Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras/Part 1/Sir Richard Temple, Bart., G.C.S.I., C.I.E. (Nineteenth Convocation)
NINETEENTH CONVOCATION.
(By H. E. Sir Richard Temple)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, Members of the Senate, Graduates and Under-Graduates of the University,—Since I last addressed you from the Chancellor's Chair on the 2nd February 1878, some changes have occurred in the Vice-Chancellorship. You have had to regret the departure of Mr. James Gibbs, and the consequent loss of that assistance, which comprehensive intelligence, judicious considerateness, and lengthened experience, were so well able to afford. But in his successor, Mr. Raymond West, we have secured for you an executive chief, eminent by reason of his varied culture and liberal sympathies. During his absence, again, I have, with the concurrence of my colleagues, and, as we hope, with the approbation of the University, nominated Dr. Hunter to be Vice-Chancellor, the head of our medical profession which is so distinguished for the attainments of its members in many studies cognate to their own department,—whereby we pay some tribute of acknowledgment to that cultivation of physical science and to that technical education which are fast gaining ground amongst us.
The object of my last address, delivered in February 1878, was to bespeak the continued, Principles deserving attention. even the augmented, attention of the University to certain principles which, as we believe, command the general assent of its members; namely, the maintenance and development of our higher education in arts, including philosophy, logic, history, law, political economy, literature; the better regulating and systematizing of education in natural and physical science, with a further view to the promotion of that technical instruction which forms, year by year, a larger and larger part of the public education amongst the most advanced nations; and lastly, the reverent study of that moral philosophy which, as being the science of human duty, must be common to the pursuits of all students in all departments of knowledge. Experience has recently shown, and doubtless in future will continue to show, that these principles need to be constantly inculcated, because, notwithstanding their manifest importance, and despite all our care, it is but too often seen that they are imperfectly observed. Without repeating on this occasion anything which I said on these three main principles in my last address, I will now offer some additional remarks on each of them. In the first place, then, our higher instruction in arts—including the various subjects mentioned above—has of late suffered some discouragement. Decrease in the number of graduates. The late Vice-Chancellor (Mr. Gibbs), in his farewell address to Convocation last year, presented a statistical summary of the results of examinations for entrance to the University and for degrees, during the last decade of years; for all which results we may be truly thankful, and the contemplation of which may encourage us to persevere in our academical efforts. Still, a consideration of the educational statistics in detail show us that although the number of those who annually present themselves for matriculation is maintained—though without any tendency towards material increase—the number of matriculated undergraduates studying for future degrees in the Arts Colleges affiliated to the University, has, during the last two or three years, shown fluctuations and in the main a tendency to decrease. Such a circumstance cannot fail to cause regret and anxiety, not only to us who are connected with the University, but also to all who desire the moral and mental advancement of the Natives of this country. As the teaching establishment is maintained in full strength and undiminisbed efficiency; as the professorial chairs continue to be filled by gentlemen whose talents and zeal are undisputed: the decrease of the students must be due to extraneous causes which are not fully discernible. But some of the causes can be partly discerned.
In Western India the agricultural distress which has lasted for three years and the commercial depression which has existed for two years, Adverse tendencies. the consequent diminution of income, and augmentation of the cost of necessaries pf life,—have rendered parents and guardians unwilling to incur the cost of collegiate education for the students. The same circumstances shut the avenues to some employments, darken the prospects of some walks of life, and thus damp the aspirations of those who hope to carve out a career for themselves by the force of intellectual training. These adverse tendencies have proved so unyielding that we dare not predict their immediate cessation. Still, we cherish the hope that ere long they must, under Providence, yield to the benign influences of returning plenty and reviving commerce. Again, notwithstanding the considerate intentions of the Government that those who acquire the higher education should have due advantages respecting admission to the upper grades of the public service, it has been found that University graduates in arts frequently fail, through no fault of their own, to obtain the situations or positions to which their attainments might be expected to entitle them, and which they see filled by those who had not been reared in the colleges, but who had won their way by actual work. This non-fulfilment in some degree of the intentions of Government has somewhat lowered the value of high education in the estimation of those who are to incur the cost, and undergo the toil, of the instruction. The defect has existed not in the judicial but in the executive departments. We have, therefore, after revision of previous orders, framed such rules as shall secure to graduates the recognition of their preferential claims to employment in the upper grades of the executive service. Doubtless, young Natives of promise and ambition seek University degrees for many other objects besides admission to, or promotion in, the service of Government—indeed, this University has never ceased to impress on its alumni that its degrees should be sought for their own sake. Still, in such a country as India, the public service offers a large field for the educated youth,—the largest, probably, of all the fields as yet open to them. It is due to the cause of education that its followers should have a surer access to that field, in proportion to the superiority of their attainments. And it is incumbent on the Government, in the selection of men for its service, to set the most influential example of reliance placed on the examinations and tests of the University.
