On the Education of the People of India/Chapter 2
CHAP. II.
The Study of Foreign Languages and Literature a powerful Instrument of National Improvement.—The Instruction of the upper and middle Classes the first Object..
The past history of the world authorizes us to believe that the movement which is taking place in India, if properly directed and supported by the Government, will end in bringing about a decided change for the better in the character of the people. The instances in which nations have worked their way to a high degree of civilization from domestic resources only are extremely rare, compared with those in which the impulse has been communicated from without, and has been supported by the extensive study and imitation of the literature of foreign countries. The cases in which the most lasting impressions have been made upon national character, in which the superior civilization of one country has taken deepest root and fructified most abundantly in other countries, have a strong general resemblance to the case before us. In those cases the foreign systems of learning were first studied in the original tongue by the upper and middle classes, who alone possessed the necessary leisure. From this followed a diffusion of the knowledge contained in the foreign literature, a general inclination of the national taste towards it, and an assimilation of the vernacular language, by the introduction into it of numerous scientific and other terms. Last of all, the vernacular tongue began to be cultivated in its improved state; translations and imitations sprang up in abundance, and creative genius occasionally caught the impulse, and struck out a masterpiece of its own.
Every scholar knows to what a great extent the Romans cultivated Grecian literature, and adopted Grecian models of taste. It was only after the national mind had become deeply impregnated from this source, that they began to have a literature of their own. The writers of the Augustan age were bred in the school, were animated by the spirit, were nourished with the food of conquered Greece. Virgil was a mere imitator, however noble: the Roman dramas are feeble translations from the Greek: the entire Roman literature is only an echo of the Greek literature. The Romans made no scruple in acknowledging the obligations they were under to the cultivation of Grecian learning. Their enthusiasm was directed to the object of enriching their native language with all that, in that age of the world, could be imported from abroad.
It is a curious fact that an intellectual revolution similar to that which is now in progress in India, actually took place among the Romans. At an early period, the Etruscan was, as Livy tells us, the language which the young Romans studied. No patrician was considered as liberally educated who had not learned in the sacred books of the augurs of Clusium and Volaterrae, how to quarter the heavens, what was meant by the appearance of a vulture on the left hand, and what rites were to be performed on a spot which had been smitten by thunder. This sort of knowledge very analagous to the knowledge which is contained in the Sanskrit books, was considered as the most valuable learning, until an increased acquaintance with the Greek language produced a complete change. Profound speculations on morals, legislation, and government; lively pictures of human life and manners; pure and energetic models of political eloquence, drove out the jargon of a doting superstition. If we knew more minutely the history of that change, we should probably find that it was vehemently resisted by very distinguished Etruscan scholars, and that all sorts of fearful consequences were represented as inevitable, if the old learning about the flight of birds and the entrails of beasts should be abandoned for Homer, and if the mysteries of the bidental should be neglected for Thucydides and Plato.
The Roman language and literature, thus enriched and improved, was destined to still prouder triumphs. The inhabitants of the greatest part of Europe and of the North of Africa, educated in every respect like the Romans, became in every respect equal to them. The impression which was then made will never be effaced. It sank so deep into the language and habits of the people, that Latin to this day forms the basis of the tongues of France and southern Europe, and the Roman law the basis of their jurisprudence. The barbarous hordes which triumphed over the arms, yielded to the arts of Rome. Roman literature survived the causes which led to its diffusion, and even spread beyond the ancient limits of the empire. The Poles and Hungarians were led neither by any pressure from without, nor by any artificial encouragement from within, to make Latin their language of education, of literature, of business, and, to a very remarkable extent, of ordinary colloquial intercourse. They did so, we may presume, because their own language contained nothing worth knowing, while Latin included within itself almost all the knowledge which at that time existed in the world.
