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India Education
#65
From an e-book I had downloaded, a description of 19th century education system in Maharashtra:

<b>The Education System before the Advent of The British </b>

Generally, according to the requirements of the villagers, at least one school was run in every village. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic useful for keeping accounts, were the subjects taught. Education necessary for meeting the requirements of day to day life was given. Teachers did not get a fixed regular salary. At many places they had to depend upon gifts and offerings by students or patronage of wealthy people. At some places monthly fees were charged, which ranged from 5 to 50 paise. The number of students varied from place to place. At some places it would be less than ten, at others it would be close to a hundred. Students from all castes except the Dalits (the downtrodden) were given admissions. Girls were not allowed to take education. School timings, the duration of teaching, holidays and fees were decided according to the conveniences of teachers and students. The emphasis was on rote-learning. Dust boards were used for writing. There were no independent buildings for schools. Schools were held in public places like temples and choultries or in some villages, in the house of a wealthy man. In those days such rural schools were known as `Tatya Pantoji's Schools'.

"In Pantoji's School, the curriculum comprised of modi script, reading, writing, tables, and practising alphabets. Learning meant practising the writing of alphabets, writing and reciting tables, doing sums of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and some mental calculations. Same things were repeated again and again. There were no qualifications required for teaching. Anybody who had the will could get a few children and open a school. Reading and writing Devnagri script was the privilege of priests. Householders learnt modi"1

The above description written around 1838-39 by Ravsaheb Bhawalkar can be accepted as a representative depiction of rural schools.

Studies of Vedas and Shastras enjoyed high social esteem. There were schools run by learned teachers and Brahmins took advantage of them. A large number of people were in family business or occupation. They used to get the necessary training in the house itself, starting from their early childhood. Mostly women and those belonging to the lowest castes were prohibited from acquiring even the basic skills of reading.

In mosques, mullahs and moulavis used to teach religious and practical matters in Urdu or Persian. At some places Muslim boys went to a Hindu teacher's school. These schools were private and were not controlled by any authority. They were totally autonomous. On the whole this type of education did cater to the needs of the contemporary society.

The Advent of the Company Government In The Field of Education
The English came to India for trade on behalf the East India Company, and then taking advantage of the situation obtained here, became the rulers. In keeping with their changed role, their educational policy was modified.

In 1793, while granting licence to the Company, Wilber Force made a suggestion.

"The court of Directors of the company shall be empowered and commissioned to nominate and send out from time to time a sufficient number of skilled and suitable persons who shall attain the aforesaid object by serving as school-masters, missionaries or otherwise". These objectives were the advancement of the natives in useful knowledge, and also their religious and moral improvement.2

But this suggestion was turned down for social and political motives. "In the debate held at that time someone plainly said that the British had lost America by opening schools and colleges there, and that mistake should not be repeated in the case of India."3 Some people were opposed to taking the responsibility of educating the natives.

In 1813 again, while renewing the Company's licence the question of imparting education to the natives came up for discussion again. Due to the insistence of some progressive liberals, it was included in the licence that "it shall be the duty of the Governor General in Council to set apart every year a lakh of rupees and to spend the same for the revival and improvement of literature and encouragement of the learned native of India and for the introduction and production of knowledge of sciences to away the inhabitants of the British territories in India".4

But there was a lot of controversy about the content and medium of education whether to impart their traditional oriental education or the modern western education; whether the medium of instruction should be a distinguished ancient language such as Sanskrit or Pharsee, a regional language in use in those days, or English. These discussions were necessary, because the decisions taken were going to be of great importance for the British rule in India. The future of the British rule depended on the kind of education that would be given to the natives. The long term consequence of the new education would be the end of the British rule. At the same time this process of education, if followed step by step, would strengthen its foundations.

Spread of Education by The Missionaries
Soon Christian missionaries arrived in India, following the footsteps of the traders. In the early days the Company officers co-operated with them. Even in England religious institutions were asked to take the responsibility of education. In India, too, missionaries opened schools to serve the cause of education. Among them were schools for girls and the downtrodden people too. Education was free. Only sometimes a small fee was charged. Scholarships were given for encouragement.

In the Bombay province, missionaries had started promoting education even before the Company arrived on the scene. "Mr. Hall and Mr. Nut were the first ones to start a school. They made a rule by which children of all castes and classes were eligible for admission. By the end of 1817, there were six missionary schools altogether, and they had admitted around eight hundred children. There was not even one government school at that time. The government had not even thought of educating the natives by opening schools".5 This quotation is from the 16th May 1853 issue of `Jnanoday'.

