Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras/Part 2/The Right Rev. R. Caldwell, D.D., LLD.
TWENTY-SECOND CONVOCATION.
(By The Right Rev. Dr. Caldwell..)
In promising to deliver the address to the Graduates on this occasion, it appeared to me that there were two reasons why any remarks I might venture to make might deserve to be received with indulgence. These were, first, my known sentiments of good-will towards the Natives of India of every class, and, secondly, my grey hairs, which bear witness to the more than forty-one years during which I have endeavoured, as far as lay in my power, to promote the best interests of my adopted country.
Educated Natives may fairly be expected both to contribute to the enlargement of the bounds of human knowledge in every thing that pertains to their own Country What educated Indians may do, and also to endeavour to exemplify in their intercourse with society and their public duties the benefits of the education they have received. The study of the history, ancient literature, and archaeology of the country will never reach any thing like completeness of development or realise results of national importance till it is systematically undertaken by educated Natives. In Archaeology. Learned Natives of Calcutta and Bombay, trained in European modes of thought and vieing with Europeans in zeal for historical accuracy, have already made a promising beginning in this department of research. I trust that the Native scholars of the South will resolve that they will not be left behind in the race. The most important aid educated Natives can render to the study of the history of their country is by means of a search after inscriptions, many of which, hitherto unnoticed and unknown, they will find inviting their attention on the walls of the temples in almost every village in the interior. The only ancient Indian history worthy of the name is that which has been spelled out from inscriptions and coins. Popular legends and poetical myths, by whatever name they are dignified, may be discarded, not only 136 University of Madras, without loss, but with positive advantage. No guide but our own intelligence is better than a faithless guide. Something has already been done in the direction of the search for and de- cipherment of inscriptions by Europeans, though less systemati- cally in Madras than in Calcutta and Bombay, but much remains to be done and will always remain, till educated Natives enter upon this branch of study with the zeal with which so many people in Europe have devoted themselves to it. Natives possess various facilities for this study which are denied to Europeans living in India. They have no reason to fear the sun. They can generally stop in their journeys without inconvenience and examine a.ny antiquity they see ; and whilst Europeans must be content with examining only the inscriptions on the outer walls of temples, inscriptions in the interior also can be examined by Natives. They will also be allowed to examine inscriptions on copper plates in the possession of respectable Native families which would not readily be allowed to pass into the hands of Europeans. A humbler, but still very important branch of archaeological work lies open to every educated Hindu in the Tamil districts in this Presidency. Let him set himself, before it is too late, to search out and discover the vernacular works that are commonly supposed to be lost. The names only of many Tamil works of the earlier period survive and many works must have been composed at a still earlier period of which even the names have been forgotten. Tamil literature seems to have known no youth. Like Minerva, the goddess of learning amongst the Greeks, it seems to have sprung, full-grown and fully armed, from the head of Jupiter. The explanation of this is that every work pertaining to, or illustrative of, the youth of the language appears to have perished. Probably, however, a careful search made by educated Natives in houses and mathas would be rewarded by some valuable discoveries. What an extensive and interesting field India presents for the comparative study of languages, and nowhere will ampler scope be found for this study than in the districts, directly or indirectly, under the Madras Government. The Dravidian family, which has its chief home in this Presidency, includes, according to the most recent enumeration, 14 languages and 30 dialects ; in addition to which, Sanskrit, Hindustani, and English claim attention. The comparative study of the languages of India has remained up to this time in the hands of Europeans, but it is a branch of study to which educated Natives might be expected to apply themselves with special zeal, and in which, if they applied themselves to it, I feel sure that they would attain to special excellence. The people of India have surpassed all other peoples, ancient or modern, in the earnestness and assiduity with which they have studied the grammars of their various tongues, and to this must be attributed the wonderful perfection several of those languages have reached as organs of thought and much of the acuteness for which the Indian mind is famed. But the study of the languages of their country by Indian scholars has never beeome comparative and, therefore, has never become scientific. It has fallen behind the scholarship of Europe in grasp and breadth, and consequently in fruitfulness in results. If, however, educated Natives resolved to apply themselves to a study so peculiarly suited to them, I consider it certain that excellent results would soon be realised. If they began to compare their vernaculars one with another, ancient forms with modern, and both with Sanskrit, they would soon find that Language had a history of its own, throwing light on all other histories, and that instead of being the driest of subjects, it was one of the richest in matters of wide human interest. A further advantage of priceless value might also, it is to be hoped, be realised in time in the commencement and development of a good modern Vernacular Literature — a literature equal — if that were possible — to the ancient literature in beauty of form, and superior to it — which would be possible enough — in the value of its subject-matter. A most interesting, but hitherto in India almost untrodden, path of progress opens itself
now to the educated Native in the study of Nature.
