Colonial Education and India 1781-1945, Vol. I: Commentaries, Reports, Policy Documents [1] 9780815376552, 9781351212168, 9780815380610, 9781351212120

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COLONIAL EDUCATION AND INDIA 1781–1945

COLONIAL EDUCATION AND INDIA 1781–1945

Edited by Pramod K. Nayar Volume I Commentaries, Reports, Policy Documents

First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Pramod K. Nayar; individual owners retain copyright in their own material. The right of Pramod K. Nayar to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-8153-7655-2 (set) eISBN: 978-1-351-21216-8 (set) ISBN: 978-0-8153-8061-0 (Volume I) eISBN: 978-1-351-21212-0 (Volume I) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Publisher’s Note References within each chapter are as they appear in the original complete work.

CONTENTS

VOLUME I

COMMENTARIES, REPORTS, POLICY DOCUMENTS

Acknowledgements

xv

Introduction

1

1 Warren Hastings, ‘Minute on Madrasas, 17th April 1781’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 7–9

9

2 J. Duncan, ‘Letter, 1st January 1792’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 10–11

12

3 ‘Rules for Hindoo College, 1792’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 11–12

14

4 Charles Grant, extract from Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain (1792/1797), 148–167

16

5 Holt Mackenzie, ‘Note on Public Education, 17th July 1823’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 57–64

31

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6 ‘Letter from the Committee on Public Instruction, 18th August 1824’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 93–98

38

7 H. T. Prinsep, ‘Note on Vernacular Education, 15th February 1835’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 117–129

43

8 T. B. Macaulay, ‘Minute on English Education, 2nd February 1835’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 107–117

55

9 William Bentinck, ‘Resolution, 7th March 1835’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 130–131

65

10 H. T. Prinsep, ‘Minute on Vernacular Education, 20th May 1835’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 134–139

67

11 Letters and debates from the Calcutta Monthly Journal (November 1836), 271–278, 299–308

72

12 Lord Auckland, ‘Minute on Native Education, 24th November 1839’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 147–170

102

13 Charles Trevelyan, extracts from On the Education of the People of India (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1838), 36–43, 50–57, 78–91, 106–115

124

14 ‘Appendix: Extract from the Report of the Committee Appointed by the Indian Government to Inquire into the State of Medical Education’, in Charles Trevelyan, On the Education of the People of India (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1838), 207–220

139

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15 Sarah Tucker, extract from ‘Central School for Native Girls’, in South Indian Sketches, Part I (London: James Nisbet, 1848, 3rd edn), 73–84

147

16 William Adam, extracts from Report on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar (1835, 1836, 1838) (Calcutta: Home Secretariat Press, 1868), 1–6, 19–20, 131–132, 217–220, 258–262, 271–274, 307–309, 314–317

153

17 Extracts from Report of the General Committee on Public Instruction of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal for the Year 1839–40 (Calcutta: G. H. Huttman, 1841), i–v, xxxvii, ccxxxii, clv–clix, xciv–civ, ccxxxiii–ccxxxiv

174

18 Priscilla Chapman, extract from Hindoo Female Education (London: R. B. Seeley and W Burnside, 1839), 64–97

206

19 Extract from Report on Public Instruction in the North-Western Provinces, 1850–51, in J. A. Richey, Selections from Educational Records Part 2 1840–1859 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1922), 257–258

219

20 J.E.D. Bethune, ‘Minute, 23rd January 1851’, in J. A. Richey, Selections from Educational Records Part 2 1840–1859 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1922), 28–31

221

21 J.E.D. Bethune’s speeches at Kishnaghar, in General Report on Public Instruction in the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency (Calcutta: F. Carberry, Military Orphan Press, 1852), iii–xv

224

22 Extracts from General Report on Public Instruction in the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency, 1844–45 (Calcutta: Sanders and Cones, 1845), iii–v, xlii, xliv–xlviii, lxxi–lxxxiii

235

23 C. H. Cameron, extracts from Address to Parliament on the Duties of Great Britain to India, in Respect of the Education of the Natives, and Their Official Employment (London: Spottiswoode and Shaw, 1853), 50–51, 60–64, 80–81, 101–103, 114–121, 137, 149–151, 153–155

254

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CONTENTS

VOLUME II

COMMENTARIES, REPORTS, POLICY DOCUMENTS

1 ‘Wood’s Educational Despatch, 19 July 1854’, in J. A. Richey, Selections from Educational Records Part 2 1840–1859 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1922), 365–393

1

2 ‘Letter, 10th March 1854, from the Council of Education to the Government of Bengal’, in J. A. Richey, Selections from Educational Records Part 2 1840–1859 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1922), 119–125

26

3 Christian Education for India in the Mother Tongue: A Statement on the Formation of a Christian Vernacular Education Society (London: William Nichols, 1855), 3–41

32

4 ‘Vernacular Publications and Literacy’, in Selections from the Records of the Bengal Government (Calcutta: John Gray, General Printing Department, 1859), xix–xx

60

5 Martha Weitbrecht, extracts from The Women of India and Christian Work in the Zenana (London: James Nisbet, 1875), 55–66, 110–114, 129–134

62

6 ‘The Sarah Tucker Institution, Tinnevely, South India’, Indian Female Evangelist (Jan–July 1878), 9–16

73

7 ‘Difficulties of Zenana Teaching’, Indian Female Evangelist (Oct 1878), 154–159

79

8 James Johnston, extract from Our Educational Policy in India (Edinburgh: John Maclaren and Son, 1880), 37–57

84

9 ‘Recommendations’, in Report of the Indian Education Commission (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1883), 311–312, 590–602, 604–618

99

10 Extracts from Report of the Indian Education Commission (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1883), 480–491, 494–517, 524–549

viii

132

CONTENTS

11 Extracts from Report of the Bombay Provincial Committee (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1884), 71–83, 156–162, 165–167

208

12 Extracts from Papers Relating to Technical Education in India 1886–1904 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1906), 1–4, 29–34, 50–54, 83–85, 116–117, 131–133, 246–249, 251–253

237

13 William Lee-Warner, extract from The Citizen of India (London: Macmillan, 1900), 162–177

282

14 Report of the Indian Universities Commission (Simla: Government Central Printing Office, 1902), 16, 27–29, 51–52, 63–69, 81–84

289

15 J. G. Covernton, extracts from Vernacular Reading Books in the Bombay Presidency (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1906), 1–3, 23–26, 44–49, 80–81

308

16 Leonard Alston, extract from Education and Citizenship in India (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1910), 144–195

317

VOLUME III

1

2

3

4

COMMENTARIES, REPORTS, POLICY DOCUMENTS

H.R. James, extracts from Education and Statesmanship in India (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1911), 74–91, 118–132

1

Indian Educational Policy, Being a Resolution Issued by the Governor General in Council on the 21st February 1913 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1915), 1–47

19

A. H. Benton, extracts from Indian Moral Instruction and Caste Problems (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1917), 1–10, 31–32, 92–112

43

Extracts from The Calcutta University Commission [Sadler] Report (1919), Vol. 1: 19–30, 143–194, 318–326; Vol. 6: 2–6, 132–135, 169–171

67

ix

CONTENTS

5

6

7

8

Extracts from Village Education in India: The Report of a Commission of Inquiry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1920), 15–23, 66–74, 129–137

135

F. F. Monk, extracts from A History of Stephen’s College (Delhi, Calcutta: YMCA, 1935), 3–15, 111–131, 188–199

150

Extracts from Progress of Education in India, 1937–1947: Decennial Review [Sargent Report], Vol. I (Central Bureau of Education-Ministry of Education, 1948), 155–160, 165–170, 231–240, 295–308

178

Sister Nivedita, extracts from Hints on National Education in India (Calcutta: Brahmachari Ganendranath, 1923, 3rd edn), 6–65, 95–110

216

VOLUME IV INDIAN RESPONSES 1 Raja Rammohan Roy, ‘Letter to Amherst, 11th December 1823’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 98–101

1

2 ‘Petition by Students of Sanscrit College to Auckland, Seeking Continuation of Funding for Sanskrit, 9th August 1836’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 145–146

5

3 K. M. Banerjea, ‘An Essay on Native Female Education’ (Calcutta: R.C. Lepage & Co., British Library, 1848), 1–123

7

4 ‘An Appeal from a Native Christian of the Punjab to the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society’, Indian Female Evangelist (July 1875), 289–291

62

5 Evidence of Syed Badruddin Tyabji on Muslim Education, Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1884), 497–508

65

x

CONTENTS

6 Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. II (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1881), 223–242, 255–259, 261–270, 302–313, 11–14 (Appendix)

89

7 Jotiba Phule’s statement to the Education Commission, Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. II (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1881), 140–145

186

8 Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial Committee with Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1884), 282–302, 351–353, 373–376, 397–411, 412–418, 433–434, 442–443, 452–453, 462–470, 471–474, 478–479

195

9 S. Satthianadhan, extracts from History of Education in the Madras Presidency (Madras: Srinivasa Varadachari & Co., 1894), 36–38, 73–76, 109–112, 165–168, cxiii–cxxi

306

10 Gopal Krishna Gokhale, ‘Speech in the Imperial Legislative Council on the Primary Education Bill, 16th March 1911’, Speeches of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Vol. 2 (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1916, 2nd edn), 718–803

322

11 Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners. Vol XX: Minutes of Evidence Relating the Education Department Taken at Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and London (1915), 46–55, 119–129, 138–143

368

12 Jadunath Sarkar, ‘The Vernacular Medium’, Modern Review 23 (1918), 2–7

431

13 K. M. Panikkar, ‘The Educational Problems of Indian Education’, Modern Review 23 (1918), 8–17

439

14 H. V. Dugvekar (ed.), extracts from National Education (Benares: Balabodha Office, 1917), 4–10, 29–33, 62–86

453

xi

CONTENTS

VOLUME V INDIAN RESPONSES 1 Aurobindo Ghose, extract from A System of National Education (Madras: Tagore & Co, 1921), 1–67

1

2 J. Ghosh, extract from Higher Education in Bengal under British Rule (Calcutta: The Book Company, 1926), 104–197

17

3 Lokmanya Tilak, ‘National Education’, in Bal Gangadhar Tilak: His Writings and Speeches (Madras: Ganesh and Co., 1922, 3rd edn), 81–88

57

4 Hindustani Talimi Sangh, extracts from Basic National Education (Wardha: Hindustani Talimi Sangh, 1939), ix–x, 3–5, 14–22, 25–28, 57–70, 75–76, 79–89

61

5 Extracts from Messages to Indian Students (An Anthology of Famous Convocation Addresses) (Allahabad: Students’ Friends, 1936), 40–80, 91–119, 120–127

88

6 B. R. Ambedkar, ‘Thoughts on the Reform of Legal Education in the Bombay Presidency’, in Hari Narake et al (eds), Writings and Speeches Vol. 17, part 2 (New Delhi: Dr Ambedkar Foundation, 2014), 5–18

124

7 B. R. Ambedkar, ‘Memorandum of Association of The People’s Education Society, Mumbai, 8th July 1945’, in Hari Narake et al (eds), Writings and Speeches Vol. 17, part 2 (New Delhi: Dr Ambedkar Foundation, 2014), 429–438

134

8 B. R. Ambedkar, ‘On Grants for Education’, Bombay Legislative Council Debate, 1927, in Hari Narake (ed.), Writings and Speeches Vol. 2 (New Delhi: Dr Ambedkar Foundation, 2014, 2nd edn), 39–44

141

9 B. R. Ambedkar, ‘On the Bombay University Act Amendment Bill 1’, Bombay Legislative Council Debate, 1927, in Hari Narake (ed.), Writings and Speeches Vol. 2 (New Delhi: Dr Ambedkar Foundation, 2014, 2nd edn), 45–53

147

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CONTENTS

10 B. R. Ambedkar, ‘University Reforms Committee Questionnaire – Responses by Ambedkar, 1925–26’, in Hari Narake (ed.), Writings and Speeches Vol. 2 (New Delhi: Dr Ambedkar Foundation, 2014, 2nd edn), 292–312 Index

155 176

xiii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I must first and foremost thank my wonderful editors at Routledge: Simon Alexander and Kimberley Smith for their cooperation, quick responses and general warm understanding. It has been a pleasure working with you. This project had its inception in the course of conversations with Anna Kurian on colonial discourse. When I mentioned these texts, Anna suggested that it may be useful to compile some of them at least into a volume. She mentioned in passing the previous two 5-volume collections (Women in Colonial India and Indian Travel Writing, which were also, incidentally, her ideas) that I put together for Routledge, adding that this would be a nice trilogy of primary documents in colonial history. So here it is at last, Anna: the manifestation of your idea. And thank you again for ideas, encouragement, insights, and above all, for your unstinting loyalty and affection. To my exemplary support system at home, my parents and parents-in-law, Nandini and Pranav, I owe an incredibly large quantum of gratitude. They clear the paths before me in ways they do not themselves, perhaps, understand and make the journey rewarding. For Mary Hammond’s invitation to contribute to The Edinburgh History of Reading, and her incisive comments on the early draft of my essay ‘Moral Readership and Political Apprenticeship: Commentaries on English Education, India 1875–1930’, I express many thanks. Friends who allow me my space, and yet monitor that space with their affections and solicitous enquiries about health and work, are integral to what I do, and to them I owe much: Neelu (not a day without a message), Soma Ghosh (also indispensable as a Librarian), Josy Joseph, Ajeeth (very busy man, but always available on the phone), Shruti Sarma, Premlata, Haneef (5 a.m. and Haneef’s message will arrive), Om Dwivedi, Archana Sardana, Vaishali Diwakar. My school friends, Ibrahim Ali and Naveed Ahmed, deserve special mention here for their continued presence in my life. Nandana Dutta has been a wonderful friend, for the extraordinary patience and grace with which she discusses theory and for her affection. To Molly ‘Chechu’, very special thanks for her prayers directed at the betterment of her ‘little one’. To Sireesha and Bhaskar in the Department of English—thank you for your company these last two years, you have made the workplace better. To Narayana Chandran, continual source of information, bibliographic referencing and amazing insights, I am still counting how much I owe you. xv

INTRODUCTION

Indian education records were first compiled in the magnificent H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (1920), and J. A. Richey (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part 2, 1840–1859 (1922), both of which provide valuable materials for the study of imperial history. Taking its cue from the Sharp-Richey volumes, this five-volume set compiles a variety of historical documents, from 1780 to 1945, on Indian education. The compilation is neither exhaustive nor comprehensive—the sheer quantity of documentation on Indian education by officials, educationists, campaigners and interested parties, both Indian and British, requires a library of its own. What this multivolume set seeks to do is offer a sampling of materials that embody the various debates, points of view and conflicts over the medium of instruction; the modalities of administering colleges/institutions; the content of educational texts ‘prescribed’; and social and economic concerns around the demographics of the students, teachers and institutions, among others. ‘Education in India’ as a broad category involved, as these documents show, fields like technical education; medical education; education for various social groups and segments (girls, Muslims); legal education; religious and moral education; languagemath-science education; etc. Many reveal the Orientalist tropes and polemical moves of their age (for example, in the representations of Indian women and their education). The Anglicist-Orientalist debate, the principal one of the nineteenth century, has already been well documented (Zastoupil and Moir 1999). The entire debate, as Charles Trevelyan put it in On the Education of the People of India (1838), Turns upon two points: the first of which is, whether English or Sanskrit and Arabic literature is best calculated for the enlightenment of the people of India; the other whether, supposing English literature to be best adapted for that purpose, the natives are ready to avail themselves of the advantages which it holds out. (See excerpts in Vol. I, No. 13) Documents such as these have enabled an understanding of the processes and contests through which English education was effected through the subcontinent. 1

C O L O N I A L E D U C AT I O N A N D I N D I A 1 7 8 1 – 1 9 4 5

Critical studies of the rise, expansion and impact of Western education through the scrutiny of these documents have been on the rise for a few decades now, with much of the early work still in thrall to the Saidian paradigm. Gauri Viswanathan’s pioneering Masks of Conquest (1989) attempted a political reading of the manner in which English literary studies arrived in India, its dissemination and its impact. Later works, taking issue with Viswanathan, or siding with her, examined policy documents, right from Macaulay’s now-infamous Minute of 1835, for their politics and prejudices. Broadening out the object of study, works by Tim Allender (2016), for example, mapped the construction of Indian femininity through textbooks and education in colonial India, or book history (Darnton 2001). More recently, discipline-specific studies such as Sumathi Ramaswamy’s Terrestrial Lessons (2018) have uncovered the making of disciplines such as geography in colonial India. The role of textbooks, printing and book distribution in the expansion of Western education has also come in for attention (Talwalker 2005; Finkelstein 2008; Topdar 2015). The debates over moral instruction of the Indians, the ‘problems’ associated with their increasing political awareness and the nature of the textbooks necessary as a result of the latter have also been the subject of study (Nayar forthcoming). The British authorities were clearly not a united house when it came to the several questions around the education of the native subjects. In what follows, we shall examine some of the debates and concerns captured by the documents in the volumes here. The aim is not to either summarize or direct the reading of the documents, but simply to demonstrate the range and intensity of some of the debates. The documents speak for themselves and to discern their underlying politics and prejudices does not require a framing argument by way of an Introduction or Protocol! J.E.D. Bethune argued fervently that, while the Indian students must be ‘induced to cultivate also their native language’, he believed that it is through the ‘English scholars’ alone that we can expect a ‘marked improvement in the customs and ways of thinking’ of the Indians (see Bethune’s Minute of 1851, Vol. 1, No. 20). Sarah Tucker (of the Tucker schools) mourned the isolation of the purdah-clad woman of the upper classes and declared that, in lower-class families, the women are ‘household slaves’ (see Tucker document, Vol. 1, No. 15). Priscilla Chapman argued that several Indians took to English education enthusiastically, and it ‘shows both a zeal and capability for receiving such knowledge, as may qualify them for employment under government’. But the same enthusiasm cannot be found from within Hindu societies for their women: ‘we must not therefore indulge any expectation of measures promoting the female welfare, being originated, or finding ready support from the Hindoos themselves’ (see the excerpts from Chapman’s Hindoo Female Education, Vol. 1, No. 18). There were practical problems in teaching Hindu girls, as fieldnotes and letters by activists documented: native women’s indolence, the numerous festivals that interrupted all schedules, poor health and of course early marriage and motherhood (see ‘The Difficulties of Zenana Teaching’, published in Indian Female Evangelist, 1878, in Vol. II, No. 7). With debates such as these, the Report of the Indian Education Commission (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1883) in its recommendations proposed that ‘conditions of aid to 2

INTRODUCTION

girls’ schools be easier than to boys’ schools, and the rates higher—more especially those established for poor or for lower-caste girls’. This same Report recommended that the ‘standards of instructions’ in girls’ schools be ‘simpler’ than that in boys’ schools! (See Vol. II, No. 9.) Other reports expressed their happiness at local and native initiatives in the direction of women’s education. Thus, the Report of the Bombay Provincial Committee (1884) gave extensive coverage of the setting up of the Arya Mahila Sabha. The Report noted that the public meeting of this society was held without a ‘single European officer present’, which demonstrated that it was not ‘the work of a passing impulse’ but ‘prompted by earnest conviction’ (see Vol. II, No. 11). Support for the project of educating Indian women also came from other Indians. For instance, K. M. Banerjea’s essay of 1848 placed the blame for inattention to women’s education squarely on Hinduism where, he says, ‘provision has been religiously made for the mental development of the boys’ but the ‘Shasters [shastras—sacred scriptures in Hinduism] have thrown many obstructions in the way of female education’. Banerjea firmly believes that ‘if all men are derived from the same original stock, the female mind must be as capable of improvement in the East as it is in the West’ (see Vol. IV, No. 3). Raj Kumar Sarvadhikari, deposing before the Bombay Provincial Committee declared: ‘while you educate the men, you should also educate the women, or else all plans for reforming the Hindu society will fail’ (see excerpts from Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial Committee with Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. IV, No. 8). Raja Rammohun Roy famously argued against the establishment of a Sanskrit College and in favour of scientific and rational education for the Indians in his nowwell known 1823 letter to Lord Amherst (see Vol. IV, No. 1). Others, however, petitioned the government to continue funding to Sanskrit colleges (see Vol. IV, No. 2). The Adam’s Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar (1868) pondered whether the Sanskrit schools served any purpose in the domain of public instruction: ‘If there were no Sanscrit Schools, their existence would not perhaps be desirable merely for the purposes of public instruction’. The Reports go on to admit that since the language is believed to be ‘the language of the gods’, ‘instruction communicated through this medium will be received by the learned class with a degree of respect and attention’. It is also a ‘common medium of instruction in the different countries and provinces occupied by the Hindu race’. The Reports endorse the continuation of government support for these schools because, if they are neglected ‘the hostility of the learned will be often incurred’ (see excerpts from Adam’s Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar, Vol. I, No. 16). As in the case of Sanskrit, proponents of Hindi as a medium, of Hindi schools and textbooks had set up societies to promote the language. The petitions of the Kayastha Pathshala, Allahabad, the Pandits of Benares and various associations from Meerut and other cities, conscious of the caste-class-language triad, were submitted to the government and the various education commissions through the latter decades of the nineteenth century. Members of the Hardu Union Club argued in its petition that their mother tongue ‘is most decidedly’ Hindi and this 3

C O L O N I A L E D U C AT I O N A N D I N D I A 1 7 8 1 – 1 9 4 5

should be the medium of instruction in schools in favour of Hindi. This club also forwarded this strange argument that ‘in no language are there to be found so many immoral book[s] as in Urdu,’ and hence it could not function as a medium of instruction. (See excerpts from Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial Committee with Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. IV, No. 8.) A petition from the Meerut Association argued that ‘Urdu has as little penetrated into or influenced the masses as English has’. Sanskrit, ‘being a national classic’, as they put it, must be taught alongside Hindi and Urdu can be an ‘optional’. (See excerpts from Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial Committee with Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. IV, No. 8.). Others, such as Uday Kumar Singh, the Raja of Bhinga (in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh), appear anxious that the public education system would not cater to the upper-caste/-class children. In a petition submitted to the Education Commission, Singh argues that this kind of education is ‘unfitted to young men in general, and the sons of the upper class in particular, for the faithful discharge of their duties which may devolve on them in after life’. He argues for moral instruction, discipline and aesthetic education as integral to the growth of the scions of upper class families (See excerpts from Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial Committee with Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. IV, No. 8.) A few statesmen and commentators saw Western education as central to the project of unifying India into the Empire. J.H. Cameron records that ‘the people of India are already divided into unsympathising castes, bands and nations’ and the British should think of unifying them (see Vol. I, No. 23). The role of education in making ‘good’ citizens of Indians often revolved around moral instruction. Indeed, the Bombay Provincial Committee (1884) asked its respondents to reply to the following question: ‘Does definite instruction in duty and the principles & moral conduct occupy any place in the course of Government Colleges and schools? Have you any suggestions to make on this subject?’ A. H. Benton in Indian Moral Instruction and Caste Problems (1917) mourned the fact that there were too many competing moralities in India, all embedded in their religious texts and literature, and none helped develop a sense of social responsibility and duty (see Vol. III, No. 3). Leonard Alston, Director of Non-Collegiate Students in Economics and History, Cambridge, and temporary Professor at Elphinstone College, Bombay, asks similar questions of the social purpose of indigenous systems of education in Education and Citizenship in India (1910, see Vol. II, No. 16). The subject was hotly debated. When people like R. A. Hume and William Beatty argued in favour of moral instruction R. G. Bhandarkar said: It appears to me that, placing dry moral receipts before young men is not a very efficacious method of making them virtuous or instilling moral principles into their minds. The teacher’s effort should be directed to the 4

INTRODUCTION

cultivation of the emotional side of the pupil’s nature, where lies the root of morality. . . . For this purpose nothing, I believe, is better suited than the best prose and poetic literature of such a great country as England. (Evidence Taken before the Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. IV, No. 5) Kashinath Trimbak Telang, a judge of the Bombay High Court, filing his dissenting minutes to the Report of the Indian Education Commission on the subject of moral instruction, argued that the effects of state education on the morals of the (Indian) students has been ‘mischievous, not to say disastrous’. He continues: if collegiate education is to subserve one of its most important purposes, and is to cultivate the intelligence so as to enable it to weigh arguments and form independent judgments, then these moral lessons present an entirely different aspect. At that stage, it is almost entirely unnecessary to instruct the intelligence, while it is of great use to discipline the will and to cultivate the feelings. The proposed lectures will, I fear, have little or no effect in this latter direction; while in some individual cases their effect in the former direction, being meant to operate not on the intellect but on conduct, may be the reverse of that which is desired. (see excerpts in Vol. II, No. 9) The debate drove the discussion into other realms—such as the content of the textbooks being printed. Works discussing textbooks, such as J. G. Covernton’s Vernacular Reading Books in the Bombay Presidency (1906), offered detailed portrait of the kind of reader the English educationists—and their native supporters/opponents—had in mind when preparing, recommending or criticising these reading materials (see Vol. II, No. 15). That moral instruction and physical education would stir the native, naturally indolent, out of their state was a view expressed by, among others, in the Report of the Indian Education Commission of 1882, which stated: the sedentary habits of the higher castes are proverbial, and we consider that a regular course of physical exercise would have a specially good effect upon the minds and bodies of most Indian students We therefore recommend that physical development be promoted by the encouragement of native games, gymnastics, school drill, and other exercises suited to the circumstances stances of each class of school. (1883: 127) Numerous opinions, from both English and native thinkers, circulated on religious education in schools and colleges, the founding and maintenance of religious institutions funded by the government and the education of specific sections of the 5

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population—Muslims, the underprivileged classes, to name two. When a petition was submitted to Warren Hastings in 1781 to set up a Madrassa, he decided that such an institution was providing a useful service, and it was only the ‘want of suitable accommodation’ that prevented a consolidation of their work. Hastings, in his Minute of 17 April 1781, announced the allocation of land for a building for the Madrassa (see Vol. 1, No. 1). Many scholars campaigned for the cause of Muslim education, seeking active government encouragement and support. Badruddin Tyabji and Syed Ahmed Khan both stated their case in considerable detail. Tyabji argued that the Muslims of the Bombay Presidency were ‘perfectly indifferent if not averse’ to English education. He argued that Hindustani and Persian should be introduced into the primary schools for the Muslims. Tyabji also admitted that the Muslims in India remained in thrall of the glories of their past empire, combined with the fear that ‘European education is antagonistic to the traditions of Islam’. Tyabji stated that ‘That the ignorance prevailing amongst Muhammadans is to a great extent due to the absence of all educational facilities for them, and in particular to the absence of education through the medium of Hindustani’. He argued: ‘The Muhammadans have not hitherto been treated with sufficient consideration in regard to educational matters, and that a fair share of the Government, as well as municipal grants should be applied specially for their benefit’ (see excerpts from Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission Vol. IV, No. 5). Like Tyabji, Syed Ahmed Khan also stated that ‘the Muhammedans certainly believed that the philosophy and logic taught in the English language were at variance with the tenets of Islam’. However, Khan was also of the opinion that the Mussalman community has no right to expect Government to adopt any denominational measure for them. The system of education established by Government is equally open to all sections of the population, and it cannot, and should not, show any partiality for a particular class or section. Khan was emphatic that ‘the failure of the Muhammadans to derive an adequate share of benefit from it [the system of education] is their own fault’ (see excerpts from Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial Committee with Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. IV, No. 8). Other public figures documenting the history of English education in India, such as Syed Mahmood, appear to have concurred with Tyabji and Khan, that the Muslims themselves were to blame for not accepting English education. Mahmood wrote in his History of English Education in India that the Muslims stayed away from the new education, to disastrous results: ‘[the Mahomedans] whose attitude towards English education was far from friendly’. Mahmood continued: Such feelings of aversion towards English education entertained by the Mahomedans . . . stand in sharp contrast to the attitude of the Hindu 6

INTRODUCTION

community. . . . This difference in the sentiments of the two communities towards English education, is the real key to the reasons of the vast disparity of progress of English education which the two nationalities have respectively made. The effects of this disparity have been most baneful to the interests of British India in general, and to the Mahomedan community in particular. (54) The requirements of different segments of Indian society were clearly different. Thus Jotiba Phule, presenting his case before the Education Commission, stated: ‘the present system of education, which, by providing ampler funds for higher education, tended to educate Brahmins and the higher classes only, and to leave the masses wallowing in ignorance and poverty’. He drew attention to the link between caste, education and employment opportunities and the forms of employment: With regard to the question as to educated natives finding remunerative employments, it will be remembered that the educated natives who mostly belong to the Brahminical and other higher classes are mostly fond of service. But as the public service can afford no field for all the educated natives who come out from schools and colleges, and moreover the course of attaining they receive being not of a technical or practical nature, they find great difficulty in betaking themselves to other manual or remunerative employments. Hence the cry that the market is overstocked with educated native. who do not find any remunerative employment. It may, to a certain extent, be true that some of the professions are overstocked, but this does not show that there is no other remunerative employment to which they can betake themselves. (Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial Committee with Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. IV, No. 8) In addition to these debates, numerous histories of Western education in India, including institutions such as St Stephen’s College (see Vol. III, No. 6), were produced, evidence marshalled from various native and English experts appended to the massive Reports published through the last decades of the nineteenth century and early twentieth. Writing in the midst of the Indian freedom struggle, questions of ‘national education’ haunted the Indian mind. The speeches and writings from Aurobindo, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and others (see Vol. V) alongside the convocation addresses by Madan Mohan Malaviya, Jadunath Sarkar and others debated the purpose, effect and future directions of Western education in a country slowly coming into its own as a ‘nation’. With B.R. Ambedkar’s emphasis on education for the ‘suppressed classes’ and the historically oppressed, another layer was added to the debate on education for India and Indians. 7

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Besides these debates and concerns, the documents reprinted here also provide insights into the governance of institutions—fees, hostel rules, admission procedures, examination systems (including some examination papers and answers) – across India. Technical and legal education, a part of the educational mission of the British government, also had its fair share of documentary materials, some of which have been excerpted here. Despite the politics, prejudices and outright misunderstandings that one can discern in the correspondence, minutes, reports and commentaries, the Indian educational records are impressive for their sheer meticulous detailing and attempt at ordering what was clearly a contested field. That the British disagreed among themselves as to whether they wanted Indians trained into clerks—as the oft-cited Macaulay Minute stated—or into free-thinking citizens taking responsibility for their country and futures is embodied best in the materials in this collection. Needless to say, much of this material is in bad shape, with missing pages or illegible text, but these texts remain crucial documentation for a cultural history of English education in India.

References Allender, Tim. Learning Femininity in Colonial India, 1820–1932. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2016. Darnton, Robert. ‘Literary Surveillance in the British Raj’, Book History 4 (2001): 133–176. Finkelstein, David. ‘Book Circulation and Reader Responses in Colonial India’, in Robert Fraser and Mary Hammond (eds), Books Without Borders, Volume 2: Perspectives from South Asia. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008. 100–111. Mahmood, Syed. History of English Education in India, Its Rise, Development, Progress, Present Condition and Prospects. Being a Narrative of the Various Phases of Educational Policy and Measures Adopted under the British Rule from Its Beginning to the Present Period (1781 to 1893). Aligarh: Mohammedan Anglo Oriental (MAO) College, 1895. Nayar, Pramod K. ‘Moral Readership and Political Apprenticeship: Commentaries on English Education, India 1875–1930’, in Mary Hammond et al (eds), The Edinburgh History of Reading. Forthcoming. Ramaswamy, Sumathi. Territorial Lessons: The Conquest of the World as Globe. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2018. Report of the Indian Education Commission. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1883. Talwalker, Clare. ‘Colonial Dreaming: Textbooks in the Mythology of “Primitive Accumulation”’, Dialectical Anthropology 29 (2005): 1–24. Topdar, Sudipa. ‘Duties of a “Good Citizen”: Colonial Secondary School Textbook Policies in Late Nineteenth-century India’, South Asian History and Culture 6.3 (2015): 417–439. Viswanathan, Gauri. Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India. London: Faber and Faber, 1989. Zastoupil, Lynn and Martin Moir (eds). The Great Indian Education Debate: Documents Relating to the Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy, 1781–1843. Surrey: Curzon, 1999. 1–72.

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1 WARREN HASTINGS, ‘MINUTE ON MADRASAS, 17TH APRIL 1781’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 7–9

Minute by the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, dated the 17th April 1781.1 In the month of September 1780 a petition was presented to me by a considerable number of Mussulmen of credit and learning, who attended in a body for that purpose praying that I would use my influence with a stranger of the name of Mudgid O’din who was then lately arrived at the Presidency to persuade him to remain there for the instruction of young students in the Mahomedan law, and in such other sciences as are taught in the Mahomedan schools for which he was represented to be uncommonly qualified. They represented that this was a favourable occasion to establish a Madressa or College, and Mudgid O’din the fittest person to form and preside in it, that Calcutta was already become the seat of a great empire, and the resort of persons from all parts of Hindoostan and Deccan, that it had been the pride of every polished court and the wisdom of every well regulated Government both in India and in Persia to promote by such institutions the growth and extention of liberal knowledge, that in India only the traces of them now remain, the decline of learning having accompanied that of the Mogul Empire, that the numerous offices of our Government which required men of improved abilities to fill and the care which had been occasionally observed to select men of the first eminence in the science of jurisprudence to officiate as judges in the criminal and assessors in the Civil Courts of Judicature, and (I hope this addition will not be imputed to me as ostentation on an occasion in which the sincerity of what I shall hereafter propose for the public patronage will be best evident by my own example) the belief which generally prevailed that men so accomplished usually met with a distinguished reception from myself [which] afforded them particular encouragement, to hope that a proposal of this nature would prove acceptable to the actual Government. 9

Minute by Warren Hastings, 1781.

C O L O N I A L E D U C AT I O N A N D I N D I A 1 7 8 1 – 1 9 4 5 Minute by Warren Hastings, 1781–contd.

This was the substance of the Petition which I can only repeat from my memory, having mislaid the original. I dismissed them with a promise of complying with their wishes to the utmost of my power. I sent for the man on whom they had bestowed such encomiums and prevailed upon him to accept of the office designed for him. He opened his school about the beginning of October and has bestowed an unremitted attention on it to this time, with a success and reputation which have justified the expectation which has been formed of it. Many students have already finished their education under his instructions and have received their dismission in form and many dismissed unknown to me. The master supposing himself limited to a fixed monthly sum which would not admit a larger number besides day scholars, he has at this time forty boarders mostly natives of these Provinces, but some sojourners from other parts of India. Among them I had the satisfaction of seeing on the last new year’s day, some who had come from the districts of Cashmeer, Guzarat, and one from the Carnatic. I am assured that the want of suitable accommodation alone prevents an increase of the number. For this reason I have lately made a purchase of a convenient piece of ground near the Boita Connah in a quarter of the town called Podpoker and have laid the foundation of a square building for a madrissa constructed on the plan of similar edifices in other parts of India. Thus far I have prosecuted the undertaking on my own means and with no very liberal supplies I am now constrained to recommend it to the Board, and through that channel to the Hon’ble Court of Directors for a more adequate and permanent endowment. By an estimate of the building which with a plan and elevation of it shall accompany this minute the whole cost of it will be 51,000 Arcot Rupees, to which I shall beg leave to add the price of the ground being 6,280 Sa Rupees. The amount of both is Arcot rupees 57,745·2·11. It shall be my care to prevent an excess of this sum which I request may be placed to the Company’s accounts, and a bond allowed me for the amount and that I may be enabled by the sanction of the Board to execute this work. I must likewise propose that a parcel of land may be assigned for the growing charge of this foundation. The present expense is as follows:– Sicca. Rs. The Preceptor per month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 40 Scholars from 7 to 6 per month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 A Sweeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 House rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 TOTAL . . . . . . 625

10

HASTINGS, ‘MINUTE ON MADRASAS’

The day scholars pay nothing. In the proportion of the above expense an establishment of 109 Scholars may be estimated at 10,000 Rupees per month at the utmost. I would recommend that the rents of one or more Mousa or villages in the neighbourhood of the place be assigned for the monthly expence of the proposed Madressa and that it be referred to the Committee of Revenue to provide and make the endowment and to regulate the mode of collection and payment in such a manner as to fix and ascertain the amount and periods of both and prevent any future abuses of one or misapplication of the other. For the present an assignment of half the estimated sum will be sufficient. (Sd.) WARREN HASTINGS. FORT WILLIAM; The 17th April 1781. Agreed.

E. WHEELER.

Note 1 Printed in Bengal: Past and Present, VIII, 1914, p. 105 f.

11

Minute by Warren Hastings, 1781–contd.

2 J. DUNCAN, ‘LETTER, 1ST JANUARY 1792’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 10–11

Letter from J. Duncan, Resident, Benares, No. 17, dated 1st January 1792, to the Earl of Cornwallis, K.G., Governor-General in Council.1 Benares College, 1792.

MY LORD, HAVING in view to the surplus Revenue expected to be derived from the permanent settlement (as reported in my address of the 25th November 1789) and of the instructions thereon passed by your Lordship in Council in February last to transmit for the consideration of Government my sentiments regarding its appropriation reflected frequently on the subject; it appeared to me that a part of those funds could not be applied to more general advantage or with more local propriety than by the Institution of a Hindoo College or Academy for the preservation and cultivation of the Laws, Literature and Religion of that nation, at this centre of their faith, and the common resort of all their tribes. Two important advantages seemed derivable from such an establishment, the first to the British name and nation in its tendency towards endearing our Government to the native Hindoos; by our exceeding in our attention towards them and their systems, the care shewn even by their own native princes; for although learning has ever been cultivated at Benares, in numerous private seminaries, yet no public Institution of the kind here proposed ever appears to have existed; to which may, in a considerable degree, be attributed the great difficulty of now collecting complete treatises (although such are well known to have existed) on the Hindoo religion, laws, arts, or sciences; a defect and loss, which the permanency of a college at Benares must be peculiarly well adapted to correct, and recover by a gradual collection and correction of the books still to be met (though in a very dispersed and imperfect state) so as with care and attention and by the assistance and exertions of the possessors and students to accumulate at only a small and 12

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comparative expence to Government, a precious library of the most ancient and valuable general learning and tradition now perhaps existing on any part of the globe. The 2nd principal advantage that may be derived from this Institution will be felt in its effects more immediately by the natives, though not without being participated in by the British subjects, who are to rule over them, by preserving and disseminating a knowledge of the Hindoo Law and proving a nursery of future doctors and expounders thereof, to assist the European judges in the due, regular, and uniform administration of its genuine letter and spirit to the body of the people.

*

*

*

*

*

The Extract of my proceedings already referred to contains the few rules which have already been thought of for this Institution, and they are respectfully submitted to Government for such correction or addition as may be thought expedient. JONATHAN DUNCAN. BENARES; The 1st January 1792.

Note 1 Printed in Bengal: Past and Present, VIII, 1914, pp. 130–133; and in G. NICHOLLS’ Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Benares Patshalla or Sanskrit College. Allahabad, 1907, p. 1 f.

13

Benares College, 1792–contd.

3 ‘RULES FOR HINDOO COLLEGE, 1792’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 11–12

Proposed Rules for the Benares College 1. The Governor in Council to be Visitor, and the Resident, his Deputy. 2. The stipends to be paid by the hands of the Resident; but the Pundits to have no concern with the collection of the Revenue. 3. The nine scholars (or eighteen if so many can be supported) to be taught gratis; but no others except a certain number of such poor boys whose parents or kinsmen cannot pay for instruction. All other scholars should pay their respective teachers, as usual. 4. The teachers and students to hold their places during the pleasure of the Visitor. 5. Complaints to be first made to the Resident with a power of appealing to the Visitor for his decisions. 6. The professor of medicine must be a Vaidya and so may the teacher of grammar, but as he could not teach Panini it would be better that all except the physician should be Brahmins. 7. The Brahmin teachers to have a preference over strangers in succeeding to the headship and the students in succeeding to professorships, if they shall on examination be found qualified. 8. The scholars to be examined four times a year in the presence of the Resident in all such parts of knowledge as are not held too sacred to be discussed in the presence of any but Brahmins. 9. Each professor to compose annually a lecture for the use of his students, on his respective science; and copies of such lectures as may legally be divulged to be delivered to the Resident. 10. Examinations of the students, in the more secret branches of learning, to be made four times a year by a committee of Brahmins nominated by the Resident. 14

‘RULES FOR HINDOO COLLEGE, 1792’

11. The plan of a course of study in each Science to be prepared by the several professors. 12. The students to be sometimes employed in transcribing or correcting books for the use of the College, so as to form in time a perfect library. 13. The discipline of the College to be conformable in all respects to the Dharma Sastra in the Chapter on education. The second book of Monu contains the whole system of discipline.

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4 CHARLES GRANT, EXTRACT FROM OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF SOCIETY AMONG THE ASIATIC SUBJECTS OF GREAT BRITAIN (1792/1797), 148–167

The true cure of darkness, is the introduction of light. The Hindoos err, because they are ignorant; and their errors have never fairly been laid before them. The communication of our light and knowledge to them, would prove the best remedy for their disorders; and this remedy is proposed, from a full conviction, that if judiciously and patiently applied, it would have great and happy effects upon them, effects honorable and advantageous for us. There are two ways of making this communication: the one is, by the medium of the languages of those countries; the other is, by the medium of our own. In general, when foreign teachers have proposed to instruct the inhabitants of any country, they have used the vernacular tongue of that people, for a natural and necessary reason, that they could not hope to make any other mean of communication intelligible to them. This is not our case in respect of our Eastern dependencies. They are our own, we have possessed them long, many Englishmen reside among the natives, our language is not unknown there, and it is practicable to diffuse it more widely. The choice therefore of either mode, lies open to us; and we are at liberty to consider which is entitled to a preference. Upon this subject, it is not intended to pass an exclusive decision here; the points absolutely to be contended for are, that we ought to impart our superior lights, and that this is practicable, that it is practicable by two ways, can never be an argument why neither should be attempted. Indeed no good reason appears why either should be systematically interdicted, since particular cases may recommend, even that which is in general least eligible. The acquisition of a foreign language is, to men of cultivated minds, a matter of no great difficulty. English teachers could therefore be sooner qualified to offer instruction in the native languages, than the Indians would be prepared to receive it in ours. This method would hence come into operation more speedily than the other; and it would also be attended with the advantage of a more careful selection of the matter of instruction. But it would be far more confined and less effectual; 16

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it may be termed a species of deciphering. The decipherer is required to unfold, in intelligible words, what was before hidden. Upon every new occasion, he has a similar labor to perform, and the information obtained from him is limited to the single communication then made. All other writings in the same character, still remain, to those who are ignorant of it, unknown; but if they are taught the character itself, they can at once read every writing in which it is used. Thus superior, in point of ultimate advantage, does the employment of the English language appear; and upon this ground, we give a preference to that mode, proposing here, that the communication of our knowledge shall be made by the medium of our own language. This proposition will bring at once to trial, both the principle of such communication, and that mode of conveyance which can alone be questioned; for the admission of the principle must at least include in it the admission of the narrowest means suited to the end, which we conceive to be the native languages. The principle however, and the mode, are still distinct questions, and any opinion which may be entertained of the latter, cannot affect the former; but it is hoped, that what shall be offered here concerning them, will be found sufficient to justify both. We proceed then to observe, that it is perfectly in the power of this country, by degrees, to impart to the Hindoos our language; afterwards, through that medium, to make them acquainted with our easy literary compositions, upon a variety of subjects; and, let not the idea hastily excite derision, progressively with the simple elements of our arts, our philosophy and religion. These acquisitions would silently undermine, and at length subvert, the fabric of error; and all the objections that may be apprehended against such a change, are, it is confidently believed, capable of a solid answer. The first communication, and the instrument of introducing the rest, must be the English language; this is a key which will open to them a world of new ideas, and policy alone might have impelled us, long since, to put it into their hands. To introduce the language of the conquerors, seems to be an obvious mean of assimilating the conquered people to them. The Mahomedans, from the beginning of their power, employed the Persian language in the affairs of government, and in the public departments. This practice aided them in maintaining their superiority, and enabled them, instead of depending blindly on native agents, to look into the conduct and details of public business, as well as to keep intelligible registers of the income and expenditure of the state. Natives readily learnt the language of government, finding that it was necessary in every concern of revenue and of justice; they next became teachers of it; and in all the provinces over which the Mogul Empire extended, it is still understood, and taught by numbers of Hindoos. It would have been our interest to have followed their example; and had we done so on the assumption of the Dewannee, or some years afterwards, the English language would now have been spoken and studied by multitudes of Hindoos throughout our provinces. The details of the revenue would, from the beginning, have been open to our inspection; and by facility of examination on our 17

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part, and difficulty of fabrication on that of the natives, manifold impositions of a gross nature, which have been practised upon us, would have been precluded. An early channel of communication also, would always have been open between the rulers and the subjects; and numberless grievances would have been represented, redressed, or prevented, which the ignorance of the former in the country languages, and the hindrances experienced by the latter in making their approaches, have sometimes suffered to pass with impunity, to the encouragement of new abuses. We were long held in the dark, both in India and in Europe, by the use of a technical revenue language; and a man of considerable judgment, who was a member of the Bengal administration near twenty years since, publicly animadverted on the absurdity of our submitting to employ the unknown jargon of a conquered people. It is certain, that the Hindoos would easily have conformed to the use of English; and they would still be glad to possess the language of their masters, the language which always gives weight and consequence to the natives who have any acquaintance with it, and which would enable every native to make his own representations directly to the Governor-General himself, who, it may be presumed, will not commonly, henceforth, be chosen from the line of the Company’s servants, and therefore may not speak the dialects of the country. Of what importance it might be to the public interest, that a man in that station should not be obliged to depend on a medium with which he is unacquainted, may readily be conceived. It would be extremely easy for government to establish, at a moderate expence, in various parts of the provinces, places of gratuitous instruction in reading and writing English: multitudes, especially of the young, would flock to them; and the easy books used in teaching, might at the same time convey obvious truths on different subjects. The teachers should be persons of knowledge, morals, and discretion; and men of this character could impart to their pupils, much useful information in discourse: and to facilitate the attainment of that object, they might at first make some use of the Bengaleze tongue. The Hindoos would, in time, become teachers of English themselves; and the employment of our language in public business, for which every political reason remains in full force, would, in the course of another generation, make it very general throughout the country. There is nothing wanting to the success of this plan, but the hearty patronage of government. If they wish it to succeed, it can and must succeed. The introduction of English in the administration of the revenue, in judicial proceedings, and in other business of government, wherein Persian is now used, and the establishment of free-schools for instruction in this language, would ensure its diffusion over the country, for the reason already suggested, that the interest of the natives would induce them to acquire it. Neither would much confusion arise, even at first, upon such a change; for there are now a great number of Portugueze and Bengaleze clerks in the provinces, who understand both the Hindostanny and English languages. To employ them in drawing up petitions to government, or its officers, would be no additional hardship upon the poorer people, who are now assisted in that way by Persian clerks; and 18

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the opportunity afforded to others who have sufficient leisure, of learning the language of the government gratuitously, would be an advantage never enjoyed under Mahomedan rulers. With our language, much of our useful literature might, and would, in time, be communicated. The art of printing, would enable us to disseminate our writings in a way the Persians never could have done, though their compositions had been as numerous as ours. Hence the Hindoos would see the great use we make of reason on all subjects, and in all affairs; they also would learn to reason, they would become acquainted with the history of their own species, the past and present state of the world; their affections would gradually become interested by various engaging works, composed to recommend virtue, and to deter from vice; the general mass of their opinions would be rectified; and above all, they would see a better system of principles and morals. New views of duty as rational creatures would open upon them; and that mental bondage in which they have long been holden, would gradually dissolve. To this change, the true knowledge of nature would contribute; and some of our easy explanations of natural philosophy might undoubtedly, by proper means, be made intelligible to them. Except a few Brahmins, who consider the concealment of their learning a part of their religion,1 the people are totally misled as to the system and phœnomena of nature; and their errors in this branch of science, upon which divers important conclusions rest, may be more easily demonstrated to them, than the absurdity and falsehood of their mythological legends. From the demonstration of the true cause of eclipses, the story of Ragoo, and Ketoo, the dragons, who when the sun and the moon are obscured are supposed to be assaulting them, a story which has hitherto been an article of religious faith, productive of religious services among the Hindoos,2 would fall to the ground; the removal of one pillar, would weaken the fabric of falsehood; the discovery of one palpable error, would open the mind to farther conviction; and the progressive discovery of truths, hitherto unknown, would dissipate as many superstitious chimeras, the parents of false fears, and false hopes. Every branch of natural philosophy might in time be introduced and diffused among the Hindoos. Their understandings would thence be strengthened, as well as their minds informed, and error be dispelled in proportion. But perhaps no acquisition in natural philosophy would so effectually enlighten the mass of the people, as the introduction of the principles of mechanics, and their application to agriculture and the useful arts. Not that the Hindoos are wholly destitute of simple mechanical contrivances. Some manufactures, which depend upon patient attention and delicacy of hand, are carried to a considerable degree of perfection among them; but for a series of ages, perhaps for two thousand years, they do not appear to have made any considerable addition to the arts of life. Invention seems wholly torpid among them; in a few things, they have improved by their intercourse with Europeans, of whose immense superiority they are at length convinced; but this effect is partial, and not discernible in the bulk of the people. The scope for improvement, in this respect, is prodigious. 19

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What great accessions of wealth would Bengal derive from a people intelligent in the principles of agriculture, skilled to make the most of soils and seasons, to improve the existing modes of culture, of pasturage, of rearing cattle, of defence against excesses of drought, and of rain; and thus to meliorate the quality of all the produce of the country. All these arts are still in infancy. The husbandman of Bengal just turns up the soil with a diminutive plough, drawn by a couple of miserable cattle; and if drought parches, or the rain inundate the crop, he has no resource; he thinks he is destined to this suffering, and is far more likely to die from want, than to relieve himself by any new or extraordinary effort. Horticulture is also in its first stage: the various fruits and esculent herbs, with which Hindostan abounds, are nearly in a state of nature; though they are planted in inclosed gardens, little skill is employed to reclaim them. In this respect likewise, we might communicate information of material use to the comfort of life, and to the prevention of famine. In silk, indigo, sugar, and in many other articles, what vast improvements might be effected by the introduction of machinery. The skilful application of fire, of water, and of steam, improvements which would thus immediately concern the interest of the common people, would awaken them from their torpor, and give activity to their minds. At present it is wonderful to see how entirely they resign themselves to precedent: custom is the strongest law to them. Following implicitly, seems to be instinctive with them, in small things as well as great. The path which the first passenger has marked over the soft soil, is trodden so undeviatingly in all its curves, by every succeeding traveller, that when it is perfectly beaten, it has still only the width of a single tract. But undoubtedly the most important communication which the Hindoos could receive through the medium of our language, would be the knowledge of our religion, the principles of which are explained in a clear, easy way, in various tracts circulating among us, and are completely contained in the inestimable volume of scripture. Thence they would be instructed in the nature and perfections of the one true God, and in the real history of man; his creation, lapsed state, and the means of his recovery, on all which points they hold false and extravagant opinions; they would see a pure, complete, and perfect system of morals and of duty, enforced by the most awful sanctions, and recommended by the most interesting motives; they would learn the accountableness of man, the final judgment he is to undergo, and the eternal state which is to follow. Wherever this knowledge should be received, idolatry, with all the rabble of its impure deities, its monsters of wood and stone, its false principles and corrupt practices, its delusive hopes and vain fears, its ridiculous ceremonies and degrading superstitions, its lying legends and fraudulent impositions, would fall. The reasonable service of the only, and the infinitely perfect God, would be established: love to him, peace and good-will towards men, would be felt as obligatory principles. It is not asserted, that such effects would be immediate or universal; but admitting them to be progressive, and partial only, yet how great would the change be, and how happy at length for the outward prosperity, and internal peace of society among the Hindoos! Men would be restored to the use of their reason; all the advantages of happy soil, climate, and situation, would be observed and 20

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improved; the comforts and conveniences of life would be increased; the cultivation of the mind, and rational intercourse, valued; the people would rise in the scale of human beings; and as they found their character, their state, and their comforts, improved, they would prize more highly, the security and the happiness of a well ordered society. Such a change would correct those sad disorders which have been described, and for which no other remedy has been proposed, nor is in the nature of things to be found. Desirable as it must be that such animating prospects were realized, and reasonable as the grounds on which they are held out are presumed to be, it is nevertheless probable, that various objections, more or less plausible, may be started against all that has been advanced. These objections, as far as they are foreseen, shall now be distinctly met; and it is hoped, that upon examination, none of them will be found to possess that substance and validity, which we are entitled to require in arguments opposed to a scheme resting on principles the most incontrovertible, and having for its end the most diffusive good. FIRST. The plan here proposed, presenting so new an association of ideas, so strange a revolution, as the abject Bengaleze using the language and the light of Europe, may upon the very suggestion of it, be treated as in its nature idle, visionary, and absurd. But this would be the decision of prejudice, rather than the conclusion of mature reflection and reason. If the character of the Hindoos proceeded only from a physical origin, there might be some foundation for thinking it unalterable; but nothing is more plain, than that it is formed chiefly by moral causes, adequate to the effect produced: if those causes therefore can be removed, their effect will cease, and new principles and motives will produce new conduct and a different character. It is unwarrantable to infer, that because the Hindoos, or to narrow the term, the Bengaleze, are at present low in their sentiments, conduct, and aims, they must always remain so. We cannot presume from the past state of any people, with respect to improvement in arts, that they would under different circumstances, for ever continue the same. The history of many nations who have advanced from rudeness to refinement, contradicts such an hypothesis; according to which, the Britons ought still to be going naked, to be feeding on acorns, and sacrificing human victims in the Druidical groves. In fact what is now offered, is nothing more than a proposal for the further civilization of a people, who had very early made a considerable progress in improvement; but who, by deliberate and successful plans of fraud and imposition, were rendered first stationary, then retrograde. These considerations alone, forbid us to assume, that if they were released from the darkness and stupefaction of ignorance and superstition, the human mind could not among them, regain some ordinary degree of elasticity; or that if light shone upon them, they would still be incapable of seeing or judging for themselves. Let it however be again observed, that the argument maintained here supposes only a gradual change. If we bring into immediate contrast, the present state of the Hindoos, and the full, general, accomplishment of such a change, tacitly sinking in our comparison, a 21

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long series of years, and of slow progressive transitions, we shall indeed form to ourselves a picture of egregious contrarieties, but it will not be a just representation. Nothing is contended for, which cannot be supported from the nature of man, and the experience of past ages. SECOND. Nearly allied to the objection now considered, is another which some persons acquainted with the Hindoo character and habits, and possibly apologists for them, may derive from the attachment of that people to their own modes and customs. “If,” may it be said, “the Bengaleze are not to be reckoned below the reach of instruction, and incapable of new perceptions and views, still their attachment to long established opinions and usages, is so rooted, as to form an insuperable obstacle to such an innovation as is proposed; and therefore the scheme may at least be regarded as impracticable.” Is this argument however, quite philosophical? Must it be granted, without fair trial, that there is any portion of the human race, upon which reason and science can have no influence, which is doomed by nature to perpetual ignorance and prejudice? It is true that the Hindoos have a strong predilection for their system; but still it must be remembered, that in the bulk of the people, this is a predilection consequent of a privation of light, and rivetted by the errors which darkness generates, not an attachment which has resisted the light, or has ever been tried by it. Many Europeans have implicitly adopted an overstrained notion of the immutability of Hindoo opinions in matters of religion, and of the obstinacy of the people in retaining their own practices, even in civil life. But if we look to facts, we shall find that a variety of sects have prevailed, and still prevail, among them. The rise, especially of the Seeks, a new religious order, numerous and powerful, who have abjured the Brahminical faith, is sufficient to evince that the Hindoos are capable of considerable fluctuations of opinion. Hitherto indeed they have more commonly fluctuated only from one delusion to another; though it must be allowed, that the system of the Seeks, if the accounts which have been received of it are accurate, is comparatively simple and rational; and we cannot without wonder behold a set of Hindoos casting off at once, in the heart of their country, the whole load of Brahminical incumbrances, and as it should seem, renouncing polytheism and the worship of images.3 A sight far more pleasing has also been exhibited to us, in the conversion of Hindoos to the divine religion of the Gospel. These were not encouraged by an armed protection, or actuated by the prospect of conquest, which may have stimulated the followers of the Seeks; but in opposition to the allurements and terrors of the world, they yielded to conviction, and rendered homage to the truth. This important fact, which is perfectly established, it may suffice barely to state here, since there will be occasion, in speaking to a following objection, to which it more pointedly applies, to enlarge upon it. When we read of these things on the one hand, and on the other of the extremities which Hindoos have sometimes endured through the bigotry of their Mahomedan masters, or from the pressures of misfortune, rather than submit to apprehended contamination, what is the inference fairly deducible from these dissimilar views but this, 22

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that whether the dread either of dishonor in this life, or of degradation in the next transmigration; whether resentment, or the idea of acquiring distinguished merit, were the principle from which these people suffered, still what terror could not induce them, misguided as they were by false notions, to relinquish, they yielded voluntarily to reason and persuasion. If we now turn to instances of a more familiar nature, in the affairs of common life, here too actual experience will inform us, that it is not insuperably difficult to induce the Indians to depart from old established practices, and to adopt new ones. One or two cases of pre-eminent magnitude and notoriety will suffice to confirm this position. Raw-silk, as is well known, has been for many years a great article of commerce in Bengal. The natives had their own methods of winding it, and much attachment to those methods, defective as they were. The India Company attempted to introduce the Italian mode of winding this article, a mode more complex, but far more perfect; they have completely succeeded, and that mode is now practised in all parts of the country. So again with respect to the culture and manufacture of indigo, which the skill and industry of Europeans have, within these last twelve years, introduced into Bengal, and have now rendered an immense article of commerce between that country and Europe: the natives, though possessed of the indigo plant, from which their dyers extracted a very inferior substance for domestic purposes, held the culture of it rather in disesteem, and had no idea of those modes, and that scale of manufacture, of which the Europeans gave them examples; but those examples they now begin to follow on their own account, and there is reason to believe the Hindoos will come in for a share of the produce of this article in the London markets. Be it acknowledged then, that they are now incurious, and without love of learning; yet make it their interest, and they will attend to new discoveries; make it easy for them also to know the English language, and they will acquire it; shew them profitable improvements in agriculture and the arts, and they will imitate them; make it in short their interest, and why may they not become in time students, and even teachers of natural philosophy? Let not the idea be hastily treated as chimerical, if we add that the India Company possessing the revenues of a great country, might very beneficially for themselves, and that country, set the example in introducing such improvements. It would be worthy of them to turn their attention to this fruitful subject, to employ skilful artists of various kinds in ascertaining what improvements are practicable, and in carrying plans for them into execution. Were such a design to be taken up, with due zeal, by the Company, and their governments abroad, the expence and labor would assuredly be repaid in the end, probably by specific returns, but certainly by the augmentation of the agriculture and commerce of the country, and the general effects upon society. In like manner, if after the English language begun to be diffused, seminaries, with suitable apparatus, were instituted, for gratuitous instruction in natural philosophy, and premiums assigned to those who should excel, young persons, both Hindoos, and Mahomedans, would become students and candidates; and if those who were found competent, were at length to be taken as assistant teachers, with suitable salaries, such a measure would 23

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prove a new and powerful means of establishing this species of knowledge. If a kind, patient, and encouraging conduct, were observed towards the Hindoos; that contempt with which Europeans in general regard them, restrained; and their first inaptitude borne with; it cannot be irrational to expect, that in things which come home to their business and interest, which respect the truths of nature, and the improvements of art, such a conduct should be productive of success. Many of the Hindoos and Mahomedans, are brought up to the ready practice of writing and accounts; and persons of this class might be more easily carried on further. THIRD. It may be objected, with more plausibility, that the Brahmins, by their determined opposition to innovations, which would so essentially affect their interests, would prevent the introduction or success of them. It is certainly natural to suppose, that they could not look with indifference upon any attempt from which they might apprehend danger, to that system whence they “have their wealth,” their honor, and their influence. It shall be readily admitted therefore, that upon any serious alarm for the stability of these distinctions, such opposition as should be within the power of that order of men might be expected. But though it will be proper to consider the effect of that opposition, and the force of the objection grounded upon it, we must previously maintain that it can constitute no reason at all against endeavouring, by prudent and pacific means, to make the truth known; for to admit this, would be to make the resistance of those who profit by abuses, an argument for continuing to tolerate them, and upon the same principle, Christianity had never been propagated. To objections of a prudential or political kind, it is one main design of this piece to oppose answers founded on considerations of a like nature; and we venture to believe, that if the cause here pleaded for, rested on this ground alone, it could have nothing to fear. But the employment of political arguments does not oblige us to decline the use of others justly applicable to the subject; and upon the present occasion, it would be strange to omit one of decisive weight, which flows from the very nature and principles of Christianity. The divine authority of that religion, its unrivalled excellence, and incomparable fitness to promote the happiness of man, its whole tenor, and many particular injunctions and encouragements which it holds forth, impose upon those who profess subjection to it, the duty of contributing to diffuse, by all proper methods, the knowledge and influence of it in the world. No man who takes the Gospel as the standard of his reasoning, can for a moment dispute this position; to deny it, would be virtually to deny the authority of Christ, and therefore it will not be expected, that we should enter here into the proof of a position which rests upon the truth of Christianity itself. But affirming as we may with perfect right, the validity of this argument, it will apply to communities as well as individuals; the duty is incumbent upon this nation, and it is augmented two-fold by the addition of that which we owe to the misguided Pagans who are become our subjects. Having asserted the regard due to this important argument, let us proceed, in the next place, to examine how far the present objection is warranted, in ascribing so 24

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great an efficacy to the opposition of the Brahmins; or in other words, to inquire into the extent and probable amount of their counter-action, still supposing their resistance to be strongly excited; for here it will be proper to remark, that in general where they see no indication of persecution, they are not likely to feel any alarm. As the more learned and ingenious of them lead a retired life, inattentive to novelties, so the rest, chiefly men busied in worldly concerns, possess the confidence which often belongs to deluded ignorance. They know that their system, is held by numerous nations. They believe from their legends, that it always has been, and always will be so. They possess the same spirit as that Pagan votary of old, who felt himself quoting a fact of universal notoriety and authority, sufficient to appease a popular tumult, when he affirmed that the image of the great goddess Diana fell down from Jupiter. When therefore they see a few simple foreigners offering “certain strange things” to the ears of their people, they may be ready secretly, if not to use the language of the conceited Athenians, yet to say with a more ancient scoffer, “what do these feeble Jews?” Still less will the people be apprehensive about consequences. And whilst things continue in this state, it will be the business of Christian teachers to confine themselves chiefly to the positive declarations of the Gospel, giving no occasion for an imputation which indeed they should never wish justly to incur, that of being “blasphemers,” or resorting to abusive language in speaking of the Hindoo gods, or the Hindoo absurdities. They have greater themes; “temperance, righteousness, and judgment to come;”—the noble topics brought forward by St. Paul to the superstitious Athenians. “God that made the world . . . . . the Lord of Heaven and Earth, who is not worshipped with men’s hands . . . . who giveth to all, life, and breath, and all things . . . . . . in whom we live, move, and have our being . . . . . . And that forasmuch as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone graven by art and man’s device . . . . . . And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men, every where to repent; because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” If by such doctrines as these, or the fruits of them, resentment and opposition should be provoked, let us now consider what the utmost activity of opposition so stimulated could effect. Usually true religion has been combatted, and false religions have been upheld, either by fraud or force, or by both. What artifice, imposture, misrepresentation, and vicious indulgence have not been able to effect, persecution and the coercion of the secular power have been called in to accomplish. False religion shuns fair examination; before this test it cannot stand. Such is the force of truth, that on the first promulgation of Christianity, it prevailed against all the deceits, impositions, ignorance, prejudice, and prescriptive authority of the ancient superstition, aided by the utmost cruelties that tyrannic governments could inflict. Now in the present case, the Brahmins will not possess the instrument most effectual for the support of religious error and imposture, that is, the power of the sword. They may be able to strengthen 25

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indisposition to new opinions by their personal influence, by availing themselves of traditional respect and existing habits, by venting calumnies, by denouncing spiritual judgments, especially that most formidable of their punishments, loss of caste; and it shall be granted, that these expedients may be sufficient to narrow the avenues, and retard the progress of truth. Such obstructions are to be contended with only by patient perseverance, maintained on Christian principles. But with these expedients, the means of opposition end; and if all such means have not prevented many Hindoos, even of the superior orders, on the Coast of Coromandel, from embracing the doctrine preached by a few humble Europeans, without national or local consideration, why should it be thought that pious, discreet, intelligent teachers, should have no success in Bengal, where the full establishment of our authority must at least secure the national religion from open contempt or disrespect. In that country, the gross absurdities of Heathenism have never yet been clearly exposed, and their abettors would find themselves extremely at a loss to defend by argument, assumptions wholly destitute of evidence, internal and external. Indeed how is it possible to justify to the common sense and imperfect natural light of men, the monstrous actions ascribed to the deities of the Hindoos, the immoral tenets established by the Hindoo system, and the immoral practices which they are used to sanction? These things could not stand before the pure and heart-searching word of God, which recommended by the lives of those who declared it, could not fail to make a powerful impression; especially as the Hindoos, who easily suppose the authenticity of other systems of religion, (thus with Pagan latitude concluding the certainty of that which they hold, to be peculiarly assigned to them,) would not be inclined to controvert the truth of ours, and therefore would be reduced to the task of proving that their own is of divine authority. And the great difference between this kind of contest, and the religious controversies which have usually prevailed in Europe, ought to be considered. For here the dispute has commonly been, which of two contrary systems or tenets was the right one, and entitled to general acceptance. But the Hindoos do not wish for proselytes; they cannot receive any: on the other hand, Christian teachers, neither able nor desirous to resort to any kind of compulsion, would be confined to a quiet exposition of the truths of their own system, and of errors of Heathenism. From such a state of things no violent contention could easily arise. If finding excommunication insufficient to deter Hindoos from embracing Christianity, the Brahmins should attempt to follow with persecution those who had been coverted, the calm interposition of the civil government to prevent such an infraction of justice and good order, would be sufficient. And if natives acknowledging from conscience the Christian revelation, at the hazard of sacrifices which the confession of it might require, were thereby rendered more honest, more faithful, and upright, would this be any injury to society? Need we ask whether it would make them better servants and agents, make them more useful and valuable in all the relations of life? Would not such persons be a real accession to European masters; and must it not be supposed, that men professing Christianity, whose interest would be promoted by employing such 26

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converts, would not reject them, upon a principle which even Paganism could not justify, that is, because they had honestly followed their convictions? In this way the great terror of excommunication would be obviated; for it is in the loss of employment, the want of subsistence, and protection, that its great evil consists. Let it not be said, that such views might tempt natives hypocritically to assume the profession of Christianity who would afterwards disgrace it. The truth is not to be kept back, nor a credible profession of it discouraged, because it may be thus abused; and those who should act so dishonestly, would generally soon find themselves despised by all parties. Thus it is hoped a satisfactory answer has been offered to the objection now under consideration, even when admitted in its strongest form; that is, in supposing the great question respecting religion to be brought into early and direct controversy. Of such a colision of systems however, for some considerable time to come, the probability may, from the observations which have been advanced, be reasonably doubted; and if the more gradual process here assumed, a process by the concurring extension of the English language, should be followed, additional aids will, in the mean while, arise to the argument we maintain. That extension for instance, and the employment of the language in public business, cannot be disputed by the Brahmins; for how could they deny the same obedience to our government which they formerly yielded to the Mahomedan, and in a matter on which it is solely the province of government to decide? Brahmins themselves have spoken English for a century past; many of them now speak it; and no religious plea can therefore be henceforth advanced against the use of it. Improvements in manufactures and the arts, the Brahmins could not exclude; for in the adoption of some such improvements introduced by Europeans, they have also joined. The true system of natural philosophy, demonstrable as it is to the sight by machines, could be communicated to the Mahomedans, through whom it would have a wide diffusion, even if the Brahmins could prevent all Hindoos from attending to it, which is not to be imagined; nor could such an expedient occur to them until the progress of light had made an impression. That progress it is probable, would operate silently with persons who would not choose to encounter the painful feelings attendant on the dereliction of caste; and in this way, without any great external change which should excite alarm, a gradual enlargement of views and opinions, guided by that spirit of order and obedience which the Gospel eminently inculcates, and operating rather to the prevention of any vehement conflict of opinions, might take place, to the true happiness, as far as it went, of all parties. FOURTH. It may possibly occur to some of the readers of this tract, that the Portugueze of India, many of whom speak English, are nevertheless still a vicious and contemptible race.—There are among them, it must be admitted, many who cannot be cleared from this imputation. These men, descendents of the Portugueze soldiers and free-booters of a rude age, and of the lowest Bengaleze women, born in the meanest stations, dispersed under governments foreign to them, adopted by no other class of society, commonly without education, retaining only the errors 27

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of the Roman Catholic persuasion, grow up in ignorance, immorality, and superstition, like the Heathen around them; and if they know the English language, it is but imperfectly and colloquially. They cannot be referred to as specimens of the effects of Christianity, any more than some of the Indians of America, for they understand and possess hardly any thing of it beyond the name. But there is another description of persons ranking under the general denomination of Portugueze, more respectable; persons of some education, who are clerks, traders, or merchants. These are often men of decent lives and tolerable information; they are, in some degree, an improving set of people, and have clearly profited from their acquaintance and intercourse with Europeans, particularly the English. Now the proposed plan of communicating instruction to the Hindoos, through the medium of our language, does not suppose that the vilest out-casts of society are first to be selected for the purpose, or that a new name merely is to be imparted, but that men of substance and consideration, men employed in the affairs of government, connected with the revenues and with the administration of justice, will procure for their children, if not for themselves, the knowledge of a tongue which will then be necessary in transacting business; and that the instruction to be conveyed by this, or any other vehicle, shall be important and practical. FIFTH. Another objection may arise from the result of the direct attempts which have been made to enlighten the Hindoos, by the preaching of the Christian religion: It has been said by some, that the success of such attempts has been very small, and has been confined to the Pariars and others of the lowest castes.—This statement is, in the first place, very erroneous; and in the next, to infer from it the impracticability of extending, by any efforts however strenuous, by any means however prudent, and under any circumstances however favorable, the influence of Christianity in Hindostan, would be altogether illogical and fallacious. Little stress shall be laid here upon the attempts of Roman Catholics; for it must be confessed, that though they made numerous converts, they too often only changed one set of ceremonies and images for another. Yet it must also be admitted, that the Romish establishments in Europe have shewn a zeal in this matter, much superior to any of the Protestant nations; and that Xavier, who traversed a great part of the coasts and islands of India, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and appears to have been a pious indefatigable man, planted the Gospel in various places, in a way that might have led to a large extension of it, if his labors and zeal had been well seconded. The efforts of the Dutch to establish Christianity in their Indian settlements, as being made under circumstances more similar to our own, may deserve greater attention. There was, in the earlier periods of that republic, a very laudable spirit in the government at home for the promotion of this object, and the number of native Christians in their colonies abroad was very considerable. Baldæus, the author of the History of Ceylon, a person of great credit, who was one of the Dutch ministers there in the last century, and wrote from his own knowledge, has stated that in the year 1663, the Christians in the province of Jaffnapatnam,4 amounted (exclusive of slaves) to sixty-two thousand, many of whom 28

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must no doubt have been educated in the Romish churches, which the Portugueze had founded there; but it is extremely worthy of remark, that this author declares the number of children in the schools, maintained by the Dutch government, to have risen at the time of his departure from the island, to eighteen thousand. The learned John Leusden, Professor of Hebrew at Utrecht, about the end of the last century, produced several letters from his correspondents, which gave the following further accounts of the state of Christianity in the Dutch possessions in Ceylon. “Mr. Herman Specht, minister of the Gospel at Columbo, writes, that in the province of Jaffnapatnam, without including Manaar, which appertains to it, there are, according to the last computation and the list sent thence to us, one hundred and forty-one thousand four hundred and fifty-six Christians, who have five pastors to take care of them.” The same Mr. Specht, in another letter from Columbo, dated January 6th, 1688, says, “the number of converted Indians, who have embraced Christianity, is in the space of four years greatly increased; for the province of Jaffnapatnam, subject only to the Dutch East-India Company, hath two hundred and seventy-eight thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine inhabitants; among whom there are Indians professing to be Christians, one hundred and eighty-eight thousand three hundred and sixty-four.5” Another very respectable authority of the same period informs us, that “the Dutch East-India Company maintain in the Indies, thirty or forty ministers for the conversion of poor Infidels, who are under their dominion, and are at the annual expence of £10,000 for this purpose, and have hereby converted many hundred thousands of them to the true Christian faith; and for the further propagating of it, have lately erected a college in the Island of Ceylon, in which one place only they have above eighty thousand converted Indians upon the roll, for whose use they print bibles, catechisms, and many other books.6”

Notes 1 2 3 4

Page 89. Page 126; and Bernier, Tome II. page 102. See Mr. Wilkins’s account of the Seeks, in the first Volume of the Asiatic Transactions. The inhabitants of Jaffnapatnam are Malabars, known to have come originally from the continent, and are a distinct people from the Cingaleze, who possess the rest of the island, and follow the religion of Bowde, or Bhoudda, whom the Brahmins treat as a heretic; whilst some learned Europeans are inclined with great appearance of reason to believe, that his religion, which prevails over many countries of the East, is more ancient in India than the Brahminical system. He is mentioned by Jerome, Clemens Alexandrinus, and other authors of antiquity, and is now held to be the same as the Sommonacodom of Siam, the Foe of China, and the Saca of Japan. See in the first volume of the Asiatic Transactions a curious and learned paper, which has relation to this subject, by William Chambers, Esq. A premature and lamented death has since deprived learning and society of this excellent man, who to an exquisite skill in several Oriental languages, joined a very uncommon knowledge of Asiatic history and manners. But these qualities were in him only themes of inferior praise. He exhibited, during a long residence in India, in all his relations, employments, and intercourses, a confident and distinguished example of the Christian character: and from him, inquisitive and ingenious natives, both Mahomedans

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and Indoos, with whom it was his practice often to converse, received at once just views of favorable impressions of Christianity. If the occasion had permitted, it would only have been doing justice to his name to place it in a far more conspicuous station than the present note aligns to it; and for this particular reason, among many others, that he was always a strenuous advocate for the diffusion of the Gospel of the Earth. He had himself begun, with great care a translation of the Gospels into Persian. 5 Millar’s Propagation of Christianity, Vol. II. page 318, in which is cited Mastricht’s Theologica Theo-practica.—If it were asked, whether all these converts were sincere in their profession, it might be answered, that probably some were ignorant and some hypocritical; but so would the result be upon any large survey, even in Europe. Yet to have discarded the horrid idolatry and mythology of the Hindoos, and to come under the stated instructions of a pure and divine system, would be important changes. 6 A proposal from the eminent Dean Prideaux to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Tennison) for the propagation of the Gospel in the English settlements in the East-Indies, contained in a letter to his grace, dated the 20th January 1694–5. In this letter the Dean greatly complains of the indisposition of the English East-India Company to the good work which he recommends. The Company, then under the management of Sir Josiah Child, must have much declined from its earlier zeal for the honor of religion. See the Life of Dean Prideaux.

