Different Views on Education in Modern India

When we study education under colonial rule, it’s easy to only remember commissions, acts, and government resolutions. But in reality, the deeper debate on education was shaped by powerful personalities — rulers, reformers, nationalists, and philosophers — each with their own vision for how education could transform society.

Sayajirao Gaekwad III – The Visionary Ruler of Baroda (1875–1939)

• Belonged to the Gaekwad dynasty of the Marathas, ruling Baroda in present-day Gujarat.
• Introduced far-reaching reforms in governance, education, water supply, sanitation, health, judiciary, and transport.

Free & Compulsory Primary Education

• 1893: Experimented in 10 villages of Amreli Mahal — free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14.
• 1906: Extended this to the entire Baroda State — making him the first Indian ruler to implement free and compulsory primary education, decades ahead of British India.
• Established 1,500+ libraries across the state.

Social Reforms

• Banned female infanticide.
• Prohibited child marriage.
• Supported widow remarriage.

UPSC Insight – Sayajirao Gaekwad’s reforms show that princely states could sometimes be more progressive than British provinces.

Mahatma Gandhi – Education for Swaraj and Self-Respect

Gandhi was deeply critical of colonial Western education:

• Saw it as bookish and alienating — more about reading/writing and memorising textbooks than about lived experience.
• Believed it created a sense of inferiority, making Indians view their own culture as inferior to the West.
• Wanted education to restore dignity and self-respect, rooted in Indian languages and crafts.

Core Ideas

• Education must develop the whole person — mind, body, and spirit — not just literacy.
• Start by teaching a useful handicraft from the very first day — so students produce while learning.
• Mother tongue as the medium of instruction.
• English education, in his view, made Indians strangers in their own country.

Wardha Scheme of Basic Education (Nai Talim) – 1937

• Proposed at the Wardha Educational Conference, presided over by Gandhi.
• Resolutions:
  1. Free & compulsory education for 7 years.
  2. Curriculum centred on manual and productive work.
  3. Mother tongue as the medium of instruction.
• Zakir Hussain Committee (1938) recommendations:

• No English in curriculum.
• No religious education.

• Adopted by Congress at Haripura Session (1938) as Buniyadi Shiksha.
• Scheme stalled due to World War II and Congress resignation in 1939.

Rabindranath Tagore – Education for Creativity and Nature

• Criticised rigid colonial schools for killing a child’s natural creativity and curiosity.
• Advocated self-learning in a natural environment.
• Founded Santiniketan (near Calcutta) in a rural setting — blending learning with harmony in nature.
• Wanted education to include art, music, dance, alongside science and technology.

Difference from Gandhi

• Gandhi rejected Western civilisation’s machine-dependence.
• Tagore wanted to combine the best of Western modernity with Indian traditions.

Aurobindo Ghosh – Education for National Awakening

• Believed national education must awaken the spirit of nationality.
• Emphasised vernacular medium for mass reach.
• Encouraged:
  • Learning from modern science and Western democratic experiments.
  • Mastery of useful crafts for employability.

Bengal National College (1906)

• Founded by Satish Chandra Mukherjee and others during the Swadeshi Movement.
• Aurobindo was its first Principal.

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan – Education for Wisdom and Spirit

• Drew from Advaita Vedanta philosophy.
• Education should train mind, heart, and spirit — not just transmit facts.
• Emphasised pursuit of wisdom and truth.
• Chaired the University Education Commission (1948) after independence.
• Birth anniversary celebrated as Teachers’ Day.

Lord Macaulay – The Architect of Colonial English Education

• Dismissed Indian literature as full of errors and lacking scientific thought.
• Saw English as the key to:
  • “Civilising” Indians.
  • Changing tastes (to increase demand for British goods).
  • Shaping values and culture along British lines.
• Argued that English would give Indians access to the “finest literature of the world” and produce a class “Indian in blood, English in taste.”

UPSC Takeaways

• Gaekwad III – State-led free compulsory education, libraries, social reforms.
• Gandhi – Education tied to self-reliance, craft-based learning, mother tongue medium (Nai Talim).
• Tagore – Education in natural surroundings, nurturing creativity, blending East & West.
• Aurobindo – Nationalist and vernacular-focused education, integrating science and crafts.
• Radhakrishnan – Education for spiritual and moral growth, post-independence policy shaping.
• Macaulay – English-medium, elitist education to serve colonial goals.