In my last address (1878), I acknowledged the many merits of the youth educated under the direction of the University—such as their retentiveness of memory, Merits and faults of granuates. their power of mental application, their ambition to excel, and above all their improved standard of rectitude and integrity. But I also reminded you of their faults, as perceived by their critics or acknowledged by their friends,—such as immaturity of thought, rhetorical exaggeration, substitution of borrowed ideas for original reflection, subjection of the reasoning power to the imagination, inaptitude for testing theory by practice, and the like. These faults, which are common more or less to the youth of all nations in the world, have in India arisen and grown from many and various causes operating for a very long time. Therefore, they will not be speedily cured,—though the cure is beginning, and, if gradual, must in the end be sure. Meanwhile these faults become more saliently presented and more prominently noticed, according as criticism becomes more and more pointedly directed to our educational system, and as observers have a larger mass of educational results on which to make their observations. Consequently, we see that many persons, whose practical knowledge gives authority to their opinion, affirm that much of our higher education is superficial where it ought to be fundamental, and airy when it ought to be substantial. I am, as you will be, far from a full admission of such criticism. Still, the prevalence of such a notion does render the employers of intellectual labour less anxious than might have been expected to have recourse to those who belong to this University. It had something to do with the hesitation displayed by civil authorities in respect to obtaining the services of our graduates. Though such an education as that which we secure for our alumni ought to be a passport to high employment ill any profession, yet if an idea gains ground that they become A hat is termed unpractical, and are prone to imagine that after having learnt so much at college they have little or nothing more to learn in life, then they will fail to reap the fruit of their labours at college.
The moral to be pointed is this, that a really good general education should enable a man to apply himself to the acquisition of any sort of knowledge, however novel or alien it may be; to perceive the points and bearings of every case or class of cases which may be presented to him; to assimilate into the mental system the ideas peculiar to any profession he may enter. In a word, general knowledge should be so ordered as to be a key wherewith to unlock the door of any special subject which its possessor may need to approach. If your graduates will act up to these maxims, they will find themselves more competent than heretofore to turn their abilities to profitable account.
It is sometimes remarked that educated young Natives become too apt to discuss fluently all sorts of topics with which they have no mature acquaintance. Be outspoken and frank. Consequently, an opinion arises that they are restless and discontented, expecting too much of immediate result from the fact of having passed the University examinations, and inclined to condemn thoughtlessly the Government and the administration under which they live. Doubtless, the Government and the University never take these manifestations of discontent to mean more than is really meant. We all appreciate the freedom of thought, the latitude of expression, that will ever characterize the youth of a nation which is being exercised in new ways of thinking. We know that the existing state of things in this country often invites legitimate criticism, and we desire that the sentiments of educated Natives should be unreservedly made known to us. Such outspoken frankness will never be mistaken by us for disaffection. But discussions of this nature, Avoid extremes. if conducted to an extreme point and in an unreasonable spirit, may convey an impression, which was not intended, but which is detrimental to the cause of education as well as to other national interests, namely this, that some of our educated youths are not properly grateful for the privileges to which their education has admitted them, are not duly loyal to the ideas, nor just to the motives, of the administration that has made them what they are.
