Tolstoy Home Majitha Amritsar

Presented By:-

Harjinder Kumar

TOLSTOY FARM By M.K. Gandhi

M.K.GANDHI

This extract from Gandhiji’s autobiography describes Gandhiji’s role as a teacher that he took upon himself at the Tolstoy Farm in South Africa. He managed and guided the literary, vocational and spiritual training and other activities of his students at the farm.

CONTEXT

 These children were from different social, cultural and religious backgrounds. So, Gandhiji decided to give the first place to character building. The value of both physical education and literary training were never undermined. Gardening was a compulsory subject. Shoe-making, carpentry and cooking were taught to all as a part of vocational training by Mr. Kallenbach and Sjt. Pragji Desai respectively

CONTEXT 

The students did not like the strictness but they never resisted it. There was hardly any illness in the Farm. In addition to the exercise, good air, fresh water, and food were responsible for this.

CONTEXT 

Literary training was difficult due to lack of resources and physical work tired them. Domestic duties took most of the morning hours. In the three periods given to academics elementary history, geography and arithmetic were taught other than languages. Gandhiji taught Tamil script and basic grammar. He never tried to hide his ignorance but never lost the love and respect of his students. He believed that teachers were the true textbooks as he felt that children learnt more through listening than by seeing.

CONTEXT



The spiritual training was the most difficult to impart. Gandhiji did not rely on religious books. He wanted then to be familiar with the basics of their own religion. Thus the training was a purely personal experience .

CONTEXT 

Gandhiji wanted teachers to be role models. They needed to practice first what they preached. The teacher’s character had a direct bearing on the students’ moral education. Only once did Gandhiji slap a quarrelsome boy of 17 who was given to lying and refused to listen to reason. The boy begged for forgiveness not because he was in pain but because he realized the pain he had caused to Gandhiji. Gandhiji regretted his recourse to corporal punishment and never resorted to it again .

SUMMARY Gandhiji set up the Tolstoy Farm about 21 miles from Johannesburg. The children there belonged to different communities and religions. No qualified Indian teacher was willing to come that far for the small salary that Gandhiji could offer due to lack of funds. So, Gandhiji took on the role of a father at the farm and took it on as his responsibility to impart education to his children

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