Introductory Speech
Of
Dr. V. V. Bedekar
President .
Institute for Oriental Study, Thane
Seminar on
Education in ancient India
Saturday, the 29th April, 1995
at Thane.
Dr. V. V. Bedekar
Dr. Bedekar's Hospital,
Shiv-Shakti, Naupada,
Thane MS - 400 602.
I
heartily welcome you all to
this Seminar on the subject, Education In Ancient India, held
under the auspices of the Institute for Oriental Study, Thane. Many of you have
come from different parts of our country and I am sure your deliberations will dispel many
a misconception regarding this
vital issue concerning not only an aspect of our social life but the formation of our psyche under alien influence.
Coming
to the subject of today's seminar, I must confess that Iain aware of the inadequacy of time
available to you to review this important and vast issue even cursorily. The
plethora of reports prepared by various commissions & specially in the
post-independence era, voluminous in bulk, hardly touches the soul of education
concentrating mostly upon the externalia of the
educational system
like buildings, educational equipment, salaries of staff etc. With regard to the aim of education, all
these commissions harp upon the spread of scientific attitude and eradication of
superstition as Sanjivani Mantra on the supercilious presumption
that Indians lack the former and are hampered by the latter.
I
shall not touch here, upon the recent trends of research in the field of what is knowledge, Education, the
learning process, cognitive faculties etc. undertaken by Scientists, Philosophers
and Sociologists, but would draw attention of the learned assembly to a
very crucial turning point In the history of this land, when the system of education was
transplanted from Its traditional moorings to Western concepts from indigenous to alien,
from vernacular
to English and from creativity to soul killing formality.
The
Encyclopaedia Americana says,1
"Education
is any process by which an individual gains knowledge or insight, or develops attitudes or
skills. Formal education is acquired through organised study of instruction, as
in school or college. Informal education arises from day-to-day experiences”.
Your
deliberations are going to delineate the systems and traditions evolved in this country for
providing both these kinds of education from Vedic times till the advent of the British.
In spite of the troubled times during the so-called Moghal period in our history,
this system and tradition of education was a living force informing our
socio-political-cultural theory and practice. Our philosophical, grammatical,
architectural, mathematical (from zero to indeterminate equations), astronomical
(sphericity of the earth, gravitational attraction, zodiacal signs, Nakshatra-Chakra
etc.), metallurgical (Panchadhatu etc.) and naval achievements recorded in
literature, epigraphy and monuments are
testimony to the viability of the system. What happened, then during the last two hundred years to believe that we lacked
scientific attitude and that our
religion was a pack of superstitions?
The
introduction of the British system of education sounded the death-knell of this time tested
tradition of our land which had given sustenance to our forefathers for thousands of
years. The educational system imposed on us by the British was based on a firm
premise, philosophy and objective. Not that this account of
Mathematical and
astronomical sciences were the earliest to migrate. The famous, so-called
Arabic numerals are really Hindu numerals, which were learnt by Arab Scholars who transmitted them to
"Until lately I
imagined that the drill plough to be a modern European invention, but, a short
time ago, riding over a field I observed a drill plough at work, very simple in
its construction, which upon enquiry I find
is in general use here, and has been so, time immemorial "
The same
observations have been made by other individuals about the use of drill plough in other parts of the
country. There are descriptions, on record, of making of ice (A.D.1774) and production of the
best variety of mortar at
Hortus Malabaricus, a 12 volume
Encyclopaedia, giving illustrations of 750 species of Indian plants was published in
Can
these achievements be ever possible for society, ridden by class-conflicts, exploitations
of all starts or did it take place by imitation or by borrowing or by sheer accident ?
No, these achievements
are not possible without an optimum sociopsychological
stability in Society.
Is
this the picture of a society of low morals, with no science, riddled with rampant illiteracy, superstition, backwardness
and barbarism ?
