REFLECTIONS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

The Indian leaders were aware of the need of revolution in the political status of India, but at the same time, they were deeply concerned with the basic problems of the form and character of their future free society and their new culture. Therefore, the question of social reconstruction was discussed in its depth and that of culture from the viewpoint of the consequences of the impact of the west on the traditional and the emergence of the modern. Indian independence was not regarded as a matter of bread and butter alone, but far more as a search for the new ideals of life. In short, the question was what the Indian to live and die for was. 20th century witnessed the grand narrative of human freedom and Swaraj. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghose, M. K. Gandhi, Mahmud-al-Hasan and B.R. Ambedkar were few of the stalwarts that defined what meant “Indian Renaissance”. For them Culture, Education and the makings of Indian Nationalism were intertwined. These men were not merely political leaders, they were equally makers of opinion and their importance has to be judged as much by the ideas – moral, social and political, which they propounded as by the activities, which they organized. Nationalism, at least then, meant moral nationalism. Morality was the base of education and nation making. The question is: Have we forgotten this today?