Why did Mahatma Gandhi want to teach children handicrafts?
According to Mahatma Gandhi, education should be all-round, drawing out of the best in child and man, encompassing body, mind and spirit. His beliefs were that literacy is not the end of education and not even the beginning. He thought that literacy was only one of the means by which men and women could be educated. Therefore, he thought that the child’s education should begin by teaching them useful handicrafts and enabling them to create something from the moment they begin training. “I hold that the highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education. Only every handicraft has to be taught not merely mechanically as is done today but scientifically, i.e. the child should know the why and the wherefore of every process,” quotes by Gandhi.
Suggested Q&A
Social Studies · Class 8- Social StudiesClass 8What was Birsa’s vision of a golden age? Why do you think such a vision appealed to the people of the region?
- Social StudiesClass 8What accounts for the anger of the tribals against the dikus?
- Social StudiesClass 8How did the powers of tribal chiefs change under colonial rule?
- Social StudiesClass 8What problems did shifting cultivators face under British rule?
- Social StudiesClass 8State whether true or false: (a) Jhum cultivators plough the land and sow seeds. (b) Cocoons were bought from the Santhals and sold by the traders at five times the purchase price. (c) Birsa urged his followers to purify themselves, give up drinking liquor and stop believing in witchcraft and sorcery. (d) The British wanted to preserve the tribal way of life.
- Social StudiesClass 8(a) The British described the tribal people as ____________. (b) The method of sowing seeds in jhum cultivation is known as ____________. (c) The tribal chiefs got ____________ titles in central India under the British land settlements. (d) Tribals went to work in the ____________ of Assam and the ____________ in Bihar.