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5 HOLT MACKENZIE, ‘NOTE ON PUBLIC EDUCATION, 17TH JULY 1823’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 57–64

Note, dated the 17th July 1823, by Mr. Holt Mackenzie.1 Government being desirous of pursuing a systematic course of proceeding in regard to public education, and having its attention especially directed to the objects specified in the act of the 53d of the late King, I beg leave to submit a few things that have occurred to me on the subject. The first step is to settle the ultimate object to be aimed at: for otherwise we may debate about the means without end. It is not then I conceive the wish of Government that the people should be merely taught what is necessary to make them expert agents of the civil administration of the country as now administered. It is not desired to keep from them any species of knowledge that can enlighten their minds or improve their moral feelings. Caution indeed must be used in admitting the light to the morbid sense. But the darkness is not the less deplored: nor its ultimate removal the less sought. The probable effects, though distant, of the more general diffusion of knowledge are not blinked. But to keep the people weak and ignorant that they may be submissive is a policy which the Government decidedly rejects. Its aim is to raise the character, to strengthen the understanding, to purify the heart; and whatever therefore can extend the knowledge of the people, whatever can give them a juster conception of the true relation of things, whatever can add to their power over the gifts of nature or better inform them of the rights and duties of their fellow men, whatever can excite invention and invigorate the judgment, whatever can enrich the imagination and sharpen the wit, whatever can rouse to steady exertion and bind to honest purposes; whatever fits man to bear and improve his lot, to render his neighbour happy, and his country prosperous; whatever in short tends to make men wiser 31

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and better and happier here and hereafter—all are desired to be given, in due season, to the people of India. Nothing therefore can be more comprehensive than the design. Its different parts must indeed be filled up gradually and with well measured steps. Its completion we must leave to our children’s children. But still if the ultimate object be as I have stated, it follows that the points to be considered in fashioning any scheme for its attainment are infinitely numerous and all very important; that a good scheme can be the result only of much and anxious thought, earnestly employed with the resources of accurate and varied knowledge. It must at once be considered what the people possess and what they want, what we can give them and what they are capable of receiving profitably, what they are and what they may become, and what their probable participation in the several steps of the great change which a general diffusion of true knowledge will doubtless produce. To embrace a field so extensive as that of which I have attempted to give a slight sketch, it will obviously be necessary that Government should, as it proposes, seek the aid of a Committee combining a variety of talent and acquirement. And if I have rightly stated the purposes of Government, it follows that the persons to be selected for the duty should be those, who are not only deeply impressed with the importance of the work, but are entirely free from any narrow views, that would lead them to withhold from the people the full measure of knowledge, which they are in the capacity to receive. It follows too, if there be truth and excellence in European science, that the introduction of it among the natives of India, must necessarily be one, and an early part of the general scheme and should authoritatively be indicated by Government as such. As to the means of instruction, they are obviously very numerous. Different individuals will approve different plans. Some would encourage schools for the elements of learning. Some prefer colleges for the higher branches. Of these, some would encourage existing, others would establish new institutions. Some would instruct teachers only, some would merely provide books, some would teach the English language, others would look to the introduction of English science through translations. Some would look to the learned classes, others to the wealthy, others to the general community. In so wide a range, I cannot pretend to anything like a full conception of the subject. Indeed whatever may be my zeal for the cause (and as a Briton and a Christian it is impossible, I should regard it with indifference) I want the knowledge that would entitle me to decide with any confidence. I shall be glad to see all the instruments, I have specified, with others that have escaped me, brought into action. But my present impression is, that Government should apply itself chiefly to the instruction of those who will themselves be teachers (including of course in the term many, who never appear as professed masters, and also translators from the European into the native languages) and to the translation, compilation and publication of useful works. These objects being provided for, the support and establishment of colleges for the instruction of what may be called the educated and influential classes seem to me to be more 32

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immediate objects of the care of Government than the support and establishment of elementary schools; though these in particular places may claim attention. To provide for the education of the great body of the people seems to be impossible, at least, in the present state of things. For the ordinary purposes of life, the means of education are not, I imagine, ill supplied, though doubtless the native seminaries are susceptible of much improvement, and this at a cheap rate, by assisting them, both with books and masters. The great body of the people are, however, too poor and too anxious for service to allow their children to remain long under tuition. Moreover the value of the Parish Schools in England, whence we derive our notions of the advantages of general education, depends greatly on the religion of the country. Take from the peasant his Bible, and (if it be possible) the knowledge and sentiments that have flowed from that sacred source, and how worthless will be his lowly literature. The education indeed of the great body of the people can never, I think, be expected to extend beyond what is necessary for the business of life; and it is only therefore through religious exercises, which form a great part of the business of life, that the labourer will turn his thoughts on things above the common drudgery, by which he earns his subsistence. Hence it is under the Christian scheme alone, that I should expect to find the labouring classes really educated: and their station in the scale of instructed and humanized beings will, I imagine, be pretty closely proportioned to their piety. We have no such instrument, with which to work beneficially on the lower orders here. Further the natural course of things in all countries seems to be that knowledge introduced from abroad should descend from the higher or educated classes and gradually spread through their example. We surely cannot here, at least expect the servant to prize a learning, which his master despises or hates. The influence of Europeans, if they use not the influential classes of the native community, must necessarily be very confined. What is taught in our schools will only be thought of there. Our scholars, if of the common people when they enter the world, will find no sympathy among their fellows, and until the lessons of the master, or professor become the subject of habitual thought and conversation, they cannot touch the heart, they will little affect the understanding. The acquirement will be an act of memory, with little more of feeling or reflection than if nonsense verses were the theme. Hence my notion is, that the limited classes, who are now instructed (with great labour certainly whatever may be the use) in the learning of the country, should be the first object of attention. This, of course, implies the association of oriental learning with European Science, and the gradual introduction of the latter, without any attempt arbitrarily to supersede the former. It implies too the support and patronage of existing institutions, so far at least as the furnishing them with Masters and supplying them with translations. And further, if our means suffice, it implies a more positive encouragement to learned Natives, and consists well with the resolution (supposing the funds for the first objects supplied), to establish new institutions for the instruction of natives in the learning of the East, and of the West together. It will probably be thought sufficient to have two Sanscrit Colleges, for the encouragement of Hindoo literature, and for the instruction of Pundits for our 33

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Courts; and, if the Madrissa be thought inadequate to the due diffusion of Mahommedan literature and law, one in the Western provinces would, I should imagine, amply supply the want. But in fact I should doubt, whether any increase in the number of Government establishments is necessary for these purposes: and the first thing therefore is, I think, to improve those that exist by the introduction of European science. I do not imagine there will be any difficulty in doing so, if a fit instructor is provided, and proper books supplied. Among the inhabitants of Calcutta at least there seems to be an eagerness for the boon. The encouragement of Government will also, I believe, readily induce natives to acquire the English language so as to qualify themselves to become translators and teachers. As to instruction in the English language, it is not easy to fix the limits, to which it should be attempted. Community of language seems to be the surest means, perhaps the only sure means, of creating community of ideas, and I confess that I am disposed to think the difficulties of the attempt are generally overrated. Persian, it should be recollected, is essentially a foreign language. It may be doubted whether what is recorded in that tongue is much better understood by the generality of the parties interested, than it would be if recorded in English. To one party at least the record in English would be an essential gain, the European officer who has to decide the case. Possibly in the Suburbs Court, a change might be expediently attempted. It would scarcely be consistent to make any effort at general instruction in English, unless the gradual introduction of it as the official language of the country were contemplated. The question, however, like every one connected with the subject of education is one full of difficulty. I do not presume to offer anything except as hints, on which my own mind is quite unsettled. The necessity of appointing a general Committee of public instruction, who may prepare some well digested scheme, embracing all the different institutions supported, or encouraged by Government, and to whom the various suggestions submitted by individuals may be referred for consideration and report, has been recognized by Government. It seems clear that in no other way can any comprehensive plan be framed, or systematically pursued: and the general price applicable to the purpose economically and efficiently appropriated. Various detached committees, ill informed of each other’s projects, must necessarily waste much labour. They will also probably waste much money from the want of combination. I have already stated generally the sentiments, with which it seems to me necessary that such a committee should undertake the duty. Government will have little difficulty in selecting individuals influenced by such sentiments and there are many, who add all other necessary qualifications. The selection should, I think, be made with reference to the individual, not (at least not solely) to the office. On the appointment of a general Committee of Education, it will probably be thought right to modify in some degree the constitution of the Committees charged 34

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with the immediate management of the several institutions. They will all of course act, under the directions of the general committee, furnishing to them particular reports of their operations, and submitting through them any suggestions they may see fit to offer for the improvement or wider diffusion of education. For the seminaries at the Presidency indeed it may be unnecessary to maintain separate committees. They will perhaps best be managed by the general committee, either collectively or by certain members specially selected by them, for the management with separate secretaries for the Musulman and Hindoo colleges to superintend the details of their internal arrangement to control and guide the masters. Without neglecting the consideration due to particular endowments, the General Committee will of course regard all the funds devoted to purposes of education as forming in a certain sense a common stock: more essentially in whatever regards the preparation or publication of useful works. In some of these even the Hindoos and Musulmans may eventually be found to have a common interest, though at first these must necessarily constitute two great divisions, requiring distinct consideration. It will naturally belong to a committee of public instruction, to ascertain from the different local authorities what funds have been assigned by pious, or philanthropic individuals, for the purpose of supporting seminaries of education: how far the objects of such endowments may have been fulfilled, what means should be taken for securing them, and what modifications in the plans originally contemplated by the founders may be legitimately adopted to meet the altered circumstances of present times. They cannot of course exercise any authority over private schools, but their advice and encouragement to individuals, Native and European, who may be engaged in the management, or support of such establishments, will be very valuable and probably very highly valued. Their direct interposition may, indeed, in some cases be sought by individuals, for the security and improvement of funds about to be devoted to purposes of public education. In framing any rational scheme of public instruction, we must necessarily consider in a general way, at least, how far our other institutions are suited to the state of things, which the diffusion of knowledge may be expected ultimately to produce, and more immediately, how the acquirements of the students at the public seminaries can best be rendered subservient to the public service, and how the constitution of public offices and the distribution of employments can be made— the means of exerting to study and rewarding merit. To those points, therefore, the attention of the committee will be particularly directed: and I should, with some confidence, anticipate from their labours, a great accession, within a moderate time, to the number of persons, who can now be looked to as good instruments of civil government, of which the details must, I apprehend, though our service were multiplied tenfold, be left to the natives of the country. The several suggestions of a general nature, embraced by the report recently received from the Madrissa Committee, will of course obtain early and particular notice. The plan of the new College which it is proposed to construct in Hastings’ 35

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Place must be framed with advertence to any charge, or addition likely soon to be made on the scheme of instruction or discipline. So also the Hindoo College, of which a plan and estimate prepared by Lieutenant Buxton is still with the Military Board (the orders in regard to it having been postponed, until the new square in the centre of the city should be cleared), must I imagine undergo some changes under the resolution of Government to introduce European science even though the general scheme of Sanscrit instruction, suggested by the Committee should still be approved: a point which may be considered open for discussion with the general Committee. The decision of Government on the proposition of the local Agents at Agra relative to the appropriation of that portion of the produce of the late Gungadhur Pundit’s lands, which has been set aside for public purposes, has hitherto been postponed under the desire of combining any arrangements that might be adopted in pursuance of them with some general systematic scheme for the promotion of public instruction. To the general Committee about to be appointed, the subject will of course be referred, and I will not anticipate their judgment by any remarks on the plan suggested by the local Agents. It remains for me to state the immediate object of this note, which I should have explained at once and very briefly, had I not been unconsciously led into detail by the anxiety I feel for the success of a cause I am little able to promote. To the efficiency of any committee such as it is proposed to establish, it appears to be very essential, that the person through whom their correspondence with Government is conducted should be one fully qualified to second their efforts; with sufficient leisure, to devote a considerable portion of time to the important and difficult subject; and with the kind of knowledge that may qualify him to supply Government with minute and accurate information on the points submitted to its judgment. I know not how the Madrissa and Hindoo Colleges got into the Revenue Department; excepting, what would justify the absorption of all other departments, that they thence drew the funds assigned for their support. Whilst however the Revenue was united to the Judicial Department, there was perhaps little to object, excepting the load of business that then fell on the secretary: for certainly nothing can be more nearly connected with the good administration of justice and the prevention of crime, than the public instruction of the people. Now, however, no such reason exists for continuing the colleges in the Territorial Department. The funds will not be the less safe, that their appropriation is controuled elsewhere. The habits, which the office necessarily induces, the constant occupation, official and demi-official, which its business gives are all adverse to those pursuits, which should belong to the Secretary, through whom the decisions of Government on questions of public education, should pass. For myself, I feel very strongly, how little I am competent to the task, unless it were confined to the mere mechanical act of giving expression to specific directions. But independently of general qualification, I must plead the want of leisure 36

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from other work. The Record Committee, the Mint Committee, the Bank, the College Council, and the Sinking Fund Committee; all together occupy a considerable portion of my time. It is too in the nature of a department which corresponds with four distinct Boards, to say nothing of Committees, and which touches so nearly the property of Individuals (Merchants, Public Creditors, and Landholders) to have many references, that are never formally brought for decision, and, on the whole, I can safely say I have very few hours of day-light to myself. Nay what with the Loan, and other things, the absence of my Assistant or his entire employment in Police duties, I am obliged to seek indulgence for not having kept pace with my works. Similar considerations will probably prevail as objections to the transfer of the whole correspondence regarding public Education, to the Judicial or General Departments: although as I have already observed, the matter is one most intimately connected with the administration of Justice and Police. On the other hand, the Persian Secretary to Government has comparatively much leisure. He necessarily possesses and cultivates the kind of knowledge that best fits him to judge correctly on plans, which have for their object the instruction of the natives and, what is not less important, he is immediately in the way of learning what their sentiments are on the measures, that may be suggested or adopted. It is indeed a natural part of his duty to mark the origin and growth of every Note.—If not thought neces- thing, that can affect their character and sentisary to have a separate record, ments. On every ground, therefore, it seems to be the papers could of course advan- expedient to transfer to the Persian Department tageously be brought on the Judi- the correspondence respecting the education of the cial Proceedings. people of India. I need scarcely add that, soliciting the present relief purely from motives of public duty, I shall rejoice to afford my humble aid in any way, that it can be useful in promoting the important objects contemplated by Government. I pray only that my interference may not be such as to impede their attainment. It is in this spirit that I now submit the above remarks, though conscious how rude and meagre they may appear. I shall further observe, that though they are confined to the Musulman and Hindoo portion of our subjects; yet the object of educating properly the Christian youth of this city seems to me to be one, not less deserving the attention of Government. HOLT MACKENZIE.

Note 1 Territorial Department, Revenue Consultations, dated 17th July, 1823, No. 1.

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6 ‘LETTER FROM THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, 18TH AUGUST 1824’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 93–98 1

Letter, dated 18th August 1824, from the General Committee of Public Instruction to the Governor-General. To The Right Hon’ble WILLIAM PITT, LORD AMHERST, Governor-General in Council, Fort William. General Committee, 18-8-1824.

MY LORD, WE have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a letter from the Persian Secretary to Government, dated the 16th ultimo, forwarding extracts of a despatch from the Hon’ble the Court of Directors, under date the 18th February 1821,2 on the subject of the Education of the Natives of British India. 2. We are happy to find that the sentiments expressed in the letter from the Hon’ble Court are, upon the whole, in unison with those principles by which the Committee of Education have hitherto regulated their proceedings. The introduction of useful knowledge is the great object which they have proposed as the end of the measures adopted, or recommended by them; at the same time they have kept in view that, “in the institutions which exist on a particular footing, alterations should not be introduced more rapidly than a regard to existing interests and feeling will dictate”; and they are aware of the necessity of “employing Mohammadan and Hindu media, and of consulting the prejudices of the Mohammadans and Hindus,” in any attempts to introduce improved methods or objects of study which are calculated to be attended with success. 3. Whilst the Hon’ble Court have thus recognised the principles under which the existing institutions should be carried on, they have been pleased to express it as their opinion, that the plans of the Hindu College at Benares and Mohammadan 38

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College at Calcutta, were “originally and fundamentally erroneous,” and that in establishing Seminaries for the purpose of teaching mere Hindu or Mohammadan Literature, “the Government bound themselves to teach a great deal of what was frivolous, not a little of what was purely mischievous, and a small remainder indeed in which utility was in any way concerned.” 4. The remarks made on former institutions of the Government may not be thought to require any comment from us particularly, as it is admitted that it is necessary to proceed with caution in introducing any modification of their system. As applicable however, generally, and as connected with the Hon’ble Court’s injunctions to respect native prejudices and feelings, we beg leave to offer some observations on the circumstances which have hitherto influenced, and which we are of opinion, must continue for some time to regulate the constitution and conduct for Seminaries for the purpose of native education. 5. In the first place, without denying that the object of introducing European literature and science may have been somewhat too long overlooked, it may be questioned whether the Government could originally have founded any other seminaries, than those which it actually established; viz., the Madrassa, to teach Mohammadan literature and law, and the Benares College, to teach Sanscrit literature and Hindu law. Those colleges were founded for Mohammadans and Hindus respectively, and would have been of little value to either, if they had proposed to teach what neither were disposed to learn. It may be added, what else had the Government to offer, on any extensive scale? What means existed to communicating anything but Mohammadan and Hindu literature either by teachers or books? It was therefore a case of necessity, and almost all that the Government in instituting a seminary for the higher classes could give, or the people would accept through such a channel, was oriental literature, Mohammadan or Hindu. Instruction in the English language and literature could have been attempted only on the most limited scale, and as they could not, we apprehend, have been at all introduced into seminaries designed for the general instruction of the educated and influential classes of the natives the success of the attempt may well be doubted. 6. We have no doubt that these points will be evident to the Honourable Court on further consideration, and we need not further dwell upon them, at least with reference to the past. The Honourable Court, however seem to think that the same circumstances no longer impede the introduction of useful knowledge, and that in establishing a college in Calcutta, it should not have been restricted to the objects of Hindu learning; on this point, we beg to observe, that the new Sanscrit College in Calcutta was substituted for two colleges proposed to be endowed at Tirhut and Nuddiya, the original object of which was declaredly the preservation and encouragement of Hindu learning. So far therefore, the Government may be considered pledged to the character of the institution, though the pledge does not of course extend to bar the cautious and gradual introduction of European science in combination with the learning which the people love. It is however of more importance to consider, that the Government had in this as well as in former instances, little or no choice, and that if they wished to confer an acceptable boon upon the most enlightened, or at least most 39

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influential class of the Hindu population (the learned and Brahmanical caste), they could do so only by placing the cultivation of Sanscrit within their reach; any other offer would have been useless; tuition, in European science, being neither amongst the sensible wants of the people, nor in the power of Government to bestow. 7. In proposing the improvement of men’s mind, it is first necessary to secure their conviction, that such improvement is desirable. Now, however satisfied we may feel that the native subjects of this Government stand in need of improved instruction, yet every one in the habit of communicating with both the learned and unlearned classes, must be well aware, that generally speaking, they continue to hold European literature and science in very slight estimation. A knowledge of English, for the purpose of gaining a livelihood, is, to a certain extent, a popular attainment, and a few of the natives employed by Europeans, accustomed to an intimate intercourse with their masters, may perceive that their countrymen have something in the way of practical science to learn. These impressions, however, are still very partial, and the Maulavi and Pundit, satisfied with their own learning, are little inquisitive as to any thing beyond it, and are not disposed to regard the literature and science of the West as worth the labour of attainment. As long as this is the case, and we cannot anticipate the very near extinction of such prejudice, any attempt to enforce an acknowledgment of the superiority of intellectual produce amongst the Natives of the West could only create dissatisfaction, and would deter those whose improvement it is most important to promote as the best means of securing a more general amelioration, the members of the literary classes, from availing themselves of the beneficence of the Government, by placing themselves within the reach of instruction. 8. The actual state of public feeling is therefore, we conceive, still an impediment to any general introduction of western literature or science, and although we believe the prejudices of the natives against European interference with their education in any shape, are considerably abated, yet they are by no means annihilated, and might very easily be roused by any abrupt and injudicious attempts at innovation, to the destruction of the present growing confidence from which, in the course of time, the most beneficial consequences may be expected. It is much, in our estimation, to have placed all the institutions maintained by Government under direct European superintendence, and from the continuance of that superintendence exercised with temper and discretion, we anticipate the means of winning the confidence of the officers and pupils of the several seminaries, to an extent that will pave the way for the unopposed introduction of such improvement as we may hereafter have the means of effecting. 9. But supposing that the disposition of the native mind was even as favourable as could be desired, we know not by what means we could at once introduce the improvements that we presume are meditated. The Honourable Court admit the necessity of employing Hindu and Mohammadan media, but where are such to be obtained for the introduction of foreign learning? We must teach the teachers and provide the books, and by whom are the business of tuition and task of translation to be accomplished? Until the means are provided, it would be premature to talk of their application, and we must be content to avail ourselves of the few and partial opportunities, that may occur for giving encouragement to the extension of 40

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a knowledge of the English language amongst those classes, whence future preceptors and translators may be reared. To do this with any good effect, however, we must qualify the same individuals highly in their own system as well as ours, in order that they may be as competent to refute errors as to impart truth, if we would wish them to exercise any influence upon the minds of their countrymen. 10. Under the present circumstances, therefore, the still vigorous prejudices of both Mohammadans and Hindus, and the want of available instruments for any beneficial purpose of greater extent, we conceive that it is undoubtedly necessary to make it the business of Government institutions intended for those classes respectively, to teach (we hope not long exclusively) Mohammadan and Hindu literature and science. 11. Without wishing to enhance the value of Oriental studies beyond a fair and just standard, we must beg further permission to state that, in our judgment the Honourable Court has been let to form an estimate of their extent and merits not strictly accurate. The Honourable Court are pleased to observe that “it is worse than a waste of time” to employ persons either to teach or learn the sciences in the state in which they are found in Oriental books. This position is of so comprehensive a nature, that it obviously requires a considerable modification, and the different branches of science intended to be included in it must be particularised before a correct appreciation can be formed of their absolute and comparative value. The metaphysical sciences, as found in Sanscrit and Arabic writings, are, we believe, fully as worthy of being studied in those languages as in any other. The arithmetic and algebra of the Hindus lead to the same principles as those of Europe and in the Madressa, the elements of mathematical science, which are taught, are those of Euclid; law, a principal object of study in all the institutions, is one of vital importance to the good Government of the country, and language is the ground work upon which all future improvements must materially depend. To diffuse a knowledge of these things, language and law especially, cannot, therefore, be considered a waste of time, and with unfeigned deference to the Honourable Court, we most respectfully bring to their more deliberate attention that, in the stated estimate of the value of the Oriental sciences, several important branches appear to have escaped their consideration. 12. With respect to general literature also, we should submit that some points can scarcely have been sufficiently present to the minds of the Hon’ble Court when the orders in question were issued. The Honourable Court observe, that any historical documents which may be found in the original languages should be translated by competent Europeans. But without dwelling on the magnitude of the task, if Mohammadan history is to be comprehended, or questioning the utility of employing Europeans in this branch of literature, we beg leave to remark that there appears to be no good reason why the Natives of India should be debarred from cultivating a knowledge of their own historical records, or why the translations of the countries in which they have a natural interest, should not be deserving of their perusal. 13. Besides science and historical documents, the Honourable Court observe, “what remains in Oriental literature is poetry, but that it never has been thought necessary to establish colleges for the cultivation of poetry.” We are not aware that 41

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any colleges in India have been established with this view, although we believe few colleges exist in any country in which poetical works are not taught to a great extent, and it would be taking a very narrow view of the objects of education to exclude them. We do not know, indeed, how any language and literature can be successfully studied if its poetical compositions are not cultivated with considerable attention; as a part, therefore, and a very important part of Sanscrit and Arabic literature, as the source of national imagery, the expression of national feeling, and the depository of the most approved phraseology and style, the poetical writings of the Hindus and Mohammadans appear to be legitimately comprehended amongst the objects of literary seminaries, founded for Mohammadans and Hindus. 14. Under these considerations, and upon a deliberate view of the real circumstances of the case, we flatter ourselves that the Honourable Court will feel disposed to approve of the arrangements that have been adopted or are in progress with the sanction of your Lordship in Council, for the improved education of the natives of this country. We must for the present go with the tide of popular prejudice, and we have the less regret in doing so, as we trust we have said sufficient to show that the course is by no means unprofitable. At the same time we are fully aware of the value of those accessions which may be made from European science and literature, to the sum total of Asiatic knowledge, and shall endeavour, in pursuance of the sentiments and intentions of Government, to avail ourselves of every favourable opportunity for introducing them when it can be done without offending the feelings and forfeiting the confidence of those for whose advantage their introduction is designed. We have, etc., (Signed) J. H. HARINGTON. ” J. P. LARKINS. ” W. W. MARTIN. ” J. C. C. SUTHERLAND. ” H. SHAKESPEAR. ” HOLT MACKENZIE. ” H. H. WILSON. ” A. STIRLING. ” W. B. BAYLEY. CALCUTTA; The 18th August 1824.

Notes 1 Printed in the Sixth Report from the Select Committee on Indian Territories, 1853, Minutes of Evidence, p. 18f. 2 This is the date given in the published letter, but clearly it should be 18th February 1824 (document 24). Fisher states [255/436] that that document was communicated to the Committee and quotes from their reply, viz., the present document (No. 25).

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7 H. T. PRINSEP, ‘NOTE ON VERNACULAR EDUCATION, 15TH FEBRUARY 1835’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 117–129

Note, dated the 15th February 1835, by H. T. Prinsep (with marginal notes by Macaulay). It seems to me that there are some points touched upon in the Minute of the Hon’ble Mr. Macaulay that require to be set right by an explanation of the facts or by more clearly stating the views and principles against which the arguments of the minute are directed where these appear to have been misunderstood. For as the question before the Government is of the first importance and the propositions to which it leads such as if any step be taken hastily and without a thorough comprehension of the subject in its different bearings the Government may be committed irretrievably to measures hateful and injurious to the mass of the people under its sway such as it might repent afterwards when too late—it behoves every one that can contribute anything towards clearing it of fallacies or further elucidating any of the material points to bring forward what he may have to say before rather than after the Government’s determination is taken. My note will be short for I propose merely to point out where in the minute before Government the opposite view has not been fully stated or where the information built upon is incomplete or incorrect. It is not my purpose to make a laboured advocacy of the cause of oriental literature; for neither my pursuits, inclinations nor acquaintance with the subject qualify me for such a task. First in respect to the legal question. It is submitted that the Act 53 Geo. III must be construed with special reference to the intention of the Legislature of that day. So construed there cannot be 43

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a doubt in the mind of any person that by “the revival and promotion of literature and the encouragement of learned natives” the legislature1 did not mean to refer to any other literature than native literature nor to any other learned natives than such as were eminent by their proficiency in that literature. These were the persons then intended to be produced and encouraged and it is surely forcing the words out of their natural construction when it is argued that the revival of native literature can best be effected by abolishing all institutions for teaching the literature that then existed and that had existed for ages before and by communicating instruction only in English. With respect to the analogy to the position of the Pasha of Egypt there can be no doubt that if he were to talk of reviving and promoting literature in that country his meaning would be the literature and language last existing in Egypt, viz., that borrowed from Arabia and accordingly we do see him cultivating and reviving that and teaching medicine and other sciences in that. The example is worthy of imitation. There is no talk there of reviving the mummy literature of Osiris nor in India of going beyond what we found prevailing throughout but languishing for want of encouragement. With respect to rescinding any provisions of the Charter act of 1813 by a legislative Act of the Indian Government I have before argued that question and it cannot be necessary to revert to it. The next point is that the Institutions established for communicating instruction in Arabic and Sanskrit are endowments to which funds have been permanently and irrevocably appropriated. Against this it is argued that Government cannot have pledged itself to perpetuate what may be proved noxious, that there is no right of property vesting in any body and that requires to be respected as such2—therefore that to take these funds from these purposes and objects and direct them to other that may be thought by the rulers of the day to be more beneficial is no spoliation or violation of any vested interest but on the contrary that the annual Lakh of Rupees set apart by the act of Parliament may annually be applied to such purposes as may each year be thought most conducive to the great end—the revival and encouragement of literature and the promotion and cultivation of Science. Upon this it is to be observed first that the argument as to the inviolability of endowments was never applied to any Institution paid out of the Parliamentary grant of a Lakh of Rupees. It was adduced only in behalf of the Mudrisa which was specifically an endowment made by Warren Hastings more than fifty years ago and for the support of which certain Funds, viz., the land revenue of the Mudrisa Muhal part of which is included in the Barrackpoor park were specifically assigned. At first the Institution was left to the uncontrolled management of the Moola placed by Mr. Hastings at its head. The Muhal however was under the Khas management of the Board of Revenue and the varying amount realized from it was placed at the Moolavee’s disposal. Subsequently the Muhal was made over at a fixed Jama to the Raja of Nudeea when he was restored to his estates of which 44

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this formed a part. Except therefore that the direct management of the lands was not in the hands of the Principal and Professors and Fellows of the College this was assuredly as complete an Endowment as any of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge or as the Blue coat school in London can boast of. The purpose was declared to be the education of Moolavees and Kazees and the cultivation of Arabic learning, and from the day of the Institution’s first establishment to this present time degrees and certificates have been granted entitling persons to assume the style and to exercise the functions of Moolavee and Kazee in like manner as degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor are conferred in Europe. The Government exercised towards this institution the functions of Waqif or Endower which are distinct and well defined in law and by the practise of the country resembling those of directing visitor but more extensive than any enjoyed by visitors in Europe. In the exercise of these powers the Government had reformed the Institution and placed it on a footing efficient for the purpose intended by the founder before the Parliamentary grant of 1813 was made. It was transferred to the Committee appointed to carry that act into execution not as an Institution established under it and paid from the funds appropriated therein to Education but because the Committee was deemed the fittest organ for the execution of the functions of visitor. The Mudrusa had before a separate Committee which merged into the General Education Committee and therein the connexion of this latter with it. The argument therefore that the Government is free to deal with its lakh as it pleases does not touch this particular Institution—the Government proceedings and determination in respect to which must be guided by specific reference to the conditions of its establishment and to its present position. If there be any thing positively noxious in the existence of a seminary of this kind that of course may be an argument for correcting what is bad or if the mischief be past correction for abolishing root and branch the irredeemable evil. But surely Government is not yet prepared to put forth a declaration that such is the light in which it regards the instruction of all its subjects of the Mooslim faith—of this however more presently. With respect to the argument that the Government cannot be pledged to perpetuate any course of instruction for that it has created no property and there is no one that can pretend to possess a vested interest. This, in so far as it denies to collegiate institutions a right which I believe in Europe they have always stoutly asserted and hitherto maintained, is a question that may be left to be battled by the Universities in England. Nothing on earth can hope to be perpetual and property of every kind is of itself the most mutable of things. By the hand of time, by the act of God, by foreign violence or internal convulsion everything most prized and most valued may be swept away in an instant. To all these sources of ruin to vested interests must be added the changeful opinions of mankind and the caprices of those who rule. The Government doubtless may set up and abolish Institutions with the same facile rapidity with which it creates and abolishes offices and passes acts and Regulations. The question is one of wisdom and expediency. Is it wise and beneficial for a Government so to act as to destroy the hope that what is, and 45

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has been, will be lasting? Does not every Government on the contrary derive strength and influence from encouraging its subjects to look upon certain classes of its actions as permanent and binding upon itself and its successors? The establishment of such an Institution as the Mudrusa is most assuredly an act of this description and class—and in every part of the world when the ruling Power has made an appropriation of funds or through other means established a Seminary of the kind for Education whether it be to teach Latin and Greek or to teach English to the Catholic uneducated Irish or for any purpose of supposed utility the appropriation has been respected and held sacred by those who have followed. It is only in this country that it would be proposed not to improve and make perfect and correct errors in the Institutions already established by the liberality of those who have gone before, but upon a vague impression that the object is not beneficial wholly to abolish and dissolve them. In behalf of the Mudrusa more claim to permanency has not been asserted than is allowed elsewhere to similar Institutions and Seminaries. Let it be dealt with as a charity school or college of England liable to fall to corruption and to need the hand of the governing power to correct its abuses and reform its practise, nay even to suit it to the advancing opinions of the day. The proposition for its abolition goes a great deal further. The minute assuming apparently the Mudrusa to be one of the Institutions supported out of the Lakh of rupees appropriated by Parliament proceeds to the question what is the most useful mode of employing that fund. It is laid down that the vernacular dialects are not fit to be made the vehicle of instruction in science or literature, that the choice is therefore between English on one hand and Sanscrit and Arabic on the other—the latter are dismissed on the ground that their literature is worthless and the superiority of that of England is set forth in an animated description of the treasures of science and of intelligence it contains and of the stores of intellectual enjoyment it opens. There is no body acquainted with both literatures that will not subscribe to all that is said in the minute of the superiority of that of England but the question is not rightly stated when it is asserted to be this “whether, when it is in our power to teach this language”3— that is English—we shall teach those which contain no books of value. The whole question is—have we it in our power to teach everywhere this English and this European science? It is in doubting nay in denying this that those who take the opposite view maintain the expediency of letting the natives pursue their present course of instruction and of endeavouring to engraft European Science thereon. An analogy is drawn between the present state of India and that of Europe at the time of the revival of letters. The cultivation of English is likened to the study of Latin and Greek in those days and the grand results that have followed are held out as an example to be imitated hereby inculcating English in order that a Bengalee and Hindee literature may grow up as perfect as that we now have in England. This however is not the true analogy—Latin and Greek were to the nations of Europe

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what Arabic and Persian are to the Mooslims and Sanscrit to the Hindoos of the present population of Hindoostan and if a native literature is to be created it must be through the improvements of which these are capable. To the great body of the People of India English is as strange as Arabic was to the knights of the dark ages.4 It is not the language of the erudite of the clergy and of men of letters as Latin always was in Europe and as Arabic and Persian are extensively in Asia. The analogy of Russia is less convincing.5 It is through communication with foreigners through imitation and translations that the Russians are building up a native literature. This is the method that is specifically advocated by those who despair of making English the language of general adoption or the vehicle for imparting a knowledge of the sciences to the millions who compose the population of India. The argument would only have weight if, in the schools and colleges of Russia, German were now or had ever been the exclusive organ through which the youth of that country derived instruction which it assuredly is not and never was. But to proceed to the real arguments of the minute. It is said that in teaching Arabic and Sanscrit we are not consulting the intellectual taste of the natives but are “forcing on them the mock learning which they nauseate.”6 If there were the slightest ground for believing that the great body of the Mooslims did not venerate to enthusiasm their Arabic and Persian literature7 or to believe that the Hindoos as a body were not partial to their Sanscrit then of course would the whole case or those who advocate the prosecution of those studies require to be thrown up. This however is a matter of fact and of opinion that cannot be conceded to either party upon mere assertion. It is necessary to examine the grounds upon which so startling a a proposition as that above stated is advanced and maintained. The minute proceeds “This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our Arabic and Sanscrit students while those who learn English pay us . . . . . . . . We cannot find in all our vast empire a single student who will let us teach him those dialects unless we will pay him.”8 These assertions are supported by adducing from the report upon the Mudrusa of Calcutta the circumstance that there were in December 1833 seventy seven Arabic Students on that foundation receiving in the aggregate above Rs. 500 per mensem while in three months Rs. 103 were collected by the English master from out-students who paid for his instruction in that language. The contrast is dwelt upon as conclusive but a very little explanation will suffice to show that the argument is quite groundless. There are ordinarily taught in the Mudrusa between two and three hundred youths. The Government scholarships are eighty and if the President of the Education Committee would attend the next examination of candidates for these scholarships he would see in the keenness of the competition and in the proficiency of the candidates abundant evidence that the salaried scholars are not the only persons in our Indian Empire who learn the rudiments of Persian9 and Arabic

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literature. I am no Sanscrit scholar and never attended the examinations of that college in Calcutta nor do I pretend to much acquaintance with its constitution or with the rules under which its scholarships are given away but only the other day the Education Committee received a report of the examinations of the Sanscrit College at Benares and it cannot have escaped the president of that Committee to have observed that, although the jageers or scholarships were only 130, upwards of three hundred students pressed forward for examination. In truth the jageers or monthly allowances given at the Mudrusa and in the Sanscrit Colleges and elsewhere are in all respects similar to the Scholarships of the Universities or to the foundation Scholars of the Public Schools of England. They are given not as inducements to study the language but as the rewards of successful study and in order to keep at the institution for the prosecution of further studies those who by their progress evince a love of science and the qualification to become learned men, Moolavees or Pundits. Most of those who enjoy these jageers are themselves the teachers of many pupils, teachers in the college to those who attend there for instruction and teachers at home in families of the better order to those who prefer that their sons shall be so instructed. Whether it is expedient or not to give these stipendiary provisions as rewards for ardent study and to keep students longer at their education by means of them is a question that has heretofore been argued in the Committee of Public Instruction. Something is to be said on both sides and although the Committee heretofore decided in favour of the practise it does not follow that they may not have decided wrong. But however this may be the fact that there are paid scholars on the establishment or foundation of any seminary affords no ground for assuming that none would learn if they were not paid, yet this is the argument of the minute. As well might it be assumed from the fact that there are foundation scholars at Eton and scholarships in all the Colleges of both Universities in England that no body would learn Latin and Greek if it were not for these stipendiary advantages. Be it Latin and Greek or Mathematics or Law or Arabic and Sanscrit literature or be it English the principle is the same. Scholarships are given and it is thought right to give them to reward and encourage the poor scholar and to lead as well through the excitement of competition as by lengthening the course of study to the attainment of higher proficiency. In the Mudrusa itself separate scholarships have been established for proficients in English in order to encourage the study of that language. If this be a conclusive argument that the study of English is nauseated because it requires to be paid for, then may it be applied to Arabic and Sanscrit and to Mathematics and to all other studies. All must participate in the reproach or it will evidently apply to none. But the fact remains to be explained that a sum of Rs. 103 was collected in three months from out students of English whereas nothing is shown by the accounts of the Mudrusa to have been collected from out students of Persian and Arabic. Everybody knows that with Moolavees and Pundits, for both profess the same principle in this respect, it is meritorious to give instruction gratis and sinful to 48

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take hire or wages from the pupil who receives it. The teacher’s remuneration is always in the way of a present and perfectly voluntary.10 The English Master on the other hand who is a Christian and who has been appointed by the Committee to the Mudrusa acts on quite different principles and not only deems it no sin to take payment for the lessons he gives but makes a special demand of it from all who appear to him to have the means of paying. The wonder is rather, considering that the teacher in this instance is a first rate instructor and that he gives instruction to Hindoos as well as Mooslims, that more was not realized. The fact that a sum of about Rs. 30 a month was realized when upwards of three hundred per mensem is paid from the Committee’s funds to the Schoolmaster is surely no proof of the violent desire for instruction in English which is inferred from it. If again the desire of this instruction were so great how comes it to have been proposed to make the learning of English compulsory in the Mudrusa and how does it happen that of all the students now in the Mudrusa there are but two who have made progress beyond the spelling book. Undoubtedly there is a very widely spread anxiety at this time for the attainment of a certain proficiency in English. The sentiment is to be encouraged by all means as the source and forerunner of great moral improvement to those who feel its influence but there is no single member of the Education Committee who will venture to assert that this disposition has yet shown itself extensively amongst the Moosulmans.11 It is the Hindoos of Calcutta, the Sirkars and their connexions and the descendants and relations of the Sirkars of former days, those who have risen through their connexion with the English and with public offices, men who hold or who seek employments in which a knowledge of English is a necessary qualification. These are the classes of persons to whom the study of English is as yet confined and certainly we have no reason yet to believe that the Moosulmans in any part of India can be reconciled to the cultivation of it much less give it a preference to the polite literature of their race or to what they look upon as such. The minute proceeds to cite a petition from certain students of the Sanscrit College complaining that their studies did not secure them an assured and easy livelihood as affording another conclusive argument against extending encouragement to such studies. But surely the disappointment of the too sanguine hopes of any class of persons as to their future provision in life affords no evidence that the knowledge they have acquired is useless. Much research and patient investigation would be indispensible before any determination could be come to on the important question to native youth at this moment how best to secure respect in after life and by what course of education to provide themselves the best chance of a comfortable livelihood. In all times and amongst all people this is an important question for youth but more especially to the youth of India at present when society with all its institutions is so evidently in the transition state. This argument again even were it sound as respects the study of Sanscrit has evidently no application to the Mudrusa and to those who study Arabic and Persian. These at least have never complained that through proficiency in their studies their means 49

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of obtaining a livelihood have not been improved nor will it be maintained that the study of both is not at this moment highly useful for this great purpose of life. But the great argument remains to be noticed and that is that by encouraging the study of native literature we create the very opposition which is adduced as the chief obstacle to the introduction of the study of English and of true science. This is a most important question but seems to involve the previous one—does or does not the prejudice exist? It is declared by those who take the opposite view to Mr. Macaulay that it does exist and that the prejudice is so general especially amongst the Moosulmans that there is no hope of our being able by the mere offer of instruction in English and English science to secure that it shall be received for its own sake. These persons say that the best chance of procuring that true knowledge shall ultimately prevail is to engraft it upon the course of education now most esteemed and to take every means of leading the youth to the improved condition in which it is desired to place them by giving them first all they respect and admire in their fathers and then besides the further instruction we have to impart. The argument on the other side is that unless we violently assail and displace the false literature that we see held up as erudition and learning we shall by continuing instruction in it create opposition to the reception of the new. Now this argument on the very face of it seems to assume that the possessors of the old literature are necessarily opposed to the new, it seems to build upon the impossibility of reconciling the two and yet in the same breath we are told that all the world is anxiously seeking the new and attaches no value to the old. On the other hand it is maintained that, if at this time the desire for European science and literature is extensively felt and is still on the increase, the cause of it is to be found in the manner in which the Government interfere with the work of education which was commenced and has hitherto been carried on, and in particular to the strict observance of the principle of encouraging every course of education that is followed by any extensive class of the population and doing violence to no existing feelings whether of prejudice or prepossession. It is maintained that by following this course we bind and perpetuate no enmities but on the contrary mitigate and reconcile opinions and doctrines that seem adverse and when we recollect that out of the philosophy of the schools the same philosophy that is the highest point of knowledge in Arabic and Sanscrit grew the very philosophy we wish to inculcate, viz., that of Bacon and Locke and Newton,12 why should we despair of engrafting on the similar stock of Arabia and India a similar fruit? With respect to the expenditure upon printing and translating in regard to which it is argued that the fact that the books of the Committee do not sell is proof conclusive that the money is thrown away and that there is no taste for the literature it was meant to encourage, I fear it must be admitted that very considerable sums have been thrown away upon works which have yielded no fruit. The translations have been the most expensive and the least profitable of these works, for they have been executed at very enormous rates of charge and in a style for the most part 50

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not popular and taking. I quite agree that the funds appropriated to revive literature ought not to be lavished on works that will not pay and that for the printing of those that will pay, there can be no need of aid from Government. But I do not admit that because we have failed to make our printing and translating a profitable speculation that therefore there is no taste for the literature. Our prices have been exorbitant and our works13 childish or ill got up. This alone accounts for their not being taken off our hands and as for the fact that private Printing establishments find a profit in printing English School Books they have had the extensive patronage of the Committee and of Mofusil institutions and more especially of Missionary schools and a growing Christian population to provide. Besides which the relative expense of printing in the native languages as compared with that of printing in English will of itself account for the difference. Our books be it observed have been mostly printed at the same press which is referred to as having thrived by its printing business and it has thrived mainly at our expense. However there is not I believe in the Committee of public instruction a single advocate for a continuance of the printing and translating business on the footing on which it has hitherto been conducted.14 It has been ruinously expensive and has yielded no return but we see establishments for printing Persian and Arabic books as thriving as the English Presses and numberless books and little treatises are issued from them of which we hear nothing. The text book of the Moolavees who recently rose in insurrection is an instance in point. Although printed in Calcutta it was not heard of by Europeans until the sect broke out into rebellion. If our translations and the books of our selection have not hit the taste of the reading classes or have been too dear for them to purchase it is a reason for discontinuing the provision of such but no proof that there is no taste for anything that might be provided. There are applications in abundance for our books as presents and we know not when one is issued how many copies are made from it at less cost even than that we ask to compensate the charge of publication. The price too paid by the Committee for native publications is the first subscription price and the Committee is always undersold by the presses which supply them books for they sell the reserved copies at a reduced price. The minute proceeds to say that it cannot be necessary to keep up instruction in Arabic and Sanscrit because of the connection of these languages with the religion of the Hindoos and Mooslims. I have never heard this reason assigned15 as an argument for a Christian Government’s continuing to give the instruction. The circumstance has been referred to as both proving and accounting for the confirmed veneration these classes have for their respective literatures and because it has sometimes been denied that the natives have any respect for their own literature which is quite inconsistent with the idea that all their religion is wrapped up in it. It is on account of the connection of these languages with existing laws that the necessity of continuing instruction in them has been maintained. This argument is met in the minute by reference to what the Law Commission are expected 51

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to do and what the Legislature intends should be done.16 Herein however is an admission that for so long as this intention is unfulfilled the motive for continuing instruction in that which is the law, exists in full force. The nature of the instruction in English that will have to be imparted is the next point. Those opposed to the discontinuance of instruction in Sanscrit, Arabic and Persian maintain that in place of them the Committee would have to commence everywhere teaching the English alphabet. It cannot surely be denied that this must be the beginning. The minute dwells on the capability of the natives to attain high proficiency. This may be admitted as a result to be expected hereafter but if the teaching of English be substituted everywhere for the perfecting of youths in their present courses of education does it not follow as a necessary consequence that we shall have to substitute the teaching of the alphabet and spelling book for instruction in advanced literature? The candidates for admission into our Arabic and Sanscrit Colleges know already much of those languages and are prepared to be taught science. The students we should get for English would require to be taught to read.17 To the recapitulation at the close of the Minute I have nothing new to object. It is admitted that we must endeavour to carry the people with us in all we seek to do for their improvement. The party whose sentiments I am endeavouring to express argue to the question what are the best, indeed to their minds the only means of doing this. Their opponents, looking to grand results to follow when all the desired improvements have been effected, pass over altogether the necessary consideration of means. Ofter volo jubeo is their policy on this great question. The abolition of the Mudrusa and Sanscrit College at Calcutta and the alteration of the character of all other Institutions supported or assisted from the Public funds is their proposition but it is submitted that there are many considerations which should protect the Mudrusa at least from any present demolition. It is the only link through which the Government has at present any connection whatsoever with the instruction of the Mooslim youth of Bengal, it is not one of the passing institutions of recent establishment for the support of which funds are assigned from the Parliamentary lack of Rupees but is an old established college endowed separately and efficiently performing the purposes of the endowment. If this be doubted let the fact be made the subject of enquiry the more searching the better will the advocates of this institution be satisfied. Even though the Committee of General Instruction should come to a resolution or should be desired by Government to change altogether the principles by which it has hitherto been guided in the application of the Parliamentary grant, it would by no means follow that the Mudrusa should be placed on a different footing. The Moosulman subjects of the Government are much more jealous of innovation upon their habits and their religion than the Hindoos ever were. When it was first proposed to teach them English they consulted their oracle of the day Uzeezooddeen of Dehlee as to whether it was sinful to yield to the innovation. He gave them a most sensible answer and since then not only has English and English science been extensively taught but much 52

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progress has been made in instilling correct moral principles and reconciling the sect to further improvements. Such a measure at this time as the abolition of the Mudrusa would produce alienation in this wide class of the population. . . .18 instead of aiding would impede if it did not prevent any further improvement. To the principle of conciliation it is decidedly opposed and will universally be looked upon as touching close upon intolerance. I have written much more than I had intended or thought would be necessary and yet feel that I have not half stated all that I have myself to urge on this important question. The cause has many advocates who also deserve to be heard before Government shall come to a final determination. There is a minute by Mr. Macnaghten about to be sent up by the Education Committee which seems entitled to much attention and I am sure that not only that gentleman but every member of the Committee would wish to be heard upon any resolution passed for abolishing the Mudrusa. In the height of the discussion as to the proper course to be followed by the Committee for promoting the improvement of the education of the country such a proposition was never brought forward by any one of those most opposed to the continuance of instruction in Arabic and Sanscrit. It is now submitted separately and it is my hope that I have shown sufficient ground to induce the Members of Government to suspend their judgment at least. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 of investigation. H. T. PRINSEP. Sunday, 15th February 1835.

Notes 1 On the legal question I have had the opinion of Sir E. Ryan. He pronounces that there is not the shadow of a reason for Mr. Prinsep’s construction. [T. B. M.] I do not feel overwhelmed by this authority. [H. T. P.] 2 I leave my minute to defend itself on this head. [T. B. M.] 3 Page 110. 4 It cannot be more strange than Greek was to the subjects of Henry the Eighth. [T. B. M.] 5 Not the fact. The Russian educated class has acquired all that it knows by means of English, French, German, etc. From the English, French and German it is now beginning to imitate and to translate. This is exactly the course which I hope and trust that the educated class of our native subjects will follow. [T. B. M.] 6 Page 112. 7 Men may have a great veneration for a language and not wish to learn it. I have seen Rhadacant Deb since the last council. He tells me that no body in India studies Sanscrit profoundly without being paid to do so. Men of fortune learn a little superficially. But he assures me that to the best of his belief there is not, even at Benares, a single student of the higher Sanscrit learning who is not paid. [T. B. M.] 8 Page 112. 9 I said nothing of Persian. I am assured that nothing deserving the name of a learned Arabic education is received at the Mudrusa by any unpaid student. I acknowledge my own ignorance on the subject. [T. B. M.] 10 The sum, if the accounts are rightly drawn up, is paid to the College—not directly to the master, so that the explanation is defective. [T. B. M.]

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11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19

No, the money was levied by the Master and paid over to the College Funds. This is all I meant to state. [H. T. P.] There is no good English school for the Mussulmans; and one of our first duties is to establish one. [T. B. M.] Monstrous assertion! J. E. D. B[ETHUNE]. They are, I believe, among the most celebrated works in the Sanscrit language. [T. B. M.] I rejoice to hear it. For within the last few weeks several minutes have been recorded which would have led me to form a very different opinion. [T. B. M.] If we print anything we ought to print the Surya Sidhant and the books that have been proposed but I am perfectly ready to give up all printing. [H. T. P.] It has been distinctly assigned. [?] Surely it would be most unreasonable to educate a boy of fifteen with a view to fitting him for a state of things which we fully purpose to alter by the time that he is five and twenty. [T. B. M.] Of course every body must begin a language at the beginning. The only question is whether we may reasonably expect in a few years to make an intelligent native youth a thoroughly good English scholar. And I do not now find that this is disputed. [T. B. M.] Original torn. Original torn.

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8 T. B. MACAULAY, ‘MINUTE ON ENGLISH EDUCATION, 2ND FEBRUARY 1835’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 107–117

Minute by the Hon’ble T. B. Macaulay, dated the 2nd February 1835.1 As it seems to be the opinion of some of the gentlemen2 who compose the Committee of Public Instruction that the course which they have hitherto pursued was strictly prescribed by the British Parliament in 18133 and as, if that opinion be correct, a legislative act will be necessary to warrant a change, I have thought it right to refrain from taking any part in the preparation of the adverse statements which are now before us, and to reserve what I had to say on the subject till it should come before me as a Member of the Council of India. It does not appear to me that the Act of Parliament can by any art of construction be made to bear the meaning which has been assigned to it. It contains nothing about the particular languages or sciences which are to be studied. A sum is set apart “for the revival and promotion of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories.” It is argued, or rather taken for granted, that by literature the Parliament can have meant only Arabic and Sanscrit literature; that they never would have given the honourable appellation of “a learned native” to a native who was familiar with the poetry of Milton, the metaphysics of Locke, and the physics of Newton; but that they meant to designate by that name only such persons as might have studied in the sacred books of the Hindoos all the uses of cusa-grass, and all the mysteries of absorption into the Deity. This does not appear to be a very satisfactory interpretation. To take a parallel case: Suppose that the Pacha of Egypt, a country once superior in knowledge to the nations of Europe, but now sunk far below them, were to appropriate a sum for 55

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the purpose “of reviving and promoting literature, and encouraging learned natives of Egypt,” would any body infer that he meant the youth of his Pachalik to give years to the study of hieroglyphics, to search into all the doctrines disguised under the fable of Osiris, and to ascertain with all possible accuracy the ritual with which cats and onions were anciently adored? Would he be justly charged with inconsistency if, instead of employing his young subjects in decyphering obelisks, he were to order them to be instructed in the English and French languages, and in all the sciences to which those languages are the chief keys? The words on which the supporters of the old system rely do not bear them out, and other words follow which seem to be quite decisive on the other side. This lakh of rupees is set apart not only for “reviving literature in India,” the phrase on which their whole interpretation is founded, but also “for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories”— words which are alone sufficient to authorise all the changes for which I contend. If the Council agree in my construction no legislative act will be necessary. If they differ from me, I will propose a short act rescinding that clause of the Charter of 1813 from which the difficulty arises. The argument which I have been considering affects only the form of proceeding. But the admirers of the oriental system of education have used another argument, which, if we admit it to be valid, is decisive against all change. They conceive that the public faith is pledged to the present system, and that to alter the appropriation of any of the funds which have hitherto been spent in encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanscrit would be downright spoliation. It is not easy to understand by what process of reasoning they can have arrived at this conclusion. The grants which are made from the public purse for the encouragement of literature differ in no respect from the grants which are made from the same purse for other objects of real or supposed utility. We found a sanitarium on a spot which we suppose to be healthy. Do we thereby pledge ourselves to keep a sanitarium there if the result should not answer our expectations? We commence the erection of a pier. Is it a violation of the public faith to stop the works, if we afterwards see reason to believe that the building will be useless? The rights of property are undoubtedly sacred. But nothing endangers those rights so much as the practice, now unhappily too common, of attributing them to things to which they do not belong. Those who would impart to abuses the sanctity of property are in truth imparting to the institution of property the unpopularity and the fragility of abuses. If the Government has given to any person a formal assurance—nay, if the Government has excited in any person’s mind a reasonable expectation—that he shall receive a certain income as a teacher or a learner of Sanscrit or Arabic, I would respect that person’s pecuniary interests. I would rather err on the side of liberality to individuals than suffer the public faith to be called in question. But to talk of a Government pledging itself to teach certain languages and certain sciences, though those languages may become useless, though those sciences may be exploded, seems to me quite unmeaning. There is not a single word in any public instrument from which it can be inferred that the Indian Government ever 56

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intended to give any pledge on this subject, or ever considered the destination of these funds as unalterably fixed. But, had it been otherwise, I should have denied the competence of our predecessors to bind us by any pledge on such a subject. Suppose that a Government had in the last century enacted in the most solemn manner that all its subjects should, to the end of time, be inoculated for the smallpox, would that Government be bound to persist in the practice after Jenner’s discovery? These promises of which nobody claims the performance, and from which nobody can grant a release, these vested rights which vest in nobody, this property without proprietors, this robbery which makes nobody poorer, may be comprehended by persons of higher faculties than mine. I consider this plea merely as a set form of words, regularly used both in England and in India, in defence of every abuse for which no other plea can be set up. I hold this lakh of rupees to be quite at the disposal of the Governor-General in Council for the purpose of promoting learning in India in any way which may be thought most advisable. I hold his Lordship to be quite as free to direct that it shall no longer be employed in encouraging Arabic and Sanscrit, as he is to direct that the reward for killing tigers in Mysore shall be diminished, or that no more public money shall be expended on the chaunting at the cathedral. We now come to the gist of the matter. We have a fund to be employed as Government shall direct for the intellectual improvement of the people of this country. The simple question is, what is the most useful way of employing it? All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India contain neither literary nor scientific information, and are moreover so poor and rude that, until they are enriched from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them. It seems to be admitted on all sides, that the intellectual improvement of those classes of the people who have the means of pursuing higher studies can at present be effected only by means of some language not vernacular amongst them. What then shall that language be? One-half of the committee maintain that it should be the English. The other half strongly recommend the Arabic and Sanscrit. The whole question seems to me to be—which language is the best worth knowing? I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanscrit works. I have conversed, both here and at home, with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take the oriental learning at the valuation of the orientalists themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is indeed fully admitted by those members of the committee who support the oriental plan of education. It will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department of literature in which the Eastern writers stand highest is poetry. And I certainly never met with any orientalist who ventured to maintain that the Arabic and Sanscrit poetry could be compared to that of the great European nations. But when we pass from works of 57

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imagination to works in which facts are recorded and general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasureable. It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England. In every branch of physical or moral philosophy, the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same. How then stands the case? We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages of the West. It abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us,—with models of every species of eloquence,—with historical compositions which, considered merely as narratives, have seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as vehicles of ethical and political instruction, have never been equalled,—with just and lively representations of human life and human nature,—with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals, government, jurisprudence, trade,—with full and correct information respecting every experimental science which tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man. Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It may safely be said that the literature now extant in that language is of greater value than all the literature which three hundred years ago was extant in all the languages of the world together. Nor is this all. In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australasia,—communities which are every year becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects. The question now before us is simply whether, when it is in our power to teach this language, we shall teach languages in which, by universal confession, there are no books on any subject which deserve to be compared to our own, whether, when we can teach European science, we shall teach systems which, by universal confession, wherever they differ from those of Europe differ for the worse, and whether, when we can patronize sound philosophy and true history, we shall countenance, at the public expense, medical doctrines which would disgrace an English farrier, astronomy which would move laughter in girls at an English boarding school, history abounding with kings thirty feet high and reigns thirty thousand years long, and geography made of seas of treacle and seas of butter. We are not without experience to guide us. History furnishes several analogous cases, and they all teach the same lesson. There are, in modern times, to go no 58

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further, two memorable instances of a great impulse given to the mind of a whole society, of prejudices overthrown, of knowledge diffused, of taste purified, of arts and sciences planted in countries which had recently been ignorant and barbarous. The first instance to which I refer is the great revival of letters among the Western nations at the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. At that time almost everything that was worth reading was contained in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Had our ancestors acted as the Committee of Public Instruction has hitherto acted,—had they neglected the language of Thucydides and Plato, and the language of Cicero and Tacitus, had they confined their attention to the old dialects of our own island, had they printed nothing and taught nothing at the universities but chronicles in Anglo-Saxon and romances in Norman French,—would England ever have been what she now is? What the Greek and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our tongue is to the people of India. The literature of England is now more valuable than that of classical antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanscrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors. In some departments—in history for example— I am certain that it is much less so. Another instance may be said to be still before our eyes. Within the last hundred and twenty years, a nation which had previously been in a state as barbarous as that in which our ancestors were before the Crusades has gradually emerged from the ignorance in which it was sunk, and has taken its place among civilised communities. I speak of Russia. There is now in that country a large educated class abounding with persons fit to serve the State in the highest functions, and in nowise inferior to the most accomplished men who adorn the best circles of Paris and London. There is reason to hope that this vast empire which, in the time of our grand-fathers, was probably behind the Punjab, may in the time of our grandchildren, be pressing close on France and Britain in the career of improvement. And how was this change effected? Not by flattering national prejudices; not by feeding the mind of the young Muscovite with the old women’s stories which his rude fathers had believed; not by filling his head with lying legends about St. Nicholas; not by encouraging him to study the great question, whether the world was or not created on the 13th of September: not by calling him “a learned native” when he had mastered all these points of knowledge; but by teaching him those foreign languages in which the greatest mass of information had been laid up, and thus putting all that information within his reach. The languages of western Europe civilised Russia. I cannot doubt that they will do for the Hindoo what they have done for the Tartar. And what are the arguments against that course which seems to be alike recommended by theory and by experience? It is said that we ought to secure the cooperation of the native public, and that we can do this only by teaching Sanscrit and Arabic. I can by no means admit that, when a nation of high intellectual attainments undertakes to superintend the education of a nation comparatively ignorant, the learners are absolutely to prescribe the course which is to be taken by the teachers. 59

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It is not necessary however to say anything on this subject. For it is proved by unanswerable evidence, that we are not at present securing the co-operation of the natives. It would be bad enough to consult their intellectual taste at the expense of their intellectual health. But we are consulting neither. We are withholding from them the learning which is palatable to them. We are forcing on them the mock learning which they nauseate. This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our Arabic and Sanscrit students while those who learn English are willing to pay us. All the declamations in the world about the love and reverence of the natives for their sacred dialects will never, in the mind of any impartial person, outweigh this undisputed fact, that we cannot find in all our vast empire a single student who will let us teach him those dialects, unless we will pay him. I have now before me the accounts of the Mudrassa for one month, the month of December, 1833.4 The Arabic students appear to have been seventy-seven in number. All receive stipends from the public. The whole amount paid to them is above 500 rupees a month. On the other side of the account stands the following item: Deduct amount realized from the out-students of English for the months of May, June, and July last—103 rupees. I have been told that it is merely from want of local experience that I am surprised at these phœnomena, and that it is not the fashion for students in India to study at their own charges. This only confirms me in my opinions. Nothing is more certain than that it never can in any part of the world be necessary to pay men for doing what they think pleasant or profitable. India is no exception to this rule. The people of India do not require to be paid for eating rice when they are hungry, or for wearing woollen cloth in the cold season. To come nearer to the case before us:—The children who learn their letters and a little elementary arithmetic from the village schoolmaster are not paid by him. He is paid for teaching them. Why then is it necessary to pay people to learn Sanscrit and Arabic? Evidently because it is universally felt that the Sanscrit and Arabic are languages the knowledge of which does not compensate for the trouble of acquiring them. On all such subjects the state of the market is the decisive test. Other evidence is not wanting, if other evidence were required. A petition was presented last year to the committee by several ex-students of the Sanscrit College. The petitioners stated that they had studied in the college ten or twelve years, that they had made themselves acquainted with Hindoo literature and science, that they had received certificates of proficiency. And what is the fruit of all this? “Notwithstanding such testimonials,” they say, “we have but little prospect of bettering our condition without the kind assistance of your honourable committee, the indifference with which we are generally looked upon by our countrymen leaving no hope of encouragement and assistance from them.” They therefore beg that they may be recommended to the Governor-General for places under the Government—not places of high dignity or emolument, but such as may just enable them to exist. “We want means,” they say, “for a decent living, and for our 60

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progressive improvement, which, however, we cannot obtain without the assistance of Government, by whom we have been educated and maintained from childhood.” They conclude by representing very pathetically that they are sure that it was never the intention of Government, after behaving so liberally to them during their education, to abandon them to destitution and neglect. I have been used to see petitions to Government for compensation. All those petitions, even the most unreasonable of them, proceeded on the supposition that some loss had been sustained, that some wrong had been inflicted. These are surely the first petitioners who ever demanded compensation for having been educated gratis, for having been supported by the public during twelve years, and then sent forth into the world well furnished with literature and science. They represent their education as an injury which gives them a claim on the Government for redress, as an injury for which the stipends paid to them during the infliction were a very inadequate compensation. And I doubt not that they are in the right. They have wasted the best years of life in learning what procures for them neither bread nor respect. Surely we might with advantage have saved the cost of making these persons useless and miserable. Surely, men may be brought up to be burdens to the public and objects of contempt to their neighbours at a somewhat smaller charge to the State. But such is our policy. We do not even stand neuter in the contest between truth and falsehood. We are not content to leave the natives to the influence of their own hereditary prejudices. To the natural difficulties which obstruct the progress of sound science in the East, we add great difficulties of our own making. Bounties and premiums, such as ought not to be given even for the propagation of truth, we lavish on false texts and false philosophy. By acting thus we create the very evil which we fear. We are making that opposition which we do not find. What we spend on the Arabic and Sanscrit Colleges is not merely a dead loss to the cause of truth. It is bounty-money paid to raise up champions of error. It goes to form a nest not merely of helpless place-hunters but of bigots prompted alike by passion and by interest to raise a cry against every useful scheme of education. If there should be any opposition among the natives to the change which I recommend, that opposition will be the effect of our own system. It will be headed by persons supported by our stipends and trained in our colleges. The longer we persevere in our present course, the more formidable will that opposition be. It will be every year reinforced by recruits whom we are paying. From the native society, left to itself, we have no difficulties to apprehend. All the murmuring will come from that oriental interest which we have, by artificial means, called into being and nursed into strength. There is yet another fact which is alone sufficient to prove that the feeling of the native public, when left to itself, is not such as the supporters of the old system represent it to be. The committee have thought fit to lay out above a lakh of rupees in printing Arabic and Sanscrit books. Those books find no purchasers. It is very rarely that a single copy is disposed of. Twenty-three thousand volumes, most of them folios and quartos, fill the libraries or rather the lumber-rooms of this body. The committee contrive to get rid of some portion of their vast stock of oriental 61

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literature by giving books away. But they cannot give so fast as they print. About twenty thousand rupees a year are spent in adding fresh masses of waste paper to a hoard which, one should think, is already sufficiently ample. During the last three years about sixty thousand rupees have been expended in this manner. The sale of Arabic and Sanscrit books during those three years has not yielded quite one thousand rupees. In the meantime, the School Book Society is selling seven or eight thousand English volumes every year, and not only pays the expenses of printing but realizes a profit of twenty per cent. on its outlay. The fact that the Hindoo law is to be learned chiefly from Sanscrit books, and the Mahometan law from Arabic books, has been much insisted on, but seems not to bear at all on the question. We are commanded by Parliament to ascertain and digest the laws of India. The assistance of a Law Commission has been given to us for that purpose. As soon as the Code is promulgated the Shasters and the Hedaya will be useless to a moonsiff or a Sudder Ameen. I hope and trust that, before the boys who are now entering at the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College have completed their studies, this great work will be finished. It would be manifestly absurd to educate the rising generation with a view to a state of things which we mean to alter before they reach manhood. But there is yet another argument which seems even more untenable. It is said that the Sanscrit and the Arabic are the languages in which the sacred books of a hundred millions of people are written, and that they are on that account entitled to peculiar encouragement. Assuredly it is the duty of the British Government in India to be not only tolerant but neutral on all religious questions. But to encourage the study of a literature, admitted to be of small intrinsic value, only because that literature inculcates the most serious errors on the most important subjects, is a course hardly reconcilable with reason, with morality, or even with that very neutrality which ought, as we all agree, to be sacredly preserved. It is confessed that a language is barren of useful knowledge. We are to teach it because it is fruitful of monstrous superstitions. We are to teach false history, false astronomy, false medicine, because we find them in company with a false religion. We abstain, and I trust shall always abstain, from giving any public encouragement to those who are engaged in the work of converting the natives to Christianity. And while we act thus, can we reasonably or decently bribe men, out of the revenues of the State, to waste their youth in learning how they are to purify themselves after touching an ass or what texts of the Vedas they are to repeat to expiate the crime of killing a goat? It is taken for granted by the advocates of oriental learning that no native of this country can possibly attain more than a mere smattering of English. They do not attempt to prove this. But they perpetually insinuate it. They designate the education which their opponents recommend as a mere spelling-book education. They assume it as undeniable that the question is between a profound knowledge of Hindoo and Arabian literature and science on the one side, and superficial knowledge of the rudiments of English on the other. This is not merely an assumption, but an assumption contrary to all reason and experience. We know that foreigners 62

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of all nations do learn our language sufficiently to have access to all the most abstruse knowledge which it contains sufficiently to relish even the more delicate graces of our most idiomatic writers. There are in this very town natives who are quite competent to discuss political or scientific questions with fluency and precision in the English language. I have heard the very question on which I am now writing discussed by native gentlemen with a liberality and an intelligence which would do credit to any member of the Committee of Public Instruction. Indeed it is unusual to find, even in the literary circles of the Continent, any foreigner who can express himself in English with so much facility and correctness as we find in many Hindoos. Nobody, I suppose, will contend that English is so difficult to a Hindoo as Greek to an Englishman. Yet an intelligent English youth, in a much smaller number of years than our unfortunate pupils pass at the Sanscrit College, becomes able to read, to enjoy, and even to imitate not unhappily the compositions of the best Greek authors. Less than half the time which enables an English youth to read Herodotus and Sophocles ought to enable a Hindoo to read Hume and Milton.5 To sum up what I have said. I think it clear that we are not fettered by the Act of Parliament of 1813, that we are not fettered by any pledge expressed or implied, that we are free to employ our funds as we choose, that we ought to employ them in teaching what is best worth knowing, that English is better worth knowing than Sanscrit or Arabic, that the natives are desirous to be taught English, and are not desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic, that neither as the languages of law nor as the languages of religion have the Sanscrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our encouragement, that it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars, and that to this end our efforts ought to be directed. In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern—a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population. I would strictly respect all existing interests. I would deal even generously with all individuals who have had fair reason to expect a pecuniary provision. But I would strike at the root of the bad system which has hitherto been fostered by us. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and Sanscrit books. I would abolish the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College at Calcutta. Benares is the great seat of Brahminical learning; Delhi of Arabic learning. If we retain the Sanscrit College at Benares and the Mahometan College at Delhi we do enough and much more than enough in my opinion, for the Eastern languages. If the Benares and Delhi Colleges should be retained, I would at least recommend that no stipends shall be given to any students who may hereafter repair thither, but that the people shall 63

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be left to make their own choice between the rival systems of education without being bribed by us to learn what they have no desire to know. The funds which would thus be placed at our disposal would enable us to give larger encouragement to the Hindoo College at Calcutta, and establish in the principal cities throughout the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra schools in which the English language might be well and thoroughly taught. If the decision of His Lordship in Council should be such as I anticipate, I shall enter on the performance of my duties with the greatest zeal and alacrity. If, on the other hand, it be the opinion of the Government that the present system ought to remain unchanged, I beg that I may be permitted to retire from the chair of the Committee. I feel that I could not be of the smallest use there. I feel also that I should be lending my countenance to what I firmly believe to be a mere delusion. I believe that the present system tends not to accelerate the progress of truth but to delay the natural death of expiring errors. I conceive that we have at present no right to the respectable name of a Board of Public Instruction. We are a Board for wasting the public money, for printing books which are of less value than the paper on which they are printed was while it was blank—for giving artificial encouragement to absurd history, absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, absurd theology—for raising up a breed of scholars who find their scholarship an incumbrance and blemish, who live on the public while they are receiving their education, and whose education is so utterly useless to them that, when they have received it, they must either starve or live on the public all the rest of their lives. Entertaining these opinions, I am naturally desirous to decline all share in the responsibility of a body which, unless it alters its whole mode of proceedings, I must consider, not merely as useless, but as positively noxious. T. B. MACAULAY. 2nd February 1835. I give my entire concurrence to the sentiments expressed in this Minute. W. C. BENTINCK.

