Gandhian Educational Idea and the Preservation of World Peace in the 21st Century

Abstract

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was one of the leading thinkers, philosophers, and political leaders of the twentieth century. The scope of his thought was not confined merely to politics and economics. He also presented before the world a universal philosophy concerning holistic education and its underlying principles. Although Gandhi did not profound any separate ideological discourse exclusively on education, a comprehensive picture of his educational thought emerges from the book Towards New Education, published after his death. During his lifetime, apart from Hind Swaraj and My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi expressed detailed views on his educational ideas rooted in Indian ideals through numerous articles in the journals Young India and Harijan, which he edited.

Gandhi broadly rejected Western, materialistic, machine-centered education and expressed complete faith in spiritual and basic education. The central objective of his educational philosophy was to establish a harmonious connection between the soul and the body. In the globalized international situation of the twenty-first century, excessive dependence on technology has led humanity towards extreme violence and conflict. With the expansion of the information revolution, mutual disrespect and violence among students have become a matter of serious concern for educationists. Violence within school and university campuses is no longer confined to developed Western nations; students in third-world countries like India are also increasingly involved in various forms of violent activities.

No immediate solution to this deep crisis in global politics and education is clearly visible. UNESCO, in the preamble to its constitution, has presented a specific definition of peaceful education. According to this definition, education for peace is an organized acquisition of skills, achievable through the quality of education, ethics, competence, and values. In the contemporary Indian and global education system, which is largely value-less, mechanical, and competitive, the imparting of true moral, spiritual, and value-based education faces serious obstacles. In this fragmented and crisis-ridden educational environment, the relevance of Gandhian ideals is being strongly felt among educationists. This paper discusses in detail Gandhi’s educational philosophy as a means of preserving true peace within the technology-driven education system of the twenty-first century.