Letter 28
12th August, 1990 My dear Pranav,
Vinoba had many fresh ideas about education and teachers. He presented his idea of Acharyakul at Kahalgram in Bihar on 8th March, 1968. He wanted a special role for teachers. He wanted to have Acharya-kul to establish the power of the people as opposed to the power of violence, and distinct from that of law. He wanted teachers to be pioneers of this non- violent revolution. He wanted education to be accepted on par with the judiciary, with the same kind of independence.
Acharya, according to him, did not mean only teacher. The root of the word is char; the same root is found in acharan (practice), vicharan (travelling), vichar (thought, deliberation), sanchar (arduous progress), prachar (spreading knowledge). All these meanings contribute to the ideal of an Acharya. The word Kula means a family. All of us teachers are members of one family.
Every aspect of the work we mean to do — to commit ourselves to knowledge; to strive for mental purity; to watch over the development of our students with affectionate care; to study the problems of society with a disinterested endeavour to reach agreed conclusions for the guidance of the public - all of these are part of the task of establishing the unity of the family that is the family of teachers.
Vinoba said, these are the reasons which led him to choose the name Acharyakul. Kula is a beautiful word, and it is one of those words which have links with both Arabic and Sanskrit. It implies ‘all’ (Kul) teachers; there is no question of high or low, of great or small. All teachers are to be equally honoured; all will work together, those are the conditions of success in the
teaching professsion.
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