Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Introduction
INTRODUCTION
BRIEF VIEW
of the
PAST AND PRESENT STATE
of
VERNACULAR EDUCATION IN BENGAL.
Adam’s Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal have long been held in high esteem for their valuable statistics and researches on a subject of great social and political importance—the intellectual condition of the masses of Bengal. The investigations were conducted with great diligence, and extended over a space of three years, at an expense to Government of more than a lac of rupees. In some points, as was to be expected from the difficulty of the enquiry, there are inaccuracies, but, on the whole, they afford a mass of information of great value.
As more energetic measures are about to be adopted towards the extension of Vernacular Education in Bengal, and as the Reports have long been out of print, it has been thought desirable to re-print those parts of them which bear on this vital question.
But as Adam’s Reports close with 1838, it has been deemed necessary to give a resumè of what has been done in Bengal since that period towards carrying out a system of Vernacular Education, as well as to glance at its previous condition.
Mr. Ellerton at Malda established some Vernacular Schools in the beginning of this century, and in the leisure of his Factory composed various Bengali books for the use of his scholars. In 1814, Mr. May, a Missionary, began his first Vernacular School in the Dutch Fort of Chinsura. In June 1815 he had 16 schools and 951 pupils, which soon increased to twenty-six schools, besides some ten others six miles below Chinsura, visited by him and his assistants sixty times every three months. In 1815 Lord Hastings made a monthly grant of Rupees 600 to the schools, and stated in a minute on the Schools, “the humble, but valuable, class of village schoolmasters claim the first place in this discussion.” In 1816 there were 2,136 pupils, and a school for instructing teachers was commenced. In 1818 there were thirty-six schools and 3,000 pupils—but Mr. May was cut off by death, and Mr. Pearson then took charge. Mr. May’s labors excited such interest, that after his death money arrived in Bengal from friends in America for the support of his schools. Mr. Lushington, Secretary to Government in his “History of Calcutta Religious and Benevolent Institutions,” remarks—“it may be safely asserted that the foundation of more extensive and higher knowledge is surely laid in the establishment of those schools;” they were all conducted on the Bell and Lancaster system, which Mr. May had introduced into them with great success. Government availed itself of the services of Messrs. Pearson and Harley, who were Missionaries, to establish a number of Vernacular Schools between Kalna and Chandernagor. Crowds attended the schools, but their efforts, through not having suitable successors, were not followed up. Yet the seeds of knowledge they sowed in the Vernacular have fructified into the English schools which are now in Chinsura. Some of the best Educational Works in the Vernacular were composed for those schools. In 1819 Messrs. Pearson and Harley had under their superintendence at Chinsura seventeen schools and 1,500 children; at Bankipur twelve schools and 1,266 children, all conducted on the Madras system, and supported by Government at an expense per mensem of Rupees 800. Dr. Bell’s “Instructions for modelling schools” were translated and introduced, Mr. Pearson writes—“I have heard it spoken of by the Natives as wonderful to see a boy in tears at losing his place in the class.” The Court of Directors made a special grant to those schools, in which the pupils learned more rapidly than in the common schools.
Lushington, in his “History of Calcutta Institutions” gives the following notice of Mr. May’s exertions:—
“At the beginning of July 1811, this benevolent and meritorious individual, while residing at Chinsura as a Dissenting minister, with a very narrow income, opened a school in his dwelling-house, proposing gratuitously to teach the natives reading, writing, and arithmetic. On the first day sixteen boys attended. In the course of the month of August the scholars became too numerous to be accommodated under his lowly roof; a spacious apartment being allotted to him in the Fort by Mr. Forbes, the Commissioner of Chinsura, the list of attendance at the commencement of October had swelled to ninety-two. In January 1815 Mr. May opened a village or branch school, at a short distance from Chinsura, and in the following month of June, not twelve months since the commencement of his undertaking, he had established sixteen schools, including the central one at Chinsura, to which 951 pupils resorted.
“Mr. May encountered some slight impediments in the commencement of his labours from the prejudices of the natives; chiefly, however, among the old teachers of the indigenous schools, who, from interested motives, naturally did not fail to foment the apprehensions at first entertained by some, that he intended to convert them to Christianity. His wise and conciliatory measures, however, soon removed distrust from their minds, and satisfied them that he meditated no interference with their religious opinions. The objection of the school-masters did not long exist, for the extension of the branch schools on the new principle, ultimately created a demand for additional teachers, who were, in many cases, provided from the class above mentioned. Although the opposition alluded to was ultimately overcome, it must not be supposed that the establishment of the schools was achieved without considerable difficulty: the introduction alone of a new plan of education among an ignorant people, notorious for their indolence, apathy, and attachment to established habits, involving frequent journeys, visits, and conferences, effected in an hostile climate, and with very imperfect accommodation, required no common exertion of patience, self-denial, fortitude, and perseverance. Add to this the labour of superintendence, and Mr. May’s indefatigable efforts may be justly appreciated. The branch schools were situated, some of them ten miles above, and some six miles below, Chinsura; nevertheless, Mr. May and his assistants contrived to visit twenty-six branch schools sixty times in three months.
“The success of Mr. May, and his unexceptionable mode of intercourse with the natives having been brought by Mr. Forbes to the notice of the Government, a monthly sum of 600 rupees was granted to enable Mr. May to prosecute his undertaking, Mr, Forbes being desired to superintend the detailed application of the funds.
“Towards the latter end of 1815, the attendance on Mr. May’s establishments was somewhat diminished by the formation of several schools by natives, partly from motives of ostentation, and partly with views of opposition to Mr. May; but it soon became manifest that his plan of education was as inoffensive to their prejudices, as it was superior to their own mode of instruction, and its progress now exceeded his most sanguine expectation.
“The attendance of the children in the Fort being inconvenient, the central school was removed to a short distance from Chinsura, and Mr. May, adverting to the increase of the schools, and the great augmentation of the number of children on the books, which amounted, early in 1816, to 2,136, projected the formation of a school for teachers, as necessary to the extension of his plan, and the perpetuation of the means of instruction. A few youths were accordingly taken on probation, their education, food and clothes being furnished to them free of expense. After performing for a time the duties of monitors at the Central school, and receiving more especial instructions from Mr. May, they were sent to the village schools to learn accurately the plan observed there, and thus they became qualified to discharge the duties of instructors themselves. So popular was the latter institution, that a blind man performed a journey of three days on foot for the purpose of securing a place in it for his nephew.
“Nor did the higher class of natives in the vicinity withhold their confidence from the general scheme of education. The Rajah of Burdwan, and two other individuals of consideration, each established a school, the former of whom subsequently transferred his school to English superintendence. From the earliest stage, one-third of the children in attendance at the schools were Brahmans. At first a Brahman boy would not sit down on the same mat with one of another caste. The teachers also made the same objection, which has of late been voluntarily relinquished.
“In August 1818 Mr. May’s course of usefulness was arrested by death; but this excellent man was not removed from the scene of his labours until he had witnessed how complete was their present beneficial operation, to which satisfaction he might have added, had his modest and unassuming nature admitted of it, the anticipation that future generations would be indebted to his care for their redemption from ignorance and degradation. At the time of his decease, the existence of thirty-six schools, attended by above 3,000 natives, both Hindus and Mohammedans, attested his zeal, his prudence, and benevolent perseverance. Mr. May was succeeded in the charge of the Government Schools by Mr. Pearson, who, assisted by Mr. Harley, followed his footsteps with equal ability and judgment. The endeavours of these gentlemen were, at first, chiefly directed to the introduction of further improvements in the native education, the plan of instruction approaching, as nearly as possible, to that adopted in the National Society’s Schools in England, with the modifications suggested by local circumstances, and some ingenious and expedient additions made by the new managers.”
The work of Vernacular education in connexion with the Church Missionary Society, was begun in Burdwan under the superintendence of Captain Stewart in 1816, by his establishing two Vernacular Schools; in 1818 they increased to ten, containing 1,000 children, costing monthly 240 rupees. Captain Stewart, at the commencement of his labours, encountered considerable opposition: reports were industriously circulated among the natives that it was his design to ship all the children to England, and it was then sufficient objection to a book being read if it contained the name of Jesus, and a case occurred near Burdwan where a Hindu, rather than give up his child to be educated by the missionary, left it out at night to be devoured by jackals! There were five Brahmanical schools in Burdwan, the masters of which were afraid that their own institutions should be broken up by the Missionary School; they, therefore, fulminated curses against any natives who should send their children to Captain Stewart’s schools, but he chose his teachers from the ablest natives in the villages where his schools were to be established, and thus he disarmed opposition by the bait of interest, and the five Brahmanical schools were soon abandoned. The introduction of printed books into the schools at first caused some alarm; the natives apprehended it was some plan for ensnaring their children and destroying their caste! as all instruction was previously conveyed through manuscript, and it was remarked of the village masters, ‘if you put a book into their hands, they are unable to read it, except with great difficulty, and are still less able to understand its general contents’. Captain Stewart carried out the system of the late Mr. May, of Chinsura, with improvements of his own. Besides the outlines of astronomy, and of the History of England, which were introduced into these schools, Captain Stewart also caused instruction to be given “in some few of the preambles of the Honorable Company’s Regulations, which are particularly calculated to convince the people of India that Government anxiously desire to promote their comfort and advantage. In reading these, their first and most deeply-rooted impressions are in favour of their rulers, and submission will consequently follow from attachment and love.”
The Rev. T. Robertson, in 1818, makes the following remarks respecting the mode of tuition:—
“Once a month the head classes from all the schools are brought into Burdwan by their respective teachers, when a general examination takes place. It is thus seen which of the schools has made the greatest progress. Two classes are confronted with each other, and examined by the visitor in all the subjects learned during the past month. After this the boys are allowed to question each other. The highest boy of one class puts his question to the highest boy of the other; if he cannot reply, it passes down to each in succession, until it reaches the last. If any boy is able to solve it, he takes precedency; but if not, a mark is made of the failure. This class is now at liberty in its turn to put a question to the other which, if not answered, is noticed as in the former case. In the end it appears who is the conquered party. It generally happens that the vanquished party now challenges the opposite class to contend in some other subject; and thus a new trial of strength commences. As the children are in the habit of writing from a thesis, they are on this occasion publicly tried as to their progress. A thesis being given, each boy writes it down on his slate, and endeavours to arrange his thoughts on the subject. When all have finished, their productions are read aloud, which excites much emulation, and affords at the same time great amusement. Nothing can exceed the animation and eagerness of the boys to excel in these trials. Indeed, we should look in vain for an equal degree of emulation in Europe.
“In our seminaries the children know of no precedency but that which is derived from merit. The Brahman sits by the side of his ignoble neighbour, and must be content oftentimes to stand below him in his class. On the contrary, the boy of inferior caste, if he excel the Brahman, which he oftentimes does, begins to believe a maxim true which he learnt in his school book, that God hath not created men with rights differing from each other, but that he hath created all men of one blood to dwell on all the face of the earth.”[1]
When the Calcutta School Society undertook, in 1819, the management of a number of Vernacular Schools in Calcutta, it sent its superintendent for five months to Burdwan to learn the system of Captain Stewart’s schools, as he educated a greater number of children with fewer teachers, and at half the expense of the old system.
Writing by dictation, and the giving the morals of fables out of their class books, also formed a part of the course of instruction. “The boys themselves delight in the lively application of a fable, and the attempt to give it sharpens their wit, and improves their language,—moral truths come to them with a sort of fascinating conviction, when dressed up in the form of a fable.” The following questions are a specimen of this mode of instruction:—“What is it unwise to do? To do anything without consideration.—Example: The Lion and the Fox. How is a man’s want of ability shown? By his attempting to do what is beyond his capacity.—Example: The Spider and Bee. How may we promote our own happiness? By giving help to our needy neighbour.—Example: The Dove and Bee.”
In 1817 Dr. Marshman published a valuable work “Hint relative to Native Schools;” it gave the sketch of a system of National Education: one object he laid down was—
“A peasant, or an artificer, thus rendered capable of writing as well as reading his own language with propriety, and made acquainted with the principles of arithmetic, would be less liable to become a prey to fraud among his own countrymen, and far better able to claim for himself that protection from oppression, which it is the desire of every enlightened government to grant.”
Besides the ordinary reading, writing, and arithmetic, were to be taught “a concise but perspicuous account of the Solar System preceded by so much of the laws of motion, of attraction and gravity, as might be necessary to render the solar system plain and intelligible. These ideas, however, should not be communicated in the form of a treatise, but in that of simple axioms delivered in short and perspicuous sentences. A compendious view of Geography, and a number of popular truths and facts relative to Natural Philosophy were taught. In the present improved state of knowledge a thousand things have been ascertained relative to light, heat, air, water, to meteorology, mineralogy, chemistry, and natural history, of which the ancients had but a partial knowledge, and of which the natives of the east have as yet scarcely the faintest idea. These facts, now so clearly ascertained, could be conveyed in a very short compass of language, although the process of reasoning, which enables the mind to account for them, occupies many volumes. Imparting to them that knowledge relative to themselves, to their responsibility for their actions, their state both here and hereafter, and the grand principles of piety, justice, and humanity, which may leaven their minds from their earliest youth.” Tables printed in large type and pasted on boards were to be suspended round the room, and to be used for reading exercises. One peculiarity of the plan was—
“Instruction of a higher order was to be given from dictation. The monitor, with the text book in his hand, was to pronounce a portion of each sentence audibly and deliberately, each boy writing it down in his copy book. When the lesson of the day was completed, it was to be revised by the monitor, and the number of errors inserted at the foot of the page. Each boy was then to read it aloud in succession, sentence by sentence. The advantages of this scheme of instruction were obvious; one printed book served for a dozen children; they made progress in penmanship and orthography, and also acquired a facility of reading and writing their own language. A spirit of animation and emulation was created, and instruction was combined with pleasure. The most important facts and truths, thus written from dictation and read over three or four times, could not fail to remain deeply impressed on the memory.”
The expense of each School was reckoned at 16 rupees a month. They were successful; 100 Schools were established among the Natives; in the first year 8,000 rupees were received in subscriptions and donations.
“They had established an experimental Normal School at Serampore, in which the masters then employed by them had been, to a certain extent, trained to their new duties. The first school opened on this plan was at the village of Nabobgunge, about four miles distant from Serampore. To conciliate the inhabitants, they had been desired to select a master themselves, whom they sent to the training school. Village after village had followed the example, and despatched the individual of their choice for instruction to Serampore. Nineteen schools had been established within the circle of a few miles, and all at the request of the people themselves. In some instances, men of influence had offered their own houses, and in other cases the family temple, for a school-room; houses had in some places been erected by men of property in the hope that they would be rented. Children were attracted to the schools from the most respectable families, and one particular school numbered ten Brahman youths. In one instance, a body of more than twenty boys came to Serampore from a distance of many miles, accompanied by the principal inhabitants of the village, to solicit the establishment of a school.”