Yes. These are the claims made by
Charles Grant, Wilberforce, Mill, Macaulay,
Bentinck and many other British Bureaucrats who were the pioneers of Western English Education which was
established after neatly burying,
deliberately, all information about pre-British Indian achievements, Contribution
of Missionaries like William Carey (1767-1837), William Hodge Mill (1792-1853)
and John Muir (1810-1882) who were responsible for initial school and college
syllabi and opening of educational institutions was considerable in the
propagation of the myth of fallen Indian morals,
illiteracy and religious superstition. They employed education as a tool for
their evangelical designs, albeit they proclaimed their pious intentions of 'educating' Indians and uplifting the “down-trodden”
They were prompted by these designs to paint
and present to their masters and paymasters in
Let us cast a
glance at the chronology of events that destroyed the Ancient Indian Educational system and
established the alien English System. It is traditionally believed that it
started, at the time of renewal of
"the revival and improvement of literature, and the
encouragement of the learned natives of
Rs. 1,00,000/-
may appear as a very generous, sumptuous liberality for the noble cause of education. However, the
preconditions for making this grant available were 4
"that out of any surplus which may remain of the rents, revenues
and profits
arising from the said territorial acquisitions, after defraying the expenses of the
military, civil and commercial establishments and paying the interest of the debt,
in manner hereafter provided, a sum of not less than Rs. one lac
in each year shall be set apart ....."
However,
examination of records shows that this large (?) amount of money to educate the entire colonial
population was not made available till 1823. It is also worthwhile noting that the
value of Rs. One lac at that time was around 7 to 10 thousand pound. Lord
Macaulay, as member of the Law commission and its Chairman was drawing a salary of more
than £10,000/- per annum.
These attempts to
westernise Indians in the name of Education are seen to have started since 1793, at the time of the renewal of the Charter of
East India Company. They were undertaken by Charles Grant and Wilberforce. The
plan was to send missionaries and schoolmasters for "mental” and
"moral” reform of Hindus. In 1792Charles Grant wrote an elaborate tract
entitled, "Observations on the state of society among the Asiatic
subjects of
“The
Hindus had as good a system of faith and morals as most people, and that it would
be madness to attempt their conversion or to give them any more learning or any
other description of learning that
which they already possess.”
What appeared as MADNESS even to the
foreign conquerors was for Raja
Ram Mohan Roy "reformist zeal". These efforts of
missionaries culminated in the famous minutes of T.B. Macaulay (1835). As
stated earlier, credit for these “achievements” goes not only to missionaries
but also to zealots like Raja Ram Mohan Roy. However, it must be placed on
record that some Orientalists like Warren Hastings,
Wilson etc. had opposed these sinister designs. Warren Hastings had founded a Madrasa in
“It was Ram Mohan Roy and his friends who
detected the insidious poison in the Sanskrit College
Scheme of the Orientalists and submitted a petition
which inaugurated a controversy that was prolonged for
more than ten years. Macaulay by his eloquence and wealth of superlative has often
been made solely responsible for cutting of Indian education from the roots of
National Life. Let it be remembered here that he was not the prime
mover, that his intervention was late and that the forces which he represented would probably have been successful without his
singularly tactless and blundering
championship. The movement towards Anglicisation originated in Missionary and Hindu quarters before Macaulay had begun to sharpen his pen and select his epithets
in the land of "exile” whose
culture he was to traduce. And it was fostered by Hindu support for many
years after he had left
Macaulay
who had no knowledge of
“We
are at present a Board of printing books which are of less value than the paper on which they are printed was
when it was blank and forgiving artificial
encouragements to absurd history, absurd metaphysics, and absurd physics
and absurd theology”.
It was Raja Ram Mohan
Roy who provided such insolent courage to Macaulay who further ventures to say:
“No Hindu who
has received an English Education, ever remains sincerely attached to his religion - It is my firm
belief that if our plans
of education are followed up there will not be a single idolator
among the respectable
classes in Bengal thirty years hence, and this will be effected without any effort to
proselytise, without the smallest interference in
their religious liberty, merely by the natural operation of knowledge and
reflection”.
It
would be worthwhile to scrutinise and investigate here, that during the 18th century, the so-called
superior morality and scientific and technological upper hand claimed by
Missionaries vehemently and which was agreed upon also by Hindus, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, had any truth
in it. It was not only untrue but
Christianity directly opposed progress of science for centuries. Stories of
Copernicus, Gallelio and Bruno are far well known. So
Christianity as a religion by any
stretch of imagination had no constructive contribution in the
advancement of scientific temperament in the West. M.S. Anderson in his book “
“In
The
first University text book to be based on the principles of Newtonian physics and mathematics was
published at
“To all
British Scientists natural phenomena, however, they might be studied, however
closely observed & subtly classified, had still their first cause in God. They were still
manifestation of his being &
nature. Many of the most popular writers and lecturers of science were themselves clergymen”.
