Cost of Education

*Dr. Ambedkar in the Bombay Legislature:*
ON GRANTS FOR EDUCATION, 12th March 1927

"Going over the figures which give us information as to the manner by which we finance education in this presidency, I find that out of the total expenditure which we incur on arts colleges, something like 36% is financed from fees; out of the expenditure that we incur on high schools something like 31% is financed from fees; out of the expenditure that we incur on middle schools, something like 26% is derived from fees. Now, Sir, I submit that this is commercialisation of education. Education is something which ought to be brought within the reach of everyone. The education department is not a department which can be treated on the basis of 'quid pro quo'. Education ought to be cheapened in all possible ways and to the greatest possible extent. I urge this plea because I feel that we are arriving at a stage when the lower orders of society are just getting into the high schools, middle schools and colleges, and the policy of this department therefore ought to be to make higher education as cheap to the lower classes as it can possibly be made." ~Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

DBAWS, Vol. 2

I must do my duty

From the PREFACE of "RANADE, GANDHI AND JINNAH" written by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar which is his address delivered on the 101st Birthday Celebration of Mahadeo Govind Ranade, held on 18th Jan. 1943

"However strong and however filthy be the abuses which the Congress Press chooses to shower on me I must do my duty. I am no worshipper of idols. I believe in breaking them. I insist that if I hate Mr Gandhi and Mr Jinnah-- I dislike them, I do not hate them-- it is because I love India more. That is the true faith of a nationalist. I have hopes that my countrymen will some day learn that the country is greater than the men, that the worship of Mr. Gandhi or Mr. Jinnah and Service to India are two very different things and may even be contradictory of each other."~ Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, 15th March 1943

DBAWS, Vol. 1

Class system (open door) and the closed door Caste system

DBAWS Vol. 1
Castes in India, 1916.
"This sub-division of a society is quite natural. But the unnatural thing about this sub-division is that they have lost the open door character of the class system and have become self-enclosed units called castes. The question is: were they compelled to close their doors and become endogamous, or did they close them on their own accord? I submit that there is a double line of answer: some closed the door : others found it closed against them. The one is a psychological interpretation and the other is mechanistic, but they are complementary and both are necessary to explain the phenomena of caste-formation in its entirety." ~Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, (lines from "Castes in India," 1916, The paper presented in Columbia University.)

शील आणि शिक्षणाशिवाय काहीच साध्य होणार नाही

"तुम्ही एक गोष्ट कधीही विसरता कामा नये आणि ती ही की, 'शील आणि शिक्षण हे जवळ असल्याशिवाय मनुष्याला या जगात काहीच साध्य करून घेता येणार नाही.' दुसरी गोष्ट तुम्ही लक्षात ठेवली पाहिजे ती ही की, आज तुम्ही स्वातंत्र्य व स्वावलंबन मिळविण्याकरिता लढा चालविला आहे; त्यात तुम्हास यशस्वी व्हावयाचे असेल तर तुम्ही बाहेरच्या माणसाच्या मदतीची अपेक्षा न करता परावलंबी जिण्यापासून अगदी अलिप्त राहिले पाहिजे. हे तुम्ही जर करणार नाही तर ध्यानात ठेवा, तुम्ही परत गुलामगिरीच्या गर्तेत पडाल."  ~डाॅ. बाबासाहेब आंबेडकर.

दि. ११ फेब्रुवारी १९३६, अहमदनगर