Previous to 1817, David Hare, a name dear to the Natives, a watchmaker by trade, instead of retiring to Europe, had devoted his remaining years and savings to Native Education. He, in conjunction with the late Raja Radhakant Deva, a Sanscrit scholar of European celebrity, employed much time in improving the existing Vernacular Schools. One of his pupils, who studied at one of the Vernacular Schools established by him in Calcutta, thus describes his efforts—
“Mr. Hare’s educational efforts were directed in the first place toward the encouragement of the Vernacular. He supplemented the deficiencies of numerous Guru patshalas by the employment of inspecting pundits and the grant of printed books. Periodical examinations were also held at Raja Radhakant Deva’s Garden House, and prizes given. He then established a sort of Central Vernacular School directly under the School Society. This was a large institution and numbered about 200 boys. It was the best Vernacular School of the day. For the encouragement of regular attendance, each child got eight annas a month if he was not absent a single day during that month. If absent only one day he got six annas, if two days four annas, and if he were absent more than two days then he got nothing. Distinguished lads from the Vernacular Schools were sent to the Hindoo College, in which the Society always maintained 30 boys. An English School was afterwards established adjoining the Central Vernacular—a number of select boys of the Vernacular School would attend the English classes also. It was thus—From sunrise until 9 a. m., Vernacular; from 10½ a. m. to 2½ p. m., English; from 3½ p. m. to sunset, Vernacular again.”
In 1817, the Calcutta School Book Society was founded to prepare and publish cheap books for Native schools; however, this Society has not yet given cheap books adapted to the masses, as no books previous to 1817, were used in the indigenous schools. In May 1821 this Society received from Government a donation of Rupees 7,000, and a monthly grant of Rupees 500.
In 1818, the Calcutta School Society was founded (under the presidency of the Marquess of Hastings) with the following object:—
“That its design be to assist and improve existing schools, and to establish and support any further schools and seminaries which may be requisite; with a view to the more general diffusion of useful knowledge amongst the inhabitants of India of every description, especially within the provinces subject to the Presidency of Fort William.
“That it be also an object of this Society to select pupils of distinguished talents and merit from elementary and other schools, and to provide for their instruction in seminaries of a higher degree; with the view of forming a body of qualified teachers and translators, who may be instrumental in enlightening their countrymen, and improving the general system of education. When the funds of the Institution may admit of it, the maintenance and tuition of such pupils, in distinct seminaries, will be an object of importance.”
In 1821, it had 115 Vernacular Schools, containing 3,828 scholars, under its patronage, i.e. it gave books, examining and superintending the schools by its officers and agents. In 1823, they received a monthly grant of Rupees 500 from Government, and worked admirably until 1833.
Adam’s Report, pp. 21, 22, 23, gives a fuller detail respecting it.
In 1819, the London Missionary Society directed its attention to Vernacular schools, “impressed with a sense of the exceeding great importance of well conducted schools in this country.” They established them in 1820 at Chitla and other places in the neighbourhood of Tallygunge, but there were strong prejudices at that time amongst the natives against attending schools where the Scriptures were read. Still in 1820 a Vernacular School attended by 25 boys was opened in a bungalow chapel at Kidderpore.
The Calcutta Church Missionary Association had for many years 600 children under instruction in their Vernacular Schools in Calcutta. The Baptist Missionary Society had also several hundreds.
In 1821, the Calcutta School Society transferred some of its schools to the Church Missionary Society, and Mr. Jetter became Superintendent of them. An examination of 600 boys took place in 1822; Sir E. H. East, the Chief Justice, who was one of the founders of the Hindu College, presided. Mr. Jetter states, in 1822, that the mention of the name of Jesus in a book has kept several boys away from school; that on introducing writing by dictation into a class, he offered one boy a tract as a prize for his good dictation,—the boy flung it on the ground saying it contained the words of Jesus Christ. In one of Mr. Jetter’s schools, the teacher objected to instruct the boys out of a book in which the name occurred, on which a Brahman stood up and said—do not be afraid, I have read the book, and am not a Christian: this gave confidence, and the book was read. The Church Missionary Association in 1824 took the greater part of these schools under their management. In 1825 Mr. Reichardt, on every Saturday evening, explained to the pundits the books taught by them in the schools: their attention is increasing, and their inquiries often lead to important discussions; they are alternately instructed in the scriptures, the catechism, and geography; one of them reads a sentence, after which he asks the other the meaning of the words; I ask them questions arising from the subject, and put them in the way of questioning their scholars; Mr. Reichardt, who superintended twelve Vernacular Schools, containing 700 boys, gives, as the result of his experience, the following discouraging circumstances connected with the Vernacular Schools of that day: “It is optional with the boys whether they come or not, as the parents do not compel them. Festivals and marriages give perpetual interruptions. Conversation at home is like a mildew on any sound principles or good manners: nearly all the good seed sown at schools is choked by the bad practices in which the boys’ relations and friends live. The teachers are indolent.”
Miss Cooke began, in connection with the Church Missionary Society, and under the patronage of the Marchioness of Hastings, Female Schools in Calcutta in 1821. Though previous to that some desultory efforts had been made by a few young ladies; in 1822 she had twenty-two Schools and 400 pupils. The Central School was founded in 1824, and in 1837 the Agarpara Orphan Refuge.
About 1822 the Christian Knowledge Society began the system of “School Circles” each circle containing five Bengali Schools and one Central School. One of those circles was called the Tallygunj, another the Kasipore, another the Howrah Circle; in 1834 they contained 697 pupils, but being subsequently transferred to the Propagation Society, the funds of the latter were appropriated to other operations, and the Schools were given up.
These are the first instances of Circle Schools which are now becoming increasingly popular in Bengal.[2]
A few desultory efforts continued to be made in subsequent years, a battle raged between the Orientalists and Anglicists, and the masses were overlooked. Lord W. Bentinck with real sympathy for the people and for works of peace gave encouragement to roads and education.
Mr. Adam, originally a Missionary, came forward, and, on the 2nd of January 1835, addressed a letter on the subject of popular education to Lord W. Bentinck, to which his Lordship gave a reply on the 20th of the same month. The letter and Lord W. Bentinck’s Minute are to be found in pp. 1 to 13 of Adam’s Report.
Adam’s system of Vernacular Education was based pretty much on the old municipal system of the Hindus, by which each village had its Chief, its accounts, its priest, smith, carpenter, potter, barber, washerman, poet, doctor, and, though last, not least, its village or hedge School-master called a Guru Mahashay. The village system was a brotherhood, it has survived the ruins of Empires, as Lord Metcalfe wrote, "Hindee, Pathan, Mogul, Mahratta, Sikh and English are all masters in turn—but the village community remains the same.” Bengal is an exception.
Mr. Adam calculated there were more than 100,000 of these schools in Bengal and Behar, and that the great object ought to be not to supersede, but to supplement them. He has furnished in his Reports full information of the subjects taught, the teachers’ pay and emoluments, but one peculiar feature in those schools he has omitted—the singular punishments resorted to. We extract from the Calcutta Review No. IV., p. 331, a description of 15 different kinds of punishments used; these, however are now gradually falling into disuse—
“A boy is made to bend forward with his face toward the ground; a heavy brick is then placed on his back, and another on his neck; and should he let either of them fall, within the prescribed period of half an hour or so, he is punished with the cane.
“A boy is condemned to stand for half an hour or an hour on one foot; and, should he shake or quiver or let down the uplifted leg before the time, he is severely punished.
“A boy is made to sit on the floor in an exceedingly constrained position, with one leg turned up behind his neck.
“He is made to sit with his feet resting on two bricks, and his head bent down between both legs, with his hands twisted round each leg so as painfully to catch the ears.
“A boy is made to hang for a few minutes, with his head downwards, from the branch of a neighbouring tree.
“His hands and feet are bound with cords, to these members so bound a rope is fastened, and the boy is then hoisted up by means of a pully attached to the beams or rafters of the school.
“Nettles, dipped in water, are applied to the body, which becomes irritated and swollen; the pain is excruciating and often lasts a whole day; but, however great the itching and the pain, the sufferer is not allowed to rub or touch the skin for relief, under the dread of a flagellation in addition.
“The boy is put up in a sack along with some nettles, or a cat, or some other noisomecreature, and then rolled along the ground.
“The fingers of both hands are inserted across each other with a stick between and two sticks without drawn close together and tied.
“A boy is made to measure so many cubits on the ground, by marking it along with the tip of his nose.
“Four boys are made to seize another, two holding the arms and two the feet; they then alternately swing him and throw him violently to the ground.
“Two boys are made to seize another by the ears; and, with these organs well outstretched, he is made to run along for the amusement of the by-standers.
“A boy is constrained to pull his own ears; and, if he fail to extend them sufficiently, he is visited with a sorer chastisement.
“Two boys, when both have given offence, are made to knock their heads several times against each other.
“The boy who first comes to school in the morning receives one stroke of the cane on the palm of the hand, the next receives two strokes, and so each in succession, as he arrives, receives a number of strokes equal to the number of boys that preceded him,—the first being the privileged administrator of them all.“
On the tricks played on the Guru Mahashay.—“In preparing his hookah, it is a common trick for the boys to mix the tobacco with chillies and other pungent ingredients; so that when he smokes, he is made to cough violently, while the whole school is convulsed with laughter;—or, beneath the mat on which he sits, may be strewn thorns and sharp prickles, which soon display their effects in the contortions of the crest-fallen and discomfited master or, at night, he is way-laid by his pupils, who, from their concealed position in a tree, or thicket, or behind a wall, pelt him well with pebbles, bricks, or stones;—or, once more, they rehearse doggerel songs, in which they implore the gods, and more particularly Kali, to remove him by death—vowing, in the event of the prayer being heard, to present offerings of sugar and cocoanuts.“
On the plans for escaping from School.—“The boys have cunning plans for escaping from school: To throw boiled rice on domestic vessels ceremonially defiles them;—hence, when a boy is bent on a day’s release from school, he peremptorily disobeys his admonishing mother, saying. No; if you insist on my going, I shall throw about the boiled rice—a threat which usually gains him the victory. If a person of a different caste, or unbathed, or with shoes on his feet, touched the boiled rice or pot of another, it is polluted;—hence, when a boy effects his escape from school, he often hastens to some kitchen, touches the boiled rice, or the pots in which it has been boiled, and thus becomes himself polluted; and until he bathes, no one can touch or seize him without being polluted too. A temporary impunity is thus secured. At other times the boy finds his way to filthy and unclean places, where he remains for hours or a whole day, defying the master and his emissaries to touch him—knowing full well that they cannot do so without partaking of his own contracted pollution. So determined are boys to evade the torturous system of discipline that, in making good their escape, they often wade or swim through tanks, or along the current of running drains, with a large earthen pot over their heads, so that the suspicion of passers by, or of those in a suit, is not even excited—seeing that nought appears on the surface but floating pot;—or they run off and climb into the loftiest neighbouring tree, where they laugh to scorn the efforts of their assailants to dislodge them. In the recent case of one personally known to our informant, the runaway actually remained for three days on the top of a cocoanut tree, vigorously hurling the cocoanuts, as missiles, at the heads of all who attempted to ascend for the purpose of securing him.”
Such were the Schools,—no wonder Mr. Adam concludes his study with the following remarks:—
“I cannot, however, expect that the reading of the report should convey the impressions which I have received from daily witnessing the mere animal-life to which ignorance consigns its victims, unconscious of any wants or enjoyments beyond those which they participate with the beasts of the field—unconscious of any of the higher purposes for which existence has been bestowed, society has been constituted, and government is exercised. I am not acquainted with any facts which permit me to suppose that, in any other country subject to an enlightened government, and brought into direct and immediate contact with European civilization, in an equal population, there is an equal amount of ignorance with that which has been shewn to exist in this district. While ignorance is so extensive, can it be matter of wonder that poverty is extreme, that industry languishes, that crime prevails, and that in the adoption of measures of policy, however salutary or ameliorating their tendency, government cannot reckon with confidence on the moral support of an intelligent and instructed community? Is it possible that a benevolent, a wise, a just government can allow this state of things any longer to continue?”
Notwithstanding this state of things and Mr. Adam’s three laborious reports exposing it; the Calcutta Council of Education decided:—
“They were of opinion that the execution of the plan would be ‘almost impracticable,’ and that it would also involve more expense than Mr. Adam supposed. ‘A further experience,’ they add, ‘and a more mature consideration of the important subject of Education in this country, has led us to adhere to the opinion formerly expressed by us, that our efforts should be at first concentrated to the chief towns or sudder stations of districts, and to the improvement of education among the higher and middling classes of the population; in the expectation that through the agency of these scholars, an educational reform will descend to the rural Vernacular Schools, and its benefits be rapidly transfused among all those excluded in the first instance by abject want from a participation in its advantages.”
Time has shewn the fallacy of this conclusion. Mr. Woodrow, Inspector of Schools, who has thoroughly and practically studied the question, estimated in 1861, 22 years after the rejection of Mr. Adam’s plans, that, including every variety of Schools, Government, Missionary and Indigenous, in the richest and most populous portion of Bengal, there are about three persons in every hundred under education; while the proportion under instruction in England is one in 7 34, in all India it is one in 400. Dr. Mouat, the Inspector of Jails, and for many years Secretary to the Council of Education, in his last Report of the Jails in Bengal in 1867, states:—
“Of the 95,951 prisoners in prison in 1866—324 or 0.34 per cent. were fairly educated for their position in life, 5,367 males and seventeen females, or 5.61 per cent. could read and write, and 85,075 males and 5,168 or 94.05 per cent, were entirely ignorant. In the preceding five years from 1861 to 1865—2,974 men and two women, or 0.98 per cent, were fairly educated; 20,798 males and thirty-one females, or 6.87 per cent. could read and write; and 269,014 men and 10,496 women, or 92.15 per cent. were absolutely ignorant.”
“The collection of these statistics shows that, marvellous as the progress of the University of Calcutta is, the education of the mass of the people who form the bulk of the criminal population makes no advance, if the offenders against the law are a fair sample of the state of the general population in this important particular.”
Mr. Adam resigned his office in disgust at his plans being rejected. Lord Hardinge in 1844 established 101 Vernacular Schools, but they failed necessarily, as they were placed under no branches of natural philosophy are also taught; and the whole course is crowned by the perusal of treatises on metaphysics deemed the highest attainment of the instructed scholar. Perhaps we shall not err widely if we suppose that the state of learning amongst the Musalmans of India resembles that which existed among the nations of Europe before the invention of printing.
