27. Need for Social Studies and Research-To impart correct social vision is an essential part of true education. While graduates in law, medicine and engineering acquire specialised information and technical skill, they should also be inspired by high social aims as no groups can pursue their private ends without regard to the social consequences of their activities. We do not work in a social vocuum. No man should expect to benefit from social order and progress without contributing to it. Individual freedom entails social responsibility.

Our students must be educated in the ethical values and the concept of human relations on which our political system rests, in the structure and processes of government. They must learn to know the imperfections of actual procedures and institutions through which government works. We must widen and deepen their social conscience and. indicate how, though reason is set up as the final arbiter in human relations, the appeal to emotion and prejudice is more common among us than the appeal to reason.

We should not be tempted by the prestige of natural sciences and their immediately tangible results to give them a disproportionate place in our teaching programmes and research budgets. There is at least as much research to be undertaken in the social sciences as in the natural sciences. The pattern of inquiry and the canons of validity in social studies are somewhat different from those employed in natural sciences. The warning against the insistence on the same standards of precision in all fields is as old as Aristotle. "Dis- cussion will be adequate if it has as much clearness as the subject matter admits of, for precision is not to be sought for alike in all discussions. It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs.", We cannot expect more exactness than the subject permits.

28. Training for Leadership-Training for leadership in the professions and in public life is one of the central aims of university education, which it is difficult to realise. President Truman remarked: "Our national policies must be administered by men of broad experience, mature outlook and sound judgment. But there is a critical shortage of such men-men who possess the capacity to deal with affairs of State". He went on-"We have been much less successful in obtaining persons with broad understanding and an aptitude for management. We need men who can turn a group of specialists into a working team and who can combine imagination

and practicability into a sound public programme. Men trained for this kind of administrative and political leadership are rare indeed" .1

If it is the function of universities to train men and women for wise leadership, they must enable young men and women to read with insight the records of human experience as they are expressed in world's literature, to know the nature and consequences of ethical values, to sense the meaning of the social forces operating in the world to-day and comprehend the complexities and intricacies of life in all its immensity, physical, social and spiritual. Sciences supply us with the tools of civilisation but the guidance for their use does not come from them. Our obsession with the temporal, our passion for ever increasing velocity of movement require to be tempered by attention to the world of values, the 'unchanging forms' of Plato.

We are building a civilisation, not a factory or a workshop. The quality of a civilisation depends not on the material equipment or the political machinery but on the character of men. The major task of education is the improvement of character.

Education must carry out at appropriate levels a combination of general, scientific, artistic and technical education for students of varying abilities and occupational objectives.

IV.-Liberty

29. University Autonomy-Freedom of individual development is the basis of democracy. Exclusive control of education by the State has been an important factor in facilitating the maintenance of totalitarian tyrannies. In such States institutions of higher learning controlled and managed by governmental agencies act like mercenaries, promote the political purposes of the State, make them acceptable to an increasing number of their populations and supply them with the weapons they need. We must resist, in the interests of our own democracy, the trend towards the governmental domination of the educational process.

Higher education is, undoubtedly, an obligation of the State but State aid is not to be confused with State control over academic policies and practices. Intellectual progress demands the maintenance of the spirit of free inquiry. The pursuit and practice of truth regardless of consequences has been the ambition of universities. Their prayer is that of the dying Goethe: "More light" or that of Ajax in the mist "Light, though I perish in the light".

1 Quoted in Higher Education for American Democracy, 1948 pp. 88-89.

Professional integrity requires that teachers should be as free to speak on controversial issues as any other citizens of a free country. An atmosphere of freedom is essential for developing this 'morality of the mind'.

The respect in which the Universities of Great Britain are held is due to the freedom from governmental interference which they enjoy constitutionally and actually. Our universities should be released from the control of politics.

30. The Spirit of Science and Social Conservatism-The active, principle of science is discovery and every new discovery involves modification of hitherto accepted knowledge and so has to overcome the inertia of what is already established. When we adopt the scientific method of thought, we demand that we reach conclusions from tested data only and our conclusions are tentative, since our data may be enlarged. Readiness for change marks the scientific attitude while resistance to change is normally the attitude of defenders of tradition. The general aversion to change common to all static societies is hostile to scientific progress.

31. Liberal Education-All education is expected to be liberal. It should free us from the shackles of ignorance, prejudice and un- founded belief. If we are incapable of achieving the good life, it is due to faults in our inward being, to the darkness in us. The process of education is the slow conquering of this darkness. To lead us from darkness to light', to free us from every kind of domination except that of reason, is the aim of education.