Notes 1 2 3 4

For reference to previous publications see pp. 205–206. See document No. 29, p. 105. See document No. 7, p. 22. See document No. 12, p. 36, which gives the accounts for 1823. There were then 75 students receiving Rs. 773 a month. 5 In 1836 Mr. M ACAULAY himself examined the students of the Hindu College. See J. KERR. A Review of Public Instruction in the Bengal Presidency from 1835 to 1851, II, p. 29. ED.

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9 WILLIAM BENTINCK, ‘RESOLUTION, 7TH MARCH 1835’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 130–131

(Lord Bentinck’s) Resolution of the 7th March 1835. On the 7th of March 1835 the following Resolution1 was issued: “The Governor-General of India in Council has attentively considered the two letters from the Secretary to the Committee of Public Instruction, dated the 21st and 22nd January last, and the papers referred to in them.2 First. – His Lordship in Council is of opinion that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India; and that all the funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be best employed on English education alone. d. – But it is not the intention of His Lordship in Council to abolish any College or School of native learning, while the native population shall appear to be inclined to avail themselves of the advantages which it affords, and His Lordship in Council directs that all the existing professors and students at all the institutions under the superintendence of the Committee shall continue to receive their stipends. But his Lordship in Council decidedly objects to the practice which has hitherto prevailed of supporting the students during the period of their education. He conceives that the only effect of such a system can be to give artificial encouragement to branches of learning which, in the natural course of things, would be superseded by more useful studies; and he directs that no stipend shall be given to any student that may hereafter enter at any of these institutions; and that when any professor 65

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of Oriental learning shall vacate his situation, the Committee shall report to the Government the number and state of the class in order that the Government may be able to decide upon the expediency of appointing a successor. Third. – It has come to the knowledge of the Governor-General in Council that a large sum has been expended by the Committee on the printing of Oriental works; his Lordship in Council directs that no portion of the funds shall hereafter be so employed. Fourth. – His Lordship in Council directs that all the funds which these reforms will leave at the disposal of the Committee be henceforth employed in imparting to the antive population a knowledge of English literature and science through the medium of the English language; and His Lordship in Council requests the Committee to submit to Government, with all expedition, a plan for the accomplishment of this purpose.

Notes 1 Printed in (1) COMERONS Address to Parliament, pp. 81–82; (2) Madras Selections, II, 1855, pp. lxxxiii–lxxxiv. 2 Documents Nos. 28 and 29.

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10 H. T. PRINSEP, ‘MINUTE ON VERNACULAR EDUCATION, 20TH MAY 1835’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 134–139

Minute by H. T. Prinsep, dated the 20th May 1835. At the meeting of the Council when the letter of the Secretary to the committee of Public Instruction forwarding the Minute of Mr. W. H. Macnaghten was laid before us it was resolved by the majority not to reconsider the resolutions passed by the late Governor-General in Council on the 7th March last but to allow them to stand as the rules for the guidance of the Committee in their future proceedings. My voice and vote were with the minority on this occasion, and, as I think the question of the first importance, concerning deeply the character and credit of the Government, and look upon the decision that has been passed as calculated to alienate the affections of all the influential classes of the population and to do infinite injury in other respects I am not content to give a silent vote. It is laid down in the resolution above referred to that “the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science” and “that all funds appropriated to purposes of education would be best employed on English education alone.” Leaving, however, all existing professors and students in seminaries of oriental literature now supported by Government in possession of their stipends, it is ordered that no scholarships or stipends shall hereafter be given to students; and, upon a vacancy occurring in any oriental professorship, a special report is to be made to Government upon the number and condition of the class, (so) that the Government may decide whether it shall be continued. No funds are to be expended hereafter in printing oriental works, and all the funds left at the disposal of the Committee by the discontinuance of oriental professorships, scholarships, and printing are to be devoted to the teaching of English literature and science, through the medium of the English language. 67

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This resolution is looked upon by Mr. Macnaghten and by those who think with him in the Committee as containing a hostile declaration against the literature of the country inconsistent with past and with recent professions of the Government, as proclaiming a principle unfair and illiberal in itself and calculated to set against us those without whose co-operation we can do nothing to promote science and literature, and as ordering an entire change in the course of proceedings pursued hitherto by the Committee with eminent success; such a change too has rendered it impossible that the same men, whose influence and exertions in the Committee and weight of character in the country have mainly contributed to that success, should continue to act as members, thus depriving the cause of public instruction of all the aid derived from their talents and information and marking in the face of the world that a course is about to be pursued which they cannot reconcile with their ideas of fairness and propriety. This however is not all; Mr. Macnaghten refers to the Act of Parliament which made the assignment of funds the appropriation of which has been trusted to this Committee. He there finds that “the revival and promotion of literature” amongst the natives of India and “the encouragement of learned men” are specifically indicated as the objects first to be provided for from the funds assigned. He doubts not, and neither can any one that reads the provision and refers to the proceedings that occurred when it passed, doubt that the literature meant to be so revived and encouraged was the literature of the two great classes of the population, the Moosulmans and the Hindoos. Of course this was not to be to the exclusion of other useful knowledge, the improvement of the country in science and civilization being not less an object with the framers of the act than the revival of its literature, accordingly words follow those above cited which declare the funds assigned to be also applicable to “the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences.” But the whole scope and tenor as well as the literal meaning of the provision shows that the two objects were intended to be combined and prosecuted in concert. They have been so hitherto and the funds have accordingly assumed a distribution providing for all that is thus indicated. The revival of literature has been promoted by the assistance given to seminaries of education previously existing, and by the establishment of fresh, and likewise through the printing and publishing of classical works hitherto only to be procured in manuscript. To these objects a certain proportion of the funds assigned has been made applicable. The encouragement of learned men, the next thing indicated, has been effected as well through the support afforded them in institutions of education and in the superintendence and preparation of works for publication as by other advantages incident to the system pursued, amongst which not the least effectual is the provision for securing prolonged study by stipends to promising students. All this has been done for the natives and their literature, while the establishment of English classes in all existing seminaries and of fresh seminaries specifically for the teaching of English and English science and the attempts made by translation to make that science accessible to those ignorant of English have all had for their object the fulfilment of the other purposes indicated in the Act of 53rd Geo. III, viz. “the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of 68

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the sciences,” assuming this to mean the sciences of Europe. Thus, while through the old established seminaries and by their reform upon principles approved by the influential classes connected with them, and through the printing and publishing of their classics the first purpose indicated in the words of the Act has been sought to be accomplished, there has yet remained applicable to the cultivation of European science and English literature by far the larger proportion of the new fund set apart in 1813 by the legislature. If a comparison were to be made of the sums spent in printing native works and in providing new machinery for teaching the languages of the east or new stipends for successful scholars of its literature with the amounts lavished on English masters and on teachers of the rudiments of European science and on professors of law and metaphysics and natural philosophy, etc., etc., it will be found that the former bear but a small proportion to the aggregate of the latter thus showing that in the appropriation of the lakh of rupees even on the principles of the Orientalists, the desire to teach our own language and literature and science has always prevailed over the revival of the old literature and that we have given to what is last stated in the enactment as a purpose of assignment, perhaps even an undue preference. It has always, however, been a matter of discussion and difference amongst the members of the Committee where the line ought to be drawn—some desiring to give more to one branch, some to the other, but never yet has there been any one member of the Committee who has gone the length of the Government resolution and expressed the opinion that all the funds set apart by the Act of Parliament for the different objects therein declared ought to be employed on English education alone, to the exclusion of even the vernacular dialects of the country.

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The fourth member of the Legislative Council of India had then recently been appointed President of the Committee of Public Instruction but in this reference and the discussion of which it was the issue he had taken no part. After the two letters of the Committee submitting the reference had been sent in, Mr. Macaulay laid before the Governor-General the minute of his views on the subject which is recorded in the proceedings of the Executive Council and is the basis of the resolution of the 7th March.

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This minute was evidently a partizan paper advocating in a controversial and not very moderate tone the cause of one section of the Committee. It proceeded further than the warmest advocates of that side had yet ventured. Its assertions and arguments therefore demanded some investigation before they should be adopted as the basis of any grave proceedings of the Government. Without instituting, however, any such enquiry and, as far as is known to me without consulting any one of those in whom he was in the habit of placing confidence, the late 69

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Governor-General immediately upon the perusal of the minute in question, before any of the papers had been laid before the Council or discussed, added to it the declaration of his entire concurrence and so forwarded it to the Secretary of the Department for circulation. I circulated it and in a few days the box was returned to me with a brief minute by Mr. Ross, stating his own opinion to be opposed to the grant of scholarships and his wish that all should be left free to follow the course of instruction they preferred but without notice of the statements of doubtful accuracy contained in the minute of Mr. Macaulay. I was not then aware of Colonel Morrison’s intention to record his opinion on the subject. His minute reached me some days afterwards. In the interval, however, of the circulation of Mr. Macaulay’s minute it got wind I know not from what quarter that it was the intention of Government to abolish the Mudrusa and Sanscrit colleges. I was waited upon twice by the head preceptor of the former and utterly denied that there was any such intention. But the report was too widely circulated, and too well vouched to be so checked and the whole town of Calcutta was soon in a ferment. In the course of two days a petition respectful in language but strong in the points to which it adverted was signed by upwards of eight thousand educated Mohommedans, and a similar petition in behalf of the Sanscrit College was under preparation by the Hindoos. Seeing this ferment and sensible of the mischief that must follow the adoption to the full of the recommendations contained in the minute of Mr. Macaulay which seemed to me to be assented to by the GovernorGeneral, I took upon myself, in my capacity of Secretary, to submit to the Head of the Government a note explaining many of the circumstances on which Mr. Macaulay had, in my opinion, built erroneous conclusions or had written from imperfect information. I forwarded my note to the Governor-General and was at first asked through Mr. Pakenham, the Private Secretary, to withdraw it under a verbal assurance that the minute of Mr. Macaulay would be sent down to the Committee of Education of which he was President, and myself a member, in order that the matter might there be fully argued and discussed. I was of course satisfied that the mischief should be so stopped and circulated the note no further. In the meantime Colonel Morrison also appeared alive to the importance of the question and recorded his minute in behalf of native literature in which he deprecated any hasty innovations hostile to it and concluded with recommending a reference of the question to England. The matter was brought forward at the very next meeting of Council when this recommendation as well as the promise held out to me, were both disregarded and the resolution of the 7th March was passed, stopping short indeed of the threatened abolition of the Sanscrit and Arabic colleges but directed towards the insidiously undermining of both, and for the first time avowing the principle that oriental literature and instruction were thenceforward to receive no further aid from Government, not being considered objects deserving of its encouragement. The resolution is evidently founded on the minute of Mr. Macaulay above adverted to, and not upon the references from the Committee at large to the points submitted in which it nowhere adverts. It is thus based upon a minute advocating with all the warmth of controversy one particular side of a 70

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debated question without the opportunity having been given to those opposed to this view to offer any explanations or reply. Nay the late Governor-General would not allow the answer prepared to it to appear on record, for upon finding that Mr. Macaulay’s paper was not to be referred to the Committee of Public Instruction for further discussion, as I have been led to expect would be done, I submitted to His Lordship whether my note also should not be recorded for the correction of some of the statements of the minute which were erroneous or founded on imperfect information. I was met by a rebuke for having taken upon myself so much, accompanied by the declaration that Secretaries are the organs and not advisers of the Government and that their submitting notes at all was under sufferance and an irregularity.

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I think, therefore, I am fully warranted by what fell under my view in the course of the whole transaction in calling the resolution of the 7th March a rash Act.

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I have gone into great length in stating the impressions left on my mind by the measure I have above discussed, and yet I feel that there is an infinity more to say. I have not thought it necessary to make on this occasion any detailed reply to the minute of Mr. Macaulay in which the measure originated, because although my previous note discussing its propositions has not been recorded the substance of it is well known to the members of Government and it would be reviving a discussion already set to rest were I again to go over the same grounds. I fear I cannot expect that the question will now be reopened. I record this minute, therefore, as a protest against the continuance of measures founded on the principles of the resolution of the 7th March and as a declaration of the extremely mischievous and injurious tendency which I believe to be inherent in them. The true principle in my opinion is that of leaving the natives to choose their own courses of education and to encourage all equally on the part of Government making it our business to give to them the direction to true science and good taste in literature which the superior lights of Europe ought to enable us to bestow. Any deviation from this principle of free choice and equal encouragement can only do mischief to the cause by exciting feelings of distrust and perhaps irritation. I need not add in conclusion that I am decidedly adverse to printing the resolution of the 7th March in order to give it further publicity as is proposed in the last letter on the subject received from the Committee. H. T. PRINSEP. 20th May 1835.

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11 LETTERS AND DEBATES FROM THE CALC UTTA MONTHLY JOURNAL (NOVEMBER 1836), 271–278, 299–308

MODE OF EDUCATING THE NATIVES TO THE EDITOR OF THE CALCUTTA CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

My dear Sir,—I am somewhat surprised and concerned to observe, from the last number of your Observer received here, that there is still one man left among your correspondents so far blinded as to uphold the Roman character as the best means by which the people of India are to be educated. My own opinion may be of little value, and I should not have deemed it worth registering, were it not supported by that of almost all the most intelligent well wishers of India, in this and other parts of the country, with whom I have the honor of being acquainted. It is that the Roman character can never become general or popular: that the attempt to introduce it will only tend to add to the variety of characters in actual use, and proving futile, will still increase the already too great confusion. With ten thousand teachers of the Roman character and a crore of rupees to boot, I still feel assured that the attempt to uproot the now universally used characters would utterly fail. How can we ever expect that the brahmans, the astronomers and astrologers, ràjàs, diwans, saukàrs, patels, patwàrís, and zamìndàrs will abandon what they have been used to from childhood and found sufficient for every purpose, or what they revere and believe to have come from heaven, for characters that cannot express with the same precision the required sounds, and are therefore, in their estimation, inferior to their own? Shall we contemn the policy of the Emperor Nicholas, and still follow his example? I fully admit the goodness of the motive, and also the value of the object aimed at: but we cannot hold ourselves excused, in making an attempt with our eyes open to eradicate the Hindí and other characters from a nation, whose bigotry and superstitious reverence for all ancient things we have hourly occasions of noticing, and for which wise and prudent men should make every allowance. Some progress has been made in teaching this character—but I ask to whom? In some places, to the half-starved children of Bundelcund emigrants, rescued from famine by public charity; in other places to the children of our sepoys at the stations, and of our other dependents: but these are not the nation, or a fair specimen of the nation, and will never be included in the literary class of the people. 72

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I have fancied that BETA has begun to see the false step made by himself and his friends: that they are sensible of their error in not having taken the sense of the native public upon the question, and consulted its wishes: and that they now allow that a scheme not suited to the taste and reasonable wishes and prejudices of the people, and not commanding their concurrence and support, cannot prosper, or be productive of any permament good. If I am right in my suspicion, I hope we may soon see them candidly acknowledging their error and retracing their steps; such a course cannot but redound to their credit. It will, moreover, have the further advantage of restoring greater union amongst the friends of India, and in no work is this more required than in the important object of regenerating India. The idle scheme has been peculiarly grateful to men wholly ignorant of the native languages and of the native character and prejudices: but these are not the men that will ever effect much, or triumphantly establish in native estimation the vast superiority of European science and European literature. With regard to the adoption of the English language as a means of educating the people of India, I cannot but regard this as an equally irrational and impracticable scheme; as betraying a want of good philosophy, and of a sound knowledge of mankind and of the human mind, wholly unworthy of the high body whence it emanated. I strongly advocate the study of English for all who have time, talent, and fortune really to acquire it and to use it. But for the education of the body of the people, nothing—nothing but the vernaculars can over be generally useful. Both the people and their spiritual teachers must have abandoned their faith, before they will consent to abandon those books and the languages in which they conceive the road to salvation lies, and by which it must be recollected, they gain their bread. By confining our saukars to the study of English, we should only be calling upon them to abandon their intercourse with all their commercial correspondents in the cities of foreign states. No, no, my dear Mr. Editor; neither the Hindí in the Roman character, nor the English language, will ever enable their advocates, though they were one hundred-fold more numerous, and had one hundred-fold greater resources than they now have at command, to educate the people. That work can be effected only through the aid of the languages and characters in actual use among the people. Some men have inveighed in fine speeches, and with all the fervor, and also with all the thoughtless inexperience of youth against the waste of time and money in printing correct editions of the Persian, Arabic and Sanscrit classics. But though I admit that the labours of Dr. Wilson, Dr. Tytler and other linguists, were by no means directed to sufficiently popular objects, still I must avow my opinion that it is the super-eminent accomplishment of these gentlemen, and of their predecessors and compeers, and their highly popular and admired labours, which have raised up for us a character for liberality and toleration, that is now shielding us from the odium and other ill effects of the violent and oppressive and unpopular course recently adopted by the ruling faction in the Education Committee. With what genuine delight do the ministers and chiefs and wakíls of this part of India 73

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dwell on the thorough acquaintance shewn by the author of the works on Hindu and Muhammadan Law (who accompanied the late Governor General in his tour) with their language, laws and religion! With what admiration do the maulavis and pandits who have served under or otherwise become acquainted with Dr. Wilson, and whom I have met here and elsewhere, dwell upon the varied accomplishments and distinguished labours of that gentleman! Still, as I have above observed, that gentleman’s public labours, highly as I value them, do not meet my entire approbation. They might have been made much more useful to a much greater number. He had the talent and other means at command by which he might have given all that was valuable in the learned languages of India, in a popular form, with the addition of such improvements and such new truths in morals and the abstract sciences, as had been established in the West within the last few centuries. To illustrate the vast superiority of the vernacular languages as a means of conveying knowledge to the people, and the wisdom of availing ourselves of what is good and useful in their own systems, in order to recommend and support what further improvements and discoveries we have to give, I must inform you, and through you your many readers, as to the result of the experiment made here. A work written by Unkar Bhat in Hindí, and in the Hindí character, entitled “An Elementary Treatise on Geography and Astronomy, in question and answer, being a comparison of the Pauranic and Siddhantic systems of the world with that to Copernicus,” was recently received here. The author after much patient inquiry and much deliberation and discussion, had given up first the Pautánic system for that of the Siddhánts, and then that of the Siddhánts for that of Copernicus. In writing his scientific dialogues, he gives all the doubts which had presented themselves to himself. He answers them by such arguments and by quoting such authorities as had carried conviction to his own mind. Well acquainted with this subject and with all the notions and false impressions to be removed, he addresses himself to his task in a mode which no European gentleman could do. He puts forth a work idiomatically written with all the scientific terms in use amongst the joshis of India, and in every respect exactly adapted to the tastes and state of knowledge among the people. Mark the result. As I had many more copies than were required for the school, I authorized the sale of 100 of them. In less than five days they were, every one, sold, and the demand for more reported to be still urgent! Brahmans, joshis, banyas, patwaris, mutasaddis and thakurs, all shewed themselves equally anxious to possess themselves of the learned Bhatjee Maharaja’s work. Though full of typographical errors, which equally disappointed the author and the purchasers, still nothing can exceed the popularity of his little book. The teachers of the school and the scholars all wanted copies of this work to send to their friends; whilst other works on the same subject, had few or no recommendations for them. They said that the Bhatjee’s work was the only one that their ignorant friends would be able to understand. It contained arguments, proofs and quotations, they said, that no joshi or even brahman could gainsay. 74

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A similar but a much superior and a much more learned work by Soobajee Bappoo on the same subject, was lately printed at Bombay. He brings all the weight of his great learning to the support of the many valuable truths, and the exposure of all the vulgar errors connected with his subject. He derides the folly of astrological predictions, of belief in lucky and unlucky days: he advocates the advantages of travel: he points out the advantages of commerce in linking men of all countries in the firm bonds of an interested connexion and friendship. The work is written in Marhatta, but with a liberal use of all the Sanskrit writers, moral as well as astronomical, who have advocated any truth under discussion. Here the work has not had an extensive sale—it was not expected, the families of Marhattas here being but few. But it has arrested in a most signal manner the attention of the learned Marhatta Pandits and Shastris of Oujain, Sagar, Bhilsa and elsewhere. Krishna Rao, the superintendent of the schools at Sagar, was quite delighted, but no less surprised than delighted, at finding that a system which his English studies and predilections had disposed him to regard as true, could be so well and so admirably supported by their own learned authors. The joshis of the place highly approved of the work: a learned shastri was not convinced. One of the best linguists in Bombay, well acquainted with the people, their literature and wishes, in a letter recently received from him, observes—‘Your book has caused much interest here—I mean that of Soobajee Bappoo: it has been sent to all the jagirdars, and the diwan of Angria speaks highly of it: the quotations are much admired. One of the shastris of the Hindu College (at Poona) is, I am told, going to publish a reply to it, making out that the Earth is flat, and shewing that the authorities have been perverted.” Here you have proof of what may be effected by addressing your doctrines in a language, style and form adapted to native taste. These works are gradually finding their way, and will soon find their way into the hands of all who can read, of all the learned in Malwa and the Deckan. They are understood as they are read. They will carry conviction, or raise a spirit of discussion and inquiry that will tend to elicit the truth. Now, I ask of you, when will an equal effect ever be produced by means of any English books? how can the same number of new facts and new ideas ever be conveyed in the English language or the Roman character to a whole people, at so small a cost—nay, at no expense at all? Let the friends of English Education not be deceived by the interested reports of those men now hired to teach our language, who, afraid of losing their bread, will vaunt the success of their anti-national and suspected labours. Let them take a common-sense view of the case, take the opinion of the native public, of the Reformer, of JUNIUS, of the Friend of India (who seems to me to represent the public feeling most truly on this subject,) and, acknowledging their error, join with those learned and wise friends of the people in giving to them all the knowledge of Europe in a popular shape, and further recommended to their adoption by all the arguments, proofs and authorities afforded by the best native classical writers. The present system—(how strange that it should have originated with one whose love for the people ever led him in every other question to uphold what was 75

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popular and national!)—is neither popular nor national. It not only does not command the votes and support of the people, but in its operation is working a vast deal of collateral mischief. The very zeal and talent and assiduity and cost, with which the study of English is forced on the people, have only magnified our future difficulties in imparting it. An ulterior object is suspected, and the real leaders of the people hold aloof. The zeal of those natives and students who support the new system, is certainly well sustained by the promise of service and the like; but it will not do. The time has not yet come. If you want proof of what I say, let me call your attention to the Muhammadan petition, which, I observe, is supported by the almost unparalleled number of 18,171 signatures. If the Romanizers and the Education Committee, can observe in this no sign of the times, no manifestation of the real wishes of the people, then God only knows how it will ever be made manifest to them. Let them shut their eyes and stop their ears. But the Right Honorable the Governor-General in Council to whom the petition is addressed will, I fervently pray, manifest neither equal blindness nor equal deafness. May wisdom guide his steps! is the prayer, Mr. Editor, of your well-wisher, Multan, August, 1836. L. W. The questions discussed in the preceding paper are both of great importance and demand the best attention of our readers. They are particularly deserving of full examination, now that national education, as we hope, is about to be seriously prosecuted by the Supreme Government. Our pages are now, as they have ever been, fully open to papers on both sides of the question.—ED.] Christian Observer, for October. TO THE EDITOR OF THE BENGAL HURKARU AND CHRONICLE.

Sir,—I have read L. W.’s lively attack upon what I think, we may now call the prevailing system of native education, and upon the use of the Roman letters as applied to the Eastern languages. The question regarding the Roman character is contained within a very small compass. The facility with which this character may be written quickly, yet legibly; the distinctness of the printed character; its capability of compression; its admitting of the freest use of italics, stops, marks of interrogation and admiration, and other guides to the reader; its superior cheapness, arising from the compactness of the type and the consequent diminished expenditure of paper and of the other materials of printing, are advantages which need not be dwelt on, because they are now seldom denied. Neither can any body fail to observe the national benefit which must arise, in the present incipient state of native literature, from all the languages of India being expressed by one common character, and that character the same which is used to express the literature of the most enlightened nations in other parts of the world. “If all the Indian dialects were presented in the same English character, it would be seen and felt that the natives are not divided into so many sections of foreigners to each other, that they have all fundamentally, 76

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the same language, and that without much difficulty, a community of interest and a beneficial reciprocation of thought, might be effected to an extent at present unknown, and, from the repulsive aspect of so many written characters, deemed utterly impracticable?” The question is, therefore, merely one of experiment. The advantages are obvious, but are they attainable in practice? This is the point at issue, and it is one which can only be decided by actual trial. If, in making the trial, the advocates of the plan used any unfair means, L. W. might in that case justly complain. But what is the fact? The Education Committee has never yet interfered in the matter. The School Book Society has only lately printed one interlinear translation in the Roman character, after its popularity had been proved by the rapid sale of a previous edition. The way in which the experiment has been tried, has been this. Private individuals began to print books from motives of benevolence, and others followed their example as a matter of speculation. They print, and the people purchase or receive the books in gifts. I ask, what ground of complaint L. W. has either with one or the other? If the public think these books cheaper and better than others, why should they not be allowed to have them? No degree of clamour will deter those who have commenced the work, from carrying it to the end. They look only to the decision of the public. Three presses are now employed in preparing Dictionaries, Grammars and reading books. The prospect is more favourable than ever. The vernacular language has been adopted in all the Revenue offices in the Upper Provinces, and exactly the same causes which led to the Persian letters being applied to that language, may now be expected to introduce the general use of the Roman letters. Persian was the language of education, and the vernacular language, therefore, naturally came to be expressed in the Persian character. Now English has taken the place of Persian as the language of education, and there seems to be no reason to doubt that it will produce corresponding effects on the popular language. Boys who have become familiarised to the use of the English letters, will not willingly have recourse either to the Nágari or Persian, to say nothing of the intrinsic inferiority of those characters, and to the loss of time which must ensue from the use of three separate alphabets, while one is sufficient. Viewed with reference to a whole nation in all its generations, such a waste of time and labour becomes worth consideration. I heartily concur in the sentiments of respect which L. W. expresses for the oriental attainments of the gentlemen named by him, as well as in his regret that they have not been applied to more popular objects. I highly approve of correct editions of the Sanskrit and Arabic classics being published. What I object to, is that they should be published by the Committee of Public Instruction, and be made the staple of native education. L. W. next inveighs against the English language as a medium of Indian education, and recommends in preference some elementary controversial treatises in the native languages which have been lately published. It is needless now to prove what has been already fully demonstrated both by argument and experience. A vernacular literature can be created only by slow degrees, but a nation 77

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may immediately avail itself of the existing literature of other countries which are in a more advanced state of improvement; and in this way their knowledge is increased, their taste improved, and the materials are collected for the formation of a national literature. This is the process which has been gone through in every instance in which any very decided change for the better has taken place from without. The Romans read the Grecian letters, and adopted Grecian models of taste. The Roman provincials cultivated the Roman literature, and became equal to their masters. The modern nations of Europe did the same, until they had raised on this foundation a literature for themselves. Two hundred years ago even ladies studied Latin, because they had then no books worth reading in their own languages; but in the present advanced state of our literature, the study of the dead languages is confined to those who have leisure and inclination to add a knowledge of them to their other acquirements. The Russian empire is at the present day a striking example of the process of national regeneration of which I am speaking. French, English and German are extensively taught there, and the educated communicate to their own countrymen, in their own language, the superior knowledge which they themselves acquire through these foreign media. What the Russians are doing in the north, we are doing in the south of Asia. India is gradually becoming leavened by the introduction of European knowledge, and the lower classes are taught in their own, what the higher have learned in the English language. The English and the vernacular literatures are connected together as a river is with its fountain, as a tree is with its fruit. The one will be the result of the other. Those who discourage the study of English in order to encourage the vernacular literature, are manifestly labouring to defeat their own object. I most highly approve of the elementary treatises in the vernacular language to which L. W. refers—so highly, that I have myself aided in the publication of some of them. I am also willing to admit, that in the distant province which is the scene of his labours, he could not at present adopt any more effectual mode of promoting a spirit of inquiry and raising European learning in general estimation. All I object to, is his quarrelling with us for adopting more effectual means of instruction than such treatises as these afford, in parts of the country where the preparatory process has been already gone through, and the people are actually greedy for European learning. L. W. is so enamoured of his own plan, that he cannot imagine that it is not equally applicable to every part of India. If he reflects, however, he must perceive, that nobody can be expected to follow a round-about path any longer than while the direct road is not open to him. Where would be the wisdom of entering into controversial discussions to disprove the Pauranic system of astronomy, with persons who are ready to admit the truth of the Copernican system, and are anxiously seeking to be instructed in it? How can we confine our youth to such meagre information as treatises in the native languages contain, while they are ready to pursue the study of the sciences to the full extent to which they are developed in English books? I lately saw a crowd of students waiting for admission into the Hooghly College, many of whom had already some acquaintance with English. How surprised and disappointed they would have been, if, 78

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instead of being enabled to enter on a course of English reading, they had been told that they must content themselves with such crumbs of science as have fallen upon the native languages, and must begin by hearing lectures on the inconsistencies which exist between the Purans and the Siddants neither of which they have ever studied or cared the least about!! Our business is to teach, and not to dispute; and as the youth of our own provinces are willing to learn all we choose to communicate to them, it is open to us to take the most effectual available means of teaching them. The vernacular language may become sufficient for the purposes of liberal education a century hence, but it certainly is not so now. At least the two next generations of the upper and middle classes must be educated by means of foreign languages, and it is to be hoped that from among them numerous authors will arise, to enrich their national language with works in every department of literature and science. L. W.’s plan of treating the study of English as an object of very secondary importance, would put back the progress of improvement many years. It would be equivalent to driving our youth away from the fountain, and telling them to content themselves with what they can collect from a scanty streamlet. I, for one, will always lift up my voice against this course. My desire is, that they should not only study to the full our medicine, our mathematics and our natural philosophy, but that they should also imbibe the spirit of our works of taste, imagination, history and morals, until they have a Shakespear, a Hume, a Milton of their own. L. W. recommends us not to be deceived by the interested reports of the English masters. If he intends this advice for the Education Committee, it is sufficient to explain that the reports of the masters are always commented on by the Local Committees, which include all the principal European officers, and in many cases, some of the leading native gentlemen at each station. He also advises us to be guided by the Reformer, the Friend of India, and JUNIUS. I have a sincere respect for all these authorities, and am happy to be able to say that I entirely agree with the Friend of India and the Reformer. They both advocate the teaching of English conjointly with the vernacular languages;—the English to those who have leisure to cultivate it to good purpose, and the vernacular languages to all high and low, rich and poor: and so do. They also advocate the encouragement of every welldirected effort towards the construction of a vernacular literature; and so do I. With JUNIUS, however, I only half agree. I agree with him as far as he recommends the encouragement of the vernacular literature, but I cannot agree with him in discouraging English literature. It appears to me that those who receive a liberal education through the medium of English, should also be taught to compose with ease and correctness in their own language, while every possible exertion should be made to prepare good books in the vernacular languages for the use of the body of the people, to whom, of course, English is not accessible. L. W. next urges that the prevailing system of education is “neither popular nor national,” that it “does not command the votes and support of the people,” although “well sustained by the promise of service and the like;” and he recommends that we should “take the opinion of the native public” on the subject. In 79

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replying to this, the first thing to be determined is, what is meant by the terms “popular and national.” There was a time when Sanskrit itself was introduced by a race of conquerors, as is proved by the incongruity of that language with the languages of the south of India and of many hilly tracts in other quarters; yet Sanskrit is now incorporated in a greater or less degree with every Indian language. In much later times Arabic and Persian were extremely unpopular and anti-national, and they were introduced in a way which we should be sorry to see imitated: yet they also are studied by great numbers in every part of India, and have become to a great degree transfused into the vernacular dialects. In the same way English learning and English literature, which have hitherto been neither popular nor national, are daily becoming so in proportion as they are adopted by the people. To say that nothing ought to be admitted which is not national, that is, which does not already form part of the national stock, is the same thing as to say that there shall be no new acquisition, that there shall be no improvement. Nations, like individuals, can only enlarge their knowledge by adding to that which they possess, and the additions which are made from time to time, although at first unnational, become national by being generally adopted. L. W. would stare at any body who should say to him, on his taking up a new book, “Put down that book: you do not know it; therefore, you must not read it.” Yet this is precisely what he is himself doing, when he is writing declamations to discourage the teaching of English, because it is not national. The course which L. W. describes himself as pursuing towards the natives of his part of the country, is just as unnational as that which is followed by the Education Committee. What, indeed, can be more contrary to national prejudices and habits of thinking, than books which are written for the express purpose of controverting the authority of the shastras!! Yet the natives seem to be no more offended with his attacks upon the shastras, than they are with the English instruction which the Education Committee give without any reference to those sacred books. It is clear, therefore, that notwithstanding L. W.’s love for nationality, he is acting, like ourselves, in some degree on a different rule. If we did not, we might as well throw up the pursuit at once. By confining ourselves to teaching what is strictly national, we should have to teach many egregious errors, and should be debarred from all reference to the vast acquisitions which have been made since the Europeans passed the Hindus and Muhammadans in the race of knowledge. But if we lay it down as our rule only to teach what the natives are willing to make national, viz., what they will freely learn, we shall be able by degrees to teach them all we know ourselves, without any risk of offending their prejudices. This is the course which we have always pursued. We have “taken the opinion of the native public on the subject.” We find that our plan does “command the votes and support of the people,” without any “promise of service;” and that English learning, as taught by the system which we recommend, is popular, and is quickly becoming national. The School-Book Society’s operations furnish perhaps the best existing test of the real state of public feeling, in regard to the different systems, of learning which are now simultaneously cultivated in India. Their books are sold to any 80

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body who chooses to purchase them, and the proportions, in which they are disposed of, show the relative demand which exists for the different kinds of learning. The statement of the sales which have been made during the last two years, extracted from the Society’s recently published Report, is as follows: English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31,649 books. Anglo-Asiatic, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,525 ” Bengáli, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,754 ” Hindui, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,171 ” Hindustání, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,384 ” Uriya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834 ” Persian, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,454 ” Arabic, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 ” Sanskrit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 ” This statement speaks for itself, and when we add to the above, the numerous English books said by the Editors of the Friend of India to be sold by their establishment and others, and contrast with this the very limited demand of which they complain for works in the Native languages, we see distinctly the direction of native feeling as it regards the purchase of books. To this we may add, that for some time past upwards of 3,000 youths have been receiving an English education in Calcutta alone, and that the taste for learning English there is daily on the increase. L. W. will probably reply, that Calcutta is not India, and that although one city may have become denationalized, the rest of India retains its primitive character. But Calcutta is the capital, and the capital must sooner or later make its influence felt through the whole country. One set after another of well educated youths, turned out from the Calcutta schools, must gradually leaven the adjoining provinces; to say nothing of the effect which must be produced upon casual visitors, and even upon those who only hear of it from report, by the example of what is going on. What has lately taken place at Hooghly is an instance in point. On the College there being opened, English students flocked to it in such numbers as to render the organisation of them into classes a matter of difficulty. There are now about 1,400 boys learning English only, about 200 learning Arabic and Persian only, and upwards of a hundred who are learning both English and Arabic or Persian. Notwithstanding this unprecedented concourse, the applications for English instruction are still extremely numerous; and there seems to be no limit to the number of scholars, except the number of masters whom the Education Committee is able to provide. In the same way, at Dacca there are 150 students, and it is stated that this number would be doubled if there were masters enough; and lately at Agra, when additional means of English instruction were provided, the number rose immediately to upwards of 200. These are mentioned merely as instances. In the numerous seminaries under the Education Committee, there is no want of scholars. The difficulty is to provide masters enough to teach the numbers who are anxious to receive instruction. If this is not sufficient proof that the popular taste 81

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is favorable to English studies, I do not know what can be considered as such. It is preposterous to suppose that such multitudes can have been induced to flock to our schools by promises of service. Of the 1,400 youths, who presented themselves for admission at the opening of the Hoogly College, perhaps not one in a hundred was known to European gentlemen who had patronage at their disposal; not one was known to those whom L. W. considers the principal advocates of this system of education. No doubt, the boys who learn English regard their education as an important means of forwarding their future prospects; but so do those who learn Arabic, and Sanskrit, and Latin, and Greek, and every other language. I believe, however, that at the present period in India, those who learn English have a more reasonable ground for their expectation of success in life than those who learn any other language. In the Revenue offices in the Upper Provinces, the monopoly of Persian has been abolished, and the vernacular language has actually been adopted as the language of business. The same must soon take place in every other department of Government in every part of the British territories, and then how will the case stand? Every body who applies for employment will probably be able to read and write his own language nearly equally well, and the choice will be determined by the degree of general cultivation which the candidates possess. By so much, therefore, as the English language affords the means of obtaining a better education than any other language does, which is at present studied in India, in that degree will the young men who have received a good English education have an advantage over all others. The last topic to which L. W. refers is the Muhammadan petition. The prayer of that petition is, that the stipends which used to be given at the Persian and Arabic Colleges, but which were prospectively abolished by the decision of Lord W. Bentinck, confirmed by that of Sir C. Metcalfe, should be restored. This is a separate question, which will, no doubt, be decided after a full consideration of all the reasons which can be urged on both sides. The objections to stipends are, that to pay students as well as teachers, will be the same thing as diminishing the scanty fund which has been assigned to education by about one half! Not only are multitudes anxious to learn without fee or reward, but many are willing to contribute something themselves towards the expense.1 The great demand is for masters. If we have only masters enough, we can have any number of students. There is, therefore, no necessity whatever for paying students to learn, while to do so would cripple our resources in the most essential point. But independent of the cost, the principle of the stipendiary system is radically bad. The business of an Education Committee is to have those taught who are anxious to learn; not to crowd their lecture rooms with nominal students, but real paupers, who may come eager to obtain food, not for the mind, but for the body. So long as we offer instruction only, we may be sure that we shall have none but willing students; but if we offer money in addition to instruction, it becomes impossible to say for the sake of which they attend. Even boys who come with a desire to acquit themselves well, fall in with the general tone. These bounties on learning are the worst of bounties. They have this evil in common with bounties on 82

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trade, that they draw to a particular line a greater quantity of exertion than that line would, without artificial encouragement, attract, or than the state of society requires. They have also, when given in the form in which they are given both in the English Universities and in the Indian Colleges, this additional evil—that they paralyse exertion. A person who does not want to learn a particular language or science, is tempted to commence the study by the stipend. As soon as he has got the stipend, he has no motive for zealously prosecuting the study. Sluggishness, mediocrity, absence of spirited exertion, resistance to all improvement, are the natural growth of this system. It is also of great importance in a country like this, that the Government should have a real test of the wishes of its subjects in regard to the kind of education given. As long as stipends were allowed, students would, of course, have been forthcoming; but now the people may decide for themselves. Every facility is given, but no bribes, not even any “offers of service;” and if a larger number avail themselves of one kind of instruction than of another, we may be assured that it can be only owing to such being the bent of the public mind. If it were not for this, inferior modes might be persevered in from generation to generation, which, with an appearance of popularity, would really be only the result of the factitious support afforded them by the Government. However, we by no means pretend to dogmatise on this question, and if a plan can be devised which will preserve any good there may be in stipends, without their attendant evils, we shall be happy to see it adopted. A liberal distribution of pecuniary rewards would perhaps answer the purpose. Calcutta, October 4, 1836. C. E. T. TO THE EDITOR OF THE BENGAL HURKARU AND CHRONICLE.

Sir,—In regard to the question whether we should endeavour to instruct the natives through the English language or their own, it seems to me that the subject is frequently perplexed by an erroneous assumption that the native language and native literature must necessarily be arrayed on one and the same side of the question. On the question referred to, I beg to offer my humble opinion, that the native languages should be the medium of instruction; but I am at the same time very averse to the encouragement of native literature beyond what will serve for the transference of European knowledge and ideas, and it seems to me that such transference would be best promoted by the adaptation2 and translation into common language of some well selected books, and that three thousand rupees expended in the preparation and circulation of such books, would more promote right knowledge and ideas, than all that is expended in Persian, Arabic and Sanscrit literature, and in promoting what must at best be a spiritless and blundering knowledge of the English language. In interposing English, we interpose a formidable barrier to the diffusion of knowledge; for many years must be lost in acquiring what is called a fair knowledge of the language: and even after a whole life of study, not one native in a 83

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thousand acquires a full apprehension of the language: imperfect scholars in the language would frequently be false conductors of acquirement; while the narrow and circuitous stream of knowledge, would become still more narrow from the loss of their contributions who were discouraged by phraseological and other difficulties of the language, and who would study the language in the spirit of pedantry, and who thus would neither learn nor impart the knowledge which the language includes. Much would thus be corrupted and intercepted in its way through the English medium; whereas by the circulation of books in the native language, a full and pure stream might at once be supplied. To illustrate the inaptitude of natives as disseminators of knowledge through the English language, I may mention that the well paid College of Moonshees at Madras have not, in nearly thirty years, produced a single translation or other work evincing the required aptitude; and I venture to add, that it has not produced one individual who could translate any thing more than mere narrative or naked statement with tolerable accuracy—not one who could translate a page of Adam Smith with less than four essential errors. The idea of naturalizing the English language in India has, I believe, now been universally abandoned—that of naturalizing the English written character does not seem quite so unfeasible; but the most feasible measure of this kind which suggests itself to me, is that of establishing our own arithmetical symbols throughout India: this might be done by a simple order from Government; and much trouble and error, and also much necessity for keeping Brahminy accountants, and much risk of embezzlement, would be obviated by the measure. It altogether seems to me, that we are beginning at the wrong end in our attempts to diffuse knowledge: that we are (as it were) bestowing trouble and money on the higher and more ornamental architecture of the temple of knowledge, which would be better employed in fixing and extending its foundations, by establishing primary education over the land, which would ensure a more general reception of such knowledge as we may circulate by means of books translated and adapted in the manner I have suggested; and, indeed, I doubt that any exotic knowledge will take deep and general root till the soil shall have been thus prepared: whereas, if the lowest classes were instructed to read and write, the mere love of distinction would stimulate those above them to higher knowledge, and I would also remark that a little goes much further in promoting primary education than in advancing the former, we indirectly, by the love of distinction, promote the latter, while the converse of this does not take place. Furthermore, I think, we should consider the immense practical and immediate benefit involved in a generally diffused ability to read and write; for much oppression, fraud and litigation at present arise from so many signing what they cannot read, and from the facility of forging or successfully denying a mark when it stands for a regular signature. But it is not so much means as motives that are required for the extension of primary education; for under a system which enables one to teach five hundred, nearly as easily as he could teach one, means can scarcely be wanting; and as to 84

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the motives, these might be presented by declaring the ability to read and write a condition of serving the Government even in the lowest capacities, and by granting certain penal immunities, such as exemption from stripes and the stocks, to those who can read and write; and if the municipal institutions of the provinces are ever to be popularized instead of continuing on the present hereditary irresponsible and stationary system, a powerful motive might be held out by making the ability to read and write a condition of voting regarding the appointment of the local functionaries. Yours, A CIVIL SERVANT. Our attention has been called to a see-saw article in the Englishman of the 12th Oct. on the subject of public education in India, in which there is a curious attempt made to prove, that between those who advocate the employment of English as the chief medium of instruction and those who advocate the employment of the vernacular tongues for the same purpose, there is hardly any difference at all. However, the advocates of these two systems know very well where the difference lies between them, and that it is one utterly irreconcileable by any compromise. In order to clear up a point which it is the constant labour of many in this country to darken and confound, if they possibly can, it is worth while to recall to the memory of the public that what each party professes to consider as the END sought, what each professes to define as the INSTRUCTION meant to be conveyed, is instruction in European science and literature. There are none, or at least very few, who openly maintain, that in addition to the Koran, Mahomedan students should be expressly taught, through the medium of Arabic and Persian, such fragments of the astronomical, geographical and medical systems of the Greeks, as have got through the medium of translations into the literature of those Eastern nations:—there are fewer still who openly maintain, that through the medium of Sanskrit the worse puerilities that disgrace the early literature and poetry of the Hindoos, and the rubbish that now disfigures their systems of science, should be at the public expense, expressly and carefully inculcated. No, the advocates of the employment of the vernacular tongues as a medium say, we also seek the same END as you do, namely, the diffusion of European knowledge; but our means are the easiest to the learners, the cheapest to the State. We flatly deny both assumptions as far as the, present period is concerned; let us examine them. What may be the precise number of dialects in our Indian possessions strictly entitled to be called vernacular, we profess ourselves wholly unable with probable accuracy to guess at: but, we should suppose, that taking into account the Straits and Ceylon, it would be a very moderate guess that should state them at ONE HUNDRED. What is called, or miscalled, oriental literature, is not contained it will be borne in mind, in any of the vernacular dialects of India; but, setting aside the Chinese and Thibetan, and the literature of the cognate races and tongues, nearly all this oriental literature is contained in three languages, the Arabic, the Persian, and the Sanskrit, all as difficult to teach to the proposed learners, or very nearly 85

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so, as English, and which, if taught, would not only not advance the pupil in the least degree towards the END proposed, but quite the contrary; for the acquisition of this literature would fill him with the conceit of learning, (unless of a very rare order of mind) and only prove a stumbling block in the learner’s path, if he were willingly or unwillingly to try to acquire a knowledge of European science and literature in addition to his other attainments. But to resume the consideration of the MEANS; we will suppose the acquisition of oriental literature by State aid out of the question, and that each of one hundred bodies of pupils is bent on attaining the END, namely, the acquisition of European knowledge through the medium of its own vernacular dialect. THERE IS IN SUCH CASE NO LANGUAGE TO BE TAUGHT THE LEARNER IT IS TRUE, BUT EACH LANGUAGE HAS TO BE TAUGHT THE LEARNING. We are content to place the whole result on a candid answer to the question—which is easiest? At the first plunge, if we are to translate English extensively, we have a hundred erudite translators at work, translators not only of rudimental books, but history, ethical and natural philosophy, oratory, poetry! or else portions of each. And this, forsooth, would be comparatively CHEAP and EASY! We are plain speakers, and if we can find it, like to go at once to the “root of the matter,” and that in this question, “lieth within a small compass,” as it seems to us. It is very good to encourage the learned labour of gentlemen who devote themselves to the useful and ennobling cultivation of oriental literature, even with the public money, but NOT OUT OF THE FUND FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION. A man who has learned much may often be able to teach very little, and that is especially the case if the mind is employed exclusively on abstruse or out of-the-way subjects. To employ gentlemen of high literary attainments on translations into the vernacular languages, (even when willing to injure their health for the sake of the public) at the rate of a gold-mohur or two a sheet, is to make even rare learning rather too costly and ordinary philanthrophy quite unpurchaseably dear. Now we pray attention to this remark,—we must either employ exclusively gentlemen of high attainments, or give up the scheme: between the good and the bad among translators for such a purpose, there is no medium; the middling are good for nothing, and surely it would be easier to find a hundred-handed translator than a hundred-headed and tongued one. If the good were alone taken, we might divide the number one hundred by tens, and twenties, aye, and fifties too, let gentlemen of Polyglott reputations say what they may. The only way in our opinion, in which translators can hereafter be procured at a sufficiently cheap rate to admit of an extensive system of translation into all the dialects of India, will be by first giving a good education through the medium of English to a large proportion of the upper and middle classes of the inhabitants of the districts in which those dialects prevail. The native translators so raised up will be volunteers, and thus not only the cheapest but the best. The most idiomatical translators are notoriously those who translate into their own language. What blundering work would be made of a system of translation into English if it were to be conducted by French and Italians. We have a political aversion to this translation scheme. We can conceive no engine more insidiously adapted to serve to the prejudice of higher, the mere 86

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personal, interests of those who now labour so meritoriously in the work of converting the natives to Christianity: none more likely gradually to divert the whole plan of Indian national public education into an English sectarian scheme for propagating a particular mode of our own religious faith. And for this plain reason, there are few persons of the requisite talents and industry now to be found in India, or likely to be furnished exclusively for that purpose from England, who could engage in the task of translation and education so cheaply as Missionaries, and though the Missionaries of the English and Scotch established Churches and those sects who differ so little from the English Church as easily to coalesce with it, would not perhaps work quite so cheaply as some others, yet with certain other advantages which the English State affords the English Church, they would quite underwork and overlay all laymen. Although there are only ten thousand pounds a year appropriated to the purpose of public education in India at present, that sum may possibly at no remote period be much increased, and then we shall see a different feeling excited, and more energy displayed. “Where the slaughter is, there will the eagles be gathered together,” and we do not think we have been mistaken in supposing that the foremost ranks of candidates will start forth from the bosom of the respectable communities we have indicated. We trust we run no risk of being misconstrued or misunderstood in the remarks we have made on this subject. Every true Christian, of whatever mode of faith or discipline, must rejoice in the anticipation that at some happy, even if very remote period, our Indian fellow-subjects shall, by force of their own universal conviction and no other means, be reclaimed from, and renounce the errors they now follow as the truth: yet, none but zealots, who too often lose all sight of justice, and are prepared to act on the principle that the end sanctifies the means, can possibly maintain that national education in India, ought to have the least bias towards proselytism. If masters of the clerical profession were extensively employed in this work, such a bias must creep in, and it is our firm conviction, that if the vernacular languages are to be relied on as the chief medium of instruction, that plan would almost unavoidably give a large preponderance to the clerical influence in the choice of candidates; and that, from their body, more than a due proportion of teachers would be selected. We trust also that we cannot be supposed to mean that the literary labours of Christian Missionaries, whether employed in the task of translation or original research, should not have their full share of encouragement and aid from Government; all that we do mean is, that the vernacular plan is open to the objection that it must give a preponderance, if not a monopoly, to a particular class; and the political inconvenience of employing it would not be counterbalanced (we think) by the economical advantage. We hope, too, that we have guarded ourselves from the imputation that we undervalue high attainments in oriental literature,—we wish that such exertions should have their full reward, but not, as we said before, out of the fund for the public education of the people, already much too scanty. Such labours, indeed, always have their full reward; they earn for the oriental scholar a reputation in proportion to the rarity of the acquirement and rather out of proportion to its 87

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usefulness: the mind, too, that has persevered and succeeded in such barren and ungrateful studies, generally enjoys, (as is natural) in a full measure the satisfaction of self-esteem. Whatever light the labours of the Sangskrit scholar may throw on the origin and affinity of languages, and the early connexion of the different tribes of the human race (and in that track some considerable results may be arrived at,) it is not reasonable at this time of day to hope that, in ethics or natural philosophy, in authentic or rational history, or in poetry, we shall meet either with facts or models worthy of esteem or memory. This is the unavoidable drawback to such reputations, and the reason against state encouragement of such pursuits. The labours of an eastern scholar are but too often on a par in point of currency and usefulness with those of the mere antiquarian, and remind us of the epigram addressed to Thomas Hearne. “Quoth Time one day to Thomas Hearne Whatever I forget, you learn; D—n it quoth Hearne, in furious fret,  Whate’er I learn you soon forget.” It will have been observed, that we have been speaking throughout of the application of funds appropriated by the State to the end of public instruction, and with such funds we unhesitatingly and uncompromisingly advocate the employment of the English language as the chief means, if by instruction be intended, as we presume it is, instruction in European science and literature, a very large body of which is contained in the English language. As to the appropriation of funds left by private donors towards the foundation of schools and colleges—in the application of such funds due regard must be had to the intentions of the donor if possible, and in such cases many very difficult and delicate questions may arise, which the most subtle casuist could hardly resolve so as quite to satisfy all tender consciences. The scheme of the Hoogly College is in our mind at the time of writing, and we cannot but confess, that we have our doubts, whether in that case, considering from whom the funds came and the terms of the bequest, rather too English a character has not been given to the institution; however, it is a difficult and an invidious question to discuss, and one which we shall at present avoid, with some intention, however, of recurring to it, and taking the opportunity presented by the establishment of that College, to discuss the general principles that ought to govern in like cases the creation of such institutions. In the meantime it must not hastily be taken for granted, that we intend censure of the Government plan, which has questionless been well considered: but, as far as at present informed, we think the principle open to some doubt. We republish recent articles from the Reformer and the Friend of India on the latter portion of C. E. T.’s letter which relates to the English and native languages. The Reformer, it will be observed, shakes hands with C. E. T. and acknowledges him as a peacemaker. The Friend of India, on the contrary, still carries on the 88

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war, but in so wounded and disabled a condition, that if he had not felt himself bound in honor to continue his protection to a whole brood of little vernacularists whom he has for some time past been sheltering under his wing, we think that he would have followed the sensible example of his brother Editor. How lame he has become, will be seen at once from the precarious nature of the props on which he is obliged to lean. C. E. T. asserted that although the vernacular languages may be sufficient for the purposes of a liberal education a hundred years hence, they certainly are not so now. How does the Friend of India meet this? Not by denying it, which he could not do, but by arguing that something less than the period mentioned will suffice to make them fit. This is mere special pleading. The question at issue was not, whether exactly 100 years, or 20 years mere or less, is the period within which a vernacular literature will be formed sufficient to give the Indian student a liberal education in the European sense of the term, but whether such a literature does or does not exist at present. The Friend of India acknowledges that it does not, from which it follows that we must teach English till such a vernacular literature is created, whenever that may be. The Friend of India says that less than 100 years will suffice to create such a literature, and what are his reasons? The native languages, he says, want pliancy, and they want a larger vocabularly of scientific terms to adapt them to the present state of European knowledge. Plianow will be obtained by use, and as two-thirds of the English scientific terms have been engrafted on that language within the last fifty years, there is no reason to suppose that a longer period will be required to accomplish the same object in India. We have nothing to say against this; but the Friend of India has overlooked a far more essential want than either of those which he has mentioned—the want of books.3 The Bengalee is a language without a literature. It cannot boast of a single standard work. There are a few school books, and there is the Bible, but with these exceptions, the entire body of European learning, all our works of science, all our works of imagination, have to be reproduced in this as well as in the other Indian languages. How long it will be before this takes place, we do not pretend to say, but we are sure that until it does take place, English must be had recourse to for the instruction of all who aspire to a liberal education. We are also sure that a knowledge of English science must precede the transfer of that science into the native languages, and the sooner we lay the foundation, the faster the superstructure is likely to be erected. The philanthropy of the Friend of India is startled at the idea of 100 years being necessary to put India on the same footing as England in regard to that great ultimate medium of national instruction, a vernacular literature. He seems to forget that we are talking of nations not of individuals. We shall probably be dead 20 years hence, but the nation will be alive, and, we hope, will be in a more flourishing state than ever, at the end of this, as well as of the following century. Without including Chaucer and other writers whose works are in too antiquated a style to be of much use at present, the existing standard of English literature is the growth of the last three hundred years; but do we enjoy it, or profit by it less, 89

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because it has been so long in making? The generations which will exist in India 100 years hence and afterwards, will not thank the Friend of India for having left them out of account. There is a narrow, and there is an enlarged philanthropy, and we think that if the Friend of India would stretch his vision into the future, he would see things which are not dreamt of in his present philosophy. In literature as in politics, we do not agree with those who confine their attention to providing for the wants of the passing time. The Friend of India asks whether the great body of the people are to be left in a state of ignorance, while a vernacular literature, capable of becoming the medium of a liberal education, is being formed? We answer this question by another. Will the great body of the people ever be able to receive a liberal education? A life devoted to manual labour from an early age, does not admit of much mental cultivation. Even in England, the most civilized country in the world, the utmost that is aimed at in regard to the working classes, who compose the great body of the people, is to teach them to read, write and cast accounts. Nay, many sincere philanthropists have been content that they should merely be taught to read their Bible. We are anxious that the working classes should have all the mental cultivation which their leisure will admit, and it will not be difficult to provide for this object, at the same time that the process of English instruction, and the transfer of English knowledge into the vernacular languages is going on among the higher orders. There is one class of the community which devotes itself to intellectual, and another which devotes itself to manual labour. For the former, the extensive use of the English language will be indispensable for a long time to come. With regard to the latter, the books which already exist in the native languages are rather above than below the standard of what the same class of people generally peruse in England. But we would by all means have better and better books in the vernacular languages prepared for the labouring class, and knowledge made of more and more easy attainment by them during their short intervals of leisure. The Friend of India next acquaints us that an “acquaintance with a foreign language which confers wealth and distinction, is more likely to narrow the mind with selfishness than to expand it with benevolence,”—that it will “inspire the English scholars with anything but a desire to diminish their own importance by the elevation of the class below them,” and he attributes the little attention which is paid by the natives to the vernacular language entirely to their love for English. All this we deny. English literature is based upon totally opposite principles from the Sanskrit and Arabic literatures. It is true that they teach arrogance and exclusiveness, but English literature, perhaps because it is imbued with the spirit of a religion, the great characteristic of which is its tendency to elevate the mass of the people, teaches moderation and diffusive benevolence. The native inhabitants of Calcutta who are most distinguished for their support of every benevolent design, are those who have drunk deepest of our English literature. So far, also, from having shown any desire to keep their superior knowledge to themselves, they are the only class who have made any efforts in the cause of popular education. The Hindu College was founded by them. The late Rammohun Roy, 90

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Kaleenath Chowdry, and other individuals from among this class have established schools at their own expense. Even the poor students of the Hindu College, who have no money to spare, devote a portion of their time to the instruction of their countrymen, and in this way several free schools have been established, two at least of which we know to be still in existence. There are also several schools, one of which, that of Gour Mohun Eddy, is a very large one, which are supported by natives as a mode of gaining their livelihood. These facts prove that there never was a more unfounded imputation than that the tendency of English knowledge, acquired through the English language, is “to narrow the mind with selfishness,” and “to inspire the English scholars with anything but a desire to diminish their own importance by the elevation of the class below them.” The fact has been exactly the reverse of this. If it were necessary to do so, we could mention numerous other instances in support of our assertion. Out of forty-one ex-students of the Delhi College who have procured employment, a list of whom is given in the appendix to the Report of the Education Committee, no less than sixteen are engaged in the business of instruction, and we know that several others, although officially employed in other duties, devote no inconsiderable proportion of their leisure to the instruction of others. Wherever the youth educated in this manner go, the same effect is seen. They seem to consider the establishment and support of schools, the convincing others of the superiority of European knowledge, and the communication of that knowledge to them as their pleasure as well as their duty. It is a matter of course with them. Their letters are full of it. They have evidently fixed their pride, not in keeping their knowledge to themselves, but in converting others to it. It is true that most of the school instruction now given by them is in the English language, because that language affords at present the only effectual means of giving a good education, and because there is a great demand for well educated young men. It is difficult to get qualified native teachers to go to places even in the neighbourhood of Calcutta for less than one hundred rupees a month. English must become a much more common acquirement than it is at present, before much attention will be paid to the vernacular languages. So long as the demand for good English scholars is so much out of proportion to the supply, the rising generation will continue to devote their principal attention to English; but bye-and-bye there will be less to be got by English; the demand for books in the vernacular languages will be greater, owing to the more general diffusion of intelligence and curiosity, and then it will be worth the while of the educated youth to become authors of books in the vernacular languages, and teachers of schools in those languages. Even now, they never show any aversion to communicate knowledge through a vernacular medium, when that happens to be the most suitable for their object. They, of course, answer the enquiries of their countrymen and converse with them on the subject of their studies, which they are always sufficiently ready to do, in the vernacular language. The other assertion, that the small degree of attention which is at present paid to the vernacular languages, is owing to the superior degree of attention which is paid to English, is equally unfounded. Were the vernacular languages cultivated 91

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more than they are at present before English came into fashion? We think not. They were not cultivated at all till lately, and although English makes much more rapid strides at present, yet there is every sign of the vernacular languages also making steady progress. The sales of books in the vernacular languages effected by the School Book Society, which is the best index to which we could have recourse, have considerably increased during the two last years, although English instruction has been carried on during the same period to a greater height than it ever was before. The following contrasted statement is taken from the two last biennial reports of the School Book Society: 1832 and 1833. Bengalee, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,896 Hindustanee, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,077 Hinduce, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,514 Uriya, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

1834 and 1835. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,754 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,384 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,171 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .834

There is a great demand at present for English, but it does not follow that if this did not exist, there would be an equal or nearly equal demand for Bengalee. The cause of the demand for English does not apply to Bengalee. English possesses a noble literature, a most effectual instrument for bestowing the best education which is to be had in the world. Bengalee has no literature worth speaking of, and it can at present be made the medium of imparting only the meanest education. The demand for English will, however, in the course of a few years assuredly produce a far more extensive demand for the vernacular languages. A general craving for education will be excited among classes who cannot afford an English education. A demand for books in the vernacular languages will consequently arise, and when this once takes place, there will be no want of authors in those languages. English literature took its great start, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, at a period when the learned languages were cultivated to a greater extent than they had ever been before. The truth is that they had been cultivated so effectually, that intelligence had become very generally diffused, and a class of people had arisen who, without knowing Latin, wanted some mental aliment, and hence arose a demand for a vernacular literature. Last of all, the Friend of India utters a lament over the fact, that while the School Book Society sold during the last two years 31,649 English, they only disposed of 5,754 Bengalee books, the blame of which he imputes entirely to us Europeans, and calls for the adoption of immediate steps to remove the opprobrium. We ourselves entertain no such concern. We have already shown that this excess of demand for foreign, over native literature, is merely an indication of a nation in the first stage of improvement from without. English is at present the most direct and effectual means of acquiring European knowledge. It is therefore in great demand among those classes who can afford to study it. The desire for education will descend lower and lower. At last it will reach those classes who cannot afford to study English, and then a demand for books in the vernacular 92

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language will spring up. We have nothing to blame ourselves for. This is precisely the process by which we have ourselves arrived at our present high state of civilization, and if we let it go on, it will inevitably produce the same result in this country. The Friend of India calls for the application of an instant remedy for the evil which he has conjured up. What would he have? Would he have more books printed in the vernacular languages? There are as many now as there is any effectual demand for. Only 5,754 were sold during the last two years by the School Book Society. Would he, therefore, have them print 50,000 more, in addition to their existing stock, for the next two years? Would he wish more books to be printed in the vernacular languages in proportion as they are not wanted?! Any attempt to anticipate the demand for books in those languages would be a job from the very first; just as much so as the gold-mohur-a-page Arabic Translations. There would be this difference between the two plans, that while one was obviously intended only for the learned, the other would have an appearance of being popular, but there would be no more real demand for the one than for the other. After the books were translated and printed, they would lie rotting on the shelves, and the paid translator (for he must be paid according to this system of anticipating the real demand) would be the only person who would profit by the transaction. Besides, we contend that it is neither by bare translations, nor by European authors, that India will be enlightened. The part we have to perform at present, is to saturate the country with European knowledge through the direct English medium, and in due time the native literati, out of their fulness, will produce original works suited to the taste of their countrymen. What would have been thought of a scheme for enlightening England in the time of Henry VIII, by unidiomatical translations of French and Italian books made, not by Englishmen, but by French and Italians? We are satisfied that nothing but evil would result from the Government interfering to anticipate the period when a demand for books in the vernacular languages will take place in the natural course of things. It would put the whole process of national improvement out of joint. English is at present the most advantageous thing which those classes which possess literary leisure can study, and whatever discourages them from studying it, and prematurely induces them to turn their principal attention to the vernacular languages, must do harm. It would be exactly analogous to the folly of which the United States of America have been guilty, who, impatient to have manufactures before they came in the natural course of events, have turned a portion of their capital from the more profitable employment of agriculture to the less profitable one of manufactures. There is, however, one way in which the Government may with the greatest possible advantage to the country, not create an artificial demand for the vernacular languages, but remove artificial obstacles which prevent the natural demand from having free scope. We refer to the exclusion of Persian from the Courts and the adoption of the vernacular languages in them. This change, which is urgently required on judicial grounds, would also be of infinite benefit to the literature of the country. It would do more 93

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towards the creation of a vernacular literature than if Government were to spend a crore of rupees in the translating and printing of books. This would be going to the root of the matter. It would give scope to the natural demand, and a supply would soon follow. We consider this to be the point upon which the intellectual and moral improvement of the country now mainly depends. The educated classes are at present bound down to the study of a literature as barren and unimproving as it is possible to conceive any of equal extent to be. By the disuse of Persian in the Courts, the mind of the country will be disenthralled. Those who have leisure, will learn English, and those who have not, will cultivate the vernacular language; while not the least advantageous result will be, that the English rulers will always be obliged to make themselves acquainted with the vernacular language, which we fear is not at present the case in Bengal. We apologise to our readers for the length of this article, but when our brother Editors write essays in the shape of leading articles, we must write essays in reply. Having now fully stated our sentiments on the subject, we shall not willingly recur to it.

ON THE MEANS OF EDUCATING THE PEOPLE OF INDIA. (From the Reformer.) The end and object of education is to impart knowledge. But knowledge from the very commencement of the world, with but occasional interruptions, has been progressing to that state in which we now find it among the enlightened portion of mankind; it is still in a progressive state, and will continue so to the end of time. The duty of those who are engaged in the great work of education is to impart to the people knowledge in the most perfect form available. It is therefore evident that in selecting means for the attainment of this object, the chief point for consideration is the adoption of that language which may furnish the most convenient vehicle for the conveyance of knowledge. But then the circumstances of the learner with reference to that language is also a point of serious consideration, and one which may often render the choice of the language best suited to the purpose altogether nugatory. The two languages which present themselves as eligible vehicles for the communication of knowledge to the Natives of India are the English and the vernacular. The former, because it is highly refined and contains in it one of the most perfect treasures of knowledge which the present time can afford; and the latter, because it is the language of the people, it is the language in which every man among the natives of India can be addressed without any previous train [Illegible Text] in regard to them it is therefore the readiest [Illegible Text] for the communication of knowledge. Much can be said in favor of the adoption of either of these languages to the purposes of our national education; many men of great information, talent, and judgement have therefore advocated either the one or the 94

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other side of the question; a circumstance which is much to be deplored, for it tends to create a division among the friends and supporters of the cause, by leading their energies, in different, and often, contrary directions. We therefore think it highly necessary for the well being and advancement of this nation that a mutual understanding take place between the advocates of these two systems of native education. Circumstances have lately occurred which afford us sanguine hope, that this desideratum will soon be supplied, that the advocates of the English and the vernacular languages will unite their energies in the common cause, and by that union give an impetus to the work of the enlightenment of the people of this country, which it has not hitherto received. Some of the advocates of the English language, considering the question with reference to the means at present available for the translation of the stock of knowledge contained in that language to the vernacular language of the country, have hastily come to the conclusion, that there is no other way of imparting a full measure of knowledge to the people of India, but teaching them the English language, and thus at once placing the whole treasure of knowledge contained in that language within their teach. On the other hand, some of the advocates of the vernacular language maintaining, and not without reason, that it will not be possible to teach English to the mass of the people, have come to the conclusion, that English ought not to be taught, and that translations of the most useful English works should be made for the communication of knowledge to the natives in their vernacular language. This is precisely the state of the question between the two parties, who are both equally desirous of educating the people of India, and promoting their enlightenment. Among other signs which lead us to expect that a reconciliation of the difference on this subject will soon take place between the contending parties, is the letter of C. E. T. in the Hurkaru of the 6th instant. We regret it is not in our power to reprint this article, for it contains many valuable observations on the subject of Native education, and coming as it does vouched by initials of no insignificant authority, it affords us sincere gratification C. E. T. has been one of the chief advocates of English education. His views, however, as developed in the paper before us, do not on this point differ from ours, who have generally advocated education in the vernacular language. The following extract from his letter, furnishes the outlines of his view in regard to the use of the English and the vernacular as applicable to the people of India. We do not advocate the exclusive use of the vernacular; the study of the English we have always maintained to be necessary for a portion of our countrymen; particularly at the present moment; for as C. E. T. very justly observes, “the vernacular language may become sufficient for the purposes of liberal education a century hence; but it certainly is not so now.” The following extract will more fully develope our view of the question. “At least the two next generations of the upper and middle classes must be educated by means of foreign languages, and it is to be hoped that from among them numerous authors will arise, to enrich their national language with works in every department of literature and science. My desire is, that they should not only study to the full our medicine, our

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mathematics and our natural philosophy, but that they should also imbibe the spirit of our works of taste, imagination, history and morals, until they have a Shakespeare, a Hume, a Milton of their own.”

