Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 3/Chapter 1/Section 10

Section X.

General Remarks on the State of Persian and Arabic Instruction.

First.—The Hindustani or Urdu is the current spoken language of the educated Musalmans of Bengal and Behar, and it is a remarkable feature in the constitution of Mohammadan society in these provinces, and I infer throughout India that the vernacular language of that class is never employed in the schools as the medium or instrument of written instruction. Bengali school-books are employed by the Hindus of Bengal, and Hindi school-books by the Hindus of Behar; but although Urdu is more copious and expressive, more cultivated and refined than either, and possesses a richer and more comprehensive literature, Urdu school-books are wholly unknown. It is the language of conversation in the daily intercourse of life and in the business of the world, and it is the language also of oral instruction for the explanation of Persian and Arabic, but it is never taught or learned for its own sake, or for what it contains. It is acquired in a written form only indirectly and at second-hand through the medium of the Persian, whose character it has adopted and from which it has derived almost all its vocables, and it is employed as a written language chiefly in popular poetry and tales and in female correspondence, and often also in the pulpit. The absence of Urdu schools for the Musalman population, corresponding with the Bengali and Hindi schools for the Hindus, may explain, in some measure, the greater degradation and ignorance of the lower classes of Musalmans when compared with the corresponding classes of the Hindu population; and the first step to their improvement must be to supply this defect.

Second.—Except in those cases in which the Musalmans resort to Bengali and Hindi schools. Persian instruction is the only substitute for vernacular instruction. Those Musalmans and Hindus who have received a Persian education have nearly the same command of the Persian as a written language that educated Englishmen have of their mother tongue. They acquire it in their earliest years at school, in after-life they continue to read the works it contains for instruction or amusement; they can conserve in it, although it is not so employed in general society; and they employ it as the means of communication in the private correspondence of friendship and in the written transactions of business. It is occasionally the language of the pulpit in the celebrations of the moharram; it is the language of the long established manuscript Akhbars or Intelligencers of the native courts, and of the printed newspapers of modern times addressed to the educated classes of society; and the employment of a less worthy medium in composition is generally considered inconsistent with the dignity of literature and science, philosophy and religion,—more as the relaxation than the exercise of an instructed mind. The Persian language, therefore, must be pronounced to have a strong hold on native society.

Third.—There is no connection between the Bengali and Sanscrit schools of Bengal, or between the Hindi and Sanscrit schools of Behar; the teachers, scholars, and instruction of the common schools are totally different from those of the schools of learning,—the teachers and scholars being drawn from different classes of society, and the instruction directed to different objects. But this remark does not apply to the Persian and Arabic schools, which are intimately connected and which almost imperceptibly pass into each other. The Arabic teacher teaches Persian also in the same school and to the same pupils, and an Arabic school is sometimes known from a Persian school only by having a single Arabic scholar studying the most elementary Arabic work, while all the other scholars read Persian. The same scholars who are now studying Arabic formerly read, or may still be reading, Persian in the same school and under the same teacher; and the scholars in an Arabic school who are now reading Persian only will probably in the same school, and under the same teacher, advance to the study of Arabic. The only distinction that can be drawn is that while there is no Arabic teacher who does not or may not teach Persian, there are many Persian teachers who do not and cannot teach Arabic. But the class for which both Persian and Arabic schools exist is the same, and that is the upper class of native society, whether Hindus or Musalmans are the scholars, and whether Persian or Arabic is the language taught. Both languages are foreign, and both classes of schools are inaccessible to the body of the people.

Fourth.—It is a question to what extent Persian and Arabic instruction is directed and sought by Hindus and Musalmans, respectively; and the following table affords some means of estimating their relative proportion by exhibiting the actual number of teachers and scholars belonging to each class:—

		Teachers.		Scholars.
		Hindu.	Musalman.	Hindu.	Musalman.
Moorshedabad	. . .	. . .	19	62	47
Beerbhoom	. . .	5	68	245	245
Burdwan	. . .	7	101	452	519
South Behar	. . .	1	290	867	619
Tirhoot	. . .	1	237	470	128
Total	. . .	14	715	2,096	1,558

Arabic instruction is wholly, and Persian instruction is almots wholly, in the hands of Musalmans,—there being only 14 teachers of Persian who are Hindus, to 715 teachers of Persian and Arabic who are Musalmans. This is a consequence of the nature of the instruction communicated; the languages, the literature, and the learning taught being strictly Mohammadan. The relative number of Hindu and Musalman scholars is very different, there being 2,096 of the former to 1,558 of the latter; which is a very remarkable contrast with the number of teachers belonging to the two classes of the population. Is this comparative large number of Hindu scholars the effect of a laudable desire to study a foreign literature placed within their reach? Or is it the effect of an artificial stimulus? This may be judged by comparing the number of Hindu teachers and scholars of Persian which until lately was almost the exclusive language of local administration with that of Hindu teachers and scholars of Arabic, which is not called into use in the ordinary routine of Government. With regard to teachers, there is not a single Hindu teacher of Arabic in the five districts,—all are Musalmans. With regard to scholars, there are only 9 Hindu to 149 Musalman students of Arabic, and consequently 2,087 Hindus to 1,409 Musalmans who are learning Persian. The small comparative number of Arabic students who are Hindus, and the large comparative number of Persian scholars of the same class, seem to admit of only one explanation, viz., that the study of Persian has been unnaturally forced by the practice of Government; and it seems probable that even a considerable number of the Musalmans who learn Persian may be under the same artificial influeuce.

