ఆంధ్ర గ్రంథాలయం/సంపుటం 2/సంచికలు 3, 4/Adult Education-An essential Arm for War or Peace

by G.Harisarvottama Rao

Andhra Granthalayam

Adult Education Number

Adult Education - An essential arm

for War or Peace.

The world is at present in the midst of a cataclysmic war. All the continents are involved in it and its dimensions are staggering. An equal of this disaster was never before seen. All the elemental resources that man can harness to the purpose are being ruthlessly used.

To talk of Adult Education at this point of time may, to un-thinking minds, appear to be imbecile. But Adult Educationists have not desisted from their activities. In a recent issue of the Times Educational supplement a correspondent who relates his experiences as an Adult Education worker says-

"Most schemes for improving our democracy rightly emphasize the need for reforms in the national educational system. Without a sound training for all citizens there can be no genuine democracy. In the reorganization of our educational system after the present conflict, Adult Education can and ought to play a conspicuous role in the revitalization of our democratic institutions”.

This is not a full realization of the value of Adult Education. Adult Education is as much an arm of war as it is of peace.

Behold! All the combatants in this war are agreed upon one fundamental point in addition to the very patent agreement that salvation at any rate, for the present, - lies through destruction. That other point of agreement is, that the morale of the peoples is the most potent factor in achieving the desired end. Each one of the fighting parties does its best to strengthen the morale of its own peoples and weaken the morale of the opponent peoples by wide - spread education - not the education of children; for, their part in the war is so very little. It is really the education of the adult. More especially in the democracies and, by their own nature and example, in the lands over which they hold sway, a true and faithful presentation of facts - not only of land, water and air forces and their acts and actions, but of the science that aids or prevents the direful results of their operations and a million and one details about the economic and social needs and effects of every changing situation are daily broadcast - or even hourly by the Prime Minister of England and the President of the United States of America down to the last little A. R. P. warden in-charge of one street in a city. Preparations, therefore, to educate the adult to keep his morale in the war are probably more important than preparation of aero-planes, cruisers and dreadnoughts, munitions and motors, as also the thousands of articles required to feed, clothe and keep in possible comfort the huge armies engaged in the grim fight.

According to admissions made by such eminent authorities like General Wavell, the allies were behind hand in much of the equipment that was required to fight a war of the magnitude that is facing them. He was frank enough to tell the world that there was failure in Malaya and Burma; because, people over there had not the same morale that is evident in China or Russia (we would add England). Very many people would probably say that complete political independence for India will produce in a trice the enthusiasm necessary to win this war. While we feel that a political status of freedom for peoples has a value in situations like these, education and knowledge of things and their consequences have very much more to do with morale. So education of the Adult is really as important an arm in war as the Air arm or the Sea arm or any other arm. Not only to keep the morale but also to keep people doing the right thing behind the trenches, i. e., to keep people producing materials necessary for the soldiers at the front and the civilian in the country, education, more education and more education is the need. For war or for peace a population kept going with its educative equipment is an asset and a people kept in ignorance is not only not an asset but is a danger, positive danger. It is significant that in China behind the fighting lines reconstruction work through cooperatives is pushed on vigorously and people have been taught, through productive knowledge and activity, to stand to their positions. The report of activities in Northern Ireland, during the war, that the "Hindu" drew attention to on 29-11-41 is another instance in point. This is what the Belfast Telegraph wrote. "18 classes in 1937-38 with the membership of 377 expanded in three years to 26 classes and 630 members. These were spread over a dozen centers and this last figure does not include over 100 members of H. M. forces, who joined the quest for learning in their off duty hours. The average class was 24 and the percentage attendance 73. 5 a good showing in the black out winter." It has to be remembered that this area is not more than a district or two of ours.

The question of spreading necessary knowledge is not so simple in India as in Russia, where we have cent percent literacy, in England, or, Ireland where we have 85 to 90% literates, or, even in China where, before the war with Japan began, i. e., as per the census of 1931 literacy was 35% and must be very much more today. Our literacy has not reached beyond 12% in the case of the Madras Province which is believed to be fairly high up in the scale amongst the provinces of India.