Our desire is the same: we wish our youth to learn English that they may become thoroughly acquainted with the arts and sciences, and having possessed themselves of the treasure of knowledge found in that language, impart it in their own vernacular to the mass of their countrymen, who cannot for obvious reasons be made to learn a foreign language so differently from their own, as the English is. This then is the only way of reconciling the difference of opinion which has hitherto divided the efforts of the friends of native education. Some uniform plan, based on the lucid and judicious principles laid down by C. E. T., and concurred in by us, should be adopted for the guidance of all those who come to labor in this vineyard. It is then that we will see the full display of the talents and energies of the rising generation, and have some sure hope of ultimate success. It is an admitted fact that at the present day the whole treasure of modern arts and sciences is to be found in the English language. In it, therefore, the Natives of India have the readiest means for the improvement of the mind: they have not to make discoveries, but to receive the discoveries already made by the collective exertions of the civilized world for ages past. Another equally admitted fact is, that the mass of the people of India cannot be efficiently instructed in any other but their vernacular language the colloquial idiom of which no European can acquire in perfection. It is therefore indisputable, that a portion of the natives must first acquire a knowledge of the English language. This measure is in fact a necessary preparatory step towards the establishment of a system of permanent national education in the vernacular language. The high reputation which English at present enjoys among those who are totally ignorant of it, arises not so much from its intrinsic superiority over any language that is used in India, as from its being the language of our rulers and of the commercial class of the metropolis. These circumstances are sufficient to account for the desire which the inhabitants of Calcutta and its neighbourhood display to acquire a proficiency in it. The taste therefore which the facts noted in the above extract prove as existing among the natives, is more local than one is apt to imagine at the first glance. They do not shew, that if knowledge could be brought to the doors of the people in the interior, and offered to them in the native garb they would not prefer it to the study of the English as a means of acquiring that knowledge. The acquisition of scientific and historical knowledge has a peculiar charm which the dry study of a language has not; and this charm is in none more potent than in those who are acquainted with no other language but their mother tongue. The natural curiosity which Providence has implanted in the bosom of the savage as well as the civilized man, finds a gratification in the contemplation of the wonders which history and the sciences open before him. As he advances in his studies, his labor is rewarded, and every remuneration adds a stimulus to further exertions. Thus he goes on from step to step, until, without being wearied, he arrives at the summit of the hill of knowledge. But not so the 96

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man who has imposed upon himself the task of learning a new language totally different from his mother tongue in idiom, in style, and in pronunciation. The acquirement of these present before him so dreary a desert that he dreads to venture upon it. Should he, however, urged on by some collateral impulse, advance a few steps, instead of gratification, further difficulties arise before him. The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes, Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise! These reflections are not intended to invalidate the force of the testimony arrayed by C. E. T. but they prove, what he himself admits, that for the mass of the people, who are situated beyond those influences to which we attribute the taste for English study displayed by the natives of Calcutta and its neighbourhood, vernacular language can alone form an efficient vehicle of knowledge.

THE VERNACULAR LANGUAGES. (From the Friend of India.) We were unable last week to advert to more than one of the two subjects of discussion between L. W. and C. E. T. We now proceed to make a few remarks on the second, and by far the more important branch of the controversy; the mode in which knowledge is to be communicated to India. Apparently there is no difference of opinion between them on the subject. L. W. says, “I strongly advocate the study of English for all who have time, talent, and fortune really to acquire it, and to use it. But for the education of the body of the people, nothing—nothing but the vernaculars can ever be generally useful:” and C. E. T. observes, “I entirely agree with the Friend of India and the Reformer. They both advocate the teaching of English conjointly with the vernacular languages;—the English to those who have leisure to cultivate it to good purpose, and the vernacular languages to all, high and low, rich and poor.” We assumed last week, that C. E. T. was willing to patronize the vernacular languages, with the understanding that they were to be written in the Roman character; we shall be most happy to find that the supposition was unfounded. If so, then JONIUS, L. W., C. E. T., the Reformer, and this Journal, are agreed upon the great principle, that we are to have English for the units, the Native languages for the millions. The only difference is upon a question of time; and here the difference is great, and irreconcileable. C. E. T. says, that the vernacular languages may become sufficient for the purposes of a liberal education a century hence, but they certainly are not so now: thus postponing indefinitely the adoption of the vernacular languages in Native education. That the Native languages are susceptible of improvement we readily admit. But certainly languages which are already capable of communicating to the people the sublime truths of Christian doctrine, cannot be so very unfit to become even in 97

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their present state, the channel of a liberal education. They want, it is true, that pliancy which a little use will soon impart: they want also a larger vocabulary of scientific terms to adapt them to the present state of European knowledge. But why should a century be asked for these improvements? Our own tongue affords an instance of the rapidity with which new terms may be engrafted on a language, when the spirit of improvement is abroad. Of the terms belonging to the various branches of science which are now part and parcel of the English language, have not more than two-thirds been created in the last fifteen years? And why should the Native languages of this Presidency, which are naturally copious and elegant, and which comprise words borrowed from the Sungskrit, the Arabic, the Persian, the Portuguese, the Malay, and the English, be thought incapable of receiving such an accession of scientific terms, as to fit them within a very short period for every purpose of a liberal education. It may be said that these new terms will not be understood. Certainly not, till they are explained and demonstrated; nor will they be understood by the Native student of English, when he finds them in an English work, till they are thus explained to him. Indeed they originally required to be explained to students in England itself, as much as they will require it in the Indian forms into which they must be cast. C. E. T. appears to have substituted the present for the future when he observes, “India is gradually becoming leavened through the introduction of European knowledge, and the lower classes are learning in their own, what the higher classes have learned in the English language.” If this were indeed the case, then all ground of controversy among the friends of native improvement would cease. But the fact is that they are not thus taught. C. E. T. has anticipated the state of India, on his own calculation, by a whole century. The complaint of those who advocate the vernacular cause is, that so little effort has been made, or is now intended, to impart European knowledge to the great body of the people through their own language, the only medium through which that knowledge can ever reach them. The Education Board has embraced in turn the patronage of Sungskrit, of Arabic, and now of English; but the vernacular languages have never received any attention, beyond a passing compliment to their paramount importance. The good wishes and even the promises of the Committee are not withheld from the languages of the people, but all their active efforts are directed to the dissemination of English. The ample funds at their disposal are absorbed in purchasing English books, and founding English schools. Some of their most influential members have publicly maintained the opinion, that European knowledge can be introduced into India through the medium of the English language alone: and though some of their colleagues may possibly dissent from this notion, still it is the ruling principle of action in the Committee; and a complete revolution of plan must be brought about, before the vernacular languages can receive from them that attention which is now bestowed on English. C. E. T. states, that a century hence the languages of the country may be fitted to impart a liberal education. Are the great body of the people, the tiers élât of India, then to be left during this long period to ignorance? To declare that the vernacular 98

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languages are not as yet fitted for the communication of ideas, and to make no effort for their improvement, what is it but to consign the people to the same endless, hopeless barbariam, to which they have been reduced by the predominant cultivation first of Sungskrit, and then of Persian? With the present sentiments of the majority of the Committee, when is this century of improvement which has been fixed for the languages of the country, to begin? And are we immortal, and our dominion, and consequent power to do good, eternal, that we are thus coolly to deal with centuries as if they were single years? But it is said, Give the upper and middle classes for two generations, that is, during half a century, a liberal education in a foreign tongue, and they will raise the nation; they will produce authors to enrich the national languages with works in every department of science and literature. There was a time when England presented a striking analogy to the present condition of India; when all knowledge that was valuable, existed in the copious, polished, refined language of the Romans; when the Latin language was exclusively cultivated by all who aspired to distinction in Church and State, and when the English language was poor and simple. Was it then by the exclusive cultivation of Latin that the English language was improved and enriched? When the human mind in Europe began to awake from the lethargy of ages, were not the undue estimation of ancient, and the degradation of vernacular literature the great causes of prolonging the deplorable dormancy; which at length was effectually dissipated only when the cerement of antiquity had been wholly burst asunder? It is said moreover that the Native students of English will transfer the knowledge they have acquired into their own native tlanguage; and in length of time something of the kind can scarcely fail to be realized. We fear however that the monopoly of knowledge they will enjoy through the medium of a tongue unknown to the people, will produce for a long, long period the same haughty contempt of the vulgar, and of their language which the same cause has produced in the instances of Sungskrit and Persian. An acquaintance with a foreign tongue, which confers wealth and distinction, is more likely to narrow the mind with selfishness, than to expand it with benevolence. It seldom fails to bring in its train the arrogance and inaccessibility of aristocratic feelings. It will, we fear, in the present case raise the English scholars above the common people, and inspire them with any thing but a desire to diminish their own importance by the elevation of the class below them. Indeed so completely has the Anglomania, like other follies, descended from the higher to the inferior ranks, that there is scarcely a good English scholar among the natives who can write his native tongue with tolerable accuracy. The great majority of the students of English, have even a greater contempt for the vernacular language than the Hindoo priest; and this feeling is too likely to increase with the increase of the cause; the wide disproportion of attainments between those who have learned English, and those who are acquainted only with Bengalee. The vernacular languages are not likely, we fear, to be enriched by the learned simply from motives of patriotism and benevolence. It is the gradual elevation of the people through the medium of their own tongue 99

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which can alone effectually constrain those who are so greatly raised above them by their familiarity with English literature, to come down to their level, and impart to them of their stores. Such, at least, is our humble opinion; and it appears to receive confirmation from the fact, that it was not till late years, when a spirit of enquiry had been diffused among the common people, through the encreased use of the vernacular medium, that the Hindoo priesthood ever condescended to write in their own tongue. C. E. T. gives us a test of the public feeling among the Natives regarding the cultivation of English, by citing the sale of the School Book Society’s publications. While 31.649 works in English were sold in two years, only 5754 Bengalee works found purchasers among them. It is certainly not to the credit of the British name, that eighty years after we have obtained the complete command of Bengal, the demand for books in the popular language, among thirty millions of people should fall short of six thousand in two years. There must have been some strange and inexcusable neglect in some quarter, to have led to a result, which might make it almost a matter of doubt whether the country had really been administered by the most civilized people on earth, for so long a period. The fact is one which we ought rather to conceal than to proclaim. Supposing this to be the true index of the public feeling among the Natives, where does the blame rest, but at our doors, who having invaluable knowledge in our possession, have so signally failed to diffuse it through the country, that only one book has been sold in a twelvemonth in the language of the people, among an average population of twelve thousand? What is the use we are to make of this fact? Does it not appear to furnish the strongest possible argument for taking immediate steps to remove the opprobrium; for to us, and to us alone, does the shame of this neglect belong. With the light of experience shining upon us; with the fact, demonstrated by the history of three centuries, that the elevation of Europe has been owing to the elevation of the people, and not of a privileged class,—to the cultivation of the vernacular, and not of foreign languages, we have in India pursued the same course, by which the Bramhuns and the Moosulmans had contrived to leave the great body of the people in the grossest ignorance. We have governed India on Oriental, and not on European principles. We have neglected and discouraged the language of the people, and now we perceive that the people themselves neglect and despise it. We have acted on the principle that all knowledge was to come into India, as in the days of priestcraft and kingcraft, by a foreign medium. We are telling the people from the seat of influence, that their languages require a hundred years of polish, before they can be fit for use. Even now when the British Government has at length determined that India shall participate in the great movement, which during the last fifty years has been impelling forward the family of man, this great boon of knowledge is still to be confined to the few who can master a foreign language; it is still to be the patrimony of a limited and exclusive caste, and the great bulk of the people are to be left in the gloom of ignorance for another century,—that is, as far as we are concerned, for ever.

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Notes 1 Note.—366 Students of the Hindu College pay from five to seven rupees per mensem each, for their tuition, and those who can afford it will probably soon be required to pay something at all the institutions under the General Committee. 2 This is a most essential part of the process, and should consist in striking out all passages, similes and epithets, which are not easily rendered intelligible to natives. 3 As the Friend of India disputes the accuracy of C. E. T.’s conjecture, we should like to know how long, in his opinion, it would take to create in Bengalee a literature equal, not to the English, but to the French German, Italian or any of the second-rate European national literatures which are at all fit to be the medium of a liberal education.

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12 LORD AUCKLAND, ‘MINUTE ON NATIVE EDUCATION, 24TH NOVEMBER 1839’, IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920), 147–170

Minute by the Right Hon’ble Lord Auckland, the GovernorGeneral, dated 24th November 1839.1 NATIVE EDUCATION. Minute by Lord Auckland, 24th Nov. 1839.

I have not hitherto, since I assumed charge of the Government, recorded my sentiments at any length on the important questions which regard the best means of promoting education amongst the natives of India. The subject is one of the highest interest, and especially calls for calm consideration and for combined effort. But unhappily I have found violent differences existing upon it, and it was for a time (now I trust past, or fast passing away) a watchward for violent dissension and in some measure of personal feelings. I judged it best, under these circumstances, to abstain from what might have led me into unprofitable controversy, and to allow time and experience to act, with their usual healing and enlightening influence, upon general opinion. I may earnestly hope that we are now not very far remote from arriving at some satisfactory result in respect to our educational controversies, and I will approach the topic, with the hope of contributing in some degree to this end. 2. Annexed to this paper will be found a note2 compiled by Mr. Colvin, containing a condensed view of the principal facts, and of occasional notices of some considerations suggested by them, which relate to the general progress and present condition of the plans of native instruction as pursued in different parts of India, and of the tenor of the most important directions on the subject of public instruction which have been received from the Hon’ble the Court of Directors, and with reference to those facts, as they apply particularly to the progress effected in the different 102

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Presidencies, and to the circumstances which have come under my observation, when at the seat of several of our institutions in Bengal, I will endeavour to state with all fairness the conclusions to which I have brought my mind on this subject. 3. I have first however to state my opinions on two specific references connected with the questions which are before me from the President in Council— the one relating to the appropriation of Funds heretofore assigned to particular Institutions, and the other to Mr. Adam’s scheme for the improvement of the Indigenous Schools in the Bengal and Behar districts. 4. Before entering on the details of the first of these subjects, I may observe that it may in my opinion be clearly Rs. admitted, and I am glad from the Parliamentary grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,888 Interest on Government notes . . . . . . . . . . . 3,030 papers before me to see that this Madrissa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,666 opinion is supported by the authority Sanscrit College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,055 of Mr. Prinsep, that the insufficiency Delhi-Escheat Fund. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 of the funds assigned by the state for Benares College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,701 the purposes of public instruction Agra College – has been amongst the main causes Endowment of villages . . . . . . Rs. 1,175 of the violent disputes which have Interest of Government notes . 622 taken place upon the education ques1,797 tion, and that if the funds previously Per mensem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,387 appropriated to the cultivation of oriental literature had been spared, and other means placed at the disposal of the promoters of English Education, they might have pursued their object aided by the good wishes of all. In the Bengal Presidency, with its immense territory and a revenue of above 13 millions, the yearly expenditure of the Government on this account is little in excess of £24,000 or 2,40,000 rupees, and I need not say how in a country like India, it is to the Government that the population must mainly look for facilities in the acquisition of improved learning. There is, I well know, the strongest desire on the part of the authorities both in England and India to support every well-arranged plan for the extension of education, and the despatches of the Hon’ble Court are full of the evidence of their anxiety on the subject. I may cite in particular the declaration of a despatch of the 18th February 1824.* “In the meantime we wish you to be fully apprized of our zeal for the progress and improvement of education among the natives of India and of our willingness to make considerable sacrifices to that important end, if proper means for the attainment of it could be pointed out to us.” Such we may be assured is the feeling by which the Court is up to this time guided, and the difficulty has been not in any unwillingness to grant the money necessary to give effect to good plans, but in framing such plans, on principles admitted to be satisfactory, and in finding fit agents for the execution of them. I have alluded to the limited amount and to the existing appropriation of our present funds, not certainly with the slightest idea of casting reproach upon the previous course of administration, but merely as a fact which is of importance in its bearing upon former discussions. The sum immediately at command was 103

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limited. Parties wishing to promote the diffusion of knowledge in different forms contended eagerly, the one to retain, the other to gain, that sum for the schemes to which they were respectively favourable, and had fresh sums been at once procurable, no one might have objected to their employment for a full and fair experiment on the new ideas which began to prevail. The inference to which I would point from these facts and observations is that a principle of wise liberality, not stinting any object which can reasonably be recommended, but granting a measured and discriminating encouragement to all, is likely to command general acquiescence, and to obliterate, it may be hoped, the recollection of the acrimony which has been so prejudicial to the public weal in the course of past proceedings. The Hon’ble Court have already, as was to be expected, acted on this principle. They have made a separate grant for the publication of works of interest in the ancient literature of the country to be disbursed through the appropriate channel of the Asiatic Society, and this measure is one which has been hailed with universal satisfaction. 5. On the merits of the first of the two questions immediately referred to me, which I would consider in the spirit which I have here commended, I would at once say, on the position that the Government has given a pledge that the funds heretofore assigned to particular Institutions shall continue to be so for ever appropriated, that I cannot hesitate to express my conviction that the acts or intentions of the Government will not justly bear this very exclusive and restrictive construction. I remember the discussion of April 1836 and certainly I did not understand that the Resolution to which the Government then came was intended to have the force of a particular guarantee of the expenditure, wholly within each institution (whatever might be the nature of the instruction to which they might be devoted), of the funds which might have been assigned to it. The plain meaning of the proceedings and the professions of the Government seems to me to have been that, stipends having been everywhere discontinued, it would do nothing towards the abolition of the ancient seminaries of Oriental learning, so long as the community might desire to take advantage of them, their preservation as Oriental seminaries being alone at that time within the contemplation of either party. Had it been intended to promise that, whether Arabic, Sanscrit, or English were taught, the particular Institutions should at all events be retained, the meaning would surely have been expressed in much more distinct terms. My impression of the state of the case is briefly this—that the General Committee viewing the maintenance of the Oriental Colleges, on the footing to which I have referred, as prescribed and secured, proposed to consolidate all separate grants into one general fund, the savings of which, after the Oriental Colleges should have been thus provided for, should be held by them to be clearly applicable to their general purposes. The answer of the Government on 13th April 1836, after a discussion in which I in the first instance expressed a willingness to assent to the propositions of the Committee, was in these guarded terms—“Under existing circumstances, the Government in India thinks it will not be advisable to make the consolidation into one fund of all grants, made heretofore by Government, for purposes of education, as suggested by the Sub-Committee of Finance, nor does his Lordship in 104

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Per Annum

Amount of stipends Dec. 1834

Council imagine that the Committee will be put to much inconvenience by drawing its funds separately as heretofore and crediting them whether derived from a Government monthly grant or from the interest of stock previously accumulated, to the particular seminaries to which they have been assigned3 leaving any excess available in any institution to be appropriated as may appear most equitable with reference to the orders of Government, 7th March 1835,4 and the pledges and assurances that may have been given to particular institutions.” The alteration of the word “belong” to “have been assigned” as marked above, will shew the spirit of compromise amongst varying opinions in which the draft was agreed to. There was here no statement that the consolidation was a thing wholly out of the question. The diversion of funds from particular Institutions was admitted as a measure which might or might not be proper, and (the circumstances of all institutions not being before the Government) there is a reservation for the pledges and assurances “that may have been given” to some of them. Under such a reservation, if a specific promise in perpetuity of a particular sum to a particular institution could be shewn, such a promise would have of course to be respected, but otherwise by these orders of April 1836, things were left exactly as they stood before. Whilst, however, I am bound to declare that such is my distinct impression on the subject, and whilst for one I would reject the strict principle of absolute and irreclaimable appropriation, I am yet strongly of opinion that it will be best on every account to dispose of the question on the principle of a liberal consideration to all wants and claims. I see no advantage to be gained in this case by a close contest for strict constructions, and having taken a review of money estimates and of local wants, I am satisfied that it will be best to abstract nothing from other useful objects, while I see at the same time nothing but good to be derived from the employment of the funds which have been assigned to each Oriental Seminary, exclusively on instruction in, or in connexion with, that seminary. I would also give a decided preference, within these institutions, to the promotion in the first instance of perfect efficiency in Oriental instruction, and only after that object shall have been properly secured in proportion to the demand for it, would I assign the funds to the creation or support of English classes. At the same time, I would supply to the General Committee of Public Instruction from the revenues of the State any deficiency that this Resolution might cause in the general income at their disposal— and if they should already have partially used for other objects, the savings arisCalcutta Sanscrit College . . . 696 8,352 ing from the seminaries supported by Madrissa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654 7,848 special funds, I would, in recalling such Benares College . . . . . . . . . . 348 4,176 savings, protect the general committee Agra College . . . . . . . . . . . . 480 5,660 from loss on that account. The statement Delhi College . . . . . . . . . . . . 627 7,524 in the margin will shew the contribution TOTAL . . . . 33,560 from the Revenue which this final settleDeduct one-fourth . . . . 8,390 ment of the subject will occasion. It will 25,170 be perceived that, calculating from the TOTAL . . . . 105

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amount of stipends as they existed untouched in the end of 1834, and deducting one-fourth as required at all events for the Oriental colleges under a scheme of scholarships such as I shall hereafter state that I would approve, the additional annual disbursement from the Treasury will be about 25,000 rupees and perhaps there may be 6,000 rupees more per annum, on account of the office, which has been abolished, of Secretary to the Sanscrit college at Benares. I am well persuaded that the Hon’ble Court will approve of our having closed these controversies at this limited amount of increased expense. I would, upon this understanding, willingly join in the direction sent to the general committee in the letter of Mr. Prinsep on the 31st of July last, “to avoid making any alienation” (from the assigned funds of the Oriental Institutions) “without previously soliciting the sanction of Government.” They should, as I have said, be desired to appropriate the funds within the Oriental Colleges, first to Oriental and then to English instruction. I would not, on any account, admit the extension of the system of scholarships within these colleges beyond the general proportion (which should be on a liberal scale) allowed elsewhere, for this would be an excessive and artificial encouragement which might be justly objected to. But I would secure the most eminent Professors for the Colleges. I would encourage the preparation, within the limits of the funds, of the most useful books of instruction, such as of the Siddhants and Sanscrit version of Euclid which Mr. Wilkinson has urged upon us, and I would provide, in some form, which the general committee should be required to take into early consideration, for an improved and effective superintendence of the Oriental colleges of the North-Western Provinces, where I know that such a supervision is very obviously required. Funds that might still remain available could be doubtless to much advantage devoted to European instruction in union with those particular Institutions, and I should look with very warm interest to an efficient scheme for imparting English Education to Mahomedans at the Madrissa in Calcutta. 6. The other reference made to me is with regard to Mr. Adam’s plan for the improvement of indigenous Schools and Teachers. I would observe upon it that it is impossible to read his valuable and intelligent report, without being painfully impressed with the low state of instruction as it exists amongst the immense masses of the Indian population. Attempts to correct so lamentable an evil may well be eagerly embraced by benevolent minds. Yet I cannot but feel with the President in Council that the period has not yet arrived when the Government can join in these attempts with reasonable hope of practical good. When Mr. Adam enforces his views “for the instruction of the poor and ignorant, those who are too ignorant to understand the evils of ignorance and too poor, even if they did, to be able to remove them,”—the inference irresistibly presents itself that among these is not the field in which our efforts can at present be most successfully employed. The small stock of knowledge which can now be given in elementary schools will of itself do little for the advancement of a people. The first step must be to diffuse wider information and better sentiments amongst the upper and middle classes, for it seems, as may be gathered from the best authorities on the subject, that a scheme of general instruction can only be perfect, as it comprehends a 106

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regularly progressive provision for higher tuition. In the European States where such systems have been recently extensively matured, this principle is, I believe, universally observed. There is a complete series of Universities in great Towns, of Academies in Provincial divisions and of small local Schools, all connected in a combined plan of instruction. The extension of the plan to the Parish or Village School has been the last stage, as must naturally have been the case, in the national progress. Mr. Adam’s plan contemplated such a rise of able pupils from the village to the zillah schools, but the suggestion could not immediately have effect. Here we are yet engaged on the formation and efficient direction of our upper institutions. When, indeed, the series of vernacular class of books for our single Zillah Schools, which is still a desideratum, and to which I shall subsequently refer, shall have been published, and their utility shall have been established by practice, Mr. Adam’s recommendations may be taken up with some fairer prospect of advantage. For the present I would confine our measures in reference to his reports to injunctions on the General Committee that they bear in mind his particular suggestions and objects in determining on the series of class books referred to. I would submit the plan to the Hon’ble Court for the expression of their sentiments and wishes, and in the collection of information for an eventual decision I would make use of the experience which the Bombay measures of village instruction, alluded to in the note annexed,5 will have afforded. For this purpose I would communicate Mr. Adam’s report to the Government of Bombay, and ask how far the scheme which he describes is in accordance with that which is pursued in the provinces of that presidency, and what opinion may be formed from the result already obtained by their village schools, of the propriety of carrying out Mr. Adam’s plans in their important parts. The encouragement to existing school masters, which is the leading suggestion in Mr. Adam’s plan, will probably have been largely tried at Bombay, and the extent to which those School Masters have reaped improvement under such encouragement will be a most interesting subject of enquiry. I learn also in the course of my enquiries regarding the previous progress of education in India, that a school society existed for some time in Calcutta, the operations of which were directed with partial success to the amendment of indigenous schools. Mr. Hare will probably be able to explain the history of this society, which drew a grant of 400 or 500 rupees a month from Government, and to give also the causes of its extinction. I would ask this gentleman to favour Government with a report regarding that society,—and I would conclude upon this subject by recording my opinion that when such a scheme as that proposed by Mr. Adam comes to be tried, the arrangements for introducing it should be on a liberal and effective scale, and that it ought not to be undertaken at all, until the Government is satisfied that it has at command a thoroughly zealous and qualified superintendence. 7. Having said thus much in answer to the references made to me by the President in Council, I would proceed to record my observations upon the topics which seem to me most important in regard to our plans of education—I strongly feel that, in all that we can do, we must be prepared for much disappointment in our early efforts to satisfy the demands made upon us on this subject. By some 107

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it will be lamented that we do not at once perfect enlarged schemes for general education, by others it will be regretted that what we do for the best pupils of our few seminaries seems to produce so partial an effect. Feelings of this nature will attend us in whatever attempts we may engage for the improvement of any branch of our Indian Government. Our governing and instructed class belongs to a highly civilized community. It is in active and increasing intercourse with the European world, where, in our advanced state of society, skill and enterprise are daily gaining new triumphs. It is naturally impatient for the introduction in India of every plan which has, though probably after repeated trials and failures, been adopted with success in European countries—and the spirit of free discussion excites benevolent minds to bring forward the most extensive projects. On the other hand, we are dealing with a poor people, to the vast majority of whom the means of livelihood is a much more pressing object than facilities for any better description or wider range of study. Our hold over this people is very imperfect, and our power of offering motives to stimulate their zeal is but of confined extent. The agency which we can employ for reform is extremely narrow and liable to constant derangement. Of those who are willing to devote their energies to the business of giving or superintending instruction, Oriental Scholars are apt to be unduly prepossessed in favour of acquirements obtained by much labour and to which they are indebted for reputation; while mere European Scholars are liable to be ignorant of and neglect national feeling, are at all events incompetent to make a proper use of native means for the execution of their plans. Where even the mind of our able pupil has been very greatly informed and enlightened, the knowledge gained by him may seem to produce no adequately corresponding result in after life. The student may stand alone in the family or society of which he forms a part. These can very generally have few feelings in common with him, and he may be unhappy and discontented in his peculiar position, or he may yield to the influences by which he is surrounded and accommodate himself to the sentiments and practices which his reason has taught him to disapprove. Add to this, that if he finds that his knowledge opens to him the prospect of advancement, he will, under a restricted competition, be over-confident in his own powers and unreasonable in his expectations, while at the same time he will be tempted to relax in the exertions necessary to maintain, or carry forward, the standard of proficiency at which he had arrived. These are circumstances of the operation of which we must all I think in a greater or less degree have had practical experience. I can only say upon them that we must neither entertain sanguine or premature hopes of general success, nor yet allow ourselves to be seriously discouraged. We must be content to lay even the first rude foundations of good systems, and trust for the rest to time, to the increasing demand of the public and of individuals for the services of educated men, to the extension which must every year take place of the Agency for instruction at the command of Government, and to the certain effects of the spread, however slow, of knowledge, and of the gradual growth of wealth and intelligence in the community. 108

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8. I would in now offering my opinions and suggestions on the present practical directions of our plans, desire to consider the question of our educational policy as one of interest to every portion of the Empire, without minute reference to merely local and temporary discussions. I am aware that we are yet in expectation of the orders of the home authorities6 on the subject of the changes in the scheme of education in Bengal, which were adopted by the Government in 1835. But I would not, on this account, longer withhold the explanation of my own sentiments on the course which should be adopted, and I do not anticipate that in what I shall propose, I shall be found to have deviated in any material degree from the wishes of the Honorable Court. 9. I would first observe that I most cordially agree with the Court in their opinion, which is quoted in para. 45 of Mr. Colvin’s note,7 that, with a view to the moral and intellectual improvement of the people, the great primary object is the extension, among those who have leisure for advanced study, of the most complete education in our power. There cannot, I think, be a doubt of the justice of their statement that “by raising the standard of instruction among these classes, we would eventually produce a much greater and more beneficial change in the ideas and feelings of the community than we can hope to produce by acting directly on the more numerous class.” It is not to be implied from this that in my view elementary education for the mass of the people is a thing necessarily to be neglected, or postponed for an indefinite period, but it will have been seen that the hope of acting immediately and powerfully on the mass of the poor peasantry of India is certainly far from being strong with me. And the practical question, therefore, to which I would before all others give my attention is to the mode in which we may endeavour to communicate a higher education with the greatest prospect of success. 10. One mode which has been ably contended for is that of engrafting European knowledge on the studies of the existing learned classes, of the Moulvees and Pundits of India. I confess that from such means I anticipate only very partial and imperfect results. I would, in the strictest good faith, and to the fullest extent, make good the promise of upholding, while the people resort to them, our established Institutions of Oriental learnings. I would make those Institutions equal sharers with others in any general advantages or encouragements which we are satisfied ought to be afforded with a view to the promotion of due efficiency in study. I would, from the funds which have been before allowed to them, assist in them, as I have already said, any judicious plans for ameliorating the course of study, as by aiding the publication of works which may seem likely to be decidedly useful to the students. Nor am I at all disposed to undervalue the amount of sound education and morality which is to be acquired at these Seminaries even without calling in the resources of European Science and Literature. I will not profess deep respect for the mere laborious study of a difficult language, or of the refinements and subtleties of scholastic learning. But sensible, as assuredly I am, of the radical errors and deficiencies of the oriental system, I am yet aware that the effect of all advanced education, and I will add especially of a Mahomedan 109

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education, is in cherishing habits of reflection, of diligence, and of honourable emulation, that it tends also to elevate the tone of moral character, though its practical effect is unfortunately too frequently marred by the domestic and social habits of Oriental life. Judging, however, from the common principles of human nature, and from such experience as is referred to8 in the case of Mr. Wilkinson of Bhopal, it is not to the students of our Oriental Colleges, trained, as it will be admitted that they are in a faulty system to which they are yet naturally and ardently attached, that I would look for my chief instruments in the propagation of a new knowledge and more enlarged ideas. It was not through the professors of our ancient schools, but by the efforts of original thought and independent minds, that the course of philosophical and scientific investigation and of scholastic discipline was for the most part reformed in Europe. The process of translation, it is to be added, into the learned languages must unavoidably be so slow that, on that account alone, the arguments in favour of a more direct method of proceeding appear to me conclusively convincing. 11. Another class of recommendations is that all the leading facts and principles of our literature and science be transferred by translations into the vernacular tongues. Mr. Hodgson in his book on Education, says,9 “As a practical measure for the immediate adoption of Government, I have no hesitation in saying that to found a college for the rearing of a competent body of translators and of schoolmasters—in other words, for the systematic supply of good vernacular books and good vernacular teachers (leaving the public to employ both, in case the Government fund be adequate to no more than the maintenance of such college) would be an infinitely better disposal of the Parliamentary grant than the present application of it to the training of a promiscuous crowd of English smatterers, whose average period of schooling cannot, by possibility, fit them to be the regenerators of their country, yet for whose further and efficient prosecution of studies, so difficult and so alien to ordinary uses, there is no provision nor inducement whatever.” 12. But those who support this course overlook in the first place the extreme practical difficulty of preparing any very extensive course of translated or adapted works. We are speaking now of the means of an advanced and thorough education, and not of a limited series of works for the purposes of common instruction, to the compilation of which, as I shall have immediate occasion to remark, I am entirely favourable. The difficulties of translation have been illustrated by our knowledge of what has been effected at Bombay, where the object has been prosecuted with much zeal, and I have annexed to this minute, a list10 of the works which have been prepared in Arabic by the European officers attached to the service of the Pasha of Egypt, and it will be seen how very confined the number is, excepting in works of Military, Medical, or other Science. The clear truth seems to be that works of science may, at least to some considerable extent (their range being necessarily contracted), be rendered into other languages within a comparatively moderate period, but the translation, within any time the extent of which we could reasonably calculate, of anything like a sufficient library of works of general 110

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literature, history and philosophy is an impossible task. I have only, therefore, to conclude on this point by stating my entire concurrence in the opinion which has been quoted in the note from a despatch of the Hon’ble Court to the effect “that the higher tone and better spirit of European Literature can produce their full effect only on those who become familiar with them in the original languages.” 13. I would then make it my principal aim to communicate through the means of the English language, a complete education in European Literature, Philosophy and Science to the greatest number of students who may be found ready to accept it at our hands, and for whose instructions our funds will admit of our providing. All our experience proves that, by such a method, a real and powerful stimulus is given to the Native mind. We have seen that, in Bombay, as at Calcutta, from the time at which effective arrangements have been made for the higher branches of instruction in English, the understandings of the students have been thoroughly interested and roused, and that the consequences have wonderfully, to use the words of the Calcutta Committee of Public Instruction in 1831, “surpassed expectation.” The difficulty which attends this course is the very important one, not of principle, but of practice, namely, that the wants and circumstances of our Indian population bring to our Colleges so few who desire, or are able to receive from us the complete English education, which it is our object to impart to them. Those who look with greater confidence to other methods of diffusing knowledge in this country, dwell especially upon this difficulty. Mr. Hodgson argues that we have no reasonable ground to hope here for the same wide study of English Literature, and subsequent use of the information acquired in it for the purposes of vernacular composition, as occurred in the different stages of European civilization with reference to the Greek and Roman models from which that civilization was chiefly derived. His words are,11 “True, the difficult and inapt science of Greece and Rome was in modern Europe, first mastered in itself, and eventually worked into our own speech and minds. But how? by the employment of means adequate to the end,—by the existence of circumstances most powerfully efficient to forward that end. A thousand predisposing causes led a mighty nobility to seek in this lore the appropriate ornament of their rank and station. A church which monopolised a third of the wealth of the continent, called Rome its mother and Greece its foster mother: and throughout the great part of that continent, the law, ecclesiastical and civil, was even lingually Roman. Hence the magnificent endowments and establishments and permanent inducements of all kinds by which a difficult and exotic learning was at length effectually naturalized amongst us. Hence the scholar, if he pleased, might pursue in retirement letters as a profession, assured of a comfortable provision for life; or, if he pleased, he might devote himself to the task of instructing the scions of a most influential and wealthy nobility, all of them, from peculiar association, necessitated to become his pupils, whether they profited by his lessons or not, and thereby affording him the certainty of an enduring means of livelihood; or if he pleased, he might pass from the cloister or the college into the world, and there find the greater part of its most important concerns subservient to the uses and abuses of his peculiar gifts.” 111

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14. Mr. Wilkinson has also on different occasions remarked that it seems to him that Education in English should be confined for the present to the Presidencies and to some of the principal provincial stations, as being the only places at which there is yet an actual demand for it. 15. Mr. Adam says12 of the condition of our English scholars, “Extraordinary efforts have been made to extend a knowledge of the English language to the Natives, but those who have more or less profited by the opportunities presented to them do not find much scope for their attainments which on the other hand little fit them for the ordinary pursuits of native society. They have not received a good Native education, and the English education they have received finds little, if any, use. There is thus a want of sympathy between them and their countrymen, although they constitute a class from which their countrymen might derive much benefit. There is also little sympathy between them and the foreign rulers of the country because they feel that they have been raised out of one class of society without having a recognized place in any other class.” 16. But I believe that in all these opinions, the practical value of superior English acquirements is very greatly under-rated. A familiarity with the general principles of legislation and government, and the power of offering information or opinion upon public affairs in English reports (which is the form in which the higher correspondence regarding the British administration in India, will, of course, always be conducted), must be qualifications so directly useful, as (not to speak of the recommendations of an improved moral character), to ensure to the possessors of them a preference for the most lucrative public employments, after they shall have acquired that knowledge of life and of business, and that good opinion among those who have had opportunities of witnessing their conduct, which mere book-learning never can bestow. There are as yet, no doubt, circumstances of temporary operation, which will keep for a period our best English scholars from reaping from their studies all the worldly profit which will ultimately accrue to them. Our course of instruction has not hitherto been so matured as to include any efficient and general arrangement for giving that knowledge13 of morals, jurisprudence, law and fiscal economy which the Hon’ble Court have so wisely and earnestly insisted on, and which will be most directly useful in the discharge of administrative duties. There are other obstacles also which for a time may impede our young scholars in their desire to obtain public office. They may overestimate their own pretensions, and decline to accept the subordinate situations which alone it may at first be thought right to entrust to them. The cure for such exaggerated expectations will come with time. When this class of candidates becomes more numerous, there will be a less hesitation with many of them in taking lower appointments. In the meanwhile, it is known that I am not disposed to adopt any special means, which could be felt as doing injustice to the rest of the community, for connecting our educated English students with the public service. The subject has been fully discussed in my Minute in the Judicial14 Department of September 4th, 1838, the completion of the measures consequent on which I am anxiously awaiting. The scheme proposed by the Hon’ble the President in 112

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Council, to which, in that respect, I assented in the Minute referred to, included, however, the appointment of a limited number of Native assistants to some of the best of our Zillah Judges, who would be instructed in the forms and practice of office. And so far there would be an immediate opening for the employment of several of our students. The general character of my recommendations in that Minute was, however, to establish a test of qualification before selection for the honourable and responsible situation of a Moonsiff, for all candidates, wheresoever and in whatever language instructed and to procure the compilation and printing of Manuals of legal instruction, in the Native tongues as well as in English which might be taught everywhere by private Masters or in public Institutions. To the principle of this plan I would steadily adhere. But in our Colleges I would carry instruction of this kind further than would be the aims of these Manuals, which would be more proper for use in our common schools. Having thus supplied suitable aids for the acquisition of the knowledge most requisite in public life, I would look with assured confidence to the recognition by the community of the advantages of an advanced English education, comprising those branches of study, a conservancy with which would place an instructed Native Gentleman on a level with our best European Officers. It is true, and no one has more heartily concurred and rejoiced in the determination than myself, that the vernacular tongues, and not English, will be the future languages of the courts and the offices in the interior of the country. But this circumstance will in no degree detract from the force of those inducements to English study, of which, as regards the vast and most important correspondence which must ever be conducted in English, I have just spoken. Nor need I dwell on the degree to which such inducements will be increased to the mere fact of English being the language of the ruling and governing class in India. This is an encouragement to the pursuit of English that will probably greatly counterbalance the want, which has been justly noticed by Mr. Hodgson, of those motives to its cultivation which would have existed in such strength had English been here, as the Classical languages were in the West, the established language of Theology and of law. 17. It will be observed that I have referred chiefly to inducements connected with employment in the public service as likely to lead Indian students to ask admission to our Colleges. This, we may be satisfied, is the principal motive which will as yet operate to bring them to any of our educational Institutions. Excepting perhaps partially in Calcutta (and possibly, though I am not informed on the point, at Bombay) the wealthy and higher classes of India do not send their sons to public Colleges and Schools. Those who come to us for instruction are in search of the means of livelihood either in places under the Government, or in situations under individuals, which in the peculiar constitution of the Indian Government and society, bring them, in a greater or less degree, in connection with the public administration. I mention this point as explanatory of the importance to be attached to the nature of the instruction communicated to our students. The remark applies with equal force to our institutions for the study of the Classical learning of the East. Putting aside the money stipends which were formerly allowed, the 113

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great object of the students in the Sanscrit and Arabic Colleges of the Government has been to rise to office as Law Pundits and Moulvees in the courts. The knowledge which gains for men, reputation and profit among the Native community, as great religious teachers, or among the Hindoos as proficients in Astrology is not to be acquired at those colleges and will best be obtained elsewhere from private Native instructors. If there be not a demand for the same number of Law Pundits and Moulvees as previously, the attendance at the Colleges may be expected to decline, though in the Arabic in a much less degree than in the Sanscrit Colleges; for Mahomedan studies fit men far more than those of Hindoo learning for all the active offices of life. 18. What has been said may suffice to prove that there are weighty and daily growing inducements to the pursuit of English education, if directed with a proper attention to the wants of Scholars and to practical results. It remains that means should be furnished, at least to the most promising of the Scholars, to continue their studies to the desired completion, as incontestible proof appears to have been given15 that their poverty would otherwise generally compel them to retire from College as soon after their leaving boyhood as an opportunity of securing a provision for their subsistence might be open to them. On this point I will immediately remark separately—but I would here again say that I am of opinion, in full concurrence with the President in Council, that whatever amount of reward and support for meritorious students may be granted to those attached to our English, should be granted also in perfectly like proportion in our Oriental Institutions. The pledge to maintain these latter institutions while resorted to by the people involved to my mind the clear obligation to maintain them with all the conditions which are judged necessary for the general efficiency of our educational schemes. 19. Assuming upon the preceding reasoning that our aim as regards those seminaries of highest learning which are not, like the learned Eastern Colleges, especially assigned to other objects, should be to communicate European knowledge through the medium of the English language, it is next to be considered what should be the character of the minor academies or schools such as may probably be eventually established at every zillah station. 20. I have not stopped to state that correctness and elegance in vernacular composition ought to be sedulously attended to in the Superior Colleges. This is a matter of course in the scheme of instruction. But a question may well be raised whether in the Zillah Schools, the subject matter of instruction ought not to be conveyed principally through the vernacular rather than the English medium. 21. I would certainly be much in favour of that course if I saw any solid reason to believe that instruction of a common order would more readily and largely be accepted from the Government in the one mode than the other. I am quite of opinion that a very valuable amount of useful knowledge may be easily conveyed, when good class books and persons competent to teach from them are provided through the means of the vernacular languages. And while I am satisfied that some not trivial amount of moral and intellectual stimulus and improvement is obtained from the Minor English Schools at present existing yet the standard of proficiency 114

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in them is probably not so great as that the mass of Scholars in them would not be merely as much gainers from merely vernacular tuition. 22. It is an argument for the use of the vernacular medium in such schools, that after the first expense of preparing school books has been incurred instruction in that manner would, it may be expected, be more economical than through English, which requires the employment of an English master on a salary at least two or three times as high as would be adequate for a native teacher who had received an English education and was at the same time perfectly conversant with his own tongue. Employment as a Schoolmaster would also be a natural and proper provision for studious young men who had gone through a complete course at the English Colleges. Such a master would of course be able to instruct a class attached to a vernacular school in the first elements of English learning, so as to lay a foundation for those who wished further to prosecute that study. 23. It is a deduction from the saving which the substitution of Native for English Masters in the Zillah Schools might produce that English superintendence over several circles of such schools would probably for a long period be indispensable and a charge on that account must be estimated for. It is also to be reckoned that the cost of compiling and translating a proper series of a vernacular class books is likely to be considerably greater than might at first be supposed. 24. I would speak with much respect of the authority of Mr. Wilkinson on this subject. But I will avow that I am by no means convinced of the applicability of his system or suggestions to the objects of a common education. It is at least not certain that he will in the end carry the body of Hindoo Astronomers along with him in his correction of prevalent errors. In any event it is not the abstruse parts of the Mathematical Science which could be of use in our Zillah Schools. In fact Mr. Wilkinson’s system is almost wholly dependent on his own eminent personal talents and exertions, his admirable zeal, his great knowledge, the weight of his excellent character, and perhaps also, it should not be concealed, the influence attaching to his position as the British Political Agent. It would not be safe to draw conclusion as to what may best be done by ordinary agents within the British Provinces from what have been accomplished in vernacular instruction by Mr. Wilkinson in Sehore. Some of his remarks too as to the failure of attempts at English education within foreign states are not good grounds for anticipating failure within our own Districts, where other circumstances and motives are in operation. 25. I do not admit into this discussion the question of promoting at the present time the formation of a body of vernacular literature. Instruction through the vernacular languages to a definite extent for ordinary purposes may possibly be, as the readiest mode to the attainment of those purposes, proper and desirable. But anything like a body of enlarged literature can, I am thoroughly convinced, be created only with time, by the unprompted exertions of private authors, when a general demand for such literature shall have arisen among the people. The Honorable Court have in a passage, which has been quoted,16 declared themselves strongly 115

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in favour of a liberal encouragement of Native private authors and translators and I would by no means dissent widely from their views, though the encouragement must be given with judgment or the Government will be constantly in hazard of aiding mediocrity or premature and ill-directed efforts. But these are considerations apart from the settlement of the plans of school instruction on which we are now engaged. 26. I have thus stated what has seemed most important on the subject of introducing the vernacular medium in our common District Schools; I mean, as to the general principle of such a change, for the measure could not be named as one for very early adoption, with no class books prepared or teachers versed in those books yet trained for their duties. And as the contrary system has been actually established, it is right that, unless urgent reasons for abandoning that system demanded attention, it should be fully tried, with the improvements of which it may fairly be susceptible. We may, indeed, be said to have two great experiments in progress, one in the Bengal, the other in the Bombay Provinces, the Provincial education being in the former conducted chiefly through the English, in the latter almost, if not quite exclusively, through the vernacular languages. It will be most interesting that both experiments should be closely watched and thoroughly developed. It is possible that in Bengal, in aiming at too much, we may have withheld some facilities for acquiring knowledge which might otherwise have advantageously been left open. And in Bombay the standard of proficiency in the Mofussil Schools may have been fixed and allowed to remain too low, with no principle in the scheme by which they are regulated which would constantly animate exertion, and maintain a spirit of progressive improvement. 27. The immediate practical question in respect to Bengal seems to be that which I have before mentioned—namely, whether it may be reasonably supposed that a vernacular would be more readily and largely accepted in our District Schools than an English education, and on this subject I am not able, after much careful reflection, to discover any reasons which could lead me to answer the proposition in the affirmative. Native youths will not come to our schools to be instructed in vernacular composition. This qualification is more quickly and easily to be attained from other sources. We can in those schools draw little, if any, aid from existing native literature. The desire for the new ideas and information which will be imparted to them must therefore be among the great inducements to attendance, and those who are candidates for such instruction will not, I think, in any important degree be deterred by having to undergo also the labour of learning the English character and language. The fact indeed is, as it is to be presumed from the evidence which has been recorded17 on the subject, that a knowledge of the English language itself with a view to the business, however humble, of life, is one main object of most of the scholars. It is fortunate that in the pursuit of such an object, they can be led on to higher studies and ends. For mere instruction of a general nature (such as our masters now give) through the vernacular medium, it may, it seems to me, well be doubted 116

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whether even the number of pupils would seek our schools, who now resort to them. 28. On the other hand, I confess that I regard it as a serious defect in our plans that we have compiled no proper series of vernacular class books. It is obviously desirable that, as we have vernacular classes, the books used in them should not only be correct and elegant in style, but should be themselves of the most useful description. I would urge also the justness and importance of the advice18 of the Honorable Court that such a series of class books should be prepared under one general scheme of control and superintendence. Much expense will thereby be saved and efficiency greatly promoted. The cost would equitably and willingly be divided among many parties. The works would either be selections from English books of instruction already published, or original compilations adapted for Native pupils. In either case the charge of the first selection or compilation in English would be borne in past by the Education funds of Bengal, and in part by those of the other Presidencies, especially by those of Bombay where such works must be urgently required for the vernacular Schools in the Interior. The new Patsala of Calcutta, the projectors of which have proposed a good series of works, would also of course contribute, and aid might be expected from benevolent individuals or associations in different parts of India. The present opportunity is favourable to entering on the undertaking. When the books shall have been prepared in English they will afterwards, as the Honorable Court have observed, be translated at each Presidency into the Vernacular languages current in it, but the first step for all the Presidencies must be the primary compilation. I would then place the body, which at present represents the Government in the direction of Native education, in communication with the Committee of Public Instruction at Calcutta and make it my first injunction to the latter Committee in concert with the managers of the Hindoo College, Patsala, or others, to draw a definite scheme of the several sets of books wanted for instruction through the vernacular languages in Seminaries of ordinary Education—then to consider and report by what means and at what estimated cost, to be distributed among what parties, these books can be drawn up, and with what further cost the printing of them would be attended. With this information before them, the Government can determine on the completion of the plan and on the amount of funds which can properly, independent of the usual income of the Committee, be assigned to it. 29. I need scarcely repeat that I look with particular favour on the suggestions of the managers of the Patsala for including in the list of works Treatises on the elements of Law, general and local, of Political Economy and of Morals. 30. When the series of class books shall have been printed, and especially when these further Manuals of the precedents, rules and practice of our Courts to which my Minute in the Judicial Department of September 4th, 1838,19 referred, shall have been added to them and made a part of instruction, it is more probable than at present that students will attend the vernacular classes of our zillah schools for the sake of the general and practical knowledge to be acquired at them. In that stage of progress it would be my second direction to the Calcutta Education 117

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Committee to relax20 their rule for the discontinuance of separate vernacular instruction, and to allow students to attend the full course of English or vernacular tuition as they might themselves prefer. 31. The day however when all this can be accomplished, may yet be distant. It is easy to wish for and to project such compilations as will be requisite for the purpose, but the means in India for the efficient execution of them are unavoidably limited, and in this respect, as in other parts of our endeavours, we must expect delays and partial disappointments. 32. Meanwhile, we have to improve the Institutions which are established, and to make the most of them for the great end sought for. My leading recommendation on this point would be so to connect our zillah schools with the central Colleges as to give from the latter to the ablest students of the zillah schools a stimulus that will carry them beyond the ordinary range of instruction which is reached by the mass of the zillah pupils. Without such a stimulus we shall fall far short of the point which we must desire to gain in the promotion of national improvement. 33. This brings me to the question of pecuniary scholarships for meritorious students, for such a stimulus as I have spoken of is scarcely to be given excepting by attaching, in some form, scholarships of that description to the central Colleges to which the best of the zillah scholars may be eligible. On the general question regarding pecuniary support to promising students to enable them to perfect their studies, I think that I may content myself by referring to the facts and opinions which have been detailed on this point, and I will only therefore profess my decided adoption of the principle laid down by the Honorable Court in the words which I shall again quote from their Despatch of September 29th, 1830.21 “Provided,” they say, “that the privilege of scholarships is restricted to young men who have afforded proof of a peculiar capacity and industry, it appears to us to be a highly useful and proper mode of encouraging and facilitating their acquisition of high attainments.” My third present direction to the Calcutta Committee would now, therefore, be to consider and report with all expedition on the details of a scheme for assigning a certain number of Scholarships to all our higher Seminaries—those in the English and Oriental Colleges being in an equal ratio. In consequence of the very general poverty of the students I would fix the ratio on a higher scale say at one-fourth of the number of pupils, if that number “should afford proof of peculiar capacity and industry.” I do not suggest Scholarships in our ordinary Schools, as the most deserving pupils of those will best be provided for in the Colleges, and the average efficiency of such schools can well be maintained by honorary prizes or single donations of money. Of the College Scholarships it may perhaps be the most convenient in the first instance that some should be assigned, in regular rotation, to be competed for by the pupils of each zillah School. The amount ought from the commencement to be enough for the decent subsistence of a Native Student, and there might be some small increase admitted after a year or two, as an incentive to continued effort. On the other hand, the Scholarship should be forfeited, if a proper standard of attainment were not 118

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exhibited at each yearly examination. I would not grant Scholarships for a year only, liable to be then lost, if, upon the chance of an examination another competitor might stand higher on the list, for the uncertain tenure of the emolument would be very unfavourable to hearty, consistent study. But I would provide, by such safeguard as I have mentioned, against the growth of indolence or indifference in the Student. Four years is an ordinary period for holding such Scholarships at home and it may be sufficient here. The following is the scheme of the Flaherty Scholarships in the University College, London, taken from the report of the Council of that Institution for 1838. “They (the Council) have determined to apply the income of this fund towards the formation of the scholarships to be called Flaherty Scholarships, which, at the same time that they stimulate and reward the exertions of the students, might commemorate the zeal and munificence of this body. This donation, increased by the investment of the surplus dividends until the Scholarships are in full operation, together with the sum of £250 supplied by the Council out of the funds of the College, will constitute a fund producing £200 per annum which will be sufficient to create four scholarships, each amounting to £50 annually for four years. One of these Scholarships will be vacant every year, and it is to be given in alternate years to the best proficient in Classical languages and in Mathematics and in natural Phillosophy. The first is intended to be given in the present year to the best proficient in Mathematics and natural Philosophy.” 34. I would state to the Education Committee that it is the wish of Government eventually to bring the Medical22 College at Calcutta within our general scheme on this subject. But I would not press any immediate proposition to that effect. It will be enough to request now that the General Committee report specially in each of their successive yearly reports, whether they think that the time has arrived at which the assimilation could properly be introduced. 35. The Fourth point on which I would at present give instructions to the Education Committee, is as to the preference to be given to rendering the highest instruction efficient in a certain number of Central Colleges, rather than employing their funds in the extension of the plan of founding ordinary zillah Schools. I would have the places fixed, with reference to extent of population or convenience of locality, at which it should be the aim gradually to build up these efficient Central Colleges. I would, on a first conjecture, name for them Dacca, Patna, Benares, or Allahabad, Agra, Delhi and ultimately, though probably at a distant date, Bareilly. At these places, as well as at the Colleges of the Metropolis, the course of instruction should be carefully widened and perfected as opportunities offer. The Scholarships to be established at them will provide a class of students, prepared to avail themselves of the utmost advantages which they can afford, and real progress will thus be made, to the good effects of which we can look forward with reasonable hope. The Committee can act on this view only according to the actual state of circumstances from time to time. At Agra and Delhi, there is already a demand for higher instruction, which ought to be satisfied with the least delay possible. Elsewhere, perhaps, the condition of the Institutions may not call for, or admit of, immediate improvement. Where there 119

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is no strong occasion for the enlargement of the existing Schools into Colleges, the founding of other Schools may occasionally be the best and wisest appropriation of the educational income. But I would point it out to the Committee that the first of these objects, when practicable, is to have a declared priority of attention. I would especially invite the Committee to report how the studies connected with Jurisprudence, Government, and Morals, may be most readily introduced into our superior Colleges, and particularly whether very early arrangements cannot be made for the purpose in the Hindoo College at Calcutta. The revision of the system of scholarships in that college, so as to obviate the too general course of early withdrawal from instruction, which is now complained of, should have early consideration. Another object in these superior Colleges ought to be to instruct the pupils, or some proportion of them, for the duties of the inferior school masters,—and to this end, they should be made thoroughly masters of the class books and legal or other manuals which are designed to be used in the lower schools, and with the branches of knowledge which relate to the subject comprised in them. Lastly, in order to make the greatest use of the advantages of the Colleges, I would attentively watch the degree to which the students profit by their access to the considerable Libraries which are now attached to many of our Institutions. Important deficiencies in those Libraries should be promptly supplied. A regular register should be kept of the books read by each student, the advancement made in general knowledge by the perusal of these books should be tested by examination, and rewards should be given to the most proficient, and the subject of the employment made of the Libraries should be one for special notice in the annual reports regarding each Institution. 36. If instructions founded upon these observations, should with the concurrence of the President in Council be communicated to the Calcutta General Committee, I would be glad that it should be added to them that, if the Committee should doubt the feasibility of attaching scholarships to Central Colleges on some such general scheme as has been suggested for the improvement of the pupils of the zillah Schools, they will then submit such other recommendations as they may think most likely to promote the object contemplated by that scheme,—the advancement of the best pupils of the body of our scholars beyond the present scale of common acquirement being regarded as a point of the first importance in our educational plans. 37. I have not more to observe on the immediate guidance of the measures of the Calcutta Committee. Before leaving the subject, however, I would say that the day may come when unity and efficiency of supervision will better be secured by having a single Superintendent of our Government Seminaries with an adequate establishment than by retaining the existing large Committee of Members, acting gratuitously in the intervals of other laborious duties, and so numerous as necessarily to cause a frequent inconvenience in the dispatch of business. At present I am satisfied that the varied knowledge possessed by the Members of the Committee renders their services most valuable to the Government and I would gratefully retain their aid. But I should be happy to receive from them a report of 120

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their suggestions on the means of procuring an occasional local inspection of the Institutions under their charge. The experience of Sir Edward Ryan, their President, will have convinced him that there may be great hazard of the interests of education being seriously retarded by the want of such inspection. 38. For the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, it may be convenient to place those Governments in possession of the substance of the review which has been taken of the facts relative to the progress of education in all parts of India, and to communicate to them also the Resolution which may finally be adopted by the Government, explanatory of its general views on the suggestions which I have offered, and of the orders that may be issued for the guidance of the Committee in Calcutta. These Governments should be especially invited to co-operate, through the bodies charged with the control of Public Instruction under their superintendence, in the common object of aiding the preparation of an useful and comprehensive set of class books, to be afterwards rendered into the vernacular tongues of the several Provinces. In this, as in other parts of the Government, it is a matter of high importance that there should be a thorough understanding among the different Presidencies of the principles observed and plans followed out in each, that the experience of one should be made known for the benefit of all, and that all should work together in the pursuit of the desired result. The Bombay Government I would particularly request to consider the measures which I have contemplated for raising, and adapting to Native wants, the instruction conveyed in the most advanced of our English Colleges. I would ask also for a distinct and detailed report on the condition of its Mofussil vernacular Schools, the precise nature and range of the education given in them whether at Sudder Stations or in the interior towns and villages, the manner in which the teachers at either class of schools are selected and remunerated—whether (as has been before alluded to) by superintending and rewarding the teachers of the village schools who have not been trained in any of our own Seminaries, sensible good has been effected, whether, where there is no regular European Superintendence; these interior schools are kept in a state of real efficiency, whether induceNote.—On this point attenments in the grant of Scholarships are, and if they tion may be drawn to the quotaare not, whether they may not well be, held out to tion in para. 4 of my Secretary’s note on the backward state of the best scholars of the zillah schools to prosecute four boys selected from the their studies further, and to acquire an improving interior schools for the West knowledge of European literature, what are the scholarships. [A.] general inducements which bring pupils to the schools, and whether good conduct in them ordinarily leads, as appear to have been approved by the Honorable Court, to employment in the public service. It may be explained that under this Government there has been care taken to withhold anything like a monopoly of the public service from the Scholars of its institutions, general tests open to all candidates, and selection by local Officers with regard to known character as well as proficiency in learning, being considered the proper grounds for nomination to Public Office. If the lads from the schools are drafted largely into official situations, opinions from the European Officers 121

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under whom they have served as to the degree of superior fitness exhibited by them would be of value. It is probable that Captain Candy, Superintendent of the Schools in the Deckan and of the Sanscrit College, could condense the materials for such a report and submit it, with his own comments, without much delay. He will especially say whether the general standard of acquirement in the vernacular school is as forward as he could desire and whether he would recommend the establishment of English Schools, with a due arrangement of merit Scholarships, in a few of the interior districts. He will explain also what is his system in regard to the Sanscrit College at Poona, what improvements through the introduction of European knowledge have been attempted and with what success, and what is the extent and promise of the English Classes. 39. Of the Government of Madras I would ask for the information of the present state of Education under the direction or encouragement of the State, within those Territories, and as to what proceedings were taken consequent on the expressed desire of the Honorable Court for the foundation of an English College at Madras. The Madras Presidency is remarkable in India as being that in which knowledge of the mere English language is most diffused among all who are attached in public or private capacities to European Officers; but comparatively little appears on any reports before me, to have been done in order to make such a knowledge conducive to moral and intellectual advancement. 40. In concluding this paper, I have to express my regret if it should have extended to an inconvenient length. But the importance of the subject will be my excuse with my colleagues for my having treated it in this manner, with a view to the suggestion of such practical conclusions as may correct existing defects, diffuse more accurate information, and possibly have some effect in satisfying and reconciling opposite opinions. (Sd.) AUCKLAND. DELHI: November 24th, 1839.

Notes 1 Printed in THE REVD. DR. DUFF’s Letters addressed to Lord Auckland on the subject of Native Education, etc., 1841. 2 Document No. 41. Page 170. 3 First ‘belong’ was written, and afterwards this was changed to ‘have been assigned.’ 4 Document No. 32. Page 130. 5 See Document No. 41. Page 175. 6 The expected reply does not appear to have been received until 1841. It is printed in the Report of the General Committee, Bengal, 1839–40, p. cli f. 7 Document No. 41. Page 179. 8 See paras, 23 and 24 of Note [A.]. Page 175. 9 Miscellaneous Essays relating to Indian subjects, London, 1880, Vol. ii, p. 314. (The essay quoted was written in 1837.) 10 Not printed here; but see p. xxxix f. of the Report of the General Committee 1839–40. 11 Miscellaneous Essays, pp. 315–316.

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12 ADAMS’s Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar. Edited by J. LONG, p. 304. 13 See para. 5 of the Note [A.]. 14 See para. 5 of the Note [A.]. 15 See details at the close of para. 8, and in paras. 10 and 15 of Note [A.]. 16 See para. 3 of the Note [A.]. 17 NOTE.—Paras. 10 to 15 supra [A.]. 18 See extract of dispatch cited in para. 36 of Note [A.]. 19 Recorded in the Legislative Department. 20 See Note para. 6 [A]. 21 Evidence of 1832, App. I, No. 11 [343–496], also in Madras Selections, ii, 1855, p. xl. 22 See paras. 20 and 21 of Note [A.].

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13 CHARLES TREVELYAN, EXTRACTS FROM ON THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE OF INDIA (LONDON: LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN AND LONGMANS, 1838), 36–43, 50–57, 78–91, 106–115

CHAP. II. The Study of Foreign Languages and Literature a Powerful Instrument of National Improvement.—The Instruction of the upper and middle Classes the first Object.

THE past history of the world authorizes us to believe that the movement which is taking place in India, if properly directed and supported by the Government, will end in bringing about a decided change for the better in the character of the people. The instances in which nations have worked their way to a high degree of civilization from domestic resources only are extremely rare, compared with those in which the impulse has been communicated from without, and has been supported by the extensive study and imitation of the literature of foreign countries. The cases in which the most lasting impressions have been made upon national character, in which the superior civilization of one country has taken deepest root and fructified most abundantly in other countries, have a strong general resemblance to the case before us. In those cases the foreign systems of learning were first studied in the original tongue by the upper and middle classes, who alone possessed the necessary leisure. From this followed a diffusion of the knowledge contained in the foreign literature, a general inclination of the national taste towards it, and an assimilation of the vernacular language, by the introduction into it of numerous scientific and other terms. Last of all, the vernacular tongue began to be cultivated in its improved state; translations and imitations sprang up in abundance, and creative genius occasionally caught the impulse, and struck out a masterpiece of its own. Every scholar knows to what a great extent the Romans cultivated Grecian literature, and adopted Grecian models of taste. It was only after the national mind

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had become deeply impregnated from this source, that they began to have a literature of their own. The writers of the Augustan age were bred in the school, were animated by the spirit, were nourished with the food of conquered Greece. Virgil was a mere imitator, however noble: the Roman dramas are feeble translations from the Greek: the entire Roman literature is only an echo of the Greek literature. The Romans made no scruple in acknowledging the obligations they were under to the cultivation of Grecian learning. Their enthusiasm was directed to the object of enriching their native language with all that, in that age of the world, could be imported from abroad. It is a curious fact that an intellectual revolution similar to that which is now in progress in India, actually took place among the Romans. At an early period, the Etruscan was, as Livy tells us, the language which the young Romans studied. No patrician was considered as liberally educated who had not learned in the sacred books of the augurs of Clusium and Volaterræ, how to quarter the heavens, what was meant by the appearance of a vulture on the left hand, and what rites were to be performed on a spot which had been smitten by thunder. This sort of knowledge—very analagous to the knowledge which is contained in the Sanskrit books,—was considered as the most valuable learning, until an increased acquaintance with the Greek language produced a complete change. Profound speculations on morals, legislation, and government; lively pictures of human life and manners; pure and energetic models of political eloquence, drove out the jargon of a doting superstition. If we knew more minutely the history of that change, we should probably find that it was vehemently resisted by very distinguished Etruscan scholars, and that all sorts of fearful consequences were represented as inevitable, if the old learning about the flight of birds and the entrails of beasts should be abandoned for Homer, and if the mysteries of the bidental should be neglected for Thucydides and Plato. The Roman language and literature, thus enriched and improved, was destined to still prouder triumphs. The inhabitants of the greatest part of Europe and of the North of Africa, educated in every respect like the Romans, became in every respect equal to them. The impression which was then made will never be effaced. It sank so deep into the language and habits of the people, that Latin to this day forms the basis of the tongues of France and southern Europe, and the Roman law the basis of their jurisprudence. The barbarous hordes which triumphed over the arms, yielded to the arts of Rome. Roman literature survived the causes which led to its diffusion, and even spread beyond the ancient limits of the empire. The Poles and Hungarians were led neither by any pressure from without, nor by any artificial encouragement from within, to make Latin their language of education, of literature, of business, and, to a very remarkable extent, of ordinary colloquial intercourse. They did so, we may presume, because their own language contained nothing worth knowing, while Latin included within itself almost all the knowledge which at that time existed in the world. After this came the great revival of learning, at the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. At that period, the historian Robertson 125

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observes, “all the modern languages were in a state extremely barbarous, devoid of elegance, of vigour, and even of perspicuity. No author thought of writing in language so ill adapted to express and embellish his sentiments, or of erecting a work for immortality with such rude and perishable materials. As the spirit which prevailed at that time did not owe its rise to any original effort of the human mind, but was excited chiefly by admiration of the ancients, which began then to be studied with attention in every part of Europe, their compositions were deemed not only the standards of taste and of sentiment, but of style; and even the languages in which they wrote were thought to be peculiar, and almost consecrated to learning and the muses. Not only the manner of the ancients was imitated, but their language was adopted; and, extravagant as the attempt may appear, to write in a dead tongue, in which men were not accustomed to think, and which they could not speak, or even pronounce, the success of it was astonishing. As they formed their style upon the purest models; as they were uninfected with those barbarisms, which the inaccuracy of familiar conversation, the affectation of courts, intercourse with strangers, and a thousand other causes, introduce into living languages, many moderns have attained to a degree of elegance in their Latin compositions which the Romans themselves scarce possessed beyond the limits of the Augustan age.” Had the mental stimulus produced by the revival of letters been confined to scholars, the progress of improvement would have stopped at this point; but all who had time to read, whether they knew Latin or not, felt the influence of the movement, and this great class was receiving continual additions from the rapid increase of wealth. Hence arose a demand which the classical languages could not satisfy, and from, this demand sprang the vernacular literature of Europe. We are indebted to foreign nations and distant ages both for the impulse which struck it out, and for the writings which warmed the fancy and formed the taste of its founders. Abounding, as we are, in intellectual wealth, could we venture even now to tell our youth that they have no longer occasion to seek for nourishment from the stores of the Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, and Italian literatures? The French fell into a mistake of this kind, and they have suffered for it. Proud of the honour, and sensible of the political advantage of having their own language generally understood, they were not sufficiently alive to the new resources they might have derived from the study of foreign languages.1 Their literature, therefore, wants that copiousness and variety which is characteristic of the English and German. Now they see their error, and, instead of confining themselves to their own stores, and copying and re-copying their own models, they have begun to look abroad and study the masterpieces of other nations. German literature is a remarkable instance of the success with which industry and genius may nationalize foreign materials. It has arisen, almost within the memory of persons now living, on the basis of the astonishing erudition collected by the German writers from every living and dead language worth laying under contribution. Had our ancestors acted as the committee of public instruction acted up to March 18352; “had they neglected the language of Thucydides and Plato, and 126

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the language of Cicero and Tacitus; had they confined their attention to the old dialects of our own island; had they printed nothing and taught nothing at the universities but chronicles in Anglo-Saxon, and romances in Norman French, would England ever have been what she now is? What the Greek and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our tongue is to the people of India. The literature of England is now more valuable than that of classical antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanskrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors; in some departments, in history, for example, I am certain that it is much less so.

CHAP. III. The violent Opposition made by Oriental Scholars to the Resolution of the 7th March 1835.—The whole Question rests upon Two Points; firsts Whether English or Arabic and Sanskrit Literature is best calculated for the Improvement of the People of India; and secondly, Whether, supposing English Literature to be best adapted for that Purpose, the Natives are willing to cultivate it.—These Points considered.