V.-Equality

32. The Democratic Way of Life-Democracy as a way of life and not a mere political arrangement requires of its adherents a jealous regard not only for their own rights but equally for the similar rights of others. It is based on the principle of equal freedom and equal rights for all its members, regardless of race, religion, sex, occupation or economic status. Education is the great instrument of social emancipation by which a democracy establishes, maintains and protects the spirit of equality among its members.

33. Freedom of Conscience-If we develop the social temper of democracy we will have confidence in one another. We will allow freedom of conscience to others as it is our faith that others like ourselves are competent to work out their own salvation.

1 tamaso ma jyotir gamaya.

34. Equality of Opportunity-Equal opportunity does not mean identical opportunity for all. It means the equal availability of education for every qualified person. Our system must provide for every young person education to the extent that he can profit from it and of a character best designed to assure the maximum development of his nature. It must of course recognise differences of gifts and interests.

Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights". They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood".

Education confined to those who come from nobility, landed gentry or professional classes is suited to a society built on an economic and social hierarchy of classes. In a democratic society, the ,opportunity of learning must be open not only to an elite but to all those who have to carry the privilege and responsibility of citizen- ship. Education is a universal right, not a class privilege.

The educational attainments of our people are far below what is necessary either for effective individual living or for the satis- factory maintenance of society. For the great majority of our boys and girls the kind and amount of education they may hope to get ,depends not on their own abilities but on the economic status of their family or the accident of their birth. The earnings of a very large part of our population are so low that they find it difficult to have even the barest necessities of physical existence. Low family income together with the rising costs of education is an almost im- possible barrier to college education for many young people. There is no relation, however, between the ability to profit from a college education and the ability to pay for it. Speaking of the mathematical genius, Ramanujan, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said in his Discovery of India: "Ramanujan's brief life and death are symbolic of conditions in India. Of our millions how few get education at all, how many live on the verge of starvation, of even those who get some education, how many have nothing to look forward to but a clerkship in some office on a pay that is usually far less than the unemployment dole in England? If life opened its gates to them and offered them food and healthy conditions of living and education and opportunities of growth, bow many among these, millions would be eminent scientists, educationists, technicians, industrialists writers and artists, helping to build a new India and a new world?" We cannot let our potential human resources go undiscovered and undeveloped.

In distribution of educational opportunity there should be no caprice, prejudice, favouritism, special privilege, or other arbitrary action. In general each person should, have educational opportunity of the kind and to the extent that is suited to his capacity and interest and which represents his fair share of the total educational resources. Application of this principle may be adjusted to the needs of society and to humane considerations. Should society need more technicians and fewer clerical workers, educational opportunity may be shifted accordingly. Exceptional ability is socially so valuable that it may be given exceptional opportunity. Special training for retarded persons may be justified by the need to make them self- sustaining and not a burden to society. Humane considerations may lead to special educational provisions for the blind and other handicapped persons. Wise administration of educational resources must rest on the integrity and judgment of the State.

35. Economic Barriers-Owing to economic difficulties many young people are not getting the chance to which they are entitled and the nation is deprived of a large amount of potential leadership M. science and scholarship, industry and commerce. If we are to give substance and actuality to the claim of equality we profess, we must devise a system in which qualified individuals are not prevented by economic barriers from attaining the kind of education for which they are suited by their aptitudes and interests.

The President's Commission on Higher Education in America "recommends that in publicly controlled institutions there be no tuition or other required fees for the thirteenth and fourteenth school years, irrespective of whether they are offered by a 2-year or a 4year college; and that fees above the fourteenth school year be re- duced at the earliest possible moment to the level prevailing in 1939".1 Conditions in India are much worse. If we are to enable even the poorest to obtain not merely some but the best education they are capable of, we must organise a large and generous system of scholar- ships which will provide a ladder from the bottom to the university along which any child can climb to the limit of his capacity. These scholarships should cover not only tuition costs but costs of board, lodge and other living needs.

36. Communal Ratios-The principle of equality in regard to educational rights is set forth in Section 23 of the Constitution: "No minority whether based on religion, community or language shall be discriminated against in regard to the admission of any person belonging to such minority into any educational institution maintained by the State". Unfortunately in some Government, not University, Colleges in South India there is what is called a

1 Equalising and Expanding Individual Opportunity.

"rationing of seats" among members of different communities.1 The fundamental right is the right of the individual, not of the community Every young man must have an equal chance with others to make the most of his abilities. To curtail the chance to learn for members of particular groups is inconsistent with the Fundamental Right. It would tend to increase the stratification of our society. To insist on quotas for communities would be to assume that the nation is composed of separate and self-sufficient groups, which is a negation of our national ideal and democratic principle. Discrimination practices generate tensions and the spiritual damage caused by them is not measurable. Education should not be used for creating or deepening the very inequalities which it is designed to prevent. Progress for the nation requires that access to higher education should be determined by the interest, and ability of the student. There is much to be said for the suggestion that the information about caste and religion should not be asked for from candidates for admission to colleges and universities.

