Indigenous Education in the Early 19th Century in India
— by Isha Doshi
The education system of India has undergone a long process of evolution, from having started off informally in the private home to now unfolding through more formal institutions of private and state-sponsored education. Amidst the several factors that drove this evolution, the most dominant have undoubtedly been those of colonialism and Westernization, the effects of which continue to mold the education system through forces of globalization and capitalism even today. While information pertaining to the nature and characteristics of this system is limited to the writings of British officials, particularly their reports on the British colonies of Madras, Bombay, and Bengal, they are the most viable sources of information in the absence of other data. This paper will thus explore India’s indigenous education system through the subject matter of these three reports, and go on to show how this system influenced the education system in England and had potential to achieve universal primary education.
The Madras Report by Thomas Munro in 1822 revealed that out of a population of around 12.5 million people, there existed 1 school to every 1,000 of the population, with 1 in 67 people receiving an education. Homeschooling was found to be more prevalent than sending children to school, and the concept of female education was non-existent. In a similar report by the Collector of Bellary, the average Hindu boy was found to start school at the age of 5, and the duration of his schooling was dependent on the financial conditions of his parents. Values of punctuality and obedience were enforced through attaching favourable labels to students who arrived to school first and unfavourable labels to those who came late, while employing severe forms of punishment to those who were found to be inattentive, such as, making them kneel down on the floor or suspending them from the roof. The subject matter of education itself centered around the Three R’s i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic, with emphasis laid on committing things they learnt, such as mathematical tables, poetry and fables to memory. Even though the state of Indian education was perceived to be lower than in England, it was “higher than it was in most European countries at no very distant period” (Naik & Nurullah, p. 5).
The Bombay Report by Mountstuart Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay, in 1824–25 further expanded on the indigenous education system. All schooling was found to be held in private dwellings, temples, mosques, sheds, or the houses of teachers themselves, with no building being exclusively for the purpose of schooling. There was no continuity, and the schooling commenced and halted as per the local demand. Schooling was open to everyone who could afford it except females and ‘low castes’ or harijans, and it was thus dominated by Brahmins, with majority of the teachers and 30% of the students being Brahmins. The teachers were given a minimal pay of Rs. 3–5 per month, but their low remuneration was compensated through immense respect from the community, in the form of receiving frequent invites to reputable dinners and multiple generous presents on the occasions of marriages of their students and annual festivals. At the same time, however, the teachers were often found to be ignorant and lacking in adequate educational competency. A few only Muslim indigenous schools that taught Persian and Hindustani were found, while some Hindu schools of higher learning were reported to exist.
The Bengal Report by William Adam deserves careful attention as it was a product of meticulous calculation and is considered to be the most reliable piece of information out of all existing records. Adam’s first report found there to be 100,000 schools in Bengal and Bihar, rendering 1 village school for every 400 people. This was one of the first times the definition of ‘school’ was debated, with one side favouring its modern interpretation of being a permanent institution, while the other favouring the idea of it being any “place where instruction was given” (Naik & Nurullah, p. 15). Adam’s second report centered around a Muslim dominated thana in the district of Rajshahi, wherein he found there to be 27 elementary schools, and revealed that domestic instruction was much more prevalent than sending children to schools. While Adam admits to the statistics of his third report being an underestimate, the statistics of this report are said to be “equivalent to the first systematic census of literacy in India” (Naik & Nurullah, p. 23), with his calculation of a 6.1% literacy rate being one of the most accurate.
While the indigenous education system was considered unnecessary and redundant by the British owing to its traditional roots, the system in reality had great potential for flourishing into a universal system of education. Most systems of mass education in various countries have been built upon the foundations of the traditional system regardless of its defects. It thus becomes important to build and improve upon the existing native institutions of the country to create a more effective and sustainable system of education. Ironically, the benefits of India’s indigenous education system were reaped not by India, but by England instead. The Madras and Bombay report make mention of both the economy and monitorial system of the Indian education system which was adopted by England, wherein more advanced scholars taught less advanced scholars, making it feasible to manage and teach a large number of students at a low cost, thereby acting as a great way of educating the poor. Moreover, the indigenous education system taught everyone the basic essentials of getting through everyday life, such as, keeping accounts, “with a degree of case, conciseness and clearness…fully equal to those of any British Merchant” (Naik & Nurullah, p. 13). Among these aspects, the system’s ability to adapt to local environments and its “popularity…under a variety of economic conditions or political vicissitudes” (Naik & Nurullah, p. 26) demonstrated the potential of India’s education system to have evolved into a universal system of primary education, if only its merits had been recognized by the Government.
It can thus be seen that the indigenous education system of India, although limited to a small population and grounded in traditional learning, had the potential to evolve into a larger system of formal education. The learning it provided rendered its pupils to be at par or sometimes even at a higher level of education than those in other European countries in the West. With schooling primarily being conducted in temples, mosques or private homes, there was no involvement of the State or kings in the education system except for financial assistance for higher education . At the same time, however, it can be seen that the separatist ideas between Hindus and Muslims existed even in the education system since several years, and were reinforced through creation of separate spaces of learning for both these religions. Moreover, the education system also perpetuated casteist and patriarchal values within society as it excluded members of the lower castes and females from being educated. It is possible that these ideas were further reinforced by the teachers themselves, who were primarily Brahmins, ignorant, and educationally underqualified. These defects, however, do not make a case for dismissing the Indian indigenous education system as ineffectual and impractical, but point towards those aspects that could have been improved upon to eventually create a sustainable universal system of primary education.
(Isha is a 3rd year BA student with major in public policy at FLAME University)
References
Naik, J., & Nurullah, S. (1974). Indigenous Education in India at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. In A Student’s History Of Education In India (1800–1973) (6th ed., pp. 1–32). Madras: Macmillan India Limited.
