No objection was
made to the use of the Bible as a class-book provided that the teachers
did not urge their pupils to eat what would break their caste, or be
baptised, or “curse their country's gods”.
made to the use of the Bible as a class-book provided that the teachers
did not urge their pupils to eat what would break their caste, or be
baptised, or “curse their country's gods”.
Cambridge History of India - v4 - Indian Empire
2 Hare was a rationalist, and in the words on his
tombstone, which is still visited by Indians on the anniversary of his
death,
adopted for his own the country of his sojourn and cheerfully devoted the remainder
of his life with unwearying zeal and benevolence to one pervading and darling
object, in which he spared no personal trouble, money or influence, viz. the educa-
tion and moral improvement of the natives of Bengal.
He studied Bengali, found it deficient for his purposes and conceived
the idea of founding a school for the instruction of young Indians in
Western literature and science.
In 1811, while Grant in England and Carey and Hare in Bengal
were searching after new courses of education, Lord Minto and his
colleagues, who included the great Sanskrit scholar Colebrooke, were
attributing the evils of the time to the decay of the indigenous learning
of the country. The government was already spending money on the
maintenance of students of Sanskrit learning at Nuddea and on the
support of the Hindu College at Benares. More money, they said, was
· Marshman, Carey, Marshman and Ward; Bishop Whitehead, Indian Problems, p. 144; and
Thompson, Rabindranath Tagore, p. 6.
• Heart of Aryavarla, pp. 17-18.
7-2
## p. 100 (#136) ############################################
100 EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
required for each, and more colleges must be established for the en-
couragement of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic literature. The Muham-
madan Madrasa at Calcutta must be reformed. Some additional
expense should be incurred with a view to a “restoration of learning”.
Minto had been personally generous to the Serampur Press, and his
government subscribed 10,000 rupees to assist the printing of the
Scriptures in the Malay language; but such education as was goin;
on in India was almost entirely independent of their patronage. In
the background there were teachers and schools in no small number
not only in Bengal but also in other provinces. Illuminating informa-
tion on this subject is contained in the reports of William
Adam on
vernacular education in Bengal and Bihar and may be summarised
before we go farther, for conditions in the capital province were
roughly similar to conditions elsewhere. 3
Indigenous education was private or public, elementary or higher,
administered at home to boys and exceedingly rarely to girls, or
administered to boys alone in schools which, in spite of serious defects,
were maintained and managed by the people themselves. In Bengal
and Bihar the rudiments of learning were taught in patshalas by school-
masters who generally belonged to the Kayestha or writer caste. The
pupils were generally Kayesthas or Brahmans but sometimes belonged
to the trading or land-holding classes; they were seldom Muham-
madans. The teachers, who were poorly remunerated by presents,
fees or perquisites, sometimes employed manuscripts but never text-
books, reciting religious and mythological stories or rhymed arith-
metical rules to pupils who learnt by rote and were kept in order by
primitive methods of discipline which sometimes produced retaliation.
The patshalas were not patronised by the well-to-do, who preferred to
have their sons taught at home.
Scholastic or higher education was Persian, Arabic or Sanskrit. The
Persian schools (maktabs) were attended both by Muhammadans and
by such Hindus as were attracted by the advantages to be gained from
acquaintance with the language of the law courts. Instruction was
given in Persian literature and grammar, in penmanship and in
arithmetic. Arabic schools were either “formal” Arabic, intended
exclusively for instruction in the formal or ceremonial reading of the
Koran, or "learned” Arabic. The learned schools (madrasas) were
intimately connected with the Persian schools. The Arabic teacher
taught Persian also to his pupils. The average duration of study was
eleven or twelve years, and the students might be either boys or men.
The courses, varying from one school to another, included rhetoric,
logic, grammar, Muhammadan law, Euclid, branches of natural
1 Lord Minto in India, pp. 71--2.
• Dated 1835-6-8. Copious extracts are quoted by Duff in an article on "Indigenous
education in Bengal and Bihar”, Calcutta Review, 1844. See also Adam, Reports, Long, 1868.
* For an account of indigenous education in the Panjab see Leitner's Report of 1883.
• Adam, op. cit. pp. 19-20.
>
## p. 101 (#137) ############################################
INDIGENOUS SCHOOLS
1ο1
a
philosophy and the perusal of treatises on metaphysics. There was no
particular system of organisation or discipline. The teachers were
remunerated by presents, fees and other means, at low rates. Printed
books were not to be seen, but manuscripts were in constant use. In
Bengal and Bihar there were no Urdu schools for Muslims corre-
sponding to the Bengali and Hindu schools for the Hindus.
In the Sanskrit academies (tôls) the Hindu religion, philosophies,
law and logic, were taught to pupils who were mostly Brahmans but
sometimes belonged to the Vaidya or physician caste. Some tóls were
endowed, but most were established by individual Brahmans who
were known as gurus (teachers). A guru would proclaim himself ready
to instruct in a particular branch of learning and would gather round
him a band of disciples (chelas) whom he would teach in his own house,
or a friend's house, or a school-house, or in the open air after the
fashion of ancient India. 1 His remuneration would not be fecs but
gifts from admirers, or pupils or parents of pupils. The pupils had
previously been taught at home to read, write and do small sums.
There were larger tóls for the inculcation of particular branches of
Sanskrit learning, either medical, philosophical, mythological, astro-
logical, Tantric or Vedantic, where the courses of study occupied
years.
Of the gurus Adam drew a vivid picture:2
I saw men not only unpretending, but plain and simple in their manners, and
though seldom, if ever, offensively coarse, yet reminding me of the very humblest
classes of English and Scottish peasantry, living constantly half-naked, inhabiting
huts which if we connect moral consequences with physical causes, might be sup-
posed to have thc cffect of stunting the growth of their minds, or in which only the
most contracted minds might be supposed to have room to dwell--and yet several
of these men are adepts in the subtleties of the profoundest grammar of what is
probably the most philosophical language in cxistence; not only practically skilled
in all the niceties of its usage, but also in the principles of its structure; familiar
with all the varieties and applications of their natural laws and literature, and
indulging in the abstrusest and most interesting disquisitions in logical and ethical
philosophy. They are in general shrewd, discriminating and mild in their
demeanour.
There were no schools for girls; but land-holders sometimes in-
structed their daughters in writing and accounts with a view to
rendering them less helpless in the event of early widowhood. It was
difficult, however, to obtain from any land-holder an admission that
his daughter was literate.
"A feeling", writes Adam, "is alleged to exist in the majority of Hindu females,
principally cherisued by the women and not discouraged by the men, that a girl
taught to write and read will soon aſter marriage become a widow, an event which
is regarded as nearly the worst misfortune that can befall the sex, and the belief is
“The study of Sanskrit grammar", Adam observes, “occupies about seven years,
lexicology about two, literature about ten, logic about thirteen, and mythology about four. "
Trevelyan, Education of the People of India, p. 109.
Adam, op. cit. p. 119. He says that “the Pundits are of all ages, from twenty-five to
cighty-two".
## p. 102 (#138) ############################################
IQ2
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
>
also generally entertained that intrigue is facilitated by a knowledge of letters on
the part of females. . . . The Muhammadans participate in all the prejudices of
Hindus against the instruction of their female offspring, besides that a large majority
of them are in the very lowest grade of poverty, and are thus unable if they were
willing to give education to their children. "1
If, however, there was extremely little education of girls in either of
the two great communities, the education of boys of particular classes
was considered eminently desirable by the learned classes of both, and
its mainly religious character was often emphasised by a preliminary
ceremony or act of worship. 2 Except, however, for simple arithmetic
and ability to read and write, it was directed to teaching Sanskrit to
Hindus and Persian or Arabic to Muhammadans; the masses were
for the most part, by general consent, consigned to ignorance, the
prejudice against their instruction being “nearly as strong and as
general in their own minds as in the minds of others”. 3 There was
no promise of progress; and a new school of Hindus was springing up
in Calcutta who were longing to escape from time-honoured restraints
and long-standing evils. The boldest of these was a Brahman named
Ram Mohan Roy, who burst out with a scathing denunciation of the
popular Hinduism of his day:
I have never ceased to contemplate with the strongest feelings of regret the
obstinate system of idolatry, inducing, for the sake of propitiating supposed deities,
the violation of humane and social feelings. And this in various instances, but more
especially in the dreadful acts of self-immolation and the immolation of the nearest
relations, under the delusion of conforming to sacred religious rites. 4
When in 1813 the East India Company's charter came once more
before parliament for consideration, Minto's views regarding educa-
tion were laid before the Commons. Wilberforce and Grant then sat
in the House. Both belonged to the famous Clapham brotherhood;
and Grant's influence was strong on the court of directors. Speaking
at great length and quoting from Grant's Observations, but now dis-
carding all notion of government missionary establishments, Wilber-
force said that mission work must be left to "the spontaneous zeal of
individual Christians controuled by the discretion of the government”.
