Colonial Education and India 1781-1945

Volume IV

Pramod K. Nayar, Pramod K. Nayar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351211949
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

This 5-volume set tracks the various legal, administrative and social documentation on the progress of Indian education from 1780 to 1947. Thisfourth volume features commentaries, reports andpolicy documents from the period 1823-1920from an Indian perspective.

The documents not only map a cultural history of English education in India but capture the debates in and around each of these domains through coverage of English (language, literature, pedagogy), the journey from school-to-university, and technical and vocational education. Produced by statesmen, educationists, administrators, teachers, Vice Chancellors and native national leaders, the documents testify to the complex processes through which colleges were set up, syllabi formed, the language of instruction determined, and infrastructure built. The sources vary from official Minutes to orders, petitions to pleas, speeches to opinion pieces.

The collection contributes, through the mostly unmediated documents, to our understanding of the British Empire, of the local responses to the Empire and imperial policy and of the complex negotiations within and without the administrative structures that set about establishing the college, the training institute and the teaching profession itself.

1
Raja Rammohan Roy, ‘Letter to Amherst, 11th December 1823’, In H. Sharp (ED.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 98–101

(26) Address, dated 11th December 1823, from Raja Rammohan Roy.

SIR,

I beg leave to send you the accompanying address and shall feel obliged if you will have the goodness to lay it before the Right Hon’ble the Governor-General in Council.

I have, etc.,
RAMMOHUN ROY.

CALCUTTA;

The 11th December 1823.

To

His Excellency the Right Hon’ble WILLIAM PITT, LORD AMHERST.

MY LORD,

HUMBLY reluctant as the natives of India are to obtrude upon the notice of Government the sentiments they entertain on any public measure, there are circumstances when silence would be carrying this respectful feeling to culpable excess. The present Rulers of India, coming from a distance of many thousand miles to govern a people whose language, literature, manners, customs, and ideas are almost entirely new and strange to them, cannot easily become so intimately acquainted with their real circumstances, as the natives of the country are themselves. We should therefore be guilty of a gross dereliction of duty to ourselves, and afford our Rulers just ground of complaint at our apathy, did we omit on occasions of importance like the present to supply them with such accurate information as might enable them to devise and adopt measures calculated to be beneficial to the country, and thus second by our local knowledge and experience their declared benevolent intentions for its improvement.

The establishment of a new Sangscrit School in Calcutta evinces the laudable desire of Government to improve the Natives of India by Education,—a blessing for which they must ever be grateful; and every well wisher of the human race must be desirous that the efforts made to promote it should be guided by the most enlightened principles, so that the stream of intelligence may flow into the most useful channels.

When this Seminary of learning was proposed, we understood that the 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.

While we looked forward with pleasing hope to the dawn of knowledge thus promised to the rising generation, our hearts were filled with mingled feelings of delight and gratitude; we already offered up thanks to Providence for inspiring the most generous and enlightened of the Nations of the West with the glorious ambitions of planting in Asia the Arts and Sciences of modern Europe.

We now find that the Government are establishing a Sangscrit school under Hindoo Pundits to impart such knowledge as is already current in India. This Seminary (similar in character to those which existed in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon) can only be expected to load the minds of youth with grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions of little or no practicable use to the possessors or to society. The pupils will there acquire what was known two thousand years ago, with the addition of vain and empty subtilties since produced by speculative men, such as is already commonly taught in all parts of India.

The Sangscrit language, so difficult that almost a life time is necessary for its perfect acquisition, is well known to have been for ages a lamentable check on the diffusion of knowledge; and the learning concealed under this almost impervious veil is far from sufficient to reward the labour of acquiring it. But if it were thought necessary to perpetuate this language for the sake of the portion of the valuable information it contains, this might be much more easily accomplished by other means than the establishment of a new Sangscrit College; for there have been always and are now numerous professors of Sangscrit in the different parts of the country, engaged in teaching this language as well as the other branches of literature which are to be the object of the new Seminary. Therefore their more diligent cultivation, if desirable, would be effectually promoted by holding out premiums and granting certain allowances to those most eminent Professors, who have already undertaken on their own account to teach them, and would by such rewards be stimulated to still greater exertions.

From these considerations, as the sum set apart for the instruction of the Natives of India was intended by the Government in England, for the improvement of its Indian subjects, I beg leave to state, with due deference to your Lordship’s exalted situation, that if the plan now adopted be followed, it will completely defeat the object proposed; since no improvement can be expected from inducing young men to consume a dozen of years of the most valuable period of their lives in acquiring the niceties of the Byakurun or Sangscrit Grammar. For instance, in learning to discuss such points as the following: Khad signifying to eat, khaduti he or she or it eats. Query, whether does the word khaduti, taken as a whole, convey the meaning he, she, or it eats, or are separate parts of this meaning conveyed by distinct portions of the word? As if in the English language it were asked, how much meaning is there in the eat, how much in the s? and is the whole meaning of the word conveyed by those two portions of it distinctly, or by them taken jointly?

