Article

Decay of Village Indian Historical Review

38(1) 119–137

Community and the © 2011 ICHR

SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
Decline of Vernacular New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
Education in Bihar and DOI: 10.1177/037698361103800106
http://ihr.sagepub.com
Bengal in the Colonial Era:
A Sociological Review∗

Hetukar Jha
Former Professor of Sociology, Patna University, Bihar, India

Abstract
Indigenous elementary schools were in a flourishing state in thousands of villages of
Bihar and Bengal until the early decades of the nineteenth century. They were village
institutions, maintained by village people, where their children (belonging to all caste
clusters and communities) used to receive education and training relevant to the
pursuit of their future occupations. Village community and identity quite effectively
operated in many contexts of everyday life. However, the colonial policies in respect
of education and land control adversely affected both the village structure and the
village institutions of secular (elementary) education. The British legal system and the
rise of caste consciousness since the second half of the nineteenth century added
fuel to the fire. Gradually, village as the base of secular identity and solidarity became
too weak to create and maintain its own institution by the end of the nineteenth
century. Simultaneously, the British policy skewed in favour of the filtration theory of
education since 1835, it seems, worked to block to a significant extent the entry into
the middle classes from below.

Keywords
Village school, filtration theory of education, varta, raiyat.

Since the beginning of colonial rule, steps and measures began to be taken for estab-
lishing new mechanisms and institutions for facilitating the existence and prosperity of
colonial power in India. Following the promulgation of zamindari system (in 1793) old

∗Revised version of this paper was presented at the conference on ‘Social Consciousness and Culture in
Modern India’ sponsored by Centre for Studies in Civilizations, India International Centre, New Delhi,
27–28 February 2006.
120 Hetukar Jha

agrarian structure gradually began to be radically changed. The status of raiyat (peasant
proprietor of pre-colonial days) was reduced to that of mere tenant. Intermediaries
(zamindars) became permanent controllers of land whose administrative activities and
policies facilitated the emergence of money-lending group as the richest class in the
society.1 Gradually the old structure of village was almost completely transformed. Vil-
lage as a community eventually became too weak to overcome the growing power of
the divisive forces of casteism and communalism in the twentieth century.2 Along with
all this, the education policy pursued by the colonial government was also directed
against village institutions of vernacular education, which had been vigorously flourish-
ing since probably Mughal days. However, the relationship between village community
and village school which used to contribute to the working of peasant society and
economy before has, perhaps, received very little attention of the scholars of Indian
history and sociology so far.3 In the present article, an attempt is made to describe the
system of vernacular education which existed as a part of village structure and, then,
discuss how it gradually disappeared as village community came to lose its force and
become disintegrated in the nineteenth century due to the policies and measures taken
by the colonial authorities.
Indigenous elementary or vernacular schools were flourishing until the first few
decades of the nineteenth century. William Adam conducted a survey of such schools in
Bengal during the 1830s. According to his estimate, about one lakh vernacular schools
existed at that time in the villages of Bengal and Bihar.4 In this context, Rev. F.E. Keay
wrote on the basis of evidence furnished by British Indian records and British officials
that

[T]here was … before the British Government took over the control of education in India, a
widespread, popular, indigenous system. It was not confined to one or two provinces, but was
found in various parts of India, though some districts were more advanced than others. In the
inquiry made for the Madras Presidency in 1822–26, it was calculated that rather less than
one-sixth of the boys of school-going age received education... In the similar inquiry made
for the Bombay Presidency (1823–28), the number of boys under instruction was put down
to about one in eight...5

1
For example, in Bihar, by 1870s and 1880s, almost all big zamindaris were running into debt. The money-
lending kothis of Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Patna, etc., were earning highest income in the entire region. See
Jha, Mithila in the Nineteenth Century: Aina-i-Tirhut of Bihari Lal ‘Fitrat’, pp. 167–281.
2
Mukherjee, The Dynamics of a Rural Society, p. 14.
3
K.N. Panikkar writes in this context that ‘...almost all discussions on educational progress in India do not
take into account the indigenous system of educatin...’. See Percival Spear, Culture, Ideology and Hegemony,
p. 47; A History of India, one of the most widely used textbooks. But, it does not contain any account of
village schools. Tara Chand describes the existence of these schools on the basis of William Adam’s reports
and observes that education imparted through such institutions was ‘narrow’, see History of the Freedom
Movement in India, pp. 302–04.
4
Basu, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838) by William Adam, p. 7.
5
Keay, Ancient Indian Education, p. 107, quoted in Rai, Unhappy India, p. 26.

Indian Historical Review, 38, 1 (2011): 119–137

Decay of Village Community and the Decline of Vernacular Education 121

A.P. Howell writing about education in India before 1854 on the basis of First Education
Dispatch of the Court of Directors of the East India Company (1814) and other relevant
documents mentioned that

There is no doubt that from time immemorial indigenous schools have existed... In Bengal
alone, in 1835, Mr Adam estimated their number to be 100,000; in Madras, upon an inquiry
instituted by Sir Thomas Munro in 1822, the number of schools was reported to be 12,498,
containing 188,650 scholars; and in Bombay, about the same period, schools of a similar
order were found to be scattered all over the Presidency.6

