Colonial Education and India 1781-1945, Vol. II: Commentaries, Reports, Policy Documents [2] 9780815376552, 9781351212168, 9780815380818, 9781351212045

Citation preview

COLONIAL EDUCATION AND INDIA 1781–1945

COLONIAL EDUCATION AND INDIA 1781–1945

Edited by Pramod K. Nayar Volume II 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: 978-0-8153-8081-8 (Volume II) eISBN: 978-1-351-21204-5 (Volume II) 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 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

v

CONTENTS

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

132

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

vi

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

(126) Despatch from the Court of Directors of the East India Company, to the Governor General of India in Council,— (No. 49, dated the 19th July 1854). It appears to us that the present time, when by an Act of the Imperial Legislature the responsible trust of the Government of India has again been placed in our hands, is peculiarly suitable for the review of the progress which has already been made, the supply of existing deficiencies, and the adoption of such improvements as may be best calculated to secure the ultimate benefit of the people committed to our charge. 2. Among many subjects of importance, none can have a stronger claim to our attention than that of education. It is one of our most sacred duties to be the means, as far as in us lies, of conferring upon the natives of India those vast moral and material blessings which flow from the general diffusion of useful knowledge, and which India may, under Providence, derive from her connexion with England. For although British influence has already in many remarkable instances, been applied with great energy and success to uproot demoralising practices and even crimes of a deeper dye, which for ages had prevailed among the natives of India, the good results of those efforts must, in order to be permanent, possess the further sanction of a general sympathy in the native mind which the advance of education alone can secure. 3. We have moreover, always looked upon the encouragement of education as peculiarly important, because calculated “not only to produce a higher degree of intellectual fitness, but to raise the moral charPublic letter to Bengal, 5th acter of those who partake of its advantages, and September 1827. so to supply you with servants to whose probity you may with increased confidence commit offices of trust” in India, where the 1

(126) Despatch of 1854.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

well-being of the people is so intimately connected with the truthfulness and ability of officers of every grade in all departments of the State. 4. Nor, while the character of England is deeply concerned in the success of our efforts for the promotion of education, are her material interests altogether unaffected by the advance of European knowledge in India; this knowledge will teach the natives of India the marvellous results of the employment of labor and capital, rouse them to emulate us in the development of the vast resources of their country guide them in their efforts and gradually, but certainly, confer upon them all the advantages which accompany the healthy increase of wealth and commerce; and, at the same time, secure to us a larger and more certain supply of many articles necessary for our manufactures and extensively consumed by all classes of our population, as well as an almost inexhaustible demand for the produce of British labor. 5. We have from time to time given careful attention and encouragement to the efforts which have hitherto been made for the spread of education, and we have watched with deep interest the practical results of the various systems by which those efforts have been directed. The periodical reports of the different Councils and Boards of Education, together with other official communications upon the same subject have put us in possession of full information as to those educational establishments which are under the direct control of Government; while the evidence taken before the Committees of both Houses of Parliament upon Indian affairs has given us the advantage of similar information with respect to exertions made for this purpose by persons unconnected with Government, and has also enabled us to profit by a knowledge of the views of those who are best able to arrive at sound conclusions upon the question of education generally. 6. Aided, therefore, by ample experience of the past and the most competent advice for the future we are now in a position to decide on the mode in which the assistance of Government should be afforded to the more extended and systematic promotion of general education in India, and on the measures which should at once be adopted to that end. 7. Before proceeding further, we must emphatically declare that the education which we desire to see extended in India is that which has for its object the diffusion of the improved arts, science, philosophy and literature of Europe; in short of European knowledge. 8. The systems of science and philosophy which form the learning of the East abound with grave errors, and eastern literature is at best very deficient as regards all modern discovery and improvements; Asiatic learning, therefore, however widely diffused, would but little advance our object. We do not wish to diminish the opportunities which are now afforded in special institutions for the study of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian literature, or for the cultivation of those languages which may be called the classical languages of India. An acquaintance with the works contained in them is valuable for historical and antiquarian purposes, and a knowledge of the languages themselves is required in the study of Hindoo and Mahomedan law, and is also of great importance for the critical cultivation and improvement of the vernacular languages of India. 2

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

9. We are not unaware of the success of many distinguished oriental scholars in their praiseworthy endeavours to ingraft upon portions of Hindoo philosophy the germs of sounder morals and of more advanced science; and we are far from underrating the good effect which has thus been produced upon the learned classes of India, who pay hereditary veneration to those ancient languages, and whose assistance in the spread of education is so valuable, from the honourable and influential position which they occupy among their fellow-countrymen. But such attempts, although they may usefully co-operate, can only be considered as auxiliaries, and would be a very inadequate foundation for any general schemes of Indian education. 10. We have also received most satisfactory evidence of the high attainments in English literature and European science which have been acquired of late years by some of the natives of India. But this success has been confined to but a small number of persons; and we are desirous of extending far more widely the means of acquiring general European knowledge of a less high order, but of such a character, as may be practically useful to the people of India in their different spheres of life. To attain this end it is necessary, for the reasons which we have given above that they should be made familiar with the works of European authors, and with the results of the thought and labour of Europeans on the subjects of every description upon which knowledge is to be imparted to them; and to extend the means of imparting this knowledge must be the object of any general system of education. 11. We have next to consider the manner in which our object is to be effected, and this leads us to the question of the medium through which knowledge is to be conveyed to the people of India. It has hitherto been necessary, owing to the want of translations or adaptations of European works in the vernacular languages of India and to the very imperfect shape in which European knowledge is to be found in any works in the learned languages of the East, for those who desired to obtain a liberal education to begin by the mastery of the English language as a key to the literature of Europe, and a knowledge of English will always be essential to those natives of India who aspire to a high order of education. 12. In some parts of India, more especially in the immediate vicinity of the presidency towns, where persons who possess a knowledge of English are preferred to others in many employments, public as well as private, a very moderate proficiency in the English language is often looked upon by those who attend school instruction as the end and object of their education rather than as a necessary step to the improvement of their general knowledge. We do not deny the value in many respects of the mere faculty of speaking and writing English, but we fear that a tendency has been created in these districts unduly to neglect the study of the vernacular languages. 13. It is neither our aim nor desire to substitute the English language for the vernacular dialects of the country. We have always been most sensible of the importance of the use of the languages which alone are understood by the great mass of the population. These languages, and not English, have been put by us in the place of Persian in the administration of justice and in the intercourse between the officers of Government and the people. It is indispensible, therefore, that, in any 3

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

general system of education, the study of them should be assiduously attended to, and any acquaintance with improved European knowledge which is to be communicated to the great mass of the people—whose circumstances prevent them from acquiring a high order of education, and who cannot be expected to overcome the difficulties of a foreign language—can only be conveyed to them through one or other of those vernacular languages. 14. In any general system of education, the English language should be taught where there is a demand for it; but such instruction should always be combined with a careful attention to the study of the vernacular language of the district, and with such general instruction as can be conveyed through that language; and while the English language continues to be made use of as by far the most perfect medium for the education of those persons who have acquired a sufficient knowledge of it to receive general instruction through it, the vernacular languages must be employed to teach the far larger classes who are ignorant of, or imperfectly acquainted with English. This can only be done effectually through the instrumentality of masters and professors, who may, by themselves, knowing English and thus having full access to the latest improvements in knowledge of every kind, impart to their fellow-country-men through the medium of their mother tongue, the information which they have thus obtained. At the same time, and as the importance of the vernacular languages becomes more appreciated, the vernacular literatures of India, will be gradually enriched by translations of European books or by the original compositions of men whose minds have been imbued with the spirit of European advancement, so that European knowledge may gradually be placed in this manner within the reach of all classes of the people. We look, therefore, to the English language and to the vernacular languages of India together as the media for the diffusion of European knowledge, and it is our desire to see them cultivated together in all schools in India of a sufficiently high class to maintain a school-master possessing the requisite qualifications. 15. We proceed now to the machinery which we propose to establish for the superintendence and direction of education. This has hitherto been exercised in our presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay by Boards and Councils of Education, composed of European and native gentlemen, who have devoted themselves to this duty with no other remuneration than the consciousness of assisting the progress of learning and civilization, and, at the same time with an earnestness and ability which must command the gratitude of the people of India, and which will entitle some honoured names amongst them to a high place among the benefactors of India and the human race. 16. The Lieutenant-Governor of Agra has, since the separation of the educational institutions of the North-Western Provinces from those of Bengal, taken up himself the task of their management; and we cannot allow this opportunity to pass without the observation that, in this, as in all other branches of his administration, Mr. Thomason displayed that accurate knowledge of the condition and requirements of the people under his charge, and that clear and ready perception of the practical measures best suited for their welfare, which make his death a loss 4

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

to India, which we deplore the more deeply as we fear that his unremitting exertions tended to shorten his career of usefulness. 17. We desire to express to the present Boards and Councils of Education our sincere thanks for the manner in which they have exercised their functions, and we still hope to have the assistance of the gentlemen composing them in furtherance of a most important part of our present plan; but having determined upon a very considerable extension of the general scope of our efforts, involving the simultaneous employment of different agencies, some of which are now wholly neglected, and others but imperfectly taken advantage of by Government, we are of opinion that it is advisable to place the superintendence and direction of education upon a more systematic footing, and we have, therefore, determined to create an Educational Department as a portion of the machinery of our Governments in the several presidencies of India. We accordingly propose that an officer shall be appointed for each presidency and lieutenant-governorship who shall be specially charged with the management of the business connected with the education, and be immediately responsible to Government for its conduct. 18. An adequate system of inspection will also, for the future, become an essential part of our educational system; and we desire that a sufficient number of qualified inspectors be appointed, who will periodically report upon the state of those colleges and schools which are now supported and managed by Government as well as of such as will hereafter be brought under Government inspection by the measures that we propose to adopt. They will conduct, or assist at, the examination of the scholars of these institutions, and generally, by their advice, aid the managers and school-masters in conducting colleges and schools of every description throughout the country. They will necessarily be of different classes, and may possess different degrees of acquirement, according to the higher or lower character of the institutions which they will be employed to visit; but we need hardly say that, even for the proper inspection of the lower schools, and with a view to their effectual improvement, the greatest care will be necessary to select persons of high character and fitting judgment for such employment. A proper staff of clerks and other officers will, moreover, be required for the Educational Departments. 19. Reports of the proceedings of the inspectors should be made periodically and these, again, should be embodied in the annual reports of the heads of the Educational Departments, which should be transmitted to us, together with statistical returns (to be drawn up in similar forms in all parts of India), and other information of a general character relating to education. 20. We shall send copies of this despatch to the Governments of Fort St. George and of Bombay, and direct them at once to make provisional arrangements for the superintendence and inspection of education in their respective presidencies. Such arrangements as they make will be reported to you for sanction. You will take similar measures in communication with the Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal and of Agra, and you will also provide in such manner as may seem advisable for the wants of the non-regulation provinces in this respect. We desire that your 5

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

proceedings in this matter may be reported to us with as little delay as possible, and we are prepared to approve of such an expenditure as you may deem necessary for this purpose. 21. In the selection of the heads of the Educational Departments, the inspectors and other officers, it will be of the greatest importance to secure the services of persons who are not only best able, from their character, position and acquirements, to carry our objects into effect, but who may command the confidence of the natives of India. It may, perhaps be advisable that the first heads of the Educational Department, as well as some of the inspectors, should be members of our Civil Service, as such appointments in the first instance would tend to raise the estimation in which these officers will be held, and to show the importance we attach to the subject of education, and also, as amongst them you will probably find the persons best qualified for the performance of the duty. But we desire that neither these offices, nor any others connected with education, shall be considered as necessarily to be filled by members of that service, to the exclusion of others, Europeans or Natives, who may be better fitted for them; and that, in any case, the scale for their remuneration shall be so fixed as publicly to recognise the important duties they will have to perform. 22. We now proceed to sketch out the general scheme of the measures which we propose to adopt. We have endeavoured to avail ourselves of the knowledge which has been gained from the various experiments which have been made in different parts of India for the encouragement of education; and we hope, by the more general adoption of those plans which have been carried into successful execution in particular districts, as well as by the introduction of other measures which appear to be wanting, to establish such a system as will prove generally applicable throughout India, and thus to impart to the educational efforts of our different presidencies a greater degree of uniformity and method than at present exists. 23. We are fully aware that no general scheme would be applicable in all its details to the present condition of all portions of our Indian territories, differing so widely as they do, one from another, in many important particulars. It is difficult, moreover, for those who do not possess a recent and practical acquaintance with particular districts, to appreciate the importance which should be attached to the feelings and influences which prevail in each; and we have, therefore, preferred confining ourselves to describing generally what we wish to see done, leaving to you, in communication with the several Local Governments, to modify particular measures so far as may be required, in order to adapt them to different parts of India. 24. Some years ago, we declined to accede to a proposal made by the Council of Education, and transmitted to us with the recommendation of your Government, for the institution of an University in Calcutta. The rapid spread of a liberal education among the natives of India since that time, the high attainments shown by the native candidates for Government scholarships, and by native students in private institutions, the success of the medical colleges, and the requirements of an increasing European and Anglo-Indian population, have led us to the conclusion that the time is now arrived for the establishment of universities in India, 6

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

which may encourage a regular and liberal course of education by conferring academical degrees as evidences of attainments in the different branches of art and science, and by adding marks of honour for those who may desire to compete for honorary distinction. 25. The Council of Education, in the proposal to which we have alluded, took the London University as their model; and we agree with them that the form, government and functions of that University (copies of whose charters and regulations we enclose for your reference) are the best adapted to the wants of India, and may be followed with advantage, although some variation will be necessary in points of detail. 26. The Universities in India will accordingly consist of a Chancellor, ViceChancellor and Fellows, who will constitute a Senate. The Senates will have the management of the funds of the universities, and frame regulations for your approval, under which periodical examinations may be held in the different branches of art and science by examiners selected from their own body, or nominated by them. 27. The function of the universities will be to confer degrees upon such persons as, having been entered as candidates according to the rules which may be fixed in this respect, and having produced from any of the “affiliated institutions” which will be enumerated on the foundation of the universities, or be from time to time added to them by Government, certificates of conduct, and of having pursued a regular course of study for a given time, shall have also passed at the universities such an examination as may be required of them. It may be advisable to dispense with the attendance required at the London University for the Matriculation examination, and to substitute some mode of entrance examination which may secure a certain amount of knowledge in the candidates for degrees without making their attendance at the universities necessary, previous to the final examination. 28. The examinations for degrees will not include any subjects connected with religious belief; and affiliated institutions will be under the management of persons of every variety of religious persuasion. As in England, various institutions in immediate connexion with the Church of England, the Presbyterian College at Caermarthen, the Roman Catholic College at Oscott, the Wesleyan College at Sheffield, the Baptist College at Bristol, and the Countess of Huntingdon’s College at Cheshunt, are among the institutions from which the London University is empowered to receive certificates for degrees; so in India, institutions conducted by all denominations of Christians, Hindoos, Mahommedans, Parsees, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, or any other religious persuasions, may be affiliated to the universities, if they are found to afford the requisite course of study, and can be depended upon for the certificates of conduct which will be required. 29. The detailed regulations for the examination for degrees should be framed with a due regard for all classes of the affiliated institutions; and we will only observe upon this subject that the standard for common degrees will require to be fixed with very great judgment. There are many persons who well deserve the distinction of an academical degree, as the recognition of a liberal education, 7

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

who could not hope to obtain it if the examination was as difficult as that for the senior Government scholarships; and the standard required should be such as to command respect without discouraging the efforts of deserving students, which would be a great obstacle to the success of the universities. In the competitions for honors, which as in the London University, will follow the examinations for degrees, care should be taken to maintain such a standard as will afford a guarantee for high ability and valuable attainments,—the subjects for examination being so selected as to include the best portions of the different schemes of study pursued at the affiliated institutions. 30. It will be advisable to institute, in connection with the universities, professorships for the purposes of the delivery of lectures in various branches of learning, for the acquisition of which, at any rate in an advanced degree, facilities do not now exist in other institutions in India. Law is the most important of these subjects; and it will be for you to consider whether, as was proposed in the plan of the Council of Education to which we have before referred, the attendance, upon certain lectures, and the attainment of a degree in law, may not, for the future, be made a qualification for vakeels and moonsifs, instead of, or in addition to, the present system of examination, which must, however, be continued in places not within easy reach of an university. 31. Civil engineering is another subject of importance, the advantages of which, as a profession, are gradually becoming known to the natives of India; and while we are inclined to believe that instruction of a practical nature, such as is given at the Thomason College of Civil Engineering at Roorkee, is far more useful than any lectures could possibly be, professorships of civil engineering might, perhaps, be attached to the universities and degrees in civil engineering be included in their general scheme. 32. Other branches of useful learning may suggest themselves to you, in which it might be advisable that lectures should be read, and special degrees given; and it would greatly encourage the cultivation of the vernacular languages of India that professorships should be founded for those languages, and perhaps also for Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. A knowledge of the Sanskrit language, the root of the vernaculars of the greater part of India, is more especially necessary, to those who are engaged in the work of the composition in those languages; while Arabic, through Persian, is one of the component parts of the Urdu language, which extends over so large a part of Hindoostan, and is, we are informed, capable of considerable development. The grammar of these languages, and their application to the improvement of the spoken languages of the country, are the points to which the attention of those professors should be mainly directed; and there will be an ample field for their labors unconnected with any instruction in the tenets of the Hindoo or Mahomedan religions. We should refuse to sanction any such teaching, as directly opposed to the principles of religious neutrality to which we have always adhered. 33. We desire that you take into your consideration the institution of universities at Calcutta and Bombay, upon the general principles which we have now 8

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

explained to you, and report to us upon the best method of procedure, with a view to their incorporation by Acts of the Legislative Council of India. The offices of Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor will naturally be filled by persons of high stations, who have shown an interest in the cause of education; and it is in connexion with the universities that we propose to avail ourselves of the services of the existing Council of Education at Calcutta and Board of Education at Bombay. We wish to place these gentlemen in a position which will not only mark our sense of the exertions which they have made in furtherance of education but will give it the benefit of their past experience of the subject. We propose, therefore, that the Council of Education at Calcutta and the Board of Education at Bombay, with some additional members to be named by the Government, shall constitute the Senate of the University at each of those presidencies. 34. The additional members should be so selected as to give to all those who represent the different systems of education which will be carried on in the affiliated institutions—including natives of India of all religious persuasions, who possess the confidence of the native communities—a fair voice in the Senates. We are led to make those remarks, as we observe that the plan of the Council of Education, in 1845, for the constitution of the Senate of the proposed Calcutta University, was not sufficiently comprehensive. 35. We shall be ready to sanction the creation of an university at Madras or in any part of India, where a sufficient number of institutions exist, from which properly qualified candidates for degrees could be supplied; it being in our opinion advisable that the great centres of European Government and civilisation in India should possess universities similar in character to those which will now be founded as soon as the extension of a liberal education shows that their establishment would be of advantage to the native communities. 36. Having provided for the general superintendence of education and for the institution of universities, not so much to be in themselves places of instruction as to test the value of the education obtained elsewhere, we proceed to consider first, the different classes of colleges and schools, which should be maintained in simultaneous operation, in order to place within the reach of all classes of the natives of India the means of obtaining improved knowledge suited to their several conditions of life; and secondly, the manner in which the most effectual aid may be rendered by Government to each class of educational institutions. 37. The candidates for university degrees will, as we have already explained, be supplied by colleges affiliated to the universities. These will comprise all such institutions as are capable of supplying a sufficiently high order of instruction in the different branches of art and science in which university degrees will be accorded. The Hindoo, Hooghly, Dacca, Kishnaghur and Berhampur Government Anglo-Vernacular Colleges, the Sanskrit College, the Mahomedan Madrassas, and the Medical College, in Bengal; the Elphinstone Institution, the Poonah College, and the Grant Medical College in Bombay; the Delhi, Agra, Benares, Bareilly and Thomason Colleges in the North-Western Provinces; Seminaries such as the Oriental Seminary in Calcutta, which have been established by highly educated 9

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

natives, a class of places of instruction which we are glad to learn is daily increasing in number and efficiency; those, which, like the Parental Academy, are conducted by East Indians; Bishop’s College, the General Assembly’s Institution, Dr. Duff’s College, the Baptist College at Serampore, and other Institutions under the superintendence of different religious bodies and Missionary Societies, will, at once, supply a considerable number of educational establishments worthy of being affiliated to the universities, and of occupying the highest place in the scale of general instruction. 38. The affiliated institutions will be periodically visited by Government inspectors; and a spirit of honorable rivalry, tending to preserve their efficiency will be promoted by this, as well as by the competition of their most distinguished students for university honors. Scholarships should be attached to them, to be held by the best students of lower schools; and their schemes of education should provide, in the anglo-vernacular colleges for a careful cultivation of the vernacular languages; and, in the Oriental colleges, for sufficient instruction in the English and vernacular languages, so as to render the studies of each most available for that general diffusion of European knowledge which is the main object of education in India. 39. It is to this class of institutions that the attention of Government has hitherto been principally directed, and they absorb the greater part of the public funds which are now applied to educational purposes. The wise abandonment of the early views with respect to native education, which erroneously pointed to the classical languages of the East as the media for imparting European knowledge, together with the small amount of pecuniary aid which, in the then financial condition of India, was at your command, has led, we think, to too exclusive a direction of the efforts of Government towards providing the means of acquiring a very high degree of education for a small number of natives of India, drawn, for the most part, from what we should here call the higher classes. 40. It is well that every opportunity should have been given to those classes for the acquisition of a liberal European education, the effects of which may be expected slowly to pervade the rest of their fellow-countrymen, and to raise, in the end, the educational tone of the whole country. We are, therefore, far from underrating the importance, or the success, of the efforts which have been made in this direction; but the higher classes are both able and willing in many cases to bear a considerable part at least of the cost of their education; and it is abundantly evident that, in some parts of India no artificial stimulus is any longer required in order to create a demand for such an education as is conveyed in the Government anglo-vernacular colleges. We have, by the establishment and support of these colleges, pointed out the manner in which a liberal education is to be obtained, and assisted them to a very considerable extent from the public funds. In addition to this, we are now prepared to give, by sanctioning the establishment of universities, full development to the highest course of education to which the natives of India, or of any other country, can aspire; and besides, by the division of university degrees and distinctions into different branches, the exertions of highly educated men will be directed to the studies which are necessary to success 10

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

in the various active professions of life. We shall, therefore, have done as much as a Government can do to place the benefits of education plainly and practically before the higher classes in India. 41. Our attention should now be directed to a consideration, if possible, still more important, and one which has been hitherto, we are bound to admit, too much neglected, namely, how useful and practical knowledge, suited to every station in life, may be best conveyed to the great mass of the people, who are utterly incapable of obtaining any education worthy of the name by their own unaided efforts, and we desire to see the active measures of Government more especially directed, for the future, to this object, for the attainment of which we are ready to sanction a considerable increase of expenditure. 42. Schools—whose object should be not to train highly a few youths, but to provide more opportunities than now exist for the acquisition of such an improved education as will make those who possess it more useful members of society in every condition of life—should exist in every district in India. These schools should be subject to constant and careful inspection; and their pupils might be encouraged by scholarships being instituted at other institutions which would be tenable at rewards for merit by the best of their number. 43. We include in this class of institutions those which, like the zillah schools of Bengal, the district Government anglo-vernacular schools of Bombay, and such as have been established by the Raja of Burdwan and other native gentlemen in different parts of India, use the English language as the chief medium of instruction; as well as others of an inferior order, such as the tehseelee schools in the North-Western Provinces, and the Government vernacular schools in the Bombay presidency, whose object is, however, imperfectly it has been as yet carried out, to convey the highest class of instruction which can now be taught through the medium of the vernacular languages. 44. We include these anglo-vernacular and vernacular schools in the same class, because we are unwilling to maintain the broad line of separation which at present exists between schools in which the media for imparting instruction differ. The knowledge conveyed is no doubt, at the present time, much higher in the anglo-vernacular than in the vernacular schools; but the difference will become less marked, and the latter more efficient, as the gradual enrichment of the vernacular languages in works of education allows their schemes of study to be enlarged, and as a more numerous class of school-masters is raised up, able to impart a superior education. 45. It is indispensable, in order fully and efficiently to carry out our views as to these schools, that their masters should possess a knowledge of English in order to acquire, and of the vernaculars so as readily to convey, useful knowledge to their pupils; but we are aware that it is impossible to obtain at present the services of a sufficient number of persons so qualified, and that such a class must be gradually collected and trained in the manner to which we shall hereafter allude. In the meantime, you must make the best use which is possible of such instruments as are now at your command. 11

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

46. Lastly, what have been termed indigenous schools should, by wise encouragement, such as has been given under the system organised by Mr. Thomason in the North-Western Provinces, and which has been carried out in eight districts under the able direction of Mr. H. S. Reid in an eminently practical manner, and with great promise of satisfactory results, be made capable of imparting correct elementary knowledge to the great mass of the people. The most promising pupils of these schools might be rewarded by scholarships in places of education of a superior order. 47. Such a system as this, placed in all its degrees under efficient inspection, beginning with the humblest elementary instruction, and ending with the university test of a liberal education, the best students in each class of schools being encouraged by the aid afforded them towards obtaining a superior education as the reward of merit, by means of such a system of scholarships as we shall have to describe, would, we firmly believe, impart life and energy to education in India and lead to a gradual, but steady extension of its benefits to all classes of the people. 48. When we consider the vast population of British India, and the sums which are now expended upon educational efforts, which, however successful in themselves, have reached but an insignificant number of those who are of a proper age to receive school instruction, we cannot but be impressed with the almost insuperable difficulties which would attend such an extension of the present system of education by means of colleges and schools entirely supported at the cost of Government as might be hoped to supply, in any reasonable time, so gigantic a deficiency and to provide adequate means for setting on foot such a system as we have described and desire to see established. 49. Nor it is necessary that we should depend entirely upon the direct efforts of Government. We are glad to recognise an increased desire on the part of the native population not only in the neighbourhood of the great centre of European civilisation, but also, in remoter districts, for the means of obtaining a better education; and we have evidence in many instances of their readiness to give a practical proof of their anxiety in this respect by coming forward with liberal pecuniary contributions. Throughout all ages, learned Hindoos and Mahomedans have devoted themselves to teaching with little other remuneration than a bare subsistence; and munificent bequests have not frequently been made for the permanent endowment of educational institutions. 50. At the same time, in so far as the noble exertions of societies of Christians of all denominations to guide the natives of India in the way of religious truth, and to instruct uncivilised races, such as those found in Assam, in the Cossya, Garrow and Rajmehal Hills, and in various districts of Central and Southern India (who are in the lowest condition of ignorance, and are either wholly without a religion, or are the slaves of a degrading and barbarous superstition), have been accompanied, in their educational establishments, by the diffusion of improved knowledge, they have largely contributed to the spread of that education which it is our object to promote. 12

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

51. The consideration of the impossibility of Government alone doing all that must be done in order to provide adequate means for the education of the natives of India, and of the ready assistance which may be derived from efforts which have hitherto received but little encouragement from the State, has led us to the natural conclusion that the most effectual method of providing for the wants of India in this respect will be to combine with the agency of the Government the aid which may be derived from the exertions and liberality of the educated and wealthy natives of India and of other benevolent persons. 52. We have, therefore, resolved to adopt in India the system of grants-in-aid which has been carried out in this country with very great success; and we confidently anticipate, by thus drawing support from local resources in addition to contributions from the State, a far more rapid progress of education than would follow a mere increase of expenditure by the Government; while it possesses the additional advantage of fostering a spirit of reliance upon local exertions and combination for local purposes, which is of itself of no mean importance to the well-being of a nation. 53. The system of grants-in-aid, which we propose to establish in India will be based on an entire abstinence from interference with the religious instruction conveyed in the school assisted. Aid will be given (so far as the requirements of each particular district, as compared with others, and the funds at the disposal of Government, may render it possible) to all schools which impart a good secular education, provided that they are under adequate local management (by the term “local management” we understand one or more persons, such as private patrons, voluntary subscribers, or the trustees of endowments, who will undertake the general superintendence of the school, and be answerable for its permanence for some given time); and provided also that their managers consent that the schools shall be subject to Government inspection, and agree to any conditions which may be laid down for the regulation of such grants. 54. It has been found by experience, in this and in other countries, that not only an entirely gratuitous education valued far less by those who receive it than one for which some payment, however small, is made, but that the payment induces a more regular attendance and greater exertion on the part of the pupils; and, for this reason, as well as because school fees themselves, insignificant as they may be in each individual instance, will in the aggregate, when applied to the support of a better class of masters, become of very considerable importance, we desire that grants-in-aid shall, as a general principle, be made to such schools only (with the exception of normal schools) as require some fee, however small, from their scholars. 55. Careful considerations will be required in framing rules for the administration of the grants; and the same course should be adopted in India which has been pursued, with obvious advantage by the Committee of Council here, namely, to appropriate the grants to specific objects, and not (except, perhaps, in the case of normal schools) to apply them in the form of simple contributions in aid of the general expenses of a school. The augmentation of the salaries of the head teachers, and the supply of junior teachers, will probably be found in India, as 13

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

with us, to be the most important objects to which the grants can ordinarily be appropriated. The foundation, or assistance in the foundation, of scholarships for candidates from lower schools, will also be a proper object for the application of grants-in-aid. In some cases, again, assistance towards erecting or repairing a school, or the provision of an adequate supply of school-books, may be required; but the appropriation of the grant in each particular instance should be regulated by the peculiar circumstances of each school and district. 56. The amount and continuance of the assistance given will depend upon the periodical reports of inspectors, who will be selected with special reference to their possessing the confidence of the native communities. In their periodical inspections no notice whatsoever should be taken by them of religious doctrines which may be taught in any school; and their duty should be strictly confined to ascertaining whether the secular knowledge conveyed is such as to entitle it to consideration in the distribution of the sum which will be applied to grants-in-aid. They should also assist in the establishment of schools by their advice, wherever they may have opportunities of doing so. 57. We confide the practical adaptation of the general principles we have laid down as to grants-in-aid to your discretion, aided by the educational departments of the different presidencies. In carrying into effect our views, which apply alike to all schools and institutions, whether male or female, anglo-vernacular or vernacular, it is of the greatest importance that the conditions under which schools will be assisted should be clearly and publicly placed before the natives of India. For this purpose Government notifications should be drawn up and promulgated in the different vernacular languages. It may be advisable distinctly to assert in them the principle of perfect religious neutrality on which the grants will be awarded; and care should be taken to avoid holding out expectations which from any cause may be liable to disappointment. 58. There will be little difficulty in the application of this system of grantsin-aid to the higher order of places of instruction in India in which English is at present the medium of education. 59. Grants-in-aid will also at once give assistance to all such anglo-vernacular and vernacular schools as impart a good elementary education; but we fear that the number of this class of schools is at present inconsiderable, and that such as are in existence require great improvement. 60. A more minute and constant local supervision than would accompany the general system of grants-in-aid will be necessary in order to raise the character of the “indigenous schools,” which are, at present, not only very inefficient in quality, but of exceedingly precarious duration, as is amply shown by the statistics collected by Mr. Adam in Bengal and Behar, and from the very important information we have received of late years from the North-Western Provinces. In organising such a system, we cannot do better than to refer you to the manner in which the operations of Mr. Reid have been conducted in the North-Western Provinces, and to the instructions given by him to the zillah and pergunnah visitors, and contained in the appendix to his first report. 14

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

61. We desire to see local management under Government inspection and assisted by grants-in-aid taken advantage of wherever it is possible to do so, and that no Government colleges or schools shall be founded, for the future, in any district where a sufficient number of institutions exists, capable, with assistance from the State, of supplying the local demand for education; but, in order fully to carry out the views we have expressed with regard to the adequate provision of schools throughout the country, it will probably be necessary, for some years, to supply the wants of particular parts of India by the establishment, temporary support, and management of places of education of every class in districts where there is little or no prospect of adequate local efforts being made for this purpose, but where, nevertheless, they are urgently required. 62. We look forward to the time when any general system of education entirely provided by Government may be discontinued, with the gradual advance of the system of grants-in-aid, and when many of the existing Government institutions, especially those of the higher order, may be safely closed, or transferred to the management of local bodies under the control of, and aided by, the State. But it is far from our wish to check the spread of education in the slightest degree by the abandonment of a single school to probable decay; and we therefore entirely confide in your discretion, and in that of the different authorities, while keeping this object steadily in view, to act with caution, and to be guided by special reference to the particular circumstances which affect the demand for education in different parts of India. 63. The system of free and stipendiary scholarships, to which we have already more than once referred as a connecting link between the different grades of educational institutions, will require some reviMinute, November 24th 1839, sion and extension in carrying out our enlarged paragraphs 32 and 33. educational plans. We wish to see the object proposed by Lord Auckland, in 1839, “of connecting the zillah schools with the central colleges by attaching to the latter scholarships to which the best scholars of the former might be eligible,” more fully carried out; and also, as the measures we now propose assume an organised form, that the same system may be adopted with regard to schools of a lower description, and that the best pupils of the inferior schools shall be provided for by means of scholarships in schools of a higher order, so that superior talent in every class may receive that encouragement and development which it deserves. The amount of the stipendiary scholarships should be fixed at such a sum as may be considered sufficient for the maintenance of the holders of them at colleges or schools to which they are attached and which may often be at a distance from the home of the students. We think it desirable that this system of scholarships should be carried out, not only in connexion with those places of education which are under the immediate superintendence of the State, but in all educational institutions which will now be brought into our general system. 64. We are, at the same time, of opinion that the expenditure upon existing Government scholarships, other than those to which we have referred, which amounts 15

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

to a considerable sum, should be gradually reduced, with the requisite regard for the claims of the present holders of them. The encouragement of young men of ability, but of slender means, to pursue their studies, is no doubt both useful and benevolent, and we have no wish to interfere with the private endowments which have been devoted to so laudable an object, or to withdraw the additions which may have been made by us to any such endowments. But the funds at the disposal of Government are limited, and we doubt the expediency of applying them to the encouragement of the acquisition of learning by means of stipends which not only far exceed the cost of the maintenance of the student, but in many cases are above what he could reasonably expect to gain on entering the public service, or any of the active professions of life. 65. We shall, however, offer encouragement to education which will tend to more practical results than those scholarships. By giving to persons who possess an aptness for teaching, as well as the requisite standard of acquirements, and who are willing to devote themselves to the profession of school-master, moderate monthly allowances for their support during the time which it may be requisite for them to pass in normal schools, or classes, in order to acquire the necessary training, we shall assist many deserving students to qualify themselves for a career of practical usefulness, and one which will secure them an honorable competence through life. We are also of opinion that admission to places of instruction, which like the Medical and Engineering Colleges, are maintained by the State for the purpose of educating persons for special employment under Government, might be made the rewards of industry and ability, and thus supply a practical encouragement to general education, similar to that which will be afforded by the educational service. 66. The establishment of universities will offer considerable further inducements for the attainment of high proficiency, and thus supply the place of the present senior scholarships, with this additional advantage, that a greater number of subjects, in which distinction can be gained, will be offered to the choice of students than can be comprised in one uniform examination for a scholarship, and that their studies will thus be practically directed into channels which will aid them in the different professions of life which they may afterwards adopt. 67. In England, when systematic attempts began to be made for the improvement of education, one of the chief defects was found to be the insufficient number of qualified school-masters and the imperfect method of teaching which prevailed. This led to the foundation of normal and model schools for the training of masters and the exemplification of the best methods for the organisation, discipline and instruction of elementary schools. This deficiency has been the more palpably felt in India, as the difficulty of finding persons properly educated for the work of tuition is greater; and we desire to see the establishment with as little delay as possible, of training schools and classes for masters in each presidency in India. It will probably be found that some of the existing institutions may be adapted, wholly or partially, to this purpose, with less difficulty than would attend the establishment of entirely new schools. 16

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

68. We cannot do better than refer you to the plan which has been adopted in Great Britain for this object, and which appears to us to be capable of easy adaptation to India. It mainly consists, as you will perceive on reference to the minutes of the Committee of Council, copies of which we enclose, in the selection and stipend of pupil-teachers (awarding a small payment to the masters of the schools in which they are employed for their instruction out of the school hours); their ultimate removal, if they prove worthy, to normal schools; the issue to them of certificates on the completion of their training in those normal schools; and in securing to them a sufficient salary when they are afterwards employed as school-masters. This system should be carried out in India, both in the Government colleges and schools, and by means of grants-in-aid in all institutions which are brought under Government inspection. The amount of the stipends to pupil-teachers and students at normal schools should be fixed with great care. The former should receive moderate allowances rather above the sums which they would earn if they left school, and the stipends to the latter should be regulated by the same principle which we have laid down with respect to scholarships. 69. You will be called upon, in carrying these measures into effect, to take into consideration the position and prospects of the numerous classes of natives of India who are ready to undertake the important duty of educating their fellowcountrymen. The late extension of the pension regulations of 1831 to the educational service may require to be adopted to the revised regulations in this respect; and our wish is that the profession of school-master may, for the future, afford inducements to the natives of India such as are held out in other branches of the public service. The provision of such a class of school-masters as we wish to see must be a work of time, and in encouraging the “indigenous schools,” our present aim should be to improve the teachers whom we find in possession, and to take care not to provoke the hostility of this class of persons, whose influence is so great over the minds of the lower classes, by superseding them where it is possible to avoid it. They should, moreover, be encouraged to attend the normal schools and classes which may hereafter be instituted for this class of teachers. 70. Equal in importance to the training of school-masters is the provision of vernacular school-books, which shall provide European information to be the object of study in the lower classes of schools. Something has, no doubt, been done of late years towards this end, but more still remains to be done; and we believe that deficiencies might be readily and speedily supplied by the adoption of a course recommended by Mr. M. Elphinstone in 1825, namely—“That the best translations of particular books, or the best elementary treatises in specified languages, should be advertised for and liberally rewarded. 71. The aim should be, in compilations and original compositions (to quote from one of Mr. Adam’s valuable reports upon the state of education in Bengal), “not to translate European works into the words and idioms of the native languages, but so to combine the substance of European knowledge with native forms of thought and sentiment as to render the school-books useful and attractive.” We also refer with pleasure upon this point to some valuable observations 17

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

Report, 1850–1851, paragraphs by Mr. Reid, in his report which we have quoted before, more especially as regards instruction 2983–08.

in geography. It is obvious that the local peculiarities of different parts of India render it necessary that the class books in each should be especially adapted to the feelings, sympathies and history of the people; and we will only further remark upon this subject that the Oriental Colleges, besides generally tending, as we have before observed, to the enrichment of the vernacular languages, may, we think, be made of great use in the translation of scientific works into those languages, as has already been done to some extent in the Delhi, Benares and Poonah Colleges. 72. We have always been of opinion that the spread of education in India will produce a greater efficiency in all branches of administration by enabling you to obtain the services of intelligent and trustworthy persons in every department of Government; and, on the other hand, we believe that the numerous vacancies of different kinds which have constantly to be filled up, may afford a great stimulus to education. The first object must be to select persons properly qualified to fill these situations; secondary to this is the consideration how far they may be so distributed as to encourage popular education. 73. The resolutions of our Governor-General in Council of the 10th of October, 1844 gave a general preference to well-educated over uneducated men in the admissions to the public service. We perceive with much satisfaction from returns which we have recently received of the persons appointed since that year in the Revenue Department of Bengal, as well as from the educational reports from different parts of India, that a very considerable number of educated men have been employed under Government of late years; and we understand that it is often not so much the want of Government employment as the want of properly qualified persons to be employed by Government, which is felt at the present time in many parts of India. 74. We shall not enter upon the causes which, as we foresaw, have led to the failure of that part of the resolutions which provided for the annual submission to Government of lists of meritorious students. It is sufficient for our present purpose to observe that no more than 46 persons have been gazetted in Bengal up to this time, all of whom were students in the GovernLetter of the 6th April, 1852, with returns in Revenue Depart- ment colleges. In the last year for which we have returns (1852), only two persons were so distinment, Bengal. guished; and we can readily believe, with the Secretary to the Board of Revenue in Bengal, that young men, who have passed difficult examinations in the highest branches of philosophy and mathematics, are naturally disinclined to accept such employment as persons who intend to make the public service their profession must necessarily commence with. 75. The necessity for any such lists will be done away with by the establishment of universities, as the acquisition of a degree, and still more the attainment of university distinctions, will bring highly educated young men under the notice of Government. The resolutions in question will, therefore, require revision so as 18

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

to adapt them practically to carry out our views upon this subject. What we desire is that, where the other qualifications of the candidates for appointments under Government are equal a person who has received a good education irrespective of the place or manner in which it may have been acquired, should be preferred to one who has not; and that, even in lower situations, a man who can read and write be preferred to one who cannot, if he is equally eligible in other respects. 76. We also approve of the institution of examinations where practicable, to be simply and entirely tests of the fitness of candidates for the special duties of the various departments in which they are seeking employment, as has been the case in the Bombay presidency. We confidently commit the encouragement of educated, in preference to uneducated, men to the different officers who are responsible for their selection; and we cannot interfere by any further regulations to fetter their free choice in a matter of which they bear the sole responsibility. 77. We are sanguine enough to believe that some effect has already been produced by the improved education of the public service of India. The ability and integrity of a large and increasing number of the native judges, to whom the greater part of the civil jurisdiction in India is now committed, and the high estimation in which many among them are held by their fellow-countrymen, is, in our opinion, much to be attributed to the progress of education among these officers, and to their adoption along with it of that high moral tone which pervades the general literature of Europe. Nor is it among the higher officers alone that we have direct evidence of the advantage which the public derives from the employment of educated men. We quote from the last report Report on Public Instruction, of the Dacca College with particular satisfaction, Bengal, 1851–1854, page 72. as we are aware that much of the happiness of the people of India depends upon honesty of the officers of Police:—“The best possible evidence has been furnished,” say the local committee, “that some of the exstudents of the College of Dacca have completely succeeded in the arduous office of darogah.” Krishna Chunder Dutt, employed as a darogah under the Magistrate of Howrah, in particular, is recommended for promotion, as having gained the respect and applause of all classes, who, though they may not practise, yet know how to admire, real honesty and integrity of purpose. 78. But however large the number of appointments under Government may be, the views of the natives of India should be directed to the far wider and more important sphere of usefulness and advantage which a liberal education lays open to them; and such practical benefits arising from improved knowledge should be constantly impressed upon them by those who know their feelings and have influence or authority to advise or direct their efforts. We refer, as an example in this respect, with mingled pleasure and regret, to the eloquent addresses delivered by the late Mr. Bethune, when President of the Council of education, to the students of the Kishnaghur and Dacca Colleges. 79. There are some other points connected with the general subject of education in India upon which we will now briefly remark. We have always regarded with special interest those educational institutions which have been directed towards 19

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

training up the natives of India to particular professions, both with a view to their useful employment in the public service, and to enable them to pursue active profitable occupations in life. The medical colleges in different parts of India have proved that in despite of difficulties which appeared at first sight to be insurmountable, the highest attainments in medicine and surgery are within the reach of educated natives of India: we shall be ready to aid in the establishment and support of such places of instruction as the medical colleges of Calcutta and Bombay in other parts of India. We have already alluded to the manner in which students should be supplied to those colleges as well as to those for the training of civil engineers. 80. The success of the Thomason College of Civil Engineering at Roorkee has shown that, for the purpose of training up persons capable of carrying out the great works which are in progress under Government throughout India, and to qualify the natives of India for the exercise of a profession which, now that the system of railways and public works is being rapidly extended, will afford an opening for a very large number of persons, it is expedient that similar places for practical instruction in civil engineering should be established in other parts of India, and especially in the presidency of Madras, where works of irrigation are so essential, not only to the prosperity of the country, but to the very existence of the people in times of drought and scarcity. The subject has been prominently brought under your notice in the recent reports of the Public Works Commissioners for the different presidencies, and we trust that immediate measures will be taken to supply a deficiency which is, at present but too apparent. 81. We may notice in connexion with these two classes of institutions of an essentially practical character, the schools of industry and design, which have been set on foot from time to time in different parts of India. We have lately received a very encouraging report of that established by Dr. Hunter in Madras, and we have also been informed that Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, with his accustomed munificence, has offered to lay out a very considerable sum upon a like school in Bombay. Such institutions as these will, in the end be self-supporting; but we are ready to assist in their establishment by grants-in-aid for the supply of models, and other assistance which they may advantageously derive from the increased attention which has been paid of late years to such subjects in this country. We enclose you the copy of a report which we have received from Mr. Redgrave upon the progress of the Madras school, which may prove of great value in guiding the efforts of the promoters of any similar institutions which may hereafter be established in India.We have also perceived with satisfaction that the attention of the Council of Education in Calcutta has been lately directed to the subject of attaching to each zillah school Report on Public Instruction, the means of teaching practical agriculture; for Bengal, 1851–1852, Appendix, there is, as Dr. Mouat most truly observes “no page clxxi. single advantage that could be afforded to the vast rural population of India that would equal the introduction of an improved system of agriculture.” 20

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

82. The increasing desire of the Mahomedan population to acquire European knowledge has given us much satisfaction. We perceive that the Council of Education of Bengal has this subject under consideration and we shall receive with favour any proposition which may appear to you to be likely to supply with the want of so large a portion of the natives of India. 83. The importance of female education in India cannot be over-rated; and we have observed with pleasure the evidence which is now afforded of an increased desire on the part of many of the natives of India to give a good education to their daughters. By this means a far greater proportional impulse is imparted to the educational and moral tone of the people than by the education of men. We have already observed that schools for females are included among those to which grants-in-aid may be given and we cannot refrain Report on Public Instruction, from expressing our cordial sympathy with the Bengal, 1849–1850, page 2. efforts which are being made in this direction. Our Governor-General in Council has declared in a communication to the Government of Bengal that the Government ought to give to native female education in India its frank and cordial support; in this we heartily concur and we especially approve of the bestowal of marks of honor upon such native gentlemen as Rao Bahadur Maghuabhai Karramchand, who devoted Rs. 20,000 to the foundation of two native female schools in Ahmedabad, as by such means our desire for the extension of female education becomes generally known. 84. Considerable misapprehension appears to exist as to our views with respect to religious instruction in the Government institutions. Those institutions were founded for the benefit of the whole population of India; and in order to effect their object, it was and is, indispensible that the education conveyed in them should be exclusively secular. The Bible is, we understand, placed in the libraries of the colleges and schools and the pupils are able freely to consult it. This is as it should be; and, moreover we have no desire to prevent, or discourage, any explanations which the pupils may, of their own free will, ask from the masters upon the subject of the Christian religion provided that such information be given out of school hours. Such instruction being entirely voluntary on both sides, it is necessary, in order to prevent the slightest suspicion of an intention on our part to make use of the influence of Government for the prupose of proselytism, that no notice shall be taken of it by the inspectors in their periodical visits. 85. Having now furnished the sketch that we propose to give of the scheme for the encouragement of education in India, which we desire to see gradually brought into operation, we proceed to make some observations upon the state of education in the several presidencies, and to point out the parts of our general plan which are most deficient in each. 86. In Bengal, education through the medium of the English language, has arrived at a higher point than in any other part of India. We are glad to receive constant evidence of an increasing demand for such an education, and of the readiness of the natives of different districts to exert themselves for the sake of obtaining it. There are now five Government anglo-vernacular colleges; and zillah 21

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

schools have been established in nearly every district. We confidently expect that the introduction of the system of grants in-aid will very largely increase the number of schools of a superior order; and we hope that before long sufficient provision may be found to exist in many parts of the country for the education of the middle and higher classes independent of the Government institutions, which may then be closed as has been already the case in Burdwan, in consequence of the enlightened conduct of the Rajah of Burdwan, or they may be transferred to local management. 87. Very little has, however, been hitherto done in Bengal for the education of the mass of the people, especially for their instruction through the medium of the vernacular languages. A few vernacular schools were founded by Government in 1844, of which only 33 now remain, with 1,400 pupils, and upon their transfer in April 1852, from the charge of the Board of Revenue to that of the Council of Education, it appeared that “they were in a languishing state and had not fulfilled the expectations formed on their establishment.” 88. We have perused, with considerable interest, the report of Mr. Robinson, Inspector of the Assam schools, of which there appeared to be 74, with upwards of 3,000 pupils. Mr. Robinson’s suggestions for the improvement of the system under which they are managed appear to us to be worthy of consideration and to approach very nearly to the principle upon which vernacular education has been encouraged in the North-Western Provinces. We shall be prepared to sanction such measures as you may approve of to carry out Mr. Robinson’s views. 89. But the attention of the Government of Bengal should be seriously directed to the consideration of some plan for the encouragement of indigenous schools and for the education of the lower classes, which, like that of Mr. Thomason in the North-Western Provinces may bring the benefits of education practically before them, and assist and direct their efforts. We are aware that the object held out by the Government of Agra to induce the agricultural classes to improve their education does not exist in Bengal; but we cannot doubt that there may be found other similar solid advantages attending elementary knowledge, which can be plainly and practically made apparent to the understanding and interests of the lower classes of Bengal. 90. We perceive that the scheme of study pursued in the Oriental Colleges of Bengal is under the consideration of the Council of Education and it appears that they are in an unsatisfactory condition. We have already sufficiently indicated our views as to those colleges, and we should be glad to see them placed upon such a footing as may make them of greater practical utility. The points which you have referred to us, in your letter of the 5th of May, relative to the establishment of a Presidency College in Calcutta, will form the subject of a separate communication. 91. In the North-Western Provinces the demand for education is so limited by circumstances fully detailed by the Lieutenant-Governor in one of his early reports, that it will probably be long before private effort will become energetic enough to supply the place of the establishment, support and management by 22

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

Government, of places of instruction of the highest grade where there may be a sufficient reason for their institution. 92. At the same time, the system for the promotion of general education throughout the country, by means of the inspection and encouragement of indigenous schools, has laid the foundation of a great advancement in the education of the lower classes. Mr. Thomason ascertained, from statistical information, the lamentable state of ignorance in which the people were sunk, while the registration of land, which is necessary under the revenue settlement of North-Western Provinces, appeared to him to offer the stimulus of a direct interest for the acquisition of so much knowledge, at least of reading and writing, of the simple rules of arithmetic, and of land measurement, as would enable each man to look after his own rights. 93. He therefore organised a system of encouragement of indigenous schools by means of a constant inspection by zillah and purgannah visitors, under the superintendence of a visitor-general; while, at the headquarters of each tahsildar, a school was established for the purpose of teaching “reading and writing the vernacular languages, both Urdu and Hindi accounts, and the mensuration of land.” A school house is provided by Government, and the masters of the tahsili schools receive a small salary, and are further entitled to the tuition fees paid by the pupils, of whom none are educated gratuitously, except “on recommendation given by village school-masters who may be on the visitor’s list.” A certain sum is annually allotted to each zillah for the reward of deserving teachers and scholars; and the attention of the visitor-general was expressly directed to the preparation of elementary school books in the vernacular language, which are sold through the agency of the zillah and the purgannah visitors. We shall be prepared to sanction the gradual extension of some such system as this to the other districts of the Agra presidency, and we have already referred to it as the model by which the efforts of other presidencies for the same object should be guided. 94. In the presidency of Bombay the character of the education conveyed in the anglo-vernacular colleges is almost, if not quite, equal to that in Bengal; and the Elphinstone Institution is an instance of a college conducted in the main upon the principle of grant-in-aid, which we desire to see more extensively carried out Considerable attention has also been paid in Bombay to education through the medium of the vernacular languages. It appears that 216 vernacular schools are under the management of the Board of Education, and that the number of pupils attending them is more than 12,000. There are three inspectors of the district schools, one of whom (Mahadeo Govind Shastri) is a native of India. The schools are reported to be improving, and masters trained in the Government colleges have been recently appointed to some of them with the happiest effect. These results are very creditable to the presidency of Bombay; and we trust that each Government school will now be made a centre from which the indigenous schools of the adjacent districts may be inspected and encouraged. 95. As the new revenue settlement is extended in the Bombay presidency there will, we apprehend, be found an inducement precisely similar to that which has 23

(126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

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 (126) Despatch of 1854. —contd.

been taken advantage of by Mr. Thomason, to make it the interest of the agricultural classes to acquire so much knowledge as will enable them to check the returns of the village accountants. We have learned with satisfaction that the subject of gradually making some educational qualification necessary to the confirmation of these hereditary officers is under the consideration of the Government of Bombay, and that a practical educational test is now insisted upon for persons employed in many offices under Government. 96. In Madras, where little has yet been done by Government to promote the education of the mass of the people, we can only remark with statisfaction that the educational efforts of Christian missionaries have been more successful among the Tamil population than in any other part of India; and that the presidency of Madras offers a fair field for the adoption of our scheme of education in its integrity by founding Government anglo-vernacular institutions only where no such places of instruction at present exist, which might, by grants-in-aid and other assistance adequately supply the educational wants of the people. We also perceive with satisfaction that Mr. Daniel Elliot, in a recent and most able minute upon the subject of education, has stated that Mr. Thomason’s plan for the encouragement of indigenous schools might readily be introduced into the Madras presidency, where the riotwari settlement offers a similar practical inducement to the people for the acquisition of elementary knowledge. 97. We have now concluded the observations which we think it is necessary to address to you upon the subject of the education of the natives of India. We have declared that our object is to extend European knowledge throughout all classes of the people. We have shown that this object must be effected by means of the English language in the higher branches of institution, and by that of the vernacular languages of India to the great mass of the people. We have directed such a system of general superintendence and inspection by Government to be established as well, if properly carried out, give efficiency and uniformity to your efforts. We propose by the institution of universities to provide the highest test and encouragement of liberal education. By sanctioning grants-in-aid of private efforts, we hope to call to the assistance of Government private exertions and private liberality. The higher classes will now be gradually called upon to depend more upon themselves; and your attention has been more especially directed to the education of the middle and lower classes, both by the establishment of fitting schools for this purpose and by means of a careful encouragement of the native schools which exist, and have existed from time immemorial, in every village, and none of which perhaps cannot, in some degree, be made available to the end we have in view. We have noticed some particular points connected with education, and we have reviewed the condition of the different presidencies in this respect, with a desire to point out what should be imitated, and what is wanting, in each. 98. We have only to add, in conclusion, that we commit this subject to you with a sincere belief that you will cordially co-operate with us in endeavouring to effect the great object we have in hand, and that we desire it should be authoritatively communicated to the principal officers of every district in India, that henceforth 24

‘ W O O D ’ S E D U C AT I O N A L D E S P AT C H , J U L Y 1 8 5 4 ’

they are to consider it to be an important part of their duty, not only in the social intercourse with the natives of India, which we always learnt with pleasure that they maintain, but also with all the influence of their high position, to aid in the extension of education, and to support the inspectors of schools by every means in their power. 99. We believe that the measures we have determined upon are calculated to extend the benefits of education throughout India; but, at the same time, we must add that we are not sanguine enough to expect any sudden, or even speedy, results to follow from their adoption. To imbue a vast and ignorant population with a general desire for knowledge, and to take advantage of that desire when excited to improve the means for diffusing education amongst them, must be a work of many years; which, by the blessing of Divine Providence, may largely conduce to the moral and intellectual improvement of the mass of the natives of India. 100. As a Government, we can do no more than direct the efforts of the people, and aid them wherever they appear to require most assistance. The result depends more upon them than upon us; and although we are fully aware that the measures we have now adopted will involve in the end a much larger expenditure upon education from the revenues of India, or, in other words, from the taxation of the people of India, than is at present so applied, we are convinced, with Sir Thomas Munro, in words used many years since, that any expense which may be incurred for this object “will be amply re-paid by the improvement of the country; for the general diffusion of knowledge is inseparably followed by more orderly habits, by increasing industry, by a test for the comforts of life, by exertion to acquire them, and by the growing prosperity of the people.” We are, etc., (Signed)

25

J. OLIPHANT. E. MACNAGHTEN. C. MILLS. R. ELLICE. T. W. HOBB. W. J. EASTWICK. R. D. MANGLES. J. P. WILLOUGHBY. J. H. ASTELL. F. CURRIE.

(126) Despatch of 1854. —concld.

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

(41) Letter, dated 10th March 1854, from the Council of Education to the Government of Bengal. “I have the honor, by direction of the Council of Education, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 527, dated 21st OctoPresent: ber 1853, conveying to the Council the views of The Hon’ble Sir J. W. Colvile, the Most Noble the Governor of Bengal upon President. the various questions relating to the Government The Hon’ble F. J. Halliday. C. Allen, Esq. Educational Institutions at Calcutta, submitted J. P. Grant, Esq. by the Council in my letter of the 4th of August Dr. J. Jackson. last, and directing the Council to work out the Baboo Russomoy Dutt. details of the extended plan, whereof the outline ” Ram Gopal Ghose. is drawn in paragraphs 22 to 44 of your letter ” Rama Parasad Roy. under reply, and to submit, in a complete form, Dr. Mouat for final sanction, a scheme framed upon the general design indicated by the Most Noble the Governor.

*

*

*

*

*

“The main feature of the plan is the establishment of a new Presidency College, in a fitting building to be erected for the purpose; and as this part of the project when the question was last before His Lordship was complicated by our then existing relations with the Hindoo College, the Council will first proceed to explain their proceedings connected with the Hindoo College, under the very liberal instructions 26

(41) Letter of 10-31854.

‘LETTER, 10TH MARCH 1854’

of His Lordship upon this head; whereof they are happy to have it in their power to report that the result has been entirely satisfactory.” “The first step taken by the Council was to communicate a copy of your letter to the Hereditary Governors and Managers of the Hindoo Arrangement with the Hindoo College, and to request them to state their views and College Management. wishes upon the terms offered by His Lordship.” “It has been already intimated that the only persons in the Management of the Hindoo College, who had any vested or permanent rights or privileges connected with the Institution, were the Maharaja of Burdwan, and Baboo Prosunno Coomar Tagore and his brother. “The former intimated that, as far as his interests in the College were concerned, he had not the slightest hesitation in at once resigning the entire management of the College on its new footing, and the scholarships now attached to it and hereafter to be created with its funds, wholly into the hands of the Council of Education upon the terms proposed by the Most Noble the Governor of Bengal. “Baboo Prosunno Coomar Tagore, after stating that he was individually opposed to any exclusive system in education or in other matters, resigned his trust in the following terms:— “Although as a trustee and the representative of the surviving co-heir of my late father, one of the principal founders of the Hindoo College, I cannot be a consenting party to revolutionise the College, yet in consideration of many circumstances of importance, I beg leave, with the concurrence of my brother, hereby to transfer all the rights and privileges we possess in the Institution and its funds to the Government, who may in the exercise of sound discretion, remodel the Institution for the benefit of the public at large, in such manner as it may think proper. “Baboo Prosunno Coomar Tagore further expressed a hope that the public spirited conduct of the original founders of the Hindoo College might be placed on permanent record, in” some prominent memorial in the remodelled seminary, by which their names might be associated with the College through every period of its existence, and be embalmed in the grateful recollection of future generations.” “Baboo Russomoy Dutt, an elective member of the management of the Hindoo College, intimated his willingness at once to make over the College unconditionally to the management of the Council of Education, as his opinion had always been that it should be thrown open on equal terms to all classes of the community. “Baboo Ausootosh Dey, another elective member of the Management, deeply regretted the organic change proposed to be introduced into the College, and retired from the Management, as he had no opinion to offer on the subject. “The remaining Native members of the Management expressed no opinion upon the matter; their views, if they entertained any, are Baboo Debendernath Tagore. Baboo Sreekishan Singh. therefore unknown to the Council. “After the receipt of the documents above referred to, while the subject was still under consideration, the Hindoo College Management resigned its functions, and made over the College to the charge of the Council of Education in the following resolution passed on the 11th of January last, being the last meeting of the Hindoo 27

(41) Letter of 10-3-1854. —contd.

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 (41) Letter of 10-3-1854. —contd.

College Management. Baboo Russomoy Dutt brought to the notice of the meeting that Baboo Prosunno Coomar Tagore had intimated, upon receiving notice of the present meeting, that he conceived he had surrendered his place in the Management, when he placed his rights as Hereditary Governor at the disposal of the Government, and did not intend to take any further part in the Management, and that no other Native member of the Management was in the habit of attending the meetings; whereupon, it was, on the suggestion of Baboo Russomoy Dutt, resolved, that the functions of the Hindoo College Management shall henceforth cease, and that the Principal be directed to take charge of the Office, reporting to the Council of Education directly; and it was further resolved by the President and Dr. Mouat, that in reporting this resolution to the Council of Education, the attention of that body be drawn to the long and able services of Baboo Russomoy Dutt, as Secretary and Member of the Hindoo College Management.” “Thus, in relation to the Hindoo College, there only remain to be determined upon, before putting the new plan into operation, first, the future appropriation, in connexion with the new plan, of Hindoo College Scholarships, in such manner as may be most consistent with the known wishes and intentions of the subscribers; and secondly, the perpetuation of the memory of the original founders of the Hindoo College, as proposed by Baboo Prosunno Coomar Tagore. “This last object, in which the Council of Education heartily sympathize with the representations of the founders, will be promoted to a great extent by the perpetuation of the scholarships in the manner about to be suggested, and it will be effected completely, the Council believe, by the erection of a Marble Tablet in a prominent position in the present Hindoo College building, on which should be inscribed a brief history of the origin of the College, with the names of those who aided in its formation. Should any corresponding tablets be erected in the new Presidency College building perhaps the sense felt of the true value of the services done by those Hindoo gentlemen to the cause of education in Bengal, might be expressed becomingly, be recording upon a table in the new building to which all classes will have access, the fact that the way for the foundation of the General Presidency College in 1854, has been first opened by the founders of the Hindoo College in 1816. “The first object will be best effected, in the opinion of the Council, by assigning the scholarships in question to students in the Hindoo School, which the Junior Department of the Hindoo College will become The Hon’ble W. W. Bird. after the closing of the Senior Department of that The Right Hon’ble Sir Edward College; such scholarships to be held at the PresiRyan. dency College, to be of the nature of Bursaries, and Baboo Dwarkanath Tagore. to be so designated. Called by that name, they will not interfere with any general system of scholarships that may be in operation. The special scholarships founded by general subscription in honor of particular individuals, as named in the margin, will retain as Bursaries the names of the gentlemen in whose honor they were founded. Two scholarships, founded by sepcial grants from the Maharaja of Burdwan will retain, as Bursaries, the name of the founder.

28

‘LETTER, 10TH MARCH 1854’

“Other scholarships are now given in honor of five donors of large sums to the Hindoo College, to an amount equal to the income arising from what remains of their donations. These scholarships also will retain, as Bursaries, the names of the donors. To these may be added, as a new Maharaja of Burdwan. foundation, Bursaries to the value of Rupees 54 Baboo Gopeemohun Tagore. a month; that being nearly the annual income at Raja Gopeemohan Deb. present rates derived from what remains of the Baboo Joykissen Singh. funds of the Hindoo College, after due reducBaboo Gunganarain Doss. tion on account of the donations of the five great donors above mentioned. These Bursaries may be called, in memory of the Institution by whose funds they are created, Hindoo College Bursaries.

*

*

*

*

*

“All difficulties connected with the Hindoo College having thus, the Council hope, been disposed of in a manner which cannot fail to be satisfactory to all parties, the Council proceed, in compliance with Detailed plan of a Presidency His Lordship’s directions, to submit, in detail, College. the following complete scheme for carrying into execution the new plan of Government Educational Institutions at the Presidency whereof His Lordship has already determined the outlines. “As has been observed, the leading feature of this plan is the establishment, in a suitable edifice to be erected for the purpose, of a General College, to be called ‘the Presidency College;’ to be open to all youths of every caste and creed who pass the highest standard of school education; with which General College the existing Medical College, in all its branches, shall be united; and to which, besides the course of study now taught at the Hindoo College, other Professorships of practical science and art, whose establishment, as His Lordship observes, cannot be long postponed, shall be added; the whole to be arranged so as readily to receive youths from all parts of the Presidency; a College in short, which, when fully developed, shall be an Educational Institution of the highest order, complete in itself, and worthy of the Metropolis of India, and of the British Government. “As this noble plan, for want of any fitting college building, must be in some degree prospective, and as future development is a part of the design, the Council think that the best way of explaining the detailed and complete scheme which they have been required to submit, is to set forth, first, their notion of what this College in its details ought ultimately to be, in order fully to realize His Lordship’s views; next, the arrangements which they think ought to be made now for its first constitution; and lastly, the progressive measures which they deem most likely to ensure its full development hereafter. “It is, the Council believe, of first importance, that the whole College should be in one building. There must be at least two great departments, the Medical Branch, and the General Branch, and to these the Council trust that two other branches will be added as separate departments, namely a School of Law and a 29

(41) Letter of 10-3-1854. —contd.

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 (41) Letter of 10-3-1854. —contd.

School of Civil Engineering. All objects will be best provided for in one building. One building can contain several rooms, comBuilding. mon to all departments of the College, such for examples, as halls, examination rooms, libraries and offices. But besides this, many lectures will be attended by students in various departments. For example the Chemical and Botanical classes are essential parts of a medical course, but they are not essential parts of a General College; and of the Natural Philosophy classes, which are certainly essential parts of a General College, it may, the Council believe, be safely said that as medical student is not fairly trained, who, at least, has not placed in his power to attend such classes conveniently and without loss of time. With regard to students of Civil Engineering, the same may be said of the classes of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Natural History, (not to mention again the Botany and Chemistry classes), which are no less essential to a General College than to a thorough course of Civil Engineering, which, it is hoped, will include, in this College, a fit preparation for the scientific and economic geologist. From such considerations as these, the economy in public money and private time, which consolidation in one building, as well as in one institution, secures, will be obvious.

*

*

*

*

*

“There should be four distinct branches or Departments in the College, into one or other of which every student should enter. In Courses of Study and Diplomas. each branch a distinct course of education should be laid down, for passing successfully through which a distinct diploma should be given. Thus a diploma would be of the nature of a degree in any particular faculty. The four branches should consist of a General, a Medical, a Legal and a Civil Engineering branch. “The term of study should be as follows in each branch:— Years. The General Branch not less than ....................................... 4 ” Medical ” ” ” ” ......................................... 5 ” Legal ” ” ” ” ......................................... 3 ” Civil Engineering not less than .................................. 3 “Diplomas of proficiency should be given to students who have gone through the whole term in any one of these courses, and who have exhibited adequate proficiency at the final examination; and to none others. “The general and medical courses of study should be arranged so as to be suitable for youths who have just thoroughly mastered a school course. The legal and civil engineering courses of study should be so arranged that a student may conveniently quit the general course and enter either of them after he has passed his second year in the general branch; also so that either of them may be conveniently entered by 30

‘LETTER, 10TH MARCH 1854’

any one from the provinces or elsewhere, not previously a student of the Presidency College, who passes a senior scholarship examination, and pays the matriculation fee. There should be nothing to prevent a student who has taken his diploma in the general branch, from entering any one of the special branches, if so minded.

*

*

*

*

*

“Hitherto, of the above branches of Philosophy, sometimes one, sometimes another, and sometimes none has formed part of a year’s course. The propriety of their forming parts of a collegiate course of instruction has been thus, from time to time, practically admitted; but in the infancy of our Educational Institutions, arrangements for teaching them systematically could not be made. This defect, the Council propose to supply in the Presidency College.

*

*

*

*

*

“But the Council venture to ask authority for making at once a step still further Additional Staff recommended in advance, which can be made at comparatively a small cost. at once.

*

*

*

*

*

“In the Calcutta Mudrissa the Council will carry into effect, from the opening of the next Session, all the changes which have Mudrissa. already been communicated to and approved of by the Government. “It is proposed to fix, for the present, the fee that is to be levied from the pupils of the Arabic, Persian, and English Classes, at one Rupee a month. “The Collingah Branch School will be opened to all classes of the community from the 15th of June next, and will be organized Collingah School upon the same scale and plan in all respects as the Colootollah Branch School. “The Council believe that the plan above Conclusion. detailed, if approved, will carry into immediate effect the wishes of His Lordship. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient Servant, FRED. J. MOUAT, Secretary, Council of Education.

31

(41) Letter of 10-3-1854. —concld.

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

AFTER the proofs of the character of the Hindus brought to view by recent events, it is not to be supposed that any Christian can contentedly resign himself to see the next generation of that numerous people trained up in their old ways. Such a prospect would be not only painful, but dreadful, even to some who could unmoved see the present generation pass away as they are. Yet no provision is made against it. Had we restored all the means of giving young Hindus a Christian training which existed before the outbreak, nine hundred and ninety-seven out of every thousand must still grow up under the unmitigated influence of idolatry. Millions of grandfathers and grandmothers, almost entering upon a future life, are daily teaching their grandchildren, only entering upon this, to offer their first act of worship to serpents and bulls, kites and monkeys, images of frightful deformity, and ideal beings who impersonate the most depraved imaginations of man. The future men, the future mothers of India, are growing up by tens of millions; and if left to the training prepared for them by their own religion, the next generation of British subjects will count far more worshippers of the hideous Siva, than of the holy and redeeming God: for all other classes of her Majesty’s subjects are outnumbered by the Hindus. Philanthropy is of three kinds:—physical, which pities a suffering body; intellectual, which pities a vacant mind; spiritual, which pities a misled and erring soul. To the first we make no appeal, though it is deeply interested in our object; and the second is always included in the last: for he who loves the soul, is most desirous to train and furnish the mind. Before this Christian philanthropy, wherever it exists, in our nation or others, we would place the spectacle of a population nearly as numerous as that of the whole continent of Europe, the children of which, intelligent and teachable as those of any race on earth, are certain, with

32

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

exceptions distressingly rare, to be brought up in dark superstitions, prolific of miseries and gross immorality. Is this to be? By a strange providence, the whole of this multitudinous people are now under the government of England, and have a claim upon us for all the advantages we can confer; though themselves boasting a literature far more ancient than the name of Britain, are not only willing, but generally anxious, to place their children under instruction conducted by Europeans. Even the Brahmans, though the oldest and most exclusive priesthood in existence, claiming a Divine right, conferred in the very act of creation, to be the sole readers of the Veda and teachers of mankind, so far abate their pretensions as freely to send their sons to our schools. To those who have not habituated themselves to consider the vastness of India, it would probably appear a wild assertion, that were half a million zealous teachers placed in that country at once, it would not be more than was necessary to offer an opportunity of Christian education to all its rising youth. Yet this statement would be correct. Even the public returns, confessedly imperfect, give the population of India as one hundred and eighty millions; and if one in six be taken as the proportion within the school-going age, this is thirty millions, or sixty pupils each for half a million of teachers. Every one of these is at this day receiving his or her training for the present life, and that which is to follow; and alas, what a training! Looking at the wonderful opening which the Lord has placed before His church, and at the fearful fact that unless some great and hitherto unattempted movement be made, the overwhelming majority of the Hindus must hereafter be formed to the same courses as in the past; some, who have long desired and prayed for the regeneration of India, have heard, in the shocks of thelate crisis, a call to Christians to unite in some effort to bless that country generally with Christian light. Direct evangelistic labour can best be carried out by the various Missionary Societies, pursuing their own plans, and reinforcing their establishments. It therefore appeared, that the educational enterprise offered the most suitable field for a combined undertaking; and that a Society formed by Christians of different churches, joining hand in hand, in the humble resolve, by the help of their Blessed Head and Master, to forget all things, but the call to train the future millions of India in the knowledge of His glorious Gospel, would form the best and most lasting memorial of the sore chastisements and wondrous deliverances by which Providence has appealed to our nation in recent events. On the distinct understanding, then, that it is a memorial Work, undertaken at the solemn moment when the unfaithfulness of England was so painfully brought to remembrance, and the horrors of a heathen and caste education so strikingly displayed; those into whose hearts the design has been put, would now affectionately call upon their fellow-Christians throughout the land to join in founding a Society, which shall, by God’s blessing, benefit millions yet unborn. They would say, Let it be done while yet the blood of our murdered kinsfolk and of martyred native Christians is scarcely dry; and thus let us repay the heathen by a greater

33

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

effort for the good of their children, and their children’s children, than the people of one land ever made for those of another. In issuing this appeal the Provisional Committee would say a few words as to I. Their Principles and their Plans. II. The present State of Education in India. III. The Insufficiency of all but Christian Education. I. In Principle they simply desire to be Christian. They seek to train Hindu children as a Christian duty; they believe that the highest benefit they can confer on them, is the knowledge of Christian truth; they aim at leading them to understand and seek the great Christian salvation; and they pray for one thing, that God may make the Society’s labours instrumental in bringing them as individuals to lead a Christian life, as communities to form a Christian nation. Less than this they do not aim at, and will not profess. They seek no co-operation among their fellow-countrymen, no access to the Hindus, of which this avowal would deprive them. They will rejoice in the spread of all knowledge, will use their own influence to diffuse sound general education; but their “heart’s desire and prayer to God” is, that they may be honoured as fellow-labourers with Missionaries and others, in extending the kingdom of Christ over the people of India. While they seek not the co-operation of any who cannot enter into this their chief design, they invite, ay, earnestly solicit and entreat, that of all who can. They hope to be joined by Christians of all denominations, who for this end can work together, and pray together. Believing that all their work ought to be carried on in a spirit of prayer, they cannot meet without united supplication. They trust to see persons of great varieties of opinion, and of many branches of the Christian church, brought together for this good work; and in common invocation of the Blessed Trinity, common faith in the one atoning Redeemer and one Holy Spirit, and common labour to spread the glorious Gospel, learning to love one another, and advance Christian union at home. They would also carry out this catholic principle in selecting their agents, and in relating themselves to fellow-labourers. Choosing none of whose true piety, of whose steadfastness in the essentials of Christian truth, they were not persuaded, they would impose no restraints, but would rather leave each man unfettered to teach all he believed and valued, being satisfied that he would teach substantial Christianity, than endeavour to conform all to some general standard to which none would object As to their Plans: they propose to undertake those departments of educational labour which appear to be most open to a new and united body, and most directly conducive to large and pervasive results. Direct instruction in the English language, and also in the vernaculars, forms part of the work of nearly all Missionary Societies, and will continue to do so. With this, therefore, it is not proposed to interfere: they would not supersede one Mission school; although, if blessed in

34

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

their own sphere, they would hope that hereafter they may not only lighten the care of Missionaries as to education, but on many fields, by schools, prepare the way for them; and in all things they look to them as their fellow-helpers. But their present design is not the establishment of schools simply for direct instruction. Institutions for training masters to teach in their mother tongue, and the preparation of Christian books in the various languages of India, are the two great objects they propose. The profession of schoolmaster is honourable in every village; and wherever, one appeared who had the advantages of a training by Europeans, with such books and apparatus as our educational systems can furnish, he would soon establish his claims in preference to untrained competitors. It might be difficult to induce those who had been educated through the medium of English thus to devote themselves to village teaching; but men raised above their neighbours by learning, which they could freely diffuse among them, and which did not offer the bait of public employment or European society, would naturally find both livelihood and respect by teaching. The Missionary and Government schools, the promptings of self-interest, and the energy of their masters, will combine to advance the knowledge of English among the Hindus. It may reasonably be expected to become to them what Greek, Latin, and French united are in Europe,—the language of theological and classic treasures, and of travel and polite life. Its advancement is desirable on many grounds; and good vernacular education will both stimulate a taste for the literature it contains, and train the mind so as to facilitate its acquisition. Experience has proved this in both Irish and Welsh schools. The knowledge of English opens the stores of Christian literature to the native mind; but it is only the use of the vernaculars that will give Christian thought the plastic power of the mother tongues. And mother tongues are the moulding instrument for all communities. No people has ever been Christianized through a foreign language. The miracle of Pentecost indicated for ever the duty of the Christian church to tell her blessed message to “every man in his own tongue wherein he was born.” In Wales the Reformation adopted the mother tongue, in Ireland it trusted to the English; and what a lesson does the difference of result teach! In all the Normal Institutions which the projected Society may be enabled to establish, it will be left to the Local Committee to decide whether the students shall be taught English or not; but the object in view is to supplant the ignorant heathen teacher, in the ordinary schools of India, by one who has had a Christian training; and the corrupting school-books by such as will both give sound knowledge and Christian standards of thought and morals. Those who propose such an undertaking feel its boldness and magnitude. The bare thought of attempting to change the schoolmasters and school-books of a continent is one that the largest minds might long revolve, ever seeing new aspects of solemnity, new consequences and hopes. India has thirteen cultivated languages, and many minor dialects. All of the former must be employed; some of the latter are too important to be overlooked. The work of preparing books for school purposes, and also for a popular literature, in

35

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

thirteen languages, may seem interminable, as indeed at first do all undertakings for such a multitude of human beings as peoples India. Yet great facility exists for translating from one language into another; natives who could not prepare a work being quite capable of rendering one from some other Indian tongue into their own. A good book produced in any one language might, with funds at command, be made the common property of all India, in a comparatively short period. The least that could be ultimately contemplated by such a Society as is now proposed, would be one Normal School, say for one hundred teachers, in each of the thirteen great languages. How inadequate this would be, will appear from the fact that some languages of India are spoken by as many as the French or English in Europe; several by more than the Spanish. Yet, each efficient Normal School will require great outlay for buildings, for a staff of able and well-trained European masters sufficient to provide against failure by illness, for apparatus and incidental expenses. Even thirteen such cannot be raised without an income which, on the present scale of our ideas, would be considered great. When to this is added the work of preparing, printing, and translating books, another large claim for outlay will arise; an outlay which might, with unspeakable advantage to India, be pushed to an immense extent. As a commencement it would be desirable to establish one Normal School in each Presidency; and this object the Provisional Committee would set before the mind of those who are disposed to assist them, as one to be immediately aimed at. With regard to the preparation of books, the existence of the South India School Book Society offers great assistance. Support rendered to it would at once accomplish the object to a certain extent. II. At present, education is found in India under three forms:— NATIVE EDUCATION. GOVERNMENT EDUCATION. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. Native Education, such as it is, is withheld from one half of the population,—all the females. By immemorial usage, the knowledge of letters is denied to every woman, except the unhappy girls who are devoted to the temples and prostitution. This single custom enlists the finest feelings of the women against their own enlightenment, dooms every man in the country to be the son of a miserably ignorant mother, and thus insures a narrow-minded and superstitious posterity. To the women, we must add the whole body of the Outcastes, those who are considered as destitute of Caste, including the wild hill tribes, as well as those found mixed with the ordinary population. These, in all, are probably little less numerous than the people of the British Isles;1 and though a few may manage to obtain some instruction from native sources, the rule that the millions of the Outcastes are utterly untaught is scarcely broken. We may further add the Ryots, the cotter population, who, though possessed of Caste, seldom learn even to read, though

36

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

here and there one may be found who can do so. The educated natives chiefly belong to the three highest classes,—the Priests, Soldiers, and Traders, with some artisans. But a large proportion of the soldiers and traders are without even the elements of education. From these facts it is obvious that, to a large majority of the Hindu people, in offering them the benefits of education, we appear only in the light of benefactors; for those of their own countrymen who held the key of knowledge have, in all past generations, concealed it from them. And even those who can obtain Native Education soon feel that its quality, methods, and apparatus, are very inferior to those of the instruction given by Englishmen. Every native town, and most villages of much importance, have their schools; and at certain points exist superior institutions, conducted by teachers of repute, which may be considered as a kind of colleges. These “indigenous schools,” as they are called by the authorities of the North-West Provinces, form the natural basis for any movement attempting a national education of the Hindus. Class education may be given in central stations, and in foreign tongues; but any effect upon the whole social organization of India must be produced by pervasive and popular instruction, including market towns and rural villages. As to the Quality of Native Education, it generally consists in reading, writing, and some knowledge of arithmetic; but not one educated Hindu in a thousand can read, like a European, as fluently as he would speak. On the contrary, they proceed in a slow recitative, dwelling on the syllables, hesitating, turning back, and repeating. All their learning upon physical subjects (beyond mathematics, which extremely few know) is but a progress into denser and yet denser ignorance. In saying this we assume that false ideas of an object constitute greater ignorance than no idea at all; as, for instance, that a man who had no conception where London was situated, or what was its size, would be less hopelessly ignorant than one who believed, on what he considered unquestionable authority, that it was a fishing village in Malta. So a poor Ryot, who never formed a conception of the size or shape of the earth, is less hopelessly ignorant than a learned Brahman, who believes, on the authority of his sacred books,2 that it is many millions of miles in extent, formed of seven circular continents, like the stripes on a target, each with an ocean to match, which are respectively composed of salt water, toddy, sugar-cane juice, clarified butter, curds, milk, and fresh water. The progress of native learning in morals is analogous to that in physical science; a progress into deeper and deeper darkness. Principles of morality which, when announced in Christendom, carry a holy meaning, are often found in Hindu writings, and supposed by Europeans to have the same force as with ourselves. But the tales and fables by which they are illustrated in native literature, frequently go completely to pervert their intention, and turn them into sanctions of vice. The histories of every god, the pleasures and incidents of heavenly life, many of the

37

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

actions which are brought before the Hindu student with the claims of superhuman sanctity, embody the vilest passions of the human heart, and exaggerate their indulgence. The effect of all this upon the highest order of native mind may, to some extent, be judged from the following passage in a controversial work against Christianity, by Mora Bhatta Dandekara, of Bombay, printed by Dr. Wilson, with his own able “Exposure of Hinduism:”— “Our opponents are accustomed to ask,—When did Krishna perform any good deeds? In his behaviour, say they, there is nothing but sin; not a particle of righteousness is to be found. We answer that this is not the case with him alone. Of all the numerous gods which have sprung from the one God, and yet are no more than one God, (in the same manner as, though there are severally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is but one God,) of all these the procedure resembles a good deal that of Krishna. Krishna’s committing theft with the cowherds, and playing the adulterer with their wives,— Shiva’s spreading death and destruction by his curses, and behaving indecently with Párwatì,—Bramhá’s looking on his own daughter with the eye of a paramour, and making a most filthy disclosure of his lust,—Ráma’s crying out, ‘Sítá, Sítá,’ and embracing the trees in a fit of frenzy,—Paráshara’s cohabiting with a fisherman’s daughter;—such abominable transactions as these, too bad to be even mentioned,—Are these, you will say, what you adduce and place on a level with the good acts of Christ? What merit will accrue to you from listening to the tale that narrates them? and as for purity of heart, not the least of it can be obtained by means of them. As by listening to love-songs lust is inflamed, and by hearing of the feats of Sindia and Holkar the spirit is stirred, so by hearing of the deeds of the gods, formerly referred to, men will only be prompted to wickedness. Regarding this objection we maintain, agreeably to the word of God, that all these deeds are, to many, virtuous actions in the gods that performed them. We maintain farther, that by hearing and speaking of them the ignorance of the imprisoned spirit, and its consequent subjection to passion, are removed, and that thus they have as much power as image-worship itself, to create in the soul pure and virtuous dispositions. These deeds, when narrowly considered, are even far better than those virtuous actions of Christ’s that you mention. To you alone, who view them with an evil eye, they appear vicious actions.”

If Native Education, as to its quality, be poor in a mental, and deleterious in a moral, point of view, it is also verycumbrous in its methods. In some of the languages of India, a boy is considered as doing pretty well who learns his alphabet in three months. In teaching Sanscrit, it is not unusual to make the pupil commit the whole Lexicon to memory; and in other cases great quantities of poetry, the meaning of which he never knows. And these cumbrous methods are aggravated by a miserable apparatus. In the ordinary native school, the boys are seated on a sanded floor, which is the whole school apparatus for the junior classes. They learn by forming letters in the sand with the finger. From this the only advance is to the iron style for a pen, and the cadjan-leaf for paper, or to miserably coarse paper and a reed pen. No printed books, or slates, or maps, or tables in clear type; so that, when the European Teacher appears with his well-adapted apparatus, he is at once felt to have as great an advantage over the 38

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

native Master, as, in travelling, the railway has over the palankeen. Of course, in some of the large towns, the natives begin to use our apparatus; but every invention borrowed from us is a confession that our claim to be their instructors is well founded. And even in the villages, so far from the Masters showing the immovable attachment to custom which might be looked for, Missionaries first, and more lately the Government of the North-West Provinces, have found it very easy to introduce into the common village school any improvement, in books and modes of teaching, which the Masters were capable of adopting. In 1838 Mr. Hodson, stationed at Goobbee, in a remote part of the Mysore, took the village Schoolmasters in several places under his direction, giving them three or four rupees a month, and obtaining in return the regular use of the Christian Scriptures and Catechisms, and such other school-books as then existed in the Canarese language, with a right of visiting and inspecting the school at any time; and even of using it as a preaching-place, and bringing all the boys of the advanced classes monthly to the Mission-house, for a joint examination. Subsequently, as we shall hereafter notice, the able and lamented Mr. Thomason, as Lieutenant-Governor of Agra, adopted substantially the same system with the exception of the Christian element. Many such circumstances encourage the belief that, if Christians will, they may supplant all others in training the future generations of India; a conviction which is strengthened by the condition of native literature. Although for many ages poetic works and scientific treatises have existed, they are all written in archaic dialects, and scarcely any of the numerous languages of India have a prose literature in a style “understanded of the people.” In many of those tongues, it has been the appointment of Providence that the translation of the Bible shall be, as in our own mother tongue, the first great work in popular and yet standard prose. The possession of three powers—the printingpress, a familiar style, and sound Western knowledge—places us in a position of advantage, from which we may, if only faithful to our privileges, take into Christian hands the formation of the future schools and household books of all India.

GOVERNMENT EDUCATION. WHEN the British Government in India first moved in respect to Education, it was not with a view to teach the English language, European science, or the Christian religion; but to provide judicial officers, well trained in Hindu and Mohammedan law. The natural effect of its first efforts was to revive the study of the sacred languages of these two religions, and to give fresh vigour to their social code, derived from European sanction and energy. In the year 1823, a Committee of Public Instruction was appointed. Attention continued to be directed to the study of Sanscrit and Arabic, till, “as it was found that, after hiring students to attend the Arabic college, and having translations made for their use at an expense of thirty-two shillings a page, neither students nor 39

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

Teachers could understand them, it was proposed to employ the translator as the interpreter of his own writings, at a further expense of three hundred rupees a month.”3 In these schools, as in the former ones, a system was established which, we believe, never had been adopted by any Government in the course of history; namely, that the rulers of the country placed their own religion at a public disadvantage, by formally excluding its sacred books, while its first object in the original schools had been to promote the study of those of Mohammedans and Hindus, thereby exalting the one and discrediting the other. At the same time the institution of Caste was recognised; Sanscrit colleges being devoted to Brahmans, Arabic ones chiefly to Mohammedans, and even the AngloIndian one, called the Hindu College, being denied to all who were not of good Caste. No change took place in this system till 1835, when it was resolved, under the government of Lord William Bentinck, to introduce the English language, and circulate English books, instead of Sanscrit and Arabic. In the schools founded on this system, the claims of Caste were disregarded, and boys of all Castes united in the same classes. Another regulation was considered as a great advance, namely, that the Bible, though shut out from the school course, should be allowed a place on the shelf of the library, in common with Hindu and Mohammedan works.4 This dread of manifesting respect for their own religion had not been uniformly shown by the East India Company; for, as we learn from a pamphlet published in 1813, by Mr. C. S. John, of the Danish Mission at Tranquebar, the Court of Directors, in the days of Swartz, committed itself to the support of free schools under Christian management; ordering “the Honourable Government of Madras to encourage these schools, by granting £100 annually to each which might be established.” An order which was to some extent acted upon; for he adds, “Only a small number were established, for which 500 pagodas per annum were granted by the Honourable Government, which afterwards was increased to 1,000.” In 1849, the policy of excluding Christianity from Government schools received a singular illustration, in a fact stated by the Rev. P. L. Sandberg, formerly Principal of the Church Missionary College at Benares, in a letter to one of the public journals, under date of November 5th, 1857:— “In the year 1849 I was in Calcutta; it so happened that about that time a native gentleman of high Caste, having embraced Christianity by baptism, was dismissed by the authorities from a post of responsibility in the Hindu Government College.”

The Government of Ceylon introduced the Bible into its schools; and the Marquis of Tweeddale, while Governor of Madras, wished to do the same; but the Court of Directors refused its sanction. In 1854, by order of the Home Government, a principle suggested by the Hon. J. F. Thomas, Member of Council at 40

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

Madras, in his minute of June 26th, 1851, and afterwards recommended by distinguished witnesses before Parliament in 1853, was adopted. Grants in aid were to be given to any schools which should furnish the required amount of secular instruction, of which the Government would certify itself by regular inspection, leaving the conductors of the schools free to teach whatever religion they might desire to promote, without any interference on the part of the Government Inspector, or even cognizance being taken of it. Such schools, however, as were wholly supported by the Government were to be, as before, strictly non-Christian; the Bible not only being shut out from the course of instruction, but voluntary inquiries on the part of the pupils, as to its sacred contents, being forbidden in school hours. Even the permission of such inquiries out of school is described as if it were, in some sort, a concession.5 Less than a year before the outbreak of the mutinies, a noble Lord, representing the Queen of England, and at the head of his Council, in a formal Government document seemed to place the name of our adorable Redeemer on the same footing as those of Siva and Mohammed: and even that was done with a view of honouring it; for his Lordship was remonstrating against the total exclusion of that sacred name from passages in ordinary school books; a practice to which some Government teachers had resorted, under apprehension of displeasure, should they be accused of admitting anything that savoured of the religion we, as a nation, profess.6 Later still, in the present year, the authorities at Calcutta arranged with Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society to give them grants in aid for schools to be established among the Sonthals, a wild tribe having no more Caste than our Gypsies, and less regarded by the ordinary Hindus than these latter by our nation. By a violent outbreak these poor savages had caused much trouble even to the powerful Government of Lord Dalhousie; and yet the Missionaries had secured their confidence, and a prospect existed of giving them the blessings of Christian education. Yet no sooner did our Home Government learn what had been done in India, than it disallowed the arrangement, and ordered schools to be substituted from which the Bible and Christian books should be excluded. It is said that the local officer, on his own responsibility, refused to carry out this order; but, be that as it may, the Government issued it, as the latest, and let us humbly hope as the last, manifestation of a principle which has nearly all along dictated its course in respect to education.

