The Gujarati language is known for its soft sounds. It feels personal and intimate. Linguists describe the language as easy on the ear.
Yet, learning this sweet language in the 1800s became cumbersome for children.
Students spent long hours memorising letters, syllables, and complex characters.
Reading a full sentence came much later. The lessons were repetitive, and children showed a lack of interest in learning it.
In 1876, British education inspector T C Hope published a book called Gujarati Peheli Chopdi or Gujarati First Book. The book, as a report highlighted, introduced a new method of teaching the language. Hope rejected rote learning and emphasised making lessons interesting.
The first words in his system were ‘Ma’ (mother) and ‘Ba’ (grandmother). Hope believed starting with words children loved made lessons feel personal rather than mechanical.
Teachers were instructed not to begin with vowel signs like ‘kana’ or ‘matra’. Instead, they pointed to words, showed their meaning, and helped students recognise the sounds immediately.
Rizwan Kadri, a city-based historian and member of the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library, New Delhi, was quoted as saing, “Teachers were asked to show children whatever was mentioned in the lesson and explain its material and make.”
Hope’s approach combined reading, writing, and understanding in one step. His method, as is rightly pointed out, marked a major shift from mechanical drills to interactive learning and remains a landmark in the history of Gujarati education.
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