It is no doubt true that the radio is being very widely used and that the Government is printing and broadcasting pictured news, organizing rural reading centers also. With the Herculean attempts that are being made, as a last moment effort, without an earlier back ground of general culture, it is but just the fringe of the mass that is affected. Even the picture journal has to be explained by script. Where the script cannot be read or understood the picture is more often a curiosity wonderingly looked at by the vulgar not the means of information to a responsible citizen. The radio is certainly better. But, not everyman or every woman it is that can reach a radio, nor can it be said that by a casual hearing through the radio, the illiterate citizen can retain enough in his mind to enthuse him in the grasp of situations.

In these days of fast multiplying needs and knowledge relating thereto, it is the capacity to read the written or printed script that can bring a man or woman near the source of information he is bound to know and he is anxious to reach. Everything else is in the nature of follow up work. Even for winning the war this arm of knowledge through which morale has to be kept strengthening has to be well-planned and carried out. It is not too late to begin now; for, if for winning the war in 1943-44 we are starting factories to build aero-planes and dockyards to float ships, there is nothing out of the way that a nation-wide campaign of removal of illiteracy and further Adult Education should be taken up here and now. Both for war and peace this campaign is an essential and as such it may not be neglected with impunity.

We, in the Andhradesa, have had no greater advantage than other parts of the country; and we are only too well conscious that what non-officials can do to keep the masses culturally fit and healthy, is really very little and yet it is with pride that we look upon the past of the non-official endeavor in our land. We may be pardoned, if we here refer to the cultural achievements of the Andhradesa in the present century up-to-date. Being one of the prominent actors on the stage the writer of this article claims to write out of intimate knowledge of events for nearly forty years.

When the 20th century opened on the Andhradesa a part of it was powerfully under the influence of Brahmoism. In the Circars a number of Prayer Samajams had been established and, under the influence of western culture, the English educated individual, with his ill-conceived contempt for the Indian atmosphere, was really fashioning a new world and a new God of his own conception. There was one result of the Brahmo wave, however, which was eminently of value. Spurred on by the example of Iswar Chander Vidyasagar and others, the Brahmo-minded Andhra was anxious to popularize his movement through the use of the language of the country. Radical thought in one sphere of life had its extensions into other spheres. With the widening of the religious outlook, there was an intense desire for what was, in those days, considered social reform. Widow remarriage and cosmopolitan dinners occupied the forefront of men's minds.

These trends were mainly reflected in the writings of Viresa-lingam and his followers.

All this was happening in only one part of the Andhradesa i.e., mainly the Circars, and it was a leaven that was spreading in the middle classes and, to some extent, in the upper strata of society; for, widow remarriage or cosmopolitan dinners were not problems for the mass of the people. Some ameliorative work was carried on for the depressed classes but did not get the dynamic impetus of the Gandhian age to consider it a mass endeavor. Lord Curzon's Viceroyalty, the Partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi movement drove men to think furiously and act in the service of the masses in general. Linguistic, economic and political idealisms came into play, and men and women discovered that agelong restrictions on social relationships and pride of a superior intellectualism and its fashionable aloofness were no good in the new world that was taking shape. While thus strength was added to the radical thinking processes of the immediately previous generation, the radical thinking process itself was subjected to the corrective touch of actual realities in life through the realization that we had to gain political and economic freedom to shape our ends to any purpose. Politics, therefore, occupied the foreground and all life was regulated in terms of a coming democracy. All energies were bent to the one purpose of enlightening masses on their rights and awakening them to political consciousness. The Vignana Chandrika was founded by a band of young men and the first book published in that series was the Life of Abraham Lincoln the father of the famous definition of democracy as "the rule of the people, for the people, by the people." This was at the end of 1906. The Kistna Patrika, the one prominent Telugu weekly at the time, strengthened in its tone. The Andhrabhashabhi Vardhani Samajam of Masulipatam came into existence and contributed a steady stream of literature alongside of the Vignana Chandrika. Speaking in Telugu for public purposes developed on an unprecedented scale, producing the first great public speakers of the day. Fine patriotic poetry and song reverberated through the air.

