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Adult education cannot succeed as a selective, bureaucratic and elicit governed programme. It can succeed as a people's movement. People's involvement in political and cultural action has very deep roots in India. The people's war in Kalinga against the empire builder Ashoka, the people's government in ancient Vaishali, popular movements like the Bhakti movement and the people's struggle for freedom from alien rule are in the blood streams of the Indian people. It is not incentives, but a sense of total commitment to the people that can make the programme a success.

There is a long tradition of adult education in India. Popular institutions, village community halls, folk communicators kept the lamp of knowledge burning. Literacy was so incidental that by 1936-37 as evinced from the report of William Adam, literacy in India was only 6 percent. With the British, the state managed literacy as opposed to people managed education took precedence in the scheme of things. The same attitude dominates even today.

Whether it is literacy or adult education, it can only by scientifically conducted through the languages of the people. As it is absurd to argue that democracy is more expensive in economic terms than totalitarianism it is equally absurd to argue that using the many languages of the people for communication of knowledge is more expensive than using one superposed by the elite. An understanding of the ethos of multilingualism on the part of the elite managers of the programme is a precondition of the success of the movement.

Director.

To Introduce

The papers presented in this volume represent the current thinking of leaders of adult education in the country. The seminar was a joint venture of the Central Institute of Indian Languages and the Directorate of Adult Education. The Proceedings of the seminar as reflected in these papers are released to the public with the hope that this will clarify some of the issues relating to material production and language use in adult education.

D. P. PATTANAYAK
A. K. JALALUDDIN