THE resolution of the 7th of March 1835 was passed in the face of the most keen and determined opposition on the part of several distinguished persons whose influence had not been usually exerted in vain; and their representations were seconded by a petition got up by the numerous class of persons whose subsistence was dependent on the oriental colleges, and on the printing and other operations of the committee connected with them. The Asiatic Society also took up the cause with great vehemence, and memorialised the local government, while the Court of Directors and the Board of Control were pressed by strong remonstrances from the Royal Asiatic Society. The spirit of orientalism was stirred up to its inmost depths, and the cry of indignation of the Calcutta literati was re-echoed with more than its original bitterness from the colleges of France and Germany. In order to understand these phenomena, it will be necessary to go back a few years in the history of India. When Lord Wellesley established the college of Fort William, he provided munificently for the encouragement of oriental learning. For a long time after, that learning was nearly the sole test of merit among the junior members of the civil service, and such military and medical officers as aspired to civil employment. A superior knowledge of Sanskrit and Arabic wan sure to be rewarded by a good place. The reputations of many members of the government and of nearly all the secretaries had been founded on this basis. The literary circle of Calcutta was almost exclusively composed of orientalists. The education committee was formed when this state of things was at its height, and hence the decidedly oriental cast of its first proceedings. By degrees the rage for orientalism subsided among the Europeans, while the taste for European literature rose to a great height among the natives. A 127

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modification of the committee’s proceedings suited to this altered state of things was called for; but the persons who had been trained under the old system still occupied the strongholds of the administration, and motives were not wanting to dispose them to an obstinate defence. The habits of a long life were now for the first time broken in upon. They felt as if the world were given to understand that they had spent their strength for nought, and that their learning was altogether vanity.3 The axe seemed to them to be laid at the root of their reputations. This was more than human nature could bear. Men who had been remarkable for selfrestraint completely lost their temper, and those who had been accustomed to give free expression to their feelings showed unusual warmth on this occasion. It was a striking exhibition of character. It is true that the well-earned honours of mature life had rendered several of these distinguished persons independent of their early reputation for eastern learning. But this availed nothing. The blow had gone straight to the sources of their habitual feelings, and the effect which followed was highly remarkable. The motive which led the oriental literary societies to take up the cause of that section of the committee which supported the interests of oriental literature is still more obvious. The object of the Asiatic societies is to investigate the history and antiquities of the East; to lay open to the European world whatever the records of Asia contain to illustrate and aid the progress of mind, of morals, and of natural history. The object of the education committee is to instruct the people of India in sound knowledge and true morality. The Asiatic societies are organs for making known the arts and sciences of Asia to Europe. The education committee is an organ for making known the arts and sciences of Europe to Asia. Yet different, and, to a great extent, incompatible, as these objects are, the education committee had acted, in the main, as if it had been only a subordinate branch of the Bengal Asiatic Society. The same gentleman was long secretary to both. Ancient learning of a kind which every body must admit to be more fit for an antiquarian society than for a seminary of popular education was profusely patronised. Extensive plans for the publication of Arabic and Sanskrit works, which exceeded the means of any literary association, were executed out of the fund which the British parliament had assigned for enlightening the people of India. The full extent of this union became apparent after it had been dissolved. A limb had been torn from the parent trunk, and the struggle with which the disruption was resisted showed how intimate the connection had been. By vehemently complaining of the suspension of the plans for the encouragement of ancient oriental literature, the literary societies virtually acknowledged the identity of their own operations and of the past operations of the education committee. Those societies are entitled to the highest respect, and nobody can blame them for endeavouring to obtain support in the prosecution of the laudable objects for which they are associated. The responsible parties were the education committee and the Bengal government. It was for them to consider whether the mode which had been adopted of disbursing the education fund was the one best suited to the accomplishment of the object for which that fund had been instituted. If it was, 128

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they had properly acquitted themselves of the trust reposed in them, whether their plans happened to coincide with those of the Asiatic Society or not; if it was not, some change was obviously required. This deeply important subject was long and carefully examined, both by the committee and the government. The decision which was come to has been already related, and it is needless to recount all the arguments which were used on the occasion. The whole question turns upon two points: the first of which is, whether English or Sanskrit and Arabic literature is best calculated for the enlightenment of the people of India; the other, whether, supposing English literature to be best adapted for that purpose, the natives are ready to avail themselves of the advantages which it holds out. When these points are determined the question is settled, and it is capable of being settled in no other way. The comparative state of science in European and Asiatic countries might be supposed to be too well known to admit of any dispute on the first point; but as our opponents sometimes argue as if it were still a doubtful question whether English or oriental literature is most calculated to advance the cause of human improvement, I shall appeal to several authorities which will, I think, be listened to with deference on this question. The pains which the late Bishop Heber took to obtain correct information on every subject which had even a remote bearing on the improvement of India are so well known, that nobody will be surprised at his having left his opinion on this vital point fully on record. The following is extracted from his letter to Sir Wilmot Horton, dated March 1824, published in the appendix to his journal. “Government has, however, been very liberal in its grants, both to a society for national education, and in the institution and support of two colleges of Hindu students of riper age, the one at Benares, the other at Calcutta. But I do not think any of these institutions, in the way after which they are at present conducted, likely to do much good. In the elementary schools supported by the former, through a very causeless and ridiculous fear of giving offence to the natives, they have forbidden the use of the Scriptures or any extracts from them, though the moral lessons of the Gospel are read by all Hindus who can get hold of them, without scruple, and with much attention, and though their exclusion is tantamount to excluding all moral instruction from their schools, the Hindu sacred writings having nothing of the kind, and, if they had, being shut up from the majority of the people by the double fence of a dead language, and an actual prohibition to read them, as too holy for common eyes or ears. The defects of the latter will appear when I have told you that the actual state of Hindu and Mussulman literature, mutatis mutandis, very nearly resembles what the literature of Europe was before the time of Galileo, Copernicus, and Bacon. The Mussulmans take their logic from Aristotle, filtered through many successive translations and commentaries, and their metaphysical system is professedly derived from Plato, (‘Filatoun’). The Hindus have systems not very dissimilar from these, though, I am told, of greater length and more intricacy; but the studies in which they spend most of their time are the acquisition of the Sanskrit, and the endless refinements of its grammar, prosody, and poetry. 129

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This brings us to the second point which we had to consider, namely, whether, supposing English literature to be best adapted for the improvement of the people of India, they are themselves ready to profit by the advantages which it holds out. If it can be proved that tuition in European science has become one of the sensible wants of the people, and that, so far from being satisfied with their own learning, they display an eager avidity to avail themselves of every opportunity of acquiring the knowledge of the West, it must be admitted that the case put by the committee of 1824 has occurred, and that, according to their own rule, the time has arrived when instruction in western literature and science may be given on an extensive scale, without any fear of producing a reaction. The proofs that such is the actual state of things have been already touched upon. As the principle of the school book society is, to print only such books as are in demand, and to dispose of them only to those who pay for them, its operations furnish, perhaps, the best test of the existing condition of public feeling in regard to the different systems of learning which are simultaneously cultivated in India. It appears, from their last printed report, that from January 1834 to December 1835 the following sales were effected by them: — English books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31,649 Anglo-Asiatic, or books partly in English and partly in some eastern language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,525 Bengalee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,754 Hinduee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,171 Hindusthanee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,384 Persian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,454 Uriya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834 Arabic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Sanskrit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Indeed, books in the learned native languages are such a complete drug in the market, that the school book society has for some time past ceased to print them; and that society, as well as the education committee, has a considerable part of its capital locked up in Sanskrit and Arabic lore, which was accumulated during the period when the oriental mania carried every thing before it. Twenty-three thousand such volumes, most of them folios and quartos, filled the library, or rather the lumber room, of the education committee at the time when the printing was put a stop to, and during the preceding three years their sale had not yielded quite one thousand rupees. At all the oriental colleges, besides being instructed gratuitously, the students had monthly stipends allowed them, which were periodically augmented till they quitted the institution. At the English seminaries, not only was this expedient for obtaining pupils quite superfluous, but the native youth were ready themselves to pay for the privilege of being admitted. The average monthly collection on this account from the pupils of the Hindu college for February and March 1836 was, 130

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sicca rupees, 1,325. Can there be more conclusive evidence of the real state of the demand than this? The Hindu college is held under the same roof as the new Sanskrit college, at which thirty pupils were hired at 8 rupees each, and seventy at 5 rupees, or 590 rupees a month in all. The Hindu college was founded by the voluntary contributions of the natives themselves as early as 1816. In 1831 the committee reported, that “a taste for English had been widely disseminated, and independent schools conducted by young men reared in the Vidyalaya (the Hindu college) are springing up in every direction.”4 This spirit, gathering strength from time and from many favourable circumstances, had gained a great height in 1835; several rich natives had established English schools at their own expense; associations had been formed for the same purpose at different places in the interior, similar to the one to which the Hindu college owed its origin. The young men who had finished their education propagated a taste for our literature, and, partly as teachers of benevolent or proprietary schools, partly as tutors in private families, aided all classes in its acquirement. The tide had set in strongly in favour of English education, and when the committee declared itself on the same side, the public support they received rather went beyond, than fell short of what was required. More applications were received for the establishment of schools than could be complied with; there were more candidates for admission to many of those which were established than could be accommodated. On the opening of the Hoogly college, in August 1836, students of English flocked to it in such numbers as to render the organization and classification of them a matter of difficulty. Twelve hundred names were entered on the books of this department of the college within three days, and at the end of the year there were upwards of one thousand in regular attendance. The Arabic and Persian classes of the institution at the same time mustered less than two hundred. There appears to be no limit to the number of scholars, except that of the number of teachers whom the committee is able to provide. Notwithstanding the extraordinary concourse of English students at Hoogly, the demand was so little exhausted, that when an auxiliary school was lately opened within two miles of the college, the English department of it was instantly filled, and numerous applicants were sent away unsatisfied. In the same way, when additional means of instruction were provided at Dacca, the number of pupils rose at once from 150 to upwards of 300, and more teachers were still called for. The same thing also took place at Agra. These are not symptoms of a forced and premature effort, which, as the committee of 1824 justly observed, would have recoiled upon ourselves, and have retarded our ultimate success. To sum up what has been said: the Hindu system of learning contains so much truth as to have raised the nation to its present point of civilization, and to have kept it there for ages without retrogading, and so much error as to have prevented it from making any sensible advance during the same long period. Under this system, history is made up of fables, in which the learned in vain endeavour to trace the thread of authentic narrative; its medicine is quackery; its geography and astronomy are monstrous absurdity; its law is composed of loose contradictory 131

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maxims, and barbarous and ridiculous penal provisions; its religion is idolatry; its morality is such as might be expected from the example of the gods and the precepts of the religion. Suttee, Thuggee, human sacrifices, Ghaut murder, religious suicides, and other such excrescences of Hinduism, are either expressly enjoined by it, or are directly deduced from the principles inculcated by it. This whole system of sacred and profane learning is knitted and bound together by the sanction of religion; every part of it is an article of faith, and its science is as unchangeable as its divinity. Learning is confined by it to the Brahmins, the high priests of the system, by whom and for whom it was devised. All the other classes are condemned to perpetual ignorance and dependence; their appropriate occupations are assigned by the laws of caste, and limits are fixed, beyond which no personal merit or personal good fortune can raise them. The peculiar wonder of the Hindu system is, not that it contains so much or so little true knowledge, but that it has been so skilfully contrived for arresting the progress of the human mind, as to exhibit it at the end of two thousand years fixed at nearly the precise point at which it was first moulded. The Mohammedan system of learning is many degrees better, and “resembles that which existed among the nations of Europe before the invention of printing;”5 so far does even this fall short of the knowledge with which Europe is now blessed. These are the systems under the influence of which the people of India have become what they are. They have been weighed in the balance, and have been found wanting. To perpetuate them, is to perpetuate the degradation and misery of the people. Our duty is not to teach, but to unteach them,—not to rivet the shackles which have for ages bound down the minds of our subjects, but to allow them to drop off by the lapse of time and the progress of events. If we turn from Sanskrit and Arabic learning, and the state of society which has been formed by it, to western learning, and the improved and still rapidly improving condition of the western nations, what a different spectacle presents itself! Through the medium of England, India has been brought into the most intimate connection with this favoured quarter of the globe, and the particular claims of the English language as an instrument of Indian improvement have thus become a point of paramount importance. These claims have been thus described by one who will be admitted to have made good his title to an opinion on the subject: “How then stands the case? We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother tongue; we must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate; it stands pre-eminent even among the languages of the West; it abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us; with models of every species of eloquence; with historical compositions which, considered merely as narratives have seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as vehicles of ethical and political instruction, have never been equalled; with just and lively representations of human life and human nature; with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals, government, jurisprudence, trade; with full and correct information respecting every experimental science which 132

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tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man. Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It may safely be said that the literature now extant in that language is of far greater value than all the literature which three hundred years ago was extant in all the languages of the world together. Nor is this all: in India English is the language spoken by the ruling class; it is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of government; it is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East; it is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Austral-Asia,—communities which are every year becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian Empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects.” As of all existing languages and literatures the English is the most replete with benefit to the human race, so it is overspreading the earth with a rapidity far exceeding any other. With a partial exception in Canada, English is the language of the continent of America north of Mexico; and at the existing rate of increase there will be a hundred millions of people speaking English in the United States alone at the end of this century. In the West India islands we have given our language to a population collected from various parts of Africa, and by this circumstance alone they have been brought many centuries nearer to civilization than their countrymen in Africa, who may for ages grope about in the dark, destitute of any means of acquiring true religion and science. Their dialect is an uncouth perversion of English suited to the present crude state of their ideas, but their literature will be the literature of England, and their language will gradually be conformed to the same standard. More recently the English language has taken root in the continent of Africa itself, and a nation is being formed by means of it in the extensive territory belonging to the Cape out of a most curious mixture of different races. But the scene of its greatest triumphs will be in Asia. To the south a new continent is being peopled with the English race; to the north, an ancient people, who have always taken the lead in the progress of religion and science in the east, have adopted the English language as their language of education, by means of which they are becoming animated by a new spirit, and are entering at once upon the improved knowledge of Europe, the fruit of the labour and invention of successive ages. The English language, not many generations hence, will be spoken by millions in all the four quarters of the globe; and our learning, our morals, our principles of constitutional liberty, and our religion, embodied in the established literature, and diffused through the genius of the vernacular languages, will spread far and wide among the nations.6 The objection, therefore, to the early proceedings of the education committee is, that they were calculated to produce a revival, not of sound learning, but of antiquated and pernicious errors. The pupils in the oriental seminaries were 133

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trained in a complete course of Arabic and Sanskrit learning, including the theology of the Vedas and the Koran, and were turned out accomplished maulavees and pundits,—the very class whom the same committee described as “satisfied with their own learning, little inquisitive as to any thing beyond it, and not disposed to regard the literature and science of the West as worth the labour of attainment.” And having been thus educated, they were sent to every part of the country to fill the most important situations which were open to the natives, the few who could not be provided for in this way taking service as private tutors or family priests. Every literary attempt connected with the old learning at the same time received the most liberal patronage, and the country was deluged with Arabic and Sanskrit books. By acting thus, the committee created the very evil which they professed to fear. They established great corporations, with ramifications in every district, the feelings and interest of whose members were deeply engaged on the side of the prevailing errors. All the murmuring which has been heard has come from this quarter; all the opposition which has been experienced has been headed by persons supported by our stipends, and trained in our colleges. The money spent on the Arabic and Sanskrit colleges was, therefore, not merely a dead loss to the cause of truth; it was bounty money paid to raise up champions of error, and to call into being an oriental interest which was bound by the condition of its existence to stand in the front of the battle against the progress of European literature. It is also of particular importance in such a country as India, and on such a subject as popular education, that the government should have some certain test of the wishes of its subjects. As long as stipends were allowed, students would of course have been forthcoming. Now the people must decide for themselves. Every facility is given, but no bribes; and if more avail themselves of one kind of instruction than of another, we may be sure that it is because such is the real bent of the public mind. But for the abolition of stipends, false systems might have been persevered in from generation to generation, which, with an appearance of popularity, would really have been preserved from falling into disuse only by the patronage of government. The result of the experiment has been most satisfactory. Formerly we kept needy boys in pay, to train them up to be bigoted maulavees and pundits; now multitudes of the upper and middle classes flock to our seminaries to learn, without fee or reward, all that English literature can teach them. The practice of giving stipends to students was part of the general system by which learning was confined to particular castes; this monopoly has now been broken down, and all are invited to attend who are really anxious to learn. Where formerly we paid both teachers and students, we now only pay the teachers; and our means of extending our operations have been proportionably increased; yet, so great is the demand for teachers, that if we could only increase their number at will, we might have almost any number of students. It is constantly urged by the advocates of oriental learning that the result of all our efforts will only be to extend a smattering of English throughout India, and 134

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that the question is between a profound knowledge of Sanskrit and Arabic literature on the one side, and a super*********************************** of youth have to be instructed; the same desire exists on the part of the committee to give them a really good education; we have the same means at our disposal for accomplishing that object. A single show institution at the capital, to be always exhibited and appealed to as a proof of their zeal in the cause of liberal education, might answer very well, as far as the committee themselves are concerned; but what are the people of the interior to do, to whom this education would be equally useful, and who are equally capable of profiting by it? For their sake the committee have now established many Hindu colleges. English is a much easier language than either Arabic or Sanskrit. “The study of Sanskrit grammar,” Mr. Adam observes, “occupies about seven years, lexicology about two, literature about ten, law about ten, logic about thirteen, and mythology about four.” The course of study fixed for the Sanskrit college at Calcutta by Professor Wilson embraces twelve years, the first six of which are spent in learning grammar and composition; besides which, the boys are expected to know something of grammar before they are admitted. In three years boys of ordinary abilities get such a command of the English language as to be able to acquire every sort of information by means of it. The Sanskrit is altogether a dead language. The Arabic is not spoken in India. The English is both a living and a spoken language.7 The Brahminical and Moslem systems belong to bygone days; a large portion of them has become obsolete; a still larger is only faintly reflected in the habits of the people. The associations connected with the new learning, on the other hand, are gaining ground every day. The English government is established; English principles and institutions are becoming familiarized to the native mind; English words are extensively adopted into the native languages; teachers, books, and schools are rapidly multiplied; the improvements in the art of education, the result of the extraordinary degree of attention which the subject has received of late years in England, are all applied to facilitate the study of English in India. Infant schools, which have lately been introduced, will enable native children to acquire our language, without any loss of time, as they learn to speak. Nine years ago, when the first English class was established in the upper provinces,8 a few old fashioned English spelling books were with difficulty procured from the neighbouring stations. Nine years hence it is probable that an English education will be every where more cheaply and easily obtained than an Arabic or Sanskrit one. It is an error to anticipate the march of events, but it is not less so to neglect to watch their progress, and to be perpetually judging the existing state of things by a standard which is applicable only to past times. “This, too, will acquire the authority of time; and what we now defend by precedents will itself be reckoned among precedents.” Native children seem to have their faculties developed sooner, and to be quicker and more self-possessed than English children. Even when the language of instruction is English, the English have no advantage over their native 135

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class-fellows. As far as capability of acquiring knowledge is concerned, the native mind leaves nothing to be desired. The faculty of learning languages is particularly powerful in it. It is unusual to find, even in the literary circles of the Continent, foreigners who can express themselves in English with so much fluency and correctness as we find in hundreds of the rising generation of Hindus. Readiness in acquiring languages, which exists in such a strong degree in children, seems to exist also in nations which are still rising to manhood. No people speak foreign languages like the Russians and Hindus. Such nations are going through a course of imitation, and those qualities of mind upon which their success depends seem to be proportionably developed. When we go beyond this point to the higher and more original powers of the mind, judgment, reflection, and invention, it is not so easy to pronounce an opinion. It has been said, that native youth fall behind at the age at which these faculties begin most to develope themselves in Englishmen. But this is the age when the young Englishman generally commences another and far more valuable education, consisting in the preparation for, and practice of some profession requiring severe application of mind; when he has the highest honours and emoluments opened to his view as the reward of his exertions, and when he begins to profit by his daily intercourse with a cultivated intellectual, and moral society. Instead of this, the native youth falls back on the ignorant and depraved mass of his countrymen; and, till lately, so far from being stimulated to further efforts, he was obliged to ask himself for what end he had hitherto laboured. Every avenue to distinction was shut against him; and his acquirements served only to manifest the full extent of his degraded position. The best test of what they can do, is what they have done. Their ponderous and elaborate grammatical systems, their wonderfully subtle metaphysical disquisitions, show them to have a German perseverance and Greek acuteness; and they certainly have not failed in poetical composition. What may we not expect from these powers of mind, invigorated by the cultivation of true science, and directed towards worthy objects! The English, like the Hindus, once wasted their strength on the recondite parts of school learning. All that we can say with certainty is, that the Hindus are excellent students, and have learned well up to the point to which their instructors have as yet conducted them. A new career is now opened to them: the stores of European knowledge have been placed at their disposal: a cultivated society of their own is growing up: their activity is stimulated by the prospect of honourable and lucrative employment. It will be seen what the next fifty years will bring forth. To return to the point from which I have digressed; it is true, that a smattering of English formerly prevailed to a considerable extent, without any beneficial result; and that English acquirements were held in great contempt. The government then encouraged nothing but Oriental learning; and English, instead of being cultivated as a literary and scientific language, was abandoned to menial servants and dependents, who hoped by means of it to make a profit of the ignorance of their masters. It was first rescued from this state of degradation by Lord William Bentinck who 136

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made it the language of diplomatic correspondence. It was afterwards publicly recognised as the most convenient channel, through which the upper and middle classes of the natives could obtain access to the knowledge of the West; and many very good seminaries were established, to enable them to acquire it. The prejudice against English has now disappeared, and to know it, has become a distinction to which people of all classes aspire. There can be no doubt therefore of our now being able to make a deep and permanent impression on the Hindu nation through this medium, if sufficient means of instruction are provided.9 Another argument urged for teaching Arabic and Sanskrit is, that they are absolutely necessary for the improvement of the vernacular dialects. The latter, it is said, are utterly incapable of representing European ideas; and the natives must therefore have recourse to the congenial, accessible, and inexhaustible stores of their classical languages. To adopt English phraseology would be grotesque patchwork; and the condemnation of the classical languages to oblivion, would consign the dialects to utter helplessness and irretrievable barbarism.

Notes 1 It has been justly observed, that for the French to pride themselves upon all foreign nations studying their language, while they study the language of no foreign nation, is like a blind man boasting that every body can see him, while he can see nobody. 2 This is taken from one of the papers recorded during the discussions which preceded the resolution of the 7th March 1835. I shall hereafter make several similar extracts. 3 Jacquemont makes the following remarks on this subject in one of his letters to his father, vol. i. p. 222–3:—“Le Sanskrit ne ménera à rien qu’au Sanskrit. Le méchanisme de ce langage est admirablement compliqué, et néanmoins, dit on, admirable. Mais c’est comme une de ces machines qui ne sortent pas de conservatoires et des muséums, plus ingenieuses qu’utiles. Elle n’a servi qu’à fabriquer de la théologie, de la métaphysique, de l’histoire mêlée de théologie, et autres billevésées du même genre: galimathias triple pour les faiseurs et pour les consommateurs, pour les consommateurs étrangers surtout, galimathias 10, &c. &c. La mode du Sanskrit et de l’orientalisme littéraire en général durera cependant, parce que ceux qui auront passé ou perdu quinze ou vingt ans à apprendre l’Arabe ou le Sanskrit n’auront la candeur d’avouer qu’ils possèdent une science inutile.” 4 The entire extract will be found at page 8. 5 These are the words in which Mr. Adam sums up his description of Mohammedan learning in India; and the real state of the case could not be more accurately described. Gibbon’s sketch of Moslem learning will be found in the 52d chapter of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, under the heads, “Their real progress in the sciences,” and “Want of erudition, taste, and freedom.” But however defective Arabian learning may appear when viewed by the light of modern science, it would be doing great injustice to the Augustan age of the caliphs at Bagdad to compare it with the present æera of Mohammedan literature in India. The Indian Mohammedans are only bad imitators of an erroneous system. Arabic is studied at Calcutta as a difficult foreign language; original genius and research have long since died out, if they ever had any existence, among this class of literary people in India; and the astronomy of Ptolemy and the medicine of Galen are languidly transmitted by the dogmatic teachers of one generation to the patient disciples of the next.

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6 The Buddhist religion, which originated in Behar, has spread to the furthest extremity of China, and the intervening nations have always been accustomed to regard India as the fountain-head both of learning and religion. Thibetan literature is a translation from Sanskrit, and the vernacular language of Behar is the sacred language of Burmah and the adjoining countries. It may be hoped that India will hereafter become the centre of a purer faith. The innumerable islands of the South must also be powerfully acted upon by Austral-Asia, which has been wonderfully reserved to be erected at once into a civilized and powerful country in the darkest region of eastern barbarism. 7 The familiar use of a living language is an advantage which the teachers of Latin and Greek, as well as those of Sanskrit and Arabic, might envy. 8 At Delhi. 9 Translations are sent, with the Governor-General’s letters, to the native princes, when there is any doubt as to their being understood.

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14 ‘APPENDIX: EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO INQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF MEDICAL EDUCATION’, IN CHARLES TREVELYAN, ON THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE OF INDIA (LONDON: LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN AND LONGMANS, 1838), 207–220

Extract from the Report of the Committee appointed by the Indian Government to inquire into the State of Medical Education. AGREEABLY to your Lordship’s direction to that effect, we called upon Mr. Tytler to prepare a synopsis of what he conceives the pupils at the Institution should be taught in the different branches of medical science. This document, according to our view of it, does not contain by any means such a comprehensive and improved scheme of education as the circumstances of the case indicate the absolute necessity of. Leaving it entirely out of the question, then, at present, we would very respectfully submit to your Lordship in council our serious opinion, that the best mode of fulfilling the great ends under consideration, is for the state to found a Medical College for the education of natives; in which the various branches of medical science cultivated in Europe should be taught, and as near as possible on the most approved European system; the basis of which system should be a reading and writing knowledge on the part of candidate pupils of the English language, and the like knowledge of Hindustanee or Bengallee, and a knowledge of arithmetic; inclusive, of course, of proper qualifications as to health, age, and respectability of conduct. The Government might select from the various young men, who should pass the final examination, the most distinguished and 139

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deserving, for filling up vacancies as sub-assistant surgeons. A knowledge of the English language, we consider as a sine qua non, because that language combines within itself the circle of all the sciences, and incalculable wealth of printed works and illustrations; circumstances that give it obvious advantages over the oriental languages, in which are only to be found the crudest elements of science, or the most irrational substitutes for it. Of the perfect feasibility of such a proposal, we do not entertain a doubt: nevertheless, like any other, it will be found to divide the opinions of men of talent and experience. These will divide into an Oriental and an English party. Mr. Tytler’s long replies have imposed upon us the necessity of entering at greater length into the argument respecting the feasibility of the contemplated plan, than we could have wished. We beg to apologise to your Lordship for this circumstance, but as Mr, Tytler, instead of giving brief and simple answers to our questions, preferred committing them to paper in the form of long minutes; it became incumbent upon us to offer something in the way of refutation. The determined Orientalist having himself acquired the Sanscrit and the Arabic, at the cost of much and severe application, as well as of pecuniary expense, will view with great repugnance a suggestion of teaching science in such a way as may cast his peculiar pursuits into the shade, and independent of a language which he reveres as classical. The advocate for the substitution of the English language, on the other hand, will doubt whether the whole stores of Eastern literature have enabled us to ascertain a single fact of the least consequence towards the history of the ancient world; whether they have tended to improve morality, or to extend science; or whether, with the exception of what the Arabian physicians derived from the Greeks, the Arabic contains a sufficient body of scientific information to reward the modern medical student for all the labour and attention that would be much more profitably bestowed on the study of the English language; and lastly, whether the modicum of unscientific medical literature contained in the Sanscrit is worth undergoing the enormous trouble of acquiring that language. Unlike the languages of Europe, which are keys to vast intellectual treasures, bountifully to reward the literary inquirer, those of the East, save to a limited extent in poetry and romance, may be said, without exaggeration, to be next to barren. For history and science, then, and all that essentially refines and adorns, we must not look to Oriental writers. Mr. Tytler has favoured us with his opinions, on the question under consideration, at great length. The Rev. Mr. Duff, whose experience in instructing native youth is extensive and valuable, has also obliged us with his sentiments on the subject; which are entirely at issue with those of Mr. Tytler, who takes up the Oriental side of the question with equal ardour and ingenuity. Mr. Tytler denies that a system of educating the natives through the medium of English would be in the least more comprehensive, or by any means so much so, as one carried on in the native languages (Mr. Tytler, in that phrase including Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian); and considers it wholly inexpedient as a general measure. The Rev. Mr. Duff, on the other hand, although acknowledging that the native languages, by which we understand the Bengallee in the lower provinces, and the 140

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Oordoo in the higher, alone are available for imparting an elementary education to the mass of the people, affirms that the popular language does not afford an adequate medium for communicating a knowledge of the higher departments of literature and science, &c. “No original works of the description wanted,” he observes, “have yet appeared in the native languages; and though much of a highly useful nature has been provided through European talent and perseverance no translations have been made in any degree sufficient to supply materials for the prosecution of the higher object contemplated; neither is it likely, in the nature of things, that either by original publications, or translations of standard works, the deficiency can be fully or adequately remedied, for such a number of years to come, as may leave the whole of the present generation sleeping with their fathers.” (Answer to Question 20, p. 17.) Mr. Tytler’s reasons for his unfavourable opinion, in regard to the proposed plan, arise, he informs us, partly from the nature of language in general, and partly from the intrinsic difficulty of English itself. The difficulty, it strikes us, is magnified in Mr. Tytler’s imagination, and at any rate can scarcely be greater than that of acquiring Arabic and Sanscrit, which are about as foreign to the body of the people as English. “A bare knowledge of the English,” observes Mr. Tytler, “or of the words for objects, is plainly no increase of knowledge, unless it be accompanied with some additional information respecting the objects of which the words are the signs.” This is so self-evident a truism, that we are rather surprised Mr. Tytler should deem the stating of it of any use to his argument. The mere capability of uttering the word opium, for instance, would be of little use, unless accompanied by a knowledge of the qualities of that drug. It is not with a view to recommend a knowledge of mere words that we troubled Mr. Tytler for his opinion, and have now the honour of addressing your Lordship; but to rescue, if possible, the course of native medical education from this its pervading and crying evil; for assuredly, nothing, that has yet been made manifest to us tends to show that the pupils of the Institution, under the present system, acquire much beyond mere words; or to demonstrate, that an acquaintance with Sanscrit and Arabic vocables will give better ideas of things important to be known than English. In fact, to teach English science, English words must be used; or, in their stead, Arabic and Sanscrit ones must be coined. With the highest opinion of Mr. Tytler’s talents, acquirements, and zeal, and the greatest respect for his character, yet must we not be blinded to a certain degree of partisanship, which unconsciously, we doubt not, has apparently warped his otherwise excellent judgment on this question. A discrepancy in his opinions on this subject, however, appears to exist; for he would, to a certain extent, teach the pupils on English principles. If your Lordship will turn to Mr. Tytler’s synopsis, it will there be seen, that he proposes to teach the pupils the Latin and English names of the corporeal organs, and of the articles of the materia medica. For this purpose he would instruct them in the English system of spelling and pronunciation, in the declension of Latin nouns, and their rules of concordance. He would, in a word, lead them to the half-way house of English education, and there stop. “English” proceeds Mr. Tytler, “is one of the most difficult of all languages, and the most diversified in its origin. It arises from three sources—Saxon, Latin, and 141

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Norman-French, Its words and idioms vary in accordance with these three. Hence, a correct knowledge of it can be obtained only by a certain degree of knowledge of all the originals.” For the attainment of a hypercritical or highly scholastic knowledge, such as is not possessed by one Englishman out of a hundred, Mr. Tytler’s position may be readily acceded to. How many thousands are there, however, of Englishmen, persons of ability and intelligence in various walks of active usefulness, who know nothing, or next to nothing, of pure Saxon, Latin, and Norman-French? Nay, there is reason to suppose that there are not a few skilful and experienced surgeons not better versed in these languages, but who are valuable men in the profession notwithstanding. Will a native sub-assistant surgeon be the less capable of being taught to amputate a limb, because he cannot give the critical etymology of the words knife, limb, cut? Surely the great ends of life are not to stand still for want of knowledge of scholastic roots? It would be superfluous to point out, in a more elaborate manner, how very overstrained, and inapplicable to general experience, Mr. Tytler’s argument is. As very apposite to the subject under consideration, we beg to submit an extract or two from a forcible article by the late Dr. Duncan, jun., on Medical Education, which was published in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for 1827. “The knowledge of languages, in itself, derives its chief utility from its facilitating the acquisition of useful knowledge; and, therefore, as the mind may be nearly equally disciplined during the acquisition of any one language as of any other, their utility is directly proportional to the value of the information contained in the books written in them.” Tried by this test, how utterly mispent must be the time devoted by the native medical student to the study of Arabic, Sanscrit, and Persian! “It is argued,” continues the article quoted, “in favour of the study of the Greek language, that it is the language of the fathers of physic; and that the terms of medical art have been almost all borrowed from it and the Latin; and that it seems impossible to understand properly their meaning, without possessing some knowledge of the sources from which they have been derived.” The first argument would be nearly equally conclusive in favour of the Arabic, that physicians might read Avicenna and Rhazes in the original; and with regard to the last, we shall reply, on the authority of Dugald Stewart. “It is in many cases a fortunate circumstance when the words we employ have lost their pedigree, or (what amounts nearly to the same thing,) when it can be traced by those alone who are skilled in ancient and modern languages. Such words have in their favour the sanction of immemorial usage, and the obscurity of their history prevents them from misleading the imagination, by recalling to it the objects or phenomena to which they owed their origin. The notions, accordingly, we annex to them, may be expected to be peculiarly precise and definite.” (Stewart’s Phil. Essay, p. 184.) Indeed all attempts at descriptive terminology have utterly failed, and have impeded, instead of advancing, the progress of knowledge, “Medicine (observes the same eminent writer, in another place,) is a practical profession. That knowledge is most essential to its students, which renders them the most useful servants of the public; and all reputation for extrinsic learning (such, for instance, as Sanscrit and Arabic,) 142

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which is acquired at the expense of practical skill, is meretricious, and deceives the public, by dazzling their judgment.” Although Mr. Tytler has throughout, unconsciously to himself, we doubt not, overstrained his argument, yet is there one passage which, we are free to confess, trenches on the extravagant. “The great sources of our language,” he states, “must be shown; the Saxon, the Latin, and the French. We must explain what words and what idioms are derived from each, and what changes they have undergone in their passage. Till this be all done, difficult as it may seem, we may by much practice impress upon the natives a sort of jargon, and agree to call it English; but it will bear scarcely more resemblance to real English than to the dialect of the Hottentots.” In a word, if we do not make lexicographers of native sub-assistant surgeons, they will not be able to set a fracture, or to prescribe a dose of calomel; and their English remarks or directions, though perfectly intelligible, will amount, in fact, to nothing but a Hottentot jargon! Need we, in refutation of this exaggerated view, remind your Lordship, that there are many respectable native gentlemen in Calcutta, who both speak and write English correctly and fluently? The works of the late Rammohan Roy were not written in a Hottentot dialect; and at this moment there are three newspapers in Calcutta printed in the English language, and yet edited by natives. Why should not other native students be equally successful with those alluded to? We readily grant that much is to be yet done to render the English language more popular in India; but assuredly the most likely way of effecting this very desirable end, is not to bestow a premium upon the study of the Arabic, Sanscrit, and Persian, and to close the portal of employment to the English student. According to Mr. Tytler, it is not only the difficulty of acquiring the English, which is such a formidable obstacle in the way of the learner, but the almost insurmountable one of finding properly qualified English teachers. We beg to refer your lordship to his observations on this head, contenting ourselves with the remark, that if English is not to be taught to native medical students, until such an utopian selection of schoolmasters as Mr. Tytler indicates be made, then must the English language, and the treasures of scientific knowledge it contains, be long to them a fountain sealed. Mr. Tytler has several elaborate comments on the study of Greek and Latin, the scope of which is to show, that these languages have a greater affinity to the English language, than English has to Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian. The argument is ingenious, but far from conclusive. Latin and Greek, indeed, were the languages of the learned in Europe, as Arabic and Sanscrit are of the learned in India. There the parallel ends. English, however, enjoys an advantage that Latin did not at the epoch alluded to by Mr. Tytler. It is a living language; it is the language of a great people, many of whom, it may now be expected, will settle in this country; it is also the language of the governing power. It is not too much to expect that the time is not far distant when English will become much more popular than it is, and when to speak and write it correctly will be deemed a distinguishing privilege. Let English have fair play, and be placed at least upon a par with Sancrit, Arabic, and Persian, and it will become manifest to the most indifferent observer, that the natives study the latter, not because they are the best media for instruction, 143

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but because they lead to employment and competency, which the English does not. Perhaps an exception should be stated with reference to the Sanscrit—judging from a recent memorial of a number of Hindu youths to the secretary of the sub-committee to the Sanscrit College, representing, that after many years spent in the study of Sanscrit, they are in a destitute condition, as they can find neither employment nor consideration among their countrymen. So long as European literature was confined to Latin, Mr. Tytler estimates the attempts of our ancestors as mere forced imitations of the classics, the far greater part of which are now deservedly forgotten. Supposing the fact to be even as stated, it cuts both ways; and we may, by a parity of reasoning, assume, that so long as Eastern literature is confined to Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian, the writings of Indian students will be mere forced imitations of the Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian classics. But Mr. Tytler is a great deal too sweeping in his remarks; for many of the works of our ancestors in science, morals, and poetry, that were written in Latin, so far from being forgotten, are held in the highest estimation, even at this day, and are remarkable no less for strength of reasoning than for purity and elegance of expression. We shall be perfectly content if native students should be found to think as justly, and write as beautifully, in English, as Buchanan, Bacon, and various others did in Latin; or, to come nearer our own times, and in a professional walk, as Harvey, Sydenham, Boerhaave, Haller, Heberden, and Gregory did, in the same language. It should be borne in mind, that when Latin was, it may be said, the cradle of science, the English language had not attained that fulness and correctness of which it can now legitimately boast. The style of vernacular writers was not formed, being quaint, pedantic, and vitiated; composition was in its infancy, and there were but few writers. The times, too, were far from favourable to the cultivation of letters. To compare English composition as it was in those days, with what it afterwards became, would be to institute a comparison between a Hindoo figure-maker and Canova. Ever since the Reformation, the English language has been advancing to its present magnificent state of universality, copiousness, and beauty. It would, indeed, be a strange thing, if in our day, when more works are published in a year than were in the olden time printed in half a century, the native youth of India, who may turn to the study of English, should, in defiance of the standard works put into their hands, and in spite of precept and example, follow such pedantic and vitiated models as those alluded to by Mr. Tytler. Facts daily occurring around us, demonstrate the groundlessness of such a fear. “As it was in Europe,” contends Mr. Tytler, “so it will be with the English productions of the natives of India; they will be a mere patchwork of sentences extracted from the few English books with which their authors are acquainted.” Mr. Tytler should at least have shown, that, to produce such an effect, the circumstances were precisely the same in the two countries. How he has reached his postulate, he has not condescended to say; nor is it of much importance to know; for it is, after all, a hypothetical assumption. In recommending that native medical students should possess a knowledge of English, we are swayed by a hope, not of their writing 144

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books, good or bad, but of their thoroughly understanding and digesting valuable works in that language, comprising as it does an inestimable body of scientific information; and in progress of time, of their translating them into the vernacular tongues of India, for the benefit of their countrymen. We wish them to be able to drink at the fountainhead, instead of depending to allay their mental thirst with driblets of translations, occasionally from the hands of an European. But the exclusive study of English, Mr. Tytler deems, will be chargeable with producing an effect which he greatly deprecates. It must necessarily, he thinks, discourage the natives from the cultivation of their own tongues. Were Arabic and Persian their own tongues, there would be some show of reason in the objection; but when we bear in mind that they are as foreign to the people as English, its validity vanishes at once. To the great body of the people, too, the Sanscrit is in effect quite a foreign language. Of the absorption of that language we need have no fear, so long as it is the interest of the Brahmins to foster it. But if the thing were possible, we are by no means disposed to view the substitution of English for these tongues as a misfortune. As to the objection, that the study of English would put an end to all native composition and indigenous literature; we would simply inquire, if there is in the world a less edifying and more barren literature than that of Hindoostan, or one that has done less for morality, philosophy, and science? With reference to that imitation of English writers, which Mr. Tytler assumes would beset native students, that gentleman quotes with complacency a saying of Johnson, “That no man was ever great by imitation,” and amplifies the apophthegm so as to comprehend masses of men; as if the saying stood, that no people ever became great by imitation. The saying thus applied, becomes an untenable sophism; for, on reflection, we shall find that the converse of the position holds true; since civilisation itself is nothing else but a complex system of imitation. We beg now to call your Lordship’s attention to the opinions of the Rev. Mr. Duff. In reply to the question, whether, in order to teach the principles of any science to native boys, he considered it necessary that they should know Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian? the reverend gentleman replies, that, “In reference to the acquisition of European science, the study of the languages mentioned would be a sheer waste of labour and time; since, viewed as a media for receiving and treasuring the stores of modern science, there is, at present, no possible connection between them.” On the other hand, in reply to the question,—if he thought it possible to teach native boys the principles of any science through the medium of the English language? He replied, that, “The experience of the last three years has, if possible, confirmed the conviction he previously entertained, not merely that it is possible to teach native boys the principles of any science through the medium of the English language, but that, in the present incipient state of native improvement, it is next to impossible to teach them successfully the principles of any science through any other medium than the English.” He further records his opinion, that the study of the English language might be rendered very popular among the natives. “The sole reason,” he justly observes, “why the English is not now more a general and anxious object of acquisition among the natives, is the degree of 145

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uncertainty under which they (the natives) still labour as to the ultimate intentions of Government, and whether it will ever lead them into paths of usefulness, profit, or honour; only let the intentions of Government be officially announced, and there will be a general movement among all the more respectable classes.” But the teaching of English acquires much importance, when we consider it, with Mr. Duff, as the grand remedy for obviating the prejudices of the natives against practical anatomy. “The English language,” he urges (Mr. Duff’s replies, p. 32.), “opens up a whole world of new ideas, and examples of success in every department of science; and the ideas so true, and the examples so striking, work mightily on the susceptible minds of native youth; so that by the time they have acquired a mastery over the English language, under judicious and enlightened instructors, their minds are almost metamorphosed into the texture and cast of European youth, and they cannot help expressing their utter contempt for Hindoo superstition and prejudices.” There is an argument of fact put in by Mr. Duff, which is admirably to the point. We allude to the introduction of the English language and of English science among the Scottish Highlanders, whose native language, to this day, is the Gaelic. The parallel is a very fair one; for no people were more superstitious, more wedded to their own customs, and more averse to leaving their native country, than the Highlanders: but since the introduction of the English language among them, the state of things is much changed. The same observation applies to Ireland and Wales, where, as in the Highlands of Scotland, the English is a foreign language; and yet its acquisition is eagerly sought after by the natives of all these countries, as an almost certain passport to employment. There are medical men, natives of these countries, scattered all over the world, whose mother tongue is Welsh, Irish, or Gaelic, which, as children, they spoke for years—just as the children of European parents in India speak Hindoostance and Bengalee; with this difference, however, that the latter soon forget the Oriental tongues; while the youth who acquire the indigenous language of Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, and Wales, never lose the language of those countries, because they do not quit them till a more advanced period of life. For the first years of youth the Highlanders at school, even of all ranks, think in the Gaelic; but this does not prevent their acquiring such a fluent and business-like knowledge of English, as to enable them to pass through life with credit, and not unfrequently with distinction. What is there in the condition, physical or moral, of the natives of this country, that should render them incapable of acquiring English as easily as the Irish, the Highlanders, and Welsh? (Signed)

J. GRANT, . . . . . . . . . . . . .President. J. C. C. SUTHERLAND, C. E. TREVELYAN, THOMAS SPENS, Members. RAMCOMUL, SEN., M. J. BRAMLEY,

}

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15 SARAH TUCKER, EXTRACT FROM ‘CENTRAL SCHOOL FOR NATIVE GIRLS’, IN SOUTH INDIAN SKETCHES, PART I (LONDON: JAMES NISBET, 1848, 3RD EDN), 73–84

LETTER IX. MY DEAR LUCY, How differently circumstanced are the women in India from those in our own happy land! Here, where the light of the Gospel still shines brightly, they are considered as the companions and friends of their fathers, their brothers, or their husbands—their feelings are consulted, their comfort is promoted, and their mental improvement is attended to; for, known to be co-heirs of immortality, they are felt also to be helps meet upon earth. But far different is the lot of the native women in India—their relation to God being unknown, their usefulness to man is the only object of consideration; and it is taken for granted that the only end of their existence is to promote his temporal advantage. The females of higher rank are secluded in their own apartments, where, confined to the society of their children and attendants, and seldom honoured by a visit from their husbands, they pass the tedious days in indolence or useless occupations. In the lower ranks they are, in fact, household slaves, and when the work within doors is finished, are thrust out to beat rice, to draw water, to collect cow-dung for fuel, or even to work as bricklayers’ labourers, while their husbands perhaps are sitting at home, sleeping, or indulging in listless idleness. Whether of high or low caste, the wife never ventures to eat with her husband or her sons; she must stand behind till they have finished, and then, taking the leavings of their meal, must retire to eat it out of sight.1 You will readily suppose that their education is not attended to, and will not be surprised that while the boys are generally sent to school and taught to read, to write, and keep accounts, the poor girls are brought up in the most entire ignorance. Generally speaking, the higher classes still remain inaccessible on this point to European influence, and allege that their daughters would be degraded by 147

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learning to read! But happily, the lower classes are not so prejudiced, and though in most places they showed at first great unwillingness to allow their girls to go to school, yet now, as they begin to see the advantage of it, their unwillingness has very much given way, and in some places they are even anxious for their education. But there is as yet a very small number of female schools in proportion to the multitude of children who might be instructed, for the parents are too poor to pay; and all that are at present established in South India are entirely supported by the liberality of Christian friends. The first movement towards female education in Madras itself was from the natives. In 1824, several parents applied to Mrs. Ridsdale to establish a day school for their daughters. She did so, and others arose in consequence; but no regular plan was adopted till 1830, when some ladies residing there, determined to form themselves into a Committee, and to establish a larger number of schools. They were encouraged by finding the children willing to come, and very intelligent and quick in learning their lessons; and after a little while, a large room was built in Black Town for a central school. This school is under the charge of Mrs. Winckler, whose lively and affectionate interest for the children is met on, their part by a fondness for school, and a desire for improvement, which leads to the assured hope, that her work of faith and labour of love will not be thrown away. There are generally about a hundred and forty girls present, and you would be delighted to see them, with their gentle yet eager countenances, standing in their classes, or more frequently sitting on the ground with their legs crossed, learning their lessons, or knitting, or working, or writing; and I assure you there are not many schools in England that could show such beautifully neat work as is sent out from this. You would wonder to see them write their copies, for, instead of paper, they have each of them an olei, or long strip of the palmyra leaf, about an inch and a half broad, and one or two feet long. This they hold in the left hand, and in their right, instead of pen and ink, they grasp a style, or sharp iron instrument, which they rest against a notch in the left thumb nail, and with it scratch the words on the leaf. They afterwards rub it over with powdered charcoal, or the leaf of some particular plant, which, sinking into the scratches, makes the letters black or green.2

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To us this would be a difficult and awkward manner of writing; but the natives, from long habit, write in this way very neatly and quickly. You would wonder too at their school books, which are of the same material as their copies, only the strips are shorter, and all cut to the same length and breadth; they are kept together by a string fastened to a shell, which is long enough to allow the leaves to be sufficiently separated to be read, and when they are not in use, is twisted round them. Sometimes the outside leaves are ornamented with various devices, and when nicely executed, the whole is remarkably neat and pretty.

The parents of some of the children at Mrs. Winckler’s school are employed in the service of Europeans, and being therefore comparatively well off, can afford to give them proper clothing, and to allow them two meals a-day. But the rest are extremely poor and wretched; they come to school half-naked, very dirty, and sometimes without food; so that it not unfrequently happens, that a girl, when standing up in her class, will become so faint from hunger and exhaustion, as to be obliged to leave her place and lie down. Miserable indeed is the outward condition of many of these poor girls: and yet, happy are they if they learn, as we may hope some of them do, the way to obtain true riches—gold tried in the fire, and raiment made white in the blood of the Lamb. Their parents are too poor to have even a house of their own, they live in the piols of the houses of the better classes, sheltering themselves with a screen of cocoa-nut leaves or bamboos, without any furniture except a few chatties,3 in one of which they make their fire, and in the others dress their food, or keep their rice and water. Sometimes, but not always, they have a mat to sleep upon. The poverty of these poor people obliges them to eat whatever they can get, fish, dead animals, and any kind of grain boiled soft; but the higher classes are very particular in their diet, and any departure from the established customs would occasion loss of caste. The food of these last is almost exclusively rice and vegetables, with curry, and sometimes a little assafœtida, which they say gives a flavour resembling animal food. When at home and alone, their food is served to them in small brass basins; but when they receive visitors, or are on a journey, they only use plates of leaves, that they may avoid all risk of defilement. These plates are very pretty, and are made of one leaf, if large enough, or if not, of several small ones, pinned together with little splinters of the stalk. A dinner party among the richer Bramins must be a curious sight. The guests are of course seated on the floor, and before each of them twenty or thirty of these plates are set, filled with various kinds of food. These are all placed on the bare floor; which, instead of a table cloth, is adorned with patterns of flowers, &c., very prettily laid out in sands of different bright colours, in frames, which are removed when the feast is concluded. 149

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From the same fear of defilement, they never allow their earthen vessels to be seen; but when they go to the bazaar or the well, will only take those of brass or lead, as these can be more thoroughly cleansed than the others. But I have wandered away very far from Mrs. Winckler and her school, and will now return there for a few minutes. There are examinations held every month, but besides these, there is an annual one, when all the Madras schools under the Ladies’ Committee are collected together at the central school, and the upper classes from each school are examined. A lady, who has several times been present, gives me the following account:— “The room is spacious and lofty, with pillars along the sides; at one end were the benches for the visitors, and the girls who were to be examined, about ninety in number, were seated at the other. The younger ones were ranged along the sides of the room, between the pillars and the outer wall, and the number altogether was above 500. On a table in the middle of the room were specimens of their work and writing, and on another, the rewards intended for distribution. “It was a very striking sight, when I first went in, to see all these girls seated on the floor, with olei copies lying before them, and books or samplers in their hands. “As I was early, I had time to look round the room; and one of the girls was called out that I might see her write. There was not a blank leaf left, so Daniel (the Madras head catechist), who was present, just took one of the written copies, and splitting it, made two fresh pages, the girl laid the leaf upon her knee, and wrote a few lines very neatly and quickly. “As soon as the visitors had arrived, and all was ready, a Tamul hymn was sung to an English tune; this was followed by a prayer in English, which was interpreted by Daniel into Tamul; then the Lord’s prayer in Tamul, in which the girls all joined. “They were first examined in Gen. xviii., which they had prepared on purpose, and they answered extremely well. One of the chaplains, who was there, then asked them questions on different parts of Scripture, and this interested me even more than the former, as they were quite unprepared, and yet gave very satisfactory answers. “They seemed thoroughly to understand the fall of Adam and the remedy provided: ‘What did Adam and Eve lose by eating the forbidden fruit?’ ‘They lost the likeness of God.’ ‘Is man now born in the likeness of God?’ ‘Illé,’ (No,) from many voices. I lost a great deal from not understanding Tamul; for, though the clergyman translated the questions and answers, it, of course, was not the same thing, particularly as, when several answered together, he only repeated the answer which seemed the most appropriate. When, however, the answer was only ‘Ama,’ (Yes,) or ‘Illé,’ (No,) I could understand and fully enjoy it. “They were well acquainted with the history of Abraham. When asked about his faith, one girl made a long quotation from Romans iv., which she applied very nicely: ‘Was Abraham justified by his righteousness?’ ‘Illé,’ from many voices. ‘By what then?’ ‘By faith.’ ‘By whose righteousness?’ ‘The LORD’s.’ They seemed 150

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quite to understand the alone way of salvation through JESUS CHRIST; and when asked whether Vishnoo or Síva could save them, the ‘Illé’ that sounded through the room, seemed to come from their hearts. “It is a painful part of the intercourse with these poor girls, to know that, after they have been thus declaring, and apparently with sincerity, that their idols cannot save them, they return home and join their parents in worshipping them.” There have not, however, been wanting instances of girls being so convinced of the falsehood of their own religion, and the truth of Christianity, that they have made an uncompromising confession of it, and suffered much in consequence. One girl refused to accompany her friends to a heathen temple, and when forcibly carried there, still refused to worship the idol; and another was driven from her home, and obliged to take refuge in the house of one of the catechists. I wish I could tell you more about these two girls, but I have never heard of them since. “When the examination was over, the girls came round to show their work and writing, and the absence of the English curtsey was more than supplied by their graceful salaam.4 “The rewards were then distributed, consisting chiefly of bags, needle books, and scissors, sent by friends in England; and the kind donors would indeed have been gratified, could they have seen the pleasure they afforded, and the smiles and salaams with which they were received.” I was much amused by an account I heard from the same lady of a doll being shown to some of these children. It was dressed as an English housemaid; but, as they cannot be persuaded that there are any white people except ladies and gentlemen, they were not a little astonished and perplexed when told that this was an English ayah. “What! ayahs dress like ladies?” “Do they live with them—and eat with them?” “Do they have knives and forks, or do they eat with their fingers?” “Shoes and stockings, too! Does it rain there? Is it not dirty? Do they wear them when they go out?” were a few of the expressions of surprise that were called forth. The idea, however, of all white people being ladies and gentlemen, is not confined to these poor children, for a gentleman who had lived in India from his earliest childhood, and came to England for the first time a little while ago, told me, that on his arrival, he could with difficulty divest himself of the same notion, and when walking in the streets of London, frequently found himself wondering where all the servants and low-caste people could be. But my letter has run on to an unusual length, and I will only add that I remain, Yours affectionately, S. T

Notes 1 Bishop Heber says, “The worst food, the coarsest garments, the meanest work, and the hardest blows, seem to be considered the woman’s portion.”

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2 A clergyman who has sometimes preached in the Mission church at Palamcottah, told me that the first time he gave out his text, there was suddenly such a scratching, like the nibbling of mice, that he could not think what it could be, till he found it was the seminary boys writing down the text upon their oleis. 3 Earthen vessels of various forms and sizes. 4 Gently bowing the head, with the hand on the forehead.

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Including: -

William Adam’s Letter to William Bentinck on Vernacular Education On Village schools and their defects On Female Education On Native language and English Language education On vernacular instruction On the improvement of Sanskrit Education MR. ADAM’S LETTER TO

LORD W. BENTINCK, ON

VERNACULAR EDUCATION. From W. ADAM, Esquire, to the Right Hon’ble Lord WILLIAM CAVENDISH BENTINCK, K. C. B., G. C. H., Governor General of India,—Dated the 2nd January 1835. MY LORD,—AT your Lordship’s request, I have the honor to address you in writing on the subject to which my recent personal communications with your Lordship have had principal reference. Having submitted a proposal to institute an investigation into the actual state of education in this country, with a view to ulterior measures for its extension and improvement, and the object of that proposal being approved by your Lordship, I have been instructed to describe the mode in which the plan might be carried into effect, and to furnish an estimate of the monthly expense that would thereby be incurred. A brief reference to 153

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the considerations that recommend the design is requisite to render those details intelligible. 2. It is assumed that Government is desirous of encouraging education amongst all classes of its subjects, whether Christians, Mahomedans, or Hindoos, as a means of improving their condition by a better knowledge of the arts of life that minister to human wants; of purifying and elevating their character by moral and intellectual instruction; and of qualifying them at once to appreciate the benevolent intentions and salutary measures of Government, and to give to those measures the moral force derived from the support of an intelligent and instructed population. Without this moral force, which education only can create, Government, however benevolently administered, is but the will of the strongest which finds no response where physical power does not reach, and legislation, however wisely devised, is but a dead letter, which reposes in the statute book, is barely enforced in the Courts, and out of them is inert and unknown. 3. Such being the understood objects of Government in promoting education in this country, the question arises—“What are the best The object of investigation. means to be employed for that purpose?” Without disputing any of the answers that have been or may be returned to this question, I have ventured to suggest that a preliminary inquiry without which every scheme must want a foundation to rest upon is—“What is the actual state of education amongst the various classes into which the population of the country is divided?” When the population of a country is homogeneous, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, and having common interests, such an investigation might be the less necessary; but where the more instructed portion of the population is separated from the less instructed portion by difference of language, as in Scotland; by difference of language and religion, as in Ireland; and by the further difference, as in India, caused by the relative position of foreigners and natives, conquerors and conquered, it is indispensable. In such cases it is only by a careful attempt to map the moral and intellectual condition of a people that we can understand either the extent of their knowledge or of their ignorance, discover either what they possess or what they need, and adapt the means employed to the end we desire to accomplish. In a recent investigation into the state of education in the Highlands of Scotland, it was proved that thousands could not read, natives of a country where it had been proudly boasted that all were educated. A similar investigation into the state of education in India may perhaps show, not that the people are less, but that they are more, instructed than we suppose, and that they have institutions among them both for the purposes of common education and for the propagation or rather preservation of the learning they possess. The institutions to which I refer will probably be found defective in their organization, narrow and contracted in their aim, and destitute of any principle of extension and improvement; but of their existence the large body of literature in the country, the large body of learned men who hand it down from age to age, and the large proportion of the population that can read and write, are proofs. Of course, I do not mean to intimate that their existence has been hitherto unknown, but that their 154

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number, their efficiency, their resources and the possibility of employing them as auxiliaries in the promotion of education have not been sufficiently considered. 4. To whatever extent such institutions may exist, and in whatever condition they may be found, stationary, advancing, or retrograding, they present the only true and sure foundations on which any scheme of general or national education can be established. We may deepen and extend the foundations, we may improve, enlarge and beautify the superstructure, but these are the foundations on which the building should be raised. All men, particularly uninstructed and half-instructed men, attach the same importance to forms as to substance, and as forms are merely conventional, it is desirable in the work of reform to disembarrass ourselves of opposition founded on the overthrow of ancient forms, and to enlist on our side the prepossessions in favor of their continued use. Besides, there is a probability that those forms, if not at the period of their original adoption, yet by long continued usage are suited to the manners, habits, and general character of the people whom we desire to benefit, and that any other forms which we might seek to establish would in reality be less fitted to supply their place. All schemes for the improvement of education, therefore, to be efficient and permanent, should be based upon the existing institutions of the country, transmitted from time immemorial, familiar to the conceptions of the people, and inspiring them with respect and veneration. To labor successfully for them, we must labor with them; and to labor successfully with them, we must get them to labor willingly and intelligently with us. We must make them, in short, the instruments of their own improvement; and how can this be done but by identifying ourselves and our improvements with them and their institutions? To do this, we must first ascertain what those institutions are, their actual condition, and every circumstance connected with them that can be made to contribute to the object in view. To make this important preliminary inquiry is the service for which I have offered myself to your Lordship. 5. In obedience to your Lordship’s orders, I have now to state the manner in which I would propose that this service should be perMode of investigation. formed. There are two descriptions of places with regard to which a somewhat different mode of investigation will be necessary, viz., first, principal towns or seats of learning, as Calcutta, Nuddea, Dacca, Moorshedabad; secondly, districts, as Jessore, Midnapore and Purneah. 6. With regard to the former—Taking up my residence at one of the principal towns or seats of learning, I would, with the aid of my Pundit and Moulavee and by friendly communication with the respectable inhabitants and learned men of the place, make an enumeration or list of the various institutions for the promotion of education; classify them according to the denominations of which they may consist, whether Hindoos, Mahomedans, or Christians; public, private, charitable; examine each institution of each class with the consent of the parties concerned, and make a memorandum on the spot of the number of the pupils; the nature and extent of the course of instruction in science and learning, the resources of the institution, whether public or private; if public, whether they appear to be efficiently and legitimately applied, the estimation in which the institution is held 155

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by the community to which it belongs, and the possibility or means of raising the character and enlarging the usefulness of any single institution, or of a whole class. Having exhausted the institutions of one class, I would proceed to another, and from that to a third, repeating the same process in each, until I had obtained a complete knowledge of the state of education in the whole town and neighbourhood. The memoranda thus taken down on the spot and at the instant, the fruits of personal knowledge and direct observation, would supply the materials from which a full and methodical report would be furnished to Government. 7. A somewhat different mode must be employed in investigating the state of education in a district where common schools and schools of learning are indiscriminately scattered over a large surface. In that case, fixing my principal residence at the head station of the zillah, I would diverge from it in all directions to the extreme bounds of the district, passing one, two, three, or more days at one place, according as objects of investigation of the kind connected with my immediate duty presented themselves, entering freely into communication with parents, teachers, and pundits on that subject, examining schools, both common and learned, and, as in the former case, making my memoranda at the time for future guidance in preparing a report. After having completed the range of one district, I would proceed to another, until I had in this manner gone over the whole country assigned to my investigation. 8. The number and frequency of my reports must depend upon the greater or less abundance of the materials with which observation and inquiry may supply me. I should commence my labors with the purpose of furnishing a separate report on the state of education in each principal town and in each district as soon as it has been examined, for there may be circumstances connected with the state of education in the town or district demanding early attention either for the purpose of remedying what is evil, or encouraging what is good. It is also possible, however, that one district may be so entirely a picture of another, with reference to this particular subject, that a separate report for each will be unnecessary. When I shall have gone the tour of a province, as of Bengal, Behar, Allahabad, or Agra, it would seem proper that I should then furnish a general report, condensing the details of the previous district reports, confirming and amplifying or qualifying and correcting the statements and opinions they contain by the results of more comprehensive observation, and drawing those general conclusions which can be safely grounded only on an extensive induction of particulars. A general report upon school books and books of instruction, or a separate report upon those in each language, distinguishing those that are most useful, pointing out when labor and money have been misapplied, to prevent a recurrence of the same evil, and indicating the department of knowledge in which chiefly defects remain to be supplied, is also a desideratum. The estimate of 100,000 such schools in Bengal and Behar is confirmed by a consideration of the number of villages in those two provinces. Their number has been officially estimated at 150,748, of which, not all, but most have each a school. If it be admitted that there is so large a proportion as a third of the villages that have no schools, there will still be 100,000 that have them. Let it be admitted that these calculations from uncertain premises are only distant approximations to 156

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the truth, and it will still appear that the system of village schools is extensively prevalent; that the desire to give education to their male children must be deeply seated in the minds of parents even of the humblest classes; and that these are the institutions, closely interwoven as they are with the habits of the people and the customs of the country, through which primarily, although not exclusively, we may hope to improve the morals and intellect of the Native population. It is not, however, in the present state of these schools, that they can be regarded as valuable instruments for this purpose. The benefits resulting from them are but small, owing partly to the incompetency of the instructors, and partly to the early age at which through the poverty of the parents the children are removed. The education of Bengalee children, as has been just stated, generally commences when they are five or six years old and terminates in five years, before the mind can be fully awakened to a sense of the advantages of knowledge or the reason sufficiently matured to acquire it. The teachers depend entirely upon their scholars for subsistence, and being little respected and poorly rewarded, there is no encouragement for persons of character, talent or learning to engage in the occupation. These schools are generally held in the houses of some of the most respectable native inhabitants or very near them. All the children of the family are educated in the vernacular language of the country; and in order to increase the emoluments of the teachers, they are allowed to introduce, as pupils, as many respectable children as they can procure in the neighborhood. The scholars begin with tracing the vowels and consonants with the finger on a sand-board and afterwards on the floor with a pencil of steatite or white crayon; and this exercise is continued for eight or ten days. They are next instructed to write on the palm-leaf with a reed-pen held in the fist not with the fingers, and with ink made of charcoal which rubs out, joining vowels to the consonants, forming compound letters, syllables, and words, and learning tables of numeration, money, weight, and measure, and the correct mode of writing the distinctive names of persons, castes, and places. This is continued about a year. The iron style is now used only by the teacher in sketching on the palm-leaf the letters which the scholars are required to trace with ink. They are next advanced to the study of arithmetic and the use of the plantain-leaf in writing with ink made of lamp-black, which is continued about six months, during which they are taught addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and the simplest cases of the mensuration of land and commercial and agricultural accounts, together with the modes of address proper in writing letters to different persons. The last stage of this limited course of instruction is that in which the scholars are taught to write with lamp-black ink on paper, and are further instructed in agricultural and commercial accounts and in the composition of letters. In country places the rules of arithmetic are principally applied to agricultural and in towns to commercial accounts: but in both town and country schools the instruction is superficial and defective. It may be safely affirmed that in no instance whatever is the orthography of the language of the country acquired in those schools, for although in some of them two or three of the more advanced boys write out small portions of the most popular poetical compositions of the country, yet the manuscript copy itself is so inaccurate 157

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that they only become confirmed in a most vitiated manner of spelling, which the imperfect qualifications of the teacher do not enable him to correct. The scholars are entirely without instruction, both literary and oral, regarding the personal virtues and domestic and social duties. The teacher, in virtue of his character, or in the way of advice or reproof, exercises no moral influence on the character of his pupils. For the sake of pay, he performs a menial service in the spirit of a menial. On the other hand, there is no text or school-book used containing any moral truths or liberal knowledge, so that education being limited entirely to accounts, tends rather to narrow the mind and confine its attention to sordid gain, than to improve the heart and enlarge the understanding. This description applies, as far as I at present know, to all indigenous elementary schools throughout Bengal.

SECTION V. FEMALE INSTRUCTION.

Some account of the means and amount of female instruction is indispensable, but on this subject I have been able to collect very little information. The female population of all ages in Nattore, according to Table I., amounts to 94,717. Of the total female population, 16,497 are under five years of age; that is, are below the teachable age, or the age at which the first instruction in letters may be or is communicated. Of the total female population, 16,792 are between fourteen and five years of age; that is, are of the age at which the mind is capable of receiving in an increasing degree the benefit of instruction in letters. The state of instruction amongst this unfortunate class cannot be said to be low, for with a very few individual exceptions there is no instruction at all. Absolute and hopeless ignorance is in general their lot. The notion of providing the means of instruction for female children never eaters into the minds of parents; and girls are equally deprived of that imperfect domestic instruction which is sometimes given to boys. A superstitious feeling is alleged to exist in the majority of Hindu families, principally cherished by the women and not discouraged by the men, that a girl taught to write and read will soon after marriage become a widow, an event which is regarded as nearly the worst misfortune that can befal the sex; and the belief is also generally entertained in native society that intrigue is facilitated by a knowledge of letters on the part of females. Under the influence of these fears there is not only nothing done in a native family to promote female instruction, but an anxiety is often evinced to discourage any inclination to acquire the most elementary knowledge, so that when a sister, in the playful innocence of childhood, is observed imitating her brother’s attempts at penmanship, she is expressly forbidden to do so, and her attention drawn to something else. These superstitious and distrustful feelings prevail extensively, although not universally, both amongst those Hindus who are devoted to the pursuits of religion, and those who are engaged in the business of the world. Zemindars are for the most part exempt from them, and they in 158

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general instruct their daughters in the elements of knowledge, although it is difficult to obtain from them an admission of the fact. They hope to marry their daughters into families of wealth and property, and they perceive that, without a knowledge of writing and accounts, their daughters will, in the event of widowhood, be incompetent to the management of their deceased husbands’ estates, and will unavoidably become a prey to the interested and unprincipled. The Mahomedans participate in all the prejudices of the Hindus against the instruction of their female offspring, besides that a very large majority of them are in the very lowest grades of poverty, and are thus unable, even if they were willing, to give education to their children. It may, therefore, be affirmed that the juvenile female population of this district, that is, the female population of the teachable age or of the ago between fourteen and five years, without any known exception and with so few probable exceptions that they can scarcely be taken into the account, is growing up wholly destitute of the knowledge of reading and writing. Upon the principle assumed in Section 1 in estimating the total population, it will follow that the juvenile female population of the whole district is eight times that of Nattore or 134,336; that is, in the single district of Rajshahi there is this number of girls of the teachable age growing up in total ignorance.

SECTION XII. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE STATE OF INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS MENTIONED IN THE PRECEDING SECTION.

It is impossible for me fully to express the confirmed conviction I have acquired of the utter impracticability of the views of those, if there are any such, who think that the English language should be the sole or chief medium of conveying knowledge to the natives. Let any one conceiving the desirableness of such a plan abandon in imagination at least the metropolis of the province or the chief town of the district in which he may happen to be living, and with English society let him abandon for a while his English predilections and open his mind to the impressions which fact and observation may produce. Let him traverse a pergunnah, a thana, a district, from north to south, from east to west, and in all directions. Let him note how village appears after village, before and behind, to the right hand and to the left, in endless succession; how numerous and yet how scattered the population; how uniform the poverty and the ignorance; and let him recollect that this process must be carried on until he has brought within the view of his eye or of his mind about ninety or a hundred millions of people diffused over a surface estimated to be equal in extent to the whole of Europe. It is difficult to believe that it should have been proposed to communicate to this mass of human beings through the medium of a foreign tongue all the knowledge that is necessary for their higher civilisation, their intellectual improvement, their moral guidance, and their physical comfort; but since much has been said and written and done which would seem to bear this interpretation, and since it is a question which involving the happiness and advancement of millions will not admit of 159

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compromise, I deem it my duty to state in the plainest and most direct terms that my conviction of the utter impracticability of such a design has strengthened with my increased opportunities of observation and judgment. Although the English language cannot become the universal instrument, European knowledge must be the chief matter of instruction; and the circumstances in which the country is placed point out the English language, not as the exclusive, but as one of the most obvious, means of communicating that instruction. I have, therefore, watched with much interest and promoted by any suggestions I could offer every desire and endeavour on the part of natives to acquire a knowledge of our language. In the districts I have visited, the desire cannot be said to be general, only because it is vain to desire that which is plainly unattainable; but it has been found to exist in instances and in situations where its existence is very encouraging. I have met with a learned Hindu and a learned Musalman in different districts, each in the private retirement of his native village attempting by painful and unassisted industry to elaborate some acquaintance with our language, and eagerly grasping at the slightest temporary aid that was afforded. Nor is it only in individual cases that this anxiety is displayed. The school at Raipur in the Beerbhoom district was established and continues to be supported through the desire of a wealthy native landholder to give an English education to his children. The Raja of Burdwan’s school is the more remarkable because it is established in Burdwan where another English school exists, which, although under Missionary direction, has been liberally patronized by the Raja, and in which the scholars receive superior instruction to that which is given by the Raja’s teachers. The support he has bestowed on the Missionary English school may be attributed to European influence or to a desire to conciliate the favor of the European rulers of the country; but the establishment of a separate school in his own house and at his own sole expense can be ascribed only to his opinion of the importance of knowledge of English to his dependents, and a desire to aid them in its acquisition. The English branch of the institution at Sahebgunge supported by Raja Mitrajit Singh and superintended by his son, does not appear to have been of native origin; and generally speaking the desire to know English is found in fewer instances in the Behar than in the Bengal districts. In both it is chiefly learned and wealthy men that have sought it for themselves or their children; and, with a view to purposes of practical utility, it is to those classes in the present condition of native society that it is most suitable. The orphan schools at Berhampore and Burdwan belong to a class of institutions which deserves special notice and encouragement not merely because such institutions supply the immediate wants of destitute orphans, which alone constitutes a strong claim, provided the means employed are not allowed to weaken existing domestic ties; but also because the object is to train them to the arts and habits of industry by which they may in after-life earn their own bread. In other schools a knowledge of books, of the words and phrases which books contain, and of the ideas which the understanding of children can apprehend or their memory retain, is taught; in these industrial institutions, some kind of art or trade is also taught, the physical powers are developed, enjoyment and profit are connected in the mind 160

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with labour as effect with cause, and thus both the capacity and the disposition are created that will prevent the youth so instructed from becoming a burden either to himself or to others, and that will make him an industrious and useful member of society. I am not aware of the existence of other institutions of the same kind in other parts of the country, and the two I have mentioned are still in their infancy. The increase of their number with a view to the improvement of the condition and habits of the lower classes of the people is eminently deserving of consideration. The importance of the object contemplated by the establishment of native female schools, and the benevolence of those who have established them, cannot be questioned, but some doubt may be entertained of the adaptation of the means to the end. The native prejudice against female instruction, although not insuperable, is strong; and the prejudice against the object should not be increased by the nature of the means employed to effect it. Now it appears nearly certain that, independent of the prejudice against the object, native parents of respectable rank must be unwilling to allow their daughters, contrary to the customs of native society, to leave their own homes and their own neighbourhoods and proceed to a distance, greater or less in different cases, to receive instruction; and this unwillingness cannot be lessened if it should appear that they will be placed in frequent and unavoidable communication with teachers and sircars of the male sex and of youthful age, and in some instances with the corrupt and vicious of their own sex. To re-assure the minds of native parents, native matrons are employed as messengers and protectors to conduct the girls to and from school; but it is evident that this does not inspire confidence, for, with scarcely any exception, it is only children of the very poorest and lowest castes that attend the girls’ schools, and their attendance is avowedly purchased. The backwardness of native parents of good caste may be further explained by the fact that the girls’ schools are under the sole direction of Missionaries; and the case of the Beerbhoom school shows that to combine the special object of conversion with the general object of female instruction must be fatal to the latter without accomplishing the former purpose. These remarks must be understood as strictly limited to the schools I have specifically described, and as inapplicable even amongst them to those in which the scholars, as in the case of female orphans, are under the constant, direct, and immediate superintendence of their Missionary instructors. In such cases the object and the means are equally deserving of unqualified approval; but it must be obvious that female instruction can never in this way become general.

