Pramod K. Nayar - Colonial Education and India 1781-1945, Vol. IV-Indian Responses. 4 - Routledge (2019)

COLONIAL EDUCATION
AND INDIA 1781–1945

COLONIAL EDUCATION
AND INDIA 1781–1945
Edited by
Pramod K. Nayar
Volume IV
Indian Responses
First published 2020
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CONTENTS
VOLUME IV INDIAN RESPONSES
1 Raja Rammohan Roy, ‘Letter to Amherst, 11th December

1823’, in H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records
Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government
Printing, 1920), 98–101 1
2 ‘Petition by Students of Sanscrit College to Auckland, Seeking

Continuation of Funding for Sanskrit, 9th August 1836’, in
H. Sharp (ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I,
1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing,
1920), 145–146 5
3 K. M. Banerjea, ‘An Essay on Native Female Education’

(Calcutta: R.C. Lepage & Co., British Library, 1848), 1–123 7
4 ‘An Appeal from a Native Christian of the Punjab to

the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society’,
Indian Female Evangelist (July 1875), 289–291 62
5 Evidence of Syed Badruddin Tyabji on Muslim Education,

Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and
Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission (Calcutta:
Superintendent Government Printing, 1884), 497–508 65
6 Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and

Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. II
(Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1881),
223–242, 255–259, 261–270, 302–313, 11–14 (Appendix) 89
v
CONTENTS
7 Jotiba Phule’s statement to the Education Commission,

Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee
and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, Vol. II
(Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1881), 140–145 186
8 Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial

Committee with Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial
Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education
Commission (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing,
1884), 282–302, 351–353, 373–376, 397–411, 412–418, 433–434,
442–443, 452–453, 462–470, 471–474, 478–479 195
9 S. Satthianadhan, extracts from History of Education in the

Madras Presidency (Madras: Srinivasa Varadachari & Co.,
1894), 36–38, 73–76, 109–112, 165–168, cxiii–cxxi 306
10 Gopal Krishna Gokhale, ‘Speech in the Imperial Legislative

Council on the Primary Education Bill, 16th March 1911’,
Speeches of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Vol. 2 (Madras: G. A.
Natesan, 1916, 2nd edn), 718–803 322
11 Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners. Vol XX: Minutes

of Evidence Relating the Education Department Taken at Delhi,
Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and London (1915), 46–55, 119–129,
138–143 368
12 Jadunath Sarkar, ‘The Vernacular Medium’, Modern Review 23

(1918), 2–7 431
13 K. M. Panikkar, ‘The Educational Problems of Indian

Education’, Modern Review 23 (1918), 8–17 439
14 H. V. Dugvekar (ed.), extracts from National Education

(Benares: Balabodha Office, 1917), 4–10, 29–33, 62–86 453
vi
1
RAJA RAMMOHAN ROY, ‘LETTER
TO AMHERST, 11TH DECEMBER 1823’,
IN H. SHARP (ED.), SELECTIONS
FROM EDUCATIONAL RECORDS
PART I, 1781–1839 (CALCUTTA:
SUPERINTENDENT GOVERNMENT
PRINTING, 1920), 98–101
(26) Address, dated 11th December 1823, from Raja Rammohan Roy.
SIR,
I beg leave to send you the accompanying address and shall feel obliged
if you will have the goodness to lay it before the Right Hon’ble the Governor-
General in Council.
I have, etc.,
RAMMOHUN ROY.
CALCUTTA;
The 11th December 1823.
To
His Excellency the Right Hon’ble WILLIAM PITT, LORD AMHERST.
MY LORD,
HUMBLY reluctant as the natives of India are to obtrude upon the notice of Address by
Government the sentiments they entertain on any public measure, there are cir- Rammohan
Roy.
cumstances when silence would be carrying this respectful feeling to culpable
excess. The present Rulers of India, coming from a distance of many thousand
miles to govern a people whose language, literature, manners, customs, and
ideas are almost entirely new and strange to them, cannot easily become so inti-
mately acquainted with their real circumstances, as the natives of the country
1
C O L O N I A L E D U C AT I O N A N D I N D I A 1 7 8 1 – 1 9 4 5
Address by are themselves. We should therefore be guilty of a gross dereliction of duty to

Rammohan ourselves, and afford our Rulers just ground of complaint at our apathy, did we
Roy.–contd.
omit on occasions of importance like the present to supply them with such accu-
rate information as might enable them to devise and adopt measures calculated
to be beneficial to the country, and thus second by our local knowledge and
experience their declared benevolent intentions for its improvement.
The establishment of a new Sangscrit School in Calcutta evinces the laudable
desire of Government to improve the Natives of India by Education,—a blessing for
which they must ever be grateful; and every well wisher of the human race must be
desirous that the efforts made to promote it should be guided by the most enlightened
principles, so that the stream of intelligence may flow into the most useful channels.
When this Seminary of learning was proposed, we understood that the Govern-
ment in England had ordered a considerable sum of money to be annually devoted
to the instruction of its Indian Subjects. We were filled with sanguine hopes that this
sum would be laid out in employing European Gentlemen of talents and education
to instruct the natives of India in Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Anat-
omy and other useful Sciences, which the Nations of Europe have carried to a degree
of perfection that has raised them above the inhabitants of other parts of the world.
While we looked forward with pleasing hope to the dawn of knowledge thus
promised to the rising generation, our hearts were filled with mingled feelings of
delight and gratitude; we already offered up thanks to Providence for inspiring the
most generous and enlightened of the Nations of the West with the glorious ambi-
tions of planting in Asia the Arts and Sciences of modern Europe.
We now find that the Government are establishing a Sangscrit school under
Hindoo Pundits to impart such knowledge as is already current in India. This
Seminary (similar in character to those which existed in Europe before the time
of Lord Bacon) can only be expected to load the minds of youth with grammati-
cal niceties and metaphysical distinctions of little or no practicable use to the
possessors or to society. The pupils will there acquire what was known two thou-
sand years ago, with the addition of vain and empty subtilties since produced by
speculative men, such as is already commonly taught in all parts of India.
The Sangscrit language, so difficult that almost a life time is necessary for its per-
fect acquisition, is well known to have been for ages a lamentable check on the diffu-
sion of knowledge; and the learning concealed under this almost impervious veil is far
from sufficient to reward the labour of acquiring it. But if it were thought necessary to
perpetuate this language for the sake of the portion of the valuable information it con-
tains, this might be much more easily accomplished by other means than the establish-
ment of a new Sangscrit College; for there have been always and are now numerous
professors of Sangscrit in the different parts of the country, engaged in teaching this
language as well as the other branches of literature which are to be the object of the
new Seminary. Therefore their more diligent cultivation, if desirable, would be effec-
tually promoted by holding out premiums and granting certain allowances to those
most eminent Professors, who have already undertaken on their own account to teach
them, and would by such rewards be stimulated to still greater exertions.
2
R O Y, ‘L E T T E R T O A M H E R S T , D E C E M B E R 1 8 2 3’
From these considerations, as the sum set apart for the instruction of the Natives Address by
of India was intended by the Government in England, for the improvement of its Rammohan
Roy.–contd.
Indian subjects, I beg leave to state, with due deference to your Lordship’s exalted
situation, that if the plan now adopted be followed, it will completely defeat the
object proposed; since no improvement can be expected from inducing young
men to consume a dozen of years of the most valuable period of their lives in
acquiring the niceties of the Byakurun or Sangscrit Grammar. For instance, in
learning to discuss such points as the following: Khad signifying to eat, khaduti,
he or she or it eats. Query, whether does the word khaduti, taken as a whole, con-
vey the meaning he, she, or it eats, or are separate parts of this meaning conveyed
by distinct portions of the word? As if in the English language it were asked, how
much meaning is there in the eat, how much in the s? and is the whole meaning of
the word conveyed by those two portions of it distinctly, or by them taken jointly?
Neither can much improvement arise from such speculations as the follow-
ing, which are the themes suggested by the Vedant:—In what manner is the soul
absorbed into the deity? What relation does it bear to the divine essence? Nor will
youths be fitted to be better members of society by the Vedantic doctrines, which
teach them to believe that all visible things have no real existence; that as father,
brother, etc., have no actual entirety, they consequently deserve no real affection,
and therefore the sooner we escape from them and leave the world the better.
Again, no essential benefit can be derived by the student of the Meemangsa from
knowing what it is that makes the killer of a goat sinless on pronouncing certain
passages of the Veds, and what is the real nature and operative influence of pas-
sages of the Ved, etc.
Again the student of the Nyaya Shastra cannot be said to have improved his
mind after he has learned from it into how many ideal classes the objects in the
Universe are divided, and what speculative relation the soul bears to the body, the
body to the soul, the eye to the ear, etc.
In order to enable your Lordship to appreciate the utility of encouraging such
imaginary learning as above characterised, I beg your Lordship will be pleased
to compare the state of science and literature in Europe before the time of Lord
Bacon, with the progress of knowledge made since he wrote.
If it had been intended to keep the British nation in ignorance of real knowl-
edge the Baconian philosophy would not have been allowed to displace the sys-
tem of the schoolmen, which was the best calculated to perpetuate ignorance. In
the same manner the Sangscrit system of education would be the best calculated
to keep this country in darkness, if such had been the policy of the British Legis-
lature. But as the improvement of the native population is the object of the Gov-
ernment, it will consequently promote a more liberal and enlightened system of
instruction, embracing mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry and anatomy,
with other useful sciences which may be accomplished with the sum proposed
by employing a few gentlemen of talents and learning educated in Europe, and
providing a college furnished with the necessary books, instruments and other
apparatus.
3
Address by In representing this subject to your Lordship I conceive myself discharging a

Rammohan solemn duty which I owe to my countrymen and also to that enlightened Sover-
Roy.–concld.
eign and Legislature which have extended their benevolent cares to this distant
land actuated by a desire to improve its inhabitants and I therefore humbly trust
you will excuse the liberty I have taken in thus expressing my sentiments to your
Lordship.
I have, etc.,
RAMMOHUN ROY.
CALCUTTA;
The 11th December 1823.
4
2
‘PETITION BY STUDENTS OF
SANSCRIT COLLEGE TO AUCKLAND,
SEEKING CONTINUATION OF
FUNDING FOR SANSKRIT, 9TH
AUGUST 1836’, IN H. SHARP (ED.),
SELECTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL
RECORDS PART I, 1781–1839
(CALCUTTA: SUPERINTENDENT
GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1920),
145–146
(38) The humble petition of the Students of the Government Sanskrit College of
Calcutta, to the Right Hon’ble Lord George Auckland, Governor-General,
dated 9th August 1836.
SHEWETH,
THAT impressed with the importance of cultivating the Sanscrit language Petition
owing to its being a vehicle to the sacred writings of the Hindoos and containing all to Lord
Auckland,
works which represent their manners and customs, the ancient kings of Hindoostan
9th August
endowed grants of lands to those Brahmins and Pundits who devoted themselves to 1836.
its acquisition, in order that they may cultivate it without interruption, and impart
it to the children of other Brahmins and Pundits, who came to them for instruction
from different parts of the country. Students when found competent and deserving,
received grants of lands as rewards of their merit. Since the accession of Moham-
edan power, though the progress of Sanscrit language was a little retarded; yet the
Mohamedan kings notwithstanding their tyrannical measures encouraged its culti-
vation not only by allowing the undisturbed possession of the former grants of the
Hindoos; but also presenting new ones to those who most deserved them.
Altogether the English, having got possession of this country, neglected for a
long time the cultivation of the Oriental languages and particularly the Sanscrit.
Grieved at this indifference, many Maulvees assisted by those Englishmen who
5
Petition appreciated the value of Sanscrit presented a petition to the Court of Directors
to Lord praying for the establishment of an institution for the purpose of preserving and
Auckland,
9th August
propagating this Sanscrit language of the Hindoos.
1836.–contd. Lord Amherst, who was then Governor-General established the present college
in obedience to the orders of the Court of Directors, and greatly benefited the
natives of this country by employing good and able Pundits, and allowing small
stipends to the students who resorted to it, from the different parts of the country,
and prosecuted their studies with industry and success.
But to your petitioners’ great misfortune and mortification, Lord William
Bentinck in 1835 passed an order depriving the newly admitted students of the
Sanscrit College of their stipends. This measure your petitioners feel to be a great
detriment to the progress and interest of the Sanscrit College,—it is in fact indi-
rectly abolishing the said institution and eradicating that sacred language from the
East; for your petitioners, having none to support them in the city, cannot attend
it nor acquire that proficiency which can reform their manners and customs. They
therefore, pray that your Lordship will graciously enquire of men, who have stud-
ied, the Sanscrit language, its value and importance.
Your petitioners believing your Lordship to be a great patron to the civilization
and reformation of the Hindoos, pray that your Excellency will mercifully confer
on them the little allowance they enjoyed, for that will enable them to prosecute
their studies without any inconvenience and preserve the Hindoo shastras from
sinking into oblivion. The expense the Government will incur for this purpose is at
the utmost 600 rupees a month, a sum quite insufficient and trifling for the object
for which it is to be defrayed. Further your petitioners believing that your Lordship
will not forget the duties of a ruler who is the protector not only of persons and
property, but also a promoter of a knowledge and reformation, Your Lordship con-
ferring this boon on Your Lordship’s petitioners does not make only them happy
but the Hindoo community in general, for the preservation of the sacred language.
If your Lordship be of opinion that the Government should not impart knowl-
edge by means of allowing stipends to the students, your Lordship’s petitioners
beg to remind your Excellency that in such a cause, the Government would be
guilty of partiality for allowing the students of the medical college that stipend,
upon which all your petitioners’ hopes of improvement depended. However, your
petitioners, now thrown into greatest despair, pray that Your Excellency as a
patron of learning, and protector of the helpless will adopt such means as would
enable your petitioners to acquire that proficiency in the Sanscrit language which
will not only enlighten them, but reform their degenerated manners and customs.
And your petitioners as in duty bound
shall ever pray.
Signed by 70 Students.
GOVERNMENT SANSKRIT COLLEGE,
CALCUTTA:
The 9th August, 1836.
6
3
K. M. BANERJEA, ‘AN ESSAY ON
NATIVE FEMALE EDUCATION’
(CALCUTTA: R.C. LEPAGE & CO.,
BRITISH LIBRARY, 1848), 1–123
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
THE present tottering condition of Brahminism, occasioned by the free circula-
tion of European knowledge, is an index not to be mistaken. It shows that the fab-
ric reared by the labours of centuries has received a blow from which it can never
recover. It predicts a mighty revolution sooner or later to overturn the institutions
of Menu and Vyas, and to confound the philosophy of Gautama and Kapila. Not
only has Hinduism now to withstand the organized and openly avowed attacks of
British Missionaries, pledged to toil for the subversion of error, but multitudes of
insidious opponents have also arisen from within its own bosom, corroding, as so
many destructive gangrenes, its very marrow and substance. Though command-
ing for centuries the most servile submission of high and low without exception,
and firmly withstanding the philosophic hostility of Buddhism, the violent attacks
of Islamism, and the insinuating arts of disguised Jesuitry, it has since been so vio-
lently shaken in the metropolis of British India by the gradual diffusion of educa-
tion and the magical wand of European science, that its present appearance is that
of a dilapidated system ready to crumble to the dust. Its authority is questioned, its
sanctions are unheeded, its doctrines are ridiculed, its philosophy is despised, its
ceremonies are accounted fooleries, its injunctions are openly violated, its priest-
hood is decried as a college of rogues, hypocrites, and fanatics; and all this, not by
a confederate band of Buddhists, Yavans, and Mletchas, but by its own professed
votaries; by those who are reckoned among the most respectable members of its
own corporation, upon whose support depend its very vitals. Traitors in the camp
are opening the way for enemies without. It does not, under such circumstances,
require an extraordinary exertion of sagacity and penetration to foretel the dire
catastrophe that awaits it. If its own followers be thus disaffected, and breathe
such desperate hostility to it, the stronghold must share the fate of a house divided
against itself. It must sooner or later be demolished by the joint attacks of treach-
erous friends and inveterate enemies.
Such being the state of Hindu society, at least in the capital of Bengal, few
questions can assume more vivid interest than that which stands as the theme of
7
these pages. Under the present laxity of Hindu observances in Calcutta, while new
habits, new manners, new sentiments, and new feelings, are daily imported into
native society, it becomes a very imperative call upon every friend of humanity
to remind the rising generation of their duty to the weaker sex, and to excite their
attention to the subject of Female Education. For attempting to impart a favourable
direction to the current of exotic sentiments pouring in from so many quarters, the
present may be considered a peculiarly advantageous season. Native society in the
metropolis is fast renouncing its characteristic obduracy, and evincing a disposi-
tion to accept a reform in its thoughts and actions. Why then may not a change
in its treatment of females be deemed feasible? In the present transition-state of
the Hindu mind, why may we not hope to infuse an ardent desire of educating the
females, and of raising them to the position which nature has designed for them.
Under the influence of these impressions, the author’s attention had long been
directed to the duty of admonishing his countrymen on the obligations they owe
to their females; and the public offer of a prize to the best attempt on the subject
tallied harmoniously with his previous design.
But to compete for a prize in a foreign language may be considered a bold under-
taking; generally speaking one cannot pass such an ordeal with honor or advan-
tage. The present instance was however so far an exception that the lists were open
only to natives of India. Where everyone had to run his race over ground equally
rugged, no charge of temerity could be preferred against a particular competitor.
This is the author’s only apology for coming forward on this occasion.
In the distribution of the following Chapters, the author has been guided no less
by the reasonableness of the division itself, than by the rules prescribed by those
who offered the prize.
The present condition of those whose interests the Essay is designed to pro-
mote, might justly demand attention in the leading chapter. The consideration of
their intellectual and moral capacities, with a view to determine their proper posi-
tion in society, would naturally follow a review of their existing wretchedness;
while the means whereby they might be raised from their present degradation,
would constitute very appropriately the third and last branch of our inquiry.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF NATIVE FEMALES.
TO a succinct account of the present condition of females in Bengal, a general

survey of the religious and social institutions to which they are subject, would
not be an improper introduction. The influence which such institutions exercise
upon human interests is unquestionably powerful in all parts of the world. The
rule of life which religion prescribes, and the sovereign enforces, forms the
habits, manners, and customs of a people; principles that are esteemed sacred,
and laws which are enacted by authority, cannot fail to leave their stamp upon
8
B A N E R J E A , ‘ N AT I V E F E M A L E E D U C AT I O N ’
the mind; even those who consider priests as hypocrites and kings as tyrants
cannot easily unlearn the respect and awe with which they are insensibly taught
to contemplate the institutions of their country. The force of such institutions
is still greater in India. In common with other oriental nations the Hindus are
averse to the exercise of private judgment; their mental quietude is remarkable;
they are incapable of the revolutionary suspicion that kings or priests may err;
that politics or religion may admit of reform or improvement. Everything here
is fixed by law; a text of Menu will silence the most obstinate; and antiquated
institutions are allowed to interfere with the commonest affairs of life. The hab-
its which the follower of Brahminism is to contract, the mode in which he is to
spend his day,1 are minutely and strictly regulated; he is not at liberty to awake
or arise, clean or dress, read or worship, at any time or in any way that himself may
choose. He is bound hand and foot by the legislators of his country; and in the dis-
charge of the most ordinary functions of life, he must bow before the authority of
the ancients, and submit to the dictates of their fancy. The doctrine of implicit faith
and passive obedience is no where so rampant as on the banks of the Ganges; what-
ever is written in the Shasters, whatever was taught by revered sages, whatever is
inculcated by living priests must be received without question. The tenacity with
which such a system is maintained and upheld, and the jealousy with which inno-
vations are regarded, might appear incredible, did we not know, that the majority
of mankind were unable or unwilling to strike out new paths for themselves, and
that opinions and prejudices, that had the sanction of great men and of antiquity,
easily passed for time-honoured dogmas of unquestioned authority, and obtained
without difficulty the tame submission of the indolent vulgar. Successful reform-
ers, or opposers of popular opinion, are not characters of every day’s growth; nor
are many pages of history adorned by the lives of Wickliffs and Luthers.
Such servile submission to custom and practice without regard to their tendency
for good or evil, such implicit faith in the wisdom or discretion of those who lived
in the infancy of the world, can only serve to fix human society in a stagnant state
of degradation and semi-barbarism. Excessive deference to the opinions of spiri-
tual guides has in all ages proved injurious both to pastor and flock; the meekest
spirits have been spoilt by the adulations paid to them; the strongest intellects
have deteriorated by grovelling superstition. The most formidable obstacles have
thereby been interposed in the course of human improvement; the greatest checks
have been given to the well-being of human society. Man has not been allowed
to outgrow the errors of his forefathers, and the corruptions of dark and unen-
lightened ages have become rivetted upon the unhappy countries where they had
once chanced to take root. The haughtiest kings, the mightest princes, have been
charmed to submission by the magical wand of superstition; and have stooped
before the shrine of antiquated opinions and prejudices. Even when the temporal
sword has clashed with the spiritual, the latter has frequently exhibited a sharper
edge than the former, and kings have rued their rash movements against the pre-
tended vice-gerents of God. The chains of corrupt antiquity have thus galled the
lives of men, could women then escape the common scourge? If the effects of
9
laws and institutions are so glaringly visible in the society of men, could the com-
munity of females be uninfluenced by them?
A short review, therefore, of the institutions of our country, especially as they
regard the female sex, will serve as a comment upon the present state of our
female society. Few subjects however are more difficult of a methodical descrip-
tion than this. So intricate, so various, and so seemingly conflicting are its multi-
farious ramifications, that it would be highly presumptuous in a person of ordinary
talents to pretend to much accuracy and precision in his representations; and the
difficulty of the task becomes still more appalling, when the picture is to be drawn
in a foreign language, and for the inspection of men to whom the features of our
female society are entirely unknown.
We shall commence our review with adverting to an institution by no means
peculiar to the Brahminical ritual. Like the Levitical dispensation, the Hindu reli-
gion pronounces a woman to be unclean upon her confinement. A separate room is
not unreasonably allotted to her, where she must complete her period of purifica-
tion, which in the case of a male child lasts for three weeks, but is prolonged to a
whole month in the case of a female offspring.2
A more marked and invidious distinction between male and female children
is perceived at a ceremony which follows the delivery of a woman. On the sixth
night after parturition, the eventful night, big with the new-born infant’s fate,
when Vidhàtá is supposed to mark upon its forehead, in unseen, but indelible,
characters, its pre-ordained fortunes, the goddess Shashthi, the tutelar guardian
of infants, is worshipped. Offerings and adorations are paid to her in order to
render her propitious to the child lately born, and thereby to ensure its life and
health. The peculiar way, in which the prayers,3 to be offered upon the occasion,
were composed, should not of itself be taken for an index of disregard to the
weaker sex. It is neither uncommon nor unnatural for formularies of religion to
use masculine nouns and pronouns even when the intention is to include females.
The Bible itself does not exclude women, when apparently it talks only of men;
πας ὁ πιστευων does not shut out πασα ἡ πιστευουσα. Declarations of doctrine
and ceremonial forms admit great latitude of interpretation, when the immemorial
practice of the society by which they are transmitted does not fix a narrower signi-
fication. But in the instance under review not only is the phraseology applicable to
male children alone, but the supplications are never used in practice except in their
case. The ceremony is attended with festivities when a son is born, but is entirely
omitted when a female child comes into the world.
This difference in parental anxiety for the life and health respectively of sons
and daughters, is not an improper criterion for estimating the value that is set upon
them severally. We cannot blame our countrymen for the extreme eagerness with
which they long for male offspring in preference to female. The natural superior-
ity of the former, both mental and physical, induces the mother no less than the
father to participate in that desire. Neither is such preference confined to India.
The religion and politics of all countries attach greater importance to a boy than
a girl. The boy is the hope of a family. We have no right to reprove the Hindus
10
on this account. But where a religious ceremony, supposed to ensure a child’s life
and health, is dispensed with in the case of a girl, the omission may be considered
invidious.
The same spirit pervades the Hindu Institutes with reference to the subject of
education. Provision has been religiously made for the mental development of
boys; guardians are solemnly enjoined to introduce them to the study of literature
at the age of five. This initiation is to be accompanied with invocations to Saras-
wati, the goddess who presides over letters, and to be conducted throughout as a
holy sacrament.4 The position in which the tutor and the pupil are respectively to
be seated, the direction in which their faces are to be turned, have been religiously
regulated. The mode in which the work of tuition is to be prosecuted, the occa-
sions when there must be vacation, and even the kind of letters that a good scribe
ought5 to attempt, have been prescribed as objects of faith, and are received as
matters of revelation.
But in these detailed rules concerning initiation into learning, no precepts are
found imposing any obligation upon parents to instruct their female children.6
The silence of the Hindu writers on the important question of female education,
while they are so minute in their provisions for the intellectual culture of boys,
may be construed into a disregard for the sex; it indicates their ignorance of the
vast influence which women exercise over the happiness and well-being of soci-
ety. They did not seem to understand that a nation could never rise in the scale of
civilization, while illiterate mothers and wives obstructed its growth by perpetu-
ating the moral degradation of the present and the rising generations.
But the Shasters have gone further than neglecting, by mere passive silence, the
interests of womankind. Females are strictly prohibited to read or hear the Vedas.
This privilege is restricted to the first three castes; neither the servile class, nor
women, being at liberty to read, chant, repeat, or even to hear those sacred com-
positions. Shasters of inferior sanctity, such as the Puranas, the Smriti, &c. may be
listened to by the proscribed classes while the Brahmin reads them; but the holy
sentences which issued from the mouth of Brahmá, are not to be7 desecrated by
either passing their unholy lips, or entering into their profane ears.
And as pronunciation,8 grammar, versification, arithmetic, mixed mathematics,
were included in the number of the Vedángas, or members of the Vedas, an almost
impassable barrier may be said to have been opposed to the education of the Shu-
dras and the women. No language could be studied without its grammar; and no
education would be of much worth, whence arithmetic and other elements were
carefully excluded. The Indian sages have sapped the very foundation of female
education by placing grammar upon a basis not easily accessible to the sex; they
appear to have studiously retarded their intellectual progress by representing some
of the ordinary branches of knowledge as members of the interdicted Vedas. The
effects produced by these restrictions are female ignorance, and female misery.
The key whereby the treasures of learning might be unlocked was denied to this
devoted class, and a seal was set upon some of its most useful and important parts,
which they dared not break.
11
It would, however, be unjust to the Shasters not to acknowledge that the prohi-
bitions extended no further than to the authorized grammars and scientific works
in the Sanscrit language; the proscribed classes were not excluded from the enjoy-
ment of other sources and kinds of instruction. They were at liberty to learn the
Prakrita, which then stood in the same relation to Sanscrit as Bengali, Hindui, and
other dialects now do;—they might even study the sacred language itself, if they
could dispense with the patent grammars. But as uneducated females were not the
most suitable persons for mastering a language in spite of difficulty and obstacle,
the indulgence has been productive of hardly any solid benefits.
To exonerate the Shasters still more from the heavy charge of obstructing
female education, we must mention the existence of several examples, recorded
with applause, of women that had successfully pursued the study of literature.
Of these, the first place is undoubtedly due to Lilávati, the daughter of Uday-
anáchárya, whose name has been rendered immortal in two works, one on Jyotis,
and the other on Nyáya,9 both designated after her. Tradition attributes to her
extraordinary learning and intelligence; she is said to have been appealed to as
judge in a philosophical controversy held between the famous Shanharacharya
and her husband. Another name, already given in a note, occurs often in the Shast-
ers, proving that female education was not rigorously forbidden. Yagnawalkya is
frequently introduced as instructing his wife on the doctrines of the Vedas, and
unfolding to her the mysteries of the esoteric philosophy. Lilavati and Maitreyi
were however among a few happy exceptions. The other educated females of
whom we read, did not profit much by the study of letters; amatory composition
and clandestine correspondence appear to have been the principal uses to which
they had turned their attainments. This unhappy circumstance, the natural conse-
quence not of learning itself or of a well-regulated education, but of the restraints
under which they were placed, and of the mis-direction that was given to their
taste, produced, in process of time, a prejudice against their improvement, the
effects of which are sadly visible in the present state of society.
We must also mention, that although the Shasters have thrown many obstruc-
tions in the way of female education, by breathing a spirit of hostility to the
weaker sex, and apparently excluding certain branches of knowledge from their
participation, they speak nevertheless in terms of commendation of their learning,
where examples of superior females are incidentally noticed. The Hindu writers
had sufficient respect for intellectual acquirements to laud them even in women;
and therefore characters like Lilávati and Maitreyi are esteemed, instead of being
depreciated. Every instance, however, where they speak of learning with refer-
ence to females, is not to be considered as decidedly one of intellectual cultiva-
tion: for the word vidushi is not unfrequently applied to persons that had merely
good practical sense, but had never turned their attention to the study of letters.
Notwithstanding the partial encouragement which the Shasters give, the con-
ventional rules of society have for ages proved so cruel towards the sex, that
it is now considered almost disreputable to furnish them with opportunities of
education. Although the Brahmin can bring nothing either out of his theology or
12
his philosophy which might be construed into a prohibition of their instruction,

yet the tone of society has so long been raised against this humane proceeding,
that no Hindu can attempt it without encountering the opposition, sarcasm, and
brow-beating, which a firm resistance of popular prejudices, and of the influence
of a false priesthood, has always in every country to withstand. Taunts and sneers,
so powerful in their operation on ordinary minds, are likely to damp the energies
and disconcert the efforts of the friends of humanity under present circumstances:
and this is one of the reasons why numbers approve in theory, without reducing to
practice, the great question of female emancipation.
The customs of disposing of females by very early marriages, and of shutting
them up in the Zenana, have helped in a fearful manner to perpetuate their igno-
rance and misery. It is a lasting disgrace upon Hinduism that marriage should be
considered a gift10 on the part of the father to a person of his own selection, and
not a contract solemnized by the parties themselves. That the parent and natural
guardian has a right to direct his own daughter in the most sacred of all civil
engagements,—one on which her happiness and welfare mainly depend,—cannot
for a moment be called in question. The most enlightened laws forbid a girl’s mar-
riage, while she is under age, against her father’s consent, and recommend her to
follow his superior advice even after she is at liberty to act for herself: the Liturgy
of the Church of England itself requires that the father or some friend should give
her away to be married to her husband elect. The father to whom her infancy and
childhood were entrusted by Providence ought never to stand an unconcerned
spectator of a ceremony which binds her for life to another individual, and makes
her a sharer of his joys and sorrows; nor should a dutiful daughter despise the
counsel of age and experience, tendered for her own happiness and comfort, by
one that had nourished and cherished her in the helpless state of infancy. But that
the father should be the principal or the sole party in the formation of the contract;
that, not contented with a mere veto, he should imperiously dictate his daughter’s
choice; or that the girl should have a perfect stranger, whom she had never seen,
forced upon her as her husband, is a monstrous error, that could only be sanc-
tioned by the most depraved society. No human superior, however sacred his title
to reverence, and how unquestionable soever his right to advise and direct, should
take upon himself to close this most sacred of all contracts without the consent,
declared ex animo, of the parties concerned. The father might for a thousand
reasons pitch, with the best intentions, upon a person with whom his daughter
could never be happy. He might, in his anxiety to secure an honorable alliance for
his family, or a wealthy consort for his child, overtook numberless discordances
between the parties, in point of taste, feeling, and sentiment, for which no rank or
fortune could be an adequate compensation, and which would perhaps render the
unfortunate girl miserable for life.
The shasters legalized certain other modes of marriage which would reflect as
little honor on our legislators. The Gandharva union was a desecration of holy
matrimony for which the female was the only sufferer. The husband might fol-
low the impulse of his passion and multiply his wives without restraint; the wife
13
became a victim for life if once she gave way to a momentary feeling. The case of
the king in the Sacuntala, unable to recognize the victim of his own pleasures, is
a sufficient proof of the evil against which we are inveighing.
The Rakshas matrimony11 is another instance of the disregard shown to the
happiness of the female sex. The dishonor of females, taken captives by force, is
unscrupulously allowed to the military class. An outrageous soldiery, pampered
with success, cannot indeed be easily restrained; they will not readily acknowl-
edge that victory gives no absolution from the obligations of common moral-
ity; no martial discipline which our legislators could dictate could perhaps have
enforced the calls of justice, moderation, and hnmanity in the moment of victory.
But shame to the philosopher and theologian who could so far forget his position
as gravely to sanction such excesses against innocent females, and hold it up to
admiration as a soldier-like act in the sons of Mars.
We must not here overlook a practice that sometimes prevailed in former ages,
but is now entirely discontinued, of allowing a daughter to select her own husband
from a number of suitable persons invited for that purpose. This appears, how-
ever, to have been restricted to the royal families. The only instances on record
are those of kings convening assemblies of princely suitors, and permitting their
daughters to select their own husbands. But even this practice was connected with
many serious evils. The princesses had to make a hasty selection on the spot from
a number of persons they had never seen or known: there could be little room
for consideration in making such a choice; the external appearance of the suitors
and the impulse of the moment would probably alone decide the question. The
practice of Swayambara was a mockery, scarcely better calculated to ensure their
happiness, than the mode in which matrimony was otherwise contracted.
The present custom of getting rid of daughters by an early marriage, before they
can possibly understand the meaning of marriage, must exert a baneful influence
upon their minds, and put a stop to all intellectual improvement. The Shasters
enact that a girl12 must be bound by the ties of wedlock before the age of ten; while
the eighth is pointed out as the most proper season for imposing a husband upon
her. The gift of a daughter at the latter age is considered the most meritorious way
of disposing of her. The misery and unhappiness which this law must occasion to
its female victims, can be more easily conceived than delicately expressed. Before
the dawn of reason enables them to use the eyes of their understandings for any
purpose, they find themselves already bound by an indissoluble tie; and when they
attain to the age of puberty, they must suit themselves to the yoke as best they
can. The females of Hindustan are celebrated for their patience and submission;
hence they easily reconcile themselves to their fates; but the violence by which a
rational creature is forced into the bed of a stranger must, in minds not altogether
lost to moral sensibility, be associated with the utmost horror and disgust, and can
be characterized by no better title than shameful prostitution. The moral influ-
ence of such a system upon the unhappy girl’s mind must be equally sad. Before
reason and judgment are allowed to gather strength, and before any principles are
formed, the animal passions are artificially ripened, in a precocious way, by the
14
presence of an object calculated to inflame them, and the connivance of an agent

interested in their premature development.
Their total exclusion from society is no less an obstacle to their education and
happiness. Just at the time when they should learn letters, and pursue a course of
intellectual study, they are consigned to close imprisonment in the Seraglio, and
are made inaccessible to any but the nearest relations. It is not the Mahometan
conquest, as many are apt to suppose, whence we are to date the commencement
of their exclusion from society. The division of a house into courts—that for the
women being called the inner house,—and the inability of a stranger to get admit-
tance therein, are plainly adverted to in the Shasters; while the epithet of 13Asury-
ampashyá, applied to females, sufficiently proves of itself their condition in this
respect. The female department of a Hindu’s residence was as much secured in
times of yore, as it is now found to be;14 and the fair inhabitants of the Zenana
were nearly as much forbidden to tread the outer courts, except upon special occa-
sions, as they are in our own times. The Mahometans may have confirmed the
practice by the outrages which they often committed in the country, and rendered
the exclusion closer, but they were certainly not its originators.
That under the circumstances that existed there were cogent reasons for the
enforcement of this practice, can scarcely be doubted. The honor and virtue of
the females would perhaps be subjected to too severe a test, if in their unedu-
cated and ignorant condition no restraints were put upon their liberty. But this
jealous provision was, in fact, the adoption of one evil in order to counteract the
unhappy influence of another which was wilfully perpetuated. The first barbarous
act of consigning them to ignorance, was of itself sufficiently iniquitous; and all
subsequent strictures by way of remedy, must partake of the same character. An
improved state of society would have condemned both the one and the other acts
of male tyranny. The female mind ought to have been fortified by instruction and
education; and, rendered thus superior to the weaknesses incident to ignorance,
they should have been allowed to act their parts as rational members of society.
The multiplication of wives, which the Shasters tolerate, is another fruitful
source of suffering to the female sex. It reflects great disgrace upon human nature
that this evil has existed almost in every country; that females have been consid-
ered as servile ministers of pleasure, and that before the introduction of Christian-
ity, the principle of a steady and faithful attachment to one wife, was unknown on
the face of the earth.15
The perpetual widowhood to which the death of their husbands dooms the Ben-
gal females, must prove another source of misery and wretchedness. The Hindu
laws are exceedingly severe on this point. The first and the most meritorious
course which is recommended to them on the loss of their partners in life, is self-
immolation. Hence arose that inhuman practice of the Suttee, the abolition of which
has redounded so much to the honor of Lord W. Bentinck, Governor-General of
India, whose name is enshrined in the hearts of the Hindus, no less for this act
of humanity, than for his general policy in governing the country for the benefit
of the people. Rewards of the most attractive kind are offered to poor illiterate
15
widows, in order to propel them to an atrocious suicide, from which nature itself
would shrink with horror; and a number of ceremonies, calculated to stifle the
voice of reason and judgment, helps to fulfil the bloody intentions of our unfeeling
legislators.16 But self-immolation had something so horrible in it, that in spite of
the allurements that were held forth, and the fascinations of the ceremonies that
were instituted, the voice of reason and nature would often be heard, and many
a woman recoil with horror from the idea of putting a violent period to her exis-
tence. The crafty fabricators of the Shasters were aware of the powerful obstacle
which nature would thus oppose to the execution of their inhuman recommenda-
tions, and they have, accordingly, kept up their ungracious tyranny against the
sex, by enacting a series of the severest rules for the regulation of a widow’s life.
Not only is she strictly prohibited to enter again into the state of wedlock, even
when she loses her husband in early life, but she is also required to practise the
most rigorous austerities, and to mortify herself, as it were, to death. The widow
shall never exceed one meal a day, nor sleep on a bed. She is to take nocare of
her person, nor regale herself by any aromatic cordial.17 She is to observe a rigid
fast on every eleventh day of the lunar fortnight, besides many other occasional
abstinences. She is forbidden to taste animal food of any kind; and even the one
meal of pulse, roots, and vegetables that is allowed to her, must consist only of
such articles as can be cooked together in one pot, to make up a single dish.
The reasons for which they are forbidden to marry a second time arise from the
notion,18 that even death does not loosen the tie of wedlock, and that a husband’s
future happiness depends, in a great measure, upon the strictness with which his
widow performs the accustomed offerings to his manes. If she enter again into
the state of matrimony, her affinity with the deceased husband must cease; she
must be incapacitated to practise those rites which are so closely connected with
his future interests. “And when he dies,” say Menu, “let her never neglect him.”
The perpetual pupilage to which the Bengal females are condemned, is of a
piece with the institutions just noticed. They can never be independent; they must
ever remain subject to the controul of some relation or other. In infancy their
fathers and natural guardians are masters of their persons; in youth they must sub-
mit to their husband’s yoke; and in widowhood their sons become their19 lords. So
far as this law might serve as a protection against those dangers and difficulties to
which constitutional imbecility might expose them, no strictures could be made
against the enactment. It is neither unnatural nor unreasonable that females should
always have a guardian and a protector. But from the spirit which pervades the
Shasters, we may safely infer that the enactment was designed, like the others, to
enchain their minds, and perpetuate their servitude.
Notwithstanding the stringent rules just mentioned, the Hindu legislators were
not so totally devoid of humanity as not to condemn what they considered unnec-
essary severities to helpless females. They had sufficient gallantry to demand a
tender regard for the feelings of the weaker sex. The language of law speaks of
women as if they were mere children, and while it arms the husband with almost
plenary powers over the wife, holds him responsible for any feeling of distress
16
which may become her portion.20 The Hindus may in this respect be called a
chivalrous race. The epithet of avala, (powerless) applied to females, excites
the strongest sentiments of compassion toward them; and, though paradoxical,
it is nevertheless true, that the very people who are so indifferent to the ques-
tion of female education, and who are so jealous in guarding their Zenanas, have
exhibited the utmost tenderness for the weaker sex. Such tenderness has in fact
been considered by all nations as an essential part of good breeding. Savage cru-
elty to creatures so impotent, and so nearly allied, has been every where stigma-
tized as base and unmanly. The native of Hindustan has not been destitute of this
characteristic of refined manners. His treatment of females may not have been
throughout consistent; but if he has irrationalized her by denying opportunities of
intellectual cultivation, he has rendered the yoke of ignorance easy by conciliating
her feelings and showing attachment and love. But the institution of Kulinism in
Bengal has served to render the condition of a Hindu female as unhappy as it is
degraded. To be a Kulin’s daughter is generally considered a severe misfortune.
Conjugal felicity there can be none where the husband continues to multiply his
wives without any regard to their feelings, or any intention of maintaining them
from his own resources.
After the statements just made, the present condition of Bengali females will not
require a lengthened detail. The actual state of things is such as might be expected
from the influence of the institutions already adverted to. However cared for by
their guardians and protectors, they drag on lives, which those who can appreci-
ate intellectual superiority, cannot help considering wretched and degraded; they
pass their days as ministers of pleasure, rather than companions or counsellors to
their husbands. It is a notorious fact, that the Hindu never stops to consider the
prosperity or adversity of his circumstances, when he forms an intention of mar-
rying. He does not apprehend that his wife will be a source of additional expence;
he hopes on the contrary she will prove a most effectual instrument of saving him
money and trouble. She indeed becomes a servant, if not a slave, that performs all
his household business; and although his marriage imposes upon him the mainte-
nance of another soul, yet the bargain is not for all that the less cheap; he thereby
has the command of an additional servant without giving pecuniary wages. There
is no such thing as an unmarried person in all Bengal; the only exceptions are
those who have formally adopted an ascetic life.
The state of a Hindu woman’s maiden life is perhaps the most free from trouble
and anxiety. In the tender caresses of her parents, and in her exemption from the
task of reading and writing, to which her brothers are unwillingly yoked, her hap-
piness continues uninterrupted and unalloyed. She is lulled in the indolent inactiv-
ity which is then her portion; she has no tasks to preform, no lessons to get up; and
her little mind is incapable of thinking of the future. She reposes in ignorance and
quietude; and amidst expressions of affection from indulgent parents, she contin-
ues in happy ignorance of the bitter cup that may await her riper years. The only
evil which is sometimes presented to her fears, and which she is led to deprecate
by means of puerile and vulgar ceremonies, is the misfortune of having copartners
17
to share a husband’s affections. Nothing is more dreaded as likely to poison her

happiness for life, than her husband’s polygamy; supplications are therefore made
to the Deity by means of rites, as degrading as they are superstitious, that it may
not be her lot to be yoked with a husband of more than one wife.
Infancy too is the only stage in which she is privileged to see any thing of the
world around her. The sentence of imprisonment in the Zenana is seldom passed
upon her before her marriage, and remains generally unexecuted until she attains
to the age of 10 or 12. Previous to her wedding, no restraints are put upon her
liberty; this indulgence betokens the regard which the Hindus in common with
other nations entertain for that innocency, whereof childhood is a most gratify-
ing emblem. Male and female children are equally at liberty to appear in public;
it is not until the latter are settled in life that they are forbidden to enter into the
outer courts of their houses. Under the roof of their parents they enjoy consider-
able freedom even after their marriage; for as long as they do not actually grow
up to maturity, it is not indelicate in them to trespass beyond the boundaries of
the Zenana in their parental dwelling. But this privilege cannot be enjoyed in the
houses of their husbands, where they must never step out of the recesses of the
Zenana, nor ever unveil their faces before any but the female and junior members
of the household.
Childhood is also the time when the greatest attention is paid to them. Infant
virgins of Brahminical extraction are considered as divine incarnations, and
accordingly worshipped upon various occasions as goddesses. At the celebration
of the Doorga Poojah, in particular, female children of the sacerdotal order are
in great request. Religious homage is paid to them, accompanied with pecuniary
gifts, food, and wearing apparel. The wealthier Brahmins, however, consider it a
derogation from their dignity to send out their children on this traffic; the poorer
priests gladly avail themselves of this extraordinary source of gain.
The happiness of maiden life is, however, of very short duration with our
females. Often at the age of eight, sometimes when much younger, they are dealt
away in marriage. Their parents are guided in the selection of sons-in-law, not so
much by their personal qualifications, as by their rank in the Tables of Kulinism.
One of the later kings of the Sen family, the last Hindu dynasty that swayed the
sceptre in Bengal, had instituted an hereditary order of titled noblemen, whose
alliance by marriage has since been most eagerly sought by all ranks of Hin-
dus. Although these miserable aristocrats have at present degenerated in most
instances to a wretched and beggarly clan of marriage-dealers, without wealth,
talent, or personal qualifications to recommend them, yet the anxiety with which
their connection is sought, is a painful proof of the popular veneration for long-
cherished customs. The greater majority of the Kulins pursue no occupation in
life, but feed idly upon the relations of their wives. So high is their alliance held
in the estimation of the people, that not only are large sums of money presented
to them at the time of their marriage, but they are also often maintained with their
wives for life; and not unfrequently are lands and houses settled upon them by
their fathers-in-law. These marriage-dealers have so little regard for their family,
18
and are so strangely wanting in natural affection, that they multiply their wives
almost to an unlimited extent,21 if offers of money are made. The unfortunate
creatures that are yoked with them reside under their father’s roof almost as if they
were actual widows. Their husbands seldom live with them; they spend their time
in passing from one father-in-law’s house to another; and are continually contem-
plating fresh bargains of marriage. The poor women are scarcely able to see their
partners, and are obliged to live as it were in a state of widowhood.22
The number of Kulins is, however, not very large, and in consequence of an
intricate point in the system, it is rapidly declining. One of the fundamental laws
of this order is, that no Kulin should form an alliance with an inferior family.
Where such an undignified marriage takes place, the Kulinhood is pronounced
to be dissolved; and, although the perpetrator of such a marriage enjoys his own
title for life, his children are degraded in their dignity, and reckoned as second-
grade Kulins. Every succeeding race, after such a dissolution, loses one step in
rank, and the fourth and fifth generations degenerate almost entirely to the state
of untitled commoners. And as the largest bribes are offered when an unprivi-
leged family seeks the alliance of pure Kulins, many a first-grade worthy has
been unable to withstand the temptation, and has sacrificed the dignity of his
descendants for the sake of enriching himself. The body of pure, or even of sec-
ond and third grade Kulins, has therefore considerably diminished. Every gen-
eration reduces the numerical strength of the order, and there can be no possible
hope of a fresh number being created to recruit the exhausted clan. Neither is
the respect that is paid to them now, any thing like what it was before; and these
causes have happily contributed to reduce the number of female sacrifices at the
shrine of Kulinhood.
After her marriage, the young bride is allowed to reside under her father’s roof
until she attains to the age of puberty, and then she is consigned to perpetual incar-
ceration in her husband’s Zenana, there to minister to his pleasures and perform
the drudgery of a menial. Except in families which are noted for opulence, the
wife is charged with the task of performing, helped or unhelped, all the work of
the household,—from the sweeping and cleansing of the rooms, to the preparing
and serving out the meals.
In consequence of several ramifications of the same stock continuing to reside
in the same house, under the controul it may be of an aged father, who exercises
a sort of patriarchal authority over them, the young wife has to pass her days gen-
erally with many females of various ages and ranks in the family. She is seldom
ushered into her husband’s dwelling without being greeted by several sisters-in-
law, with whom she vies to secure the good-will of the aged mother-in-law. But it
happens, not unfrequently, in cases where her own daughters reside in the family,
that the old lady sets her face against all her sons’ wives, and by an undue partial-
ity to her own daughters, sows the seeds of jealousy and contention. The young
girls, without any principles to fortify their minds, or knowledge to rectify their
taste, are apt for the most trivial reasons to take umbrage against one another;
and then the most trifling causes may inflame their antipathy into contention and
19
disquietude. Often does the Zenana thus become, during the absence of the men,
a scene of disagreement, jealousy, and quarrel.
The quickness with which these disagreements are compromised, and the alter-
nate repetition that takes place of war and truce, are indeed very surprising. The
Hindu female’s mind appears to be too contracted to harbour, for a length of time,
even jealousy and grudge; quarrels are made up with the same speed with which
they are fomented.
If the several brothers in the family be not all equally well off in the world, and
especially if the junior members succeed better than the seniors, much jealousy
prevails among their respective wives. It is a great humiliation to a Hindu woman
to reflect upon her husband’s ill-success, and the humiliation soon degenerates into
envy; while the wife of the more successful brother is strongly disposed to treat
her sisters with scorn, and to provoke their ill-will by over-imperious demeanor.
The utter prostration of the intellect in creatures that were never led to learn
letters, nor ever allowed to see or hear of the world, may be easily conceived.
The highest ambition of the Bengal female, in the days of her youth, is to please
her superiors, by discharging the duties of the kitchen to their satisfaction, and
by neatly performing the other tasks allotted to her care; and few things serve to
gratify her more, as pledges of her husband’s love, than gifts of jewels and orna-
ments. Though made in a clumsy manner, and kept still more carelessly, these are
often manufactured with the most costly materials, such as gold, silver, diamonds,
pearls, and stones. For young women to carry about their persons golden orna-
ments to the value of seven or eight hundred Rupees is no way uncommon. These
are estimated highly, both for their intrinsic pecuniary worth, and for their being
regarded as marks of love and affection; and in visiting (under a purdah of course)
and receiving visits, the sentimental ladies never forget to deck themselves with
their gaudy trappings.
Their minds are scarcely ever exercised on any subjects, unconnected with
their immediate and most obvious interests. Bereft of the advantages of reading
and observation, their thoughts seldom extend beyond the walls of the Zenana,
or soar above the roof under which they are secured; the little exchequer of
their minds contains almost nothing besides images of jewellery and household
articles. Intellectual amusements and recreations are wholly unknown to them;
the only employments of which they are capable during moments of leisure,
are preparations of pickles and confectionery—if sleeping or quarrelling can be
avoided.
Nor are their moral faculties at all more ennobled than their intellects. The
only virtue that adorns the sex in their estimation is continence, and this, to their
honour be it recorded, they preserve inviolate, no less from a sense of duty, than
from the absence of temptation. Cases of conjugal infidelity very seldom occur in
respectable Hindu families; but their ethical category contains scarcely any other
principles of virtue and rectitude. They live in a state of moral insensibility, and do
not consider themselves bound, as rational and responsible agents, to perform any
thing besides their assigned work in the house. The standard of honour and moral
20
excellence is not very high even among the men; the degradation of the women
may hence be easily conceived.
The religious sense of a young Bengali woman is just what might be expected
from an uncultivated mind trained under the influence of superstition and preju-
dice. It is ill-regulated and confused. The idea of propitiating the Deity in any way,
seldom enters into her unthinking mind. Occasional supplications to the gods, in
order to be able to bear children, and invocations of their protection upon her little
ones, when she has brought forth any, together with a few other ceremonies of the
moat puerile kind, which vary in form in different families, according to diversity
of taste and sentiment, are the only duties which her liturgy prescribes.
After she attains to full grown age and has become a mother of children, and
perhaps the sole manager of the family, the freakish predilection of her youthful
days for vain gewgaws is rectified by her better experience; her life now settles
down in a more fixed way, either for happiness or misery. If her husband prosper
in the world, and exhibit proofs of attachment to her, and if no other co-partner
shares his affections, her household labours become a pleasure; she cheerfully
performs the duties which devolve upon her. A great portion of her anxiety is at
this time directed toward her children, whose health and long life she seeks to
ensure by human and divine means. The affection which she displays towards
them is, in its simplicity, a most pleasing proof of the principle of parental attach-
ment, with which Providence has endowed human nature. Her bowels literally
yearn upon her children; the troubles she cheerfully undertakes on their account,
and the mortifying and self-denying austerities she inflicts upon herself, in order
to deprecate the wrath of the gods against them, are striking evidences of that
maternal solicitude, which nature has implanted for the preservation of the animal
creation. Hindu mothers are distinguished by a tenderness seldom exemplified in
any other country.
The Hindu mother is however incapable of conferring upon her children, the
blessings of education; she never dreams of training them up “in the way they
should go.” As to exercising a salutary discipline upon them, her own ideas of
moral responsibility being vague, she expresses no solicitude about their being
governed by principles; and since the Hindu society is notoriously lax in its moral
discipline, she cares little about the moral formation of their minds.
Nor are the children only passively suffered to grow wild in a moral and intel-
lectual point of view; they are actually taught things, which their tutors would
afterwards have them unlearn. She scruples not to avail herself of false promises
and threats in her management of them, and is not very cautious in avoiding the
use of indecorous and improper expressions in their hearing. The docility of their
tender minds, combined with the depraved inclinations of human nature, thus
leads them to imbibe the most hurtful principles, and to contract the most vitiated
habits.
The afflictions with which providence may visit her in this stage of life, by the
untimely removal of children, prove a sad interruption to her pleasures. Bereft
of the hopes with which true religion inspires its votaries, and a stranger to the
21
consolations which an enlightened faith in the promises of God administers, the

Hindu mother’s heart receives an almost insufferable blow on the loss of her chil-
dren. No salve of which her friends are possessed, can heal her wounded feelings;
and the malady becomes past remedy when she is deprived of an only son, the
hope of her family. Her grief may be moderated for a season, and the disease
remain dormant for a time; but the cycle of festive solemnities and of occasions
of rejoicing constantly brings her departed child to remembrance, and rankles the
mortifying sore of her heart. Hinduism, in fact, cannot cherish any hope of re-
union after death; it inculcates indeed the reality of a future life, but the doctrine
of transmigration prevents its votaries from ever expecting to see their departed
friends in a different scene of existence. Before the surviving relation is called
away from this troublesome earth, the deceased will perhaps have passed into
another form, and returned into the world; the living and the dead may thus cross
one another without being seen or recognized. It is consequently difficult for the
Hindu to calculate on a restoration, in any state of life, of his departed objects of
affection; and the fragile heart of an ignorant woman, without any higher hopes to
animate it, may very naturally sink under the weight of affliction.
When the husband does not prosper well in the world, or cares little for his
wife, or if he has espoused more than one partner, the matron’s life becomes very
miserable. Incapable of enjoying any but those pleasures and comforts which the
senses can communicate, her existence becomes a scene of unmixed suffering
and pain, when the hard hand of poverty, and the still harder stroke of a husband’s
unkindness, press heavy upon her. Life itself becomes, under such circumstances,
a burden to her afflicted mind. To be subjected to the torments of a bleeding heart,
without hope of deliverance here or hereafter, is a most frightful idea; and yet this
is precisely the case with a considerable body of Hindu women, who are treated
unkindly by their husbands, and have no prospect of peace, either in this world or
that which is to come.
The life of a Hindu widow is still more wretched. If she fall into this condition
when young, without any property settled upon her by the father or the husband,
she becomes a slave to the family where she resides. Although while her parents
are alive she is protected to a certain extent, by their natural affection toward
her, yet their death deprives her of her last refuge. The surviving relations of her
husband are indeed bound by the tenets of the Shasters to maintain her as long as
she lives; but, except in very rare instances, she is still subjected to great suffering
and trouble. Her friends do not allow her the pittance necessary for sustaining life,
without exacting hard labour from her; and they scruple not to embitter her cup of
affliction, by constantly reminding her that she is a dead weight upon their purse.
The only favourable juncture wherein a widow is somewhat supported under
the pressure of affliction, is, when she does not lose her husband until she is
advanced in life, and has either property to depend upon, or sons to provide for her
wants. Under such circumstances, a few months will perhaps reconcile her mind
to her desolation; even the austerities she has to endure, will then become agree-
able by habit. Religious considerations chiefly occupy her time in this last stage of
22
life, when she is forbidden to look for the relaxation of worldly amusements, and
perhaps expects ere long, the dissolution of her mortal frame.
We have hitherto dwelt upon women, more or less, of respectable castes and families.
A few observations on the lower orders will conclude this chapter. The poorer people,
whom poverty forces to employ their wives and daughters in more than mere house-
hold work within doors, and whose resources would not allow the erection of quarters
consecrated to female seclusion, cannot of course restrain their liberty, or secure them
in enclosed premises. Women of the inferior classes accordingly enjoy greater freedom
than their wealthier and more respectable sisters. This liberty, which becomes necessary
to their existence, is however looked upon by their husbands themselves as an unavoid-
able disadvantage; and if they accidentally rise in society, they gradually immure their
females after the manner of the superior classes. Nor can the freedom alluded to, be
justly regarded an object of envy; for although it allows the sex to see more of the world
they inhabit, yet this advantage is more than counter-balanced by the evils to which
it exposes them. The danger of setting at large ignorant and uneducated women, with
clothing that scarcely serves the purpose of a covering, and in the midst of a people,
at best but half civilized, is more than a mere theoretic fear. It is a pleasing reflection
indeed, that few of the lower classes, thus allowed to appear in public, possess personal
attractions to draw the unhallowed notice of unprincipled spectators; exterior accom-
plishments in such cases subject the poor helpless parties to great personal risks.23
CHAPTER II.
ON THE EDUCATION WHICH THE BENGAL
FEMALES OUGHT TO RECEIVE, AND THE POSITION
THEY OUGHT TO OCCUPY.
THE preceding account is calculated to excite the sympathy and compassion of

the friends of humanity. The degradation of so many rational spirits can scarcely
fail to draw a sigh from those who are familiar with happier instances of female
improvement; it must especially call forth the commiseration of their more
favoured sisters of the West. Common humanity must actuate those who have
right ideas of female amelioration, to long for the regeneration of the daughters
of India. The misery which results from the uncultivated state of their minds,
as well as that which proceeds from the hardships to which the institutions of
Hinduism subject them, even though their parents, husbands, and guardians be
themselves the most affectionately disposed, must render them objects of compas-
sion to all enlightened minds. The monstrous system by which the most important
and sacred of all contracts—marriage—is turned into a yoke of servitude; the
ill-judged jealousy which deprives them of education, and consigns them to close
imprisonment in the Zenana; the horrid24 self-immolation that is recommended
to their weak minds on the loss of their partners in life; the severe austerities
imposed upon them in case of their declining to follow that murderous recom-
mendation: all these conspire to depict the present condition of our females in the
23
most painful colours, and to force the humane observer alternately to sigh and
blush; to sigh for the existence of so much misery, to blush at the tyranny of man
in originating and perpetuating such institutions.
A question naturally presents itself under such circumstances. Whether the
wretched degradation in which the women pass their days in this country is
inseparable from their nature, or whether it is capable of remedy? If they were
incapable of intellectual culture, or if they could not be treated with greater len-
ity without endangering their honour and virtue, then their degradation should be
called inevitable; it would be idle in that case to speculate on a utopean scheme
of education for them, or to dream of their elevation from their present posi-
tion. Before those speculations are made, and these hopes entertained, it would
be important to inquire; To what pitch may the powers of their minds be raised?
To what degree may their active faculties be expected to receive culture? What
position ought they to occupy in society? What liberties may be safely allowed
to them, and to what extent may they be invested with any responsibilities? What
part ought they to take in the concerns of this world? What preparations ought
they to make for a future state of existence? These are different aspects in which
the general question, wherewith this paragraph commenced may be viewed, and
every one of which is entitled to serious consideration.
To answer this question in its various ramifications is our subject for consider-
ation in this part of the essay; and that we may enter into it with as little declama-
tion, and as much conciseness and perspicuity as the nature of the subject will
allow, we shall begin with inquiring into the intentions of Divine Providence with
reference to the female sex. Few persons will dispute the truth of the maxim, that
the interests of a creature are then best provided for, when the purposes for which
it was created are most closely kept in view, and the faculties with which it was
endowed, rightly cultivated. Man, for instance, has been supplied with the power
of knowing and following the will of his Maker; he is impressed with a sense of
personal responsibility and animated with hopes of immortality; and he then best
promotes his happiness when he improves, with the greatest diligence, his intel-
lectual and moral faculties, and ensures, as a spiritual and responsible agent, the
eternal salvation of his soul by obedience to the precepts of Divine truth; while
in proportion as he neglects these duties, he destroys and mars his own interests.
But it is conceivable that the lower animals, who are not gifted with moral sense,
may ever remain ignorant of their Maker’s will and of the discoveries of human
science without suffering any loss or inconvenience. An inquiry into the designs
of the Creator in the creation of woman will, therefore, prepare us for answering
the question which forms the second division of this essay.
We fear we are incurring the danger of appearing prosy to European readers.
The propositions here attempted to be proved are by them considered self-evident
and axiomatic; we are accordingly afraid of being considered verbose, in labour-
ing to demonstrate truths with which they have been familiar from their infancy.
But the local circumstances of the country and the prejudices of our neighbours
will prove a sufficient apology. What the European will concede as first principles
24
on the subject, requiring no investigation or proof, the Brahmin may call into
controversy without scruple or hesitation; and as this essay is addressed no less
to the latter, than to the former, it is impossible to avoid many inquiries which the
inhabitants of Christendom have long outgrown.
The superior examples of female intelligence and female usefulness with which
history and observation furnish us, may be considered as practical comments on
the Divine will in this respect. Our intercourse with Europeans sojourning in the
East, has presented to our notice a spectacle of female improvement which throws
into the shade all our traditional recollections, whether of Lilavati, of Maitreyi,
or any other of our instructed females. Not only do we find every female in the
higher classes of society furnished with a superior degree of liberal education, and
honourably discharging the duties of the conjugal and maternal life; but we also
see her engaged, as a member of society, in performing acts of benevolence and of
public utility, and thereby exhibiting a strength of principle, and vigour of mind,
that would strike our Menus and Yagnawalkyas with wonder and amazement. The
ladies of Europe have been known to cultivate literature and science of all kinds;
history has presented to our admiration characters of female scholars and female
philosophers of no ordinary stamp.
To cite examples of female intelligence and virtue would appear tedious to
those who are conversant with European history. Every school boy in Calcutta
has learnt enough to understand, that the ladies of the West have for centuries
exhibited instances of learning and erudition, calculated to inspire wonder and
admiration; and to particularize individuals, might appear invidious to the integral
body of our occidental sisters.
Nor is the general body of our countrymen likely to dispute this fact. They have
seen and heard sufficiently to believe that efforts at female education have been
successfully made in the case of every European lady; and that no female that has
any position in society is altogether uneducated.
Now we contend that what has been done in Europe may be properly attempted
in India. If all men are derived from the same original stock, the female mind must
be as capable of improvement in the East as it is in the West. A difference in colour
and climate could not have produced a total disparity in mental constitution.
Apart from the lessons of history and observation, our own reason may instruct
us on the subject. Did we know of no instance in which females had cultivated
their intellectual faculties with advantage, we might still fairly conclude that such
culture was perfectly feasible. In the common affairs of life we find them exhibit-
ing those natural faculties which constitute the character of intelligent creatures
and moral agents. They are capable of all those functions which philosophers
attribute to the human mind. They can perceive and attend, conceive and imagine,
abstract and remember, discover causes from effects, and deduce effects from
causes. They can analyze and reason, draw conclusions from premises, and under-
stand the force of an argument when plainly and clearly stated. They can compre-
hend the general nature of duty, and are subject to remorse of conscience when
they err from the right path. They are aware of right and wrong, and are gifted with
25
moral discernment in common with their husbands and brothers. Their hearts are
capable of passions and affections. The sentiments of love and hatred, admiration
and approbation, censure and condemnation, have not been withheld from them.
Whence have they derived these capacities for thought, feeling, and action, but
from the favourable designs of Providence, with reference to their education and
exaltation in society? What other object can we suppose the Creator to have kept
in view, when he invested them with those powers, than that they should improve
them by exercise, and maintain their station as rational creatures and agents?
But we need not grope in the imperfect light of reason. We have a far more
unerring instructor than Nature to teach us the designs of God in the formation of
woman. The volume of Divine inspiration which has been vouchsafed to us, has
enlightened us on the subject of our inquiry. The Bible, whose divine original has
been acknowledged by the mightiest intellects in the most civilized countries in
the world, and to the inspiration of which history as well as its internal contents
bears incontrovertible evidence, tells us not only the occasion on which, and the
way in which, but also the reason for which, womankind was first created. “But
for Adam there was not found an help meet for him, and the Lord God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed
up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord had taken from man, made
he a woman, and he brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was
taken out of Man.” (Genesis ii, 20–23.) This short account sufficiently explains
the Divine intentions; the woman was designed to become an help meet for man.
She was to be his counsellor and companion, to assist him in his duties on earth,
to sympathize with him in his sorrows, to solace him in his affliction, to cheer
him when he was downcast, to bear a portion of his troubles and anxieties, to join
him in his devotions, to discharge such work for him as he could not personally
inspect, to nourish and cherish and instruct his infant children, in a word—to help
him in every situation. And as the discharge of such important functions must
pre-suppose mental and spiritual illumination, it must have been intended that the
woman should prepare herself for the proper understanding and performance of
her duties, by receiving the benefits of a liberal and well-directed education.
Again, since the man also had duties no less important to perform to the
woman, it was undoubtedly the design of Providence that, as bone of his bones
and flesh of his flesh, she should be allowed a reasonable portion of the personal
liberty and freedom of thought and action, which Adam claimed for himself. We
cannot accordingly suppose that she was designed to be secured in an inclosed
Zenana, or compelled to accept of an unknown husband. We cannot suppose that
she was destined in the intentions of Providence to bear the yoke of a slave in her
husband’s house, or to minister to his pleasures like the irrational inhabitants of a
menagerie. She was to be respected, loved, and honoured, and generally treated,
as the weaker vessel indeed, but for this very reason with the greater regard and
affection; that her fragile heart and tender feelings might not be bruised by harsh
provocation, or insulting misrule.
26
And what was the case with the first woman must also be the same with all her
daughters, so far as the intentions of Providence are concerned: there is no reason
for making an unhappy exception to the prejudice of our Bengal females. We
may therefore fearlessly assert, what all sincere inquirers will perhaps candidly
concede, that our sisters were designed to become help-mates to their husbands,
and to enjoy the liberty of contemplating the works of Nature, instead of being
doomed to a close imprisonment.
The question with which we commenced this essay, may accordingly be
answered in a few words. The degradation of Hindu females is not necessary to
their existence, nor is it incapable of remedy. The objects for which woman-kind
was created must be as feasible in Bengal as it is in any other country. Our females
ought to be what the first mother of the human species undoubtedly was, and
what Providence intended all her daughters to be—help-mates to their husbands;
bone of their bones, and flesh of their flesh. They are not to remain unconcerned
in the affairs of the family, nor only to bear the drudgery of the household, but
on the contrary to advise and counsel their consorts to the utmost of their power.
They are to assist them in the discharge of household duties, and render the evils
of this mortal life less onerous by their sympathy and exhilarating company. In
their affectionate caresses and rational discourses their husbands are to find a
cordial, that will allay the troubles and anxieties incident to earthly existence, and
stimulate dignifying and ennobling exertions. Their company should administer
a pleasure and a comfort more than compensating for the toils and fatigues of the
day. Few images can be more gratifying to the fancy, than that of a discreet female
vivifying the exhausted spirits around her in the domestic circle, and soothing, by
her conduct and conversation, the husband that returns from the heat and burden
of his diurnal occupations. There is a charm in the rational sympathy of an intel-
ligent wife which must operate almost with talismanic power upon the mind that
is agitated and disturbed by temporal crosses and disappointments.
Weak as the female sex is, its influence on the male sex is incalculably power-
ful. Nothing can impart greater strength to the moral character, or call forth more
forcibly the latent energies of the soul, than the sympathy of instructed wives and
sisters. Wild as was the chivalry of the dark ages, one of its component elements
was pregnant with the happiest results. The desire of gaining female approba-
tion moved the knights with an irresistible impulse to acts of heroism. Its abuses
may be attributed to the imperfect and defective education of the times, but the
motive which that desire supplied to great efforts must have produced important
effects on society. The natives of Bengal are now lamentably deficient in energy
and character. It is our firm conviction that their cast of mind will be wonderfully
improved, when females will learn how to exercise a salutary influence on their
husbands and brothers.
Of the duties and privileges of the conjugal life, one of the holiest is that which
respects communion in devotional exercises. The reflection of a husband and wife
striving in unison to ensure their eternal salvation, by worshiping God according
to his revealed will, and contemplating his marvellous works of nature and grace,
27
with one heart and one mind, has a captivating power over the imagination, which
it overwhelms with joy and delight. Thrice happy they in whose case such an idea
is realized. It is thus that “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and
the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband.” The husband and the wife are
mutually bound, or rather privileged, to edify one another’s heart by consentient
attention to the most important of all inquiries, that their conjugal partnership in
life, may be followed by that everlasting communion in glory, which ought to
engross the meditation and contemplation of all immortal spirits.
As mothers, our females ought to train the young minds of their children in
habits of piety, virtue, and good sense. The professional avocations of the father
generally requiring his absence from home throughout the greatest part of the day,
the child’s infancy must be trusted principally to the care of the mother; the early
cultivation of its intellectual soil must mainly depend upon her prudent manage-
ment. Its moral improvement must be promoted by her wholesome discipline, as
much as its physical growth by the sustenance she provides. The infant ought to
imbibe salutary principles from the instruction and conversation of her enlight-
ened understanding, while it extracts material nourishment from the milk that she
supplies. If the support of its animal life were the only duty which devolved upon
her, there would scarcely be any distinction between our sisters and the irrational
creatures, who have been endowed in like manner with an instinctive disposition
to toil for the preservation of their young ones. But the human species owes higher
obligations to its offspring than the grovelling beasts of the field; the education of
their minds is no less entitled to parental attention, than the nourishment of their
bodies. However novel this idea of infant schooling under female management
may appear to our countrymen, who have not yet experienced its blessings in
themselves, it is not an unreasonable reverie of an inventive fancy. Our own judg-
ments, if we consider the subject dispassionately, will teach us that it is perfectly
feasible. It is impossible to question the propriety of maternal care for the intel-
lectual and moral development of a child’s understanding during such time as it
cannot be sent to a public or private seminary. The father who has to work without
the house for the maintenance of the family, will not, in most instances, have time
to undertake this important duty, and unless his partner attend to its execution, it
must be left wholly undone.
Nor is the idea of a mother’s moral superintendence over her infants a mere
speculative theory, for the first time broached in this essay, and proposed to the
practical consideration of the Hindus. Any one who is familiar with European
history, and has considered its lessons with tolerable attention, must attribute the
illustrious superiority of many a conspicuous character to the influence of female
parents, exerted over their tender minds. It was in the cradle, under the judicious
management of intelligent and pious mothers, that the first seeds of education
were sown in numberless persons, who afterwards bore prominent parts in the lit-
erary, scientific, and religious worlds. How many eminent men, that have proved
ornaments to society, have thankfully ascribed the early growth of the principles
by which they profited in life, to the advantages of maternal discipline reaped in
28
their infancy. The attentive reader of biography may easily perceive that the ele-
ments of intellectual superiority, by which numbers have reflected lustre on the
human species, were first implanted in their mother’s lap, and were for a consider-
able period cherished by her instruction and advice.
Our best friends have complained that our educated countrymen themselves
begin at an early age to lose their mental brightness; that their intellects shine like
the ignis fatuus for a limited period after which they degenerate. The complaint
is certainly borne out by facts; but it is not the climate or any peculiarity in our
constitution to which the degeneracy is to be attributed. Such an inference would
at least be premature, before the effects of female emancipation on the national
character have been fairly tried. Education has as yet had a small sphere for its
work; its influence has extended only to a mere moiety of the population, even
where it has been most widely disseminated. Mothers, wives, and sisters are still
as ignorant as they ever were. The infant mind is still neglected. The mental soil of
the nation is not prepared by maternal care, and we cannot wonder if the impres-
sions produced by the school-master prove to be transient. How the case may turn
out if every boy commences his academical career with a mind previously worked
upon, and, after leaving school, is impelled to maintain the dignity of an educated
person at home and abroad, by the influence of an instructed wife or sister, has
still to be seen.
In the capacity of mistresses of the household, it is the province of women to
ensure the proper transaction of all domestic affairs. They are to ascertain their
husbands’ wishes on points wherein they need advice, and to provide for the ful-
filment of the same with diligence and activity. The menials, especially of their
own sex, demand particularly their direction and care. They are the most suitable
agents for exercising a salutary discipline over these members of the family, and
for performing acts of kindness and benevolence to them. They are charged with
the whole executive power in the household, while their partners are drawn out of
doors by their public employments. The wife is, in fact, the governor of the house,
the husband being prevented by his more arduous engagements, from entering
into the details of domestic economy.
As members of society, our females ought to shed a humanizing influence over
the great body of the Hindu community. The indelicacy, and even obscenity of
language, and the laxity of manners, tolerated in company by our countrymen,
are calculated to disgust all observers of any moral sensibility. The education of
women, and their introduction to society, will operate as a powerful check upon
such licentious practices. Few are so depraved as not to shrink from offending
the ears of their wives and sisters by the indecorous use of a corrupt and corrupt-
ing vocabulary; the presence of the sex must therefore prove an effectual barrier
against the viceous stream that now flows with violence unbated. The freedom
with which the most celebrated authors of the Sanscrit literature have represented,
without a blush, the vilest and the most abominable thoughts and images, under
the imposing garb of poetry, could never be tolerated or exercised, if the writers
or readers had the most distant fear of their own wives and sisters perusing them,
29
or if the community to which they belonged contained educated females, before

whom such lettered obscenities could not be introduced. The remark is likewise
applicable to the older Bengali literature of pure indegenous growth.25
In the state of widowhood too, our ladies ought to be more serviceable to them-
selves and to society, than they can at present be. The servitude to which the
death of their husbands reduces them, when they inherit no property, might be
prevented in many of its unhappy consequences, if they could apply themselves
to any kind of pursuit. Their misery and destitution admit under existing cir-
cumstances scarcely of any alleviation. The provisions which the wisdom of our
ancient legislators had created, cannot, and do not, shield them from the unkind
strokes of poverty and bondage. It would be preposterous to suppose, that the
general injunctions of Hinduism would be able to help their unhappiness, while
they were unable to assert their claims, and were consigned to the mercy of their
husbands’ surviving kinsmen. So long as they continue incapable of being ser-
viceable to any body, and subsist as idlers on the charity of others, the precepts of
Menu and Nárada will be lost equally on the government and on their relations.
They ought to return some kind of respectable and decent service to the quarter
whence they are to draw their sustenance. Society may derive benefits in various
ways from intelligent and well-disposed widows, and will cheerfully undergo the
burden of their maintenance, when it reaps the fruits of their exertions.
Besides these various objects, claiming the attention of our females in the vari-
ous relations of life, they have to secure the salvation of their souls. They contain
within their corporal frames, spirits no less immortal and capable of eternal bless-
edness, than those of their husbands and brothers. The sacred obligations of true
religion are of equal force upon them. They are naturally “dead in trespasses and
sins,” in common with the other sex; and the provisions of revealed religion are
alike adapted to their spiritual wants. They must therefore exercise their minds
upon the covenant and law of God, as He has been pleased to promulgate them,
and study to ensure their title to the blessings, which faith in his promises and
submission to his will are calculated to secure.
The proper discharge of these offices requires however that their minds should
in the first place be cultivated. While the intellect continues uninformed, and the
heart unsanctified, no human being is fitted for the right performance of any duties,
domestic or public, personal or social; a woman must especially come short in
these respects, so long as she is restricted from participating the advantages of
education. She cannot be safely placed in the position to which she is entitled, if
her passions be not regulated by principle, and if the vagrancies to which she is
naturally inclined, be not rectified by an enlightend conscience. No accomplish-
ments can possibly supply her want of discretion and spiritual discernment. It is
not a fair, but a virtuous woman, whose illumined and expanded intellect enables
her to understand, and whose affections, sanctified by the holiest influences of
religious truth, actuate her to discharge her duties, that becomes a crown to her
husband, a blessing to her children, and an acquisition to society. But what con-
ceivable benefits can proceed from an illiterate woman? What counsel can she
30
tender to her husband, but such as is calculated only to thwart and embarrass?
What help in the cause of domestic happiness can be expected from a person, who
is distinguished from the grovelling creatures of the earth, only by the peculiarity
of her physical form? What sanctifying influence can be exercised on the tender
heart of an infant by an uneducated mother, whose example and precepts can only
increase its natural propensity to evil? What instructions can she impart to its
docile mind, which it ought not to unlearn? What impulse can she communicate
to its passions and affections, but in the low, grovelling, and vicious channels of
sin, depravity, and ignorance?
What discipline can be exerted over a household by a mistress capable only of
fomenting disturbances, and occasioning vexation? What moral blessings may
servants derive from a governess, who needs personally as much instruction as
themselves? How can a creature, over whose mind hover the thick clouds of igno-
rance and vice, guide her menials in the path of righteousness, or help them to
improve their intellectual condition.
What service, but of the most degraded sort, can be looked for from a set of
widows incapable of any avocations which require thought and energy? What
profit can society derive from creatures unenlightened, and without principle, and
totally destitute of intellectual activity? What return can the human community
receive from such useless and unthinking persons, that it may contribute to their
comfortable subsistence, without regarding them as objects of charity?
What humanizing influence can be exerted upon society by a despised body of
uneducated females, fitted only for being immured, and liable to abuse any indul-
gence that may be allowed to them?26 How can illiterate creatures, scarcely raised
above the level of the irrational animals, claim that respect, or occupy that posi-
tion, by which alone they may soften the ferocity, chasten the taste, and promote
the civilization of the united body of their husbands, relations, and countrymen?
Females are generally so weak and so sensitive that unless they live under the
direction of strict principles, and the influence of holy motives, they are apt to
render a wide house more uncomfortable them the corner of the house top. While
the greatest portion of the happiness which pervades a domestic circle, proceeds
chiefly from the judicious management, and the decorous demeanor of an enlight-
ened wife, the misery and unhappiness caused by a brawling and vicious woman
are nevertheless bitter in the extreme. She forgets her proper position, and would
compel her husband to adopt the reveries of her own fancy; and thus retards,
instead of facilitating, his performance of duty. Phantoms of a freakish imagi-
nation are regarded as realities; and a vicious, irregular, and mischievous whim
usurps the authority, and claims the obedience, due only to reason, judgment, and
rectified taste. And as to the exercise of a salutary influence upon society, the idea
itself is preposterous. An uneducated female whose honour demands a restraint
upon her liberty, and renders seclusion necessary, is commonly enrolled in the list
of her husband’s untransferable moveables, and neither possesses the ability, nor
can command the respect by which alone she might correct the laxity, and moral-
ize the tone of her relations and friends.
31
It is accordingly necessary that the female mind should be improved; that it

should be regulated by right principles, and enlarged by useful learning; that it
should be brought up in the nurture and admonition of God, so as to be under the
government of sanctified feelings and affections; and that its religious impres-
sions should be deepened by rational conviction and internal assurance.
The honour and aggrandizement of our country imperatively demand the intel-
lectual and moral improvement of her daughters. India can never rise, while men-
tal degradation unfits them for the attention and respect naturally due to them,
and renders their introduction to, and elevation in society, equally impracticable
and undesirable. A regard for their virtue and for our own happiness may at pres-
ent force their husbands to restrain their liberty, and to check their presumption.
But it is equally discreditable and cruel wilfully to perpetuate their bondage and
mental inactivity, by obstructing the development of their faculties, and denying
to them the advantages of education. The cultivation of their mental powers is an
obligation which nature and kindred have imposed upon us, and an intentional,
deliberate, and habitual neglect to discharge it, will render our situation fearfully
responsible in the sight of God.
But if our hearts be too obdurate to be affected by a principle of duty, let a
sense of interest at least move us. The instruction of females will prove a bless-
ing not only to themselves, but also to ourselves, our children, and our country.
The advantages accruing to husbands from the counsel and sympathy of intel-
ligent wives; to children, from the instruction and advice of pious and judicious
mothers; and to society, from the humanizing influence of respected and sensible
women, have already been considered; we shall reap for ourselves, individually
and collectively, no inconsiderable a portion of the benefits which will result from
the emancipation of our females.
We may then exhibit before the world that the Bengali society is capable of
as much elevation as any other on the face of the globe; that our climate is not
a necessary obstacle to the development of our minds. Some eminent historians
have doubted the possibility of regenerating those races which have once become
degenerated. Whether this remark be sufficiently borne out by experience or not,
it needs not damp our energies. The Bengali is a rising, not a degnerated nation.
Its mental capacities have been proved to be equal to those of any other people,
and though still marked by numerous deficiencies, it may yet rise to the highest
possible pitch of civilization and refinement. The education of its females may
bring on a new and happy era in its history.
As to the rules by which this education should be regulated, or the mode
in which it is to be conducted, the limits of this essay will scarcely admit of a
detailed statement. What moralists have often asserted on the subject of female
education in general, might be repeated here with reference to the education of
native females in particular; but lucubrations on a trite subject may be properly
dispensed with in an attempt, whereof the theme is so peculiarly local. Suffice it
to say, that we would give their minds all the polish of which they are capable.
We would put no restraints on the cultivation of their intellects. We would not
32
interdict any branch of knowledge calculated to improve the understanding. There

is no reason why the education of girls should be less liberal than that of boys. But
we would wish their instruction to be compatible with the natural delicacy of their
sex and with their peculiar position in society.27
CHAPTER III.
ON THE MEANS WHEREBY THE AMELIORATION
OF BENGAL FEMALES MAY BE EFFECTED UNDER
EXISTING CIRCUMSTANCES.
WE have now described the evils by which our female society is afflicted, and
endeavoured to show that they are not incapable of remedy. But the most dif-
ficult part of our duty remains yet unperformed. The physician that cuts a sore
and pronounces it to be curable, must apply the remedy before he can expect
his discharge. The means by which the present condition of our females may
be improved so as to allow their elevation to their proper position, are now to
be delineated. The measures by the practical operation of which the women of
Bengal may be raised to the post which Divine Providence has designed for their
occupation, must now be considered. The steps by which they may ascend to an
equality with the ladies of Europe, remain still to be traced.
In this department of our essay, we labour under singular disadvantages. In the
first chapter, we had only to frame a digest of our ancient institutions, and to gen-
eralize actual facts around us; and on the subject of our second division, some fight
was thrown by the improvement which western females had already made, and
which consequently served as a standard, whereby to estimate the capacities of
the sex. But under this third head, we are left entirely to our own anticipations and
deductions. We have here to tread a path not yet beaten so as to serve the purpose of
a guide. This acknowledgment will sufficiently explain our desire not to be under-
stood positively to dogmatize, but diffidently to suggest, certain ways in which the
friends of female education may attempt the enlightenment of our Bengal sisters.
The question about to be discussed is,—By what practicable means may the
females of Bengal be raised in an intellectual and moral point of view, and rendered
competent for the discharge of their several duties with credit, and for the maintenance
of their proper position with advantage to themselves and to society? We have already
asserted that the cultivation of the mind by a well-directed education, must be looked
to as the great engine of improvement; and the point under consideration has principal
reference to such feasible expedients, as may promote the circulation of knowledge
among them. We have to inquire into the most effective plans whereby to afford them
such education as is necessary for the accomplishment of the desired end.
The instilment of knowledge can be effected either by public instruction or
private tuition. Boys or girls of various families may meet in a common seminary
for the purpose of education, and vie with one another under the same roof and
the management of the same governors; or, if their parents prefer it, they may
33
prosecute their studies in a more secluded way, within the enclosures of a private
dwelling, and in company with their own relations and friends. Each of these
modes has its uses and abuses, advantages and disadvantages. Our present inquiry
does not however refer to their relative utility or expediency. We are here called
upon only to investigate into the most practicable mode of introducing education
among our Bengal sisters; our object is to discover to what extent their parents
and guardians may tolerate the adoption of either, or both, of these methods of of
disseminating instruction among them.
The practice of immuring the females, and disposing of them in early life by
marriage, must baffle every attempt at conferring public education upon them. No
respectable Hindu can as yet be prevailed upon to send his daughter or his wife
to school, where she will perhaps become a gazing stock, and be obliged to keep
company, indiscriminately, with all castes of people. Few reflections are associ-
ated with greater horror in a native’s imagination, than that of a stranger’s obtain-
ing a sight of his females. No friendship, however intimate, will easily introduce
a person to the wife of his neighbour; and even in cases where the utmost confi-
dence prevails, the husband can hardly be persuaded to tolerate her appearance
before his friends. So strongly have custom and the tone of society rivetted these
prejudices upon the mind, that previous to a complete moral revolution in India,
the most powerful incentives to female enfranchisement will fail in their object.
The obtrusion of a woman in public, especially in youthful life, is considered
highly disreputable.
If, under these circumstances, a strong desire prevailed of raising the female
character, we might entertain some faint hopes of witnessing a defiance of popu-
lar prejudices, and a renouncement of long-established customs, for the sake of
advancing the good cause. Unfortunately, however, very little importance is prac-
tically attached to the improvement of the sex. The aggregate body of the Hindus
set scarcely any value upon their attainments, and appear heedless of the advan-
tages to be reaped from intelligent wives and daughters. They can imagine no pos-
sible way by which their acquirements may be turned to pecuniary purposes, and
have little conception of any nobler ends of knowledge. No motive is accordingly
found to exist, which might actuate the Hindus to confer educational benefits on
their women, in open violation of the custom of secluding them.
The obstacle which fashion opposes, is also to be weighed in the balance
against the public instruction of females. Their friends have not only to lament the
absence of any incentives to the pursuit of knowledge, but they have actually to
pull against a powerful stream flowing in the opposite direction. Although, as we
have already seen, neither the theology nor the philosophy of Hinduism is directly
repugnant to female education, and although many instances of intellectual supe-
riority in the sex have been mentioned with approbation, yet the current of public
opinion has long been unfavourable to the principle of educating them; a spirited
protest in practice against this general sense must incur the risk of being stigma-
tized as uncourteous and heterodoxical. The existence of the conventional feeling
against an object so excellent, may be unaccountable on any rational grounds;
34
the fact is nevertheless unquestionable; and it is the unkindly influence of that

feeling which paralyzes every effort to raise the condition of the sex. Those who
have received the benefits of a liberal education may sigh for the emancipation
of their sisters; but the utilitarianism of the Hindus will raise the question of cui
bono, the moment a scheme of female education is proposed to them. Such being
the adverse tone of Hindu society, its opposition to female instruction will become
almost insurmountable if the question be necessarily associated with a woman’s
appearance in public, which the educated natives themselves are not prepared to
sanction.
The female dress too, must prove an additional inconvenience to public instruc-
tion. The one piece of thin muslin with which our country-women shroud them-
selves, may be tolerated within an inclosed Zenana, the solitude of which can
never be disturbed by the intrusion of a stranger; but their appearance in public
with such habiliments would be a breach of decency, and might lead to unhappy
consequences. This inconvenience might be obviated by the adoption of more
substantial garments, but if the jealous repugnance of the Bengali to the least addi-
tion or alteration in the articles of female attire be taken into account, the difficulty
will appear in its true and appalling character: and however unimportant in itself,
the fact is sufficiently serious when viewed in all its actual consequences.
These considerations force upon our minds the conviction that nothing can be
expected at present, from the system of public schooling as far as the higher and
middling classes of females are concerned. The society of the Hindus is not yet
prepared for accepting the blessings which might flow from such a measure; until
a complete revolution takes place in their thoughts and feelings, no reasonable
hopes can be entertained of their tolerating the attendance of females in a public
seminary.
We do not mean however to express a feeling of hostility to the institutions
which have already been reared for the benefit of our country-women, and the
most distinguished of which stands as an ornament to Cornwallis Square. It
would manifest a total destitution of moral sensibility, not to recognize the zeal-
ous efforts of those whose names are associated with the very theme of our essay,
and who, in the genuine spirit and with the unwearied perseverance of Christain
heroines, first realized the idea of native female education, and exhibited their
belief to the world, by their philanthropic exertions, that the women of Bengal
were animated by souls as precious as those of the men. But even the patience
and fortitude of the agents employed by the “Ladies’ Society,” could not achieve
what might be called miracles; and that noble monument of their Christian exer-
tions, the Central School, to which a native gentleman28 himself contributed no
less than 20,000 Rs. has failed to attract within its walls any but children of the
lowest classes of society. These were little restrained by the law of fashion, and
did not scruple to send their girls out of doors. Men of no caste have in this respect
shown a feeling of independence, which the high and noble dared not assert. We
must not however dissemble that even the lower orders do not send their children
to school without other stimulants than love of knowledge. Nor has the result
35
produced any influence on native society. Severe criticism of female acquirements

would reflect little honor on the critic; and in India the day of small things must
not be despised. No pecuniary outlay can be considered too great, even if it pro-
duced a single educated native female in Bengal. We doubt however whether any
Hindu woman has in this way received an education productive of abiding con-
sequences; whether any female, thus instructed, can compose a single sentence in
English or in Bengali with grammatical correctness. Not that the honoured and
industrious tutoresses are themselves to blame. Far from it. Their diligence and
zeal are entitled to the reverence of all that are friendly to the cause. But where
parents and guardians exercised an inclement influence at home by precept and
example, the effects of a few hours’ instruction at school could not be great. The
usefulness of female schools has thereby been much obstructed. Not only have
they met with ill success in drawing educational candidates of any respectability;
but those they have collected from time to time, have principally come forward
from artificial encouragements. The knowledge actually imparted has also been
very limited. The early marriages of the pupils, would snatch them away from
their studies before they had learnt the simplest rudiments of their own language,
and put a stop to the further cultivation of their minds. The result has been a con-
stant fluctuation of pupils, and the actual progress elicited in the classes, has for
many years been at a standing mark.
In order to do justice to the seminaries above-mentioned, we will institute a
distinction between General Education, and the inculcation of Christianity. The
former is the formation of the mind by a course of intellectual discipline, and
requires a long and connected series of human expedients and literary studies;
the latter is the sacred work of initiating in the elementary truths of the Gospel,
which depends peculiarly upon the preventing grace of God, and calls more for
pastoral admonition, than for literary scholarship. The one is, for the most part, a
human operation, where human helps and human instruments are used according
to human judgment; the other is an especial work of Divine grace, where means
and instruments are regulated more by a reference to the voice of inspiration and
the practice of the Christian Church, than by an immediate appeal to human rea-
son and human discretion. General education is therefore to be distinguished from
the more sacred work of what in the primitive ages would be called catechizing;
and although the former may often, under God’s blessing, subserve the latter, yet
this occasional dependance does not annul their essential distinction.
Now in the public schools under consideration, little has been done in an edu-
cational, though much attempted in the catechizing way. The children are found
scarcely to have learnt the rudiments of grammar and construction, when their
early marriages, and the irresolute instability of their parents withdraw them from
school. With respect, however, to Catechisms and Gospels, they have often been
known to have mastered considerable portions by heart. But owing to its neces-
sary imperfection, their literary education has hardly conferred any advantages
upon them, the pupils unlearning in a few months, what they had got up in as
many years.
36
Their initiation into Christianity too has been thwarted in most instances by
the contagion of their heathen associations at home, and by their entire removal
after a time from Christian influence. But as we would magnify the grace of God,
and honour the instruments. He has blessed, even in one case of actual conver-
sion, we must express our gratitude at the instances, we find reported of persons
professing Christianity who had been instructed in those schools. It must never-
theless be acknowledged, that with the exception of a few individual cases, the
spiritual results have not been (if we be allowed to speak from what we see and
hear) much greater than the intellectual effects. The children’s stay at school has
generally resembled a short episode in their infancy, after which they have fallen
into the same habits as before, and grown under the same influence under which
they were born.
It is only when the continued attendance of children can be secured, that pub-
lic tuition may be conducted with advantage; and here we must testify to the
usefulness which Orphan Asylums promise. Too much commendation cannot be
passed upon those individuals and societies, which rescued many a helpless infant
from pestilence and starvation, during the several visitations of famine, drought,
and inundation, which the Almighty was pleased to send upon the country within
the last ten years,29 and provided at the same time for their moral training. Such
benevolent preservation of the body from the horrors of famine, followed by a
corresponding attention to the welfare of the soul, is worthy the disciples of Him,
who came to seek and to save that which was lost, and who, while he spread a
genial repast before hungry multitudes, directed them also to the spiritual bread
of life. The cause of education, no less than the interests of Christianity, must
eventually be forwarded by the noble exertions of His followers in first rescuing
the body and then nourishing the soul.
But for reasons already mentioned, no attempt can prove successful at pres-
ent, of conferring public education upon females in the better ranks of society.
For these, the only mode left for trial, is private tuition in a well-secured house
inaccessible to strangers. No other scheme is likely to command the confidence
of parents. The Hindus are still unprepared to risk the reputation of their families
by exposing their females. But many have grown so far superior to the prejudices
of their country as to feel the propriety of educating them. They appear willing to
execute their wishes if it can be done without molestation; they concede, at least
in theory, that girls may be instructed, not only with impunity, but also with profit;
we may therefore hope that they will not repudiate a proposal to instruct their
daughters within their own doors, without the sacrifice of trouble or money on
their part. Notwithstanding their practical ignorance of the blessings proceeding
from the education of their women, they cannot deny that learning is at least an
accomplishment, a portion of which may be safely imparted to their ladies. They
do not understand this sufficiently to regret the evils resulting from the intellectual
darkness in which their families are involved; but they would still be proud to
own wives and daughters capable of rational amusements and recreations. They
have not learnt to appreciate the abstract idea, so as to undergo pecuniary or social
37
privations for realizing it; but they may nevertheless be expected to accept, with
greater or less thankfulness, such helps as may be tendered consistently with their
jealous prejudices respecting female seclusion, and with the reduced circum-
stances in point of temporals, under which it is their misfortune to labour.
The custom which anciently prevailed in the Greek Churches of instructing
female catechumens in their own apartments, will throw considerable light upon
the subject of our inquiry. We desire to educate a number of human beings, whom
we cannot invite out of doors, and upon whose public appearance we ought not to
insist in the present state of their minds; and as some of the Eastern Churches were
once placed in similar circumstances with ourselves, we cannot fail to acquire
much useful information from a review of this practice. The Greeks were in the
days of yore as averse to, though perhaps not so jealous of the introduction of their
women into society as the Hindus; and if we inquire into the measures adopted
by the friends of female improvement among the former, we may possibly derive
considerable light as to the most feasible means of ameliorating the sex among
the latter.
Upon the wise and charitable principle of becoming all things to all men, and in
order to avoid the risk connected with an unseasonable and premature obtrusion of
unenlightened women upon the public, as well as to avert the scandal associated
in the estimation of unbelievers with such an ill-advised proceeding, the Church
provided for the instruction of her feeble-minded daughters, without interfering
with the national habits of the people. Female catechists were employed, who
visited their sex in private, and thus the light of the Gospel was carried into the
Gynæceum, without provoking the opposition, or even exciting the jealousy of
the community.30 Now the analogy31 between the manners of the ancient Greeks
and the Hindus is in this respect so remarkable, and the selection of those tutor-
esses was regulated by such wise canons, that better rules cannot be conceived by
which to conduct female educational agency in India. The deaconesses were aged
and experienced widows, unentangled with the cares of the household, and quali-
fied by long preparatory training for the performance of the duties which they
undertook. Their intelligence and strength of principle enabled them to teach their
pupils with success, and to prevent scandal; the Church thus carried on her blessed
work without unnecessarily disgusting the deep-rooted prejudices of the people,
or prematurely exposing creatures, who would probably abuse their liberty, while
their minds were yet weak, and therefore neither fortified by religious devotion
nor notions of honour.
This venerable custom of the ancient churches is entitled to the serious atten-
tion of the friends of humanity. An association may be formed upon an extensive
scale, and with every possible provision against unnecessary offence to native
prejudices, and suitable tutoresses of age and experience may be entertained for
the purpose of carrying the light of European knowledge into the Zenanas of the
Hindus. Government may be memorialized to patronize, and the natives them-
selves invited to support a scheme, visibly fraught with inestimable blessings
to the country, and based upon the principle of non-interference with religion.
38
The Council of Education will probably acknowledge, that half the population of
India, which exercise such considerable influence, as mothers and wives, upon the
students of their colleges and schools, are not necessarily excluded by their sex
from a proper share of their attention and good wishes; the sanction of such a body
must considerably extend the operations of the corporation we are sketching, and
ensure the confidence of parents and guardians. The connection of a few respect-
able natives would increase that confidence, and serve to stimulate their country-
men to co-operate in the good cause. A liberal allowance may induce many a
foreign lady of age and experience, to devote their time and talents to the instruc-
tion of so interesting a body of their sex. A great step may be hereby taken towards
the consummation of a work which has hitherto been almost entirely neglected.
If a few wealthy and influential native gentlemen can also be induced to give up
rooms in their inner courts for the use of private schools, where none but ladies
shall be admitted as tutoresses or visiters, nor any except girls from select families
allowed to enter as pupils, expectations still more sanguine may be entertained
of the success of the experiment. People may not be wanting under such circum-
stances to send their daughters to institutions so select; a goodly number of girls
may be assembled, at least, from the circle of the landlords’ own friends.
The terms on which education will be hereby offered, may from their concili-
ating character operate as inducements on many minds, which would otherwise
shrink from the prospect of infringing the customs of the country, or of encounter-
ing heavy demands upon their purse. The Hindu might reject with indignation a
proposal that demanded the appearance of his females in public, or their instruc-
tion in Christianity; but he may tolerate their education in general literature, if that
could be offered within doors upon terms suited to their circumstances.
The Christian friend of native female education needs not question the pro-
priety of a scheme even though it may exclude religious instruction. Religion is
indeed so naturally linked with true science and sound philosophy, that a wilful
separation of the one from the other, may be condemned as an act of treachery to
both. But where circumstances over which he has no control reduce the Christian
to the dilemma of either suffering a vast number of his fellow creatures to pine
in total ignorance, or of contenting himself for a time with teaching such general
elements as may gradually open their minds, he has no other alternative than
that of submitting to the necessity of the case, if he wishes to take any part in the
improvement of mankind.
The admission of European teachers for the education of male children was
often allowed by the most respectable members of the native community, who
considered it fashionable at one time to employ private tutors for their boys; and if
an equal degree of interest could be excited in behalf of their girls, many Baboos
would doubtless realize of their own accord the idea of female instruction in the
Zenana. In one instance, at least, we know such a course was pursued with consid-
erable success. The provisions which Baboo Prosunno Coomar Tagore had made
for the education of his late much lamented daughter, were unequivocal proofs
of his sense of paternal duty, as well as of his energy and public spirit; the happy
39
effects produced by his exertions, were illustrative of the practicability of the

plan we are recommending. For a Hindu gentleman of rank and fortune so far to
disregard the corrupt prejudices of a bigoted community, as to engage a European
tutoress for the purpose of instructing a female member of his household, was
no ordinary exhibition of moral fortitude; the success which crowned his efforts,
was an earnest of what might yet be expected from similar measures. It would
not be chimerical to hope, that if instruction could be offered under the auspices
of a well-organized European-native Society, without demanding a sudden and
violent revolution in the domestic economics of the Hindus, the cause of female
improvement might gradually prosper, in Calcutta at least. While alluding to the
almost unique example of Baboo Prosunno Coomar, it becomes extremely mel-
ancholy to reflect, that the first native lady that had cultivated European letters
and acquired European accomplishments, and to whose instruction large funds
had been cheerfully dedicated, by an enlightened and affectionate father, should
be snatched away in the prime of life, to the deep affliction of her parents, and the
sincere regret of all that have heard of her.32
Attempts on the part of husbands to instruct their own wives within the recesses
of their houses, have also been reported to us by testimony on which we can rely.
Of these, some have been crowned with partial success, others have proved total
failures. All these efforts had, however, been undertaken under the most unfavour-
able circumstances; and therefore, while the successful cases ought to serve as
encouragements, the disappointments that have been experienced, were perfectly
natural. The soil had long continued fallow, the atmosphere was most ungenial,
the seed had been but sparingly sown, and the exertions spent upon the work were
necessarily feeble. The wonder, therefore, is, not that all the seeds did not germi-
nate and thrive to maturity; but that any, however few, produced the desired fruits.
Notwithstanding the insignificance of the crop, and the poverty of the harvest, the
little that has been done, is an earnest of what may yet be expected from more
vigorous efforts, and better regulated plans.
If the difficulties which even husbands experience in getting access to their own
wives during the day be remembered, the failures just referred to cannot excite any
surprise. It is considered extremely uxorious in a person, especially when he is but
a junior member in the family, often to spend his time within the female court of
his house, or to seek the company of his wife before he retires to his own apart-
ment in the night; he cannot therefore easily get opportunities of conversing with
her during the day. If a quick sense of duty actuate him to undertake her tuition,
he finds it impracticable to attend to it except at an advanced hour in the night;
and since few can be competent at such a time for great intellectual exertions, the
ill success we have mentioned was by no means unexpected. Where a husband
could not remain in the society of his wife during the day without being marked
with an opprobrious stigma, it could not be a matter of amazement or surprise if
he failed in instructing her. Neither could the girl herself carry on her studies dur-
ing day-light without annoyance and interruption. Besides the manual work of the
household which might be allotted to her, and which would consume the greatest
40
portion of her time, she could not easily get off from the company of her sisters
and cousins, and retire for intellectual or devotional purposes. The scheme of pri-
vate tuition, under the direction and management of a well-organized association,
may rectify these evils, by reclaiming many a promising student from the vicious
influence of her domestic companions, and therefore promises a richer crop and a
more extensive harvest.
But under the present state of things our teachers must be Europeans, since we
shall not for a long time succeed in raising up such native tutoresses as might be
able not only to impart instruction, but also to command, by their age and experi-
ence, the respect and reverence of those around them, that the mouth of calumny
might be stopped, and no scandal thrown in so useful a course. And therefore,
our expectations cannot be too ardent. For besides the paucity of such teachers,
somewhat answering to the deaconesses of old, many other obstacles must be
encountered. Against the frequent admittance of European ladies for a purpose
so little appreciated, many doors will perhaps be closed. That in a few instances,
the kindness of such visiters may be appreciated and gratefully acknowledged, is
not a chimerical hope; but to calculate on their receiving a hearty welcome from
many families, would be an irregular flight of the imagination. It is favourable
for the scheme, that certain respectable members of the Hindu community and
staunch supporters of the Dharma Sabha, have often admitted foreigners into
their houses for the tuition of their boys, and entertained European guests upon
festive occasions with viands held in abomination by the orthodox natives. The
dignitaries of the Hindu fraternity having tolerated the access of Mletchas, no
scruples of a religious character will perhaps be harboured against the reception
of ladies’ visits for the purpose of female education; nor can the Brahmins con-
sistently discharge their ecclesiastical fulminations against a course of conduct,
no more opposed to the tenets of their theology, than the practice of their opulent
patrons upon every occasion of a grand nautch. We cannot therefore conceive
how any proceedings can be openly and officially instituted to excommunicate
those that may receive the educational visits alluded to. But what the Brahmins
as a body may be forced to tolerate, owing to the laxity of the age, may yet be
counteracted by the general tone of society. The novelty of the step will per-
haps provoke jealousy, and subject it to the silent, but unequivocal sneers of the
community, and the effect in a thousand instances will prove as hurtful as if the
Dharma Sabha had itself fulminated; for it would require as much resolution of
mind to disregard biting insinuations, as the open opposition of the sacerdotal
clan, A great barrier to private tuition within the boundaries of the Zenana itself,
may accordingly be prevented by the unworthy inuendoes and bitter taunts of
one’s own friends and neighbours.
False reports may be circulated to the annoyance of the spirited Hindu that may
afford his women the advantages of instruction; he will perhaps be charged with
violating the rules of his sacred fraternity, and degrading the dignity of Brahmini-
cal discipline, by constant association with those, whom to touch were of itself
an abomination. His name may become a proverb for habitually polluting the
41
sanctity of a Hindu residence by admitting into its courts the defiled footsteps of
an impure race.
These obstacles, though not insurmountable, will nevertheless thwart the oper-
ation of the plan alluded to, by proving in several instances too powerful to be
contended against. Still, since they are not insurmountable, they are to be reso-
lutely encountered; and considering the little offence which the scheme proposed
directly offers to the customs and institutions of the country, we may hope that
as the blessings of female education will be more practically understood, and its
influence even on our temporal interests more justly prized, many will be heroic
enough to despise the taunts and sneers of their neighbours, and to contend for the
cause of female emancipation in spite of their slanders. The educated native mind
is not so destitute of moral energy that on matters of acknowledged importance
it will blindly submit to the clamour of an ignorant multitude, whom it holds in
contempt, and treats with ridicule. Our countrymen may not be willing to pro-
voke the jealousy and ill-will of their friends and neighbours for things which
they have not learnt to appreciate. Nor can apathy in a cause which is itself not
prized, be considered a conclusive evidence of a want of moral courage. Radical
changes in manners and customs, which the mind has been inured to hold in rev-
erence ever since it first began to think, and over which antiquity has spread her
delusive charms, are not to be expected, but in the pursuance of objects which are
felt to be momentous, and under the influence of motives, sufficiently powerful
to counteract the force of early impressions, and the deep-rooted prejudices of
early education. Few can adequately conceive, without actually experiencing, the
difficulty which attends the task of reconciling one’s self to new manners, new
customs, new habits, and new modes of thought and action; and the repugnance
of the Hindus to female education is sufficiently accounted for, when its tendency
to overturn the present structure of their domestic economy is minutely inves-
tigated. The ignorance of women is so interwoven with the entire government
of the household, that no active measures can be extensively adopted, without
tolerating considerable innovations in domestic life. Failures, if they attend our
scheme for a time, ought not therefore to make us droop in despair; but on the con-
trary, they should move us to more determined and vigorous exertions, whereby
to illustrate the advantages, and create among the natives a just appreciation, of
female education.
We cannot here refrain from making reference to the attempts, made more than
ten years ago, to introduce education into the harem of Mahomet Ali, the pasha
of Egypt The success which crowned the exertions of Miss Holliday in the land
of Ham, must encourage the friends of female education in the pursuit of similar
schemes of domiciliary instruction in Bengal. Our countrymen cannot guard their
females more closely than the followers of the Arabian prophet; and if an Euro-
pean lady could find means to recommend herself to the ladies of a Turkish pal-
ace, why may not similar openings be looked for in the mansions of the gentry of
British India? The friends of female education must however abstain from hasty
interference with inveterate prejudices. The spirit of Him who in every practicable
42
way condescended to human infirmities, and the example of the apostle who was
made all things to all men that he might by all means save some, should ever be
borne in mind in a country like India. He who is forced to give up what is within
his reach in his eagerness to grasp at too much, cannot be exonerated from the
charge of imprudence; nor should the intelligent Christian consider himself as
neglecting his Master’s cause, if he be obliged to content himself for a time with
teaching nothing but literature and science. The sapper and the miner are agents as
essential to the success of an army as the gunner and the musketeer. The counsel
of Hekekyan Effendi to Miss Holliday, cannot be too strongly enforced upon the
attention of similar labourers under similar circumstances.33
The extensive spread of education through the Hindu College, the General
Assembly’s Institution, the Free church and other schools, which has caused, in
Calcutta at least, a great movement in the native mind, opens a fair and cheerful
prospect to our imagination, and is calculated to produce sanguine hopes regarding
the future interests of India. It has turned the thoughts of the rising generation into
a new channel, and imparted a degree of intellectual vigour which will not easily
shake before the nod of a bigoted community. Our young friends have imbibed a
spirit of mental independence, which renders them superior to a blind adulation
of Brahminical authority; and which will fortify them against the encroachments
of corrupt priestcraft. Already have a goodly number asserted their unrestricted
right to think and act for themselves, by publicly abjuring the superstitions of the
country in the very teeth of her false hierarchy, and by adopting a rational and a
holy creed, in spite of the frantic rage of a depraved society; and if all have not
displayed a like energy and fortitude, the whole community is still preparing for
some great revolution, to signalize perhaps this very century, and to complete the
triumph of knowledge against ignorance.
As the educated youths become masters of families, a wide field will be open-
ing for the exercise of female benevolence. We may hope that many of their num-
ber will accept for their wives the advantages of education, if tendered within their
doors. Their minds have been sufficiently strengthened by the ennobling effects of
education, so as not to waver in the performance of acknowledged duties to their
wives and daughters, when a feasible plan shall be laid before them. The plan to
be feasible must wink at certain conventional customs believed to be essential
to the preservation of social order; nor should it demand great pecuniary sacri-
fices. Their resources is not generally so large as to suffice for the employment of
proper instructors for the members of their Zenanas; nor are the bonds of kindred
and natural affection so fragile in their breasts, as to be violated by any motive
short of those which true religion furnishes; and if the simple object of education
involved disbursements of funds which they could not command, or insisted on
a renouncement of caste and relations, for which no earthly advantages could be
felt as an adequate compensation; it would be difficult to conceive how the cause
could prosper. But happily, the question of female education is not immediately
connected with loss of caste, and may render a person obnoxious only to vain sar-
casms from an ignorant and powerless multitude; and if it can be procured without
43
great pecuniary sacrifices, a clear prospect will be before us, of, at least, a partial
operation of the system.
The progress of the system, however, will mainly depend upon the infusion
of a more kindly spirit. The apathy which marks the efforts of the Hindus for the
elevation of their females, must be supplanted by an animating zeal before much
can be expected. In proportion as our countrymen will appreciate the benefits
accruing from the instruction of their wives, they will be persuaded to exert more
powerfully, and to contend more decidedly, against the impediments in their way.
Under the present circumstances, therefore, every effort that tends to rouse them
from their moral lethargy, and to incite them to energetic action, must be acknowl-
edged to be a preparatory step towards the consummation of the object. But with
speculative expositions of its benefits, our patience has nearly been exhausted.
The error of our friends, we are convinced, lies not in theory. They acknowledge
the advantages of female education, and are not afraid or ashamed to assert them
in their writings. In fact, verbal approbations of such a cause have become so
fashionable in the new school, that a deep stigma is set upon a person that pre-
sumes to raise a dissentient voice. But empty and theoretic assertions that survive
not their articulation, have as yet procured no benefits for the sex; and the cause
shall continue stagnant, so long as the support it meets with is confined to mere
wordy declamations. Even though the professed advocates of female improve-
ment continue for ages to plead by their lips and pens, the objects of their benevo-
lent declamation shall nevertheless continue in their present state, while nothing
is actually done.
It is much to be regretted, that our intelligent countrymen have so little per-
sonal experience of the happy results of female education in European society.
Although they can comprehend in theory the advantages to be derived from the
instruction of their women, and may be fairly charged with coldness of heart and
weakness of principle, for hesitating to act upon their convictions; yet it must be
acknowledged in justice to them, that their inactivity is neither surprizing nor
unnatural. They understand speculatively, indeed, that females, when educated,
must become more valuable members of society, and better fitted for the discharge
of their duties; but they have not as yet practically witnessed these effects. They
have not as yet seen with their eyes the superiority which education imparts to
female recipients: the reports of female elevation of which they hear or read,
cannot influence their hearts so much as ocular evidence might do. Few would be
able to answer in the affirmative, if asked, whether they had ever been in company
with and spoken to any educated females; and none could say, yes, if the question
referred to their acquaintance with many superior members of the sex.
Whatever plans may introduce intelligent Hindus more extensively to the soci-
ety of educated ladies, and thereby familiarize their senses with spectacles of
female superiority, must operate like a magical spell upon the civilization of the
country. Few minds are so dull as to witness the happy effects of female enlight-
enment among their neighbours, without a longing desire of enjoying the same
blessings in their own family; and an ocular attestation of what is at present
44
known only from books and oral reports, cannot fail to exercise an actuating and
a persuasive power peculiar to itself.
When such large bodies of Europeans are sojourning in the East with their
ladies, the ocular evidence, which is so great a desideratum, is perfectly feasible.
If every gentleman that desires the amelioration of native society, would conde-
scend to allow the intelligent Hindus of his acquaintance a sight of what female
education has done in his own domestic circle, by occasionally introducing them
to his family, the happiest results might be anticipated. Man has been often styled
an imitative creature, that is influenced more by the tangible effects of a beneficial
scheme, than by all the theories and fairy prospects which his judgment or his
imagination can conceive or fancy. The actual operation and visible consequences
of a salutary project are as greater incentives to duty than mere theories, as exam-
ples are more efficacious than precepts; and accordingly, if our educated coun-
trymen can themselves witness the happy fruits of education among European
females, their minds will receive an impetus, which cannot but lead to vigorous
efforts for the reformation of their domestic lives.34
If the minds of the rising generation be deeply imbued with impressions favour-
able to female education; if they be made, by constant intercourse with Europe-
ans, to witness with their own senses the advantages produced upon society, and
the benefits accruing to families, from the moral and intellectual improvement
of women, more than half the work which we fondly desire, shall be thereby
consummated. The elderly members of the Hindu community, who have been
accustomed all their life to review with religious reverence the institutions of
their country, and the examples of their ancestors, cannot be expected easily
to renounce opinions and prejudices to which such sanctity is attached, or to
discontinue practices endeared to them by the observance of their forefathers,
and enforced by the advice of priests and the general tone of society. Much co-
operation or assistance in the cause of female education cannot therefore be looked
for from the older and more orthodox Hindus. These champions of Brahminism
dote upon every thing which they find was sanctioned by Menu or Vyas, and are
hostile to any advance towards improvement. But the rising generation who have
themselves received a liberal education, and upon whom the tenets of Hinduism
have but a feeble hold, and the Brahmins possess scarcely any ascendancy, who
have imbibed from the examples of high-minded Reformers, commemorated in
History, sentiments of aversion to antiquated superstitions, promise to become
the most powerful and efficient instruments for helping in the cause of female
education. If opportunities be sought whereby to direct their energies to this great
object, if proper and powerful inducements be offered in order to move them to
ameliorate females under their influence, their good will and co-operation may
be secured. If those whose opinions they treat with respect, and whose approba-
tion they are ambitious of securing, constantly remind them of their duties to
women, and they begin to feel that it would be almost disreputable to neglect one
half of their wards and dependents, they may not only embrace with gratitude
every opportunity offered by European benevolence of educating their wives and
45
families, but also labour of their own accord to ensure this object. The youthful
husband may then be filled with a desire of imparting to his wife those advantages
which he has freely received at school, and thus a spirited beginning may be made
to end with the most important consequences.
Large fields for the dissemination of education among females have been
opened in those places, where great numbers of natives have embraced Christian-
ity. Relieved from the spell of those prejudices which have perpetuated female
degradation in the East, and stimulated by motives which are inseparable from
a healthy state of Christianity, these Hindu Christians have the singular felicity
of freely imparting to their daughters the advantages of a liberal education. But
the author is deterred by a feeling of delicacy from expatiating on the efforts a
community of which he is himself a member, and which, though yearly rising in
importance by fresh accessions, is still but a mere speck in native society. Nor
must we confound the efforts of a few individual converts with cultivated minds,
who have embraced Christianity after rational conviction, with the doings of the
mass whose principles and motives must be estimated agreeably to what we are
bound to believe in charity rather than according to what we can depose from
actual observation. For it must be acknowleged that the vast majority of converts
have come from the lowest ranks of Hindu society and are perfectly illiterate. But
the religion they have adopted possesses a self-elevating power, the influence of
which must eventually benefit the community of its recipients. We are aware,
indeed, of the suspicions with which their strength of evangelical principle is
viewed by many of their own friends and supporters; but much, we are assured,
may nevertheless be done among them and with them. In a country where a most
monstrous and demoralizing system of error has prevailed for ages immemorial,
it cannot be a matter of surprise, if the first converts be tainted with the corrup-
tions under which they had so long lived and grown. Even of the European nations
constituting the ornament of Christendom, the original converts were weak in the
faith, and had but faintly adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour. The barbar-
ians who emigrated from the vast plains of Central Asia, and carried misery and
desolation wherever they went, put on, upon their conversion, the form, without
exhibiting in their lives, the power of godliness. It was not till the Gospel had
taken deep root in their countries, that its influence was visible in their life and
character; and then what the fathers had merely professed, the sons adorned in
the succeeding ages. Similar may in the Providence of God be the case with the
multitudes that have embraced Christianity in India. However weak their own
principles and doubtful their personal improvement, their children are under the
influence and controul of their pastors; and if the Church perform her duty to her
neophytes, happy results may be anticipated with God’s blessing upon her efforts.
Not that we are at all to slacken our discipline with reference to the admission of
new professors. We cannot be too cautious in the reception of candidates to the
fellowship of the gospel. But as the most vigilant minister is not proof against
deception, and as unworthy professors have crept in, we must do what we can to
extract good from evils which we cannot avoid. Much may and ought to be done
46
with their children, for whose education the Christian community is partly respon-
sible, and whose characters must, to a certain extent, be influenced by the advice
and instruction of their pastors and teachers.
We cannot here dissemble our surprise at the little that has been done with the
children of native Christians. We can name several individuals whose fathers for
two generations had been Christians by profession, and we know numbers who
were born after the conversion of their parents. These have from their infancy
been brought up more or less under the eye of European missionaries, and yet
none from their ranks has to this day received any but an imperfect education;
and strange to say, the only native catechists as yet raised in that great collegiate
institution of the Church of England, which stands as a monument, on the banks
of the Hooghly, of the piety and Christian energy of the first Protestant Bishop in
India, are students of the Hindu and Medical Colleges, subsequently embracing
Christianity. Not a single native has passed Bishop’s College, whose parents were
Christians, or whose elementary education was conducted under the auspices of
a Missionary Society.35
We hope not to be understood to reflect against any of those respected and hon-
oured individuals, who from love to God and regard for souls, have left the soci-
ety of friends and relations, and have braved oceans and seas in order to preach
the Gospel to the heathen. We would gladly bear testimony to the privations and
troubles they voluntarily undergo, and the cares and anxieties which incessantly
harass their minds in the prosecution of their Master’s cause; and for the deficien-
cies we have mentioned, the whole Christian community generally, and not any
persons individually, appear to be responsible. One great cause which has occa-
sioned the shortcomings alluded to, and sadly embarrassed the educational and
other agencies of Missionary Societies, is the want of union, and consequently
of strength, in the Church. So little do Christians of modern times endeavour to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, that sects and denominations have
multiplied without number, and as each pursues a separate interest, and keeps a
separate establishment, the large funds which Christian piety supplies, are spent
upon multitudes of isolated schools, which, in consequence of these divisions, all
become more or less inefficient. If the unity and uniformity which Christ himself
so fervently desired (John xvii. 21.) were sought by those that bore his name, a
graduated series of institutions, mutually depending upon each other, might be
founded, from elemental and grammar schools, to academic and collegiate estab-
lishments;36 the children of Christian natives would not then occupy that degraded
and prostrate position in morals, intellectuals, and spirituals, which is at present
their portion.
To return from this digression;—we consider the education of the female chil-
dren of native Christians as a great step toward the instruction of the weaker sex
in the country, and most decidedly would we raise our feeble voice in support of
the appeals made from time to time for the education of Christian children in the
interesting district of Kishanghur. We hope however that the managers of Mis-
sions will aim at a high standard in the education they bestow.
47
The establishment of infant schools in different parts of the country, for the
instruction of both male and female children, would also greatly help the cause
of female education. The Hindus do not seclude their women in the tender age of
childhood, and might be easily prevailed upon to send them to school as infants,
if respectable institutions were opened. The effects of such a system would per-
haps surpass all expectation, and lead to a new æra in the history of our females.
Many husbands would gladly, as they might easily, keep up the instruction of their
wives, where it had already been carried to a certain height; and if the case has
been otherwise with those whose partners have been instructed in the central and
other schools, it is because the husbands in the lower classes (and the present pub-
lic schools have never been able to attract the higher orders) are themselves illiter-
ate, and could neither help nor encourage their wives to continue their education.
But we must not be understood to look with very fond hopes or sanguine
expectations on any of the plans we have suggested above. As almost the only
expedients that can be adopted under present circumstances, with any prospect
of success, they are doubtless entitled to a fair trial. But the progress of female
education depends so much upon the social improvement of the nation, that we
cannot calculate upon much success before we advance considerably in civiliza-
tion. The education of females may at the same time be considered a cause and an
effect of social improvement. The one is intimately associated with the other. No
people can be civilized while their women are in a state of moral and intellectual
prostration; nor can women be long suffered to pine in ignorance, when civiliza-
tion is once introducted. Neither the way here recommended of sending female
teachers into the Zenana, nor any other that is imaginable, can work vigorously
before the demoralizing institutions of Brahminism are subverted by the sacred
fabric of divine truth, and before the secular affairs of our countrymen prosper
under the twofold influence of more liberal and humane legislation on the part of
our conquerors, and of more industrious and active habits in our own community.
While the women continue as exiles from society under the sentence of seclusion,
and while they are forced to accept unknown husbands long before the dawn of
reason in their minds, little can be attempted with any hope of success for ame-
liorating their condition. The authority of Menu and Vyas must be superseded by
the higher sanctions of divine inspiration, before a complete, or even an exten-
sive, emancipation of the weaker sex can be expected in India. If our educated
countrymen consider attentively the lessons of history, they will easily discover
the true remedy for the perils of female society, and ascertain what has proved the
most mighty instrument in the enfranchisement of women. It is a remarkable fact,
striking the senses of the most superficial observer, that Christianity, and Christi-
anity alone, has as yet been their most faithful and devoted friend. By practically
inculcating the salvability of their souls, and their responsibility as moral agents,
the Gospel furnished a provision for their comforts and improvement, which has
teemed with such happy consequences in the West. The father was taught the
duty of educating his daughter as an intelligent and moral agent; the husband was
instructed on the propriety of loving his wife, even as Christ loved his Church;
48
and on society was enforced the obligation of honouring those that composed the
better half of the human species. The practices of polygamy, of unlawful and arbi-
trary divorces, and of tyranny over the weaker sex were thus eradicated from the
face of Christendom; and an impetus was communicated to the cause of female
elevation, the effects of which are visible in the society of European ladies. Previ-
ous to a like radical change in the sentiments and feelings of our countrymen, and
a like stimulus to female improvement conveyed by the sanctifying influence and
the holy motives of the Gospel, one could not look with sanguine hopes for the
full consummation of our object. The unhappy captive in the Zenana cannot be
rescued so long as the inhuman monster that sentenced her incarceration, is not
spoiled of his dominion and banished from the land; nor can the degradation of
our sisters tadmit of complete relief, before the nation will acknowledge the truth,
and be actuated by the spirit of that religion, whereof one characteristic motto is,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
But though our own belief is that female education will not generally prevail
before the introduction of Christianity, we are prepared to hail with joy every
movement toward the instruction of our country-women. An enlightened Hindu,
that is not himself a Christian, will of course disagree with us in our anticipations.
We shall rejoice to find him realizing the idea of female instruction in the pres-
ent state of society. We shall rejoice to see any person, whatever be his religious
creed, leading in the great cause of improving the fairer half of the population of
India. This cause demands the most attentive consideration on the part of all who
can appreciate the benefits of knowledge. Those, especially, who would make us
believe that pure Hinduism, the unadulterated teaching of the Vedas, is in itself a
most rational body of divinity, are bound to show that their theory is not practi-
cally incompatible with the improvement of their wives, daughters, and sisters.
As our improvement in spirituals is necessary to awake us to a sense of our
duties, and thereby stimulate our exertions for the welfare of just one half the
human species, so is the temporal amelioration of our condition necessary to
the execution of our project. It is a sad but an undeniable fact, that the greatest
portion of our countrymen can ill dispense with the services of their women
to afford them leisure for study, and are forced by their reduced circumstances
to impose upon them their whole domestic drudgery. This hard necessity must
long teach them the policy of perpetuating the ignorance and degradation of
those, for whose intellectual recreation they can allow no vacation, and whom
they cannot exempt from the meanest employments of the house. The mental
exertion which the reception of education requires, can scarcely be made with
any success, while the hand is full of such a variety of hard tasks as falls to the
lot of the woman in Hindustan; nor can placidness and contentment, in a mind
capable of literary occupations, consist with incessant calls to the most labori-
ous and fatiguing toils. What time or taste can our sisters have for intellectual
amusement, while they are continually worried by the alternate performance of
the duties of sweepers, bearers, cooks, khetmutgars, and masalchees? And yet
their husbands cannot help this. The rooms must be swept, the beds and lights
49
must be prepared, the meals must be dressed and served out, the plates must be
cleaned; and if the men must attend to their professional employments, and their
poverty allow not the entertainment of servants, the tasks must devolve upon the
women. How then can the natives be reasonably expected, under such circum-
stances, imprudently to encourage a system of education, which may interrupt
the performance of domestic business, and create in the females a refined taste
for expensive articles, the gratification whereof must multiply calls upon their
exhausted purses?
Under this extensive view of things, every attempt that is made to enlighten and
convert, to enrich and raise the males from their present spiritual and temporal
condition, must eventually exercise a happy influence upon the welfare of the
women. Knowledge must be disseminated, superstition must be eradicated, truth
must be implanted, trade and the arts must be countenanced, indigenous talent,
genius, and industry must be encouraged, before a considerable change can be
expected in native society; and prior to such a change, much improvement can-
not take place in the most delicate point of treatment to females. Men must be
reclaimed from a blind adulation of custom, the sanctifying energies of truth must
work upon them, the languor and inclemency of poverty must be removed from
the leading members of society, before the Hindus will set their hearts upon such a
total reform of domestic life, as female education, if extensively diffused, will call
for. To expect that they will at once relieve their partners from hard manual task,
or that these will turn to good account an immediate lift to the post enjoyed by the
educated ladies of the West, is to expect a miracle. If the past dealings of Divine
Providence may form good criteria for anticipating the future, no sanguine expec-
tations can reasonably be entertained. For centuries did the renovating truths of
the Gospel shed their benign influence upon Europe, once involved, more deeply
perhaps than Asia, in darkness, before society acquired its present tone, and put on
its present features. Long had the powers of the human mind developed in various
ways, and commerce and the arts had helped the cause of human improvement,
before the spectacle of female enfranchisement, such as we now see, was exhib-
ited. And is a precocious advancement to be expected in India? Are we to do here
in a few years, what was not achieved in Europe before many ages? Are inveterate
evils of deeper root to be eradicated in a moment from Hindu society, when the
work of destroying the same in Europe occupied so many centuries, and required
such continued exertions?
Thus then we see that previous to the conversion of the natives, and the ame-
lioration of their temporal condition, much cannot be looked for in the way of
female education. It is impossible that many can be instructed under the pres-
ent unfavourable circumstances. Respectable native females must be raised up
as tutoresses and schoolmistresses, and the women must be liberated from their
imprisonment and relieved from their laborious tasks, before the cultivation of
letters can come into general vogue among them. But such a system can never be
introduced before the dissemination of the gospel, and the social improvement of
the people.
50
We must here take the liberty of reminding our British conquerors of the duties
devolving upon them from their peculiar position in the East. Divine Providence
has tolerated their elevation to the dignity of rulers in an empire, which even
the Macedonian victor had failed to annex to his almost unlimited dominions.
They are now enjoying precedence and supremacy in a land, which had from
time immemorial attracted the eye of the world, but of which, by their birth,
they possessed not even the rights of citizenship. They are deriving wealth, and
patronage, and influence, and power from a country, thousands of miles distant
from the place which gave them birth. Is it to be supposed that God has crowned
their projects with success, and signalized their arms with victory, for the sole
purpose of multiplying their enjoyments, extending their patronage, and increas-
ing their opulence? Was it only that they might taste the milk and honey with
which the heritage flowed, that they have been suffered to obtain such a firm
footing in India? By no means! He that had promised to his Son, “the heathen for
his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession,” rescued
this vast empire from the clutches of Brahma and Mahomet, that the standard
of the Cross might supplant those of the Trishula and the Crescent. He that had
predetermined the preaching of his Gospel unto all creatures, and the restoration
of the numberless sheep he owned among the Gentiles, entrusted the country
to his favoured servants of Christian Britain, that the superstructure of divine
truth might accompany the erection of their castles and fortresses, and that the
religion of peace, with all its attendant blessings, domestic and social, might be
offered to the adoption, and commended to the consciences of the people, about
to the emancipated from the thraldom of demons and monsters. So long then,
and so far only, as our masters labour in the execution of these great purposes,
they rightly retain their vassalage under God. How immensely does this consid-
eration enhance their obligations in the sight of the Almighty! It is their part not
only to assist, but to take the lead in the improvement of the country, and the
regeneration and complete civilization of her inhabitants! If the possession of
gospel knowledge, and the enjoyment of the two-fold promises of gospel godli-
ness, entail of themselves the most weighty obligations on their partakers, so
that every Christian may say with St. Paul, “I am debtor both to the Greeks and
to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise;” how much more pressing
do these duties become, when, in addition to these advantages, the facilities that
have been opened, and the active influence that has been vouchsafed to the Brit-
ish nation, is taken into account?
Be it understood that we are talking generally of the duties which Christian
England owes to her heathen dependancy India. We acknowledge with gratitude
that our country is infinitely better off under British auspices, than she ever was
within the memory of man. Neither the Mogul, nor the Afghan, nor any of our
own native dynasties, understood the principles of that enlightened policy, which
is the glory of British supremacy. We do not therefore mean to deny our own obli-
gations to England, when we still speak of her duties to us. We are fully sensible
of the improvements effected in our country under her influence; of the security
51
we enjoy under her powerful protection; of the progress of education under the
immediate patronage of the local governments; of the encouragement tendered
to native talent, and the removal of invidious distinctions and disabilities as far
as the power of the authorities on the spot extends; of the stimulus given to the
commerce of the country and the development of its wealth; of the principle of a
representative government generously introduced by the municipal act of 1847.
We also acknowledge with thankfulness the piety and charity of many a private
society in England, devoting large funds for the spiritual improvement of our
countrymen. Why then, it may be asked, do we still admonish our governors on
their duty? Simply because there is room for further improvement; because our
estimate of British duty is formed by a consideration of the high principles which
distinguish the august legislature of Westminister; because Britain stands on a
proud eminence as the improver and civilizer of the world. The children of a great
man may be excused for lofty aspirations which might ill befit the offspring of a
pauper; the subjects of a great sovereign may desire boons, proportioned to the
moral dignity of their rulers.
We have already remarked that the temporal amelioration of our countrymen
is necessary for the improvement of our females, and it may not be irrelevant
to add that this amelioration depends in a great measure on a still more liberal
encouragement of native talent on the part of our rulers. The local governments
of India have indeed given this encouragement to the utmost of their porwer,
and it would be ungrateful not to acknowledge that we could not be placed
under governors more humane. They have never neglected the claims of native
subjects in the distribution of preferments. But their hands are fettered; their
powers are restricted. They can only make Deputy Collectors, Deputy Magis-
trates, Deputy judges (i. e. Moonsiffs and Sudder Ameens,) and Sub-assistant
Surgeons. In appointments of greater importance their choice is limited by law.
Is it unreasonable to desire, now that the country can produce so much of indig-
enous talent, that the supreme ruler of this magnificent appendage of the British
crown, representing the majesty of a kingdom, at once the most powerful and
the most civilized on the face of the globe, may be unfettered in his selection
of public functionaries? may be invested with those powers of which even the
viceroys of the Afghan and Mogul dynasties were not destitute? The possession
of such unrestricted powers will, on the one hand, impart to the British Procon-
sul the full complement of the dignity, due to the representative of a sovereign,
whose dominions extend to every quarter of the globe, and to the supreme ruler
of a country which produces an annual revenue of twenty crores of Rupees; and
it will, on the other hand, supply every one, permanently attached to the soil,
with fresh motives of self-improvement, and stimulate him with the laudable
ambition of serving his country under the auspices of a powerful and paternal
government. The administration of some of the Mogul emperors was rendered
illustrious in India by the co-operation of Hindu and Mahometan functionaries
in the service of the state; but that lustre will dwindle into the glimmering of
a feeble taper, when a galaxy of Todermuls and Man Sings will reflect the full
52
blaze of the policy, which magnifies the honor, and consolidates the power of
Great Britain, while it raises the character, and promotes the social improve-
ment of the most distant nations of the Earth.
But it is time to relieve the reader’s patience; we will trespass only a few
moments longer on his attention, while we briefly advert to the duties our own
countrymen owe to themselves, their families, and their country. The regeneration
and complete civilization of India are objects, with reference to which, the duty
and interest of the natives are intimately linked together. They ought therefore
to put forth all their energies for the amelioration of their native land. And much
depends on their personal exertions. The philanthropic efforts of Europeans can
be no avail, so long as the natives will not help themselves. However liberal the
parliament may be in its legislation for India, and how zealously soever the local
governments may give effect to laws calculated to improve the social condition of
their subjects, no permanent good can result unless the people introduce reforms
in their own households; unless those that are educated reduce their principles
to practice in their own homes. Many there are who can beautifully theorize on
female improvement; how small the number that is resolved to verify the theory!
Many there are that can inveigh against the custom of giving away infant girls by
early marriages; perhaps none has yet waxed bold enough practically to protest
against the evil. How long is the present state of things to continue? How long is
principle to be sacrificed to custom, fear, or policy? The custom is acknowledged
to be vicious; the fear is groundless; the policy is questionable. The heads of
Hindu dals or clans may threaten with excommunication the spirited individual
that may think of rescuing his daughter from the debasing effects of the Hindu
rules of marriage; but the number of educated natives is sufficiently large to form
a dal of their own. Why do they not attempt it? No exertions can be more patriotic,
more worthy of instructed minds, more honourable in themselves and beneficial
to India, than efforts to improve the tone of female society and to ameliorate its
condition Let the educated Hindus discontinue the force of a child of eight or nine
entering into a solemn matrimonial contract; let them in their own turn brand with
the stigma of inhumanity, the man who would sacrifice the lasting interests of his
daughter for the sake of maintaining his caste; let them excommunicate from their
dal those who would continue to perpetuate female degradation. Such a practi-
cal exhibition of principle would be truly heroic; it would embalm the memory
of the leading reformers in the estimation of the latest posterity; it would raise
the Bengali character beyond conception, and put the bitterest of our detracting
opponents to silence.
Nor must it be forgotten that righteousness exalteth a nation. We are far from
desiring that our countrymen should adopt our opinions on our own credit; Chris-
tianity itself repudiates the idea of depending on no other basis than human influ-
ence. But addressing ourselves to intelligent and educated men, we do not perhaps
incur the danger of being mistaken or misrepresented, when we say, that it is the
part of a rational man to inquire for himself and satisfy his mind of religious truth.
No social reform in India can be complete without the aid of true religion. False
53
religion deteriorates the mind; no religion leaves a blank in it, and deprives soci-
ety of its only great bond. It is when true religion sheds its benign influence over
the instructed mind, that nations and individuals may expect all the improvement
of which they are capable.
Notes
1. The following is a list of the duties which the Brahmin must religiously perform every
day in the order in which they are here mentioned, and according to the manner pre-
scribed under each head in the Shasters.
1. Answering the calls of nature.—2. Cleaning.—3. Washing.—4. Binding the
hair.—5. Rules for taking water into the hand for purifying the mouth.—6. Brush-
ing the teeth.—7. Morning bath and prayer—8. Duties during the first eighth part of
the day.—9. Those during the second eighth part.—10. Concerning writing.—11.
Duties during the third eighth part of the day.—12. Those during the fourth eighth
part.—13. Offerings of water to the manes of deceased relatives.—14. Prayer.—15.
Worship—16. Worship of the Sun.—17. Meditations on the Vedas.—18. Worship
of the Gods.—19. That of Ganesha.—20. Of the lingum of Shiva.—21. Offerings
of incense.—22. Of lighted candles.—23. Of eatables.—24. Rules for entertaining
guests.—25. Offerings to cows—26. Of eating.—27. Offering to the five airs of the
body, and eating only with the fingers.—28. On the six seasons, and the food most
appropriate for each.—29. The qualities of the six tastes.—30. Criteria for judg-
ing of different constitutions of the body.—31. Qualities of rice.—32. Of herbs and
pulse.—33. Of salt.—34. Of fruits.—35. Of water.—36. Of milk.—37. Of curds—
38. Of sugar.—39. Of ghee.—40. Of sugar cane.—41, Duties during the sixth-eighth
part of the day.—42. Duties of the night.—43. Rules relating to making and going to
bed.
Each of these heads has been largely dwelt upon in the A’hniha Taltwa, whence
we have extracted them. The prescribed rules have scarcely left room for individual
discretion in any of the actions just enumerated. The arrogance with which the Hindu
legislators have ordained uniformity of observance in a religious way on the most
indifferent and ordinary matters, cannot be contemplated without the utmost indigna-
tion and contempt; while the two-fold authority, to which they aspired, of physical and
spiritual doctors, and the confidence with which they delivered opinions on the medici-
nal properties of eatables and drinkables,—and that under the pretended sanctions of
the Most High,—may be somewhat amusing to the professors of materia medica. It
was almost impossible, however, that such encroachments upon personal liberty could
be tolerated for any considerable length of time. Custom has long since dispensed with
this daily ritual; the rules laid down by our sapient lawgivers stand only as dead letters
on their writings.
Mr. Colebrooke has made a digest of the ceremonies which Brahminism enjoins
upon its votaries, whence European readers may derive some notion of the fetters
by which the followers of this system are bound. See his Miscellaneous Essays,
vol. i.
2.
A mother having brought forth a boy may be allowed to do her accustomed work, bath-
ing after twenty nights; but after a month, when she is delivered of a girl.—PAITHANASI
in the Suddhi Tatttwa.
54
3.
“Come, O thou blessing-dispensing goddess! celebrated by the name of the Great

