2 February 2016 
3 hours

Continuation Devi Prasad Archive Box 56
Archive Box 56. The cover states: Articles on Gandhi and education / 1969-2001.
- “Gandhi’s Educational Revolution”
Typescript, carbon copy (poor quality). Author: Devi Prasad. Date: 1969. Format: A4. 4 pages.
The article was published in Christian Action: Gandhi Centenary Issue, 1969, p. 104-114.
In his article Prasad traces Gandhi’s ideas on education to Tagore (the Mango Grove University) and the educational practice at the Tolstoy farm. Gandhi is closely associated with basic education or learning through craft, productive work (spinning) and experience. Prasad writes: “The all-round development of the individual child was certainly at the centre of this scheme of education but it also had a very revolutionary social context. By having education centered round handicraft it at once abolished the division of intellectual and manual work. […] thus, it sought to do away in society at large also the division between the laboring classes and the intellectuals”. In 1944, after his release from prison, Gandhi intended to broaden the scope of his basic education: “It should include the education of everybody at every stage in life. […] The roots of Nai Talim [new education] go deeper. It is based on truth and non-violence in individual and collective life. Education is that which gives true freedom.”
- “True Education is Education for Satyagraha”
Typescript, carbon copy (poor quality plus corrections). Author: Devi Prasad. Date: 1980. Format: A4. 6 pages.
This article contains a good bit of overlap with the previous two, but in this one Prasad delves deeper into the similarities between Tagore’s and Gandhi’s view on education. And he compares the objectives of Nai Talim with that of Satyagraha. “The qualities that Gandhi ascribes to Satyagraha are the same as the impact that true education ought to have on its recipients. And a truly educated person is automatically a Satyagrahi for he or she will not be afraid of standing against injustice, nor will use violence of any kind facing the situation.” The point is that Satyagraha is not basically a fight or confrontation, it is a perspective of life, life of a civilized, courageous, fearless, truthful and humble person. A truly educated person will not tolerate oppression or exploitation, nor will impose these on others.
- “Gandhi the Educator (1869-1948)”
Print-out. Author: Devi Prasad. Date: 2000. Format: A4. 6 pages.
Synthesis of the previous articles intended for a broader audience. He departs from 19^th century British style colonial education in India as well as Gandhi’s own school experiences, and the need for a radical change. This time there is a bit more emphasis on Tolstoy’s influence on the foundation of the concepts of basic education and Nai Talim.
- “Education for a New Social Order”
Typescript (corrected in pen). Author: Devi Prasad. Date: 1977. Format: A4. 15 pages.
A much broader article on education, basically a long plea for a non-authoritarian style of education. At the heart of his article is a quote from Piaget: “If the right to educate implies that it envisions full development of the human personality and strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedom, it is important to understand that such an ideal cannot be attained by any of the common methods. […] On the contrary, they both imperiously demand a return by their very make-up to a lived experience and to freedom of investigation outside of which any acquisition of human values is only an illusion.”
So here they are, the two basic ingredients of a nonviolent social order: a lived experience and the freedom to investigate.
- “Educating for Living Truthfully, Creatively and in Harmony with All Existence: Gandhi’s View on Education”
Typescript, carbon copy. Author: Devi Prasad. No date [ca. 1990]. 12 pages.
A synthesis of much of Prasad’s writing on education and an informative introduction in Gandhi’s thoughts on education, his major influences and some of Gandhi’s own school experiences.
This article may well have been the basis for the much shorter article ‘Gandhi the Educator’ from 2000.
- “Education for Peace”
Typescript, carbon copy (very poor quality). Author: Devi Prasad. No date [ca. 1986]. Format: A4. 34 pages.
The typescript is not dated, but it contains a reference to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which had recently taken place.
Long winding article in which Prasad first defines and explains his concepts of education and peace. His conclusion on how to educate for peace: “Building of an educational program which will raise men and women for whom there would be no need of encouragement to disarmament and resistance to war because their nature would be such that they could not endure the state of degradation and of extreme moral corruption which makes possible any participation in war, direct or indirect. That is striving to make every truly educated person a satyagrahi.”

Archive Box 57.
The cover states: Articles on Gandhi’s perspective.
- “Nonviolence: Gandhi and the Minority Struggles”
Pamphlet, NVA Information Series, No. 2. Author: Devi Prasad. Publisher: NVA. Date: 1981. Format: A5. 16 pages.
The NVA is the Belgium based Non-Violent Alternatives. 
The pamphlet deals with Gandhi’s view on minorities, his experiences in South Africa that shaped that view, and how, as a result, Gandhi’s whole life became a symbol of the struggle of the minorities against the majorities. Majorities which, in turn, “tend to become oppressive or are controlled by some kind of oppressive forces. […] His struggles are examples and an inspiration for those who do not enjoy equal rights with the majority and who are feeling the injustice which they want to get rid of. For instance, the minorities, especially the non-white minorities in the Western world, the descendants in East Europe, and for those minorities which are suffering under racist and authoritarian regimes, such as the South African white regime. […] Satyagraha is a powerful weapon against oppression and inequality. It can be used by individuals, communities as well as nations. It is the weapon of the brave and the fearless.”
- “IFOR Report: But What About World War II?”
Journal. Publisher: IFOR, Netherlands. Date: April 1980. Format: A4. 16 pages.
This is a special issue on the perceived limits of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance. Any debate on the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance usually ends in the ultimate trump card, but what about the Nazi’s and World War II? Prasad’s contribution is entitled “Gandhi’s Attitude Towards Violent Struggles for Freedom” (4 pages). In it he quotes many passages from Gandhi’s articles and statements that have often been misconstrued as to mean that his adherence to nonviolence was situational rather than absolute, and that, for instance, he would have applauded a violent Polish response to both the German and Soviet invasion in 1939.
Prasad’s response is that Gandhi did sympathize with and admired those who fought bravely for justice and liberation, even with violent means if those were the only means at their disposal, bút “he upheld nonviolence as the only desirable force to achieve liberation worthy of the human race. His mission was to demonstrate the supremacy of nonviolence and to show that it is the weapon of the brave.”
- “Satyagraha: the Art of Defying Oppression Without Becoming Oppressor”
Original typescript. Author: Devi Prasad. Date: 1987. Format: A4. 31 pages.
An interesting article in which Prasad explores in depth a series of concepts – passive resistance, non-cooperation, direct action, civil disobedience and non-resistance – which are sometimes mistaken for Satyagraha. Although these all have their merits they differ from Satyagraha in so far as that it is a full philosophy. In Prasad’s view Satyagraha is a tree with many branches, including the concepts mentioned above, but many others as well.
In a nutshell “Satyagraha indicates a way to an oppression free world. It would be a world in which each and every person should be able to say: I shall not be afraid of any one, nor shall I do anything to make anyone else afraid of me.”

Box 57 is to be continued next week.