Gandhi on Educating Adults, Women, and the Deprived for an Inclusive India

Mahatma Gandhi believed that India’s freedom would remain incomplete until every citizen-regardless of age, gender, or social status-had access to meaningful education. His vision extended far beyond formal schooling for children; he championed learning as a transformative force for adults, women, and the most marginalized communities. For Gandhi, education was not merely about acquiring knowledge but about building a more just, self-reliant, and dignified society.

Adult education: the art of living 🔗

Gandhi was deeply troubled by the widespread illiteracy that plagued colonial India. He famously declared that mass illiteracy was India’s “sin and shame” and demanded its complete eradication. At the time of independence, only about 18 percent of Indians were literate, with female literacy standing at a dismal 9 percent. Gandhi saw this as a fundamental barrier to true freedom.

However, his concept of adult education went far beyond teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic-the traditional “three Rs.” Gandhian thinkers like Shriman Narayan Agarwal, who played a key role in organizing the historic Wardha Education Conference of 1937, helped articulate Gandhi’s vision of adult education as “education for life” and the “art of living.”

Practical knowledge for daily needs 🔗

Gandhi insisted that education must be directly connected to the learner’s environment and daily needs. For a farmer, this meant understanding better methods of caring for livestock; for a craftsperson, it meant improving their trade techniques. He believed that true education must correspond to surrounding circumstances-otherwise it cannot be called healthy growth.

This approach prioritized developing practical skills alongside intellectual abilities. Gandhi emphasized training both “the powers of the hand” and the brain, rejecting the colonial education system’s tendency to produce clerks disconnected from productive work. He wanted adult learners to gain knowledge that would immediately improve their livelihoods and communities.

Beyond mere literacy 🔗

For Gandhi, adult education was not about cramming facts but about cultivating wisdom for life. He drew upon the ancient Indian aphorism that “education is that which liberates,” meaning liberation from both external domination and one’s own artificial needs. An educated adult, in his view, should be equipped to serve humanity and achieve freedom from various forms of servitude.

The function of adult education, therefore, could not be confined to reading and writing. Its main aim was to arouse interest among illiterates and inspire them to learn through activities closely associated with their daily work. This made education relevant, engaging, and transformative rather than abstract and disconnected.

Women’s education: empowerment and liberation 🔗

Gandhi attributed the widespread illiteracy among women to deeply unjust traditions that treated them as inferior beings. He believed that lack of education and information was the root cause of all the evils women faced. Education, in his view, was essential for enabling women to assert their natural rights, exercise them wisely, and work for their expansion.

Breaking the chains of harmful customs 🔗

Gandhi saw education as the most potent tool for releasing women from ignorance, superstition, and oppressive customs. He was an uncompromising critic of practices that kept women subjugated:

Child marriage was, to Gandhi, an immoral and inhumane act. He argued that it made innocent girls objects of lust, ruined the health of child mothers, and converted tender-aged girls into widows. Girls married off young were denied educational opportunities and the joys of girlhood, rushed prematurely into adulthood. Gandhi strongly supported the Child Marriage Restraint Bill and advocated mobilizing public opinion against such practices.

The dowry system particularly outraged Gandhi. He called it pernicious because it turned young girls into chattels to be bought and sold, lowered women’s status, destroyed their sense of equality with men, and defiled the institution of marriage. His solution was radical: educate daughters so they refuse to marry men who demand a price, and excommunicate from society those young men who accept dowry.

Purdah (the veil) was condemned by Gandhi as inhuman and immoral. He argued that it crippled women’s free movement, interfered with their advancement, and did nothing to truly preserve chastity-which must grow from within rather than being imposed externally. Gandhi appealed to the public, especially women themselves, to tear down this barrier.

Education as the pathway to freedom 🔗

An educated woman, Gandhi believed, could transform not just herself but her entire household. As the caretaker of the home, an educated woman could break the shackles of enforced widowhood and economic bondage. He saw widowhood imposed by religion or custom as an unbearable yoke that degrades religion itself. For Gandhi, the ultimate remedy was to consider widows and widowers on equal footing.

Gandhi promoted women’s education and stressed creating awareness among women regarding their rights through political representation and economic upliftment. This would help women break free from domesticity’s confines and participate fully in national life. He encouraged women to join the freedom struggle, believing they were naturally suited for non-violent resistance through their qualities of sacrifice and moral strength.

