- What were the basic objectives behind the introduction of ‘modern education’ in India? How far were these achieved?
From the late 18th century onwards, as colonial enterprise in India expanded and its policies concentrated more on consolidation rather than simple trade, it became imperative to not only conquer the native minds but also to carry out social reconstruction for more efficient ruling. The British parliament, which now came to play an increasingly active role in the rule of India, centered their policies around the single goal of ‘civilizing the native’. One way of doing this was through the education of the natives. Gauri Vishwanthan, in her book “Masks of Conquests’ questions the reason behind the introduction of modern education in India. She argues that if indeed the British were the unchallenged military power in India, then why was this rule through direct force abandoned in favour of enforcing a kind of social control on the people? Why would this disguised form of authority be more successful in ruling the Indian natives than direct show of force? The following essay attempts to answer these questions and plot the trend of modern education in India and its impact on society.
British Orientalism, between 1771-1835, was inspired by the needs of the East India Company to train a class of British administrators in the languages and culture of India. According to David Kopf, orientalists were products of the enlightenment and thus tolerance and openness to other cultures had strong appeal to them. The first phase of education began with the coming to power of Warren Hastings in 1732. Hastings observed that the natives were not as barbaric as previously thought to be and consisted of men ‘of strong intellect and integrity’. He did not directly import English laws and customs onto the people, but instead argued for the continuation of the indigenous texts like the Shastras and the Quran. Traditional Indian texts like the Arthashastra, the puranas etc were translated into English. Nathaniel Halhed wrote ‘A Code of Gentoo Laws’ in 1776 and ‘Bengali Grammar’ in 1778 while Charles Wilkins brought out his Sanskrit grammar in 1779. William Jones translated Persian poetry and established the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1774 to pursue research in ancient learning, translation of manuscripts and bringing out the journal. The establishment of the Calcutta Madrassa in 1781 by Francis and the Sanskrit College at Benares in 1792 were also an outcome of the influence of Orientalism. But these were mainly individual enterprises and attempts for preserving ancient learning. It did not reflect a cohesive policy of the East India Company towards education in India as the company followed a policy of non-intervention in Indian social matters.
In July 1813, a Charter Act was passed for the renewal of the Company’s privileges. This Act, not only renewed the East India Company’s charter for a twenty-year period, but also produced two major changes. The first was a relaxation of controls over missionary activity in India and the second was the assumption of a new responsibility towards native education, a policy which the British did not follow even towards its own people. Clause 43 of the Charter, influenced by Oriental agitation for more funds for maintenance of institutions, laid down dissemination of education as one of the tasks of the British Raj. It stated that a certain sum out of the total ‘surplus territorial revenues’ would be appropriated by the government for revival of literature and promotion of European sciences. This was the first step taken by the British government towards formulating an education policy in India. In 1823, Holt Mackenzie, suggested the establishment of new institutions for the instruction of Eastern and Western learning. He also proposed the establishment of a General Committee of Public Instruction for the implementation of his suggestions. The Committee, which mostly constituted of Oriental scholars, set up institutions like the Asiatic Society and the Calcutta Madresa in Bengal, and the Sanskrit college in Benaras. Little emphasis was given to Western sciences and religion because the Committee was afraid of hurting the sentiments of the natives and was constantly taking into consideration the religious prejudice of the people.
