Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras/Part 1/Lord Reay, LL.D., G.C.I.E.
TWENTY-EIGHTH CONVOCATION.
(By His Excellency Lord Reay, LL,D., G.C.I.E.)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate,—The past academic year has been one of unusual activity. The chief event has been the discussion of the Bill framed by the late Vice-Chancellor. Its importance was clearly shown by the exhaustive debates which took place when it was considered. These debates bore witness to the fact that there is in the Senate much academic vitality, that various interests are well represented, and that there is no danger that rash innovations will be received with favour. The amended Bill is now before Government, and it will receive from Government a most careful scrutiny. Meanwhile the University is engaged in considering what changes should be introduced in the various examinations, and as these changes entail alterations of the programmes of studies, you are virtually engaged on reform of higher education. As your proposals, gentlemen, are still incomplete, and as Government will have to deal with them in course of time, I am precluded from joining in the discussion. The University School Final Examination has now become an accomplished fact. It will be the terminus of secondary education and to those who do not wish to enter upon a University career it will be the final examination. It has been accepted by Government as a test for entrance to the public service. It will give to Matriculation its proper status as the entrance examination to the University, and give to those who do not seek a University education a distinctive diploma. The recognition of the Sind Arts College for the purposes of the B.A. and B. Sc. degrees from the beginning of this year will, I hope, give to education in Sind the impulse which that province needs, and it is a tribute paid to the energy of our Sind friends in improving their higher education which Government as well as the University thoroughly appreciate. We paid our tribute of respect to the University of Bologna, at its jubilee, and cemented our friendly relations with that ancient seat of Italian learning, by the deputation of our Vice-Chancellor, who was able to convince himself of the high esteem in which that University is held by the Italians and their King The most unfortunate event of the year has undoubtedly been the serious loss the University has sustained in the resignation of Sir Raymond West, Losses to the University. its learned Vice-Chancellor. The loss of the University has been the gain of Government. Another blow was inflicted by the departure of the distinguished Principal of the Grant Medical College. In Dr. Vandyke Carter, the University has lost a man who lived for science, and whose whole life was devoted to its pursuit with a singleness of aim which, has left its beneficial influence behind, and established a tradition which, must be guarded as a precious heirloom. In the Law Faculty we have to mourn the death of Mr. Tyrrell Leith, the founder of the Anthropological Society, and an ardent lover of books. The Archaeological world will long venerate the memory of the late Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji, on whom my own alma mater, the University of Leyden, conferred the rare distinction of an honorary degree. Dr. Buhler was fully justified in writing: "I trust that all European Orientalists will join with his compatriots in order to do honour to the memory of their distinguished colleague who spent his whole life in the pursuit of disinterested scientific work." I need only refer to the Memoir of the late Pandit read before the Asiatic Society on the 21st of May by Mr. Javerilal Umiashankar Yajnik.
We have to congratulate two ladies on their attainment of the B.A. degree, and the Parsi and Jewish communities on their success, as well as Mr. Ardeshir Framji, Honours at the Examinations. one of the recently appointed Fellows, who at the same time has the pleasure of seeing another of his daughters pass in the First B.A. Examination and his son take the degree of B.A. with honours. The same Mahomedan student who was first last year in the Matriculation Examination stands alone in the first division of the Previous Examination, having obtained the Hughlings' English Prize and the Sir Frank Souter Scholarship. A Portuguese student is first in the Second B.A. Examination, and a Mahratta takes the first place in the Matriculation, so that several sections of our community divide the honours between them. This is as it should be, and shows that all classes of the community realise the necessity of exerting themselves.
It is an encouraging feature in the history of this University that it has become an annual duty to record the large and continually increasing benefactions which it receives. Benefactions to the University. The gifts which have been accepted during the past year, together with those which are shortly to be laid before the Senate for its acceptance, amount to the large sum of Rs. 1,03,600. These have come from the different parts of "Western India to which the influence of this University extends, from the more distant Kutch and Junagadh, as well as from the City of Bombay and the near parts of the Presidency, and they are designed for the furtherance of several of the branches of learning over which the University presides. Medicine, Indian Philosophy, Literature, Science and Law are included within the scope of these benefactions, and it is a matter for congratulation not only that the interest of the people of Western India in the University is so widespread, but also that it shows so intelligent an appreciation of the University's varied wants and of the special need of the time. The munificent gift made by Bai Motlibai of Rs. 1,50,000, together with a valuable site for an Obstetric Hospital, and Sir Dinshaw Manekji Petit's well-timed offer of Rs. 1,25,000 for a hospital for children's diseases and for gynæcological research and in close proximity to the Cama Hospital, the Obstetric Hospitals to which the Allbless family devote a gift of Rs. 60,000, have placed this city under great obligations to these generous benefactors. In addition to fulfilling their primary object, the alleviation of human suffering, these endowments will give an impulse to special departments of medical study, and it is therefore fitting that they should find mention on this occasion. It is unnecessary to allude on this occasion in any detail to the great national movement which has for its aim the provision of efficient medical aid to the women of India, but I refer to it in this connection, because amongst the gifts which it falls to me to announce are several which show a laudable desire to associate the University with this great movement. We have the Sir James Fergusson Scholarship for lady medical students, to which part of the sum of Rs.22,500 presented to the University for Scholarships by the Sir James Fergusson Memorial Committee has been devoted; the sum of