1.

INTRODUCTION
To understand the promotion of Nationalism, Universalism and Secularism through
education with reference to Tagore and Krishnamurthy, let us first understand the
concepts of Nationalism, Universalism and Secularism.

Nationalism: It is a complex, multidimensional concept involving a shared communal

identification with one’s nation. It is contrasted by anti-nationalism as a political ideology
oriented towards gaining and maintaining self-governance, or full sovereignty, over
territory of historical significance to the group. Nationalism therefore holds that a nation
should govern itself, free from unwanted outside interference, and is linked to the
concept of self-determination.

Universalism: It means loyalty to and concern for others without regard to national or
other allegiances. It is a theological and philosophical concept with universal application
or applicability. Universalist doctrines consider all people in their formation.

Secularism: Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and

persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious
dignitaries. One manifestation of secularism is asserting the right to be free from religious
rule and teachings, or, in a state declared to be natural on matters of belief, from the
imposition by government of religion or religious practices upon the people.
2. Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore was born on the 6th May 1861 in Kolkata. He is considered to be a
great educationist of modern era. He has significantly contributed in the field of
education. He has rendered unique and incomparable contribution to the progress and
transformation of Indian education with his original thoughts and experiments. He not
only founded national education on the basis of Indian culture, but also adopted a wide
outlook to give a message to the western world that helped in the synthesis of western
ideals. Tagore wrote his famous book Gitanjali, for which he received the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1913.

2. A. Promotion of Education through Nationalism

 Rabindranath Tagore did not totally reject nationalism but formed his own
understanding of it by studying what was authentic in his country’s history. He is of
the view that nationalism was essential to fight against social injustice rather than
political freedom. As such a child’s education should help him/her to realize the
social inequalities and become more human.
 Language is one important character of nationalism. He says that any nation can
impart the best education by the medium of its mother tongue. Eternal values
cannot be attained by a foreign language as it obstructs self-confidence and
presents difficulty in creativity. He did not oppose the English language but
recommended to teach it as a complementary language to the mother tongue.
 Tagore considered nationalism as an organization of politics and commerce that
seek for wealth. It is organized self-interest of people where it is least human and
least spiritual. He also found national as a source of war, hatred and mutual
suspicion between nations. Tagore thought that education should help in removing
the narrow-minded attitude and promote peace.
 He emphasized that a child’s education should be national and should pay attention
to the past and future of India. A child’s education should be held in background
and clear knowledge of Indian society and culture.

2. B. Promotion of Education through Universalism

 Tagore’s idea was governed principally by the idea of universalism; therefore he
said education should aim towards work for humanity as its highest aim. Such
education will develop a broader perspective in children and they will become
members of the universe, rather than that of a nation. The student will think about
humanity instead of nationalism. They will think in terms of ‘we’ rather than ‘me’.
  Education should promote peace, love, kindness and ideals should aim at gaining a
sense of freedom and of sympathy with all humanity.
 Tagore has written that there are natural differences in human races which have to
be preserved and respected, and it is the function of education to make feel
integration despite these differences; it is to discover truth despite all these
inequalities.

2. C. Promotion of Education through Secularism

 Tagore considered secularism as a new science of human possibilities. His concept
of God and religion are not orthodox. Tagore popularized the phrase ‘human
religion’ or ‘the religion of man’. For him, any truth had to be humanistic. He
believed that humans had the responsibility of intellectually evaluating a religious
injunction before following it, rather than blindly following it.
 He opened the institution called Vishwa Bharati which is a place where people
belonging to all section of the society could meet, where people were not
distinguished on the basis of religion and where institutional religion was not given
importance.
 He also emphasized on moral and spiritual development and has accepted the
inner development of man as an educational aim. By inner development, he means
inner freedom, and inner faculty and knowledge. It should be the function of
education to acquaint a child with the values of patience, peace, self-discipline,
inner freedom and inner knowledge to effect his moral and spiritual development.

3. Jiddu Krishnamurthy
J. Krishnamurthy was born on 11th May 1895 at Madanpalli in Chintoor district Andhra
Pradesh. He is such a philosopher who had laid emphasis on self-realization. His original,
revolutionary, meaningful and liberal views are invaluable heritage for the history of
Indian teacher. He was much influenced by nature. He wants that each individual should
know natural beauty and should not destroy natural beauty for the sake of his selfish
interests. According to him, the real philosophy is what awakens love for truth, love for
life and live for virtue.