Shashthi, and by thy divine energy protect my son in the watch-room.
“As Scanda the son of Gouri, was ever guarded by thee, so may this my son be like-
wise preserved! Reverence to thee, O Shashthi!”—Jyotis Tattwa.
4.
“At the age of five, when Janárdan (Vishnu) is not in a state of slumber, a boy is to be
made to commence the study of letters, Hari, Lakshmi, and Saraswati having been first
worshipped.”—Vishnu Dharmottara.
5.
“The tutor sitting with his face towards the east is to instruct the pupil having his face
turned towards the west.”—Vrihaspati.
“He is a good scribe whose letters meet at the top, are full, and well arranged in the
line.”—Matsyapwrana.
6. A friend who reviewed the first edition of this work pointed out the following passage
from the Mahanirvan Tantra, prescribing the duty of educating females:
The daughter should likewise be nursed and educated with care, and married with gifts
of money and jewels to a learned man.”
7.
“The Vedas are not even to be heard either by the servile class, women, or degraded
Brahmins.”—Shri Bhágavat.
“Women have no business with the texts of the Veda.”—Menu ix. 18.
A few solitary instances are on record of the Vedas being expounded to females; the
most striking example is that of Yaguawalkya catechizing his wife Maitreyi.
8.
55
“Pronunciation, description of sacred rites, grammar, versification, pure and mixed

mathematics, and glossarial explanation of obscure terms are the six members of the
Vedas.”—Amara.
The friendly reviewer, already referred to, is inclined to think that the Vedangas are
not forbidden to the classes to whom the study of the Vedas is decidedly prohibited.
This is perhaps a point open to controversy.
9. “The treatise on the Nyáya, above referred to, is by many believed to be Lilávati’s own
composition, although the book itself (at least the copy I have used, being that which
belonged to the Library of Fort William College, and is now preserved in the Asiatic Soci-
ety’s Museum) purports to be the production of Acharya Ballabha. It is also a commonly
received opinion that there were two Lilavatis, the heroines of the two works mentioned
above.
10. The words of Menu are very expressive:
Ch. 5, v. 151, which Sir W. Jones has thus rendered, “Him to whom the father has given
her, or her brother with the paternal assent, let her obsequiously honour while he lives;
and when he dies, let her never neglect him.”
11.
“The seizure f a maiden by force from her house, while she weeps and calls for assis-
tance, after her kinsmen and friends have been slain in battle or wounded, and their
houses broken open, is the marriage styled Rakshasa.” Menu iii. 33. This kind of mar-
riage is in the 26th verse pronounced admirable for the military classes.
12.
“The marriage of a girl (whatever her caste) is to be celebrated after she is seven years
old, otherwise it becomes contrary to the dictates of religion. At the age of eight she
becomes a Gouri, (that is, her father by giving her away at this age obtains the merit
attached to the gift of Gouri,) at the age of nine she becomes a Rohini, and at the age of
ten a mere virgin. Her youth commences if she is older. Therefore the wise are to dis-
pose of her before the close of her tenth year, even if the time were otherwise inauspi-
cious or improper. The father of an unmarried girl, that has passed her tenth year, incurs
the crime of destroying her embryo, and such a girl brings upon herself the stigma of a
56
Vrishali. The weak-minded Brahmin that espouses such a girl loses his title to funeral
obsequies, and ought to be turned out of society as the husband of a Vrishali.” Bha-
vadeva Bhatta in Udvaha Tattwa and Atri and Káshyapa.
Menu has somewhat softened the rigor of these rules by sanctioning the postpone-
ment of a girl’s marriage if a well qualified husband is not found.
“It is better that a maiden, though of full age, should remain unmarried all her life,
than that she should ever be given to a worthless husband.”—Institutes ix. 89.
13. See the meaning of in Wilson’s Sanscrit Dictionary.—Lakshmana thus
expresses his astonishment on finding a woman, walking in a desert wild:—
“What! art thou wandering fearless, whose form is that of one who should not see even
the sun?”—Bhatti.
14. Rukmini, daughter of the king of Vidarbhs, a few days before her expected marriage
with a person for whom she had no esteem, writing to Krishna, the report of whose
accomplishments had attracted her affections, thus takes notice of the obstacles which
lay in the way of her lover’s access to her:
“Having come, O thou invincible one! secretly into Vidarbha at the head of thy officers
on the day before the marriage, and having subdued the forces of Shishupala and the
king of Magadha, carry me away suddenly as the just reward of thy valour, agreeably
to the rules of Rakshas matrimony. If thou ask, how thou shalt take me who am secured
in the recesses of the palace, without killing my friends and relations, I will tell thee an
expedient by which thy way may be cleared. There is on the day before the matrimony
a great family procession, when the bride must issue out for the purpose of worshipping
Girisha.”—Shri. Bhag. 10th Scandhs.
The celestial swan, who cuts such a prominent figure in the Naishadha, and who was
boasting of the lessons he had given on gesticulation to the ladies of a royal family,
attributes his admittance into their company to his volant powers:
57
“The recesses of the palace not being inaccessible to birds, we enter therein and
instruct the beauteous queens on the most graceful gesticulation.”—Naishadha,
chap. iii.
When Nala got access, by an especial and miraculous providence of the gods, into
the quarters of Damayanti, daughter of Bhims, she inquires with astonishment:
“How is it thou hast come here? How is it thou hast not been observed? For my quarters
are well guarded, and the king is severe in his discipline.”—Mahabharata.
We do not mean to assert that females were excluded in ancient times with the same
rigor as at the present day; but the practice is not entirely owing to the Mahometans.
15. Cecrop’s law, and perhaps a few others, are happy exceptions.
16.
The wife who commits herself to the flames on the death of her husband shall equal
Arundhati, and reside in Swerga. She who thus follows her husband shall dwell in
heaven as many years as there are hairs on the human body, even three and half crores
of years. Angiras in Shuddhi Tattwa.
“She, whose sympathy feels the pains and joys of her husband, who mourns and pines
in his absence, and dies when he dies, it a good and loyal wife.”—Harita in ditto.
“According to the Rig-Veda the loyal wife shall not be deemed a suicide”—Brahma
Purana in ditto.
17.
18.
“He whose widow is not dead, has half his body in the land of the living.”—Yagnawalkya.
19.
“By a girl or by a young woman, or by a woman advanced in years, nothing must be

done even in her own dwelling place according to her mere pleasure. In childhood must
58
a female be dependent on her father; in youth on her husband; her lord being dead, on
her sons: a woman must never see independence.”—Menu.
“On the death of the husband, without issue, his relations have the dominion over his
widow, having all authority to controul her gifts, and to maintain her person. If the
husband’s relations be dead, then the widow must be subject to her paternal kindred;
and if both her husband’s and father’s relations be defunct, then she is to depend upon
the reigning government.”—Nárada.
20.
“Where females are honoured, there the deities are pleased; but where they are dis-
honoured, there all religious acts become fruitless. Where female relations are made
miserable, the family of him who makes them so, very soon wholly perishes, but where
they are not unhappy, [t]he family always increases.”—Menu iii. 56, 67.
21. The author knows personally individuals that have married twenty wives, without pos-
sessing any means, or pursuing any employment, whereby to sustain their own lives, much
less to afford a decent maintenance to their wives. It is not uncommon for sons of Kulins
to profess perfect ignorance of the number of their half-brothers and step-mothers. Their
fathers multiply wives, even after passing the age of 60 or 70, and they do not always suc-
ceed in making a correct census of the increasing number of their mothers.
22. A Bengali newspaper lately reported a strange story. The daughter of an inhabitant
of Jessore was married to a Kulin, who had not visited the family for a long time. An
impostor made his appearance one evening, introducing himself as the husband of the
damsel. The inmates of the house had not seen the real husband for many years; and
the impostor played his part so artfully that every one was deceived. The parents of
the girl were far too glad on the advent of their supposed son-in-law to question the
veracity of their guest. They gave him a hearty welcome, and introduced him to their
daughter’s quarters, where the impostor slept for the night; but before break of day the
next morning he decamped, carrying with himself the jewels which he had stolen from
the unhappy girl’s person.
23. A letter appeared lately in one of our Bengali newspapers containing a description
of the present state of our female society, and purporting to be the composition of a
native lady. The facetious editor attributed its authorship to a fair correspondent with
the sole intention, perhaps, of producing a dramatic effect on his readers. The picture,
whether drawn by a female pencil or not, appears however to be taken from life.
We have elsewhere inserted an English translation of the remarkable epistle. See A
Appendix.
24. The abolition of the Suttee has we are happy to say saved our Bengal females from the
peril of a violent suicide. The same humane law has now been adopted in many of the
native states throughout Hindustan.
59
25. So little is the care which our Bengali authors have taken to avoid indelicacy of expres-
sion, that even the Probodh Chundrika and the Hitopadesha, works printed under
European patronage, are not free from objections in this respect.
26. Menu considers liberty allowed to females as a dangerous indulgence; and classes it in
the same category with other incentives to crime.
“The following six lead to crime and impurity in women—vis. drinking, keeping
company with bad men, quarrelling with their own husbands, wandering at large,
sleeping at unseasonable hours, and lodging at a stranger’s house.”—Institutes ix. 13.
Much sagacity is displayed in this remark; it was certainly well applicable to the
state of society in which Menu lived.
27. An enlightened friend and countryman, familiar with the idea of female instruction in
his own family, suggests the propriety of sketching the kind of education we would
recommend to our countrywomen. His letter we have printed by permission in the
Appendix.
28. Rajah Buddinauth Roy.
29. This was written in 1841.
30. “Fæminæ per fæminas, says Grotius, primi Christianismi cognitione imbui et sic
ad Ecclesias pertrahi debebunt.” Clemens (of Alexandria) speaks more particularly;
συνδιακονους προς τας ουκουσας γυναικας (by which he meant the female catechists,)
δι ων εις την γυναικονιτια. αδιαβλητως παρεισδυετο ἡ του κυριου διδασκαλια. And the
author of the Apost. Const. testifies to the same effect; εστι γαρ ὀποταν εκ τισιοικιαις
ανδρα διακονον γυναιξιν ου δυνατον πεμπειν δια του απιστους αποστελεις ουν γυναικα
διακονον.
It must be acknowledged that we are indebted for these passages to Hamon
L’Estrange.
31. The following representation by Corn. Nepos of Greek manners, as contrary to Roman,
may be called an exact antitype of Hindu customs in this respect:—“Contra ea pleraque
nostris moribus sunt decora, quæ apud illos turpia putantur. Quem enim Romanorum
pudet uxorem ducere in convivium? Aut cujus mater familias non primum locum tenet
aedium, quæ in celebritate versatur. Quod multo sit aliter in Græcia, Nam neque in
convivium adhibetur, nisi propinquorum; neque sedet, nisi in interiore parte ædium,
quæ gynæconitis appellatur: quo nemo accedit, nisi propinqua cognatione conjunctus.”
—Corn. Nepo. Prefam.
32. It were exceedingly to be wished, that the literary exercises of this lady, if she left any,
together with a memoir of her life, and a detailed statement of her intellectual progress,
were presented to the public. Such a compilation would be deeply interesting both as
a monument of her father’s singular fortitude, and also as the precious remains of the
first native girl that was property educated in European literature; and its effects upon
intelligent Hindus would be incalculable. Many that followed the Baboo in professing
their regard for the females, might thereby be actuated to imitate his example.
33. The history of Miss Holliday’s intercourse with the ladies of Mahomet Ali’s harem is
so full of instruction that we have been tempted to reprint several extracts from her let-
ters in the Appendix.
34. We cannot help adverting in this place to the conversational parties that used to be
held upwards of seventeen years ago in the house of a gentleman since departed
from India. He devoted an evening once a fortnight to the cultivation and mainte-
nance of social intercourse with his native acquaintance, to whom the doors of his
drawing room were thrown open, and who were introduced to his family. Those of
60
his own countrymen who did not think such familiarity with natives derogatory to
their dignity, were also occasionally invited to join these interesting parties. The con-
sequences of such social intercourse between Natives and Europeans surpassed all
expectation. The conversation generally embraced local subjects, appertaining to the
improvement of the people; and the degree of light thus diffused, and the zeal thus
communicated, were incalculable. Unfortunately, however, this exemplary course
could not be long pursued by the friend who assembled the parties. His peculiar
profession forced him to discharge official duties in the night, and the meetings were
necessarily discontinued.
35. A few native students have been received in Bishop’s College since the publication of
our first edition, who were born of Christian parents.
36. We are not here reflecting those most efficient institutions, the General Assembly’s and
the Free Church. These will not, however, perhaps answer for a long time to come the
object of training up the children of native Christians. The respected Missionaries of
the Scottish Churches have no large nativ Christian congregations under their care,
from which to draw many Christian students for their institutions.
61
4
‘AN APPEAL FROM A NATIVE
CHRISTIAN OF THE PUNJAB TO THE
INDIAN FEMALE NORMAL SCHOOL
AND INSTRUCTION SOCIETY’,
INDIAN FEMALE EVANGELIST
(JULY 1875), 289–291
To the Honourable Committee, to whom has been intrusted by God the noble
work of giving to those who have for long been oppressed by Satan, the perfect
liberty which is in Christ Jesus. I make known to you the wish of my heart.
About fifteen years ago I was appointed by the Umritsur Mission to preach the
Word of Life. At that time very few had heard the Gospel; but through the great
diligence and devotion of the Church, the Word of Truth quickly and abundantly
spread abroad in the towns and villages. Unfortunately the Missionaries’ work
having now increased in the cities, they cannot preach so much in the country.
Some of the Missionaries with whom I have been acquainted, such as Mr. Bruce,
Mr. Browne, and Mr. Downes, were the means of doing much good in this land,
but unfortunately they went home leaving their work only half done, and have
never returned to finish it; there has consequently been much loss.
Now I will make known my request. Much thought and effort has been spent on
the men of the Punjab, but till now the women have been excluded from the bless-
ings which are offered in Christ Jesus to the whole race of mankind. Although
four or five Miss Sahibs have come out, they are but few, for the Punjab is not a
city, but a large country, in which there are thousands of men, women, and chil-
dren, whose precious souls are perishing day by day.
Certainly this land is in a very sad condition. The wicked practices and false reli-
gion of its people are like a bleak mountain. The “purdah” of the women is like a
strong fort, in which they are imprisoned from their childhood, and pass and end
their days in complete ignorance both of this world and the next. It is the duty of
the Church of God to enlighten them. How can it fulfil this responsibility? Man’s
part in the matter is this. The “great company of women” which David speaks of
in Ps. lxviii. 5–2, must be sent. When the company of priests sounded the trumpets
round the walls of Jericho, they fell flat down, and the city came into the hands of
God’s people. So the strong fortress of women’s “purdah,” and all its evil customs,
62
‘ A N A P P E A L F R O M A N AT I V E C H R I S T I A N ’
will fall before the trumpets of this army of preachers. Nearly two years have gone
by since I first came to live in Batala. When a census was taken some time ago,
the population was reckoned at 24,000, another census is now being taken, and the
number will probably be found still larger. There has been a great deal of preaching
in the bazaars; so much so that probably every man in the place has heard of the gift
of salvation through Christ, but the poor women are so shut up in their houses, that
the voice of the preacher, be it ever so loud, cannot reach them. Certainly the Hindu
women are sometimes allowed to go out to worship their idols, and to sing impure
songs at their marriages or to weep at a funeral; but their worship is as it were only
a cover, under which is concealed the various forms of wickedness connected with
idolatry; the rejoicing at their marriages is but the laughter or fools, which, Solomon
tells us (Eccles. vii. 6), is as “the crackling of thorns under a pot,” and their weep-
ing for the dead is like the wailings of despair which come from hell. Their children
become from their earliest childhood accustomed to all that is sensual and worldly,
while of the heavenly and spiritual they know nothing. They may break the com-
mandments of God, but no one cares. They are most particular to observe all their
own ordinances, because, if they did not do so, they would be excommunicated from
their caste; but as far as man is concerned they may lie or commit any kind or wick-
edness with impunity. In this condition, they cannot listen to the word of God. Satan,
not satisfied with oppressing them thus, causes them to commit folly upon folly. For
instance, when a child or any relation is sick, the devil puts all kinds of evil thoughts
in their hearts. He tells them this is the effect of an evil spirit. You must present an
offering that it may be pacified and the sick one healed. So they bow down before
their gods and on the graves; sometimes they think that some bad man has looked
on the child, and that this sickness is the consequence of his evil eye. So mentioning
the names of a pir (a false prophet), a faqir, or a charmer, or some verse from the
Koran, they breathe over him, or they give away alms even at the risk of parting with
all they possess. When they get tired and no effect is produced, this fable is repeated
to them:—“The father of a sick child came one day to Mahomet and asked for help.
Mahomet said you must sacrifice a sheep; the father having done so, came back and
told him the child was no better. Mahomet said, ‘offer another.’ This was repeated
six times, but the man refused to give any more. Then the child died. The weeping
father came to Mahomet saying, ‘The light of my house has been extinguished.”’
Then Mahomet opened the eyes of the man, and looking towards his house, he saw
on the roof a seven-mouthed bala (a monster who comes to carry away the spirits
of the dying); in six of the mouths were the sheep he had sacrificed, in the seventh
his child. ‘See’ said Mahomet, ‘if you had offered the seven sacrifices, seven sheep
would have been devoured and your child would have been saved.’”
By the repetition of such tales the faqirs impress on the people the necessity of
making offerings, and so the poor unfortunate ones often not only suffer the loss of
their relations by death, but much of their substance is wasted in vain attempts for
their restoration. Yet they will not understand that this trouble is simply a bodily
sickness which cannot be healed without medicine. So, having no doctor for either
body or soul, they are brought under the power of divers diseases. The native
63
doctors understand very little of medical science, and what they do know they sell
very dear. So people not receiving from them the benefit they expect, naturally fall
back again on their foolish superstitions. Native doctors who have received English
teaching have lately been established in the country; but they only carry on their
practice from fear of Government or love of gain. There is no love and pity in their
hearts towards their patients; indeed they often show such harshness and bitterness
that a sick person weakened with illness will bear any amount of suffering rather
than meet with it. Of course they receive no medicine, and no doctor will go to see
them in their own houses, or if they are persuaded to do so, demand such heavy
fees that the people are scarcely able to pay them. Although many refuse the bless-
ings of the Christian religion, and often choose to remain ignorant of them; they
do not refuse medicine, but will receive it thankfully from the hands of a Christian;
for though they know nothing of spiritual knowledge, they well understand the evil
of sickness. Dr. Elmslie’s work amongst them was so valued that they mention his
name now with the greatest respect, and lament over his death. They cannot easily
forget the kindness that he showed in giving them remedies.
By this means Christians can gain entrance into many houses, and by prayer-
fully administrating medicine and teaching, can give health to the body and light
to the mind. On such occasions the women will listen to the Word of God.
Would that you could see the state of this country with your own eyes! then the
place for pity in your hearts would grow larger, for one glance would show you
that the inhabitants are indeed sitting in darkness, and then you would thrust forth
a host of goodly women into the Punjab.
I am alone in Batála. My knowledge and understanding are very small; still,
having studied the Gospel, I make it known to others; but my wife cannot even
do so much amongst the women as I can amongst the men. If the state of a city is
so bad, what must that of the country be, where no Christian woman has ever yet
set foot? Perhaps you will ask what are the wives of our native pastors doing? I
don’t wish to blame them, but many of them are not capable of doing this work;
they rather need instruction themselves. If they were able to do it, we should not
make this request to you. So many preachers of the Word of Life are required here.
Please give this notice to your people, that now is the opportunity, by a little effort,
to win a priceless crown. It is, as it were, the evening, when only one working hour
remains, yet God is calling labourers into His vineyard, and gives them the same reward
as those who have worked all through the day. By a little trading now, great profit
may be gained; by spending five talents by a little toil, five more may be won. Please
consider this my request, and at least send to Batála a Miss Sahib, or some Christian
woman who understands medicine. Many women, both from the cities and all around,
will come for relief, and so there will be glorious opportunities for sowing the seed of
the Word of Life, and for ministering health and soundness to the whole man. When
this is accomplished we shall indeed bless God for what you have been the means of
doing. All honour and glory be to Him for ever.—Amen. Your obedient servant,
SADIK, Catechist, Batála. C.M.S.
March 18, 1875.
64
5
EVIDENCE OF SYED BADRUDDIN
TYABJI ON MUSLIM EDUCATION,
EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE
BOMBAY PROVINCIAL COMMITTEE
AND MEMORIALS ADDRESSED TO THE
EDUCATION COMMISSION (CALCUTTA:
PRINTING, 1884), 497–508
Evidence of THE HONOURABLE BADRUDIN TYABJI,

Barrister-at-Law.
Ques. 1.—Please state what opportunities you have had of forming an opinion
on the subject of education in India, and in what province your experience has
been gained.
Ans. 1.—I do not profess to have had any special opportunities of studying the
question of general education in India. My personal knowledge is limited to the
Presidency, or rather to the city, of Bombay. I may however say that I am fairly
acquainted with the state of Muhammadan education in India. My knowledge
and experience have mainly been derived from the difficulties I myself and many
members of my family have had to encounter in acquiring English education;—
and from my connection with the Surmay a Jamati Sulemani,—the Madrasa-i-
Anjuman Islam, and the University of Bombay. I have been a somewhat active
member of the Anjuman, which has taken great interest in the cause of Muham-
madan education. I have been a Secretary of the Anjuman for several years, and
have taken a leading part in the foundation and management of the Anjuman
schools. I was myself educated partly in India and partly in England, partly at
home and partly at public schools and colleges. I was about 7 years in England for
the purposes of my general and professional education.
Ques. 2.—Do you think that in your province the system of primary education
has been placed on a sound basis, and is capable of development up to the require-
ments of the community? Can you suggest any improvements in the system of
administration, or in the course of instruction?
65
Ans. 2.—Confining myself to Muhammadan education, I do not think that the sys-
tem of primary education amongst Muhammadans has been placed on a sound footing.
Indeed, no system at all has been adopted with any reference to the requirements of
the Mussulman community. I would suggest the establishment of Mussulman schools
in all the centres of Muhammadan population. These schools should have Mussulman
teachers; Hindustani and Persian should be taught in addition to the vernacular of the
place, and the other usual branches of knowledge Special regard should be paid to the
feelings and ideas, and even in some respects to the prejudices of the Mussulmans
From a report presented to the Anjuman by a Committee specially appointed for that
purpose, I find that in August 1879 there were about 110 private schools for Muham-
madan boys in Bombay, giving instruction in the Korán, Hindustáni, and Persian to
about 3,000 pupils; 70 out of these 110 schools taught nothing but the Korán. The
aggregate amount of the salaries of the teachers appears to have been about Ɍ1,000
per month. This subject is more fully dealt with by me in answer to question 36.
Ques. 3.—In your province is primary instruction sought for by the people in
general, or by particular classes only? Do any classes specially hold aloof from
it, and if so, why? Are any classes practically excluded from it, and if so, from
what causes? What is the attitude of the influential classes towards the extension
of elementary knowledge to every class of society?
Ans. 3.—Speaking generally I think primary education is sought for by the
people in general. The higher classes of Muhammadans are to a great extent
excluded from Government schools by reason of no attention being paid to their
special requirements. They attach great importance to a knowledge of Hindu-
stani, Persian, and Arabic, and are therefore unwilling, as a rule, to go to a school
where instruction is only given in Gujarathi or Marathi and English. I think that
the influential Muhammadans would support a system of education suited to the
requirements of their community. They are at present perfectly indifferent, if not
averse, to the cause of English education, because they consider it inconsistent
with sufficient, instruction in their own classical languages. The proper remedy,
therefore, is to combine Oriental learning with instruction in Western Literature,
Arts, and Sciences. (See also my answer to question 67.)
Ques. 4.—To what extent do indigenous schools exist in your province? How
far are they a relic of an ancient village system? Can you describe the subjects and
character of the instruction given in them, and the system of discipline in vogue?
What fees are taken from the scholars? From what classes are the masters of such
schools generally selected, and what are their qualifications? Have any arrange-
ments been made for training or providing masters in such schools? Under what
circumstances do you consider that indigenous schools can be turned to good
account as part of a system of national education, and what is the best method to
adopt for this purpose? Are the masters willing to accept State aid and to conform
to the rules under which such aid is given? How far has the grant-in-aid system
been extended to indigenous schools, and can it be further extended?
Ans. 4.—I believe that indigenous schools exist in almost every part of the Presi-
dency. So far as the Muhammadan indigenous schools are concerned, they are
66
E V I D E N C E O F S Y E D B A D R U D D I N T YA B J I
generally attached to a mosque or are conducted by a Kari or a Mulla, where little

more than reading the Korán and perhaps a little Urdu is taught, all other subjects
being, as a rule, entirely excluded. No discipline is observed. No separate classes are
formed. As a rule, there is but one teacher in each school. No registers or catalogues
of attendance are kept. Very slight fees are charged. Sometimes no remuneration is
paid to the teacher except a present on the completion of each chapter of the Korán,
&c. The poorer boys are admitted entirely free. The qualifications of these teachers
are next to nothing They know little more than what they actually teach. They have
no idea of arithmetic, or geography, or history. Many of them are unable to write
These indigenous schools could be easily incorporated into a general national system
by bringing them into connection with higher schools and by offering a small reward,
say one rupee, for each boy sent up from these indigenous schools at stated periods
after having passed a satisfactory examination in the subjects actually taught.
There are some indigenous schools of higher description kept by learned
men, where Persian and Arabic and logic and philosophy, as well as religious
books, are taught. These it would be almost impossible to incorporate into the
national system, owing to the religious character of the instruction given and
the utter inability of the teachers to adapt themselves to Western ideas. The
grant-in-aid system has not, so far as I am aware, been extended to any of these
indigenous schools, but it might be extended with great advantage to some of
them at least in the manner above indicated. The Anjuman-i-Islám has had for
some time past under its consideration the important question of incorporating
the indigenous schools in Bombay into the educational system established by
the Anjuman itself, by offering a small reward to the teacher for each boy sent
up from his school to one of the recognised central schools, as suggested above.
Ques. 5.—What opinion does your experience lead you to hold of the extent
and value of home instruction? How far is a boy educated at home able to com-
pete on equal terms, at examinations qualifying for the public service, with boys
educated at school?
Ans. 5.—I attached the greatest value to home instruction when combined with
instruction at a public school, but otherwise I think the advantages of a public
school are far greater: a boy educated merely at home would not, in my opinion,
be able to compete with boys educated at a public school.
Ques. 6.—How far can the Government depend on private effort, aided or
unaided, for the supply of elementary instruction in rural districts? Can you enu-
merate the private agencies which exist for promoting primary instruction?
Ans. 6.—I do not think the Government can depend very much on private
efforts for the supply of elementary education of a satisfactory kind in rural dis-
tricts. The private agencies for Muhammadans would seem to be schools attached
to mosques and other charitable institutions—private teachers who make a living
out of the instruction given to their pupils, and learned men who open private
classes in the higher branches of Oriental learning and philosophy. To this must be
added schools opened by the different Missionary Societies, and which are only
resorted to by the people when no other schools are available.
67
Ques. 8.—What classes of schools, should, in your opinion, be entrusted to

Municipal Committees for support and management? Assuming that the provi-
sion of elementary instruction in towns is to be a charge against Municipal funds,
what security would you suggest against the possibility of Municipal Committees
failing to make sufficient provision?
Ans. 8.—It seems to me that some of the Municipalities in the Bombay Presi-
dency are suffciently advanced to take charge of the lower as well as the higher
schools. We have, however, no practical experience to guide us on the subject, but
I can see no reason to apprehend that the Municipal Corporation of Bombay, for
instance, would be unable to manage even the higher schools to the satisfaction of
the people, as well as the Government. If the provision of elementary education is
to be a charge on the Municipal fund, the only security that I can suggest is that a
stipulation should be made that a certain percentage of income, not less than the
amount now expended, should be spent by the Municipality, and that such expen-
diture should be gradually increased according to the requirements of the people.
Ques. 10.—What subjects of instruction, if introduced into primary schools,
would make them more acceptable to the community at large, and specially to the
agricultural classes? Should any special means be adopted for making the instruc-
tion in such subjects efficient?
Ans. 10.—Speaking of Muhammadans only, I certainly think that the intro-
duction of Hindustani and Persian, together with mental arithmetic as taught in
indigenous Gujarathi schools, would make the schools more acceptable to the
Muhammadan community than they are at present (see answer to question 67.)
Ques. 11.—Is the vernacular recognised and taught in the schools of your prov-
ince the dialect of the people? And if not, are the schools on that account less
useful and popular?
Ans. 11.—Speaking generally the vernacular recognised and taught in the
schools is the dialect of the general Hindu population, but not the language of
the higher class of Muhammadans; and that is one chief reason why they have
hitherto held aloof from resorting to such schools.
Ques. 13.—Have you any suggestions to make regarding the taking of fees in
primary schools?
Ans. 13.—Considering the great poverty to which the Muhammadan community
has been reduced, I would suggest that all poor boys should be admitted entirely free,
and that fees should only be charged to those who are able to pay them without incon-
venience Such fees should, of course, be always moderate (see answer to question 67.)
Ques. 14.—Will you favour the commission with your views, first, as to how
the number of primary schools can be increased; and, secondly, how they can be
gradually rendered more efficient?
Ans. 14.—I think that the number of indigenous primary schools could be eas-
ily increased by giving them the benefit of the grant-in-aid system, and they could
be rendered more efficient by proper inspection and supervision, and by the intro-
duction of some of the rules in regard to keeping of registers and catalogues. A
little arithmetic might be insisted upon with advantage.
68
Ques. 16.—Do you know of any cases in which Government institutions of the
higher order might be closed or transferred to private bodies, with or without aid, with-
out injury to education or to any interests which it is the duty of Government to protect?
Ans. 16.—I do not know any case in which Government institutions of the
higher order could be closed without injury to the cause of education, nor am I
aware of any institution which could be transferred to any private agency without
causing serious harm to the progress of mental culture in this Presidency. I can-
not approve of the suggestion that the Arts College at Poona should be closed.
Ques. 18.—If the Government, or any local authority having control of public
money, were to announce its determination to withdraw, after a given term of
years, from the maintenance of any higher educational institution, what measures
would be best adapted to stimulate private effort in the interim, so as to secure the
maintenance of such institution on a private footing?
Ans. 18.—I think that if the Government or any local authority having control
of public funds were to withdraw from the maintenance of any higher educational
institution, such institution would cease to exist, or would exist only in a very
inefficient condition. I can suggest no measures which would obviate these disas-
trous consequences. I do not think that the people at present sufficiently appre-
ciate the benefits of education so as to relieve Government of its burdens and
responsibilities in this respect.
Ques. 20.—How far is the whole educational system, as at present adminis-
tered, one of practical neutrality, i.e., one in which a school or a college has no
advantage or disadvantage as regards Government aid and inspection from any
religious principles that are taught or not taught in it?
Ans. 20.—I think that the educational system as at present administered is one
of practical neutrality, and to my mind it would be dangerous in the highest degree
to depart from it.
Ques. 25.—Do educated Natives in your province readily find remunerative
employment?
Ans. 25.—Educated Muhammadans have the greatest possible difficulty in
finding remunerative employment either under Government or otherwise. The
reasons for this are obvious; first, because little value is now-a-days attached
to their accomplishments as Persian or Arabic scholars; and, secondly, because,
although perfectly well educated in their own way, they have not, in consequence
of the practical difficulties I have already and shall hereafter point out, the same
facilities for acquiring English education as their other more favoured fellow sub-
jects; and, thirdly, in consequence of political prejudices which have practically
excluded them from all public service whatever. I know several Muhammadan
graduates of the University, belonging to the most respectable families, who are
unable to get any employment, although most strenuous efforts were made on
their behalf by men of position and influence.
Ques. 26.—Is the instruction imparted in secondary schools calculated to store
the minds of those who do not pursue their studies further with useful and practi-
cal information?
69
Ans. 26.—I think that some branches of knowledge are taught in secondary
schools which are comparatively useless to people if they do not prosecute their
studies further, and which are generally forgotten soon after they cease their stud-
ies. I refer to the details of geography and history, as well as to Euclid and Alge-
bra, &c. I think that mental arithmetic and book-keeping might be introduced with
great advantage to the commercial classes.
Ques. 27.—Do you think there is any truth in the statement that the attention of
teachers and pupils is unduly directed to the Entrance Examination of the Univer-
sity? If so, are you of opinion that this circumstance impairs the practical value of
the education in secondary schools for the requirements of ordinary life?
Ans. 27.—I think it is perfectly true that the attention of teachers and pupils
is unduly directed to the Entrance examination of the University, and that this
circumstance to a certain extent impairs the practical value of the education in
secondary schools for the requirements of ordinary life. If there were two distinct
public examinations, one for those who wish to enter the colleges, and the other
for those who do not desire to pursue their studies further, I think it would give
room for a more various, as well as a more practical, course of instruction in the
different schools, (see also answer to question 26.)
Ques. 31.—Does the University curriculum afford a sufficient training for teach-
ers in secondary schools, or are special Normal schools needed for the purpose?
Ans. 31.—In my opinion the University curriculum affords a fair training for
teachers in secondary schools, and I do not think that special Normal schools are
absolutely needed for this purpose, though such schools would, of course, be very
valuable
Ques. 32.—What is the system of school inspection pursued in your province?
In what respects is it capable of improvement?
Ans. 32.—As a rule, there is no system of school inspection in Bombay, except
in regard to Government or aided schools. I would recommend inspection and
supervision by an independent Committee of competent and influential citizens.
The present mode of inspection by the educational authorities is insufficient to do
any real good to these schools.
Ques. 33.—Can yon suggesst any method of securing efficient voluntary
agency in the work of inspection and examination?
Ans. 33.—I think there ought to be no difficulty whatever in securing the ser-
vices of distinguished gentlemen, both European and Native, for the inspection
and examination of schools. There are a large number of perfectly competent
gentlemen in Bombay who would deem it a pleasure, as well as an honour, to
undertake this task. The Anjuman schools are daily inspected by prominent mem-
bers of the Muhammadan community, and I think their efficiency is greatly owing
to this circumstance,
Ques. 34.—How far do you consider the text-books in use in all schools
suitable?
Ans. 34.—Speaking generally, I see no objection to the text-books ordinarily
used in the schools in Bombay. It is highly desirable to secure as great a variety as
70
possible. In regard to Muhammadan schools there is no series of text-books which

can be adopted with perfect satisfaction The compilation of such a series is one of
the great aims which the Educational Department ought to keep in view. The Anju-
man-i-Islám is also directing its efforts to attain this end. The Urdu Series lately
issued by the Punjab educational authorities is a great improvement upon its pre-
decessors, and might be adopted with advantage in the Muhammadan schools until
a better one is produced As to Persian there are no satisfactory text-books at all.
Ques. 36.—In a complete scheme of education for India, what parts can, in
your opinion, be most effectively taken by the State and by other agencies?
Ans. 36.—I am afraid that in the present backward state of India the whole
responsibility of educating the people must fall upon the State The Government
could not with any safety or without the certainty of prejudicing the cause of edu-
cation withdraw from its present liberal policy of providing schools and colleges
for the people. It would be impossible to rely upon any voluntary agencies. Such
agencies would be very good auxiliaries, and might supply any deficiencies in the
Government system of education, but I think it would be a fatal mistake on the
part of the Government to rely exclusively upon them. Any high schools or col-
leges established by Missionary or other religious bodies would always be looked
upon with grave suspicion by the people, and a withdrawal of Government in their
favour would lead to serious misapprehension in the mind of the people in regard
to the general policy and intentions of Her Majesty’s Government. This in itself
would be a grave evil and a political blunder of the first magnitude, but I think
there are even higher considerations which make it imperative on the Government
to continue their present policy in regard to education. Her Majesty’s Government
has repeatedly given pledges and assurances that the Natives of this country would
be allowed a larger and larger share in the administration of India. The present
Viceroy has, by the numerous Resolutions recently issued, given practical proof
of his determination to carry out those assurances. It is now the settled policy of
the Government of India that the blessings of self-government should be conferred
upon the people of this country to as large an extent as practicable. If therefore
the Natives of India are henceforth to take a more active part in the administration
of their own country, it follows that they must at least be fairly educated, and it is
obvious that they could not be so educated without proper facilities being afforded
to them It seems to me, therefore, that a clear responsibility rests upon the Gov-
ernment to provide, not only primary education for the masses, and secondary
education for the middle classes, but also high education for the future generations
of those into whose hands the administration of the country must henceforth be
more or less committed. The happiness, prosperity, and contentment of the people
of India depend far more upon the civil administration of the country than upon its
military system, and no civil administration can be satisfactory unless it is largely
carried on by properly educated and enlightened Natives of the country To obtain
the services of such gentlemen, however, it is necessary to continue and even to
increase the facilities for sound education. It must further be borne in mind that
the persons who most appreciate the blessings conferred upon India by the British
71
Government are the people who have received good education. It is to the edu-
cated Natives of this country that the Government must look for moral support,
and it is they alone who are, on the one hand, the interpreters to the masses at large
of the feelings and intentions and policy of the Government, and, on the other
hand, the exponents to Government of the sentiments, aspirations, thoughts, and
prejudices of the people. Surely, then, it would be a very unwise policy on the part
of the Government to do anything which would have the effect of alienating the
sympathy of the educated classes or of giving them room to suspect that the Gov-
ernment was averse to the progressive enlightenment of the people On the whole,
therefore, I am strongly of opinion that both the interests of the people and the
interests of the State imperatively demand the continuance of the present liberal
policy of Government in regard to education in all its branches I am, of course,
hopeful that in course of time education will be so widely spread in India, and its
blessings so universally appreciated, that its absence would not be tolerated by the
people, and voluntary and perfectly efficient machinery would be forthcoming to
provide it even without the support of Government In that case it might be well for
Government gradually to withdraw from the direct support or management of the
high schools and colleges and leave them to the operation of the law of demand
and supply. At present, however, the people in general do not appreciate the value
of high or even secondary education, there is not sufficient spontaneous demand
for it, and the withdrawal of State support would mean the complete collapse of
the whole educational system I am afraid there are no grounds for hoping that
our wealthy citizens or noblemen would, at present at least, be willing to come
forward with contributions of sufficient magnitude for the foundation or endow-
ment of high schools or colleges. If, however, the present system continues in
force for some time yet, and if the light of education penetrates to the upper and
wealthier strata of Native society, as it will undoubtedly do in course of time, then
we may hope that large schools and colleges will be gradually established in all
parts of the country by charitable donations, and the burden of the Government
will be gradually lightened and ultimately removed. The large endowments, both
by Muhammadans and Hindus which exist everywhere in India show that the
people of the country are disposed to be charitable according to their lights. Such
charity, however, at present finds vent in the establishment of mosques, temples,
dharamshalas, &c. From charity for religious purposes to charity for intellectual
purposes is, however, but one step, and I entertain very little doubt that in the
course of a few years, provided only the Government pursues its present policy
in the meantime, rich Hindus and Muhammadans will begin to make the same
munificent donations for educational institutions as they have hither to done for
purely religious purposes. My objections, therefore, to any change in the present
policy of the Government may be summarised as follows—
(a) That it would lead to the educational system practically passing into the
hands of missionary or other similar bodies and thus shake the confidence
of the people in the religious neutrality of the Government.
72
(b) That it would raise grave suspicions in the minds of the educated classes
of the Natives of this country in regard to the policy and intentions of
the Government as to the moral, intellectual, and material progress of the
country.
(c) That it would retard, if not completely stop, the progress of education in
India, as there are at present at least no other agencies capable of taking the
place of Government with anything like the same efficiency.
(d) That the supply of educated Natives would gradually fail, and it would
become impossible for Government to give effect to its declared policy of
conferring the blessing of self-government upon the people of this country
Ques. 39.—Does definite instruction in duty and the principles of moral con-
duct occupy any place in the course of Government colleges and schools? Have
you any suggestions to make on this subject?
Ans. 39.—There is no definite instruction in duty and the principles of moral
conduct in Government colleges and schools except incidentally in the course of
general instruction. I do not think it necessary to teach this as a special subject
otherwise than by the instruction to be derived from good examples set by the
teachers, &c. In my opinion intellectual training of a high order, combined with
college discipline in itself, operates as a great teacher of duty and moral principles.
Ques. 40.—Are any steps taken for promoting the physical well-being of stu-
dents in the schools or colleges in your province? Have you any suggestions to
make on the subject?
Ans. 40.—As a general rule, there are no special steps taken for promoting the
physical well-being of students in the schools and colleges in the Presidency of
Bombay. Some of the schools and colleges have a play-ground and gymnasium,
&c., attached, while others do not possess either I would recommend that a gym-
nasium should be attached to each institution of any importance. A prize might be
awarded for proficiency in athletic sports, &c., in order to direct the attention of
the students to their physical improvement.
Ques. 41.—Is there indigenous instruction for girls in the province with which
you are acquainted, and if so, what is its character?
Ans. 41.—There are very few indigenous schools for girls in the Bombay Presi-
dency Amongst the Mubammadans, however, females belonging to respectable
families are usually taught at least how to read, if not how to write. There are some
Karis or Mullas in the chief centres of Muhammadan population who teach the
Korán and perhaps a little Hindustani and Persian to guls. Every Muhammadan of
the higher order thinks it hisduty to teach his daughters how to read the Korán if
nothing more’, and, as a general rule, women amongst the genuine Muhammadans
are far more generally and far better educated than the women of other Native com-
munities in India. All the remarks which I have made on the subject of the education
of Muhammadan boys apply more or less to the education of Muhammadan girls
also There are about 70 schools for Muhammadan girls in Bombay containing about
850 pupils But very little more than reading the Korán is taught in these schools.
73
Ques. 42.—What progress has been made by the Department in instituting

schools for girls, and what is the character of the instruction impacted in them?
What improvements can you suggest?
Ans. 42.—So far as I am aware, very little progress has been made by the
Educational Department in instituting schools for girls. It is highly desirable
that such schools should be established on a proper basis in Bombay at least.
At present Native girls have either to remain ignorant, or be educated at home
at great expense, or to attend Missionary schools, where, as a rule, Christianity
is taught as a necessary part of the curriculum. There is not a single school for
Muhammadan girls in Bombay where English is taught, although such a school,
if established on a proper basis, would certainly be a great success, and would
be supported by the respectable classes of the community. This important sub-
ject is at present engaging the attention of some of the prominent members of
the An-juman-i-islam, and I am not without hope that some practical result may
ensue from it
Ques. 43.—Have yon any remarks to make on the subject of mixed schools?
Ans. 43.—I do not think that mixed schools are desirable in the present state of
Native ideas and feelings. There is an insuperable prejudice in the minds of the
Native community against boys and girls mingling together in the schools.
Ques. 47.—What do you regard as the chief defects, other than any to which
you have already referred, that experience has brought to light in the educational
system as it has been hitherto administered? What suggestions have you to make
for the remedy of such defects?
Ans. 47.—I think the chief defects of the present educational system are, that it
tends to produce scholars of one stereotyped kind, that it leaves little room for the
development of different styles of education in different schools in India, that it
teaches a number of subjects which are of little practical utility; and that it omits
to teach other subjects of far greater practical importance. I think some schools
ought to be opened with the special view of assisting those who, for instance, wish
to adopt a mercantile career. In the elementary classes more importance should he
attached to mental arithmetic than has hitherto been done. Book-keeping might be
introduced with great advantage in some of the schools. Classes for agricultural
and technical instruction ought to be opened.
Ques. 48.—Do you think that any part of the expenditure incurred by Govern-
ment on high education in the Presidency of Bombay is unnecessary?
Ans. 48.—I do not think that any part of the expenditure incurred by Gov-
ernment on high education in the Presidency of Bombay is unnecessary. On the
contrary, I consider that the facilities for high education ought to be extended no
less than for primary education, and so far from considering any portion of this
expenditure unnecessary I am of opinion that it ought to be gradually increased
so as to keep pace with the progress of primary and secondary education—until
at least institutions of a high order are voluntarily established by the people them-
selves to take the place of the Government colleges. I have, however, no reason to
hope that this will be the case for many years yet to come.
74
Qnes. 53.—Should the rate of fees in any class of schools or colleges vary
according to the means of the parents or guardians of the pupil?
Ans. 53.—I think that the fees ought to vary according to the means of the par-
ents or guardians of the pupil, and I am of opinion that great consideration ought
to be shown to deserving pupils whose parents are unable to pay the usual fees;
and especially in the case of Mussulmans whose ignorance and poverty have now
become almost a danger to the State and for which it has become imperatively
necessary to provide a remedy.
Ques. 58.—What do you consider to be the maximum number of pupils that
can be efficiently taught as a class by one instructor in the case of colleges and
schools respectively?
Ans. 58.—I think 30 to 40 is about the number that one instructor can teach with
advantage in schools, and about 50 to 60 in colleges: this must, however, greatly
depend on the mental development of the students and the amount of individual
attention required in each class.
Ques. 60.—Does a strict interpretation of the principle of religious neutrality
require the withdrawal of the Government from the direct management of col-
leges and schools.
Ans. 60.—In my opinion a strict interpretation of the principle of religious neu-
trality does not in anyway require the withdrawal of the Government from the
direct management of colleges and schools, provided only that Government itself
does not in any way identify itself with any particular system of religion. It seems
to me that the withdrawal of Government in the manner suggested in this question
would simply be fatal to the cause of education in India, as the whole management
of such institutions would then practically devolve upon the Missionary bodies,
and the people would be put to the alternative of either not receiving a liberal
education at all or receiving it at the hands of persons whose primary object in this
country is to detach the people from their religion, I do not think that Natives of
this country would care to run this risk in the case of their children, and the inevi-
table result would be that liberal education would gradually cease to exist in India.
Ques. 62.—Is it desirable that promotions from class to class should depend,
at any stage of school education, on the results of public examinations extending
over the entire province? In what cases, if any, is it preferable that such promo-
tions be left to the school authorities?
Ans. 62.—I am unable to see why promotions from class to class at different
stages of school education should depend on the results of public examinations
extending over the entire province. The present system seems to me to work very
well. The teachers of each class in conjunction with the examiners seem to me to
be the best authorities on the question as to whether a particular pupil should or
should not be promoted inasmuch as a variety of matters may have to be taken
into account with which the examiners acting merely as such would have no con-
cern at all.
Ques. 63.—Are there any arrangements between the colleges and schools of
your province to prevent boys who are expelled from one institution, or who leave
75
it improperly, from being received into another? What are the arrangements which
you would suggest?
Ans. 63.—There are no arrangements of the kind that I am aware of, nor do I
consider any such special arrangements necessary. I presume that each institution
makes what it considers sufficient enquiries before admitting a pupil who has
apparently received instruction elsewhere, and this seems to me to be sufficient
for all practical purposes.
Ques. 65.—How far do you consider it necessary for European professors to be
employed in colleges educating up to the B.A. standard.
Ans. 65.—I do not consider it absolutely necessary for European professors
to be employed in colleges educating up to the B.A. standard for every subject,
though I consider such a course highly desirable in regard to some subjects at
least. Native gentlemen of exceedingly high qualifications can, without much dif-
ficulty, be found to teach some subjects, while for others European gentlemen
would be the best. I consider that at present at least English professors ought to be
employed to teach English literature and history and the classical languages, and
perhaps mathematics and the natural sciences, while Native professors might with
advantage be employed to teach all branches of Oriental learning. These remarks
are made without reference to the merits or qualifications of particular individu-
als, because in certain special cases this rule might be departed from with benefit
to the students.
Ques. 66.—Are European professors employed, or likely to be employed, in
colleges under Native management?
Ans. 66.—I see no reason why European professors should not be employed
in colleges under Native management when their services would be necessary or
desirable. The general tendency in the native community is to exaggerate rather
than under-rate the value of European agency in giving instruction. European pro-
fessors might, perhaps, be dispensed with in course of time when our Universities
have sent forth a sufficient number of able and competent Native scholars, but I
fear that such a desirable consummation is yet far distant.
Ques. 67.—Are the circumstances of any class of the population in your prov-
ince (e g., the Muhammadans) such, as to require exceptional treatment in the
matter of English education? To what are these circumstances due, and how far
have they been provided for?
Ans. 67.—I am convinced that the Muhammadans in the Bombay Presi-
dency do require exceptional treatment in the matter of English education.
It is quite apparent that they have not participated in the general prosperity
of the empire, or in the diffusion of knowledge, to anything like the same
extent as the other classes of Her Majesty’s subjects. The schools, the colleges,
the liberal professions, the public services, are all almost exclusively filled
from classes other than the Muhammadans. No one has ventured to suggest
that, as a body, Muhammadans are wanting in ability, for wherever they have
made their appearance they have shown themselves quite capable of holding
their own. What, then, is the reason of the general depression amongst the
76
Muhammadans? I am clearly of opinion that it is capable of being traced to the

following causes.—
(1) A feeling of pride for the glories of their past empire, and the consequent,
inability to reconcile themselves to the circumstances of the present.
(2) Love and pride for the glorious literature of India, Arabia, and Persia, and
the Oriental arts and sciences to which they have been so long attached,
and the consequent inability to appreciate the modern literature, arts, and
sciences of Europe, or to bear the former being supplanted by the latter.
(3) A vague feeling that European education is antagonistic to the traditions of
Islam and leads to infidelity and atheism, or to conversion to Christianity.
(4) A feeling that the Government of the country takes no notice of their
reduced position and does nothing to extricate them from it.
(5) Failure or neglect, or inability on the part of the Educational authorities,
to provide anything like the same facilities for the education of Muham-
madan youths as the other classes of Her Majesty’s subjects.
(6) Poverty which prevents them from availing themselves even of such
schools as have been already established for the subjects of Her Majesty in
general.
(7) A feeling prevailing amongst the trading classes that English education as
given in Government schools is of little practical value, and that some of
the subjects taught are useless in ordinary life, while others (in their opin-
ion) of greater importance are neglected in Government schools.
Now, as to the remedies—
The first above specified cause seems to me to be beyond the power of the
Government to remove. It will, however, work its own cure in course of time, as
the Muhammadans must gradually be convinced that the only way to vindicate
and to be worthy of the past is to make the most of the present opportunities, and
that a policy of sullen indifference will not in the least ameliorate their condition,
but will, on the contrary, make their position worse and worse every day. The
more thoughtful portion of the community are already convinced that, while
they have been wasting their time on useless regrets for the past, their Hindu and
Parsi and Christian neighbours have been making rapid progress towards civilisa-
tion and prosperity, and that it is now high time to wake up and, make amends for
time and opportunities so long thrown away. As I said before, the removal of this
cause, that is to say, the awakening of the conscience of the community and making
them feel ashamed of their indolence and apathy, is a task not so much for the Gov-
ernment or the Education Commission as for enlightened and influential Muham-
madans themselves, who by holding public meetings, delivering lectures, writing
in the press, establishing societies for the promotion of knowledge, &c., can alone
convince their co-religionists of the fatal results of their present indifference. The
Mussulmans ought to be gradually convinced that while the glories of their ances-
tors were achieved by the sword, and in the field, the prosperity of themselves and
the glories of their posterity will depend entirely, or almost entirely, on the pen
77
and the desk, and that it is high time for them to exchange the former for the latter.
I rejoice to think that this conviction is gradually forcing itself upon the Muham-
madan community, and that it has begun to bear some beneficial fruit already.
As to the second cause, there is great justification for it. The Muhamnaadans
have every reason to be proud of their glorious literature and to cling to it with
love and affection. They have no more right, however, to despise the literature of
the West than Europeans have to despise the literature of the East. In each case
this feeling of contempt is the direct offspring of ignorance. The two classes of
literature are, moreover, by no means antagonistic to each other. Oriental learn-
ing can well go hand-in-hand with Western literature, and the true solution of the
difficulty is to combine the two together and to make the Muhammadans feel that
while they are acquiring English education they are not by any means compelled
to give up their Persian and Arabic classics. This course has been adopted with
wonderful success by the Madrasa-i-Anjuman-i-Islám at Bombay, And on a larger
scale by the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Alligurh, and I earnestly
commend it to the most careful consideration of the Commission. If good schools
and colleges are opened where Indian, Persian, and Arabic classics are taught in
addition to the different branches of European learning, I feel convinced that the
Muhammadan youths of the Presidency would flock to them, and it would be
clearly demonstrated that the present backwardness of the Mussulmans is due,
not so much to their own faults as the inability of the educational authorities to
understand the real cause of the disease and to provide the proper remedies.
The third cause is again one which is not in the power of Government to
remove. Government has hitherto very wisely refrained from taking the side
of any religion whatsoever so far as educational matters are concerned, and it
would be extremely mischievous to depart from this policy even in the smallest
degree.
The feeling that English education is antagonistic to the traditions of Islám is,
however, founded upon a gross misconception of facts and upon an utter igno-
rance of the true nature of all liberal education. In reality Western education is
inimical to Islám at the utmost in the same degree and no more than it le to Christi-
anity, Hinduism, and any other religion whatever on the face of the earth. Muham-
madans have, therefore, no greater reason to avoid the European arts, sciences,
and literature than have Christians, Hindus, Parsis, and other communities.
This feeling of dread is, however, so widely spread that it can only be eradi-
cated by the examples and precepts of educated and influential Muhammadans
themselves. Already there are signs of its gradually giving way, and I entertain
little doubt that it will completely disappear in the course of a few years if the
other causes which hinder Muhammadan education are removed and to which I
invite the most careful and earnest attention of the Commission.
As to the fourth cause, I think the complaint of the Muhammadan community,
though exaggerated, is not altogether without foundation. I am far from attribut-
ing the whole blame to Government; indeed, I think that the largest portion of it
must fall upon the Muhammadans themseleves. No one is more ready to admit
78
than I am that the Muhammadan community could never have been reduced to
their present wretched condition if it had not been to a great extent for their own
indolence and bigotry, and for the operation of causes 1, 2, and 3, for which they
are themselves more or less responsible. After, however, making all due allow-
ance for these considerations, I cannot help thinking that the Muhammadans have
hitherto been very hardly treated; that until recently they have not received any-
thing like the same consideration as the other classes of Her Majesty’s subjects;
and that for some reason or other they have been practically excluded from a share
in the administration of the country. These facts have naturally produced a feel-
ing of despair in the minds of the community and made them think that it was no
use acquiring education or doing anything else as the Sirkar was not favourably
disposed towards them, and that political justice was not to be had when they
came into competition with more favoured communities. This is a most dangerous
feeling, and not the less so for being largely founded upon mistaken notions as to
the policy or intentions of Government. It is a feeling, however, which it behoves
Government to take into its most careful consideration and to try and remove if
possible. That it can be removed to a very great extent no man who has studied
the question can doubt for a moment. Why should not Muhammadan languages,
for instance, be recognised by Government? Why should they be supplanted by
other and inferior dialects? Why should Muhammadan literature be practically
excluded from schools and colleges? Why should not the claims of Muhammad-
ans to State patronage be recognised in the same manner as the claims of the
other communities? Let me give an example. There have been Hindu, Parsi, and
European Sheriffs of Bombay, but not a single Muhammadan. Is it pretended that
there is not a single gentlemen amongst the Mussulmans fit to hold that sinecure
office? Are Muhammadans much to blame if they consider this as a gross neglect
of their community? If, therefore, Government do really desire, as I have not the
least doubt they do, that the Muhammadans should stir themselves and should
acquire European education, let them distribute the State patronage in a just and
impartial manner; let them organise the educational system on a proper basis and
with fair consideration for the feelings and the requirements of the Mussulman
community, and the desired result will unquestionably follow, and the complaints
about the ignorant and depressed and discontented condition of the Mussalmans
will cease to exist.
As to the fifth cause. The matter seems to me to be so clear that it would almost
be a waste of time to discuss it at any length. It is enough to state that until the
Anjuman-i-Islám of Bombay appealed directly to the Government and got a
special grant of Ɍ500 a month for the purpose of establishing an institution for
Muhammadan youths in Bombay, there was not a single school in the whole of
the Bombay Presidency where Hindustani-speaking Mussulman boys could learn
English through the medium of their own mother-tongue. They had first to learn
either Gnjarathi or Marathi, and then to attend one of the ordinary schools for
Hindi or Parsi boys, where English was taught through one of those languages.
But in order to learn either of those languages, not only was a great deal of time
79
wasted for nothing, but the ordinary, as well as the classical, languages of the
Muhammadans had to be given up. What wonder, then that only a few Muham-
madans could be found who would be willing to give up ther own mother-tongue
and their own classical literature for the purpose of acquiring a language like
Gujarathi or Marathi, which was of no value to them in ordinary life, and pos-
sessed but small literary attractions, and could only be useful to those who wished
to enter into Government service, and that too in those places only where those
languages prevailed.
The absurdity of compelling Muhammadan boys either to remain ignorant of
Western literature altogether or to learn Gujarathi or Marathi in order to acquire
a knowledge of English, was repeatedly pointed out to the Educational authori-
ties. The Anjaman-i-lslám strongly appealed to the Director of Public Instruc-
tion to open a school suitable for Muhammadan boys where English education
might be imparted through the medium of Hindustani, which is the mother-tongue
of the Muhammadans of India as a body, but to no purpose. The Educational
Department could not be convinced that many Muhammadans remained igno-
rant because there were no suitable means provided to educate them. At last the
Anjuman-i-Islám appealed direct to Government and succeeded in obtaining from
them a grant of Ɍ6,000 per annum for Muhammadan education only. With the
assistance of the Government grant, aided by private subscriptions, the Anjuman-
i-Islám started a school under the name of the Madrasa-i-Anjuman Islám of Bom-
bay on the 20th September 1880. The success of this institution, notwithstanding
some persistent efforts to injure it and to depreciate its advantages, has been most
encouraging. In less than a year it had 450 pupils on the rolls. So rapid was its
growth that the funds at the disposal of the Anjuman were wholly insufficient for
its increasing wants.
The Anjuman accordingly appealed to the Director of Public Instruction to
apply a portion of the Municipal grant for primary instruction in and of the
Muhammadan education, but to no purpose The doctrine of “first come first
served” was deemed a sufficient answer to the appeals of the Anjuman. The
Anjuman then applied direct to the Municipality with the gratifying result that
a special grant of Ɍ5,000 per annum was made in aid of schools under the
management of Anjuman, and we are now educating 450 boys at Peydhoni
and 75 at Nagpada, although the Nagpada branch was opened only on the
20th June last. I may add that no portion of the Municipal grant has yet come
to the hands of the Anjuman, although frequent applications have been made
for them.
The above history of the straggles of the Anjuman on behalf of Muhammadan
education and the success of the Madrassa, combined with my own knowledge
and experience of Muhammadans, have established in my mind the following
conclusions:—
(a) That no suitable schools for giving English education to Muhammadans

existed before the Madrassa was opened on 20th September 1880
80
(b) That the Educational authorities were either indifferent, or unable, or

unwilling to make any suitable arrangements for Muhammadans, even after
the necessity for such arrangements had been clearly pointed out to them.
(c) That the success of the Madrasaa-i-Anju man Islám proves that Muham-
madans are just as willing and able to learn as the other classes of Her
Majesty’s subjects when proper schools are established for them.
(d) That the ignorance prevailing amongst Muhammadans is to a great extent
due to the absence of all educational facilities for them, and in particular to
the absence of instruction through the medium of Hindustáni.
(e) That Muhammadan schools to be a success must teach Hindustáni, and
perhaps Persian, in addition to the other usual branches of knowledge and
the vernaculars of the provinces.
( f ) That a committee of educated and independent Muhammadans is the best
machinery for establishing and conducting schools for Muhammadan boys.
(g) That such a committee is forthcoming without much difficulty in Bombay,
although, of course, great caution must be exercised in selecting men who
really take an interest in educational matters.
(h) That the ideas, feelings, and sentiments, and even the prejudices of Mus-
salmans, must be carefully taken into account in founding or managing
schools intended for them.
(i) That the Muhammadans have not hitherto been treated with sufficient con-
sideration in regard to educational matters, and that a fair share of the Gov-
ernment, as well as Municipal, grants should be applied specially for their
benefit.
( j) That their ordinary Gujarathi and Marathi schools are utterly unsuited to
Muhammadans, most of whom do not understand or care for either of those
languages, and that instruction must be imparted to them in Hindustani.
(k) That Muhammadan teachers and Muhammadan Inspectors or supervisors
are necessary for Muhammadan schools.
Before I leave this subject I am anxious to point out that, although the Gov-
ernment and the Municipal grants have enabled the Anjuman-i Islám of Bom-
bay to place elementary education within the reach of a considerable number of
Mussalman boys of Bombay, yet the funds at our disposal will not be sufficient
to enable us to carry our institution up to the Matriculation standard. We have
now gone as far as the fourth, and we may perhaps go as far as the fifth stan-
dard, but there we must stop unless further funds are forthcoming. I would, there-
fore, strongly urge that some means should be devised by which the education
of Muhammadan youths should be carried up to the Matriculation standard, and
I respectfully submit that to provide such instruction for Muhammadans is no
less the duty of Government, and should be no less a part of the general system
of education, than to provide the same for Gujarathi and Marathi-speaking boys.
The Muhammadan population of the city of Bombay is about 160,000, and it
is, therefore, not asking for more than justice to say that the expenditure on the
81
education of Mussalmans should at least be in proportion to their numbers, if not

in proportion to their requirements. The ignorance of Muhammadans must lead to
their poverty, and their poverty to discontent, and no thoughtful politician would
deny that the discontent of such a large community as the Mussalmans of India
would be a grave source of danger to State, and ought to be removed at all cost
and without delay.
The sixth cause is again a very important one, and must be carefully borne in
mind when considering any scheme for the education of Mussulmans. Special
provisions must be made for admitting poor but respectable boys to schools free
of charge. So extreme is the poverty of the community as a whole that, although
the fees at the Anjuman schools are little more than nominal, yet we have been
obliged to admit a large number of boys free of charge Many of these boys,
though poor, are very deserving, and belong to respectable families who, but
for the indulgence shown to them, would grow up in ignorance and become a
burden and certainly not an honour to the community. I have recently received
letters from the head master of the high school at Nariad, lamenting the extreme
poverty of the Mussalmans of the place, and asking the Anjuman to take some
practical measures for giving education to the Muhammadan youths of the dis-
trict who, he says, are willing to learn, but cannot afford to pay the school fees.
This is a state of things which, I submit, the educational authorities ought to
remedy at once.
Another result of the poverty, combined with the bigotry and indifference, of the
community is that Government cannot at present at least reckon upon the founda-
tion of English-teaching schools for Mussalman boys by Mussalmans themselves
My late experiences in connection with the Madrassa Fund are not quite satisfac-
tory, and the persistent efforts which have recently been made to depreciate the
schools established by Anjuman—to prevent people from subscribing fresh funds,
and to deter ignorant people from availing themselves of the advantages offered
by the schools—show the enormous difficulties with which the true friends of
Muhammadan education have to contend. These circumstances, however, only
make the duty of the Government still more plain because they show that the
very community which needs education most is the one which is least capable of
helping itself.
The seventh cause is one of general operation, and applies to the other com-
munities just as it does to the Mussalmans, though perhaps in a less degree.
With regard to the Muhammadans, however, its operation is more obviously and
extensively mischievous, because it operates precisely on those classes which
are not barred from availing themselves of European education by the force of
causes 1, 2, 4, and 6 The Muhammadan community may be roughly divided into
the trading and the non-trading classes, the former consisting of Memons, Kho-
jahs, and Borahs, and the latter of Dekhanees, Konkanees, &c, and the descen-
dants of the old noble and official classes, &c. Now it will scarcely be denied
that the education imparted at Government schools is of a less practical character
than that required by the mercantile classes. It is the right sort of education for
82
those who wish to pursue their studies further—for candidates for the public
service or the liberal professions,—but it is not exactly the kand of education
that the merchants themselves require. Good mercantile and technical schools,
therefore, where real practical knowledge is imparted, seem to me to be great
desiderata in India.
Ques. 69.—Can schools and colleges under Native management compete suc-
cessfully with corresponding institutions under European management?
Ans. 69.—I can see no reason why schools under Native management should
not compete success fully with corresponding institutions under European man-
agement. All depends upon the gentlemen in charge of the institutions, and primá
facte I would say that (caeteris paribus) Native gentlemen would understand the
peculiarities and the requirements of Native boys better than Europeans could be
expected to do As to colleges, the case is perhaps different, as it may be difficult to
find Native gentlemen of sufficiently high qualifications who are both willing and
able to take charge of such colleges. For a long time yet to come I think it would
not only be desirable, but even perhaps absolutely necessary, that the management
of colleges should be entrusted to Europeans. I hope the day may come when
European agency in this respect may be gradually dispensed with, but to dispense
with it at this moment would perhaps be to postpone that happy day forever.
Cross-examination of
By MR. LEE-WARNER.
Q. 1.—Can you tell us the history of the decline of the Arabic College
founded in Surat in 1809 by Muhammadan Borahs, and do you think it could
be revived?
A. 1.—I am not very well acquainted with the circumstances, but one cause of
its failure was a want of funds. It was a college originally founded, I believe, by
the Daudi Borahs, the head of which community got involved in debt. I think it
could be revived on a partially secular basis with a grant-in-aid from Government.
I shall be happy to obtain information and furnish it in a statement to the Com-
mission hereafter.
Q. 2.—What is the monthly income of the Anjuman-i-Islam raised by (i) pri-
vate subscriptions, and (ii) by fees?
A. 2.—The monthly fees realised are about Ɍ100. Our subscriptions nominally
amount to Ɍ50,000, out of which about Ɍ40,000 have been paid and invested.
This is exclusive, of course, of the grant from Government of Ɍ500 a month, and
Ɍ416 from the Municipality, which has not yet been paid. Our endowment fund
may be raised when we apply to the Native Chiefs and Princes.
Q. 3.—You recommend that the course of study in primary schools be made
to include mental arithmetic and book-keeping. Has the Anjuman-i-Islám intro-
duced the subjects, and if so, what is the system of instruction?
83
A. 3.—We have partially introduced mental arithmetic up to multiplication-

tables, but not the book-keeping. In the Baroda State schools book-keeping has
lately been introduced.
Q. 4.—In reference to answer 4 of your evidence-in-chief, can you tell us the
decision regarding incorporating indigenous schools at which the Anjuman-i-
Islam has arrived?
A. 4.—We have decided to incorporate the indigenous schools, if we have
funds. We are about to enter into correspondence with the masters of such schools
in Bombay city, and we intend to propose the payment of a special grant of Ɍ1 for
each boy sent up by them into our Hindustani department
Q. 5.—In reference to your answer 8, what do you mean by the amount “now
expended”? expended by Government or by the Municipality? The case is this,—
Municipalities do not contribute 10 per cent of the cost of primary schools, the
cess income raised in the town is very small, and practically the cess raised in the
villages, or the Provincial assignment which belongs to it as a grant-in-aid, is spent
in the towns The rural boards regard this as a spoliation of the rural cess fund, and
I want to know if you would advocate that this inequality be rectified before the
present expenditure incurred by Government is handed over to Municipalities.
A. 5.—I think that there should be a financial arrangement between local Dis-
trict and Municipal Boards before the ways and means of primary education are
handed over to the other, so that any unequal assignment of funds, which at pres-
ent exists, may be rectified at the outset.
Q. 6.—In reference to your answer 67, do you mean the Commission to under-
stand that there were not Hindustani schools in every district in the Presidency?
A. 6.—I allude to the fact that there was no school in which boys could learn
English through their own Hindustani.
Q. 7.—In your answers 2 and 32, and generally throughout your evidence,
when the context does not show that you are speaking of the whole Presidency, is
not your use of the word “Bombay” meant in the narrow sense of Bombay city?
A. 7.—It is.
Q. 8.—When you speak in your answer 67 (J) of the vernacular of the
Muhammadans not being taught and of Gujarathi being useless to them, have
you studied the figures? I understand that in Sind, out of nearly two million
Muhammadans, only 16,000 speak Hindustani. In Gujarathi the great mass of
the trading classes speak Gujarathi, and although in the Deccan the Muham-
madan gentry use Urdu, Marathi, or Marathi and Hindu is the common language
used.
A. 8.—I considered these facts before I gave my evidence Those who speak
the vernaculars are practically the illiterate classes of Muhammadans and outside
our system of education. Those whose educational wants are now pressing speak
Hindustani
Q. 9.—When you talk of the Muhammadans being depressed and more or less
left outside our educational system, have you ever compared the percentage of
84
Muhammadans educated or under instruction in each division with Hindus? I

make it to be as follows In Bombay Island 19 per cent Muhammadans and
17 6 per cent Hindus, in Northern Division 9 per cent. Muhammadans and
7 per cent. Hindus, in Central Division 8 7 per cent Muhammadans and 4 1
per cent. Hindus. In the North-East Division the propoition is the same. In
the Southern Division, the Muhammadans are still behind the Hindus, and in
Sind the Muhmmmadans are entirely illiterate If you compare these figures
with the last census, I observe a marked improvement in the Muhammadan
community.
A. 9.—I had not worked out the figures in this way, I am very glad to hear of
the progress, but I would illustrate the present backward state of Muhamnadan
education by the following figures—
As to high education, for instance—
The Deccan College has 133 students, and not a single Muhammadan
The Elphinstone College has 175 students, out of whom only 5 are Muhammadan
The Ahmedabad College has 24 students and no Muhammadan
The St Xavier’s College has 71 students and only 1 Muhammadan
The General Assembly’s Institution has 85 students, but not a single Muhammadan
Again, as to scientific or special education—
The Government Law School has 152 students, out of whom only 3 are
Muhammadan
The Grant Medical College has 282 pupils, out of whom only 3 are Muhammadan
The Poona Engineering College has 159 pupils’ out of whom only 5 are
Muhammadans.
Again, as regards Matriculation—
During the 23 years from 1859 to 1381 no less than 15,247 students matriculated,
but only 48 of these were Muhammadans
Again, as to high schools—
The Poona High School has 574 pupils, out of whom only 12 are Muhammadans, the
Sholapur High School has 110 pupils, and only 2 are Muhammadans, the Ratnagiri High
School has 179 pupils, and only 10 are Muhammadans, the Elphinstone High School has
795 pupils, and only 17 are Muhammadans, the St. Xavior’s High School has 675 pupils,
and only 19 are Muhammadan.
As to secondary education, the case is no better, inasmuch as out of a total of 6,735 boys
learning English in the city of Bombay, not more than 220 are Muhammadans
Total of scholars learning English in the Central Division is 9,586, out of whom
only 307 are Muhommadans, in the North-East Division, 977, with only 39 Muham-
madans, in the Northern Division, 4,459, with only 182 Muhammadans, in the Southern
Division, 2,801, with only 62 Muhammadans, in Sind Division, 19,965, with only 795
Muhammadans.
The above figures are taken from the Report of the Director of Public lnstruc-
tion for 1880–81.
85
By MR. TELANG.
Q. 1.—Do you think that the Managers of the Muhammadan indigenous schools
will consent to keep registers, &c, as required by the Education Department?
A. 1.—I think they would. It would merely require explanation.
Q. 2.—With regard to answer 16, do you approve of the suggestion to reduce
Deccan College to the status of a college teaching up to the Previous Examination
only?
A. 2.—I do not.
Q. 3.—Have you any objection to state the general nature of the difficulties
raised against the employment of the Muhammadan graduates referred to in
answer 25?
A. 3.—I never could ascertain what the objections were. But I understood the
feeling to be a fear that Hindu susceptibilities would be wounded by the employ-
ment of the Muhammadans in Gujarth for instance.
Q. 4.—In reference to answer 26, what is the practical course of instruction
which you would recommend for those students who do not wish to enter the
colleges?
A. 4.—I would recommend the omission of algebra, Euclid, and the details of
geography and grammar, I would add book-keeping and mental arithmetic, also
object-lessons and letter-writing.
By MR. JACOB.
Q. 1.—In your 2nd answer you suggest that Mussalman schools under Mus-
salman teachers should be opened at all the centres of the Muhammadan popula-
tion. Do you know that at the end of March last the Education Department was
maintaining 99 schools and classes at such centres, and that Hindustani only was
taught in them?
A. 1.—Yes, I am aware of the fact. But I think those schools do not meet the
exact wants of the Muhammadans.
Q. 2.—Are you aware that in the whole Presidency, including Native States,
except Baroda, the number of Muhammadans children in the de partmental
primary schools last year was nearly as large in proportion to the Muhammad-
ans population as that of the Hindu pupils in proportion to their population?
A. 2.—I had not worked out the question of percentage
Q. 3.—You suggest in the same answer that special regard should be paid to
the feelings and ideas of the Mussalmans. Are you aware that early in 1881 two
special Muhammadan Deputy Inspectors were appointed to supervise Hindustani
schools, one for Gujarath and one for the Maharashtra?
A. 3.—I am well aware of the fact, as it was the direct result of our own negotia-
tions on the subject with Government.
Q. 4.—But would you maintain that the Department had not tried for several years
previously to secure the necessary funds for creating these Deputy Inspectorships?
86
A. 4.—I do not think the Department had been pressing the matter so earnestly
Q. 5.—Is it the fact that there are special Persian and Arabic teachers employed
at the training colleges for Muhammadan students, and that the conditions of
entrance to the training colleges are easier in the case of Muhammadans than in
the case of Hindu students?
A. 5.—I am not aware of the fact.
Q. 5.—In connection with the same answer, are you aware that the masters of
the Local Fund Hindustani schools are permitted to teach the Korán in the school-
house, provided they do so out of the ordinary school hours?
A. 6.—I was not aware of the fact, but if they teach out of school hours, I sup-
pose it does not make much difference.
Q. 7.—With reference to answer 13, have you ever heard that in several dis-
tricts the Local Fund Committees have reduced the fee-rates by 50 per cent for
Muhammadan pupils, and that the number of free students is allowed to be 20
and in some districts even more than 40 per cent, of the total number on the rolls?
A. 7.—I was generally aware that some allowances had been made for Muham-
madans. But I consider them inadequate.
Q. 8.—In your 67th answer you recommend that Indian, Persian, and Arabic
classics should be taught in addition to European learning. Is not this already
done in the Elphinstone College and at a considerable number of high schools At
Elphinstone High School, e.g., there are four Persian teachers employed and more
than 400 students learning under them. At Poona High School there are nearly 100
students of Persian, and so on
A. 8.—That does not meet my point at all. What they teach in the Elphinstone
College is mere elementary knowledge to any educated Muhammadan; the edu-
cated Muhammadan undergraduates do not even care to attend the lectures, as
they already know more than what is taught there.
Q. 9.—Then would you maintain that the University standard is far too low and
does not touch the standard works of great Muhammadan authors?
A. 9.—Certainly, speaking from a purely Muhammadan point of view.
Q. 10.—In your answer 67 you state that there was not a single Anglo-
Hindustani school in the Presidency before the Anjuman-i-Islám School was
opened. Are you aware that the Government were then maintaining Anglo-
Hindustan schools or classes at Poona, Nasik, and Ahmednagar, and that an
attempt has been made by the Department in 1870 to maintain one in the city
of Bombay?
A. 10.—I was aware only of the attempt made in Bombay in connection with
the class at the Gokuldas Tejpal School.
Q. 11.—Yon state that the Anjuman-i-Islám has not been permitted to draw any
of the Municipal grant. Is it a fact that the Educational Department expressed its
readiness to disburse as much of the grant as was necessary to meet the actual net
expenditure incurred by the Society? Is it also a fact that the Director offered the
Society the services of some of the best Government school masters?
A. 11.—Both these are facts.
87
Q. 12.—In your 40th answer you state that no special steps have been taken
for promoting the physical well-being of students in schools and colleges in the
Presidency. Is it not a fact that nearly all the high schools and colleges have gym-
nasia, that the Deccan College has a boating-club, that Elphinstone and several
other high schools have cricket-clubs, and that there are public gymnasia and
swimming-baths in the vicinity of most of the schools in the Island of Bombay?
A. 12.—I was speaking generally of all classes of schools, specially those of the
primary and lower secondary kind.
Q. 13.—With regard to your 43rd answer about mixed schools, is it not a fact
that the Muhammadans freely send their daughters to the mosque schools?
A. 13.—They do; but the boys are taught in separate classes from the girls.
Q. 14.—If the Department were to offer grants-in-aid for pupils in the mosque
schools and Madrassas who could read and write from the Korán, do you think
that the school Managers would be willing to accept such aid?
A. 14.—I think so.
88
6
EDUCATION COMMISSION, VOL. II
GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1881),
223–242, 255–259, 261–270,
302–313, 11–14 (APPENDIX)
STANDARD LIST.
Questions suggested for the examination of Witnesses before the Commission on Educa-
tion. (Witnesses are requested to select any of these questions on which they have special
knowledge, or they may propose others.)
1. Please state what opportunities you have had of forming an opinion on the sub-
ject of Education in India, and in what Province your experience has been gained.
2. Do you think that in your Province the system of primary education has been
placed on a sound basis, and is capable of development up to the requirements of
the community? Can you suggest any improvements in the system of administra-
tion, or in the course of instruction?
3. In your Province, is primary instruction sought for by the people in general,
or by particular classes only? Do any classes specially hold aloof from it, and
if so, why? Are any classes practically excluded from it; and if so, from what
causes? What is the attitude of the influential classes towards the extension of
elementary knowledge to every class of society?
4. To what extent do indigenous schools exist in your Province? How far are
they a relic of an ancient village system? Can you describe the subjects and char-
acter of the instruction given in them, and the system of discipline in vogue?
89

5. What opinion does your experience lead you to hold of the extent and value of
home instruction? How far is a boy educated at home able to compete on equal terms,
at examinations qualifying for the public service, with boys educated at school?
6. How far can the Government depend on private effort, aided or unaided, for
the supply of elementary instruction in rural districts? Can you enumerate the
private agencies which exist for promoting primary instruction?
7. How far, in your opinion, can funds assigned for primary education in rural
districts, be advantageously administered by district committees or local boards?
What are the proper limits of the control to be exercised by such bodies?
8. What classes of schools should, in your opinion, be entrusted to municipal
committees for support and management? Assuming that the provision of elemen-
tary instruction in towns is to be a charge against municipal funds, what secu-
rity would you suggest against the possibility of municipal committees failing to
make sufficient provision?
9. Have you any suggestions to make on the system in force for providing
teachers in primary schools? What is the present social status of village school-
masters? Do they exert a beneficial influence among the villagers? Can you sug-
gest measures, other than increase of pay, for improving their position?
10. What subjects of instruction, if introduced into primary schools, would
make them more acceptable to the community at large, and especially to the agri-
cultural classes? Should any special means be adopted for making the instruction
in such subjects efficient?
11. Is the vernacular recognised and taught in the schools of your Province the dia-
lect of the people? And if not, are the schools on that account loss useful and popular?
12. Is the system of payment by results suitable, in your opinion, for the promo-
tion of education amongst a poor and ignorant people?
13. Have you any suggestions to make regarding the taking of fees in primary
schools?
14. Will you favour the Commission with your views; first, as to how the num-
ber of primary schools can be increased; and secondly, how they can be gradually
rendered more efficient?
15. Do you know of any instances in which Government educational institutions
of the higher order have been closed or transferred to the management of local bod-
ies, as contemplated in paragraph 62 of the Despatch of 1854? And what do you
regard as the chief reasons why more effect has not been given to that provision?
16. Do you know of any cases in which Government institutions of the higher
order might be closed or transferred to private bodies, with or without aid, with-
out injury to education or to any interests which it is the duty of Government to
protect?
90
B O M B AY P R O V I N C I A L C O M M I T T E E A N D M E M O R I A L S
17. In the Province with which you are acquainted, are any gentlemen able
and ready to come forward and aid, even more extensively than heretofore, in the
establishment of schools and colleges upon the grant-in-aid system?
18. If the Government, or any local authority having control of public money,
were to announce its determination to withdraw, after a given term of years from
the maintenance of any higher educational institution, what measures would be
best adapted to stimulate private effort in the interim, so as to secure the mainte-
nance of such institution on a private footing?
19. Have you any remarks to offer on the principles of the grant-in-aid system,
or the details of its administration? Are the grants adequate in the case of (a) Col-
leges, (b) Boys’ schools, (c) Girls’ schools, (d) Normal schools?
20. How far is the whole educational system, as at present administered, one
of practical neutrality, i.e., one in which a school or a college has no advantage or
disadvantage as regards Government aid and inspection from any religious prin-
ciples that are taught or not taught in it?
21. What classes principally avail themselves of Government or aided schools and
colleges for the education of their children? How far is the complaint well founded,
that the wealthy classes do not pay enough for such education? What is the rate of
fees payable for higher education in your Province, and do you consider it adequate?
22. Can you adduce any instance of a proprietary school or college supported
entirely by fees?
23. Is it in your opinion possible for a non-Government institution of the higher
order to become influential and stable when in direct competition with a similar
Government institution? If so, under what conditions do you consider that it might
become so?
24. Is the cause of higher education in your Province injured by any unhealthy
competition; and if so, what remedy, if any, would you apply?
25. Do educated natives in your Province readily find remunerative employment?
26. Is the instruction imparted in secondary schools calculated to store the
minds of those who do not pursue their studies further with useful and practical
information?
27. Do you think there is any truth in the statement that the attention of teach-
ers and pupils in unduly directed to the entrance examination of the University?
If so, are you of opinion that this circumstances impairs the practical value of the
education in secondary schools for the requirements of ordinary life?
28. Do you think that the number of pupils in secondary schools who present
themselves for the University entrance examination is unduly large when com-
pared with the requirements of the country? If you think so, what do you regard
as the causes of this state of things, and what remedies would you suggest?
29. What system prevails in your Province with reference to scholarships; and
have you any remarks to make on the subject? Is the scholarship system impar-
tially administered as between Government and aided schools?
30. Is municipal support at present extended to grant-in-aid schools, whether belong-
ing to missionary or other bodies; and how far is this support likely to be permanent?
91
31. Does the University curriculum afford a sufficient training for teachers in
secondary schools, or are special normal schools needed for the purpose?
32. What is the system of school [Illegible Text] pursued in your Province? In
what respect is it capable of improvement?
33. Can you suggest any method of securing efficient voluntary agency in the
work of inspection and examination?
34. How far do you consider the text-books in use in all schools suitable?
35. Are the present arrangements of the Education Department in regard to
examinations or text-books, or in any other way, such as unnecessarily interfere
with the free development of private institutions? Do they in any wise tend to
check the development of natural character and ability or to interfere with the
production of a useful vernacular literature?
36. In a complete scheme of Education for India what parts can, in your, opin-
ion, be most effectively taken by the State and by other agencies?
37. What effect do you think that the withdraw of Government to a large extent
from the direct management of schools or colleges would have upon the spread of
education, and the growth of a spirit of reliance upon local exertions and combina-
tion for local purposes?
38. In the event of the Government withdrawing to a large extent from the
direct management of schools or colleges, do you apprehend that the standard of
instruction in any class of institutions would deteriorate? If you think so, what
measures would you suggest in order to prevent this result?
39. Does definite instruction in duty and the principles of moral conduct occupy
any place in the course of Government colleges and schools? Have you any sug-
gestions to make on this subject?
40. Are any steps taken for promoting the physical well-being of students in
the schools or colleges in your Province? Have you any suggestions to make on
the subject?
41. Is there indigenous instruction for girls in the Province with which you are
acquainted; and if so, what is its character?
42. What progress has been made by the department in instituting schools
for girls; and what is the character of the instruction imparted in them? What
improvements can you suggest?
43. Have you any remarks to make on the subject of mixed schools?
44. What is the best method of providing teachers for girls.
45. Are the grants to girls schools larger in amount, and given on less onerous
terms, than those to boys’ schools; and is the distinction sufficiently marked?
46. In the promotion of female education, what share has already been taken by
European ladies; and how far would it be possible to increase the interest which
ladies might take in this cause?
47. What do you regard as the chief defects, other than any to which you have
already referred, that experience has brought to light in the educational system
as it has been hitherto administered? What suggestions have you to make for the
remedy of such defects?
92
48. Is any part of the expenditure incurred by the Government on high educa-
tion in your Province unnecessary?
49. Have Government institutions been set up in localities where places of
instruction already existed, which might by grants-in-aid or other assistance ade-
quately supply the educational wants of the people?
50. Is there any foundation for the statement that officers of the Education
Department take too exclusive an interest in high education? Would beneficial
results be obtained by introducing into the department more men of practical
training in the art of teaching and school management?
51. Is the system of pupil teachers or monitors in force in your Province? If so,
please state how it works.
52. Is there any tendency to raise primary into secondary schools unnecessarily
or prematurely? Should measures be taken to check such a tendency? If so, what
measures?
53. Should the rate of fees in any class of schools or colleges vary according to
the means of the parents or guardians of the pupil?
54. Has the demand for high education in your Province reached such a stage
as to make the profession of teaching a profitable one? Have schools been opened
by men of good position as a means of maintaining themselves?
55. To what classes of instit [Illegible Text] you think that the system of assign-
ing grants according to the result of periodical examinations should be applied?
What do you regard as the chief conditions for making this system equitable and
useful?
56. To what classes of institutions do you think that the system of assigning
grants in aid of the salaries of certificated teachers can be best applied? Under
what conditions do you regard this system as a good one?
57. To what proportion of the gross expense do you think that the grant-in-aid
should amount under ordinary circumstances in the case of colleges and schools
of all grades?
58. What do you consider to be the maximum number of pupils that can be
efficiently taught as a class by one instructor in the case of colleges and schools
respectively?
59. In your opinion should fees in colleges be paid by the term, or by the month?
60. Does a strict interpretation of the principle of religious neutrality require
the withdrawal of the Government from the direct management of colleges and
schools?
61. Do you think that the institutions of University professorships would have
an important effect in improving the quality of high education?
62. It is desirable that promotions from class to class should depend, at any
stage of school education, on the results of public examinations extending over
the entire Province? In what cases, if any, is it preferable that such promotions be
left to the school authorities?
63. Are there any arrangements between the colleges and schools of your
Province to prevent boys who are expelled from one institution, or who leave it
93
improperly, from being received into another? What are the arrangements which
you would suggest?
64. In the event of the Government withdrawing from the direct management of
higher institutions generally, do you think it desirable that it should retain under
direct management one college in each province as a model to other colleges; and
if so, under what limitations or conditions?
65. How far do you consider it necessary for European professors to be
employed in colleges educating up to the B. A. standard.
66. Are European professors employed or likely to be employed in colleges
under native management?
67. Are the circumstances of any class of the population in your Province
(e. g., the Muhammadans) such as to require exceptional treatment in the matter
of English education? To what are these circumstances due, and how far have they
been provided for?
68. How far would Government be justified in withdrawing from any existing
school or college, in places where any class of the population objects to attend the
only alternative institution on the ground of its religious teaching?
69. Can schools and colleges under native management compete successfully
with corresponding institutions under European management?
70. Are the conditions on which grants-in-aid are given in your Province more
onerous and complicated than necessary.
EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE BOMBAY

PROVINCIAL COMMITEE.
N.B.—The serial numbers of tie questions in the Examination in Chief of the witnesses refer
to the numbers which those questions bear in the Standard List of queries forwarded to all
witnesses and reprinted at the beginning of the volume.
W W. H.
Evidence of MR. V. S. APTE.

on Education.
Ans. 1.—I am Superintendent of the new English School at Poona But the
views which I express in my evidence represent the general views of the whole
body of conductors of the school with which I am connected
Ques. 18.—If the Government or any local authority having control of public
money were to announce its determination to withdraw after a given term of years
from the maintenance of any higher educational institution, what measures would
be best adapted to stimulate private effort in the interim, so as to secure the main-
tenance of such institution on a private footing?
94
Ans. 18.—If “private effort” means the effort of the various Missionary societ-
ies, then I am decidedly of opinion that the withdrawal of Government from the
maintenance of any higher educational institution generally will be productive of
very bad effects upon the progress of education in this country This point is dis-
cussed at length in my answers to questions 6 and 7, and I do not dilate upon it
here. If it be the sincere desire of Government that, when it retires from a direct
connection with schools or colleges, it should leave education in the hands of such
bodies as are of indigenous growth, and being such would be far better calculated
to inspire confidence in the minds of the people, if Government means to teach
the Natives of this country the art of self-education as it means to teach the art of
self-government, and thus prepare them for taking up the work when it means to
leave it, if it ardently wishes that education, upon which the success of men in all
their various avocations in life principally depends, and upon the nature of which
rests the good or otherwise of their countrymen, should be managed by the people
themselves if these be the sincere desires of Government, then I should certainly
say that the experiment, such as that which seems contemplated in the question,
would be worth trying It would be only another feature of the development of the
Local Self-Government scheme; and even if some additional expenditure has to
be incurred, the object itself is so laudable that I do not think the expenditure will
not be adequately requited I proceed to state the measures that would be adapted
to stimulate private effort in the interim, so that the institutions may be maintained
on a private footing—
(a) If any body of gentlemen come forward and say that they will be ready to
maintain some of the institutions of a higher order after a given term of years,
Government should, by first assuring itself of the abilities, efficiency, and chances
of permanency shown by them, be ready to introduce a more liberal and less
interfering system of grant-in-aid, such as would be given further on, free from
the faults which the present system shows, as given in my answer to the next
question Unless the system of grant-in-aid be liberal and leaves sufficient scope
for free development of the institution, the object aimed at, both by Government
and by those who would agree to, try the experiment, will not be accomplished to
any appreciable degree
(b) Another step to secure the desired end would be to maintain one Govern-
ment institution, at the place where the experiment may be tried, in good order
and efficiency, both to serve as a model and to produce the necessary degree of
efficiency in the private institution, and thus enable it and the Government institu-
tion to continue efficient when Government withdraws from any direct connection
with its own institution. The model to be maintained, so long as the private institu-
tion becomes thoroughly efficient, ought to be in a very efficient state, otherwise
the copy would be ill-made. After the institution has grown up in this manner and
become able to take charge of its own institution as well as the model, the body of
gentlemen might be asked to take charge of other schools in other districts on the
grant-in-aid system. Every facility ought to be given to the private institution that
95
it might become a thoroughly efficient central institution, able, in course of time,

to take charge of other schools in other places.
(c) But the most important measure which would be best adapted to secure
the desired end in a rapid and certain manner is the permission to be given by
the University to that private institution to open a college branch if it finds that
it has the means of doing so. If after a given term of years, say five or six years,
the institution, being able to manage the local Government institution, desires to
undertake the management of Government schools in other places on the grant-in-
aid system, it will not generally happen that it will get all the men wanted for this
purpose from the Government colleges themselves It will have very often to send
out men trained in its own ways of thinking and acting, and very often the number
of persons wanted would be greater than what the colleges might supply. If that
institution shows ability and efficiency and sufficiently reasonable prospects of
permanency, it may be affiliated to the University as an institution teaching up
to the PE, First BA or second B.A., according to its efficiency. If the institution,
by being recognised by the University, be able to pass graduates from itself, the
difficulty to be experienced about the supply of teachers would be considerably
obviated But this is too good to be expected all at once. It cannot be expected
that an institution will be affiliated within the period of one or two years. People
must devote themselves to college-work, and show that they will be able to teach
the subjects taught in colleges, and then only may the University be expected to
recognise it as a college institution.
But how are people to show themselves efficient to teach in a college if they
have no opportunities given them to have an experience thereof? To remove
this difficulty, I would suggest that the University might grant permission to
such an institution to send up candidates for University examinations without
keeping terms at an affiliated institution The restriction as to keeping terms
prevents several students from availing themselves of collegiate instruction,
and they are obliged to betake themselves to seeking employments. If permis-
sion of the kind suggested above be granted to an institution, it will benefit
not only poor boys themselves, those people that might think of getting their
institution affiliated would also have a fair chance of proving themselves able to
discharge their higher duties I do not think that this permission will be availed
of by anybody to the highest steps at once. The members of the institution will
first try to send students for the P.E. only, and when they find themselves able
to teach those subjects, they might think of rising one step higher, and, so on,
try to rise up by degrees. The candidates that may be prepared in this man-
ner privately may be tested by the same rigid tests as are applied to students
from other colleges, those only who might stand that test successfully should be
declared as having passed Such a step will, I think, enable men to be prepared
to teach higher subjects when the University might affiliate the institution This
would be a sort of preparatory college, and I believe that if this idea be prop-
erly encouraged, not only will the object aimed at by Government to withdraw
from a direct connection with higher education be fulfilled, but the Natives
96
will be taught a very great lesson of depending upon themselves in the matter
of education
Now, an objection might be raised: if the restruction as to terms be removed,
then the students would be deprived of the general salutary influences arising from
the presence of the professors in recognised colleges, and that the attention of the
students would be devoted more to the passing of examinations than to the forma-
tion and development of their character. With, regard to this objection, I must say
it is more fanciful than real under the present circumstances of colleges at least
Some 15 or 20 years ago one could have justly talked of the salutary influences
produced upon the mind by the agreeable sort of life led at the college, and the
frequent opportunities afforded to students of freely mixing with professors and
discussing subjects with them, but the change now to be seen is too clear to require
any explanation Even if the good of the presence of professors and the wholesome
influence of company be actually matters of fact, I do not think that people should
be deprived of the advantages of collegiate instruction simply because they are not
able to bear the costly expenses of a college life, which, in all, amount to Ɍ25 per
month even in a city like Poona If the restriction as to terms be dispensed with,
several people who hopelessly give up their studies will be encouraged to pros-
ecute them further, and even if this restriction be removed it will not certainly be
attended with a very rapid fall in the attendance at colleges, for some people there
will be who will like to avail themselves of the regular college instruction The
removal of the restriction will operate as a strong inducement to several people to
complete their course those who cannot afford to bear the heavy college expenses
will not have recourse to Government colleges, those who can will try to prosecute
their studies at Government colleges. In this way scope will be left for both classes
of students If this proposal be acted upon, and its execution be assisted by an
adequate system of grant-in aid, I see no reason why Native gentlemen should not
be ready to take charge of Government institutions after a given term of years As
I have said at the outset, the experiment is worth trying, and even slight failures at
the commencement should not be regarded as bad signs, seeing that, if vigorously
and sincerely continued, the experiment is sure to result in an incalculable good
both to Government and the people themselves.
Ques. 19.—Have you any remarks to offer on the principles of the grant-in-aid
system or the details of its administration? Are the grants adequate in the case of
colleges and boys’ schools?
Ans. 19.—As this is a very important question, I shall have to dwell upon it at
some length.
(a) It would not be out of place to give a short history of this system. The
grant-in-aid system, which is justly called the pivot of the educational system,
was introduced in conformity with the directions contained in the Despatch of
1854 “Since Government can never be expected to do all the work of education
by its own unaided efforts,” it was deemed necessary to encourage local efforts
among the Natives of India, and to make them, by means of contributions from
the State, take a more extensive part in education. In paragraph 52 the Court of
97
Directors said “We confidently anticipate, by thus drawing support from local
resources in addition to contributions from the State, a far more rapid progress
of education than would follow a mere increase of expenditure by the Govern-
ment, while it possesses the additional advantage of fostering a spirit of reliance
upon local exertions and combinations for local purposes which is of itself of no
mean importance to the well-being of a nation.” With this view the system was
propelled, and rules were framed for that purpose. At first a large extension of
schools was caused by means of what was called the “partially self-supporting
system.” But in 1857 (April) the Government of India expressed its censure of
this sort of system of extending schools as being opposed to the spirit of the Des-
patch. Then rules were promulgated for giving grants, but till the year 1865–66
the system of payment by results was not introduced, but a lump sum to be
given to a school was determined by the Inspector, considering the efficiency
of instruction imparted This system had its own evils, and thus the more effi-
cient system of giving grants according to the results of periodical examinations
was brought in. That system, with several alterations and modifications made
in the rules from time to time, has been in use till the present day. In the rules
framed for grants-in-aid for the first time, the true spirit of the Despatch was
scrupulously adhered to, but in the rules subsequently framed the same accuracy
was not observed. In the rules given in page 229 of the Educational Report for
1856–57, we find “This system of Government grants-in-aid is founded on an
entire abstinence from interference with the religions doctrines inculcated in the
schools to be aided, and that aid will be given to all schools in which a good secu-
lar education is imparted, but conditions like these do not appear to be given any
significant prominence in the rules published in 1867–68, 1871–72, 1876–77,
or 1881–82. There are various details in these rules which have been introduced
from time to time, and they will be considered when I come to the details of the
administration of the grant-in-aid system.
(b) One of the principles that is open to serious objections is the principle
now followed by the Educational Department of giving grants to Missionary
institutions, though they professedly teach their religious books to pupils during
school-hours, and thus violate the principles of religious neutrality, the chief
point insisted upon in the Despatch. I for myself am unable to see how, follow-
ing strictly the instructions contained in the Despatch of 1854 which the advo-
cates of Missionary institutions take as the basis of their arguments, Missionary
institutions, conducted as they are at present, should be entitled to get grants
(I) In the first place the objects with which the framers of the Despatch inaugu-
rated the system of grants-in-aid was to give encouragement to local efforts, “to
foster a spirit of reliance upon local exertions and combinations for local pur-
poses.” Wherever the grant-in-aid system is alluded to, the idea of local efforts
and the encouragement to be given to such efforts are prominently and distinctly
brought forward. In paragraph 61 of the Despatch it is said “We desire to see
local management under Government inspection and assisted by grants in-aid
taken advantage of wherever it is possible to do so” This sort of reliance upon
98
local exertions and combination for local purposes is not encouraged among the
people by encouraging Missionary institutions. In the paragraph above referred
to it is clearly said that Government will supply the wants of particular parts of
India by temporary establishment of schools, in districts where there is little or
no prospect of adequate local efforts being made for this purpose If, then, the
spirit and aim of the Despatch be to encourage people to come forward with
local contributions and, assisted by Government, to aid in the cause of extend-
ing the sphere of education, I cannot perceive how grants paid to Missionary
efforts, which, are evidently no local efforts, will bring about the object of the
system The Government of India themselves see that Native efforts ought to be
encouraged the Resolution No. 2152 of February 1882 says: “It is not a healthy
symptom that all the youths of the country should be cast, as it were, in the same
Government educational mould. Rather it is desirable that each section of the
people should be in a position to secure that description of education which is
most consonant to its feelings and suited to its wants. The Government is ready,
therefore, to do all that it can to foster such a spirit of independence and self-
help.” The Times of India, in a leading article in its issue of the 5th of May, writes
on thus subject much in the same strain, and, as it properly expresses my views
on this point, I give an extract from it—
“The Missionaries regard the Despatch as the character by which they claim the right
to have their schools and colleges aided by the Government, but in fact there is nothing
throughout this Despatch to show that the idea of such assistance was really entertained
by its framers. In fact we think it is highly improbable that the idea ever occurred to the
real framer of the Despatch (J S Mill) The object of the grant-in-aid system introduced by
the Despatch was distinctly stated to be the encouragement of local efforts. (Then follows
paragraph 52 quoted above) But when Government support a Missionary school they can-
not by any stretch of language be supposed to foster a spirit of reliance upon local exer-
tions. The Despatch informs us that Government expected that their efforts would be aided
not only by educated and wealthy Natives of India, but by other benevolent persons. No
doubt Missionaries are benevolent persons, but they do not always start schools from the
purely philanthropic motive of spreading knowledge.”
It will be seen, therefore, that the application of Government money towards

Missionary institutions is not encouraging “local” efforts as was contemplated
by the Despatch (II) In the second place the giving of grants to Missionary
institutions violates the principle of religious neutrality to which Government
adheres. It is one thing to abstain from interfering with the religious beliefs
of the students, and only to inculcate precepts of advice and morality so as to
tend to their well-being in this world and in the next, as is done in Government
institutions; but it is quite a different thing to preach a belief in another religion
to students of entirely differing and varying sects of belief, as is done in Mis-
sionary institutions Missionary institutions try to subvert the faith of their pupils
by introducing them to the belief of their own Christian religion by the use of
the Bible in schools and colleges, and thus directly interfere with the religious
opinions of the pupils (with what effect is immaterial), whereas Government
99
institutions give them general precepts of morality without trying to tamper

with anybody’s individual beliefs Thus, the former violate the principle of reli-
gious neutrality, so clearly and prominently insisted upon in the Despatch It
will be seen that when the rules for grant-in-aid came to be first introduced here,
the then Director of Public Instruction, Mr Howard, strongly opposed the idea
of giving grants to Missionary institutions, concurring in the views expressed on
this question by Lord Ellenborough, President of the Board of Control, in a let-
ter to the Chairman of the Court of Directors on 28th April 1858 Mr Howard
wrote “I beg to express my respectful concurrence in the arguments by which
Lord Ellenborough deprecates grants-in-aid to professedly Missionary schools
as inconsistent with religious neutrality. No pecuniary grant has been made in
this Presidency to any Missionary school” (Report for 1857–58). Lord Ellenbor-
ough’s views are very explicit, and I quote some paragraphs because they fully
bear out what I say
“22. The primary object of the Missionary is prosolytism. He gives education because
by giving education he hopes to extend Christianity. He may be quite right in adopting this
course, and left to himself unaided by the Government, and evidently unconnected with
it he may obtain some, although probably no great, extent of success. But the moment he
is ostensibly assisted by the Government, he not only loses a large portion of his chance
of doing good in the furtherance of his primary object, but by creating an impression that
education means proselytism, he naturally impedes the progress of Government directed
to education alone”
* * * * *
“26. Our scheme of education pervaded the land. It was known in every village. We
were teaching new things in a new way, and often as the teacher stood the Missionary, who
was only in India to convert the people
“27. I must express my doubt whether to aid by Government funds the imparting even
of purely secular education in a Missionary school is consistent with the promises so often
made to the people and till now so scrupulously kept of perfect neutrality in matters of
religion
“28. It is true that the money of the State is only granted to the Missionary on
account of the secular education which alone he engages to give to the Native unless
the Native should otherwise desire, but it may often, if not always, happen that it is
only through the aid thus given professedly for secular education that the Missionary
is able to keep the school at all, which he only designs for other, and those proselytis-
ing purposes
“29. We thus indirectly support where we profess to repudiate and practically aban-
don the neutrality to which at all times we have pledged ourselves to adhere. Such
conduct brings into question our good faith, and may naturally give alarm to the
people”
It is true that these emphatic thoughts, coming so close after the mutiny, will
lose a little of their warmth when applied to the present state of Missionary
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institutions, but the fact is none the less true that, though proselytism is not
regarded by them as a near certainty now, yet it is that to which all their secular
as well as religious efforts are slowly, but surely and remotely, directed. The
times have vastly changed no doubt, but the Missionaries, though they are not
confident of any success, still retain the principle of religious instruction and
thus violate the principle of strict religious neutrality. As for supplying the vacant
minds of students, undermined by the secular instruction in Government schools,
with a sense of moral obligations in an evangelical way, the Missionaries would
do well to leave it to the Natives themselves They might preach morality with-
out going to the Bible. The reason why Natives attend mission schools, though
their tendencies are proselytising, is that they generally can afford to admit boys
at a far less rate of fees than other schools, and that they admit a large number of
free students. Sharp and diligent boys, however, invariably prefer other schools,
because they give a far superior instruction. The views of those who had charge
of the Educational Department, when the rules were first systematically intro-
duced, were opposed to the principle of granting aid to Missionary institutions,
but subsequently Educational officers showed themselves favourably inclined to
their cause, and the consequence has been that most of the mission schools, those
of the higher class at least, now get grants-in-aid. Missionary advocates must
have succeeded in inducing Educational officers to believe that the language of
the Despatch guaranteed the grants of money to private agencies that might be
available; and even now, having a strong interest at home to back them, and hav-
ing the sympathies of men like Lord Halifax: and the Duke of Argyll, &c., they
are using all the weight of their arguments, and humbly asking for their share by
standing upon the provisions of the Despatch (The three or four pamphlets pub-
lished by the Reverend Johnston during 1880 and 1881 on this subject may be
taken as examples) I have no mind to enter into a refutation of their arguments,
as this is neither the time nor the place to do so. I merely take the fact as it stands
now—that there are very few Missionary schools now that are not assisted by
Government with a grant-in-aid
(c) The Department of Public Instruction, as now constituted, is generally not
inclined to encourage the growth of indigenous private enterprise by a liberal
application of the grant-in-aid system. If a school is started by Natives and shown
to several able officers, and even if it secures certificates of efficiency and good
management both from the results of the Entrance Examinations and from the
Educational authorities themselves, the school gets no chance of being registered
on the ground, not of inefficiency, but want of funds at the disposal of Govern-
ment. The Poona Native Institution may, I think, be given as an example of this
sort. It is only now that the Manager of the institution has, by a marvellous dint
of much personal exertion, succeeded in getting it registered To illustrate what I
mean by the attitude of the Department towards this institution, I take the follow-
ing extracts from letters written to the head-master, Mr. Bhave, by Educational
authorities—
101
“No. 2219 of 1880-81.

13th September 1880
To
THE MANAGER,
Poona Native Institution.
SIR,
With reference to my inspection of your school I have the honour to inform you that
the Director of Public Instruction has no money to give to the support of private institu-
tions, &c.
2 At the same time I may inform you that I was surprised and pleased to find your insti-
tution so well conducted and efficient. I consider that, looking to the difficulties you have
to meet in the way of funds, your management of the institution has been praiseworthy, and
the results obtained better than could have been expected
I have the honour to be,

Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
(Sd.) E. GILES,
Acting Educational Inspector, C.D.”
Here follows a letter from the Director himself—
“No. 2958 of 1880 81.

15th September 1880
To
MR WAMAN PRABHAKAR BHAVE,
Head-Master, Poona Native Institution.
SIR,
In reply to your letter of the 11th instant, I have the honour to state that I have no funds
for any private high school in Poona.
I have the honour to be,

Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
(Sd) K M. CHATFIELD,
Director of Public Instruction”
102
It might be supposed that the Government grant was withheld from this school
on the ground that it showed no signs of permanency, but that this ground was
disposed of so far back as 1878 by no less an authority than Mr. Kirkham, may
be seen from the Educational Inspector’s Report No 2343, dated 15th November
1878, from which the following is an extract—
“Government had very strong reasons for refusing a grant to the institution for so many
years. They wanted to see its permanency Since Dr Kielhorn’s inspection, much has been
done to improve the teaching staff The mere fact of the institution continuing for so many
years without Government and conclusively proves that it supplies an educational want
long felt in the town Now, the time has arrived when the benefit of the Government grant
can, with great convenience, be extended to this institution.”
Some of the greatest changes made in the grant-in-aid rules occurred in the
year 1876, on the ground that there were no sufficient funds available In that
year four Native high schools were struck off the list of registered schools When
Baba Gokhale’s school was so struck off, it was not, so far as my knowledge
goes, given a further trial even of one year; whereas the local mission school,
which, I may say from my personal experience of it for six months, was then
and is even now in a worse condition than Baba’s school in its worst condi-
tion; and though it is a “permanent institution” it has during the last five years,
passed on an average 1 60 students every year, while Bhave’s school passed
14 students during the same five years, though it was an unaided institution. It
is rather a strange fact that, though Missionary schools are supported by large
funds at home by the contributions or subscriptions of their friends, sympathis-
ers here, and still more by the favourable attitude of the Department towards
them, yet the results shown by such institutions at the Matriculation Examina-
tion during the last five years are far inferior to those shown by Native private
unaided institutions From a calculation made of the results of the nine Mis-
sionary schools in this Presidency which send up boys for the Matriculation
and of those shown by the nine unaided private institutions existing in Bombay
and Poona, it is found that the latter schools passed 252 boys, while the former
not more than 160! This shows the efficiency of instruction in Native schools
though they have to labour under very great disadvantages, and it also shows
that Missionary institutions (with one notable exception) are far below the mark
even in that branch in which they ask Government to hand over its institutions
to them, i e., secondary education
When the grants were withdrawn from Native schools in 1876, it was quite nat-
ural that their efficiency should be seriously marred. Though the Native schools
were struck off the list of registered schools, the number of Missionary schools
and other European and Eurasian schools that received grants on the reduced
scale continued very nearly the same in 1877–78 The Director in his Report
for 1877–78 wrote that the falling-off in the number of aided schools that was
recorded “may possibly be attributed to the cessation of the Government grant
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and the consequent inability or unwillingness of the proprietors to employ teach-

ers thoroughly qualified to teach up to the Matriculation standard” If the words
“was surely” be substituted for “may possibly” in the above passage, I think the
Director will have stated the chief reason of the falling-off referred to. In order to
show how the grants of Government are divided amongst aided schools, I give the
following table from the Report of 1880–81—
Permanent
Permanent
schools for Private
Year Colleges Schools for Total.
Europeans and Schools
Natives
Eurasians.
Rs Rs A. P Rs A P Rs A P Rs A. P
1879–80 . . 8,525 30,883 8 0 35,780 4 2 3,815 0 0 76,002 12 2
1880–81 . . 3,600 34,800 0 0 37,739 5 7 4,469 8 0 83,698 13 7
This shows what a despicably small portion of the grants is obtained by schools
started by Natives (that is, hardly 12 per cent.), and how great a portion is absorbed
by European and Eurasian schools (that is, nearly 46 per cent) An argument is
sometimes put forward by the Department that if the Native schools are good
they want no Government support, but I must say here that a due appreciation of
the efficiency of instruction is not made by 75 out of 100 persons, and though a
school might be good, it does not in all cases mean that it will continue long so
without a grant from Government If I may be allowed to state here the present
Director’s opinion about Native private enterprise in general, I shall re-produce
it.—“I think,” said he to me at a private interview, “the system of grants-in-aid to
private schools is a sort of fallacy When we find that the ways and means of our
Government high schools become equal by the raising of fees proportionately, we
might employ the sum we now spend on them in opening other schools, instead
of supporting a lot of mushroom schools which may spring up to-day and die in
no time.” I must admit here that there is some truth in his remark, Government is
not bound to aid a school of which there appears no reasonable chance of perma-
nence, or which might be merely started for filling the belly. Such “mushroomh”
schools it might not aid; but I think the “mushroom” nature of school ceases if it
continues for more than four years without the least aid from Government in an
efficient manner.
(d) I now come to the details of the administration of the grant-in aid system
itself. The foremost of such points is the system of payment by results, which
means the system of awarding grants to schools according to the results of peri-
odical examinations The chief evil of this system is that it does not give facilities
for the maintenance of permanency in an institution, its nature is very uncertain
A school might get a very bad batch of boys one year, and if the results in an
examination of those boys be bad so as to give a less grant that year, how should
the school pay the teacher that taught those boys? The labour of the teacher is not
104
lessened even if the boys be very raw. Even if the results of examinations show a
great variation from year to year, the school will have to maintain the number of
teachers, and so a constant expenditure. If the results are bad one year the school
cannot afford to pay its teachers properly, if it should turn them out, there would
be very little likelihood of getting in this manner any teacher who would agree to
teach in the school for a certain number of years The frequent change of teacher
is greatly detrimental to the interests of boys in private schools, more so than in
Government schools; but if the grants be of a varying and precarious nature, the
evils arising from such a frequent change of teachers would be seriously aggra-
vated In fact, the Managers of a school would, I think, find it difficult to be able to
keep up a standard of efficiency, if they have to depend, for the most part, upon the
payments to be got by the results of examinations. It is well known that the results
of examinations are generally of a very uncertain nature Far more uncertain, and
consequently far more injurious to the interests of a school, are the results of those
examinations in which the examiners are bound by a particular limit, beyond
which the funds at the disposal of Government cannot go If the amount of funds
that can be spent in grants-in-aid is already settled and fixed upon, it can hardly be
expected that examiners who are, under the present system, Government servants,
i.e., Deputy Inspectors or Educational Inspector, should not try to cut down the
grants as far as possible, so as to bring them within the fixed limits. When exam-
iners go to examine a school with the knowledge that the funds at the disposal of
Government cannot exceed a certain amount; and when other causes—such as the
chance of getting a bad batch, the hurried, and therefore unsatisfactory, way of
examinations, the difference in the degree of tests for any two years, the person-
nel of the Department being liable to constant fluctuations, and the fact that boys
frequently get nervous or are quite unable to show their usual attainments before
an examiner whom they have not seen before—when these and the like causes
are taken together, they all, I think, go to enhance the very uncertain nature of the
system of payment by results when applied exclusively to a school. The other way
followed by the Department in the case of some schools in the Presidency is to
give in the lump a fixed grant every year. In this way Ɍ24,303 2–9 were given to
schools during the year 1880–81. Whatever be the advantages of getting a grant
free from the unstable effects of payment by results, I am not inclined to think that
a fixed grant will have a good effect upon the working of a school Though pay-
ment by results has many evils when introduced exclusively, one advantage of it
is that it always leaves occasion for vigorous exertions, gives an impulse to work
hard, and thus dispels all source of idleness, looseness, or carelessness, which are
inevitable when it is certainly known that the school will get very nearly the same
grant next year. By this system one of the chief incentives to work sincerely and
zealously, which are essential in a private school, is removed, and I think the sure
prospect of getting a certain amount of grant, whether the work is done sincerely
or not, prevents teachers from increasing every year the standard of efficiency
once attained. Payment by results has the element of rousing a spirit of emula-
tion which is wanting in the fixed grant system. I, for myself, would not like to
105
have a fixed grant given every year, though at the same time I should not wish
the payment-by-results alone maintained without other elements of permanency.
When we apply for the registration of our school, we should certainly like to
have the elements of both the systems—a fixed grant and payment-by-results—
combined in a manner in which the evils of both would be removed and the good
promoted. Payment-by-results by itself might be of some use in the case of those
schools which are not likely to suffer, if passing certain examinations be made the
goal of ambition of their teachers Such schools would be the primary schools and
the extension of primary education might be sought by a judicious application of
this system and thus encouraging the growth of indigenous schools in villages
wherever practicable. But this system, if used exclusively in higher schools and
colleges, will not be productive of much good, and how it may be made beneficial
by a just combination with the fixed grant system, will be given in my answers to
questions 11 and 12, where I shall propose a system of grants-in-aid, combining
the advantages of both the present systems
(e) Several important changes were made in the grants-in-aid rules from time
to time; but three very important changes, among others, were effected in 1876;
namely, the withdrawing of grants for passing Matriculation and grants for the
salaries of teachers, and reducing by one-half the grants for passing the F A and
B.A. Examinations, which were formerly 200 and 350 respectively. Since 1877
a college that passed a F.A. and B.A. got only 100 and 175; when the rules were
again revised in the early part of this year, the grants for Matriculation and teach-
ers’ salaries were not renewed, though the causes which prompted the sudden
changes in 1876, i e., the paucity of funds owing to famine, had to a great extent
disappeared in February 1882. The only changes made were in the grants for the
three University examinations, for each of which Rs 100 were assigned. By this
great decrease, where a college got before 1878 Ɍ550 for sending out one gradu-
ate, it can now get Ɍ300 only with the additional risk of having to get a student
through three, instead of two, examinations, with one more chance of failure. The
effect produced by these changes upon the progress of aided colleges must indeed
have been very serious, and if Government be desirous of encouraging indig-
enous private efforts in the work of education, I think the scale of these grants
will have to be considerably increased But in the ease of aided high schools also
the sudden and great changes with regard to salaries and Matriculation grants,
which still continue unmodified even in the recently revised rules, told very heav-
ily, and will tell more heavily still, on the aided schools. It is a strange anomaly
that the standards below the Matriculation standard are examined and grants paid
for them, but that standard which determines the degree of efficiency of a high
school remains out of consideration. It is this standard of which the greatest care
is required to be taken, as it is that which proves the school to be efficient and
prosperous Passing one boy in the Matriculation could, before 1876, give the
school Ɍ100, but since then it gives nothing. Besides, there being now no grants
allowed for salaries of masters, the Managers of a school have no inducements
to employ abler and efficient teachers, for they cannot, merely depending upon
106
the uncertain payment-by-results, afford to spend large sums for this purpose.
When masters get some fixed grants according to their degree of knowledge, it is
very easy for a school to secure the services of competent teachers. The result of
these circumstances has been that private schools find it impossible to obtain the
services of able teachers on low salaries; failure to get able teachers renders the
standard of instruction very low, and thus the cause of the school begins to sink
more and more, till at last a final extinction is considered better than a disgrace-
ful, lingering death Owing to the withdrawal of grants in these two respects, the
progress of high schools conducted by Natives has been hampered, and I don’t
think that, unless important changes are made in these two particulars, the Natives
of this Presidency would find it worth their while to take a part in the education
of their own countrymen.
( f ) Leaving the minor defects in the administration of the grant-in-aid system,
such as the undue severity of examinations in considering a boy as incapable of
getting a grant for a head if he fails in any of its subdivisions, the greater attention
paid at the time of an inspection or examination to the neatness of external forms
and their exact conformity to Government or prescribed modes rather than to the
kind or quality of instruction given, the uncertainty of the standard adopted by an
inspecting officer to enable him “to speak well of the quality and intelligence of
boys” at an inspection, and the like defects, I must not omit to mention the last, but
not the least one, i e, that the present rules interfere largely with the free growth
of private institutions. The chief faults of the official machinery as contrasted
with private enterprise are, as pointed by Herbert Spencer as early as 1854 in the
Westminster Review, the want of promptness, want of efficiency, and the want of
adaptability to the requirements of those affected by it Though the second fault
cannot be in all cases charged against Government institutions, yet the two others
may, I believe, be predicated of most of them. And the way in which the grant-in-
aid rules are applied to schools only serves to heighten them instead of trying to
remove them The tendency of the Government machinery is to reduce everything
to stereotyped forms and to leave no scope for the free exercise of independence
in internal management. The rules require that the schools should be examined
according to the standards prescribed for Government institutions. The several seri-
ous faults noted with regard to the arrangement of subjects for different standards
and touched upon in my answer to question 10, are, therefore, carried into private
schools also, and the unadaptability of subjects, instead of being cured in the so-
called independent institutions, is increased, by being scrupulously followed Any
school, therefore, that may be registered and may claim to get grants-in-aid, has to
regulate all its studies according to the models act by Government, howsoever ill-
constrtucted or faulty they may be. Thus, if it wants any assistance from Govern-
ment, it must conform itself to all the rules, regulations, forms—good or bad—in
fact, everything done in Government schools. It yet remains to be seen whether a
school being registered and presenting boys for examination under standards dif-
ferently constituted from the Government ones, not merely in point of difference
of books, but in the change of subjects also, will be assisted by Government with
107
a grant. If Government desire to ultimately withdraw from the direct management

of its schools and colleges by encouraging local efforts, private institutions ought
to be given a perfect liberty of action in all internal arrangements; they must not be
bound dawn by the stereotyped forms obtaining in Government institutions, even
though they be seriously faulty; there ought to be every room for improvement and
progress and continued development as circumstances may render necessary. The
University has fixed the standard for the Matriculation, and whatever paths, easy or
difficult, private schools might follow to attain this end, in other words, though the
standards that they might adopt be different, Government ought to have no objec-
tion to examining such schools on the ground that they are not, as it were, “uniform
in one volume.” Many Managers of aided institutions might desire to make some
radical changes in the course of instruction, but they dare not do so, lest they should
be in danger of forferting what small grants are placed within their reach If, for
example, the New English School is registered, we would make it as the first condi-
tion of making ourselves amenable to the grant-in-aid rules, supposing the present
rules be allowed to remain unmodified, that the Inspector will not see by what kind
of standards the school course is regulated, what the intermediate ways are by which
we reach the goal. He should satisfy himself about the efficiency of instruction as
conveyed in the school, and should declare results accordingly We have adopted
standards, adapted, in out opinion, to the wants of students as they advance. We
have now reduced the whole course to six years, and by opening a vernacular feeder,
which we hope to do at no distant date, we hope to reduce the school course by one
more year at least Thus, where a boy in a Government school might complete his
Matriculation course after 11 years at least, supposing him to be a very sharp boy
all round, we hope we shall be able to arrange to complete it within 8 or 9 years. If
such changes are effected, and if the grants-in aid rules continue to he as rigid as
now, I do not see how such a school will be thought worthy of Government support.
It is upon a right adjustment of this point that the success of private institutions in
my opinion depends more than upon others. If we should become ready to join the
banners of Government standards and submit to their rules, that which has, I may
say without any feeling of egotism, made it a school having some distinctly peculiar
features of its own, will be lost, and it will be only going over the old beaten path
without the means of making any improvements in the course of instruction It is this
point in the administration of grants-in-aid that must be grappled with and solved
with care, prudence, and honesty of purpose
Ques. 21.—What classes principally avail themselves of Government of aided
schools and colleges for the education of their children ? How far is the complaint
well-founded that the wealthy classes do not pay enough for such education?
Ans. 21.—The classes that generally avail themselves of instruction in schools
and colleges are the poorer and middle classes, and the higher classes generally do
not take as much interest in any education as it is supposed they do. The persons
who send their sons to schools or colleges are mostly Government officials, clerks
in Native States, or in private offices or businesses, or small land-holders, and there
are very few who can be said to belong to the wealthier classes. Even a person
108
who gets 100 or 200 rupees a month, but who has a large family to support and has
to look to the education of, say, two sons or relatives at college, cannot be said to
belong to the rich class In proof of this I give a statement with regard to the Deccan
College. Out of 105 students from whom information could be obtained, 5 are the
sons of persons getting Ɍ500 and upwards per mensem, 11 are the sons of persons
getting between Ɍ250 and Ɍ500 per mensem, 19 are the sons of persons between
Ɍ100 and Ɍ250 per mensem, 31 are the sons of persons getting between Ɍ50 and
Ɍ100 per mensem, and 39 are the sons of persons getting below Ɍ50 per mensem
From this it will be clearly seen that the students in the Deccan College at
least are not the sons of wealthy parents Nearly 38 per cent are the sons of poorer
classes who ill afford to give Ɍ20 or Ɍ22 per month for the education of a boy at
college out of an income of only Ɍ50 per mensem About 48 per cent, are the sons
of parents who get above Ɍ50 or below Ɍ250, and this, too, I must say, does not
show that the rich class avails itself of education. Hardly 4 per cent are the sons of
persons who get anything like Ɍ500 or upwards.
As an example of what classes of people send their boys to secondary schools, I
give below a table showing the rank of parents of boys in the New English School
taken on the 28th of July 1882—
Standards Total
Number
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th of Boys
{
Beggars . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 4 4 3 2 1 19
Within Rs. 100 19 12 14 12 9 3 1 70
From ” 100 to Rs 200 30 18 21 16 5 1 4 95
YEARLY INCOME.
From ” 200 to ” 400 29 17 25 15 16 3 7 113