The first Adult Education endeavor in Andhradesa on a mass scale was the Vandemataram Night School started at Rajahmundry in 1907 by the leading students of the training college. It produced such an awakening that the later incidents at Rajahmundry, including the college strike as a protest against the conduct of the then principal Mark Hunter, rustications on a mass scale, and the like, happened. The Coconada riot case, in which Dr. Kemp figured as the central cause arousing public indignation against himself, and in which a number of people were tried and sentenced to various terms of imprisonments, was an unfortunate incident in itself, but it had its effect in arousing popular interest in current events. The national education scheme was first taken up at Rajahmundry and it blossomed forth in vigor at Masulipatam. A scheme to found the national college was drawn up and the preliminaries were set on foot. All these currents in public life had brought the two sections of the Andhra land the Circars and the Rayalaseema closer by the fact that the chief actors on the stage, at the moment, belonged to the two areas. The triple boycott of schools, courts and foreign goods had been launched. In conjunction with the national education endeavor and the literary activity for which, of course, at that time, only a small number of young men were responsible, the triple boycott appeared to catch fire. It was in the interests of the then bureaucratic Government to remove inconvenient leaders of the masses from the field. They were few. Therefore, by the exercise of a little extra harshness, it was easy, the authorities thought, to stem the rising tide. So the Swaraj sedition case was launched (1908) and the supposed arch conspirator of the day was consigned to rigorous jail life for three years.

The leaven had however worked. While the Vandemataram prisoners, whose All-India leader was Tilak with six years of rigorous sentence, were in jail, politics, no doubt, suffered but the mass movements inaugurated persisted in other spheres of life. For the Andhras, the Andhra Patrika made its appearance from Bombay in 1909. The Andhra Jateeyakalasala became an established fact in 1910. The Vignana Chandrika and the Andhrabhashabhivardhani flourished. The swadesi movement, more especially so far as wearing apparel was concerned, stood its ground. The Andhra movement was slowly forming in the minds of men. By about 1911, synchronizing with the release of some of the political leaders (Tilak had to come out of Jail later in 1914), the Andhras were fairly on the way to launch their movement. The earlier cultural leadership under the Telugu Pandit Viresalingam had resulted in the founding of just a few libraries - the Viresalingam library at Kumudavalli being a very well known institution at the time. The feeling of patriotism aroused by the Vandemataram movement could not be satisfied on the political side and so arose a wave of enthusiasm for the founding of public libraries for the mass of the people on the cultural side. This activity was very much in evidence between 1912-1914. It was in the later year that the Andhradesa Library Association was formed. Encouraged by the wide spread demand for libraries and consequently for books, publication of light literature and journalism of a miscellaneous type came into existence. The Andhra Pracharini Grandhamala deserves a mention in this connection. The first Andhra Conference was actually held in 1913 and the Andhra Patrika was established in 1914 as a daily from Madras. The Andhra activities in Madras during this period, commencing with the inauguration of the Library endeavor, brought all sections of the Andhra area together and Andhra influence in Madras was really at its height between 1914 and 1921. It was during this period, in 1916, that a band of enthusiasts started the present Madras Andhra Sabha. Sri P T. Thyagaraya Chetti, was elected the President. One of the main activities of the Sabha was development of culture. The library was the chief instrument through which this objective was sought to be attained. One was started by the enthusiastic munificence of Swami Venkatachalam Chetti who was the Sabha's treasurer at the time. The Andhra then was a leader of the city. It was again during this period that attempt was made to present to the Andhras a history of the world; and the Andhra Vignana Sarvaswam, or, the Andhra Encyclopedia, with which is connected the name of our beloved brother and famous Andhra Scholar and research savant K. V. Lakshmana Rao, as the Cheif Editor, was started. It was during this period again that the first piece of Bhavakavitvam saw the light of day and started the new school of Telugu Poetic writing. Sri Royaprolu Subba Rau's Trinakankanam was published in 1913. Under the patronage of the Maharaja of Pittapuram. The work of the Andhra Nighantu: started a little later, with the founding of the Andhra Sahitya Parishad, or, Andhra Academy whose soul was Jayanti Ramayya Pantulu who contributed a great deal to the classical side of Andhra Literary activity.