Eighth.—In estimating the amount of intellectual ability and acquirement that might be brought into requisition for the promotion or improvement of education amongst the Mohammadan population, it may be remarked that the Persian teachers as a class are much superior in intelligence to the Bengali and Hindi teachers, but they are also much more frequently the retainers or dependents of single families or individual patrons, and being thus held by a sort of domestic tie they are less likely to engage in the prosecution of a general object. The Arabic teachers are so few that they can scarcely be taken into the account, and in the Bengal districts I did not find that any of them had attempted any form of literary composition. Among the few Arabic teachers of South Behar and Tirhoot the case was very different, four being authors of high repute for learning. With three of these I came into personal communication and they were evidently men of great mental activity and possessing an ardent thirst for knowledge. Various Persian and Arabic works of native learning given to me by the General Committee of Public Instruction for distribution were presented to these teachers and their pupils and they were not only thankfully but most greedily received. They had also a vague, but nevertheless a very strong desire to acquire a knowledge of European systems of learning, and I could reckon with confidence on receiving their co-operation in any measure which without offending their social or religious prejudices should have a tendency to gratify that desire.
Burdwan.
Provinces”. Sixteen thousand five hundred of Mr. Thomason Elementary Treatises were sold.
In 1850, the Lieutenant-Governor obtained the sanction of the Home authorities to a plan for the extension and more perfect supervision of Vernacular Education. It was proposed to afford an education suited to the wants of the agricultural classes, and hopes of permanent success were drawn from the following considerations:—
“There are few of the agricultural classes who are not possessed of some rights of property in the soil. In order to explain and protect these rights, a system of registration has been devised, which is based on the Survey made at the time of settlement, and which annually shews the state of the property. It is necessary for the correctness of this register, that those whose rights it records should be able to consult it, and to ascertain the nature of the entries affecting themselves. This involves a knowledge of reading and writing, of the simple rules of arithmetic, and of land measurement. The means are thus afforded for setting before the people the practical bearing of learning on the safety of the rights in land, which they most highly prize, and it is hoped that when the powers of the mind have once been excited into action, the pupils may often be induced to advance further, and to persevere till they reach a higher state of intellectual cultivation.”
But the most remarkable results have been witnessed in the Agra Jail under Dr. Walker: he began first in the Mainpuri Jail, teaching the prisoners to read from immense alphabet rolls, and to write on the black board. He next introduced his plan in 1851 into the Agra Prison. The Inspector of Prisons has reported of it—“Nothing is so conducive to the improvement of discipline as jail education.” The system of mutual instruction is adopted. They are engaged at reading, writing, and arithmetic from half-past four to half-past six p. m. Two thousand receive daily instruction, at an averge annual expense of six annas a head, or 2 pice a month! Dr. Walker gives the following account of his system:—
“To test the progress of the prisoner-pupils, voluntary examinations are held twice a month, when those who pass satisfactorily, receive as prizes the books required for the subsequent examination, and as an incentive to future application, they are furnished with certificates of good conduct, which entitles them to send a letter to their relatives and friends, and if presented on any Saturday morning within three months after date, to an interview; sometimes a little sweetmeat and fruit is distributed, and a bath in the river Jumna; or a visit to the Royal Gardens at the Taj, or Secundra, is permitted, as an additional incentive to study and good conduct.
“After having mastered the Elementary School Sheets, including the Alphabet, and the combination of the Letters, Proper Names, the Multiplication Table, and Tables of Money and Weights, &c., they are prepared for the first examination.
“Before a prisoner can pass the first examination, he must be able—
i.—To read the Surajpur kahani, (a Village Tale).
ii.—To repeat the Multiplication Table up to 16 × 16.
iii.—To repeat the Multiplication of Fractions up to 612 × 25.“The requirements for the second examination are—
i.—Repetition of the former examination.
ii.—Arithmetic, including Simple and Compound Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, Calculations for rates, Commission and Simple Interest—(No. II. of Rai Ram Surn Das’ Series, being the text book).
iii.—The Patra Malika, or Letter Writer.
iv.—The Kisam Opdesh; being a brief explanation of the Revenue System and Village Accounts.
v.—The Shudhi-Darpan, a popular Treatise on Hygiene, explaining the advantages of cleanliness, method and order.
vi.—The Khagol-Sar, a brief Treatise on Astronomy.“The subject of the third examination is the Mensuration of fields, as contained in Part III. of Rai Ram Surn Das’ Series.
“The subject of the fourth examination is the details of Patwari accounts, as contained in Part IV. of Rai Ram Surn Das’ Series.
“The subjects for the fifth examination are—
i.—Arithmetic, including Simple aiad Compound Proportion, as contained in Parts I. and II. of the Ganit Prakash.
ii.—The Gyan Chalish Biburn, being forty moral maxims in verse with explanations and deductions.
iii.—The Gunkari-updesh-ka Sankshep or select moral maxims from the best sources.“The subjects for the sixth examination are—
i.—Fractious as contained in Part II. of the Ganit Prakash.
ii.—Geography.”
Dr. Mouat, Secretary to the Calcutta Council of Education, who saw the system in operation in the Jail, remarks respecting it:—
“The old, the middle-aged, and the young, the murderer confined for life, and the perpetrator of petty larceny, paying the penalty of his offence by a few days or weeks of imprisonment, men and women, have all been subjected to the ordeal. Many who were unacquainted with the alphabet, and to whom the powers of letters in combination had been an unknown mystery, until advancing age had left them scarcely enough of unaided sight to trace the letters on the board, have been taught to spell, read, connect sentences, and write. The greatest amount of general proficiency which has been attained is in the use of figures, and multiplying them to an extent quite unknown to our English system of arithmetic. At all times and in all places is the sound of many voices heard following a leader in the multiplication of odd, even, and fractional numbers. At its appointed time it pervaded every department of the prison, which then resembled a vast, animated, calculating machine. As a means of prison discipline, it appears to me to be impossible to over-rate the value and advantages of this system. It leaves the vicious and ill-disposed no time to concoct evil measures, to organize conspiracy, or to contaminate those less steeped in crime and hardened in vice than themselves. To the well disposed it affords an occupation, furnishes a means of passing time that would otherwise hang heavy, and implants a taste for pursuits that will render them profitable members of society, when again let loose upon the world. To some of the prisoners I could perceive that the task was distasteful and a sore punishment, but the majority spoke in terms of unfeigned, and, I am convinced, sincere gratitude of the change for the better, which they acknowledged to have been wrought in their condition. The better feelings of their nature have been roused. They are no longer considered and treated as savage and dangerous animals, to be broken into subjection by harshness and starvation, and they exhibit many humanizing sympathies in their demeanour and acts. Not the least creditable part of the whole proceeding is the simple and inexpensive machinery by which all this has been accomplished. The prisoners themselves are the chief agents in their own amelioration, and have exhibited a docility and perseverance that are no mean tests of the success and value of the system.”
To this evidence we append the remarks of the late Lieutenant-Governor:—
“The prevalent taste for Mathematics has been seized upon in its practical bearing on land surveying, the mechanical arts, and mercantile transactions. Euclid is already a favorite text book, the surveying compass and plane table are rapidly becoming household implements. There is not one of the 3,000,000 men, who cultivate the 100,000,000 acres in these eight Districts, who may not be taught that the field he tills is a Geometrical figure, the extent of which he ought to be able to measure.”
In 1852, the Hulkabundi, similar to the Bengal Circle, system was begun; it was formed of Village Schools set in the midst of a cluster of villages—none of which were more than two miles distant from the school—and paid for by a cess. This cess and system now prevail in the greater part of every district in the North-West Provinces.
In 1853, the Hon’ble Mr. J. Thomason, Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces, the father of Vernacular Education in North India, died; his death called forth a Minute from Lord Dalhousie on the 25th of October, in which occur the following sentiments:—
The year 1854 was memorable for the Home Despatch which gave a considerable impetus to Vernacular Education; in the language of Lord Stanley’s Despatch of 1859, “it declared the wish of the Court of Directors for the prosecution of the object in a more systematic manner, and placed the subject on a level in point of importance with that of the instruction to be afforded through the medium of the English language. It must be admitted that, previously to 1854, the subject of Vernacular Education had not received, in every part of India, the full amount of attention which it merited:—“Five years ago I had the honor of recommending to the Honorable Court of Directors a scheme prepared by the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces, for the promotion of Vernacular Education, by the institution of schools in each tehseel on the part of the Government. The scheme, which was designed ultimately for the whole of the thirty-one districts within the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant-Governor, was limited by His Honor for the time to eight of these districts.
“The Honorable Court was pleased to accede to the recommendation of the Government, in the despatch No. 14, 3rd October 1849, and the scheme was thereafter carried into effect.
“Three years have since elapsed; and I now submit to my Honorable Colleagues, with feelings of genuine satisfaction, a despatch, in which the late Lieutenant-Governor announced to the Supreme Government the eminent success of this experiment, and asked that the scheme of Vernacular Education should now be extended, in its full integrity, to all the districts within the jurisdiction of the Government of the North-Western Provinces.
“Alluding to the districts in which the Government schools have not yet been established, Mr. Thomason has said:—
“In all these parts there is a population no less teeming, and a people capable of learning. The same wants prevail, and the same moral obligation rests upon the Government, to exert itself for the purpose of dispelling the present ignorance. The means are shown by which a great effect can be produced, the cost at which they can be brought into operation is calculated, the agency is available. It needs but the sanction of the highest authority to call into exercise, throughout the length and breadth of the land, the same spirit of enquiry, and the same mental activity, which is now beginning to characterize the inhabitants of the few districts in which a commencement has been made.
“The sanction which the Lieutenant-Governor, in these words, solicited for an increase of the means which experience has shown to be capable of producing such rich and early fruit, I now most gladly and gratefully propose. And while I cannot refrain from recording anew in this place my deep regret that the ear which would have heard this welcome sanction given, with so much joy, is now dull in death, I desire at the same time to add the expression of my feeling, that even though Mr. Thomason had left no other memorial of his public life behind him, this system of general Vernacular Education, which is all his own, would have sufficed to build up for him a noble and abiding monument of his earthly career.
“I beg leave to recommend, in the strongest terms, to the Honorable Court of Directors, that full sanction should be given to the extension of the scheme of Vernacular education to all the districts within the jurisdiction of the North-Western Provinces, with every adjunct which may be necessary for its complete efficiency.
“Allusion is made by the Secretary to the Council of Education, in his report on the Vernacular Schools in the North- Western Provinces, to ‘the utter failure of the scheme of Vernacular Education adopted in Bengal, among a more intelligent, docile and less prejudiced people than those of the North-Western Provinces’. But he adds the encouraging assurance that he is ‘convinced that the scheme above referred to is not only the best adapted to leaven the ignorance of the agricultural population of the North-Western Provinces, but is also the plan best suited for the mass of the people of Bengal and Behar.’
“Since this is so, I hold it the plain duty of the Government of India at once to place within the reach of the people of Bengal and Behar those means of education which, notwithstanding our anxiety to do so, we have hitherto failed in presenting to them in an acceptable form, but which we are told upon the experienced authority of Dr. Mouat are to be found in the successful scheme of the Lieutenant-Governor before us.
“And not to Bengal and Behar only. If it be good for these, it is good also for our new subjects beyond the Jumna. That it will be not only good for them, but most acceptable to them, no one can doubt who has read the reports by Mr. Montgomery and other Commissioners upon indigenous education in the Punjab, which showed results that were little anticipated before they were discovered.
“Wherefore it is, more than ever before, its duty, in every such case as this to act vigorously, cordially, and promptly.”
“The Indian Educational Code is contained in the Despatches of the Home Government of 1854 and 1859. The main object of the former Despatch is to divert the efforts of the Government from the education of the higher classes upon whom they had up to that date been too exclusively directed, and to turn them to the wider diffusion of education among all classes of the people, and especially to the provision of primary instruction for the masses. Such instruction is to be provided by the direct instrumentality of Government, and a compulsory rate, levied under the direct authority of Government, is pointed out as the best means of obtaining funds for the purpose.
“The medium of education is to be the Vernacular languages of India, into which the best elementary treatises in English should be translated. Such translations are to be advertised for, and liberally rewarded by Government as the means of enriching Vernacular literature.
“The existing Institution, for the study of the classical languages of India are to be maintained, ana respect is to be paid to the hereditary veneration which they command.“
“At a time when there were not 12,000 pupils altogether in the Government Colleges and superior Schools for general education in all India, the framers of the Code were of opinion that the efforts of Government had been too exclusively directed heretofore to the higher classes, and that all that then remained for Government to do for these classes was to establish Universities to complete the educational machinery in each Presidency. After the establishment of Universities, it was stated that—‘We shall have done as much as a Government can do to place the benefits of education plainly and practically before the higher classes of India.’ * * *
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.
“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.”
This point was again strongly enforced by the Home Government in 1863 in a Despatch from Sir C. Wood:—
“I have noticed with some surprise the remarks of the present Chief Commissioner of Oude and of the Director of Public Instruction in Bengal with regard to the principle on which Government should proceed in its measures for the promotion of education in India. It would appear to be the opinion of these gentlemen that Government should, for the present, limit its measures to providing the means of education for the higher classes, and that the education of the lower classes should be left to be effected hereafter, when the classes above them shall have not only learnt to appreciate the advantages of education for themselves, but have become desirous of extending its benefits to those below them. Without entering into a discussion on the question here involved, it is sufficient to remark that the sentiments of the Home Authorities with regard to it have already been declared with sufficient distinctness, and that they are entirely opposed to the views put forward by Mr. Wingfield and Mr. Atkinson.”
Again, in 1864, Sir Charles Wood wrote—
“Those principles are that, as far as possible, the resources of the State should be so applied as to assist those who cannot be expected to help themselves, and that the richer classes of the people should gradually be induced to provide for their own education.”
These extracts seem to show that, until the State has placed the means of elementary Vernacular Education within the reach of those who are unable to procure it for themselves, an annually increasing Government expenditure in any Province upon “the higher classes who are able, and willing in many cases, to bear a considerable part at least of the cost of their own education,”is not in accordance with the main object of the Educational Code, nor with the subsequent views of the Home Governments.