There was no idea of proceeding by “methods of compulsion and
authority”. But mission work should not be substantially and in
effect prevented. Parliament should "lay the ground for the promo-
tion of education and the diffusion of useful knowledge”. Christianity
was the appropriate remedy for evils which he enumerated. The way
for its reception should be made straight. 5 Moved largely by his
forcible pleading, parliament declared that such measures ought to
be adopted as might lead to "the introduction into India of useful
knowledge and religious and moral improvements", and transferred
the ultimate power of licensing persons desirous of proceeding to that
1 Adam, op. cit. p. 132.
2 Calcutta Review, 1867, XLV, 420.
3 Adam, op. cit. p. 254.
4 Quoted ap. Anderson and Subedar, p. 17.
6 Hansard, 1813, xxvi, 832, 853, 1071, 1076.
1
## p. 103 (#139) ############################################
CHARTER ACT OF 1813
103
country “for the purpose of accomplishing these benevolent designs”
from the directors to the Board of Control, stipulating that the
authority of the local governments respecting the intercourse of
Europeans with the interior of the country should be preserved, and
that the principles of the British Government on which the natives of
India had always relied for the free exercise of their religion “must
be inviolably maintained”. At a late stage of the debates à clause
was added which allowed the governor-general to direct that out of
the territorial rents, revenue and profits of British India, after de-
fraying the expenses of the military, civil and commercial establish-
ments and meeting the interest of the debt, "a sum of not less than
one lakh of rupees” should be set apart and applied to
the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned
natives of India and for the introduction or promotion of a knowledge of the
sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India.
The author of this clause was "Bobus" Smith who had been advocate-
general in Calcutta. 1 His draft, slightly modified by the president of
the Board of Control, passed through parliament without opposition.
It is perfectly clear that by “the sciences" he meant Western sciences.
As the directors said, addressing the governor-general on 3 June, 1814,
the clause presented two distinct propositions for consideration. They
went on, however, to give vague and inconclusive instructions.
Learned Hindus should be left to continue their custom of teaching
in their homes and should be stimulated by honorary marks of dis-
tinction and pecuniary assistance. There were Sanskrit tracts on the
virtues of plants and drugs which might prove useful to the European
practitioner; and there were treatises on astronomy and mathematics
which, although they might not add new light to European science,
might become
links of communication between the natives and the gentlemen in our service, who
are attached to the Observatory and the department of engineers, and by such
intercourse the natives might gradually be led to adopt modern improvements in
those and other sciences. '
The self-supporting character of the indigenous schools attracted
warm approbation, and the teachers were recommended to the
protection" of the government. Enquiries were made as to their
present state. The governor-general was asked to submit for con-
sideration any plan calculated to promote the object in view. But the
instructions were hazy, and the governor-general's mind was more
scriously occupied by the Nepalese, Pindari and Maratha wars. So
beyond writing a minute in favour of improving indigenous education,
and patronising a Calcutta textbook society to supply the wants of
1 Cf. Hickey, op. cit. iv, 275.
* Hansard, XXVI, 1087-8, Bills Public (2), Sessions 24 November-22 July, 1812-13 (11),
p. 1197; Howell, Education in British India, pp; 4,5; Mill and Wilson, History of British India,
VII, 397.
3 Sharp, op. cit. 1, 24.
兰
## p. 104 (#140) ############################################
104 EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
a growing circle of schools, Lord Hastings did little. The society owed
its origin to a pamphlet published by Marshman, the Serampur
missionary, 1 and was very liberally supported by the European com-
munity of Calcutta.
More missionaries, representing various societies, opened more
schools. David Hare persuaded Sir Hyde East, Chief Justice, and
other leading Europeans and Indians to establish a college for the
tuition of sons of “respectable” Hindu parents in the English and
Indian languages and in European and Asiatic science and literature.
The college was first known as the Vidyalaya (home of learning), and
afterwards as the Hindu College; finally it became “the Presidency
College”. Its teaching encouraged free thought in religion with
results which were not altogether happy. 2 In establishing it Hare was
assisted by Ram Mohan Roy, a Kulin Brahman, who has been called
by a distinguished Bengali3 “the first brilliant product of European
influence in India”. Born in 1772 of a well-to-do family, he was
deeply read in Sanskrit and possessed some acquaintance with Persian
and Arabic. In 1790 he published a pamphlet condemning the
“idolatrous religion of the Hindus”, which must, he urged, be re-
stored to its original purity. He laid before his countrymen “genuine
translations of parts of their scripture, which inculcated not only the
enlightened worship ofone God, but the purest principles of morality”.
In 1805 he entered the Company's service, and, assisted by John
Digby, acquired a wide knowledge of English literature. 4 On retiring
from government service in 1814, he settled in Calcutta and devoted
himself to the cause of social, religious and educational reform. In
1818 he began a vigorous campaign against sati, and later, supported
by others, he struck a shrewd blow in the cause of Western education.
Before Lord Hastings's departure in 1823, grants had been given by
the government to two societies formed to promote vernacular educa-
tion and improve the indigenous schools; 5 and afterwards, a “Com-
mittee of Public Instruction” composed of civil servants, with
Horace Hayman Wilson, the Orientalist, as secretary, was appointed
6
1 Howell, op. cit. p. 12; Mahmud, op. cit. p. 25; Twelve Indian Statesmen, p. 230; Marshman,
op. cit. pp. 278-9.
2 See the evidence of J. W. Sherer, 19 July, 1832, paras. 1915-2252, Minutes of Evidence
before Select Committee, 1, Report Committees, E. I. C. 1831-2 (5), vol. Ix; also the Heart of
Aryavarta, p. 46.
Dutt, Literature of Bengal, pp. 137, 139, 147:
• Originally he had conceived a strong aversion to British rule in India but afterwards
gave up" this prejudice" on the conviction that British rule would conduce“more speedily
and surely to the amelioration of his countrymen". See Max Müller's quotation, Bio-
graphical Essay, p: 47:
The School-book and School Societies. The latter was guided by a managing com-
mittee of sixteen Europeans and eight Indians. David Hare was secretary. It distributed
books and examined and superintended certain schools.
6 Howell, op. cit. p. 14. The committee were bidden to suggest such measures as it might
appear expedient to adopt, with a view to “the better instruction of the people, and the
introduction of useful knowledge, including the arts and sciences of Europe". See History
of the benares Sanskrit College, pp. 50-3.
## p. 105 (#141) ############################################
RAM MOHAN ROY
105
>
by Adam, Hastings's temporary successor, and entrusted with the
disbursement of the greater part of the annual one lakh grant. Arrears
were paid in; and the committee prepared to organise a Sanskrit
College which the government had decided to open in Calcutta.
A college on Western lines was being gradually established by the
Serampur missionaries, under the patronage of the king of Denmark
and the governor-general, “for the instruction of Asiatic, Christian
and other youths in Western literature and European science", while
“Bishop's College”, another missionary institution, had been founded
at Calcutta in 1820 by means of subscriptions raised in England. 1 In
1823 a college had been founded and endowed liberally at Agra by
a certain pandit Gangadhar without any pecuniary assistance from
the government. Progress was in the air; but hardly had the members
of the new committee assembled when they were called on to consider
a petition, addressed to Lord Amherst, by Ram Mohan Roy. Its most
notable passages were these:
“When this seminary of learning”. (the new Sanskrit College) “was proposed,
we understood that the government 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, anatomy 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. . . . We now find that the government are
establishing a Sanskrit school under Hindoo pundits to impart such knowledge as
is already current in India. . . . The pupils will here acquire what was known two
thousand years ago, with the addition of vain and empty subtilties since produced
by speculative men, such as is commonly taught in all parts of India. The Sanskrit
language, so difficult that almost a lifetime is necessary for its perfect acquisition,
is well known to have been for ages a lamentable check on the diffusion of know-
ledge; and the Icarning concealed under this almost impervious veil is far from
sufficient to reward the labour of acquiring it. If it had been intended to keep the
British nation in ignorance of real knowledge, the Baconian philosophy would not
have been allowed to displace the system of the schoolmen, which was the best
calculated to perpetuate ignorance. In the same manner the Sanskrit system of
education would be the best calculated to keep this country in darkness, if such
had been the policy of the British legislature. 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 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. '
It does not appear that this petition produced any immediate im-
pression, but it certainly bore fruit later on.
There were other progressive Indians who thought with Ram
Mohan Roy. Bishop Heber's journals and correspondence throw con-
siderable light on currents of opinion at this time. In a letter dated
Calcutta, October, 1823, he remarked on the friendly atticude of
1 Whitehead, op. cit. pp. 166–7.
2 Sharp, op. cit. pp. 99-101.
## p. 106 (#142) ############################################
106 EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
>
Hindus and Muhammadans towards mission schools, which, however,
were very rarely attended by Muslim children.
