This satire shows that the main focus of education is directed on the school building, the textbooks, and the authorities, while the child and its needs and the "method of nature" are neglected. He also calls schools robot-producing factories[15] that destroy individuality and true learning, are merely focusing on exams, and do not let their students mature. And for that they must have all their faculties fully developed in the atmosphere of freedom. After dropping out of school by 15, the intellectual, artistic, and extremely progressive and liberal atmosphere at home revealed to him how much joy and freedom learning could and should encompass.
Declaration of Independence of the Spirit In the yearthe Indian social reformer and poet Rabindranath Tagore had a letter exchange with the French novelist and pacifist, Romain Rolland, who became most famous for his biographies of Tolstoy, Gandhi, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. The war has thrown our ranks into disarray.
The majority of intellectuals have placed their science, their art and their mind at the service of States. We do not wish to accuse or reproach anybody.
We know the weakness of individual souls and the elemental strength of great collective currents: Let this experience at least serve us for the future! And first of all, let us take note of the disasters that have resulted from the almost total abdication of the intelligence of the world and its voluntary subjection to the forces let loose.
To the pestilence which is corroding Europe in body and spirit, thinkers and artists have added an incalculable amount of poisoned hate; they have searched in the arsenal of their knowledge, their memory and their imagination for old and new reasons, historical, scientific, logical and poetic reasons, for hating; they have laboured to destroy love and understanding between men.
And in so doing they have disfigured, dishonoured, debased and degraded Thought, whose ambassadors they were. They have made it an instrument of passions and perhaps without knowing it of the egotistic interests of a social or political clan, of a state, of a country or of a class.
And now from this savage struggle, from which all the warring nations, victorious and vanquished, are emerging bruised, impoverished and in their heart of hearts though they do not admit it to themselves ashamed and humiliated at their orgy of madness, Thought Rabindranath tagore contribution towards education fallen with them, compromised by their conflict.
Let us extricate the spirit from these compromises, these humiliating alliances, this secret slavery! The spirit is the servant of none. It is we who are servants of the spirit. We have no other master.
We are born to bear its torch, to defend it, to rally round it all those who have strayed. Our part, our duty is to maintain a fixed point, to point out the polar star, amidst the whirl of passions in the night. Amongst these passions of pride and mutual destruction, we shall choose none; we shall reject all.
We serve Truth alone which is free, with no frontiers, with no limits, with no prejudices of race or caste. Of course we shall not dissociate ourselves from the interests of Humanity!
We shall work for it, but for it as a whole. We do not recognise nations. We recognise the People - one and universal, - the People who suffer, who struggle, who fall and rise again, and who ever march forward on the rough road, drenched with their sweat and their blood, - the People comprising all men, all equally our brothers.
The truths that save us have always been uttered by the few and rejected by the many and have triumphed through their failures. It is enough for me to know that the higher conscience of Europe has been able to assert itself in one of her choicest spirits through the ugly clamours of passionate politics; and I gladly hasten to accept your invitation to join the ranks of those freed souls, who in Europe have conceived the project of a Declaration of Independence of the Spirit.
It is our duty to see that the terrible suffering of the War does not recur. We call for some definite step towards complete disarmament, and the demilitarizing of the mind of civilized nations. The most effective measure towards this would be the universal abolition of conscription.
We therefore ask the League of Nations to propose the abolition of compulsory military service in all countries as a first step towards true disarmament. It is our belief that conscript armies, with their large corps of professional officers, are a grave menace to peace.
Conscription involves the degradation of human personality, and the destruction of liberty.
Barrack life, military drill, blind obedience to commands, however unjust and foolish they may be, and deliberate training for slaughter undermine respect for the individual, for democracy and human life.
It is debasing human dignity to force men to give up their lives, or to inflict death against their will, or without conviction as to the justice of their action. The State which thinks itself entitled to force its citizens to go to war will never pay proper regard to the value and happiness of their lives in peace.
Moreover, by conscription the militarist spirit of aggressiveness is implanted in the whole male population at the most impressionable age.
By training for war men come to consider war as unavoidable and even desirable. By the universal abolition of conscription, war will be made less easy. The Government of a country which maintains conscription has little difficulty in declaring war, for it can silence the whole population by a mobilization order.
When Government have to depend for support upon the voluntary consent of their peoples, they must necessarily exercise caution in their foreign policies. In the first draft of the Covenant of the League of Nations, President Wilson proposed to make conscription illegal in affiliated countries.
It is our duty to restore the original spirit which created the League, a spirit shared by many of those who fought in the war, and professed by many of the statesmen of the countries concerned. By the universal abolition of conscription we can take a decisive step towards peace and liberty.
Mahatma Gandhi joined the signatories who stressed the Anti-Conscription Manifesto publicly; it was signed among others by: The first step towards the abolition of the military spirit is no doubt abolition of conscription.
But the reformers will have to put up an immense struggle to secure State action in the desired direction. · Rabindranath Tagore therefore said, "service to man is service to god". All should develop social relationship and fellow-feeling from the beginnings of one's life.
Education aims at developing the individual personality as well as social characters which enables him to live as a worthy benjaminpohle.com The aims of education as reflected in educational institution founded by Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan are as follows: (1) Self Realization: Spiritualism is the essence of humanism; this concept has been reflected in Tagore's educational philosophy.
Full text of "Tagore: his educational theory and practice and its impact on Indian education /" See other formats. She has edited The Oxford India Tagore: Selected Writings on Education and Nationalism (OUP ), Rabindranath Tagore: My Life in My Words (Penguin Books, ), A Difficult Friendship: Letters of Edward Thompson and Rabindranath Tagore – (OUP ).
Explain Rabindranath Tagore's Plan of village reconstruction.
Discuss the British policy towards Tibet from the end of the nineteenth century to the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon. (About words). · Rabindranath Tagore (also known as Rabindranath Thakur) was a prominent Indian poet and author who is one of the most celebrated literary figures of 20th century.
His excellence in literature made Rabindranath Tagore become the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in benjaminpohle.com