Gandhiji's Thoughts on Education and Rural Reconstruction: An Overview

Abstract Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was an idealist, pragmatist and socialist. He played multi-dimensional role in freedom movement in India. Truth, non-violence, sarvodaya and Satyagrha with their significance constructed Gandhian philosophical thoughts and ideas largely. He belived that education should promote all aspects of individual harmoniously. One of the important goals of his life was to obtain swaraj, purno swaraj or complete independence. According to him the word swaraj means self-rule, freedom struggle of the country taking into consideration of social, economic, political rights of oppressed masses of the country or Gram swaraj or freedom of village. He opined that swaraj is to be achieved by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority. He proposed that socio-economic status of the masses can be promoted by self-sufficient village economy through rural reconstruction. In this backdrop, the present study has undertaken to focus on Gandhiji’s thoughts on education and rural reconstruction: An overview.