Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 1/Section 18

SECTION XVIII.

The District of Dinajpur.

Population.—In 1808 the total population of the district was estimated by Dr. Buchanan at 3,000,000 of persons, of whom 2,100,000 were Mahomedans and 900,000 Hindoos, or in the proportion of seven of the former to three of the latter. The Hindoos appear at one time to have been almost entirely extirpated, most of those now in the district being the progeny of newcomers. The greater part of the landlords are new men who have recently purchased their estates, and who were formerly either merchants, manufacturers, agents of landholders, or native officers of Government. The old zemindars are either the prey of religious mendicants or are totally abandoned to sottish dissipation. Of the Hindoo population only 70,000 belong to the pure tribes, the remainder being impure, very low, or utterly degraded. Slaves are not numerous. They were mostly purchased during the great famine of 1769 and the scarcity of 1787; but they turned out so idle and careless that their employment was found much more expensive than that of hired laborers. The following are the principal towns:—Dinajpur containing in 1808 about 5,000 houses and 30,000 inhabitants; Malda 3,000 houses; Gaur 3,000; and Raigunge 1000.

Indigenous Elementary Schools.—The state of elementary education in this district is, according to Dr. Buchanan, very low. Natives of the district qualified to hold any office superior to that of a common clerk are difficult to be found, and of course strangers fill the principal offices both public and private.

The district has twenty-two police sub-divisions of which thirteen contain 119 elementary Bengalee schools and nine Persian ones, nine of the sub-divisions having no elementary schools whatever. In the towns of Dinajpur and Malda the average number of scholars to each master is about 20 and the fees are from four to eight annas a month, according to the progress the children have made. On an average the fees are six annas each or seven and a half rupees a month for 20 scholars, which in this district is a decent income; but in country places the average number of scholars does not exceed twelve, and the fees are from one to four annas, or on an average two and a half annas a month, so that the total average income is only one rupee and 14 annas a month. Even these small fees are beyond the reach of the bulk of the people, so that, were not many parents at the pains to instruct their own children, very few would be able to read and write. Even with this assistance Dr. Buchanan is of opinion that not more than one-sixteenth of the men born in this district acquire these accomplishments.

The Persian schools are nearly as much frequented by Hindoos as by Mahomedans, for the Persian language is considered as a requisite accomplishment for every gentleman, and it is absolutely necessary for those who are candidates for offices in the courts of law. The number of pupils in the district is very small, and most of the people of any rank or wealth have their children instructed by private tutors who are procurable on the most moderate terms. The studies usually pursued are forms for correspondence, process of law, and legendary tales. The Hindoostanee would appear to be only colloquially known to the population, and the people of higher rank teach their children to speak a high style of it, consisting almost entirely of Arabic and Persian terms. Although Mahomedans form the majority of the population, and the Hindoostanee is generally understood, yet it is not taught in any school nor spoken by the common people who have either adopted or never relinquished the dialect of Bengal.

Dr. Buchanan expresses the sound and judicious opinion that no considerable improvement in the education of Indian youth can be hoped for until each popular language has obtained some books fitted to render the common people wiser and better. He adds that the books wanted for this district should be composed by Mahomedans, who are the majority of the people, and are most in want of instruction.

Elementary School not Indigenous.—The wife of a Missionary in connection with the Serampore Mission has established a boys’ school at Sadhamuhal in this district, where every previous attempt of the kind had proved abortive. She has had a regular attendance of full 20 children, and her continual superintendence has secured a very gratifying progress in the scholars. At the beginning there was only one boy in the place who was known to be able to read, but now the whole of the first class read the New Testament, and a number more are advancing to the same degree of proficiency.