Now, it is not for us to read the hearts of men; and if any of our alumni be really disloyal or ungrateful, let his own heart condemn him. Education and Loyalty. But it is our firm hope and trust that the vast majority of our educated youth are true and loyal to us in mind, in spirit, in sentiment, in disposition. We feel assured that those Natives who have learnt to think through the medium of our language, have been imbued with our literature and philosophy, have imbibed our ideas,—are faithful to us, and bear towards our nation that heartfelt allegiance which men may feel without at all relinquishing their own nationality. We believe that the education imparted by us to the Natives, so far from leading them towards disaffection, has, happily, the very opposite effect. We do not disguise from ourselves that in a community like that of Western India, composed of so many diverse elements, there may be, indeed must be, some whose thoughts are misguided, and that although the masses in all ranks, high and humble, are thoroughly well-affected, there are some who feel wrongly and think amiss. But those few, who are thus ill-disposed, do not become so by reason of their English education; their ill-disposition springs from causes with which such education has neither concern nor connexion; and the education must mitigate, if it cannot remove, their discontent. With the great majority, however, education has the result of confirming in them that loyalty which the general tenour of British administration is calculated to inspire. And the higher the education, the more certain is this result. At all events, we have solemnly undertaken to educate the Natives in all the Western learning and philosophy which have helped to raise England to her height among the nations of the earth. We anticipate nothing but the most favourable consequences politically from such education. But be the consequences what they may, we shall, I trust, persevere in that educational policy which, being liberal and enlightened, is prescribed to us by the dictates of our duty as trustees for the people of India. The second topic relates to instruction in natural and physical science. Natural and Physical Science. Our object is to obtain for this a larger place than heretofore in our educational system. The study of the physical sciences is now recognised in all countries as an integral part of the national education, and the recognition is everywhere assuming forms more and more tangible and definite. Besides its general value which is felt in all countries, this study has in India a special value. It qualifies our Native youth for professions in which they have hitherto had little or no place. It diverts from the older professions, namely the law and the public service, some of those surplus students who would otherwise overcrowd those professions. It displays before the Natives not only new ranges of thought, but also fresh methods of thinking. It initiates the Natives from their early youth in those sciences, the successful pursuit of which distinguishes the Western civilization of modern times. It applies the whole force of education to the promotion of that material progress, in which India has so much way to make up, before she can come abreast of the more advanced nations. It tends to correct some of the mental faults which are admitted to exist in the Native mind, while educing and developing many of its best qualities and faculties. It affords a far better gymnasium for the general training of the mind than has been heretofore supposed by many. We observe with thankfulness that the Natives are awaking to a consciousness of the importance of this study. As this University is the lawfully constituted controller of the higher education, is the acknowledged leader of independent opinion regarding intellectual progress, and is the embodiment of enlightened ideas, we felt that the recognition of the study must spring from the University and must culminate in the granting of Degrees in Science. We remember that education is generally sought for by the student as a means of rising in a profession, and that if his profession is to be science, he must make use of the five years of his collegiate course for this purpose, — that spring season of his mind when the faculties are most elastic and the memory most receptive—a season to be enjoyed while it lasts, for to him it will never return! The influence even of the University would not, indeed, cause such degrees to be largely sought, unless the graduates of science found scope in after-life for the due employment of their scientific knowledge. But such scope is widening, constantly: scientific pursuits are expanding together with the material progress of the country. That progress will itself be sustained and invigorated by the existence of a growing class of Natives educated in science. Such Natives, too, are wanted to supply the teaching power in the science for our various educational institutions. Therefore, as foreshadowed in my last address to Convocation, I formally laid the matter before the Syndicate in September 1878, with my proposal that such Degrees in Science should be conferred.
After full consideration of details both in the Syndicate and in the Senate, this University has adopted a scheme for granting Degrees in Science, which scheme was promulgated in April last (1879), and takes effect during the current year, 1880. In preparing the scheme, the Syndicate availed itself of the experience gained by the rules and practice of the London University. According to this scheme, the student—after matriculating at the Bombay University, undergoing an examination which proves him to have been grounded in general education, and passing through the First Arts course to further qualify himself in such education—will be able to devote himself to science if he aspire to obtain a degree therein. With this view he will enter upon a preliminary course of general scientific study, so that he may have a foundation consisting of that knowledge which trains the mind for thereafter acquiring any particular science which may be selected—the course consisting of mathematics and natural philosophy, inorganic chemistry, experimental physics, and biology. After that he will devote himself to the particular sciences in which his Degrees is to be taken—and these must be at least two in number, that is, a Graduate in Science must be qualified in at least two branches of science, qualification in one science only not being deemed sufficient,—in which respect it is essential that our practice should conform with that of the Universities in Europe. Nor will this condition prove unduly burdensome to a Native student, because adequate proficiency in a science cannot be acquired without a knowledge of at least one of the sciences allied to it, and because he can so select his two sciences,that knowledge in the one shall help his studies in the other. For instance, if he looks to botany as his future speciality, he may take up chemistry as his second science; if to zoology, he may take up physiology; if to physics, he may take up chemistry; if to physical geography, he may take up experimental physics; and so on. In addition to the two sciences as above explained, he must pass an examination either in pure mathematics or mixed mathematics, which latter are much allied to several of the sciences; or if he does not take up mathematics, he must take up a third science which will form a group with any of the two sciences above mentioned.
We know that the Government will perform its part by providing the necessary teaching power in the colleges. We hope also that as wealth shall again accumulate in Western India, many munificent Natives will emulate the examples set by the last generation of Natives at Bombay, whose benefactions to education we now witness around us, and will in this generation endow professorships of science in our colleges. If any patriotic Native, blessed with abundant means, and having himself risen in life by his own capacity, shall be moved by a desire to enable his countrymen to raise themselves by that scientific knowledge the usefulness of which is especially patent to practical men, let him give something of his well-earned substance to permanently provide teachers of science. The education in arts has heretofore been sustained principally by Government and partly by private contributions. We hope that the wealthy Natives will similarly assist the Government in defraying the cost of education in science.