It is thus clear that indigenous elementary schools existed in most of the regions
of India until about the 1830s. There must have been variations in their structures due
to regional and cultural differences. But, the prevalence of some common elements
among them cannot be ruled out since all these institutions were recognised in different
regions by different British officers and observers as ‘indigenous schools’ of elementary
education for village children. So, one can derive at least some ideas regarding their
common structural aspects from different historical accounts available today. In this
context, according to Edward Hall, for an anthropologist, it is necessary to have data or
information regarding the following: content of learning, the way learning was organ-
ised, the institutional setting, language used, etc.7
As far as the content of learning is concerned, generally agricultural accounts, com-
mercial accounts and some vernacular works were taught in local/regional languages.
For example, in the Magadh belt of Bihar some Hindi books such as Dan Lila, Sudama
Charita, Ram Janam based on the Ramayana of Tulsi Das were used.8 In Bengal, the
contents of instruction were the same as mentioned earlier. But, the vernacular works
and the medium of instruction were Bengali. Similarly, in the north-eastern part of
Tirhut, the contents of vernacular works and the medium of instruction were ‘Tirhutia’
(Maithili).9 It is significant to note that neither Sanskrit nor Persian/Arabic books were
used for teaching in these schools. Only the books available in vernaculars were in-
cluded in the syllabus. The prevalence of vernacular education in all the presidencies
in the early nineteenth century indicates that it was a well-institutionalised system. Its
institutionalisation at such a massive scale must have taken a long time of Indian his-
tory before the beginning of colonial era.
Regarding the clientele of this education, William Adam observed that ‘Commercial
accounts ... are chiefly acquired by the class of money-lenders and retail traders, agri-
cultural accounts ... by the children of those families whose subsistence is exclusively
drawn from the land, and both accounts by those ... who expect to gain their livelihood
as writers, accountants, etc.’10 Village schools, thus, used to impart such training to the
6
Howell, Education in British India Prior to 1854, and in 1870–71, quoted in Rai, Unhappy India, p. 32.
7
See Hall, Beyond Culture, p. 206, quoted in Hagen, Indigenous Society, The Political Economy and
Colonial Education in Patna District, p. 384.
8
See Basu, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal, p. 245.
9
Ibid., pp. 221–48, 252.
10
Ibid., pp. 251–52.

Indian Historical Review, 38, 1 (2011): 119–137

122 Hetukar Jha

children of peasants, artisans, craftsmen and traders that prepared them for carrying on
the activities of their respective occupations, in future.
According to R.S. Sharma, ‘corporate unity’ of ‘village community’ became visible
since early medieval era. He writes: ‘At least for four centuries or so from the sixth
century onwards, this sense of “belongingness” was strengthened by the blending
of agriculture and handicrafts.’11 Village as a community gradually grew to be quite
strong. The harmonious combination of agriculture and handicrafts gave rise to the
emergence of ‘self-possessing, self-working and self-sufficient peasants within the vil-
lage community system’.12 Such a class of peasantry, according to Ramkrishna
Mukherjee, also included ‘traders and the more or less self-sufficient and self-working
artisans who owned their means of production and whose dominant role in society was
to produce by employing their own labour’.13 The structure of village community was
chiefly constituted by this class in pre-British era.14 The community had its own strong
internal arrangement. Mukherjee contends in this context that

Indeed, so much was the ... strength of the village community system that although new
forces had begun to emerge in society from about the fifteenth century in order to break
through the institution, they could not ... do away with it even by the middle of the eighteenth
century.15

Due to the predominance of the (said) one class, perhaps, the village community was
quite consolidated in spite of having caste heterogeneity. A number of bhakti move-
ments and other anti-varna/jati forces had been working in the society since medieval
age.16 Consequently, perhaps, as Nicholas Dirks writes, ‘the units of social identity had
been multiple ... Caste was just one category among many others... Regional, village...
kinship groups, factional parties, chiefly contingents ... could supersede caste as a
ruberic for identity’ (emphasis added).17 So, it seems that the force of village community
was so strong that it contained or undermined effectively any divisive or antagonistic
relationship based on caste or factional consideration.
According to Irfan Habib, village used to have a panchayat with considerable au-
thority, its own fund of money (collective fund) for expenditure at the time of damming
water channels in the village and its own land (waste land and pasture, etc.) which were
most probably used as common property resources by the villagers.18 The strength of
such a sociological reality of village was, it seems, taken to be quite striking by the
British observers and authorities as well in the beginning decades of colonial rule.

11
Sharma, Early Medieval Indian Society, p. 229.
12
Mukherjee, The Dynamics of a Rural Society, p. 27.
13
Ibid., p. 14.
14
Ibid., p. 26.
15
Ibid., p. 21.
16
For details in this context, see Jha, ‘Who Created Casteism and Communalism? Hinduism under the
Raj’.
17
Dirks, Castes of Mind, p. 13.
18
See Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India, pp. 149–55.

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Decay of Village Community and the Decline of Vernacular Education 123

Thomas Munro reported in 1806 that every village was a kind of ‘little republic’
and the Fifth Report of 1812 quoted him ‘liberally in an endorsement of the view that
village government had been in place from time immemorial’.19 Mark Wilks wrote
in 1810 about the continuity and vigour of the autonomy of internal management of
village by villagers in spite of the changes of imperial dynasties and rulers from time
to time.20 Considering different historical records and reports of the British authorities
of early nineteenth century in this context, James Ray Hagen contends that village
‘operated off itself, that is, physical and moral control was enforced from within rather
than dependent on higher level of imperial authority’.21 The observations of Jonathan
Duncan, Colonel Sleeman and others also endorse this view of the nature of village in
pre-British India.22
Considering the aforementioned accounts, one may contend that village structure
before British rule was chiefly constituted by the peasants (who were owners of their
lands and who themselves cultivated their lands), traders and artisans. There was more
or less an autonomous system (sort of panchayat) for the management of internal
affairs. Village entity implicitly or explicitly worked as, perhaps, the chief context of
their everyday life. Agriculture was the chief occupation in the village. Besides, there
were also traders and artisans. Here, however, some important questions arise: How did
peasants and others continue to carry on their respective occupational activities from
generation to generation? What was the mechanism of the transmission of the know-
ledge required for performing such activities? Which institution existed in village to
impart any training for supporting the system of agriculture, trade and manufacturing
that prevailed in the rural areas before the nineteenth century?
It is difficult to find out any categorical answer to these questions since field-view
history of rural societies is still largely unexplored. However, according to Eugen
Weber, a fruitful source of understanding the minds and feelings of rural people may
be found in their songs, dances, proverbs, tales, etc.23 Of all these, proverbs define
the rules and structure that society sets for individuals, fashion their mentalities, help