In 1828, Lord William Bentinck was appointed the new Governor General of India and this marked a turning point in the education policy of the British Raj. He appointed Thomas B. Macaulay as president of the General Committee of Public Instruction. On 2 February 1835, he issued his famous Minute that became the basis for the introduction of English education in India. Both Bentinck and Macaulay came from the Utilitarian school of thought, which believed that British, culture alone-represented civilization. No other cultures had any intrinsic validity. There was no such thing as ‘Western’ civilization; there existed only ‘civilization’. Hence the utilitarian’s set out to turn the Indian into an Englishman; or, as Macaulay described it in his 1835 Minute on Education, to create not just a class of Indians educated in the English language, who might assist the British in ruling India, but one ‘English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect’. By this time colonial administration had also acquired greater confidence in interfering in social affairs and in running down indigenous institutions and practices. Macaulay suggested that the government should cut down the expenditure on maintenance of Oriental institutions and promotion of Oriental learning. . He argued for promotion of English education and the codification of Hindu and Muslim laws into English. His main aim was to consolidate the British Empire through English laws and culture. After evaluating Macaulay’s proposal, Lord Bentinck passed a resolution on 7th March 1835. The resolution contained four orders. These stated that funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be employed in English education, western literature and sciences would be taught in English, Persian would be replaced by English as the official language and that available funds would be used to encourage higher education rather than elementary. Bentinck intended for a ‘downward filtration’ of English knowledge, from the educated officials to the masses. But not all Utilitarians were in favour of Western Education. Many, like James Mill, were in favour of vernacular education. On the other hand, many of the growing Indian intelligentsia was in favour of western education over vernacular traditions. In 1813, when the British parliament directed that one lakh rupees be spent annually by the EAST INDIA COMPANY on the improvement of education and the newly instituted Committee of Public Instruction planned the setting up of a Sanskrit College, Raja Rammohan Roy protested against this move saying that the grant should have been directed towards the teaching of westerns science. The intelligentsia was in favour of learning the new western philosophies and sciences rather than that knowledge which was already present in India. In 1835 Macaulay’s decision was carried out and the Indians were now exposed to the influence of English liberal and scientific thought.
Lord Auckland, who succeeded Bentinck in 1836, expressed his views on education in the minute of 1839 and attempted to resolve the Anglo-Oriental controversy. He restored the grants that had been previously been sanctioned to the Oriental colleges and stated that the funds should be appropriated first for Oriental studies and then for English instruction. He proposed the establishment of Central colleges in Patna, Benares and Allahabad. Auckland’s plan was important as the government realised the need to keep the Oriental and English education systems separate. It was found that the Indians were not ready to sacrifice their own system of learning and that it was not possible to spread education through English and it had to be done through the vernacular. Auckland’s plan for a comprehensive and graduated system of education in every district resulted in the emergence and adoption of the first comprehensive and real education policy. Hardinge, the next governor general, initiated further reforms and innovations in the area of education. Higher education advanced at rapid speed as a network of English and vernacular education institutions were established. In 1844-45, the Council of Education drew up a plan to establish a Central University, modelled on the London University and offering degrees in Arts, Science, Law, Medicine and Civil Engineering, in Bengal.
The most significant advance in education was seen during the age of Lord Dalhousie. He planned to set up a school in every revenue district along with the ordinary village school. This scheme proved successful in eight districts and by 1850 a vernacular school literature had been created, number of schools increased to 3400 and number of scholars increased greatly as well. It was gradually extended to 23 districts including Bengal and Punjab. Dalhousie agreed to set up a school (instead of a college) in Amritsar and he suggested that English could be taught here alongside instruction in vernaculars. He introduced elaborate reforms in Calcutta and reformed the Hindu College. He converted the senior department at the college into the Presidency College to distinguish it from other local institutions. He also suggested admission of non-Muslims into the Calcutta Madrassa. Simultaneously, Dalhousie developed the plan for technical education as he realised the importance of training youths to meet rising demands of department public works. He supported J.E.D Bethune’s female school in Calcutta and marked the beginning of policy of open encouragement in sphere of female education.
