Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-09

81 dbiOIl anu
which they sought to impose upon his
| visit so upset him that he forthwith
Cancelled his proposed American tour
and took the next ship back to the
Orient.
The ship was the Taiyo Maru, Of the
Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line, upon which
also sailed. During the voyage to
Yokohama I obtained an interview
with him in which he gave his views
upon education in India, the effects of
, British rule, economic conditions and,
last and most emphatically, upon
Katherine Mayo's book, Mother India"
The interview, with Sir Rabindra-
mathis answers as they were taken down
by his secretary, follows:
Education FIourished in Past.
''How is the education of the masses
progressing in India?"
Formerly education in India, as In
China, was given through the villages.
It was never centralized in the towns
as today. Each village had its own
elementary school, called 'Pathasala,
and every group of 10 or IL villages
had an institute for higher studies in
Sanskrit classics, philosophy and rell-
gion. The Indian scholar fully owned
the responsibility of his learning, and
no student who came to him asking Tor
, the gift Of learning could be denied.
THE student had not only free tu-
ition, but also free board and lodging.
The elementary school was usually in
the house of some rich man of the vii
lage, who supported the teacher and
those who came to him for teaching, no
matter from what caste or social rank
they came.
But with coming of the British all
these were stopped and schools gradu-
ally died out. You are probably aware
that only per cent of the population
in India is literate. But as people who
can just read little and sign their
names are classed as literate the real
percentage of educated people would
not exceed per cent of the population,
or 1t might be even lower. But this
was not in the past. Classical educa-
tton-the best available education OF
those days-was given everywhere, and
from the distant parts of the country
students would come, drawn by the
reputation of some scholar famous for
his learning in rhetoric, grammar, phi
1oSophy or logic. And the student him.
his study according to his own inclina-
ton.
Village Life Disrupted.
"But today no such provision exists.
Village life has been drawn away to the
towns. Almost all the rich people have
left the village to seek the towns, where
there are colleges for their young, medi-
cal help and other facilities. But for
merly even those whe were employed in
the towns in government service or in
business houses used to send to the
villages what money they earned to be
spent in building houses or temples or
in excavating wells. and though they
might have been in the towns they
never really deserted their villages.
There was never the same Capitalization
Of conveniences in the towns"
HAS the British government done
much for the education of the masses?"
Very little, I am afraid; practically
nothing. One of the reasons may be
that very little money is available for
education after the extraordinarily
heavy cost of the administration has
been paid for"
Gandhis Appeal Analysed.
"How has the Gandhi movement
against western civilization progressed
among the masses?"
THE people as a whole are most in
different. They have no antagonism or
antipathy toward western culture or
civilization. The appeal which Gandhi's
movement has for the masses is not
cultural in character. It is more per-
sonal It Is their trust in him that is
creating a mental attitude not based
upon reason. His movement Is directed
more toward the educated classes, in
tensifying their patriotic fervor."
How are the Indian classes making
up their differences"
There are innumerable sects among
the Hindus, but they have never fought
for sectarianism. They felt that as one
might call the same thing differently
in different languages, so the various
sects might worship God In their di-
verse ways. But the MohammedanS
are more aggressive about their faith,
as their religion is proSelytizing one.
Hindus and the MoSlems has become
very pronounced, but when was young
there was never any conflict between
the believers. 1t Is very curious fact
that in the Indian states we do not
hear Of any conflict between the
Htndus and the Mohammedans, except
very, very rarely"
cts there any movement toward
Buddhism in India?"
Buddhist Doctrines Assimilated.
"I may say that among the liberal
Hindus Buddhism is respected, but
Buddhism does not flourish as q living
creed. Hindus have aSsimilated a great
deal of Buddhist doctrines. Later PAU
Buddhism. This absorption of Buddhism
is what really killed Buddhism as a
living religion in India, for 1t ceased to
have a raison d'etre; its theories and
sentiments were already absorbed by
Hinduism"
I'VE hear of Bolshevism coming
through Afghanistan to India. To what
extent is this true?"
1T find that In every country now
whenever you dislike thing you dub
It Bolshevisn, just as during the war
or shortly after it everything that you
disliked you called pro-German. So
Bolshevism Is the latest cry. do not
know Of it in Bengal, but 1t may be
concealed, and people who are better
able to speak about it may have found
traces OF Bolshevism in Bengal.
ut is not unlikely, however. that
home people who we're clever and wanted
money got it from the Soviets, and
thus there might be some clrculatlon
Of Soviet money in India. The country
cation Is great and some may laIl, put
) feel to many the money Is more
valuable than the doctrine"
Caste System Modified.
~Has there been much change in the
caste system?"
among the educated people. In my
youth there was very little inter-dining
among the various castles. Now In Ben
gal especially it is almost universal. In
my school students of all castles dine
together. Boys who come from very
old-fashioned orthodox Brahmin faml-
lies might feel some slight hesitation
at first in inter-dining, but though we
have Mohammedans and Christians and
europeans in my school we all dine to-
gether and even the guardians do not
protest. There Is good deal OF inter-
marriage between the various castles,