37. Assistance to Backward Communities--We cannot banish social situations by democratic phrases. Our Constitution has abolished communal electorates, privileges and weightages for all except the scheduled castes. We are in great sympathy with the anxiety of these scheduled castes- and backward communities to raise their cultural level. Their backwardness is the result of a long, period of unequal opportunity and it should be remedied as speedily as possible. We must provide them with additional assistance which will enable them to give their children equal educational opportunities with others in the nation.

By expanding the facilities in the colleges and increasing their, number, we will be able to move towards equalisation of educational opportunities. But to deny to the most talented members of the nation, Brahmin or non-Brahmin, Christian or Muslim, opportunities for self-development is not only unjust to them but is unfair to the nation which is deprived of high class professional ability and social competence. Besides, we live in a competitive world in which mind yields itself only to an ascendancy of mind.

1 Government of Madras issued an order No. 1254-Education, dated 17th May, 1948 directing' 'that the following communal proportion be kept in view and be observed as far as possible in regard to admission in the Engineering College from the Academic 'year 1948-1949:-

         
                  Non-Brahmins (Hindus)                   6 out of 14
        
                  Backwards Hindu Communities             2 out of 14
        
                  Brahmins                                2 out of 14
        
                  Harijans                                2 out of 14
        
                  Anglo-Indians and Indian Christians     1 out of 14
        
                  Muslims                                 1 out of 14

In the present conditions of our society the needs of justice to the, members of the scheduled castes and the communities declared to be backward by the government of the Province or the State can be met by reserving a certain proportion of the seats in any college maintained by the State for qualified students of these communities and throwing open the rest of the seats to members of all communities by open competition. The percentage of reservation shall not, however, exceed a third of the total number of seats. The principle of reservation may be adopted for a period of ten years.

VI.-Fraternity : National

38. Extra-Curricular Activities-Fraternity refers to the need for fraternal concord and good-will among the people of India and the world. It can be fostered in educational institutions among the members of different communities, if we do not emphasise differences of caste, community and religion. In the hostels and playgrounds and unions, students should be trained in the democratic way of life. The extracurricular activities of the college provide avenues through which students could participate in making decisions and carrying on joint undertakings. Habits of mutual trust and cooperation and qualities of fair play, patience, disinterestedness, consideration for others, are acquired through practice. Students cannot learn these if the institutions are run on authoritarian lines. We cannot teach the lessons of freedom by the methods of servitude. Students should be encouraged to participate in the social and cultural activities, of the areas in which the colleges are situated so that they may become alive to the needs of the society in which they live.

39. Indiscipline-We hear a great deal today of indiscipline among students. The university has split into two groups. The world of teachers is separate from that of the students. The students adopt a trade union attitude to the authorities. They have little respect for their teachers and little concern for academic standards. They are convinced that the teachers are less informed than they about the illness of the society in which we live. A restless youth, discontented with its older generation, conscious of talents and cramped by lack of opportunity, which draws. simultaneously towards and away from the Indian pattern of life, eager, thoughtful, suspicious, requires to be treated with understanding by the colleges and the universities. The teacher who shows in the class room or outside any interest in the problems which are alive for the student has a following. The young people are in desperate need of

assistance. Out of the mass of individuals who have enrolled in a college, we have to build a community. The university surroundings do not provide adequate opportunities for corporate life.

40. The Residential System-In ancient times the teacher and the pupil shared a common life. They shared the same simple food and life and in the process was established a close relation between the teacher and the pupils. Education was regarded as a co-operative enterprise. The imperceptible action of the teachers' character, devotion to learning and the spirit of dedication on the growing minds of the pupils was the most valuable part of any education The teacher not only imparts instruction but transmits the power of spirit. Compulsory residence within college walls which is required in many universities of the world assumes this invaluable interaction between the matured character of the teacher and the still unformed mind of the pupils. The absence of this personal relationship is to no small extent responsible for the increasing indiscipline. Numbers swamp "humanity" and make education mechanical.

41. College a Community Centre-The College should be a community centre and not merely a class room or a hotel. In the dormitories, in student government, in clubs and organisations, in the varied social, recreational, intellectual life of the college, there are unique opportunities for the practice of the democratic way of life. They should be regarded as an integral part of the educational programme. Members of the teaching staff may participate in them actively, not to dictate or supervise but to advise and help, to make available to youth their wide knowledge and mature experience.