Howell, in his Note on Education, 1867, published by the Government of India, puts the following questions:—
As early as 1857 Mr. Woodrow’s labors in introducing the Circle system into general operation had been recognized in a despatch, No. 85 of 1857, dated the 18th February, from the Honorable Court of Directors:—“It may perhaps, therefore, be asked, in the words of the Despatch of 1854, how far does the Bengal system tend ‘to confer those vast moral and material blessings which flow from the general diffusion of useful knowledge?’ There is ‘satisfactory evidence of the high attainments in English literature and European science in the few,’ but how does the system ‘provide for the extension to the general population of those means of obtaining an education suitable to their station in life which had theretofore been too exclusively confined to the higher classes’?
“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 to 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 of those districts where the mass Schools ‘have not been taken up by Government or by any Society,’ and where education only ‘filters’?
“The plan of Mr. Woodrow for the improvement of the indigenous Vernacular Schools in his division is based on the retention of the existing schools, which are, however, to be formed into circles, to each of which a teacher of a higher class is to be appointed, who shall afford instruction to the upper boys in each school, superior to that which the Guru Mohashoy, or village master, is competent to impart. The Guru Mohashoys are to be conciliated by pecuniary rewards of small amount, proportioned to the number of boys of certain specified standards of attainment who may be found in their respective schools, and the tendency of the boys to leave school at an early age is to be overcome by small gratuities to those boys remaining at school who may possess a certain specified amount of knowledge in various branches of study.
“We approve Mr. Woodrow’s desire to make the utmost possible use of existing means of education, and to avoid as much as possible the supersession of the former teachers of indigenous schools, which seem, notwithstanding the small amount of instruction which they afford, to have naturally a considerable hold on the minds of the people. It is hoped by Mr. Woodrow, and seems not improbable from the result of the limited experiment which has already been made, that the plan may have the effect of stimulating the conductors of indigenous schools—the Guru Mohashoys—to self-improvement: and, on the whole, we agree with you in thinking the scheme well deserving of a trial on an enlarged scale, and accordingly approve the sanction given to the recommendation of the Bengal Government."
The details of the scheme are set forth in the Bengal Government Education Report for October 1855, and are published at pages 33 to 36, Appendix A. of the Report of 1855-56.
It is stated in Mr. Woodrow’s last Report for 1867-68, there were in the 24-Pergunnahs, in 40 Government Circles, 124 schools containing 4,844 pupils, at a total cost of Rupees 8,645, or 1 Rupee 12 annas yearly a head for each boy.
This system is extending wider and wider in Bengal; in 1863 it was adopted in Bengal by the Christian Vernacular Education Society for India at the suggestion of Sir J. Logan, and there are about 4,000 pupils in connection with it.
A despatch was forwarded by Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for India in 1859, in which it is observed—
It notices that Mr. Woodrow’s plan of Circle Schools on the basis of the existing indigenous schools, was found very successful, while the grant-in-aid system was not found to answer with them—“If it must be admitted that previously to 1854 the subject of Vernacular Education had not received in every part of India the full amount of attention which it merited, there can be no doubt that since the wishes of the Home Authorities have been so plainly declared, the Officers of the Department of Education, acting under the orders of the several Governments, have spared no pains to bring into operation, throughout the districts entrusted to their superintendence, such measures as appeared most likely to place within reach of the general population the means of obtaining an education suited to their circumstances in life.”
“Mr. Pratt was in consequence forced to the conclusion that the grant-in-aid system, as carried out under the existing rules, could not be made the basis of any extended system of popular education, these rules being regarded by him as ‘out of place in a country where the value of education is utterly unfelt by the mass of the people, based as they are on the supposition that the people of this country are so desirous of an improved description of instruction, that they will actually pay not only schooling-fees, but contributions from their private resources.’ The following remarks of Mr. Woodrow are sufficient to show the concurrence of that gentleman in Mr. Pratt’s conclusion. ‘The poorest classes do not want schools at all, because they are too poor to pay schooling-fees and subscriptions, and because the labor of the children is required to enable them to live. The middle and upper classes will make no sort of sacrifice for the establishment of any but English schools. Yet the rules in force presume the highest appreciation of education, because based on the supposition that the people everywhere pay not only schooling-fees, but subscriptions for schools. In fact, we expect the peasantry and shop-keepers of Bengal to make sacrifices for education which the same classes in England often refuse to make.”
It approves of an Educational cess on land—
“The appropriation of a fixed proportion of the annual value of the land to the purpose of providing such means of education for the population immediately connected with the land, seems, per se, unobjectionable, and the application of a percentage for the construction and maintenance of roads appears to afford a suitable precedent for such an impost. In the North-Western Provinces, the principle has already been acted on, though the plan has there been subjected to the important modification that the Government shares the burden with the landholder, and that the consent of the latter shall be a necessary condition to the introduction of the arrangement in any locality. The several existing Inspectors of Schools in Bengal are of opinion that an education rate might without difficulty be introduced into that Presidency, and it seems not improbable that the levy of such a rate under the direct authority of the Government would be acquiesced in with far more readiness and with less dislike than a nominally voluntary rate proposed by the local officers.”
Lord Stanley’s despatch of 1859 led to enquiries into Vernacular Education on the part of the Bengal Government, and the eliciting opinions on the point from a variety of individuals. We shall quote a few.
W. Seton-Karr, Esquire, Judge of Jessore, remarks:—
" I think that we cannot be far wrong if we enable a ryot to write a letter of business or congratulation to his patron or friend, to draw out a bond, to understand the terms of a mortgage, to cast up his accounts, to know if his receipts for rent are correctly signed, and to understand the scope of Act X. of 1859.”
Dr. Mouat, so long the able Secretary of the Council of Education, states:—
“The existing village schools may be to the last degree inefficient, and the Gooroomohashoys may be, as many of them are, as ignorant as owls. But they are old-established, time-honored Institutions, deeply grafted in the affections of the people, intimately connected with their habits and associations, and so closely interwoven with their prejudices and predilections, that any attempt to displace them with more highly organized schools and better trained school-masters, will result, as all such attempts have heretofore resulted, in hopeless failure.
“Since Mr. Adam wrote, the general prosperity of Bengal has advanced so considerably, that the cost of food and value of labor have at least doubled. The pecuniary reward that might then have stimulated the teacher, would, therefore, now be insufficient.”
Babu Peari Chand Mittra writes:—
“I would suggest that, if arrangements can be made for instructing the pupils of village schools in practical agriculture and horticulture, it will not only conduce to the improvement of the material condition of the people, but serve substantially the cause of popular education which the Government is so anxious to promote. What the village school pupils should learn must be practically and not from books. This instruction I submit should be on manures, nature of soils required for different plants, different kinds of grafting, modes of germinature, successful growth, preservation, &c.
“It may be naturally asked by whom is this instruction to be given, and how can this object be most economically carried out? To this I would reply that there is a body of intelligent mallees and nurserymen in and out of Calcutta whose services can be secured for Rupees 12 to 16 a month, and one or two of them may be employed experimentally as teachers till the utility of extending this mode of tuition is established beyond doubt.”
Raja Radhakant Deb states:—
“As soon as the people will begin to reap the fruits of a solid vernacular education, agricultural and industrial schools may be established in order to qualify the enlightened masses to become useful members of society. Nothing should be guarded against more carefully than the insensible introduction of a system whereby, with a smattering knowledge of English, youths are weaned from the plough, the axe, and the loom, to render them ambitious only for the clerkship for which hosts would besiege the Government and Mercantile Offices, and the majority being disappointed (as they must be), would (with their little knowledge inspiring pride) be unable to return to their trade, and would necessarily turn vagabonds.”
The Reverend K. Banerjee expresses his opinion:—
“A ryot that can read and write may be able to sign his own name in his koboolut after reading it himself, may examine the pottah or the dakhila granted to him and the entries made in the Zemindar’s books when he takes izarah or pays rent, may when wronged write out an application to the proper authority without the intervention of a Court sharper in the form of a professional scribe, may read for himself depositions taken in his name and affix his own signature, and in various other ways check the delinquencies of oppressors, forgers, and perjurers.”
Major Lees, Acting Director of Public Instruction, states:—
“The high price of elementary school books at present is another obstacle. A Committee of gentlemen,[3] lately appointed to enquire into this subject, report that a poor boy in the interior must pay a premium of 108 per cent. over the actual cost price for every spelling book or Primer he may have occasion to purchase, and, as Native school-boys generally destroy six or a dozen before they master its contents, the matter, to their poor parents, is one of great moment. Yet the School Book Society receives a grant of Rupees 500 a month from Government for the express purpose of selling good cheap school books.
“Some caution and foresight are necessary, lest in our well intentioned zeal and anxious endeavours to render this great Empire wealthy, and its people prosperous and happy, we do not deluge the country with a large class of discontented men, dissatisfied with their position in society and in life, and disgusted with the world, themselves, and the Government that took them from what they were, to make them what they are. This would be to fill our bazars with socialism, and red republicanism instead of contentment and prosperity, and for the Government to incur a responsibly it is alarming even to think of."
In 1860, Sir J. Peter Grant, when Governor of Bengal, submitted the following plan:—
Mr. Woodrow suggested a mode of paying by results, thus:—“One of the matters particularly urged on the attention of the Government of India in Lord Stanley’s Despatch of April 1859 was the extension of Vernacular Education among the masses of the population, and Local Governments were desired to take it into careful consideration and report fully on the means, respectively, at their disposal for promoting the object in view, having regard to the peculiar circumstances of each Province or Presidency.
“It was in the first place observed that the agricultural peasantry of Bengal was the class to be acted upon; and secondly, that the instruction to be imparted to it should range no higher, at least for some time to come, than that which was afforded by the indigenous Private Schools already in existence in large numbers over the whole country. The object, therefore, should be to bring them under such influences as would improve and elevate their character and efficiency, and ultimately confirm and extend their usefulness.
“When the requisite number of Schools shall have been selected, the Inspector must endeavour to make the gurus, or the proprietors and supporters of the Schools, who are often talookdars and middlemen, to submit to periodical inspection.
“Books should be supplied to the Schools at a very low price. These books should contain, in a compact form, all that has hitherto been taught at such places by dictation, namely Arithmetic, Agricultural and Commercial Accounts, Forms of Agreements, Quittances of Rents, Bonds, and even models of the complimentary or formal letters which inferiors constantly address to their superiors. The Lieutenant-Governor does not feel warranted in despising this last kind of instruction, because it is not conveyed to the son of an English peasant. It is sufficient for our purposes that such instruction has been imparted in India for generations. The above course will enable any lad of ordinary intelligence to read and write correctly, and to see that he is not cheated in his accounts by the mahajun or the agent of the zemindar.
“He would be offered a reward in hard cash, within a limited amount at the discretion of the Inspector, and on the latter being satisfied that the state of the School justified the encouragement, which should not exceed half the schooling fees realised by the guru from his pupils; and assuming the fees at Rupees five per mensem, the guru would be paid on an average Rupees 30 per annum by Government.
“‘If the time should ever arrive when we could show one thousand Village Schools to a district, aided by Government, and affording the agriculturists a simple and practical education commensurate with their wants, the State, in such a case, might be held to have fairly done its duty by a neglected portion of its subjects.’”
“Nothing for boys who cannot read, spell, and write at dictation words of three letters and say the multiplication table up to 10 times 10,
“One pice monthly for every boy who can read and explain the meaning of words and sentences in ‘Infant Teacher’ Part 3rd, and can do easy sums in addition, subtraction, multiplication.
“One anna monthly for every boy up to ‘Infant Teacher’ Part 4th, and the four simple rules of Arithmetic.
“Two annas monthly for every boy who can read and write without gross blunders, copy a map, and has learned some accounts.
“Four annas monthly for every boy who completes the highest course prescribed for indigenous schools.”
The last phase of the Vernacular Education question appeared in the Supplement to the Bengal Government Gazette for May 20th, 1868. In a correspondence between the Governments of Bengal and India relating to Elementary Vernacular Education for the lower classes, the main question being as to the mode of levying a local Educational Cess, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal expressed an opinion in favor of an increase to the salt tax. The Director of Public Instruction estimated the cost:—
“Assuming the population of Bengal at 40,000,000, I calculate that with the machinery of this plan we shall be able to provide Elementary Schools for the whole country at the rate of one School to each 3,000 of the population at an annual charge of the State not much exceeding 20 lakhs of Rupees, or £200,000, including expenditure for inspection and administration; and I should hardly suppose that the Finance Department will consider this an excessive outlay for such a purpose, especially when it is informed that for England and Wales, with a population of 20,063,793, the expenditure from the Parliamentary grant, during the year ending 31st March 1866, amounted to no less a sum than £378,003 for day-scholars in Elementary Schools alone, exclusive of all charges for administration and inspection.”
Mr. Bayley, the Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department, argues in favor of this expense being met by the land:—
“Consequently, as was originally the case in Bengal, so in the North-Western Provinces, the proportion of the rent taken as revenue by Government has been fixed on calculations into which the element of a provision for the general education of the people did not enter.
“There is no part of India in which the Imperial revenue can with less fairness be called upon to contribute to local objects.
“Whatever may have been in reality the share of the income of the proprietors of the soil which the permanent settlement originally gave to Government, there can be no doubt that it is now far less than in other Provinces; for, while the area under cultivation has enormously increased (perhaps, on an average, doubled,) on the other hand, the prices of produce have undoubtedly risen in even a still greater ratio, so that the gross assets of the proprietors have probably increased four or five fold, if not more, and the amount of the Imperial demand remaining stationary, its incidence has proportionably diminished.”
“The main burden, therefore, of Vernacular Education in Bengal should, the Governor General in Council thinks, fall, not on the Imperial revenues, but, as elsewhere, on the proprietors of the land.
“In the permanently-settled Districts of the Benares Division of the North-Western Provinces (between which and the permanently-settled Districts of the Lower Provinces the most complete analogy exists), the proprietors of the soil have voluntarily agreed to the imposition of an educational cess, on condition that Government should give an equal amount.
“The Governor General in Council would be glad if the Zemindars of Bengal could be similiarly brought to tax themselves for Vernacular Education. In such case, without pledging the Government to any specific condition, His Excellency would willingly give such aid as the finances of the Empire could, from time to time, fairly afford.
“But if any such voluntary arrangement is impossible, His Excellency in Council is of opinion that legislation may justly be employed for the imposition of a general local cess of such amount as may be necessary.”
The last letter of Mr. Bayley, Secretary to the Government of India, on the subject, April 28th 1868, was urgent; he observes:—
“I am directed to request the attention of His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor to the urgent necessity which, in the opinion of the Governor General in Council, now exists for providing from local sources the means of extending elementary education in Bengal, and for the construction and maintenance of roads and other works of public utility.
“While there is no Province in India which can bear comparison with Bengal in respect of the progress made in the higher branches of education by a considerable section of the upper classes of the community, the Governor General in Council has long observed with regret the almost total absence of proper means of provision for the elementary education of the agricultural classes which form the great mass of the population.
