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| Ph.D thesis of Dr. N. P. Pillai at University of Birmingham, UK |
FOREWORD of Dr. N. P. Pillai's book, by Mr. Humayun Kabir, Famous Educationist and Philosopher
I have read with great pleasure Dr. Narayanan Parameswaran Pillai's study on 'The Educational Ideas of Mahatma Gandhi'. Originally submitted as a thesis for the Doctorate in the University of Birmingham, I understand that it has been awarded the George Cadbury Prize which is given annually for the best thesis of the year, provided it is of outstanding merit.
I have read with great pleasure Dr. Narayanan Parameswaran Pillai's study on 'The Educational Ideas of Mahatma Gandhi'. Originally submitted as a thesis for the Doctorate in the University of Birmingham, I understand that it has been awarded the George Cadbury Prize which is given annually for the best thesis of the year, provided it is of outstanding merit.
Dr. Pillai has
made a very careful study of Gandhiji's educational thought and practice. He
has also indicated how these have grown out of Gandhiji's basic philosophy of
life. For Gandhi, co-operation of individuals and communities is the essential
fact and he devised his educational system in a way which would develop in the
child a sense of community through socially useful and creative activities.
Activity as a principle of education is today recognized universally but Gandhi
added to it the idea of social utility in order to develop in the child an
attitude of social responsibility and helpfulness to others from the beginning
of scholastic life. Since Basic Education has been accepted as the pattern of
elementary education throughout India, it is necessary that there should be a
clear understanding of its philosophy and practice. Dr. Pillai's book will go a
long way towards meeting that need.
A clear understanding of the values of Basic
Education is necessary not only for Indians but for others as well. The Indian
experiment in Basic Education attemps to develop in the child a resilience and
flexibility which will enable it to retain values that have been inheritd from
the past while meeting the challenges created by a contracting world in an
atomic age. Far-reaching discoveries in science an technology in recent decades
have made co-operation on an intra-national as well as international scale a
condition for human survival. Today the whole world has literally become a
neighbourhood and neighbourliness has become not merely a virtue but a
necessity. Basic Education---properly understood and divested of some of the
accretions which enthusiastic but understanding devotees have attached to it
--- may prove a most valuable instrument in effecting this transformation in
the outlook of the growing generations. Dr. Pillai's book should thus prove
interesting and useful both inside and outside India.
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| Dr. Ram Nayar with Dr. N.P. Pillai's thesis |
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| Acknowledgement page of Dr. N. P. Pillai's thesis |
I
wish to record my sincere thanks to Dr. E.A. Peel, Professor and Head of the
Department of Education, University of Birmingham, and to Mr. B.C.L. James,
Lecturer, Education Department, University of Birmingham for the encouragement,
help and guidance I have received from them in the preparation of this work.
I
also wish to thank the Librarians of the University Library and the Institute
of Education Library, Birmingham, the Senate House Library and the Library of
the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, the Indian
House Library and the India Office Library, London, the Secretary of the India
League, London, and the Superintendent of the Reading Room and the Keeper of
the Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts, the British Museum,
for the facilities they kindly afforded me to work in the institutions under
them.
I
acknowledge unreservedly my indebtedness to the authors and publishers of the
various books from which I have quoted extracts. I must specially mention
Professor M.V.C. Jeffreys, Dr. Arthur E. Morgan and A.N. Whitehead. My thanks are
also due to the Trustees of the British Museum for permitting me to reproduce a
letter from Gandhi to Sir Edward Gait
This
work might not have been undertaken but for the financial help given to me by
the Government of India and University of Travancore, and I am thankful to
them.
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| University of Birmingham, UK |
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| Inside University of Birmingham, UK |
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| University of Birmingham campus |
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