In this branch of research, Hindus in all ages have fallen as much behind other nations as in the study of grammar they have excelled them. The only branch of natural science heretofore studied in India was Astronomy, and that had fallen from its high position and been compelled to do menial service to a silly Astrology. Several branches of natural science have had a place given them of late in the curriculum of Indian Uni- versity studies, and there seems reason to hope that a consider- able number of educated Natives will henceforth learn to observe. To see is not to observe, and to learn up and pass examinations in the observation of others is not to observe. You are surround- ed in the tropics with facilities and incitements to observation which do not exist in Europe. All nature is constantly in a state of excitement, librating between excess and defect, and constantly calling upon you to observe its changes. The habit of observation will prove of the greatest possible advantage to the Indian student, in checking that too ready belief in authority and that fondness for dreamy speculation which are so natural to Natives of the tropics. It may also be expected, if maintained for a sufficient length of time, and by a sufficient number of 18 persons, to contribute to the solution of many questions which now appear insoluble.
It should be an anxious question with every educated Native how he can best exemplify the benefits of the education he has received. The first answer that rises to the mind is that he should endeavour to do to others what has been done to himself by labouring for the promotion of education all around. The lamp of knowledge which has been placed in his hands should be held aloft for the enlightenment of others. The well of knowledge which has been opened in his mind should be kept sweet and pure by copious communications to others of its healing waters. This rule applies not only to things known, but to principles also. The methods of thought and principles of action in which he has been trained should be propagated. Wherever he goes, in whatever situation he may be placed, the educated Native will find ample scope for his efforts in the cause of enlightenment. He need not go far — probably he need not pass the limits of his own family circle — to find scope for carrying into effect those ideas respecting the importance of female education, which in theory at least seem now to be generally admitted, and which seem steadily passing, especially in the great towns, from the region of theory to the region of practice. There is another department of educational work of great national importance which has not yet come to be regarded by Natives of the better classes with as much favour even as female education. I refer to the education of the labouring poor. Here is a noble and most extensive field for the exercise of that enlightened, large-hearted philanthropy which it is the great ultimate aim of the higher education to foster ; and if this field has generally hitherto been left unculti- vated and uncared for by educated Natives — if their efforts for the diffusion of the benefits of education have too generally been confined within the limits of the classes to which they them- selves belong — all the more credit will be due to those generous spirits who break through the barrier of class exclusiveness and set themselves to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Here I must appear to diverge for a moment to another subject, which nevertheless is not another, but the very essence of the subject in hand. In studying Mental Philosophy you have doubtless been taught the philosophy of morals. You have made your acquaintance with various theories of moral obligation and doubtless some one of those theories has been specially recommended to you. But why were you taught the theory of obligation? Not surely for the gratification of your curiosity merely, but that you might be enabled to realise the loftiness of the position occupied in the economy of human nature by Duty and the fitness of following where Duty calls. Man's highest duty to man— his highest moral obligation—is the duty of beneficence—the duty of doing good to others. The obligation not to do evil belongs to a lower stage of morals than the obligation to do good. "Thou shalt not." is only introductory to "Thou shalt." There is much high moral teaching—not unmixed with teaching of a different character — in the books with which some of you probably were familiar before you came in contact with the moral teaching of Europe? In particular, with regard to the highest development of beneficence—doing good to others though it be to our own hurt, doing good to those who do us evil—Indian literature is rich in maxims and illustrations of the highest excellence. There are two great defects, however, in Indian teaching on this subject. The first defect is the absence of an adequate motive. The second is one which I trust the educated Natives of our time will do their best to remedy. That is, the absence, or at least the extreme paucity, of real, not mythical, examples of this justly-lauded devotedness in doing good—the absence in India of anything corresponding to that long list of philanthropists whose names have made the annals of England so illustrious. I now return to that branch of beneficence with which I commenced—the education of the lower classes, especially the lower classes in the rural districts, and I think I may say without exaggeration that the world does not present a finer sphere for turning theories of doing good into practice than that which educated Natives will find opening before them in every direction, if they set themselves to help forward the education and elevation of the hitherto neglected masses. It may safely be said that one-fourth of the rural population in this part of India belongs to classes for whose improvement nothing has ever yet been done, except by Europeans. One set of rulers after another has arisen and fallen, but the condition of the labouring classes has remained unchanged. They themselves did not care for education. Even the wish to become wiser or happier than they were at length died out. And if by any chance any