19
See Dirks, Castes of Mind, pp. 28–29.
20
See Kessinger, Vilayatpur 1848–1968, p. 26.
21
Hagen, Indigenous Society, The Political Economy and Colonial Education in Patna District, p. 202.
22
Jonathan Duncan’s report is quoted by Bernard Cohn in ‘From Indian Status to British Contract’, pp. 467–
68; Colonel Sleeman’s observations have been included by Max Muller in India: What Can It Teach Us,
pp. 45–57; also see Charlesworth, Peasants and Imperial Rule, pp. 23–25. Regarding the settlement of
disputes by village elders or panchayat, Mountsturat Elphinstone wrote:

[T]he intimate acquaintance of the members with the subject in dispute, and in many cases with the
characters of the parties, must have made their decisions frequently correct; and it was an advantage
of incalculable value in that mode of trial that the judges, being drawn from the body of the people,
could act on no principles that were not generally understood, a circumstance which, by preventing
uncertainty and obscurity in law, struck at the very root of litigation.

See Forrest, G.W., Selections from the Minutes and Other official Writings of the Hon. Mountstuart
Elphinstone, p. 355, quoted in Chand, History of Freedom Movement in India, pp. 271–72.
23
See Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, p. XII.

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124 Hetukar Jha

them in constructing their identities and regulate their relationships with their fellow
men/women, their lands, occupations, etc.24 Considering these functions of proverbs,
one may assume that those (proverbs) which relate to agricultural operations served
the need of guiding and educating the peasants for conducting efficiently the activities
of agricultural production. Such proverbs existed in the rural areas of almost all the
regions in large number. For example, John Christian who collected more than 500
proverbs from the rural areas of Bihar in the last decade of the nineteenth century
found not less than 70 of them constituting a stock of knowledge used by peasants
in different seasons and contexts of agricultural operations.25 Similarly, there are not
less than 70 Dak proverbs which have been in circulation in north India since at least
medieval period.26 However, proverbs were not enough to serve their need for keeping
and maintaining the agricultural and trade accounts, which formed a necessary part of
agrarian life. Probably, village schools were gradually evolved by the efforts of village
communities themselves for serving the said need of the class of self-sufficient peasant
proprietors, artisans and others who were the chief constituents of the village structure.
It is difficult to say when and exactly how these schools emerged. This issue should be
seriously taken up for historical exploration and inquiry by the scholars interested in
the history and sociology of rural societies. However, an attempt is made here to have
at least a glimpse into the changing conditions of agricultural education since ancient
period.
Agricultural science as a discipline of education was ignored by the elites (who
favoured chiefly the philosophical, literary and other shastras of religious value) since,
perhaps, late ancient or early medieval period. In the ancient period, the subjects relat-
ing to agriculture, cattle-rearing and trade were included in the discipline known as
Varta which was recognised as one of the four Vidyas, namely, Anvikshiki (Sankhya,
Yoga and Lokayata), Trayi (three Vedas), Varta and Dandaniti.27 Upper class people
including those of ruling families used to be educated in these disciplines under the
guidance of experts.28 The gahapatis of different varnas who were constituents of the
upper or elite class not only controlled the land but directly participated in different
agricultural operations.29 But, it seems that as the value of Dharmashastras began to
grow, Lokayata and Varta were gradually ignored. The number of Vidyas that was
four earlier increased to fourteen by the time of Yajnavalkya’s Smriti. But, Varta and
Lokayata were excluded from the list of fourteen Vidyas.30 Buddhist centres of learning
also ignored Varta.31 So far as Lokayata is concerned, Buddha himself is said to have

24
Ibid., p. 420.
25
See Christian, Bihar Proverbs.
26
See Thakur, ‘Maithil Dak’.
27
See Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education, pp. 246–47.
28
Ibid., p. 247.
29
See Chakravarti, The Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism, pp. 65–93.
30
See Yajnavalkya Smriti, Shloka-3.
31
Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education, p. 528.

Indian Historical Review, 38, 1 (2011): 119–137

Decay of Village Community and the Decline of Vernacular Education 125

been against learning it which, according to Pali texts, flourished well in the ancient
period.32 According to K.P. Jayaswal, by the eleventh century AD the influence of
Dharmashastras became so strong that even Dandaniti fell from the favour of elites.33
By the fifteenth century AD, it seems that Vidyas were ordinally grouped in two, upper
and lower, categories.34 The important point to note in this context is that Varta does not
find a place either in the category of upper or in that of lower Vidyas.
Agricultural education, one may thus say, flourished in ancient period when elites
used to directly involve themselves in the cultivation of land (discussed earlier). Later,
elites withdrew themselves completely from agricultural occupations. For the upper
varnas, particularly Brahmanas, even holding a plough was (and is) considered sinful.
And, consequently, perhaps, agricultural education was also ignored. Thus, the upper
(varna) section of society though depending chiefly on agricultural economy neither
considered it desirable to directly participate in agricultural operations, nor did it grant
even a little space to agriculture education in the group of Vidyas. This attitude of the
elites towards the very foundation of their society might have been, perhaps, weakening
the society from within.
It is difficult to say how this kind of change occurred in Indian society. However,
it may be noted that the tradition of Lokayata, concerned with lok (folk), that is, praja
(the masses) who remained subjected to rule from above,35 has been existing since
ancient days according to Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya.36 In Lokayata, agricultural
science (Varta) was considered very important.37 According to Har Prasad Shastri,
Lokayata also includes different tantric cults prevailing among lok, the chief constituent
of the peasant sector of society.38 R.S. Sharma contends in this context that Shudras
and women (of all varnas and caste groups) were prohibited from participating in any
activity based on the Vedic tradition since the days preceding the Mauryan rule.39 As
they were denied any access to the Vedic tradition, they perhaps increasingly came
to the fold of the anti-Vedic tantric cults. Sharma writes while discussing the crisis
of Kaliyug depicted in different puranas and other Sanskrit texts that the period after
third or fourth century AD is marked with intense hostility between Brahmanas and
Shudras.40 Vaishyas and Shudras were ‘engaged in production and payment of taxes
and in supply of surplus labour’ and Kshatriyas and Brahmanas ‘lived on taxes, tributes
and gifts’.41 The clash of the interests of the Brahmanas and Kshatriyas constituting