Gandhi’s mobilization of women in the independence movement-through salt marches, picketing of liquor shops, promotion of khadi, and other constructive activities-demonstrated his belief that education and participation in public life would bring about a metamorphosis in women’s lives.

Educating the deprived and untouchables 🔗

Gandhi considered the task of educating India’s deprived sections, particularly those branded as “untouchables,” to be both crucial and challenging. He refused to use derogatory terms for these communities and instead coined the word “Harijan,” meaning “children of God,” emphasizing their inherent dignity.

The Harijan Sevak Sangh and its mission 🔗

In September 1932, Gandhi founded the All India Anti-Untouchability League, later renamed Harijan Sevak Sangh, dedicated to eradicating untouchability and uplifting the depressed classes. This organization was established in the wake of Gandhi’s epic fast at Yerwada Jail and the historic Poona Pact signed with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

The Sangh’s objective was the eradication of untouchability through truthful and non-violent means, along with securing for Harijans absolute equality of status with other Hindus. It worked to open temples, schools, wells, and public roads to the depressed classes. The organization established schools and hostels across the country, many of which continue operating today with support from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Cleanliness as a foundation for dignity 🔗

Gandhi emphasized basic lessons in hygiene and cleanliness as fundamental to education for the deprived sections. He understood that centuries of forced menial labor had created associations between these communities and uncleanliness in the public mind. By promoting sanitation and hygiene education, Gandhi sought to challenge these stereotypes while improving living conditions.

Gandhi himself set a powerful example. He brought a Harijan child to live at his ashram, demonstrating that untouchability had no place in his vision of India. In 1964, the Sangh established the Safai Vidyalaya in Ahmedabad to train sanitation workers in modern technology and improve their workplace conditions-continuing Gandhi’s mission to attach dignity to all forms of work.

The need for sensitive, well-trained teachers 🔗

Gandhi recognized that educating marginalized communities required specially prepared educators. He believed that teachers interested in village education could not be properly trained in city institutions. They needed to live among villagers, understand their circumstances, and develop genuine empathy for their struggles.

This was especially true for teaching Harijan children, who often came from families facing severe discrimination. Teachers needed sensitivity to the psychological wounds caused by generations of oppression, combined with practical skills to make education relevant to students’ lives. Gandhi undertook a 12,500-mile “Harijan Tour” between 1933 and 1934 to educate the public about the need to end untouchability and to encourage sending Harijan children to school.

A unified vision of inclusive education 🔗

What united Gandhi’s approach to adult education, women’s education, and education for the deprived was his fundamental belief that learning must liberate rather than merely inform. Education should connect to daily life, develop both hands and mind, and prepare individuals to contribute to society while asserting their own dignity.

Gandhi’s educational philosophy challenged the colonial system that produced clerks and maintained social hierarchies. Instead, he envisioned education as a great equalizer-one that would empower adults to improve their livelihoods, enable women to break free from oppressive customs, and restore dignity to communities that had been marginalized for centuries.

His experiments in basic education at Wardha and Sevagram, his mobilization of women in the freedom struggle, and his tireless advocacy for Harijan upliftment all reflected this integrated vision. Gandhi himself called Nai Talim his last and best gift to the nation-a blueprint for education that would build the foundation for a truly inclusive India.

What do you think? In what ways does Gandhi’s vision of practical, life-connected education remain relevant for addressing educational inequalities today? How might his emphasis on dignity and self-reliance reshape current approaches to educating marginalized communities?

References

1. https://quotefancy.com/quote/858135/Mahatma-Gandhi-Mass-illiteracy-is-India-s-sin-and-shame-and-must-be-liquidated
2. https://naitalimsamiti.org/
3. https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/voice-of-truth/gandhiji-on-basic-education.php
4. https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-articles/gandhi-on-gender-violence-and-gender-equality.php
5. https://www.impriindia.com/insights/women-empowerment-gandhi-lens/
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harijan_Sevak_Sangh
7. https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/harijan-sevak-sangh/
8. https://andhrapradesh.pscnotes.com/appsc-group-1-mains/paper-i/andhra-pradesh-history/depressed-classes-mission-non-brahmin-movement-and-justice-party/