Nai Talim

The principal idea is to impart the whole education of the body, mind and soul through the handicraft that is taught to the children.

— Mahatma Gandhi
In 1940 Shri Chitta Bhusan, hardcore Gandhian freedom fighter and follower of 'Basic Education', came to a remote village named Majhihira in the then Manbhum district of Bihar (now in West Bengal), where he founded the Majhihira National Basic Education Institution (MNBEI).[1] He took his last breath on 7th February 2016 at 101 years old. He enjoyed a simple life and used a Charkha.

Nai Talim, or Basic Education, is a principle which states that knowledge and work are not separate. Mahatma Gandhi promoted an educational curriculum with the same name based on this pedagogical principle.[2]

It can be translated with the phrase 'Basic Education for all'.[3] However, the concept has several layers of meaning. It developed out of Gandhi's experience with the English educational system and with colonialism in general. In that system, he saw that Indian children would be alienated and 'career-based thinking' would become dominant. In addition, it embodied a series of negative outcomes: the disdain for manual work, the development of a new elite class, and the increasing problems of industrialization and urbanization.

The three pillars of Gandhi's pedagogy were its focus on the lifelong character of education, its social character and its form as a holistic process. For Gandhi, education is 'the moral development of the person', a process that is by definition 'lifelong'.[4]

  1. ^ Mahatma Gandhi's Legacy in Majhihira Ashram Vidyalaya school
  2. ^ Richards, Glynn (1996), A Source-Book on Modern Hinduism, Routledge, ISBN 9780203990612
  3. ^ Basic Education (buniyadi shiksha)
  4. ^ Dinabandhu Dehury: Mahatma Gandhi's Contribution to Education