32
See Chattopadhyaya, ‘The Lokayata System of Thought in Ancient India’.
33
See Jayaswal, ‘Introduction’, The Rajaniti-Ratnakara by Chandesvar.
34
Vidyapati, the famous scholar and Maithili poet of late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, described
these categories in detail. See Jha, Purush Pariksha of Vidyapati Thakur, p. 89.
35
Apte, Sanskrit-Hindi Kosh, p. 884.
36
See Chattopadhyaya, Lokayata, A Study of Ancient Indian Materialism, pp. 1–11.
37
Ibid., p. 72.
38
Ibid., p. 16.
39
See Sharma, ‘Some Joint Notices of Women and Shudra in Early Indian Literature’, p. 31.
40
Sharma, ‘The Kali Age: A Period of Social Crisis’, p. 52.
41
Ibid., p. 51.

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126 Hetukar Jha

the upper class and those constituting lok or the lower class became quite visible since
third or fourth century AD.42 This conflict was, perhaps, reinforced by their conflict-
ing ideological traditions. The upper or elite class adhered to the Vedic tradition and,
therefore, believed in upholding and maintaining Varna ashram order. But others had
practically no option other than following non- or anti-Vedic cults and sects. Sharma
categorically says that tantrism originally belonging to Shakta sect became very well
pronounced in the Shaiva, Vaishnava, Buddhist and Jain sects and ‘generally provided
for the initiation of women and shudras and did not discriminate between the Varnas...
Shudra teachers could initiate sudras and chandalas and could perform sacrifices’.43
Tantric tradition further gained ground following the emergence and spread of Nath
cult.44 So, broadly speaking, two antagonistic traditions, one of Vedic orthodoxy or
Sanatanis, comprising the elite category of Brahmanas and Kshatriyas, and the other of
Lokayata (tantrism), upheld by lok comprising chiefly Shudras, Vaishyas and women
(of all caste groups), continued to flourish parallel to each other since early medieval
period. These two broad traditions in spite of being conflicting with each other might
also have had the relationship of give and take in the course of their co-existence in
society. However, the important point to note is the continuity of hostility between
these two main traditions, particularly the hostility between Brahmanas and Shudras
(discussed before) across centuries. Probably, it was because of this that elite group
ignored and devalued agriculture (the occupation of lok, the followers of Lokayata). A
religious sanction was instituted against participation of elite castes in the processes of
land cultivation. So, perhaps, the accounts of socio-cultural life and institutions of lok
remained mostly unrecorded in the past centuries because the production of shastras
and other writings almost always remained in the hands of those who were hostile to
the interests and world views of lok. Absence of any account of village school in any
Dharmashastra or purana or literary or philosophical work may be due to this reason.
However, it should not be inferred from above that mechanisms of transmission of
knowledge in the village world among the lok did not exist at that time simply because
of the non-availability of any written account in this context. Weber asserts that ‘the
illiterate are not in fact inarticulate; they can and do express their feelings and their
minds in several ways’,45 and can create and maintain their institutions and traditions.
In the Mughal period, particularly during the regime of the emperor Akbar, it
seems that the value of agriculture and peasant proprietor was duly emphasised. An
important duty of a ruler came to be viewed as protecting peasants holding lands for
generations.46 Further, in Mughal India, according to Irfan Habib, ‘...circumstances
dictated that a system of individual Peasant production ... should coexist with the
organization of the village as a “community”’.47 Under Mughal rule, it, thus, seems

42
Ibid., p. 52.
43
See Sharma, ‘Economic and Social Basis of Tantrism’, p. 235.
44
See Dwivedi, Nath Sampradaya, pp. 38–163.
45
Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, p. XII.
46
See Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India 1556–1707, p. 128.
47
Ibid., pp. 144–45.

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Decay of Village Community and the Decline of Vernacular Education 127

