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Nai Talim
The above loose structure of thoughts on education, Gandhiji
conceptualised in his revolutionary Nai Talim or Basic Education
for All, in 1937. Marjorie Sykes, an educationist devoted for life
to Gandhiji and Nai Talim pedagogy, writes in her book The
Story of Nai Talim, that in Gandhijis perception, this curriculum
aimed at preparing a good society, not just a literate and/or
educated one. Seen from the context of an education system
specially developed for a newly born democratic nation, it can
be said that Nai Talim aimed to fructify education that gave
freedom; freedom from ignorance, illiteracy, superstition,
psyche of servitude, and many more taboos that inhibited free
thinking of a free India. In Gandhijis words and vision, Nai Talim
was aimed at becoming the spearhead of a silent social
revolution.
The range of teaching tools that Gandhiji prescribed to
actualise Nai Talim were as revolutionary and unconventional
as the concept itself.
For holistic development of body, mind and soul, he firstly
emphasised on useful and purposeful physical labour. Mind is a
part of our body, and so are hands, legs, torso, spine. If the
mind develops at the cost of the rest of the body, it would be
so callous! Moreover, it would result in uncoordinated growth,
and that is not what Gandhiji wanted India to become, a nation
of strong minds and weak bodies, or vice versa. With the
addition of heart or soul, the mindbodysoul combine completes