Rs. 3,000 bestowed by the women of India Medical Fund Committee for a similar purpose; and the sum of Rs. 6,000 presented by Mr. Harkissondas Narotumdas for the foundation of a Lady Reay Gold Medal and Scholarship also to be awarded to successful lady competitors. The desire to advance the cause of Mahomedan education is represented by the wisely directed liberality of Bahudin Vazir Saheb of Junagadh, who has placed the sum of Rs. 30,000 at the disposal of the University for the foundation of a Scholarship in memory of Sir Mohobat Khan Bahadur, the late Nawab of Junagadh, to be awarded preferentially to Mahomedan graduates of the University. We may congratulate the Vazir Saheb on the fact that the number of Muhomedan students taking distinguished position on the lists of the University gives promise that his munificent gift will not remain inoperative. Associated with the same Native State is the gift of Rs. 15,000 in commemoration of the late Rao Bahadur Sujna Gokalji Zala, Devan of Junagadh, which his friends and admirers have handed to the University for the encouragement of the study of the Vedanta, a system of philosophy in which the late Devan was himself so proficient, as shown in the record of his life written by Mr. Manassukharama Suryarama Tripathi, The services rendered by another administrator to the neighbouring State of Kutch—I refer to its-late Devan Bahadur Manibhai Jasbhai—are similarly commemorated by the gift of Rs. 12,000 bestowed upon the University for the purpose of founding two Scholarships, one to be connected with the science course of study in the University, the other with the Victoria Jubilee Technical College. I am glad to observe that the Bhattia community is beginning to associate itself with the work of the University. The Committee of the Valabhdas Valji Memorial Fund has placed the sum of Rs. 5,000 at the disposal of the University for the encouragement of higher education in the Bhattia community, by the awarding of a Scholarship to the most deserving Bhattia student passing the Matriculation Examination. Zend and Pehlvi Scholarships will receive an impulse from the recognition of the Zend and Pehlvi languages in the higher examinations of the University, and from the Scholarship endowed by Mr. Nasarvanji Manekji Petit, in memory of his much-lamented son, the late Mr. Jamsedji Nasarvanji. In thus carrying out the unfulfilled purposes of his son, Mr. Nasarvanji Manekji Petit has raised an additional memorial to one whose life was distinguished by high and generous aims. Within the last day or two the Secretaries of the Spencer Memorial Fund presented to the University the sum of Rs. 5,100 for the endowment of a prize of books in memory of the late Mr. N. Spencer, Barrister-at-Law, late Judge of the Small Cause Court. This prize will perpetuate a worthy and honoured name, and the winners of this prize, we trust, will be influenced by the example of one who was during so many years a good judge and a trusted friend of the people. I have great pleasure in noticing the donation of my friend H. H, the Thakor Saheb of Gondal, K.C.I.E., to establish and increase a collection of Sanskrit manuscripts to be available to all scholars in this University. I should like to be able to add to this enumeration of benefactions that the Bhagvanlal Memorial Fund was in a flourishing condition, but I now make an earnest appeal for the support which its name and its object deserve. There is in certain quarters, in various parts of the globe, a growing distrust of the educated classesDistrust of the educated classes—a latent misgiving of in India with regard to the policy of Macaulay's Minute and of Sir Charles Wood's Despatch, embodying the principles of the Whig party, any departure from which in this respect the people of England would, I feel sure, view with regret. That distrust, gentlemen, is to my mind absolutely groundless, if it refers to classes who come under the sway of sound educators. There is a danger, a very great danger, in partial, superficial, and unreal education. Such education however is a mere sham, a parody of University education. The danger lies in the absence of a really educated class. A man may have passed a score of examinations and still not be qualified to call himself an educated man, because he is deficient in the refinement which always accompanies and betokens academic distinction. Universities in one sense are exclusive. They cannot tolerate any standard but the highest, they cannot recognize any education but that which at once places a man in a separate category. On the other hand, Universities are accessible to all who submit themselves to the strictest discipline. Subject to that condition and in that sense they are absolutely democratic. An intellectual aristocracy is recruited from all stations in life, but it is an aristocracy to which nobody can belong who does not satisfy the highest tests, those which obtain in the republic of letters, and we must add the republic of sciences. The franchise in this republic can never be lowered and must always rise higher as literature and science are constantly adding to their treasures. The meter of University standards is simply that which is given by an ever-increasing stock of knowledge. If you lower the franchise with the standards and reject the meter, you cease to belong to this great republic of letters, your education is not higher education, and your educated classes sail under false colours. Indian Universities cannot escape from a rule which is binding on all Universities, and there is no reason why they should evade it. There is nothing in the conditions of social or of individual life in India to discourage that severe application to scientific training which alone gains admission to the academic ranks. There is plenty of leisure and there is nothing in the social customs of India to deter a man from leading a student's life. I need only quote Sir H. Maine, whose loss India mourns as much as England, to convince you that individual capacity, and especially the versatility, the flexibility of mind which predisposes to academic studies, exists in India to a very large extent. Sir H. Maine's opinion was: "In those subjects in which high proficiency may reasonably be expected, the evidence of industry, quickness and clearness of head, is not very materially smaller than the proof of similar qualities furnished by a set of English Examination papers. Superficiality will to some extent form a part of the results of every examination, but I cannot conscientiously say that I have seen mach more of it here than in the papers of older Universities". Want of energy, want of sustained effort, the desire to avoid the strain of hard labour, these are our foes. In Mr. Bright we have brilliant illustration how the equivalent of academic distinction can be achieved without a previous University career, by the adoption of academic discipline in after-life. His forcible style derives its vigorous simplicity from his command of pure Anglo- Saxon words.
