NATIONAL EDUCATION

THE address, which Mr. C.R. Das delivered at the second Convocation of the Punjab National University, divides itself into two parts. In the first, after paying a glowing tribute to Lala Lajpat Rai, the founder of the University, and to Mahatma Gandhi, who had presided over its first Convocation, the leader attempted to justify national education by pointing out the fundamental defect of the existing system. He showed by an examination of past history and by quoting the evidence of some of the very persons responsible for the introduction of the present system, that the educational policy, first, of the East India Company and then of the Crown was animated by one purpose, that of consolidating British rule. It was not the education of the people of India, which was the underlying object of that policy, but the making of British rule safe and strong. Was it necessary for him, after quoting that evidence, said Mr. Das, to say one word in justification of national education? The answer was obvious. It was not necessary. No people aspiring to the life and destiny of a nation could be content to have their system of education imposed upon them from outside, and especially by the representatives of another country standing to them in the relation that England stands to India, whose principal object, which they did not even attempt to conceal, was to give to the subject country education of the precise quantity and quality that would subserve their own end. In the second part, Mr. Das endeavoured to show what national education meant and how it was distinguishable from the existing system of education. To him, national education meant that education which would teach the people to be true to their country and to Dharma. Dharma not in the sense of religion, which was a different thing, but of prakriti, their very nature.

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