After this came the great revival of learning, at the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. At that period, the historian Robertson observes, “all the modern languages were in a state extremely barbarous, devoid of elegance, of vigour, and even of perspicuity. No author thought of writing in language so ill adapted to express and embellish his sentiments, or of erecting a work for immortality with such rude and perishable materials. As the spirit which prevailed at that time did not owe its rise to any original effort of the human mind, but was excited chiefly by admiration of the ancients, which began then to be studied with attention in every part of Europe, their compositions were deemed not only the standards of taste and of sentiment, but of style; and even the languages in which they wrote were thought to be peculiar, and almost consecrated to learning and the muses. Not only the manner of the ancients was imitated, but their language was adopted; and, extravagant as the attempt may appear, to write in a dead tongue, in which men were not accustomed to think, and which they could not speak, or even pronounce, the success of it was astonishing. As they formed their style upon the purest models; as they were uninfected with those barbarisms, which the inaccuracy of familiar conversation, the affectation of courts, intercourse with strangers, and a thousand other causes, introduce into living languages, many moderns have attained to a degree of elegance in their Latin compositions which the Romans themselves scarce possessed beyond the limits of the Augustan age.”
Had the mental stimulus produced by the revival of letters been confined to scholars, the progress of improvement would have stopped at this point; but all who had time to read, whether they knew Latin or not, felt the influence of the movement, and this great class was receiving continual additions from the rapid increase of wealth. Hence arose a demand which the classical languages could not satisfy, and from this demand sprang the vernacular literature of Europe. We are indebted to foreign nations and distant ages both for the impulse which struck it out, and for the writings which warmed the fancy and formed the taste of its founders. Abounding, as we are, in intellectual wealth, could we venture even now to tell our youth that they have no longer occasion to seek for nourishment from the stores of the Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, and Italian literatures? The French fell into a mistake of this kind, and they have suffered for it. Proud of the honour, and sensible of the political advantage of having their own language generally understood, they were not sufficiently alive to the new resources they might have derived from the study of foreign languages.[1] Their literature, therefore, wants that copiousness and variety which is characteristic of the English and German. Now they see their error, and, instead of confining themselves to their own stores, and copying and re-copying their own models, they have begun to look abroad and study the masterpieces of other nations. German literature is a remarkable instance of the success with which industry and genius may nationalize foreign materials. It has arisen, almost within the memory of persons now living, on the basis of the astonishing erudition collected by the German writers from every living and dead language worth laying under contribution.
Had our ancestors acted as the committee of public instruction acted up to March 1835[2]; “had they neglected the language of Thucydides and Plato, and the language of Cicero and Tacitus; had they confined their attention to the old dialects of our own island; had they printed nothing and taught nothing at the universities but chronicles in Anglo-Saxon, and romances in Norman French, would England ever have been what she now is? What the Greek and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our tongue is to the people of India. The literature of England is now more valuable than that of classical antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanskrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors; in some departments, in history, for example, I am certain that it is much less so.
Another instance may be said to be still before our eyes. Within the last hundred and twenty years a nation, which had previously been in a state as barbarous as that in which our ancestors were before the crusades, has gradually emerged from the ignorance in which it was sunk, and has taken its place among civilized communities. I speak of Russia. There is now in that country a large educated class, abounding with persons fit to serve the state in the highest functions, and in nowise inferior to the most accomplished men who adorn the best circles of Paris and London. There is reason to hope that this vast empire, which in the time of our grandfathers was probably behind the Punjab, may in the time of of our grandchildren be pressing close on France and Britain in the career of improvement. And how was this change effected? Not by flattering national prejudices; not by feeding the mind of the young Muscovite with the old women’s stories which his rude fathers had believed; not by filling his head with lying legends about St. Nicholas; not by encouraging him to study the great question, whether the world was or was not created on the 13th of September; not by calling him ‘a learned native’ when he had mastered all these points of knowledge; but by teaching him those foreign languages in which the greatest mass of information had been laid up, and thus putting all ,that information within his reach. The languages of western Europe civilized Russia. I cannot doubt that they will do for the Hindoo what they have done for the Tartar.”
The literary epoch of the Arabians dates from the time at which they commenced the study of the Grecian writers. That the impulse was not stronger or more permanent, is owing, perhaps, to the partial use which they made of this great instrument of national improvement. If, instead of contenting themselves with meagre translations of some of the Greek philosophers, they had studied Plato and Xenophon, Homer and Thucydides, in the original, a flame of generous liberty might have been kindled, and a new direction might have been given at that period to the views and feelings of the people of the East, the possible effects of which up to the present day it is impossible to calculate.[3] The Arabs pursued a very different course in their intercourse with the various nations included within their dominions. They extolled the beauty of their own language, and gave the utmost encouragement to the cultivation of it. The effect was not universally beneficial, because many of the subject races were already in a more advanced stage of civilization than the Arabs themselves; but it was such as exemplified, in a very remarkable way, the extent to which the study of a new language and literature may remould national character. Arabic literature became the literature of all the conquered nations; their dialects were saturated with Arabic words; their habits of thought, their manners, their whole character, became conformed to the same standard. Religion has, no doubt, a great deal to do with the striking uniformity which prevails throughout the Mohammedan world; but language and literature have a great deal more to do with it. There are many tribes on the outskirts of Mohammedanism which have conformed to the religion, without adopting the learning of Islam, and they are often not to be distinguished from the people of the same tribe who have adhered to the religion of their fathers, with whom they have language and every thing else in common.
