After the decision at the Congress Haripura Session in 1938 to set up an institution to overlook the implementation of Basic Education, the HTS was formed and located – not very surprisingly – at Sevagram Ashram. According to the mandate of the Indian National Congress, its aim was ‘to work out in a
495 From the resolution passed by the Indian National Congress at its 1938 Haripura Session, see also: Basic National Education. Syllabus for the Training of Pre-Basic Teachers (Sevagram, Wardha: Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1945).
496 NCERT, “Position Paper National Focus Group on Work and Education”, p. 5.
497 J.C. Aggarwal, Documents on Primary Education in India 1792-1992 (Delhi: Doaba House, 1992), p. 58.
498 Hindustani Talimi Sangh, Eighth Annual Report 1938-46 (Sevagram, Wardha: Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1946), p. 6.
consolidated manner a programme of Basic national education and to recommend it for acceptance to those who are in control of State or private education’.499 The HTS constitution specified that further aims were to work out syllabi, conduct, aid and supervise institutions and training centres for teachers and workers, publish literature and carry out research work, and ‘take necessary steps for the acceptance of its programme of National Education’.500 The Sangh was to meet at least twice a year and to work under the guidance of Gandhi. The organizational structure of HTS was divided into a president, a treasurer, a secretary and a managing committee of five to seven members.501 In 1938, HTS had twenty-six members. In the beginning the president of HTS was Zakir Husain (and he remained in this position for ten years, until 1948), secretary was E.W.
Aryanayakam and Shrikrishnadas Jaju was treasurer. They understood that their most important task at that time was to facilitate the ‘practical application of the new scheme of education and the development of a technique of co-ordinated teaching centred round a basic craft’.502
As far as strategy was concerned, after commencing its work HTS recommended the new scheme be implemented in so-called ‘compact areas’. These were to be selected due to the fact that they were lacking educational infrastructure altogether, in order to avoid competition between the new and the old schools.503 HTS also operated a central library in the ashram.504 After 1945 and the decision to move towards a broader understanding of Nai Talim beyond the stage of Basic Education (see also next section), HTS was accordingly extended into five departments: 1. Pre-Basic Education, 2. Basic Education, 3. Post-Basic Education, 4. Training of Teachers, 5. Adult Education.505 Consequently, its objective changed in 1945, according to the broader vision of Nai Talim: ‘The object of the
499 Hindustani Talimi Sangh, Sixth Annual Report 1938–1944 (Sevagram, Wardha: Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1944), p. 1.
500 Hindustani Talimi Sangh, Constitution (Sevagram, Wardha: Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1945), p.
2. 501 In 1938 these members were: E. W. Aryanayakam, Asha Devi, Zakir Husain, Saiydain and Vinoba Bhave.
502 Hindustani Talimi Sangh, Third Annual Report 1940–41 (Sevagram, Wardha: Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1941), p. 1.
503 Hindustani Talimi Sangh, Sixth Annual Report 1938–1944, p. 11.
504 Sykes, A Picture and Programme of Post Basic Education, p. 42.
505 Hindustani Talimi Sangh, Nai Talim at Sevagram. An Account of the Institutions of ‘Nai Talim’
or ’Work-Centred Education’ Conducted by the Hindustani Talimi Sangh at Sevagram (Sevagram, Wardha: Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1948).
Sangh shall be to work out a programme of National Education for life through manual activity and handicrafts.’506 Branches of HTS were also in established, but there is no further information available on their operation.
E.W. Aryanayakam (1889–1967) and his wife, Asha Devi, were key figures in the educational activities in Sevagram, and also in the work of HTS, spreading the model throughout India. Aryanayakam was a Christian of Tamil origin from Jaffna (Ceylon, today Sri Lanka) and had studied theology in Serampore, as well as education at Edinburgh University. He had also worked in England for a few years for the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). After returning to India he worked as a teacher in Shantiniketan between 1924 and 1934, and also accompanied Tagore on his tours in South-East Asia, Europe and the USA. Asha Devi was an educated Bengali from Shantiniketan. In 1934, after their marriage and Gandhi’s invitation to work with him, they moved to Sevagram and started their work there.507 A contemporary of the couple wrote about them:
He and his wife led a simple life on a grand monthly allowance of Rs 75 each. It was a pleasure to watch him handle a teachers’ training class or a class of small boys and girls. Like his Master, he would go on spinning while talking to visitors or giving directions to his staff. The couple brought to the austere atmosphere of Sevagram a touch of the aesthetic sense of Santiniketan.508
After coming to Sevagram, E.W. Aryanayakam first worked as the principal of the high school Nava Bharat Vidyalaya, operated by the Marwari Educational Society of Wardha and founded by Jamnalal Bajaj. This Society also organized the Wardha Conference in 1937. After 1938, E.W. Aryanayakam also became secretary of the National Planning Committee (NPC) and it later took over many central ideas of Basic Education. Asha Devi published a book on Gandhi’s education ideas in 1966.509
The most important events organized by the HTS were the All-India Basic Education Conferences, which were probably held on an annual basis.
Documentation on the conferences in form of reports is available for 1939, 1941,
506 Hindustani Talimi Sangh, Eighth Annual Report 1938-46, p. 28, emphasis added.
507 Unfortunately, I could find only very limited biographical information on the couple in: N.
Krishnaswamy: “Education: For Life, Through Life”, http://www.mkgandhi.org/short/ev38.htm (retrieved 19.9.2014).
508 Ibid.
509 Asha Devi Aryanayakam, Gandhi the Teacher (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966).
1949, 1950 and 1951. Some of the conferences also organized an exhibition for the general public. During these advertising events, teachers and students from Nai Talim institutions presented their craft products and teaching materials.510 Apart from the organization of such events, HTS was very active in publication.
The materials produced by HTS that I could find during my research total about thirty publications. These are syllabi for the different stages of Nai Talim, annual reports and conference reports, and texts on the concept of Nai Talim, as well as advertising material about the implementation. From 1952 onwards, HTS also published the journal Nayee Talim for workers and teachers concerned with the implementation of Basic Education.511