Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 1/Section 1
Section I.
The Twenty-four Pergunnahs, including Calcutta.
Indigenous Elementary Schools.—By this description are meant those schools in which instruction in the elements of knowledge is communicated, and which have been originated and are supported by the Natives themselves, in contra-distinction from those that are supported by Religious or Philanthropic Societies. The number of such schools in Bengal is supposed to be very great. A distinguished member of the General Committee of Public Instruction in a minute on the subject expressed the opinion, that if one rupee per mensem were expended on each existing village school in the Lower Provinces, the amount would probably fall little short of 12 lakhs of rupees per annum. This supposes that there are 100,000 such schools in Bengal and Behar, and assuming the population of those two Provinces to be 40,000,000, there would be a village school for every 400 persons. There are no data in this country known to me by which to determine out of this number the proportion of school-going children, or of children capable of going to school, or of children of the age at which, according to the custom of the country, it is usual to go to school. In Prussia[1] it has been ascertained by actual census that in a population of 12,256,725, there were 4,487,461 children under fourteen years of age, which gives 366 children for every 1,000 inhabitants, or about eleven-thirtieths of the nation. Of this entire population of children it is calculated that three-sevenths are of an age to go to school, admitting education in the schools to begin at the age of seven years complete, and there is thus in the entire Prussian monarchy the number of 1,923,200 children capable of receiving the benefits of education. These proportions will not strictly apply to the juvenile population of this country, because the usual age for going to school is from five to six, and the usual age for leaving school is from ten to twelve instead of fourteen. There are thus two sources of discrepancy. The school-going age is shorter in India than in Prussia, which must have the effect of diminishing the total number of school-going children; while on the other hand, that diminished number is not exposed to the causes of mortality to which the total school-going population of Prussia is liable from the age of twelve to fourteen. In want of more precise data, let us suppose that these two contrary discrepancies balance each other, and we shall then be at liberty to apply the Prussian proportions to this country. Taking, therefore, eleven-thirtieths of the above-mentioned 400 persons, and three-sevenths of the result, it will follow that in Bengal and Behar there is on an average a village school for every sixty-three children of the school-going age. These children, however, include girls as well as boys, and as there are no indigenous girls’ schools, if we take the male and female children to be in equal or nearly equal proportions, there will appear to be an indigenous elementary school for every thirty-one or thirty-two boys. The estimate of 100,000 such schools in Bengal and Behar is confirmed by a consideration of the number of villages in those two provinces. Their number has been officially estimated at 150,748, of which, not all, but most have each a school. If it be admitted that there is so large a proportion as a third of the villages that have no schools, there will still be 100,000 that have them. Let it be admitted that these calculations from uncertain premises are only distant approximations to the truth, and it will still appear that the system of village schools is extensively prevalent; that the desire to give education to their male children must be deeply seated in the minds of parents even of the humblest classes; and that these are the institutions, closely interwoven as they are with the habits of the people and the customs of the country, through which primarily, although not exclusively, we may hope to improve the morals and intellect of the Native population.
It is not, however, in the present state of these schools, that they can be regarded as valuable instruments for this purpose. The benefits resulting from them are but small, owing partly to the incompetency of the instructors, and partly to the early age at which through the poverty of the parents the children are removed. The education of Bengalee children, as has been just stated, generally commences when they are five or six years old and terminates in five years, before the mind can be fully awakened to a sense of the advantages of knowledge or the reason sufficiently matured to acquire it. The teachers depend entirely upon their scholars for subsistence, and being little respected and poorly rewarded, there is no encouragement for persons of character, talent or learning to engage in the occupation. These schools are generally held in the houses of some of the most respectable native inhabitants or very near them. All the children of the family are educated in the vernacular language of the country; and in order to increase the emoluments of the teachers, they are allowed to introduce, as pupils, as many respectable children as they can procure in the neighborhood. The scholars begin with tracing the vowels and consonants with the finger on a sand-board and afterwards on the floor with a pencil of steatite or white crayon; and this exercise is continued for eight or ten days. They are next instructed to write on the palm-leaf with a reed-pen held in the fist not with the fingers, and with ink made of charcoal which rubs out, joining vowels to the consonants, forming compound letters, syllables, and words, and learning tables of numeration, money, weight, and measure, and the correct mode of writing the distinctive names of persons, castes, and places. This is continued about a year. The iron style is now used only by the teacher in sketching on the palm-leaf the letters which the scholars are required to trace with ink. They are next advanced to the study of arithmetic and the use of the plantain-leaf in writing with ink made of lamp-black, which is continued about six months, during which they are taught addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and the simplest cases of the mensuration of land and commercial and agricultural accounts, together with the modes of address proper in writing letters to different persons. The last stage of this limited course of instruction is that in which the scholars are taught to write with lamp-black ink on paper, and are further instructed in agricultural and commercial accounts and in the composition of letters. In country places the rules of arithmetic are principally applied to agricultural and in towns to commercial accounts: but in both town and country schools the instruction is superficial and defective. It may be safely affirmed that in no instance whatever is the orthography of the language of the country acquired in those schools, for although in some of them two or three of the more advanced boys write out small portions of the most popular poetical compositions of the country, yet the manuscript copy itself is so inaccurate that they only become confirmed in a most vitiated manner of spelling, which the imperfect qualifications of the teacher do not enable him to correct. The scholars are entirely without instruction, both literary and oral, regarding the personal virtues and domestic and social duties. The teacher, in virtue of his character, or in the way of advice or reproof, exercises no moral influence on the character of his pupils. For the sake of pay, he performs a menial service in the spirit of a menial. On the other hand, there is no text or school-book used containing any moral truths or liberal knowledge, so that education being limited entirely to accounts, tends rather to narrow the mind and confine its attention to sordid gain, than to improve the heart and enlarge the understanding. This description applies, as far as I at present know, to all indigenous elementary schools throughout Bengal.