We are at the parting of the roads. Indian Universities The parting of the roads. must choose. They may consider it sufficient to examine in ever-increasing numbers young men who will delude themselves with the notion that a University degree is equivalent to academic birthright, or they may confer the latter not in name but in reality. Constant improvement of the method of teaching, even where Universities are not teaching bodies, belongs to their domain. I am very far from advocating a system of centralisation such as is represented by the French University. I am quite willing to admit that higher education can be imparted in a variety of ways, and that infinite harm would be done by stereotyping the method. What I contend is, that a University cannot fulfil its obligations towards higher education by mere examinations, least of all in India, where the Western University system is an absolutely new creation, an exotic which requires very careful nursing. I am afraid that to our present system the criticism of Mgr. Dupanloup is applicable : "Le programme, qui a engendre le manuel, qui a engendre le preparateur, et qui, tous les trois, ont engendre la ruine de la haute education intellectuelle." And the opinion of Mgr.Dupanloup is also that of M. Bersot, who attributed the decay of higher education to the fact that examinations had been made the foundation of University teaching. Unless our Universities take a wider conception of their responsibility, higher education must decay. Let me once more quote Sir H. Maine : "It is quite true that conceit and scepticism are the products of an arrested development of knowledge." Therefore he says : Intellectual cultivation should be constantly progressive."
In three faculties at least the Government is alone directly Responsibilities of Government. responsible for progress. As long as it alone appoints Professors of Medicine and of Law and of Engineering, it exercises a more immediate influence than the University can exercise through its examinations. In the Faculty of Medicine we have introduced reforms of a tentative character, circumscribed by existing regulations. The principle of those reforms is to strengthen the scientific character of the Institution, to create a faculty, membership of which will constitute the highest reward for professional ability ; to ensure continuity of teaching as well as to open possibilities of research ; to make the fullest use of the splendid opportunities which this city offers to the medical student by throwing our hospitals open to the best men of the local profession, so that their professional knowledge may benefit our students, and that they themselves may remain in touch with medical science. In doing this and I only discovered the fact after the Government Resolution was issued—I find that we have acted in accordance with the views of the two eminent late Principals of this College. Dr. Cook said on March 2nd, 1882, at a distribution of prizes to the students: "I would strongly advocate that the process might be immediately begun by the appointment of members of the general profession as a supplementary staff to the existing hospitals. While I hope the time is not far distant when other hospitals may spring up in this city and elsewhere, which may be entirely under the management of medical men independent of the medical service." According to Dr. Cook, "the profession had reached a stage when it may lay claim to a share of those public duties which, though they should be here as elsewhere unpaid, bring with them their own reward." On the 10th of February 1883, at the annual meeting of the Grant Medical College, Dr. Carter gave it as his opinion that " it has become urgently desirable to appoint a few talented native tutors and demonstrators, whose whole time would be devoted to the learner's benefit ; and he might ask whether or not it be expedient also to nominate an assistant or deputy professor in the more highly technical subjects, who on emergency, or as a successor, could take the place of the full professor." "The suggestion," he further said, "seems not amiss, that college professors be always taken as they are in the chief European colleges from amongst the best qualified men available, whereever to be found; and eventually it may happen that a moiety, at least, of our teachers, will be thus derived from the alumni of Grant College, their alma mater." Programme of lectures (Medical) in the University of Amsterdam. A great deal more remains to be done. How much you will understand if I give you the programme of lectures by Professors of the Medical Faculty of the University of Amsterdam. (1) Anatomy, General and Comparative (2)Physiology, Microscopy, Practical PhysiPhysiology, (3) Pathology, Practical Pathology, (4) Morbid Anatomy, Forensic Medicine, (5) Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Therapeutics, (6) Surgery, Clinical Surgery, (7) Clinical Medicine, (8) Clinical Surgery, Operative Surgery, (9) Ophthalmology, (10) Hygiene, (11) Obstetrics, (12) Dermatology, (13) Aural Disease, (14) Chemistry, (15) Materia Medica, (16) Botany. Besides the above, courses of instruction are given by lecturers in the following:— (1) Military Surgery, (2) Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery, (3) Gynaecology, (4) Bacteriology, (5) Surgery, (6) Histology, (7) Diseases of the Nervous System. I purposely take that University, and not the Strasburg programme, for this reason, that the University of Amsterdam is a Municipal creation, entirely supported by Municipal funds, and as such it teaches a lesson which our Corporation may take to heart, in contributing to the further development of higher education in this city. Local self-government in this city would cover itself with glory if it showed a due appreciation of the requirements of higher education, and filled up the many gaps which exist in our system. To the enlightened heads of Native States whose subjects obtain their training at our colleges, who recruit their doctors, surgeons, jurists, engineers, from our colleges, I should also like to point out what a splendid field our University offers to their liberality.