Neither can much improvement arise from such speculations as the following, which are the themes suggested by the Vedant:—In what manner is the soul absorbed into the deity? What relation does it bear to the divine essence? Nor will youths be fitted to be better members of society by the Vedantic doctrines, which teach them to believe that all visible things have no real existence; that as father, brother, etc., have no actual entirety, they consequently deserve no real affection, and therefore the sooner we escape from them and leave the world the better. Again, no essential benefit can be derived by the student of the Meemangsa from knowing what it is that makes the killer of a goat sinless on pronouncing certain passages of the Veds, and what is the real nature and operative influence of passages of the Ved, etc.

Again the student of the Nyaya Shastra cannot be said to have improved his mind after he has learned from it into how many ideal classes the objects in the Universe are divided, and what speculative relation the soul bears to the body, the body to the soul, the eye to the ear, etc.

In order to enable your Lordship to appreciate the utility of encouraging such imaginary learning as above characterised, I beg your Lordship will be pleased to compare the state of science and literature in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon, with the progress of knowledge made since he wrote.

If it had been intended to keep the British nation in ignorance of real 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 Sangscrit 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.

In representing this subject to your Lordship I conceive myself discharging a solemn duty which I owe to my countrymen and also to that enlightened Sovereign and Legislature which have extended their benevolent cares to this distant land actuated by a desire to improve its inhabitants and I therefore humbly trust you will excuse the liberty I have taken in thus expressing my sentiments to your Lordship.

I have, etc.,

RAMMOHUN ROY.

CALCUTTA;

The 11th December 1823.

2
‘Petition by Students of Sanscrit College to Auckland, Seeking Continuation of Funding for Sanskrit, 9th August 1836’, In H. Sharp (Ed.), Selections from Educational Records Part I, 1781–1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920), 145–146

(38) The humble petition of the Students of the Government Sanskrit College of Calcutta, to the Right Hon’ble Lord George Auckland, Governor-General, dated 9th August 1836.

SHEWETH,

THAT impressed with the importance of cultivating the Sanscrit language owing to its being a vehicle to the sacred writings of the Hindoos and containing all works which represent their manners and customs, the ancient kings of Hindoostan endowed grants of lands to those Brahmins and Pundits who devoted themselves to its acquisition, in order that they may cultivate it without interruption, and impart it to the children of other Brahmins and Pundits, who came to them for instruction from different parts of the country. Students when found competent and deserving, received grants of lands as rewards of their merit. Since the accession of Mohamedan power, though the progress of Sanscrit language was a little retarded; yet the Mohamedan kings notwithstanding their tyrannical measures encouraged its cultivation not only by allowing the undisturbed possession of the former grants of the Hindoos; but also presenting new ones to those who most deserved them.

Altogether the English, having got possession of this country, neglected for a long time the cultivation of the Oriental languages and particularly the Sanscrit. Grieved at this indifference, many Maulvees assisted by those Englishmen who appreciated the value of Sanscrit presented a petition to the Court of Directors praying for the establishment of an institution for the purpose of preserving and propagating this Sanscrit language of the Hindoos.

Lord Amherst, who was then Governor-General established the present college in obedience to the orders of the Court of Directors, and greatly benefited the natives of this country by employing good and able Pundits, and allowing small stipends to the students who resorted to it, from the different parts of the country, and prosecuted their studies with industry and success.

But to your petitioners’ great misfortune and mortification, Lord William Bentinck in 1835 passed an order depriving the newly admitted students of the Sanscrit College of their stipends. This measure your petitioners feel to be a great detriment to the progress and interest of the Sanscrit College,—it is in fact indirectly abolishing the said institution and eradicating that sacred language from the East; for your petitioners, having none to support them in the city, cannot attend it nor acquire that proficiency which can reform their manners and customs. They therefore, pray that your Lordship will graciously enquire of men, who have studied, the Sanscrit language, its value and importance.

Your petitioners believing your Lordship to be a great patron to the civilization and reformation of the Hindoos, pray that your Excellency will mercifully confer on them the little allowance they enjoyed, for that will enable them to prosecute their studies without any inconvenience and preserve the Hindoo shastras from sinking into oblivion. The expense the Government will incur for this purpose is at the utmost 600 rupees a month, a sum quite insufficient and trifling for the object for which it is to be defrayed. Further your petitioners believing that your Lordship will not forget the duties of a ruler who is the protector not only of persons and property, but also a promoter of a knowledge and reformation, Your Lordship conferring this boon on Your Lordship’s petitioners does not make only them happy but the Hindoo community in general, for the preservation of the sacred language.

If your Lordship be of opinion that the Government should not impart knowledge by means of allowing stipends to the students, your Lordship’s petitioners beg to remind your Excellency that in such a cause, the Government would be guilty of partiality for allowing the students of the medical college that stipend, upon which all your petitioners’ hopes of improvement depended. However, your petitioners, now thrown into greatest despair, pray that Your Excellency as a patron of learning, and protector of the helpless will adopt such means as would enable your petitioners to acquire that proficiency in the Sanscrit language which will not only enlighten them, but reform their degenerated manners and customs.

And your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray.

Signed by 70 Students.

GOVERNMENT SANSKRIT COLLEGE, CALCUTTA:
The 9th August, 1836.

3
K. M. Banerjea, ‘An Essay on Native Female Education’ (Calcutta: R.C. Lepage & Co., British Library, 1848), 1–123

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