The number of such schools in Calcutta is considerable. A very minute inquiry respecting them was instituted when the Calcutta School Society was formed in 1818-19. The result was that the number within the legal limits of Calcutta was 211, in which 4,908 children received instruction. Assuming the returns of the Hindoo and Mahomedan population of Calcutta made in 1822 to be correct, this number is about one-third the number of Native children capable of receiving instruction, the other two-thirds being without the means of instruction in institutions of Native origin. In 1821, of these schools 115, containing 3,828 scholars, received books from the School Society, and were examined and superintended by its officers and agents; while 96 schools, containing 1,080 scholars, continued entirely unconnected with that Society. In 1829, the date of the fifth report of the School Society, the number of schools in connection with it had been reduced to 81; and since that date there has been no account given to the public of the Society’s operations. There is no reason to suppose that the indigenous schools unconnected with it are less numerous than when their condition was first investigated in 1818-19: on the contrary, the impulse which education has since received in Calcutta has most probably increased both their number and efficiency.
The improvements introduced by the School Society into the schools in immediate connection with it are various. Printed, instead of manuscript, school-books are now in common use. The branches formerly taught are now taught more thoroughly; and instruction is extended to subjects formerly neglected, viz., the orthography of the Bengalee language, geography, and moral truths and obligations. The mode of instruction has been improved. Formerly the pupils were arranged in different divisions according as they were learning to write on the ground with chalk, on the palm-leaf, on the plantain-leaf, and on paper, respectively; and each boy was taught separately by the school-master in a distinct lesson. The system of teaching with the assistance of monitors, and of arranging the boys in classes, formed with reference to similarity of ability or proficiency, has been adopted; and as in some instances it has enabled the teachers to increase the number of their pupils very considerably, and thereby their own emoluments, it is hoped that it will ultimately have the effect of encouraging men of superior acquirements to undertake the duties of instructors of youth. A system of superintendence has been organized by the appointment of a Pundit and a Sircar, to each of the four divisions into which the schools are distributed. They separately attend two different schools in the morning and two in the evening, staying at least one hour at each school, during which time they explain to the teachers any parts of the lessons they do not fully comprehend, and examine such of the boys as they think proper in their different acquirements. The destinations of the Pundits and Sircars are frequently changed, and each of them keeps a register, containing the day of the month; the time of going to, and leaving, each school; the names of the boys examined; the page and place of the book in which they were examined; and the names of the school-masters in their own hand-writing,—which registers are submitted to the Secretaries of the Society every week through the head Pundit. Further examinations, both public and private, yearly, half-yearly, or quarterly, as necessity or convenience dictated, have been held in the presence of respectable European and Native gentlemen, when gratuities were given to deserving teachers, and prize-books to the best scholars, as well as books bestowed for the current use of the schools. The tendency of all these measures to raise the character and qualifications of the teachers must be apparent, and it is with reference to this tendency that the labors of the Calcutta School Society have received the special approbation of the Court of Directors. In 1825 the Court, in confirming the grant of Rupees 500 per month which had been made to this Society by the Local Government, made the following remarks: “The Calcutta School Society appears to combine with its arrangements for giving elementary instruction, an arrangement of still greater importance for educating teachers for the indigenous schools. This last object we deem worthy of great encouragement, since it is upon the character of the indigenous schools that the education of the great mass of the population must ultimately depend. By training up, therefore, a class of teachers, you provide for the eventual extension of improved education to a portion of the Natives of India far exceeding that which any elementary instruction that could be immediately bestowed, would have any chance of reaching.” In consequence of the reduction of the Society’s means, the examinations have been discontinued since 1838. Unequivocal testimony is borne to the great improvement effected by the exertions of the School Society, both in the methods of instruction employed in the indigenous schools of Calcutta, and in the nature and amount of knowledge communicated; and I have thus fully explained the operations of this benevolent Association, because they appear to me to present an admirable model, devised by a happy combination of European and Native philanthropy and local knowledge, and matured by fifteen years’ experience, on which model, under the fostering care of Government, and at comparatively little expense, a more extended plan might be framed for improving the entire system of indigenous elementary schools throughout the country.