There is another precedent which might be followed by the Medical Faculty. One of the most important events in the life of our University has been the foundation in 1888 of a Chair of Agricultural Chemistry for the whole of India. This has been brought about by a combined effort of the various Provinces on the invitation of the Government of India. It has thus become possible to secure an eminent Professor, who will divide his time among the various Provinces, and his advent will mark a new era in agricultural education. The same principle can be applied to other branches. We thereby gain the immense advantage of obtaining the best tuition, and we spread its benefits over the whole country. Through co-operation of the various Provinces we preserve intact the progressive development due to and dependent on decentralisation, and we obtain results which the absence of co-operation would imperil. We may give further extension to this principle. Nothing would stimulate higher education more in India than lectures on any subject, by a highly qualified expert, even though he could not permanently be absorbed in our staff. I do not see why eminent men at home should not be invited to give a course of lectures at our Universities. Occasional teaching of this kind would in any Faculty, not only benefit the students, but graduates and others would secure thereby a fresh impetus to their own intellectual life. If we could have induced Lord Herschell and Mr. Bryce to give us, whilst they were here, some of the treasures of their store of knowledge, we should certainly have been the better for it, even though no examination tested the results. I shall not fail to communicate with my University friends on the subject. It is a great mistake to confine higher teaching to those who occupy chairs. Universities should seize every opportunity of opening their doors to those whose learning can be made available, even though it is only for a short period. As long as excellence is reached it matters very little what the nature of the connection is of the lecturer with the University. To attain excellence we must have endowments, and select carefully the beneficiaries of the endowments. Sir John Strachey, in his valuable book on India, bears testimony to the "remarkable aptitude for surgery" of the Natives of India, "to the great aptitude shown by them in the practice of surgery and medicine." This University must make use of these gifts, and its energetic initiative will lay the foundation of what I cannot help thinking is destined to be one of the foremost scientific bodies. Amsterdam has certainly not the many advantages which are at our disposal. I am only too well aware of the difficulties which it had to conquer, as I had with some of my friends in the States- General to fight very hard to secure a small majority in favor of a charter for the University, but the Municipal Corporation of Amsterdam has amply justified our anticipations of its fostering care of the Institution of which it is most justly proud.
With regard to the Faculty of Law, the observations I have Knowledge of public law essential to adminstrators made with regard to Medicine equally apply, That Faculty also is undermanned, and its full equipment is desirable for many reasons. In all Countries with a strong bureaucracy—and India will for a long time to come have to be administered on bureaucratic principles—it is desirable that all branches of the bureaucracy should have a thorough knowledge of administrative law, of the principles underlying their practical work, and from which it derives a value that in the absence of such knowledge it lacks.For admission to the Public Service, attendance at lectures on public law, of which ministrative law forms part, should, I think, be made compulsory. Administrators in local bodies will also avoid many errors if they have sought such knowledge before they seek the votes of electors. All those who aspire to take part in public affairs should make use of the opportunity given them. This University cannot allow the stigma which the absence of such teaching entails to rest on it even temporarily. The best illustration of the malignant results of the absence of such teaching is to be found in the misunderstandings which must arise when principles have not been mastered. No controversy should have arisen about local self-government if a clear understanding of its meaning had been the result of previous University teaching. I do not wish to give an essay on the subject, as I am not a candidate for the chair which will ere long I trust be created, but I may briefly point out what a lecture on the subject would contain. It would point out how you can have in the same country unity of legislation without unity of administration; self-government without autonomy, partial decentralisation; unity both of legislation and of administration; absence both of self-government and of autonomy, absolute centralisation ; variety of legislation with unity of administration or legislative decentralisation with administrative centralisation; variety of legislation and variety of administration—self-government combined with autonomy;absolute decentralisation.
In England we have self-government without autonomy-Acts of Parliament rule and overrule every detail of the administration, Different systems of administration. but the administration is not Carried out by a bureaucracy; it is left to a variety of local bodies to carry out the laws. These local bodies, however, have no legislative functions. In England, we have the maximum of legislative centralisation with the minimum of bureaucratic centralisation and of autonomy. The administration is carried on by the people themselves, but it is carried on without autonomy on lines laid down by the central legislature. There are no inferior legislative bodies with independent powers. A strong legislative centralisation is quite compatible with delegation of administrative powers to local bodies subject to carry out what the law prescribes, and unable to follow their own inclinations or to wander outside a strictly defined legal sphere. The results of this system are general respect for the law based on general understanding of the law, as all classes of the community are called upon to join in its execution, absence of conflict between the central law and the laws promulgated by other legislative units, absence of bureaucracy except for the highest Imperial concerns. In France we have neither self- government nor autonomy. "L'tat c'est moi" means that the lawgiver, whoever he is, not only legislates for the whole country but administers it. No self-government is tolerated; no independent local administrators are tolerated, whoever disposes of legislative power also disposes of administrative power. Whether the form of Government be autocratic, democratic,or parliamentary, its distinguishing characteristic, common to all these forms of government, is, that Frenchmen have no self-government, but are governed by a bureaucracy which receives its impulse, its ideas from Paris, whatever may be the special idiosyncrasies of the populations to whom laws are applied. For local autonomy and for local administration there is no room in such a system because they might develop the germs of antagonism to the central power. The Prefet and the Maire receive their instructions from the Home Department. Advice may be tendered by Committees which are elected, but they are not administering bodies as ours are. The next system is that of Germany and of Austria; a great variety of legislative units, but a strong bureaucracy in all of them, and a strong bureaucracy for Imperial purposes. Legislative and administrative centralisation in essentials ; legislative and administrative decentralisation in details, to suit the heterogeneous elements out of which these Empires are composed, great care being taken, that in all matters not essential to the security of the Empire, the idiosyncrasies of its component parts should be respected, and the bureaucracy should not come into conflict with the traditions and customs of the people. In the United States of North America we find self-government as well as autonomy, decentralisation of the legislation and of the administration, but great constitutional safeguards and effective means to prevent any departure from the written Constitution by any member of the Confederation.