1916 to 1919 may be characterized as the Home Rule period in Indian History. The Andhradesa was fully in the Home Rule movement and what all could be achieved through extensive propaganda was so well achieved that when Gandhiji began his movement as the leader of India in 1920 he paid tributes to the Andhradesa which no other part of India received. If Andhras deserved any part of the praise so bestowed by Gandhiji, there is not the slightest doubt that it must go to the silent workers who, through the rural library service, brought to the doors of the villagers the knowledge of the outside world and prepared masses of men to act at the bidding of the leader in proper time. It must be said here that, with the very best results Gandhiji's movement achieved, it had also adverse effects in one direction. The advanced Andhra-even in the library movement, it was only some of the coastal districts that had progressively developed was so absorbed in Gandhian discipline that he let go his enthusiasm for the all round Adult Education endeavor so much so that, in certain quarters, advantage was taken of the situation and reports were spread that the Andhra Library movement was defunct. A light cannot be hid under cotton. The Andhra Library movement is all alive. Since 1935 it has taken up the most essential part of Adult Education work at present - propagation of Literacy Endeavour. The Andhra Library movement has adopted unique methods - more especially the Yatra methods, wherein a group of workers visits on foot an entire Firka at a time for ten days or more and strengthens the work that is already under way. In spite of the withdrawal of Government grants to libraries for a number of years we have six hundred rural libraries still running in Andhradesa. In no other part of India, probably, are there so many libraries run by Village Panchayats as in the Andhra land. Equally is it true that, except as a University attempt in the Madras University and in Baroda, no where else in India is so serious an attempt being made to train Library workers and make them fit as teachers of Adults also charged with the work of removing illiteracy.

The Andhradesa proposes to hold this year the fourth South Indian Adult Education Conference. It runs in May - its usual class for training of workers. After all is said, however, we have to admit that our progress is still very slow. The Literacy endeavor has not yet caught fire. Books for Adult Culture have not yet come into the field. Our proposed central office building at Patamatalanka has yet to be achieved. This journal itself is having very hard times. We know we are in the hands of a Higher Power that shall not let us down.

We are glad that amidst the darkest gloom that surrounds, just a ray of hope is shooting; and the Provincial Government - though of the Advisor type -- has allocated funds for distribution to the libraries. It is our earnest prayer that our library organizations do take active steps to secure and utilize these library grants to good purpose and, during the coming year, make the fullest endeavor to remove illiteracy from our land.

We believe it is also permissible here to make a special appeal to the District Boards, Municipalities and the Government to arrange for training of Adult Education teachers on a mass scale; for, as the correspondent of the London times quoted heretofore puts it Adult Education is a specialized branch of work and the teaching methods of one branch of Education (University or School) obviously cannot be applied to a different branch.

It is all very well to make speeches, to express sympathies but nothing serves so well as service. To this service men have to be equipped. The Adult is a man of business. He approaches you only if he knows it pays him to approach you. But unfortunately for the Adult Education worker, the interests of adults in the mass are so diverse and spread over such a vast field as social life itself that no uniform preparation for Adult Education work will be of assistance. The worker has, at short notice, to equip himself to cater to the interests of the different types of human groups that are represented in the learners. Therefore, it is, that after long experience, it has been felt that the training and equipment of an Adult Education worker must be separately planned and intensively carried out to obtain proper results. We therefore feel that in the coming year more and more stress should be laid on training of men for Adult Education work by which is primarily meant (1) Removal of Illiteracy and (2) Library or follow up service.

---