From ” 400 to ” 600 8 19 16 26 11 4 8 87
From ” 600 to ” 1,000 18 12 13 8 6 9 12 78
From ” 1,000 to Rs 3,000 14 6 19 25 16 5 8 92
From ” 3,000 to ” 5,000 and 7 7 3 2 1 20
upwards
Total of Boys 130 92 119 111 67 27 37 573
It will be seen from this that even in a large city like Poona, the number of those par-
ents or guardians who get between Ɍ200 and Ɍ300 per month is 20 only out of 573,
or about 3 5 per cent. It thus becomes evident that the majority of those who send their
boys to schools belong to the struggling middle or poor class, and that the richer or
higher classes keep aloof from education. This is acknowledged in the Resolution of
the Government of India which appointed this Commission “Hitherto those who have
been most ready to take advantage of superior instruction have frequently belonged
to families of comparatively limited private means, and there should, in the opinion
of the Government of India, be no each sudden and general raising of fees as to carry
high education beyond the reach of those classes who at present boná fide seek for it,
109
or to convert the Government colleges into places to which the higher classes only
procure admission” Those who, therefore, urge that Government might safely with-
draw from a direct connection with colleges and secondary schools on the ground that
the richer or wealthier classes who attend these institutions are able to pay the cost of
their own education, do not appear, to me at least, to have made out a strong, nay, any
case, in their favour In my opinion the wealthy classes are really the Sirdárs who have
some jágirs, or big Shettias or Bháttias or Pársis of the position of Sir Jamsetji Jijibhái
or Kawasji Jehángir Readimoney. It is only now that people of this class have begun
to evince an interest in the cause of education, but some years must elapse before they
can be induced to take an active and intelligent part in the noble cause of education
When the number of those wealthy persons who avail themselves of collegiate or
school education, is so insignificantly small as almost zero, it is an idle complaint to
say that the wealthy classes do not pay enough for such education.
cal information?
suitable?
Ques. 35.—Are the present arrangements of the Education Department in
regard to examinations or text-books, or in any other way, such as unnecessarily
interfere with the free development of private institutions? Do they in any way
tend to check the development of natural character and ability, or to interfere with
the production of a useful vernacular literature?
Ans. 26, 34, & 35.—I shall first take the question of text-books and then come
to the other questions.
(a) The text-books used in primary (vernacular) schools that require any con-
sideration are those relating to the vernacular, i e., the serial reading-books and
the work on grammar.
I believe I may say emphatically that the reading-books which form the chief
part of a boy’s instruction in primary schools are exactly what they should not
be. The book on grammar is abstruse and too scientific in its treatment, and is
not a book which can be safely given into the hands of the teachers to teach their
young pupils from, much less into the hands of the pupils themselves. A grammar
written in a clear, easy, and less scientific manner, capable of being readily under-
stood, if learnt by heart, would be the sort of book which will suit the wants of
young boys learning in primary schools Again, the vernacular serial books are
not suited to the wants of the sons of non-agriculturists even, far less suited are
they to the requirements of the sons of ryots It is found that in primary schools,
especially those situated in villages, the number of sons of cesspayers is about
60 or 61 per cent. In each schools, where boys are to be taught such subjects as
would be practically useful to the sons of the ryots, it might be expected that the
reading-books should contain lessons on subjects like the fall and distribution of
rain, sowing, and harvest times, manures, their use, &c., and such other subjects a
knowledge of which would be highly useful to the sons of ryots, who might thus
110
be able to make a better use of their fields How necessary it is that this sort of
practical knowledge should be imparted to the sons of ryots, may be seen from the
following paragraph from the Despatch of 1854—
“Para 41.—Our attention should now be directed to a consideration, if possible, still

more important, and one which, we are bound to admit, has been hitherto too much negla-
cted, namely, how useful and practical knowledge suited to every station in life may be
best convered to the great mass of the people, who are utterly incapable of obtaining any
education worthy of the name of then own unaided efforts and we desire to see the active
measures of Government more specially directed for the future to this object, for the attain-
ment of which we are ready to sanction considerable increase of expenditure”
If the existing reading-book be carefully examined, it will be found that there

is nothing in them that is calculated to give a useful and practical knowledge to
the mass of the population such as was contemplated by the framers of the Des-
patch, and if this is not done, I do not know how a return may be said to be
made to those ryots who pay a special educational cess to get their children taught
at least the rudiments of useful knowledge In my opinion the knowledge to be
imparted in village schools should be a good knowledge of reading and writing,
casting account, and general information of subjects connected with agriculture.
My belief is that there ought to be a separate set of subjects appointed for village
schools These appear to me to be the prominent defects in the text-books used in
primary schools, and when this fact is coupled with another, i e, that the teachers
in those schools are not able, nor have they any inducements, to make the instruc-
tion practical, the defects become serious enough.
(b) Passing on to secondary schools, I may say that the defects in text-books
are not so serious and inexcusable, though the standards that are in use are open
to many serious objections, in point of division and arrangement of subjects. The
series in English used in middle-class schools is not so useful and instructive as
some others that are now left to the option of teachers, i.e., the Royal Reader
Series, Chambers Series, &c. The series now generally used deprives students of
much of the useful and instructive knowledge that might be given to them com-
patible with their young and phant intellectual faculties, if other books were used
I may say here that a progressive series for the lower standards of high schools,
such as would exactly suit the wants of Native youths, ought to be prepared by
Natives themselves, the higher books being borrowed from English works. Then
the two reading-books in Maráthi are utterly unsuited to young boys, being full of
lessons on chemical, astronomical, anatomical, and such other scientific subjects
hardly capable of being understood by the teachers themselves of those classes,
much less by young students not knowing anything of Sanskrit When a boy passes
on to higher standards he learns text-books that are considerably easier than these
two, both in point of style and choice of subjects, such as Bálamitra, Socrates’ Life,
Elizabeth, &c. The defects in the text-books become serious, to a great degree,
because the way in which boys are taught Maráthi grammar—the foundation of
their knowledge—is simply mechanical, parrot-like, and quite unproductive of any
111
substantial good to the pupils themselves. This I may say boldly from the frequent
admissions made by me into the lower standards of the school I do not wish to
go into details, but this much, I think, I must say, that the general way in which
boys are taught in primary schools is defective, unproductive of any practical
good, and seriously detrimental to their intellectual faculties and energies Then,
as regards text-books in history, I must say here also there is much to be said
against them, In the second standard is put into the hands of the students Morris’
History of India, than which, I may say, a more denationalising and partial book
at will be difficult to find. Then the English history taught in the higher standards,
in a shunting way, and at every time upon different sorts of rails, deserves to be
considered. I strongly believe that no student can afford to read English classi-
cal books without a knowledge of the ancient histories of Greece and Rome—
the ancient lands of classical celebrity—without at least a knowledge of the
general facts in the two histories. But these two histories have been prescribed
from the standards, and thus, probably, the means left to the students of having
some enlarged ideas as to how nations rise, thrive, and fall, are removed, and
the general feature of the dead-level system prominently brought to light. My
charges with regard to secondary schools are not so much against the text-books
as against the half-hearted and perfunctory way generally followed by teachers
in teaching their pupils, and this, goes, I think, a great way in making the present
textbooks so unsuitable Of this I have had some experience during the last two
years whenever I had to admit boys from the local high schools or other high
schools, and I found that seven out of ten boys had to be admitted into one stan-
dard lower into our school
(c) To go now to the question whether the instruction imparted in secondary
schools is calculated to store the minds of those who do not pursue their studies
further with useful and practical information, I am constrained to answer the ques-
tion in the negative. Even from the commencement of his English course, the stu-
dent is deprived of useful and practical information such as may be found in the
Royal Readers or Chambers Educational Course, &c. Then we see nothing like a
knowledge of the histories of Greece and Rome, not to mention any general his-
tory. There are no subjects introduced into the standards such as would give him
a general knowledge of the laws of political economy, the wonders of science (an
instruction insisted upon by philosophical writers like Professors Huxley, Spen-
cer, and Tyndall), a general knowledge of, at least, what the duties and bindings of
men are as the members of society, and as subjects of the State, and also what rela-
tions and obligations hold between men as between themselves and as towards
others, such subjects as would serve to give a student some ideaof what the ways
of the world practically are and how they can be usefully followed. Supposing the
student does not wish to continue his studies after the Matriculation, he should be
sent into the world with some useful practical knowledge. I think something of
the kind suggested above ought to be done, besides making it obligatory on teach-
ers to impart as much practical knowledge regarding subjects already set forth in
the standards as it may be in their power to do. I believe text-books on the above
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subjects, written in an easy, lucid, and instructive manner, should be prepared by

the Education Department and may be set for Standards V, VI, VII
(d) As regards the first part of question 10, I have already answered it at suf-
ficient length in my answer to question 3. I believe that, unless examinations, the
selection of text-books, or the other tests examination, be so regulated that they do
not interfere with the internal management and development of private schools,
that they leave every scope for independence of action consistent with the require-
ments of the Department, and that they will look more to what is expected from
such schools than to how or in what manner it is obtained, the free growth of pri-
vate institutions, such as was contemplated by the framers the Despatch of 1854,
will be greatly hampered As I have already said, if a private school undertakes to
teach boys as far as the Matriculation with six, instead of seven, standards, the
Department should not raise any objection on the ground that the system does
not correspond with its own. The extent of knowledge to be tested may be fixed,
but whether that is acquired by going through the usual grooves or different ones
should not be inquired into.
(e) The second part of the question deserves to be more carefully considered.
Is there any tendency in the present arrangement of the Department to check the
development of natural character and ability, or to interfere with the production of
a useful vernacular literature? I should certainly say yes The monotonously uni-
form system of instruction conducted upon English models and English tastes, the
removing of means by which students may be reminded of their nationality, even
in innocent sports and games, the adoption of such text-books as Morris’s History,
the tenour of which goes to magnify British influence and British power and to
lower and degrade Indian men and manners, and the proscription of such as would
keep awake the idea that students are but members of a great nation having certain
duties towards it,—these and the like means tend, in my opinion, to check the
unrestrained growth of natural (by which, I suppose, is meant national) character,
and the remedies to make up the defects are not far to seek. But the latter clause
of the question is more important still. The high school standards are so arranged
that if a student takes up Sanskrit, Latin, or Persian for his second language in the
fourth standard and continues it as far as his college course, he bids a good-bye
to his vernacular, a farewell, a long farewell, to its grammar, its idiom, and even
the slight favour of using it in his ordinary conversation. It is only at the time
of translating from the vernacular into English that the hands of the student are
allowed to be for a time defiled by a contact with that language. Explanations of
passages, paraphrases, themes, letter-writing, all contribute to give English a very
great importance which is considerably enhanced by the fact that all knowledge
is to be shown viá English, and that if, therefore, he happens to be specially weak
in English, he has no chance whatever of passing his examinations I do not know
if translation from English into the student’s vernacular is carefully attended to or
practised in all high schools At the time of the annual examination examiners
hardly care to know whether the student knows how to translate any passage into
his vernacular. In the Matriculation a passage is now given for translation from
113
the candidate’s vernacular into English with the alternative of a paraphrase (a very
just alternative indeed): but I do not know why a passage is not similarly given for
translation from English into vernacular. If the candidate’s knowledge of his ver-
nacular is to be tested, it must be by translation from English into the vernacular
also Excepting this opportunity of coming into contact with his vernacular, the
student, if he happens to join a college, severs all connection with his vernacular,
he reads, talks, lectures, or gossips, in English or, at the most, hybrid English.
The poor vernaculars are not allowed to cross the threshold of the seminaries of
education, and students who pass with vernaculars for their second languages, are
required to take up one of the classical languages recognised by the University.
When the attitude of the Education Department and the University is so unfavour-
able to the vernaculars, it cannot but happen that the student, though he obtains
a first class in his B A or M A, forgets all about his mother tongue. The aim of
the whole educational system, as at present administered, appear to me to make
the Natives speak and write good English, to make them Burkes, Addisons, or
Macaulays in English, and not to enable them to be masters of their own mother-
tongue, as if the object of the University were to send forth into the world every
year a lot of Anglicised graduates instead of graduated Natives! I do not impute
the blame in any way to the students. The fault lies with “the system of educa-
tion. The knowledge of his vernacular to be found in even the ablest graduate is
all that he might have acquired when he threw off his Sixth Reading-book and
Dádoba’s Grammar in the third standard. Under these circumstances it is scarcely
possible that graduates should be able to produce a useful vernacular literature I
think I shall not be making an over-statement if I say that 80 or 85 per cent. of the
graduates now sent out by the University, are unable to write well and with ease
in their vernaculars at one cast. My belief is that the chief object of education is
to make the possessor able to use it himself and to communicate it to his ignorant
poor countrymen, to diffuse, so to speak, the knowledge acquired by him of useful
European arts, inventions, &c., among his countrymen through the vernaculars.
That this was the chief object of the authors of the Despatch of 1854 may be seen
from the following extracts—“We must emphatically declare that the education
which we desire to see extended in India is that which has for its object the dif-
fusion of the improved arts, science, philosophy, literature of Europe, in short,
of European knowledge” “We look, therefore, to the English language and the
vernacular languages of India together as the media for the diffusion of European
knowledge, and it is our desire to see them cultivated in all schools in India of
sufficiently high class to maintain a schoolmaster possessing the requisite quali-
fications” Those who possess this education were expected to be “more useful
members of society in every condition of life.” Viewed from the standpoint of the
Despatch, I do not think that the system of keeping the vernaculars out of the pale
of the University is calculated to produce a useful vernacular literature To remedy
this defect I would not go the length of proposing here new degrees to be founded
in the vernaculars, but I would propose that the students should be compelled to
learn their vernaculars at high schools more thoroughly than now Some general
114
question, such as translation from English, and essay to be written in the vernacu-
lar, and some questions on idiom, should be asked in the general English paper,
just as translation into English is now given, and in the University examinations
every candidate should have to answer a paper containing questions from books
appointed in his vernacular, along with questions on essay-writing, besides the
paper he may have to answer in the second language chosen by him I think if
something like this be done, a knowledge of the vernaculars will be preserved by
students, and the production of a healthy and useful vernacular literature will be
greatly facilitated How the scheme may be put into practice and worked I would
leave the Syndicate to decide
Ques. 27.—Do you think there is any truth in the statement that the attention
of teachers and pupils is unduly directed to the Entrance examination of the
University? If so, are you of opinion that this circumstance impairs the practical
value of the education in secondary schools for the requirements of ordinary
life?
Ans. 27.—I think there is a good deal of truth in the statement that the
attention of pupils as well as teachers is unduly directed to the Matriculation
examination When boys after learning the several lower standards reach the
Matriculation standard, the chief care of the teacher or teachers appointed to
that class is to see how many boys are capable of being made to “pass” the
Entrance examination, for upon passing a smaller or greater number depends,
to a great extent, the inefficiency or efficiency of the school. When teachers as
well as students know that a good deal of their success in this world depends
upon passing the examination, it is natural that both of them should concen-
trate their attention upon this important object They think that the best way
to secure the desired object is to make the students go through the subjects set
by the University somehow or other, which practice they are obliged to fol-
low more because the tests applied by the University in passing candidates are
extremely fluctuating and arbitrary. The standard of examination being liable
to constant variations, teachers cannot generally keep to one course of instruc-
tion Every year new examiners with new ideas about the requirements of can-
didates step into the lists, and in order to accomplish the desired object teachers
think of the ready means of getting up the various subjects by cramming and
hammering them into the heads of students. Though I grant that the attention of
teachers and pupils is unduly directed to this examination, I must say that the
cause of this must be investigated, and so long as the cause remains, it cannot
be expected that their attention should be otherwise directed. I mean the fact
that English language is made the medium through which students are to show
their knowledge of any subject learnt by them, goes a great way in strengthen-
ing this idea of teachers and pupils. Teachers find that they have to teach their
boys a certain number of subjects and they begin them with their pupils If a
teacher thinks of going beyond the stereotyped forms of teaching and gives his
pupils some general useful extra knowledge regarding any subject, he would
find that the greatest difficulty is to make them reproduce this information
115
in English at the time of examinations If they be told to reproduce the same

in their vernacular, they would do it very easily, supposing they have grasped
what the teacher told them; but English being a foreign language, it goes hard
with them to give in that language their ideas, not violating English idiom,
grammar, usage, &c So, this difficulty deters teachers from imparting
a useful, practical, or a comprehensive knowledge of any subject, if they
wish that their pupils should be able to show that knowledge at the time of
examinations. Thus, not only is the imparting of a useful practical knowl-
edge greatly limited, but the intellectual energies are spent away in learning
English first and then the subjects themselves, and I may say that more than
three-fourths of the time of a student is taken up in mastering the peculiari-
ties of a foreign language itself Whatever be the cause, the fact remains
that the practical value of the instruction given in secondary schools, so far
as the requirements of ordinary life are concerned, is considerably impaired
by the circumstance that the attention of teachers and pupils, whether rightly
or wrongly, is greatly directed to the Entrance examination
Though it is not warranted by the question itself, I may say that the same
or nearly the same result is perceivable in college examinations by reason of
the triplicate system of examinations introduced into the University during the
régime of Sir R. Temple It would be out of place to discuss here the propriety
or otherwise of the step taken by the University under the Chancellorship of
Sir Richard, but so much may, I think, be safely said, that the value of instruc-
tion given in colleges is now considerably impaired by the fact that a student
has to pass three different examinations before he should be able to earn an
honourable livelihood for himself I think it will be granted that the mind of a
student is greatly disturbed when he finds that he has to pass one examination
every year Having to learn different sets of books and different sets of sub-
jects for each successive examination, he has hardly any time at his command
to devote to other subjects than those actually prescribed, he is thus obliged to
“get up” the anomalous subjects set for his examinations, to cram the books,
and thus by pursuing the same course for three or four years, he manages
to get through or pass the B A. examination (Happy is he if he gets through
successfully within three years!) The mind of a student being thus engrossed
with the care of “passing” one examination every year, he has no scope left to
acquire a useful and practical knowledge of the subjects he studies, he comes
out of the college as a man whose head is stuffed with a variety of subjects,
but who is not able to give to the people practically the result of his knowl-
edge. And in this manner what the country expects of him—that he should not
merely be able to occupy a good place under Government, but to convey what
he has acquired to the poor masses of the people, to “filter down,” as it were,
the knowledge acquired by him through the various strata of the population of
his country—is not realised in most cases. This is, in my opinion, the object, at
any rate one of the chief objects, which a graduate is generally expected to be
116
able to fulfil But his attention being taken up by examinations, his knowledge
is not sound, comprehensive, and practical, and thus this circumstance also
considerably impairs the practical value of the education given in institutions
higher than secondary schools, for the requirements of ordinary life. I have
alluded to this point, as it seemed to me to be of a nature analogous to that
appearing in the question.
Ques. 37.—What effect do you think that the withdrawal of Government to a
large extent from the direct management of schools or colleges would have upon
the spread of education and the growth of a spirit of reliance upon local exertions
and combination for local purposes?
Ques. 38.—In the event of the Government withdrawing to a large extent from
the direct management of schools or colleges, do you apprehend that the standard
of instruction in any class of institutions would deteriorate? If you think so, what
Ans. 37 & 38.—(a) The effect of a sudden withdrawal from the direct man-
agement of schools or colleges by Government would be fatal to the cause of
education If Government withdraws all connection with schools or colleges, the
only organised agency that can take up the work of education is the Missionary
agency. There is no organised Native agency that can be expected to adequately
supply the place of Government institutions. It is a curious fact that Missionary
writers have now begun to pose as the warm sympathisers of Natives, and talk
of the ability, energy, and spirit of self-reliance now-a-days evinced by them.
The Reverend Johnston, who has been for some years past writing on this sub-
ject, says, if Government withdraw from direct education, “the Natives of India,
who are capable of managing the higher education, if only they were encour-
aged to do it, the European residents and Missionary societies will keep up an
educational system fully equal to the wants of the country, under the stimulus
of the grants-in-aid, while it would call forth a spirit of liberality which is sup-
pressed, and of independence which is crushed by the present system” The state
of Native activity and readiness described above may be very well true in the
case of the Madras or Bengal Presidency, but certainly not in the case of this
Presidency. I, for myself, should have received with great delight the high opin-
ion entertained of our abilities by others; I am as great a patriot as Missionary
writers would show us to be; but it is simply a false patriotism which blinds one
to his own real interests. I must candidly confess that, except in large towns like
Bombay and Poona, which have far advanced in intellectual activity, the spirit
of self-reliance and self-sacrifice, which is so essential to the maintenance of
private institutions, is yet dormant. It is only now that people have begun to
show some signs of independent activity and to throw off their languid torpor;
and without being liable to the charge of being called unpatriotic, I may say that
some years must elapse before that state ascribed to us by the Missionaries is
really observable amongst us in almost all localities, and does not remain con-
fined to places like Poona or Bombay, and before the educated Natives become
117
able to maintain high education, if left by Government That educated Natives

should take the work of educating their own countrymen in suitable ways, in
their own hands, with a slight aid from the State, is a consummation devoutly to
be wished for, and none will desire it more ardently than myself. But the time is
not yet come when Government might withdraw from the work of education at
once and leave it to private enterprise in all places, without serious damage to
the cause of education so nobly pursued by it If, therefore, under these circum-
stances of Native activity and energy, Government should think of withdrawing
from the work of education as persistently maintained by a considerable sec-
tion of Missionary writers, then, I must say that Government will have sim-
ply “played into the hands of Missionary bodies,” will have fostered the belief
among the people that it desires to force Christian teaching upon them, and thus
given a good scope for those “benevolent” bodies to accomplish their object
more easily. It needs no proof that the avowed object of Missionary “benevo-
lence” in India is the subversion of the religions of the Natives. Aware of this
very evil, prudent and foresighted men positively declined to take any steps that
might be construed as identifying Government with the cause of these religious
bodies. I might quote here a paragraph from a Despatch to the Government of
India, dated 22nd July 1857—
“We cannot approve of that part of the scheme which identifies the Government in mea-
sures prosecuted by the Missionaries, and so exposes the arrangement to the risk of per-
verted misconstruction We are well aware that the Church Missionary Society has been
marked equally for zeal as for rectitude of intention and laborious devotion to benevolent
intentions. But however entitled to our confidence such an institution may have proved
itself, we adhere to the conviction that it would be altogether opposed to the rules, if you
were to take any steps which might have the appearance of uniting the Government with
such a society in measures having the aim of converting any class of the population to
Christianity.”
(The italics are mine.)
The Natives themselves would not like such a hasty transference of secondary
schools to Missionary bodies. See what the Times of India says:—
“At present Missionary schools create little alarm among the Native community,
because, as it happens, they are mere media for conveying secular instruction. But if Gov-
ernment were to retire from higher education and the Missionary schools were to use their
new-born strength for the purpose of conversion, the purpose for which they are supposed
to exist, the cry raised against them by the Natives will be very loud, and it would be a cry
that no Government could afford to ignore It was Admitted in the Despatch of 1854 that
Government would undertake the charge of secondary education until they could hand it
over to some other agency. But what agency? That is the rub. The Natives would strongly
object to being thus handed over to the Missionary agency, and by withholding or with-
drawing their schools, Government would not create those elements of society which are
needed for the establishment of private schools.”
118
For Government to give encouragement to such bodies by a sudden withdrawal

from education, and thus to place the whole education in their hands, would be,
in my opinion, an extremely impolitic and dangerous step Every one will freely
acknowledge the great good done by these bodies to the cause of education, espe-
cially the primary one, and one cannot speak of them in connection with it without
a feeling of gratitude, But if they, not being content with their lot and with the
opportunities now afforded them of using their presence as means of converting
our faith, desire to go beyond that and advocate the encouragement of private
enterprise, knowing that it simply means their own encouragement, then surely
Government may tell them to go about their own business, leaving that work to
competent Native bodies when they are organised. They make education only a
means to an end, and such bodies should not be allowed more facility of pushing
forward their work of evangelisation.
(b) Let us see what the effects of such a withdrawal will be upon the three
sorts of education—primary, secondary, and higher. I am strongly of opinion that
the State ought to keep in its hand the control of primary education and work it
up by the grant-in-aid system It may encourage, wherever possible, indigenous
schools by suitable grants-in-aid, but it ought not to sever its connection with it.
Doing so would open a very wide door to the Missionary agency to carry forth
its work of religious propagandism The ignorant people in villages will only look
upon Missionaries as so many engines sent out by Government to convert them
to Christianity, and it is possible that their minds will be dangerously prejudiced
against Government.
(c) As regards secondary schools, as I have already stated, it will be detrimental
to the interests of education if Government closes or transfers high schools to pri-
vate bodies in places like Ratnágiri, Belgaum, or Ahmedabad, where there are at
present no Native organised agencies A gradual closing or transference of high
schools in places where there are Native agencies to work, would be a prudent
policy. A withdrawal may be effected in Poona, though with some caution, but it
cannot for some years more be effected at all in any of the lees advanced cities of
the Presidency.
(d) As for colleges, I must say decidedly that the time has not yet come when
higher education may be taken care of by private (Missionary) bodies. Higher edu-
cation is an important branch of education, and it cannot be completely made over
to proselytising bodies. If Government colleges be closed, Missionary colleges
will be without any rival, the spirit of emulation, so necessary to the maintenance
of efficiency, will be gone, and they being masters of the situation, laxity, irregu-
larity, absence of models, and other deteriorating causes will come into play; and
when all wholesome rivalry is taken away, there is no saying whether the present
standard of efficiency will be properly kept up. I do not see what good can come
out of the abolition of the Doccan College, which costs about Ɍ47,000 to the
State. A saving: of Ɍ47,000 effected at the great sacrifice of the interests of those
middle-class students who annually join it to effect a saving in expenditure by not
going to Bombay, will be of no value. In the interests of higher education which,
119
if left to Missionaries alone, would considerably deteriorate in point of efficiency

of instruction, I suggest that Government should not be induced to make over
colleges to Missionary bodies—the only existing private agency now available in
the Presidency I think that if Government wishes to follow the principles of the
Despatch of 1854 in a true spirit and wishes to stimulate local efforts under local
management, it should do something like that suggested in my answer to ques-
tion 2. That would be a wholesome step, and will serve to effect the desired object,
without subjecting Government to the worst of obloquies, that of becoming the
means of converting the religious faiths of its subject-population
(e) As for the growth of reliance on local exertions and local combinations, I
have great misgivings It is only now that people amongst us are becoming ready to
make some endowments to the University (a Government institution) at the pros-
pect of their name being connected with the endowments, but it is extremely doubt-
ful whether any would be ready to endow private colleges of Natives even. They
would never endow Missionary colleges I do not believe that if the Deccan College
be closed, people will readily come forward to make up the necessary funds. Rich
people, as will be seen from my answer to question 4, do not avail themselves of
college education, and hence have not yet acquired any great interest in education
Instead of abruptly withdrawing from all direct connection with school or college
education, Government should take to the work of preparing Natives in the art of
educating themselves by giving them facilities as mentioned before. For some years
at least, say five or six years, the State cannot sever off its connection with education
in secondary schools or colleges, without seriously affecting the cause of education.
Ques. 55.—To what classes of institutions do you think that the system of
assigning grants according to the results of periodical examinations should be
applied? What do you regard as the chief conditions for making this system equi-
table and useful?
Ques. 57.—To what proportion of the gross expense do you think that the
grant-in-aid should amount under ordinary circumstances, in the case of colleges
and schools of all grades?
Ans. 55 & 57.—(a) I have already stated that the system of payment-by-results
may be advantageously employed, where an undue attention paid to examinations
will not be productive of bad effects, i. e., in the case of primary education, in
developing and encouraging indigenous schools, wherever possible; but, as I have
also stated, this system of payment by results will not be very useful for schools
of a higher order and colleges if it be exclusively used
(b) As regards the way in which the grants might be given, some would sug-
gest these two ways—(1) That Government should give half the gross expense
incurred in a private institution. This principle applying to private schools will
be undesirable it takes away the only good feature of the system of payment by
results, while it leaves a large scope for Government to interfere, or have some-
thing to do with the way in which the internal arrangements with regard to the
expenses are made. I do not therefore prefer this way (2) Others would say that
120
Government should allow a large sum for the Matriculation examination, should
make that examination as the only final test of the school, and the grant should
be such as to cover all the expenses to be incurred for a boy till he passes that
examination, say Ɍ150 to Ɍ200 for every boy that the school may pass. This
method, besides being open to the gravest objection that it would make the fate
of the whole school, boys and teachers, depend upon the figure cut by some boys,
would be quite inapplicable where a school may not be able to teach as far as the
Matriculation standard. This way also I do not prefer as being generally useless
and inapplicable.
(c) The system of grants-in-aid I propose would be something like the
following:—
(I) The grants-in-aid of the salaries of teachers should be revived, and the scale,
according to the degrees of test now fixed by the University, should be as follows
(this would be the lowest scale)—
Ɍ
For an M.A. 40 per mensem.
” ” ” of a teacher in college . . . . . . . . 100 ”
” a B.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 ”
” ” 1st B.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ”
” ” P.E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 ”
” ” Matriculate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 ”
(II) When the salaries of teachers are aided in this manner, the grants for the
several standards need not be as large as those given by the present rules. They
may be about half the sum now allotted for each standard, namely—
Standard Ɍ
I . . . 3
II . . . 5
III . . . . 7
IV . . . . . 9
V . . 12
VI . . . 15
(The subdivisions for the several heads may be similarly arranged by halving
the present grant for each head)
(III) In the case of primary private schools, encouraged by the development
of the indigenous school system, where a final examination to be held at the
taluka or zilla town, once a year, may be made as the only test of vernacular
schools, the teacher should be given Ɍ8 for every boy that might pass at such
a central examination, if he gets a fixed pay and also a capitation allowance,
Ɍ4 or 5.
121
(IV) The grants for University examinations should be as follows—
Ɍ
For passing Matriculation 50
” P Examination . . . . 100
” 1st B.A. . . . . . . . . 125
” 2nd B.A . . . . . . . . 150
” M.A. . . . . . . . . . 200
These arrangements would ensure some sort of permanency and efficiency of

teachers, and would remove the evils of payment by results exclusively used
(V) Besides these grants and the grant for building as given by the present
rules, adequate and reasonable grants for library and apparatus should be given.
An institution sending up boys for University examinations can ill afford to be
without these two necessary items of school furniture.
(VI) The persons who examine suet high schools should not be connected
with the Educational Department. The board of local management or the
school-board that might be formed in pursuance of the orders of the Supreme
Government, should include as ex-officio members the following officers of
Government:—
The District Judge,
The Collector, and
The Subordinate Judge.
A board constituted in this manner should examine the school annually and
report to Government as to efficiency, results, &c. I do not think that these offi-
cers being well trained and experienced will be considered as unable to examine
schools in which six English standards may be taught. The board of ordinary
members will exercise a general supervision over the school, acting as a body of
visitors, advisers, or teachers
(VII) If it be found by results that the teacher of a class has not worked prop-
erly during the year, the grant for results will of course not be paid, but the
teacher’s grant should not be discontinued that very year; and if he fails to show
better results for three years consecutively, then his grant as a teacher may be
discontinued.
(VIII) The three officers of Government and the permanent board should
examine the school in the standards in which the students may be presented. The
arrangement of subjects, &c, need not be necessarily according to the Govern-
ment model standards. It will depend, to a very great extent, upon differing local
circumstances, such as the aptitude of boys and the general intelligence of the
population of any district The standards that might be taught to students in Poona,
Sátára, or Shikárpur, will not be applicable to Dhárwár or to Ahmednagar, where
an adjustment of subjects will have to be made according to the degree of capaci-
ties of the students. In this manner all interference with the internal arrangement
122
of schools will be removed, and the free development of indigenous superior

institutions will not be hampered
(IX) Excepting these particulars, the general features of the present rules for
grant-in-aid may be retained.
(X) It will be seen that the changes proposed in the present system of grants-in-aid
are expressly for those private Native institutions which, being under, a local man-
agement, will give a reasonable guarantee of permanency. Missionary institutions
cannot, according to a strict interpretation of the principles of the Despatch of 1854,
claim to be assisted by Government; but, as they are bodies benevolently devoted to
the cause of education, and have done signal service to Government in the lowest
class of education, they may be assisted by Government, till the Natives are able to
do for themselves what they now do for them, according to the present rules for grant-
in-aid, with the addition of the Matriculation grant of Ɍ50, if desirable, on these con-
ditions that the teaching of the Bible or any other scriptural book is strictly prohibited
in the school, that a purely secular education is imparted to students, that the Bible
may be taught, if necessary, out of school-hours or school-days, say on Sundays, and
that it should not be compulsory on any student to attend such lectures. I believe that
if, as His Excellency the Viceroy thinks, it be found that the imparting of a purely
secular instruction in schools and colleges is attended with serious consequences,
Government might sanction the appointment of a pandit or a shástri for each high
school or college to give students general lectures on religious, ethical, and moral
precepts, so as to direct their mind to a deep sense of duty, or the teachers themselves
might be directed to devote an hour or two every week to this purpose Accordingly,
Missionary institutions which go in for religious instruction should secure the ser-
vices of a pandit or a shástri to lecture on general religious and moral precepts, in
conformity with the general beliefs of the students themselves. This is the utmost
that can be conceded to Missionary bodies, who complain of the want of religions
instruction in schools or colleges I would object to Missionary institutions getting
grants according to the system proposed above, on the ground that they are backed
by large funds at home set apart for religious purposes, and consequently a small
encouragement given to them, provided the above conditions are strictly observed,
will enable them to assist Government in the cause of education The obvious dif-
ference in the two kinds of grants is based on the same principle that justifies the
great difference between grants given to European and Eurasian schools and Anglo-
vernacular schools, namely, that private efforts by Native bodies are to be encouraged,
developed, and matured, and thus made fit to take charge of Government institutions
in due course of time The principle of encouragement to those who deserve to be
supported underlies the proposed arrangement If, after giving encouragement in the
manner proposed above, educated Native gentlemen are found unable or unwilling
to avail themselves of the opportunities given them of developing their own institu-
tions, if they show themselves slack in assisting Government in the noble work of
education and thus enabling it to promote the spread of primary education, then the
fault will be solely with them Government will have done its duty in conformity
with the principles of the Despatch of 1854, and if even then our people do not shake
123
off their torpor, Government might fairly think of extending its aid to Missionary
institutions on more favourable terms The experiment, therefore, ought to be tried by
Government with an unflinching honesty of purpose, that it might not become liable
to blame of a serious nature—neglect of duty conscientiously made
(XI) If encouragement be given to Native efforts on the lines suggested above,
Native bodies, for instance, the conductors of the New English School, Poona,
would be willing to assist Government in some places at least. Let me, however,
show that if Government gives grants, in the way mentioned above and in my
answer to question 2, to Native bodies, for example, the new English school above
referred to, and thus encourages them to gradually (alter some years) take charge
of Government high schools in the districts that they may choose, Government
will have saved on the whole one-half of the money that it spends from the Pro-
vincial revenues for education on those schools Let me illustrate by two or three
examples how this will be
I shall first take some towns which are not as advanced in intellectual activity as
Bombay or Poona Take, for instance, Ratnágiri. Supposing there would be 200
boys in the school, there will be 7 classes at the rate of 30 or 35 boys for one class.
Of the 7 teachers we shall suppose 2 are B.A.s, 2 having passed the 1st B.A. or
P.E., and 3 Matriculates. Thus, the grants for teachers would be—
Ɍ
2 × 30 = 60 per mensem.
2 × 22½ = 45 ”
3 × 15 = 45 ”
150
or Rs. 1,800 a year. Then, supposing that each class would get by payment by results
on an average as much grant as 10 boys passing in all heads would get, and taking the
average grant per boy for each standard to be Ɍ8, we get 10 × 7 × 8 = Ɍ560 Add to this
library or apparatus grant, about Ɍ50 Supposing 10 boys matriculate, their grant will
be Ɍ500. Thus, the total grant to be obtained from Government will be—
Ɍ
For salaries of teachers 1,800
” boys’ grants 560
” apparatus, &c 140
” Matriculation 10 (boys) 500
3,000
Thus, by the most liberal calculation the Ratnágiri High School being made an
aided institution, will cost Government Ɍ3,000 for educating 200 boys, i.e., Ɍ15
per boy, whereas in 1880–81 Government spent Ɍ6,699 for about 160 boys, that
is, Ɍ42-10-8 per boy Thus, if Government spent Ɍ42-10-8 for every boy taught
in the Ratnágiri school in 1880–81, it would have to spend Ɍ15, or one-third only
124
(considering the increase in boys), that is, it will have saved about 66 per cent. of
its present expenditure, by making that high school an aided school
Take Ahmednagar. Take the amount of grant obtained by this school to be
as large as Ɍ3,000, as in the case of Ratnágiri. In 1880–81 that school cost
Government Ɍ4,972, or Ɍ57-6-7 per boy (the number of boys being less
than 100). By making this school aided it will cost Government Ɍ3,000 for
200 boys, i e., it will cost it about one-fourth of what it spent in 1880. Thus,
its saving will be 75 per cent, in this case Similarly, taking Dhárwár and
Sátáia, the saving to Government in each case will be 66 and 50 per cent
respectively.
Again, take Poona itself, which has made far greater progress in education than
any other town in the mofussil In this city there are in all about 1,400 boys learn-
ing English (excluding the several schools in the camp) Supposing these boys
were taught in one school, there would be about 40 classes, and, say, 10 graduates,
15 having passed 1st B.A. or PE, and 15 matriculates. Then the masters’ grant
would be—
Ɍ
10 × 30 = 300
15 × 20 = 330
15 × 15 = 225
855, or 10,260 a year.
Then, on the same calculation as before, the grant for boys would be Ɍ10 ×
40 × 8 = Ɍ3,200. Supposing 40 boys pass the Matriculation, the grant for 40 boys
would he Ɍ2,000, and the library and apparatus grant, say, Ɍ500. Thus, the total
grant to be attained from Government would amount to Ɍ10,260 + 3,200 + 2500=
Ɍ15,960. Government in 1880–81 spent Ɍ11,24,3 for about 440 boys, and accord-
ing to this arrangement it would have to spend only Ɍ15,960 for 1,400, or about
Ɍ4,000 more than what it spent for 440 boys, to educate 1,000 boys more This
would, I think, be no small advantage. Spending Ɍ4,000 more would enable it
to educate in all 1,400 boys; supposing that it does not mean to spend more than
Ɍ12,000, even if it gives the local school in charge of a private institution and thus
makes the number of learners about 1,400, such an arrangement would make it a
loser by 20 per cent in the case of this high school Adding together the several
savings and this loss we get—
For Ratnágiri . 66 per cent saving.

” Ahmednagar 75 ” ”
” Sátára . 50 ” ”
” Dhárwár . . 66 ” ”
” Poona . . 20 ” loss
47 per cent, for 5 schools
125
In other words, Government will have saved on the average of five high schools
nearly 47 per cent of its expenditure on those schools in 1880–81. The advan-
tages to Government from the adoption of the proposed grant-in-aid system are
thus significant, and they need no further amplification If Government, there-
fore, were to announce its determination to withdraw from the maintenance of
high schools one by one, after a given term of years, private bodies, such as the
conductors of the new English school, would be willing to maintain those high
schools as aided institutions, according as they find themselves able to take charge
of them, provided the arrangements for grants-in-aid proposed above be carried
into effect. I must admit that Government will have to incur some additional
expenditure at the commencement of this experiment, in order to train up one
central institution, and before it becomes ready to take charge of the schools; but,
looking to the great good to be derived from the adoption of the system, it should
not, I think, be unwilling to incur that expenditure The question of the great
saving to Government that will be effected in course of time being set apart, the
very fact that it will have encouraged the Natives to take the education of their
countrymen in their own hands and thus contributed to the slow but sure, rapid,
onward progress of the nation, will amply redound to the glory of the British rule,
and it will encourage a spirit of reliance upon local exertions and combinations
for local usefulness, which is of itself of no mean importance to the well-being of
a nation. “It is to the wider extension of the system of the grants-in-aid, especially
in connection with high and middle education, that the Government looks to set
free funds which may then be made applicable to the promotion of the education
of the masses,” and though the system I have proposed above will not give an
immediate saving to Government, yet, if honestly and prudently followed, it will
be able to accomplish the desired object within a few years from the time of its
adoption To make, then, a definite proposal, the new English school will, within
eight or ten years, be ready to take charge of Government high schools in the chief
towns of the Maháráshtra, if it be properly encouraged according to the methods
suggested and discussed above
(XII) I would suggest that Government should maintain one institution of its
own at the Presidency-town—the Elphinstone High School—in an efficient order,
so as to serve, if necessary, as a model to other non-Government institutions It
would be inadvisable to make such a largely endowed institution as the Elphin-
stone High School an aided one It might, however, be given under the control
of the local municipal corporation, and the examination conducted as now by
the professors of the Elpinstone College In Poona, Government might, if it be
profitable, maintain its own institutions permanently, or hand it over to the new
English school in the way above referred to.
employed in colleges educating up to the B.A. standard?
Ans. 65.—As far as mathematics, natural science, and the oriental languages
are concerned, I decidedly think that Natives will be quite as able and competent
to teach these subjects in colleges as any European professors. The facts that
126
Ráo Bahádurs K. L Chhatre and D. N. Nagarkar have occupied for a long time
the mathematical chairs with complete satisfaction to their superiors, that Mr
Naegámwála, a Master of Arts in science, is now made a professor of natural
science in the Elphinstone College; Mr. Sanjána, a professor of mathematics in
the Gujaráth College; and that Mr R. G Bhándárkar is permanently appointed
professor of oriental languages in the Deccan College (though not without a
good deal of hard fighting continued for some months), tell their own tale. But
I believe that in mathematics and the oriental languages none but Native pro-
fessors can, or ought to, fill the chairs, if the duties are to be ably and usefully
discharged. Vivid examples are before us to illustrate the truth of what I say, and
I do not think I should dilate upon this point, though the question of mathemat-
ics does not yet appear to be decided, as in the case of the oriental languages
As regards history and philosophy, I must say much would depend upon the
qualifications and individual propensities of the person to be appointed One
who has to keep up his knowledge of history and philosophy will have to prog-
ress with the progress of the world, will have to read every little book that may
be published on these subjects in any part of the world So the man must only
continue his habit of reading and study, must continue to be a student himself in
order to be a professor He must not allow his mind to stagnate into a muddy
pool, but must ever keep it flowing by a constant course of reading If this is
done, I do not think that Natives would not be able to fill a chair in this subject
with credit. The chief want felt by him would be his ignorance of languages
such as Latin, Greek, German, French, but he may have recourse to translations
that are read nearly with the originals themselves. In this quarter I do not see
a great difficulty. But the question raised is, how will Natives be able to teach
English. This question has a good deal of weight in it, and must be carefully
considered. It is said that, as Maráthi can be best taught by a Maráthi man,
so English can be best taught by an Englishman There are in English works
idioms, phrases, turns of expression, allusions to English domestic manners,
scenes, incidents, and the pronunciation of words, which can be best attended to
by an Englishman. Yes, it is so, no doubt, but we must inquire what the object
of the educational system really is. If it be urged that more attention is to be
paid to idioms, peculiarities of grammar, &c, than to the worth or substantial
value of the instruction received, in other words, if it be intended that the object
of education should be to enable Natives to compete with Englishmen in the
accuracy of idiom, &c, of English, then I must say that this object, at least with
the majority of students, has not been, and will not be, accomplished I do not
think I shall be guilty of exaggeration if I say that even an able M.A. (unless he
be an exceptionally well-read English scholar) will be liable to commit mistakes
in idiom, &c, which an Under-graduate at Oxford or Cambridge would be easily
able to correct; and this is not unnatural Even where there are European pro-
fessors to teach English in colleges, I do not think the students under them are,
as a matter of fact, able to write more idiomatically than those not receiving that
instruction. Natives can never aspire to go and teach English to students in the
127
Oxford or Cambridge Universities. The utmost they do, can do, and ought to
do, is that they would be able to write upon any subject in English, not commit-
ting mistakes in grammar or gross violations of idiom; and I believe that intel-
ligent Natives will by practice be able to write correct, though not quite idiomatic
English I cannot say if, as a rule, boys in high schools under a European head
are able to write more idiomatically, or even more correctly, than those in high
schools under Native management, because the former have had the advantages
of European correction and revision At least I did not perceive such a differ-
ence when I was myself a student in the Deccan College By listening for an hour
or two to Europeans, or by having an English exercise corrected once a month
or two, I do not think that boys will catch idiomatic English from their profes-
sors, since very few have any opportunities of freely mixing and talking with
them for any number of years. If Natives who have made English their special
study, be appointed to teach English an colleges, they will be able to give all the
knowledge required to be given to the students by taking proper precautions to
read the books appointed carefully and critically They will impart knowledge
and information just as European professors would do. The only difference will
be that the former will not, in all cases, be able to teach idiomatic English, while
the latter can I, for myself, can say, without being ungrateful to the worthy pro-
fessors under whom I learnt, that I derived no very substantial advantages from
being taught by European professors. My opinion, therefore, is that to teach the
English books and to give special and extra knowledge with reference to the
books appointed, Native professors may be appointed in order to effect a large
saving, and an Englishman may be appointed to teach composition to students,
say, once a week, on a small salary Such an arrangement; would be more desir-
able if Natives think of opening colleges. They cannot afford to employ high-
salaried Europeans to teach English. What they should do would be to employ
the services of a competent Englishman to take care of composition for an hour
or two during the week, and take the rest upon themselves If the object of
education be to make a graduate serve the purposes aimed at by the Despatch,—
to be a useful member of society by communicating his knowledge of others
through the vernaculars,—then, I fear, even for composition an Englishman will
not be deemed necessary. But, according to the present state of education, such
an appointment will, I think, be necessary to do so. I believe that the special sub-
jects taught in indigenous school and mentioned in answer 4 are better taught in
the Government schools. At present we have 13 added and 11 unaided primary
schools, with 1,344 scholars in them We follow the Government system and
standards as far as possible for all these boys: the unaided schools are for low
caste boys and in a backward state, and not yet developed up to the Government
standard.
Q. 2. —In reference to your answer 48 I understand that you wish to alter the
third line.
A. 2—Yes. The school at Ahmedabad was a boys school and at Rájkot a girls’
school. These were opened alongside the mission school.
128
Evidence of MR. SORABJEE SHAPURJEE BENGALI,

J. P. of Bombay.
been gained.
Ans. 1.—My experience on the subject of education is confined chiefly to the
city of Bombay, of which I am a native. I have taken part in the founding of sev-
eral schools for girls, and have been connected with the management of others
for the last 25 years. I have, moreover, interested myself in educational matters
generally for a long time past.
administration or in the course of instruction?
Ans. 2.—A good deal has been done of late years in the matter of primary edu-
cation in Bombay, and I believe throughout the Presidency. I think that the system
is capable of further development, both as to improvement in administration and
as to the course of instruction, regarding which I shall speak in my reply to ques-
tion 12.
it; and if so, why? Are any classes practically excluded from it; and if so, from
Ans. 3.—The desire for primary education for boys is general in nearly all sec-
tions of the people in Bombay City, but the fulfilment of their wish is hindered
only by want of means, or the necessity which compels the poorer classes to
send their children to work for their living. If schools were provided for the large
number of children working in the cotton factories of Bombay, I believe that they
would be largely attended in the hours during which respite from work is now
happily secured to them by the Factory Act.
Ques. 8.—What classes of schools should, in your opinion, be entrusted to
Municipal committees for support and management? Assuming that the provision
of elementary instruction in towns is to be a charge against Municipal funds, what
security would you suggest against the possibility of Municipal committees fail-
ing to make sufficient provision?
Ans. 8.—I would refer to my answer to question 36.
would make them more acceptable to the community at large, and especially to
the agricultural classes? Should any special means be adopted for making the
instruction in such subjects efficient?
Ans. 10.—In addition to reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and elemen-
tary science in the vernacular, I think that more complete instruction than at
129
present should be given in the Native system of book-keeping and accounts in all
primary schools for boys.
primary schools?
Ans. 13.—In order to bring primary education within the reach of all classes of
people, the amount of school fees should never exceed what may be necessary to
pay the rent and contingent charges of a school,—the salaries of teachers being
provided in all cases by the State, the Municipality, or from other sources.
Ques. 21.—What classes principally avail themselves of Government or aided
schools and colleges for the education of their children? How far is the complaint
well founded that the wealthy classes do not pay enough for such education?
What is the rate of fees payable for higher education in your province, and do you
consider it adequate?
Ans. 21.—Government schools and colleges are availed of for the education of
their children mainly by the middle classes, and less frequently by the poor, but
respectable classes of the people. The aristocratic and wealthy classes in India, as
a body, are not keen about giving superior education to their children, from the
unfortunate fact that learning has been looked upon as only a means for obtaining
a livelihood. There is no basis, therefore, to support the complaint that the wealthy
classes in this country do not pay enough for the higher education provided for
their children by the Government Since the prospective good of the country
depends so much on the higher education of its people, and since its wealthier
classes do not correctly appreciate the value of higher education, it becomes the
duty of Government to foster its growth as much as possible, and to place it within
the reach of people of limited means I therefore think that the present rate of fees
charged in all the Arts colleges as well as professional colleges of Government
ought to be reduced by at least one-half, in order to enable more students to join
them. I have known instances of promising boys being prevented from prosecut-
ing their studies in colleges by reason of the heavy rates of fees, and of some being
able to remain there only as holders of scholarships, or by means of eleemosynary
aid from private individuals.
Ques. 22.—Can you adduce any instance of a proprietary school or college
supported entirely by fees?
Ans. 22.—There are in the city of Bombay a number of primary, Anglo-
vernacular, and high schools owned by one or more Native proprietors and sup-
ported entirely by fees. The teaching in the bulk of them is fairly good, but in
point of discipline and training they do not, particularly the high schools, equal in
efficiency either the Elphinstone or the St Xavier’s High Schools.
teachers and pupils is unduly directed to the Entrance examination of the Univer-
Ans. 27.—I agree with those who state that the attention of teachers and pupils
is generally unduly directed to the Entrance examination of the University This
130
leads to cramming to an unwholesome extent in the proprietary schools more than

in other schools. The remedy lies in some change being made in the University
Entrance examination by which the pupils may be compelled to study, more than
they do now, such subjects as may be of use to them in the requirements of ordi-
nary life.
suitable?
Ans. 34.—I am well acquainted with the Gujaráthi text-books known as Hope’s
Series. They appear to me well adapted for primary schools, but they might be
better printed and more fully illustrated than they are at present.
interfere with the free development of private institutions? Do they in any wise
Ans. 35.—I do not consider that the Government Education Department in any
way unnecessarily interferes with the free development of private institutions, nor
with the production of useful vernacular literature, nor the development of natural
character and ability. On the contrary, I am of opinion that the Education Depart-
ment, directly and indirectly, greatly helps the progress of many outside efforts in
these directions.
Ans. 36.—On this important question I am of opinion that the duties pertaining
to the establishment, management, and maintenance of primary schools for boys
throughout the country should devolve upon Municipalities, local fund commit-
tees, and other similar bodies. A certain portion (say, 2 to 3 per cent.) of their gross
annual income should he devoted, as a matter of obligation, to the primary educa-
tion of boys in each city or district, the duties of Government being restricted to
the inspection of these schools, to seeing that schools are established wherever
needed, and generally to watching that the requirements of the law regarding them
are complied with. In Bombay City, if the Municipal corporation is compelled
to set aside annually 2 per cent. of its gross income for the purpose of primary
schools, the amount will be sufficient to give instruction to 12,000 or 13,000 boys.
I calculate that, the rent and contingent charges being arranged as payable from
the fees, an expenditure of Ɍ5 per annum for each pupil on the average would be
sufficient to provide for the salaries of teachers competent for their work.
The matter of primary schools for girls should be reserved for consideration
to a future time so far as the Municipalities and local fund committees are con-
cerned. These bodies cannot be fairly charged with the work until the people gen-
erally are able to appreciate the advantages of female education in the same way
as they now appreciate the benefits of education for their male children Until then,
the schools of all grades for female children should be managed and maintained
either by Government or by the grant-in-aid system, or by the voluntary efforts
131
of sections of the Native community who understand the value of educating their
female children.
The funds that may be saved to the State by transferring the burden of main-
taining primary schools for boys in the manner above suggested, together with
such additional grants as may be possible out of the Imperial exchequer, should
be devoted to the maintenance and extension of secondary, higher, and technical
education, and of female education. At present the contribution by the State to all
the colleges and high schools put together in this Presidency amounts annually to
about 2¾ lakhs of rupees. People in England who complain that primary educa-
tion in this country is neglected in favour of higher education, cannot be aware
of the fact that in this important Presidency the total grant from Government for
colleges of every kind barely amounts to £15,000, and for high schools less than
£9,000, in sterling money per annum On behalf of technical education throughout
the Presidency the contributions of the State amount to just £2,000, and for Native
girls’ schools to about the same sum.
Educational progress in India is needed all along the line; that is to say, much
more requires to be done in higher and secondary as well as primary education
than has been accomplished hitherto. People who recommend Government con-
nection with primary education only, mechanically follow the system adopted in
England, without taking into account that the higher and upper middle classes of
the population in England are composed of enlightened men and women. In India
the same classes of men, with rare exceptions, do not appreciate education at its
true worth, and the women know nothing about it. The time is yet very distant
when the higher education of the people of India can progress, or even be kept
on its present footing, without direct Government aid, management, and control.
High education would be nowhere here but for the countenance and aid of Gov-
ernment. There are a few Arts colleges in the country conducted by Christian
Missionaries, but they cannot be put on a par in point of efficiency with Govern-
ment institutions of the same kind. Besides, these Missionary colleges, supported
as they are by the inclinations of religious congregations, can only be conducted
with the narrow object of changing the religious faith of the people, and would
not therefore be availed of by considerable sections of them. Government will be
failing in the performance of one of its most sacred duties if it tries to leave the
higher education of the people, on which depends so much of the regeneration, of
India, to hands which cannot freely develop its progress, and which may possibly
strangle it altogether.
The immense benefits conferred upon the people of this country even by the
small number of educational institutions of the higher order established by Gov-
ernment up to the present time, is a matter on which there can be no two opinions.
By Government the benefits must have been felt in the vastly improved character
and abilities of the men employed in the upper ranks of its Native Services and in
the management of Native States. The material advances that have taken place of
recent years in every branch of administration would not have been practicable,
had Government made no efforts in the direction of supplying higher education
132
to the people In the progress of commerce and industry these benefits have
been equally great, although they have hitherto been only partially utilised. In my
humble opinion, higher education has, in an indirect way, uncovered the moral
teachings which for many centuries had remained smothered by the superstitions
and ceremonials of the religious faiths prevailing in this country. In proof of this,
and also as an answer to the charge of irreligiousness sometimes urged against the
Government system of education, I would point to the labours and publications
of the religious associations of Samajs which under various names, within the
last twenty years, have sprung up in many of the large towns and cities of India.
The members of these bodies are generally English-speaking Natives, whose aim
is to worship God free from idolatry and degrading superstition. The character
of their numerous publications can be judged with correctness from the book of
prayers of the Ahmedabad Prarthana Samaj, a copy of which work I beg to tender
herewith for the information of the Education Commission. This book, as well as
the Samaj, are typical of one of the many happy results attained through higher
education in India.
What little progress has already been made in female education, and in the
emancipation of women, must be rightly attributed to this higher education. For
further gain in all these matters the same course should be followed and extended
by the multiplication of Government colleges and schools where European learn-
ing up to the highest degree can be imparted on easy terms to the youths of this
country through the medium of European languages.
If I were to find any fault with the Government system of education in this
country, it would be with reference to the very little that has hither to been done
as regards technical education. The need of this to India is very great, in view of
its agricultural and manufacturing competition with highly civilised countries of
Europe and America; and yet scarcely anything has been done by the State in this
direction. I am unable to speak with confidence, but I believe that no systematic
and sustained efforts have been made for giving the country agricultural schools,
which might become practically successful institutions afterwards. These schools
in the early stages of their existence ought to be treated in the same way as the
Grant Medical College was, when first started in this Presidency, namely, that
the students should be stipendiary and men of education, and that, until a public
demand has been created, the promise of employment at remunerative salaries
should be given by Government to induce men of ability to come forward to
prosecute studies which are somewhat novel in this country. The difficulty of
finding students, and afterwards suitable employment for them, will not, how-
ever, occur in the case of other schools, such as technical schools for spinning
and weaving, in aid of our newly developed cotton mills industry, on the model
of similar schools now existing in Germany. A large technical school divided into
several departments, established in Bombay, from which Native lads, trained and
fitted for higher posts than they now occupy, could be supplied to the locomotive
and other railway workshops, would not only greatly benefit the people, but in
time would be of financial advantage to the railway companies in the matter of
133
obtaining cheap skilled labour and supervision, which continue to be still largely
imported from England.
the spread of education, and the growth of a spirit of reliance upon local exertions
Ans. 37.—My answer to this question may be inferred by the reply given to the
previous one. The effect of the withdrawal of Government from the management
of high schools and colleges would be most disastrous to the cause of education.
Local exertions cannot adequately supply, under present circumstances, the loss
that must be caused by Government adopting any such step.
schools for girls, and what is the character of the instruction imparted in them?
Ans. 42.—As far as my experience goes, the Education Department of Govern-
ment has not been backward in supporting the cause of female education. Primary
schools for girls have increased rapidly throughout the Presidency, and are likely
to increase further. In Bombay City nearly all Parsi female children receive pri-
mary education without Government assistance, and their example is being fol-
lowed by other portions of the Native community steadily, though slowly For the
improvement of these girls’ schools, I would suggest that the larger ones among
them should have two divisions, one of which, for children under seven years,
should be conducted on the infant school system of making attendance pleasant
for the pupils, and in the other or upper division, the instruction should include
the Native system of accounts, geography, elementary science, singing, and
needlework, besides reading, writing, and arithmetic. Female teachers should be
employed, whenever possible, in all girls’ schools. It would be of great help to the
education of girls here if two or three certificated lady-teachers brought out from
England were attached to the Education Department, whose business should be
to guide the Native female teachers in conducting their schools after the model of
similar schools in England, and specially the infant schools there. A school estab-
lished by Government for the higher education of Native girls in Bombay City,
like the Bethune School at Calcutta, would be sure to be largely attended, and
would prove to be of much advantage to the cause of female education generally.
Ques. 44.—What is the best method of providing teachers for girls?
Ans. 44.—There are at present two training schools for vernacular female
teachers, one at Ahmedabad and the other at Poona. A similar school at Bombay
would be even more appreciated and useful. In the absence of it, the necessity
may be provided for to some extent by the Education Department establishing
evening classes for the purpose of training and further educating teachers of
female schools. These teachers in Bombay consist for the most part of girls who
have been selected from among the advanced pupils of existing schools, and who
have received no regular training to fit them thoroughly for the duties of their
profession.
134
Ques. 45.—Are the grants to girls’ schools larger in amount and given on
less onerous terms than those to boys’ schools, and is the distinction sufficiently
marked?
Ans. 45.—The Education Department is, rightly I think, less exacting in exami-
nation, and sufficiently more liberal in the matter of grants-in-aid, to girls’ schools
than to boys’ schools. A primary school for girls in this city giving instruction in
subjects I have already mentioned, through a staff of fairly good female teachers,
should cost on the average Ɍ10 to 12 per annum fur each pupil.
Ques. 46.—In the promotion of female education, what share has already been
taken by European ladies; and how fur would it be possible to increase the interest
which ladies might take in this cause?
Ans. 46.—Within the last twenty-five years, barring one or two individuals, I
have not known European ladies, excepting those connected with mission work,
take any earnest or active part in the promotion of Native female education.
Ques. 53.—Should the rate of fees in any class of schools or colleges vary
Ans. 53.—The lowest rates of fees practicable should be charged in every
school for all pupils alike, but option may be given to the Inspectors to allow
a certain number of very poor but deserving pupils to attend school without
paying fees.
Ques. 54.—Has the demand for high education in your province reached such
a stage as to make the profession of teaching a profitable one? Have schools been
opened by men of good position as a means of maintaining themselves?
Ans. 54.—The demand for higher education has considerably increased within
the last twelve or fifteen years. In Bombay City the Education Department having
failed to meet this growing demand by omitting to provide two or three new high
schools on behalf of Government, encouraged the establishment of a number of
schools owned by one or more Native proprietors with an exclusively native staff
of teachers. Instruction is given in these schools up to the Matriculation standard,
but, as a rule, there is more cramming and less intellectual training in these pro-
prietary schools than in the Elphinstone or other public high schools, and they are
decidedly hurtful in their influence on the character of the boys in point of disci-
pline and good behaviour. I believe that some harm has been done to the youths
of this city by this neglect of Government, which has passively permitted such
inferior establishments to grow up, where the proprietors are naturally mindful at
least as much of their pecuniary gains as of the cause of education.
Ques. 60.—Does a strict interpretation of the principle of religions neutrality
leges and schools?
Ans. 60.—There is no reason to think that the principle of religious neutrality
has ever been infringed, even by a strict interpretation, by the direct management
by Government of schools and colleges, and the Native community has never
complained about it to my knowledge. It is in consequence of this principle of
religious neutrality in Government schools that well-to-do Natives prefer to pay
135
their children’s school-fees and send them to Government institutions, rather than
keep them in mission schools and colleges, where no fees or smaller fees are
charged.
you would suggest?
Ans. 63.—I am aware of no such arrangement as mentioned in this question,
although such an understanding has long been needed within my own knowledge,
and was at one time proposed unsuccessfully by myself in connection with the
Bombay proprietary schools already referred to.
Ques. 64.—In the event of the Government withdrawing from the direct man-
agement of higher institutions generally, do you think it desirable that it should
retain under direct management one college in each province as a model to other
colleges; and if so, under what limitations or conditions?
Ans. 64.—I am decidedly against the withdrawal of Government from the direct
management of higher institutions, by which I mean colleges and higher schools.
The time is not for withdrawal, but for Government to take a still more active part
in pushing forward higher education, which would suffer greatly if Government
withdrew, leaving only one college in each province under its direct management.
Ans. 65.—I think that European professors should be employed exclusively
in all colleges, and I am further of opinion that every high school should have
at least one European teacher If the intellectual development of the pupils were
the only object, Native professors could perform the duties fairly as regards
most of the subjects of study in the schools and colleges of India; but there
are other considerations involved, and association with European teachers of
superior culture would give the pupils an advantage in general training which
could not be obtained through Native professors. There is no doubt that some
of the defects in character complained of by Europeans in educated Natives
arise from the latter not having the benefit in most cases of European tutors,
and of association with Europeans at the earlier period of their education. As
European teachers of standing can be brought out more easily now than before,
I think it very advisable that the European teaching staff under the Education
Department should be largely augmented, and that all college professors should
be Europeans, and that in cases of large high schools there should be more than
one European master.
Ques. 68.—How far would Government be justified in withdrawing from any
existing school or college in places where any class of the population objects to
attend the only alternative institution on the ground of its religions teaching?
Ans. 68.—I do not think that Government would be at all justified in acting as
suggested in this question. It would be considered an indirect method of compel-
ling pupils to receive religious education foreign to the creeds of their parents, or
136
it might be taken as an attempt to check the spread of education among the middle
or better sections of the Native community.
Ques. 69.—Can schools and colleges under native management compete suc-
Ans. 69.—I do not believe that for a long time to come schools and colleges
under Native management, as a rule, will be able to compete successfully with
corresponding institutions under European management.
Evidence of PROFESSOR R. G. BHANDARKAR, M.A.

been gained.
Ans. 1.—In my boyhood I attended two indigenous schools at different times at
my native town Málvan, in the southern part of the Ratnágiri Zilla. In 1847, while
I was in my tenth year, I attended for some months a Government Maráthi school
at Rájápur in the same zilla, and afterwards at Ratnágiri for about three months
From October 1847 to January 1853, I was a pupil in the Ratnágiri Government
English School, and afterwards for one year in the first, or candidate class as it
was called, of the school department of the Elphinstone Institution at Bombay.
From January 1854 to April 1858 I was a student in the Elphinstone College,
and for the last three months of 1858 an assistant master in the Elphinstone High
School From January 1859 to May 1860, and from January 1861 to May 1861, I
was a Dakshiná Fellow in the Elphinstone College, and a Dakshiná Fellow in the
Poona (now Deccan) College from June 1860 to December 1860, and from June
1861 to July 1864. From the 15th of August 1864 to about the end of April 1865
I was Head Master of the High School at Hyderabad in Sind, and of the Ratnágiri
High School from June 1865 to December 1868. From January 1869 I have been
Acting Professor or Assistant Professor of Sanskrit, mostly in the Elphinstone
College. I have also been University Examiner in Sanskrit since 1866, and was a
member of the University Syndicate for about eight years.
Ans. 2.—The system of primary education in the Bombay Presidency does
not seem to me to be capable of development up to the requirements of the
community, for the Educational authorities are obliged to reject applications
for the establishment of schools for want of funds It has thus not been placed
on a sound basis. Improvements I will suggest in connection with my answer
to question 4.
it, and if so, why? Are any classes practically excluded from it; and if so, from
137
Ans. 3.—Primary instruction is sought for by all people except, speaking gener-
ally, the Sudra cultivators and bodily labourers; and also the lowest castes, such
as Mahárs and Mángs, and Chámbhárs or shoe-makers One reason why these
classes hold aloof is ancient tradition, and another is that in the pursuit of their
occupation they do not feel any great necessity for it I do not know of any classes
which are practically excluded from it. Even Mahárs and Mángs are admitted
into the schools, and in a few cases special schools have been opened for them
The attitude of the influential classes towards the extension of elementary knowl-
edge to every class of society is that of indifference; they would neither actively
oppose nor promote elementary instruction. In the case of the Mahárs, Manga,
and Chámbhárs, they do not insist that these classes should not be instructed; but
that they should not by their too close vicinity contaminate their boys.
I see from the Report of Public Instruction for 1880–81 that the number of boys
and girls belonging to the caste of cultivators under instruction in Government
Schools and Colleges is stated to be 47,342. But I believe the number includes
cultivators of the Bráhman and other higher castes. The number of Súdra cultiva-
tors will, I expect, be found on careful examination to be very small. The number
of sons of cultivators attending the Government colleges is given as eight. But I
do not remember having seen many or any Súdra cultivator among the students of
the Elphinstone College
ments been made for training or providing masters in each schools? Under what
Ans. 4.—Nearly every large village which has not a Government school has an
indigenous school; and there are some in towns also. Indigenous schools are not, in my
opinion, a relic of any ancient village system. They simply depend for their existence
on the law of demand and supply Some sort of instruction for their boys is required
by members of the Bráhman and other higher castes; and there are men with no better
means of livelihood who can meet the demand. These, therefore, open schools and
keep them going so long as it is convenient to them. When one man who has conducted
such, a school for some time gives it up, it is by no means always the case that another
immediately takes his place Often the village has to do without a school for some time.
The subjects of instruction are, reading Modí letters, writing Modí, and menial
arithmetic. The boys are also taught to sing Native songs. Bálabodha reading or
138
reading printed books is not attended to, except in cases when the master happens
to be one who has himself been taught in a Government school. Writing or speak-
ing correct Maráthi is not taught. Punctual attendance, diligence, and good con-
duct are enforced by means of punishments. Bad conduct even at home is noticed
by the schoolmaster. But the schoolmaster himself does not often possess regular
business habits. He works when it is convenient to him, and does not when he is
disposed to enjoy ease or has got something else to attend to. The school is his
private speculation, and he is responsible to none. For this reason his pupils take
a long time to learn the little that is taught. The ordinary rate of fees is 4 annas
per month.
The master generally belongs to one of the several divisions of the Brahman
caste, including the Senvís. Sometimes an individual of a lower caste also opens a
school. I know of a barber who conducted a school at Ratnágiri. Reading and writ-
ing Modí letters and casting accounts form the schoolmaster’s qualification gener-
ally. In some cases he is able to read and explain indigenous Maráthi literature.
Since, as stated above, these schools do not owe their origin to any organised
system, there exist no arrangements for training or providing masters for them.
The principal drawbacks in the case of these schools are, it will thus be seen,
these: 1—Though they supply a real want and consequently must as a body
always exist, there is no guarantee that any particular school will continue to exist
for a given period. 2—There is no arrangement for training or providing masters.
3.—The schoolmaster is responsible to none, and consequently often irregular in
his work. 4.—The standard of instruction is too low. The last two defects only can
in some cases be remedied by giving a grant-in-aid to these schools, but not in all;
for many masters will not be found willing for the sake of a few rupees to impose
an additional burden upon themselves, or to sacrifice the liberty they enjoy. But
to remove all these defects and reduce schools of this nature to a regular system,
more radical measures should be adopted. There is no efficient local agency that
can undertake the task. It must therefore be assumed by the Department of Public
Instruction. Every large Government vernacular school should have a Normal
class attached to it composed of young men intending to make teaching their
profession. These should be examined by the Deputy Educational Inspector and
certificates given to such as pass the examination. The holders of these certificates
should be promised rupees 4 per mensem as a grant-in-aid if they opened schools,
and procured 15 pupils at least. They should be at liberty to charge any fee they
may consider advisable, and the proceeds should be theirs. The grant should be
withdrawn if the number of pupils falls below 15, or if the school is found to be
exceptionally inefficient. These schools should be registered by the department,
and appointments to vacancies made by the educational authorities. I believe
that in course of time these trained masters will supplant the present masters of
indigenous schools and the number of these schools will increase. In this way the
demand that gives rise to indigenous schools will be supplied by the department in
a more systematic and efficient manner by using the existing material. And some
time hence, when this system develops, it will be found practicable to convert the
139
schools that are at present wholly conducted by Government into aided schools of
this nature, and with the same amount of money that is at present spent on primary
schools for boys it will be possible to maintain a far larger number than we have
at present. Thus, in the year 1881 the amount spent on these, exclusive of fees
which under the system I propose will be appropriated by the schoolmasters, was
Ɍ9,00,098, while the number of schools in the last month of the year was 4,001.
The average annual expense of each school is thus about Ɍ225, while under the
proposed system it will be 48. For one school now maintained, therefore, we shall
have at least four and a half, that is, in the place of the four thousand schools we
have now got we shall have about eighteen thousand, But it will not be advisable
to convert all our present schools into aided schools of this nature. Supposing
three-fourths were so converted, we should still have thirteen thousand five hun-
dred Of course the plan must be worked slowly, and it will be many years before
the ideal I sketch is realised.
Ans. 6.—My answer to this question is involved in that to question 4. Gov-
ernment, in my opinion, cannot at present depend on anybody for the supply of
elementary instruction in rural districts, except on the natural operation of the law
of demand and supply spoken of in my answer to question 4.
Ques. 7.—How far, in your opinion, can funds assigned for primary education
in rural districts be advantageously administered by district committees or local
boards? What are the proper limits of the control to be exercised by such bodies?
Ans. 7.—I think the funds will be better administered by local boards and dis-
trict committees, if they are so constituted as to combine the popular element with
so much of the official as will simply direct and watch. The primary education of
the district might be wholly entrusted to such bodies, but the Department of Public
Instruction should lay down the standards and arrange for inspection
Ans. 8.—Primary schools only, as a general rule, should be made over to such
Municipalities as can support them. If the intelligence and public spirit of a
Municipal committee are not so great as to ensure its making adequate provision
for the primary education of the town, the schools should not be entrusted to it,
but some annual contribution exacted from it.
Ques. 9.—Have you any suggestions to make on the system in force for
providing teachers in primary schools? What is the present social status of
village schoolmasters? Do they exert a beneficial influence among the vil-
lagers? Can you suggest measures, other than increase of pay, for improving
their position?
140
Ans. 9.—If the system of primary instruction is to develop in the manner I have
described in my answer to question 4, one Normal school for one division will
not be sufficient. As I have already stated, each of the larger vernacular schools
should have a Normal class. The master of a Government school in a village
enjoys the respect of the villagers The position of the master of an indigenous
school is not so high; but he too possesses some influence with the people, and
often is the public scribe or notary of the place.
Ans. 10.—Modí writing and mental arithmetic, as well as the method of keep-
ing accounts, would, if greater attention were paid to them in primary schools,
render them more acceptable to the people. No special means are necessary, strict
orders to the schoolmasters are, I think, enough.
Ques. 12.—Is the system of payment by results suitable, in your opinion, for
the promotion of education amongst a poor and ignorant people?
Ans. 12.—If the conductors of an institution are highly educated men and pos-
sess some means already, the system of payment by results is the fairest and most
suitable. If, however, they are men of little or no culture, and are poor like the
masters of our indigenous schools, the system is not suitable.
primary schools?
Ans. 13.—The sons of persons belonging to the classes that seek instruction
should be charged fees, but those of Súdra cultivators and of persons belonging to
the lowest castes should be admitted free. And to attract these classes even small
scholarships should be given.
Ques. 14.—Will you favour the Commission with your views, first, as to how
Ans. 14.—My answer to this question is contained in my answer to question 4.
Ques. 15.—Do you know of any instances in which Government educational
institutions of the higher order have been closed or transferred to the management
of local bodies, as contemplated in paragraph 62 of the despatch of 1854? And
what do you regard as the chief reasons why more effect has not been given to
that provision?
Ans. 15.—No the reason is there have been no local bodies capable of conduct-
ing such institutions.
Ques. 16.—Be you know of any cases in which Government institutions of the
higher order might be closed or transferred to private bodies, with or without aid, with-
out injury to education or to any interest which it is the duty of Government to protect?
Ques. 17.—In the province with which you are acquainted, are any gentlemen
able and ready to come forward and aid, even more extensively than heretofore, in
the establishment of schools and colleges upon the grant-in-aid system?
141
Ans. 16, 17, 36, 37, 54, & 58.—I will answer these questions together. It is
plain that Government desires that education of all grades—higher, secondary,
and primary—should not only continue to be in the condition in which it is at
present, but should extend Often, however, the idea has been put forth that the
duty of Government is only to give primary instruction to the masses, leaving
education of the higher and secondary grades to take care of itself. The idea,
I suppose, is based on the relation of the Government to national education in
European countries such as England. The state of circumstances here is, however,
different, and the analogy is not applicable. Our Government belongs to a more
civilised and progressive race, and its civilisation in many respects is better than
that of the people it governs. As an enlightened Government, it is desirous that its
own higher and better civilisation and progressive spirit should be communicated
to the people of this country. One of the most effective means for the purpose is a
system of education. It will be admitted that primary education is not at all suited
for the purpose; for a mere knowledge of reading, writing, and casting accounts is
not calculated to awaken the mind and improve and elevate the spirit Instruction
in the literature, the history, the philosophy, and science of Europe is indispens-
able To give superior education to the people is therefore a higher and prior duty
of the British Government in India than to give primary education. Where the
people and the Government stand on the same level, as in the countries of Europe,
the case is different. This fact was recognised by the pioneers of education on
this side of the country, when they established the Elphinstone College and gave
a Government English school nearly to every zilla town before there were any or
many vernacular schools. Even in 1851, when the Poona College was elevated
to its present status, primary education was in a state of infancy; for I remember
there were then about 20 vernacular schools in the Ratnágiri zilla, while at present
the number is a 130. It appears to me, then, that if the question of the withdrawal
of Government from any branch of education were raised it should rather be with
reference to withdrawal from primary than from higher education.
The effects of the withdrawal of Government from higher education cannot but
be injurious to its interests. The people themselves are not yet qualified to under-
take the work; for the generality do not understand and appreciate the value of
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higher education; and even if they did, they are not capable of organised and united
action. Instruction in the Vedas and in the Sanskrit Shástras the people at large do
appreciate. They see that the study of these is gradually dying out; but the only
efforts hitherto made for promoting it that I have heard of, are the establishment
of a school for the Shástras of an inferior sort at Nasik, to which the Educational
Department gives a small grant-in-aid, and of another at Poona, the expenses of
which are defrayed by one of the Gujaráthi Mahárájás, as well as of a school for
the Vedas at Ratnágiri, the income of which is very trifling There is no guarantee
that any of the last two will continue to exist even for the next two years. Just as
indigenous primary education depends upon individual effort, so does education of
this sort. A Shástri, or an áchárya, in a town or village considers it a point of honour
to take pupils and instruct them in the Shastra or Shástras which he has specially
studied. The pupils in return do what bodily service they can to their master, and
do not, and often cannot, make money payments The Shástri lives on the presents
made to him out of religious motives by the rich people about him, if he has got
no hereditary income of his own. Generally, kings and princes in former times
had, as Native chiefs now have, several Shástris in their service who, like the rest,
took pupils Often lands were given as ináms to Shástris of distinction, and they
were thus put in a condition to transmit Sanskrit learning for many generations It
will thus be seen that higher Sanskrit education depends on the isolated efforts of
individual Shástns assisted by the bounty of kings, prince, and merchants, whose
grants, however, are made, as presents to the Shástns themselves, out of a religious
motive, and not directly for the promotion of education
There were, however, some institutions which can be compared to the colleges
of Europe. These were mathas, or establishments for samnyásins, or recluses
belonging to the many sects that sprang up at different times in the country There
a great many pupils were taught and by more than one samnyásin. Sometimes
lands were given for the support of such mathas by princes and chiefs, and they
were also maintained by contributions made by the lay followers of the Samnyá-
sins The Buddhist monasteries, or viháras, were often colleges of this nature,
as were also the hermitages of the rishis in pre-historic times. Relics of these
mathas are still to be met with. But these are exceptional cases, and in them the
great motive force was the desire to propagate particular religions tenets, which
is powerful in the infancy of a sect. The general truth, therefore, stated above
remains unaffected, that higher, as well as primary, education depends on the
efforts of individuals, and not of organised bodies, while in the first case religions
motives are present But higher English education is, as I have already observed,
not even appreciated and valued by the people generally, while, as regards reli-
gious motives, they are, of course, absent. It is impossible, therefore, that even
individual effort should be available in this case I therefore apprehend that if
Government withdraws from higher education, there will be none from amongst
the Natives to take its place.
Hitherto I have considered whether people of the old school, or those who have
not been influenced by English education, are likely to step into the place vacated
143
by Government. Let us now see if the educated men themselves will do it. These
no doubt value the education they have themselves received, but their number is
yet small and their means extremely limited Besides, it is still a question with
me whether organising powers and public spirit or the capacity of uniting for com-
mon purposes are sufficiently developed in them to enable them to undertake the
task of giving higher education to the people of the Presidency, even supposing
they had adequate means, which certainly they do not possess Now here the fact
of some young graduates of the University having opened a school at Poona may
be brought forward as opposed to the view I maintain These young men have
voluntarily sacrificed all their prospects in life, and, contenting themselves with
an income of Rs. 30 or 40 per mensem in the place of Ɍ100 or 150, which else-
where most of them would have got, have undertaken a work which they believe
to be calculated to do good to their country. Such a self-sacrificing spirit is not to
be found in many persons, and perhaps does not often continue to characterise the
same individual throughout his life. A school, however, such as theirs can only
be kept up by men who are actuated by that spirit. I have, therefore, great doubts
whether for the next ten or fifteen years it will continue to exist. But whether it
does or not, it is, I think, vain to expect that the whole education of a Presidency
should be carried on by men influenced by such exceptional motives Education
so conducted can hardly be said to be placed on a firm basis. If the occupation of
teaching were remunerative, then only would there be some chance of its attract-
ing men fitted for it. But, as a matter of fact, it is not so. The best guarantees for
the permanence of a school are an organised body to conduct it, and endowments,
and no school has yet been established on that basis in the mofussil.
As regards this last point, it may be said that endowments will come in in
the course of time, such as the Elphinstone College and the University of Bom-
bay have got. On an examination, however, of the nature of the endowments and
benefactions that these institutions possess, and the circumstances under which
they were made, it will appear that the expectation that a private college or a high
school can be conducted by means of such endowments and benefactions, is not
well founded The personal influence of men in office had to be exerted before
the largest of them were obtained; and it will be seen that in a great many cases
the amounts were first offered to Government, and in some to Sir A. Grant, Vice-
Chancellor of the University, who was believed to possess great influence with
men in authority. The donors in most cases expected some sort of acknowledgment
from Government. It is not likely, therefore, that an institution conducted by pri-
vate individuals, and not backed by the overwhelming influence of Government,
will be similarly favoured And the object of all such endowments, whether large
or small, is to perpetuate the memory of some individual; and therefore each must
be devoted to some specific object. They cannot all be combined, and a school
or college supported out of the proceeds, for a school or college can perpetuate
one or two names only and not many And it has not been found possible for a
single individual to contribute such a sum as will permanently maintain a col-
lege such as the Elphinstone or Deccan College, But, after all, in these respects
144
Bombay must be considered an exceptional place, for the wealth of the city is no
indication whatever of the economical condition of the districts, especially the
Maratha districts, which are poor, and from which no considerable grant can be
expected for educational purposes.
It will thus be seen that in my opinion there are no individuals or bodies in
the Presidency generally that will come forward and aid in the establishment of
schools and colleges The effect of the withdrawal of Government must be to
throw higher education into the hands of Christian religious societies. This will be
injurious to the cause of higher education; for institutions conducted by religious
societies in this Presidency have been far less successful than those under Gov-
ernment management And of the two colleges of this description that have been
affiliated to the University, the Free General Assembly’s has shown but very poor
results. To prove this point I will compare the results produced by the Deccan
College and by the two aided institutions, leaving the other Government college
out of consideration, since it may be objected to as being in exceptionally favour-
able circumstances. Graduates from the Deccan College and the Free General
Assembly’s Institution appear on the University records for the first time in 1864
and from St Xavier’s in 1872
From the University Calendar for 1881-82
Number of
Years which the
Bachelors Average per
College Institution has been
of Arts Year
training Candidates
for B.A.
Deccan 114 17 67
St. Xavier’s 27 9 8
Free General Assembly’s 20 5 17 12
Thus, the Deccan College is more than thrice as efficient as St Xavier’s, and
more than five times as successful as the Free General Assembly’s; and yet the
total expenditure of the last college in 1880–81 was Ɍ18,000; that of the Deccan
College, Ɍ54,002, that is, for a sum of money three times as large, the Deccan Col-
lege graduates more than five times as many men It must also be borne in mind
that money is not the sole agency available to Missionary societies. Religious zeal
forms a very important part of the resources at their disposal, and its place must be
supplied by additional money in the case of Government educational institutions.
But another and a more serious objection against Government withdrawing
from higher education and assisting Missionaries by grants of money to do its
work, is the violation, that it involves, of the cardinal principle of British Indian
Government, viz., religious neutrality. This action of Government will have the
appearance of its having abandoned its function of civilising the races under
its rule and assumed that of proselytising them. He who makes large annual
145
contributions towards the expenses of schools the purpose of which is to pros-

elytise, can in no way be distinguished, in practice, from him who puts his name
down in the subscription list of the societies that have established those schools.
Even the grants that are at present given to such schools and colleges involve
a violation of religious neutrality in principle. But since excellent Government
institutions of the kind are available to satisfy the educational wants of the people,
this matter attracts little notice, and is not felt as a grievance If, however, these
Government institutions made room for others, established by proselytising soci-
eties, the people would be reduced to the necessity or either sending their children
to them and risking the chance of their being cut off from themselves by becoming
converts, or of keeping them without the benefits of higher education and then this
new departure on the part of Government would form the subject of bitter com-
plaints, and I have little doubt the views of Government would be misunderstood,
and it would be regarded as desirous of Christianising the country
It will be seen from the foregoing remarks that in my opinion the Natives them-
selves are not in a condition to conduct higher education, while primary instruc-
tion is sought for and given by spontaneous Native agency In answer to question
16, therefore, I would say that this should be utilised in the manner indicated in
my answer to question 4, and three-fourths of the Government primary schools
converted into grant-in-aid schools, and Municipal agency used wherever avail-
able, while Government should take higher education under its own management
I would answer question 16 by saying that no institution for higher education
should be made over to a private body; neither do I think that any such existing insti-
tution should be closed. Since the Department of Public Instruction was organised
in 1855, primary education has very greatly developed, and we have now about ten
times as many schools as we had before, but the number of colleges continue to be
the same. We had two before and have those two now. It is only within the last two
or three years that a college teaching up to the standard of the previous examination
has been established at Ahmedabad, one-fourth only of the expenses of which are
paid by Government, and another at Kolhapur, supported by the State. But colleges
teaching up to that standard and having but the sort of establishment that these have,
deserve to be considered only as superior high schools So that it may even now be
truly said that the institutions for higher collegiate education continue to be only as
many as we had before the Despatch of 1854.
Higher education should, I think, be fostered by Government, not only for its
civilising influence, but because it is the only means of improving its own admin-
istration of the country, if it must employ Native agency. The administration of
justice throughout the Preisdency has admittedly vastly improved within the last
twenty years; and this is solely due to the fact that highly educated Natives have
been employed as subordinate judges, and have become vakils or pleaders. Edu-
cated Natives alone are qualified to understand the views and motives of the Brit-
ish Government and its powers, and thus to act as interpreters between the rulers
and the ruled. Natives of the old school and those who have had the benefits of
primary and secondary education only do not possess that capacity. I therefore
146
think it would, in every way, be a backward step to close any institution of the
higher order.
It has been suggested that the Deccan College might be reduced to the standard
of an institution teaching up to the previous examination. This, in effect, means
that as a college it might be closed. But the only justifiable ground for closing a
college is its having very few students, or its not producing satisfactory results.
But, as I have shown, the Deccan College graduates have as many students again
as the two aided colleges put together every year on an average; while the average
daily attendance in 1880–81 was 113, which is equal to that of the two colleges
together. The closing of such an institution, therefore, cannot but deal, in my opin-
ion, a serious blow to higher education in this Presidency.
If the Deccan College is reduced to a lower grade, the candidate passed by it will
have to go to the Elphinstone College to read for the higher examinations The
number of students at present in the two higher classes is 18 and 28 The cor-
responding classes in the Elphinstone College have 20 and 47; so that, if the pro-
posed reduction be effected, the two classes in that college will come to have
at least 38 and 75 students, since our number have been rising and not falling.
Now, in my opinion, 25 or 30 is the highest number of students forming a class
that can be taught efficiently. The effect, therefore, will be that the classes in the
Elphinstone College will become so unwieldy that it will be impossible to teach
them properly, and the efficiency of that college will be greatly impaired. The
Elphinstone College will be the only institution for preparing men for the first and
second B.A. examinations in the Presidency; and it will have to take up the work
of teaching all the students passed by the Deccan, the Kolhapur, the Ahmedabad,
and the Baroda Colleges, that is, its establishment will have to be increased, or,
in other words, two colleges will have to be opened within the same walls But
the present arrangement, in virtue of which the passed students are distributed
between the two colleges, is preferable to closing one college and giving a double
establishment to another
Ans. 21 & 53.—The classes whose occupation under the old regime was writ-
ing, avail themselves of the Government and sided schools and colleges But edu-
cation has made some progress with the mercantile classes also, especially in
Bombay Sardars and other rich tamilies of by-gone times do not, as a general rule,
care for this kind of education. The complaint that the wealthy classes do not pay
enough for such education is groundless In support of my view I give the fol-
lowing table showing the monthly income of the guardians of 105 of the students
at present in the Deccan College:—
147
From Rs. More than From Rs. 50

Rs. 500 and Less than Rs.
250 to Rs. Rs. 100 and less to Rs. 100
upwards 50 Total.
500 than Rs. 250 inclusive.
I II III IV V
5 11 19 31 39 105
The expenses of each student including fees vary from Ɍ15 to 20 per mensem
This amount is certainly beyond the reach of 39 of the students. They, there-
fore, maintain themselves on the scholarships they get, and in some cases bor-
row money Those in Class IV (31 in all) can just afford to spend the required
amount. So that the complaint referred to is certainly not true in the case of 70 out
of 105 students, and an increase of fees in their case would be a hardship. The
present rate is Ɍ5 per mensem; and it may be raised to Ɍ7½ in the case of 19
students forming the third class, while the 16 in the first and second classes may
be paid to Ɍ10 even. But the parents of these 35 students are by no means to be
called wealthy. And this income test is sometimes fallacious; for a man, though
in receipt of Ɍ250, has perhaps got a large family to support, or Ɍ250 represents
the ancestral income of a family composed of 25 members. A man in these cir-
cumstances can hardly afford to spend Ɍ15 to 20 per mensem on his son. But the
principal objections to a varied rate of fees is the difficulty of ascertaining a man’s
exact income and the temptation to which it exposes him to conceal it. The rate
of fees payable at Elphinstone College is Ɍ10 per mensem. I do not think it can
bear being raised except by the introduction of varied rates, which, however, are
objectionable on other grounds.
Ques. 23.—Is it in your opinion possible for a non-Government institution of
the higher order to become influential and stable when in direct competition with
a similar Government institution? If so, under what conditions do you consider
that it might become so?
Ans. 23.—It is perfectly possible for a non-Government institution of the higher
order to become influential and stable when in direct competition with a similar
Government institution, provided it has got funds, and, above all, good teachers
who will zealously devote themselves to their duties. If, however, a foreign reli-
gion is taught in that school, that will be so much against it in its way to influence
and popularity. But if the teachers are good, and the students not compelled to
attend the religious classes, the school is under no disadvantage. St. Xavier’s Col-
lege in Bombay is an instance in point
Ques. 24.—Is the cause of higher education in your province injured by any
unhealthy competition; and if so, what remedy, if any, would you apply?
Ans. 24.—No, so far as I am aware.
employment?
Ans. 25.—Not very readily. Still there are no complaints. They do find employ-
ment eventually in the Educational, Revenue, Customs and Judicial Departments,
148
and sometimes in Native States. There are a few instances of Bombay mercantile
firms having taken our graduates. The practice of the law is also open to them.
the minds of those who do not pursue their studies further, with useful and practi-
cal information?
Ans. 26.—One who has gone through the high school course successfully, and
has passed the Matriculation examination, possesses, I believe, useful informa-
tion. I do not know what is exactly meant by “practical information.” But a good
many of the boys who matriculated from the Ratnagiri High School, during the
time I was Head Master there, were taken into the Collector’s office and the Bom-
bay Customs, as as well as other departments, and several were employed as
assistant masters in my own school. They have all been doing well. Two have
become mámlatdárs. One is a senstadár to a Judge, and another holds a similarly
important post at Ratnagiri.
teachers and pupils is unduly directed to the Entrance examination of the Univer-
Ans. 27.—The attention of teachers and pupils is almost exclusively devoted
to the requirements of the Matriculation examination of our University, but not
unduly so, for the standard of that examination is, I think, a good standard for gen-
eral education, and those who pass that examination are, I believe, generally well
fitted for the ordinary occupations of life. Knowledge of a classical language is
necessary for those who wish to continue their studies in an affiliated college, but
not for those who do not. The last, therefore, as a general rule, do not devote their
time to it, but take up their vernacular as their second language for Matriculation.
The Matriculation examination thus serves two purposes: that of testing a young
man’s general education as well as fitness for entering upon higher studies. Objec-
tions have been taken to this double character of the examination, but I do not see
what harm is done by it. The standard is well fitted to serve both ends.
It is not undesirable to allow room for the development of peculiar aptitudes in
boys, and in schools generally. But our standard, by allowing an option as regards
the second language, and requiring only a small minimum in each of the subjects,
renders it possible for a boy or a school to devote particular attention to any one
of the subjects, whether English, Sanskrit, Latin, Arabic, Persian, a vernacular,
mathematics, or general knowledge. But if no such standard were imposed on the
high schools, and the masters were allowed to teach what they chose, the result
in my opinion would be that they will teach very little, and that too carelessly,
and thus the standard of education would deteriorate. The influences which in the
absence of such a standard are calculated to keep masters and boys duly and use-
fully employed, are wanting in the present circumstances of our country.
Ques. 28.—Do you think that the number of pupils in secondary schools who
present themselves for the University Entrance examination is unduly large when
compared with the requirements of the country? If you think so, what do you
149
regard as the causes of this state of things, and what remedies would you suggest?
Ans. 28.—The number of pupils in secondary schools who present themselves
for the Matriculation Examination of our University is not unduly large.
Ques. 29.—What system prevails in your province with reference to scholar-
ships; and have you any remarks to make on the subject? Is the scholarship system
impartially administered as between Government and aided schools?
Ans. 29.—Before the University was established, the Elphinstone College had
two private scholarship endowments, and two scholarships endowed by the Gái-
kawád of Baroda, while it had six of Ɍ20 each and three of Ɍ30 per mensem
paid out of Government funds. The last nine scholarships were called Normal
scholarships, and the original idea was that the holders of them should, after the
close of their studies, take service as masters of English schools But the idea
was soon given up. Under the administration of the Director of Public Instruction,
the scholarships of Ɍ30 were reduced to Ɍ20 and placed on the same level with
the other Government scholarships. The Deccan College also had its scholarships
before the Department of Public Instruction was organised, though they were re-
arranged afterwards.
In those days Government did not connect itself in any way with Missionary
schools, and consequently no claim for the scholarships could be set up on their
behalf. No new Government scholarships have been instituted in this Presidency
since the University began its operations as in Bengal. Hence, there are none
which the students of all colleges, whether managed by Government or aided
by it, can compete for. The old Government scholarships belonging to the Gov-
ernment colleges have grown with them, and cannot be taken away from them
without doing them serious injury. They have become as much theirs as the pri-
vate scholarships which they have and which the aided colleges have. Separate
examinations are held for them every year in these colleges. The scholarships that
have been founded by private individuals in connection with the University are
of course open to all affiliated institutions. The high schools have Government
scholarships; but their number and monthly value are so small that they hardly
deserve to be considered.
My answer to question 29, therefore, is that no scholarship system common to
the Government and aided colleges, or in connection with the University, has yet
been founded by Government.
Ans. 31.—My experience is that the University curriculum affords a sufficient
training for teachers in secondary schools, and no special Normal schools are
wanted.
In what respect is it capable of improvement?
Ans. 32.—For aided primary schools, such as those as I have spoken of in my
answer to question 4, the elaborate system of examining and assigning marks in
each subject is not necessary. A general inspection such as prevailed under the late
150
Board of Education and before the grant-in-aid rules were framed, will be quite
enough. When the system of primary schools develops, each Deputy Educational
Inspector should have under him two or three Sub-Deputies on a salary of about
Rs. 30 or 35 per mensem, and these should be charged with the duty of examining
the primary schools.
you any suggestion to make on this subject?
Ans. 39.—The vernacular and English text-books used in the schools contain
some moral lessons; but original prose and poetic works are taught in colleges,
and there can, of course, be nothing of the kind in them. But it appears to me that,
placing dry moral receipts before young men is not a very efficacious method of
making them virtuous or instilling moral principles into their minds. The teacher’s
effort should be directed to the cultivation of the emotional side of the pupil’s
nature, wherein lies the root of morality, and to the formation of tastes. For this
purpose nothing, I believe, is better suited than the best prose and poetic literature
of such a great country as England. History too, if properly taught, is calculated
to promote the same end These means are availed of in Government colleges
and also in high schools. The study of ethical philosophy which has been recom-
mended by some is, I apprehend, not always efficacious. Butler’s Sermons on
Human Nature, his Dissertation on the Nature of Virtue, and the first part of his
Analogy, produced, I know, a very wholesome effect on the minds of a good many
of my friends and of myself, when we were at college, and the impression then
received was deep, and will never be effaced. But other systems of moral philoso-
phy opposed to that of Butler are, in the hands of certain teachers, apt to deprive
the moral law of its grandeur and awe, and become the means of unsettling one’s
notions of morality and religion.
Besides the effect that such studies naturally produce, the discipline under
which a student has to be for about eight years in a high school and a college,
cannot but induce habits of regular work and self-restraint.
The imputations cast upon the morality of educated Natives are groundless.
The general moral tone is healthy, though there may be exceptions. Many years
ago, in my native district, stories of corruption in the Native judicial service were
very common; but now they have almost disappeared, and the people have confi-
dence in their subordinate judges as regards this point. The Revenue Department
has not yet taken many of them, but those that are employed there also maintain
a character for integrity There are, I believe, some atheists and sceptics among
the educated Natives, but that is by no means due to the instruction imparted
in Government colleges In English thought, the agnostic and atheistic side has
at present acquired prominence, and India being now intellectually affiliated to
England, as well as politically, it must be expected that all phases of thought in
that country should cast their reflections here. But to this influence the students of
Missionary, as well as Government, colleges are equally open, and the result in
both cases is the same.
151
With reference to the points involved in this question, I have to observe that
the tendency to specialise the studies of students has lately become too strong,
in my opinion. At present, the general education of a young man, for the most
part, stops at the previous examination. History and philosopy, which, I believe,
are of great value to the Indian student, are put down as optional subjects for the
B.A. degree, while the quantity prescribed for the previous examination, which
is compulsory on all, is insignificant, I have also to suggest that in order that the
means available may produce the best possible results, it is necessary that the
selection of professors for our colleges should he carefully made. Latterly the
evil of acting appointments has greatly increased. One or other of the permanent
professors in the Elphinstone or Deecan College is always absent, and it is by no
means an easy matter to procure a fit person to act for him. Some arrangement
should be made by the Department, in virtue of which the European gentlemen in
the Department below the rank of professors should be men possessing the same
qualifications as the professors themselves, and be fit to take their places in their
absence. Another way of remedying this evil I shall suggest in connection with
my answer to question 34.
The relations between the professors and the pupils should be more intimate
than they are It is in this way alone that the professor will be able to influence
the character of his pupils, and to give a proper direction to their thoughts and
feelings There should be conversational parties or social gatherings at which
the professor and his pupils may meet on more familiar terms than are possible in
the class-room.
you are acquainted; and if so, what is its character?
Ans. 41.—There is no indigenous instruction for girls in the province with
which I am acquainted Female education in this Presidency was begun, about
the year 1848 by educated Natives, especially the students and ex-students of
the Elphinstone College, under the guidance and encouragement of their profes-
sors, the late Mr Patton and Dr. R. T. Reid. They established Marathi, Hindu,
Gujaráthi-Hindu, and Gujaráthi-Parsi schools at Bombay, Since there were no
funds in the beginning, they volunteered themselves as teachers. In the course
of time, after indefatigable exertions, they succeeded in collecting a sufficient
amount of money. A good many Parsi gentlemen came forward with contribu-
tions for the education of girls of their own race, and a committee was formed
which took away the Gujaráthi-Parsi girls’ schools from the Students’ Literary
and Scientific Society, and managed them themselves. The Gujaráthi Hindus did
likewise after the lapse of a good many years more; and now the society has got
the Maráthi schools only under its management.
From Bombay the movement spread to the mofussil. Orthodox opinion was
strongly opposed to female education. Educated Natives published pamphlets and
delivered lectures, advocating the cause and meeting the arguments of the ortho-
dox Subscriptions were collected and schools opened in some of the principal
towns.
152

schools for girls; and what is the character of the instruction imparted in them?
Ans. 42 & 44.—The late Board of Education had sufficient employment in
the education of boys, and did not turn its attention to the education of girls. The
Department of Public Instruction followed for a long time the traditional policy
of the Board, but has established a good many schools latterly. Still, proportion-
ately little has been done. It must be admitted that there are peculiar difficulties
in connection with female education arising from the social customs of the Hin-
dus. The orthodox prejudice against it, though considerably weakened, has not
yet disappeared. But things would be in a much more satisfactory condition if
trained female teachers were available. There is, however, a very great difficulty
as regards this point Girls are married at a comparatively young age and soon
enter on the duties of a married life. They are therefore mostly not available as
pupils for our Normal schools. Trained young widows and wives of uneducated
men are not exactly the persons we should employ as schoolmistresses. I should
therefore think that so far as possible the wives of young men attending the Train-
ing College should be attracted to the Female Normal School by the offer of lib-
eral terms; and, as a general rule, after their education is complete, the husband
and the wife should be employed at the same place
Ques. 43.—Have you any remarks to make on the subject of mixed schools?
Ans. 43.—I do not think we should have mixed schools.
Ques. 59.—In your opinion should fees in colleges be paid by the term or by
the month?
Ans. 59.—The fees in the Elphinstone College are paid by the term, and in the
Deccan by the quarter. This rule does not cause much inconvenience.
leges and schools?
Ans. 60.—Decidedly not, for in Government institutions nobody’s religious
belief is tampered with. But the principle of religions neutrality requires, as I have
indicated in my remarks on higher education, that Government should cease to
aid institutions the ultimate object of which is to proselytise, while the withdrawal
of Government from the direct management of schools and colleges must lead
to such institutions being assisted on a larger scale, that is, to a more systematic
interference with the religious beliefs of the people than is involved in the present
educational policy.
Ques. 61.—Do you think that the institution of University professorships would
have an important effect in improving the quality of high education?
Ans. 61.—University professorships, instead of those we have at present in
connection with the colleges, will do more harm than good. In our present cir-
cumstances we want tutors, and not mere lecturers, and the professors in our
colleges are in effect tutors. But for another purpose, University professorships
153
to be held by the Natives of the country, with small salaries attached to them,
are very desirable. At present there is no provision for promoting the growth of
learning and raising a class of learned men. All educated Natives, after they leave
college, have to follow an occupation that takes up the greater portion of their
time, and leaves them very little leisure for the pursuit of their favourite studies.
Mr Howard, one of our early Directors of Public Instruction, perceived the want,
and, with a view to supply it in some measure, used the amount of the dakshiná
fund at his disposal, and instituted Fellowships in connection with the Gov-
ernment colleges. During his administration and some time after it, they were
tenable for any length of time, but gradually the original idea was forgotten and
the tenure shortened, and now they are held for one year, and in a few cases for
two. What permanent good they do with such a short tenure it is difficult to per-
ceive. I would, therefore, propose that out of the sum available from the dakshiná
fund, University professorships should be founded. Five senior professorships of
Ɍ200 each per mensem, and five junior of Ɍ100, will be enough to begin with.
Whenever a senior professorship falls vacant, a junior professor alone should
be appointed to it. The senior professors should deliver a course of ten lectures
at least every year in connection with the University, and they, as well as junior
professors, should be attached to the Government colleges, where they should
assist the college professors. The senior professors will be available for doing the
work of the professors in the Government colleges during the time they may be
absent on leave, and thus the evil I have spoken of in my answer to question 31
will, to a great extent, be mitigated
The amount at present spent on the Dakshiná Fellowships in the two col-
leges is, I believe, Ɍ675 per mensem. It will not be difficult to raise it to Ɍ1,500
per mensem, which is the amount required for the professorships I propose;
for the daksinuá fund at the disposal of the Director of Public Instruction is
pretty large, and it will go on increasing as the dakshiná now enjoyed by the
old Biahmans lapses in consequence of death. The purpose which the dakshiná
originally given by the Peshwas to learned Brahmans served, was the promotion
of learning, and it will be in keeping with this purpose to devote it now to the
creation of a learned class.
you would suggest?
Ans. 63.—There is a tacit understanding among the heads of Government and
aided colleges that a student belonging to one is not to be admitted into another
without the permission of the principal of his first college.
Ans. 65.—Two European professors to teach English literature and history,
political economy or philosophy, are necessary for every college teaching up to
the B.A. standard.
154

Ans. 66.—One or two European professors are likely to be employed in col-
leges conducted by Natives.
Ques. 68.—How far would Government be justified in withdrawing from
any existing school or college, in places where any class of the population
objects to attend the only alternative institution on the ground of its religious
teaching?
Ans. 68.—On the principles I have laid down Government will not be justified
in withdrawing from an existing school or college in order that an institution in
which a religion objected to by the people as antagonistic to theirs is taught may
flourish. Such action on the part of the Government will not unjustly be construed
as springing from a desire that the people should be taught that religion, and, if
possible, become converts to it.
Supplementary Question.
Ques. 71.—Please state what opportunities yon have had of forming an opinion
on the subject of female education in India, and in what province your experience
has been gained.
Ans. 71.—I was Maráthi Secretary to the Students’ Literary and Scientific Soci-
ety in Bombay for several years, and as such had charge of the girls’ schools
established by that society. I was also a member of the managing committee of
that body up to December last.
Evidence of MR. NOWROZJEE FURDOONJEE.

been gained.
Ans. 1.—I have had the opportunities of forming an opinion on the subject
of education in India during my connection with the Government Educational
Department up to 1845 and with the Parsi Girls’ School Association and other
educational institutions from 1853 to the present time. For some time I acted
as a member of the Bombay Female Normal School Committee appointed by
Government, and also as a member of the subcommittee appointed by the Town
Council of Bombay to visit the primary schools supported and maintained partly
by the Municipal Corporation and partly by Government, and Honorary Secretary
to the Parsi Girls’ School Association of Bombay. My experience has been gained
exclusively in the Bombay Presidency.
155
Ans. 2.—The scope of primary education is thus defined in the first clause of
the Act passed this year by the French Legislature:—
“Primary education comprises moral and civil instruction, reading, writing, geography,
particularly that of France, history, especially that of France up to the present day, some
notions of law and political economy, the elements of natural, physical, and mathematical
science, their applications to agriculture, health, industrial arts, manual labour, and uses of
the tools of the principal crafts, the elements of drawing, modelling, and music, gymnas-
tics, for boys military drill, for girls needlework.”
This provision might be modified and adapted to the circumstances of India,

and should, I submit, form the basis on which primary education should be con-
ducted by the state of this country.
I think that in Bombay the system of primary education has, with notable
exceptions, been placed on a sound basis, and is capable of development up
to the requirments of the community. The improvements which I venture
to suggest in the system of administration and course of instruction are the
following—
(a) Readiness and rapidity of calculation, proficiency in mental arithmetic and
Native method of book-keeping and accounts, subjects to which great attention
had been paid in the indigenous schools, but they have been displaced by the
course of instruction prescribed in Government schools and imparted from text-
books which are not quite adapted to the capacity of the pupils.
(b) The introduction of a systematic course to instruction in the principles of
morality and ethics. I am of opinion that this is a great desideratum which, if sup-
plied, will be attended with beneficial results
(c) The impartment of technical education for qualifying the people for acquir-
ing the practice of useful trades, industrial arts, and professions. But I am sorry to
learn that this important question does not come within the scope of the enquiries
entrusted to the Commission
(d) The necessity of establishing Normal schools in Bombay for qualify-
ing and training male and female teachers in English and in the vernacular
languages.
(e) The existing number of primary schools for boys and girls being utterly
inadequate, it is necessary for Government to make a larger grant According to the
recent census, there are 140,250 children of school-going age (between 6 and 15
years) in the town and island of Bombay, of whom 31,417 only are under instruc-
tion and 108,833 children are not under instruction. Of the latter, 11,405 are just
able to read and write, whilst 97,428 are totally illiterate.
It appears, from the following statistics given in the latest report of the
Director of Public Instruction, Bombay, that the number of schools estab-
lished by Government throughout the entire Presidency is inadequate to sup-
ply the educational wants of the people, and the amount contributed thereto by
the State greatly falls short of the needs of the people, numbering 16,454,414
souls:—
156
Expenditure.
From
From From From
No. of No. of By the Local Other
School Municipal Native Total
Schools Scholars State Rate of Sources
Fees Grants States
Cessea
Ɍ Ɍ Ɍ Ɍ Ɍ Ɍ Ɍ
3,960 440,069 2,49,714 5,01,603 1,18,272 35,692 1,18,673 48,684 10,72,578
The ratio of persons under instruction to the entire population is 1.54 per cent
The inadequacy of the above expenditure will appear most glaring if contrasted
with the large sum, Ɍ2,19,98,630, granted by Parliament in April last for primary
education and for the expense of the Education Department in England and Wales
it, and, if so, why? Are any classes practically excluded from it; and if so, from
of elementary knowledge to every class of society.
Ans. 3.—Primary instruction is sought for by the people in general, except by
the poorest class, who are unable to pay the fees. Hitherto Muhammadans have
to a large extent stood aloof from it, chiefly because the Koran is not taught in the
Government schools. I am glad to find that an organised effort has recently been
made in the city of Bombay, by several intelligent and public spirited Muham-
madans, to overcome the repugnance of their co-religionists, and Government, as
well as the Municipal Corporation, have made large grants in aid of the schools
established by the Anjuman-Islam. Recently there has been an increase in the
number of schools and in the attendance of Muhammadan scholars. The attitude
of the influential and enlightened classes of Natives towards the extension of ele-
mentary knowledge to every class of society is all that can be wished for.
been extended to indi genous schools, and can it be further extended?
Ans. 4.—According to the last report of the Director of Public Instruction
(pages 61, 62) there are 1,305 indigenous schools throughout this Presidency
attended by 36,054 pupils. Of these there are 143 schools attended by 9,405
pupils in the island of Bombay. These statistics do not appear to be complete
157
and accurate. Aid is given by the Department to a very small number of these
schools. Numerous schoolmasters have declined to receive aid on account of their
inability to conform to the rules of the Educational Department These institu-
tions are a relic of the ancient indigenous system, of which the chief peculiar-
ity consist of teaching lessons and arithmetical tables, &c, by heart, readiness of
calculation and useful mental arithmetic. Simple elementary instruction is com-
municated in reading, writing, and mental arithmetic, often without any organised
plan. The fees levied range from two to eight annas per month, in addition to pres-
ents on birth-days, marriage, and other festive occasions and holidays. They are
conducted chiefly by hereditary schoolmasters who do not generally possess the
requisite qualifications. Several of these schools are pretty [Illegible Text] con-
ducted, whilst many are badly managed. In the island of Bombay many of these
schools are located in exposed verandas and dark over-crowded rooms situated
on the basement in different parts of the fort and native town. The discipline is
seldom good. No arrangements have been made for training or providing masters
for such schools. In Gujaiath the indigenous schools are, I am informed, generally
of a better class, and deserve encouragement. The sister Presidency of Bengal,
which, I am informed, possesses 700,000 indigenous schools, of which 600,000
are partially aided by Government, carries off the palm of superiority in this mat-
ter. In the absence of extensive efforts by Government to make adequate provi-
sion for primary education, I think it is necessary to turn the existing indigenous
schools to good account, and to use every endeavour to encourage, extend, and
improve them. With this view I would suggest to the Commission to recommend
the Department to modify and relax the rules for giving grants-in-aid to indig-
enous schools so as to remove the difficulties and place it within the means of the
conductors to avail themselves of the assistance of the State.
educated at school?
Ans. 5.—There is scarcely any home instruction in this Presidency, because
the mothers are, for the most part, uneducated, and the male parents are too much
engaged in their work and calling to spare any time or attention to the education
of their children, Parents who can afford the means, in some cases employ private
teachers out of school-hours to give instruction to their children at home in the
morning or evening to assist the progress of the latter at school. Instances of chil-
dren being educated at home are rare
Ans. 6.—Government cannot, I think, depend on private effort, aided or unaided,
for the supply of elementary instruction in rural or other districts in the mofussil,
unless they rely on the schools that are established by Christian Missionaries with
the avowed object of converting the Natives. These schools are attended chiefly
158
by children of the lowest class, with whom the generality of Hindus do not hold
any social intercourse, and by the children of the poorest class, who are unable to
pay the higher rate of fees charged in Government schools.
Ans. 7.—Funds assigned for primary education in the rural districts can, in my
opinion, be advantageously administered by district committees or local boards,
subject to such rules and limitations as it may be deemed necessary to prescribe.
Ans. 8.—I am of opinion that primary schools should be entrusted to properly
constituted school boards or Municipal committees for support and management
in large towns and cities if such Committees possess surplus funds adequate for
the purpose. With some exceptions their resources are so inadequate that after
spending their funds on the primary and legitimate objects of conservancy and
sanitation they can spare very little money for promotion of primary education but
in any case they should not be compelled to have recourse to additional taxation,
which might press heavily on the people. Primary education is a fair charge on
the general revenues of the country. The Imperial Parliament has recognised the
charge and has made adequate provision for primary education from the public
revenues as shown in my answer to question 2.
Ques. 9.—Have you any suggestions to make on the system in force for pro-
viding teachers in primary schools? What is the present social status of village
schoolmasters? Do they exert a beneficial influence among the villagers? Can you
suggest measures, other than increase of pay, for improving their position?
Ans. 9.—I think it is necessary that trained teachers should be provided for
primary and secondary boys’ and girls’ schools. There are several training schools
and colleges and Normal schools in the Deccan, Dhárwár, Gujaráth and Sind,
but no such institution exists in Bombay, where the large majority of masters
employed in the vernacular and Anglo-vernacular schools are untrained. In the
Normal Schools none but scholars of the higher class, studying in secondary
schools, and matriculated students, should be admitted. After being duly trained
and qualified, they should be taught the art of teaching in practising schools, and
when their training is finished, they should receive certificates of competency
as teachers from the heads of the Normal schools. The status and emoluments
of the vernacular schoolmasters should, I think, be improved so as to keep pace
with improvements in their qualifications and training. The salaries of vernacular
schoolmasters of the lower grade at present range from Ɍ10 to 12 (being equal to
the pay of ordinary house-keepers), of the middle grade Ɍ15, and of the higher
grade Ɍ20 to 25. These low salaries do not and cannot attract competent men
159
to occupy these responsible posts It is also necessary to improve the position of

the village schoolmasters by increasing their emoluments and by other means,
because they exercise a beneficial influence amongst the villagers.
Ans. 10.—To make the primary schools popular and attractive, I would recom-
mend that, in addition to other subjects, much attention should be paid to mental
arithmetic, composition, epistolary and mercantile correspondence, moral duties,
adages and maxims, Native book-keeping and accounts, and lessons on objects,
also instruction in trades and industrial arts.
ince the dialect of the people? And if not, are the schools on that account less
useful and popular?
Ans. 11.—The vernaculars recognised and taught in the different schools in
the Bombay Presidency are the dialects of the people. The instruction imparted
therein is therefore useful as well as popular.
the promotion of education amongst a poor and ignorant people?
Ans. 12.—Yes, excepting in villages and rural districts, where it is necessary to
encourage and assist well-conducted indigenous schools.
primary schools?
Ans. 13.—The fees levied in primary schools ranging from Ɍ1 to Ɍ3 press
heavily on the poorer classes of the people. They should be reduced, say, one-
half, so as to place it within the means of the poor students to avail themselves
of the advantages held out to them. In vernacular schools the fees ranging
from 4 annas to 8 annas, and in some cases 1 rupee, are heavy and should be
reduced Students who cannot afford to pay the school fees should be admitted
free The present restriction of the free list, 15 per cent., should be removed,
so that the doors of the Government schools should not be closed against poor
candidates
Ans. 14.—The number of primary schools can, I believe, be increased by Gov-
ernment opening new schools in suitable localities and giving grants-in-aid and
scholarships, and by enlisting the sympathies and inviting the co-operation of
influential and enlightened Natives.
institutions of the higher older have been closed or transferred to the management
of local bodies, as contemplated in paragraph 62 of the Despatch of 1854? And
160
what do you regard as the chief reasons why more effect has not been given to
that provision?
Ans. 15.—I do not know of any instances in which Government educational
institutions of the higher order have been closed or transferred to the manage-
ment of local bodies, as contemplated in paragraph 62 of the Despatch of 1854.
The reason is obvious. Education has not yet made sufficient progress to warrant
Government in closing their colleges or high schools to make way for private
institutions.
higher order might be closed or transferred to private bodies, with or without aid,
without injury to education or to any interests which it is the duty of Government
to protect?
Ans. 16.—I do not know of any cases in which Government institutions of the
higher order might be closed or transferred to private bodies, without injury to
education or to interests which it is the duty of Government to protect. The time
for carrying out this suggestion has not arrived.
the establishment of schools and colleges upon the grant-in-aid system?
Ans. 17.—In the Bombay Presidency several public-spirited and liberal gentle-
men have come forward and aided more extensively than before in the establish-
ment of schools and colleges and the erection of elegant buildings for educational
purposes; but I do not know if there are any that are able and willing to come
forward and aid in such work at present
Ques. 18.—If the Government or any local authority, having control of public
money, were to announce its determination to withdraw, after a given term of
years, from the maintenance of any higher educational institution, what measures
Ans. 18.—If the Government or any local authority having control of public
money were to announce its determination to withdraw, after a given term of
years, from the maintenance of any higher educational institution, the probability
is that it will be impossible to stimulate private effort to secure the maintenance of
such institution on a private footing.
Ques. 19.—Have you any remarks to offer on the principles of the grant-in-aid
system, or the details of its administration? Are the grants adequate in the case of
(a) colleges, (b) boys’ schools, (c) girls’ schools, (d) Normal schools?
Ans. 19.—I venture to offer the following remarks on the principle of the
grant-in aid system, the details of its administration, and the principle of reli-
gious neutrality which should be observed by Government When the grants-in-
aid system as instituted under the despatch of 1854 from the Court of Directors
was introduced and earned out by the Local Government, the benefit of such
aid was withheld from all schools and educational institutions, established and
161
conducted by Christian Missionaries and other religious societies, on the ground

that it would militate against the principle of religious neutrality observed by
Government.
I invite the attention of the Commission to an admirable despatch addressed
by the late Lord Ellenborough, then President of the Board of Control, to
the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Court of Directors, dated 28th
April 1858. In this important document His Lordship makes the follow-
ing pertinent remarks against the extension of grants-in-aid to Missionary
schools:—
“21. This measure, even guarded as it appears to be, by restricting the aid of Govern-
ment to the secular education of the Natives in Missionary schools, seems to me to be of a
very perilous character
“22 The primary object of the Missionary is proselytism He gives education, because by
giving education, he hopes to extend Christianity He may be quite right in adopting that
course, and left to himself, unaided by the Government, and evidently unconnected with
it, he may obtain some, although probably no great, extent of success, but the moment he
is ostensibly assisted by the Government, he not only loses a large portion of his chance
of doing good in the furtherance of his primary object, but by creating the impression that
education means proselytism, he materially impedes the measures of Government directed
to education alone
“23 This has been the view taken of the effect of any appearance of connexion between
the Government and the Missionaries by some of the most pious as well as the most able
men who have ever been employed under the Government of India, and I have, at all times,
adhered to their opinion.
* * * * *
“27 I must express my doubt whether the aid by Government funds to the imparting
even of purely secular education in a missionary school is consistent with the promises so
often made to the people, and till now so scrupulously kept, of perfect neutrality in matters
of religion
“28 It is true that the money of the State is only granted to the Missionary on account of
the secular education which alone he engages to give to the Native, unless the Native should
otherwise desire, but it may often, if not always, happen, that it is only through the aid thus
given professedly for secular education, that the Missionary is enabled to keep the school at
all, which he only designs for other, and those proselytising purposes
“29. We thus indirectly support where we profess to repudiate, and practically abandon
the neutrality to which we have at all times pledged ourselves to adhere. Such conduct
brings into question our good faith, and may naturally give alarm to the people,”1
On the abovementioned grounds, His Lordship recommends the advisability of

“withholding the aid of Government from schools with which Missionaries are
connected.”
The Director of Public Instruction, Bombay, in his report for the year 1857–58
(page 30) publicly expresses his “respectful concurrence in the arguments by
162
Lord Ellenborough (in paragraphs 20—30), deprecates grants-in-aid to profess-

edly Missionary schools as inconsistent with religious neutrality,” and declares
that no pecuniary grant has been made in this Presidency to any Missionary
school
Sir George Russel Clerk, the then Secretary of the India Board and late Gover-
nor of Bombay, in an able memorandum recorded by him under date 29th March
1858, makes the following important recommendation:—
“The Government of India should be directed to consider in a calm and unobtrusive spirit
the best mode of rendering education really popular, to regulate it with no attempt at pros-
elytism, open or disguised, and to rely that our greatest strength consists in regarding with
feelings of clarity and patience the pursuit of religious instruction by all the different per-
suasions according to their several creeds.”
Sir John Peter Grant, late Governor of Bengal, has also recorded a minute
against giving grant-in-aid to Missionary schools.
Mr. Hodgson Pratt, late Director of Public Instruction in Bengal, has borne the
following important testimony:—
“The only Natives who send their children to Missionary schools are those who cannot
afford to pay school fees No man who is tolerably well off will send his child to a Mis-
sionary school, and I have scores of times been applied to (unsuccessfully) by the sons of
poor men for a small allowance to save them from the hardship of attending the Missionary
school, and to enable them to go to the Government institution instead”
The above remark is applicable to this Presidency also. Here Natives of the
poorest classes, who cannot afford to pay the heavy fees charged in Government
schools, are compelled, much against their wish, to send their children to Mission-
ary schools, where small and almost nominal fees are levied and a large number
of free students are admitted.
In 1857 the principal Native inhabitants of Bombay memorialised the Gov-
ernment of Bombay against the use in the Elphinstone Institution of class-books
prepared expressly for the use of children professing the Christian religion and
abounding in lessons containing the doctrines and principles of Christianity. In
reply to their memorial, the Natives were informed that Government had directed
the Director of Public Instruction to issue an order “prohibiting the teachers in
Government schools from reading or teaching the lessons complained of by the
petitioners2
The class-books used in all the Missionary schools consist for the most part
of lessons relating to the principles, doctrines, and tenets of the Christian reli-
gion—books which have been prepared for the purpose of carrying out the object
for which Missionary societies have established schools throughout the Presi-
dency, namely, as an instrument in aid of the cause of the subversion of the ancient
religions of India and the conversion of the Natives to Christianity. The study
of the Bible and the course of Christian religious instruction prescribed for the
163
Missionary schools are not optional but obligatory on all Native students attend-
ing these schools. And yet, for reasons with which I am unacquainted, a depar-
ture from the policy of religious neutrality was sanctioned by the Government of
Bombay for the first time in the year 1863, and educational institutions supported
by different Missionary societies have been allowed grants-in-aid since the year
1865–663 This proceeding has produced wide-spread dissatisfaction amongst the
natives of this Presidency.
On these grounds I venture to recommend that Government should be asked
to revert to the original policy of withholding grants-in-aid from all schools con-
ducted with the object of propagating Christianity or any other religion.
The following statistics contained in the last report of the Director of Public
Instruction, Bombay, show that the distribution of grants-in-aid amongst the edu-
cational institutions established for different classes of the people in this Presi-
dency can scarcely be deemed to be fair.
In the year 1880–81 the undermentioned sums were awarded for grants-in-aid
by results, aggregating Ɍ80,698:—
Ɍ s. p.
To two colleges, viz., the St. Xavier’s Collage and Free General 3,600 0 0
Assembly’s Institution
To 28 permanent schools for Europeans and Eurasians 34,890 0 0
To 91 permanent schools for Natives conducted chiefly by Missionaries 37,739 0 0
To 19 private schools for Natives 4,469 0 0
Total 80,698 0 0
The bulk of this amount was awarded to colleges and schools established
by Christian religious and Missionary societies, leaving a small sum, less than
Ɍ10,000, awarded to private schools established by Natives, These figures show
the advisability of making a better and more equitable distribution of the grants-
in-aid, so that the Natives might get a fair share.
I regret to learn that the grants-in-aid allowed to several large and well-
conducted educational institutions—namely, the Fort High School, the Chand-
unvádi High School of Bombay, and Bába Gokley’s School at Poona—have all
been totally withheld since the year 1877–78, on grounds which, from the cor-
respondence that has taken place, appear to be scarcely justifiable. The reason
assigned by the Director of Public Instruction is that “the receipts of the institu-
tions in question, independent of Government aid, are sufficient to maintain them
in an efficient state, and also to yield an income to the proprietors” On referring
to paragraph 53 of the Government Despatch of 1854, the Commission will find
that no such instruction is laid down for awarding grants-in-aid. The only condi-
tions prescribed are that they should be “under adequate local management, that
is to say, one or more private patrons, voluntary subscribers or the trustees of
endowments who will undertake the general superintendence of the school and be
164
answerable for its permanence for some given time,” and “provided also that their
managers consent that the schools shall be subject to Government inspection and
agree to any conditions which may be had down for the regulation of such grants,”
In vain the proprietor of the Fort High School pointed out that “the withdrawal of
all Government aid must inevitably reduce the school from its present flourishing
state to one of comparative inefficiency,” and prevent improvements being made
in the seminary. The proprietors of another school, namely, the Chandunvádi High
School No. 2, from which the grant was discontinued, represented that it would
be impossible for them to maintain a well-trained teaching staff and other appli-
ances and keep up the efficiency of the institution without a grant-in-aid from
Government. Grants are still given to similar schools in Madras. The consequence
of discontinuing the Government grant from Bába Gokhley’s School at Poona
was, I hear, fatal to its existence. This seminary had, I am informed, competed
successfully with the Government High School for several years Grant-in-aid has
been withheld for several years from the Poona Native Institution—a seminary
ably conducted by Mr. Vaman Piabbakar Bhave, which had educated and passed
several youths in the Matriculation and Public Service examinations every year.
Although three successive Educational Inspectors, who examined the school,
reported favourably regarding the efficiency and successful management of the
institution, yet aid was refused on the ground that there were “no funds for any
private high school in Poona.”4
It appears from the report of the Director of Public Instruction for the year
1876–77 (p. 24) that, in consequence of the number of aided schools having in
six years risen from 85 to 255, Government ordered a revision of the grant-in-aid
rules and the framing of new rules, withdrawing grants for passing Matricula-
tion and grants for salaries, and reducing by one-half the grants for passing the
F.A. and B.A. examinations. The large reduction in grants which took place in
1876–77 is attributable to the strict enforcement of the revised rates. I regret to
learn that a further reduction has been made this year to a considerable amount
in the award of grants-in-aid, and the English school at Breach Candy Road has
been struck off the register. I would submit to the Commission the desirability
of restoring the grants that have been withheld or curtailed. Private educational
institutions are obliged to incur heavy expense for employing and maintaining
a qualified staff of teachers and appliances for the highest standard in preparing
scholars for Matriculation. In order to contribute towards this heavy expenditure,
it is necessary, in my opinion, to restore these grants and to confer them on a
liberal scale.
The grants-in-aid are adequate in the case of colleges, but are totally inad-
equate in the case of boys’ and girls’ schools. The amount of grants-in-aid
for the English-teaching Anglo vernacular and vernacular schools and girls’
schools should be at least doubled, and should be so regulated as to enable
private Native schools to recover a morety of the costs of their maintenance.
There being no private Normal schools in this Presidency, there are no grants
for them.
165

tered, one of practical neutrality, i.e,. one in which a school or a college has no
religions principles that are taught or not taught in it?
Ans. 20.—I found considerable difficulty in understanding the object and bear-
ing of this question On enquiry I have been given to understand that the object of
the question is to ascertain whether there is any truth in the contention of a certain
class of persons who allege that the tendency of the Government system of edu-
cation being atheistic, Government practically violate the principle of religions
neutrality, and that they should, therefore, retire from the field of high-class edu-
cation. I believe there is no truth in the contention just referred to. Having myself
been educated under the Government system, and having come in contact with a
great many alumni of the Government colleges in the Presidency, I am in a posi-
tion to deny the allegation of an atheistic and immoral tendency. I am not aware
of any of the professors inculcating the doctrine of atheism in any of the colleges
in this Presidency. A high moral tone pervades the text-books and permeates the
course of instruction imparted in Government colleges and schools.
If it is intended to be suggested by this question that the educational institutions
conducted by the Missionaries are disliked or discouraged by the Department, I
must say that the result of my enquiries and information distinctly negatives such
a suggestion. I am informed that in this Presidency and throughout British India
the case is different. As stated in my answer to question 19, Government have
given undue encouragement to Missionary schools and colleges by giving them
liberal grants-in-aid, and have thereby departed from the principle of religious
neutrality. These grants, although ostensibly given towards secular education, are
virtually applied towards carrying out the primary object of these schools, viz., the
impartment of instruction in Christianity with the view of converting Native chil-
dren from their respective ancestral faiths to Christianity I cannot understand the
principle on which Missionary societies accept pecuniary aids from Imperial and
Provincial revenues raised from taxes contributed by the Natives for the general
purposes of Government, and not for proselytism.
Ans. 21.—All classes of the people, with the exception of Muhammadans of the
non-commercial class, avail themselves of Government and aided schools and col-
leges for the education of their children. I do not think the complaint is well founded
that the wealthy classes do not pay enough for education. The rate of fees payable
for higher education has been greatly enhanced, so that it presses heavily on the
middle and poorer classes of the people. It amounts to Ɍ10 per month. I would,
therefore, recommend a reduction in the rate, so as to place higher education within
the reach of classes who are desirous of availing themselves of the advantage.
166

Ans. 22.—I can adduce two notable instances of proprietary schools in Bombay
supported entirely by fees, namely, the Fort High School and the Fort Proprietary
School. But the fact should be borne in mind that the proprietors of these seminar-
ies give their services to them as head masters in consideration of the amount of
surplus realised by them from fees after deducting all other charges and expenses
connected with the maintenance of these institutions in a state of efficiency.
Ques. 23.—Is it in your opinion possible for a non-Government institution of
Ans. 23.—In my opinion it is possible for a non-Government institution of the
higher order to become influential and stable when in direct competition with a
similar Government institution. The conditions under which it might become so
are good management and adequate resources and support.
unhealthy competition; and if so, what remedy, if any, would you apply?
Ans. 24.—I am not aware of the cause of higher education in the Bombay Presi-
dency being injured by any unhealthy competition.
employment?
Ans. 25.—Educated Natives in this Presidency have considerable difficulty
in finding remunerative employment. If a vacancy occurs in a public or private
office, some fifty or a hundred applications are received from candidates seeking
employment I am of opinion that Government should utilise the large expenditure
incurred in connection with high education by holding out sufficient inducements
to the under-graduates and graduates of the University for admission into the pub-
lic service by open competition, instead of favouritism. With this object I would
recommend that two standards of qualifications should be prescribed, one for the
lower grade and another for the higher grade of the public service, and periodical
examinations should be held of candidates for employment in the public service,
and the following amongst other appointments should be conferred on the success-
ful candidates:—
1. Head Clerks, Shirastedárs and Názirs in the District Courts.

2. Assistants, Head Clerks, Chitnis, Dafterdáis, Accountants, Mámlatdáirs,
Deputy Accountants, Head Kárkúns and Shirastedárs to the Revenue
Commissioners, Collectors and Magistrates, and Assistant Collectors and
Magistrates
3. Uncovenanted Assistants and Head Clerks to Secretaries to Government,
Collectors of Customs and Excise, and Political Agents.
4. Deputy Collectors and Magistrates.
5. Overseers and Assistant Engineers, P. W. D.
167
6. Deputy Educational Inspectors, Masters of High Schools, Training Col-

leges, Normal Schools, and Anglo-Vernacular Schools, and other offi-
cers of the Educational Department.
7. Translators.
8. Inspectors of Registration and Stamps.
9. Telegraph Officers.
10. Forest Officers.
11. Superintendents and Inspectors of Post Offices and Postmasters.
I am of opinion that if proper standards be framed, and suitable rules be pre-

scribed, and admission to the above-mentioned public services be thrown open to
public competition by Government, the difficulty now experienced by educated
youths in obtaining employment will disappear, and the character and efficiency
of the public service will be considerably improved.
One step has, I am glad to say, already been taken in this direction by Sir R.
Temple’s Government, by instituting a competitive examination for the admission
of graduates of the University5 to a limited number of situations in the Revenue
Department, but as these posts, beginning with kárkunship on Ɍ35 per month,
are not worth much, they do not hold out sufficient inducements The principle is
excellent. I therefore request the Commission to recommend that it should be car-
ried out on the extended scale I have proposed.
the minds of those who do not pursue their studies farther with useful and practi-
cal information?
Ans. 26.—I am of opinion that some change in the instruction imparted in sec-
ondary schools should be introduced with the object of storing the minds of those
who do not pursue their studies further with useful and practical information.
Instruction in the classical languages might be dispensed with in the case of those
who do not wish to matriculate.
Ques. 27.—Do you think there is any truth in the statement that the attention
of teacher and pupils is unduly directed to the Entrance Examination of the
University? If so, are you of opinion that this circumstance impairs the practical
value of the education in the secondary schools for the requirements of ordinary
life?
Ans. 27.—I think there is some truth in the statement that the attention of teach-
ers and pupils is unduly directed to the Entrance Examination of the University;
but this cannot be avoided, although this circumstance to some extent impairs
the value of the education imparted in secondary schools for the requirements of
ordinary life.
present themselves for the University Entrance Examination is unduly large
when compared with the requirements of the country? If you think so, what do
you regard as the causes of this state of things, and what remedies would you
suggest?
168
Ans. 28.—I do not think that the number of pupils in secondary schools who
present themselves for the University Entrance Examination in this Presidency is
unduly large when compared with the requirements of the country.
ships; and have you any remarks to make on the subject? Is the scholarship system
Ans. 29.—The system prevailing in the Bombay Presidency with regard to
Government Scholarships is different from that which, according to my infor-
mation, prevails in the other Presidencies. Here all these scholarships, excepting
University Scholarships, are awarded to Government schools and colleges, and
none to aided schools. Scholarships endowed by private individuals are awarded
either to Government or private institutions according to the conditions stipulated
by the donors. The Bombay University Scholarships, Fellowships, gold medals
and prizes comprise 20 Scholarships, ranging from Ɍ120 to Ɍ400 per annum, 2
Fellowships of Ɍ800 and Ɍ410 per annum, 4 gold medals and 14 prizes from Ɍ50
to Ɍ540 per annum, and are awarded by open competition to students of Govern-
ment, Missionary, and private institutions with liberty to prosecute their further
studies at any recognised college.
Ques. 30.—Is Municipal support at present extended to grant-in-aid schools,
whether belonging to Missionary or other bodies; and how far is this support
likely to be permanent?
Ans. 30.—I am not aware of Municipal support being extended in this Presi-
dency to Missionary schools.
Ans. 31.—The University curriculum hardly affords a sufficient training for teach-
ers in secondary schools. Special Normal schools are therefore necessary for training
teachers in secondary and primary schools, as shown in my answer to question 9.
Ans. 32.—The system of school inspection pursued in the Bombay Presidency
is that which is prescribed by the Government Educational Department. I would
suggest one improvement as being particularly necessary. Much of the time of
the Inspectors and Deputy Inspectors is, according to the present system, taken
up with voluminous official correspondence, of which they ought to be relieved,
so as to enable them to devote more time and attention to their legitimate duties.
Ques. 33.—Can you suggest any method of securing efficient voluntary agency
in the work of inspection and examination?
Ans. 33.—I cannot suggest any method of securing efficient voluntary agency
in the work of inspection and examination, unless such of the professors of Gov-
ernment colleges, masters of Government and private schools, and the graduates
of the University, can be induced to undertake the task as a labour of love.
suitable?
169
Ans. 34.—Several of the text-books in use in all the schools are, in my opinion,
not suitable to the wants and circumstances of the Natives. In the Government
English schools, McCulloch’s series of school-books, which were in use for a
considerable time, were superseded, I believe, on account of the objection that
they contained many lessons in Christian doctrines and religion. Mr. Howard’s
Series are now in use in Government schools, and the Royal Readers are used in
most of the private schools, Native and European. Chambers’ Moral Class Book
and its Gujaráthi translation by Messrs. Kahandas Mansaram and Nusserwanji
Chandabhai have been discontinued, and no text-book on this important subject
has been substituted by the Department. In Gujaráthi schools Hope’s excellent
series have been in use for the last twenty years, as well as the Punchopakhyan
Æsop’s Fables, and the Balmitra, an admirable translation of Burquins Children’s
Friend. The latter three books have been discontinued. With a view to meet the
requirements of the present state of progress and advancement in English and
vernacular education and remedy the defects of several class-books, I would sug-
gest to the Commission the advisability of recommending to Government or the
Educational Department the appointment of a committee to examine and report
on the school-books now in use, and, in cases in which any books are found to
be unsuited, to propose the substitution or compilation of other text-books better
adapted for the different classes of schools now existing in this Presidency.
Ans. 35.—The present arrangements of the Educational Department in regard
to examinations or text-books, or in any other way, do not appear to me to be such
as unnecessarily interfere with the free development of private institutions; nor do
they in any wise tend to check the development of natural character and ability, or
to interfere with the production of a useful vernacular literature. I should think the
tendency is quite the contrary. In fact, the Department fosters and encourages the
production of a useful vernacular literature.
Ques. 36.—In a complete scheme of education for India what parts can, in your
opinion, be most effectively taken by the State and by other agencies?
Ans. 36.—In a complete scheme of education for India, in my opinion, higher
and middle-class as well as primary education can be most effectually undertaken
and conducted by the State, aided by private local hoards and municipal agency,
and public bodies and associations.
Ans. 37.—I think that the withdrawal of Government to a large extent from the
direct management of schools or colleges would produce disastrous consequences
170
and check the spread of education. I do not believe it will promote the growth
of a spirit of reliance upon local exertions and combination for local purposes.
On the contrary, it will, I apprehend, nullify the effects of education and retard
the accomplishment of England’s noble mission to qualify the Natives for self-
government and detenorate the character of the public, and thereby injuriously
affect the interests of Government.
Ans. 38.—In the event of the Government withdrawing to a large extent from
the direct management of schools or colleges, I apprehend that the standard of
instruction in institutions of that class would deteriorate. It would be therefore
impolitic for Government to withdraw from the direct management of educational
institutions in this country until education has taken a deep root and has made a
great progress throughout British India.
Ans. 39.—This important branch of instruction does not, I regret to say, occupy
a place in the course of Government colleges and schools. Due attention should, I
submit, be paid to a knowledge of the principles of moral conduct and duty—a study
which is greatly needed, and which formed a part of the course taught in indigenous
schools in the shape of moral maxims, precepts, and tales. I would strongly recom-
mend the Commission to enjoin the necessity of supplying the omission and intro-
ducing a systematic course of instruction in the principles and precepts of morality
and the duties of life. This measure, if properly carried out, will be attended with
great advantage in improving the conduct and character of the rising generation.
Ques. 40.—Are any steps taken for promoting the physical well-being of stu-
Ans. 40.—Sufficient steps are not taken for promoting the physical well-being
of students in the schools or colleges in this Presidency. I would strongly rec-
ommend that all the large schools and colleges be provided with the necessary
means and appliances of physical education, viz., gymnasia and play-grounds,
and that prizes should be awarded for athletic sports and cricket matches, riding,
fencing, and other exercises. In the city of Bombay, in the Fort and on the Espla-
nade, there are several large schools, such as the Elphinstone High School, the
Anglo-Vernacular Schools, the Proprietary, the Fort High and the Chandunvádi
High Schools, without any gymnasia or play-grounds. I would recommend that
Government should provide two or three large gymnasia and play-grounds on the
Esplanade for the large number of students, about 3,000, attending these semi-
naries, and should give liberal grants to all private gymnasia, play-grounds, and
libraries that are not self-supporting.
171
you are acquainted; and if so, what is its character?
Ans. 41.—Owing to the seclusion of females, there is scarcely any indigenous
instruction for girls in this Presidency.
schools for girls; and what is the character of the instruction imparted in them?
Ans. 42.—Very little progress has been made by the Department in institut-
ing schools for girls in this Presidency compared with what has been done in
the Bengal Presidency and the North-Western Provinces. In 1870–71 there were
74 schools attended by 2,816 girls,6 maintained at a cost of Ɍ2,949 from Impe-
rial funds and Ɍ10,328 from the educational cess. There has been a progressive
increase in the number of female schools during the last decade. Last year there
were 193 schools attended by 11,691 girls These schools were maintained at a
cost to the Provincial revenues of Ɍ16,967 and Ɍ50,781 defrayed from local rates
or cesses, fees, endowments, Municipal grants, the revenues of Native States, and
other sources.7 The sum spent by Government on primary education for Native
females in this Presidency amounts only to half the sum spent in awarding grants
to schools for Europeans and Eurasians.8 It is utterly inadequate to the wants of
the large population of this Presidency. In the city of Bombay Government had
not opened a single female school up to the year 1873. In that year an enlightened
Parsi gentleman, who has recently given a permanent endowment of Ɍ50,000
for providing a suitable building for the Fort school belonging to the Parsi Girls’
School Association, having offered to pay half the expenses, Government were
induced to open a female school in this city. In 1878 the Municipal Corporation
having given an increased giant to be appropriated to female schools, four small
schools have since been opened by Government. These schools are small, and,
with one exception, are not situated in good houses, nor conducted by competent
female teachers. It is necessary greatly to improve their status and management
and the character of the instruction imparted therein. Government should, in my
humble judgment, spend a much larger sum than the amount now appropriated to
female schools. They should employ better-paid and competent female teachers
and introduce improvements in the studies. Less time and attention should be
devoted to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar, and more to domestic
economy, house management, singing, knitting, needle-work, embroidery, cook-
ery, and other arts adapted to females. They should also establish more vernacu-
lar female schools throughout the Presidency and in this great city, and open at
least two good English schools for Native girls to meet the growing wants of the
metropolis in regard to primary education. At present there are 18 flourishing ver-
nacular female schools in this city, established and conducted by public-spirited
benevolent Native associations attended by upwards of 2,600 girls with liberal
endowments for scholarships. They will serve as feeders of the English schools,
and of vernacular schools of the higher class. Government should also establish
172
one or more evening schools for giving education of superior character and train-
ing female teachers employed in the female schools.
Ans 43.—I am not aware of the existence of mixed schools in this province. I
do not consider it advisable to establish such schools, to which the generality of
the people are sure to object.
Ans. 44.—The best method of providing qualified female teachers for girls is to
train them under a competent tutoress or superintendent in a female Normal school
or college. In 1868 the Government of India sanctioned for five years a grant of
Ɍ12,000 a year for the establishment of a female Normal school in the city of Bom-
bay. Before giving sufficient time for a fair trial to this important experiment, in
the success of which I took a great interest, the then Director of Public Instruction
transferred the school from Bombay to Poona in 1872, so that for the last twelve
years the capital of the Bombay Presidency has been deprived of the benefit of a
school, which is urgently required to supply trained female teachers for 24 female
schools existing in this city attended by more than 3,000 girls.
With a view to increase the efficiency of the female Normal school, I would
recommend that one or more properly trained schoolmistresses or lady superin-
tendents be got out from England and employed to supervise the Normal school,
and also to visit and superintend the Government and private female schools, and
to regulate the studies and maintain discipline on the best model.
Ques. 45.—Are the grants to girls’ schools larger in amount and given on
less onerous terms than those to boys’ schools, and is the distinction sufficiently
marked?
Ans. 45.—The grants-in-aid to girls’ schools are larger in amount and given on
less onerous terms than those to boys’ schools and rightly so. The distinction is
sufficiently marked, because it is necessary to hold out sufficient encouragement
to such institutions.
taken by European ladies; and how far would it be possible to increase the interest
Ans. 46.—In the promotion of female education no share that I am aware of has
been taken by European ladies in Bombay. This is much to be regretted. To supply
this desideratum to some extent, I have in my answer to question 44 suggested the
advisability of getting out from England duly qualified trained schoolmistresses.
Ans. 47.—In addition to the defects already pointed by me, that experience has
brought to light in the educational system as it has been hitherto administered, I
would refer prominently to a great defect which it is necessary to remedy, viz, the
neglect of education of the masses and the absence of much of an utilitarian and
173
practical character. Commercial, moral, agricultural, and technical education is

more necessary than a classical, philosophical, and mathematical education for
the bulk of the people.
Ques. 48.—Is any part of the expenditure incurred by the Government on high
education in your province unnecessary?
Ans. 48.—The only part of the expenditure incurred by the Government on
high education that is unnecessary is the high cost of direction and inspection.
This expense, amounting to more than Ɍ2,20,000 per annum, is susceptible of
retrenchments It is not so high in Bengal and Madras. The Universities in these
Presidencies are self-supporting, whilst our University costs the State Ɍ32,000 per
annum. Economy might be practised with considerable advantage by reducing the
salaries of several highly paid Principals and graded professors and by employing
qualified Natives on reduced salaries in the colleges Large grants which have been
made by Government towards the construction of ornamental or high edifices in
Bombay are unnecessary, and are, moreover, in contravention of orders issued by
superior authorities.
Ques. 49.—Have Government institutions been set up in localities where places
of instruction already existed, which might by grants-in-aid or other assistance
adequately supply the educational wants of the people?
Ans. 49.—I am not aware of Government institutions having been set up in locali-
ties where suitable places of instruction already existed, which might by grant-in-
aid or other assistance adequately supply the educational wants of the people.
Ques. 50.—Is there any foundation for the statement that officers of the Edu-
cational Department take too exclusive an interest in higher education? Would
beneficial results be obtained by introducing into the Department more men of
practical training in the art of teaching and school management?
Ans. 50.—I don’t think there is any foundation for the statement that officers
of the Educational Department take too exclusive an interest in higher educa-
tion. Beneficial results would certainly be obtained by introducing into the depart-
ment more men and females of practical training in the art of teaching and school
management.
Ques. 51.—Is the system of pupil teachers or monitors in force in your prov-
ince? If so, please state how it works?
Ans. 51.—The system of pupil-teachers or monitors is not in force in this
Presidency. I would certainly recommend a trial of the system under favourable
auspices.
Ques. 52.—Is there any tendency to raise primary into secondary schools
unnecessarily or prematurely? Should measures be taken to check such a ten-
dency? If so, what measures?
Ans. 52.—I am not aware of any tendency to raise primary into secondary
schools unnecessarily or prematurely.
174
Ans. 53.—The rate of fees in any class of departmental schools or colleges

should not vary according to the means of the parents or guardians of the pupil,
which it would often be difficult to ascertain exactly. But I would recommend
that Principals and head masters of colleges and schools should be invested with
discretionary authority to admit free of charge students whose circumstances are
such as to prevent their parents from paying the prescribed fees.
Ans. 54.—The demand for high education in this Presidency has not reached
such a stage as to make the profession of teaching generally a profitable one.
In the Presidency town and in some large cities schools have been opened by
men of good position as a means of maintaining themselves. But such cases are
exceptional.
Ques. 55.—To what classes of institutions do you flunk that the system of
table and useful?
Ans. 55.—To all classes of educational institutions the system of assigning
grants according to the results of periodical examinations should, I think, be
applied. The chief conditions for making this system equitable and useful would
be strict, impartial, and vigilant inspection.
assigning grants in and of the salaries of certificated teachers can be best applied?
Under what conditions do you regard this system as a good one?
Ans. 56.—I think that the system of assigning grants in aid of the salaries by
certificated teachers can be applied to all classes of institutions?
Ques. 57.—To what proportion of the gross expense do you think that the
grant-in-aid should amount, under ordinary circumstances, in the case of colleges
and schools of all grades?
Ans. 57.—The grants-in-aid should, I think, amount under ordinary circum-
stances, in the case of colleges to one-third, and schools of all grades to one-half
of the gross expense.
Ans. 58.—I consider that the maximum number of pupils that can be efficiently
taught as a class by one instructor in the case of colleges should be forty and in
schools twenty-five to thirty.
Ques. 59.—In your opinion should fees in colleges be paid by the term or by
the month?
Ans. 59.—In my opinion fees in colleges should be paid by the term, and not
by the month?
175

leges and schools?
Ans. 60.—A strict interpretation of the principle of religious neutrality does
not require the withdrawal of the Government from the direct management of
colleges and schools, but it requires the withdrawal of grants from Missionary
schools in which religions education for converting the students to Christianity
forms the chief object.
Ans. 61.—I do think that the institution of University professorships has an
important effect in improving the quality of high education.
over the entire province? In what cases if any, is it preferable that such promotions
be left to the school authorities?
Ans. 62.—It is generally not desirable that promotions from class to class
should depend at any stage of school education on the results of public examina-
tions extending over the entire province. In the generality of cases it is advisable
that such promotions should be left to the school authorities.
you would suggest?
Ans. 63.—There are no arrangements that I am aware of between the colleges
and schools of the Presidency to prevent boys who have been expelled from one
institution, or who leave it improperly, from being received into another. It is dif-
ficult to suggest practical measures in this matter.
colleges; and if so, under what limitations or conditions?
Ans. 64.—As I do not contemplate the contingency, suggested in this question,
of the Government withdrawing from the direct management of higher institu-
tions generally, I need not consider the alternative proposal.
Ans. 65.—I do not think it is necessary that all the professors to be employed
in colleges educating up to the B.A. standard should be Europeans I would rec-
ommend a mixture of European and native professors. The Principal and profes-
sors of English Literature, Logic, and Moral Philosophy, might for the present
be Europeans But considerations of justice and economy obviously require that
competent Natives should be appointed Professors of Mathematic, Chemistry,
Biology, History, and Political Economy, Sanskrit, and other oriental languages
176
and other departments of knowledge Some years ago Mr. Dadabhai Naorojee, and
latterly Mr. Kero Lakshman Chhatre filled the mathematical chair in the Elphin-
store College and Deccan College with ability and credit, and Mr. Mahadev Gov-
ind Ranade was acting Professor of History and Moral Philosophy in the former
college.
Ques. 66.—Are European professors employed or likely to be employed in col-
leges under Native management?
Ans. 66.—There have been instances of European professors having been
employed in a large educational establishment under Native management in
Bombay.
ince (i e, the Muhammadans) such as to require exceptional treatment in the mat-
ter of English education? To what are these circumstances due, and how far have
they been provided for?
Ans. 67.—The circumstances of a particular class of the population in
this Presidency (e.g, the Muhammadans) are such as to require exceptional
treatment in the matter of education These circumstances are due to apathy
and religious prejudices. In Bombay the Anjuman-i-Islam, which has been
recently established, has adopted measures to provide for the education of
Muhammadans.
Ques. 68.—How far would Government be justified in withdrawing from
any existing school or college, in places where any class of the population
objects to attend the only alternative institution on the ground of its religions
teaching?
Ans. 68.—Government would not be justified in withdrawing from any existing
school or college, in places where any class of the population objects to attend
the only alternative institution on the ground of its primary object being religions
instruction or proselytism.
Ques. 69.—Can schools and colleges under native management compete suc-
Ans. 69.—Schools and colleges under Native management, if properly con-
ducted, can compete successfully with corresponding institutions under European
management.
Ques. 70.—Are the conditions on which grants-in-aid are given in your prov-
ince more onerous and complicated than necessary?
Ans. 70.—I have shown in my answer to question 19 that the conditions on
which grants-in-aid are given in this Presidency as revised in 1876–77 are more
onerous than necessary, and that they should be recast on a liberal scale.
Supplementary Question.
Ques. 71.—As you contend that the amount now spent by the State is
inadequate to the educational requirements of the people, and as you advo-
cate a large increase of expenditure on education, from what source do you
177
propose that Government should provide the necessary funds? Do you pro-
pose any retrenchments or the levy of a larger cess than the existing tax for
education?
Ans. 71.—I do not propose that the funds required for education in the
Presidency should be provided by increase of taxation. The head of the Gov-
ernment publicly declared a few years ago that the load of taxation presses on
the poorer classes of the people with “crushing severity.” The recent reduc-
tion of the salt tax does not affect the inhabitants of this Presidency. The
removal of import duties has not given any appreciable relief to the needy
classes. By making judicious retrenchments in the present heavy expenditure
of several public departments, Government will be able to save large sums
which might be appropriated, not only to the extension of education, but also
to the relief of taxation. Public expenditure, which has of late been largely
increased from time to tune, admits of considerable retrenchment in the dif-
ferent departments.
1. The Ecclesiastical Establishment is kept up by the State on too large a scale
not only for the spiritual wants of the British Army, but also of the well-to-do
Christian civil population. In this Presidency Government not only maintains a
Bishop on Ɍ25,600 per annum and more than two dozen Chaplains on salaries
ranging from Ɍ6,000 to Ɍ9,600 each, but gives allowances to Missionaries, Cler-
gymen, and Priests, and defrays all the expenses attendant on divine worship in
St. Thomas’s Cathedral—a proceeding which militates against the principle of
religious neutrality.
The President of this Commission, in his address recently delivered at a large
meeting of the Anjuman-i-Punjab at Lahore, is reported to have made the follow-
ing declaration—
“The State cannot teach the Muhammadan religion at the cost of the Hindu tax-payers,
any more than it can teach the Christian religion at the cost of the Muhammadan tax-
payers.”
I submit that the time has arrived for the disestablishment of the State Church
in India.
2. The cost of direction and inspection in the Educational Department, amount-
ing annually to about 2¼ lakhs, is high, because it absorbs more than one-third of
the amount spent on all Government and aided institutions exclusive of the Uni-
versity and general and professional colleges not inspected by the Department.
The cost of several colleges is also high and admits of reduction. Recently large
contributions have been made towards the construction of ornamental buildings
for schools in Bombay, although such expenditure has been prohibited by superior
authority.
3. I would also suggest retrenchment, in other departments, civil and mil-
itary, of the administration. For details I refer the Commission to the evi-
dence which I gave in 1873 before the Parliamentary Committee on East India
Finance.
178
Memorial of the Sástris of Ahmedabad.

