ABSTRACT
Gandhi’s theory of basic education and his plan to link the acquisitions of the skills of literary and numeracy with handicrafts like spinning and weaving, together with his stress on the importance of the vocational nature of higher education and the need for it to be economically selfsufficient, is a clear indication of the significance he attached to providing education with a sound economic basis. But he also conceived his theory of education to be ‘the spearhead of a silent social revolution fraught with the most far-reaching consequences’.1 The villages of India were in a state of progressive decay since they were regarded simply as appendages to the cities and fit only to be exploited. By relating vocational education to the requirements of the villages, Gandhi was setting in motion a programme of social reconstruction and laying the foundation for a more equitable social order. He was providing for a healthier relationship between city and village and for the elimination of some of the worst of the economic evils that had resulted from the exploitation of the villages.2