Fifth.—The average monthly gain of the teachers varies from rupees 8-14-1 in Moorshedabad to rupees 3 in Tirhoot, the medium rates being rupees 6-6-1 in Beerbhoom, rupees 6-10-8 in Burdwan, and rupees 5-2 in South Behar. The difference between the highest and the lowest rates may be explained by various causes. One cause will be found in the average number of scholars taught by each master, the highest average being 9.3 in Burdwan, the lowest 2.5 in Tirhoot; and the medium averages being 6.7 in Beerbhoom, 5.7 in Moorshedabad, and 5.1 in South Behar. The lowest rate of monthly gain and the smallest average number of scholars are found in Tirhoot. Further, the persons acquainted with Persian and seeking employment are numerous, the general standard of living is very low, and both the number of those who receive and the poverty of those who give employment of this kind combine to establish a very low rate of remuneration. In Behar too, and especially in Tirhoot, parents do not nearly to the same extent as in the Bengal districts unite with each other to support a teacher for the benefit of their children; and thus each teacher is very much isolated, seldom extending his instructions beyond the children of four or three families, and often limiting them to two and even one. The effects are waste of power and degradation of character to teachers and taught.

Sixth.—An attempt was made to ascertain the age of each scholar at three separate periods, viz., the age of his entering school or commencing the particular study referred to; his age at the time the school was visited; and the probable age of his leaving school or concluding the particular study in which he was then engaged. The average results are exhibited in the following table, and from the results is shown the average duration of study. At the time the Beerbhoom district was visited, the then actual age only of each scholar was noted without the two other items which are consequently wanting in the table:—

		Persian.				Arabic.
		Average ages.			Duration of study.	Average ages.			Duration of study.
Moorshedabad	. . .	9·50	13·5	20·8	11·3	11·0	17·4	21·1	10·1
Beerbhoom	. . .	—	13·5	—	—	—	18·4	—	—
Burdwan	. . .	10·03	15·6	26·5	16·4	16·3	21·2	28·1	11·8
South Behar	. . .	7·80	11·1	21·5	13·7	12·3	16·0	24·2	11·9
Tirhoot	. . .	6·80	10·8	19·3	12·5	12·1	17·5	25·4	13·3

Thus the average duration both of Persian and Arabic study is about eleven or twelve years, the former generally extending to the twentieth! or twenty-first and the latter to the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year of age, affording ample time for the introduction of new or the improvement and extension of old courses of study.

Seventh.—The nature of the instruction given in these institutions may be in some measure estimated by the subjects of the works used as school or text books. In Persian schools elementary and grammatical works, forms of correspondence, and popular poems and tales are chiefly read: occasionally a work on rhetoric or a treatise on theology or medicine is also met with. In the Arabic schools the course of study takes a much wider range. The grammatical works are numerous, systematized, and profound; complete courses of reading on rhetoric, logic, and law are embraced; the external observances and fundamental doctrines of Islam are minutely studied; the works of Euclid on geometry and Ptolemy on astronomy in translation are not unknown; other branches of natural philosophy are also taught; and the whole course is crowned by the perusal of treatises on metaphysics deemed the highest attainment of the instructed scholar. Perhaps we shall not err widely if we suppose that the state of learning amongst the Musalmans of India resembles that which existed among the nations of Europe before the invention of printing.

Eighth.—In estimating the amount of intellectual ability and acquirement that might be brought into requisition for the promotion or improvement of education amongst the Mohammadan population, it may be remarked that the Persian teachers as a class are much superior in intelligence to the Bengali and Hindi teachers, but they are also much more frequently the retainers or dependents of single families or individual patrons, and being thus held by a sort of domestic tie they are less likely to engage in the prosecution of a general object. The Arabic teachers are so few that they can scarcely be taken into the account, and in the Bengal districts I did not find that any of them had attempted any form of literary composition. Among the few Arabic teachers of South Behar and Tirhoot the case was very different, four being authors of high repute for learning. With three of these I came into personal communication and they were evidently men of great mental activity and possessing an ardent thirst for knowledge. Various Persian and Arabic works of native learning given to me by the General Committee of Public Instruction for distribution were presented to these teachers and their pupils and they were not only thankfully but most greedily received. They had also a vague, but nevertheless a very strong desire to acquire a knowledge of European systems of learning, and I could reckon with confidence on receiving their co-operation in any measure which without offending their social or religious prejudices should have a tendency to gratify that desire.