May the blessings of the Pandits of the City of Ahmedabad attend His Excel-
lency Lord Ripon, who has acquired a name for statesmanship in the land of
England, and who, as Governor General, like the sun that imparts bloom to the
lotus, confers happiness on us, the people of India!
May our best wishes attend Dr. Hunter, the President, and the members of the
Education Commission, who are verved in courtesy and doing good to others!
This is the prayer of the Sástris and Pandits residing in the City of Ahmedabad.
That the Mogul Emperors, Peshvas, and the Gaekvads, who successively reigned
over this land, gave encouragement to Sanskrit literature. By the patronage of those
rulers, teachers in Sanskrit, secure in their means of comfortable livelihood, left
aside all other occupation and imparted education, day and night, to their pupils.
Thus, the knowledge of the Sástras had, at that time, attained full development.
Such is not the case at present. It is true that the knowledge of Sanskrit, as a lan-
guage, has come to be diffused among all classes of people. Yet the study of logic,
Mimansa, and other systems of philosophy, has almost disappeared. The object of
modern students of Sanskrit is to acquire a familiarity with the Sanskrit tongue, and
not with the various sciences expounded in that language. It cannot be argued that
a mere knowledge of the language would enable those desirous of mastering the
sciences to attain their object, because oral interpretation traditionally conveyed
from teacher to pupil is necessary to a proper understanding of the real meaning of
the various sciences, and because Western scholars are not expected to be familiar
with the traditional interpretation of them. For this very reason German profes-
sors have secured the services of some old pandits for the benefit of themselves
and of their pupils. But, by reason of the smallness of the number of pandits thus
employed, and because of the growing rarity of pandits on account of the closing
of the schools for them, Hindu sciences and philosophy stand a chance of rapid
disappearance. The only means calculated, in our opinion, to put a stop to such a
contingency happening is to establish Sanskrit colleges, and to employ a greater
number of the old race of pandits in the existing colleges and schools.
We therefore fervently pray that your Honourable Commission will recom-
mend steps like these to be taken by those responsible for the government of the
country, in order to bring about a revival of Sanskrit learning in India.
AHMEDABAD,
The 6th November 1882.
To—The HONOURABLE W. W. HUNTER, C.I.E., L.L.D., PRESIDENT, and the MEMBERS

of the EDUCATION COMMISSION
The Memorial of the Anjman-i-Islam of Bombay
RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH IS FOLLOWS.—Your Memorialists beg, in the first place,

to put on record the lively satisfaction they feel at the arrival of the President
179
and Members of the Education Commission to the capital of Western India, and
to express a conviction that while the labours of the Commission cannot fail to
do an immense amount of good to the cause of general education in India, it is
the Muhammadan community, and the interests of Muhammadan education in
particular, that must be more largely benefited than any other community in con-
sequence of the peculiar circumstances by which they are surrounded.
2. That education has made rapid progress in India during the last twenty years,
that its benefits have been more or less shared by all communities with one single
notable exception, are facts which must be patent to all, and to none more so than
to the members of the Education Commission. Whether we look to the schools,
the colleges, the liberal professions, or the Government services, the same fact
stares us in the face, and we find that while the Hindus, Parsis, Christians, and all
other communities have participated in the general intellectual, moral, and mate-
rial progress of the country, that community which only a short time ago was rul-
ing India from one end to the other, has not only not progressed, but has actually
been thrown back, and has now reached a depth of ignorance, poverty, distress,
and degradation which, unless speedily remedied, cannot fail to be a source of
danger to the State.
3. To show the present deplorable state of the Muhammadan community of
this Presidency in regard to high education, your Memorialists beg to invite your
attention to the following startling statistics taken from the Report of the Director
of Public Instruction for 1880–81:—
The Deccan College has 175 students, but not a single Muhammadan.
The Elphinstone College has 175 students, and only 5 Muhammadans.
The Ahmedabad College has 24 students, but not a single Muhammadan.
The St Xavier’s College has 71 students, and only 1 Muhammadan.
The General Assembly’s Institution has 85 students, and no Muhammadan.
4. The following figures show that the same painful state of things exists in
regard to special or scientific education amongst Muhammadans:—
The Government Law School has 152 scholars, and only 3 Muhammadans.
The Grant Medical College has 282 pupils, only 3 of whom are Muhammadans.
The Poona Engineering College has 159 students, only 5 of whom are
Muhammadans.
5. The figures given below show that Muhammadans, as a rule, have not
received any benefit from the High Schools of this Presidency:—
The Poona High School has 574 students, out of whom only 12 are
Muhammadans.
The Sholapur High School Has 110 students, out of whom only 2 are
Muhammadans.
The Rutnageri High School has 176 students, out of whom only 10 are
Muhammadans.
180
The Elphinstone High School has 795 students, out of whom only 17 are
Muhammadans.
The St. Xavier’s High School has 675 students, out of whom only 19 are
Muhammadans.
The records of the University show that while no less than 15,247 students
belonging to other communities have passed the Matriculation Examina-
tion during the last twenty-three years (1859 to 1881), only 48 Muham-
madans youths have passed that examination, during the same period!
6. The figures given below show the same painful state of things in regard to
secondary education,—
There are 6,735 pupils learning English in the city of Bombay, out of whom
only 220 are Muhammadans.
There are 9,586 in Central Division, out of whom only 307 are Muhammadans.
There are 977 in North-East Division, out of whom only 39 are Muhammadans
There are 4,459 in Northern Division, out of whom only 182 are Mahummadans.
There are 2,801 in Southern Division, out of whom only 62 are Muhammadans.
There are 19,965 in Sindh, out of whom only 795 are Muhammadans.
7. In regard to primary education the Muhammadans have not fared much bet-
ter, inasmuch as out of a total of 275,000 pupils in the vernacular schools of
the Presidency we find that only 33,568 are Muhammadans, while no less than
238,077 are Hindus.
8. Your Memorialists submit that it is unnecessary to cite any further figures
or statistics to establish the painful fact that from a combination of causes and
circumstances, for some of which at least the educational authorities are distinctly
responsible, the Mussulman population of this Presidency has been sinking deeper
and deeper into ignorance, poverty, and distress. Neither does it appear to be nec-
essary to argue at length the incontrovertible proposition that this state of things
ought not to be allowed to exist one day longer than possible.
9. As to the causes which have brought about the present unsatisfactory state of
the Muhammadan society in India, your Memorialists beg to invite your attention
to the views expressed by the Honourable B. Tyabjee in his evidence before the
Commission. Those causes may shortly be recapitulated as follows:—
1. A feeling of pride for the glories of their past empire, and the consequent
inability to reconcile themselves to the circumstances of the present.
2. Love and pride for the literature of India, Persia, and Arabia, to which they
have been so long attached, and the consequent inability to appreciate the
modern arts, sciences, and literature of Europe.
3. A vague feeling that European education is antagonistic to the traditions of
Islam and leads to infidelity or atheism.
4. Failure or neglect on the part of the educational authorities to provide suit-
able schools for Muhammadan youths.
181
5. Poverty, which prevents them from availing themselves of even the exist-
ing schools.
6. A feeling that the Government of the country takes no notice of their
reduced position and does nothing to extricate them from it.
7. A feeling that English education in Government schools is of little practi-
cal value and is useless for the ordinary purposes of life.
10. It is obvious that some at least of the above specified causes are capable
of being speedily removed by the Government, and your Memorialists, while
endorsing generally the views expressed by the Honourable B. Tyabjee in his
evidence, would invite your earnest attention to the remedial measures proposed
by bun and which may be summarised as follows—
1. The establishment of primary, secondary, and even high schools for Mus-
sulman boys in all the principal centres of Muhammadan population
throughout the Presidency.
2. The adoption of the Hindustani language as the medium of instruction in
all Muhammadans schools.
3. That instruction in Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic should be combined
with instruction in the other branches of knowledge.
4. That Mussulman teachers and supervisors should, as far as possible, be
employed to conduct and superintend the management of such schools.
5. That, whenever possible, a Committee of educated and independent
Muhammadan gentlemen should be invited to inspect and to advise upon
the constitution and management of Mussulman schools.
6. That the ideas, feelings, and sentiments, and even the prejudices, of Mus-
sulmans must be carefully taken into account in the foundation and man-
agement of schools intended for Mussulman boys.
7. That a series of text-books—Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic—should be
published and adopted in Mussulman schools, and that the attention of
Oriental scholars should be especially invited to this important subject by
the oiler of suitable rewards.
8. That in consideration of the extreme poverty of the community, poor Mus-
sulman boys should be admitted entirely free.
11. The observations which your Memorialists have hitherto made apply exclu-
sively to Muhammadan education, but they feel that they ought not to lose this
opportunity of expressing their views in regard to the general educational system
to be established in India, and which must influence the prosperity or otherwise of
the Mussulman community no less than that of the other subjects of Her Majesty
in India.
12. In the first place, your Memorialists beg to deprecate in the strongest manner
possible any idea or suggestion that the present policy of the Government in regard
to high education should in any degree be departed from. Your Memorialists are
182
satisfied that any such departure would be fatal to the cause of education in India,
and they earnestly hope that the present Viceroy, who of all others has the good
of the people at heart, would not seriously entertain a policy which, so far as your
Memorialists can judge, has been universally and unanimously condemned by all
competent and disinterested witnesses, and which, if adopted, would at one blow
cut off all means for the moral, material, and intellectual progress of the people.
13. In the next place, your Memorialists would invite your earnest attention to
the question of establishing schools for agricultural and technical education, where
the masses of the people could be taught scientific methods of agriculture and other
practical arts, sciences, and industries as a means of obtaining their own livelihood,
and at the same time forwarding the material and intellectual prosperity of the coun-
try. Your Memorialists are aware that this is a most difficult and complicated ques-
tion, but at the same time they feel that the time has now come for the Government
to make one supreme effort for the purpose of rescuing the people from the baneful
results of their own apathy and indifference in the matter. The soil of the country is
being gradually impoverished, and those ancient arts and manufactures which had
flourished in India for centuries have now been practically extinguished in conse-
quence of the modern inventions of Europe and America, with the manufacture and
practical working of which the people of this country are totally unacquainted.
14. Under these circumstances your Memorialists submit that the Government
would only be discharging half its duty should it remain content with establishing
high schools and colleges without making any efforts to make the masses of the
people acquainted with those improved methods of agriculture and those practical
arts, sciences, and industries,—and the use, manufacture, and working of those
inventions and mechanics,—which have so completely altered the face of Europe
and America during the present century.
15. Another important subject to which your Memorialists would beg to direct
your attention is the establishment of some schools at least of a more practical
kind, where more of useful and less of ornamental instruction may be given to
those who wish to adopt a mercantile or an agricultural or some other practical
profession, and who do not wish to graduate at the University, or to follow any
of the learned professions. Your Memorialists are of opinion that in a commercial
and practical Presidency like Bombay education would be much more general and
would be much more largely supported by the wealthy and mercantile classes if
suitable schools specially designed for giving a practical education were opened.
As it is, all the commercial classes, whether Hindu—as for instance the Bhattias,
the Lohannaa, and the Banias,—or Mussulman—as the Memons, the Khojas, and
the Borahs,—have steadily kept themselves aloof from all Government schools.
16. For the purpose of attracting these commercial and other practical classes,
your Memorialists would recommend the following modifications in the usual
curriculum, viz.,—
(a) Algebra and Euclid, as well as minute details of general geography, his-
tory, and grammar, should be omitted.
183
(b) Mental and practical arithmetic, native modes of writing fraction?, cast-
ing accounts, letter-writing, book-keeping, Indian weights and measures,
and multiplication tables, should be more systematically taught.
17. While advocating these reforms in the system of national education for
hoys, your Memorialists cannot but press upon the Commission the extreme
importance of extending facilities for the education of girls also. Hitherto the edu-
cational authorities seem to have confined their attention to the education of boys
only, but it is obvious that India can never hope to be a really well-educated and
civilised country so long as one-half of its population remains in a state of abso-
lute ignorance. To attack this evil at the root it is necessary to establish elementary
schools for girls where reading and writing, a little arithmetic, sewing, knitting,
&c., should be taught.
18. Another matter of great general importance to which your Memorial-
ist would draw your attention is the necessity of making some provision for the
physical development of the pupils in the various Government schools. With this
object your Memorialists would recommend the establishment of play-grounds,
gymnasia, &c, and would insist upon a certain portion of the time being devoted
to play and exercise superintended by the teachers themselves.
19. Your Memorialists are, of course, aware that to modify, extend, and devel-
ope the educational system of India in its primary, secondary, and higher phases
in the manner indicated above, and to open new agricultural, technical, and com-
mercial schools, as well as to provide suitable facilities for the education of girls,
would require larger funds than are at present at the disposal of Government.
Considering, however, not only the importance, but the magnitude of the interests
involved in the question—considering that the moral, material, and intellectual
progress of the nation depends very largely on the efficiency of its educational
system—considering that the happiness, prosperity, and even the peace and secu-
rity of Her Majesty’s Indian subjects depend far more upon the development
of the national resources than upon the perfection of the military system, your
Memorialists cannot but earnestly hope that you will recommend and that the
Government of Lord Ripon will adopt some means or other for the accomplish-
ment of these high and noble aims.
20. More specially do your Memorialists entreat the Commission to examine
into the state of Muhammadan education, to consider, and, if possible, to remove
the causes which have hitherto checked all progress—moral, material, and
intellectual—of the Mussulman community, and to recommend and insist upon
the adoption of such remedial measures as may enable that community to make up
for lost time, and to participate in the blessings of enlightenment, and moral and
material prosperity, along with the other communities of India.
21. The expenditure necessary for this purpose may be great, possibly greater
in proportion than the expenditure on the education of the other communities of
India; but your Memorialists do not hesitate to assert that no amount of expendi-
ture can be too great, that no amount of expenditure can be justly grudged by the
184
other communities when the object of the expenditure is to save 40 millions of

Her Majesty’s subjects from sinking lower and lower in the scale of civilisation
and becoming a standing menace to the security of the Empire.
22. Your Memorialists speak from a full knowledge of all the facts and circum-
stances relating to the present distressing state of Muhammadan society all over
India, when they state it to be their firm conviction that it is absolutely necessary,
not merely for the sake of the Mussulmans themselves, but for the peace, security,
and welfare of the whole Indian community, that a strong effort should be made
to rescue the Muhammadana from their present dangerous state of ignorance and
consequent distress.
And your Memorialists, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.
Notes
1. Vide Report of the Director of Public Instruction, Bombay for 1857–58, pp 11, 12.
2. Vide Report of the Director of Public Instruction, Bombay, for the year 1857–58, pp 24,
25, 32 to 36
3. Vide Report of the Director of Public Instruction, Bombay for the year [Illegible Text]
[Illegible Text], p. [Illegible Text]
4. Vide Printed Reports of the Poona Native Institution for 1880 and 1881.
5. Vide Report of the Director of Public Instruction for 1880–81, pp. 135–137.
6. Vide Report of Public Instruction, Bombay, for 1870–71, p 108
7. Vide Report of Public Instruction, Appendix O, pp 54–55.
8. The greater portion of the cost of the primary male and female schools opened in this
city by Government is defrayed out of the Municipal grant and school fees.
185
7
JOTIBA PHULE’S STATEMENT TO
THE EDUCATION COMMISSION,
EDUCATION COMMISSION, VOL. II
GOVERNMENT PRINTING, 1881), 140–145
A Statement for the information of

the Education Commission.
My experience in educational matters is principally confined to Poona and the
surrounding villages. About 25 years ago, the missionaries had established a female
school in Poona, but no indigenous schools for girls existed at the time. I, therefore,
was induced, about the year 1854, to establish such a school, and in which I and my
wife worked together for many years. After some time I placed this school under
the management of a committee of educated natives. Under their auspices two more
schools were opened in different parts of the town. A year after the institution of the
female schools I also established an indigenous mixed school for the lower classes,
especially the Mahars and Mangs. Two more schools for these classes were sub-
sequently added. Sir Erskine Perry, the President of the late Educational Board,
and Mr. Lumsdain, the then Secretary to Government, visited the female schools
and were much pleased with the movement set on foot, and presented me with a
pair of shawls. I continued to work in them for nearly 9 or 10 years, but, owing to
circumstances which it is needless here to detail, I seceded from the work. These
female schools still exist, having been made over by the committee to the Educa-
tional Department; the principal one being the female normal school now under the
management of Mrs. Mitchell. A school for the lower classes, Mahars and Mangs,
also exists at the present day, but not in a satisfactory condition. I have also been a
teacher for some years in a mission female boarding school. My principal experi-
ence was gained in connection with these schools I devoted some attention also to
the primary education available in this Presidency, and have had some opportunities
186
P H U L E , S T AT E M E N T T O E D U C AT I O N C O M M I S S I O N
of forming an opinion as to the system and personnel employed in the lower schools
of the Educational Department. I wrote some years ago a Marathi pamphlet expos-
ing the religious practices of the Brahmins, and, incidentally among other matters,
adverted therein to the present system of education, which, by providing ampler
funds for higher education, tended to educate Brahmins and the higher classes
only, and to leave the masses wallowing in ignorance and poverty. I summarised
the views expressed in the book in an English preface attached thereto, portions of
which I reproduce here so far as they relate to the present enquiry—
“Perhaps a part of the blame in bringing matters to this crisis may be justly laid to the
credit of the Government. Whatever may have been their motives in providing ampler
funds, and greater facilities for higher education and neglecting that of the masses, it will
be acknowledged by all that in justice to the latter this is not as it should be. It is an admit-
ted fact that the greater portion of the revenues of the Indian Empire are derived from the
ryots’ labour—from the sweat of his brow. The higher and richer classes contribute little or
nothing to the State’s exchequer. A well-informed English writer states that our income is
derived, not from surplus profits, but from capital, not from luxuries, but from the poorest
necessaries. It is the product of sin and tears.
“That Government should expend profusely a large portion of revenue thus raised on
the education of the higher classes, for it is these only who take advantage of it, is any-
thing but just or equitable. Their object in patronising this virtual high-class education
appears to be to prepare scholars who, it is thought, would in time vend learning without
money and without price. If we can inspire, say they, the love of knowledge in the minds
of the superior classes, the result will be a higher standard of morals in the cases of the
individuals, a large amount of affection for the British Government, and an unconquer-
able desire to spread among their own countrymen the intellectual blessings which they
have received.
“Regarding these objects of Government the writer above alluded to states that we have
never heard of philosophy more benevolent and more Utopian. It is proposed by men who
witness the wondrous changes brought about in the Western world, purely by the agency of
popular knowledge, to redress the defects of the two hundred millions of India, by giving
superior education to the superior classes and to them only. We ask the friends of Indian
Universities to favour us with a single example of the truth of their theory from the instances
which have already fallen within the scope of their experience. They have educated many
children of wealthy men, and have been the means of advancing very materially the wordly
prospects of some of their pupils, but what contribution have these made to the great work of
regenerating their fellow-men? How have they begun to act upon the masses? Have any of
them formed classes at their own homes, or elsewhere, for the instruction of their less fortu-
nate or less wise countrymen? Or have they kept their knowledge to themselves, as a personal
gift, not to be soiled by contact with the ignorant vulgar? Have they in any way shown them-
selves anxious to advance the general interests and repay philanthropy with patriotism? Upon
what grounds is it asserted that the best way to advance the moral and intellectual welfare of
the people is to raise the standard of instruction among the higher classes? A glorious argu-
ment this for aristocracy, were it only tenable. To show the growth of the national happiness,
it would only be necessary to refer to the number of pupils at the colleges and the lists of aca-
demic degrees. Each wrangler would be accounted a national benefactor; and the existence
187
of deans and proctors would be associated, like the game-laws and the ten-pound franchise,
with the best interests of the Constitution.
“One of the most glaring tendencies of the Government system of high-class education has
been the virtual monopoly of all the higher offices under them by Brahmins. If the welfare
of the ryot is at heart, if it is the duty of Government to check a host of abuses, it behoves
them to narrow this monopoly day by day so as to allow a sprinkling of the other castes to
get into the public service. Perhaps some might be inclined to say that it is not feasible in
the present state of education. Our only reply is that if Government look a little less after
higher education and more towards the education of the masses, the former being able to
take care of itself, there would be no difficulty in training up a body of men every way
qualified, and perhaps far better in morals and manners.
“My object in writing the present volume is not only to tell my Sudra brethren how
they have been duped by the Brahmins, but also to open the eyes of Government to
that pernicious system of high-class education which has hitherto been so persistently
followed, and which statesmen like Sir George Campbell, the present Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor of Bengal, with broad and universal sympathies, are finding to be highly mischie-
vous and pernicious to the interests of Government. I sincerely hope that Government
will ere long see the error of their ways, trust less to writers or men who look through
high-class spectacles, and take the glory into their own hands of emancipating my Sudra
brethren from the trammels of bondage which the Brahmins have woven round them
like the coils of a serpent. It is no less the duty of such of my Sudra brethren as have
received any education, to place before Government the true state of their fellow-men
and endeavour to the best of their power to emancipate themselves from Brahmin thral-
dom. Let there be schools for the Sudras in every village; but away with all Brahmin
schoolmasters? The Sudras are the life and sinews of the country, and it is to them
alone, and not to the Brahmins, that the Government must ever look to tide them over
their difficulties, financial as well as political. If the hearts and minds of the Sudras are
made happy and contented, the British Government need have no fear for their loyalty
in the future.
“JOTEERAO PHOOLEY.”
PRIMARY EDUCATION.
There is little doubt that primary education among the masses in this Presi-
dency has been very much neglected. Although the number of primary schools
now in existence is greater than those existing a few years ago, yet they are
not commensurate to the requirements of the community. Government collect
a special cess for educational purposes, and it is to be regretted that this fund
is not spent for the purposes for which it is collected. Nearly nine-tenths of the
villages in this Presidency, or nearly 10 lakhs of children, it is said, are without
any provision whatever for primary instruction. A good deal of their poverty,
their want of self-reliance, their entire dependence upon the learned and intel-
ligent classes, is attributable to this deplorable state of education among the
peasantry.
188
Even in towns the Brahmins, the Purbhoos, the hereditary classes, who gener-
ally live by the occupation of pen, and the trading classes seek primary instruction.
The cultivating and the other classes, as a rule, do not generally avail themselves
of the same. A few of the latter class are found in primary and secondary schools,
but owing to their poverty and other causes they do not continue long at school.
As there are no special inducements for these to continue at school, they naturally
leave off as soon as they find any menial or other occupation. In villages also most
of the cultivating classes hold aloof, owing to extreme poverty, and also because
they require their children to tend cattle and look after their fields. Besides an
increase in the number of schools, special inducements in the shape of scholar-
ships and half-yearly or annual prizes, to encourage them to send their children
to school and thus create in them a taste for learning, is most essential. I think
primary education of the masses should be made compulsory up to a certain age,
say at least 12 years. Muhammadans also hold aloof from these schools, as they
somehow evince no liking for Marathi or English. There are a few Muhammadan
primary schools where their own language is taught. The Mahars, Mangs, and
other lower classes are practically excluded from all schools owing to caste preju-
dices, as they are not allowed to sit by the children of higher castes. Consequently
special schools for these have been opened by Government. But these exist only
in large towns. In the whole of Poona and for a population exceeding over 5,000
people there is only one school, and in which the attendance is under 30 boys.
This state of matters is not at all creditable to the educational authorities. Under
the promise of the Queen’s Proclamation I beg to urge that Mahars, Mangs, and
other lower classes, where their number is large enough, should have separate
schools for them, as they are not allowed to attend the other schools owing to
caste prejudices.
In the present state of education, payment by results is not at all suitable for the
promotion of education amongst a poor and ignorant people, as no taste has yet
been created among them for education. I do not think any teacher would under-
take to open schools on his own account among these people, as he would not be
able to make a living by it. Government schools and special inducements as noted
above are essential until such a taste is created among them.
With regard to the few Government primary schools that exist in the Presi-
dency, I beg to observe that the primary education imparted in them is not at all
placed on a satisfactory or sound basis. The system is imperfect in so far as it does
not prove practical and useful in the future career of the pupils. The system is
capable of being developed up to the requirement of the community, if improve-
ments that will result in its future usefulness be effected in it. Both the teaching
machinery employed and the course of instruction now followed require a thor-
ough remodelling
(a) The teachers now employed in the primary schools are almost all Brah-
mins; a few of them are from the normal training college, the rest being
all untrained men. Their salaries are very low, seldom exceeding Rs. 10,
189
and their attainments also very meagre. But as a rule they are all unprac-
tical men, and the boys who learn under them generally imbibe inac-
tive habits and try to obtain service, to the avoidance of their hereditary
or other hardy or independent professions. I think teachers for primary
schools should be trained, as far as possible, out of the cultivating classes,
who will be able to mix freely with them and understand their wants and
wishes much better than a Brahmin teacher, who generally holds himself
aloof under religious prejudices. These would, moreover, exercise a more
beneficial influence over the masses than teachers of other classes, and
who will not feel ashamed to hold the handle of a plough or the carpen-
ter’s adze when required, and who will be able to mix themselves readily
with the lower orders of society. The course of training for them ought
to include, besides the ordinary subjects, an elementary knowledge of
agriculture and sanitation. The untrained teachers should, except when
thoroughly efficient, be replaced by efficient trained teachers. To secure
a better class of teachers and to improve their position, better salaries
should be given. Their salaries should not be less than Rs. 12 and in
larger villages should be at least Rs. 15 or 20. Associating them in the
village polity as auditors of village accounts or registrars of deeds, or vil-
lage postmasters or stamp vendors, would improve their status, and thus
exert a beneficial influence over the people among whom they live. The
schoolmasters of village schools who pass a large number of boys should
also get some special allowance other than their pay, as an encourage-
ment to them.
(b) The course of instruction should consist of reading, writing Modi and
Balbodh and accounts, and a rudimentary knowledge of general his-
tory, general geography, and grammar, also an elementary knowledge
of agriculture and a few simple lessons on moral duties and sanitation.
The studies in the village schools might be fewer than those in larger
villages and towns, but not the less practical. In connection with les-
sons in agriculture, a small model farm, where practical instruction to
the pupils can be given, would be a decided advantage, and, if really
efficiently managed, would be productive of the greatest good to the
country. The text-books in use both in the primary and Anglo-vernac-
ular schools require revision and recasting, inasmuch as they are not
practical or progressive in their scope. Lessons on technical education
and morality, sanitation and agriculture, and some useful arts, should
be interspersed among them in progressive series. The fees in the pri-
mary schools should be as 1 to 2 from the children of cess-payers and
non-cess-payers.
(c) The supervising agency over these primary schools is also very
defective and insufficient. The Deputy Inspector’s visit once a year
can hardly be of any appreciable benefit. All these schools ought at
least to be inspected quarterly if not oftener. I would also suggest the
190
advisability of visiting these schools at other times and without any

intimation being given. No reliance can be placed on the district or
village officers, owing to the multifarious duties devolving on them,
as they seldom find time to visit them, and when they do, their exami-
nation is necessarily very superficial and imperfect. European Inspec-
tors’ supervision is also occasionally very desirable, as it will tend to
exercise a very efficient control over the teachers generally.
(d ) The number of primary schools should be increased—
(1) By utilising such of the indigenous schools as shall be or are con-

ducted by trained and certificated teachers, by giving them liberal
grants-in-aid.
(2) By making over one half of the local cess fund for primary education
alone.
(3) By compelling, under a statutory enactment, municipalities to main-
tain all the primary schools within their respective limits.
(4) By an adequate grant from the provincial or imperial funds.
Prizes and scholarships to pupils, and capitation or other allowance to the

teachers, as an encouragement, will tend to render these schools more efficient.
The municipalities in large towns should be asked to contribute whole share of
the expenses incurred on primary schools within the municipal areas. But in no
case ought the management of the same to be entirely made over to them. They
should be under the supervision of the Educational Department.
The municipalities should also give grants-in-aid to such secondary and private
English schools as shall be conducted according to the rules of the Educational
Department, where their funds permit,—such grants-in-aid being regulated by the
number of boys passed every year These contributions from municipal funds may
be made compulsory by statutory enactment.
The administration of the funds for primary education should ordinarily be in
the hands of the Director of Public Instruction.
But if educated and intelligent men are appointed on the local or district com-
mittees, these funds may be safely entrusted to them, under the guidance of the
Collector, or the Director of Public Instruction. At present the local boards consist
of ignorant and uneducated men, such as patels, enamdars, surdars, &c., who
would not be capable of exercising any intelligent control over the funds.
INDIGENOUS SCHOOLS.
Indigenous schools exist a good deal in cities, towns, and some large villages,
especially where there is a Brahmin population. From the latest reports of Public
Instruction in this Presidency, it is found that there are 1,049 indigenous schools
with about 27,694 pupils in them. They are conducted on the old village sys-
tem. The boys are generally taught the multiplication table by heart, a little Modi
191
writing and reading, and to recite a few religious pieces. The teachers as a rule are
not capable of effecting any improvements, as they are not initiated in the art of
teaching. The fees charged in these schools range from 2 to 8 annas. The teachers
generally come from the dregs of Brahminical society. Their qualifications hardly
go beyond reading and writing Marathi very indifferently, and casting accounts up
to the rule of three or so. They set up as teachers as the last resource of getting a
livelihood. Their failure or unfitness in other callings of life obliges them to open
schools. No arrangements exist in the country to train up teachers for indigenous
schools. The indigenous schools could not be turned to any good account, unless
the present teachers are replaced by men from the training colleges and by those
who pass the 6th standard in the vernaculars. The present teachers will willingly
accept State aid, but money thus spent will be thrown away. I do not know any
instance in which a grant-in-aid is paid to such a school. If it is being paid any-
where, it must be in very rare cases. In my opinion no grants-in-aid should be
paid to such schools unless the master is a certificated one. But if certificated or
competent teachers be found, grants-in-aid should be given and will be productive
of great good.
HIGHER EDUCATION.
The cry over the whole country has been for some time past that Government
have amply provided for higher education, whereas that of the masses has been
neglected. To some extent this cry is justified, although the classes directly ben-
efited by the higher education may not readily admit it. But for all this no well-
wisher of his country would desire that Government should at the present time
withdraw its aid from higher education. All that they would wish is, that as one
class of the body politic has been neglected, its advancement should form as
anxious a concern as that of the other. Education in India is still in its infancy.
Any withdrawal of State aid from higher education cannot but be injurious to the
spread of education generally.
A taste for education among the higher and wealthy classes, such as the Brah-
mins and Purbhoos, especially those classes who live by the pen, has been created,
and a gradual withdrawal of State aid may be possible so far as these classes are
concerned; but in the middle and lower classes, among whom higher education has
made no perceptible progress, such a withdrawal would be a great hardship. In the
event of such withdrawal, boys will be obliged to have recourse to inefficient and
sectarian schools, much against their wish, and the cause of education cannot but
suffer. Nor could any part of such education be entrusted to private agency. For a
long time to come the entire educational machinery, both ministerial and execu-
tive, must be in the hands of Government. Both the higher and primary education
require all the fostering care and attention which Government can bestow on it.
The withdrawal of Government from schools or colleges would not only tend
to check the spread of education, but would seriously endanger that spirit of neu-
trality which has all along been the aim of Government to foster, owing to the
192
different nationalities and religious creeds prevalent in India. This withdrawal

may, to a certain extent, create a spirit of self-reliance for local purposes in the
higher and wealthy classes, but the cause of education would be so far injured that
the spirit of self-reliance would take years to remedy that evil. Educated men of
ability, who do not succeed in getting into public service, may be induced to open
schools for higher education on being assured of liberal grants-in-aid. But no one
would be ready to do so on his own account as a means of gaining a livelihood,
and it is doubtful whether such private efforts could be permanent or stable, nor
would they succeed half so well in their results. Private schools, such as those of
Mr. Vishnu Shastree Chiploonker and Mr. Bhavey, exist in Poona, and with ade-
quate grants-in-aid may be rendered very efficient, but they can never supersede
the necessity of the high school.
The missionary schools, although some of them are very efficiently conducted,
do not succeed half so well in their results, nor do they attract half the number of
students which the high schools attract. The superiority of Government schools
is mainly owing to the richly paid staff of teachers and professors which it is not
possible for a private school to maintain.
The character of instructions given in the Government higher schools is not at
all practical, or such as is required for the necessities of ordinary life. It is only
good to turn out so many clerks and schoolmasters. The Matriculation examina-
tion unduly engrosses the attention of the teachers and pupils, and the course
of studies prescribed has no practical element in it, so as to fit the pupil for his
future career in independent life. Although the number of students presenting for
the Entrance examination is not at all large when the diffusion of knowledge in
the country is taken into consideration, it looks large when the requirements of
Government service are concerned. Were the education universal and within easy
reach of all, the number would have been larger still, and it should be so, and
I hope it will be so hereafter. The higher education should be soarranged as to
be within easy reach of all, and the books on the subjects for the Matriculation
examination should be published in the Government Gazette, as is done in Madras
and Bengal. Such a course will encourage private studies and secure larger diffu-
sion of knowledge in the country. It is a boon to the people that the Bombay Uni-
versity recognises private studies in the case of those presenting for the entrance
examination. I hope the University authorities will be pleased to extend the same
boon to higher examinations. If private studies were recognised by the University
in granting the degrees of B.A., M.A., &c., many young men will devote their
time to private studies. Their doing so will still further tend to the diffusion of
knowledge. It is found in many instances quite impossible to prosecute studies at
the colleges for various reasons. If private studies be recognised by the University,
much good will be effected to the country at large, and a good deal of the drain on
the public purse on account of higher education will be lessened.
The system of Government scholarships at present followed in Government
schools is also defective, inasmuch as it gives undue encouragement to those
classes only who have already acquired a taste for education to the detriment of
193
the other classes. The system might be so arranged that some of these scholar-
ships should be awarded to such classes amongst whom education has made no
progress.
The system of awarding them by competition, although abstractedly equitable,
does not tend to the spread of education among the other classes.
With regard to the question as to educated natives finding remunerative employ-
ments, it will be remembered that the educated natives who mostly belong to the
Brahmincal and other higher classes are mostly fond of service. But as the public
service can afford no field for all the educated natives who come out from schools
and colleges, and moreover the course of training they receive being not of a tech-
nical or practical nature, they find great difficulty in betaking themselves to other
manual or remunerative employments. Hence the cry that the market is over-
stocked with educated natives who do not find any remunerative employment.
It may, to a certain extent, be true that some of the professions are overstocked,
but this does not show that there is no other remunerative employment to which
they can betake themselves. The present number of educated men is very small
in relation to the country at large, and we trust that the day may not be far distant
when we shall have the present number multiplied a hundred-fold, and all be tak-
ing themselves to useful and remunerative occupations and not be looking after
service.
In conclusion, I beg to request the Education Commission to be kind enough to
sanction measures for the spread of female primary education on a more liberal
scale.
POONA; JOTEERAO GOVINDRAO PHOOLEY,

19th October 1882 Merchant and Cultivator, and Municipal Commissioner,
Peth Joona Gunja.
Poona.
194
8
REPORT BY THE NORTH-WESTERN
PROVINCES AND OUDH PROVINCIAL
COMMITTEE WITH EVIDENCE TAKEN
BEFORE THE BOMBAY PROVINCIAL
COMMITTEE AND MEMORIALS
ADDRESSED TO THE EDUCATION
COMMISSION (CALCUTTA:
PRINTING, 1884), 282–302, 351–353,
373–376, 397–411, 412–418, 433–434,
442–443, 452–453, 462–470, 471–474,
478–479
Evidence of THE HON. SYED AHMED KHAN, BAHADUR, C.S.I.

[The following questions are special and not contained in the
Standard List]
Ques. 1.—Are you acquainted with the state of private and public instruction
in Upper India and more especially in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh?
Ans. 1.—Yes, I have such an acquaintance. But I am better acquainted with the state
of education in the North Western Provinces than with that in Oudh or the Panjab.
Ques. 2.—Describe the means by which you have obtained that acquaintance.
Have you ever had any connection with the Educational Department?
Ans. 2.—I have long taken an interest in the diffusion of education and enlighten-
ment in my country, and have, to the extent of my ability, always invited the attention
of my Hindu and Muhammadan fellow countrymen to that subject. In 1859 I suc-
ceeded in bringing about the establishment of a school for elementary education at
Moradabad by subscriptions collected from the people. It flourished for some time,
and was finally converted into a Tahsili school. In 1863 my endeavours in seeing
195
an English school established in a similar manner at Ghazipur became successful.

This school still exists under the name of Victoria School and has now attained the
status of a high school. In 1864 I took part in the establishment of a scientific soci-
ety, which still exists, and a magnificent building was erected for that purpose at
Aligarh by raising subscriptions from the gentry of the neighbouring districts, the
object of this society being to encourage and publish vernacular translations of works
on European sciences. A bilingual (English-Urdu) paper, known by the name of “The
Aligarh Institute Gazette,” was also started in connection with this society, and is
still in existence. I have, moreover, convened meetings from time to time to review
the Government educational system, and to examine its merits and defects. In 1866
I began a movement for the establishment of Educational committees in each dis-
trict, which was also attended with success. I have myself acted for some years as
a member of the Educational committee at Aligarh, which afforded me an opportu-
nity of acquainting myself with the working of tahsili and halkabandi schools. Early
in 1869 I undertook a journey to Europe primarily with the object of obtaining an
insight into the English system of education. During my stay in England I published
a pamphlet known by the name of “Strictures upon the Present Educational System
in India,” and then, on my return to India in 1871, I formed a distinct “committee for
the better diffusion and advancement of Learning among Muhammadans of India.”
The endeavours of this committee were directed to investigating the means by which
the Muhammadans may be reconciled to the study of Western sciences and arts.
These endeavours resulted in the foundation, in 1875, of the Muhammadan Anglo
Oriental College at Aligarh, which has attained a wonderful progress. The college
has since been affiliated to the Calcutta University up to the B.A. standard, and has
some three hundred students on its rolls. I am an Honorary Secretary to the Standing
Committee, whose business is to further the objects of the college, and to have the
control of its funds. I am also an Honorary Secretary to two other committees of the
same college—the “Managing Committee” and the “Committee of the Directors of
Instruction in the various Languages and Secular Learning.” These are the means by
which I have obtained an acquaintance with educational affairs.
Ques. 3.—With reference to high and primary indigenous schools will you
please describe what kind of schools they are, and how they are established?
Ans. 3.—In the North Western Provinces and Oudh and the Panjab the high
and primary indigenous schools were, and are still, found to be of four classes, as
specified below—
(1) Private Schools.—This class consists of those schools which are kept by
private individuals at their own houses when a person engages a teacher primarily
for the instruction of his own children, and allots a separate place for the purpose.
But it not unfrequently happens that the children of his relatives and of his neigh-
bours are also admitted to it each paying a trifling fee to the teacher, and thus a
small school is established. Such school lasts as long as the teacher, or any suc-
cessor of that teacher, continues in office.
(2) Self supporting schools.—These schools come into existence in the follow-
ing manner.—A teacher of some reputation, and one who enjoys the confidence
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REPORT BY THE NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES
of the people, takes the house in a quarter of a city or town, fixes his residence
there, and opens a school for the tuition of boys. He lives entirely on the fees paid
by the boys, and the school continues as long as the income derived from the fees
suffices for the maintenance of the teacher.
(3) Schools of private individuals, who devote themselves in offering gratuitous
instruction to people simply for public benefit. The widespread fame of such per-
sons generally attracts a large number of pupils from distant parts of the country,
who fix their residence in the same town or city in which the teacher resides, and
study the various branches of learning. I have myself seen the number of such stu-
dents (whose proficiency may be classed with the standard of our higher college
classes) rising to 30 and even to 40 in some places.
(4) Schools established by private funds or charitable endowments.—In this
class of schools a number of teachers is entertained, and students are not only gra-
tuitously taught, but some provision is occasionally made for their maintenance
also. The Arabic schools which exist in Jaunpur, Deoband, Saharanpur, and in
the grand mosque at Aligarh fall in this category, and, if I remember rightly, the
Maharaja of Cashmere had, a few years ago projected a scheme for the establish-
ment of a similar Sanskrit school at Benares.
Ques. 4.—What do you think to be the probable number of such schools in the
North-Western Provinces?
Ans. 4.—It appears from official papers that the number of indigenous schools in
1870–71 was 4,665, imparting an instruction to 54,575 boys. But I feel persuaded
that this latter number is considerably below the actual number, for I remember
that at the time when enquiries as to the number of indigenous schools and of the
students reading in them were being conducted, a great misconception had arisen
in the minds of the people regarding the object of this proceeding. Some of them
used to detain their children from going to school, while teachers were invariably
in the habit of giving less numbers than what they actually were. The number of
the schools, too, was not correctly ascertained, and I have no doubt but that a large
number of the schools of Class (I) had not come within the enquiries.
It has been enjoined in the rules for the preparation of the annual statistical
returns promulgated in 1879 that “no account should be taken in statistical returns
of schools not under regular inspection.” As the indigenous schools have all been
of this class, they have been entirely excluded from the enquiries of the Educa-
tional Department. Consequently we have no means by which the existing num-
ber of these schools and of the students reading in them may be known. But as
Native of the country, I have reasons to believe that the number of these schools
has now considerably decreased, which is indeed much to be regretted.
Ques. 5.—What languages and what subjects are taught in them?
Ans. 5.—The schools comprised in classes (I) and (II) afforded instruction in
Persian literature to almost all the Muhammadans and Hindus of respectable posi-
tion. The schools kept by Hindus did not differ from the Muhammadan ones in
point of subject or instruction. Persian was, and is, still taught in them. Hindi
was read only by those classes of people who held a lower rank in society, and
197
who were engaged in some petty trade, as is still the case in the North-Western
Provinces.
In Persian schools much attention was paid to Persian literature and an educa-
tion which, in my opinion, was much more efficient and advanced than the pres-
ent standard of vernacular middle class, was imparted, and as the subjects were
explained and discussed in Urdu, which is the vernacular of those provinces, and
the translation of Persian texts was also made into that language, these schools
were indirectly a means of improving the students’ proficiency in the Urdu lan-
guage side by side with the Persian. Methods of composition and style were
also taught to the students by giving them subjects to write upon, by which their
acquirements were made substantially and practically useful to them. Elementary
books, containing moral lessons in prose and poetry and written by authors of
established reputation, were taught to beginners. A few rules of arithmetic, which
are of essential importance to men in their daily life were sometimes included in
the study.
In Hindi schools no great attention was paid to Hindi literature. Their endeav-
our was confined to the acquisition of the degree of proficiency which might
enable the students to put in writing, in Nagri character, the words just as they fall
from the mouth. The mode of writing letters, &c., was also taught in them. These
schools paid a far greater amount of care to the tuition of arithmetic than the Per-
sian ones. This, however, was not done in a regular way by setting fixed lessons
from a book, but by means of certain arithmetical tables and various practical
rules and formulæ known by the name of “Gur,” which were all learnt by heart by
the students, with the object of enabling themselves to settle mercantile and other
daily-life accounts verbally, and without the help of pen and paper.
European critics have viewed this mode of teaching with absolute contempt.
No doubt, if this mode of teaching was intended to make the learner an adept in
higher portions of arithmetic, their structures were just and right. But, considering
that it only meant to qualify persons for petty commercial dealings, I do not think
any other mode of instruction would better serve that purpose. We cannot but
admit that the son of a petty shop keeper will tell the amount of interest due for a
certain period on a certain sum of money, and the price at various rates of various
quantities of the articles he buys or sells,—which to a student of a Government
school who has received a regular instruction would take some time to work out
his slate and pencil,—with wonderful quickness and without the slightest error. In
this matter I fully concur in the remarks made by the Government of India in the
14th paragraph of the Resolution.
The institutions that fall under classes (III) and (IV) impart instruction in Ara-
bic and Sanskrit to a most advanced standard, and teach the highest branches of
literature and philosophy, a detailed account of which does not appear necessary
here.
Ques. 6.—What are the races and social condition of the pupils who receive
instruction in those schools, and what benefit do those schools, in your opinion,
confer upon the country?
198
Ans. 6.—The first two classes of the schools have pre-eminently afforded great
benefit to high and middle classes of the people, as well as to the trading classes.
The country, too, owes a great deal to these schools. Almost the whole number of
those men who can lay a claim to learning in the North-Western Provinces, the
Panjáb, and Behár, which, however, has a greater identity with the North-Western
Provinces than with any other province, owes its education to these very schools,
and I have no hesitation in saying that most of those men of approved abilities,
both Hindu and Muhammadan, who form the amlas of judicial courts in those
provinces, have been the offsprings of these alma maters.
The third and fourth classes of the institutions have mainly contributed to the
preservation and maintenance of oriental literature and science in this country. It
is these institutions which have given birth to men so illustrious in oriental learn-
ing. Even at the present time those who have acquired any degree of fame for
proficiency in oriental science or literature will be found to owe their celebrity to
these very schools. As far as my own attainments extend, although they are very
limited and quite insignificant in comparison with those of most others, I confess
I have received no other sort of education than that imparted by the first and third
classes of these institutions.
Qeus. 7.—To what extent have they been utilised as a part of the educational
system, and in what manner can others be similarly utilised, by means of regular
monthly grants, or by the system of payment by results, or in any other way?
Ans. 7.—As far as I can judge, I think the first two classes of the schools in
the North Western Provinces which could most appropriately be utilised as a part
of the educational system have not received a due consideration. I would even
go to the length of thinking that the educational officers of those provinces have
viewed these schools with jealousy. Officers connected with primary education
considered it a great achievement to establish a new Government school, with a
suitable number of boys, while the cessation of an indigenous school, which ought
to be a matter of regret to them, was invariably regarded as a triumph. If I remem-
ber rightly, an educational officer had, in one of his annual reports, exultingly
declared, in connection with the progress of the Government primary school sys-
tem, that so many indigenous schools1 had ceased to exist that year. Such unfortu-
nate circumstances have been the main cause of the decline of indigenous schools
in the North-Western Provinces, and I know no school of the first or second class
which may have been made a part of the Government educational system in those
provinces. In some districts, however, teachers of the indigenous schools were
transferred to the newly established Government schools, which only resulted in
the ruin of the former. The number of unaided elementary schools in the North-
Western Provinces is found to be 212. But they are not of the ancient indigenous
type, but have been founded on the Government primary school system, and a
certain amount of grant is allowed by Government in aid of them. To encourage
indigenous system of schools and to improve the existing schools by making them
a part of the educational system is undoubtedly calculated to benefit the country,
and to further the objects of primary and vernacular middle education. I have no
199
doubt that the indigenous schools of classes I and II can easily be utilised as a part
of the educational system in the following manner, whether by means of grant in
aid or of payment-by-results:—
1st.—The schools may be allowed the freedom of retaining their own lan-
guages, subjects, and text-books.
2ndly.—They may be requested to add a little of arithmetic, mensuration,
history, and geography to their existing subjects of study, and to adopt, as
text-books for these additional subjects, any books they choose out of the
numerous works now procurable.
3rdly.—they may be induced to submit to their inspection by Deputy Inspec-
tors of the Educational Department, and to the examination of students in
these additional subjects, from time to time.
4thly.—The teachers may be required to submit short monthly returns show-
ing the number of students and other necessary particulars.
In this way the schools of classes I and II may easily be assimilated with the
Government educational system. It may, at first sight, appear a gratuitous assump-
tion to suppose that the teachers of such schools will have no difficulty in teach-
ing these additional subjects. But, in my opinion, the subjects recommended are
not so advanced as to be inaccessible to men of that standard of ability which the
teachers of indigenous schools generally possess. No attempt should be made to
displace any of these teachers, as the existence and prosperity of these schools
entirely depend upon their personal influence and character.
The schools of classes III and IV can by no means be so utilised, nor is there
any necessity for that inasmuch as they impart education to the highest standard.
The Deputy Inspectors should, however, enquire of their own accord into their
state as much as they can, and then it will be advisable to enter the information
thus gathered into the annual reports, for these institutions are the means of dif-
fusing high oriental education in this country.
Ques. 8.—With reference to vernacular schools for primary education recog-
nised by Government, do you consider the existing number of Government aided
and unaided schools in the North-Western Provinces sufficient for the purpose for
which they have been established?
Ans. 8.—It appears from official papers that the number of Government schools
in 1881 in the North Western Provinces was 4,332, that of aided schools 212, and
that of unaided schools 26, total 4,570. As the area of the North Western Provinces
is 83,785 square miles, it gives an average of a little more than 18 square miles for
each school, which places them at a distance of 4¼ miles from one another at the
average rate. If indigenous schools, which still form a considerable number, be
also taken into account, the average length of the intervening distances between
the schools will be still more reduced. Now, considering the character of the coun-
try as regards population and the distances that lie between scattered towns and
villages, I do not think the present number of schools inadequate. It does not
require extension, except, perhaps, in some special cases. On the other hand, the
existing institutions are, in my opinion, capable of affording instruction to a much
200
greater number of pupils. Every available means should, therefore, be adopted for
improving their efficiency and for making them more useful and popular.
Ques. 9.—Are the existing arrangements for their inspection quite efficient, or
do they call for improvement? What suggestions would you make on this point?
Ans. 9.—I do not think the present system of inspection adequate. The
Inspectors whose circles comprise a vast area do not, as a matter of course,
find sufficient time for inspection, and have no means of acquiring an intimate
acquaintance with the real state of the schools under them. It is exceedingly
doubtful that they will be able to recognise the students of a certain school
already inspected by them, should such students be again presented before them
with the boys of some other school. I do not mean to say that the reports of
Deputy Inspectors and Sub-Deputy Inspectors are not reliable but their contents
certainly require to be examined and ascertained, for which the Inspectors have,
of course, rare opportunities.
I had an opportunity of inspecting many schools while I was a member of the
Educational committee at Aligarh. I always found the registers of those schools
which were situated at some distance from the city in a wretched state, and
attendance was never found to correspond with the number of students given
on the rolls. I have occasionally had reasons to suspect the correctness of the
school registers. It was not unusual to enter supposed names in them. Once I set
out to inspect a village school which used to send regular reports of its working
and it appeared that a reasonable number of students was reading in it. But on
reaching the village I was surprised to find that there was no school at all, that
the place which was represented as the school building was no other than a shed
for buffaloes, and that the contents of the registers and reports were altogether
fictitious.
Altogether, I am naturally led to believe that an improvement has since been
introduced into the system of inspection, and that such flagrant cheatings have
disappeared, or, at any rate, have become rare, yet I do not consider the pres-
ent system satisfactory. I have reason to believe that the Deputy Inspectors and
Sub Deputy Inspectors are generally assiduous in making their reports show a
greater number of students than what it really is with a view of obtaining credit
for good work. For these reasons the existing arrangements are not satisfactory
in my opinion.
Ques. 10.—Are the standards of education and the courses of study in ver-
nacular schools popular? Do you consider them quite suitable for the purposes of
education?
Ans. 10.—The standard of education fixed for vernacular schools is, in my
opinion, not popular, and is certainly not suitable. The standard of literature taught
in those schools is hardly sufficient for enabling a student to acquire tolerable
proficiency in subjects which are of use to him in his after life. The degree of pro-
ficiency acquired in indigenous schools in this respect far surpasses that afforded
by these schools. And this fact makes them contemptible in the eyes of the people.
It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to raise the standard of literature in those
201
schools. The regular study of arithmetic should, in vernacular primary schools

be supplemented by the indigenous method of gur, which is more practical. The
present standard of history in vernacular middle schools,—which does not go
beyond giving a list of the names of kings, the dates of their accession and death,
and a very brief and imperfect account of their reigns, which leave no impression
on the mind of the student, and which are forgotten as soon as the boy feels he
has no more to do with them—should be carefully revised and replaced by a more
advanced standard calculated to develop his mind. And when the standard of lit-
erature will also be improved, the students will have no difficulty in mastering the
more important points of the subject in which they should be examined, instead of
the minor ones. At present there exists a nice translation of Elphinstone’s History
of India, besides a number of other histories containing the Hindu, Muhammadan,
and English periods, and compiled by some of the ablest men of this country, such
as Munahi Zukaullah, Professor of the Muir Central College, Allahabad. These
works, or portions of them, can with advantage be introduced into the vernacular
middle schools, of which the present standard of education evidently calls for
improvement.
Ques. 11.—Does the system of middle class vernacular examination stand in
need of an improvement? What would, in your opinion, be the best plan for the
examination of primary vernacular schools?
Ans. 11.—I have no objection against the manner in which the vernacular mid-
dle class examination is at present conducted. But I would object to the mode in
which the question papers are now set. If the papers set by various examiners
were referred to a certain committee under the control and supervision of the
Director of Public Instruction, in order that those papers may be reduced to a uni-
form standard as regards work and difficulty, it would surely further the objects
of the examination. As regards primary schools, their examination had better be
left to those who exercise an immediate supervision over them. I am averse to
mustering the students of the various schools at a central point for the purposes
of examination.
I am also unable to support the system of awarding scholarships after the ver-
nacular middle class examinations, for at the time when these scholarships are
given the vernacular study is, in fact, at an end. The system of payment by results
would therefore, be more appropriate. Scholarships should be given to those stu-
dents only who may join the middle class after passing the primary examination,
and who may thus prove themselves deserving of those scholarships.
Ques. 12.—What sections of the people have generally derived benefit from
these institutions? Are there any classes of the population that have not, or very
little, availed themselves of this benefit? If so, to what causes may their failure to
do so be attributed?
Ans. 12.—Those classes of the people have, as far as I know, availed them-
selves of the benefit offered by vernacular schools who hold a rank between the
lower and middle classes of the society. But the sons of husbandmen, of petty
landholders, and of professional workmen, for whose education these schools
202
were primarily designed, have comparatively kept aloof from them. The means of
workmen and labourers are generally very limited. Their constant manual labour
is scarcely sufficient for their very subsistence. The children, as soon as they are
fit for any work, are at once employed in it. If they may not associate their chil-
dren in their daily labours, it will doubtless be impossible for them to defray the
additional expenditure of maintaining the children from their already insufficient
earnings.
There is no great difference between the conditions of ordinary cultivators of
land and of those petty landholders who hold small tracts of land in common
property, and cultivate those tracts themselves. Both of these classes are, gener-
ally speaking, men of quite limited means, who are not able to procure even the
necessary implements of husbandry. It is, therefore, impossible for them to carry
on their business of agriculture with any degree of success unless they bring over
their whole families to their assistance. Separate works are allotted to different
members of the familes. For example, the younger ones are employed in carer
works requiring a lighter manual labour,—such as the guardian of the field against
animals, the weeding of the crops, the direction of the course of water into certain
beds, the grazing of the cattle, and so on. There are many trifling parts of the busi-
ness which, if not left to little boys and girls will seriously retard the progress of
it. These are the causes which unavoidably prevent their sending their little ones
to schools for education.
There are, however, some villages where the landholders or cultivators are
comparatively more prosperous, and their circumstances can admit of their dis-
pensing with the services of their children in agricultural business, or where the
presence of a canal reduces the necessity of watering their fields. In such villages
(provided the villages bordering on a canal are free from diseases) boys can be
spared for education, and sons of the cultivators and landholders have, more or
less, derived benefit from the schools.
The greatest difficulty, however, is that the above named class of the people
does not seem to appreciate education at all. They are unable to understand how
education can be useful to them in their daily life, which is no better than that of
an ordinary kuls. What fruit can we, under these circumstances, reap by establish-
ing schools in villages where they are not wanted at all. In this very class those
who are a little better off than mere kulis and follow a regular occupation by keep-
ing a regular shop, such as the carpenter who constructs the ordinary village carts,
their wheels, and other implements of husbandry, are tolerably able to read and
write, and generally send their sons to Government or indigenous schools. But
an itinerant workman, who goes from house to house to seek employment, never
thinks of procuring education for his children.
Ques. 13.—Do you think the number of boys now receiving instruction in these
schools low in comparison with the population and state of the country? If so, how
would you account for it?
Ans. 13.—This question can briefly be replied in the affirmative, for a more
extended system of education is not wanted by the country. But this answer is not
203
quite sufficient,—it requires an explanation. It appears from official papers that

162,471 scholars were receiving education in 1881 in those schools of the North
Western Provinces which were under the control and supervision of Government
officers. Their comparison with the population of that part of the country cannot,
owing to the special circumstances of the country, afford a just estimate as regards
the working of this machinery.
In India women are almost entirely precluded from education, while agricultural
and labouring classes, that form by far the greatest portion of the population, are
equally strangers to it. How to induce these classes to benefit from education is
another question which leads us to a discussion of those circumstances which have
combined in estranging them from education. To suggest measures for the removal
of those obstacles, whether such measures be feasible or not, is a subject which has
no connection with the working of the machinery set up for education. Moreover,
that portion of the population which consists of men who are too old to be educated
must not be taken into account for obvious reasons. To form, therefore, a correct
estimate of the working of the machinery, with regard to the special circumstances
of the country, it is necessary, in the first place, to exclude these four large sections
of the population from the number. The degree of success of the scheme may then
be judged by the number of the school-going boys of the classes that hold a posi-
tion between the middle and lower ranks of society, and perhaps by the number of
boys in a portion of the middle class too. If this be made the standard of judgment,
I have no doubt but that the machinery will be found to be in as good working an
order as can ever be expected in India. If it be desirable to increase its efficiency,
the object can be secured, not by adding any part to the machine itself, but to place
the persons who have hitherto been incapable of reaping any benefit from it in a
position which may provide facilities to them in this respect.
At present we have no means by which we may be able to judge of the useful-
ness of the machinery in the manner above indicated. Only the Census Report of
1871 could help us a little in this way. But I am sorry I could not have an access
to the book here. The Secretary of the Commission also kindly tried to procure it
for me, but without success.
Ques. 14.—Can you suggest any improvement in the present system of tuitional
fees?
Ans. 14.—I have no objection to raise against the present system of levying the
tuitional fees. But I must question the propriety of requiring the sons of zamindars
and cultivators of land studying in vernacular schools to pay tuitional fees, when a
separate education cess of one per cent of the Government revenue is already levied
upon all zamindars, affecting as it does in its incidence all the classes connected
with land. Although this argument may not be accepted as logically true, this immu-
nity will nevertheless tend to swell the number of such boys in vernacular schools.
Ques. 15.—What steps would it, in your opinion, be most advisable to take to
give a wider extension to these schools, and to render them more efficient and
popular?
204
Ans. 15.—I do not think there is any necessity for increasing the number of
these schools, except in special cases. Our endeavours should rather be confined
to making the existing institutions more useful and popular, which can be brought
about in the following manner:—
1st.—By reforming the courses of study and raising the standard of literature.
2ndly.—By appointing such persons to be teachers of the school as are popu-
lar and possess the confidence of the people residing in that locality.
3rdly.—By fixing their salaries on a standard sufficient to make them appre-
ciate their appointment.
4thly.—By securing the co operation of respectable men in each pargana in
the cause of education.
If the present system of kalkabands were so re cast that each village in which
a patwars resided might be provided with a vernacular primary school for the
benefit of all the villages of the circle under the said patwars, it would give more
regular appearance to the system, and would perhaps increase the number of the
schools, if so desired.
Ques. 16.—To what extent has the establishment of the Educational commit-
tees helped in the supervision and control of these schools, and how far has it
contributed towards making them popular?
Ques. 17.—Do you consider that any advantage is likely to result from extend-
ing the supervision of the Municipal committees and district officers? What
would, in your opinion, be the most advisable way of accomplishing this end?
Ques. 18.—Can you suggest any improvement in the existing financial arrange-
ments relating to these institutions?
Ans. 16, 17 & 18.—These three questions (16, 17, and 18) are so closely con-
nected with one another as to require a collective answer.
I have always been of opinion that the system of public instruction cannot prog-
ress satisfactorily until Native gentlemen of respectable position and influence
be made to co-operate in the work. The co-operation of a Native gentleman who
commands the respect and possesses the confidence of the people,—no matter
whether he himself possesses any amount of learning and is capable of helping
in educational matters,—is calculated to bring the whole weight of his influence
and popularity in favour of a scheme with which he himself is connected, and is
therefore likely to bear good fruit.
I have always regarded the non-association of respectable Natives in the work
of education as a great drawback and a great political mistake. A movement in this
direction was made by the Talukdars of the Aligarh District in 1866. On the 10th
May of that year they submitted a petition to the Local Government, a portion of
which I beg to quote below as deserving the attention of the Commission:—
“That while your petitioners pay for the expenses of education it is obviously a hardship
that they should not be allowed to take any part in the management of the system or exer-
cise any control over the disbursement of the funds. It is very mortifying to them to find
that they are not consulted on any points connected therewith and that, notwithstanding
205
their having to provide the funds they know nothing as to the manner and purposes in
which those funds are expended.
That your petitioners beg respectfully to submit their opinion that all the money which
they contribute for education at the rate of 1 per cent on the jumma should together with the
sum which the Government grants or may grant in future in and of the cause be separately
funded under the designation of Educational Fund and applied solely for the benefit of the
people of that district alone from which the contribution is raised, and to which it rightfully
belongs, to the exclusion of all others.
That a committee consisting of the Educational Officers and the district landholders
and gentlemen presided over by the Collector of the District or the Commissioner of the
Division should be formed for the general control and supervision of the system and for
regulating the expenditure and all matters connected with the business of education should
be left to the discretion of the committee so constituted.
“That this committee should be required to frame a code of rules for the guidance of
schools and should determine the amount to be granted annually for all the schools that
may be existing or may hereafter be established in the [Illegible Text] the tahails and
village of the district and allot separate funds for the maintenance of each school
and that all those measures of the committee be officially laid before the Government
and [Illegible Text] upon everywhere in the district after they shall have been sanc-
tioned by Government.”
In 1872 I wrote a note in reference to the working of the committees which had
been thus constituted, as the rules which regulated those committees had seriously
paralysed their independence, and had thus defeated the original object. It will not
be out of place to give here an extract from that note, as it bears directly upon the
subject:—
“Not long ago the deplorable condition into which education in India had fallen
attracted the notice of some of the Native gentlemen of Aligarh. They considered the mat-
ter carefully, and determined to represent the case to Government. A petition was accord-
ingly drawn up by them requesting that the Natives should be allowed to have a hand
in the management of public instruction and that committees should be formed in each
district. Mr. George Lawrence the Collector of the district lent his assistance in the cause
and he deserves the thanks of the Native community. When the application came before
the authorities of the Educational Department they were naturally offended and looked
upon the movement as one tending to curtail their rights and authorities. The Honourable
Mr. Drummond however, the then Lieutenant Governor, North Western Provinces, was
determined to grant the petition and His Honour accordingly gave him sanction to the
proposals directing a trial to be first made in the district of Aligarh and Etawah. The order
was however not acted up to for a long time, till at last His Honour himself took notice of
it and extended the order generally to all districts: the result was the present Educational
committee in each district. It is much to be regretted however that the Native members of
the said committees when they sit with Europeans and the educational authorities in the
same room look more like thieves who have entered a gentleman’s house for theft than
like bold advocates of an important cause. They are on the other hand looked upon by
their European fellow members as men of the opposite party, to defeat whom is deemed
by the educational authorities as well as by other European members as their right estab-
lished by the laws of nature.
206
Thus owing to the circumstances just noticed the committees have been able to do
nothing to amend the political error before alluded to the management of public instruc-
tion still rests in the hands of the Government: the Committee can do nothing against
the will of the Director of Public Instruction and they have no power to interfere in the
management of affairs they are in fact about as useful as the same number of wax figures
in Madame Tassaud’s exhibition. As long as this state of affairs lasts the members are of
opinion that there is no hope of the village and tahsih schools being in any way beneficial
to the Natives.”
The rules regulating the establishment and working of the Educational com-
mittees were, however, subsequently amended, and revised rules were issued on
the 9th February 1877. But these two fell materially short in the main point of
enlisting Native co-operation to any great extent, and the objects for which the
establishment of the committees was desired were not attained. I feel persuaded
that if the existing system were re-formed and re-cast in the following manner,
the efficiency and popularity of the vernacular education would be considerably
increased:—
(1) The Collector may be deemed as head of the vernacular instruction of
each district, and may be held to be in the same relation with the Director of
Public Instruction in this respect which, in financial affairs, he holds with the
Commissioner.
This arrangement is likely to dispense with the necessity of the Inspectors of
Schools.
(2) The post of Deputy Inspector, who rarely commands any influence or respect
in the district, should be abolished altogether, and that of a separate Native Deputy
Collector be created for assisting the Collector in this additional work; the work
of vernacular education being made a part of the functions in the same manner as
other Deputy Collectors are put in charge of treasury.
(3) The post of Sub-Deputy Inspector or Pargana Visitor may be retained, and
may be made subordinate to that of the Deputy Collector so created, with a proper
alteration in its denomination.
(4) An Educational committee may be formed in each district, having for its
members the most influential and respectable men of that district.
(5) Municipal Commissioners may also be declared members of the Educa-
tional committee in each district.
(6) The Deputy Collector mentioned above may be appointed Secretary to the
said committee.
(7) It may be incumbent on the said Deputy Collector to inspect personally, at
least four times a year, all the vernacular schools in the district, to investigate the
real condition of these schools, to report the results of his inspection and inves-
tigation to the committee, to prepare monthly and annual statistical returns and
reports, and to use his personal influence in the promotion of education.
(8) The Pargana Visitor may be required to inspect all the schools of his par-
gana at least four times a month, and to submit a report of each inspection to the
Secretary of the said committee.
207
(9) The Collectors and other Revenue officers may also inspect schools in the
course of their periodical tours, and may communicate to the committee the infor-
mation they may thus be able to gather regarding the working of these schools.
They will, of course, have ample opportunity for this purpose, and the whole
work of inspection, which is now devolved on Inspectors and is not, as a matter of
course, satisfactorily carried on, will go on quite smoothly.
(10) Each pargana may have its own Educational committee, consisting of the
respectable men of that parganah, and having the Tahsildar of the parganah for its
President and the Parganah Visitor for its Secretary.
(11) The members of both the District and Parganah committees may be
requested to pay occasional visits to schools within their respective jurisdictions,
and to submit reports to their respective committees in connection with such visits.
(12) The whole management of these vernacular schools,—such as the
increase or reduction in the number of these schools, the selection of proper
places for their establishment, the distribution of the schools according to the dif-
ferent languages (Hindi, Urdu, or Persian) taught in them, the construction and
repairs of school houses, the appointment and dismissal of teachers the selection
of the course of study on consultation with the Director of Public Instruction,
the adoption of proper measures for the inducement of those classes that show
an apathy towards education, and so on,—may rest with the committee, so that
the members may take an interest in this important affair, and may feel that they
have a substantial share in its management and control, and that their services
can be really useful.
(13) The incomes of these schools derived from the various sources, from
the Imperial, Local Municipal or other Funds, may all be placed at the disposal
of the committees which may themselves have to prepare their annual budgets
after the manner of the Municipal committees, and may regularly submit those
budgets to the Director of Public Instruction.
(14) The savings effected by the abolition of Inspectorships and Deputy Inspec-
torships will be sufficient to meet the increased demand of appointing an addi-
tional Deputy Collector. This arrangement is certainly calculated to increase the
amount of work in the office of the Director of Public Instruction. But this may be
remedied by appointing an Assistant to the Director under the name of Inspector
or under any other denomination.
I feel convinced that these arrangements, if carried into effect, will place the
educational system on a far better footing than it at present is and will, at the same
time, involve no additional cost to Government.
The above suggestions relate exclusively to vernacular schools. It should not be
understood that I want to make English schools also subject to these committees.
On the contrary, I am of opinion that any such attempt will prove prejudicial to
the interests of the English schools, although they may be mere elementary ones.
Ques. 19.—Are you of opinion that the present state of the Normal schools
is satisfactory as regards their efficiency, or do you consider there is room for
improvement?
208
Ans. 19.—The present state of the Normal schools is not, in my opinion, much
objectionable. The only defect that appears to me is that, instead of training the
teachers in the mode of imparting instruction, they afford a regular instruction to
the teachers like any other ordinary school. The standard of study in these schools
should, moreover, be raised in the same proportion as that in vernacular schools,
and a provision should be made by which the teachers of indigenous schools may
also be admitted to them when so required.
Ques. 20.—With reference to English schools for primary, middle, high, and
collegiate education, do you consider that English education is essentially requi-
site for the interests of the country, and for the people in their daily affairs of life?
If so, to what standard?
Ans. 20.—About thirty years have now elapsed since the despatch of 1854.
During this period the condition of India has undergone a considerable change.
Railways have united distant provinces, and have facilitated intercourse to a great
extent. Telegraphic lines have been extended all over the country, and have pro-
vided facilities for distant persons to talk with one another as if they were in the
same room. These very things have infused a new life into commercial business,
and have given a fresh impulse to every sort of enterprise.
In 1854, when the above-named despatch was written, India was certainly in
a condition which might justify our thinking that the acquisition of knowledge
through the medium of the vernaculars of the country would be enough to meet
our immediate wants. But now such is not the case. Vernacular education is no
more regarded as sufficient for our daily affairs of life. It is only of use to us in
our private and domestic affairs, and no higher degree of proficiency than what is
acquired in primary and middle vernacular schools requisite for that purpose, nor
is more wanted by the country. It is English education which is urgently needed
by the country and by the people in their daily life. It will be useless to realise
the truth of what I have said by any theoretical argument when we practically
find so many proofs of it every day. We see that an ordinary shop keeper, who
is neither himself acquainted with English nor has any English knowing person
in his employment, feels it a serious hindrance in the progress of his business.
Even the itinerant pedlars and boxwalas, who go from door to door selling their
articles keenly feel the necessity of knowing at least the English names of their
commodities, and of being able to tell their prices in English. A gentleman who
visits a merchant’s or a chemist’s shop to make necessary purchases, but is neither
himself acquainted with English nor is accompanied by a person knowing that
language, feels his position as one of real perplexity. In consequence of the facili-
ties afforded for travelling, respectable men are often under the necessity of send-
ing and receiving telegraphic messages, and their ignorance of English proves a
serious hardship to them. A few months ago a respectable Native gentleman sent
his wife by railway from one stat on to another, telegraphing a relation of his at
the latter station to be present at the railway station with a conveyance for the
lady, who was of course a parda nashin. The message reached him in time but he
was unhappily not acquainted with English. He was yet in search of an English
209
knowing person who might explain to him the import of the communication,
when the train reached the station and the lady was necessarily compelled to leave
the carriage and to wait outside. The state of affairs has therefore been so altered
during the last thirty years that a necessity for English education is as much felt
as that for a vernacular one. The standard of matriculation would, in my opinion,
answer the purposes above described. In these days the name of popular educa-
tion can, in fact, most appropriately be applied to this very standard of English
education. It is high time that Government, as well as the people, should exert to
their utmost in extending this popular education, if I may be allowed so to call it.
I trust that the observations I have made will not be construed into any desire on
my part to suppress high education, or that I do not attach much importance to it.
I shall show shortly how essentially necessary it is for the country.
Ques. 21.—What amount of benefit has the country, in your opinion, derived
from Government, private and Missionary institutions teaching European sci-
ences and literature?
Ans. 21.—Almost the whole amount of benefit derived by the country from
English education may be attributed to Government and Ecclesiastical institu-
tions. The latter have contributed no less than the former in affording the benefit
of English education to the country. Some of the Missionary institutions rather
possess a better staff of European teachers than that in Government institutions
of the same status, owing to the fact that Missionary teachers are generally wont
to offer their services in this charitable cause on lower salaries than what their
attainments could justly claim.
In the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, and the Panjab, English education
has hither to made very little progress, and they stand in great need of primary
and secondary education. It is indeed much to be regretted that private institutions
in this country have taken very little part in the diffusion of English education,
although it was their duty to take the lead in the matter.
Ques. 22.—Would it be more beneficial to the country to diffuse a knowledge
of Western arts and sciences through the medium of the vernaculars of the coun-
try, instead of doing so through the medium of English?
Ans. 22.—In Vernacular and English primary and middle schools, the object of
which is to impart instruction up to that standard only, and not to prepare scholars
for a higher standard of education, the interests of the country will no doubt be
furthered by teaching the Western sciences to the standard laid down for those
institutions in vernacular. But in English elementary schools, which have been
established with the object of serving as a stepping stone for higher education, the
tuition of European sciences through the medium of the vernacular is calculated
to ruin the cause of education.
I confess I am the person who had first entertained the idea that the acquisition
of the knowledge of European sciences through the medium of the vernaculars
would be more beneficial to the country. I am the person who had found fault with
Lord Macaulay’s Minute of 1835 for exposing the defects of oriental learning
and recommending the study of Western science and literature, and had failed to
210
consider whether the introduction of European sciences by means of the vernacu-

lars would bring any advantage to the Native community.
I did not confine my opinion to theory alone, but tried to put it into practice. I
discussed the matter at various meetings wrote several pamphlets and articles on
the subject, and sent memorials to Local and Supreme Governments. A Society,
known by the name of “The Scientific Society, Aligarh,” was established for the
very purpose, and it translated several scientific and historical works from the
English language into the vernacular. But I could not help acknowledging the
fallacy of my opinion at last. I was forced to accept the truth of what an eminent
liberal statesman has said that “what the Indian of our day wanted, whether he was
Hindu or Muhammadan, was some insight into the literature and science which
were the life of his own time, and of the vigorous race which were the representa-
tive of all knowledge and all power to him.” I felt the soundness and sincerity of
the policy adopted by Lord William Bentinck when he declared that “the great
object” of the Government “ought to be the promotion of European literature and
science among the nations of India.”
The reasons which seem to favour the dissemination of European learning
through the medium of the vernaculars are twofold, but they are quite ground-
less and fallacious. First, the idea that the instrumentality of the vernaculars will
facilitate the propagation of Western sciences is in itself erroneous, as I will show
presently. I may be allowed to say here that all European sciences are divided
into two kinds—certain and uncertain. The former includes arithmetic, algebra,
chemistry, &c., which require no great knowledge of the English language, and a
person having but an imperfect acquaintance with English finds no great difficulty
in learning them.
I can adduce two living evidences in support of my statement. Pandit Bapu
Deo Shastri, C.I.E., of Benares, and Munshi Zukaullah, Professor Muir Central
College, Allahabad, have a very imperfect knowledge of English. They are unable
to speak English. They cannot write a couple of lines in that language free from
mistakes. But, notwithstanding this, they can read, understand, and teach the most
advanced English works on science. As regards uncertain sciences, such as logic,
philosophy, political economy, jurisprudence, &c., they are based on so abstract,
intricate, and nice reasonings that they are, by causes to be shown presently, liable
to lose much of their force if presented to the mind through the medium of a
vernacular.
The second idea which seems to suggest itself to us is that no country has
ever advanced in any science until after that science has been rendered into the
language of that country. But, this too is an erroneous conclusion. It has been
divested of an important feature which may be said to be the very life of the
argument. It could, in fact, be said with the greatest propriety that no country has
ever advanced in any science until after that science has been rendered into the
language which rules over the country. It is not the vernacular, but the English
language which rules over India. No science can, therefore, be promoted in this
country through the medium of the vernacular. History furnishes no precedent of
211
a science being promoted among any people through the medium of a language
which was not the language of the ruling class.
I now come to those obstacles and causes which make the diffusion of European
science through the medium of the vernaculars in this country a task of doubtful
possibility, if not quite impossible. Works on this science can be furnished into
the vernacular languages in no other way except by means of translations. Those
who are familiar with translation work are well aware of the insurmountable dif-
ficulties that occur in rendering a scientific work into a vernacular, and in invent-
ing and determining proper technical terms in that language. Whenever the same
terms as used in the original language, are adopted for want of proper substitutes,
the book forms a curious mixture of the two languages, and the reader can neither
understand nor pronounce the strange words. When they are Arabicised with a
slight change of form in order that they may look more harmonious with the Urdu
language, they assume a curious guise and become equally unintelligible to Eng-
lishmen and Hindustanis. They rather seem to constitute the language of a strange
creature. The equivalents for such terms are hunted out from Arabic or Sanskrit,
although they may be quite appropriate as regards signification; it often happens
that those equivalents have a second and additional meaning in those languages,
and for this reason they are incapable of imparting the exact idea conveyed by
the original words. The vast capacity of the Arabic and Sanskrit languages for the
invention of new equivalents for those technical terms cannot be denied. But the
task is one of extraordinary difficulty, and will require a long time, even if a sepa-
rate academy like that in Paris were established for the purpose.
History is a science which presents a comparatively less difficulty in being
translated into a different language. But I am firmly convinced that vernacu-
lar translations of English histories will do anything but good to the country.
The oriental literature is replete with exaggerations and metaphorical expres-
sions which have obtained so firm a hold on every sort of writing in Asia, and
have consequently come to be considered so common-place a thing that the very
words and expressions have lost their whole force, and are no longer capable of
making any impression on the human mind. For instance, if we utter the phrase
Bádskâh i álijâh, the first part of it (Bádshâh) will no doubt convey the idea of a
king; but the adjective álijáh, which have become totally void of force by con-
stant misapplication, will necessarily fail to make any impression on the mind,
not even so much as would have been produced by the English phrases Great
King. In the same way in the phrases Bádshah i ádil and Bádsháh i zálim—the
words adil and zálim are taken to be words of indifferent importance, and do not
much affect the sense of the words to which they are attached. I can quote hun-
dreds of instances like these. But this is not the case with English literature. The
translation of history into the vernacular is therefore calculated to annihilate all
those moral advantages which it is possible for a student to derive from its study
in the English language; and the fact is that, as long as our community does not,
by means of English education, become familiar with the exactness of thought
212
and unlearn the looseness of expression, our language cannot be the means of
high mental and moral training.
The same remarks apply to the translation of works on moral science, which I
am going to show by a few examples. Take, for instance, the word civilisation, the
nearest rendering of which is tahzíb or sháyastagi; or take the words morals and
character, of which akhláq and khaslat are perhaps the most appropriate transla-
tions respectively. But all these Urdu equivalents are ordinarily used in a sense
different from that conveyed by the English words, and cannot therefore answer
the purpose. The word utility, the sense of which I have often expressed by the
words muf digi and faida mandi, but I am sure these terms are far from giving an
exact idea of the signification of the word.
Now, taking it for granted that European works on science have properly
and exactly been translated into the vernacular, it still remains to be considered
whether a science is promoted by means of the translations of a few of its text-
books. He who studies the text books of a science must also study, in addition
to those books, various writings and opinions of ancient and modern authors
in connection with that subject, if he is really desirous of qualifying himself
in it. The absence of such writings, or the translations of such writings in his
own language, will make his attainments but imperfect. But apart from this it
should be borne in mind that knowledge has made, and it is still making, rapid
and wonderful progress in this nineteenth century, and it is essentially necessary
for those who are engaged in the acquisition of a science that they should keep
themselves informed of all the results of modern investigations that appear from
time to time in the shape of articles and reviews in the columns of newspapers,
journals, and magazines. It is virtually impossible to provide a constant supply
of vernacular translations of these great means of instruction and enlightenment.
During the reigns of the Caliphs of Baghdâd, from Mansûr Dawâmkî down to the
reign of his fourth successor, the greatest endeavour was made to translate scien-
tific books into Arabic—a matter which involved enormous expense of money,
although the scientific literature of those days was very limited. Notwithstanding
all such endeavours, those translations were found to be very inadequate, and
their scientific value cannot be compared with the works which the progress
of modern science has produced. The fact is that science in Europe makes a
progress more rapid than the greatest practicable agency for translations, which
the present circumstances of India can bring into existence, and can keep pace
with, and I am convinced that for a long time to come any attempt at imparting a
knowledge of European sciences through the medium of vernacular translations
will be fraught with evils which amount to no less than calamity to the cause of
real education and enlightenment of India.
Ques. 23.—Have all classes of the people benefited from the study of Western
sciences and literature in Government or other institutions, and have the Muham-
madans also derived this benefit as readily as the other communities? If not to
what causes may their forbearance be attributed?
213
Ans. 23.—Of all the sections of the Indian community the Muhammadans
have derived the least benefit from European sciences and literature. It is evident,
from the annual reports on public instruction, that in Government and Missionary
schools and colleges, which may be regarded as the only means of disseminating
Western science and literature in this country, the number of Muhammadans is
extremely limited.
To verify this statement by more obvious argument I had, in 1878, drawn up for
submission to the Local Government the following statistical table for the twenty
preceding years. This table conclusively shows the smallness of success which
English education has had amongst Mussalmans:—
Total Number of
Names of the University Degree Number of Muhammadan
Graduates Graduates
Doctor in Law 6 None
Honors in Law 4 None.
Bachelor in Law 705 8(a)
Licentiates in Law 235 5(b)
Bachelor in Civil Engineering 36 None
Licentiates in Civil Engineering 51 None
Master in Arts 326 5(b)
Bachelor of Arts 1,343 30
Doctor in Medicine 4 None
Honors in Medicine 2 None
Bachelor in Medicine 58 1(a)
Licentiates in Medicine and Surgery 385 8(a)
TOTAL 3,155 57
(a) None from the North Western Provinces.

(b) No Muhammadan has passed either in English or Science.
Now, taking the figures given in the “Memorandum on the Census of Brit-
ish India of 1871–72,” presented to Parliament, the population of Hindus in the
provinces subject to the Calcutta University (Bengal Assam North Western Prov-
inces, Ajmere, Oudh Panjab, and Central Provinces) is 90,484,547, and that of
Muhammadans amounts to 35,679,138; in other words the number of Muham-
madans is about ²⁄5ths of the Hindus. It would, therefore, be expected that the
number of Muhammadan graduates would be about 3,262; but the table given
above shows the number to be only 57, and the proportion is therefore a little
less than 1⁄55. Turning to the calendar of the Rurbî Civil Engineering College,
which gives instruction with a view to secure properly trained officers for the
Public Works Department, the number of Muhammadans who have successfully
passed the examinations is disproportionately small. From the year 1850 to 1876
the number of students who successfully passed through the Engineering class
214
is 226, out of which only 3 are Muhammadans. The results of the Upper Subor-
dinate Class Examination (which requires a knowledge of English) are equally
unsatisfactory. Between the year 1848 and 1876 no less than 707 students passed
the Upper Subordinate Class Examination but of them the number of Muham-
madans is only 11.
The effect of the above results appears in a much more unsatisfactory light
when it is taken into consideration that the greater portion of the Hindu popula-
tion consists of agriculturists and of persons employed in low occupations of life,
whilst the same is not true of the Muhammadans who, being descended from the
former rulers of the country, have inherited learning as the principal means of
livelihood. Hence the figures above cited conclusively prove that, owing to some
serious causes, English education has found no favour with the Mussalmans.
I have myself earnestly endeavoured for years to trace the causes to which this
shortcoming of the Muhammadans may be ascribed. And in 1871 my humble
endeavours resulted in the formation of a committee, the object of which was to
investigate the causes which prevented our community from taking advantage of
the system established by Government and to suggest means by which education
could be spread amongst them. As a means of receiving aid in their enquiries
the committee offered three prizes for the best essays by educated Muhammadan
gentlemen on the subject of Muhammadan education, and no less than thirty two
essays were sent in. The views expressed in these essays were fully discussed
at a large meeting of respectable and educated Mussalmans, and the committee
arrived at the conclusion that Muhammadans had strong feelings to dislike to
modern education, and that their antagonism to the Government educational sys-
tem was not a mere matter of chance.
This aversion of the Mussalman community is due to the fact that when in
the reigns of the Caliphs of Baghdâd the Greek sciences of logic, philosophy,
astronomy, and geography were translated into Arabic they were accepted by the
whole Muhammadan world without hesitation, and, with slight mod fications and
alterations they gradually found their way into the religious books of the Muham-
madans, so that in course of time these sciences were identified with their very
religion, and acquired a position by no means inferior to that of the sacred tradi-
tions of faith. A few spurious but well known foreign, as well as indigenous tra-
ditions, which referred to remote historical events, and to which time had lent a
charm, were likewise adopted and accepted like other religious doctrines.
European learning, which was founded on the results of modern investiga-
tions, differed widely in principle from these Asiaticised Greek dogmas, and the
Muhammadans certainly believed that the philosophy and logic taught in the
English language were at variance with the tenets of Islam, while the modern
sciences of geography and astronomy were universally regarded, and are still
regarded by many, as altogether incompatible with the Muhammadan religion.
History was viewed in no better light, inasmuch as it differed from their adopted
traditions. As regards literature it must be admitted that it is a subject which is
always more or less connected with the religion of the nation to which it belongs,
215
and, such being the case, the Muhammadans, as a matter of course viewed this
branch of knowledge, too, in anything but a favourable light. Their antipathy
was carried so far, indeed, that they began to look upon the study of English by
a Mussalman as a little less than the embracing of Christianity and the result was
that Muhammadans generally kept aloof from the advantages offered by Gov-
ernment institutions. There are still some Mussalmans who denounce the study
of English in the severest terms, and those who pursue or endeavour to promote
that study are positively pronounced to be Christians. But this prejudice has of
late decreased to a great extent, and is not entertained by so large a port on of the
Muhammadan community as formerly. This may be said to be the main cause
of the abstention of the Muhammadans from the study of European science and
literature.
Ques. 24.—Can you suggest how the causes which may have hitherto operated
in excluding the Muhammadans from this benefit might be removed?
Ans. 24.—The very nature of the causes which have operated in excluding the
Muhammadans from the benefit of English education makes it impossible for
Government to bring about their removal Government could in no way inter-
fere with, or make an attempt to expose the fallacy of, those views which the
Muhammadans had rightly or wrongly believed to be their religious doctrines.
There was no remedy but that some members of their own community might
undertake the arduous task of impressing on the Muhammadans the advantages
accruing from English education, and of proving by argument and reason that
such education was in no way inconsistent with the tenets of their religion, and
that the fanciful theories of Arabicised Greek science and philosophy, which the
advance of modern science and enlightenment tended to subvert, had no con-
nection with the doctrines of Islam. Numerous discouraging circumstances and
serious social dangers lay in the path of those advanced Muhammadans who
undertook the task, odious as it seemed to the detractors of modern civilisation
among Muhammadans. The advocates of reform and enlightenment were sure to
be made the object of furious and frantic abuse, and to be denounced as atheists,
apostates and Nazarenes. But they were fully convinced that the Muhammadan
nation could never be able to get rid of those illusive ideas and prejudices,
until some members of their community prepared themselves to incur the
odium which fanaticism and bigotry are always ready to offer to the advocates
of enlightened reform. I was an humble participator in the endeavours of those
who determined to devote themselves to this unpleasant task for the well being
of their co-religionists. With this object a periodical, named the “Muhammadan
Social Reformer,” was issued in which the more advanced Muhammadans from
time to time wrote articles on the subject of education and social reform, and
in spite of the vigorous opposition from the bigoted and conservative Muham-
madans, made public speeches in various parts of Upper India to rouse the
Muhammadans to make exertions to educate themselves and to release their
duties as citizens. The advocates of the cause of reform and enlightenment had,
of course, anticipated the opposition with which they had to contend before
216
undertaking so momentous a task, and had prepared themselves for the worst
consequences to their personal popularity among the common people. They
did not mind the difficulties and obstacles which bigotry and ignorance placed
in their way, but persevered in their endeavours; and I am glad to notice that
my co-religionists have now begun to yield to reason and to acknowledge and
amend their errors. The number of Muhammadan students in English-teaching
institutions is now much greater than what it was ten years ago. The Muham-
madan Anglo Oriental College at Aligarh has some 225 Muhammadan pupils at
present, most of whom belong to good families, and have travelled from various
parts of India and study European sciences and literature, along with their own
religion, languages, and literature. The Mussalmans are now everywhere relax-
ing their undue prejudices, and reconciling themselves to modern thoughts and
conditions of life. Time is no doubt a great reformer, but I think the endeavours
above alluded to, which have been going on for the last twelve years, have in no
small degree contributed to the present state of things. The remedy, therefore,
lies in no hands but those of the Muhammadans themselves, and the evils can
be removed by their efforts alone.
Ques. 25.—In what proportion have elementary and high education progressed
in the country?
Ans. 25.—In Upper India i.e., the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, and the
Panjab, English education has made very little progress, and has much room for
improvement. But the proportion in which the various standards of education
have hitherto progressed in the country is very satisfactory. Looking at the Report
on Public Instruction in the North Western Provinces for 1880–81, we find the
following number of scholars in those provinces receiving education on the 31st
of March:—
University education 888 scholars

Secondary ” 8,752 ”
Primary ” 205,903 ”
215,543
This shows the number of scholars receiving secondary education is about

ten times the number of those receiving University education, and the number
of those receiving primary education is about 232 times the number of the same.
Combining the two lower grades of education together we find that the spread
of elementary education bears to that of collegiate education a ratio of 242 to
1 nearly I am, therefore, not prepared to admit that the high education has out-
stripped elementary education in this country. Now, if we turn to the results of
examinations, we find in the same report that 77 scholars had passed from col-
leges, 258 from high schools, and 24,001 from primary schools, in 1880–81.
It will appear from these results that the various standards of education are not
disproportionate.
217
Q. 26.—Are the courses of study now in use in primary and middle schools and
the manner in which the examinations are held, satisfactory and popular, and can
they be regarded as fit criteria for regulating promotions to higher classes?
A. 26.—Neither the courses of study, nor the systems of examination now in
vogue, are suitable or satisfactory in my opinion. At present the aim of all primary
and middle schools, whether Government or Missionary, is to train and prepare
students for the higher grades of education. But the course of study adopted for
the purposes of the middle class examination falls short of promoting that object.
In primary and middle schools, which comprise the lower school classes as far
upwards as the third school class, the subjects taught consist of English, Math-
ematics, Geography, and History, the last three of which are taught in vernacular
and the examinations are also held in the languages in which the subjects are
taught. After passing the middle class examination, the student enters the high
school, which consists of the second and first (or Entrance) classes, where he is
required to read every subject in the English language. The boy now finds himself
unequal to the task so suddenly imposed upon him, and it is not unusual that he
is obliged to remain for two years, instead of one, either in the second or in the
Entrance class. This defect in the course of study, and in the mode of examination,
generally occasions to the students the loss of a whole year of their lives, besides
incurring an additional tuitional expenditure for that period.
The experience acquired by my connection with the Muhammadan Anglo Ori-
ental College for the last seven years, has fully proved to me this defect in the
course of study. And this was the reason to that the committee of the Directors of
Instruction for that college deemed it fit to leave off the University course and to
adopt another in its place in which every subject is taught in the English language
in the middle and primary classes. This change, of course, has been attended with
success, as was anticipated. Students finishing the course of the middle class have
done very well in the second, as well as in the Entrance class. I hear that Mr.
Nesfield, Inspector of Schools, Oudh, had also offered some objections against
the present system of studies, and that the Director of Public Instruction, North
Western Provinces, had asked the opinions of his subordinate officers in regard to
them. But I do not know what those objections were, and to what points they did
refer. Should the Commission deem it fit to call for the correspondence in ques-
tion, it would furnish them with a valuable information, and aid them in arriving
at a decision in regard to this point.
Ques. 27.—What course would, in your opinion, be best calculated to secure
the co-operation of private individuals and local corporations in the diffusion of
knowledge and the enlightenment of the country?
Ans. 27.—The object would, in my opinion, be best secured by extending the
grant in aid system, and by placing it on a more satisfactory footing. If the present
rules for grant in aid be revised and made more liberal, they will, I believe, not fail
to commend themselves to the people, to stimulate and encourage private enter-
prise, and to lead to the formation of the local corporations which will co-operate
with Government in enlightening their country. Such a step is, at least calculated
218
to give a fresh impulse to Missionary enterprise, and to increase the number of

Missionary institutions, which are, in my opinion, equally useful for the country.
Ques. 28.—What effect, in your opinion, has the present state of high education
in this country produced upon primary and secondary education, and upon the
interests of the country in general?
Ans. 28.—The extent of progress hitherto made by the country is, in my opin-
ion, mainly due to that standard of education which is now denoted by the name
of high education, provided it may deserve that name.
This standard of education has, indeed done much good to the State. It has
furnished Government with competent officers on low salaries, and it cannot for
a moment be doubted that, in the absence of such education, Government would
sustain a great pecuniary loss to ensure the present efficiency of administration.
The amount of money expended by Government in this education has, in fact
been applied in improving the efficiency of administration, which is equally com-
plimentary to Government and to the country. Should the profit accrued to Gov-
ernment by sums expended in productive works be compared with the savings
effected in the work of administration by a cheap supply of efficient officers the
money applied to the promotion of this education will not prove the less profitable
investment.
This education has, moreover, made a wholesome effect on secondary and pri-
mary education. As these standards of education form a sort of ladder for persons
to reach high education, the thing is in itself sufficient to magnify the impor-
tance of these standards in the eyes of the people. Persons of high attainments
are not useful to themselves alone. They are like lamps which reflect light on all
things surrounding them. The presence of well educated and enlightened persons
has done much service in the enlightenment and reformation of this country. In
the degree in which such persons are multiplying, the country is making strides
towards civilisation, and ignorance and prejudice are disappearing. But it is to be
regretted that the supply of such persons has not yet been equal to the demand.
The country still stands in need of a large number of such persons.
Ques. 29.—Please describe the measures which you would recommend should
be adopted to enable the Native community “to secure that freedom and variety of
education which is an essential condition in any sound and complete educational
system,” so that “all the youth of the country” may not “be cast as it were, in the
same Government educational mould.”
Ans. 29.—The extent to which “freedom and variety” of education may be
secured, depends in a great measure on the system adopted by the Universities of
a country for awarding degrees of profciency in various branches of learning. We
should now cast an eye on what the Universities of this country have done in this
respect. I will, however, confine my remarks to the Calcutta University, which
is the largest University in this country. This University confers degrees in Law,
Engineering Medicine and Arts and every one is at liberty to select any one of
these subjects he may like. The “freedom and variety” of education are, of course,
secured to persons, inasmuch as they relate to these four different branches of
219
learning. But the subject of Arts is itself a comprehensive subject, and calls ear-
nestly for that “freedom and variety” which have not been granted to it, or have
been granted to a very limited extent. The courses adopted by our University for
examinations in Arts have been fixed in an imperfect imitation of the London
University, and the result is that our graduates do not become adept in any single
branch of the subject. I must, therefore, be opposed to the existing system. But,
as this discussion relates to a subject which lies beyond the pale of the Commis-
sion’s enquiries, I think I had better not say anything more about it. I would only
bring to the notice of the Commission the following extracts from the speech of
His Excellency the Viceroy delivered at the Senate Hall on the occasion of the
late Convocation of the Calcutta University, for these extracts contain valuable
hints on the sort of education which is so much needed by the country, and which
the present system of the University falls short of providing. His Excellency says,
that “the first thing needed in education is thoroughness of knowledge, the mental
powers can be better trained by knowing a few things thoroughly than by know-
ing many things superficially,” and again, that “more real mental training is to
be derived from the thorough study of a single subject than from a skin-deep
acquaintance with a hundred sciences.” I would however, briefly state my opinion
to be that the greatest possible scope should be given by the University to the
thorough cultivation and deep knowledge of those subjects which recommend
themselves to the tastes genius, and mental proclivities of individual students. A
thorough knowledge of the English language and literature should in every case
be compulsory for a degree in Arts. But the candidate should be left at liberty to
choose either one of the classical languages of Europe or Asia, or one comprehen-
sive branch of knowledge, such as Mathematics, Physics, Natural Sciences. Moral
Sciences, Ancient and Modern History, &c. This system, I believe would conduce
to promote the cause of sound learning and original thought in India, and in time
would produce authors and writers whose influence will be felt by the masses and
become a part of the mental life of the nation.
Ques. 30.—Do you regard the prevailing mode of instruction in English sci-
ences and literature in any way detrimental to the interests of oriental literature?
Ans. 30.—The excellent plan adopted by our Universities and followed by all
colleges and schools—that of retaining the study of oriental languages as sec-
ond languages and giving the students an option in regard to them—has saved
those languages from being neglected on account of the progress of English
education. A fit place has been accorded to them in the courses of study, so
that a person can now obtain the highest degree of proficiency in any of these
languages. It is possible for a person to secure the degree of M.A., not only in
one of these languages but in several of them. But the arrangements recently
made by the University in reference to the courses of study, which are to take
effect from 1884 and in which the second language has been made optional in
the A section of the B.A. Course, and has been omitted altogether in the B sec-
tion of the same Course are undoubtedly calculated to ruin the cause of oriental
languages.
220
Ques. 31.—To what extent do you consider that Government should support
primary and secondary education respectively, and to what extent collegiate
education?
Ans. 31.—As my personal opinion on this point is at variance with the public
feeling, I may be allowed to give a sketch of both the views.
I am personally of opinion that the duty of Government in relation to public
instruction is not to provide education to the people, but to aid the people in pro-
curing it for themselves. But the public feeling seems to differ widely from this
view. The people base their argument on the fact that in India all matters affecting
the public weal have always rested with Government. They see no reason why
the education of the people, which is also a matter of public weal, should not rest
with Government.
After a full consideration of the question in all its bearings, I come to the con-
clusion that the native public cannot obtain suitable education unless the people
take the entire management of their education into their own hands and that it is
not possible for Government to adopt a system of education which may answer all
purposes and satisfy the special wants of the various sections of the population. It
would, therefore, be more beneficial to the country if Government should leave the
entire management of their education to the people and withdraw its own interfer-
ence. The public opinion, as I have just said, is not in favour of this view. They say
that the time has not yet arrived which may warrant such withdrawal on the part of
Government. A very able and intelligent Native gentleman, for whom I entertain
sincere respect said to me some time ago that the idea that we should ourselves
procure our education was an entire mistake, that the use of the word ourselves in
any national sense with reference to the people of India was out of place, for he
said that no nation could undertake any great work without the co-operation of all
classes, high and low, whether in point of wealth or political and administrative
power. He added that the higher order of political and administrative power in
India was held by Government and its European officers, and that those who ben-
efited most by commerce in India were also Europeans, and therefore they formed
in reality the most important section of the Indian population. He said that when-
ever these officers had been requested to give some pecumary aid in the establish-
ment of a college or school in this country for the benefit of the Natives, they had
generally held aloof as if they had no concern with the thing at all.
Apropos of this I may be allowed to relate an incident which has happened to
myself. At the time when the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College was estab-
lished Aligarh, I asked a European gentleman holding a high office under Gov-
ernment to grant some pecuniary aid to the institution. He replied that he was
not bound to help us in the matter, that the institution was a child of ours and not
his, and that he would rather be inclined to spurn it than to hug it with paternal
affection.
To do justice to public opinion, I confess it is not an easy matter for us to say
that people ought to bear the burden of their education themselves. If we but con-
sider the present state of India, we shall be forced to acknowledge that there are
221
innumerable difficulties which threaten any such attempt on the part of the people
with complete failure.
As regards the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, and the Panjáb, I am of
opinion that the existence of at least a high school, capable of imparting instruc-
tion up to the Entrance standard, is desirable in each district.
In districts in which schools have not been established by local agencies, or by
Missionaries, the Government is bound to bring one into existence, and as soon
as a school of either of the above descriptions springs up in any of such districts,
Government can safely close its own school after satisfying itself about the sta-
bility of the new institution and its efficiency for teaching up to the Entrance
standard.
I would, moreover, suggest that a college maintained at Allahabad entirely
by the cost and under the guarantee of Government would suffice for the North
Western Provinces and Oudh to all intents and purposes, and that a similar col-
lege established at Lahore would be enough for the educational requirements of
the Panjab. But both these colleges should be capable of imparting the highest
standard of education. These arrangements would dispense with the necessity of
keeping any other college in the above-named provinces. Should local or Mis-
sionary corporations, however, desire to establish a college at any place in those
provinces, Government ought to support such college by a liberal grant-in aid. I
mean to say that there should be only one Government college in each province,
and that all the rest, if any, may be aided ones. I must regard the Canning College
at Lucknow and the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College at Aligarh as aided
colleges, although the management of the former lies in the hands of Government
instead of any local corporation.
But it will be remembered that public feeling and opinion are opposed to all
measures calculated to close any of the existing Government colleges or schools.
The idea that Government desires to reduce and discourage high education in
this country has occupied the minds of the majority of the people, although the
speeches delivered by His Excellency the Viceroy on several occasions have con-
tributed to lessen this impression among the more intelligent portion of the com-
munity, who have now come to believe that any attempt, if at all, to lower the
standard of high education, will have none but financial grounds. However, the
impression has not yet been entirely removed. Should Government happen to
close any of the existing colleges, no matter how just and reasonable the grounds
may be on which Government bases its action, it will be viewed by the people as
a step to suppress high education.
As regards Missionary institutions, in which the Holy Bible is taught along
with secular books in a compulsory manner, my personal opinion is that the
study of the Bible is in no way prejudicial to the Muhammadan religion. On
the contrary, I am of opinion that the study of the Bible affords a valuable help
in acquiring a knowledge of English literature. To persons anxious to obtain
a knowledge of English or Greek literature, the study of the Holy Bible fur-
nishes the same amount of help as the study of the Hebrew Bible furnishes to
222
those who want to get an acquaintance with Hebrew literature, or the study of
the Holy Kuran to those who are in search of a knowledge of Arabic. It must,
therefore, be a foolish thing on the part of the Muhammadans to disapprove of
Missionary institutions. But the general feeling among the Muhammadans is
certainly adverse to my opinion, and the abolition of a Government institution
in favour of a Missionary one will most probably be viewed with feelings of
dissatisfaction, though I for one, am unable to see any reasonable ground for
such dissatisfaction. In any case it will be proper for Government to ascertain
the real state of public feeling before taking any step in this direction. There are
many things which seem to present no difficulty theoretically, but it has often
been found to be no easy task to put them into practice. It cannot for a moment
be questioned that in colleges and schools which he under the control and super-
vision of Government officers, the introduction of religious study, no matter
whether it may refer to Hindu, Muhammadan, Christian, or Jewish religion, will
be repugnant to the avowed policy of the Government, and will spread discon-
tent among the people.
In places where there are only Missionary institutions, should any section of
the population not like to get their children educated in those institutions, those
people should establish a separate school or college for themselves, and Gov-
ernment should also grant some aid to such institutions, without entering into a
discussion of the expediency of such institutions, when Missionary institutions
already existed there. Government should, moreover, take care that district offi-
cers do not throw obstacles in the way of such local endeavours, and do not use
their authority and influence against them as has been the case in some districts.
By adopting such measures, Government would, in my opinion, not leave to the
people any just ground for complaint.
Ques. 32.—Is the existing grant in aid system in consonance with the sugges-
tions you have made above, should effect be given to them? If not, in what manner
and on what principle would you alter it so as to correspond?
Ans. 32.—The existing grant in aid rules for the North Western Provinces, pro-
mulgated by Government Order No. 449A, dated 2nd June 1874, are, in my opin-
ion, inadequate for the purpose in hand. One of the conditions on which aid is to
be granted is that “the school as strengthened by the grant, will supply a distinct
want, and that the educational requirements of the neighbourhood are not already
sufficiently met by existing schools.” Now, the very establishment of a school
or college by the public, mainly at their own cost, warrants the assumption that
a necessity for it has really arisen, and that an aid from Government is merely
required to swell the existing funds. As long as the above condition remains
unaltered, the public cannot have any assurance that the colleges or schools they
intend to establish will receive an aid from Government, and more especially in
places where Missionary institutions already exist. Under such circumstances,
they would rather be inclined to infer, by the absence of any other alternative, that
the desire of the Government is to compel them to enter Missionary schools. This
condition, therefore, requires to be annulled.
223
A high school cannot be said to have an adequate staff, unless there be a Euro-
pean head master, graduates of a University for its subordinate masters, and three
competent second language teachers for Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian, respec-
tively. Such a school cannot be maintained by a less income than Rs. 900 per
mensem. It now remains for us to see what amount of grant in-aid do the existing
rules allot to such schools. The rules require that the average attendance of boys
who learn English should not be “less than one for every Re 1–8 of the monthly
grant.” It is therefore impossible for a school of the kind I have just described to
expect an aid from Government that may amount to half its expenditure, unless
that school undertakes to have an average attendance of at least three hundred
English reading students. And this is simply tantamount to saying that no one
should ever attempt to establish an efficient high school in the hope of receiving a
suitable and from Government.
No fixed scale of grant-in aid has been laid down for colleges.
To regulate grants in aid by the number of students receiving instruction is, in
my opinion, a wrong principle. The grants should not be regulated by the num-
ber of students, but by the quality of the instruction imparted. A better quality of
instruction necessarily involves a higher expenditure. It is much better to impart
a sound instruction to a limited number of scholars than to furnish a large number
of students with an imperfect education. I would, therefore, suggest that the grant
in aid should be regulated by the amount of the expenditure of the college or
school for which such aid is solicated, and that such aid should in no case be less
than half of the total expenditure of the institution. And when the people furnish
the moiety, Government cannot justly enter into a discussion of the number of
the students receiving instruction and of the average per head of the grant in aid.
Ques. 33.—Would the existing scholarship system answer its purpose as well
under the altered arrangements you have suggested?
Ans. 33.—In the North Western Provinces and Oudh, Government scholarships
are at present awarded to the best deserving of those scholars of Government
and aided institutions who successfully pass the Middle Class, Entrance, and
First Arts examinations, with a view to help them in prosecuting further studies.
I could suggest no better method for awarding scholarships. It is a pity that the
number of scholarships should have been considerably reduced, and it is essen-
tially necessary that savings should be effected in other heads of expenditure to
increase the number of scholarships. I am in favour of the system of scholar-
ships, and can never bring myself to admit that scholarships are a sort of bribes
for education. Scholarships are the best means of inducing students to continue
their studies. Scholarships are particularly needed in India, and more especially
for the Muhammadan community. They prove an essential help to those poor
students whose circumstances make it impossible for them to continue their stud-
ies beyond a certain class. Most of these renowned and illustrious personages of
ancient times who have made valuable additions to science, or have adorned lit-
erature with elegant works among Muhammadans as well as among other nations,
could claim but a poor parentage. Great expectations may still be entertained of
224
such persons in this direction. It is therefore absolutely necessary that a wider

extension may be given to the system of scholarships.
If I remember rightly, there still exists in England some provision for the help of
those poor students who are known by the name of “Sizars,” but they are viewed
with some degree of contempt by their more fortunate school fellows. The Man-
aging Committee of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh have
also adopted a mode for the maintenance of such “Sizars.” But they carry it out
with so much secrecy that other students have not the least knowledge of the
existence of such “Sizars” who thus escape the contempt with which they would
otherwise have been viewed. This mode of assisting deserving students has been
a great success.
Q. 34.—Can the system of payment by results be, in your opinion, usefully
applied to English schools? If so, in what way would you provide for its applica-
tion to such schools?
A. 34.—As regards English schools and colleges, the system of payment by
results, i e , one in which cash payments are made, is not, in my opinion, advis-
able. The custom of presenting prize-books to students who have successfully
passed their examinations is only another form of payment by results, and is, in
my opinion, suited to all intents and purposes.
Answers by the HON. SYED AHMED KHAN BAHADUR, C. S. I.,

to certain of the Questions framed by the Commission.

and combinations for local purposes?
Ans. 37.—The immediate effect of the withdrawal of Government from the
direct management (if the word includes pecuniary support) of schools and col-
leges, will be to reduce high education nearly to the point of death, but my per-
sonal opinion is, that it will subsequently revive spontaneously, and will then have
a healthy life, and be self supporting.
Ans. 39.—So far as I am aware, definite instruction in duty or the prin-
ciples of moral conduct does not occupy a separate or prominent place in
Government colleges and schools. Indeed, it is more than doubtful whether
Government can take any definite steps towards imparting such instruc-
tion without treading upon religious ground. Only such educational institu-
tions as are established by the Natives themselves can do much to improve
the social and moral feelings of the students. At the same time I firmly
believe that the influence of all high instruction in sciences and arts, and the
225
influence of English literature in particular, go far to advance the cause of

truth, morality, and sense of duty. If the instruction imparted in Government
colleges fails to achieve this fully, it is because the subjects of instruction
are multifarious, whilst the standard of efficiency in any individual subject
is low. The Government system of education encourages a smattering of
many subjects and a mastery of none, and the result is that it has not pro-
duced really great writers or leaders of thought whose names are likely to
live, or whose influences will be felt by the nation. This is a great misfor-
tune to the cause of moral and social progress. The purely native feeling is
decidedly against multifariousness of study, if it means want of depth, and
we have a Persian proverb—
“Nim hakim [Illegible Text]
Nim mulla [Illegible Text].
A half-doctor is a danger to life;
A half priest a danger to faith.
I have heard that the English poet Pope has composed a similar proverb in
English.
Cross-examination of the HON’BLE SYED AHMED KHAN,

C. S. I.
By MR. DEIGHTON.
Q. 1.—Would you kindly state whether, in your opinion, it is advisable that
high schools should be placed under the control of Municipalities as has recently
been ordered by the Government of the North-Western Provinces? If not, will you
kindly state your reasons for disapproving of such an order?
A. 1.—In my opinion Municipalities should have no control of the working of
English teaching schools of any class. Government schools should remain under
the control of the Director of Public Instruction, Missionary schools should
be managed by Missionaries, and schools or colleges established by bodies of
Native gentlemen should remain under their own control. In my opinion, neither
the Municipalities, nor any Revenue or Magisterial officer connected with the
administration of the district, should be allowed any power of interfering with
Missionary schools or educational institutions established by bodies of Native
gentlemen.
By MR. SYED MAHMUD.

Q. 1.—With reference to your 23rd answer, please state whether, in your opin-
ion, religious prejudices are the only causes which have kept Muhammadans
aloof from English education. Is there anything in their socio-political traditions
which has the same effect?
226
A. 1.—In my 23rd answer I have only touched upon the main cause. If all
the causes to which the failure of the Muhammadans to avail themselves of the
benefits of English education to an adequate extent is due were noticed, it would
become a lengthy detail. It may be briefly stated that the causes which have kept
the Muhammadans-aloof from English education may be traced to four sources—
to their political traditions, social customs religious beliefs, and poverty. An
insight into the political causes can be obtained by studying the history of the
last two centuries, and especially by studying the well known work written by
the Honourable the President of the Commission and named “Our Indian Mus-
salmans.” Briefly, I may say that the Muhammadan public was not opposed to the
establishment of British rule in India, nor did the advent of British rule cause any
political discontent among that people. In those days of anarchy and oppression,
when the country was in want of a paramount power, the establishment of Brit-
ish supremacy was cordially welcomed by the whole Native community; and the
Muhammadans also viewed this political change with feelings of satisfaction. But
the subordinate political change which this transition naturally involved as a con-
sequence, and which proved a great and unexpected blow to the condition of the
Muhammadans, engendered in them a feeling of aversion against the British, and
against all things relating to the British nation. For the same reason they conceived
an aversion for the English language and for the sciences that were presented to
them through the medium of that language. But this aversion is now declining in
the same degree in which education is spreading among Muhammadans.
The Muhammadans were proud of their socio-political position, and their keep-
ing aloof from English education may in some measure be ascribed to the fact that
the Government colleges and schools included among their pupils some of those
whom the Muhammadans, with an undue pride and unreasonable self conceit and
vanity, regarded with social contempt, and under this vain impression they did not
think it worth their while to associate with persons whom they considered inferior
to themselves in social position. The same vanity, self conceit, and prejudice of
the Muhammadans led them to attach an undue importance to their own litera-
ture, metaphysics, philosophy, and logic, and in the same spirit they regarded the
English literature and modern sciences as quite worthless, and productive of no
mental and moral good. They did not tolerate those persons being called learned
men who had acquired a respectable knowledge of European literature or science.
They could never be brought to admit that sound and useful learning existed in
any language except Arabic and Persian. They had given a peculiar form to moral
philosophy, and had based it on religious principles which they believed to be
infallible, and this circumstance had dispensed, as they thought, with the necessity
of European science and literature. I still remember the days when in respectable
families the study of English, with the object of obtaining a post in Government
service or of securing any other lucrative employment, was considered highly
discreditable. The prejudice has now, however, much slackened.
The religious aspect of the question I have already described. The poverty of
the Muhammadan community is only too obvious to require any comment. I am,
227
however, of opinion that the above mentioned socio-political causes, though still
extant, have been mitigated to a considerable extent, and the Muhammadans are
gradually freeing themselves of old prejudices, and taking to the study of English
literature and science.
Q. 2.—What has been the result of the attitude of Muhammadans towards
English education?
A. 2.—The importance of a knowledge of English in this country cannot be
questioned. The Government has justly rendered the possession of that knowledge
indispensable to Natives who are placed in charge of high and responsible offices
in executive and judicial administration, and the blessings of the British rule will
no doubt be increased when Native subordinate officials who are to assist the
English officers in the work of administration are acquainted with the English
language. In the same manner, a knowledge of the English language is essential to
those who engage in trade, or who adopt the legal or medical profession. The want
of attention shown by the Muhammadans towards the study of English has unfor-
tunately debarred them from these lucrative professions, and has consequently
increased their poverty, depriving them at the same time of the benefit of other
sorts of learning also.
Q. 3.—Have any special measures been taken by the people or the Government
for spreading English education among the Mussalmans?
A. 3.—As far as I know, the Muhammadans have, during the last few years,
established a few small schools in various places, but the course of study in such
schools has been confined to instruction in Arabic and Persian literature and the-
ology I know of no school established by the people for the diffusion of English
learning among the Muhammadans except the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental Col-
lege at Aligarh. But I hear that a school has recently been established by Nakhuda
Muhammad Ali Rogay at Bombay for the same object.
The “Calcutta Madrasa,” established by the Government of Bengal long ago,
does not meet the object satisfactorily. It neither imparts English education to an
adequate standard, nor makes that education compulsory, and the result has been
that some three hundred of the Muhammadan scholars reading in it have remained
destitute of English education.
In 1871 the Government of India passed a Resolution in which the attention
of the Local Governments was invited to the subject of Muhammadan education.
The Government of Bengal, too, established several schools for the benefit of the
Muhammadans from the income of the Muhsin Endowment and Calcutta Madrasa
Funds, but I hear that a considerable number of the students of these schools
have not received the benefit of English education. Similar specific measures for
the intellectual advancement of the Mussalman community were adopted by the
Government of Madras during the administration of Lord Hobart. Small schools
were also established in the North Western Provinces for the same purpose, but I
am not aware of the effect which these schools had upon primary and secondary
education. I can only say that the measure has produced no material effect upon
high education among Muhammadans, or upon their social and moral condition.
228
Q. 4.—Please state whether, in your opinion, Government should take any

further special measures for the advancement of English education among
Muhammadans?
A. 4.—I am decidedly of opinion that the Mussalman community has no right
to expect Government to adopt any denominational measure for them. The sys-
tem of education established by Government is equally open to all sections of
the population, and it cannot, and should not, show any partiality for a particular
class or section. The failure of the Muhammadans to derive an adequate share of
benefit from it is their own fault. They should now abide by the consequences of
that failure, and must thank themselves for their backwardness in the race of prog-
ress. In consideration, however, of the exceptionally unfortunate condition of the
Muhammadans and of their deplorable ignorance and poverty, Government would
only be according an indulgence to them if it should be pleased to consider the
subject of Muhammadan education as a special case, and in doing so the best plan
for the Government would, in my opinion, be to use every endeavour to induce
the influential and well to-do classes of the Muhammadans to establish schools
and colleges for the intellectual and moral advancement of their co-religionists, to
encourage and support the endeavours of such men by a more liberal and extended
system of grant-in aid, and to cause such European officials as have hitherto viewed
such affairs with discouraging coldness to take a more indulgent interest in them.
The Muhammadans have undoubtedly a just and natural claim to all endowments
which have been made by men of their own race expressly for the education of the
Muhammadan community, and the disposal of some of which at present rests with
Government. But I regret to say that I am unable to regard the uses to which those
endowments are at present applied as calculated to do any substantial good.
Q. 5.—With reference to a statement in your 31st answer, quoting the views of
a friend as to the absence of sympathy among European officers towards native
endeavours for establishing educational institutions, please state your own opin-
ion on the subject, and also to what causes you attribute the circumstance?
A. 5.—I agree in the views of my friend which I have quoted, and have therefore
given in my 31st answer an example of what personally happened to me. At the
same time, it is my opinion and belief that the Government and its high statesmen
cordially desire our welfare and feel sympathy with us. But the majority of those
subordinate European officers who have the administration in the mofussil in their
hands, are careless of, and indifferent to, our education and enlightenment. There
are, no doubt, some of them who go out of their way to show sympathy to us, and
take a share in our endeavours by helping us in our work with both by money and
by other means. Towards such English officers we naturally feel gratitude from
the bottom of our hearts. But there are also some European officers, though they
are few, who strongly feel that the spread of education and enlightenment among
Natives, and especially among the Mussalmans, is contrary to political expediency
for the British rule. This class of men dislike Natives educated in English, and
regard them with anger and jealousy. Similarly, some officers of the Educational
Department used to view the establishment of independent educational institutions
229
with a jealous eye. But I am thankful to say that, at least in my part of the country,
such is not the case at present. I have not made these remarks with reference to my
experience in any particular part of my life, but generally, and I have based them
on my experience ever since I first began to take an interest in the subject of educa-
tion among my countrymen. The causes of the circumstances I have described are
numerous, and some of them neither pleasant nor obvious. But I may briefly state
that the great majority of English officers believe that their duty is to do only their
official work, and that they are not called upon to take any trouble about other mat-
ters connected with the needs of the country. They do not come into social relations
with Natives, and therefore they are seldom able to know the real and inner wants
and needs of the Native population. Consequently, neither have they any occasion
to become acquainted with the requirements of Natives, nor to feel sympathy with
them. Thus, speaking generally, no real sympathy exists between European officers
and the Natives—I mean such sympathy as exists between two friends. I think this
very unfortunate, at least for my countrymen, but I wish to say plainly that the
blame does not rest entirely with either the English officers or the Natives. I firmly
believe that as soon as sincere friendly sympathy is established between English-
men and Natives, schools and even colleges will begin to be established all over
the country, and will cost Government no more than the grant-in-aid rules could
easily allow. But I am sorry to confess that I do not think that much improvement
in this respect can be expected for some years to come.
Q. 6.—How far, in your opinion, can Government take any steps towards the
education of Muhammadan girls, and with what chances of success?
A. 6.—Before proceeding to answer the question, I beg leave to say that the gen-
eral idea that Muhammadan ladies of respectable families are quite ignorant, is an
entire mistake. A sort of indigenous education of a moderate degree prevails among
them, and they study religious and moral books in Urdu and Persian, and in some
instances in Arabic. Among my own relations there are ladies who can speak and
understand Arabic very fairly, can read and teach Persian books on morality, and
can write letters in Persian, and compose verses in their own language. But this is
not a new or a rare thing. I myself read elementary Persian books with my mother,
and received from her other moral and instructive lessons in my early youth, which
are still fresh in my memory. In families of the better classes there have been ladies
in comparatively recent times who possessed a high degree of ability. I remember a
lady who belonged to the family of the famous Shah Abdul Aziz of Delhi, and who
possessed a considerable amount of learning in Arabic books of religion, and used
to preach religious and moral doctrines among her sex like a qualified and com-
petent preacher. The poverty of the Muhammadans has been the chief cause of
the decline of female education among them. It is still a custom among the well
to-do and respectable families of Muhammadans to employ tutoresses (Ustánis
or Mullanís) to get their girls instructed in the Holy Kurán, and in elementary
theological books in the Urdu language. Sometimes a father or a brother or some
other near kinsman teaches them to write letters in Urdu, and occasionally imparts
to them instruction in Persian books. To qualify them to read and write telegraphic
230
messages, some boys have taught English to their sisters sufficient for the purpose,
and I know of two girls who can even write letters in English. I admit, however,
that the general state of female education among Muhammadans is at present far
from satisfactory; but at the same time, I am of opinion that Government can-
not adopt any practical measure by which the respectable Muhammadans may be
induced to send their daughters to Government schools for education. Nor can
Government bring into existence a school on which the parents and guardians of
girls may place perfect reliance. I cannot blame the Muhammadans for this disin-
clination towards Government girls’ schools, and I believe that even the greatest
admirer of female education among European gentlemen will not impute blame to
the Muhammadans if he is only acquainted with the state of those schools in this
country. I have also seen a few of the girls’ schools in England. Were these institu-
tions for a moment supposed to be just like those in India in every respect, would
any English gentleman like to send his daughters for education to them? Certainly
not. I am therefore decidedly of opinion that the efforts hitherto made by Govern-
ment to provide education to Muhammadan girls have all been in vain, and have
completely failed to produce any effect whatever upon the respectable families of
the Muhammadans. Nor have the lower classes derived any benefit from them. The
question of female education much resembles the question of the oriental philoso-
pher who asked whether the egg or the hen was first created. Those who hold that
women should be educated and civilised prior to men are greatly mistaken. The
fact is that no satisfactory education can be provided for Muhammadan females
until a large number of Muhammadan males receive a sound education. The pres-
ent state of education among Muhammadan females is, in my opinion, enough for
domestic happiness, considering the present social and economical condition of
the life of the Muhammadans in India. What the Government at present ought to do
is to concentrate its efforts in adopting measures for the education and enlighten-
ment of Muhammadan boys. When the present generation of Muhammadan men is
well educated and enlightened the circumstance will necessarily have a powerful,
though indirect, effect on the enlightenment of Muhammadan women, for enlight-
ened fathers brothers, and husbands will naturally be most anxious to educate their
female relations There are even at this time many significant indications of this
desire on the part of educated men a few instances of which I have already given.
Any endeavours on the part of Government to introduce female education among
Muhammadans will, under the present social circumstances, prove a complete fail-
ure, so far as respectable families are concerned, and, in my humble opinion, will
probably produce mischievous results, and be a waste of money and energy.
By MR. PEARSON.
Q. 1.—Have you ever heard that school fees are sometimes paid by the teach-
ers when Government officers use pressure to increase the collections beyond the
rates to which the people are accustomed?
A. 1.—Yes. I have heard so.
231
Q. 2.—In your opinion, can the and genous schools of Northern India in
which young children learn the elements of book keeping and arithmetic only, be
improved by adding a course of general instruction?
A. 2.—I think not.
Q. 3.—Do you think that schools in which young children learn to read only a
few pages of the Kurán, together with a little religious teaching, can be improved
by adding a course of general instruction?
A. 3.—I think not. You can neither introduce a general course, nor is it practi-
cable to improve such schools in any way.
Q. 4.—Please state if there is any system of indigenous schools for girls of the
poorer classes in Northern India?
A. 4.—There is no public system of instruction for girls of any kind in the
North-West Provinces Girls are taught privately to read religious books and books
on morals.
Q. 5.—Where there is no desire for any kind of schools which might be estab-
lished by the Department, is it worth while for Government to make efforts to
induce the people to accept education?
A. 5.—The Panjab and North-Western Provinces in this matter are on a par.
Where there is no desire no schools can be established. But it you can remove the
causes which prevent the existence of a desire for education, you should try to do
so, and then the schools will be beneficial.
Q. 6.—Where Government schools have been maintained for many years with-
out results adequate to the expenditure incurred, should the attempt be abandoned,
or is it better to persevere in hopes of a change in the popular sentiment?
A. 6.—There is no use in continuing to maintain schools in such places. But
you should not cease to endeavour to remove the causes which hinder the success
of the schools.
Q. 7.—Do you think that the working classes in India are competent to judge
for themselves whether the education offered in departmental schools is suitable
for their children?
A. 7.—They have no time even to consider such a question.
Q. 8.—What is your opinion of educational durbars, and similar agencies, for
stimulating a desire for education?
A. 8.—They are nothing but shows.
By MR. LEE-WARNER.
Q.—With reference to the remark of the able Native gentleman quoted in your
answer to question 31 and your own comments on it, can you, from your own
experience, mention any European station in India in which contributions are not
made by Europeans towards the cost of some mission or other private school for
Natives?
A.—The question is complex, and as its form is negative, it implies that in
every European station in India Europeans give contributions towards native
232
education. I do not admit the fact implied in the question. The rest of the ques-
tion relates to two separate matters.—first, Missionary schools, second, private
schools established by Natives. I will answer each part of the question separately
as they cannot both be answered together. To the first part my answer is that I
know of no European station in which a Missionary school has been established
by contribution and is not supported by Europeans. To the second part of the
question my answer is that I am not, from personal knowledge, aware of any
station where a Native school has been established and is supported by contri-
bution from Europeans except our own Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College
at Aligarh which receives only one European contribution now, as I will pres-
ently mention. There may, however, be a few places where individual Europeans
have made donations or given small contributions towards the establishment of
a school or college for Natives. To our Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College
at Aligarh a few European noblemen and gentlemen,—prominent among them
the Hon’ble Mr. Justice Spankie (late of the Allahabad High Court), the Earl of
Northbrook, the Hon’ble Sir William Muir, the Hon’ble Sir John Strachey, Mr.
Charles Elliott, C.S., His Excellency the Marquis of Ripon, and also Lord Stan-
ley of Alderley, and two other English gentlemen of high position, who have no
connection with this country at all,—have made liberal donations. The Earl of
Lytton was the first who most generously gave to our college a handsome annual
contribution which continued till His Lordship left this country. His Excellency
the Marquis of Ripon likewise allows a munificent annual contribution to that
college besides the liberal donation already mentioned. These, and a few oth-
ers, are the European noblemen and gentlemen to whom I have alluded in my
answer to a previous question as possessing the heartfelt feelings of gratitude
of the Muhammadan community. But of the European officers of the station,
although there have been many changes among them since the college has been
established, no one ever gave a monthly or annual contribution to that college,
nor has any of them, with one exception only, made any donation to it. The pres-
ent local authorities, however, owing to their great personal kindness to me, are
showing much sympathy towards that institution and are exerting themselves for
its welfare, and this is gratefully and deeply appreciated by us. So that His Excel-
lency the Marquis of Ripon is the only one among Europeans in India who gives
to the Aligarh College an annual contribution. In other stations, like Saháranpur,
Deoband, Agra, &c., where Natives have established small schools, European
officers of the station, so far as I know, do not contribute towards the expenses
of those schools.
By MR. WARD.
Q. 1.—With reference to the self supporting schools mentioned in answer 3,
can you state what the usual rate of fee is?
A. 1.—There is no fixed rate; it varies from 4 pice to 1 rupee according to the
means of the pupil.
233
Q. 2.—Is it the fact that Mussalman men of learning have scruples against mak-
ing any profit from teaching?
A. 2.—Those men who teach in the name of God think it unlawful to take
money for teaching; but, besides that class, there are other learned men who take
employ and receive salaries for teaching.
Q. 3.—Can you assign any cause for the decrease in the number of indigenous
schools mentioned in answer 4?
A. 3.—When Government schools were established, people thought that greater
worldly good would accrue to them by going to Government schools.
Q. 4.—Then this cause dates back to Mr. Thomason’s time?
A. 4.—In Mr. Thomason’s time the work of vernacular education was extended
only to a few districts.
Q. 5.—With reference to answer 7, do you think that the sell me of entrusting
the direction of education to district committees is likely to further the utilisation
of indigenous schools in the North-Western Provinces?
A. 5.—Certainly.
Q. 6.—Do you think it is likely to improve the character of the inspection and
the trustworthiness of reports?
A. 6.—Certainly, if the committees interest themselves in the matter.
Q. 7.—Can you state what was the reply of the Government to the petition of
the Aligarh zamindars quoted in answers 16, 17, 18?
A. 7.—So far as I remember, the answer was that the local funds were not to be
regarded as the property of the people of the district, but were to be spent at the
discretion of the Local Government.
Q. 8.—With reference to the incident mentioned in answer 31, is it the fact
that in the prospectus which was issued regarding the Anglo-Vernacular College,
stress was laid on the propriety of subscriptions being chiefly confined to the Mus-
salman community.
A. 8.—When the prospectus of the college was originally published, the com-
mittee resolved by a large majority that it was essential that Englishmen should
join with Muhammadans in the cause of education, and the committee also
resolved that the English nation, who are our rulers, should be asked to share in
the work. The third point which the committee had in their mind was that it would
be contrary to political expediency to establish a college avowedly alienated from
English sympathy. At the same time it was resolved that Muhammadans should
ask Englishmen to contribute, but not Hindus, because it was regarded as a mat-
ter of shame that Hindus should be asked to subscribe to a separate college for
Muhammadans.
Q. 9.—Is it a fact that in establishing the Scientific Society of Aligarh you
received considerable assistance, both in money and sympathy, from European
gentlemen?
A. 9.—I received none except from Mr. Bramly, who gave me Rs. 1,000, but
said he had previously paid no attention to education.
234
By P. RANGANADA MUDALIYAR, M.A.

Q. 1.—You say in answer 7 that “the schools of classes (1) and (2) may easily
be assimilated with the Government educational system.” Would the private indi-
viduals to whom schools of class (1) belong allow any Government interference?
would these schools possess any degree of permanence?
A. 1.—In my opinion they would allow interference, provided the course I
have suggested is adopted. I have described how they can be made to possess
permanence.
Q. 2.—While I entirely concur with you as to the necessity of a fair knowledge
of English for a thorough study of any particular branch of science, I should like to
have an explanation from you as to how a knowledge of elementary principles of
science is to be imparted to the masses except through the medium of the vernacular?
A. 2.—Those who do not intend to study English afterwards must be taught
through the medium of the vernacular.
By THE REV. W. MILLER.

Q. 1.—What public do you refer to when you say in your answer to question 31
that the public feeling is opposed to your own?
A. 1.—I refer to the Native public.
By MR. CROFT.
Q. 1.—Efforts have from time to time been made to introduce the elements of
Western science into the Arabic department of the Calcutta Madrasa, and, except
as regards elementary arithmetic, these efforts have uniformly failed owing to the
indifference or hostility of the pupils. Would you, therefore, having regard to the
true interests of the Muhammadans, make the study of English and of Western
science compulsory in the Arabic department of the Madrasa, or would you think
it sufficient to encourage the study of English by appointing an English teacher,
attendance at whose classes should be optional?
A. 1.—In my opinion the Arabic department should be abolished. The system
of English education should be continued, and Arabic made compulsory as a sec-
ond language. The Madrasa then should be raised to the status of a college for
Muhammadans only.
Q. 2.—In the Madrasas of Hughli, Dacca, Rajshahye, and Chittagong, which
are supported from the Mohsin Endowment, it was decided from the beginning
that English teaching should be introduced whenever any considerable number of
the pupils manifested a desire for it, and it has accordingly been now introduced
into all those Madrasas—in Dacca up to the Entrance standard of the University,
in other Madrasas to a lower standard. Do you think that provision sufficient, or
would you make English a compulsory part of the course in all those Madrasas?
235
A. 2.—My opinion is that, whenever in any Madrasa Arabic is taught, coupled

with a little English, harm is done to both studies, and consequently to the pupils.
Where there is no great desire for instruction in English, I would only establish
a school teaching a little English, coupled with the study of Arabic or of the ver-
nacular to a moderate standard.
By DR. JEAN.
Q. 1.—Are you of opinion that the practical rules and formulæ known by the
name of “Gur” should, under such circumstances and for such purposes as stated
in the answer to question 5 be taught in schools exclusive of, or rather together
with, European methods of calculation?
A. 1.—In the indigenous schools alluded to, the instruction imparted by means
of “Gur” is sufficient for pupils educated in those schools and therefore the intro-
duction of European methods would be superfluous.
By THE HON. BABU BHUDEB MUKERJI.