“The contrast in this respect between Bengal and other Provinces is striking. In Bengal, with a population that probably exceeds forty millions, the total number of pupils in the lower class Government and Aided Schools was, in 1866-67, only 39,104. In the North-Western Provinces, with a population under thirty millions, the number of pupils in Schools, of a similar class was 125,394. In Bombay, with a population of sixteen millions, the number was 79,189. In the Punjab, with a population of fifteen millions, it was 62,355. In the Central Provinces, with a population of eight-and-a-half millions, it was 22,600. Nor does there seem to be any probability that these proportions will hereafter become more favorable to Bengal, although the measures that have lately been taken for the encouragement of vernacular education by means of the system of training Masters in the so-called indigenous Schools have been more or less successful. The means of affording elementary instruction appear to be increasing with far greater rapidity in other Provinces. It is shewn by Mr. Howell’s Note on the state of Education in India in 1866-67, that in Bombay the annual increase in the number of Schools and of scholars is most remarkable. In the North-western Provinces, in the Punjab, and in the Central Provinces, constant progress is being made. In Oude, where educational operations only commenced a few years ago, the Director of Public Instruction expects before very long to see ‘a School, under a well-trained and fairly paid Teacher, within two-and-a-half miles of every child in the Province.’
“The Governor General in Council feels that it would not be right to evade any longer the responsibility which properly falls upon the Government of providing that the means of obtaining at least an elementary education shall be made accessible to the people of Bengal. He feels that this responsibility must be accepted in this, as in other Provinces, not only as one of the highest duties which we owe to the country, but because among all the sources of difficulty in our administration, and of possible danger to the stability of our Government, there are few so serious as the ignorance of the people.
“In Bengal, at least, the Government cannot be charged with having done too little for the encouragement of the higher branches of education. The expenditure, in 1866-67, on Government and Aided Schools, mostly of a superior class, was nearly £250,000, of which more than £150,000 was contributed by the State. The Government is entitled to say, quoting the words of the Home Government in the well-known Despatch of 1854, that it has done ‘as much as a Government can do to place the benefits of education plainly and practically before the higher classes’ of Bengal. It may, indeed, be a question whether the Government has not done too much; for, as the Secretary of State wrote in 1864, the true principle by which the expenditure of the Government upon education ought to be governed is this—‘That, as far as possible, the resources of the State should be so applied as to assist those who cannot be expected to help themselves, and that the richer classes of the people should gradually be induced to provide for their own education.’
“However this may be, whether we have done, in this respect, more than was necessary or not, the duty that remains to be performed is clear. It was described as follows in the Despatch of 1854, which has been quoted above:—“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.
“While the Governor General in Council is not content to bear any longer the reproach that almost nothing has been done for the education of the people of Bengal, it is altogether out of the question that the Government can provide the funds without which the removal of that reproach is impossible. At the present time, the total number of pupils in Government and in Aided Schools is probably 630,000, and the estimate of the expenditure upon Education, Science, and Art amounts, for the current year, to £904,000.
“It is evident that if the Imperial expenditure on education be allowed to go on increasing much longer at the present rate, the result must be a serious aggravation of the financial difficulties of the Government.
“While the Governor General in Council will always be ready to view, in the most liberal spirit, all questions that may arise, and to afford every help that the Government can reasonably be expected to give, he will decline, in future, to listen to any proposition, the effect of which would be to throw upon the State the main burden of the cost of educating the people of Bengal. The only way in which that cost can be met is, unless some voluntary arrangement be possible, by means of local taxation, especially imposed for the purpose.
“The Home Government, in the Despatch of 1859, pointed to ‘the levy of a compulsory rate as the only really effective step to be taken.’ ‘The appropriation,’ it was stated, ‘of a fixed proportion of the annual value of the land to the purpose of providing such means of education for the population immediately connected with ⟨the land⟩ seems, per se, unobjectionable; and the application of a percentage ⟨for the⟩ construction and maintenance of roads appears to offer a suitable precedent for such an impost.’
“The Despatch then regarded, in terms which are not altogether applicable at the present time, to the manner in which this principle had been already acted on in the North-Western Provinces, and went on to say, with special reference to Bengal, that ‘it seems not improbable that the levy of such a rate under the direct authority of the Government would be acquiesced in with far more readiness and with less dislike than a nominally voluntary rate proposed by the local Officers.’
“This principle has been already carried out in Bombay, in the North-western Provinces, in Oude, in the Central Provinces, and in the Punjab. Although the educational cess in those Provinces is imposed as a percentage on the Government demand, it is, as was stated in my letter of the 28th October last, ‘clearly taken from the proprietors of the soil as a separate tax for special local purposes.’ Not only can there be no reason why a similar tax should not be imposed for similar purposes in Bengal, but in the opinion of the Governor General in Council there is no part of India in which the proprietors of the land can be so justly expected to bear local burdens of this nature.’
“The Governor General in Council is aware that it has been sometimes asserted that the imposition of such a tax would be an infringement of the conditions under which the permanent settlement of the land was made. He does not think, and he believes that His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor will concur in this opinion, that there is any necessity for argument to shew the futility of such assertions. Similiar objections were made to the imposition of the Income Tax, and they are as groundless in the one case as in the other.
“In the North-Western Provinces, in the Punjab, and in Oude, the proprietors of land pay on this account a tax amounting to one per cent, on the Government demand. They pay the same in the permanently-settled districts of the Benares Division. In the Central Provinces they pay two per cent. In Madras the rate may be as much as 318 per cent. In Bombay, assuming that one-half of the cess lately imposed is devoted to roads, the proprietors of land pay at the rate of 318 per cent. In Bengal they pay nothing, although there is no part of India in which the means of the landholders are so large, in which the construction of roads and other works of local improvement is more urgently required, or in which such works have hitherto made so little progress.
“It was pointed out in my letter of the 28th October last, that in the permanently-settled districts of the Benares Division of the North-Western Provinces, between which and the permanently-settled districts of the Lower Provinces the most complete analogy exists, the proprietors of the soil had voluntarily agreed to the imposition of an educational cess on condition that the Government should give an equal amount; it was added that the Governor General in Council would be glad if the Zemindars of Bengal could be similarly brought to tax themselves for Vernacular education, and that in such case, without pledging the Government to any specific condition. His Excellency would willingly give such aid as the finances of the empire could, from time to time, fairly afford. Those remarks are equally applicable to the question of local taxation for the construction and maintenance of roads.
“If, however, in either or both of these cases, it should be found impracticable to provide, by any such voluntary arrangement, the means of meeting the necessary expenditure, the Governor General in Council is decidedly of opinion that recourse should be had to legislation, and that a special tax should be imposed for these purposes upon the landholders of Bengal.”
The following letter on the best mode of extending Vernacular Education has been sent to the Government of Bengal for their consideration by the Governor General:—
“From Revd. J. Long, to His Excellency Sir John Lawrence, k. c. b., and k .s. i., Governor General of India,—Dated Simla, the 24th August 1867.
“Sir,—Mr. Gordon, the Private Secretary, has informed me that your Excellency is pleased with the general principles relating to Vernacular Education laid down in my letter of the 14th instant, and wishes to have my views as to a practical scheme for imparting Vernacular Education in Bengal.
“2. I beg to submit the following sketch of the measures I would recommend as urgent in the existing crisis in Bengal. Additional measures can be adopted after these are in successful operation.
“3. It would be well, I believe, to take as a basis the existing system of Vernacular education in Bengal, which has worked well on the whole, and has been tested by experience; now it mainly needs development and expansion with more decided efforts to work downwards from the upper middle class to the masses.
The existing system to be adopted as a basis.“The following are the chief features in the existing system in Bengal and Behar:—
“(a.) A Director General in correspondence on one side with the Government of Bengal, and on the other with European Inspectors and Native Sub-Inspectors.
“(b.) Twenty Normal Schools established in various parts of the country, in which natives receive an education qualifying them to convey superior Vernacular instruction, but almost exclusively in schools of the middle classes. The supply of these is only limited by the want of money to augment the number of teachers under training and the opening of additional Vernacular Schools.
“(c.) Model Schools supported by Government. These give an example to natives, and to the teachers of indigenous Schools of an improved system of education.
“(d.) Grant-in-aid Schools, which are spreading through the country, the Government defraying half the expense. These Schools are not generally attended much by the agricultural classes.
“(e.) Guru Schools. These are the old indigenous Schools of the country, fragments remaining of the ancient village municipal system, the village having the guru or hedge School-master, the same as it has its barber or smith. There are more than 30,000 of these small Schools in Bengal and Behar; the teachers are very ignorant, and can only give instruction in the merest elements of reading, writing and arithmetic: they present, however, the cheapest and simplest basis for acting on the village population. Successful efforts are now being made both by Government and the Christian Vernacular Education Society to improve this humble class of Schools, by forming them into what are called Circle Schools. A circle is generally composed of three Schools situated a few miles distant from each other; the master or guru of each School receives a monthly bonus from Government or private persons, varying according to the number and proficiency of his pupils; he also receives fees from them in money or food; his defective instruction is supplemented by a superior teacher, who devotes two days a week to each School in rotation. I myself have for years worked Schools on this plan; they are now attended by 900 boys, and I believe this scheme is the most practical one at the present time for reaching the masses; it supplements without superseding indigenous effort.
“(f.) Vernacular Scholarships of the value of Rupees 4 monthly are given after a competitive examination to the best pupils of Vernacular Schools in order to give encouragement to the Schools and enable the successful candidates to pursue a higher course of study at superior Schools. There are 450 Vernacular scholarships, costing Government Rupees 28,000 annually. A class of scholarships, of the value of Rupees 2 per mensem, is requisite to encourage the boys of the Village Schools; the scholarships of Rupees 4 monthly being chiefly competed for by those who intend to prosecute their studies at English Schools.
“4. The system good for a certain class should now be extended.With the exception of the Guru Schools, the existing system does not tap the masses; it is adopted t Mefly by boys of the middle classes; it exhibits but a slow tendency to work downwards and expand itself towards the millions; it embraces but a fraction of the population, leaving the agricultural and working classes in the main as ignorant as ever, but it has done much good as a preparation for an onward movement, and the time seems now to have arrived when it should be extended to the masses, the 35,000,000 of Bengal, of whom two per cent. cannot read intelligently. I do trust that while in France, Prussia, and even in Russia sedulous efforts are being made for peasant education, Bengal will not in this respect be backward; and especially as the removal of popular ignorance is one of the chief means of destroying that system of popular superstition, which is so mighty an obstacle to all measures for the religious and social amelioration of the millions of Bengal.
“5. The expansions and changes I would propose in the existing system are the following:—
“(a.) The Grant-in-aid Rules to be modified, so as to require from Guru Schools only one-third the local contribution instead of one-half as at present. The peasantry do not value knowledge sufficiently to pay half the expenses of a School; repeatedly have they said to me—we are not merchants or pundits, what is the use of learning History and Geography. If in Prussia education has long been compulsory, if in Sweden a man cannot be married who can neither read nor write, and if in Christian England the question of compulsory education is looming in the distance, why should we in this land of caste, where even the educated native too often says Odi profanum vulgus et arceo, expect that the common people will pay for a knowledge of what they do not at present see the pecuniary value.
“(b.) A Director of Vernacular Education to be appointed, who, being responsible only to the Government of Bengal, should have the sole and uncontrolled management of Vernacular education, and should alone correspond direct with the Bengal Government, on all Vernacular questions. I proposed this twelve years ago to the Bengal Government, and subsequent experience and observation have only confirmed my views.
“My reasons then, as now, had no reference to the individual filling the office, but simply in relation to the obvious principle of the division of labor, which requires that one Director should have charge of the higher education, the other that of the masses; the operations of both are so different that no man, however able or industrious, can do justice to both, involving, as each of them does, a variety of new and complicated questions, very different in their bearings in a country like Bengal, where educational cannot be separated from social problems.
“Great stress is to be laid on the Vernacular Director, whose undivided attention could be given to Vernacular questions which embrace the following Sub-Divisions:—
“(a.) The education of ryots and the working classes, a sphere greater in respect of population than that of France and Scotland united.
“(b.) Female education now rapidly developing itself in Bengal, though the Punjab has gone ahead of Bengal in this branch.
“(c.) Mahomedan Education, hitherto so utterly neglected, in my previous letter I have referred to the important social and political consequence connected with it.
“(d.) The Oriental Colleges. The Sanskrit College of Calcutta has been exceedingly useful in promoting the development of Vernacular Literature, and supplying a well trained class of Pundits for teaching the Vernacular and making translations. As Philological Institutions, Oriental Colleges are of primary importance in the present condition of the Indian Vernaculars. The Calcutta and Hooghly Madrissas have long required Principals at their head, acquainted with Arabic and Persian, who could devote their entire time to the duties of those Colleges, and exercise an useful influence among the Mahomedans.
“(e.) Agricultural Instruction. This is of primary importance for rural Schools, as education in Ireland and Prussia has shewn. In Bengal, the practical measures to be adopted are the teaching it in Normal Schools, with elementary class books in Village Schools. I myself published a book on this subject, which proved very useful for the pupils of my Village Schools. A Chair of Agricultural Chemistry in the Calcutta University would be important for Bengal, as would a Minister of Agriculture in connection with the Supreme Government.
“(f.) Vernacular Literature, in correspondence with the Calcutta School Book Society in relation to Vernacular School-books.
“(g.) Vernacular School and District Libraries. The circulation of useful Vernacular books, by Book-hawkers, and the compilation of an Annual Report on Vernacular Literature in relation to its statistics, the quality, number, and circulation of books.
“6. The above mentioned seven subjects are closely connected with one another, and all bear on the interests of Vernacular education. The Vernacular Director having to work them out by a staff of subordinate Agents, would have ample occupation for his department without distracting his attention by problems relating to the higher education of the upper ten thousand.
“7. There is another subject that belongs also to the Vernacular Department referred to in the Educational Despatch of the Secretary of State for India in 1854, which directed—‘That even in lower Government situations a man who can read and write be preferred to one who cannot, if he is equally eligible in other respects.’
“This injunction has remained practically a dead letter in Bengal, but it deserves the serious attention of the authorities as one of the cheapest and most efficient means of giving a pecuniary motive to the people for learning to read and write. Certainly it might at once be carried out in the Police. “To make this test effective, there should be periodical examinations held in various Districts, conducted by the Vernacular Department, and presided over by the Commissioner of the Zillah, to attach weight to it. Certificates should be bestowed on those who pass the examination, and after a given period no man should be eligible for any office under Government unprovided with this certificate. I believe these examinations conducted publicly would give a considerable impetus to adult education.