Extent of Government Education. Government education, however faulty in principle, was projected on so grand a scale in 1854, that with vigorous expansion it would, in the course of years, cover the whole surface of India, vast as that is. Taking the deep and broad foundation of the indigenous village school, and adopting the masters with all their defects, the plan aimed at raising these by public inspection, by new and good school-books, and other apparatus, by some slight pecuniary encouragement, and 41

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

by giving their ablest pupils the prize of admission to district schools of a higher order. These again were to be related to superior institutions, and these to colleges affiliated to universities, so that the education of a few in the highest branches of science, instead of being the substitute for national education, as long had been the case, should be only its complement;—not raising up a select order of recondite scholars to puzzle and overawe an ignorant mass, as on the native system, but offering to a generally instructed people competent leaders in higher branches of knowledge, which only a few in any country can master. This great scheme as yet exists chiefly in intention. The only part of India where any systematic effort at general education has been made is in the NorthWest Provinces, and even there only in eight districts. In all other parts of the country, a school, either Government or Missionary, is as rare as a lighthouse on our coast. Well-informed Europeans may often be heard speaking as if much had been done in certain countries of India, because three or four schools exist among three or four millions of people. In many countries, none have ever been established. The total number of scholars in the schools of the North-Western Provinces, which have justly attracted so much attention, is in the District (Tahseelee) Schools, only 4,688; and 49,000 in indigenous village schools under Government supervision. This system has been in operation only since 1851.7 The following fact illustrates the facility with which the natives yield even on the points about which they are most susceptible, when treated with firmness without violence. Caste is a far more tender point than teaching the Bible, yet they forego its claims when the school authorities will not bow to them:— “The fact of a Chumar heading the second Persian class with 280 marks out of 300, the second boy being a Rajpoot, the four next Brahmins, the seventh a Raet, and the eighth a Mussulman, is deserving of note. The admission of the Chumar into the school had been violently opposed. Some Brahmins left in consequence, but the Committee remained firm, while the judicious treatment of the delicate question quieted the objecting parties. A similar case occurred a few months ago at the Budaon School, when the quiet determination of the authorities gained the day.”8

One Normal School has been established at Agra for one hundred Vernacular Teachers. The facility with which we may supplant the old school-books of the country, as well as its popular literature, is strikingly illustrated in the fact that “the number of books annually disposed of will, ere long, be not less than 200,000;”9 and in the year ending April, 1855, no less than 41,179 books were sold, while 12,879 were given away in rewards. The North-Western Provinces contain thirty-five millions of souls; with no less than 231 towns of more than five thousand inhabitants each; and some of as many as 170,000. Of these, the operations of “neither the Government nor Missionaries have yet reached” one-half; for 180 of those populous towns are without any school but what is purely native. Yet this is in the one division of India where alone an attempt at comprehensive education has yet been made. 42

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

A remarkable spontaneous movement in favour of female education has been reported as taking place in Agra. Pundit Gopal Singh, a native Visitor of Indigenous Schools, commenced to persuade his neighbours to have their daughters instructed, and met with success which would have been thought incredible. “The establishment of a little school,” says the Pundit, “in which my own daughters and those of my immediate friends and relations attended at first, like a charm dispelled in a great measure the prejudices of ray neighbours, and induced many to send their girls also. This example, and my persuasion and reasoning, have at last succeeded in inducing many respectable inhabitants of other villages to yield.” So rapidly did the movement extend, that while in September fifty schools were reported, attended by twelve hundred girls, in the first week of November two hundred schools had been established, with an attendance of three thousand eight hundred. The pupils are nearly all Hindus belonging to the most respectable families. About one tenth of the pupils are above twenty-one years of age, the rest varying from six to twenty. How far this wonderful and hopeful movement has been impeded by the recent disturbances, we almost fear to imagine; but it is a strong proof that our ideas of the immoveable tenacity of Hindu customs are exaggerated.10

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. CHRISTIAN Education, though less extensive than that of Government, when the indigenous schools are counted, is nearly double what it would be without these; and, considering all its difficulties, devout thankfulness becomes us that it has gained the extent and the results now witnessed. It has to contend not only with the constitutional apathy of the natives, and their natural prejudices, but with gratuitous jealousy, originated by the Government manifestoes about danger to their rights of conscience, and frequently irritated by fresh expressions of this kind. Every time that the Court of Directors has announced that they “cannot consider it either expedient or prudent to introduce any branch of study which can in any way interfere with the religious feelings and opinions of the people,”11 attention is unfavourably directed to the exertions of the Missionaries, and vague fears of concealed designs are excited. In every case in which a school is established where the agents of Government suppress their own religion, and propagate all other doctrines which they believe, whether physical or economical, impressions are made of which we will state one example. “A native gentleman, grateful for recovery from a serious illness, and influenced by the saying of a native teacher, that ‘Jesus Christ was the true One, and came out of God;’ founded and endowed a college at Benares, which bears his own name,—Rajah Jaynarain. This he gave over to the Church Missionary Society. Yet, after long struggling against convictions of the truth of Christianity, he at last said, ‘Had the Christian religion been true, the Company Bahadur, which had, in other respects, benefitted his country, would not have withheld from at least commending this religion to their notice.’”12

43

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

Notwithstanding all this, wherever the three kinds of schools exist side by side,—the Native, the Government, and the Christian,—public favour invariably declares for the last. Even when conversions, and the agitation consequent upon them, scatter the pupils for a while, they soon return in as great numbers as ever; as has been several times witnessed in the institutions of Dr. Duff, Mr. Anderson, and many others. The natives know that the Government school is as alien to all their venerated ideas as the Christian one: while it cannot by illsupported professions of neutrality inspire the same confidence as Missionary frankness, has not the attraction which true Christian zeal exercises even upon those who dread it, and therefore, though studiously adapted to gain the people, stands as a constant proof that the blessing of God is more fruitful than all the policy of man. Yet, much encouragement as the past course of Christian education gives to its supporters, it has only made its beginning; all the pupils in Missionary schools being 78,788,13 or, as we intimated before, less than three in a thousand of those who are of school-going age. The distribution of schools is such that while in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and some other large cities, several are at work together; in the provinces, hundreds of miles may be travelled without one being found. Tracts as large as Prussia, or even as France, may easily be traced on the map of India, without enclosing a Christian school. Tens of millions of persons who were born British subjects, and are now in middle life, have never had a single hour’s Christian instruction from either Teacher or Preacher. In the best supplied cities the means of giving a Christian education are utterly insufficient; but in the great majority of Indian cities no beginning has yet been made. Christian Education has three leading modes of operation:— DIRECT INSTRUCTION. INSTITUTIONS FOR TRAINING MASTERS. THE PREPARATION OF BOOKS. DIRECT INSTRUCTION is given in English and various vernacular languages, in male and female schools. These range from poor village schools, in which only the simplest elements of knowledge are taught, up to institutions giving a liberal European education. With the Scotch Missionary Societies schools are the principal, and in some cases the only, mode of operations; but with all the English Societies and the Germans they are a secondary, though often a very important, department. One leading Society, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, has lately, after many years of experience, and much inquiry, resolved to withdraw altogether from education, that its agents may not be diverted from the one great work of preaching the Gospel. It is not probable that this example will be followed by other Societies; yet it marks a tendency to separate direct evangelistic and educational efforts into two departments, to be prosecuted by distinct agencies. The Church Missionary Society has also called attention to the fact, that as Missions advance, a diminishing proportion of their funds will be bestowed on the education of the 44

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

heathen, more being absorbed in the support of Ministers, and the training of Christian children. This important fact is illustrated by the following instance in the history of that Society:— “The Church Missionary Society has educated the largest number of children in India of any Missionary Society. Twenty years ago, it educated 8,000 children, who were mostly heathen. Now it educates 20,000, of whom 7,000 are Christians. But its expenditure on all departments of its Indian Missions has increased during these twenty years, from £16,000 to £55,000. Its Mission expenditure is more than threefold; the number of heathen children under education is not doubled. In other words, as a Mission expands, a less and less proportion of its means is given to heathen schools.”14

Even if Missionary Societies continued in future to give the same proportion of their funds to educate the heathen as in the past, the work must proceed at a rate so slow, as to become distressing when carefully considered. The Mission school must be at or near the Mission station. The latter implies a large outlay of money, and a staff of men; and cannot be rapidly extended on any scale that would cover all India, for centuries to come, even were the resources of every Society doubled. By itinerating journeys the Missionary may spread the influence of his preaching far beyond the bounds of any station; but the school is a permanent establishment, depending on the station. May not means then be found to advance schools faster than it is possible to increase Mission stations? As to NORMAL SCHOOLS for training masters, the fact stated at the outset, that to furnish one Christian teacher for every sixty Hindu boys or girls of school-going age, would require half a million, is sufficient to show that this, department of education is the most important of all. Europeans can never educate India, any more than they can cultivate its fields, or fill its future pulpits. Their calling is to train natives to do this great work for their countrymen; and while direct instruction, which prepares a clerk or merchant, almost terminates in the individual, that which prepares a schoolmaster, who will spend his life in teaching what he has been taught, propagates and multiplies itself a thousandfold. A grander object has seldom presented itself to Christian zeal, than to train a race of teachers who should carry into the towns and villages of India the precious books of Scripture for their chief lessons, and the lights of European knowledge for the accompanying temporal blessing. The only establishment of this character at present existing in India is the Vernacular Training Institution of the Church Missionary Society at Palamcottah, established about three years ago, and already exhibiting most encouraging results.15 In the PREPARATION OF BOOKS a good commencement has been made. The sacred Scriptures, being the foundation of all Christian knowledge, have commanded the first exertions of Missionaries; and now all their inspired pages are rendered into no less than ten of the chief languages, besides portions in twenty-five others. These have been followed by other books, including tracts, theological works, school-books, and works of general information or literary merit. When the Government prepared Sanscrit and Arabic works, they could 45

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

not dispose of them; and natives who have printed the most favourite native books for sale, have failed in the enterprise; in some cases, at least. On the other hand, English books of all kinds are eagerly sought by those who know our language; and works by Europeans, or containing European knowledge, in any of the vernacular languages, are not less desired by those who know only their own tongue. One remarkable use has sometimes been made of these, namely, to supplant native books in schools, and that even in places where Missionaries had never been.16 One case occurred in which a Linga Priest, taught by books alone, without intercourse with Missionaries, had formed a school of partially Christianized disciples.17 When the novelty and beauty of the printed book are united with the wonder of a new and pure religion, or of strange science, native curiosity is raised, and the desire to possess it strong. To touch leather is unclean to the natives, because it is part of a dead animal; yet they often beg for “a leather book,” (a bound one,) in preference to another, simply because “it will stand a long time.” During the past year, the Baptist Mission Press at Calcutta printed fourteen million pages; the Wesleyan Mission Press at Bangalore, above eight millions. At Calcutta, and in other parts of India, Book Societies have long been in active operation, with great success; the list of works, translated and original, being far beyond what persons unacquainted with the facts would suppose, ranging from such writers as Paley and Bunyan to familiar tales and little tracts. It may be assumed that, other things being equal, works originally prepared for India will be more valuable than translations, owing to their more familiar illustrations and allusions. The South India School-Book Society has lately been formed, with prospects of great usefulness; under the direction of Mr, Murdoch. Just enough has been done in this department to show that, were the Christians of England awake, they might change the school-books and the popular reading of all India; and two more certain instruments of a great and permanent revolution cannot be imagined, than, by the blessing of God, these would prove. It has been already intimated that schools ought not to wait for Mission stations, but may be pushed on much faster than these can advance; and so books need not wait for schools, but, as less costly and more easily spread, may be made the messengers of the churches to thousands of villages, where the majority of the present adults will be in the grave before the Christian schoolmaster settles, or the Christian preacher passes through.

III. THE INSUFFICIENCY OF ALL EXCEPT CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. THE grounds on which the policy of giving a non-Christian Education in India has been vindicated are twofold: prudence, in avoiding offence to the prejudices of the natives; justice, in not using public funds raised from among themselves to convert them from their own religion. As to the former ground, it remains to be proved that the Hindus are ever offended by teaching which they are free to seek or avoid, as they would assuredly be, if placed under compulsion, or threatened 46

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

with breach of Caste. The words of Professor H. H. Wilson, used in reference to the motives of the Sepoys in the celebrated Vellore mutiny, are, mutatis mutandis, applicable to the question of schools.18 “It is a great error to suppose that the people of India are so sensitive upon the subject of their religion, either Hindu or Mohammedan, as to suffer no approach of controversy, or to encounter adverse opinions with no other arguments than insurrection and murder . . . . . It was not conversion which the troops dreaded, it was compulsion; it was not the reasoning or the persuasion of the Missionary which they feared, but the arbitrary interposition of authority”19

The belief that fears of popular resistance to the use of the Bible in schools are groundless, is supported by the fact that a statement laid before the Government in 1853, exhibited the following comparison between the two classes of schools:— Christian Mission Schools, 1,668; Scholars, 96,177. Government Schools, 404; ” 25,362.20

In 1834, Mr. Roberts, being at the head of a school supported by the heathen Rajah of Travancore, proposed that the rule which forbade the use of the Bible to all but Christians should be rescinded. The Rajah not only consented, but granted 250 rupees from the public funds, for the purchase of Bibles. The attendance on the Bible Class, being voluntary, was at first small; but gradually increased,— “Till, after a while, not a single dissentient remained: and from that time to the present the Bible has been read in the school by the Brahman, the Sudra, the Chogan, the Mohammedan, the Parsee, the Papist, the Syrian,—in short by all who are able to read it, and that without any objection or murmur of complaint. And not only so: after the Bible came into general use, the Hindu and other native youths began to purchase copies for their own use, which they could therefore take home with them, and read them there as well as at school: thus the sacred Scriptures found their way into houses and palaces to which Missionaries could have no access, and were read in the hearing of the great, the proud, and the hostile perhaps, by their own children.”21

In the city of Mysore, the heathen Rajah adopted a school, conducted by the Wesleyan Missionaries; transferring to it a monthly grant by which he had supported one on the Government or non-Christian principle; and this he gradually increased till it reached £180 a year, beside a good house. Subsequently Sir Mark Cubbon, who ably governs the territories of the Rajah, gradually made grants, first to one and then to a few other Mission Schools, in Bangalore and elsewhere; and so far from the natives evincing any jealousy on this account, they freely sent their children to all, and at Toomcoor built one for the Missionaries by funds raised among themselves. When a return of all the schools in Bangalore which teach English was made, on the report of a native, it proved that the only one in which Brahman youths were found was a Missionary school. After some years 47

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

the Missionaries withdrew from the Rajah’s school, and it was carried on upon non-Christian principles; and then the people, so far from manifesting satisfaction, got up a petition to the Society with which the Missionaries were connected, praying that a school for their children might be established; and this was signed in nine languages, by upward of three thousand four hundred persons, avowedly “Hindus, Mussulmans, and all other people.” Mr. Hardey the Missionary, having raised part of the necessary funds in England, called upon the natives to raise 2,000 rupees on their part. A notice in Hindustanee and Canarese was published throughout the city, calling a public meeting in the house of a native gentleman.22 At this many able speeches were delivered, the introduction of the Bible earnestly contested, and, though a rich native offered £400 if it were excluded, it was carried by the declaration of the solitary Missionary, that he would not touch a farthing of their money, without a clear understanding that the school should be conducted as all other Missionary schools; after which 1,200 rupees (£120) were subscribed on the spot. This took place, not in one of our Presidencies, or in a great European station; but in a capital city of the interior, with few resident English, and a native Court. Sir Emerson Tennent, in his work on Christianity in Ceylon, mentions a case in which the Brahmans, having set up a school in opposition to those of the Missionaries, could not make it succeed, and, as a means of doing so, introduced the Bible. Dr. Kessen, now of Paris, gives the following statement respecting Ceylon:— “The reading and explanation of the Scriptures occupies the first hour of the day in every Government school. This is the law—never departed from; but the attendance is entirely optional. And yet so mildly but firmly is the law enforced that during the entire period of my connexion with these schools,—extending over sixteen and a half years, whether as Principal of the three highest Establishments, or as Superintendent, or as member of various Sub-Committees,—not more than three cases have occurred in which parents have objected to the attendance of their children during that first hour. I left in my own Establishments, ten months ago, not only children of every form of Christian faith, but Hindoos, Budhists, Mahometans and Parsees, all heartily reading the word of God, receiving the explanation, and kneeling in prayer to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. “In Ceylon, the question of religious instruction in public schools is most fully and practically solved.”

As to the argument from justice, namely, that it would scarcely be fair to take money raised from the natives and use it in turning them from their own religion; this would prevent us from teaching them European science as well as Christian truth; for it contradicts their sacred books at every turn, and thus at once offends their prejudices, and alienates them from their own religion. Both the argument from fear of offending, and that from scruples as to converting them, bear against all education which destroys the credit of their Shastras: that is, against all instruction in any physical or spiritual truth. And, it may be asked, which is the more obvious offence against their sacred books,—to deny their statements respecting 48

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

visible objects, or those respecting unseen mysteries? Which the greater injustice, to employ their money in undermining their ancestral religion, without giving any substitute, any moral basis of character, or in teaching them truths which they admit to be sublime, and precepts which their consciences acknowledge to be “holy, and just, and good?” The advocates for the exclusion of scriptural instruction constantly allege, as one proof of the excellence of their own system, that it must convert the pupils in the long run; thus destroying their own plea, that it is unfair to use schools supported from public revenue for purposes of conversion; and also showing that the plan is a system of conversion, under cover of professed neutrality.23 They justify themselves in teaching what unsettles the belief of the natives on sufficient ground, which is ably stated in the following passage of Sir C. E. Trevelyan, combating the claim that we should teach native learning, and not European science, by arguments which hold equally good against the claim that we should teach physical but not moral truth. “I cannot admit the correctness of the test by which the Oriental party would determine the kind of knowledge to be taught. Is it meant that we are bound to perpetuate the system patronized by our predecessors, merely because it was patronized by them, however little it may be calculated to promote the welfare of the people? If it be so, the English rule would be the greatest curse to India it is possible to conceive. Left to themselves, the inherent rottenness of the native systems must, sooner or later, have brought them to a close. But, according to this view of the subject, the resources of European skill are to be employed in imparting to them a new principle of duration: knowledge is to be used to perpetuate ignorance, civilization to perpetuate barbarism; and the iron strength of the English Government to bind faster still the fetters which have so long confined the native mind. This is a new view of our obligations; and, if it be a just one, it is to be hoped that, in pity to our subjects, we shall neglect this branch of our duties. Fortunately for them, we have not thought it incumbent on us to act on this rule in other departments of administration. We have not adopted in our system barbarous penal enactments, and oppressive modes of collecting the revenue, because they happened to be favourites with our predecessors. The test of what ought to be taught is, truth and utility. Our predecessors consulted the welfare of their subjects to the best of their information; we are bound to do the same by ours. We cannot divest ourselves of this responsibility: the light of European knowledge, and the diffusive spirit of European benevolence, give us advantages which our predecessors did not possess. A new class of Indian scholars is rising under our rule, more numerous and better instructed than those who went before them; and, above all, plans are in progress for enlightening the great body of the people as far as their leisure will permit,—an undertaking which never entered into the imagination of any of the former rulers of India.”24

The principle laid down in the sentence which we have put in italics, that the test of what ought to be taught is truth and utility, and that we are bound “to consult the welfare of our subjects, to the best of our information,” is perfectly sufficient to assure our Government that it is right in teaching what is true and useful, though it destroys all belief in Shastras full of falsehood; yet it does not free it from the charge of disingenuousness in knowingly giving instruction which must produce this effect, if it professes neutrality. 49

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

Among Christians, to whom this appeal is addressed, a variety of opinions will exist respecting the duty of Government in India, Some will think that it ought to withdraw from the work of education altogether, and leave it to Missionary Societies; others would deprecate this course, as one by which several great and populous countries must be abandoned, for some generations to come, to a purely heathen education. Some believe it to be wrong for Christians to accept grants in aid for their schools, since they may be obtained by Heathens and Mohammedans for theirs; others believe that the grant-in-aid system, while just to all, gives a great practical advantage to Christianity, and provides virtually for the exclusion of corrupting mythology from native schools coming under its operation, to make way for useful knowledge, necessary to pass Government inspection. Some think that while the teaching of the sacred Scriptures ought, as in Ceylon, to form a stated part of the daily proceeding in every Government school, the attendance on such instruction ought to be left, as there, to the choice of the pupils; and others that, all the claims of justice being met by the grant-in-aid system, on which the natives may, if they choose, have public recognition and support for schools conducted by themselves, the Government ought to require the attendance of all who voluntarily seek education in its schools, at the Bible class, as at any other. But, however differing on these points, all unite in the conviction that if the Government do maintain schools or colleges of its own, it is bound not to exclude from them the word of God. By such a course, wherever it sets up a school, it puts a public slight on the Christian religion, keeps up a show of indifference to it in which the natives cannot believe, engages in a conflict with the Shastras on purely physical ground, and raises questions among the people as to its reasons for attacking their religion with one hand and seeming to repress its own with the other. It moreover trains a number of youths who cannot believe the sacred books of their ancestors,—for they have been proved by their rulers to abound in falsehood on all subjects,— and who do not know the sacred books of their rulers, for they have been kept out of sight; who are therefore either heathen, minus sincerity, or openly without any religion, and in that condition are sent forth to encounter the temptations of life, and often placed by the Government in positions where they must form the medium through which numbers of their countrymen are to judge of its spirit and principles. We may now assume that the state of Native Education appeals loudly to the heart of every Christian; that the results of Government Education prove the exclusion of Christianity to be as mischievous in tendency, as it is wrong in principle; and that the means of existing Societies are utterly inadequate to the work imperatively required to be done. On these grounds the projectors of the present movement earnestly ask for means to carry out the plans they have above explained. They do not flatter themselves with extravagant hopes; and will cheerfully work on a small scale, if such be the appointment of Providence; but they will not conceal from the Christian public, to which they appeal, that for any 50

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

vigorous and extended prosecution of their purpose, many thousands annually are needed. What they shall obtain, is in the hands of the All-wise; but in His name they call for large and self-sacrificing gifts. They trust that some of the wealthy and the noble will send their thousands to enlighten and to bless the children of those with whom we have had such a deadly conflict; and that all classes of Christians, according to their ability, will practically bid God speed to this work. A Christian Vernacular Education Society for India, originated while yet the war of the mutineers continued to rage, supported on a scale worthy of England’s wealth and India’s magnitude, and aiming at ultimately giving every child in India a Christian teacher and Christian books, would be a memorial of a crisis that can never be forgotten, on which we may humbly trust that the Lord of all nations would smile.

APPENDIX. NOTE I. “CONSIDERABLE misapprehension appears to exist as to our views with respect to religions instruction in the Government Institutions. Those Institutions were founded for the benefit of the whole population of India; and in order to effect their object it was, and is, indispensable that the education conveyed in them should be exclusively secular. The Bible is, we understand, placed in the libraries of the colleges and schools, and the pupils are able freely to consult it. This is as it should be; and moreover we have no desire to prevent, or to discourage, any explanations which the pupils may, of their own free will, ask from their masters upon the subject of the Christian religion, provided that such information be given out of school hours. Such instruction being entirely voluntary on both sides, it is necessary, in order to prevent the slightest suspicions of an intention on our part to make use of the influence of Government for the purpose of proselytism, that no notice shall be taken of it by the inspectors in their periodical visits.”25

NOTE II. RESOLUTION OF THE BOMBAY GOVERNMENT, DATED JULY

19TH, 1856.

“3. THE Governor in Council has considered it necessary to record these remarks from observing the apparent apprehension of disapproval with which some of the instructors, whose statements are before him, have explained the really unobjectionable mode in which they have proceeded, and the assurance of another that he has been ‘in the habit of omitting all passages in which the name of Christ was mentioned,’ and of only sometimes ‘retaining those in which He was indirectly referred to.’ His Lordship in Council cannot imagine that this course can be acceptable to the intelligent natives of this country, whether Hindoos, Mahomedans, or Parsees; and he cannot consider it necessary or justifiable to omit such passages, or withhold explanations necessary to illustrate their meaning, any more than he does to omit passages referring to Vishnu, Shiva, Mahomed, or Hormuzd.”26

51

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

NOTE III. OPINIONS ON THE TENDENCY OF GOVERNMENT EDUCATION.

“GOVERNMENT now-a-days have made additional provisions for the education of the middling and upper classes of their subjects, but there has, I regret to say, been a sad omission as regards the education of its native army, ever since the days of its first formation. By education I do not mean a course of scholastic training, but some sort of training at least should be imparted to Sepoys, whom, of all others, it is most absolutely requisite to humanize and to bring under the fear of God. For the soldier’s occupation is with arms, his daily business lies with tactics and physical force: so, unless he is taught in some shape the duties he owes to his God, his Sovereign, and to his immediate employers, he becomes, when infuriated, worse than a cannibal, as has been to our shame demonstrated in the recent rebellion.”27

Our next extract is from a memoir, drawn up in 1832 by Mr. R. C. Money, a distinguished member of the Bombay Civil Service, for the Earl of Clare, then Governor of Bombay. Mr. Money says:— “My opinions had not been hastily formed. After several years’ intimate connexion with the principal Society for the Education of the natives of this side of India, and watching the result of the present system of instruction both here and in Bengal, I had, without a doubt on my own mind, come to the conclusion that this system can never make the natives under our rule more moral or better affected towards the British Government . . . . . We have found the natives of India not only in a state of ignorance, but of gross blindness to the most natural principles of justice and truth. And to what are to be imputed all the difficulties which Government experiences in legislating for India? Is it not most ostensibly to the evil character of their subjects? . . . . . . There are now three English papers in India edited solely by young natives under twenty years of age. Many of the editorial articles are penned with the most culpable ignorance of truth, in which the measures and actions of Government are arraigned without a single attempt to explain the good which the Government may have in view, or have tried to carry into effect . . . . . . . In addition to what is here said of the necessity of introducing natural religion into the schools to rectify the morality of the natives, I would say that nothing but making them intimately acquainted, when young, with the pure precepts and doctrines of Christianity, will ever make them well affected towards us as Christian governors . . . . . . . From the several reasons which I have here given, and others which it would be too tedious to produce, I feel convinced that Christian instruction is the only kind of teaching which the British Government can effectually employ in India with any real profitable result.”28

The Rev. C. B. Leupolt, Missionary of the Church Missionary Society at Benares, thus speaks:— “The Government are nourishing vipers in their bosom; and if they should one day be stung by them, they must not be surprised. They educate everywhere a number of young men, and make them acquainted with Greek, Roman, and especially English classics. They expand their minds, and fill their heads with knowledge of every kind. All this is very good; but they leave the heart empty and void. Heavenly wisdom is carefully excluded from these schools. I speak of what I myself have seen and heard. The consequence of this plan is,

52

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

that these young men become proud and haughty, and despise their ignorant parents, as they term them. But more; they despise and hate their ‘English conquerors, foreign rulers, proud tyrants;’ for such are the terms they use. ‘Could Greece,’ they say, ‘resist a Xerxes? What could India not do?’ They demonstrate clearly that the Indians could in one night destroy all the English throughout the length and breadth of the country.”29

The following remarkable testimony of Professor Henderson, dated “31st October, 1843,” was published in a Discourse upon his death, by Dr. Wilson, President of the Bombay Literary Society:— “I must confess to you, that my opinions have of late undergone a complete change. You know I never cordially approved of the Government plan of education; but of late, and I may say exactly in proportion as I myself thought more solemnly on the truths of Christianity, and made them the subject of conversation with educated natives, the more convinced have I become of the evil tendency of the system which has hitherto been pursued, and the necessity of strenuous exertion in opposition to it by all who have at heart the enlargement of the Messiah’s kingdom, or even the tranquillity of India, and the safety of the British Empire. The Government, in fact, does not know what it is doing. No doubt it is breaking down those superstitions, and dispersing those mists, which, by creating weakness and disunion, facilitated the conquest of the country; but, instead of substituting any useful truth, or salutary principles, for the ignorance and false principles which they remove, they are only facilitating the dissemination of the most pernicious errors, and the most demoralizing and revolutionary principles. I have been appalled by discovering the extent to which atheistical and deistical writings, together with disaffection to the British Government and hatred to the British name, have spread, and are spreading, among those who have been educated in Government schools, or are now in the service of Government. The direction of the Government system of education is rapidly falling into the hands of astute Brahmans, whom you know, and who know how to take advantage of such a state of things, and at the same time to strengthen themselves by an alliance with Parsi and Mussulman prejudices; while the European gentlemen who still remain nominally at the head of the system, know nothing of the under-currents which pervade the whole, or consider themselves as bound, either by principle or policy, not to make any exertions in favour of Christian truth; while the professed object of the Government is to give secular instruction only. Now what is required in order to counteract the tendency of such a system? To enlighten the public at home, particularly those who have most influence in East Indian affairs, by laying the real state of the case before them, appears to me to be the first thing required. The whole subject of Government education requires to be reconsidered, and in the spirit of the age. But still I do not think that Government instruction ought ever to be regarded as one of the principal means of Christianizing India. It may be so organized as not to counteract that object, and even to co-operate in a subordinate degree, but the main dependence must always be placed upon faithful, efficient, and zealous Missionaries, European and Native.”

The Marquis of Tweeddale, when Governor of Madras, thus expressed himself, under date, August 24th, 1846:— “Even amongst the more respectable classes employed in the service of Government, we have constant proofs, that in this country it requires a more solid foundation than is to be found in the Hindu or Mahomedan faith, to bear the change which learning operates

53

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

on the mind of those who emerge out of a state of ignorance, and attain those mental acquirements which enlarged education gives, or who are placed by their superior ability in respectable situations in the employ of Government. “The reports and complaints so constantly made to Government against the integrity of the native servants, are sufficient evidence that something is wanting to insure a faithful service from them. There is no doubt that they entertain the greatest respect and confidence in the word and integrity of an Englishman; they admire his character, his probity, and his sense of justice; they acknowledge his superiority over themselves, and they are grateful for the protection their property and persons receive at his hands. “The question naturally arises amongst the natives, and it must be as evident to them as it is to ourselves, that some superior agency is at work, which produces all the good qualities which they may try to imitate, but which few can acquire . . . . . . . “It is the only means I know, of giving to the natives a practical knowledge of the sources from which arise all those high qualities, which they admire so much in the character of those whom Providence has placed to rule over them; and I am satisfied that the object sought by the Government in the general extension of education, the raising up of a body of upright, as well as intelligent, native servants, can only be fully attained, by combining with general knowledge sound moral instruction. I will, also, add my conviction, that any measure or system short of this will fail to secure that general support and co-operation so desirable, if not necessary, to forward the cause of education throughout the Presidency. Nor do I see how native society itself can safely and permanently advance, except upon this basis. I would therefore adopt the rule proposed by the Council, which recognises the Bible as a class-book in the Government schools,—but at the same time leaves it free to the native student to read it or not, as his conscience may dictate, or his parent may desire.”30

The Council of Education at Madras thus speaks, in commenting upon the refusal of the Court of Directors to allow the Bible to be introduced, according to the recommendation of the Marquis of Tweeddale:— “The Council desire respectfully to observe, that it is in their judgment absolutely and morally impossible to impart instruction to Hindoos in the English language and in the sciences of Europe, and at the same time not in any way to interfere with their religious feelings and sentiments. “It appears to them to have been demonstrated by experience, that in setting before the native students the leading facts of History, in communicating the simplest proposition in Astronomy, Geography, or in Physics, the fundamental principles of Hindooism, and of Mahomedanism also to some extent, are of necessity directly contravened, and that an interference with Hindoo and Mahomedan feelings and sentiments is the unavoidable result of a liberal education. Those in India who are engaged in education are perfectly aware that this is the case, and that the instruction now given in the Government schools, while professedly based upon the principle of avoiding all interference, has a tendency nevertheless inevitably to undermine the whole, Hindoo system. “This is no mere theory of the Council of Education. It is a simple fact, abundantly attested by the actual results of the system of education in the other Presidencies, where in numerous instances its effect has been to subvert every feeling of respect for their ancestral faith, and to form what there is every reason to look upon as an increasing class of educated

54

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

natives, unrestrained by the principles of any religious faith; and it is for the Government to consider whether such a system of education can be really and permanently beneficial, and its general introduction at this date into this Presidency, where there is no serious obstacle to the establishment of a better system, expedient or called for.”31

The gentleman to whom this communication was addressed, as Chief Secretary to Government, Mr. J. F. Thomas, gives his own views in an able minute, recommending the grant-in-aid system, since adopted. “25. Education without moral culture is probably as often injurious as beneficial to society; and at all events a system like that at present in force, which to a great degree practically overlooks this point, and which makes little or no provision for this most essential part of education, is so radically defective, that I feel satisfied, that although it may be upheld for a time under special and peculiar influences, it must in the end fail; and I hold that unless it can be shown, that the people of this Presidency are opposed to receiving moral instruction, combined with intellectual, there is no ground for this palpable practical omission in the existing system. “26. The fact is, I firmly believe, that there is no such opposition nor unwillingness on the part of the people in this Presidency; as shown by the hundreds who flock to the schools of Missionaries, where, I might say, the larger proportion of time is given, not merely to moral, but religious instruction. If, then, the people as a whole readily accept this instruction, as they do, in large numbers, it is obvious that there can be no truth in, nor foundation for, the assertion, that they are unwilling to receive moral instruction, even through the Bible, or that this is opposed to their prejudices or feelings. “27. Their acts appear to me to prove that they are willing to receive any measure of moral instruction, if combined with intellectual knowledge; and I see no reason, therefore, why they should not receive it direct from the only source of morals, the Scriptures. All other sources are either fallacious, or so shallow and polluted as to be worth little. “29. It is palpable that all truth, as well in science as in morals, is not in accordance with Hinduism; and Hinduism, if not Mahomedanism, is as certain to be undermined by a liberal education in Western science and literature, as by adding to it the further enlightenment and benefit which would follow by providing for the really moral as well as intellectual culture of the youths taught in the Government Institutions.”32

NOTE IV. VERNACULAR TRAINING INSTITUTION AT PALAMCOTTAH.

THE “Madras Church Missionary Record,” for 1856, contains the following:— “It is interesting to note what appears to be the natural and healthy growth of a Mission. First comes preaching to adults; then the gathering of a few children under instruction; then congregations are formed; the need of helpers then presses; the most pious and energetic of the converts are naturally selected; native agency is thus originated; their imperfections are brought out; when they are once set to work, the Missionary endeavours

55

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

to remedy their defects; and at length it becomes obvious that if he could divide his labour, and commit the training of his native agents to some one specifically devoted to it, he would have more time and energy for his own particular work, and his native assistants also would be made far more effective. Thus, at last, we arrive at some Central Training Establishment. “This appears, we say, to be the theory of the normal and healthy growth of a Mission. It is of course liable to be disturbed in practice by a thousand modifying circumstances. It is so here, for example, from the desire of the natives of India to obtain English Education: but still this does not affect the true theory of Missions; and it is accordingly a mark of an advanced stage in the operations of any Mission when such Training Institutions become a felt necessity. It is a mark of advancement, we say, when they are really wanted, and then alone is there any reasonable prospect of their succeeding. Attempts have been made again and again in different parts of the world to commence such Training Institutions before the Mission, in which they have been originated, was ripe for the experiment, and they have so often failed. No system of manufacturing Native Agents out of unfit materials, however laborious the discipline, will bring forth satisfactory fruits. The agents must come first, and the training of them afterwards; but where the agents are already supplied, suitable but imperfect, then the time is come for Training Institutions. “Till within the last six years, each Missionary was encumbered with the preparation of his own future Catechists, when the Establishment of the Præparandi Institution relieved hands, already too full, of that additional labour; and the successful result of the change is best expressed in the testimony of one of our most experienced Missionaries, that his lowest Reader now is superior to his highest Catechist ten years ago. “It was felt that the time is now come for a similar effort on behalf of the Schoolmasters of the Mission, and that the Village Schools especially needed improvement. We are now thankful to be able to record that such an Institution has been constructed. The Principal is supplied in our Missionary, the Rev. J. B. Rodgers, who for two years conducted the vernacular department of the late Madras Training Institution. He will be assisted by four trained Teachers; and the system of instruction pursued will be mainly that of the Home and Colonial School Society, the system in fact which was substantially originated by Pestalozzi, which has been found so successful wherever it has been introduced into Bengal, combining, as it does, a special adaptation both to the genius of Oriental languages and to the listlessness of the Oriental mind . . . . . . “The brethren have arranged that the Students in the Normal Class shall be for the present fifty unmarried, and ten married; and that thirty boys under twelve or fourteen years of age shall be maintained as boarders, to serve as a nucleus for the Model and Practising School, and to be transferred, when they attain a proper age, to the Normal School, to be trained as Teachers . . . . . . Due notice was given in the last week of April that the Training Institution was prepared to receive students; and on the 1st of May the Normal Class was opened with nearly the full number of students . . . . . . Now that, after two months’ experience, they find that what they looked upon hitherto as mere rote acquirements, are capable of being reduced to scientific principles, and are capable of being taught, too, as sciences on settled principles, they have become really zealous, and manifest a great deal more of esprit de corps than I anticipated. While I rejoice at the professional zeal which they seem to be acquiring, I endeavour to induce them to keep in view also the spirit and the motive they should entertain in imparting instruction . . . . . . “We cannot, however, do without trained Female Teachers. We must have them for our Infant Schools, which form an integral part of our system; and rather, therefore, than do

56

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

without them, I have organized a Woman’s Class, which meets in my house at half-past two and half-past four every afternoon. It was commenced on the 15th of March, and has met without interruption to this date. It is attended by twelve women, eight of whom are wives of Mr. Sargent’s students, and four of them wives of my students. With one or two exceptions, they were all tolerably well informed on Christian doctrine and sacred history when they joined me. “Within the past three months they have made creditable progress in Arithmetic, Geography, Tamil Grammar, and Natural History. Of four of them I have good hope that they will become intelligent Teachers. The remainder will, I trust, in time prove passable. They still continue attending as heretofore at Mr. Sargent’s, where they meet three or four times a week for religious instruction.”

NOTE V. SOUTH INDIA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL-BOOK SOCIETY.

MR. Murdoch, the Secretary of this Society, resigned a situation under the Government in Ceylon, in order to devote himself to the work of really Christian education. He first laboured with success in Kandy; and then, in order to act upon a wider sphere, removed to the Continent, and formed a School-Book Society; the Third Report of which is now issued. The income of the Society has already reached ten thousand rupees. The books published during the year are above sixty-eight thousand, consisting of more than seven millions of pages. The publications comprise:— AN ENGLISH SERIES: A TAMIL SERIES: A CANARESE SERIES: A TELUGU SERIES: A MALAYALIM SERIES. And further: a Quarterly Volume; a Periodical for the Young; Almanacs replacing astrology and mythology by sound information, accompanied by Christian truths; and a special work for Hindu females, written by Mrs. Mullens of Calcutta, and already translated into some of the languages of South India, and in process of translation into others. Libraries of books, both in English and vernacular, are already established in a few places; and the Report says, An effort should be made to establish one hundred congregational libraries before the close of 1858. Colportage of books has also been commenced, and may be indefinitely extended, as means permit. The Report says, “Means should be provided to furnish all the Schools with a sufficient supply of books, making grants to those unable to purchase them. The case has occurred of a veteran Missionary, with one thousand children in his Schools, being obliged to forego the advantage of the books on account of 57

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

the expense. The ordinary income of the Society last year, from subscriptions and donations in India, amounted only to 2,731 rupees, which was derived more from the liberality of a few than from the community at large. Exclusive of 160 rupees contributed by native Christians in South Travancore, there were only fifty-three donors to the Society, twenty-one belonging to the Civil Service, and twelve to the Military. Several of the most liberal subscribers have left India during the year; and unless fresh support be obtained, the income, with widening prospects of usefulness, will be considerably reduced. One gift is worthy of special notice. The adults and children belonging to a Negro congregation in the West Indies, under the Rev. A. Thomson, forwarded a noble contribution equivalent to 190 rupees.”

Notes 1. The settled Outcastes, if taken at one in ten of the people, make nearly twenty millions; and the hill and jangle tribes are computed at eight or ten millions. 2. Skanda Purans, quoted by Dr. Wilson, in his “Exposure of Hinduism.” 3. Sir C. E. Trevelyan, in his work on the Education of the People of India, p. 11. 4. Sir Charles Trevelyan’s work, quoted above, gives in interesting account of these changes, in effecting which he took a distinguished part. 5. Appendix, note 1. 6. Appendix, note 2. 7. Papers on the State and Progress of Education in the North-Western Provinces for 1854–5; and General Report for 1854–5. 8. Papers, ut supra, p. 8, par. 4. 9. Ibid., p. 10. 10. We give this statement from the “Friend of India” for November 20th, 1856, which cites Lieutenant Fuller, Inspector of Schools, as authority. The Reports on Education in the North-West Provinces, at the India House, do not come down later than 1855. 11. Selections, ut supra, p. ccliv., par. 5. 12. “The Indian Crisis,” p. 30. 13. “Results of Missionary Labour in India. By the Rev. Joseph Mullens.” Third Edition. 14. “The Indian Crisis,” p. 21. 15. See Appendix, note 4. 16. Arthur’s “Mission to the Mysore.” 17. Mullens’s “Results of Missionary Labours,” &c. 18. Mill’s “History of British India,” by Wilson, vol. vii., p. 140. 19. “The Indian Crisis,” p. 30. 20. “Indian Crisis,” p. 30. 21. Ibid., p. 33. 22. Held April 28th, 1854. “The London Quarterly Review,” No. V., p. 174, contains a report of the chief speeches. 23. Even the old Orientalizing Committee of Instruction spoke in this sense. See Trevelyan, p. 8. 24. Trevelyan, pp. 141, 142. 25. Education Dispatch of 1854, par. 84. 26. Parliamentary Paper. 27. Speech of Babu Duckinarunjun Mookerjee, a native gentleman, not a Christian, at a meeting of the Native British India Association, in Calcutta, on July 25th, as given in the “Bengal Hurkaru” for August 8th.

58

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR INDIA

28. India Christian Association Occasional Papers, No. I., p. 7. 29. “Recollections of an Indian Missionary. By the Rev. C. B. Leupolt, Missionary of the Church Missionary Society at Benares,” pp. 38, 39. 30. For this Minute, with the answer of the Court of Directors, see Sixth Report of the House of Lords, 1853, pp. 189–192. 31. Selections from the “Records of the Madras Government,” p. cclvi. 32. Selections, ut supra, p. cclxxv., pars. 25–27, 29.

59

4 ‘VERNACULAR PUBLICATIONS AND LITERACY’, IN SELECTIONS FROM THE RECORDS OF THE BENGAL GOVERNMENT (CALCUTTA: JOHN GRAY, GENERAL PRINTING DEPARTMENT, 1859), XIX–XX

(The Vernacular Literature Society of Calcutta desirous of encouraging original composition, offered standing prizes of Rupees 200 for any new original works in Bengali, approved by the Society, of not less than 100 printed pages 12mo. when printed, on any of the following subjects, Natural History and Science, Topography and Geography, Commerce and Political Ecomony, Popular and Practical Science, The Industrial Arts, Education, Biography, Didactic fiction. Out of 10 MSS. submitted for prizes, only two obtained it viz.:—The Shushil-upakhyián by Madhu Sudan Mookerjea, a moral tale pointing out the defects and requisites for native girls and the Padmini-upakyean by Ranga Lal Banerjee, a tale of Rajputana in verse—both are admirable models.) As yet little success has attended the above prize plan for the reason that so few English Educated Natives are as yet competent to write idiomatically and forcibly in their own tongue, and those ignorant of English are deficient in ideas, we need as original Bengali Authors men, who to a knowledge of the idioms and popular phraseology of the Bengali add an acquaintance with English to afford them a wide range of information and with Sanscrit to give them the power of polishing their style, and availing themselves of its boundless illustrations and oriental imagery. 21. With respect to translation from the English into Bengali, two things are wanting—to drop many English illustrations unintelligible to a native, substituting for illustrations drawn from the oak, the daisey, &c., ones derived from the rich resources of the Poets of Bengal, and it is in this respect that a knowledge of Sanscrit would be of value to English scholars among natives by furnishing them with a rich stock of oriental images and metaphors, how ample the store is may be seen in Southeys Course of Kehama, Milmans Nali and Damayanit, Griffith’s translations from the Sanscrit, &c. &c. It is owing to Sanscrit being

60

‘ V E R N A C U L A R P U B L I C AT I O N S A N D L I T E R A C Y ’

already provided with this stock of indigenous imagery that translations from the Sanscrit are so easy and so intelligible, and that the Bible itself comes so home to the feelings of an Oriental.1 The Bengali lanTranslations require adaptation. guage for purposes of illustration contains a rich variety of proverbial sayings; more than 1,200 are in the possession of the Author. A work by Nil Ratna Haldar was printed in 1826, the Bahudarshan, a collection of Proverbs in English, Latin, Bengali, Sanscrit, Persian and Arabic, also in 1830 by the same author, the Kobita Ratnakar, a collection of Proverbs in popular use translated into Bengali and English. Morton’s Collections of 803 Bengali and 70 Sanskrit Proverbs with an English translation is of value in this respect. More recently has appeared in 1856 the Niti Ratna a collection of 248 Ethical Gems from the Sanscrit with a Bengali translation.

Note 1. The Madras Education Board use a very good term for this—exposition i. e., not a slavish adhesion to the letter of the text, not translation.

61

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

CHAPTER V. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CHRISTIAN EFFORT ON BEHALF OF HINDU FEMALES. WE will begin our HISTORICAL SKETCH by a reference to the efforts of the Indian Government for female education. Though a benevolent, able, and paternal Government, it long abstained from giving direct encouragement to girls’ schools, while warmly expressing its desire to see female education extend, and giving indirect aid to Christian and native efforts. At length Lord Lawrence, under the advice and influence of Miss Carpenter, ordered the establishment of State training-schools for girls in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, which were by no means successful, and were soon closed, for the plan of a purely secular education has never found real favour with the natives of India. The Government, however, declined to ofund female schools similar to those for boys sustained by the general revenue, perhaps because of the difficulties arising from the peculiar condition of women in India. Lord Dalhousie was the first to give grants of public money to girls’ schools, and to show honour to native gentlemen who founded them. He also sustained the Bethune School from his private purse after the death of the founder, and did all that could be then attempted by the HEAD OF THE SUPREME GOVERNMENT. The missionaries, ever the pioneers in such attempts, were then only feeling their way in boys’ schools, and Government followed. It might now, twenty-five years later, venture to imitate them again, in the girls’ department; but it has not yet acted on this policy, though from time to time expressing its great satisfaction with the advance being made by voluntary workers. A glance at the comparative sums spent on boys’ and girls’ schools, shows a painfully larger amount disbursed from the public treasury for the former than for the latter. 62

W E I T B R E C H T, T H E W O M E N O F I N D I A

We make this passing reference to Government action in female education, to show the great importance of missionary effort, and to make manifest the large share it has had in producing what has been effected in India. This is acknowledged in a State paper lately printed, which remarks as follows:— “The whole subject of missionary enterprise in India has an important bearing on the intellectual advancement of the people. Their efforts on behalf of female education are seen in the zenana schools, and in the classes which are maintained and instructed in the houses of Hindu gentlemen. “The various lessons which the missionaries inculcate have given to the people at large new ideas; not only on purely religious questions, but on the nature of evil, the obligations of laws, and the motives by which human conduct should be regulated. Insensibly, a higher standard of moral conduct is becoming familiar to the people, especially to the young, which has been set before them, not merely by public teaching, but by the millions of printed books and tracts which are scattered widely through the country. “They consider that the influences of their religious teaching are assisted and increased by the example of the better portions of the English community, by the spread of English literature and English education, by the freedom given to the press, by the high standard, tone, and purpose of Indian legislation, and by the spirit of freedom, benevolence, and justice which pervades the English rule. “And they augur well of the future moral progress of the native population of India, from these signs of solid advance gained within the brief period of two generations. “Without pronouncing an opinion upon the matter, the Government of India cannot but acknowledge the great obligation under which it is laid by the benevolent exertions made by the six hundred missionaries scattered over the country, whose blameless example and self-denying labours are infusing new vigour into the stereotyped life of the great populations placed under English rule, and are preparing them to be in every way better men and better citizens of the great empire in which they dwell.”1 We will now proceed to give a brief and informal sketch of the missionary effort which has been made on behalf of female education, and which has brought about the results here acknowledged by the Indian Government, as far as they refer to the female population of their vast empire. The subject naturally resolves itself into three parts— I. Early and incipient attempts to form day-schools for the humbler class of girls, the only class at first accessible to missionary effort II. The formation of orphanages and free boarding-schools for the daughters of the converts, nearly all of whom were poor people; and, III. The opening gradually made for entrance into the houses of the higher classes, resulting in what is now commonly spoken of as zenana teaching. The honour due to the lady who made the earliest effort in the first department must be given to Mrs Hannah Marshman of Serampur, and is referred to in her biography, which will be found at the close of the volume. She attempted a dayschool for girls as early as 1807, and in due time her example told on her missionary 63

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

sisters in Calcutta, Mrs Lawson and Mrs Pearce, wives of Baptist missionaries, to whom must be accorded the honour of commencing female education in Calcutta. In 1819 some young people of East Indian birth, educated and encouraged by these ladies, formed an association called “THE CALCUTTA FEMALE JUVENILE SOCIETY, for the education of native females.” They set to work with youthful zeal, and were not discouraged because during the first year the number of their scholars never exceeded eight; at the end of the second year they had thirty-two; and in three years more they numbered six schools and a hundred and sixty pupils. In December 1821, a year which will ever be memorable in the history of native female education in India (for it was the year of Miss Cooke’s arrival), these juvenile workers held the second anniversary of their Society, which was then publicly recognised by the missionary body as an important one. We will now go back to 1818, in which year was formed THE CALCUTTA SCHOOL SOCIETY, intended to aid in fostering the establishment of schools, and to encourage native gentlemen to attempt to found them spontaneously; for at this time the indigenous Bengali schools only amounted to a hundred and twenty, containing four thousand one hundred and fifty boys, for a population of seven million and fifty thousand natives. Of girls’ schools there were none (the Brahmans and rich men educated their sons at home); and out of forty millions of Hindu females which British India then contained (it is much larger now), not one in a hundred thousand could read. This appalling fact induced the Committee, formed of both natives and Europeans, to apply in 1819 to “THE LONDON BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY,” to select and send out a lady to institute schools for native females, and Mr Ward of Serampur, a Baptist missionary then in England, powerfully seconded their request. The advent of Miss Cooke was the result, and in the biography of Mrs M. A. Wilson, it will be seen how happy was the selection made. The idea was to form a training-school to prepare future teachers, similar to the one which actually came into existence in 1852; but Miss Cooke’s ardent mind preferred immediate action, and the providence of God favoured her desires in a striking way. On the 25th of January 1822, while studying the native language, she visited one of the School Society’s boys’ schools, to observe their pronunciation. The novel sight of a European lady in that part of the native town caused a crowd to collect, among whom was an interesting-looking little girl, who was driven away. Miss Cooke had her recalled, and by an interpreter asked her if she wished to learn. She was told, in reply, that this child had for three months past been daily begging to be admitted to learn to read among the boys, and that, if she would attend next day, twenty girls should be collected. Accordingly, on the following morning (26th January), Miss Cooke, accompanied by a friend who could converse familiarly in Bengali, attended, and found thirteen girls assembled. While she was engaged in speaking to them, some of the mothers stood without, looking in through the lattice-work. On Miss Cooke’s friend turning towards the latter, they drew their upper coverings over their faces. But not discouraged, she moved towards them, saying, “I hope you will be pleased 64

W E I T B R E C H T, T H E W O M E N O F I N D I A

that your children should be taught; that lady came from Europe solely for the purpose of instructing the children of the natives of this country.” One of them said, “Can she speak our language? Has she been, or is she going to be married?” The reply was, that “in a short time she would be able to speak their language; that she had heard in England that the women of India were not taught to read or write, and that the men alone were allowed to attain to any degree of knowledge; that she therefore felt much sorrow and compassion for their state, and had determined to leave her country, her parents, her friends, and every other advantage, and come there to educate their daughters.” On hearing this, they with one voice cried out (striking their bosoms with their right hands), “Oh, what a pearl of a woman is this!” It was then added, “She has given up greater expectations to come here, and seeks not the riches of this world, but that she may promote your best interests.” “Our children are yours,—we give them to you,” replied two or three of the mothers at once. After a few more questions and answers, they all parted for their respective homes.2 Two days afterwards, on the 28th, a second visit was paid by Miss Cooke and her friend. They only found seven pupils, among whom were two new faces. Some of the mothers again assembled outside. After a while, one of them asked, “What will be the use of learning to our girls, and of what advantage will it be to them?” She was told that “it would enable them to be more useful in their families, increase their knowledge, and gain them respect and affection.” “True,” said one of them, “our husbands now look upon us as little better than brutes.” On which another asked— “And what benefit will you derive from this work?” It was replied, “that the only return wished for, was to promote their best interests and happiness.” “Then,” said the woman, “I suppose this is a holy work in your sight, and will be pleasing in the sight of God.” To which, as they could not understand the higher Christian motives, it was simply answered that “God is always well pleased that we should come and do good to our fellow-creatures.” After some further observations, they parted, the women speaking in terms of the highest approbation of the conduct and replies of the European visitors. This first attempt at female education having thus unexpectedly commenced in one of the schools of the “School Society,” it was the signal for a series of successive institutions. Within a month other two schools were established,—one in a different quarter of the town, and another on the Church of England mission premises,—containing in all between fifty and sixty girls. With unhoped-for rapidity the interest grew. In a few weeks £350 was in hand from benevolent friends, Lord Hastings, then Governor-General, and his wife, heading the subscription. The two schools became ten before the close of the year, and contained two hundred pupils, and this in addition to those of the ladies before referred to. The strong and unreasonable prejudices of the people were gradually overcome, and by June 1823 a general examination of all the schools showed that many of the 65

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

girls could actually read some easy books, and do a little needlework. Beyond such incipient attainments it was not then possible to advance, as, on account of early marriages, the girls could seldom remain in attendance over their eighth year. In 1824 the schools having increased to twenty-two, and the pupils to between three and four hundred, a society of European ladies in Calcutta, with the wife of the Governor-General, Lady Amherst, as patroness, formed themselves into a committee, and gave themselves the title of The Ladies’ Society for Native Female Education in Calcutta and its vicinity; and at an examination which followed in December 1825, the schools were spoken of as thirty in number, and the pupils as four hundred. From that time, encouraged by the offer of £2000 from a native nobleman, Rajah Boidenath Roy, the erection of a Central building was decided on, the foundation-stone of which was laid by Lady Amherst May 18th, 1826, in the presence of a large and influential assembly. We will refer our readers to the memoir of Mrs M. A. Wilson for further details, merely remarking that the spell being now broken, and female education publicly allowed to be a possibility—though still confined to the poorest classes—an important victory had been gained, and the friends of missions in other parts of India were not slow to follow the example of Calcutta. None did so at an earlier period, or with more zeal, than Mrs Stevenson, Mrs Margaret Wilson, and their Missionary sisters in Bombay. The result of their efforts is given in a separate chapter. II. The formation of orphanages and free boarding-schools is the next stage of progress to be noted. The latter were begun by the Baptists, many of whose converts lived in places where European missionaries could not reside. It was to the wife of one of their missionaries, Mrs Ellis, who had such a school in early days, that Mrs Wilson provided a trusty superintendent, a rare woman, who had been converted as a child in her day-school, and had been permitted the joy of leading her father and mother to the Saviour. Similar schools were and still are carried on with much encouragement, not only in Bengal, but in India at large. In the memoir of Mrs Mullens it will be seen how zealously she laboured in this department. It was Mrs Wilson who conceived the first idea of an orphanage in Bengal, and hers was begun with a few girls who from time to time fell into her hands, and resided with her in the Central school. Enough is said in detail in her Memoir on her particular orphanage, so we will only add that others gradually followed in various parts of India, as at Burdwan, Banares, Cawnpur, Agra, and other places, which were filled to overflowing in those times of periodical floods and famines which deprived such multitudes of Hindu children of their parents and homes. More than half those so collected succumbed to diseases contracted by their sufferings, but enough remained to enable the missionaries to train suitable wives, who became, in many instances, truly converted women, and have formed a goodly band of teachers and matrons for the ever-increasing openings in schools and private residences. In this and other respects, both orphanages and boarding schools must be regarded as having proved of essential service in the progress of female education and enlightenment. 66

W E I T B R E C H T, T H E W O M E N O F I N D I A

III. We now come to the third stage of progress, the deep interest in which has been perfectly fascinating, and has aroused the zeal of many hearts, as well as deepened the sympathy and love of Christian ladies at large. In the memoir of Mary Bird, which tells us of her share in the first efforts of female missionaries, incipient efforts in what is now called zenana visitation are alluded to. We have no record of particular incidents, but may well conclude that her labours in this direction were not in vain, and there seems good reason to hope that, even then, some of these poor immured women learned to look to Jesus, and trust Him, as their Saviour, though the fact was concealed in the depths of zenana seclusion. But before the arrival of Mary Bird, an attempt to educate Hindu ladies had been made in a village near Calcutta. The opportunity was given by an enlightened gentleman, the son of Babu Jay Narain Ghosal, who presented some valuable property at Banares to the Church Missionary Society, where a college now exists bearing his name.

CHAPTER XI. THE IGNORANCE AND PREJUDICE OF THE WOMEN. IT is not surprising that ignorance and prejudice hinder and beset our efforts on every side; the real wonder would be if it were otherwise. The poor women themselves have to struggle through every sort of traditional barrier, which would still bind them in chains of ignorance and superstition. Here are some specimens of this phase of the work—“After my first visit to one zenana, the old mother broke every water-vessel in the house, believing I had made them impure; and I understand she has drunk no water since, except what she has herself fetched from the Ganges— the Holy River. The natives are all most particular about water; if I give medicine, they will take it, but not if I put it into water, or into any but their own vessel.” Again—“Some of the women are dreadfully slow, and learn at such a snail’s pace that one is almost tempted to despair. But then, what can be expected of those whose minds have been a barren waste up to the age of thirty or forty? Some, when we begin to teach them, cannot even count above thirty or forty; and one woman, when I showed her the maps, and explained the construction and material of the earth, moon, and stars, gravely asked if the world I came from was made of land or water! Another feared to come near me, asking our native teachers if I were a man or a woman? These being our materials, it would be strange indeed if the heights of knowledge were reached by flying leaps, but not the results we wait in faith for, God’s promises being the assurances of our success.” And again—“One of my favourite houses is closed, the lady being in great anxiety about her little baby. She has already lost four little ones, and I fancy she is afraid lest a Christian’s presence may bring about the loss of this one. In another house this is the openly avowed reason for the lady not learning now, that since she began to learn she has lost her children, and so her husband has forbidden my visits. My heart often aches for these dear women, who have to suffer in sickness, 67

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

and bereavements and trials of many kinds, and who have no comfort, no hope, no resting-place, no covert from the storm.” Another missionary writes—“Lately a few of our houses have closed, the friends taking alarm at the interest in Christianity shown by those under instruction. One is the house of a bigoted Mohammedan. His daughter was a very idle girl, a great opium-eater; consequently listless and inert. Half the time one was there, she would either be sleeping or painting her eyelids, doing her hair, &c., so that I had small hope of her making much progress; but her cousin, our other pupil, was a bright, intelligent girl, and I was very sorry to lose her. However, they have each a Bible in their own tongue, and some day God may be pleased to bless its message to some soul within that dark house.” Let us now speak of PROGRESS. For, however dark and sad these pictures may be, the very fact that we can speak of them, that we have made our way inside these prison-houses, is a token of success, and the earnest of better days to these “prisoners of hope.” Let it be remembered, that, wherever our missionaries go, there they carry “the Word,” “the entrance of which giveth light,” and we shall be able to wait with patient hope for a fuller awakening. Meanwhile, such descriptions as the following are cheering:—“In one house there is a family of five ladies—two little girls, and three grown-up women,—and it is most interesting to see this family assembled for their lessons, and the eagerness of them all. They are always prepared, with their books and work laid nicely on the table. It is not usual for them to have tables and chairs; but now, in almost all the zenanas in which we teach, they have civilised their places, and make everything nice and ready for us, and they seem to take a real interest in their learning. They learn verses out of the Bible, and those who can read at all have Bibles of their own, and some of them read it with great delight. “It seems to me that they are beginning to get hold of things by the right end now, and to be finding out that the real difference between us lies not in our skin, but in our religion. They begin to feel there is something higher in religion than merely trying to propitiate the powers of evil. They begin to think, to wonder, and to ask questions; but there are great difficulties in the way still. There are the old ladies in every family—the grandmothers, and great-grandmothers, the whitehaired, venerable-looking personages (old ladies), who sit and look, if they are not blind, and listen, if they are not deaf; and even if they are both blind and deaf, they know that there is something new going on in their families, and some spirit moving about which never moved them in their youth. Their daughters-in-law no longer sit all day long, as was their wont, counting their jewels or combing their hair; there is a rousing up of mind and body which they cannot understand, and the mothers raise a warning finger to tell them to beware! the gods will be displeased; their children will die—their religion, the 68

W E I T B R E C H T, T H E W O M E N O F I N D I A

ancient religion of their forefathers, will be destroyed—they are going to be made Christians. For many years longer such warnings will be heard from the ancient ladies of every family, and will, no doubt, be listened to with the superstitious respect almost always accorded to these white-headed spirits of the zenanas. But still much progress is made; and even the oldest bigots must be softened in time by the happy, interested faces and busy hands where ignorance and idleness were wont to reign,” Again—“The contrast between those zenanas where female education is progressing, and those who will not have it, is very remarkable. In the one you see the ladies sitting in the sun, with their knees drawn up to the chin, absolutely idle. In the other you go in and find the whole female part of the family with their books and work around; some learning their lessons, mothers and daughters together; some working; others, it may be, reading; those who are able to read well and easily, reading a story-book, such as ‘Faith and Victory,’ ‘The Dairyman’s Daughter,’ and other little books which have been translated into their language; but you seldom find them idle, and they are so much more cheerful and happy, as a rule, than they were in their days of indolence. Some little rays of Christian light have certainly broken in on them, and for this may we not be thankful?” We will now give a Hindu puja or worship scene, and then pass on to a few extracts regarding the work amongst the Mohammedans.

CHAPTER XIII. MEDICAL MISSIONS. CHRISTIAN education has already done much for some of the women of India in various parts of the great Continent, and many a zenana has been opened by means of this key. It has, however, failed to find much entrance into Mohammedan homes, for with laudable exceptions, they do not, as a class, appreciate education like the Hindus, and they are, as a mass, ill-affected towards the British Government, which has supplanted their own. But a plan has been thought of, and is now being carried out, equally adapted to both classes, and therefore valuable politically as well as religiously; and oh! how needed for the relief of bodily sufferings. We notice repeated allusions to sickness in the journals of the zenana teachers, whose pupils are ready to receive with open arms any daughter of the West who comes to assuage her pains and bind up her wounds. Countless mothers and children fall victims to the conceit and ignorance of their female attendants, and of their Hakims, or native doctors. The death-roll among them is enormous; and when a beloved wife or darling child is sick unto death, a medical lady is welcomed as an angel of mercy, and is often successful in bringing relief. Not long ago a missionary was on a preaching-tour among the villages of a remote district in North-West India. He fell ill with fever, and was nursed by his wife, in a small hut on the summit of a lofty hill. The medicines she had with her were blessed to him, and the fever abated. 69

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

The tidings spread to the village, and one afternoon a party of Mohammedan women, headed by the wife of the Khan, or chief, climbed the steep ascent, and stood before the “Mem.” On her going to meet them, this lady-chief—tall, dignified, and richly jewelled—stepped forward, holding out a rupee, which the “Mem” touched in token of friendship. After many compliments, she said, “Will not the ‘Mem,’ who has given medicine to her own husband, give some to mine, who has been delirious many days from fever? If she would, he would get well, as her own Sahib is now doing?” She was told of Him who alone has the power to heal, and the lady asked to be allowed to see the sick man; but that could not be permitted, for the villagers feared witchcraft. She then gave the medicine, and the party left. The next morning the wife of the Khan again appeared with a large retinue of women, all veiled. She was come to express her thanks, for her husband was relieved; and now she was all anxiety for the “Mem” to go and see him, and many other sick ones besides. The fear of witchcraft was overcome; most joyfully did the “Mem” comply, and descended the rock, followed by her crowd of visitors. She found the Khan on his charpoy, under a shed in the open air, and around him such a muster of sick and suffering ones as she hardly supposed a village could produce, some ill themselves, others bringing their sick friends. There was a general demand for medicine, which was dealt out to each, and taken on the spot; and when all were served, they were told of the Physician of souls, who could heal both bodily and spiritual disease. Most attentively did they listen, and when the “Mem” ceased, they loaded her with gifts of eggs, vegetables, &c., as presents, which they had refused to sell to her on her arrival, when she needed such supplies very sorely. When she and her husband finally departed, a large company of the villagers went some distance with them, and parted from them with repeated salaams and benedictions. We have given this anecdote as an illustration of the power of medicine in overcoming Mohammedan prejudice; and it shows that while education is one key, a medical mission is another, to unlock closed entrances both in city and village life. Female medical missions are indeed a key to fit every lock; and she who practises the healing art may hope not only to cure, but to Christianise her patients. She will soften bigotry, remove prejudice, dispel ignorance, drive away gloom, and deposit the leaven of the Gospel in numberless hearts and homes. Convinced of the importance of this branch of the work, it has been decided by several of the associations sending out female missionaries, to make it a part of their special object. The Americans have set the example in their own energetic way, and “THE INDIAN NORMAL SCHOOL AND INSTRUCTION SOCIETY” are following in their wake. The American ladies are completely educated, and have taken a medical degree. Their plan is not only to practise themselves, but to form a medical school in some central points, and there to educate native women, many of whom are gifted for such work. “THE INDIAN NORMAL SCHOOL AND INSTRUCTION SOCIETY” are, for the present, just sending ladies who have gained sufficient knowledge to be very useful. The two first were designated to Bombay and Banares. The lady

70

W E I T B R E C H T, T H E W O M E N O F I N D I A

for the latter place died suddenly on her voyage out, and the former a few months after her arrival, so that for the present no real work can be alluded to in this branch in connection with the Society.3 An incident from the notebook of a medical missionary will illustrate the value of such work:— “This morning a Brahman suddenly appeared at my door, one of the most popular and affable men of his caste. His lips were quivering with emotion. ‘You are a mother,’ he exclaimed; ‘I have brought my wife, the mother of my six children, for you to save her. She has been gored by a cow, and only you can help us.’ “I went out, and there in a bullock-cart sat the sufferer, her sons beside her, from the youth of sixteen to the babe of two years; the old grandmother and the jewelled daughters trudging tremblingly behind. We led the poor woman gently in; it was a ghastly wound, and she was faint. The silence was broken by the husband asking in agony if I could save her? ‘If God blesses my efforts, and you promise to use no heathen incantations should fever come on, I may do much for her,’ said I, and I dressed the wound. She revived, and they returned home. “In the evening I went to see her, and found her as I had desired she might be, placed on a cot in their most airy room, and doing well. After attending to her, I spoke on leaving to the group around me thus:—‘Here is a woman like me. God has given her children, and given me children. She has had many earthly comforts, and so have I. When I am in trouble, I like to ask Him to help me, and He has, many times. Who can heal this woman so quickly as the great God who made her. I can ask Him to cure her in my own house; but, if you are quite willing, I should like to ask Him here to help us all, that we make no mistakes, and that He will soon restore her.’ “There were four old women listening, and I expected them to demur to this proposal. Wise in their own eyes, they are most tenacious of heathen customs. “The husband was too polite to refuse, and said, ‘Certainly;’ adding to the others, ‘She is going to praise the Lord.’ ‘Let her, let her!’ cried the old women. I fully expected they would go about some household work at once; but the silence was unbroken. It was a rare privilege to invite the Great and Holy One into that home where He had never been asked. As I finished the prayer, and looked at the sufferer, she was steadfastly gazing at me with one of the pleasantest smiles I ever saw. “‘I shall trust no one but you,’ she said, with emphasis. “Every evening the cart has been sent for me; and last night, when I said that there was no necessity for my coming again, that nothing could have been more satisfactory than the rapid healing of the wound, the thanks of all were quite oppressive. I told them of Jesus’ miracles, and His readiness to bless every heart loving and trusting Him. The younger ones listened with interest, the wise old women gave civil attention, and the husband looked to me politely and pleasantly, as if I were a harmless enthusiast.”

71

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

Notes 1. These condensed extracts are from the Report of the Secretary of State and Council of India upon THE MORAL AND MATERIAL PROGRESS AND CONDITION OF INDIA. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 28th April 1873. 2. The reader will perceive, from these details, that poor women are not secluded like their richer sisters, but go abroad as occasion requires. 3. The Society for Promoting Female Education, &c., are also taking up this branch of work.

72

6 ‘THE SARAH TUCKER INSTITUTION, TINNEVELY, SOUTH INDIA’, INDIAN FEMALE EVANGELIST (JAN–JULY 1878), 9–16

SINCE April 1875 no notice of this valuable institution has appeared in our pages, and we are anxious once more to interest our readers in its continued progress and success. For the advantage of those who have not seen our sketch of its history and origin in the July number 1872 of The Indian Female Evangelist, we may mention that the Sarah Tucker Training Institution for Native Christian Girls was established about fifteen years ago as a suitable memorial of Miss Sarah Tucker (sister of the Rev. J. Tucker, the Church Missionary Society’s Secretary in Madras), who had taken such a deep and active interest in the work of female education in India. The object was to train native Christian girls as schoolmistresses for their countrywomen, and the memorial fund was handed over to the Church Missionary Society, which had cordially approved the plan proposed, and undertaken to adopt and start the institution. Palamcottah, the principal town of the Tinnevelly district, was decided on as a suitable locality, and after various vicissitudes, it was fairly established on its present admirable working system, under the management of the Rev. A. H. and Mrs. Lash in 1868. During these nine years 250 Christian girls have been under their care and training at different times, 90 of whom have already been employed as schoolmistresses, 5 as Bible-women, and 2 in a medical capacity. Eighty-seven of these students have passed the Government Examination for schoolmistresses, and have obtained third-grade certificates, and the interesting report for the year ending March 1877, which has reached our hands, proves that the institution is continuing to fulfil the design of its founders. During the absence of Mr. and Mrs. Lash for two years in England, the students had not come up to their usual standard of attainments, and in 1875 the number that passed in the Government Examinations for schoolmistresses was comparatively small; but the past year has been devoted to recovering their former position, and the results both in the Government Certificate Examinations, and in the two important subjects of Scripture and Training, have been most encouraging. Amongst the visitors during the past year was the Rev. David Fenn (Church Missionary Society Secretary, Madras), and we venture to transcribe his letter on the subject, as giving simple yet valuable testimony to the practical usefulness of the training. 73

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

“MY DEAR MR. LASH,—I must not longer delay replying to the last part of your letter, asking me to send you a few lines about my visit to the Sarah Tucker Institution, and my opinion of the teaching I heard given by one of your trained teachers. You know I am not an educationist, and that such things are not at all in my line, still I am very happy to bear my testimony to the intelligence and evident happiness of your pupils, and to the order which prevails in the Institution. You remember that I had one of the Tamil essays prepared by the elder pupils read to me by Sarah Mary. It was on the Lord’s Supper, and struck me as very clear and good. I was glad to see what a large number of Christian girls from the Vellala caste had been attracted to the lower classes of your Institution, for though we all hope and pray that caste may die out in the Christian Church, yet as agents for working among the heathen in your branch (or affiliated) schools, such girls are likely to have more influence. I was also interested in the answers in Scripture in the various classes, and was struck with the attention with which my address was received. But what interested me most of all, and what I felt must make your own heart rejoice most, was the very admirable way in which one of your young trained teachers, I forget her name, gave a lesson from the picture of ‘The Sower’ to a class of very little girls. You remember I asked you to let me see this done, and you arranged that she should give the lesson to her eight or ten little pupils in presence of all the eighty girls, with yourself, Miss Buée, and myself, looking on. However, she did not seem at all put out, but went on with her work, and succeeded in keeping up the attention of the class, and questioning out of them everything she wanted them to learn, never telling them the answer to the question they could not reply to, but substituting some similar question, and then following that up with some others that gradually led up to the point she wanted. She was so lively, so patient, so successful, and so forgetful, apparently, that any one but the little class itself was looking on, that I thought that if you had had no other success of your work than to raise up such a teacher, it was ground for thankfulness to God. May you have many, many such, and may they be endued with fervent love to the Saviour, as well as love of, and power in teaching.—Yours affectionately, “DAVID FENN.”

For many interesting details regarding the Institution and the girls connected with it we would refer our readers to the Report. Fourteen of the students have been employed during the past year as schoolmistresses, one in Tanjore, who is now the head native mistress of “Lady Napier’s Caste Girls’ School” in that town, and giving great satisfaction; and the rest in Tinnevelly. They are often placed in situations of difficulty and temptation after leaving the school, which is a test of their religious convictions and principles, and some instances of earnest and active piety in trying positions have given great cause for rejoicing. With regard to the general spiritual state of the students, the Report says:—“It is perhaps difficult to say much; our native Christian girls appear naturally more impressible, docile, and amiable than English girls of a similar class and age. We have very little trouble with them; they are modest, affectionate, and very anxious to please; they retain for many years a grateful remembrance of any kindness done to them. As a rule, they are also truthful, though this is perhaps their weakest point. Many of our girls have always been so upright and straightforward, that we never dream of doubting their word; among the little girls, however, prevarication is less uncommon. I can only recall one instance of positive untruthfulness among the students 74

‘ T H E S A R A H T U C K E R I N S T I T U T I O N , T I N N E V E LY ’

of our training class during the year. We judge of their spiritual condition by their attention to, and love of, their Bible lessons; by the glimpses we get of their inmost thoughts by means of their Bible essays, and their answers to Scripture questions; by their habit of meeting together in little groups for reading God’s Word and prayer; by their love for God’s house, and the services of the sanctuary. In all these particulars many of them give pleasing signs that they are more than nominal Christians. Many of the elder girls are communicants, and appear to value this means of grace.” But it is time we should say something about the branch schools in Tinnevelly in connection with the parent institution, of the establishment of which schools we gave some account in our April number, 1875. They have proved a valuable outlet for the students trained as schoolmistresses, and they continue under the management of the Principal at Palamcottah. Several of them have been opened at the request of some of the leading Brahmins in the various towns, for there is certainly an increasing enlightenment amongst the Hindu community, and a greater demand for education. The males have long valued it for themselves, but there is also encouraging indication that their prejudices against female education are beginning to give way. One of the first established and most important of the branch schools is at Strivaguntum, a fine town about fifteen miles from Palamcottah, where is the mud fort (described in a former number of the Indian Female Evangelist), “where several families reside, whose cruel custom it is to keep their females prisoners for life: they are never allowed to pass outside the walls, until they are carried out to be buried.” There had been much opposition and prejudice to overcome in the establishment of this school, and for a time the attendance was small and fluctuating; but now it is valued by the inhabitants, and the teacher, Edith Anal, was so appreciated, that the Brahmins applied for her to be their teacher, when the school for Brahmin girls was established in Strivaguntum last year. With regard to this school, the Report contains the following interesting notice:—“January 20, 1877.—Visited the Brahmin school: 35 on the register; 31 average daily attendance. Was pleased to find that twelve of the girls had passed the first Government Examination for Results, a thing unprecedented in my experience after only six months’ study. Certainly these Brahmin girls beat English girls in the power of acquiring knowledge. Though they are descended from mothers who for centuries have been kept in ignorance, they display a quick intelligence which is very remarkable. Their fathers, however, are educated men. Was much struck with one girl, a pretty, English-looking creature, tall and graceful, about twelve. She read, very nicely indeed, words of three, four, and five syllables, wrote well, and did her sums correctly, and seven months ago she did not know her letters. She had a little sister with her, and I was much struck with the motherly care she took of her.” The teacher of this school, Edith Anal, had been rescued from heathenism, many years ago, by the Rev. J. T. Tucker, and had been one of the wildest and roughest of her class—of the Maraver or Thief class. But her natural gifts of character, trained and disciplined at the Sarah Tucker Institution, had made her one of their most successful teachers. 75

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

Other branch schools at Perangulam, Tenkasy, and Kullidicurichy are making most encouraging progress. The first was the station where the people were so bitterly opposed to the establishment of a school, and burnt down the building first used for that purpose, but were gradually won over by the consistent and beautiful conduct of the young mistress. The average daily attendance is thirty-six. At Tenkasy, an important town, considered specially sacred, there are two schools which have sixty-two girls under instruction, from a letter of one of which, Mr. Lash gives the following interesting extract, showing the quiet blessed work that is going on in the hearts of some of them:— “OH, WORTHY SIR,—Having heard that you and our honoured mother (Mrs. Lash) have arrived safely, and in health in our country, we are greatly rejoiced, and return thanks to God. We give you many hearty thanks for having sent us, who were very ignorant, such good instruction, and we pray that God will watch over you and protect you. As for me, I have special cause to thank God for the school, because I have obtained a blessing from it. How that came to pass I will tell you. One day our teacher had been speaking to us very plainly about the horrors of hell and the joys of heaven. I, thinking of the state I was in, grew terrified, and that morning, through the instruction of the teacher, I learnt that the worship of idols is vain, that there is but one God, and that Jesus our Saviour is the only surety to rid me of my sins. Further, by means of the teacher, I learnt to pray morning and evening, and from that time I have, unknown to my parents, prayed daily every morning and evening. I have worshipped no more idols, nor have I rubbed ashes on my forehead. Up to this time my parents have not noticed these things, but I live in constant fear of this. Sometimes the teacher has allowed me to open and close the school with prayer, and I have prayed before the other girls. “I beg that you will pray for me, that I may believe in my Saviour until my life’s end, and may see His kingdom.”

The other school in Tenkasy is not a very flourishing one, but is interesting from the fact that it is attended by several Mohammedan girls. That at Kullidicurrichy, one of the wealthiest towns of the district, is in its infancy, having only been established towards the end of last year; but it has an average attendance of forty-two, and as the Brahmins have also asked for a school, if a suitable teacher and funds can be found, they hope soon to start another. It would take too much space to allude to each school about which the Report gives interesting particulars, but we subjoin the Table of Statistics given, that our readers may have before them, in a succinct form, the progress in numbers made during the year:— YEAR. Schools. Masters. Mistresses. Christians. Roman Hindus. Total. Average Catholics Attendance. and Mohammedans. 1875,

35

3

40

252

1876,

41

13

45

254

76

29

570

822

594

1040

1323

985

‘ T H E S A R A H T U C K E R I N S T I T U T I O N , T I N N E V E LY ’

Five hundred (chiefly caste girls) have been admitted. Thirteen new schools have been opened in important places, though from the shutting up of four unsatisfactory and unimportant ones, and the amalgamation of three others with neighbouring district schools, the numbers do not appear so great in the Table. By a new arrangement with the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Lash has taken charge of all their Girls’ Boarding Schools in those districts of Tinnevelly where no European missionary resides. These schools are of increasing importance, as the Native Church in Tinnevelly (admirably worked on a system of Pastors and Pastorates, and Native Church Councils, under the general superintendence of Dr. Sargent, one of the Missionary Bishops of Tinnevelly) is becoming more and more detached from European influence. In the last Church Missionary Society Report, Mr. Lash writes:— “Those very Hindus, who have so long resisted all attempts to educate their daughters, are now desirous to have them taught. Nor do they object to Bible teaching. We must take advantage of the opening; and this must be done, not by English, but by Native Christian women. An educated Native Christian woman, living a holy and consistent life, in the midst of a large heathen town or village, and doing her duty in her little school as in God’s sight, is a more powerful argument in favour of Christianity than the most devoted English sister could be.”

And now having we trust interested our readers in these few facts laid before them, and convinced them of the real practical good that is being effected by this blessed work, there remains one subject for our active sympathy which must not be omitted. The Report concludes with these striking words:—“We have two great things in our favour—teachers ready, people willing; all we want is funds to bring them together. The parent institution is supported by the Church Missionary Society, but the Branch and Boarding Schools are entirely dependent upon voluntary contributions. In the further development of the work the expenses of course increase, and, were funds forthcoming, there are openings for Bible-women who might be specially trained for the purpose at the Sarah Tucker Institution. They have lost by death some valuable friends and constant contributors, and another cause for anxiety is the reduction of the scale of Government Result Grants, which will diminish their income; but on the whole the friends and promoters of this great work desire to thank God and take courage, trusting Him for the future as they have ever found Him faithful in the past. He has given His blessing hitherto, will He not continue to find the ways and means that are so essential? It would be a glorious achievement to plant a school and a Christian family of teachers in every town and large village in Tinnevelly. That would go far towards fulfilling our responsibility towards one part of our great possessions in India. Let us get hold of the girls who will be the future wives and mothers of the millions of India, who have the training of them in their childhood, that most impressible time when habits are formed and characters moulded, and by the blessing of God we may prove in a future generation that India has not been given to us for our aggrandisement, or for an outlet to the energies of the sons and daughters of over-populated 77

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

England, but for the winning of a vast continent, with all its varied races of corrupt idolaters, to the knowledge and service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Much has been already done, but it is as a drop in the bucket to what has yet to be done. Let us then be up and doing! We in England have our part to do in helping by our prayers and our liberality those who are bearing the burden and heat of the day in India. They tell us the people are willing, the workers are ready; let us encourage their hearts and strengthen their hands by providing what alone is wanting to spread the good work tenfold. N.B.—Miss Courthope has undertaken to act as Secretary for the Branch Schools in England. Letters to be addressed MISS COURTHOPE, WHILIGH, HAWKHURST, KENT. Five pounds a year keeps a village school and mistress when once established and the building expenses paid. A town school requires a somewhat larger income. Post-Office Orders to be made payable to A. S. Courthope Ticehurst. Parcels to be sent to Whiligh, Wadhurst, S. E. Railway.

78

7 ‘DIFFICULTIES OF ZENANA TEACHING’, INDIAN FEMALE EVANGELIST (OCT 1878), 154–159

This paper was prepared in compliance with a special request made to Mrs. Weitbrecht by the gentlemen of the Calcutta Missionary Conference, who have been taking up the subject of Zenana Missions warmly. It was read at their monthly meeting held on the 8th of April, and it is now sent to England for use in any missionary publication for whose pages it may appear suitable, in the hope of deepening interest in work among the women of India. CALCUTTA, April 17, 1878.

WE will begin our list of difficulties by referring to the very desultory habits of the people, especially the women,—order, regularity, punctuality, have no place in their vocabulary, nor have they any idea of administering a household. Children are under no control, and servants do not obey orders or relieve their mistresses in any adequate degree so as to leave them free time for quiet employment. This state of things is fostered by their constitutional indolence and dislike of trouble. The majority are satisfied with things as they are, and if they can read a little, and keep their household accounts, they give up, with an expression of further acquirement being unnecessary, as they are “only women after all.” The constant recurrence of Hindu festivals is another hindrance, “thirteen in twelve-months” being the orthodox number, though there are many more. The preparation for these, and the late hours they entail, exhaust the small amount of energy these women possess, and they come wearied to their teachers on her next visit, begging to be excused their usual lessons. The atmosphere of superstition in which they continually live is very deadening, and the jeers of those who do not learn very trying and discouraging to those who have a real desire to do their best and improve their opportunity. Another difficulty presents itself in the delicate health of the great majority of native ladies. Fevers and other indispositions are constantly occurring in every family, and will do so till their predisposing causes are removed. Among these may be reckoned their close ill-drained dwellings and early marriages—indeed, to

79

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

the last-named evil do we trace the greatest hindrance of the Zenana teacher. After the marriage of a child of eight, ten, or twelve years, she is constantly going from her father’s to her father-in-law’s house, for months at a time, during the two, three, or four years which may intervene between the celebration of her wedding, and her permanent residence with her husband. During her visits she forgets what she had previously acquired, and in the intervals of her return, has to go over the same ground again. The dissipation of mind caused by this condition of things is a very great barrier to progress. And when at eleven or twelve years of age, with a mind untrained and a character unformed, she becomes practically a wife, and in another year or two a mother, it can easily be understood how greatly maternal trials, and the care of a young infant, unfit her for study even of the lightest kind, the baby being often the central piece in the hour supposed to be given to the teacher, and should it die, the mind of the poor mother is generally in too distracted a state to allow her to read any more. Much might be added on this fruitful topic, but we will pass on to allude to another hindrance which springs from the fickleness of their tastes. A woman may wish to learn to read only, but not to write or acquire the amount of knowledge which inspectors naturally look for. The aim of the Zenana teacher being not so much to educate highly, as to impart Christian instruction, and lead heathen women to the knowledge of salvation, they do not insist on their pupils learning that which is distasteful to them; they enter no family where they are not permitted from the first to impart Bible truth, and if that permission is given, they do not feel justified in refusing to teach, though satisfied that their pupils are not likely to reach a point that would fit them for examination by a Government Inspectress. We must not pass over another hindrance from the frequent removals of the husbands to distant places. Many a promising pupil has been withdrawn from this cause, as the highly educated Bengali gentleman is sometimes suddenly ordered up-country, and his family go with him. So much for the difficulties on one side—now for those on another. So few are the active and efficient workers, that their visits to a house are far too infrequent, and the time which can be given is far too short to permit us to look for very satisfactory or rapid results. One European, American, or other lady-teacher has perhaps eight, ten, twelve, or even more families to visit weekly, beside Schools to oversee. She is assisted by native teachers, but the visit can only be paid once or twice a week to each house. The distances to be travelled, and the character of the climate, add greatly to this difficulty. Then there is the labour of acquiring the native language, the length of time it takes before a foreign lady can speak familiarly or freely, even after learning it in books. A new experience of the habits, customs, modes of thought, etc., of her pupils has also to be gained, and when all this is done, the health perhaps breaks down, and the teacher has to retire for a longer or shorter time, sometimes for good altogether. 80

‘ D I F F I C U LT I E S O F Z E N A N A T E A C H I N G ’

In schools, which form an important part of our work, the difficulties already mentioned act adversely also, especially early marriage, which causes the withdrawal of a pupil when she has advanced so far as to promise to become a welleducated woman. In most cases she is lost sight of from that time, for rarely are they allowed to continue their studies at home. Still, we are not without encouragement in this line, for those girls who have taken interest in study at school, not unfrequently present themselves, after the lapse of a few years, as wives and mothers, to the Zenana teacher, and manifest the benefits received from early cultivation, and the power to reproduce latent knowledge. Schools are certainly among the most promising features in our future prospects. But in spite of all the difficulties which have been enumerated, progress has been made almost beyond our hope, and there is now many a bright intelligent woman to be found in the circle of each missionary teacher. The majority of the pupils are only of ordinary ability, some almost without any, yet among that class are found women who give their teachers the best kind of encouragement, because they hold out hope that instruction has taken root in their hearts, and is bringing forth fruit in their lives. Really superior and gifted women do however fall under instruction sometimes. There is but one remedy for the many disadvantages incident to the social position of Hindu women—but one power that can arouse and elevate them—but one knowledge that can make them truly wise or really happy. This remedy is in the hands of the Zenana teacher; this power is promised; this knowledge she studies by God’s grace to impart; and her labour shall not be in vain. May we not add, it has not been in vain, for many a gem is already shining in the crown of Jesus, transplanted and set there from the seclusion of a Zenana home, and many another is on its way to the same glorious place! We have alluded to the fewness of teachers as one of our difficulties, and the time seems come when we should bestir ourselves more vigorously than we have yet done in this direction. We cannot perhaps look for very rapidly increased supplies from home, and the foreign element is sadly subject to change and withdrawal from causes already indicated. We have, however, material at hand, of which it will be wise to avail ourselves more freely than we have ever done yet. I allude to the young ladies born and brought up in India, a small proportion of whom have been trained for missionary work in the Calcutta Normal School, and have proved themselves very valuable. About one hundred have passed through this Institution since it was commenced; about thirty of whom are still actively employed, and are bearing high characters for faithful service. Some of this number are among the greatest missionary power we now have at work, and others, less known, are doing most efficient service, so that, were they withdrawn, our missions in the Zenana line would suffer grievous loss, and be greatly curtailed. Our friends of the Missionary Conference must know this so well, that we need not particularise, or give sketches of facts, though very telling ones could be given; rather let us press the point of using immediate means to increase our 81

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

indigenous teachers by encouraging those especially engaged and interested in the Calcutta Normal School to engage larger premises, and double their number of young people willing to be trained; this is an imperative necessity if the growing work is to be adequately carried on. Most, if not all, our missionary circles are alive to the importance of increasing our Native female teachers, and of giving them a good and really thorough training, which renders them invaluable auxiliaries to all our English-speaking teachers. We believe each mission has its own native female training-class or school, but the Calcutta Normal School for young ladies born in India, is unique, belongs to the work at large, and has trained young women who are found in each of our missionary circles. It has shown itself a practically catholic Institution, and has, we feel sure, the confidence of the missionary body at large. We have reason to believe, that if teachers existed in sufficient numbers, we could not only increase the efficiency and decrease the difficulties of our present work, but also double its extent very speedily; we should also be in a position to offer well-trained teachers to native gentlemen, who are now awakening to the importance of having a special teacher for their own separate families on paying them an adequate salary. This latter remark opens another point needing attention in Zenana work, i.e. that a fixed rate of fees, agreed on by the whole circle of missionary teachers, is very desirable. Native gentlemen have no idea of adequate payment, and will delight to give only one rupee a month to a superior teacher for instructing his family. It was not so at first; as much as 15 or 18 rupees per month was willingly paid in earlier years by men of good means for a teacher, and we must try and form a plan for raising the scale again. If higher fees were paid, pupils would be more diligent in using their opportunity, and the costly character of Zenana missions would be modified. This matter must not be allowed to rest. It is very desirable to press on the notice of foreign teachers the great importance of acquiring the native language as soon as they arrive in the country, and a determination to spend their first strength in studying it vigorously, and not begin active work till they can speak it. Perhaps a great deal of unsuccessful effort may be traced to the non-observance of this rule, and mistakes that have been serious in their effects on the work have resulted from it also. Time spent on the language is not really lost to the work. Another point of importance is, to select some standard book which a Government Inspectress should approve, and which each missionary Zenana teacher should aim to get her pupils to read. Our women know the Scriptures and works connected with them the best, and these a Government Inspectress would not accept, but there are suitable books which might be used as tests of their knowledge in her examination; she might also be asked to give a sketch to each mission of what she would expect the pupils to be able to do in addition to reading. In Madras they have Government grades, and attention is given in all missionary schools to the directions therein specified. Perhaps, eventually, something of the same kind may be done in Bengal. 82

‘ D I F F I C U LT I E S O F Z E N A N A T E A C H I N G ’

Our remarks on the difficulties of Zenana visitation have been put into as condensed a form as was possible, the aim being simply to give them clear and distinct expression, and to render this paper practically and permanently useful. May each of us realise, in a continually deepening degree, our solemn responsibility as light-bearers to our heathen fellow-subjects, long sunk in superstitious night, but now, we trust, gradually preparing for the bright shining of the Sun of Righteousness, to chase that night away for ever. M. WEITBRECHT.

83

8 JAMES JOHNSTON, EXTRACT FROM OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN INDIA (EDINBURGH: JOHN MACLAREN AND SON, 1880), 37–57

RELIGIOUS NEUTRALITY AN IMPORTANT FEATURE OF THE DESPATCH OF 1854.

Neutrality by system now in force impossible. It undermines native religions.

Uproots belief.

T.B. Macaulay.

That the Home Government meant their education scheme to be thoroughly impartial in its treatment of all forms of religion is too obvious to need any demonstration. I am not aware of any one in this country having questioned this feature of the Government policy. It is too ostentatiously proclaimed to be questioned by any one who knows and trusts in the honesty of English statesmen; it is only doubted by suspicious Asiatics, who, the more it is asserted, only doubt it the more. But wherein does neutrality consist? Does it mean that the Government will not in any way interfere with the religious beliefs of the natives of India, then I unhesitatingly maintain that in the matter of direct teaching in the higher departments, the principle of neutrality is violated in the most practical and important manner. It is true the Government Professors do not directly attack the heathen systems of religion in class hours, nor do they teach Christianity. But they do what is far worse, they undermine the religion of the Hindus, and offer no substitute in its place. I admit it is not intentional, but is not the less true and effectual. It is impossible to teach European science and literature without destroying belief in the gods and religions of India. I will not waste time in showing how it is that such is the effect. It is well known that their false religions are so interwoven with the most erroneous systems of geography, history, astronomy, and science, that the mere teaching of the truth in these departments of a higher education necessarily destroys religious belief. No man who knows India can doubt this. To say that the effect is the same as the teaching of true science in Christian countries is gross misrepresentation. None but a man who is ignorant of India or a sceptic in religion could assert it.1 But let me call a few out of many witnesses to the fact. So long ago as 1833 Macaulay wrote as follows:—“No Hindu, who has received an English education, ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. Some continue to profess it as a matter of policy; but many profess themselves pure Deists, and some embrace Christianity.”2 84

JOHNSTON, OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN INDIA

Dr. Murray Mitchell, so long a distinguished missionary and educationist in India, said at a mission conference in Mildmay Hall last year: “In colleges the gulf between Hinduism and European thought yawns wide and fathomless. Hinduism teaches a professedly inspired science which is outrageously absurd. The pupil soon rejects it with contempt, and at the same time necessarily rejects also the authority of the book which inculcates it. There is thus to him no divine revelation; no authoritative declaration of spiritual truth. For an individual or a community to be thus suddenly tossed from superstition into scepticism is surely a transition most perilous and painful. No wonder if the mental balance is destroyed and the moral nature often completely wrecked.” He then speaks of the effect of the character and profession of the teachers in the Government colleges. “In appointing professors, Government seems to have a regard only to intellectual qualifications. In religion, a man may be a Christian, Deist, Atheist, Comtist, or Agnostic; the Government serenely ignores the question both of his creed and character.” He admits that there are Christian men among them, but quotes authority for saying that there are also among them distinguished men who have “diffused the principles of Tom Paine over a whole generation of youth.” The Rev. W. Fleming Stevenson, lately returned from his mission of inquiry in the East, told the last General Assembly in Ireland that a native who observed to him “those of us who learn English do not believe in idols,” expressed the general mind of his class. He adds: “The head of a native college said one day, ‘I believe that every one of our students who leaves us, knowing English, has ceased to believe in popular Hinduism.’” How many educated young men believe in the Shastras? was the question recently addressed to the students in a Calcutta college. Promptly there were two answers—“Not one in a hundred,” and “Not one in a thousand,” and the rest assented. And the Under-Secretary of Government in India, in a report to the Home Government, puts it in the mildest form when he says: “And what is the product which it costs the State so much to produce? The Bengali undergraduate has had a fair vernacular education, and has gained at least a superficial knowledge of English, but he is possibly, I may say probably, if from a Government school, without any religious belief at all.” We might multiply such evidence, but it is unnecessary. It is in vain to call such a system neutral, it systematically undermines all religious belief, and leaves the youth of India at the most critical period of their lives in a condition most dangerous and disadvantageous to the formation of moral principles and habits. The Under-Secretary in a report to the Indian Government, speaking of the effect of introducing European science, &c., says: “Every day opened to the student a succession of new and strange phenomena in the unsealed realm of history, science, and philosophy.They were suddenly thrown adrift from the mooring and anchorages of old creeds, and tossed upon the wide sea of speculation and extravagance. 85

Dr. M. Mitchell.

Unsettles moral principles. Government appointment of professors.

Rev. W.F. Stevenson.

This not neutrality. Testimony of an UnderSecretary of Government. Unsettles beliefs,

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

and sense “It was no wonder that moral and social obligations began to share the fate of of moral religious beliefs, and that the whole community was in alarm at the spread of the obligation.

new views.This was precisely the state of things which Mr. Charles Marsh had so eloquently anticipated during the discussion of the charter in 1813. ‘It is one thing,’ he said, ‘to dispel the charm which binds mankind to established habits and ancient obligations, and another to turn them over to the discipline and the authority of new doctrines. In that dreadful interval—that dreary void, when the mind is left to wander and grope its way without the props that have hitherto supported it, or the lights which have guided it—what are the chances that they will discern the beauties or submit to the restraints of the religion you may propose to give them?’ His testi- That ‘dreadful interval,’ the Under-Secretary goes on to say, “and ‘that dreary mony to void’ had now arrived, and it is impossible to say how far native society might not missionary have been disorganised, HAD NOT THE MISSIONARIES STEPPED IN AND SUPPLIED A NEW influence.

DIRECTION TO THE AWAKENING SCEPTICISM AND A FRESH SUBJECT TO ATTRACT THE NEW AROUSED SPIRIT OF SPECULATION.”

A most important testimony from a high official of great knowledge and experience reporting to the Government. Moral In regard to the moral influence of the teaching in the colleges where no reliand social gion is taught, it may be admitted that the educated natives, from contact with principles English professors of high character and position, are influenced by a feeling of subverted. honour to pay more regard to truth and honesty than the uneducated. But, on the other hand, it is indisputable that they have acquired not a few new vices or aggravated old ones. They have far less regard to the authority of parents or superiors, and they are more supercilious and contemptuous in the treatment of their more ignorant brethren. The marriage tie is less regarded, and they are more addicted to luxurious habits, and the new vice of drunkenness is making alarming inroads on the physical condition and social habits of the educated youth of India. The Report to Parliament of 1870 seems to us frequently to indicate what it would Dr. C. Macnamara. have been unwise in such a document to express, that the results in this respect are not satisfactory.It is a subject on which we cannot get documentary or official evidence, but, from all we can learn, the following sad picture of society in Bengal could be substantiated by overwhelming moral evidence. It was spoken publicly at the opening of the session of the Medical School of Westminster Hospital last October by Dr. C. Macnamara, and, from his long and extensive practice, to a large extent amongst the highest class of the native, few men have had such opportunities of knowing their habits and sentiments. He said: “Many natives admit the benefits conferred by our rule, but they deplore the disorganised state of society in Bengal. The old families have almost disappeared, and the sons and husbands of the educated and rising generation are largely addicted to drunkenness and vice of every kind, and the more thoughtful men and the vast majority of women contrast this state of things with times when there was less security to life and property, less law, taxation, and education, but when the greatest slur that could attach itself to a man’s name was that of being an undutiful son. Our system, of education has broken down all faith in 86

JOHNSTON, OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN INDIA

religion, and the outcome of a purely secular training has developed gross materialism and rank socialism, and so the necessity for suppressing the outspoken sentiments of the vernacular press, which, nevertheless, gave utterance to opinions he had heard over and over again for some years past among all classes of natives, and which he dreaded would one day break out into a revolt, in comparison with which the Mutiny was a mere brawl.” Where, then, I ask, is the neutrality of our present method? But what was the design of the Home Government in the despatch of 1854? It aimed at neutrality, as we shall show, in a most enlightened and effective way.

UNIVERSITIES, GRANTS-IN-AID, AND INSPECTION wERE NEUTRAL SYSTEM IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF INDIA COULD ALONE BE CARRIED OUT.

THE MEANS BY WHICH A

I have shown how decidedly the Home Government expressed its desire for the withdrawal of the direct teaching in the higher departments, and that the universities were meant to supersede the necessity for it. I do not assert that it was wholly, or chiefly,—it was, perhaps, not at all on the ground of their not being inconsistent with neutrality that they were to be withdrawn. It would have been questionable policy to have declared that they were practically incompatible with neutrality. But it is a most significant fact, that all the references to neutrality that I can see in the despatch, are in connection with the three new features which it introduced into the education of India—viz., The “Universities Grants-in-Aid,” and “Inspection.” To secure impartiality in quotations, I shall give those collected by a strong advocate of the present system. Mr. Cust says in his pamphlet on this subject:— “I have carefully gone over these famous one hundred paragraphs, though I have often read them before. If there is any one leading characteristic of that charter, it is the desire not to awaken a religions difficulty. Thus:— “Par. 28. ‘The examination at the University will not include any subject connected with religious belief; and the affiliated institutions will be under the management of persons of every variety of religious persuasion.’ “Par. 32.‘We shall refuse to sanction any teaching (connected and Mohammedan tenets), as directly opposed to the principle of religious neutrality, to which we have always adhered.’ “Par. 34. ‘(The Senate) will include natives of India of all religious persuasions.’ “Par. 53. ‘The system of grants-in-aid will be based on an entire abstinence from interference with the religious instruction conveyed in the school.’ “Par. 56. ‘No notice whatsoever to be taken by the Inspector of the religious doctrines, which may be taught in the school.’ “Par. 57. ‘It may be advisable distinctly to assert in them the principle of perfect religious neutrality, on which the grants will be awarded.’”

87

Neutrality of despatch.

Refers to conferring university degree on special subjects

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

Not carried If the system thus laid down had been faithfully and impartially carried out out. there would have been nothing to complain of.