Q. 1.—Do you know the difference between the Nagri and Kaithi characters?
A. 1.—I do not know.
Q. 2.—Are you aware of any Government order under which Kaithi writing
was abolished from the Patwari papers of the North-Western Provinces and Nagri
substituted for it?
A. 2.—I am not aware.
Q. 3.—Do Natives of the North-Western Provinces who have received high
education in English find it easy to get remunerative employment out of the
Department of Public Instruction?
A. 3.—It is impossible to answer that question briefly.
Explanatory Question by THE PRESIDENT

Q. 1.—You have said that the withdrawal of the Government from the direct
management of high education would, in the first place reduce those institutions
nearly to the point of death. Is it a matter of fact that many such schools and
colleges giving high education are at this moment flourishing in the hands of
Missionaries and under private Native management as at Aligarh and elsewhere,
without direct Government management?
A. 1.—Yes. The withdrawal of Government from direct management as used
in my answer was intended to include the withdrawal of all pecuniary aid. In that
case high education would reach the point of death. But if aid is given, then we
can establish many schools.
236
Memorial from the Members of the Hardui Union Club in favour of Hindi.
To
THE PRESIDENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION
TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
HONOURABLE SIR,
I. Heartily and cordially welcoming with sincere pleasure the news that an Edu-
cational Commission has been appointed by our benign Government in view to
enquiring into the condition of education in India and principally on the points
noted below,
We, the undersigned, think ourselves justified in laying before the Commission
our humble opinion with advertence to the improvement of primary education,
and other topics connected therewith. The questions which occupy the attention
of the Commission are—
(1) How is the mass education (i.e.) the elementary education of the agricul-
tural and other industrial classes of Indian carried on at present? Can it
be improved, and if so, by what means?
(2) Can it be made to exercise a wider influence so as to become a national
thing in course of time?
(3) How far should Government aid educational institutions, and can such
institutions be made to support themselves in case the Government with-
draws its aid?
(4) What are the best means of promoting male and female education, so that
it may practically help the higher education of Native children?
II. In our humble opinion, to propagate education successfully among the masses
of the people in India, and in fact in every country, great care should be taken in
selecting the language to be adopted as the medium of instruction, and we think in
this selection the consideration of the following points essentially necessary;—(1)
the medium language ought to be one that best suits the wants and requirements
of the people, (2) that assists them in their daily walk of life, (3) most materially
and easily helps them in expressing their ideas, as well as in impressing them upon
their minds, (4) affords material assistance in translations. Although many Persian
and even Arabic words have been introduced into our language by the invasion
of the Muhammadans, yet our mother tongue—we mean the language which our
children first begin to speak—bears a closer affinity to Hindi than to Urdu. Our
household members do not understand as properly when we speak before them
in Urdu, which we are compelled to acquire in schools, we undergo a heavy task
in reforming our language, changing it from Hindi into Urdu, for otherwise we
cannot be educated. This is indeed a matter of regret for us and cannot possibly
improve the mass education, not to say of making it a national thing. Without the
help of the mother tongue the mass education cannot be improved, and our mother-
tongue is most decidedly Hindi. We therefore loudly appeal for its introduction
237
in our schools, and we hope that our impartial and benign Government will take
into consideration our appeal. Our own conviction is that no language can either
be better appreciated by the people, or easily understood and acquired by them,
than their own mother tongue. We need hardly say that it is the easiest language,
and can be acquired and properly understood with very little difficulty. With these
considerations we beg to recommend Hindi as the most proper and fit one to be
selected as the medium of instruction in these provinces. Our recommendations
will, no doubt, meet with strong opposition and many persons will advocate the
introduction of Urdu as the medium of instruction. But it is very well known, and
has to some extent been proved, that Urdu is not our mother tongue, which is a con-
glomeration of Persian and Hindi. Urdu is still unknown in nearly all the villages
of these provinces where Hindi is universally spoken and easily understood. It is
not time for us to say under what difficulty we labour, by the fact that all the court
business is transacted in Urdu, the parties neither understand the judge, nor the lat-
ter the pleadings of the former, one thing is written, but quite a different meaning
can be construed from it, cases are upset, right is made wrong, and vice versa. How
annoying and perplexing it is to read Shekasta writing in Urdu and court business
is generally transacted in Shekasta hand. Another reason for our rejecting Urdu is
that in no language are there to be found so many immoral books as in Urdu, and
it is very difficult for young and raw students to save themselves from the immoral
effects of these books when they are perused by them. Education is the most effec-
tual remedy for the preservation and improvement of a man’s morality, but if he is
to study immoral books we mean love stories such as Gulbakaoh, &c., he is sure to
lose his mind and will never be able to make real improvement. To be plainer, the
effect of education will be lost upon him, may, it would produce a contrary effect,
then we see no use of introducing Urdu.
In Upper India, we mean in the Bengal Presidency, there are four large divisions—
Bengal, Behar, North-Western Provinces and Oudh, and the Punjáb. In the former
of the two their respective mother tongues are the medium of imparting primary
education as well as they are the court languages, while in the latter two provinces
Urdu is much encouraged and taught. Now if we compare the former two with
the latter ones, we find Bengal and Behar far in advance of the latter as regards
education and consequent civilization, union, and wealth, and this fully proves
the problem that education can be successfully imparted by adopting our mother
tongue, Hindi, as the medium of instruction. Why is it that the mass education is,
we should say, unknown in these provinces; we do not lack perseverance, zeal,
strength, energy and labour, then why are we not on an equal footing with Bengal
and Behar? The only reason is that we are not properly educated. The medium of
instruction selected for us being Urdu the mass of the people naturally turn away
from learning it and consequently remain uneducated for the whole of their lives.
Few words from us will suffice for the second question. It will no doubt, in
course of time, become a national thing if our mother tongue Hindi is chosen.
The Government for the present should not withdraw its aid because the country
is unripe for self support, but in future, when local boards are constituted and the
238
people understand the principles of local self government which the benign and
liberal Government of Lord Ripon has proposed to teach us and has done much
towards it, the Government can advantageously stop its support. But regard must
be had that no improvement can be expected if Hindi is not encouraged. The Gov-
ernment has proposed that the members of the local boards to whom the manage-
ment of schools is to be transferred are to be selected from the land owning classes
of the district who have, as a rule, great taste for their mother tongue Hindi and are
utterly unacquainted with Urdu, and under which circumstances it is certain that
they will try their best to improve Hindi education.
The Government has already done much for the improvement of our educa-
tion by establishing schools everywhere, and if we do not appreciate it, the fault
is ours. The only thing that will help us much is the selection of Hindi as second
language. Previously it was at our discretion to choose any language we preferred,
but since the issue of Resolution No. 1498A of 1878, we have been indirectly
ordered not to read Hindi because it lays down that the possession of the middle
class certificate is a sine quá non in getting an appointment, while there has been
circulated another order that no man will get a certificate even if he may have
passed the examination creditably if his second language is not Urdu. We would
have appreciated these orders as a great boon, if we could derive more help from
Urdu in learning English than from Hindi. But the reverse is the case. There is a
vast difference in the ideas of Urdu and English scholars, while there is very little
between those of Sanskrit and English ones, and thus the latter can assist us more
in reading English than the former. The characters of Urdu are so akin to each
other (in some the number and position of dots only make the difference) that it is
very difficult to read the correct word at the first effort, while is no such thing in
Hindi characters. It is very difficult to write in Urdu English words just as they are
pronounced while we can do so in Nagri. Considerations like these highly induce
us to recommend Hindi to be adopted as the medium of imparting education.
In conclusion, we beg to state that it is our firm conviction that if Hindi be
adopted as the medium of education in these provinces, an inherent love for educa-
tion will rise in the hearts of men to be able to read their religious books, and to be
free from the immoral effects of so many Urdu love stories. A love for union will
follow, and peace and prosperty will reign everywhere, which is, we believe, the
sole and main object of our human and benign Government in governing a people.
Memorial from Meerut Association in favour of Hindi

To
THE HONOURABLE W. W. HUNTER, L.L.D., C.I.E.,
President of the Education Commission
HONOURABLE SIR,
The members of the Meerut Association beg to submit the following represen-
tation for the favourable consideration of the Commission.
239
II. They feel very thankful to Government for its having taken up the question
of diffusing education among the masses. That the only practical way of effecting
this is to make the vernacular of the people the medium of instruction admits of no
question. But unfortunately for the North-Western Provinces their vernacular, the
Bhasha, or the spoken language, has been entirely ignored, and Urdu, an artificial
language, has been forced upon them under the patronage of Government. To
remove misconception on this point they embrace the favourable opportunity of
urging the claims of the mother tongue of 26,569,074 Hindus of these provinces,
with a view that the object of Government, which is the spread of primary educa-
tion among the masses, especially when its diffusion is contemplated, may not be
lost sight of by the continuation of the present injurious system. They now beg to
lay before you the reasons to support their views as described below.
1. Urdu is not the vernacular of these provinces, and is only used by the official
classes of the people on account of its being the court language, although there is
no reason why Bhasha should not be compulsory in the official circles. Urdu can-
not be intelligible to the masses owing to its being greatly mixed up with Persian
and Arabic words, while the real vernacular, the Bhasha of these provinces, is the
offspring of Sanskrit, once the spoken and written language of the people of the
whole of this country. (As is evident from Beame, Trumpp, Rajendra Lal Mitra
and other authorities on this subject.)
2. The masses of the people have not adopted Urdu, to foster which the Muham-
madans and English rulers have made every possible effort.
3. To facilitate intercourse between the rulers and the ruled, Urdu was cre-
ated during the Muhammadan rule, but it was never intended that it should
displace the language which at that time flourished in private schools as freely
as it does now. Urdu has as little penetrated into or influenced the masses as
English has. All the apparent growth and vigour of Urdu may be attributed to
the patronage of the late Muhammadan kings and the encouragement of the
British Government.
4. The real vernacular of the North-Western Provinces is Hindi, which the Hin-
dus speak, but Urdu is never spoken in their family circles. As the Deva Nágri
characters are widely used in India, they should be equally used in books to be
prescribed for the instruction of the masses in the North-Western Provinces.
5. The Deva Nágri characters, with some modifications, are used in other prov-
inces of India, in all languages derived from Sanskrit, viz., Mahrathi, Gujrathi,
Bengali, Kaythi, Hindi, Marwari, &c.
8. A beginner can learn Hindi more easily and rapidly than Urdu.
9. The whole of the Hindu community of the North Western Provinces and the
Punjáb use and speak most commonly Bhasha.
10. The female members of Hindu families can learn only through the medium
of Hindi as they are averse to read books written in Urdu, owing to religious
prejudices. This instruction is as important and useful as that of the other sex.
11. A Hindu experiences more difficulty to learn the Arabic and Persian
characters than a Muhammadan has to learn the Deva Nagri characters. The
240
Muhammadans have no religious prejudices against learning the characters of the

Hindus, but the Hindus are bound not to utter a single word of Persian or Arabic
in their divine devotion.
III. If however the retention of Urdu be considered absolutely necessary for
the sake of the Muhammadan population the members of the Meerut Association
most respectfully beg to urge that in any scheme which may be prescribed for the
North Western Provinces, the education of the people through Deva Nagri char-
acters should have at least equal claim if not greater than Urdu, especially where
the majority are Hindu students.
IV. Hindi is understood by the Punjabi, the Hindustani, the Bengali, the Mah-
rathi, the Gujrathi, the Sindhi, the Marwari, and by all nationalities of India, but
Urdu is not.
V. With a view that the above proposal be carried out, they beg to suggest
that a rule be laid down, that in every primary school of the North-Western
Provinces, Hindi, supplemented where found necessary by Urdu, should be the
medium of instruction. In every inferior and superior zilla school, both Hindi
and Sanskrit and the latter being their national classic, and all the Indian vernac-
ulars being based upon it, should be taught as a compulsory second language to
the Hindu boys, while the study of Persian or Arabic should remain an optional
subject.
VI. It may be said here that although Sanskrit is taught in some of the schools
of the North Western Provinces, it is discouraging Sanskrit and Hindi when the
students are to begin their education with Urdu and Persian and spend seven or
eight of the best years of their life in learning those languages which are sufficient
for their entrance into the University, they care very little to learn the optional
language, Sanskrit, or to cultivate their mother tongue, the Hindi.
VII. Unfortunately all the officers and subordinates of Public Instruction of
these provinces who are totally ignorant of Sanskrit and not well versed in Hindi,
are acquainted with Urdu and the foreign languages Persian and Arabic, on which
this artificial language is based. Hence they have not yet been able to realize
the necessity or the utility of giving instruction to the masses through their own
vernacular.
VIII. The native representative of the local Government of the North-Western
Provinces and Oudh in the Commission being a Muhammadan, who can scarcely
be said to be well acquainted with the habits, customs and manners of the Hindus,
justice can hardly be done to the interest of the Hindu community unless a Hindu
be deputed to represent the Hindu population.
IX. In conclusion the members of the Meerut Association hope that their hum-
ble proposal which alone can supply the great educational want of the people
of the North-Western Provinces will meet with that favourable consideration
and attention of the Commission which it deserves, and will not be set at naught
through the influence of the official classes, who alone, for the sake of their own
ease, have been fostering an artificial language to the detriment of the real inter-
ests of the people.
241
X. Lastly, they humbly beg to submit that a liberal education be imparted to the
young men of these provinces through the medium of the English language, as has
hitherto been the case, and that the standard of English education be not reduced.
Any attempt to diffuse the learning of the West through the vernacular current in
these provinces cannot be highly successful, as few books have been translated
into vernacular expounding the sciences of the West, nor is it practicable to trans-
late them all satisfactorily. The Association moreover is humbly of opinion that
the diffusion of primary education, the desirability of which cannot for a moment
be gainsaid, should be encouraged but not at the sacrifice and expense of a high
liberal education, the benefits of which are incalculable.
THE MEERUT ASSOCIATION ROOMS,

The 30th June 1882
Memorial from the Inhabitants of the City and District of Cawnpore

in favour of Hindi
To
THE HONOURABLE W. W. HUNTER, L.L.D., C.I.E.,
President of the Educational Commission
HONOURABLE SIR,
WE, the inhabitants of the city and district of Cawnpore in the North West-
ern Provinces, having been encouraged by your invitation to assist the Educa-
tion Commission, set under your Presidency, with our opinion as to the ways and
means of promoting mass education in India, beg respectfully to offer our mite in
the following lines—
Among the numerous points affecting the Education question of India, ably
handled by our brethren from other parts of the country, we will only distinguish
those two that attract our attention, and bring to the particular notice of the Com-
mission, as indispensably necessary for the practical development of the Indian
mind, these are, viz.—
1 The communication of the refined thoughts and ideas of the civilized West
2 The medium suitable for such communication
For the first point, we trust the Commission will be unanimous with us to rec-
ognise the growing sympathy of the people of India towards it, as a desire to study
European character in general, simultaneously with the knowledge of the national
history of the ruling race, the life history of a people who though young yet now
stand first with those precious means of happiness which once the most ancient
nation on earth bad only possessed, is being visible and more or less manifest in
every Native society in India, whether Hindu or Muhammadan. Even the rough
genius of humblest husbandmen in the remotest villages now a days show symp-
toms of some curiosity to learn a little of the modern history of Europe, if they can
242
only afford for it without disturbing the means of their livelihood. In fact it is evi-
dent that that time has arrived when a permanent way of communication between
the ignorant masses of India and the enlightened people of Europe is necessary,
and must be opened and kept open forever for their mutual satisfaction.
How this communication is to be opened—a question which constitutes the
second point is now under consideration of the Commission—and to enlighten
them therefore as to making a choice between the two candidates present, we will
do but justice only if we recommend for the most useful popular and economical
one as named in the third of the answers to the several queries we put to ourselves
on this head. We will give here these questions seriatim with the unhesitating and
clear answers they have naturally elicited.
QUESTIONS ANSWERS
1 What is the proper means of

conveyance of our thoughts and ideas
to another?
} Language.
2 What language is most conducive to

convey foreign thoughts to a nation? } Their mother tongue
3 What is the mother tongue of
Hindustan proper—Hindi or Urdu? } Hindi
{
A mixture of Hindi and Persian languages
made in the reign of the Muhammadans. In
the same way as the English speaking people
4 What is Urdu? are now making in Bengal, a new mixture
of “Bengali and English tongue,” in which a
sentence of five is often made of three English
and two Bengali words
5 Can it be called a mother tongue? No, Sir, never!
When Urdu is not accepted as the mother tongue of Hindustan, it cannot at

the same time be accepted as the easy, safe and cheap medium of communica-
tion of foreign thoughts among them, though it is occasionally used in limited
circles by a very limited number of men of the educated class, and as such it
possesses no merit whatever to supersede the claims of Hindi which is in fact
the language of the masses of Hindustan. Having disposed of these points, we
now embrace the opportunity of expressing in the same way our opinion on the
merits of Hindi.
In our schools either English or vernacular, the inconvenience which both the
teachers and the boys as well now feel, in undergoing the tasteless toil of a double
process of frequently explaining and understanding the meaning of words, once in
Urdu and again in Hindi can be easily avoided by the retention of Hindi alone, and
this even reducing and not increasing the expenses of teaching. Urdu being often
subject to translations is not only expensive but also repulsive, as it never takes its
root so easily in the boy’s mind as Hindi the mother tongue does.
243
Under these circumstances, we conclude, Honourable Sir, with our firm convic-
tion, that the Commission, considering the claims of Hindi superior to Urdu will
decide the matter of selection in favor of the former, which is equally beneficial to
both Hindu and Muhammadan for the same and one common cause, the cultiva-
tion of western skill and wisdom for enlightenment and happiness.
An Address from the Members of the Deputation representing the Bharat Barsha
National Association at Aligarh in favour of Hindi and professional training.
To
THE HONOURABLE W. W. HUNTER, I.L.D., C.S.I., C.I.E.,
SIR,
We, members of the Bharat Barshia National Association of Aligarh, beg leave
to approach you with this address in the hope that it may be accepted by you,
and will receive due consideration from yourself and the other gentlemen who
compose the present Educational Commission appointed by His Excellency the
Viceroy and Governor General of India. As the object and aim of our association
are to encourage education in general, we feel it our duty to lay before you and
your colleagues a few suggestions on educational questions. The association was
established here chiefly through the influence of Munshi Nawalkishore, proprietor
of the Oudh Akhbar, the only daily Urdu newspaper in these provinces and it is in
its contemplation, in consideration of the present state of funds at its disposal, to
establish a library consisting of books on literature, history, science, and arts in
the English, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit and Hindi languages, and as Aligarh, through
the indefatigable exertion of our venerable contryman the Hon’ble Syed Ahmed
Khan promises to be a seat of learning, such a collection of books is calculated to
confer immense benefits on the reading public, besides supplying a crying want
of a suitable place for holding meetings for educational and social purposes. We
are privately, but reliably, informed, that Sir Alfred Lyall our able and enlightened
Lieutenant Governor, highly approves of this proposal and attempt, and has con-
descended to allow us to call the proposed library after his name, we are therefore
going to christen it as “the Lyall Library.” We have also sanguine hopes and strong
reasons to believe that our noble Government will grant us a plot of ground for
the purpose of constructing a building on it in connection with this library. It is
hoped that as our means increase further manifestation will be shown towards the
encouragement and furtherance of education generally and high English educa-
tion particularly.
It is not a matter of common gratification to us to see that an eminent gentleman
of your intellectual attainments and scholastic abilities, sound learning and deep
erudition, has been appointed a President of this Commission; there could not be
a better selection, and it is really charming to see the right man in the right place,
244
so to speak. This fact emboldens us to come forward with a few suggestions on

the question of English education In general, and primary education in particular,
as the latter seems to be one of the principal objects of Government, and, in our
humble thinking, a matter of vital importance to the national progress and growth
of a people.
The question is specially important to the inhabitants of these provinces, who
have at present to labour under peculiar difficulties and disadvantages in this
respect. It will be in vain to deny the fact that English education has made little or
no progress worth the name in these parts, and that our brethren here are consider-
ably backward in comparison with the inhabitants of the other provinces of India.
This state of things no doubt is a deplorable one, but not therefore irremediable. It
still lies in the power of those in authority who are real friends of our education,
social progress and national improvement, to devise sound and salutary means for
the amelioration of our condition, and in our humble opinion the adoption of a
very simple method will secure this noble and grand object in view. Our children
meet with insurmountable difficulties in the way of their education by reason of
the introduction and prevalence of the Urdu language in the courts and public
offices of the whole of the North-Western Provinces including Oudh and the Pun-
jáb. In order to acquire a competent knowledge of Urdu and get a mastery over
it, they have to learn Persian, and sometimes Arabic, as without this they are not
considered to be thoroughly conversant with Urdu required for the performance
of works in the said courts and offices. It is not in the power of men of ordinary
intellect and average abilities to acquire more than one foreign language besides
their own vernacular, but the existence of the Urdu language here makes the case
otherwise with us. The best portion of a boy’s student life is taken up with the
study of these languages, and the consequence is that their English education is
altogether neglected. If the Urdu language be done away with and our own ver-
nacular, the Hindi Bhasha be introduced in its place, our students will be able to
learn it in a short time with comparative ease and greater facility than at present,
and devote a greater portion of their time to the study of English. High education
will make steady and rapid progress on a sound and firm basis, and the complaint
that it had made no such progress hitherto will be nothing of the past.
Primary education or education for the masses of the people is undoubtedly
desirable, but the cause of high education should under no circumstances be
allowed to suffer on that account, i.e., primary education should not be given at
the expense of high education, which has already done much good in India. It
has thoroughly changed the moral atmosphere of our country and taught people
to know what they are. It has improved the tone of the subordinate judicial and
executive services and of the Native Bar—a result highly satisfactory to ourselves
and our noble rulers.
We feel it our duty also to mention here that high education has not received
that support and encouragement from Government which it ought to get. At pres-
ent a sort of general education is given to our countrymen, and they are after-
wards left to look out for themselves. There is scarcely any institution here where
245
they can receive professional or technical education. There are three branches
or departments in the public service in which educated Natives can hope to get
lucrative appointments. The first is law, which includes:—
A—The independent profession of pleaders and vakils.
B—The subordinate judicial service.
C—The subordinate executive service.
The second is the medical profession, which includes the appointments of:—
A—Assistant Surgeons.
B—Native Doctors.
C—Hospital Assistants.
The third is the Engineering Department, which includes the posts of:—
A—Executive and Assistant Engineers.
B—Sub-Engineers.
C—Overseers.
D—Sub-Overseers.
E Miscellaneous appointments in the Public Works Department.
Now with regard to the first, we beg to say that only the Muir Central Col-
lege at Allahabad is affiliated to the Calcutta University in law, and one institu-
tion in a whole province is totally inadequate to supply the wants of the people
in this respect. Besides B. L. degrees are not recognised by the Hon’ble High
Court in these provinces, and they have got a special test and examination of
their own.
With regard to the second, it is enough to point out that the Agra Medical School
is the only institution where medicine is taught, but only hospital assistants come
out of this school and the want remains still unsatisfied.
As regards the third or last it is true that an Engineering College exists at pres-
ent in Roorkee, but the greatest advantage derived there is by the military classes,
only a limited number of Native students is admitted every year and there is no
guarantee for more than three appointments as Assistant Engineers. The college
is at such a distance that people think it a great hardship to go there and study for
a number of years without any certainty of getting appointments in the Public
Works Department. These are the stumbling blocks in the path of high education
in these provinces, and some means must be devised to remove them in order to
make the path smooth and easy.
Primary education meant for the lower classes, to our thinking should be given
to them through the medium of their own vernacular, which is unquestionably
Hindi in these provinces. Such an education in a foreign dialect will not only
prove to be disadvantageous but almost impracticable. Moreover, the masses of
the people cannot devote much time to their studies and the acquirement of a
foreign language. These remarks apply with equal force to the education of the
females which also is not less important.
246
In conclusion, we offer you our hearty thanks for giving us this opportunity of
expressing our humble views on the grand educational question.
An Address from the Managing Committee of the Kayastha Pathsala of Allahabad.
TO
THE HONOURABLE W. W. HUNTER, LL.D., C.I.E.,
SIR,—We the members of the managing committee of the Kayastha Pathsala,

Allahabad, beg leave to offer you a respectful welcome to this institution.
2. A brief history of the pathsala will perhaps not be uninteresting to you, and
with your permission we give it. It was established in 1873 by Moonshi Kalyprosad,
a resident of Shahzadpur in this district, at his expense, and without any aid from
Government. The contributions made by this public spirited gentleman from time to
time for the support of this institution amounted to no less a sum than Rs. 1,59,000,
and to this amount, donations from other gentlemen, interested in the objects of the
pathsala, were added amounting to Rs. 10,000. The pathsala is now maintained to
a considerable extent by the founder, and also from the income derived from vil-
lages, rents of houses, interests, &c. The financial position of the pathsala is now so
assured that it may be fairly regarded as a self-supporting institution.
3. The original intention of the generous founder of the pathsala was to give
primary instructions to the boys of his community, whose parents were either
unable to give proper education to their children or could not, for some reason
or other, avail themselves of the advantages and facilities afforded by Govern-
ment institutions. But in course of time the scope of the pathsala was enlarged,
and students from all classes of the people are now admitted, and are classified
either as foundation boarders, aided students or day scholars. At the end of 1881
there were 118 pupils on the roll, of whom 25 were Brahmins, 69 Kayasths, 12
Khatries and 12 Vaisyas. From July 1878, the status of the pathsala was also raised
to that of Anglo vernacular middle school. English, Persian, Urdu, Sanskrit and
Nagri are the languages through the media of which instruction is imparted in the
institution, but special attention is paid to the culture of the English. There are six
annual scholarships of the monthly values of Rs. 180 to Rs. 4 which have been
founded. A library containing upwards of 2,000 volumes in different languages is
also attached to the school.
4. Believing that one of the most important of the educational results arrived at
by Government is the development of self help among the people, and to foster
an independence of national character, we have no doubt, Sir, that the spirit which
has called forth the pathsala into existence will be appreciated by the Education
Commission, and by no one more so than by yourself, its learned and accom-
plished President. We are firmly convinced that it is by the gradual recognition by
247
our countrymen of this principle of self reliance, however sectional a character it

may assume at the commencement, that the problem of national education can be
truly solved, and it is gratifying to us, who set so great a stress upon the principle
in question, to find that spontaneous efforts for the dissemination of knowledge
are multiplying in India.
5. With this humble statement of facts and expressions of our opinion we con-
clude this address, thanking you heartily for the honour you have done to the
Kayasth pathsala by your visit to day—a day which we can assure you, Sir, will
be gratefully remembered as an important event in the history of this institution.
ALLAHABAD
KAYASTHA PATHSALA,
The 15th August 1882
Memorial from the Pandits of Benares in favour of Hindi and

Deva-Nágri Character.
TO
THE HONOURABLE W. W. HUNTER, LL.D., C.I.E.,
SIR.—We, the members of the Sabha of Benares Pandits, beg leave to approach
your honour with the following lines, and hope to be excused for the trouble we have
given you on this occasion by the presentation of this petition from our society:—
We tender our heartfelt thanks to His Excellency the Viceroy who has set this.
Education Commission abroach owing to some observed discrepancy in the pres-
ent system of education as given in India. In addition to this, we are very glad to
state that a man really learned, energetic, and a well wisher of our fellow country-
men like yourself has been appointed chair man of the said assemblage.
We are sure and certain that the system of education in India will be in a much
better condition after the necessary emendations in the manner in which it is given
now a-days will have been duly observed as sanctioned by the Commission above
referred to.
As your honour is fast intent on the bettering of the system of education in this
country, we hope you will be kind enough to listen to a single suggestion of ours
which we have the honour of discussing in the following lines:—
Sir, it is our only suggestion that if Deva Ngari characters be used in the courts
of these provinces, instead of Urdu (no matter if the official forms of the courts
be not a bit changed), we think it would prove much advantageous to the general
public. As to the support of our opinion we beg to insert the following lines:—
By the prevalence of Urdu characters in the courts of these provinces, we every
day meet with such phrases that can be read in lots of different ways. Urdu char-
acters may be compared to a fictitious law called kamdhenu (<HINDI>) supposed
to have had the property of producing anything the owner wanted, according to
248
our Hindu Mythology, i.e., in other words Urdu characters are so delusive that
various readings can be deduced from them, while Deva-Nágri characters are not
such, and consequently nobody will be a loser, if they be used in the courts, for
misrepresentations can have no grasp whatever on them.
Secondly, Deva Nagri characters are such that the wording of any language can
be correctly reproduced in it, and distinctly pronounced, and that there are a very
few languages which answers this purpose.
Besides these, the superiority of Hindi over Urdu has been fully demonstrated
in a memorial presented to your honour by the body politic of Benares, through
Babu Harrisha Chandraji with the main points of which we fully agree.
In conclusion we hope you will kindly think over the matter with a due regard
and I pass your just sentence on it, for it constitutes a great blessing to our fellow
countrymen who would stand indebted to your honour over and above for this act
of gratitude.
Answers to the Commission’s questions, prepared by

BABU BIRESHWAR MITTRA, Pleader, High Court,
North-Western Provinces
been gained?
Ans. 1.—I was for some time a teacher in an aided school. I have served for a
number of years as tutor to minor Rajas under the Bengal Court of Wards. I have
been associated with the managing committee of the Bengalitolah Preparatory
School at Benares for several years past. I have also had frequent opportunities of
forming my opinion on educational matters by reason of the interest I took in the
education of several of my relatives and friends.
My experience has been gained mostly in the North-West.
Ques. 2.—Do you think in your province the system of primary education has
been placed on a sound basis, and is capable of development up to the require-
Ans. 2.—(a) I do not think that in the North-West the system of primary
education has been established on a permanent footing. The present system
of halkabandi schools, founded for the purpose of giving elementary instruc-
tion of a uniform character, having reference only to geographical areas, takes
no cognizance of special local requirements. Certain districts or portions of
districts are more backward or more advanced than others in the cause of edu-
cation. Moreover, every distinct geographical area has its special claims. A sys-
tem therefore which is equally applicable everywhere is not capable of healthy
development.
249
(b) In my opinion the sound basis for imparting primary education can be no
other than the indigenous system, which, if brought under proper discipline, and
regulated by a more enlightened method, will be capable of better and mere exten-
sive development than the primary (halkabandi) schools. The course of instruc-
tion pursued in schools of the latter description finds no favour with the people. I
shall deal with this subject more fully in my answer to the 4th question.
Ques. 3.—In your province, is primary instruction sought for by the people in
it, and if so, why? Are any classes practically excluded from it, and if so, from
Ans. 3.—Primary instruction, as given in the halkabandi schools, has hitherto
been availed of only by those who have come in contact with the influence of facts
brought into existence by the exigencies of the British rule. The sons of Govern-
ment servants and of those who have directly or indirectly something to do with
the English community attend these primary schools. Just in the same manner
and to the same extent as the system of English (allopathic) method of medical
treatment is adopted by the Natives, so are the advantages of this new system of
instruction received by the people for whom these schools are chiefly meant. The
lower castes have generally held aloof from the benefits of the primary schools,
and might almost be said to have been practically excluded from this system of
elementary instruction. The reasons are twofold:—(1) The rigorous discipline of
the halkabandi schools; and (2) the peculiar circumstances of these people, who
are for the most part poor, and who can ill afford to permit their children to attend
schools at a time when their labours would be required at home or in the field. I
may here suggest that the hours of attendance in institutions meant for the agricul-
tural and the poorer classes of the people should be fixed with special reference to
their habits and mode of life.
The attitude of the influential classes in the North Western Provinces, with very
few exceptions in the case of enlightened landlords is one of stolid indifference
with reference to the extension of elementary knowledge to all classes of society.
I would however, add that there is scarcely a boy in the higher or middle classes
of society who has not received education in some shape or other.
character of the instruction given in them and the system of discipline in vogue?
schools generally selected and what are their qualifications? Have any arrange-
been extended to indigenous schools and can it be further extended?
250
Ans. 4.—(a) Indigenous schools do exist in the North Western Provinces, but
not fully up to the requirements of the people. The encroachments of schools
founded on new fangled methods have affected injuriously those institutions
existing as an old established system.
(b),(c),(d), and (e). In the hierarchy of the ancient village system, the priest
of every large village had the charge of the education of the sons of those who
were under his spiritual guidance. The pathsalas set up by these gurus (as the
village schoolmaster was called), were supported by the well to do classes out
of regard for the priesthood, who, if they did not teach themselves, had the task
performed by their relatives or friends. This state of things has partly given way
to what might be designated as the primary school system; and it is only due to
the conservative character of the Hindus that pathsalas do still exist. The system
as it exists, however, possesses the capacity of expansion and development, not
only in the sense of increase in the number of such institutions, but also in the
method of instruction given. The fees taken by the gurus were partly paid in kind
and partly in money. The quantity of grain or other edibles given, and the amount
of money paid as tuition fees depended on the degree of competency of the par-
ents or guardians of the pupils. There is no arrangement, judged from the modern
standard, for the training of these gurus, but they are as a class brought up in
these schools themselves and acquire a smattering of Sanskrit in pathsalas kept
up for the purpose by the more learned of the priesthood. I might here mention the
existence of indigenous schools for the purpose of given elementary instruction
in the Sanskrit language and literature, and teaching the numerous kinds of pujas,
sacrifices and ceremonies.
(g) (h),(i), and ( j). The improvement of these institutions can best be secured
by recognizing their importance as a system of national agency for giving elemen-
tary instruction, and by affording to the existing schools the advantages of State
aid and inspection. The supervision of these schools may be advantageously made
over to the district committees, who will be able to place them under proper local
control. The gurus can certainly be made willing to receive aid from Government
and to conform to the rules imposed upon them as the condition on which such
aid is given.
I would suggest the adoption of the following measures—
(1) By way of taking a preliminary step, it is, in my opinion, advisable to take a
list of all indigenous schools existing in the province. This can only be done with
any degree of accuracy if the members of the local committee of public instruc-
tion could be persuaded to take a personal interest in the matter.
(2) The indigenous school system could not be properly developed in accor-
dance with approved methods of education, unless pecuniary aid be given by the
Government. This will, moreover, have the effect of bringing the whole system
under State control. State aid should take the form of a capitation allowance on the
average attendance of scholars in each pathsala or muktab.
(3) The indigenous schools must submit to the rules and orders of the Director
of Public Instruction with respect to—
251
(a) periodical inspection by educational officers or representatives of district

board;
(b) the selection of text-books;
(c) periodical examinations, and;
(d) submission of returns and maintenance of registers as enjoined by the
Department;
Any further interference with the working of the system will act prejudicially.
(4) The standard of instruction must be confined to elementary education, viz.,
reading, writing, and arithmetic.
(5) The appointment and dismissal of the village schoolmasters as well as
all other matters of internal economy, should be left as far as possible in the
hands of a body of resident Native gentlemen owning property or possessing
local influence in the village and who have a personal interest in the well being
of the schools.
I would strongly recommend (a) the improvement of the status and material of
the indigenous schools, (b) the gradual assimilation of the primary on balkabandi
schools with the older system; and (c) the establishment of both on a footing
which will ensure the benefits of elementary instruction being brought within the
reach of the greatest possible number of the people.
educated at school?
Ans. 5.—(a) Home instruction is confined to well to do classes of society. Up
to a certain standard boys can and do I am more readily and rapidly at home than
in the schools. The reason is obvious. There is at home more pains bestowed by
the teacher or the guardian in the teaching of one lad, than in the case of a school-
master having charge of the teaching of a whole class. The limit or standard up to
which boys are and can be educated privately varies, and must continue to vary,
according to the nature of education the head of the family has himself received
or according to his means. But the highest limit that can be reached by “home
education” is the middle school standard.
(b) There are no examinations, that I am aware of, which qualify for the public
service, unless the middle class examinations be meant in the question. Here,
certainly, the previous discipline and examinations which boys brought up in
schools have to undergo, and the healthy competition in the midst of which they
are educated, render their chances of success far greater than that of boys educated
privately.
Ans. 6.—(a) I have already answered the first part of the question in stating my
answer to the 3rd and 4th questions.
252
(b) The only agency which exists for promoting primary instruction in rural
districts is the village hierarchy, which gave rise to the indigenous school system.
This is about the only agency that can be relied upon.
Ans. 7.—The funds assigned for primary education in rural districts should be
administered by district committees or local boards, and devoted chiefly to the
purpose of giving a capitation allowance on the average attendance of boys in the
primary schools, or by providing these institutions with certificated schoolmasters.
(b) The proper limits of control to be exercised by local committees or district
boards should be the same as stated in the 3rd paragraph of my answer to clauses
(g), (h), (i), and (j) of the 4th question.
of elementary instruction in towns is to be a charge against Municipal funds what
Ans. 8.—(a) A certain number of primary and middle class schools sufficient
for the requirements of the population of the towns must be maintained by the
Municipal committees.
(b) A certain percentage of town duties should be specially appropriated for the
purpose of supporting these educational institutions.
Ans. 9.—(a) The present system of Normal schools, as being the only machin-
ery for providing teachers in primary schools, has, so far as my experience goes,
worked satisfactorily. The only suggestion I have to make is that the curriculum of
studies in these schools should embrace a little of classics (viz., Sanskrit and Ara-
bic) in order to supply materials for a healthy development of vernacular literature.
(b) The present social status of a village schoolmaster, though by no means
inferior to that of a guru, is not generally recognised and acknowledged in vil-
lages, where the people, by reason of old standing prejudices, are more than ordi-
narily intolerant of reforms from without.
(c) The influence which a teacher in the primary schools can exert among the
villagers depends greatly on the caste to which he belongs, and to his address and
intellectual acquirements.
(d) The only measure I can think of (and I state it with great reluctance) is the
appointment of schoolmasters of good caste, except in the case of institutions
where the majority of scholars are other than those on whom the prejudices and
traditional observances of the caste system exert little or no building influence. I
will add that the possession of knowledge likely to be useful to the people among
253
whom he is called upon to exercise the calling of a teacher will help the village
schoolmaster in gaining popularity and influence in the village.
Ans. 10.—(a) Besides the elements of knowledge (the three R’s), lessons on
improved method of agriculture would be both acceptable to the community and
useful to the villagers.
(b) I would suggest the publication of a book divided into two parts—one treat-
ing on agriculture, and the other on the relations which should exist between a
landlord and his tenants. In order to create a desire for receiving instruction in
those subjects, I would recommend that a copy of this book be given gratis to two
or three of the best boys attending the village schools, indigenous or halkabandi.
ince the dialect of the people? and if not, are the schools on that account less
useful and popular?
Ans. 11.—(a) The question of the vernacular is a very delicate one in the North-
Western Provinces. The recognition of Urdu as the written and spoken language
of the courts in this province has a direct influence on the vernacular. Undoubtedly
the highest aim of an ordinary Hindu villager is to be able to recite and understand
the Ramayana (or works of equal sanctity). But the language of the Ramayana
is not the language which the Government recognises as the vernacular of the
people, and the study of this language is becoming to be the least profitable. Here
lies the difficulty. Spasmodic efforts have been made, but with little or no success,
to overcome this difficulty by reconciling the forces arranged in favour of and
against Hindi. The battle between Hindi and Urdu has been fought in Behar, and
the victory was justly gained by the partisans of Hindi. The result is that Hindi is
the written language of the courts in that province. The wealthy landlords in the
several districts of Bebar appreciate thankfully the change. I can state this as a
positive fact by reason of my acquaintance with gentlemen connected with the
management of the richest estates there. The Maharajas of Bettiah, Dumraon,
Durbhunga, and Hatwa are fully sensible of the advantages resulting from the
Resolution of the late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal in respect of Hindi being
declared to be the written character of the courts. The same conditions which oper-
ated in favour of Hindi in Behar, exist in almost all the districts in the North-West,
excepting perhaps the districts of Moradabad and Bareilly. I think I may safely
state that Hindi is the written and spoken language of at least nine-tenths of the
people who have occasion to come to the courts. It will be out of place here for me
to recapitulate all the arguments which have been, and can reasonably be, adduced
in favour of Hindi. I will satisfy myself by saying that the recognition of Urdu as
the language of the courts is regarded by the people as a pure and simple survival
of the old Moslem tyranny in India. How far the change of the language at present
in use in the courts is feasible, however, for the whole of the North-West or in any
254
portion of the province, I will not undertake to say, by reason of my predilection

in favour of Hindi and prejudice against Urdu. The question of the form of the
several written characters passing under the name of Hindi, is allied to the subject
under consideration. Giving due weight to all arguments urged on both sides of
the question, I consider that the Roman character could, with advantage to all
parties concerned, be adopted as the written character of judicial proceedings and
processes. The system of transliteration, on the well-laid and approved method
of Dr. Hunter, can very easily be learnt. The plan I have the honor to recommend
has, moreover, the manifest advantage of enabling European judicial officers to
read the records of cases themselves, and how far this will materially help in the
task of administering justice I will leave the Civilian Members of the Commis-
sion to represent and decide. So far as the interests of education are concerned, I
must say that the adoption of this plan will leave the vernacular of the people of
the North-West under normal conditions of growth, which is certainly impeded to
an incalculable extent by the preference given by the Government to Urdu, very
properly regarded as the language of Muhammadan foreigners in the country. I
will take leave to add that the rapid, rich, and luxuriant growth of the vernacular
literature in the adjacent province of Bengal, even after making due allowance to
the circumstances of education having had the first start in that province, is greatly
due to the fact that the real vernacular of the people there has not had to compete
with any foreign element in point of use and profit.
(b) I have mentioned above that efforts have been made to effect a compromise
between the rival and opposing forces of Hindi and Urdu.
The result of this compromise is that a number of books have been written in
a language which is supposed to be the “language of the camp,” though not the
real vernacular of the Hindus in this province. A degree of unpopularity attends
the study of books which are not written in the language of the forefathers of the
people.
the promotion of education amongst a poor ignorant people?
Ans. 12.—The system of payment by results is suitable for promotion of edu-
cation amongst a poor and ignorant people. The great end in view, in the present
state of “mass education” in the country, should be the extension of the benefits of
elementary education to the largest possible number of the people.
Ques. 13.—Have you any suggestion to make regarding the taking of fees in
primary schools?
Ans. 13.—The only change I would allow, with reference to the taking of fees
in primary schools, is, that boys may be permitted to pay for their instruction in
kind as well as in money. How far this will do for halkabandi schools I am unable
to determine. I am certain, however, that the change will find favour with the
people in the rural districts.
Ques. 14.—Will you favour the Commission with your views—first, as to how
the number of primary schools can be increased, and secondly, how they can be
255
Ans. 14.—In answer to this question I would refer to all that I have stated in
answer to the 4th question. I am not quite sure whether the scheme of “compul-
sory education” is in advance of the period of history in which we find ourselves.
I may, however, state that a great deal can be done towards the increase of schools
intended for giving elementary instruction, and for rendering them efficient, by
the district officers taking an increased interest in the development of primary—I
may say mass—education in the country. If the zamindars could be impressed
with the belief that they will receive certain considerations at the hands of the
Government by helping in the cause of the education of their countrymen, good
results will certainly ensue.
institutions of the higher order have been closed or transferred to the management
of local bodies as contemplated in paragraph 62 of the Despatch of 1854? And
and what do you regard as the chief reasons why more effect has not been given
to that provision?
Ans. 15.—I am not aware of any instance in which a Government educational
institution in this province was transferred to the management of a “local body.”
The reason is that there are not “local bodies” who have expressed a desire for, or
possess the capacity of, taking the management of such institutions. I do not think
that the contents of paragraph 62 of the Educational Despatch of 1854 are known
to the general public.
Ques. 16.—Do you know of any cases in which a Government institution of the
to protect?
Ans. 16.—I am not aware of any instance in which a Government institution
of the higher order could be closed without injury to the cause of education and
national progress. So far as I am aware, ‘private bodies’ do not exist to whom the
management of such institutions could be transferred. The state of things con-
templated in this question might possibly exist in Bengal, but certainly not in the
North-West.
the establishment of schools and colleges upon the grant in aid system?
Ans. 17.—I do not think that in the North-West there are gentlemen who will
aid in the establishment of colleges upon the grant-in aid system. With regard to
schools, I will state my opinion in my answer to the 36th question.
Ques. 18.—If the Government, or any local authority having control of public
money, were to announce its determination to withdraw after a given term of
years from the maintenance of any higher educational institution, what measures
Ans. 18.—Under the circumstances stated in the question, I would recommend
that before the actual withdrawal of the State from the maintenance of a higher
256
educational institution, such school or college should for a certain number of

years be made over to a body of residents qualified for the purpose of taking the
support and management of the institution into their hands, to be maintained by
them on trial under Government supervision. If, after the expiration of the proba-
tionary period, it be found that such body of gentlemen can satisfactorily manage
the institution, it might be transferred to their care and control. But no such school
or college should be transferred without the guarantee of a permanent fund, which
would yield an income of at least half the expenditure on which the institution
could be maintained on an efficient footing. This fund should be entrusted to
intelligent and respectable trustees from among the body of gentlemen charged
with the management of such institution. Care should be taken that the principle
of strict religious neutrality is duly observed, unless the institution be expressly
intended for a class of people professing a certain religious system.
Ques. 19.—Have you any remarks to offer on the principles of the grant-in aid
system, or the details of its administration? Are the grants adequate in the case of
(a) colleges, (b) boys’ schools, (c) girls’ schools, (d) Normal schools?
Ans. 19.—(a) I would suggest that the observance of the rules on which grants-
in-aid are given might be relaxed in favour of districts, or special classes of peo-
ple, more than ordinarily backward in the cause of education.
(b) There are certainly complaints with respect to the adequacy of grants in
the case of girls’ schools. I would recommend that in the present state of female
education in this country, the grants to girls’ schools should be on a more liberal
scale than the Resolution of the Government on the subject of grants in aid will
permit of.
Ans. 20.—The whole educational system, as at present administered, is cer-
tainly one of practical neutrality with reference to religious principles which may
or may not be taught in any school or college. I have not heard of any complaints
made, even in the case of Missionary schools or colleges, where, notwithstanding
the object with which they were established, secular education is given, which is
the condition on which they receive State aid.
Ans. 21.—(a) The colleges and schools of the higher order are principally availed
of by the middle class, who justly and reasonably look to the future advancement
of their children by affording them the advantages of a liberal education.
(b) The complaint that the wealthy classes do not pay enough for the education
of their children is certainly a very general one. The reason for it, apart from the
257
fact that the advantages of education are not fully appreciated by the rich, is to be
found in there not being a more graduated scale of fees in colleges and schools.
(c) I am not prepared to state accurately the rate of fees payable for “higher
education” in this province. I believe that the scale of fees ranges within a mini-
mum of eight annas and a maximum of three rupees. In the Missionary schools
the boys pay less.
In my opinion the scale of fees could be raised to a maximum of ten rupees,
payable by the sons of rich parents.
In Government colleges there might be a uniform scale of fees, the amount
being regulated by the capacity of the college to impart instruction, and the advan-
tages the State may have to offer to young men who have completed their college
education. In the Presidency College of the Calcutta University all the students
pay a fee of ten rupees in the arts classes. But the instructive staff of that college
is immeasurably superior to the staff of any college in the North West, and then
moreover, you have not similar advantages in the North West to offer to graduates
with respect to State appointments. I beg leave to be allowed to add that the so
called lecturers and professors in some of the Government colleges in this prov-
ince are appointed on what cannot but be regarded as a “cheap and nasty” prin-
ciple. While, on the one hand, I am strongly opposed to the supply of the benefits
of the education given in colleges at cheap rates, I maintain, on the other, that suf-
ficient consideration must be held out for charging high fees in those institutions.
Ans. 22.—I do not know of any instance of a proprietary school or college
being supported entirely by fees in the North West, and maintained for the pur-
pose of giving instruction to the Natives.
Ques. 23.—Is it, in your opinion, possible for a non Government institution of
Ans. 23.—It is possible for a non-Government institution of the higher order to
become stable and influential, notwithstanding its being placed in competition with
Government institutions. Take the Canning College at Lucknow for instance. It is
a mistake to suppose that this college is availed of only by scholars living within
the province of Oudh. I know of several cases of under graduates who have left
the Government College at Benaros in order to prosecute their studies in that col-
lege. Provided that the college be richly supported and be able to maintain a good
instructive staff like the principal and professors of the Conning College, a non-
Government institution may be able to hold its own against Government Colleges.
unhealthy competition? and if so, what remedy, if any, would you apply?
Ans. 24.—The cause of higher education is to a certain extent injured by
unhealthy competition. This “unhealthy competition” is to a great extent brought
about by the existence of Missionary colleges, especially in places where similar
258
Government institutions are provided. The greatest injury which these Mission-
ary colleges cause to the interest of high education is by charging fees on a very
low scale. I would suggest that no State aid be given to any higher educational
institution in places where a similar institution is maintained by the Government.
So far as the North West is concerned, cases must be very rare indeed, where in
any town, however large, one college is not sufficient for the requirements of the
people. I would also suggest that in every case in which State aid is given to any
college, the aid should be given on the expressly stated condition that the scale of
tuition fees payable by students in such aided institution shall under no circum-
stances be lower than that payable in Government colleges.
employment?
Ans. 25.—In my opinion educated Natives do not “readily” find remunerative
employment.
So far as Government service is concerned, the amlah and heads of offices
have a strong aversion to the employment of educated young men to serve under
them. Then, again, notwithstanding the existence of such a large number of
graduates from the colleges in North-Western Provinces and Oudh, you will
find scarcely one in the subordinate executive service, or serving as head of an
office establishment in the judicial, revenue, or any other departments of the
public service. The recent circular with reference to the appointment of can-
didates to ministerial posts will have a salutary effect, so far as primary and
middle class education are concerned. Until, however, a well digested and more
comprehensive scheme for throwing open all the highly paid posts in the Gov-
ernment service to competition by educated Natives is put in operation, the
present state of things will continue, so far as relates to the progress of high
education in the province. It is not absolutely necessary to declare graduates or
any special class of educated young men to be the only eligible candidates. But
the scheme should be so laid as to operate against the intrusion of incompetent
men into the ranks of the uncovenanted service. A move in this direction will be
far more generally useful to the people than any scheme for appointing Natives
to posts specially reserved for the covenanted civil service, which can but create
unpleasant relations between the rulers and the ruled. At present the prevailing
principle on which Natives are selected to fill well paid appointments falls, in
most cases, very little short of rank favouritism. Power and responsibility in the
hands of ill educated men will incur the danger of being grossly abused. The
sooner, therefore, the influences of interest and ‘patronage’ in making appoint-
ments give way to a more enlightened and honourable system, the better for the
cause of high education and the public service.
cal information?
Ans. 26.—The course of instruction adopted in secondary schools is fairly
calculated to store the minds of scholars who may not pursue their studies any
259
further, with useful and practical information. Any violent and radical change in
the subjects of instruction will be in advance of the times, and inconsistent with
the conservative and almost traditional theory of education. Text books for teach-
ing the method of keeping accounts, short treatises on meteorology, and even
science primers on the plan of the English school series, can with advantage be
introduced into all middle class schools, and special prizes and scholarships or
other rewards might be given for the encouragement of the study of, and profi-
ciency in, those subjects.
teachers and pupils is unduly directed to the entrance examination of the Univer-
Ans. 27.—I am certainly of opinion that the attention of teachers and pupils
is unduly directed to the University entrance examination in almost all schools
teaching up to that standard. This circumstance certainly impairs the value of
instruction received by scholars who do not extend their studies beyond the sec-
ondary stage of education. I would strongly advocate the wholesale separation of
the middle-class schools intended for the purpose of giving secondary instruction
from high class schools which are legitimately intended to serve as feeders to high
educational institutions. I will refer more fully to this subject in my answer to the
47th question.
present themselves for the University entrance examination is unduly large
when compared with the requirements of the country? If you think so, what do
you regard as the causes of this state of things, and what remedies would you
suggest?
Ans. 28.—In addition to what I have stated in my answer to the preceding ques-
tion, I will only add that the number of pupils in secondary schools who present
themselves for the University entrance examination is not large when compared to
the requirements of the country, but certainly large when compared to the number
of students who prosecute their studies further in a college.
ship, and have you any remarks to make on the subject? Is the scholarship system
Ans. 29.—(a) There exists a chain of scholarships which will lead a deserving
scholar from secondary intruction to the highest standard of education which col-
leges in this province have to offer.
(b) I am unable to state whether the scholarship system is impartially admin-
istered as between Government and aided schools. I have heard no compaints on
the subject, beyond what may be regarded as due to the maintenance of a more
efficient teaching staff in the Government schools.
Ques. 30.—Is Municipal support at present extended to grant in aid schools,
whether belonging to Missionary or other bodies, and how far is this support
likely to be permanent?
260
Ans. 30.—So far as I am aware, municipal support is given to grant in aid

schools, whether kept up by Missionaries or other bodies. In order to make this
support permanent, a portion of the funds set apart for educational purposes might
be devoted to giving aid to deserving middle class schools established within the
limits of the Municipality.
Ans. 31.—Speaking generally, I would say that the University curriculm of
studies does give a sufficient training for teachers in secondary schools. In my
opinion special Normal schools are not needed for the purpose.
Ans. 32.—The task of school inspection is for the most part confined to the
educational authorities and not efficiently performed by them. It would be better
if the co-operation of educated residents in towns and villages were secured to
aid in this work. The members of the district boards might severally be entrusted
with the inspection of schools which are situate within a convenient distance of
their residence.
Ans. 33.—In addition to what I have stated in my answer to the preceding
question, I would suggest that the privileges of inspecting and examining schools
might advantageously be accorded to Government officers, pleaders and to edu-
cated men in general.
Ques. 34.—How far do you consider the text books in use in all schools suitable?
Ans. 34.—The text books in use in English schools are not, in my opinion
well chosen. The old series of Readers known (if my memory serves me right) as
“Bengal Readers” are far more suitable for Native youths.
regard to examinations or text books, or in any other way, such as unnecessarily
the production of useful vernacular literature?
Ans. 35.—I do not think that the present arrangement of the Education Depart-
ment, with respect to examinations and text-books, unnecessarily interferes with
the free development of private institutions. I am of opinion, however, that the
language of text books (Hindi) not being the real vernacular of the people, the use
of such books is detrimental to the healthy development of vernacular literature,
properly so regarded.
Ques. 36.—In a complete scheme of education for India what part can, in your
Ans. 36.—The State should, under the peculiar circumstances of the country,
undertake the direct control and management of elementary and high education.
It is to the manifest advantage of the State that a larger number of the people
261
should be literate. It is equally advantageous to the State that there should be a

body of men who will by imbibing ideas of Western science and learning, help
in the task of civilising the country, and in bringing their countrymen to an intel-
ligent appreciation of the blessings resulting from, and to sympathise with, the
British rule.
If the two extremities were secured, then, as a natural outcome, the institutions
for giving secondary education will, by an irresistible force of circumstances, be
cared for by other than Government agency.
Ans. 37.—The effect of the withdrawal by Government to a large extent from
the direct management of schools or colleges will, under the present circum-
stances not only impair their efficiency, but affect injuriously the cause of edu-
cation in this country. The immediate effect of such withdrawal will be that the
task of education will be taken up very greatly by the several denominations of
Christian Missionaries in India. The extensive increase in the number of Mission-
ary colleges or schools which will inevitably ensue might not be deemed quite
consistent with the principle of strict religious neutrality which the Government
is so anxious to maintain. The present state of educational affairs in this province
does not warrant the growth of a spirit of reliance “upon local exertions and com-
bination for local purposes.”
Ans. 38.—(a) I believe that the standard of instruction will deteriorate in col-
leges and high schools if Government were suddenly to withdraw from the direct
management of those institutions. There will, in that case, not be the same class of
teachers and professors in those institutions.
(b) The cause of high education will suffer irreparably if Government were to
withdraw from the control and support of colleges. The interests of secondary
education will not be injured if Government were gradually to withdraw from the
management of middle class schools, and transfer them to competent local bodies
under State supervision.
you any suggestion to make on this subject?
Ans. 39.—(a) Definite instructions “in duty and the principles of moral con-
duct” will be out of place in a collegiate institution. Nothing of the kind is done
in Government schools.
(b) I would suggest the introduction of such books as “the moral class book”
into the curriculum of studies in schools.
262
Ques. 40.—Are any steps taken for promoting the physical well being of stu-
Ans. 40.—(a) So far as I am aware, no steps are taken in the colleges and
schools in this province for promoting the physical well being of the students. The
only exceptions are in the cases of Muir Central College and the Benares College,
where students are encouraged to play cricket, foot ball, &c.
(b) I would propose that a certain allowance be made towards the furtherance
of this object to every Government school or college. The care of this branch of
instruction might be entrusted to a teacher who, by reason of his training and
habits of life, is likely to take a personal interest in the physical well being of the
students.
you are acquainted, and if so, what is its character?
Ans. 41.—There are no indigenous girls’ schools in this province that I know of
schools for girls, and what is the character of the instruction imparted in them?
Ans. 42.—(a) The progress made by the Educational Department in instituting
schools for girls has been very little, compared to the actual requirements of the
country. The Government schools that do exist for the education of girls give elemen-
tary instruction. I am not aware of the existence of any Government school teaching
up to the standard of high or middle class schools for boys. The aided schools for
the latter purpose are, if my information be correct, mostly meant for Christian girls.
(b) I would suggest that in every district a certain number of Native gentlemen
be appointed to form a committee for the spread of female education.
Ans. 43.—Mixed schools are, and for years to come must continue to be, in
advance of the ideas of the people with regard to female education and, generally
speaking, repugnant to their social habits and customs.
Ans. 44.—The most feasible plan for providing teachers for girls’ schools will
be to appoint Native Christian, Eurasian, and East Indian ladies for the purpose.
There are Normal schools in Calcutta, where young ladies are trained as teachers,
and whence a supply of efficient teachers can be obtained.
Ques. 45.—Are the grants to girls’ schools larger in amount, and given on
less onerous terms, than those to boys’ schools, and is the distinction sufficiently
marked?
Ans. 45.—I am unable to answer this question satisfactorily. In my opinion
schools for girls should be far more liberally dealt with in the matter of grants in
aid than schools for boys.
taken by European ladies, and how far would it be possible to increase the interest
263
Ans. 46.—With honourable exceptions here and there, European ladies (uncon-
nected with Missionary bodies) have taken no interest whatever in the promotion
of female education in their province. Ladies connected with the Zenana Mission
Society, and others whose husbands are Missionaries have exerted themselves in
instituting girls’ schools, but such institutions are unfortunately attended only by
girls of the lowest castes, who are persuaded to come by reason of the pecuni-
ary inducements held out to them. I would suggest the adoption of the following
measures:—
(1) The appointment of ladies’ committees in every large town, or wherever
possible, for the purpose of instituting, visiting, and examining girls’ schools. In
the case of ladies who have to accompany their husbands into the interior of the
districts, the task of inspection and examination of schools established in rural
districts might be entrusted to them. A great deal of good could be done by Euro-
pean ladies having no connection with any religious society taking an active per-
sonal in the spread of female education.
(2) The appointment of European ladies as honorary visitors of girls’ schools.
Ans. 47.—I have to find fault with the system of instruction which prevails in
the English schools in this country. Whether these schools be viewed as feeders
for colleges or as institutions for the purpose of imparting secondary education,
they have failed to achieve either of these objects, and the failure is, in my opinion,
attributable to the method of instruction pursued in them. Let me explain myself.
Take an ordinary institution like the Benares Collegiate School, with which I am
most familiar, having been educated there. There are 9 or 10 classes which take
students through a course of seven years’ study before they can hope to present
themselves to the University entrance examination. This period of seven years, it
may be stated, applies to the case of a boy of fair ability who takes a class at the
end of each session. The result of this seven years’ study is, in my opinion, not
commensurate with the time spent in a school. This accounts very greatly for the
fact that a comparatively small number of undergraduates are successful in their
University career.
The whole curriculum of studies prescribed for the several classes of a
Government school might be divided into two sections. (1) English language
and literature, and (2) general subjects of instruction viz., history, geogra-
phy, and mathematics. The method adopted for teaching boys “English” is to
take them through a course of so called Readers, from the first of the series,
which is a primer, to the most advanced, containing poetical and prose pieces
from well known authors. The mode in which the boys are taught is, with
the exception of three or four higher classes, this—Every sentence in the
book is translated by the teacher into the vernacular, and this translation is
committed to memory, parrot-like, by the pupils. In some cases, the teachers
264
have translations of the text books ready, which is dictated to the boys and
taken down in writing by them as each day’s lesson is set. This translation
is repeated the next day after the reading of the lesson in English is over.
I know of instances in which these translations are printed, and each boy
provides himself with a copy of these books in order to save himself the irk-
some task of writing out the translation of each day’s lesson in English from
the teacher’s dictation. Then, again, some of these Readers are most inarti-
ficially compiled, and not suited to the capacity of Native youths in whose
hands they are placed. In one of the number of the series of Readers will be
found such pieces as Hamlet’s Soliloquy, Adam’s Prayer from Milton, and
others of a similar character. The boys are utterly incapable of understanding
what they are made to read through, and I venture to submit that no efforts
on the part of a translator, however accurate a scholar he may be, will enable
a Native lad to comprehend and recognise the beauty of such highly artistic
pieces of composition in the English language.
We will now take English grammar. From a work which professes to teach the
elementary rules within the compass of 10 or 12 pages to the elaborate work writ-
ten by Professor Angus on the English tongue, there are several intermediate text
books. In the lower forms, the boys have to repeat the definitions without in the
least comprehending them; and the examiner at the end of the session is perfectly
satisfied with what might be properly regarded as the test of memory rather than
the boys’ understanding. Take an ordinary boy of the middle form, viz., the fifth
class in a school consisting of 9 classes, and examine him in English grammar.
Ask him to define an intransitive verb. He will give you readily the rigmarole
definition of a verb in which the “action does not pass from the doer to the object.”
Ask him to explain what he understands of this definition in his own words, either
in English or in his own vernacular, and you will at once observe that the signi-
fication of the terms intransitive “action,” ‘doer,’ and ‘object,’ is one beyond his
power of comprehension. The boy will give you the pluperfect tense, third person
singular number of the verb “to write,” but ask him to make use of that word in
composing an easy sentence, and the poor boy will be at his wits’ end. I hope I
shall not be deemed guilty of exaggerating facts it I add that in most cases a boy
brought up in one of these schools, begins to learn English grammar before he
knows anything of the construction of his own language. History and geography
are taught much in the same way. In the case of mathematics things are just a little
better, but the same method of instruction is applied with more or less force in all
branches of study.
The reason for the anomalous state of things I complain of seems to me to
be obvious. The rudimentary portion of a boy’s education must be imparted to
him in his own vernacular, in the language in which he thinks. It seems to me
to be mere waste of time and energy to seek to teach a boy general subjects of
instruction in a language which he can only understand by means of translation
into another language which is his mother tongue. The result of this method of
instruction seems to be highly deplorable. A large number of boys have to leave
265
these schools unable to prosecute their studies beyond a certain point, and they
go away having acquired only a useless smattering of the English language. The
best portion of their time has been frittered away, not in storing their mind with
facts, which might properly be said to constitute the elements of real education,
but in a vain endeavour to unlearn that which is most natural in order to seek to
learn that which can only be learnt by a highly artificial process. They are thus
neither prepared for receiving the benefits of University education, nor can they
be said to have done much in the way of acquiring general knowledge of some
practical value.
One of the great principles to be observed in the art of teaching—in fact the
most important principle—is to impart instruction in the manner in which the
facts taught can be most easily conveyed to the comprehension of young minds.
That which is readily understood will be easily and long retained. The solution of
the problem, whether it is easier to suggest facts to a boy’s understanding in his
own vernacular or in a foreign language admits of no difficulty. What I ask for
is that the Department of Public Instruction and persons charged with the task of
educating youths in this country, do once for all recognise the exact importance
of the principle I have tried to elucidate. If the instruction sought to be imparted
to the boys in classes teaching up to the standard of middle class schools, is to be
of any real value and permanent advantage to them, whether in their after life in
the world, or in their college career, I submit that the vehicle of instruction must
be in the vernacular, so as to ensure the easy comprehension and retention of facts
taught to them. For instance, you want to teach a lad of 10 or 11 years of age, and
of average intelligence, the facts of Indian history. Now, if you teach him those
facts in English, what do you do? You lead the youth, however gently, to dash
from his mind impressions as they come uppermost in his own vernacular, in order
that he should receive those very ideas in a form in which they were not naturally
presented to his mind before. Repeat the same process and what happens—an idea
pure and simple in itself is made complex in the course of its formation, before
it is conveyed to the young mind in the shape you wish it to be received. It is not
sufficient answer to say that a certain degree of success has been achieved by the
English schools. A little observation and reflection will enable any unprejudiced
person to perceive that if the facts constituting the average quantum of knowledge
taught in these schools be remembered by the boys at all, the reproduction of the
impressions of those facts will, in the case of those who have not the capacity to
think in English, be in their vernacular. I may also add that only so much of the
total quantity of facts taught will be remembered by them as the boys have learnt
to understand and retain in their own language.
I beg respectfully to commend the above observations to the serious consid-
eration of the Education Commission. If the objections I have urged against the
English school system be deemed valid, I would suggest the adoption of the fol-
lowing measures:—
First—The enforcement of a uniform rule that the teaching of all subjects
of general instruction shall be in the vernacular, in all institutions and classes
266
educating up to the standard of the middle class schools. This will render neces-
sary the abolition of all junior classes in English schools except the first two or
three, to be kept up for the purpose of preparing boys for the University entrance
examination. In all middle class schools English will be taught as a language.
There will thus be no necessity for keeping in English schools more than a cer-
tain number of classes absolutely necessary for teaching the subjects required
for matriculation. I would even go so far as to suggest that the rules of English
grammar might, in the first instance, be taught to the boys in the vernacular, and
when they are able to understand the construction of easy sentences, then they
should be entrused with the study of English grammar in English. My idea is
principally derived from the method of teaching Latin grammar and composi-
tion so generally adopted in the schools in England. English composition can
very easily be learnt from text books written on the plan of Henry’s Series of
Latin Books. The nearest approach to such text books have been made in this
province by Mr. Stapley, and Babu Mathura Prasada Misra, but there is great
room for improvement.
Secondly—The separation of the English schools from the middle class schools
throughout the country. In the former class of institutions general instruction will
be given in English, a second language being taught at the option of the boys,
whereas in the latter, general instruction will be given in the vernacular, English
being treated as a second language. In that case, boys who have no ambition to
enter on a college career will regard their education as completed as soon as they
have reached the highest stage of knowledge attainable in the middle class schools.
High education in the sense in which it is at present understood, must for years
to come be given in English. Hence the necessity of maintaining English schools.
These schools should not therefore be regarded as places for giving secondary
instruction. Let them be rated at their real worth. Regard them as feeders for high
education and nothing else. I would divide all educational institutions into three
classes and define their objects thus:—
1st. Primary Schools.—The object of these schools is to impart elementary
instruction (reading, writing and arithmetic) to the largest possible number of the
people.
2nd. Middle Class Schools.—These might either be purely vernacular or Anglo
vernacular, according as English is or is not taught in these schools. These institu-
tions are chiefly intended for the bulk of the middle class. Here the standard of
instruction given should be of such a character as to convey a knowledge of facts
generally useful in all the practical concerns of life.
3rd. High Educational Institutions.—viz., all colleges teaching the subjects pre-
scribed by the University and English schools kept up for the purpose of prepar-
ing young men to enter into the college. In my opinion both the college and the
English school should be regarded as one institution. In places where Government
maintains a college, the English school might be attached to such college, and the
whole institution could be then supervised and controlled by one agency. This
measure can be recommended on the ground of economy.
267
The above three classes of institutions should be treated, as far as possible, as

distinct systems of instruction.
Ques. 48.—Is any part of the expenditure incurred by the Government on high
education in your province unnecessary?
Ans. 48.—The expenditure incurred by the North West Government in maintain-
ing the three colleges at Agra, Allahabad and Benares (with its Sanskrit department)
is necessary. But the expenditure incurred in giving grants for the support of private
institutions teaching the University or college classes is certainly unnecessary and
11 cases in which these institutions are situate in those three towns or in adjacent
places, the grant in aid has the effect of impairing the efficiency of the Government
colleges, and of being prejudicial to the cause of high education in this province.
Ques. 49.—Have Government institutions been set up in localities where places
of instruction already existed, which might by grants in aid or other assistance
adequately supply the educational wants of the people?
Ans. 49.—I am not aware of any instance in which Government institutions
have been set up in the North West in localities where places of instruction pre-
viously existed. What I would complain of is (vide my answer to the preceding
question) the giving of State aid to private institutions set up in or near localities
where Government institutions exist, and which adequately supply the educa-
tional wants of the people.
Ques. 50.—Is there any foundation for the statement that officers of the Educa-
tion Department take too exclusive an interest in higher education? Would benefi-
cial results be obtained by introducing into the Department more men of practical
training in the art of teaching and school management?
Ans. 50.—It is not true that officers of the Educational Department take too
exclusive an interest in higher education.
I do not consider that there exists any necessity for introducing into the Depart-
ment “more men of practical training in the art of teaching and school manage-
ment.” The existing staff carry on the duties of teaching and school management
satisfactorily.
Ques. 51.—Is the system of pupil teachers or monitors in force in your prov-
ince? If so, please state how it works.
Ans. 51.—I am not aware of the existence of the system of pupil teachers or
monitors in the Government institutions in the North West. The system might
exist in schools established by Missionaries or other bodies, but I cannot state to
what extent it exists, or how it works.
Ques. 52.—Is there any tendency to raise primary into secondary schools
unnecessarily or prematurely? Should measures be taken to check such a ten-
dency? If so, what measures?
Ans. 52.—(a) There is to a certain extent a tendency to prematurely raise pri-
mary into secondary schools.
(b) Measures should be taken to check this tendency only in cases where the
existing number of middle class schools is sufficient to meet the requirements of
the people.
268
(c) The most effective method of checking this tendency would be by with-
drawing State aid. If that prove ineffectual, let matters alone. The raising of the
status is due to normal and healthy causes.
Ans. 53.—The rate of fees in all primary and secondary (or middle class) schools
should vary according to the means of the parents or guardians of the pupil. In
the colleges a uniform rate of tuition fees should, in my opinion, be maintained.
Ans. 54.—(a) The demand for high education in the North West has not reached
such a stage as to make the profession of the teaching a remunerative one.
(b) I am not aware of schools having been opened in this province by men of
good position and education with the view of earning a livelihood.
table and useful?
Ans. 55.—The system of assigning grants according to the results of periodical
examinations should be applied to middle-class schools only. The grant should
be made with reference to both the number of students sent up for middle class
examinations, and also to the number who actually pass.
assigning grants in aid of the salaries of certificated teachers can be best applied?
Under what conditions do you regard this system as a good one?
Ans. 56.—The system of assigning grants in aid of the salaries of certificated
teachers can be best applied to (1) primary schools for boys, and (2) girls’ schools.
The system should be brought into operation in—(1) cases in which certain dis-
tricts or portion of districts are backward in the cause of education, and (2) in cases
in which such institutions are established among the poorer classes of the people.
Ques. 57.—To what proportion of the gross expense do you think that the grant
in aid should amount under ordinary circumstances in the case of colleges and
schools of all grades?
Ans. 57.—Under ordinary circumstances the grant-in-aid should amount to half
the gross expenses incurred in maintaining colleges and schools of all descrip-
tions. But in the cases of primary schools in places backward in the cause of
education, and in that of girls’ schools generally, the grant in aid might amount to
a minimum of two thirds of the gross expenditure.
Ans. 58.—I consider that the maximum number of pupils that can be efficiently
taught by one instructor may be as follows:—
269
(1) In the case of primary schools—twenty.

(2) In the case of secondary schools—thirty.
(3) In the case of colleges where instruction is given by professors or lecturers—
twenty-five.
Ques. 59.—In your opinion, should fees in colleges be paid by the term or by
the month?
Ans. 59.—In my opinion fees in colleges should be taken by the month.
leges and schools?
Ans. 60.—A strict interpretation of the principle of religious neutrality does
not require the withdrawal of the Government from the direct management of
colleges and schools. Whether the observance of the principle demands the with-
drawal of State and from institutions where religious instruction is given may be
regarded as an open question.
Ans. 61.—The institution of University professorships would certainly have an
important effect in imparting a healthy tone to the character and quality of high
education. But these professorships should be distributed among the different col-
leges affiliated to the Calcutta University. So far as the North-West is concerned
there might be three professorships for the purpose of delivering lectures on three
distinct branches of study, in the three Government Colleges at Agra, Allahabad,
and Benares, in order to give a special character to each of those institutions.
Suppose, for instance, the professorships of English language and literature to be
attached to the Agra College, the professorship of science to Muir Central Col-
lege, and that of mathematics to Benares, the result will be that undergraduates
wishing to take honors in one or other of these subjects will attend the college
where lectures are delivered by the University professor in the subject he has
chosen.
over the entire province? In what cases, if any, is it preferable that such promo-
tions be left to the school authorities?
Ans. 62.—Promotions from class to class should be left to the school authori-
ties, with the exception of cases in which certain distinct stages of instruction are
reached, to test which a uniform system of examination is provided for the whole
province.
it improperly, from being received into another. What are the arrangements which
you would suggest?
Ans. 63.—(a) I believe that there are arrangements for preventing a boy expelled
from one Government college or school from being received into another. But
270
whether there are such arrangements in the case of schools kept up by Missionar-
ies or other bodies I do not know.
(b) The best plan would be not to admit a boy, who has previously been
educated in one institution into another, unless he produces a certificate of char-
acter from the authorities of the former institution. No boy should be admit-
ted into any institution without an enquiry being made into his character and
antecedents.
colleges, and if so, under what limitations or conditions?
Ans. 64.—(a) It would be simply ruinous to the cause of high education in this
province if Government were to withdraw from the maintenance of the existing
colleges; should such withdrawal, however, be decided upon, it will be absolutely
necessary to retain a model college for the province.
(b) (1)—The model college should be located not necessarily at the head quar-
ters of the province, but in the healthiest town in it.
(2) Provision should be made for the “residence” of the undergraduates. If only
one model college be retained in each province under the direct management of
the Government, I would propose that the laws in force in the Universities of
Oxford or Cambridge with regard to residence, discipline, keeping of terms, &c.,
be enforced in these provincial colleges, so far is the circumstances of the country
will permit.
(3) The provincial colleges should be richly endowed with scholarships. The
number of these scholarships and the period for which they may be declared to
be tenable, should (with the exception of scholarships given for proficiency in
special subjects) be so regulated and fixed as to carry a deserving scholar through
the whole of his University career.
(4) The provincial colleges must maintain professorships for lecturing on all or
most of the subjects of studies in which degrees are conferred by the University.
employed in colleges educating up to the B. A. standard?
Ans. 65.—In all colleges teaching up to the B. A. standard none but European
professors should be employed to lecture on English language and literature.
Natives of high academical attainments, and who have attained reputation as suc-
cessful teachers, may be appointed as professors of mathematics, science, &c. I
would, however, object to the employment of graduates, who have not gained any
experience in the art of teaching, as professors in colleges.
Ans. 66.—European professors are likely to be employed in colleges under
Native management for the purpose of giving lectures in “English” only.
ince (e.g., the Muhammadans) such as to require exceptional treatment in the
271
matter of English education? To what are these circumstances due and how far
Ans. 67.—I do not think that the circumstances of any class of population in
the North-West are so peculiar as to require exceptional treatment in the mat-
ter of English education. The Muhammadans occupy a solitary position in put-
ting forward claims to “exceptional treatment.” They have a sentiment against
attending colleges and schools where instruction is given on what they regard
as an infidel system. This is sheer prejudice; and it is greatly to be regretted that
eminent Muhammadans, taking stock of such a prejudice, trade thereon with the
almost sinister motive of keeping their co-religionists socially aloof from the gen-
eral body of the people with whom by reason of their strong religious antipathy,
they feel an unreasonable abhorrence to associate. There is a plausible ground for
East Indians and Eurasians objecting to send their children to institutions attended
by Hindus; but the Muhammadans can have no pretext whatever. They enjoy
already more than their legitimate share of the “loaves and fishes” of the Govern-
ment service without receiving the benefits of English education. It is their own
fault if they do not send their children to institutions founded for the education
of all classes of the people. In my opinion, anything that tends to raise the belief
that Government will countenance their prejudices is not only untenable on the
grounds of strict observance of the principles of religious neutrality in the matter
of education and justice to all classes of people under the British rule, without dis-
tinction of race or creed, but may be politically dangerous. The decaying remnants
of the old Moslem hauteur towards the Hindus must die out.
Ques. 68.—How far would Government be justified in withdrawing from any
existing school or college in places where any class of the population objects to
attend the only alternative institution on the ground of its religious teaching?
Ans. 68.—In my opinion Government would not be justified in withdrawing
from the maintenance of any existing college or school if the only alternative
institution is objected to by the people on the ground of its religious teaching.
Ques. 69.—Can schools and colleges under Native management compete suc-
Ans. 69.—In the present state of education and civilisation in this country,
schools and colleges under Native management cannot hope to compete, with
any degree of success, with corresponding institutions maintained under direct
European management.
Ques. 70.—Are the conditions on which grants in aid are given in your prov-
ince more onerous and complicated than necessary?
Ans. 70.—I have no remarks to make on the system of grants-in-aid in addi-
tion to what I have already said in my answers to questions touching on that
subject.
BENARES,
The 8th August, 1882
272
MEMORIALS
RELATING TO
THE N. W. PROVINCES EDUCATION COMMISSION.
Answers to some of the Commission’s questions prepared by

BABU KEDAR NATH PALODHI
been gained.
Ans. 1.—I was teacher of mathematics, physical sciences, and English in the
Benares Government College for about 17 years; superintendent of the Wards’
Institution, Benares, for about 18 years, and manager, and subsequently a member
of the managing committee of the Bengalitola Preparatory School for many years.
My experience is confined to the North-Western Provinces.
Ans. 2.—I do not think the system of primary education in these provinces is cal-
culated to meet the requirements of the community, and it is not therefore popular.
Primary schools should be after the model of the indigenous schools. The sub-
jects taught should be chiefly reading, writing, penmanship, and elementary arith-
metic. The hours of attendance should be from 6 A.M. to 10 A.M., instead of from
10 A.M. to 3 P.M. Discretion should be used in the choice of teachers.
pete, on equal terms, at examinations qualifying for the public service, with boys
educated at school?
Ans. 5.—Home instruction, if conducted properly, is useful; but it can qualify
boys for certain departments only of the public service. It is, besides, generally
unfavourable to mental development.
Ans. 9.—If teachers of primary schools be chosen from the respectable classes
of the community with due regard to their moral character, they will be respected
by the villagers, and their influence over them will be beneficial.
ince the dialect of the people; and, if not, are the schools on that account less
useful and popular?
273
Ans. 11.—The vernacular taught in the schools is not exactly the dialect
of the people; but the schools are not on that account, the less useful or less
popular. The dialects of the people of the different villages in the different
parts of the country are so varied, that it is not possible to make the vernacular
taught in schools quite agree with them, and it is neither necessary nor desir-
able to do so.
primary schools?
Ans. 13.—The fees charged in the primary schools should be sufficiently low to
allow all classes of people to send their children to them.
the number of primary schools can be increased, and secondly, how they can be
Ans. 14.—Primary schools may be increased in number by economy in the
establishments, and in efficiency, by making the subjects of study really useful
and practical.
to protect?
Ans. 16.—In the present state of the native community, Government educa-
tional institutions of the higher order can neither be closed nor transferred to pri-
vate bodies without considerable detriment to education.
Ans. 20.—As regards Government aid and inspection, all schools and colleges
receive equal attention.
Ans. 21.—The middle classes principally avail themselves of Government
or aided schools and colleges for the education of their children. The wealther
classes pay far less for the education of their children than the poorer classes,
because their children attend schools only till they acquire enough of English
to enable them to converse with Europeans, and read short letters in English. In
these provinces the fees in the Government colleges vary from Rs. 2 to 5 a month
according to different classes.
In the Canning College and in Missionary institutions the fees are lower. The
fees are rather too high for the poor and too low for the rich.
274
unhealthy competition; and, if so, what remedy, if any, would you apply?
Ans. 24.—As the credit of schools and colleges chiefly depends on the figures
they cut at the University examinations, there is great temptation to cram the
students and prepare them mechanically for the University examinations. Those
institutions which do so have an advantage over those which discharge their duty
conscientiously by trying to impart sound knowledge. Competition between insti-
tutions pursuing the opposite methods of teaching greatly injures the cause of
education.
employment?
Ans. 25.—Educated Natives find very great difficulty in securing remunera-
tive employment. I know of an M. A. who was obliged to open a petty shop for
his support. Except in the Education Department graduates cannot generally get
employment.
cal information?
Ans. 26.—The instruction imparted in secondary schools is not at all calculated
to store the minds of the pupils with really useful and practical knowledge. It
enables them to pass examinations, and this is its only use.
teachers and pupils is unduly directed to the entrance examination of the Univer-
Ans. 27.—The statement that the attention of teachers and pupils is unduly
directed to the entrance examination of the University is, I am sorry to say, per-
fectly true. This circumstance of course impairs the intrinsic value of education.
Ques. 28.—Do you think that the number of pupils in secondary schools,
who present themselves for the University entrance examination is unduly large
when compared with the requirements of the country? If you think so what do
you regard as the cause of this state of things, and what remedies would you
suggest?
Ans. 28.—If the object of education is, as it should be, to prepare the pupils for
the exigencies of after life and not only for employment as teachers and clerks the
number is not unduly large. If this be the object, the curriculum of studies requires
remodelling.
ships, and have you any remarks to make on the subject? Is the scholarship system
Ans. 29.—Scholarships, in the North Western Provinces, are awarded to stu-
dents who pass the University examinations in the first division only. This is not
sufficiently encouraging. The scholarship system is impartially administered.
275
Ans. 33.—Local committees, such as existed before, consisting of Europeans
and educated Natives, may be appointed.
Ques. 34.—How far do you consider the text books in use in all schools suitable?
Ans. 34.—The text books in English are generally good, but the vernacular
ones require improvement.
Ques. 36.—In a complete scheme of education for India what parts can, in your
Ans. 36.—The time has not yet arrived when Government can conscientiously
withdraw itself from educational matters. It must patiently bear the trouble half a
century more.
Ans. 37.—The withdrawal of Government from the direct management of edu-
cational institutions of any kind will certainly nip education in the bud.
the direct management of schools or colleges do you apprehend that the standard
Ans. 38.—The standard of instruction will certainly deteriorate. If Government
is anxious to withdraw itself from the virtuous but onerous task of managing
directly or indirectly educational institutions, it must proceed slowly and cau-
tiously, preparing the Native aristocracy for taking its place.
Ques. 40.—Are any steps taken for promoting the physical well being of stu-
Ans. 40.—The physical well being of students deserves great attention, but no
systematic step has as yet been taken in these provinces. In some of the colleges
and schools manly sports are encouraged, but not sufficiently. In every college
and school the pupils should have, compulsorily, European manly games and
gymnastics for a couple of hours.
taken by European ladies, and how far would it be possible to increase the interest
Ans. 46.—Missionary ladies take a prominent part in female education, but
their motives are suspected. It is quite natural to expect this. It is possible to
increase the interest taken by them to any extent by proper encouragement.
system as it has hitherto been administered? What suggestions have you to make
276
[MISSING TEXT]
ment one college in each province as a model to other colleges, and, if so, under
what limitations or conditions?
Ans. 64.—If Government is determined to give up the direct management of
higher institutions generally, it is certainly desirable that it should retain under
direct management one college in each province as a model to other colleges.
employed in colleges educating up to the B. A. standard?
Ans. 65.—In colleges educating up to the B.A. standard, professors of English
should invariably be Englishmen, and professors of physical science, Europeans.
Professors of mathematics should be Natives, and professors of other branches,
either Europeans or Natives.
Ans. 66.—There are European professors in the Canning College only. Except
for teaching English to advanced pupils, European professors are not likely to be
appointed.
ince (e.g., the Muhammadans) such as to require exceptional treatment in the
matter of English education? To what are these circumstances due, and how far
Ans. 67.—The circumstances of no class of the population of these provinces
require exceptional treatment in the matter of English education. The Muham-
madans having been able to secure easily the higher and lucrative posts under
Government without knowing English, did not care for English education. Now,
finding some difficulty in securing them, they do not scruple to send their children
to colleges and schools.
An account of the Kayesth Pathshálá Allahabad, read at a meeting held on

the 27th March, 1882, under the presidency of Sir Robert Stuart,
Knight, Chief Justice of the High Court, North Western Provinces
1. This institution owes its origin to the learned and public spirited Munshi Kali Prasad a
resident of Shahzadpur in the district of Allahabad and a leading member of the Oudh Bar.
The object which the gentleman had originally in view was to provide primary and practi-
cal education for such boys of his own caste (Kayasths) whose parents from some cause or
other were unable to give proper education to their children or to avail themselves of the
training afforded by Government or other schools in some large station in the neighbour-
hood. To carry out this benevolent and noble intent on he founded this institution in 1873 at
his own expense under the designation of the Kayastha Páthshálá. The contributions which
he made from time to time for its support in cash and property now amount in value to more
than Rs. 1,40,000 while those from other persons amount to nearly Rs. 10,000. Thus the
funds out of which the costs of maintaining the institution are defrayed amount to a little
more than Rs. 1,50,000.
277
2. From the date of its establishment in 1873 up to June 1878 the status of the institution
was that of a primary school and in July 1878 it was raised to that of an Anglo vernacular
middle school.
3. The management of the páthshálá is vested in a governing body and a committee
of management consisting of certain native gentlemen at the head of whom is Munshi
Hanuman Prasad a leading pleader of the High Court of Judicature for the North Western
Provinces.
4. Connected with the school is a boarding house intended for the accommodation of
certain students which contains at present 18 foundationers and two boarders. Three of the
teachers belonging to the school staff remain day and night within the páthshálá compound
to look after the boarders. As a reward for this extra work, they get board and lodging free
from the páthshálá.
5. Exclusive of other servants and those belonging to the boarding establishments the
school staff consists of one head master and eight teachers.
6. There are four classes of students in the páthshálá—
1st.—The foundationers who are entirely supported by the páthshálá.
2nd.—The boarders who pay their expenses and live under the superintendence of
the páthshálá.
3rd.—The aided students who get scholarships and necessary books from the institu-
tion; and
4th.—The day-scholars who pay their tuition fees.
The following is the number of each class of students—
Foundationers 18
Boarders 2
Aided students 37
Day scholars 61
TOTAL 118
The following statement shows the number of students according to their castes—
1 [ILLEGIBLE TEXT] Brahmins 25
{ }
Kayasthas 63
2 Rajputs 0 81
Kathis 12
3 [Illegible Text] 12
TOTAL 118
The average daily attendance is 82 per cent. and no student is admitted into the school
whose age exceeds 15 years.
Note by PROFESSOR RAJ KUMAR SARVADHIKARI

I—On the Vernacular of the country—Hindi is the dialect of the people of
Oudh, but the vernacular recognised and taught in the schools is Urdu. Urdu is the
278
dialect of the Muhammadan inhabitants and Hindi of the Hindus. The proportion
of Hindus to Muhammadans in this province is ten to one. Almost all the Hindus
speak Hindi, and Urdu is a foreign tongue to them. In the districts very few people
understand Urdu. No paper written in Urdu can be read by more than ten out of a
hundred in the interior. The assistance of a munshi is called to read even the most
ordinary letter written in Urdu.
This farrogo of bad Arabic and Persian, which is known as Urdu, and which
is so much favored and encouraged, was formed, says an eminent comparative
philologist, among the motley soldiers composed of various races “suddenly
gathered by the command of a Chengiz Khan or Timur like billows heaving and
swelling at the call of a thunder-storm.” Judged by its grammatical structure,
Urdu is a daughter of modernised Sanskrit. Its grammatical and formal elements
are Hindi, but its body is formed from Arabic roots and Persian words inland
with those of Sanskrit derivation. Its origin is comparatively of modern date.
It was in the reign of Shahjahan that it assumed a visible shape. The Afghan
conquerors, unable to express their thoughts in the language of the country to
the Natives, carried on their intercourse with the people and conversed with
their Indian wives and children in that composite dialect known as Urdu. With
one exception, the vowel sounds of the language having no visible representa-
tion in its alphabet are expressed by diacritical marks which are often omitted
in writing. Every one is aware how very difficult it is to read this language of
consonants; how a series of letters uninterrupted by a vowel may convey many
different meanings, and how the sense could be misconstrued by designing men,
should it serve their purpose to do so. This in itself is a sufficient reason why its
use should be discontinued in all legal documents, where on the interpretation
of one word might depend the fate of families and the destiny of a kingdom. It
boasts of no classics. It has no literature worth the name. The few books it has
are either full of coarse love fables or the ridiculous stories of horrible jins and
frightful ghosts.
* * * * *
“One drawback to the success of village schools in this district (Unao),” says
the inspector of schools, “is that the predominant vernacular of the inhabitants is
Hindi rather than Urdu. The number of Brahmans and other high caste Hindus
in the Unao district is unusually large. Their sympathies are for Hindi literature,
while the court character or language, which is consequently the more useful of
the two, is Urdu. Thus their literary tastes are not well in harmony with their
material interests.” These remarks apply not only to the Unao district but to all
the districts in the province. “The literary tastes of the people are not in harmony
with their material interests.” Urdu is not the dialect of the people, but still they
are obliged to study it simply because it has been aptly called a “bread earning”
language. It is a mistake to encourage its cultivation.
279
If you ask a man whether he would like to teach his son Urdu or Hindi, the
invariable answer would be that he would prefer Urdu to Hindi. If the reason be
asked for this unnatural preference his answer is that Urdu being the official lan-
guage, the language of the courts the acquisition of it will be useful in transacting
business, however useless it may be for the ordinary intercourse of life. If Urdu
ceases to be the court language to day, it will cease to be cultivated to morrow, and
no one will ever think of learning it.
* * * * *
It has often been urged that Hindi in the Nágri character cannot be written so
fast as Urdu. The Nágri character is said to be “too slow, too stiff, and too elabo-
rate for the wants of the present day.” This objection does not seem to us to be of
much weight. Practice gives facility, and I know by experience that Hindi in the
Nágri character can be written as easily and as quickly as any other language. Let
a trial be given to Hindi, and I am very much mistaken if within a short period
from the time of its introduction it does not answer all the purposes of the courts
of the united provinces, and supply all the “literary wants of the present day.” It
should never be forgotten that all the immortal works of Sanskrit literature were
written in the Nágri character, and surely volumes upon volumes would never
have been written by the same author had the Nágri character really been “so slow
and stiff” as it is represented to be.
II—On Girls’ Schools—The number of primary girls schools, aided and
unaided, in Oudh, teaching vernacular up to the 31st March, 1881, my be shown
as follows:—
Government 49
Aided 15
Unaided 5
The number of pupils attending them was 1,682

This will show that as regards numbers a decided improvement has been made
within the last 15 years. In 1867 there were only six schools and 83 pupils in the
province.
It is a matter of regret, however, that there was a reduction from 65 to 64
schools in 1876, to 59 in 1880, and to 49 in 1881. The schools which have
been closed were, I am informed, “not only rather expensive but decidedly
inefficient.”
About one fifth of the students are Hindus and four fifths Muhammadans, the
former being chiefly from the working classes, and the latter from the middle and
more respectable classes.
Half the students on the rolls on 31st March, 1881, were in the alphabet
class.
280
“The teachers themselves,” the inspector of schools says “are very ignorant and
have as little taste for arithmetic (and I may add for reading and writing) as their
pupils.” The progress made by the girls may be best described in the words of
Mr. Nesfeld, the Inspector of Schools. “The great majority of the girls who attend
these schools, whether Government, aided, or unaided, acquire only the merest
rudiments of learning, and are as absolutely ignorant a few months after they have
left school as if they had never been to school at all. About one half of the girls
never advance beyond reading and copying easy words and writing numbers up
to 100. One-third get as far as reading in a fashion, easy sentences and copying
the same, and perhaps may learn to add and subtract numbers of four digits. About
one-fourth of the girls go as far as reading through a dozen pages of a very simple
book and writing to dictation, mostly with many mis spellings, a line or two of the
lesson read, to which they may add a little power to multiply and divide in simple
arithmetic. It is only a very select few who ever get to reading and writing with an
approach to fluency and to working in the compound rules. The number who can
read and write to dictation a passage unseen before is very small.”
It is apparent from this, that the character of the instruction imparted in these
schools is extremely unsatisfactory and requires improvement.
It is an admitted fact that the country cannot be regenerated without female
education, so long as the ladies of India do not share with their husbands the plea-
sures of the intellect, there is little chance for India regaining the eminent position
she occupied in ancient times in the scale of nations. It requires no demonstration
to show that female education is one of the essential elements of national prog-
ress. The Government should not only establish schools and colleges for the edu-
cation of one half of the nation, but should also adopt speedy measures by which
the other half may be equally benefited. Government has up to this time pursued
no systematic plan for giving education to females. The object cannot be attained
by establishing a few schools alone. The higher classes of the Native community,
Brahmins and Chattris and Kayeths would never consent to send their daughters
to these schools. The higher classes keep aloof from these schools, and it is no
wonder therefore that they have borne no fruit.
We often hear it said that the time has not yet arrived for introducing into this prov-
ince female education in any shape whatever. I should like to know when the time
would come. Those who object to any attempt being made at present for improving
the females of the province should remember that the instruction which is given in the
boys schools in Oudh will never produce any beneficial results till an active effort is
made to communicate knowledge to the females of the province. In my humble opin-
ion, simultaneous action should be taken for educating the boys and girls of Oudh. It
should always be borne in mind that light and darkness can never live together.
Hindu society is so constituted, and females take so important a part in all its
concerns that, educate the men as you will, no permanent improvement of the
social order can be effected unless the impulse come from within. The move-
ment must be simultaneous, while you educate the men, you should also educate
281
the women, or else all plans for reforming Hindu society will prove abortive.
Those who are cognisant of the mystery of the Hindu zenana will bear me out
in saying how very difficult it is for an educated member of the Hindu com-
munity to carry out any plans of improvement which the females disapprove of,
and how many noble projects have failed for want of cordial support from the
Hindu ladies.
It is necessary that the Government should think seriously of this matter for
another reason. We often have to deplore a growing tendency among the educated
young men either to betake themselves to evil courses or give themselves up to
despair and despondency, because they do not find at home that cultivation of
the intellect and the feelings, and that intelligence and taste which have become
almost the necessary conditions of their mental existence. They seek a refined
gratification of their intellectual æsthetic faculties anywhere but at home. It may
easily be fancied what this will lead to, and unless timely measures be taken to
prevent it, the evil will, I am afraid, become incurable.
With regard to the question as to who should defray the expenses, whether
Government should take upon itself the whole burden, I would submit that
wherever society is in so backward a state that it would not provide for itself any
proper institutions for education, Government should undertake the task, should
give the education gratis, and definy all the necessary expenses. I know many
arguments may be advanced against this plan but I venture here to quote the
following words of the great thinker who has exercised the deepest and the wid-
est influence on the present generation in support of my views.—“Instruction,
when it is really such, does not enervate, but strengthens as well as enlarges the
active faculties, in whatever manner acquired, its effect on the mind is favour-
able to the spirit of independence, and when, unless bad gratuitously, it would
not be had at all, help in this form has the opposite tendency to that which in so
many other cases makes it objectionable, it is help towards doing without help.”
Wherever aided schools are established, the grants to girls’ schools should in all
cases be larger in amount and given on less onerous terms than those to boys’
schools. The tendency at present is to make the grant-in-aid rules rigorous and
strict, and the consequence is that those who subscribe to set up a school feel
discouraged, and in no long time the grants are withdrawn and the schools are
abolished. Girls’ schools require fostering care, but no such care, I am afraid,
is bestowed upon them. The educational authorities evidently do not consider
it incumbent upon them to encourage the growth of girls’ schools. Difficulties
and obstacles, disappointments and failures, there must be, but that is no reason
why the work of female education should be given up as hopeless. We must
hope against hope. If persistent efforts be made and the work be not performed
in a perfunctory manner, I firmly believe that great improvement will soon be
visible in this direction.
Girls’ schools constituted on the same principle as boys’ schools cannot attract
the girls of high caste Hindus. They may do very well for the girls of the working
classes, but high-caste people would never send their girls to these schools.
282
Female education in this country will never make any progress merely by
establishing schools and summoning pupils to attend them. This system cannot
succeed here. The maulvies of Lucknow informed the Director of Public Instruc-
tion for Oudh, nearly fifteen years ago, “that the only possible way of reaching
the more respectable families is by sending teachers to the zenanas.” It is curious
to observe how people would not understand such a simple fact as this. We are
often apt to forget the lessons which history has taught us. Human beings are not
abstract or universal but historical human beings, already shaped and made what
they are by human society. Great mistakes are made by not taking into account
the accumulated influence of past generations. If Hindus have certain prejudices
in this matter, these should be respected and means should be found to remove
them. Instead of doing this, the Government officers, as soon as they establish a
few schools, expect to find its benches filled by the daughters of all the respectable
families in the neighbourhood. If they do not find their expectations fulfilled they
begin to cavil and despair of success, and do not for a moment waste their time
in thinking that among savages alone the past has no influence over the present,
and that among all civilized nations the social phenomena must be determined by
their past history.
Indian ladies, I repeat, can be educated by no other means than by sending
female teachers to the zenana. If well trained high caste females be sent as teach-
ers to the zenana, who would on no account mix up religion with the instruction
they would impart, I have not the slightest doubt that female education would
make rapid progress. At present female teachers properly qualified for the task
cannot be obtained. It will be necessary therefore to establish female Normal
schools throughout the cauntry to train high caste females for the work. There will
be no difficulty in getting, on a small stipend, elderly Brahmin and Chattri or other
high-caste widows to become students to qualify themselves to be zenana teach-
ers. Care should be taken that the teachers appointed, for some time at least, be
none but high caste females, as they alone are respected in Hindu families. There
should be a central Normal school of a high order in each province, superintended
by a well-educated European mistress.
The education in the Normal schools should comprise a sound knowledge
of the vernaculars, a good acquaintance with English and all branches of use-
ful knowledge, all kinds of needle work, music and drawing. Instruction to be
imparted through the vernaculars and afterwards through the English language.
The greatest efforts should be made to inculcate habits of cleanliness and for the
neat and tidy arrangement of a house. Domestic economy to form a particular
matter of instruction. The term for training to be averaged at five years, but not to
be less than three years.
In the promotion of female education, the share which has hitherto been taken
by European ladies of the different zenana missions is very little if anything. As
far as my experience goes, these ladies, educated as they are, are not properly
qualified to undertake the task of educating our females. In the first place they
are looked upon with suspicion, and most people believe that their main object
283
is to inculcate the principles of their own religion into the tender minds of young
Hindu females. If there be the least suspicion of this kind, then whatever they
teach is received with a large amount of incredulity, and once the teacher fails to
inspire implicit confidence in her, her most strenuous efforts to impart instruction
are of no avail.
European ladies are not fit to teach the rudiments of knowledge to Native ladies.
In the elementary stage of instruction, therefore, they cannot afford much assis-
tance. Their knowledge of the vernaculars is so imperfect that it is not possible
for them to be good teachers of Native females. In the higher stages of education
their assistance may be of real benefit. But if they mix up religion with the instruc-
tion they impart, no Hindu gentleman would ever allow his wives and sisters and
daughters to be placed under their care. The instruction they impart should be
secular. It will be mere waste of money to subsidise the zenana missions. I am
of opinion that Normal schools of a high order should be established to provide
teachers for girls.
The next question is what should the Government teach them? Indian girls are
married at an early age, and they cannot therefore be taught much in the school
room. Very few girls would attend the school after the age of 10. If the system of
sending teachers to the zenana, however, be adopted, Hindu females may be per-
suaded to carry on their studies to an advanced age, and means may thus be easily
found to give them an education worth the name.
What are we to teach them? Owing to the absence of any recognised principles
on this subject, a great deal of time, expense, and labour may go for nothing. The
ultimate end of education is to secure happiness, and to attain that end we should
put our ladies in the way of developing all the active faculties of their minds. They
should be taught to find sources of inexhaustible interest in all that surround them,
“in the objects of nature, the achievements of art, the imaginations of poetry,
incidents of history, the ways of men past and present and their future prospects.”
Teach them the principles of science and how they are applied in practice. Take
hold of their imagination by showing them the wonderful productions of art, and
make them learn how to wield the powers of nature to their benefit. Instruct them
in music and the ornamental arts, and then mark what result is produced in a few
years. I am very much mistaken if the knowledge which is thus communicated
does not revolutionise all their thoughts and feelings, vitalise all our social institu-
tions, and thereby elevate Hindu character and regenerate Hindu society. I would
entreat the educational officers never to be satisfied by giving the girls a mere
smattering of geography and history, or teaching them how to con a few fables of
a story book selected at trandom from a mass of rubbish. This does more mischief
than good, as they are taught in his way to have an access to those abominable
books with which the vernacular literature abounds. The importance of teaching
English to our females cannot be overrated, as its vivifying influence alone can
draw their attention to their own defects, and furnish them with the keys to the
wide domains of every department of human knowledge.
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III.—The Grant in aid system.—The introduction of a system of grants in aid

under which the efforts of private individuals and of local committees would be
stimulated and encouraged by pecuniary grants from Government in consider-
ation of a good secular education being afforded in the aided schools, was one
of the main objects contemplated in the Education Despatch of 1854. It was in
view of the impossibility of Government alone doing all that must be done to
provide adequate means for the education of the Natives of India that the grant
in aid system was elaborated and developed by the Despatch of 1854, “and it
is to the wider extension of this system, especially in connection with high and
middle education, that the Government look to set free funds which may then be
made applicable to the promotion of the education of the masses.” The Govern-
ment of India has declared its intention of following the lines of policy contained
in the Despatch of 1854, and is desirous of giving full effect to the principles
upon which that policy is based. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, to exam-
ine into the general results of the operation of the grant in aid system which is
expected to stimulate independent effort in the establishment of schools and thus
afford pecuniary relief to Government. It has been justly said that a mere critical
review or analysis of the returns and reports of the different provinces would
fail to impart a thoroughly satisfactory knowledge of the actual state of things
in the districts, and that there are many points which only an acquaintance with
local circumstances can adequately estimate or explain. There are great many
things in the back-ground which never come to the knowledge of the educational
authorities. The managers of the aided schools are charged with “ill manage-
ment, minute peculation, and petty frauds,” and the governors of the different
provinces deplore the state of society which allows persons notoriously to com-
mit these frauds without fear of loss of character. Proceedings also were insti-
tuted in criminal courts against secretaries of aided schools. It has been publicly
said that the grant-in-aid system, as it is administered at present, encourages and
conceals dishonesty and fraud in the managers of schools to an extent which is
extremely demoralising. Thus fault is found with the present administration of
the grant-in-aid system. But no one cares to look below the surface of things, and
to scrutinise the efficiency of the machinery that has been set on foot to carry
out the grant-in-aid policy of the Government. The abuses of aided schools have
been described and decried ad nauseam; but unless the rules upon which grants
are given be radically amended, there is very slight hope of these abuses being
rooted out and the resources of the State being set free for a wider extension of
the present educational system.
The abuses of aided schools have thus been formulated:—
1. Inefficiency of the local committee of management.
2. Inefficiency of the teaching staff.
3. Delays of payment of teachers’ salaries.
4. Uncertainty of tenure.
5. Fraud and oppression.
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Complaint is general that the committees appointed under the grant-in aid rules
for the local management of schools have not realised the expectations of those
who framed that system. These commitees have signally failed in exercising an
efficient control over the schools under their charge. They are incapable of origi-
nating plans of improvement or of remedying defects of management. It has been
authoritatively stated that these committees do not perform their legitimate func-
tions and obligations with anything like efficiency, and it is no wonder therefore
that the grant in aid schools are not in a state of vigorous health, with the excep-
tion of some few schools exceptionally situated and circumstanced, all of them
are in a sickly condition and drag on a miserable existence.
In Bengal there has been an overhauling for several years of a large number
of aided schools which have been declared to be “inefficient and incapable of
improvement.” The large margin of inefficient schools or as it is called in official
language the “inefficient margin,” clearly points to the fact that the grant in-aid
system is not working well and that a radical change of system is urgently called
for, year after year we hear it said that grants are withdrawn from a large num-
ber of old “inefficient schools,” and that these grants are given to “new schools”
which are struggling into existence. Inspectors have been repeatedly reminded
that a grant in aid is not a “benefice” to be held by a school irrespectively of its
merits or success. There has been a wholesale cancelling of grants, because these
aided schools signally failed to satisfy the grant-in aid conditions. The teaching
staff of these aided schools is described as incompetent and worthless. Good men
of sterling worth cannot be induced to join these schools. The success of a school
depends more upon good teachers than upon its committee of management. “I
have been a teacher myself,” said the late Mr. Woodrow, “and I am a member of
several school committees, but my experience tells me that a committee of man-
agement does most good when it interferes the least. The wisest exercise of its
functions is to get good teachers, to treat them well and to pay them regularly. It
is looking for an impossibility to expect good results if the teachers are in arrears
of pay or are inefficient men. The efficiency of teachers is a sine quá non of suc-
cess. The true remedy therefore is the appointment of the best teachers available.”
“Ninety-nine out of a hundred of the abuses,” says one of the most experienced of
the inspectors of schools, “will disappear if we can once secure the appointment
of competent teachers. To do this, however, is not so easy as may appear at first
sight. The real difficulty lies in the paucity of good teachers.” No good teachers
will join or continue to remain in aided schools unless they are well paid and have
good prospects. To pay them well requires ample funds, and the aided schools
cannot afford to pay good teachers. “Many aided schools in the country,” says the
Director of Public Instruction of Bengal, “find it difficult, even with the help of a
grant, to make both ends meet.” How is it possible, then, to maintain a competent
staff of teachers and thus to ensure the permanent success of a school? Various
expedients are resorted to, and the managing committees are continually warned
that the grants would be withdrawn if all qualified masters are employed. The
maintenance of an efficient staff, they are distinctly told, is the only condition the
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fulfilment of which will entitle to the continuance of the grant. But all to no pur-
pose “A competent staff of teachers” is a very rare commodity, and simple adju-
rations unaccompanied by a distinct promise of substantial benefits will not be
able to secure it. “The low standard of English middle schools,” said Sir George
Campbell, “arises from the deficiency of the teaching staff. The Director remarks
that schools of this class are very popular, and it must be added that in general
they are also very worthless.
“The teaching which they give is in no sense education, and can scarcely even
be called instruction. Its prominent feature is the attempt made by untrained mas-
ters, themselves very imperfectly acquainted with English, to impart a smattering
of English to boys who have never studied their own vernacular, and have never
been grounded in any useful branches of learning.”
The complaints made from the North-West are more serious. “The loss of 125
schools and 6,629 pupils with a saving to the Government of Rs. 43,550,” says
Mr. Kempson, the late Director of Public Instruction, “needs some explanation. A
comparison with the summary of 1875–76 discloses the points where the shears
have been applied. The grants-in-aid were withdrawn from 75 Anglo vernacular
schools of the middle class, from 37 vernacular schools for boys, and from 17 ver-
nacular schools for girls. Even under the most careful inspection there was always
a feeling of uncertainty as to whether the teachers received their share of pay from
the subscription funds, or whether the free entries in the accounts were boná fide
transactions. The teachers dare not complain, because if the school was closed
they lost their living, and they preferred a false affidavit to ruining themselves or
compromising the tabsildar or other people by whose influence the schools were
established. It is to the credit of the èleves of our schools and colleges that they
were always unwilling to accept those teacherships, but the consequence was that
inferior men had to be put in, and hence the instruction was rarely satisfactory.”
In no branch of the Educational Department, said the late Lieutenant-Governor,
“could retrenchments have been more justly made than in the large class of insti-
tutions known as aided schools. It was notorious that the smattering of English
which many of the (so called) Angle vernacular schools imparted was worse than
useless from an educational point of view.” It will thus be seen that the Bengal
Government and the North West Government are at one with regard to the effi-
ciency of the teaching staff of the aided schools.
One of the inspectors, after a careful examination of the aided high schools of
one of the most important divisions of the North West, reports that “the failure was
signal. The classes are below the average and the teaching defective. The teachers
in some of the schools are willing and industrious, but wanting in experience.” I
have summarised his remarks. It will thus be seen what urgent necessity exists for
using greater exertions to raise the character and improve the instruction of these
schools. If we read carefully the reports submitted by the district committees and
the local boards, we are struck with the fact that almost all the aided schools have
been suffering greatly from the absence of a competent staff of teachers. I will
attempt to give a brief summary of some of these reports on this head.
287
There is undoubtedly a great call for better paid teachers. The committee was addressed
last year by the inspector of the circle as to the feasibility of increasing the pay of the teach-
ers and the consequent closing of a certain number of schools so as not to exceed the bud-
get grant and the committee were of opinion that some 20 schools could be closed during
the year. At present it is impossible to induce good men to become teachers. In dismissing
one teacher for inefficiency it is quite certain that his successor will be equally as bad and
thus one is led almost to despair of any improvement (Agra)
As there has always been a difficulty in getting efficient teachers the number of schools
has been reduced from 147 to 125 and new rates of pay have been introduced. Even with
the increased rates of pay it is very hard to get competent teachers. There is none to be
found in the district itself and very few outsiders are attracted (Cawnpore).
Several schools were closed for months for want of qualified persons to take their teach-
erships. The majority of the leathers were dismissed on the score of incompetency some
for repeated absence and others for disobedience of orders and misconduct. The chief blot
in these schools was that the teachers thought that the number of boys on the rolls was the
only test of their efficiency (Allahabad).
It is needless to multiply these extracts. Some of these remarks apply not only
to aided schools, but also to Government schools in the interior, when the want of
good teachers is thus severely felt even in Government schools. With their mani-
fold advantages, how keenly the aided schools, which do not enjoy the hundredth
part of the privileges of the Government institutions, feel the absence of an effi-
cient staff of teachers can be more easily imagined than described.
The evil complained of in the smaller schools is intensified in the high schools
and collegiate institutions. Any one who takes the trouble to read the annual edu-
cational reports will at once perceive that the high schools and colleges are all suf-
fering from this incurable chronic disease in the shape of incompetent teachers, or
sullen and grumbling masters, who, if not conscientious, will do more harm than
ignorant and inefficient men.
Such is the actual state of affairs in the aided schools. It would be unjust to say
that all this mischief has been done by the people. That they are quite ready and
willing to come forward and aid in the establishment of schools upon the grant
in-aid system is apparent from the facts and figures submitted to Government year
after year by the different Directors of Public Instruction.
‘The most encouraging feature in the educational history of the year 1878–79 says His
Honor the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal “is that the contributions from private sources
to the total cost of education has exceeded the Government grant a result to which as the
Director observes the experience of the last few years has steadily pointed. The departmen-
tal figures show that out of a total expenditure on education of Rs. 15,15,000 the Govern-
ment contribution amounted to Rs. 21,72,000 while the people paid Rs. 23,73,000 their
contributions in the previous year having been Rs. 21,43,000.
During the year 1879–80 the proportion of the Government expenditure has been still
further reduced—namely, from 47¼ per cent, to 46 per cent. Of the cost of collegiate edu-
cation the Government share has fallen from 52½ to 51⅔ per cent., in secondary education,
the Government share has fallen from 30 to 34½ per cent, and in primary education from
28½ to 25½ per cent. These figures refer only to those colleges and schools which receive
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aid from the State. If the maintenance of unaided institutions be taken into account, the
proportion of the Government expenditure to the total cost will be very much less.”
The figures are no less satisfactory in the returns of the North West Provinces.
Excluding the cost of special and technical instruction in which the Government
share is naturally much higher, we find that the Government expenditure has been
in 1880–81, Rs. 4,92,557, while the contribution from private sources amounted
to Rs. 11,05,906.
This shows that the people are all stirring and the demand for education is
great. The contributions from the people could be doubled and trebled, if only the
feelings of the people were consulted and a spirit of independence were fostered.
There is a blot, however, in the present administration of the grant in and system,
which mars their best efforts and damps their enthusiasm.
That the grant in aid system has failed to achieve the success which it deserves
is not the fault of the great principle laid down in the Education Despatch, but is
due to the retrograde action of the Education Department, and the hard and inelas-
tic rules framed by it. The superstructure does not correspond to the design. The
framers of the system intended that it should spread in an ever widening circle,
and that the educational scheme of the whole country should be organised and
systematised; that all private agencies should be utilised and that a spirit of inde-
pendence should be encouraged and fostered. The machinery that has been set
on foot for bringing about those ends has been found wanting, and, unless timely
measures are taken to remedy the present state of affairs, the objects contemplated
by the Education Despatch will be entirely defeated.
Before I venture to make suggestions for the improvement of the present
administration, I should wish to show in what light the efforts of the people to
establish schools on the grant in aid system is viewed by the educational authori-
ties. The origin of a grant-in-aid school is thus described “some of the leading
men of a village are seized with the desire of a middle class school. They consult
the deputy inspector, who advises them as to the necessary scale of establish-
ment and the amount of aid for which they should apply. Some enthusiasm is
aroused. A committee is formed, a subscription list is circulated, and teachers
appointed. All goes well for a year or two, when dissensions arise among the
members of the committee. A party breaks off and their subscriptions cease. The
pay of the teachers falls into arrears and the head master, seeing no hope of real-
izing it, resigns his appointment. An inferior man takes his place, well knowing
the precarious state of his salary. Dissatisfaction with the school increases, pupils
leave and their fees with them, the secretary no longer makes those advances by
which he had endeavoured to satisfy the teachers and to keep the school going,
and finally the deputy inspector or the inspector learns something of the state of
affairs and comes down suddenly on the school. If it is found, as it is not seldom
found, that the accounts of the school have been inaccurately represented to the
inspector, the grant is withdrawn. From schools, aided under conditions similar to
these, grants are being continually withdrawn.” This is a one-sided picture. The
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only impression one gets from it is that the originators of these schools are want-
ing in public spirit, that they are a set of lazy, indolent, dishonest persons who
are utterly incapable of administering public funds. The enthusiasm which the
people evinced and the efforts which they made are of no value whatever “The
effort,” says another Director of Public Instruction, “was unwillingly sustained or
fraudulently counterfeited.” Such enthusiasm should be repressed and such effort
should be discouraged! This is surely not fostering independent effort! I should
be the last person to deny that the local committees are not perfection. Faillings
they have, but most of these failings arise from ignorance of the idiosyncracies
of the educational officers under whom the schools are placed, and should there-
fore be tolerated. Instead of displaying tact in smoothing down differences and
endeavouring with gentleness to correct whatever venial failings the managers
may show, the inspectors try to exact to the letter the rigorous terms of the grant
in aid rules, and by their constant and harrassing interference disgust the real
friends of the school, and the consequence is the subscriptions are discontinued,
the grant is withdrawn, the school disappears, and “the independent effort of the
people is seldom revived.” The fact is these aided schools are looked upon by the
educational authorities as excrescences which as to be removed, and the sooner
the better.
“It is easy to trace,” said Sir George Campbell, “the causes of the decline both
in the numbers of the middle schools and in the character of the instruction given
in them; but it is more difficult to suggest a remedy.” His Honour believed that the
true causes of the decline of the aided schools had been fully traced. He was not
aware that the real cause had not been discovered and that it was for this reason
that an effective remedy was difficult to be found.
The fact of the matter is the Government grants are placed on an eleemosynary
basis, the members of the managing committees are treated as recipients of Govern-
ment charity, and the aided schools are looked upon as charity schools. They are
the pariahs of the Education Department and are looked down upon with contempt.
* * * * *
The infection has spread from the department to the outside public, and the very
name of a “subscription school” moves a provoking smile. Those who can beg for
“aid” are, like Hindu outcastes, the lowest of the low.
* * * * *
I once asked a friend who was maintaining a school out of his slender means
why he did not apply for a Government grant. His answer was “I shall not be able
to bear their scornful conduct and their constant and harassing interference.” “But
you cannot get good teachers, and there may be a thousand and one accidents by
which the school may suffer a grievous loss.” “Well, I must abolish the school,
but I would not take Government aid. You know the feeling of our people on the
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subject.” Yes, I know very well the feeling of our people on the subject. They
would have nothing to do with charity schools, for the support of which they
pay their own money, and are considered into the bargain as recipients of char-
ity, doled out by Government officials, They are looked upon as persons whose
first business in life is to defraud Government. Everything they do in connection
with the school is looked upon with suspicion. If any plans for improvement are
submitted and an increased grant is applied for, these are viewed as ingenious
contrivances or flimsy pretexts for extorting Government money under false pre-
tences. The managers of the aided schools are like the alms men at a Sraddha (the
feast of the dead), or like the beggars of the street, who, if they tease and trouble
you, can be prosecuted under the Vagrant Act.
“These local committees,” says an inspector of schools, “constituted as they
are of the most influential gentlemen of the place, are no doubt as good repre-
sentative bodies as can be produced under the circumstances, but however lib-
eral as private individuals the members may be in contributing from their private
resources for the support of the schools, there seems to be no call yet felt by them
to supervise educational administration in their public capacity.” These “influ-
ential gentlemen” suffer their names to be retained on the committee, but can it
be wondered at that they do not take an active interest in the management of the
schools? No respectable person would ever serve on a committee in which every
member is reckoned as an almsman and a beggar. The aided schools are not within
the charmed Government circle, they are outside its limits, they must look on
with envy and admiration upon the favoured group within, and if any crumbs of
bread, any wipings of the hand, are thrown out to them, they must raise a chorus
of applause and be grateful for the benefaction they receive.
Thus it will be seen that the present grant-in aid system has a repressive influ-
ence on independent effort, and the results which are expected to flow from it will
never be attained if the present system be pursued. The aided schools may drag
on their miserable existence for a short time and then disappear. Fresh schools
will be started and fresh grants will be given to them, and after a time they will
share the fate of their predecessors. The educational authorities seem to be under
the impression that if the funds set apart for grants-in-aid are distributed during
the year, if old grants are withdrawn and new grants are given, so as to show that
a fixed sum of money is placed on an eleemosynary basis, if the retrenchment
shears are actively employed and a large saving is shown in this ill fated grant-in
aid allotment—their work is done, and they are entitled to the thanks of the Gov-
ernment and the gratitude of the Native public.
I have attempted to show that the working of the present grant-in-aid system is
unsatisfactory, and that it does not possess within it those elements of expansive-
ness will out which no real pecuniary relief could be afforded to Government, and
the character of the education given cannot be materially improved.
The suggestion of a remedy does not seem to me to be very difficult. The solu-
tion of the difficulty, to my mind, lies in a nut shell. All the Government institu-
tions and all the aided schools and colleges—more especially those which possess
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within them elements of permanent success, the permanency of whose income,

I mean, can be counted upon—should be made parts of the same system, links
of the same chain. The stigma that now attaches to “subscription schools” will
be removed and there will be no occasion then for the contemptuous remarks
that are now made with regard to these schools. The aided schools and colleges
which now exist, instead of being isolated and stationary, will become organised
and progressive, and their permanency and extended usefulness will be secured.
The educational authorities, instead of looking upon them as morbid outgrowths,
will look upon them as young plants having vigorous life in them, watered from
the same founts a head as the Government institutions, and entitled to the same
fostering care as those schools and colleges which are supported entirely by Gov-
ernment. Let them not be considered as aliens, but the children of the same soil,
which will grow with the growth of the department. On the one hand, we have
schools and colleges which look to Government entirely for their means of sup-
port, and on the other hand we have institutions which pay the greater part of
their own expenses, and only ask the Government to take care of them in time
of trouble and distress. Some of the children of the father are entirely dependent
upon him for support, while others can earn their own livelihood and only look to
him for aid when they are laid up by sickness or have unforeseen contingencies to
meet. Paternal care, according to our Hindu notions, should be equally extended
to all the children. The aided institutions are the “earning” members of a Hindu
joint-family, and if they are denied a greater, they should at least have an equal
share of happiness and comforts with those who do not earn anything, but are
entirely dependent upon the managing head of the house community.
If the whole educational scheme of the country be systematised if the aided
institutions be considered as parts of one and the same organisation, and if thus
the grant in aid system be so shaped as really to stimulate independent effort, solid
pecuniary relief will be afforded to the Government of India, the country will be
studded with aided institutions on the grant-in aid system, and the contemplated
development of primary education will not be a work of the distant future.
What I venture to suggest is that Government schools and colleges and the
aided institutions—especially those whose income is permanent should be placed
on the same footing, and that the system of transfer and pensions should be equally
applicable to both classes of institutions. If this be once done, the development
of the grant-in aid system will be so rapid, so many private individuals and pub-
lic bodies will gladly come forward to take advantage of the system, that in no
long time Government will be entirely relieved of the dead burden which is now
weighing upon it in supporting the State schools and colleges.
Note by PRAN NATH PANDIT, Third Master, Canning College

1. I have been a teacher in the Canning College for the last 15 years and have
always taken an interest in the diffusion of education and enlightenment among
my Hindu and Muhammadan countrymen in Lucknow. I am intimately connected
292
with the Jalsa i-Tahzib and Rafab i Am Committee. Besides contributing largely
to the Morasila Cashmir on social questions, I started a miscellany, called Mitatu l
Hind for the enlightenment of the native public and have hitherto maintained it in
a respectable order. My experience has been gained mostly in Oudh.
2. The native community of this province consists of so many different elements
that one and the same course of instruction will not do for all. Then, again, the
requirements of city and town communities differ very much from those of village or
rural communities. I know not what form local self-government is to take in Oudh.
Much of the education of the province will depend on the particular form of self
government. The whole vernacular education of the province should be handed over
to our district and Municipal committees and local boards provided they be accord-
ing to the Resolution of the Government of India on local self-government. The ser-
vices of the deputy inspectors may be dispensed with, and those of the kanungos, to
be hereafter appointed may be utilised instead. Rai Durga Parshad may be appointed
their head in educational matters. Geometry, geography, and history should be elim-
inated from the course of village schools, and small books on practical agriculture
and the preparation of village papers and maps be substituted. Whereever there is a
patwari there ought to be a village school and every patwari should be an ex-officio
superintendent of that school. In towns and cities local boards and Municipalities
should be required to meet the wants of the people in educational matters.
3. Instruction is rather forced upon the village community. It is sought for by
Bengalis, Kayaths, Khatris, Baniyas, and Brahmans. Muhammadans especially
hold aloof from it, for they consider English education inconsistent with their reli-
gion, and even vernacular education given in our schools is supposed to be tainted
with infidelity. Their luxurious habits produce indolence and their religious doc-
trines and traditions make them blind to their real interest in this world. They will
not apply themselves to anything requiring great exertion. They cannot compete
with the Hindus under the present system of education. They have an aptitude for
learning languages, history, logic, and medicine. They can even get up different
theories in mathematics, but they invariably break down in the practical part of it.
Race pride alone prevents Eurasians and poor Europeans from availing them-
selves of instruction in Government schools.
I do not know whether “Influential classes” includes Europeans or applies
solely to Natives. Race and caste prejudices makes the Natives averse to giving
even elementary knowledge to every class of society. They think that knowledge
is intended simply for the upper classes and that by extending it to the lower
classes knowledge itself is degraded.
4. Wherever there are Kayaths, Baniyas, and Muhammadans, there is an indig-
enous school of some kind or other. In villages as well as in town and cities they
are now supplanted by Government schools. The Bampas and Mahajans pay no
great attention to Hindi literature. They find the ancient village system of teach-
ing arithmetical tables and various practical rules and formulæ called “Gur” by
heart answer their purpose very well. This enables them to settle their mercantile
and other daily accounts verbally and without the help of pen and paper. These
293
are purely Hindu indigenous schools. Besides the above, there are Muhammadan
and mixed schools too. By mixed schools I do not mean schools where boys and
girls read together, as in America, but where Hindu and Muhammadan boys study
Persian literature together. They are now being deserted for English schools, but
formerly the education given directly in Persian and indirectly in Urdu was much
more efficient and advanced than the present standard of middle class. Elemen-
tary books containing moral lessons in prose and poetry were taught to beginners,
a few rules of arithmetic, important to men in their daily life, were sometimes
included in the study of such schools.
There are also schools of private individuals giving gratuitous instruction to
people simply for the public benefit. The great name of some Sanskrit Pandit or
Arabic Maulvie attracts a large number of pupils from distant parts of the country.
They impart instruction in Sanskrit and Arabic to a most advanced standard and
teach the highest branches of literature and philosophy. Some indigenous schools
are established by private funds or charitable endowments. Muhammadans and
Cashmiri Pandits of Lucknow have had such institutions, where a number of
teachers are entertained and students are not only gratuitously taught, but some
provision is occasionally made for their maintenance also. Religious instruction
is the main object of such schools, The Martimere School, too, comes under the
same category, but its usefulness is now restricted to Europeans and Eurasians
only.
The fees charged in most schools vary from one anna to one rupee, but the
teachers get presents in money and articles of food on various occasions. Muham-
madans teach Arabic and Persian; Brahmins, Sanskrit, Hindi and verbal arithme-
tic, and Kayaths teach bookkeeping or written accounts in Persian. They are very
well qualified in the subjects they profess to teach. There is no system for training
or providing masters in such schools.
To further the objects of primary and middle education in vernacular the indig-
enous schools can easily be utilized as a part of the educational system—
(1) by allowing them the freedom of retaining their own languages and
subjects,
(2) by adding a little arithmetic, history, and geography to their existing sub-
jects of study,
(3) by inducing them to submit to inspection by educational officers,
(4) by requiring the teachers to submit short monthly returns showing the
number of students and other necessary particulars. No attempt should be
made to displace any of the exisiting teachers, as the prosperity of these
schools entirely depends upon their personal influence and character. But
schools giving religious instruction alone cannot be thus utilised.
Most of the teachers will be found willing to accept State aid and to conform
to the rules under which such aid is given, if the existing rules be a little modified
in their favor.
294
5. Very few boys educated at home only can have any pretension to liberal edu-
cation. But though intellectually inferior to school taught boys, they are superior
in moral character. At examinations qualifying for the public service they have
little chance of success against boys educated at school. But when home instruc-
tion is combined with school education the result is admirable. Most of our suc-
cessful students have had this advantage.
6. Unless self-government is made a reality and members of local boards, &c,
begin to take an intelligent interest in mass education, the withdrawal of Govern-
ment agency is sure to make the whole thing fall back to its primitive state. Influ-
ential Natives do not like to give nor are the masses willing to receive education,
however elementary it may be.
7. The present social status of village schoolmasters mostly depends on their
pay. Teachers trying to assist the villagers in sundry ways exercise a beneficial
influence among them but when they set themselves up as little “hákims,” enforc-
ing the attendance of boys and payment of schooling fees simply by the aid of
the tahsíldar, then they are feared not simply by the boys but by their parents too.
It is not an easy matter to get good schoolmasters, but if local bodies be allowed
a voice in their selection, and the teachers themselves have better prospects, the
whole thing may be much improved. To improve their position, let a definite num-
ber of patwaris and kanúngos in each district be yearly recruited from their ranks.
8. The agricultural classes are decidedly opposed to all sorts of instruction.
They think that their children are taken away from field labor or attendance on
cattle. The experiment of night schools in some villages might be tried. The only
instruction acceptable to villagers is what will enable them to have, not ultimately,
but immediately, two meals a day instead of one. School study is supposed to unfit
boys for hard field labor. What they require is practical instruction in agricultural
and mechanical arts in the open air. They want industrial schools. Give the poor
little boys something in the shape of wages for the work they do, and they will all
flock to such schools.
9. Both in Urdu and Hindi the book language is generally different from the
actual vernacular of the masses. In primary schools much time and energy are
wasted in teaching such a language. Books for primary instruction in the real
vernacular of this province are much needed. The difference between Urdu and
Hindi in primary schools should not be that of language, but of characters simply.
10. The principle of forcing education upon poor villagers and at the same time
charging fees for it is quite unintelligible to me. This is quite disagreeable to the
people, and is one of the reasons why primary instruction is not yet acceptable
to poor rural communities. The tahsíldar is sometimes requested to enforce pay-
ment of fees from almost starving people, sometimes the ill paid village teacher
has to make up the account from his own small pay. The headman of each village
already pays for the education of his village boys at the rate of one per cent as
educational cess. During the Viceroyalty of Lord Lytton, when local Governments
wanted to make reductions in the Education Department, it raised the rate of fees
and hundreds of schools ceased to exist simply on that account.
295
11. There is no use of increasing the number of primary schools at present. I

have already given my views as to how the existing schools may gradually be
rendered more efficient.
12. There is no fixed scale of grant-in-aid laid down for colleges. For English
schools grants in aid are regulated by the number of students receiving instruc-
tion. The rules require that the average attendance of boys who learn English
should not be less than one for every Rs. 1-8 of the monthly grant. Missionar-
ies with cheap agencies avail themselves of the above rule. But under the pres-
ent state of conditions no Native, however enterprising, can expect to keep up
an English school in an efficient state under this rule. If the Government wants
educated Natives to come forward to establish high schools, the grants should
not be regulated by the number of students, but by the quality of the instruction
imparted. A better quality of instruction necessarily involves a higher expenditure.
It is much better to impart sound instruction to a limited number than to furnish a
large number of students with an imperfect education. I should therefore suggest
that the grant-in-aid be regulated by the amount of expenditure of the school for
which such aid is solicited.
13. On the whole, the Government could not be more neutral than it is. The
religious prejudices of all Indian communities are more or less breaking down
in proportion to the Western light they receive. Even mission schools are now
found to be full of Hindu and Muhammadan boys. The danger is to be met with in
another direction. There is a growing cry of moral looseness against school boys.
14. If by secondary school be meant middle school, the present course neither
stores the mind with useful and practical information nor does it prepare boys for
the entrance examination of the University. The course of study and the mode of
examination both are defective. Should the Commission call for the correspon-
dence between Mr. Nesfield and the Director of Public Instruction on the subject
in question, it will give them valuable information in regard to this point.
15. In our schools I cannot say whether our attention is unduly directed to the
entrance examination, but stuffing little boys with Sanskrit and Persian in our
branch school looks very much like it. If the time were altogether given to English
and vernacular, time and energy would both be more usefully economized. In our
anxiety for a few boys in the first arts we force hundreds of boys to give up their
easy vernacular for much more difficult languages which are of no practical good
to them in their struggle for livelihood—nay, more than this, they do not know
sufficiently of their vernacular even for ordinary requirements.
16. The University curriculum does not afford sufficient training for teachers in
secondary schools. If funds afford, a special Normal school will become very use-
ful for training teachers. In the absence of such schools a system of apprenticeship
under good teachers may answer the purpose nearly as well.
17. The present system of school inspection in Oudh is more costly than effec-
tive. The kanúngos will be a cheaper agency than deputy inspectors, who are
altogether a foreign element in the village school system. As each post-office is
also a savings bank so each kanungo in this tour of inspection of village papers
296
may as well inspect village schools. As the kanungo is very intimately connected
with the several village communities in his circuit, he will be able to look after
village schools much better. The co-operation of Native gentlemen also should be
secured. Some education I officers look upon this co-operation as a curtailment
of their powers just as some executive officers seem to dread the inauguration or
extension of local self government.
18. The middle class Anglo vernacular examination greatly interferes with the
further progress of our boys. Let purely vernacular schools alone compete for the
middle examination. In the latter case it will help to produce a useful vernacular
literature.
19. Excluding Bengal Proper and Bombay, the cause of English education
would for some time suffer in India. But as out of evil God brings out some good,
so a spirit of reliance upon local exertions and combination for local purposes is
sure to be the result under the fostering care of a liberal Government that offers
local self government to India.
20. Definite instruction in duty and the principles of moral conduct does not
occupy a separate or prominent place in Government schools and colleges. Gov-
ernment can hardly take any definite steps towards imparting such instruction
without treading upon religious ground. Only such institutions as are established
by the Natives themselves can do much to improve the social and moral feelings
of students. The influence of English literature and higher instruction in arts and
sciences also goes far to advance the cause of morality and sense of duty.
21. No steps worthy of mention are taken for promoting the physical well being
of students in Oudh. We look to Municipal and district committees for the encour-
agement of physical exercise among students.
22. Only some of our youths having themselves received the benefits of English
education have commenced to teach vernacular, and sometimes a little of English
too, to their young female relations. But there is no system in all this. Each indi-
vidual follows his own whim, and that too for a short time only. As all classes of
respectable Native females are pardanashin, it is not easy for any one to ascertain
the extent of progress they make. Among Cashmiri pandits all girls can read and
write Hindi very freely. Though our vernacular is Urdu there are very few of our
females that can read Urdu books. They read a few Sanskrit religious books and
can recite Sanskrit slokas without understanding their meaning. Among Muham-
madans some females read the Koran, others Urdu translations of some religious
works in Arabic, and some, though very few, compose even Urdu verses. This sort
of indigenous instruction is found only in the upper strata of Hindu and Muham-
madan society. Mothers teach their daughters sewing and cooking, and elder sis-
ters or cousins teach a little of the first two R’s to their younger cousins before
marriage, after which event it all rests with the taste of their husbands.
23. The Department of Education always assists the zenana missions in
establishing schools for girls. Where there are no zenana missions it assists and
encourages Natives in establishing such schools, and under encouraging condi-
tions it establishes small Government schools too. A little of the three R’s and
297
something of needle-work is all that is taught in such schools. Our females and
their male relations have their own peculiar notions of morality and respect-
ability. None of the above schools have ever enlisted the sympathy of Native
gentry nor commanded their respect. The schools are filled generally by low
born girls of a degraded class, or by poverty-stricken famished girls, or some of
very doubtful social position are attracted to such schools by pecuniary induce-
ments. Enlightened Natives find themselves altogether powerless in the matter of
female education. Young husbands can do much towards educating their wives,
and when these enlightened wives become mothers, their children are sure to
be wiser and better in every way. Then alone can there be a systematic female
education in India.
24. If “mixed schools” mean institutions where boys and girls are instructed
together, it would be sheer madness to start such a school for the Natives of India.
25. To steal a march on native prejudices, respectable Saidanis (wives of Sayy-
ids) for Muhammadan girls, and Brahmin widows of good moral character should
be selected as teachers for Hindu girls. We require a normal school to train such
teachers.
26. Yes, the terms are less onerous, because strictness in the case of girls’
schools would be worse than useless.
27. Female education in India under the British Government owes almost
everything to European and American ladies. The name of Miss Carpenter is
remembered by us with gratitude. Lady Phear and a number of other distin-
guished ladies did their best in promoting the cause of female education in India.
To increase the interest which ladies might take in this cause, let our gracious
Empress confer the orders of the Indian Empire on some ladies that especially
distinguished themselves in this direction, and let the services of others be other-
wise recognized by conferring lesser honours on them. Instead of trying to enter
the Parliament and the Senate house or otherwise to have equal privileges with
the stronger sex, Western ladies would thus find a scope for the exercise of their
energies in India.
28. More care ought to be exercised in the selection of teachers. Men that have
given sufficient proof of good character and can command the respect and atten-
tion of pupils should be preferred to raw youths fresh from their college stud-
ies. Hitherto, anybody producing an University certificate is taken in, no matter
whether he has any aptitude for giving instruction or not.
29. In Oudh we have two highly paid officers, an inspector and an assistant
inspector. As under the new arrangements much of the work of inspection is likely
to be taken away from them, their services may be otherwise utilised. The Punjab
University has already given certificates of proficiency to many oriental scholars
in Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit. They may now be employed at much smaller pay.
In colleges native professors like Babu Lachmi Shankar in the Benares College,
and Maulvi Zakaulla in the Allahabad College, may be substituted for Europeans
to teach the science course.
298
30. Higher education is generally more cared for than primary and secondary
education. The department would no doubt gain much by having more men of
practical training in the art of teaching and school management.
31. Yes. Under the supervision of able and experienced teachers the system
works well. I was myself for some time a pupil teacher.
32. If Boards of Examiners that thoroughly understand their work and com-
mand the confidence of the people be appointed by the Department of Education,
this system may be applied to all classes of aided institutions. They should be
judged, not by results of examinations each year, but by results extending over a
period of some five or six years. Attendance, discipline, and popularity of an insti-
tution are not to be overlooked. A distinction ought to be made between Mission-
ary institutions and those established by the people, for the latter cannot compete
with the former on equal terms.
33. If the examinations be well supervised and the results be altogether above-
board, it does not matter whether the teachers be certificated or not. I do not see
anything particularly good in this system under any conditions whatsoever.
34. The aid should in no case be less than half of the total expenditure of the
institution.
36. If Europeans of superior qualifications be thus attracted to India to fill
the several chairs of Indian Universities, the cause of high education cannot but
improve. It is impossible for really able men to remain anywhere without improv-
ing all those that come in contact with them.
37. From the entrance class upward promotion from class to class should depend
upon the results of University examinations as hithertofore. In primary and middle
schools it is preferable that such promotions be left to the school authorities.
38. Where there is already a well conducted aided college like our Cunning
College in Oudh it is unnecessary for the Government to have a Government
institution too, unless required by the wants of the province. Where it is found
necessary to have one Government college as a model, it should not compete with
private or aided institutions by charging smaller or even equal fees, nor should a
distinction be made in conferring scholarships and Government situations.
39. The circumstances of the Muhammadans still require a somewhat excep-
tional treatment in the matter of English education in Lucknow. These circum-
stances are due chiefly to change of government religious bigotry and luxurious
and loose habits of life. Their aversion to English education is now declining.
The liberal minded members of the Rafah-i-Am Committee are trying their best
to invite the attention of their co-religionists in Lucknow to the advantages of
English education.
As an undue pride, self conceit and vanity were supposed to prevent the chil-
dren of the Muhammadan aristocracy of Lucknow from reading in schools which
included among their pupils boys of inferior social position, the Cunning college
committee has made provisions for that feeling by opening a special class for the
children of the Lucknow nobility and Oudh landed aristocracy.
299
ANNEXURE.
A Memorandum on the Education of the Sons of Landlords, by