No objection was
made to the use of the Bible as a class-book provided that the teachers
did not urge their pupils to eat what would break their caste, or be
baptised, or “curse their country's gods”. Twenty schools had re-
cently been established by Church of England missionaries. In
December, 1823, he observed the increasing tendency “to imitate the
English in everything”. This had already led to important results and
would lead to still more important results in future. Many wealthy
Indians spoke English fluently and were tolerably read in English
literature. In the Bengali papers, of which there were two or three,
politics were canvassed with a bias to Whiggism. Among the lower
orders the same feeling was visible in a growing neglect of caste, and
in an anxiety to learn and speak English, which, if properly encouraged,
might in fifty years "make our language what Oordoo (Hindustani)
is at present” 2 In 1824 Heber visited the Benares Sanskrit College,
and after attending a lecture on astronomy wondered that such
rubbish should be taught in a government college. 3
The Committee of Public Instruction started with a credit of arrears
of the government grant, but even so, suffered from narrowness of
means. In the year 1824 the sum which could be spared for the Bengal
Presidency was only £19,970. Thuy decided to spend their money
“on the best means of improving the education of the more re-
spectable members of Indian society especially those who make
letters their profession? ”. This they attempted to do by ignoring the
indigenous schools and by printing in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic,
both original works and translations of such books as Hutton's
Mathematics, Croker's Land Surveying and Bridge's Algebra. They
further provided “literary endowments” for promising students
of Indian classical literature, attached English classes to certain
Orientalist colleges and started a few schools for teaching English.
In fact they endeavoured to carry out the vague monitions of the
directors, but soon found their path beset by eager applicants for the
means of instruction in English. The situation has been described in
these words by Charles Trevelyan, a young civil servant, one of their
number who subsequently rose to high distinction:
Upwards of 31,000 English books were sold by the school-book society in the
course of two years while the committee did not dispose of Arabic and Sanskrit
volumes enough in three years to pay the expense of keeping them for two months,
to say nothing of the printing expenses. . . . Among other signs of the times a petition
was presented to the committee by a number of young men who had been brought
up at the Sanskrit college, pathetically representing that, notwithstanding the long
and elaborate course of study which they had gone through, they had little prospect
of bettering their condition; that the indifference with which they were generally
1 The first Bengali newspaper--the Samachar Darpan (mirror of news)—was issued from
the Serampur Press on 31 May, 1818 (Marshman, op. cit
. pp. 280–1).
? Heber, Narrative and Letters, 11, 306–7.
3 Idem, 1, 295-6.
>
## p. 107 (#143) ############################################
THE ORIENTALIST CONTROVERSY
107
regarded by their countrymen left them no hope of assistance from them, and that
they therefore trusted that the government, which had made them what they were,
would not abandon them to destitution and neglect. The English classes which had
been tacked on to the Sanskrit and other oriental colleges had entirely failed in
their object. The boys had not time to go through an English in addition to an
oriental, course; and the study which was secondary was naturally neglected. The
translations into Arabic, also, appeared to have made as little impression upon the
few who knew that language, as upon the mass of the people who were entirely
unacquainted with it. 1
Faced with such representations, the committee split into halves,
the Orientalist and older party and the English, or younger, party.
The first wished to continue the policy of “letting the natives pursue
their present course of instruction, and of endeavouring to engraft
European science thereon". The second desired to spend no more
money on bounties to students of the Indian classical languages or
on printing Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian books, but to devote all
available funds to conveying to Indians, through the medium of
English, the literary and scientific information necessary for a liberal
education. Although for some time the knowledge so conveyed would
be confined to a limited circle, it would soon penetrate to the outer
community through the channel of a new vernacular literature. This
doctrine became famous as “the filtration theory”. Its advocates
took inadequate account of the rigidity of Indian caste and occupa-
tional distinctions. Neither party proposed to do anything for the
indigenous schools, and both agreed that the vernaculars "contained
neither the literary nor the scientific information necessary for a
liberal education”. 9 Bengal in fact stood at a parting of the ways.
We must now briefly review events in Bombay and Madras. In the
early years of the nineteenth century these presidencies greatly
expanded and were fortunate enough to obtain as their governors
two
remarkable men who devoted much attention to education. Both
presidencies had their own indigenous schools which roughly re-
sembled those of Bengal and Bihar. In Bombay, where indigenous
schools were far rarer than in Bengal, Mountstuart Elphinstone
obtained the sanction of the directors to the payment on a reduced
scale of the Dakshina allowances formerly distributed by order of the
Peshwas to Brahmans of distinguished learning in the Hindu scrip-
tures, selected after examinations held in the presence of the Poona
court. The money was eventually devoted to the establishment of
a Sanskrit College at Poona. Elphinstone was desirous of diffusing
"a rational education which by removing prejudices and communi-
cating British principles would pave the way for the employment of
natives in the higher branches of the public service”. He strongly
deprecated any admixture of religion with state education. He aimed
1 Trevelyan, op. cit. p. 10.
· Trevelyan, op. cit. p. 21.
* Elphinstone observed of these: “Reading is confined to Brahmans, Banyans, and such
of the agricultural classes as have to do with accounts" (Adam, op. cit. p. 268).
## p. 108 (#144) ############################################
108 EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
at encouraging, improving, and increasing schools for vernacular
education and at establishing schools for the purpose of teaching
English to those disposed to pursue it as a classical language and
"a means of acquiring knowledge of European discoveries”. He con-
templated the preparation of books on moral and physical sciences
in the vernacular and "standard examinations” for public employ-
ment.
“If there be a wish”, he wrote, “to contribute to the abolition of the horrors of
self-immolation and of infanticide, and ultimately to the destruction of superstition,
it is scarcely necessary to prove that the only means of success is the diffusion of
knowledge.
Before he resigned office, an English school, an engineering institution,
and a medical school were opened in Bombay, and an English class
was added to the Sanskrit College at Poona. The famous Elphinstone
College represents subscriptions contributed in honour of his name
by “princes, chieftains and gentlemen connected with the West of
India as an endowment for three professors of the English language
and of European arts and sciences". 1 His successor, Sir John Malcolm,
recorded a minute in 1828 which expressed anxiety for the diffusion
of instruction which would open the road to wider employment of
Indians in posts of greater trust and responsibility. But for this
purpose, Malcolm considered, no knowledge of English was necessary.
“The acquisition of that would occupy a period required for other
studies and pursuits. ” It was, however, essential that aspiring Indians
should have the advantage of translations from English of scientific
works and of books which would enable them to understand English
principles of administration.
In Madras Sir Thomas Munro started enquiries in 1823 which
showed that among a population estimated to number 12,850,941
there was one school to every 1000; but only a very few females were
taught in schools.
“The state of education has”, he minuted, “been better in earlier times; but
for the last century it does not appear to have undergone any other change than
what arose from the number of schools diminishing in one place and increasing in
another, in consequence of the shifting of the population from war or other causes.
The great number of schools has been supposed to contribute to the keeping of
education in a low state, because it does not give a sufficient number of scholars
to secure the services of able teachers. "
He commented on the poor quality and general ignorance of the
teachers. He was inclined to assist indigenous schools in certain
cases, but not to interfere with them, and was anxious to establish
a “normal” school in a central place for training teachers as well as
two government schools in every district, one for Hindus and one for
1 Parl. Papers, E. I. C. 1832, general, App. I, p. 469.
2 Sharp, op. cit. 1, 73-4. It is clear from a letter from Munro to Canning that he also
contemplated the extension of a knowledge of English literature among the Hindus.
Gleig, Life of Munro, II, 186.
## p. 109 (#145) ############################################
BENTINCK
109
Muhammadans. But he died in 1827; and his scheme did not com-
mend itself to the directors, who had now become anxious to have at
their disposal “a body of natives qualified by their habits and acquire-
ments to take a larger share and occupy higher positions in the civil
administration of their country than had hitherto been the practice".
The Madras scheme dissolved; but in that presidency a colloquial
knowledge of English was more commonly found than in Bengal.
Several distinct languages were spoken there, and English had been
largely adopted as a common medium of intercourse. The mis-
sionaries too were busy. Their activities in the whole educational field
induced Charles Metcalfe to observe in 1834, when quitting the
governor-general's council on promotion: “They seem destined by
almighty Providence to be the chief instruments for improving and
enlightening the inhabitants of this country through the means of
education and moral instruction”. 1
In the year 1828 Lord William Cavendish Bentinck became
governor-general. A Whig in politics, he was a courageous and
zealous reformer. After careful investigation he summarily forbade
sati against the advice not only of Horace Hayman Wilson, the most
prominent Orientalist, but also of Ram Mohan Roy. Again despite
Orientalist advice to the contrary, he established a new medical
college for training Indian students entirely on Western lines. He
further meditated reforms in education, but decided first to obey the
old orders of 1814 and obtain definite information about the in-
digenous schools. Unfortunately, however, he delayed action till
January, 1835, the very year of his departure; and in the meantime
the differences between the two parties on the Committee of Public
Instruction had come to a head. The English party had been sup-
ported in Calcutta by a forceful recruit in the person of Alexander
Duff, a Scotch missionary who, arriving in India in 1829, had opened
a secondary school, with the assistance of Ram Mohan Roy, and had
already attracted numerous Hindu pupils. Duffurged vehemently
that not only was Sanskrit unadaptable as a medium of modern
education, but that, by an ordinance reckoned to be divine, three-
fourths of the people, consisting of the mixed and lower classes, were
forbidden the study of it.