Mr. Robert N. Cust, and Mr. M. Kempson, who have lately written pamphlets in support of the higher education by Government, and in opposition to the recent circular of the Church Missionary Society, and the views I had advocated at the Conference on Missions in October last, both maintain, that the principles of the despatch have been carried out. The former quotes a number of passages from resolutions and declarations by the Government in India. But these gentlemen should distinguish between good resolutions and good deeds. I never questioned the designs and intentions of the Government, or its members. I have always made full allowance for the difficulties of their position. I do not even impute motives to the parties most interested in supporting the present system, I give them full credit for thinking the system of which they are the representatives or agents the best that could be carried out. But we cannot blind our eyes to facts, and it is with Systems facts that I deal, not words. It is very difficult for any class of men to see their own dread faults, or the faults of their systems, and it is for that reason I urge action from extinction without. It is hardly to be expected that the system will perform the rite which Japanese officials ironically call the “happy despatch.” “Euthanasia,” a most sweet word, is not likely to become popular among systems any more than amongst individuals; nor is it desirable. A responsible Government must take the work in hand. Mr. Mr. Kemp- Kempson tells us, without the slightest reference to any evidence, that in regard to son’s my charges against the tendency of the present system, “They have no existence experience. in fact, so far as my experience goes.” If Mr. Kempson’s experience was limited to the north-west provinces, in which he was “Director of Public Instruction,” I can conceive it possible that he may not have seen, in an obvious form, the evils I speak of, for two reasons. First, because these provinces have been only a comOldest seats of paratively short time under the system, which takes time to produce its baneful learning fruit. In a list of the professed religious beliefs of graduates over all India, I was the worst struck with the fact, that of the number of those who professed themselves of no results. religious belief, the proportion was far greatest in Bengal, where the system had been longest in force, and it almost vanished as we came to these regions in which it was comparatively new. Second, the north-west provinces and the Punjab have Good rulers. been highly Good rulers. favoured with commissioners and lieutenant governors of the very highest wisdom and character, who did much to put education on the best possible basis in their power. Disloyalty and open irreligion and immorality, under such men as Sir Henry Lawrence, Lord Lawrence, and Sir William Muir, would have been unnatural and improbable.3 Grants-inSecond misconception. Both Mr. Kempson and Mr. Cust assume, that in aid for all. advocating the withdrawal of the Government colleges we expect that the grants-in-aid are to go exclusively, or almost exclusively, to mission colleges, and against this their arguments on the ground of neutrality are telling enough.

88

JOHNSTON, OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN INDIA

But it is an easy feat to knock down a man of straw of our own setting up. I would at once say that such a procedure would be not only opposed to neutrality but to justice. The natives of India have a right to be fairly and even liberally dealt with in such a case; and I fully expect that they would set themselves to establish and maintain colleges and high schools, if they were left to stand alone, instead of being bolstered up by a pauperising system. They have done so before, and would do it again. When the desire for education had not a tithe of the strength it has now, the natives of India made noble contributions for education. Now it is a felt necessity, and there is no fear of the higher education going down. If the universities are kept up, they will maintain the standard in all the higher schools and colleges. That the natives of India are able, and would, if left to their own resources, maintain the colleges, is asserted in Government reports. Mr. Arthur Howell, than whom no man had better means of knowing, asserts it; the conference of missionaries at Allahabad expressed the same opinion and in the last “statement exhibiting the moral and material progress of India,” attention is called to the circumstance that on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales, the wealthy natives in several places commemorated the event by raising money for educational purposes. The native gentlemen of Behar alone subscribed the sum of £20,000. We have had noble examples of liberality among the natives of India in both building and endowing colleges and schools before Government began to do it for them. We are apt to forget that learning was honoured and maintained in India long before we had emerged from barbarism. We do not expect them to volunteer to do this; like most subjects of an absolute government, they prefer to have everything done for them. But if left alone in a firm, cautious, and friendly spirit, they could and would provide it for themselves. But would this be an advantage in a missionary point of view? That is not with me the first question. Is it right in itself? That is what we have to see to; and if it is right, I am sure it will be best for the righteous cause. Missions have nothing to fear in a fair competition with natives of any class. It is only the unfair competition with a Government, backed by the prestige and pay that makes voluntary efforts by either natives or missions so arduous or impossible. If that competition were withdrawn, we have reason to believe that colleges would soon cease to be a burden on the funds of the Church. They would, with slightly higher fees and a larger attendance, pay their own expenses. The average attendance at aided colleges is only seventy-four; they could educate three or four times that number without any corresponding addition to their contributions from home. If any should still say that the natives of India could not or would not support colleges for themselves, I would only say, that in that improbable and sad case they would have themselves to blame, and could not charge on Government the fault of aiding either missionary societies or European residents in providing the needed means of education.

89

Natives could support colleges.

Testimony of witnesses. Evidence recent and remote.

Will not volunteer till left alone. Benefit to missions not first question.

Fair competition not feared.

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

It is found in Calcutta, that the high schools are now paying concerns, to use a mercantile phrase, and they are being established as a profitable commercial speculation. We have another and painful reason for urging the gradual withdrawal of the direct teaching by Government in the higher departments.

THE PRESENT SYSTEM IS RAISING UP A NUMBER OF DISCONTENTED AND DISLOYAL SUBJECTS. This is not so much felt in districts in which education is of recent origin and limited in extent to the wants of the locality. But in the old educational seats, especially in Bengal, this result of the Government system of direct education is painfully and alarmingly felt. ExpectaIt fosters and gives facilities for getting an education in the language and tions culture of the ruling power, which is generally interpreted into an intention to raised, employing in lucrative and honourable posts those who have entered, as they think, with their Asiatic notions, into relations with the Government, in which their only sense of gratitude for the benefits of a cheap and liberal education is a “lively anticipation of future favours,” and a sense of injustice and a feeling of resentment if they are not conferred. The interpretation put on the despatch of 1854 has added to that native tendency to anticipate Government patronage for the favour they think they confer by attending its colleges. The wording of sec. 72 seems to have been so understood. It runs thus: “We have always been of opinion that the spread of education in India will produce a greater efficiency in all branches of administration, by enabling you to obtain the services of intelligent and trustworthy persons in every department of Government; and, on the other hand, we believe that the numerous vacancies of different kinds which have constantly to be filled up may afford a great stimulus to education.” They could then say, as they do in sec. 73: “We understand that it is often not so much the want of Government employment, as the want of properly qualified persons to be employed by Government, which is felt at the present time in many parts of India.” They express regret that “no more than forty-six persons bad been gazetted in Bengal up to 1852, all of whom were students in the Government colleges.” Other passages might be quoted to the same effect. These are worthy objects in themselves, but they have engendered unreasonable expectations in the minds of a people like the Hindus. to be disBut what is the state of matters now? A supply vastly in excess of the demand, appointed. not only from Government offices, but from all sources of employment. In the Report for 1870, the Under-Secretary makes frequent reference to this fact. The following may be taken as a sample of the views repeatedly expressed or implied in the “Blue Book.” Referring to the educated native, he says: “He is precluded by his education from manual labour, and from recruiting that class on whose

90

JOHNSTON, OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN INDIA

industry and intelligence the prosperity of the country depends. He finds himself in keenest competition for intellectual employent—for there are thousands like himself—as the market, though ample, has been overstocked, and all the while industrial education has been neglected altogether, and there are millions for whom no kind of instruction has been provided by the Government at all.” This will easily be understood by a reference to the numbers who are prepared Supply in for, or who actually pass through the colleges now, as compared with what they excess of demand. were 21 years ago, when the three universities were set up. In 1857 when the universities were founded, the matriculation examination only is given. In Calcutta, there were 244 candidates, of whom 162 passed. In 1877, there were 2425 candidates, of whom 1355 passed. In Madras, the number for 1857 was 41 candidates, of whom 36 passed; in 1877 there were 2517 candidates, of whom 1250 passed. It will give an idea of the increase of education, when we quote from the “Abstract,” laid before Parliament last year, the following figures. In ten years, from 1868 to 1877, the three universities conferred the following degrees:— 286 received the degree of M.A. 1,652 B.A. ” ” 209 received diplomas in civil engineering. 809 ” ” in medicine. 910 ” ” in law. 4,091 passed the first arts examination. 17,802 entrance examination. ” Add 5,948 who passed the entrance examination from 1857–1867, and we have 23,740 matriculated within these 21 years. The rapid rate of progress may be judged of by taking the numbers who passed each fifth year during this period. In 1857, 198 passed the entrance examination in Calcutta and Madras universities; that for Bombay was not then formed. ” 1862, 522 ” ” ” ” ” 1867, 1123 the three universities. ” ” 1872, 1486 ” ” ” ” ” 1877, 2808 ” ” ” ” Well may we ask with the Under-Secretary in the “Return” from which these figures are taken: “Does the system tend to confer those vast moral and material blessings which flow from the general diffusion of useful knowledge?” described in the despatch of 1854. “What becomes of all these highly-educated young men, whom the university turns out every year? Are they, as in England, absorbed into the channels of

91

What becomes of the educated?

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

every-day life, with a satisfactory or even perceptible result? Are they to be traced, as in England, in a liberal and enlightened native press? Do native gentlemen, like English gentlemen, return to their zemindaries from a university career to spread around them the reflex of the enlightenment they have received themselves? Does the process of highly educating a few and leaving the masses, tend to increase or diminish the gulf between class and class? Are there any indications of a decrease in crime, or of a dawn of intelligence in the agricultural classes? Such questions will occur to any one who sees how the public expenditure on education is annually distributed, and how comparatively few are the recipients of the larger share of the State’s bounty.” Native He professes his inability to answer these questions. It is time they were press answered. Recent events have given an unsatisfactory reply; our attempt to concontrolled. trol the native press is the most significant answer that Government has yet given. Will that satisfy the nation and the Church? The above figures give no idea of the number of educated natives qualified for, as they think, and fully expecting employment in Government or mercantile offices, and in a large proportion of cases finding none of the kind they expected; while, by their training, they are, as Mr. Howell says, “unfitted for manual and productive industry.” In the official Report on the “Moral and Material Progress of India,” laid before Parliament last year, the expression occurs regarding the educated class—“The complaint is reiterated by the local Government, that the youth of Bengal resort almost exclusively to two professions, which are over-stocked—the law and the public service. . . . Dislike of manual work creates a prejudice against (even) the practical study of mechanics.” Indian If we look beyond those who have succeeded in passing the entrance examinanot like tion, or in obtaining degrees, to the much larger number who have come up as English candidates from the higher schools, with a good education in their own languages, graduates. and a fair knowledge of English, acquired not for its own sake, or for the sake of the literary treasures it contains, but solely with a view to sordid gain or worldly promotion, we shall have a better idea of the source whence so much discontent and disloyalty emanate. The number of candidates who have presented themselves for examination by the universities, during these twenty-one years, amounts in the aggregate to not less than 61,650. To show the rate of increase, we find, that for the first eleven years the number of applicants was 15,673. In the last ten years it was 45,977. The “General Report on Public Instruction in Bengal,” just come to hand, states, that Only too “the number has doubled since 1874.” These numbers, though large, are not, it numerous may be said, great, when compared with relatively the population of India. But relatively. they are out of all proportion to the numbers educated in the lower departments, and what is of far more consequence, far above the natural law of demand and supply. No comparison can be drawn from European habits, where the higher education is part of the equipment for the life of a gentleman, as well as a qualification for professional employment. To the Indian this European culture is almost 92

JOHNSTON, OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN INDIA

exclusively a preparation for professional, and still more for official, life, and disappointed of these, the education has only excited wants and raised expectations which leave the unsuccessful aspirant a discontented and dangerous man. These figures speak for themselves. The Under-Secretary of the Home Department in India, was painfully impressed with the state of matters of which he knew so much, and in 1869 wrote these eloquent and solemn words in his “Report”—words which may well go home to every patriotic heart. The danger is far greater now than it was ten years ago. It grows with the growth of the system: “Looking to the rapid growth of our educational system, and to the enormous influence for good or evil that a single able and well-educated man may exercise in this country; and looking at the dense but inflammable ignorance of the millions around us, it seems a tremendous experiment for the State to undertake, and in some provinces almost monopolise, the direct training of whole generations, above their own creed, and above the sense of relation to another world upon which they base all their moral obligations; and the possible evil is obviously growing with this system;” and he concludes with the solemn warning: “It is true that things go smoothly and quietly, but this is attained by ignoring, not only the inevitable results of early training on the character, and the great needs of human nature, especially in the East, but by also ignoring the responsibility which devolves on the Government that assumes the entire control of direct education at all. If, therefore, while fanaticism is raging around, there is a calm in our schools and colleges, it is an ominous and unnatural calm of impossible continuance, the calm of the centre of the cyclone.”

A solemn official warning.

Government is responsible.

ABOUT REMEDIES AND OBJECTIONS.—FIRST, GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS. I do not feel called on to lay down the programme of a future policy; that I leave for more experienced and competent hands. I have proved the existence of an evil of a most pernicious and perilous kind, which demands a remedy on the score of religion, morality, and good government. I have shown the presence of institutions supported by natives and European residents, as well as those by missionary societies, capable of indefinite expansion, with a continuance of the grants-in-aid now given. I have called attention to the principle underlying the whole of the despatch of 1854, which anticipated and required a change from the existing method of direct instruction by the Government. The universities, the grants-inaid, and inspection being all based on that principle. In these circumstances, I am under no necessity of proposing any new method, I simply ask for the honest and earnest carrying out of the provision of the despatch.4 It will be a difficult, but not an impossible task. It must be done firmly and persistently, but slowly and cautiously, under imperial authority: not in a spirit of antagonism to the natives, but by appealing to their better feelings, and calling on them to make a sacrifice for the benefit of their poorer and less-favoured brethren. I have too much respect for the higher classes in India, to suspect them of the selfish desire to continue a 93

Firm, caution, and kindly withdrawal of Government Colleges,

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

monopoly of State education at the expense of the poor. With special colleges, and the technical schools, and normal schools and colleges, we would not interfere. and The education in the higher class of schools should also be given up by the higherGovernment. In them the branches taught necessarily tend to undermine belief, as class well as, though not to the same extent as in the colleges, and it would be easy for schools. the natives and societies to keep them up. They can be made even now to pay their own expenses under native teachers, with a good European master. The universities would of course remain, and would be a guarantee, and the means of keeping up the standard, and stimulating to the highest effort by their examinations, degrees, scholarships, and rewards. They might be improved by broadening the basis of representation at their boards. These are what we ask, and they are only what the Home Government have What Home urged for the last quarter of a century. But if “it’s a far cry to Loch Awe,” it’s a Governfurther cry to the Hooghly, and it will require the loudest and most stern call of the ment called for in vain. British Parliament, to secure a consistent carrying out of its determinations. But it may be asked, since the terms of the despatch are so explicit, and the wishes of Government have been so clearly and frequently expressed during these Why in twenty-five years, why have not Government colleges been reduced in number, vain. and the funds employed on lower education, or the cheap substitution for grantsin-aid in native and mission colleges? GovernThe answer is not far to seek. The Indian Government cannot give, or not give, ment pre- that amount of time and attention to education which the subject demands. They occupied. are so much taken up with weighty and multifarious affairs of a more urgent though not more important nature, that they have left the power, not formally, but External practically, in the hands of secular educationists. They have thrown open the highinfluence, est appointments, even those of “Directors of public Instruction,” winch at first were given to experienced civilians, to professors and principals of colleges and schools, as the rewards of lengthened service, or of ability in teaching. The consequences are what might have been expected. With the best intention, it may be, of a professional these men inevitably identify themselves with their system, which had been all class. along the higher education. They think, and in fact tell us, that we must educate the higher classes to the highest pitch, and by-and-by education will “percolate downward to the lower strata.” We all know the tendency of professional and class legislation. To set a body of ecclesiastics or schoolmasters, of doctors or lawyers, of officers of the army or navy, to take steps for gradually reducing their numbers, until they become extinct, and to foster and strengthen another body of men for whom they had no affection, and in whom, from professional pride, they had probably no confidence, to take their place, would not be a likely way to gain the end desired. They would find a thousand good reasons for avoiding the task, or delaying its execution. In fact, to ask men to extinguish themselves or their system is wrong, to expect them to do it is folly. Mission But I must call attention to what is worse than evasion and delay in carrying out colleges disliked. the provisions of the despatch and the wishes of the Government. There seems of

94

JOHNSTON, OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN INDIA

late, a growing tendency to discourage, if not to destroy, the aided colleges, as rivals to those of Government. It is with pain that I have lately received stronger confirmation of what has long been feared, that there is a strong desire to get rid of all our missionary colleges, which have done so much for the education of the people, and, as the highest officers of the Government have allowed, done much to save society from the baneful effects of mere secular teaching. Some of these colleges have of late years greatly improved in their management and efficiency, and now number a larger roll of graduates than those of Government. This is what the despatch aimed at, and what ought to have been hailed with gratitude. Instead of that, what do we find? The most efficient of them are being treated with the greatest severity, and the grants-in-aid are reduced, and reduced in the most arbitrary way, and on such short notice as to be embarrassing and discouraging to the managers. I cannot now give details, but record the fact, and am prepared with details if required. It has long been known that many in high employment in the Educational Department are opposed to mission colleges, on the ground of religious feeling. They openly advocate views directly adverse to Christianity; and this feeling, which formerly found vent in contempt for a weak opponent, now finds vent in acts of bitter hostility towards a powerful rival. I am far from charging professors and directors as a body with hostility to religion, but it cannot be denied that there are many of the most active and pushing of their number who are opposed to anything in the form of living Christianity, and in a system which is based on the exclusion of religion those who are hostile to it have a vantage ground, in opposing institutions which condemn their own by teaching the truths which they ignore, and yet gain the confidence of the natives, and do their work at so much less cost to the Government.5 I need not reply to the objections which may be made to these simple proposals.I would refer to the able men who drew up the despatch, as a guarantee that its provisions are wise and practicable. It is well known that Sir Charles Wood took counsel with the wisest and most experienced men of all parties, in preparing that important document—the Magna Charta of education in India.The most experienced governors, civilians, professors, and missionaries were engaged in its composition, and it bears the mark of the greatest wisdom and minutest forethought, “aided,” as they say they were in paragraph six, “by ample experience of the past and the most competent advice for the future.” It is not disrespectful to say of those who have carped at, and opposed the carrying out of its provisions, that they cannot boast of greater wisdom and experience than those who gave such mature and disinterested attention to the drawing up of a code worthy of the new era, when, as they say, in the opening paragraph, “By an Act of the Imperial Legislature, the responsible trust of the Government of India has again been placed in our hands.” If the despatch is impracticable, let them ask for its repeal.

95

Discouraged.

Hostility of Secularists.

Do not reply to objections. Experienced men drew up despatch.

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

SECOND, ABOUT MISSION COLLEGES. It is most desirable that, in order to the efficient and economical management of mission colleges, the different Evangelical Churches co-operate in supporting and managing them. At first these educational missions were entirely conducted by the Church of Scotland, and only one was set up in each Presidential city. In place But ere long, one after another of the leading missionary societies started on the division of same line—a most gratifying evidence of the proved efficiency of the system labour. which Dr. Duff may be said to have originated, but leading to what cannot but be deplored as a needless waste in men and money. So long as the Presbyterian Church of Scotland made this line of action a speciality in mission work, for which, as the Church of John Knox, she was peculiarly fitted, it made a good division of labour, taking the missions in India as one body working for one great end; but when each began to add this feature to their other work, or to give up other Waste in forms of work for this, it had the necessary effect of multiplying small educational men and institutions, with a small number if pupils, either with a small staff of teachers, in money. which case they were inefficient, or with a large staff, and then the average cost of each pupil was very high. It is found, then, that four or five European professors, with native assistants, Economy. can teach 300 or 400 pupils as well as they could teach a fourth part of the number, which reduces the cost of each pupil in proportion. At present the number of pupils, in aided colleges, is on an average only seventy-four to each. Far too small a number to pay, as they might be made to do, the great part, if not eventually nearly the whole, of their own expenses, but for the wasteful competition amongst themselves, and still more the unequal competition with Government institutions. A slight rise in the fee with increased attendance would make colleges self-supporting. An example of this kind of co-operation has been exhibited in Madras under the A partial example. able presidency and through the exertions of Mr. Miller, with the most satisfactory results—the Church of England, the Established Church of Scotland, and the Methodist Missionary Societies, all contributing to the Free Church College, under a board of management on the spot. It is hoped that these societies and others will combine at home for a general movement, which may establish mission colleges of a high class, in greater force, at more stations, and at less expense to each society than at present. A full staff Another point of great importance is to see that such a staff of professors and needed teachers is kept up, as shall admit of greater attention being paid to evangelistic for higher work in the colleges and amongst those who have passed through our educational success. institutions. This work must, as a rule, be done by the professors, not by a separate class set apart as evangelists.They would be looked on with distrust, and would not get the hold on old scholars which a former teacher would. Every professor and teacher Must be must be an evangelist, who carries his evangelistic spirit into the school and colevangelistic. lege, every day, and at all times. By having a larger staff, there could always be Call for cooperation.

96

JOHNSTON, OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN INDIA

one in turn engaged in Rooking after, and addressing as occasion offered, old graduates of their own or Government colleges, in the towns, and by occasional itinerancy in the surrounding country for scattering the seed of the Word where it may fall into the hearts of old pupils, and recall old lessons.This kind of sporadic work, conducted on a concentric principle, would be of great use. Each college should be a centre, and the circle would correspond with the radius from which its graduates were drawn. It is a shame to the Church that by having almost all our colleges undermanned it was impossible to carry on such work in a methodical and efficient way. Another branch of work which ought to be greatly extended, is the training of teachers for the elementary schools. If a large number of well-qualified teachers were trained, they would soon get employment throughout the country, if the stimulus were given to the elementary education which was originally intended by the despatch of 1854. In the last place, let there be more intelligent oversight, and earnest prayer by the Church at home; and we hope, that, ere long, we may see glorious results. There is a great leavening process going on in Hindu thought and feeling. There is a conviction diffused that the Christian system is the true, and will be the triumphant religion in India. There will be opposition, there may be a conflict, imperiling our rule, if not our existence, in the country, ere that triumph is attained, but it will come, and it will, we believe, come with a sudden and mighty rush which will startle and amazean incredulous age. Hinduism is like no other system that now exists, or has ever existed in the world. It seems as if it would defy those processes of disintegration, by which believers may be gathered by units or tens or hundreds from other sects and races, in other systems, in other lands, or even in India, as among the aboriginal tribes, or those simpler races in Tinevelley and Travancore, which never fully partook of the fatal privileges of Brahminical religion, and were never brought within the iron bondage of caste, where missions have been so largely successful. Hinduism defies the tooth of time and the tool of the engineer to disintegrate it, or to pick out a stone from the hard and compact structure, except in a few rare and exceptional cases, and the intensity of passion with which these few conversions are felt and resented shows how perfect is the unity of the body—“If one member suffers all the members suffer with it.” When Hinduism falls, it will fall as those grand old towers fall which have outlived the age and state of society for which they were constructed; so strongly cemented that they will stand or fall entire—they cannot be taken down like our frail modern structures, stone by stone. It is only by the slow and persevering process of sapping and mining that they can be brought to the ground, and they fall in one solid mass. It is thus that this great donjon, in which superstition and caste have kept the millions of India as in a castle of despair, will one day fall, “to rise no more at all.” A thousand agencies are at work to undermine it, secular and religious, and we wish them all God-speed; but none can compare with the full and clear proclamation of the glorious Gospel, in thoroughly equipped and efficiently 97

Sporadic and concentric work.

Normal schools and colleges. The Church’s duty, oversight and prayer.

Hinduism to fall not by disintegration;

but in mass,

like old tower.

By undermining foundations.

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

conducted educational institutions, in which Divine light is thrown on every subject of human study, by generous and disinterested men of the highest culture and Christian character.

Notes 1. See Appendix E. 2. “Life of Lord Macaulay.” 3. There is a third reason, but as it assumes the form of personality I will not introduce it into my argument. Mr. Kempson seems to form very decided opinions on very slender data. He had only seen a brief and necessarily an imperfect account of my views in a pamphlet by Mr. Cust, who did not even quote my words; and yet, with no other means of knowing my character or opinions, he pens and prints the following words: “It need hardly be said that want of sympathy leads to detraction and antagonism.” Then follow such expressions as “unfair and mischievous,” “imperfect information,” “a libel on the people of India,” &c. On what ground does Mr. Kempson charge me with “want of sympathy” with the Government, and guilty of “detraction” and “libel” and “mischievous respresentations” of the people of India? 4. See the first sentence in the analysis of the despatch by the Under-Secretary, Appendix D. 5. Cannot plead retrenchment. They are increasing cost of Government colleges.

98

9 ‘RECOMMENDATIONS’, IN REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1883), 311–312, 590–602, 604–618

338. Recommendations.—The Recommendations adopted by the Commission are as follows:— (1)

(2) (3) (4)

(5) (6)

(7)

That the attention of the Local Governments be invited to the recommendations made in the several provincial reports with regard to providing or extending the means of collegiate education in the province of Sind and at Ahmedabad in Bombay, at Bhagalpur in Bengal, and at Jabalpur in the Central Provinces; and also to the question of the establishment of an aided college at Delhi under native management. That the rate of aid to each college be determined by the strength of the staff, the expenditure on its maintenance, the efficiency of the institution, and the wants of the locality. That provision be made for special grants to aided colleges, whenever necessary, for the supply and renewal of buildings, furniture, libraries, and other apparatus of instruction. That in order to secure a due succession of competent officers in the Education Department, the period of necessary service qualifying for pension should be reduced, and that a graduated scale of pensions based on length of service, and obtainable without medical certificate, should be introduced. That Indian graduates, especially those who have also graduated in European Universities, be more largely employed than they have hitherto been in the colleges maintained by Government. That in order to encourage diversity of culture, both on the literary and on the physical side, it is desirable, in all the larger colleges, Government and aided, to make provision for more than one of the alternative courses laid down by the Universities. That the discretionary power of Principals of colleges, to admit to certain courses of lectures in special cases students who have not passed the examinations required by the Universities, be affirmed. 99

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

(8) (9) (10)

(11) (12)

(13)

(14) (15) (16) (17)

(18)

(19)

That an attempt be made to prepare a moral text book, based upon the fundamental principles of natural religion, such as may be taught in all Government and non Government colleges That the Principal or one of the Professors in each Government and aided college deliver to each of the college classes in every session a series of lectures on the duties of a man and a citizen That while it is desirable to affirm the principle that fees at the highest rate consistent with the undiminished spread of education should be levied in every college aided by the State, no aided college should be required to levy fees at the same rate as that charged in a neighbouring Government college That no college, Government or aided, be allowed to receive more than a certain proportion of free students, the proportion to be fixed by the Department, in communication, where necessary, with the managers That to secure regularity of attendance at colleges the principle be affirmed that fees, though levied monthly for the convenience of students, are to be regarded as payments for a term, and that a student has no right to a certificate from his college for any term until the whole fee for that term is paid That as the fees in the Presidency College of Madras are considerably lower than those which it is found practicable to levy in the Presidency Colleges of Calcutta and Bombay, the Government of Madras be invited to consider the advisability of enhancing the rate of fees in that college That the Local Governments and Administrations be invited to consider whether it is necessary to assign for scholarships, tenable in Arts colleges, a larger proportion of the provincial grant for education than two per cent That scholarship holders, as such, be not exempted from payment of the ordinary fees That the Local Governments be invited to consider the advisability of appropriating, where necessary, a certain sum for the establishment of scholarships tenable by graduates reading for the M.A. degree That the Local Governments be invited to consider the advisability of establishing scholarships for distinguished graduates to enable them to proceed to Europe for the purpose of practically studying some branch of mechanical industry That in place of the system existing in Madras, according to which the first twenty students at the University Entrance and B.A. Examinations are allowed to read free in any Government college, liberal provision be made for a system of scholarships open to general competition and tenable in any college That the Government of Bombay be requested to consider whether all or some of the scholarships now restricted to the Elphinstone and Deccan Colleges may, with due regard to the circumstances under which they were originally founded, be made tenable at any affiliated college, and that if these scholarships cannot fairly be opened to general competition, they be awarded as far as possible to poor students who, but for the stipends, would be unable to continue their studies at college 100

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

678.—(4)—Recommendations on Collegiate Education 1. That the attention of the Local Governments be invited to the recommendations made in the several Provincial Reports with regard to providing or extending the means of collegiate education in the Province of Sindh and at Ahmedabad in Bombay, at Bhagulpur in Bengal and at Jabalpur in the Central Provinces and also to the question of the establishment of an aided college at Delhi under native management. 2. That the rate of aid to each college be determined by the strength of the staff the expenditure on its maintenance the efficiency of the institution and the wants of the locality. 3. That provision be made for special grants to aided colleges whenever necessary, for the supply and renewal of buildings, furniture libraries, and other apparatus of instruction. 4. That in order to secure a due succession of competent officers in the Education Department, the period of necessary service qualifying for pension should be reduced, and that a graduated scale of pensions based on length of service, and obtainable without medical certificate, should be introduced. 5. That Indian graduates, especially those who have also graduated in European Universities, be more largely employed than they have hitherto been in the colleges maintained by Government. 6. That in order to encourage diversity of culture, both on the literary and on the physical side, it is desirable, in all the larger colleges, Government and aided, to make provision for more than one of the alternative courses laid down by the Universities. 7. That the discretionary power of Principals of colleges, to admit to certain courses of lectures in special cases students who have not passed the examinations required by the Universities, be affirmed. 8. That an attempt be made to prepare a moral text-book, based upon the fundamental principles of natural religion, such as may be taught in all Government and non-Government colleges. 9. That the Principal or one of the Professors in each Government and aided college deliver to each of the college classes in every session a series of lectures on the duties of a man and a citizen. 10. That while it is desirable to affirm the principle that fees at the highest rate consistent with the undiminished spread of education should be levied in every college aided by the State, no aided college should be required to levy fees at the same rate as that charged in a neighbouring Government college. 11. That no college, Government or aided, be allowed to receive more than a certain proportion of free students; the proportion to be fixed by the Department, in communication, where necessary, with the managers. 12. That to secure regularity of attendance at colleges, the principle be affirmed that fees, though levied monthly for the convenience of students, are to be regarded as payments for a term, and that a student has no right to a certificate from his college for any term until the whole fee for that term is paid. 101

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

13. That as the fees in the Presidency College of Madras are considerably lower than those which it is found practicable to levy in the Presidency Colleges of Calcutta and Bombay, the Government of Madras be invited to consider the advisability of enhancing the rate of fees in that college. 14. That the Local Governments and Administrations be invited to consider whether it is necessary to assign for scholarships tenable in Arts colleges a larger proportion of the provincial grant for education than 2 per cent. 15. That scholarship-holders as such be not exempted from payment of the ordinary fees. 16. That the Local Governments be invited to consider the advisability of appropriating, where necessary, a certain sum for the establishment for scholarships tenable by graduates reading for the M.A. degree. 17. That the Local Governments be invited to consider the advisability of establishing scholarships for distinguished graduates to enable them to proceed to Europe for the purpose of practically studying some branch of mechanical industry. 18. That in place of the system existing in Madras, according to which the first twenty students at the University Entrance and F.A. examinations are allowed to read free in any Government college, liberal provision be made for a system of scholarships open to general competition and tenable in any college. 19. That the Government of Bombay be requested to consider whether all or some of the scholarships now restricted to the Elphinstone and Deccan Colleges may, with due regard to the circumstances under which they were originally founded, be made tenable at any affiliated college; and that if these scholarships cannot fairly be opened to general competition, they be awarded as far as possible to poor students who, but for the stipends, would be unable to continue their studies at college.

679. (5).—Recommendations on the Internal Administration of the Education Department. 1. That when an educational officer enters the higher graded service of the Education Department, his promotion should not involve any loss of pay. 2. That conferences (1) of officers of the Education Department, and (2) of such officers with managers of aided and unaided schools, be held from time to time for the discussion of questions affecting education, the Director of Public Instruction being in each case ex-officio President of the conference. Also that Deputy Inspectors occasionally hold local meetings of the schoolmasters subordinate to them for the discussion of questions of school management. 3. That a general educational library and museum be formed at some suitable locality in each Province, and that encouragement be given to school-papers or magazines conducted in the vernacular.

102

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

4. That managers of schools in competition be invited by the Department to agree to rules providing, as far as the circumstances of the locality allow, (1) that, except at specified times, a pupil of one school be not admitted to another without a certificate from his previous school; (2) that any fees due to that school have been paid; and (3) that he do not obtain promotion into a higher class by changing his school. 5. That it be an instruction to the Department in the various Provinces to aim at raising fees gradually, cautiously, and with due regard to necessary exemptions, up to the highest amount that will not check the spread of education, especially in colleges, secondary schools, and primary schools in towns where the value of education is understood. 6. That the Education Department in each Province limit its calls for returns, (1) to such as the Government may require, and (2) to such others as are indispensable for information and control. 7. That all schools managed by the Department, or by Committees exercising statutory powers, and all other schools that are regularly aided or inspected, or that regularly send pupils to the examinations of the University or of the Department (other than examinations which are conducted by the Department for admission to the public service), be classed as public schools, and sub-divided into departmental, aided, and unaided; (2) that all other schools furnishing returns to the Department be classed as private schools; and (3) that all other details of classification be referred to the Statistical Committee appointed by the Government of India. 8. That no attempt be made to furnish financial returns for private schools. 9. That native and other local energy be relied upon to foster and manage all education as far as possible, but that the results must be tested by departmental agency, and that therefore the inspecting staff be increased so as to be adequate to the requirements of each Province. 10. That the remuneration of subordinate inspecting officers be reconsidered in each Province with due regard to their enhanced duties and responsibilities. 11. That, as a general rule, transfers of officers from Professorships of colleges to Inspectorships of schools, and vice versá, be not made. 12. That it be distinctly laid down that native gentlemen of approved qualifications be eligible for the post of Inspector of Schools, and that they be employed in that capacity more commonly than has been the case hitherto. 13. That Inspectresses be employed where necessary for the general supervision of Government, aided, and other girls’ schools desiring inspection. 14. That in every Province a Code be drawn up for the guidance of Inspecting Officers. 15. That it be recognised as the duty of the Revenue Officers to visit the schools within their jurisdiction, communicating to the Executive Officers or Board to which each school is subordinate any recommendations which they may desire to make. 16. That voluntary inspection by officers of Government and private persons be encouraged, in addition to the regular inspection of departmental and Revenue Officers. 103

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

17. That the detailed examination of scholars in primary schools be chiefly entrusted to the Deputy Inspectors and their assistants, and that the main duty of the Inspectors in connection with such schools be to visit them, to examine into the way in which they are conducted, and to endeavour to secure the cordial support of the people in the promotion of primary education. 18. That the general upper and lower primary school examinations be not compulsory, but that the annual reports show the number of scholars in each stage of education. 19. That in every Province in which examinations for the public service are held, they be so arranged as to give encouragement to vernacular education. 20. That the Committees appointed to conduct the public service examinations and other examinations of a similar kind include representatives of nonGovernment schools as well as departmental officers. 21. That Normal schools, Government or aided, for teachers of secondary schools be encouraged. 22. That the Text-book Committees in the several Provinces include qualified persons of different sections of the community not connected with the Department, and that to these Committees should be submitted all text-books, both English and vernacular, that it is proposed to introduce into schools, and all textbooks now in use that may seem to need revision. 23. That the Text-book Committees of the several Provinces act as far as possible in concert, and that they communicate to each other lists of English textbooks, and, in the case of those Provinces which have any common language, lists of vernacular text-books, which are satisfactory, and of books which they consider to be wanting or inadequate. 24. That the operations of the existing Government depôts be confined as soon as may be practicable to the supply and distribution of vernacular text-books. 25. That care be taken to avoid, as far as possible, the introduction of textbooks which are of an aggressive character, or are likely to give unnecessary offence to any section of the community. 26. That in the printing of text-books, especially vernacular text-books, attention be paid to clearness of typography.

680. (6).—Recommendations on the External Relations of the Department. 1. That teachers in non-Government institutions be allowed to present themselves for examination for any grade of certificate required by the grant-in-aid rules without being compelled to attend a Normal school. 2. That in any statement of expenditure required by the grant-in-aid rules from colleges whose Professors are prevented from receiving fixed salaries by the constitution of the religious societies to which they belong, the expenditure on the maintenance of such colleges be calculated at the rates current in aided institutions of the same general character. 104

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

3. That in schools aided on the result-system, variety in the course of instruction be encouraged by grants for special subjects. 4. That greater latitude be given to the managers of aided schools in fixing the course of instruction and the medium through which it is conveyed. 5. That the payment-by-results system be not applied to colleges. 6. That every application for a grant-in-aid receive an official reply, and in case of refusal that the reasons for such refusal be given. 7. That the proximity of a Government or of an aided school be not regarded as of itself a sufficient reason for refusing aid to a non-Government school. 8. That with the object of rendering assistance to schools in the form best suited to the circumstances of each Province and thus to call forth the largest amount of local co-operation, the grant-in-aid rules be revised by the Local Governments in concert with the managers of schools. 9. That, in this revision, the rules be so defined as to avoid any ambiguity as to the amount and duration of the aid to which an institution may be entitled, the conditions of grants for buildings, apparatus, and furniture being clearly stated; and that special reference be had to the complaints that have been made against existing systems, particularly the complaints dwelt upon in this Report. 10. That whilst existing State institutions of the higher order should be maintained in complete efficiency wherever they are necessary, the improvement and extension of institutions under private management be the principal care of the Department. 11. That, in ordinary circumstances, the further extension of secondary education in any District be left to the operation of the grant-in-aid system, as soon as that District is provided with an efficient high school, Government or other, along with its necessary feeders. 12. That it be a general principle that the grant-in-aid should depend— (a) on locality, i.e., that larger proportionate grants be given to schools in backward Districts; (b) on the class of institutions, i.e., that greater proportionate aid be given to those in which a large amount of self-support cannot be expected, e.g., girls’ schools and schools for lower castes and backward races. 13. That the following be adopted as general principles to regulate the amount of grants-in-aid except in cases in which Recommendations for special aid have been made:— (a) That no grant be given to an institution which has become selfsupporting by means of fees, and which needs no further development to meet the wants of the locality. (b) That the amount of State aid (exclusive of scholarships from public funds) do not exceed one-half of the entire expenditure on an institution. 105

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

(c) That, as a general rule, this maximum rate of aid be given only to girls’ schools, primary schools, and Normal schools. 14. That with a view to secure the co-operation of Government and nonGovernment institutions, the managers of the latter be consulted on matters of general educational interest, and that their students be admitted on equal terms to competition for certificates, scholarships, and other public distinctions. 15. That the Government of Bombay be invited to consider the propriety of converting the Dakshina fellowships into University fellowships with definite duties attached to them, to be tenable for a term of years and open to all candidates irrespective of the college in which they have been trained. 16. That in Bengal the payment from the Mohsin Fund of two-thirds of the fees of Muhammadan students, now confined to Government schools, be extended to Muhammadan students of non-Government schools approved by the Department. 17. That grants be paid without delay when they become due according to the rules. 18. That care be taken lest public examinations become the means of practically imposing the same text-books or curriculum on all schools. 19. That the revised rules for grants-in-aid and any subsequent alterations made in them be not merely published in the official gazettes, but translated into the vernacular, and communicated to the press, to the managers of aided and private institutions, and to all who are likely to help in any way in the spread of education. 20. That the further extension of female education be preferentially promoted by affording liberal aid and encouragement to managers who show their personal interest in the work, and only when such agency is not available by the establishment of schools under the management of the Department or of Local or Municipal Boards. 21. That a periodically increasing provision be made in the educational budget of each Province for the expansion of aided institutions. 22. That when any school or class of schools under departmental management is transferred to a Local or Municipal Board the functions of such board be clearly defined, and that, as a general rule, its powers include (a) the appointment of teachers qualified under the rules of the Department, (b) the reduction or dismissal of such teachers, subject to the approval of the Department, (c) the selection of the standard and course of instruction subject to the control of the Department, and (d) the determination of rates of fees and of the proportion of free students, subject to the general rules in force. 23. That if in any Province the management of Government schools of secondary instruction be transferred either to Municipalities or to Local Boards, or to Committees appointed by those bodies, encouragement be given to the subsequent transfer of the schools concerned to the management of associations of private persons combining locally with that object, provided they are able to afford adequate guarantees of permanence and efficiency. 106

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

24. That when Local and Municipal Boards have the charge of aiding schools, (1) their powers and duties be clearly defined, (2) that it be declared to be an important part of their duty to make provision for the primary education of the children of the poor, (3) that precautions he taken to secure that any assignment to them from public funds for purposes of education be impartially administered, (4) that an appeal against any refusal of aid he to the Department. 25. That the system of grants in-aid be based as hitherto, in accordance with paragraph 53 of the Despatch of 1854, on an entire abstinence from interference with the religious instruction conveyed in the institution assisted provided that when the only institution of any particular grade existing in any town or village is an institution in which religious instruction forms a part of the ordinary course, it shall be open to parents to withdraw their children from attendance at such instruction without forfeiting any of the benefits of the institution. 26. That a parent be understood to consent to his child’s passing through the full curriculum of the school, unless his intention to withdraw him from religious instruction be intimated at the time of the child’s first entering the school, or at the beginning of a subsequent term. 27. That in order to evoke and stimulate local co-operation in the transfer to private management of Government institutions for collegiate or secondary instruction, and at specially liberal rates be offered for a term of years, wherever necessary, to any local body willing to undertake the management of my such institution under adequate guarantees of permanence and efficiency. 28. That in the event of any Government school or college being transferred to local management, provision be also made for the legal transfer to the new managers of all educational endowments, buildings and other property be longing to such institutions in the hands of Government. 29. That in the event of any Government school or college being transferred to local management, the incumbents of offices under Government be secured in the enjoyment of all their existing rights and privileges. 30. That all Directors of Public Instruction aim at the gradual transfer to local native management of Government schools of secondary instruction (including schools attached to first or second grade colleges), in every case 11 which the transfer can be effected without lowering the standard, or diminishing the supply, of education, and without endangering the permanence of the institution transferred. 31. That the fact that any school raises more than 60 per cent of its entire expenditure from fees be taken as affording a presumption that the transfer of such school to local management can be safely effected. 32. That in dealing with the question of the withdrawal of Government from the management of existing colleges, these colleges be regarded as divided into three classes, viz.:—

107

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

(1) Those from which it is premature for Government to consider, the propriety of withdrawal, on the ground that they are, and will long continue to be the institutions on which the higher education of the country mainly depends. (2) Those that might be transferred with advantage, as a measure promising useful political results to bodies of native gentlemen provided the new managers give satisfactory guarantees that the college will be maintained (1) permanently, (2) in full efficiency, (3) in such a way as to make it adequate for all the wants of the locality. (3) Those which have been shown to be unsuccessful, or of which the cost is out of proportion to the utility, and from which Government might advantageously withdraw even with less stringent guarantee for permanent efficiency. Such colleges should be closed if, after due notice, no local body be formed to carry them on with such a grant in aid as the rules provide. 33. That the Government of Madras be requested to consider the propriety of dealing with the second grade Government colleges of that Province on the principles applicable to the second or third class as may be deemed advisable in each case, in the light of the recommendations made by the Madras Provincial Committee. 34. That the Government of Bombay be requested to consider the propriety of rusing the Ahmedabad College to one teaching up to the B A standard, and of securing its full efficiency for a term of years on the condition that after that period it be treated on the principles applicable to the second class. 35. That the Government of Bengal be requested to consider the propriety of dealing with the Rajshahye and Krishnagar Government Colleges on the principles applicable to the second class and with the Colleges at Berhampur, Midnapur, and Chittagong on the principles applicable to the third class, as suggested by the Bengal Provincial Committee. 36. That the bestowal of patronage in Government appointments be so ordered as to offer greater encouragement to high education.

681. (7).—Recommendations regarding classes requiring special treatment a—The sons of Native Chiefs and Noblemen 1. That Local Governments be invited to consider the question of establishing special colleges or schools for the sons and relations of Native Chiefs and noblemen where such institutions do not now exist. 2. That Local Governments be invited to consider the advisability of entrusting the education of Wards of Court to the joint supervision of the district authorities and the Educational Inspectors.

108

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

b—Muhammadans 1. That the special encouragement of Muhammadan education be regarded as a legitimate charge on Local, on Municipal and on Provincial Funds. 2. That indigenous Muhammadan schools be liberally encouraged to add purely secular subjects to their curriculum of instruction. 3. That special standards for Muhammadan primary schools be prescribed. 4. That Hindustani be the principal medium for imparting instruction to Muhammadans in primary and middle schools, except in localities where the Muhammadan community desire that some other language be a lopted. 5. That the official vernacular, in places where it is not Hindustani be added as a voluntary subject, to the curriculum of primary and middle schools for Muhammadans maintained from public funds, and that arithmetic and accounts be taught through the medium of that vernacular. 6. That, in localities where Muhammadans form a fair proportion of the population, provision be made in middle and high schools maintained from public funds for imparting instruction in the Hindustani and Persian languages. 7. That higher English education for Muhammadans, being the kind of education in which that community needs special help, be liberally encouraged. 8. That, where necessary, a graduated system of special scholarships for Muhammadans be established,—to be awarded,— (a) In primary schools, and tenable in middle schools. (b) In middle schools, and tenable in high schools. (c) On the results of the Matriculation and First Arts examinations, and tenable in colleges. 9. That, in all classes of schools maintained from public funds, a certain proportion of free studentships be expressly reserved for Muhammadan students. 10. That, in places where educational endowments for the benefit of Muhammadans exist, and are under the management of Government, the funds arising from such endowments be devoted to the advancement of education among Muhammadans exclusively. 11. That, where Muhammadan endowments exist, and are under the management of private individuals or bodies, inducements by liberal grants-in-aid be offered to them, to establish English-teaching schools or colleges on the grant-inaid system. 12. That, where necessary, Normal schools or classes for the training of Muhammadan teachers be established. 13. That, wherever instruction is given in Muhammadan schools through the medium of Hindustani, endeavours be made to secure, as far as possible, Muhammadan teachers to give such instruction. 14. That Muhammadan Inspecting Officers be employed more largely than hitherto for the inspection of primary schools for Muhammadans.

109

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

15. That Associations for the promotion of Muhammadan education be recognised and encouraged. 16. That in the annual Reports on public instruction a special section be devoted to Muhammadan education. 17. That the attention of the Local Governments be invited to the question of the proportion in which patronage is distributed among educated Muhammadans and others. 18. That the principles embodied in the Recommendations given above be equally applicable to any other races with similar antecedents, whose education is on the same level as that of the Muhammadans. c.—Aboriginal Tribes. 1. That children of aboriginal tribes be exempted wherever necessary from payment of fees, over and above any general exemptions otherwise provided for. 2. That, if necessary, extra allowances be given under the result system for boys of aboriginal tribes taught in ordinary schools. 3. That when children of aboriginal tribes are found sufficiently instructed to become schoolmasters among their own people, attempts be made to establish them in schools within the borders of the tribes. 4. That if any bodies be willing to undertake the work of education among aboriginal tribes, they be liberally assisted on the basis of abstention from any interference with any religious teaching. 5. That where the language of the tribe has not been reduced to writing, or is otherwise unsuitable, the medium of instruction be the vernacular of the neighbouring population, with whom the aboriginal people most often come in contact. 6. That, where the education of such tribes is carried on in their own vernacular, the vernacular of the neighbouring District be an additional subject of instruction where this is found advisable. d.—Low castes. 1. That the principle laid down in the Court of Directors’ letter of May 5th, 1854, and again in their reply to the letter of the Government of India, dated May 20th, 1857, that “no boy be refused admission to a Government “college or school merely on the ground of caste” and repeated by the Secretary of State in 1863, be now re-affirmed as a principle, and be applied with due caution to every institution not reserved for special races, which is wholly maintained at the cost of public funds, whether Provincial, Municipal, or Local. 2. That the establishment of special schools or classes for children of low caste be liberally encouraged in places where there is a sufficient number of such children to form separate schools or classes, and where the schools maintained from public funds do not sufficiently provide for their education.

110

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

682. (8).—Recommendations on Female Education. 1. That female education be treated as a legitimate charge alike on Local, on Municipal, and on Provincial Funds, and receive special encouragement. 2. That all female schools or orphanages, whether on a religious basis or not, be eligible for aid so far as they produce any secular results, such as a knowledge of reading or of writing. 3. That the conditions of aid to girls’ schools be easier than to boys’ schools, and the rates higher—more especially in the case of those established for poor or for low-caste girls. 4. That the rules for grants be so framed as to allow for the fact that girls’ schools generally contain a large proportion of beginners, and of those who cannot attend school for so many hours a day, or with such regularity as boys. 5. That the standards of instruction for primary girls’ schools be simpler than those for boys’ schools, and be drawn up with special reference to the requirements of home life, and to the occupations open to women. 6. That the greatest care be exercised in the selection of suitable text-books for girls’ schools, and that the preparation for such books be encouraged. 7. That, while fees be levied where practicable, no girls’ school be debarred from a grant on account of its not levying fees. 8. That special provision be made for girls’ scholarships, to be awarded after examination, and that, with a view to encouraging girls to remain longer at school, a certain proportion of them be reserved for girls not under twelve years of age. 9. That liberal aid be offered for the establishment, in suitable localities, of girls’ schools in which English should be taught in addition to the vernacular. 10. That special aid be given, where necessary, to girls’ schools that make provision for boarders. 11. That the Department of Public Instruction be requested to arrange, in concert with managers of girls’ schools, for the revision of the Code of Rules for grants-in-aid in accordance with the above Recommendations. 12. That, as mixed schools, other than infant schools, are not generally suited to the conditions of this country, the attendance of girls at boys’ schools be not encouraged, except in places where girls’ schools cannot be maintained. 13. That the establishment of infant schools or classes, under schoolmistresses, be liberally encouraged. 14. That female schools be not placed under the management of Local Boards or of Municipalities unless they express a wish to take charge of them. 15. That the first appointment of schoolmistresses in girls’ schools under the management of Municipal or Local Boards be left to such boards, with the proviso that the mistress be either certificated, or approved by the Department: and that subsequent promotion or removal be regulated by the boards, subject to the approval of the Department.

111

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

16. That rules be framed to promote the gradual supersession of male by female teachers in all girls’ schools. 17. That, in schools under female teachers, stipendiary pupil-teacherships be generally encouraged. 18. That the attention of Local Governments be invited to the question of establishing additional Normal schools or classes; and that those under private management receive liberal aid, part of which might take the form of a bonus for every pupil passing the certificate examination. 19. That the departmental certificate examinations for teachers be open to all candidates, wherever prepared. 20. That teachers in schools for general education be encouraged by special rewards to prepare pupils for examinations for teachers’ certificates, and that girls be encouraged by the offer of prizes to qualify for such certificates. 21. That liberal inducements be offered to the wives of schoolmasters to qualify as teachers, and that in suitable cases widows be trained as schoolmistresses, care being taken to provide them with sufficient protection in the places where they are to be employed as teachers. 22. That, in Districts where European or Eurasian young women are required as teachers in native schools, special encouragement be given to them to qualify in a vernacular language. 23. That grants for zanana teaching be recognised as a proper charge on public funds and be given under rules which will enable the agencies engaged in that work to obtain substantial aid for such secular teaching as may be tested by an Inspectress or other female agency. 24. That Associations for the promotion of female education by examinations or otherwise be recognised by the Department, and encouraged by grants under suitable conditions. 25. That female inspecting agency be regarded as essential to the full development of female education, and be more largely employed than hitherto. 26. That an alternative subject in examinations suitable for girls be established, corresponding in standard to the Matriculation examination, but having no relation to any existing University course. 27. That endeavours be made to secure the services of native gentlemen interested in female education on Committees for the supervision of girls’ schools, and that European and Native ladies be also invited to assist such Committees.

683. (9).—Recommendations as to Legislation. 1. That the duties of Municipal and Local Boards in controlling or assisting schools under their supervision be regulated by local enactments suited to the circumstances of each Province. 2. That the area of any Municipal or rural unit of Local self-Government that may now or hereafter exist be declared to be a school-district, and school-boards

112

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

be established for the management and control of schools placed under their jurisdiction in each such district. 3. That the control of each school-board over all schools within the said schooldistrict be subject to the following provisions:— (a) that it be open to the Local Government to exclude any school, or any class of schools, other than schools of primary instruction for boys, from the control of such school-board; (b) that any school which is situated in the said school-district, and which receives no assistance either from the board or the Department, continue, if the managers so desire it, to be independent of the control of the school-board; (c) that the managers of any institution which receives aid either from the board or the Department continue to exercise in regard to such institution full powers of management subject to such limitations as the Local Government may from time to time impose as a condition of receiving aid; (d) that the school-board may delegate to any body appointed by itself or subordinate to it any duties in regard to any school or class of institutions under its control which it thinks fit so to delegate. 4. That the Local Government declare from time to time what funds constituting a school-fund shall be vested in any school-board for educational purposes, and what proportion of such school-fund shall be assigned to any class of education. 5. That it be the duty of every school-board:— (a) to prepare an annual budget of its income and expenditure; (b) to determine what schools shall be wholly maintained at the cost of the school-fund, what schools are eligible for grants-in-aid, and which of them shall receive aid; (c) to keep a register of all schools, whether maintained at the cost of public funds, or aided or unaided, which are situated in its school-district; (d) to construct and repair school-houses or to grant aid towards their construction or repair; (e) generally to carry out any other of the objects indicated in the various recommendations of the Commission, which in the opinion of the Local Government can best be secured by legislative enactment, or by rules made under the Act. 6. That the appointment, reduction of salary, or dismissal, of teachers in schools maintained by the board be left to the school-board; provided that the said board shall be guided in its appointments by any rules as to qualifications which may be laid down from time to time by the Department; and provided that an appeal shall lie to the Department against any order of dismissal or reduction of salary.

113

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

7. That an appeal lie to the Department against any order of a board in regard to such matters as the Local Government shall specify. 8. That every school-board be required to submit to the Local Government through the Department an annual report of its administration, together with its accounts of income and expenditure, in such form and on such date as shall be prescribed by the Local Government; and thereon the Local Government declare whether the existing supply of schools of any class, of which the supervision has been entrusted to such board, is sufficient to secure adequate proportionate provision for the education of all classes of the community; and in the event of the said Government declaring that the supply is insufficient, it determine from what sources and in what manner the necessary provision of schools shall be made. 9. That it be incumbent upon every Local Government or Administration to frame a Code of rules for regulating the conduct of education by Municipal and Local Boards in the Provinces subject to such Local Government or Administration. 10. That such Code shall define and regulate— (a) the internal mechanism of the Education Department in regard to direction, inspection, and teaching; (b) the external relations of the Department to private individuals and public bodies engaged in the work of education; (c) the scope, functions, and rules of the system of grants-in-aid; (d) the character of any special measures for the education of classes requiring exceptional treatment; (e) the scope and divisions of the annual report upon the progress of public instruction, together with the necessary forms of returns. 11. That power be reserved to the Local Government from time to time to add to, cancel, or modify the provisions of the said Code. 12. That the Code be annually published in the official Gazette in such a form as to show separately all articles which have been cancelled or modified and all new articles which have been introduced since the publication of the last edition. (Signed) ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ”

W. W. HUNTER, President. D. M. BARBOUR. W. R. BLACKETT. ANANDA MOHAN BOSE. C. A. R. BROWNING. A. W. CROFT. K. DEIGHTON. J. T. FOWLER. HAJI GHULAM HASSAN. A. P. HOWELL. 114

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ”

H. P. JACOB. A. JEAN. W. LEE-WARNER. SAYYID MAHMUD. W. MILLER. BHUDEB MOOKERJEA. P. RANGANADA MUDALIYAR. C. PEARSON. KASHINATH TRIMBAK TELANG. JOTENDRA MOHUN TAGORE. G. E. WARD.

The 14th September 1883. [[**MISSING PAGE**]] I have, therefore, thought it best to note briefly the chief Recommendations to which I am opposed; in the circumstances I have not thought it necessary to state the grounds of my opposition at any length. 2. In Chapter V, which deals with Secondary Education, the Commission recommends “that in the upper classes of high schools there be two divisions,—one leading to the Entrance examination of the Universities, the other of a more practical character, intended to fit youths for commercial or other non-literary pursuits.” In this Recommendation I most cordially concur; but the Commission goes on to recommend that a certificate of having passed in “either of the proposed alternative courses be accepted as a sufficient general test of fitness for the public service,” and to this Recommendation I am strongly opposed. In my opinion, the general test of fitness for the public service should be a certificate of having passed by the final standard of the course which is of the more practical character, “intended to fit youths for commercial or other non-literary pursuits.” My experience as head of a large office in Bengal has led me to the conclusion that the adoption of the University Entrance examination as a general standard of education, has had disastrous effects in the case of youths not fitted to rise to a higher position than that of subordinate clerks. 3. In Chapter VI, which deals with Collegiate Education, the Commission recommends a more favourable scale of pensions for officers in the Education Department. This Recommendation is made solely with reference to the supposed needs of the Department. It takes no account of the additional expenditure which it involves, or of the fact that the adoption of the proposal would furnish a strong argument for the sanction of additional expenditure in other departments of the Government service. The Recommendation appears to me to be founded on an inadequate appreciation of the whole of the facts, and to be somewhat out of place in the present Report. 115

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

4. I object to Recommendation (1) in Chapter VII, “that when an Educational officer enters the higher graded service of the Education Department, his promotion should not involve any loss of pay.” I object to this Recommendation because it deals with a question of administrative detail not within the scope of the Commission’s enquiry, and because a temporary loss of pay may be much more than counterbalanced by an improvement in future prospects of promotion. I also object to Recommendation (5) in the same chapter, “that it be an instruction to the departments of the various Provinces to aim at raising fees gradually, cautiously, and with due regard to necessary exemptions, up to the highest amount that will not check the spread of education, especially in colleges, secondary schools, and primary schools in towns where the value of education is understood.” I am of opinion that this Recommendation does not go far enough in the case of colleges. Private expenditure incurred in giving a boy a really good education is a remunerative investment of capital in India, and I am unaware of any good ground for taxing the general community in order to confer wealth and power on a class which is itself almost wholly untaxed. 5. In Chapter VIII the Commission recommends “that the bestowal of patronage in Government appointments be so regulated as to offer greater encouragement to high education.” I cannot say that a Recommendation of this sort may not be necessary in some Provinces, or as regards certain departments; but I desire to state as the result of my experience, which is necessarily limited, that high education is already sufficiently encouraged by the bestowal of appointments in the service of Government. I believe that the best man for an office under Government will often be the man who has received a good education; but the rule is subject to many exceptions, and, after all, the man who has the best claim to an office is not the man who has had the best or most elaborate education, but the man who will best discharge the duties of the office. 6. I have no objection to the Recommendation made in Chapter IX of the Report, “that Local Governments be invited to consider the question of establishing special colleges or schools for the sons and relations of Native Chiefs and Noblemen where such institutions do not now exist,” provided that these institutions are made wholly self-supporting; but I dissent from the Recommendation “that the special encouragement of Muhammadan education be regarded as a legitimate charge on Local, on Municipal, and on Provincial Funds.” I do not think it is possible to justify the taxation of the general community for the special benefit of one class. I also object very strongly to the Recommendation “that, in localities where Muhammadans form a fair proportion of the population, provision be made in middle and high schools maintained from public funds for imparting instruction in the Hindustani and Persian languages,” and my objection is made in the interests of the Muhammadans themselves. If the Muhammadans wish, at their own cost, to encourage the study of Persian, or of Hindustani where it is not the language in 116

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

ordinary use, every facility should be given to enable them to do so; but in so far as they do so, they heavily handicap their children in the race of life as compared with boys of other religions, and I therefore think that it is bad policy to spend the public money for the purpose recommended by the Commission. I can fully appreciate sympathy with the Muhammadans in their present position, but that sympathy should not lead us to do injustice to other classes of the community, and I do not see how it would be possible to justify “a graduated system of special scholarships for Muhammadans,” or to accept the Recommendation of the Commission “that in all classes of schools maintained from public funds a certain proportion of free studentships be expressly reserved for Muhammadan students.” The proposals of the Commission appear to me to be so liberal as regards Muhammadans that they involve injustice to other classes, and their recommendation, “that the attention of the Local Governments be invited to the question of the proportion in which patronage is distributed among educated Muhammadans and others,” appears uncalled for, so long as there is no proof that Muhammadans are treated otherwise than fairly. Although I have felt bound to make these remarks, I may add that it would, in my judgment, be an unmixed gain if the Muhammadans came forward and qualified themselves to take a larger and more important share in the administration of the country; but the improvement must, and I believe will, come from their own efforts. No attempt to improve their position by protecting them against the competition of other classes can have any permanently beneficial effect. SIMLA, 24th September 1883

IV. Minute recorded by Kashinath Trimbak Telang, Esq. I concur in so many of the Recommendations contained in this Report, that I have no hesitation whatever in signing it. But after much anxious consideration, I have arrived at the conclusion that, in signing it, I am bound to put separately on record the opinions I have formed on some of the points with which it deals. I am, however, glad to be able to say at the outset, after a careful consideration of the work done by my colleagues who drew up this Report at Simla, that the very arduous duty which devolved upon them has been discharged by them in a manner, on the whole, extremely fair and satisfactory. There are, indeed, sundry statements in the Report to which I cannot give in my adhesion at all, or can do so only with many qualifications Thus, the statement that the Local cess in Bombay was in its inception purely voluntary, and the passage which speaks of our Land Revenue system in this Presidency as a “liberal” one (vide Chap. IV), both involve judgments on non-educational matters which I am not prepared to accept. And again, when the study of Sanskrit in the old Benares College is pronounced to have 117

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

been “frivolous and uncritical” (Chap. VI), or the provision for college scholarships in Bombay is described as “large” (Chap. VI), or the practical operation of the “grade” system is spoken of as very successful (Chap. VI), we have judgments pronounced on purely educational topics which I cannot concur in without some qualifications. Lastly, to refer to a point which is only partially educational, “unwise enthusiasm” and “the chill courtesies of English reserve” (Chap. VI), are by no means the only “drawbacks”—the former, indeed, is perhaps the smallest of the drawbacks—to be taken into account in connection with the “intercourse” of the Indian student with “the ruling race;” while, on the other hand, “the pretensious self-assertion” and “the comparative absence of lofty motive” and so forth attributed to the Indian student considered by himself, are, I should say, considerably overstated.1 But all such points are now of subordinate importance, and having given this slight indication of them, I propose here to say nothing more about them. I shall pass at once to the “Recommendations” contained in this Report, and take them in the order in which they appear there. And the first Recommendation I wish to notice is the one which lays it down that the Director of Public Instruction should determine the rate of fees to be charged in all schools receiving aid from Government, and the proportion of students to be exempted from payment therein. I confess that I cannot reconcile myself to this Recommendation. The main grounds of my objection to it were stated by me during the debates in Calcutta, and they are summarised in our minutes of proceedings. I shall therefore not repeat them here, but I wish to make one or two observations upon points which have been urged on the other side. It is said, then, that the recommendation carries out the directions of the Despatch of 1854. I cannot accept this view. I cannot accept as correct a construction of that Despatch which says that “some fee, however small” (see para 54 of the Despatch), means some fee not smaller than a minimum to be fixed by the Director of Public Instruction, and to be from time to time raised by that officer, even although it is to be raised “gradually, cautiously, and with due regard to necessary exemptions.” And I own that I am the less prepared to accept this strained construction of the clause in question, when I find that, while the traditions of my countrymen, be they Hindus, Mussalmans, or Parsis, are decidedly against any such rule as is sought to be laid down, the grounds alleged in favour of it have been shown by the later experience of even European countries to be quite untenable. The evidence as to the facts on this point may be seen collected in Mr. Morley’s “Struggle for National Education” pp. 143–5,2 while one principal aim of that delightful little work of Mr. Matthew Arnold’s, “A French Eton,” was to reduce the cost of secondary education in England3 (vide inter alia, pp. 8, 22, 67, 75). The position, therefore, which I take up is this. On such a point we ought not to consider ourselves bound hand and foot by the provisions of the Despatch of 1854; but if we are so bound, then we ought not to extend its words by construction, and especially ought we not to do so, when we thereby run counter not only to the traditions of the communities for whose benefit the Despatch was intended, but also to the more matured experiences of those countries from whose practice 118

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

the provisions were originally borrowed. But then it is said that the object of the Despatch was to make education self-supporting, and that that object can only be compassed by the increase of fees. From this reading of the Despatch also I must respectfully express my dissent. The Despatch plainly indicates the wish of its authors that the money of the State should be made to go as far as possible in developing education in this country. And doubtless if an aided school could be made by the State to increase its fee income—not, be it noticed, its fee rate, which is another and quite a different thing—the State would be able to save something out of its grants-in-aid, which could then be applied in developing education in other directions. But this involves a forcing by the State upon private workers in education of its own ideas on a subject which is a peculiarly appropriate field for the exercise of local knowledge and local experience. Such a procedure seems to me to be scarcely in harmony with the principles of the Despatch, or of the recommendations regarding private enterprise which, in pursuance of those principles, the Commission has put forward. But then it is said that a provision like the one recommended would strengthen the hands of managers of non-Government schools, and prevent one aided school from outbidding another. Put into plain English, this argument seems to me to involve a wish that some favoured institutions—perhaps those first in the field— should be enabled to monopolise the State grant, and new sharers in it should be prevented from rising up in competition. For what will be the operation of such a rule, framed with the objects avowed by its framers? The Director of Public Instruction will consult the managers of schools actually receiving aid from Government, and a minimum rate of fee and a maximum proportion of free studentships will be fixed by their joint wisdom. A school in existence then, but not receiving aid, or a school subsequently started, will both alike be bound by the rule, under penalty of being refused aid by the State, although the managers may never have been consulted about its justice or expediency; or a manager who was consulted and took a different view from the Director would be excluded from the benefit of the State grant or his presumption in differing from that infallible officer. I see nothing that can reconcile me to results like these. It seems to be assumed that reductions of fee below the minimum to be fixed by the Director will often be designed for purposes of mischief and breach of discipline. I maintain that there is no warrant whatever for such an assumption. One great inducement in the past to the opening of schools by my countrymen has been the opportunity thus afforded them for spreading education cheaply. I may cite the case of the new English School in Poona as an illustration with which I am most familiar. I hope and believe that the same inducement will continue to be a potent one in future. But if the Recommendation under consideration is put into force, the countervailing influences are sure to be very powerful, they may, perhaps, be too powerful. No doubt one of the representatives of aided institutions in the Commission assured us that managers of aided schools will not look on the Department’s action in this matter as at all an interference to be objected to Probably not. But I am not now particularly concerned for the institutions which are at present receiving aid. 119

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

I am concerned for those which are not but ought to be receiving aid, and those which may be started hereafter and may properly ask for aid. I am concerned for those which shall not aim at making secondary and higher education as costly as possible, but which shall be started by men who will, within certain limits, act on the traditions to which I have already alluded. It will, I am aware, be objected to this—in fact, it was objected during our debates—that if any one wants to make education a matter of charity and impart it either as an entirely free gift or at a very small cost, he ought not to ask for State aid in doing so. But that objection seems to me to involve a non sequitur. The work done is of a nature which the State has undertaken to help, and therefore has an absolute claim to such help. And a further remark on the objection is that it certainly does not lie in the mouths of those who contend for grants to be given from State funds to that other agency of educational charity—the so called “proselytising schools.” But against all this, it is urged that a rule like the one in question has been in successful operation in Madras. I am unable to make out clearly, from the Provincial Report, or from what was said in the course of the debate, whether an aided school, under the existing rules, is liable to have its grant withdrawn if it contravenes an order of the Director on the subject of fees. Apparently it is (see Madras Provincial Report), but only if it receives a salary grant, not a result grant. If so, the example quoted is plainly of limited application. Besides, in such a matter, the mere fact of no complaints having been made for some time by natives of this country is not, to my mind, any proof that the rule is a good one. I think the principle here is wrong, and as to expediency, I cannot but think it highly inexpedient that the State should afford artificial help to institutions not managed by itself, for exacting from students higher fees than they will be able to obtain without such help. I have only to add one more observation on this point. It will be admitted on all hands that it is useless to lay down a rule when a coach and six can be driven through it with ease. And what more easy than that in the case of the rule recommended? A manager has only got to make the appropriate entries on both sides of his accounts, and show an expenditure on account of scholarships precisely equal to the difference between the fees he levies and those he is directed to levy. The rule is then satisfied, and the Department is baffled. And probably this further result will also follow. The manager will be able to return his expenditure on his schools at a figure larger than the real one by this enforced addition, and will, under some systems of grant in aid, be able to claim from the State a larger sum for having succeeded in defying the rules made by the State. Thus this laudable endeavour, commenced to make secondary and higher education more self supporting,—that is to say, more costly to the students,—“will overleap itself and fall on the other side,” for it will end by becoming more costly, and quite unnecessarily so, not to the student, but to the State. And over and above this of course, are the demoralising effects, however small in each case, of preparing returns for the State in the objectionable form I have before referred to. The next point I wish to deal with is that involved in the Recommendation contained in Chapter VI. I cordially agree in that Recommendation. And I hope 120

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

that the Local Governments concerned will deal in a spirit of liberality with the cases there referred to, and not allow themselves to be influenced by the cry that too much is being spent on higher education in India. With that cry, in the form in which it has been raised, I have no sympathy whatever. I unreservedly accept the view that without mass education the country will never be able to enjoy to the full the fruits which it has a right to expect from the higher education. For that purpose, you must bestow brains, as Mill has it, on those who have only hands. And in my judgment the time has now come when with that view mass education must be pushed onward, or, as it is expressed in the Resolution appointing the Commission, “the different branches of public instruction should, if possible, move forward together.” On the other hand, I hold an equally strong opinion that, without the higher education, mass education cannot be of much avail, even if it can be secured. And the argument so often urged, that for the money spent on giving high education to one student, you might give primary education to more than one hundred, is to my mind utterly futile, and unworthy even of a moment’s consideration.4 “We have nearly all of us,” says Mr. Mathew Arnold,5 “reached the notion that popular education it is the State’s duty to deal with. Secondary and superior instruction, many of us still think, should be left to take care of themselves.” And after pointing out what has been done in European countries on this matter, he winds up thus: “In all these countries the idea of a sound civil organisation of modern society has been found to involve the idea of an organisation of secondary and superior instruction by public authority or by the State.” I will not dwell more on this point, but will merely say that in my opinion the whole religious, social, political, and industrial advance of the country depends on the steady adhesion to that enlightened policy, as regards high education, which has probably been the most generally approved portion of British Indian policy in the past. This opinion is quite consistent with a desire, which I strongly feel, that all private efforts in education, especially the efforts put forward by my own countrymen, should receive a fair field and due encouragement. But in order that such private effort should be forthcoming in any District, high education must, as a general rule, have been in existence in that District for some time. And therefore I trust that, when the Recommendation under notice comes to be carried out, no embarrassments will be felt by the local authorities in consequence of any a priori idea of the superiority of private enterprise over State action,—an idea which, however well founded in many respects, is just now, I fear, likely to be set up as a fetish, and likely to be allowed to dominate in regions which, under present circumstances, at all events, lie entirely beyond its sphere. I have only one word to add with respect to some of the specific cases enumerated in the Recommendation. The case of the Delhi College appears to me to be a particularly hard one. Subscriptions raised by the natives have been rejected as inadequate, and the College has substantially been made over to a missionary body. On both grounds the matter is worthy of reconsideration. As to the College of Jabalpur, I cannot imagine that there can be two opinions. In regard to Sind, the petition sent by some of the citizens of Karachi was not before us when our 121

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

Provincial Report was written, and the offer made in that petition to contribute something towards endowing a college deserves consideration at the hands of the Government of Bombay. Coming lastly to the Gujarat College, I have nothing to add to what is said in the Provincial Report, save that the period of probation should be such as to give the College a really fair chance of success, and that the Government, if it is to err at all, should err on the side of giving it too long, rather than too short, a period of probation. I next proceed to consider two Recommendations which deal with a point certainly one of the most important in connection with education. I allude to the Recommendation regarding moral education in colleges. In stating the opinions which I have formed on this point, I know I run a certain risk of misinterpretation. But I am bound to say that, after the best consideration which I have been able to give to the Recommendations made by the Commission, and the arguments adduced in support of them, I am still strongly of opinion that the proposed measures will be impotent for good and may result in mischief. I will first take up the latter of the two Recommendations referred to. That prescribes that a series of lectures on the duties of a man and a citizen should be delivered in each College in each session. Now, first, what is the object of this new departure—for it is a new departure—in our system of academical instruction? Many of those who recommend this new departure admit that there is nothing in the character of the students of our State Colleges, taken as a class, which can be used in support of this recommendation. Others, however of the same mode of thinking, have distinctly said that the effects of education in our State Colleges on the morals6 of the students has certainly been mischievous, not to say disastrous. One gentleman, who has been particularly active in what I cannot help characterising as the misguided and mischievous agitation which preceded the appointment of the Commission, has held up to the gaze of the British public a picture of the effects of State education in India (see Mr. Johnstone’s “Our Educational Policy in India,” pages xv, 8, 10, 26), which, if it is a faithful one, would certainly justify some new departure in the direction indicated. But is it a faithful picture? On that we have a statement submitted to the Commission by five gentlemen of the same party as the author of the pamphlet above alluded to. These gentlemen undertake to say that “the result of Government so called neutrality has been by common consent decidedly injurious from a moral and religious point of view.” What these gentlemen mean by “common consent” it is not very easy to understand. The evidence before the Commission, (which is summarised in the Report Chapter VI,) is absolutely overwhelming in favour of the reverse of that which these gentlemen describe as admitted by common consent. And I owe it to the system under which I myself and many of my friends have been nurtured, to put it solemnly on record that in my judgment the charges made against that system are wholly and absolutely unsustainable, and are the results of imperfect or prejudiced observation and hasty generalisation put into words by random and often reckless rhetoric. I do not deny that there may be individuals among men of the class to which I have the honour to belong, who have strayed away more or less widely from the path of honor 122

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

and virtue. But if that fact affords sufficient ground for a condemnation of our system, what system, I would ask, is there under the sun which will not have to be similarly condemned? A considerable portion of the sensational talk that is going about on this subject is, I feel persuaded, due to a misapplication of that unhappy phrase—educated native. That misapplication is referred to upon another point in the Report (see Chap. VIII), but it is necessary to enter a caveat with regard to it in this connection also. On the one hand, it is confined, and of course quite erroneously, to those who have acquired some knowledge of the English language; and on the other, it is extended, equally erroneously, to those who, like Macaulay’s Frenchman, “have just learnt enough English to read Addison with a dictionary.” The latter error is the one which must be specially guarded against in discussions like the present. But it may be said that the new departure, if not justified by the injurious effects of the systems hitherto in vogue, may still be justified on the ground that it is calculated to strengthen the beneficial effects of that system. And here I am prepared to join issue with those who maintain that it will have any such operation. I cordially accept the dictum of Mr. Mathew Arnold that conduct is three-fourths of life, and a man who works for conduct works for more than a man who works for intelligence. And therefore I should be quite willing to join, as indeed I have joined, in any Recommendation encouraging such “work for conduct” (see the Bombay Provincial Report, page 148). But I cannot perceive that “lectures on the duties of a man and a citizen” at a college constitute such “work” at all. In a primary school, lessons on the duties of a man would probably be useful; in a secondary school they would probably be innocuous; but in a collegiate institution they would probably be neither useful nor innocuous. At the earliest stage of a student’s life, ignorance of what is right is probably an important force, and then to correct that ignorance, moral lessons are a perfectly appropriate agency, although even here I should be inclined to rely more upon “lessons” like Miss Edgeworth’s,7 for instance, than on those like the extracts from “The whole Duty of Man” by D. A. Eisdale which were published in Bombay at the American Mission Press in 1841. When the student has advanced to a secondary school, much of the ignorance above referred to has presumably given place to knowledge. But still the habit of analysis and criticism is in a very rudimentary condition, and such lessons will, in all probability, do little harm. But 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—something like that on the Cambridge scholar, about whom I read many years ago, whose first doubts about the divine character of Christianity were said to have been roused by a study of Paley’s Evidences. That sense of 123

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

moral responsibility in man which impressed Kant with the same awe as the starry heavens, can receive no strengthening from lectures on the duties of a man, any more than the awe which the starry heavens inspire can be produced by lectures on the rings of Saturn or the phases of the moon. Such strengthening must come from the emotions and the will being worked upon by the histories of great movements, the lives of great men, and the songs of great poets. It must come from the training of the will and the emotions by the actual details of academic life, by the elevating contact8 with good professors and fellow-students, by the constant engagement of the attention on the ennobling pursuits of literature, science, and philosophy; by the necessity, so often felt, “to scorn delights and live laborious days;” and, even in our very modern State Colleges of this country, though on a very humble scale, by “that mass of continuous traditions always powerful and generally noble,” of which Mr. Gladstone9 spoke so eloquently in his inaugural address to the University of Edinburgh. That is the only course of moral education in which I have any faith. That is the course which alone, in my opinion, can be efficacious. Lectures on the duties of a man can at the best only lead to the “cold decrees of the brain.” They have little or no efficacy in cooling down the “hot temper which leaps over” those decrees. These views might be easily supported by a mass of authority, but I will only refer here to that of one who is at once a writer on Moral Philosophy, a University Professor of the same subject, and a Chairman of a School Board in Scotland. I allude to Professor Calderwood, who has said in his recent work on Teaching its ends and means that “moral training is gained not so much by formal inculcation of duty, as by practice in well-doing throughout the common engagements of life” (p. 73; and see also pp. 25, 83, 123, &c.). So far I have dealt only with the first part of the Recommendation. The second part, dealing with the duties of a citizen, appears to me to stand on a somewhat different footing. It seems to be intended to point rather to what may be called political, as distinguished from social, morality. Lectures on this subject may be of use, as the subject is one on which there is some real ignorance which may be dispelled by lectures addressed to the intellect. But I must own that I am afraid of the practical operation of this part of the Recommendation. In ordinary times, it may not be very material one way or the other, though even in ordinary times one can conceive the inconvenient results which may flow from it. But in times of excitement, such as those through which we have scarcely yet emerged, I much fear that the result will be to drag the serene dignity of the academy into the heat and dust of platform warfare. If the Professor’s lectures tend to teach the pupils the duty of submission to the views of Government without a murmur of dissatisfaction, there is sure to come up a set of Liberal irreconcileables who will complain that Government is endeavouring to enslave the intellect of the nation. If the Professor’s lectures are supposed to lead in the opposite direction, there will be some Tory irreconcileables ready to spring up and say, even more loudly and quite as erroneously as they are saying it now, that the colleges supported from State revenues are hotbeds of sedition.10 This is almost certain to occur in times 124

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

of excitement. It may not unlikely occur in quiet times also. And with this risk, I confess, it seems to me that the advantages of such lectures will have been dearly purchased. If it is argued that the professors in our colleges are not now prevented from doing that which may afford a target for similar denunciation, my reply is that the professors may well do what they deem proper in their private capacity as citizens. But it becomes a very different thing when they deliver lectures at college in their capacity as Professors appointed by the State for the express purpose. The position on that point is exactly analogous to the position on the point of religious instruction under the Despatch of 1859, Sections 59–61. I now come to the other Recommendation. The whole theory of moral education here adopted is one which I consider erroneous in principle, and likely to be bad in practical operation as tending to withdraw attention from the necessity of making not one or two hours of academic life, but the whole of it, a period of moral education. Holding that view, it follows, of course, that I cannot accept the suggestion about the moral text-book. But further objections to that suggestion are stated in the Bombay Provincial Report, to which I still adhere. I will only add that the view there enunciated receives support from the history of a similar experiment tried many years ago in Ireland. No less a person that Archbishop Whately endeavoured to do for the elements of Christianity what Bishop Meurin proposes, and the Commission recommends, should be done for the elements of morality based on Natural Religion. With what result? The text-book was written, approved, sanctioned for use and used in the Irish schools, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. Then the tide turned, and the book had to be abandoned, and Archbishop Whately himself, the Lord Justice Christian, and Mr. Baron Greene resigned their seats on the School Board, upon the ground that what was done was a breach of faith with the people.11 It is not necessary to enquire which, if either, of the parties to the contest was in the wrong. The lesson to be derived from the occurrence is equally clear and equally entitled to “give us pause” in the course on which we are recommended to enter, whether the fault in that particular matter lay with the Protestants or the Roman Catholics, with Archibishop Whately or with Archbishop Murray or his successor. I will only add one word here with respect to the question of religious instruction which was raised before the Commission. I deeply sympathise with the demand of some witnesses whose evidence has come before us, that provision should be made in our educational system for that religious instruction without which, as Lord Ripon declared before the University of Calcutta, all education is imperfect. I sympathise with this demand, but do not see my way to suggest any feasible means of satisfying it. There are only two possible modes, which can be adopted in justice and fairness, of practically imparting religious instruction. Either you must teach the principles common to all religions under the name of Natural Religion, or you must teach the principles of each religious creed to the students whose parents adopt that creed. The difficulties of these alternatives have been indicated by no less an authority than Mr. Cobden (see his Speeches, page 588, et seq.) Those difficulties are certainly not less great in this country than 125

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

in England. They appear to me to be so great that we must be content to “take refuge,” as it has been expressed, “in the remote haven of refuge for the educationists—the secular system” But I would also point out to all those who ask for this religious education, that the cultivation of those feelings of human nature to which religion appeals is not even now entirely neglected, and that the further direction to be given to those feelings, according to the principles of each religious creed, ought to be undertaken, as it is best carried out, not by a Government like the British Indian Government,12 but by the professors of the several creeds. “Under the legislation of 1806,” says Mr. Matthew Arnold,13 “it was not permitted to public schools to be denominational. The law required that the instruction in them should be such as to train its recipients for the exercise of all social and Christian virtues, but no dogmatic religious instruction was to be given by the teacher, or was to be given in the school. Measures were to be taken, however, said the law, that the scholar should not go without the dogmatic teaching of the communion to which he belonged. Accordingly the Minister of the Home Department exhorted by circular the ministers of the different communions to co-operate with the Government in carrying the new law into execution, by taking upon themselves the religious instruction of the school children belonging to their persuasion. The religious authorities replied favourably to this appeal, and nowhere, perhaps has the instruction of the people been more eminently religious ‘than in Holland while the public schools have by law, remained unsectarian.’14 That seems to me to indicate though only in a general way, the true procedure to be followed in this matter by those who are dissatisfied with the religious results of our educational system. Some agencies of this sort more or less organised more or less powerful are at present working. Whether a more complete organisation will bring out results more satisfactory to those who are now asking for a change is a matter upon which I own I am somewhat sceptical. And some of the grounds of my scepticism have been already indicated in what I have said above, on the kindred question of moral education. But at all events on this I am quite clear, that our institutions for secular instruction should not be embarrassed by any meddling with religious instruction for such meddling among other mischiefs will yield results which on the religious side will satisfy nobody, and on the secular side will be distinctly retrograde.15 Proceeding to the next group of Recommendations under Collegiate Education. I need add little to what I have already said about fees and free studentships. I will only remark, however, that in my judgment the provision for free studentships in our colleges and high schools in Bombay (and partly also in Madras) is ridiculously small being merely 5 per cent of the total number at school or college. I have no belief in these arbitrary per centages whether in the matter of fees or scholarships or any other matters, and I think it ought at least to be open to the head of an institution to admit more than 5 per cent., when the admissions can be made without making any individual class in the institution unmanageably large. The poor boys are the very salt of our colleges and schools and I would earnestly plead for a fairly ample provision for them. Even in England as appears from Mr. 126

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

Pattison’s suggestions on academical organisation (p. 67 et seq.) the principle of such provision for the poor has been accepted by high authority. I am quite aware that a system of free studentships is objected to on the ground that it is calculated to attract the best students to the State institutions and thus act unfauly on the success of non-Government ones. But as the scholarships and free studentships are now proposed to be dissociated from one another, part of this objection seems to me to be removed. And for the rest I am unable to see why when the State has on other grounds determined to maintain an institution it should not admit poor students free subject to the limitation above indicated. On the contrary I consider that the State is bound to admit them because it is thus enabled to disseminate the benefits of its institutions wider, without increasing by one pie its own expenditure upon those institutions. Proceeding now to the Recommendations in Chapter VI, I would specially emphasise the one about the appointment of native gentlemen to Inspectorships of schools. I am no fanatical advocate of the claims of my countrymen to appointments in the public service, but I must say that we have not received quite fair measure in this matter.16 To borrow a figure from John Bright, we have had a feast with a very small quantity of meat and a very large quantity of table cloth. In spite of this fact, I did not agree to the proposal placed before the Commission for a hard and fast rule requiring one half of the Inspectorships in each province to be reserved for natives because I should like, before supporting so radical a proposal to try the operation of the recommendation, which was accepted almost with one voice by the Commission. Long years hence, I hope, we may be able to dispense with the services of all highly-paid Inspectors, Native or European. When school management and inspection on the most approved principles are better and more widely understood, and when, by the development of local self-government, the people themselves begin to take a practical and energetic interest in education, there will be need for little more than examination and general supervision by the State, and that may be done by officers of a class corresponding to the Deputy or Assistant Inspectors of the present day. But such a consummation is yet in the distance, and its approach can only be accelerated, if in the meanwhile sympathetic and energetic officers are appointed to these important posts. “Take care,” said the founder of public instruction in Holland,—“take care how you choose your Inspectors; they are men whom you ought to look for with a lantern in your hand.” I may add one word here about inspection by revenue officers. According to my information, derived from official and (what in my view is of greater importance) from non-official sources, this inspection is very useful in Bombay. In Bengal, however, we have the testimony of one of the revenue officials, that a measure similar to that now in force here “set all the Education Department against us Magistrates, by giving us power to interfere with their proceedings.”17 Our Recommendation is so worded as to avoid this risk, and it may be hoped that with the additional experience now acquired it may be entirely avoided. There is one other point under this Chapter on which I wish to add a few words to what already appears in our minutes. After reconsidering all that was said in 127

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

the debate against the Consultative Board of Education proposed by me, I am still of opinion that the view which prevailed was a bureaucratic and erroneous view. Looking especially to the scheme of local self-government in the Presidency of Bombay which has now been published, I do not see why the proposed board should not be able to give to the local boards quite as good advice as those officers whom the local boards will by law be bound to consult. And I will venture to add that even the trained officers of Government in the Education, as in any other department, will not find it disastrous to the efficient discharge of their duties, if they now and then take extra-departmental counsel, in the way which, according to Mr. Arnold, even the despotisms of the Continent of Europe do not disdain.18 I observe that it is suggested in the Report that if the Department fails in its great duty of keeping touch with public opinion, “the Government is at hand to correct its deficiencies.” I wish I could feel confident on this point. But it is impossible that I can do so, when I remember the almost stereotyped answer of “Government” to all appeals against its departments, viz., “We see no cause to interfere.” I come next to the important subject of grants-in-aid. And while I entirely concur in the Recommendation made to correct the practical inconveniences in the administration of the grant with respect to colleges kept by the Jesuit Fathers,— a body who have done and are doing most admirable work in Bombay and elsewhere,—I must say that I am not satisfied with the restriction to that body of the relief intended to be afforded by the Recommendation. Here, again, I am referring mostly to institutions that may hereafter come into existence. And I cannot see upon what principle the benefit of the altered rule can be refused to an institution where the source of the grievance is not the constitution of the religious body to which the teachers belong, but some other circumstance. I ventured in the course of our debates to refer, as an instance, to the case of the new English School of Poona, as one which might be in a position to claim the benefit of the new principle. And I was told that I assumed, without good reason, that the Bombay system was about to undergo some radical change. As I did not and do not consider the Bombay system of payment by results pure and simple to be a perfect system, and as the Commission had unanimously recommended a revision of the grant in aid rules in consultation with school managers and with special reference to the complaints dwelt on in the Report, I thought it quite on the cards that a salary grant system, or something similar, might, even in Bombay, be joined on to the existing system of payments by results. And in that view I referred to the new English School, and even then only as an illustration, not by any means as exhausting the possible cases calling for the application of the principle under discussion. The other objection taken—namely, that my proposal raised by a side wind the whole question of private adventure schools—seems to me to be sufficiently answered by the Recommendation No. 18 in this chapter which has been adopted by the Commission, and to which I offer no objection. Upon the question of the conscience clause, my opinions are already on record in our minutes. I wish to add only a few words. It is said that in England the conscience clause is a dead letter. My information on that subject is, of course, limited, 128

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

but if it is a dead letter, I cannot explain the recent speech of Mr. Mundella,19 who spoke of the “fact that the Education Act, 1870, in relation to religious teaching, is doing a work which the country never expected of it, and which religious bodies themselves throughout the country appear scarcely to understand.” Besides, it certainly has not been formally repealed, and the question for us, therefore, is whether the provision is in itself a just and expedient one. I do not feel much pressed by the objection that a conscience clause is inconsistent with the provision of the Despatch which prohibits State interference with the religious teaching imparted in aided schools. For I consider that the effect of that prohibition is incorrectly described in the Report, when it is stated to be a “strict abstinence from all enquiry as to any religion being taught or not taught,” in such schools. I understand the prohibition to mean that the officers of the State are not to order or forbid the teaching of particular doctrines, or the use of particular text books. But I do not understand it to prohibit the State from insisting that such religious teaching as is imparted should be imparted subject to the condition that any pupil may refuse to receive it if he pleases. The effect of the prohibition is no greater than that of the conscience clause of the Education Act of 1870, which, according to Mr. Morley,20 lays down absolute neutrality and indifference as regards religious instruction, and embodies the true principle thus expressed by Mr. Gladstone.21 “The duty of the State is to hold itself entirely and absolutely detached from all responsibility with regard to their” (i.e., of the voluntary schools) “religious teaching.” The argument, again, that the conscience clause owes its origin historically to England having a State Church, is also answered by remembering that in Ireland, after the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church there, it is still enforced,22 and that even here in India itself the Government have prescribed a conscience clause for European and Eurasian schools, not to mention that we have a State Church even in India which in 1880 cost £56,012 to the revenues of the country.23 And again, I own I cannot see how it is consistent with the absolute neutrality on which so much stress was laid in the Commission, for the State to help some or even all of the warring religions and religious sects of the country with the funds at its command, where those funds are avowedly applied for propagandist purposes. That seems to me not neutrality, but participation in the strife, and even more,—in fact, a rushing into the mélée, so to say. And when it is said that the State has nothing to do except with secular results, I entirely demur to that contention, except in the case where the secular and the religious results are plainly severable one from the other. They are severable, when the pupils are allowed to withdraw from the religious lessons, if they please, in the manner provided by Section 7 of the Education Act of 1870. They are not severable, if the pupils are not allowed to do so. We are thus brought back to the question, is the conscience clause just and expedient? I can see no reasonable argument against the justice of it; indeed, the justice seems to me to be practically admitted, when a representative of missionary schools protests that attendance at religious lessons is already voluntary. That shows that if my proposal is accepted, the result will be only to enforce the good 129

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

example of some missionaries upon the whole body—a result to which I cannot see any objection even in the argument that “compelling” the missionaries to do this might be wrong, though the doing of it might be itself right. Is it then expedient? If I thought that the effect of the proposed rule would be to reduce very greatly the number of missionary schools in the country, it would, in my opinion, perhaps be inexpedient. But I am satisfied that that will not be the result at all. The very eminent representative of missionary institutions in the Commission told us plainly that that would not be the result. And I agree with him. But it is said that this objection is only made by a section of society which is indifferent to religious instruction. My answer to this is a very short one: it is at once unfounded and irrelevant. Lastly, I wish to notice one misapprehension on this subject. It is not correct to say that the proposal of a conscience clause is exclusively aimed at Christian missionaries, though it most certainly is aimed mainly at them. We have already seen the beginnings of educational activity on the part of the Brahmo Samajes and the Prarthana Samajes throughout the country. To them, as well as to the various religious persuasions—Hindus, Muhammadans, &c.—which are referred to in the Despatch, and to which Lord Ripon appealed in his address before the University of Calcutta, a similar rule ought to be made applicable, although all these, unlike missionary societies, are local bodies, and although, therefore, any encouragement given to them will have a perceptible effect in fostering that “spirit of local exertion and combination for local purposes” which is referred to in the Despatch, but which cannot be fostered by encouraging a foreign agency, although private, and whether missionary or non-missionary. For I confess I cannot follow those witnesses who say that missionary effort in this country has served to evoke private native effort; while on the other hand some of the representatives of native private effort have said that, the encouragement given to the former has acted prejudicially upon their energies.24 A somewhat kindred question is the one of the education of the lowcastes. I have no wish to quarrel with the Recommendation on that subject as it now stands. The feelings or prejudices on the subject are undergoing change, and a few years of cautious forbearance may put an extinguisher upon the question altogether. Meanwhile those who have to deal with each case as it arises must remember that, in carrying out a correct principle even in educational matters, much allowance is not unfrequently always claimed, and has to be made for the feelings and prejudices of even very advanced and enlightened communities. The superstititions we have learned. From education, do not lose their power, When we have found them out; nor are all free Whose judgment mocks the galling chains they wear.

A fortiori, therefore, should such allowance as has been here alluded to be made for those who, without the light of modern education and enlightenment, still cling to the prejudices which they have inherited from antiquity. 130

‘ R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S ’

Notes 1. See the Evidence of Sir W. Wedderburn, p. 2, Mr Wordsworth, p. 5 and Cf. A French Eton, pp. 26–7. 2. Cf. Report, Education Commission (1861), VI, 156. 3. Cf. Mr. Lethbridge in Journal, National Indian Association (August 1882), p. 440 et seq., and the evidence of Mr. Wordsworth and Mr. Oxenham and the Hon. K. D. Pal and Mr. Tawney. 4. Schools and Universities on the Continent, p. 275, and cf. the statement of Mr. Justice West and the evidence of Mr. Wordsworth, and our minutes of proceedings, pp. 126–7. 5. Sir T. Madhavrao, among native gentlemen not examined by the Commission, and the vast majority of the native witnesses examined in all provinces, have taken the view of high education which as here stated. The view of His Highness the Maharaja of Travancore is very well known. 6. Bishop Meurin a statement (page 3) pronounces an unfavourable judgment on our system. His language is curiously like that used against the University of Paris in days gone by. Cf. Schools and Universities on the Continent by Mr. M. Arnold page 23. 7. Notwithstanding Dr. Whately’s protest, in a note in his edition of Bacon’s essays. 8. Cf. Mathew Arnold in Nineteenth Century (November 1882), p. 714. 9. See Gleanings of past years, Vol. VII, p. 18. 10. Cf. Gladstone’s Gleanings VII, 13, and the evidence of Sir William Wedderburn and Mr. Wordsworth, and the Honourable Amir Ali. Mr. Johnstone, in the pamphlet above referred to, attacks us on this ground also but his frame of mind may be judged of by his unhappy reference to the necessity of the Vernacular Press Act—a point on which one need not now waste a single syllable. 11. Life of Dr. Whately, by Miss Whately, II, 264. 12. Cf. Gladstone’s Gleanings, VII, 109. 13. Report of the Education Commission (1861), Vol. IV, page 139, and see page 151. Still the schools were called “godless” (see page 144) in Holland. 14. Cf. the quotation from Sir R. Peel in the evidence of Mr. Wordsworth. 15. See Morley’s Struggle for National Education passim. 16. Cf. Appendix B. to M. Dadabhai Naoroji’s. Note: presented to the Commission. 17. See Life in the Mofussal by a Bengal Civilian, Vol. II, p. 254. 18. Schools and Universities on the Continent, Preface, XXI, and p. 28. 19. See the Times for July 16. 20. Struggle for National Education page 87. 21. Quoted by Mr. Morley page 79. 22. And enforced in an even stronger form than is proposed by me—vide 41 and 42 Vict., c. 66 § 7. 23. See Financial Reform Almanac (1882) page 190. 24. See Mr. Âpte’s evidence, pp. 7, 26, Mr. Bhâve’s evidence, pp. 3, 4, Mr. M. B. Cooper’s evidence, pp. 3, 4, 6, 9.