42. National Discipline-There has been in recent years, a deterioration of the moral fibre. Many of the students as well as teachers are lacking in moral purpose and integrity. Many of those in power are in the grin of greed, selfishness and hatred. In our visits to the colleges and the universities, we were impressed by the need for improvement in national character and discipline. Universities ought to be examples to the nation, in fair dealing and decent behaviour. Some of the universities, we regret to say, are not models of decency and dignity. We can suggest only improved machinery giving less scope for intrigue and rackets. But no improvement of machinery can do much without a change of spirit. University personnel must develop a greater sense of social responsibility for educational and national progress, a preference for quality over quantity. The teachers can do much to raise the tone of the universities. It is in educational institutions that we can train character, build personality, by the discipline of body, intelligence and will.

43. The Need for Culture-What holds a society together and gives the individual balance and perspective, is the possession of culture. Culture is intellectual alertness, receptiveness to beauty, humane feeling, social enthusiasm.

As the result of the vast expansion of the area of knowledge and the diversification of its content, the aim of teaching has become almost exclusively specialisation. It is the normal feature in pro- fessional colleges. Even in colleges for liberal arts and sciences, the tendency is to specialise and prepare for advanced study in one or the other special field. If society is not to disintegrate into an aggregate of individual specialists, we should endow the youth with a central core of values, transmit to them a cultural heritage. It alone can serve as a cohesive force in a society which is getting splintered by over-specialisation. It will confer a unity and con- sistency of aim on specialised vocational courses and make for a more abundant personal life and a freer social order.

44. The Un-Indian Character of Education-One of the serious complaints against the system of education which has prevailed in this country for over a century is that it neglected India's past, that it did not provide the Indian students with a knowledge of their own culture. It has produced in some cases the feeling that we are without roots, in others, what is worse, that our roots bind us to a world very different from that which surrounds us.

A British historian of Indian education observes:-"Our education has done far less for Indian Culture than for the material and political progress of India. She looks to our Schools and Colleges for equipment in the struggle for existence; for the secret of happy living, vivendi causae, she looks elsewhere"

45. Cultural Unity of India-Nations are not made chiefly by traders and politicians. They are made by artists and thinkers, saints and philosophers. National unity and progress require a deeper foundation than political and economic arrangements. It is the life of spirit that has shaped and unified our collective existence and has been the real bond of oneness among the Indian people. After centuries of stress and conflict India has gradually evolved a common civilisation, a collective consciousness which embraces wide varieties of temperament, tradition, ways of thought and belief. Our people belong to different provinces, speak their own languages, preserve their own habits and customs. There are sharp differences of temper, tradition and dialect. Despite all these there is a fundamental unity which binds the people together as members of one society with the same cultural loyalties.

Indian culture is like a palimpsest in which new characters do not entirely efface the old. In a Single social pattern fragments of different ages are brought together. It would be impossible to think of an India where no Moghuls ruled, where no Taj was built, where no Macaulay wrote his Minute on education. Indian culture is like a living- organism growing in richness and content. Primitive cultures are marked by extreme conservatism where social groups follow the same path of custom and convention with irrational persistence. Living cultures are dynamic and maintain their cultural pattern by a continuous effort of individual and social discipline.

46. Conflict in India's Soul-Two contradictory impulses have attracted Indian intellectuals. One is a jealous pride in Indian genius and tradition wholly distinct from those of the West. The other is the no less jealous desire to profit by the example of the West.

A revolutionary period is not generally inclined to respect the wisdom of the past, but to cultivate this disrespect would be to forego our spiritual heritage. There are treasures of spirit which may not be of any conceivable use in the struggle for material comfort, but if we are to be qualified to assist or resist the dominant tendencies of our age, we cannot afford to ignore the standards and ideals built by the austerity and abnegations of our ancestors across the centuries. The chief source of spiritual nourishment for any people must be its own past perpetually rediscovered and renewed. A society without a knowledge of the past which has made it would be lacking in depth and dignity.

47. Critical Study of the Past-This is not to romanticise the past filling the gaps of memory from the resources of imagination. India has suffered on account of her great weaknesses, her spirit of. reaction and narrow-mindedness. We must be critical and selective and use the past to illumine the present. We should not blindly give up the great values of our past nor should we cling to beliefs simply because they are ancient.' We should accept so much of ancient thought as is sympathetic to us.

Even in the darkest days of degradation, the light of India' culture never failed. It may have flickered but it was never extinguished. There were loving hands which cherished and tended it. To-day it is burning with a renewed glow. If it is to become a consuming flame, we must become aware of its past greatness and its, contemporary value.

1 Cf. Kalidasa: puranamity eva na sadhu sarvam na capi kavyam navamity avadyam.