Ashadevi Aryanayakam

Asha Devi Aryanayakam : A Dedicated

 Educationist  

                                                      Siby K. Joseph

 

“The Secretaries of the Hindustani Talimi Sangh are Aryanayakam and his wife. They too are votaries of truth and non-violence. I am busy otherwise and they have to run the scheme. They are the moving spirit behind Nayee Talim. It is not even Zakir Saheb. He is only the President. If Aryanayakum and Asha Devi abandoned it the scheme would collapse. It is not an organization which can run on its own.”

 M. K. Gandhi , Speech at Prayer Meeting New Delhi, December 14, 1947

Asha Devi and her husband Aryanayakam were the moving spirit  behind Gandhi’s  revolutionary scheme of education. It was through them Gandhi spread his scheme of Basic Education or  Nai Talim which he placed before the country   in 1937. The year 1937 was the silver jubilee of the Marwadi High School or Navabharat Vidyalaya at Wardha. The management  of the school ,as part of the school’s silver jubilee celebrations, placed before Gandhi the idea of a national-level educational conference to discuss his ideas of education that he was propounding in the columns of Harijan.  Gandhi agreed to the proposal and the  Wardha National Education Conference was held in Wardha on 22-23 October, 1937.   Ashadevi and Aryanayakam were then working in Navabharat Vidyalaya  under the Presidentship of  Jamnalal Bajaj at Wardha.  In the words of Dr. Sushila Nayar” they resigned and both of them threw themselves heart and soul into the work of the Talimi Sangh to promote the new scheme of education.”

Soon after  the  Wardha National Education Conference,  a committee of experts in the field of education was appointed to formulate a detailed plan of education and syllabus under the chairmanship of Dr Zakir Hussain . Both of them were members of the expert committee.  Ashadevi was the only woman in the committee. Why was she appointed to such an expert committee? It calls for a brief review of her life and her contribution in the field of education.  Asha Devi  was born in  September 1902 in Lahore of the erstwhile British India and the present day Pakistan. Her grandfather who was a Pandit of Sankara School of Vedanta and her  father Phani Bhushan Adhikari was head of the Department of Philosophy of Benares Hindu University . She spent her childhood in Lahore and then later in Banaras. There was no Bengali medium school in Banaras. Her mother taught her Bengali  at home . She was a meritorious student. She topped the list of candidates in matriculation. During her B.A. examination. Ashadevi had trouble in one eye. And  her mother taught  her lessons. Despite all these difficulties  she passed  the exam with First Division. The government  even offered her a scholarship to go for higher studies in England.  But  the parents did not like to send her to that faraway place. She passed her M.A. with Sanskrit in the First Division from Benares Hindu University. She studied for a short period at Vishwa Bharati for a short period under renowned Indologist Dr. Moris Winternitz. She worked as  a lecturer in Sanskrit at the Allahabad Universityand later as the Principal of Women’s College at Benares Hindu University.

 

 

Ashadevi with Mahatma Gandhi  1939

Asha Devi Aryanayakam's family was close to Rabindranath Tagore and Shantiniketan was like home to her.  When Tagore had to go to Europe and he entrusted Asha Devi with the responsibility of the girls in Santiniketan in his absence. In Europe, Tagore met Aryanayakam and recognizing  his talent  Tagore  invited him to Shantiniketan.  Aryanayakam joined  Tagore as his  personal secretary . In fact   Tagore was responsible for the marriage of Asha Devi and Aryanayakam.   According to Sushila Nayar, ‎Kamla Mankekar  at Shanti  Niketan there was no place for the children of the poor . So the couple left Shantiniketan and came to Wardha. They were part and parcel of Gandhi’s scheme of education.  Asha Devi was very much aware of the challenge of educating children of the poor in a remote village like Sevagram. Asha Devi described the village to the delegates to the first conference of Basic Education in 1939 : "It is a most obscure little village of about 700 people, more than half of whom are Harijans. For four or five months in the year its fields are green, there is work for all, and a brief illusion of beauty and plenty. But for the rest of the year it lies like a speck of dust in the midst of the bare plains of the Central Provinces, hands idle in every house. There is no water except from the few dirty wells jealously guarded by each little caste and sub-caste. There are no hills, no trees, no natural playground for children. About 20% of the families have land, the rest are landless labourers, and most of them cannot afford to eat even the equivalent of the "C" class diet- provided in the Government jails." Asha devi  whole heartedly took the challenge and there was no looking back .  She dedicated her life  for the cause of Nai Talim along with her husband . She  was  such a dedicated woman who tried to remove ignorance and create a world of real  knowledge in tune  with Gandhi’s philosophy of education.  She had the privilege of representing India in the Social Commission of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. She participated in several national and international educational conferences.  She was an ardent believer in nonviolence and took part in International pacifist conferences.She closely associated with Acharya Vinoba Bhave in his Bhoodan, Gramdan and Shanti Sena work. She was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died in Nagpur on June 30, 1970 leaving behind a great legacy.

The Government of India honoured Ashadevi in 1954, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award for her contributions to the society, she refused to accept the same .  However her name remains in the list of first recipients of the award.  Some of her writings are available in archives of the library and research centre of Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan . They are:  The Teacher: Gandhi(Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966 )   Shanti-Sena: die indische Friedenswehr (in German language  published in Reconciliation League newsletter no.6 December 1958,Future of Education  ( Symposium 1953)  and short essay on Shanti Sena.

  Note: This article was written  coinciding with her death anniversary  after paying tribute to her in a programme at Sevagram  on June 30 2024 .

About the Author

  Dr. Siby K. Joseph is Director, Sri Jamnalal Bajaj Memorial Library and Research Centre for Gandhian Studies, Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan, Sevagram,Wardha- 442102,  Maharashtra  (INDIA) 

Email: directorjbmlrc@gmail.com