131

10 EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1883), 480–491, 494–517, 524–549

CHAPTER IX. EDUCATION OF CLASSES REQUIRING SPECIAL TREATMENT 553 Introductory.—Our attention has been carefully given to certain special classes of the Indian community. These classes include the opposite poles of society, the Chiefs and nobles at the one extreme, and the aboriginal tribes and low castes at the other. Besides these again are the Musalmans, and, confined to no particular caste or sect, those families whose poverty has practically debarred them from all education. The necessity for treating specially these various classes arises partly from the real difficulties which have hitherto hundred any considerable progress, and, in the case of the aboriginal tribes and low castes, from the wide sympathy which their backward condition and slender opportunities have excited. We shall therefore consider (1) the attitude of the native nobility towards education, and the steps taken to second any willingness shown by them to participate in a reformed system, (2) the special disabilities under which the Musalmans have laboured, or have supposed themselves to labour, and the efforts made to meet their wants, (3) the measures which have been suggested for reclaiming the half civilised aboriginal tribes which still inhabit the forests and mountains of India, (4) the position of low caste Hindus, with special reference to the proposals which our enquiries have led us to make, (5) the claims of those classes whose penury has prevented their accepting education when offered them.

Section 1.—Native Chiefs and Noblemen 554 The Native Nobility.—An expression which has been already used in this Report, “the downward filtration theory,” is generally understood to mean the theory which advocates the spread of higher education among the few in the hope 132

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

that it will gradually filter down, and result in the education of the masses. The term has, however, been also applied to the theory which regards the education of the higher classes as a necessary preliminary to any influence upon the lower. In this latter sense, the theory has remained a theory. As yet, education has scarcely “touched these mountain tops,” though here and there are instances of Princes and Chiefs who of their own accord, or from the circumstance of their being placed under the tutelage of British officers have themselves accepted an education after European methods and endeavoured to make it popular among those subject to their influence. That, as a whole, the native aristocracy should have held aloof is not a matter for wonder. In the first place, the inducement which springs from an unsatisfied desire has been almost entirely absent. The native Prince has his own traditional standard of civilization with which as a rule he is satisfied. His horizon hardly extends beyond his own court. His administration is practical in character, and is bounded rather by what his subjects are used to than what is adapted to the progressive needs of western society. The pleasures which satisfied his forefathers satisfy him, and in his national poetry he finds abundant food for his literary tastes. The native noble is the native Prince in small. If his means are ample for his favourite pursuits, he sees no reason why he should labour with a view to some visionary enjoyment. If they are not, it never occurs to him that books can supply the want. From his boyhood everything about him combines to thrust education into the back-ground. The influence of the zanana is generally opposed to any enlightenment. Early marriage brings with it hindrances and distractions. The custom of living far away from the larger centres forbids much interest in matters of general importance. In some cases hereditary instinct leads him to regard education as scarcely better than a disgrace. In others, education would be accepted if made easy to obtain and if free from all hazard of social contamination. In the second place, with the exceptions which we shall presently notice, no measures of any importance have been taken to attract these classes towards our education. Arrangements have, indeed, been made in most Provinces for educating minors under the charge of the District Court or the Court of Wards. From various causes, however, little has resulted from such endeavours; and there does not seem much prospect, within any period to which it is worth while to look forward, that the titled classes generally will allow their sons to associate with the students of our ordinary schools and colleges. This conviction has led to the establishment of certain special colleges, of which one of the earliest suggestions was made in 1869 by Captain Walter, then Political Agent at Bhurtpur. In describing the circumstances under which the Maharaja of that State had been brought up, Captain Walter pointed out that we had not “yet thoroughly fathomed the duty that we owe to our feudatories” in the matter of education. Especially in regard to minors under our charge he exhibited the difficulties of our position and the way in which they might be met. “We require,” he said, “a college on an extensive scale, with ample accommodation within its walls for a large number of pupils and the followers (few in number of course) who would accompany them. A complete staff of thoroughly educated English gentlemen, not mere book-worms, but men fond 133

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

of field sports and out-door exercise, would be necessary, and with these should be associated the élite of the native gentlemen belonging to the Educational Department. The pupils, or rather their guardians, the tutors, should be allowed ample funds from the coffers of the State to which they belonged, and the holidays should be spent in constant travel all over the continent of India, with an occasional visit to their homes.” Captain Walter’s idea commended itself to the Government of India, and the opinion of the Agent to the Governor-General in Central India was asked as to the possibility of carrying out such a scheme. In reply General Daly gave his warm assent, recommended that Indore should have a college of the kind suggested, and on behalf of the Maharaja Holkar promised substantial support. About the same time the Earl of Mayo, in an address to the nobles of Rajputana assembled in durbar at Ajmir, “made known his strong desire to establish in that city a college for the education of the sons and relatives of the chiefs, nobles, and principal thakoors of Rajputana, and intimated his intention of communicating to the Chiefs the details of the proposed scheme at an early date.” This was followed a little later by a communication from the Government of India to the Agent of the Governor-General in Rajputana, explaining the method in which His Excellency the Viceroy thought an endowment fund might be raised, and the lines on which the proposed college might be constituted. If among the nobles a sum of money could be raised by subscription sufficient to defray the cost of teaching, scholarships, and the annual repairs of the college, the Government would engage to erect the necessary buildings. It was suggested that the governing body should consist of a council of European and native gentlemen, and that its members should, in the first instance, be nominated by the Government. Before long an endowment fund of nearly seven lakhs of rupees had been subscribed by the Chiefs, to which the Government promised an equivalent sum. Of the Government grant, fourlakhs were to go to the erection of the college building, and the interest of the remainder to the salaries of the staff. Government also undertook the erection of residences for the pupils sent in by certain of the States too poor to meet that expense. The first stone of the Government Boarding-House was laid in May 1873, and about the same time other Boarding-Houses whose cost was borne by the Maharajas of Udaipur and Jaipur were also begun. The council, as finally settled, was to consist of all the principal Chiefs of Rajputana and the Political Agents accredited to their States, with the Viceroy as President, and the Agent to the Governor-General in Rajputana as Vice-President. Various hindrances connected with the erection of buildings, the collection of the subscriptions, the settlement of the financial basis, and the formation of the staff of teachers, prevented the opening of the college before the beginning of October 1875. By that date a fair number of pupils had joined, including the Maharaja of Alwar, the brother of the Maharaja of Jodhpur, and the adopted heir of the Maharaj Rana of Jhalawar, together with twelve other pupils sent in by the Maharajas of Jaipur and Jodhpur, and eight Government wards. THe attainments of the boys were very limited, few of them having any knowledge of English or much knowledge of even their own vernaculars. Nor, which was more surprising, did they show much interest in 134

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

out-door games or athletics. Even riding was little cared for; boys from different States would not amalgamate, and the general want of spirit was very marked. But before long the attendance at the play-ground, at first enforced, became voluntary; the riding classes quickly grew popular; and cricket, rounders, and football were played with a zest scarcely less keen that shown at an English school. Considerable progress was also made year by year in the standard of instruction, and English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Persian, Urdu, Arithmetic, Algebra, Euclid, History, and Geography are now among the studies of the College. It is not of course desired to make these young Chiefs great scholars, but to encourage in them a healthy tone and manly habits. To this end the training they receive is admirably adapted, while the College has been particularly fortunate in the gentlemen who have held the office of Principal. If at the outset the Chiefs displayed no great alacrity in sending their relatives, and if some of those sent looked with dislike upon their new phase of life, the experience of the past seven years has almost entirely dissipated the earlier reluctance. At the beginning of last year there were sixty-two pupils in residence from the various States of Alwar, Ajmir, Bikanir, Dholpur, Jaipur, Jhalawar, Kishengarh, Kotah, Mewar, Marwar, Sirohi, and Tonk; and the punctuality with which the pupils returned after the holidays was in marked contrast with the dilatoriness shown in the first few years. All the principal States had erected boarding-houses for their own cadets, and the College building was nearly finished. Similar in character, though upon a smaller scale, is the Rajkumar College in Kathiawar, founded in 1870–71 and now containing thirty-four pupils. The Rajaram College in Kolhapur, the Indore College, the Girasia school at Wadhwan in Kathiawar, and the Talukdari school at Sadra in Gujarat also have special classes for the sons of native Chiefs and large landed proprietors. In Madras and Bengal, there are no separate institutions of this kind. The Canning College at Lucknow has special classes for the sons of talukdars, and the Aligarh College counts several students belonging to the upper classes. Of the immense benefit that has already resulted from the special colleges in existence there can be no doubt, and it is almost equally certain that the system might be considerably extended. We have therefore recommended that Local Governments be invited to consider the question of establishing special colleges or schools for the sons and relatives of Native Chiefs and Noblemen where such institutions do not now exist.

Section 2.—Muhammadans. 555. Early Efforts in the Cause of Muhammadan Education.—When in 1782 the Calcutta Madrasa was founded by Warren Hastings, it was designed “to qualify the Muhammadans of Bengal for the public service . . . . . “and to enable them to compete, on more equal terms, with the Hindus for employment under Government.” Some fifty years later, after the introduction of English into the course of studies, the Council of Education had to confess that “the endeavour to impart a high order of English education” to the Muhammadan community had completely failed. Forty years later again, “the condition of the Muhammadan 135

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

population of India as regards education had of late been frequently pressed upon the attention of the Government of India.” The Muhammadans were not even then competing on equal terms with the Hindus for employment under Government, nor had the endeavour to impart to them a high order of education been attended by any adequate success. Matters were, no doubt, in a more promising condition than in 1832, and, as regards the general spread of education, in a much more promising condition than in 1792. A considerable proportion of Muhammadans were learning English, a large proportion were in schools of one kind or another. But the higher English education was not cultivated, in any appreciable degree, more extensively than it had been in 1832. 556. Reasons alleged by the Muhammadans for holding aloof from the Education offered in Government Schools.—What the causes were which deterred the Muhammadans from such cultivation was debated even among themselves. While some held that the absence of instruction in the tenets of their faith, and still more the injurious effects of English education in creating a disbelief in religion, were the main obstacles, others, though a small minority, were of opinion that religion had little to do with the question. Some contended that the system of education prevailing in Government schools and colleges corrupted the morals and manners of the pupils, and that for this reason the better classes would not subject their sons to dangerous contact. The small proportion of Muhammadan teachers in Government institutions; the unwillingness of Government educational officers to accept the counsel and co-operation of Muhammadans; numerous minor faults in the Departmental system; the comparatively small progress in real learning made by the pupils in Government schools; the practice among the well-to-do Muhammadans of educating their children at home; the indolence and improvidence too common among them; their hereditary love of the profession of arms; the absence of friendly intercourse between Muhammadans and Englishmen; the unwillingness felt by the better born to associate with those lower in the social scale; the poverty nearly general among Muhammadans; the coldness of Government towards the race; the use in Government schools of books whose tone was hostile or scornful towards the Muhammadan religion;—these and a variety of other causes have been put forward at different times by members of the Muhammadan community to account for the scant appreciation which an English education has received at their hands. All such causes may have combined towards a general result, but a candid Muhammadan would probably admit that the most powerful factors are to be found in pride of race, a memory of bygone superiority, religious fears, and a not unnatural attachment to the learning of Islam. But whatever the causes, the fact remained; though the enquiries made in 1871–73 went to prove that except in the matter of the higher education there had been a tendency to exaggerate the backwardness of the Muhammadans. 557. Statistics in 1871–72.—The following Table shows the percentage of Muhammadans to the total population in the six more important Provinces of India, and the percentage of Muhammadans under instruction in schools of which the Department had cognisance to the total number of all classes in such schools. 136

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

In the former case the percentage is 22·8, in the latter 147 It must also be borne in mind that in 1870–71 there were among the 167,711,037 inhabitants of the six Provinces about four millions who belonged to the aboriginal tribes, or semiHinduised aborigines, and to other non-Aryans hardly touched by our education. Deducting these, and excluding Native States, the Musalmans form about 25 per cent. of the total population:— PROVINCES Madras . . Bombay . . Bengal and Assam . . North Western Provinces . Oudh . . . Punjab . . TOTAL

Total population

Muhammadans

AT SCHOOL

Percentage.

Total

Muhammadans.

Percentage

31,281,177 1,872,214 16,349,206 2,528,344 60,467,724 19,553,420

6 15·4 32·3

123,689 190,153 196,080

5,531 15,684 28,411

4·4 8·2 14·4

30,781,204

4,188,751

13·5

162,619

28,990

17·8

11,220,232 17,611,498

1,111,290 9,102,488

9·9 51·6

48,926 68,144

12,417 23,783

25·3 34·9

167,711,041

38,356,507

22·8

789,617

114,816

14·5

It will be observed that in the North-Western Provinces, and to a much larger extent in Oudh, the proportion of Muhammadan schoolboys to the total number is greater than the proportion of Muhammadans in the population. In the other Provinces it is much less; the population percentage of the Muhammadans in these Provinces taken together, being over 26 and the school percentage under 10. 558 Suggestions made by Government of India to Local Governments.—In addressing the various Local Governments and Administrations, the Government of India in its Resolution No. 300, dated Simla, 7th August 1871, was of opinion; (1) That further encouragement should be given to the classical and vernacular languages of the Muhammadans in all Government schools and colleges; (2) That in avowedly English schools established in Muhammadan districts, the appointment of qualified Muhammadan English teachers might, with advantage, be encouraged; (3) That as in vernacular schools, so in avowedly English schools, assistance might justly be given to Muhammadans by grants-in-aid to create schools of their own; (4) That greater encouragement should also be given to the creation of a vernacular literature for the Muhammadans. 559. Measures taken in Madras.—Upon the receipt of the Resolution of the Government of India, the Government of Madras invited the Syndicate of the University to consider whether any steps could be taken by it which would be likely to attract a larger number of Muhammadan under-graduates. In its reply the Syndicate expressed an opinion that “the regulation of the “University should not be modified with the view of encouraging a particular section of the population, but 137

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

that the Musalmans should be treated in precisely the same manner as all other inhabitants of the Madras Presidency,” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and while deploring the undoubted fact of the Muhammadans being behind the Hindus as regards educational progress, they did not see that any steps could be taken by the University to modify this state of things. The view taken by the Director of Public Instruction was not more encouraging. He considered that the Department had done all that it could for Muhammadan education, and pointed out that a special concession had been made to Musalman students by exempting them from the new regulations regarding fees. The Government of Madras was, however, convinced that the existing scheme of instruction was framed with too exclusive reference to the requirements of Hindu students, and that Muhammadans were placed at so great a disadvantage that the wonder was, not that the Muhammadan element in the schools was so small, but that it existed at all. The Governor in Council, therefore, issued orders that the Director should, without delay, “take steps with a view to the establishment of elementary schools at Arcot and Ellore, and corresponding classes in the existing schools at the principal centres of the Muhammadan population, such as Trichinopoly, Cuddapah, Kurnool, and perhaps Mangalore, in which instruction will be given in the Hindustani language, and Muhammadan boys may thus acquire such a knowledge of the English language and of the elementary branches of instruction as will qualify them for admission into the higher classes of the Zillah and Provincial schools and other similar institutions.”. . . . . Arrangements were also, without loss of time, to be made for the training of Muhammadan teachers; and instruction in Persian was to be provided in any high school in which there was a sufficient number of Muhammadan students. 560. Results of Measures taken.—Coming to the year 1880–81, we find that the measures taken during the interval and the results obtained were as follows: The special schools maintained by Government were 11 in number, 7 of them being Anglo-vernacular middle schools, and 4 Anglo-vernacular primary schools. Nine schools, Anglo-vernacular or vernacular, were maintained by Municipalities, and of aided schools with a special provision for Musalman pupils there were 4 Anglo-vernacular, and 210 vernacular. Other inducements had also been held out to Musalman students. They were admitted in all schools upon payment of half the usual fees, seven scholarships were specially reserved for Musalman candidates at the University examinations; a special Deputy Inspector of Musalman schools had been appointed; an elementary Normal school had been established at Madras; and the University of Madras still continued to allot to the Arabic and Persian languages at its examinations a maximum of marks considerably larger than that carried by vernacular languages. The combined results of these measures were eminently satisfactory. In place of the 5,531 Musalmans at school in 1870–71; the returns for 1880–81 give 22,075, or 6·7 per cent. of the total number under instruction, while the percentage of Musalmans to the total population of the Presidency is only 6 per cent. The proportion of boys at school to those of a school-going age is for Muhammadans 15·1, for Hindus 13·7. But it is not in numbers only that progress has been made. Taking the results of the middle school examinations we find that 138

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

the percentage of passed candidates to those examined was, for Brahmans 44, for Hindus not Brahmans, 35, for Muhammadans 41. In the lower University examinations, taking only the percentage of successful candidates to those examined, the results for 1880–81 are equally satisfactory, as the following Table will show:— ENTRANCE. RACE.

Brahmans . . Hindus not Brahmans . . Musalmans . .

FIRST ARTS.

Percentage Percentage Examined. Passed. of passed to Examined. Passed. of passed to examined. examined. 2,150 1,066

670 290

31·2 27·2

486 173

295 86

60·7 49·7

71

19

26·8

10

6

60·0

In the Entrance examination, the percentage for Hindus other than Brahmans and for Musalmans is thus practically the same. It must be remembered, however, that the proportion of students to population is about three times as great for Hindus (including Brahmans) as for Musalmans. In the latter case, the percentage of passed candidates is even more favourable to the Musalmans; but the proportion of candidates to population is five times as great for Hindus (including Brahmans) as for Musalmans. Of college education, beyond the first examination in Arts, Muhammadans, speaking generally, do not avail themselves at all, though there is no reason to suppose that the general system of education beyond that standard is not as well suited to the Muhammadans as that below it. The attendance of Musalmans in the various institutions, Government, aided, and unaided, as compared with the total attendance, was in 1881–82 as follows:— Total Number of Students

Class of Institutions Colleges, English . . . . . . ” Oriental . . . . . . High Schools, English . . . . ” . . . . . . Middle ” ” ” Vernacular . . . English . . . . Primary ” ” ” Vernacular . . . ” English, Girls’ . High ” ” . . Middle ” ” ” Vernacular, Girls’ English ” . Primary ” ” ” Vernacular ” . Normal schools for masters . . ” ” for mistresses . . TOTAL

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1,669 38 4,836 18,553 511 63,295 276,983 2 190 197 1,897 18,468 799 157 387,595

139

Musalmans

Percentage.

30

1·7

117 723 2 4,973 19,232

2·4 3·8 ·4 7·8 6·9

1 427 42 25,547

... ·5 ... 2·3 5·2 ... 6·5

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

561. Measures taken in Bombay.—Though the Musalmans in the Bombay Presidency are reckoned in the census of 1872 at 2,528,344, or 15·4 per cent. of a total population of 16,349,206, no less than 1,354,781 belong to Sind alone. Excluding that Division the percentage falls to 7·1. Of the total number at school, 15,684, or 8·2 per cent., were Musalmans. As in Madras, therefore, the circumstances which called forth the Resolution of the Government of India existed only on a small scale. Sind, no doubt, was in a very backward state, and the feelings of the Musalman community there were strongly against the study of English. Out of a population of 1,354,781, only 10,115 were in schools known to the Department, and of that number, only 3,225, or 31·8 per cent of the total number at school, were Musalmans, though their proportion to the rest of the inhabitants was as four to one. Looking at the Presidency as a whole, the indifference of the Musalmans was not so much to education generally as to education in its higher branches. This fact had already engaged the attention of the Department; and enquiries which were set on foot some two years before the issue of the Resolution of the Government of India showed that in the Government colleges and English schools of a total of 16,224, the Musalmans numbered 1,499 only. The distribution was as follows:— In colleges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14

” high schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59

” middle schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . TOTAL

1,426 1,499

“Here,” the Director of Public Instruction remarks, “is the weak point. The Muhammadans avail themselves of our lower schools, but do not rise to the higher schools and colleges. In the list of University graduates there are one Musalman M.A. and two B.A.’s. I think that the reason is to be found not in the poverty of the Muhammadan community (for beggar Brahmans abound in the high school), but in their poverty and depressed social status combined. In this matter the Brahman and Musalman are at opposite poles. Thus we have in Gujarat 10 Brahmans in the colleges and 20 in the high schools for every Musalman, but only 3 Brahmans for every Musalman in the middle class, and not 2 for every Musalman in the lower class schools.” In the Government institutions generally the disproportion of Musalmans to the total number at school was much less than in those aided and inspected. Thus out of 161,283 students in the former, 14,629, or 9·1 per cent., were Musalmans, while the latter had but 968, or 5·2 per cent., of a total of 16,443. The measures taken by the Director, Mr. Peile, to remedy the state of things which his enquiries revealed had reference alike to the higher and the lower grades of education. The University having placed Persian on the list of languages in which examination is held for its degrees, sanction was obtained to the appointment of a Professor of Persian and Arabic in the Elphinstone College, where up to that time it had been impossible, for want of a competent teacher, that those languages should be studied in a scholarly manner. Persian teachers were also appointed in 140

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

the Elphinstone and Surat High Schools. By the provision of stipends and teachers for Musalmans in the vernacular training college, the foundation was laid of a supply of qualified teachers in vernacular and Musalman schools. In regard to lower education, Mr. Peile pressed upon the Government the necessity of imposing town school-rates for class wants, since the rates then administered by the Education Department belonged almost exclusively to the villages, and the share of the public grant for vernacular education which belonged to the towns was too small to admit of adequate provision for such wants. His representations, though the imposition of these rates was not conceded, at all events secured to Musalman schools a fair share of the vernacular grant. Mr. Peile also drew up a course of Persian instruction for the upper standards in vernacular schools, and for English and high schools. This course was graduated from the beginning up to the matriculation standard, and so arranged as to prepare for the study of Persian as a classic in the Arts Colleges. Later on the number of special Musalman schools was considerably increased, and Musalman Deputy Inspectors were appointed to inspect them. “But the most promising feature in connection with the progress of “Musalman education during the past decade” [1871 to 1881] “has been the formation and recognition of a Society known as the Anjuman-i-Islam, which it is hoped will in time establish a net-work of secular schools in Bombay. This Society is so important that it was felt advisable to make special rules for its assistance. At present it receives a fixed subsidy of Rs. 500 a month from Government. By the end of the year 1880–81 the Society’s first school was fairly started. Its Hindustani and Anglo-Hindustani Departments, together with a large class of children reading the Kuran, contained in all 102 pupils. Since then the operations of the Society have been extended.”1 562. Results of Measures taken.—In 1871–72 the number of Musalmans at school, according to Mr. Peile’s estimate, was 15,577, or about 8·7 per cent. of the total number at school; in 1881–82 the number had risen to 41,548, or 11·7 per cent. of the total number at school. There were also in the latter year 22,284 Muhammadan children in indigenous schools, which would raise the percentage to 14·7. The distribution was as follows:— Class of Institution. Colleges, English . . . . . . High Schools, English . . . ” ” . . . Middle Vernacular . Primary ” ” English, Girls’ Middle Vernacular, ” Primary ” Normal Schools for Masters . . ” ” Mistresses . Unaided Indigenous Schools . . TOTAL

. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

Total number of Students

Musalmans

Percentage.

475 5,731 14,257 312,771 555 19,917 480 73 78,755 433,014

7 118 781 39,231 2 1,366 42 1 22,284 63,832

1·4 2·0 5·4 12·5 ·3 6·8 8·7 1·3 28·2 14·7

141

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

563. Measures taken in Bengal.—The following Table shows the proportion of Musalmans to Hindus and others in those colleges and schools of Bengal and Assam which in 1871 furnished returns to the Department:— Hindus Schools . . . . . . . . Arts Colleges . . . . . . TOTAL

Musalmans

149,717 1,199 150,916

28,096 52 28,148

Others 15,489 36 15,525

Total. 193,302 1,287 194,589

Thus, while the Musalmans of Bengal were 32·3 per cent. of the total population, their proportion to the total number in schools known to the Department was only 14·4 per cent. “This result,” remarks the Director in his Report for 1871–72, “shows that the education of Musalmans demands much careful attention. They have fallen behind the time, and require still the inducements held out forty years ago to the whole community, but of which the Hindus only availed themselves. Such, however, has been the progress of education and the influence of the grantin-aid system in promoting self-help, that the encouragement which was then considered just and right would now be called downright bribery; still unless the strong inducements in general use forty years ago are held out to Musalmans now, I have little hope of seeing them drawn to our schools.” But if the number of Musalmans in the schools generally was greatly out of proportion to the total number in the Presidency, still more conspicuous was the disproportion in the colleges, where out of 1,287 students only 52, or 4·04 per cent., belonged to that race. In regard to University distinctions, the Director remarks:—“During the last five years, out of 3,499 candidates who passed the Entrance examination from these Provinces, 132, or 3·8 per cent. only, were Musalmans. They ought to have been ten-fold more numerous. Out of 900 passed for the First Arts in the same period, Musalmans gained only 11, or 1·2 per cent., and out of 429 passes for the B.A., they gained only 5, or 1·1 per cent. Hence, not only the number of Musalmans who pass the Entrance is less than one-tenth what it ought to be, but this painful inferiority steadily increases in the higher examinations. Taking the candidates generally, out of every 100 who pass the Entrance, 26 go on and pass the First Arts, and 12 pass the B.A.; but of every 100 Musalmans who pass the Entrance, only 8 pass the First “Arts and 3 the B.A.” Various causes, some general and some particular, were assigned by the officers consulted as the obstacles which had barred the progress of education, both higher and lower. Among the general causes assigned by them were the apathy of the Musalman race, their pride, their religious exclusiveness, the love of their own literature among those of them who cared for any education at all, the idea so persistently held that education ought to be a free gift. Among the particular causes, a want of sympathy between Hindu teachers and Musalman pupils, a want of consideration in the arrangements of the Education Department, and, perhaps above all, the depressed condition of the bulk of Bengali Musalmans, Musalmans in the first instance by conversion only 142

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

and not by descent. In different degrees of efficiency and with varying influence according to locality, these causes combined to account for the backwardness of the race. Many of them were of course beyond any immediate removal. Others were a matter of administration, and with these the Government of Bengal promptly endeavoured to deal. On the question of establishing special schools for Musalmans, the almost unanimous opinion of those consulted was that, with the schools already in existence, there was no sufficient justification for expending State funds in this direction. The vernacular of the mass of Musalmans in Bengal was known to be Bengali, and the ordinary pathsalas of the country were held to supply the proper means of elementary education. Schools of all classes might be made more attractive by increasing the number of Musalmans throughout the various grades of the Department in Musalman districts; and especially by encouraging Musalmans to qualify themselves for the profession of teaching by a course of training in the Normal schools. In all zila schools it was decided that Urdu and Arabic or Persian should be taught up to the standard of the Entrance examination; and, as a special concession, wherever there was a sufficient demand to justify the supply, there was to be a special class to teach Arabic and Persian after the Musalman fashion. The Persian language had recently been included by the University among the subjects for the F.A. and B.A. Examinations, and this it was expected would have a powerful effect in increasing the number of college students. A new Code of grant-in-aid rules was about to be drawn up, and advantage would be taken of this to offer specially liberal terms to schools managed by Musalmans. These measures for the most part had reference only to lower education. In respect to the higher, the Musalmans of Bengal had a special grievance in the appropriation to English education of a certain endowment originally assigned to the promotion of oriental (Arabic and Persian) learning. Of that endowment, known as the Mahomed Mohsin Trust, some account has already been given in Chapter VI. To remove all cause for complaint, the Lieutenant-Governor at the instance of the Supreme Government, which added a sum of Rs. 50,000 for that purpose to the Provincial assignment for education, declared that the maintenance of the English side of that College should be a charge upon the Provincial funds. It was also decided to devote a portion of the endowment to the oriental side, or Madrasa, and the remainder to the foundation of three new Madrasas, to the establishment of scholarships, and towards the payment of the fee of Musalman students in English colleges and schools. The three Madrasas were established at Dacca, Rajshahye, and Chittagong; and each was placed under an Arabic scholar of repute, assisted by a competent staff of maulavis. It was intended that in each of them the full course of the Calcutta Madrasa should in time be taught; English was to be added to the course wherever the pupils showed a desire to learn that language, and at Dacca a teacher of English was at once appointed. To the payment of scholarships tenable by Musalmans in Madrasas or in English colleges and schools there was allotted the sum of Rs. 9,000, while Rs. 18,000 went to the payment of two-thirds of 143

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

the fees of Muhammadan pupils in Government colleges and schools outside Calcutta, and also to the payment of maulavis in these schools. At the same time the Calcutta Madrasa was thoroughly reorganised, arrangements were made for the more thorough teaching of the Arabic and Persian languages with a reasonable amount of Muhammadan law; and the salary of the European Principal was raised to Rs. 1,000 a month. A description of the character and status of this Madrasa has been given elsewhere, and it is therefore unnecessary to enter into particulars here. A few years later, a proposal was made to connect the maktabs throughout Bengal with the institutions for higher Muhammadan education in Calcutta and the mofussil. The attempt, however, was not successful, and it was abandoned in favour of an opposite policy, which was expressed in the hope that the maktabs might be “gradually moulded into true primary schools.” Accepting the indigenous schools of the country in the form in which, under the special conditions of locality, they were most popular, the Bengal system endeavoured by the promise of Government support to introduce into the traditional course of study certain subjects of instruction which should bring the schools so aided into some relation, more or less close, with the general system of education in the Province. The object being to encourage natural and spontaneous movement, it followed that if in any locality the existing system had a religious basis, the religious character of the school should be no bar to its receiving aid, provided that it introduced a certain amount of secular instruction into the course. Many hundreds of maktabs have in this way been admitted into the primary system of Bengal. 564. Results of Measures taken.—The results of the measures taken at this time are shown, to some extent, by the very considerable increase in the number of Musalmans under instruction in 1881–82. Including the Madrasas, in which there were about 1,000 students, the number then stood as follows:— Class of Institutions. Colleges,

. { English Oriental .

Number of Musalmans.

Percentage.

2,738 1,089 43,747 37,959 56,441 880,937 184 340 527 17,452 1,007 41 57,305

106 1,088 3,831 5,032 7,735 217,216

3·8 99·90 8·7 13·2 13·7 24·6

4 6 1,570 55 ... 25,244

1·1 1·1 8·9 5·5 ... 44·0

1,099,767

261,887

23·8

Total number.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

High Schools, ” . . . . . . . . . . . . . Middle ” ” Vernacular . . . ” ” Boys’ Primary ” High Schools, Girls’, English . ” ” . . Middle ” Vernacular . ” ” ”. . . Primary Normal Schools for Masters . . ” ” Mistresses . Private Uninspected Schools . . TOTAL

. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . .

144

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

The last column is important as showing how rapidly the proportion of Musalman students falls in schools of the higher classes. The proportion in colleges is, indeed, even smaller now than it was in 1871 when, as previously stated, 4·04 per cent. were Musalmans. Still, owing to the ready way in which Musalmans have accepted the primary system of instruction there is a very satisfactory increase in the total number of pupils of that race, which has risen from 28,148 in 1871 to 262,108 (including students in technical schools and colleges) in 1882; the proportion of Musalmans being now 23·8 per cent. against 14·4 in 1871. In each of the Madrasas of Hugli, Dacca, Rajshahye and Chittagong the full Arabic course of the Calcutta Madrasa is taught, and in each also instruction in English is given to all pupils who wish it. In the Dacca Madrasa the course in English is carried up to the Entrance standard. Of 1,089 pupils in the six Madrasas, as many as 322 learn English. The privilege of reading at one-third of the ordinary fees has also, by recent orders of the Government of Bengal, been extended to Muhammadan students of any college in Calcutta, whether Government or other. In the case of non-Government colleges, aided and unaided, the amount of the remissions is paid from the Provincial Revenues. On the other hand, in the Derajat and Peshawar Divisions, where the Musalmans formed more than 90 per cent. of the whole population, their proportion to the total number at schools was only 55 per cent.; and so completely in many parts had education been disregarded by them, that it would be a considerable time before the schools, whether Government or aided, could expect to attract any large number of pupils. Simultaneously with these enquiries, the Government of the Punjab consulted a large number of gentlemen as to the necessity of any special measures, other than those which had already been taken, for the furtherance of education among the Musalmans. Among those consulted were the Members of the Senate of the Punjab University College, and English and Native officers, both Musalman and Hindu. The replies received almost unanimously deprecated any such measures. The Musalman members of the Senate recommended, indeed, a system of special scholarships, and would be glad to see moral and religious instruction given in the Government schools; but they were unanimous in declaring that no religious prejudices existed among the more enlightened classes against the education afforded either in the Government or in the Mission schools, that no change was needed in the course of study, and especially that there should be no restriction upon the study of English. In regard to the establishment of aided schools, the Government of the Punjab pointed out that the matter was very much in the hands of the people themselves; but that if any exertion were made in that direction, it would meet with liberal encouragement from Government, and that in such schools it would be for the managers to provide whatever religious instruction they thought fit. So far as the Musalmans had shown an indifference to the education offered them, that was ascribed by the Government to the disproportionate attention given by them to religious studies, to a preference, as more practical, for the course of study in indigenous schools, and to the impoverishment which 145

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

was said to have affected most Muhammadan families of note. That, as a class, the Musalmans had been subject to any special disabilities, was emphatically denied; and the conclusion drawn from the general body of evidence went to show that the suggestions made by the Government of India had already been adopted in the Punjab. No special measures, therefore, have since been taken, but the percentage of Musalmans at school has risen since 1871–72 from 34·9 to 38·2, and the increase has been in the higher rather than in the lower class of schools. The following Table gives the statistics for 1881–82:— Total number of Students

Class of Institutions Colleges, English . . . . . . . ” Oriental . . . . . . . High schools, English . . . . . ” Vernacular . . . . Middle schools, English . . . . . ” Vernacular . . . Primary schools, English . . . . ” Vernacular . . . Middle schools, Girls’, English . . ” ” Primary ” ” Vernacular Normal schools for Masters . . . ” ” Mistresses . . Central Training College . . . . TOTAL . .

. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

103 122 453 132 2,671 2,704 23,019 70,641 8 141 9,066 220 138 58 109,476

Musalmans

Percentage.

13 71 91 64 703 935 7,176 28,378

12·6 58·1 20·0 48·4 26·3 34·5 31·1 40·1 ... 1·4 46·7 45·9 42·7 27·5 38·2

2 4,235 101 59 16 41,844

569. Measures taken in Oudh.—The following Table shows the proportion of Musalmans to the total number at school in 1871–72:—

AIDED

GOVERNMENT.

Class of Institutions

{

{

Total number of Students.

Musalmans

Percentage.

2,340 7,390 31,525 1,908 187 720 200 3,983

630 2,732 6,235 1,072 71 195 37 993

27·0 36·9 19·7 56·1 38·0 27·0 18·5 24·9

1,222 451 49,926

200 252 12,417

16·3 55·8 24·8

Higher schools, English . . . . . Middle ” ” and Vernacular Lower schools, Vernacular . . . . Female  ” . . . . . . . . . Normal ” . . . . . . . . . College . . . . . . . . . . . Higher schools, English . . . . . Middle Class, English and Vernacular . . . . . . . . . . Lower schools, Vernacular . . . . Female schools . . . . . . . . TOTAL . . . . .

146

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

This Table is, in itself, enough to show that the education of Musalmans in Oudh had not been neglected, and that the Musalmans were far from indifferent to the advantages held out to them. The course of studies, indeed, was UrduPersian rather than Hindi-Sanskrit. If any section of the community had cause for complaint, it was the Hindus. But, in reality, they had no grievance; for, Urdu being the language of the Courts, and Government service being to the vast majority alike of Hindus and Musalmans the great incentive to education, the requirements of all were best met by the adoption of Urdu as a medium of instruction. Persian was also taught in the schools, and was a study popular with the better class of Musalmans. For Arabic there seemed to be little or no demand. To know the Koran by heart was, indeed, as in other parts of India, the beginning of wisdom. In most cases it was also the end. Facilities for the study of Arabic as a language were abundantly offered in the Canning College, Lucknow, at which, however, though “situated in a city containing 111,397 Muhammadans, or about 9,000 Muhammadan boys of a school-going age, there are but 144 Musalman students.” That number, the Director had no doubt, might be increased by hundreds, perhaps by thousands, by the offer of stipends, or even of daily rations of food. Such students, however, he confessed, would not be attracted by the love of Oriental literature, nor would they continue their studies if more advantageous occupation offered itself. Towards “the creation of a vernacular literature,” or, as the Director more accurately puts it, “the provision of a suitable literature” for Musalmans and Hindus, something might be done. But “it seems to me,” wrote the Director, “that special machinery for the production of school-books, and for the reward of Native authors, is required. At present no such machinery exists. The Government of India, I believe, are afraid lest the works produced by translators should not be popular and remain unsold. So at present authors can only be encouraged by the purchase of their books, for prizes or special rewards. But there is no machinery even to estimate the value of the books submitted; the books are forwarded to the Director of Public Instruction, and he must, in addition to his other multifarious duties, go over each book presented, and accurately gauge its merits, or he may call upon some of his subordinates as hard-worked as himself to assist in the criticism of books submitted for publication. Moreover, many, nay most, of those who write and adapt books for school use are either not acquainted at all with Western science and art, or at best have but a superficial acquaintance with these subjects. Thus, the books that are printed follow a stereotyped eastern groove, or are unidiomatic and bald versions of some trifling English work. If a special office for the examination and publication of works in Hindi, Urdu, Persian and Bengalee were established, and this office were connected with the Educational Departments of Bengal, the North-Western Provinces, and the Punjab, and were under the control of some one of these Departments, I cannot but think that a better class of literature would be produced than under the present system.”

147

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

The following is the comparative Table for Oudh in 1881–82:— Class of Institutions Colleges, English . . . . . . . . ” Oriental . . . . . . . . High and Middle Schools, English . ” ” ” Vernacular Primary Schools, English . . . . . ” Vernacular . . . . ” Girls’, English . . ” ” Vernacular . Normal Schools for Masters . . . . ” for Mistresses . . . TOTAL .

Total number of Students

Musalmans

Percentage

126 113 1,081 536 4,388 45,899 350 1,722 67 6 54,288

7 51 195 134 1,317 9,449 156 1,080 11 ... 12,400

5·5 45·1 18·0 25·0 30·0 20·5 44·5 62·7 16·4 ... 22·8

. . . . . . . . . . .

570. Measures taken in other Provinces.—In the Central Provinces the Musalmans formed only 2·5 per cent. of the total population, but they were as fully alive to the importance of education as the rest of the community. In the higher schools, especially, their attendance was good, and orders had already been given that classes should be opened for the study of Arabic and Persian in all zila schools in which there should be a sufficient demand. The Chief Commissioner did not think that any further measures were necessary. In Mysore the general state of Muhammadan education was very backward and unsatisfactory. The Chief Commissioner was of opinion that Hindustani schools should be established wherever a reasonably sufficient number of Muhammadan pupils were forthcoming to attend them; that Hindustani masters should be added to the existing schools of all descriptions wherever a class of pupils in that language could be formed; and that the subject of the provision of suitable schools books should be duly considered. The question of Muhammadan education had already engaged the anxious attention of the Chief Commissioner, who had repeatedly urged upon that community the necessity of taking further advantage of the facilities offered them if they wished to keep pace with the progress made by other classes. The Muhammadans of Coorg were generally in very poor circumstances, and quite indifferent to the education of their children. The only measure which the Chief Commissioner thought practicable was to establish an efficient Hindustani class at Merkara in connection with, or independent of, the central school, and the Director of Public Instruction had been instructed to make enquiries as to how this might best be done. The Musalmans of the Assigned Districts of Haidarabad were, it was stated, but few in number and depressed in social and intellectual condition relatively to the other classes of the people. It had always been one of the objects of the Local Administration to introduce into the ranks of the Commission a certain number of Musalmans. Measures had also been recently adopted for promoting the spread of education 148

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

among that portion of the community, but it was too early to judge of their results. 571. Memorials regarding Muhammadan Education.—Of the various memorials on the subject of Muhammadan education that have come before the Commission, by far the most important is that of the National Muhammadan Association whose head-quarters are at Calcutta. Though having reference on certain points to Bengal alone, the memorial in reality covers nearly the whole ground of Muhammadan grievances, and indicates the methods of redress to which the Musalmans consider themselves entitled. The memorialists begin by setting forth the causes “which have led to “the decadence and ruin of so many Muhammadan families in India.” These were principally three. First, the ousting of Persian as the language of official use, and the substitution of English or the vernacular; secondly, the resumption between 1828 and 1846 of the revenue-free grants which under the Muhammadan rule were generally made to men of learning for charitable and pious uses; thirdly, the order passed in 1864 that English alone should be the language of examination for the more coveted appointments in the subordinate civil service. The combination of these causes resulted, according to the Memorialists, in a general impoverishment of the Musalman race, and this impoverishment in its turn has prevented them from obtaining such an education as would fit them for a useful and respectable career. It has been to no purpose, the memorialists urge, that for the “last twenty years the Musalmans have made strenuous efforts to qualify themselves to enter the lists successfully with the Hindus, for, with every avenue to public employment already jealously blocked by members of a different race, it is almost impossible for a Muhammadan candidate to obtain a footing in any Government office.” The various orders, issued from time to time, that a proper regard should be paid to the claims of Musalmans, had practically been inoperative. One reason of this was that undue importance was attached to University education, an education which, until very recently, had not taken root among the Muhammadans, though many of them possessed “as thorough an acquaintance with the English language as any ordinary B.A.” This affected the Musalmans both generally as regarded all Government employ, and specially as regarded the subordinate judicial service. Their numerical inferiority in this branch of the administration was ascribed to the decision that no one in Bengal should be appointed a Munsiff unless he was a B.L. of the Calcutta University, to attain which degree it was necessary that the candidate should first have passed the B.A. Examination. Another grievance was the substitution of the Nagari for the Persian character in the Courts of Behar, where, according to the Memorialists, the Hindus were, to all intents and purposes, Musalmans, where the change had proved vexatious to the higher classes, had hindered the administration of justice, had failed to satisfy the advocates of Hindi, and was for various reasons objectionable to all classes. The memorialists, therefore, asked (1) that “in the dispensation of State patronage no regard should be paid to mere University degrees, but the qualifications of the candidates should be judged by an independent standard. It will not be considered presumptuous on your memorialists’ part 149

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

if they venture to submit that stamina and force of character are as necessary in the lower as in the higher walks of life, and these qualities can scarcely be attested by University examinations”: (2) that “separate examinations may be instituted for appointments to the subordinate judicial service without the candidates being required to submit to the preliminary condition of passing the Bachelor of Arts Examination of the Calcutta University:” (3) that since, “owing to the general impoverishment of the Musalman community, the confiscation of their scholastic foundations, the neglect, ruin and waste of their charitable endowments,” Muhammadan education has “fallen entirely into the background, similar facilities should be accorded to the Muhammadans as are being offered to the Eurasian community. They are fairly entitled to ask that the large funds appertaining to the various endowments which still exist under the control and direction of the Government should be scrupulously and religiously applied to promote Muhammadan education;” (4) that “the order substituting the Nagari character for the Persian in the Behar Courts should be withdrawn;” (5) “that a special Commission should be assembled to examine the whole question of Musalman education, and to device a practical scheme for the purpose.” 572. Opinions of the Local Governments on the Memorial.—This memorial was circulated by the Government of India to the various Local Governments and Administrations. Their replies we shall endeavour to summarise; and, as the memorial has special reference to Bengal, it will be more convenient to take that Province first. 573. Reply from Bengal.—In respect to the resumption laws, “on the harshness of which the memorialists had dwelt at length, it seems to the LieutenantGovernor that there has been a great deal of very ill-informed declamation . .; vague statements regarding their disastrous effects are met by statements equally vague regarding their necessity and the general fairness with which they were conducted. Mr. Rivers Thompson is not prepared to deny that possibly in many cases (and, obviously, the action of Government would most seriously affect Muhammadan holders of land) the assessments of revenue on land previously held rent-free may have entailed losses both in position and wealth; but the statements of writers who maintain that these proceedings entailed wholesale ruin on the Muhammadan community in general, and the scholastic classes in particular, cannot be suffered to pass without remark. Such statements admit of no proof. They are unsupported by the history either of the origin or of the progress of the resumption proceedings themselves. These proceedings originated chiefly in the misconduct of the native official classes in the early days of British rule. Before the transfer of the sovereignty of Bengal and Behar to the East India Company in 1765, the revenue collector under the Moghul Sovereigns used occasionally to alienate lands in the shape of endowments and rent-free grants. They had, of course, no authority to do this, the ruling power alone being competent to grant away its share in the produce of the land; but it is on good authority believed that these alienations were few in number and limited in extent before the accession to sovereignty of the East India Company. During the first few years of the 150

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

Company’s administration, however, such invalid grants increased enormously. . . . There can be as little doubt, under the circumstances of the case, that they were due, not to any praiseworthy intention of supporting religion or promoting learning, but to purely selfish motives of personal gain.” Mr. Rivers Thompson then goes on to show that the Government, though repeatedly asserting its right and declaring its intention to assess revenue on these alienated lands, abstained from making good its claim until compelled by financial pressure. It had been asserted by a writer in the Nineteenth Century, and repeated in the memorial, that the harshness of the resumption proceedings had left behind a legacy of bitterness, had entailed widespread ruin on the Musalman gentry, and had destroyed the Muhammadan educational system. But, the Lieutenant-Governor continued, “no details in support of their statement were furnished at the time, and the author of the article in question has since confessed himself unable to supply the omission. Desirous of ascertaining whether official records lent colour to the writer’s assertions, the Lieutenant-Governor consulted the Board of Revenue, who have reported that the assertions in question admit of no verification from the revenue records of Government. . . . The fact is always either forgotten or ignored that the result of even the harshest resumption case was not the dispossession of the holder, but the assessment of revenue on his holding, and even that in no case at more than half the prevailing rates. . . . The holders of rent-free grants possessing titles from the former rulers of the country were, of course, exempted from the operation of the law.” The Lieutenant-Governor concludes by showing that “if the provisions of the resumption laws were thus tempered in the case of the holders of large grants, the procedure was, so far as the Government was concerned, even more lenient in that of petty lakhirajdars” . . .; that the Musalmans were not treated with exceptional rigour, and that if irretrievable injury was done to Muhammadan progress by the operation of these laws, “the enquiry naturally suggests itself why Hindus, equally subjected to the same laws, have survived their effects.” On the subject of the supersession of Persian by vernacular tongues in official business, the Lieutenant-Governor did not think it necessary to comment at length. The memorialists had admitted that the measure had been successful, while the statement that this success had been purchased at the expense of the impoverishment of the middle class of Muhammadans was supported by no proof, and was, on the face of it, incredible, being tantamount to the assertion that thirty millions of people had been impoverished because at the very outside some few hundreds of subordinate officials were thrown out of employment. That the Muhammadans of Bengal had fallen behind in the race and yielded place to the Hindus was true; but this was due to failure on their part to take advantage of the opportunities afforded impartially to all subjects of the British Government. The memorialists had stated that at the dawn of the new order of things the Musalmans had “naturally stood aloof” from the English education offered them. The words quoted were significant, and told of religious repugnance to make terms with modern thought. That the memorialists should, on the one hand, blame the Government for not providing special facilities for instruction in English, while on the other asserting that the 151

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

Musalmans “naturally stood aloof” was a manifest inconsistency. The grievances of a more specific character advanced in the memorial were two, namely, that University qualifications, which necessarily imply acquaintance with English, are now held essential for admission to the Bench and Bar, and that Urdu had been superseded by Hindi as the official language in Behar. On the former point, while agreeing with the High Court that a knowledge of English was, for a variety of reasons, an indispensable requirement, the Lieutenant-Governor held that for candidates for pleaderships and posts in the Subordinate Judicial system a University degree was not absolutely necessary. Some independent system might, he thought, be devised, to test the legal knowledge of the candidates. Proposals were already under consideration for the establishment of examinations for admission to the subordinate services, and, with necessary changes, examinations for pleaderships might be included in the plan. To the objections against the introduction of Hindi as the official language of Behar, the Lieutenant-Governor considered that a sufficient answer had been given in the success with which the change had been effected. The outcry against it was “far louder among the Muhammadans, who are not affected by the change, than among the supposed sufferers. The change is the logical sequence of that exclusively Hindi teaching which has prevailed for nearly ten years with such marked success in all the primary patshalas and vernacular schools of Behar, in the very institutions, that is to say, from which the subordinate official classes, in whose behalf alone this outcry is raised, are fed. To give effect to the wishes of the National Muhammadan Association, therefore, on this point, it would be necessary to reverse the existing and approved policy of popular education in these Provinces—a course which the memorialists themselves would hardly advocate.” The question of affording special facilities for Musalman education, more particularly by the establishment in Calcutta of an English college, had for several years been urged upon, and considered by, the Government. It had not, however, appeared until very lately that this particular measure would tend to promote the permanent interests of the Musalmans, but the views of that section of the community now seemed to point very definitely in this direction, and “the elevation of the Calcutta Madrasa to the status of a college” would be “a legitimate concession to the reasonable demands of those interested in it.” Moreover, the Lieutenant-Governor was convinced by personal observation that neither from an educational nor from a political point of view, was it advisable any longer to maintain the Madrasas established some few years ago at Chittagong, Dacca, Rajshahye and Hugli. The funds on which they subsist might usefully be devoted to the support of a Muhammadan College in Calcutta, such an appropriation would be hailed with satisfaction by all intelligent Musalmans, and the Lieutenant Governor “would be glad to learn that any action taken in this direction would meet with the approval of His Excellency the Viceroy in Council.” As to the Muhammadan educational endowments, to which the memorialists referred, the Lieutenant Governor had every reason to believe that they were administered with due care. For the special Commission asked for by the memorialists, the Lieutenant Governor saw no necessity. 152

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

574. Memorandum on the Memorial.—Before passing on to the replies of the other Local Governments, it will be well to notice here a memorandum on the memorial presented by the Nawab Abdool Luteef Khan Bahadoor, who for many years has taken an active interest in matters affecting the education of the community to which he belongs. This gentleman demurs to the memorial “being accepted as the exponent of the views of the Muhammadan community, and criticises it on several important points. Though glad that the decadence of a community once renowned for all that constitutes a great nation” had once more been brought prominently to notice he regrets “that this condition is unwisely attributed solely to the action of the British Government, and not to acts of omission and commission on the part of the Muhammadans themselves, and, to a great extent, to causes beyond the control of both the Government and the Muhammadans.” He points out that when, as one of the necessary results of the change of political supremacy, the vernaculars took the place of Persian in official business, the Musalmans of Bengal neglected Bengali no less than English, and so shut themselves out from the various appointments in which a knowledge of English is not required. Their neglect of English, which was the chief obstacle to their advancement, was, in a considerable measure, due to the feeling that a Muhammadan “who desires to be respected in society must be a good Persian scholar and possessed of at least some knowledge of Arabic.” This had burdened them in the race with Hindu competitors. The comparatively small importance attached to Persian in the Government system of education had rendered those who followed it “unfit for harmonising with the orthodox classes of the Muhammadan community, who ascribed to English education the social defects due entirely to the absence of a Persian education, moreover the habits and natures of these young men have created a strong prejudice against English education in general.” The poverty of the Musalmans, due to the loss of power and patronage and to “the inability of the Muhammadans to recognise the full force and effect of the said alteration of political power in the country,” had in a large number of cases put an English education out of the question. This difficulty had, however, in Bengal been removed to a considerable extent by the recent “action of the Bengal Government in sanctioning the payment (from the Mohsimah funds) of two-thirds of the fees of the Muhammadan students who might pursue their higher studies in any college.” The numerical inferiority of the Musulmans in Government employ was not a trustworthy test, for the memorialists had overlooked “the circumstance that as regards Bengal, where the Muhammadans are most numerous, the mass of the Muhammadan population consists of cultivators among some millions of Brahmins and Kayasthas, who, from time immemorial, have enjoyed a superior system of education and, in consequence, a passport to public offices.” The Nawab was opposed to the suggestion in the memorial that in the dispensation of State patronage no regard should be paid to mere University degrees. More especially in regard to admission to the High Court Bar, he would not relax the present rule, though for pleaders in the District Courts a less severe examination might be accepted. If, as was asserted, the Musalmans were “handicapped in consequence of a defective acquaintance 153

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

with the vernacular language and accounts,” this might be remedied “by insisting on more attention being paid to these subjects in primary and secondary schools resorted to by Muhammadans, and also by providing a system of apprenticeship in Government offices, whereby the candidates of all nationalities might be trained to the discharge of the duties appertaining to the posts to which they may aspire.” For a special Commission the Nawab saw no necessity, since the Government was already in possession of ample information at least in regard to Bengal. In dealing with the question of Muhammadan endowments for education, the Government was bound, “as much in the interests of education as of religious neutrality, . . . . . to act in harmony with the views of the majority of the Muhammadans, and to respect their religious feelings.” To abolish the present Madrasas and devote the funds to the support of an English college for Musalmans would, in the opinion of the Nawab, be impolitic; and he would, therefore, earnestly suggest that the cost of the college classes in the Calcutta Madrasa should be met from Provincial Funds. The importance of maintaining institutions for the cultivation of the higher Oriental learning was, both politically and intellectually, very great. On this subject the Nawab dwelt at considerable length and in much detail. His opinions, he stated, were entirely opposed to those of gentlemen of the advanced school, but he was “addressing an enlightened and parental Government, one that is always disposed to respect the cherished feelings and revered institutions of its subjects, and I feel no apprehension as to the result of my appeal.” 575. Reply from Madras.—The replies from the other Provinces may be more briefly summarised. In Madras the wants of the Musalmans were fairly provided for, and this class was more favoured than oven the Eurasians. In most parts of the Province the Musalman population was so intimately connected with the Hindu community that, except in the elementary stage, it was better that boys of both races should pursue their studies side by side; not only because such a system facilitated their acquisition of the English language and of knowledge generally, but on account of the advantages of such a scheme. It would be very undesirable to adopt or extend measures likely to have a retarding effect on the process of race approximation, which had already softened the antagonistic feelings between the two communities. During the last two years there had not been a single application from any Musalman body for the establishment of a special school. The Musalmans of Madras could not generally be described as impoverished, their scholastic endowments had not been confiscated, nor had their charitable endowments been ruined and wasted. The system of instruction pursued seemed to be wholly in accord with the views of the memorialists, and there were no circumstances in the Madras Presidency which appeared to call for the appointment of a special Commission. 576. Reply from Bombay.—As in Madras, the proportion of Musalmans in Bombay is very small, and the circumstances and history of the Presidency are “so totally different from those of the Eastern Provinces of the Mogul Emperors of Delhi, to which the memorialists refer, that no comparison can be made between them, and the memorialists’ remarks are, for this reason, quite inappropriate as 154

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

applied to Western India generally.” There “the British succeeded Hindu rulers, not Muhammadan, and certainly the Muhammadan chances of employment now are better than they were in the days of Hindu dynasties. Sind, of course, was an exception; the dynasty that was overthrown was Muhammadan, but it was foreign, and was supported entirely by foreign chiefs, to whom large grants of land were made to enable them to keep up troops. Even, however, under these rulers a very large part of the State business was in the hands of the Hindu amils who . . . performed almost all the clerical duties in the time of the Mirs.” On the subject of the needs and claims of the Musalman community, the Musalmans of Bombay would scarcely endorse the plea of helplessness made by the Calcutta memorialists. If the number in Government employ was small, the reason was to be found, not in any disinclination on the part of those who exercised patronage to enrol Musalmans, nor again in the overpowering influence of Hindu advisers and subordinates, for the Government was well aware of the administrative advantage of associating men of different races in every department of public business; but to the unwillingness of the Musalman mind to submit to the educational tests which qualified for entrance into the public service. There was, however, no reason for believing that the Musalmans would continue to hold aloof from the present system, and it would be to their lasting prejudice if they were encouraged to do so by rules permitting them to enter the public service on easier terms than their Hindu and Parsi fellow-subjects. It was represented that the anxiety of the Government of Bombay to induce the Musalman community to educate itself had been shown by special encouragements, and the disabilities of which the memorialists complained in regard to admission to the subordinate judicial service did not exist in Bombay. In Sind, the only Province of the Presidency in which the Musalman population was large, the inclination was perhaps to give them a preference hardly justified by their qualifications. By the Education Department special schools and classes had been opened wherever Musalmans could be persuaded to attend, and Musalman Deputy Inspectors had been appointed to inspect those schools. There was, however, still a considerable amount of apathy among the race, and it was difficult to rouse them to any desire for learning. 577. Reply from the North-Western Provinces and Oudh.—Upon enquiries being made as to the proportion of Musalmans to Hindus in these Provinces, it was found that they were as 13·25 to 86·75. Of literate persons in the whole male population the proportion was 5·74 per cent., that of the Musalmans being 4·41 against 5·05 amongst the Hindus. Of 54,130 native officials 35,302 were Hindus and 18,828 Musalmans, or 65·22 per cent. of the former and 34·78 of the latter. The allegation, therefore, of the memorialists as to the exclusion of Musalmans from a fair share of Government patronage did not apply to these Provinces. Of the better-paid appointments, such as Deputy Collectorships, the Musalmans had in many years held an actual majority, and always a share out of all proportion to their total population. In 1882 there were 95 Musalmans against 76 Hindu tahsildars, while of 84 Subordinate Judges and Munsiffs 47 were Musalmans and only 37 Hindus. Of 57 Subordinate Judges and Munsiffs appointed since 1866, 155

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

twenty-nine were Muhammadans, and of Munsiffs appointed during the five years ending the 31st March 1882, twelve were Musalmans and only ten Hindus. There was nothing in the rules in force as to the qualifications demanded for those appointments which, in the opinion of the High Court, unfavourably affected Musalmans. Upon the question of relaxing or altering the present educational tests, the opinions of the officers consulted were unanimously in the negative; “while the fact that out of the male Muhammadan population the proportion under instruction is 2·18 per cent., against 1·33 among the Hindus and 1·48 per cent in the whole male population, may be taken to indicate that the Muhammadans, on the whole, take no less advantage of the existing system of public education than the Hindus.” There were no Musalman endowments, charitable or scholastic, which had been wasted or confiscated. It was questionable whether the best interests of the Musalmans would be served by special provision for their education. “But the Government of these Provinces has always shown an earnest desire to aid and encourage real education among the Muhammadans; and any movement among the Muhammadans towards this end has received, and will receive, substantial support, upon the general principles laid down for the State co-operation. The liberal support given to the Aligarh College was an instance in point.” 578. Reply from the Punjab.—According to the last Punjab Civil List the appointments held by the Hindu and Muhammadan officials of the higher classes in the Punjab were distributed as follows:— Appointments. Extra Assistant Commissioners . Tahsildars . . . . . . . . . Munsiffs . . . . . . . . . . Superintendents of Settlement .

. . . .

Muhammadans . . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

Hindus

. . . .

54 50 28 9

38 72 46 15

Total Administrative and Judicial appointments . . . .

141

171

Executive and Assistant Engineers, Public Works Department Assistant Surgeons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Professors and Headmasters, Educational Department . . Forest Rangers, Forest Department . . . . . . . . . GRAND TOTAL . .

2 13 4 8 168

18 52 22 9 272

Thus, in the highest appointments which are open to natives, and for which no examination test is required, the Musalmans were in excess of the Hindus; in the next class, in which the fitness of candidates is to a certain extent tested by examination, the Musalmans, though less numerous than the Hindus, held a considerable proportion of the appointments; while in those which require a special and technical education, the Musalmans formed only an insignificant minority. In open professions the smallness of their numbers was even more striking; and if the energy displayed respectively by Hindus and Musalmans in the scientific and legal professions were taken as a test of their respective fitness, it 156

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

would appear that the Government, so far from being behind-hand in affording to Musalman opportunities to distinguish themselves as servants of the State, had in reality bestowed upon them an undue share of its patronage. The failure of the Musalmans to secure high appointments in the Education Department was owing to their want of knowledge of English. But there was no rule in the Punjab demanding a knowledge of that language as a qualification for the post of Extra Assistant Commissioner, Tahsildar, or Munsif; and this fact had contributed in a large measure to swell the share of such appointments held by Musalmans. The Lieutenant-Governor saw no need for a Commission such as that advocated in the memorial. Most of the arguments there used had been met by anticipation in measures already devised; by result grants-in-aid, by throwing open the University scholarships to vernacular as to other students, by a scheme for the award of open scholarships to boys distinguishing themselves in the Primary and Middle School Examinations, and by other measures detailed in the last review of education in the Punjab. As to endowments the only one of importance was that of the Itimad-ud-daula Fund at Delhi, and this was managed by a Committee composed mainly of native gentlemen, presided over by the Commissioner of the Division. “The general conclusion which the Lieutenant-Governor would draw, after a full consideration of the prayers of the memorialists, is that the Muhammadan community, and not the Government, is responsible for the state of things depicted in the memorial . . . It is not for the Government to confer special privileges upon any one class of its subjects when they have failed to avail themselves of the opportunities freely offered to all.” The Anjuman-i-Islamiya, Lahore, to whom the memorial was sent for an expression of their opinion, while admitting that in many ways the Musalmans had themselves to thank for the backwardness in education, were at one with the memorialists on several points. Thus, they maintained that “with every avenue to public employment already jealously blocked up by members of a different race, it is almost impossible for a Muhammadan candidate to obtain a footing in any Government office;” they supported the allegation that in the dispensation of State patronage impartiality had not been observed, and complained that due provision had not been made for Musalman graduates and under-graduates; they asserted that the community had suffered considerably from the resumption proceedings, though these came into operation about a century before the British took possession of the country, that the poverty of the Musalmans was even greater in the Punjab than in Bengal, and that this poverty obliged them to take their sons away from school at an early age; they considered that the condition of the Musalmans justified measures similar to those adopted in behalf of the Eurasians; they trusted that no such change of Hindi for Urdu as had taken place in Behar would be permitted in the Punjab, though interested persons were pressing for such a measure; and they were of opinion that the special Commission for which the memorialists prayed was one which should be appointed. 579. Replies from the other Provinces.—In the Central Provinces the number of Musalmans is very small, but the proportion of them in Government employ is reported to be ten times as great as that of the Hindus, and the share of judicial 157

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

offices held by them to bear a still larger ratio to their numbers. In the schools, while the Hindus are only 3·46 per cent., the Musalmans are 8·35. No academical degree is required for admission to the bar, that admission being determined by a local examination. In Assam the Musalmans are reported to be by no means impoverished; they have received as large a share of Government patronage as they are entitled to, and in the eyes of most officers, if two persons, a Hindu and a Muhammadan, having equal qualifications, are candidates for the same office, it is, on the whole, an advantage to be a Muhammadan. That they are backward in point of education is, no doubt, true; but every facility is afforded them, and special encouragements have of late been held out to them. What is wanting is the desire to profit by these facilities, and the grant of any concession such as the memorialists ask for would probably check the growth of such desire. In the Haidarabad Assigned Districts, the Musalmans are said to hold their full share of the higher appointments; while in the schools their proportion is stated to be larger than that of Hindus. The demand for a knowledge of English from candidates for public service has perhaps to some extent affected the Musalmans injuriously; but English is spreading so fast that in a few years it will be quite an exception for any one of the classes that seek Government employ not to possess it. The position of Musalmans generally has been improving of late years. Coorg has only 12,541 Musalmans, the majority of whom are engaged in trade, agriculture, and menial service. They evince but little desire to learn English, though special schools for their benefit are supported by the administration. 580. Conclusions and Recommendations of the Commission.—In the foregoing pages, we have preferred to reproduce the statements made with regard to the condition of the Muhammadans in the several Provinces, rather than to attempt generalisations of our own. The wide differences in the circumstances of the Musalmans in the three Presidencies render such an attempt hazardous. But apart from the social and historical conditions of the Muhammadan community in India, there are causes of a strictly educational character which heavily weight it in the race of life. The teaching of the mosque must precede the lessons of the school. The one object of a young Hindu is to obtain an education which will fit him for an official or a professional career. But before the young Muhammadan is allowed to turn his thoughts to secular instruction, he must commonly pass some years in going through a course of sacred learning. The Muhammadan boy, therefore, enters school later than the Hindu. In the second place, he very often leaves school at an earlier age. The Muhammadan parent belonging to the better classes is usually poorer than the Hindu parent in a corresponding social position. He cannot afford to give his son so complete an education. In the third place, irrespectively of his worldly means, the Muhammadan parent often chooses for his son while at school an education which will secure for him an honoured place among the learned of his own community, rather than one which will command a success in the modern professions or in official life. The years which the young Hindu gives to English and Mathematics in a public school, the young Muhammadan devotes in a Madrasa to Arabic and the Law and Theology of Islam. When such an 158

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

education is completed, it is to the vocation of a man of learning, rather than to the more profitable professions, that the thoughts of a promising Muhammadan youth naturally turn. The above are the three principal causes of an educational character which retard the prosperity of the Musalmans. It would be beyond the province of a strictly Educational Report to attempt generalisations based upon the social or historical conditions which affect the Muhammadan community in India. The Recommendations we proceed to make have been framed, we believe, not merely with a regard to justice, but with a leaning towards generosity. They are based not more upon the suggestions contained in the Provincial Reports than upon the evidence of witnesses and the representations of public bodies. They deal, we think, with every form of complaint that is grounded in fact, and they contemplate the various circumstances of various localities. Few of them, indeed, are of general application; many of them, we trust, will before long be rendered obsolete. Special encouragement to any class is in itself an evil; and it will be a sore reproach to the Musalmans if the pride they have shown in other matters does not stir them up to a course of honourable activity; to a determination that whatever their backwardness in the past, they will not suffer themselves to be outstripped in the future; to a conviction that self-help and self-sacrifice are at once nobler principles of conduct and surer paths to worldly success than sectarian reserve or the hope of exceptional indulgence. We have spoken of the causes; we here accept the fact that, at all events in many parts of the country, the Musalmans have fallen behind the rest of the population; we therefore recommend (1) that the special encouragement of Muhammadan education be regarded as a legitimate charge on Local, on Municipal, and on Provincial Funds. The Muhammadan indigenous schools which are found in all parts of the country are established on a purely religious basis and in most cases impart an education of the most elementary character. In order to encourage a wider utility, we recommend (2) that indigenous Muhammadan schools be liberally encouraged to add purely secular subjects to their course of instruction. As the instruction given in Muhammadan primary schools differs considerably from that in the ordinary primary schools, we recommend (3) that special standards for Muhammadan primary schools be prescribed. In regard to the medium of instruction in primary and middle schools, it appears that even in places where Hindustani is not the vernacular of the people, Muhammadans earnestly desire that their children should be educated in that language, and we therefore recommend (4) that Hindustani be the principal medium for imparting instruction to Muhammadans in primary and middle schools, except in localities where the Muhammadan community desire that some other language be adopted. In order that Muhammadans may be enabled to qualify for the lower grades of the public service, we recommend (5) that the official vernacular, in places where it is not Hindustani, be added as a voluntary subject to the curriculum of primary and middle schools for Muhammadans maintained from public funds, and that arithmetic and accounts be taught through the medium of that vernacular. To meet the complaint made in some parts of the country that due encouragement is not given to the language and 159

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

literature of the Muhammadans, and that this circumstance has operated as one of the causes which have kept that community aloof from the Government system of education, we recommend (6) that in localities where Muhammadans form a fair proportion of the population, provision be made in middle and high schools maintained from public funds for imparting instruction in the Hindustani and Persian languages. It has been found that whilst Muhammadans in many places form a fair proportion of the students learning English, their number decreases as the standard of instruction rises, we therefore recommend (7) that higher English education for Muhammadans, being the kind of education in which that community needs special help, be liberally encouraged. It has been submitted with much force that the poverty of the Muhammadans is also one of the main reasons why education has not made satisfactory progress in that community, we therefore recommend (8) that where necessary a graduated system of special scholarships for Muhammadans be established, to be awarded (a) in primary schools, and tenable in middle schools, (b) in middle schools, and tenable in high schools, (c) on the results of the Matriculation and First Arts examinations, and tenable in colleges also (9) that in all classes of schools maintained from public funds a certain proportion of free studentships be expressly reserved for Muhammadan students. Complaints having been made that Muhammadan educational endowments have not always been applied to their proper uses, we recommend (10) that in places where educational endowments for the benefit of Muhammadans exist and are under the management of Government, the funds arising from such endowments be devoted to the advancement of education among Muhammadans exclusively. And further, in order that Muhammadan educational endowments may be utilised to the utmost, we recommend (11) that where Muhammadan endowments exist, and are under the management of private individuals or bodies, inducements by liberal grants-in-aid be offered to them to establish English teaching schools or colleges on the grant-in-aid system. The employment of Muhammadans as teachers and inspecting officers among Muhammadans will in our opinion largely tend to popularise education among that community and enable the Department to understand the special needs and wishes of the Muhammadans; we therefore recommend (12) that, where necessary, Normal schools or classes for the training of Muhammadan teachers be established; (13) that wherever instruction is given in Muhammadan schools through the medium of Hindustani, endeavours be made to secure, as far as possible, Muhammadan teachers to give such instruction; and (14) that Muhammadan inspecting officers be employed more largely than hitherto for the inspection of primary schools for Muhammadans. Another useful means of spreading knowledge among the Muhammadans will be the recognition and encouragement by the State of such associations as the Anjuman-i-Islam in Bombay and the Anjuman-i-Islamiya in Lahore; we therefore recommend (15) that associations for the promotion of Muhammadan education be recognised and encouraged. In order to secure the continuous attention of the Education Department to the subject of Muhammadan education and to prevent the claims of the Muhammadans for special treatment from being overlooked, we recommend (16) 160

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

that in the annual Reports on Public Instruction a special section be devoted to Muhammadan education. In certain Provinces the backwardness of the Muhammadans in education has prevented them from obtaining any considerable share of appointments in the public service. But it has also been made a subject of complaint that even in places where qualified Muhammadans are available, their services are not duly utilised by Government officers: we therefore recommend (17) that the attention of Local Governments be invited to the question of the proportion in which patronage is distributed among educated Muhammadans and others. 581. Application of Recommendations regarding Muhammadans to other Races.—We have so far been dealing exclusively with the case of Muhammadans, but we do not overlook the fact that there may be other races in India whose claims to special treatment are based upon circumstances similar to those of the Muhammadans. Such races deserve the same consideration which our Recommendations are intended to secure for the more important and numerous class of society whose condition has been reviewed. The Raja of Bhinga has pleaded the cause of the Rajputs, and the claims of other races may hereafter be put forward. Such claims can only be fully considered by the local Governments, who will be in a position to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of special treatment. In order that the matter may not be overlooked, we recommend that the principles embodied in the Recommendations given above be equally applicable to any other races with similar antecedents, whose education is on the same level with that of Muhammadans.

SECTION 3.—The Aboriginal Races. 582. The aboriginal Tribes of India.—The term “aborigines,” by which a large section of Indian society is known, is but a loose and indefinite expression for distinguishing those races which have not adopted the civilisations or the creeds of the higher races inhabiting India. In a few Districts they form the mass of the population. Elsewhere they consist of small isolated communities dwelling in the midst of more civilised races. Their numbers cannot be exactly stated. Those who have descended from the hills, or have exchanged their forest-home for the villages of the plain, have not always been separated in the census returns from the other classes of rural society with whom they live intermixed, and no very exact line of demarcation can be drawn between them and their Hindu neighbours. In the course of a hundred generations the various Indian communities have been largely influenced by Aryan beliefs and customs. It is only those descendants of the earlier tribes who, from one cause or another, have not submitted to the influences of Aryan civilisation, that in the present Chapter are treated as aboriginal races. These can easily be distinguished from the Hinduised population; while between the aborigines, who have become partially affected by Hindu custom and feeling, and the Hindus, there is a gradual shading off which renders it difficult to determine according to any principles of classification whether the classes 161

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

referred to should be placed on this or on the other side of the dividing line. It is estimated that the races of India that are more or less aboriginal in character, exceed forty millions; but the adoption of the stricter principle of classification, which has been followed in the last census, gives a population of only 6½ millions of aborigines in India. Even this calculation has been arrived at by the adoption of a classification which is not uniform for the various Provinces of India. Thus in Bombay the census officer writes: “The substratum of the agricultural class in Gujarat, the Kolis of the ghats and coast, and the hereditary watchmen and village servants of the Deccan and North Karnatic, such as the Ramoshi and Berad, are taken to be Hindus, as are the depressed classes of all parts of the country, though history and tradition indicate their aboriginal origin. The aboriginal form of religion is under this interpretation restricted to the tribes still inhabiting the forest and those directly connected with these tribes.” In the Central Provinces, however, many aboriginal tribes are still classified as such, notwithstanding that they have exchanged the forest and mountain for a life of agriculture in the plains. Of the 6½ millions of aborigines returned by the census officers, 1,160,000 lie beyond the limits assigned to the enquiries of the Commission, as they are found in the Native States of Rajputana, Central India, and Baroda. Of the rest, 2½ millions inhabit Bengal and Assam, 930,000 belong to Bombay, and 1,750,000 are to be found in the Central Provinces. The problem of educating the distinctly aboriginal races of India therefore practically concerns only the three Provinces of Bengal, Bombay, and the Central Provinces. 583. Their Want of Education.—The distribution of the purely aboriginal population given above corresponds, as might be expected, with the physical features of the territories in which they are found. The chains of the mountain systems of India, and the thick forests which lie at their base, are the homes of the aboriginal races, of which the most important tribes are the Santhals, Kols, Gonds, Korkus, Khonds, and Bhils. Many however of the Gonds hold land in the Central Provinces and live in the plains, whilst the Korkus rarely venture beyond the limits of the hills. The general absence of education of even the most elementary kind amongst these races may be inferred from the following figures. In Bombay for several years the half-civilised hill tribes were not affected in any perceptible degree by the departmental schools, and in 1871–72 there were but 1,017 children of these tribes in the public primary schools, a number which in 1881–82 had risen only to 2,738 in all classes of schools, whether aided, inspected or departmental. This gives a percentage of only 1·9 of the aboriginal population of schoolgoing age who were at primary schools. In Bengal and Assam the education of the aboriginal tribes has been partly taken up by the direct instrumentality of the State, but chiefly by the missionary societies with help and encouragement from Government. In 1880–81, there were 2,336 Santhals, 154 Paharias, 893 Khonds, 1,843 of the tribes inhabiting the Khasia and Jaintia hills, 339 Mughs and Chukmas, and 7,513 Kols, at various schools in Bengal, yielding a total of 13,078 pupils at school, including 1,400 Christians. Of the 13,078 children of these races at school in that year, 464 (of whom 236 are Christians) were at secondary schools, 195 162

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

(of whom 179 are Christians) were at Normal schools, and 26 (Christians) at industrial schools. A special scheme for the education of the Santhals connected closely with their village organization, and under the control of the Department, has recently been sanctioned, but has not yet come into operation. In Chapter IV, we have reviewed the operations of the Bengal Department for the year 1881–82. We have shown that while missionary enterprise has been freely encouraged, the direct instrumentality of the Department has not been neglected. Kols, Santhals, Paharias, Khasis, and the semi-Burmese tribes in Chittagong are attending primary schools as well as a few institutions of a higher order. In 1881–1882, the number of aboriginal pupils known to the Department in Bengal and Assam fell little short of 24,000. We have already mentioned the endeavours made by the Education Department in the Central Provinces, in concert with the Forest Officers, to institute an industrial school for the Korkus. For want of European superintendence the experiment proved unsuccessful, but the educational officers have not wholly neglected other means, and although their success has been small, still there were in 1881–82 1,055 children of the aboriginal tribes at schools, or about 1 in 1,453 of their total number. Of the pupils 7 only were in middle schools. In the adjoining Province of the Haidarabad Assigned Districts not even an attempt appears to have been made to attract the hill tribes to school. This review shows that it is in Bengal that the greatest progress has been attained chiefly through the exertions of missionary societies. In Bombay the Department has secured some small success in primary education only; but whereas in the Gujarat Division 4 per thousand of the aboriginal races have learnt or are learning to read and write, in the Konkan one in two thousand, and in the Central and North-Eastern Divisions only one in a thousand of the aboriginal population are returned as either instructed or under instruction. In the other Provinces hardly even a begining can be recorded. It is clear therefore that the efforts of Government have hitherto failed to give education to the aboriginal races of India, and that special measures are required to overcome the difficulties which surround the question. 584. The Difficulties attending the Education of Aborigines.—The general character of the aboriginal races, as classified according to the census returns adopted by us, is very distinct. Those who still avoid contact with the plains are the most difficult to deal with, as will appear from a description of the life which they lead. A few of them cultivate patches of the hill sides which they lay bare of timber and undergrowth, merely setting fire to the fellings and growing coarse grain in the ashes without any attempt to dig the soil. Others keep herds of cattle and buffaloes which they graze in the forests, living upon their milk, and exchanging what they do not require with other sections of the forest community for the grain which they grow. These herdsmen have little commerce with the plains. A few tribes live by industrial pursuits, smelting iron from the ores found in the laterite on the mountains, and producing the iron arrow points, the long sharp pointed spears and small axes which nearly every hill man carries with him not only for domestic purposes and for cutting wood, but also as a protection against wild beasts. A still larger section live by the chase, pursuing deer and even tigers 163

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

and panthers with their rough weapons, shooting birds with the bow and arrow, not disdaining even squirrels, rats, and dead animals for their ordinary meals. All these tribes eat berries and roots, and the excessive mortality and sickness among them are often attributed to the unwholesome character of their ordinary food. Many of them fall victims to the attacks of wild beasts, to the bites of poisonous snakes, and to the constant malaria and fever to which the heavy rainfall gives rise. They are patient, inured to suffering, and naturally truthful. But the most universal features in their character are their shyness and confirmed dislike of any settled occupation. Their poverty is extreme, and as they have little commerce with the villagers of the plain, and carry on their own simple transactions with each other by barter, there is no effective desire among them for the most elementary education. With them contact with the outer world must be the precursor of schools. Amidst such a population, separated as their settlements are by dense forests or steep mountains, the difficulties of pioneering education are extreme. The Gonds of the Central Provinces who number more than 2 millions are a fair type of an aboriginal population who are becoming mixed up with the Hindu population of the plains and yet have retained some of their distinctive characteristics. They have already adopted the system of caste and will not eat with a stranger. They cling to their forest pursuits, but also cultivate land and carry on trade with their neighbours. But they are unthrifty and addicted to barbaric display and entertainments. Though mixing with the Hindus they still sacrifice and eat bullocks, and they worship the powers of evil, the spirits of their fathers, and the weapons and creatures of the chase. They are extremely backward and despise education. These people have no money for paying the smallest fees, they can only be attracted by those who have won their sympathy, and the ordinary village school-master considers them beneath his notice. Their language also is in a state of fusion and transition in most cases it has never been reduced to writing. Even tribes which call themselves by the same name can hardly understand each other’s language. Fraud being almost unknown among them, they set no value on a knowledge of accounts, and their commerce is a mere matter of barter. Recognising these difficulties, we feel that advantage must be taken of every agency which can be employed in the task of instructing the aboriginal races. The work cannot in all cases be left until private bodies come forward to take it up. It is with the tribes living on the fringe of civilisation that the best chances of success are offered. If any schools are now situated near their settlements, special encouragement should be given to the instruction of aboriginal children in them. No fees should be charged. If a few boys of the hill tribes are thus brought under instruction, the educational agency, whether Government or other, may be able to push forward its schools within the territory of the tribes in question. This gradual measure will probably succeed better than the attempt to plant at once a system of schools within their territories before they have learnt the meaning of education or become accustomed to the notion of schools. At the same time, if any private agency is prepared to go into the midst of the tribes and to offer them education, we think that it should be liberally aided in carrying out its object. Experience 164

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

has shown the necessity for sympathy with these simple forest people; and their improvement offers a special field for missionary and other philanthropic activity. It is also desirable that they should be supplied with school-masters of their own race, who might be trained for a short period in our Normal schools. The subjects taught must be of the most elementary character. If any tribe possesses a vernacular of its own which has been reduced to writing, we would not discourage its use; but we believe that it will often be more beneficial to the interests of the aborigines that they should be brought to adopt the vernacular of their civilised neighbours. With them a practical education will be that which will help to remove their isolation and bring them into commerce with their neighbours. 585. Recommendations regarding the Provision of Schools.—In view of their undoubted poverty, we recommend that the children of aboriginal tribes be exempted, wherever necessary, from payment of fees, over and above any general exemptions otherwise provided for. This Recommendation will necessarily apply to schools maintained at the cost of public funds, whether provincial, local, or municipal. For aided schools we recommend that, if necessary, extra allowances be given under the result system for children of aboriginal tribes taught in ordinary schools. But we anticipate the greatest success, not so much from the ordinary schools, whether departmental or aided, as from the operations of special agencies. Such agencies will in all probability be missionary agencies, and therefore we recommend that if any bodies be willing to undertake the work of education among aboriginal tribes, they be liberally assisted on the basis of abstention from any interference with religious teaching. We have elsewhere recommended that in certain cases, where the only school in any locality is one in which religion is taught, instruction in religion should not in every case be insisted on, but with regard to the aborigines, the need is so great for attracting any agency into the field, that we recommend that absolute freedom in all circumstances be left to the managers. Having thus removed every obstruction to the intervention of private enterprise by the offer of liberal aid, and by guaranteeing entire abstinence from interference with religious instruction, we lay great stress upon the employment of aboriginal teachers in preference to those who will be regarded by the tribes as foreigners. Such men can only be obtained in course of time and with liberal assistance from the State. But the experiment has proved successful in Bengal and should be tried elsewhere. We therefore recommend that when children of aboriginal tribes are found sufficiently instructed to become teachers among their own people, attempts be made to establish them in schools within the border of their tribes. As regards the subjects of instruction, we need only remark that they must be as simple as possible and adapted specially to the wants and wishes of the people. 586. Recommendation as to Language.—The question remains as to the medium of instruction. We recommend that where the language of the tribe has not been reduced to writing or is otherwise unsuitable, the medium of instruction be the vernacular of the neighbouring population with whom the aboriginal people most often come into contact: and moreover that where the education of 165

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

such tribes is carried on in their own vernacular, the vernacular of the neighbouring District be an additional subject of instruction if this is found advisable. The question of the language and character is a vexed one and demands special notice. Mr. Cust, Honorary Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, and a distinguished authority on the non-Aryan races of India, protests strongly against the statement made by the Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces that the Gonds converse perfectly well with the officers of Government in Hindi or Marathi, and against the condemnation of the Gond language because it has never been reduced to writing, and has not even an alphabet of its own. He argues against the injustice of effacing Gondi from the languages of the world, and considers it even an advantage that the language has not been reduced to writing, on the ground that it will more easily adopt a modified form of the Roman alphabet. He denies that the language of the Gonds is a “barbarous language” as it is called by the Commissioner of Nagpur. He quotes the remarks of Bishop Caldwell, the highest authority on the subject of Dravidian languages, who writes as follows:—“While the more cultivated Dravidian idioms are so simple in structure, the speech of the Gond boasts of a system of verbal modification and inflection almost as elaborate as that of Turkish.” Referring to the fact that, even in the United Kingdom, Welsh is taught in Welsh schools, and Gaelic in Gaelic schools, Mr. Cust urges that the attitude of the Commisioner of Nagpur is unsympathetic, and that the Austrian military ruler of a Slavonic Province could not have expressed himself more decidedly. He proceeds to observe—“It is not pretended that the language of the few hundreds of a broken tribe in the lowest stage of nomadic absence of culture, like the Juang, is to be preserved, but where there is a population counting by hundreds of thousands, given to agriculture, settled in villages, living decent domestic honest lives, it is impossible to deny to them schools in their own vulgar tongue if you give them schools at all.” The following statement and figures bearing on this subject are taken from the report of the census taken in the Central Provinces in 1881. The two aboriginal races of Gonds and Korkus are by far the most numerous of the aboriginal tribes in the Central Provinces. The former have descended into the plains and are becoming mixed up with the Hindu population. The latter stand aloof. The Gond language is Dravidian, the language of the Korkus is Kur or Munda, and belongs to the Kolarian or Northern family as distinguished from the Dravidian or Southern group. Seventy-five per cent. of the Gonds, who number more than two millions, are returned as adhering to the aboriginal religion, and 67 per cent. of the Korkus who number over 85,000 are similarly returned. The census report states that the Gonds in eight Districts have to a large extent adopted some form of the Hindi language or Hindustani or Uriya. In one District out of 57,000 Gonds and Khonds it is said that only 4,313 speak Gondi exclusively, and in Bilaspur and Raipur the proportion of those who speak only their aboriginal language is very small. It is further stated that the sub-divisions of the same large tribe can hardly understand each other’s dialect. Regarding the Korkus of the Chhindwara District, the report states that “all the Korkus speak Hindi, which is a necessity for them, living as they do amongst tribes who do not understand 166

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

their language.” The total number of both Gonds and Khonds in the British Districts who are returned as speaking either Gondi or Khondi, is 967,502. The total aboriginal population speaking Munda is returned as 100,641. Regarding the distribution of languages through the Central Provinces, the Inspector General of Education writes that “nearly 10 per cent. speak either Gondi or Khondi, 61 per cent. Hindi, 20 per cent. Marathi, 5 per cent. Uriya, and 1 per cent. Munda.” Regarding the other Provinces we possess less information. The census reports for Bengal and Assam have not yet been published. In the Bombay report no place is given to any aboriginal language, and apparently the aboriginal races are returned as speaking either Marathi, Gujarathi, or Hindustani. We have given the statistics and statements furnished by the census officers without comment. The Inspector General of Education in the Central Provinces has, however, placed a paper before us in which he argues that as the Gonds and others have become mixed with their Hindu neighbours, they have adopted their dialect, and that it is better for the Education Department to recognise that fact. He insists on the fact that the Gond of one District speaks a language unintelligible to the Gond of another District. He also quotes the evidence given by Major Doveton, Conservator of Forests, who stated that of the great number of Gonds with whom he had come in contact, he could not recall one whose knowledge of language was confined to Gondi. Major Doveton thought that to the Gond Gondi was wholly unprofitable. The Inspector General of Education sums up his argument as follows:—“When we are asked to introduce Gondi into our schools, we are asked to reduce that language to writing, to master various dialects that are day by day undergoing change, and losing their distinctive character, and actually to create a literature.” Mr. Cust is not, however, the only advocate for the recognition of the aboriginal languages. The Reverend A. Campbell of Santhalisthan, in a paper placed before the Commission, contends for the claims of the vernaculars of the Santhal tribes as the medium of instruction in primary schools. We have given careful consideration to the subject and endeavoured to meet the difficulties we have noticed. It is a matter for regret that up to the present time the Local Governments generally, but especially in the Haidarabad Assigned Districts and in the Central Provinces, have been unable to provide adequate instruction for the aboriginal population. We hope that greater and more successful efforts will now be made both by the direct instrumentality of the Department, and, wherever possible, by the preferable means of aided effort, to reach these races. We attach the greatest importance to the training of aboriginal boys as teachers. We cannot approve of the suggestion that has been made for using the Roman character in giving education in the aboriginal dialects. For unless the larger Indian communities can be induced to adopt that character, it would not be expedient to perpetuate the isolation of the aborigines by teaching them an alphabet as foreign to their neighbours as to them. But we are not prepared to view the question of language in the light in which it has appeared to the Department in the Central Provinces. In order to reach the minds of the aboriginal races it will be necessary, we think, to teach them in their 167

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

mother tongue. In the upper classes of the school, the vernacular of the District may with advantage be taught. For although a foreign language should not be forced upon any tribe, and certainly not as a means of primary education, still it is desirable in the best interests of most aboriginal races that they should be enabled to associate and deal on equal terms with the neighbouring population. Where any vernacular retains independent vitality and can be reduced to writing, we think that efforts should be made to recognise it. Where the aborigines have already adopted a Hindu language, we would give instruction in that tongue and not endeavour to go back from a change which is beneficial to them. But in many cases a change is going on, and in such cases we would commence with the aboriginal dialect spoken and gradually advance to the study of that vernacular which is in course of adoption. A wide discretion may be left to local authorities, but we are convinced that greater efforts are required, and that the task of educating the aboriginal races, difficult as it is, should no longer be neglected. Much may be done by the Department, and more by private effort liberally aided and encouraged. We think that Government should freely aid and cordially recognise any efforts made by Missionaries or others to reduce the speech of the aboriginal races to writing, and to compile grammars and vocabularies of the numerous nonAryan languages throughout India.

SECTION 4.—The Low Castes. 587. Education of Low Castes.—The question of the duty of the State towards the education of the low caste Hindu community was raised and discussed in the Commission on December 18th, 1882,2 and on March 8th, 1883. This question is in some respects a wider one than that of the education of the aboriginal population; for it is in evidence that a few low-caste boys of ability have already advanced beyond the elementary stage and are demanding an entrance into secondary schools. Moreover, the low-caste community, in some Provinces at least, are becoming alive to the advantages of education. In some towns they are taking full advantage of special schools established for them and of night schools, and are generally showing anxiety to obtain a practical recognition of their rights. Most of them are very poor, but a few are ready to pay fees; and as they contribute to the local cesses which support the State primary schools, they have a claim to some return for their contributions. The question of their rights is therefore a practical and pressing question. But we must acknowledge that any settlement of it is beset with difficulties. 588. The Difficulties.—The difficulties in the way of admitting the claims of low caste children are both social and religious. It has been asserted that in theory the rights of low castes are admitted even by native society, and that in the indigenous village schools of Bengal the low caste, who sits on a separate mat, does not defile his neighbour and may freely attend school. On the other hand, the evidence shows that as a fact such classes very rarely attend indigenous schools; that even under the departmental systems constant pressure has to be exercised by 168

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

the superior officers to secure the claims of low-caste Hindus to receive instruction in the Government or cess-schools; and that the higher castes generally are strongly averse to their children mixing with low caste boys. The objection must therefore be admitted to prevail almost universally, and we proceed to examine the causes. Among these perhaps the most potent cause is the fear of caste pollution. One of our questions to witnesses inquired into the attitude of the influential classes towards the extension of elementary education to all classes of the community, and several witnesses have replied that positive hostility is shown to the admission of low-caste boys to school. A Madras witness mentions the case of a school for Cherumars, the ancient slave caste, being established at Calicut, but the Nayars and Tiyars “used to waylay the boys as they went to school and snatch their books out of their hands.” A Bombay witness relates how some promising low-caste boys were recently sent from the regimental school at Dharwar to the Government high school, when a large number of Brahman boys seceded at once from the high school. Mr. Kunte, the headmaster of a Government high school and for some time acting Principal of a college in the Bombay Presidency, made the following statement in his evidence before the Commission: “The question of the admission of children of Mahars and Dhers into Government schools is not raised by the Mahars and Dhers themselves. It is not real and has no practical bearing. It is a groundless agitation caused by sentimental English officials and unpractical native reformers.” We quote Mr. Kunte’s answer in full, in order to observe that his view of the question seems to us opposed alike to the policy laid down by the Secretary of State and to the conclusions arrived at by the Commission. The facts which we have given regarding the popularity of night schools in Bombay, and the attendance of 3,512 low caste boys in the primary schools of that Presidency, afford ground for believing that efforts for the education of these classes may be attended with fair success. The evidence, however, given in all the other Provinces of India is conclusive as to the difficulties which surround this question. There are several instances of enlightened individuals and even of whole communities being favourable to the claims of low caste pupils; but, speaking generally, objections are widely entertained in every part of India to their admission into the same school with Hindus of the higher castes. These objections are not universally, perhaps not even generally, due to religious sentiment alone, but in a large measure to the uncleanly habits and the unpolished manners and conversation of low-caste boys. They are also occasionally due to the desire of the upper classes to keep the low castes in a state of subjection and servility. In a paper laid before the Commission some of these objections, as well as the risk of contagious diseases, are strongly insisted upon, and the writer remarks with reason that “to parents to whom the well-being of the children is of equal importance with their education, the practical working of the principle of equality is a perpetual source of discomfort as regards both the physical and the moral welfare of their children.” These may be, and in some cases are, real and reasonable difficulties. On the other hand, in the case which occurred at Dharwar, no one ever pretended that the regimental school-boys were either unclean or immoral, and the objection 169

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

taken to their admission to the high school could not have proceeded from that cause. It is also worthy of note that the aboriginal races, whose habits are equally unclean, are never objected to on that ground. In submitting a report on education in Kaira and Cambay for the year 1880–81, the Collector commented at length on the determined opposition shown by the people to the admission of Christians and low castes into the cess-schools. He stated that they had been banished from six schools in the District, and he noticed with dissatisfaction the language used by the Deputy Inspector on the subject. On the whole, therefore, it may be said that there exists a deep-seated prejudice to the admission of low-caste boys into public schools and, though its force varies in different parts of India, its existence is partly due to religious feeling and partly to fear of physical and moral contagion. 589. Authoritative Decision on the Subject.—It illustrates the intensity of the popular prejudice that some of those who have been ready to argue that the admission of low-caste boys into the indigenous schools is not objectionable in principle, have denied that the policy of admitting all classes of Indian society to schools maintained or aided by the State has ever received the sanction of high authority. There can, however, be no doubt on this point. In a Despatch No. 58, dated April 28th, 1858, the Court of Directors referred to a difficulty which had arisen in Dharwar in the Bombay Presidency regarding the refusal of the Local Government to interfere in the case of a low caste boy who was denied admission into the Government school. They then passed the following order upon the Government of India’s letter, dated May 20th, 1857:—“The educational institutions of Government are intended by us to be open to all classes, and we cannot depart from a principle which is essentially sound, and the maintenance of which is of the first importance. It is not impossible that, in some cases, the enforcement of the principle may be followed by a withdrawal of a portion of the scholars; but it is sufficient to remark that those persons who object to its practical enforcement will be at liberty to withhold their contributions and apply their funds to the formation of schools on a different basis.” The principle thus laid down has been repeatedly re-affirmed by the Local Governments of Madras and Bombay, and in the latter Presidency cases of opposition to the orders of Government have been reported from time to time. 590. Measures taken to meet the Difficulty.—Under the orders cited, the general rule of the Education Department throughout India is in favour of the admission of low-caste boys to Government schools as a matter of right. Bombay is, however, not the only Province in which the enforcement of the right has led to difficulties. Some Dher boys were admitted to the Chanda High School in the Central Provinces, and immediately the other boys, as well as the teachers who were natives of the town, left the school. In a statement put before us by the “Delhi Literary Society,” it is said that there are several cases on record of attempts to admit Chamar boys to schools which have resulted in empty benches. In order to meet these difficulties two attempts have been made, the institution of separate Government schools for low-caste boys, and the extension of special encouragement to missionary bodies to undertake their education. 170

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

In Bombay there are 16 special schools attended by 564 low-caste pupils. In the Central Provinces there are 4 such schools with 111 pupils. In the Punjab at Delhi, and in its neighbourhood there are a few mission schools of an elementary character for low-caste pupils, which, however, are more expensive than Government schools of the same character, owing to the difficulty of inducing any large number of low-caste children to attend them. In the Haidarabad Assigned Districts, as well as in Bombay, fees are remitted in the case of low-caste children. But none of these measures touch the whole difficulty. Without denying the necessity for the establishment by Government of special primary schools, we may remark that such a measure seems to admit the principle of exclusion, and is moreover only practicable where the low caste community is large. It intensifies the difficulty when a clever lad from the depressed castes wants to enter a secondary school or perhaps a Normal school, and it leaves the great mass of the low castes unprovided for even in the matter of primary education. These low-castes are a most essential part of the constitution of every village community. Their services in Western and Southern India are recognised by the bestowal of free or partially free grants of land, on which they pay the local cess out of which the school fund is formed. As they are scattered throughout every village in these Presidencies, it is not possible to provide everywhere separate schools for them. The proportion which the low caste community bears to the whole population of India cannot be exactly estimated, but that it is not inconsiderable may be inferred from the figures which are presented in the census report of Bombay, the Presidency in which the low caste question is at present attracting most notice. The “depressed castes” of Hindus in the British districts of Bombay number nearly 1,100,000, and are chiefly employed in village service of the lowest description. Numerically they are the third largest class of the classes into which the census returns divide the Hindu community, the classes of “cultivators” and of “artizans” alone outnumbering them. Of the total population classed in the census returns as Hindus, they number 9·31 per cent. There is no reason to suppose that the proportion is larger in Bombay than in other parts of India, and if such be the case, the question of the education of low-caste Hindus cannot be considered a matter of no practical importance. On the contrary, it is from this class of the community that the ranks of dacoits and other criminal organisations are largely recruited. It has further been pointed out by witnesses in Bombay that the tendency of social progress is to deprive the village Mahars and Ramoshis of their customary dues which used to be paid in kind. The natural movement of society from status to contract involves in India a severe social struggle, and it is necessary that these classes which are least able to help themselves should receive from the State proper attention to their claims for education. 591. Recommendations regarding Low-caste Children.—It is impossible to overlook the objections which are felt to the association of low-caste children with those of other classes. The principle, however, of their right to receive education in the State schools has been asserted; and at the present time, when the control 171

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

over primary schools is likely to devolve less upon the Department and more upon numerous Local Fund and Municipal Boards scattered throughout the country, it is desirable to re-affirm that principle. We therefore recommend that the principle laid down in the Court of Directors’ letter of May 5th, 1854, and again in their reply to the letter of the Government of India, dated May 20th, 1857, “that no boy be refused admission to a Government college or school merely on the ground of caste,” and repeated by the Secretary of State in 1863, be now re-affirmed as a principle, and be applied with due caution to every institution, not reserved for special races, which is wholly maintained at the cost of public funds, whether provincial, municipal, or local. We are fully alive to the fact that no principle, however sound, can be forced upon an unwilling society in defiance of their social and religious sentiments. In dealing with primary education we have recognised a distinction between “special” and “other” aided schools, and we have recommended that “a proper proportion be maintained in every school-district so as to secure a proportionate provision for the education of all classes of society.” This Recommendation will not prevent two or more adjoining school-districts from uniting in order to establish a common school for the education of their low-caste population. But all schools that are wholly maintained at the cost of public funds must be regarded as open to all tax-payers and to all classes of the community, and if any of those classes object to association with the children who are assembled in the board, or municipal, or Government schools, they should be encouraged to set up a “special school,” and apply for a grant-in-aid. In that way it is open to all classes of the community to secure their proper share of the school fund to which they may be compelled by the Legislature to contribute. The grant-in-aid rules afford them a sufficient remedy. But even in the case of Government or board schools, the principle affirmed by us must be applied with caution. It is not desirable for masters or Inspectors to endeavour to force on a social change which, with judicious treatment, will gradually be accepted by society. If the low-caste community seek an entrance into the cess-school, their right must be firmly maintained, especially in the secondary institutions where there is no alternative of a special school for them to attend. It is however undesirable to urge them to claim a right about which they are themselves indifferent. Still less should the schoolmaster relax in their case those rules regarding decency of dress and conversation which should be enforced in every case. In order, however, to facilitate the public recognition of the claims of the lowest classes by evidence on their part that they desire education, and that they can conduct themselves with propriety at school, we consider that every encouragement should be given to special schools for the education of such classes. We therefore recommend that the establishment of special schools or classes for children of low castes be liberally encouraged in places where there are a sufficient number of such children to form separate schools or classes, and where the schools already maintained from public funds do not sufficiently provide for their education. In our discussions on this subject it was brought to our notice that in some parts of the Central Provinces and of Bombay special objections were entertained by the rural communities to the instruction of 172

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

low castes on the ground that education would advance them in life and induce them to seek emancipation from their present servile condition. It is therefore clear that in some parts of India at least this class of society requires special help, and we consider that such help can often be best afforded without giving offence to other castes by the establishment of special schools.