that village community gradually became quite strong having bulk of more or less self-
sufficient peasant-proprietors. Besides, the emperor Akbar also gave due attention to
agricultural education. The Ain-i-Akbari records the order of the emperor that ‘every
boy ought to read books on morals, arithmetic, the notation peculiar to arithmetic,
agriculture, mensuration, geometry, astronomy, physiognomy, household matters,
the rules of government, medicine, logic, the tabisi, riyazi and ilahi sciences, and
48
history...’ Moreland writes in this context that ‘some writers have inferred a large
educational development’ in the country following this regulation. However, he does
not accept such a view that implies without any evidence from the field that the said
normative regulation became effective in ‘large educational development’ in the
society.49 Moreland’s stand is quite realistic. But, one can at least consider that a fresh
impetus was given to agricultural education, ‘individual peasant production’ and to
‘the organization of the village’ as a community. Village schools, possibly, emerged as
a result of the continued interaction of these trends in the Mughal era. The discovery
of the schools in early nineteenth century in almost all corners of the country indicates
that it must have taken centuries for the spread and institutionalisation of the system
of this education. However, no written account of this system was, perhaps, prepared
before the British authorities and observers came to record its existence and value. It
seems that the elites, particularly pandits, of the medieval period also continued to
carry on the legacy of their predecessors, ignored the folk world and did not consider it
worthwhile to write and think about folk ways and folk institutions.
It may be mentioned here that initially, in the eighteenth century, according to
Nicholas Dirks, most of the British authors directed their attention to the issues of
military affairs, warfare, negotiation, etc.50 However, as British interest became in-
creasingly concerned with the matters of land revenue, village appeared to them as very
important and its significance along with that of its institutions was duly considered and
highlighted by Thomas Munro, Mark Wilks, Charles Metcalf, etc.51 Simultaneously,
the accounts of the indigenous system of vernacular education existing in the villages
which, according to Ludlow and Leitner, was ‘bound up with village’52 were also
brought to light.
William Adam’s survey of 1835–38 seems to confirm this correlation of village
community and vernacular education. In all the districts (such as Midnapore, Burdwan,
Beerbhum, Tirhut) he intensively surveyed, he found that teachers of village schools
were paid remuneration in both cash and kind by the villagers themselves. The space
for the school was also arranged by the village people.53 He categorically wrote that
‘indigeneous elementary schools ... are those ... in which instruction in the element of

48
The Ain-i-Akbari, Vol. 1, by Abul-Fazl Allami, translated into English by H. Blochmann, edited by
D.C. Phillott, Bibliotheca Indica-61, New Taj Office, Delhi, reprinted 1989, pp. 288–89.
49
See Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, p. 72, Note 1.
50
Dirks, Castes of Mind, p. 20.
51
Ibid., p. 28.
52
See Rai, Unhappy India, pp. 29–32.
53
See Basu, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal, pp. 227–46.

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128 Hetukar Jha

knowledge is communicated, and which have been originated and are supported by the
natives themselves, in contradistinction from those that are supported by religious or
philanthropic societies’ (emphasis added).54 This system of education was, thus, owned
and maintained by the village community. It is in this context that this was an important
institution and part of the civil society in the rural areas.55
Another important feature of this education was that among its consumers all kinds
of castes and communities were represented. Children of Hindus and Muslims together
attended school. The students belonging to upper, intermediate and lower caste clusters
used to sit together for about seven or eight years to receive instruction from gurujee.
Adam recorded the caste and religion of each and every teacher and student of the
schools he surveyed. For example, in the district of south Bihar in Bihar, there were
Muslim as well as Hindu teachers of Kayastha, Magadha, Gandhabanik, Teli, Koiri
and Sonar castes. There were 2,918 Hindu students and 172 Muslim students. The
Hindu students were found to belong to forty-eight caste groups including Dosadh,
Pasi, Musahar, Dhobi, Tanti, Kalawar, Beldar, Goala, Napit, Kahar, Koiri, Kurmi,
Brahman and Kayastha. Similarly, in the district of Beerbhoom (in Bengal) Adam
found Muslim, Hindu as well as Christian teachers. Hindu teachers were more than 400
in number belonging to about 24 castes including Chandal, Dhobi, Tanti, Kaivarta and
Goala. Among students, there were Muslims, Christians, Santhals, Dhangars, Doms,
Chandals, Telis, Byadhas, Yugis, Tantis, Haris, Kurmis, Malis, Brahmanas, Kayasthas,
etc.56 Adam categorically reported in this context that

Parents of good caste do not hesitate to send their children to schools conducted by teachers
of an inferior caste and even of different religion. For instance, the Musalman teacher ... has
Hindus of good caste among his scholars and this is equally true of the Chandal and other low
caste teachers enumerated.’57

He further recorded the following in this connection: ‘the Musalman teachers have
Hindu as well as Musalman scholars and the different castes of the former assemble in
the same school-house, receive the same instructions from the same teacher, and join
in the same plays and pastimes’ (emphasis added).58 Considering all this, James Ray
Hagen in his study of Patna district from 1811 to 1951 asserts that this indigenous
elementary education was ‘most secularized’.59
However, this system of education was virtually forced to gradually become almost
extinct during the colonial regime. In 1835, William Bentinck decided the educa-
tion policy of the East India Company government in favour of English education.
54
Ibid., p. 6.
55
According to Antonio Gramsci, Civil Society includes ‘... the entire complex of social, cultural ... organ-
izations and institutions ... every thing ... that is not part of the state’. See Lawner, ‘Introduction’, Letters
from Prison by Antonio Gramsci, p. 42.
56
See Basu, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal, pp. 227–46.
57
Ibid., p. XI.
58
Ibid., p. 251.
59
Hagen, Indigenous Society, The Political Economy and Colonial Education in Patna District, p. 259.