SECTION II. PLAN PROPOSED AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE IMPROVEMENT AND EXTENSION OF VERNACULAR INSTRUCTION. The objections that apply to the plans brought under review in the preceding Section should at least make me diffident in proposing any other for adoption. The considerations I have suggested show that the subject has been viewed in various aspects, 161

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and in what follows I shall endeavour impartially to point out the difficulties, as well as the advantages, of the measure which, on the whole, I venture to recommend. The leading idea, that of employing existing native institutions as the instruments of national education, has been already suggested; and if their adaptation to this purpose had not been so much overlooked, it would have seemed surprising that they were not the very first means adopted for its promotion. Their importance, however, has been recognized, at least in words, by some of those who have been most distinguished for their intimate practical acquaintance with the details of Indian administration. Of these, I may cite here, on account of the comprehensive although cursory view it presents of the subject, the opinion expressed by Mr. Secretary Dowdeswell in his report of September 22nd 1809, on the general state of the Police of Bengal, contained in Appendix No. 12 to the Fifth Report on East India affairs. At the close of his report Mr. Dowdeswell says—“I have now stated all the measures which suggest themselves to my mind for the improvement of the Police, without entering into minute details, or deviating into a course which might be thought foreign to the subject. I am satisfied that if those measures be adopted they will be attended with considerable benefit in the suppression of the crimes most injurious to the peace and happiness of society,—an opinion which I express with the greatest confidence, as it is founded on practical experience of the system now recommended so far as the existing regulations would permit. I am, at the same time, sensible that a great deal more must be done in order to eradicate the seeds of those crimes,—the real source of the evil lies in the corrupt morals of the people. Under these circumstances, the best laws can only have a partial operation. If we would apply a lasting remedy to the evil, we must adopt means of instruction for the different classes of the community, by which they may be restrained, not only from the commission of public crimes, but also from acts of immorality by a dread of the punishments denounced both in this world and in a future state by their respective religious opinions. The task would not, perhaps, be so difficult as it may at first sight appear to be. Some remains of the old system of Hindu discipline still exist. The institutions of Mohammadanism of that description are still better known. Both might be revived and gradually moulded into a regular system of instruction for both those great classes of the community; but I pretend not to have formed any digested plan of that nature, and at all events it would be foreign, as above noticed, to the immediate object of my present report.” It does not appear what institutions Mr. Dowdeswell meant to describe, and confessedly his views were general and not very defined. A closer attention will show that Hinduism and Mohammadanism have certain institutions peculiar to them as systems of religious faith and practice, and certain other institutions peculiar to the people professing those systems, but forming no part of their religious faith and practice. To attempt to interfere with the former would be equally inconsistent with the principles and character of a Christian government, and opposed to the rights and feelings of a Hindu and Mohammadan people. But to revive the latter, and gradually to mould them “into a regular system of instruction for 162

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both those great classes of the community,” is the dictate both of sound wisdom and of the most obvious policy. The question arises in what manner native institutions may be most effectually employed, with a view to the gradual formation of a regular system of instruction for the benefit of all classes of the community; and the answer which, after mature consideration, I am deposed to give is by proposing the establishment of public and periodical examinations of the teachers and scholars of those institutions and the distribution of rewards to the teachers proportioned to their own qualifications and the attainments of their scholars,—the examinations to be conducted, and the rewards bestowed, by officers appointed by Government and placed under the authority and control of the General Committee of Public Instruction. This plan appears adapted to the character of the people and to the present condition of native society. Mr. Wyse in his recent work entitled Education Reform, Vol. I. p. 48, remarking on those dispositions which, in some manner, form the public character, the moral physiognomy, of nations, says—“This peculiar public character, formed of the aggregate of private, again acts in a very striking manner upon the character of the individual. But this action is still further affected by the changes of the times. A period of total quiet, resulting from a long continued acquiescence in old institutions, leaves a very different imprint upon the national mind from that which is the necessary consequence of a general breaking up of old principles and forms, and an earnest search after new. In the first instance, an education of stimulants becomes necessary, it is essential to the healthy activity of the body politic; in the second, steadiness, love of order, mutual toleration, the sacrifice of private resentments and factious interests to general good, should be the great lessons of national education.” At no period in the history of a nation can lessons of steadiness, love of order, mutual toleration, and the sacrifice of private to public good be deemed inappropriate; but if any where an education of stimulants is necessary to the healthy activity of the body politic, it is here where a long continued acquiescence in old institutions, and a long continued subjection to absolute forms and principles of government have produced and continue to perpetuate a universal torpor of the national mind. This education of stimulants I propose to supply on the basis of native institutions, and by means of a system of public and periodical examinations and rewards; and I hope to show, in conformity with the characteristics that have been sketched of a scheme likely to be attended with success, that, while the plan will present incitements to self-exertion for the purpose of self-improvement, it will be equally simple in its details and economical in expenditure, tending to draw forth the kindly affections of the people towards the Government, and to put into the hands of the Government large powers for the good of the people. The first proposed application of the plan is to the improvement and extension of vernacular education; and to the importance of this branch of public instruction testimony has been at different times borne by the highest authorities in the State. Of these, I shall quote two only in this place. Lord Moira in his Minute on the Judicial Administration of the Presidency of Fort William, dated the 2nd October 1815, after mentioning certain evils in the administration of the Government and 163

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in the character of the people, goes on to say—“In looking for a remedy to these evils, the moral and intellectual improvement of the natives will necessarily form a prominent feature of any plan which may arise from the above suggestions, and I have, therefore, not failed to turn my most solicitous attention to the important object of public education. The humble but valuable class of village school-masters claims the first place in this discussion. These men teach the first rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic for a trifling stipend which is within reach of any man’s means, and the instruction which they are capable of imparting suffices for the village zemindar, the village accountant, and the village shop-keeper. As the public money would be ill-appropriated in merely providing gratuitous access to that quantum of education which is already attainable, any intervention of Government, either by superintendence or by contribution, should be directed to the improvement of existing tuition and to the diffusion of it to places and persons now out of its reach. Improvement and diffusion may go hand in hand; yet the latter is to be considered matter of calculation, while the former should be deemed positively incumbent.” Twenty-two years have elapsed since these wise and benevolent views were expressed by one of the ablest and most distinguished rulers that British India has possessed, and no adequate means have yet been employed to discharge a duty declared to be positively incumbent by introducing improvement into the existing system of tuition practised by the humble but valuable class of village school-masters, and to extend the improved instruction to persons and places which the old system does not reach. We appear to have even retrograded, for not only has vernacular instruction been overshadowed and lost sight of by the almost exclusive patronage bestowed on a foreign medium of instruction, the English language, but even some of the principal efforts to improve the village schools and school-masters have, with or without reason, been abandoned. It was, I believe, under Lord Moira’s government that the Ajmere native schools were established and the Chinsurah native schools patronized by Government, but both have proved signal failures, and Government support has been withdrawn from them; the grand mistake being that new schools were formed subject to all the objections that have been described in another place, instead of the old schools and school-masters of the country that enjoyed, and still enjoy, the confidence of the people, being employed as the instruments of the desired improvements. The only other attempt known to me on this side of India to improve the system of vernacular instruction on a considerable scale unconnected with religion was that made by the Calcutta School Society, which received the special approbation of the Court of Directors. In 1825, in confirming the grant of 500 rupees per month which had been made to this Society by the Local Government, the Court made the following remarks:—“The Calcutta School Society appears to combine with its arrangements for giving elementary instruction, an arrangement of still greater importance for educating teachers for the indigenous schools. This last object we deem worthy of great encouragement, since it is upon the character of the indigenous schools that the education of the great mass of the population must ultimately depend. By training up, therefore, a class of teachers, you provide for the eventual 164

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extension of improved education to a portion of the natives of India far exceeding that which any elementary instruction that could be immediately bestowed would have any chance of reaching.” The plan of the Calcutta School Society so highly approved was that of stimulating teachers and scholars by public examinations and rewards, and although it was very limited in its application, and very imperfect in its details, the effects upon the state of vernacular instruction in Calcutta were for a time highly beneficial. Yet the plan has been relinquished, the Society has ceased to exist, and the donation of Government, confirmed by the Court of Directors on the grounds above stated continues to be drawn by the nominal secretary and is now applied to the support of an English school and to the gratuitous education of thirty students of the Hindu College. It is evident, therefore, that in proposing to lay the foundations of national education by improving and extending the system of vernacular instruction, and to improve and extend that system, not by forming new and independent schools, but by employing the agency of the long-established institutions of the country, I am proposing nothing new. The following appears to be the substance of the views expressed by these authorities. The vernacular school-books prepared and issued under the authority of Government should embrace religious instruction as far as it can be communicated without engaging in religious controversy or exciting religious prejudice, without inculcating the peculiarities of any one religion or attacking those of another. Perhaps, the best way in which this might be effected would be, without employing any direct forms of religious inculcation, to cause the spirit of religion— its philanthropic principles and devotional feelings—to pervade the whole body of instruction on other subjects. On these other subjects, physical science, moral truths, and the arts and philosophy of civil and social life, the aim should be, not to translate European works into the words and idioms of the native languages, nor to adopt native works without the infusion of European knowledge, but so to combine the substance of European knowledge with native forms of thought and sentiment, and with the precepts, examples, maxims, and illustrations of native literature as shall render the school-books both useful and attractive. For this purpose the union of European and Native agency would be necessary,—European agency aided by the best works that have been framed in Europe and America for the use of schools, and Native agency of a high order of qualification to command readily the resources and appliances of native learning. Under the guidance of such general principles, and in the employment of such a united agency, a series of school-books in Bengali might be framed on the following plan:— The first of the series might be made with advantage to include all that is at present taught in scattered and disjointed portions in the vernacular schools, systematically arranged and presented in the clearest, most comprehensive, and most perfect form in which it can be prepared. It would thus be a text-book for instruction in writing on the ground, on the palm-leaf, on the plantain or salleaf, and on paper; in reading both written and printed compositions; in accounts both commercial and agricultural as taught in the works of Subhankar and 165

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Ugra Balaram; in the correct and fluent composition of letters, petitions, grants, leases, bonds, and notes of hand according to the most popular and approved forms; in the elements of grammar and lexicology as taught in Sabda Subanta, Ashta Sabdi, Ashta Dhatu, and the vocabulary of Amara Singh; and finally, in the moral verses of Chanakya. This work would make the learners, whether teachers or scholars, thoroughly competent in the knowledge and use of the most improved forms of their own vernacular system of instruction before introducing them to any higher grades of knowledge; and the first trial in every district would thus also be disembarrassed of the prejudices which might be raised if any new and strange subjects of instruction were suddenly and generally presented to them. Those portions of the above-mentioned native school-books that are in Sanscrit should be translated into Bengali. The second book of the series might explain the most important arts of life that contribute to comfort, improvement, and civilization, and might give elementary views of the sciences which have produced and must help to perfect them, Trade and the sub-divisions of manual labour; manufactures and the uses of machinery; and above all agriculture,—the most valuable products, the best modes and seasons of culture, the most useful implements and manures, the rotation of crops, draining, irrigation, large and small farms—all these are subjects which, in plain language and with appropriate local illustrations, might be brought home to the business and bosoms of nine-tenths of the people. The modes of applying agricultural capital are notoriously very rude and unproductive, and the quantity of land cultivated by the ryot is generally so very small that the value of that portion of the produce which falls to him as wages or profits barely supports him and his family even in the most favourable seasons, and in times of scarcity leaves him without resource. With such a vast agricultural population, upon the proper application of whose labor the entire prosperity of the country and the Government depends, what duty can be more imperative than to instruct them in the best use of all the circumstances of their condition? The third book of the series might be made explanatory of the moral and legal relations, obligations, and rights, whether personal, domestic, civil, or religious, of men living in a state of society and under the existing Government. A reference should be maintained throughout to the peculiar circumstances, wants, and character of the people. Thus, the expenditure of the people is in general so profuse and ill-directed as to account for much of the wretchedness of their condition. Inculcate, therefore, a prudent economy, and show not only by precept, but by examples and illustrations drawn from savings’ banks, &c., the advantages of steady industry and small accumulations as contrasted with the tyranny on the one hand, the slavery on the other, and the general distrust between man and man, arising out of the established system of money-lending and borrowing at exorbitant rates of interest. Again, the produce of their labor is often diminished by the illegal exactions of money-lenders, landlords, settlers, and the native officers of Government, whether of justice, revenue, or police. Teach the people their civil rights, the disposition of Government to protect them in the enjoyment of those 166

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rights, and the modes in which they may be most effectually protected. Still further, law to be obeyed, the violations of law to be shunned, and the punishments attached to those violations to be feared, should be known. But its requisitions, its prohibitions, and its sanctions are unknown to the body of the people, and law is to them, for the most part, the arbitrary will of the judge. In the absense of other means to make the penal laws generally known, let this school-book explain their principal provisions for the protection of person and property, the equal subjection of all to their authority, and the obligation and utility of contributing each person to the defence and security of every other subject of the State. The fourth book of the series might be employed to correct, enlarge, and systematize the knowledge of the learner respecting his native country, other countries, and the system of the world. If prepared for Bengali schools, it would explain the natural features and resources of Bengal, the political Government of British India, the physical and political geography of the other countries of the world, and the leading facts and principles of modern astronomy. It is easy for me to sketch the principal topics of these works, and the series might be still further extended; but it would be a more difficult task to fill up the outline in such a manner that the whole would deserve the approbation of Government and be acceptable to the people. Their utility, however, would compensate for the labor, the time, and the expense bestowed, for a really good school-book is a powerful instrument of good to a country. By these and by similar works a small native standard library might be formed; and the most important ideas they contain might, by the means I am about to recommend, be gradually worked into, and embodied with, the earliest impressions and the permanent convictions of native society. Having prepared and printed the first book of the series, the next step is to appoint a Government agent to each of the districts in which the plan is to be carried into effect. The duty to be assigned to him, as will afterwards more fully appear, is the examination of teachers and scholars, and with this view he should unite the acquirements both of a Native and English education. Without a good native education he could not, with credit and efficiency, act in the capacity of an examiner of native teachers and scholars; and an English education will be useful to conciliate the respect of his countrymen, to give him confidence in his own comparative attainments, and to enable him to receive and communicate to the people just views of the intentions of Government, and to the Government just views of the feelings and wishes of the people. In addition to these literary acquirements, an unimpeached character for steadiness, industry, and integrity is indispensable. Much will depend upon these examiners, and their appointment should be made with great care and discrimination. Those natives who have received an English education have in general too much neglected the ordinary branches of a Native education, and some difficulty may at first be experienced in obtaining competent persons; but a very little application on the part of the intelligent young men who have passed through the Hindoo College, the General Assembly’s Institution, and other public schools, will supply the requisite qualification, and the difficulty will speedily disappear. 167

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SECTION III. APPLICATION OF THE PLAN TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF SANSCRIT INSTRUCTION. The whole of the preceding details and reasonings contemplate the application of the plan to vernacular schools only. The principle, however, is to build on the foundation of native institutions generally, and, wherever they are to be found, to employ them as the instruments through which instruction may be most salutarily and most effectually communicated. I shall now consider what means may be employed to improve the system of instruction in the class of Sanscrit schools which are found in every district, and of which some account is given in the seventh and eighth Sections of the first Chapter. I do not propose that any thing should be done to extend or multiply such institutions. All that is proposed is, since their number and influence are undoubted, to bring them over to the side of true, useful, and sound knowledge. If there were no vernacular schools, it would still be desirable that there should be such schools for the instruction of the people. If there were no Sanscrit schools, their existence perhaps would not be desirable merely for the purposes of public instruction, which is the only subject now under consideration. But since they do exist, and since we cannot, if we would, cause them not to be, it is the plain dictate of common sense and of a wise policy not to despise and neglect them, but to conciliate, if possible, the good feelings of the learned and to employ their extensive and deep-seated influence in aid of the cause of public instruction. For the information of the reader I shall quote in this place some of the most prominent authorities I have met with on the encouragement to be given to native learning and the use to be made of it. In the records of the General Committee of Public Instruction I find a copy of a Minute dated 6th March 1811, ascribed to the Governor General, Lord Minto, and bearing also the signatures of the Members of Council, G. Hewett, J. Lumsden, and H. Colebrooke. This Minute possesses the greater interest both because it bears Mr. Colebrooke’s signature, and because it is believed to have suggested the provision on the same subject in the 53rd of George III. The following is an extract:—“It is a common remark that science and literature are in a progressive state of decay among the natives of India. From every inquiry which I have been enabled to make on this interesting subject, that remark appears to me but too well founded. The number of the learned is not only diminished, but the circle of learning, even among those who still devote themselves to it, appears to be considerably contracted. The abstract sciences are abandoned, polite literature neglected, and no branch of learning cultivated but what is connected with the peculiar religious doctrines of the people. The immediate consequence of this state of things is the disuse, and even actual loss, of many valuable books; and it is to be apprehended that, unless Government interfere with a fostering hand, the revival of letters may shortly become hopeless from a want of books, or of persons capable of explaining them. The principal cause of the present neglected state of literature 168

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in India is to be traced to the want of that encouragement which was formerly afforded to it by princes, chieftains, and opulent individuals under the native governments. Such encouragement must always operate as a strong incentive to study and literary exertions, but especially in India, where the learned professions have little, if any other, support. The justness of these observations might be illustrated by a detailed consideration of the former and present state of science and literature at the three principal seats of Hindu learning, viz., Benares, Tirhoot, and Nudiya. Such a review would bring before us the liberal patronage which was formerly bestowed, not only by princes and others in power and authority, but also by the zemindars, on persons who had distinguished themselves by the successful cultivation of letters at those places. It would equally bring to our view the present neglected state of learning at those once celebrated places; and we should have to remark with regret that the cultivation of letters was now confined to the few surviving persons who had been patronized by the native princes and others under the former Government, or to such of the immediate descendants of those persons as had imbibed a love of science from their parents. It is seriously to be lamented that a nation particularly distinguished for its love and successful cultivation of letters in other parts of the empire should have failed to extend its fostering care to the literature of the Hindus, and to aid in opening to the learned in Europe the repositories of that literature. It is not, however, the credit alone of the national character which is affected by the present neglected state of learning in the East. The ignorance of the natives in the different classes of society, arising from want of proper education, is generally acknowledged. This defect not only excludes them as individuals from the enjoyment of all those comforts and benefits which the cultivation of letters is naturally calculated to afford, but, operating as it does throughout almost the whole mass of the population, tends materially to obstruct the measures adopted for their better government. Little doubt can be entertained that the prevalence of the crimes of perjury and forgery so frequently noticed in the official reports is, in a great measure, ascribable both in the Mohammadans and Hindus to the want of due instruction in the moral and religious tenets of their respective faiths. It has been even suggested, and apparently not without foundation, that to this uncultivated state of the minds of the natives is, in a great degree, to be ascribed the prevalence of those crimes which were recently so great a scourge to the country. The latter offences against the peace and happiness of society have indeed for the present been materially checked by the vigilance and energy of the Police, but it is probably only by the more general diffusion of knowledge among the great body of the people that the seeds of these evils can be effectually destroyed.” The Minute then proceeds to recommend certain measures consisting in the reform of the Hindu College at Benares and the Mohammadan College at Calcutta, and the establishment of two new Hindu Colleges, one at Nudiya and the other in Tirhoot; and of two new Mohammadan Colleges, one at Bhaugulpore and the other at Jaunpoor. The cost of the two new Hindu Colleges was estimated at sicca rupees 25,618 per annum. The recommendations have been, in a 169

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great measure, superseded by subsequent arrangements, but some of them contain useful hints which may still be turned to account,—one is that pensions should be granted to distinguished teachers on condition that they deliver instructions to pupils at their own houses, another is that public disputations should be held annually at which prizes, rewards, and literary honors should be conferred on such of the students as shall have manifested the greatest proficiency. Both are judiciously adapted to Hindu usages. The preceding extracts exhibit opinions entitled to great consideration; but a closer analysis and more detailed statement of the grounds on which I would rest the importance and necessity of adopting measures for the improvement of Sanscrit instruction, are desirable. First.—Sanscrit schools occupy so prominent a place in the general system of instruction established throughout the country, that means should be employed for their improvement, and not only on account of the influence which the learned exercise or may exercise over the remaining population, but for the sake of the learned themselves as a distinct and numerous class of society. I refer to page 61 to show the extent of this class in the districts noticed in this report. In one district alone, that of Burdwan, there are 190 teachers, and 1,358 students, of learning; and in the city of Moorshedabad, where the number is fewer than in any of the other localities, there are 24 teachers, and 153 students. If we find that a particular class of native institutions brings together in one city and in one district so many teachers and students of learning who, if proper means were employed, would readily open their minds to European knowledge, why should we not avail ourselves of the facilities which those institutions present? Second.—The language of instruction in the schools of learning is regarded with peculiar veneration. It is called the language of the gods. It is probable that in one of its most ancient and simple forms it was the original language of Brahmanism, and was introduced into this country by its Hindu conquerors. Instruction communicated through this medium will be received by the learned class with a degree of respect and attention that will not otherwise be conceded to exotic knowledge. Why should we refuse to avail ourselves of this mode of gaining access for useful knowledge to the minds of a numerous and influential class? Third.—Sanscrit is the source and origin of all the Hindu vernacular dialects spoken and written throughout India and the adjoining countries, with as close an affinity, in most instances, as exist between Latin and Italian, or between ancient and modern Greek. These dialects are as numerous, are spread over as wide a surface, are employed by as populous races, and are as thoroughly nationalized among those races, as the corresponding dialects of Europe in European countries. Learned Hindus refer with pride to the number of languages that have sprung from the parent Sanscrit, and they derive from it their vocables, their idioms, and their structure. Just in proportion as the use of the vernacular dialects extends for the purposes of education and administration, will the value of the Sanscrit be felt. It is the great store-house from which, as intellectual improvement advances, those dialects will seek and obtain increased power, copiousness, refinement, and 170

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flexibility. “Any number of new terms,” says Mr. Hodgson, applying to the Indian Pracrits a remark made by Sir James Mackintosh respecting German, “any number of new terms, as clear to the mind and as little startling to the ear as the oldest works in the languages, may be introduced into Hindi and Bengali from Sanscrit, owing to the peculiar genius of the latter, with much more facility than we can introduce new terms into English; nor does the task of introducing such new terms into the Indian vernacular imply or exact more than the most ordinary skill or labor on the part of the conductors of education so long as they disconnect not themselves wholly front Indian literature.” Fourth.—The Sanscrit language is the common medium of communication between the learned in the different countries and provinces inhabited by the Hindu race, however differing from each other in dialect, manners, and customs. A Hindu educated in the learning, peculiar to his faith and nation, need not be, and is not, a stranger in any of them, although possessing no personal acquaintance, and although ignorant of the dialect of the country or province to which he may have proceeded. This is found to be a great practical convenience in the performance of the numerous pilgrimages which piety or superstition enjoins. By the same means also the learned productions of one province or country in time become the common property of all the learned throughout India. In the Bengal schools of learning young men, both from the western and southern provinces of India, are found pursuing their studies, and Bengalis, after finishing their studies in Bengal, often proceed into the western provinces for the purpose of acquiring those branches of learning which are not usually cultivated here. Sanscrit, without the secrecy, has thus all the advantages of the masonic sign and countersign. It is a pass-word to the hearts and understandings of the learned throughout India. In consequence of this established mutual interchange of knowledge, if any improvement can be introduced into the system of instruction in the schools of learning of Bengal and Behar, we may hope that it will gradually work its way among the entire learned body throughout the country. Fifth.—All the learning, divine and human, of the Hindus, is contained in the Sanscrit language. Religion, philosophy, law, literature, and medicine; all the learning that enters into the daily practices of their faith and is connected with the established customs of their race, their productions of taste and imagination, and the results of their experience of life and manners, all are found in the Sanscrit language, and in that only as their source and repository. Doctrine, opinion, and practice; the duties of the present life and the hopes of the future; the controversies of sects and the feuds of families, are ultimately determinable by authorities which speak only through that medium. The inference is obvious. If we would avail ourselves of this vast and various literature, for the moral and intellectual regeneration of India, we must stretch out the right hand of fellowship to those who can alone effectually wield its powers, and by patronage and conciliation obtain their willing co-operation. Sixth.—The patronage of Government bestowed on schools of learning would be most gratefully received both by the learned themselves and by the native 171

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community. It would entirely coincide with the customs of native society. Sanscrit schools have been frequently endowed by wealthy Hindus; the teachers are constantly invited, feasted, and dismissed with presents on occasions of important domestic celebrations; and both teachers and students, independent of all other considerations of castes and condition, are held in the greatest respect by the community. In the opinion of the learned themselves—an opinion which they have frequently expressed to me—it is the duty of rulers to promote learning, by which they, of course, mean Sanscrit learning. If common schools and their teachers are encouraged as I have proposed, while Sanscrit schools are neglected, it may be feared that the hostility of the learned will be often incurred, and that, through their all-penetrating influence, they will raise serious obstacles to the spread of popular instruction. On the contrary, if their schools, as well as the vernacular schools, are patronized, their own interests will be identified with the success of the Government plan, and we may confidently rely on their co-operation. It is not, however, on the ground of expediency only that this recommendation is offered. Sanscrit schools and teachers may be made to conduce as effectually to the spread of sound and useful knowledge as vernacular schools, with only this difference that each class of institutions will operate in a field from which the other is excluded. In Sanscrit schools we shall gain access to a large and influential class which by any other means we shall be unable to reach, and which it is of the utmost importance to the welfare of society should advance as the rest of society advances. There is no class of persons that exercises a greater degree of influence in giving native society the tone, the form, and the character which it actually possesses, than the body of the learned, not merely as the professors of learning, but as the priests of religion; and it is essential to the success of any means employed to aid the moral and intellectual advancement of the people, that they should not only co-operate, but also participate, in the progress. If we leave them behind, we shall be raising obstacles to our own success, and retarding the progress of the whole country. Learned Hindus will gratefully receive all the encouragement which we are willing to bestow, but it may still be made a question whether they would introduce books of useful knowledge on science and the arts into the regular course of their instruction. That amongst so numerous a body none will prove hostile or indifferent would be too much to expect; but in my own experience I have met with only one instance, that of a pundit in Rajshahi who expressed an unfriendly feeling to popular instruction. Poor and unpatronized, he asked me what advantage the extension of popular instruction would bring to him,—a question which rather confirms the view I have before presented regarding the character and expectations of the class. In another instance, that of the respectable pundit of the judge’s court at Mozufferpoor in Tirhoot, I found that all my attempts at explanation did not apparently remove from his mind the suspicion of some ulterior object, and he appears to have communicated his doubts to other learned men in that district to whom the subject was mentioned. This, however, was by no means generally the case. In conversation I have received repeated assurances 172

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from many pundits of their readiness to teach European science and learning in their schools, provided that the works put into their hands do not embrace the subject of religion on which they most distinctly intimated that they will teach, and countenance nothing but what is in their estimation strictly orthodox. In the Rajshahi, Moorshedabad, Beerbhoom, and Burdwan districts I had frequent conversations with pundits on this subject, and generally with the most satisfactory results; but it did not occur to me, till after leaving those districts, to ask any of them for their written opinions. On my return, however, to Calcutta, I put a case in writing before the pundits of the Sanscrit College, and subsequently before such pundits as I met in the districts of South Behar and Tirhoot, a translation of which, with their answer and the signatures attached to it, I subjoin. Two pundits of the Burdwan district, whom circumstances had prevented me from seeing when in their native district, followed me to Calcutta, anxious to give a full and correct account of their schools that it might be included in this report, and they took the opportunity, at the same time, of expressing their assent in writing to the opinion of the Calcutta pundits. More recently two pundits from the Jessore district and my own pundit belonging to the same district have, of their own accord, requested permission to add their names.

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17 EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF THE PRESIDENCY OF FORT WILLIAM IN BENGAL FOR THE YEAR 1839–40 (CALCUTTA: G. H. HUTTMAN, 1841), I–V, XXXVII, CCXXXII, CLV–CLIX, XCIV–CIV, CCXXXIII–CCXXXIV

APPENDIX. No. 1. MINUTE BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE GOVERNOR GENERAL. GENERAL DEPARTMENT.

Native Education.

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I have not hitherto, since I assumed charge of the Government, recorded my sentiments at any length on the important questions which regard the best means of promoting Education amongst the Natives of India. The subject is one of the highest interest, and especially calls for calm consideration, and for combined effort. But unhappily I have found violent differences existing upon it, and it was for a time, (now I trust past or fast passing away,) a watchword for violent dissension, and in some measure of personal feeling. I judged it best, under these circumstances, to abstain from what might have led me into unprofitable controversy, and to allow time and experience to act, with their usual healing and enlightening influence, upon general opinion. I may earnestly hope that we are now not very far remote from arriving at some satisfactory result in respect to our Education Controversies, and I will approach the topic, with the hope of contributing in some degree to this end. 2. Annexed to this paper will be found a Note compiled by Mr. Colvin, containing a condensed view of the principal facts, and of occasional notices of some considerations suggested by them, which relate to the general progress and present condition of the plans of Native Instruction as pursued in different parts of India, and of the tenour of the most important directions on the subject of Public Instruction 174

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which have been received from the Hon’ble the Court of Directors, and with reference to those facts, as they apply particularly to the progress effected in the different Presidencies, and to the circumstances which have come under my observation, when at the seat of several of our Institutions in Bengal, I will endeavour to state with all fairness the conclusions to which I have brought my mind on this subject. 3. I have first however to state my opinions on two specific references connected with the question which are before me from the President in Council—the one relating to the appropriation of Funds heretofore assigned to particular Institutions, and the other to Mr. Adam’s scheme for the improvement of the Indigenous Schools in the Bengal and Behar districts. 4. Before entering on the details of the first of these subjects, I may observe that it may in my opinion be clearly admitted, and I am glad from the papers before me, to see that this opinion is supported by the authority of Mr. Prinsep, that the insufficiency of the Funds assigned by the State for the purposes of public instruction has been amongst the main causes of the violent disputes which have taken place upon the education question, and that if the Funds previously appropriated to the cultivation of Oriental Literature had been spared, and other means placed at the disposal of the promoters of English Education, they might have pursued their object sided by the good wishes of all. In the Bengal Presidency, with its immense territory and a revenue of above 13 millions, the yearly expenditure of the Government on this account is little in excess of 24,000£ or 2,40,000 Rupees, and I need not say how in a country like India, it is to the Government Parliamentary Grant, . . . . . . . . . 8,888 that the population must mainly look for faciliInterest on Government 3,030 ties in the acquisition of improved learning. Notes, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . There is, I well know, the strongest desire on Madrissa, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,666 Sanscrit College, . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,055 the part of the authorities, both in England and Delhie Escheat Fund; . . . . . . . . . 250 India, to support every well arranged plan for Benares College, . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,701 the extension of Education, and the dispatches Agra College of the Honorable Court are full of the evidence Endowment of Villages, 1,175 of their anxiety on the subject. I may cite in Interest of Government 622 particular the declaration of a dispatch of the Notes, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,797 18th February, 1824. “In the mean time we wish you to be fully apprized of our zeal for Per Mensem. Rs . . . . 20,387 the progress and improvement of Education among the natives of India and of our willingness to make considerable sacrifices to that important end, if proper means for the attainment of it could be pointed out to us.” Such we may be assured is the feeling by which the Court is up to this time guided, and the difficulty has been not in any unwillingness to grant the money necessary to give effect to good plans, but in framing such plans, on principles admitted to be satisfactory, and in finding fitting agents for the execution of them. I have alluded to the limited amount and to the existing appropriation of our present funds not certainly with the slightest idea of casting reproach upon the previous course of administration, but merely

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as a fact which is of importance in its bearing upon former discussions. The sum immediately at command was limited. Parties wishing to promote the diffusion of knowledge in different forms contended eagerly the one to retain, the other to gain, that sum for the schemes to which they were respectively favorable, and had fresh sums been at once procurable, no one might have objected to their employment for a full and fair experiment on the new ideas which began to prevail. The inference to which I would point from these facts and observations is that a principle of wise liberality, not stinting any object which can reasonably be recommended, but granting a measured and discriminating encouragement to all, is likely to command general acquiescence, and to obliterate, it may be hoped, the recollection of the acrimony which has been so prejudicial to the public weal in the course of past proceedings. The Hon’ble Court have already, as was to be expected, acted on this principle. They have made a separate grant for the publication of works of interest in the ancient literature of the country to be disbursed through the appropriate channel of the Asiatic Society, and this measure is one which has been hailed with universal satisfaction. 5. On the merits of the first of the two questions immediately referred to me, which I would consider in the spirit which I have here commended, I would at once say, on the position that the Government has given a pledge that the funds heretofore assigned to particular institutions shall continue to be so for ever appropriated, that I cannot hesitate to express my conviction that the acts or intentions of the Government will not justly bear this very exclusive and restrictive construction—I remember the discussion of April 1836, and certainly I did not understand that the Resolution to which the Government then came was intended to have the force of a perpetual guarantee of the expenditure, wholly within each institution, (whatever might he the nature of the instruction to which they might be devoted), of the funds which might have been assigned to it. Had it been intended to promise that, whether Arabic, Sanscrit, or English were taught, the particular Institutions should at all events be retained, the meaning would surely have been expressed in much more distinct terms. My impression of the state of the case is briefly this— that the General Committee viewing the maintenance of the Oriental Colleges, on the footing to which I have referred, as prescribed and secured, proposed to consolidate all separate grants into one General Fund, the savings of which, after the Oriental Colleges should have been thus provided for, should be held by them to be clearly applicable to their general purposes. The answer of the Government on 13th April 1836, after a discussion in which I in the first instance expressed a willingness to assent to the propositions of the Committee, was in these guarded terms—“under existing circumstances, the Government in India thinks it will not be advisable to make the consolidation into one fund of all grants, made heretofore by Government for purposes of education, as suggested by the Sub-Committee of Finance, nor does his Lordship in Council imagine that the Committee will be put to much inconvenience by drawing its fund separately as heretofore and crediting them whether derived from a Government monthly grant or from the interest of 176

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stock previously accumulated to the particular seminaries to which they have been assigned leaving any excess available in any institution to be appropriated as may appear most equitable with reference to the Orders of Government, 7th March, 1835, and the pledges and assurances THAT MAY HAVE BEEN GIVEN to particular institutions.” The alteration of the word “belong” to “have been assigned” as marked above, will shew the spirit of compromise amongst varying opinions in which the draft was agreed to. There was here no statement that the consolidation was a thing wholly out of the question. The diversion of funds from particular institutions was admitted as a measure which might or might not be proper, and (the circumstances of all institutions not being before the Government) there is a reservation for the pledges and assurances, “that may have been given” to some of them.

Per annum.

Amount of Stipends December 1834

Under such a reservation, if a specific promise in perpetuity of a particular sum to a particular institution could be shown, such a promise would have of course to be respected; but otherwise by these Orders of April 1836, things were left exactly as they stood before: Whilst however, I am bound to declare that such is my distinct impression on the subject, and whilst for one I would reject the strict principle of absolute and irreclaimable appropriation, I am yet strongly of opinion that it will be best on every account to dispose of the question on the principle of a liberal consideration to all wants and claims. I see no advantage to be gained in this case by a close contest for strict constructions, and having taken a review of money estimates and of local wants, I am satisfied that it will be best to abstract nothing from other useful objects, while I see at the same time nothing but good to be derived from the employment of the funds which have been assigned to each Oriental Seminary, exclusively on instruction in, or in connexion with, that Seminary. I would also give a decided preference, within these Institutions, to the promotion in the first instance of perfect efficiency in Oriental instruction, and only after that object shall have been properly secured in proportion to the demand for it, would I assign the funds to the creation or support of English classes. And if they should already have partially used for other objects, the savings arising from the Seminaries supported by special funds, I would in recalling such savings, protect the General Committee from loss on that account. The Statement in the margin will shew the contribution from the Revenue which this final settlement of the subject will occasion. It will be perceived that, calculating from the amount of stipends as they existed untouched in the end of 1834, and Calcutta Sanscrit 696 8352 deducting 1–4th as required at all events for the College, ......... Oriental Colleges under a Scheme of ScholarMadrissa, ............. 634 7848 Benares College, ... 318 4176 ships such as I shall hereafter state that I would Agra ditto, ............ 480 5660 approve, the additional Annual Disbursement Delhie ditto, ......... 627 7524 from the Treasury will be about 25,000 Rupees, 33560 and perhaps there may be 6,000 Rupees more per Deduct 1–4th 8390 25170 annum on account of the office, which has been

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abolished, of Secretary to the Sanscrit College at Benares. I am well persuaded that the Hon’ble Court will approve of our having closed these controversies at this limited amount of increased expense. I would, upon this understanding, willingly join in the direction sent to the General Committee in the letter of Mr. Prinsep on the 31st of July last, “to avoid making any alienation (from the assigned funds of the Oriental Institutions) “without previously soliciting the sanction of Government.” They should, as I have said, be desired to appropriate the funds within the Oriental Colleges, first to Oriented and then to English instruction. I would nor on any account admit the extension of the system of Scholarships within these Colleges beyond the general proportion, (which should be on a liberal scale) allowed elsewhere, for this would be an excessive and artificial encouragement which might be justly objected to. But I would secure the most eminent Professors for the Colleges. I would encourage the preparation, within the limits of the funds, of the most useful Books of Instruction, such as of the Siddhants and Sanscrit version of Euclid which Mr. Wilkinson has urged upon us, and I would provide in some form which the General Committee should be required to take into early consideration, for an improved and effective superintendence of the Oriental Colleges of the North Western Provinces, where I know that such a supervision is very obviously required. Funds that might still remain available could be doubtless to much advantage devoted to European instruction in union with those particular Institutions, and I should look with very warm interest to an efficient scheme for imparting English Education to Mahomedans at the Madrissa in Calcutta. 6. The other reference made to me is with regard to Mr. Adam’s plan for the improvement of indigenous Schools and Teachers. I would observe upon it that it is impossible to read his valuable and intelligent report, without being painfully impressed with the low state of instruction as it exists amongst the immense masses of the Indian population. Attempts to correct so lamentable an evil may well be eagerly embraced by benevolent minds. Yet I cannot but feel with the President in Council that the period has not yet arrived when the Government can join in these attempts with reasonable hope of practical good. When Mr. Adam enforces his views “for the instruction of the poor and ignorant, those who are too ignorant to understand the evils of ignorance, and too poor, even if they did, to be able to remove them,” the inference irresistibly presents itself that among these is not the field in which our efforts can at present be most successfully employed. The small stock of knowledge which can now be given in Elementary Schools will of itself do little for the advancement of a people. The first step must be to diffuse wider information, and better sentiments amongst the upper and middle classes, for it seems, as may be gathered from the best authorities on the subject, that a scheme of general instruction can only be perfect, as it comprehends a regularly progressive provision for higher tuition. In the European States where such systems have been recently extensively matured, this principle is, I believe, universally observed. There is a complete series of Universities in great Towns, of Academies in provincial divisions, and of small local Schools, all connected 178

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in a combined plan of instruction. The extension of the plan to the Parish or Village School has been the last stage, as must naturally have been the case, in the national progress. Mr. Adam’s plan contemplated such a rise of able pupils from the Village to the Zillah Schools, but the suggestion could not immediately have effect. Here we are yet engaged on the formation and efficient direction of our Upper Institutions. When, indeed, the series of vernacular class of Books for our single Zillah Schools, which is still a desideratum, and to which I shall subsequently refer, shall have been published and their utility shall have been established by practice, Mr. Adam’s recommendations may be taken up with some fairer prospect of advantage. For the present I would confine our measures in reference to his reports to injunctions on the General Committee that they bear in mind his particular suggestions and objects in determining on the series of Class Books referred to. I would submit the plan to the Honorable Court for the expression of their sentiments and wishes—and in the collection of information for an eventual decision I would make use of the experience which the Bombay measures of Village instruction, alluded to in the Note annexed, will have afforded. For this purpose I would communicate Mr. Adam’s Report to the Government of Bombay, and ask how far the scheme which he describes is in accordance with that which is pursued in the Provinces of that Presidency—and what opinion may be formed from the result already obtained by their Village schools, of the propriety of carrying out Mr. Adam’s plans in their important parts. The encouragement to existing School Masters, which is the leading suggestion in Mr. Adam’s plan, will probably have been largely tried at Bombay, and the extent to which those School Masters have reaped improvement under such encouragement will be a most interesting subject of enquiry. I learn also in the course of my enquiries regarding the previous progress of Education in India, that a School Society existed for some time in Calcutta, the operations of which were directed with partial success to the amendment of indigenous Schools. Mr. Hare will probably be able to explain the history of this Society, which drew a grant of 400 or 500 Rupees a month from Government, and to give also the causes of its extinction: I would ask this Gentleman to favour Government with a report regarding that Society. And I would conclude upon this subject by recording my opinion that, when such a scheme as that proposed by Mr. Adam comes to be tried, the arrangements for introducing it should be on a liberal and effective scale and that it ought not to be undertaken at all until the Government is satisfied that it has at command a thoroughly zealous and qualified superintendence. 7. Having said thus much in answer to the references made to me by the President in Council, I would proceed to record my observations upon the topics which seem to me most important in regard to our plans of Education. I strongly feel that, in all that we can do, we must be prepared for much disappointment in our early efforts to satisfy the demands made upon us on this subject. By some it will be lamented that we do not at once perfect enlarged schemes for general Education: By others it will be regretted that what we do for the best pupils of 179

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our few Seminaries seems to produce so partial an effect. Feelings of this nature will attend us in whatever attempts we may engage for the improvement of any branch of our Indian Government. Our governing and instructed class belongs to a highly civilized community. It is in active and increasing intercourse with the European world where, in an advanced state of society, skill and enterprize are daily gaining new triumphs. It is naturally impatient for the introduction in India of every plan which has, though probably after repeated trials and failures, been adopted with success in European countries. And the spirit of free discussion excites benevolent minds to bring forward the most extensive projects. On the other hand, we are dealing with a poor people, to the vast majority of whom the means of livelihood is a much more pressing object than facilities for any better description or wider range of study. Our hold over this people is very imperfect, and our power of offering motives to stimulate their zeal is but of confined extent. The Agency which we can employ for reform is extremely narrow and liable to constant derangement. Of those who are willing to devote their energies to the business of giving or superintending instruction, Oriental Scholars are apt to be unduly prepossessed in favor of acquirements obtained by much labour, and to which they are indebted for their reputation; while mere European Scholars are liable to be ignorant of, and neglect national feeling, or are at all events incompetent to make a proper use of native means for the execution of their plans—Where even the mind of an able pupil has been very greatly informed and enlightened, the knowledge gained by him may seem to produce no adequately corresponding result in after life: The student may stand alone in the family or society of which he forms a part. These can very generally have few feelings in common with him, and he may be unhappy and discontented in his peculiar position, or he may yield to the influences by which he is surrounded, and accommodate himself to the sentiments and practices which his reason had taught him to disapprove. Add to this, that if he finds that his knowledge opens to him the prospect of advancement he will, under a restricted competition, be over confident in his own powers and unreasonable in his expectations, while at the same time he will be tempted to relax in the exertions necessary to maintain, or carry forward, the standard of proficiency at which he had arrived. These are circumstances of the operation of which we must all I think in a greater or less degree have had practical experience. I can only say upon them that we must neither entertain sanguine or premature hopes of general success, nor yet allow ourselves to be seriously discouraged. We must be content to lay even the first rude foundations of good systems, and trust for the rest to time, to the increasing demand of the public and of individuals for the services of educated men, to the extension which must every year take place of the Agency for instruction at the command of Government, and to the certain effects of the spread, however slow, of knowledge, and of the gradual growth of wealth and intelligence in the community. 8. I would in now offering my opinions and suggestions on the present practical directions of our plans, desire to consider the question of our educational 180

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policy as one of interest to every portion of the empire, without minute reference to merely local and temporary discussions. I am aware that we are yet in expectation of the orders of the Home Authorities on the subject of the changes in the scheme of education in Bengal, which were adopted by the Government in 1835. But I would not on this account longer withhold the explanation of my own sentiments on the course which should be adopted, and I do not anticipate that in what I shall propose, I shall be found to have deviated in any material degree from the wishes of the Honorable Court. 9. I would first observe that I most cordially agree with the Court in their opinion, which is quoted in paragraph 45 of Mr. Colvin’s note, that, with a view to the moral and intellectual improvement of the people, the great primary object is the extension among those who have leisure for advanced study, of the most complete education in out power. There cannot, I think, be a doubt of the justice of their statement that “by raising the standard of instruction among these classes, we would eventually produce a much greater and more beneficial change in the ideas and feelings of the community than we can hope to produce by acting directly on the more numerous class.” It is not to be implied from this that in my view elementary education for the mass of the people is a thing necessarily to be neglected, or postponed for an indefinite period, but it will have been seen that the hope of acting immediately and powerfully on the mass of the poor peasantry of India is certainly far from being strong with me. And the practical question therefore, to which I would hope before all others to give my attention is the mode in which we may endeavor to communicate a higher education with the greatest prospect of success. 10. One mode which has been ably contended for is that of engrafting European knowledge on the studies of the existing learned classes,—of the Moulvees and Pundits of India. I confess that from such means I anticipate only very partial and imperfect results. I would, in the strictest good faith, and to the fullest extent, make good the promise of upholding while the people resort to them, our established Institutions of Oriental learning. I would make those Institutions equal sharers with others in any general advantages or encouragements which we are satisfied ought to be afforded with a view to the promotion of due efficiency in study. I would from the funds which have been before allowed to them assist in them, as I have already said, any judicious plans for ameliorating the course of study, as by aiding the publication of works which may seem likely to be decidedly useful to the students. Nor am I at all disposed to undervalue the amount of sound education and morality which is to be acquired at these Seminaries, even without calling in the resources of European Science and Literature. I will not profess deep respect for the mere laborious study of a difficult language, or of the refinements and subtilties of Scholastic learning. But sensible, as assuredly I am, of the radical errors and deficiencies of the Oriental system, I am yet aware that the effect of all advanced education, and I will add especially of a Mahomedan education, is in cherishing habits of reflection, of diligence, and of honorable 181

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emulation, that it tends also to elevate the tone of moral character, though its practical effect is unfortunately too frequently marred by the domestic and social habits of Oriental life. Judging however, from the common principles of human nature, and from such experience as is referred to in the case of Mr. Wilkinson at Bhopal, it is not to the students of our Oriental Colleges, trained as it will be admitted that they are in a faulty system to which they are yet naturally and ardently attached, that I would look for my chief instruments in the propagation of a new knowledge and more enlarged ideas. It was not through the Professors of our ancient schools, but by the efforts of original thought and independent minds, that the course of philosophical and scientific investigation and of scholastic discipline was for the most part reformed in Europe. The process of translation, it is to be added, into the learned language must unavoidably be so slow that, on that account alone, the arguments in favor of a more direct method of proceedings appear to me conclusively convincing. 11. Another class of recommendations is that all the leading facts and principles of our literature and science be transferred by translations into the vernacular tongues. Mr. Hodgson in his book on Education, says, “As a practical measure for the immediate adoption of Government, I have no hesitation in saying that to found a College for the rearing of a competent body of translators and of schoolmasters, in other words, for the systematic supply of good vernacular books and good vernacular teachers (leaving the public to employ both, in case the Government fund be adequate to no more than the maintenance of such College) would be an infinitely better disposal of the Parliamentary grant than the present application of it to the training of a promiscuous crowd of English smatterers whose average period of schooling cannot by possibility, fit them to be the regenerators of their country, yet for whose further and efficient prosecution of studies, so difficult and so alien to ordinary uses, there is no provision nor inducement whatever.” 12. But those who support this course overlook in the first place the extreme practical difficulty of preparing any very extensive course of translated or adapted works. We are speaking now of the means of an advanced and thorough education, and not of a limited series of works for the purposes of common instruction, to the compilation of which, as I shall have immediate occasion to remark, I am entirely favorable. The difficulties of translation have been illustrated by our knowledge of what has been effected at Bombay, where the object has been prosecuted with much zeal, and I have annexed to this Minute a list of the works which have been prepared in Arabic by the European Officers attached to the service of the Pasha of Egypt, and it will be seen how very confined the number is, excepting in works of Military, Medical, or other Science. The clear truth seems to be that works of science may, at least to some considerable extent, (their range being necessarily contracted) be rendered into other languages within a comparatively moderate period, but the translation, within any time the extent of which we could reasonably calculate, of any thing like a sufficient library of works of general literature, history, and philosophy, is an impossible task. I have only, therefore, to 182

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conclude on this point by stating my entire concurrence in the opinion which has been quoted in the note from a despatch of the Hon’ble Court to the effect “that the higher tone and better spirit “of European Literature can produce their full effect only on those who become familiar with them in the original languages.” 13. I would then make it my principal aim to communicate through the means of the English language, a complete Education in European Literature, Philosophy and Science to the greatest number of students who may be found ready to accept it at our hands, and for whose instruction our funds will admit of our providing. All our experience proves that by such a method, a real and powerful stimulus is given to the native mind. We have seen that in Bombay as at Calcutta, from the time at which effective arrangements have been made for the higher branches of instruction in English, the understandings of the Students have been thoroughly interested and roused, and that the consequences have wonderfully, to use the words of the Calcutta Committee of Public Instruction in 1831, “surpassed expectation.” The difficulty which attends this course is the very important one, not of principle, but of practise, namely, that the wants and circumstances of our Indian population bring to our Colleges so few who desire, or are able to receive from us the complete English education, which it is our object to impart to them. Those who look with greater confidence to other methods of diffusing knowledge in this country, dwell especially upon this difficulty. Mr. Hodgson, argues that we have no reasonable ground to hope here for the same wide study of English Literature, and subsequent use of the information acquired in it for the purposes of vernacular composition, as occurred in the different stages of European civilization with reference to the Greek and Roman models from which that civilization was chiefly derived. His words are, “True the difficult and inapt Science of Greece and Rome was in modern Europe, first mastered in itself, and eventually worked into our own speech and minds. But how? by the employment of means adequate to the end by the existence of circumstance most powerfully efficient to forward that end. A thousand predisposing causes led a mighty nobility to seek in this lore the appropriate ornament of their rank and station. A Church which monopolised a third of the wealth of the Continent, called Rome its mother and Greece its foster mother, and throughout the great part of that Continent, the law, Ecclesiastical and Civil, was even lingually Roman. Hence the magnificent endowments and establishments and permanent inducements of all kinds by which a difficult and exotic learning was at length effectually naturalized amongst us. Hence the scholar if he pleased, might pursue in retirement letters as a profession, assured of a comfortable provision for life; or if he pleased, he might devote himself to the task of instructing the scions of a most influential and wealthy nobility, all of them from peculiar association necessitated to become his pupils whether they profited by his lessons or not, and thereby affording him the certainty of an enduring means of livelihood, or if he pleased he might pass from the Cloister or the College into the world, and there find the greater part of its most important concerns subservient to the uses and abuses of his peculiar gifts.” 183

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14. Mr. Wilkinson has also on different occasion remarked that it seems to him that Education in English should be confined for the present to the Presidencies, and to some of the principal Provincial Stations, as being the only places at which there is yet an actual demand for it. 15. Mr. Adam says of the condition of our English Scholars—“Extraordinary efforts have been made to extend a knowledge of the English language to the Natives, but those who have more or less profited by the opportunities presented to them do not find much scope for their attainments, which on the other hand little fit them for the ordinary pursuits of native society. They have not received a good Native education, and the English education they have received finds little if any use. There is thus a want of sympathy between them and their countrymen, although they constitute a class from which their countrymen might derive much benefit. There is also little sympathy between them and the foreign rulers of the country, because they feel that they have been raised out of one class of society without having a recognized place in any other class.” 16. But I believe that, in all these opinions, the practical value of superior English acquirements is very greatly underrated. A familiarity with the general principles of legislation and government, and the power of offering information or opinions upon public affair, in English Reports, (which is the form in which the higher correspondence regarding the British Administration in India will, of course, always be conducted) must be qualifications so directly useful, as (not to speak of the recommendations of an improved moral character,) to insure to the possessors of them a preference for the most lucrative public employments, after they shall have acquired that knowledge of life and of business, and that good opinion among those who have had opportunities of witnessing their conduct, which mere book-learning never can bestow. There are as yet, no doubt, circumstances of temporary operation, which will keep for a period our best English Scholars from reaping from their studies all the worldly profit which will ultimately accrue to them. Our course of instruction has not hitherto been so matured as to include any efficient and general arrangement for giving that knowledge1 of morals, jurisprudence, law, and fiscal economy, which the Hon’ble Court have so wisely and earnestly insisted on, and which will be most directly useful in the discharge of administrative duties. There are other obstacles also which for a time may impede our young scholars in their desire to obtain public office. They may over-estimate their own pretensions, and decline to accept the subordinate situations which alone it may at first be thought right to entrust to them. The cure for such exaggerated expectations will come with time. When this class of candidates becomes more numerous, there will be less hesitation with many of them in taking lower appointments. In the meanwhile, it is known that I am not disposed to adopt any special means, which could be felt as doing injustice to the rest of the community, for connecting our educated English students with the public service. The subject has been fully discussed in my Minute in the Judicial2 Department of September 4, 1838, the completion of the measures consequent on which I am 184

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anxiously awaiting. The scheme proposed by the Hon’ble the President in Council, to which in that respect I assented in the Minute referred to, included, however, the appointment of a limited number of Native Assistants to some of the best of our Zillah Judges, who would be instructed in the forms and practise of office. And so far there would be an immediate opening for the employment of several of our Students. The general character of my recommendations in that Minute was however, to establish a test of qualification, before selection for the honorable and responsible situation of a Moonsiff, for all candidates, wheresoever and in whatever language instructed, and to procure the compilation and printing of Manuals of legal instruction, in the native tongues as well as in English, which might be taught every where by private masters, or in public Institutions. To the principle of this plan I would steadily adhere. But in our Colleges I would carry instruction of this kind further than would be the aim of these Manuals, which would be more proper for use in our common schools. Having thus supplied suitable aids for the acquisition of the knowledge most requisite in public life, I would look with assured confidence to the recognition by the community of the advantages of an advanced English Education, comprizing those branches of study, a conversancy with which would place an instructed Native Gentleman on a level with our best European Officers. It is true, and no one has more heartily concurred and rejoiced in the determination than myself, that the vernacular tongues and not English will be the future languages of the Courts and Offices in the interior of the country. But this circumstance will in no degree detract from the force of those inducements of English study of which, as regards the vast and most important correspondence which must ever be conducted in English, I have just spoken, nor need I dwell on the degree to which such inducements will be increased by the mere fact of English being the language of the ruling and governing class in India. This is an encouragement to the pursuit of English that will probably greatly counterbalance the want, which has been justly noticed by Mr. Hodgson, of those motives to its cultivation which would have existed in such strength had English been here, as the Classical languages were in the West, the established languages of Theology and of Law. 17. It will be observed that I have referred chiefly to inducements connected with employment in the public service as likely to lead Indian students to ask admission to our Colleges. This, we may be satisfied, is the principal motive which will as yet operate to bring them to any of our educational Institutions. Excepting perhaps partially in Calcutta (and possibly, though I am not informed on the point, at Bombay) the wealthy and higher classes of India do not send their sons to public Colleges and Schools. Those who come to us for instruction are in search of the means of livelihood either in places under the Government, or in situations under individuals which, in the peculiar constitution of Indian Government and Society, bring them, in a greater or less degree, in connection with the public administration. I mention this point as explanatory of the importance to be attached to the nature of the instruction communicated to our students. The remark applies with equal force to our institutions for the study of the Classical learning of the East. 185

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Putting aside the money stipends which were formerly allowed, the great object of the students in the Sanscrit and Arabic Colleges of the Government has been to rise to office as Law Pundits and Moulvies in the Courts. The knowledge which gains for men reputation and profit among the Native community, as great religious Teachers, or among the Hindoos as proficients in Astrology, is not to be acquired at those Colleges, and will best be obtained elsewhere from private Native instructors. If there be not a demand for the same number of Law Pundits and Moulvies as previously, the attendance at the Colleges may be expected to decline though in the Arabic in a much less degree, than in the Sanscrit Colleges; for Mahomedan studies fit men far more than those of Hindoo learning for all the active offices of life. 18. What has been said may suffice to prove that there are weighty and daily growing inducements to the pursuit of English education, if directed with a proper attention to the wants of Scholars and to practical results. It remains that means should be furnished, at least to the most promising of the Scholars, to continue their studies to the desired completion: as incontestible proof appears to have been given3 that their poverty would otherwise generally compel them to retire from College as soon after their leaving boyhood as an opportunity of securing a provision for their subsistence might be open to them. On this point I will immediately remark separately, but I would here again say that I am of opinion, in full concurrence with the President in Council, that whatever amount of reward and support for meritorious students may be granted to those attached to our English, should be granted also, in perfectly like proportion, in our Oriental Institutions. The pledge to maintain these latter Institutions, while resorted to by the people, involves to my mind the clear obligation to maintain them with all the conditions which are judge I necessary for the general efficiency of our educational schemes. 19. Assuming upon the preceding reasoning that our aim as regards those seminaries of highest learning which are not, like the learned Eastern Colleges, specially assigned to other objects, should be to communicate European knowledge through the medium of the English language, it is next to be considered what should be the character of the minor Academies or Schools, such as may probably be eventually established at every Zillah Station. 20. I have not stopped to state that correctness and elegance in vernacular composition ought to be sedulously attended to in, the Superior Colleges. This is a matter of course in the scheme of instruction. But a question may well be raised whether in the Zillah Schools, the subject matter of instruction ought not to be conveyed principally through the vernacular rather than the English medium. 21. I would certainly be much in favour of that course if I saw any solid reason to believe that instruction of a common order would more readily and largely be accepted from the Government in the one mode than the other. I am quite of opinion that a very valuable amount of useful knowledge may be easily conveyed, when good class books and persons competent to teach from them are provided, through the means of the vernacular languages. And while I am satisfied 186

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that some not trivial amount of moral and intellectual stimulus and improvement is obtained from the Minor English Schools at present existing, yet the standard of proficiency in them is probably not so great as that the mass of Scholars in them would not be nearly as much gainers from merely vernacular tuition. 22. It is an argument for the use of the vernacular medium in such schools that, after the first expense of preparing school-books has been incurred, instruction in that manner would, it may be expected, be more economical than through English, which requires the employment of an English master on a salary at least two or three times as high as would be adequate for a native teacher who had received an English education, and was at the same time perfectly conversant with his own tongue. Employment as a School-master would also be a natural and proper provision for studious young men, who had gone through a complete course at the English Colleges. Such a master would of course be able to instruct a class attached to a vernacular school in the first elements of English learning, so as to lay a foundation for those who wished further to prosecute that study. 23. It is a deduction from the saving which the substitution of Native for English Masters in the Zillah Schools might produce, that English superintendence over several circles of such Schools would probably for a long period be indispensable, and a charge on that account must be estimated for. It is also to be reckoned that the cost of compiling and translating a proper series of vernacular class books is likely to be considerably greater than might at first be supposed. 24. I would speak with much respect of the authority of Mr. Wilkinson on this subject. But I will avow that I am by no means convinced of the applicability of his system or suggestions to the objects of a common education. It is, at least, not certain that he will in the end carry the body of Hindoo Astronomers along with him in his correction of prevalent errors. In any event it is not the abstruse parts of Mathematical Science which could be of use in our Zillah Schools. In fact, Mr. Wilkinson’s system is almost wholly dependent on his own eminent personal talents and exertions, his admirable zeal, his great knowledge, the weight of his excellent character, and perhaps also, it should not be concealed, the influence attaching to his position as the British Political Agent. It would not be safe to draw conclusions as to what may best be done by ordinary agents within the British Provinces from what may have been accomplished in vernacular instruction by Mr. Wilkinson in Schore. Some of his remarks too as to the failure of attempts at English education within foreign states are not good grounds for anticipating failure within our own districts, where other circumstances and motives are in operation. 25. I do not admit into this discussion the question of promoting at the present time the formation of a body of vernacular literature. Instruction through the vernacular languages, to a definite extent for ordinary purposes, may possibly be, as the readiest mode to the attainment of those purposes proper and desirable. But anything like a body of enlarged literature can, I am thoroughly convinced, be created only with time, by the unprompted exertions of private authors, when 187

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a general demand for such literature shall have arisen among the people. The Honorable Court have in a passage which has been quoted4 declared themselves strongly in favor of a liberal encouragement or native private authors and translators, and I would by no means dissent widely from their views though the encouragement must be given with judgment, or the Government will be constantly in hazard of aiding mediocrity or premature and ill-directed efforts. But these are considerations apart from the settlement of the plans of School instruction on which we are now engaged. 26. I have thus stated what has seemed most important on the subject of introducing the vernacular medium in our common District Schools—I mean as to the general principle of such a change; for the measure could not be named as one for very early adoption, with no class books prepared, or Teachers versed in those books yet trained for their duties. And as the contrary system has been actually established, it is right that, unless urgent reasons for abandoning that system demanded attention, it should be fully tried, with the improvements of which it may fairly be susceptible. We may be said to have two great experiments in progress, one in the Bengal, the other in the Bombay Provinces,—the provincial education being in the former conducted chiefly through the English, in the latter almost, if not quite exclusively, through the vernacular languages. It will be most interesting that both experiments shall be closely watched, and thoroughly developed. It is possible that in Bengal, in aiming at too much, we may have withheld some facilities for acquiring knowledge which might otherwise have advantageously been left open. And in Bombay the standard of proficiency in the Mofussil Schools may have been fixed and allowed to remain too low, with no principle in the scheme by which they are regulated which would constantly animate exertion, and maintain a spirit of progressive improvement. 27. The immediate practical question in respect to Bengal seems to be that which I have before mentioned, namely, whether it may be reasonably supposed that a vernacular would be more readily and largely accepted in our District Schools than an English education, and on this subject I am not able, after much careful reflection, to discover any reasons which could lead me to answer the proposition in the affirmative. Native youths will not come to our schools to be instructed in vernacular composition. This qualification is more quickly and easily to be attained from other sources. We can in those schools draw little, if any, aid from existing native literature. The desire for the new ideas and information which will be imparted at them must therefore be among the great inducements to attendance, and those who are candidates for such instruction will not, I think, in any important degree be deterred by having to undergo also the labour of learning the English character and language. The fact indeed is, as it is to be presumed from the evidence, which has been recorded5 on the subject, that a knowledge of the English language itself with a view to the business, however humble of life, is one main object of most of the scholars. It is fortunate that, in the pursuit of such an object, they can be led on to higher studies and ends. For 188

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mere instruction of a general nature (such as our masters now give) through the vernacular medium, it may, it seems to me, well be doubted whether even the number of pupils would seek our schools who now resort to them. 28. On the other hand, I confess that I regard it as a serious defect in our plans that we have compiled no proper series of vernacular class books. It is obviously desirable that, as we have vernacular classes, the books used in them should not only be correct and elegant in style, but should be themselves of the most useful description.6 I would urge also the justness and importance of the advice of the Honorable Court that such a series of class books should be prepared under one general scheme of control and superintendence. Much expense will thereby be saved, and efficiency greatly promoted. The cost would equitably and willingly be divided among many parties. The works would either be selections from English books of instruction already published, or original compilations adapted for native pupils. In either case the charge of the first selection or compilation in English would be borne in part by the Education Funds of Bengal, and in part by those of the other Presidencies, especially by those of Bombay, where such works must be urgently required for the vernacular schools in the interior. The new Pautsalah of Calcutta, the projectors of which have proposed a good series of works, would also of course contribute, and aid might be expected from benevolent individuals or associations, in different parts of India. The present opportunity is favorable for entering on the undertaking. When the books shall have been prepared in English, they will afterwards, as the Hon’ble Court have observed, be translated at each Presidency into the vernacular languages current in it, but the first step for all the Presidencies must be the primary compilation. I would, then, place the body, which at Bombay represents the Government in the direction of native education, in communication with the Committee of Public Instruction at Calcutta, and make it my first injunction to the latter Committee in concert with the Managers of the Hindoo College Pautsalah or others, to draw a definite scheme of the several sets of books wanted for instruction through the vernacular languages in seminaries of ordinary education—then to consider and report by what means, and at what estimated cost to be distributed among what parties, these books can be drawn up, and with what further cost the printing of them would be attended. With this information before them the Government can determine on the completion of the plan, and on the amount of funds which can properly, independent of the usual income of the Committee, be assigned to it. 29. I need scarcely repeat that I look with particular favor on the suggestions of the Managers of the Pautsalah, for including in the list of works Treatises on the Elements of Law, general and local, of Political Economy, and of Morals. 30. When the series of class books shall have been printed, and especially when those further Manuals of the Precedents, Rules and Practice of our Courts to which my Minute in the Judicial Department7 of September 4, 1838 referred, shall have been added to them and made a part of instruction, it is more probable than 189

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at present that students will attend the vernacular classes of our Zillah Schools, for the sake of the general and practical knowledge to be acquired at them. In that stage of progress it would be my second direction to the Calcutta Education Committee to relax their rule8 for the discontinuance of separate vernacular instruction, and to allow students to attend the full course of English or vernacular tuition as they might themselves prefer. 31. The day however when all this can be accomplished may yet be distant. It is easy to wish for and to project such compilations as will be requisite for the purpose, but the means in India for the efficient execution of them are unavoidably limited, and in this respect, as in other parts of our endeavours, we must expect delays and partial disappointments. 32. Meanwhile we have to improve the Institutions which are established, and to make the most of them for the great end sought for. My leading recommendation on this point would be so to connect our Zillah Schools with the Central Colleges as to give from the latter to the ablest students of the Zillah Schools a stimulus that will carry them beyond the ordinary range of instruction which is reached by the mass of the Zillah pupils: Without such a stimulus, we shall fall short of the point which we must desire to gain in the promotion of national improvement. 33. This brings me to the question of pecuniary scholarships for meritorious students, for such a stimulus as I have spoken of is scarcely to be given excepting by attaching in some form scholarships of that description to the Central Colleges, to which the best of the Zillah scholars may be eligible. On the general question regarding pecuniary support to promising students to enable them to perfect their studies, I think that I may content myself by referring to the facts and opinions which have been detailed on this point; and I will only therefore profess my decided adoption of the principle laid down by the Hon’ble Court in the words which I shall again quote from their despatch of September 29th 1830— “Provided (they say,) that the privilege of scholarship is restricted to young men who have afforded proof of a peculiar capacity and industry, it appears to us to be a highly useful and proper mode of encouraging and facilitating their acquisition of high attainments.” My third present direction to the Calcutta Committee would now therefore be to consider and report with all expedition on the details of a scheme for assigning a certain number of Scholarships to all our higher Seminaries—those in the English and Oriental Colleges being in an equal ratio. In consequence of the very general poverty of students I would fix the ratio on a high scale, say at 1–4th of the number of pupils if that number “should afford proof of peculiar capacity and industry.” I do not suggest Scholarships in our ordinary schools, as the most deserving pupils of these will best be provided for in the Colleges, and the average efficiency of such schools, can well be maintained by honorary prizes or single donations of money. Of the College Scholarships it may perhaps be the most convenient in the first instance that some should be assigned in regular rotation to be competed for by the pupils of each Zillah School. The 190

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amount ought, from the commencement, to be enough for the decent subsistence of a Native Student, and there might be some small increase admitted after a year or two, as an incentive to continued effort. On the other hand the Scholarship should be forfeited if a proper standard of attainment were not exhibited at each yearly examination. I would not grant Scholarships for a year only, liable to be then lost if, upon the chance of an examination, another competitor might stand higher on the list; for the uncertain tenure of the emolument would be very unfavorable to hearty consistent study. But I would provide by such safe guards as I have mentioned against the growth of indolence or indifference in the student. Four years is an ordinary period for holding such Scholarships at home, and it may be sufficient here. The following is the scheme of the Flaherty Scholarships in the University College, London, taken from the report of the Council of that Institution for 1838. “They (the Council) have determined to apply the income of this fund towards the formation of Scholarships to be called Flaherty Scholarships, which at the same time that they stimulate and reward the exertions of the students might commemorate the zeal and munificence of this body. This donation increased by the investment of the surplus dividends until the Scholarships are in full operation, together with the sum of £250 supplied by the Council out of the funds of the College, will constitute a fund producing £200 per annum, which will be sufficient to create four Scholarships, each amounting to £50, annually for four years. One of these Scholarships will be vacant every year, and is to be given in alternate years to the best proficient in classical languages, and in Mathematics and in Natural Philosophy, the first is intended to be given in the present year to the best proficient in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.” 34. I would state to the Education Committee that it is the wish of Government eventually to bring the9 Medical College at Calcutta within our general scheme on this subject. But I would not press any immediate proposition to that effect. It will be enough to request now that the General Committee report specially in each of their successive yearly reports, whether they think that the time has arrived at which the assimilation could properly be introduced. 36. If instructions founded upon these observations should, with the concurrence of the President in Council, be communicated to the Calcutta General Committee, I would be glad that it should be added to them that, if the Committee should doubt the feasibility of attaching Scholarships to Central Colleges on some such general scheme as has been suggested for the improvement of the pupils of the Zillah Schools, they will then submit such other recommendations as they may think most likely to promote the object contemplated by that scheme—the advancement of the best pupils of the body of our scholars beyond the present scale of common acquirement being regarded as a point of the first importance in our educational plans. 37. I have not more to observe on the immediate guidance of the measures of the Calcutta Committee. Before 191

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APPENDIX. No. XI. List of Examination Questions for Scholarships for the year 1841. JUNIOR ENGLISH SCHOLARSHIPS. NO. 1. ENGLISH GRAMMAR. I. Define the nine parts of speech? II. Explain and illustrate by examples the use and importance of the definite and indefinite articles? III. Decline all the personal pronouns? IV. Conjugate the verb active “to fall,” and the verb passive “to be commanded?” V. Write the past tense and the past participle of the following verbs. “To bring,” “to chide,” “to creep,” “to go,” “to drive,” “to know,” “to load,” “to see,” “to speak,” “to thrust,” “to weave,” “to take,” “to be.” VI. Parse the following sentences. “If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honour ought to be seated on an eminence.” “For Human Knowledge, which concerns the mind, it hath two parts, the one that enquireth of the substance or nature of the soul or mind, the other that enquireth of the faculties or functions thereof. _________________ Be famous then By wisdom, as thy empire must extend, So let extend thy mind o’er all the world, In knowledge, all things in it comprehend: VII. Point out and correct the errors, if any, in the following sentences; giving your reasons— 1st. He that is wrong, you should correct. 2nd. The body of the community whenever they can come to act can meet with no resistance. 3d. Let each esteem others better than themselves. 4th. Who do you live with now? 5th. _________________ thus with the year Season’s returns, but not to me return Day or the sweet approach of even or morn. 6th. In death the vanquished, and the victor lies, 7th. Whom do you believe that I am. 192

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8th. O thou my lips inspire, Who touched Isaiah’s lips with fire. 9th. Between you and I, this is not right. VIII. Explain the distinction between “shall” and “will,” and illustrate it by examples. IX. Point the following sentence, and rectify in it the use of capital letters. The struggle Between the Macedonians and the greeks. And before that The disputes of the Greek commonwealths among themselves for an unproductive Superiority form one of the Bloodiest Scenes in History one is Astonished how such a small Spot could furnish men sufficient to sacrifice to the pitiful Ambition of possessing five or six thousand more Acres or two or three more Villages yet to see the Acrimony and Bitterness with which this was disputed between the Athenians and lacedemonians what Armies cut off what Fleets sunk and burnt what a Number of Cities sacked and their Inhabitants slaughtered and captived One would be induced to believe that the decision of the Fate of Mankind at least Depended upon it. X. Give the derivation, meaning and application in sentences of the following words. Omnipotent—apparent—paternal—defend—complete—complicated—portable— sanctify—astronomy—autograph—zoology—inundation—soliloquy. XI. Scan the following lines: 1st. Be wise to-day, ’tis madness to defer; Next day the fatal precedent will plead; Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of life. 2nd. ’Twas when the seas were roaring; With hollow blasts of wind; A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclined. 3rd. My banks they are furnished with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep; My grottoes are shaded with trees, And my hills are white over with sheep. NO. 2. GEOGRAPHY. 1. What is a diameter of the earth? What is the axis? Or what extent in English miles are the earth’s mean diameter, and circumference, respectively. What occasions the alternation of day and night?

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2. What is the distance of the earth from the sun? What is meant by the earth’s orbit? What occasions the variety of the seasons, and the difference in the lengths of the day and night?

No. IV. Copy of a Despatch from the Honorable the Court of Directors, dated the 20th January 1841, on the subject of Native Education. PUBLIC DEPARTMENT. No. 1 OF 1841. OUR GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA IN COUNCIL. India Public Letter dated 30th Sept., No. 29, 1837. P. 1 to 8. 18th Jan., No. 8, 1837. P. 67 to 71. 1st March, No. 5, 1837. P. 101 to 107. 12th Feb., No. 8, 1838. P. 34. 19th Nov., No. 36, 1838. 16th March, No. 5, 1839. 12th Oct., No. 33. Gov. Genl.’s Lt., dated 13th Dec., No. 2, 1839.