In these schools the Bengalee language only is employed as the medium of instruction; but the children of Mahomedans, as well as the various castes of Hindoos, are received without distinction. Mahomedans have no indigenous elementary schools peculiar to themselves, nor have they any regular system of private tuition. Every father does what he can for the instruction of his children, either personally or by hiring a tutor; but few fathers, however qualified for the task, can spare from their ordinary avocations the time necessary for the performance of such duties, and hired domestic instructors, though unquestionably held in more honor than among Hindoos, and treated with great respect by their pupils and employers, are always ill-paid and often superannuated, — men, in short, who betake themselves to that occupation only when they have ceased from age to be fit for any other. There are, moreover, few who are qualified to instruct their children, and fewer who are able to employ a tutor.
It cannot be doubted that there are many indigenous elementary schools in the Twenty-four Pergunnahs beyond the limits of Calcutta; but I have not met with any account of their number or condition. As far as appears from any document or publication within my reach, less information is possessed respecting the state of education in this district, containing the metropolis of the country, than in several distant and less civilized districts of Bengal. The only reference to such schools in the Twenty-four Pergunnahs, I find in one of the reports of the Calcutta School Society, which in 1819 received applications from many school-masters beyond the Mahratta Ditch, that they also might be permitted to partake of its benefits; but it was not then deemed advisable to extend the connections of the Society, and the applications do not appear to have been subsequently renewed.
Elementary Schools not Indigenous.—Besides the indigenous elementary schools in connection with the Calcutta School Society, that Association originally established five elementary schools which it entirely controlled and supported. These schools were established on the ground that Native schools which exist by the support and under the control of Europeans or Societies, should be good of their kind rather than numerous; adapted rather to improve by serving as models than to supersede the established seminaries of the country; designed rather to educate the children of the poor than the numerous youth of this country whose parents are able and willing to pay for their instruction,—a sound and judicious rule which, it may be feared, has been often neglected. The great expenditure necessary to be incurred for these schools and the limited and irregular attendance, led to the transfer of three of them to the care of the Corresponding Committee of the Church Missionary Society. Another of these schools was situated in a quarter of the city chiefly occupied by Musalmans to whom the Bengalee is not the current medium of communication. A zealous and respectable Mahomedan member of the Committee of the Society personally superintended it, and it was placed under a teacher of Hindustani who, without excluding Bengali, gave instruction through elementary works in the Persian and Nagree characters. This school was discontinued; which is the more to be regretted as it was perhaps the only elementary public school for that portion of the inhabitants of Calcutta who speak Hindustani. The remaining school was situated at Arpuly, and was in operation under the personal superintendence of the Secretary of the School Society until the beginning of 1833, when, in consequence of the insolvency of the treasurers and the loss of many of the most valuable subscribers, it was relinquished. The house in which the school had till then been conducted, was so old that it could not be repaired, and a new one would have cost a large sum than the School Society could afford. Any attempt at that time to revive the interest of the public in the Society would probably have failed in consequence of the general distress; but it would certainly be attended with more success at the present time. According to the last report, it contained about 225 boys, who were instructed by a Pundit and four Native teachers, and were divided into eleven classes, occupied with different Bengalee studies from the alphabet upwards. They were taught reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and arithmetic, and the plan on which the duties of the school were conducted was nearly similar to that of an English school. In order to afford sufficient time for the boys to acquire a considerable knowledge of Bengalee before they began to learn English, no pupil was admitted into the school above eight years of age. The scholars were promoted to the Society's English School or to the Hindu College as a reward for their proficiency in Bengalee, the study of which they were required to continue until they acquired a competent knowledge of the language. This attention to the cultivation of the language of the country, the chief medium through which instruction can be conveyed to the people, was a highly gratifying feature in the operations of this Society; and an additional advantage of the school at Arpuly was the example which it afforded to the whole of the indigenous schools. The best proof of the estimation in which it was held by the Native inhabitants of the neighborhood, was the frequent earnest solicitation received from the most respectable Natives to have their children educated in it.
It is deeply to be regretted that the operations of a Society, conducted with so much judgment and success, should be thus cripped and curtailed.
The Calcutta Diocesan Committee of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts has several elementary schools in the neighborhood of Calcutta. The following is a synopsis of their number, and of the average daily attendance at each, extracted from the last report (1834.)
| Tallygunge Circle. | |||
| Average daily attendance. | |||
| Ballygunge | . . . | . . . 80 | |
| Kalighaut | . . . | . . . 90 | |
| Rajapur | . . . | . . . 25 | |
| Undermanick | . . . | . . . 30 | |
| 257 | |||
| Barripur | . . . | . . . | 45 |
| Howrah Circle. | |||
| Seebpur | . . . | . . . 80 | |
| Batore | . . . | . . . 70 | |
| Sulkea | . . . | . . . 70 | |
| Ballee | . . . | . . . 95 | |
| 395 | |||
| 697 |
Besides reading, writing, ciphering, grammar, and geography, it is a feature of these, and I believe all other Missionary schools whether Bengali or English, that religious instruction is given to the scholars. The books employed for this purpose are the Gospels, Watts’ Catechism, Ellerton’s Dialogues on Scripture History, the History of Joseph, &c., &c. The Native mode of writing on stand, palm-leaves, and plantain-leaves, is adopted in these schools.