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Decay of Village Community and the Decline of Vernacular Education 129

Macaulay’s minutes of the 2 February 1835, which influenced Bentinck’s decision,

contained sharp remarks against classical (Sanskrit and Persian/Arabic) education
along with a plea that ‘it is impossible for us with our limited means to attempt to edu-
cate the body of the people...’60 Before Macaulay, Holt Mackenzie, a member of the
General Committee of Public Instruction, had expressed the same view in 1823 that ‘To
provide for the education of the great body of the people seems to be impossible.’61 It
is difficult to understand why did Macaulay or Mackenzie hold such a view regarding
vernacular elementary education? This education did not at all depend for its survival
and maintenance on the support of any external agency or state authority, described
earlier. And, yet, they, and especially Macaulay whose opinion was decisive, asserted
that it was not possible for the Company Government to afford to think in favour
of this education which had been people’s own system of education. It seems that
the colonial authorities found it suitable for their policy to follow the principle of the
filtration theory of education and, therefore, decided in favour of only elitist, urban
based, English education.62
However, the question arises here as to how this education decayed even when it
did not have to depend upon state patronage or aid? In this context, it may be said that
British authorities not only decided their education policy against it but took measures
which began to corrode the base of this education, that is, village. As a result of the
Permanent Settlement of 1793, a class of intermediaries (zamindars) was created as the
owners of lands. Raiyats (peasants) who had been so far enjoying the rights of more or
less permanent occupancy were declared to be mere ‘tenants’ dependent on temporary
lease of land to be granted by zamindars.63 The latter got the power and authority of
using ways and means of ejecting the raiyats as well as enhancing the land rents in their
own interest. In fact, they ‘were ready to stick at nothing to extract the last anna from
the peasantry to ... fill their own pockets’.64 In order to meet the demands of landlords
and maintain their existence, peasants had to borrow money from moneylenders. Their
indebtedness increased enormously as it was not possible for them to pay back the
amount of debt and usurious interests.65 So, eventually they lost their lands to the
landlords/moneylenders and ultimately became sharecroppers or landless labourers.
According to Binay Bhushan Chaudhury, it was a process of depeasantisation that
occurred due to ‘...continuous alienations (mostly in the form of distress sates)’.66
He further contends that ‘the loss of land gradually degraded the peasant owners to
the status of landless agricultural labourers’.67 Ramkrishna Mukherjee writes in this
context that
60
See ‘Extracts from the Minute of the Hon’ble T.B. Macaulay, dated the 2nd February, 1835’, Appendix-4,
included in Jha, Colonial Context of Higher Education in India, p. 145.
61
See Sharp, Selections from Educational Records, pp. 57–60.
62
For details in this context see Jha, Colonial Context of Higher Education in India, pp. 19–36.
63
See James, Final Report on the Survey and Settlement Operations in the District of Patna, p. 33.
64
Ibid., p. 33.
65
See B.H. Baden-Powell, The Origin and Growth of Village Communities in India, pp. 146–48.
66
Chaudhury, Binary Bhushan, ‘The Process of Depeasantization in Bengal and Bihar’.
67
Ibid.

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130 Hetukar Jha

'[...] With the disintegration of rural industries as a part of the concerted plan to reduce India
into a supplier of raw materials to the British industrialists and a consumer of British manu-
facturers, the pressure on agriculture went on increasing. Eventually, agriculture became
virtually the only source of livelihood to all the people in rural... India...Loss of land, the pri-
mary means of production in the agrarian economy, naturally precluded the possibility to the
rural people to remain as self-possessing, self-working and self-sufficient peasants. But, on
the other hand, there was hardly any other source of income... Therefore, the landless or the
semi-landless peasants were obliged to depend on agriculture...either as wage-labourers or as
sharecroppers. And...the land from these devitalised peasants concentrated in the hands of the
few at the top of society.68

Thus, most of the lands of the village passed to the hands of a few rich moneylenders/
landlords/rich tenants and the rest of the population came to constitute the class of
sharecroppers and landless agricultural labourers. The village that used to be dominated
by the class of peasant-proprietors before, now began to be dominated chiefly by two
classes, one comprising the few rich men at the top and the other of the vast number of
landless agricultural labourers and sharecroppers. It thus underwent structural change.
Besides, the two classes constituting it now displayed antagonistic relationship between
them. Peter Robb writes in this context that ‘By the early 1900s ... population ... without
land or with too little of it ... were exploited by few rich tenants.’69 Under the circum-
stances of the emergence of antagonistic relationship between these two sections, the
village underwent sharp division of the community and consequently the collective
orientation of the villagers was, perhaps, considerably weakened.
Another source of the decay of village community is the Western legal system
established in the beginning of the colonial rule. By the last decade of the eighteenth
century, ‘Civil and criminal jurisdictions came increasingly under the purview of a
graduated court system, conceived on English lines and reaching from the district to
the provincial high court. In such courts ... the elements of Western legal structure and
procedure were increasingly asserted.’70 The British legal system thus began to operate
since the beginning of colonial rule and is still operating after independence. This
system is entirely bureaucratic, formal, removed from rural areas and based in urban
centres. The procedure applied for doing justice is impersonal based on evidence. In
this system, justice is done by declaring that one party has won and the other has
lost the suit. So, it does not resolve the conflict between the two parties; it simply
decides who is the winner and who has lost the case. Conflict is, thus, allowed to
continue between the parties. Besides, this legal system is very costly and only those
who can afford to pay lawyers and other expenses of the court approach it for getting
justice. As this system of the administration of justice began, it was observed that
English courts had encouraged litigousness. These courts began to be used as a ‘way

68
Mukherjee, The Dynamics of a Rural Society, pp. 37–40.
69
Robb, ‘Law and Agrarian Society in India’.
70
Rudolph and Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition, p. 255.