The main motive of the missionaries behind promoting education was religious propaganda and conversions to Christianity. That was the reason why the upper caste Hindus were not willing to send their children to missionary schools. Janardanpant Kirtane and Govindrao Ranade (Father of Justice M. G. Ranade) preferred to send their children to the Elphinstone college, surpassing the political agent Col. Reeves advice to put them in the Wilson College.6

An article entitled `Bombay Brahmins Boycott Christian Missionary Schools' says-

"The Christian missionaries, alias Fathers distribute books in this country in order to spread Christianity. With this intention they have opened many schools here. The Hindu children who go to these schools, many times, do not know their own religion well. They hear the Fathers praising Christianity and criticizing Hinduism all the time. As a result, many Hindus have got converted so far, and there will be many more conversions in the years to come. Therefore, for protection of our religion, the following resolution is passed-

Brahmins shall not attend missionary schools nor they hear sermons on Christianity. They shall also stop their children and the people belonging to lower castes from doing so".7

The above letter published in the 24th Sep. 1842 issue of `Prabhakar' is also noteworthy.

In this context the missionaries themselves had the following opinion. "Western India proved to be a much harder ground for missionary work than among other part of India. Prejudice against the foreigners and foreign faith were stronger here than in Calcutta or Madras. In Western India the loss of political independence of the Marathas coincided with the commencement of missionary work". 8

Religious education was unavoidable in missionary schools. That was why the Company authorities were against giving the responsibilities of education in India to the missionaries. They understood the importance of religious neutrality for strengthening the newly acquired political power. Elphinstone, the Governor of the Bombay Province did not take objection to the Scottish missionaries activities in Hernai or Bankot. He even gave them donations in personal capacity. But he never openly supported them as a part of his political and administrative policy.9

Elphinstone's Educational Policy
Elphinstone was the Resident in the court of Peshwas from 1811 to 1818. In 1819 he was appointed the Governor of Bombay, and retired from the same post in 1827. He had keen interest in the education of the natives. He was of the opinion that teaching and learning in the mother tongue saved time and toil, and so if the mother-tongue was used as the medium of instruction, education could reach the power centres at different levels. He firmly believed that the vicious customs in this country would be uprooted only through education. He also maintained that the education of the poor and the funds required for it was the Government's responsibility.

In the licence issued in 1813, though the general objectives of Indian education were mentioned, the details had yet to be worked out. Elphinstone recommended new western education through regional languages- Marathi or Gujrathi.

In 1815 the "Bombay Education Society" was established for the education of the English and the Anglo-Indian children. In August 1820, a meeting of the Society was held under the chairmanship of Elphinstone. Jagannath Shankarseth, Jamshethji Jijibhai, Framji Kawasji, Mohammed Ibrahim Makwa and some respectable businessmen of Bombay were present at this meeting. Resolutions were passed regarding writing of text-books in English, Marathi and Gujrathi, giving grants to the native schools working at that time, and establishment of new schools10. Another very important resolution was passed by which the medium of instruction in those schools would be regional languages.11

For the execution of this new policy `The Native School and School Book Committee' was constituted. But the scope of this committee was more extensive than the original policy of the society, so the Bombay Education Society restricted its own activities to European and Anglo-Indian students. As the Bombay Education Society thus changed its policy, in 1822 a new society called `The Bombay Native School Book and School Society' was formed.

This Society started new type of schools in native languages on the Island of Bombay. In 1824, an English school was also opened. Many parents hesitated to send their children to English medium schools for the fear of conversion.

"In order to remove their misconceptions and make modern education acceptable to them, along with Capt. Jervis, Kashinath alias Bapu Chhatre was appointed Native Secretary on Rs. 100/- per month".12 In 1830 Balshastri Jambhekar was appointed as Deputy Native Secretary, and in 1832, he who was in his twenties (born in 1812) was promoted to the post of Deputy Secretary. This was really a great honor to the achievement of a native scholar.13

The secretary of the `Bombay Native—' used to be a government servant and the members used to be private citizens. This institution used to get a government grant to the tune of Pounds 5000 per annum. They also collected donations from private sources. From that fund they used to run schools in Bombay and else where. There were thirteen Europeans and eleven Indians on the Managing Committee. The European persons were names like Candy, Jervis etc. Elphinstone was the first chairman followed by Malcom.14

The job of spreading education in the Bombay Province was entrusted to this society. Elphinstone has many times expressed his views on education for the natives. While recommending the Institutions for financial aid, he made the following suggestions.