"There are”, he argued, "scarcely any European works translated into Sanskrit;
and even if there were, every term in that sacred tongue is linked inseparably with
some idea, or sentiment, or deduction of Hinduism which is a stupendous system
of error;. . . whereas in the very act of acquiring English, the mind, in grasping the
import of new terms, is perpetually brought into contact with new truths and ideas
so that by the time that the language has been mastered, the student must be tenfold
less the child of pantheism, idolatry and superstition than before. ”
Kaye, Life of Metcalfe, 11, 229. Cf. Mahmud, op. cit. p. 39.
: Article, “Hindu Medicine and Medical Education", Calcutta Review, 1866, XLII,
106–25.
; Article by Duff on “Indigenous education in Bengal and Bihar," Calcutta Review, 1844.
Cf. Adam, op. cit. pp. 10–13.
• Paton, Life of Duff, p. 66.
>
26
## p. 110 (#146) ############################################
110
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
> >
Unlike Carey, Duff was no Orientalist, but he took pains to learn Ben-
gali and arranged that his pupils should study their mother-tongue.
These, then, were the issues which pressed for decision at Calcutta
in the early 'thirties.
(a) Should anything be done for mass-education; or should it be
left to unaided indigenous schools ?
(6) Should all idea of grafting the modern learning of the West on
the ancient learning of the East be abandoned as impracticable?
(c) Should the filtration theory be adopted and all available funds
be devoted to advancing Western knowledge among the upper classes
through the medium of English? No one at Calcutta argued that the
Bengal vernaculars would serve as a medium, although the govern-
ments of Bombay and Madras were disposed to use their own very
different vernaculars for the diffusion of general knowledge. The
Calcutta Government, too, had recently substituted vernaculars for
Persian in the law courts of the Bengal Presidency.
The filtration theory and the virtual supersession of the classical
languages by English were advocated by advanced Hindus in
Calcutta, by the followers of Hare and Ram Mohan Roy, by Duff
and his missionary supporters, and by “the English party” on the
Committee of Public Instruction. It is important to notice that the
strongest influences in bringing this “English party" into existence
were the petition of Ram Mohan Roy and the practical experience of
the committee. In this way a policy was shaped which contemplated
the eventual use of the vernaculars for the diffusion of Western know-
ledge, but the immediate employment of English for this purpose,
and of English alone. It commended itself to the directors who,
from motives of economy as well as for reasons of policy, wished to
see a substantial contingent of Western-educated Indians in the
public services. Their interest in indigenous schools had long since
evaporated; and on 8 February, 1829, they had reminded the
governor-general that the one lakh grant was to be placed at the
disposal not of one alone, but of all three presidencies, and that it was
only to be allotted “in the event of there being a surplus revenue after
defraying all the expenses of government”,3
Ram Mohan Roy had gone to England in 1830, where he was
received with honour and gave evidence on Indian affairs before a
select committee of the House of Commons; but, to the bitter loss of
his country, he died at Bristol in 1833. 4 In the same year parliament,
See Prinsep's Diary, ap. Sharp, op. cit. 1, 133. It appears, however, from circular 220
of the nizamat adalat dated 27 January, 1837, that while the depositions of parties or
witnesses were to be taken down in the languages in which they were delivered, Persian
translations were to be annexed to the records if the latter were called for by the nizamat
court (Circular orders of the Calcutta Nizamal Adawlat, 1846, p. 268).
2 Dispatch, 29 September, 1830.
• Howell, op. cit. p. 20. Cf. Mahmud, op. cit. p. 47.
• See The Last Days of Ram Mohan Roy, especially pp. 9o and 94, also Reports, Com-
mittees, E. I. C. 1831-2 (4), viII, 391.
8
## p. 111 (#147) ############################################
MACAULAY
III
after prolonged enquiry, decided when renewing the charter of the
East India Company to dissociate that body altogether from trade,
to add a “legal member” to the governor-general's council, and to
declare that no native of India would in future be debarred from
office or employment by reason of religion, place of birth, descent or
colour. 1 On 10 December, 1834, the directors informed Bentinck's
government that every effort must be made to enable natives of India
to compete for the public service with fair chance of success, “whether
by conferring on them the advantages of education or by diffusing
on them the treasures of science, knowledge and moral culture”.
In the autumn of 1834 Thomas Babington Macaulay, who had been
appointed to the legal membership of the governor-general's council,
arrived at Calcutta and was appointed president of the Committee of
Public Instruction, which he found hopelessly divided between the
Orientalist and the English parties. The Orientalists had lost a strong
champion in H. H. Wilson, who had left India in January, 1833.
Macaulay declined to take an active part in its proceedings until the
government had passed judgment on the main issue in dispute; but
on 2 February, 1835, he presented a lengthy minute to Bentinck in
support of the English party. In some passages he poured scorn on
Oriental literature, of which he knew nothing. In others, while
asserting that he would strictly respect all existing interests, he pro-
posed not only to stop the printing of Arabic and Sanskrit books, but
to abolish the Muhammadan Madrasa which had been founded by
Warren Hastings and the Calcutta Sanskrit College. No stipends, he
urged, should in future be given to students at the Benares and Delhi
colleges. The funds thus set free would be given to the Vidyalaya at
Calcutta and to the establishment of English schools in the principal
cities of Upper India. With the limited means available it was im-
possible to educate the body of the people, Endeavours should be
made to form a class of persons “Indian in blood and colour, but
English in tastes, in opinion, in morals and in intellect". These would
refine the vernaculars, enrich them with Western terms of science and
render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the
great mass of the population.
Bentinck promptly noted his “entire” concurrence with Macaulay's
views. In the previous month he had placed William Adam, editor
of a popular Calcutta journal and ex-missionary, under the orders
of the Committee of Public Instruction to conduct enquiries into
the state of indigenous education in Bengal. In a minute dated
20 January, 1835, 2 he had observed, when appointing Adam, that a
true estimate of the Indian mind and capacity could not be formed
without the information which Adam was to collect. Adam, however,
had barely begun when Macaulay's minute was laid before Bentinck's
1 C. pp. 3 sqq. , supra.
· Adam, op. cit. pp. 10-13.
## p. 112 (#148) ############################################
II2
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
colleagues with the governor-general's note of concurrence and an
adverse memorandum drawn up by H. T. Prinsep, a civil servant
of twenty-six years' service, Persian secretary to the government
and member of the Committee of Public Instruction. But already
the news had leaked out that the Sanskrit College and the Muham-
madan Madrasa were to be abolished, and petitions against such
proceedings, signed by thousands of Hindus and Muhammadans, had
been presented. After a hot debate in council between Macaulay and
Prinsep, it was decided on 7 March, 1835, that
a
the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European
literature and science among the natives of India, and that all the funds appro-
priated to education would best be employed on English education alone.
But no college or school of Indian learning, which enjoyed any
popularity, would be abolished. Existing professors and students at
such institutions as were under the committee's superintendence were
to go on receiving their stipends. No more students, however, were
to be supported during the period of their education and no money
should be employed on printing Oriental works. All funds thus
released should be employed “in imparting to the native population
a knowledge of English literature and science through the medium of
the English language".
Prinsep's memorandum,2 dated 15 February, 1835, was by
Bentinck's order excluded from the record on the ground that its
author was a secretary and not a member of council. But it survived
and still gives the case for the Orientalists. The weightiest passages
were those in which the author urged the veneration in which Sanskrit
and Arabic were still held by Hindus and Muslims as communities.
Bounties to students were, he contended, really scholarships, and in
the Muhammadan Madrasa had been given for proficiency in English.
"Undoubtedly”, ran the memorandum, “there is a very widely spread anxiety
at this time for the attainment of a certain proficiency in English. The sentiment is
to be encouraged by all means as the source and forerunner of great moral improve-
ment to those who feel its influence; but there is no single member of the Education
Committee who will venture to assert that this disposition has yet shown itself
extensively among the Mussalmans. It is the Hindus of Calcutta, the sirkars
(accountants and commercial managers) and Kulin (Brahman) connections, and
the descendants and relations of the sirkars of former days, those who have risen
through their connexion with the English and with public offices, men who hold
that a knowledge of English is a necessary qualification. These are the classes of
persons to whom the study of English is as yet confined; and certainly we have no
reason yet to believe that the Mussalmans in any part of India can be reconciled
to the cultivation of it, much less give it a preference to the polite literature of their
race or to what they look upon as such. ”
1 Brother of the remarkable James Prinsep, F. R. S. , sometime secretary of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal (see James Prinsep, Essays on Indian antiquities, ed. by Edward Thomas,
John Murray, 1858, 1, iii).