UDAY PRATAP SINGH, Raja of Bhinga, Oudh.
A SUITABLE institution, with the comforts of a home and the advantages of mix-
ing in good society, is an all important want for the sons of the landed aristocracy
of Oudh and of the contiguous provinces.
The education imparted in Government schools and colleges does not meet the
requirements of the case, it being unfitted to prepare young men in general, and
the sons of the upper class in particular, for the faithful discharge of the duties
which may devolve on them in after life. Under the present system a man who
attains notoriety by dabbling in newspapers and heaping volumes of abuse on the
devoted head of any person who has the misfortune to differ from him in opinion
is considered a grant in intellect and a model of manliness. As it is not desirable
to bring the sons of this class up to this high stage of culture, a system better than
the existing one is a necessity. The sons of noblemen, like all other classes of Her
Majesty’s subjects, should be taught to represent their grievances, and stand up
for their rights in a respectful and straightforward manner, but measures should be
taken to make them peaceful citizens rather than noisy agitators.
It is a well known fact that the Wards’ institutions which have been organ-
ised from time to time, have egregiously failed in effecting the good they were
intended to bring about. It is instructive to note the causes of their failure. The
complaints generally raised against these institutions are, 1st, the inmates have
had both their morals and manners corrupted, 2nd, their intellectual improvement
has scarcely been secured, 3rd they have not been taught to manage their estates
with efficiency. In defence of these institutions it may be said that these young
men would have been in a worse predicament if such institutions had not existed.
The fact, however, is this:—These young men, deprived of the home training cal-
culated, to some extent, to prepare them for their work as landlords, are brought in
contact with such influences of city life as rob them of their simplicity and leave
them deteriorated in manners and debauched in morals. The conclusion from all
this is not that education itself is demoralising but that wrong systems of educa-
tion should be avoided. A system of education based on correct principles is sure
to benefit those brought under its influence.
The failure of these Wards institutions is, therefore, an argument in favour of
their displacement by an institution better organised than they were.
No stress should be laid on what is commonly urged against the expediency
of communicating English education to the sons of the landlords. The exclusion
of English education under present circumstances is tantamount to the exclu-
sion of all which deserves the name of education. The object of every good
system of education should be to expand the mind and influence the heart by
means of the advanced thought of the age and these intellectual riches are trea-
sured up only in the languages of Europe, and if these languages be excluded,
300
then the object is completely defeated. Till the languages of this country are
enriched by the transference of such thought to them, in their weakness, they
cannot, without such adventitious help, possibly meet the requirements of a
liberal education.
Why should our countrymen object to borrow from the rich information stored
up in the English language? The history of the world cannot point out a period
when all the nations of the world were equally enlightened at the same time, or
when any one nation was so rich in the glories of culture that it did not stand in
need of borrowing from the intellectual treasures of other nations. The English
language, which is admittedly one of the most powerfully expressive languages
at present spoken, and is fast becoming a universal language, owes its richness
mainly to the wealth which it has so unstintingly borrowed from other languages,
both living and dead. The oriental languages made great progress in ancient times,
but they unhappily came to a stand still, and while they have continued stationary,
the English language has been keeping pace with the strides of intellectual devel-
opment. Hence the poverty of the one and the richness of the other. The English
language has taken centuries of culture under the guidance of the master minds of
England to raise itself to its present stage of sturdiness, and the Indian languages
must pass through the same refining and recuperative courses of training to arrive
at the same stage of perfection, and, till they do not do so we must have recourse
to the English tongue for that excellence of mental culture which they in their
present state fail to secure.
The necessity of having a well-organised boarding institution for the sons of
noblemen will appear when we take into consideration the fact that they, like the
other classes of Her Majesty’s subjects in India, are in a transition state, which we
have no guarantee will culminate in good, and, therefore, unless suitable steps be
opportunely taken, no one can predict what evils may not follow.
In a political point of view also the education of the rising generation of land-
lords would be an advantage, inasmuch as it would enable them to appreciate the
benefits of British rule, to introduce needed improvements and reforms into their
estates, and to promote the welfare of the country by adding to the enlightenment
and comforts of their dependants and tenants. The disaffection and discontent
resulting from disappointment in the case of educated Natives running in a body
after the loaves and fishes of the public service, would not of course appear in
their case Nay, this feeling would diminish considerably in the country at large in
consequence of the numerous employments sure to be thrown open for such place
hunters by educated landlords.
Education in such an institution should be religious, moral, intellectual,
æsthetic, and physical—
(i) Some provision should be made for the religious instruction of the
pupils. Both Hindu and Muhammadan pupils should be intelligently
and dogmatically taught the principles of their respective faiths by
pious Pandits and Maulvis. Boys must be instructed in the religions of
301
their forefathers, and nothing should be done or said to shake their faith
therein, while it would be left to their option in after life to mould their
religious convictions as they like. Thus, for the religious instruction of
the Mussulman youths the two Maulvis hereinafter mentioned will have
to be of the two sects, one to teach the Shias, and the other the Sunnis.
So also there will have to be employed two Pandits to teach the tenets
of the two Vedas—namely, the Sam Veda Samhita of Kauthumi School
with the Gobbda Grihiyá Sutrá, and the Shukla Ejur Veda Samhita of
the Madhenyani School with the Kátiyam Grihiyá Sutrá. No instruction
has been prospectively provided for the other two Vedic sections and for
the dissenting branches of the two above-mentioned Vedas, because the
Hindus of this part of the country are, as a rule, followers of the above
two said schools of the two Vedas. Other suitable religious instruction
may be imparted to those alumns to whom the above books are prohib-
ited by the laws of Mánu; but for the sons of “The Twice Born” (i.e., the
sons of Brahmans and Kahatryas) no other books will be found more
useful than those already named.
(ii) Moral education should be imparted through the medium of some
treatise on the practical rules of morality, illustrated by examples
taken from the lives of great and good men and women in any age or
of any country. A book of this kind can be easily compiled if no such
be already forthcoming.
(iii) In imparting intellectual education care should be taken to discipline the
mind, as well as to convey useful information, and its value should be
determined, not by the number of books taught, but by the amount and
quality of information imparted and digested.
(iv) Æsthetic culture should be secured, and the pupils taught to appreciate
and make progress in the fine arts so that each of them may be furnished
with a fund of refined enjoyment fitted to counteract all tendency to
pleasures of a demoralising stamp. It is a well known fact that the char-
acters of persons are often ruined more on account of their want of such
sources of refining and mind-elevating pleasures than on account of a
natural proclivity to vice. The necessity then of teaching ethics is at once
apparent.
(v) Intellectual education should be coupled with physical education, and
gymnastic exercises should be resorted to by the pupils for the purpose
of counteracting the wear and tear of mental labour.
As to the location of such an institution, a retired place or one free from the
bustle and demoralising influences of city life should be selected; and a suitable
building consisting of dormitories bath rooms, and three or four big class rooms,
around a central hall, with a commodious drawing room attached, should be
raised along with apartments for the resident teachers and room for billiards.
Outside the main buildings there should be a line of small dining rooms for
302
Hindu boarders and a dining hall for Muhammadans, stables out-houses &c.
We might at first have the nucleus of a building to be enlarged and expanded
as occasion may demand and the proposition suggests itself that the landlords
themselves would in all probability readily come forward with substantial dona-
tion towards the funds required for raising the building were they only certain
the Government favoured their enterprise. There are many suitable buildings
which Government could be asked to place temporarily at the disposal of the
institution at the onset.
The staff of the institution should consist of a Superintendent of Rs. 400 per
mensem, two senior masters of Rs. 200 each; and two junior masters of Rs.
100 each; besides two Pandits and two Maulvis on Rs. 25 each—the whole
expenditure, including Rs. 100 for medical aid and about Rs. 100 for contin-
gencies not to exceed Rs. 400 a month. If the institution secured about fifty
pupils paying according to the incomes of their respective estates that is, at the
rate of about Rs. 40 per head on an average, its income would more than cover
its expenses.
In selecting teachers care should be taken to exclude men who are disaffected
towards Government for personal reasons, and who may sow the seeds of discon-
tent among the pupils and thereby defeat one of the great objects of the institution,
namely, the promotion of loyalty in aristocratic circles. Persons well educated,
well behaved, of unimpeachable character and respectability, able not only to
read, write, and speak English with accuracy and eloquence, but especially to
pronounce English words according to the usages of good society, ought to be
appointed.
The programme of studies should consist of good reading books, small elemen-
tary treatises on health, agriculture, political economy, geography, grammar arith-
metic, land measuring history, and letter writing, with a compendium on good
manners—and on this latter head Chesterfield’s Advice to his Son may be read
with advantage. For advanced pupils, such books as Bentham a Theory of Legis-
lation; Spencer a Sociology; Mill a Treatise on Representative Government, Sub-
jection of Women, and Liberty, together with Fawcett a Political Economy, and
standard works on history may be selected. Some ideas of the laws of the land,
civil and criminal, should also be given to all classes of pupils.
If pupils, after having finished the course evince a desire to go up for the Uni-
versity Examinations, they may take up the course taught in the colleges to one
of which the institution may be affiliated. The institution ought to be separate
from the other educational establishments at work, because the sons of the upper
class are likely in tender years to be corrupted by a free intercourse with city
gamins. There can, of course, be no serious objection to richer boys associating
with poorer ones in the class room when their character is to some extent formed.
It will on the contrary, do them good to compete with pupils of all classes for
University honours on an equal footing.
As to the routine of business for the pupils, the following directions will
suffice:—Pupils should rise at six, walk or ride one hour, have athletic exercises
303
between seven and eight, bathe and breakfast between eight and nine, attend
classes between 9 A.M. and 1 P.M., spend the interval till 3 P.M. in relaxation and in
light reading lunch to be partaken of during this latter interval. Lessons in drawing
and in music should be given between 3 and 4 P.M., and exercises in elocution and
composition till 5 P.M. Walking and riding between 5 and 6 P.M. On their return
they would have an hour for dinner, after which they would repair to the draw-
ing room, where the Superintendent would in a pleasant manner invite them to
instructive conversation on the biographies of great men, living and dead, politics
etiquette, &c. In this way false ideas would be eradicated from out of the minds
of students and correct ones substituted in their stead. Retiring hours 10 P.M. The
hours must, of course, change with the seasons.
Each of the pupils should have no more than five servants, including a
groom, and no pupil should be allowed to have a private tutor to tempt him
to idleness.
Among miscellaneous things to be taught great attention should be paid to the
rules of etiquette to enable them to move in high circles, both amongst Europeans
and their own countrymen, to the approved mode of keeping accounts, managing
establishments, and distributing work amongst subordinates.
Pupils should be taught to have more confidence in European officers, who are
likely to be disinterested councillors, than in their own illiterate underlings, who
have none but interested motives to subserve.
They should be encouraged between vacation times to enlarge their minds by
visiting places of interest.
Corporal punishment, which has a most deteriorating effect on the mind, and
by a frequency of its administration makes the receiver shameless ought not to
be inflicted except in extreme cases of flagrancy. The boys must be taught to
value, above all measure, their individual self-respect, so that they may be heartily
ashamed at all times of doing anything which is wrong mean, or vile.
It may be said that the reluctance of the aristocracy to send their sons for educa-
tion would stand in the way of the success of such an institution. But experience
amply shows that they would gladly send their sons if they were made aware of
the deep interest taken by the authorities in schemes having for their object the
proper education of their sons.
Should the inducement of the well wishers of the people fail to impress on their
minds the great advantages of education, then compulsory measures recommend
themselves, and decidedly a law, which will make education compulsory among
the higher classes, will be acceptable to them who have the welfare of their coun-
try at heart.
Addendum to the Evidence of RAJA UDAY PERTAP SINGH,

Raja of Bhinga.
I find it necessary to alter my answer to question No. 68, which I find I have
misconstrued. My answer accordingly is—that it would be prejudicial to high
304
education for Government, under any circumstances, to withdraw its aid; espe-
cially so, if it were to close its own institutions and leave the work to another
where the people object to send their children on account of its religious teaching.
I would now beg to make the following suggestions:—
That, after having passed a successful examination in the subjects prescribed,
the alumni be encouraged, by the offer of prizes and scholarships, to follow a
course of reading which will improve their general knowledge and enlarge their
minds with advanced ideas and thoughts.
As matters unfortunately now stand, students, on leaving their schools and col-
leges, seldom try to add to the stock of their acquirements.
With the view to meet the difficulties set forth in my answer to question No.
67, regarding Kshatriya youths, I would point out that some especial encourage-
ment should be given to the said youths; and that such men as try to promote their
education should have a ready support from Government.
I submit the following questions for the consideration of the Education
Commission:—
What proportion do Kshatriya boys undergoing education in the schools and
colleges bear to the students of other castes? And likewise, in Government
and other public offices, what is the ratio of Kshatriya employés to others?
In conclusion, I beg to reiterate my opinion more clearly, that, whatever be
the standard of education in schools and colleges, the acquirement of the English
language should be of leading importance. Apart from all the advantages which a
knowledge of it is calculated to give, it is in every way probable that English will
one day become the vernacular of the country.
Note
1. I have not taken into account such indigenous schools which taught the Kurân only. But
there were indigenous schools which taught secular books along with the Kuran. In such
schools it was customary to read the Kurán in the earlier part of the day, and secular
books in the afternoon.
305
9
S. SATTHIANADHAN, EXTRACTS
FROM HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN
THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY (MADRAS:
SRINIVASA VARADACHARI & CO.,
1894), 36–38, 73–76, 109–112, 165–168,
CXIII–CXXI
The The vernacular department of the University was not worked very satisfactorily.
University Telugu, Tamil and Mahratta were taught only superficially. The main object, how-
and
ever, which the Government had in view was to raise up a class of good vernacu-
Vernacular
Education. lar linguists, who, by the attainment of a thorough and critical knowledge of their
own language, might as teachers in schools, or as the writers or translators of useful
books, be enabled to render their acquirements available to their countrymen, and
in the words of the Court of Directors, “communicate to the native literature and
to the minds of the native community that improved spirit which it is to be hoped
they will themselves have imbibed from the influence of European ideas and senti-
ments.” This object, however, was not realized, though a considerable portion of
the time assigned to the vernacular studies was devoted to translation from and into
English, and a prize was awarded each year for the vernacular exposition of a por-
tion of a standard English author. The great difficulty was to secure competent ver-
nacular teachers who were at the same time possessed of a sufficient knowledge of
English. The appointment of a vernacular superintendent was proposed with a view
to introduce an improved system of vernacular instruction and the establishment of
a training class for vernacular teachers. Among the duties proposed for the vernacu-
lar superintendent was the preparation and supervision of translations of approved
English works into the vernacular languages, and of the publication of an improved
series of vernacular books. The University Board, however, were fully sensible of
the poverty of vernacular literature and they pointed out to Government the difficulty
of translating satisfactorily scientific and philosophic works. “In truth, only those
English works,” they reported, “which deal in simple narrative, in which little occa-
sion arises for the use of abstract terms, which relate palpable occurrences, some-
times surprising; sometimes interesting to the feelings, sometimes ludicrous, appear
to admit of efficient translations. At all events such are the only works which, in
translation, are attractive. They are such as amuse the idle hour, and delight children
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S AT T H I A N A D H A N , H I S T O R Y O F E D U C A T I O N
until their minds become more highly cultivated. But they are not the kind of class
books through which it is desired to communicate substantial knowledge.” Under
these circumstances, it appeared to the Board that the course to be encouraged was
that of “a full and free exposition, rather than a translation, of all the subject mat-
ter contained in any English work, by the assistance of, or entirely by, such natives
as have attained a full comprehension of the subject matter, and also a proficiency
in the English language.” It would not be out of place here to draw attention to an
important scheme drawn up by Lord Auckland on the subject of the preparation of
vernacular class books. It was proposed by him, as far back as in 1839, that the Gov-
ernments of the different Presidencies should “co-operate through the bodies charged
with the control of public instruction under their superintendence, in the common
object of aiding the preparation of any useful and comprehensive set of class books,
to be afterwards rendered into the vernacular tongues of the several Provinces.” The
practical outcome of this scheme was, however, very disappointing.
It was only in 1866 that the subject of female education came under the serious Female
consideration of Government, though previous to that year the several Missions Education.
had taken practical steps towards the establishment of elementary schools for girls.
The subject, of course, naturally, for many years past, engaged the attention of edu-
cated natives, but, omitting the establishment of a few schools, in which elementary
instruction was conveyed to girls of a tender age by male teachers, the result had
been rather in words than in acts. A stimulus was afforded to female education by a
visit from Miss Carpenter, whose philanthropic exertions in England to improve the
more neglected sections of the community were well-known. At several meetings in
which this lady took part, the following points were debated: (1) whether the time
had arrived for Government to take a direct share in female education, and (2) if so,
what is the direct work which it is advisable Government should undertake. In the
discussions, very conflicting views were put forward. It appeared, however, that the
general feeling was that Government should, at any rate, not do more than establish
a Normal School for training female teachers. Even action, to this extent, which was
what Miss Carpenter advocated, was not taken till after sometime owing to the heavy
expenditure involved. The educational Department, however, set about collecting, as
far as possible reliable information regarding girls studying in schools unconnected
with the Department. On the 31st March 1868, there were 6,510 girls under instruc-
tion in schools connected with the Educational Department. The statistics received
from non-departmental schools—which were mostly under Mission management—
shewed 4,295 girls under instruction, of which number 399 were returned as Europe-
ans and Eurasians, 2,420 as Native Christians, 1,365 as Hindus, 29 Muhammadans
and 82 others. The larger proportion of Native Christians than Hindus is noteworthy.
Out of the 4,295 only 700 were entered as learning English. The total number of girls
that received instruction in the Madras Presidency in 1868 may be taken as exceed-
ing 10,500. The figures, however, were considered to be more or less inaccurate.
Speaking of the nature of instruction imparted to the girls, the Director of Public
Instruction remarked:—“In almost all cases the instruction conveyed was of a very
307
elementary stamp; and in too many instances, I fear the teaching is productive of no
permanent effect beyond rendering the pupils better disposed towards female educa-
tion, and so paving the way for the instruction of a succeeding generation.” Omitting
Madras and Tinnevelly, where female education was most extended, the districts
which showed the largest attendance were Malabar and Tanjore. It is right to notice
here the efforts that the Maharajah of Vizianagrara made to encourage female educa-
tion on his estates. In 1868 he established a school at Vizianagram for Rajpoot and
Brahman girls, at an annual cost of about 12,000 Rupees. The school though uncon-
nected with the Department was under Government inspection. In an order, dated
26th November, 1868, His Excellency the Governor made the following remark:—
“The Government of Madras have frequently acknowledged the enlightened and lib-
eral spirit in which the Maharajah of Vizianagrara fulfils the responsible obligations
of his position as a great landed proprietor, and they now receive with the greatest
satisfaction this further evidence of the Maharajah’s desire to promote the welfare of
his countrymen, as shewn in the practical and generous aid which he has given to the
cause of female education in India.” In 1868 the Government of India was pleased to
assign, as an experimental measure, an annual sum of Rs. 12,000 for five years, for
the support of a Government Female Normal School at each of the three Presidency
Towns. The Hindu community were required to make provision for a few stipends
and the guarantee of money for stipends was made conditional upon Hindu caste
females being alone admitted to this school. At first there was some difficulty experi-
enced in securing pupils but this difficulty was overcome gradually. The school was
formally opened in December 1870, with Miss Bain, now Mrs. Brander, as the first
Superintendent. Mrs. Brander, as first Superintendent of the Female Normal School,
and afterwards as Inspectress of Girls’ Schools, has contributed no mean share to
the development of female education in this Presidency. At the close of 1870–71
the number of girls’ schools in the Presidency was returned as 138 of which 91 had
middle departments and one a high department and the number of pupils was 10,185.
According to the census of 1871, of the Native Christian females of school going age
only 1 out of 10, and of Hindu females only 1 out of 509, had received any educa-
tion. But of a population of 1,880,720 Muhammadans, very few girls had received
instruction in schools.
During the decade ending March 31st, 1881, some desirable progress was made
in Female Education. The number of girls receiving instruction rose, during this
period, from 10,185 to 32,355. Of High schools for girls there were at the close of
1881 eight with 38 pupils, while of Middle schools there were twenty-five English
and seven Vernacular with 316 and 58 pupils, respectively. In his report of 1880–81,
Mr. H. B. Grigg, the Director of Public Instruction, expressed his strong conviction
that for progress in Female Education there were essential (a) Normal Schools, (b)
Government agency. The following extract from his Report on Elementary Educa-
tion shews the extent of elementary education for girls in 1880–81:—
“So far little has been done by Government directly for the education of girls, but about
ten years ago a Normal school was established at Madras for the education of teachers for
308
native Girls’ schools, but it has become in great measure a high school for East Indians and
Europeans, and during its existence has only educated 60 Hindu and native Christian teach-
ers. Some five or six years ago the Government undertook the charge of a few elementary
schools for girls which had been established by some Local Fund Boards and Munici-
palities. With one or two exceptions they are all doing fair work, but are mostly in a very
elementary condition. Only four of these twelve schools are situated in towns of any impor-
tance. In addition to the Girls’ schools maintained by Government, there were in 1879–80
ten Girls’ schools maintained by Municipalities and thirteen by Local Fund Boards. But
although the Government have done as yet little by direct action for female education,
they have aided liberally private enterprise, but as yet with the exception of the towns of
Madras and Tinnevelly, Rajahmundry and Cocanada, private effort has not been very suc-
cessful. But at the same time there are but few large towns in the Presidency in which a
mission society is not offering facilities for female education, and in many cases of late,
more especially, the education of the girls of the higher caste. In Tinnevelly, in particular,
in pursuance of the policy inaugurated by Mr. Lash of the Church Missionary Society, who
developed the Sarah Tucker female training school into an institution mainly for the train-
ing of girls of the respectable classes, who would be suitable for teachers in caste schools,
between two and three thousand girls are studying in small elementary schools, maintained
by the Church Missionary Society in different parts of the district, mostly under the man-
agement of a trained mistress assisted by her husband. The Sarah Tucker institution turned
out in 1879–80 no less than 35 school-mistresses of the second and third grades. Mistresses
educated in this institution are in demand through the Tamil districts, both in mission and
secular schools, but it is difficult to induce them to take service far from their houses,
except at comparatively speaking high salaries. To supply the demand for female teachers
in the central Tamil districts, a training school is about to be opened at Trichinopoly, under
the auspices of the S. P. G. Society. There is a Normal Class attached to the Free Church
Female Christian Institution, Madras, which produces some five or six teachers annually to
the first, second, and third grades; and in the Northern Circars I understand that the agents
of the Church Missionary Society have in contemplation the establishment of a Normal
Class or school in connection with their boarding institution for girls at Masulipatam. In
most parts of the Presidency there is a general desire for the elementary education of young
girls springing up, and this desire is being stimulated by the action of Municipalities; but
until the supply of trained female teachers is adequate to the demand, the progress of
female education cannot be very rapid. In many Girls’ Schools, and some of them the most
important in the Presidency, viz., the Maharaja of Vizianagaram Schools at Madras and at
Rajamundry, the teaching and management are practically entrusted to male teachers, and
some of them are admirably managed, especially the Maharaja’s School at Rajamundry,
But the employment of male teachers has the great disadvantage of checking the tendency
of permitting girls to remain at school after they have come to a marriageable age. Still
male agency is not suddenly to be discarded, and years must elapse before native female
teachers of sufficient age, standing and character are available for the charge of important
institutions for the education of girls. Owing to the system of early marriage, and the risks
to female life in this country, the proportion of female teaching power produced each year,
which will not be ultimately available for teaching, is very large.”
In 1880, the Secretary of State sanctioned the appointment of an Inspec-

tress of Girls’ Schools on a salary of Rs. 400, rising by biennial increments of
Rs. 20 to Rs. 500. This appointment was rendered necessary not only in the
309
interests of female education generally, but also to relieve the Inspector of the
Presidency Division, whose work, including the inspection of upwards of fifty
Girls’ schools, had become too heavy for one officer to perform efficiently. It
was also hoped that by the aid of such an official some of the difficulties in the
way of promoting the education of ladies of zenanas and their daughters might
be removed, especially as several influential native gentlemen had expressed a
strong desire for such instruction. Mrs. Isabel Brander, who was nominated to
the newly-created post, assumed charge of her office on the 3rd June 1880. Mr.
Grigg, writing in 1881 of her work, said:—“The deep interest which she takes
in the cause of female education, the efficient manner in which she has been
discharging her inspectorial duties, and the sympathy she is eliciting among a
section of the Madras Native community in the important branch of educational
activity entrusted to her care, fully justify the creationof the appointment, and
will, I trust, in time warrant the extension of the sphere of her usefulness.” The
successful career of Mrs. Brander as an educational officer for the past 15 years
shews that the above expectations have been more than realized. At first she was
in charge of the Girls’ schools in the town of Madras, and after sometime the
Girls’ schools in the Nellore and Chinglepnt Districts were transferred to her.
The Teachers’ certificate examinations were found in some respects very inap-
propriate tests for girls in secondary schools and hence Col. Macdonald in 1870
proposed the institution of an examination styled the Higher Examination for
Women, which was to be on a level with the Matriculation Examination. This
examination was first held in 1881 and was abolished in 1892. During the twelve
years it was in existence it did a great deal to stimulate the secondary education
of girls in the Presidency.
Moral The remarks of the Commission on the subject of moral training—a subject to
Training in which considerable attention has of late been given by the Government of India
Colleges.
and the local Governments are of special interest and value. The Report says:—
“The subject of moral training in colleges is replete with difficulties—difficul-
ties, however, that are mainly practical. For there is no difference of opinion
as to moral training being as necessary as intellectual or physical training, and
no dissent from the principle that a system in which moral training was wholly
neglected would be unworthy of the name of education. Nor, again, is there any
difference of opinion as to the moral value of the love of law and order, of the
respect for superiors, of the obedience, regularity and attendance to duty which
every well-conducted college is calculated to promote. All these have, by the
nearly universal consent of the witnesses, done a great deal to elevate the moral
tone and improve the daily practice of the great bulk of those who have been
trained in the colleges of India. The degree in which different colleges have
exerted a moral influence of this kind is probably as various as the degree of suc-
cess that has attended the intellectual training given in them and has doubtless
been different in all colleges at different times, depending as it does so largely
on the character and personal influence of the Principal and Professors who may
form the staff at any given period. So far all the witnesses, and probably all
310
intelligent men, are substantially agreed. Difficulties begin when the question is
raised whether good can be dune by distinct moral teaching, over and above the
moral supervision which all admit to be good and useful, and which all desire to
see made more thorough than it is at present. In colleges supported by Mission-
ary Societies, in the Anglo-Muhammadan College, Aligarh, and in at least one
other college under native management, the attempt has been made to give such
moral teaching on the basis of religion. In Government colleges there has been
no attempt at direct moral teaching. In them, entire reliance has, as a rule, been
placed on such moral supervision as can be exerted during college hours, and on
such opportunities for indirect moral lessons as are afforded by the study of the
ordinary text-books and by the occurrences of ordinary academic life. Religious
education, and the possibility of connecting it with Government colleges, we
shall consider separately. The present point is the possibility or wisdom of intro-
ducing distinct moral teaching in places where there is no religious instruction.
The question that was put to bring out the views of our witnesses on the point
stood thus:—“Does definite instruction in duty and the principles of moral con-
you any suggestions to make on this subject?” None of the witnesses raised any
objection in principle to such instruction being given. A considerable number
held that there is no need for such instruction, and two of these, the Principals of
Government colleges in Bombay and Madras, held that no good result can flow
from devoting a distinct portion of time to the teaching of duty and the principles
of moral conduct. Some also held that the practical difficulties in the way of
introducing moral instruction into Government colleges are so great that it is
expedient to leave matters as they are. The great majority, however, of the wit-
nesses that dealt with the question at all, expressed a strong desire that definite
moral instruction should form part of the college course. . . . . . A review of the
evidence seems to show that moral instruction may be introduced into the course
of Government colleges without objection any where, and in some Provinces
with strong moral approval. Those who wish definite moral instruction to be
introduced generally advocate the teaching of some moral text-book. No one,
however, has pointed to any text-book that he is prepared to recommend for
immediate introduction. . . . . . In all colleges, and under all courses of instruc-
tion, the most effective moral training consists in inculcating habits of order, dili-
gence, truthfulness, and due self-respect combined with submission to authority,
all of which lessons a good teacher finds useful opportunities of imparting. The
formation of such habits is promoted by the study of the lives and actions of great
men, such as the student finds in the course of his English reading; and, it may
also be hoped, by the silent influence upon his character of constant intercourse
with teachers, whom he is able to regard with respect and affection. Nor, again,
is there reason to believe that collegiate education of the present type has any
injurious effect upon the life and character of the students. On the contrary, the
nearly unanimous testimony of those who have had the best opportunities of
observing goes to shew that in integrity, in self-respect, in stability of purpose,
311
and generally in those solid qualities which constitute an honourable and useful
character, the University graduate is generally superior to those who have not
employed the advantages which college training confers.”
APPENDIX J.
MISSIONARY EDUCATION.
DANISH MISSION.
The Danish Missionaries arrived in Madras in the early part of the year 1717,
when, according to the Proceedings Book of the Madras Government, Monday,
27th May, “the President lays before the Board a paper of proposals delivered
him by Mr. Grundler, one of the Danish missionaries lately arrived from Tran-
quebar, for erecting two Charity schools in this city. It is agreed that liberty
be sriven for erecting two Charity schools—one for Portuguese in the English
town, and another for Malabars in the Black Town.” Thus the first public effort
to educate the “Malabar” or Tamil people was at the handsof missionaries. The
pyal schools had received no State or Municipal recognition. When these schools
were established, the factors and other residents of Madras disapproved of the
teachers being foreigners, and repeated prote its were made to the Home Authori-
ties. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge replied that no Englishman
could be persuaded to go out. In 1746 English was employed as the language of
the mission, being introduced by the missionary Geister. This was not effected
without opposition on the part of the other German and Danish missionaries.
However, not long after this the German language was forgotten, and the mis-
sionaries themselves becoame Anglicised, founding the well-known families of
the Kohlhoffs, Breithaupts, Pæzolds, Pohles, and others. Emulating the activ-
ity of Ziogenbalgand his colleagues the Company established in 1717 a school
for native children at Cuddalore. This was the beginning of the great system
of Anglo-Vernacular education maintained under the patronage of Government
in this Presidency. Mr. Ord had confined his labours to English children. The
second schoolmaster whose name survives was named Radewitz, who was for
many years the teacher of the Portuguese school established by Ziegenbalg in
the Fort. He died in 1732. The Malabar, or native school, opened by Ziegenbalg,
or under his direction, soon ceased to exist, for there was no pnblic appreciation
of the value of education, and the natives held aloof from the school because
of its Christian character. When the Missionary Schnltze settled in Madras in
1726, here-opened this school, and, under his energetic direction, it soon filled
with scholars, and was the origin of the present Vepery Anglo-Vernacnlar school,
which has enjoyed an almost continuous existence ever since the original school
312
was first located in Black Town. The different schools thus founded were main-
tained for many years entirely from funds provided by the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge.
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

Established in 1699 during the reign of William III. for the purpose of spreading
Christian Knowledge, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge very
soon found itself engaged in semi-missionary operations. To allow purely mis-
sion work to be carried on without interfering with the true work of the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, its founders established in 1701 a new
Society that for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and from that
day to this the two Societies have worked hand-in-hand, the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel providing missionaries, the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge helping them with schools and furnishing books. One of
the first objects of the Society’s concern has always been to promote the educa-
tion of the young by liberally communicating its resources for the benefit of
charity schools. In or about 1711 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowl-
edge heard of the labonrs and requirements of the Tranquebar mission and sent
them money, a printing press, paper, and other stores. In 1714 Ziegenbalg went
to Europe for the purpose of promoting the cause he had engaged in He was
presented to the King of Denmark at Stralsund; and on visiting England was
admitted to the presence of George I. by whom he was warmly encouraged. The
bishops and the public received him with much cordiality; and the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge in particular treated him with distinction, and
aided him with presents of money, books, paper, and similar stores. After an
absence of nearly two years, Ziegenbalg re-landed at Madras in August 1716.
Here with the assistance of the Rev. William Stevenson, the garrison chaplain,
schools were soon established at Madras and at Cnddalore. The latter of these
places Ziegenbalg occasionally visited; it was here, too, that eventnally he died
in February 1719 at the early age of 36. Mr. Stevenson went home. His schools
fell off, and were finally closed Under these circumstances, in 1726, Schnltze
resolved to remove to Madras. The Christian Knowledge Society approved of
the under-taking and gave the necessary aid to promote it; the garrison chaplain
entered into his views; the Governor and Council were enlisted in his favour:
and under these favourable auspices Sohultze established in Black Town a house
pnrchased in 1728 expressly for the use of the mission. In 1734 Mr. Schultze
informed the Society that in a recent visit of Mr. Sartorious to Fort St. David, the
Governor of that station had expressed his willingness to co-operate in the estab-
lishment of a mission in the neighbourhood. The Society immediately autho-
rized Mr. Schultze to take the necessary steps for the execution of this plan; and
to prove their readiness to promote the full efficiency of their new missions, sent
at the same time a munificent contribution towards the erection of a church and
two schools at Madras. The amount of money sent out by this Society in the
313
years 1736 and 1737 was £3,200, which liberality enabled the missionaries to
establish themselves effectually at Cuddalore, to which place Sartorius and
Geister now removed. In 1746 the French under La Bourdonnais bombarded
Madras; and having compelled Fort St. George to capitulate, they levelled a
great part of Black Town for the purpose of improving the defences. Up to that
time Black Town extended right across the esplanade to the Fort wall. In fact the
burial ground, now remembered only by the monument to the daughter of Gov-
ernor Yale still standing on the monument esplanade, was then in the heart of
Black Town, and the best houses were those nearest the fort. Among them was
the German mission-house, which was thus destroyed. The church was con-
verted into a magazine. Mr. Fabracius removed to Pulicat, then a Dutch settle-
ment, where he and his converts were well received. While Dnpleix was in
possession of Madras and he believed the English could never return, he gave
permission to a wealthy Armenian Roman Catholic merchant to build a church
and mission buildings at Vepery on land which he assigned for the purpose. It
was on the site of the present Vepery Charch, and, in fact, was the building
which served as the Vepery Church until the present building was erected. When
the English regained Madras, the Armenian merchant and the Catholics gener-
ally were held to be intriguing with the French at Pondicherry. The Vepery prem-
ises were therefore confiscated by Government. In 1752 the local Government
presented them to the Protestant mission. In November 1760 Count Lally
besieged Madras; and Mr. Fabricius at Vepery was a second time exposed to the
dangers and difficulties incident to such a state of things. Before he could obtain
protection from the French officers, the native cavalry which accompanied the
force had plundered him and his colleague Breithaupt of nearly all they pos-
sessed. The risk incurred by remaining amidst such scenes of violence induced
the missionaries to remove, as on the former occasion, to Pulicat, where, though
accompanied by a crowd of destitute and helpless followers, they were again
most hospitably received by the Dutch. In February 1761. Madras having been
relieved and the siege raised, the missionaries returned to Vepery. The year 1761
was also made remarkable by the establishment of the first printing-press in
Madras. It was found at Pondicherry when that place was captured The Govern-
ment presented it to the mission, which thereupon set up the printing-press at
Vepery which still remains one of the most perfect in this Presidency. In the year
1784 the Christian Knowledge Society having heard of the valuable institution
in Bengal for the education in Christian principles of the children of English
fathers by native mothers, voted a sum of £50 annually for the maintenance of a
schoolmaster at Madras, who should be required to give instruction to that class
of children. In 1786 Government made another step by aiding the foundation of
the Military Female Orphan Asylum. The buildings were presented to the Asy-
lum Committee by the Nawab of the Carnatic who purchased them for the pur-
pose at a cost of Rupees 80,000. The Missionary Gerické was the first
Superintendent. The institution was highly successful, and led two years after-
wards to the foundation of the Military Male Orphan Asylum. The opening of
314
the latter marked an era in the history of elementary education not only in
Madras, but throughout the world. Its first Superintendent was the famous Dr.
Bell, whose interest in education was so great that he served without a salary, so
that funds might be provided for the improvement of the school. Want of means
to provide for the great number of applicants for admission, combined with the
fact that there were no competent teachers that could be engaged to assist him,
led Dr. Bell to invent what has since been known as the monitorial system of
education. Known at first as Dr. Bell’s or the Madras system, it at once revealed
how education could be both efficient and inexpensive, and thus became the
basis of all modern progress in elementary education. What are known as the
Lancasterian, Pestalozzian, Glasgow, monitorial, and pupil-teacher systems
have all grown out of this, and every public elementary school in England is now
conducted on one or other modification or the Madras system. About the same
time Mr. Sullivan, then Resident at Tanjore, invited Swartz to accompany him in
the capacity of an interpreter on a visit to the Maravar country. At Ramnad, Mr.
Sullivan acquainted Swartz with a plan he had devised for instructing the natives,
and establishing schools in every province. This plan was that a seminary should
be established at Tanjore, undor the missionary’s personal supervision, for the
education of schoolmasters, who should afterwards be located in the several vil-
lages of the country at the expense of the petty princes. The Raja of Ramnad was
spoken with on the subject, and thought “it would be an excellent plan,” wishing
“there were such schools in every village.” His minister also approved it, and the
Raja gave a written promise to settle a monthly sum, afterwards fixed at 24
pagodas to be paid to the school. At Sivaganga also the local ruler approved of
the plan, and promised to give a village for the support of a schoolmaster. He
subsequently gave two villages. The Governor of Madras and the Nawab of
Arcot were next written to, and both highly commended the plan. The Raja of
Tanjore promised 40 pagodas a month for the support of the school to be estab-
lished in or near the fort. These provincial schools answered exceedingly well.
In those at Tanjord and Kumbakonam there were already 40 scholars; while in
the Tamil school at Tanjore there were 99 boys, of whom 35 were charity boys
maintained and clothed by the mission. Two English schoolmasters were
employed for the provincial schools, and four masters were engaged for the
Tamil school. By the will of Mr. Gericke, who died in 1803, it appears that an
English Orphan Asylum for children not eligible for the Millitary Asylums had
existed in connexion with the Vepery Mission for many years previously. This
orphanage was probably the origin of the present Civil Orphan Asylums. The
school continued to flourish, and in 1793 the Raja of Tanjore sent his son and
successor Sarbhoji to be educated there under the Missionary Gericke. Sarbhoji
remained in the school from 1793 to 1797. Meanwhile the printing-press had not
flourished, and in 1810 it had to be closed because there were no meaus of pay-
ing the workmen, although there were ample stores of paper, type, &c. This was
the more to be regretted, because from the first the profits had been destined for
the support of schools. Later the press was reorganised. This was owing to the
315
establishment in 1815 of the District Committee of the Society for Promoting

Christian Knowledge which relieved the missionaries of the care of secular mat-
ters and infused new vigour into the whole work. Madras education is much
indebted to the zealous work of this little known but very useful body. At Tinnev-
elly Mr. Hough reported that he had, under the auspices of the Society, estab-
lished nine schools, in which were educated 283 children, the total annual
expense amounting to only 357 rupees. In 1815 a change of organization was
made. It had for some time been felt that the Christian Knowledge Society, from
the nature of its constitution and its peculiar objects and principles, laboured
under several disadvantages in its attempts to conduct so extensive a missionary
establishment; and in the year 1825 the Society’s missions were by mutual
agreement transferred to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For-
eign Parts, a District Committee of which was established in Madras iu the year
1826. The terms on which this transfer was made appear to have been under-
stood as follows:—That the Christian Knowledge Society should continue to
maintain those missionaries, who, from their having been for some years in their
service, could not with propriety be unceremoniously transferred to another
Society; that it should retain its right to the property purchased and acquired in
the several missions during its administrations of their affairs; and tint by means
of its press at Vepery and its grants of books, stationery, &c., it should maintain
or supply schools for the education of the natives; and thus by furnishing them
with European knowledge it should facilitate the operations of the sister Society,
which henceforth undertook the whole management and direction of the mis-
sions. From this time, therefore, the history of the missions belongs to the Soci-
ety for the Propagation of the Gospel. The press was still managed by the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge and became each year more successful. The
paper, presses, English type, ink, binding materials, &c., were supplied from
England at great expense, while the types for the several eastern languages were
cut and founded in the establishment itself. The benefits derivable to the natives
from this institution were great and various. Elementary school books in a vari-
ety of languages were supplied most liberally to the several missions: the money
proceeds of the establishment, after payment of the workmen, went to form a
fund called the “Native Education Fund” dedicated, as its name imports, solely
to the maintenance of native schools in various parts of the Madras Presidency.
Under the direction of the Committee, the Vepery Grammar School was repeat-
edly enlarged, and became, till the establishment of the Free Church Mission,
the chief educational agency in Madras. There were also two “Charity schools,”
for the Christian children, boys and girls, of Vepery, and, lastly, schools where
native children of both sexes were taught without charge. The Society for Pro-
moting Christian Knowledge were thus the pioneers of female education. The
proportion of female scholars at Vepery at this time is especially striking; being
654 to 4,290 boys, or 1 girl for every 6½ boys. Bishop Corrie’s school was
opened as the “Madras Grammar School” on the 1st July 1836, under the advice
of Bishop Corrie and with the aid of the Christian Knowledge Society.
316
THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

In 1805 the London Missionary Society commenced its work in Madras. The
labours of the missionaries at Serampore had drawn the attention of the Society
to India, and, as soon as there was any liberty of entrance, a missionary was sent
to Madras, and he at once opened a school. From that day to this the London Mis-
sion has honourably distinguished itself in education. In recent years it has not
aimed at academical distinction, but its schools are efficient and popular, and the
central institution in Armenian street was for several years a leading institution in
Madras. It has, however, been recently closed.
THE WESLEYAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

The Wesleyan Mission commenced operations in Madras in 1819 when Messrs.
Squance, Lynch, and Close came from Ceylon to establish a mission there. In
Ceylon schools had formed a most important part of the mission work, and have
continued to flourish there from that day to this. In 1819 when the Madras mis-
sion opened, the Society maintained no less than 87 schools in Ceylon, attended
by 5,014 children, of whom many were girls. Probably no other mission to the
east ever maintained so perfect a school system as that which existed in Cey-
lon. The great institution at Jaffna was in after-years a sort of University, from
which issued large numbers of Native Christians, who have since risen to emi-
nence in both Ceylon and Southern India. It was to be expected, therefore, that
schools should form an important part of the early work of the Wesleyan Mission
in Madras Before the Society had been a year in Madras it had established two
schools, one at Rayapet and the other in Black Town. The former was the ori-
gin of the present Rayapet College, which has enjoyed a continuous existence,
though not always in the same premises, from that day to this, and is, therefore,
only second to the Vepery Anglo-Vernacular school in point of age. In 1823 two
new schools were opened at Negapatam. No other missionary body established
schools for a long period after the London and Wesleyan Missionary Societies
were in the field. Attention may be turned here to the operations of the State in
connection with education. The Protestant mission, conducted successively by
Messrs. Ziegenbalg, Gerické, Kiernander, and Swartz, under the patronage, as
has been seen, of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, had opened
schools at Madras, Cuddalore, Tanjore and Trichinopoly, in which they instructed
the natives, and in aid of which they obtained occasional grants from the local
Governments, and permission from the Court of Directors to receive from the
Society in England various supplies free of freight. In 1787 the Court of Directors
authorised a permanent annual grant towards the support of three schools which
had been established with the sanction of the respective Rajas at Tanjore, Ramnad
and Sivaganga, of 250 pagodas each. These schools were under the direction of
Mr. Swartz. The Court further directed that a similar allowance should be granted
to any other schools which might be opened for the same purpose. According to
317
the books of establishment, the charge on this account was for two Protestant
schools at Tanjore and Kumbakonam Rupees 4,200 per annum, together with a
pension or allowance to Mr Kolhoop, a retired teacher, of Rupees 420, making a
total of Rupees 4,620 per annum. In 1824 the widow Swartz enjoyed a pension
from the British Government of two pagodas per month at Negapatam, and an
unmarried woman of the same name a monthly allowance of one fanam. In Janu-
ary 1812 a Sunday School was established at St. Thomas’ Mount, at the sugges-
tion and under the direction of the Military Chaplain at that cantonment, and by
the voluntary contributions of several Europeans at the Presidency. The object of
this school was to afford elementary instruction on the Lancasterian plan to the
half-caste and native children of the military and others resident there. The object
as well as the plan of tuition being highly approved of by the Government, an
endowment of 300 pagodas per annum was granted from the 1st January 1812.
THE SCOTTISH MISSIONS.

The Scottish Mission entered the field in April 1837 the date on which Mr. Ander-
son opened his school. This was an era in the history of Madras education, and it
is necessary to note here the progress of what was first known as the mission of
the Church of Scotland and afterwards as the Free Church Mission. This educa-
tional agency was one of the last to come into the field, but mainly owing to the
great energy and ability of two missionaries, the Revs. John Anderson and Wil-
liam Miller, has grown to be one of the most important in the Presidency. In June
1835 the Rev. Messrs. Bowie and Lawrie, Scotch Chaplains, had established at
Madras the St. Andrew’s school; and, after collecting funds from friends in the
Presidency, they had applied to the Church of Scotland for a missionary, with
the view to the establishment of an institution like that commenced at Calcutta
by Dr. Duff in 1830. In response to this invitation the Rev. J. Anderson was sent
from Scotland in 1836. He proce eded first to Calcutta in order to observe the
modes of instruction and discipline at Dr. Duff’s institution at that city. After a
short stay there he came to Madras in February 1837, and at once set to work. St.
Andrew’s school was carried on near a house, in St. Andrew’s Church, Poonamal-
lee Road. Mr. Anderson urged its removal into the city, with a view to benefit
more effectually the dense native community. A suitable two-storied house was
hired in Armenian street; and here, on April 3, 1837, he began his labours with 59
Hindu boys and young men. In January 1839, Mr. Johnstone came to assist Mr.
Anderson. His arrival was the sisrnal for an extension of the work, and a branch
school was opened at Conjeeveram, in May 1839, with eleven pupils. Mr. Fred-
erick Cooper, Company’s Medical Officer at Nellore, had established, some years
before, a school for Telugn and English, and having intimated a desire to connect
it with the mission, Mr. Anderson went to Nellore to judge how far it would be
advisable to accept the proposal. This led to the annexation of the Nellore school
and property to the Mission in August. In this year the mission made yet another
step. In 1841 a school was established at Triplicane. Mr. Anderson was invited by
318
Mr. W. A. Morehead, then Judge at Chingleput, to supply a teacher to the school

which he had induced the natives of the place to set up. This led to the adoption
of Chingleput as a new branch station. Up to this time the mission had been con-
nected with the Established Church of Scotland, but in 1843 when the Free Church
seceded on the question of patronage and State interference, all the Indian mission-
aries joined the seceding Free Church, and carried with them, after an amicable dis-
cussion, the whole of the mission work. It is, therefore, only from 1843 that the Free
Church dates, although there was no break in the continuity of the mission. By the
end of 1843 the schools had altogether recovered, and their numbers exceeded those
of any former year. In February 1845 the Established Church of Scotland re-opened
their own mission with a large school, the origin of the institution now on the North
Beach, with branch institutions at Vellore and Arkonam. This soon became full of
scholars without in any way diminishing the number at Anderson’s school, so that
the cause of education was again benefitted. In 1853 Mr. Johnstone died, and simi-
larly in 1855 Mr. Anderson. From that time a great declension fell upon the mission.
None could be found to tread in the steps of the founders of the mission. Many took
up the task, but the climate and the magnitude of the labours involved caused the
retirement of one after another till it was difficult to get any to succeed them. Mat-
ters continued unsettled till the arrival of the Rev. W. Miller in 1863.
APPENDIX K.
PACHAIYAPPA’S SCHOOLS.
The founding of Pachniyappa’s schools marks indeed an era in the history of
Madras education, is it was the first example of intelligent natives of various castes
combining to aid the cause of popular instruction. Pachaiyappa, in whose name
these institutions are founded, was a wealthy Hindu, who, dying in the last, cen-
tury, left one lakh of pagodas by his will for the establishment of charities, chiefly
of a religions character, but in part dedicated to objects of general benevolence.
The Advocate-General, Sir Herbert Campton, having discovered that these chari-
ties were totally unperformed, and that the funds were spoliated by the successive
executors of his will, filed an information in the Supreme Court, and obtained a
general decree against the party finally liable for an account of the fund, to be
paid with accumulated interest—amounting for many lákhs of rupees—and also
for the performance of the charities. On the whole there were finally collected to
the credit of the charities nearly eight lakhs of rupees. A scheme was prepared,
whereby, in due accordance with the provisions of the will, and without trench-
ing upon any specific religious or benevolent charities mentioned in the will, it
was proposed that all the accumulated sums beyond one lakh of pagodas (that is,
upwards of four lakhs of rupees with all accumulating interest) should be devoted
319
to educational establishments in various parts of the Presidency, and particularly

at Madras. The scheme provided all details for the quality, localities, subjects of
instruction, and governance of these institutions; and they were all finally incor-
porated in a decree of the Court. After some years directions were given, under
Lord Elphinstone’s Government, for the Board of Revenne making such orders
as were necessary to carry out the decree of the Supreme Court and the wishes
of the Court of Directors. A body of Hindu Trustees was formed and a school
in Black Town was established in January 1842, for affording gratuitous educa-
tion to the poorer classes of the native community in the elementary branches of
English literature and science, coupled with instruction in Tamil and Telugu. The
High school of the Mudras University was then in its infancy, and, as accord-
ing to the rules of that institution, no boy was eligible for admission who could
not read English with some fluency, the want of a school of this primary nature
was urgently felt by the rich as well as the poor. Further, as the education was
imparted gratis, according to the fundamental rules of the institution, the sphere
of its usefulness became wider and wider, till its numerical strength surpassed all
expectation, and the trustees found themselves necessitated, though unwillingly,
to restrict the rapid influx of pupils, and to refuse to listen to pressing demands for
admission A small monthly fee then began to be levied from each pupil. It was the
original intention of the trustees to establish a few schools in the provinces con-
temporaneously with the central institution in the Presidency; but circumstances
deterred them from engaging in the task. The central school was, therefore, first
established and conducted under their immediate supervision. Emboldened by its
success, a branch school was then opened at Conjeeveram in the year 1846, on
a limited scale, to be extended in case it should work to their satisfaction. There
were, in 1855, 64 boys studying in the new school, which imparted instruction
in English, Tamil, and Telugu. The branch school at Chidambaram was opened
in the year 1850. The number of scholars on the rolls of the institution at the end
of 1854 was 65. About the same time that the central institution was established
in Black Town an endowment was founded in the high school of the Madras
University, with a view of providing education in the higher branches of litera-
ture and science to lads in poor circumstances, and deserving of encouragement.
Those that enjoyed the benefit of this endowment were divided into two classes,
called Pachaiyappa’s Free and Endowed Scholars; the former had their school fee
paid from the endowment, and the latter were in receipt of monthly stipends. The
Trustees also gave great aid to certain vernacular institutions established in and
about Madras. These institutions are founded on systematic principles, and afford
to the young useful instruction in Tamil and Telugu, in some instances combined
with Sanskrit. The foundation-stone of the fine hall of this institution was laid by
Mr. George Norton, Advocate-General and patron of these educational charities,
in the midst of a vast concourse of the native inhabitants of Madras, on the 2nd
October 1846. In 1850 the building was formally opened by Sir Henry Pottinger
and the central institution was moved into it. From 1858 pupils have been appear-
ing for the Matriculation Examination from this institution. In 1880 it was raised
320
to the rank of a second-grade college, and in 1889 it was affiliated to the Univer-
sity up to the B. A. Degree examination. In 1846 the Pachaiyappa Trustees took
over the charities of another rich native named Govindu Nayakar. In 1856 schol-
arships were given in this benefactor’s name at Pachaiyappa’s schools, and later
on a separate primary school was opened from the same funds. The new institu-
tion was called “Govindu Nayakar’s Primary School,” and was opened in 1864.
In the year 1869 a third school of equal importance was established by means of
a bequest from C. Srinivasa Pillai, who had been for several years President of
Pachaiyappa’s charities. This school which was chiefly intended for the education
of Hindu girls has recently been transferred to the National Indian Association.
In 1872, the Trustees received another benefaction of Rupees 20,000 from one
Ponnambala Pillai, and with it a Sanscrit school was established at Chidambaram
in 1874. The last and the most valuable bequest was that of P. T. Lee Chengal-
raya Nayakar, which enabled the Trustees in 1886 to develop the short-hand class
formed in 1884 as a tentative measure in connexion with Pachaiyappa’s College,
into a regular Commercial High school bearing the name of Chengalraya Naya-
kar. Over 150 students were learning Commercial subjects in 1892.
321
10
GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE, ‘SPEECH IN
THE IMPERIAL LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
ON THE PRIMARY EDUCATION BILL,
16TH MARCH 1911’, SPEECHES OF
GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE, VOL. 2
(MADRAS: G. A. NATESAN, 1916,
2ND EDN), 718–803
THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION BILL.

[On 16th March 1911, Mr. Gokhale, in asking for leave in the Imperial Legislative Council
to introduce a Bill to make better provision for the extension of elementary education in India,
spoke as follows:—]
My Lord, I rise to ask for leave to introduce a Bill to make better provision
for the extension of elementary education throughout India. Hon’ble Members
will recollect that about this time last year, the Council considered a resolution
which I had ventured to submit to its judgment, recommending that elementary
education should gradually be made compulsory and free throughout the country,
and that a mixed Commission of officials and non-officials should be appointed
to frame definite proposals. In the debate, which ensued on the occasion, fifteen
Members, including the Home Member, the Home Secretary and the Director-
General of Education, took part. There was then no separate portfolio of Educa-
tion, and educational interests rubbed shoulders with jails and the police, in the
all-comprehensive charge of the Home Department. In the end, on an assurance
being given by the Home Member that the whole question would be carefully
examined by the Government, the resolution was withdrawn. Twelve months, my
Lord, have elapsed since then, and the progress which the question has made
during the interval has not been altogether disappointing. In one important par-
ticular, indeed, events have moved faster than I had ventured to hope or suggest.
One of the proposals urged by me on the Government last year was that Educa-
tion should, to begin with, have a separate Secretary, and that eventually there
should be a separate Member for Education in the Governor General’s Executive
Council. The Government however, have given us at one bound a full-fledged
322
G O K H A L E , ‘ O N T H E P R I M A R Y E D U C AT I O N B I L L ’
Department of Education, and the Hon’ble Mr. Butler has already been placed in
charge of it. My Lord, the Hon’ble Member’s appointment to the new office has
been received with general satisfaction, and it is recognised on all sides that he
brings to his task a reputation for great practical capacity. What I value, however,
even more than his practical capacity, is the fact that the Indian sun has not dried
the Hon’ble Member and that he has not yet shed those enthusiasms with which
perhaps we all start in life, and without which no high task for the improvement
of humanity has ever been undertaken. I think, my Lord, the creation of a separate
portfolio for Education brings us sensibly nearer the time when elementary edu-
cation shall be universal throughout India. That there is a strong demand for this
in the country—a demand, moreover, daily growing stronger—may be gathered
from the fact that, since last year’s debate, the question has been kept well to the
fore by the Indian Press, and that last December resolutions in favour of com-
pulsory and free primary education were passed not only by the Indian National
Congress at Allahabad, but also by the Moslem League, which held its sittings at
Nagpur. On the Government side, too, the declaration made in the House of Com-
mons last July by the Under-Secretary of State for India that one of the objects of
the creation of the new Education Department was to spread education throughout
the country, the significant language employed by Your Lordship on the subject of
education in your reply to the Congress address at the beginning of this year, and
the Educational Conference, summoned by the Hon’ble Mr. Butler last month at
Allahabad—all point to the fact that the Government are alive to the necessity of
moving faster and that it will not be long before vigorous measures are taken in
hand to ensure a more rapid spread of mass education in the land. The present thus
is a singularly favourable juncture for submitting to the Council and the country
the desirability of a forward move, such as my Bill proposes, and I earnestly trust
the Council will not withhold from me the leave I ask to introduce the Bill.
My Lord, I expect the Government have now concluded their examination of
my proposals of last year, and perhaps the Hon’ble Member will tell us to-day
what conclusions have been arrived at. The part of the scheme to which I attached
the greatest importance was that relating to the gradual introduction of the prin-
ciple of compulsion into the system of elementary education in the country and
that part is now embodied in the Bill which I wish to introduce to-day. My Lord,
an American legislator, addressing his countrymen more than half a century ago,
once said that if he had the Archangel’s trumpet, the blast of which could startle
the living of all nations, he would sound it in their ears and say: ‘Educate your
children-educate all your children, educate every one of your children. The deep
wisdom and passionate humanity of this aspiration is now generally recognised,
and in almost every civilised country, the State to-day accepts the education of the
children as a primary duty resting upon it. Even if the advantages of an elemen-
tary education be put no higher than a capacity to read and write, its universal
diffusion is a matter of prime importance, for literacy is better than illiteracy any
day, and the banishment of a whole people’s illiteracy is no mean achievement.
But elementary education for the mass of the people means something more than
323
a mere capacity to read and write. It means for them a keener enjoyment of life
and a more refined standard of living. It means the greater moral and economic
efficiency of the individual. It means a higher level of intelligence for the whole
community generally. He who reckons these advantages lightly may as well doubt
the value of light or fresh air in the economy of human health. I think it is not
unfair to say that one important test of the solicitude of a Government for the true
well-being of its people is the extent to which, and the manner in which, it seeks
to discharge its duty in the matter of mass education. And judged by this test,
the Government of this country must wake up to its responsibilities much more
than it has hitherto done, before it can take its proper place among the civilised
Governments of the world. Whether we consider the extent of literacy among the
population, or the proportion of those actually at school, or the system of educa-
tion adopted, or the amount of money expended, on primary education, India is
far, far behind other civilised countries. Take literacy. While in India, according
to the figures of the census of 1901, less than 6 per cent. of the whole population
could read and write, even in Russia, the most backward of European countries
educationally, the proportion of literates at the last census was about 25 per cent.,
while in many European countries, as also the United States of America, and
Canada and Australia, almost the entire population is now able to read and write.
As regards attendance at school, I think it will be well to quote once more the
statistics which I mentioned in moving my resolution of last year. They are as
follows:—‘In the United States of America, 21 per cent. of the whole population
is receiving elementary education; in Canada, in Australia, in Switzerland, and
in Great Britain and Ireland, the proportion ranges from 20 to 17 per cent.; in
Germany, in Austria-Hungary, in Norway and in the Netherlands the proportion
is from 17 to 15 per cent.; in France it is slightly above 14 per cent.; in Sweden it is
14 per cent.; in Denmark it is 13 per cent.; in Belgium it is 12 per cent.; in Japan
it is 11 per cent.; in Italy, Greece and Spain it ranges between 8 and 9 per cent.; in
Portugal and Russia it is between 4 and 5 per cent.; whereas in British India it is
only 1·9 per cent.’ Turning next to the systems of education adopted in different
countries, we find that while in most of them elementary education is both com-
pulsory and free, and in a few, though the principle of compulsion is not strictly
enforced or has not yet been introduced, it is either wholly or for the most part
gratuitous, in India alone it is neither compulsory nor free. Thus in Great Brit-
ain and Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium,
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and
Japan, it is both compulsory and free, the period of compulsion being generally
six years, though in some of the American States it is now as long as nine years.
In Holland, elementary education is campulsory, but not free. In Spain, Portu-
gal, Greece, Bulgaria, Servia and Rumania, it is free, and, in theory, compulsory,
though compulsion is not strictly enforced. In Turkey, too, it is free and nominally
compulsory, and in Russia, though compulsion has not yet been introduced, it
is for the most part gratuitous. Lastly, if we take the expenditure on elementary
education in different countries per head of the population, even allowing for
324
different money values in different countries, we find that India is simply nowhere
in the comparison. The expenditure per head of the population is highest in the
United States, being no less than 16s.; in Switzerland, it is 13s. 8d. per head; in
Australia, 11s. 3d.; in England and Wales, 10s.; in Canada, 9s. 9d.; in Scotland,
9s. 7½d.; in Germany, 6s. 10d.; in Ireland, 6s. 5d.; in the Netherlands, 6s. 4½d.;
in Sweden, 5s. 7d.; in Belgium, 5s. 4d.; in Norway, 5s. 1d.; in France, 4s. 10d.;
in Austria, 3s. 1½d.; in Spain, 1s. 10d.; in Italy, 1s. 7½d.; in Servia and Japan, 1s.
2d.; in Russia, 7½d.; while, in India, it is barely one penny.
My Lord, it may be urged, and with some show of reason, that as mass edu-
cation is essentially a Western idea and India has not been under Western influ-
ences for more than a century, it is not fair to compare the progress made by her
with the achievements of Western nations in that field. I am not sure that there
is really much in this view, for even in most Western countries, mass education
is a comparatively recent development, and even in the East, we have before us
the example of Japan, which came under influence of the West less than half a
century ago, and has already successfully adopted a system of universal educa-
tion. Assuming, however, for the sake of argument, that it is not fair to compare
India with Western countries in this matter, no such objection can, I believe, be
urged against a comparison of Indian progress with that made in the Philippines,
or Ceylon, or Baroda. The Philippines came under American rule only thirteen
years ago; it cannot be said that in natural intelligence or desire for education, the
Philipinos are superior to the people of India; and yet the progress in mass educa-
tion made in the Islands during this short period had been so great that it consti-
tutes a remarkable tribute to the energy and enthusiasm of American ideals. Under
Spanish rule, there was no system of popular education in the Philippines. As
soon as the Islands passed into the possession of the United States, a regular pro-
gramme of primary education came to be planned and has been steadily adhered
to. The aim is to make primary education universal. Instruction is free, and the
education authorities advise compulsion, though no compulsory law has yet been
enacted. So great, however, is the enthusiasm that has been aroused in the matter
that many Municipalities have introduced compulsion by local ordinances. And
though there is room for doubt if the ordinances are strictly legal, no question has
been raised, and the people are acquiescing cheerfully in their enforcement. How
rapidly things are advancing in the Philippines may be judged by the fact that in
five years—from 1903 to 1908—the number of pupils attending school more than
doubled itself, having risen from 150,000 to 360,000. The proportion of children
receiving instruction to the whole population of the Islands is now nearly 6 per
cent., as against 2 in British India.
The conditions of Ceylon approximate closely to those of Southern India, and
the fact that it is directly administered by England as a Crown Colony need not
make any difference in its favour. In regard to mass education, however, Cey-
lon is far ahead to-day of India. Elementary instruction in Ceylon is imparted by
two classes of schools, Government and Aided, the Government schools covering
about one-third, and the Aided schools two-thirds of the area. In Government
325
schools, a system of compulsory attendance has long been in force, the default-
ing parent being brought by the teacher before a Village Tribunal, who can inflict
small fines. In 1901, a Committee was appointed by the Government to advise
what steps should be taken to extend primary education in the Island and the
Committee strongly recommended ‘that Government should take steps to com-
pel parents to five their children a good vernacular education.’ Again, in 1905, a
Commission was appointed to make further enquiries into the matter, and the rec-
ommendations of this body were accepted in the main by the Colonial Secretary.
These recommendations were: (1) that attendance at school should be compulsory
for boys during a period of six years in areas proclaimed by the Governor; (2) that
no fees should be charged; (3) that girls’ education should be pushed on vigor-
ously; (4) that District and Divisional Committees should be constituted to look
after the education of children in their areas; and (5) that the Road Tax should be
handed over to these bodies to form the nucleus of an Education Fund. Action was
first taken under the new scheme in 1908, when 16 Districts were proclaimed by
the Governor; and the official report for 1909 thus speaks of its working: ‘There
has been no difficulty so far, and there seems to be every reason to hope that
none of the difficulties, which were anticipated by some of the managers of aided
schools, will arise. It is hoped that in the course of the present year, it will be
brought into working order in all the Districts.’ In 1909 the total number of pupils,
attending primary schools in Ceylon, was 237,000 which gives a proportion of
6·6 per cent. to the whole population of the Island.
Within the borders of India itself, the Maharaja of Baroda has set an example
of enthusiasm in the cause of education, for [Illegible Text] is entitled to the last-
ing gratitude of the people of the country. His Highness began his first experiment
in the matter of introducing compulsory and free education into his State eigh-
teen years ago in ten villages of the Amreli Taluka. After watching the experiment
for eight years, it was extended to the whole taluka in 1901, and finally, in 1906,
primary education was made compulsory and free throughout the State for boys
between the ages of 6 and 12, and for girls between the ages of 6 and 10. The age-
limit for girls has since been raised from 10 to 11. The last two Education Reports
of the State explain with considerable fullness the working of the measure, and
furnish most interesting reading. In 1909, the total number of pupils at school was
165,000, which gives a proportion of 8·6 per cent. to the total population of the
State. Taking the children of school-going age, we find that 79·6 per cent. of boys
of such age were at school, as against 21·5 per cent. in British India; while the
percentage of girls was 47·6, as against our 4 per cent. only. The total expenditure
on primary schools in Baroda in 1909 was about 7½ lakhs of rupees, which gives
a proportion of about 6½d. per head of the population, as against one penny in
British India. The population of Baroda is drawn from the same classes as that of
the adjoining British territories, and every day that passes sees the subjects of the
Gaekwar outstanding more and more British subjects in the surrounding districts.
My Lord, if the history of elementary education throughout the world estab-
lishes one fact more clearly than another, it is this, that without a resort to
326
compulsion no State can ensure a general diffusion of education among its people.
England, with her strong love of individualism, stood out against the principle of
compulsion for as long as she could, but she had to give way in the end all the
same. And when the Act of 1870, which introduced compulsion into England and
Wales, was under discussion, Mr. Gladstone made a frank admission in the matter
in language which I would like to quote to this Council. ‘Well, sir,’ said he, ‘there
is another principle and undoubtedly of the gravest character, which I can even
now hardly hope—though I do hope after all that we had seen—is accepted on the
other side of the House—I mean the principle that compulsion must be applied in
some effective manner to the promotion of education. I freely and frankly own
that it was not without an effort that I myself accepted it. I deeply regret the neces-
sity. I think that it is a scandal and a shame to the country that in the midst of our,
as we think, advanced civilisation, and undoubtedly of our enormous wealth, we
should at this time of day be obliged to entertain this principle of compulsion.
Nevertheless, we have arrived deliberately at the conclusion that it must be enter-
tained, and I do not hesitate to say that, being entertained, it ought to be enter-
tained with every consideration, with every desire of avoiding haste and
precipitancy, but in a manner that shall render it effectual . . . .’ A Royal Commis-
sion, appointed in 1836 to report on the working of the measure adopted to make
attendance at school compulsory in England and Wales, bore ungrudging testi-
mony to the great effect which compulsion had produced on school attendance. ‘It
is to compulsion,’ they wrote, ‘that the increase of the numbers on the roll is
largely attributable. Among the witnesses before us, Mr. Stewart appears to stand
alone in his opinion that, provided the required accommodation had been fur-
nished, the result would have been much the same if attendance had not been
obligatory. But to estimate fairly the influence, which compulsion has had upon
the great increase in the number of children attending school, we must speak of it
under the three heads into which its operation may be divided. There is, first, the
direct influence of compulsion. This is exerted over parents, who are indifferent to
the moral and intellectual welfare of their children, who are very eager to obtain
what advantage they can from their children’s earnings, but who never look
beyond But, secondly, compulsion exercises an indirect influence. Many parents
are apathetic, yield weakly to their children’s wish not to go to school . . . But they
are keenly alive to the disgrace of being brought before a Magistrate, the fear of
which supplies a stimulus sufficient to make them do their duty in this respect. In
addition, the existence of a compulsory law has considerably affected public opin-
ion and has done much to secure a larger school attendance by making people
recognise that the State regards them as neglecting their duty, if their children
remain uneducated. The Ceylon Commission of 1905, in dealing with the ques-
tion whether attendance at school should be made compulsory, expressed them-
selves as follows:—‘With the exception of one or two districts of the Island, little
good will be done by any system which does not enforce compulsory attendance.
The Dutch, who had an extensive and successful system of Vernacular schools
throughout the portions of the Island which were under their rule, found it
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necessary to enforce attendance by fines, and did so regularly. Parents, throughout

a large portion of the Island, exercise very little control over their children, and
will leave them to do as they like in the matter of school attendance. The result is
that, where there is no compulsion, boys attend very irregularly and leave school
very early. That compulsory attendance is desirable we have no doubt. My Lord,
primary education has rested on a voluntary basis in this country for more than
half a century, and what is the extent of the progress it has made during the time?
For answer one has to look at the single fact that seven children out of eight are
yet allowed to grow up in ignorance and darkness, and four villages out of five are
without a school. During the last six or seven years, the pace has been slightly
more accelerated than before, but, even so, how extremely slow it is, may be seen
from what Mr. Orange says of it in the last quinquennial report, issued two years
ago:—But the rate of increase for the last twenty-five years or for the last five is
more slow than when compared with the distance that has to be travelled before
primary education can be universally diffused. If the number of boys at school
continued to increase even at the rate of increase that has taken place in the last
five years, and even if there was no increase in population, even then several gen-
erations would still elapse before all the boys of school age were in school. My
Lord, I respectfully submit that this state of things must be remedied; that India
must follow in the wake of other civilized countries in the matter, if her children
are to enjoy anything like the advantages which the people of those countries
enjoy in the race of life; that a beginning at least should now be made in the direc-
tion of compulsion; and that the aim should be to cover the whole field in the
lifetime of a generation. When England introduced compulsion in 1870, about
43 per cent. of her children of school-going age were at school, and ten years suf-
ficed for her to bring all her children to school. When Japan took up compulsion,
about 28 per cent. of her school-going population was at school, and Japan cov-
ered the whole field in about twenty years. Our difficulties are undoubtedly greater
than those of any other country, and our progress, even with the principle of com-
pulsion introduced, is bound to be slower. But if a beginning is made at once and
we resolutely press forward towards the goal, the difficulties, great as they are,
will vanish before long, and the rest of the journey will be comparatively simple
and easy. My Lord, it is urged by those who are opposed to the introduction of
compulsion in this country that though the Gaekwar, as an Indian Prince, could
force compulsion on his subjects without serious opposition, the British Govern-
ment, as a foreign Government, cannot afford to risk the unpopularity which the
measure will entail. Personally I do not think that the fear which lies behind this
view is justified, because the Government in Ceylon is as much a foreign Govern-
ment as that in India, and in Ceylon the authorities have not shrunk from the
introduction of compulsion. But to meet this objection, I am quite willing that the
first steps in the direction of compulsion should be taken by our Local Bodies,
which reproduce in British territory conditions similar to those which obtain in
Feudatory States. And even here I am willing that the first experiment should be
made in carefully selected and advanced areas only. When the public mind is
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familiarised with the idea of compulsion, the Government may take the succeed-
ing steps without any hesitation or misgiving. In view, also, of the special difficul-
ties, likely to be experienced in extending the principle of compulsion at once to
girls, I am willing that, to begin with, it should be applied to boys only, though I
share the opinion that the education of girls is with us even a greater necessity
than that of boys, and I look forward to the time when compulsion will be extended
to all children alike of either sex. To prevent injudicious zeal on the part of Local
Bodies, even in so good a cause as the spread of elementary education, I am will-
ing that ample powers of control should be retained by the Provincial and Imperial
Governments in their own hands. What I earnestly and emphatically insist on,
however, is that no more time should now be lost in making a beginning in this
all-important matter.
My Lord, I now come to the Bill, which I hope the Council will let me intro-
duce to-day, and I ask the indulgence of the Council while I explain briefly its
main provisions. The Bill, I may state at once, has been framed with a strict regard
to the limitations of the position, to which I have already referred. It is a purely
premissive Bill, and it merely proposes to empower Municipalities and District
Boards, under certain circumstances, to introduce compulsion within their areas,
in the first instance, in the case of boys, and later, when the time is ripe, in the case
of girls. Before a Local Body aspires to avail itself of the powers contemplated
by the Bill, it will have to fulfil such conditions as the Government of India may
by rule lay down as regards the extent to which education is already diffused
within its area. Last year, in moving my resolution on this subject, I urged that
where one-third of the boys of school-going age were already at school, the ques-
tion of introducing compulsion might be taken up for consideration by the Local
Body. I think this is a fair limit, but if the Government of India so choose they
might impose a higher limit. In practice, a limit of 33 per cent. will exclude for
several years to come all District Boards, and bring within the range only a few of
the more advanced Municipalities in the larger towns in the different Provinces.
Moreover, a Local Body, even when it satisfies the limit laid down by the Govern-
ment of India, can come under the Bill only after obtaining previously the sanc-
tion of the Local Government. I submit, my Lord, that these are ample safeguards
to prevent any ill-considered or precipitate action on the part of a Local Body.
Then the Bill provides for a compulsory period of school attendance of four years
only. Most countries have a period of six years, and even Ceylon and Baroda pro-
vide six years; Italy, which began with three, and Japan, which began with four
years, have also raised their period to six years. But considering that the burden
of additional expenditure involved will in many cases be the principal determin-
ing factor in this matter, I am content to begin with a compulsory period of four
years only. The next point to which I would invite the attention of the Council is
that the Bill makes ample provision for exemption from compulsory attendance
on reasonable grounds, such as sickness, domestic necessity or the seasonal needs
of agriculture. A parent may also claim exemption for his child on the ground
that there is no school within a reasonable distance from his residence, to which
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he can send the child without exposing him to religious instruction to which he
objects; and a distance of one mile is laid down as a reasonable distance. This,
however, is a matter of detail, which, perhaps, may better be left to Local Gov-
ernments. When a Local Body comes under the Bill, the responsibility is thrown
upon it to provide suitable school accommodation for the children within its area,
in accordance with standards which may be laid down by the Education Depart-
ment of the Local Government. On the question of fees, while I am of opinion that
where attendance is made compulsory, instruction should be gratuitous, the Bill
provides for gratuitous instruction only in the case of those children whose par-
ents are extremely poor, not earning more than Rs. 10 a month, all above that line
being required to pay or not in the discretion of the Local Body. This is obviously
a compromise, rendered necessary by the opposition offered by so many Local
Governments to the proposal of abolishing fees in primary schools, on the ground
that it means an unnecessary sacrifice of a necessary and useful income. Coming
to the machinery for working the compulsory provisions, the Bill provides for
the creation of special school attendance committees, whose duty it will be to
make careful enquiries and prepare and maintain lists of children who should be
at school within their respective areas, and take whatever steps may be necessary
to ensure the attendance of children at school, including the putting into operation
of the penal clauses of the Bill against defaulting parents. The penal provisions, it
will be seen, are necessarily light. To ensure the object of the Bill being fulfilled,
the employment of child labour below the age of ten is prohibited, and penalty
is provided for any infringement of the provision. Lastly, it is provided that the
Government of India should lay down by rule the proportion in which the heavy
cost of compulsory education should be divided between the Local Government
and the Local Body concerned, it being assumed that the Supreme Government
will place additional resources at the disposal of the Local Government, to enable
it to defray its share, the Local Body being on its side empowered to levy a special
Education. Rate, if unnecessary, to meet its share of the expenditure. It is obvi-
ous that the whole working of this Bill must depend in the first instance upon the
share, which the Government is prepared to bear, of the cost of compulsory educa-
tion, wherever it is introduced. I find that in England the Parliamentary grant cov-
ers about two-thirds of the total expenditure on elementary schools. In Scotland it
amounts to more than that proportion, whereas in Ireland it meets practically the
whole cost. I think we are entitled to ask that in India at least two thirds of the new
expenditure should be borne by the State.
This, my Lord, is briefly the whole of my Bill. It is a small and humble attempt
to suggest the first steps of a journey, which is bound to prove long and tedious,
but which must be performed, if the mass of our people are to emerge from their
present condition. It is not intended that all parts of the Bill should be equally indis-
pensable to the scheme, and no one will be more ready than myself to undertake
any revision that may be found to be necessary in the light of helpful criticism.
My Lord, if I am so fortunate as to receive from the Council the leave I ask at its
hands, it will probably be a year before the Bill comes up here again for its further
330
stages. Meanwhile, its consideration will be transferred from this Council to the
country, and all sections of the community will have ample opportunities to scru-
tinise its provisions with care. My Lord, this question of a universal diffusion of
education in India depends, almost more than any other question, on the hearty and
sympathetic co-operation of the Government and the leaders of the people. The
Government must, in the first instance, adopt definitely the policy of such diffusion
as its own, and it must, secondly, not grudge to find the bulk of the money, which
will be required for it, as Governments in most other civilised countries are doing.
And this is what we are entitled to ask at the hands of the Government in the name
of justice, for the honour of the Government itself, and in the highest interests of
popular well-being. The leaders of the people, on their side, must bring to this task
high enthusiasm, which will not be chilled by difficulties, courage, which will not
shrink from encountering unpopularity, if need be, and readiness to make sacri-
fices, whether of money or time or energy, which the cause may require. I think,
my Lord, if this Bill passes into law, the educated classes of the country will be on
their trial. It is my earnest hope that neither they nor the Government will fail to
rise to the requirements of this essentially modest and cautious measure. My Lord,
one great need of the situation, which I have ventured again and again to point
out in this Council for several years past, is that the Government should enable us
to feel that, though largely foreign in personnel, it is national in spirit and senti-
ment; and this it can only do by undertaking towards the people of India all those
responsibilities, which national Governments in other countries undertake towards
their people. We, too, in our turn, must accept the Government as a national Gov-
ernment, giving it that sense of security which national Governments are entitled
to claim, and utilising the peace and, order, which it has established, for the moral
and material advancement of our people. And of all the great national tasks which
lie before the country, and in which the Government and the people can co-operate
to the advantage of both, none is greater than this task of promoting the universal
diffusion of education in the land, bringing by its means a ray of light, a touch of
refinement, a glow of hope into lives that sadly need them all. The work, I have
already said, is bound to be slow, but that only means that it must be taken in hand
at once. If a beginning is made without further delay, if both the Government and
the people persevere with the task in the right spirit, the whole problem may be
solved before another generation rises to take our place. If this happens, the next
generation will enter upon its own special work with a strength which will be its
own security of success. As for us, it will be enough to have laboured for such an
end—laboured even when the end is not in sight. For, my Lord, I think there is not
only profound humility but also profound wisdom in the faith which says:—
‘I do not ask to see that distant scene:

One step enough for me.’
[Replying to the criticisms which were offered to his motion for leave to
introduce the Bill, Mr. Gokhale spoke as follows:—]
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Sir, I have surely no reason to be dissatisfied with the reception which the Bill
has met with at the hands of the Members of the Council. No man has the right to
expect—and I certainly did not expect that any proposals that he brings forward
on a subject of such importance would be accepted by a body like this Council
without any criticism; and if I rise, Sir, just now, to speak a second time, it is for
two reasons. In the first place, I wish to express my sense of obligation to the
Hon’ble Mr. Butler personally, and to the Government of India generally, for the
attitude they have adopted towards this Bill. The attitude is no doubt cautious but
it is not unfriendly, and it certainly goes as far as I had ventured to expect—I had
not expected that it would go further than that. The second reason why I wish
to say a few words before this debate is brought to a close is that I want to clear
certain misconceptions to which expression has been given to-day, about some of
the provisions of the Bill, as also about my object in bringing the Bill forward.
Sir, as I pointed out in the course of the remarks with which I asked for leave to
introduce this Bill, if there is one fact established more clearly than another in the
history of primary education, it is this, that, without compulsion, there can be no
universal diffusion of education. You may shake your heads—anybody can shake
his head—and say that the time for compulsion has not come; that we shall try
the experiment on a voluntary basis; that we shall wait for some time; that we
shall achieve here what nobody else has achieved elsewhere. Anybody may say
this, but, as sure as we are here, as sure as we are discussing this question in this
Council to-day, I say that everybody will in the end recognise that without com-
pulsion it is impossible to secure the universal diffusion of education throughout
the country. That being so, the only effective and proper course is to suggest that
the Government should introduce compulsion. And if the Government of India
had not been beset with its peculiar difficulties, I should have urged it to take
up this question and introduce compulsion on its own account. But, as I have
already observed, there are several considerations which render such a course
difficult, if not impossible. And since that cannot be, I am content to proceed
on other lines and to try a measure, such as I have brought forward to-day. Sir,
my Hon’ble friend Mr, Dadabhoy says that District Officers hold a very strong
position on District Boards, and therefore, if this Bill is allowed to become law,
District Officers, who may find no difficulty in getting the sanction of the Local
Government, may use their position on the Boards to introduce compulsion. If this
really happens, I say at once that I shall rejoice, because it will really mean that
the Government will be accepting its own responsibility and introducing compul-
sion. I do want the Government to introduce compulsion if only it will do so; but
as the Government will not do it, we have got to see what else we can do, and that
is why I want this Bill.
Sir, as far as I have been able to gather from to-day’s discussion, hardship is
apprehended in regard to three matters in carrying out the provisions of this Bill.
The first is that District Boards, which are largely under official influence, might
introduce compulsion, though the people may not be prepared for it. But I have
already pointed out that the Government of India will first of all lay down the
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standard which must be satisfied by any local body before it introduces the prin-
ciple of compulsion. I myself have suggested a limit of 33 per cent., but as the
matter has been left to the Government of India, I think, if ever this Bill becomes
law, that they are likely to adopt a higher limit than 33 per cent. of the school-
going population being at school. And a limit of even 33 per cent., not only now
but; for several years to come, will not be satisfied by any District Board. It will
no doubt be satisfied by several Municipalities, but that is another matter. There-
fore I do not think that the fear expressed about hasty action by District Boards is
well-founded. If after the country has been familiarised with the idea of compul-
sion for some time, District Boards also follow in the wake of Municipalities, I do
not think that there would be any reason to regret such a development. Then, Sir,
a great deal has been said about the hardship which may be caused by empower-
ing these bodies to levy a special education cess. My friends who have spoken
have ignored the fact that the cess, when levied, is to be levied by the local bodies,
and that it will require the sanction of the Local Government before it is levied.
Those who say that the local bodies might consist of idealists and might be hasty
in their action stand on a different footing from those who object to any special
cess at all. To the former, I think it is a sufficient answer to point out that there is
the Local Government to check idealism if there is any tendency in that direction.
But there are those who object to any cess at all, and they have strongly urged to-
day that it would be a calamity, a disaster, if any cess is ever levied in order that
primary education might be made compulsory. Sir, I am unable to accept this
opinion. On the other hand, I feel strongly that, if primary education is ever to be
compulsory, local bodies will have to bear a fairly large share of the burden which
it will impose. This is the case in all countries where the system of compulsory
education prevails; and those friends of mine who object to the levy of a cess
might as well object to compulsory education and be done with it. I admire, Sir,
my Hon’ble friend Mr. Dadabhoy’s candour and consistency. Mr. Dadabhoy is
against the levy of a local cess which may have to be imposed in order that the
children of poor people may be educated. Mr. Dadabhoy the other day proposed
that the excise-duty on cotton goods should be done away with, not on the ground
that its burden falls on the consumers who are the poorest of the poor, but because
the amount, if added to the profits of the mill industry, will mean a better return
for the mill-owners. Mr. Dadabhoy also wants unrestricted hours for factory
labour, for that means better dividends for capitalists. He is consistent all through;
but his consistency need not appeal to this Council; and I think an attitude like his
will hardly commend itself to those who wish well to the masses of the people.
Sir, my fear is that, if this Bill ever becomes law, our financial difficulties will then
only begin. It is not the cess that will constitute the real difficulty; it is the share
that will have to be borne by the Government. The bulk of the money has to be
found by the Finance Department of the Government of India, and I fear in the
Hon’ble Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson (I am sorry he is not in his place—I should
have liked to say this in his presence) we shall probably find a dragon in the path.
However, we shall have to agitate in this matter as in other matters, and I think an
333
important lever has now been put into our hands by the Government by the cre-
ation of the new Education Department. Surely the Education Member must have
something to do, and if he is to do anything, they must give him money to spend.
I think that that will be our lever, and if we use the lever properly, the Government
will find the money we want in the end. There is no reason why we should not
entertain this hope. That it is what every civilized Government is doing for its own
people, and that is what we are entitled to expect from our Government. The third
fear expressed is about extending compulsion to girls at the present stage. Sir, I
have already expressly stated that the intention is that the education of girls should
for the present continue on a voluntary basis, though I certainly hope that before
long the necessity of putting that education on the same footing as that of boys
will be recognized, and the Bill only takes powers for that time when it comes.
Remember that Baroda has compulsion even to-day for girls as well as boys. My
Hon’ble friend Sir Sassoon David says that the time for compulsion has not yet
come. Will he tell us when the time for compulsion arrives? Will he tell us how
and why it has arrived in Baroda and not in British territory? Will he tell us how
it has arrived in Ceylon and not in British territory? Will he tell us why, when the
Philippino Municipalities have introduced compulsion, our own Municipalities
should not? Of course, if you merely assert that the time has not arrived and stop
there, it is not possible to argue with you. The Hon’ble Mr. Butler declines to
accept my analogies and says that the state of things in this country is different to
what it is elsewhere; and as regards Baroda, he says that it is governed autocrati-
cally and that makes a great difference. Western countries will not do, because
they are governed democratically! Baroda will not do, because it is governed
autocratically! I suppose the Hon’ble Member will not be satisfied unless I pro-
duce the analogy of a country, governed bureaucratically; and as there is no other
country governed as India is, he is safe in insisting on such an analogy, and I must
say I give it up. Sir, I will now address only two words in conclusion—one to the
Government and the other to my non-official calleagues, and then resume my seat.
To the Government I will merely put this question: Are you content to lag behind
Baroda? Every day that passes, while Baroda has a system of compulsory educa-
tion, and we have not—every day that passes like that, material is produced which
will go to build up a judgment against you; and I am quite sure the conscience of
the Government will, before long, be roused to this question. You may say what
you like in defence of the existing situation; but you are bound to realize that you
cannot lag behind Baroda, and I am convinced that the question of compulsion is
for us now only a question of time. To my non-official colleagues I will say this:
if we are not prepared to bear a cess for educating the children of the mass of our
own people, if we are not prepared to make sacrifices for so great an object, if we
expect the money to drop from somewhere—and remember, even if the Govern-
ment raise it by additional taxation, after all it is we who shall pay it—we may as
well cease talking about improving the lot of the mass of the people. Sir, if we
want our country to advance, there is only one way, and that is that the mass of the
people in this country must be raised to a higher level. This can only be achieved
334
by the spread of education, which in its turn requires a large expenditure of money.
And a reasonable part of this money must be raised locally, as is being done in
other countries, or else we may leave the matter well alone. Sir, I do not wish to
say anything more. I once again beg to express my obligations to the Hon’ble Mr.
Butler and to the Government for the attitude they have adopted towards this Bill,
and I am also most grateful to those Hon’ble Members who have accorded this
measure their cordial support.
My Lord, I will now say a few words by way of reply to the observations
which have been made by several Members on this resolution. At the outset, I
would express my thanks to the Hon’ble the Home Member for the assurance
that he gave at the end of his speech that the Government would consider care-
fully the proposals laid by me before the Council to-day. I wish I could feel the
same degree of satisfaction in regard to certain other parts of his speech, notably
in regard to what he said about a Commission going up and down the country,
inviting suggestions from all and sundry as to what should be done by Govern-
ment in this matter. I must also say that I was somewhat surprised to hear that the
suggestions which I have placed before the Council appeared to be altogether new
to the Hon’ble Member. My Lord, when I suggested the appointment of a Com-
mission I naturally also meant that the Government should take some interest in
the matter; and if they took some interest in it, they would not start a Commission
with a mere blank sheet of paper before asking it to go up and down the country
inviting suggestions. The Government would then start the Commission, as is
invariably done in such cases, with definite instructions, and definite questions
would then be framed on which opinions would be invited from the public. As
regards the statement of the Hon’ble Member that my suggestions were new, it
only emphasizes what I have been insisting on in the Council for several years,
namely, that education should be made over to a separate Member of this Council.
Education is one of twenty other Departments with which the Hon’ble Member
has to deal and it is not to be expected that he will pursue educational matters with
the same diligence and the same watchfulness with which they are pursued in
other countries, notably in America, where they try to follow what is being done
throughout the world every year in regard to education. If things had stood where
they were left by the Hon’ble Sir Harvey Adamson, I should have thought that
Government had adopted towards my resolution an attitude which was, on the
whole, not unfriendly. But the remarks made by the Hon’ble Sir H. Stuart appear
to me to be uncompromisingly hostile. I speak subject to correction because the
Hon’ble Member had quite finished his Binomial Theorem when the bell rang and
the time allowed for the examination was over. I can therefore confine myself only
to what he actually said, and that portion did not sound as at all friendly to my
motion. I must notice three observations that he made. The first was in connection
with my humble self. I see that the Hon’ble Member has been studying some of
my past utterances. That is a matter from which I should perhaps derive some sat-
isfaction. I must say, however that he has not been reading my speeches correctly.
He has no justification for saying that I have now taken up a position which is
335
inconsistent with the position I had taken up before. It is true that three years ago
I urged that Government should begin in this matter by making primary education
free, and then proceed to make it compulsory. The aim always has been to have
it free and compulsory. Three years ago I urged the abolition of fees first because
Government had then plenty of money, with which they hardly knew what to do.
As Government was then inclined to be favourable to that idea—and as to that
I have only to refer to the Government Resolution issued at that time to make
clear what their attitude was in the matter—I thought that was the line of least
resistance. But throughout my aim has been to work steadily towards compulsion.
The financial position, however, has changed. When new taxes have just been
added, I cannot very well suggest to this Council that primary education should
be made free straight off. I therefore have changed my track a bit, and, instead of
beginning with the abolition of fees, I ask for the introduction of the principle of
compulsion, which has always been an integral part of my scheme. I do not see
that there is any inconsistency in that. If the Government abolish fees to-day, no
one will rejoice more than I. There was another observation made by the Hon’ble
Member which was slightly more serious. He said that I had expressed myself
in a manner that was ungenerous towards Sir Arundel Arundel about three years
ago in this Council. Now, my Lord, a reference to the debates of that time will
shew that this description of what I then said is not justified. What happened was
this:—In March 1906, when the Budget Statement was under discussion I urged
that primary education should be made free. There was a large surplus, in fact, as
I have said, Government did not know what to do with their money. Sir Arundel
Arundel, who was then the Home Member and therefore in charge of education,
in his reply described my suggestion as a large order. He no doubt expressed the
same kind of sympathy with my object that the Finance Member lavished on us
while he was putting on us new taxes. He said the object was very good and the
Government would keep it steadily in view as a distant peak which some day
they might be able to reach, but for the present they had to crawl along the plain.
Within six months, however, Government issued a Resolution practically recom-
mending free education to Local Governments. It was not a circular letter merely
asking what Local Governments thought. It was more; the whole tone of it shows
that it was practically a recommendation that was made. Of course they asked as
a matter of courtesy, what the Local Governments thought of the matter but the
whole document reads as if the Government of India had made up their minds on
the subject. The next year’s Financial Statement contained a remark which was
quoted by the Hon’ble Mr. Dadabhoy to the effect that if the Secretary of State’s
orders were received in the course of the year, primary education would be made
free and funds would be made available. Therefore, from the position which Sir
A. Arundel took in March to the position in November there was a tremendous
advance. I noted that fact in March following and I used it as an argument that
education should be in charge of a separate Member who would take a special
interest in it, audit should not be one of 20 other Departments over which the
Home Member presided. I think the present system under which Education has
336
to rub shoulders with Jails, Police and other Departments in charge of the Home
Member, is one that is distinctly prejudicial to the interests of Education. The third
point that I must notice in Sir H. Stuart’s remarks is about his calculations as to the
cost of my scheme. My Lord, there is a saying that the worst enemy of the good
is the best. I proposed some humble advance; the Hon’ble Member straightway
wants us to go to the farthest point possible and then frightens the Council by
calculations based on that. He may as well have said, ‘if education is to be free
why not adopt the system that prevails in America? Then the cost will be 30 or
even 40 crores. If you want to make a proposal look, I won’t say, ridiculous, but I
will say queer in the eyes of people, then I have no objection to that method. But
I should not have expected that from one with the sympathies which Sir H. Stuart
is known to have in this matter.
My Lord, I now come to what fell from the Hon’ble Mr. Orange in a speech to
which we listened with great pleasure and sincere admiration. I have no quarrel
with his position; I know his heart is practically with us in this matter, but he has
to be practical and to cut his coat according to his cloth. He has to consider his
resources and is strictly limited by them. One friendly warning he gave me which
I am prepared to take in the spirit in which I am inclined to think it was offered,
namely, that I should not complicate a consideration of this question by a refer-
ence to extraneous questions, such as railway finance, taxation of jute, etc. Now
I can assure the Hon’ble Member that I did not introduce those matters in any
wanton spirit. As a matter of fact unless you show that there are resources, the
first difficulty that is pressed upon you is this. It is all very well to suggest such
schemes, but where is the money to come from? If however you suggest measures
for finding the required money, you are straightway told that you are introducing,
extraneous matters and interfering with vested interests. There was one point in
the Hon’ble Mr. Orange’s speech in regard to which I throw the main responsibil-
ity on Government. The Hon’ble Member said that the great difficulty was about
the provision of sufficient accommodation by local bodies. That is true. He quoted
from a report of the Government of Bombay which said that 100,000 children
were seeking admission but had no accommodation. But why is this so? Why have
not local bodies been required to provide accommodation? I quoted this morning
one of the recommendations of the Commission appointed in Lord Ripon’s time.
The Commission had distinctly recommended that legislation should be resorted
to in order to promote the extension of primary education; by that the Commis-
sion means that powers should be taken by Government to require local bodies
to provide accommodation. That was 25 years ago, but the recommendation has
been allowed to remain a dead letter. No action has so far been taken on it and now
we are confronted with this difficulty. Certain objections were raised to-day by the
Hon’ble Mr. Chitnavis and the Hon’ble Mr. Majid to the principle of compulsion.
They both thought compulsion was undesirable because if all children were sent
to school it would be difficult to get labour. In answer to that I respectfully recom-
mend to them a perusal of the debates in the House of Commons, when the Educa-
tion Act of 1870 was passed; they will find them in the volumes of Hansard. Such
337
objections have always been urged, but as I said this morning the mass of people
do not live in order to supply labour to those who wish to prosper on it. I think it
is the elementary right of every child that it should receive at least the rudiments
of education. Mr. Majid referred to the religious difficulty; as regards that I am
in sympathy with him. That is a matter for the Commission to consider, if one is
appointed. Nothing of course should be done which would go against the religious
prejudices of any community. As regards special taxation, well, I do not share the
fears expressed. If Government take up this matter in the spirit in which I should
like them to do it, I do not think there would be any necessity for special taxation.
I do not think we should accept Sir H. Stuart’s calculations. I do not really think
that the cost will be more than 4 or 5 crores, even if education is provided for the
whole of the male population; and the burden that would fall upon the State would
not be very heavy. As regards the children of poorer classes becoming gentlemen,
if they are educated, that is an argument which I had better leave alone. My Lord,
I think the whole discussion has established two things: first, the necessity for an
inquiry has been clearly established. There is the point to which the Hon’ble Mr.
Orange has referred, namely, requiring local bodies to provide accommodation.
The Hon’ble Mr. Quin has told the Councils of the opposition of villagers to edu-
cation, and other members have expressed other views. Even the official members
are not agreed in this matter. Therefore, I think, the necessity for an inquiry is
clearly established. I may remind the Council that when the Commission of 1882
was appointed, 25 years had elapsed since the educational policy had been laid
down by the Despatch of 1854, and that lapse of time was considered sufficient to
justify an inquiry. Twenty-five years have again elapsed since then, and therefore,
I think the time has come when Government should direct a fresh inquiry into this
question. If the Government will go so far as to say they will make an inquiry into
the state of primary education—how far the policy recommended by the Commis-
sion of 1882 has been carried out and what new measures it will be desirable to
take—that will substantially meet the requirements of the situation.
My Lord, the second point that I think has been established, is the absolute
necessity of strengthening the position of Education among the Departments
of the Government of India. Sir H. Stuart quoted from my evidence before the
Decentralization Commission and referred to a superficial inconsistency. He says
I advocate to-day that Education should be made a divided head instead of a
Provincial head, but that before the Decentralization Commission I had said there
should be no divided heads. That is true on the surface, but that is not fair; for
you must take my scheme submitted to the Decentralization Commission as a
whole. If you do so, then you will find that there need be no divided heads, for I
have advocated a large measure of financial independence of Local Government
and under that scheme Local Governments will be able to find the money. But as
long as the present excessive centralization continues, the Government of India
must take the responsibility of finding money upon themselves so that the money
should be forthcoming. If the Government of India become directly responsible
for the spread of Education in the country, then I am quite sure that more money
338
will be spent. Under existing arrangements, if the Government of India are able
to spare any money for education, they make small grants spasmodically to Local
Governments for the purpose. What is needed however is a large programme con-
stantly kept in view and steadily carried out, and this can only be secured if educa-
tion is a direct concern of the Government of India.
[On the 18th March 1912, Mr. Gokhale, in moving that the Bill to make better
provision for the extension of elementary education be referred to a Select Com-
mittee consisting of the Hon’ble Mr. Syed Ali Imam, the Hon’ble Sir Harcourt
Butler, the Horible Mr. Mazhar-ul-Haque, the Hon’ble Nawab Saiyid Muham-
mad, the Hon’ble Babu Bhupendranath Basu, the Hon’ble Pandit Madan Mohan
Malaviya, the Hon’ble Mr. Gates, the Hon’ble Sir James Meston, the Hon’ble
Rao Bahadur R. N. Mudholkar, the Hon’ble Mr. Sharp, the Hon’ble Mr. Lyon,
the Hon’ble Mr. Carr, the Hon’ble Mr. Arthur, the Hon’ble Khan Bahadur Mian
Muhammad Shafi and the mover, spoke as follows:—]
My Lord, it is two years to-day since the Council was invited in its very first
session after the introduction of the recent reforms to consider a recommendation
to the Governor-General in Council that a beginning should now be made in the
direction of making elementary education free and compulsory throughout the
country, and that a mixed Commission of officials and non-officials should be
appointed to frame definite proposals. After a lengthy debate, the motion was by
leave withdrawn, but the principal suggestions formulated on the occasion were
subsequently embodied in a Bill which was introduced in this Council about this
time last year. A year has since elapsed, and during the interval, all sides—the
Government and the public, officials and non-officials, members of all classes and
creeds—have had time to examine the provisions of the Bill. I think the promot-
ers of the measure are entitled to regard with the utmost satisfaction the reception
which the Bill has met with in the country; for, my Lord, it is no exaggeration
to say that no measure of our time has received such weighty, such enthusiastic,
such overwhelming public support as the Bill now before the Council. My Lord,
it has been made abundantly clear in the course of the discussions that have taken
place during the year that most men of light and leading in the country—men
distinguished in every walk of life, in learning, in professions, in business, in
public affairs, in patriotic or philanthropic endeavour—are on the side of the Bill.
The Indian National Congress, the most representative body of educated opinion
in India, has strongly supported the measure, and Provincial Conferences held
in the different Provinces have also done the same. The Moslem League, whose
claim to speak in the name of the great community which it represents is not
disputed even by officials, accorded only a fortnight ago its cordial support to
the Bill; and most of its branches throughout the country have also expressed
their approval. Most of the local bodies consulted by Provincial Governments, as
also the Senate of the Madras University, which was the only University Senate
consulted, have expressed themselves in favour of the measure. Public meetings
339
held in nearly every important town throughout the country have adopted resolu-
tions in its support, and numerous special meetings of backward communities,
several caste conferences and some missionary organisations have done the same.
Then, my Lord, the Indian Press in the country with hardly an exception has with
striking unanimity ranged itself on the side of the Bill, and what is even more
significant, nearly half the Anglo-Indian Press, the Indian Daily News in Calcutta,
the Times of India in Bombay, and the Madras Mail and the Madras Times in
Madras, have also extended to it their valuable support. Last, my Lord, but not
least, I must mention the important deputation—headed by no less a man than
Lord Courtney—that waited last year on the Secretary of State and presented to
him a memorial signed among others by some very distinguished men in England
in support of this Bill. I venture to think that the ultimate success of a measure
which has received such widespread, such influential, public support, is practi-
cally assured. The main opposition to this Bill has come from official quarters
with which I will deal later. Here and there a few non-officials have also struck a
note of dissent. But, my Lord, considering the far-reaching character of the issues
involved in the measure, and considering also how the human mind is consti-
tuted, it is not to be wonder at that there has been this slight dissent; the wonder
rather is that there should be this vast volume of public opinion in support of the
measure The non-official critics of the Bill may roughly be divided into three
classes. To the first class belong those very few men—so few indeed that they may
be counted on one’s fingers—who have rendered distinguished services in the
past either to the country as a whole or to their own community, whose claim to be
heard with respect on such questions is undisputed, and who, though not against
free and compulsory education in the abstract, consider that the introduction of
such a system in India at the present stage of the country’s progress, even with
such safeguards as are provided in the Bill, is not desirable. My Lord, these elders,
whose minds have been cast in the mould of a previous generation, have not the
elasticity to advance with the advancing requirements of the country, and we have
got to face their disapproval of the present Bill with reluctance and regret. In the
wake of these few elders follow a number of younger men who unquestionably
accept their lead in all matters, and who therefore withhold their support from the
present Bill. The second class consists of those who cannot understand either the
necessity of the value of mass education, to whom the dignity of man is an incom-
prehensible idea, and who regard the poorer classes of the country as made solely
to serve those who are above them. My Lord, these men hold these views, because
they know no better, but their opposition to this Bill is perfectly intelligible. In the
third class come those who are against this Bill because the bulk of officials are
understood to be against it. They are against this Bill either because the officials
have so much to give or else because they are so constituted that official favour is
to them as the breath of their nostrils and an official frown is a heavy misfortune,
and because they think nothing of bartering the birthright of our common human-
ity for something even less substantial than the proverbial mess of pottage. These,
my Lord, are the three classes that are against this Bill. Taking all the non-official
340
opponents of the Bill together, I think that their number does not exceed five per
cent. at the outside of those who have expressed any opinion on the Bill.
My Lord, special weight necessarily attaches first to the opinions of Local
Governments, and next to those of local bodies in regard to this Bill. Turning first
to the local bodies, I regret that the opinions of all such bodies were not either
ascertained or have not been forwarded to the Government of India. In view of
the fact that, if the Bill became law, the initiative in regard to its working would
have to come from local bodies, it was of the utmost importance to know what
the local bodies had to say of the Bill. The Government of Madras is the only
Government that has deemed it to be its duty to invite the opinions of all Munici-
palities and District Boards in the Province, and some of the District Boards have
in their turn invited the opinions of the Taluka Boards under them. The opin-
ions thus elicited are appended to the letter of the Madras Government, and they
afford overwhelming and incontestable evidence of the local bodies in Madras
being strongly in favour of the Bill and being ready to avail themselves of its
provisions if enacted into law. Of 61 Municipalities whose opinions have been
recorded, 55 are in favour of the Bill. Of 24 District Boards, 20 are in favour. In
addition, the opinions of 39 Taluka Boards have been ascertained, and they are
one and all in favour of the Bill. The next Government in whose papers we find
mention of a large number of local bodies in this connection is the Government
of the Punjab, unfortunately educationally the most backward Province in the
whole country. Here we find that 60 Municipalities are mentioned by name, and
of those 32 are in favour and 28 against In addition, the Deputy Commissioner
of Umballa wrote (the local bodies in Umballa are not included among these 60):
‘The consensus of opinion appears to be strongly in favour of the principle of
compulsion; the only Municipal Committee which does not favour compulsion
was the Municipal Committee of Jagadhri.’ The Deputy Commissioner of His-
sar wrote; ‘All the Municipalities of this District, as well as the District Board,
have expressed themselves in favour of the Bill.’ The Deputy Commissioner of
Ferozepore wrote, ‘I have consulted the District Board and the Municipalities in
this district; they all consider the Bill fair, and are in favour of its being passed
into law.’ Nineteen District Boards are mentioned in the papers, of whom 6 are
in favour of compulsion and 13 against. Considering the extremely backward
condition of primary education in rural Punjab, this is not surprising. Turning
next to Bengal, we find mention made in the reports of local officers of about 25
Municipalities, of whom 19 are in favour and 6 against. Also there is mention
of two District Boards, of whom one is in favour and one against. There is no
mention of the remaining local bodies in the Bengal papers In Eastern Bengal
and Assam papers, we find 4 Municipalities mentioned, of whom 3 are in favour:
also 6 District Boards, of whom 5 are in favour. For Burma the opinions of 16
Municipalities are given, of whom 9 are in favour. The letter of the Bombay Gov-
ernment mentions no local body, but the opinion of the Bombay Corporation was
circulated among the members here only two days ago. However, in the report of
the Commissioner of the Central Division which accompanies the letter, there is
341
mention made of 6 Municipalities in that Division, all in favour. And we know

for a fact that most of the Municipalities and a great many of the District Boards
in Bombay are in favour of this Bill. In the papers belonging to the United Prov-
inces, only 2 small Municipalities are mentioned, both in favour. Here also we
know from the newspapers that most of the Municipalities and a large number
of the District Boards are in favour of this Bill. The Central Provinces papers
mention only two local bodies—the Municipality of Nagpur and District Board
of Nagpur—of both which bodies my friend behind me is President. Both these
bodies are in favour of the Bill. There are besides memoranda from five indi-
vidual members of different local bodies, of whom four are in favour.
Turning to what are known as the Presidency Municipalities, namely, Calcutta,
Bombay, Madras and Rangoon, we find that Calcutta and Madras are strongly
in favour of the Bill. Rangoon declines to express an opinion on the ground that
it does not want to be saddled with any expenditure connected with elementary
education. The Municipality of Bombay, while in favour of free and compulsory
education, and while also in favour of the ultimate introduction of compulsory
education throughout the country, is unable to approve the special method which
is advocated in the Bill, namely, that the initiative should be left to local bodies.
But, my Lord, those who know the singular position which the Bombay Munici-
pal Corporation occupies in regard to expenditure on elementary education will
at once understand why that body has taken up that attitude. Under an agreement,
which is now embodied in an Act of the local legislature, the Bombay Corpora-
tion has undertaken to bear the entire cost of primary education within municipal
limits in Bombay on condition of being relieved of police charges, the only quali-
fication being that if ever the Government introduces compulsory education in the
country and requires the Bombay Corporation to introduce compulsion within its
area, the Corporation should receive financial assistance from the Government
similar to what other local bodies would receive. The plain financial interest of
the Bombay Corporation therefore is not in leaving the initiative to local bodies
but in the initiative coming from the Government, and it is no surprise that the
Corporation of Bombay is unable to approve of a method which leaves the initia-
tive to local bodies. Before passing from this point, I would respectfully warn
the Hon’ble Member in charge of Education against leaning on the opinion of
the Bombay Corporation for support, for that Corporation, in addition to being in
favour of the principle of free and compulsory education, wants the cost of it to
come out of Imperial Funds!
Turning next to the opinions of Local Governments, I would like first of
all to present to the Council a brief analysis of the official opinions that have
been sent up by the various Local Governments. Among these papers there are
altogether 234 official opinions recorded; of them 90 are in favour of the Bill.
Sixty-five of the 234 officials are Indian officials, and of them 39 support the
Bill, some of them being very high officials, such as High Court Judges, District
Magistrates, District Judges, and so forth. Of the English officials, there are 169
342
opinions recorded, of which 51 are in favour—a minority no doubt, but still a

very respectable minority.
Before proceeding further, I think I had better explain what I mean by a person
being in favour of the principle of the Bill so as to prevent misapprehension of the
language which I am employing. My Lord, the principle of the Bill is to introduce
compulsion at once in selected areas. Not all over the country, but in selected
areas; not at some remote time, but at once. To make a beginning at once in
selected areas, the initiative being left to local bodies—that is the fundamental
idea of the Bill. All else is a matter of detail. Some of the details are important,
others unimportant. The question of a local education rate, the question whether
education is to be absolutely free, or free for poor people only, the proportion of
cost which the Government is to bear—all these are important matters, but mat-
ters of detail capable of adjustment when the final settlement of the scheme takes
place. Now, all those who are in favour of the fundamental part of the Bill, I claim
to be in favour of the Bill for my present purpose; all those, on the other hand, who
cannot assent to it, against the Bill. Now, in Madras, the opinions of no European
officials are given, the only exception being that of two European High Court
Judges, who are both in favour of the Bill. In Bombay, out of 19 European offi-
cials consulted, 8 are in favour, one of them being the Director of Public Instruc-
tion, and 2 being Inspectors of Schools for the Presidency proper (the 3rd
Inspector, an Indian, being also in favour), 2 Commissioners of Divisions out of 3
in the Presidency proper, and 3 Collectors. In Bengal, out of 21 European officers
consulted, 4 are in favour, all being District Magistrates. In Eastern Bengal and
Assam, out of 21, 2 are in favour, both being District Magistrates. In the United
Provinces out of 38 officers consulted, 6 are in favour, 1 of them being a High
Court Judge, 1 a Commissioner, and 4 Collectors. In the Punjab, out of 38 Euro-
pean officers consulted, no less than 20 are in favour of the Bill—the largest pro-
portion of European officers in favour of the Bill thus, strangely enough, coming
from the Punjab. Among these 20, there is 1 Financial Commissioner, 1 Commis-
sioner, 9 Deputy Commissioners, 5 Divisional Judges, 3 District Judges and 1
Sub-Divisional Officer. In the Central Provinces, only 4 official opinions are
given, out of which 2 are in favour, both being Commissioners of Divisions. On
the whole, my Lord, I claim that a very respectable minority of European officials
is in favour of the measure. The officials who are opposed to this Bill may roughly
be divided into three classes. First come a few Rip Van Winkles who appear to be
sublimely unconscious as to what is going on not only in the rest of the world, but
in India itself. To this class also belong a few cynics who do not understand the
value of mass education, and who naively ask what good mass education has done
anywhere. I was astonished to find among this class an Inspector of Schools in
Madras. The very least that a kind Government can do for him is to transfer him
to some more congenial Department, say, the Department of Forests. To the sec-
ond class belong those who see in a wide diffusion of elementary education a real
danger to British rule; also those who are against mass education, because they are
against all popular progress, and who imagine in their shortsightedness that every
343
step gained by the people is one lost by them. In the third class—and I am glad to
say the bulk of the official opionions recorded belong to this class—are those who
accept the necessity and the importance of mass education, who accept the policy
which has been repeatedly laid down by the Government of India during a period
of more than 60 years, but who do not recognise the necessity of compulsion at
the present moment. They think that a great part of the educational field has to be
covered on a voluntary basis, that compulsion would be inexpedient, and would
lead to hardship, to discontent, and to danger. Some of them object to this measure
on educational or on financial grounds. The outstanding feature of the official
opposition to the Bill is however the fact that every Local Government that was
consulted on this Bill has gone against the measure, and that makes it necessary
that we should examine the opinions of Local Government and the objections
raised by them in some detail. The only Local Government that comes very near
to supporting the principle of the Bill is the Government of Madras. Not that that
Government does not regard the Bill as objectionable or argue against it. What
distinguishes it, however, from the other Local Governments is that it does not
ignore the strength of the case in favour of the Bill, and that it does not argue as
though the heavens would fall if the Bill were pussed into law. After urging sev-
eral objections against the Bill the Madras Government says at the close of its
letter that if the Government of India were disposed to accept this Bill, it would
like it to be confined for the present to municipal areas only. The answer to that is
that it would be entirely in the hands of the Government of India and the Local
Governments to so confine it for the present. The Government of India could lay
down such a proportion of school attendance to the total school-going population
as a necessary preliminary test to be satisfied before compulsion is introduced,
that thereby only Municipalities and not District Boards could for the present
come under the Bill. Moreover, if any rural area wanted to try the measure, the
Local Government could withhold its sanction. This opinion of the Madras Gov-
ernment, again, is the opinion of three members out of four. The fourth member,
the late Mr. Krishnasawmy Iyer, one of the most brilliant men of our day, a man
whose untimely death had made a gap in the ranks of public workers in the coun-
try, which it will take long to fill, has written a masterly minute of dissent, giving
his whole-hearted support to the Bill and demolishing the objections urged by his
colleagues against the measure. The next Local Government that comes, in a
grudging manner and in spite of itself, to a conclusion not wholly dissimilar to
that of the Madras Government is the Administration of the Central Provinces.
After exhausting everything that can possibly be said against the Bill, that Gov-
ernment says in the end that if the Government of India wanted to try the Bill, it
might be tried in a few selected municipal areas only. Only it does not want a
general Act of this Council for the whole country, but it would like an amendment
to be undertaken of the various Provincial Municipal Acts for the purpose; and it
would lay down a condition, that only those Municipalities should be allowed to
introduce compulsion which are prepared to bear the whole cost of compulsion
themselves! Now, my Lord, if the object we have in view can be attained by
344
amending Provincial Local Self-government Acts, I for one have no objection

whatever. All I want is that local bodies should have the power to introduce com-
pulsion, where a certain condition of things has been reached, under the control
and with the assistance of Local Governments. But I do not understand why the
Central Provinces Government should lay down that condition that local bodies,
wanting to introduce compulsion, should bear the entire cost themselves. I can
understand a Local Government saying that it cannot finance any scheme of com-
pulsion out of its own resources. But I cannot understand why the Central Prov-
inces Adminstration should try to impose such a condition unless it be to punish
those Municipalities which show special keenness for education in their areas. I
am quite sure that that was not the meaning of the Local Government, and there-
fore I must frankly say I do not understand why this condition has been laid down.
The Government of Bengal sees no objection per se to the principle of compul-
sory elementary education, only it thinks that, considering the apathy of the peo-
ple at the present moment, compulsion is not suitable. Moreover, it says, that if it
is called upon to introduce compulsion in the near future, it will not be able to find
the money out of Provincial revenues and that it would be forced to look to the
Government of India for assistance. The Governments of Eastern Bengal and the
Punjab oppose the Bill merely on general grounds, the letter of the Government of
Eastern Bengal being almost perfunctory in its treatment of the subject. The letter
of the United Provinces Government is a document that might have been written
with some excuse 20 years ago. I cannot understand how a Provincial Govern-
ment, at the beginning of the 20th century, can put forth arguments such as are
contained in the letter of the acting Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces.
The Government of Burma opposes the Bill on grounds the very reverse of those
on which other Local Governments oppose it. Other Local Governments oppose
the Bill because there is not a sufficient advance made in the field of elementary
education in their Provinces; but the Government of Burma opposes the Bill
because there is already a sufficiently large advance of elementary education in
that Province! The last Government that I would mention in this connection is the
Government of Bombay. My Lord, this Government is the strongest opponent of
the Bill, and I feel bound to say—though it hurts my provincial pride to have to
say so—that the very vehemence with which this Government argues the case
against the Bill is calculated to defeat its own purpose, and that the terms of impa-
tience in which its letter is couched, while not adding to the weight to the argu-
ment, only suggests a feeling of resentment that any non-official should have
ventured to encroach on a province which it regards as an official monopoly. My
Lord, it will be convenient to deal with the objections, which have been raised by
the several Local Governments, all together. Before doing so, however, I think I
should state briefly again to the Council the case for the Bill, so that members
should see the grounds for and against the Bill side by side before them. My Lord,
the policy of the Government of India in this matter, as I have already observed,
is now a fixed one. The Government of India have accepted in the most solemn
and explicit manner the responsibility for mass education in this country. The
345
Educational Despatch of 1854, the Education Commission’s Report of 1882,

with the Resolution of the Government of India thereon, and the Resolution of
Lord Curzon’s Government of 1904, all speak with one voice on this point,
namely, that the education of the masses is a sacred responsibility resting upon
the Government of India. When we, however, come to consider the extent of the
field which has so far been covered, I feel bound to say that the progress made is
distinctly disappointing. Taking the figures for 1901, the beginning of this cen-
tury, and that means after 50 years of educational effort, the number of boys at
school in this country was only about 32 lakhs, and the number of girls only a
little over 5 lakhs. Taking only 10 per cent.—not 15 per cent. as they take in the
West and as they do in official publications, even in India, taking only a modest
10 per cent.—as the proportion of the total population that should be at school, I
find that in 1901 only about 27 per cent. of the boys and about 4½ per cent. of the
girls that should have been at school were at school? During the last ten years,
elementary education has no doubt been pushed on with special vigour and the
rate of progress has been much faster. Even so, what is the position to-day? From
a statement which was published by the Education Department the other day, I
find that the number of boys at school has risen during these ten years from 32
lakhs to a little under 40 lakhs, and the number of girls from 5 lakhs to a little
under 7 lakhs. Taking the new census figures of our population, this gives us for
boys a proportion of 31 per cent. and for girls 5¾ per cent. Taking the proportion
of total school attendance to the total population of the country, we find that the
percentage was only 1·6 ten years ago, and it is now no more than 1·9. My Lord,
all the Local Governments have stated that we must adhere to the present volun-
tary basis for extending primary education, and the Bombay Government pro-
fesses itself to be very well pleased with the rate at which it is moving in the
matter. A small calculation will show how long it will take for every boy and
every girl of school-going age to be at school at the present rate. I have stated just
now that during the last ten years the number of boys at school has risen from 32
to 40 lakhs, or a total increase in ten years of 7½ lakhs, and the number of girls
has risen from 5 to under 7 lakhs, or an increase of about 1¾ lakhs. This gives us
an annual increase for boys of 75,000 and for girls of 17,000. Now, assuming that
there is no increase of population in future—absolutely no increase of popula-
tion—an obviously impossible assumption—even then at the present rate a sim-
ple arithmetical calculation will show that 115 years will be required for every
boy and 665 years for every girl of school-going age to be at school! Even in
Bombay, where things are slightly more advanced, it will take at least 75 years
for every boy of school-going age between 6 and 10 years of age to be at school.
Well might Mr. Orange, the late Director-General of Education, who was in this
Council two years ago, exclaim:—
If the number of boys at school continued to increase, even at the rate of increase that
has taken place in the last five years, and there was no increase in population, several gen-
erations would still elapse before all the boys of school-going age were at school.
346
And well might my late lamented friend Mr. Krishnaswamy Iyer of Madras,
after a similar examination of the figures for that Presidency, observe in terms of
sorrow:— ‘The voluntary method of persuasion must be condemned as a hopeless
failure.’
My Lord, this then is the position. The Government of India are committed to
a policy of mass education, and the rate at which we have been going for the last
60 years is hopelessly slow. Even at the accelerated pace of the last ten years, it
will take enormously long periods for every boy and every girl to be at school.
Moreover, this does not take into account the natural and necessary increases of
population in the country. What then is to be done? Are we going to content our-
selves with experiments of our own only, experiments which can only prolong the
reign of ignorance in the country? My Lord, India must profit by the example and
by the experience of other civilised countries. And other civilized countries have
come to only one conclusion in this matter, and that is that the State must resort to
compulsion in order to secure universal education for the people. Most of the
Western civilized countries have accepted this, and I have already given to the
Council, when introducing this Bill, statistics showing what progress they have
made under a system of compulsory education, and how India compares with
them. There are also the examples nearer India, of which I have spoken—exam-
ples of the Philippines, of Ceylon and of Baroda—which are of the utmost impor-
tance, and the mere assertion that their circumstances are different from those of
British India cannot dispose of them. Of course no two cases can be exactly alike.
But what you must show is that their circumstances are so different that what has
succeeded in their case will not succeed in ours. And till you show this, we are
entitled to say that the experiment which has succeeded elsewhere should also be
tried in India. I do not see what difference there is between the population of Cey-
lon and the population of the Southern Presidency or between the population of
Baroda and the population of British Gujarat. Therefore, those who argue that
these analogies will not do on the score that the circumstances are different, will
have to establish the difference they speak of and not merely content themselves
with the assertion that the cases are different. Morever, I will mention to-day
another instance—an instance which I was not able to mention last year because I
had no definite information then on the subject—that of a most interesting experi-
ment that has been recently tried with success in another Native State in India. It
is a State in the Bombay Presidency and the experiment has been made under the
very eye of the Bombay Government, not by the Chief, but by a British officer
appointed by the Government as Administrator during the minority of the Chief—
I refer to the State of Sangli. That State has a population of a little over 2 lakhs.
Captain Burke, the Administrator who was at the head of the State for 6 or 7 years,
found that the average school-attendance was very low in the State, being only
about 2 per cent. of the population. At the end of 1907, he issued orders through-
out the State making elementary education both free and compulsory under cer-
tain conditions. He, however, approached the problem from another standpoint.
He laid down that at least 4 per cent. of the total population, that is, twice the
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percentage for British India, must be at school. He ordered schools to be opened

in every village with a population of 400 and above, and his orders to the village
officials were that where the attendance at school exceeded 4 per cent. there was
to be no compulsion, but if it was lower than 4 per cent, compulsion was to be
applied, not only in the case of boys but also in the case of girls! The age limits
for boys were aid down to be between 7 and 12, and for girls between 7 and 10,
and the responsibility was thrown on the village officials to ensure at least a 4 per
cent. attendance, the Education Department of the State inspecting the work with
care and vigilance. And in less than three years, as a result of these orders, the
number of children at school doubled itself. In 1967, only about 5,000 children in
a population of little over 2 lakhs were at school; in 1910, 10,000 children were at
school, the number of schools too had largely increased; but while these most
gratifying results were being obtained, hardly any one outside the State knew
anything about what was going on. Those who speak of the opposition which
might be encountered from the mass of the people themselves if compulsion is
introduced, those who urge that there might be trouble, might well take note of the
fact that in this State of Sangli compulsion was introduced not in advanced but in
the most backward areas, not by the Chief, but by the British officer, and the
experiment has proved so successful and has been so quietly carried out that very
few outside the State have even heard of it. I therefore contend that we, in British
India, might also have recourse to compulsion with great advantage. I for one
shall rejoice if the British Government of the country takes its courage into both
hands and comes forward boldly to introduce compulsion throughout the country
for both boys and girls—the whole field to be covered in a certain number of
years. But since that cannot be, and if anyone has any doubt in the matter that
doubt will be dissipated by a reference to the official opinions received on the pres-
ent Bill, the only alternative is for local bodies to be empowered to take the initia-
tive, and introduce compulsion with the sanction and under the control of the
Local Government. Local bodies, however, cannot take the initiative, unless there
is legislation to empower them, and that is the reason why this Bill has been intro-
duced. Whether this object is gained by enacting a special law for the whole coun-
try or by an amendment of the old Local Self-Government Acts of the different
Provinces is a minor matter. The great thing is to make a beginning in introducing
compulsion. Once a beginning is made, the public mind in the country will be
rapidly familiarised with the idea of compulsion, and it will then not take more
than 20 years at the outside to have a system of universal education in the country
in full operation. As apprehensions are entertained in official and other quarters as
to how compulsion will be regarded by the people, it is necessary to proceed cau-
tiously; hence the proposal that the experiment should first be tried in selected
areas only. Again there is fairly general opinion among those who have given any
thought to the subject that for compulsion to be successfully applied in British
India, there should be among the people a fair spread of elementary education, so
that they may be in a position to appreciate its benefits. For that reason our pro-
posal is that no local body should take up the question of compulsion unless at
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least 33 per cent. of the school-going population within its area is already at
school. And in the Bill the power to lay down this proportion or any other propor-
tion is left to the Government of India, so that if they deem it necessary they might
prescribe a higher proportion. Moreover, no local body under the Bill can intro-
duce compulsion without obtaining the previous sanction of the Local Govern-
ment. To begin with, compulsion is contemplated only for boys, though power is
taken to extend it, in due course, to girls; and I do hope that whenever it comes, it
will be so extended to girls. The cost of the scheme is to be shared between local
bodies and the Local Governments in a reasonable proportion, which, in my opin-
ion, should be one-third for local bodies and two-thirds for Local Governments,
the actual proportion, however, being laid down by the Government of India, and
additional funds being placed by the Supreme Government at the disposal of Pro-
vincial Governments for meeting the Government share of the cost. The Bill pro-
poses to exempt very poor people from the payment of fees as a matter of right,
and in all cases local bodies, which are empowered to levy a special education
rate, if necessary, will be at liberty to remit fees altogether. The responsibility for
providing adequate school accommodation is thrown on local bodies, who will
also have to arrange for a reasonable enforcement of compulsion. The curriculum
must be approved by the Education Department of the Local Government, and
finally, following the example of the compulsory acts of other countries, provision
is made for absence from school for reasonable excuses and penalties provided for
wilful absence without reasonable excuse.
This, my Lord, is the Bill, and this is the case for the Bill. I will now proceed to
consider the more important objections which the different Local Governments
have urged against this Bill, as also those that have been urged by some non-
official critics. I will dismiss with very few words the objection that a spread of
mass education in British India involves danger to British rule. My Lord, I do not
believe that there would be any such danger. My own belief is that it is rather the
other way, that there will be danger, not from the spread of education, but from
the withholding of education. But, my Lord, even if there is a possible element of
danger in the spread of education, it is the clear duty of the British Government
to face that danger and to go on with a faithful discharge of their responsibility.
I do not think that any sane Englishman will urge that the people of this country
should pay the price of perpetual ignorance for even such advantages as the
most enthusiastic supporter of British rule may claim for it. Leaving therefore
that objection aside, there are seven objections to which I would like briefly to
refer. The first objection is to compulsion itself. The second objection is urged
on educational grounds. The third is on the score of the scheme. The fourth is on
account of alleged financial inequality and injustice in which the scheme would
result. These four are official objections. Then there are three non-official objec-
tions. The first is to the levy of a special educational rate; the second to the levy
of fees from parents whose income is not below Rs. 10 a month; and the third is
the Muhammadan objection that the provisions of the Bill may be used to compel
Moslem children to learn non-Moslem languages. I will answer these objections
349
briefly one by one. The principal argument of those who are against compulsion is
that there is plenty of room yet for work on a voluntary basis; that schools are filled
as soon as they are opened, thus showing that the need of the situation is more
schools and not compulsion; and that in any case till persuasion is exhausted, it is
not desirable to go in for compulsion. Now, my Lord, this statement is not a com-
plete statement of the case. It is quite true that in cetain places, as soon as schools
are opened, they are filled. But there is also ample official evidence to show that in
many areas schools have had to be shut down because children would not come.
We find a statement to this effect in the United Provinces official papers. Mr.
Maynard of the Punjab, in a most thoughtful opinion recorded on the Bill, says:—
‘It will very frequently be found that a perfectly genuine demand for a school on
the part of a zealous minority does not guarantee an attendance after the school is
provided, and it is occasionally necessary to close for this reason schools which
have been opened on too sanguine a forecast.’ In Bengal and Eastern Bengal also
several zamindars have complained that though they opened free schools on their
estates, it was found difficult to get boys to attend them, because of the great apa-
thy among the people. The real fact is that there are two factors, as Mr. Orange
has stated in the last quinquonnial report on education, that cause the smallness
of school attendance. One is undoubtedly the want of schools. But the other is the
apathy of parents, even where schools exist. ‘The apathy of the populace,’ says
Mr. Orange, ‘towards primary education is often mentioned and does undoubtedly
operate as a cause which keeps school attendance low.’ He admits this, though
he himself would like to push on education for the present on a voluntary basis
only. Now, the remedy for this state of things must also be two-fold. First of all
local bodies must be required to provide the necessary educational facilities for
children that should be at school—school-houses, teachers, etc. That is one part
of compulsion. Then they must be empowered to require parents to send their
children to school—that would be the second part of compulsion. Now, my Lord,
this Bill advocates both sides of this two-fold compulsion. It not merely requires
parents in the areas where the Bill may be introduced to send their children to
school, it also throws a definite responsibility on local bodies coming under the
Bill to provide the necessary school accommodation and other facilities for the
education of all the children within their area. Then it is said that compulsion
would cause hardship, would cause discontent, and would prove dangerous. Well,
the experience of other countries and as also in our own does not justify this view;
and in any case, even if there is some discontent, that has got to be faced in view
of the great interests that are involved in this matter. It is argued by some that the
poorer people will be exposed to the exactions of a low-paid agency if compulsion
is introduced. I think the fears on this subject are absurdly exaggerated. But if the
people are so weak as to succumb easily to such exactions, the only way in which
they can be strengthened is by spreading education among them and by enabling
them to take better care of themselves.
Those who object to the Bill on educational grounds urge that it is undesirable
to extend the kind of education that is at present given in primary schools, for it
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is worse than useless. Most of the teachers are not trained teachers, the school
buildings are unfit for holding classes in, and therefore until these defects are
moved, until there is a sufficient supply of trained teachers forthcoming, until
ample decent school accomodation is available, the question of extension should
wait. My Lord, those who raise these objections ignore what is the primary pur-
pose of mass education. The primary purpose of mass education is to banish illit-
eracy from the land. The quality of education is a matter of importance that comes
only after illiteracy has been banished. Now, the primary purpose being to banish
illiteracy, teachers who could teach a simple curriculum of the 3 R’s, and houses
hired by or voluntarily placed by owners at the disposal of school authorities,
must do for the present. In Japan, when they began compulsion, they held classes
in the verandahs of private houses. I think what was not beneath the dignity of
Japan need not be beneath the dignity of this country. Of course I do not depreci-
ate the value and importance of trained teachers and decent school-houses; but I
say that we cannot wait till all these defects are first put right before taking up the
question of banishing illiteracy from the land. Let that work be resolutely taken
in hand, and as we go along let us try to secure for the country better teachers and
better school-houses.
The third objection to the Bill is on the score of cost. My Lord, a lot of wild
criticism has been indulged in by the opponents of the Bill on this point. Nobody
denies that the cost of a compulsory scheme is bound to be large. But all sorts of
fantastic estimates have been brought forward to discredit the scheme in the eyes
of those who can be misled by such tactics. I think the calculation of cost is a
fairly simple one. The Bill is intended to apply in the first instance to boys only,
and we will therefore for the present take the cost for boys. Taking 10 per cent. of
the total male population as the number of boys between the ages of 6 and 10, and
taking the male population at about 125 millions, according to the latest census,
we find that the number of boys that should be at school is about 12½ millions. Of
these, about 4 millions are already at school. That leaves about 8½ millions to be
brought to school. Now, Mr. Orange, the Director General of Education, in a note
which he prepared for the Government, took the average cost of education per boy
at Rs. 5, the present average cost is less than Rs. 4; the highest is in Bombay where
it is Rs. 6-8 and everywhere else it is less than Rs. 4. These figures are given in the
Quinquennial Report of Mr. Orange. Mr. Orange takes Rs. 5 per head, and I am
willing to take that figure. Now, Rs. 5 per head, for 8½ millions of boys amounts
to about 4¼ crores per year, or, say, 4½ crores per year. I propose that this cost
should be divided between the Government and the local bodies in the proportion
of two-thirds and one-third; that is, the Government should find 3 crores and local
bodies the remaining 1½ crores. This again will be worked up to in ten years. If
we have to find this money in ten years, it means a continuous increase of about
30 lakhs in our annual expenditure on primary education. Allowing another crore
for pushing on education on a voluntary basis for girls, to be reached in ten years,
means another 10 lakhs a year, or a continuous annual addition of 40 lakhs of
rupees in all. Now, I do not think that this is too much for the Government to find.
351
My Lord, I have given some attention to the question of our finance for some
years, and I do not think that an addition of 40 lakhs every year is really beyond
the power of the Government of India. Moreover, even if it be proposed that
the whole of these 4 crores should be raised straight off, that all boys should be
brought to school compulsorily at once, and that a crore of rupees more should be
spent on the education of girls—assuming that these four crores have to be found
straight off, an addition of 2 per cent. to our customs will solve the problem. Our
customs-revenue is about ten crores this year with the duty standing at 5 per cent.;
about 2 per cent. more will bring us the required 4 crores. Now, there is no special
merit in having our customs-duty at 5 per cent., and they might as well stand at 7
per cent. without causing any serious hardship to anybody. There was a time when
they stood at 10 per cent. in this country, and at the present moment they are at 8
per cent. in Egypt. I do not think therefore that there are really any very insuper-
able difficulties in the way of the scheme on the score of cost.
Then, it is said that a scheme like this, a permissive-scheme, which allows
areas to come under compulsion one by one, is bound to result in serious finan-
cial injustice and inequality as regards the assistance received from Government
by different local areas. Now, my Lord, I feel bound to say that this is one of
the flimsiest arguments that have been urged against the scheme which we are
considering. If anybody proposed as a permanent arrangement that elementary
education in certain parts of the country should be on a compulsory basis and in
certain others on a voluntary basis, and if the areas that were on a compulsory
basis got more from Government than the areas that were on a voluntary basis,
there would be some force in the contention that different areas were being differ-
ently treated. But the arrangement that I propose is clearly transitional; in the end
every part of the country is to rest on a compulsory basis and would share equally
in the allotment made by Government. In a transitional stage, provided the same
terms are equally open to all, I do not see where the injustice or inequality comes
in. If a local body feels aggrieved that some other local body gets more than itself
from Government, the remedy is in its own hands. All that it has got to do is to go
in for compulsion itself. Those who object to the proposed scheme on the score
that it would lead to financial inequality and injustice might object at once to the
principle of introducing compulsion gradually, area by area. For how are we to
proceed area by area, unless those areas that introduce compulsion first get also at
the same time larger-assistance from the Government?
Moreover, is there absolute equality even at present in all matters? Even now,
on a voluntary basis, the Government, in many parts of the country, bears about
one-third of the cost of primary education, with the result that those areas that
spend more get more from the Government, and those that spend less get less. Is
that equal?
Again, take the question of sanitary grants. Under the existing arrangements,
those local bodies that go in for the construction of sanitary projects get a certain
grant from the Government. Now, if the local bodies that do not take in hand
such projects were to complain of injustice, because others that do are assisted
352
by Government, their complaint would be perfectly ridiculous, and yet it is the