In
“It was therefore,
quite untypical of the reading of the ordinary peasant or a artisan, who enjoyed none of
these advantages. We know little
about the reading habits of the 95% or more of Europeans in this period who
were not well educated or well-to-do and who did not possess Libraries
of which there is some surviving record in wills or inventories”.
The
language of European Scholarship and culture of 18th Century
There is adequate evidence available now
that almost throughout
“These publications have, however, been
more reproduction of the original
survey, appended to lengthy introduction without any attempt at systematic interpretation of the data. Most of
them also betray a
fervour of Brahminic patriotism through an
undue anxiety to show the institution
of indigenous education in benign light, and an unjustified attempt to gloss
over its discriminatory dimensions”.
The reports describing the system of indigenous
educations prevailed in Bombay presidency
which included Gujarat, Maharashtra and part of Karnatak
then, were submitted to the then
Government in two groups, one in the year 1823- 24 and the second in the year 1828-29. Great educationist Shri R. V. Parulekar has published them in
three parts 10.
For
details of history of education in early years of British Raj Fisher's Memoir is indispensable for Scholars. It is most unfortunate that
the report of education in the city of Pune
in 1824 just six years after the departure of Peshwas
was submitted to William Chaplin,
the Commissioner in the Deccan, but are nor traceable now. The report has
stated that there were 222 schools both for primary and higher institutions in the city during this
period.
The report of T.B. Jervis (1823-24) on the
state of education especially in the districts of South Konkan are elaborate,
extensive and detailed in nature and is literally a 'mine' of information. It
is very difficult to give all aspects of the report here, but some important
findings will be of great help and interest to this audience. It may surprise
this audience that a report of 1828-29 describes 281 schools during the period.
It would be a matter of surprise to many and shock to ideologically committed
scholars and sociologists that prior to the advent of British, there were
schools, practically in all villages of province which could satisfy needs of
their society and at least 30 to 50% school students were from the non-Brahmin
sections of society, presently termed as Other Backward Classes. In the first
report of T.B. Jervis for which information was collected in 1820, he has
reported 86 schools in the province of south Konkan, out of these 86 schools,
28 were held in temple and private dwellings, 6 were in the houses of teachers
and Jervis has reported that even few schools were held in the sheds
belonging to barbers, oilmen and potters. Even among the teachers
non-Brahmins i. e. Prabhus,
Marathas, Kunbis, Vanis, Shimpis percentage was at least 20 to 40%. In the report of
Jervis, out of 86, 22 were non-Brahmins in
“It
must however be said that as a rule the common schools were not communal in their
working and they were open to all who could afford to pay for their schooling except
those who belonged to low caste or
depressed castes. The schools conducted for Muslim community where Persian or Hindustani (Urdu) was taught, were no doubt
exclusively restricted to Muslim children but the Hindu schools were open to the Muslim boys if they
wanted to attend them”.
Parulekar has clearly stated
: 12
“Although
majority of teachers of the common schools of the time were Brahmins, it must be noted that
the other castes and communities shared the profession with Brahmins without any hindrance imposed by custom or tradition”.
These
reports have also stated very clearly that though Brahmin families took to
education and teaching, school-master was never a hereditary occupation. A report of a judge at Ahmedabad states: 13
“The office of school
master can-not properly be said to be hereditary. During the time of Maratha Government it was generally taken up by those whose fathers had
been so-occupied, but even then
others used to establish themselves in the same line. Since the city has been
under the British rule, many persons had become school masters, whose ancestors were never so employed and no objection
had been taken by Natives to their doing so ".
A
graphic description of educational status of Society in the Konkan area can be seen in the
statement of Mr. Pendargast which he submitted to
Bombay Governor's council in 1821.14
"I need hardly mention what every
member of the Board knows as well as I do, that there is hardly a village,
great or small, throughout our territories, in which there is not at least one
school, and in the larger villages more, many in every town and in larger
cities in every division, where young natives are taught reading, writing and
Arithmetic, upon a system, so economical, from a handful or two of grain, to perhaps a rupee per month to the schoolmaster;
according to the ability of the parents,
and at the same time so simple and effectual that there is hardly a
cultivator or petty dealer who is not competent to keep his own accounts with a
degree of accuracy, in my opinion, beyond
what we meet with amongst the lower
orders in our own country;* while the more splendid dealers and bankers keep
their cake with a degree of ease,
consciousness and clearness, I rather think fully to those of any British merchant (Evidence of 1832, p. 468).