Para. 1. We now reply to the Letters of the date, noted in the margin, which relate to the general arrangements respecting Native Education. 2. It will be our endeavor to express our opinions and orders upon this important subject in the briefest possible terms, purposely abstaining from any examination into the controversy to which it gave rise.

3. In reference not only to the desire which has been manifested by numerous and respectable bodies of both Mohammedans and Hindoos, but also to more general considerations, it is our firm conviction that the Funds assigned to each Native College or Oriental Seminary, should be employed exclusively on instruction in, or in connexion with, that College or Seminary, giving a decided preference within those Institutions to the promotion, to the first instance, of perfect efficiency in Oriental instruction. 4. We have already sanctioned the disbursement of 6,000 Rupees a year, through the Asiatic Society of Bengal, for the expense of printing the most esteemed works in the literature of the Mohammedans and Hindoos, and we authorize you to give such further encouragement as you may think desirable, to similar works, or to translations into the Native Languages, or to any works designed for educational purposes. 5. It is our opinion that a just consideration for the circumstances of the Students requires that Scholarships should be attached to the Oriental Seminaries in proportion to their endowments, such Scholarships to be invariably bestowed as rewards for merit, and to last for a sufficient term to enable the Student to acquire 194

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the highest attainments of which the collegiate course admits, but the continuance of them for any part of the term, to be always dependent upon continued industry and good conduct, and we direct you to instruct the Committee of Public Instruction to act upon this principle. 6. We consider it essential that the Native Colleges should be placed under European Superintendance of the most respectable description, both as to station and attainments. 7. It is by no means our intention that the arrangement now authorized for restoring to its original object the Funds appropriated to each Oriental Institution, should interrupt the measures in progress for the dissemination of European knowledge, whether by translations into the Vernacular tongues, or, by means of the English language. On the contrary we cordially subscribe to one of the principal declarations of the Resolution of 7th March 1835, that “it should be the great object of the British Government to promote European Science and Literature amongst the Natives of India,” and have no hesitation in sanctioning it, as a general principle for the conduct of our Indian Governments. 8. We are aware that the opinions which we have now expressed, favorable on the one hand to the application of the Funds belonging to the Native Colleges or Seminaries, for Oriental instruction in the first instance, and, on the other hand to the diffusion of European instruction, involve an increase of expense to the State. To this we are prepared to submit, concurring as we must do in the opinion which our Governor General has expressed of the insufficiency of the funds hitherto allotted to the purposes of public instruction in India. You have therefore our authority to make up any deficiency in the income now at the disposal of the General Committee which may be occasioned by restoring the allowances of the several Oriental Colleges to the purposes for which they were originally made. 9. We forbear at present from expressing an opinion regarding the most efficient mode of communicating and disseminating European knowledge. Experience indeed does not yet warrant the adoption of any exclusive system. We wish a fair trial to be given to the experiment of engrafting European knowledge on the studies of the existing learned classes, encouraged as it will be by giving to the Seminaries in which those studies are prosecuted, the aid of able and efficient European Superintendance. At the same time we authorize you to give all suitable encouragement to translations of European works into the Vernacular languages, and also to provide for the compilation of a proper series of Vernacular class-books according to the plan which Lord Auckland has proposed. 10. Lord Auckland’s suggestion to connect the Provincial Schools with a Central College, so that the ablest Scholars of the former may be transferred to the 195

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latter, for the purpose of securing superior instruction, seems very judicious, and we shall be prepared to sanction the grant of a sufficient number of Scholarships for that purpose. We also entirely concur in His Lordship’s proposal to render the highest instruction efficient in a certain number of Central Colleges, in preference to extending the means of inferior instruction, by adding to the number of Ordinary Zillah Schools. 11. You will have observed from this despatch that we very generally concur in the view taken by our Governor General of this interesting and important subject. The remarks of His Lordship upon the reference made to him of Mr. Adam’s propositions will be noticed in a separate letter, as well a variety of details which at different times you have communicated to us regarding Native Education. We are, &c., (Sd.) W. B. BAYLEY. ” GEORGE LYALL. ” H. LINDSAY. ” JOHN SHEPHERD. ” W. H. SYKES. ” P. VANS AGNEW. ” J. P. MUSPRATT.

(Sd.) F. WARDEN. ” J. THORNHILL. ” RUSSELL ELLICE. ” J. L. LUSHINGTON. ” HENRY WILLOCK. ” A. GALLOWAY.

}

LONDON, 20th January, 1841.

(True Copy,) C. A. BUSHBY, Secy. to Govt. of India.

No. V. GENERAL ORDERS BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE PRESIDENT IN COUNCIL. FORT WILLIAM, 12TH AUGUST. Government having resolved, in the General Department, to sanction the formation of a Secondary School in connection with the Medical College of Calcutta for the instruction of Native Doctors for the Military and Civil branches of the Service, the following rules relating to admission to the School and to the terms of service which have been established by the Hon’ble the President in Council are published for general information, and will take effect from the 1st of October 1839. 1st. The School will be thrown open for the admission of any persons desirous of acquiring Medical knowledge, as well as for the instruction of those who 196

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enter the institution under the engagements and terms of service hereinafter specified. 2d. To the first of these classes of persons the subjoined rules do not apply, it being understood that such persons resort to the Institution in order to qualify themselves for eventually undertaking private practice in the Medical profession. 3d. The class of students intended for the subordinate Medical Service under Government is to consist of not more than fifty persons, admissible on the 1st of October 1839, and in the following and every subsequent year respectively twenty additional pupils are to be admitted. 4th. The qualification required of these students at the time of admission is that they shall be able to read and write the Hindoostanee language, in the Devanagree or Persian character, their capability being certified by any interpreter to a Native Regiment, and further ascertained by examination before the Examiners of the College of Fort William—on receipt of the Reports of the Examiners, the Council of the Medical College will select such as possess the best certificates restricting admission to the numbers of students above specified. 5th. Hindoos and Mahommedans are equally admissible when duly qualified on the sole condition that they be of respectable character. Where qualifications are equal, a preference will be shown to the sons or near relatives of Native Officers, and other respectable persons in the service of Government. Candidates from the provinces of Assam and Arrakan will be specially considered. 6th. The students are to be regularly enlisted as Soldiers, and to be subject to the Articles of War for the Government of the Native Army. 7th. Students are admissible into the Institution at from 46 to 22 years of age, and upon their admission they are to enter into an engagement to serve the Government as Native Doctors, as vacancies may occur, for a period of not less than seven years from the time of their leaving the Institution in that capacity, unless prevented serving that period by physical inability proved before a Medical Committee and certified accordingly. After a service of seven years they may demand their discharge in time of peace. 8th. From the date of admission into the Institution the students will receive diet money, at the public charge, at the rate of (5) Five Company’s Rupees each per mensem, to be continued to them during the period of their abode at the Institution, and to be drawn in Monthly Abstract by the Secretary to the Medical College. 9th. It will at all times be in the power of the Council of the Medical College to discharge any individual student on being satisfied that from dullness, idleness, negligence, or mi conduct he is not likely to profit by the instruction given at the Institution, or to become properly qualified for the exercise of the duties for which he is designed. 197

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10th. The students will be required before they obtain admission into the service as Native Doctors to pass an examination before the Professors of the Medical College, upon whose report of their qualification for the public service made through the College Council to the Medical Board, the students will be appointed to the situation of Native Doctors on the occurrence of vacancies in the same manner as Native Doctors have hitherto been appointed. 11th. The pay of Native Doctors on appointment to the service is fixed at (20) Twenty Company’s Rupees a month in Garrison or at a Civil Station, and (25) Twenty-five Company’s Rupees a month in the field of which sums (5) Five Rupees are to be considered as batta and deducted when on leave of absence from Corps and Stations. 12th. Although the engagement of Native Doctors to serve in that capacity does not extend beyond seven years, yet in the event of such individual continuing to serve, his allowances will after seven years be advanced to (25) Twentyfive Company’s Rupees in Garrison or at a Civil Station, and (30) Thirty Rupees in the Field, provided the Medical Officer under whom such Native Doctors may be serving at the time grant a certificate that the general character and professional conduct of the individual deserve this indulgence. The certificate to be countersigned by the Superintending Surgeon of the Division or Circle. 13th. Pensions will be granted to Native Doctors at the following rates, and under the conditions of service therein specified. A Native Doctor who from wounds or injuries received on service shall become no longer fit to serve, will be entitled at any period less than fifteen years to an invalid pension of twelve rupees per mensem—after fifteen years to one-half of his field pay if in the Military and of his Garrison pay if in the Civil branch of the service,—after twenty-two years to the whole of his pay, provided that in every case the inability of a Native Doctor to serve, as occasioned by wounds or injuries so received, be duly certified by the usual Medical Committee for invaliding. 14th. A Native Doctor if invalided under ordinary circumstances of inability to perform his duties, will be entitled at the expiration of fifteen years to a pensionary provision of Ten Rupees per mensem, and after twenty-two years to onehalf of his Field or Garrison pay agreeably to the branch of the service in which he is employed. 15th. Native Doctors attached to Civil Stations are liable to serve with the Army when so directed in General Orders, or the same advantages in every respect will thereupon be extended to them when thus serving as to Native Doctors attached to Corps. The foregoing rules are applicable only to those Native Doctors who may be educated at the Secondary School of the Calcutta Medical College. 198

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APPENDIX M. Depository List of the Bombay Native Education Society’s Works. Copies remaining on the 1st January 1839

MURATHEE. Beejah Gunnet, or Elements of Algebra, translated from the works of Doctor Hutton and Bonnycastle by Lieut.-Col. G. Jervis, late Secretary to the Society, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kurtuvya Bhoomittee, or Practical Geometry, translated from the course compiled by Colonel Pasley, of the Royal Engineers, by Ditto ditto, Logarithms, Tables of, by Ditto Ditto, . . . . . . Triconamitter, or a treatise on Plane Trigonometry and Mensurations of Heights and Distances, with Tables of Logarithmetic Lines, Tangents, &c. by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shickshamalla, a course of Mathematics, 1st volume, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ditto, 2d volume, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adikarun Bhoomittee, or Elements of Geometry, translated from ditto, Hutton’s Course of Mathematics, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bodh Katha, translated from Tarachund Dutt’s Pleasing Stories by Sadasew Cassinath Chubay, late Native Secretary to the Society, . . Bodh Vuchun, or Advice to Children in short sentences, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Æsop Neeti Katha, or Æsop’s Fables, by Ditto, Pall Mitra, or a selection from Bergum’s Children’s Friend, 1st volume, by Ditto, . . . . . . Ditto ditto 2d volume, by Lieutenant P. Gastord, Leepeedhara, containing the Alphabet, Combined Letters and a collection of Words from one to five Syllables, by Pundits in the service of the Society, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vurnmalla, or School Tables, according to the Lancasterian System of Education, by Ditto, Maharashtra Kosh, or a Murathee Dictionary for the use of the Natives, by Ditto, . . . . . . 199

Price of each Copy

95

3

0

0

250 1437

5 0

0 4

0 0

235

2

0

0

883 146

2 10

8 8

0 0

418

3

0

0

917

0

8

0

327 710

0 3

8 0

0 0

712 620

3 4

8 0

0 0

1158

0

6

0

136

12

0

0

271

18

0

0

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Copies remaining on the 1st January 1839

MURATHEE. Supplement to Murathee Dictionary, by Ditto, . . Punchopakhyan, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shalla Pudhutee, a Treatise on the Management of Schools according to Lancasterian System of Education, by Major J. Molesworth, a late Member of the Committee, . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shilpavidya, or Treatise on Mechanics of the Library of Useful Knowledge, by Mr. Webell, . . Murathee Bukhur, or Grant Duff’s History of the Marathees, translated by Major D. Capon, . . Kitta, or Specimens of Bolbodh and Moore Characters, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sarah Sangraha, Pinnock’s Catechism of General Knowledge, by Ball Gungadhar Shastree, Esq., Honorary Native Secretary, . . . . Mathematical Geography of the Library of Useful Knowledge, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . Ball Viakrun, a little Grammar, by Ditto, . . . . England Deshachee Bukhur, or History of England, translated by the European and Native Secretaries of the Society, . . . . . . . Ditto, 2d volume, ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bhoogole, or Dialogues on Geography and Astronomy, by Mr. W. B. Mainwaring and Ramchunder Shastree, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pudarth Viduan, or Conversations on Natural Philosophy, by Hurry Kessowjee, a Member of the Translating Committee, . . . . . . . . . . . Conversations on Chemistry, by Ditto, . . . . . . Ball Ghoshtee, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Missur Deshachee Vrittant Kutha, or History of Ancient Egyptians, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Punchung, or Almanack, by Captain R. Shortrede, a Member of the Translating Committee for 1836, Kshtraphul Ghunphul, or Mensurations of Planes and Solids, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . England Deschachee Vurun, or England Delineated, by Nana Nurayen, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Price of each Copy

434 1020

2 0

0 0

0 0

244

0

2

0

208

0

0

0

774

6

0

0

641

0

1

0

434

0

8

0

374 930

0 12 0 3

0 0

717 839

5 6

0 0

0 0

430

4

0

0

321 412 48

6 16 0

0 0 6

0 0 0

412

0

8

0

95

1

0

0

991

0 12

0

952

1

0

0

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF FORT WILLIAM

Copies remaining on the 1st January 1839

MURATHEE. Gungadhur’s Grammar, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dadoba’s Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Neeti Kutha, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ball Oopdesh, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ankh Leepee, or Numeration Tables, . . . . . . . Bhoogole Vidiyah, or little Geography, . . . . . Hurry Kessowjee’s History of England, . . . . . Atlas, containing 9 Mans, by Dadoba Pandoorung and Nunna Narrayen, . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jagti Jot, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wat Sarachi Goshta, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dialogues on the means of improving the conditions of the People, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The History of the Medes and Persians, . . . . . Ditto of Assyrians and Babylonians, . . . . . . . . Ditto of Athenians, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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GOOJRATHEE. Adikarun Bhoomittee, or Elements of Geometry, by Lieutenant Colonel G. Jervis, late Secretary of the Society, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gunnit, 1st part, 1st edition, by Ditto, . . . . . . . Ditto, 1st part, 2d edition, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . Ditto, 2d part, 1st Ditto, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . Kurtavya Bhoomittee, or Practical Geometry, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Triconamittee, or Treatise on the Plane, Trigonometry and Mensuration of Heights and Distances, &c., by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beeja Gunnit, or Elements of Algebra, Ditto, . . Shicksha Malla, a course of Mathematics, in 2 volumes, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ditto, 1st volume, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gunnit, Translated from the works of Hutton and Bonnycastle, with Book-keeping, by Ditto, . . . Vidyana Oopdesh, a Preliminary Treatise to the Library of Useful Knowledge, translated by Do., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

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GOOJRATHEE. MURATHEE. Bodh Vuchun, or Advice to Children, in short sentences, by Pundits in the Service of the Society, 1st edition, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ditto, 2d ditto ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fables in Banyan Goojrathee, by Ditto, . . . . . Ditto in Parsee ditto, by ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leepeedhara, or Spelling, 2d edition, by Ditto, Æsop Neeti Kutha, or Æsop’s Fables, by Ditto, Shallapudhuttee, a Treatise on the management of Schools, by Do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bhoogole, or Dialogues on Geography and Astronomy by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dodsley’s Fables, a selection from, by Kissen Doss Joojuldass, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vurnmalla, or School Fables, according to Lancasterian System of Education, per set, . . . Puncho Pakhyan, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gunnit, Translated from the works of Hutton and Bonnycastle, with Book-keeping in MS., . . . . Kitta, or specimens of Goojrathee Characters, Balmitra, or Berquin Children’s Friend, 1st volume, by Runchore Doss, and Ghirdhurbae Goojrathee Inspectors, . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ankh Leepee, or Numeration Tables, by Pundits in the Service of the Society, . . . . . . . . Atlas, containing 9 Maps, by Dadoba Pandoorung and Nana Narayen, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ball Viakrun, or little Grammar, by Ditto, . . . Bhoogoole Videyah, or little Geography, by Ditto, Ball Oopdesh, or Advice to Children, by Ditto, Kshtraphul Ghunphul, or Mensuration of Plane and Solids, by Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

255 1104 222 1253 977 384

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PERSIAN. Unwari Sohili, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dewani Hafiz, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yusoof Wa Zuleekha of Jami, . . . . . . . . . . . . . Insha, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

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PERSIAN. MURATHEE. Lumsden’s Persian Grammar, 2 vols. . . . . . . . Ressaleh Tahsecluth Tukfeef, . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table, exhibiting in one connected view the Sub-Division and Measures of Nouns, &c. Tareekhi Negaristan, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meeruti Sekundri, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tareekhi Ferishta, in 2 volumes, . . . . . . . . . . . Goolistan of Sadi, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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HINDOOSTANEE. Jamee Ool Hickayat, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gilchrist’s Oriental Linguist, . . . . . . . . . . . . . Map of the Globe, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tytler’s Elements of General History, translated by Lewis DaCosta, Esq., Calcutta, for the Society, in 3 volumes, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Taleem Numu, containing Moral Sentences and Tales; Rules of Arithmetic; Grammatical Rules; Forms of Letters; Deeds, &c. volume 1st, by Mahomed Ibrahim Mukba, Esq. a Member of the Society, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ditto ditto, 2d volume, Ditto do. . . . . . . . . . . . ENGLISH. Borradaile’s Report, in 2 vols. . . . . . . . . . . . . Adan’s little Grammar, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nicholson’s Mathematics, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Key to Ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prefixes and Affixes, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Questions on the History of England, . . . . . . . Questions for General Examination, . . . . . . . . Little Spelling Book, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mill’s British India, in 6 vols. russia, . . . . . . . Gibbon’s Rome, in 8 ditto ditto, . . . . . . . . . . . Grant Duff’s History of the Marathus, in 3 ditto, Murray’s Grammar, in 2 vols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anacharsis’ Travels, in 7 volumes, with Plates, Bingley’s Useful Knowledge, in 3 volumes, . . . .

203

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ENGLISH. MURATHEE.

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Pinnock’s America, 1st part, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tables of Weights and Measures, . . . . . . . . . . Account of India, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Etymological Manual, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joyce’s Arithmetic, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Guy’s Geography, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Key to Joyce’s Arithmetic, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abercrombie on the Intellectual power, . . . . . Ditto on the Moral Feelings, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Milton’s Poems, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abridgement of the History of England, . . . . . Sequel to little Spelling Book, . . . . . . . . . . . . McCullock’s Grammar, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ditto Series of Lesson, in Prose and Verse, . .

56 257 254 399 352 26 24 17 23 17 500 500 195 250

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SUNSKRIT. Colebrooke’s Grammar, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Forster’s Essays, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gungadhur’s Umercosh, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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MISCELLANEOUS. MURATHEE. Ditto ditto Dictionary, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Taloola Khan’s Turkish Grammar, . . . . . . . . . Boutan Dictionary, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16 11 11

Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

See paragraph 5 of the Note. Recorded in the Legislative Department. See details at the close of para. 8, and in paras 10 to 15 of Note. See paragraph 3 of the Note. [******* * **] 10 to 15 of the Note. See Extract of Dispatch cited in para. 36 of Note. Recorded in the Legislative Department. Note para. 6. See paras. 20 and 21 of Note.

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18 PRISCILLA CHAPMAN, EXTRACT FROM HINDOO FEMALE EDUCATION (LONDON: R. B. SEELEY AND W BURNSIDE, 1839), 64–97

CHAPTER VII. NECESSITY OF A PRINCIPLE THAT WILL ESTABLISH MUTUAL CONFIDENCE— ENGLISH EDUCATION—EXCLUSION OF SCRIPTURE FROM GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS—COMPARATIVE INFLUENCE OF MISSIONARY LABOR—NATIVE CO-OPERATION NOT TO BE EXPECTED—DIFFICULTIES OF FINDING RIGHTLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS IN INDIA—PROGRESS HITHERTO LIMITED TO THE POOR—MEANS OF EXTENSION.

IT is the practice in questions of European polity, to contemplate the constitution of society, with reference to certain acknowledged rights, admitted to be inherent in ourselves; and a renovating principle is appealed to, the powers of which, for whatever period they may have been dormant, are never supposed to have ceased entirely: on the contrary, when circumstances call them into action, they often appear to have gathered fresh vigour from the occasion of repose. No such self-regulating compact is to be found amongst the Hindoos, either in civil or domestic society; which is the great reason for their disunion and consequent weakness: the tyranny of caste has expunged any record of the civil rights of man, whilst custom and prejudice have taken the place of law and principle. It is a distinguishing feature of their system, that they must continue in the position of their progenitors, whether good or bad: thus occupations and habits are never changed, but descend from generation to generation. The greatest evil is endured in preference to, what they consider, the slightest innovation of old customs; and in no instance is this more apparent, than in the home circle, where discord, confusion, and misery reign, from the long-established idea, that the wife must and ought to be the slave, instead of the help-meet. There is one exception, however, which we would mention, as in itself worthy of admiration, though sometimes evil in its consequences: the attachment which the Hindoo feels to the inheritance of his fathers; for, like the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, it is neither the better land or the worth of it in money, that would readily induce the exchange, so that property often lies waste and useless, in the hands of its proprietor, which would otherwise become valuable. 206

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It is quite essential for the right direction of measures intended to benefit the people, that the real character of their feelings and customs, should be understood, and that fear of consequences should never induce even apparent respect for what is evil. The Hindoo knows how to value consistency in others, though he has no courage to maintain it in his own conduct; and it is not indulgence to their prejudices, that gives power over them. No compromise with Hindooism or Mahomedanism, will ever succeed in gaining that influence which will do the people real good. A completely new principle of feeling and action must be given. There are many indeed amongst the Hindoos, and even the Brahmins, who venture to prognosticate, that a new era will soon commence, when their nation will become Christian. But it is not well to indulge here in these deep and interesting anticipations; present duties are sufficiently momentous. The readiness with which all classes have accepted the national boon of English education, Hindoo and Mussulman attending the same college, shows both a zeal and capability for receiving such knowledge, as may qualify them for employment under government; but shackled as the instruction is, by obligations to which the authorities hold themselves bound, not to interfere with their religious opinions, they may alas! ‘be ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.’ Encouragement of a much more pleasing character is to be derived from the attendance at the missionary schools, where the whole instruction rests upon divine truth. In all the Female and Missionary Boys’ schools, the object of giving Christian instruction is avowed in the most open manner, and it is altogether impossible for those who send their children to such institutions, not to know that they are instructed in the Christian religion, and invited to embrace the hopes and promises, as well as confident assurances of the pardoning mercy of God, which are presented to the sinful children of men in the gospel of his son. In the avowed purpose of government to exclude the Scriptures and religious books even from the libraries, the Church and the individual Christian may be said to possess a charter in their favor; though it is seldom indeed that real conversion takes place whilst the children remain in the schools, they being minors till the age of sixteen; yet the difference of moral effect under the two systems is very apparent. With reference to female education, it is impossible for government to interfere; neither can the means for improving the condition of the female population become the subject of legislation. This makes it important that other means should be discovered, to assist and benefit them. It would be vain to encourage a hope of the Brahmins’ assenting, and becoming instrumental in the education of the sex so degraded. They never can act in concert in any matter which has not the immediate tendency to enrich themselves; and were they so disposed, it must be borne in mind, that their influence would work additional misery, by exposing the female character still more prominently to the influence of the religion of Kali, which is justly designated, ‘pure unmixed evil.’ Not merely is the absence of confidence in native society a bar to all advancement, but the “fear of man” is exemplified in the Hindoo character to an inconceivable extent, and paralyses the best powers. It is next to an impossibility to obtain the united attention of natives, even in 207

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immediate association with Europeans, for any subject of improvement, though they generally admit its probable advantage, without hesitation. Fair promises of consultation with others are always given, but they seldom, amount to any thing further; for no one has the courage to be the first to begin any thing new. We must not therefore indulge any expectation of measures promoting the female welfare, being originated, or finding ready support from the Hindoos themselves. Hitherto the East Indian population, descendants of Europeans in India, have had little or no weight with the natives: there are but few subjects of interest calculated to bring their united energies into action, and as an independent community, they are very deficient in those characteristics which qualify for the exercise of influence; if we except their familiar acquaintance with the vernacular language, an attainment which the European acquires with considerable difficulty, and probably never with the same fluency of expression. At Madras, the Rev. C. Tucker has made an important effort to give to the education of the East Indian females, such a direction as may bring valuable assistance to the work; and we trust that the day is not far distant, when many will be so established and settled in the faith, as to give them an influence, beyond that of mere tuition, with the Hindoos. Of the orphan children of European parents, educated in charitable institutions in India, from whom assistance might have been reasonably expected, but few have hitherto become serviceable in this sphere; there is every inducement for these young women to marry early, and a proper fear of associating with the heathen, has degenerated into a prejudice, that any contact with the natives is degrading. An encouraging example has been shown by such as have come forward, and the hope must be indulged, that the education which they receive, may be blessed in qualifying and disposing them to engage in this important service. The time is not yet arrived, that we can look to the converts to Christianity for any independent efforts; the sufferings which attend the sincere and faithful avowal of the truth, are such as leave them frequently in a state of great weakness, and they themselves are the objects of their pastor’s unceasing prayerful attention. Some years must elapse, before children of Christian converts now under instruction, can be fitted, if ever they should be disposed, to engage in duties of charity, towards their benighted countrywomen. For the reasons thus stated, it seems not only necessary, but natural to look to Christian countries, and especially to England, to supply the means that are required for the instruction of the Hindoos or Mahomedan females. It is clear that native females of good caste need but little encouragement to dispose them to welcome ladies who would visit them with a Christian object: none but such as are experienced in their Christian course can, under existing circumstances, hazard the attempt; and it is equally true, that when not merely the jealous character of the men must be overcome, but if possible, their confidence secured, the character and deportment of the visiting lady should be such as is calculated to command respect. The ‘Ladies’ Society’ in Calcutta, in the hope that their countrywomen will not turn a deaf ear to so strong an appeal, have made known their readiness to provide visiting teachers, whenever they may be called for. We cannot however forget that we are taught in the gospel, “that not many wise men after the flesh, not many 208

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mighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen: yea, and things which are not to bring to nought things that are.” The dissemination of the Gospel in India is no exception, and in the humble efforts hitherto made for the female population, it is almost exclusively to the poor, that the glad tidings have been carried. That they have not been wholly unwilling hearers, will be evinced by facts, and those who have seen the children under Christian tuition, are struck with the effect of the benefit conferred, legible in their countenances: nor can it be doubted that the marked distinction between the expression of unmeaning vacancy, and that given by a mind occupied with good thoughts, must be more or less perceptible to the parents, to whom the richest blessings may thus be conveyed through the weakest instrumentality. Though the actual improvement of character is apparently small, under the tuition which has been given; yet when the children of the lower castes that have been instructed in any of the female schools, are compared with those of the highest rank, the contrast in mind and manner is strikingly in favour of the former. The effect of European influence upon native society, is however far from being a subject of exultation: for when it is remembered what is the power of example upon the heathen, every one must feel a deep humiliation, and confess that the profession of Christianity in India has hitherto been very unproductive. As a nation, we are progressively brought into a nearer connexion with the millions of our fellow-subjects in India, and their welfare should not merely be the concern of residents in the east, who have many claims upon them; but occupy the prayerful and constant endeavours of the church at large. In a work of this character, the disproportion of time and means to the magnitude of the undertaking, would be altogether an overwhelming discouragement, unless it be viewed in the light of a direct fulfilment of the commandment of our Lord. To the minds of such as think that happiness can exist where the gospel is unknown, and that the Hindoo, being enlightened by useful knowledge alone, will care for the moral and intellectual condition of their females, no expectation of carrying conviction can be entertained; but such persons are entreated to search still closer into the subject, with the sincere desire that infinite wisdom may teach them to distinguish between truth and error.

CHAPTER VIII. SUBDIVISION OF CHARITABLE EFFORTS—CLASSIFICATION OF LABOR—MISS COOKE’S ARRIVAL—AVOWAL OF MOTIVES—DISCUSSION WITH THE NATIVE WOMEN—MISTRUST OF PARENTS—FORMATION OF SCHOOLS—PATRONAGE OF

THE

MARCHIONESS

OF

HASTINGS—VOLUNTARY

ATTENDANCE

AT

EXAMINATION—CONCENTRATION OF LABOR REQUISITE.

THE necessity of an avowed Christian direction to the efforts which may effect the elevation of the Hindoo females from their present degradation to their proper 209

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level, having been prominently set forth, the history of past attempts is offered in the hope of exciting further endeavours on their behalf. In the present early stage, we have to notice the subdivision of labor, which affords ample scope for diversity of talent and experience. The nature of the work, demanding constant exercise of patience, must beget occasional feelings of discouragement, under which a sanguine expectation may be reasonably entertained that, when one branch is languishing, there may be the full ear, promising an ample harvest, in another. We may class the efforts with which we are acquainted, thus— First: General gratuitous education of female native children of Hindoos and Mussulmans promiscuously, without limitation of age, at day schools supported by voluntary contributions, where the scriptures are the prominent subject of instruction. Secondly: The same object carried on by individual residents, children being collected on their own premises, and at their own expence. Thirdly: The visiting females of the higher castes in their dwellings, with the same Christian object. Fourthly: The gathering of orphan children from the heathen, and maintaining them in asylums or privately, for their education as Christians. Fifthly: Taking charge of the children of native converts, to board and educate them consistently with their baptismal profession. Of the first branch, the Central School at Calcutta claims particular mention, as being the institution which primarily engaged the general public attention in Bengal. The history of this establishment is more or less known, through the medium of the annual reports of the Ladies Society for Promoting Native Female Education, established in Calcutta, and notices in periodical publications. It was in May 1821, that the lady so prominently instrumental in this work, Mrs. Wilson, then Miss Cooke, left England for India, bearing a recommendation from the British and Foreign School Society to the Calcutta School Society, in furtherance of her strong desires to be made useful to the poor neglected females of India. She reached Calcutta in November; but the Committee of the Society to whom Miss Cooke looked for aid and support in her plans, being composed partly of native gentlemen, were not prepared unanimously and actively to engage in any general plan for native female education; therefore an arrangement was entered into with the corresponding committee of the Church Missionary Society, who took the necessary measures for the establishment of female schools. Whilst engaged in studying the Bengali language, and scarcely daring to hope that an immediate opening for entering upon the work, to which she had devoted herself, would be found, Miss Cooke paid a visit to one of the native schools for boys, in order to observe their pronunciation; and this circumstance, trifling as it might appear, led to the opening of her first school in Thunthuniya. Unaccustomed to see a European lady in that part of the native town, a crowd collected round the door of the school, amongst them was an interesting looking little girl, whom the school pundit drove 210

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away; Miss Cooke desired the child to be called, and by an interpreter asked her, if she wished to learn to read? She was told in reply, that this child had for three months past been daily begging to be permitted to learn to read with the boys, and that if Miss Cooke (who had made known her purpose of devoting herself to the instruction of native girls) would attend next day, twenty girls should be collected. Accompanied by a female friend conversant with the language, she repeated her visit on the morrow, and found fifteen girls, several of whom had their mothers with them. Their natural inquisitiveness prompted them to inquire, what could be Miss Cooke’s motive for coming amongst them? They were told that, ‘she had heard in England that the women of their country were kept in total ignorance, that they were not taught to read or write, that the men only were allowed to attain any degree of knowledge, and it was also generally understood, that, the chief obstacle to their improvement was that no females would undertake to teach them; she had therefore felt compassion for them, and had left her country, her parents, and friends, to help them.’ The mothers with one voice cried out, (smiting themselves with their right hands) ‘O what a pearl of a woman is this!’ It was added, ‘she has given up every earthly expectation, to come here, and seeks not the riches of this world, but desires only to promote your best interests. ‘Our children are yours, we give them to you,’ was the reply of two or three of the women at once. One of them asked, ‘What will be the use of learning to our girls, and what good will it do them?’ She was told ‘it would make them more useful in their families, and increase their knowledge, and it was hoped that it would also tend to gain them respect, and produce harmony in their families.’ ‘True,’ said one of them, ‘our husbands now look upon us as little better than brutes.’ Another asked, ‘What benefit will you derive from this work?’ She was told, ‘the only return wished for was, to promote their best interest and happiness.’ Then said the woman, ‘I suppose this is a holy work, and well-pleasing to God.’ As they were not able to understand much, it was only said in return, ‘that God was always well pleased, that his servants should do good to their fellow-creatures.’ The women then spoke to each other in terms of the highest approbation, of what had passed. This explanation of Miss Cooke’s plans, seemed to have prevented much suspicion from being entertained as to her motives, and according to the habit of the natives, when any advantage may accrue, petitions for female schools were presented from different quarters of the native town; and eight schools were speedily established. One instance of the mistrust with which untutored minds are apt to view disinterested efforts for their good, occurred. The girl who first presented herself at Thunthuniya, after having attended daily for some weeks, was withdrawn, and under pretext of going to a distance to make poojah, or worship, was absent about a fortnight, although daily enquiry was made for her: her father one day presented a paper, written in English, which he required Miss Cooke to sign, and promised in that case to send his child to school again. This proved to be an agreement, by which Miss Cooke was to bind herself, to make no claim upon the child hereafter, on the ground of educating her, and that her parents should be at full liberty, to take her away when they chose. The paper being signed, the child 211

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returned to school. Thus in 1822, eight little schools for girls were formed, of which the detail is given, to shew the real nature of the work. The first Thunthuniya commenced, Jan. 25, with twelve children, but they soon increased to twenty-five. Jan. 16. The Mirzapore school was opened by a pundit, collecting fifteen girls; the population in this neighbourhood being chiefly Mussulman (who change their places of abode, as the place of their employment may suggest,) a regular attendance by the same children, was much prevented. Feb. 12. In consequence of a petition for a a female school, signed by several inhabitants, with twenty-two names of children, as wishing to learn to read, affixed, a place was taken in the adjoining neighbourhood for them to assemble in: The same number of children were collected, but they were other than those whose names had been given. March 25. At a school opened in Soho-bazar, seventeen girls were collected by the master, some from 12 to 15 years of age, they proved however less regular in attendance, and more quarrelsome than the smaller children. April 2. Krishna Bazar school, was formed, contained forty-five girls, collected by a respectable pundit. April 30. Shyan Bazar school, a very active Mussulman woman assembled eighteen girls, the numbers soon increased to forty-five. May 3. Mullick Bazar. This school had twenty-seven scholars; it laboured under the disadvantage of a very ignorant master, but as he had great influence among the people, it was thought best not to part with him. May 18. Koomer Tolly school, was formed. Eighteen girls were collected by the pundit. At the end of four months from Jan. 12, 1822, Miss Cooke’s efforts had been so far blessed, and attended with more favourable results than she had anticipated. The number of girls then on the school list, was two hundred and seventeen; about two hundred in daily attendance. The review of these her first efforts, was therefore far from discouraging. With respect to the influence on the children themselves, Miss Cooke perceived sufficient good effects, to hope for more. When they were first assembled, it was difficult to get them either to sit or stand still, much more so, to keep them reading or writing, for a quarter of an hour at a time; and it occurred more than once at the first opening of the schools, that while changing the card, on which the girls were reading the alphabet, the children had disappeared. The master very coolly said, ‘they were gone to eat.’ After a little while however, they became as anxious to remain as long as she did, and the parents appeared to take an interest in their children’s learning. One poor woman used to bring her little children two miles, and wait to take them home; and in one instance a respectable man stood over his little daughter, the whole time of lessons. A very decent woman took her niece to Miss Cooke and said, “Pray make her wise or learned, it is all I wish for her.” Another woman complained that the pundit did not teach her daughter fast enough: and a great girl, urged to take 212

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more pains on account of her age, said, ‘indeed she wished to learn and that she repeated her letters and spelling day and night.’ These little incidents gave indications of a brighter day, that would sometime or other dawn upon the poor females of India, and for the time, amidst much that appeared adverse, served to uphold a stedfast hope. In 1823 the number of schools was increased to twenty-two, and of scholars to four hundred. The Marchioness of Hastings afforded great encouragement to the establishment of these schools; she not only patronized the commencement, but gave work to be done by the children, and a few days before her departure from India, visited in person most of the schools, inspected the classes, commending those who had made the greatest proficiency, and encouraged them by rewards. The parents were much attracted by her ladyship’s goodness in visiting lanes and gullys, where Europeans are scarcely ever seen, and won by her kind and condescending notice of their children. On June 23, a general examination of the first and second classes of all the female schools took place at the Mission House at Mirzapore. When public notice was given, it was not known that the day fixed for the examination, was a noted Hindoo holiday, a very small attendance was consequently apprehended; in this instance however the children were allowed to do as they pleased, and out of one hundred and twenty requested to attend, not more than ten were absent, five of whom were ill. The first classes were able to read with ease ‘the Tract on Female Education,’ by a learned pundit, rather a difficult book from the number of Sanscrit phrases. Others read in books of fables, and in Watts’ Catechism, translated into Bengali; their needlework was then shewn, and the composure and seeming delight with which the little creatures went through the task, seated at the feet of their kind patronesses, much exceeded what had been anticipated. Rewards were distributed from a stock left by Lady Hastings. Seventeen months previous to this examination none of these children nor the young women who had qualified themselves as teachers, knew a letter of the alphabet, nor could they have been persuaded to have entered the house of a European. The idea of learning to sew they reluctantly received, regarding it as degrading; but after a time the inquiry was, ‘What, no work to-day?’ This altered feeling was more or less apparent; a girl eleven years old begun to instruct her two elder sisters at home, and in another quarter of the town, a child of the same age, taught her little sister who was only six years old, to repeat nearly the whole of Watts’ Catechism. When Miss Cooke first entered upon this work, she was usually accompanied by a Brahmin youth, who had learned English in one of the Society’s schools. This was now no longer necessary, from her having made progress in the language, and from the eagerness of the children to assist. It was made known in the schools that if the best readers were present and neatly dressed, when Miss Cooke should call, some of them should accompany her in a palanquin carriage, to visit the other schools; by six in the morning the best girls were in the school-room clean and neat, and those selected, went with manifest pleasure to assist her to teach in the other schools. Encouraged by these favourable circumstances, the Church 213

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Missionary Committee, in February 1823, circulated proposals for the concentration of the work, by the erection of the Central School.

CHAPTER IX. FORMATION OF THE LADIES SOCIETY FOR NATIVE FEMALE EDUCATION IN CALCUTTA—FOUNDATION OF THE CENTRAL SCHOOL LAID—EXAMINATION OF THE CHILDREN—MRS. WILSON’S REPORT OF THE WORK—CENTRAL SCHOOL OPENED—ANECDOTES OF THE CHILDREN.

THE Ladies’ Society for Native Female Education in Calcutta and its vicinity, of which the Right Hon. Lady Amherst, consented to be Patroness, was formed in March 1824, and in the month of June, the corresponding committee of the Church Missionary Society made over to their charge the native schools for girls; the superintendence of which remained undisturbed in the hands of Mrs. Wilson, late Miss Cooke. Her husband, the Rev. J. Wilson, being a missionary in connexion with the Church Missionary Society resident at Mirzapore, was well qualified to render her every valuable support in the work. The second public examination of the schools, then numbering from four to five hundred scholars, was held in December, 1824, at the vestry room of the old church. The scene was striking, and many of the women and children evinced a proficiency truly astonishing, when the obstacles they had to surmount were considered. The first classes read the New Testament, not only with facility, but with evident comprehension of its meaning; specimens of their needlework and writing were exhibited, and both surpassed the most sanguine expectations, that could have been entertained when the work was first commenced. After the examination, suitable rewards were distributed, and a variety of contributions were disposed of amongst the visitors, the proceeds being set apart for the erection of a central school, this was the first sale held in Calcutta for the benefit of the Ladies’ Society. The foundation stone of the Central School was laid on the 18th of May, 1826, on the eastern corner of Cornwallis Square, in the district of Simlah, being in the centre of the thickest, as well as the most respectable Hindoo population. A brass plate having the following inscription, was deposited with the usual ceremonies. CENTRAL SCHOOL FOR THE EDUCATION OF NATIVE FEMALES, FOUNDED BY A SOCIETY OF LADIES WHICH WAS ESTABLISHED ON MARCH

25, 1824.

PATRONESS THE RIGHT HON. LADY AMHERST.

GEORGE BALLAND, FSQ. Treasurer. MRS. HANNAH ELLERTON, Secretary. MRS. MARY ANN WILSON, Superintendent. 214

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This Work was greatly assisted by a liberal donation of sicca rupees 20,000 from RAJAH BOIDONATH ROY BAHADUR. The foundation stone was laid on the 18th May, 1826, in the seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King George IV. The Right Hon. WM. PITT, LORD AMHERST, Governor-General of India. C. K. ROBINSON, ESQ. Gratuitous Architect. The Venerable Archdeacon Corrie, whose memory is justly blessed in connexion with every work of Christian charity, offered prayer for the divine blessing upon the institution. The gift of Rajah Boidonath was an example of native munificence most thankfully welcomed, as an encouragement to the nation to embrace the occasion to lay aside their unhappy prejudice; for sometime he continued to give a kind countenance to the work, and Mrs. Wilson was admitted to visit the Rané, on the most friendly terms, instructing her in the English language. At a later period when the Central School was in full operation, the Rané expressed a wish to see it, and consented to meet several ladies on the occasion of her visit; she was extremely delighted, and made a most pleasing impression upon all who were present. Not long after, the Rajah withdrew almost entirely from public life, and although it is ascertained that the Rané maintains an unceasing regard for Mrs. Wilson, it has not been considered etiquette for her to receive any stranger as formerly. Collections in London, forwarded through the Church Missionary Society amounted to £500, and in Calcutta to 2000 rupees: Numerous other donations were received, giving a total sum for the building, of 45,000 rupees. The prosecution of the work has since depended entirely upon voluntary contributions. We return to the annual examinations of the children, as important to establish their readiness to embrace the benefit of education, and their ability will no longer be a matter of question, especially when it is remembered that there is a constant succession of children, and many other hindrances, which will appear in the further history of the work. In December 1825, the female children were examined in the Church Mission library, Mirzapore; specimens of needlework and writing were exhibited, which afforded very pleasing testimony of their improvement, and it was with peculiar pleasure that one little girl about three years old, was observed, when brought to Lady Amherst, to repeat correctly the Lord’s prayer in her own native language; others had committed to memory the commandments, and several could repeat correctly the whole of a little book on the Principles of the Christian Religion. Mrs. Wilson furnished the following observations on the course of the labors of the society.’ The children afford us, on the whole, much gratification, and make tolerable progress, and could they be placed under Christian teachers instead of heathens, no doubt they would be more regular in their attendance, and make 215

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corresponding improvement. I believe our female schools are doing much in a general way towards bringing us better acquainted with the Hindoos, and not only are the prejudices against teaching females giving way, but a very decided preference is now manifested in favour of the object. The parents of the children are chiefly poor, and always ignorant. Calling the other day at a school, I was delighted with two little sisters, one four the other five years old; they stood up as if to exhibit their attainments, and repeated several little hymns which they had committed to memory. On my remarking they were good children, and by coming to school every day would soon read well, the people observed, ‘and their parents are very wise, for they say if the girls do not come daily, we are to fetch them and beat them.’ I generally find the teachers very inattentive to their work, and have not more than two or three whose word I can believe. Notwithstanding all the checks that are employed, it seems next to impossible to keep them actively engaged among the children, during the hours they are in the school. Again, holidays and poojahs have a very bad effect upon the minds of the children; it frequently happens after their public feasts, that the children have either nearly forgotten all they had learned, or else feel restless and careless about their lessons; early marriages operate also as a sad hindrance to their improvement. The more respectable natives still continue to manifest great apathy concerning the education of their daughters; yet in spite of many, many discouragements, the work goes on far beyond what I first anticipated, several hundred children are brought together; their minds are usefully employed, and their habits begin to assume something of a more rational and pleasing appearance.’ In December 1826, an examination of the little girls took place at the Episcopal residence, the appearance of the scholars was increasingly satisfactory, a considerable proportion were of an age capable of benefitting by the instruction imparted, and of four hundred girls in daily attendance, about two hundred were examined,— some in the little work on Geography, others in the Gospels, and some in Watts’ Catechism, and in ‘Conversations between a mother and her daughter,’ a simple book written for their instruction, to which they are very partial. A poor blind girl exhibited considerable interest; she had from listening to the other children, got by heart many passages from the Gospels, and repeated very correctly the greater part of the second chapter of St. Luke. Among the specimens of needlework there was a sampler very well executed by a native Christian woman, and presented to Lady Hastings with the following words embodied: UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF THE MOST NOBLE HOUSE OF HASTINGS, WE POOR HINDOO FEMALES FIRST BEGAN TO ENJOY THE BLESSINGS OF EDUCATION, FEBRUARY,

1822.

On the 1st of April, 1828, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson took possession of the Central School, and commenced with fifty-eight girls. Mrs. Wilson had succeeded in 216

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drawing the nineteen small schools into three large divisions, and in these divisions the number of children was two hundred and fifty. It was on the 17th Dec. 1828, that the first examination was held at the Central School. There was one class of teachers or monitors consisting of twenty-five native females; young as they were, they were all either widows or forsaken by their husbands: they had been educated in the schools of the Society, and when they became destitute, they had recourse to Mrs. Wilson, who was thus able to employ them in the service of their country women. In Dec. 1829, Miss Ward, who had joined Mrs. Wilson from England, to assist in her labors, and was left in charge of the Central School, (during Mrs. Wilson’s temporary absence to the upper provinces, seeking, with the benefit of her health, the further extension of operations,) gives the following report. The daily attendance of the girls is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred, divided into twenty classes, four of which comprising fifty girls, are reading the Acts, St. Matthew’s gospel, and Pearce’s geography, they also write upon slates from dictation; six other classes containing sixty girls, read the Bible History and other elementary books; the other ten classes spell on cards, and learn the alphabet. It was however remarked that, the usual interruptions to the labors continued in full force, and would not cease to exist while the parents remained in the same state of ignorance. Very recently on inquiry of a woman, accustomed to bring from sixteen to twenty children, to the school, why she had brought so few, she said six girls are to be betrothed today, and several others are gone to visit them.’ The eldest of these children is not more than ten, the two younger four or five. But some facts in connection with the children will be found interesting. More cases of death amongst the children were brought to the knowledge of the teachers, and the dying testimony of a little girl from the lower classes, who died of fever after fifteen days illness, was very encouraging. The account was given by her Hindoo mother, and she affirmed that the child had from the commencement of her illness daily asked to be taken to the Central School, telling her mother, she could remain with her no longer, as she must become a Christian, and the great God was calling her. Her mother reminded her of their idols, and asked whether she would not worship them. ‘No, they are false and useless,’ was the reply. The child fixed a day on which she was to be taken to the Central School; it was rather a distant one, but noted by the Hindoos, being the first of a Heathen festival. As the appointed day dawned however, her spirit took its flight: she assured her mother to the last, she knew she was going to the great God. The poor mother seemed to take no comfort for some little time, but in hovering around the school, coming in when it was open, walking among the classes, weeping and exclaiming, ‘Ah! here are all the other children indeed! but mine is not!’ A girl about eight years old lost her mother, and was left without any known relative: she expressed a wish to live with Mrs. Wilson, and to become a Christian, but the moment this was known, the old woman in whose house the mother died, declared she had owed her thirty rupees for rent, which if Mrs. Wilson would pay, the child should be given up to her. At the same time however she went to 217

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a magistrate, and by claiming the child as a relative, got the little girl made over to her, telling the neighbours that when the child married, she should get more money than would pay the debt. A very poor Heathen woman (a widow) with one daughter six years old, had been staying a short time in the family of a native Christian, belonging to the Institution; through one of its members, she became employed in the school, and begged Mrs. Wilson to take her child. She was told that, those children were preferred who had no parents, but that she might bring her girl, and Mrs. Wilson would see what could be done. Instead however of coming, she sent her child very scantily clothed and dirty, bidding her remain with Mrs. Wilson, and say ‘that her mother had thrown her away.’ The woman did not make her appearance again till the child was baptized, which she heard of with evident pleasure, though she said nothing, but about two months afterwards presented herself to be instructed, and received for baptism. In 1833, there appeared to be little to record that was new respecting the children; seven girls from the gospel classes requested to be appointed monitors, by which arrangement they earn a small sum of money, and are retained longer under instruction, at an age best qualified for benefiting by it. One of these teachers being ill, requested Mrs. Wilson to go and see her at her own house. On being questioned as to her knowledge of the Scriptures and prayer, she assured her kind instructress before many witnesses that she both read the Scriptures in private, and prayed to God through Jesus Christ, and that in doing so, she found great comfort. Several young Brahmins were present who paid great attention to her answers, and one of these youths produced an English Bible, inquiring the meaning of several passages. About the same time a girl of ten years of age, called several times at the house of the Catechist belonging to the Central School, expressing her anxious wish to become a Christian, and begging to be allowed to take food with the family, by which act she would lose caste, when she thought her father would be willing to give her up. The Catechist at length brought her to Mrs. Wilson, who considering her extreme youth, and fearing some domestic quarrel had made her wish to leave her home, desired the Catechist to take her to her father’s house, and inquire of him, whether he were willing to let the child attend school again? The child was very averse to returning. The father appeared civil and said he would reason with her, and if after three days he could not persuade her to change her mind, he would give her up to Mrs. Wilson. It appeared that the girl’s wish to become a Christian was known to all the neighbours. Hearing nothing further on the subject, at the end of a week, the Catechist was sent to inquire the father’s determination. He then appeared very firm, and said ‘he should by no means give up his daughter to Mrs. Wilson, and that he had not only forbidden her to attend school again, but to prevent the possibility of her doing so, he had removed her to the house of a married sister, who would watch her closely;’ thus all trace of this promising girl was lost.

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19 EXTRACT FROM REPORT ON PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN THE NORTHWESTERN PROVINCES, 1850–51, IN J. A. RICHEY, SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART 2 1840–1859 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1922), 257–258

Extracts from the Report on Public Instruction in the NorthWestern Provinces, 1850–51. (a) The Sanskrit Department at the Benares Sanskrit College. In addition to the regular branches of Sanskrit learning studied in the College the Logic of Europe continues to be taught by the Nyaya Pundit and European Astronomy, Mathematics and Mechanics by Pundit Bapu Deva. A tolerable telescope having been lately procured the Pundit has been able to show to his pupils some of the celestial phenomena which they knew previously by description. In particular, he had a good opportunity of exhibiting the planet Venus when reduced to a very slender crescent. It was interesting to observe the surprise depicted on the faces of a large party of Astronomers congregated on the lofty roof of the Pundit’s house in the city as each one saw the star developed into its crescent form. The moon happened fortunately to be close by presenting an exact repetition of the form upon a large scale, and leaving no room for doubt as to the real cause of the phenomenon. Bapu Deva’s pupils appeared in high spirits on the occasion, and quite delighted at being able to give this ocular demonstration of the correctness of their College class books to their less enlightened and not a little astonished friends among the Astrologers of the city. We shall, I hope, be able to employ the telescope frequently to demonstrate the accuracy of the Astronomical predictions of Europe, by referring to the table of the relative positions of Jupiter’s moons, and letting the doubter select, a month or two in advance, the arrangement of any given evening to be tested. I am sorry that the want of appliances prevents at 219

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present our bringing the Experimental divisions of Physical Science more prominently forward in the Sanskrit Department. We shall have more conveniences for this in the new College building.”

(b) The Anglo-Sanskrit Class at the Benares Sanskrit College. The progress of the English class of Pundits is to me most gratifying. With their aid, I now hope to effect much that I could not have hoped to effect without it. Aided by these men, I shall now listen with simple disregard to the discouraging reiterations of those, who insist that the truths of Science and of Philosophy cannot be communicated to the Hindoos, without the use of words which would go to barbarize their languages—as if a language richer in roots than any European one and far more finely organized, could not supply as many available terms as if Sanskrit needed instruction at the hand of its grand-child, the Greek. To render intelligible our plan of operations for the next Session, I may remark that my first attempt to open a communication with the frequenters of the Sanskrit College, was made in the shape of a set of lectures on the Circle of the Sciences. The Sanskrit version of these lectures was carefully revised by Pundit Bapu Deva, whose rendering of man of the scientific terms was most felicitous. I learn that these renderings have been incorporated into the English and Sanskrit Dictionary now preparing by Professor Monier Williams, for the use of the College at Haileybury. In those portions of the lectures which related to Sciences which this Pundit had not studied, we were less successful than in the others.

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20 J.E.D. BETHUNE, ‘MINUTE, 23RD JANUARY 1851’, IN J. A. RICHEY, SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS PART 2 1840–1859 (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1922), 28–31

Minute by the Hon’ble Mr. Bethune, dated 23rd January 1851 The question which has given rise to such animated discussion at Bombay and nearly led to the resignation by Mr. Erskine Perry of the office of President of the Board of Education there, is not exactly the same by which the friends of Native Education in this Presidency were divided in Mr. Macaulay’s time. The struggle here was whether the provisions of the Act of Parliament of 1813 for “the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in “India” could be most effectually fulfilled by instruction given through the medium of English, or of Sanskrit, Persian or Arabic; all being (with some exception in favour of Sanskrit) alike foreign to the language of the people where improvement was contemplated. The essence of the Bombay dispute appears on the face of it to be in the conflicting claims of English and the Vernacular dialects of that part of India; but there is also another important question behind that. I have never neglected any opportunity of inculcating the importance of inducing the students of our college to cultivate also their native language; but I have addressed these exhortations to our English scholars: firmly believing that it is through them only that we can expect to produce any marked improvement in the customs and ways of thinking of the inhabitants of India. I am therefore alarmed at the doctrine openly professed by Mr. Willoughby and concurred in by the Government of Bombay that “he ranges with those who think that our object should be to impart a moderate degree of useful knowledge to the masses throughout the Presidency, rather than that our efforts should be exclusively directed to train up a few first rate scholars in the schools at Bombay.” In another passage duly 221

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following this in the same minute, he seems to consider the main purpose of our schools to be the training up of “good Manchetdas, good Moonsiffs, good village accountants, good police pestells and a host of other minor native functionaries” “for the public service.” I entirely dissent from this doctrine. I believe it to be equally opposed to the sentiments entertained by the most enlightened among our predecessors who have devoted their zeal and talent to the cause of native education, and to the instructions of the Hon’ble Court. I see the reasonable grounds that there are for hoping that, by the hold which the English ideas are gradually gaining of our most advanced students, we may, in the course of another generation at farthest, have the powerful support of a numerous native party in urging us on to attack and alleviate some of the most prominent social evils of the country. The great curse of caste, infant marriages, polygamy and the enforced celibacy of widows, with all the crimes and abomination that follow in their train, are mainly supported by superstitions which melt away, like snow before fire, when brought into direct contact with European knowledge and this work is being gradually but surely done in our Bengal schools and colleges. A native convert of high respectability and consideration said to me soon after my arrival in India “the best Missionary institutions are the Government schools,” and every thing I have since seen confirm the profound truth of that observation, in which I am now glad to learn from the papers sent to me, Mr. Mount Stuart Elphinstone concurred. It would be unreasonable to desire greater progress than is now being silently effected by the system adopted on this side of India, through our four colleges at Calcutta, Hoogly, Kishnaghur and Dacca with their affiliated schools. I hoped and believed that a similar system had been introduced in the Bombay Presidency by the establishment of central English schools, aiming at a high standard of proficiency, not only in Bombay, but also in some of the principal towns of the presidency, such as Poona, Surat, Ahmedabad and others. It seems that there are only eight English schools subordinate to the Board of Education throughout the Bombay Presidency, and the inference to be drawn from the Government’s letter to the Board dated 24th April 1850 is that they would look with more satisfaction on a diminution than an increase of that number. The printed report does not shew in detail in the manner adopted by us, what is the course of study followed in these schools, but from various incidental remarks contained in the several minutes of those who have taken part in the discussion, I should be led to infer that their standard is very far inferior to ours. Colonel Jervis says (Rep. p. 83) “experience shews that natives who speak English well, and can even write it with tolerable accuracy, cannot read and understand the commonest English work:” and Mr. Willoughby states (Rep. p. 138), that, in answer to his question, “of the number in the English schools (1855) how many, by estimate, can interchange ideas with, and understand their European masters and teachers?” he obtained from an authentic source the following answer “there are in the college classes 56, and in the upper schools 164, total 220, who can understand, with more or less facility, what is said to them in English. The number of those “who can speak English with any fluency is very much smaller.” It is scarcely necessary 222

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to say what a very different state of cultivation of English this account discloses from that which we witness in Bengal where not only our advanced students read and speak English with as much fluency and correctness as Englishmen themselves, but where a continually increasing class of educated natives employ the English language by choice in their communications with each other, even in matters relating to their own families and most confidential affairs. It is also a significant fact that the fee in the Elphinstone Institution is only one rupee monthly, and in the other English schools eight annas, whereas in the Hindu College of Calcutta the monthly fee is eight rupees and two rupees are paid even in the lower classes of the collegiate branch school, which is now entirely independent of Government support, furnishing in the last year nearly 10,00 rupees from fees alone paid by 440 students. The conclusion that I draw from this comparison is that, instead of agreeing with Mr. Willoughby and the Bombay Government (Rep. p. 135) “that too much attention is at present paid to English instruction,” I am inclined to suspect that much more attention ought to be paid to it, in order that there may be any reasonable expectation of deriving from it any practical advantage, and I deprecate the intimation conveyed in the Government letter to the Board (5 April 1848), that, for the future, they must not devote even so much attention to the study of English as they have done, but must treat it as of secondary moment to the communication of knowledge in the Vernacular. I think the indication of such opinion held by the Bombay government of sufficient moment to make it desirable that the Government of India should intimate to the Hon’ble Court that they have drawn its attention, and express its own opinion on a question, the right solution of which is fraught with consequences of such immeasurable importance to the welfare of the whole Indian empire. J. E. D. BETHUNE. The 23rd January 1851.

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21 J.E.D. BETHUNE’S SPEECHES AT KISHNAGHAR, IN GENERAL REPORT ON PUBLIC I NSTRUCTION IN THE LOWER PROVINCES OF THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY (CALCUTTA: F. CARBERRY, MILITARY ORPHAN PRESS, 1852), III–XV

“This is my third visit to Kishnaghur: and I hope that all among you, who were assembled to meet me here on the last occasion Address at Kishnaghur. of my coming among you, are able to give a good account of the past year; and are conscious not only of having stored your minds and memories with new words and ideas, but of having improved your reasoning faculties, and strengthened your powers of independent thought. For it is a truth of which you will become more and more convinced as you advance in years that, valuable as the information is which you imbibe in your scholastic lessons, the great end to be sought in any scheme of education, worthy of the name, is to enable you to think for yourselves in your future life; and, by the habits of patient study which you acquire here to gain a facility and the right temper of mind for meeting and overcoming difficulties which you may find in your future career, when you have to apply your sharpened intellect to the right apprehension of the world in which you will have to live, and your own moral and social duties with respect to the position you may occupy in it. “And it is by this test, of their fitness for leading to such results, that the importance of the studies should be tried which are adopted in our Colleges. “I have been led into the train of thought which has given rise to these remarks by observing that Omesh Chunder Dutt of this College, who was the first senior scholar of last year, would have re-appeared in the same place, if he had not fallen so far behind his successful competitor, Sreenath Doss, of the Hindu College, in mathematics and natural philosophy. It has been frequently said of late, either ignorantly or maliciously, but at all events very untruly, that for some years an undue preference has been given in our Colleges to the study of science, in discouragement of literature; and this has been attributed to my personal predilection 224

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for that branch of knowledge. It may not therefore be useless to explain my views of the function which such studies are meant to fulfil: because the remarks to which I allude, though crude and shallow, have been extensively circulated; and, if left wholly unanswered, may give rise to misapprehension among the real friends of Education in this country. “The study of foreign languages has ever been a favourite pursuit in almost every celebrated place of Education in modern Europe: and those who are opposed to the particular system of our English schools and colleges, have found ample ground for attack in the inordinate time which, according to their views, is wasted in mastering the difficulties of two dead languages, Greek and Latin. The moderate defenders of that system, admitting that some changes in the plan of study might be desirable, have grounded their defence, not only on the fact that the study of these powerful and elegant languages purifies and elevates the taste and genius of those who become familiar with the masterpieces of poetry, oratory, and historical narrative which are enshrined in their literature, but also on this, that the difficulty of mastering the artificial subtlety of their construction affords an excellent mental discipline for preparing a young student for the acquisition of any other kind of knowledge which he desires. But they do not supply all that is needed. Assuredly it would not be to them that we should resort for a code of ethics or of moral and political philosophy: for the minds which should be filled only with the precepts of the master-spirits of antiquity, on such topics, would possess at least as much of error and positive falsehood as of truth, however harmonious and concisely elegant might be its embodied expression. The founders of these institutions, therefore, feeling that the human intellect is never more nobly or more profitably employed than in the search after truth, would have thought their schools very imperfectly endowed, if they had not made some special provision for training the minds of their pupils for entering upon that study. In the colleges of this country, the principle is the same, though the details are different. The English language here supplies the place which is filled in England by the Latin and Greek: inferior for the purposes of education in some respects, far superior to them in others. I do not consider it an overstrained assertion that those languages do not surpass English in majesty and power of diction more than English is superior to them in the real instrinsic value of the knowledge that is to be gained by studying the works of the best classical authors in each. The want, therefore, to which I have referred is not quite so great for the Hindu student of English, as for the English student of Greek; yet still even here something more is needed: some branch of study in which the attention of the learner shall be fixed exclusively or almost exclusively on the truth taught, and little or not at all on the form of the vehicle through which it is conveyed. “There are three subjects of science which have been prominently put forward for accomplishing this purpose, each of which is preferably cultivated at one of three famous British universities. Without meaning to allege of any of them that its attention is exclusively devoted to its favourite science, I may say that the 225

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study of logic has met with most favour at Oxford, metaphysics at Edinburgh, and physics, by which term I include mathematics and natural philosophy, at my own university of Cambridge. “The advocates of logic, by which is meant the science of pure reasoning, without reference to the subjects of its propositions, seem to consider that they have established their claim to preference when they find that their assertion cannot be denied, that no legitimate reasoning can be carried on, which in any way sins against the rules which it formally teaches. “There is, however, another question behind, whether most of those rules are not elaborate and complicated expressions for elementary and almost intuitive truths. I frankly own that, notwithstanding the contrary opinion of some eminent persons, I have never been able to bring myself to attach much value to the study of logic as a formal science, at least as usually taught: and I believe that all in it that is of any practical use is learned with much greater facility by every mathematical student, who has advanced as far as to understand the doctrine of simple algebraical equation: and that, as soon as he has mastered the tolerably obvious principle that he must be careful not to change the meaning of his symbols in the course of his investigations, he is as safe from being misled by the usual fallacies that are put forward in treatises on logic as exercises in the art, as if he had been regularly trained to discourse of an illicit process of the minor, or an undistributed middle term. Dr. Whateley’s treatise, is, I believe, considered a text book on this subject, and at the end of it, he has given more than an hundred examples of propositions which may be taken fairly enough as tests of the value of all the precepts that precede them. I took the trouble to read them through lately, and I own that I should be grievously disappointed if any of those whom I see in the front benches before me would find much difficulty in distinguishing on the first perusal which are true and which are false inferences among them; though probably there are few, if any, who can use the received logical phraseology in describing the process by which he arrived at his conviction in each case. “Ménage probably meant nothing more than a lively joke when he defined logic to be ‘the art of talking unintelligibly of things of which we are ignorant’; for to take this sarcasm seriously would imply a complete misapprehension of the objects of the science: nevertheless, it is not denied by any who are acquainted with the history of philosophy in Europe, it is indeed admitted by the friends of formal logic, though of course they seek to avoid the inference drawn from their admission, that men never reasoned worse than when the science of formal reasoning was in greatest vogue and reputation. I have been informed that the Hindus possess a Sanscrit form of the same science, which does not appear to have been more fortunate as an improver of the reasoning faculty in man, than its European brother. “The study of metaphysics, which term I do not now use in the extensive sense given to it by some German philosophers, according to whom it seems to include almost every possible branch of human knowledge, but with the more confined and yet still sufficiently wide meaning of the study of the laws of human perceptions, 226

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thoughts and feelings, is most interesting and important: but the vagueness of it, still more than the difficulty, renders it in my opinion ill-suited for the purpose which I now have in view. The real progress that has been made in it is very slight, and the primary truths, on which its conclusions must be made to rest, cannot be exhibited as it were experimentally and objectively by the teacher: he is forced to call on his pupils to exercise a process of self-examination, in order to understand and assent to his theory, which even highly cultivated minds find difficult to sustain long, and which presupposes a considerable amount of mental training in the minds of its recipients. There is also considerable danger, from the very nature of the ideas with which this science is conversant, that it should foster a tendency to dreamy barren speculation, which I believe to be a prevalent intellectual vice of the inhabitants of this country: the remoteness and indistinctness of its images do not supply that healthy corrective which is needed for a people whose philosophy has much in it everywhere which is cognate to their old cosmical theory, explaining the stability of the earth by supposing it supported by an elephant, the elephant upon a tortoise, and the tortoise they know not upon what; and so considering the difficulty disposed of when removed two steps farther out of the reach of sense and observation. “Now mathematics and natural philosophy, when rightly taught are exactly and excellently well calculated to supply this defect. “Through the hard, dry, incontestable truths of elementary arithmetic and geometry, founded upon our simplest conceptions of number and form, we are able to give good practical lessons in the art, if not in the science of logic: and this application of logical reasoning I believe to furnish a far better mental discipline than the formal science itself affords; and that there is an incalculable advantage in forcing the young student to perceive that there is such a thing as abstract truth, not in any way dependent upon the opinions and authority of his instructors, but derived from the very nature of the subject of his thoughts; and in accustoming him, when he has seized such truth, to follow it boldly and steadily into its remote consequences, as unassailable as the principles from which they are derived. “Accordingly, a favorite reproach against mathematical studies by those who, it is charitable to think, have little knowledge of their nature, scope, and tendency, is that they make men too logical; that the habit of strict reasoning to which they become accustomed unfits them for balancing probabilities, and weighing one kind of evidence against another, expertness in which makes a shrewd practical man of business. I apprehend this to be an utter mistake; and the probability of its being so seems in some degree supported by the great number of distinguished mathematicians who have become acute lawyers, skilful physicians, and eminent statesmen. Besides, it is a complete misapprehension to suppose that the study of physics deals solely with certainties. Even in the purely mathematical branch we have the elegant and abstruse theory of probabilities, specially concerned with those propositions only of which we have only obscure and imperfect evidence; and it may be questioned whether the wit of man ever produced anything more admirably subtle than Laplace’s great work on this subject. But not to dwell on 227

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this, such objections surely overlook the application of mathematics to natural philosophy, in the pursuit of which many of the most valuable faculties of the mind are called into action. Industry and acuteness of observation for collecting phenomena; judgment in discriminating between appearances resembling but not wholly identical with each other; invention for the discovery of crucial experiments to test the merits of conflicting theories, and decide between them: while the powerful resources of mathematical calculation stand ever ready to the hand of the adept to solve mere difficulties of intricate combination, like some mighty engine, by which a man can wield at will masses of matter far beyond his unassisted strength to lift; and extricate from among the data of observation and experiment the hidden consequences which lie too deeply buried in involved circumstances for undisciplined reason to discover. “To select one among the many beautiful applications of mathematical knowledge,—what science can be thought more magnificent, or better suited to raise the intellect than Astronomy? “To those who have not painfully followed the successive steps of demonstration, each resting on what went before, and patiently built up from the most elementary propositions of Euclid to the sublime speculations of Newton and his followers, does it not appear little short of miraculous, that human sagacity, unaided by divine revelation, should have soared so far beyond the world in which mankind are placed as to have detected the laws which link the whole visible creation into one mighty and stupendous system? that the astronomer can predict with unerring skill the paths and motions of those points of starry light,—points of light to the ignorant, but rolling worlds to him,—so far removed from our sphere that many are even invisible to our sense, but for the assistance of wonderful instruments, which also are of his invention? that he shows them wandering in their all but boundless career, obedient to the same universal law, which governs the motions of a ripe fruit or withered leaf falling at our feet? “Let me bring this more vividly before you by illustration. Go with me in imagination where I was a few years ago, in one of the busiest thoroughfares of London, the busiest city of the world, into the study of a philosopher, the late Francis Bailey, a stock-broker by profession, but by taste and genius a mathematician and an astronomer. How is he occupied? Great part of his room is filled with the framework of machinery, the object of which is to make massive globes of metal alternately approach and recede from a light pendulous body, hanging from the roof by a slight silken fibre. This he is carefully watching, and is diligently noting its vibrations through a small telescope from another corner of the room. Can you guess what he is about? These are the scales with which he is weighing the mass of “this great globe which we inherit,” and which this apparatus will enable him to ascertain with greater accuracy than you could arrive at, if you were to undertake to determine the weight of this building in which we are now assembled. “Not let me go to the most recent and most admirable triumph of mathematical skill. Look on this young student in Paris! He is unprovided with any telescope, or any mechanical apparatus but the pen in his hand. Many volumes, however, lie 228

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open before him, in which he finds recorded the differences between the observed and computed places of the planets; and, carefully transcribing these, he appears buried in the most intricate calculations. What result has he obtained that makes his check flush with truimph! Let me attempt shortly to explain it to you. He has just completed an examination of the irregularities of the most distant planet then known to belong to our system. This remote body, be it observed by the way, was itself discovered to be a planet only some sixty or seventy years ago; and, since it is so distant from the sun that its year is about as long as 84 of our’s, it has not yet completed one revolution round the sun, since its real nature was discovered by the late Sir William Herschel. Yet, already, the path in which it ought to move according to the then state of our knowledge was so well known, by the application of the same general laws on which innumerable previous verifications had led astronomers to place implicit reliance, that its deviations from the course they had by anticipation marked out for it, began to fill them with uneasiness. How are these irregularities to be accounted for? “It cannot surely be, that, having reached the confines of our solar system, the laws which we acknowledge are faintly and imperfectly followed there, as might be the case in some distant province of a mighty empire? No: the laws which the Great Architect of the Universe has impressed on His creation are not as those of earthly potentates; they are felt and obeyed throughout His works. There must then be some cause of which we have been hitherto ignorant, and of which consequently in our calculations we have taken no account. We know that every visible planet exercises some influence on the motion of this distant one; for all these we have already made allowance. Can there be another planet beyond all which have been yet discovered, but the existence of which makes itself apparent to us by these unexplained irregularities of that which we have seen and measured? If so, where is it?—what is its size?—which way is it travelling?—and with what velocity? “These are the questions this young French student has proposed to himself: and he feels that his science will enable him to find an answer to them. By a singular coincidence, the same, daring exploit is tried almost at the same time, with some priority indeed, by another young man at Cambridge, Mr. Adams, each ignorant of what the other is doing, and each succeeding by his own independent processes of investigation. But let us return to Paris. I will not endeavor to explain to you the steps of the calculation: you will probably be satisfied by my assuring you that they are most intricate and laborious. But the work is done: the results are beginning to appear, and at last M. Leverrier is able to say, with the confidence of consummate skill, ‘Yes: I have found it! There is such a planet. Human eye has never yet looked on it, with the true appreciation of its nature: but it has been walking its appointed round from immemorial time: here is an account of its mass; this is the direction in which it is moving; this is the point where, at this moment, if you will look for it, you will find it.’ All this the young astronomer, who himself has not yet seen this new world, except upon the paper of his elaborate calculations, dares to announce to a friend at Berlin, better furnished than himself with the means of 229

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making the actual observation. A new celestial atlas is then in course of publication in Prussia; and, by a happy chance, the sheet has just issued from the press which exhibits that portion of the skies in which Leverrier has placed his unseen planet. This is eagerly compared with an old map; and, almost exactly in the spot fixed on by the young Frenchman, a star is marked, not noted in the older map. The telescope is instantly turned to it and the discovery is complete; the planet is there! Surely, it is not without reason that one of our poets has said— “An undevout astronomer is mad!” and, when he uttered that sentiment I believe that his mind was not more filled with the thought of the Almighty power by which these worlds, scattered through infinite space, are bound to follow the laws which their creator has imposed on them, than with the reflection that the same God who made this mighty universe, made also the intellect of man; instilled into him the wish, and endowed him with the power, to look with intelligent admiration on his Maker’s works. I know not how others may feel; but, for my part, I can hardly conceive any other study better calculated to lead to serious and improving thought. What am I, in the midst of these marvellous works, which I am permitted to observe and partly to understand? Why am I here? What is the fittest and best use I can make of those powers, of which I feel myself to be possessed, while my own consciousness, not less than my helplessness and insignificance among these majestic wonders, the mere contemplation of which almost appals and overpowers my imagination, is sufficient proof that I have them not of my own will; and, if so, that I shall probably be made responsible for their being rightly employed to him who gave them. If these evidences are worth anything it is only to mathematicians that they can appear in their full force. Others indeed may receive and repeat at second hand whatever they please to believe of them, but the conviction which belongs to the perception of demonstrated truth must be wanting. “It is in this spirit I would have the study of mathematics pursued in our Colleges. First, I should wish to see them cultivated, in their abstract form, as far as is necessary to furnish rules and exercises in the art of reasoning: for which purpose I may say, by the way, that on the whole, I consider objective geometrical processes, as far as they can go, much more useful than dealing with the more compendious and more powerful formulas of algebraical analysis; and secondly, I would have the mathematical knowledge, so acquired, brought to bear upon the physical sciences, which together make up a knowledge of the material world by which we are surrounded: and the more complete is the view we thus obtain of its wondrous and consistent structure, of the obvious adaptation of means to an end, and of the excellent perfection of the means employed, the more constrained shall we become to feel and utter not only the old maxim that knowledge is power, but also that knowledge is humility; that knowledge is awe; that knowledge is adoration! 230

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“I miss among you the intelligent countenance of one who last year was counted among the brightest ornaments of your College, and whose premature death, in the blossom of his youth, has excited the regret alike of his teachers and his class-fellows, poor Ombica Churn Ghose! I saw his eye lighten last year, when from this chair I exhorted you to exert yourselves to maintain the honor of your College, and assuredly I reckoned that he would not have failed to do his part. He has been taken from us; it has pleased God that the promise of his early years, should not ripen to bear its mature fruits; but though he is dead, his name and memory live among us. I noticed with melancholy pleasure the monumental tablet your kindly recollection of your late companion has placed on the walls of your College, and by which, while seeking to record his merits, you have also done honor to yourselves. Look on it not merely as a memorial of departed worth, but as a pledge that you will endeavour to take him for an example; that you, who have known how to appreciate his intellectual pre-eminence and his moral excellence, will seek to emulate his industry, his docility, his virtuous disposition; when you feel tempted to act in any way of which you know that he would have been ashamed, pause and reflect, that his eulogium be not turned to your condemnation. “And you, Omesh Chunder Dutt, whom I have so often had occasion to mark out for praise, be assured of this that not even in that moment, which you probably thought the proudest in your life, when from this place I hailed you as the first scholar of your year throughout Bengal, not even then did I look on you with so kindly a feeling or so hearty a desire to serve you, as when I heard of your affectionate kindness to your dying friend and competitor; when I learned how carefully you had tended him in his malignant disorder, undeterred by the terror of contagion, which is often found powerful enough to break through stronger natural ties than those which bound you to your departed friend. I doubt not that your own approving conscience has already amply rewarded you: for it is in the plan of the All-wise contriver of the world that every sincere act of kindness to a fellow creature carries with it its own peculiar inimitable joy: but it is also my pleasing right to tell you that your behaviour in this matter has not been unobserved, and that by it you have raised yourself higher in the good opinion of those, whose good opinion I believe you are desirous of deserving. May such examples multiply among us! May we have many such students as Ombica Churn Ghose! May your conduct one toward another be so marked with brotherly love, that it shall cease to call for particular notice or special commendation. Let these be the fruits of knowledge, and who shall then venture to say that a blessing is not upon the tree.” After Babu Ram Lochun Ghose, the Principal Sudder Ameen of Kishnaghur, had addressed the assembly in Bengali, Mr. Bethune resumed— “I am extremely sorry that I have not been able to understand one word of what my friend Ram Lochun Ghose has been saying; the more so, because I am informed that he has been earnestly and eloquently addressing you on a subject 231

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in which you are probably aware that I feel deeply interested, and which is of the highest importance to the happiness of every one present. “The education of your females is the next great step to be taken in the regeneration of the Hindu character, and it is a consolatory reflection that while many social reforms of which you stand greatly in need are thought to be opposed to the doctrines of your religion and customs, it is generally admitted by every learned native who has examined the question that there is no such obstacle in the way of your consenting to receive this great blessing. The practical difficulty which still in a great degree obstructs the progress of the good work is the seclusion in which you have for a long time been accustomed to think it necessary to confine your women. “If I were addressing an assembly of Europeans only, I should content myself with observing that this custom is unreasonable: among Hindus I know that whatever arguments are brought forward to show that it is so will derive additional claims on your attention from the fact that it is an unreasonable novelty. Your old records seem to point out that it was not the ancient usage of your race: a common theory derives its origin from the customs of your Mahomedan conquerors, when it is likely enough that, partly from a courtly affection of imitating what you found in vogue among those who were in the possession of power and consideration, partly from a real dread of the excesses in which a licentious and unscrupulous soldiery might indulge, you adopted these new habits which are now received as national among you. Both reasons have passed away, and with them should disappear their consequences, if it were not so much more easy to adopt pernicious prejudices than to get rid of them again. But the work is begun: it cannot stop now: the race of educated men whom we are training up will not much longer bear to have imposed on them mere slavish objects of sensual desire, but will seek, in the mothers of their children, for rational, well-educated, well-informed companions, the intelligent partners of their joys and sorrows, their truest friends and most faithful advisers. Your modern ethical writers teach that the nature of women is so depraved that it is only by material restraints that they are kept from seeking out and following evil: our wiser belief is that in all the elements of virtue the female character is far superior to the male; and that whatever there is of evil common to all human nature, is best combatted, not by the vain obstacles of bolts and bars, but by laying the foundation of a virtuous life in the early inculcation of sound morality, and by teaching women to respect themselves by showing that by us also they are held in honour. Were it only for selfish considerations, you ought to educate your women. Now mark me! I do not rely on these. For her own sake and in her own right, I claim for woman her proper place in the scale of created beings. God has given her an intellect, a heart and feelings like your own, and these were not given in vain. You think your neighbours the Chinese a barbarous people, because they cripple the feet of their women. How is it that you dare to cripple their minds? But also, for your own sakes you should do it, and for the sake of your children. I am not yet so old as to have forgotten 232

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the time when I sat on the school benches. I too can recollect some youthful triumphs, and the remembrance is still strong within me how incomplete they seemed until I had her sympathy and approval, to please whom was the strongest inducement I then knew for exertion. “Human nature is the same throughout the world, and we may confidently rely on what it teaches us. The history of every time shows the important influence that the female sex is capable of exercising, for good or for evil, on the destinies of a nation; and those stand highest in the annals of civilization in which they have been held in the highest honour, and the greatest pains taken to secure that the weight of their power should be found exerting itself on the right side. And of this you cannot be sure if you will not train them to wisdom and virtue, as you would train those who are to be influenced by them. “The work is now begun, it will not stop; it is like a rock which may have rested long time motionless on the summit of a mountain: but, if once set in motion, though casual obstacles may obstruct its path, may determine its course in this direction or in that, it yet gathers increased force with each succeeding interval of time, and hastens irresistibly onward to its final destination. I may not live to see this desirable goal attained: but, judging from all I have witnessed of the deep feeling which is beginning to prevail on this matter, it is my firm belief that another generation will not pass away before it will be universally conceded, that whoever neglects the education of his daughter disgraces himself, and is guilty of a gross offence against her, against his own happiness, and the happiness of society.” “MY YOUNG FRIENDS,—If you have derived any satisfaction from meeting me here again on this occasion, I must tell you frankly that it is Speech at Dacca. a pleasure which you have fairly and honorably earned for yourselves: for there were so many obstacles in the way of my leaving Calcutta this year, that I had nearly abandoned the intention I had at first entertained of revisiting Dacca. It was, however, strongly represented to me that you had derived great encouragement from the visit of the deputation last year; and it was feared that you might be equally disheartened if it were not repeated. “Being sensible that I had all but promised that I would return, and feeling that you had done all in your power to deserve whatever mark of my approbation it was in my power to give you, I determined to disregard all considerations of personal inconvenience; and, even at this late season of the year, to come and tell you with my own lips how well pleased I have been with your exertions during the past session. I congratulate you heartily on the result of the examination, and I assure you that what I predicted two years ago is already fully come to pass, and that the students of the Hindu College now keep an anxious eye on your progress, and are conscious that they must exert themselves, if they wish to keep their place in front of you. “At the same time you must not be too much elated by the appearance which the printed list shows. Owing to a combination of circumstances, an unusual number of the best students quitted the Hindu College this year before the examination, 233

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leaving only two in the first class. Of these, as you are aware, Sreenath Doss heads the comparative list, and has gained for his College and for himself the honour of giving his name to the year 1850, Sreenath Doss’ year: and it is due to the other, Kally Prosunno Dutt, that it should be known here, as I explained lately in the Town Hall of Calcutta, that he was for a long time absent through illness from the classes. Feeling that he was not able to do himself justice, he came privately to me shortly before the examination, and begged to know if he might be allowed to absent himself altogether from it.