same kind of complaint that is urged against the scheme of the Bill. I do not think
that any weight need really be attached to the objection on the score of financial
injustice and inequality when it is remembered that such inequality can only be a
passing, transitional stage. It is said that under the Bill, advanced areas and com-
munities would be benefited at the expense of the less advanced. That argument
is based on a complete misapprehension of the scheme. No one has ever sug-
gested, or can possibly suggest, that any money should be taken out of existing
expenditure on primary education for its extension on a compulsory basis. No
one can also possibly wish to curtail future increases in the allotments to educa-
tion on a voluntary basis. The expenditure for introducing compulsion is to come
out of additional revenues partly raised locally and partly raised specially by the
Government of India. The Government of India’s funds will have necessarily to
pass through the Local Governments, since education is a Provincial charge. But
that does not mean that Provincial Governments will have to curtail their present
or future expenditure on a voluntary basis to finance any scheme of compulsion.
My Lord, I have so far dealt with the four principal official objections against
the Bill. I will now refer very briefly to the three non-official arguments which
I have mentioned. The first argument is that while there is no objection to com-
pulsion itself, the levy of a special education rate, where it would be necessary,
would be most objectionable. Well, my Lord, I must say to that, that if we merely
want compulsion, but are not prepared to make any sacrifices for the benefits that
would accrue from it to the mass of our people, the sooner we give up talking
about securing universal education, the better. The practice of the whole civilized
world points out that a part of the burden must be borne by the local bodies. There
is only one exception, as far as I am aware, and that is Ireland, where almost the
entire cost of elementary education comes from the Imperial Exchequer. They
have given this special treatment to Ireland because for a long time Ireland has
complained of being treated with great financial injustice under the arrangement
that has been in existence since the Act of Union was passed more than a century
ago. If we take the whole of the United Kingdom, we find that the local bodies
there bear on the whole about a third of the total cost. It is the same in France. And
in other countries, the local proportion is still larger. I cannot therefore see how
anybody can reasonably urge that the whole cost of compulsion should be borne
by the Central Government.
The next objection urged in some non-official quarters is that if you make edu-
cation compulsory, it must be made free and the Bill does not make it free for
all. I frankly confess that the proposal embodied in the Bill on this point was
intended to conciliate official opinion. My own personal view always was that,
where education was made compulsory, it should also be made free. Two years
ago, when I placed my Resolution on this subject before this Council, I urged that
view in explicit terms: In framing the Bill, however, I was anxious to go as far as
possible to conciliate official opinion, and I therefore put in the provision that no
fees should be charged in the case of those whose incomes were below Rs. 10 a
353
month, and that above that limit the matter should be left to the discretion of local
bodies. Well, my Lord, I must frankly admit that I have failed in my object. Offi-
cial opinion has not been conciliated; and I do not see why I should allow room
for a division in our own ranks by adhering to this provision. I shall therefore be
glad to go back to my original proposal in this matter that, where education is
compulsory, it should also be free.
Lastly, my Lord, a word about the Muhammadan objection. I believe I need
not say that there never was any intention that the compulsory clauses of the
Bill should be utilized to compel Moslem boys to learn non-Moslem languages.
However, to remove all misapprehension on this point, I am perfectly willing
that where 25 children speaking a particular language attend a school, provi-
sion should be made for teaching those children in that language; and further,
where the number is less than that, it should be left to the community itself to say
whether the children should come under the compulsory clauses of the Bill or not.
I have discussed this matter with several leading Muhammadan gentlemen and I
understand that this would meet their view.
My Lord, I have now dealt with all principal objections urged against the Bill.
I cannot understand why there should be all this vehement opposition in certain
quarters to a measure so modest in its scope and so permissive in its character.
No local body is compelled to come under this Bill, that wants to keep out of it.
Any Local Government that wants to prevent compulsion being introduced in any
particular area, can prevent it by withholding its sanction to its introduction. And,
lastly, the supreme control of the Government of India is retained at the initial
stage by the provision that it is the Government of India that should lay down the
proportion of school-going children at school which must be satisfied before any
local body can take up the question of compulsion. I cannot see how such a Bill
can do harm in any locality. I would only invite the attention of the Council to
the fact that at least a. hundred Municipalities, more or less important, are will-
ing to-day to try the experiment in their areas if this Bill is passed, and I do not
see why these Municipalities should not be permitted to make the experiment. Of
course the whole thing hinges on whether the Government of India are prepared
to find a good part of the cost. That is, in fact, the real crux of the question, and
whether the Bill is accepted or thrown out, it is perfectly clear that no large exten-
sion of elementary education is possible in the country, unless the Government
of India come forward with generous financial assistance. I would therefore like
to make a special appeal to the Hon’ble Member in charge of education on this
occasion. My Lord, the Hon’ble Member knows that no one has acclaimed more
enthusiastically than myself the creation of the Education Department, and I am
sure every one will admit ungrudgingly that during the year and a half that the
Department has been in existence, it has already amply justified its existence by
the large grants, recurring and non-recurring that it has succeeded in seeming
both for education and sanitation in this country. We are sincerely grateful to the
Government of India for these grants. And, my Lord, in view of the conversation
with Your Excellency which was mentioned by the Finance Member the other
354
day, I think we are justified in expecting that in succeeding years these grants will
grow in more and more, and not less. Well so far I believe we are all at one with
the Department, I would like to say something more to the Hon’ble Member, My
Lord, I know that the fate of my Bill is sealed. Now, there are obvious disadvan-
tages attaching to a private Bill. Why not introduce a Government measure after
the ground has been cleared by the rejection of this Bill? Why not—I put it to the
Hon’ble Member—introduce a Government measure? It is quite true that there is
room for progress on a voluntary basis. Let the Local Governments who are so
anxious to keep education on a voluntary basis be required to push on its spread
as vigorously as possible on a voluntary basis. And let the Government of India
in the Education Department take up the question of pushing it on a compulsory
basis, as its own special charge. I would like to put it to the Hon’ble Member, is
he content merely to take grants from the Finance Department and distribute them
among the various Local Governments and then look on, or is he not anxious, as
I think it is his duty to take a hand in the game himself? If he is, then I suggest
that there should be a division of functions such as I have described between the
Provincial Governments and the Government of India. The progress of educa-
tion on a voluntary basis should be left to the Provincial Governments. They do
not want compulsion. They all prefer to push it on a voluntary basis. Let us then
leave that work to them; let the Government of India, with its wider outlook and
its larger resources, come forward, and profiting by the example of other civilized
countries, provide for the gradual introduction of compulsion in this country. Let
the Government take up the question of compulsion themselves, then they will
be able to provide all the safeguards that they deem necessary. Let them frame
a Bill free from all the blemishes which have been discovered in mine, and let
them carry it through the Council. And let them, at the same time, announce a
generous policy of substantial assistance to local bodies in carrying out the provi-
sions of the measure. My Lord, let this be done, and let the burden of all future
extensions be shared between the Government and the local bodies in the propor-
tion of two-thirds and one-third. I would recommend that both for voluntary and
compulsory extensions—I mean Provincial Governments should bear two-thirds
of the cost of all future extensions of elementary education on a voluntary basis,
and the Government of India, two-thirds of the cost of compulsion. Then, my
Lord, elementary education will advance in this country with truly rapid strides,
and the Hon’ble Member in charge of the Education Department will, under Your
Excellency, write his name large on the memory of a grateful people.
My Lord, I have done. No one is so simple as to imagine that a system of uni-
versal education will necessarily mean an end to all our ills, or that it will open
out to us a new heaven and a new earth. Men and women will still continue to
struggle with their imperfections and life will still be a scene of injustice and suf-
fering, of selfishness and strife. Poverty will not be banished because illiteracy
has been removed, and the need for patriotic or philanthropic work will not grow
any the less. But with the diffusion of universal education the mass of our coun-
trymen will have a better chance in life. With universal education there will be
355
hope of better success for all efforts, official or non-official, for the amelioration
of the people—their social progress, their moral improvement, their economic
well-being. I think, my Lord, with universal education the mass of the people
will be better able to take care of themselves against the exactions of unscru-
pulous moneylenders or against the abuses of official anthority by petty men in
power. My Lord, with 94 per cent. of our countrymen sunk in ignorance, how can
the advantages of sanitation or thrift be properly appreciated, and how can the
industrial efficiency of the worker be improved? With 94 per cent. of the people
unable to read or write, how can the evil of superstition be effectively combated,
and how can the general level of life in the country be raised? My Lord, His Maj-
esty the King-Emperor, in delivering his message of hope to the people of this
country before he left Calcutta, was pleased to say: ‘And it is my wish too that
the homes of my Indian subjects may be brightened and their labour sweetened
by the spread of knowledge, with what follows in its train—a higher level of
thought, of comfort, and of health.’ No nobler words were ever uttered. May we
not hope that the servants of His Majesty in this country will keep these words
constantly before their minds and will so discharge the responsibility which they
impose that future generations in this country will be enabled to turn to His Maj-
esty’s declaration with the same fervent and reverent gratitude with which the
people of Japan recall their Emperor’s famous rescript of 1872? My Lord, I know
that my Bill will be thrown out before the day closes, I make no complaint, I
shall not even feel depressed. I know too well the story of the preliminary efforts
that were required even in England, before the Act of 1870 was passed, either to
complain or to feel depressed. Moreover, I have always felt and have often said
that we, of the present generation in India, can only hope to serve our country
by our failures. The men and women who will be privileged to serve her by their
successes will come later. We must be content to accept cheerfully the place
that has been allotted to us in our onward march. This Bill, thrown out to-day,
will come back again and again, till on the stepping-stones of its dead selves, a
measure ultimately rises which will spread the light of knowledge throughout the
land. It may be that this anticipation will not come true. It may be that our efforts
may not conduce even indirectly to the promotion of the great cause which we
all have at heart and that they may turn out after all to be nothing better than
the mere ploughing of the sands of the sea-shore But, my Lord, whatever fate
awaits our labours, one thing is clear. We shall be entitled to feel that we have
done our duty, and, where the call of duty is clear, it is better even to labour and
fail than not to labour at all.
[Replying on the debate which ensued, Mr. Gokhale spoke as follow:—]
Sir, it only remains for me now to reply to the speeches which have been
made in opposition to the motion that I have submitted to the Council. I will
first say a few words about my friends, Sir Gangadhar Chitnavis and Nawab
Abdul Majid. I really do not complain of the view which these two friends
have expressed. Frankly, they do not believe in mass education, and in that they
are not singular. There are men belonging to their class in other countries—in
356
Western countries—who also have the same distrust of mass education. If my

friends had the courage of their convictions, if they were prepared to push their
views to their logical conclusion, they would propose the abolition of mass
education. But they will not do that, for they are discreet in their generation.
But, Sir, I would like to know one thing from the Hon’ble Sir Gangadhar Chit-
navis, if he will be so good as to enlighten us on that point. The two local bod-
ies of which my friend is President, namely, the Nagpur Municipality and the
Nagpur District Board, have both supported this Bill. Now, was he or was be
not present at the meetings of these bodies when the Bill came up for consid-
eration? And if he was, did he protest against the resolutions? And if not, is the
difference in his attitude due to the difference between the popular atmosphere
of those meetings and the predominantly official atmosphere that we have in
this Council?
The Hon’ble Sir Gangadhar Rao Chitnavis: I was present at the two meetings of
the Municipal Committee and of the District Council, but the way in which those
resolutions were made and the safeguards with which they have been hedged
round will show how enthusiastically people received this measure. And I told
them—
The President: I cannot allow the Hon’ble Member to make a speech. He
must sit down and let the Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale continue his remarks without
interruption.
The Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale: Well, that suffices for my point. The Hon’ble Mem-
ber was present and the resolutions were in favour of the principle of the Bill.
You may put it any way you like, but the resolutions did favour the principle of
my Bill. And the motion before the Council asks for nothing more. All it says is,
approve the principle of the Bill and send it to a Select Committee in order that
its provisions may be carefully examined. If the Hon’ble Member did not protest
against those resolutions, if he allowed those reslutions in favour of the Bill to
be passed there without his protest, I cannot understand how he can now oppose
this motion that the Bill should go to a Select Committee, My Hon’ble friend, the
Malik Sahib, has opposed the motion so gently that I shall show my gratitude by
not controverting his views. My Hon’ble friend, the Maharaja of Burdwan, has
also expressed himself in such a guarded way that I prefer to look upon his speech
as more in favour of the motion than against it. He is in any case not going to vote
against the motion; therefore, I will not say anything more as regards his attitude.
I now come to the Hon’ble Mr. Dadabhoy. I must say that my friend’s position is
absolutely incomprehensible to me. The other day I congratulated my friend on
his conversion to official views in the matter of our complaint that the grant to
irrigation was not always fully expended. The official plea has always been that,
owing to scarcity of labour, the money allotted cannot always be spent. I con-
gratulated my friend on his conversion to official views in that matter, because the
complaint which was made on this subject the other day by the Hon’ble Mr. Mud-
holkar, and in which Mr. Dadabhoy could not agree, was precisely the complaint
which my friend had himself been making in years past. To-day I will go a little
357
further and congratulate my friend not only on his conversion to official views but
on his conversion to the very manner of expressing those views.
The Hon’ble Mr. Dadabhoy: Will you allow me a personal explanation?
The President: I think the Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale is entitled to continue his speech
without constant interruptions. Every member belonging to the Indian portion of
the Council has made a speech, and I think the Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale is entitled,
except for very strong reasons, to proceed without interruption.
The Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale: Official members, when they oppose a non-official
motion, first express plenty of sympathy with an object. Sometimes the sympathy
is really most valuable; sometimes it is only intended to soothe our susceptibili-
ties. But in any case sympathy is generally expressed before a motion is resisted.
My Hon’ble friend has also begun to give us sympathy while opposing our reso-
lutions. But, Sir, official sympathy has a practical value because it often means
increased grants. I do not know, however, what we can do with the sympathy
which the Hon’ble Member offers us. In fact, Sir, I must say that it is a source
of no small embarrassment to us, because official opponents can point to that
sympathy and say: ‘Here is a member who is in sympathy with you, and yet who
deems it his duty to oppose your motion.’ The less, therefore, that we have of such
expressions of sympathy from my Hon’ble friend in future the better, for we cer-
tainly should prefer his opposition pure and simple. Sir, two years ago I moved in
this Council a Resolution on the subject of free and compulsory education. That
Resolution recommended that a beginning should be made in the direction of
making elementary education free and compulsory. There was no ambiguity about
the terms. I definitely suggested that a beginning should be made. The Hon’ble
Mr. Dadabhoy then made a speech in support, the very first sentence of which
was: ‘My Lord, I cordially support this Resolution.’ He cordially supported my
Resolution recommending that a beginning should be made in the direction of
making elementary education free and compulsory, And we argued strongly about
the necessity of introducing compulsion. The Hon’ble Member said: ‘And if the
propriety of the Government action in fixing the age at which children can begin
manual work in the interests of the physical development of the nation be admit-
ted, equally, if not even more, proper will the Government policy be in compelling
children to attend school up to a certain age in the higher interests of their mental
and moral development. It is a balancing of advantages and disadvantages, and
the advantage would appear to be in favour of compulsory education.’
Then again, Sir, last year, when I introduced the present Bill, what was it that
the Hon’ble Member said? (Mr. Dadabhoy: Hear, hear.) Mr. Gokhale: “You may
cheer now, but you won’t cheer at the end. My Hon’ble friend thus referred to
the Bill which is now before the Council, the Bill which I propose should now
go to a Select Committee: ‘Prima fasie,’ said, ‘the Bill deserves support. A close
examination of the provisions (not merely a superficial glance at them but a close
examination such as my friend always bestows on every subject) will show that
the general principle of the Bill is sound.’ He thus said that a close examination of
the Bill had convinced him at that time that the general principle of the Bill was
358
sound. Sir, to-day we are only considering, as my friend the Hon’ble Mr. Mazha-
rul Haque has already pointed out, the general principle of the Bill. The place for
considering the details is the Select Committee. Those who are in favour of the
general principle of the Bill are, in my opinion, bound to support this motion for
referring the Bill to a Select Committee. If my friend is in favour of the general
principle of the Bill I cannot understand how he opposes the motion.
The Hon’ble Mr. Dadabhoy: Forgive me, Sir, but in fairness to myself I must
request you to permit me to tender a personal explanation.
The President: Are you rising to a point of order?
The Hon’ble Mr. Dadabhoy: No, Sir, I want to explain my position.
The President: Order, order. The Hon’ble Member had ample opportunity to
explain his position at the time when he was speaking. The Hon’ble Mr. Gokhate
is now fully entitled to proceed with his speech without interruption.
The Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale: Sir, I must also point out that I am confining myself
to quotations entirely. The Council is in a position to judge if I am properly repre-
senting or not the Hon’ble Member. I am quoting his words exactly as they are in
these proceedings. Sir, more than that, since the Hon’ble Member himself made
an indirect reference to the subject yesterday, I may mention that only ten days
ago my Hon’ble friend had assured me that he would not only support my motion,
but would strongly support it. He is of course entitled to change his views, but a
man who has been as long as my friend has been in public life and who had exam-
ined the provisions of my Bill carefully last year and had expressed the views he-
did last year and the year before is certainly expected to show some consistency.
The Hon’ble Mr. Dadabhoy: Will you allow me, Sir.
The President: The Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale is fully entitled to make these
remarks. He is making quotations from books to which we all have access, and I
must request the Hon’ble Member to allow him to proceed without interruption.
The Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale: May I point out to the Hon’ble Member that there
is always a disadvantage attaching to a person speaking before another. If the
Hon’ble. Member gets an opportunity of speaking after me, he will be entitled
to say whatever he chooses, without being interrupted by me. He, moreover, can
explain himself in the columns of the Press, if he likes.
Well I will now pass on from Mr. Dadabhoy and say a few words with refer-
ence to the remarks made by the Hon’ble Mr. Shafi. A large part of the Hon’ble
Member’s speech was devoted to a condemnation of the principle of compulsion,
and, after the manner in which the Hon’ble Member in charge of the Education
Department practically accepted the desirability of compulsion, I do not think I
need say much about that part of his case. After all when the Hon’ble Member in
charge of Education, speaking in the name of the Government, says what he did
on the subject of compulsion, if a private member takes a different view, that is
comparatively a small matter. The Hon’ble Member is of opinion that, unless a
person is absolutely and entirely in favour of every single clause of a Bill, he can-
not be regarded as a supporter of the Bill. Now, Sir, as my friend the Hon’ble Mr.
Haque has already pointed out, we are only considering the principle of the Bill
359
to day, and I have already explained that, when I said that certain persons were in
favour of the Bill. [Illegible] only meant that they were only in favour of the
principle of the Bill. It should be remembered that a Bill is not like a law of the
Medes and of the Persians or like Athene issuing from the head of Jove clad in full
armour. A Bill is a series of proposals tentatively put forward before the public.
Certain parts are fundamental and they cannot be allowed; but certain other parts
are only tentatively put forward, and are liable to be revised in the light of such
public criticism as is brought to bear upon them. If you take the view that he alone
can be called a supporter who accepts every single clause of a Bill as first drafted,
then no measure that was ever introduced in this world can be said to have been
supported largely by the public.
The Hon’ble Member also said that one result of my Bill would be that the
areas that were more advanced would derive additional advantage and the areas
that were more backward would be pushed still further back. This objection has
also been urged by some other members. I have already pointed out that the objec-
tion is based on a complete misapprehension of my scheme such as it is. I do not
want that the Provincial Governments should reduce in any way the expenditure
that they are already incurring on the primary education of backward areas. And I
do not for a moment suggest that further grants for primary education in backward
areas on a voluntary scale should be reduced. But what I want is that, if certain
local bodies want to go in for compulsion and are prepared to find a part of the
cost, the Imperial Government, out of their own Exchequer, should come forward
to the assistance of these bodies and provide the rest of the cost that would be
required. If these local bodies do not go in for a compulsory scheme, the Govern-
ment of India would probably be devoting its surplus revenues to various other
purposes, such as to the reduction of debt and a number of other objects with
which we are familiar. What I say, therefore, is that without touching the revenues
of Provincial Governments, if any local body wanted to go in for compulsion
and raised a part of the cost, the Government of India should come forward and
supplement that cost out of their own Exchequer, I do not see how this would
constitute any disadvantage to the backward areas which in their turn would also
be benefited by the arrangement.
I will now come to the remarks of the Hon’ble Member in charge of Educa-
tion. I hope the Hon’ble Member will permit me to say that it was with the utmost
satisfaction that I listened to the concluding portion of his speech—not the con-
troversial part, with which I will presently deal, but the concluding portion of his
speech. That portion really is what matters to us, because it lays down the future
policy of the Goverment of India so far as primary education is concerned. Sir, as I
listened to those warm and enthusiastic words which fell from the Hon’ble Mem-
ber, I could not help feeling what a great thing it would have been for the country
if, instead of being an official, the Hon’ble Member had been a non-official and
if we could have had an opportunity of placing ourselves under his banner and
spreading the gospel of the necessity of mass education throughout the country
under his lead. Sir, I think that portion of his speech will give great satisfaction
360
throughout the country, even to those who are convinced that we should lose no
more time in making a beginning in the direction of making elementary educa-
tion free and compulsory; because, taken with the opening words of his speech,
it goes much further than any pronouncement on the part of Government has
previously done. The Hon’ble Member stated at the beginning that no one would
rejoice more than himself if primary education became free and compulsory in
the country, and that it was the policy of the Government to so work that that
desirable consummation should be brought about. That commits the Government
of India, first, to an approval of the principle of free and compulsory education,
and, secondly, to so conduct their educational operations that the time for making
education free and compulsory would be hastened and not indefinitely put off.
That, taken with the determination announced at the close of the speech, amounts
to a practical promise that sooner than many of us imagine, the State will help us
to reach the goal which we have before our eyes, the goal of free and compulsory
education.
Sir, I will now deal with the principal points in the Hon’ble Member’s speech.
I am personally grateful to him, as also to the Hon’ble Mr. Sharp, for the terms of
appreciation in which they have spoken of my humble efforts in this matter; but
I did not quite understand what the Hon’ble Member meant by observing that,
while he was prepared to appreciate what I had been doing, he was somewhat
disappointed to find that I did not equally appreciate what the officials had been
doing. If he spoke of his Department, he knows that there is no warmer apprecia-
tor of the efforts of that Department than myself. If, however, he spoke of the
officials generally, he cannot surely expect me to be grateful even to those offi-
cials who are against mass education itself. As regards a number of officials who
are really striving to push on mass education, of course we all appreciate their
efforts: but appreciating efforts of that kind is one thing and expressing disap-
pointment at the pace at which we are moving is another thing. Without intending
to cast any reflection on those officials who are doing what they can under the
existing system to push on primary education, I think it is perfectly permissible
to say that the pace at which we are going is very unsatisfactory. In fact, that is
what the Hon’ble Member himself said yesterday, and that is all I have said. Sir,
the Hon’ble Member referred to what I had said about the letter of the Bombay
Government, and he asked the Council to remember that the head of the Bombay
Government was Sir George Clarke; and he seemed to imply that I had cast some
sort of reflection on Sir George Clarke. It is not necessary that I should say to this
Council that I have always entertained the warmest admiration for Sir George
Clarke, both personally for his remarkable qualties of head and heart, and also for
the great services that he has rendered to the Bomby Presidency in many fields.
But this is not a question of Sir George Clarke personally; it is a question of the
letter which the Bombay Government as Provincial Government has addressed to
the Government of India; and I did mean yesterday, and I do say to-day, that even
a great Provincial Government might show some courtesy to those who have the
misfortune to differ from its views. I will give only one quotation to this Council.
361
Speaking about a proposal that fees should be remitted and that free education
should be introduced, the Bombay Government says: ‘Such a policy would be
regarded as a triumph by a few persons who have shown no understanding of
educational questions.’ Now, Sir, I understood the Hon’ble Member in charge
of Education yesterday to favour free education. Many members here have also
got up and said that they would like to have free education. Some of the officers
belonging to the different Provincial Governments have expressed the view that
education should be made free before it is made compulsory. But more than all,
only five years ago the Government of India addressed a circular letter to all Local
Governments advocating that fees should be abolished and that free education
should be introduced, I therefore respectfully pass on this description of the Bom-
bay Government of those who favour free education to the Hon’ble Member and
to the Government of India!
Sir, the Hon’ble Member asked, who were they who were in favour of this Bill?
Now, that is a very easy way of disposing of all those who are inconveniently
ranged on the other side. Those who are in favour of the Bill may be divided into
two classes, namely, those who belong to the educated classes, and those who
belong to the backward communities. Now, you can discredit the support given
by these two sections in two separate ways. The Central Provinces Government,
for instance, says that the members of the educated classes might be in favour;
but what does it cost them to be in favour? The question does not really concern
them, and mere heroic resolutions in favour of this proposal do not really count
for much. On the other hand, if members of backward communities assemble and
express themselves in favour, the argument is used, what do they understand of
the Bill? They have not the intelligence to understand what would be the effects
of the Bill. My Hon’ble friend Mr. Mudholkar reminds me that only a short time
ago a meeting of 2,500 Mahars, that is, one of the most depressed classes on our
side, was held in Berar and passed a resolution in favour of this Bill. If you ask
me if every member of that body understood what the Bill was, I could not answer
that question in the affirmative; but they must have had a fairly general idea that
the Bill was intended to make education compulsory, and that under it their chil-
dren would be compelled to go to school so that they might derive the benefits of
education. The analogy of the three tailors of Tooley Street could in my opinion
be applied far more to the persons opposed to the Bill than to those who are in
favour of the Bill.
Now, Sir, I come to my examples from different countries. The Hon’ble Mem-
ber said, before dealing with these analogies, that there are differences in this
country, of caste, differences of script, differences of language. But that only
means that we have a bigger problem than elsewhere. It does not mean that we
cannot tackle the problem successfully. What are these differences to do with the
question of compulsion? You have got primary schools just now to teach different
scripts, and different languages and for different communities; all that is neces-
sary is to increase their schools and introduces compulsion in regard to attending
them.
362
The Hon’ble Member, speaking of the case of England, said that in England
compulsory education and compulsory attendance came six and ten years after
the compulsory provision of educational facilities. Will my Hon’ble friend allow
me to say that that statement is not correct? The Act of 1870, which required
the compulsory provision of educational facilities, at the same time empowered
local authorities to frame bye-laws, whereby the attendance of children could be
secured compulsorily at school. Of course it was a purely permissive provision,
which some local auhorities used and some did not. But that is precisely what
this Bill proposes to do. In 1876, the next step was taken when the responsibility
was thrown on the parents to send their children compulsorily to school, and the
whole fabric was ultimately completed in the year 1380, when local authorities
were compelled to frame by-laws. But the Act of 1870 was in many respects simi-
lar to the Bill which I have laid before the Council, because this Bill on the one
side empowers local bodies to introduce compulsion and on the other throws the
responsibility on them to provide the necessary educational facilities,
The Hon’ble Member has told the Council that in Japan it is persuasion and not
compulsion that has produced the present results. An answer to that was given this
morning in the course of the debate, that persuasion there has succeeded because
there is compulsion behind it to fall back upon. All that we want is that we too
should have compulsion to fall back upon and our persuasion also will then suc-
ceed much more than it can do at present.
Then, Sir, as regards the question of the Philippines. The Hon’ble Member said
that there was no State law of compulsion in the Philippines. That is quite true, but
that is exactly what I myself had stated last year. This is what I had said:
Under Spanish rule there was no system of popular education in the Philippines. As
soon as the Islands passed into the possession of the United States, they drew up a regular
programme of expenditure which has been systematically adhered to The aim is to make
primary education universal and the educational authorities advice compulsion though no
compulsory law has yet been enacted. In the matter of education many Municipalities have
introduced compulsion by local ordinances.
That is my point. Of course, these local ordinances have been held by some
to be illegal; they have been framed under powers that were conferred on local
bodies by the Spanish Government. That, however, is a separate matter. It is sig-
nificant that nobody has come forward on the side of the people to question the
validity of these local ordinances.
Coming to Ceylon, the Hon’ble Member said that 60 per cent. of the popula-
tion of Ceylon were Buddhists. What has religion got to do with the question of
compulsion? If you mean to say that there are no castes among the Buddhists, and
therefore the difficulty is less, I say there are no castes among the Muhammadans
of this country, and yet what have you done to introduce compulsory education
among the 100 per cent. of the Muhammadans of this country?
Finally, I come to the question of Baroda. The Hon’ble Member quoted fig-
ures which largely go against him. In the first place, he said that even according
363
to the last census the percentage of literacy in Baroda was only 17 for the male
population while the percentage in a British district—Broach—was 24. This is
quite true; but that only helps me, for it shows that Baroda resorted to compul-
sion even before that State was as advanced as the neighbouring British terri-
tory in the matter of the spread of education. We have been told again and again
that there must be a certain general diffusion of education before you can take
in hand compulsion and I accepted with some reluctance a percentage of 33 as
the proportion of children of school-going age who should be at school before
compulsion could be introduced. Here, however, we find in Baroda, even when
education was much more backward than it is in the surrounding British, ter-
ritories, the State took up compulsion—a point distinctly in my favour, and not
against me. Then, Sir, compulsory education was introduced in Baroda only five
years ago. Surely my Hon’ble friend does not expect that the illiteracy of those
who were beyond the school-going age five years ago would be touched by the
compulsory education introduced during the last five years. The bulk of the popu-
lation had passed beyond that stage five years ago, and of course they all come
into the census figures of illiterates. But let us wait for another ten years and
then we shall see a great difference if the British Government, continues—as I
hope it will not—on its present voluntary basis and the Baroda Government on its
compulsory basis. Then, Sir, the Hon’ble Member gave some figures for Broach.
Well, I accept those figures—6·9 of the total population being at school in the
whole district of Broach. But the Hon’ble Member should compare likes with
likes. Broach is the most advanced district of the five districts which constitute
Guzarat. If the Hon’ble Member takes that district, he should also take the most
advanced division in the Baroda State for comparison. Else the camparison will
not be fair. If you take the most advanced division in Baroda, which is, I find, the
Navsari Division, the percentage of those who are at school to the total popula-
tion is nearly 13 as against 6·8 for Broach—about double. So those figures after
all really do not help the Hon’ble Member very much. The Hon’ble Member says
that the percentage of attendance in Baroda to the total population is 8·5. I have
got with me the report for 1911, which is recent enough, and I find there that the
proportion for the whole State of those who are in primary schools is 9·5 and not
8·5: 8·5 is the attendance in village schools only. The proportion of all who are
receiving primary education is 9 5. I will show the report to the Hon’ble Member
afterwards if he likes; I have got it here with me. In your most advanced district
in British territories—Broach—it is 6·8. Already this makes a difference. If you
allow things to go on like this, will it take long for the British Government to lag
behind Baroda—a contingency which, I am very glad to see, the Hon’ble Member
regards with horror?
Then, Sir, the Hon’ble Member relied on the support of the Bombay Corpo-
ration. Let me warn him again that he is leaning on a broken reed indeed. The
Bombay Corporation is not only in favour of the principle of free and compulsory
education, but it would like to throw the whole cost, or nearly the whole cost, on
Imperial revenues. Is the Hon’ble Member prepared to accept that? Let him part
364
company with the Bombay Corporation while there is yet time. He also spoke of
the Malabar District Board’s opinion that it is better to improve education than
to go in for universal education. Who proposes universal education straight off?
We propose that we should only make a beginning in the direction of compulsory
education and gradually advance, in the course of 10, 15 or 20 years. All the
objections that are based on the assumption that we propose to go in straight for
universal education are based on a misapprehension and therefore need not be
considered any further. In this connection I would like to notice one remark which
fell from the Hon’ble Mr. Sharp about the banishment of illiteracy. I am not so
simple as to imagine that if you introduce compulsion in a few areas you will ban-
ish illiteracy straightway from the whole land. But the problem is a vast one; let us
take it in hand at once and make a beginning, that is what I say. Unless you make
a beginning at once, the prospect is not very cheering.
Sir, one of the most important points raised in this discussion—it has been
urged by several members—is this—first have schools, first have trained teachers
and then propose that education should be made compulsory. Now, those who
will go through the parliamentary discussions of 1870 will find in the volumes of
Hansard that the same arguments were urged in England when the Act of 1870
was proposed. Where are the teachers? Where are the school-houses? That was
what was urged against that measure. But I would like to ask what is really meant
by this objection. If you call upon a local body merely to build schools, if you call
upon either Local Governments or local bodies merely to have trained teachers
without saying where they are to work, do you think anybody would take such
a proposal seriously. Not unless you gave the local bodies at the same time the
power to compel attendance. If a school is built or hired, local bodies should have
the power to fill the school at once. They cannot build a school and then, with
doors thrown open, wait for any stray children to walk in. You must give them
the power to compel attendance simultaneously. That is what the English Act of
1870 did. It compelled local authorities to provide school accommodation. But
at the same time it empowered them to compel attendance at school, no doubt
in a permissive way, as this Bill does. What I say is, that the two things must go
hand in hand; you cannot urge that one thing should come before the other. It is
the same thing about teachers: you must be satisfied with untrained teachers for a
time. After all, too much has been made of trained teachers; not that I depreciate
the value of trained teachers, but for the purpose of giving the most elementary
type of education—for imparting a knowledge of the R’s—I think even untrained
teachers are not as useless as they are depicted. Most of the Indian members in this
Council received their primary education under untrained teachers. The Hon’ble
Mr. Sharp said that he had visited thousands of primary schools: Sir, we have
learnt in primary schools. We have experience from the inside of these schools.
How did we receive our primary education? I remember how I did it. We used to
squat on the floor with a wooden board in front of us covered with red powder
and a piece of stick to write letters with. Well, we have done fairly well in life
after all, though we received our primary education in that way under untrained
365
teachers. It is a question of removing illiteracy first of all. And here I should like
to quote an important authority—the authority of the Bombay Government. Two
years ago, Sir George Clarke—I think it was in his Convocation speech—took
the same line that the Hon’ble Member in charge of Education took yesterday
and the Hon’ble Mr. Sharp did to-day. ‘You must first have trained teachers; the
quality of education must be raised; you must have proper school-houses, and so
on.’ Last year however, he came round to the other view. A Resolution was issued
by the Bombay Government (I do not know whether my friend the Hon’ble Mr.
Enthoven was then Secretary in the Education Department in Bombay) on the
spread of primary education in rural areas. And what does that Resolution say?
It gives up the insistence on trained teachers and good school-houses, and it pro-
poses to place primary education on an indigenous, aided basis in rural areas,
giving grants to untrained teachers and allowing them to teach as well as they
can, the curriculum of course being under the control of the Department. Now,
this is precisely what we want all over the country to begin with. First establish at
once these lower primary schools, then go on, as you have funds, improving the
standards, bringing in trained teachers, and having better school-houses. And for
God’s sake do not wait for your trained teachers, for your decent school-houses,
till you take up the question of removing illiteracy from the land in hand. That is
really the whole of my contention.
I wish now to turn to the question of cost, and will only deal very briefly with
it. The Hon’ble Member said he would like to take Rs. 10 as the figure per head.
I meet him there with official authority. Mr. Orange—no amateur—in charge of
Education before the Department was created—Director-General of Education—
in an estimate that he prepared, not for a discussion in this Council, but for the
Government, took Rs. 5 as the average cost per head: the Hon’ble Mr. Sharp will
correct me if I am wrong; I know he cannot, because he knows that I am right.
Mr. Orange took Rs. 5 per head. I think that that estimate holds the field and any
mere vague statements that it might be more than this, that it might be 6 or 7 or
10 rupees, we are not bound to accept till the Hon’ble Member challenges the
estimate of Mr. Orange and proves it to be an underestimate. And if we take Rs. 5
per head, the figures I have given are quite correct. Sir, I have already dealt with
the argument that if compulsion is introduced in advanced areas, the spread of
education in backward areas will suffer. I should deplore any action that could
produce such a result; but I am sure there is no real foundation for the fear. How
can any one imagine that those who want to see free and compulsory education
all over the country would be a party to any scheme which would retard, instead
of promoting, education in backward areas?
Sir, there is one more point and I shall have done. The Hon’ble Member spoke
yesterday of the desirability of such questions being dealt with by Local Legisla-
tive Councils. I have no objection to that. If Local Legislatures will take up this
question and empower local bodies within their limits to introduce compulsion,
I have no objection. Only I hope that that will not absolve the Government of
India from the responsibility of finding the money, because it is essential that the
366
Government share of the cost of compulsion should come out of the Exchequer of
the Government of India, no matter what the estimate is. Sir, to those who profess
to be appalled by the amount of money that will be required, I will mention only
one act. The military expenditure of this country—owing to the exigencies of the
State—I will not enter just now into its justification or otherwise—has risen in 35
years from 16 crores to about 31 crores of rupees—an increase of 15 crores a year.
It was 16 crores at the end of Lord Ripon’s administration; it is nearly 31 crores
now. If our military expenditure could be increased by 15 crores like this because
the State thought it necessary to find the money, the spread of education, which is
surely just as important as the defence of the country, has also a similar claim on
Government revenues, whatever amount is actually required. And I am quite sure
the State will be able to find the money, if the Government of India do not try to
throw the responsibility on Local Governments.
367
11
APPENDIX TO THE REPORT OF THE
COMMISSIONERS. VOL XX: MINUTES OF
EVIDENCE RELATING THE EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT TAKEN AT DELHI,
CALCUTTA, MADRAS, BOMBAY AND
LONDON (1915), 46–55, 119–129, 138–143
REV. C. F. ANDREWS, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Written statement relating to the Educational Service.
82,920. (1) I regard a separation of University from School inspection work as

ultimately necessary under modern conditions. University life in India has now
advanced beyond the crude, elementary stage. Residential teaching Universities
are being formed. University professorships are being founded. Post graduate
research work is coming to the front. The whole situation is altered from the ear-
lier days when a teacher’s work could be interchanged with inspection work and
vice versa. Our modern Indian Universities are offering increasingly wide and
important careers to those who are engaged in teaching. The Education services
themselves must change with the changed conditions. Unfortunately the only
important change hitherto (the division into Imperial and Provincial services) has
been in a reactionary direction. There appear to me two ways of meeting the
changed conditions:—
(a) A reconstruction of the Education Services on a new basis. Instead of the old
“Imperial” and “Provincial” Services there might be a “University Service” and a
“School Inspection Service.”
(b) An abolition of the “Service” system altogether within the University
sphere. Pay, etc., should be allotted to the post, not to the person. The person shall
be free to make his own movements in his own profession, and not be bound by
Service Regulations.
(2) The objection to (a) would come from those who regard the Directorship of
Public Instruction as the goal of the Service. They would regard a purely Univer-
sity career as leading away from, and not up to, the highest posts. The objection is
valid, if the Directorship were the only end in view. But new posts are now being
368
APPENDIX, REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS
made in the Universities themselves, such as University Professorships, carrying

with them high remuneration. These would be the goal of a “University Service.”
[I would gladly outline a scheme for a “University Service” if it would help the
work of the Commission to consider it. I am perfectly certain if its prospects were
made clear, and it was put forward as a career in itself, it would attract a far more
scholarly type of men than those who are now being recruited.]
(3) Personally, however, I shall look forward with more hope to (b) than to (a).
The ultimate question to be faced, on the University side, is the position of the
Government Colleges themselves, for which recruitment takes place. The his-
tory of these is, that they were established as “Model Colleges” in the early days,
when no high standard of College efficiency had been attained by any existing
institution. The University, then, was a mere examining body: the College was
the teaching body. Now the situation has markedly changed. The Universities
are rapidly becoming teaching bodies and all new Universities are being founded
on that basis. Even an old examining University like Calcutta has so remodelled
itself in the past two years that it has created, I believe, 15 University Profes-
sorships and has now a body of 1,000 post-graduate students, attached to the
University rather than to the separate Colleges. The individual Colleges have also
had a remarkable development. The criterion of efficiency has stepped from that
of mere employment of up to date apparatus to that of acquiring a living College
spirit through touch with religious or national or civic movements of the country.
One College may have lakhs of money spent on it and be dead: another College
may be impecunious but living. The test of life in University matters is in touch
with living movements.
(4) These two factors (the change in the University and the change in the Col-
lege spirit) have tended to drive the Government Colleges into a backwater. They
have struggled bravely, and even nobly, to get back into the open stream; but they
are crippled and hampered by the present service conditions. The crude division
of ‘Imperial’ and ‘Provincial’ has been a permanent grievance, canvassed by every
Indian student. The temptation to seek inspectorships, outside the University, has
prevented a whole-hearted absorption in the life of the University itself. The rules
and regulations of the ‘services’ have impeded the healthy growth of the Govern-
ment Colleges themselves as self, organising institutions in close touch with the
community. Personally I look forward hopefully to the day when these Colleges
will be let loose from the safe harbour of Government patronage and direction and
launched upon the rising tide of civic life. The air there will be found much brac-
ing and invigorating than that which now surrounds them. They would be sup-
ported largely by local and provincial patriotism and the public would have a deep
interest in their welfare. If Government Colleges were placed at last in the hand
of the community the funds released might be used for University development.
Government would be able to foster this to-day, as it fostered College develop-
ment in earlier times. It would thus come once more into the van of progress.
(5) If asked therefore to choose between (a) and (b) I should prefer (b). In
that case, so long as the Government Colleges still remained entirely under State
369
control, the only change that would be needed would be to attach pay, etc., to each
College post, and recruit for the post itself. Those on ‘Service’ pay might have
the option of continuing as they were, or of changing to ‘Staff’ pay. Gradually
the ‘Staff’ pay system would become universal, as old ‘Service’ claims died out.
Then, if the Government Colleges were at last ‘nationalised,’ there would be no
cumbrous ‘Service’ conditions to overcome.
This then is my main proposition: Either.—The creation of a ‘University Ser-
vice’ and the abolition of the distinction of ‘Imperial’ and ‘Provincial’ in this
sphere; Or.—The abolition of the present ‘Service’ conditions altogether in Gov-
ernment University appointments. Of the two alternatives I prefer the latter, as
more in keeping with the trend of modern University life in India.
(6) I regard this University question as by far the most important which the
Commission has to settle with regard to Education. In spite of the most lavish
expenditure of State money (it is computed, for instance, that a student in a Gov-
ernment College costs the State sixteen times as much as a student in a State-aided
College) the Government Colleges are now keeping in touch with the new spirit
of the age. The men who are being recruited are, with certain noable exceptions,
markedly inferior to those who came out in the past, and they have no enthusiasm
for the present Service. Men of the highest ability prefer to stay at home, on a
miserable pittance, as Assistant Lecturers in an English University and refuse to
come out to India on treble the pay. Really first class men, Indians and English
alike, are offering almost daily for educational work, on barely a living wage, in
State-aided or Private Colleges; but three or four times the amount of pay will not
induce them to take posts in a Government College. This state of things cannot go
on much longer without a terrible disaster; for an enlightened Government cannot
afford to lose touch with the progressive elements of higher education and fall
back on mere wealth and past prestige.
REV. C. F. ANDREWS, called and examined.

82,921. (Chairman.) The witness said he had been for nine years on the staff of
St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, which had 212 students, and the Principal of which
was Mr. Rudra. The staff numbered 19, eight being Europeans and the rest Indi-
ans. Before coming to India he had been about six years at Cambridge University.
For some time he was engaged in Mission work in East London, and then went
back to take up education work at Pembroke College. Outside St. Stephen’s Col-
lege he had had no experience of educational work in India except that gained
from a little University work and inspection work. He had only actually visited
officially one College, but he had seen a great many colleges in India privately.
St. Stephen’s College was a Missionary College receiving a grant-in-aid from the
State, the grant being given on account of efficiency and the College having a free
hand in its use.
82,922. The witness said his main position was that the Inspectorate in the Edu-
cational Services should be separate from the Professoriate. Most of his remarks
370
in the written statement dealt with the Professorial side, which was the only side
he was acquainted with. His scheme was to abolish the present system altogether
and to recruit to particular posts on contract terms. The post might carry pensions
according to length of service. The scheme was practically that which existed now
outside Government Colleges. The staff at St. Stephen’s College was probably
more permanent than the staff of most colleges, and quite as permanent as a Gov-
ernment college staff, but it might be that in some outside Colleges many officers
would not stay to qualify for pension. The witness attached some importance to
keeping a man on as Professor, as his experience was extremely valuable, but he
also attached importance to the infusion of new elements into the College. Under
a system of recruitment for post rather than for a service there would be much
greater elasticity than at present.
82,923. The witness objected very strongly to the present system of cold weather
Professorships, because there was a danger that in the long run it would prevent the
recruitment of really good men who might rise to posts that were open to them, and
it closed the posts to men who were already in the country. As a temporary measure
it might have a certain value, but educationally it was bad. The system he proposed
could be established in a Government College as the Universities expanded and
as University teaching reached a higher level. A free atmosphere of competition
on the whole was a stimulus to education greater than that obtained by bringing a
man out who gradually rose from one scale of pay to another without being free to
choose his own post. It was certainly in the interests of the College to put a man
into a post for which he was trained, and naturally if he had not the qualifications
he would not obtain a post. The fact that each post in a College required more and
more a specialised training was a partial result of the advance of education and
would encourage men to specialise. At present there was no very strong spur to a
man to gain higher educational qualities. If the posts were all open to free competi-
tion a man who wished to compete would make himself educationally efficient by
specialising in his spare time and vacations. The whole of the Professorial chairs
should be open to competition. It was quite true that even under the present system
men could not get into a College unless they had qualified, but there was a danger
of stagnation which would be avoided by a freer atmosphere of competition. Now
there was a danger of Government Colleges getting out of the living current of
public life and of education becoming stagnant.
82,924. He could not conceive of a Government College being in the position
of St. Stephen’s College in which eight European Professors were under an Indian
Principal.
82,925. There were a number of ways in which Government Colleges were
falling behind, though they were struggling very hard. A great deal of money was
being put into them to keep them up to the level of the best private Colleges, but
they had not the living spirit of the private Colleges. A College like Fergusson
College in Poona was a living College compared with a Government College,
which gradually became formal. He hoped by free competition to bring the Gov-
ernment Colleges into the flow of the tide rather than into a back-water.
371
82,926. The witness said he did not consider an Indian Principal was an abso-
lute necessity, but there ought to be the possibility of such a Principal of every
College. As far as he knew, at present there was not even the possibility of an
Indian Principal being appointed in any Government College. Dr. J. C. Bose of
Calcutta was a most distinguished man, but he did not think he would ever be
allowed, under any circumstances, to become Principal of a Government College.
He did not know whether there was any legal obstacle, but he did not think there
had ever been an Indian Principal. He did not attach importance to the mainte-
nance of a European element as such in the College staff. His own experience
showed him that very often an Indian was able to give the Western idea of educa-
tion better than an Englishman, just as in England very often an Englishman was
able to teach French better than a Frenchman.
82,927. The witness admitted that those who came to the Missionary Colleges
were in rather a different category from those who entered the Education Ser-
vice, as they were manned by men who were inspired with the idea of a great
Missionary purpose; but apart from Missionary methods the free spirit and atmo-
sphere of a Mission or private college was an attraction, which men, generally
speaking, did not find in a Government College. They were not under the condi-
tions of a definite service and were able to change their posts or go elsewhere. He
would much rather have high qualities in individuals than a very compli [Illegible
Text] For education to attain a high [Illegible Text] [Illegible Text] be, to a great
extent, dependent upon the personality of educators and their living spirit. The
tendency of a service was rather to formalise.
82,928. (Sir Murray Hammick.) The witness admitted he had heard of cases of
men who had come out into private Colleges and afterwards endeavoured to get
into Government service. He did not for a moment say that men were happier in
private Colleges. There were always men in private Colleges who were ready to
apply for appointments in Government Colleges, but he thought there were a great
number of men who were not anxious to get into Government employ.
82,929. It was not his proposal to abolish Government Colleges altogether, but
to nationalise them. The College should remain and grow as a college, but it should
come more and more under other control than that of Government. The Government
should look forward to the time when Government Colleges would no longer exist
as such, but become local Colleges supported by local subscriptions and governed
by local comittees, and in every sense expressing the spirit of the place. As to the
means by which this could be brought about, he did not wish to go into detail but
simply to make his main proposition that recruitment should be for posts rather than
for a Service. That was one step forward to nationalisation. The new-comers would
not necessarily be Government officers. They would probably be Government offi-
cers as long as Government paid them, but as the College gradually became more
and more self-supporting, and Government paid less and the locality more, each
of the posts would come more and more under the control of those who were sup-
porting the College. He asked the Commission to recommend the abolishing of the
Service because he believed that would lead on to what he ultimately wished for.
372
82,930. With regard to the remark in the written statement that a student in a
Government College costs the Government sixteen times as much as a student in
a State-aided College, the witness said that had been told him by the Principal of
one of the leading Colleges in the Punjab, but he could not give any statistics to
support the statement.
82,931. The remark in the written statement that the men now being recruited
were, with certain exceptions, markedly inferior to those who came out in the
past, was, the witness said, based on his own personal knowledge of Government
Educational officers; it referred entirely to Northern India, and not to the South.
He had been looking at the qualifications in the last three or four years of each
man who had come out into the Service, and he thought if they were compared
with those of the men who came out ten years ago it would be found that the state-
ment was not much of an exaggeration, if any. He did not agree that the men who
were now coming out were quite suitable for the positions they held; he thought
there was a distinct decline in Northern India. He had been told that it was the
easiest possible thing to get the very highest men to come as Assistant Lecturers
to the Universities in England in posts which might lead on to Professorships at
£150 a year and they would go on for years at that rate and yet those men would
not come out to India.
82,932. (Mr. Abdur Rahim.) The witness said Mr. Rudra had been Principal
of St. Stephen’s College for about eight years, and the whole of the administra-
tive work had been done by him very satisfactorily. Both the Principal and the
Vice-Principal were Indians and did the whole of the administrative work of the
College. The fact of an Indian being at the head of a College assisted to bring the
whole staff more into harmony with the students. The relations between the Pro-
fessors and the students in Missionary and private Colleges stood on a different
footing from those in Government Colleges, and he believed the unsatisfactory
relationships in Government Colleges were due chiefly to the present division into
the Imperial and Provincial Services. Students recognised the injustice of cases
like Mr. J. C. Bose and others. Where there was division or grievance amongst a
staff, that division or grievance would be found amongst students also. The unity
of a staff was the most vital element in the unity of the College, and that was one
of his very strongest objections to the division of the Service into inferior and
superior branches. He could not understand how it had gone on so long.
82,933. (Mr. Macdonald.) The witness said that when he was in England last
year he found the Indian Educational Service was looked down upon at Cam-
bridge University, where it was said that it had not the standing that it used to
have. He had heard that it was considered no very great educational honour to be
a Professor at an Indian University now, and that appeared to be the general feel-
ing, with certain great exceptions. Under the present circumstances of University
and College education in India there was nothing, except Missionary enthusiam,
to bring a good man to India. Recently he had been anxious to obtain a first-rate
man for the Educational Service, a man who was well versed in games and in
every way suited for educational work. He wrote and made the suggestion and
373
received a letter from the young man saying that he had been strongly advised
not to join the Service by one of the very highest officers in the Punjab and one of
the reasons put forward was that it was inadvisable to mix with the students. That
state of things would not be changed so long as the body of Professors formed
a service. He knew of no University or College in the whole world based on the
system adopted in Indian Government Universities and Colleges.
82,934. With reference to the scheme he had put forward he failed to see any
difference between it and the ordinary operations of English Colleges and Scotch
Colleges. His point was that the College itself should be a self-supporting body
ultimately, and that the Government grants should not be given in the form of pay-
ment for certain chairs, but should be spent by the University or College authori-
ties as was done in the ordinary English Universities and Colleges. When a chair
was vacant the appointment should not be made by a Director of Public Instruc-
tion or a Local Government, but by a qualified Senate or committee belonging to
the College. From that, in the course of time, further transformation would take
place in the natural way.
82,935. (Mr. Fisher.) With regard to the qualities required in a Professor of an
Indian College, the witness said that the work being more or less analogous to
English Public School work he wanted the Public Schoolmaster type of man, but
the University Professor type was also required. The standard today was higher
than when he first came out and was rising. The higher stages of education, such
as M.A. classes, were largely growing, and he believed there were over one thou-
sand M.A. students in Calcutta at the present time. The qualities of a good public
Schoolmaster were mostly required in the first two Intermediate classes, and in
the higher classes there was every chance for a man with University qualifications
making a very deep impression on the students and also himself rising to Univer-
sity Professorships. University Professorships were now coming in like a flood,
and there would be a very large number in the course of the next ten years. His idea
was to make these posts the goal of the Professoriate. For a senior Mathematical
post in a University he should require in the applicant, first, the highest University
qualifications, and secondly, character, sympathy, athletics, and the power of mix-
ing with students. For the post of teacher of English in the Intermediate classes of
the first and second year he should put, first, character, sympathy, athletics, and
the power of mixing with students; and the higher academic qualifications second.
Every College trying to work up a decent standard was specialising far more than
in the past, and the endeavour was being made as much as possible to make the
teachers in the Intermediate classes specialise in that direction and teachers in the
B.A. classes to be specialists in their own work. In other words, the College posts
were gradually grouping themselves into two groups, a more advanced and a less
advanced, and the F.A., as far as he could see, would always remain until the age
of admission had advanced to the public school stage.
82,936. He was not prepared at present to recommend that appointment to
chairs should be by Senates of the existing Universities; ultimately he should look
forward to their being appointed by a College body itself under certain powers
374
of veto. His ultimate idea was a University largely supported by local funds and
to some extent controlled by the community, somewhat on the analogy of a civic
University in London. One College at Lahore was entirely supported by the
enthusiasm of a religious community, and there were colleges supported by the
enthusiasm of a local community, of which he thought the Agra College was an
example. He hoped, also, that the Government College at Lahore would evoke the
enthusiasm of the Province and especially of the city in which it was placed. He
also hoped civic enthusiasm would be shown for the University. He wished the
Government to take up the University stage, and work wholly in that direction, as
it did so splendidly in connection with the College stage fifty years ago. The Gov-
ernment ought to be the pioneer in University progress, leaving College progress
more and more in the hands of the people. He did not think there was any chance
of University affairs at present being under civic control, but the time was ripe for
civic control of Colleges.
82,937. (Mr. Sly.) The witness said he had not had experience of the inside
teaching in other Colleges, but he had a good deal of knowledge of the staff and of
the ideals of private colleges. His ultimate aim was to free Colleges from Govern-
ment control and to make Government the pioneer of University progress, provide
funds to allow the Universities to expand and create posts. As Government cre-
ated model colleges fifty years ago, so he hoped it would create free Universities
in the future.
82,938. The witness admitted that freedom of Government control over Col-
leges depended on secondary education being good; if that was on the right lines
it might be assumed that College education would continue on right lines. He had
considered the effect of the present condition of secondary education on his pro-
posals, but he did not see its bearing on the subject. If statistics showed that the
Government Colleges were substantially more successful in the percentage of stu-
dents that took degrees than private Colleges that fact might slightly modify the
criticism he had made of Government Colleges, but he thought the figures would
probably be the other way. His own experience in the Punjab was that a very large
number of University scholarships, to take one point, came from private Colleges.
82,939. With regard to the interchange of Professors and Inspectors, the witness
said he had known of cases of Professors who told him they desired to go into the
Inspectorate line.
82,940. The witness said that in computing the cost of a student in a private
College and a Government College he would accept the statistics given in the
“Quinquennial Review of Education.” His own figures only dealt with the cost
to the Stage not the cost of the whole education. One of the greatest Colleges in
Lahore at one time was only getting a grant from the Stage sufficient to pay one
Junior Professor in the College. Under his policy Government, when it gave up
the Colleges, would very largely reduce its expenditure and throw the burden on
local contributions.
82,941. (Mr. Gokhale.) The witness said that he had no experience of any dif-
ficulties ever having arisen from European Professors working under an Indian
375
Principal. The spectacle of Englishmen loyally working under an Indian Princi-

pal naturally gave the College a certain advantage over Colleges where English-
men occupied a position of superiority and Indians a position of inferiority. He
thought the students liked the position of Europeans working under an Indian and
respected it; and it made them happier. There was also a school attached to St.
Stephen’s College, the head of the school being an Indian, and the teachers under
him Europeans, and no friction of any kind occurred.
82,942. He had met Indians who had imbibed the Western spirit as much as it
was desirable they should do; he did not want Indians to be Anglicised altogether,
but to imbibe whatever was best in the West and apply that best to Eastern condi-
tions. For that purpose he thought an Indian who had imbibed the Western spirit
would have certain advantages over an Englishman to whom the East was more
or less new, as he would be able to interpret the West to Indians better than a
European, other things being equal. In a College the staff and students ought to
be united in harmony and sympathy, for the College to do its best work. If there
were any irritating distinctions, or too much thought was directed towards pay and
prospect, and the students did not feel that the Professors sympathised with their
progress, the work was seriously hampered.
82,943. The witness believed the difficulties in the way of English Professors
exercising the same influence as they used to do were increasing every year. It
would not now do for European Professors merely to take part in sports; it was nec-
essary for the students to feel that their best interests were the first consideration.
82,944. The great evil at present was the division into Provincial and Imperial
Services, but there would be a still further advantage if the Service itself was
abolished in the University.
82,945. If that disadvantage was taken away from the Government Colleges
they would do better work than they were doing to-day.
82,946. (Mr. Chaubal.) The witness said civic enthusiasm was not sufficiently
advanced to enable Colleges in the near future to be self-supporting, but that
enthusiasm would grow every year. He could imagine that Government was occa-
sionally asked to take over civic Colleges on account of communities wishing to
get rid of the burden owing to the weakness of civic patriotism.
82,947. (Sir Theodore Morison.) The witness admitted that civic patriotism had
shown itself rather weak. He instanced the Agra and Bareilly Colleges as Govern-
ment Colleges which were handed over to a municipal body of trustees, but did
not know sufficient about them to say whether they were encouraging examples.
The principle, however, was right. It was much more difficult in India to encour-
age a civic spirit than a religious or sectarian spirit, but the civic spirit was grow-
ing and if encouraged by Government would grow still further. Because up to the
present Indian self-government had not been a success, that was no reason why it
should be abolished. He had not gone into the method by which Government Col-
leges might be nationalised, because he did not think that came under the present
enquiry. He pleaded for nationalisation as a policy but could not go into details as
to how it should be carried out.
376
82,948. (Lord Ronaldshay.) The witness said, other things being equal an
Indian Professor who had acquired the Western spirit would probably be more
successful in instructing Indian students than an English Professor; but he did not
deduce from that that St. Stephen’s College would be a more efficient educational
institution if for the present eight European Professors eight Indian Professors
were substituted. He did not, however, contemplate the eight European Professors
remaining there in perpetuity. At present the College required what European Pro-
fessors only could give, for example, athletics. The European element was very
necessary if the right Europeans were obtained.
82,949. With regard to qualified English Professors coming out to India imbued
with a zeal for educational work, the witness said he knew of a certain Professor
who had definitely given up a Government College in order to take service with a
private college on a mere pittance, because he felt he had more freedom for self-
expression. There were men with a sympathy for the country apart from mission-
ary or religious zeal. The observation in the written statement that really first-class
men, English and Indians, were offering themselves almost daily for educational
work in India in the case of State-aided and private colleges, men who would not
come out into Government service, might be taken almost literally. If the men in
Government colleges had more prospects and a freer choice in their career and,
in the long run, of a University professorship, it would tend to bring back again a
higher scholastic qualification.
82,950. (Mr. Crosse.) The witness said he would qualify his statement that the
Government colleges were in a backwater by saying that on certain sides they
were going forward, as for instance the technical and mechanical side and actual
equipment, but on the side of educational life and spirit the remark was true of
the Government College at Lahore. The Government college had led the way in
certain matters, but in others had fallen behind. There were many Professors who
had definitely stated they were dissatisfied with their service owing to their loss
of freedom. He had constantly heard the Educational Service complained of by
officers, and he himself felt that the Service was not what it ought to be.
(The witness withdrew.)
At Delhi, Friday, 28th November, 1913.
PRESENT:
THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD ISLINGTON, G.O.M.G., D.S.O. (Chairman).
THE EARL OF RONALDSHAY, M.P.. ABDUR RAHIM, ESQ.
SIR MURRAY HAMMICK, K.C.S.I., C.I.E. WALTER CULLEY MADGE, ESQ., C.I.E.
SIR THEODORE MORISON, K.C.I.E. FRANK GEORGE SLY, ESQ., C.S.I.
SIR VALENTINE CHIROL. HERBERT ALBERT LAURENS FISHER, ESQ.
MAHADEV BHASKAR CHAUBAL, ESQ., C.S.I. JAMES RAMSAY MACDONALD, ESQ., M.P.
377
And the following Assistant Commissioners—

J. G. JENNINGS, ESQ., M.A., Indian Educational Service, lately Principal, Muir Central
College.
M. CROSSE, ESQ., M.A., M.SC., Inspector of Schools, Punjab.
KHAN BAHADUR MAULVI UMAR-UD-DIN, Inspector of Schools, Rawalpindi Division.
M. S. D. BUTLER, ESQ., C.V.O., C.I.E. (Joint Secretary)
AFTAB AHMAD KHAN, ESQ., B.L., Trustee of the Aligarh College.

Written Statement relating to the Educational Service.
82,951. I am asked to express my opinion on the present system and condition of the
Educational Service in India. I may say that I am not much acquainted with the techni-
cal part of the subject and can submit my views only as regards the general principles
which underlie the system and the educational interests which it is meant to secure.
(2) The Educational Services of the country, as they exist at present, are classi-
fied under the following two main heads:—(a) The Superior Educational Service,
and (b) The Subordinate Educational Service. The Superior Service is said to
consist of two classes—(i) The Indian Educational Service and (ii) The Provincial
Educational Service; and the Subordinate Service consists of (i) The Subordinate
Educational Service and (ii) The Lower Subordinate Educational Service.
82,952. (VII.b) The working of the existing system of division of ser-
vices into Imperial and Provincial.—The first point which deserves consid-
eration is the question as to whether the division of the Superior Service into
(a) the Indian Educational Service, and (b) the Provincial Educational Service
is sound or necessary. In my opinion the division is neither sound nor neces-
sary. In a Despatch dated the 6th January 1905 the Secretary of State for India
has explained that “The Provincial Service was intended to represent side by
side with the Indian Educational Service, the highest class of Employment
open to natives of India. Both of these branches, that recruited in England and
that recruited in India, together form the Superior Service of the Education
Department, the difference between them being not in status or duties but in
the conditions of employment as regards pay, leave, and service for pension.
Thus the only reason which is given for maintaining this division is the differ-
ence in the conditions of employment of these two classes of officers as regards
pay, &c., while there is said to be no difference in the status they possess or the
duties they perform. It is thus assumed that the difference in the conditions of
employment as regards pay &c., does not effect the status and position of the
Members of either Service. I am, however, unable to appreciate the force of
this reasoning. In my opinion those officers who are appointed by the Secretary
of State on higher pay and better conditions must occupy, and do occupy higher
and better position than those who are appointed by Local Governments on less
pay and on conditions not equally favourable. It is nothing but a fiction to hold
378
that men employed on different terms can ever have the same status, or form
one service on sound lines.
To my mind the real reason of this arrangement appears to be the idea that
the services of suitable Europeans cannot be secured without the offer of bet-
ter terms than those which can attract suitable Indians for the same work. But
considering the class of men we require for the Superior Service the idea that
the services of suitable Indians can be secured on cheaper terms is not well
founded. The fact is that Indians of real ability prefer other occupations and
professions which are more paying and attractive than the Educational Service,
and I am sure that unless sufficient and high remuneration is offered Indians of
real promise will not be attracted towards Educational work. Thus both with
a view to raise their status as well as to attract Indians of real ability to this
service it is essential that there should be no difference in the conditions of
employment of Europeans and Indians who are to form the Superior Service of
this country. Therefore the division of the Superior Service into the two classes
should be abolished, and they should both form one service in the real sense
of the term.
SUPERIOR SERVICE.
82,953. As regards the Superior Service the following points deserve special
consideration:—
(i) Whether the present system of recruitment is satisfactory.
(ii) Whether any period of probation is desirable.
(iii) Whether the present scale of pay is sufficient to attract men of such qualifi-
cations as are required in the interest of education in this country.
(iv) Whether the conditions as regards pension are satisfactory.
(v) Whether this service should remain practically confined to Europeans as has
been the case so far.
82,954. (I.) Method of recruitment.—In my opinion the present system of
recruitment is not quite satisfactory and needs revision and improvement. At pres-
ent all appointments for this service are made by the Secretary of State for India,
but I do not know the procedure which is followed in making selection of suitable
candidates. My suggestions in this connection are as follows:—
(i) All Principals and Professors of Colleges, Inspectors of Colleges and
Schools, and Headmasters of Model High Schools should belong to this
service.
(ii) No one should be appointed to this service who has not obtained First or a
good Second Class in honours in any subject at any of the English Universities,
preferably Oxford and Cambridge.
(iii) At every English University there should be a Board with the Vice-
Chancellor at its head for the purpose of making first selection of suitable candi-
dates for Educational Service in India.
379
(iv) The Secretary of State should select candidates out of those recommended
by the above-mentioned Boards, or from among those who have already served
with distinction in a College or Public School in England.
(v) The Government of India should also have the power of recommending for
selection by the Secretary of State the names of such candidates as possess the
required qualifications and have come out to India after completing their educa-
tion in Europe.
82,955. (II.) Systems of training and probation.—Candidates after the selec-
tion by the Secretary of State, should be required to continue their study in their
special subject for a period of one year at Oxford or Cambridge, or with the
special permission of the Secretary of State at any other University. Those who
may be selected for professorial work should devote their probationary period to
study and research in their special subject under the supervision of the University
Professors; and those who may be selected as Inspectors or Headmasters should
spend the period in the study of Theory and Practice of Education. For the period
of probation the selected candidates should get an allowance of at least £200 a
year.
82,956. (IV.) Conditions of salary.—As to the question of pay my opinion is
that the Government should be as liberal in this matter as their funds permit. The
quality of the staff is the most important question in this whole problem, and any
expenditure upon its improvement is an investment in which we the people of
India are virtually concerned. Any expenditure on this object should have pref-
erence on all other requirements which may be cut down to the lowest limits in
order to provide sufficient means for attracting the best possible persons for this
Service. I am in favour of time-scale, and would recommend that every Officer of
the Superior Service should start with Rs. 500 a month, and should have the right
to rise with an annual increment of Rs. 50 to Rs. 1,500 a month in twenty years.
Over and above this every Principal should get an allowance of Rs. 300 a month,
and in Colleges which have the residential system every senior tutor should get
Rs. 200 a month and every ordinary tutor Rs. 100 a month. There should also be
special allowances to be awarded to those who may distinguish themselves in any
particular branch of learning as an encouragement to research and original work
in the domain of knowledge. I suggest these liberal and higher scales of pay with
the chief object of attracting men of higher standard of qualification and not for
the Service as it recruited at present.
82,957. (VI.) Conditions of pension.—As regards the question of pension
I am of opinion that an Officer of the Educational Service after a service of
25 years, should be entitled to retire on half the pay as his pension. This rule
should be applicable to all branches of the Educational Service. I make this
suggestion for two reasons:—(i) Because officers in this service may begin
work at a later age than is usual in other Services, and (ii) to make the Service
more popular.
82,958. (VIIa.) Such limitations as may exist in the employment of non-
Europeans.—As to whether the Superior Service should be practically confined
380
to Europeans, as has been the case so far. I am of opinion that for a long time to
come we do require the services of Europeans and particularly of Englishmen
in the Educational Department of the country. We require their services for two
objects:—
(i) For teaching those branches of knowledge in which we, in India, have not
attained the European standard of advancement; and
(ii) For enabling our young men to come into actual and personal contact with
European culture and English mode of thought, and thereby helping them in the
formation of their character.
It is therefore extremely important to have a sufficient number of European and
British Scholars in our Educational Service. But the time has come when every
encouragement should be given to Indians to qualify themselves for the Service,
and those who are, or may be, qualified should be appointed to this Service with-
out any restriction. I learn that ever since the institution of this Service only three
Indians have been appointed up to this time, which is not a satisfactory state of
affairs, and should not be allowed to continue any longer.
PROVINCIAL SERVICE.
82,959. For the future this Service should be separate from the Superior Service
and Officers such as the following should belong to Provincial Service:—
(i) Assistant Profesors of Colleges.
(ii) Assistant Inspectors.
(iii) Headmasters of High Schools other than Model High Schools.
(iv) Headmasters of Training Schools.
These officers should be recruited by Local Governments, as is the case at
present; and the necessary qualification for this Service should be the Degree of
Master of Arts of any of the Indian Universities or Degree of Bachelor of Arts of
any of the European Universities. But if any member of this Service gives proof
of exceptional ability in any branch of learning he may, on the ground of approved
service, be promoted to the Superior Service with full status and pay attached to
that Service.
As to the pay of officers belonging to the Provincial Service my opinion is that
they should start with Rs. 200 a month, and should be entitled to rise, with an
annual increment of Rs. 25 to Rs. 700 a month in twenty years. This will make the
Service popular, and will induce many of those who now seek Deputy Collector-
ships and other similar posts choose educational line in preference to those which
are more paying and attractive at present.
SUBORDINATE SERVICE.
82,960. Then comes the question of the Subordinate Educational Service, to
which the following officers may belong:—
(i) Deputy Inspectors and Sub-Deputy Inspectors.
381
(ii) The Headmasters of Anglo-Vernacular Middle Schools and Assistant Mas-

ters of High and Middle Sections of Anglo-Vernacular schools.
(iii) Teachers in Training Colleges and Headmasters of Normal Schools.
These officers are to be recruited by Director of Public Instruction, and the
necessary qualification for this Service should be M.A. or trained B.A. of any of
the Universities of India.
The scale of pay should be from Rs. 60 a month and with an annual increment
of Rs. 12 it should rise to Rs. 300 a month in twenty years. But any officer who
gives proof of exceptional ability may be promoted to the Provincial Service with
the full status and pay attached to that Service.
THE LOWER SUBORDINATE SERVICE.

82,961. This part of the subject practically covers the field of Primary education,
and may be considered under the following heads:—
(i) Qualification of teachers.
(ii) Salary of teachers.
(iii) Pensions or bonus for teachers.
(iv) Status.
Qualification of teachers.—The passing of the Vernacular Final Examination
and the Normal School course should be the necessary qualification for this Ser-
vice as is the case at present. This whole subject has been recently considered in
the United Provinces by the Committee on Primary Education and the matter is
now under the consideration of the Local Government.
Salary of teachers.—As regards the salary of teachers my suggestion is as
follows:—
(i) That in every Vernacular Primary School the minimum pay should be Rs.
12 a month.
(ii) That the minimum salary of a trained teacher in Vernacular Primary School
should be Rs. 15 a month.
(iii) That teachers who are likely to spend their lives in Upper Primary Schools
should rise to the maximum salary of Rs. 30 a month; and those who are likely to
spend their lives in Town Schools should rise to Rs. 50 a month.
The scale of pay should be so arranged that the above-mentioned maximum
salaries may be attainable in twenty years.
Pensions or bonus for teachers.—So far as this Service is concerned the grant
of bonus is proferred to pension, and I may suggest that every officer of the Ser-
vice should contribute one anna a month in the rupee and an equal contribution
should be made by the Government or the District or Municipal Board towards
the Bonus Fund of every such officer.
Status of teachers.—So far as teachers of Primary Schools are concerned the
question of status is very important and deserves special consideration. It is obvi-
ous that apart from educational qualification the social position and status of the
Teacher plays an important part in the success of an Educational system, and
382
hence the question of the status of teachers is of special significance and deserves
particular consideration. In former days the Maulvi of a Maktab or the Pandit of
a Patshala used to command much more respect than the teachers of the Primary
Schools of the present day. It was so not only because they were better paid, but
chiefly because they were respected by the elders of their pupils. The Maulvi and
the Pandit derived their importance from their position as Imam and Spiritual
Adviser of the people. Modern pedagogues in the existing Educational system of
the country do not enjoy the same confidence and respect as did their predeces-
sors. Moreover it is a matter of common knowledge that the teacher in a village
school does not receive proper treatment at the hands of Government officials.
Thus the small salary and contemptuous treatment combine to lower his status in
the eyes of the general public, and it is now time that something should be done to
make up for all these defects so that men of better social position may be induced
to seek this service. In my opinion the following methods should be adopted to
make the teaching line more attractive and honourable:—
(a) Good service of successful teachers should be recognised on some occasion
of public importance in some suitable manner, such as the award of certificates
of good work by the Collector of a District on the occasion of some Durbar or
public function.
(b) Occasional promotion and transfer of successful teachers to other suitable
posts under the district of Municipal Board or the Collector of District, carrying
better pay and prospects.
(c) The District Officer should be directed to treat the school teachers with
courtesy and due consideration, and the Inspecting Officers of the Department
should be required to pay a special regard to the status and position of the teachers
and should treat them with due respect in the presence of their pupils such as to
offer them chair and to address them in courteous language.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

82,962. So far I have said nothing about the post of the Director of Public
Instruction which is the most important post in the whole Service. Every one will
agree that it should always be filled by some Educationist who has had ample
experience of educational work in this country, but in my opinion the time has
come when a proper estimate should be made of the extent and importance of the
work which the head of the Educational Department of a Province has to do in
this country. The problem of education is so vast and intricate, and the interests
which it comprehends are so diverse and peculiar that it is too much to expect
that any European head of the Department can do the work successfully or can
devote his attention to important educational questions without sufficient and
proper help. I may mention here some of those important questions which need
special attention and which under the present circumstances are not properly
looked after:—
383
(i) Education of the masses, (ii) education of women, and (iii) Muhammadan
education. My suggestion is that there should be an officer belonging to the Supe-
rior Service in charge of each of these educational interests, and whose duty
should be to make a special study of his branch and help the Director in all mat-
ters connected with that branch.
The importance of promoting the cause of Mass Education and of the education
of women is recognised by everyone, and I need say no more about them on this
occasion. But the question of Muhammadan Education requires some explana-
tion. It is needless to remark that the question of education is of the utmost impor-
tance for Muhammadans whose very existence as a living people depends upon
in its proper solution. They are, so to say, in the position of an invalid for whose
recovery special treatment is necessary, but so far their special requirements in the
matter of education have not received the attention which they need and deserve.
This has been mainly due to the fact that the question has not been properly rep-
resented before the authorities up to this time.
My suggestion therefore is that a Muhammadan officer, belonging to the Supe-
rior Service, should be appointed whose chief duty should be to study the educa-
tional needs of the Muhammadans of the Province and should act as Educational
Secretary to the Director of Public Institution in all matters connected with the
question of their education in that Province. For this purpose this Muhammadan
officer should have power to inspect all educational institutions in the Province
and should be required to pay special attention to the condition of Muhammadan
institutions which are now coming into existence in all parts of the country, and
which badly need official support. I wish this officer to be a Muhammadan for the
following reasons:—
(i) Experience has shown, as it is only natural, that no non-Muhammadan offi-
cer can be in a position to understand the feelings and requirements of Muham-
madans to the same extent as a Muhammadan can.
(ii) No non-Muhammadan, naturally, can be expected to have the same enthu-
siasm and zeal which in our own present condition we need so badly, in the cause
of Muhammadan education as a Muhammadan himself.
(iii) The appointment of a Muhammadan officer in this position will give con-
fidence and will be the means of removing many complaints real and otherwise.
I am therefore of opinion that such important educational questions as men-
tioned above should be entrusted to separate officers who should be in the staff of
the Director and should act as his Secretaries in all matters connected with their
respective branches.
MR. AFTAB AHMAD KHAN called and examined.

82,963. (Chairman.) The witness said he had been a member of the Legisla-
tive Council for the United Provinces. He had been trustee of the Aligarh College
since 1897, and had been Fellow of the Allahabad University for some years. He
384
was Honorary Fellow at the present time. He had been Joint Secretary of the All-
Muhammadan Educational Conference since 1906.
82,964. His general contention was that the Provincial Education Service had
drifted into an unduly subordinate position. According to the present system, the
Service consisted of two divisions—the Indian Educational Service and the Pro-
vincial Educational Service—and members of both Services were supposed to
constitute one Service without any distinction. But there was a differentiation, and
his idea was to secure suitable Indians in India to form part of the superior Ser-
vice. Under the present circumstances, however, and on the present terms, good
Indians were not attracted to the Service. He would like to see the Department
re-organised on the basis of actual work to be done.
82,965. The witness thought that after the re-organisation and the improvement
of the Service, better men would be obtained, and in that case they would be enti-
tled to be called ‘Professors.’ He knew that in Cambridge the word “Professor” was
used differently, but in India he thought all the members of the superior Service,
who did the work of Professors, should be called Professors. In some Provinces
the designation was used for special officers, and in other Provinces it was applied
more or less broadcast. There should be more uniformity of practice in this respect.
82,966. The witness felt the importance of maintaining a European proportion
in the Educational Department. It was as important to keep that European propor-
tion in the professorial as in the administrative branch. The proportion should be
about one-half, and he would only make it contingent upon there being men avail-
able. Steps should be taken to procure men, and opportunities and inducements
should be offered to Indians, so that there might be no deficiency of recruits. In the
present circumstances men would never be attracted to the Service.
82,967. Any member of the Provincial Service who proved himself an excep-
tional man should have the right to be promoted to the superior Service, with all
the status and pay which that Service involved. The witness would regard that as
an exceptional form of recruitment to the superior Service, as distinct from direct
recruitment.
82,968. Asked whether it should be left to the Secretary of State to nominate
Indians who had a European degree, the witness said his suggestion was that the
Universities of England, preferably Oxford and Cambridge, should form a Board,
with the Vice-Chancellors at their head, to select a certain number of candidates
for the superior Service, and the Secretary of State should select recruits out of
those men for the Service. His object in making that proposal was to secure that
the Universities, out of regard for their reputations, would take good care to select
men who were really fit for the Service. Also, they were in a much better position
to know what sort of men were required for the Service than outsiders.
82,969. The witness was not of opinion that the professorial should be sepa-
rated entirely from the administrative branch. He would have both branches inter-
changeable, as at present, because in the course of time it might turn out that a
man was better fitted for a professorship than headmastership, or vice versa.
385
82,970. He also made the suggestion that before men selected for professorial
work in India came out, they should work during their probationary period under
the University Professors, and complete their study in their special branch; and
that those who were selected for headmasterships and inspectorships should have
time to study the theory and practice of education, so that they might be better fit-
ted to perform their work in India. He was not in favour of separating the Service
from the very beginning. He thought on the whole it would be better to leave the
matter to the discretion of the authorities.
82,971. He would bring the post of Deputy Inspector, now in the Subordinate
Service, up to the Provincial Service.
82,972. The witness suggested that the Director of Public Instruction should be
relieved by the appointment of three staff officers, who should deal respectively
with the masses, women, and Muhammadans. His idea was that one man without
adequate assistance and well-informed assistants could not look after the whole
of the education of a Province. As to the question of Muhammadan education,
his opinion was that it had not received the amount of attention which it ought
to have received by the authorities. The Director of Public Instruction could not
be expected to give the subject that special attention which those who were inter-
ested in Muhammadan education thought it ought to receive. For instance, taking
the United Provinces, Muhammadans composed 14 per cent. of the population.
If the history of education in the Province was studied, it would be found that
whenever any proposals where made, either by the Educational Commission or
by the Supreme Government, and the Local Governments were asked to go into
the question of the improvement of Muhammadan education, the Local Govern-
ments always said that the condition of Muhammadan education was satisfactory,
on the ground that Muhammadans composed only 14 per cent. of the population.
If the result of the examinations showed that the percentage of Muhammadan
passes came up to 14 per cent. they were satisfied. If, however, there had been any
Muhammadan officer to represent to the Director the views of those interested
in Muhammadan education, he could have said that the United Provinces was
a Province inhabited by a large number of very ancient and old Muhammadan
families. In the total population there might be 14 per cent. Muhammadans, but
if the population of respectable and ancient Muhammadan families in the United
Provinces was taken, it would be found that it came to 40 per cent.
82,973. There was a complaint upon the part of Muhammadans that Muham-
madan students were not admitted in sufficient numbers into Government schools,
that they did not get a sufficient remission of fees, and that here was not a suf-
ficient number of Muhammadan teachers. Then again, Muhammadan schools
needed official help in the form of recognition, and of grants-in-aid. In many
ways the question of Muhammadan education ought to receive a great deal of
consideration. If there was a Muhammadan Secretary with the Director, it would
be his duty to study the question, and lay the facts before the Director. Similarly,
with regard to female Muhammadan education, which was an extremely delicate
subject, the Director of Public Instruction could not understand that problem in
386
all its details as a Muhammadan could. The witness agreed that nominally all the
work he had just been suggesting was work that should be carried out by the exist-
ing Inspector, but such an officer could only do it for his own particular area. What
he really suggested was an officer with a free run over the whole Province, and
with power to report to the Director of Public Instruction. He suggested that such
a proposal should be applicable throughout India. Muhammadan education was in
an extremely backward state throughout the country. There was an insufficiency
of schools, and those which existed were not getting the necessary care to bring
them up to the standard of other communities.
82,974. (Lord Ronaldshay.) The witness said he would make it a necessary
qualification that no Indian should be appointed to the Superior Service unless
he had been educated at one of the English Universities, preferably Oxford or
Cambridge.
82,975. With regard to the question whether he thought it desirable that the
people of India should be led to suppose that they could train themselves for the
superior posts in their own country, and that they must go to Europe to get an
adequate University training, the witness said at present such was the case, and
would be for some time to come, and he thought it absolutely necessary. He did
not include in that category individual cases of officers, who should be promoted
direct, without being compelled to go to England.
82,976. With regard to whether Indians who went to Europe at the student age
were likely to acquire a good many of the vices of the West, and lose some of
their own virtues, the witness said that that depended on the individual. That was
a general question, and not an educational one.
82,977. Generally speaking, he did not think an Indian would gain more by
being trained in his own country during his student days, and then going to
Europe later on for study leave, after serving his Department for a few years. He
thought before a man entered the Service he should qualify himself by going to
Europe. If there were similar institutions to Oxford and Cambridge in India, of
course there would be no need for an Indian to go out of the country, but there
were no such institutions. In Aligarh the authorities were trying to establish a
University on the model of a European University, and when they had done so,
then it would be a question whether it would be necessary for an Indian to go to
Europe at all.
82,978. He would be disposed to say that a considerable expenditure on the part
of Government with a view to attracting either European or Indian Professors of
the highest calibre to India, would be entirely justified in the eyes of the Indian
community.
82,979. (Sir Theodore Morison.) The reason why Muhammadans generally had
not availed themselves of the ordinary facilities which were open to the general
public in the Government institutions, was because they thought they had not suf-
ficient representation in the Service.
82,980. He did not think there was any considerable Muhammadan objection at
the present day to entering Government schools on the ground of religion.
387
82,981. The witness said he attached great importance to the residential side of
a college. He had suggested that the senior tutor should be given an allowance of
Rs. 200 a month, and ordinary tutors Rs. 100 a month, because their work was not
very pleasant, and there must be some special inducement for good men to carry
it on. Such work ought most certainly to be encouraged in the educational system
of the country.
82,982. With regard to his suggestion that there should be a very considerable
increase in salaries in Government colleges, the witness said he had not looked to
any other interest in the matter except that of education. He did not care whether
other interests were affected by his proposal. India ought to get the best education
possible. The State-aided colleges would be affected by his proposal, because in a
few years Indians of such education would be produced that they would be avail-
able for State-aided institutions.
82,983. As to the status of teachers, and the witness’s recommendations thereon,
if better men for the superior Service, both Europeans and Indians, were obtained,
he thought they would look after themselves, and he thought their learning would
command the necessary respect. The Subordinate Service certainly needed some-
thing done for it. He also said that, if there was someone with the authorities to
represent the general feeling of the people with regard to the giving of titles, better
results would accrue. The title of Shams-ul-ulama was very often given to those
who really never ought to hold it, but who received it because they commanded
the favour of some one in authority.
82,984. He did not agree that special efforts on the part of Government had been
made to help Muhammadans in different parts of India, and that the results had
generally been discouraging. The real effort was made, so far as the Government
was concerned, after the Education Commission of 1882. That Commission made
recommendations which really went to the root of the matter. The Government of
India accepted certain recommendations, which were sent on to the Local Gov-
ernments, but they were not properly carried out, simply because there was no one
to represent the matter in its proper light. For instance, one of the most important
recommendations of the Commission, which was accepted by the Government of
India, was that in the Annual Educational Report, there should be a special chapter
devoted to the question of Muhammadan education, in which should be shown in
detail what particular steps had been taken to promote and improve Muhammadan
education. If, however, the report of the United Provinces was looked at, it would
be found that the subject was generally dealt with in a few lines.
82,985. With regard to the suggestion that in those parts of India where the
Muhammadans had relied most on their own exertions the state of Muhammadan
education was least unsatisfactory, whilst it was most unsatisfactory where it had
received a great measure of assistance from Government, the witness said that
depended upon the character of the people, the history, and the position of the
particular section of the community in a Province.
82,986. (Mr. Chaubal.) When he said Muhammadans were not admitted in suf-
ficient numbers in Government schools, he meant that it was because the school
388
could only accommodate a certain number of people. He could quote no instances

of a certain class being admitted to schools in preference to another, but it was
said that there was some partiality shown. It was true that pupils obtained admis-
sion into the secondary school standards from the lower standards, and there was
an examination held from which a certain number were admitted into the higher
standards.
82,987. He did not know of any instances of any suggestions made by the pres-
ent Muhammadan inspectors of divisions, which had not been considered or been
treated fairly by the Government.
82,988. With regard to his suggestions that all Indians should go to Europe for
training prior to entering the superior service, the witness said that in special cases
men might go to England after serving four or five years in the service, instead of
going out raw from college.
82,989. He did not approve at all of a separate institution the object of which
would be to look after the conduct and behaviour of young Indians in England. He
thought they should be kept within the influence of good English society.
82,990. (Mr. Sly.) At present in the college part of Aligarh, there was the Prin-
cipal, who was an Indian, six European professors, and four Indian professors, of
whom two had European qualifications. In the school, there was the headmaster,
the assistant headmaster, who were Europeans, and about 20 Indian masters. The
Principal was paid Rs. 1,000, and the professors were started at Rs. 400 rising
to Rs. 750. The Europeans, and Indians with European qualifications, were paid
exactly the same rates of salary. Indians who had not European qualifications did
not receive the same scale. The Indian assistant professor was started at Rs. 100
rising to Rs. 300.
82,991. (Mr. Fisher.) At the Aligarh College a point was made of encouraging
students to go to England if they were promising, and of good character. Many
had gone from the college to England. The result, on the whole, had been satisfac-
tory. Most of such students, when they returned, did not go into the Educational
Service as professors, but entered the Bar.
With regard to his suggested rules for the probation of candidates after selec-
tion by the Secretary of State, he did not necessarily mean it to be inferred that
he assumed that all candidates would be selected just after they had taken their
degree at the University; but when there was an Education Board in the Univer-
sity for the purpose, they should have a list of available candidates from which
the Secretary of State might choose as many as he required, and those who were
selected might go through the probationary term.
82,992. The witness said he would propose for his own college that a man, after
being selected for the post of professor, should undergo a probationary period of
study and research, arranged under the supervision of the University.
82,993. He contemplated the continuance of a reformed Provincial Service.
When he used the term “Provincial” he did not necessarily mean to imply that
the second grade of the Educational Service was to be exclusively recruited from
the Province in question. He only used the word “Provincial” because the service
389
would be confined to that Province, whereas the Imperial Service would be for
the whole country.
82,994. (Mr. Madge.) Influential representations from Muhammadan institu-
tions would not be as effective as an officer specially attached to the Director of
Public Instruction. The former system had been in vogue for at least 40 years, and
nothing satisfactory had come from it. It was true that in former years Muham-
madans would not attend Government Schools because religion was not a part of
the course of instruction, but he did not think that was true in many cases at the
present time; the feeling had died out.
82,995. (Mr. Abdur Rahim.) It was true that he had special opportunities for
studying Muhammadan education. Representations had been made on the subject
of having a Muhammadan officer in the office of the Director of Public Instruc-
tion. Resolutions had been passed in the all-India Muhammadan Conference on
that matter for several years past. He did not complain of unfair treatment on
the part of the present officers, but there were questions specially appertaining
to Muhammadan education which could be better studied if there was a respon-
sible Muhammadan officer to keep the Director informed on the subject. Repre-
sentations had undoubtedly been made by Muhammadan educational bodies, but
unless there was a thoroughly informed officer in the office of Director, those rep-
resentations could not be weighed and considered in an efficient manner. He was
not aware of any special steps having been taken in Madras specially to encourage
Muhammadan education.
82,996. With regard to Muhammadan boys being refused admission in the
United Provinces, the number was very large. There were very few Muhammadan
schools throughout India, and they were not so good as the Government institu-
tions. He personally did not attach much importance to the remarks in regard to
favouritism, but suspicions did exist, and in order to remove them the best plan
was to have a Muhammadan in a responsible position, and then Muhammadans
would have no reason to complain that their interests were not properly served.
82,997. In order to show the difference which the appointment of a Muham-
madan officer made in a district, the witness quoted the following figures for a
district, of which the total population was over 800,000, and of which the Muham-
madans composed 775,000. These showed the number of students in primary
schools and aided maktabs. In 1907–08, when there was a non-Muhammadan
District Inspector, the total number of students was 8,902, of whom 5,047 were
Muhammadans. In 1908–09 the total number of students had risen to 9,169,
and the number of Muhammadans was 5,591. In 1909–10 the total number was
8,826, and the number of Muhammadans was 5,042. In the following three years
a Muhammadan Inspector was in charge, with the result that in 1910–11 the total
number of students was 9,965, of whom 6,154 were Muhammadans. In 1911–12
the total number was 12,438, of whom 7,835 were Muhammadans, and in 1912–
13 the total number was 14,402, of whom 9,836 were Muhammadans.
82,998. It was true that in Eastern Bengal there had been considerable progress
made with regard to Muhammadan education. He attributed that to the special
390
attention which had been paid to the subject after the Partition. A special confer-
ence had been called, presided over by Mr. Sharp, the Director of Public Instruc-
tion, in which all the needs of the question were studied and considered and a
great number of scholarships were given. Another reason why more progress had
been made in Eastern Bengal was because there was a larger number of Muham-
madan Inspectors there than in any other district.
82,999. (Sir Valentine Chirol.) The witness said that if in the interests of edu-
cation it was necessary, in order to avoid any feeling of jealousy, that every sec-
tion of the community should have a special officer attached to the Director for
the purpose of advising him as to that particular community’s needs in education,
such officers should be appointed. He contended that unless and until special
attention was paid in some form or another to the interests of Muhammadan edu-
cation, the interests of Muhammadanism would not be promoted. A satisfactory
scheme would be for an official to be selected by Government to perform the
suggested work on the nomination of the Muhammadan community, and for his
expenses to be defrayed by them. The officer should then work with the Direc-
tor of Public Instruction in some way settled by mutual agreement between the
representatives of the community and the Government. Such an official should
be given the same status, the same powers, and the same position as an official
secretary.
83,000. (Mr. Jennings.) With regard to the duties of tutors and specialists in
Aligarh College, the duty of the tutor was to look after the residential life and
discipline of the students. It was a very important duty, and there were a number
of tutors in the college. The residential part of the college would not be run by
specialists alone; the specialists could only deal with the educational side. College
tutors and Inspectors could be made interchangeable in some cases. He thought a
tutor, who was a high specialist, would carry much greater weight, and command
much greater respect and admiration.
BABU SARADA PRASANNA DAS, M.A., Officiating Principal,

Hooghly College.
Written Statement1 relating to the Education Department, being a Memorandum em-
bodying the Corporate opinion of the members of the Provincial Educational Service,
Bengal.
83,567. I. It is desirable that the two branches—Provincial and Indian—of the

Superior Service be amalgamated into one Service.
The Resolution of the Government of India on the reorganization of the Edu-
cational Services dated the 23rd July 1896 stated in paragraph 6 that the Superior
Service would consist of two branches—one including all posts to be filled by
persons appointed in England, which will be called “the Indian Educational Ser-
vice”; and the other, including all posts to be filled by recruitment in India, will
391
be known as “the Provincial Educational Service.” In the course of a reply in

the Imperial Council, Sir Antony MacDonnell (afterwards Lord MacDonnell), the
then Home Member, was pleased to explain that there was no difference between
the two Services except as regards the place of recruitment, and the same reply
was afterwards practically repeated by the then Secretary of State in the House of
Commons. It was this principle of equality which was virtually given effect to, in
Bengal at any rate, by the provision of seven Principalships of Colleges and four
Divisional Inspectorships reserved exclusively for the officers of the Provincial
Service (vide Bengal Government’s letter to the Government of India—General
(Education) Department No. 717, dated the 28th February 1894). In practice, how-
ever, the Provincial Service has come to be regarded by the Education Department
as a subordinate Service, the newest recruit in the Indian Service being treated in
many cases as senior to the most senior officer of the Provincial Service. This is
probably due to the analogy to the Provincial Executive and Judicial Services,
which are frankly subordinate to the Indian Civil Service, and also to the provi-
sion of acting allowances for the Provincial Educational Service officer officiating
in the Indian Educational Service. The equality of the two Services was made
quite obvious by the Government appointing (1) Mr. Brühl, a member of the Pro-
vincial Service, to the Principalship of the Sibpur Engineering College, which has
on its staff several members of the Indian Service; (2) Mr. Duke, a member of the
Indian Service, to a Professorship of the Cuttack College, the head of which is
Mr. Shaw, an officer of the Provincial Service. These two appointments leave no
doubt whatever as to the original intention of the Government of Indian to attach
the same status to the two Services.
In proposing the amalgamation of the two Services we are only advocating an
organization which would give effect to the intention of the Government Reso-
lution referred to above, without the possibility of a deviation that has arisen in
practice.
The great defect of the system under which the Provincial Service does not
actually enjoy the same prestige as the Indian Service, in spite of the fact that sev-
eral members of the former Service possess more distinguished academic quali-
fications and reputations, consists in this, that it supplies an object-lesson to our
students in the colleges which is detrimental to the interests of sound education.
For such invidious distinctions, based mainly on considerations of nationality, are
calculated to weaken the students’ self-respect. It could never have been the inten-
tion of Government to introduce such a system. The distinction that obtains now
between the two Services is regarded by the members of the Provincial Service
with a feeling of deep disappointment.
The principle which led the Government of India to recognize, in the above
Resolution, the equality of the two branches of the Superior Service was mainly
based on the two following considerations:—
(1) The respective officers of the two Services, working side by side in col-
leges, have exactly similar duties assigned to them, in recognition of which under
a Resolution of the Bengal Government they are uniformly styled “Professors.”
392
Inasmuch as the Deputy Magistrates, Munsifs, and Subordinate Judges have alto-
gether subordinate duties assigned to them, the Provincial Executive and Judicial
Services are obviously differently related to the Indian Civil Service as com-
pared with the relation which ought to subsist, and which was intended to subsist,
between members of the Provincial and Indian Educational Services.
(2) In the matter of academic qualifications the members of the Provincial Ser-
vice have equivalent, identical, and, in some cases, even decidedly superior quali-
fications as compared with those of the Indian Service generally.
We venture to think that the members of the Provincial Service have been, on
the whole, discharging their duties as efficiently as the members of the Indian
Service.
II. In order to attract distinguished graduates from European Universities,
Europeans should be given a higher scale of pay, though the status of Indian and
European officers should be exactly the same. The one amalgamated Service
should therefore consist of two classes of posts: (1) posts carrying full salary,
(2) posts carrying at least 3⁄5ths or 60 per cent. of the full salary. Distinguished
Indian scholars should however be appointed on full pay in India also.
III. Posts of the former class will at present be held by the members of the exist-
ing Indian Educational Service, while those of the latter class will be similarly
held by the members of the existing Provincial Service, subject to the following
limitation:—
At least one-fourth of the full-salaried posts should be reserved for Indians of
distinction, whether educated in Europe or India. To the posts so reserved spe-
cially meritorious Indians who may be already in the Service but drawing pay on
the lower scale should be equally eligible for appointment. These appointments
should be made on the recommendation of the Local Government.
IV. The present proportion of the cadre of the Indian Educational Service to the
Provincial Educational Service is 1:3. This proportion should be reduced in future
to 1:6, a corresponding increase being made in the number of posts carrying a
lower salary. This would be in accordance with the recommendations of the last
Public Services Commission.
V. In the recruitment of officers, European and Indian, only men of high aca-
demic qualifications should be held eligible.
VI. In the matter of special appointments, e.g., Divisional Inspectorships,
Principalships of Colleges, the posts of Assistant Director and Director of Public
Instruction, there should be no distinction as between Indians and Europeans, i.e.,
these posts should be open to all officers irrespective of appointments in India or
England.
VII. Seniority of officers in any particular grade should be determined by the
date of appointment to that grade, and not by the actual salary drawn.
VIII. The scheme of amalgamation of the two Services as they stand at present,
if approved, should be worked on the following plan:—
There are at present 52 posts in the Indian Educational Service and 160 posts in
the Provincial Educational Service. In the case of full-salaried posts mentioned in
393
paragraph II, the initial pay should be Rs. 500 rising to Rs. 1,000 in ten years by
annual increment of Rs. 50. Out of a total of 52 posts, 32 posts should be included
in this time-scale. In the case of posts with a lower salary, the initial pay should be
Rs. 300 rising to Rs. 600 in ten years by annual increment of Rs. 30. Out of a total
of 160 posts in the Provincial Educational Service, 100 posts should be included
in the time-scale.
On completing ten years’ service all the officers should be eligible for admis-
sion into a Graded Service constituted as follows:—
Full Salary. Lower Salary.

Grade. Number of Number of
Salary. Salary.
posts. posts.
Rs. Rs.
V ... ... 6 1,200 18 720
IV ... ... 6 1,400 18 840
III ... ... 5 1,600 15 960
II ... ... 2 1,800 6 1,080
I ... ... 1 2,000 3 1,200
IX. Promotion from the ungraded to the graded list should be regulated chiefly
by considerations of merit and not of seniority.
Supplementary Written Statement relating to the Provincial

Educational Service.
GENERAL REMARKS.
83,568. Importance of the work of Educational officers, and especially the
responsibility resting with teachers, are admitted on all hands. Professors in Col-
leges have not only to train men for Public Services and for the liberal profes-
sions, but they are also responsible for imparting sound education calculated to
widen the bounds of knowledge and to build up the character of their students so
as to make them, in the words of His Imperial Majesty, “loyal, manly and useful
citizens.” Lord Curzon, in the course of his address delivered at the annual Con-
vocation of the Calcutta University on the 15th February, 1902, thus referred to
the gravity and responsibility of those who choose the profession of teaching:—“I
turn to those young men who are going to be teachers of others. I pray them to rec-
ognise the gravity and responsibility of their choice. Rightly viewed, theirs is the
foremost of sciences, the noblest of professions, the most intellectual of arts. . . . .
The first thing I would have you remember, therefore, is that you are not entering
upon as easy or an idle profession. It is the most responsible of all.”
394
In view of the gravity and importance of their work, only men of very high
attainments and character should be selected for service in the Education Depart-
ment, and the conditions of service, salary, leave and pension should be suffi-
ciently attractive. It is therefore essential that the following general principles
should be carefully observed by Government:—
(1) Elimination of considerations of nationality.—In recruiting Educational
officers, considerations of race or nationality should be altogether left out of
account, as it is necessary to appoint the best men available, to whatever national-
ity they might belong.
(2) Widening of the place of recruitment.—In recruiting officers for the Supe-
rior Educational Service, recruitment should not be confined to a particular prov-
ince or a particular country. Best possible men, wherever available, ought to be
appointed.
(3) Appointment by Local Government.—Appointment to the Superior Educa-
tional Service in India should be made by the Local Government in consultation
with the Director of Public Instruction and the University authorities in India.
This point will be more fully explained under the head “Recruitment.”
(4) Amalgamation of the Provincial Educational Service and Indian Edu-
cational Service.—The Provincial Educational Service, and the Indian Edu-
cational Service, which are only two branches of the same service, viz., the
Superior Educational Service, should be amalgamated, in order that the distinc-
tion which has now arisen in practice between the two branches may be com-
pletely removed. This point, to which I attach great importance, will be dealt
with more fully later on.
(5) Appointment of Indians2 to the highest posts in the Education Department.—
Qualified Indians (whether graduates of Indian or European Universities) should
be appointed to the highest posts in the Education Department, viz., Principal-
ships of Colleges, including the Presidency College, Divisional Inspectorships
and the posts of the Assistant Director and the Director of Public Instruction.
(6) Equal pay for both Indian and European officers, with compensation allow-
ance for the latter.—The pay of the amalgamated Superior Educational Service
(hereinafter called the Bengal Educational Service) should be exactly the same
throughout the whole period of service for both European and Indian officers, but
European officers may be given a compensation allowance, as explained in the
scheme herewith submitted (Enclosure A), in order to induce men of high qualifi-
cations to serve in a country remote from their homes.
(7) Personal allowances in recognition of special merit.—Personal allowances
should be given to distinguished members of the Bengal Educational Service,
whether European or Indian, in recognition of special merit, as explained in the
scheme appended to this note (Enclosure A). Some of these personal allowances
(not exceeding one-fourth of the total number) may, however, be given to officers,
Indian or European, of special distinction, at the beginning of their service, if the
interests of the service require that such inducements should be offered in special
cases. (It is to be understood that in the case of Europeans a personal allowance,
395
when granted, will be in addition to the usual compensation allowance.) Under

this system of personal allowances distinguished officers of special merit will
have every chance of getting a maximum salary of Rs. 2,000 a month, so that the
Educational Service will attract best possible men, and there will be always an
incentive to efficient work.
(8) Some of the proposed personal allowances to be reserved for Indians.—
At least one-third of the number of the proposed personal allowances should be
reserved for Indian officers, in order to induce the best Indian graduates to join
the Education Department by an offer of surer prospects. Apart from all general
considerations, the principle of reserving a certain number of posts for Indians in
a branch of the Public Service has already been recognised by the Secretary of
State for India in the case of the superior branch of the Public Works Department.
(9) General improvement of the pay and prospects of Educational officers.—
The day and prospects of promotion of Educational officers, which compare unfa-
vourably with those of members of other branches of the Public Service, should be
substantially improved. The initial pay and the maximum pay ought to be raised,
and the service should be so constituted as to ensure a steady flow of promotion.
(10) Time-scale.—The pay of a member of the Bengal Educational Service,
during the first ten years of service, should be regulated in accordance with a suit-
able time-scale to be explained later on (Enclosure A). This is already the case in
the Indian Educational Service, the Provincial Engineer Service and the Telegraph
Service.
(11) Reduction of the European element.—The proportion of European officers
to the Indian officers in the Superior Educational Service should be gradually
reduced in the interest of economy, as more and more qualified Indians are avail-
able to represent Western culture. This is in accordance with the recommendations
of the last Public Services Commission. In the present circumstances of the coun-
try, however, a certain number of highly distinguished European officers is indis-
pensable in the Education Department, to assist in the “gradual union and fusion
of the culture” of the East and the West. And when this ideal has been attained,
it may be possible to work the educational machinery almost entirely through an
indigenous agency.
83,569. (I.) Method of recruitment.—As already stated under the head of
“General remarks,” only the best men should be appointed to the Bengal Educa-
tional Service—
(a) to whatever nationality they might belong, and
(b) wherever they may be available (whether Europe or India). Every vacancy
should therefore be widely advertised both in Indian and in English papers.
(c) Moreover, appointment to the Educational Service should be made by the
Local Government in consultation with the Director of Public Instruction and
the University, for the actual requirements in the case of any vacancy are better
known to the Local Government than to the India Office. Moreover, character and
attainments of Indian graduates, as compared with those of European graduates,
are more fully known to the Local Government than to the authorities at home. As
396
to the recruitment of European graduates, the India Office may invite applications
from them and forward them to the Local Government with memoranda on their
qualifications.
(d) Men of high academic qualifications (whether European or Indian), espe-
cially those who after a brilliant University career have gone through a post-
graduate course of study so as to specialise in the subjects they are required to
teach, or men who after a distinguished University career have proved themselves
to be highly capable teachers, in private colleges, should only be appointed to the
Bengal Educational Service.
83,570. (II.) System of training and probation.—All officers, excepting those
who have already had experience of college work, for a period of not less than
two years, should be appointed in the first instance for two years. If recruitment be
made in the manner already suggested, no special training will be necessary after
appointment to the service.
83,571. (III.) Conditions of service.—Duties of a Professor should not be
confined to lecture work. He should be responsible for the physical and moral
training of the students under his charge, as much as for their intellectual train-
ing. He should encourage sports and games, and have free intercourse with them
in the debating clubs, the common room, the playground, the hostels, and even
in his own house. In short, he should mould the life and character of all students
under his care. With a view to facilitate social intercourse between Professors and
students, the former should be provided with free quarters within the precincts of
the college.
83,572. (IV.) Condition of salary.
A.—EXISTING CONDITIONS OF SALARY IN THE

PROVINCIAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICE.
(a) Constitution of the Provincial Educational Service.—The Provincial Educa-
tional Service is now divided into eight classes, the pay and the strength of which
are shown below:—
Class. Number of Posts. Pay.
Rs.
I. ... ... 5 ... ... ... 700
II. ... ... 10 ... ... ... 600
III. ... ... 11 ... ... ... 500
IV. ... ... 14 ... ... ... 400
V. ... ... 18 ... ... ... 350
VI. ... ... 23 ... ... ... 300
VII. ... ... 32 ... ... ... 250
VIII. ... ... 34 ... ... ... 200
397
(b) Low initial pay.—The initial pay (Rs. 200) is inadequate. The initial pay of
the Provincial Executive Service is Rs. 250.
(c) Low maximum pay.—The maximum pay to which a member of the Provin-
cial Educational Service is now entitled is Rs. 700. The pay of the highest grade in
the Provincial Executive Service is Rs. 800, and in the Provincial Judicial Service
Rs. 1,000. Moreover, members of the Provincial Civil Service (both Executive
and Judicial) are allowed to hold some listed posts, but there are not even open-
ings of this kind for members of the Provincial Educational Service, however
brilliant or meritorious they may be.
(d) Slow promotion.—Promotion is very slow in the Provincial Educational
Service for two reasons. In the first place, the number of posts in the lower
classes is very large as compared with the number in the higher classes, and in
consequence, even under the most favourable circumstances, nearly two-thirds
of an officer’s whole period of service must be spent in getting through the three
lowest classes. Secondly, nothing has been more conducive to slow promotion
than the old practice (which has not yet been altogether discontinued) of appoint-
ing some officers direct to one of the higher classes in the Provincial Educa-
tional Service. From 1897 to 1905 about 20 officers were appointed direct to
classes VI. and VII. (the lowest class being class VIII.), and some even to class
V. Quite recently (in August, 1913) an officer was appointed sub. pro tem, direct
to class III. of the Provincial Educational Service. The result is that most of the
appointments in the higher classes are now held by officers who will retire later
than many of the members of the lower classes; and though some relief is thus
afforded to the former, it is merely at the expense of the remaining officers who
form the majority.
B.—CONDITIONS OF SALARY AS THEY SHOULD BE.

(a) Introduction of a system of progressive pay (time-scale).—In a service like
the one which is now called the Provincial Educational Service (but which, I
propose, should be amalgamated with the present Indian Educational Service, the
amalgamated service being called the Bengal Educational Service), the graded
system can hardly work satisfactorily; firstly, because the strength of the service
is very limited, and, secondly, because it is sometimes found necessary to appoint
some of the officers on special rates of pay higher than the pay of the lowest class,
and in such cases appointment has to be made direct to some of the higher classes,
over the heads of deserving officers in the lower classes, thus seriously blocking
a normal flow of promotion and giving rise to a bitter feeling.
It would no doubt be possible to improve the pay and prospects of members of
the service even by retaining a graded system, provided the service were consti-
tuted on the following lines:—
(1) The pay of each grade is to be substantially increased.
(2) The number of posts in the lower classes is to be substantially reduced, a
corresponding increase being made in the number of posts in the higher classes.
398
(3) Finally, it is to be strictly observed that under no circumstances appointment

should be made to any class other than the lowest.
I should, however, strongly advocate the introduction of a system of progressive
pay in place of the present graded system, at least during the first ten years of ser-
vice, as in the Indian Educational Service or in the Provincial Engineer Service, as
this will remove the grievance just referred to (namely, the appointment of outsid-
ers over the heads of deserving officers), and secure a regular flow of promotion
and make the service more popular.
(b) Raising the initial pay.—The initial pay should be raised to Rs. 300 a month.
(c) More rapid promotion.—The rate of promotion should be much more rapid
than at present. In order to give effect to my suggestions under the three preceding
heads, viz., (a), (b) and (c). I should strongly urge that the pay during the first ten
years of service should be Rs. 300—30—600 a month, i.e., the initial pay should
be Rs. 600 a month rising to Rs. 600 a month in ten years by an annual increment
of Rs. 30 per mensem.
(d) Raising the maximum pay.—The pay of the highest grade should be Rs.
1,300 a month. This of course, implies that there should be some intermediate
grades—for example, two grades on Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 800 respectively. The con-
stitution of the amalgamated Superior Educational Service, as proposed by me,
will be explained later on in the scheme annexed to this note (Enclosure A).
(e) Personal allowance to specially meritorious officers.—Personal allowances
should be granted to officers of exceptional merit in addition to the grade pay
(vide Enclosure A).
83,573. (V.) Conditions of leave.—(a) Equal facilities should be given to
members of both the Indian and the Provincial branches of the Superior Educa-
tional Service for self-improvement and for keeping them abreast with the times,
and there should be no difference as regards leave rules, especially in the case of
furlough, so as to afford equal opportunities to all Professors for study in Europe
or in different parts of India.
(b) Privilege leave is allowed to Educational officers enjoying regular vaca-
tion:—(i) on half pay, and (ii) only when there is urgent necessity. The Director of
Public Instruction should be authorised to relax the second condition at his discre-
tion, and to allow privilege leave in cases of ordinary necessity.
(c) The head of an office should be allowed discretion to extend casual leave
from ten to fifteen days in the year, especially in cases of urgent necessity.
83,574. (VI.) Conditions of pension.—(a) Twenty-five years’ active service
should entitle an officer to full pension.
(b) Twenty years’ active service should also qualify for full pension in the case
of—
(i) officers who may be invalidated by competent medical authorities,
(ii) officers who are admitted into the Educational Service from private col-
leges at an advanced age, and
(iii) officers of special merit who may be willing to retire before completing
25 years of active service.
399
83,575. (VII.) Such limitations as may exist in the employment of non-

Europeans and the working of the existing system of division of services into
Imperial and Provincial.
A.—EXISTING CONDITIONS.
(a) Indians, however high their academic qualifications may be, are almost
completely debarred from appointment to the Indian Educational Service. Prior to
the reconstitution of the present Superior Service in 1897, men like Pandits Iswar
Chandra Vidyasagar and Mohesh Chandra Nayaratna, Babus Bhudeh Mukherjee,
Prasanna Kumar Sarbadhikari, Umesh Chandra Dutta and Peari Charan Sarkar,
who had purely Indian qualifications, were considered to be very valuable acqui-
sitions to the Superior graded service; but since the constitution of the Provincial
Educational Service in 1896, even distinguished members of this service, like Dr.
P. C. Roy and Dr. D. N. Mallik, who are well-known for their researches and high
character, have not been admitted into the Indian Educational Service.
(b) Non-Europeans in the Provincial Educational Service are not allowed now
to hold the highest posts in the Education Department, e.g., Principalships of the
Presidency and Dacca Colleges, the Civil Engineering College, Sibpur, and of the
Calcutta Madrasa, Divisional Inspectorships (with one exception), and the post of
the Assistant Director of Public Instruction, not to speak of the post of the Direc-
tor of Public Instruction. Only a few years ago seven Principalships of Colleges,
including the Ravenshaw College (now in Bihar and Orissa), and four Divisional
Inspectorships, were reserved exclusively for members of the Provincial Educa-
tional Service, but at present only three of the Principalships and one Divisional
Inspectorship are open to members of the Provincial Educational Service. Thus,
while the number of listed posts thrown open to the Provincial Civil Service is
being gradually increased, there has been unfortunately a distinctly retrograde
move as regards the Provincial Educational Service in respect of appointment to
posts of higher responsibility.
(c) The working of the existing system of division of the Superior Educational
Service into Imperial and Provincial has proved very unsatisfactory, and has
given rise to bitter discontent. In the resolution of the Government of India on
the reorganisation of the Educational Services, dated the 23rd July 1896, and
in the Bengal Government Resolution No. 1244, dated the 26th March 1897, it
was stated that the Indian Educational Service and the Provincial Educational
Service were only two branches of the same service, viz., the Superior Edu-
cational Service. It was clearly explained in the Imperial Council and also in
Parliament that there was no difference between the two branches of the service,
except in respect of the place of recruitment and the pay. But in actual practice
a member of the Provincial Educational Service has come to be regarded in the
Education Department as inferior to a member of the Indian Educational Service,
e.g., a man like Dr. P. C. Roy, the present senior officer of the Provincial Educa-
tional Service, who has earned a world-wide reputation for his original work in
400
Chemistry, is regarded inferior in status even to the junior members of the Indian
Educational Service.
B.—NECESSITY OF REMOVING THE EXISTING

LIMITATIONS AND THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE
INDIAN EDUCATIONAL SERVICE AND THE PROVINCIAL
EDUCATIONAL SERVICE.
(a) If graduates of Indian Universities are found competent enough to be Judges
of the High Court or members of the Executive Council (both Imperial and Pro-
vincial) or to hold the highest appointments in the enrolled list of the Financial
Department of the Government of India, there are no grounds for debarring them
from holding the highest posts in the Education Department, including the post of
the Director of Public Instruction.
(b) The distinction which has arisen in practice between the Provincial and
Indian Educational Services should be completely removed, and the two services
amalgamated into one service, to be called the Bengal Educational Service. I lay
great stress on this point for the following reasons:—
(1) The distinction which has now arisen in practice was never originally
intended by Government, as already explained under the head “A—existing con-
ditions,” and it is obviously desirable to give effect to the original intention of
Government.
(2) The Provincial Educational Service does not bear to the Indian Educational
Service the same relation that the Provincial Civil Service bears to the Indian
Civil Service. Members of the Provincial Executive and Judicial Services have
altogether subordinate duties assigned to them, and are distinctly subordinate to
members of the Indian Civil Service. But members of the Provincial Educational
Service and of the Indian Educational Service, working as Professors in colleges,
have exactly similar duties to perform. The equality of status between these two
classes of officers is indicated also by the fact that they bear the identical designa-
tion of Professors, while members of the Provincial Civil Service (both Executive
and Judicial) have designations [“Deputy Magistrates,” “Subordinate Judges,”]
which obviously imply an inferiority of status, as compared with members of the
Indian Civil Service.
(3) As regards academic distinctions, it may be pointed out that only the best
graduates of Indian Universities are, as a rule, appointed as Professors in the Provin-
cial Educational Service, and their qualifications may be said to be of a high order,
even in comparison with those of the members of the Indian Educational Service,
especially as the best European graduates are not always available for this service.
(4) As regards the actual success attained by the European and Indian graduates
respectively as Professors in colleges, the best method of arriving at a definite
conclusion is to compare their abilities as teachers and disciplinarians, their char-
acter, and above all the enthusiasm with which they devote their time and energy
to furthering the best interests of the students committed to their care.
401
(5) The difference in status between the Provincial and Indian Educational Ser-
vice officers, which has arisen in practice, though not intended by Government,
has given rise to a feeling of intense bitterness in the minds of the more deserving
members of the Provincial Educational Service. This feeling should be removed
in the interests of sound education.
Amalgamation of the Indian and Provincial branches of the Superior Educa-
tional Service may be effected on the lines illustrated by the scheme herewith
submitted (Enclosure A). The scheme is based upon the principles relating to con-
ditions of service, salary and status already formulated, and may, of course, be
modified by the authorities in detail, the main principles being, however, allowed
to remain unchanged.
83,576. (VIII.) Relations of the service with the Indian Civil Service and
other services.—(a) To ensure cordial relation between members of the Edu-
cational and other branches of the Public Service, there should be mutual inter-
course and exchange of views.
(b) The status of members of the proposed (amalgamated) Educational Service
should be higher, irrespective of pay, than that of members of the Provincial Civil
Service (both Executive and Judicial). Members of the Indian Educational Service
are already accorded a higher rank than Deputy Magistrates and Sub-Judges, and
members of the Provincial Educational Service, as already pointed out, should
have the same rank as those of the Indian Educational Service.
83,577. (IX.) Some other points.—(1) Inspectors of Schools, Additional
Inspectors of Schools and Assistant Inspectors of Schools should continue to
be included in the same service as Professors in colleges for the following
reasons:—
(a) It is necessary that the superior inspecting agency and the controlling offi-
cers of the Education Department should be men of as high academic qualifica-
tions as Professors in colleges and have also teaching experience, without which
no effective control can be exercised over the teaching work in schools and col-
leges. Professors of some years’ experience may therefore be appointed with
advantage as Inspecting officers.
(b) It may happen that some of the Professors will find sedentary work unsuited
to the state of their health, and a change of occupation may prove reinvigorating,
and may thus prevent a too early termination of their career of usefulness; and,
on the other hand, inspection work will not degenerate into a mechanical routine
work, if fresh ideas and spirit be occasionally infused into it from the atmosphere
of college life.
(2) All officers doing lecture work in colleges should be men of high academic
qualifications. It is therefore necessary to discontinue the practice now obtaining
in the Education Department of appointing some Lectures on an as low initial pay
as Rs. 125 a month.
(3) The Principal of every Government College should be given a suit-
able local allowance, and also provided with residential quarters, free of
rent, within or near the college, in consideration of his heavy duties and
402
responsibilities, which consist in administrative work, a large volume of

office work, including checking of accounts and control of the hostels, in
addition to lecture work.
(4) Married members of the proposed (amalgamated) Educational Service, in
large towns, should receive adequate house allowance, unless they can be pro-
vided with free quarters. This concession has already been allowed to all married
members of the Indian Educational Service living in Calcutta.
(5) The relation between two or more Professors teaching the same subject in
a college should be one of co-ordination and mutual co-operation. Each of them
should be responsible for his work directly to the Principal of the College, and not
to any of his colleagues.
(6) No officer of less than 10 years’ experience (whether European or Indian)
should be appointed to the responsible post of Principal of a College or Inspector
of Schools, as an accurate knowledge of the conditions and requirements of those
under his charge, and a clear and ready perception of the practical measures best
suited to their welfare, are essential for successful performance of the duties of an
educational administrator.
(7) There are some posts included in the Provincial Educational Service
(e.g., post of the Head Maulvi, Calcutta Madrasa, Superintendent, Apprentice
Department, Civil Engineering College, Sibpur), for which it may be neces-
sary to recruit officers on a rate of pay higher than the pay of the lowest class.
Inclusion of such posts in a graded service necessitates appointment of outsid-
ers over the heads of deserving officers in the lowest grades. Posts of this kind
should therefore be placed outside the grades of the service, with a view to
remove a keenly felt grievance arising from the appointment of outsiders to
higher grades.
(8) Headmasters of schools, and other officers not connected with College edu-
cation, should not be included in the proposed Bengal Educational Service, care
being, however, taken that their prospects may not in any way be prejudiced.
83,578. ENCLOSURE A.—SCHEME OF THE PROPOSED

AMALGAMATED SUPERIOR EDUCATIONAL SERVICE TO
BE CALLED THE BENGAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICE.
(1) STRENGTH OF THE SERVICE.
A.—Present strength of the Indian Educational Service

and the Provincial Educational Service.
(a) The number of posts in the Indian Educational Service is 56 (including the
three posts outside the grades), of which 12 are vacant now. But there are actually
14 officers in the Indian Educational Service, viz., 39 Europeans and five Indians,
including those outside the grades. (These figures have been taken from the quar-
terly Civil List for Bengal corrected up to the 1st July, 1913.)
403
(b) The strength of the Provincial Educational Service (according to the issue
of the Civil List referred to above) is 147. But the actual number of officers in the
service is now 133.
(c) It will thus be seen that the total strength of the Indian and Provincial Edu-
cational Services is 203 (56 in the Indian and 147 in the Provincial Service), but
that the actual number of officers in the two services is 177 (44 in the Indian and
133 in the Provincial Service).
B.—Strength of the proposed Bengal Educational Service.

(a) The strength of the proposed Service should not exceed 177, the actual num-
ber of officers now in the Indian and Provincial Educational Services.
(b) As suggested in my memorandum under the head “IX.—Some other points”,
in the paragraph marked (S), officers having no direct connection with college
education (and also those doing chiefly tutorial work or working as assistants in
colleges) should not be included in the proposed Service, though Inspectors of
Schools and Assistant Inspectors of Schools should continue to be so included for
reasons explained under the head “IX.—Some other points”, in paragraph marked
(1). Twenty-five to 30 officers may thus be removed from the cadre of the Provin-
cial Educational Service. On the other hand, some of the lectureships in colleges
now included in the Subordinate Educational Service should be included in the
proposed Service, some however being converted into posts of college tutors.
The strength of the proposed Service should therefore be about 160 as follows:—
Actual number of officers in the Provincial and India services 177

Number of headmasters and others to be transferred (roughly) 27
Remaining number 150
Number of lectureships to be included (roughly) 10
Total strength 160
(2) PROPORTION OF EUROPEAN OFFICERS TO INDIAN

OFFICERS IN THE PROPOSED SERVICE.
For the present the number of European officers should be 40, which is about
their actual number in the Indian Educational Service now. The number of Indian
officers should therefore be 120.
European officers should be gradually replaced by Indian officers of similar
qualifications, so far as practicable. This will lead to economy, as the number
of compensation allowances will thus be gradually reduced. In my opinion the
number of Europeans should be reduced by at least 15 (which appears to be prac-
ticable) during the next 20 years on the gradual retirement of the senior officers.
Since the passing of Lord Curzon’s Universities Act, the standard of education in
Indian Universities has considerably advanced, and a steadily increasing number
of Indians now proceed to foreign countries for study.
404
(3) CONSTITUTION OF THE PROPOSED SERVICE FOR

BOTH EUROPEANS AND INDIANS.
(a) The time-scale (Rs. 300—30—600 in 10 years).—The initial pay of an offi-

cer of the Bengal Educational Service should be Rs. 300 a month, rising to Rs.
600 a month in 10 years by an annual increment of Rs. 30 a month.
(b) The graded service.—(1) After completing 10 years’ service, all officers
will enter into a graded service in order of seniority, though they must draw for
some years a fixed pay equal to the maximum pay of the time-scale (i.e., Rs.
600 a month) before they will find admission into the graded service, which will
necessarily be contingent upon the gradual retirement of the senior officers in the
highest grades.
(2) Of the proposed 160 posts to be included in the Bengal Educational Service,
100 may be allotted to the time-scale and 60 to the graded service, which may be
divided into three classes or grades.
(3) The pay and the strength of each grade, as proposed, are shown below:—
Class (grade). Pay. Strength.
Rs.
I. ... ... ... 1,300 5
II. ... ... ... 1,000 20
III. ... ... ... 800 35
Time-scale Rs. 300—30—600 in 10 years 100.
(4) COMPENSATION ALLOWANCE FOR EUROPEAN OFFICERS.

Every European officer, being a graduate of a European University, should be
given a compensation allowance of Rs. 300 a month, so long as his pay does not
exceed Rs. 1,000 a month. The allowance should cease to be given to an officer
as soon as he is promoted to Class I (Rs. 1,300), firstly, because a compensation
allowance is not necessary in the case of an officer drawing a pay of Rs. 1,300 per
month, and, secondly (and chiefly), because a specially meritorious officer will be
able to earn a personal allowance (as explained in the next paragraph) long before
he rises to the highest grade.
(5) PERSONAL ALLOWANCE.

(a) A definite number of personal allowances should be assigned to the Service,
to be granted to officers (European or Indian) who may prove themselves to be
specially meritorious ordinarily after 10 years of service.
(b) Some of these personal allowances may, however, be given to officers
(Indian or European) of special distinction, at the beginning of their service, if the
interests of the Service require that such inducements should be offered in special
405
cases, but the number of allowances granted in this manner should not exceed
one-fourth of the total number of allowances assigned.
(c) In the case of a European officer, a personal allowance, when granted, will
be in addition to the usual compensation allowance, except when the officer rises
to the highest grade.
(d) The number and value of the proposed personal allowances may be as
follows:—
Personal allowances.
Grade. Number. Amount.

Rs.
1st grade ... ... 2 700
2nd grade ... ... 4 500
3rd grade ... ... 6 300
4th grade ... ... 12 200
N.B.—The grades of personal allowances are independent of the grades of the

Service, and there is no correspondence between them.
(e) At least one-third of the personal allowances should be reserved for Indian
officers in order to induce the best Indian graduates to join the Educational Ser-
vice by an offer of surer prospects.
( f ) A specially meritorious officer should be granted, in the first instance, after
at least 10 years of service, an allowance of the lowest grade (Rs. 200), but as
senior officers drawing higher personal allowances gradually retire, he will be
eligible for allowances of higher grades. But these allowances will not be granted
merely in order of seniority.
(6) PROMOTION AND SENIORITY.

Seniority will be regulated according to the dates of appointment to the Service.
Promotion up to Class III (Rs. 800) should be in accordance with seniority, but in
the case of higher grades it should be regulated chiefly according to merit.
(7) PROSPECTS OF EUROPEAN OFFICERS UNDER THE

PROPOSED SCHEME AS COMPARED WITH THEIR PRESENT
PROSPECTS IN THE INDIAN EDUCATIONAL SERVICE.
(a) A European officer will rise from Rs. 600 a month (Rs. 300 pay + Rs. 300
compensation allowance) to Rs. 900 a month (Rs. 600 pay + Rs. 300 compensa-
tion allowance) during the first 10 years. The average income therefore will be the
same (Rs. 750 a month) both in the proposed scheme and in the existing Indian
Educational Service during the first 10 years of service for European officers.
406
(b) As a compensation allowance of Rs. 300 is proposed to be granted to Euro-

pean officers up to class II, this allowance will make their pay and prospects in the
proposed scheme probably a little better than at present.
(c) The chief attraction of the proposed scheme to really distinguished men is
the scheme of personal allowances. A specially distinguished and meritorious offi-
cer will certainly rise to Rs. 2,000 a month (Rs. 1,300 pay + Rs. 700 allowance).
(d) Moreover, inclusion of a large number of Indian officers in the European
service will not prejudice a meritorious European officer, as comparatively less
meritorious members of the service will not rise beyond class III (Rs. 800), nor
will they be entitled to personal allowances.
Further Supplementary written Statement relating to the Education

Department, being a Memorandum on the working of the division of
the Superior Educational Service into Imperial and Provincial branches.
83,579. In the Written Statement submitted by me on the 1st October 1913 (vide
paragraphs 83,568–78), I could not, for want of time, deal adequately with the
important subject of the working of the division of the Superior Educational Ser-
vice into two branches, Indian and Provincial. Moreover, as the time allowed was
only a week, I could not then fully ascertain the views of all the officers whom I
have been called upon to represent. I therefore beg to submit this supplementary
memorandum, dealing more fully with the subject of the existing division of the
Superior Educational Service into two branches and their proposed amalgamation.
The distinction between the Indian and the Provincial branches of the Superior
Educational Service is threefold in actual practice, viz. in regard to the status, the
place of recruitment and the pay.
(A) UNEQUAL STATUS.

In spite of the repeated declarations of the highest authorities, the status of an
officer of the Provincial Educational Service has come to be regarded as distinctly
inferior to that of an officer of the Indian Service. This, however, is inevitable,
under the existing circumstances. For it is almost inconceivable that the status of
a body of officers belonging to a distinct branch of the service, drawing pay on
a lower scale, could ever be equal, except in theory, to that of the officers in the
other branch of the Service.
(B) DIFFERENCE AS REGARDS THE PLACE

OF RECRUITMENT.
The distinction between the Indian and the Provincial Educational Services, as
regards the place of recruitment, is highly objectionable, as well as unnecessary,
at the present stage of development of the Indian Universities. My reasons for
arriving at this conclusion are as follows:—
407
(a) Introduction of racial considerations. The present system, under which

recruitment for the highest posts in the Education Department (i.e., the posts in
the Indian Service) is made invariably and exclusively in Europe, introduces racial
considerations and throws the question of academic distinctions and qualifica-
tions in the back-ground. The last Public Services Commission recommended
recruitment in England for Professorships in those branches of learning only, in
which the European standard of advancement had not been attained in India at the
time. The recommendation was obviously based on considerations of qualifica-
tions and academic distinctions; but Government of India (Home Department) in
their No. 4—Edn./204—205 dated the 23rd July 1896, on the subject of the reor-
ganisation of the Educational Service, stated as follows (in paragraph 15):—“In
future natives of India who are desirous of entering the Educational Department
will usually be appointed in India and to the Provincial Service” (p. 185, Papers
relating to the Reorganisation of the Educational Service in India from 1891–97.
The result of this has been (1) that no graduates of Indian Universities, however
distinguished or capable, can now find admission into the Indian Education Ser-
vice, (2) that distinguished Indian graduates of European Universities, like Dr.
P. C. Roy, have been refused admission to that Service, but (3) that an ordinary
European graduate of the Calcutta University (Mr. Billing) could find an easy
access to the Indian Service.
(b) Recruitment on protectionist principles unsatisfactory. The hard and fast
rule regarding the place of recruitment leads to the undesirable result that candi-
dates of no superior merit in Europe, under the protection of this exclusive rule,
are sometimes appointed in preference to more distinguished and capable men in
India.
(c) Progress of Indian education and research. Since the last Public Services
Commission, there has been a considerable progress of education in India. The
number of qualified Indians available for higher educational work is unquestion-
ably much greater now than was the case 25 years ago, and the standard of edu-
cation in Indian Universities is distinctly higher now. Within recent years, the
Calcutta University has taken steps not only to raise its standard of education,
but to impart a decided stimulus to advancement of knowledge by insisting upon
writing an original thesis as the essential condition for the award of the degree of
Ph.D., as well as of the Premchand Roychand Scholarship, and by taking care to
appoint as University Professors, specialists and scholars of distinction. It is also
a fact that within recent years, many Indian graduates have shown considerable
aptitude for research. Some Indian members of the Calcutta Mathematical Society
(started only a few years ago) have done useful original work, while a visit to the
Chemical Laboratory of the Presidency College, where a band of enthusiastic
chemists have been carrying on valuable original research under the guidance of
Dr. P. C. Roy, will convince everybody that there is now no lack of intellectual
atmosphere in India.
(d) Recruitment on free trade principles unobjectionable. Even supposing the
number of properly qualified Indians to be really few even now (which certainly is
408
not the fact), I do not see any possible objection to keeping an open door for both
Europeans and Indians, which means that in the case of every vacancy, the Local
Government must select the best man from among all available Indian and Euro-
pean candidates. On the other hand, recruiting exclusively in Europe is at present
not only unnecessary, but has been operating merely as an effective bar against the
admission of even the best graduates of Indian Universities to the higher Service
and has in consequence created grave dissatisfaction in the Provincial Service.
(C) UNEQUAL PAY.

The average monthly earning of a member of the Indian Educational Service is
about three times as large as that of a member of the Provincial Educational Service.
According to my calculations based on the figures in the Civil List for Bengal cor-
rected up to the 1st July 1913, the average cost to Government, in July 1913, was
Rs. 801, for a member of the Indian Education Service, and Rs. 295, for a member
of the Provincial Educational Service (and I may add incidentally, Rs. 1788 for a
member of the Indian Civil Service, Rs. 903 for a Superintendent of Police, Rs. 411
for an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Rs. 376 for a member of the Provincial
Civil Service, Executive branch, and Rs. 367 for a member of the Provincial Civil
Service, Judicial branch, so that the Provincial Educational Service officer, whose
status is said to be as high as that of an officer of the Indian Educational Service
and therefore higher than that of members of the Provincial Civil Service happens
really to be the most ill-paid of all!) It is almost inconsistent with the self-respect of
the Indian Professors in the Provincial Educational Service that for doing exactly
similar work and with as much ability and success, generally speaking, as members
of the Indian Service, they should be allowed about a third part of the remuneration
of the latter. It is a significant fact that with only a few exceptions, the most brilliant
graduates of the Calcutta University (I mean particularly those few who distinguish
themselves by securing the first or second place in all the University Examinations
from the Matriculation up to the M.A.) have fought shy of the Provincial Educa-
tional Service in Bengal, and those that have actually joined the Service are alto-
gether dissatisfied with the conditions of their Service.
As regards the question of inequality in salary between Indian and European
officers doing similar work, the simple issues are:—
(a) Is it fair (and if fair, to what extent) to allow a higher salary to European
officers, on account of the greater cost of their living and on account of the sacri-
fices they make in serving in a distant country?
(b) Is it not desirable to attract the most qualified men to the Educational ser-
vice by offering them comparatively better prospects? If desirable, should not
such better prospects be offered in the shape of higher pay rather than in the shape
of personal allowances for special merit, in view of the practical difficulty as
regards judging of special merit?
(c) Is a Professor in the Provincial Service really of so inferior merit as to
deserve only about a third part of the salary of a Professor in the Indian Service?
409
I shall now deal with these issues one by one.