The Calcutta Church Missionary Association has thirteen elementary schools, partly in the town and partly in the villages, the average number of children receiving instruction being about 600. There is also a Christian school on the Mission-premises at Mirzapur, containing about seventy scholars, and a separate school for the Mahomedan population averaging thirty-nine boys. In connection with this Association, but not under its immediate direction, there is also a school at Beyala near Kidderpur, containing about 100 scholars. The course of instruction pursued in the schools is explained to consist in grammar, geography, reading the old and new testaments, spelling, writing, and arithmetic. They are chiefly intended for the lower classes of the population, and it is considered by this Association that more need hardly be attempted in their behalf than elementary instruction. The early removal of the children from school is greatly lamented.
In the villages to the south of Tolly’s Nullah there are three elementary boys’ schools, supported by the Ladies’ Society, connected with the Loll Bazar Missionary Society, and thereby with the Serampur Mission. The following are the names of the villages, and the number of the scholars in attendance: In the school at Debipur there are twenty in attendance; at Balarampore about forty-five; and at Lakhyantipur forty-four. At Anundapur, also, an estate in the Soonderbuns belonging to Serampur College, is a boys’ elementary school supported by the Serampur Mission, the attendance fifty-two.
Formerly there were several schools in Calcutta supported by the Bengal Auxiliary Missionary Society in connection with the London Missionary Society. The Bengali language only was taught, much time and labor was bestowed, and much expense incurred; but the Committee of the Society remark that during the last five or six years the desire to obtain a knowledge of the English language has been so great that a school in which this was not taught, was sure to dwindle away. To continue the schools on the old plan was deemed a waste of time and money, and to commence the new plan was impossible, both for want of funds and of qualified superintendence. The schools, therefore, in and about Calcutta, have been discontinued, with the exception of one at Kristnapur, at which from 10 to 20 children attend. It thus appears that the desire to obtain an acquaintance with English tends to the neglect of the vernacular language and has led to the discontinuance of elementary schools. These effects are not necessary, for the study of the two languages may be combined with advantage as the labors of the School Society show; but they are effects which are naturally produced in the circumstances of this country upon ignorance and youth, and it should be deemed an important object to counteract them. At Kidderpur, where this Society has a Missionary Station, there are five other elementary schools containing about 260 boys, whose progress in the various branches taught is stated to be encouraging and satisfactory.
Indigenous Schools of Learning.—Ward in his work on the Hindoos has given, on the whole, a correct account of the state of indigenous learning and of the institutions by which it is preserved among the Hindoos. The principle which secures the perpetuation of these institutions, as long as the Hindoo religion subsists and is professed by the mass of the people and by a majority of the wealthy and powerful, is that it is deemed an act of religious merit to acquire a knowledge of the Hindoo shastras, or to extend the knowledge of them either by direct instruction or by pecuniary support or assistance given either to scholars or teachers. Hence the privations to which the students submit in the prosecution of the prescribed course of study; the disinterestedness of the teachers in bestowing their instructions gratuitously with the addition, always of shelter, often of food, and sometimes of clothing; and the liberality of landholders and others shown by occasional endowments of land and frequent gifts of money both to teachers and scholars on the occasion of funeral feasts, weddings, dedications, &c. The number of such institutions throughout the country is unknown, nor are sufficient data possessed on which to rest a probable conjecture. In the district of Dinajpur, Dr. Buchanan found only 16, and in that of Purniya not less than 119,—a difference between two neighbouring districts in which some mistake may be suspected. The estimates of the number in other districts, besides those reported on by Dr. Buchanan, are not the results of personal inquiries, and less dependence is, therefore, to be placed on them. If I were to hazard a conjecture founded on all the facts and statements I have met with, I should say that there are on an average probably 100 such institutions in each district of Bengal, which would give 1,800 for the whole province. An estimate of the total number of students must depend upon the approach to correctness of the conjecture respecting the total number of schools; but the following facts may help towards the formation of a correct opinion respecting the average number of students in each school. In 1818, Mr. Ward enumerated 28 schools of Hindoo learning in Calcutta, in which 173 scholars received instruction, averaging upwards of six scholars to each school. He also enumerated 31 schools of Hindoo learning at Nuddea, in which 747 scholars received instruction, averaging upwards of 24 scholars to each school. In 1830 Mr. H. H. Wilson ascertained by personal enquiry at Nuddea, that there were then about 25 schools in which between 5 and 600 scholars received instruction, and taking the number of scholars at 550 the average to each school will be 22. The average of these three estimates would give 174 scholars to each school. The lowest or Calcutta average, that of six scholars to each school, I consider more probable than the others, for the instances are numerous throughout the country in which a learned Hindoo teacher has not more than three or four pupils. Assuming the Calcutta average, and the previous estimate of the total number of schools, there will appear to be 10,800 students of Hindoo learning throughout Bengal. The total number of teachers and students of Hindoo learning will thus be 12,600; and this number is exclusive of a large class of individuals who, after having received instruction in a school of learning, and become in the technical sense of the term Pundits or learned men, from various causes decline to engage in the profession of teaching. If further inquiry should show that the lowest estimate which is that I have assumed, is one-half in excess of the truth, there will still remain a large and influential class of men who either have received or are engaged in giving and receiving a Hindoo collegiate education.