2 Sharp, op. cit.
tombstone, which is still visited by Indians on the anniversary of his
death,
adopted for his own the country of his sojourn and cheerfully devoted the remainder
of his life with unwearying zeal and benevolence to one pervading and darling
object, in which he spared no personal trouble, money or influence, viz. the educa-
tion and moral improvement of the natives of Bengal.
He studied Bengali, found it deficient for his purposes and conceived
the idea of founding a school for the instruction of young Indians in
Western literature and science.
In 1811, while Grant in England and Carey and Hare in Bengal
were searching after new courses of education, Lord Minto and his
colleagues, who included the great Sanskrit scholar Colebrooke, were
attributing the evils of the time to the decay of the indigenous learning
of the country. The government was already spending money on the
maintenance of students of Sanskrit learning at Nuddea and on the
support of the Hindu College at Benares. More money, they said, was
· Marshman, Carey, Marshman and Ward; Bishop Whitehead, Indian Problems, p. 144; and
Thompson, Rabindranath Tagore, p. 6.
• Heart of Aryavarla, pp. 17-18.
7-2
## p. 100 (#136) ############################################
100 EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
required for each, and more colleges must be established for the en-
couragement of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic literature. The Muham-
madan Madrasa at Calcutta must be reformed. Some additional
expense should be incurred with a view to a “restoration of learning”.
Minto had been personally generous to the Serampur Press, and his
government subscribed 10,000 rupees to assist the printing of the
Scriptures in the Malay language; but such education as was goin;
on in India was almost entirely independent of their patronage. In
the background there were teachers and schools in no small number
not only in Bengal but also in other provinces. Illuminating informa-
tion on this subject is contained in the reports of William
Adam on
vernacular education in Bengal and Bihar and may be summarised
before we go farther, for conditions in the capital province were
roughly similar to conditions elsewhere. 3
Indigenous education was private or public, elementary or higher,
administered at home to boys and exceedingly rarely to girls, or
administered to boys alone in schools which, in spite of serious defects,
were maintained and managed by the people themselves. In Bengal
and Bihar the rudiments of learning were taught in patshalas by school-
masters who generally belonged to the Kayestha or writer caste. The
pupils were generally Kayesthas or Brahmans but sometimes belonged
to the trading or land-holding classes; they were seldom Muham-
madans. The teachers, who were poorly remunerated by presents,
fees or perquisites, sometimes employed manuscripts but never text-
books, reciting religious and mythological stories or rhymed arith-
metical rules to pupils who learnt by rote and were kept in order by
primitive methods of discipline which sometimes produced retaliation.
The patshalas were not patronised by the well-to-do, who preferred to
have their sons taught at home.
Scholastic or higher education was Persian, Arabic or Sanskrit. The
Persian schools (maktabs) were attended both by Muhammadans and
by such Hindus as were attracted by the advantages to be gained from
acquaintance with the language of the law courts. Instruction was
given in Persian literature and grammar, in penmanship and in
arithmetic. Arabic schools were either “formal” Arabic, intended
exclusively for instruction in the formal or ceremonial reading of the
Koran, or "learned” Arabic. The learned schools (madrasas) were
intimately connected with the Persian schools. The Arabic teacher
taught Persian also to his pupils. The average duration of study was
eleven or twelve years, and the students might be either boys or men.
The courses, varying from one school to another, included rhetoric,
logic, grammar, Muhammadan law, Euclid, branches of natural
1 Lord Minto in India, pp. 71--2.
• Dated 1835-6-8. Copious extracts are quoted by Duff in an article on "Indigenous
education in Bengal and Bihar”, Calcutta Review, 1844. See also Adam, Reports, Long, 1868.
* For an account of indigenous education in the Panjab see Leitner's Report of 1883.
• Adam, op. cit. pp. 19-20.
>
## p. 101 (#137) ############################################
INDIGENOUS SCHOOLS
1ο1
a
philosophy and the perusal of treatises on metaphysics. There was no
particular system of organisation or discipline. The teachers were
remunerated by presents, fees and other means, at low rates. Printed
books were not to be seen, but manuscripts were in constant use. In
Bengal and Bihar there were no Urdu schools for Muslims corre-
sponding to the Bengali and Hindu schools for the Hindus.
In the Sanskrit academies (tôls) the Hindu religion, philosophies,
law and logic, were taught to pupils who were mostly Brahmans but
sometimes belonged to the Vaidya or physician caste. Some tóls were
endowed, but most were established by individual Brahmans who
were known as gurus (teachers). A guru would proclaim himself ready
to instruct in a particular branch of learning and would gather round
him a band of disciples (chelas) whom he would teach in his own house,
or a friend's house, or a school-house, or in the open air after the
fashion of ancient India. 1 His remuneration would not be fecs but
gifts from admirers, or pupils or parents of pupils. The pupils had
previously been taught at home to read, write and do small sums.
There were larger tóls for the inculcation of particular branches of
Sanskrit learning, either medical, philosophical, mythological, astro-
logical, Tantric or Vedantic, where the courses of study occupied
years.
Of the gurus Adam drew a vivid picture:2
I saw men not only unpretending, but plain and simple in their manners, and
though seldom, if ever, offensively coarse, yet reminding me of the very humblest
classes of English and Scottish peasantry, living constantly half-naked, inhabiting
huts which if we connect moral consequences with physical causes, might be sup-
posed to have thc cffect of stunting the growth of their minds, or in which only the
most contracted minds might be supposed to have room to dwell--and yet several
of these men are adepts in the subtleties of the profoundest grammar of what is
probably the most philosophical language in cxistence; not only practically skilled
in all the niceties of its usage, but also in the principles of its structure; familiar
with all the varieties and applications of their natural laws and literature, and
indulging in the abstrusest and most interesting disquisitions in logical and ethical
philosophy. They are in general shrewd, discriminating and mild in their
demeanour.
There were no schools for girls; but land-holders sometimes in-
structed their daughters in writing and accounts with a view to
rendering them less helpless in the event of early widowhood. It was
difficult, however, to obtain from any land-holder an admission that
his daughter was literate.
"A feeling", writes Adam, "is alleged to exist in the majority of Hindu females,
principally cherisued by the women and not discouraged by the men, that a girl
taught to write and read will soon aſter marriage become a widow, an event which
is regarded as nearly the worst misfortune that can befall the sex, and the belief is
“The study of Sanskrit grammar", Adam observes, “occupies about seven years,
lexicology about two, literature about ten, logic about thirteen, and mythology about four. "
Trevelyan, Education of the People of India, p. 109.
Adam, op. cit. p. 119. He says that “the Pundits are of all ages, from twenty-five to
cighty-two".
## p. 102 (#138) ############################################
IQ2
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
>
also generally entertained that intrigue is facilitated by a knowledge of letters on
the part of females. . . . The Muhammadans participate in all the prejudices of
Hindus against the instruction of their female offspring, besides that a large majority
of them are in the very lowest grade of poverty, and are thus unable if they were
willing to give education to their children. "1
If, however, there was extremely little education of girls in either of
the two great communities, the education of boys of particular classes
was considered eminently desirable by the learned classes of both, and
its mainly religious character was often emphasised by a preliminary
ceremony or act of worship. 2 Except, however, for simple arithmetic
and ability to read and write, it was directed to teaching Sanskrit to
Hindus and Persian or Arabic to Muhammadans; the masses were
for the most part, by general consent, consigned to ignorance, the
prejudice against their instruction being “nearly as strong and as
general in their own minds as in the minds of others”. 3 There was
no promise of progress; and a new school of Hindus was springing up
in Calcutta who were longing to escape from time-honoured restraints
and long-standing evils. The boldest of these was a Brahman named
Ram Mohan Roy, who burst out with a scathing denunciation of the
popular Hinduism of his day:
I have never ceased to contemplate with the strongest feelings of regret the
obstinate system of idolatry, inducing, for the sake of propitiating supposed deities,
the violation of humane and social feelings. And this in various instances, but more
especially in the dreadful acts of self-immolation and the immolation of the nearest
relations, under the delusion of conforming to sacred religious rites. 4
When in 1813 the East India Company's charter came once more
before parliament for consideration, Minto's views regarding educa-
tion were laid before the Commons. Wilberforce and Grant then sat
in the House. Both belonged to the famous Clapham brotherhood;
and Grant's influence was strong on the court of directors. Speaking
at great length and quoting from Grant's Observations, but now dis-
carding all notion of government missionary establishments, Wilber-
force said that mission work must be left to "the spontaneous zeal of
individual Christians controuled by the discretion of the government”.