(a) If the cost of living is higher in the case of a European officer, the Indian
officer has to support or at any rate to help his poorer relations, out of a feel-
ing of charity, which is his national characteristic. Moreover, the Indian officer
is obliged to live in insanitary conditions and cannot get good medical help or
benefits of residence in healthy stations on account of lower pay and thus meets
with death at an age when the European officer enjoys a vigorous health. It would,
therefore, be quite unfair to contend that the Indian officer requires less money,
because his physical needs are fewer. Candidly, however, I must say that the pay
attached to a post should be determined solely by the duties and responsibilities
and not by the needs of the incumbent of the post.
At the same time, I admit that if a European candidate has to be appointed as
a matter of real necessity and in the interest of education to any post for which
all the available Indian candidates are found to be comparatively less suitable (I
believe such cases are few now and will be fewer still in the course of the next 20
years), then and then only I would give a suitable compensation allowance at a
fixed rate (say Rs. 300 a month to the European candidate, in consideration of the
sacrifices the latter would have to make in accepting service in a distant country
and I would also devise a scheme of personal allowances for special merit, which
in itself would prove sufficiently attractive to the meritorious European graduates,
as much as to the best Indian graduates (Vide Enclosure A to my memorandum
dated the 1st October, 1913).
(b) In order that the best men may be attracted to the Service, it is no doubt
desirable to differentiate the emoluments of educational officers to some extent,
but not certainly on racial grounds or on the basis of the sentimental belief that
graduates of classical Universities like Cambridge and Oxford are necessarily
superior to graduates of comparatively modern Universities in Europe and India,
nor as a rule, even on the basis of initial qualifications, however high, for all the
recruits should be men of high academic qualifications, whether Indian or Euro-
pean. The only just and logical basis of differentiation is real merit, which should
be judged by the standards of (1) ability as Professors or Educational administra-
tors, (2) capacity for original work, (3) enthusiasm and devotion to duty, (4) moral
character and (5) last but not least, in the case of Professors, capacity for building
up the character of students, which means the capacity to understand the pupils, to
sympathise with them and thus to acquire a real power of control over them, and
in the case of educational administrators, accurate knowledge of local conditions
and requirements and a clear preception of the measures best suited to the local
needs. The differentiation should, therefore, be made, not generally at the time of
recruitment, but after 10 years of service, and some personal allowances should
be set apart for rewarding special merit, irrespective of nationality, as explained
in my scheme (Vide Enclosure A to my memorandum dated 1st October, 1913).
The only objection that might be raised against my scheme of personal allow-
ances for special merit is that it would be difficult for Government to discrimi-
nate between the different officers; but this difficulty has to be faced even now,
410
in making selections for the most responsible posts in each Department and in
awarding titles, distinctions and special promotions. The difficulty, however, will
be minimised, if the personal allowances proposed by me are attached partly to
more responsible posts (such as Principalships and Divisional Inspectorships), but
it is desirable that some of them should also be thrown open to the entire body of
Professors, Indian and European.
(c) I do not believe that any fair-minded person will contend that the Provincial
Service officer is really of such an inferior type that he deserves only a third part
of the pay of the Indian Service officer, for doing exactly similar work. Judged
by the various tests mentioned in the preceding paragraph, Professors in the Pro-
vincial Service will be found unquestionably to be as efficient as members of the
Indian Service generally, and some of them, distinctly of superior merit. There
have been many Indian Professors in the Presidency College, Calcutta (and also
elsewhere), enjoying a higher reputation for ability as Professors than many Euro-
pean Professors in the same College. There has also been a large number of Indian
Principals of Colleges and Divisional Inspectors of Schools who discharged their
duties to the satisfaction of those who supervised their work (Vide the reply of
Bengal Government to interpellations put in the Bengal Legislative Council by
the Hon’ble Dr. Debaprasad Sarbadhikary on the 2nd April, 1913). As regards the
original research, not only some of the senior members of the Provincial Educa-
tion Service, but several members of the lower grades of the Service have dis-
tinguished themselves by doing original work. In the matter of building up the
character of students, European Professors generally cannot be expected to do as
much as their Indian colleagues, as it is difficult for the former to understand their
pupils, to get an insight into their inner life by having a free and intimate inter-
course with them and thus to acquire real control over their private life.
As regards the relative merits of Indian and European Educational officers, I
cannot do better than to give below some extracts from letter No. 11,029 dated
11th August, 1892, from the Director of Public Instruction, Madras, to the Chief
Secretary to the Government of Madras:—
“European experience in Educational matters is of less value in India than in
Great Britain. The cleverest don from Oxford or Cambridge may prove a failure
as an Indian Educationist.”
“The Professorships of Mathematics, History, Sanskrit and Philosophy have
been held, with credit either permanently or temporarily, on several occasions, by
natives of India” (Vide para. 3 of the letter referred to, pp. 12–13 of the Papers
relating to the Reorganisation of the Education Service in India from 1891–97).
If it was true so far back as 1892, it is more so now, after a steady and consider-
able progress in education for 21 years. Perhaps I may add here that a statutory
native of India (Mr. H. M. Percival) was acknowledged for many years as the
most distinguished Professor of English in Bengal, and a similar reputation for
English scholarship and success as a Professor of English was enjoyed by the late
Rev. Lal Behari Dey, the author of “Folktales of Bengal,” “Govinda Samanta”
&c. Mr. Homersham Cox (lately of the Muir Central College, Allahabad) is of
411
opinion that “there are Indians thoroughly competent, although they have never
studied in Europe,” and that “a superstitious value is sometimes attached in India
to a European degree.” Mr. Cox concludes as follows:—“The conclusion then is
that already many, eventually all, of the posts of the Indian Educational Service
with the doubtful exception of the Professorships of English, might be conferred
on Indians.” (Modern Review, Nov., 1912.)
I might mention the names of many illustrious Indian officers now in the Educa-
tion Department, but it would be invidious to do so. I may, however, be permitted
to mention the name of the late lamented Professor Benoyendranath Sen of the
Presidency College, who was looked upon as the friend, philosopher and guide of
his students and who combined with a high character and a deep religious fervour,
exceptional abilities as a Professor and I have grave doubts if any European Pro-
fessor is capable of exercising the same salutary influence on students as the last
Professor Sen; and yet this distinguished Professor was all along in the Provincial
Service and it was 8 or 9 years before he could get a lift to Class VII (then Rs. 200).
In these circumstances, I most emphatically condemn the existing division
of the Superior Educational Service into two branches with unequal pay and
recruited in different places. This kind of division is humiliating to the Professors
in the Provincial branch and seriously affects their sense of responsibility and cre-
ates in them a sore feeling calculated to interfere with the proper discharge of their
duties, specially outside the College. It tends to create in the officers in the Indian
branch a feeling of artificial superiority and an attitude unfavourable to the growth
of an esprit de corps among the members of the Service. Finally, it is an unwhole-
some object-lesson to the Indian students who do not fail to mark the differential
treatment accorded to the ablest Professors of their own nationality.
THE ONLY REMEDY: AMALGAMATION ON

THE BASIS OF EQUAL PAY.
In my humble opinion and in the opinion of the entire body of officers whom I
represent, the two branches of the Service should be amalgamated into one undi-
vided Service and the pay of all officers, Indian and European, should be made
equal, the latter being, however, given a compensation allowance of Rs. 300 a
month (Rs. 200 a month in the opinion of some officers). No further differentia-
tion in emoluments should generally be made on the basis of initial qualifications,
but special merit may be recognised, after 10 years of service, in accordance with
a suitable scheme of personal allowances. Moreover, European candidates should
be appointed, only when suitable Indian candidates are not available. With the
exception of a few University chairs, which should be open only to specialists of
established reputation, to be recruited on special terms for short periods, all the
posts in the Education Department should eventually be filled solely by Indians.
As regards the absolute equality of pay of the officers, Indian and European,
I consulted all the members of the Provincial Educational Service (Collegiate
branch) and they have modified their views as expressed in the memorandum
412
submitted by Dr. P. C. Roy on behalf of the entire Service. In that memorandum,

which had to be prepared in a great hurry and without due consideration, for want
of time, the posts of the proposed amalgamated Service were divided into two
classes, viz., those carrying full pay and those carrying 60 per cent. of the full pay.
But I am now in a position to say (and I have been actually requested by some of
the officers to say) that after mature and deliberate consideration, the officers sub-
sequently came to the conclusion that in the proposed amalgamated Service, there
should be one and the same scale of pay for all officers, Indian and European.
I venture to hope that the Scheme I already submitted in my memorandum
dated the 1st October, 1913 (Enclosure A to that memorandum) will meet the
requirements of the situation. But as a result of further consideration and con-
sultation with members of the Service, I should now suggest the following slight
modifications in my original Scheme:—
(a) Some of the proposed personal allowances in my scheme should be attached
to certain specific posts (e.g. Principalships), while the rest should be thrown open
to the whole body of the Service.
(b) At least half the number of more responsible posts to which personal allow-
ances may be attached should be reserved for Indian officers. I do believe that
Indians are now quite capable of standing on their own merit. But at the same
time, it cannot be denied that in the past, Indian officers of undoubtedly supe-
rior merit have been regarded and still continue to be regarded as inferior to the
newest European recruits in the Indian Service and it is also a fact that since the
constitution of the Provincial Service, not a single Indian graduate of an Indian
University, however meritorious, has been appointed to the Indian Service, while
some of the Principalships and Divisional Inspectorships reserved in 1897 for the
Provincial Service have now been actually reserved for the Indian Service. Hence
there are reasonable grounds for apprehension that unless the claims of Indians
are safeguarded by some kind of protection, their merit might not be adequately
recognised in the future also. Moreover, the proportion of Indians to Europeans
being 3 to 1 in my scheme, the demand for reserving at least half of the number of
more responsible posts for Indians is moderate.
(c) With a view to reduction of cost, the constitution of the amalgamated
Service, as proposed in my last memorandum may be modified as follows (the
scheme of personal allowances, however, remaining the same as previously pro-
posed by me):—
Class. Pay. Strength.

Rs.
I. ... ... ... 1,300 4
II. ... ... ... 1,000 8
III. ... ... ... 800 18
IV. ... ... ... 700 20
Time-scale 300—30—600 in ten years 110.
413
(d) Promotion up to Class II (Rs. 1,000) should be regulated chiefly according

to seniority.
BABU SARADA PRASANNA DAS, called and examined.

83,580. (Chairman.) The witness represented the Provincial Educational Ser-
vice of Bengal on the collegiate side. He was at present Officiating Principal of
the Hooghly College, a position he had occupied for 2½ years. He had been in
Government service for 15½ years. The explanation of the three written state-
ments put in was that Dr. P. C. Roy originally called a meeting only of the Calcutta
officers of the Provincial Service, but officers in the mufassal were not given
sufficient time for deliberation or discussion. There was complete unanimity of
opinion that the Indian and the Provincial services should be amalgamated into
one service, but there was some difference of opinion as to the exact manner of
working out a scheme of amalgamation. A scheme was adopted by the Calcutta
meeting under which a certain number of posts would carry full salary, and others
only 60 per cent. It was then contemplated that as a rule Indians would occupy
only the lower salary posts, though some of them would be eligible for holding the
full salary posts. Later on when the witness was informed on the 22nd September
last that he had been elected to appear before the Commission he again consulted
the members of the Service on the collegiate side and was told by most of them
that they had modified their views. There was no change of opinion in connection
with the essential principle that the Indian and the Provincial Services should be
amalgamated, but it was now unanimously desired to abandon the idea of keeping
Indians to a 60 per cent. salary standard.
83,581. In the detailed scheme contained in his written statement, dated the
1st October, 1913, he had proposed that 27 appointments now in the Provincial
Educational Service should not be placed in the amalgamated service. This was
his own personal view, but some of his colleagues were of a contrary opinion. The
posts in question were those of headmasters of collegiate schools and superinten-
dents of madrassahs.
83,582. In any reformed system consideration should be given to the actual
work done as distinguished from the place of recruitment or race. On the colle-
giate side all the existing posts in the Provincial Educational Service were equally
important with those in the Indian Educational Service and should be in the same
service with them.
83,583. The recommendation that headmasters of schools should not be
included in the proposed amalgamated service was made because nothing was
gained by converting a headmaster into a Professor or a Professor into a headmas-
ter: the headmaster should be recruited from amongst experienced schoolmasters
in India, who might be M.A.’s and B.T.’s, but Professors could not be recruited
from that source. He did not agree that the best training for an Inspector was that
of a schoolmaster. A certain amount of teaching experience was necessary for an
Inspector, but that experience could also be obtained in colleges.
414
83,584. With reference to salary, the officers, now asked for equal pay with
Europeans, but would not object to a foreign service allowance for the latter on
account of their having to make certain sacrifices in taking up service in a for-
eign country. It should be provided, however, that Europeans were recruited only
when suitable Indian candidates were not available. In the present circumstances
of the country a certain percentage of Europeans was necessary, but it would be
an advantage to appoint more Indians to higher posts. In the first place, the first-
rate men from Europe would not generally accept service in India, and it was
undesirable to increase the burden on the Indian taxpayer by appointing second
and third-rate men from Europe. In the second place there had been consider-
able progress in education in India within recent years, and the number of highly
qualified Indians available for higher educational work was much larger now than
was the case 25 years ago. In the third place, one of the most important duties of
a Professor was to build up the character of students and to influence their lives,
and European Professors could do much less in that direction than Indian Profes-
sors, as the Europeans could not mix freely with the Indian students or completely
understand them. There was a wide gulf between the European Professor and the
Indian student, and there was no possibility of bridging it. It must be the work of
Indian Professors to build up the character of Indian students.
83,585. A first-class Honours man from Cambridge or Oxford was not neces-
sarily superior to a first-class man from an Indian University. From the point of
view of scholastic attainments the M.A. degree of the Indian University would
correspond to an Honour’s Degree in Europe. He had never been to Europe him-
self and could not speak from actual experience. There were a good many officers
in the service who had taken an Honour’s Degree at an English University before
coming out to India, and he would put most of them under the category of second
or third class officers, because they had not proved successful Professors. The real
test was not simply the initial University qualification, but ability as Professors or
educational administrators, and success in building up the character of students.
He himself set more store by actual success attained as educationalists subsequent
to entry into the service. He did not consider a special training necessary for Pro-
fessors; officers serving for a certain number of years in India would obtain the
necessary training.
83,586. The wintess desired appointments to the proposed amalgamated ser-
vice to be made by the Local Government, and not by the India Office. For a
particular vacancy applications should be invited from both European and Indian
candidates, and the best amongst them should be appointed by the Local Gov-
ernment. In the case of candidates in England, the India Office might forward
applications with comments on the qualifications to the Local Government. If the
India Office objected to forwarding applications to a Local Government, a Board
might be constituted at the India Office to receive applications and forward them.
His proposal would take the selection right out of the hands of the India Office
and hand it over to the Local Governments. Europeans should be appointed only
if highly qualified Indians were not available.
415
83,587. The witness did not see the necessity in all cases of an Indian having
a training in a European University, except in the case of Professors of Science
and technical subjects, to whom it might be an advantage to have a training in the
best laboratories in Europe. That, however, might be done by giving facilities for
study leave.
83,588. If officers of special merit could retire after 20 years’ service, the very
best men would be attracted. Such men on retiring should be given pensions.
83,589. The staff in the Government colleges was at present fairly sufficient.
In his own college some classes contained 70 or 80 pupils, while others only con-
tained 13 or 14. With large classes it might be advantageous to employ additional
tutors, but there was no need to add to the lecturing staff.
83,590. (Sir Theodore Morison.) Under the present system there was some class
teaching in the college which consisted in tutorial assistance rendered to individ-
ual students, each class being subdivided into smaller sections for this purpose. As
Mathematical Professor he explained the general principles of mathematics and
endeavoured to obtain some work from the students; for instance, he worked out
some typical examples, and the students would work out other examples at home.
Occasionally they were asked to write essays on mathematical subjects. It was
really lecturing and excercises, not class teaching.
83,591. The witness could not give figures to show what the suggested amal-
gamated service would cost the Government. The increase of cost under the pro-
posed scheme would be 50 per cent., or probably more on the present cost.
83,592. (Mr. Sly.) The first written statement, submitted through Dr. P. C. Roy,
fixed the Indian officer’s pay at 60 per cent. of the European officer’s, but the
service subsequently modified that view on the ground that it would be lower-
ing the status of the Indian officers, and desired that all the officers should have
the same pay, with a certain compensation allowance for European officers. The
second scheme proposed equal pay with Rs. 300 compensation allowance to the
Europeans. When the European officer’s pay was more than Rs. 1,000 the allow-
ance might cease, which would practically bring the pay of Europeans and Indians
in the highest grade to the same amount. The allowance to Europeans was given
partly in consideration of their cost of living being greater, but it was thought that
when men were earning Rs. 1,300 a month they could do without a compensa-
tion allowance. Moreover, specially meritorious European officers would also be
able to earn a personal allowance in addition to the grade pay of Rs. 1,300 under
the witness’s scheme of personal allowances for special merit. It should not be
forgotten that the Indians had to spend a great deal on family expenses. The view
was that after the highest grade on Rs. 1,300 had been reached there should be no
distinction in salary except on the ground of special merit only.
83,593. (Mr. Fisher.) It was not intended, on the death of a distinguished
Professor, holding a particular chair, to preclude the chance of making a direct
appointment of a man well qualified to take up his work, and that was not implied
by the remark in the written statement that in no circumstances should appoint-
ments be made to any class other than the lowest, as a personal allowance might
416
be granted in such cases, if really necessary, under the witness’s scheme of per-
sonal allowances.
83,594. (Mr. Madge.) The standard of education in India had risen sufficiently
high to secure the best kind of men in almost every subject, but it would be desir-
able to have a few distinguished Professors from England specially for English. It
was not a question of attaching exaggerated importance to the passing of exami-
nations; Indians showed a real aptitude for educational work, and many of them
had shown a special aptitude for research work. A school of Indian research was
steadily growing at present and was creating an intellectual atmosphere in the
country and a real academic life.
83,595. (Mr. Gupta.) There were other reasons why the amalgamation of the
services should take place. If the Indian Educational Service was kept separate,
there would be a tendency to recruit Europeans on racial grounds. The last Public
Service Commission recommended the recruitment in Europe of Professors in
those branches of learning in which a high standard had not been attained in India
at the time, but the Indian Government in a Resolution stated that natives of the
country should be appointed to the Provincial Service, thus clearly bringing in
racial considerations. Also the India Educational Service officers were remuner-
ated about three times as highly as the Provincial Service men. This inequality
was not justified, as Provincial men, especially in the professorial branch, were
doing their work as efficiently and sometimes better than the Indian Service men.
The present distinction made the Provincial Service man looked upon as an infe-
rior officer, and no amount of assurances on the part of Government would make
his status equal to that of the Indian Educational Service officer.
83,596. The witness was in favour of giving full pay to an officer during the
first two years of service on probation.
83,597. The witness had no hesitation in saying that, examined by the highest
possible standard, the work of Indian Professors would not be found wanting.
They had a capacity for original work, which was one of the most important tests
of the ability of Professors. Many officers in the Provincial service had actually
done original work.
DR. P. C. ROY, C.I.E., Professor of Chemistry,

Presidency College, Calcutta.
Written statement relating to the Provincial Educational Service.3
83,675. I may begin by emphasising the fact that recent experience has brought
the problem of education well to the foreground as the most important problem
which British statesmanship has to face and solve. Education occupies a prominent
place in the gracious speech of His Imperial Majesty the King-Emperor in reply
to the address presented by the graduates of the Calcutta University. The supreme
importance of education was also recognised by Lord Curzon’s government. The
417
recent policy of Government, as embodied in the Scheme of Provincial Universi-

ties and University Chairs, has focussed attention on education as the problem of
the day. It is also significant that the most prominent of our public men—men like
Sir Gooroo Das Banerji, KT., Sir Ashutosh Mukherji, KT., Sir Tarak Nath Palit, KT.,
Dr. Rash Behari Ghosh, and the Honourable Dr. Devaprasad Sarvadhikari—have
come to realize that education is the most fundamental problem to which all other
problems must be subordinated.
It is therefore essential that the Educational Department should be recognised
as one of the most important branches of the public service. The work of education
is the most responsible duty undertaken by the State. The department trains men
for the various branches of the public service as well as for the several learned
professions.
In view of the extreme importance and the responsible nature of the work done
by the department, it is absolutely necessary that it should be staffed by men
recruited from the very best materials, in India and in Europe. The officers of the
department should not only possess very high academic qualifications but should
also be inspired by the ideals of duty. They should all feel an ardent enthusiasm for
the work of education. This can be only secured by (1) enhancing the attractive-
ness of the service, (2) enforcing the strictest conditions of admission, so as to rig-
idly eliminate inefficient or incompetent candidates, Indian and European. Merit
and efficiency should be the sole tests of admission, and preferment and all other
considerations, e.g., race, nationality, prestige, etc., should be completely ignored
or subordinated to the supreme test of competency. Every care should be taken to
secure the best men, for an incompetent man, once admitted into the service, acts
like a clog in the educational wheel and impedes the rapidity and smoothness of
its motion. All distinctions should be based upon real differences, and not on con-
siderations of race and prestige which now form the dividing line between the two
branches of the Superior Service, the so-called “Indian” and “Provincial.” This
unfortunate distinction—a distinction without a difference—should be abolished,
and the two branches of the Superior Service should be merged into one service.
The distinction should never have been made, for even at the time when it was
made—it was made as early as 1896—there were Indian candidates available who
were at least as qualified or competent as the European officers who then staffed
the “Indian” Educational Service. These Indians—most of whom were graduates
of the British Universities—were thus denied a place in the “Indian” Educational
Service, and the anomaly, as unjust as it was inexplicable, compelled these unfor-
tunate men to enter the Provincial Service for no other or stronger reason than
their nationality. This glaringly unjust treatment meted out to them still rankles
in their mind, and in the case of some of them it is almost too late to repair the
consequences of this grievous mistake. I advocate therefore the amalgamation of
these two branches of the Superior Service with all the earnestness and emphasis
that I can command. The amalgamation will strike at the root of the bitter discon-
tent which prevails among the officers of the Provincial Service. This discontent
was created by the fact that though the two branches of the Superior Service are
418
admitted to have the same status in theory, in practice a stigma of inferiority has
come to be attached to the Provincial Service officer as such, no matter what
his qualifications or length of service may be. This brand of inferiority, which is
purely gratuitous and unmerited, not to say illogical, has produced in this branch
of the service an intense feeling of bitterness which it is absolutely necessary to
remove in the interests of sound education and for the efficient working of the
department, for we cannot get the best and the most out of a man who smarts
under a sense of unjust and undeserved treatment. In the Presidency College, for
instance, the most senior man in the “Provincial” Educational Service is treated as
junior to the latest recruit to the Indian Educational Service. Thus when there are
two Professors of the same subject, one in the Indian Educational Service and the
other in the Provincial Educational Service, the officer in the Indian Educational
Service is invariably held to be the senior Professor, even though the Provincial
Educational Service officer, besides being a teacher of acknowledged efficiency,
may be a man of much greater experience and of equal or even greater academic
distinctions.
After considering the matter with all earnestness and fairmindedness, I am
firmly convinced that the only remedy for this most anomalous and unsatisfac-
tory state of affairs is to effect this amalgamation which I have already advocated.
The treatment now accorded to Indians by the Educational Department, whether
graduates of European or Indian Universities, does not accord well with the Brit-
ish sense of justice and this reproach should be completely wiped out.
With these general observations, I beg now to proceed to the specific points on
which the Commission has been pleased to invite opinion.
83,676. (I.) The methods of recruitment.—As regards recruitment, I
would widen the field of selection by employing more open methods. In the
case of appointments carrying special allowances, referred to in paragraph
15, page 5, recruitment should not be made as heretofore. The post should
be advertised in the Indian and English papers, and appointment made by a
properly constituted Board under the Local Government, which alone knows
the local requirements, from among candidates for the post, including those
already in the service.
That the present method of recruitment, through the India Office, has not been
altogether satisfactory, will appear to be obvious to any one who examines the
actual facts. The appointments made, say, during the last ten years, cannot be
considered, from an academic point of view, as altogether satisfactory. If better
men have not been available, that only shows the desirability of adopting the
more open method of recruitment as suggested above. Under the present mode of
recruitment, men already in the service are excluded from the class of appoint-
ments under consideration. Further, the chairs recently created in the Calcutta
University are being filled up by the mode of recruitment which takes account
of academic qualifications alone. Under this system, on the one hand Europeans
like Professor Young, F.R.S., Dr. Oldenberg, Professor Sylvain Levi, Dr. Strauss,
Mr. Leslie (as an Assistant Professor in Economics), on the other, Indians like
419
Dr. B. N. Sil, whose qualifications are entirely Indian but whose distinction as a
scholar cannot be questioned, have accepted posts under the University.
As regards appointments, other than those carrying special allowances, recruit-
ment should be made from among Indian candidates possessing the highest aca-
demic qualifications. Officers of the present Subordinate Educational Service,
possessing high academic qualifications and doing college work or belonging to
the inspecting staff, should also be regarded as eligible for these appointments.
I would advocate, however, that no one doing the work of a College Professor
should in future be appointed to the Subordinate Service.
83,677. (II.) System of training and probation.—The conditions of work
in the College Department require that an officer should be fully capable of
entering on his work as soon as appointed. If the choice is confined to men
with real academic distinctions, this object will be secured. There should, how-
ever, be a period of probation for two years. Training in the case of a College
Professor is synonymous with academic qualifications, and understood in this
sense, the methods of recruitment should be so devised as to secure only trained
men for the service. But at the same time, officers of the Department, Indian
or European, who may have shown special aptitude for research, whether in
arts or science, should be encouraged by being given facilities, on equal terms,
for visiting Europe and other centres of culture. In the case of a member of the
superior inspecting staff, experience in teaching at a college or as Head Master
of a collegiate or zilla school, and a knowledge of the vernacular, should be
considered essential.
83,678. (III.) Conditions of service.—The officers should have ample leisure
for study and research. The rule acquiring a medical certificate for physical fitness
may be relaxed at the discretion of the Local Government. Free quarters should
be provided for all officers, or quarters provided in consideration of a small per-
centage deducted from the salary, as is the practice in the Judicial and Executive
Services in the more important stations. In Presidency towns where such quarters
cannot be provided, or provided with great difficulty, liberal house allowances
should be paid, no distinction being made as between Europeans and Indians. At
present the Presidency house allowances are given only to members of the Indian
Educational Service. This is an irritating distinction which should be done away
with as early as possible. Special allowances should be given to Principals of Col-
leges. The scale of travelling allowance in the case of an officer of the Educational
Department should be the same as that of an officer in the Indian Civil Service.
Travelling allowances should be determined by the nature of the work done, and
not by the amount of salary drawn.
83,679. (IV.) Conditions of salary.—If the extreme importance of the work of
education as explained in paragraph 83,675 be adequately realized, it will be read-
ily admitted that the scale of salary in the Educational Department should be so
fixed as not to lower the status of an educational officer, as compared with that of
the officers of the other branches of the public service. The present scale was fixed
more than a quarter of a century ago, and the cost of living has rapidly gone up in
420
the meantime. It has more than doubled, and this fact demands a very substantial
increase in the present rate of pay.
83,680. (V.) Conditions of leave.—Greater facilities should be given to all offi-
cers, Indian and European, in the Educational Department for study in Europe. In
particular, officers should be permitted to combine a vacation with privilege leave
if the total period of the leave is to be spent in study and research.
83,681. (VI.) Conditions of pension.—Twenty-five years’ service should qual-
ify for full pension. Twenty years’ service should also qualify for full pension, if
an officer is medically invalided.
83,682. (VII.) Such limitations as may exist in the employment of non-
Europeans and the working of the existing system of division of services into
Imperial and Provincial.—In my preliminary remarks I recommended most
strongly and earnestly that the two branches of the Superior Service be amalgam-
ated into one service and gave some general reasons which clearly necessitate this
step. This I regard to be the crucial point at issue. I now proceed to explain the
absolute necessity of adopting this measure, which alone can do away with vari-
ous anomalies which have arisen in practice and radically remove the bitter and
deep-seated discontent among those officers of the Superior Service who are now
branded as “Provincial.”
In the first place, I am in general agreement with the views which have been
submitted through me by the entire body of officers of the Provincial Service, and
the main portion of which I take the liberty of reproducing for purposes of ready
reference.4
I should, however, strongly deprecate the proposed differentiation of posts into
those carrying a full salary and those carrying a lower salary. All the posts in the
Superior Service should, in my opinion, be on the same scale of pay; in the case
of certain specified posts, however, I am prepared to admit that there should be a
special system of allowances ranging from Rs. 300 to Rs. 600 and even Rs. 800,
it being understood that recruitment to these posts should be according to the
method already advocated by me in paragraph 5.
I am opposed to any invidious distinction based on racial considerations, as
such a distinction is in reality opposed to the spirit of the recommendations made
by the last Public Services Commission. That competent Indian candidates were
available at the time when the existing division between the two branches of
the service was initiated, is abundantly evidenced by the fact that the last Public
Services Commission recommended that recruitment should as a rule be locally
made except for certain specific appointments.
In accordance with these recommendations, seven Principalships of Colleges,
three Inspectorships and a majority of the Professorships under the Bengal Gov-
ernment were served for Indians, and the European service was reduced from 41
to 27 (including the Director of Public Instruction, Assam). Since then there has
been a distinctly retrograde move. All the Divisional Inspectorships, practically
all the Principalships of colleges have now been reserved for the Indian Educa-
tional Service, which is virtually European, and the number of posts in this service
421
has been raised from 26 to 54, the corresponding increase in the Provincial Edu-
cational Service being from 104 to 165. While thus, in all the other services, prog-
ress has been in the direction of throwing open to Indians an increased number
of appointments usually held by Europeans, in the Education Department most of
the more important posts formerly reserved for Indians have now been reserved
for Europeans. And yet if the conditions of local recruitment were favourable at
the time the last Public Services Commission made their recommendations, they
are much more so now, after a steady educational progress for over a quarter of
a century. I have already mentioned the fact that Dr. B. N. Sil, a graduate of the
Calcutta University, has recently been appointed to the King George V. Chair of
Philosophy by the Calcutta University. In my own subject, viz., Chemistry, we
have got distinguished scholars and investigators like Rasik Lal Dutt and Nilratan
Dhar, men who are now on a fair way towards earning for themselves a European
reputation, but under the existing mode of recruitment for the Indian Educational
Service, such men have absolutely no chance of entering this higher service.
Finally, if graduates of Indian Universities can be appointed to be High Court
Judges, members of Executive Councils, and Accountants-General of provinces, I
see no reason why they should be debarred from holding the highest appointments
in the Education Department.
Supplementary written statement relating to the Education Department,

being a Memorandum on the Recruitment of the Educational Service.
83,683. I have expressed my views in my corporate capacity on the undesir-

ableness of earmarking a branch of the Educational Service as “Provincial.” In the
present memorandum I shall confine myself to one or two points in connection
with the method of recruitment of the service and the disadvantages under which
its members have to labour.
In the Despatch of the Secretary of State for India on the “Reorganisation of the
Educational Service of India” 1896, occurs the pronouncement: “In future natives
of India who are desirous of entering the education department will usually be
appointed in India and to the Provincial Service.” This momentons and unfor-
tunate decision has had the effect of virtually excluding Indians from the higher
or the Imperial branch of the service. In reply to a question put in the Imperial
Council last year the Honourable Mr. Butler replied that out of 211 appointments
in the Imperial branch only 3 were held by natives of India.
The present system stifles the legitimate aspirations of our countrymen and
keeps away the most meritorious amongst them from the fold of the education
department. The hardships of the “Provincial Service” members can best be
brought home to the Commission by referring to some concrete instances. Let us
take the case of Dr. P. C. Ray, the senior man in the Bengal P.E.S. He studied sci-
ence at the Presidency College for four years (1878–82) up to the B.A. Standard
under Sir John Eliot and Sir Alex. Pedler. In order to round off his education he
proceeded to England in 1882 and studied at Edinburgh for 6 years (1882–88)
422
and sat at the feet of eniment Professors of Science. He took the degree of B.Sc.
in 1886 and that of D.Sc. in 1887. It is scarcely necessary to point out that for the
latter qualification aptitude for original investigation is a sine qud non. Even after
taking his D.Sc. he stayed on for another year so that he might continue his origi-
nal researches and specialise himself in chemistry. At the completion of his six
years’ studies he appeared before the India Office, backed by influential friends,
and applied for a post in the education department; but his efforts were unsuc-
cessful. He was advised to return to India and apply to the local government. The
sequel to this narrative can be told in a few words. Dr. Ray entered the Education
Department in 1889 on a pay of Rs. 250/- per month and served on that remu-
neration for 7 years, at the end of which period he was promoted to the Rs. 400/-
grade and after some 17 or 18 years’ service he got to the top of the ladder and
was entitled to the maximum pay of the Provincial branch, namely, Rs. 700/- per
month. Other members of the service with distinguished European qualifications,
e.g., Dr. D. N. Mallik, Dr. Ganesh Prasad, Messrs. J. N. Das Gupta and M. Ghosh
have met with a similar fate.
I have given an unvarnished statement of my own case in order to present a
vivid picture to the Commission of the differential treatment accorded to the two
branches of the service.
In the “Indian” educational branch the initial pay is Rs. 500/- with the guar-
anteed increment of Rs. 50/- per annum, or in other words, in 10 years an officer
gets Rs. 1,000/- per month; then he is entitled to a further allowance of Rs. 100
per mensem and in special cases he gets a Principalship with a further allowance
of Rs. 250/- to Rs. 400/- per month as also house allowance.
As far as I am personally concerned I may be allowed to state that the pursuit
of science for its own sake has been sufficient reward and stimulus to me; at the
same time it is my duty to point out that the prospects held out even to the most
deserving members of this service have failed to attract men of brilliant parts to
the Educational Service; they have fought shy of seeking a career in this depart-
ment. I shall relate a short story here. While I was serving on Rs. 250/- for years,
a gentleman holding a high position in society asked my advice as to the future
career of two of his sons who were my pupils. As he was anxious to give his boys
the benefit of an education in England, I naturally suggested that they should
study some branches of science and enter the educational service. “What, another
P. C. Ray!” he exclaimed. From his own point of view I think he was fully justi-
fied, for both his sons competed for and entered the Civil Service.
The present system also penalises the intellectual activity especially the pursuit
of science amongst our countrymen. India is a backward country—her people
compared to that of the western countries lack in public spirit and self-help and in
the power of organisation. Here the State is often called upon to undertake duties
which in England are taken up with alacrity by the people themselves. Scientific
education is the crying want of India and one naturally looks up to the State for
fostering and encouraging it. One of the ways in which the government can do
its duty in this matter is by providing employments to the scientifically trained
423
Indians, but by a bitter irony of fate the Indian has been virtually excluded not
only from the higher appointments in the educational service but also from the
Geological Department, and rigidly denied admission in the Great Trigonometri-
cal Survey, the Meteorological Department, the Botanical Survey, as also from the
“Imperial” branch of the Pusa Agricultural Institute and the Forest and Telegraph
departments, and so forth. The denial of a suitable career takes away all incentive
for the specialised study of sciences either at home or abroad. An embargo has
thus been placed upon the cultivation of science in this country.
The present method of selection by the Secretary of State is open to serious
objection for more reasons than one. It is now a matter of common knowledge
that only men of indifferent attainments care to come out to India, and the filling
up of posts by them has seriously lowered the standard of scholarship in India. A
raw graduate fresh from college, even if he can boast of First Class honours, is a
dark horse. The committee of the Dacca University have fully realised this evil
as they observe:
“In general, men of about 40 years of age will be best, as younger men will
not have had the necessary experience. At this age, too, successful men will have
acquired habits of study and research which should withstand the effects of cli-
mate and environment. Young Englishmen, however brilliant, who, having only
just finished their examinations, and started original work, come out to India find
in many cases their enthusiasm weakened by the lack of an inspiring environment,
and their difficulties exaggerated by the absence of the accustomed facilities and
the help of older men. Under such circumstances a few men of exceptional cali-
bre and strength of character will still manage to advance knowledge and earn a
reputation, but the many, who might have been successful under more favourable
conditions, will very soon drop original work altogether.”—p. 56.
The method of recruitment in vague has created serious discontent amongst the
members of the Provincial Educational Service. The differentiation between the
two services is based upon racial ground and not on merit, for it cannot be said
that the higher service is filled with men of higher intellectual calibre. If sound
scholarship, life-long devotion to the subject of choice and capacity for original
researches be accepted at tests and criteria of an efficient teacher, I believe the
“Provincial” men will on the whole score over the “Imperial.” Pandit Hara Prasad
Sastri, C.I.E., as an antiquarian, Professor Monomohun Ghose, poet and litera-
tour, Dr. D. N. Mallik (wrangler) on whom the University of Dublin conferred
the degree of D.Sc. on account of original researches in mathematical physics,
Professor Jadunath Sarkar, who is rightly regarded as a higher authority on “India
under Aurangzib” have had few equals in the service.
Under the existing artificial and arbitrary mode of filling up vacancies in the
Imperial branch, the best local men—natives of India—some of whom have
earned a European reputation by their researches are excluded, while third rate
men of great Britain and Ireland find easy admission. It is a sad mistake also to
take for granted that merely because a man has been educated in an Indian Uni-
versity he is necessarily of inferior calibre and attainments. The competition lies
424
between the third rate men brought out from England and first rate Indians. In
this connection I cannot do better than reproduce here the short speech which I
delivered at the last “Congress of the Universities of the Empire” in my capacity
as a delegate of the Calcutta University.
“I rise, my Lord, to associate myself with the weighty remarks made by my
brother delegates from the Colonies, Prof. H. B. Allen (Melbourne) and Prof.
Frank Allen (Manitoba).
“The Indian graduate also is placed under peculiar disadvantages when he
undertakes to pursue his post-graduate studies in a British University. My Lord,
I plead for a more generous recognition of the merits of an Indian graduate; he
has, I am afraid, the badge of inferiority stamped upon him simply because he
happens to be an Indian-made ware. I can speak with some degree of confidence
about the particular subject which I have the honour to profess, namely Chemis-
try. Now, of late there have been some brilliant students engaged in post-graduate
researches and as their communications find hospitable reception in the columns
of the leading British Chemical Journal, I take it that they are considered as of a
fair degree of merit and yet it is a strange anomaly that when the authors of these
investigations come over here and aspire for a high British degree, they are made
to go through the trodden path in the shape of having to pass the preliminary
examinations and this has a depressing and deterrent effect upon the enthusiam of
our youths. I think the suggestion made by a previous speaker that such a scholar
should only be made to pass through a probationary period under the guidance
of a teacher whom he chooses and if he fully satisfies him the Colonial or Indian
student should at once be allowed to go up for the highest degree on the strength
of his thesis alone.
“Sir Joseph Thomson has spoken about the rich endowments and scholar-
ships required to encourage a post-graduate scholar. The Calcutta University has
already founded a good few post-graduate scholarships and expects to have more.
But I beg, however, to remind the representatives of the British Universities pres-
ent here that we in India have from time immemorial held aloft the high ideal of
plain living and high thinking and that with even comparatively poor stipends and
bursaries we hope to achieve much.
“My Lord, I do not for a moment claim that the teaching our Universities impart is
of the same degree of efficiency as in the sister British Universities—in fact we have
much to learn from you—but I beg leave to remind you that in spite of their many
defects and drawbacks, our Universities have produced some of the brightest orna-
ments of our country. The foremost lawyer of Calcutta—a man renowned throughout
India for his high forensic attainments—is a graduate of the Calcutta University.
Three of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of Calcutta, who have attained
to phenomenal success in their professional career are, again, graduates of my own
University and last but not least the present Vice-Chancellor of our University, who
enjoys the unique distinction of being three times in succession elected to his oner-
ous duties by the Chancellor of the University, who is no other than the Viceroy
himself,—I say, Sir A. T. Mookerjee is also a product of the same University.
425
“My Lord, before I resume my seat I once more plead for a more generous
recognition of the teaching imparted in our Colleges.”
In the sphere of original researches in science, especially in Chemistry, some of
our graduates at the Presidency College are showing remarkable capacity—their
investigations are being published in the leading scientific journals in England,
Germany and America (vide the annexed reprint of an article in the “Modern
Review”) and yet whenever any vacancies occur in the department, their claims
are cooly ignored and the sad spectacle is witnessed of the posts being filled up by
raw graduates from England, who are admittedly their inferiors and who have got
no original work to their credit.
The Indian graduates suffer a grievous injustice and the obvious way to remedy
it would be to throw the gates of admission wide open to merit alone irrespective
of racial considerations. Recruitment should be in the first place local and the
power of selection should also be entrusted to a thoroughly representative Board
of Literary and Scientific Experts in India. In case of a vacancy, the Board should
be empowered to advertise in the local papers and to receive applications. It is
only in the contingency of a suitable candidate not being available on the spot, a
requisition should be made to the Secretary of State.
In the next place there should be one Educational Service in the country and
the system of two compartments of the service, one called the Indian Educational
Service and the other the Provincial Educational Service, should be done away
with. The proposed service will have one cadre of appointments with equal pay
and prospect and the consideration of fitness and merit will be the only criteria for
promotion to the highest posts of the service. In the case of Europeans appointed
in England a special allowance not exceeding one-fourth of their ordinary pay
may be given to them in view of their service in a distant country. In other respects
the rights and privileges of the Europeans and the Indians in the service should be
absolutely similar.
There is another strong reason in favour of employing Indian agency. A Euro-
pean naturally looks to India as a land of exile and his thoughts are always turned
homeward. As soon as he joins his apointment he begins to look forward to his
furlough and even during summer holidays he often runs home. Socially speak-
ing, the European lives quite apart and it is only in rare cases that he is found to
mix on equal terms with his pupils. The result is that he fails to create anything
like an intellectual atmosphere. Moreover, the European when he retires from the
service leaves India for good and all the experience which he gathered during his
tenure of office are clean lost to the country. But the mature experiences of an
Indian after retirement are always at the disposal of his countrymen; he is in fact
a valuable national asset.
DR. P. C. ROY called and examined.

83,684. (Chairman.) The witness said his main contention was that no organ-
isation of the Educational Service could be satisfactory which was based on race,
426
and not on the nature of the work done. The Indian and the Provincial Educational
Services should be merged into one. The present arrangement only gave rise to
heart-burning, whilst a great many officers smarted under sense of positive injury.
It was not consistent with a sense of self-respect that men equally educated, doing
the same kind of work and of equal calibre, should be ranked in two different
services. At present there was practically no difference between the kind of work
done in a college by a Provincial and an Imperial man. The Provincial Professor
was doing precisely the same kind of work, was teaching the same classes and
giving the same quality of instruction to those classes as his Senior Professor.
83,685. Recruitment should be made by the local Government, and not by the
India Office. The India Office would not give a fair chance to Indians. The posts
should be advertised first in the local market, and if suitable men were not forth-
coming—and then alone—the local Government should send to England for a
qualified man. If there was an eligible Indian in England, the local Government
ought to appoint him with the aid of a committee of experts in India. The Sec-
retary of State should have nothing to do with the matter. The local Government
would be in a position to give better advice on the subject, even although the
Indian resided in England. As bearing out his contention, he mentioned that the
Calcutta University had managed to bring out such men as Dr. Young, F.R.S., and
Professor Jacobic without the help of the India Office at all.
83,686. Recruitment for the more responsible posts in the service should be
both by direct appointment from the Universities in India and by promotion. He
preferred the method of direct recruitment, but certain posts should certainly be
reserved for promotion from the lower ranks.
83,687. He set some store on the average Indian man undergoing a European
course. A man with this experience would often be a more efficient officer than
one who had been appointed straight from an Indian University. He desired to
point out, however, that there were very eminent men in India, e.g., Sir A. T.
Mukherji, Dr. Rash Behary Ghosh and Mr. Gokhale, who had never had any sort
of education in Europe. There could be no hard-and-fast rule on the point.
83,688. With regard to salary, many of the witness’s colleagues were in
favour of two classes of pay, but he (the witness) deprecated any such system.
He would give all members of the service the same pay, but to those who had
shown extraordinary merit he would add something in the shape of a compensa-
tion allowance.
83,689. The bare fact that a man was a European, and had been educated in a
British University, did not mean that he was likely to turn out a successful teacher.
It was too often assumed that, because a man had been brought out from England,
he was therefore an expert and a specialist. This was quite inaccurate.
83,690. All the divisional inspectorships and practically all the principalships
of the colleges had now been reserved for the Indian Educational Service. That
had been done four or five years ago whilst Sir Archdale Earle was Dierctor of
Public Instruction. The few principalships in the Provincial Service, which had
been promised at the time of the reorganization scheme, had been snatched away.
427
There was only one divisional inspector now left in the Provincial Educational
Service, and there was no knowing when that post would also be taken away.
83,691. There was a sufficient staff in his college for the work to be done.
83,692. (Lord Ronaldshay.) The education which an Indian received in India
was ordinarily quite sufficient to enable him to carry out the duties which would
be required of him when he joined the Educational Service. He did not think any
period of training in Europe in addition to an Indian education was essential, but
it had its uses.
83,693. The recommendation that a special allowance, not exceeding one-
fourth of their ordinary pay, might be given to Europeans appointed in England,
in view of their service in a distant country, expressed the view which the mem-
bers of the service now generally held, but they thought it should be applied only
to exceptional cases. The authority making the appointment would decide in each
case whether the candidate had made a name for himself or not.
83,694. (Sir Theodore Morison.) The scale of salary for the proposed amalgam-
ated service might run from Rs. 300 to Rs. 1,500, but in exceptional cases, such
as the head of a department, higher pay should be granted. The proposal that there
should be five grades beyond the time-scale was the view of his colleagues, and
not of himself.
83,695. The amount of the monthly increments should depend on whether the
officer was an average man or was of exceptional ability, and had made a name for
himself by his researches. For an average man a suitable arrangement would be to
begin at Rs. 300 and to rise to Rs. 700 or Rs. 800 by annual increments of Rs. 30.
If among the officers recruited at Rs. 300 a month a man of unusual capacity was
discovered, he should either he promoted over the heads of his seniors to the Rs.
500 grade, which would no doubt cause some heart-burning, or be given a special
personal allowance.
83,696. (Mr. Gokhale.) There were exceptional facilities for carrying on original
research at the Presidency College, and there was as good material in the country
as elsewhere for this purpose. Two of his own pupils, for instance, over and above
their academic distinctions, which were of the highest, had contributed papers to
all the leading scientific journals in England, Germany and America. Again, only
last week he had received a letter from Sir Henry Roscoe, in which that gentle-
man congratulated him, not so much on account of his own researches, as of the
brilliant work done by his pupils. If some of his pupils had the further advantage
of visiting some of the laboratories in Europe and seeing the kind of work which
was done there, and coming in contact with the great men in their subject, they
could fill the chairs of chemistry in India with the greatest success, and would do
the work as well or better than any young man who could be brought out fresh
from the European Universities, who is more or less of the nature of a dark horse.
83,697. (Mr. Fisher.) Recruitment should be in the hands of the local Govern-
ments, and they should advertise appointments both in England and in India. In
this way each local Government would have three alternatives before it on the
occurrence of each vacancy; it might either promote in the foot of the cadre a
428
junior who was already in the service, or appoint a freshly graduated Indian of
distinction over the heads of those who were already in the service, or it might call
in a man from Europe, either an Indian or an Englishman.
83,698. Promotion within the service should very largely be regulated by dis-
tinction in original research, but it would also be necessary at times to advance
men who had done no research work but who had other important educational
qualifications. He quite admitted that in an Indian college, as in an English col-
lege, a great deal of the educational work was on a very much lower plane than
the plane on which he and Dr. Bose conducted their researches, and that it was pri-
marily important to obtain men who were efficient teachers and guides of youth.
Such men would very often not possess great scientific attainments, but yet might
be a most valuable element on the teaching staff of the college. It followed from
that that it was really in the interests of advanced college education in India that
exclusive stress should not he laid upon power to conduct original research. That
must always be the prerogative of the rather highly talented man.
83,699. (Mr. Macdonald.) The witness was aware that he might be charged
with sacrificing teaching to original research, but he had found that in England
a man who was appointed to professorial duties could only rise to that distinc-
tion by reason of the work which he had produced. When a chair fell vacant
in England, the Board of Selection was guided more by a man’s original con-
tributions in the particular branch of study than anything else. Moreover, the
best teachers were ordinarily these who were the best original workers and
experimentalists.
83,700. (Mr. Madge.) He agreed that there was room for improvement in the
present system of education in Indian Universities, but the Universities were now
starting on a new phase, and the present state of things would not continue for
very much longer.
83,701. (Mr. Abduc Rahim.) An Indian, who received a European education,
did acquire thereby a certain advantage, in that his outlook on life was widened
and his views broadened. He did not at all under-rate the value of European edu-
cation, but he found the custom was for a man to take a Cook’s holiday trip, spend
six months or a year abroad, and then return with some indifferent degrees and
claim credit over his Indian colleagues.
83,702. With regard to the suggestion that a certain European element in the
Educational Service was of great advantage in modelling the character of young
men, the witness said that was a very delicate subject. It entirely depended
upon the personality of the teacher. The right man would produce a very whole-
some influence, and the wrong man just the opposite effect. His contention was
that an Indian teacher could produce a much greater effect than the European,
because the former lived and moved and had his being amongst Indians whereas
a European, however well disposed he might be, lived in a world apart. He quite
admitted that there were certain exceptions to that rule, and there was no deny-
ing the fact that Europeans had to a large extent built up the educational system
of India.
429
83,703. (Sir Valentine Chirol.) It could be assumed that a graduate of an Indian

University possessed the same educational equipment as a graduate of a British
University of the same degree.
83,704. (Sir Murray Hammick.) Professor Young had come out for three or four
years on a salary of Rs. 1,000 a month and house allowances; Dr. Oldenbergh was
to be a University reader for a few months at a special fee, and Professor Sylvain
Lévi was in the same position. Mr. Leslie had been appointed Assistant Profes-
sor of Political Economy. Dr. Strauss’s salary was Rs. 600 a month. The latter
appointment was for a certain number of years.
83,705. (Mr. Biss.) While there was only one Indian Divisional Inspector, it was
true that there were only two European Inspectors in Bengal.
83,706. The Presidency College had no monopoly of research work. At Dacca,
Professor Watson was doing research, and some of his pupils were giving a good
account of themselves. Professor Watson was doing excellent work, and the Uni-
versity of London had conferred the degree of Dr. on him during the present year.
83,707. It was the fact that the European Professors of the Presidency College
had for a very long time been asking for quarters to enable them to come into
closer contact with the students.
83,708. He could not conceive of any considerations which could be urged in
favour of the employment of Englishmen as Englishmen.
83,709. (Mr. Gupta.) Under his scheme for the amalgamation of the Provincial
and the Indian Educational Services the laboratory assistants in the Department
of Chemistry should come into the subordinate service; but if they showed excep-
tional merit, they should be promoted to the higher service.
83,710. Indian Professors on the Art side should be placed on the same footing
as graduates of English Universities, and the same pay and privileges should be
extended to them. One effect of the inauguration of the Provincial Educational
Service some years ago had been to scare away the best intellects of the country
from the Educational Department. The general interests of education in Bengal
had suffered very much on that account.
Notes
1. Signed by Dr. P. C. Roy on behalf of the members of the Provincial Educational Service,
Bengal. This written statement was subsequently modified by the supplementary and the
further supplementary written statements, which follow. Dr. P. C. Roy’s own evidence
will be found in paragraphs 83,675–83,710.
2. The term “Indians” has been used throughout this note in the sense of “Statutory Natives
of India.”
3. Dr. P. C. Roy also submitted a written statement on behalf of the members of the Provin-
cial Educational Service in Bengal, vide paragraph 83,667.
4. The memorandum referred to will be found in paragraph 83,567.
430
12
JADUNATH SARKAR,
‘THE VERNACULAR MEDIUM’,
MODERN REVIEW 23 (1918), 2–7
THE NACULAR MEDIUM VIEWS OF

AN OLD TEACHER
§ 1. Charges against our graduates.

IN all civilised countries, next to religion educational questions provoke the
greatest differences of opinion and even engender heat. If this criticism of the
educational system and methods prepares the ground for constructive reform,
it should be welcomed; because such discontent with the existing system is a
healthy sign of interest in education and of the spirit of progress in the community.
But judging from the public discussions on the subject, there seems to be some-
thing essentially wrong with the present system of education in India; the evil
is deeper than the mere unsuitability of this or that detail. The whole system is
denounced for inefficiency and barrenness. We are told that the first products of
English education in India,—namely, the scholars of the old Hindu College of
Calcutta and of Dr. Duff’s missionary college; were giants; they produced mas-
terly writers of English prose, leaders of society, and creators of new branches of
vernacular literature. But the numerous graduates turned out of our University
factories now-a-days are a puny race, whose slovenly English is kept in counte-
nance only by the slipshod style of European journalism in India. The new race
of our graduates, it is asserted, lack originality and depth; they are fit to be clerks
and pleaders, but not masters of literature, either in erudition or in creative power.
The second proof of the alleged rottenness of the present educational system is
the heavy “massacre” of B.A. candidates,—sometimes amounting to 80 p.c., as in
Madras and Allahabad in recent years. We are not concerned today with investi-
gating the cause of such excessive “ploughing,”—whether it is due, to irrational
severity on the part of the examiners, inefficiency on the part of the teachers, or
a cruel leniency in the lower examinations leading up to the B.A. We only desire
to point out the frightful waste of young lives and energy that such heavy failures
at examinations involve. Who is responsible for it, and how long will it continue
without being remedied? Where lies the remedy? That is worth inquiring into.
431
The aim of education is not to pump information into a man, but to develop
his latent faculties. If we study two plays of Shakespeare at college, it is only
to train ourselves in the art of understanding other plays of the same writer
without the help of a teacher. Then, again, the educated man must prove himself
fitter for his duties than his uneducated brother, otherwise his education has no
justification.
How far has this been the case with us during the last generation? The charges
brought against our graduates, by our own countrymen even oftener than by for-
eigners, are—
(a) Our studies are not kept up after leaving college; and, hence, English educa-
tion does not become a part of our life, nor does it influence our outlook upon the
world. The chasm between the (English) school and the (Oriental) home remains
unbridged.
(b) We acquire too much of book learning, mere knowledge of the theory of
things, but lack general intelligence and the power of readily and successfully
adapting ourselves to new things.
(c) Few or none among our graduates reach the position of experts or attain to
perfection in their particular branches. We are an army of mediocres.
(d) No addition has been made by us to the world’s stock of knowledge; in the
temples of Saraswati in England, Germany and France the modern Indians are
regarded as “intellectual Pariahs.”
§ 2. The charges examined.
The last two of these charges refer to very ambitious ideals, and we shall leave
them out of our consideration here. Time is, also, supplying an answer to them.
We turn to the general intellectual level of our graduates, which is rather low.
(People who know both the countries say that it is no higher for the “Poll” or Pass
B.A. degree at Oxford or Cambridge. But then England and English Society have
certain curatives which we lack.)
True University education must, no doubt, form the character, develop the
intellect, and infuse the spirit of searching for and accepting the truth. Apart from
the influence of well-organised corporate life in residential colleges, and the per-
sonal example of good teachers in all colleges, we can influence our students
only through books. We must give them good books, and we must make them
read them, think on them, and then try to apply their knowledge to the world
around them. It, therefore, logically follows that our teaching misses its highest
possible results in proportion as our pupils do not revert to books in later life.
Where this is the case it is due to three causes: (1) The high standard of living
we have recently adopted, which requires strenuous work in professional life in
order to secure the necessary income. We cannot afford to rest or enjoy ourselves
or even take a holiday, (as Europeans invariably do, with the result of lengthen-
ing their lives).
(2) Modern Indian society has counter attractions, even among the things of the
mind, which lure us away from English books.
432
SARKAR, ‘THE VERNACULAR MEDIUM’
(3) We have to use an abnormal medium of instruction. This last brings me to

the main point of my discourse.
§ 3. Intellectual effects of using a foreign tongue.
If the end of education is to make men think, then it is unquestionably abnor-
mal teach us in a language in which we do not think,—a language which we do
not use at home, in the market-place, in the workshop—and often not even in the
club,—a language the use of which always requires a straining (however secret)
of the mental powers, even on the part of the greatest among us. A process of
perpetual translation cannot be a mental recreation.
The experience of other countries may help us to understand the situation in
India better. In the Middle Ages education in England was imparted through
the medium of a foreign tongue, viz., Latin, and students had to answer ques-
tions in the same language. Hence culture was confined to a very small section
of the community, and intellectual barrenness was the result. Some good
lawyers and theologians were, no doubt, produced, but not a single original
thinker or writer. In Scotland, lectures on philosophy were delivered in Latin
up to 1700, when the mother tongue of the students was adopted in teaching
and examination; and the Scottish intellect at once flowered in an array of phi-
losophers who are the glory of English literature—Hamilton, Reid, Stewart,
and others.
In England to-day many students read advanced works written in German or
French, but they are taught and examined in their mother tongue. In Japan, Ger-
man or English is compulsory as a second language, and not as the principal
medium of instruction and examination. Hence their knowledge is real and deep,
while ours is often rudimentary or mere book-learning dissociated from life.
Take an example. A Matriculation candidate in India is usually 16 or even 17
years old. He may be fairly compared with a 6th form boy in a school in England.
The Indian boy is taught and examined in a history of India written in English,
and because English is a foreign tongue to him, in order to diminish the pressure
on him, the size of this history of India has been wisely reduced to about 150
printed pages. He therefore reads a very elementary work, which merely gives
a hazy picture and burdens his memory, without teaching him the philosophy of
history, or unfolding the full panorama of India’s growth through the ages. The
English boy of a corresponding standard reads a history of his country written
in his mother tongue; he can therefore easily and unaided by his teacher study
a truly instructive and large history of England like John Richard Green’s great
work. Thus, our insistence on the English medium for Indian boys, compels our
sons when 17 years old to read works meant for little boys of ten and thus cramps
their minds, while English Matrics come equipped with advanced knowledge
suited to their age. Supposing that English 6th form boys were taught Roman
history written in Latin, and asked to write their answers in Latin, their his-
torical knowledge would be extremely scanty and puerile, though their knowl-
edge of the Latin tongue would be a trifle better. Knowledge of things would be
433
sacrificed to mere knowledge of words. That is the unhappy condition of Indian

students to-day.
§ 4. The rival schools of educational
experts on the vernacular medium.
The evil had attracted the attention of many Indian educationists and well-
wishers of our boys very early. As far back as 1897 or so, at the instance of Sir
Gurudas Banerji and Babu Hirendra Nath Dutt, the Bengali Sahitya Parishad
consulted more than a hundred experienced teachers and public leaders and
published their views on the subject in one volume. Opinion was then found
to be sharply divided into two schools: The first, ably represented by Mr.
N. N. Ghosh (Principal, Metropolitan Institution, Mr. H. M. Percival (Pro-
fessor, Presidency College, Calcutta), and Rai Bahadur Radhika P. Mukherji
(Inspector of Schools), held that the best way to improve a boy’s knowledge
of English is to make him read English books in all subjects, and not to rel-
egate English to the position of a second language. Mr. Ghosh wished our
College students to swim in an ocean of English literature and thus make it
almost a mother tongue to themselves. Prof. Percival held that the vernacular
medium of teaching and examination might do for those who wanted to stop
at the Matriculation examination, but for those who wanted to go through a
college course English should be the medium in all subjects from as early a
stage in the school as possible, otherwise they would find it difficult to follow
lectures and read text-books in English in the college classes. Radhika Babu
strengthened his view by referring to the well-known fact that the Middle
English Examination passed students (who had been accustomed to English
as a second language only), when they join a Matriculation school, (usually in
the 3rd class or 4th form), no doubt show remarkable superiority to the boys
trained from the beginning in H. E. Schools in Mathematics, History and San-
skrit through the English medium, but this superiority rapidly disappears in a
few years, while their deplorable inferiority in English continues throughout
their academic career.
The other party, whose chief exponent was the poet Rabindranath Tagore, held
that by teaching Mathematics, History, Science and Geography in our mother
tongue, we can not only secure greater thoroughness but also effect a reduction
of the time taken in teaching these subjects, and the time so saved may be used in
giving the boys a more thorough knowledge of English. Thus, according to him,
the vernacular medium would ensure a deeper knowledge of things and of the
English language also, at the same time.
§ 6. Objections to the vernacular medium answered.
Mr. N. N. Ghosh’s view was based upon a misconception. From the example of
our exceptional scholars he imagined that when our average school boys are asked
to prepare a subject (such as History) in English, they read good pieces of litera-
ture bearing on that subject. He forgot that 99 boys out of a hundred would read
only a cram-book, in which the information has been boiled down to the smallest
434
compass, and literary beauties pruned away as useless! Or, oftener, they would
commit to memory a catechism on the subject, or so-and-so’s Fifty Questions with
Answers, which are certified as infallible at the Matriculation examination! The
actual result, as every school-master in India knows, is neither the acquisition of a
real knowledge of facts nor a decent mastery of the English language.
Even our very best boys suffer to some extent from this abnormal system.
The present writer, if he may be pardoned for referring to his own case, was one
of the best scholars of his university in English; but he frankly confesses that he
did not at the time of his first reading it understand certain passages in Hunter’s
Brief History of the Indian People, an excellent piece of literature, which was his
Matriculation Course. (He, however, did not use any crib. But that is immaterial
to the question before us.)
The necessity of the vernacular medium from the educational point of view
has, I hope, been established beyond dispute. By large numbers of our country-
men, it is, however, objected to, from certain other points of view. The first objec-
tion is political: amidst the Babel of India’s tongues, English is the only possible
universal language and the only means of communication and national union to
the various races inhabiting this vast continent of a country.
My answer to this objection is that English is at present an instrument of thought
and medium of expression to only a few lakhs of men out of a population of 31
crores. A few lakhs more can talk “pigeon English” like the Chinese at Canton,
but their mastery of the language is not sufficient to enable them to write letters
or read books in it, and the use to which they at present put their English can be
equally well served by the “railway traveller’s Hindustani” which all of us pos-
sess. Political union by means of a thorough knowledge of English is feasible only
in the case of our “upper ten thousand”. But what means of union do you propose
for the middle ten millions who can not read English daily papers nor speak any-
thing but pigeon English?
Happily, community of language is not so important an element in nation-
building as community of thought and life. Language is only an instrument for the
purpose of national union, but thought or life is the essential thing. Readers of De
Tocqucville’s Ancien Regime will remember how that gifted writer shows that a
wonderful sameness of thought had spread over France on the eve of the Revolu-
tion of 1789 and made the Revolution possible, though the immense majority of
Frenchmen in that age were illiterate.
In India today this sameness of thought or uniformity of culture is being effected
by our vernacular newspapers and magazines, which, I admit, merely reproduce
the thoughts and spirit of our English papers. But the agency that actually and
directly effects our national union is vernacular and not English. There is a won-
derful sameness between the best Bengali, Marathi, Hindi and Gujrati magazines,
and even newspapers. And this sameness would certainly not cease when our
boys are taught and examined in their mother tongue, because the English papers
conducted by Indians would remain, the English language and literature would
remain for the instruction of the upper ten; only the middle ten millions would
435
then begin to talk intelligently and think rationally in their mother-tongue instead
of talking in pigeon-English and not thinking at all.
§ 7. Practical difficulties considered.
The second objection is based upon the unequal development of the differ-
ent Indian vernaculars; for example Bengali, Marathi, Gujrati, Hindi and Telugu
have each a more advanced, more varied and more numerous literature than say
Panjabi, Kanarese or Sindhi; and therefore while collegiate instruction can be
immediately given in the former group of vernaculars it is impossible with the
latter group.
My answer is, why should the backward races drag the more advanced races
down to the pit of intellectual barrenness and mere verbal knowledge? Why
should the only rational education be denied to millions simply because a few
hundred thousands of other people are not ready for it?
A third objection is that where the population is composed of the members
of two or three different tongues, and only the vernacular of the majority can
be adopted in the class-room, the minority speaking the other vernaculars will
be excluded from instruction. Not necessarily, I reply. These minorities may be
concentrated in their special schools, where their mother-tongue would be used.
A few isolated students, like Madrasi boys in a Bengal town or Bengali boys in a
Panjab town will suffer, no doubt. But that is no reason for denying true education
to the immense mass of Bengalis or Panjabis.
And even these minorities need not suffer. If they use text-books written in
their own vernaculars up to the prescribed standard of their province, they will
scarcely feel the absence of a teacher familiar with their vernaculars, because
where books are written in one’s mother tongue even boys can read them
unaided. The difficulty will be only in examining them in small isolated places.
And supposing that they have to read the vernacular of the province, they will be
hardly worse off than now. Every average Bengali school boy can derive no less
instruction from a Hindi history of India than he at present does from a history of
the same country written in English which he understands imperfectly. The only
sufferers will be a few, viz., the best boys foreign to the province, who are very
strong in English.
After all, these minorities cannot turn the scale against millions who will ben-
efit by the vernacular medium. To serve a few we are now content with a low
“general” standard for all by making that standard English.
§ 8. The true objections.
As a practical teacher, I anticipate that the most serious obstacle to the extended
use of the vernaculars in colleges will be their present poverty in scholarly books.
The stage to which university instruction (as distinct from school teaching) can be
carried on in a vernacular depends on the amount, variety and value of the litera-
ture already available in that vernacular. An example will make my meaning clear.
Bengali is said to be the richest among the Indian tongues; but even in Bengali
436
there is no translation of Vincent Smith’s Early History of India, Macdonell’s

History of Sanskrit Literature, Tout or Oman’s School History of England, Bury’s
Greece or Shuckburgh’s Rome,—not to speak of more advanced or specialised
treatises in English. Our poverty is even greater in respect of scientific works.
To this it is answered that as soon as the vernacular medium is recognised by
the university, good books in all subjects would be written in our mother-tongue.
A horde of hungry literary hacks are, no doubt, waiting for that day. But what
would be the value of their works? I have heard it openly argued in our Literary
Conferences and Academies that the introduction of the vernacular medium in our
colleges was necessary as the best means of enriching our literature and giving
bread to our starving authors! This is putting the cart before the horse. It should
never be forgotten that the great literature of England is not the creation of text-
book writers; it has grown out of the patronage of a body much larger and far
wiser than our Central Text-book Committees and Boards of Studies.
To my mind the most fatal objection to the extension of the vernacular
medium above the Intermediate standard is not the lack of suitable text-books
(for that want can be very soon and very easily removed), but the utter absence
of higher works in our vernaculars. Such a state of things would inevitably
lower the intellectual level of the vernacular university, were one created just
now. Where all the scholarly books, works of reference, learned journals, and
special treatises are written in English and the students have a limited mastery
of English, their knowledge is sure to be confined to their (vernacular) text-
books and their teachers’ lectures; they cannot supplement these two scanty
sources by private reading, and they miss the true end of university education;
they cannot gain intellectual freedom and they cannot become true scholars.
If, for instance, I have to study the ancient Hindu remains of Siam and Indo-
China, in which subject all the best books are in French, and I possess only an
elementary knowledge of that tongue, it will be a slow and painful task to me
to read those French books, and I should, if I were a student preparing for an
examination within a limited time, be tempted to confine myself to my (English
or vernacular) text-book on the subject and my professor’s spoken words with-
out any means of correcting or supplementing them.
If, however, the introduction of the vernacular medium does not result in a low-
ering of our boys’ knowledge of English, the above objection cannot hold good.
Actual experience alone can show whether such will be the result or not. The
example of our Middle-English-passed school boys, however, does not incline
one to be optimistic.
§ 9. What is practicable at present.
To sum up, I think it is practicable and necessary at the present day to make
Bengali the medium of teaching and examination in our schools and also in our
colleges up to the Intermediate standard only. The boys may read English books,
but they must answer in Bengali. In scientific subjects, English technical terms
437
should be freely either written in English or transliterated in Bengali. But angels

and ministers of grace defend us from the philological horrors coined by the
Bangiya Sahitya Parishad and the Nagri Pracharini Sabha in their “Glossary of
English Scientific terms translated into the Vernacular” (Baijnanik Paribhasha).
I do not share the linguistic purist’s horror of such mixture of tongues. The
English themselves have it, e.g., gas is a word of Dutch origin and not English,
but it has been bodily taken into the English vocabulary. Why then should not we
naturalise it in our tongue unchanged instead of adopting a polysyllabic monstros-
ity of Sanskrit origin to express its meaning?
Our pandits have been the greatest enemies of the introduction of the vernacu-
lar medium, by their insistence on a difficult artificial literary Bengali style, which
is often more obscure than English to us. Allow a simple unadorned vernacular
style in the answers at University examinations as the best means of ensuring true
knowledge.
JADUNATH SARXAR.
438
13
K. M. PANIKKAR, ‘THE EDUCATIONAL
PROBLEMS OF INDIAN EDUCATION’,
MODERN REVIEW 23 (1918), 8–17
BY K.M, PANIKKAR, B.A. (OXON.), M.R.A.S.,

DIXON SCHOLAR OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.
THE PROBLEMS OF INDIAN EDUCATION.

The questions of national education, answer them as you will,
touch the life and death of nations.—Viscount Morley of Blackburn.
I.
THOUGHT and word, it has been well said, are inchoate action; and every institu-
tion that considers its moral or legal right as an insufficient guarantee for its contin-
ued existence tries to control not only men’s actions but their thoughts and words.
Every government that is interested in maintaining the status quo thus finds itself
invariably trying to mould the thoughts and opinions of men, not merely in those
spheres that directly affect the governmental institutions but in all the varied phases
of human activity. The best method of such a control has been at all times recog-
nised to lie in the effective manipulation of the educational machinery of the com-
munity. The extreme republicanism of the government of France is being imposed
upon the community by its educational policy, just in the same way as the autocratic
monarchy of Prussia tries to perpetuate itself by a State control of the universities.
This principle, which has been from time immemorial the mainstay of every
party in power, is best illustrated by the educational policy of the British govern-
ment in India. Indeed, education seems to have been at no time free and unhin-
dered in our country. Brahminical India used all the power which it possessed in
trying to impose a status education which would perpetuate its own supremacy. It
is easy for a critic to find exact parallels for our present educational disabilities in
the general policy of Brahminical India. If we now object that education is given
to us through the medium of a foreign language, it could effectively be pointed out
that Brahminical India did the same thing, insisted on education through Sanskrit,
which was somewhat like a foreign language to the vast majority of the inhabit-
ants of that time as English is today. If we now object that naval and military
439
education is prohibited and opportunities for higher engineering and constructive

skill are denied to us under the British government, it could be pointed out that
the punishment for a Sudra hearing the sacred words of the Vedas was mutilation.
And that at no time of Indian history were educational disabilities so wide, and so
rigorously enforced as in Brahminical India.
Such an argument does our cause no harm. It only establishes beyond doubt
our principle that the powers that be has always tried ‘to continue to be’ by an
effective control of opinion through the educational machinery. In India under
Britain, as in India under the Brahmins, the preservation of racial supremacy is the
fundamental and apparently unalterable maxim of policy. This distrust of freedom
is the basic fact that we have to face, and any reconstruction of Indian Educational
values must be preceded by a change in this essentially wrong attitude towards
social growth.
Indian education is now wholly under the control of the State. The State man-
ages and moulds educational policy and ideal as thoroughly and as effectively
as ever the Brahmans or the Jesuits did. The universities are founded on govern-
ment charter and exist on its sufferance. Their governing bodies are government
controlled. Their examinations are the only gateway to government appointment,
thus discouraging all independent educational attempts. It inspects the curricu-
lum, discourages the study of certain subjects, encourages the extensive diffusion
of certain others, and tries to circumscribe the intellect in narrow grooves. It limits
the activity of the teacher, prohibits him from having opinions on vital questions,
imposes upon him obligations which no honourable and patriotic citizen could
accept. The history of the educational policy in India is the history of the progres-
sive systematisation of this distrust of freedom, of the progressive adoption of the
principle of status education, of the progressive elaboration of the methodology
to realise that principle.
This distrust of freedom which thus makes a constructive nationalist educa-
tional ideal imperative is seen not only in higher education, but more significantly
in the policy pursued by the bureaucracy with regard to primary education. In
studying it, one fact seems patent: the bureaucracy are afraid of educating the
people. Nothing shows better the moral weakness of the British bureaucracy in
India than the undoubted fact that they have definitely discouraged compulsory
primary education. By raising the cost of higher education they have tried to limit
the higher education of the people. By refusing them universal primary educa-
tion they have tried and in a very great measure succeeded in keeping the people
ignorant.
The universal control of our educational institutions by the bureaucracy is the
most demoralising fact in the complicated problem of our national existence.
Even such institutions as the Benares Hindu University, which comes into exis-
tence with the blessings of the Government, do not by any means escape this
vigorous and all-embracing control of the Indian bureaucracy. It is suspected and
watched. The Government reserves the right of disapproving the nomination of
any professor. It refuses to sanction Hindi as the medium of education. When
440
P A N I K K A R , ‘ T H E E D U C AT I O N A L P R O B L E M S ’
even such a satellite institution is under suspicion, it is impossible that indepen-

dent experiments such as the Gurukula and the Santiniketan should be left alone.
The Government is keeping a watchful eye on them and we may be certain that it
would never allow those institutions in any way to interfere with its general policy
of educational servility.
This however is not the only defect of our educational policy. An education for
the express purpose of maintaining status relations necessarily tends to become
formal. Its methodology becomes rigid and loses its meaning. As it is animated
by no principle of progression but only by a desire to better the machinery, its
formalism comes to be of the most deadening type ensuring a ‘Chinese’ type of
stationary society. Such a process is inevitable and the educational policy of the
British Government since 1834 has shown this more conclusively than ever.
Macaulay wrote his omniscient minute in that year. It laid once and for ever
the basis of the Anglo-Indian system of education. We are not concerned here
with a criticism of that system; our business in this essay is to analyse and inter-
pret the Educational Ideal of Indian Nationalism. What we have to recognise
with regard to the Anglo-Indian system is that from 1834 its tendency has been
to become progressively unreal, so that today it is a machinery which stunts our
growth, a mass of unreality expressing no meaning and capable of expressing
none, a system which tortures us by its elaboration and kills our mind and soul
by its barrenness.
Lord Curzon was the only viceroy who came to India with any ideas on educa-
tion. He recognised the mischief that had been done in the preceding 65 years and
valiantly tried to reform it. In an address to the Educational Conference at Simla
he expressed in his own magniloquent style all the glaring defects of the Anglo-
Indian system. He declaimed with vehemence against the ‘attempt to transplant
the smaller educational flora from the hot houses of Europe’ into an entirely differ-
ent atmosphere. The never-ending revolution of the examination wheel by which
the educational fate of a man was settled met with the violent disapprobation of
Lord Curzon. Indian education, he admits, is restricted in its aims and destructive
in its methods. ‘It is of no use’, says he, ‘to turn out respectable clerks, munsiffs
or vakils if this is done at the expense of the intellect of the nation.’
Lord Curzon’s criticism of the educational policy of the British Government
was crushing and conclusive. But his reformative attempt, it must be admitted,
ended in a total failure. His ideal was not free education, but an education con-
trolled by the State. The Apostle of Efficiency cannot tolerate a variety of insti-
tutions with different ideals and methods. They must needs be regulated by the
State. The Universities already under Government influence must become directly
Government controlled; otherwise they won’t be efficient—as though efficiency
were the end of educational institutions. The Raleigh Commission reported very
much as Lord Curzon desired. In spite of the vigorous protest of Sir Gurudas Ban-
nerjea, the Commission came to the conclusion that the cost of higher education
should be raised and that a greater control of the university by the Government
will tend to educational efficiency.
441
The Indian national movement had watched with great anxiety the restless
activity of Lord Curzon in this field. The Congress awoke at last to the extreme
importance of the problem when the meddling hand of Lord Curzon showed them
that the future of their country was being trilled with by an Anglo-Indian Com-
mittee. Till now the Congress had shown a fatuous indifference to this supremely
important subject. The pressing necessity of a national programme in education
and the fatal danger of allowing an alien Government full control of the training
of the youth of the nation, patent enough to ordinary observers of political life,
were completely ignored by the Congress until this time. It is true that a few
devoted spirits of the Congress movement had for a long time seen the imperative
character of this problem. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Surendra Nath Bannerjea, Gopal
Krishna Gokhale, and a few others had very early in their careers recognised the
necessity of national control in education and had realised that the problem of
national education touched very vitally the life and death of nations. They had in
their different spheres tried to solve that problem independently of the Govern-
ment. But the Congress itself confined its activities to the strictly political prob-
lems as if the source from which all political action derived its motive force was
not a question of politics at all.
But the threatening activity of the viceregal meddler awoke the Congress from
its characteristic slumber. The changed character of the Congress, its new and
unbending nationalism, its gradual emancipation from the Bombay clique, all
contributed to the general activity and life which that movement showed during
the latter part of the Curzonian regime. Lord Curzon’s attempt to raise the cost of
higher education was therefore met with a direct challenge. The Congress at Bena-
res enunciated the formula of ‘National Education under National Control.’ Later
events showed that this formula was interpreted in two entirely different ways
by the two different parties. The vital difference between the two parties showed
itself even in the interpretation of this non-political programme. To the Moderates
of the Gokhale type national education and national control meant only an exten-
sion of the field for Indians in the Service and a greater study of Indian subjects in
the universities. To the Nationalists this formula meant something very different.
They interpreted it to mean the complete nationalisation of educational machinery
and absolute boycott of all the institutions where the hand of the Government was
suspected. Thus the Congress committed itself to an undefined formula which
only covered, as all formulae are perhaps meant to cover, fundamental differences
of opinion. Behind the united demand for national education under national con-
trol which the Congress put forward in 1905, it was easy for the acute observer
to see the uncompromising hostility between the Moderates and the Nationalists.
The cleavage of opinion on the matter became vital when from the domain
of congressional discussion an attempt was made to translate it into the field of
action. Bengal instituted a Council of National Education and it seemed for a time
that the educational monopoly of the Government was passing out of its hands.
But the Bengal attempt failed as it was bound to fail. A division between the purse
and the brain of a concern cannot indeed conduce to its success. The moderates
442
headed by Rashbehari Ghose commanded the purse; the nationalists headed by

Arabindo Ghose commanded the brains. The Hindu revival which was at the basis
of the new nationalist movement had scarcely affected the moderates. They were
still the ‘crowning product of the British rule,’ as one of them expressed it. They
still looked to England for inspiration. They were unwilling to nationalise edu-
cation completely, lest ‘the crowning product of the British rule’ might become
extinct. Arabindo and his party had no such fears. They looked not to Europe
but to India itself for inspiration. To them, all the faith of the moderates in the
wonderful effects of the western education was but one of the many vile supersti-
tions which the Anglo-Indian system had sedulously cultivated. As the experi-
ment of national education progressed, this divergence of opinion came more and
more to the front. In a few years’ time the whole system had completely broken
down. Few tears need be wasted on the failure of this scheme. It only emphasised
once more the fundamental political truth that all great institutions that shape and
mould the destiny of nations begin in individuals, and not in collective organised
groups. The great pre-revolutionary educational force in Europe was the Society
of Jesus and it had its origin in the brain of Ignatius Loyola. Comenius, Pestal-
lozzi and Froebel and all the rest of the great teachers that have revolutionised the
educational systems of the world and thus directed the thought and evolution of
mankind into widely different moulds were individuals and the institutions that
they set up did not owe their origin to the collective initiation of a group but to
individual attempts to realise what society had generally laughed at as impracti-
cable dreams. In this matter as in others real progress can come only by the action
of individuals and the Bengal National Council of Education had this ‘basic fault.’
It was left for an individual, the most eminent that Bengal has produced after
Chaitanya, to realise the ideal of National Education and Rabindranath Tagore’s
school at Bolpur can in this way be said to be the contribution of Bengal to the
solution of this problem. We shall examine it later.
The Bengal Council was perhaps the most typical attempt of modern Angli-
cised and ‘progressive’ India in the educational field. But the most remarkable
experiment both in educational ideal and pedagogic methodology came not from
Bengal but from the Punjab. The Arya Samaj and the Hindu revival brought with
them not only a new interpretation of the doctrines of the Aryan religion but also
a new outlook on life, and anew conception of mental training. The Aryas recog-
nised more fully than the congressionists that the development of an independent
system of education must precede all attempts at reconstruction and readjustment
of the bases of Indian society. This new attitude and outlook materialised in the
Gurukula at Hardwar.
The Gurukula ideal of education is essentially different, not only from the
Anglo-Indian system but from the educational ideals of any of the modern coun-
tries. It is an attempt to revitalise the ascetic spirit of the ancient Hindu Culture. It
is an experiment in assimilating as much of modern science as is essential with the
spirit of our ancient civilisation. The Gurukula tries to found an Indian University,
Indian in every sense, out of which would arise a new Indian nation breathing the
443
old and sacred atmosphere of the Vedas but tasting and relishing all that is useful
and fine in the thought, literature and science of the modern nations.
This is, we might say at once, the right ideal. But in the systematic elaboration
of its methodology the Gurukula system tends both to an ascetic severity, and a
cast-iron formalism. In taking the children away from the realities of domestic
life and interning them for very nearly 18 years in the unreal surroundings of a
Himalayan monastery, the Arya Samaj theorists show an absolute ignorance of
the fundamental ideas of education. They forget the essential truth that an educa-
tion which does not keep the child in touch with the realities of domestic life is
no education at all; that to be left after 20 years of restless mental activity in an
unexplained and to him inexplicable environment is not only harmful but posi-
tively destructive; that such a divorce of life in knowledge and life in reality can
only lead to intellectual insincerity absolutely incompatible with true education.
The answer which the Aryasamajists make to this argument is that family influ-
ence in India is on the whole detrimental to the full development of the child and
that the less he sees of his family in his formative years the better. This line of
argument takes for granted that it is for his elders to settle what is good for the
child, and in effect that the mind of the child is soft clay to be moulded and shaped
as his elders desire. This is the doctrine against which the great Comenius and the
no less great Rousseau preached with such unanswerable logic. The child’s mind
is not a virgin soil to use the famous metaphor of Comenius, to be sown by the
teacher in a formal pattern. This is the basic flaw of the Gurukula system. It treats
the children as so much raw material to be manufactured by a longtime process
into pious, patriotic, philosophical and literary citizens capable of carrying the
Message of the Great Arya Civilisation to all the known parts of the world.
Another and perhaps more effective criticism on the Hardwar ideal is that it is
essentially revivalistic and therefore lacking in the element of progression. The
ideals of yesterday are useless if they are not interpreted from the point of view of
the life of today. The Garukalas were prevalent full 2000 years ago and it is a vain
attempt even if it were possible to re-vitalise an institution which flourished under
widely different conditions and in a very different time. No nation can go back
and least of all could we who boast of having had a continuous civilised existence
for 2000 years, afford to go back to a particular phase of our national evolution.
Societal traditions have their place in educational systems and in India, or at least
in the India of the Indians, such traditions are stronger than even a traditionalist
could wish. Every system of education should have both the binding conservatism
of the social tradition and the fluidal mobility of a progressional element. The
former is the hold of the past. The latter is the problem of the present and the call
of the future. In Indian institutions the former is predominant; the latter is deplor-
ably lacking. The Gurukula of Hardwar shows this defect of our institutions more
conspicuously than anything in modern India.
The principle of individual freedom so crushed out in Hardwar for uniformity
of pattern is found to be the fundamental principle of the Santiniketan of Rabin-
dranath Tagore. The Bengal Council was not an educational experiment; it was
444
solemn futility meant to be an educational demonstration. But that unrest which

drove the fatuous Congress to do something in its own extremely futile manner
led the most fertile mind of modern Bengal to embark on an educational experi-
ment the most unique of its kind in India. The School at Bolpur showed once
more that experiment must begin, especially when the raw material on which it
is begun is the most precious element in the nation, with the tested instincts of
creative genius, and not by the commercial application of a uniform principle. The
Santiniketan grew out of Tagore’s brains as the Academy grew out of Plato’s and
the Bonnal School out of Pestalozzi’s dreams.
Educational practice has from time immemorial been divided, as Mr. Richmond
well puts it, into that which works through rules more than through sympathy, and
that which puts sympathy before rule. The Hardwar system exemplifies the first:
the Bolpur system exemplifies the second. The Hardwar system works through
the class, assumes a uniformity of intelligence and interest. Santiniketan works
through the individual, treats ‘each case on its own merit’ with no uniformity of
pattern and preconceived notions as to what the child ought to be when grown
up. It assumes that every child is born good but with different degrees of instinct,
feeling and intelligence. The aim of all is the same but the capability of realising
it differs in degree. Thus each individual should be ministered to in the fashion
that fits him and brings out and developes his qualities and not in the measure of
another’s wants and desires.
The teaching of tradition tends to societal control: individual liberty tends to
social freedom; but societal control and individual freedom are not incompatible
when we recognise that, individual liberty finds its highest and truest expression
only under societal control. But though they are not necessarily incompatible pop-
ular instinct is right when it draws a dividing line between the rigid formalism of
the traditionalist and the sympathetic guidance of the individualist. The Gurukula
stands for the control therefore for the limitation of the future by the experience
or the realised ideal of the past. Bolpur stands for the ideal of free development
deriving inspiration from tradition, but hindered as little as possible by the dead
weight of a desire to bring back into existence an institution out of which life had
flown centuries ago.
Both the Gurukula and the Santiniketan are only individual attempts at the solu-
tion of a national problem. Realisation of great principles can only come through
the spontaneous energy of individuals: but institutions meant for remedying cry-
ing evils have to originate, not in the creative genius of a single man, but in the
general consciousness of a nation and its collective initiative. The Benares Hindu
University is essentially a work of this kind. It is not the realisation of a great
principle or ideal but simply an attempt to remedy the most conspicuous of all the
evils of the Anglo-Indian system of education. Macaulay had written with the sub-
lime impudence that characterised his peculiar talents that the Indian risorgimento
can come only through the wide diffusion of European culture and that Indian
civilisation, whatever it may have been worth, was as dead as the Assyrian. The
palpable falsity of this view was manifest from its beginning. Its importance lies
445
on its results rather than on its merits. From that day dates the deplorable divorce
of Indian education from Indian thought and Indian feeling. The universities of
India were but factories where a few were manufactured into Graduates and a
good many more wrecked in the voyage of their intellectual life.
What the Hindu University has at tempted to do is to bring Indian education
into conformity with Indian culture. With its many and patent faults we need not
concern ourselves. What we should recognise clearly is that the Hindu University
differs essentially from the Anglo-Indian Universities in that the former exists
for the express purpose of interpreting Hindu culture, and as the material and
tangible expression of the cultural unity of India. Thus the Benares University
is a far-reaching experiment remedial in its primary character but creating a new
atmosphere vitalising old traditions, interpreting racial ideals and spreading the
thought and feeling of ancient and modern India.
Here we have the right ideal. But in the execution of that ideal lies unsolved the
problem of national education. The Benares University is as effectively controlled
by the Government as its own institutions. The watchful eye of the Bureaucracy
is on it and it is independent only in name. The experiment is so important, the
probable effects from it so far-reaching, the success or failure of it so vital, that
the Government acting on its irrational distrust of free and unshackled education
considered itself justified in imposing its own authority on it. But when all is
said of the influence of an alien Government, of the reactionary character of any
institution that exists to interpret ancient ideals and not primarily to search for
truth, of the mischief that it may originate due to its sectarian character, of the
great and crying evils such as the caste system which it may perpetuate, when
all is said, the Benares Hindu University remains a capital fact which is bound to
influence our national evolution certainly in a much better way than the Anglo-
Indian institutions.
Its chief defect we have noticed before. It is remedial and therefore supple-
mentary. It does not solve the educational problem of nationalist India. It does
not even face the issues boldly. But this must be admitted that it is a great step
forward. It is the natural nucleus of any national experiment in education. Around
it would gather institutions united in their diversity, inspired by the majestic flow
of the sacred Ganges from whom, as it was written of yore, is bound to flow all
that is good and great in India.
II.
Up to now our work has been entirely critical and estimative. The greater task
of stating and analysing the problem and interpreting the tendency of the new
nationalists towards it remains.
What most strikes anyone who approaches the problem of Indian Education
from any point of view, is its appalling magnitude. Here is a country with a popu-
lation of 315 millions whose future salvation depends greatly upon the careful
study and the right solution of this problem. Here is a not inconsiderable portion
446
of the human kind whose destiny depends a great deal upon those who have the
foresight to see and the energy and the enthusiasm to realise a right educational
ideal. The problem is indeed bewildering in its variety. It is as if one entered a
primeval forest, thick and crowded with trees, with no gleam of light to guide
one’s steps, with soft grass and wild creepers covering many a pitfall. But if it is
difficult, nay almost impossible to traverse, we must also admit the temptation to
persevere in the attempt is as great, seeing that beyond this dark and untraversed
forest lies the promised land, the land of a free and educated population.
Out of the wild variety of this problem three factors stand out towering above
the rest. They are the questions of a common language, of the education of
women, and of the general policy and the institutions by which to realise it. The
first question is whether India should be treated as a cultural unity, whether a new
All-Indian language, a modified Arya Bhasha embodying not only the culture
of Ancient India, but assimilating the contribution of the Mussalman inhabitants
should be consciously evolved out. The second question is whether we should
perpetuate the status relation between men and women in education, whether an
absolute equality of sexes in educational practice is not bound to affect adversely
the free progress of a family and social development. Whether a different edu-
cational ideal for women is not desirable, possible and practicable. The third
question is the question of the educational principles and institutions; whether
a uniform general policy is desirable, if desirable how far it should be carried,
whether the realisations of great principles does not come from the co-ordination
of tested units, whether it would be more desirable to nationalise interest than to
universalise it. Such are the main outlines of the problem which the nationalist
has to face not only when India governs herself but even today, because without
at least a partial solution of the educational problem Swaraj would remain an
unrealised ideal.
The first question—that of a common language, is one of the most pressing of
our problems not only from an educational, but from a general nationalist point
of view. Without it all our efforts at united action must forever remain virtually
ineffective. It is true that before the British dominion India was one in feeling,
thought and culture. But today by the influence of a foreign language her different
provinces are tending to a difference even in these vital points. This process of
disintegration can be arrested only by a common language. Is such a thing pos-
sible; if possible, can Indian Nationalists unaided by the all-pervading machinery
of government realise it? This is the first question we have to answer.
That English can never serve the purpose of a common language is a manifest
fact that requires no argument to prove. It is so utterly foreign to us that educa-
tion in it involves an enormous waste of mental power. This waste is suffered not
only by those whose natural gifts are so overflowing as to be indifferent to its
effects but by everyone who desires to be educated in India. This is the explana-
tion of the enormous number of failures in our universities, and of that unique
and therefore all the more heartrending phenomenon of the Indian educational
world the “failed B.A.” English can never become anything but the language for
447
a microscopic minority of our inhabitants—the cidevant Eurasian. For us Indians

it is and it will ever be a language in which to commit literary suicide, a tongue
which stifles our expressive faculties, a medium of expression which kills all the
thinking power of our mind. The use of a foreign language as the medium of our
higher education leaves us without a national genius in literature, in sciences and
in thought. Lord Curzon was essentially right, though in a negative sense, when
he said that the raising of the cost of higher education would tend to the better-
ment of India. Such an administrative act would limit the classes who would be
affected by this intellectual ravage. It would confine the intellectual exploitation
to the very few who are rich. The ordinary man, though he does not gain, surely
does not lose by this arrangement.
Setting aside therefore the impossible supposition that English can at any time
be the common language of India we are left with two alternatives, to wit:—that
we should choose as our common language either an unused language—a dead
language as it is erroneously called—Sanskrit, Prakrit, or Classical Persian, or,
one of the chief Indian vernaculars, such as Hindi, Bengali or Tamil. Of these two
possible alternatives we can dismiss the first with a few words. True that Sanskrit
has the merit of being known and studied all over India. It has also the merit of
being the common basis of all the Indian languages. But at no time does it seem to
have been extensively spoken in India and it is hardly possible that such a perfect
language with all its different verbal forms could ever be spoken by the ordinary
man. Persian, of course, has little claim to be the common language, and Prakrit,
less.
Thus we are left with the indubitable fact that the common language of India
can only be one of the three or four chief vernaculars of India. The problem more
plainly stated becomes this: which language are we to choose, from among the
great vernaculars of India as the medium of higher education and the basis of
higher communal life? The apparent contest is between Hindi, Bengali and Tamil.
But the contest seems to me to be only an apparent one. Neither Tamil nor Ben-
gali, however cultivated their literatures be, can claim to be anything but the lan-
guage of a particular province, a language spoken by a sub-nationality. But the
case of Hindi is different. The Hindi-speaking people do not inhabit a particular
marked-out portion of India. It is in fact understood all over North India. It is
understood in a slightly different form by all the Mussalman inhabitants of India
and this fact alone makes its claim a matter of incontestable weight. Also it has a
double alphabet which, peculiarly enough, is in this case not a hindrance but an
additional claim. Its Nagari character makes it acceptable to all Hindus; its Urdu
character makes it acceptable to all Mussalmans. Thus an acceptance of Hindi
would preserve the continuity of our civilisation both for our Muslim brethren
and for ourselves.
It is an interesting and supremely important subject which we would have liked
to discuss with greater elaboration had the limits of this essay permitted it. How-
ever before entering into the consideration of the next question we would attempt
to answer one important objection that is commonly raised against the evolution
448
of an Indian common language. Will not the adoption of any one Indian language,
say Hindi for example, as our lingua franca adversely affect the growth of our
vernaculars? Will not the language in which Chandidas and Rabindranath Tagore
wrote, say these, become in course of time, like Gaelic in Ireland, merely a dead
tradition. Will not the sublime Tirukural, and the no less sublime Songs of Ram-
das, become like the wonderful poems of the Welsh bards, or the reputed epics of
the Aztecs mere objects of curiosity for the antiquarians? The fear is legitimate,
though groundless. The unique greatness of India lies in its wonderful diversity,
and the ideal of a great India must always remain a diversity-ideal. Is the attempt
to create a common language an attempt to create a uniformity of thought and
expression? If it is, it is treason to India. But under no conceivable circumstances
can it be so. A second language taught and spoken as such can never replace a
well cultivated mother tongue. The Bengali would be proud of his tongue as the
Tamilian, the Gujerati, the Punjabi and the Malayali would be. They would be
cultivated with greater zest and interest as the knowledge of the other Indian lan-
guages grew among the people. The objection therefore is groundless.
The proper education of women is the next problem. We have noticed that this
problem has to be treated in three main lines, which are—first, whether we should
perpetuate the status relation between men and women in education, secondly,
whether the Indian family life does not demand a peculiar consideration in our
educational problem, thirdly, whether a different educational ideal for our women
cannot without breaking the continuity of our culture be evolved from our past.
The Indian nation can never be free till the Indian woman has ceased to be a
slave. The Indian nation can never be educated till the Indian woman has ceased
to be ignorant. I am not saying that the Indian womanhood is bound in slavery,
or that it is blinded by ignorance. But the fact is that both in the relative status of
sexes and in the idea of their education our present system affords room for very
considerable modification. Is that modification to come through the activities of
the social reformers or by the extensive diffusion of education. The difference
between the two processes is great indeed. The social reformers try to impose
their ideas on the generality, believing implicitly in the infallibility of the reforms
they advocate. The social reform temperament is the temperament of the mission-
ary. On the other hand the process of social evolution through the wider diffusion
of education is essentially a process of raising the general standard of opinion
and thus making social reform the real expression of the conscious will of the
community.
The question however arises whether we are to perpetuate the status relation of
sexes in our educational system. The process of human evolution has surely been
in the progressive differentiation of sexes which has now become a dominant and
capital fact in all organised societies. The question of sexual status and education
affects us in an entirely different way. At present the education of our females,
such as it is, is entirely in relation to the family and not to the community. It is
designed so as to make the child as it grows up a sweet and docile wife, an ideal
mother, and when she reaches that age a self-sacrificing widow and able head
449
of the family. This ideal is absolutely right as far as it goes. But it does not go
far. It gives no place for the relation of women to the community. That relation
is only implied in a very limited sense in the ideal mother. The business of the
mother, as far as the community is concerned, according to this ideal, is to rear up
ideal citizens. Naturally the question arises: does the social relationship of women
end with rearing up excellent soldiers and sagacious politicians? Is she merely a
means and not an end in herself? Can her faculties be fully and freely developed
except in relation to the organised community, and, by limiting her to the smallest
possible community, the family, are we not limiting the development of her facul-
ties? It is therefore evident that any comprehensive solution, of the educational
problem must include the final destruction of the artificial limitation of feminine
relationship to the family.
This brings us to the second question whether such an extension of feminine
activity through a different ideal of education which, while perpetuating the
healthy status relation of sexes, does not limit the female to the family, would
affect adversely that vital point of our civilisation—the joint family system. It
is by no means clear whether a higher individuation of the units that compose
the family would tend to its breakup and it does not seem to be true that a freer
interpretation of the position of women in society must lead to a disintegration
of the family. What seems quite clear is that the joint family system as it is, with
all its merits, tends very considerably to be a dead weight in the matter of freer,
fuller and healthier family life, and a purification of it in its essentials can come
only through the increased intelligence of women. Female education as long as
it is imparted with the view of perpetuating the status relation of the sexes or on
the other hand is based on the idea that such differences ought not to exist, would
remain wholly unreal, disturbing the whole fabric of social organisation and sap-
ping the very vital roots of all social existence. The education of women, such as
is given in India today, inclines to the second alternative of ignoring the existence
of sexual differences. That is why female education in India has been a totally
disturbing, instead of a consolidating, factor in social life. The Indian joint family
life being indeed the realised truth of a thousand generations requires a peculiar
consideration in our educational problem. Our ideal should not be to destroy but
to purify it.
Does this ideal mean a break in the continuity of our civilisation? In spite of the
opinion of Sir C. Sankaran Nair, no sensible man has ever believed that according
to Hindu ideals woman is created to minister to man’s wants. The Hindu ideal
of womanhood has been the ideal—not the European conception of a helpmate
for man soothing his distracted hours—of a necessary counterpart without whom
man by himself cannot attain salvation. What Sri Krishna asks his old playmate
Kuchela when that pious devotee visited the Lord, is whether the female rishi
suited him in every way. Indeed, according to the Hindu ideal man and woman
are like the twin blade of a pair of scissors each important and insufficient in itself
and capable of action only in combination. There is no superiority or inferiority
in their relations. The right ideal is to make both the blades as keen as possible.
450
This not only does not mean a break in the continuity of the Hindu tradition but is
in entire conformity with its spirit. Such is the opinion of those who have devoted
their life work to the cause of female education. Prof. Karve in founding the wom-
en’s university has the same ideal. The Gurukula authorities in establishing an
institution for girls gives the authority of orthodox Hinduism to this ideal.
Now it remains to discuss whether a general educational programme under
these conditions is possible, and whether such a policy would be desirable as lay-
ing down the main lines of our educational development. A general policy means
at least an attempt on the part of the powers that be to lay down certain things as
the essential minimum of education. This power in the hands of a government
generally tends to a control of the educational system. That is eminently undesir-
able, even it is comes from a strictly nationalist Indian Government. Education,
unless we want to travesty it as a governmental instrument, must necessarily be
free and unhampered. Thus a general policy can be laid down only to this extent,
that is, the Government while encouraging, by every means in its power, should
leave education outside the scope of its general activities except in so far as to
remedy such manifest evils as a monopoly by any particular community, or a
general inactivity in any particular field. The Government should make primary
education free and compulsory, but in no case should it insist on a general cur-
riculum for the whole of India. It should be left to the discrimination of the local
authorities prescribing however that in such subjects, as elementary Arithmetic of
which the realised experiments of the past centuries have convincingly proved the
utility, a minimum standard should be set. Only up to this has the Government any
right of interference. In its educational policy the Government’s activity should be
one of co-ordination of educational institutions.
How then are we to realise this ideal of free and compulsory primary educa-
tion, absolutely under local control, with the least possible interference from the
governmental authorities? Is it by a system of free universities as in America or
by a system of local effort supplemented by board schools as in England? The
answer is difficult. But this much we can say without any fear of contradiction: A
national programme of education in a country like India whose greatness lies in
the rich diversity of her people, her ideals and her life, must essentially be a pro-
gramme of local effort, of individual experiment and of provincial and national
co-ordination. The Government can therefore never lay down an educational pol-
icy. If it did, such a policy would only create a mechanical process of instruction
without any local colour, without any conformity with the realities of life, without
any attempt to create intellectual sincerity. The realisation of any ideal, however
good, can come only through the general prevalence of individual experiments in
that direction. A state can never successfully impose it on the community without
transforming the character of that ideal.
To summarise what we have said till now. The nationalist movement in India is
threatened today by a grave danger, that of an inquisitorial control by the Govern-
ment of the educational machinery. On the face of it, therefore, a nationalist pro-
gramme in education becomes an imperative necessity. From the earliest days of
451
the national movement the more far-sighted among them had seen this. But their
efforts remained mainly local until the meddling hand of Lord Curzon imposed on
an unwilling Congress the necessity of ennunciating a general policy in education.
The translation of that policy from the realm of speech to that of action ended in
complete failure. But other experiments, such as the Gurukula which attempts to
revive the ascetic spirit of the ancient Hindus and the Santiniketan which tries to
realise the principle of individual freedom, arose out of that educational unrest.
The Benares University expressed in a tangible form the dissatisfaction of the best
moderate mind with the Anglo-Indian system of education.
But a really nationalist ideal in education has not yet been authoritatively elabo-
rated. Such an ideal must take into consideration the problem of a common lan-
guage, which in the opinion of the present writer can only be Hindi. It must also
give particular attention to the education of our women without attempting to dis-
integrate the joint family system. Finally, a national educational programme must
be a programme of local effort and national co-ordination. It is unnecessary to
forecast whether such an ideal is immediately practicable. Any diversity-ideal can
only be a matter of growth though not necessarily slow. The nationalist effort in
education, therefore, should be directed not chiefly towards any attempt to mould
the governmental policy but in building up local institutions of a great variety of
character and embodying different national ideals and culture. Therein alone lies
the hope of nationalism, for nationalism ignorant is nationalism ineffective.
Let us remember this and then we shall have no more fear of the future. In the
past India was great: the present is not without hope: but with our united effort her
future shall indeed be greater than either her present or even her past. It depends
upon us and let it not be said of us that the Spirit of Time in determining the fate
of our Motherland tried us in the ordeal of fire and found us wanting.
452
14
H. V. DUGVEKAR (ED.), EXTRACTS
FROM NATIONAL EDUCATION
(BENARES: BALABODHA OFFICE,
1917), 4–10, 29–33, 62–86
EDUCATION ON NATIONAL LINES.

SWAMI VIVEKANAND.
We must have a hold on the spiritual and secular education of the nation. Do
you understand that? You must dream, you must talk, and you must think and you
must work. Till then there is no salvation for the race. This education that you are
getting now has some good points but it has a tremendous evil at its back, and
this evil is so great that the good things are all weighed down. In the first place,
it is not a man-making education, it is merely and entirely a negative education.
A negative education or any training that consists negation is worse than death.
The child is taken to School and the first thing he learns is that his father was a
fool, the second his grandfather was a crazy lunatic, the third that all his teachers
were hypocrites, the fourth that all the sacred books were lies! By the time he is
sixteen, he is a mass of negation, lifeless and boneless. And the result is that fifty
years of such education have not produced one man in the three Presidencies.
Every original man that has been produced has been educated elsewhere and not
in this country, or they have gone to the old Universities once more to cleanse
themselves of superstitions. This is not education. Education is not the amount of
information that is put into your brain and running riot there, undigested, mak-
ing a battle of Waterloo all your life. We must have life-building, man-making,
character-making, assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas
and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man
who can give by heart a whole library. “The ass carrying its load of sandalwood
knows only the weight and not the value of the Sandalwood.” If education means
information, the libraries are the greatest sages in the world and encyclopaedias
are the Rishis. The ideal, therefore, is that we must have the whole education of
our country, spiritual and secular, in our own hands and it must be on national
lines, through national methods, as far as practicable. Of course this is a very
big scheme, a big plan. I do not know whether it will ever work itself out but we
453
must begin the work. How? For instance, take Madras. We must start a temple,
must have a temple, for, with Hindus religion must come first. Then you say, all
sects will quarrel about the temple. We will make a non-sectarian temple giving
only “Om” as the symbol, the greatest symbol of any sect. If there is any sect here
which believes that “Om” ought not to be the symbol it has no right to be Hindu.
All will have the right to interpret ideas, each one according to his own sect, but
we must have a common temple. You can have your own images and things in
other places, but do not quarrel with the other people. There should be taught there
the common grounds of our different sects and at the same time the different sects
should have perfect liberty to come there and teach their doctrines, with only one
restriction—not to quarrel with other sects. Say what you have to say, the world
wants it; but the world has no time to hear what you think about other people, keep
that to yourselves. Secondly, along with this temple there should be an institu-
tion to train teachers and preachers. These teachers must go about preaching both
religion and secular knowledge to our people; they must carry both as we have
been already carrying religion from door to door. Let us along with religion carry
secular education from door to door. That can be easily done. Then the work will
extend through these bands of teachers and preachers, and gradually we shall have
similar temples in other centres, until we have covered the whole of India. That
is the plan. It may appear gigantic. But that is needed. You may ask where is the
money. Money is not needed. Money is nothing. For the last twelve years of my
life I did not know where the next meal would come from, but money and every
thing I want must come, because they are my slaves and not I theirs; money and
every thing else must come. Must, that is the word. Where are the men? That is
the question. I have told you what we have become. Where are the men? Young
men of India,1 my hope is in you. Do you respond to the call of your nation? Each
one of you has a glorious future if you dare believe me. Have the tremendous
faith in yourselves which I had when I was a child and I am working it out. Have
that faith, each one in yourself, that eternal power is lodged in every one of our
souls. You will revive the whole of India. Aye, we will go to every country under
the sun and our ideas must be within the next ten years a component of the many
forces that are working to make up every nation in the world. We must enter into
the life of every race inside India and outside India; we will work. That is how
it should be. I want youngmen. Say the Vedas: “It is the strong, the healthy, of
sharp intellect and young that will reach the Lord.” This is the time to decide
your future—with this energy of youth, when you have not been worked out, not
become faded, but still in the freshness and vigour of youth. Work, this is the time
for the freshest, the most untouched and unsmelled fresh flowers, alone to be laid
at the feet of the Lord. He receives. Get up, therefore, greater works are to be done
than picking quarrels and becoming lawyers and other things. Far greater is this
sacrifice of yourselves for the benefit of your race, for the welfare of humanity,
for life is short. What is in this life? You are Hindus and there is the instinctive
belief in you that life is eternal. Sometimes I have youngmen in Madras coming
and talking to me about Atheism. I do not believe a Hindu can become an atheist.
454
DUGVEKAR (ED.), NATIONAL EDUCATION
He may read European books and persuade himself he is a materialist, but only for
five months, mark you. It is not in your blood. You can not believe what is not in
your constitution; it would be a hopeless task for you. Do not attempt that sort of
thing. I once attempted when I was a boy! But it could not be. Life is short, but the
soul is immortal and eternal, and therefore one thing being certain, death, let us
take up a great ideal and give up the whole life to it. Let this be our determination,
and may He, the Lord, who “comes again and again for the salvation of His own
people,” speaking from our scriptures—may the great Krishna bless us and lead
us all to the fulfilment of our aims!—From the lecture on “The Future of India.”
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS IN INDIA

AND WESTERN COUNTRIES.
THE HON’BLE Mr. G. K. GOKHALE. C. I. E.
An American legislator, addressing his countrymen more than half a century

ago, once said that if he had the Archangel’s trumpet, the blast of which could
startle the living of all nations, he would sound it in their ears and say: ‘Educate
your children, educate all your children, educate every one of your children.’ The
deep wisdom and passionate humanity of this aspiration is now generally recog-
nised, and in almost every civilised country, the state to-day accepts the education
of the children as a primary duty resting upon it. Even if the advantages of an ele-
mentary education be put no higher than a capacity to read and write, its universal
diffusion is a mattar of prime importance, for literacy is better than illiteracy any
day, and the banishment of a whole people’s illiteracy is no mean achievement.
But elementary education for the mass of the people means something more than
a mere capacity to read and write. It means for them a keener enjoyment of life
and a more refined standard of living. It means the greater moral and economic
efficiency of the individual. It means a higher level of intelligence for the whole
community generally. He who reckons these advantages lightly may as well doubt
the value of light or fresh air in the economy of human health. I think it is not
unfair to say that one important test of the solicitude of a Government for the true
well-being of its people is the extent to which, and the manner in which, it seeks
to discharge its duty in the matter of mass education. And judged by this test, the
Government of this country must wake up to its responsibilities much more than it
has hitherto done, before it can take its proper place among the civilised Govern-
ments of the world. Whether we consider the extent of literacy among the popu-
lation, or the proportion of those actually at School, or the system of education
adopted, or the amount of money expended, on primary education, India is far, far
behind other civilised countries. Take literacy. While in India, according to the fig-
ures of the census of 1901, less than 6 per cent. of the whole population could read
and write, even in Russia, the most backward of European countries education-
ally, the proportion of literates at the last census was about 25 per cent; while in
many European countries, as also the United States of America, and Canada and
455
Australia, almost the entire population is now able to read and write. As regards
attendance at school, I think it will be well to quote once more the statistics which
I mentioned in moving my resolution of last year.
They are as follows:—‘In the United states of America, 21 per cent. of the
whole population is receiving elementary education; in Canada, in Australia, in
Switzerland, and in Great Britain and Ireland, the proportion ranges from 20 to
17 per cent; in Germany, in Austria-Hungary, in Norway and in the Netherlands
the proportion is from 17 to 15 per cent; in France it is slightly above 14 per cent;
in Sweden it is 14 per cent; in Denmark it is 13 per cent; in Belgium it is 12 per
cent; in Japan it is 11 per cent; in Italy, Greece and Spain it ranges between 8 and
9 per cent; in Portugal and Russia it is between 4 and 5 per cent; whereas in British
India it is only 1 9 per cent.’
Turning next to the systems of education adopted in different countries, we find
that while in most of them elementary education is both compulsory and, free, and
in a few, though the principle of compulsion is not strictly enforced or has not yet
been introduced, it is either wholly or for the most part gratuitous, in India alone
it is neither compulsory nor free. Thus in Great Britain and Ireland, France, Ger-
many, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
the United states of America, Canada, Australia and Japan, it is both compulsory
and free, the period of compulsion being generally six years. Though in some of the
American states it is now as long as nine yeare. In Holland, elementary education is
compulsory, but not free. In Spain, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Servia and Rumania,
it is free, and, in theory, compulsory, though compulsion is not strictly enfored. In
Turkey, too, it is free and nominally compulsory, and in Russia, though compulsion
has not yet been introduced, it is for the most part gratuitous. Lastly, if we take the
expenditure on elementary education in different countries per head of the popula-
tion, even allowing for different money values in different countries, we find that
India is simply nowhere in the comparison. The expenditure per head of the popula-
tion is highest in the United states, being no less than 16s; in Switzerland, it is 13s,
8d. per head; in Australia, 11s. 3d; in England and Wales, 10s; in Canada, 9s. 9d; in
Scotland, 9s. 7½d; in Germany, 6s. 10d; in Ireland, 6s. 5d; in the Netherlands, 6s.
4½d; in Sweden, 5s. 7d; in Belgium, 5s. 4; in Norway, 5s. 1d; in France, 4s, 10d; in
Austria, 3s. 1½d; in Spain, 1s. 10d; in Italy, 1s. 7½d; in Servia and Japan, 1s. 2d; in
Russia, 7½d; while, in India, it is barely one penny. From—The Speech delivered on
16th March 1911 in the Imperial Legislative Council, India.
EDUCATION IN INDIA.2
LALA LAJPAT RAI.
It has now more than abundantly been established that the efficiency of a nation
depends upon the amount and nature of brain power which it can put forth in
the affairs of life. In an address delivered some two years back, Sir John Lock-
yer, the illustrious President of the British Association, traced conclusively and
456
convincingly the intimate relation that exists between the provision made by a
nation for the higher education of its people and the position taken by that nation
in the ceaseless competition between the great countries of the world. Relying
upon facts and figures, he compared the educational facilities and the intellectual
out-put of Great Britain and Ireland with those of its rivals, Germany and United
States, and came to the conclusion that the latter were much in advance of the
former. Nay, he went a step further and held out young Japan as an example
to be followed with profit in the matter of intellectual efforts. Those who are
in touch with the current literature of the West, must have been struck by the
extreme importance which all the civilized nations of the world have, by experi-
ence, begun to attach to education as the foundation of all national greatness both
in point of wealth as well as of intellect. If, then, in the struggle for life, education
and educational efforts are matters of supreme importance to advanced, indepen-
dent and self-governing nations like the English, the German and the American,
it only stands to reason that they are of still greater importance to a country like
India where ignorance and superstition reign supreme, where penury and pov-
erty, are the order of the day, where want and, starvation are generally prominent,
where independence of thought and action is almost unknown, and where the
destinies of the nation are completely in the hands, and at the mercy, of a handful
of foreigners who, in spite of all the generosity and benevolence of intentions that
they can put forth in the Government of this country, are loth to admit the sons of
the soil to any decent share in the management of the affairs of their own land. In
a country where the economic circumstances brought about by an alien rule force
the people to look to other countries for even the necessaries of life, where the
unlimited resources provided by a bountiful Providence are closed to the sons of
the soil and are only accessible to clever, energetic, and enterprising foreigners,
where the wealth of the country is being daily drained out of the country, and
where a fairly intelligent population are, for want of education, and opportunities,
being reduced to the position of drawers of water and hewers of wood, education,
I say, is a question of life and death. Our future principally depends upon the
amount and the sort of education we shall receive.
Having once put the educational machinery into motion, our rulers have of late
been showing signs of great dissatisfaction with the results. The history of English
education in this country shows that originally the framers of Government Educa-
tional policy were actuated partly by selfish and partly by philanthropic and high
motives. To quote the words of the Government of India resolution of 1904:
“They regarded it as a sacred duty to confer upon the natives of India those
vast moral and material blessings which flow from the general diffusion of use-
ful knowledge. They hoped by means of education to extend the influence which
the Government was exerting for the suppression of demoralizing practices, by
enlisting in its favour the general sympathy of the native mind. They also sought
to create a supply of public servants to whose probity, offices of trust might with
increased confidences be committed, and to promote the material interest of the
country by stimulating its inhabitants to develop its vast resources.”
457
The italics are mine. This policy appears to have been faithfully carried up to
1882, by which time the out-turn of the educational activity in the land had come
to be immensely in excess of the requirements of the administration merely. To
quote the resolution again:
‘The growth of schools and colleges proceeded most rapidly between 1871 and
1882 and was further augmented by the development of the Municipal system, and
by the Acts which were passed from 1865 onwards providing for the imposition of
local cesses which might be applied to the establishment of schools. By the year
1882, there were more than two million and a quarter of pupils under instruction
in public institutions. The Commission of 1882–83 furnished a most copious and
valuable report upon the state of education as then existing, made a careful inquiry
into the measures which had been taken in pursuance of the Despatch of 1854, and
submitted further detailed proposals for carrying out the principles of that Des-
patch. Thy advised increased reliance upon, and systematic encouragement of pri-
vate effort and their recommendations were approved by the Government of India.
The italics are again mine. This was the first step towards reaction. The Anglo-
Indian bureaucracy raised a cry against high education and bitterly complained that
the Government was entirely wrong in-spending large sums out of their resources
on high education. It was thus laid down as a principle of policy to gradually with-
draw from the work of secondary and high education and confine the energies of
the State to the task of extending Primary Education. In pursuance of this policy
some Government Colleges were abolished, a few transferred to private manage-
ment, and the fees in all Government and aided colleges were greatly raised. To
the great misfortune of those provinces which had only recently come under the
British rule and where education had only very recently been introduced, as the
Punjab, the policy formulated by the Government of India in 1882 affected them
most injuriously and was very effectual in retarding high education therein.
As a natural result of this policy, however, the people of the country began to look
up for themselves, and systematic efforts were made by them to provide against
the loss likely to follow from the partial withdrawal of Government from the field.
This withdrawal of Government, or the contraction of Government expenditure on
high education, and the raising of fees, have had different effects in different prov-
inces, but so far it has had only a most disastrous effect in the Punjab.
The truth of this remark will appear from a glance at the following table in
which the 5 large provinces range themselves according to fee incidence:—
Punjab ... ... ... ... ... 5·4
Bengal ... ... ... ... ... 3·9
Madras ... ... ... ... ... 3·5
Bombay ... ... ... ... ... 3·0
United Provinces ... ... ... 3·0
The following figures show that of all the 5 important provinces into which
British India proper is divided, the Punjab is only next to the most backward of
them in the matter of University education.
458
The following table gives the number of boys of school-going age of which one
is in an Arts College, in the 5 University provinces of India:—
Bengal ... ... ... ... ... ... 711
Madras ... ... ... ... ... ... 755
Bombay ... ... ... ... ... ... 1,029
Punjab ... ... ... ... ... ... 1,319
U. P. ... ... ... ... ... ... 2,502
The following table shows the increase in all British India in the total number
of collegiate students in the 3 quinquenniums that have elapsed since 1882:—
1887–88 to 1891–92 ... ... ... 4,364
1891–92 to 1896–97 ... ... ... 1,509
1896–97 to 1901–02 ... ... ... 3,215
Thus it took full 10 years for the private colleges to develop in order to reduce
the decrease that was so marked and startling in the second quinquennium of this
reactionary period.
During the last quinquennium while Bengal gained 1,766 pupils (collegiates)
Bombay ... ... ... ... ... ... 877
Madras ... ... ... ... ... ... 239
Punjab with the N. W. F. P. only gained 160 while the U. P. fared still worse and
only gained 44. In 1896–97 the number of scholars receiving education in Arts
Colleges in the Punjab was 1,101. In 1899–00 it rose to 1,180 and in 1900–01 it
was only 1,152,
The following figures show that but for the private colleges, the collegiate edu-
cation in India would have fared disastrously, as in 1901–02 there were only 4,000
students in Government Colleges and 12,000 in privately managed colleges, 54
per cent. of the latter only being in aided institutions—the unaided colleges of
Bengal alone educating no less than 4,541 of them. The figures of increase in the
number of students in different classes of institutions show to what extent dur-
ing the last quinquennium alone, private enterprise in education has come to the
rescue of high education in this country. This increase is divided as follows:—
Government Colleges ... ... ... 448
Aided Colleges ... ... ... ... 998
Unaided Colleges ... ... ... ... 1,695
With the exception of Bengal, where the average annual cost of educating a
college student is the lowest because of the very large numbers receiving educa-
tion in cheap private colleges, the cost is the lowest in the Punjab, as shown by
the following table:—
U. P. ... ... ... ... ... 278
Madras ... ... ... ... ... 195
Bombay ... ... ... ... ... 188
Punjab ... ... ... ... ... 136
Bengal ... ... ... ... ... 97
459
while the total expenditure on collegiate education stands thus:—

Bengal ... ... ... ... 8¼ lacs.
Madras ... ... ... ... 61⁄3 lacs.
U. P. ... ... ... ... 4¼ lacs.
Bombay ... ... ... ... 3½ lacs.
Punjab ... ... ... ... 1¾ lacs.
Of these 25⅔ lacs, only 8,96,000 are furnished by Provincial Revenues
while fees contribute 9¾ lacs, i. e. 80,000 over and above the contribution of
Government.
During the last quinquennium the expenditure from Public Revenues has actu-
ally diminished by Rs. 67,000 while that from fees has increased by Rs. 2,31,000.
Compare with the above the amount of money contributed by the Government
of Great Britain and Ireland on University education alone, viz. £1,55,600.
The University of London alone gets a grant of £8,000 (see Contemporary
Review of December 1903, P. 838); the University of Berlin gets a grant of
£1,68,780 from its Government and the University of Tokio (in 1895) £1,30,000.
SECONDARY EDUCATION.
Descending a step lower and looking at secondary education we shall find that
altogether a sum of Rs. 126,84,000 is spent on secondary schools, of which only
Rs. 32,76,000 are contributed by public funds (Imperial and Provincial Revenues,
Local and Municipal Funds all together) and Rs. 60,76,640 by fees only, the bal-
ance being made up from private sources.
In the Punjab the fee-ratio of expenditure is shown in the following quotation
from the Review of H. H. the Lieutenant-Governor on the Education report for
1900–01.
“It is interesting to notice that on the average native parents are called upon to
pay Rs. 1-3-0 per annum for the education of a son in a Primary School; Rs. 11-8-6
in a Secondary School; and over Rs. 80 in an Arts College. These figures, how-
ever., do not take into account assistance given in the form of scholarships.”
In the Nineteenth Century for Oct. 1903 appeared an article on “London Edu-
cation” from the pen of the Hon’ble Mr. Sydney L. C. C, in which the writer has
noticed the work of the London county council in providing improved educational
facilities for London boys and suggested desirable reforms and changes. Com-
menting upon the facilities which exist in London for secondary education the
writer remarks that:—
“Every year about eight hundred of the ablest boys and girls in the public ele-
mentary or lower secondary schools, between eleven and thirteen years of age,
are picked by competitive examination for two to five years of higher education.
These two thousand scholarships provide for the cleverest children of the Lon-
don wage-earners a more genuinely accessible ladder than is open to the cor-
responding class in any American, French, or German city. In addition to these
maintenance scholarships there are free places at most of the London secondary
460
schools. from St. Paul’s downwards, which are utilised, as is found to be the case
with all-provision of merely gratuitous secondary education, by the lower middle
and professional classes. Above these opportunities stand the intermediate and
senior county scholarships, and others provided by various trust funds, probably
altogether about two hundred in each year, for candidates between fifteen and
nineteen years of age. These serve partly to carry on the best of the junior schol-
ars; partly to admit to the highest secondary schools the ablest children of parents
ineligible for the lowest rung of the ladder; and partly to take the very pick of
London’s young people to the technical college and the university.
This scholarship scheme has now necessarily to be revised, to bring it into
accord with the changes lately made in the school-leaving age and the pupil-
teacher system. Practically all children now stay at school until fourteen, and
it is no longer necessary for any substantial payment towards the maintenance
of the scholarship to begin before that age. On the other hand, there is a con-
sensus of opinion that, when a child passes from an elementary to a secondary
school, it should do so before the age of twelve and should remain for not less
than four years. It looks as if the limit of age for the normal junior scholarship
should be reduced from thirteen to twelve, and its duration extended from two
to four years, whilst the annual maintenance allowance up to the age of four-
teen might be reduced to 51, rising to 10l. and 15l. in the last two year. And if
the need for pupil-teachers causes the number of scholarships to rise to 2,000
a year, it would perhaps be possible to effect the further desirable reform of
beginning the selecting process by a preliminary examination, conducted, by
the head-teachers themselves, in their own schools. Of all the children who
had attained the fifth standard before the age, of twelve; and of undertaking to
award the scholarships, not to any fixed number of winners but to all who, in the
subsequent centralised competitive examination, reached a certain percentage
of marks. Such a reform would organically connect the scholarship system with
all the public elementary schools, instead of, as at present, only about a third of
them; and would bring London’s ‘capacity catching machin’ to bear on every
promising child.
There must, however, be an adequate supply of efficient secondary schools
for these picked scholars to attend, not to mention the needs of those who can
afford to keep their boys and girls at school until seventeen or nineteen. There is
a common impression that the public secondary schools of London are few and
inefficient. Yet, including only Foundations, of which the management is essen-
tially public in character, London has to-day certainly not less than 25,000 boys
and girls, between seven and nineteen in its secondary schools, actually a larger
number than either Paris or Berlin. In the back-ground, and not included in this
calculation, stands the horde of private adventure ‘commercial academies’ and
‘colleges for young ladies’ of the genteel suburbs.
These we may leave gently on one side. The publicly managed schools num-
ber about ninety, well dispersed over the whole country, ranging from those like
Parmiter’s School (Bethnal Green) and Addey’s School (Deptford), where the
461
leaving age is sixteen or seventeen, through the dozen admirable institutions of

the essentially public Girls’ Public Day School Company, up to such thoroughly
efficient ‘first-grade’ schools as the North London Collegiate, for girls (St. Pan-
cras) and Dulwhich College (Camberwell) and St. Paul’s (hammersmith) for
boys. Yet so dense is London that, with one or two exceptions, the very exis-
tence of these schools is forgotten by the ordinary citizen, and is often ignored
by the legislator or administrator. Many a middle class family which could well
afford to send its boys and girls to secondary schools is unfamiliar with those
which exist within a mile of its home. Even to the best informed educational
administrators the real state and quality of the London secondary schools taken
as a whole, are far less accurately known than those of the elementary. All the
information points to the conclusion that the efficiency varies, immensely from
school to school; that nearly all of them have good buildings, mostly well pro-
vided with science laboratories and suitable equipment; and that, where any
school falls below the mark, the weak point is the staffing. In at least a third of
the London secondary schools the income from fees and endowment is insuf-
ficient to provide more than one good salary which goes to the head teacher
whilst the assistants, who are to be university graduates, are paid, for the most
part, less than is earned by an ordinary certificated teacher in a board school.
Yet even recognising all the shortcomings of these schools, the department of
secondary education is not one which will give the London County Council any
serious trouble. About forty of the publicly managed schools are sufficiently
well off to be independent of its aid, and these, nearly always charging high-
fees, and providing an education of high grade may be left to themselves. The
other fifty, including practically all those in need of help, have already shown by
their cordial co-operation with the Technical Education Board their willingness
to fall into line. It would, of course, be necessary to disturb the present govern-
ing bodies, on which the local authorities are already well represented, and it
would be unwise for the Council to interfere in the details of administration. In
no department is it so important to maintain variety and independent experi-
ment as in the secondary schools.
But construct what scholarship ladder we will, the secondary schools can be
used only by a small fraction of the population. For the secondary education
of the masses there has been organised, by the School Board on the one hand,
and the Technical Education Board on the other, an extensive assortment of
evening classes; providing instruction in every imaginable subject of literature,
science, art, and technology. The classes of the School Board, which enrol,
over 1,20,000 students for the winter session and have an average attendance
of half that number, are conducted in 400 of its day-school buildings, mainly
by the younger and more energetic of its staff of day teachers. The work of
the Technical Education Board, dealing usually with a more advanced stage
and older scholars, is concentrated in the forty polytechnics, art schools, and
technical institutes under its management or control, which have in the aggre-
gate about 50,000 students. Here the lecturers and teachers are specialists in
462
their respective subjects, teaching in institutions specially equipped for their

work. At six of the polytechnics, the highest classes have been included in the
faculties of the reorganised London University. These two schemes of evening
instruction have now to be co-ordinated, differentiated, and developed. There
can be no question of stopping either the one or the other; on the contrary,
both sides of the work will have to be increased. It ought not to be too much to
ask that every boy or girl who leaves school at fourteen or fifteen should, up
to twenty-one, be at any rate enrolled at some evening-class institution, even
if attendance is confined to an hour per week. Yet there are in London over
6,00,000 young people between 14 and 21 not a third of these are at present
members of any sort of institution, recreational or educational. Out of 84,000
boys and girls between fifteen and sixteen, only 21,000 are on the rolls. What
is happening to the others? We cannot, as yet, compel them to come in, as the
Bishop of Hereford proposes, though this is done in various parts of Germany
and Switzerland. But we might try the experiment of using the school atten-
dance officer to look after those who have not joined an evening school, using
the method of persuasion, just as they look after the younger defaulters from
the day school. Meanwhile we could bring the whole of the evening instruction
in each borough into a single harmonious organisation; we could allocate the
work in such a way as to provide appropriately for each age and each grade,
and avoid overlapping; we could take care that each subject is taught under
the most effective conditions, and properly coordinated with more advanced
instruction elsewhere; and we could arrange for the progression of the students
from stage to stage until they reach the highest classes of the nearest polytech-
nic, or the technical college itself.”
The italics are everywhere mine and adopted to enable the reader to compare
the existing state of things in India with the existing state of things in London or
with what in the opinion of the writer in the Nineteenth Century should be the
state of things there.
It will thus appear that while the London authorities are anxious to see that
every boy and girl, whether rich or poor, is in receipt of some sort of secondary
education up to the age of 21, the authorities in India have ruled that the classes in
the rural schools be so formed as to exclude the possibilities of scholars reading
in them joining the ordinary secondary schools in towns.
The statement that in at least a third of the London secondary schools the
income from fees and endowoment taken together is insufficient to provide more
than one good salary which goes to the head-teacher whilst the assistants who
ought to be university graduates are paid for the most part less than is earned by an
ordinary certificated teacher in a Board school, is significant and may with profit
be pondered over by the educational authorities in the Punjab who are so strict
towards the private schools and are at times inclined to exact higer standards of
efficiency than even those observed by some of the Board and Mission Schools
in the province. If even London tolerates the existence of inefficient secondary
schools wherein the income from the fees and endowment together is so meagre,
463
surely there can hardly be a case against similar schools in India which is educa-
tionally so backward.
PRIMARY EDUCATION
Coming down to the Primary Schools we find the state of things still gloom-
ier. The total expenditure on Primary Education is Rs. 1,05,45,000 to which the
Public funds (Revenues, Local and Muncipal) all contribute only Rs. 60,50,000
while from fees are reailsed Rs, 31,15,211. The Provincial and Imperial Revenues
contributed only 13⅓ laces (see page 178 of report). As compared with the mag-
nificent figure of 13⅓ lacs of Rupees spent by British Goverment on Primary Edu-
cation in India, the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland voted £1,24,17,368 for
elementary education in those islands in 1901 alone. The extent and enormity of
the evil have been recognised by the Government of India in their resolution of
1904, Paras 14, 15, and 16.
“How, then, do matters stand in respect of the extension among the masses of
primary education? The population of British India is over two hundred and forty
millions. It is commonly reckoned that fifteen per cent of the population are of
school-going age. According to this standard there are more than 18 millions of
boys who ought now to be at School, but of these only a little more than 1⁄6 are
actually receiving primary education. If the statistics are arranged by Provinces,
that out of a hundred boys of an age to go to school, the number attending primary
schools of some kind, ranges from between eight and nine in the Punjab and
the United Provinces, to twenty-two and twenty-three in Bombay and Bengal. In
the census of 1901 it was found that only one in ten of the male population, and
only seven in a thousand of the female population were literate. These figures
exhibit the vast dimensions of the problem, and show how much remains to be
done before the proportion of the population receiving elementary instruction can
approach the standard recognised as indispensable in more, advanced countries.
While the need for education grows with the growth of population the progress
towards supplying it is not now so rapid as it was in former years. In 1870–71
there were 16,473 schools with 607,320 scholars; in 1881–82 there were 82,916
with 2,061,541 scholars. But in 1891–92 these had only increased to 97,109
schools with 2,837,607 scholars, and the figures of 1901–02 (98,538 schools with
3,268,726 scholars), suggest that the initial force of expansion is some what on the
decline, indeed the last year of the century showed a slight decrease as compared
with the previous year.
On a general view of the question the Government of India cannot avoid the
conclusion that the primary education has hitherto had insufficient attention and
an inadequte share of the public funds. They consider that it possesses a strong
claim upon the sympathy both of the supreme Government and of the Local Gov-
ernments, and should be made a leading charge upon provincial revenues; and that
in those Provinces where it is in a backward condition, its encouragement should
be a primary obligation.”
464
It may be remarked that these obligations were also admitted in 1882–83, but
little was done to fulfill them, as will be clear from a perusal of the following facts
and figures which we cull from Vol. II of the Government of India’s reports on the
progress of Education between 97–98 to 1901–02.
NO. OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS FOR BOYS.
1886. 91–92. 96–97. 1901–02.
84,673 91,881 97,881 92,226
which means an actual decrease of 5,655 in the last 5 years. The Punjab
showed this decrease to the extent of 42, i. e. in 1901–02 there were 42 Pri-
mary Schools less in the Punjab and N. W. Frontier Provinces combined. In
96–97 there was one school for a group of 5·8 towns and villages. In 1901–02
there was one for a group of 6·2. In the Central Provinces there is one Primary
School for 23·4 towns and villages, in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
one for 15·6 and in the Punjab one for 14·5. In the Central Provinces the mean
average distance in miles between each boy’s Primary School is 8·2 miles and
in the Punjab 7·1. This does not mean that schools are equally distributed over
the whole area. The fact is that in some districts there is no school for many
tens of miles.
During the last 5 years, while the number of Schools fell by 5,655, the average
strength per school rose only by 2 (i. e. from 31 to 33 per school). The follow-
ing figures will show the progress made by primary education in the number of
scholars receiving education. In 96–97, 30 lacs and 28 thousand boys received
instruction in Primary Schools for boys but in 1901–02 the number fell to 30 lacs
and 9 thousand (a fall of 17,000). In the Primary Schools attached to secondary
schools the numbers in 96–97 were 31 lacs and 83 thousand and in 1901–02
the numbers were 31 lacs and 84 thousand i. e., an increase of 1,000. Total loss
16,000. In the Punjab and N. W. F. Province (combined) the numbers in the for-
mer schools were 10 lacs and 8 thousand in 96–97 and the same in 1901 and 1902,
but in the latter class of schools it rose slightly, i. e., by 4,000.
Notes
1. Substituted for the original word “Madras”—Ed.
2. The conclusions and comments noted above are based on the figures of 1901–1902.
We know that since then something more has been done by the Government of India
towards extending the scope and sphere of education in this country. An examina-
tion of what has been done in these years and whether that justifies the policy and
attitude of the Government towards private enterprise in education may better form
the subject of a separate artiole wherein we may compare the results achieved by the
Government of American and European states in the matter of Education.
465

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COLONIAL EDUCATION

AND INDIA 1781–1945

VOLUME IV INDIAN RESPONSES

1 Raja Rammohan Roy, ‘Letter to Amherst, 11th December

2 ‘Petition by Students of Sanscrit College to Auckland, Seeking

3 K. M. Banerjea, ‘An Essay on Native Female Education’

4 ‘An Appeal from a Native Christian of the Punjab to

5 Evidence of Syed Badruddin Tyabji on Muslim Education,

6 Evidence Taken before the Bombay Provincial Committee and

7 Jotiba Phule’s statement to the Education Commission,

8 Report by the North-Western Provinces and Oudh Provincial

9 S. Satthianadhan, extracts from History of Education in the

10 Gopal Krishna Gokhale, ‘Speech in the Imperial Legislative

11 Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners. Vol XX: Minutes

12 Jadunath Sarkar, ‘The Vernacular Medium’, Modern Review 23

13 K. M. Panikkar, ‘The Educational Problems of Indian

14 H. V. Dugvekar (ed.), extracts from National Education

Address by are themselves. We should therefore be guilty of a gross dereliction of duty to

Address by In representing this subject to your Lordship I conceive myself discharging a

ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF NATIVE FEMALES.

TO a succinct account of the present condition of females in Bengal, a general

his philosophy which might be construed into a prohibition of their instruction,

presence of an object calculated to inflame them, and the connivance of an agent

to share a husband’s affections. Nothing is more dreaded as likely to poison her

consolations which an enlightened faith in the promises of God administers, the

THE preceding account is calculated to excite the sympathy and compassion of

or if the community to which they belonged contained educated females, before

It is accordingly necessary that the female mind should be improved; that it

interdict any branch of knowledge calculated to improve the understanding. There

the fact is nevertheless unquestionable; and it is the unkindly influence of that

produced any influence on native society. Severe criticism of female acquirements

effects produced by his exertions, were illustrative of the practicability of the

“Come, O thou blessing-dispensing goddess! celebrated by the name of the Great

“Pronunciation, description of sacred rites, grammar, versification, pure and mixed

“By a girl or by a young woman, or by a woman advanced in years, nothing must be

Evidence of THE HONOURABLE BADRUDIN TYABJI,

generally attached to a mosque or are conducted by a Kari or a Mulla, where little

Ques. 8.—What classes of schools, should, in your opinion, be entrusted to

possible. In regard to Muhammadan schools there is no series of text-books which

Ques. 42.—What progress has been made by the Department in instituting

Muhammadans? I am clearly of opinion that it is capable of being traced to the

(a) That no suitable schools for giving English education to Muhammadans

(b) That the Educational authorities were either indifferent, or unable, or

education of Mussalmans should at least be in proportion to their numbers, if not

A. 3.—We have partially introduced mental arithmetic up to multiplication-

Muhammadans educated or under instruction in each division with Hindus? I

circumstances do you consider that indigenous schools can be turned to good

EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE BOMBAY

Evidence of MR. V. S. APTE.

it might become a thoroughly efficient central institution, able, in course of time,

It will be seen, therefore, that the application of Government money towards

institutions give them general precepts of morality without trying to tamper

“No. 2219 of 1880-81.

I have the honour to be,

Here follows a letter from the Director himself—

“No. 2958 of 1880 81.

I have the honour to be,

and the consequent inability or unwillingness of the proprietors to employ teach-

a grant. If Government desire to ultimately withdraw from the direct management

From ” 200 to ” 400 29 17 25 15 16 3 7 113

Total of Boys 130 92 119 111 67 27 37 573

“Para 41.—Our attention should now be directed to a consideration, if possible, still

If the existing reading-book be carefully examined, it will be found that there