Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 3/Chapter 1/Section 4

Section IV.

Number and distribution of schools in the city and district of Moorshedabad; and in the districts of Beerbhoom, Burdwan, South Behar, and Tirhoot.

The following tables show at one view the different classes of institutions found to exist in each locality I have visited, the total number of each class in each district, and the distribution of that number in the different thanas or police divisions

 

City and district of Moorshedabad.

Thanas.			Bengali.	Hindi.	Sanscrit.	Persian.	Arabic.	English.	Girls.
1.	Pul Hasanullah Khan.	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	1	1
2.	Rajabazar.
3.	Shahnagar	. . .	1	. . .	1	1
4.	Gunditala.
5.	Mahajantoli.
6.	Nengta khali	. . .	1	. . .	. . .	2
7.	Manullah Bazar	. . .	2	. . .	3	1
8.	Mahimapur	. . .	2	2	. . .	4
9.	Asanpura	. . .	1	1	3
10.	Rajbari	. . .	3
11.	Kalikapur	. . .	6	. . .	6	1	1
12.	Kasimbazar	. . .	. . .	. . .	1	1
13.	Raniswar	. . .	1
14.	Berhampore.
15.	Garh Berhampore	. . .	2	2
16.	Akhra Ram Sahai	. . .	6
17.	Sujagunge	. . .	11	. . .	10	4	. . .	2	1
18.	Jan Mohammadpur	. . .	2
19.	Mura Gaonwar	. . .	1
20.	Daulatbazar	. . .	23	. . .	. . .	2
	Total	. . .	62	5	24	17	2	2	1

The city and district of Moorshedahad contain in all thirty-seven thanas, of which nineteen belong to the city jurisdiction and eighteen to the district. I have already mentioned that, when I first visited the district, I limited my attention to one thana, that of Daulatbazar, or No. 20 of the above table; and it was on the occasion of my second visit that I extended my inquiries on the most comprehensive plan to the remaining nineteen thanas of the table embracing the whole of the city jurisdiction. Of these nineteen, the first ten, viz., eight on the eastern and two on the western side of the Bhagirathi, are said to constitute the old city of Moorshedabad, or the city properly so called; and, in point of fact, several of the thanas included in the city jurisdiction are in every just sense Mofussil thanas, containing only small and scattered villages and interspersed with cultivated fields, jungle, and morass. The table shows the distribution of schools to be very unequal. Of the twenty thanas there are four without any institution of education whatsoever; four others in each of which there is only one vernacular school; and two others in which there are a Persian and an Arabic school, or a Sanscrit and a Persian one, but no vernacular school at all. In twenty thanas the total number of schools of every description is 113, averaging 5·6 to each thana.

 

District of Beerbhoom.

Thanas.			Bengali.	Hindi.	Sanscrit.	Persian.	Arabic.	English.	Girls.
1.	Nanglia	. . .	30	. . .	2	4
2.	Kharbana	. . .	23	. . .	1	4
3.	Deoghur	. . .	6	5
4.	Shahana	. . .	10	. . .	1
5.	Sakalyapur	. . .	36	. . .	3	4
6.	Uparbanda	. . .	2
7.	Baröan	. . .	29	. . .	1	8	2
8.	Afzalpur	. . .	37	. . .	2	2
9.	Nalahati	. . .	10	. . .	1	1
10.	Siuri	. . .	27	. . .	10	12	. . .	1	1
11.	Bharatpur	. . .	34	. . .	7	11
12.	Mayureshwar	. . .	52	. . .	. . .	5
13.	Ketugram	. . .	21	. . .	15	7
14.	Kasba	. . .	34	. . .	6	6
15.	Labhpur	. . .	27	. . .	7	5
16.	Krishnanagar	. . .	22	. . .	. . .	2
17.	Dunigram	. . .	7
	Total	. . .	407	5	56	71	2	2	1

The Beerbhoom district was the first to which the comprehensive plan of investigation was applied, and the total number of schools of every description in the district is 544, averaging 32 to each thana. There are three thanas in which vernacular schools only are found without any institutions of Hindu or Mahomedan learning; and in those three thanas the number even of vernacular schools is considerably less than in the majority of the remaining thanas, where schools of learning, in greater or less number, are ascertained to exist.

 

District of Burdwan.

Thanas.			Bengali.	Sanscrit.	Persian.	Formal Arabic.	Learned Arabic.	English.	Girls.	Infants.
1.	Culna	. . .	73	37	6	. . .	1	1	1
2.	Purbasthal	. . .	33	18	3
3.	Ganguriya	. . .	16	7	1	. . .	1
4.	Rayana	. . .	72	14	10	2
5.	Selimabad	. . .	66	8	2
6.	Indas	. . .	43	6	8	329
7.	Mantreshwar	. . .	43	6	9
8.	Balkrishna	. . .	26	25	12
9.	Potna	. . .	53	12	9
10.	Cutwa	. . .	31	13	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	1
11.	Burdwan	. . .	37	2	10	1	3	2	2	1
12.	Mangalkot	. . .	45	10	4
13.	Ausgram	. . .	91	32	19
	Total	. . .	629	190	93	3	8	3	4	1

These thirteen thanas include the whole of the district which contains in all 931 schools of every class, averaging to each thana 71·6. There is no thana without both vernacular schools and schools of Hindu learning, and the number of each is greater than in any of the other districts I have visited.

 

District of South Behar.

Thanas.			Hindi.	Sanscrit.	Persian.	Arabic.	English.
1.	Jehanabad	. . .	52	2	33	5
2.	Sheherghati	. . .	13	. . .	29
3.	Daudnagar	. . .	10	7	23
4.	Aurungabad	. . .	7	3	23
5.	Arwal	. . .	17	1	16	1
6.	Nabinagar	. . .	13	. . .	2
7.	Behar	. . .	12	1	37	2
8.	Nawabada	. . .	37	. . .	2	2
9.	Sahebgunge	. . .	41	4	26
	Total	. . .	121	9	70	4	1

The total number of schools in the district is 605, averaging to each thana 67·3. The increase of Persian schools, nearly equalling the number of Hindi schools and accompanied by an increased number of schools of Arabic learning, is the fact which most arrests attention in this when compared with the preceding tables.

 

District of Tirhoot.

Thanas.			Hindi.	Sanscrit.	Persian.	Arabic.
1.	Bhawara	. . .	5	7	1
2.	Bahera	. . .	3	3	4
3.	Mozufferpur	. . .	6	. . .	67	1
4.	Kurnaul	. . .	4	2	7
5.	Lalgunge	. . .	7	. . .	27
6.	Madhaipur	. . .	4	. . .	1
7.	Supaul	. . .	5	7	6
8.	Jala	. . .	1	2	2
9.	Khanjauli	. . .	3	3	1
10.	Hajipur	. . .	10	3	16
11.	Mohua	. . .	1	5	22
12.	Nagarbasi	. . .	8	2	3
13.	Dulsingh Serai	. . .	7	14
14.	Darbhanga	. . .	14	7	45	3
15.	Katra	. . .	2	2	9
16.	Riga	. . .	13	9
	Total	. . .	80	56	234	4

The total number of schools in the district is 374, averaging to each thana 23·3. The very small number of Hindi schools and the large proportion of Sanscrit and Persian schools deserve attention. There are two thanas in each of which there is only one vernacular school, and a third in which not even one is to be found. It will be seen also that the last-mentioned thana is the one in which there is the largest number of Sanscrit schools.