When in 1878 I proposed to the University that Degrees in Science should be conferred, it was contemplated that a separate Faculty of Natural and Physical Science should be established. The Syndicate, however, preferred that education in science should form, part of the charge of the Faculty of Arts, and that an additional Syndic for science should be appointed. To this the Senate assented, and we all are indebted to the Arts members of the Syndicate, gentlemen eminent in, humanistic learning, for their cooperation in preparing and passing the scheme for Degrees in Science. This decision is in its nature provisional, and as such is accepted, I trust, by many gentlemen of the several scientific professions, who are most useful members of the Senate. But if the scheme succeeds and grows in importance, the Science members of the Senate will doubtless desire a separate Faculty of their own. I earnestly hope that the success may be so considerable as hereafter to justify the creation of such a Faculty.
Meanwhile, although instruction in science is very far from occupying the great position which, we hope it will one day occupy in our public instruction, still we are constantly advancing in that direction. Viewing its intrinsic importance, we might well desire that the advance was faster than it is. But much apathy, and even some prejudices, have to be overcome. And the advance is slow even in some countries more civilized than India. Therefore, the lovers of Science may await without discouragement the irresistible march of events.
Nevertheless, something—however insignificant, as compared with the greatness of the need—is being accomplished. During the two years which have elapsed since I last addressed the Convocation, Improvements introduced. the two previously existing institutions relating to the applied sciences, namely. Medicine and Civil Engineering—the Engineering College at Poona, with its workshops forming a technical school, and the Grant Medical College at Bombay—have been fostered and improved, and have been recognized by the University as qualified to send up candidates for the new Science Degree. Several lesser institutions have been brought into existence. Two new medical schools have been established—one at Poona for the Deccan, one at Ahmedabad for Gujarat. The importance of hygiene and sanitary science has been pressed on the attention of both teachers and students. We have encouraged medical education, not only because medicine is a rising profession which, with the progress of sanitation, may attain indefinite development, but also because medical men, in order to qualify themselves for their own profession, have to learn much of some of those very sciences which we desire to impart largely to the Natives. A school of scientific forestry has been opened at Poona in connexion with a Botanic Garden, which garden has been formed out of the old garden established for the culture of medicinal herbs. A commencement has been made of what we hope will one day become a system of national education in scientific agriculture. Several school classes have been opened in different parts of the country, and a class has been successfully added to the Engineering College at Poona for superior instruction in agricultural practice. The College has been empowered by Government to grant certificates of proficiency to those who pass an examination after going through the higher agricultural course. It was at first proposed that this University should confer degrees in agriculture; but after some consideration the Syndicate decided not to include it in our scheme of degrees, deeming that under the circumstances the College certificates will suffice. The Poona Engineering College is, indeed, becoming a College of Science, inasmuch as engineering, geology, chemistry, botany, forestry, agriculture, are more or less taught there. A chair of biology has been established in the Elphinstone College. Some steps have been taken to develop the zoological section of the Victoria Museum in connexion with what is the nucleus of a zoological garden adjoining the Museum. The Technical School of Art at Bombay has been maintained and encouraged.