These are the facts upon which the plan of the education committee is based. Their object is to fill the minds of the liberally educated portion of the people with the knowledge of Europe, in order that they may interpret it in their own language to the rest of their countrymen. For this purpose, while, on the one hand; the pupils are encouraged to acquire the various kinds of information which English literature contains, and to form their taste after the best English models; on the other, every endeavour is used to give them the habit of writing with facility and elegance in their native language.
The committee’s first desire is to establish a seminary based on these principles at each Zillah station. The large towns always take the lead in the march of improvement: the class of people whose circumstances give them leisure to study to good purpose, and influence to make their example followed, are congregated there in greater numbers than elsewhere. Even the proprietors residing on their estates in the district keep up a close connection with their provincial capitals, where they have generally town houses and resident agents. The subordinate officers of government are selected and sent from thence to exercise their functions in the surrounding country. The European functionaries are present there to exercise a general superintendence over the seminaries, and to assist the teachers with their countenance and experience. By purifying the circulation through these vital organs, the whole system will be re-invigorated; the rich, the learned, the men of business, will first be gained; a new class of teachers will be trained; books in the vernacular language will be multiplied; and with these accumulated means we shall in due time proceed to extend our operations from town to country, from the few to the many, until every hamlet shall be provided with its elementary school. The poor man is not less the object of the committee’s solicitude than the rich; but, while the means at their disposal were extremely limited, there were millions of all classes to be educated. It was absolutely necessary to make a selection, and they therefore selected the upper and middle classes as the first object of their attention, because, by educating them first, they would soonest be able to extend the same advantages to the rest of the people. They will be our schoolmasters, translators, authors; none of which functions the poor man, with his scanty stock of knowledge, is able to perform. They are the leaders of the people. By adopting them first into our system we shall be able to proceed a few years hence, with an abundant supply of proper books and instructors, and with all the wealth and influence of the country on our side, to establish a general system of education which shall afford to every person of every rank the means of acquiring that degree of knowledge which his leisure will permit.
- ↑ It has been justly observed, that for the French to pride themselves upon all foreign nations studying their language, while they study the language of no foreign nation, is like a blind man boasting that every body can see him, while he can see nobody.
- ↑ This is taken from one of the papers recorded during the discussions which preceded the resolution of the 7th March 1835. I shall hereafter make several similar extracts.
- ↑ Gibbon observes on this point:—“The Moslems deprived themselves of the principal benefits of a familiar intercourse with Greece and Rome, the knowledge of antiquity, the purity of taste, and the freedom of thought. Confident in the riches of their native tongue, the Arabians disdained the study of any foreign idiom. The philosophers of Athens and Rome enjoyed the blessings and asserted the rights of civil and religious freedom. Their moral and political writings might have gradually unlocked the fetters of eastern despotism, diffused a liberal spirit of inquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian sages to suspect that their caliph was a tyrant, and their prophet an impostor. To the thirst of martyrdom, the vision of paradise, and the belief of predestination, we must ascribe the invincible enthusiasm of the prince and people; and the sword of the Saracens became less formidable when their youth was drawn away from the camp to the college, when the armies of the faithful presumed to read and reflect. Yet the foolish vanity of the Greeks was jealous of their studies, and reluctantly imparted the sacred fire to the barbarians of the East.” These Moslems were only the neighbours of the lower empire, and it was perhaps not in the power of the Greeks to make more than a faint impression upon them. The Moslems with whom we have to do are our own subjects; and if we neglect to mitigate the hostile spirit of the sect, by encouraging the disposition they evince to cultivate our literature and science, posterity will have a heavier charge to bring against us than that of “foolish vanity.”