3. A. Promotion of Education through Nationalism

 He believed that both nationalism and organized religion are basically divisive
because the sense of identity they foster is exclusive. A cycle of hatred and fear
takes root which eventually leads to violence. The cause of violence lies in the
 division of our mind. To him, education should emancipate the mind from the
burden of traditions.
 The psychological necessity for identification is the outcome of inward poverty.
Self-expansion through identification breeds mischief and destruction. In
understanding this process, there comes freedom and intelligence, and not
substitution. The true function of education is to assist an individual in
understanding this rotten world’s entire structure and proceed ahead freely, so
that the society can be freed and a new society can be constructed which is not
based on right, loyalty and prestige.
 It is the function of education to cultivate such ability in a child by which he can
observe the social traditions, customs and other orthodox practices along with his
view and he would be able to be free from mixed culture of traditions, customs and
ideals and thus assist in the creation of a new world.

3. B. Promotion of Education through Universalism

 According to Krishnamurthy, to have compassion means to have passion for all
things, not just between two people, but for all human beings, for all things of the
earth, the animals, the trees, everything the earth contains. When we have such
compassion we will not despoil the earth as we are doing now, and we will have no
wars.
 Every individual must be free to live fully, completely. As long as one tries to
liberate one’s own particular country and not man, there must be racial hatred,
divisions of people and classes. The problems of man must be solved as a whole,
not confined to countries or people. To him, education means to understand life in
its wholeness.
 An important function of education is to assist a child in comprehending the whole
responsibility. Generally our education teaches us to be responsible towards our
own family, caste, country or religion etc. such type of responsibility is in fact, a
type of irresponsibility, because unless we understand being responsible towards
the whole universe fully, we cannot understand the real complete sense of the
term.
 According to him, an aim of education is to construct a man who is cultured,
civilized and courteous. He says that the aim of education is to cultivate such power
and internal consciousness in man by which he can firmly stand against prejudices
and preconceptions, and can construct new culture and new values, by which a
 complete man can be constructed, such a man who lives life fully in a way that the
entire world lives happily and peacefully.

3. C. Promotion of Education through Secularism

 According to Krishnamurthy, a new mind is only possible when the religious spirit
and the scientific attitude from part of the same movement of consciousness- a
state where the scientific attitude and the religious spirit are not two parallel
processes or capacities of mind. Education should promote scientific enquiry to
really understand the truth.
 Unlike the communication of the religious spirit by various groups, his approach is
in a sense, truly secular and yet has a deeply religious dimension. There is a
departure in Krishnamurthy’s teaching from the traditional approach of the
relationship between the teacher who knows and the student who does not know
and has to be taught. To Krishnamurthy, the teacher and the student function at
the same level communicating through questioning and counter-questioning till the
depths of the problem are exposed and understanding is revealed, illuminating the
mind of both.
 To him, there is the religious mind, the true religious mind that does not belong to
any cult, to any group, to any religion, to any organized church. It is a mind that has
seen through the falsity of churches, dogmas, beliefs and traditions. It is such a
mind that has no horizon, no limit. The aim of education is to develop spiritual
values in a child. By development of spirituality is meant the development of
spiritual consciousness, development of self-knowledge and development of moral
values. For realizing this, he opined that internal freedom, internal peace, self-
discipline, patience and knowledge are necessary.

4. Conclusion
Both Tagore and Krishnamurthy emphasized on moving away from old traditions, beliefs
and dogmas and embrace universal outlook for total progress. To do that, education
should be imparted in such a way that an individual can realize through enquiry and
experimentation. To really have peace and happiness, one needs to understand the world
as a whole, rather than partly.
5. Bibliography
 https://au.m.wikipedia.org>wiki>universalism, nationalism, secularism
 Jiddu Krishnamurthy (1895-1986)
[pdf] results.mu.ac.in>chapter-10
 Herzberger, Radhika, ‘Education and Indian Nationalism’
Retrieved Oct 10, 2018 www.journal.kfonline.org
 Rabindranath Tagore’s contributions to the Indian education
[pdf] shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in
 Book ‘Great Educationists’ by Dr. Girish Pachauri
Vinay Rakheja Publishers, R. Lall Book Depot