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 is used by government for indoctrination. A fascist government will teach fascist ideas, a communist government will teach communist ideas. He wanted governments to pay for education but not to control it. The curriculum should be decided by Acharyas, and they must be beyond party politics. Vinoba once said that great Loka shikshaks like Jnandev, ‘Tulsidas and Kamban did not have in their days authority to decide the curriculum for students. But what they taught and wrote, still remains a part of our folk memory. Tulsi Ramayan is a part of the education of the people in the North. So is Jnanadeva in Maharashtra and Kamban in Tamilnadu. ‘There were kings and emperors in their times; nobody remembers those kings and emperors today!

Incidentally, Pranav, 1290 AD is the year when Jnaneshwar completed his commentary on the Gita. He was a comtemporary of Chaucer. His Marathi is still a cultural bedrock of Marathi civilisation. In 1990, after seven hundred years you cannot understand Marathi without knowing Jnandeva. Vinoba was greatly influenced by Jnandeva.

Vinoba once wondered why the present Director of Education, a government official has power to decide what people should read or learn. This right was not given even to Jnandeva.

With love,

Yours, L.N. Godbole

Letter BS

16th September, 1990 My dear Pranav,

While Vinoba was talking about Acharyakul and Jai Jagat, his vision was covering the entire world. During the Independece movement prior to 1947, the main slogan or idea kept before the people was Jai Hind (Victory for India). Prior to British rule

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