Adult Education

IF I had charge of adult education, I should begin with opening the minds of the adult pupils to the greatness and vastness of their country. The villager's India is contained in his village. If he goes to another village, he talks of his own village as his home. Hindustan is for him a geographical term. We have no notion of the ignorance prevailing in the villages..... My adult education means, therefore, first, true political education of the adult by word of mouth..... Side by side with the education by the mouth will be the literary education. This is itself a specialty. Many methods are being tried in order to shorten the period of education.

— Constructive Programme : p. 16

Mass Illiteracy

Mass illiteracy is India's sin and shame and must be liquidated. Of course, the literacy campaign must not begin and end with a knowledge of the alphabet. It must go hand in hand with the spread of useful knowledge. The dry knowledge of the three R's is not even now, it can never be, a permanent part of the villagers' life. They must have knowledge given to them which they must use daily. It must not be thrust upon them. They should have the appetite for it. What they have to-day is something they neither want nor appreciate. Give the villagers village Arithmetic, village Geography, village History, and the literary knowledge that they must use daily, i.e., reading and writing letters, etc. They will treasure such knowledge and pass on to the other stage. They have no use for books which give them nothing of daily use.

— Harijan : June 22, 1940