There was no idea of proceeding by “methods of compulsion and
authority”. But mission work should not be substantially and in
effect prevented. Parliament should "lay the ground for the promo-
tion of education and the diffusion of useful knowledge”. Christianity
was the appropriate remedy for evils which he enumerated. The way
for its reception should be made straight. 5 Moved largely by his
forcible pleading, parliament declared that such measures ought to
be adopted as might lead to "the introduction into India of useful
knowledge and religious and moral improvements", and transferred
the ultimate power of licensing persons desirous of proceeding to that
1 Adam, op. cit. p. 132.
2 Calcutta Review, 1867, XLV, 420.
3 Adam, op. cit. p. 254.
4 Quoted ap. Anderson and Subedar, p. 17.
6 Hansard, 1813, xxvi, 832, 853, 1071, 1076.
1
## p. 103 (#139) ############################################
CHARTER ACT OF 1813
103
country “for the purpose of accomplishing these benevolent designs”
from the directors to the Board of Control, stipulating that the
authority of the local governments respecting the intercourse of
Europeans with the interior of the country should be preserved, and
that the principles of the British Government on which the natives of
India had always relied for the free exercise of their religion “must
be inviolably maintained”. At a late stage of the debates à clause
was added which allowed the governor-general to direct that out of
the territorial rents, revenue and profits of British India, after de-
fraying the expenses of the military, civil and commercial establish-
ments and meeting the interest of the debt, "a sum of not less than
one lakh of rupees” should be set apart and applied to
the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned
natives of India and for the introduction or promotion of a knowledge of the
sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India.
The author of this clause was "Bobus" Smith who had been advocate-
general in Calcutta. 1 His draft, slightly modified by the president of
the Board of Control, passed through parliament without opposition.
It is perfectly clear that by “the sciences" he meant Western sciences.
As the directors said, addressing the governor-general on 3 June, 1814,
the clause presented two distinct propositions for consideration. They
went on, however, to give vague and inconclusive instructions.
Learned Hindus should be left to continue their custom of teaching
in their homes and should be stimulated by honorary marks of dis-
tinction and pecuniary assistance. There were Sanskrit tracts on the
virtues of plants and drugs which might prove useful to the European
practitioner; and there were treatises on astronomy and mathematics
which, although they might not add new light to European science,
might become
links of communication between the natives and the gentlemen in our service, who
are attached to the Observatory and the department of engineers, and by such
intercourse the natives might gradually be led to adopt modern improvements in
those and other sciences. '
The self-supporting character of the indigenous schools attracted
warm approbation, and the teachers were recommended to the
protection" of the government. Enquiries were made as to their
present state. The governor-general was asked to submit for con-
sideration any plan calculated to promote the object in view. But the
instructions were hazy, and the governor-general's mind was more
scriously occupied by the Nepalese, Pindari and Maratha wars. So
beyond writing a minute in favour of improving indigenous education,
and patronising a Calcutta textbook society to supply the wants of
1 Cf. Hickey, op. cit. iv, 275.
* Hansard, XXVI, 1087-8, Bills Public (2), Sessions 24 November-22 July, 1812-13 (11),
p. 1197; Howell, Education in British India, pp; 4,5; Mill and Wilson, History of British India,
VII, 397.
3 Sharp, op. cit. 1, 24.
兰
## p. 104 (#140) ############################################
104 EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
a growing circle of schools, Lord Hastings did little. The society owed
its origin to a pamphlet published by Marshman, the Serampur
missionary, 1 and was very liberally supported by the European com-
munity of Calcutta.
More missionaries, representing various societies, opened more
schools. David Hare persuaded Sir Hyde East, Chief Justice, and
other leading Europeans and Indians to establish a college for the
tuition of sons of “respectable” Hindu parents in the English and
Indian languages and in European and Asiatic science and literature.
The college was first known as the Vidyalaya (home of learning), and
afterwards as the Hindu College; finally it became “the Presidency
College”. Its teaching encouraged free thought in religion with
results which were not altogether happy. 2 In establishing it Hare was
assisted by Ram Mohan Roy, a Kulin Brahman, who has been called
by a distinguished Bengali3 “the first brilliant product of European
influence in India”. Born in 1772 of a well-to-do family, he was
deeply read in Sanskrit and possessed some acquaintance with Persian
and Arabic. In 1790 he published a pamphlet condemning the
“idolatrous religion of the Hindus”, which must, he urged, be re-
stored to its original purity. He laid before his countrymen “genuine
translations of parts of their scripture, which inculcated not only the
enlightened worship ofone God, but the purest principles of morality”.
In 1805 he entered the Company's service, and, assisted by John
Digby, acquired a wide knowledge of English literature. 4 On retiring
from government service in 1814, he settled in Calcutta and devoted
himself to the cause of social, religious and educational reform. In
1818 he began a vigorous campaign against sati, and later, supported
by others, he struck a shrewd blow in the cause of Western education.
Before Lord Hastings's departure in 1823, grants had been given by
the government to two societies formed to promote vernacular educa-
tion and improve the indigenous schools; 5 and afterwards, a “Com-
mittee of Public Instruction” composed of civil servants, with
Horace Hayman Wilson, the Orientalist, as secretary, was appointed
6
1 Howell, op. cit. p. 12; Mahmud, op. cit. p. 25; Twelve Indian Statesmen, p. 230; Marshman,
op. cit. pp. 278-9.
2 See the evidence of J. W. Sherer, 19 July, 1832, paras. 1915-2252, Minutes of Evidence
before Select Committee, 1, Report Committees, E. I. C. 1831-2 (5), vol. Ix; also the Heart of
Aryavarta, p. 46.
Dutt, Literature of Bengal, pp. 137, 139, 147:
• Originally he had conceived a strong aversion to British rule in India but afterwards
gave up" this prejudice" on the conviction that British rule would conduce“more speedily
and surely to the amelioration of his countrymen". See Max Müller's quotation, Bio-
graphical Essay, p: 47:
The School-book and School Societies. The latter was guided by a managing com-
mittee of sixteen Europeans and eight Indians. David Hare was secretary. It distributed
books and examined and superintended certain schools.
6 Howell, op. cit. p. 14. The committee were bidden to suggest such measures as it might
appear expedient to adopt, with a view to “the better instruction of the people, and the
introduction of useful knowledge, including the arts and sciences of Europe". See History
of the benares Sanskrit College, pp. 50-3.
## p. 105 (#141) ############################################
RAM MOHAN ROY
105
>
by Adam, Hastings's temporary successor, and entrusted with the
disbursement of the greater part of the annual one lakh grant. Arrears
were paid in; and the committee prepared to organise a Sanskrit
College which the government had decided to open in Calcutta.
A college on Western lines was being gradually established by the
Serampur missionaries, under the patronage of the king of Denmark
and the governor-general, “for the instruction of Asiatic, Christian
and other youths in Western literature and European science", while
“Bishop's College”, another missionary institution, had been founded
at Calcutta in 1820 by means of subscriptions raised in England. 1 In
1823 a college had been founded and endowed liberally at Agra by
a certain pandit Gangadhar without any pecuniary assistance from
the government. Progress was in the air; but hardly had the members
of the new committee assembled when they were called on to consider
a petition, addressed to Lord Amherst, by Ram Mohan Roy. Its most
notable passages were these:
“When this seminary of learning”. (the new Sanskrit College) “was proposed,
we understood that the government 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, anatomy 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. . . . We now find that the government are
establishing a Sanskrit school under Hindoo pundits to impart such knowledge as
is already current in India. . . . The pupils will here acquire what was known two
thousand years ago, with the addition of vain and empty subtilties since produced
by speculative men, such as is commonly taught in all parts of India. The Sanskrit
language, so difficult that almost a lifetime is necessary for its perfect acquisition,
is well known to have been for ages a lamentable check on the diffusion of know-
ledge; and the Icarning concealed under this almost impervious veil is far from
sufficient to reward the labour of acquiring it. If it had been intended to keep the
British nation in ignorance of real knowledge, the Baconian philosophy would not
have been allowed to displace the system of the schoolmen, which was the best
calculated to perpetuate ignorance. In the same manner the Sanskrit system of
education would be the best calculated to keep this country in darkness, if such
had been the policy of the British legislature. 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 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. '
It does not appear that this petition produced any immediate im-
pression, but it certainly bore fruit later on.
There were other progressive Indians who thought with Ram
Mohan Roy. Bishop Heber's journals and correspondence throw con-
siderable light on currents of opinion at this time. In a letter dated
Calcutta, October, 1823, he remarked on the friendly atticude of
1 Whitehead, op. cit. pp. 166–7.
2 Sharp, op. cit. pp. 99-101.
## p. 106 (#142) ############################################
106 EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
>
Hindus and Muhammadans towards mission schools, which, however,
were very rarely attended by Muslim children.