It is clear, gentlemen, from an academic point of view, that Special interest of German and Austrian political institutions to the Indian student. to an Indian student of political institutions, those of Germany and Austria will be most interesting, because they give us in some features of their internal administration an insight into the probable future of the development of administrative institutions in this Empire. I apply this only to our administration, and even then with many limitations. I do not draw the parallel between German Sovereigns and Native Chiefs, for which Burke is taken to task by The most academic Anglo-Indian of our times. Sir Alfred Lyall, the most academic Anglo-Indian of our times, in the 8th chapter of his Asiatic Studies. All students of politics will eschew such parallels, and Statesmen will also be extremely cautious in checking the historical evolution of national institutions by transplantations. The hereditary patel is from the student's point of view the most interesting institution we have. No parallel could be drawn of that interesting personage, and I should be very sorry to see him transformed into a French Maire, either elected or nominated. I regret extremely that I cannot enter into further details, but I trust I have said enough to indicate that much inquiry and the comparative study of institutions is required before we venture on remarks which too often only betray the absolute ignorance of speakers who have not grasped the difference between autonomy and self-government, and who fancy that the delegation of administrative duties implies the exercise of legislative powers.
Philistinism is the frame of mind which purposely ignores the magnitude of a problem, The great object of a Faculty of Law. and does not attempt even to understand its outlines, but develops a crude judgement and ready-made theories. The great object of a Faculty of Law is to teach those who aspire to take part in public life jurisprudence, not as the art of jurisdiction, but in its connection with moral and social sciences, in its philosophical and historical aspect. In this relation, besides a Chair of PubHc Law, Chairs of Philosophy of Law, of Political Economy, of Commercial and of International Law, are necessary. They presuppose, of course, that the student has in the Faculty of Arts been well trained in the method of historical inquiry from a sociological point of view, and has had a sound general education. As a school for barristers or solicitors, the Faculty of Law will have to provide a Chair of Roman Law, of Civil Law, of Criminal Law, of Civil and Criminal Procedure, of Medical Jurisprudence, of Hindu and of Mahomedan Law, leaving it to their discretion to attend the lectures in the other division of the Faculty of Law, which would naturally be attended by the sons of Chiefs and by those aspiring to serve the State in a bureaucratic character, as well as by those who might consider it their special vocation to take a share in public affairs.In both divisions of the Law Faculty the chief object should be to train the men in the method of Juridical argument, so that future legal studies should be guided and facilitated by this previous training. The omission in the University curriculum in England of a Faculty of Politics is indefensible, and as institutions become more democratic the necessity of political training becomes greater. Faculty of Politics. It is a remarkable fact that in the reign of Henry VIII. it was intended to make use of the confiscated property of the monasteries to lay the foundation of a College for training public servants, who were to be taught general history, modern languages and the history of diplomacy. The king unfortunately diverted the funds to his favourites. My friends Mr. Bryce and Mr. Oscar Browning have taken up the subject at their respective Universities, and Professor Lorimer has not ceased to insist on its consideration in Scotch University Reform. I should have given prominence to it in the London Teaching University movement with which I was closely connected in its initial stages, and which has made considerable progress, mainly due to the untiring efforts on behalf of that cause of my friend Sir George Young. The last development of political education in England which has been brought to my notice is that of starting precocious young orators on platforms, to while away the time until the guest of the evening arrives. If we substitute "parler" for "penser" in the following sentence, we may apply Sainte Beuve's harsh criticism of de Tocqueville, as a mild criticism of such oratorical efforts : "il a commence a parler avant d'avoir iren appris : ce qui fait qu'il a quelquefois parle creux." I cannot conceive a worse political school than the platform for immature politicians. Rather let us exact from them an essay on the causes of instability of government in France as a test, not a competitive examination. On the other hand, I fully admit that the platform as a means of downward filtration of the ideas of those who have mature experience is indispensable. I have been a cordial supporter of the movement organised by my right hon'ble friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer for extension of University lectures. There is some risk that Universities, when they start such movements, lose sight of their proper duties, but the risk is counterbalanced by the good results of such lectures and their sobering influence. In countries where a practical turn of mind prevails and suspicion of academic thought is widespread, it behoves those who represent academic ideas to deal gently with Philistinism. Matthew Arnold, whose untimely death all University men deeply regret, has left us a precious legacy in his writings on this subject. In India, as in Germany and in Italy, this danger is not very great. India has always had in the Brahmin element of its society an essentially academic element, which only needs development in the right direction to raise the standard of higher education. In the development of these Universities the educated classes of India will find a much more congenial and useful sphere than in other pursuits. It is through the Universities that they can obtain their highest reward and become directly associated with their fellow-workers of the Universities in Europe. Indian and English Universities can assist each other in various ways, and their relations will be closer according to the measure in which they both raise the academic standard and extend their influence. The surest test of a nation's status among civilised nations is the esteem in which Universities are held.
