Answer: I would strongly criticize the Wood’s Despatch especially on the following issues :
Answer: I would not have felt good. Being born in a poor family, I would have to supplement our family income.
(1)Yes, I do know that about 50% of the children going to primary school drop out of school by the time they are 13 or 14.
(2)This has the following reasons:
Answer: I have heard the following dialogue between Mahatma Gandhi and Thomas Babington Macaulay on English education:
Gandhi:In fact, English education has enslaved us. There is poison in this education. It is sinful, it enslaved Indians.
Macaulay: Mr. Gandhi, India is an – uncivilized country that needs to be civilized. This is possible only through English education.
Gandhi: It is baseless. How do you say it?
Macaulay: No branch of Eastern knowledge can be compared to what England has produced. A single shelf of a good European library is worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.
Gandhi: India has a very rich culture. While English education has created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians. It makes them see Western civilization as superior and has destroyed the pride they had in their own culture. I want an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self- respect.
Macaulay: British government should stop wasting public money in promoting oriental learning because it has no practical use.
Gandhi: It is wrong. While western education focuses on reading and writing rather than oral language. It values textbooks rather than experience and practical knowledge. Simply learning to read and write by itself do not count as education. People should work with their hands, learn a craft, and know-how different things operate. This would develop their mind and their capacity to understand.
Macaulay: The knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature the world has produced. It would make them aware of developments in western science and philosophy.
Gandhi: The reality is that education in English has gripped Indians, distanced them from their own social surroundings, and made them strangers in their own lands. On the other hand, the English educated do not know how to relate to the masses.
1)William Jones | a)promotion of English education |
---|---|
2)Rabindranath Tagore | b)respect for ancient cultures |
3Thomas Macaulay | c)gurus |
4)Mahatma Gandhi | d)learning in a natural environment |
5)Pathshalas | e)critical of English education |
1)William Jones | a)respect for ancient cultures |
---|---|
2)Rabindranath Tagore | b)learning in a natural environment |
3Thomas Macaulay | c)promotion of English education |
4)Mahatma Gandhi | d)critical of English education |
5)Pathshalas | e)gurus |
(a) James Mill was a severe critic of the Orientalists.
(b) The 1854 Despatch on education was in favour of English being introduced as a medium of higher education in India.
(c) Mahatma Gandhi thought that promotion of literacy was the most important aim of education.
(d) Rabindranath Tagore felt that children ought to be subjected to strict discipline.
Answers :(a) True
(b) True
(c) False, Mahatma Gandhi considered education as an all-round development of a man be it physical, metal or spiritual. He said that literacy is not the end of education.
d) False, Rabindranath Tagore felt that childhood ought to be a time of self-learning, outside the rigid and restricting discipline of the schooling system.
Answer : Both James Mill and Thomas Macaulay saw India as an uncivilized country that needed to be civilized. And for this purpose, European education is essential. They felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature of the world it would make them aware of the developments in Western science and philosophy. Teaching English could thus be a way of civilizing people, changing their tastes, values, and culture.
Answer : Mahatma Gandhi was dead against English education. He argued that this type of education had created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians. It had made them see Western civilization as superior and had destroyed the pride they had in their own culture. It had cast an evil spell on Indians. Education in English had crippled them, distanced them from their own surroundings, and made them strangers in their own lands. What is more, it had enslaved them.
Answer : History of our school