No objection was
made to the use of the Bible as a class-book provided that the teachers
did not urge their pupils to eat what would break their caste, or be
baptised, or “curse their country's gods”. Twenty schools had re-
cently been established by Church of England missionaries. In
December, 1823, he observed the increasing tendency “to imitate the
English in everything”. This had already led to important results and
would lead to still more important results in future. Many wealthy
Indians spoke English fluently and were tolerably read in English
literature. In the Bengali papers, of which there were two or three,
politics were canvassed with a bias to Whiggism. Among the lower
orders the same feeling was visible in a growing neglect of caste, and
in an anxiety to learn and speak English, which, if properly encouraged,
might in fifty years "make our language what Oordoo (Hindustani)
is at present” 2 In 1824 Heber visited the Benares Sanskrit College,
and after attending a lecture on astronomy wondered that such
rubbish should be taught in a government college. 3
The Committee of Public Instruction started with a credit of arrears
of the government grant, but even so, suffered from narrowness of
means. In the year 1824 the sum which could be spared for the Bengal
Presidency was only £19,970. Thuy decided to spend their money
“on the best means of improving the education of the more re-
spectable members of Indian society especially those who make
letters their profession? ”. This they attempted to do by ignoring the
indigenous schools and by printing in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic,
both original works and translations of such books as Hutton's
Mathematics, Croker's Land Surveying and Bridge's Algebra. They
further provided “literary endowments” for promising students
of Indian classical literature, attached English classes to certain
Orientalist colleges and started a few schools for teaching English.
In fact they endeavoured to carry out the vague monitions of the
directors, but soon found their path beset by eager applicants for the
means of instruction in English. The situation has been described in
these words by Charles Trevelyan, a young civil servant, one of their
number who subsequently rose to high distinction:
Upwards of 31,000 English books were sold by the school-book society in the
course of two years while the committee did not dispose of Arabic and Sanskrit
volumes enough in three years to pay the expense of keeping them for two months,
to say nothing of the printing expenses. . . . Among other signs of the times a petition
was presented to the committee by a number of young men who had been brought
up at the Sanskrit college, pathetically representing that, notwithstanding the long
and elaborate course of study which they had gone through, they had little prospect
of bettering their condition; that the indifference with which they were generally
1 The first Bengali newspaper--the Samachar Darpan (mirror of news)—was issued from
the Serampur Press on 31 May, 1818 (Marshman, op. cit
. pp. 280–1).
? Heber, Narrative and Letters, 11, 306–7.
3 Idem, 1, 295-6.
>
## p. 107 (#143) ############################################
THE ORIENTALIST CONTROVERSY
107
regarded by their countrymen left them no hope of assistance from them, and that
they therefore trusted that the government, which had made them what they were,
would not abandon them to destitution and neglect. The English classes which had
been tacked on to the Sanskrit and other oriental colleges had entirely failed in
their object. The boys had not time to go through an English in addition to an
oriental, course; and the study which was secondary was naturally neglected. The
translations into Arabic, also, appeared to have made as little impression upon the
few who knew that language, as upon the mass of the people who were entirely
unacquainted with it. 1
Faced with such representations, the committee split into halves,
the Orientalist and older party and the English, or younger, party.
The first wished to continue the policy of “letting the natives pursue
their present course of instruction, and of endeavouring to engraft
European science thereon". The second desired to spend no more
money on bounties to students of the Indian classical languages or
on printing Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian books, but to devote all
available funds to conveying to Indians, through the medium of
English, the literary and scientific information necessary for a liberal
education. Although for some time the knowledge so conveyed would
be confined to a limited circle, it would soon penetrate to the outer
community through the channel of a new vernacular literature. This
doctrine became famous as “the filtration theory”. Its advocates
took inadequate account of the rigidity of Indian caste and occupa-
tional distinctions. Neither party proposed to do anything for the
indigenous schools, and both agreed that the vernaculars "contained
neither the literary nor the scientific information necessary for a
liberal education”. 9 Bengal in fact stood at a parting of the ways.
We must now briefly review events in Bombay and Madras. In the
early years of the nineteenth century these presidencies greatly
expanded and were fortunate enough to obtain as their governors
two
remarkable men who devoted much attention to education. Both
presidencies had their own indigenous schools which roughly re-
sembled those of Bengal and Bihar. In Bombay, where indigenous
schools were far rarer than in Bengal, Mountstuart Elphinstone
obtained the sanction of the directors to the payment on a reduced
scale of the Dakshina allowances formerly distributed by order of the
Peshwas to Brahmans of distinguished learning in the Hindu scrip-
tures, selected after examinations held in the presence of the Poona
court. The money was eventually devoted to the establishment of
a Sanskrit College at Poona. Elphinstone was desirous of diffusing
"a rational education which by removing prejudices and communi-
cating British principles would pave the way for the employment of
natives in the higher branches of the public service”. He strongly
deprecated any admixture of religion with state education. He aimed
1 Trevelyan, op. cit. p. 10.
· Trevelyan, op. cit. p. 21.
* Elphinstone observed of these: “Reading is confined to Brahmans, Banyans, and such
of the agricultural classes as have to do with accounts" (Adam, op. cit. p. 268).
## p. 108 (#144) ############################################
108 EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
at encouraging, improving, and increasing schools for vernacular
education and at establishing schools for the purpose of teaching
English to those disposed to pursue it as a classical language and
"a means of acquiring knowledge of European discoveries”. He con-
templated the preparation of books on moral and physical sciences
in the vernacular and "standard examinations” for public employ-
ment.
“If there be a wish”, he wrote, “to contribute to the abolition of the horrors of
self-immolation and of infanticide, and ultimately to the destruction of superstition,
it is scarcely necessary to prove that the only means of success is the diffusion of
knowledge.
Before he resigned office, an English school, an engineering institution,
and a medical school were opened in Bombay, and an English class
was added to the Sanskrit College at Poona. The famous Elphinstone
College represents subscriptions contributed in honour of his name
by “princes, chieftains and gentlemen connected with the West of
India as an endowment for three professors of the English language
and of European arts and sciences". 1 His successor, Sir John Malcolm,
recorded a minute in 1828 which expressed anxiety for the diffusion
of instruction which would open the road to wider employment of
Indians in posts of greater trust and responsibility. But for this
purpose, Malcolm considered, no knowledge of English was necessary.
“The acquisition of that would occupy a period required for other
studies and pursuits. ” It was, however, essential that aspiring Indians
should have the advantage of translations from English of scientific
works and of books which would enable them to understand English
principles of administration.
In Madras Sir Thomas Munro started enquiries in 1823 which
showed that among a population estimated to number 12,850,941
there was one school to every 1000; but only a very few females were
taught in schools.
“The state of education has”, he minuted, “been better in earlier times; but
for the last century it does not appear to have undergone any other change than
what arose from the number of schools diminishing in one place and increasing in
another, in consequence of the shifting of the population from war or other causes.
The great number of schools has been supposed to contribute to the keeping of
education in a low state, because it does not give a sufficient number of scholars
to secure the services of able teachers. "
He commented on the poor quality and general ignorance of the
teachers. He was inclined to assist indigenous schools in certain
cases, but not to interfere with them, and was anxious to establish
a “normal” school in a central place for training teachers as well as
two government schools in every district, one for Hindus and one for
1 Parl. Papers, E. I. C. 1832, general, App. I, p. 469.
2 Sharp, op. cit. 1, 73-4. It is clear from a letter from Munro to Canning that he also
contemplated the extension of a knowledge of English literature among the Hindus.
Gleig, Life of Munro, II, 186.
## p. 109 (#145) ############################################
BENTINCK
109
Muhammadans. But he died in 1827; and his scheme did not com-
mend itself to the directors, who had now become anxious to have at
their disposal “a body of natives qualified by their habits and acquire-
ments to take a larger share and occupy higher positions in the civil
administration of their country than had hitherto been the practice".
The Madras scheme dissolved; but in that presidency a colloquial
knowledge of English was more commonly found than in Bengal.
Several distinct languages were spoken there, and English had been
largely adopted as a common medium of intercourse. The mis-
sionaries too were busy. Their activities in the whole educational field
induced Charles Metcalfe to observe in 1834, when quitting the
governor-general's council on promotion: “They seem destined by
almighty Providence to be the chief instruments for improving and
enlightening the inhabitants of this country through the means of
education and moral instruction”. 1
In the year 1828 Lord William Cavendish Bentinck became
governor-general. A Whig in politics, he was a courageous and
zealous reformer. After careful investigation he summarily forbade
sati against the advice not only of Horace Hayman Wilson, the most
prominent Orientalist, but also of Ram Mohan Roy. Again despite
Orientalist advice to the contrary, he established a new medical
college for training Indian students entirely on Western lines. He
further meditated reforms in education, but decided first to obey the
old orders of 1814 and obtain definite information about the in-
digenous schools. Unfortunately, however, he delayed action till
January, 1835, the very year of his departure; and in the meantime
the differences between the two parties on the Committee of Public
Instruction had come to a head. The English party had been sup-
ported in Calcutta by a forceful recruit in the person of Alexander
Duff, a Scotch missionary who, arriving in India in 1829, had opened
a secondary school, with the assistance of Ram Mohan Roy, and had
already attracted numerous Hindu pupils. Duffurged vehemently
that not only was Sanskrit unadaptable as a medium of modern
education, but that, by an ordinance reckoned to be divine, three-
fourths of the people, consisting of the mixed and lower classes, were
forbidden the study of it.