The Hindoo colleges or schools in which the higher branches of Hindoo learning are taught are generally built of clay. Sometimes three or five rooms are erected, and in others nine or eleven, with a reading-room which is also of clay. These huts are frequently erected at the expense of the teacher, who not only solicits alms to raise the building, but also to feed his pupils. In some cases rent is paid for the ground; but the ground is commonly, and in particular instances both the ground and the expenses of the building are, a gift. After a school-room and lodging-rooms have been thus built, to secure the success of the school, the teacher invites a few Brahmans and respectable inhabitants to an entertainment, at the close of which the Brahmans are dismissed with some trifling presents. If the teacher finds a difficulty in obtaining scholars, he begins the college with a few junior relatives, and by instructing them and distinguishing himself in the disputations that take place on public occasions, he establishes his reputation. The school opens early every morning by the teacher and pupils assembling in the open reading-room, when the different classes read in turns. Study is continued till towards mid-day, after which three hours are devoted to bathing, worship, eating, and sleep; and at three they resume their studies which are continued till twilight. Nearly two hours are then devoted to evening-worship, eating, smoking, and relaxation, and the studies are again resumed and continued till ten or eleven at night. The evening studies consist of a revision of the lessons already learned, in order that what the pupils have read may be impressed more distinctly on the memory. These studies are frequently pursued, especially by the students of logic, till two or three o'clock in the morning.
There are three kinds of colleges in Bengal—one in which chiefly grammar, general literature, and rhetoric, and occasionally the great mythological poems and law are taught; a second, in which chiefly law and sometimes the mythological poems are studied; and a third, in which logic is made the principal object of attention. In all these colleges select works are read and their meaning explained; but instruction is not conveyed in the form of lectures. In the first class of colleges, the pupils repeat assigned lessons from the grammar used in each college, and the teacher communicates the meaning of the lessons after they have been committed to memory. In the others the pupils are divided into classes according to their progress. The pupils of each class having one or more books before them, seat themselves in the presence of the teacher, when the best reader of the class reads aloud, and the teacher gives the meaning as often as asked, and thus they proceed from day to day till the work is completed. The study of grammar is pursued during two, three, or six years, and where the work of Panini is studied, not less than ten, and sometimes twelve, years are devoted to it. As soon as a student has obtained such a knowledge of grammar as to be able to read and understand a poem, a law book, or a work on philosophy, he may commence this course of reading also, and carry on at the same time the remainder of his grammar-studies. Those who study law or logic continue reading either at one college or another for six, eight, or even ten, years. When a person has obtained all the knowledge possessed by one teacher, he makes some respectful excuse to his guide and avails himself of the instructions of another. Mr. Ward, for whom many of the preceding details have been copied, estimates that “amongst one hundred thousand Brahmans, there may be one thousand who learn the grammar of the sunskritu, of whom four or five hundred may read some parts of the kavyu (or poetical literature), and fifty some parts of the ulunkaru (or rhetorical) shastras. Four hundred of this thousand may read some of the smriti (or law works); but not more than ten any part of the tuntrus (or the mystical and magical treatises of modern Hinduism). Three hundred may study the nyayu (or logic), but only five or six the meimangsu (explanatory of the ritual of the veds), the sunkhyu (a system of philosophical materialism) the vedantu (illustrative of the spiritual portions of the veds), the patunjulu (a system of philosophical ascetism), the voisheshika (a system of philosophical anti-materialism), or the veda (the most ancient and sacred writings of Hindoos) . Ten persons in this number of Brahmans may become learned in the astronomical shastras, while ten more understand these very imperfectly. Fifty of this thousand may read the shree bhagavatu and some of the pooranus.” At the present day probably the alankar shastras and the tantras are more studied than is here represented. The astronomical works also received more attention. The colleges are invariably closed and all study suspended on the eighth day of the waxing or waning of the moon; on the day in which it may happen to thunder; whenever a person or an animal passes between the teacher and the pupil while reading; when an honorable person arrives, or a guest; at the festival of Saraswati during three days; in some parts during the whole of the rainy season, or at least during two months which include the Doorga, the Kali, and other festivals, and at many other times. When a student it about to commence the study of law or of logic, his fellow students, with the concurrence and approbation of the teacher, bestow on him an honorary title descriptive of the nature of his pursuit, and always differing from any title enjoyed by any of his learned ancestors. In some parts of the country, the title is bestowed by an assembly of Pundits convened for the purpose; and in others the assembly is held in the presence of a raja or zemindar who may be desirous of encouraging learning and who at the same time bestows a dress of honor on the student and places a mark on his forehead. When the student finally leaves college and enters on the business of life, he is commonly addressed by that title.