of them did entertain a wish to rise they were precluded from rising by the prejudices of the upper classes. I ask now what nobler object educated Hindus can propose to themselves than that of teaching these myriads of "dumb, driven cattle," that after all they are men. Dispel their ignorance, strike off their fetters, allow them to entertain some hope of bettering their condition, and even the horrors of those periodical famines, from which they suffer more than any other class, will be found to be capable of mitigation. If you do good only to the members of your own class and order who can requite you again, "what reward have ye?" The truest beneficence consists in doing good to those who are beneath you, who cannot requite you in any way in kind, and who possibly may have sunk so low as to be unable to requite you even with gratitude. But though the lower classes may have sunk very low, morally as well as intellectually, it must not for a moment be supposed that they are unimproveable, as they are sometimes said to be by those who do not wish them to improve. How is it that their social life is much superior to that of the savages of the Andaman islands, who are probably in the same condition now that the Indian aborigines were originally ? Is it not because they have been able to appreciate and appropriate those elements of civilisation which have percolated down to them from the Aryan higher classes ? The degree in which they differ from the barbarous aboriginal races in other parts of the world exhibits the degree in which they are capable of improvement. And if they have reached the condition in which we find them without the help of education — a condition which probably they reached two thou- sand years ago — how much higher might they not be expected to rise if they were taken by the hand and helped forward by the educated classes? I may here add, that I do not admit that there is anything contrary to caste rules in the course I recommend. There are certain Sastras, it is true, in which the observance of the rules of one's own caste is represented as virtually the highest morality; but the teaching of such Sastras is neutralised by that of others, and there is no Sastra in which members of the higher castes are prohibited from promoting the education, the civilisation, the moral well-being of the lower. The only exception to this — the prohibition of Brahmans teaching the Vedas to Sudras, is an exception which relates only to a particular function of a particular class. In pleading that educated Natives should endevour to exemplify the benefits of the education they Lave received by philanthropic labours, especially by labours for the promotion of the education of fche long-neglected masses, I do not forget that the time of many of them will be largely occupied by their official duties. A certain proportion of them, however, will doubtless elect to be employed in education, and in their case official duties and philan- thropic labours will lie in the same direction. The promotion of education in various ways and amongst various classes of people, in the town or district in which he is employed, in addition to the ordinary work of his own school, will be quite in accordance with a good educationist's conception of his duties. Without ceasing to teach he can encourage others to teach. He can also with special propriety urge the uneducated classes to show themselves desirous of learning. A still larger proportion of educated Natives will doubtless be employed, as hitherto, so in future, in the public service. I do not ask or wish such persons to neglect the duties they owe to the Government they serve, whose pay they receive, for the sake of unpaid philanthropic labours for the benefit of the community, nor do I expect them in any good work they undertake to promote it by large dona- tions of money. If they resolve to content themselves with their salaries and their unstained honour, they will find that they have not much money to spare. What 1 may fairly ask and wish them to do is to use for the good of the community whatever influence they possess or may acquire. Though their salaries may be small, their influence in the native Community is very great. It is an influence much greater in proportion than that of any ofiicials holding similar positions in England. We see from time to time in the rural districts not only tanks and choultries, which are in accord- ance with the ideas of charity which are traditional in India, but also schools and dispensaries erected by wealthy Natives, mainly through the influence of local Native officials. That influence would also doubtless lead to excellent results, if it were exerted, as I have recommended, in behalf of the education and elevation of the labouring poor. Any advice in this direction given by Europeans would probably excite only jealousy and suspicion, but an enlightened, public- spirited, zealous Native official might persuade the Zemindars and wealthy ryots residing in his district to do almost anything he wished for the public good.
It may be objected that in the remarks I have now made you have heard nothing new or original. Yery true. There is no originality in anything I have said. But what India requires, as it appears to me, is not originality, but a firm resolution on the part of each educated Native to make himself useful in the sphere in which he finds himself placed, to act up to his convic- tions of duty, to carry into practice those theories of obligation — fhose theories, in particular, of the obligation of beneficence, of the obligation of doing good to others — which have constituted the highest element in the education he has received. It does not much matter in what department of things, or in what direction, people first begin to carry their convictions of duty into practice, provided they actually do begin somewhere. Duty is like the circumference of a great circle of a sphere, such as that which girds the earth, passing through both poles. Wherever you commence, if only yon steadfastly go on, you will touch in succession every point in the circumference, and unite at length in one majestic, unbroken circuit the two poles of life, the human and the Divine.