CHAPTER X. FEMALE EDUCATION. 594. Introductory.—Female education in India has to encounter peculiar difficulties. These difficulties are partly due to the circumstance that the East India Company did not turn its attention to the subject until many years after it had begun to direct its efforts towards the education of boys. But the most serious impediments arise not so much from the action or inaction of the Ruling Power, as from the customs of the people themselves. In the first place, the effective desire for education as a means of earning a livelihood, does not exist as regards the female part of the population. There is evidence before the Commission that a demand for girls’ education in schools is slowly but surely springing up among the natives. There is also evidence to show that this desire is of comparatively recent origin, and that it would be easy to exaggerate its extent and force. In the second place, the social customs of India in regard to child-marriage, and the seclusion in which women of the well-to-do classes spend their married life in most parts of the country, create difficulties which embarrass the promoters of female education at every step. The duration of the school-going age for girls is much shorter than that for boys. It usually terminates at nine, and seldom extends beyond the eleventh year. At so early an age a girl’s education is scarcely begun; and in very few cases has the married child the opportunity of going on with her education after she leaves school. In the third place, the supply of teachers for girls’ schools is more scanty in quantity, and less satisfactory in quality, than the supply of teachers for boys’ schools. Finally, the State system of instruction is conducted in a large measure by a male staff; and although female teachers are being gradually trained, in very inadequate numbers, the direction and inspection remain in the hands of male officers, while the text-books are, as a rule, framed with a view to the education of boys rather than of girls. The Commission has collected evidence, both oral and documentary, on each of these four chief causes of the backwardness of female education in India. They have endeavoured, after anxious consideration, to meet the difficulties by the specific Recommendations enumerated at the end of this Chapter. But in entering on the subject of girls’ education, we desire it to be understood that practical difficulties exist which cannot be solved by any recommendations of a Commission, or even by the zealous action of Government, but only by the growth of public opinion among the natives themselves. The Despatches of 1854 and of 1859 declared their cordial approval of all reasonable steps for the promotion of female education under the system of grant-in-aid. But the latter Despatch fully recognised the 173

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

impediments which lay in the way of any great or rapid extension, and the risk which would attend official attempts to force on a sudden change in native custom in regard to the education of girls. 595. Female Education in Ancient India.—While endorsing the sentiments of the Despatches, in regard both to the promotion of female education and to the difficulties which stand in the way of any sudden expansion, we do not underrate what had been effected in earlier periods by the natives of India themselves. Apart from the Sanskrit traditions of women of learning and literary merit in pre-historic and mediæval times, there can be no doubt that when the British obtained possession of the country, a section of the female population was educated up to the modest requirements of household life. In certain Provinces little girls occasionally attended the indigenous village schools, and learned the same lessons as their brothers. Many women of the upper class had their minds stored with the legends of the Puranas and epic poems, which supply impressive lessons in morality, and in India form the substitute for history. Among the lower orders, the keeping of the daily accounts fell, in some households, to the mother or chief female of the family. The arithmetic of the homestead was often conducted by primitive methods, addition and subtraction being performed by means of flowers or any rude counters which came to hand. Among the more actively religious sects and races, girls received an education as a necessary part of their spiritual training. In the Punjab they may still be seen seated in groups around some venerable Sikh priest, learning to read and recite the national scriptures or Granth; and the Brahman tutor of wealthy Hindu families does not confine his instruction to the sons alone. In some parts of the country, such education as girls obtained was confined ostensibly to reading and arithmetic, writing being an art not held suitable for women of respectable life. The intellectual attainments, wit, and powers of memory of the Indian courtesan class have often been remarked, and formed one of their proverbial attractions. As a matter of fact, there always have been women of great accomplishments and strong talents for business in India. At this moment, one of the best administered Native States has been ruled during two generations by ladies—the successive Begums of Bhopal; many of the most ably managed of the great landed properties or zamindaris of Bengal are entirely in the hands of females; while, in commercial life, women conduct, through their agents, lucrative and complicated concerns. But the idea of giving girls a school education, as a necessary part of their training for life, did not originate in India until quite within our own days. The intellectual activity of Indian women is very keen, and it seems frequently to last longer in life than the mental energies of the men. The intelligence of Indian women is certainly far in advance of their opportunities of obtaining school-instruction, and promises well for their education in the future. 596. Female Education: Division of the Subject.—In dealing with female education we propose (1) very briefly to summarise its progress up to the date of the appointment of this Commission in 1882; (2) to exhibit by a tabular statement the position and extent of female education in that year; (3) to explain the 174

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

different kinds of agencies at work, and their financial aspects; (4) to examine the suitability of the existing system of female instruction, together with the suggestions which have been made to us for its improvement; (5) to set forth in specific Recommendations the proposals to which our enquiries have led us. 597. Female Education in Madras.—In most Provinces of India, female instruction formed a part of the programme of missionary effort, and its early development has necessarily found a place in the historical section of this Report. In the Madras Presidency, the first attempt at female education in the modern sense, consisted of the boarding schools maintained by the Church of England Societies in Tinnevelly; but intended almost exclusively for daughters of Christian converts. In 1841, the Missionaries of the Scottish Church commenced the work of educating the Hindu girls of Madras. In 1845, the first girls’ school under partial native management was opened. As narrated in Chapter II of this Report, the Despatch of 1854 found about 8,000 girls in Missionary schools in the Madras Presidency and neighbouring States; 1,110 being in boarding schools. The total number of girls’ schools was 256. The Despatch of 1854 led to an increase of effort. In 1858–59, grants-in-aid to the extent of Rs. 1,589 were given to 39 schools attended by 1,885 girls. In 1870–71, aid to the amount of Rs. 25,682 was given to 138 schools, with 7,245 girls. There were, besides, 2,148 girls in 289 mixed schools, and 792 in village boys’ schools. In 1870–71, over 10,000 girls were being instructed within the Madras Presidency, of whom 2,810 (chiefly Eurasians or Europeans) studied English, 5,788 Tamil, 1,397 Telugu, 703 Malayalam, 221 Kanarese, 25 Tuluva, and 7 French. In 1858, an annual examination for school-mistresses’ certificates was instituted, which gradually developed into a general examination for girls’ schools, and exerted a wholesome influence in improving the quality of the teaching. In 1870–71, there were 141 candidates, of whom 41 passed. These improved arrangements, together with the increased efforts of the missionary bodies and the native educational agencies which had entered the field, aided by grants and supplemented by Government efforts, produced a great increase during the next ten years. The following Table shows the position of female education in Madras on the 31st March 1882. There were then, according to the departmental return, 557 girls’ schools, with 35,042 pupils; aided and unaided institutions forming by far the most important element in the total. Madras has now an organised system of female instruction, from Normal or training schools for female teachers, down to primary schools for girls. The Government Training school for female teachers has not proved very successful hitherto, but arrangements have lately been made which are likely to increase its usefulness, and the aided and missionary training schools are doing excellent work. Besides the Christian Zanana Missions, there is a Zanana Agency on a secular basis, conducted by a Committee of native gentlemen and English ladies. Zanana education, however, is not so extensively developed, or apparently so much required as in some other Provinces; the seclusion of women of the better classes is less complete, and it is easier for girls to obtain a considerable amount of education at school. Madras ranked highest in 175

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

the Census returns of 1881 among the Provinces of India with regard to female education (excepting the little territory of Coorg). Those returns show a total of 39,104 females under instruction in the Madras Presidency, or 4,062 in excess of the pupils returned by the Education Department in 1882; and 94,571 not under instruction, but able to read and write. The proportion under instruction is 1 girl in 403 of the female population, and the proportion of those able to read and write but not under instruction, 1 woman in 166 of the female population. Female Education in Madras in 1882. GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS Normal Schools.

Number of Institutions Number of Pupils

OTHER INSTITUTIONS, AIDED AND UNAIDED (UNDER INSPECTION)

Secondary Primary Normal Secondary Primary Schools. Schools. Schools. Schools. Schools.

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 20

4 26

47 2,123

3 137

42 363

460 18,242

Mixed Schools.

Total.

Total Expenditure

7

8

9

Unknown 557 14,131 35,042

Rs. 226,169

598. Female Education in Bombay.—The early growth of female education in Bombay has been so fully described in Chapter II, that we need not again dwell upon the subject. It will suffice to note that the honour of initiating the movement there belongs to the American Mission. From the year 1823 to 1851, female education in Bombay practically remained in the hands of the Missionaries of various bodies. In the latter year, the natives began to enter the field in force. The Students’ Literary and Scientific Society then organised a number of girls’ schools, which amid various vicissitudes have done and continue to do a most important work in female education. The Parsis and the Banias of Gujarat have displayed an especial interest in the movement. The Despatch of 1854 found 65 girls’ schools (of which we possess full returns) in Bombay, with about 3,500 pupils. There were also 593 girls attending boys’ schools. We have no figures to show the attendance of girls in indigenous schools at that date, but it is believed to have been very small. In 1857, small annual rewards were offered by Government to vernacular schoolmasters who should form girls’ classes in their schools, with the result that in 1864–65 there were 639 girls in such schools. The visit of Miss Carpenter, the interest shown by European ladies at Thana, Dhulia, and elsewhere, and the liberality of certain Southern Maratha Chiefs and leading Parsis, gave a fresh impulse to the movement. Female Normal schools were established at Ahmedabad, Bombay, and Poona. In Sind, 22 schools were opened for girls in 1868. Of the 659 pupils attending them, 75 per cent. were Muhammadans. Half of the schools were conducted by female teachers of respectable parentage, who could read, write, and sew. In 1869, there were altogether 209 girls’ schools in the Bombay Presidency, attended by 9,291 pupils. The statistics for 1871 show 218 girls’ schools, with 9,190 pupils.

176

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

Since 1871, the Bombay Government has recognised its duty towards female education. Grants-in-aid have been more freely given, and a large number of girls’ schools have been founded, with the result of multiplying nearly threefold the number of pupils returned in 1871. It is worthy of remark, however, that the number of pupils (11,238) in departmental girls’ schools now exceeds the number (10,621) in aided and unaided institutions, excluding mixed schools for boys and girls. Apart from this, the special features of female education in Bombay seem to be (1) the evidence of a growing desire among the commercial classes for its extension; (2) the efforts on a large scale made by the natives themselves (Parsis, Marathas, and Gujarathis) to meet this demand; and (3) the successful endeavours by the Government to create an efficient staff of female teachers. The Training College for female teachers at Ahmedabad is doing much to solve this difficult problem both in the ordinary manner and by methods of its own. It will be again mentioned in the paragraph dealing with the supply of female teachers. The statistics of female instruction on the 31st March 1882 derived from the Bombay Education Department are given below. The census officers in 1881 only returned 18,460 girls under instruction in the British Districts, with 2,733 in the Bombay Feudatory States, showing an average of one girl under instruction in 431 of the female population in British Districts. The Bombay Census returns are, however, below the truth in this respect; and it has been explained to us that many girls who are “under instruction” have been returned to the Census officers as “able to read and write.” The returns show 32,648 women not under instruction, but able to read and write, being one woman in every 244 of the female population. Female Education in Bombay in 1882. GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS Normal Schools. Number of Institutions Number of Pupils

2 73

Secondary Primary Schools. Schools. ...

OTHER INSTITUTIONS AIDED AND UNAIDED (UNDER INSPECTION) Normal Secondary Primary Schools. Schools. Schools.

181

9

151

11,238

538

10,621

Mixed Schools Unknown 4,296

TOTAL

Total Expenditure

343 26,766

Rs. 178,707

599. Female Education in Bengal.—We have dwelt at some length on the history of education in Southern India, partly because the movement took its rise at an earlier date in Madras and Bombay than in the Northern Presidency, but chiefly because such education has there affected the mass of the female population to an extent unknown in Northern India. Considerable progress has of recent years been made in Lower Bengal. But when we leave Madras and Bombay, the proportion of females under instruction to the total female population, at once decreases from 1 in 400 odd, to 1 in 976 in Bengal, and 1 in 2,169 in the North Western Provinces. We may state once for all that in the North as in the South

177

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

of India, missionary societies have been the pioneers of female education, and still hold a foremost place in the work. With this general preface applicable to all the Northern Provinces, we shall briefly mention any special features peculiar to individual Provinces, and show the numerical progress which has been made in all. A characteristic feature of female education in Bengal is the high position held by the Bethune Girls school in Calcutta. This institution was established in 1849, and bears the name of its founder Mr. Drinkwater Bethune, then Legal Member of Council, who took an active part in many movements for the advancement of native society. It was opened under the name of the Hindu Female school with 23 pupils, and was for some time maintained at the entire cost, and under the direct management of Mr. Bethune, who also by his will left lands and other property in Calcutta for its endowment in perpetuity. On his death in 1851, it was taken up by Lord Dalhousie, who for nearly five years paid Rs. 8,000 a year for its maintenance from his private purse. The charge was afterwards transferred to the State, although the direct management of the school continued, and still continues, in the hands of a Committee. Unlike the earlier missionary efforts, the Bethune school rests on a secular basis, and the Committee aims at conducting it in accordance with national Indian feeling. It derives its pupils chiefly from the higher classes, exacts an adequate payment for boarding and other charges, and carries its instruction up to University standards. The Despatch of 1854 found 288 girls’ schools (of which we have returns) in Bengal, with 6,869 pupils. Grants to the amount of Rs. 5,000 were assigned for girls’ schools, and about 40 were started by the Inspector in Burdwan, Hugh, and the 24 Parganas. But the mutiny intervened, the education of girls in public schools was strongly criticised, and the grant was withdrawn. Under the grant in aid system the number of girls’ schools in 1862–63 stood at 35, with 1,183 pupils. A female Normal school was established at Rampur Bauleah under the grant in aid system, seven zanana agencies were at work under missionary bodies, classes for girls in the improved pathsalas were formed by offering the gurus monthly rewards of Re 1 for every four girls under instruction. Miss Carpenter’s visit gave a stimulus to female education in Bengal, as well as in Bombay. In 1869 there were 2,351 girls in aided schools in Bengal, in 1870–71, the number of aided girls’ schools had risen to 274 containing 5,910 pupils. Since then there has been a great development of female education in Bengal upon the system of grant-in aid. The total number of girls at school in 1882, as shown by the departmental returns given below, was 41,349. The Government maintained two schools of a high class—the Bethune school at Calcutta, and the Eden school at Dacca. The college department of the Bethune school was opened in 1879 in consequence of the success of one of its pupils at the Entrance Examination of the University. From that time there have been candidates at the Entrance and First Arts Examinations every year, and on the 31st March 1882, the college department contained six pupils reading for degrees in the Calcutta University. Two of them have since obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The Free Church female Normal school in Calcutta, also contains three

178

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

matriculated students who are reading for the First Arts examination. The Census officers in 1881 returned the number of girls under instruction in Bengal at 35,760 (or 5,589 less than the Education Department’s total), being 1 girl under instruction in 976 of the female population. According to the census of 1881, the number able to read and write, but not under instruction, was 61,449, or 1 in 568 of the total female population. Female Education in Bengal in 1882. GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS. Collegiate schools

Secondary Schools

Number of Institutions

1

2

Number of Pupils

6

299

Primary Schools

OTHER INSTITUTIONS, AIDED AND UNAIDED (UNDER INSPECTION) Normal Schools

Secondary Schools

2 41(a)

Primary Schools

20

990

752

17,452

Mixed Schools

Total

Unknown

1,015

22,799

41,349

Total Expenditure

Rs. 223,768

(a) Including 3 matriculated students reading for the F. A. Examination in the Free Church of Scotland Normal School.

600. Female Education in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh.— Nowhere has it been sought to promote female education with greater ardour by direct Government agency, as distinguished from private efforts, than in the NorthWestern Provinces. The early efforts of the Missionaries were succeeded by earnest endeavours on the part of the Education Department. The Despatch of 1854 found (so far as the returns now available show) 17 Missionary girls’ schools, with 386 pupils in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. Mr. Reid and Mr. Kempson, the successive Directors of Public Instruction from 1854 to 1878, were strong advocates of female education, while Sir William Muir, who became LieutenantGovernor in 1868, cordially supported the efforts of the Education Department. The girls’ schools existing before 1857 for the most part disappeared in the mutiny. In 1859, a fresh start was made. Mr. Reid was persuaded that if “Government were to appoint 150 Pundits to the charge of as many schools in every individual District in these Provinces on liberal salaries, we should have 70,000 or 80,000 girls in these schools before the year was out.” As long as Government was willing to spend money freely and to accept mere numbers as a test of success, no difficulties arose. “But,” writes our Provincial Committee for the North-Western Provinces, “against anything like efficiency and reality there were two prominent obstacles.” In the absence of educated women teachers, the Department was obliged to employ elderly men whose best working days were past. “It was, however, hoped that in process of time we might train up women, if they could be found; and it was determined to establish Normal schools with this object. Competent mistresses were the first difficulty, and when they were supposed to have been procured, there came the further difficulty of pupils to train. Married women of a suitable age as a rule would not be spared by their husbands, and rarely had time for any continuons study.”

179

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

Respectable widows were not found to be available in any numbers, although an attempt was made in this direction. In 1870–71, the number of girls’ schools in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh was 640, with 13,853 pupils. Between 1871 and 1881, a great decrease took place in girls’ schools. Their abolition was mainly due to the financial position of the Government in 1876. It was felt that if retrenchments were necessary, they could be carried out in the girls’ schools with the least prejudice to education. A further reduction took place in the following year, and whereas in 1875–76, there were in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, 400 Government primary schools for girls, with 9,000 pupils; in 1880–81 only 160 schools remained with 3,757 pupils. The total number of girls’ schools in 1882, as shown below by the departmental returns, was 308, attended by 8,883 pupils. The census officers in 1881 returned the number of girls under instruction at 9,771 in the British Districts of the North-Western Provinces, being one girl to 2,169 of the female population. The number of females returned by the Census of 1881 as able to read and write, but not under instruction, in the British Districts, was 21,590, or one in 981 of the female population. Special difficulties attended the cause of female education in the Oudh Districts. Six girls’ schools were first opened as an experiment; by 1869 the number had increased to 38 schools, with 879 girls, and in 1870 to 69, with 1,369 girls. Female Education in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh in 1882. GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS Normal Schools. Number of Institutions Number of Pupils

Secondary Schools.

Primary Schools.

OTHER INSTITUTIONS, AIDED AND UNAIDED (UNDER INSPECTION) Primary Schools.

Mixed Schools.

TOTAL

Normal Schools.

Secondary Schools.

160

3

3

142

308

3,687

89

68

5,039

8,883

Total Expenditure

Rs. 79,082

601. Female Education in the Punjab.—The Despatch of 1854 found the work of female education hardly begun; indeed so far as the returns now available show, there were only 17 schools for girls known to the Department, with 306 pupils in the year 1856–57. The pupils were at first nearly all Muhammadans. The selection of teachers was generally left to the people themselves. In February 1862 a durbar was held at Lahore under Sir R. Montgomery, the Lieutenant-Governor, who impressed upon the European officers and native gentlemen present the importance he attached to the education of women, and invited their co-operation. Again in 1863–64 he stated that “these schools were chiefly remarkable as a proof of the zeal and readiness with which the people of these Provinces could respond to an external impulse involving a radical change in their habits, provided they were assured of its beneficial tendency.” By 1865–66 there were 1,029 schools, with 19,561 girls on the rolls. Musalmans and Hindus contributed nearly equal proportions, but the former largely preponderated in

180

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

Government schools, and the latter in aided schools. Of the schools, 699 were aided, at a cost of Rs. 23,410, and were more or less under native management. Although schools were thus opened and scholars enrolled in large numbers without much difficulty, it appears from subsequent official reports, that a large proportion of the schools were merely rudimentary schools which had existed from time immemorial for the purpose of conveying religious instruction. The character of the education did not seem in 1867–68 to be satisfactory, and in that year, Rs. 10,000 were withdrawn from the grant for girls’ schools. The number of schools, has gone on steadily decreasing from 1,029 with 19,561 pupils in 1865–66, to 317 schools, with 9,756 pupils in 1881–82. The returns of 1870–71 showed 465 schools for girls, with 11,819 pupils. The Table below, compiled from departmental sources, shows 311 schools in 1881–82, with 9,353 pupils. The Missionaries have, during the past ten years, worked with great success in this field of education in the Punjab, both by the ordinary method of girls’ schools, and by means of zanana agencies. The Census Report of 1881 returns 6,101 girls under instruction in the British Districts of the Punjab, or one girl in 1,416 of the female population; together with 8,407 women in the British Districts able to read and write, but not under instruction, being 1 in 1,028 of the female population. The Census return under the last heading is admitted, however, to be below the truth. Female Education in the Punjab, 1882 GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS Normal Schools. Number of Institutions Number of Pupils

Secondary Schools.

Primary Schools.

OTHER INSTITUTIONS AIDED AND UNAIDED (UNDER INSPECTION) Normal Schools.

Secondary Schools.

Primary Schools.

Mixed Schools.

TOTAL Total Expenditure

145

3

1

162

311

3,807

138

8

5,350

9,353

Rs. [********]

602. Female Education in the Central Provinces.—In the Central Provinces, in 1870–71, there were 137 Government girls’ schools with 4,494 pupils, 2 aided schools with 169 pupils, and 2 unaided with 58 pupils. There were also 3 Normal schools for mistresses, containing 59 students. During the past ten years, rapid progress has been made by means of Government primary schools for girls. The departmental returns for 1882 show 64 primary Government girls’ schools, against 14 aided and unaided institutions. The Government Training College for female teachers at Jabalpur is successfully endeavouring to increase the scanty supply of female teachers, and it will be again referred to hereafter. The Census Report of 1881 returns 3,171 girls under instruction, or one girl in 1,539 of the female population, together with 4,187 women able to read and write, but not under instruction, being 1 in 1,165 of the female population.

181

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

Female Education in the Central Provinces in 1882 GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS Normal Schools. Number of Institutions Number of Pupils

Secondary Schools.

Primary Schools.

OTHER INSTITUTIONS, AIDED AND UNAIDED (UNDER INSPECTION) Normal Schools.

Secondary Schools.

Primary Schools.

Mixed Schools.

TOTAL

1

64

14

79

17

2,676

532

3,225

Total Expenditure

Rs. 25,959

603. Female Education in Assam.—Female education has, during the brief period since the separation of Assam from Bengal in 1874, shown the same rapid development which has characterised the course of general education in Assam. It rests entirely on the basis of grant in aid and inspection as the following Table shows. The percentage of girls at school to the female population of school going age is 0·47, which is higher than the proportionate return for the Central Provinces, or the North Western Provinces and Oudh. The Census Report of 1881 returns 1,068 girls under instruction, or one in every 2,226 of the female population, together with 1,786 women able to read and write but not under instruction, or 1 in every 1,331 of the female population. But doubts are thrown by the Local Administration on these returns. Female Education in Assam in 1882 GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS Normal Schools.

Secondary Schools.

Primary Schools.

OTHER INSTITUTIONS AIDED AND UNAIDED (UNDER INSPECTION) Normal Schools.

Secondary Schools.

Primary Schools.

Mixed Schools.

Number of Institutions

[Illegible Unknown Text]

Number of Pupils

1,209

468

TOTAL

Total Expenditure

71 1,677

Rs. 5,604

604. Female Education in Coorg.—In Coorg the only special girls’ school in 1871 was at Virajpet, established by the nuns for native Catholic girls. But a number of Coorg girls attended the village schools for boys. In 1882, the returns showed one primary aided school with 26 pupils, and 307 girls in mixed schools. The number of pupils was 333 and the expenditure Rs. 230. The Census Report for 1881 returns 431 girls under instruction or 1 in 180 of the female population; together with 356 women able to read and write but not under instruction, being 1 in 239 of the female population. 605. Female Education in the Haidarabad Assigned Districts.—Girls’ schools were first established in 1867, and numbered 27 in 1870–71 with 671 pupils. Experiments were made in opening girls’ schools in towns, but many of the institutions thus established did not prove permanent, and in 1881–82, only

182

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

12 schools were returned with 368 pupils, as shown in the following table. The decline is attributed in the Provincial Report to the want of active interest in the matter by the local Education Department, which has adopted the principle that Government must follow the lead of native effort in regard to female education. The Census Report of 1881 returned 356 pupils under instruction, or one in every 3,650 of the female population; together with 789 women able to read and write, but not under instruction, being 1 in 1,638 of the female population. Female Education in the Haidarabad Assigned Districts in 1882. OTHER INSTITUTIONS, AIDED AND UNAIDED (UNDER INSPECTION)

GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS Normal Schools Number of Institutions Number of Pupils

Secondary Schools

Primary Schools

Normal Schools

Secondary Primary Schools Schools

8

4

269

99

Mixed Schools

TOTAL

Total Expenditure

12 70

438

Rs.3.524

606. Census Returns of Female Education for 1881.—It may be interesting to summarise the facts disclosed by the Census of 1881 in regard to female education in India. It will be observed that the year 1881 is not the year to which the General Tables of the Commission refer; and the accuracy of the Census Returns has been questioned in several Provinces. Female Education in British India in 1881,* according to the Census Returns. PROPORTION TO TOTAL No. of FEMALE POPULATION females Females Total No. of not under who can Girls female girls under instruction PROVINCE read and under population instruction but able to write but read and instruction not under write instruction Madras . . . . . . . . . . 15,749,583 39,104 94,571 1 in  403 1 in  166 Bombay . . . . . . . . . . 7,956,696 18,460 32,648 1 ” 431 1 ” 244 Bengal . . . . . . . . . . 34,911,270 35,760 61,449 1 ” 976 1 ” 568 North Western Provinces and Oudh. . 21,195,313 9,771 21,590 1 ” 2,169 1 ” 981 Punjab . . . . . . . . . . 8,640,384 6,101 8,407 1 ” 1,416 1 ” 1,028 Central Provinces . . . . . . 4,879,356 3,171 4,187 1 ” 1,539 1 ” 1,165 Assam. . . . . . . . . . . 2,377,723 1,068 1,786 1 ” 2,226 1 ” 1,331 Coorg . . . . . . . . . . . 77,863 431 356 1 ” 180 1 ” 219 Haidarabad Assigned Districts . 1,292,181 356 789 1 ” 3,630 1 ” 1,638 TOTAL 97,080,374 114,222 225,783 1 ” 849 1 ” 430 * Exclusive of Ajmir with a total female population of 211,378, where 145 girls are returned as under instruction, and 963 women able to read and write; and of British Burma, with a total female population of 1,745,366, where 31,056 girls are returned as under instruction, and 31,740 women as able to read and write. Total for British India, 145,223 girls under instruction and 258,486 who can read and write but who are not under instruction. The total number of women educated or being educated in British India, is therefore just over 404,000.

183

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

607. Female Education throughout India in 1882.—The following Table has been compiled from the statistics of female education, obtained from Departmental sources and given at the end of the Report—

FEMALE EDUCATION IN BRITISH INDIA IN 1882 Return* showing the number of Institutions and Scholars on March 31st, 1882 NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS FOR GIRLS

PROVINCES

1

MADRAS

BOMBAY

BENGAL

{ { { { { { {

NORTH WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH

PUNJAB

CENTRAL PROVINCES

ASSAM

Class of institutions DepartAided mental

2 Secondary Schools Primary

3

4

NUMBER OF SCHOLARS IN

Unaided Unaided under not under Total inspection inspection

5

6

7

DepartAided mental schools schools

8

Unaided Unaided schools schools under not under inspection inspection 11

9

10

4

19

23

46

26

157

206

389

47

241

219

507

2,123

11,660

6,582

20,365

·87

14,131

·61

Mixed Normal TOTAL

1

3

52

263

Secondary Schools Primary

242

9 181

50

4

20

137

557

2,169

11,954

9 95

6

11,238

2

73

343

11,311

1

6 299

4,338

TOTAL

2 183

Collegiate Schools

1

Secondary

2

Primary

59

95

6

4,283

2,000

TOTAL

3

Primary

1·50

538

·03

21,859

1·30

4,096

·26

4,876

4,283

2,000

26,566

1·59

b6

18

2

22

649

103

1,051

·01

921

69

990

15,355

2,097

17,452

·34

22,799†

·45

2

41

2

Secondary Schools

·02

73

Mixed Normal

13

35,042

538

332

12

157 6,788

Mixed Normal

Total

Percentage of scholars to [******* * **] [******* * **] [******* * **] proportion of school-going age.

941

71

3 160

132

160

138

1,015

305

3 10

302

10

308

16,045

41‡ 2,200

68 3,687

4,797

3,687

4,954

41,349

·80

68 242

8,726

242

8,883

·27

Mixed Normal TOTAL

3

Secondary Schools Primary

3

1

1

145

162

307

3

3

145

166

64

13

89

89 ·28

8

8

3,857

5,350

9,207

·71

138

138

[********]

311

3,857

5,496

9,353

·72

1

78

2,676

514

18

3,208

·44

1

17

13

1

79

2,693

514

18

3,225

·44

67

4

71

1,132

77

1,209

·34

468§

·3

1,677

·47

Mixed Normal TOTAL Secondary Schools Primary Mixed Normal TOTAL

1 65

17

Secondary Schools Primary Mixed Normal TOTAL

67

4

71

184

1,132

77

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS FOR GIRLS

PROVINCES

1

COORG

{ {

HAIDARABAD ASSIGNED DISTRICTS

TOTAL FOR INDIA¶

{

Class of institutions DepartAided mental

2

3

4

Unaided Unaided under not under Total inspection inspection

5

6

DepartAided mental schools schools

7

8

9

Unaided Unaided schools schools under not under inspection inspection 10

11

Total

12

13

Secondary Schools Primary

1

1

26

26

·22

307

2·64

26

333

2·86

99

368

·9

70

·03

438

·2

Mixed Normal TOTAL

1

1

4

12

Secondary Schools Primary

8

269

Mixed TOTAL

8

Collegiate Schools

1

Secondary Primary

4

6

50

25

605

1,591

398

6

12

69

1

6

99

6

81

325

1,420

309

2,600

23,850

43,271

13,299

2,054 2,000

Mixed Normal TOTAL║

4

11

616

1,652

423

6

15

110

405

2,697

24,291

45,096

*

Excluding schools for Europeans and Eurasians.

‡

†

In Middle English schools In Middle Vernacular schools In Primary schools In Training schools In Indigenous schools

§

·01

82,420

·55

42,071

·28

515 13,608

2,000

127,066a

[******* * **]

Of this number three were matric [******* * **] [******* * **] reading for the F. A. Examination [******* * **] [******* * **] Church Normal School

[******* * **] 585 20,744 30 59 [******* * **]

¶

Percentage of scholars to [******* * **] [******* * **] [******* * **] proportion of school-going age.

NUMBER OF SCHOLARS IN

Excluding British Burma and all Native States that administer their own system of education

In Middle English schools In Middle Vernacular schools In Primary English schools In Primary Vernacular schools In Training schools for masters

37 0 [******* * **] [******* * **] 9 468

Excluding three Primary schools with 60 pupils and [******* * **] Normal schools [******* * **] [*****] pupils [******* * **] a Including [******* * **] boys [******* * **] girls schools b Including [******* * **] pupils in primary departments. ║

608. Review of the above Statement.—The first feature which strikes us in the last Table, when compared with the figures given in the previous paragraphs, is the great aggregate increase in female education for all India during the past ten years. This increase has been fairly spread over the larger Provinces, with the exception of the Punjab and the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. The next feature which deserves attention is the very large proportion of effort which is devoted to the primary education of girls as compared with their secondary or higher instruction. In this matter the action of the departmental authorities, missionary societies, and other managers of girls’ schools, seems in complete accord with the present necessities of female education in India. With the exception of Bengal, and in a much smaller degree of Madras, secondary education for girls is entirely in the hands of missionary bodies and native managers. The third feature calling for notice is the 185

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

different view taken in different Provinces, with regard to the function of direct Government agency in the matter of female primary education. Throughout India, the total number of pupils in Government girls’ primary schools is 23,850, or one half of those in aided or unaided schools under inspection, namely, 58,570. In Bengal, Assam, and Coorg there are no Government primary schools for girls. In Madras, the pupils in the Government primary schools for girls are only about oneninth of those in the aided and unaided primary schools under inspection. In the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, and the Punjab the proportion is 3·5 to 5. In Bombay, the number of pupils in the departmental primary schools for girls is 11,238, against 10,621 in aided and unaided primary schools. In the Central Provinces, the girls in Government primary schools amount to 2,676, or five times the number (namely, 532), in aided and unaided schools under inspection. In the Haidarabad Assigned Districts the former are nearly three times as numerous as the latter. 609. Non-departmental Agencies.—The relative success attained by the Education Department as compared with the various extra-departmental agencies is, therefore, by no means uniform in regard to the numerical results. These results, however, depend not merely on the view which the departmental authorities may take, but also on the amount of extra-departmental agency available for the work. That amount varies in different Provinces. We do not think it either desirable or possible to lay down any hard-and-fast line with reference to the division of labour between departmental and extra-departmental agencies in the different parts of India. In certain tracts, for example in the Central Provinces, there would be scarcely any female education but for the existence of the Government primary schools. In Bombay, it seems that the time has come when female education may be largely extended by means of private effort, if such effort be liberally aided. As a general rule, we are anxious to see the extension of female education conducted on the basis of grant-in-aid in a greater degree than heretofore, and to that end we shall, at the end of this Chapter, make certain specific Recommendations with regard to the grant-in-aid rules. 610. Female Education: Municipalities and Local Boards.—The action of Municipalities varies very widely with regard to female education. The truth is that native public opinion has not yet decided either as to the expediency of schoollife for girls, or as to the claims of female education on Municipal funds. Some Municipal bodies have shown a fair amount of liberality to girls’ schools, including those conducted by Missionaries. Other Municipalities have not recognised their corporate duty in the matter of female instruction; and an apprehension has been expressed that Municipal grants will not be given to girls’ schools. The same difference, although in a less degree, characterises the attitude of the Local Boards to female education. In so far as Municipalities and Local Boards are the exponents of native public feeling, such a want of uniformity is at present inevitable. In this, as in many other respects, the national development of female education in India must wait upon the growth of native public opinion, although it is possible for officials, and for enlightened members of the native community, to do much to 186

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

abridge the transition stage. The contributions from Local and Municipal funds for female education in all India in 1881–82, were Rs. 107,889, the total expenditure being Rs. 847,971. The expenditure by Municipal and Local Boards was nearly one-half of the expenditure from Provincial revenues on female education, namely, Rs. 252,878. It amounted to nearly three times the expenditure from fees in girls’ schools, namely, Rs. 44,539. The proportion varies very greatly in different Provinces, as will be seen from the statistics given in a subsequent paragraph. By far the largest share of Municipal and Local contributions is paid in Bombay, where they amount to Rs. 51,619, or nearly one half of the whole sum for all India. 611. Other Agencies.—But while the action of Municipal and Local bodies still displays an absence of uniformity with regard to female education, other agencies are at work which tend steadily and powerfully towards its extension. The Commission has not before it returns showing the increase of girls’ schools under native management, but there is every reason to believe that the number has largely augmented of late years. The Missionaries are also extending their operations, and endowments are from time to time made by wealthy natives for the promotion of female education. The total expenditure from these and other sources, unconnected with the Provincial revenues or with Local or Municipal funds, amounted in 1881–82 to Rs. 442,665. This sum is more than one half of the total expenditure on female education, excluding of course schools for Europeans and Eurasians which do not come within the purview of the Commission. It is nearly twice as much as the expenditure from Provincial funds, four times as much as the expenditure from Local or Municipal funds, and ten times as much as the expenditure from fees levied in girls’ schools. Native associations and mixed Committees of Natives and Europeans interested in the cause of female education are gradually springing up. For example, the Arya Mahila Samaj of Poona, composed chiefly of Maratha ladies of position, may be expected to exercise an important influence in the capital of the Deccan. Associations of Natives and Europeans for the promotion of female education on a secular basis, form one of the hopeful signs of the times. 612. Mixed Schools for Boys and Girls.—There seems to be a general consensus of opinion among the witnesses examined by the Commission, that mixed schools are not suitable for this country. Yet in some Provinces, the girls found in boys’ schools amount to many thousands. Most of these are undoubtedly mere infants. As, moreover, it is impossible to establish a girls’ school in every village, attendance at a boys’ school will often be a girl’s only chance of learning anything, and in that case it should not be discouraged. Hitherto, little or nothing seems to have been done in India in the way of establishing schools for children under seven years of age. Such schools, under a bright and well trained mistress, would probably be found most useful in laying the foundation for the further education of both sexes. The return of pupils in mixed schools given in a previous paragraph shows over 42,000 pupils in schools of this description for all India. Of these, 22,799 are returned from Bengal, 14,131 from Madras, and 4,296 from Bombay. Assam, Coorg, and the Haidarabad Assigned Districts contribute 845 to 187

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

the total. It seems possible that a large number of girls below seven years of age might be brought under instruction by means of infant schools, and in our Recommendations we express the view that such schools should be liberally encouraged. 613. Subjects of Instruction for Girls.—As the subjects of instruction laid down by the Department for girls do not in general differ much from those for boys, it does not seem necessary to present a detailed account of them. They comprehend the usual amount of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with some grammar, geography, and history. In Madras, the standards are nearly the same as for boys, with needle-work added, and with singing as an optional subject. It is stated in the evidence that as girls do not usually remain at school more than 2½ years on an average, a large portion of the scheme must be quite beyond their reach. The standards also are said to require adaptation, especially the higher ones. A desire has been expressed for more instruction in arithmetic on Indian methods. History, geography, and hygiene are considered by some witnesses to be useless, while others think that the fault is in the way in which they are taught. It certainly seems difficult to bring all these subjects within the time likely to be spent in the education of an Indian girl. The simple rules of cleanliness and health, might, if judiciously presented, be reckoned among practical subjects. It appears to be generally felt that some revision of the standards is required to adapt them to the actual wants of girls’ schools. In the Central Provinces, while the scheme of studies is the same as for boys, an equal amount of attention is not in fact given to geography and grammar, while it is found that girls do not make so much progress in arithmetic as boys. Singing is occasionally attempted, and needle-work in several branches is attended to. In the North-Western Provinces, the books used for boys are in use for girls also. But great complaints are made as to their unsuitability, in respect both of subject and of language. Roman Urdu is used in mission schools, and a few books have been prepared for them, but much is still wanting in this respect. In Bombay there are special standards of instruction for girls’ schools, which are lower than those for boys, but include needle-work in addition. Several ladies who have given evidence consider that sufficient stress is not laid on this important branch of female education. History is entirely excluded from the course and is regarded by some as an unnecessary subject, while arithmetic up to fractions is looked upon by others as beyond the proper range of primary education for girls. In the Punjab, the course is the same as for boys, but it is found that girls only attempt the easier portions of it. This is not surprising, inasmuch as the primary course in this Province includes Persian, and arithmetic up to its highest branches. The witnesses generally think that the standards for girls should be lowered in the Punjab; and at least one important Association objects to the introduction of Persian into the curriculum. The girls’ schools for the most part teach in the Nagari or the Gurmukhi character, and in the dialect of the Punjab, but a complaint is made that books in these vernaculars are not easily obtained. In Bengal, the standards have been revised in consultation with managers of girls’ schools, and although the Inspectress desires to see them still further simplified, with a view to improve the teaching, the witnesses with whom this subject is a 188

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

speciality do not express dissatisfaction with them. They only desire to see the revised standards brought more generally and definitely into use. 614. Subjects of Instruction for Girls,—Needle-work.—It may be stated generally that the instruction given to girls does not generally differ from that prescribed for boys, but the standard is lower, and needle-work is added. There does not seem to be much variety in the style of needle-work taught. Plain work is useful, even when taught on the English method, instead of the native. Fancy-work after European fashions is being largely adopted, and no doubt affords a resource for the less hard-worked occupants of the zananas. But complaints are with justice made that native styles of embroidery are being neglected for English. Whoever has seen what Indian women are capable of accomplishing in this respect, will be sorry that the native art should be neglected. 615. Text-books for Girls.—Little seems to have been done in the way of preparing special text-books for use in girls’ schools. It was stated indeed that a work had been introduced in the Punjab, intended, as indicated by its name “Stri Shiksha,” for the teaching of women. But grave objection was taken to the contents of this book, and it does not appear to be now sold by Government authority. The Persian works in use seem also to be objected to on moral grounds. In this country even more than in others, the life of women is a thing apart from that of men, and it is unlikely that books prepared for boys will be either interesting or suitable to girls. Morality, no doubt, is the same for both sexes and for all classes; still the particular lessons in morality to be inculcated on boys, are certainly not those primarily needed for girls. For example, we desire boys to grow in manly virtues; the native community does not wish to see its girls advancing in boldness and independence of spirit. It is not to be expected that men should be good judges of what is useful or interesting for little girls. Hence we are not likely to see good general reading-books for girls until competent native ladies devote themselves to the preparation of them. We have received with pleasure specimens of such works lately prepared by Pandita Ramabai. Meanwhile, advantage may be taken of the assistance of English ladies who have acquired sufficient facility in the vernaculars. Nor are school-books alone wanting. Witnesses have drawn attention to the lack of suitable literature to be read by educated women at home. Bengal publishes a vernacular magazine written and edited by, and for, native ladies. This is an encouraging sign, and it indicates what is wanting in Provinces where other languages are spoken. 616. Instruction and Text-books.—It appears, on the whole, that the scheme of study in girls’ schools has been formed too much on the model of that for boys. The history of female education in modern India would lead us to expect this. It has been devised and set on foot by men as an addition to the system established for boys. Many women have indeed devoted themselves to this work, and have been the real agency in introducing and fostering female education. The statements by lady-witnesses form one of the most interesting sections of the evidence collected by the Commission. But ladies have not hitherto been much consulted as to the arrangements made by the Department. Hence there is a want of careful adaptation of the means to the end. The present system may perhaps serve to turn 189

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

out a certain number of girls instructed up to a certain standard. But how girls may be fitted to fill efficiently and intelligently the very peculiar place appointed for them in the life of this country, is a matter the consideration of which requires at once an enlightened sympathy with the female mind, and a close acquaintance with the conditions and customs of Indian women. It is no disparagement to the Education Department to say that in these respects it has much to learn. 617. Agencies for Female Education other than Schools.—The difficulties of extending female education by means of schools have already been referred to. The two principal ones are—the short duration of the school-going age for Indian girls, and the seclusion of Indian women after marriage. The first can only be overcome by a change in the custom of the country which at present compels the early marriage of girls, at an age rarely extending beyond their eleventh or twelfth year. For the second difficulty several solutions have been attempted, and to each of these we propose to devote a paragraph. 618. Zanana Missions.—The most successful efforts yet made to educate Indian women after leaving school, have been conducted by Missionaries. In every Province of India, ladies have devoted themselves to the work of teaching in the homes of such native families as are willing to receive them. Their instruction is confined to the female members of the household, and, although based on Christian teaching, is extended to secular subjects. The degree in which the two classes of instruction are given, varies in different zanana missions, but in almost every case secular teaching forms part of the scheme. Experience seems to have convinced a large proportion of the zealous labourers in this field, that the best preparation for their special or religious work, consists in that quickening of the intellectual nature which is produced by exercising the mind in the ordinary subjects of education. The largest and most successful of the zanana missions are composed of one or more English ladies, with a trained staff of Native Christians or Anglo Indian young women who teach in the zananas allotted to them. They derive their funds from the missionary societies in Europe and America, supplemented in many cases by local subscriptions in India, and by the private means of the English ladies who conduct the work. The Commission has not complete statistics with regard to the results achieved. But the figures3 accessible to it together with the enquiries made by it in the various Provinces, show that these results are already considerable, and that they are steadily increasing. The two impediments in the way of their more rapid extension are—first, the natural reluctance of many natives to admit into their families an influence hostile to their own religious beliefs, and, second, the uncertain attitude of the Education Department towards such missions. With the first of these obstacles the Commission cannot deal. But we have observed that much has been accomplished in this respect by the fact, courtesy, and wise moderation of the ladies engaged in the work. The second impediment comes within our cognisance, and we have provided for at by a specific Recommendation, that grants for zanana teaching be recognised as a proper charge on public funds, and be given under rules which will enable those engaged 190

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

in it, to obtain substantial aid for such secular teaching as may be tested by an Inspectress, or other female agency. 619. Secular Zanana Agencies.—But while the Commission cannot deal with the reluctance of orthodox native families to subject their female members to influences hostile to their national faiths, the native community is itself beginning to take action in the matter. In all the Presidency towns, and in many of the large cities of India, it is now possible for a wealthy native to obtain instruction for the ladies of his family within his own house. A distinct class of zanana agencies on a secular basis is springing up, conducted by committees of native gentlemen, or by mixed committees of Natives and Europeans, with the object, in some cases, of imparting education in zananas without any element of religious teaching, in others of testing by periodical examinations, and encouraging by rewards the home education of governesses. These agencies are already doing useful work, although on a comparatively small scale, and the Commission trusts that they will receive a still larger measure of sympathy and co-operation from English ladies in India. Cases have been brought to our notice of a native family of rank employing a European or Anglo Indian governess, in other cases a Native Christian governess is employed, on the understanding that she will confine her instruction to secular subjects. The Parsi and Brahmo communities not only permit their girls to remain longer at school than is the custom with the Hindus and Muhammadans, but they have among them an educated class of young women well qualified to conduct the work of instruction in private families. While we look to the schools to carry on the general extension of female education, we regard as a hopeful sign the desire for improved education at home; and we have framed our Recommendations with a view to give the fullest encouragement to all zanana agencies, whether secular or religious, so far as is compatible with a due regard to economy combined with secular results. 620. Literature for the Zanana.—The want of school-books for girls has been already mentioned, and the same remarks apply to the dearth of a suitable literature for the zanana. An education which ends with the mere task-work of receiving instruction from a mistress, fails to accomplish its purpose. On the one hand, we find 277,207 women in India (including the Native States) not at school, yet who can read and write. On the other hand, we find a deficiency of modern books in the vernaculars, suitable for their perusal. This is a difficulty which can best be met by the efforts of educated men and women among the natives themselves, and by the native literary societies, especially the societies for the promotion of female education which are now so numerous throughout India. We earnestly commend this difficulty to their attention, and we hope that the Local Governments will not be found wanting in the encouragement of any well-devised efforts, whether by societies or by individuals, towards its solution. 621. Quality of the Instruction in Girls’ Schools.—The examinations which have been gradually prescribed for girls’ schools in the different Provinces enable us to test the quality of the instruction given. But it should be borne in mind that the stringency of the standards is not identical in all the Provinces; and that while, on the one hand, 191

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

all girls’ schools are not subject to examination; on the other, it is not everywhere possible to separate European and Anglo-Indian girls from natives in the returns. Subject to these remarks, the following Table exhibits the results of the departmental examinations in girls’ schools. The third column does not take cognisance of girls in “mixed” or boys’ schools; but only of those in institutions intended entirely for girls. 622.—Results of the Examinations in Girls’ Schools, 1881–82.

PROVINCES

1 MADRAS .

{

.

{

BOMBAY

BENGAL

.

{

Class of Institutions

Number of pupils on the rolls on March 31st, 1882††

Total number examined in departmental or other prescribed examinations.

2

3

4

Secondary Primary Normal TOTAL Secondary Primary Normal TOTAL Collegiate Secondary Primary Normal† TOTAL

389 20,365 157 20,911 538 21,859 73 22,470 6 1,051 17,452 41 18,550

292 10,426 76 10,794 311 6,514 45 6,870 5a 9 201

169

78·60

215

Percentage of successful scholars to those presented for examination

Number of trained mistresses who passed for certificates in 1881–82

5

6

7

109 6,819 38 6,966 134 3,366 31* 3,531 4b 8 157

37·3 65·4 50·0 64·53 43·09 51·67 68·89 51·39 80·00 88·88 78·10

Number passed.

31 31

* At the Training College Examinations. † There are two Normal schools for mistresses with 41 pupils, who are trained to become teachers in native schools and zananas but they do not pass any prescribed examination for this purpose. †† Girls attending Boys’ schools are not included in this return. a Including pupils studying in the Free Church Normal School. b Of these one passed the [******* * **] and 3 the matriculation Examination of the Calcutta University.

PROVINCES

1 NORTH WESTERN PROVINCES & OUDH.

{

Number passed.

Percentage of successful scholars to those presented for examination

Number of trained mistresses who passed for certificates in 1881–82

4

5

6

7

68 8,726 89

66 984

31 520

46·97 52·84

8,883

1050

Class of Institutions

Number of pupils on the rolls on March 31st, 1882††

Total number examined in departmental or other prescribed examinations

2

3

Secondary Primary Normal TOTAL

7 ‡

192

551

52·48

7

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

PROVINCES

PUNJAB . .

{

CENTRAL . PROVINCES

{

ASSAM . . .

{

COORO HAIDARABAD ASSIGNED . DISTRICTS

TOTAL FOR INDIA¶ . .

{

{

Class of Institutions

Number of pupils on the rolls on March 31st, 1882††

Total number examined in departmental or other prescribed examinations

Number passed.

Percentage of successful scholars to those presented for examination

Secondary Primary Normal TOTAL Secondary Primary Normal TOTAL Primary Normal TOTAL Primary TOTAL Primary

8 9,207 138 9,353

171

51

29·82

171§

51

29·82

3,208 17 3,225 1,209

527║ 7 534 1

270║ 2 272 1

51·23 28·57 50·93 100

1,209 26 26 368

1

1

100

167

111

66·46

TOTAL Collegiate Secondary Primary Normal TOTAL

368 6 2,054 82,420 515 84,995

167 5 678 18,991 128 19,802

111 4 282 11,295 71 11,652

66·46 80·00 41·59 59·47 55·47 58·84

Number of trained mistresses who passed for certificates in 1881–82

2 2

40 40

These figures include 698 European and Eurasian children. At the upper and lower primary examinations. The results of other examinations are not tabulated. ║ All the girls are examined and the results of their examination are recorded in the school minute books and in the Inspectors diaries. Only those who were examined in the lower primary and upper primary standards and who passed such examinations, are recorded in columns 4 and 5. ¶ Excluding Ajmer British Burma, and all Native States that administer their own system of education. †† Girls attending Boys schools are not included in this return. ‡ §

623. Review of Examination Results in Girls’ Schools (1881–82).—The only Province which during the year under review sent female students to the collegiate examinations was Bengal; the progress there made in the higher education of girls has been referred to, and the success of two girl candidates at the B.A. examination in the following year, although too late for the purview of this Report, afforded a theme for the address of the Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University in March 1883. Apart from circumstances peculiar to Provinces, the principal feature of the above Table is the overwhelming proportion of girl candidates at the primary examinations. The total number examined in the Primary schools was close on 19,000, of whom 11,295 passed. The proportion of successful candidates, exceeding 59 per cent, shows that the instruction in primary girls’ schools, as tested by the standards prescribed, is fairly efficient. Only 678 girls 193

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

presented themselves at the secondary examinations, of whom 42 per cent were successful. But it should be observed that while rather less than one-fourth of the girls in primary schools presented themselves for examination, one-third of those under secondary instruction appeared as candidates. It should be noted, however, that the only departmental examinations at which girls from schools in Bengal are invited to appear, are those for the various classes of scholarships, middle and primary. The discouraging features in the foregoing return are the paucity of trained schoolmistresses, and the scanty source of supply for the teaching staff, with 85,000 girls to teach. Only 78 mistresses passed examinations in the year. Of these 31 obtained certificates in Bombay, 7 in the North-Western Provinces, and 2 in the Central Provinces. In Madras, 38 passed the Normal school examination, but without attaining the standard prescribed for a certificate. 624. Deficiency of Teachers for Girls’ Schools.—These figures bring us to the root of the difficulty in regard to the extension of girls’ education in India. They show that the supply of trained female teaching power is wholly inadequate to the demand. By comparing the increase of girls at school with the number of trained mistresses, during a period of years, the inadequacy becomes more apparent. The same result is arrived at by a scrutiny of the local distribution of Normal school attendance. There were only 515 girls at Normal schools throughout all India in 1881–82. Of these, 157 were in Madras, 138 in the Punjab, and 73 in Bombay. Bengal, with its 18,550 girls in female schools, had only 41 young women receiving a training in Normal institutions. Excepting Madras and Bombay, no Province returns any candidates passed at Normal school examinations, saving 2 girls in the Central Provinces and 7 in the North-Western Provinces. We desire to call attention to the altogether disproportionate supply of mistresses, as compared with the demand which the foregoing Table discloses. 625. Male Teachers for Girls’ Schools.—The evidence before the Commission shows that a feeling exists in many parts of India against the employment of men as teachers and inspectors in girls’ schools. Hitherto, it has not been found practicable in the various Provinces to carry on the work of female schools without such agency. The efforts which are being made to call into existence a more adequate supply of female teachers will be presently considered. The majority of girls’ schools are still conducted by male teachers. Only elderly men are considered suitable for the work, and any attempt at a wide extension of female education by means of young male teachers, would be opposed to the sentiments of the people. It follows, therefore, that the teaching staff of the girls’ schools at present has to be mainly recruited from superannuated schoolmasters, many of whom have lost their powers of work. In Maratha and other Southern Districts the difficulty of finding suitable male teachers is less felt than in Provinces which were long under Muhammadan rule. 626. Female Teachers for Girls’ Schools.—As yet it has not been found possible to obtain anything like an adequate supply of trained female teachers. Many plans have been tried in the different Provinces, but all have ended in comparative failure. The Bengal Department even attempted to utilise female votaries of the 194

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

Vaishnava sect as teachers. The members of this sect, male and female, renounce caste and devote themselves to a religious life. At one time, the female Vaishnavas seem to have contributed a good deal to the instruction of their countrywomen, and at the beginning of the century, many of the Bengal zananas had preceptresses belonging to this class. But an effort, cautiously and patiently made by the Education Department to train them as teachers for girls’ schools, ended in unfavourable results. The only native women who can be induced to regard teaching as a profession in life, seem to be native Christians; the wives of schoolmasters in certain Provinces; and, under certain conditions, widows. A considerable supply is obtained from the first-mentioned class by Missionaries, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. But the services of such teachers are almost entirely absorbed by the schools of the religious agencies which train them; although in Madras there seems to be a reasonable prospect that other schools will in time obtain a supply of female teachers from this source. They form, however, an important element in the extension of female education on the basis of grant-in-aid. Both the Roman Catholic and Protestant Missions are now in a position to look forward to increasing the number of their female teachers in proportion to the demand for them in their own schools. Nor does the objection to male teachers appear to carry so much weight with the Protestant Christians as it does among other sections of the native community. 627. Female Education; Schoolmasters’ Wives as Teachers.—This latter source of supply would be capable of wider application, if it could produce the requisite number of teachers. The experience of the Education Department in Bombay and the Central Provinces has a special bearing on this subject. Many of the young schoolmasters of parts of India do not seem to object to their wives engaging in school work. An excellent female Normal school at Jabalpur carries on its operations in the same town as the male Normal school; and a number of the youths who are being prepared as teachers, send their wives to undergo a corresponding instruction in the female school. The latter derives its pupils from all available sources; but we refer to it specially in regard to this branch of its work. The young women live a strictly resident life within their own school, and, after going through a course of instruction, take part in the actual work of teaching a girls’ school attached to the institution. When duly qualified, they are sent out as mistresses of schools in the village or town to which their husbands are posted. In this way, a certain number of localities have been supplied with both a boys’ and a girls’ school, conducted respectively by the husband and wife. The special success of the female Normal school at Jabalpur is due to the tact and admirable powers of management of the Lady Superintendent. But the experiment has also succeeded elsewhere, and schoolmasters’ wives are now recognised as a hopeful source of supply for female teachers. In some parts of India, however, schoolmasters object to their wives taking public employment of this sort. As the pecuniary advantages of the arrangement become more widely understood, and as the sentiment that married women should never work for their livelihood loses its influence among the higher castes, the number of female teachers of this class will probably increase. 195

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

628. Widows as Teachers.—Our particular attention has been given to suggestions which have been made with regard to the more extended employment of native widows as teachers. The lot of the Hindu widow is so hard, that we should rejoice if it were possible to provide a scope for her useful employment in infant schools and in the education of her countrywomen. But here again native public opinion in many Provinces stands in the way. The Hindu widow, although deprived of any earthly career, beyond household drudgery, forms an integral part of the family, and is, in an especial manner, subject to family control. At present it does not seem likely that respectable Hindu families would permit their widowed members to engage in so public a labour as that of a schoolmistress, in numbers at all proportionate to the demand. The Education Department has done something to encourage movements in this direction. Certain of its efforts have failed to produce favourable results, owing to the peculiarly exposed position in which a Hindu widow finds herself, when she steps outside the strictly guarded routine of family life. On the other hand, several such experiments have proved that success is possible. The Female Training College at Ahmedabad shows what can be done in this respect. While deriving its students from all classes, it has so won the confidence of the native community that it obtains a fair number of widows, who resolve to adopt teaching as their work in life. The success of this institution, as in the case of the female Normal School at Jabalpur, is in a special degree due to the high personal qualities of the Lady Superintendent. But as native public opinion advances, we hope that an increasing number of training institutions will obtain female students from the same class, and that every encouragement, pecuniary and otherwise, will be given to such efforts. If Hindu widows could be induced in considerable numbers to take up teaching as a profession, one of the chief difficulties in the extension of female education would be solved. An independent and interesting career would at the same time be opened up to a large class of women, whose lot in life is very hard. The total number of widows in India is 21 millions. Of these, 1½ millions are below 24 years of age, and are therefore within the period of life when they might be successfully trained as teachers, if they could be persuaded to adopt that profession. 629. Female Education; Difficulties of Female Teachers.—We do not, however, under rate the obstacles in the way of such a movement. Apart from the isolated position of a young Hindu widow who leaves the family circle, female teachers in India have great and special difficulties to contend against. In the first place, they hold a novel and an exceptional position which exposes them to unfriendly comment. In the second place, the Indian school mistress often finds two enemies ready made in the village to which she is sent. There is the old incapable male teacher whom she supersedes, and the youth who assisted him, but whose masculine dignity will not permit of his serving peaceably under a woman. Lady Superintendents of female training colleges, who sympathise with the difficulties of the situation, can do much to pave the way for the ultimate success of the young women whom they send forth. For example, the Lady Superintendent 196

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

of the Ahmedabad Female Training College never gives her consent to a widow teacher being posted in a locality, until she has secured for her the countenance and support of the leading native families. No doubt other Lady Superintendents of female training colleges take the same precautions. But in spite of all such kindly safeguards, the position of a female teacher, especially if she be a widow, is still a difficult one in an Indian hamlet. Many of these difficulties would, however, disappear if arrangements could be made for employing trained female teachers in their own villages. 630. Training of Female Teachers.—In the general review of the situation which precedes our Recommendations, we shall summarise the limitations and conditions which apply to the various classes from which female teachers can be derived. We are not hopeful of any sudden or immediate expansion of the supply. We once more repeat that in this, as in other matters connected with female education, if an expansion is to be genuine and lasting, it must depend upon the growth of native public opinion. Government can, however, by rendering liberal aid to training colleges, by an extended system of stipends to the students in such institutions and by a generous scale of grants for schools which employ certificated female teachers, do much to draw forth all the capabilities of the existing sources of supply. It would not be easy to improve the course of instruction in some of the female training colleges which we have visited. In our Recommendations, therefore, we make no suggestions in regard to the course of instruction, and merely advise that liberal inducements should be offered alike to Native, European, and Eurasian young women, to qualify themselves as teachers for girls’ schools. 631. Female Education.—The Table on the following page shows the expenditure from all sources on female education, in the year 1881–82, so far as can be ascertained by the Commission. It deals only with schools for natives and is therefore exclusive of the general expenditure on European and Eurasian girls. 632. Different Sources of Funds.—The most noteworthy feature of the foregoing Table is the very small proportion which the fees levied in girls’ schools bear to the total expenditure. In round numbers, the pupils in such schools pay only one-twentieth part of the cost of their education. On the other hand, the charitable and philanthropic element comes strongly into play in the support of girls’ schools in India. The sums derived from missionary bodies, native societies, endowments, and philanthropic agencies or individuals interested in female education, exceed one-half the whole expenditure on the work, as indicated in columns 5 and 6 of the foregoing Table. The allotments from the Provincial revenues contribute more than a quarter, and the assignments from Municipal or Local Funds, together with the fees, amount to a good deal less than a quarter. The day when female education can be safely left to fees, or to exclusively local support, seems still far distant in India. 633. Suitability of the Grant-in-aid Rules.—Conclusive evidence has been placed before the Commission, that female education cannot at present be 197

1

Assam. . . . . .

1,07,889

1,509

1,698

14,150

21,985

5,752

2,540

51,619

44,539

24

2,931

1,601

17,772

9,518

12,693

R

4

Expenditure from fees

4,42,665

270

110

3,239

4,930

47,187

38,873

1,26,637

67,790

1,53,629

R

5

Expenditure from other sources

8,47,971b

3,524

230

5,604

25,959

1,04,928

79,082

2,23,768

1,78,707

2,26,169

R

6

*Total expenditure on female education

* Excluding expenditure on Schools for Europeans and Eurasians. † Including expenditure on Professional and Technical Institutions and on Schools for Europeans and Eurasians.

2,52,878

643

Central Provinces

TOTAL FOR INDIAa .

6,879

Punjab . . . . .

120

32,825

North-Western Provinces and Oudh

1,745

32,856

Bengal . . . . .

Haidrabad Assigned Districts . . . . .

76,819

Bombay . . . . .

Coorg . . . . . .

51,211

49,780

Madras . . . . .

8,636

3

R

2

R

PROVINCES*

Expenditure from Local or Municipal Fundsb

Expenditure from Provincial Funds

a

7 R

3·54

1·00

·59

1·14

3·98

4·45

2·44

2·96

5·11

3·66

8

Percentage of expenditure in columns 2 and 3 to total expenditure† on education from Public Funds

29·82

49·51

52·17

11·47

26·46

31·28

41·54

34·33

27·86

22·64

9

Percentage of Provincial expenditure in (column 2) to total expenditure in column 6

3·57

·74

·91

·45

1·90

5·21

3·54

2·90

4·37

5·22

10

Percentage of Provincial expenditure in column 2 to total expenditure on education† from Provincial Funds

4·65

·99

1·01

1·80

3·85

6·44

3·84

3·56

5·21

6·52

11

Percentage of expenditure in column 6 to total expenditure on education†

12

REMARKS.

a Excluding British Burma and all Native States that administer their own system of education. b Excluding the expenditure on Female education in Ajmir, amounting to Rs. 635.

1,01,82,684

3,24,381

20,293

2,05,076

5,28,802

12,31,047

15,77,695

26,80,510

19,82,535

16,32,345

†

Total expenditure on education from public funds (Provincial, Local and Municipal.)

EXPENDITURE ON FEMALE EDUCATION IN BRITISH INDIA IN 1881–82.

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

subjected to the same strict conditions as those which regulate grants-in-aid to boys’ schools. In the first place, there is not the same efficient demand for the instruction of girls by the people themselves; and consequently there is not the same willingness to pay for it in the shape of fees. In the second place, the schoolgoing age among girls is, as already stated, of much shorter duration than among boys; and even during a girl’s brief years at school, regular attendance is not considered so strictly in the light of a daily duty. It follows, therefore, that it is difficult to maintain the same degree of discipline in a girls’ school as regards uniform progress, or the average on the rolls, and unfair to insist on the same standards of instruction. In the third place, the managers of girls’ schools have in many parts of India to provide not only for the instruction of the pupils while in school, but also for their safe conduct under female surveillance to and from their respective homes. A staff of nurses or old men has to be maintained for this purpose, and a class of expenditure, for which the Grant-in-aid Codes for boys’ schools very properly make no provision, thus becomes a legitimate and necessary charge in girls’ institutions. In some Provinces the Codes sufficiently recognise these distinctions; in others they do not. The practical results of the sufficiency or insufficiency of State aid to girls’ schools in the various Provinces have been tabulated in Chapter VIII, paragraph 480, pages 421–3, and we need not again enter into the subject here. But it will be seen from the Table on page 423 that the rate of State aid given to girls’ schools is, notwithstanding a theoretical liberality of the Rules, practically smaller in almost every Province than the rate given to boys’ primary schools. Finally, it must not be forgotten that native public opinion in the matter of girls’ instruction is very much in the same stage as it was a generation ago in regard to boys’ education on the modern system. If rigid financial tests had been applied to the extension of boys’ education in India forty years ago, it would have expanded much more slowly than it has done. We think that female education is a proper subject for a still larger expenditure than heretofore from Provincial, Municipal, and District Funds; especially by liberal encouragement to agencies that have shown a genuine interest in the cause. We have, therefore, in our Recommendations provided for a liberal treatment of girls’ schools as regards finance, and for a patient consideration of their difficulties as regards results. 634. Grants-in-aid to Girls’ Schools.—We desire that, in revising the Grantin-aid Codes, it should be borne in mind that, if female education is to receive any large extension, the school-system must be placed as much as possible in accord with the customs of the country and the feelings of the people. For many years to come, the respectable native community will desire to shelter their daughters from public observation, and to seclude them from contact with males not belonging to the family. The problem is how to reconcile school-life with these popular feelings. Our Recommendations endeavour to provide, so far as it is possible for general proposals to provide, for such an adaptation. Female teachers, female inspectors, female surveillance on the way to and from school, and arrangements sufficiently liberal to permit of the boarding-house system being extended in girls’ schools, will help towards the solution of the problem. But we hope that apart 199

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

from Recommendations of a general character, such as it is the function of this Commission to make, no opportunity will be lost of taking advantage of special adaptations, applicable to individual localities, or suited to the views of particular classes of the people. 635. Inspectresses for Girls’ Schools.—In the summary immediately preceding our Recommendations, we shall briefly state our opinion as to the unsuitability of male inspection for girls’ schools. But we think it well that the practical objections to male inspection, as felt by female teachers in India, should be distinctly realised Miss Collett, the Lady Superintendent of the Ahmedabad female Training College, whose careful supervision of her students after they have gone out into the world has already been mentioned, gave important evidence on this point. After expressing her opinion that there should be at least one European Lady Inspectress for the Bombay Presidency, she thus describes the actual working of the system of male inspection now in force: “The present Deputy Inspectors are, in most cases, men who are willing and anxious to do their best, but who are quite unable to enter into, or to understand, the difficulties which beset female teachers. In the first place, the peculiar circumstances under which women in India are brought up, tend to make them very timid when they come in contact with men who are strangers to them; they have been accustomed to such a system of repression, and dependence on others, that in nine cases out of ten they will rather suffer injustice than make a stand for themselves; consequently they need a peculiar kind of treatment and encouragement, quite unnecessary in the case of male teachers. Besides this, female teachers are a new element in most villages, and their conduct is subjected to close scrutiny, and anything but benevolent criticism. I have known of cases where the Deputy Inspectors, instead of going to the girls’ schools to inspect the records, have ordered the women to bring them to their offices or houses; now the fact of a mistress going to the residence of a Deputy is quite enough to raise an evil report about her. I only instance this to show how delicate a matter the treatment of female teachers is. Again, when women are sent to village schools, they, in most cases, go to replace men who have been in charge of the schools for many years, and who are naturally enough annoyed at being turned out to make room for a female teacher. These men generally hold an influential position in the village, and they do what they can to stir up the residents against the new-comer, so that the poor mistress has, at the very commencement of her career, to contend with and overcome a good deal of smouldering animosity. Then the male assistant considers it infra dig. to be under a woman, and is often insubordinate and insulting to her, doing what he can to subvert her authority and lower her in the eyes of her pupils; when at last she is driven to report his conduct, the Deputy considers her discontented, and does not understand why she should begin by making complaints against her assistant who got on well enough with her predecessor.” 636. Female Education, School-fees.—The foregoing Table shows the small amount contributed to girls’ schools in the shape of fees. Out of a total of Rs. 200

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

8,47,971 expended on female education in 1881–82, only Rs. 44,539, or little more than one twentieth, were paid as school fees. We do not, after a careful review of the evidence before the Commission, believe it possible to make any immediate or rapid change in regard to this unsatisfactory aspect of female education in India. We find that many of the most successful of the girls’ schools or colleges were compelled for many years to abstain from levying fees at all, while a large proportion actually paid the pupils for attending. Both these practices exist at the present day, although the stronger institutions have discontinued them. They first found it possible to give up paying the girls for attendance, then by slow and cautious degrees they began to levy fees. We look forward to a time when it will be practicable to insist upon adequate fees in girls’ schools, and we think that managers of girls’ schools should be encouraged to take steps in that direction. But we do not think that the time is yet come for any hard and fast rules on this subject. While, therefore, in the summary preceding our Recommendations, we approve generally of the principle of requiring fees we do not think it essential at present that they should be levied in girls’ schools as a condition of grant in aid. Much less do we think the time is ripe for laying down any general rule as to the rate of fees in girls’ schools. Even when the practice of requiring fees becomes more general, we are of opinion that liberal exemptions should be made in favour of poor girls of promising talents. 637. Prizes for Girls’ Schools.—Indian girls show keen emulation in class, and their faculties seem to develope at an even earlier age than those of boys. Prizes or rewards for progress in school are not only treasured by the girls themselves, but are a source of very great pleasure in their family circle. Liberality in the distribution of prizes to girls’ schools, acts, therefore, as an incentive, which those who are anxious to extend female education should not disregard. This is well understood by the native managers or committees of management of girls’ schools. In some Provinces there is a tendency to make the visit of any officer of position an occasion for a distribution of gifts to the girls. It is often difficult, however, to find books in the local vernacular suitable for this purpose. A girls’ literature has still to be created in India, and the prizes for girls’ schools often consist of what are really lesson books, or even blank copy books, rather than interesting tales. Many substitutes for books are from time to time adopted, such as pencils, trinkets, and above all, sweetmeats. When a benevolent native wishes to give a treat to a girls’ school, the first step which suggests itself to his mind is to issue a wholesale order to the village confectioner. On special occasions, a distribution of clothes is made. Such distributions of sweetmeats, or pieces of cloth, are made with an equal hand to the clever and stupid, to the industrious and the idle. But they serve to stimulate public interest in female education, and donations of sweetmeats were found useful in starting the movement, and in drawing an attendance to schools whose managers have since been able to discontinue the practice. We hope that the production of attractive books suitable for prizes in girls’ schools, will receive the attention of the native associations in different parts of India who are now evincing so much interest in the education of their countrywomen. 201

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

638. Scholarships in Girls’ Schools.—There is, however, one form of reward which, even in girls’ schools, should be distinctly recognised as won by merit, and as intended to enable the pupil to make still further progress. We refer to scholarships. We believe that scholarships should be given on easier terms in girls’ than in boys’ schools, but they should be given not as charitable doles, but by competition or as the rewards for good work. We have already provided for another class of aid for poor girls, by liberal exemptions from the payment of fees. We are anxious that scholarships should be used, not only as a means for raising the standard of instruction, but also as an inducement to the most promising girls to remain longer at school than at present. We have, therefore, recommended that, while special provision be made for girls’ scholarships, a certain proportion of them shall be reserved for girls not under twelve years of age. Such scholarships, like all others, should be given as readily and as liberally to schools under private managers as to departmental schools. 639. “Artificial Stimulants” to Girls’ Schools.—We are aware that some of the suggestions in the foregoing paragraphs, and several of the specific Recommendations which follow, will be held to create what have been called artificial stimulants to the progress of female education. We can only reply that, after a careful consideration of the evidence collected throughout India, we find that girls’ schools have been started only with the aid of such encouragement, and that it is in many places still required for their maintenance and extension. We hope that the time will come when the demand for female education may be as efficient and as widely spread as the demand has now become for boys’ education. But we again repeat that the evidence proves that that time has not yet arrived, and meanwhile we think that it would be unwise to neglect any of the harmless methods of encouraging female education which have been found successful in the past, and which are in accord with native custom and public feeling at present. It should, however, be noticed that it is chiefly in the hands of private managers that these “artificial stimulants” can be used with good effect. 640. Summary.—Before enumerating our specific Recommendations with regard to girls’ schools, we desire to briefly review the situation as disclosed in the foregoing paragraphs. It will have been seen that female education is still in an extremely backward condition, and that it needs to be fostered in every legitimate way. In some Provinces, the sympathies of the people do not yet run sufficiently in this direction to induce local bodies to devote to female education any of the funds at their disposal. Hence we think it expedient to recommend that public funds of all kinds—local, municipal, and provincial—should be chargeable in an equitable proportion for the support of girls’ schools as well as boys’ schools; and that the former, being in an earlier stage of development, should receive even something more than what might appear to be a strictly impartial share of encouragement. Public opinion in this matter cannot yet be accepted as the standard of what ought to be done. We do not think it necessary to define the classes of girls’ schools which should receive encouragement. The principle of religious neutrality 202

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

prevents aid from being given for religious teaching as such, but we see no reason why such secular teaching as is actually given, if only incidentally, in schools intended mainly for religious teaching, should not be pro tanto rewarded. If a girl, in learning to read a religious book, acquires the power of reading the vernacular, it is at least something accomplished, and may serve as a basis for something more. There are so many obstacles to the progress of female education that we think the conditions on which aid is granted to it should be made as easy as possible. It is, moreover, right that more liberal aid should be given for the education of those classes who cannot pay for it themselves, and whose children are often required to help in household work. For these, rules requiring regular attendance should be easy, lest they defeat their own object. Generally, the maintenance of a girls’ school is more expensive than that of a boys’ school. Servants have to bring the children from their homes, and the number that can be expected to attend is smaller. Hence it is sometimes found that rates of aid even 50 per cent. higher than those for boys, fail to cover the additional expenditure required. Again, the short time that girls are allowed to remain at school leads to a very large percentage of the pupils being in the lowest stages of instruction. As these need as much attention as those more advanced, it is only just that allowance should in some way be made for them. One great objection made by the native public to the instruction of girls, is that it is of no practical use to them. Too much stress should not be laid on this, as the value of education to a woman must of necessity be unknown to those who have no experience of it. But it ought not to be taken for granted that the instruction which is suitable for a boy must necessarily be good for an Indian girl. In purely literary subjects, girls need not go so far as boys, and there are subjects of a practical kind to which girls might at least be introduced during their school course. It does not appear that much attention has hitherto been given to the production of books suitable for girls, and in some cases the books used have not been selected with sufficient care. 641. Summary—continued.—We approve of the principle that education should to some extent be paid for by the recipient. But the desire for girls’ education has at present to be fostered, and in many parts of the country it has yet to be created. Hence, we would not make the taking of fees an essential condition of obtaining grants, although we would guard against unfair competition in this respect between rival schools. To extend the period given to the education of girls is obviously desirable, and we think that one important means of attaining this object will be the offer of scholarships. If some of these be reserved for girls beyond the usual age to which school attendance extends, there may gradually arise a desire for more knowledge than can be attained within that narrow period. This points in the direction of secondary education for girls, in which a beginning has scarcely been made. We propose that the opportunities for such instruction should be judiciously extended, but only where private effort indicates that the desire for it exists. There are many difficulties in the way of young women attending a school at any distance from their homes. For this reason we think that in 203

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

special cases it might be well to encourage school-managers to make provision for boarders. It may perhaps be found that Municipal and Local Boards are not in all cases prepared to undertake the management of girls’ schools; to force it upon unwilling persons would not be likely to lead to satisfactory results. But where a Board does undertake the management, we think its authority ought to be real and effective. It ought to be able to appoint any mistress it selects, provided, of course, that she is in the judgment of the Education Department qualified for the work. Nor would we deprive the Board of the power of promoting or removing its own teachers, although to check arbitrary or hasty action the Department ought to have a veto in such cases. It should also be borne in mind that as the available funds are limited, and as results are greater and more capable of being tested in girls’ schools than in zananas, the former have higher claims than the latter on State aid. 642. Summary—continued.—We have seen that one of the principal obstacles to the extension of female education is the difficulty of obtaining suitable teachers. There can be no doubt that women are preferable for this purpose to men; and while we would not altogether exclude male teachers from girls’ schools, we believe that female teachers should be gradually and cautiously substituted for them. In order to induce girls to look forward to teaching as a profession, it seems desirable to encourage pupil-teachers wherever the system is practicable. The pupil-teachers should furnish material for Normal schools, and for Normal classes in connection with ordinary schools where there is sufficient teaching power. The careful and sympathetic management required for such classes, renders them peculiarly suitable for private agency to superintend; and when established by this means, they should be liberally aided. Among other ways of assisting them, the grant of a bonus for each pupil finishing the course, commends itself. At the same time the aid given them should not depend too largely on such success at the final examination. There does not seem to be good reason for confining certificates for teachers to those who have been trained in Normal schools. Fitness to teach should be recognised wherever and in whatever way it may have been acquired, although a Normal school training will always have a special value of its own. The number of young women qualified to teach is so small, that it seems necessary to recruit it by special inducements offered both to the pupils and to those who may instruct them. In some places the wives of schoolmasters are almost the only class available as schoolmistresses, and it is expedient to attract as many of them as possible to the work. In other places young women of mixed parentage may be largely employed, if only they can be persuaded to qualify themselves by a sufficient knowledge of the vernacular. By the different plans here indicated, something may be done gradually in the way of raising up a class of women fitted to educate the girls of another generation. What no sweeping measure could at once effect, may be accomplished by a multiplicity of minor plans, each contributing a little. 643. Summary—concluded.—But in the existing circumstances of the women of India, the mere establishment of schools will be by no means 204

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

sufficient to bring about the general spread of education among them. Public sentiment keeps them secluded in zananas, many from their infancy, and many more from the age of eleven or twelve. From this it follows that the education of girls of the better classes cannot be carried on in schools to anything like completion, and that in the case of many it cannot even be begun. Some plan is needed for conveying instruction to those who cannot leave their homes to seek for it, and for prosecuting further the teaching which may have been begun in schools. Agencies for zanana teaching are conducting this work with considerable success. Actuated in many cases by religious motives, zanana teachers have brought some measure of secular instruction into the homes of those who would otherwise have been wholly debarred from it. We see no reason why this secular instruction, imparted under the supervision of ladies worthy of confidence, should not be recognised and assisted, so far as it can be tested by a proper inspecting agency. Rules for aid to zanana teaching should be drawn up in consultation with those who conduct the work, and should be such as to assist them substantially in extending their operations so far as concerns secular teaching. Associations have arisen in some places, aiming at the extension and improvement of female education. These also might be encouraged so far as they produce secular results. In order that these results may be fairly estimated, it seems necessary that the services of sympathetic and well-qualified inspectresses should be more largely made use of. In the present condition of female education in India, the visits of Inspectors are sometimes not only futile, but a positive hindrance to progress. And even where this is not so, a woman is generally much better able to deal with little girls than any man can be. With respect to the management also of girls’ schools, it seems most desirable to obtain the help, wherever possible, of ladies who take an interest in the subject, whether Native or European. Nor is the object likely to be attained unless interest is promoted among Native gentlemen by giving them a share in the supervision of the schools. Those who show their sympathy by sending their own daughters to school are more likely to assist in directing the movement, and in rendering it popular among their neighbours. 644. Female Education: Recommendations.—Our Recommendations are— 1. That female education be treated as a legitimate charge alike on Local, on Municipal, and on Provincial Funds, and receive special encouragement. 2. That all female schools or orphanages, whether on a religious basis or not, be eligible for aid so far as they produce any secular results, such as a knowledge of reading or of writing. 3. That the conditions of aid to girls’ schools be easier than to boys’ schools, and the rates higher—more especially in the case of those established for poor or for low-caste girls. 4. That the rules for grants be so framed as to allow for the fact that girls’ schools generally contain a large proportion of beginners, and of those who cannot attend school for so many hours a day, or with such regularity, as boys. 205

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

5. That the standards of instruction for primary girls’ schools be simpler than those for boys’ schools, and be drawn up with special reference to the requirements of home life, and to the occupations open to women. 6. That the greatest care be exercised in the selection of suitable text-books for girls’ schools, and that the preparation of such books be encouraged. 7. That, while fees be levied where practicable, no girls’ school be debarred from a grant on account of its not levying fees. 8. That special provision be made for girls’ scholarships, to be awarded after examination, and that, with a view to encouraging girls to remain longer at school, a certain proportion of them be reserved for girls not under twelve years of age. 9. That liberal aid be offered for the establishment, in suitable localities, of girls’ schools in which English should be taught in addition to the vernacular. 10. That special aid be given, where necessary, to girls’ schools that make provision for boarders. 11. That the various Departments of Public Instruction be requested to arrange, in concert with managers of girls’ schools, for the revision of the code of Rules for grants-in-aid in accordance with the above Recommendations. 12. That, as mixed schools, other than infant schools, are not generally suited to the conditions of this country, the attendance of girls at boys’ schools be not encouraged, except in places where girls’ schools cannot be maintained. 13. That the establishment of infant schools or classes, under schoolmistresses, be liberally encouraged. 14. That female schools be not placed under the management of Local Boards or of Municipalities unless they express a wish to take charge of them. 15. That the first appointment of schoolmistresses in girls’ schools under the management of Municipal or Local Boards be left to such Boards, with the proviso that the mistress be either certificated, or approved by the Department; and that subsequent promotion or removal be regulated by the Boards, subject to the approval of the Department. 16. That rules be framed to promote the gradual supersession of male by female teachers in all girls’ schools. 17. That, in schools under female teachers, stipendiary pupil-teacherships be generally encouraged. 18. That the attention of local Governments be invited to the question of establishing additional Normal schools or classes; and that those under private management receive liberal aid, part of which might take the form of a bonus for every pupil passing the certificate examination. 19. That the departmental certificate examinations for teachers be open to all candidates, wherever prepared. 20. That teachers in schools for general education be encouraged by special rewards to prepare pupils for examinations for teachers’ certificates, and that girls be encouraged by the offer of prizes to qualify for such certificates. 21. That liberal inducements be offered to the wives of schoolmasters to qualify as teachers, and that in suitable cases widows be trained as schoolmistresses, 206

REPORT OF THE INDIAN EDUCATION COMMISSION

care being taken to provide them with sufficient protection in the places where they are to be employed as teachers. 22. That, in Districts where European or Eurasian young women are required as teachers in native schools, special encouragement be given to them to qualify in a vernacular language. 23. That grants for zanana teaching be recognised as a proper charge on public funds, and be given under rules which will enable the agencies engaged in that work to obtain substantial aid for such secular teaching as may be tested by an inspectress, or other female agency. 24. That associations for the promotion of female education, by examinations or otherwise, be recognised by the Department, and encouraged by grants under suitable conditions. 25. That female inspecting agency be regarded as essential to the full development of female education, and be more largely employed than hitherto. 26. That an alternative examination in subjects suitable for girls be established, corresponding in standard to the Matriculation examination, but having no relation to any existing University course. 27. That endeavours be made to secure the services of native gentlemen interested in female education on committees for the supervision of girls’ schools, and that European and native ladies also be invited to assist such committees.

Notes 1. Bombay Provincial Report, page 55. 2. A letter from the Bishop of Bombay on this subject, dated October 31st, 1882, was laid before the Commission. 3. See Note E on the fourth page of Table 1b at the end of this Report.