The means employed by the Mahomedan population of Bengal to preserve the appropriate learning of their faith and race are less systematic and organized than those adopted by the Hindoos; and to whatever extent they may exist, less enquiry has been made and less information is possessed respecting them. It is believed, however, that, in the Lower as well as the Western Provinces, there are many private Mahomedan schools begun and conducted by individuals of studious habits who have made the cultivation of letters the chief occupation of their lives, and by whom the profession of learning is followed, not merely as a means of livelihood, but as a meritorious work productive of moral and religious benefit to themselves and their fellow creatures. Few, accordingly, give instruction for any stipulated pecuniary remuneration, and what they may receive is both tendered and accepted as an interchange of kindness and civility between the master and his disciple. The number of those who thus resort to the private instructions of masters is not great. Their attendance and application are guided by the mutual convenience and inclination of both parties, neither of whom is placed under any system nor particular rule of conduct. The success and progress of the scholar depend entirely on his own assiduity. The least dispute or disagreement puts an end to study, no check being imposed on either party, and no tie subsisting between them beyond that of casual reciprocal advantages which a thousand accidents may weaken or dissolve. The number of pupils seldom exceeds six. They are sometimes permanent residents under the roof of their masters, and in other instances live in their own families; and in the former case, if Musalmans, they are supported at the teacher’s expense. In return, they are required to carry messages, buy articles in the bazar, and perform menial services in the house. The scholars in consequence often change their teachers, learning the alphabet and the other introductory parts, of the Persian language of one, the Pandnamah of a second, the Gulistan of a third, and so on from one place to another, till they are able to write a tolerable letter and think they have learned enough to assume the title of Munshi, when they look out for some permanent means of subsistence as hangers-on at the Company’s Courts. The chief aim is the attainment of such a proficiency in the Persian language as may enable the student to earn a livelihood; but not, unfrequently, the Arabic is also studied, its grammar, literature, theology and law. A proper estimate of such a desultory and capricious mode of education is impossible.
The number of institutions of Hindoo learning, now existing in Calcutta and the Twenty-four Pergunnahs, is not accurately known. Mr. Ward in his work published in 1818 enumerates 28 schools of Hindoo learning in Calcutta, naming the teacher of each school, the quarter of the city in which the school was situated, and the number of students receiving instruction. These institutions are also mentioned as only some amongst others to be found in Calcutta. The nyaya and smriti shastras chiefly were taught in them; and the total number of scholars belonging to the colleges actually enumerated was 173, of whom not less than three, and not more than fifteen, received the instructions of the same teacher. The enumeration to which I refer is subjoined in Mr. Ward's words:—
“The following among other colleges are found in Calcutta; and in these the nyaya and smriti shastras are principally taught:— Ununtu-Ramu-Vidya-Vageeshu, of Hati-Bagan fifteen students.—Ramu-Koomaru-Turkalunkaru, of ditto, eight students.—Ramu-Toshunu-Vidylunkaru, of ditto, eight ditto.—Ramu-Doolalu-Chooramunee, of ditto, five ditto.—Gouru-Munee-Nyayalunkaru, of ditto, four ditto.—Kashee-Nathu-Turku-Vageeshu, of, Ghoshalu-Bagan, six ditto.—Ramu-Shevuku-Vidya-Vageeshu, of Shikdarer-Bagan, four ditto.—Mrityoonjuyu-Vidyalunkaru, of Bag-Bazar, fifteen ditto.—Ramu-Kishoru-Turku-Chooramunee, of ditto, six ditto.—Ramu-Koomaru-Shiromunee, of ditto, four ditto.—Juyu-Narayunu-Turku-Punchanun, of Talar-Bagan five ditto.—Shumbhoo-Vachusputee, of ditto, six ditto.—Sivu-Ramu-Nyayu-Vageeshu, of Lal-Bagan, ten ditto.—Gouru-Mohunu-Vidya-Bhooshunu, of ditto, four ditto.—Huree-Prusadu-Turku-Punchanunu, of Hatti-Bagan four ditto.—Ramu-Narayunu-Turku-Punchanunu, of Shimila, five ditto.—Ramu-Huree-Vidya-Bhooshun, of Huree-Tukee-Bagan, six ditto.— Kumula-Kantu-Vidyalunkaru, of Arukoolee, six ditto.—Govindu-Turku-Punchanunu, of ditto, five ditto.—Peetamburu-Nyayu-Bhooshunu, of ditto, five ditto.—Parvutee-Turka-Bhooshunu, of T’hunt’-huniya, four ditto.—Kashee-Nathu-Turkalunkaru, of ditto, three ditto.—Ramu-Nathu-Vachusputee, of Shimila, nine ditto.—Ramu-Tunoo-Turku-Siddhantu, of Mulunga, six ditto.—Ramu-Tunoo-Vidya-Vageeshu, of Shobha-Bazar, five ditto.—Ramu-Koomaru-Turku-Punchanunu, of Veerupara, five ditto.—Kalee-Dasu-Vidya-Vageeshu, of Italee, five ditto.—Ramu-Dhunu-Turku-Vageeshu, of Shimila, five ditto.”