Indian Historical Review, 38, 1 (2011): 119–137

Decay of Village Community and the Decline of Vernacular Education 131

of circumventing the traditional administration of justice’ for promotion of undue

self-interests and also ‘as a weapon of harassment against factional opponents’.71
For the upper, rich section of the rural areas, however, this legal system proved to
be quite beneficial. But, the mass of peasantry suffered a great deal as the British
legal system failed to secure justice to the poor raiyats. For example, one may cite
the case of Maksudpur estate (of the old Gaya district in Bihar) where tenants had
revolted against their zamindar’s oppressive conduct in 1898–99. The report on the
survey and settlement operations conducted in this estate during 1900–04 describes
in detail the oppressive management and the plight of landless agricultural labourers
and other poor tenants.72 In this context, the then Director of Land Records, Bengal,
wrote in 1906 that ‘... the very name of “Maksudpur” became a synonym for tyranny
and oppression throughout the district... (however) Civil and Criminal Courts failed to
secure protection to the rights and property of the tenants’ (emphasis added).73 It is,
thus, obvious that even the British authorities were left in no doubt that the Western
legal system had proved to be thoroughly ineffective in the administration of justice
for the poor villagers. It rather helped in the promotion of the interest of the class of
rich landowners-cum-moneylenders who had antagonistic relationship with the class
of sharecroppers and agricultural labourers, discussed earlier. The gap between the two
sections, thus, further widened.
Besides, this legal system proved instrumental in perpetuating the conflict since it
has no mechanism for resolving the conflict. Conflict in the village is always personal-
ised which, if not resolved, continues for generations. As a result, the village that used
to hold sway over people within its boundary, earlier, became divided in course of time
in factions, engaged in intrigues against one another.74 It may also be pointed out here
that this legal system has contributed significantly to the process of impoverishment
of the rural areas. The courts of justice are situated in urban centres. The resources
of villagers involved in litigation are, thus, drained to pay for the expenses thereof in
urban centres. In the whole process, villages continue to lose their resources, on the one
hand, and increasingly become conflict-ridden, on the other.
Further, the growth of caste consciousness also seems to have affected the village
solidarity adversely. After 1857, following the assumption of power by the British
government to rule the colony, the British interest became focused on how to govern
India effectively and smoothly.75 In this context, obtaining knowledge of the people of
India and their cultures was considered necessary.76 It was at this time that caste, which
in pre-colonial era existed simply as one of the several units of social identity, came

71
Ibid., pp. 261–62.
72
See Coupland, The Final Report on the Survey and Settlement Operations in the Maksudpur Estate in the
District of Gaya 1900–1904, pp. 10–13.
73
See Resolution No. 251, Revenue Department, Land Revenue, Calcutta, the 12th January, 1907, Letter
No. 20528, 11 August 1906, from the Director of Land Records, Bengal.
74
See Jha, Social Structures of Indian Villages, pp. 184–85.
75
See Dirks, Castes of Mind, p. 43.
76
Ibid.

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132 Hetukar Jha

to be regarded by Evangelicals, Utilitarians as well as the British authorities as the

‘foundational fact of Indian society’, that is, the most important social identity,77 and
emerged stronger than ever.78 It (caste) was, therefore, chosen to be ‘the primary object
of social classification and understanding’79 for purpose of obtaining knowledge about
people and their cultures. From 1871–72 decennial census operations were started in
this context. The objective of such operations was, as people began to perceive, to fix
‘the relative status of different castes and to deal with questions of social superiority’.80
S. Bandyopadhyaya in his study of the consequences of census operations took note
of the tremendous rise of caste consciousness since the last quarter of the nineteenth
century.81 As a result of this, perhaps, caste sabhas (associations) began to be formed
by a number of caste groups from 1887 in north India for promoting their respective
caste interests (including securing resources for the promotion of English education
among their respective caste members because English education had begun to be
considered as a sure means of entry to middle class occupations).82 This gave rise to
competition and rivalry between different caste groups. Caste leaders gradually gained
legitimacy through the activities of their respective caste sabhas and began to enjoy
the authority of leading/mobilising the members of their respective caste groups. By
the third decade of the twentieth century, they secured space in the political arena and,
consequently, casteism emerged as a major socio-political force to reckon with in the
democratic era after independence.83 With the rising value of caste, the significance of
village identity was further undermined. Village solidarity is secular by nature. The rise
of caste and/or religious consciousness, it seems, corroded the secular base of social
order in the rural areas. In 1957, Dumont and Pocock made it clear by declaring caste
and kinship most important for understanding Indian social reality and simultaneously
considered village to be of mere secondary value in this context.84
Along with the declining status of village community, the prospect of the emergence
and existence of village school also appeared to be receding. In the early 1840s,
S. Mac lntosh, who was the headmaster of Patna High School, established eleven
schools of vernacular education for the children of rural areas. But soon, all of them
were closed.85 Similarly, Darbhanga raj (a big zamindari of Bihar) also established
schools of vernacular education in twenty-six villages in the1860s. For the maintenance
of these schools an adequate fund was also provided. But all such efforts went in vain.86

77
Ibid., p. 13.
78
Ibid., p. 41.
79
Ibid., p. 43.
80
O’Malley, Census of India 1911, p. 440.
81
See Bandyopadhyay, ‘Construction of Social Categories’, p. 31.
82
See Jha, Early Revolutionary Movement in Bihar, pp. 14–17.
83
See in this context Jha, ‘Caste Conflict in Bihar’; Jha, ‘Who created Casteism and Communalism?
Hinduism Under Raj’.
84
See Dumont and Pocock, ‘Village Studies’, p. 26; Dumont and Pocock, ‘For a Sociology of India’, p. 18.
85
See Jha, Colonial Context of Higher Education in India, p. 45.
86
See Jha, Beginnings of Modern Education in Mithila, pp. XIV–XV.