207

11 EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF THE BOMBAY PROVINCIAL COMMITTEE (CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1884), 71–83, 156–162, 165–167

4. The methods of instruction, and the languages and subjects in which the pupils of these several institutions are instructed, Methods and subjects of will be most conveniently discussed under the instruction following divisions:— (a.) Religious schools. (b.) Partly religious schools. (c.) Secular schools. The main object of the Veda schools of the Hindus is to teach young Bráhmans to recite mantras and portions of the Vedas, and thus to fit them in after-life to assist at the various rites and ceremonies of the Hindu Religious schools. household. The instruction given in these schools is limited to the correct recitation of the sacred text. The pupil reads each passage aloud to the guru, who carefully corrects his mistakes, and when the youth has accurately apprehended the words, he commits them to memory. No detailed explanation is given of the subject-matter; and much of what is learnt is not understood by the pupil. The curriculum in the Borah Madrasa at Surat used to be an extensive one; but all study has now virtually ceased in the institution. The teaching of the other Madrasas of this class is chiefly directed to the interpretation of the Kurán, but incidentally the pupils’ studies extend to Arabic Grammar. At the Jijibhái Dádábhái Pársi Madrasa the studies of the pupils are confined to the writings of Zoroaster in the original Zend and in the later Pehlvi and Pázend version. The curriculum is of 2 or 2½ years’ duration and comprises chiefly the Pársi moral, sacrificial and ceremonial laws (Yasná and Vandidád); the Pársi liturgy (Báj and Afringán) and a book of psalms and invocations (Visperád). But, just as in the Hindu Vedashálá, the Pársi pupil too often learns much of this literature by rote without understanding it. The method pursued in the Muhammadan mosque-schools is somewhat similar. There are doubtless examples to be found 208

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

of a Mulla, who is well versed in the Kurán, expounding it to his favourite pupils. But as a general rule the pupils simply learn to read the words of the Kurán and to commit portions of it to memory. In rural districts the school children are to be seen seated before the Mulla on the raised verandah of a mosque, all reading aloud at the same moment from the books in front of them and swaying their bodies to-and-fro as they read. The noise and confusion of this performance does not seem to strike the teacher as objectionable. But this is not perhaps to be wondered at, as he is usually an almost illiterate man, being barely able to read and wholly unable to write. Some mosques received a Government grant which has been continued to them since the time of the Muhammadan rule, and in them the Kázi is expected to teach the Kurán as part of his official duty. In such cases the teaching is of a somewhat more intelligent type than that just described. The Hindu Sanskrit schools teach grammar, logic, medicine, and philosophy and are confined to Bráhman pupils. With the exception of those who study medicine, the pupils usually become Purániks, and practise as such in the temples or in the houses of rich men. The Muhammadan schools, besides Partly religious schools. teaching the Arabic Kurán, give elementary instruction in Persian and in Hindustáni or Arabic-Sindhi. The pupils, however, are rarely taught anything except reading, writing, and notation. Arithmetical tables and the four simple rules of arithmetic, which constitute the greater part of the curriculum of the Hindu primary secular schools are almost universally neglected. So also are grammar, geography, and history. Still the central fact that a moral and literary work like the Kurán forms the chief subject of study in every Muhammadan school, should not be overlooked; for there can be little doubt, that if these schools could secure more intelligent teaching they would become the germ of an intellectual revival among the Muhammadan community. The partly religious schools of the Pársis are both of a primary and of an advanced order. The primary schools give a course of secular instruction in Gujaráthi, which is very similar to that prescribed by the departmental standards; and the girls who attend such schools are also taught needle-work and embroidery. Religious instruction from the Kordeh Avesta (a selection of prayers in Zend and Pázend) is given by a separate teacher who is usually a Mobed or priest. In an advanced institution like Sir Jamsetji Jijibhái’s Zend Madrasa or the Mulla Firoz’s Madrasa the curriculum embraces instruction in the Zend Avesta and in Pehlvi, Sanskrit, Persian, and English. In Pelhvi the pupils read the Dinkárd (a work that is partly an exposition of the Zoroastrian religion); Adárbad’s Pandnámá (a book of moral precepts); the Ardáiviráf (an allegory resembling the Pilgrim’s Progress); Bundaheshni (a treatise on cosmogony); and Pehlvi translations of Vandidád, Yásná, Visperád, and Khordeh Avesta. The instruction given in Persian, Sanskrit, and English is fully up to the requirements of the University entrance examination; and on the whole this institution may be described as the most flourishing Madrasa in the Presidency. The Goanese schools give elementary instruction in Goanese and Latin; and the pupils are further instructed in the Christian religion by the Goanese parish priests. 209

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

These institutions, which, as we have shown, are peculiar to the Hindus, are all primary vernacular schools, in which the medium of instruction is Maráthi, Gujaráthi, Banya-Sindhi or Kánarese, according to Secular schools. the province in which the schools are established. The subjects of study vary considerably in different schools. Many schools teach only writing; others only writing and multiplication-tables; but in many towns the larger schools have extended their programme and more or less follow the departmental standards of instruction. A school belonging to the last-mentioned category teaches the native multiplication-tables, mental arithmetic, involving simple accounts, slate-arithmetic up to simple division, reading and writing the script and printed vernacular character, and the geography and history of the province or zilla. A pupil in a school of this description will go through the course somewhat as follows:—For the first two or three months he learns to count from 1 up to 100 and to write the numerals on a sanded board or on the ground. He then begins the native multiplication-tables. These are of two kinds. The integral tables go up to 20 × 20 and to 10 × 30 or 40; they also include a table of the squares of all numbers from 1 to 100, and concrete tables of money, weight and capacity. The fractional tables consist of multiples up to 100 times of ½, ¼, ¾, 1¼, 1½, 2½, 3½, and 7½. This formidable array of figures takes a boy from two to three years to commit to memory. But during this time he is also learning to read and write the simple and compound letters of the alphabet and easy syllables and words. Such is the first stage of his studies, on completing which, the boy proceeds to learn the four simple rules of arithmetic and the practical application of the fractional and integral tables to simple problems in mental arithmetic. Much time is also devoted to exercises in handwriting; as a rule the whole morning of each day is spent copy-writing and in learning to read and transcribe proper names and the formal preambles and endings employed in private and commercial correspondence. When a boy has attained some readiness and fluency at these various exercises, he enters upon his third stage, which consists of more advanced exercises in mental arithmetic, writing and reading, with the addition of geography and history. In a few select schools in Gujaráth and the Deccan, the mental arithmetic at this stage is of an extensive character and involves the learning of rules and formulæ for the calculation of practice, interest and discount. The writing-exercises consist chiefly of copying out manuscripts, many of which the pupil laboriously learns by heart, as he spells them out word by word. To some extent the exercise is also a reading-lesson; but the first and second departmental reading-books are chiefly used for this purpose, and in teaching them some attempt is made to impart the first rudiments of vernacular grammar. It is now, too, that the departmental wallmap of the zilla is studied and followed up by oral instruction in the history of the province. A pupil takes at least five years to go through the complete course even under an excepttionally good teacher. But as a matter of fact very few boys ever go through the whole curriculum. It must also be borne in mind that this curriculum is confined to select town-schools, the masters of which have felt the necessity of advancing with the times and of borrowing from a system that has proved 210

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

attractive in the people’s cess-schools. The large majority of Pantojis teach only the multiplication-tables and the reading and writing of the script vernacular character, though they have begun to extensively use the lithographed Modi-reading books that have been published by the Educational Department. The ordinary daily routine of a Hindu indigenous school is nearly the same in all the parts of the Presidency. Each morning at about 6 o’clock the Pantoji, who is in some cases a Bráhman1 and the priest of many of the families whose children attend the school, goes round the village and collects his pupils. This process usually occupies some time. At one house the pupil has to be persuaded to come to school; at another, the parents have some special instructions to give the master regarding the refractoriness of their son; at a third, he is asked to administer chastisement on the spot. As soon as he has collected a sufficient number of his pupils he takes them to the school. For the first half hour a Bhupáli or invocation to the Sun, Saraswati, Ganpati, or some other deity, is chanted by the whole school. After this the boys who can write, trace the letters of their Kittas or copy-slips with a dry pen, the object of this exercise being to give free play to the fingers and wrist and to accustom them to the sweep of the letters. When the tracing-lesson is over the boys begin to write copies; and the youngest children who have been hitherto merely looking on are taken in hand either by the master’s son or by one of the elder pupils. The master himself generally confines his attention to one or two of the oldest pupils and to those whose instruction he has stipulated to finish within a given time. All the pupils are scated in one small room or verandah, and the confusion of sounds, which arises from three or four sets of boys reading and shouting out their tables all at the same moment, almost baffles description. One of the Educational Inspectors writes: “Each pupil recites at the top of his voice, and the encouragement to noise is found in the fact that the parents often compute the energy of the master from the volume of sound proceeding from the school. This is no exaggeration. I have myself heard villagers complain that our Government schools lack the swing and energy of the indigenous schools.” The school breaks up about 9 or 10 o’clock, and re-assembles at 2 in the afternoon. The concluding lesson is given at 4 P.M. For this the boys are ranged in two rows facing each other, while two of the older pupils are stationed at one end between the two rows and dictate the multiplication-tables, step by step, for the rest of the boys to shout after them in chorus. When this is over, the school is dismissed and the master personally conducts the younger children to their homes. The school nominally meets every day of the week, Sundays included. But the frequent holidays on account of Hindu feasts and fasts, and the closure of the school twice a month on Amávásyá or new-moon day and Paurnimá or full-moon day, fairly take the place of the weekly and other holidays in English schools. In harvest-time also, many of the rural indigenous schools are entirely closed. It is still the practice in some indigenous schools, though the custom is rapidly dying out, for the pupils on the eve of Amávásyá and Paurnimá to perform the ceremony of Pátipuja or slate-worship. A quarter of an anna, a betel-nut, half a seer of grain, 211

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

a little saffron and turmeric, and a few flowers, are laid upon the slate of each pupil as offerings to Saraswati, the Goddess of learning. Before these each boy reverently bows down, and then places the slate for a few minutes on his head. The master afterwards appropriates the offerings. Crowded, noisy and ill-regulated as the school-room is, the majority of these schools fairly accomplish their main object, which is to teach reading, writing and the native multiplication-tables. Our returns show that nearly one-third of the pupils are able to read and write and that about one-sixth know their tables. These statistics, however, are not based on any actual examination of the pupils, but on the opinions of the Pantojis themselves. It appears to be generally agreed that the punishments inflicted upon the pupils of indigenous schools are less barbarous and severe than they were 20 years ago. There is still, however, considerable room for improvement in this respect. 5. We have shown in paragraph 2 of this section that the indigenous primary schools have slowly but steadily increased in numbers since 1842, and that last year they contained about 12,000 more scholars than in 1855. There is also a general improvement observable in their management The effect of the operations and method of teaching, which is both directly and of the Educational Department indirectly due to the operations of the Educational on indigenous schools. Department. The departmental cess-schools are admitted by all to have greatly raised the intellectual level of the upper and middle classes; and indirectly this has forced the indigenous schoolmaster to improve his school or yield to a more intelligent rival. But the direct effect of the department’s operations has been greater still. The indigenous schools have never flourished in the rural districts; but in the towns they have of late years steadily increased in efficiency, and this result is unanimously attributed by the Educational Inspectors to the stimulating influence of the urban cess-schools, which are extremely well equipped and popular. The Inspector’s reports all testify to the fact that the old aversion to printed books and to the teaching of elementary grammar, geography and history is dying out. The information which we have collected from the indigenous schoolmaster’s own statements amply confirms this view. Our returns show that 17,000 scholars, in more than one-fourth of the indigenous schools, now use the printed departmental books and that most of the larger institutions profess to teach the elements of vernacular grammar and the geography and history of the zilla or province. But there is another reason for this change that has come over the indigenous schools. In the year 1870 Mr. Peile completely assimilated the standard of instruction in the two lowest classes of the cess-school with the indigenous school-course, the immediate effect of which was to place the indigenous schools in organic relation with the department as ancillary institutions and to assure their stability and popularity. To this stroke of policy the indigenous schoolmaster is now slowly responding by extending his curriculum on the lines of the departmental system of instruction. He is also showing an increasing disposition to avail himself of the special grant-in-aid rules, which Mr. Peile framed for the indigenous schools in 1870. So long as the Pantoji regarded the neighbouring 212

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

Government school as a modern rival that he could never hope to equal, it was natural that he should cling all the more closely to his ancestral modes of teaching, which gave his school a distinctive character and appealed to wholly different tastes from those which the Government school satisfied. But now that he has begun to see that the people freely use his school as a preparatory institution to the higher cess-school, and that his position, instead of being threatened by the action of the cess-schools, is strengthened and improved, his desire for isolation is fast disappearing. At the end of the year, 73 of the larger indigenous schools were receiving grants-in-aid; and there can be no doubt from the evidence and other information lately received by the Commission that many more schools are prepared to accept the rules, if slightly modified. As regards the higher indigenous institutions it is generally believed that they have diminished both in numbers and efficiency during the last 50 years. The Sanskrit schools have yielded place to the new order of colleges inaugurated by the University. The Vedic schools and Madrasas, which were almost purely religious institutions, have lost ground from causes which are only remotely due to the operations of the Educational Department. An increasing carelessness in the performance of the complex rites and ceremonies of the Hindu religion is generally admitted on all sides; and by Hindus themselves it is believed to point to a time not very remote, when the services of a priest, well acquainted with the sacred mysteries, will no longer be in any great demand. Already the employments to which the pupils in these schools used to aspire are much fewer and less lucrative than they once were. 6. The tuition-fees charged in indigenous schools vary considerably, not only in each district, but in almost every town or village. So far as there is any fixed scale, it appears to range from 6 pies up to Rs. 2 per mensem. But this is exclusive of payments in kind which are often considerable. The average rate paid in a villageschool is probably not more than four annas; while in urban schools it is somewhat higher. The master sometimes receives all his Fees and other sources of emoluments in kind instead of in cash, but more income. frequently in both forms. Occasionally he occupies a private house rent-free; or his school is accommodated in the village-chavdi or in a temple or mosque. In some villages in lieu of fees he receives a fixed annual income from the villagers, or if a Muhammadan from the mosque-funds. It is also a common practice for the master to agree to instruct a pupil in certain subjects within a given time for a lump payment, which is sometimes as much as Rs. 100. We have already referred to the presents which some masters receive at the time of Pátipujá or the slate-ceremony. It is also not uncommon for the master to receive a present in money, clothes, or grain, when a pupil begins to learn his multiplication-tables, and again when he begins the alphabet; and similar presents are made on the occasion of the boy’s marriage and thread-ceremonies. In most mosque-schools it is a standing rule that each pupil should pay the master one pice and a cake of bread every Thursday, though this rule is often modified so as to enable the master to receive the bread by daily instalments. On the whole it is estimated that the master of a rural school seldom receives more than Rs. 8, and 213

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

in the smaller villages more than Rs. 5 per mensem in money and kind, and that in urban schools a master receives on the average about twice the latter sum; while in the largest schools his monthly income is in some instances as much as Rs. 50. It should be added that in rural districts the indigenous schoolmaster is very irregularly paid. Not unfrequently he fails to recover his arrears and is compelled to break up his school and remove elsewhere. In the smaller villages of under 700 inhabitants he has never yet succeeded in obtaining a permanent footing; and it is also important to note that he is generally compelled in his own interest to exclude children of the poorer classes who are unable to pay tuition-fees. The rate-supported schools, which admit all classes and instruct from 20 to 45 per cent. of the pupils without charge, are the only schools which have hitherto had the least chance of becoming permanent in such villages. In the higher indigenous institutions no fees are levied. Most of such schools are permanently endowed, and those which are not so supported are maintained by charitable persons who can afford to be independent of tuition-fees. 7. A consideration of the position which indigenous schools ought to fill in a complete organization of primary education cannot be separated from the whole question of the relations of Government to private Recommendations. enterprise, the duties of municipalities, and the relative advantages of the Bombay cess-schools. The whole subject must be looked at from several points of view and the arguments arranged on each side. This part of the section must therefore be somewhat long, but it will enable us to treat subsequent recommendations with greater conciseness. The first question to be considered is that of the ways and means of primary education and the liabilities with which the several funds available are already charged. The second part of this section will involve a comparison of indigenous and cess-schools. In the third we shall treat of our recommendations. The ways and means of primary education consist mainly of the cess contributions (or rural educational cess as it may be called), municipal grants, both of which are aided by tuition-fees, and the assignment Ways and means of primary from provincial funds, which we regard as a granteducation. in-aid to primary education. The liabilities of the cess-income are sufficiently recognized and distinct. District committees are bound by law and equity to expend the local cess for the benefit of the cesscontributions in the district in which it is raised. In considering the whole subject we lay particular stress on this consideration. We are impressed with the conviction that the wishes and interests of the cess-payers must be the leading factor in deciding whether cess-funds should be spent on cess-schools or on indigenous schools. The case of the provincial assignment is more difficult. We regard the provincial assignment in the spirit in which it was viewed in the Government of India Resolution No. 60, Home Department, dated February 11th, 1871, namely, as a grant-in-aid of local resources raised for elementary education. We therefore lay down the principle that cess-funds are entitled to their full share of this provision in proportion to the cess-income, and that municipalities or towns cannot justly 214

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

claim a larger share than is proportioned to the municipal expenditure on primary schools, which consists of a small portion of cess-income raised in the town and of a municipal grant or voluntary contributions Funds for primary education with the addition of the school-fees. If this princiare unfairly distributed. ple is affirmed, very important results will follow. We shall show presently (page 102) that in 1881–82, 156 municipalities received a grant from provincial revenues of Rs. 2,17,272 in aid of their own resources which were Rs. 1,34,580. On the other hand, the rural cess-schools received but Rs. 29,418 in aid of their cess-income of Rs. 7,08,327. This inequality of distribution, which bears no proportion to local sacrifices and resources, cannot in our opinion be justified.We advocate the entire separation both in finance and in administration of rural and urban primary education. This separation seems a necessary corollary to the measures which his Excellency the Governor of Bombay in Council has taken in connection with the local self-government scheme. When the severance of administration has been completed, the provincial assignment should bear a strict proportion to municipal or rural expenditure on primary education. The further question, however, arises whether the introduction of the new policy should not coincide with a re-adjustment of the existing grant. Such a readjustment would reduce the ways and means that are now applied to urban primary instruction and pro tanto increase those available for rural elementary schools, which could be spent either in aiding indigenous schools or extending cess-schools. Arguments are not wanting against a change of this sort. Two of these arguments must be stated. The first is that the introduction of self-government and the transfer of the control of primary education in towns to town-committees is an experiment. It may not be politic, even under cover of redressing an anomaly, to transfer to town-boards a charge without the corresponding income which has hitherto met that charge. The association of responsibilities with increased liabilities on the threshold of a great political experiment may prejudice the popularity and success of that experiment. The second argument for leaving to the municipalities the funds which are now assigned to urban-schools is, that experience has shown the elasticity of urban expenditure on primary education. It is in the towns that the elementary cess-schools are crowded with hundreds of scholars, and thelargest indigenous or private schools are calling out for help. If the State is so liberal as to start the new experiment with ample means, it can fairly lay down the principle that the inevitable extension of primary education in the cities and towns must be met from municipal or local resources, until in the course of years the inequality of which we complain has reduced itself. According to this view the expenditure will inevitably increase, whilst the provincial assignment will remain stationary, and the increasing cost will be met by increased local resources. We recognise the force of these arguments. We appreciate the inconvenience of reducing a grant just when the corresponding expenditure is transferred to municipal committees, and we believe that the inequality will disappear in the course of the next decade in the larger towns. In the smaller towns, however, we fear that the committees will only spend up to the income now transferred without 215

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

making greater sacrifices or increasing their local contributions. On the other hand, the witnesses who have been cross-examined by us (Mr. Sorabji Shapurji Bengali, C.I.E., in answer to Mr. Lee-Warner’s first question, page 8, and the Honourable Mr. Badrudin Tyabji and other witnesses) who represent in a special sense municipal feeling, honourably admit the injustice and disparity of the present assignment. Public gratitude is usually not long-lived. In a year or two the concession now granted will be forgotten, and the necessary sacrifices, which ought to be made by municipalities to provide for urban primary education, are more likely to be made at the outset whilst public sentiment is stirred to a sense of its new dignity and responsibilities than later on. As soon as the charges of instruction increase, fresh demands will be made on the State, and their refusal will put out of mind the liberality of Government in starting municipal committees with excessive grants at the expense of rural committees. The matter must also be viewed from the stand-point of the district committees, and exclusive consideration must not be paid to urban committees. The district or taluka committees are already sensible of the injustice done to them, and demand the re-adjustment of the provincial assignment which they have long awaited with impatience. We have shown that for the past 12 years the levy of a non-agricultural cess or a municipal education-rate has been discussed, and the rural committees regard the present opportunity as favourable for a settlement of their own claims. Between these conflicting claims the opinion at which we arrive is as follows. If it is considered impossible for Government to increase their assignment for primary education, we hold that the inequality of distribution should at once be rectified. The fund available for rural primary education must henceforth be entirely separated from the ways and means of urban education. The cess income, which will continue to form the main local resources of the former, must be supplemented by a proportionate share of the provincial assignment: and the municipal grant, together with the portion of cess funds paid by the residents in towns and other local contributions, can only claim to receive its proportion of the provincial assignment. But we strongly press on Government the need for a larger assignment of public revenues in aid of local expenditure on primary education. This might in part be provided by an imperial grant which we are unanimously of opinion should be annually made to each local government or administration. In part also it might be provided by an addition from provincial revenues. How inadequate the present grant is will appear at a glance. Excluding the cost of colleges for training masters from which both town and village schools benefit, and the shares of the cost of inspection and direction, the total cost of maintaining the departmental schools and school-houses for primary education in the British districts of Bombay for 1881–82 was Rs. 10,89,597, of which the provincial assignment was only Rs. 2,46,690. In other words local resources, which were Rs. 8,42,907, were aided by a grant of 23 per cent. by the State. But the disparity of the assignment of this contribution of 23 per cent. to towns and villages respectively will appear from these figures. 156 municipal towns provided Rs. 1,34,580

216

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

for primary education in the shape of fees, cess contributions, and municipal grants. They received from the State Rs. 2,17,272, being 88 per cent. of the total State grant-in-aid to primary schools for boys and 161 per cent. of urban resources. The rural districts provided Rs. 7,08,327 for primary education in the shape of local resources, and received from the State only Rs. 29,418, or less than 12 per cent. of the whole State assignment, being a grant-in-aid of local effort of 4 per cent. It is of course open to the department to argue that the cess income and the assignment form one single fund, and that it is not fair to regard any particular expenditure as made from cess funds or the Rural funds, as well as provincial assignment separately. But this view of urban, have a claim on the prothe case will only strengthen our argument. If the vincial grant. great deficiency between the urban resources and the urban expenditure is regarded as supplied direct from cess funds, then the expenditure of the contributions of village cess-payers in towns, where those contributors do not reside, only accentuates the complaint of unfairness, and almost deserves the charge of an illegal appropriation of cess money. Therefore we have preferred to take the view, which is quite arbitrary, but more favourable to the department, that the provincial assignment is a sum voted by Government for primary education, which according to the discretion of the Education Department is spent in towns or villages according to the wants of either. We have shown that of the assignment 156 municipalities receive more than 88 per cent. and the rural schools less than 12 per cent. We have further shown that this distribution bears no proportion whatever to local resources. The towns are aided by a grant-in-aid of 161 per cent. of their own resources, and the rural schools by a grant-in-aid of only 4 per cent. Our charge of unfairness and our claim for a re-adjustment depends, then, upon the question whether the provincial assignment is really a grant-in-aid or merely a free grant from Government to primary education unfettered by any liabilities or charges whatsoever. We are unanimously of opinion that it was intended as a grant-in-aid and considered as such until a recent date. The proceedings of the Government of India in the Home Department, No. 60, dated February 11th, 1871, leave on our minds no doubt of the intention of Government. We extract these sentences:—“The fact is that primary education must be supported both by imperial funds and by local rates.” “This does not lessen the obligation of Government to contribute as liberally as other demands allow, to supplement the sums raised by local effort. The true policy will be to distribute the imperial funds so far as such funds are available in proportion to the amount raised by the people from each district.” It is permissible to assign from the provincial grant funds in aid of schools mainly supported by contributions from local cesses or municipal rates. A rule, however, should be laid down that the State contribution is not to exceed one-half of the aggregate contributions from all other sources or onethird of the total expenditure on education in the school concerned.” How far

217

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

this rule is observed, if the provincial assignment is considered to be assigned specially to urban schools in the proportion which we have shown needs no further comment. Paragraph 6 of the Government of India’s remarks is even more explicit. A special exception to the general rule is admitted in poor and backward districts “where the population is large, and the rate, owing to the poverty of the people, insufficient to give the required quota.” This exception cannot apply to the municipalities which we have noticed. Their annual income in 1880–81, exclusive of opening balances, which amounted to Rs. 17,09,678, was Rs. 59,78,201, and there can be no doubt that the inhabitants are as a rule better able to contribute an educational cess than the peasant proprietary of rural Bombay. We are therefore of opinion that the ways and means of urban and rural primary education must be kept distinct, and the town contributions must not receive a larger proportion of the grant-in-aid Urban indigenous schools than the cess funds. If Government are not premust be a charge on the urban pared to raise their grant or if the Government of fund. India are not prepared to make a special assignment for primary education, we advocate a re-adjustment of the aid now given and a consequent increase of the funds available for primary education in rural districts. The deficit in the towns must be made good by municipal taxation. It is not a case of robbing the urban school to pay for the rural school, but of restoring to the latter what belongs to it in justice and equity. If, however, the grant can be increased, the increase should go to the village schools and the towns might then be allowed to retain the funds that are now applied to urban primary education, leaving it to the course of time and the natural development of town schools to effect a gradual re-adjustment. According to this view of the case the towns will either lose a part of their present grant, or else retain it, if the rural fund is supplemented by a more liberal provincial grant. But henceforth the towns will never be able to put their hands into the cess-payers’ pockets, as they have hitherto done. The best indigenous schools are in the towns, and the town-fund2 must help them, if they are to be helped. The cess fund will only be available to help rural indigenous schools, and a consideration of the claims of indigenous schools involves at the outset separation of urban indigenous schools from such institutions in the villages. A comparison between the value of education in the Bombay cess schools and in the indigenous schools is the next step towards answering the question, whether the additional funds, which will either be granted or Comparison of indigenous set free for extending primary education, should be and cess-schools. expended in opening new cess schools, or in aiding and creating indigenous schools. The arguments on each side of the question are set forth below—

218

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

Government Cess Schools.

Indigenous Schools.

1. The cess school gives the cheapest education to the contributors. The fee to a cess-payer varies from ½ to 2 annas according to the class of instruction, and to a non-cess-payer from 2 to an average of 6 annas rising in rare cases to 1 rupee. The average cost to cess-funds is only 6 annas per head per mensem, and yet 20 to 40 per cent. of the poorer boys are taught gratuitously.

1. The fee in indigenous schools varies from an average of 4 annas to Rs. 2 a month. Where the fee is less than 4 annas it is supplemented by presents to the master. Very few, if any, pupils are exempted from the payment of fees. Education is therefore more expensive to all, and the cost is prohibitive to the poor and dull boys who in a cess school would be taught free.

2. Not only are no classes of the rural community excluded from cess schools, but the Muhammadans have taken special advantage of them. There are 2,862 Mahárs and low-caste boys and 2,176 Aborigines now in Government schools.

2. No indigenous school dare receive a low-caste boy: yet the Mahárs and Rámoshis own land in every village and pay the cess. Indigenous schools are unknown in the wild forest tracts, and in Berár, where liberal grants are offered, none have been established for the Aborigines. The secular education of Muhammaduns was almost entirely neglected in Gujaráth and elsewhere until cess schools were opened.

3. The cess school is a permanent institution. If the master falls ill or dies, he is replaced. The demand for education once aroused and supplied in any village will always be supplied.

3. The indigenous school-master except in towns is a bird of passage. Directly famine or accident temporarily affects the attendance he moves off. His illness or death also closes the school.

4. The average attendance in a cess school is 64, which is both a cause and result of its superior efficiency. The facilities of inspection and examination are in proportion to the concentration of pupils, and it is easier for the masters in a large school to divide their teaching power according to the wants and capacities of the various children. The boys are taught regularly and the stupid children not neglected.

4. The average attendance in the indigenous schools throughout the Presidency is 20, and in rural villages it cannot exceed 10. It is a well-known fact that the clever or richer boys are taught to the neglect of the stupid children. Yet, notwithstanding this concentration of attention we cannot find that a single boy has ever passed the public service examination from an indigenous school.

5. The returns of attendance, and the efficiency of teaching in the cess school are subjected to every possible test and can be relied on.

5. Experience has suggested grave doubts whether reliance can be placed upon the returns of attendance sent in by indigenous masters.

6. The popularity of the cess schools is such that constant applications are received for opening them in villages which have to be refused.

6. In towns some indigenous schools are popular, but in the districts we have only heard of one which could hold its own against the cess school. Villagers often are so dissatisfied with the indigenous school that they apply for a Government school to surpersede it.

219

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

Government Cess Schools.

Indigenous Schools.

7. The masters of cess schools are trained or else men of whose capacity to teach practical proof has been given.

7. Some of the masters of indigenous schools are clever men dismissed from the department or unable to find employment in it. But the ordinary village-master is described by the witnesses before the Commission as grossly ignorant.

8. It is not true that the course of study in the cess school is too ambitious and too unpractical. Mr. Apte, the great advocate of indigenous schools, admits at page 29 of his evidence, that not a single practical subject is taught in an indigenous school which is not taught in a cess school. The cess school has in fact adopted many changes of curriculum to suit the popular demand. The fact that in towns the cess schools are filled with the sons of the most influential citizens proves the value put on them. In villages they are well-filled and an average of 64 boys to a school could not be maintained if the instruction were not useful and valued.

8. On the other hand, the indigenous school is specially favourable for the contract system or for a special want. The shop-keeper who wants a special system of accounts taught to his son, the parent who wants his son crammed in a fixed time for a special test, the father of a troublesome boy who despises the mild discipline of the Government schoolmaster but has a wholesome dread of the rod of “plagosi Orbilii,” all find the indigenous schoolmaster ready to adapt his system to their special wants. Lastly the cess schools in towns are over-filled, and there is no money to open a village cess school. The State system has created a demand which it cannot satisfy and the indigenous schoolmaster profits by it.

9. In the great majority of instances the Government school-house is entirely satisfactory in a sanitary point of view.

9. The school-room is almost always illventilated and in the hot season injurious to the health of the pupils.

10. The extension of cess schools is a mere matter of funds. The organisation exists and masters are ready for employ. They also stand the strain of famine or other agricultural disaster.

10. Indigenous schools have grown with the growth of education. Yet even now in British districts with their 24,598 towns and villages there are only 3,954 such schools. A famine at once closes all except the town schools.

The above comparison and the testimony of nearly every witness establish the fact that the cess schools are more popular and efficient than indigenous schools. Yet there may be two arguments in favour of the latter—their greater cheapness to the State, and the advantage of encouraging private enterprise. We shall presently examine these points, but here we wish to state that we can find no evidence to prove that education in the indigenous school is more practical and more useful than it is in a Government school. The Government schools have the disadvantage of the fetters of a system which must meet all wants, but they appear to have marched abreast of the wants of the time. In some respects they have even borrowed from the indigenous schools without advantage. The Government school is opposed to the contract-system, and looking 220

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

to the various classes which attend it, it cannot be expected to meet special wants. But that it meets fairly well the general wants of society and does not educate over the heads of rural society is, we think, proved by the increase of 93 per cent. in the attendance at primary schools since 1871, at an increasing cost of 18 per cent., and by the universal demand for increasing the number of cess schools. The indigenous school will never give a cheaper education to the cess-payer than the cess school, but it may cost cess funds less than the cess school, and therefore enable cess funds to go further in extendThe question of economy ing education. We proceed to lay before the Comdiscussed. mission some facts which will enable an opinion to be formed on this matter. It is only necessary to remember that the department are practically trustees administering through local committees the local cess,and they are bound to consider the claims of the contributors to receive the most efficient education at the least cost. We have no reason to believe that for many years to come indigenous schools could reach the standard of efficiency and cheapness which after 15 years’ steady perseverance the department has ensured. But, assuming for argument that no risk of impaired efficiency were incurred by trusting to indigenous agency, the question narrows itself into this—whether the indigenous agency is so much cheaper to cess-funds that a far greater extension of primary education would be practicable under it, and thus enable more cess-contributors to participate in the expenditure without much addition to the cost to them of educating their children. The present grants-in-aid have been condemned by many witnesses as too illiberal. We therefore take them because they will represent the least possible assistance which the State must render. We find that a Government primary school with an average attendance in this year of 121 pupils cost the department Rs. 449 after deducting the fees for tuition. In its last examination these results were obtained:— Number Standard presented 9 40 40 30

IV III II I

No. passed in 1st Head.

No. passed in 2nd Head.

No. passed in 3rd Head.

No. passed in 4th Head.

9 32 35 26

5 25 31 30

7 31 32 30

6 27 36 26

Such results would have earned under the existing rules Rs. 281-8-0, and if the grants were increased to the scale recommended, Rs. 376. In other words, the cess income would save either Rs. 167-8-0 or Rs. 73, as the case might be, which would be available for assisting an indigenous school in another village, and thus enabling other cess-payers to derive a direct benefit from the cess. But looking at the matter from the cess-payers’ point of view, it may be doubted if the disadvantages would not outweigh the advantage. Those who now benefit by the 221

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

cess-school would lose the advantages they possess of low fees, the percentage of free-studentships, and the guarantee of permanent and continued efficiency, in order that their loss of these advantages might save a fraction of the cost of aiding another school in another village. The cess funds would thus cover a wider area, but the general efficiency of instruction would be impaired, and education would cost more to the cess-payers, since fees would be raised. The question has yet to be viewed from the point of the encouragement which would be given to private enterprise. Indigenous schools, if liberally aided, would doubtless improve, and perhaps in The advantage of encouragthe towns would lower their fees. But it has taken ing private enterprise. many years of uninterrupted effort to bring the scheme of elementary instruction in the cess schools to its present efficiency, and as the machinery for extending it through indigenous schools does not yet exist, progress would be arrested in the necessity for creating it. There is no analogy between the case of Bengal, if we understand the position of affairs there, and Bombay. There is no vast organisation here of indigenous schools waiting to be brought under the influence of the department. In the whole area of the Presidency proper with its 24,598 villages there are but 3,189 such schools, most of which are in towns. There is a not single indigenous school for the aboriginal population, and not one which can or dare admit a low-caste boy. The best schools are already aided, the rest are either urban or rural schools. If urban, they only do not receive aid because the present inequality of expenditure would be aggravated by greater expenditure in the towns, and because they can support themselves. If they are rural, they are not helped because they are worthless, ephemeral, and even unpopular, being mere make-shifts till the cesspayers can claim a school of their own. Private enterprise must justify its title to a share in the cess payers’ contributions. It is not proved to our satisfaction that indigenous village-schools would re-pay attention. The experience gained in Berar where the system has been tried hardly favours the attempt. Still, there is a wide difference between adopting a system exclusively and adopting it as an alternative and as an experiment. If private enterprise can provide the cesspayers with a good and reasonably cheap education than the cess school, it should certainly be encouraged. We are not sure that the experiment has yet received a fair trial, and though the Bombay cess-payers would never be content with the inferior schools which seem to satisfy the Bengal rayat, it has not yet been proved that the Bombay indigenous or private schools could not be raised in time to the level of the cess schools. Whilst therefore we are of opinion that not a single cess school should be closed and that any increase of ways and means should be devoted partly to an increase of cess schools, we should also like to see the indigHow indigenous schools can enous school encouraged and assisted. In considerbe encouraged in towns. ing the ways and means of primary education we have proposed a distinct severance of the fund for town schools from the fund for village schools. The town fund will be administered by municipal committees, 222

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

and they should be required to assign a proportion of their fund for grants-in-aid to indigenous schools on the payment-by-results system, except in the case of Muhammadan and female schools, to which we should apply another system. The special rules for indigenous schools might be made more liberal by raising the minimum from Rs. 10 to 20 and the maximum to Rs. 60. An average attendance of 15 boys should be insisted on. The aid given by results might be raised by 20 per cent., the submission of a monthly abstract of attendance discontinued, and in its place one annual return of the attendance on March 31st required. The system of recording the daily attendance should be encouraged by a special grant of 1 rupee per mensem for keeping it. The condition prescribed that our text-books and method should be introduced should be cancelled. Experience shows that if the system be good it will gradually be adopted. No school should be declared ineligible because it taught religion. We would even admit reading a passage of the Koran, the Granth or the Bible, as a test for reading, provided the passages were carefully selected so that a bare explanation of reading would not involve any exposition of religious doctrine. All examinations should be conducted in situ, and if the present staff of inspectors proved inadequate we should recommend the appointment of an indigenous schoolmaster as Assistant Deputy Inspector. If the schools increased, prizes should be given annually at a convenient centre to the successful boys. For village schools the special rules above alluded to would not afford sufficient encouragement, and for many years to come How indigenous schools may the aid by results would hardly be applicable. We be encouraged in villages. should therefore suggest that certificated masters be sent out with a guaranteed salary of Rs. 5 per mensem on condition that they secured an attendance of 15 boys, and continued to maintain their schools in efficiency. It has been pointed out as an objection to this system that the masters would exclude low caste boys and charge high fees, and that any attempt to guard against this would involve such an interference as would ruin the success of the scheme. We should lay it down as a rule that as the pay of the master was supplied from cess funds all cess payers’ children should be admitted, but we would make no rules about the fees, For Muhammadan schools and girls’ schools in towns we would adopt the same system, because the supply of such children who will attend school even in towns is so small that the system of payment-by-results would practically be inapplicable. As the rural fund is also administered by local committees in the same way as the urban fund is managed by municipalities, it would be necessary to make it compulsory on these committees to render assistance under the rules proposed. In course of time it might also be necessary to prescribe what proportion of the whole fund should be expended on indigenous or private schools, but at first it would be better to leave each committee full discretion in the matter, merely prescribing the rules under which aid can be claimed without defining any limit to the assignment which would be required. Local and town boards would then be free to develop whatever system they preferred, subject only to the recognition of 223

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

the rights of indigenous schools. In the towns the results system would prevent any excessive demand on the municipality, whilst the number of girl’s schools or Muhammadan schools aided on the system of paying the master’s salary would not be large. In the rural districts the masters who would receive Rs. 5 a month would require certificates from the Educational Inspector, whilst the condition of teaching 15 boys would be another safeguard against any inordinate and sudden demand being made on the cess funds. If the system extended with satisfactory results, the least efficient cess schools could be closed to make way for the indigenous school. Any indigenous schoolmaster could at any time claim to come under the results system and give up his salary. Such are the measures which we should recommend for assisting and encouraging indigenous schools. In the towns Legislation necessary. these schools could easily be made efficient, and, as their assistance would depend on results, the municipal fund would not be liable to charges for indifferent schools. In rural districts the requirement of a certificate would be a guarantee that the master could teach; and if the master was not a certificated teacher he could register his school for aid under the special rules or under the results system. It has been suggested that the ways and means for, and the administration of, grants-in-aid should remain with the department, although cess schools are handed over to municipal and local boards. The grounds for this suggestion are the fear that these boards will crush out private enterprise, and according to the religious views which preponderate on the board exclude from assistance private or indigenous schools which teach religion. But there are two objections to such a course. In the first place, the indigenous and private schools in towns will always be the most numerous and efficient. Their assistance would absorb a larger share of the Government grant than the town-fund is entitled to. The indigenous agency is doing the work of the municipal board and should be paid for by an assignment from the board’s revenues. Another objection is that the transfer of primary education to the management of local boards would be incomplete. It seems to imply a want of faith in self-government to hand over to these boards cess schools, and not also transfer to them the administration of all other institutions which are carrying on concurrently the work of primary education. We recognise the necessity for legislation to protect and secure legal rights to private enterprise, but subject to this safeguard we would leave the control of all branches of primary education to municipal and local boards, subject to such conditions as will be noticed in Sections J and K. As regards other agencies besides zenana missions, we have noticed the reserve which induces several managers of female schools to remain outside the department. The Pársi Girls’ Schools Association is the Female schools unrecognized. most important of these agencies. It was established in 1858 to impart instruction in Gujaráthi, and it took charge of the Pársi girls’ schools previously conducted by the Students’ Literary and Scientific Society,

224

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

which still manages the Hindu girls’ schools and receives aid from the department. But the Pársi girls’ schools are supported by adequate endowments and subscriptions, are taught entirely by female teachers, and give instruction to nearly 600 girls. They prefer to manage their own institutions, and it is said that an objection is entertained to instruction in English, which the parents fear would unsettle the minds of their daughters and unfit them for the discharge of their domestic duties. We are unable to state the number of schools and scholars which remain outside the department. But we believe that they are not inconsiderable and are not confined to the Pársi community. In connection with the subject of female education, a brief notice must be given of an important society started in Poona, called the Arya Mahilá Samáj, or Indian Ladies’ Association. Our notice must be brief, Arya Mahilá Samáj. because the reserve, to which frequent allusion has been made, compels us to withhold names and avoid even allusion to facts which in the present infancy of the society its members are unwilling to publish. On May 31st, 1882, the well-known Brahman lady3 Panditá Ramábái addressed a meeting at Poona in the premises of the female college in Shukravár Peth. She dwelt on the position of women in the present state of society, and contrasted it not merely with what it ought to be, but with the precepts taught in the Shástrás. She appealed to men to assist women in obtaining knowledge and the liberty which it brought. Not merely the lofty tone of her address, but the encouraging reception which it met afford every hope that the leading citizens of Poona are enlightened enough to understand their own interests, and strong enough to pioneer the reforms which a true perception of them involves. But it is a mistake to precipitate any social revolution or to attempt to force it prematurely into unnatural grooves. The ladies and gentlemen, who in answer to Pandita Ramábái’s appeal at once rallied round her, may be left to choose their own method for reaching the little girls whom our system does not at present attract. Their method may be quiet and unostentations, but it must not hastily be condemned. The rules which the Arya Mahilá Samáj adopted will give some indication of the objects of the society. They were as follows:— 1. That the society be called The Arya Mahilá Samáj. 2. That its principal objects shall be— (a) To diffuse education among females. (b) To take steps towards the removal of many injurious customs, such as early marriages, that are impediments towards our progress. (c) To improve the social, moral, and religious condition of native women. 3. That the society be composed principally of native ladies residing in any part of India. 4. That European or other foreign ladies who may lend a helping hand to this society be nominated corresponding members. 5. That females only be admitted as members of this society.

225

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

6. That all the members of the society shall possess equal rights and privileges, no distinction being made of caste, family, rank, wealth, and social position. 7. That all propositions brought before the meetings be decided by a majority of votes. 8. That a minimum annual subscription of Rs. 6 be paid by every member, payment of a higher sum from those who can afford to do so being thankfully accepted. 9. That such of the ladies as may be too poor to pay even Rs. 6 per annum be admitted as members on payment of a minimum subscription of Rs. 3 per annum. 10. That the fund of the society, after the defrayal of the necessary expenses, be deposited in the Government Savings Bank in the name of the association. 11. That every intending member be required to make the following declaration: “I will assist to the utmost of my power in carrying out the object of the association without prejudice and partiality.” 12. That members failing to act up to the declaration or violating the above rules be removed from the association. It is of course very easy to exaggerate the importance of the movement begun in May last, and its value can only be tested by its fruits. But the mere conception and institution of such a society as we have described actuated by the motives adopted at a public meeting, in which there was not a single European officer present, is not the work of a passing impulse. It must have been prompted by earnest conviction, and affords every promise of a useful and successful career. We may also notice another agency which is doing quiet work. Mrs. Sorábji, the Superintendent of the Victoria School, Poona, has charge of an aided school which is chiefly Eurasian. But she also receives native children, and makes a point of visiting her old pupils in their homes after they have left school. In her evidence before the Commission (page 6) she bore testimony to the assistance given to her by native gentlemen who have no connection with her school, and it may therefore be concluded that her visits are appreciated by the native community. 6. With the exception of a rare instance now and again, the names of female scholars do not figure in the matriculation examinaResults of examinations. tions.The results of the departmental expenditure on female education, so far as mere examinations test them, must therefore be sought in the Inspectors’ examinations. According to them steady progress in the efficiency of all classes of schools may be observed. The table given below will show what these results are, and renders further remark unnecessary. When we consider the difficulties with which little Bombay

226

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

girls who are engaged in household work have to contend, the results will, in our opinion, appear very satisfactory:—

EXAMINATION-RESULTS IN 1881–82. TABLE 1.—Primary Schools. Ratio between the number passed in all heads and the number examined. Ratio between the number passed and the total number in average attendance.

Total number passed.

966

514

253 115

·53

·29

246

154

91

44

15

4

557

·52

·19

Inspected . . . .

2,4003 1,288

403

161

86

45

14

4

713

·55

·29

11,72312 5,866 1,615

829

438 204

57

22 3,160

·54

·27

Corresponding 10,00306 5,542 1,528 figures for 1880–81

741

389 201

52

12 2,923

·53

·29

...

...

TOTAL RESULTS IN 1881–82

Increase per cent in 1881–82 on results of previous year

17·19

584

28

Standard VI.

Standard III.

6,371·9 3,510 2,950·92 1,068

Standard V.

Standard II.

Government . . . Aided . . . . . .

Standard IV.

Standard I.

CLASS OF SCHOOLS.

Number of pupils examined.

Number of pupils in average attendance.

NUMBER PASSED UNDER ALL HEADS.

14 1,890

5·69 11·87 1131 149 961 8333

8·11

194

235

227

244

119

42·81

Ratio between the number passed and the number in average attendance.

Needle work.

History. 114

Percentage on the total number of pupils examined.

214

Writing.

278

English.

445

Mathematics.

Total number examined.

Aided AngloVernacular Girls’ Schools

Total number in average attendance.

CLASS OF INSTITION.

NUMBER PASSED IN

Total number passed in all heads.

TABLE II.—Middle Class Girls’ Schools.

·27

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

7. No part of the administration of female education exercises so perceptible a result upon the popularity of girls schools as the appointment of proper teachers. The opinion, at which the most experienced Training of teachers. observers in Bombay have arrived, is that a suitable female teacher is in every respect preferable to a master, but that the difficulties of obtaining the former are very great. Unmarried women or widows have to contend against the prejudices of native society, when they leave their homes to undertake work in a part of the country where they are not known. Physically women are more subject to illness than men, and their isolated position also makes it difficult for them to perform their duties cheerfully and efficiently when they feel that local opinion does not sympathise with them. The position of a female teacher superseding a master, who perhaps has friends in the town or village, is often very difficult. Still some of them have won the confidence and respect of parents in a remarkable way. A young Brahman widow named Mahalakshmi Chaggan, who was appointed to a girl’s school in Surat, became so popular that, when she lost her property by a robbery, the people of the city subscribed and replaced her losses. The well-known Brahman lady, Ramabai Pandita, is not more famous for her intellectual power than for her moral courage and high character. These, however, are exceptional cases, and the general feeling is that until female teachers can be trained and educated in the widest sense of the word or the wives of masters induced to submit to a course of training, the department must continue to rely very much upon a careful selection of experienced and elderly masters. There were formerly three training institutions for women. That in Hyderabad (Sind) was closed because as a general rule the women trained there would not serve in towns away from Hyderabad, and one or two, who were sent to Karachi, somewhat discredited the system. The girls’ schools, however, in Northern Sind, especially at Sukkur and Shikarpur, are not only popular but very efficient, and it is probable that, when the present schoolmistresses retire, their places can be filled by some of the more advanced of their pupils. In the rest of the Presidency there are two training colleges—one at Poona, the other at Ahmedabad. The Poona College has turned out 34 mistresses since 1872, of whom 18 are married. The majority have found employ in or near Poona, but some have accepted service in the Native States even as far off as Baroda and Kathiawar. The Ahmedabad College has turned out 31 trained teachers, and seven more will, it is expected, shortly be ready to go out. As a rule, the women who attend this college are the wives of young men who are being trained as masters, but respectable widows are also admitted. At the present moment there are 32 female students in the college, of whom 18 are Brahmans, 3 Kunbis, 5 Pársis, and 6 Native Christians. There is no difficulty in finding situations for the women, and the Native States are always anxious to secure any for whom there may be no immediate vacancies in the British districts. The success gained by the Poona and Ahmedabad Colleges has induced the Lady Superintendent of the girls’ schools at Kolhápur to

228

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

attempt an extension of the system to that part of the Presidency. There are 320 girls at school in Kolhápur and eight of them who have passed the 5th standard wish to be formed into a training class. The Kolhápur schools are attended by the daughters of Sirdárs and the local native gentry. There can be no doubt that, if the experiment succeeds, a great stimulus will be given to female education in the Southern Division, where, owing to the absence of railway-communication and the distance from Poona, trained mistresses are unwilling to accept service. With three training colleges for women the Presidency will be well served, and the zenana missions are also turning their attention to providing trained mistresses for their own institutions. The experience which these missions have gained and the experience of the Pársi Girls’ School Association, to which reference has already been made, confirm the opinion which we have expressed that the gradual substitution of trained women for male agency will materially assist the progress of female education. [MISSING TEXT] 9. With two exceptions, no fees are levied in the primary schools for girls which are managed by the Department. The exceptions are in Bombay and Ahmedabad. In Bombay Island the fee varies in Gujaráthi schools from one anna to four annas rising to eight annas in one Fees. school which is almost exclusively attended by Pársis. In the Maráthi schools in the Island the fee varies from one to two annas, except in a boy’s school at Máhim where the girls pay the same fees as the boys, viz., from one to eight annas. In Ahmedabad a small English class is attached to the training college and attended by the daughters of the richer native gentlemen, who pay a fee of Rs. 2 per mensem for instruction in music as well as English. With these exceptions no fees are charged by the Department either in girls’ or boys’ schools giving primary education to girls. In aided institutions of the middle class the fees nominally vary from four annas to Rs. 2 and Rs. 5 per mensem, but liberal exemptions are permitted. The Dápoli orphanage charges no fees and another institution which professes to charge eight annas has none but free students. In the case of primary schools eight schools in the city of Bombay charge fees varying from four annas to 16 annas, but allow numerous exemptions; ten other schools in the Central Division do not profess to charge any fees at all. In the American mission school at Ahmednagar a fee of one anna per mensem is charged, but speaking generally no fees are levied for primary instruction in Government or aided institutions, established outside the Island of Bombay. 10. A system of scholarships is hardly necessary where education is free and does not proceed beyond the primary course. Still private generosity or the liberality of local fund committees has Scholarships. endowed a few institutions with scholarships. In the North-East Division there is a scholarship of Rs. 2–8 annas a month tenable in the Government school at Ahmednagar. In Ahmedabad the Infanticide

229

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

Fund contributed last year Rs. 436 for scholarships in departmental girls’ schools, and the municipality made a grant of Rs. 50 for a similar purpose in the aided schools. The local fund committee of Surat voted Rs. 180 for a similar object to be applied to Government schools. In the Northern Division these scholarships are considered useful in encouraging regular attendance, and the system is likely to be extended throughout that division. In the Central Divisions, however, except in Ratnágiri, local funds are probably too poor to give, and in point of fact, do not give any assignment for scholarships. In the other Divisions also it may be said generally, that there is no scholarship-system. The aided schools have a few scholarships and the Indian Association sets a good example of impartial encouragement by giving scholarships which aggregate Rs. 21 per mensem and are tenable in any school, Government or aided. The scholarships, however, in the present state of education are rather prizes than scholarships, and are not intended to assist deserving pupils in their progress through a course of education from one class of school to another. 11. Prizes are either given by small grants assigned for the purpose by local boards, or by endowment funds, as for instance, the interest on Rs, 1,000 invested in Dhárwár by Mr. Jardine, C. S., Prizes. encouraging female education in that district, or out of funds casually raised by local subscription. A mámlatdár’ Mr. Mulé, has also given an endowment of Rs. 200 to the Ahmednagar girls’ school for an annual prize of books. In the Bombay Gujaráthi schools as many as 84 per cent. of the children receive prizes, but the general average of pupils so rewarded is about 35 per cent. Books, small articles of dress or ornament, and work-boxes are the chief prizes. Municipalities contribute but little to this object, and it seems to us one which should rather be the care of individuals interested in female education than of corporate bodies. On the whole, private liberality at present does all that is necessary or desirable in rewarding the girls who deserve it. 12. Female education in Bombay is probably not more backward than in any other part of India, while in some respects it would Recommendations. seem to be more happily circumstanced than in most other provinces. We have shown that there is a general want of appreciation of English instruction, a reserve in submitting schools to outside inspection, and an exclsive attention in Government schools to primary education. Female education is, therefore, proceeding with timidity, and its effects are still viewed with some popular misgiving. An advanced municipality like Poona, which is the head-quarters of several native associations has hitherto offered no witnesses who have given evidence before the Commission have almost without exception recommended that Government should not hand over girls’ school to local boards. But whilst indifference and reserve are salient features in the present attitude of society, there are other circumstances which promise well for the future. Women in this Presidency are allowed a liberty of action which is unknown in the north 230

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

or east of India; the various classes of the community will meet together in school without objection; and children are allowed to remain at school even after marriage. The principles of association adopted by the Arya Mahilá Samáj are a striking proof of the existence of a liberality of feeling which must one day bear good fruit. Some classes of the community, like the Pársis, have organized a satisfactory system of girls’ school without any aid from the State, and nothing but financial pressure has driven the Hindu school of the Students’ Literary and Scientific Society to place themselves under obligation to the department. Observing these facts, we consider that the appointment of one or more Private enterprise preferred. inspectresses of female schools is demanded, and a careful development of the system of training wives of schoolmasters to enable them to take charge of schools. We advocate the employment of female agency in every department of female education and inspection. We also consider that female primary education stands on an entirely different basis from the education of boys in the cess-schools.This is especially a field which promises greater success to private enterprise than to State agency. The assistance offered by the State should be given on the grant-in-aid system by results, and should be much more liberal than it is. A school which does fairly well should certainly be able to earn one-third of its expenditure. A good school should be able to earn half its cost. Special grants should be given for trained pupils, and if they passed an examination of equal difficulty with the training college examination they should receive a certificate qualifying the holders for service under Government as schoolmistresses. In any towns or districts where an inspectress could not be provided, we should advocate the special appointment of a lady, whether European or Native, who might be found qualified and willing to do the work. A small honorarium should be paid according to the work required. We see no objection to giving a grant-by-results for home-education. The inspectress could examine ladies taught at home, and with a proper code of rules and exclusive regard to secular results the scheme could be worked without difficulty. We propose therefore to look primarily to private enterprise to develop and extend female education. The department would of course inspect and supervise. We have shown that the standards of instruction for Departmental control must girls’ schools are not so severe or advanced as for be sympathetic. boys’ schools. But a sympathetic administration is even more important than any rules or system can be. It is difficult to secure sympathy, even if female agency is substituted for male agency under mere rules. We notice that even in England constant cries are raised against the severity and irregularity of the Inspectors’ or Examiners’ tests. All therefore that we can do is to dwell on the exceptional difficulties which surround a little Indian girl in trying to acquire knowledge in the midst of household-duties. The statements of Pandita Ramábái, Miss Collett, and the Schoolmistress Vithábái Sakhárám illustrate these difficulties, and they have only to be read in order to be appreciated. But whilst we trust to private enterprise, we would not overlook the good work done by the department, which, as we have shown, fills up voids in districts where there is no 231

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

private agency to take its place. The school-committees for girls’ schools are carefully selected, the revenue and district officers never lose an opportunity of visiting and encouraging these girls’ schools and of giving prizes. The State-schools must therefore be continued until local bodies are willing to take charge of them. We are not inclined to trust these schools to municipalities, unless they specially wish to take charge of them. The success of female education depends entirely on sympathetic administration, and the cause would be injured if it was transferred to local boards which felt and evinced no interest in the matter.

SECTION G.—Provisions for Physical and Moral Training. 1. Gymnastics are encouraged in the Government colleges; and the Deccan College at Poona has a successful boat-club supported by 60 subscribing members. Cricket is played with some spirit by the Physical Training. pupils of the St. Zavier’s college and school. At the Free General Assembly’s college and school no special provision has as yet, we believe, been made for the encouragement of physical exercise among the students. Gymnastics are practised in almost all the Government high schools and several of them have well-ventilated gymnasia fitted up with English and Indian apparatus. There are also gymnasia in St. Stanislaus’ School near Bombay, the Free General Assembly’s school at Alíbág, and at the Poona Native Institution. In the Elphinstone, Surat, Ahmedabad, Rájkot, Ahmednagar, and Karáchi high schools cricket and other games are played with considerable zest. The cricketclub at Elphinstone high school consists of 110 members, and has earned the distinction of making the game thoroughly popular with Hindu as well as with Pársi students. Cricket-matches between rival school-clubs are now of common occurrence in many parts of the Presidency, and at Bombay itself scores of school boys are to be seen every afternoon playing at cricket on the general parade ground. But besides this there are three public gymnasia in the city, which are attended daily by some hundreds of boys, and on the premises of one of them is a swimmingbath to which the pupils of the neighbouring schools largely resort. In the primary schools a great deal has been done of late years to encourage Indian games and gymnastics. A large number of schools have been provided with simple gymnastic apparatus, such as clubs, climbing-poles, &c., which have not unfrequently been presented to the schools by the parents of the pupils. In some villages open places near the school-house have been hedged round for a gymnasium or arena, and loose earth or sand thrown over the levelled ground. In the Deccan, where the Maráthas have always shown a fondness for out-door games, very little organization has been found to be necessary for the encouragement of athletic exercises in the schools. The Inspector of the Southern Marátha country also reports that the encouragement which has lately been given to Indian games in his division has attracted to the vernacular schools many little children who would have otherwise stayed at home; and that it has made all the pupils more cheerful at their lessons as well as more regular in attendance. 232

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

The physical well-being of the students of the training colleges is carefully attended to. Daily exercise in the gymnasium is a compulsory part of the college routine; and no student is granted the college training certificate, who has not satisfactorily passed through the course prescribed by the gymnastic instructor. The course comprises exercises on the horizontal bar, parallel bars, ladders, swings and stirrups, climbing-pole, clubs, &c., with running, jumping, and wrestling. All the students live in the college under proper supervision, and in the matter of their diet and hours of study and recreation, the college-arrangements are well calculated to secure to them bodily health and vigour. 2. In considering the sufficiency or otherwise of moral instruction given in Government schools, it is necessary to bear in mind the restrictions which are imposed on the State by its solemn declaration of A moral text book. religious neutrality. We do not share the opinions of those who have held that an absence of religious instruction is synonymous with the inculcation of irreligious or atheistic teaching. Nor do we feel that strict neutrality is a cloak either partially or wholly for an attack on all religion. It is not unlikely that, when the time arrives for the State to retire from the direct management of schools, those institutions will fall into the hands of teachers who will not be content with teaching natural religion or the fundamental morality common to all civilized nations, but will openly appeal to distinctive religious sanctions. But until that day arrives, the State cannot, in our opinion, proceed without caution and a due recognition of the fact that its schools contain boys of different religions and different religious sects, which view each other with extreme jealousy and mistrust and lay greater stress on their differences of doctrine than on the fundamental truths which uniformly underlie every religious system. The Right Reverend Dr. Meurin, Roman Catholic Bishop of Bombay, has suggested in his evidence that the State should gather together these fundamental doctrines common to all religious systems, and incorporate them in a moral text-book, in which instruction should be compulsory in every State or aided school. We are inclined to doubt if such common agreement can be secured, and although we support his suggestion, that Government might offer a prize for the production of such a textbook, we should prefer to see it adopted by aided institutions before its introduction into Government schools. We doubt if the world’s history has reached such a point that a universal moral text-book would command general acceptance. The cherished doctrines of different religions do not admit of compromise, and the so-called fundamental truths, which precede and underlie all sectional doctrine, borrow insensibly from the expansion and development which they subsequently undergo. If it be remembered that a day is approaching when Government will withdraw in favour of local bodies, then it seems to us better not to discount the future or attempt to shape the natural course which events will then take by “rough hewing” a text-book of universal religion. Meanwhile, although in Government schools and colleges separate hours are not devoted to instruction in ‘right conduct,’ yet Moral Training we have unmistakable testimony that the general 233

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

moral tone of native society has improved in the last ten years. This improvement has shown itself in the public service, at the bar, in professional or commercial employment, and in domestic life. Part of this result is due to the leavening influence of association with Western civilization and English officers, but a great part is due to instruction in our State schools and colleges, and to the influence exerted out of school by upright native gentlemen who have passed through the same course of training. In our schools the moral training of the pupils is secured through the system of discipline to which they have to conform,4 through the exposition of the lessons in the text-books many of which have a direct moral tendency, and the example of their teachers. These three forces make up the moral atmosphere of every high school. We are unwilling to introduce unnecessary comparisons; but as the question has been raised whether the pupils trained in institutions of a professedly religious character are not morally superior to those trained in Government schools, we may add that we are unable to perceive any difference between the results. Without, however, entering into the question of the relative value of these two classes of institutions, we are able to affirm on the evidence which has been laid before the Commission, as well as on our own experience, that the moral influences which operate in Government schools are sound in their tendencies, and that the good fruits of the system are plainly visible among the educated classes of the native community. We have shown in previous sections of this report that the text-books used in Government schools inculcate reverence for the Supreme Being, parents, rulers, and the aged, as well as regard for law and order, truth, honesty, diligence, cleanliness, and other similar virtues and good habits, and that the schoolmasters as a body are upright men and in other respects well-fitted to instruct the young. On this latter point one of the Educational Inspectors writes: “In our training colleges the greatest regard should be paid to the moral teaching of the students, who may carry the lessons learnt there into the distant villages, where it may be their lot to serve. In the course of instruction laid down, no special lessons are inculcated, but in the instruction given in the method of teaching, proper self-control, patience, kindness and firmness in the teacher are insisted on. * * * * The order and regularity which have prevailed in the training college for many years are in themselves guarantees of the system of moral discipline prevailing; and while among so many there must always be those who are radically bad and vicious, yet taken as a whole, I am of opinion that our village-masters are an honest, quiet and hard-working set of men, and that their honesty, sobriety and energy are greatly due to the system under which they have been educated. In secondary schools and specially in high schools much must depend upon the head-master and his personal influence, and this is no less true in India than in England. * * * * Our head masters are usually men whose education and training have been such as to fit them to use their influence rightly, and I believe that as a rule it is used for good, and that every year sees less of deceit and under-hand dealing, and more of open and honest purpose among both masters and boys. In this Division where the men of the department are often invited to serve in 234

R E P O R T O F T H E B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E

Native States, it is no small credit to the department that almost invariably the men so serving have obtained a reputation for honest work conducted with clean hands. If this is true and is the effect of our educational system, then that system has not been in vain, and its moral training has been indisputable, though unaided by the stimulus of religious enthusiasm.” The testimony of Sir Michael Westropp, late Chief Justice of Bombay, has already been quoted; and we would refer to similar evidence given before the Commission by Sir W. Wedderburn, Professor Wordsworth, Professor Bhándarkar, and others, in proof of the actual results of the system that has been pursued in Government schools and colleges. 3. Before concluding this chapter, we may notice a complaint which has been made by more than one witness in Calcutta and elsewhere, that some of the Government college professors introduce into their lecUniversity influence tures questions of morality and religion which they treat in an anti-religious spirit. We have mentioned the obligation of Government to maintain religious neutrality, and no Government servant would wish to be placed in circumstances under which he must more or less be drawn into controversies which are inconsistent with the maintenance of such neutrality. The Universities hold in their hands considerable power, and, although they are independent of Government and of the department, we think they should jealously watch any tendency to depart from the policy laid down by Government, or to place college professors in an equivocal position. In the subjects prescribed for logic and moral philosophy for the degree of B. A. in Bombay we notice Sidgwick’s Method of Ethics. This able compendium can hardly be called a classical or original treatise, and its tendency is not distinctly neutral. Taught in an English University, the views which it pronounces would be subject to free discussion outside the lecture-room. But the conditions of Indian education are widely different from those in England, and it is open to consideration whether a better selection might not have been made from the standard and original works on ethics, in which the literature of philosophy is so rich.

Notes 1. The masters of indigenous schools are distributed by race or caste as follows:— Bráhmans . . . . . . Orher Hindus . . . . Muhammadans . . . Pársis . . . . . . . . Others not returned .

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

903 1,005 328 8 1,662 3,906

2. Whether the town or rural fund can claim an additional grant for assisting indigenous schools will depend, 1st, on the provision assigned to it by Government, 2nd, on the view which is taken of the character of the contract on withdrawal, which is discussed in Section D. In our opinion a separate and carefully considered financial arrangement must be specially made with each municipality at the time of transfer.

235

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

3. As this lady in her evidence before the Commission gave an account of her early life and history we have not repeated it here. 4. This is a point to which the department has devoted considerable attention, and it may be mentioned that the protect-system of the English public schools has been worked with success in the Elphinstone high school for the last seven years. (See pages 126–127 of the Report on Public Instruction for 1875–76.)

236

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

MEMORANDUM ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA PRIOR TO 1886. Letter No. 7/211–18 A dated the 23rd July 1886. From—A. P. MACDONNELL, Esq., C.S., Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department, To—All Local Governments and Administrations (except Madras).

In continuation of Home Department Circular letter No. 10/284–202, dated the 16th September 1885, I am directed to forward the accompanying copy of a memorandum which has been drawn up in this Department on the subject of Technical Education in India. 2. The Governor General in Council would be glad to know whether the suggestions made in this Memorandum . . . . . . . . meet with the concurrence of _______________; and, if so, what steps, having due regard to financial considerations, _______________would propose to take in order to give effect thereto.

MEMORANDUM. His EXCELLENCY the Viceroy has expressed a desire that a memorandum on the condition and prospects of Technical Education in India should be prepared and submitted to him. The following Note is an endeavour to fulfil His Excellency’s commands. 1. The Education Commission, in reviewing Introductory: Division of progress in education into three periods. the history of education in British India, divide 237

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

the subject into three periods. They observe that each period is marked by a distinctive character of its own, which is common, more or less, to all the provinces of the Empire. 2. The first period embraces the years of educational activity prior to the Court of Directors’ well-known despatch of 1854, when a new departure was taken. During this period the responsibility of the State for the education of the people was unacknowledged, and much of the good work then done was due to the endeavours of missionary and other philanthropic bodies, sometimes with, sometimes without, official assistance. The distinctive character of this period was, as far as State efforts were concerned, the attention which was paid to collegiate education. 3. The second period in the educational history of British India was ushered in by the great despatch of 1854, and lasted till 1871. Public instruction now became a recognized State obligation; but administratively the distinctive character of the period was the extension of secondary education, that is, of schools in which English is the medium of instruction, and the final standard aimed at is the University Entrance Examination. 4. The third period covers the interval between 1871 and the present time. It dates from Lord Mayo’s decentralization scheme, and is contemporaneous with the control of Local Governments over educational matters in their respective provinces. Its distinctive character is the attention which has been paid to elementary instruction among the masses of the people. 5. This broad division of the educational history of British India into three periods loses sight, however, of some well-marked and interesting stages; and to give due prominence to these, the first period Sub-division of first period. might well be sub-divided into three. The first subdivision would end about the year 1825, when effect was given to that provision of the Charter Act of 1813 which appropriated a lakh of rupees annually for educational purposes, and when the first nuclei of committees of public instruction were established in the three presidencies. The distinctive character of this subperiod was the great activity of missionary bodies in the cause of education, and the small recognition afforded by the Government, always immersed in war, of its duty in the same cause. The second sub-period may be considered as ending about 1840, after the publication of Lord Auckland’s famous minute, by which the great controversy1 between the “Anglicists” and the “Orientalists,” was finally decided in favour of the former. This period was marked, not only by the controversy just referred to, but by the consolidation and extension of educational boards and committees which, in the previous period, had struggled into existence. The third and last sub-period ended in 1854 with the reception of the Court of Directors’ great educational despatch of that year, and was, as the Education Commission say, distinguished by the attention paid to higher or collegiate education. Funds were scarce; and Indian administrators during this period were satisfied with the “downward filtration” theory of education. 238

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

6. Thus from the commencement of this century,—and, as far as Public Instruction is concerned, this practically means from the commencement of British rule,— education in India has passed through five cycles, each cycle covering a period of about Sixteen years. First, there was the stage of missionary activity and State quiescence; then a stage of spasmodic and unsystematized official effort; next, systematic administration directed mainly towards the promotion of collegiate education; fourthly, the recognition of public instruction as a State obligation and an effort to fulfil it by the extension of secondary schools; lastly, the systematic development of elementary education among the masses of the population. 7. In the preceding sketch of the progress of education in British India, it will be observed that no reference has been made to technical instruction. It is, indeed, true that in the despatch of 1854 a pasOrigin of technical education. sage, quoted in the margin, occurs which might almost be construed as an encouragement and direction to establish technical schools. And, having regard to the history of the question, such a construction could be scarcely regarded as strained. The great “Our attention should now advantages of technical instruction had in 1854 be directed to a consideration, if possible, still more important, been brought home to the public mind in England. and one which has been hith- A Select Committee of the House of Commons erto, we are bound to admit, too had in 1835 enquired into the best means of much neglected, namely, how extending among the manufacturing population a useful and practical knowledge knowledge of the principles of art and design; and suited to every station in life may be best conveyed to the a “Government School of Design” established in great mass of the people who London, with a system of grants-in-aid to similar are utterly incapable of obtain- schools in the manufacturing districts, had grown ing any education worthy of out of that enquiry. The progress made, however, the name by their own unaided was small, until the International Exhibition of efforts; and we desire to see the active measures of Govern- 1851 drew public attention to the deficiencies ment more especially directed as regards art of the English workman, and as for the future to this object, for regards science of the English manufacturer. The the attainment of which we are result was the creation in 1853 of the Department ready to sanction a considerable of Science and Art, which three years later came increase of expenditure.” under the control of the Department of Education. It is, therefore, a not altogether improbable inference that the enlightened man2 who drafted the despatch of 1854 had, by the passage quoted in the margin above, intended to suggest a far-reaching scheme of technical and industrial instruction for India. 8. But if any such intention was entertained, it was not fulfilled—a result which should surprise no one, seeing that for Government employment the market then was not overstocked, while there were in India at Growing necessity for techthe time but few of these mining, manufacturing, nical instruction in India. and other industrial enterprises which now afford such strong inducements to Technical training. Since then things have greatly changed. The supply of eligible candidates for Government service has far outrun 239

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

the demand. The Bar, the Medical, and the Engineering professions absorb only a small portion even of our University graduates. Our schools and colleges are yearly adding to the crowd of young men whom our system of education has rendered discontented with the sphere of life to which they were born without fitting them for another. The difficulty is a growing one, and its seriousness is appreciated by all sections of the public. The following extract from a Native newspaper, The Mahratta, of May 9th, is a fair sample of the opinions which, at the present time, find constant expression in the Native Press:— We have had, roughly speaking, but a very short experience of the English liberal educational system; for a period of 25 or 30 years counts for little in a nation’s life. And yet even in this short existence our experience has been rather costly. We have had educated in the various institutions supplied by Government hundreds of young men who have for the past few years found that their energy has been uselessly taxed; for their learning and labour make no difference in their position and prospects, or have rather changed these for the worse. We see on all sides a crowd of young men who have received a more or less liberal education, and who are whiling away their time in applying to the heads of several departments for employment. They curse their fate, which has left them unprovided for after a bootless labour of some ten or twelve years. They have a smattering knowledge of several subjects, but they have gone deeply in none, and even that smattering knowledge of theirs proves of no avail to them in the severe struggle for life that is going on around us. They find that their knowledge is of no help to them in the world where practical training is all that is respected. We do not mean to disparage liberal learning. Its importance and value have been for ages recognized by all men. It is not for us to speak ill of it. It is beyond our power. We do see its benefits in our midst. How can we then speak in a disparaging tone of it? But we can say that liberal education is a costly thing, and, for those who have to labour very hard for winning their bread, it is useless. It is an ornament, and as such those only who are in easy or affluent circumstances can derive advantages from it. The greater majority are doomed to walk in humbler sphere of life which demands high training of a special kind, and hence, after an experience of the last 25 years, people are now beginning to see that greater attention must now be paid to this practical training which will fit men to their avocations in life, and which will, moreover, enable them to introduce improvements in industries and handicrafts. A wave is passing over the country, agitating the minds of the people and drawing their attention to this subject. There is a stir on all sides—a stir which promises to result in some practical steps being taken to remedy the evil. The Bengalee, the Madrasee, and the Bombayite, each is now trying, to the best of his power and ability, to suggest a solution of 240

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

this great educational problem of the day. But the movement is stronger on the Bombay side. Why, even ordinary men, from whom you would never exact any active interference in the public movements of the day, are coming forward with proposals for the establishment of technical schools. 9. Most questions of importance regarding education in India are fully and lucidly handled in the report of the Education Commission, but the subject of technical instruction is an exception to the rule; The Education Commission for technical instruction was one of the few maton technical education. ters connected with education on which the Commission was not required to report. It is true that in the resolution appointing the Commission, attention was called to the one-sidedness of the existing system of secondary education, and that the Commission, in The other matters were the response to that call, proposed a bifurcation of the Universities and the education curriculum in high schools,—one course leading of Europeans and Eurasians. to the University, and the other fitting boys for commercial pursuits; but this is only touching the outer fringe of the great question with which it is now proposed to deal. 10. Although the Education Commission were thus not required to discuss the subject of technical training, their comprehensive report could not entirely ignore a question which was rapidly growing in importance in public estimation. Accordingly 3 Recommendation of the in the Commission’s Report certain observations on the subject occur, which it is desirable to quote in Education Commission regarding practical training in schools. this place:— Throughout India high schools have hitherto been regarded, not only or chiefly as schools for secondary instruction, intended for pupils whose education will terminate at that stage, but in a much greater degree—it may almost be said exclusively—as preparatory schools for those who are to become students of the University. It has been seen that middle schools comprise two well-marked classes,—those in which the scheme of studies is, and those in which it is not, governed by University standards. With one exception,4 which will be presently noticed, no such distinction exists in the case of high schools, in all of which the course of instruction is determined by the matriculation standard, which, again, is arranged solely with a view to subsequent University studies. One of the questions put to witnesses before the Commission ran as follows: “Is the attention of teachers and pupils in secondary schools unduly directed to the Entrance Examination of the University?” The replies to this question are singularly unanimous. It has been felt in all provinces, and urged by many witnesses, that the attention of students is too exclusively directed to University studies, and that no opportunity is offered for the development of what corresponds to the “modern side” of schools in Europe. 241

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

It is believed that there is a real need in India for some corresponding course which shall fit boys for industrial or commercial pursuits, at the age when they commonly matriculate, more directly than is effected by the present system. The University looks upon the Entrance Examination, not as a test of fitness for the duties of daily life, but rather as a means of ascertaining whether the candidate has acquired that amount of general information and that degree of mental discipline which will enable him to profit by a course of liberal or professional instruction. In these circumstances, it appears to be the unquestionable duty of that Department of the State which has undertaken the control of education to recognize the present demand for educated labour in all branches of commercial and industrial activity, and to meet it, so far as may be possible, with the means at its disposal. The Honourable Mr. Justice West, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bombay, has expressed his views on this point in the following terms: “The preparation for ordinary business may with advantage proceed up to a certain point along the same course as that for literature and science. It is a defect of our system, as I understand it, that it does not provide for a natural transition to the further studies which may be the most proper for a man of business, nor even propose to encourage and conduct such studies. When a boy reaches the age of about fourteen he may have plainly shown that he has not the gifts that would make him a good subject for literary culture. His tastes or his circumstances may disincline him to be an engineer or chemist. He ought not then to be forced on in a line in which failure is almost certain. He should be put to work on matters that he really can master, unless quite exceptionally dull, such as arithmetic, rudimentary economics, mercantile geography, the use of manures, or others determined by the locality of the school and its needs. . . . The extension of this knowledge should be along those lines where it will be grasped and incorporated by the interests and teachings of active life. Still it should be education, aiming at making the mind robust and flexible, rather than at shabbily decking it with some rags of ‘business information’ or low technic skill. For these different aims, the present system makes no sufficient or distinct provision.” We do not attempt to define the course of instruction which might be imparted in schools of the kind suggested. The Departments in many provinces have dealt satisfactorily with the question of independent courses in middle schools; and it may well be left to them, in consultation with school managers and others interested in education, to determine the character and constitution of similar schools of a more advanced kind. Indeed, to attempt to fix a course for “independent” high schools would be to fall into an error of precisely the same character as that against which the proposal is directed;

242

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

it would be to substitute one uniform course for another. But what is now chiefly needed is variety; so that the educational [The italics are not in the system as a whole may be such as more fully original. The present writer differs from the view expressed in to meet the needs of a complex state of sociso far as he is convinced that the ety. Nor would the introduction of the proposed bifurcation should take place alternative course into high schools involve any earlier. On this point he agrees great expenditure; for the bifurcation of studies with the Madras Government, need not take place until the student is within as will appear later on.] two years of the Entrance Examination, that is, until he has been eight or nine years at school. His studies in the middle department will be sufficiently practical to prepare him for those he will take up in the modern side, sufficiently liberal to fall in with those of the academical side. It may be added that, with the establishment of these schools, full recognition would be given to the salutary principle that the course of instruction in schools of every class should be complete in itself. The Madras Provincial Committee draws attention to the fact that little more than half of those who pass the matriculation examination of that University proceed to the First Arts standard; and though the disparity is less conspicuous in other provinces—in Bengal indeed, it is stated that more than 90 per cent. of those who matriculate are admitted to colleges,—yet it is probable that in all provinces the institution of the alternative standard would meet the popular wishes and answer a real need. We therefore recommend that in the upper classes of high schools there be two divisions,—one leading to the Entrance Examination of the Universities; the other of a more practical character, intended to fit youths for Commercial or non-literary pursuits. Further on in their report the Commission recommend that a certificate of having passed by either of the alternative courses should be regarded as qualifying for the public service in its subordinate grades. 11. The preceding extract expresses the Commission’s view as to the general direction to be followed in grafting a system of practical training on our present scheme of secondary instruction; but it will be Policy of the Government of observed that the training recommended was of India on the subject of practical a general or preparatory, and not of a technical, and technical training. character. The Government of India however, in reviewing the Commission’s Report, was desirous of giving the recommendation the fullest significance which could be attached to it; and, therefore, having previously secured the consent and support of Local Governments, His Excellency the Viceroy in October 1884 sanctioned the publication of a Resolution, from which the following passage is quoted:— The bifurcation of studies suggested by the Commission is of special importance at the present time. Every variety of study should be encouraged which may serve to direct the attention of Native youth to industrial

243

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

and commercial pursuits. To be of any value, the bifurcation should be carried out, as the Commission advise, in the High School course. To postpone it till after matriculation at the University, as proposed by some authorities, would to a great extent render its advantages futile. The Government of India commends the other general recommendations of this chapter to the adoption of Local Governments. * * * * * Efforts should be made to call forth private liberality in the endowment of scholarships not only in Arts colleges, but for the encouragement of Technical Education. Such was the policy which the Government of India, after a careful examination of the facts, promulgated on this question. That policy enforced the necessity of making the course of study in High Schools more practical than it was; and it recognized the desirability of encouraging technical instruction. Beyond such a recognition, however, the Education Commission or the Government of India did not then go. No indication was given of the direction in which, or of the means by which, such technical instruction might be imparted. In this note an effort is made to supply such an indication. In only one out of eight first grade colleges in Madras, and in only one out of six in Bombay, have Law classes been established; while since the foundation of the Madras and Bombay Universities,5 only 238 degrees in Law have been conferred by the former, and only 132 degrees by the latter. The case is far different in Bengal where Law is taught, and well taught in eight colleges, and where 1,328 degrees in Law have already been conferred by the University. Even in the North-Western Provinces, three out of the total number of five colleges have Law Schools attached. 67. There is a wide career of usefulness open all over the settled districts of India for trained lawyers. The Bench absorbs a large number, with the result that the administration of justice is greatly improved. And besides this improvement, there is another gain in the better tone and morale of the native civil judiciary, consequent on the criticisms to which they are exposed at the hands of an instructed and independent Bar. It seems therefore that the establishment of Law classes in some or all of their first grade colleges is one point to which as opportunity offers the attention of the Governments of Madras and Bombay might with advantage be directed. On this head the other Presidencies or Administrations do not seem to stand at present in need of suggestions from the Government of India. 68. In regard to University education in Medicine, the organizations in the three Presidency towns seem to be all that the circumstances of the time demand. It may be admitted that degrees in Medicine should only be awarded when a high standard of professional education has been attained; and this seems only possible in cities where the services of an adequate teaching staff can be secured, and where the existence of large hospitals affords satisfactory opportunities for clinical and pathological instruction. The number of degrees in Medicine conferred by the 244

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

Calcutta University (567) is very satisfactory; and the Bombay number (172) is encouraging. The Madras University Medical graduates are indeed few; and if we were not assured that the paucity in their numbers (which all told amount to only 45) is due to some extent to the preference of students of the Madras Medical College for British degrees, one might be disposed to suspect inefficiency in the teaching, or excessive strictness in the examination tests. 69. In the Lahore Medical College recent improvements and additions to the teaching staff have brought the Medical School abreast of the requirements of the time and province, and no further suggestions seem to be called for here in regard to it. The Medical School at Agra, on the other hand, does not rank as a college. It is a school of third rate rank, both as regards teaching power and the character of the diplomas conferred. Having regard to the fact that Agra is the only centre of Medical education for a large and demsely peopled tract of British and tendatory territory, it is worth considering whether its teaching power should not as funds admit be strengthened, and whether the school should not be raised to the same footing as the College at Lahore. A review of medical teaching in India at the present time would be incomplete without some allusion to the great impetus which is being given to the medical training of women, by the organizations connected with Her Excellency the Countess of Dufferin’s Fund. On this occasion, however, no more than a passing reference is required. 70. The facilities afforded for University training in Engineering appear, as far as mere teaching goes, to be as extensive and complete as the circumstances of the time require. The colleges at Calcutta, Madras, Poona, and Roorkee are wellequipped, and the theory of Engineering is as well taught as perhaps in England. The defects seem to lie in the too theoretical nature of the teaching, in the complete isolation of these colleges, and in the want of facilities for practical instruction at Madras and Roorkee. The first mentioned defect seems almost inseparable from any system we can devise: but it can be greatly minimized. The workshops at Seebpur and Poona do much towards making the instruction in these colleges of a practical character: and it is suggested that an effort be made towards turning to similar use the important workshop belonging to the Local Government near Roorkee, and towards establishing a connexion with the Railway workshops in Madras. A year’s work in these shops would form a very useful adjunct to the existing college course. The second defect is due to the entire want of Elementary and Secondary Schools of a technical character leading up to the college courses. At present the college is the alpha and omega of instruction in Engineering. This is a defect which equally exists in connexion with Schools of Art. 71. So much for the general condition of Technical training of the higher or collegiate [******]tion; we now come to technical training in schools. First, there are the Medical Schools devised to impart a knowledge of Medicine and Surgery calculated to place its possessors above the mere empiricism of baids, hakims, kobirages, and other ignorant native practitioners. The great danger in these schools is a system of instruction too theoretical for the purpose in view. This danger was perceived some time ago in the Bengal schools, and steps taken to obviate it by simplifying 245

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

the lectures and making them more tutorial, by insisting on more frequent examinations, and by more practical demonstrations. These improvements will it is hoped, have the desired effect, but it would seem that in other provinces of the Empire as well as in Bengal the evils thus guarded against operate to a very great extent. It is desirable therefore that other Local Governments should be invited to consider the mode of instruction in these schools, with a view to rendering it more practical and intelligible to the class for whom the schools were devised. In neither Bombay nor Madras do these Medical Schools seem to be as popular as could be wished, and it would be gratifying to know that this apparent want of popularity is not due to defects of system, or to inefficient teaching. The matter is one to which the attention of these Governments might with advantage be called. Attention has been called to the fact that the flourishing town of Rangoon is without a Medical School. So long ago as 1883 the want was felt; and in the May of that year the Chief Commissioner expressed the intention of soon supplying it. The want is still unsupplied; and the Administration of Burma may now reasonably be asked to attend to the matter. 72. As it is very desirable that medical aid for the people should be disseminated as widely as possible, attention may here be called to the fact that, while Bengal with its comparatively few large cities possesses seven Medical Schools, the North-Western Provinces and the Punjab with their many great cities are content with two schools. In the single city of Dacca in Bengal there is one Allopathic and two Homœpathic Schools, and the competition is only productive of good. The Medical profession even in its lower grades affords to fairly educated men an excellent opening and independent career. 73. The success which has attended Survey Schools, wherever they have been established, is an encouragement to extend the system. There is in every district in India ample employment for competent surveyors, for the qualifications of the ordinary amin leave much to be desired. If after suitable Survey Schools had been provided, our Civil Courts employed, by preference, surveyors or valuators who had certificates from such schools, not only would an impetus be given to this description of technical education, but a great boon would be in course of time conferred on the people in the provision of a more respectable class of professional surveyors and valuators. Local Governments and Administrations might, therefore, be asked to take into their consideration this question of Survey Schools. An educational qualification should be insisted upon before a student is admitted to such a school. The character of the students and the reputation of the profession would thus alike be raised in the public esteem. Local Governments might also be asked to consider whether by degrees the surveyorships and valuatorships to Civil and Revenue Courts and authorities should be restricted to passed students of these Survey Schools. 74. On the question of Agricultural Schools and Colleges some opinion has been already expressed. Here all that need be added is that if such schools and colleges cannot now be provided, we should at all events do what can be done by an extension as far as funds allow of that system of agricultural classes in Middle 246

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

and High Schools which is found to answer in Bombay. There is room for hope that conjoined with a system of public examinations this plan will in time supply a demand for higher and more systematic instruction in agriculture. 75. We now come to Art Colleges and Industrial Schools. The previous remarks made on this subject will have suggested that if these Art Schools in the Presidency towns and at Lahore have not as yet made much impression on the Industrial life of the country, it is not so much because their aims are untrue, as because they keep no touch with the Industrial system they are devised to assist and improve. On the other hand, the so-called Industrial Schools, modelled upon no considered plan, and cut off from communications with the Schools of Art which should be to them sources of inspiration and guidance, never rise above mere workshops for the production of inferior articles at extravagant cost. For all purposes of practical training they are useless; and it is no exaggeration to say that of the 45 Industrial Schools which now exist in India, hardly one serves any true educational purpose. If, therefore, anything effective is to be done in the way of Industrial training in Indian schools, we must begin anew and construct a system of industrial education. The question for decision is then, upon what principle and by what adaptation of means to ends can such a system be constructed? 76. Authorities6 agree in thinking that the true principle from which to start is that Technical instruction must not be considered as something separate and apart from ordinary general education. On the contrary, it should be regarded as a development of such education. The scheme of general education should therefore be so arranged as without any break of continuity to lead up to the instruction which we call Technical. If this be the true principle on which to proceed, it is manifest that nowhere in India has our educational system given to that principle the prominence which it deserves. Leading, as it does, to University examinations and University degrees alone, our educational system has always concentrated attention on literary subjects and literary training. But as Technology is the study of the practical application of Science, a system of education which has for its aim the acquisition of literary knowledge only can never be a satisfactory introduction to technical instruction. As Science is the foundation of every branch of technical instruction, the principles of Science ought to underlie the education of those whose aim in life is the practice of the Industrial Arts. 77. Education will usually begin with “the three R’s:” and it is, of course, necessary that some advance should have been made with the elements of language and mathematics before progress can be made with even rudimentary Science. But all authorities agree that the study of drawing should be introduced at the earliest possible age; that it should be placed on the same footing as writing; and that it should be continued throughout all subsequent stages of the student’s educational career. The Royal Commissioners on technical education are at great pains to enforce this principle:— “Your Commissioners,” they say, “are of opinion that sound instruction in the rudiments of drawing should be incorporated with writing in 247

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

all primary schools, both for girls and boys, by which also, according to the experience of competent authorities, the writing would be much improved. Something in this direction has already been done in many good infant schools, where children of the age of six draw triangles, squares, oblongs, etc., on their slates.” 78. When some progress has been made in “the three R’s,” attention should be directed to Elementary Science. “For the great mass of our working population,” write the Royal Commissioners, “who must necessarily begin to earn their livelihood at an early age, it is essential that instruction in the rudiments of the sciences bearing upon Industry should form a part of the curriculum of the Elementary Schools, and that instruction in drawing, and more especially in drawing by rule and compass, of a character likely to be useful to them in their future occupations as workmen and artizans, should receive far greater attention than it does at present. The importance of the first of these subjects has been so far acknowledged by the Education Department, that in all infant schools simple lessons on objects and the more commonly occurring phenomena of nature have been made obligatory. This system of instruction, if properly illustrated by the object itself or of diagrams or models of the same or by the simplest kinds of experiments, is an excellent foundation for the subsequent teaching of Elementary Science.” And again: Geography, if properly taught, is a branch of Elementary Science which need not be separated from Science generally, and can well be taught along with the other branches of Science by means of object lessons. In this way the connecting link between Science as taught in the Infant School and in the higher division of the Elementary School will be supplied. A preliminary education founded on the preceding principles would form the most appropriate introduction for all forms of technical instruction that could be devised, while it would help to give to the education of those not intended for Industrial pursuits that practical character which is now so wanting. Children under such a system would have their faculties of thought and observation trained, while now the only faculty that is trained is the memory. 79. Following on such a preliminary education, of which Reading, Arithmetic, Writing, Drawing, and Elementary Science would form the prominent features, would come that separation of studies which the student’s proposed career in life would necessitate. Those who were intended for the learned professions, 248

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

the Bar or Medicine, would follow the literary courses which lead to the existing Entrance Examination of the University. Those who looked to Art or Engineering, or Commerce or Agriculture, would pursue the “modern” curriculum advocated by the Education Commission, and leading to an alternative Entrance Examination which the Universities should without unnecessary loss of time be invited to establish. Those who looked to Industrial pursuits would enter the Schools of Technical training, if indeed they did not select to push their preliminary education still further by going through the “modern” curriculum. These three divergent courses should take off from the common stem at the end of the Middle School course, as recommended by the Madras Government. The High or Zillah Schools would thus in all cases consist of a “literary” and a “modern” side, which is in full accord with the recommendations of the Education Commission and with the declared policy of the Government of India. 80. It will be observed that the Royal Commissioners recommend the introduction of Drawing and Rudimentary Science into the curriculum of Primary Schools. We must not, however, be misled by identity in nomenclature into thinking the enforcement of such a recommendation possible in all Indian Primary Schools. The Indian Primary School is a very multiform entity indeed. In Bengal, where primary education proceeds on the basis of controlling and by degrees improving Indigenous Schools, teaching in the old native plan, the introduction of Drawing or Science lessons into the Village School or pathsala would be at the present moment wholly premature and impossible. The schoolmasters are unfit to teach such subjects. In Bombay, on the other hand, where very many of the Primary School teachers have passed through training institutions, and teach on approved methods, the introduction of drawing, etc., into the school curriculum might possibly be enforced. What is suitable for one part of India may be unsuitable for another part: and we shall miss our end if we strive after uniformity which is not attainable. While making due allowance for such local peculiarities as those referred to, and while permitting the utmost freedom to provincial and local endeavours, it seems that for the present we should leave the Indian Primary School out of our consideration; and that in any change of system or addition to the carriculum that may be determined upon the Government of India should not aim at going lower down in the scale than the Middle school. But in every province we should operate through the Middle School (and à fortiori through the High School) whether it be founded on an English or on a Vernacular basis. We shall thus circumscribe our efforts, which in a novel undertaking is always desirable; and we shall appeal to a higher degree of intelligence in our students while counting on a more instructed class of teachers. 81. The Middle or High School student, who is able to read, write, and cast up accounts, and has been grounded in the rudiments of Science in addition to knowing something of Drawing, now looks about for a school in which to prosecute his technical education. It will simplify the difficulty of providing such a school if we first consider what should be taught our student in the school he is looking for. 249

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

82. The various industries or professions which may be made the subject of technical education are classified by Professor Pedler, of the Calcutta Presidency College, under four divisions:— A.—Applications of Science. B.—Applications of Art. C.—Agriculture. D.—Commerce. With Agriculture and Commerce it is not now proposed to deal. The industries classed as “Applications of Science” admit of a further division into five heads:— (a) Industries dependent on the application of Chemistry, such as dyeing, printing, textile fabrics, paper-making, sugar-refining, glass manufactures. (b) Industries dependent on the application of Physical Science, such as electro-engineering, electro-metallurgy, etc. (c) Industries dependent on the Sciences—geology, metallurgy, mining. (d ) The textile industries which depend partly on physical, partly on mechanical science. (e) Mechanical industries, such as manufacture of cutlery, looks, screws, electro-plating etc. The training necessary for those who intend to follow the industries coming under the designation of Applications of Art may be sub-divided into— (a) (b) (c) (d)

training for architects, artists, draughtsmen, designers; training for engravers, wood-engravers; training for modellers and manufacturers of pottery; training for furniture and wood-work manufactures.

83. The preceding classification may be considered for present purposes to exhaust the subjects on which technical training will be in request for many years to come in India. Indeed, it is obvious that many of the industries are still questions of the future. Some of them, however, are matters of present interest; others of them, though of prospective importance, have now to be provided for; and the question is, how are we to establish the schools in which the necessary instiuction can be imparted to students desirous of making a livelihood by the practice of such industries? Putting out of consideration for the moment the important question of finance, two difficulties here present themselves—the difficulty of obtaining competent teachers, and the difficulty of incorporating the school when we have found our teachers with the educational system of the province. The Government of Madras hope to overcome the first difficulty by the operations of private enterprise. They 250

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

expect, by the establishment of a system of public examinations, to create a demand for trained teachers, and by the effect of this demand to produce the necessary supply. It is probable that the expectations of the Madras Government will be largely fulfilled. This means of stimulating education should therefore not be neglected in provinces outside Madras; but other Local Governments should also be invited to supplement arrangements for training teachers by a system of examinations calculated to stimulate a demand for them. And in this connexion the question arises, whether efforts should not be made to induce the various Universities to undertake the examinations, and thus afford a further evidence that technical instruction has been made an integral part of the education of the country. This is a point to be referred to at greater length later on. Here it may be said that there is unquestionably great force in the view that examinations should be conducted by the Universities, and not by the Government through Bcards constituted for the purpose. The Universities have become a power in the land. They are looked up to and revered by the educated classes. If they can be moved to identify themselves with this movement in favour of technical education, their countenance will mere than any other influence tend to counteract and abate those feelings whose nature and force Mr. Kipling (a competent authority) thus describes:— The prejudice against manual labour which exists among the upper classes is still stronger than many of us are apt to think; and when we speak of Art, its beauties, refining influences, etc., we do not reflect that for centuries the most important subjects that our school teaches have been set down in the Kama Shastra among the 64 accomplishments— mostly trivial—in which the public women, or Hetairæ of the country, are supposed to be proficient; while philosophy, religion, poetry, belleslettres, administration, etc., were considered the only pursuits to which a man of position should seriously apply himself.— (REPORT ON MAYO SCHOOL OF ART FOR 1884–85.)

84. But, though we may agree to invoke the aid of examinations in the general direction indicated by the Madras Government, we should not trust to that plan alone. It is therefore most desirable to make all the use we can of existing Training Institutions, with a view to turning out compatent masters, and to spare no reasonable expense in the way of stipends while the teachers are at the Training Schools, and of good pay afterwards to attach them to our service. It is to the employment as teachers of persons, themselves untrained, to train others, that much of the discredit has arisen that now attaches to Technical Schools. 85. Having procured our teachers in one or another of the ways indicated in the preceding paragraph, we have now to see how our schools are to be established. For the establishment of schools the Madras scheme trusts much to private enterprise. The ultimate effect of private enterprise in creating such schools as we want may be considerable, but it is clear that the operation of that agency will be slow. In this matter of technical instruction the Government must pioneer the 251

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

way, as it has pioneered the way in almost every enterprise which has changed the aspect of Indian life. If progress is to be made at once, the Government must, on fit opportunity and with due regard to local circumstances, establish in every division or district a Technical School or a Technical Department of a school to which the instruction imparted in the “modern” side of the Middle or High School will furnish a fitting introduction. 86. The school so established must be an integral part of the educational system of the province. If past experience proves anything, it seems very clearly to prove the utter hopelessness of expecting that from isolated Industrial Schools any general good can come. On this point special attention is invited to the opinion of Mr. Tawney, Officiating Director of Public Instruction in Bengal. What Mr. Tawney says of Bengal is equally true of every other province of the Empire. The institutions were isolated and out of connexion with the general system of education in Bengal. They had no prestige of any kind attaching to them, and were therefore unable to make way against the general current of native prejudice. They were insufficiently supplied with funds, and no bright prospects were opened, even to the most successful of their pupils, resembling those lying before the more distinguished pupils of the School of Naval Architecture and the Economic School of Mines. If they had been furnished with schools leading up to them, in which the head and eye were trained to do their work efficiently, and if they had been in any way connected with the system of education centralised in Calcutta, their fortunes might have been different. As it is, I cannot believe that these efforts have been completely thrown away. There can be no doubt that the horizon of young India is widening; that a great many of the more energetic of our native youths are beginning to be dissatisfied with a purely literary education and an official career under Government, and are eager to take part in undertakings which shall advance the economic welfare of their native land. They naturally look to the Government to give a definite aim to their aspirations, and to furnish the machinery necessary for their realization. 87. If, therefore, our Industrial Schools are to lead to any practical good, they must be an integral part of the Provincial educational system. The District Industrial School must be a department of the District High School; all the prestige which attaches to the High School must attach to it, and so on with all other Industrial Schools in their various degrees. Furthermore these Industrial Schools must be linked to a Central Institution, which should be the highest embodiment of instruction in the particular art or industry with which the school is concerned. This Central Institution, be it the Presidency School of Art or the Engineering College, must not only direct and control the teachings of the schools scattered throughout the province, but inspire them with new ideas and furnish them with good designs. For the schools which come under Division B on page 62 above, 252

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

the various Schools of Art at the Presidency towns and at Lahore at once furnish the Central Institution which is required. For the schools which should fall under Division A, no Central Institution at present in existence may serve all purposes of control and direction; but the Engineering Colleges will, at all events, serve the purpose to some extent. 88. Even at the risk of repetition and prolixity, the present writer would most strongly urge the view, which is, indeed, confirmed by the experience we have had upon this question, that no system of Industrial Schools can possibly work in India which does not proceed upon the principle that all Technical Schools of a particular class shall depend on, and be subordinate to, a Central Institution. No Industrial School should be established except with the concurrence of the Director of Public Instruction and of the Principal of the Central Institution. These officers should decide whether in a particular locality an Industrial School is wanted, and they should prescribe its curriculum when the school is established. The Central Institution, whether we call it a School of Art or a Science and Art Department, should gather up in itself all that is best in the Art and Industrial traditions and workmanship of the province, and it should be enabled to attach to itself by stipends and scholarships all promising pupils, some of whom would doubtless adopt the profession of a teacher. The Central Institution should decide, in communication with Local Boards, District Officers, and Directors of Agriculture and Commerce, when a particular industry in a particular place needed encouragement and training; and the expense of the school then established might reasonably be in whole or part a charge on local funds. This scheme will, if approved, work in with the system of Economic and Industrial Museums, which has recently been engaging the attentions of the Government of India, and, among Local Governments, more especially of the Government of Bengal. 89. It has been said that the difficulty regarding teachers is one which cannot be overcome immediately. It is fortunate, however, that it does not arise so much in connexion with the training in the Central Institutions, and therefore the concession of liberal support to the Central Institutions is of prime importance at the present moment. Hitherto our Schools of Art and, it may be added, of Engineering have not been richly endowed; now they should be freely supported. No doubt public liberality and beneficence will, if appealed to, also largely help in this good work, as it has largely helped in the cause of Literary education. The advantages of Literary education are perceived by all, and not only has the Indian public come forward most generously to endow Literary Colleges and Schools, but private enterprise has seen in the establishment of such educational institutions the means of competent livelihood, and of an honourable and useful career in life. Indeed, it has thus come to pass that private enterprise in such educational undertakings is so well to the front, that there are not wanting indications that Government is occupying a field which, if abandoned, would be taken possession of by independent agencies. The Education Commission has advocated the gradual abstention of the Government from the work of higher education in India; and though this abstention must not be practised except where the interests 253

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

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 No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —contd.

of higher education can be safely entrusted to other hands, the accepted policy on the point must not be forgotten. It will be possible on suitable opportunities, in pursuance of this policy, to hand over some schools and colleges to private enterprise. Large funds may not be at first set free, for local bodies must be treated liberally in undertaking fresh responsibilities; but ultimately the entire cost of the schools and colleges transferred will be available for the promotion of technical education. 90. It has been stated above that the public examinations in technical and practical subjects which it is proposed to inaugurate should be conducted not by Government, but by the University in each province. This is also the opinion of Mr. Tawney, the Officiating Director of Public Instruction in Bengal, who in this matter is justly entitled to a respectful hearing. In a recent report which supports most of the positions contended for in the preceding remarks, Mr. Tawney observes as follows:— 1. I have always thought that the only way to make technical education really popular is to induce the Calcutta University to take it up. No subject that is not recognized by this body can in the long run hold its place in schools. It is idle to imagine that, when schools are made over to District Boards, these bodies will keep up teachers of subjects that the boys do not wish to study and their parents do not wish them to study. But the University can always create a demand for the teaching of any subject by simply introducing it into its examinations. Now there is one subject which all authorities on technical education consider indispensable, namely, Drawing. Messrs. Pedler, Schaumburg, and Monday would have it introduced into all schools. They are agreed that the training which this subject gives to the hand and eye constitutes the most useful preparation for technical instruction. Mr. Pedler would have it taught (as is, I believe, done in Germany) along with writing. On this point the late Mr. Locke wrote (report for 1878–79): “We have to begin—absolutely at the beginning—blackboard work with our new students, which is as though at the Presidency or Medical College the students had to begin their course by learning to read and write. This state of things will doubtless continue as long as simple outline drawing (of the most elementary kind) is not placed beside reading and writing as part of the instruction in every school, even the humblest, receiving Government aid. It has been so in England for the last twenty-five years. No parochial schoolmaster can get a certificate unless he can teach the drawing of simple figures on the blackboard.” I may mention that all the works on technical education in Europe that I have been able to consult hold similar language with regard to the importance of drawing. Now Government might perhaps induce managers of schools to appoint teachers of this subject by offering to pay their salaries and giving prizes and scholarships for proficiency in it. But the University can 254

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

bring about the same result by simply paying a gentleman to examine in it. Examination is the central idea of Mr. Grigg’s system, and I am only imitating his example in insisting upon the great power of this agency in India. But I think it particularly important that the examination which I would introduce should be conducted by the University. I therefore recommend that the University of Calcutta be asked to institute an alternative Entrance Examination of a practical character, somewhat resembling the final examination in Schedule I of the Code for European and Eurasian Schools. I would propose the following subjects for this examination:— 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Mathematics as at present (including, be it observed, Mensuration). History and Geography as at present. Elementary Physics. Elementary Chemistry. Mechanical Drawing.

I would compel all students, who propose to take up Engineering, to pass this examination, but no others. Many would take it up to escape the technicalities of English grammar, and the much dreaded second language. It might be asked why I exclude English. I answer that I would have all the papers answered in English; but my experience teaches me that the study of a literary master-piece does not always give a command of ordinary every-day English, and that it is a great strain upon the students. I regard the play of Shakespeare in the final standard of Schedule I as rather unnecessary. But it is of course easier, or ought to be, for a European to get up Shakespeare than for a native of this country. The subjects I have introduced need, I believe, no apology. I would not prevent any one who passed this examination from going on to the ordinary First Arts Examination, if the University did not wish to provide an alternative course in this also. I believe that this proposal would meet with a ready acceptance in the Senate. It is possible that the Faculty of Medicine would prefer this entrance course to that now required as an introduction to the study of that Science. I may remark that at present every student must acquire a good knowledge of Physics in order to pass the First Arts Examination, and that the B course of the B. A. Examination is mainly scientific, though the subject of English literature is unfortunately still retained in it. Should the above proposal be accepted, it will perhaps be necessary to introduce some teachers of drawing into those Government Schools7 that are not immediately made over to District Boards. But it is clear that we shall never obtain a really high class of Technical instructors until the Central College recommended by Mr. Pedler is established. 255

No. 1. Technical Education INDIA to 1886. —concld.

