Letters from a Forest School

In the 1950s Chittaranjan Das started a Post-Basic School in a remote jungle of Orissa. Flush with the knowledge of various experiments in pedagogy in India and abroad, he wanted to implement the Gandhian ideology of education which he believed would contribute to the transformation of the Indian society after independence. He himself was educated in a nationalist educational set-up at Santiniketan, participated in freedom struggle, went to jails and read and travelled widely. He eschewed all the temptations of making any systematic career either in the administration, university teaching or politics in free India, despite his obvious worth. He chose the life of renunciation, sadhana and discipline in the pursuit of an ideal, that of fashioning a more equitable and free country. Convinced that education is a potent tool for realizing that ideal, he set up the school at Champatimunda which was supposed to disseminate knowledge to the most backward and underprivileged students of the society. That the school closed shop after four years under the pressure of babudom and red-tapism, does not in any way diminish the worth of the high ideal. Rather, it underlines the human courage, sacrifice, the quest for freedom and the power of imagination to counter the demonic hegemony that has taken hold of our body-politic and social fabric. This tale of courage and sacrifice has power to ignite more such efforts like a lamp lighting other lamps. Das penned his experience at the school first in newspaper articles and then in a book form and called it "Jungle Chitthi" in Oriya. The book is a tale of the courage of his conviction. To circulate this tale of courage wider, we took up the translation of this book into English. For we do not want this tale to be consigned to the dustbins of history. The school might have failed but the great ideas have to live long. I thank the NBT for assigning me this noble task and thank my friend Mr Shreekant Chatterjee for being the constant source of inspiration during the arduous summer months when I was busy translating this work.

**Contents and Sample Pages**