“8. On the other hand, the Bengal Director of Public Instruction has ample scope for his energies in the Administration and Correspondence Department relating to English education, comprising—
“(a.) The Calcutta University increasing every year in importance.
“(b.) The Zillah Colleges of Bengal.
“(c.) The Zillah Schools.
“(d.) The Anglo-Vernacular Schools.
“(e.) The Grant-in-aid system as applied to numerous Anglo-Vernacular Schools, Missionary and Native.
“(f.) He has practically to decide the questions that are referred to him from the Inspectors and the various Departments.
“(g.) He corresponds directly with Government.
“(h.) He selects suitable persons for the Colleges and Head Schools, which requires considerable care and investigation on his part.“9. The numerous details that arise out of the above subjects must give a Director, however earnest and diligent, little leisure to give due consideration to the numerous, difficult, and important questions connected with Vernacular education.
“For, carrying out the proposed extension of Vernacular education, a grant of two lacs of rupees is required from Imperial Funds as the first instalment. I have stated in my previous letter why the Bengal peasant has special claims on the Imperial Government: it was that Government which, in ignorance and with good intentions, handed him over in 1793 to the zemindary system, which has reduced him to a serf, a proletaire, and has made him the victim of a class of men who, with a few exceptions, are practically opposed to his social elevation, as well as to his education. After a quarter of a century’s residence in Bengal, I have known but rare cases where either zemindars or educated Natives would do anything to raise the Bengal ryot to the status of a ‘man and a brother,’ the Supreme Government, therefore as the gurib purwar (the protector of the poor and helpless) ought not to forego its functions in this case. The peasant has been starved in body; is he to remain starved in soul also?
“10. To meet the further expenses that must be incurred in developing this scheme, besides grants from the Imperial Revenue, there may be available from local sources the following:—
“(a.) An Educational Cess. This has succeeded only in Bombay and the North- West Provinces, but Bengal is under the blight of the Zemindaree settlement. Zemindars, in common with the majority of educated Natives, are too indifferent to the people to concur in taxing themselves for the benefit of the million; while the people themselves complain so bitterly of the Chowkeedaree Tax, and the extortion it leads to, that they dread extremely any new taxation; besides, they see as little advantage in being taxed for Schools as the criminal classes would to volunteer paying a direct tax for Policemen and Jails.
“(b.) Raising the fees of the pupils that attend Anglo-Vernacular Schools and Colleges, and diminishing the grants. So as to gradually diminish the grant for English education, this would yield a considerable amount available for the people at large, who have not the rich prizes in situations and offices that are open to the alumni of English Schools. The remarkable success of the Calcutta University illustrates the money-value to Natives of an English education which has the prizes, while Vernacular Education under the existing system has but blanks. When English education was commenced in 1835, in Bengal, one object held out was, that it was the shortest way for getting at the people—that English education was to prepare for Vernacular. Thirty years have elapsed since these promises were held out. Mr. Adam was appointed by Lord W. Bentinck as Commissioner to enquire into Vernacular Education in Bengal, His reports were shelved, and so was the subject until lately. These reports have been a long time out of print, and contain much valuable information bearing on the present question. In 1861, the Bengal Government accepted my offer to edit a selection from, or digest of, the most useful portions of them; but ill-health soon after forced me to England. On my return I saw there was not sufficient interest taken by the authorities in the subject of Vernacular Education to induce me to enter on the work.
“But now that the question of the extension of Vernacular Education has been re-opened, I believe a selection from those reports would be of use; and if my services in editing them were required, I would gladly undertake it for the Government of India. The subjects discussed, and information given, might be suggestive of Vernacular Education in other Presidencies, and might be printed in the Selections of the Government of India.”
Adam, in his Report, dwells on the importance not only of Vernacular but also of Oriental Education, which must be the fountain for polishing the Vernacular, making English ideas to be clothed in an oriental garb suitable to the people. He gives interesting details of the studies, writings and influence of the Pundits and classes acquainted with Sanskrit or Arabic; since then, great improvements have been made in the Benares Sanskrit College, while the Sanskrit College in Calcutta has been re-modelled, has produced, and is producing, a class pf able teachers of Sanskrit and the Vernacular, as well as supplying clever translators. The interest in Oriental Education is on the increase: and, in 1867, Dr. Smith, of Serampore, submitted a proposition to the Syndicate of the Calcutta University on the subject of Oriental Education. The following are the leading points:—
From G. Smith, Esquire, to J. Sutcliffe, Esquire, Registrar of the University of Calcutta,—Dated Serampore, the 29th November 1867.
“It seems to me that the time has come for the Indian University system to assimilate to itself, and so to elevate and impregnate with the results of Western thought, the purely Oriental learning and Vernacular Education of India. That system is based exclusively on the constitution and practice of the London University, and ignores almost all that is not English in form and substance.
“It will certainly be admitted, at least, that the time has come to ask the question, whether the course of Education in India in the last third of a century has not been too exclusively English in its character.
“The people themselves feel this want, and in the past few years more than one demand has been made upon Government for its satisfaction. The movement which is known as that of the Lahore or Punjab University is well known to the Senate. Of its earnestness and importance I satisfied myself when at Lahore at the end of last year, and Major Lees will testify to both with an authority I cannot presume to claim. Solely from the impossibility, or unwillingness of our University to assist, elevate or incorporate that movement, it has drifted into what looks very like ultimate failure. The opinions of His Excellency the Chancellor and of Sir Donald MacLeod in favor of that movement have been widely published. Both have given it warm personal and official support. Then there has been, more recently, the similar application of the Institute at Allyghur or Bareilly, representing the learned natives of the North-western Provinces. The reply of the Government of India to that application recognised the necessity for aiding Oriental learning by honours and rewards. At present all that our University does is to insist that graduates shall add to a sound and extensive knowledge of the English language and literature, and of European history, science and philosophy, all taught and acquired through the medium of English, familiarity with one learned language, which may be Latin or Greek as well as Sanskrit or Arabic.
“This seems to me not enough. It fails, and will always fail, to reach the learned class of Pundits and Moulvies whom, for political as well as social reasons, it is so desirable to influence, and it has not the remotest effect on the progress of Vernacular Education. If our University is to be true to its name and functions, and to develop not after a London pattern, but naturally and with a healthy and varied fulness, it must recognize the wants, absorb the intellectual life, and guide the literature and language of all classes. The University is in a new position, and has made a noble beginning. The question is, how will it best represent and elevate the full and varied intellectual life of India?
“(a.) That the University of Calcutta be empowered to affiliate Colleges in which true science, true history and true metaphysics are taught only through the Oriental languages, and in which such languages and their literature are scientifically studied.
“(b.) That the University be permitted to grant degrees for purely Oriental attainment of an honorary character to distinguished Oriental Scholars, and after examination to others. If the University of London could meet the growing interest of Englishmen in physical science by creating the degree of Doctor of Science; why should not that of Calcutta adopt itself to India by conferring such degrees as Doctor of Sanskrit or Master of Arabic?”
The Calcutta University, has, however, given a great impulse to Sanskrit studies by the important position they hold in the University Examination, but it does not affect the class of Tol Pundits who, according to the Government Inspector of Schools in the Dacca Division, “exercise more supremacy over the minds of the people than any other class.”
The following are some of the objects set forth by the proposed Lahore University:—
“While the revival of Eastern learning and the creation of a good vernacular literature will be the primary object of the University, yet English will be still considered at the natural complement of education, and of the highest value to the Native student whose mind has been thoroughly disciplined by a study of his national classics.
“The Government Schools and Colleges, whether high or low, should be regarded, not as permanent institutions, but only as a means for generating a desire and demand for education, and as models meanwhile for imitation by private institutions. In proportion as the demand for education in any given locality is generated, and as private institutions spring up and flourish, all possible aid and encouragement should be afforded to them; and the Government, in place of using its power and resources to complete with private parties, should rather contract and circumscribe its measures of direct education, and so shape its measures as to pave the way for the abolition of its own schools. “The University of Calcutta is, for various reasons, unsuited to the wants of this province:—
“Firstly.—Its distance is too great and the area over which its affiliated institutions extend too vast and varied to admit of its exercising the influence which would be exercised by a University located at Lahore.
“Secondly.—Were the Calcutta University more accessible than it is, it would still, in the opinon of the European and Native promoters of the present movement, be unsuited to the requirements of the Punjab, insisting, as it does, on a considerable knowledge of English as a sine quâ non for matriculation and the obtaining of degrees, and affording by its course of study little encouragement to the cultivation of the Oriental classics, and one to the formation of a modern vernacular literature.
“The objects of the Universities of Lahore and Calcutta are different, but not antagonistic; each may carry out successfully its proper speciality, and each may afford the other valuable assistance.
“The University, as an examining body, will hold examinations for conferring degrees and ‘sanads’. for proficiency in 1, languages; 2, literature; 3, Science.
“It will also give rewards for good original works in the Vernacular, or good editions of Standard Oriental works, or for translation from European works.
“In the examinations and the tuition of the University ‘the comparative method’ will be aimed at, in order to form a link between the languages, literature and science of the East and the West.
“Urdu and Hindi will be the principal vehicles for direct instruction to the masses of people.
“Arabic with Mahommedans and Sanskrit with Hindoos will hold the place which the classical languages of Greece and Rome hold towards ourselves.
“English will give the opportunity for comparing their own language, literature and science with our own, and its tuition will thus be rendered a really invigorating exercise for already prepared minds, not a mere word teaching.
"It is felt so strongly that it would be fatal to the success of the University were its teaching, which is intended to be on the European system, to degenerate into the old Oriental method, that all Examination Committees will contain in their number some Europeans of learning and influence, who will thus give a guarantee for the liberality and progressive tendencies of the Institution."
Oriental institutions ought to be powerful engines, when properly worked, for influencing the moulvie’s mind quite in accordance with the despatch of 1854, which states—
“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 Mahommedan Law, and is also of great importance for the critical cultivation and improvement of the Vernacular languages of India.”
The Anglo-Persian classes in the Calcutta and Hugly Madrissas have been successful of late years. Mr. Howell, in his Note, mentions a striking case recorded by the Inspector of Behar regarding Mahommedans:—
“Proportion of Mahommedan Students in Vernacular Schools.—On the singular preponderance of Mahommedans over Hindoos in the Bhaugulpore attached Model School, where the relative numbers are 60-40, the Head Master of the Training School, Babu Kalicoomar Mitter, observes:—Our discipline and course of study is the same as observed in all Government English Schools and Colleges. We teach history, geography, and mathematics. Only all this instruction is given, not in English, but in the Vernacular. Hence our School is more popular with Mahommedans, and the time-honored though miserable, Maktabs and Meeajees are being drained of the Mahommedan pupils, who will not go to an English School.
“Such is the important functions which Vernacular Schools are performing, albeit only Lower Class Schools, ill-supported and too little encouraged. They are drawing a large section of an influential class who have persistently kept aloof for the most part from English Schools, where the pupils acquire the ‘foreign dress and manners which will shut them out from Paradise,’ and where the time allotted to Oriental literature and the language of their Koran, with the small consideration in which Arabic and Persian literature are held, are wholly inadequate and fall far short of the value set on it by themselves. The knowledge acquired in those Vernacular Schools in some subjects up to the Entrance standard is in others not much below it. And all who gain Vernacular scholarships, besides numbers in whose minds the Vernacular Schools has awakened the first desire for knowledge, are so many additions from year to year on the roll of the higher English School, which they might have never entered but for the Lower Vernacular School.
“There is yet another important service which they render, and it is one of great social and political significance. The special attention given to Arabic and Persian in Oordoo Schools and the inclusion in Hindee Schools of Sanskrit literature and classical Ramayan and Premsagur, venerated by the Hindoos as their sacred Purans, help to set at rest deeply-rooted suspicions, and to fill up the breach due to divergence of faith, language and customs. ‘These books,’ they say, ‘would never have been allowed in Government Schools if the Government had any design against our religious faith.' This cultivation of our sacred language does not look as if Government wanted to uproot the language and to supersede it by English.”
The attempt to bar up knowledge to the Mahommedans, except they gain it through English has been a failure; the remarks of Sir D. Macleod, Governor of the Punjab, in his reply to the address of the Native nobility of Lahore on this point, are striking:—
The marked success that has of late attended the study of Sanskrit in an improved mode among English educated natives, shews that a corresponding movement may take place regarding the Persian and Arabic with Mahommedans. The Report of the Committee of Public Instruction for 1852, giving the detail of the reforms introduced by Pundit Vidyeasagr into the Sanskrit College, Calcutta, evinces what may be done—his reforms have been most successful.“The great bulk of our scholars never attain more than a very superficial knowledge, either of English or of the subjects they study in that language, while the mental training imparted is, as a general rule, of a purely imitative character, ill-calculated to raise the nation to habits of vigorous or independent thought.
“It appears indeed evident that, to impart knowledge in a foreign tongue must of necessity greatly increase the difficulties of education. In England, where the Latin and Greek languages are considered an essential part of a polite education, all general instruction is conveyed, not in those languages, but in the vernacular of the country; and it seems difficult to assign a sufficient reason why a different principle should be acted upon here.
“And this brings me to the defect which I myself more especially deplore in the system of instruction at present almost exclusively followed, viz., that it has tended, though not intentionally, to alienate from us, in a great measure the really learned men of your race. Little or nothing has been done to conciliate these, while the literature and science which they most highly value have been virtually ignored. The consequence has been that the men of most cultivated minds amongst our race and yours have remained but too often widely apart, each being unable either to understand or to appreciate the other. And thus we have virtually lost the aid and co-operation of those classes who, I feel assured, afforded by far the best instruments for creating the literature we desire.”
Agricultural education, so important in its bearings as giving a practical direction to the education of the masses, is recognised as a vital branch of national education in Prussia and Ireland; boys who have to return to the plough from the School must have the subjects taught of a nature not to lead them to despise peasant life. In India as long ago as the beginning of this century, an able minute was written by the Marquis of Wellesley on the subject of Model Farms as forming a branch of Agricultural instruction, and he proposed appropriating a part of Barrackpore Park to the purposes of a Model Farm. Lord W. Bentinck revived the idea and enforced it in an elaborate minute. Adam in his Report refers to the question. It has been brought before the Bengal Government, by Babu Joykissen Mookerjee, who has made an offer of a considerable sum to Government to carry out the object. The following is some of the correspondence on the subject.