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 No. 5 (a). Industrial Arts in MADRAS, 1885.

(a) Mr. Havell’s note on industries in Madras READ—the following letter from E. B. HAVELL, Esq., Superintendent, School of Arts (on special duty), to the Director of Revenue Settlement and Agriculture, dated Madras, 21st February 1885, No. 78, and endorsement thereon by the latter:— I have the honour, with reference to G. O., Mis. No. 2221, Public Department, 13th October 1884, to submit my report on the arts and industries carried on in the districts of North Arcot, Salem, Tanjore, Trichinopoly and Madura. 2. The general condition of these industries is altogether unsatisfactory. Hardly one of them can be said to be really flourishing. General condition. Many of them seem to be fast dying out. 3. Dealing with the weaving industry first, as it is by far the most important in respect of the number employed in it, I find that a Weaving. great variety of textile manufacture is carried on in these districts—silk and cotton cloths, cotton and woollen carpets, silver and gold lace, satin, reed mats, coarse cotton cloths and cumblies. 4. That this industry has suffered very considerably from the competition daily growing stronger and stronger of the cheap cotton and woollen goods which are being poured into the country and that many weavers have been forced to abandon their trade for other pursuits is already a well-known fact, and it will only be necessary to see to what extent it has affected each branch of the industry. 5. The European goods have their great advantage in point of cheapness, and consequently the native manufacturer who supplies the wants of the low caste and poorer classes has suffered most. 6. Two kinds of white cloth for personal wear are produced by the native weaver: first, a plain white cloth with a narrow border of White Cloths—for male wear. coloured cotton, and sometimes with a broader band woven across each end, which are worn by the low caste poor; and, secondly, superior cloths of fine texture in which the borders are broader and of silk, and generally embroidered with a simple pattern and the bands at each end either of silk or of silver lace. These cloths, originally intended for Brahmins only, are now indiscriminately worn by the wealthier classes of every caste. 7. The first of these has been almost entirely superseded for general wear by English long cloth, which is cheaper than the native cloth by about one half. Still the manufacture is carried on throughout the districts on a very small scale, for the native cloth is always worn, by those who can afford it, on occasions of ceremony, and by some it is preferred on account of its superior durability and thicker texture. 8. The manufacture of the finer cloths still occupies a very large proportion of the weavers and is extensively carried on in and around about Madura and Salem. The prosperity of this industry has also been affected to a less extent by the cheapness of European goods, in a similar way, that whereas a well-to-do native would formerly have four or six country cloths in constant wear, many now reserve the more expensive costume for the religious and domestic ceremonies 256

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

at which a Hindu would expose himself to ridicule if he appeared in other than his traditional dress. But as these cloths are only within the reach of the wealthier classes, it is probable that the spread of Western ideas and mode of dress has had more prejudicial effect on the industry than the mere cheapness of European goods. Both in the fine, but more especially in the inferior cloths, the profits of the weaver seem to be reduced to a very low margin. The manufacture of female cloths is carried on on a very extensive scale, and has not declined to such an extent as the other, for Female Cloths. though the industry has suffered considerably in the inferior kinds by the competition of English and French cheap printed cotton goods, European manufacturers have not hitherto produced anything which can at all compete with the finer cloths of Tanjore, Kuttálam and Kuranád, and other places. While the more gorgeous beauties of the textile manufactures of the North, such as those of Benares, Surat and Gujerat, have been fully recognised, it is a pity that the more sober, though none the less remarkable, artistic qualities of these fine cloths and their adaptability in many ways to decorative purposes have not been better appreciated. 10. Artistically speaking a decline is only noticeable in the cotton female cloths, most of which have lost their characteristic beauty by the use of European dyed thread. The Madura female cloths, however, are an exception. 11. Before turning to another branch of the industry, I must allude to signs which show that however unsatisfactory may be the present condition, the native manufacture of cloths has nothing to hope for in the future. The great objection among Hindus to European long cloth, apart from its want of durability, is that the coloured and embroidered border of the native cloth is wanting. So, as I have mentioned before, on occasions of ceremony the native cloth is still used. But within the last year or two, cloths have been introduced into the market exactly similar in outward appearance to the common country bordered white cloth, and selling at two-thirds the price or less. Even the finer cloths with silk embroidered borders, which, on account of the combination of silk and cotton being difficult to work by machinery at a cheap rate, have hitherto escaped the competition of cheap and vulgar imitations, are now being closely reproduced with borders of coloured cotton exactly similar in design. Similarly the women’s cloths have until recently only had to compete with glaring printed cottons, which, though injuring native trade in cloths for low caste wear, cannot have affected the industry in the finer manufacture. But lately European cloths woven, instead of printed in imitation of some of the Kuttalám and Kuranád patterns, have been brought into the market, selling at prices with which the native manufacture could not possibly compete. 12. Owing to agents of European firms who have been busy lately buying up native cloths as patterns, the weavers, in nearly every place I visited, looked upon my inquiries with great suspicion; and in some cases refused to allow me to see their looms. 13. The effect of this new departure will no doubt tend to greatly hasten the decline in native weaving. In fact it is obvious that in no very short time the whole 257

No. 5 (a). Industrial Arts in MADRAS, 1885. —contd.

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 No. 5 (a). Industrial Arts in MADRAS, 1885. —contd.

of the native industry in the low caste or purely cotton cloths must give way, and only a remnant of the finer manufacture in which silk is partly or wholly used will be able to hold its own to any extent against the cheaper, though vastly inferior in every way, European goods. 14. With regard to woollen carpets a great decline is also noticeable. Ayyampet, in the Tanjore district, was once an Woollen Carpets. important centre for the manufacture of the woollen mats or small carpets for which the district is famous, and about ten years ago 107 families were employed in the industry. Now twelve families only are engaged in it. Ayyampet. 15. The patterns and colours of the carpets now made are not, as far as I could judge from the few examples available, so good as those to be found in old carpets, but this is probably the effect rather than the cause of the decline in prosperity which is owing more to native preference for inferior European manufactures. 16. These carpets do not ever appear to have found much favour in the European market. The patterns and colours which are very bold and striking do not suit the taste of the many, who, in their painful anxiety to eschew anything vulgar or in bad taste, fall back on so-called “æsthetic” muddiness of colour and monotony of pattern. 17. The Tanjore district was also once well known for silk carpets of remarkable beauty. This industry seems to have disappeared Silk Carpets. entirely. At all events, I was not able to discover any workmen engaged in it. 18. At Wálajánagar, also an old seat of the industry, there are now only two workmen employed in it. Inferior designs and the Wálajánagar. use of aniline dyes are the only noticeable features in their productions. 19. Probably the proximity of Vellore Jail, which must have once competed strongly with local manufacture, has been the chief cause of Vellore Jail. the commercial ruin of the Wálajá carpet trade. The restrictions recently placed on jail manufactures, in this case, came too late. 20. In this jail the methods employed and the dyes used are purely native. But the patterns are too miscellaneous and not always good, and the arrangement of colours is altogether wanting in that essential of perfect harmony which is so conspicuous in unsophisticated native manufacture. 21. Cotton carpets are made at Arcot, Wálajánagar (North Arcot district), Ayyampet (Tanjore district) and Ranjangudi (Trichinopoly district); but the industry is declining commercially and artistically. The Cotton Carpets. patterns, in nearly all cases, are good and appropriate, but at Arcot and Wálajá aniline dyes have completely ruined the industry artistically. The Ayyampet carpets are good, and those of Ranjangudi are the best I have seen both in design and colour. It is worth noticing that country cotton is always used in this manufacture. 258

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

22. Satin is manufactured at Ayyampet, Arcot, and Wálajánagar and at Ariyalúr, Trichinopoly district. It is a beautiful industry which has hitherto attracted little notice. The weavers seem to be of northern origin Satin. both from type of features and language, the latter a dialect strongly mixed with Gujerati. The material produced at the three first places is worn by Muhammadans for trousers the principal trade being with Hyderabad. The arrangement of colour is very bold and brilliant but always in good taste. The Ariyalúr satin is distinct in style and of remarkable beauty in colour, as well as tasteful in the simple patterns woven generally in stripes across it. The ravikkai (Hindi, choli) worn by native ladies is made of it. Only two men are engaged in this industry, which, as far as I am aware, has never been noticed before. 23. A kind similar in style but inferior in colour and execution is produced in the town of Trichinopoly embroidered with patterns in silver lace. 24. The only branch of weaving which has hitherto escaped European competition is the reed-mat industry carried on chiefly at Shiyáli and Wandiwash. Those made at Shiyáli are the best and are remarkable for Reed Mats. their fine designs and good dyes. The Wandiwash mats are familiar to the Madras bazaar. The patterns are also very good, but the common use of aniline dyes has had disastrous effect. 25. There are two branches of industry closely connected with weaving, cotton spinning and the manufacture of gold and silver lace, which have sunk from great importance to complete insignificance. Machine Cotton spinning. cotton is universally used in the manufacture of all Gold and Silver lace. but the coarsest kind of cloth and in cotton carpets; and similarly the gold and silver lace so much used in the manufacture of the finer male and female cloths is almost entirely European, though there are a few native workmen to be found in Madura and Arcot. 26. The industry of cotton printing is tolerably widely diffused throughout these districts, though it is in a sadly neglected condition. There are two distinct classes of work, the hand-painted or block-painted cloth, Cotton printing. used either for personal wear or as bed-covers (palampores) and the hand-painted representations of mythological subjects for adorning the Hindu cars and temples or for wall-hangings on festive occasions. The former are made at Kumbakónam, Nagore, Uraiyur (a suburb of Trichinopoly), Mána Madura, Permagudi, Pámban, Wálajánagar and Arcot; and the latter at Kálahasti, Salem, and Madura. At Kumbakónam and Nagore the cloths are all hand-painted. The best of them are exceedingly tasteful in design. The trade which is entirely an export one chiefly with Singapore and Penang has diminished enormously during the last twenty years, probably to the extent of 80 per cent. English printed cottons have supplanted the more costly native productions. 27. The cloths and handkerchiefs of Permagudi, Mána Madura and Pámban are also hand-painted, but quite distinct in style from the last. 259

No. 5 (a). Industrial Arts in MADRAS, 1885. —contd.

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 No. 5 (a). Industrial Arts in MADRAS, 1885. —contd.

Their fine lace-like patterns when drawn or painted by hand with the first preparation of wax, with great dexterity and facility, are exceedingly effective. But owing to the fineness of the patterns they become almost indistinguishable after the cloth receives its deep red and blue dyes. However, there is one man working at Mána Madura whose designs are generally bolder and more suitable for the process. 28. At Uraiyur some good block-printed palampores are produced by some half-dozen families but the industry is declining Uraiyur. and the best workman has lately abandoned his trade and left the place. 29. The cloths of Wálajánagar and Arcot are all block-printed. The industry here must have been once very extensive and important. In nearly every house where the work is carried on, I found old blocks of very elaborate and beautiful patterns, many of them of Persian origin, piled up in corners or in the roof covered with dust, or in some cases cut in pieces and utilized for the patterns now in use, which are very poor and altogether inferior to the old ones. In one case there were as many as 72 blocks to form the pattern of one palampore. I was able to secure some 200 of these fine old blocks. 30. In this case also the trade is almost entirely an export one and the decline which has affected the industry artistically in such a remarkable way seems to have taken place within the last twenty years. The cloths now produced when finished are often so blurred that the patterns are altogether lost. 31. The second kind of painted cloth, used in Hindu sacred ceremonies, is very interesting and remarkable. The best are produced at Kálahasti in North Arcot. The quaint illustrations of scenes from the Hindu Kálahasti. epics, the Ramayanam and the Mahabarata are exact reproductions of the style of Hindu temple sculptures with the same richness of architectural frame-work and elaboration of jewellery. But apart from their interest the wonderful effect of the arrangement of colour gives them an artistic value of a high order. Similar ones differing only in colour but not drawn with the same dexterity are produced at Salem. In both these places a few good patterns of palampore without figures are made in which the sacred tree and swan or the lotus form the leading motif. Those of this latter kind made at Salem are excellent in design and superior in this respect to the Kálahasti ones. The Kálahasti palampores attracted some attention at the last Calcutta Exhibition, but those of Salem are, I believe, quite unknown. There is also one old man at Madura who formerly produced painted cloth of a similar character, but he has now given up the work as there is no demand for it. 32. With regard to metal-work, that in brass and bronze is the most extensive industry. Commercially it has declined little, except that kerosine lamps are fast taking the place of the old native oil ones. Metal-work. But the fine ornamental work for which the south is famous has become almost a lost art. Even the ornaments and vessels of the temple service, which have always, as in other countries, called forth the 260

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

highest skill of the artificer, are now in the case of the former generally inferior in design and rudely executed, and on the latter entirely without ornamentation. 33. The Hindu custom of melting down all old vessels every two or three years has nearly destroyed all vestige of the work of previous generations, so that one must look for examples of the fine old work not in temples nor in the houses of the rich, but among the waste metal of the brass bazaar doomed to the melting pot, or in the houses of the low caste poor who generally look upon these with superstitious veneration and rarely consent to part with them. 34. The little demand which still exists is chiefly confined to the lower castes and the tendency being more towards cheap production than excellence of design or workmanship, it is not surprising that modern Tirupati. work is altogether inferior. The inlaid copper and silver ware of Tirupati is the only purely native work for which there is now any demand. It has degenerated completely in style and execution. 35. The encrusted work of Tanjore is probably not entirely of native origin. It is strictly fancy work, not always in the best of taste, Taujore. and as the demand for it is entirely European, consequently its prosperity does not appear to have been affected at all. 36. A few brass-workers there are who have found exercise for their skill in the making of locks and safes ingeniously contrived. Locksmiths. Dindigul. One man is at Dindigul who has acquired considMáyavaram. erable reputation, another at Máyavaram, Tanjore Ramnad. district, and a third at Ramnad. 37. The Madras Museum possesses some magnificent specimens of arms and armour which show to what a high state of perfection Iron-work. the ironsmiths of the south once brought their art. 38. Now three workmen at Sivaganga, in the Madura district, are the sole descendants who retain somewhat of the skill of their forefathers or who find any employment for it. And just as the skilled workman in bronze, brass and iron is now reduced to the level of common workmen, so Sivaganga. the wood carver is obliged to maintain himself in great part by doing the work of an ordinary carpenter, for it is no longer the fashion for the wealthy merchant to adorn the interior of his house with rich carvings, and the architectural decoration of the Rajah and Wood-carving. the Zemindar never aspires higher than an imitation of that bold and often grotesque travesty of the Italian style which characterizes Anglo-Indian buildings. 39. The goldsmith is still to be found at work in every town and village of importance, and his art has probably suffered least of all, for the women, more conservative, have not given up their traditional ornaments or exchanged them for European jewellery. On the other hand where, Goldsmiths. as at Trichinopoly, a European demand for his work has sprung up, he has become, artistically speakTrichinopoly. ing, completely ruined, and has not even attained to 261

No. 5 (a). Industrial Arts in MADRAS, 1885. —contd.

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 No. 5 (a). Industrial Arts in MADRAS, 1885. —concld.

that high mechanical finish and polish which is the only excellence in the type of jewellery he strives to imitate. 40. Pottery of an ornamental character is made only at Kulgherry in North Arcot. Unfortunately the two men who produce it seem to have been made the subjects of the crude experiments of every EuroPottery. pean who has come in contact with them; and their Kulgherry. pottery is only remarkable for its inferiority to old Arcot ware and for its strange perversions of European forms. 41. A complete list of these and other minor industries I have attached to this report in Appendix A, and a notice of some of the processes in Appendix B. 42. I have already noticed to some extent the causes of the decline which is so clearly marked in nearly every branch of native art. The production of articles of necessity, such as the native cloths, has suffered most by direct European competition. Industries in articles of luxury, such Causes of decline. as wood-carving, carpet-weaving and ornamental metal-work, have been affected to some extent by the decline of many old native Zemindaries and States, but more from the spread of European education and ideas, which lead many of the better class of natives to throw aside their national dress and decorate their houses in a pseudo-European style with glaring Brussels carpets and ill-designed furniture, and either to look upon all native art as beneath their notice or with condescending benevolence to supply the workmen with designs called from the pattern books and catalogues of European manufacturers. In this way the native industries have suffered as much by loss of prestige as by European competition or from any other cause. 43. In the north of India the beauty of its industries has always commanded a certain amount of admiration with a few, but in this presidency it is only of late years that the idea has generally gained ground that there is any native art, much less that any good is to be found in what little there may be. The majority of Europeans know nothing of it, except those few who benefit by its commercial ruin, and the means of obtaining any information with regard to it are very scanty. It is a remarkable sign of the indifference with which it has hitherto been treated, that while South Kensington, the finest Art Museum in the world, has thought Indian and Oriental art worthy of the largest proportion of its space, neither in Madras, Bombay, or Calcutta has there been, until quite recently, even a small collection to represent to any extent the resources of the country in its arts and industries. The collection at the School of Arts, to which one would naturally look for an index to the industries of the presidency, consists principally of a mediocre collection of casts from the antique and details of Italian and Gothic ornament. 44. The specimens of native industry which I have purchased from the grant sanctioned for that purpose will make a beginning in the right direction; but I would strongly recommend that the survey which I have commenced may be continued; that provision be made for an annual grant for the additions to the collection which are needed; and that a museum be formed in connection with 262

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

the school representative of all that is best in native art, and especially in that of Southern India. With regard to the question of its connection with the School of Arts, it is to be considered that there is ample space for a very considerable collection and a staff available, and that a large collection of the best examples of native design in every branch is absolutely essential for the future success of the school. Such a collection must, as is the case at the National Art Training School at South Kensington, be the most important teaching agency. To place this collection in any other building would practically render it of very little value to the students and add seriously to my work of superintendence, which is already very heavy. 45. That a museum of this kind would do much good to native industry can hardly be doubted. Indeed, I am convinced that properly directed its influence would be far more beneficial than that exercised by international exhibitions, which, though of great value in many ways, tend to lower the artistic standard by creating an indiscriminating demand. It would give a prestige to native art in the eyes of the natives themselves, and create an interest with regard to it by affording information in every branch of it, which now it is almost impossible for a European to obtain; it would be the means of preserving those examples of a period when art attained a much higher standard than is generally to be found at the present time, and which are daily being destroyed and becoming more difficult to obtain; it would thus create, and maintain among the artizans themselves a higher standard of a design and workmanship; and it would afford the means of enlightening that class of artistically ignorant AngloIndians, dilottanti, and manufacturers, who persist in attempting to teach where they have much to learn, and who, if they possessed but a little of the artistic instinct of the native artizan, would shudder at the mischief which they work.

No. 7.—Note on Technical Education in Madras. No. 123 (Educational), dated the 2nd March 1889. From—The Chief Secretary to the Government of Fort St. George. To—The Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department.

With reference to paragraph 2 of your letter, No. 219, dated 23rd July 1886, I am directed to forward, for the information of the Government of India, copies of the marginally-noted orders, recording the replies of the several officers consulted on the subject of technical education, and to make the following remarks on the suggestions contained in the memoG. O., dated 18th September 1886, No. 601. randum drawn up in the Home ” ” 6th May 1887, ” 228. Department and forwarded with ” ” 9th September ” ” 197, Mis. your letter above alluded to. ” ” 2nd March 1889, ” 127. I am to express the regret of His Excellency the Governor in Council that this reply has been so long delayed—a result which has been principally due to the length of time found necessary to obtain the opinions of the several Faculties of the University. 263

No. 7. Technical education in MADRAS, 1889.

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 No. 7. Technical education in MADRAS, 1889. —contd.

2. During the interval which has elapsed since the receipt of your letter, the subject of technical education has received the attentive consideration of the Director of Public Instruction and of this Government, and the several directions the recommendations set forth in the memorandum and summarized at paragraph 92 thereof, have been carried out or considered and rejected as inadvisable. The exhaustive report of the Director of Public Instruction on the educational progress of the Presidency during 1887–88—a copy of which has already been forwarded to the Government of India—shows the general progress that has been made, and I am now to offer the following observations on the specific recommendations made in the memorandum of the Home Department of the Government of India, and to state how far they meet with the approval of this Government, and how far they have been, or can be, carried out. 3. The first recommendation affecting this Presidency is that greater facilities should be provided in mofussil colleges for the study of law and medicine. From the marginally-noted Proceedings G. O., dated 18th September 1886, No. 604, Edl. it will be seen that in the year 1885 ” ” 7th November 1888, ” 634, ” the Director of Public Instruction forwarded, for the opinion of the Honourable the Judges of the High Court, certain suggestions for improving the study of law. Of these, the second was that law classes should be opened in four of the mofussil Government colleges. But the High Court, with the exception of the late Chief Justice, was not in favour of this idea, believing that the instruction thus afforded would only be of a second-rate quality, and that it would be better to develop and improve the legal instruction provided in Madras town. This view, which has been accepted by the Director of Public Instruction, has also the concurrence of His Excellency the Governor in Council, who has recently expressed general approval of the Director’s proposals for the creation of a separate Law College at the Presidency town, to be presided over by a competent English barrister. The details of this scheme will be submitted to the Government of India when matured, but meantime this Government is not in favour of instituting mofussil law lectures. As regards mofussil medical schools, the Surgeon-General with Government, in his letter recorded in G. O., dated 6th May 1887, No. 238, expresses the opinion that the existing schools can turn out as many hospital assistants as can be provided for at the present rate of demand, and the Government agree with this opinion. 4. The next recommendation which affects this Presidency is that the instruction in all medical schools be made more practical than at present, and that facilities for practical training should also be provided at the College of Engineering. It will be observed from the letter of the Surgeon General with the Government above quoted that, while Dr. Bidie considers that practical medical knowledge must be mainly acquired by clinical practice in the hospitals rather than by class-room instruction, he is in favour of larger illustration by practical demonstrations of the lectures on Physiology, Pathology and Hygiene, and advises the provision of a properly equipped laboratory for teaching the last-named subject. He has now been called on to report what steps he has taken, or proposes to take, to carry out this programme. In regard to the College of Engineering, the rules of the institution had 264

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

been thoroughly revised, after prolonged discussion, before the Home Department memorandum on technical education was received. The revised rules are recorded in G. O., dated 7th January 1886, No. 7 (Educational), and it will be seen that they require a practical course lasting two years to be undergone by all students of the Engineer and Engineer-Subordinate classes. This practical course is now in operation, the students being attached to the Public Works Workshops. The suggestion (paragraph 70) that the Railway workshops should be similarly utilized has the approval of this Government and will be acted on if opportunity arises. It will also be observed that the Engineering Faculty of the University has expressed the opinion that it would be well to require all candidates for the B.C.E. degree to produce a certificate of having passed through a practical course. 5. The seventh recommendation, which is the next affecting Madras, is that agricultural and veterinary schools, or classes in high schools, should be established where possible. This Government in G. O., dated 17th September 1883, No. 610, directed the introduction of a scheme of agricultural instruction into the Government high and middle schools, but the withdrawal of Government from upper secondary education has put it out of the power of His Excellency in Council to give effect to this resolution. 6. The ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth recommendations refer to the introduction of drawing as a compulsory subject, in all schools, the teachers of which are competent to teach it; its adoption as G. O., dated 9th February 1888, No. 100, Edl. a necessary qualification for all teachers ” ” 15th January 1889, ” 17, ” in middle and high schools; the inclusion of drawing and elementary science as compulsory subjects in the Middle School examination; and the introduction of the latter as a compulsory subject of instruction in all middle and high schools. His Excellency the Governor in Council is fully alive to the great importance of drawing as an instrument of technical education, and recognises the desirability of G. O., dated 18th September 1886, No. 604. encouraging, as far as possible, the study of elementary science. Both subjects are already included alike in the recentlysanctioned scheme of a Primary School examination, in the Middle School examination, and in the Higher Examinations in Science, Arts and Industries. Elementary Physics and Chemistry are, moreover, at present a compulsory subject in all high schools because they form a compulsory part of the Matriculation Examination of the University. They will also be included in the contemplated High School examination referred to below. But His Excellency in Council is compelled to agree with the Director of Public Instruction in considering that the recommendations made in the memorandum are too sweeping to be for the present practicable. There is no sufficient supply of teachers in these subjects for it to be possible to make them compulsory, and some time must elapse before this can be remedied. In the meantime, the importance of drawing and elementary science will not be in any danger of being lost sight of. 7. The most important of the remaining recommendations advocate that a “modern” side should be created in the High School course; that the University 265

No. 7. Technical education in MADRAS, 1889. —concld.

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 No. 9. MADRAS Technical Scheme, 1885.

should establish a “modern” side entrance examination; and that a technical branch should be added to middle and high schools, leading up to the University test. With reference to these suggestions, I am directed to state that the whole question of encouraging technical education in middle schools, high schools and colleges is at present under the consideration of this Government. Proposals for the institution of a new examination with a technical side, to be called the High School examination, were submitted by the Director of Public Instruction in 1887. They were referred by G. O., dated 24th August 1887. No. 458, to a committee for report, and the committee’s report was dealt with in G. O., dated 11th July 1888, No. 401. The opinion of the University on this scheme and representations from several loading bodies of educationists are now before Government, a further report from the Director of Public Instruction being alone awaited. In these circumstances, it will be convenient to postpone any reference to these questions until a decision is come to on the High School examination scheme, and until a reply can be made to Home Department letter, No. 9–347, dated 18th September 1888. 8. Among other steps for the encouragement of technical education which have recently been taken in this Presidency may be mentioned the establishment of the Victoria Technical Institute, the creation of commercial classes in connection with Pacheayappah’s Aided College, and the range addition of commercial and industrial subjects to the list of optional subjects of the Middle School examination. From the letter, dated 4th August 1887, of the Secretary to the Victoria Technical Institute, recorded in G. O., dated 9th September G. O., dated 15th September 1887, Mis. No. 497, it will be seen that that institu1888, No. 516, Edl., with copy of tion has promised to aid the managers of high and memo. by Mr. John Adam. middle schools in such ways as may be found practicable, and so far as means permit, towards imparting instruction in technical subjects. From the marginally-noted orders, of which copy is enclosed, it will also be apparent that the Institute is likely to take an important part in fostering technical instruction in this Presidency, and in view of this, it has received a substantial grant-in-aid from this Government.

No. 9(a).—Resolution of the Government. of Madras. ORDER—dated 3rd June 1885, No. 377, (Educational). His Excellency the Governor in Council recognises, in the scheme now submitted by the Director of Public Instruction, another great stop towards a sound system of education for South India. The opening of a new outlet for ability is of the most paramount social and political importance. The Government approve of the notification and draft syllabus submitted by Mr. Grigg, and desire to place on record their high appreciation of the care and trouble taken in drawing up the present scheme. 2. The Director of Public Instruction will submit the names of those gentlemen he would wish to see appointed to the committee proposed for settling the final details as to the courses to be followed and the exact character of the syllabuses. 266

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

The notification cannot, of course, come into effect until after the report of the above committee has been submitted. 3. The Government approve of the draft chapter of the Grant-in Aid-Code, but desire that it should be clearly laid down that grants-in-aid will be given for the erection of laboratories and the provision of apparatus. 4. The Government further approve of the gradual extension of work proposed in the Agricultural College and School of Arts. They do not, however, desire that any measures should be taken towards extending the scope of the work done at the Engineering College. That institution is now providing a sound engineering education, and its further development may be left to the future. The gradual encouragement of art classes in mofussil colleges is sanctioned, and the proposed carpentry class in the Rajahmundry College may be at once opened as an experiment. 5. The removal of the Normal school to Saidapet is approved. 6. Although the Director of Public Instruction specially requests the orders of Government with reference to making certain examinations a passport to employment in certain branches of the Government service, it is not quite clear what his suggestion is. He should state in detail the nature of his recommendations. 7. With reference to the communication from Mr. Symonds, the Government are of opinion that any enquiry of the nature he proposes would probably be of little avail so far as adults are concerned. The obvious remedy for the rising generation is, as he has observed, the technical instruction of the children, and this is what the Government hope will be provided by the present scheme. (True Extract.) E. F. WEBSTER, Chief Secretary. To the Director of Public Instruction. To W. A. Symonds, Esq.

No. 11 (b).—Extract from Sir A. Croft’s letter on technical education, dated the 20th February, 1889. 16. In connection with the Seebpore College, the general question of technical instruction fall also to be considered. In my No. 571, dated the 26th January 1888, I observed that I regarded “the development of the Seebpore College to the highest attainable point of efficiency as the best, if not the only present, means of promoting technical instruction;” and I deferred the submission of detailed proposals on the subject until the report of the Committee should be received, on the ground that they must take their shape from the Committee’s scheme. In giving an outline of what were then believed to be the Committee’s proposals, I stated:—“In addition to the classes for engineers, civil overseers or clerks of works, and foreman mechanics, it has also been proposed to establish classes for land and estate management, for veterinary practice, for telegraphic employ, 267

No. 11 (b), Sir A. Crooft on technical education, 1889.

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 No. 11 (b), Sir A. Crooft on technical education, 1889. —contd.

for account-keeping, and for the scientific and practical instruction of superior artisans.” [A. class for draughtsmen should have been added to the list.] “If these proposals are carried out, the Seebpore College will acquire much of the character of a central technological institute, except that it will not concern itself with the training of workmen or managers for special manufacturing industries.” In reference to this programme it is important to notice that the maintenance of the shops at Seebpore was regarded by Mr. Spring as an essential part of the technical college which he hoped to see established there. “Let it be the aim,” he wrote, “of the new Technical College at Seebpore to be a training school for foremen and lending hands, of a class fit to be employed, by the public departments and by firms, for the supervision of all operations involving for their proper prosecution a thorough knowledge of principles and practical methods. For the present it will be possible to train such men for the supervision of only a very limited number of operations. There will be ordinary workshop practice, such as carpentry, fitting, smithery, founding, machine erection, engine and machine tending. Next will come masonry, earthwork, girder-erecting, the handling of weights, the manipulation of ropes and chains, and such other branches of practical knowledge as go to make a good foreman of civil works. Next will come surveying in all its branches, including mensuration and estimating and drawing. Then will come telegraphy, sufficient for the practical needs of the inspector and signaller classes. The College ought to make the training of platelayers and railway overseers a specialité; it ought, for instance, to be possible to procure a man from Seebpore who could handle his gang of platelayers, and take out and put in a set of points and crossings, or replace a damaged rail on a bridge.” He added that the training of all these classes of foremen should include, as it now does at Seebpore, a sufficient knowledge of theory, and a thorough knowledge of its application to work. All this, it will be observed, is confined to the technical training required for the supervision of labour, whether skilled or common. Other developments of technical instruction which Mr. Spring contemplated as part of the future Seebpore course were the following:— Managers of states, land stewards, and tahsildars; Accountants; Draughtsmen; Artisans.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

21. To get all the light that we can from the practice of other Provinces, I may observe that the Victorian Jubilee Technical Institute, lately opened at Bombay, is not a technological institute in the special sense just considered. The Managing Committee explain their programme in the following terms:—The Institute will at present give instruction in machine drawing, in steam, in mechanics, theoretical

268

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

and applied, in physics, i.e., electricity and magnetism, sound, light and heat. The machine-drawing classes are applicable to all the important industries of the district where machinery of any form is employed. Students will be taught to draw to scale the constructive details of various machines; when thoroughly conversant with these and the principles of theoretical and applied mechanics, in which instruction will be given, they will be able to design machines as occasion arises in daily practice. The principal features of the instruction, as now proposed to be given, are (with which end in view the laboratories have been so designed) to afford students facilities for the experimental study of the relations which the principles taught in the lecture-room bear to the problems met with in actual practice . . . As far as possible, pupils will handle the instruments and apparatus employed, and make experiments with them . . . At the end of this period (three years) a student with ordinary intelligence ought to be a fair mechanical engineer capable of taking charge of engines or machinery . . . His qualifications can be tested practically in the workshops of the Institute. The Board has aimed to establish a systematic and enduring plan of classes in those science subjects which bear directly on the industrial occupations of the locality, as well as to provide a complete course of progressive study.” The theoretical course covers much the same ground as that now prescribed for the apprentice class at the Seebpore College (which, it will be remembered, the Committee propose to reduce), except that the Bombay course omits surveying and pure mathematics, and carries the subjects of machine-drawing, steam and applied mechanics to a higher point. The initial qualification required is that of standard V of the Bombay Code, which includes English, History, Geography and Arithmetic, with no higher Mathematics. For admission to the apprentice class at Seebpore a student must have passed either standard VII of the European Code, or the University Entrance Examination in English and mathematics, or a special test comprising English, Arithmetic, Euclid and Algebra. It is clear therefore that the Bombay Jubilee Institute is comparable with, and is established on the same general lines as, the mechanic class at Seebpore. It is not a technological institute in the sense of giving instruction in the principles and processes of special arts or handicrafts: its object is, like that of the Seebpore College, to prepare pupils for general employment in mills and factories where machinery is used, though it is probable that Seebpore could borrow some useful hints from the course which the Institute prescribes,—for example, in machine-drawing. 22. To return, then, to the technical instruction of artisans in the first of the two senses specified in paragraph 20, namely, to take men already practising handicraft and to educate their hands and eyes in drawing, modelling, and the like, so as to make them more capable and skillful workmen. Mr. Spring expresses the requirements of such a class in the following words:—“Were our school situated in Bow Bazár, or at Muttiabruj, or near any other densely populated native centre and were we to open a class, not to teach artisans their own proper work, but to teach them subjects cognate to their work, such as would make them better workmen—elementary geometrical drawing, for example, for carpenters, a thoroughly 269

No. 11 (b), Sir A. Crooft on technical education, 1889. —contd.

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 No. 11 (b), Sir A. Crooft on technical education, 1889. —concld.

good training in the principles of drawing for draughtsmen, and various novel methods such as would be obvious improvements on existing practice, to other craftsmen—we should, I have no doubt, gradually obtain a supply of willing and intelligent adult pupils. The very difficulty of even suggesting anything at the start which could be taught to such persons, except drawing, is an illustration of the need which exists for caution before putting money into such a branch of technical education. Improved methods of working must be taught, as a general rule, not directly in a school, but through the foremen who will be educated at our College”—that is, in the class for mechanics. And again:—“I have no faith whatever in any attempt to establish a class beginning with much more than this. The great workshops which are now dotted all over India are the real schools for the improvement of the artisans, and our Seebpore foremen ought to be, as it were, the under-masters in these schools, and will, by degrees, I hope, succeed in disseminating the improved ideas which we have taught them widely throughout India.” And again:—“What I do believe in, as opposed to the idea of training up craftsmen fit to earn their living by the work of their hands, is the possibility of establishing classes at Seebpore as well as at factory centres, where the main fundamental principles underlying the successful practice of their craft can be taught to selected skilled workmen. Such a class must almost necessarily be a vernacular one. Beyond drawing, I would at first teach them little. The Educational Department have, if they care to avail themselves of the opportunity, ample scope, at the several great centres of labour, for the establishment of schools for the special teaching of our skilled workmen and of their children; and schools of this description, as well as the existing hill and other schools for railway employés’ children, ought to lay themselves out, deliberately, judiciously and thoroughly, for working their best scholars up to the renovated foreman class at Seebpore.” 23. These quotations will, I hope, help to clear our ideas as to the proper scope and limits of technical instruction. They lend support to the view that I have elsewhere advocated, that “the development of the Indian engineering colleges to the highest attainable point of efficiency is, for the present, the best and most practicable means of forwarding technical instruction.” They involve the retention of the mechanic class at Seebpore, and of the shops in which the apprentices can learn their work. They include also the establishment of drawing classes for operatives and their children at Seebpore and other factory centres and the affiliation of such classes, for the benefit of promising pupils, to the mechanic class at Seebpore. The first point, the re-organization of the Seebpore mechanic class, has been dealt with in the Committee’s report and in the earlier paragraphs of this letter. With regard to the second point, I beg to refer to my No. 6660, dated the 26th December 1888, in which I have advocated the establishment of drawing classes at Calcutta, Hoogly and Dacca; primarily for the standard in drawing of the University Entrance Examination, but secondarily, I would hope, for the benefit of operatives in the neighbouring workshops and factories, for whom special classes should be formed. These proposals may do for a beginning; but if Mr. Spring’s anticipations have any good ground, I hope to see them largely extended 270

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

in future years. The projected industrial survey, as ordered by the Government of India, will show what local industries exist throughout the Province, in which of them increased skill is attainable, and by what means in each case the necessary improvement can be effected. It may be mentioned that 46 high schools in Bombay have drawing classes attached to them containing 2,874 pupils; that from these classes 1,320 candidates appeared at the examination of 1887—88; and that 315 obtained certificates of the first and 11 of the second grade. It may be inferred that these classes would not be so popular unless they were found to be attended with some practical advantage.

No. 20.—Extract from Resolution, dated 7th September 1894, upon Mr. A. M. Nash’s Report on the progress of education in India, 1887–88 to 1891–92. 14. It has for long been accepted that the educational system should comprise a secondary school course which should fit boys for industrial or commercial careers, and the need from a trade point of view of industrial education for developing the resources of India has also been recognized. Technical education is, therefore, supported by the Government of India as an extension of general education, and industrial education is countenanced so far as it is of a nature applicable to the service of existing industries. The Government of India, in reviewing Sir A. Croft’s Report, suggested that schools of drawing and design might be attached to the principal railway workshops, and that in large towns there would probably be found an existing demand for superior skill in industries. Local Governments were enjoined to carry out on an early opportunity industrial surveys which should ascertain particulars as to all important local industries, and to appoint committees of educational experts and professional men with a view to their recommending alterations in the system of public instruction according as the requirements at local centres of industrial progress might render advisable. Chapter VIII of the present Report deals with the subject of technical education. The Note prepared in the Home Department in 1886 recommended that drawing and introductory science should be studied in all middle and high schools; that there should be a practical or “modern” side in high schools; and that a “modern” University Entrance examination should be adopted as recommended by the Education Commission. It was suggested that special schools in the various departments of Arts should be established; that a technical branch to teach and improve a local industry should be attached in some places to middle and high schools; and that the whole body of technical institutions should be systematized and placed under central colleges to be affiliated to the University. 15. Drawing is now taught in all training schools in Madras, and special inducements are offered to all teachers to qualify in drawing; but it has not been made a compulsory subject of study in the schools. Elementary science is compulsory in high schools, and can be studied in middle schools. In Bombay drawing is taught in all Government High schools and Training schools; and, though it has 271

No. 20. G. L. Resolution of 7th September 1894.

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 No. 20. G. L. Resolution of 7th September 1894. —contd.

not been made compulsory, the number of students of drawing has very greatly increased. Some branches of elementary science are required for the Matriculation Examination, and are therefore compulsory in High schools; and an examination alternative to the University Matriculation Examination has been instituted. It does, however, not lend up to a University curriculum; and on the point as to how far its character is modern and practical, as also regarding the projected appointment of an instructor of science to every High school, the information is defective. In Bengal drawing has been made compulsory in Training schools, but its introduction into schools generally is still in the experimental stage: introductory scientific instruction has long been imparted in Upper Primary, Middle, and High schools. A modern side has not been established in High schools, as the Local Government considers it impracticable to effect this change until the Senate of the University will consent to establish an alternative Entrance examination in practical knowledge. The University of Allahabad has agreed to establish an alternative final examination for High schools, which may also be a Matriculation examination for those who purpose to study science. The general appointment of drawing teachers in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh has been suspended until funds become available for the establishment of a School of Art. Neither drawing nor science is a compulsory study in the schools in the Punjab; but the University has determined to hold an alternative Entrance examination in practical knowledge, and also a clerical and commercial examination which will not lead up to a University course. In the Central Provinces drawing has been made compulsory in Primary schools and optional in Middle schools. Physical science is compulsory in Government Middle schools, and lessons on common objects are given in Primary schools. Manual training has been introduced, but it has been found advisable to render it optional only. In Burma drawing has recently been made compulsory in Government and Municipal schools. In Assam the subject appears still not to be taught: a certain amount of science is taught in Middle and High schools. 16. Passing from what are considered the preparatory stages to technical education itself it is remarked that amalgamated rules were published in Madras at the beginning of 1893. The rules prescribe examinations of three grades: elementary, intermediate, and advanced; the subjects embraced being Engineering, Physical Science, Geology, Biology, Sanitary Science, Agriculture, Vetorinary Science, Commerce, Music, Drawing, and the work of various trades (Jeweller’s, Printer’s, Shoe-maker’s, Lace-maker’s, Cook’s, etc.). Diplomas and certificates are awarded for passing at once in several of the subjects. The system is one of testing rather than imparting knowledge, and departs from the intentions of the Government of India in dealing directly with the actual work of various trades. Mr. Havell, Superintendent of the Madras School of Arts, conducted extensive enquiries, but a complete industrial survey has not been carried out in Madras, nor has agricultural instruction been introduced in Government High and Middle schools; industrial classes have been attached to a few schools. The Victoria Technical Institute, Madras, founded as a memorial of Her Majesty’s Jubilee, has an invested capital 272

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

of Ɍ1,42,000; it is stated that, when the building is completed, a technical library and museum will be opened, and arrangements made by delivering lectures and holding classes to constitute it an Upper Secondary Technical school. Hitherto the Institute’s funds have been expended in giving stipends tenable by students at institutions where science and art are taught, and in providing certain lectures. The building referred to is a portion of the Counumara Fort Library building, and after construction is to be placed at the disposal of the Victoria Institute, the Government retaining the ownership. At the Madras School of Art the number of students has risen between 1886–87 and 1891–92 from 265 to 426, and the institution seems to be flourishing and useful. The Government of India are now considering, in communication with the Secretary of State, the position which should be assigned in the educational system to this and the other Schools of Art. The College of Agriculture at Saidapet has been re-organized, but hitherto the number of students shows a decrease. From the account given of industrial schools (often charitable institutions) in Madras it appears that in many of them boys are simply being trained to trades. In Bombay the “Reay Art Workshops” were in 1890 added to the School of Art, and speedily received numerous apprentices in wood-carving and other artistic industries. The Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, founded chiefly with subscriptions to the Ripon Memorial Fund and with money designed to celebrate the Jubilee of the Queen-Empress, was opened to students in 1888. The course was calculated to train a student in three sessions to be a fair mechanical engineer. A large number of students were immediately obtained. The Ripon Textile School is attached to the Institute. In the Fifth Annual Report of this Institute (which is perhaps the most advanced in India) it is stated that there had been 1,148 students in all during four years, and that all the Textile and many of the Engineering students who had completed the course had found ready employment. The Institute is provided with buildings and apparatus for its Engineering and Textile branches, and is resorted to from all parts of India, and even from abroad; other branches are to be established whenever funds are available. The Bombay Government considered that it had sufficient information about local industries without ordering an industrial survey. The Poona College of Science contains classes in science, engineering, and agriculture, besides classes, independent of the University, for training subordinates of the Public Works and Forest Departments. The numbers in the agricultural classes have somewhat diminished since 1887, employment not being assured to the students. Apprentices in the industrial department have risen from 76 to 110, and more cannot be admitted. Agricultural classes are attached to some of the High schools and to two Training schools. A Veterinary college was established at Bombay in 1886. There were 16 Industrial schools in 1892, besides industrial classes attached to ordinary schools. The Government of Bengal deputed Mr. E. W. Collin in 1889 to make an industrial survey of the Province. He reported that, generally speaking, the industries were scattered and unimportant. His proposal for a school for mining students is said to be still under discussion. Other proposals by Mr. Collin related to the 273

No. 20. G. L. Resolution of 7th September 1894. —contd.

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 No. 20. G. L. Resolution of 7th September 1894. —contd.

training of foremen for factories and workshops, and of artizans and mechanics; but he did not recommend the establishment of industrial branches of Primary or Secondary schools. Arrangements for accommodating apprentices to be trained in railway workshops are stated to be under the consideration of the Bengal Government, and a scheme was in 1891 directed to be prepared for the establishment of a silk-weaving school. The number of students of land surveying has risen greatly in Bengal, and they are said all to find employment with case. The Local Government has raised the qualification for admission to the Seebpore Engineering College and also the maximum age, has provided instruction and machinery to enable the students to undertake larger pieces of work in the workshops than heretofore, and has improved the prospects of the students by the guarantee to graduates in engineering of certain appointments in the Public Works Department. The number of students in the Engineer classes rose from 44 to 87 during the quinquennium. The Calcutta School of Art trains general and engineering draughtsmen, architects, modellers, wood-engravers, and lithographers. The course of instruction was revised in 1887. The students, who pay Ɍ3 each per mensem as fees, have increased from 152 to 181. Instruction in design is sometimes given in the school, but regular classes for this purpose have not as yet been formed. There are 21 Industrial schools in Bengal; they appear from the later reports received to be more flourishing than was believed by Mr. Nash, and the instruction is not in all of them confined to teaching trades, but the future of these institutions can hardly as yet be regarded as assured. The Government of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh concluded in 1890 that the chief need was higher training in the new mechanical industries introduced by British capital into the Province. A Committee was appointed to deal with the question of training skilled mechanics. The practical recommendations of this Committee, which chiefly relate to the rules of the Thomason Engineering College at Roorkee, and to establishing a School of Art at Lucknow and certain schools for the children of railway and foundry artizans, are described in paragraph 183 of Mr. Nash’s Review. An Industrial school has been opened at Lucknow, and an Agricultural school has during 1893 been established at Cawnpore: the changes proposed in the Roorkee College have been reported to the Secretary of State. In the Punjab a Committee was appointed which submitted suggestions regarding agriculture as well as other topics, and also respecting the training of artizans. Standards for Industrial schools have been drawn up and grants offered to schools under private management teaching them; all the Industrial schools of the Province are under the supervision of the Principal of the Mayo School of Industrial Art. The number, however, is as yet inconsiderable. A Railway Technical school, intended for the sons of railway artizans, was opened at Lahore in 1889, and speedily filled; a new building has now been erected, costing Ɍ45,000, and capable of accommodating five or six hundred scholars. The aim of the institution is to give instruction preliminary to the practical training of the real workshop. An industrial survey was not carried out, as existing industries are little developed. 274

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

Design and decoration are said to be well taught in the Mayo School at Lahore, in which the number of students has increased from 82 to 134. In the Central Provinces an industrial survey was carried out in 1888–89, but the industries were found not to be of such importance as to justify expenditure on technical instruction in connection with them. Fifteen technical scholarships are (it appears from the Report) offered by the Administration annually, tenable for two years in the workshops of the Bengal-Nagpur railway. An Engineering class was opened in July 1888 at Nagpur; the students easily find employment, but their number is still small. An Agricultural class was opened also in 1888 in connection with the Nagpur Experimental Farm. The course lasts two years, and includes practical work in raising crops, besides the principles of agriculture, elementary chemistry, and kindred subjects. Dr. Voelcker, Consulting Chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, on visiting Nagpur, considered this to be the best agricultural class he had seen, and ascribed particular merit to the plan of prescribing the practical work of raising crops. In Lower Burma an industrial survey has been carried out. Grants are offered to aided schools for teaching a number of arts or trades; but, according to the Report, technical training has not been taken up by any of them systematically. Eight stipendiary apprenticeships are given yearly in the State Railway workshops at Insein. There is little demand for technical education in Assam, and the establishment of certain scholarships to be held by Assam boys attending the Seebpore College in Bengal has been considered sufficient. 17. The agricultural aspect of technical education was considered in the instructive report on Indian agriculture which was prepared for the Government of India by Dr. Voelcker, and his suggestions were subsequently made the subject of examination by two Conferences summoned by the Revenue and Agricultural Department of the Government of India to deal with that report. The conclusions and recommendations made by Dr. Voelcker were thus stated in his report:— The spread of education will be an important element in the improvement of agriculture. It will do much to remove the prejudices attaching to “caste” and custom which prevent progress in agricultural methods, and it will give rise to a more intelligent farming class. In a country where, as in India, agriculture is the chief employment, agricultural education especially should be encouraged. Until lately the tendency of education has been in a purely literary direction, and has turned attention away from the land rather then towards it; the fault can now be best remedied by substituting agricultural education for a part of the present educational programme. The work must proceed simultaneously from above downwards and from below upwards. Elementary instruction should be given in Primary schools by means of “readers” and “object lessons” which introduce familiar agricultural subjects. In Middle schools the elements of physical science, the use of agricultural primers, accompanied by Illustration Plots on which the ordinary farm crops are 275

No. 20. G. L. Resolution of 7th September 1894. —contd.

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 No. 20. G. L. Resolution of 7th September 1894. —concld.

grown, should form part of the instruction. In High schools more attention should be given to physical science and to agriculture, and Illustration Farms or fields should be attached to the schools. Agricultural classes should be established where colleges or institutions that especially teach agriculture do not exist, and these should have Demonstration Farms attached, and land on which the pupils can themselves work. Special attention should be directed to the agricultural education given in colleges, in order that the teachers supplied to High schools and to agricultural classes may be well trained men, and that the Land Revenue, Agricultural, and cognate departments may be supplied with subordinate officials who have studied Agriculture, both theoretically and practically. I do not consider it advisable to establish special Agricultural colleges, but I think that it would be better to utilize existing colleges of science and to form agricultural branches at them. Universities should encourage the study of Agriculture by making Agriculture an optional subject in the course for a degree, and the claims of men who have passed in Agriculture should be fully recognized for appointments in the Revenue and cognate departments. There is great need of Agricultural text-books suited to the circumstances of the different parts of India, and these should be in the vernacular as well as in English. That general education be extended among the agricultural classes. That agricultural education form a part of the general educational system, and be introduced as a prominent subject in the schools of the country. That text-books on Agriculture adapted to the different parts of the country be prepared as early as possible. That encouragement be given to the higher study of Agriculture by recognizing more fully the claims of men who have passed in Scientific Agriculture for appointments in the Land Revenue and cognate departments. Since the submission of these remarks sufficient time has not elapsed for much progress to be made, but there is a general tendency to modify the course of primary instruction which will meet some of the suggestions made by Dr. Voelcker. For example, drawing has been introduced and agricultural primers or readers have been prescribed. In some instances hand and eye training of the Kindergarten description and experimental gardens have been tried, but no substantial measure of success has been attained in either of these directions. Experimental farms, with schools attached, have been established in some Provinces, and in them greater success has been obtained. On the whole, the Government of India are of opinion that the question is one which cannot be forced, but should be dealt with gradually, and that greater success is to be expected from making instruction in the rudiments of agriculture part and parcel of the primary system of instruction in the country than from teaching it as a subject apart from the general educational 276

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

programme. As a matter of fact, the Indian cultivator’s methods, though empirical, are well adapted to his environment; and, as Dr. Voelcker says, we ought not to look so much to teaching improvement in any particular agricultural process as to the general enlightenment of the agricultural classes, and that expansion of their minds which will enable them to perceive for themselves the small reforms which are within their means and opportunities. It will be the object of the experimental farms, which Local Governments and Administrations may as opportunity presents itself establish, to make those experiments in improved agriculture which, when successful, will no doubt gradually filtrate downwards to the cultivating masses.

No. 23.—Resolutions of the Simla Conference (1901) on technical education. I.—GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1. That Technical Education may be here defined as— (a) the study of the scientific methods and principles underlying the practice of any handicraft, industry, or profession; (b) the application of those methods and principles to the practice of the handicraft, industry, or profession in question. The first is the primary or technological aspect of the subject; the second is its subsequent and practical application. 2. That all technical instruction must rest upon the basis of some preliminary education of a simple but practical nature. 3. That this preliminary education is better communicated in existing schools and institutions, i.e., as a department of Primary or Secondary Instruction, than in Technical or Industrial Schools. 4. That it should, as a general rule, include such subjects in the Primary grades as the free hand drawing, simple hand-work, and the elementary principles of natural science. 5. That where it is considered necessary or desirable to give this education to artisans in connection with Technical or Industrial Schools, it should be provided for by special classes attached to them; and that a clear differentiation should be made between (a) literary, and (b) scientific and technical courses. 6. That the functions and activity of the Education Departments, both of the Government of India and of the Local Governments, should be devoted to the promotion of Technical Instruction, rather than to the development of trade; in other words, that a clear line should be drawn between educational effort and commercial enterprise. 7. That the supply or development of the existing Indian markets, in so far as this is likely to result from Technical Instruction, is of superior importance to the creation of new export trades. 277

No. 23. SIMLA Conference Resolutions, 1901.

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 No. 23. SIMLA Conference Resolutions, 1901. —contd.

8. That in so far as the mercantile aspect of the question calls for separate organization or help, this should be provided for either by private enterprise or by special departments or officers distinct from the existing Educational staff.

II.—HIGHER FORMS OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 9. That Technical Education in India has hitherto been mainly directed to the higher forms of instruction required to train men— (a) for the Government Service as engineers, mechanicians, electricians, overseers, surveyors, Land Revenue officers, and teachers in schools; (b) for employment in railway workshops, cotton mills, mines, etc. 10. That the institutions which have been established for these purposes, such as the Engineering Colleges at Rurki, Sibpur and Madras, the College of Science at Poona, the Technical Institute at Bombay, the Engineering School at Jubbulpere; etc., the majority of which are affiliated to Universities, and train up to University courses, have done, and are doing, valuable work, and that their maintenance and further development are matters of first importance; but that the first call upon fresh Technical effort should preferably lie in other directions.

III.—SCHOOLS OF ART 11. That the true function of Indian Schools of Art is the encouragement of Indian Art and Art industries; and that in so far as they either fail to promote these arts or industries, or provide a training that is dissociated from their future practice, or are utilized as commercial ventures, they are conducted upon erroneous principles. 12. That the first duty of Indian Schools of Art should be to teach such arts or trades as the pupil intends to practise when he has left the school. 13. That these fall naturally into two classes— (a) such arts, as designing in special reference to Indian arts and industries, drawing, painting, illumination, modelling, photography, engraving, which may be taught either to those who intend to practise them professionally in the future, or to drawing masters in schools; (b) such art industries as are capable of being practised in the locality, and in which improvement is capable of being introduced by instruction of the pupils or workmen by means of superior appliances, methods or designs. 14. That the practice of these arts or art industries should be directed to the improvement of the skill and capacity of the pupil or workman; and thereby to their expansion, and should not be pushed to the point of competing with local industries organised upon a caste or trade basis, or of doing within the school what can equally well be done outside, or of usurping the sphere of private enterprise. 15. That samples of the wares produced in Schools of Art may legitimately be kept for sale or for orders, and may profitably be exhibited in public 278

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

museums, but that it is undesirable to convert the schools into shops, or for Government Educational officers to be responsible for extensive commercial transactions. 16. That it is desirable that a register of the workmen or pupils should be kept on their leaving the Schools of Art, with the object of enabling any orders that may be received to be placed to advantage. 17. That teaching in the Schools of Art should be in the hands of experts trained as a rule in Indian colleges, or in Art Schools. 18. That the specialisation of a limited number of arts and art industries in the several Schools of Art should be preferred to the simultaneous teaching of a large number. 19. That free admissions and scholarships should, as a general rule, be discouraged, and should gradually be replaced by payment of fees; but that this is compatible with the assistance of necessitous cases, and with the payment of wages to the pupil or workman as soon as his work becomes of value.

IV.—AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS 20. That the existing Agricultural Colleges (Madras and Poona) have been organised upon a theoretical rather than a utilitarian basis, leading up to agricultural diplomas or degrees, and have been directed to the training of Government officials in the Land Revenue and cognate services, rather than to the teaching of practical agriculture to members of the land-owning class. 21. That the interest of both classes may be served by the institution of Agricultural Schools in which practical work is conducted on an experimental farm, pari passu, with simple veterinary teaching, and, where required, with instruction in surveying, village accounts and records, Land Revenue law and procedure, and the principles of agricultural science; that there may be two departments in these schools, one conducted in English, and the other in the vernacular, and that the vernacular department may conveniently be utilized for the instruction of village schoolmasters in the elements of agriculture. 22. That it is for consideration whether a School for the practical teaching of agriculture to land-holders might be instituted by Government.

V.—INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 23. That a survey of the existing Industrial Schools in India leads to the conclusion that they have been wanting in definiteness both of methods and objects, that there has been no clear differentiation between general and technical studies in the , that they have depended for initiation and support upon the volition of local bodies rather than upon any sustained policy of Local Governments, that they have been insufficiently co-ordinated with particular local industries or trades, and that the impression produced by them either upon industrial development, or upon industrial educations, has been relatively small. 279

No. 24. Technical Scholarships, 1902.

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 No. 24. Technical Scholarships, 1902. —contd.

24. That the instruction given in such schools should be technical in preference to general, specialised instead of diffuse. 25. That the form of Industrial School recommended by the Conference for future adoption where practicable, or for encouragement by grants-in-aid where it already exists, is a Local Trade or Crafts School, directed to the furtherance or development of a local industry, which appears to be capable of expansion by the application of superior methods or implements. 26. That such schools may be either country or urban, according as the industry in question is practised in the country or in towns. 27. That in country districts such schools will best be devoted to the study and development of single indigenous products: in towns to the development of manufactures; and that in towns it may be possible to collect several industries in a single building, and to give instruction in diverse branches of industry or manufacture. 28. That such schools, whether country or urban, should be primarily educational, and not commercial institutions; that they should be, as far as possible, self-supporting, but should not compete with established private trades. 29. That only such pupils shall be admitted as will proceed to practise the industry taught. 30. That the levy of fees is a proper feature of Industrial schools, but that it is dependent upon the position and means of the pupil and the stability and popularity of the institution, and cannot everywhere be enforced in the early stages. 31. That it will be a necessary preliminary to the institution of such schools to ascertain what are the industries or manufactures to which they may be applied, in the light of the Industrial Surveys already made. 32. That, where it is considered possible to open new or extended markets for the produce of the industry or manufacture thus developed, it will probably be found desirable to connect them with Commercial Museums, both in and outside of India. 33. That for the present the best available teachers, overseers, and foremen for these schools should be procured either in India or from abroad; but that in time it is hoped that they may be produced in larger numbers by institutions at suitable centres in India, where the investigations of products and industries can be carried on. 34. That in provinces where the suggested developments admit of wide or rapid growth, it should be for the consideration of the Local Governments whether a separate Technological Department of Government may in time be instituted, for their especial supervision and control.

VI.—STATE SCHOLARSHIPS 35. That it is desirable that the Government of India should institute a number of State technical scholarships, perhaps ten in number, with an approximate allowance of £100 a year, in addition to travelling expenses and fees, to be awarded 280

PA P E R S R E L A T I N G T O T E C H N I C A L E D U C A T I O N

annually in fixed proportions by the Local Governments, subject to the sanction of the Government of India, to selected candidates, who should be sent abroad to undertake definite courses of study in subjects connected with industrial science or research. That these scholarships might be held for an average duration of two years.

Notes 1. The “Anglicists” advocated education through the medium of English and the Vernaculars, in accordance with modern ideas; the Orientalists advocated education through the medium of the Oriental classics on old established rules. The controversy was decided in favour of English and the modern system, chiefly through the powerful aid of Macaulay, then Legal Member of Council. 2. Believed to be the late Mr. J.S. Mill. 3. Education Commission Report, pages 219–22. 4. The reference is to classes in drawing and agriculture attached to some high schools in Bombay. 5. By Acts XXVII of 1857 and XXII of 1857 respectively. 6. Report of the Royal Commission of technical education. Papers by Professor Pedler of the Calcutta Presidency College and Professor Monday of the Sibpur Engineering College. Reports of Mr. Grigg, Director of Public Instruction, Madras, of Mr. Tawney, Officiating Director of Public Instruction, Bengal, and of Mr. Lee-Warner Officiating Director, Bombay. A pamphlet entitled “How to introduce National Technical education into India,” by Mr. Dinshaw Ardisir Taleyarkhan (Baroda, 1884), contains some sensible suggestions. 7. Also in District Board Schools. This is essential as Aided and Middle Schools are made over to District Boards by the Bengal Self-Government scheme.

281

No. 24. Technical Scholarships, 1902. —concld.

13 WILLIAM LEE-WARNER, EXTRACT FROM THE CITIZEN OF INDIA (LONDON: MACMILLAN, 1900), 162–177

CHAPTER XII. FORCES OF EDUCATION. 110. A Choice of Benefits. A few years ago the writer was travelling from Poona to Bombay in the company of three gentlemen at a time when the Great Indian Peninsular railway was breached by floods near Thana. One of the travellers was a Brahman official, the second was a Parsi lawyer, and the third a wellknown Mahomedan citizen of Bombay engaged in commerce. A discussion was raised as to the various departments of the British administration, and the question was propounded as to their respective merits. The Brahman gentleman urged that the system of public instruction, and in particular higher education, had conferred more benefits upon India than any other measure of government. The lawyer thought that British justice was a more valuable gift than the university, colleges, and schools. The former laid stress on the coincidence that, when the British government was actually engaged in suppressing the mutiny, it found time and money to establish the first university in India. The latter pointed to the respect shown by the highest British officials to the majesty of the law. He considered that nothing was at the same time so strange to Indian ideas and so suggestive of justice as the fact that not even the viceroy or the governors would disregard a decree of a High Court, although the court itself had to rely upon the government to give effect to its orders even when they were opposed to the wishes and policy of government. At this point of the conversation the train was shunted, and an engine passed by, drawing a number of trucks full of workmen, tools, and a large crane, as well as sleepers and railway material, in charge of a British engineer. The Mahomedan gentleman jumped up and pointing to the train he said, “There, look at that; the strongest claim which the British have upon the people of India is their power of organization and resource. The break on the line occurred this morning, and now within a few hours an army of native workmen is on its way to repair the disaster under an officer who knows what has to be done and will teach the coolies how to do it. The public works of India are the best school in it.” 282

L E E - WA R N E R , T H E C I T I Z E N O F I N D I A

111. Educational Agencies. The total number of children of both sexes under instruction in British India does not amount to 4½ millions, and out of every hundred of children who might be at school eighty-seven never enter that place of education. But it must not be supposed that a man learns nothing except at school. If the State does its duty, its whole administration in every department should be an object-lesson to its citizens. If a government is to draw out (for education means to draw out) the healthy feelings of the people into sympathy with their neighbours and sympathy with their rulers, it must give them proofs of its sympathy with its citizens. Does the government perform its duty towards me? is a proper question which every subject of the State should ask himself. In previous chapters of this book some attempt has been made to give material for an answer to that question. Does the British government make provision for the public safety? We have seen what it spends upon the army, the marine, and the police of the empire. If space allowed, an account might be added of the formation of fire brigades, of regulations for buildings in crowded streets, and of the wonderful tale of the Gohna landslip and the vast imprisoned lake which, bursting its bonds, rushed down harmlessly into the Ganges, because its dreaded approach was preceded by measures of precaution and telegrams that averted loss of life. Does the government take measures for the public health? The hospitals and dispensaries all over the country, the sanitary departments, the arrangements for vaccination, and the Dufferin fund, enable men and women to answer this question for themselves. Does it let the people starve? Ask the millions who have lately left the famine relief works, the operatives in mills set up by British capital, the labourers in the tea-gardens, and the emigrants to distant colonies, whether endeavours are not made alike in foul and in fair seasons to find employment for the working classes. Is anything done to encourage thrift or assist the raiyats in obtaining loans for their operations? This question touches on difficult subjects, but it is possible to indicate the direction in which material for an answer may be sought. In post-office and other savings banks more than 700,000 depositors hold eleven crores of rupees. It is not an enormous sum, but can any other country in Asia show even a single depositor in a similar institution? The Indian raiyat also knows from experience the value of tuocavee grants advanced by government, and experiments are being made in the Dekhan and in other parts of the country to deal with the difficult subject of indebtedness and exorbitant interest. Every stage, through which the Procedure Code has passed in its several revisions, reminds the public that the government is not indifferent to the subject of thrift and insolvency. The reader can, if he pleases, put to himself other similar questions, but the limits of this book will not permit of further additions to them. It is sufficient to remark that every act or negligence of a government is a lesson to its citizens and therefore an educational force. But for the purposes of this chapter it will be enough to select the following subjects—public justice, public works, postal and telegraphic communications, the press, and schools. The reader will bear in mind that something has already been said about the lessons in self-government taught by municipalities, local boards, port trusts, and cantonment committees, which administer in a single year an income of nine crores of rupees. 283

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

We may therefore proceed at once to a consideration of the educative influence of the five subjects just enumerated. 112. Public Justice. Before the introduction of British rule India possessed no codes of law or procedure, which were equally applicable to all her citizens, whether Hindu, Mahomedan, or of European origin or others. The Indian Penal Code is in itself an education. But although the majority of the people have fortunately no personal acquaintance with its penalties, there is not a resident in the country who is not aware of the fact that there is a court within easy access which will give him redress against injury or wrong. He knows also that the highest official is not exempt from the obligations and penalties of law, and that there is a gradation of appeals and reviews by impartial judges and magistrates, with whose proceedings, according to law, the executive does not interfere. 2,294,431 suits were before the courts of civil justice in 1895, and in the same year 1,752,360 persons were brought to trial before the criminal courts. Not merely the parties and the persons accused, with their friends, but a host of witnesses, and some assessors were engaged in these judicial or magisterial proceedings, and they could see for themselves the cool and impartial manner in which the trials were conducted. When it is borne in mind that on all sides of the Indian frontiers rough tribal justice provides the only remedy for crime or injustice, the population of India cannot fail to be impressed by their daily experience of the administration of civil and criminal justice in British India, even though the best judges and magistrates are liable to err or are at times misled by false evidence. 113. Public Works. The public works constructed by the British government afford a striking lesson in their methods of administration, and in the benefits which the union of India with the United Kingdom has brought with it. No British architect has ever designed a building which surpasses in beauty the Kutab Minar at Delhi, or the Taj at Agra. The ruins of Bijapur, the rock-cut temples of Ellora and Ajanta, and the palaces of Agra and Delhi, attract to India wondering visitors from England and other distant countries. But not one of these travellers has any doubt as to the relative value of railways, dockyards, canals and bridges, as compared with the noble legacies left by previous rulers in marble and stone. The public works, built by the British government at the cost of the revenues paid by the taxpayer, make every taxpayer richer by the result. They are what are termed reproductive works. They cheapen the cost of transit, and so enable the people to buy their salt, cloth goods, and other articles at a cheaper rate. They allow the cultivators to send their cotton and other produce to a favourable market, and they add in numerous ways to the comforts and pleasures of life. A lesson too is to be learnt from the cost, as well as the choice, of public buildings. It is not without significance that the most beautiful buildings in the city of Bombay are the University Hall and the High Courts, the two temples of knowledge and justice. There is another point of view from which the public works may be looked at. They are themselves gigantic workshops for the instruction of thousands of skilled artizans and engineers in the construction and adornment of buildings, and the lessons taught to their builders are afterwards applied by them to the improvement of the private dwellings of the people of the country. 284

L E E - WA R N E R , T H E C I T I Z E N O F I N D I A

Railways perhaps merit the first place in our consideration. It is often said that a government ruling over subjects of various religions and sects cannot alter their social customs and habits of thought, but that railways silently effect a revolution of ideas. At the end of 1896 there were 20,110 miles of railway open to traffic, and 4,282 miles were being constructed, or else sanctioned for commencement. The capital spent on the open lines was 248·6 crores, and from this expenditure the taxpayers receive a very valuable return in the shape of earnings. Some of the railways belong to the government of India, or to native states, and others have been built by companies under a guarantee of a certain rate of interest, or else in consideration of a subsidy. Any one who has travelled by them must have been impressed with the engineering skill applied to them, with the powers of arrangement and foresight required for working them without accidents, and with the regularity and punctuality which they rigidly secure to and demand from passengers. Surely it is not without reason that railways are regarded as a powerful agency in the education of the people. Irrigation Works deserve separate mention, whether they be canals or tanks. Long before British rule India had discovered the value of tanks and of wells. But canals of the magnitude of those constructed in the last fifty years required a condition of public tranquillity, and a command of science and skill, which India never before possessed. As instances may be mentioned the Upper Ganges canal, which at a cost of three crores of rupees, comprises 440 miles of main canal, and 2,614 miles of distributing channels, supplying water to 759,297 acres; and the Sirhind canal, which cost 3·8 crores of rupees, and consists of 542 miles of main canal, and 4,655 miles of distributing channels. There are 40,000 miles of canal open in India, and more than ten millions of acres are irrigated by them. The outlay of capital upon them has been 37 crores, and the taxpayers receive from them an annual income of 1·5 crores of rupees. The value, however, of irrigation works does not lie so much in their usefulness as a money investment, as it does in the benefits they confer upon the raiyats, especially in seasons when the monsoon fails. Civil Works are another branch of the public works of India, and there is not a schoolboy in the country who has not seen something of the buildings, and the roads, which government make and maintain out of the public purse. Schools, hospitals, public offices, jails, museums, and courts of law, are constantly rising on all sides of us, whilst our maps show how villages and towns are being joined together by metalled roads, which are not impassable when the monsoon rains descend upon them. Some 4·5 crores of rupees are annually spent by government in providing for these wants, from which the humblest citizens must benefit. If the British government does not spend the taxes upon magnificent works of architecture, like those which adorn Delhi and Bijapur, it at least endeavours to provide a multitude of public works for the practical use and convenience of the masses of the people. 114. Post-Office and Telegraph. The extent of India is so large that it will take many years before its postal facilities can be improved to the fullest extent. But enough has been done to make the oldest member of Indian society marvel at this one of the many results of the peace maintained in India by the British government. Was it ever before told in the history of India, that a humble raiyat or petty 285

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

trader in Lahore could send a letter safely and quickly to Calcutta for the sum of half an anna? The government of India now conveys mails over 122,282 miles, and maintains 30,451 post-offices and letter-boxes. It carries safely 21 crores of rupees a year for the public in the shape of inland money orders. By means of the value payable parcel post it carries 1,878,000 parcels, and recovers from the recipients more than 2 crores of rupees which it pays to the senders. It even remits money in a few hours to the extent of a crore and a half by telegraphic money orders. The postal department sells quinine to the poorer classes, and pays pensions to the pensioners of the native army. The operations of the post-office are supplemented by a telegraph system of 46,375 miles of line, with 4,046 telegraph offices sending nearly five million messages a year. Can any one, who thinks of this vast network of communications between citizen and citizen, between province and province, and between India and the world beyond it, entertain any doubt as to its influence as a means of education? Something true or false is being diffused through the people by means of the millions of letters and packets carried by post and telegraph. Idle rumours are dissipated by an electric flash, and the first lesson which every nation and every individual must learn for himself is being taught, namely, the lesson not to believe without thought all you hear or all you read. The human faculties of intelligence and discretion are thus kept in exercise, and the waters of village society, which for centuries have run so still, are ruffled by the constant coming and going of the postman. Any one who has heard the jingle of the Dakwallah’s bells, waking the silence of the deep forests of Canara, and scaring away by the strange sound the wild beasts of the jungle, must have felt that the postman is a new and powerful influence in the land. 115. The Press and Literature are forces of which it is only possible to write in the future tense. There are, it is true, 204 newspapers and periodicals circulating in India, but they are very unequally distributed, and the poet who shall do for modern Hindi or Hindustani what Chaucer did for English, has yet to rise. In countries which have, enjoyed for centuries a free press, readers are intolerant of false intelligence or foolish arguments. To an intelligent public, able not only to read but to understand, a well conducted press is essential, and the editors of newspapers in an enlightened country receive salaries which but few of the highest servants of the State enjoy. When India can command for its press the picked men of its colleges and schools, and when the general public take to reading vernacular newspapers with interest and intelligence, the educative force of its public press will undoubtedly be felt. At present there is in many cases an absence of both of these conditions, and we must look to time and the department of public instruction to gradually supply them. 116. Department of Education. A government, which does its best to promote new industries and enlarge the trades and occupations of the people, is not likely to depreciate the value of schools and colleges. If the Indian taxpayer and ratepayer could provide twenty primary schools where there is now one, it would be a source of satisfaction to every one. But for the present the government is obliged to confine 286

L E E - WA R N E R , T H E C I T I Z E N O F I N D I A

its attention to three objects. It provides a small establishment of higher education, which can supply the most pressing wants of the public services and the leading professions; its main object under this head is to establish institutions which shall serve as models to others. In the next place it gives grants-in-aid to all bodies or individuals who are willing to take part in instructing the people and managing schools or colleges. Thirdly, it requires local and municipal bodies to provide, as far as possible out of the rates and a grant from the taxes, for primary education. The operations of the department should be viewed from each of these points of view. 117. Models of Instruction. The reader knows well that the scheme of Indian education includes the primary school in which instruction is given in the vernacular; the secondary school, in which English is taught, and the college affiliated to an University, in which education is completed and success rewarded with a degree. The education imparted in secondary schools and colleges is either technical, or such as falls in with the Arts course of the University. It is desirable to give variety to education, not only because the capacities and tastes of men differ, but also because the wants of society are various, and education ought to fit its pupils to take part in all the services and employments which the country requires. For this reason government provide in their scheme of State institutions, medical and engineering colleges and schools, veterinary and agricultural schools, schools of art and industrial schools. Whenever a new experiment has to be made in the field of education, government lead the way, and especially in the matter of female education and the teaching of science it has been necessary for them to act, because otherwise the attempt would not be made. 118. Private Enterprise. But the main object of government is in education the same as we have seen to be the case in trade and famine relief, namely, to get as many persons and bodies as possible to take part in an undertaking which requires the activities and personal interest of a host of fellow-workers. Upon local boards the duty is properly laid of providing for the primary instruction of the children of ratepayers Societies winch have the good of the people at heart, and men who adopt the profession of schoolmaster, are welcomed and encouraged in the field of higher education by grants-in-aid. By such means not only are many agents induced to assist, but as a rule they are men or bodies of men, who give to their work their whole heart and time, and produce results which no State agency can by itself ever hope to achieve. When education was in its infancy in India, the whole burden of showing the way and teaching the people the value of instruction rested upon the State, but as time goes on the funds allotted to public instruction are found to produce better results when judiciously applied to the encouragement of private enterprise and aided institutions. It is a great benefit to give the people schools, but it is a greater advantage to them if they can be led themselves to spread schools and colleges through the land. By maintaining some institutions of all sorts as models, and by offering to willing co-operators an inducement to assist in furthering the cause of education, considerable progress has been achieved in the last half century. 119. Primary Education. Private enterprise has not quite the same inducement to undertake primary as it has in the case of secondary and collegiate education. 287

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

The man who can obtain a degree or a certificate in a technical school has already obtained a possession of some value, which will help to give him the means of livelihood. He is therefore prepared to pay for this result, and self-interest will induce people to open schools and colleges at which they may expect to receive substantial fees. But the classes which never get beyond primary education are poor, and as a rule do not value instruction. If they are to learn to read and write, the State must make it easy for them. It must be expected then that for many years to come public revenue, whether in the shape of rates or taxes, must contribute largely to the cost of primary education. In western countries it is felt that the State owes it to all its citizens to provide primary education for them, either free of cost or at as cheap a cost as possible. In India the taxpayer is not yet prepared to accept that principle, but it is one which must be kept in view, because no citizen can fully discharge his duties to his neighbours and the State unless he has acquired the power of reading, writing, and reckoning figures. 120. Statistics. Only twelve per cent. of those who are of an age to be at scllool are attending school. There are nearly four million boys at school or college and only 400,000 female scholars. Of the whole number 3,140,000 are in primary schools, and 534,000 in public secondary schools. These results are hardly satisfactory, but they involve a gross expenditure from all sources, namely, taxes, rates, fees, and other funds, of more than 3·5 crores of rupees. All that can be said is that India cannot at present afford to do more, but the need for greater effort and expenditure will be readily admitted by all. 121. Conclusion. In the meanwhile the process of education is going on in Indian society amongst millions who have never been inside a school-room or desired to enter one. The action of most of the forces mentioned in this chapter is silent, and it cannot, as in the case of school instruction, be put into statistics: but as long as men have eyes and human faculties, railways, hospitals, post-offices, courts of law, and famine relief camps, besides numerous other incidents of their daily lives, must make an impression on them and add to their experiences and knowledge. It is a great step in public education when the people begin to understand that they are citizens and not slaves, and that, as citizens, they have to play a part in the administration of their affairs. Some glimmer of this sentiment has fallen upon the millions of the people of India, and to every one who is educated enough to know what citizenship means may be addressed the words: “The position of a citizen of British India is yours by inheritance. It is a great entail. Be mindful of your rights and privileges; be mindful also of your responsibilities. The future will depend largely on your own actions.” “Are there thunders moaning in the distance? Are there spectres moving in the darkness? Trust the Hand of Life will lead her people, Till the thunders pass, the spectres vanish, And the light is victor, and the darkness Dawns into the Jubilee of the ages.” 288

14 REPORT OF THE INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION (SIMLA: GOVERNMENT CENTRAL PRINTING OFFICE, 1902), 16, 27–29, 51–52, 63–69, 81–84

COURSES OF STUDY. 69. We recommend that affiliation should be granted, and from time to time renewed, not in general terms, but with a more exact reference to the subjects and courses of study for which the college can make adequate provision. If a college is affiliated “up to the B.A.,” that is no reason for permitting it to teach history without a library, or to establish science classes in which no student has any opportunity of handling apparatus or of doing any practical work. In considering whether the provision which a college proposes to make for a particular subject is adequate, the following are the points to be taken into consideration:— (1) Whether the college can provide an adequate number of lectures. In many cases it may be found that the “adequate number” is considerably smaller than the number now given. We have been told that the student in a Scottish University may obtain his degree after attending about 700 lectures, and that the Indian student often attends as many as 3,000. The quality of lectures cannot be prescribed by University order, but we suggest that efforts may be made to discourage the kind of lecture which consists merely in dictating notes. The object of the lecturer should be to stimulate and guide the minds of his class; not to dispense them from the necessity of reading their books and thinking for themselves. (2) Whether the college provides its students with adequate tutorial assistance. Few students can profit by books and set lectures, unless they have the assistance of a teacher who shows them how to solve difficulties, and sets them exercises. Assistance of this kind is given in many colleges; we note the absence of any provision for it in others. It ought in all cases to be regarded as an essential part of college work. Where a college possesses a body of Fellows, like the Dakshina Fellows in the Bombay Presidency, it is desirable that such Fellows should give a part of their time to tutorial work. (3) Whether the students have access to a library and to laboratories, etc., where required. The student should spend only a limited number of hours per diem in

289

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

class; during the rest of his working time he should be reading, writing and inquiring for himself—not committing his lecture notes to memory. 70. The certificate that a student has pursued a regular course of study should be so framed as to show that he has gone through a course of study approved by the University as above described. All rules which require merely a percentage of attendance at lectures should be recast or abolished.

VERNACULAR LANGUAGES OF INDIA. 94. We have already noticed two important matters connected with the study of vernacular languages, and have expressed the opinion that (a) the vernacular languages of India should not be recognized as second languages side by side with the allied classical languages for any of the University examinations above the Entrance, and that (b) the vernacular languages should be introduced (as at Bombay) in combination with English as a subject for the M.A, Examination. The M.A. Examination in the vernacular should be of such a character as to ensure a thorough and scholarly study of the subject. The encouragement of such study by graduates who have completed their general course should be of great advantage for the cultivation and development of vernacular languages. 95. Speaking generally, we fear that the study of vernacular languages has received insufficient attention and that many graduates have a very inadequate knowledge of their mother-tongue. We hope that the inclusion of vernacular languages in the M.A. course will give an impetus to their scholarly study; and as we propose that courses of advanced study should be under the supervision of the University, we consider that the establishment of professorships in the vernacular languages is an object to which University funds may properly be devoted. We also think that vernacular composition should be made compulsory in every stage of the B.A. course, although there need be no teaching of the subject. The vernacular is already indirectly recognized where it is the language into which the student is required to translate. The evidence on this subject tends to show that translations are sometimes marked for the verbal accuracy of the rendering only; the principle should be recognized that no translation is satisfactory unless it is properly and grammatically composed. Further encouragement might be given by the offer of prizes for literary and scientific works of merit in the vernacular languages. 96. Unless, however, a good training in the vernacular is given in the schools, no effort of the University will avail. At present the subject is frequently neglected and the teaching is relegated to ill-paid and incompetent instructors. As in the case of English, so in the case of the vernaculars, better teachers are a primary need. Every boy should, on the completion of his school course, be required to pass an examination severe enough to show that he has a knowledge of his own language sufficient to enable him to express himself with ease and propriety. 97. The Punjab University occupies a peculiar position in that it recognizes University teaching through the medium of the vernaculars as part of its system. It

290

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

confers the degrees of Bachelor or Master of Oriental Learning on candidates who have gone through a course of training analogous to that prescribed for the B.A. and M.A. courses on the English side, through the medium not of English but of the vernacular (Urdu). This system has not so far borne encouraging fruit, partly through neglect and partly through the absence of proper text-books and the inherent difficulty of obtaining the services of lecturers competent to convey western learning to their pupils in the vernacular. The preparation of suitable text-books in Urdu and Hindi was part of the original scheme of the University, but little or nothing seems to have been done in this direction. There is considerable conflict of opinion among the witnesses who appeared before us at Lahore, regarding this part of the functions of their University. While some denounce the system in unmeasured terms, the majority uphold it on the whole, but counsel reform. We have come to the conclusion that while the initial character and scope of the endowments bestowed on the University at its foundation, have perhaps made the maintenance of the oriental side of the University binding on the Government, the manner in which that side has hitherto been conducted leaves much to be desired. The Regulations for the degree of B.O.L. in such subjects as Science indicate that some of the most modern and advanced text-books are required to be used and that they have to be taught through the medium of the vernacular (Urdu). Many of the text-books prescribed would be sufficiently difficult even if used in an English course. We are informed that there are no vernacular translations of such works, and so far as we have been able to ascertain, there are no Professors in the Oriental College who have had the training or experience necessary to fit them to be Professors in advanced courses of Science. We would, therefore, suggest that the teaching for the two courses of B.O.L. and M.O.L. should be retained with these important modifications— (1) that English, as a second language, should be made compulsory throughout, the standard being left to be determined by the Syndicate; (2) that whenever possible, graduates with high honours on the English side should be appointed lecturers in this department and that, it should be their duty to prepare their courses for publication; (3) that funds should be set apart annually for the publication of the courses of lectures thus prepared and for the compilation and publication of other text-books on subjects not covered by them. (4) that the Oriental College ought to be subject to the same rules of affiliation as other colleges connected with the Punjab University. 98. We are not prepared, however, to recommend that the example of the Punjab should be followed by any other University for the present. We look upon the Punjab system as an experiment which has not yet justified itself by its results but which may have possibilities which we are not now in a position to forecast or measure.

291

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

99. Attached to the Oriental College is a school working up to the Entrance Examination in the Oriental Faculty. We are of opinion that such school work is outside the scope of the University.

MODERN LANGUAGES OF EUROPE. 100. In Bombay French, and in Madras French or German, is included as an alternative second language in the B.A. course. In the former case, owing, it is said, to the comparative easiness of the examination, French is taken up by a number of students to the detriment of the study of the classical languages of the Province. This result is to be deplored, and measures should be taken to prevent students from neglecting the study of classical languages in order to secure an easier examination. We deprecate the substitution of a modern for a classical language; but we would allow female candidates to offer French as is now the rule at Calcutta.

METHODS OF EXAMINATION. 180. We have received many complaints in respect of the style of papers set, especially in English, and we feel bound to state our opinion that many papers have been so framed as directly to encourage cram, and to deprive the student who has studied a subject properly of the advantages of such study. Catch questions and questions which can be answered at second-hand have been far too numerous. A good examination paper is a work of art, and it is above all things necessary that the examiner should be able to look at his questions from the candidate’s point of view, and that he should frame them so as to give the latter a series of opportunities of showing how far he possesses an intelligent and first-hand knowledge of the subject-matter. We consider that easy questions are best suited for this purpose. Such questions enable a really good scholar to distinguish himself, while the average student puts down what he knows without waste of time. In Mathematical papers it is desirable that problems suitable to the standard of the examination should be attached to questions on book-work, so as to enable the examiner to ascertain whether the book-work has been mastered or merely committed to memory. We disapprove of the Calcutta and Madras rules which require that a high percentage of marks should be assigned to mere book-work. 181. We are disposed to think that the practice of noting the number of marks assigned to each question in an examination paper is objectionable. We prefer that a candidate should be given a choice of questions in each paper and should be directed to answer only a certain proportion of those set. We doubt, however, whether the discretion of the examiners should be fettered by a rule regarding a question of detail such as this, and we recommend that they be given a free hand, at all events in all advanced examinations, in such matters. 182. We have had before us a number of regulations and rules which prescribe percentages of marks for a Pass and for Honours. We are unable to suggest any 292

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

system of marking, by means of which percentages can be dispensed with altogether. We fear also that it is impossible to avoid publishing the standard which must be reached in order to pass an examination. Publication encourages a calculating habit of mind, so that some students avoid learning more than is necessary. If, however, the rules as to the standard required were embodied in unpublished instructions issued by the Syndicate to the examiner, still greater evils might result from the ease with which the standard could be altered. 183. When papers have been marked by the different examiners, they should, we think, be returned to the head examiner, who should examine a certain number taken at random, with a view to assuring himself that the examiners are observing the same standard. The Board of Examiners might then be convened to settle the results. Where a candidate has failed in one subject only and by not more than 5 per cent. of the full marks allowed for it and has shown merit (which we would interpret to mean: has gained 50 per cent. of the marks) in the aggregate of the other subjects, we consider that he should be passed. If a rule of this kind were made, grace marks and similar devices would become unnecessary, and they should, we think, be expressly forbidden, 184. In the Bombay Matriculation Examination it has been the custom to examine the papers in English first, and to send to the Registrar the numbers of those candidates who pass in that subject. In other subjects, the examiners are directed to look over and mark only the papers of those candidates who have passed in English. This practice effects a considerable saving of labour and expense, and it may be adopted with advantage in other Universities. 185. Objection has been taken to the publication of the marks obtained by candidates. We would not object to candidates knowing the marks they have obtained. For this information they should, we think, be required to pay a fee. We think it better that in the authoritative publication of the results of examinations candidates should be entered in alphabetical order in the class or division to which they belong. Any order of merit which takes account only of the marks obtained must be misleading; the candidates who take certain subjects can put together more marks than other candidates (it may be, equally meritorious) who take up other subjects.

“EXAMINATION BY COMPARTMENTS.” 186. At Madras, where the subjects of the B.A. Examination are arranged in three divisions, a candidate is allowed to appear in one division, or in two divisions, or in all three, in any one year. It appears that in some cases this rule has worked well. A college, on finding that a student at the end of his third year has made but little progress, may require him to devote his fourth year to English and to his second language, and to postpone his third subject to his fifth year. On the other hand, the rule works badly, in so far as it tempts men to try their chance in all three divisions, in the hope of securing a pass in one or two. 293

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

The system which is called “examination by compartments” has been advocated by several witnesses, and in particular it has been represented to us that a candidate who fails in one subject should be allowed to pass on satisfying the examiners in that subject, and should not be required to bring up all his subjects again. After full consideration, we have come to the conclusion that the disadvantages of the Madras rule outweigh its advantages, and that examination by compartments ought not to be allowed. The object of an examination is to ascertain whether the candidate possesses all the knowledge which may fairly be expected of him at the stage which he has reached; and a man who passes in all his subjects at one time gives better evidence of the soundness of his general education than the man who can only pass in the subjects taken separately. Care must be taken, in framing the programme of an examination, to see that the subjects are not so numerous as to lay an undue burden on the minds of the candidates; but if this condition is complied with, we think it better that the examination should be treated as a whole, and not broken up into sections.

CANDIDATES FAILING TO PASS. 187. An important question has been raised in regard to those candidates who fail at the Intermediate and the degree examinations, and who wish to appear again. Should they return to their colleges and go through the course of study, or part of it, over again? We consider that the case of each candidate should be dealt with separately, and that the question may be left to the colleges. But we recommend that the certificate which enables a candidate to appear at an examination should, in every case, be a new certificate, granted for that examination. In the case of a failed candidate, his certificate should show whether he has gone through any additional course of study since his failure. If a student who has passed or failed at an examination desires to go to another college, the transfer rules should require him to obtain a leaving certificate.

PERCENTAGES. 188. Our attention has been frequently called to the fact that undue importance is attached to the percentage of passes obtained by each of the affiliated colleges. If a percentage statement is to have any meaning, it ought to show, not merely the number sent up, but the number of second or fourth year students, as the case may be. But all such statements are apt to be misleading. If, for example, a college sends up one student, and that one satisfies the examiners, the college scores 100 per cent. of passes. We trust that these considerations will be borne in mind by the Syndicates and the Directors of Public Instruction in framing their reports on colleges. 294

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

General Remarks on Teaching. The use of “keys” should be in every way discouraged by the college authorities. English. (1) Text-books in English should not be prescribed for the Matriculation classes; the course should be described in general terms, a list of books being given by way of illustration. The list should consist chiefly of descriptive and historical books and should be so long as to exclude the possibility of all of them being committed to memory. (2) In the higher courses the books should be chosen as examples of language and style and should be studied more or less minutely. Books which deal with the history and criticism of literary works which the student has no opportunity of reading should not be included. (3) The English course for the M.A. degree should be combined with a course in a vernacular or in an eastern or western classical language. (4) Anglo-Saxon should not be included in the course of an Indian University. (5) Students, after they begin to specialize in Science, should not be subjected to a separate test in English. Latin. (1) Latin should not be made a compulsory preliminary qualification for medical students. (2) Inter-collegiate arrangements should be made for the study of Latin where there are several small classes in the same town. Classical Languages of the East. (1) The study of a classical language should be compulsory in both the Intermediate and Final courses for the B.A. degree. A vernacular language of India should not be accepted as an alternative subject. (2) Teachers of Sanskrit should have a critical knowledge of the subject and should be acquainted with western methods of study. Their training should be such as to entitle them to the same status and pay as the Professors of other subjects. (3) In reading and writing Sanskrit the Devanagri characters should be used. (4) To improve the study of Arabic, the following reforms should, where needed, be introduced: (a) Well-chosen text-books in grammar should form a compulsory part of the course. (b) Unseen passages and composition should carry high value in all the higher examinations. 295

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

(c) A fair knowledge of English in addition to a scholarly acquaintance with the Arabic language and literature should be a necessary qualification for employment as a Professor of Arabic. (d) The emoluments of an Arabic Professor, provided he possesses the qualifications stated above, should not be inferior to those of other Indian Professors. (5) To improve the study of Persian— (a) Graduates with some guarantee of their Persian scholarship other than the Arts degree, with Persian as the second language, should be employed to teach this subject. (b) Persian should not be accepted by itself as a subject for the M.A. course; it should be combined with some other classical or vernacular language of India. (6) Encouragement should be given to the examinations held for the grant of titles in oriental learning, but the Universities should not assume charge of these examinations unless they can be conducted efficiently, unless a standard can be maintained of which the Universities will approve, and unless the transfer will be in the interest of ancient learning. Vernacular Languages of India. (1) The inclusion of the vernacular languages in the M.A. course is recommended, and the course should be of such a character as to ensure a thorough and scholarly knowledge of the subject. The establishment of professorships in the vernacular languages is an object to which University funds may be properly devoted. (2) Vernacular composition should be made compulsory in every stage of the B.A. course, but the subject need not be taught. (3) The principle should be recognized that verbal accuracy of rendering is not sufficient to constitute a satisfactory translation, but that it must be properly and grammatically composed. (4) Further encouragement should be given to the study of vernacular languages by the offer of prizes for literary and scientific works. (5) The oriental side of the Punjab University should be maintained and the courses for the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Oriental Learning should be retained with the following important modifications. English, as a second language, should be made compulsory throughout the courses. Wherever possible, graduates with high honours on the English side should be appointed lecturers, and they should be required to prepare their courses for publication. Funds should be set apart annually for the publication of these courses of lectures and for the compilation and publication of text-books on subjects not covered by them. The Oriental College ought to be subject to the same rules of affiliation as other colleges connected with the Punjab University. 296

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

The example set by the Punjab University in establishing an oriental side should not be followed by any other University for the present. (6) The work of the school attached to the Oriental College is outside the the scope of the University. French. French should not, except for female students, be accepted as an alternative for a classical language. Philosophy. (1) The subject of Philosophy cannot be included in the Matriculation classes, but should form a compulsory portion of the Arts courses. (2) Courses in Philosophy should be defined by syllabuses. Suitable textbooks should also be recommended for study. (3) The following is suggested as an outline for the study of Philosophy: (a) Intermediate course—Deductive Logic and elementary Psychology. (b) B.A. course—Deductive and Inductive Logic, Psychology and Ethics, Natural Theology and the History of Philosophy. (c) The M.A. course should include in addition to the books of Greek and German philosophers, suitable portions of some of the great systems of Indian Philosophy, to be read in English or in Sanskrit at the option of the student. Mathematics. The subject of Mathematics should be compulsory in the Matriculation and Intermediate courses, and optional in the higher courses of the Arts and Science Faculties. History and Political Economy. (1) History should not be included in the Intermediate course, but should form an optional subject for the B.A. and M.A. degrees. Political Economy should be combined with it. (2) For the study of History, the subject should be defined by periods, books being recommended, not prescribed; some study of original documents should be introduced and some use of contemporary historians should be required. A reference library should be made available wherever History is taught. The course should be carefully adapted to the needs of Indian students. (3) In the study of Political Economy attention should be directed to the economic conditions with which the students are familiar, and they should be encouraged to investigate in a scientific manner the economic problems of India. 297

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

Science Courses. (1) Students should not be required to pass in Science before entering on a University course. (2) Physics and Chemistry should be optional in the Intermediate course. (3) The instruction in these subjects should include a regular course of practical experimental work. The University should not conduct a practical test as part of the Intermediate Examination, but each candidate should present a certificate from the authorities of his college, to the effect that he has duly gone through the practical course prescribed in the laboratories of the college, and that he has passed the college test examination in the practical work of the course. The written examination should be so devised as to elicit the fact of his having undergone this training, and the University should assure itself that in the college in which he has studied, he has had adequate facilities for receiving practical instruction. (4) The course of the degree of Bachelor of Science should consist of one of the two following groups of subjects:— Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, or, Physics, Chemistry and Natural Science. By Natural Science is intended one of the following Sciences:—(a) Botany, (b) Physiology, (c) Zoology, (d) Geology including Mineralogy and Palæontology. One of the three subjects should be regarded as the candidate’s special subject, and he should be subjected to a more severe test in it. For candidates studying the second group, the special subject must be the selected Natural Science. (5) Candidates following a literary and a scientific course, respectively, should receive the separate designations of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. (6) In all examinations for the degree of B.Sc., the practical side must be made more prominent than has heretofore been the case. Practical examinations should be passed independently of the written examination, and should have a separate minimum of marks. Ample time should be allowed for a thorough and fair practical examination. (7) No special facilities in the way of a reduced period of study or a diminution in the number of subjects should be conceded to enable a Bachelor of Arts to proceed to the B.Sc. degree or vice versâ. (8) A graduate in Science should be allowed to proceed to the higher degree of Master in Science by specializing in one of the subjects included in the B.Sc. course, and presenting himself for examination in that subject after some specified period after the time of his graduation as B.Sc. (9) The Doctor’s degree should not be obtained solely by examination, but should be awarded mainly on the ground of original investigation for a period

298

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

of, say, five years, in the particular Science in which the candidate has taken his Master’s degree. General Outline of Courses. The following outline is suggested for the various Arts and Science courses:— Intermediate Course:— 1. 2. 3. 4.

English. Classical Language. Mathematics. One of the following:— (1) Physics and Chemistry, or, (2) Deductive Logic and Elementary Psychology.

B.A. Course:— 1. 2. 3. 4.

English. Classical Language. Philosophy. One of the following:— (1) Mathematics. (2) History and Political Economy.