Hamilton states that in 1801 there were within the limits of the Twenty-four Pergunnahs, and as I suppose must be understood beyond the limits of the town of Calcutta, 190 seminaries in which Hindoo law, grammar, and metaphysics, were taught. These institutions are stated to have been maintained by the voluntary contributions of opulent Hindoos and the produce of charity lands, the total annual expense being Rupees 19,500. No details are given, but it may be inferred, although it is not expressly mentioned, that the statement rests on the authority of official documents. No cause has been in operation in the intermediate period to render it probable that the number of such seminaries within this district has since then been materially diminished. Mr. Ward mentions that at Juyunugur and Mujilee Pooru seventeen or eighteen similar schools were found, and at Andoolee ten or twelve, these villages, according to my information, being within the limits of the district; but it is probable that they are included in the more comprehensive enumeration mentioned by Hamilton.
I do not find any account on record of any private institutions for the promotion of Mahomedan learning either in Calcutta or in the surrounding district. Hamilton states that in 1801 there was one, and but one, madrasa or college for instruction in Mahomedan law, but he does not mention its particular locality, and it is not improbable that he refers to the institution endowed by Warren Hastings, and now under the superintendence of the General Committee of Public Instruction. There can be no doubt, however, that in this as well as in other districts of Bengal in which we have no authentic account of the state of Mahomedan learning, that loose system of private tuition already described prevails to a greater or less extent.
One of the objects of the Calcutta School Society was to provide a body of qualified Native teachers and translators; and in pursuance of this object the Committee at first sent twenty boys, considered to be of promising abilities, to the Hindoo College to be educated at the Society’s charge; and subsequently ten others were added. There are thus always thirty scholars at the Hindoo College receiving an English education at the expense of the School Society; and the selection of pupils, to fill the vacancies which occur from time to time, affords considerable encouragement to the boys in the indigenous schools. In 1829 three of the young men who had received their education at the Hindoo College at the expense of the School Society, on leaving the college were engaged as English teachers in the Society’s own school for which they were eminently qualified, and others have obtained respectable employment in Calcutta. The Society’s scholars are said to rank among the brightest ornaments of the college.
In prosecution of the same views the Committee of the School Society in 1823 established an elementary English school, entirely under its own management, to teach reading, writing, spelling, grammar and arithmetic, the vacancies in which are filled by pupils selected from the indigenous schools for their proficiency; and those again who afterwards prove themselves particularly deserving are in due course removed for superior education to the Hindoo College to which this elementary school is intended to be preparatory. It was hoped that this school would excite the emulation of the Native boys, and that by raising the qualifications for admission, and thus inducing parents to keep their children longer than usual at the indigenous schools, it would have the effect of increasing the emoluments and respectability of the Native teachers. This object appears to have been in some measure attained, for in the report of 1829 it is expressly stated that several instances have come to the knowledge of the Society’s superintendence, in which the observance of the rules of admission has afforded considerable advantage to the Native teachers of the indigenous schools, by encouraging the boys to remain longer with them and thereby increasing their emoluments. In the above mentioned year the school contained about 120 boys who, besides the usual elements of reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic, acquired a considerable knowledge of the English language and its grammatical construction, could translate with some degree of correctness, had a good acquaintance with Grecian, Roman, and English history, and with the leading facts of geography, together with the political divisions of Europe and Asia. It was at that time deemed expedient to improve the means of instruction by employing a greater number of qualified teachers and allowing a larger supply of valuable books and materials, in order to keep pace with the acquirements of the students.
Attached to the Society’s Bengalee school at Arpuly already noticed was an English school, the pupils being selected from the one to learn English, in the other as a reward for their diligence. In 1829 there were ninety-three boys learning English in this school, from which promotions were occasionally made to the Society’s other English school, and sometimes to the Hindoo College; but this school was discontinued in 1833, at the same time with the Bengalee school at Arpuly, and for the same reasons.Native Female Schools.—The first attempt to instruct Native girls in Calcutta, in organized schools, was made by the Calcutta Female Juvenile Society, which has subsequently assumed the name of the Calcutta Baptist Female Society for the establishment and support of Native female schools. The thirteenth report, dated 1834, is now before me, from which it appears that there is one school in Calcutta, containing from 60 to 70 scholars; another at Chitpore, containing 110 to 120; and a third at Sibpore, in which 20 children of Native converts are instructed. The schools are superintended by a Committee of Ladies, and the teachers are Native women, formerly in some instances scholars. The girls are taught reading, spelling and geography, and much attention is given to religious instruction. In the Chitpore school writing is also taught, and in the Sibpore school six of the Christian girls have begun to learn English.