"There are”, he argued, "scarcely any European works translated into Sanskrit;
and even if there were, every term in that sacred tongue is linked inseparably with
some idea, or sentiment, or deduction of Hinduism which is a stupendous system
of error;. . . whereas in the very act of acquiring English, the mind, in grasping the
import of new terms, is perpetually brought into contact with new truths and ideas
so that by the time that the language has been mastered, the student must be tenfold
less the child of pantheism, idolatry and superstition than before. ”
Kaye, Life of Metcalfe, 11, 229. Cf. Mahmud, op. cit. p. 39.
: Article, “Hindu Medicine and Medical Education", Calcutta Review, 1866, XLII,
106–25.
; Article by Duff on “Indigenous education in Bengal and Bihar," Calcutta Review, 1844.
Cf. Adam, op. cit. pp. 10–13.
• Paton, Life of Duff, p. 66.
>
26
## p. 110 (#146) ############################################
110
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
> >
Unlike Carey, Duff was no Orientalist, but he took pains to learn Ben-
gali and arranged that his pupils should study their mother-tongue.
These, then, were the issues which pressed for decision at Calcutta
in the early 'thirties.
(a) Should anything be done for mass-education; or should it be
left to unaided indigenous schools ?
(6) Should all idea of grafting the modern learning of the West on
the ancient learning of the East be abandoned as impracticable?
(c) Should the filtration theory be adopted and all available funds
be devoted to advancing Western knowledge among the upper classes
through the medium of English? No one at Calcutta argued that the
Bengal vernaculars would serve as a medium, although the govern-
ments of Bombay and Madras were disposed to use their own very
different vernaculars for the diffusion of general knowledge. The
Calcutta Government, too, had recently substituted vernaculars for
Persian in the law courts of the Bengal Presidency.
The filtration theory and the virtual supersession of the classical
languages by English were advocated by advanced Hindus in
Calcutta, by the followers of Hare and Ram Mohan Roy, by Duff
and his missionary supporters, and by “the English party” on the
Committee of Public Instruction. It is important to notice that the
strongest influences in bringing this “English party" into existence
were the petition of Ram Mohan Roy and the practical experience of
the committee. In this way a policy was shaped which contemplated
the eventual use of the vernaculars for the diffusion of Western know-
ledge, but the immediate employment of English for this purpose,
and of English alone. It commended itself to the directors who,
from motives of economy as well as for reasons of policy, wished to
see a substantial contingent of Western-educated Indians in the
public services. Their interest in indigenous schools had long since
evaporated; and on 8 February, 1829, they had reminded the
governor-general that the one lakh grant was to be placed at the
disposal not of one alone, but of all three presidencies, and that it was
only to be allotted “in the event of there being a surplus revenue after
defraying all the expenses of government”,3
Ram Mohan Roy had gone to England in 1830, where he was
received with honour and gave evidence on Indian affairs before a
select committee of the House of Commons; but, to the bitter loss of
his country, he died at Bristol in 1833. 4 In the same year parliament,
See Prinsep's Diary, ap. Sharp, op. cit. 1, 133. It appears, however, from circular 220
of the nizamat adalat dated 27 January, 1837, that while the depositions of parties or
witnesses were to be taken down in the languages in which they were delivered, Persian
translations were to be annexed to the records if the latter were called for by the nizamat
court (Circular orders of the Calcutta Nizamal Adawlat, 1846, p. 268).
2 Dispatch, 29 September, 1830.
• Howell, op. cit. p. 20. Cf. Mahmud, op. cit. p. 47.
• See The Last Days of Ram Mohan Roy, especially pp. 9o and 94, also Reports, Com-
mittees, E. I. C. 1831-2 (4), viII, 391.
8
## p. 111 (#147) ############################################
MACAULAY
III
after prolonged enquiry, decided when renewing the charter of the
East India Company to dissociate that body altogether from trade,
to add a “legal member” to the governor-general's council, and to
declare that no native of India would in future be debarred from
office or employment by reason of religion, place of birth, descent or
colour. 1 On 10 December, 1834, the directors informed Bentinck's
government that every effort must be made to enable natives of India
to compete for the public service with fair chance of success, “whether
by conferring on them the advantages of education or by diffusing
on them the treasures of science, knowledge and moral culture”.
In the autumn of 1834 Thomas Babington Macaulay, who had been
appointed to the legal membership of the governor-general's council,
arrived at Calcutta and was appointed president of the Committee of
Public Instruction, which he found hopelessly divided between the
Orientalist and the English parties. The Orientalists had lost a strong
champion in H. H. Wilson, who had left India in January, 1833.
Macaulay declined to take an active part in its proceedings until the
government had passed judgment on the main issue in dispute; but
on 2 February, 1835, he presented a lengthy minute to Bentinck in
support of the English party. In some passages he poured scorn on
Oriental literature, of which he knew nothing. In others, while
asserting that he would strictly respect all existing interests, he pro-
posed not only to stop the printing of Arabic and Sanskrit books, but
to abolish the Muhammadan Madrasa which had been founded by
Warren Hastings and the Calcutta Sanskrit College. No stipends, he
urged, should in future be given to students at the Benares and Delhi
colleges. The funds thus set free would be given to the Vidyalaya at
Calcutta and to the establishment of English schools in the principal
cities of Upper India. With the limited means available it was im-
possible to educate the body of the people, Endeavours should be
made to form a class of persons “Indian in blood and colour, but
English in tastes, in opinion, in morals and in intellect". These would
refine the vernaculars, enrich them with Western terms of science and
render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the
great mass of the population.
Bentinck promptly noted his “entire” concurrence with Macaulay's
views. In the previous month he had placed William Adam, editor
of a popular Calcutta journal and ex-missionary, under the orders
of the Committee of Public Instruction to conduct enquiries into
the state of indigenous education in Bengal. In a minute dated
20 January, 1835, 2 he had observed, when appointing Adam, that a
true estimate of the Indian mind and capacity could not be formed
without the information which Adam was to collect. Adam, however,
had barely begun when Macaulay's minute was laid before Bentinck's
1 C. pp. 3 sqq. , supra.
· Adam, op. cit. pp. 10-13.
## p. 112 (#148) ############################################
II2
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
colleagues with the governor-general's note of concurrence and an
adverse memorandum drawn up by H. T. Prinsep, a civil servant
of twenty-six years' service, Persian secretary to the government
and member of the Committee of Public Instruction. But already
the news had leaked out that the Sanskrit College and the Muham-
madan Madrasa were to be abolished, and petitions against such
proceedings, signed by thousands of Hindus and Muhammadans, had
been presented. After a hot debate in council between Macaulay and
Prinsep, it was decided on 7 March, 1835, that
a
the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European
literature and science among the natives of India, and that all the funds appro-
priated to education would best be employed on English education alone.
But no college or school of Indian learning, which enjoyed any
popularity, would be abolished. Existing professors and students at
such institutions as were under the committee's superintendence were
to go on receiving their stipends. No more students, however, were
to be supported during the period of their education and no money
should be employed on printing Oriental works. All funds thus
released should be employed “in imparting to the native population
a knowledge of English literature and science through the medium of
the English language".
Prinsep's memorandum,2 dated 15 February, 1835, was by
Bentinck's order excluded from the record on the ground that its
author was a secretary and not a member of council. But it survived
and still gives the case for the Orientalists. The weightiest passages
were those in which the author urged the veneration in which Sanskrit
and Arabic were still held by Hindus and Muslims as communities.
Bounties to students were, he contended, really scholarships, and in
the Muhammadan Madrasa had been given for proficiency in English.
"Undoubtedly”, ran the memorandum, “there is a very widely spread anxiety
at this time for the attainment of a certain proficiency in English. The sentiment is
to be encouraged by all means as the source and forerunner of great moral improve-
ment to those who feel its influence; but there is no single member of the Education
Committee who will venture to assert that this disposition has yet shown itself
extensively among the Mussalmans. It is the Hindus of Calcutta, the sirkars
(accountants and commercial managers) and Kulin (Brahman) connections, and
the descendants and relations of the sirkars of former days, those who have risen
through their connexion with the English and with public offices, men who hold
that a knowledge of English is a necessary qualification. These are the classes of
persons to whom the study of English is as yet confined; and certainly we have no
reason yet to believe that the Mussalmans in any part of India can be reconciled
to the cultivation of it, much less give it a preference to the polite literature of their
race or to what they look upon as such. ”
1 Brother of the remarkable James Prinsep, F. R. S. , sometime secretary of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal (see James Prinsep, Essays on Indian antiquities, ed. by Edward Thomas,
John Murray, 1858, 1, iii).
2 Sharp, op. cit.