I need not say much about other faculties. In the Faculty of Arts greater attention must be paid to the study of history and to the study of the Vernaculars. Other Faculties. A University which neglects the lessons which history has to teach neglects one of its first duties. History provides the data which are necessary to illustrate the development of other studies. No study of politics is possible without knowledge of history; nor of political economy, finance, legislation, art. I shall not enter into the controversy about the Vernaculars.To say that higher education has no concern with the spoken languages of the country, that they have nothing from which a student can derive advantage is a proposition which seems to be essentially unacademic, neither can it be regarded favourably from the utilitarian point of view. Colonel Lees' proposal, accepted by Sir Alfred Lyall, of an Oriental Faculty as well as an English Faculty of Arts, giving freedom to graduates in either, is one which I believe to be practicable and desirable. Last year we were able to cement our friendly relation with the French Orientalist school by conferring a fellowship on Mr. James Darmestetter, and this year we are again fortunate in having recruited a distinguished Arabic scholar in M. Gasselin, the French Consul. The Faculty of Arts has this advantage over other faculties that the institutions affiliated to it are more numerous. This will make it easy by a proper distribution of Work and a concerted programme to secure better results and to provide for a greater number of Chairs, each College taking up some special subject. The system of inter-collegiate lecturers is quite applicable to our wants. By it we can obviate the evils which result from the absence of a central control of our higher teaching Institutions. Where the State has absolute control of the Universities a systematic arrangement follows. Whatever may be the advantages derived from State control, in India we should lose enormously by such centralisation. Great benefits have accrued to higher education from the disinterested activity of private bodies, and any interference with that activity would deprive India of moral as well as of intellectual forces, which are of the greatest value. In selecting as the Vice-Chancellor a distinguished Principal of one of the aided Colleges—the successor of Dr. Wilson — Government have placed on record that they are fully alive to the merits of Institutions which contribute in such marked degree to our University life. Guizot's opinion : "de tous les monopoles le pire ist celui de I'enseignement" is certainly applicable to India. Of science I need only say that the question must arise whether it should not have a faculty of its own, combined with that of Civil Engineering. Science has of late attained such a distinctive character, embraces so many subjects, that it may well have a separate faculty all to itself and not only separate degrees. In the College of Science at Poona, this is virtually the case, and as science is sure to enlarge its sphere it will become impossible to consider it any longer as a division of the Arts Faculty. A special degree in agriculture should, I think, be given. In India the higher study of agriculture should be encouraged, and its distinctive character recognised by a special degree, although both Agriculture and Civil Engineering may very well be combined with Science in the same faculty, as they are combined at the College of Science in Poona, for the equipment of which Government accept the responsibility—a responsibility which is much lightened by the admirable manner in which the Principal of the College, Dr. Cooke, discharges his very heavy duties, and knows how to meet fresh demands for extension, the latest of which relates to Botany.
Indian Universities have a very complex part to play. A very wide field of operations inclusive of every intellectual aspiration of the various A complex function of Indian Universities. classes of their countrymen has to be occupied. The demands of Western as well as the time-honoured demands of Eastern civilisation must be met. For the latter your own resources suffice—for the former you rely on our assistance. It is our duty to give it ungrudgingly. Our illustrious predecessors have admitted the justice of your claim.England must give to India a due proportion of its best men, and I am not aware that for a British subject there is a more honourable profession than that of holding an appointment in the department of higher education in India. To fill it worthily he must give to it his full powers unreservedly. You have known such men, and they live in your grateful recollection.Unless Indian Universities receive the best representatives of English learning they must fail, and failure in this instance entails positive and not merely negative results. A University which ceases to impart higher knowledge, to encourage sobriety of thought, which has no hold over the hearts as well as over the minds of its students, becomes a destructive agency. It fosters the unwholesome growth of flippant tendencies. Instead of turning out well-disciplined scholars, it sends forth young men who are self-satisfied and unaware that they are barely beginning to realise the magnitude of problems which have been unveiled, and with which they deal with the arrogance which always waits on ignorance. Because they mistake the distance which separates them from those who have not tasted the fruits of higher education, they forget that the distance by which they are separated from the men who are really educated is much greater, and that they are not even on the threshold of the regions where the highest culture reigns supreme. No man is highly educated who does not approach with awe and reverence any subject with which he must deal authoritatively.There is a French expression which better than any other stigmatises this unwarrantable precocious self-confidence : "II ne se doute de rien" which may be translated, 'he has not fathomed the depths of his own ignorance.' Higher education leads to the exactly opposite result. Indifferent teaching must inevitably lead to self-conceit in those who receive it, and self-conceit is the certain road to decay of individuals and of nations. All history is there to prove it. Democracies are especially prone to it. They are impatient of rebuke and of restraint. Higher education is largely made up of rebukes and of restraints. It is merciless on all preconceived theories, on all unsound doctrines, on all that is unreal, and it rejects all that is unfinished and superficial. It condemns to exile those who are not continually grappling with their own ignorance. It laughs at those who, not having begun the ascent, think they enjoy the view which is only visible from the summit. If Indian Universities do not produce such results then they are only Universities in name. The sooner we recognise the fact the better. The remedy is not far to seek. You must be hypercritical in the selection of the men to whom you confide this enormous trust. We must recruit for our Indian Universities in England, in India, if necessary on the Continent of Europe men who, fully alive themselves to the exigencies of higher education, will