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APPENDIX A. SCHOLARSHIP QUESTIONS. SENIOR SCHOLARSHIPS, 1844. L I T E R AT U R E . PROSE. Paraphrase, explain, and illustrate by examples, as fully as you can, the two following aphorisms of Lord Bacon: “Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since ignorance of the cause, frustrates the effect. For nature is only subdued by submission; and that which in contemplative philosophy corresponds with the cause, in practice becomes the rule.” “Man, whilst operating, can only move natural bodies to and from one another; nature, internally, performs the rest.” The value of a complete answer is 20. POETRY. Far from the sun and summer gale, In thy green lap1 was Nature’s darling laid, What time, where lucid Avon stray’d, To him the mighty mother did unveil Her awful face: the dauntless child Stretched forth his little arms and smil’d. 235

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“This pencil take (she said), whose colours clear Richly paint the vernal year: Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy! This can unlock the gates of joy; Of horror that, and thrilling fears, Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.” Nor second He, that rode sublime Upon the seraph wings of ecstasy, The secrets of th’ abyss to spy, He passed the flaming bounds of place and time: The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Where angels tremble while they gaze, He saw; but, blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night. Behold, where Dryden’s less presumptuous car Wide o’er the fields of glory bear Two coursers of etherial race, With necks in thunder cloth’d and long-resounding pace. Hark, his hands the lyre explore! Bright-eyed fancy, hov’ring o’er, Scatters from her pictured urn Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. But ah! ’tis heard no more ——. Oh! Lyre divine, what daring spirit Wakes thee now? Though he inherit Nor the pride, nor ample pinion That the Theban eagle bear, Sailing with supreme dominion Through the azure deep of air: Yet oft before his infant eyes would run Such forms as glitter in the muses ray, With orient hues unborrow’d of the sun: Yet shall he mount and keep his distant way Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, Beneath the good how far—but far above the great. The value of a complete answer to each question is marked at the end of each. 1. Who is it that the Poet describes as Nature’s darling? Shew how the speech which Nature makes to him applies to the person in question . . . . . . . . 6 2. “Nor second he.” Explain the meaning of these words, and shew who is the person intended, by applying to him in detail the description which follows ...........................................................9

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3. What are the “two coursers of etherial race,” and how are they connected with Dryden? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. “Hark his hands the lyre explore.” To what does this allude?. . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5. “What daring spirit wakes thee now?” Who is here meant? Who is the Theban eagle, and why is the person in question compared to him? and generally how does the description apply to him? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 VIVA VOCE—LITERATURE QUESTIONS. But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon’s height Descending slow their glittering skirts unroll? Visions of glory spare my aching sight! Ye unborn ages crowd not on my soul! No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail, All hail, ye genuine kings, Britannia’s issue, hail! Girt with many a Baron bold Sublime their starry fronts they rear; And gorgeous dames and statesmen old In bearded majesty appear. In the midst a form divine! Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line; Her lion port, her awe commanding face, Attemper’d sweet to virgin grace. What strings symphonious tremble in the air, What strains of vocal transport round her play! Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear! They breathe a soul to animate thy clay. Bright rapture calls, and, soaring as she sings, Waves in the eye of heaven her many color’d wings. The verse ardorn again Fierce war and faithful love, And truth severe by fairy fiction dressed. In buskin’d measures move Pale grief, and pleasing pain, With horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. A voice, as of the cherub choir, Gales from blooming Eden bear; And distant warblings lessen on my ear, That lost in long futurity expire. 1. What are the solemn scenes and visions of glory of which the Poet speaks? ...............................................................2

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2. Why does lie cease to bewail within, and who are the genuine kings he bids hail, and why does he call them Britannia’s issue? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. Who is the form divine? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4. What is meant by the strings symphonious and the strains of vocal transport? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

ANSWERS DELIVERED BY THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES OF THE HINDOO COLLEGE AT THE RECENT EXAMINATION. LITERATURE. PROSE. I. It is an old and wise saying, that “knowledge is power.” For without the aid of knowledge, we can scarcely accomplish anything. Hence Bacon observes that knowledge and human power are synonymous. A doctor may possess an incredible degree of force, but, at the same time, he may not have the power of curing a patient. That is, he may not be acquainted with the cause of the patient’s disease. So it appears from this, that power is the same as an acquaintance with causes and their effects; which, in other words, is nothing more but knowledge. Again; it is said, that it was by the power of the Sicilian philosopher, that the Roman galleys were burnt. What was this power? It was not the muscular strength of Archimedes, but his acquaintance with the cause and effects of burning mirrors; which means (as already said) his knowledge. Bacon next goes on to say, “for nature is only subdued by submission,” that is, the more we submit to nature, the more we subdue her. For the more we submit to her, the more are we acquainted with her secrets, and can therefore more easily overcome her. “And that which in contemplative philosophy corresponds with the cause, in practice becomes the rule,” This means, that what we find by contemplation to agree with the cause, is in practice reduced into the rule. II. Man while he operates, can do nothing more but move natural bodies to and from one another. That is, he either brings them together or separates them. This is all the power he possesses. What happens after man has moved the natural bodies to one another, or from one another, is performed by the internal operations of nature. As for instance: a man may bring together the two colors, yellow and blue, but it is beyond his ability to produce the green by their mixture. That must be done entirely by the internal operation of nature. In the same way, a person may apply fire to a magazine of gunpowder; but the explosion which follows is entirely owing to the secret workings of nature. Man has, by experience and observation, acquired the knowledge of the facts, that yellow mixed with blue will produce green, and that gunpowder will burst on fire being set to it. But the effects in either case must be performed by nature. Thus, in all cases wherein man is operating, he 238

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does nothing more but move natural bodies to one another or from one another; the effect of which is internally performed by nature. POETRY. I. The poet in describing the Progress of Poesy from Mount Parnassus, has already travelled through Greece and Italy, and then arrived in England, whose poets he is reciting. By “Nature’s darling” is meant the sweet bard of Avon, the immortal Shakspeare. The pencil he received from his mother, he has used with the greatest success. For he has described the beauties of nature with great force and precision. Again; it is said, that Nature presented her darling child with “two golden keys.” About the first she says “This can unlock the gates of joy;” and regarding the second, she says, “Of honor that and thrilling fears; Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.”

The first therefore appears to be comedy, and the latter tragedy: in which both branches of the drama, Shakspeare has excelled all the modern, and I believe almost all the ancient dramatists. For none has so successfully lifted the curtain of the human heart as “sweetest Shakspeare, fancy’s airy child.” II. “Nor second He.” This means that the person whom the poet is about to describe, is not inferior to him of whom he has just before spoken. This “He” is, assuredly, the Author of Paradise Lost. It was the enterprising genius of Milton that dared to soar beyond the limits of time and place, to fly into the regions of eternity, and behold the dazzling glory of the Creator. The descriptions he has given of the angels, of the sapphire pavement, of the Heavens, and, particularly, of the ineffable glory which encircles the throne of the Almighty, are apt to make a person believe that the Author was an eye-witness of them. In one part of the Paradise Lost, Milton has said, that the beams which emanate from the throne of God are so bright and luminous, that the angels cannot gaze at him, but cover their eyes with their wings. Hence Gray has drawn this beautiful inference that, as Milton had gazed upon the luminous throne of the Omnipotent, his eyes were dazzled, and he thereby became blind, which was a fact. III. Not answered. IV. “Hark his hands the lyre explore.” This alludes to the celebrated Ode of Dryden on Alexander’s Feast, He therein introduces Timotheus, who entertained Alexander with his charming songs, and who had the skill to “bid alternate passions rise and fall.” This Ode of Dryden’s is one of the best musical pieces extant in the English language. The power he has evinced in completing it is admirable; and hence the remark of Pope, What Timotheus was, is Dryden now.

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English poets, has yet been obliged to yield the superiority to the latter. This celebrated Ode of Dryden yet stands unrivalled in its kind; and it is not astonishing that Gray should draw to it his reader’s attention. V. “What daring spirit wakes thee now?” By this daring spirit the Author means himself. It is customary for Authors to speak rather low of themselves. Gray here calls himself daring, because he, a person of not very high abilities, dares to wake the lyre of Dryden. Pope somewhere, in the like manner, says regarding himself, Oh! may one spark of your celestial fire, The last, the meanest of your sons inspire!

This is nothing more but an attempt of the poets to bring themselves out artfully; as is here evident, in the case of Gray. The Theban eagle is Pindar; and as he was a lyric poet, and as Gray is writing an Ode, so he compares himself with the Theban bard. WOMES CHUNDER DUTT. ESSAY On the infinity of the natural productions of the Universe, and the effects resulting from science as applied to those productions. When we survey Nature, either in her animal, mineral, or vegetable kingdom, we find her abounding in productions of every variety. They seem to be without an end, and their source appears inexhaustible. True it is, that much of the productions of Nature has been discovered by man: but what innumerable number of them yet remain unexplored! Man, from the very commencement of his existence, has been discovering the productions of Nature, and though he has been engaged in that pursuit for about six thousand years, yet he cannot boast that he has found them out all. There yet remain, concealed, to him in the bowels of the earth, the bosom of the deep, the hearts of forests, the recesses of mountains, and the regions above, numberless productions of Nature which futurity shall acquaint him with. The experience of the past enables us to draw the inference that man, the more he searches for these productions, the more of them he shall find. He may, and, no doubt, he will, for ever go on with his discoveries; but still at no time he shall have the pride to exclaim, that nothing of the productions of Nature is unknown to him. These circumstances, when contemplated with due attention, carry our minds from “nature up to Nature’s God”—to that Being of infinite wisdom, the Creator of these endless productions; and make us look upon him with awe and respect. A question now arises, that with what intention did God create these endless productions of Nature? Surely, nothing was formed in vain. Every thing in Nature

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has its peculiar use; the luxuriant vine, as well as the downy grass—the stately elephant, as well as the meanest reptile—the precious gold, as well as the basest metal—the brightest luminary, as well as the faintest star, possess some qualities or other. Man has been endowed by God with reason; and it is his duty to discover the qualities of the various productions of Nature, and make them, if possible, subservient to his own purposes. And so he has converted various productions to his service. In fact, from the very beginning of the creation, man had to make use of the natural productions; and gradually as he has gained greater experience, and acquired more knowledge, he has been more benefited by means of their application to those productions. A savage cannot turn the productions of Nature so much to his advantage, as a man who knows how to apply science to them. The houses that we live in, the clothes that we put on, the food that we eat, and, in short, all those things that we enjoy, are nothing more but the productions of Nature, made to serve us by the application of our knowledge. Whatever we do, we do with the natural productions; or, in other words, the sphere of our operations is entirely confined within the productions of nature, and cannot be extended beyond them. By the application of science to the productions of Nature, man has performed wonderful things. By applying science to the heavenly bodies, that is by the aid of Astronomy, what glorious achievements have been made! The boundless expanse of the ocean, which was before thought impossible to steer through, has been circumnavigated. Astronomy has given an impulse to navigation, and thereby been the promoter of commerce. Natural Philosophy furnishes us with several examples, as to the effects of the application of science to the productions of Nature. We therein find, that man has even made the elements subservient to his desires. The water, the air, the fire, are all ready to obey his commands. He can make steam perform the most incredible things, he can produce fire when he chooses, and magnify objects at his will. And how are all these things brought about, but by the application of science to the natural productions. We may here as well borrow an example from the science of medicine. Poison is one of the most offensive substances in nature. A single grain of it is sufficient to kill a man. But how wonderful have been its effects by the application of science to it! A most dangerous thing has been transformed into a medicine of great efficacy and utility. That the very smell of which would deprive a man of his life, now saves him from the hand of death. Such are the effects of the application of science to the natural productions. From the examples given above, it will appear, that the benefits conferred on man by means of that application of science are manifold, and that we can by making a proper application of science to the productions of Nature turn those productions (which are infinite in their number) to our own advantage. To conclude, therefore: in short, the application of science to the productions of Nature renders men more

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comfortable, enables them to lead an easier life, and has a tendency to enlarge the sphere of their information. WOMES CHUNDER DUTT. HISTORY. 1. In my humble opinion the battles of Marathon, Arbela, Zama Actium, Constantinople, and Waterloo had the greatest influence over the destiny of the world. At Marathon the cause of liberty obtained a complete triumph over despotism; the bravery of a few thousand Greek patriots, commanded by Miltiades, Themistocles, and Aristides, completely baffled all the attempts of Darius, the Persian Emperor, to subjugate Greece; and this battle alone raised Greece to the highest pitch of glory. The battle of Arbela decided the fate of Persia: the great Emathian Conqueror defeated Darius, the Persian King, although the latter had about seven hundred thousand soldiers, while the former had only sixty thousand men. The victory which the Romans, under Scipio, obtained over the Carthagenians at Zama, virtually annihilated the power of Carthage, and Rome became the first power in the world, and Hannibal, the greatest General of antiquity, was completely defeated. The seafight off Actium decided the ********************************************

APPENDIX C. REVISED AND AMENDED RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE MEDICAL COLLEGE. STIPENDIARY STUDENTS. SECTION I.

1. In conformity with the provisions of General Order dated 28th January 1835, the number of students admitted on the foundation shall be limited to fifty, except in the cases provided for in Section 5, on Robertson Scholarships. 2. All such students shall receive a monthly stipend of Co.’s Rupees eight, during the period allowed for completing their studies, and obtaining the certificate of qualification. 3. Stipendiary students voluntarily leaving the College before presenting themselves for final examination, will be required to refund the total amount received by them, from the date of their registration up to the period of their resignation. 4. The stipend shall be drawn in a monthly contingent bill by the College Treasurer, and paid regularly to the student; subject only to the stoppages specified 242

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in Section 4, regarding fines for irregularity of attendance and absence without leave. 5. No one shall be admitted as a stipendiary student under the full age of sixteen years, or above that of twenty—on any account whatever. 6. Every applicant for admission shall bring a letter of recommendation from some respectable person, certifying that he is of good character and worthy of admission to the privilege of studying medicine. 7. At the termination of each annual examination for the certificate of qualification, a general examination shall be held in the College, of all candidates who may be deemed eligible to compete for the existing vacancies in the stipendiary class. The Secretary to the College shall post up in the Theatre, and otherwise make known to all whom it may concern, through the medium of the Government, Bengali and Urdu Gazettes, a notice of such examination, at least one fortnight prior to its occurrence. 8. The candidates must present themselves before the Secretary to the College three days prior to the day of examination, with a view to their being identified as the persons really desiring admission. 9. All candidates will be expected to possess a thorough knowledge of English, so as to be able to read, write, and enunciate it with fluency and facility. They must be able to analyze a passage in Milton’s Paradise Lost, Robertson’s Histories, or works of a similar classical standard—be acquainted with the elements of Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Natural Philosophy,—and bring certificates from the Head Masters of the schools in which they have studied, expressly stating that they possess the information required, and are capable of undergoing the ordeal proposed. The preference, in selection, will always be given to those who possess the greatest amount of information in the abovementioned branches of education. 10. On his admission to the College, each student shall be furnished with a ticket by the Secretary, specifying his name and date of appointment. 11. Every student shall at the termination of each session, undergo an examination by the College Council, with a view to ascertain the progress made during the past year, and in case he should have been idle and appear to the examiners unlikely to turn out well, that his name may be struck out of the list of stipendiary students, and his place filled up at the ensuing examination of candidates for admission. 12. Every student shall on all occasions conduct himself with propriety and decorum; attend to and obey all orders which may be issued by the Council of Education and College Council; be regular in his attendance at roll call, and those lectures which he will be directed to attend. Any infraction of the above rules will be reported to the Council of Education for such punishment as that body may deem necessary, and in cases of contumacy or persistance in malpractices, for expulsion from the College. 13. The period during which stipends shall be allowed to students, to enable them to go through the course of study required to obtain the certificate of qualification, is fixed at five years, after which time the name of any student who shall have failed to pass shall be struck off the rolls. 243

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14. No student shall be permitted to present himself for final examination, until he shall have completed five sessions of study in the College,—when lie will be required to produce certificates of attendance upon all the courses of lecture, specified in Section 8; and likewise of having, during that period, performed the duties of clinical clerk and dresser, for not less than eighteen months, collectively. 15. Every student at the termination of each course of lectures, shall be furnished with a certificate, signed by the Professor, countersigned by the Secretary to the College, numbered and registered, specifying his attendance upon the course, according to the following form:

MEDICAL COLLEGE OF BENGAL. Entered

No.

of

18

I hereby Certify that of attended my Lectures on 18

delivered at this College, from 18

to

comprising

lectures Professor. Secretary.

16. No student shall be allowed to pass his final examination, without producing these certificates for the information of the examiners and assessors. 17. The annual examinations shall commence on the 15th of March, and continue until the 15th of April of each year; the general examinations being conducted by the College Council, on days alternating with those of the final examination, which will be conducted by the examiners and assessors appointed by Government. 18. The vacation shall commence on the 15th of April of each year, and continue until the 15th of June, the whole of the College, with the exception of the Hospital and Out-door Dispensary, being closed during that period. 19. Every student on leaving the College and passing the required examination, shall be presented with a diploma, engrossed on parchment, in English, Persian, and Bengalee, of which the following is the form and wording in English. It shall be signed by the Examiners, Assessors, Professors of the College, President of the Council of Education, and Secretary to Government.

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MEDICAL COLLEGE OF BENGAL. INSTITUTED IN THE YEAR OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA,

1835, CORRESPONDING TO THE BENGAL ERA,

1242. We, the undersigned, having fully and carefully examined —————— of —————— , in March 184—, do hereby certify that he possesses an intimate knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, Materia Medica, Practical Pharmacy and Botany; and that he is sufficiently versed in the principles and practice of Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery, to qualify him for holding public medical employment, or for commencing independent practice. We have further received satisfactory proofs of his diligence and good conduct, during his education at the Medical College of Bengal. 20. Every student to whom the above diploma shall have been granted, shall be styled “GRADUATE IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF BENGAL.”

FREE STUDENTS. SECTION II.

1. The number of students wishing to obtain a complete medical education at their own expense, shall be unlimited. 2. No person shall be considered eligible to study as a free student, until he has been subjected to the examination prescribed in para. 8, Section 1, for foundation pupils, and his capacity for studying with any prospect of ultimate success, fully ascertained by the examiners. 3. The free students shall be subject to the same rules and regulations as the other pupils of the College, in all matters of discipline. 4. With regard to regularity of attendance—as this cannot be enforced by means of fines, any free students who may be absent without sufficient cause, more than twenty-four times during each session of ten months, shall be deprived of the privilege of contending for the prizes and other rewards bestowed at the end of the session. 5. Diplomas and certificates of qualification bestowed on the free students, shall be the same as those granted to Stipendiary pupils, at the annual examination. 245

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6. The leave of absence on private affairs, or unavoidable detention from College by sickness and other causes of a like nature, shall be subject to the rules laid down in Section 3.

ATTENDANCE. SECTION III.

1. With a view to ascertain the presence of the students, each Professor shall, at every lecture, call over the roll of those bound to attend his class, in accordance with the regulations contained in Section 8, of these rules. These rolls shall be forwarded to the Secretary’s office at the end of every month, for the purpose of being recorded, and submitted to the Council of Education. 2. Any student found to be absent, from whatever cause, shall be fined by the College Council, the sums specified in the next section of rules, ordered by Government and the Council of Education, to be adopted in all their Institutions. 3. Two gold circlets of merit having been granted annually, shall be bestowed upon the two students who, in addition to other qualifications, shall have been most regular in their attendance, as ascertained by the monthly list of attendance, compiled from the Professors’ roll call. 4. In the case of any student living at a great distance from the College, who may be unable to present himself at the exact time for calling the roll, or if he can account satisfactorily for his detention beyond the regulated time, on application and explanation to the Secretary, his name shall be entered as present, on a list kept for the purpose, which list shall be consulted in making out the monthly register of attendance. 5. The monthly register shall be prepared and given to the Secretary to the Council of Education, on the last Saturday of each month, at the meeting held in the Medical College. It shall be accompanied by a column of remarks, accounting for or explaining any thing requiring notice in the register. 6. All students reporting themselves sick, if living within reasonable distance, shall be entitled to attendance from one of the Sub-assistant Surgeons attached to the College, who will be furnished with a palanquin to enable him to perform this duty, and who shall report the nature of the disease, its duration, &c. to the Secretary. No student’s name is to be returned in the sick report, unless accompanied by such certificate. This duty to be performed in rotation for the space of one week, by the Sub-assistant Surgeons employed as teachers in the College, or in charge of the Out-door Dispensary and Female Hospital, 7. In the event of a Hindoo student requiring leave of absence for any of the observances enjoined by his religion, such leave is only to be granted on the presentation of a certificate from the Native Demonstrator, stating its necessity, and the period which should be allowed—subject however, to the deduction of pay, specified in the next section. 246

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8. The native holidays to be granted to the students are to be the same as those allowed in the Hindoo College and Mudrussa respectively. The Christian holidays to be given, are Good Friday, Christmas-day, New-year’s day and Her Majesty’s Birth-day, The College shall be closed every Sunday, except for hospital attendance.

RULES For leave of absence and travelling and acting allowances to Principals, Professors, Masters, &c. of the Government Colleges and Schools, passed by the Deputy Governor of Bengal, on the 28th February, 1844. SECTION IV.

1. The Council of Education may grant leave of absence without deduction from salary, during the authorized vacations, and it shall not be necessary to report the same to Government. 2. In addition to the above, the Council of Education will on good cause being shewn for the indulgence, grant leave of absence on private affairs for not more than three months, but no salary will be drawn for the period of such absence. 3. The Council of Education will grant leave of absence on medical certificate, for one year to any place within the limits of the East India Company’s Charter, one half of the absentee’s salary being deducted for the first six months, and the whole far the remainder. 4. No leave will be granted under Rule 3, until after the lapse of three years from the expiry of previous leave under that Rule. 5. If the period of leave granted under Rule 3 be less than one year, the Council of Education will extend the same to the full period allowed by the rule, on the production of a medical certificate, shewing the necessity for such extension. 6. Absence without leave, will subject the absentee to loss of appointment. 7. No person appointed to a situation in the Education Department, shall draw the salary of his appointment for any period prior to the date of his joining it. 8. A person holding a situation at one station in the Education Department, appointed to one of equal or higher value at another, will draw the salary of his former situation from the date on which he may relinquish it, until the date of his joining his new appointment, provided he does not exceed the time allowed for joining, prescribed by the following rule, in which case no salary will be passed to him for such period in excess. 9. The time allowed for joining an appointment is to be calculated at the rate of ten miles a day, (Sundays excepted) together with a week to prepare for the journey. 10. A person officiating temporarily in any situation, on the occurrence of a vacancy or during the absence of the real incumbent will, if he hold no other appointment, draw one-half the salary of such situation; and if he hold any other 247

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situation of less value, he will receive half the fixed salary of his own appointment, together with half the fixed salary of that in which he officiates. 11. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th of these rules shall be considered applicable to the holders of Senior and Junior Scholarships, and to the stipendiary students of the Medical College.

ROBERTSON SCHOLARSHIPS. SECTION V.

1. A suitable residence having been provided at the College for the Secretary, to enable him to discharge such of his duties as can only be performed by his presence on the spot, he shall be required to reside on the premises. 2. In order to carry out fully the views entertained and recommended on the subject of up-country students, residences within the College compound shall be found for those pupils who may be sent from the Upper Provinces, to prosecute their studies at the Medical College. During this period and the probationary time they may be required to attend at the Hindoo or any other College or School deemed advisable, they shall be placed under the immediate charge and control of the Secretary to the Medical College. 3. The payment of their stipends or scholarships, the regulation of their personal comforts, their keeping proper hours, and leaving the College at such times as may be requisite for the prosecution of their studies elsewhere; together with other minor matters of a like nature, shall be entrusted to the same officer, subject to the orders of the Council of Education. 4. No boy shall on any account be admitted as a student of the College, under the age of 16, or above that of 20 years of age; and any candidates for admission from the Upper Provinces, who may not be found qualified at the expiration of such probationary period, as will bring them beyond the prescribed age, shall be rejected altogether, and returned to the places from which they came. Likewise their Scholarship allowances shall cease, at and from such time as they may be found disqualified for admission to the Medical College. 5. The stipends of all students who may obtain Robertson Scholarships, with a view to study the medical profession in Calcutta, should be fixed at ten rupees per month, tenable for four years; in addition to which, they shall receive the usual College allowance, when admitted as stipendiary students, viz. eight Rupees per mensem. 6. They shall be subject to the same fines and penalties for absence and nonattendance at Lecture, as are enforced in the cases of all the other stipendiary students of the College, according to the provisions of Section 4. 7. With a view to ascertain the respective attainments in general literature and English, of the various candidates in the different Colleges of the N. W. Provinces, they shall be examined by the authorities of their own College, according to the standard fixed in para. 8, Section 1st, of these Regulations, and the result reported 248

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for the decision of the Council of Education, with a descriptive roll of the age, caste, parentage, general character, and attainments of the several candidates. 8. The probationary period of study in Calcutta, of those who may be selected by the Council of Education, shall not be extended beyond two years. If within that time they be found duly qualified, they shall be admitted to the College, as vacancies may occur, or at the expiration of the above period, whether or not there be any vacancy. In such event they shall be permitted to draw their original stipends of 10 Rs. per mensem for the full period of four years from its first grant, but if found disqualified at the end of the two years, they shall be struck off the list of candidates, and their stipends cease from that date. 9. All students shall be sent down within six months of their election and if possible in charge of some competent person who shall take care of them, until they are placed under that of the Secretary to the Medical College.

CEYLON STUDENTS. SECTION VI.

1. The students from Ceylon shall reside in a building designed for the purpose, situated within the College compound, and be amenable to the general discipline of the Institution. 2. They shall on no account, without special leave, be absent from the College after evening gun-fire, when their presence shall be ascertained by a roll to be called by the Apothecary or Staff Sergeant. 3. They shall be formed into a mess, to which every Ceylon student shall belong, and which shall be superintended, and occasionally visited, by the Secretary to the Institution. 4. Their mess accounts, servants’ wages, &c., shall be paid from the Secretary’s Office, and not on any account be permitted to exceed the Government allowance. 5. The students shall at all times appear properly dressed at meals and lecture, be quiet and orderly in their demeanour, and obey all orders which they may receive from the College Council, and Council of Education. 6. Their attendance at roll call and on lectures, their performance of the duties of clinical clerk and dresser, with all other college duties, shall be subject to the same rules and regulations, as for other students. 7. No friends of the pupils shall be allowed within the College Compound after 9 p. m., nor shall noise of any description be permitted at any time, which is improper and likely to disturb the patients in the Hospital, end other persons residing within the College Compound. 8. Any visitors found guilty of creating disturbances shall at once be expelled from the compound and not admitted again, and any pupil convicted of introducing persons of bad character and conduct, shall be reported to the Council of Education for such punishment as may be deemed deserved, for a practice which is so prejudicial to good order and discipline. 249

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9. No person shall be allowed to sit about the door of the house, or on the roads of the compound. 10. No parties of any kind shall be allowed, without special permission being obtained, and the names and residences of all the guests being furnished to the Secretary, as well as the names of the persons inviting them, as a guarantee for their propriety of conduct, and to ensure their punishment in case of infringement of the rules of the College. 11. The Secretary to the College is armed with full power to enforce these regulations—and the House Surgeon and Staff Sergeant are ordered to report to him any breach of the rules, and at once to carry into effect any instructions he may find it necessary to issue in consequence. 12. Unless prevented by sickness, or hospital duties, they shall all attend divine service, at least once every Sunday; and in every other respect they shall be on the same footing as the free and stipendiary students of the College.

MILITARY CLASS. SECTION VII.

I. The Military Class attached to the Medical College shall consist of one hundred students, on the pay of five rupees per month. II. In all other respects the school shall be constituted in accordance with the provisions detailed in General Orders by the Right Honorable the President in Council, dated Fort William, 12th August, 1839.—Government having resolved in the General Department to sanction the formation of a Secondary School in connection with the Medical College of Calcutta, for the instruction of Native Doctors for the military and civil branches of the Service, the following rules relating to admission to the school and to the terms of service which have been established by the Honorable the President in Council, are published for general information, and will take effect from the 1st of October 1839: 1. The school will be thrown open for the admission of any persons desirous of acquiring medical knowledge, as well as for the instruction of those who enter the Institution, under the engagements and terms of service hereinafter specified. 2. To the first of these classes of persons the subjoined rules do not apply, it being understood that such persons resort to the Institution, in order to qualify themselves for eventually undertaking private practice in the medical profession. 3. The qualifications required of these students at the time of admission are, that they shall be able to read and write the Hindoostanee language in the Devanagree or Persian character, their capability being certified by any Interpreter to a native regiment, and further ascertained by examination before the examiners of the College of Fort William: on receipt of the reports of the examiners, the Council of the Medical College will select such as possess the certificates, restricting admission to the number of students above specified. 250

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4. Hindoos and Mahomedans are equally admissible when duly qualified, on the sole condition that they be of respectable character; where qualifications are equal, a preference will be shewn to the sons or near relatives of native officers, and other respectable persons in the service of Government: candidates from the province of Assam and Arracan will be specially considered. 5. The students are to be regularly enlisted as soldiers, and to be subject to the articles of war for the government of the native army. 6. Students are admissible into the Institution at from 16 to 20 years of age; and upon their admission they are to enter into an engagement to serve the Government as Native Doctors, as vacancies may occur for a period of not less than seven years, from the time of their leaving the Institution in that capacity, unless prevented serving that period by physical inability, proved before a Medical Committee, and certified accordingly. After a service of seven years they may demand their discharge in time of peace. 7. From the date of admission into the Institution the students will receive diet money at the public charge, at the rate of (5) five Co.’s Rupees each pcr mensem, to be continued to them during the period of their abode at the Institution, and to be drawn in monthly abstract by the Secretary to the Medical College. 8. It will at all times be in the power of the Council of the Medical College to discharge any individual student, on being satisfied that from dullness, idleness, negligence or misconduct, he is not likely to profit by the instruction given at the Institution, or to become properly qualified for the exercise of the duties for which he is designed. 9. The students will be required before they obtain admission into the service as Native Doctors, to pass an examination before the Professors of the Medical College; upon whose report of their qualification for the public service, made through the College Council to the Medical Board, the students will be appointed to the situation of Native Doctors on the occurrence of vacancies, in the same manner as Native Doctors have hitherto been appointed. 10. The pay of Native Doctors on appointment to the service is fixed at (20) twenty Co.’s Rupees a month, in garrison or at a civil station, and (25) twentyfive Co.’s Rupees a month in the field; of which sums (5) five Rupees are to be considered as batta, and deducted when on leave of absence from corps or stations. 11. Although the engagement of Native Doctors to serve in that capacity does not extend beyond seven years, yet in the event of such individual continuing to serve, his allowances will after seven years be advanced to (25) twenty-five Co.’s Rupees in garrison or at a civil station, and (30) thirty Rupees in the field, provided the Medical Officer under whom such Native Doctor may be serving at the time, grant a certificate that the general character and professional conduct of the individual deserve this indulgence. The certificate to be countersigned by the Superintending Surgeon of the Division or Circle. 12. Pensions will be granted to Native Doctors at the following rates and under the conditions of service therein specified. A Native Doctor who from wounds or 251

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injuries received on service shall become no longer fit to serve, will be entitled at any period less than fifteen years to an invalid pension of twelve rupees per mensem; after fifteen years to one-half of his field pay if in the military, and of his garrison pay if in the civil branch of the service; after twenty-two years to the whole of his pay, provided that in every case the inability of a Native Doctor to serve is occasioned by wounds or injuries so received be duly certified by the usual Medical Committee for Invaliding. 13. A Native Doctor, if invalided under ordinary circumstances of inability to perform his duties, will be entitled at the expiration of fifteen years to a pensionary provision of ten rupees per month, and after twenty-two years to one-half of his field pay, agreeably to the branch of the service in which he is employed. 14. Native Doctors attached to Civil Stations are liable to serve with the Army when so directed in General Orders, and the same advantage in every respect will thereupon be extended to them when thus serving, as to Native Doctors attached to Corps. The foregoing rules are applicable only to those Native Doctors, who may be educated at the Secondary School of the Calcutta Medical College. III. The general management and supervision of the internal economy of the School shall be entrusted to the Staff Sergeant employed for the purpose, who shall call the roll at 9 A. M. and 9 P. M., daily inspect the quarters to see that they are kept in a proper state, and immediately report all irregularities, breaches of discipline or cases of illness to the Secretary, under whose immediate orders he is placed. To assist him in his duties, four of the senior and best conducted students shall be appointed Naicks, each to take charge of a division of the School and maintain order and discipline in it. IV. The period during which every student will be expected to qualify himself for the public service is four years, but if any should be previously found fit to be transferred to the subordinate Medical Department, it shall at all times be in the power of the College Council to recommend them for that purpose. V. Every student absent without leave shall be fined by the College Council a sum of two annas and six pie for each such absence, unless he can satisfactorily account for the same, and no student is to be reported sick unless he can produce a properly authenticated certificate of the same. VI. At the termination of every academic session, an examination of all the students in the Military Class shall be held by the College Council. Those who may be found to have been idle, inattentive, and to have made no progress, to be expelled, and the best student of each year’s standing to be rewarded with a small prize and a badge of merit. VII. The final examination for admission to the service shall be conducted by the College Council, in Hindustani, each Professor examining in his own department. The native teachers shall be present during such examinations, if necessary, to interpret in cases of difficulty or misapprehension.

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VIII. All qualified students shall be reported without delay to the Council of Education, and shall be immediately made over to the Medical Board, through the Secretary to Government in the Military Department, in accordance with the orders of Government upon the subject, in letter No. 309, dated 20th January, 1843, from the Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, Military Department, quoted in the margin for readier reference. IX. Every passed Native Doctor shall be furnished with a diploma according to the form sanctioned by the Council of Education, engrossed on parchment, written in three languages, English, Persian and Urdu, and sealed with the College seal, as follows: Para. 4. “The Hon’ble the President in Council, in order to ohviate all future occasions of misunderstanding in regard to the above class of men, considers it desirable whenever students of the College have been duly examined and found qualified as “Native Doctors, that they be reported by the Secretary, to the Military Department, through which they will be regularly admitted into the service in General Orders, and placed at the entire disposal of the Medical Board, for employment in the Military or Civil Department, as may be most urgently required.”

Note 1 The lap of Albion.

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It must not be forgotten either that we govern in India, not one homogeneous nation, but a large assemblage of very different nations. The Bengali race might, even in the highest stage of civilisation, desire to be governed by a Bengali rather than by a British prince. The same may be said of the Tamil, of the Mahratta, of the Hindi, of the Mogul, of the Seikh races. But if the Bengalis were as equal to the most advanced European nation as education can make them, there is not the shadow of a reason for supposing that would wish to take the chance of an imperial Seikh of Mogul government proving more disinterested and philanthropic than an imperial British government. We have no need to practise the maxim divide et impera, so much celebrated by those who cultivate the lower wisdom. The people of India are already divided into unsympathising castes, bands, and nations. Political wisdom, as well as moral duty, recommends us, by means of the highest British education, to unite them into one British empire. The class that we are creating, as we approach towards this great object,—the class imbued with European letters, from whom Lord Ellenborough apprehends so much danger,—will be for many generations wholly dependent upon us, much more so than any of the separate and antagonistic classes which we found already existing; and they will exceed all those other classes in their enlightened perception of their true position, still more than in the degree of dependence which characterises it. They know that, if we were voluntarily to retire from India, they would instantly be subjugated by fierce and unlettered warriors. And if we 254

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cannot create in them the feeling of imperial loyalty long before they have ceased to have the feeling that their sole security is in our support, great nation as we may be, and famous throughout the world for skill in self-government, we shall have proved ourselves essentially unfitted for the sublimer function of imperial dominion. This lettered class will be the genuine product of the Indo-British empire. They are only now beginning to exist, and we are in time to apply forethought to the purpose of making them what, as British patriots in the highest sense of the term, we should desire to see them. I have already said that, in imitating the examples of antiquity, we must do so critically, and not implicitly. Both Alexander the Great and the Romans seem to have considered complete assimilation of races as the ideal point of perfection to be aimed at. The difference between them was, that Alexander thought his Greeks might find something worthy of imitation in the Asiatic nations whom he had made their fellow-citizens; while the Romans, except in the case of Greece itself (the author of their own close, I had almost said the servile, imitation of the Greek authors by the Latin authors, and the multitude of words borrowed by them, combined with the IndoGermanic family likeness, have placed Latin literature in such a position of subordination as well as of affinity to Greek literature, that I venture to treat it, for my present purpose, as one portion of the Greek development. We have, then, before us the cases of ancient Greece and of modern Europe, and we observe that, in each, diversity in unity was the main characteristic. Every Æolic or Attic writer felt, every English or French writer feels, himself to be a member of two communities, a smaller and a larger. Hence a double emulation, an ambition to earn distinction for himself among his countrymen, and an ambition to earn distinction for his country among the kindred and rival nations. In both cases, the most conspicuous, and, indeed, most essential bond of unity was a common language. In the Greek literary world, not only did one language pervade the whole, but it was also the one organ, diversified slightly by its dialects, employed for the expression of thought and feeling. From this cause, among others, Greek literature, however transcendent its beauty, is far inferior in variety to that which it has helped to evoke from the nations whose collective name is Christendom. We find existing in our Indian empire nations speaking Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Singhalese; and these are, happily, not dialects, but separate, though cognate, languages, bearing to each other nearly the same relation as the languages of Christendom bear to each other. There is a large infusion of Sanskrit in them all at the present day, and European scholars at first supposed them to be all derived from that stock. But more accurate investigations have led to the opinion that only the northern languages of India are the offspring of Sanskrit, as the Romanesque languages of Europe are of Latin, while the numerous Sanskrit words which now enrich the vocabularies of Southern India, like the Latin words so abundant in the Teutonic speech of Europe, are mere additions made to pre-existing languages, by 255

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borrowing from that venerable source. Sir Erskine Perry, who has consulted the authorities, and upon whom I rely, sums up as follows: “As a general conclusion, therefore, we may say that the whole of India may be divided between two classes of language:—the language of the intruding Arians, or Sanskritoid, in the north; and the language of a civilised race in the south of India, represented by its most cultivated branch, Tamil; just as the greater and more civilised part of Europe may be divided between two distinct families of language, the Teutonic and the Romanesque.” Thus Sanskrit was to India before the Mahommedan conquest, in a great measure what Latin was to Europe before the two great intellectual movements,— the reformation of religion, and the revival of learning. But the system of Menou, pervading the whole of Hindoo life, confined the study of the sacred language to the sacred caste. And this is, no doubt, one of the essential causes which has checked the civilisation of the Hindoos. The Roman Catholic Church intrusted its sacred functions and taught its sacred language to every person whom it thought morally and intellectually competent to receive them, totally disregarding purity of blood and dignity of social position. In so acting, it probably sapped the foundations of its own exclusive dominion; but it deserves, for the large good which it intended, if not for the larger good of which it has been the unwilling instrument, the gratitude of those who have at heart the progress of their race, Menou and his Brahmans were perhaps wiser in their generation. But I must not suffer myself to be drawn into a tempting disquisition. My business, in this rapid sketch, is only to point out a remarkable difference between the masters of the general language in India and in Europe, while both exercised unmolested dominion. The Mahommedan conquest greatly deranged the Hindoo system in this, as in other respects. It introduced Arabic as its own sacred language, and Persian as its language of literature and business. By a large infusion of these languages into Hindi, it created Hindustani, which, as the most convenient medium of communication between the conquerors and their subjects, became, and is now, the most widely diffused of the living Indian languages. This was the state of things down to the year 1833; and I think that if the attention of Parliament had then been called to the subject, there is no doubt that English would have been fixed upon as the language through which the several nations belonging to our Anglo-Indian system should communicate with each other, should receive the knowledge of Europe, and should preserve as much unity as is compatible with the wholesome rivalry of nation with nation. For English is the language which, while it binds together the Indian races, will also bind them to Great Britain; and English contains also such master-pieces in the several kinds of composition, and such a fund of useful and ornamental knowledge, that the two rival languages, Sanskrit and Arabic, 256

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must have shown transcendent claims of some other kind, before Parliament could have been induced to give them the preference. Nor could Parliament have failed to perceive, if it had undertaken to decide the question in 1833, that to give the natives a complete English education was the surest way of putting them in real and practical possession of the privilege of eligibility to all offices in their own country, which it was conferring upon them by law in the 87th section of the Statute. The question was not decided, indeed was not considered, in Parliament; but happily there were men in India competent from their official position to decide it, and, from their sagacity and enlarged views, to decide it correctly. This was done eighteen years ago by Lord William Bentinck and Mr. Macaulay. In the early part of the year 1835, they made a radical change in the system which had been up to that time pursued by the Committee of Public Instruction, or Council of Education, as it was afterwards called. The revival of Sanskrit and Arabic learning had been the principal object of the committee before that epoch, though the number of members who disapproved of that plan had gradually become as great, I believe, or nearly so, as that of its adherents. The study of Sanskrit and that of Arabic are very fit objects to be pursued in India for certain special purposes. The study of Sanskrit, in particular, as a means of enriching the vernacular languages, and as a means of throwing light upon the movements of the human race before the commencement of history (though, in this latter inquiry, Benares and Calcutta will hardly emulate the fame of Bonn or of Paris), is, in my judgment, well deserving of encouragement. But it seems to me impossible that any impartial mind should prefer either of these languages to English, as the general basis of an imperial scheme of education for British India. Lord William Bentinck and Mr. Macaulay decided in favour of the English language; and the natives of India owe them everlasting gratitude for the decision. The following minute, for the publication of which I have received the authority of its distinguished author, may be considered as the immediate cause of the resolution of government which settled this great question. “As it seems to be the opinion of some of the gentlemen who compose the Committee of Public Instruction, that the course which they have hitherto pursued was strictly prescribed by the British Parliament in 1813, and as, if that opinion be correct, a legislative act will be necessary to warrant a change, I have thought it right to refrain from taking any part in the preparation of the adtruth, but to delay the natural death of expiring errors. I conceive that we have at present no right to the respectable name of a Board of Public Instruction. We are a board for wasting public money, for printing books which are of less value than the paper on which they are printed was while it was blank; for giving artificial encouragement to absurd history, absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, absurd theology; for raising up a breed of scholars who find their scholarship an encumbrance and a blemish, who live on the public while they are receiving their education, and whose education is so utterly useless to them that, when they have received it, they must either starve or live on the public all the rest of their lives. Entertaining these opinions, I am naturally desirous to decline all

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share in the responsibility of a body which, unless it alters its whole mode of proceeding, I must consider not merely as useless, but as positively noxious. “T. B. MACAULAY. “February 2nd, 1835. “I give my entire concurrence to the sentiments expressed in this minute. “W. C. BENTINCK.”

It should be remembered, that Mr. Macaulay was considering Sanskrit literature in the minute just quoted only with reference to the very small advantage which the present inhabitants of India could derive from the study of it, as compared with the study of English literature, and not with reference to the evidence it affords of scientific and æsthetic power in the Sanskrit authors. Considering it in this latter point of view, I should say, judging from translations and descriptions, that its epics, dramas, and mathematical treatises establish beyond question that the writers, whose unborrowed and spontaneous products they are, belonged to a very highlygifted race. But that consideration does not in the least affect the conclusion at which Mr. Macaulay arrived, and which immediately afterwards assumed a practical shape in the following Resolution of Government, dated 7th of March, 1835. ‘‘The Governor-General of India in council has attentively considered the two letters from the secretary to the committee, dated the 21st and 22nd January last, and the papers referred to in them. ‘‘2nd. — His Lordship in council is of opinion that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science amongst the natives of India, and that all the funds appropriated for the purposes of education would be best employed on English education alone. “3rd. — But it is not the intention of his Lordship in council to abolish any college or school of native learning, while the native population shall appear to be inclined to avail themselves of the advantages which it affords; and his Lordship in council directs that all the existing professors and students at all the institutions under the superintendence of the committee shall continue to receive their stipends. But his Lordship in council decidedly objects to the practice which has hitherto prevailed, of supporting the students during the period of their education. He conceives that the only effect of such a system can be, to give artificial encouragement to branches of learning which, in the natural course of things, would be superseded by more useful studies; and he directs that no stipend shall be given to any student who may hereafter enter at any of these institutions, and that when any professor of Oriental learning shall vacate his situation, the to be taken from the Arabic, as ours are taken from the Greek.” The claims of the Arabic, we see, are much inferior to those of the Sanskrit. All the tongues spoken in the Indian peninsula might be enriched from the latter source. Hindustani alone, or Urdoo, which is the most polished Hindustani, could derive any benefit from the former. Now Hindustani is no genuine Indian 258

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language, nor even a genuine member of the Indo-Germanic family. It is a hybrid dialect begotten by a Semitic intruder upon one of the daughters of the Indo-Germanic Sanskrit; and I am by no means sure that Hindi, which furnished the IndoGermanic element of Hindustani, is not better entitled than Hindustani itself to be taught as the vernacular language in the future University of Agra. I am not, however, competent to pronounce a decision upon this question, and I will assume, for the sake of argument, that the preference is to be given to Hindustani. I cannot think that Dr. Sprenger has shown any sufficient reason why Arabic should be taught for the purpose of supplying scientific terms to Hindustani, and thus making it diverge from all the other languages of the country in the very point in which uniformity, and not diversity, is the desirable thing. In the University of Calcutta (if my petition should be heard) there would be taught English and Bengali; in the University of Madras, English and Tamil; in the University of Bombay, English and Marathi; in the University of Colombo, English and Singhalese. Surely in the University of Agra English and Hindustani should be taught, unless much stronger arguments can be urged for substituting Arabic in the place of English than Dr. Sprenger has adduced. The case of the tyroid cartilage, selected, we may presume, as one of the strongest, appears to me a very trifling obstacle. Let a student at Agra pronounce the word tyroid as he may, his pronunciation of it will not differ more from ours, than our pronunciation of the multitudinous vocabulary which European science has borrowed from Greek, differs from that of our French, German, or Italian competitors, without any sensible detriment to the sciences, or the languages concerned. If it really is impossible to write English in Arabic characters, the legitimate consequence is that Arabic characters must be disused, and some other substituted. Hindustani is written by the Hindoos in Nagree characters, with which, I presume, there is no difficulty in writing English words. As to the distortion of Champagne into Simpkin, it is like the distortion of feuille morte and quelque chose into philomot and kickshaws, in our common English speech. Notwithstanding these ludicrous corruptions, we know very well how to naturalise French words with no more alteration than is necessary to make them consistent parts of English discourse. The concessions which Dr. Sprenger is obliged to make respecting the terminology of botany will probably be regarded as decisive of the whole question in the mind of any one who has not, like him, become enamoured of the beauties of Arabic through the profound and successful study of that difficult language. If any one should desire further information on this subject, I would recommend to him the perusal of Sir Charles Trevelyan’s work on the Education of the People of India. The book has probably contributed much to the triumph of correct principles; but the ardent zeal and untiring perseverance of the author, exerted when those principles had few advocates in India, must be reckoned among the most efficacious causes of the great change which I have been describing. The next great step towards a complete system of public instruction was the institution of scholarships, for which the natives of India are indebted to Lord 259

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Auckland, and Sir Edward Ryan, who succeeded Mr. Macaulay as President of the Committee. The resolution of March 1835, besides deciding the question between the English language on the one hand, and the Sanskrit and Arabic languages on the other, abolished (regard being had to existing interests) the system of stipends, which had previously been carried to a great extent in the colleges devoted to Oriental learning, and had been introduced into those in which the English language was the principal medium of instruction. The number of students receiving stipends in the year 1835 was 855; the amount received by them was 3119 rupees, that is to say, upwards of 300l., the School to which he belongs, does not consider competent to attain the requisite standard. “FRED. J. MOUAT, M. D., “Secretary to the Council of Education. “October, 1850.”

These two capital steps, then, had already been taken when I succeeded to the chair of the Council of Education. The English language had been established as the medium for the communication of knowledge to the natives of India, and the institution of scholarships had furnished inducement to the students to remain in our colleges up to the commencement of manhood, not in idleness like the former receivers of stipends, but with unabated efforts for continual improvement. I had done what I could to assist Mr. Macaulay and Sir Edward Ryan in carrying into effect their wise and beneficent measures; and from the time when I became President of the Council of Education till my departure from India, I went on steadily and zealously endeavouring, with the cordial support of Lord Hardinge, to bring to perfection the system bequeathed to me by them. My views, however, for the future of British India, gradually enlarged themselves; and the possibility opened itself to me of doing for the Indian nations what Rome did for her provinces, and, at the same time, of inviting and assisting the Indian nations to do for themselves what the independent Hellenic tribes, and the independent nations of Christendom, had done for themselves, without help or direction from any pervading and controlling authority. The Greeks composed, in their own vernacular language, from the very beginning, and never, indeed, composed in any thing else. The still unrivalled Homeric poems were the first fruits of their mental activity, and they attained a perfection which no other people has attained. The Universities of modern Europe neglected and despised the vernacular tongues of their several countries, which, in comparison with the polished languages of classical antiquity, seemed unworthy the consideration of learned men. A long period of darkness, even after learning came to be systematically encouraged by scholastic honours and scholastic emoluments, was the consequence partly of this, and partly of their inevitable devotion to inept and barren studies. For the people of Christendom in the middle ages did not know that grand secret of perpetual 260

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activity and perpetual progress, the systematic interrogation of nature; inculcated afterwards with such brilliant success by the spirit-stirring exhortations of Bacon, and the fruitful practice of Galileo. We can teach this secret to the students in our Indian colleges; and we can teach them to study English as Latin and Greek have been studied, since the revival of learning, in the Universities of Christendom, and at the same time to cultivate their own vernacular tongues as the Hellenic tribes cultivated theirs. As I reflected upon these things it seemed to me to be the clear duty of Great Britain to India to establish Universities, as many in number as the vernacular languages which may be found deserving of cultivation: Universities fostering the study of English as the vehicle of useful and ornamental knowledge, and as exhibiting models of composition in all kinds: Universities giving, each of them, the most ample encouragement to the improvement of some one vernacular tongue, and to the production in that tongue of compositions, not servilely copied from the English models, but bearing to the mind of each Indian people the same sort of relation as those models bear to the English mind: Universities teaching, through their subordinate colleges, all established truths, and the methods by which new truths may be discovered and established: Universities sending forth into the world young men far advanced in all the various branches of study, and who have received, as the reward of their proficiency, and as a certificate of it to the public, the authentic and conspicuous mark of a scholastic degree. By the establishment of such Universities, it seemed to be probable, almost certain, that we might call forth much more effectually than Rome could call forth, with its Romanising system, much more rapidly than Greece and Christendom, in the absence of fostering and directing authority, could develop for themselves, whatever there may be of moral and intellectual excellence, of aesthetic and scientific capacity, in the vast and various populations of our Indian empire. The mention of scientific capacity is not in any respect out of place (notwithstanding the rigorous unity of science) in connection with the encouragement of the peculiar and characteristic qualities inherent in different races of mankind; first, because an aesthetic element enters largely into works of science: secondly, because, although truth, when once discovered and proved, be one and the same for all races; and although we cannot adhere to both Ptolemy and Copernicus, or to the chemistry of phlogiston and the chemistry which has supplanted it, as we may adhere to both Shakspeare and Racine; yet the peculiar qualities of the several races of mankind, as well as the diversities of the soil, climate, and country they dwell in, are of great account in the discovery and establishment of truths not hitherto known and accepted. I am almost afraid that the grandeur of the prospect thus opened may induce Parliament to suppose that it cannot be realised without an expenditure too great to be contemplated with reference to the financial position of India. But it will appear upon examination that this is not so. I freely admit that I wish to see a large addition made to the sum now devoted to public instruction in India. But the establishment of Universities does not necessarily involve any such addition. 261

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The University of Calcutta, as proposed by the Council of Education while I was its President, did not necessarily involve any new expense. The same instruction would be given, by the same professors and masters, in the same buildings, after the establishment of such a University, as now. I acknowledge, however, that this University of Calcutta was, in my own view, only the beginning of a much larger project, requiring for its completion the establishment of a University at Agra, at Madras, at Bombay, and at Colombo. It was not possible for me to leave Ceylon out of consideration in this project, although it is not under the government of the East India Company; for Ceylon is the only seat of the Singhalese race, and its northern parts are inhabited by a large, intelligent, and thriving Tamil population, for whom a Tamil branch of the Colombo University might be a better provision than the University of Madras. I have no reason to suppose that the Colonial Office will be found less desirous to improve the Asiatic people who are placed under its care than the Indian home authorities. As a law reformer I have had much experience of both departments, and of the two I have found the Colonial Office much more ready to listen to my suggestions, much less blind to the defects of existing systems, and much less timid in adopting remedies for them. Four Universities on the continent of India would be necessary completely to accomplish my project, but that number cannot be considered excessive with reference to a population which is said to amount to one hundred and twenty millions. I shall be quite contented, however, if I now obtain a University of Calcutta, with an admission of the principle that the natives, whose moral and intellectual merits that University certifies to the public by conferring its degrees upon them, shall not be excluded in fact, any more than in law, from the offices hitherto filled by covenanted servants of the East India Company. The proposition for a University of Calcutta was approved by the government of India, and sent home to the Court of Directors. The answer we received, if my memory does not deceive me, was, that our proposition was premature. I do not know in what sense that answer can be considered a correct one. If the true object of Great Britain in regard to her Asiatic subjects is such as I have described it to be, then I venture to request Parliament to believe, at my peril, that the proposition for a University at Calcutta is not premature. It is a point on which I hold myself competent to pronounce a decision. I was, as I have said, for twelve years a member of the Council of Education, and for five years President of it. From the time of the establishment of scholarships by Sir Edward Ryan till my return to England, I always set the questions in English literature, moral philosophy, and political economy, at the annual examinations; compared the answers of the candidates, and estimated their relative merit. I have probably conversed with native students more than any other man, except the professors and masters in the colleges and schools. I have repeatedly been asked by students, who had left college, for advice as to the prosecution of their studies. With all deference, therefore, to the superior position of the home authorities, I cannot think that their opinion on this particular point is entitled to more weight than my own. 262

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On the other hand, if the true object of Great Britain, in regard to her Asiatic subjects, is to prevent them from rising above the Hindoo and Mahommedan semibarbarism in which we found them, or to give them so much European education as will fit them for the offices held by uncovenanted servants, and to cut them off from the moral and intellectual training which would fit them for the offices held by covenanted servants, then the establishment of a University at Calcutta is not premature; but is, and will for ever continue to be, inexpedient and mischievous. I could do no more, while in India, towards the institution of this much-desired University, than urge the government of India to recommend it to the home authorities; but my position seemed to enable me, without appeal to any higher power, to exhort with effect the students of our colleges to turn their attention to the improvement of their own language and the instruction of their own countrymen. A favourable opportunity of doing this presented itself by the publication of a new edition of Bacon’s Novum Organum, as translated by Dr. Peter Shaw, with the object of making it a class-book. Mr. Kerr, the principal of the Hindoo College, undertook to edit the book and to add such notes as might increase its fitness for that particular purpose. Mr. Kerr having requested from me something in the nature of a preliminary discourse, I complied with his wish, and seized the occasion of opening to the students of our colleges a view of their own future position as the instructors of their race, carrying the assurance of reality as being reflected from actual experience, yet grand and vivid enough to stimulate vehemently the generous ambition of young and ardent minds.My discourse was as follows:— “From the President of the Council of Education to the Students under its Superintendence. “THIS translation of Bacon’s Novum Organum, which has been reprinted and illustrated with notes by Mr. Kerr, the Principal of the Hindoo College, comes forth under happy auspices. “For, while it was in preparation, the Resolution of Government, dated 10th October, 1844, was published to the world. “It is to Sir Henry Hardinge that you owe the public and solemn announcement of the great principle, that ‘In every possible case a preference shall be given, in the selection of candidates for public employment, to those who have been educated in the Institutions established for the instruction of the people, as well by the Government as by private individuals and societies, and especially to those who have distinguished themselves therein by a more than ordinary degree of merit and attainment.’ “Be thankful for the respect thus shown for learning, and evince your gratitude by redoubled exertions, the rather that you are indebted to the Governor-General, received a much larger infusion of new blood than the Italians, awakened from their torpor, not earlier, but much later, we have sufficient ground to conclude that the Roman element, which bore in Italy so much larger a proportion than elsewhere to the barbaric, had not become incapable of sending forth vigorous shoots when a stimulus was applied to it wholly different from that to which it had grown insensible. 263

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Now thus it may be too, and thus it probably is, with the people of India. I can see nothing in the history of the human race, or in the known laws of the human mind, that should forbid us to expect from the inhabitants of that vast region (barren as they have become of works after the Sanskrit type) a fertility corresponding in novelty and copiousness to the novelty and the exciting nature of the circumstances that now surround them. A highly organised race, a language capable with due culture of expressing all that is graceful and lofty in human thought, together with free access to works of the highest art expressed in another language, and embodying forms of thought such as to suggest to the new candidates for fame the ambition of producing, not servile copies, but corresponding manifestations of a new and different energy; these seem to me to be the conditions of a new intellectual development. And when these coexist, I am no believer in the doctrine that exhaustion of the race can make their combination abortive. The publication of my address to the students produced an immediate application from the October, 1844, has not, as far as I can learn, been consistently and zealously acted upon. Something like a cry of monopoly has been raised on the subject, as if that odious name could be justly applied to a plan which merely proposes, in the selection of persons for official employment, to give a preference to those who are best qualified. Must we have some judges ignorant of jurisprudence, and some surgeons ignorant of anatomy, in order to escape the imputation of creating a monopoly in favour of the men who have mastered these sciences? No one will say so. If, then, European training is necessary to qualify a native for the just exercise of power over his fellow-men, a native who has had that training ought always, other things being equal, to be preferred. I have said nothing yet upon the disputed question of religious instruction in the government colleges. My own opinion is, that a government of Christians, undertaking to rule a multitude of nations professing the Hindoo, Boodhist, and Mahommedan creeds, is strictly bound, as between its subjects and itself, not to assume the truth or falsehood of any religion. I can find, after much reflection, no other principle fit to be consistently acted upon throughout. Acting upon this principle the government can recognise, as legitimate enterprises, attempts to convert any of its subjects from one faith to another, when carried on by missionaries having themselves no connection with the state. But it cannot teach Christianity in its own colleges, as part of its general system of imperial education. If it should be said, that the missionary interest do not ask the government to permit the truth of Christianity to be assumed, but only to be proved, in its colleges; the answer is, that government could not permit one of its own lecturers to prove the truth of Christianity, without assuming itself the truth of the thing to be proved. No one will contend that government should set up a chair of Mahommedan theology in the Hindoo College; yet, if it should set up there a chair of Christian theology, the desired distinction could only be drawn by assuming the truth of the Gospel, and the falsehood of the Koran. But though we cannot, as a government, teach Christian theology, we can, and we do, teach a literature imbued with Christian morality. And, in this, the natives 264

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of India have a great advantage over us Europeans when we were emerging from semi-barbarism. They have Englishmen of the nineteenth century for their instructors, and English classics for their text-books. The store of wise and great thoughts which we derived from Greece and Rome was, indeed, rich and copious; but our Asiatic fellow-subjects get from us that same store, refined, elevated, and enlarged by the inventive genius of our race and the purifying influences of our national religion. It is a curious paradox that, setting aside the ceremonies of religion, and setting aside direct theological teaching, the public instruction, which touches the heart and moulds the character of the Christian youth of England, is heathen; while the public instruction, which performs these scarcely less than sacred offices for the heathen youth of India, is Christian. As regards the affairs of this world only, it is not quite clear that a studious youth at the Hindoo College, whose mind has been for many years occupied with thoughts derived from Shakspeare, Milton, Bacon, Adam Smith, Arnold, may not have in him more of the moral spirit of Christianity, than a young Englishman at Oxford, whose habitual reflections are suggested by Homer, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Tacitus. Mr. Foster, in his Essay on the Aversion of Men of Taste to Evangelical Religion, speaks thus of the Iliad: “If such works do really impart their own genuine spirit to the mind of an admiring reader, in proportion to the degree in which he admires, and if this spirit is totally hostile to that of Christianity, and if Christianity ought really and in good faith to be the supreme regent of all moral feeling, then it is evident that the Iliad, and all books which combine the same tendency with great poetical excellence, are among the most mischievous things on earth. There is but little satisfaction, certainly, in illustrating the operation of evils without proposing any adequate method of contending with them. But, in the present case, I really do not see what a serious observer of the character of mankind can offer. To wish that the works of Homer and some other great authors of antiquity should cease to be read, is just as vain as to wish that they had never been written.” The moralist, we see, only checks his rising wish that Homer should cease to be read, from a con-a young and plastic mind, may be taken as a type of the difference between classical literature and English literature generally. What we are teaching, then, in our Indian colleges, what we shall teach with much more effect when, by the institution of Universities, the appropriate distinctions of learning are added to the stimulants now in existence, is fitted to make the rising generation of India what they should be in all the relations of life, public and private. And it is only such men that I desire to see gradually advanced to the higher offices in their own country. It is no wish of mine, however, to direct the ambition of the natives solely to official distinction; but you cannot exclude men from administering the affairs of their country without stigmatising and discouraging them. It has been seen that, in addressing these students eight years ago, I said to them, “Do not imagine that the sole or the main use of a liberal education is to fit yourselves for the public service; or, rather, do not imagine that the public can only be served by the performance of duties in the offices of government.” I am quite ready to repeat that admonition. I strongly desire to see the native youth 265

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distinguish themselves in all honourable ways: but I more strongly desire that our colleges should send forth zemindars capable of improving their own estates and the condition of their ryots; natural philosophers capable of collecting and utilising the vast store of undiscovered facts contained in the soil, climate, and productions of their country; moral philosophers capable of studying the peculiarities of the Indian races, and of directing them, by eloquent exhortation, to virtue and happiness; than that these colleges should be nurseries of eminent judges and collectors.

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