, joy and an awareness of a country’s cultural heritage, were completely ignored.

The ideal school, according to Tagore, should be established away from the turmoil of human habitation under an open sky and surrounded by vistas of fields, trees and plants. Living in a forest was also associated with austere pursuits and renunciation.

The vast background of nature represented a grand perspective against which all objects, all feelings assumed their due proportions.

“Books have come between our mind and life. They deprive us of our natural faculty of getting knowledge directly from nature and life and have generated within us the habit of knowing everything through books. We touch the world not with our mind, but with our books. They dehumanize and make us unsocial…. Let the students gather knowledge and materials from different regions of the country, from direct sources and from their own independent effort”, said Tagore speaking of bookish learning.

The Ashram school of Shantiniketan was founded in the year 1901 by Tagore on the basis of the ancient Indian system of Gurukul schooling. Here education was provided free of cost on the ancient ‘Vidya daan’ concept and was residential in nature with the students living with the teachers on the campus.  On the occasion of its foundation, Tagore observed. ''Our education should be in full touch with our complete life, economic, intellectual, aesthetic, social and spiritual.”

Such was the vision of a man who saw education as a means to bring about change in society and more importantly revolutionize the individual!

ARTICLE BY:      PANKAJ A. DESAI

                           3^RD SEMESTER, B.A.