Instruction in Ethics. The third topic relates to instruction in moral philosophy or Instruction in ethics, or the Science of human duty. Though necessarily precluded from adverting to religion, I neither forget, nor expect you to forget, that it is impossible to teach human duty, comprising the relations between man and man, without also teaching something at least of man's duty towards God. No doubt, one of the effects of really good teaching in arts, say in the branches of history or literature, must be to inculcate always incidentally, and often directly, much of the general duty of man. Good teaching of physical science also must, as I believe, enlarge the ideas, and elevate the sentiments, of man in respect of God, and must impress upon him at least some part of his duty towards his Creator. But such teaching cannot furnish him with instruction in his duty towards his fellows, an instruction needed by all students alike, whether they belong to the department of arts or of science. Again, there are, as we believe, abstract principles and moral truths wholly independent of, and immeasurably above, the material universe in which we live. No doubt, these are incidentally inculcated by the teaching in arts-But the inculcation of moral truth by teaching in physical science is not possible. Nevertheless ethical instruction is specially requisite for the student of science, in order to prevent his imagining that there is nothing beyond the conceptions with which he is familiar, however lofty and wide these may be. Moral philosophy, then, comprises a knowledge which is necessary to all students in all departments of education, which they must bring with them to all their studies, and which they ought to retain in their inmost hearts and minds throughout their lives. Therefore, it ought not, in my judgment, to be left to incidental or indirect teaching, but ought to be taught systematically in all our institutions from the highest to the humblest. Nevertheless, in Western India it is taught indirectly rather than directly; it is not systematically and specifically prescribed; as one subject among many, it is made optional rather than obligatory. If this be a great defect, as I believe it is, then the remedy can be applied only by this University. If the existence of the defect be satisfactorily shown to the Senate, then I am sure that the members of that governing body will feel the responsibility which devolves on them. Indeed, the University did in former times indicate moral philosophy as an optional subject for students after their entrance into the University, and therein commanded the cordial assent and the loyal adherence of the students. From various causes this honoured practice has, during recent years, been intermitted. If the Senate shall see fit not only to resuscitate, but also to enlarge and enforce it,—that is, to render it obligatory rather than optional,—their action will approve itself to the conscience of the Natives. For the action of the University determines the teaching in the colleges and high schools, and the example of these superior institutions is sure to be followed by the middle class institutions, and ultimately even by the primary schools,—until, at length, we have a complete system of national instruction in ethics adapted to the degrees of intelligence and capacity as found in the different grades of students. To found, to elaborate, to establish such a system should, I think, be a subject of ambition and of anxiety to this University and to all engaged in the work of public instruction. The Natives will certainly be the willing subjects of such teaching. Moral philosophy is a theme on which the sages, lawgivers, and philosophers of the Hindus, have dilated from the earliest times, and which has engaged the reverential thoughts, and attracted the affectionate regards, of the best men amongst the Natives for many generations,—though the aberration of the practice of most people from its maxims has been as frequent and patent in the Indian nation as in any nation. I apprehend that many thoughtful Natives, while thankfully acknowledging all that has been done in this direction by the public instruction under British rule, do yet lament that a more systematic effort is not made to unfold and evolve before the minds of the young those eternal principles of right and wrong, which serve as beacons for the due conduct of life, and which ought specially to be included in an educational system that necessarily excludes religious teaching. With the majority of the Natives, such a systematization of ethical teaching would augment the popularity of our national education. It would elevate and crown the moral edifice already founded by the effects of our liberal education, by the discipline of our institutions, and by the personal example of our teachers.
I have already urged this most important matter on the consideration of the Syndicate, who, finding some difficulty at present in effecting the requisite alteration of the educational course, intimate that they will take an early opportunity of bestowing their renewed and careful consideration on the matter.
Lastly, I would remind you of the stimulus afforded to high education by the recently promulgated rules for the admission of Natives to the Covenanted Civil Service. The Covenanted Civil Service. Though the admission may operate very slowly, yet the fact of even a few being admitted, will animate the educated classes with hopefulness, and will display to their gaze a goal which, though distant perhaps,is yet shining. The merits of Natives in the judicial and legal profession have long been acknowledged; while their aptitude for the higher branches of the executive and administrative professions has been doubted. All things being duly weighed, I should consider the success of Natives as civil administrators to be the truest test of that combined mental and moral training which our education seeks to give.
In conclusion, permit me to express my satisfaction at meeting the Fellows of the University Advice to the Senate. in Senate assembled. More than two years ago I found a Senate consisting of men notable for learning, or for science, or for social influence, or for public services. As vacancies frequently occur by reason of the shifting and changing of society in this Presidency, it has devolved on me to nominate many Fellows, and in every nomination I have striven to strengthen the Senate by adding to its body men of proved capacity in arts or in science. To this Senate I now confidently commend the observance of the principles which have been presented to their consideration. We should be considerate in not overburdening the students, remembering how few years there are for education and how heavy is the weight upon those who have to learn through the medium of a language not their own. The art of teaching should be cultivated, so that the labours of the students may be simplified, and that knowledge may be presented, not in a dull and uninteresting form, hard for the memory to retain, but in a vivid and striking light that pierces, penetrates, and fills the mind. The field of education should be restricted, so that its culture may be deep, rather than that it should be extended with culture of lesser depth. Our general instruction should strive to arm the student with those mental resources that may render him victorious in any special arena he may enter. Let us, as an University, proceed in the van of that beneficent movement with which natural science is stirring mankind, and which, if directed aright in India, will raise the Natives to an economic and social status unparalleled even in grandest records of their antique civilization. And to all our other instruction in whatever branch let us be mindful to add that moral culture which shall impress on every youth his duty towards God and towards his neighbour.
TWENTIETH CONVOCATION.
(By Sir James Fergusson, Bart., K.C.M.G., D.C.L.)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate,—I cannot preside on this occasion—my first opportunity since assuming the Government of this Presidency—in the place filled