"
there are schools maintained
by the natives in almost every village in Candeish " (Evidence of 1832 p. 2%).
"There
are probably as great a proportion of persons in India who can not write and keep
simple accounts as arc to be found in European countries" vide Annual
Report (1819) of the Bombay Education Society P. 11.
n Schools are frequent amonge native and about everywhere" -sixth report
(1820) p. 21.
I
would bring to the notice of the learned audience here, that not only indigenous education system
was efficient' and adequate to the needs of their society, but it was very economical
and suited to their social needs. British while totally wiping out this system
were shrewd enough to borrow generously many methods from this indigenous system, I
quote Parulekar15
"During
the early year & of the 19th century, Dr. Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster introduced
a system of instruction in
In
the reports now
under consideration, a reference is made by William Chaplin, the Commissioner in
the
Macaulay's dream:
"we must do our best to form a class who may be an
interpreter between us and the Millions whom
we govern, a class of persons Indian
in blood & colour, but English in taste, opinion and words and intellect
".
has come true beyond his expectations. From Raja Ram Mohan
Roy almost all subsequent
reformers (with few exceptions) impatient to convert this country into a modern, scientific,
free of superstition (mostly atheist) strengthen Macaulay in all possible respects. After independence things hardly changed. Nehru, a more ardent
supporter of western values, continued the Macaulean
psychology of education, firmly rooted in the premise carefully tailored by
Charles Grant, Wilberforce, Trevelyan and Raja Ram Mohan Roy that Hindus have low morals, they are
illiterate barbarians and have no scientific outlook and their religion is nothing but superstition. The
leftist ideology and hopelessly committed
scholars in this ideology continued the same myth of backwardness, religious superstition and lack of scientific
temperament in the Hindu society. The
result with state of education is seen in the present Indian society with state
of education lacking totally in
creativity is in front of us. Only if we can come out of this colonial and ideologically tutored
concept of our culture, and social
institution that we can create a viable and self respectable society and nation.l6
HOPE TODAY'S DELIBERATION WOULD BE A
MARCH IN THAT DIRECTION.
THANK YOU
1.
Encyclopaedia
2. Dharampal, 1971. Indian science
and Technology in Eighteenth century. some contemporary European Accounts, Academy of Gandhian Studies, Hyderabad, Sole Distributors : Bharatiya
Manisha Peeth C-6-7A, Lawrence Road, New Delhi
-110035.
3. Educational records, selections from Bureau of
Education -1 22 Section 43 of the Act, see also report of A. D. Campbell
17/8/1823. Educational record I 65 and Lord Moira's Minute of 1815, Educational
record I -24.
4. Ibid.
5. Arthar Mayhew, 1988 (reprint). Pre
- Independence Educational Policy of India, A Study of British Educational Policy In India, 1835 -1920
And of It's Bearing on National Life and Problems In India
To-Day, Archives Books, Post Box 5780, 4E/8, Jhandewalan
Ext. New Delhi-110 055 P.12&13.
6.
7. DiBona J. 1983 One Teacher, One
School The Adaim Report on Indigenous Education in 19th Century India, Biblia Impex Pvt. Ltd. 2/18, Ansari
Road.
8. Dharampal, 1983 The Beautiful
Tree Indigenous
Indian Education In the Eighteenth century, Biblia Impex Private Limited 2/18, Ansari Road, NEW
DELHI -110 002.
9. Radhakrishnan P. Indigenous Education In
10. Parulekar R. V. Selections from
The records of The Government of
11. Parulekar R. V. 1945 (reprint
1951) Survey of Indigenous Education In
the Province of Bombay 1820-1 1830. Published by The Indian Institute of
Education,
12. Ibid Pxxiii
13. Ibid Pxxvii
14. Ibidl Pxxi
15. Ibid P xxvi and xxxvii
16.
For more
details of how British manipulated every indigenous system to their advantage, scholars can read my
Introduction to the book Historical Truths and Untruths Exposed,
1991. Published by Itihas
Patrika Prakashan, M. Karve
Marg, Naupada Thane 400
602.
https://www.orientalthane.com/