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Decay of Village Community and the Decline of Vernacular Education 133

In 1870s, the British authorities began ‘annexation of the indigenous system and ....
cultural transformation’ of the primary schools.87 O’Malley mentions the following
in this context: ‘In 1872, Sir George Campbell’s scheme of educational reform was
introduced, under which grants were given in aid of schools hitherto unaided and many
of the indigenous rural schools called pathshalas were absorbed into the departmental
system.’88 Obviously, by this measure the nature of village school as a civil society insti-
tution was to a great extent undermined. However, this policy of annexation pursued
by the government also could not prove to be quite effective in maintaining village
schools. For example, in Patna district during the 1880s, the then Assistant Inspector
of Schools reported that

[...] in many villages, the people could not have a school because the malik had a teacher for
his son and nephew and ... would not admit any others... Another difficulty is the ... way in
which villagers will quarrel about a school and thus bring about its ruin. Some very promising
aided schools have closed owing to this... (emphasis added).89

It is obvious from these accounts that due to the emergence of factions conflicting with
one another for the promotion of sectional interests, losing sight of the interest of the
totality of village community, it became very difficult for village schools (of the old
type) to exist and work. The number of such schools decreased considerably and
became insignificant by the beginning of the twentieth century. For example, in the
district of Patna, there were only about sixty-five such schools during 1910–17, all
having teachers paid by government.90 Considering the number of villages which
existed at that time in the district of Patna, there was only one school for every cluster
of about thirty-six villages. Almost a century ago, there were about 100,000 schools in
about 150,748 villages of Bihar and Bengal.91 Thus, there was one school for every
group of about two villages. It may be noted here that the number of the villages of
Bengal and Bihar in the 1830s cannot be supposed to be quite accurate. Besides, the

87
See Hagen, Indigenous Society, The Political Economy and Colonial Education in Patna District, p. 379.
88
O’Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers, p. 173.
89
Quoted in Hagen, Indigenous Society, The Political Economy and Colonial Education in Patna District,
p. 434.
90
The district of Patna had 2,500 villages during the cadastral survey of Bihar which began to be conducted
from the last decade of the nineteenth century and was completed by the end of the second decade of the
twentieth century. In the course of conducting this survey, the Survey and Settlement Officers also prepared
a detailed note of each village, called ‘village note’, which also includes information regarding educational
institution if any one existed in any village at that time. At the time of perusal of ‘village notes’ of Patna dis-
trict, kept in the records room of the collectorate, the ‘village notes’ of 200 villages were found to be almost
completely destroyed by dust and white ants. So, only 2,300 ‘village notes’ could be consulted. Of these,
only sixty-five ‘village notes’ contained information regarding the existence of village primary school or
pathshala. In each of these sixty-five ‘village notes’, it is mentioned that the school/pathshala was receiving
aid from government.
91
See Basu, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal, p. 7.

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134 Hetukar Jha

situation in respect of vernacular education existing in the villages of Patna district in

the beginning of the twentieth century can hardly be assumed to be representative of
that of all the villages of Bihar and Bengal of the said period. However, one gets a
definite idea of the trend of extinction of village schools by the beginning of the
twentieth century.
The British policy of education that was decided in 1835 by William Bentinck was
inclined in favour of the group of urban elites. According to B.B. Misra, ‘[...] the bene-
fits of the Anglo-Vernacular schools and colleges were circumstantially restricted to
urban centres’. In his dispatch of 19 July 1854, Wood was concerned that although the
country’s rural population contributed the bulk of the public revenues, the efforts of
the government were directed towards ‘providing the means of acquiring a very high
degree of education for a small number of natives of India drawn, for the most part,
from what we should here call the higher classes’.92 Wood advised that the ‘education
of the lower classes should constitute the direct responsibility of the Government’.93
But, it seems that he simply paid a lip-service to the cause of education of lower class
people of rural areas. Misra writes in this context that Wood, in fact, directed the
establishment of universities to ‘do as much as a Government can do to place the
benefits of education plainly and practically before the higher classes in India’ (em-
phasis added).94 This was the thrust of the resolution of 1835 regarding the course of
English education implemented in the country (described earlier). Wood reiterated it
categorically after about fifteen years. Consequently, perhaps, this policy was pursued
so effectively that ‘the higher classes’, that is, the upper section of urban areas virtually
continued to hold monopoly of English education until about the end of colonial rule.
For example, in Bihar, more than 91 per cent of the total number of postgraduate
students of Patna University (which was the only university in Bihar) from 1929 to
1942 belonged to the cluster of upper caste groups.95 Only about 1 per cent of students
were drawn from the scheduled caste groups. The occupations of the guardians of the
students of the said period were the following: advocate, principal, peshkar (bench
clerk), deputy collector, zamindari, and service, judicial services, headmaster, cultiva-
tion and service, professor, colliery owner, district magistrate, district engineer, police
inspector, registrar, barrister, medical doctor, accountant, money-lending, etc.96 Most
of these occupations were middle class occupations, according to B.B. Misra.97 Since
more than 90 per cent students were drawn from upper caste cluster, it may be safely
assumed that the constituent group of middle class was chiefly drawn from the trad-
itional elite sector of upper caste groups. It may also be pointed out in this context
that only about 9 per cent students of Patna University from 1929 to 1942 were drawn

92
Misra, The Indian Middle Classes, p. 160.
93
Ibid., p. 161.
94
Ibid.
95
See Jha, Colonial Context of Higher Education in India, p. 80.
96
Ibid., p. 74.
97
See Misra, The Indian Middle Classes, p. 147.

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Decay of Village Community and the Decline of Vernacular Education 135

from the families which depended exclusively on agriculture.98 So, the sector of the
vast mass of peasant population in Bihar depending purely on agricultural occupation
had practically negligible representation among the consumers of English education.
English education facilitated one’s mobility to the category of newly created occupa-
tions constituting middle class (mentioned before). Thus, considering the Bihar ex-
perience to be at least indicating broadly more or less the pan-Indian trend, it may be
observed that the strategy adopted for the promotion of English education in India be-
came effective for the emergence of middle class from above. The colonial authorities
not only ignored the lower classes living in the villages as the elites of pre-Mughal era
had done earlier (described earlier), but took measures which caused the decline of
village community system quite significantly (discussed earlier) and practically blocked
the prospect of the growth of middle class from below for a long time to come.

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