The Bengal Director of Public Instruction writes to the Secretary of the Bengal Government, May 27th, 1865:—
“His Honor will perceive that the measures recommended by the Landholders’ and Commercial Association are in the main directed to the same object as those proposed by Babu Joykissen Mookerjee, who advocates the formation of an Agricultural Department in connection with a new College for General Education to be established at Ooterparah, towards the maintenance of which he has offered a handsome contribution. The advocates of this course of action propose that arrangements should be made in connection with some one or more of our Colleges for General Education to provide systematic lectures on Agriculture and the sciences which bear upon it, for the instruction of the more wealthy classes of Native Society, who are the owners of landed property, and have a direct interest in its profitable management, in the hope that some of them may apply the teaching they receive to the improvement of their crops.
“If, however, a competent Lecturer could be found, it might be worth while to try the experiment of deputing him in rotation to the different Schools and Colleges, to deliver short courses of popular lectures, not as a part of the School business, but for the benefit of the general public, with the view of arousing attention and disseminating the idea that there is at least a possibility of increasing Agricultural profits by improved methods of cultivation, and by the exercise of greater care and discrimination in the breeding of cattle. In this way public interest may perhaps be excited, and the people led to discuss the suggestions made to them, and even prevailed on by degrees to bring them to the test of experiment.
“I am still, however, inclined to adhere to the opinion that, as far as regards the action of the Education Department, the manner in which most good is likely to be effected is by disseminating information in a very humble way through the agency of the Normal Schools for the training of Village School Masters. The pupils in these Schools are drawn from the country villages and are destined to return to them as Teachers, and it seems possible that by giving them simple instruction as to the objects aimed at by Agricultural improvements and the gains to be anticipated from them, useful hints may be widely spread among the actual cultivators of the soil, and gradually influence them in a right direction.”
In a letter to the Bengal Government from the Secretary of the Landholders’ Association of the 21st October 1864, it is stated:—
“The formation of an Agricultural class in some one or more of the Educational Establishments supported by Government under a Professor or Instructor well grounded in the principles of Agriculture and of Agricultural Chemistry.
“The class from which the Committee have the greatest hopes is that of the Talookdars and the sons of Traders and Artisans whose fathers have acquired moderate Wealth, and have invested it in the purchase of land. Many of the smaller Talookdars are resident on their properties, and many are understood to have portions of their land in their own possession, or at least under their own control, and if these men had the opportunity of attending an Agricultural class when at School or College, it may be hoped that some of them would apply the teaching they had received to the improvement of their crops.
“This seems to the Committee the most likely means of introducing improved modes of cultivation, and of gradually breaking down the prejudice which separates Practical Agriculture from Education, and if a certain number of these small Talookdars and sons of Tradesmen and Artisans should take to improvement and succeed, the most intelligent of the ryots would adopt the system which they saw to pay, and would learn, from observation and practical experience what they never could have been taught from theoretical education in the Schools.“
The Secretary of the Agricultural Society recommends the study of Agriculture in the Normal Schools.
The Honorary Secretary of the British Indian Association, which is composed chiefly of Zemindars, writes:—
“The Committee deem it highly desirable that some arrangements should be made for rendering instruction in Agriculture a part of the general scheme of Education in this country. They admit that it would be premature to establish an Agricultural College. The maintenance of such an Institution would be attended with an expense which would not be justified in the present position of things. But the Committee think the object aimed at may be attained by the establishment of Agricultural Teacherships in Vernacular Village Schools in the way suggested by Babu Harimohun Banerjee, as it will bring a knowledge of improved Agriculture within easy reach of that class of the community who are directly engaged in the cultivation of the soil, and to whom it is likely to prove of the greatest use and importance.
“By way of supplement to the above arrangement, the Committee would recommend that greater attention may be directed to the study of the physical sciences in the Collegiate Institutions of the country, particularly to the study of those branches of science which are allied to Practical Agriculture. That alone can effectually remove the deep-rooted prejudices which now prevail in the country against Agriculture and the industrial arts generally. Chairs for some of the sciences already exist, and the Professorial staff may be strengthened in such proportion as may be deemed advisable. Each of the Colleges ought further to be supplied with a well furnished Laboratory, which, the Committee are informed, none of the Mofussil Colleges now possess to the desired extent. The Professors will then have opportunities to introduce practical experiments in illustration of the theories they teach.
“Scientific education will not only assist in the alternation of the crops and the renovation of the soil, but it will aid materially in the development of the general resources of the country. Hence it is that the Committee urge the extension of the present arrangements for instruction in science and the direction of the attention of our students in the Colleges to those branches of it which are allied to Practical Agriculture.
“With a view to rear up a body of qualified Teachers, it would be necessary, in the first instance, to provide for their instruction in the Normal Schools, which are now maintained for the training of Village School-masters. A Manual of Practical Agriculture in Bengalee may also be prepared, giving a description of the soils of Bengal, their peculiarities, the means of their improvement or the preservation of their vitality, the crops adapted to the soils, the advantages of drainage and irrigation, the leading principles of practical chemistry; in short, such ideas about Agricultural arrangements and the management of cattle as may be easily comprehensive to the masses, and the practical application of which may be beneficial to the country.[4]
“By thus working at the two ends, that is, with the English Colleges at one end, and the Vernacular Schools at the other, some good, the Committee have reason to believe, may be effected, though they can conceive that improvement to the desired extent must be the work of time.”
In June 1863, an Agricultural class was opened in connection with the Calcutta Normal School, taught by Babu Harimohun Mookerjee, who reported of the studies in July 1867:—
“The pupils of all the three classes of the Normal School are admitted to this class, and are taught through the medium of lectures for an hour twice a week. The subject of study in this class comprises Elementary Botany, Agriculture and Horticulture. The first is taught by lectures only, there being no class book available in Bengalee. The lectures, however, are so framed, and the points discussed are so illustrated by the exhibition of specimens, that the want of a class book is to some extent obviated. Opportunity is also availed of every Saturday to take the more advanced pupils to the Royal Botanical Gardens for practical instruction, both in structural and systematical Botany and Agriculture. The lectures on Horticulture and Agriculture are devoted to the study of soils, the modes of improving them, the manures best suited to this country, the system of propagating and multiplying plants, the effect of climate on vegetation, and such other subjects as are generally included under those heads. In learning these subjects, the boys have the aid of a small treatise published by me, and that of certain manuscript notes which are intended for publication, whenever sufficient encouragement shall offer. These notes treat of the whole subject of Agriculture.”
Adam frequently refers not only to Agricultural, but also to Medical Education through the Vernacular:—
Previous to 1807, from fifty to one hundred native doctors used to attend the native hospital to study the practice there, and introduce it among their countrymen—one of them got so rich as to drive in his carriage.
A Vernacular Medical School of thirty students had previously existed under Dr. Jameson, a knowledge of Hindustani was required, they received eight rupees monthly during their course of three years’ study, and were afterwards posted to civil or military employ, on salaries of twenty or thirty rupees monthly, with pensions; instruction through Hindustani was given on Anatomy, Materia Medica, and Clinical subjects. Dr. Breton, another professor, published various Urdu works on Medical subjects. In 1828, Dr. Tytler was appointed Anatomical lecturer in the Sanskrit College, with a Pundit assistant. The students not only handled the bones of the human skeleton without reluctance, but in some instances themselves performed the dissection of the softer parts of animals—‘an hospital was proposed to be connected with it, as also that the passed pupils should be attached to jails.’
In 1842-43, Dr. Mouat, the Secretary of the Council of Education, circulated a minute stating that, on the ground of the expense of supplying Sub-Assistant Surgeons to the millions of Bengal, it was necessary to have a class trained through the Bengali language, ‘men who would be the only checks on the common vendors of poison:’ to consist of one hundred persons on scholarships of five rupees monthly, trained by two professors selected from the passed students: when their studies were completed, to be located at their own choice at thannas, ‘thus increasing tenfold the usefulness of the Medical College, by bringing the blessings of European medicine to the hearths and homes of the opprest in remote stations, where Government dispensaries could not be established, and thus forming a special medical Police.’ The Council of Education cordially agreed with the plan. Ram Komal Sen, noted for this Oriental scholarship, proposed in 1844 Rupees 1,000 as a prize for the best translation into Bengali of a treatise on Anatomy, Materia Medica, and the treatment of the principal diseases prevalent in India. In his proposal the Babu stated instruction must be given through the Vernacular; the natives studying through an English medium, ‘have neither time, nor disposition, nor means to communicate to their countrymen the knowledge they possess.’
In January 1852, Lord Dalhousie, on the proposal of the Bengal Government and the Professor of the Medical College, passed the following Resolution:—
“The President in Council observes that hitherto the stations and Hospitals in Bengal as well as the North-Western Provinces and Punjab have been supplied with Native Doctors from the Hindustani class in the Medical Colleges, but that, with extension of Territory and augmentation in the number of Medical Institutions, &c., the demand tor Native Doctors has considerably increased. To supply this demand, it is proposed to establish a Bengalee class of Native Doctors at the Medical College at a cost of Rupees 605, as noted on the margin.”
| Present. | Now sanctioned. | Increase. | |||
| Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | |||
| Teacher of Anatomy and Dissections | . . . | 200 | 250 | 50 | |
| Teacher of„ Medicine | . . . | . . . | 150 | 150 | |
| Teacher of„ Surgery | . . . | . . . | 150 | 150 | |
| 1 | Servant | . . . | . . . | 5 | 5 |
| 50 | Stipendiary students at Rupees 5 each | . . . | . . . | 250 | 250 |
| Total per mensem | . . . | . . . | . . . | 605 | |
| Or per annum | . . . | . . . | . . . | 7,260 |
This class has been a great blessing in the villages of Bengal, affording Medical aid to numbers for low fees; it has been a pecuniary success; some of the ex-students make by fees as much as 400 Rupees per month, and are the only parties calculated to remedy the enormous evils inflicted by the kobiraj or native doctor, the source of death to thousands.
In the last Report of the Bengali Class of the Medical College, Dr. Chevers, Principal of the Medical College, states:—
“160 students remained over from the previous year, 97 were admitted into the Licentiate class, and 47 into the Apothecary class, giving a grand total of 304 students at the commencement of the session, against 242 at the beginning of the previous session. This shows an increase of 62, and may be regarded as an index of the popularity of this class among our students and the native community.
“Of the 144 new admissions nine of the Licentiate and 10 of the Apothecary class students, or 19, were stipendiaries on 5 Rupees per mensem; 18 Members of the Licentiate class were vernacular out scholarship-holders; 7 Licentiate class and 6 Apothecary class students, or 13, were free students; 63 of the Licentiate class and 31 of the Apothecary class, or 94 in all, were paying students.”
There are 94 students who pay. Government has lately established a Native Professor of Midwifery for them, and each student pays a fee of one rupee monthly for the instruction.
There is a Hindustani vernacular class in the Medical College which was established many years ago for students designed for the Army; there are 104 Musalmaus and 15 Hindoos studying in it.
The limits assigned to this introduction prevent our entering on the recent subjects of night schools and normal schools for the training of gurus, of the working of the circle system of schools, and above all of the important subject of female education which has taken firm root in the native mind. Babu Bhudev Mookerjee, one of the Inspectors, is now working out a plan for a class of boys, schools which may be attended by girls up to a certain age.
The course of vernacular education owes much to the labors of Babu Bhudev Mookerjee who organised and worked successfully the normal school at Hugly mainly on the principle of oral instructioitountr, pupils taking copious notes of the lectures. For his labors in connection with guru schools, female education, see the Education Report, for 1865-66, 1866-67, and 1868, Howell’s and Monteath’s Notes on Education.
Night Schools have been introduced in connection with the patshalas for the instruction of adult day laborers as well as for those children who work in the day, but can attend only in the evening. The gurus are paid one rupee for every five pupils evincing due progress. Babu Bhudev Mookerjee has 250 night schools under him, attended by about 4,500 pupils, in Burdwan, Bancoora, Midnapore, Murshudabad, Jessore, and Nuddea Districts; the pupils are allowed to pay their fees in cash or kind or labor.
Girls’ classes were started in 1866, in schools in which the girls attend the classes along with the boys; at the close of March there were 2,500 girls connected with those classes.Sir J. Grant’s plan in 1861 of giving rewards to old gurus has been modified; the gurus are selected now by the villagers and sent to the Normal Schools; after receiving certificates they go back to their villages and are paid by fixed salaries, subject to reduction in case of their pupils not progressing. The people choose their own gurus; last year the Government paid 25,000 rupees in stipends, the people paying 31,000 rupees. These schools are supplied with maps made by their own gurus; each guru after receiving his certificate remains a fortnight at the normal school to draw the maps of Asia, India, Bengal, and the World.
In 1863 a plan had been begun of establishing three Normal Training Schools to provide village school-masters for their zillahs; the opening of patshalas under the teachers trained in these schools commenced at the beginning of 1864, and the beginning of 1868 has provided for the system 1,125 patshalas and 33,831 pupils.
The statistics of Government vernacular education up to March 1867 in Bengal exhibit the following:—
There are 23 Government normal vernacular schools having 1,224 students on the rolls, and 3 private normal schools under inspection containing 129 pupils.
| Pupils under Vernacular instruction. | Schools. | Pupils. | ||
| Government middle class | . . . | . . . | 112 | 6,865 |
| Government„ lower class„ | . . . | . . . | 84 | 3,262 |
| Receiving allowances. | ||||
| Vernacular middle class | . . . | . . . | 195 | 7,771 |
| Vernacular„ lower class„ | . . . | . . . | 1,037 | 29,666 |
| Native girls | . . . | . . . | 60 | 894 |
| Under inspection. | ||||
| Vernacular middle class | . . . | . . . | ⟨48⟩ | 1,725 |
| Vernacular„ lower class„ | . . . | . . . | 277 | ⟨6,970⟩ |
| Native girls | . . . | . . . | 24 | 363 |
Such is what has been done, among the things which remain to be done the following deserve consideration:
As one way of meeting the objection that if a boy goes to school he is not fit for the plough, some knowledge of agricultural instruction ought to be communicated in a popular way through class books which ought to be read in schools, and prizes ought to be awarded for proficiency in them; this is done with success in Ireland; peasant boys exhibiting a taste for the study might be sent to an institution which is greatly needed for training gardeners and agriculturists; at present enormous sums of money are wasted in importing valuable plants which the present race of gardeners do not know how to train up.1. While the pupils of English Schools have before them the prospects of a great number of prizes in the rich and numerous situations in every department opened to those who know English, Vernacular students have none of this, and even the order of Lord Hardinge of 1844, that in all Government situations and even in the lowest the man that can read or write should have the preference over one who could not, has remained to this day a dead letter.
