Discuss the importance of Gokhale's
Bill.
Answers
Answer:
Gokhale’s Bill, the first ever attempt to introduce free and compulsory primary education in our country, is a landmark in the history of education in India. Although the Bill was rejected, it focused the attention of the entire country on education. The Government could not entirely ignore the growing popular demand for the spread of mass education. Fortunately, king George V came to India in 1912 and declared a donation of 50 lakh rupees for the development of education in India. When he came to know about Gokhale’s Bill, he expressed his dissatisfaction for rejecting the Bill. As a result the Government had to modify the previous policy and declared a new policy with several reforms. Gokhale’s Bill created a flutter in the British Parliament also. In the course of the discussion on the Indian budget, the Under Secretary of State for India admitted the need for paying more attention to Indian education. The Government of India passed the resolution on educational policy on February 21, 1913. Between 1910 and 1917 there was an unprecedented expansion of primary education on a voluntary basis (Mukerji, S.N., 1976)
The outbreak of the First World War, however, delayed the development planned in the resolution. It brought in its train many disasters, but also a promise of political reform culminating in the Government of India Act of 1919 which incidentally stimulated interest in education. Before that some administrative changes in the policy of the Government had been accepted. In 1917 the policy of autonomous administration was declared by the secretary of states for India, Edwin Montegue. The Provincial Government formed in different states had felt the necessity of primary education. In 1918 Bethal Bhai Patel had for the first time raised a Bill for making primary education compulsory in the province of Bombay and the bill passed to an Act. Similar Acts were passed in Bengal, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. Madras and Central Province passed their Acts in 1920. In Assam compulsory Primary Education Act was passed in 1926.
Thus, all these were the outcome of Gokhale’s attempt to make primary education compulsory in India. His struggle for compulsion formed an important part of the country’s struggle of independence during the British Rule.