The State of Indigenous Education: Its Dislocation
Decline of Indigenous Education
- During the eighteenth century, the Hindu and Muslim seats of learning languished — the numerous political convulsions sweeping the country created conditions hardly conducive to intellectual pursuits, for teachers and pupils alike.
- The East India Company became a ruling power in Bengal in 1765. Following the British arrival, the loss of political power deprived native schools of learning of their traditional public endowments.
- In a letter to the Court of Directors dated 21 February 1784, Warren Hastings referred to the decayed remains of schools in every capital town and city of Northern India and the Deccan.
- Following the example of the contemporary English Government, the Court of Directors refused to take upon itself the responsibility for educating the people of India, choosing instead to leave education to private effort.
- The Indian officers of the East India Company, however, urged the Court of Directors to do something to promote learning, and some half-hearted efforts were made by the Company’s government to foster oriental learning.
- Warren Hastings, himself an intellectual, set up the Calcutta Madrasa in 1781 for the study of Persian and Arabic.
- In 1791, the efforts of Jonathan Duncan, the British Resident at Benares, bore fruit with the opening of a Sanskrit College at Benares, for “the cultivation of the laws, literature and religion of the Hindus.”
- Fort William College was established by Lord Wellesley in 1800, to train the Company’s civil servants in the languages and customs of India.
- The College published an English–Hindustani Dictionary, a Hindustani grammar, and several other books, before the Court of Directors ordered its closure in 1802.
- These early attempts at educating the people in oriental languages met with little success — it was found that there were, in fact, more teachers than students.
- The Christian missionaries criticised these attempts to revive an outdated system of education, advocating instead the teaching of Western literature and Christian religion through the medium of English.
- The Serampore missionaries, in particular, proved very enthusiastic for the spread of such education.
- The Christian missionaries criticised these attempts to revive an outdated system of education, advocating instead the teaching of Western literature and Christian religion through the medium of English.
- The Court of Directors made a modest beginning towards developing education in India with the Charter Act of 1813, which provided for an annual expenditure of one lakh rupees, “for the revival and promotion of literature and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories.”
Factors Shaping the Education Policy Introduced by the British in India
- The education policy introduced by the British in India was used as a tool to buttress and perpetuate colonial rule.
- British imperial authorities favoured the Western system of education, delivered through the English medium — they were not driven by any philanthropic motives, and whatever limited efforts they made served the larger interests of colonial rule, rather than any genuine intention to educate the people or bring about enlightenment as an end in itself.
- The introduction of this new system of education was primarily motivated by politico-administrative, commercial, and moral considerations, all aimed at buttressing and perpetuating colonial rule.
Administrative Motive
- The principal motive behind introducing Western education was to make administration at the lower rung economical.
- As the British Empire in India expanded its territories, its administrative structure grew increasingly elaborate and extensive, necessitating the staffing of numerous low-cadre posts.
- Since importing large numbers of people from England was both expensive and politically inadvisable, it became politically expedient to recruit from among Indians themselves, after providing them a basic education and general working knowledge.
- The Company’s administrative needs required Indians well versed in both classical and vernacular languages. For example:
- in the revenue and judicial departments, clerical and middle-level staff were required to have knowledge of English;
- in the Judicial Department, Indians conversant in Sanskrit, Arabic, or Persian were required to sit as assessors alongside English judges, expounding Hindu or Muslim law from texts in these languages;
- knowledge of Persian and the vernaculars was similarly valued in the Political Department, for correspondence with the rulers of Indian states; and
- clerical staff in the revenue and commercial departments, who dealt directly with the largely uneducated masses, required a working knowledge of the vernaculars.
- For higher-grade staff in the Company’s service, however, knowledge of both English and the vernaculars was considered essential.
Political Motive
- British education policy was also shaped by the belief that Indians imbued with Western knowledge would prove useful to colonial rule in several ways:
- Western education, it was believed, would dispel any “reactionary” attitude among Indians and instead cultivate a reconciliatory attitude, fostering a sense of belonging to the imperial system.
- It would also give rise to a class of people “English in attitude, approach and spirit,” who could act as a buffer — a powerful link between the vast population of subject people and those who governed them.
- This newly Western-educated class, consciously or unconsciously, became supporters of British rule in India.
- Thus, Macaulay’s dream of creating a class of persons who would be “Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and intellect” did, to a significant degree, materialise.
Commercial Motive
- The British commercial community emerged as strong supporters of the cause of anglicising education in India.
- The English-educated Indian middle class became major consumers of British goods, helping to expand the Indian market for British manufactures.
Moral Consideration
- Moral considerations were closely linked to the spread of Christianity.
- Alexander Duff considered education the soundest weapon for attracting “heathens” to Christianity.
- Macaulay’s hope that the spread of Western knowledge would win converts to Christianity, however, largely did not materialise — though some conversions did occur among the upper classes.
Growing Popularity of Western Learning and Ram Mohan Roy
- The main factor tipping the scale in favour of English language and Western literature was, ultimately, an economic one — Indians wanted a system of education that could help them earn their livelihood.
- Progressive Indian elements likewise favoured the spread of English education and Western learning.
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy protested against the Government’s proposal to strengthen the Calcutta and Madras institutions, the Benares Sanskrit College, and the establishment of further oriental colleges in Bengal.
- Writing to Lord Amherst in 1823, he argued that a Sanskrit education could be expected only to burden the minds of youth with grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions of little or no practical use, either to the individuals concerned or to society.
- He added: “Youths will not 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 real entity, they consequently deserve no real affection and therefore the sooner they escape from them and leave the world the better.”
- Advocating instead the importance of modern scientific learning, he wrote: “The Sanskrit system of education would be the best calculated to keep the country in darkness, if such had been the policy of British Government. But as the improvement of the native population is the object of the Government, it will consequently promote a more liberal and enlightened system of instruction, embracing Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Anatomy with other useful sciences.”
- The protests of Raja Ram Mohan Roy did not go unheeded.
- The Government agreed to encourage the study of both English and Oriental languages.
- A grant was sanctioned for the Calcutta Hindu College, set up in 1817 by enlightened Bengalis, which imparted instruction mainly through the English language, emphasising the study of Western humanities and sciences.
- The Government also established three Sanskrit Colleges, one each at Calcutta, Delhi, and Agra.
- In addition, funds were set aside for the translation of European scientific works into Oriental languages.
