Abstract
Adult Education in India has diverse colours-the country's ancient and rich oral tradition for the transmission of scriptural knowledge; Emperor Asoka's dissemination of the teachings of the Buddha through inscriptions on rocks and pillars; royal patronage in the medieval period to scholars, saints, teachers, artists and artisans for the spread of messages of peace and harmony; adult schools set up by British missionaries in an evangelical spirit, their efforts and those of ‘enlightened Indians and socially committed British officials’ to promote adult education; the adult education policy initiatives of the colonial government; the importance given to adult education by the leaders of the freedom movement; and, post independence, the Total Literacy Campaign's activist leanings, which galvanised women participants in the adult literacy classes in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, to mobilise against the evils of drunkenness, leading eventually to a State-wide ban on the manufacture and sale of liquor. Notwithstanding its promise, the Total Literacy Campaign, or TLC, was plagued by serious deficiencies. It struck a responsive chord in regions with a history of social reform movements, peasant organisations and working class struggle, but mobilisation was hindered by barriers of caste, class, gender, and feudalistic fetters in parts of the country; there were limits to how radical a government sponsored programme could be; bureaucratisation had taken firm root, with development issues eclipsed by the total literacy declaration; and while the TLC was civil-servant driven, the civil servant's training was not geared to inculcate the qualities that were needed to tap the potential for social mobilisation in a participatory mode.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.