[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Science, technology and education](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science) › [The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983) › c1 # The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c1: Front matter The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c1 - **Language:** English ### Front matter ### [c1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.1) DHARAMPAL • \*COLLECTED WRITINGS ### [c1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.2) Volume III ### [c1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.3) THE BEAUTIFUL TREE ### [c1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.4) DHARAMPAL • \*COLLECTED WRITINGS ### [c1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.5) Volume I Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century ### [c1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.6) Volume II Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition ### [c1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.7) \*\*Volume III\*\* \*\*The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education\*\* \*\*in the Eighteenth Century\*\* ### [c1.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.8) Volume IV Panchayat Raj and India's Polity ### [c1.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.9) Volume V Essays on Tradition, Recovery and Freedom ### [c1.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.10) THE BEAUTIFUL TREE ### [c1.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.11) \*Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century\* ### [c1.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.12) by Dharampal ### [c1.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.13) Other India Press Mapusa 403 507, Goa, India By Dharampal ### [c1.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.14) First Edition (1983) by Biblia Impex Second Edition (1995) by Keerthi Publishing House and AVP Printers and Publishers, Coimbatore ### [c1.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.15) \*This edition is published as part of a special collection of Dharampal’s writings, by:\* ### [c1.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.16) Other India Press Mapusa 403 507, Goa, India. ### [c1.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.17) Copyright © (2000) Dharampal ### [c1.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.18) Cover Design by Orijit Sen ### [c1.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.19) \*Distributed by:\* ### [c1.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.20) Other India Bookstore, Above Mapusa Clinic, Mapusa 403 507 Goa, India. Phone: 91-832-263306; 256479. Fax: 91-832-263305 ### [c1.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.21) \*OIP policy regarding environmental compensation:\* ### [c1.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.22) 5% of the list price of this book will be made available by Other India Press to meet the costs of raising natural forests on private and community lands in order to compensate for the partial use of tree pulp in paper production. ### [c1.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.23) ISBN No.: 81-85569-49-5 (HB) Set ISBN No.: 81-85569-50-9 (PB) Set ### [c1.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.24) Printed by Sujit Patwardhan for Other India Press at MUDRA, 383 Narayan, Pune 411 030, India. ### [c1.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.25) In memory of Shri Jayaprakash Narayan for his unflagging interest and guidance in this work. ### [c1.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.26) \*...That does not finish the picture. We have the education of this future state. I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished. The village schools were not good enough for the British administrator, so he came out with his programme. Every school must have so much paraphernalia, building, and so forth. Well, there were no such schools at all. There are statistics left by a British administrator which show that, in places where they have carried out a survey, ancient schools have gone by the board, because there was no recognition for these schools, and the schools established after the European pattern were too expensive for the people, and therefore they could not possibly overtake the thing. I defy anybody to fulfill a programme of compulsory primary education of these masses inside of a century. This very poor country of mine is ill able to sustain such an expensive method of education. Our state would revive the old village schoolmaster and dot every village with a school both for boys and girls.\* ### [c1.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.27) (MAHATMA GANDHI AT CHATHAM HOUSE, LONDON, OCTOBER 20, 1931) ### [c1.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.28) \*...I have not left off the pursuit of the subject of education in the villages during the pre-British period. I am in correspondence with several educationists. Those who have replied do support my view but do not produce authority that would be accepted as proof. My prejudice or presentiment still makes me cling to the statement I made at Chatham House. I don’t want to write haltingly in Harijan. You don’t want me merely to say that the proof I had in mind has been challenged by you!\* ### [c1.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1.29) (GANDHIJI TO SIR PHILIP HARTOG, SEGAON, AUGUST, 1939) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.dharampal-1983.c1) · Pramāṇa