An examination of a number of Bengalee girls belonging to the school instituted by the above mentioned Society, on the occasion of a public examination of the Calcutta School Society’s schools, attracted the attention of the last-mentioned Society to the subject of female schools, and in the report of 1820 it is stated that, although attempts to promote female education are highly approved, yet as members of an Association composed jointly of Natives and Europeans, the former cannot be expected to act all at once upon the suggestions of the latter, militating against opposite sentiments of very long standing, and it was, therefore, determined that the time had not yet arrived for direct endeavors by the Society to establish Native girls’ schools under female teachers. The British and Foreign School Society, however, in consultation with the Calcutta School Society’s agent, Mr. Harington, and with Mr. Ward of the Serampore Mission, both then in England, opened a subscription for the outfit of a mistress to be sent to India, qualified to instruct females born or bred in this country in the Lancasterian method of mutual instruction, that they might afterwards diffuse the system throughout the country as opportunities offered. Miss Cooke (now Mrs. Wilson) accordingly arrived in November 1821, and as the funds of the Calcutta School Society were inadequate to her support, her services were engaged by the Corresponding Committee of the Church Missionary Society, and in connection with that Committee she gradually extended her labors until she had, in 1824, twenty-four schools under her superintendence, attended on an average by 400 pupils. In that year the Corresponding Committee relinquished the entire management and direction of their female schools to a Committee of Ladies who formed themselves into a Society called the Ladies’ Society for Native Female Education in Calcutta and its vicinity. Subsequently the number of schools was increased to 30, and that of the pupils to 600, but instead of still further multiplying the number of schools, it was deemed advisable to concentrate them, and a Central School was built for that purpose and occupied in 1828, since which the efforts of the Ladies' Society have been chiefly confined to that sphere of labor. An allowance is made of a pice a head to women under the name of hurkarees, for collecting the children daily and bringing them to school, as no respectable Hindoo will allow his daughters to go into the street except under proper protection. The school numbers 320 day-scholars, besides 70 Christian girls who live on the premises. The latter are orphans, and most of them have been collected from the districts south of Calcutta that have recently suffered from inundation and famine. Together with these, 40 poor women have been admitted by Mrs. Wilson to a temporary asylum, who are all learning to read and receive daily Christian instruction, and are at the same time employed in various ways to earn in whole or in part their own living. In connection with the Ladies’ Society, there is also a girls’ school on the premises belonging to the Church Missionary Society in Calcutta. The number of pupils fluctuates between 50 and 70. Spelling, reading, writing, needle-work, and religion are the subjects in which instruction is given. Many of the scholars have become teachers. Native ladies of the most respectable caste in society have both sent their daughters, and in some instances have themselves expressed anxiety to obtain instruction. The system of instruction pursued is also stated to have met the express concurrence and approbation of some of the most distinguished among the Native gentry and religious instructors. The majority of the more respectable Natives, however, still continue to manifest great apathy concerning the education of their daughters.
The Ladies’ Association for Native female education was originally instituted with a view to establish schools for Native girls, which could not be undertaken by the last-mentioned Society. This Association had at one time ten schools under its management, which, for the purpose of concentration, were reduced to two and afterwards to one. The school is conducted by a Christian master and mistress, with the assistance of an elderly Christian woman and three of the best scholars as monitors. The school is situated in the Circular Road, and has about 50 scholars, chiefly Mahomedan, who receive Christian instruction in the Native language. About 30 of the girls read the various school-books, and 20 learn to spell, &c. The monthly expenditure is Rupees 40.
There are three schools connected with the London Missionary Society in Calcutta. In a school situated in the Thunthunnya Road there are 45 scholars; in the Creek Row school 25; and in the Mendee Bagan school 28; in all 108. In these schools the girls are taught reading, writing and arithmetic, besides plain needle-work and marking. In order to assist in supporting the schools, it is intended to receive plain work, to be charged at a very moderate rate.It has already been mentioned that 70 orphans are lodged and educated in the Central School belonging to the Ladies’ Society for Native Female Education; and it is now proposed to build a suitable separate establishment for the reception of one hundred Native orphan girls. It is intended that these children shall receive a good plain education both in their own and in the English language, be trained to habits of industry and usefulness, and remain in the institution until they marry. A public subscription has been opened, and it is contemplated to purchase ground on the bank of the river, four or five miles north of Calcutta, where land can be bought comparatively cheap.
- ↑ See Cousin’s Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia, page 140.