Thomas Metcalfe, in his Ideologies of the Raj, points out a very significant difficulty that the English Education reform faced. In England in the early Victorian period, all schooling was religious in nature. The schools were run by various Christian sects and Christianity was taught as an integral part of the curriculum. The mission societies thus followed the same pattern in their schools in India, thereby fulfilling their strategy of religious conversion. The British Government however dared not introduce the teaching of Christianity in the Indian schools for they realized that such direct patronage of Christianity might provoke a reaction of hostility. Gauri Vishwanathan throws light on this tension between the increasing involvement in Indian education and the enforced non-interference in religion, saying that it was resolved through the introduction of English literature as the central element of the school curriculum. Although education in India was to be secular, moral training was to be supplied by study of the great works of England’s historic literature. The guiding ideal was that of ‘godliness and good learning’, enunciated by the educator Thomas Arnold. No such schools existed in England, nor was English literature seen there as a substitute for Christian training, but in India, eighteenth-century neo-classical literature, along with Shakespeare, formed the core of the curriculum in the government schools. Colonial ideas of race and religion were disseminated amongst the natives through the distribution of Colonial works of fiction. For example the novel of Robinson Crusoe, written by Daniel Defoe in 1719, was widely distributed in public libraries in Calcutta. The protagonist of the book is a ship-wrecked white-man who comes into contact with the natives and attempts to civilize them through the employment of English language and culture and Christianity.
The education policy in the course of its development had an impact on Indian society and brought about changes in the social structure. The Company’s initial oriental policies held out important prospects for local linguists and literati who found employment in the new institutions that the colonial administration created. These were mostly men of the upper castes who had traditionally enjoyed access to education. It led to the emergence of a new social class – the bhadralok. This class also included the smaller local gentry who had consolidated their position on land after the Permanent Settlement. The best example of this is Raja Rammohan Roy, who after having acquired property in Burdwan moved to Calcutta in 1815 in order to lead an intellectual life. According to Sekhar Bandopadhyay, there was a rise of a ‘civil society’ which was ’articulate in defending its rights while locating its identity’. They began to question all prevalent social practices and religious notions and saw these as backward and decadent. Science became a sign of progress and scientific knowledge was further developed by the likes of Raja Rammohan Roy as they set up schools to promote the same. The bhadralok class also came under the influence of Christian missionary activity, though there were few conversions. There was also a growing fascination for western education which found expression in the establishment of the Hindu College in Calcutta in 1817. This was a modern educational initiative taken by the affluent Calcutta Hindu families who wanted their sons educated in the Western tradition. The college soon became a dynamic centre for social transformation. The European ideals of liberty, representation and freedom, expressed through teachers such as Henry Derozio, altered the views of the students. It inspired them to embark upon new perceptions of tradition, religion and social practice. Successive batches of students were unafraid in expressing their views about religion, Hinduism and its practice, and speaking in favour of liberal education. They formed the Young Bengal movement, provoking the more conservative sections of society. An important outcome of this new found consciousness was the awakening or renaissance among the contemporary bengalis. Raja Rammohan Roy was a forerunner in this awakening and he propagated the spread of Western education and carried out social reform. Raja Rammohan Roy alongwith Dayanand Saraswati started reform movements like the Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj to reform Hinduism. European education brought to the fore the status of women in Indian society. Welfare of women became a concern. Not only was education extended to women, several reforms were carried out to improve their social standing. Gauri Vishwanathan argues that the introduction of English literature was meant to inculcate a proper training in morality and ethics as it was considered to be the ‘ideal representation of English identity’. But the effects of this social transformation remained confined to the bhadralok. The narrow basis of the Bengal renaissance has attraced much critique from scholars. Sumit Sarkar argued that the renaissance culture was a Hindu elitist one and that Rammohun Roy remained ‘a purveyor of half-filled bourgeois modernity’.
Thus we have seen the effects of the English education system on Indian society. David Kopf, in his British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance, argues that the dynamics of Indian modernization were set in motion by the British. Kopf observes that there developed during the 18th century an Indian national consciousness of the arts and sciences. He credits orientalism for awakening this consciousness among the indians along modern lines. Were it not for the British, the indans would never have been acquainted with their own culture or recognized the possibilites of antional growth on indigenous foundations. Gauri Vishwanathan critiques Kopf saying that singular credit cannot be given to the British for ‘national awakening’ in India. The impact of modern education , though not always positive, was profound and was felt by all sections of society.
But the fact must be accepted that western education did set the wheel of modernization in motion.