"(i)to improve the mode of teaching at the native schools and to increase the member of schools, (ii) to supply them with books, (iii) to hold out some encouragement to the lower orders of natives to avail themselves of the means of instructions thus offered to them, (iv) to establish schools for teaching the European Sciences and improvements in the higher branches of Education, (v) to provide for the preparation and publication of books and moral and physical science in native languages, (vi) to establish schools for the purpose of teaching English to those disposed to pursue it as a classical language and as a means of acquiring knowledge of the European discoveries, and (vii) to hold forth encouragement to the natives in the pursuit of those lost branches of knowledge" 15.

If the medium of instruction was to be a vernacular, it was necessary to write books in that language. Elphinstone appointed a committee for this purpose. That committee produced some really good text books.

During the years 1818 to 1827 three books were published in Marathi and all the three books were translations of English books on mathematics. During the period 1827 to 1838, ten books were published - two on medical science, two of Jambhekar's on Mathematics and Geometry, two Readers by Major Candy, Dadoba Pandurang's Grammar, and Hari Keshavji Pathare's book on Physics. From 1837 to 1847, thirty books were published, and from 1847-1857 the number rose to hundred and two. During the course of eight years from 1857 to 1864, five hundred and fifty books were published.

Till the year 1850, a Marathi dictionary with grants from the Government, Moulsworth's Marathi-English dictionary, Major Candy's dictionary, Shrikrishna Shastri's concise dictionary were published. A dictionary and Grammar were new to Marathi and was encouraging for the language.16

Among the books written during this period, text-books written for schools had a large share. But it was a welcome trend that books in Astronomy, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Mechanics etc., albeit through translations, were brought in to Marathi. On the whole the number of books translated from Sanskrit and English was very large. But as time passed the number of original works increased. In the beginning the authors were mostly from Bombay and so their diction had an influence of Konkani, but later, authors who had studied in grammar schools in Pune, had their prose style influenced by Sanskrit.

Bombay was a business centre, bustling with followers of different religions. It had been under the British rule since 1665, So the Bombayites were conversant with the English culture. No wonder their mode of thinking was influenced by it. Puneites hated the English whom they considered responsible for the loss of their Kingdom.

"Robertson was appointed the Collector of Pune. One day his Secretary received an application saying, "Let us know in your reply when the British rule will come to an end". However the applicant had concealed his identity. The collector said, "Write at the bottom of the application that our Kingdom will fall only when either we get divided, or the natives get united. Not till then". Writing their remarks on the application, he gave orders to stick it like a decree near the gate of Tulsibag if the applicant did not come forth; accordingly, it was stuck there".17

The city of Pune was orthodox and conservative. "A man by name Gangadhar Dikshit Phadke was a teacher in Bombay from 1820 to 1825, where he taught the English people. When he later came to Pune, he was ostracized because the Puneites thought that he could not have escaped eating or doing things not permitted in the Hindu community. In the end he had to leave Pune and lead a life of renunciation".18

At the same time there was a large number of Brahmins who had once enjoyed power, but now had no patronage. "A few days back, the Brahmins were most honoured, they were the religious and political leaders. But all of a sudden they lost their prosperity and progress. Their `mantra' became powerless and they themselves helpless".19

The sting of fall was still fresh in their minds. "This class of Brahmins was not only strong in numbers, but had in them the seeds of systematic governance, a good social order and ancient culture. It was on the strength of these qualities the Hindu Society stayed stable and integrated for centuries. In this class of Brahmins there was no dearth of scholars, soldiers, learned people or civilized householders. Who else was required for administration?"20

Elphinstone knew that the British rulers could not afford to keep this class discontented or neglected. It was absolutely necessary to pacify their anger and win their sympathy, if the British rule was to stabilize. That was why, Elphinstone who advocated modern education through regional languages, opened a college for Sanskrit studies in Pune, on the auspicious day of Dasshera.

Shastris and Vedics were appointed as teachers in this College. Subjects like the Vedas, Grammar, medicine, figures of speech, were taught there. "At Diwali time, besides a good bath in the early morning, students were served special Diwali sweets like Ladu, Karanjya, Anarase and so on. It was all Peshwa style in that College. The British Principal was not allowed to enter the College building. It is said that on one occasion when he did, `Udakshanti' was performed".21

The Managing Committee was opposed to spending money on this Sanskrit College. But Elphinstone convinced them that the expenditure was permissible because the money was spent from the amount which had already been sanctioned for Shravanmas charity. The establishment of the Sanskrit College was a part of Elphinstone's policy of the appeasement of the people and the Brahmins. It was mainly for the sake of stability for the English rule.

Later on, the nature of this Pathashala underwent a lot of change. English classes were incorporated, and ultimately it got transformed, first as the Poona College, and later as the Deccan College.
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