B. Sc. Course:— One of the following groups of subjects:— (1) Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. (2) Physics, Chemistry and Natural Science. M.A. Course:— Any of the following subjects:— (1) Languages—the course to include either English combined with a classical or Indian vernacular language, or a classical language of India combined with an Indian vernacular. (2) Philosophy. (3) History, Political Economy and Political Philosophy. (4) Mathematics. M. Sc. Course:— Any one of the subjects included in the B. Sc. Course. The degrees of Doctor of Literature and Doctor of Science to be given to Masters of Arts and Science respectively after some years spent in original investigation.

299

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

Law. (1) The study of Law should be postponed until the student has finished his course for the ordinary degree in Arts or Science. If he is intended for one of the lower grades of the profession, he should begin after the Intermediate course; if he is going to the Bar or means to take a degree in Law, he should begin after graduation. Jurisprudence should not be admitted as an optional subject in any course leading to the B.A. degree. (2) The method of instruction should be improved by introducing the system of teaching from cases. (3) Roman Law should not be made a necessary subject for a Law degree. (4) The question of creating or maintaining and improving an adequate central School of Law should be taken up without delay at each of the Universities. The Professors of such a School, including any University Professors who may be connected with it, may be judges or practising lawyers who meet their classes in the morning or evening out of court hours. There should be a staff of tutors competent to help students in their reading, and a good Law library. In the governing body the Bench and Bar of the local High Court should be strongly represented. Medicine. (1) The system under which the teaching of Medicine is centralized in the Government colleges should be maintained. (2) The equipment of the medical colleges should be improved, especially as regards the provision of arrangements for practical work, and of class-room and hostel accommodation. (3) A medical college should be established in the United Provinces. (4) No person should be appointed to lecture on a particular branch of medical study unless he has devoted special attention to it and displayed special knowledge about it. A medical officer selected to lecture in a particular subject, either permanently or temporarily, should not be regarded as having any claim, owing to his position in the service, to be transferred to another professorship which may fall vacant. (5) Medical students in the University of Bombay should be required to pass the Intermediate instead of the Matriculation examination as a preliminary qualification for admission to the medical course. At Lahore no further qualification in Arts or Science need be required for the M.B. degree. (6) Medical students should not be required to qualify in Latin. (7) The Universities should continue to give licenses in Medicine and Surgery to those who qualify for them, as well as the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Medicine. The license should be a diploma and not a degree, and may be given to those who attain a somewhat lower standard in the examination for the M.B.

300

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

degree in both extent and depth of knowledge, than those who will be entitled to obtain that degree. (8) Each University should revise its scheme of studies and examinations so as to provide for a preliminary scientific course extending to Physics, Chemistry and General Biology; to be followed firstly, by an Intermediate course of Anatomy, Physiology and connected subjects, and secondly, by a final course of Medicine, Surgery and other professional subjects. (9) It appears undesirable to separate Medicine and Surgery at the stage of the Bachelor’s degree, but desirable that the Doctor’s degree should be given for some special branch of study, a candidate being allowed to offer his own subject, and the University testing him as it thinks fit by examination or otherwise. A candidate for the Doctor’s degree should not be required to have obtained a degree in Arts or Science. (10) Each University should establish a diploma of Sanitary Science as soon as adequate arrangements have been made for the proper teaching of Bacteriology, Sanitation and Sanitary Engineering. Engineering. (1) The Intermediate Examination should, in all Universities, be the preliminary test for students wishing to follow a course of Engineering. (2) The University should not itself undertake instruction in Engineering. (3) Such instruction as students may need in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, subsequently to having passed the Intermediate Examination, should be provided for in the colleges of Engineering. (4) Great care should be taken to provide similar courses and to equalise the standards in the different Universities. (5) Further provision is needed for instruction in Mining and Electrical Engineering. (6) The training should be throughout of a thoroughly practical nature. Agriculture. The Universities should, as far as possible, encourage agricultural studies, and should consider the desirability of granting diplomas for proficiency in the theoretical and scientific as opposed to the practical side of an agricultural course. Commerce. Studies useful for commercial pursuits should be encouraged as far as possible both by the Universities and by the Government. The Universities may perhaps help in the examinations of the London Chamber of Commerce or in any examinations which may be instituted by the Local Governments.

301

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

Teaching. The Universities should promote the training of all classes of teachers in the theory and practice of Teaching in every way in their power; and, where this has not already been done, arrangements should be made to hold examinations for the grant of licenses in Teaching. The University should provide suitable courses of lectures for teachers. General Scheme Of Examinations. (1) The Previous Examination of the University of Bombay should be abolished. (2) The standard of the Matriculation Examination should be raised. (3) There should be uniformity in the nomenclature of the examinations and degrees in Arts and Science at the different Universities. The three examinations leading up to the Arts and Science degrees should be called the Matriculation Examination, the Intermediate Examination and the Examination for the degree of B. A. or B. Sc. respectively. Matriculation. (1) Colleges should not be permitted to matriculate students at their own discretion. (2) The Matriculation Examination should be improved by drawing away from the examination candidates who ought not to appear at it, and by raising the standard. The Age Limit for Matriculation. (1) A candidate should be required to have completed his fifteenth year at the date on which he appears at the examination. (2) No candidate should be allowed to appear for Matriculation more than three times, whether at one or several Universities. Power should be given to the Syndicate to make exceptions to this rule for special reasons to be recorded in each case. Private Students. (1) Every private candidate for Matriculation should be required to obtain a certificate, which should only be given under special circumstances, from the educational Inspector of the circle within which he lives that, as the result of an examination held by the Inspector or of the ordinary test examination of a high school, it seems reasonably probable that he will pass the Matriculation Examination. (2) Pupils who ought to have come up from a recognized school, but have failed to comply with the rules, should not be allowed to appear as private students. 302

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

(3) No private student should be admitted to the Intermediate Examination, or to the examination for the degree of B. A. or B. Sc. unless by a special order of the Senate, to be justified by reasons to be recorded in each case at the time of making the order.

VII.—ABOLITION OF Text BOOKS IN ENGLISH FOR THE ENTRANCE EXAMINATION. 24. The point next in order upon which I feel bound to note my dissent, is the recommendation contained at page 25 of the Report, for the abolition of text books in English for the Entrance Examination. The main reason for this recommendation, as I gather from the Report, may be stated thus: The object with which students of the Entrance class read English is “to enable them to read with ease the books from which they will derive information in other subjects during their college course. To secure this the Entrance course can be described in general terms, a list of books being given by way of illustration. The list might consist of historical or descriptive books from which the student would obtain useful knowledge as well as linguistic training, and it should be so long as to exclude the possibility of all of them being committed to memory.” 25. With all respect for the opinion of my learned colleagues, I would beg leave to point out that the object mentioned above will be better secured by prescribing suitable text books than by the plan recommended in the Report. In the first place, it is not correct to say that the mere prescribing of text books leads students to commit to memory keys and notes without understanding the text. It is the prescribing of books abounding in obscure allusions, or containing thoughts and expressions beyond the comprehension of those for whom they are intended, or written in a style which cannot serve as a model for students to imitate, that leads to the evil spoken of, as some of the witnesses have said; and the remedy lies not in abolishing text books, but in prescribing better books than those in use. In the second place, it is not correct to assume that students mechanically commit to memory keys and notes without reading the text, for the mere pleasure or convenience of doing so. Everyone who knows anything about the way in which students work at home, must know at what cost of time and trouble, and how reluctantly, they follow that course; and if they do so nevertheless, it is partly because the method of teaching in most places does not discourage that course, and chiefly because the method of examination to which they are to be subjected, encourages it, as the evidence before us goes to show. The true remedy for the evil of cramming lies then in starting with suitable text books and improving the modes of teaching and examination. Nor will it be safe to assume that we shall suppress cramming by abolishing text books, unless we also improve our methods of teaching and examination. There are already existing many hand-books for the study of English and books of 303

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

model essays; and if text books are abolished, there will soon come into existence many more books of the same type, as well as summaries, abstracts and compendious keys of the several books which the Universities might recommend; and in place of a careful study of the text book and its keys, there will be substituted a hurried reading of the numerous books just referred to, thus giving rise to a worse sort of cramming than the one we are trying to check. The recommendation in the Report seems also to underrate the importance of a careful and critical study of suitable text books, which is one of the best modes in which an Indian student at that stage of his progress at which he is preparing for the Entrance Examination, can acquire a correct knowledge of English. A less careful and less critical reading extending over a wider range may perhaps secure the same result. But an Entrance student has not the time for it; and, moreover, it may encourage the habit of superficial and perfunctory reading, by no means desirable in a student. If there is to be any wide range of reading at all, it should be, as Mr. Stephen, Officiating Principal of the Duff College, in his evidence said, “of a simple and fluent character” and combined with “exact reading to some small extent,” 26. If besides being examined in a suitable text book prescribed, candidates are also examined in unseen passages set for explanation, the evil of cramming will be sure to be checked, and students will try to learn English. I would accordingly recommend that suitable text books in English should be prescribed for the Entrance Examination, and unseen passages also set for explanation,

VIII.—CENTRALIZATION OF LAW TEACHING. 27. The next point upon which I am unable to agree with my learned colleagues is the recommendation at pages 34, 35 of the Report that each University should provide a properly equipped Central Law College. 28. In Madras and Lahore, Law education is already centralized, and there are no indications of any endeavour to multiply Law colleges in either of those two places. The question of centralizing legal teaching in Madras and Lahore must therefore be taken as practically settled for the present. In each of the cities of Bombay and Allahabad there is only one Law college; but there are other Law colleges affiliated to the Universities of Bombay and Allahabad; while the Calcutta University has a large number of Law colleges affiliated to it, four of which are in Calcutta and the rest in the mofussil. The question of centralizing Law education may therefore arise with reference to the Universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Allahabad. The state of things observed at Lahore and the city of Bombay does not, however, make one very hopeful about the efficacy of centralization. Moreover, there is a circumstance connected with the colleges of Bengal which should be noticed here. The income derived by some of them from their Law department goes materially to help their Arts department; and if the former be closed, as will be the case 304

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

if Law education is centralized, the latter will suffer. This is a result which should be avoided if possible. Another strong reason against centralization so far as Calcutta is concerned, consists in the large number of its Law students. No central college, however well managed, can conveniently accommodate or efficiently teach such a large number of students. 29. As regards the Universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Allahabad, I would therefore leave Law teaching in the hands of the colleges; provided that they increase their staff where it is insufficient, and make arrangements for tutorial supervision by having classes in the evening as well as in the morning. And I would recommend that those three Universities should establish at their local centres good Law libraries accessible to all Law students of affiliated colleges, and Law societies under the guidance of Committees composed of members of the Bench and the Bar of the High Court and of the Professors of the Law colleges, where Law students may meet and read papers and have debates on questions connected with Law. 30. It may be said that a College is bound to devote the whole of the income derived from its Law department to the improvement of that department, and it should not appropriate any portion of such income to the purposes of its Arts department; and that one of the reasons given above for allowing Law teaching to remain in the hands of private colleges is therefore a bad reason. I am unable to accept this view as correct. No doubt the improvement of the Law department should be the first charge on the income derived from that department. But if after satisfying that charge, any surplus remains, there is no good reason for holding that it should not be appropriated to the purposes of the Arts department of the college. Such freedom in the appropriation of its funds is beneficial to the college as a whole without being injurious to any part of it, and it should not be restricted, seeing that our private colleges have so little in the shape of endowments to support them.

IX.—THE MATRICULATION AND THE SCHOOL FINAL EXAMINATION. 33. Another portion of the Report in which I am unable to concur is that at pages 45 to 48 in which my learned colleagues express their views as to whether and how far the School Final Examination should take the place of the Matriculation Examination. 34. No definite scheme of the School Final Examination being before us, we cannot compare its merits with those of the Matriculation Examination. But whatever the nature of that scheme may be, we may say this, that if a literary as distinguished from a technical course of school education is retained, as one may presume it will be, the test of such education and that of a student’s fitness to enter a college or University, ought to be the same, and one examination ought to be sufficient as a test for both, instead of examinations being multiplied unnecessarily. 305

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

A large examination no doubt has its difficulties, but they are not removed by making the School Final to take the place of the Matriculation Examination. The question is reduced to this, namely, whether if there is to be one examination, it should be the School Final or the Matriculation Examination, I think it ought to be the latter. It will serve the double purpose of testing whether a student has pursued his school course of literary education properly and whether he is fit to enter a college. The opposite view will result in placing all schools whether they receive aid from Government or not, under the control of the Education Department, though many of them impart education only to enable their students to enter the University. The latter class of schools where they receive no aid ought to be placed under the control of the University. If the object be to prevent unfit students from entering the University, it will be secured by raising the standard of the Matriculation Examination as the Report recommends; and it will not be necessary to remove the examination which students have to pass after finishing their school education, from the control of the University and place it under that of the Education Department or to wish for the Matriculation certificate not being taken as a qualification for certain purposes. The view approved in the Report will also have the effect of materially reducing the resources of the Universities which are derived in a large measure from the fees paid by candidates for the Matriculation Examination.

X.—APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS TO SET QUESTION PAPERS. 35. The point next in order in the Report upon which I deem it my duty to note my dissent, is the recommendation at page 50 for the repeal of the rule, that no one engaged in teaching a subject for any examination should be appointed to set questions in that subject for that examination. 36. The reason for this recommendation, as I understand it, is that teachers are the persons best qualified to set proper question papers in their respective subjects. Theoretically, perhaps, this may be true; but judging from practical results, one cannot say much in favour of papers set at our examinations by teachers as examiners. For though the rule prohibiting the appointment of teachers to set papers has been in operation in Calcutta only since 1890, the complaint against the suitableness of the papers set has been of much longer duration; and the questions set before that date do not compare favourably with those of subsequent years. Nor has there been any great practical inconvenience felt in getting competent examiners notwithstanding the operation of the rule, professors of Physics and Mathematics, and of English and History, changing places in setting papers each in the other’s subject, professors teaching the B.A. course setting papers for the F.A. examination, and professors of colleges affiliated to one Indian University setting papers for the examinations of another. 37. While thus the necessity for changing the rule is at best doubtful, the reasons for maintaining it are, in my humble judgment, in full force still. The rule 306

REPORT OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION

in Calcutta was adopted on the unanimous recommendation of a committee (of which two such educational experts as Sir A. Croft and Mr. Tawney were members) appointed to enquire into and report upon the alleged premature disclosure of certain examination questions (see the Minutes of the Calcutta University for 1890–91, page 49), and the view maintained by one of the professor examiners concerned in defending his action, shows that there may be such honest differences of opinion in connection with the matter as would make the rule under consideration a very desirable one. The rule does not imply any reflection on the integrity of teacher examiners, but it is intended only to guard against the pupils of any teacher from having an undue advantage over other candidates at any examination, and to relieve the teacher from a conflict of duties which may arise if he is appointed to set questions in his own subject. That such undue advantage may be given, and such conflict of duties may arise, is clear when we consider that a teacher in teaching properly, must dwell on the relative importance of the different parts of his subject, and an examiner, to examine properly, must set his question paper keeping in view such relative importance; and it is difficult to prevent the teaching from affording a fair indication of the nature of the expected examination. Mr. Todhunter of Cambridge, in his “Conflict of Studies and other Papers,” says (I am referring to his remark from memory, not having the book before me now) the wonder is that the importance of a rule like the one under consideration is not more readily recognized. 38. To my mind, it is of the utmost importance that we should secure the confidence of the public generally, and of the students in particular, in the absolute fairness of our University examinations. Again, if it is necessary in the interests of discipline that students should not talk or think lightly of their professors and examiners, we must carefully avoid giving them any reasonable ground for talking or thinking in that style. I therefore think that the rule in question is a salutary one and should be generally followed.

307

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

INTRODUCTORY NOTE. THE following chapters contain an account of the revision of the vernacular reading books used in the Bombay Presidency. This revision was carried out through a Committee appointed by the Bombay Government and presided over by the writer The period covered by the Committee’s official activities ranged from October 1903 to March 1905. The new books however will not all be ready for sale until the beginning of the next year (1906), the actual publication having been a labour of considerable difficulty in itself and subjected to many impediments incidental to the conditions of this country. 2. The books to be revised were those intended mainly for primary pupils but also used in middle and high Anglo-vernacular schools and in Training Colleges for primary teachers. Written in four different tongues, according to the nationalities which they served (viz., in Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi and Kanarese) they consisted of five distinct graduated series, the past evolution of which had been a somewhat lengthy process moulded by the idiosyncrasies and educational circumstances of each nationality. The Committee’s duties, however, were not limited to mere revision. To a certain extent they were necessarily creative, and not only in regard to the five series, which it found ready to its hand, but also in the case of providing for expressed and definite wants, as, e.g., by the supply of a set of special readers for girls. They also included other things which have been narrated in their proper place. 3. In order to render adequately to readers unacquainted with the Presidency the full significance of this work of revision, any general account of the undertaking involves, not merely a description of the detailed operations, but also some review of the geographical, ethnological and linguistic peculiarities of the region,

308

COVERNTON, VERNACULAR READING BOOKS

in so far as these affect the general problem or give rise to particular ones, as well as an outline of the educational institutions for which the new books were chiefly designed, and of their administration. Equally essential would it appear to trace the growth of the series now displaced, to exhibit their distinctive features and to indicate their merits and defects. All this would but provide the requisite basis for a more precise comprehension of the task which lay before the Committee and of the lines on which that body endeavoured to grapple with it. The gist of the former has already been stated. As for the lines, they were such as sprang from the conditions of the Committee’s appointment or as were suggested by approved precedent, by the characteristics of the people and by the territorial distribution of the country, but in either case they were tempered by a lively appreciation no less of the successes and failures of the past than of the limitations and tendencies of the present. 4. Apart from the above, an enterprise of this kind must naturally bring its authors into contact with wider questions both academic and practical and of no little import for educationalists generally, as well as for the Indian educationalists in particular. Such for instance are, the place of dialect in popular instruction, the capacities of Indian vernaculars, the teaching of reading, the value of the classification adopted in Sanskritic alphabets, the constituents of a good local reading series, the capacities and limitations of the Indian child, the use and abuse of pictures and the relative value of native and European illustrations for native pupils, the State as an educational publisher, and the technical difficulties of Indian publication, the equation of the publisher’s profit with the purchaser’s ability to pay and “many more too long.” 5. It is not pretended that all of these have been exhaustively treated in the following pages. Some of them might well claim a book to themselves alone. But they have at least been broached, and the Committee’s views and decisions have been set forth for what they are worth. It is hoped that this simple history of the Bombay Committee may prove of service to others in India wrestling with similar problems.

Chapter III.—THE OLDER READING SERIES AND TEXT BOOKS. 45. The four series of vernacular reading books, which the Committee was called upon to revise had their roots in the very foundations of modern education in Bombay. They were the direct successors, if not the immediate descendants, of the scanty set of books on which the earliest framework of vernacular education was raised. Their compilation marked the triumph, so far as this presidency was concerned, of the vernacular ideal in primary instruction over that of the ‘Anglicists,’ of whom the extremer section at least had cherished the hope of making English the universal language throughout India. It would be unnecessary to rake up here the ashes of that ancient controversy, in which the extremists on either side have been refuted by the logic of sixty years. But in order to make the position of our Bombay Readers clear 309

The existing Reading Series and their origins.

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

The beginnings of vernacular education in the Presidency.

Mountstuart Elphinstone and the struggle between English and the vernaculars.

and to bring out their more distinctive characteristics it is essential to trace in outline the humble origins from which they sprang. 46. Previous to 1820 little had been done ‘on this side’ for the education of the natives. The Hindu College at Poona was instituted with the object mainly of turning out a class of pandits who might be useful to the Judicial Department of Government in consequence of their study of such “systems of ethics, codes of laws and compendiums of the duties relating to every class of the people” as were accessible in Sanskrit. As such it was on a par with Lord Minto’s Hindu College at Benares and the new ones proposed in 1811 for Nuddea and Tirhoot. Institutions of this kind could only benefit a very limited class. A real step in advance was taken when in 1820 “The Native School-Book and School Society” came into existence as a branch of the Bombay Education Society. In 1822 the former society separated from the latter and in 1827 changed its title to “The Bombay Native Education Society,” which remained until 1840 when the Society’s schools were incorporated with those attached to the Elphinstone Institution and came under the supervision of the new Board of Education. 47. The Native School-Book and School Society was a replica of a similar one started in 1817 at Calcutta by the suggestion of a missionary, the Reverend Robert May. The object of such institutions was to prepare the way for the education of the natives by “the provision of the humble requisites” viz., school books in the languages of the country, and the institution of schools. To quote the words of a report1 of the Board of Education (Bombay) on the subject “It was from the activity of these bodies but more especially from the circumstance of a statesman of such enlarged views as Mr. Elphinstone being at the head of the Bombay Government that education received its first effective impulse in this Presidency.” Mountstuart Elphinstone, although convinced of the necessity of teaching English and admitting that its diffusion would accelerate the progress of knowledge ten-fold, was by no means willing to make its cultivation the primary object of all educational agencies. Hence in lending his countenance to the new society he made no endeavour to force English education upon its attention in preference to vernacular. Books in English might be contemplated indeed, but the provision of vernacular texts and the institution of schools primarily for the conveyance of knowledge in the languages of the country were to have the first claims upon the society’s energies. It may be remarked that it was specially laid down in this connection that to furnish religious books formed no part of the design, though this was not intended to preclude the supply of moral tracts or books of moral tendency “which without interfering with the religious sentiments of any person may be calculated to enlarge the understanding and improve the character.” 48. Elphinstone further initiated an enquiry into the state of indigenous education in the Presidency with a view to eliciting what elements in the native system might be adopted into the newBritish one. The Society co-operated in the investigation but the results were not very encouraging. Beyond the discovery of a superficial parallel to Lancaster’s ‘monitorial methods’ (then possessing some vogue in educational circles) and the practical demonstration of the utility of ‘sand 310

COVERNTON, VERNACULAR READING BOOKS

writing,’ the investigators reaped little from their trouble. One thing however had become very clear. “The first and principal evil consists in the deplorable deficiency of books for education and mental improvement.” A Committee of the Society therefore recommended the preparation and publication of books both for the elementary and more advanced stages of education among the natives. The former were to be in vernacular, the latter might be in English. The first class was to consist of works either translated from English or specially written in vernacular from English bases. Government came to the Committee’s assistance and by 1824 translators and writers were busily engaged. Lithographic presses were largely used but printing presses and types (English and Balbodh) were ordered from England, and types also from Bengal. It is gravely recorded that at one meeting of the Society in 1825 “the operations in Lithography were exhibited, at which the numerous gentlemen present expressed their surprise and entire satisfaction.” 49. The following were some of the books in the Society’s depository in 1824:—

The need of vernacular school books recognized at an early date.

Some of the earliest vernacular (1) ‘Leepeedhara’ (a primer giving vernacular letters, their combinations, and school words up to words of five syllables, prepared by Pandits in the Society’s books.

service)—in Gujarati and Marathi. (2) ‘Numerals,’ containing the numbers, multiplication tables, tables of weights and measures “after the system of the Marathi schools”—Marathi. (3) ‘Guunit’—i.e., arithmetic on the European system—by Captain George Jervis—in two parts—in Gujarati and Marathi. (4) Advice to children (or Bodhvachun) (in short sentences) by Sadasiva Cassinath, native secretary to the Society. (5) A treatise on the management of schools—by Captain Molesworth: an adaptation of Lancaster’s system: in Gujarati and Marathi. (6) Fables—in ‘Banyan’ Gujarati and the same in ‘Parsi’ Gujarati. (7) The “Panchopakhyan” (Marathi). (8) “Vidoor Neeti” and (9) “Ball Goshtee” (tales for children).

74. That discretion, however, had to be exercised in regard to the subject-matter of such selections is, to all at least who are acquainted with the frank exuberances of Oriental verse, equally obvious. This, however, is a point connected with the larger problem of the selection of matter. In discussing the latter question two or three fundamental facts may well be borne in mind. From these spring the general principles which governed the Bombay Committee’s action. Firstly, the matter was required for vernacular speaking orientals, the vast majority of whom would never speak English, and whose teachers also (so far as the primary schools were concerned) would be equally ignorant of that language. Secondly, these orientals, except on the servile and nomadic fringes, were members of an ancient civilization. Not only were their lives ordered for the most part peaceably and decently in accord with immemorial precedent and tradition and the sanctions of great religions, but they too like ourselves were heirs of the wisdom of the ages. On the 311

Selection of subjectmatter. Fundamental facts to be considered in this connection.

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

Principles on which selection was based.

Interesting and amusing matter.

Moral, mythical and religious matter.

other hand, the wisdom of the West was a fast opening book, some of the pages of which were fraught with lessons fruitful alike for Eastern and Occidental, while others bore maxims to be digested and applied only in the colder regions and by the more critical peoples of temperate zones. Lastly, here in Bombay was no educational tabula rasa. The methods and matter of the older books had created a vogue, which, however necessary to extend or correct, it was neither politic nor feasible to destroy. 75. Hence five obligations rested upon the Committee. First to select passages which sprang from and adequately represented the vernaculars of the people. Secondly, to supply matter that was of a piece with the web of which their daily lives and general experience were woven. Thirdly, not to ignore completely the great achievements and accumulated wisdom of their historic past. Fourthly, to open, in so far as the revelation might prove profitable, the doors of the treasure house of Western civilization. And lastly, to develop, if possible, the lines on which the previous series had won their most notable successes and also to supplement their more obvious deficiencies. 76. The ideal of Hope’s series had been to combine interest with instruction. But fifty years ago it was too often assumed that what did interest ‘grownups’ should ipso facto interest young children. And in matters scholastic interest was not held to include amusement, since to amuse was scarcely compatible with edification. But the Committee has considered that some lighter pieces may legitimately have a place in the text books. A monotonous insistence upon the moral aspect of all the subjects treated in a school text book tends to defeat its own object. 77. Even so, the moral side has not been neglected. In the earlier books stories with a moral tendency predominate, while their place is gradually taken in the higher by direct moral lessons advocating and illustrating uprightness in points of practical conduct. And in all stories the Committee’s aim has been to palliate nothing ignoble and to magnify nothing that good men of whatever creed would deem unworthy of praise. More particularly has care been exercised in the selection of legends and fairy tales and myths. How far these ought to be taught at all to children has been a moot question in Europe from the days of Plato downwards. Modern times indeed have answered the question with a distinct affirmative, but their answer is conditional upon a drastic expurgation of the myths taught. However, in the West the problem is little more than academic, and there is no possibility of confusing the older mythologies with Religion. Not so in the East, where the myth is still informed with vital force, and can propagate its kind with undiminished vigour. Here still the part is often greater than the whole, and mythology identifies itself with Religion and works wonders in its name. Hence the question becomes a very practical and a very difficult one. To omit in a national series all reference to the creeds in which the people for whom it is written believe would he as wrong-headed as it would be unpopular. The solution seems to be that as regards the introduction of such stories “commendat rarior usus.” Mythical tales if inserted should deal with the gods rather as historic or legendary personalities 312

COVERNTON, VERNACULAR READING BOOKS

than as ‘praesentin et praevenientin numina’: their superhuman activities should not be presented as facts or verities a belief in which is essential for the faithful: lastly, the stories should involve no setting forth of dogma or sectarian doctrine and still less any depreciation of or attack upon other faiths. Guided by these principles, the Committee has not shrunk from inserting tales and passages containing references to the mythology and the beliefs of the people. To the charge that all these qualifications deprive the scholars of a God in any real sense, the answer is that direct lessons have been specially included which treat of God and the Divine attributes in a non-concrete but simple fashion, and so as to offend, it is hoped, the truly pious of no denomination. 78. But it is not only on these lines that attempts to improve upon the older books have been made. Recently a tendency had arisen to disparage or even to exclude historical lessons, apparently because it was considered that the vernacular histories sanctioned by the Department gave all that was necessary and also because it was contended that these lessons were difficult and uninteresting. Both reasons were unsatisfactory, and the loss of historical matter was a real detriment. The so-called ‘histories’ were either compilations of the most jejune description or translations of English works, difficult both in language and idea for vernacular pupils. Though the old historical reading lessons may have suffered from the latter fault, at least they were a step in the right direction. To excise them was to betray a want of appreciation of the enormous practical importance of history as an educational factor. The Committee determined to insert reading lessons dealing particularly with the history of each division, the Mogul Empire and the British rule, as well as others, giving some account of the earliest conditions of the country and its peoples, and also sketches of certain of the great personalities who have made it famous. Thus Alexander and Asoka, Sultan Mabmud of Ghazni and Prithvi Raja, Adinath and Gautama Buddha, Siddharaj and Ahmadshah of Ahmedabad, Karanghelo of Anhilwada and Krishnaraya of Vijayanagar, Akbar and Aurangzib, Malik Amber and Shivaji, Basava and Nana Fadnavis, Kalidas and Bhaskaracharya, Chand Bibi and Aholyabai are or ought to be still names of power in this Western Presidency, and their stories are as fully charged with romance or interest as those of the heroes of any European Valhalla, To write them down worthily in the vernacular and so that they shall appeal to and be understanded of the youthful reader is indeed a difficult task, and most of all for the native scholar troubled with many details, and with little eye for the dramatic or the picturesque. That the Committee’s versions fall painfully short of the ideal in many instances is only too manifest. But at least there has been no shirking of the difficulty and no decree ex cathedra that “historical lessons are useless and difficult and may be dropped.” Peradventure vernacular writers, as they begin to grasp the drift of the Committee’s intent, and to disabuse themselves of the idea that history is a meaningless jumble of tiresome dates and dreary details, may be able hereafter to improve upon the specimens procured by the Committee. One caution alone remains to be added. The aims of lessons of this kind, apart from their general objects of interest and instruction, should be not political, but ethical. In them it is the duty of the 313

Reading lessons in Indian History.

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

educationalist impartially to hold up ensamples of conduct for guidance and warning, not to disseminate a partisan propaganda. Detailed points of current politics and the exercise of what may be termed political logic, whether inductive or deductive, should be left unessayed. On the other hand, easy lessons on ‘citizenship,’ the rights of the state and the individual, etc., should be provided in the highest books, and a steadfast spirit of simple loyalty should be implicitly cultivated. Reading 79. In this last respect more can be done explicitly through the medium of readmatter in ing lessons in geography, especially those which deal with the British Empire in ‘political’ general, and the British Isles and Colonies in particular. Such lessons, naturally, if geography. they are to have their fullest effect, must be reserved for the latter part of the course, but in any case they seem essential. They are useful too in another way, since they take the native inhabitant of India out of the narrow compass of his own native ideals and experience and teach him the moral and material greatness of those other countries with which the destiny of his own is now irrevocably united. But this is not enough. In order to enable him to realize his place in the world sketches of those of the great European nations that count or have counted as Asiatic powers (e.g., the Portuguese and Dutch, France, Russia and Turkey) as well as of the chief native kingdoms of Asia are desirable. The treatment may be historical or geographical or a mixture of both, but special care should be taken to bring out the national characteristics of the people concerned and, where necessary, to draw instructive comparisons and contrasts between such countries and India. It is on these lines that the reading lessons in ‘political geography’ as it is sometimes called, though the term is too narrow, have been designed for the higher books in the series. In the lower readers the lessons start from the pupil’s immediate surroundings, his school, his village, his taluka and district, and carry him up through the Division and the Presidency to India as a whole. In this way he ascends the whole gamut of Indian institutions and receives, it is hoped, some impression not too blurred of the organization of which he is not an unconsidered unit. Elements 80. But it is necessary to project the more advanced scholar’s mind not merely of World spatially but also temporally beyond the boundaries of his country’s greatness and History. renown. He must learn that, honourable and ancient as is her past, other nations too have flourished, as honourable and still more ancient, and that the debt which the world owes to some of them far exceeds all that it has ever received or can receive from India. Not only should the ascent of man from the brute stage to the possession of arts and laws be depicted and his distribution racially over the earth be briefly indicated, but Egypt and Accad, Assyria, Phoenicia and Persia, Greece and Rome, these should be something other than more words to him. Perished dynasties, the dates of by-gone battles, the sites of vanished cities, with these things and others like them themind need not be stored. What is essential for him is to realize first that each of these nations has in some way or other helped or hindered the march of civilization, secondly what was the main contribution or set-back received from each, and lastly that the march though devious and interrupted has been a progress after all. No better antidote for the self-concentred or 314

COVERNTON, VERNACULAR READING BOOKS

for barren intellectual pride, can be imagined. Islam, thanks to its origin and growth, has ever admitted an ample range in its historical perspective, but the recipé is not without virtue even in its case. Lastly the main links in the long chain which binds the modern with the ancient ages should not be wholly forgotten. The birth of Christianity under the Roman Empire, the rise and preaching of Mahomed, the Venetians and their sea-faring, the discoveries of Columbus, the voyage of Vasco da Gama and the coming of the English to Surat all have their interest and importance for a lad born and bred in the West of India. If a full and separate exposition of each may not be possible or desirable, room at least can always be found in an appropriate context for a stimulating reference or a luminous allusion. In conformity then with these principles the Committee included in their higher books a minimum of what may be called the elements of World History. 81. It should not be supposed however that the humanistic side of education was solely or predominantly represented. Nature and Nature’s laws have received due attention in lessons that deal with birds and beasts and flowers as well in others that ‘treat of the human body and its functions, and the conditions of healthy living, or of the inanimate phenomena of the earth and sky, or of the commoner objects of daily life. The treatment is progressive. At first the more familiar plants and animals are selected and dealt with from an external, general and simple standpoint. Mere description is avoided and efforts are made to awake the child’s sense of observation and arouse his individual interest. Next, plants or animals are selected as typical of classes, and the kinship between them and other species is emphasized and illustrated. 125. An offer to contribute the matter required was received from Rao Bahadur H. D. Kantavala, a well known Gujarati educationalist and late Director of Vernacular Instruction in the Baroda State. After some negotiations the offer was accepted, Mr. Kantavala consenting to write his lessons in Gujarti upon the Iines indicated by the Committee. When they were received these were fully edited and arranged, the Committee, wherever it thought necessary, substituting lessons or passages of their own in the place of those originally furnished. Eventually the Committee compiled three Gujarati books2 (which were divided into subject sections like those of the boys’ books) containing about 176 pages and 80 lessons each. The lessons in the miscellaneous sections included poetry, stories, moral lessons, etc.: the historical and geographical sections corresponded in treatment to similar lessons in the boys’ books: those in the last section included lessons on natural phenomena and common objects as well as others on household economy, dress, sanitation, physiology, etc. The last section was almost equal in number of lessons to the first: the other two were much smaller. The advice and opinions of the Lady Superintendent of the Departmental Female Training College, Gujarat, an educationalist of great experience in female vernacular education, were sought on all topics of specially feminine interest. 126. Taken as a whole the girls’ readers are simpler in general treatment and narrower in the range of subjects than the boys’. The wider topics of history, literature and science are of little concern to vernacular girls, for whom (apart from 315

Reading matter for ‘Nature study,’ ‘Object lessons’ and Scientific subjects, etc.

The Preparation and general character of the three new Girls’ Readers.

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

Special characteristics of the Girls’ Series.

the practical demands of domestic economy) biographies illustrating the good deeds of great and virtuous women, accounts of their native land and its most distinguished sons, ethical stories and lessons inculcating modesty and sobriety of conduct and demeanour, together with poems of a moral and natural religious tendency are held by native public opinion to be more fitting pabulum. Such have been provided, but the Committee has also introduced geographical lessons dealing with important natural phenomena, with the authorities of the Presidency and India, and with the British Empire. Lessons too on the King Emperor and his Consort and family as well as on Queen Victoria, have not been forgotten. In the historical sections sketches of such heroines as Sita, Savitri, Mirabai, Chandbibi, Nurjehan are given; and of such rulers as Asoka, Ahmedshah, Akbar and Shivaji; with some account of the rise of the British power and of the system of British government in India. The lessons on domestic economy, common objects, etc., are intended to be reading not object lessons and will supplement, reinforce and possibly suggest practical demonstrations in their various subjects. The bulk of them handle themes belonging to domestic economy. That is they treat of food substances and their preparation, of cooking, of the cleanliness of the house and of clothes, of furniture, of household management, of dress, sewing, and so forth. They also include lessons on elementary physiology and hygiene, as well as others on common articles and objects.

Notes 1. Dated 1845. 2. Adaptations into the other languages were to be arranged for subsequently.

316

16 LEONARD ALSTON, EXTRACT FROM EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP IN INDIA (LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., 1910), 144–195

CHAPTER V § 51. To the Englishman who approaches such a topic as this at the present juncture of national affairs, the phrase “foster a sense of duty”1 is certain, at first hearing, to convey a very particular sense. It will suggest to him, inevitably, the relations of subject race to ruling race; the duty of which he will think primarily is bound to be the duty of submission to the laws of the State as now established and to the commands of the magistrates set over the people of India by his fellowcountrymen. He will probably overlook, unless he is exceptionally broad-minded, the important fact that his beneficent fellow-countrymen are to the Indians (even if they admit the beneficence) alien conquerors, whose rule rests on might rather than on right. Even if exceptionally broad-minded he is likely to forget that to the most public-spirited of Indians—those, that is, who are most likely to be possessed of “a sense of duty” in general—the State as now established in India can only present itself as a transitional arrangement, a political expedient which has done, perhaps, much good in the past, which may, perhaps, do yet more good in the immediate future, but which must in the farther future, if the Indian is ever to come to his own and rise to the full stature of political manhood, he finally superseded by something as different from what the Indian Government now is, as the existing British Constitution is different from the constitution of Norman and Angevin England. The problem of political duty, the question of the proper limitations to the obligation of submission to the established State, is, even in a unified organic State like England, by no means free from complications. The duty of obedience seems at every turn to be crossed by other lines of duty. These other duties nearly always present themselves with a greater emotional intensity than mere political duties. They concern the welfare of sections of society in whom we are more interested than we are in Society in general; they concern in some special way, perhaps, our own soul’s welfare; and therefore they are likely to present themselves as “higher” duties. Being accepted as higher, they will be obeyed in preference to ordinary political duties by those who are conscious of them, while the rest of the 317

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

community, feeling them not, or feeling them but slightly in the special instance, protests that larger and more permanent aims are subordinated to sectional interests and transient fancies. The problem of political duty is always a complicated problem. But when we are concerned with the political duties of conquered races its complications become such that no simple solutions are possible. The duty of obedience in such cases may be overcome by a higher duty of resistance. As a lover of order and progress, I may, if a member of a subject race, feel it incumbent on me to assist in a thousand minor details the good intentions of those whom Fate or Providence has set over me. But it may well seem equally my proper part in life to foster a nascent political consciousness, to stir in sluggish minds not merely a sense of indignation at injustice, but also a consciousness of undeveloped powers which only treachery to one’s higher nature can allow to atrophy. And if I play such a part as this (a “double” part it will be certain to seem to the unsympathetic imperialists set over me—rulers who praise my loyalty in administrative matters but are ready to revile me as a sedition-monger at the first glimpse they catch of my larger activities), then, when it seems to me that the appropriate moment has come, I must endeavour to turn my nationalist teaching into an affair not of words, but of deeds, and strike for what has ever been, in both my “parts,” my ultimate aim—the higher welfare of any fellow-subjects. The unsympathetic member of the ruling race, even though beneficently minded, is bound to demand that the present relationship of race to race must be accepted for at least a considerable period as unalterable in its essentials. The rulers are the superior race; the ruled are inferior. It therefore seems to him indubitably just that the former should watch over the latter and guide them into higher ways for the good of both, and that the subject peoples should be duly grateful and continuously “loyal.”2 He forgets that it may be possible to admit the relative superiority and be grateful, even, for the beneficence of the conqueror, and yet reject the conclusion that the higher should automatically govern the lower or the lower submit with unquestioning “loyalty” to their betters. Is it not possible to hold that it is better for a people to misgovern itself (within certain limits) than to be well governed by others? If I mismanage my own affairs I may suffer, economically or in other ways; but if I give offer to another the management of what seems to myself the most essential elements of a full life, I am submitting to something much more serious than pecuniary loss or economic ineffectiveness or discomfort. Life is more than bread; and political institutions exist for other objects besides the supplying of a good postal system, a good fiscal system, or even a good system of justice and police. What then is commonly called “sedition” is not necessarily incompatible with a high sense of social and political duty. It may, no doubt, at a particular juncture, be adjudged incompatible with political sagacity; the shapes which it is taking in contemporary India may be declared proofs of un-preparedness for a full use of political functions. But these are questions of fact. They are not self-evident 318

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

propositions that can dispense with the support of arguments based on empirical considerations. We cannot therefore put forward the existing unrest and “disloyalty,” of Indians as proof conclusive of the failure of our educational policy to inculcate a sense of political duty. The unres might even be plausibly cited as proof of the success of our instruction.3 A “sense of duty’ may be evidenced not merely by a patient willingness to obey, but by a readiness to protest, and a capacity to protest intelligently against the plunders of those in authority.4 “It is true” (writes John Stuart Mill) “a despot may educate the people; and to do so really, would be the best apology for his despotism. But [********] education which aims at making human beings other than machines, in the long run makes them claim to have the control of their actions. . . . Even Jesuit education, it seems, was sufficiently real to call forth the appetite for freedom.”5 § 52. It may, however, be urged that, whatever the ultimate duty of the subject people in the matter of accepting the control of the sovereign nation, it is a duty of the first importance on the part of every leading thinker among the former to see that he himself is well-informed as regards the motives, aims, methods, and achievements of the latter. This, however, is seldom spontaneously done. In the case of the average Indian we cannot reasonably expect this task to be undertaken. Indeed, it would by no means be easy for him, handicapped as lie is by the paucity of libraries and the comparative expensiveness of books, to acquire the necessary knowledge. Nor do there seem to be any good books on the subject. He is therefore hardly open to serious blame. “It is an absurd mistake,” (writes Sir Theodore Morison,6 “to suppose that the Indian student is perversely and obstinately disloyal; he is perfectly capable of understanding correct reasoning and ready to be convinced by it, if the facts and arguments are only put before him; but an appreciation of the excellence of the present administration does not come by nature, and there is no reference to the subject in any of the text-books he has hitherto been taught, which is the only educational agency recognized by Government. Is it then surprising that he holds views which he never hears disputed, and believes facts which he never hears challenged?”7 “It is not an uncommon thing to hear even educated Indians question the benefit of railways, steamers, and telegraphs, and to represent these [******* **] forming part of the diabolical contrivances by which England drains India’s wealth and impoverishes her people. . . . About the moral and material progress of his country since 1857 the Indian graduate has no real knowledge—no knowledge, that is to say, resting on anything better than hearsay or the reading of half-informed newspapers. And unfortunately, living, as he does in our days, in an atmosphere of suspicion and race prejudice, he easily imbibes the false and pernicious motion that England’s work in India has been only to bleed her people and enrich herself at their expense.8 The young men who pass out of our colleges have never been taught anything about the elements of citizenship; they know nothing about the administration of India, nothing about the stupendous work that has been done and is in progress for the moral and material benefit of its people.”9 319

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

This sort of social knowledge is not likely to be gained unless it is specially incorporated in the educational curricula,10 or supplied in some such way as Sir T. Morison suggests.11 For the people who are interested in spreading views of any sort about the objects of the Government are usually those who desire to see the spread of what we consider false views. These must be combated even by those who look forward eagerly to a self-governing India; and the combating of the false is most satisfactorily achieved if the true be made part of the regular schooling of the educated Indians. To quote Mr. Welinkar again: “In India . . . a system of liberal education has to subserve another peculiar function of fundamental importance. That function may be characterized as the ministry of reconciliation between the East and the West. I cannot be wrong in thinking that the ultimate aim of England’s policy in regard to the higher education of Indians is to train the best minds in India to understand England—to learn its history, its literature, the science which has given it its power and its wealth, and, what is of still greater importance, the spiritual ideas which underlie and hold together its national life. And having learnt these things, England expects that the favoured recipients of this knowledge will take their position as connecting-links between their countrymen and themselves, interpreting to the masses of their countrymen, who are necessarily deprived of the advantages which have been placed within their reach, the aim and spirit of British rule, spreading the knowledge they have themselves been helped to gain, and thus helping England to govern a foreign race so as to secure the contentment and progress of the millions committed to her care.” Such knowledge is certainly not spread by the vernacular Press, which seems to find (as might be expected) better opportunities of increasing its circulation in vilifying the measures of Government than in any other way.12 Vernacular newspapers, of which, in 1907, there were 753 in all (besides 1062 periodicals), are not, as a rule, profitable concerns;13 and the journalists as a class seem to be largely recruited (as has been already pointed out) from the ranks of unsuccessful college students, who have little opportunity, even if they had the will, to keep themselves well-informed on broad matters of Governmental policy.14 § 53. Among the different social and political groups in India whose activities are clearly discernible and capable to some extent of being satisfactorily estimated, the Congress party may be taken as that which represents preeminently the higher secular education. A careful study of their literature and their public actions, in the light of their special social environment, will do more perhaps than and other investigation to answer the questions with which we are concerned. The Congress historian will find it no easy task to separate out the different threads of policy that are due to the presence of selfish sectional interests within this heterogeneous party, a task which will be necessary before he can attempt to pass judgment on its work as a whole. The mere partisan observer will easily dismiss the whole movement with a few savage diatribes couched in the tone in which Mr. Masterman describes the “Condition of England.” For even the most sympathetic of the supporters of Congress 320

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

must admit that its activities are not ideally disinterested, tactful, or sagacious,— any more than are the activities of political and social parties in England. But in serious discussions of political movements comparisons of the actual and the ideal are obviously unreasonable, and we shall endeavour to steer clear of all such unreasonableness. § 54. The Congress, it should be mentioned, is not strictly a deliberative body. As Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, when chairman of the Reception Committee (1904), has put it: “It would be absurd to say that the Congress meets to deliberate or discuss and decide all the important subjects with which it deals. That task must be, and is, largely performed in the course of the year by such institutions as we may possess for forming Indian public opinion, in the common intercourse of daily life, in local bodies more or less active, in the Native Press, which is undoubtedly growing more and more capable and potent. At the end of the year we all meet together from different parts of the country, representatives of the people, not selected, it is true, by any authoritative or scientific process, but still representatives in all the various ways in which virtual representation works itself out in the early stages of its progressive development, representatives who are of the people and in immediate touch and contact with them, representatives realizing in themselves the wants, the wishes, the sentiments, the aspirations of the people, representatives whose education has qualified them to ponder over grave questions of policy and principle in their application to the administration and government of this country in all their complex relations of a foreign rule, representatives into whom education has instilled an earnest, devoted, and enlightened loyalty to the British Crown and a keen solicitude for the safety and permanence of the British Empire, in which they are firmly persuaded lie implanted the roots of the welfare, the prosperity, and the good government of this country—I say, we delegates, representatives of the people, meet together at the end of the year to give voice to the public opinion of the country taking shape and formulating throughout the year, to present our Petition of Rights, our Grand Remonstrance, our appeal and our prayer for a firm and unfaltering grasp of a policy of wisdom and righteousness, for the reversal of retrograde measures inconsistent with such a policy, and for the adoption of means steadily ensuring the gradual development of free political progress ‘broadening slowly down from precedent to precedent.’” The Congress meets for only three days in the year, and carries out a programme prepared ‘by a committee which debates in secret.’ This committee selects speakers to advocate particular measures. The orators deliver set harangues, and the resolutions proposed are carried unanimously. What strikes one most forcibly in glancing down thee series of resolutions is that while there is invariably placed in the forefront a demand for lessened taxation, a considerable number of the other proposals call for largely increased expenditure. But such inconsistencies, of course, are to be found in the programmes of most parliamentary oppositions; and the Congress politicians are not kept in check by the consideration that they themselves may have to give effect to their own programme. The speeches taken in the mass are very decorous and fairly reasonable, 321

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

though not, apparently, based on very full or accurate knowledge of the topics treated. Occasional speeches are admirable. Writing in 1898, Mr. Eardley Norton says “Were I a statesman and in office I should be proud of this wonderful exhibition of the development of English education. I would point with exultation to its peaceful, orderly assembly, to the discipline of its meetings, to its ready and cheerful obedience to its President, to its grateful acknowledgment of the manifold blessings of British rule to the sober language of its demands? to the verdemands themselves, as necessary and intende results of our education, of our promises, and of our policy; and I would boast, as I believe I could boast truthfully, that no country in the world but my own Could in so short a time have transformed the India of yesterday into the India of to-day.”15 He goes on to quote passages from Sir Wm. Hunter: “I affirm that there is no political movement in the country which is managed with the same moderation of speech and the same dignity of procedure as this, the Indian National Congress” (1889). . . . “I may therefore briefly say that those political movements are the legitimate and inevitable result of Western education in India. The men who conduct them are the men to whom in all other respects, intellectual and moral, we are accustomed to point as the highest products of British rule in India. They are the men who form the natural interpreters of our rule to the masses of the people. To speak of such men, when their activity takes a political direction, as disaffected, would be equally unjust and untrue” (1890).16 The split which occurred in 1907, when the Extremist section refused to fall in with the rulings of a Moderate President and Committee, may seem to detract a good deal from these eulogies. But similar breakdowns occur over and over again in the legislatures of countries (such as Austria) where Parliament has the right to Criticize, but no power to control, the Executive. Moreover, the Moderate section seems to have very quickly and satisfactorily reconstituted itself as the National Congress.17 § 55. The Congress party is certainly the party of disloyalty in the narrower sense of that word. But it is still more the party of conscious political ideals, however much its aims may be permeated by class selfishness. “The dignity of the true statesman’s work” (says Mr. J. N. Farquhar, Professor of English, Bhawanipur) “and the value of all faithful toil done for the State are now commonplaces on the Congress platform.”18 For one among many of the expressions of this new-born sense of political duty we may turn to the prayer with which the National Congress was opened in Calcutta. The ideas as well as the phraseology are borrowed from English Christianity; and they may be, and probably are, very imperfectly grasped. Yet even outward homage to such ideals is itself a sign of progress, and likely, by familiarizing the party with the principles that should underlie political action, to favour further progress and lead on to fuller ethical gains. No doubt this is less certain in the case of Indians (by whom the logical connection between words and actions seems always very hazily grasped) than might at first sight appear; but the necessity of justifying political and social actions by 322

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

reference to the highest Western ideals can hardly fail absolutely of all result. The words of the prayer are quoted in Mr. Farquhar’s article. “O most Gracious God and Father, by whose Divine Providence mankind is ruled and all things are made to work out His good ends, we thank Thee for enabling us, Thy unworthy servants, to assemble once more in this great city for this the twenty-second session of our National Congress. We bless Thy Holy Name that Thou didst put into the hearts of our leaders, some of whom have now departed this life, to establish this Congress, and didst grant themwisdom and ability to maintain and develop it in the face of manifold and vast difficulties. We heartily thank Thee for the measure of usefulness granted to our Congress in the past, in drawing together in the bonds of friendship, fellowship and united effort our countrymen, separated as they are by difference of race, creed, language and social customs. We also render Thee most humble and hearty thanks for the marvelous growth of the true spirit of Nationalism which has recently manifested itself in all parts of our beloved motherland. “We seek Thy blessing, O Heavenly Father, on the proceedings of the present session of our Congress. Give to the President and to all speakers the guidance of Thy Holy Spirit, so that nothing may be said or done here that is not in accordance with Thy Holy Will. Remove from us all ill-feeling, prejudice, and uncharitableness, and fill our hearts with a genuine desire for the good of the country and its people, with unswerving loyalty to our rulers, and with good feelings towards all sections of the inhabitants of this land. Let moderation and earnestness, wisdom and charity, humility and harmony characterize our proceedings at this great gathering. “We implore Thy blessing on our Gracious Sovereign and Emperor, King Edward, and on the Royal Family. Enable those that bear rule in this land under His Imperial Majesty to realize their unique responsibilities consequent on their position which Thou hast been pleased to grant them, and help them to fulfil the sacred charge committed to them, so as to glorify Thy Name and to benefit our people. More especially at this time we beseech Thee, O Lord, to inspire all the members of the ruling race with true sympathy for the people over whom Thou hast placed them as rulers. “O merciful God, we seek Thy guidance and help in checking and uprooting all the evils which hinder our progress and improvement as a people. Enable us to make ourselves worthy in every respect for the privileges of self-government and participation in the administration of the country which we seek and claim. Pardon our many shortcomings, strengthen our infirmities, bless our labours, and bestow on us such a measure of success as Thou thinkest fit. Grant us the spirit of self-effacement and self-sacrifice, and accept our humble services to the glory of Thy Holy Name, and the good of our beloved motherland. Amen.” § 56. As regards the speeches and writings of the Congress party, one is always hearing the charge that they are violently seditious.19 Defenders of the Congress are always repudiating it. The impression that I gather myself from the perusal of a considerable amount of such matter is that both accusation and repudiation are, 323

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

in most cases, put forward in good faith. Many times the Congress politicians are genuinely astonished at some flagrant utterance being treated as unjustifiable. In a considerable proportion of cases I believe the misunderstanding, when closely analyzed, will be found to be in part a difference in political manners and in part a consequence of linguistic difficulties. A very slight turn of phrase may, unintentionally, convert a respectful protest into an intolerable demand—the misuse of an auxiliary verb—some slight nuance in the use of an adjective. This is a very real cause of serious misunderstandings. It is a point that has been brought home to me by the way in which I have frequently been approached, by letter or in person, by Indian students whose obvious interest it was, in presenting some request, to be as condilatory as possible. Yet some of the expressions they would use, intermixed with painstakingly respectful sentences, would be of a kind that at first hearing seemed to call for indignant rebuke. Not a little thought was required sometimes, before one could realize how trifling an alteration—the substitution, say, of “may” for “must,” “request” for “desire”—would suffice to give the question a satisfactory shape.20 Such shades of difference in expression may be pure matters of idiom or involve also questions of taste. In either case the hitting of the exactly appropriate phraseology is ultimately a matter of scholarship, and often of very delicate scholarship. This neither party understands. The unintentionally offensive speaker is treated by Englishmen as a dangerous sedition-monger, and his compatriots are amazed to see him singled out for disloyalty, when Englishmen or Irishmen who use what to them may appear much more outrageous expressions are left unrebuked. Even when the objectionable utterances are not thus susceptible of being resolved into linguistic misunderstandings, it should not be forgotten that political manners differ from country to country as well as from century to century. We must keep clear of the error (natural enough, it is true) of condemning our own work in the East and of dealing in gloomy forecasts for India, because we find that contemporary India does not coincide with our ideal. A great deal of what seems to us, in the nascent political life of India, outrageous, and indeed in-tolerable, could doubtless be paralleled without much difficulty among the platform utterances and newspaper articles of America and the Continent, and, indeed, in the journalism of eighteenth-century England.21 It is natural, moreover, for Orientals, as it is for southern Europeans, to deal in superlatives. “An impartial judge of native comments” (writes a native of India)22 “will also make some allowance for the emotional character of the Oriental mind and its traditional habit of indulging in spirited and hyperbolical language.” § 57. The Indian would-be statesman lacks the sort of training which is ours almost from childhood—the quasi-political training of the public school especially, where we acquire the elements at least of political sagacity and learn to give and take in reasonable measure. Even the politicians of Continental Europe show, conspicuously at times, signs of the inadequate nature of their experience in such matters The management of school clubs, the prefect system, the life of the cricket field and the dormitory, all leave their mark on the growing English boy.23 324

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

Rarely indeed—unless it be in the chiefs’ colleges24 and perhaps a few places like Aligarh and Trinity College, Kandy25—has the Indian known any such preparation for life.26 The attempt to make the control of athletics a matter of student self-government has been known to fail utterly in a University college where two religious sects have been evenly balanced in numbers, as every committee election, every selection of a cricket team was made a matter of racial and religious feud. Autocratic intervention on the part of the English professors has been necessitated in order to remedy glaring injustices brought about by a chance-majority vote, and tenaciously upheld on, the sternest “constitutional” principles by the unpatriotic offenders, who were willing, if not eager, to sacrifice the prestige of their college in intercollegiate competitions, if by so doing they could feel that they were championing the interests of Religion.27 The Indian agitator (with rare exceptions) has not learned the wisdom of moderation. He attacks indiscriminately the good and the bad actions of government, with the zest of a schoolboy playing at a new game and the bitterness of one who believes that his personal aspirations are debarred from a legitimate outlet in an administrative career.28 The game of politics is new to him. He has learned it from newspapers and books. He does not realize the difference in controversial tone and social environment which makes the game in twentieth-century England a very different one from what it can become in India. He overlooks, too, in most cases, the difference between party strife in a country with responsible self-government, and class opposition in a country where the Government must necessarily remain autocratic. Unfortunately his English sympathizers (especially certain sections of the Liberal Press and a group of ill-informed members of Parliament) overlook this difference also. As Mr. Mitra puts it: “An attack made on the Government of India by the National Congress or by the Vernacular Press is not like the attack of an organized opposition on the Government of the day. There is no system of party in India. Those who attack the Government know that they cannot hope to turn them out, but they proceed as if they could do so. It is an axiom in Indian politics that the Government of India cannot allow itself to be beaten.”29 § 58. It is the absence of racial unification and class equality which makes autocratic rule (however much tempered by consideration for the governed, and modified by frequent consultation with representatives of the subject peoples) an abiding necessity as long as the caste system holds sway and racial and religious antipathies remain what they are to-day. The Congress politician crying out for representative institutions stands in the same position as the Roman oligarch of yore, protesting, “I was born free as Cæsar; so were you . . . ”; yet (in true oligarch fashion) never casting a thought in the direction of the great mass of the subject population of Rome. A share in political domination the educated Indian naturally craves. But the Provincials—the struggling ryots—still prefer, it would seem, the rule of an alien Cæsar to the rule of a native clique. “Many able and conscientious men” (writes a judge of the High Court of Bombay)30 “take their stand in dealing with the Indian problem upon a fundamental 325

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

principle. All people have the right to be free. No country has the right to hold the peoples of another country or continent in subjection and deny them equal rights of free citizenship. As an abstract proposition in the domain of national ethics few can dispute the principle. But when it is sought to be applied practically to the complex problem of Indian government, it will be found to imply some conditions which do not exist and never have existed. “It implies that we found India ‘free’ and enslaved her. It implies that there is a people in India struggling to be free, and that we repress it. It implies a homogeneity of race, religion, and sentiment throughout India, the very reverse of what we really find there. It implies an Indian ‘nation’; but there is no Indian nation. It implies that India, like France or England, is a country, while everyone Knows that it is a continent. It is a continent full of jarring and hostile elements, a continent of which the numerous peoples and tribes are only kept in restraint by the compelling power of England. If there were, as the exponents of this principle seem to believe, an Indian nation aspiring to be free; if the English rule suppressed by force that aspiration, and imposed upon the weak but unwilling necks of millions the yoke of a foreign tyranny, I do not think that any genuine Englishman could be found to defend the morality of such a position. But were the facts so, or nearly so, there would be no need of any moral discussion. Two or three hundred million people animated by a common patriotism, by a common resolve to be free certainly could not be kept in subjection by such means as England uses in India for a single day.” These are facts which it is not easy for the English politician or the English journalist to grasp so firmly as never to let them slip from his memory when he is handling a concrete Indian problem. They are, however, repeatedly ignored by writers who certainly cannot urge the excuse of ignorance. § 59. The Congress party is freely accused of being a selfish and partisan body representing the interests of unimportant coteries. “Mr. Niel Groïs, a graduate of Harvard University, and a student of international affairs . . . was struck by the fact that the Congress at Calcutta was a collection of office-seekers, not of patriots, and in a speech delivered at Boston last year he explained the special opportunities of studying Indian problems he had enjoyed, and compared the disloyalty of the educated classes with the devotion of the masses, who realized that their safety, and in fact their entire well-being, depended on the continuance of British rule.”31 “It is becoming increasingly obvious,” writes Mr. T. V. Subrahmanyam,32 “that the institution has ceased to be popular, that it is preserved as the organ of a few, and that its resolutions cannot be said to have the sanction of the people at large. It was only the other day that the Amrita Bazar Patrika [a leading Congress organ] was forced to confess that the so-called National Assembly was the preserve of a few people who could make a speech in English.” Whether the protests raised in Congress and re-echoed in all parts of India over such matters as the Partition of Bengal and the Universities Act—to take the two stock grievances of the Congress politician—were intelligent or disinterested is indeed very dubious. The weight of evidence seems in the former case all in 326

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

favour of the view that the agitation was largely engineered in the interests of small coteries, of educated Hindus desirous of maintaining the preponderance of Hindu officials in the Mohammedan section of the province and of retaining Calcutta as the centre of legal and administrative business for the larger area.33 The whole controversy, however, is most bewildering. Lord Morley, in his speech at Arbroath (21st October, 1907), certainly rejected the theory that the agitation was purely artificial, not based on existing and widely-felt discontent. After considerable wearsome study of Congress speeches and of articles in the pages of India (the weekly organ of the Congress party published in England), I find myself completely baffled by the whole question. The only tangible objections that appear to be raised against the Partition seem to imply that some sections of the population may lose advantages which other sections will gain; and the sympathies of the Congress happen to be with the former rather than the latter. But what exactly the losses (if any) amount to, and whether there can possibly be any net losses, are questions that it seems almost impossible to answer with confidence, the whole of the controversial ground being now so overgrown with a jungle of misrepresentations that clear vision is impossible. One can only re-echo the words of Lord Morley: “It is the vagueness of the discontent, which is not universal, out of the discontent so far as we can perceive it—it is the vagueness that makes it harder to understand, harder to deal with. Some of them are angry with me. Why? Because I have not been able to give them the moon. I have got no moon, and if I had I would not give them the moon. I would not give anybody the moon, because I do not know who lives there. I do not know what kind of conditions prevail. But, seriously, I read pretty carefully—not very pleasant reading—I read much of the Press in which their aspirations are put forth. . . . But I declare to you I cannot find what it is precisely they want us to do which we are not anxious slowly and gradually to make a way for eventually doing. But there must be patience and there must be, whatever else there is, firmness.” “It is impossible to read the narrative of the controversy, says a former Bishop of Bombay,34 “without deploring the prejudice and pusillanimity which underlies the native side of it. The larger considerations which appeal to statesmanship are ignored, while the smaller and more personal aspects of the question are strongly pressed.” Similarly with regard to the Universities question: “The scheme of reform was under consideration when I left India. It occasioned the strongest feeling, and what impressed one chiefly in the controversy was the weight given to mere personal considerations. . . . There seemed to be little anxiety to get at the real merits of the question; to arrive at the best settlement in the light of efficiency; to think out impartially such a constitution of the governing body as would best promote the usefulness of the university and lend most value to its educational work.”35 § 60. The Congress, it is further urged, represents the selfish Hindu point of view only. That it is almost entirely repudiated by the Moslem element, is true enough;36 but this is in part due to the educational backwardness of the Moslem community, and in part also to the personal influence of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of Aligarh College, who always deprecated political activity before 327

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

the Moslems should have strengthened their position by broadening through education their intellectual outlook. Its non-representative character is very forcibly described by a somewhat hostile critic, Sir G. Chesney. He emphasizes the smallness and what he believes to be the political insignificance of the section from which most of its members are drawn; but hardly succeeds in showing conclusively that a Western Government fostering Western ideas should not give to them and their ambitions a larger measure of attention than the bulk of the people, Mohammedans and uneducated Hindus, might approve. “Among the special elements of difficulty at the present time” (he writes),37 “is the appearance on the surface of Indian society of a new class—a class which has no affinity with the landed aristocracy or the natural rulers38 of India, of the mercantile, or the agricultural communities, which has never before occupied a position of any importance; a class which is the product of our system of free [sic] education, and which, while constituting a numerically insignificant minority of the whole population, lays claim to be accepted as the people of India, and, with the assistance it is endeavouring to secure from an uninstructed section of English politicians, is entering on a course of political agitation—vague, unreal, and impracticable in its aims, but which, unless directed into a rational course, may bring about trouble and danger to India. The vast majority of the people of India, on the other hand, although the agitation now being got up among a section of the small English-speaking class necessarily excites among them a vague feeling of unrest and expectation, are still politically in an elementary condition to which no part of Europe furnishes anything analogous. The questions which we are told exercise the minds of the people of India such as the expansion of the legislative councils, the constitution of the Civil Service, and so forth, are at present absolutely beyond their apprehension. Their notions of the nature of the Government they are ruled by are of the vaguest. To them the Government is represented by three or four district officials with whom they come in contact; these they see to be acting under higher authority, but as to the nature of this they have only the vaguest notions, while of the Government in England, with its parliament and political parties, they have no more conception than of the composition of the solar system. Representative institutions, franchises, voting, elections, the simpler political questions which are coming to be understood by all classes in Europe do not enter even in the most remote way into their thoughts. This is a class of whose wants and feelings little or nothing is heard in the so-called political discussions now going on in India; yet, it outnumbers the other class by thousands to one, and it is mainly in their interests that the Government has to be conducted. This last point is also emphasized by the American missionary, Dr. J. P. Jones: “It is certainly the business of Great Britain to discover and consult the wishes of the people—not the hungry office seekers—in this matter. After many years of observation and living among the people, the writer is convinced that nine-tenths of the people would be prepared any day to vote in favour of the relative increase, and not the decrease, of the European official force. . . . The writer knows how 328

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

general is the want of native confidence in natives. Many a time has he been importuned to use his influence to have cases transferred from the jurisdiction of the native to the Englishman.” . . . “The presence of the few English dignitaries” (he adds) “does ten times more good to the land in purifying and toning up the service than their salary is worth.”39 It is, of course, a point to which the Congress party denies any importance or any truth. Says a native member of the Legislative Council of India40 on one occasion: “Lord Curzon . . . told his hearers . . . that even if he had incurred the hostility of educated Indians, the masses would be grateful to him for what he had done for them. This attempt to distinguish between the interests of the educated classes and those of the bulk of their countrymen is a favourite device with those who seek to repress the legitimate inspirations of our people. . . . We know, of course, that the distinction is unreal and ridicuous, and we know also that most of those who use it as a convenient means to disparage the educated classes cannot themselves really Believe in it.”41 As soon, however, as one turns from the heated atmosphere of Congress discussions and the unsavoury declamations of the friends of Congress in the House of Commons, and opens such a book as Sir F. S. P. Lely’s sympathetic little brochure (Suggestions for the Better Governing of India),42 he feels himself at once in a different world. Here we get the peasants’ point of view, set forth by one who evidently knows them at close quarters and who certainly holds no brief for the Government as it is. But the “reforms” for which Congress clamours are conspicuous by their absence. Congress gets scarcely a mention from cover to cover; yet it is hardly possible to read the essay through without a conviction that here, at last, is an author who really aims at presenting what are the genuine grievances and the actual aspirations of over 90 per cent of the people. § 61. That the Congress party is swayed by class interests may be freely admitted. What political party in history has not been so swayed? But the Congress certainly stands for Western political ideals, and much of its programme consists of what, on a priori reasoning, the Liberalism of Europe would be bound to approve. That the literary class, the lawyers, the potential officeholders would benefit by the spread of liberal principles of government (as understood in England) does not prevent their interest in Liberalism being genuine. Nor is it reasonable to argue that because both their aims and methods are exotics, introduced into India from the alien West, these aims and methods must be the products of insincere imitation. The methods of Congress are of course not the natural methods of the East, any more than they are faithful copies in detail of the methods of the West. “Orthodox Hindus of the old school” (says Sir Theodore Morison) have been offended at the pretensions of the Congress politicians to represent Hindu society, seeing that their manners and methods of political agitation are flagrantly foreign to Indian ideas.”43 But for the Congress party to refrain from adopting Western methods in their agitation, while such a course might enhance their appearance of sincerity, would hardly be evidence of their political sagacity. 329

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

What, however, are we to say of their ultimate aims? In so far as these are disinterestedly patriotic they ought to be bent towards securing for their country a fuller realization of self-respecting Statehood. The mention of such an aspiration as this in a Western land would at once suggest the double aim of attaining complete independence from foreign control and of introducing some democratic system of representative government. The Indian is intellectually imitative, and the Congress Indian is the Indian who knows something of Western aspirations. Nothing therefore is, more natural than that Congress politicians, while postponing the dubious benefits that would follow the withdrawal of British control, should press forward towards the goal of representative institutions. This, however, is by no means the accustomed, aspiration of the uneducated Indian. His desire is distinctly for good patriarchal governments. Loyalty to a personal monarch comes easy to him. He. is not even eagerly bent on having a ruler of the same nationality as himself. The Nizam, a Mohammedan, speaking Urdu, reigns over Hindus whose native tongues are Telegu, Canarese, or Mahratti; nor will the Gaekwar of Baroda be found ruling over populations composed preponderantly of Mahrattas. Yet these princes do not seem to have any difficulty in winning the loyalty of their subjects, and that though neither of them can show a genuinely ancient title to their allegiance. Even the English Emperor-King receives an unexpectedly large share of veneration in India. For the monarchical sentiment is a deep-seated instinct among the races that dwell east of Suez.44 By this we do not, of course, mean to imply that the Oriental any more than the European wishes to be ruled in accordance with the changing caprices of an inscrutable despot whose ways are, not his own ways and who never condescends to explain, when explanation is necessary, why he wills what he wills. As an Anglo-Indian paper45 points out: “It is too late to reiterate the familiar notion that the East desires good government through a benevolent despot, and looks on self-government with contempt. If the ‘benevolent despot’ is one who pursues his own way, regardless of what his subjects think, then he has passed from the scene of government in India, and it is useless to go on holding him up as an ideal. An authoritative government, whose rule is conditioned by a careful regard for the informed and reasonably expressed opinion of the people who are ruled, is another matter.” Even an Indian rajah can be found to insist on the same point.46 “Again, when the public journals question the justice or wisdom of any action of Government, Government should condescend to afford explanations oftener and more fully than heretofore. Such explanations would, “in many cases, clear up matters and obviate dissatisfaction. A good and strong Government ought not to hesitate to take the people into its confidence.”47 § 62. Discussing the aspirations of New India before the Royal Colonial Institute, Sir Bamp-fylde Fuller is reported48 as saying: “If the eyes of, the Indian people were not turned to democratic ideals, what was it they were looking for? It might safely be concluded that if the extravagant utterances of extremist politicians found a hearing, it was not because the Indian people wished to see the 330

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

end of British rule. He believed that their grievance was primarily sentimental, that uppermost in their minds was a vague feeling of resentment at being treated always as inferior to Europeans. . . . His conclusions were that one could learn very little as to the real wishes of India from the recent manifestations of unrest; that the heartfelt desire of the people was to acquire a self-respect which had been lost during years of subjection; that the best method of meeting this desire was to prove to them that they were not barred from positions of trust and dignity in the service of the country; and that, if this concession was granted, they would remain very well content with methods of government which might not realize the democratic ideals of Englishmen, but which satisfied the present needs of a large portion of Europe.” § 63. The Congress speakers clamour, and very naturally, for more of the loaves and fishes of office. They almost certainly do not desire a severance of the English connection. On this point testimony seems practically unanimous. To quote one of themselves:49 “The educated Indian has his faults, but whatever these faults may be it cannot be asserted that he is blind to his own material interests, and it is his own material interests that sway him altogether towards being loyal and contended, as loyal subjects should be contented, towards the Government. Indeed, the principle on which the Indian National Congress is based is that British rule should be permanent and abiding in India, and that, given this axiom, it is the duty of educated Indians to endeavour to the best of their power to help their rulers so to govern the country as to improve her material prosperity and make the people of all classes and communities happy and prosperous and contented as subjects of the British Empire. The sooner this erroneous but very mischievous notion that the educated Indian is seditious is given up, the better for the country.” “These men” (says one of their English coadjutors50)“are not paid demagogues or political incendiaries with no stake in the land. Their material well-being is bound up with British rule. They comprise, educationally, the pick and flower of all the trades and professions in India. Many of them are wealthy landowners, nearly all of them are men of substantial means. Is it wise” to decry such men as paid agitators, to denounce their leaders as discontented lawyers?51 In past years I was of the Cabinet of the Congress. My official severance with that body is now complete. But I gladly pay my old colleagues the tribute of my admiration and respect for the ability, the ardour, and withal the moderation with which questions were threshed out in the Subject Committees. It was here that all the real work of the Congress was done. . . . I have lived too long behind the scenes and mixed too freely with the delegates not to be certain that they bear very willingly and very gratefully the yoke of England’s rule.” § 64. The difficulty of the sympathetic observer of the manifestations of Indian unrest is to decide with what set of conditions, real or imaginary, the present circumstances of India should be brought into comparison. The agitators and the agitated populations are alternately comparing things as they are (or more often, perhaps, things as they pretend or imagine them to be) with things as they were in the Golden Age, or with things as they will be in an impossible future. But except 331

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

in the case of a small section of the educated people, the ideal is never that of a representative democracy. Whatever they may say about England, they would never wish to copy England. § 65. A Mohammedan prince, H.H. the Aga Khan, puts forward the most obvious objection to the full introduction of representative institutions. “If the real power were given over to the people’s representatives, how would they use it? . . . Whatever the material or educational test of the franchise, the result would be, under the present state of social civilization, that power would fall into the hands of individuals or communities who, while in many things abreast of the century, are in other things full of prejudices against the lower classes of their countrymen, unworthy of the days of the Tudors. It must not be forgotten that many of those who are demanding the highest political rights deny at this moment to their own dearest and nearest female relatives the simplest of human rights.”52 “The great majority of the people who retain their religious beliefs and social usages” (says another native ruler53) “would decidedly prefer their non-representation to their mis-representation by those who have given up those beliefs and those usages”—and such denationalized representatives the Congress politicians would undoubtedly be. Representative institutions have been found almost impracticable when the racial and linguistic divisions are as sharp as we find them in Austria-Hungary. The sharper religious and social divisions of India make them almost unthinkable. This, of course, is a truth which it is difficult for Englishmen to grasp. “It is apparently necessary for English politicians” (writes Sir Theodore Morison54) “to behold a country given up to anarchy before they can realize that popular institutions make for the disruption of a nation which is not yet compact and unified. If they looked beneath the delusive calm which the army maintains in India, they would behold all the passions which beget civil war, unscotched by a hundred years of unwilling peace.” “One must be compelled” (says Dr. J. P. Jones55) “to deny the srncerity of many who claim that this people is a nation which prides itself upon its patriotism, so long as the caste system dominates them and their ideas. The only tie which binds together these people is the spirit of opposition to this foreign government. Among the classes and the masses there is absolutely no coherence or unity of sentiment in any line of constructive activity. So that in the matter of self-government they would prove themselves to be sadly incompetent.” To mention no other objections, a representative assembly among these “children of inexorable inequality”56 would prove unworkable, because, by jumbling together high caste and low, it would turn ceremonial Hinduism into a code of impossibilities.57 Representative institutions all but a small loquacious section of the people almost certainly do not want. The idea is too alien. It would be too difficult (as has been said already) to get high caste and low to sit together at the Council Board. Indeed, it is probable that to a high-caste Hindu the idea of submitting himself to the suffrages of his inferiors could only appear as an indignity Where the representative system has been introduced obvious drawbacks appear in the working 332

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

“Sir Macworth Young, the lately retired Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, has recorded his opinion on the subject of the advancement in local self-government in that province in the last eighteen years, during which Lord Ripon’s policy in that respect has been in force, to the effect that the people rarely manifest any interest in the election of their representatives, and the elected representatives rarely represent the real interests of their constituents. If any position on the Board is coveted it is that of the nominated, not of the elected, members, and District Boards in general are merely consultative, not executive, bodies, reflecting the disposition of the Deputy-Commissioner, whose appointment as President has been necessitated in almost every case by the prevalence of party feeling and sectarian strife. The absence of a wholesome public spirit in the rural community lies at the root of this failure, and until this want is supplied local self-government in rural tracts of the Punjab will be more or less of a farce.”58 “To those who watch carefully the working of this municipal franchise” (writes Dr. Jones, an experienced American missionary59), “and see how easily and speedily the natives have adopted all the vices and tricks of the representative system, it does not, by any means, seem an unmixed good. And the hardest critics of the system that the writer has met have been intelligent and loyal natives, who believe that this meed of self-government is fraught with evil.”60

Notes 1. See Preface. 2. An administrator like Sir E. C. Cox namely expresses his amazement (see The Nineteenth Century, December 1908) that ex-civilians who show favour to inconvenient political aspirations should be allowed to retain their pensions, quite forgetting that the pensions, though awarded under the regulations of the bureaucracy, are all derived from the purses of the Indian tax-payers, and that the duty of the pensioners surely to consult the ultimate interests of those on whose bounty he lives, rather than the interests of his former fellow-officials. (A view similar to Sir E. C. Cox’s is put forward in The Quarterly Review for July 1908, “The Unrest in India.”) 3. Mr. H. P. Mody, a Parsi, cites in his essay (The Political Future of India) the widespread character in the protests against the Partition of Bengal and the Punjab Colonization Bill, as evidence of the awakening of a sense of national solidarity and a consciousness of the duty of subordinating sectional interests to the good of the whole. How far the interest in these special grievances extended is, however, by no means clear. With regard to the Partition of Bengal, Mr. J. D. Rees, C.I.E., M.P., says that “it must be remembered that the rest of India takes no kind of interest in the question and, indeed, is not favourable to Bengali pretensions” (The Real India, 1908, p. 206). From Congress speeches I incline, however, to believe that the interest in the “grievance” is fairly widespread, though only, of course, among the educated classes. Compare also the following: “The European [******* * **] in India, in the interests of the Empire, and in order to win the confidence of the people, should so act as not to show any assumption of a Divine right to rule, or any air of conscious superiority, which, without strengthening his position, jars upon the susceptibilities of the people. I can quite imagine somebody objecting to the view I have expressed, and saying. “This must be some new sensitiveness that the Indians have developed, as their fathers rejoiced in honouring the rulers.’ Yes, it is new, but it

333

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

4.

5. 6. 7.

is there, and it has to be taken into account. The Indian to-day is not behind his father in deference to constituted authority, but he is now learning to bow to authority in the abstract as distinguished from its concrete embodiment—the official. He has imbibed the English notions of might and duty, has learnt at the feet of broad-minded English scholars the lessons of independence and love of liberty, and he finds it impossible to behave like those who never had these privileges. It is no use, therefore, to fret at this spirit, which is one of the most direct results of the contact between England and India; but efforts should be made to foster it on right lines, and to encourage it, within due bounds” (Shaikh Abdul Qadir, “Young India: Its Hopes and Aspirations,” Asiatic Quarterly, April 1906). “The very contact with Europeans has had an effect on the national character and national ideals. In the absence of legitimate outlets the roused consciousness of latent energies turns into unreasoning discontent” (Mr. Ameer Ali, “Indian Race Characteristics,” Nineteenth Century, November 1907). In any case we must remember that it is too late to echo the thought embodied in the phrases of that good royal governor of Virginia who could say, in 1670, “I thank God there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years. For learning has brought disobedience into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against the best of Governments: God keep us from both.” It can hardly be necessary to linger over what should by now be a truism—that “unrest” is not by itself a proof of the growth of hardships and poverty. It is usually the populations that are advancing in material welfare that become acutely conscious of advantages which are not yet theirs, rather than the hopelessly downtrodden peoples. (Thus, to take a stock instance, the French peasantry in 1789 were probably much better off than the peasantry of the other parts of the Continent at the same date.) “Feelings of hate and revenge” (says the Aga Khan, National Review, February 1907) “will in some hour when they are least expected and most dangerous break out from a materially prosperous but disaffected people. The wealthier such a population is, the more dangerous will it be if it ever rebels.” Nor, further, can we affirm, without great rashness, that the “disloyalty’’ is the effect either of the mildness or of the sternness of our methods. If all our Indian administrators were Prussian martinets, it may be that the courage to move would always have been wanting. If, on the other hand, they were all sympathetic philanthropists (the phrase, by the way, is not a tautology), it may be that the impulse to revolt would never have been strong enough to cause a movement. “Sedition is the natural outcome, on one side, of incompatibility of temper between a governed and a governing race, just as repression is upon the other; the two must die out together, either by the complete and final victory of one or other, or by a cessation of the racial hostility from which both spring. Given that it is undesirable either that the national aspirations of India or that the influence of English civilization in India should be allowed to die, and that these at present too often take the shape of sedition on the one hand and repression on the other we are left with the question, Is the present incompatibility of temper between Englishman and Indian remediable?” (Mr, K. E. Kirk, Nineteenth Century, October 1909). Representative Government, chap. III. Imperial Rule in India, 1899, p. 119. Cf. also Mr. S. M. Mitra’s Indian Problems, 1908, p. 30: “To allay the present discontent the rising generation must be taught the benefits of the British rule in India. The present generation has forgotten how India fared under the heels of the Mahratta Cavalry one hundred years ago; they have never troubled themselves to think of the blessings which they enjoy under British rule, and it was gross negligence on the part of British rulers not to tell the modern youth what has been done for their predecessors and for them, and how much they owe to the alien Government whom they denounce

334

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

so glibly. So far there hardly exist half a dozen works on the subject of the benefits of British rule which might be made text-books in Indian schools and colleges.” Cf. Mr. K. K. Chandis “Education and Citizenship” in the Madras Christian College Magazine, March 1908: “Students now appear generally to believe too little, many of them looking on Englishmen as mere despoilers and enemies. If, therefore, an unprejudiced Indian of accepted credibility would explain in simple language the great privileges that Indians enjoy under the British Raj, and at the same time point out our great limitations, show us that we are only at the beginning of the race, and define with some clearness the path that is to be followed in the ultimately best interests of India and England, the gain to the State and to citizens would be incalculable. With the exception of Sir W. Lee-Warner’s book, which, there is reason to believe, finds no favour with the average student or citizen, I do not know of any book on Indian citizenship, whereas partisan and acrimonious writings appear in abundance, and are devoured with avidity.” Sir F. S. P. Lely points out forcibly the same need in the dealings of the administration with the peasantry. The earlier native official “was a man of the people, seldom knowing English, of conservative views, but loyal to his salt, and a friend, though often a bit of a tyrant, to the villagers. I have known such men in time of cholera clean up and disinfect their town in order to satisfy their superiors, but at the same time get sacrificial fires along the streets duly lighted by Brahmins in order to really meet the trouble. . . . They have been replaced by a race of educated intelligence who know English and can therefore understand the Secretariate speech, but are too much of the “Sahib’ to join the village circle. Whereas the former man sat on his cushion among his clerks, primus inter pares, the modern must have his chair and his table and, if possible, the solitary state of a separate room. Generally speaking, there is now no one of authority to say what the people think and to explain what Government means. That mission is made over to the Kal and the Kesari newspapers” (Suggestions for the Better Governing of India, 1906, p. 17). Some interesting descriptive paragraphs, showing the influence of the anti-English newspapers that reach the remote, simple, previously loyal villages, will be found in the Nineteenth Century for September 1909 (“Spiritual Forces in India,” by the Rev. N. Macnicol). 8. Cf. Sir T. Morison, Imperial Rule in India, 1899, p. 123: “No political opinion is so wide-spread as that India is getting poorer and poorer every year, and this belief is a constant source of ill-will and disaffection; it forms the burden of every complaint against the British rule, and is shared with melancholy conviction by those who take no part in political agitation.” Compare also p. 40, [******* * **] id. 9. Prof. N. G. Welinkar, “The Problems of Higher Education in India,” Asiatic Quarterly, April 1908. 10. It seems that some steps have recently been taken in this direction in the case of the University of Calcutta. There are, however, grave difficulties in the way of making the policy effective. The following, from the Educational Review, Madras, 1999, will make this clear: “We have more than once deprecated the action of the Supreme and Local Governments in thrusting Sir William’s (Lee-Warner’s) or any other text-book of Indian Politics on an unwilling people. Even if the book referred to be prescribed by every Education Department and University in India, nothing will be easier than to defeat the object of the Government. The subject-matter of the book must be explained by the teacher, and it does not require much imagination to suppose that the explanation will not in some cases redound to the credit of the. Government. On the one hand, teachers and schoolboys are ordered not to meddle with politics; while, on the other, they are forced to study a book which presents only the official case of the whole raison d’être of the Government of India. To say the least, such a policy appears to be somewhat inconsistent and unreasonable, and as such it is certain to be resented.”

335

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

11. “In the debating societies which the students are sure to found, an English professor would have an opportunity of setting forth his views at length, and he would indeed be unfortunate in his endowments if he could not succeed in dismissing the case against the Government as it is usually presented” (Imperial Rule in India, p. 120). 12. What was stated by Lord Lytton thirty years ago seems to be equally true to-day: “Written, for the most part, by persons very imperfectly educated and altogether inexperienced; written, moreover, down to the level of the lowest intelligence, and with an undisguised appeal to the most disloyal sentiments and mischievous passions . . . these journals are read only, or chiefly, by persons still more ignorant, still more uneducated, still more inexperienced than the writers of them; persons wholly unable to judge for themselves, and entirely dependent for their interpretation of our action upon these self-constituted and incompetent teachers. Not content with misrepresenting the Government and maligning the character of the ruling race in every possible way and on every possible occasion, these mischievous scribblers have of late been preaching open sedition” (Speech in Council on the Vernacular Press Bill, 14 March, 1878, quoted by Lady Betty Balfour, Lord Lytton’s Indian Administration, p. 512). 13. “Many of these are unimportant journals of an ephemeral character with a circulation of a few hundreds only, and the number with a circulation exceeding 2000 copies is still small” (Memorandum on Indian Administration, 1909 [Cd. 4956]). 14. “Indigenous Indian newspapers pay badly, as their circulation is not large and their readers are mostly poor. In the infrequent case of the proprietor being a rich man, he is seldom liberal to his staff. On the whole, it may be said of Indians editing papers that the majority are men of small experience, and, though clever and ambitious, are already soured against the British Government; further, that, as little that is done by the Government or by British officials is so transparently right as not to be susceptible to misconstruction or adverse criticism, such editors, to the small extent of their knowledge, inculcate a good deal of error, and are more prone to indulge in hostile than favourable comments. . . . There are, of course, exceptions, for amongst the editors may be found men of high literary attainments. . . . But such men are rare . . . and some of them are so straitened pecuniarily that, viewing the monopoly of highly-paid appointments enjoyed by Englishmen, their minds are sometimes appreciably embittered against the Government” (Mr. S. S. Thorburn, “Education by Newspaper,” The Asiatic Quarterly, July 1902). 15. Indian Politics, Madras, 1898, p. 26. 16. Even in an Anglo-Indian journal (The Indian Daily News, Calcutta) appears the following admission: “A loyal, critical, unofficial opposition—that, we think, sums up the position of the Congress pretty fairly.” 17. See Proceedings of the Twenty-third Indian National Congress, Madras, 1909. 18. Contemporary Review, May 1908. 19. The practice adopted by papers as discreet as The Times, of persistently arguing that men like Mr. Banerjea are insidiously disloyal and promoters of sedition, at a time when Mr. Krishnavarma in The Indian Sociologist (see, e.g., Vol. V, No. 7, July [******* * **] is calling Mr. Banerjea “a sycophant” and a “self-seeking flatterer” whose “obsequious conduct” emphasizes “his moral ‘turpitude,” hardly seems the wisest course for a sane imperialist polity to follow. The fact that one “political” assassin referred to Mr. Banerjea’s writings among others as his source of inspiration is no proof of anarchical tendencies in those writings. Similar gloomy-minded fanatics would doubtless find equally strong incentives to political murders in the pages of the less reputable of the English journals with a “socialistic” bias. 20. I once received a most friendly letter from a former pupil, referring with regret to my lectures, “interesting and tedious as they were.”

336

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

21. Since writing the above I have come across the following paragraph from Malthus, quoted in Toynbee’s The Industrial Revolution, chap. IX.: “During the late dearth half of the gentlemen and clergy in the kingdom richly deserved to have been prosecuted for sedition. After inflaming the minds of the common people against the farmers and corn-dealers by the manner in which they talked of them or preached about them, it was a feeble antidote to the poison which they had infused coldly to observe that, however the poor might be oppressed or cheated, it was their duty to keep the peace” (Principle of Population, 7th ed., p. 438, note) . . . . It reads like an attack on the double dealing of Messrs. Banerjea and Lala Lajpat Rai in the National Review, or a leading article in the same subject in the The Times. 22. Mr. A. P. Sen, “Education and Sedition in India,” Westminster Review, August 1902. 23. The political value of this sort of training is discussed a length in E. Demolin’s A quoi tient la supériorité des Anglo Saxons? 24. “Nothing in the nature of a social student life begins to make its appearance until we come to the highest [******* * **] institutions” (Mr. Yusuf Ali, Life and Labour of the People of India, 1907, p. 149). 25. “In Trinity College, Kandy, the discipline and leadership of the college and school was largely entrusted to the boys and students themselves. After two years’ work the results were so marked that when the Principal was invalided home, the their Governor of Ceylon, Sir Henry Blake, G.C.M.G., wrote to him ‘In my opinion you have done exceptional service to education in Ceylon by the line that you have taken in Trinity College, where the development of manly qualities, without which education is but a broken reed, receives its due proportion in the teaching and training of the boys’” (Mr. A. G. Fraser, Education in India and Ceylon, Aberdeen, 1908, p. 28). 26. It is this fact which makes arguments in favour of the perfectly equal treatment of English and Indian candidates for the Civil Service (by simultaneous examinations in London and India for example) completely beside the point. The Civil Service examination docs not pick out the most suitable candidates for administrative work. The present system really assumes that there are thousands of quite capable youths in England, and examinational competition is introduced, not because it is good in itself, but because it is a convenient check on favouritism. The fact that many hundreds of Indian candidates could the examination-room do as well as, or better than, the selected candidates, is no argument whatever for equalizing the conditions, but rather the reverse. As it is, the system necessarily cuts out a number of the best in favour of the second-best candidates. It seems, however, the wisest system in the circumstances. 27. This I can vouch for from personal experience. Cf. also Dr. Miller’s remarks in the Madras Christian College Magasine for January 1908. 28. A curious instance of his capacity for inconsistency in argument is seen in the perennial attacks, made both by the Congress party and their English parliamentary friends, on the venality and tyranny of the police in India, while they perpetually insist on the moral fitness of the Indian for every kind of administrative work. Apparently we have chosen none but the morally unfit for service in the police! Or is it that the contact of the Indian with the Englishman in this department invariably causes moral degeneration? . . . More probably the real reason is that, to certain types of mind, police work is especially closely identified with Governmental activities; and everything that the Government in India does is bad. 29. Indian Problems, 1908, p. 7. 30. Mr. Justice Beaman, “The Situation in India,” Empire Review, February 1909. 31. Mr. J. D. Rees, The Real India (1908), p. 212. 32. “The Indian National Congress,” Calcutta Review, April 1904. 33. “Around the courts of the judges and magistrates the native lawyers congregate, and while their advocacy may insure the thorough sifting of the evidence on both sides,

337

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

34. 35. 36.

37. 38.

39. 40. 41.

42. 42.

it is feared that it many cases they foment quarrels and foster litigation for their own advantage. The substantial professional incomes made by this very numerous body of lawyers scattered throughout the districts of India are drawn from the pockets of ryot farmers and cultivators, and constitute a burden from which they were originally free, and which, whatever its merits or its defects, is one of the outcomes of the present educational system. These legal coteries throughout the country are centres whence spread the restless ideas and political aspirations that pervade so large a section of the educated community” (The Edinburgh Review, October 1907, p. 272). The Bishop of Southampton, in The East and the West, January 1908. Ibid. Out of 626 members present at the twenty-third Congress (1908) I can count only eight Mohammedans. In 1904, out of 1010 they numbered thirty-one. (The Mohammedans number about one-fifth of the population of India; more than the population of any single European State except Russia, and perhaps Germany.) Indian Polity, 3rd ed., 1894, pp. 380–1. There is, of course, no simple test for deciding what classes (if any) are “the natural rulers” of a people. The Rev. J. A. Sharrock, late Principal of the S.P.G. College, Trichinopoly, points out in the Nineteenth Century for September 1909 (“Some Misconceptions about the Unrest in India”) that the Brahmins, who constitute only 5 per cent, of the total population, furnish 85 per cent, of the University graduates. A soldier would doubtless deny that a priestly class has any “natural” title to political power; but India has always shown some tendency to pass under sacerdotal domination. Though the new Indian claimant [******* * **] power always puts forward “education” as the ground of his claim, it is not easy to guess to what extent caste claims of a semi-sacerdotal character occupy his mind. Naturally such claims will be kept in the background when he is holding converse with Englishmen; and the assumption (probably, though not certainly correct) that the non-Oriental claim of educational superiority is what really fills his thoughts runs through all the literature which deals with Congress and the Universities. Such a claim, however, is not incompatible with a naïvely unquestioning belief [******* * **] distinctions, and an expectation on the part of Brahmin graduates of retaining political power, under a representative system, by influencing the votes of “natural” inferiors and by other ways of manipulating the political machine. “British Rule in India,” North American Review, April 1899. Mr. G. K. Gokhale, in his Presidential Address before the Indian National Congress, 1905. It is hardly necessary to linger over the familiar truth that the Congress party is drawn preponderantly from the less warlike peoples—those that, but for British protection, would speedily fall a prey to their more vigorous neighbours. “The men who are at present most prominent, who are spoken of as leaders of the popular party, do not really represent any large or important section. They represent class interests, essentially pacific. They are almost to a man the creatures of our own educational system, using the argot of Western reformers and revolutionaries. It suits them to talk very loud, to use high-sounding phrases. But they know, every one knows, that should they reap the whirlwind for which they diligently busy themselves sowing the wind, they would be the first to disappear” (Mr. Justice Beaman, “The Situation, in India,” Empire Review, February 1909). It is a little strange, however, that the claim (whether just or genuine is another matter) of a section of the people that they, as being thoroughly Westernized by English education, are the right people to be entrusted with political power, should be thus lightly treated with scorn by writers like Mr. Beaman and Sir George Chesney— as if on the surface it were a grotesque and preposterous claim. London, 1906; price 1s. 3d. Imperial Rule in India, 1899, p. 9.

338

ALSTON, EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

44. Cf. Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, I.C.S., “The Hindu Theory of Government,” Empire Review, September 1907. 45. Times of India, 7 August, 1909. 46. Raja Sir T. Madava Row, K.C.S.I., Political Opinions (Madras, 1890), p. 4. 47. Cf. also Sir Theodore Morison, Imperial Rule in India, p. 37: “The Government which wishes to create a national spirit must be based upon a principle which its subjects can reciprocate; it must place before the people a conception of Government which will evoke their enthusiastic loyalty.” 48. India, 18 June, 1909. 49. Mr. W. C. Bonnerjee, Bar.-at-law, Indian Politics (Madras, 1898), Introd. p. 5. 50. Mr. Eardley Norton, Bar.-at-law, ibid., p. 26. 51. Cf. Mr. A. P. Sen, “Education and Sedition in India,” Westminster Review, August 1902: “Further, it is a noticeable fact that the Indian political movements are invariably organized and led by those who are conspicuously successful in life.” 52. “Some Thoughts on Indian Discontent,” National Review February 1907. 53. Raja Sir T. Madava Row, Political Opinions (Madras, 1890) p. 114. 54. Imperial Rule in India, 1899, p. 31. 55. India: Its Life and Thought, 1908, p. 17. 56. Mr. Justice Beaman. 57. “The leader of this people the Brahman, is, in his way, ever more haughty than the Anglo-Indian. . . . Contact with an Englishman, even with the King-Emperor himself, is for him pollution, which must be removed by elaborate and exacting religious ceremonies” (Dr. J. P. Jones, ibid., pp. 22, 23). 58. Mr. A. Rogers, “The Progress of the Municipal Plea in India,” Asiatic Quarterly, April 1902. (Similar statements could, of course, be made in a description of rural England. The reader should bear in mind the difficulty of drawing comparisons in such matters with perfect justice to both populations.) 59. “British Rule in India,” North American Review, April 1899. 60. In this connection should be quoted, however, the paragraph which recurs year after year in the Government’s Moral and Material Progress of India: “The objects on which municipal [MISSING TEXT].

339