refuse to be satisfied with any thing less than the reality. In Indian Universities we can build up a stronghold in which a high tone will prevail capable of resisting the adverse and vulgarising influences which are ever at work endeavouring to poison even the most intelligent strata of society. But we can only hope to do so if the garrison of those strongholds is composed of the elite of both nations. It is only by the combined efforts of the wisest men in England, of the wisest men in India, that we can hope to establish in this old home of learning real Universities which will give a fresh impulse to learning, to research, to criticism, which will inspire reverence and impart strength and self-reliance to future generations of our and of your countrymen. The sooner we recognise our weakness on the academic side the better. Intellectual wealth is to be found in nations which are not rich in other respects; we have only to mention Germany and Italy and Scotland to show that a country need not be wealthy to indulge in academic luxuries. We have lately witnessed a strong protest against the system of competitive examinations as opposed to the development of man^s faculties. In many of the arguments which have been urged against multiplication of examinations we have a just criticism, especially of the evil influence of that system on University teaching which is constantly opening up new courses of study, and which in the same degree must restrict its examinations to an absolute minimum. Universities are, in the first place, called to train the few who will in their turn open up new avenues of learning, and who for that purpose devote their lives to literary, scientific, or critical studies. The history of all great Universities is the history of men who have thrown a new light on the subject which they had made their own particular field of research, or of men who have brought to light errors of past times, or of men who have exposed fallacies which obtained during their lives, whether they were recognised as fallacies by their own or by a subsequent generation.
The best organised University is the University which leaves to its professors A Model University. the maximum of time for original research, for independent criticism, for culture in all its ramifications. The duty of Universities is to keep intact the highest traditions of a people by constantly raising the standard of its intellectual life by an unflinching opposition to degrading and demoralising tendencies which weaken the fibre of nations. You must enthrone on the high seats of learning all that is noble, all that is brilliant, all that is superior in the nations. You must give to rising generations the benefit of the afflatus of the genius of a preceding generation and also—if it exists—of their own. It is the nature of the environment which in most cases decides the future of clever young men and of the future of nations. It is impossible to overrate the influence exercised by men who know how to appeal to the best instincts of the rising generation—who kindle in them enthusiasm for the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. For such men, for such students, examinations are unnecessary, because they are constantly examining themselves. Study has no other meaning than perpetual self-examination. No real student ever ceases to examine his results. Periodical University examinations are from this point of view mainly a necessary evil, because they presuppose that previous studies have not answered their object, and inasmuch as they lead to subsequent cessation of inquiry are destructive of study as a continuous process of examination. Universities are intended for higher studies, for new departures in every branch of learning, for those who wish to live the higher life in perfect independence of the errors which beguile the outside world. The nation, which cements that higher life, which tries to ascend to the higher level, is the nation which must occupy a foremost place. The nation which neglects such aspirations, which disregards such influences, which thereby degrades University life must inevitably fall back in the intellectual race. The leaders of Universities should constantly be on the watch against every attempt made to decoy them into byways, astray from the ascent to higher latitudes.
The protest to which I have alluded is an opportune protest against such an attempt. Examinations. Examinations instituted by those who teach in order to see whether their teaching is assimilated and is rightly understood and is bearing fruit, are necessary and useful, especially if they lead to the immediate exclusion of those undergraduates who are unfit to grasp the meaning" of the lessons they receive, a process which should be adhered to sternly. But examinations which have no connection with the higher teaching and are principally instituted to assist employers of labour in the selection of their servants, whether the employer is the State or a Company, have no relation whatever to the main object for which Universities are instituted. The object of the men who enter for such examinations is very creditable, but it is not the pursuit of knowledge chiefly.Many of those men will adorn literature, science, criticism, but this will be an incident of their career, not its main purpose. If it were otherwise, there is a real danger that they would not devote themselves as they ought to the service of their employers, and I hardly know a more exacting employer than the Government in India. Universities cannot but welcome the advent of those who are preparing for such tests, but Universities must make it quite plain that they are not and cannot consider it part of their duty to ensure success at examinations which aim at sifting men fit for practical duties from men who are unfit for them. It is an altogether different question whether the State and other employers of labour should avail themselves of the results of University training by accepting University standards, by employing those whose University career points to future usefulness in the practical domain. I have seen excellent results from this system. I only know of one objection to it, that professors—perhaps more than other men — indulge in the very pardonable luxury of having favourites, but then the difficulty is not insuperable because the favourite of one Professor is generally not the favourite of his colleagues, and the result is that on application to the joint body of Professors you get a very fair supply. I am compelled to admit that the result of the competitive system as tested by my experience of the distinguished body of gentlemen who form the administration of this Presidency is far from unsatisfactory, but the admission does not invalidate the distinction which I have drawn. The time spent in outside examinations by men whose duty it is to teach as well as to advance knowledge, is time wasted. The profession of a Civil Service examiner and the profession of a University teacher must remain distinct professions. University examinations have a direct relation to the subject-matter which is taught, and University teaching has a higher aim than mere acquisition of useful knowledge, such as is required for practical purposes.