2. The Grant-in-aid Rules requiring a contribution of help from the people is not applicable to Bengal, where the mass of the people have not the ability nor the willingness to contribute.
W. G. Young, Esquire, the first Director of Public Instruction in Bengal, in 1865, wrote as follows on this subject:—
“That this system (of grants-in-aid), viewed as a means of disseminating education among the masses of the people of Bengal, has failed, and that unless the present rules be modified and the conditions on which grants are given be relaxed, it must continue to fail, is, I believe, the unanimous opinion, not only of the Inspectors and myself, but of every one practically engaged or interested in the work of popular education; and I may perhaps venture to add that this is also, I believe, the opinion of His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor.”
Mr. Hodgson Pratt, Inspector of Schools, South Bengal, bore similar testimony:—
“I do not see how it is possible for Government with this fact before them to come to any other conclusion than that their measures have failed, and that the education and elevation of the mass of the population cannot possibly be effected so long as Government limits its assistance by the terms and conditions laid down in the Grant-in-aid Rules. It appears to me that such rules are out of place in a country where the value of Education is utterly unfelt by the mass of the people, for the rules presume the highest appreciation of the value of Education, based as they are on the supposition that the people of this country are so desirous of an improved description of instruction, that they will actually pay, not only Schooling fees, but contributions from their private resources: why, this would be too much to expect in scores of places in England, with a civilisation which has been ever steadily growing for centuries, and where the people are blessed with the advantages that race and religion can confer.“
Mr. H. Woodrow, Inspector of Schools, Eastern Bengal, wrote as follows:—
“In these Districts grants-in-aid for Anglo-Vernacular Schools will probably succeed, but they have failed, and will utterly fail, for purely Vernacular Schools.”
Lord Stanley’s Education Despatch gives the following summary of the opinion formed by Mr. T. C. Hope, of the Bombay Civil Service, “the active and intelligent Educational Inspector of the Guzerat Division.”
“That officer has described, in strong terms, the discouragement and loss of time sustained by him in his attempts to secure the voluntary consent of the people to the establishment of Schools under the grant-in-aid system, and the disappointment which frequently ensues on finding that, when the requisite consent has with difficulty been obtained, persons who have acquiesced in the measure have drawn back from their engagement on being called on for the payment of their subscriptions.”
The present Director of Public Instruction in Bengal thus shows the want of permanence in aided Schools after they have been established:—
“It may be useful here to record that from March 1855, when the grant-in-aid system was first brought into operation, down to the 30th April 1862, a period of seven years, the number of Schools for which monthly grants were sanctioned amounted to 479, and that during the same period no fewer than 162 of this number, or nearly 34 per cent, of the whole, were from time to time abolished. This statement may be taken as a fair indication of the great instability of Schools under private management, which depend for their support on a source of income so precarious as monthly subscriptions.”[5]
3. Cheap Books are still a crying want: Babu Bhudev Mookerjee in the last report only echoes a general feeling when he states:—
4. There is a danger in Bengal of the following clause of the Education Despatch of 1854 being forgotten:—“A series of cheap elementary works for the use of our Patshalas is a standing desideratum. The prices of books hitherto in use have been considerably increased, and it is apprehended that the poorer classes of our countrymen, for whom these institutions are especially intended, can ill afford to purchase them. In the course of my inspection, I visited villages inhabited chiefly by the agricultural classes of the people. On addressing them for the establishment of Patshalas in their villages I heard it stated in several instances by them that the system of instruction of which I talked was too expensive to serve their purpose, that the purchase of books formed a great part of the expense of a School education, and that the means within their reach were too limited to procure it for their children. There was certainly much truth in what they said, and the only way to render our Patshalas suitable to the wants of those for whom they are intended, is to introduce a series of cheap books. The price of the first Book of Reading ought never to exceed half an anna, while that of tho last should always be within two annas.”
"The Government Schools and Colleges, whether high or low, should be regarded not as permanent institutions, but only as a means for generating a desire and demand for education, and as models meanwhile for imitation by private institutions. In proportion as the demand for education in any given locality is generated, and as private institutions spring up and flourish, all possible aid and encouragement should be afforded to them, and the Government, in place of using its power and resources to compete with parties, should rather contract and circumscribe its own measures of direct education, and so shape its measures as to pave the way for the ultimate abolition of its own Schools.
“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 the urgent question at present is money.
Twenty-three Normal Schools, and an ample supply of school books are available. The main difficulty in Bengal now is a pecuniary one—funds. £200,000, according to the estimate of the Director of Public Instruction, have been applied for, to organise a system of Vernacular Education, and it is calculated that £480,000 will ultimately be requisite for the maintenance of 40,000 Patshalas or Village Schools in Bengal; the present expenditure mainly for high Education being about £160,000.
But how is this expense to be met?
It has been shown by Howell in his Note on Education that Government cannot increase the grant to education in Bengal from Imperial Revenues without taxing other and poorer parts of India for Bengal, whose rich plains can yield much to the Imperial Revenue. The Education Authorities, prior to the Despatch of 1859, advocated a local cess for education; it was then suggested as feasible by the Home Government, it has been justified on this ground. "If, therefore, it is essential, even to the material advancement, and to the true prosperity of the people, that the general bulk of the village population should receive education, and the General Revenues of the State cannot bear the cost, it is not unfair that the share of the produce of the land left with the proprietor should bear the burden of the cost, and this, the rather, because the persons who directly benefit are almost wholly agriculturists. That as the impost is levied mainly for the benefit of the agricultural population, it may most fairly be levied upon the land. That the cess, when so imposed, though in every sense a true tax, and although levied by the same machinery and from the same source as a land tax, is equally in every sense distinct and separate from it.” Mr. Laing, the Financial Minister, propounded the principle in his Budget Speech for 1861-62, when he said—
“If this great empire is ever to have the roads, the Schools, the local Police, and the other instruments of civilization which a flourishing country ought to possess, it is simply impossible that the Imperial Government can find either the money or the management.”
the principle is being adopted throughout India with success; in Scind the people see the advantages it brings with it; the working of the Bombay cess system is thus described in the Directors’ Report for 1865-66:—
“One main cause of the School extension, now taking place in Western India, has been the institution of a local cess for educational purposes in 12 Collectorates of the Presidency, viz., Ahmedabad, Surat, Kaira, Khandeish, Sattara, Tanna, Poona, Rutnagherry, Belgaum, Dharwar, Canara, and Kulladghee. This cess having been imposed at a time of great agricultural prosperity, appears not to have been unpopular with the people. The Educational Inspectors report on it as follows:—
“That this cess is popular with the people, and that they recognise the advantages to be derived from its judicious administration, would appear from the fact that, in several places where it has not hitherto been levied, the people have come forward and volunteered to pay it. This has been the case in some villages of the Nusserapoor Talooka of the Tanna Collectorate, and in several detached villages of the Poona Collectorate.
“This year we have had the full benefit of the local cess, which has enabled us to open a large number of Vernacular Schools, and to erect School-houses in places where they were most urgently required, as mentioned above. The cess is, I believe, paid willingly, and the people appear to be fully alive to the benefits to be derived from it; and from the large increase in the number of scholars, it is evident that they are determined to avail themselves of its benefits to the utmost.’”
In Bombay one of the Inspectors, Mr. Russel, reports—
“The cess operations have already begun to bring the subject of popular education before both the masses and their rulers in a somewhat difierent and clearer light than before. The people are beginning to look on Schools as necessary popular institutions, and not merely as a part of the administrative machinery of a foreign government, with which they have little or no concern. The cess-payers now want something in return for their money, and the school attendance of the agricultural classes is increasing. The troublesome and precarious resource of ‘popular contributions’ for schoolmasters’ salaries is dispensed with, since the levy of the cess (but the people are too apt to think that the cess is sufficient for all their school requirements, or, at least, to allege this as a ground for refusing further local contributions, even when urgently needed). Another good effect of the cess is the good example it sets to Inamdars, Jagheerdars, &c., and their people, who see its operations, however humble at present, in the neighbouring British territory. For instance, I and my deputies have been asked by the people of non-government villages to get the School cess levied for them.”
Mr. Curtis, another Inspector, states as follows:—
“The local cess continues popular, and from the numerous petitions received from the people for schools and school-houses, it seems that they are determined to receive the full benefit of the money they contribute towards the extension of Education. In many places where new school-houses, erected from Local Funds, were used for the first time, the people raised subscriptions to feast the pupils, and made the day one of rejoicing; and this without any hint from our Department. The sum of Rupees 428 in nine places in the Surat Collectorate alone was subscribed and spent in this manner. “The expenditure of the local cess has been strictly limited to meeting (in the first place) the wants of the people for Vernacular, or as we call it, Primary Education. And the operation of this rule is most salutary. The money collected has been expended on the sort of schools required by the class of people (the cultivators) by whom it was subscribed. And the result has been to infuse into this class, for the first time, some interest in Education. I have been struck, when travelling in the country districts, by the large proportion of the sons of cultivators to be found in every Village School. The people, as a rule, look upon the local Educational cess as a voluntary contribution; they feel a certain amount of pride and pleasure in it, and are apparently eager in looking for advantages to be derived from it.”
The proposed local cess is new in Bengal, but the emergency is pressing, as Sir F. J. Halliday, late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, in his celebrated Minute on Police and Criminal Justice in Bengal, observes:—
“While the mass of the people remain in their present state of ignorance and debasement, all laws and all systems must be comparatively useless and vain. Above all things that can be done by us for this people is their gradual intellectual and moral advancement through the slow but certain means of a widely spreading popular system of vernacular education.”
Mr. Murdoch, in his pamphlet on National Education in India, assigns the following as special grounds why mass education is necessary:—
On the effect of Elementary Schools in improving the habits of the pupils, the Director of Public Instruction in the Punjab remarks:— Effects of Schools on habits of boys.“1. To protect them from oppression. The brutish ignorance of the ryots counteracts the best efforts of the higher authorities to shield them from injustice. They are subjected to illegal exactions from Zemindars, petty Government Officers, and the Police. The last have been ‘modelled and re-modelled,’ but with little improvement.
“All are agreed that the primary duty of Government is to afford protection. This seems impossible in India, unless the people are, in some measure, educated.
“2. To prevent absurd alarms endangering the peace of the country. H. Carre Tucker, Esquire, C. B., in his letter to Lord Stanley, gives the following illustrations of the manner in which the people are a prey to the most foolish rumours: ‘A report that Government intended to boil them down for their fat cleared Simlah of hill men! A clever rogue in Goruckpoor is said to have made his fortune by preceding Lord Hastings’ Camp as purveyor of fat little children for the Governor General’s breakfast!’ In 1862 miscreants in Oude levied contributions in villages, pretending that they had been ordered by Government to set them on fire. Had the sepoys received a sound education, the Mutiny would not have occurred.
“3. To promote sanitary reform. India is generally supposed to be the birth-place of that fell disease, cholera, which has more than once carried devastation round the globe. Rich and poor are equally ignorant of the laws of health. Open drains, reeking with filth, often surround the mansions of native millionaires. The annual mortality from preventible causes is frightful.
“4. To ‘develope the resources’ of the country, and improve the social condition of the people. As the brutes are governed by instinct, so the masses of India blindly follow custom. In most cases, it is a sufficient reason for the rejection of any proposal, however much adapted to benefit them, that their ancestors never did such a thing. Education would do much to call forth the enormous latent wealth of India.
“5. To elevate the people intellectually, morally, and religiously. Other considerations affect only this life; the reasons now urged are lasting as eternity.”
“In some districts the effect of Government Vernacular Schools on the manners and habits of the boys is very remarkable. In 1858-59, when many of these Schools were first established, the widest reports were circulated, and it was asserted that Government, after collecting all the little boys, intended to send them down to Calcutta with some ulterior object that was not clearly explained, but in a short time the scholars were ready to come in from any distance for an examination. When the discipline maintained in a district is good, all the boys who appear at an examination are neat and clean in their persons, and are provided with every requisite, such as paper, pens, ink, &c., &c. This is particularly the case in the Loodhianah District (where the standard of education in Village Schools also is unusually high), and is to be attributed to the active supervision of the Chief Mohurir. The effect produced by many of our Village Schools in teaching habits of neatness, order and cleanliness to the rural population is of great importance.”
In Bengal, where the educated and upper stratum of Native Society is practically indifferent to the education of the masses, it is the more incumbent on the State to take up the interests of that dumb animal the ryot,—the peace of the country is at stake. On the question of mass education, and the social elevation which must be its result, depends to a great extent the contentment of the people, the purging the Courts from bribery by an enlightened public opinion, the development of the agricultural and commercial resources of India.
On the other hand, its neglect must bring on what Sir J. Key Shuttleworth, the great English Educationist, has so well stated: “The sure road to socialism is by a prolongation of the contrasts between luxury and destitution; vast accumulations and ill-rewarded toil; high cultivation and barbarism; the enjoyment of political privileges, and the exclusion from all rights by ignorance or indigence.”
J. LONG.
Calcutta, July 30, 1868.
- ↑ The First Report of the Calcutta Corresponding Committee, pp. 7, 10.
- ↑ There were in the Kasipore Circle three Schools with an average attendance of 220 boys; in the Tallygunj Circle seven Schools and 550 pupils; in the Howrah Circle six Schools and 652 pupils as an average daily attendance. There was a Guru to each, while the Pundit and Superintending Missionary visited the Schools by turns. Scripture, Grammar, Geography and Natural Philosophy were taught Each School cost Rupees 15 monthly; the Guru was paid according to the number and proficiency of the scholars in the first four classes.
- ↑ Mr. Woodrow.
The Reverend J. Long.
Baboo Rajendrolall Mittra. - ↑ Note.—There are already two good books in Bengalee on this subject, the Krishi pât and Krishi Darpan.
- ↑ Respecting grants-in-aid being liable to fraud, the following cases have occurred in Bengal in Schools under native management:—
“A master complains that his salary has not been paid. On enquiry, his receipt in full is handed to the Inspector. The signature is admitted to be genuine, but the Master asserts that it was forced from him by a threat of dismissal, and maintains, sometimes certainly with justice, that he has not received his due, or, perhaps, rather than lose his situation, he consents to give his name as a monthly subscriber of a comparatively large amount, sometimes a third of his entire pay, and only receives the difference between his nominal salary and his equally nominal subscription. In some few cases the accounts submitted to the Inspector have proved altogether imaginary. Fees, subscriptions, and subscribers alike, though carefully entered in detail, existed only in paper, the Government grant being made to cover the whole expense of the School. Serious irregularities of this kind were in several instances reported to Government in former years, and the grants were in consequence annulled, a punishment which fell exclusively on the unfortunate children, and did not touch the real culprits.”
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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