Rachna Vinod
Lala Mulk Raj Saraf, revered as the Father of Journalism in Jammu and Kashmir, including Ladakh, spearheaded the region’s press when journalism was virtually unheard of. Defying the odds, he launched Ranbir, a newspaper renowned for its fearless, impartial, and nationalist stance. Though Ranbir eventually ceased publication, its legacy remains deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. On his 131st birth anniversary, celebrated on April 8, we honor his remarkable contributions by sharing excerpts from his Presidential address at the Fourth Northern India Adult Education Conference, held in Srinagar on August 30, 1943. This address, so relevant even today is documented in his autobiography, ‘Fifty Years as a Journalist’. It masterfully blends history, personal reflections, and literary insight, offering a compelling glimpse into the journey of a visionary whose legacy continues to inspire generations. basic
Adult education has been one of the problems even in advanced countries like England and America. Universities, industrial concerns, philanthropic associations have started adult education centres where special courses are arranged for improving the efficiency of the technical and industrial workers and for imparting and developing the artistic, the literary and the recreational side of the life of the citizens. It is indeed tragic to contemplate that we in India are still engaged on the preliminary task of imparting mere literacy….Our resources are limited, our sense of social responsibility is not yet fully developed and our realisation of our duties towards our less fortunate neighbours is not what it ought to be. A national Scheme of Adult Education in the State should, to my mind, comprise not only a frontal attack on the appalling illiteracy……of both sexes but also an organisation on a mass scale of facilities for providing education on health and hygiene, the economic regeneration, the industrial expansion and above all the political awakening.
I think that the day is not very distant when this type of Adult Education will come into vogue in our country. We shall have many years yet to concentrate on the humbler and less spectacular task of providing the general mass of people with more tools of learning, that is, imparting them the skill to read and understand the printing page or write out their ideas for communication to others. Even this humble task will require thousands of selfless workers imbued with the zeal of patriots who will carry this message of literacy to every hearth and home in this land.
To provide educational facilities……is, by no means, an easy task. But these difficulties and obstacles have got to be overcome. Those who feel with me that the Adult Education is a significant need of times should not feel discouraged by the present indifferent attitude of the Government. They should rather take it up as a challenge to their sense of self-respect and patriotism and intensify by all means at their disposal the movement for education of the adult. The responsibility on public organisations is particularly imperative and they can justify their existence as true well-wishers of the masses, in the measure they throw themselves whole-heartedly into this work of national reconstruction. Young men, specially college and school should be organised in this crusade against ignorance and they should at times realise that their own education is only a trust which they should utilise in the service of others.
I wish to make one thing clear. Adult education is not an activity that can be taken up in a light mood or with a view to gain goodwill of those whose favours the workers are anxious to earn. Adult education, apart from raising the civic standard of the people and training them, both men and women, for better living, is a potent weapon in a country like India which is on the threshold of great social and political advancement. Adult education is a serious business which will claim the whole earnestness, time, intelligence and patriotism of those engaged in it. But the return to the worker would be much simpler than what he contributes. He will come in contact with and learn at first hand the conditions of life of what is vulgarly but very expressively called the underdog and if he is endowed with a heart that feels, he will dedicate his all to ameliorate the lot of this large class of people. When that day dawns, the future of the masses and hence of humanity will be less dependent than it is today.
If the State Government were so sympathetic as our August Ruler is for the welfare of the people, they should not find it difficult to draw up plan in cooperation with public, designed not only to impart literacy but also to provide opportunity for an all-round education for the entire adult population of the State. And this plan can very well be spread over a reasonable period of, say ten or fifteen years. But any scheme must ensure to the poor worker, who is obsessed with the idea of feeding his family, a scale of living wages which will relieve him for coming Adult Education Center and benefitting by the instructions imparted there. This will serve both as an inducement and relief and will give impetus to the movement. The teacher need not necessarily be a school teacher, doing extra work and tired by hard day’s toil. All the public bodies and associates who are interested in the social, political and economic welfare of this country should pursue the work once begun in right earnest. Other workers, paid or honorary, may be invited to take up the work. Even the school teacher needs to be vitalised into progressive activity by proper training and sufficient renumeration. Your organisation composed, as I take it to be, of workers in the cause of Adult Education, should give a lead in organising a workable scheme which can serve as a guide to others who may feel interested in contributing their on mite to the sacred cause of adult education.
I strongly appeal in the name of this great country that they would, each one in his or her own place and with the resources at his or her disposal, take active part in the movement to spread adult literacy and hold himself or herself responsible for at least two persons literate every year. Adult Education in India is a dire necessity of time and sooner or later the leaders of the country shall have to devote their full attention to make this movement a great success.
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