I have drawn a high ideal of a University. I am aware that it has not been reached. Selection of Teachers. This University has only to limited extent its own destinies in its hands. It practically settles the programmes in the various faculties. But when that function has been performed there remains another more responsible, more difficult : to select the men, who are to be the teachers, on whose ability, on whose character must depend how those programmes are to be carried out. That function is now performed by Government and by private bodies. There is no function which I consider of greater importance. No appointment has been to me a cause of deeper anxiety than the appointment to fill the vacant place of Dr. Vandyke Carter. The appointment has been made on purely academic lines, and I shall watch with the greatest solicitude Dr. Meyer's scientific career. Mr. Telang. The Law Faculty may be congratulated on having received a great accession of strength in the person of Mr.Telang, a born professor himself, a constant student, and therefore — what every professor should be — the guide and the friend of his students. This University should impress on those who in Europe select the men to be sent out, the enormous responsibility which rests on them. Unless the men who undertake a mission which I do not hesitate to call sacred are imbued with the magnitude of the work they are undertaking, higher education, instead of being the greatest blessing England has conferred on India, will be its greatest curse. Higher education is not a manufacture in which mechanical skill is sufficient, it is architecture, and as it given only to very few men to be good architects, so it requires the highest constructive talent to build up this great structure in India. Every ignoble feature must be excluded, and only such architects as command a pure and noble style can be entrusted with the design. We have only laid the bare foundations, and in many respects they are weak. I am not quite sure that the architects themselves have a very clear idea of even the mere outlines of the building. Some of the architects however are aware that the materials with which they have to work are extremely brittle. But in Mr. Wordsworth we have had a brilliant instance of real academic influence. He did not find it an impossible task to guide the aspirations of the educated youth of India to a higher plane.
I may perhaps be permitted to address a few words of encouragement to the undergraduates and the young graduates. Obligations of Graduates. If their University career is to answer its object, they must also be deeply penetrated with the obligations it entails. It is to them the starting point of a new life. It is not complete in itself, it is a mere beginning. The seed sown at a University can only fructify in a receptive soil—a soil which has been carefully prepared. Whether it will produce a rich harvest or tares depends on a combination of circumstances. Here I need only point out that assimilation is the principal desideratum. In the quickness of perception of Indians we have a formidable antagonism to depth and breadth of conception, and to originality. The educated youth of India, as well as of all other countries, must dive deep into the inner recesses of the science with which they are dealing if they wish to master it authoritatively. That is what I ventured to call assimilation, and it is only thus that they can hope to contribute to the building their mite of co-operation. There is no short cut in this domain; there is only one royal road. The new discoveries can only be made by those who ascend carefully and cautiously. A real student does not wander into the bypaths of self-sufficiency in which he is met by no obstacles. It is only by constant research and inquiry that he can lead himself and others. He will shun contact with the fanciful catch- words which are fashionable and welcome to the uneducated. In this case supply should always be of a higher quality than demand. The student must be in advance of his generation, in order to earn a title to its gratitude. To be a University man is a distinction only if the University man is a man of high character and of intellectual independence.
I deplore that among our undergraduates and graduates we Advice to Indian Noblemen. have so few sons of Native Chiefs. Whatever may be the cause, it is a matter which I deeply regret. My relations with all the Chiefs with whom I have official dealings are so cordial that they will understand that I appeal to them as a friend, when I urge them to give the best education in their power to their sons and daughters. Some of them are setting a bright example. The highest representatives of Indian nobility should not rely on the privileges of birth alone. First among their countrymen they should also be first among them in the pursuit of knowledge. Their duties are manifold, and they cannot be discharged properly unless they themselves rise to the highest level- To my friend H. H. the Thakore Saheb of Bhavnagar, G.C.S.I., great credit is due for the foundation of the Samaldas College. Other Chiefs have sent or are intending to send their sons to England, and if the higher education of their sons is the main object, and is steadily kept in view, the risks they run from many causes during their sojourn in Europe may be overcome. But in too many cases the education at the English Universities is out of their reach, and then the Chiefs should utilise the opportunities which are near at hand. If a separate College with a full University course is needed for the aristocracy they should take steps to start one. I confess that I am partial to the Scottish system, which does not admit of dividing lines in Educational institutions which are not the natural result of brain power, and I think that all aristocracies are the better for a common struggle with those whose studies must be taken up in good earnest. In India the peculiar condition of society may require separation, but nothing can possibly be said in favour of an uneducated class of rulers.
Indian Universities have not only to keep up a high intellectual ideal, they have also to give to the country men of character, men with backbone, who are incapable of deviating from the paths of rectitude. The final aim of all Universities is to get as near the truth as they can. Access to truth is only open to those who are themselves absolutely truthful, impartial, and fearless of consequences. Rational in thought, they are rational in speech. Universities aim above all things at sobriety of thought and speech.
With Epictetus Universities teach,
- "From righteous acts let nought thy mind dissuade,
- Of vulgar censures be thou ne'er afraid;
- Pursue the task which justice doth decree;
- E'en tho' the crowd think different from thee."
The highest compliment ever paid in a language which is happily chary of compliments is : "You are a gentleman." And it means that a man can be implicitly trusted. Indian Universities should take as their motto "altiora peto," and I should translate it: Indian Universities train Indian gentlemen.