Indigenous Schools of Learning.—Of the twenty-two sub-divisions of the district, there are fifteen without any schools of learning, and the remaining seven have only sixteen schools. Most of the teachers possess lands which enable them to provide for their own subsistence as well as that of their pupils, and they receive gifts from all Hindoos of any distinction. There is, however, no necessity for a person who holds these lands to instruct youth, and when the celebrity of a teacher has procured large grants of land, his heirs, although they continue to enjoy the estate, are not bound to teach. They may retain the high title of Pundit without devoting themselves to the buisness of instruction, or they may even betake themselves to the degarding affairs of the world without forfeiting the property. Very much, however, to the credit of the Brahmans, such a neglect is not usual, and one son of the family continues generally to profess the instruction of youth. If there are other sons they follow their natural inclination. With such a system, however liberal it may be in appearance, and to whatever merit the individual professors are justly entitled, it must be evident that the work of education will go on but slowly. It is even to be feared that it would altogether stop, were it not for the charity which usually follows considerable reputation as a teacher.

Students usually commence the study of the Sanskrit language about twelve years of age, after they have been instructed in the knowledge taught in the elementary schools. The principal studies are, as elsewhere in Bengal, grammar, law, and metaphysics, and less frequently the philosophical theology of the veds, the ritual of modern Hindooism, and astronomy, to which may be added medicine or rather magic.

The Vaidyas or medical tribe, and even some rich Kayasthas, are permitted to study such portions of Sanskrit literature as have been composed by wise men; but they are excluded from whatever is supposed to be of divine origin and authority. Dr. Buchanan remarks that the exclusiveness with which Sanskrit learning has been appropriated to the sacred tribe may have tended to increase the general ignorance; but that there can be no doubt that those who possess it enjoy very considerable advantages over their countrymen. The Brahmans generally speaking have an intelligence and acuteness far beyond other Hindoos; and he further thinks that they are subject to fewer vices, and that those persons will be found to approach nearest their good qualities who are admitted even to the porch of science. Here as well as elsewhere it will be found that although intellectual cultivation and moral excellence are neither identical nor always concomitant, yet the addiction to intellectual pursuits and enjoyments, cœteris paribus, leads to the elevation and improvement of the moral character. Amongst the multiplied means, therefore, which civilization and philanthropy will suggest for the reformation of a whole people, let us not altogether neglect one of which, however unfamiliar it may be to our conceptions, experience has established the utility, and which has in fact been the salt of the earth, preserving the country for centuries past amid general debasement and corruption from total ignorance and depravation.

It does not appear that there is any school in which Arabic or the sciences of the Mahomedans are taught,—a remarkable fact respecting a populous district in which so large a proportion of the inhabitants is Mahomedan.

Although some of the Mahomedan priests can read the portions of the koran that are appropriated for certain ceremonies, yet Dr. Buchanan heard a general complaint from the kazis that few understood a single word of that language, and that the greater part had mearly learned the passages by rote so as to enable them to perform the ceremonies.

Native Female Education.—The education of native females would appear to be viewed in the same light in this district as in Rangpur. Women are not only not educated, but the idea of educating them even in the most elementary knowledge is treated with contempt and even reprobation.

Appendix to Section XVIII.

Extracted from the General Statistical Table of Dr. Buchanan’s Report on the District or Zillah of Dinajpur.

Numbers.	Head and Total Division or Thanas.		Higher Hindoo Schools.	Common Hindoo Schools.	Persian Schools.	Proportion between number of Hindus.	Proportion between number of Moslems.
1	Rajarampur	. . .	4	. . .	. . .	8	8
2	Brignaj	. . .	. . .	2	. . .	4	12
3	Thakurgram	. . .	. . .	1	. . .	4	12
4	Ranisongkol	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	1	15
5	Pirganj	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	4	12
6	Hemtabad	. . .	. . .	. . .	1	9	7
7	Kaliyaganj	. . .	2	2	. . .	8	8
8	Bangsihari	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	4	12
9	Jogodol	. . .	. . .	2	. . .	8	8
10	Malda	. . .	1	10	2	10	6
11	Purusa	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	2	14
12	Gonggarampur	. . .	1	10	. . .	6	10
13	Potiram	. . .	3	40	3	12	4
14	Potnitola	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	4	12
15	Badolgachhi	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	6	10
16	Lalbazar	. . .	4	12	2	6	10
17	Chintamon	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	6	10
18	Howrah	. . .	. . .	12	. . .	4	12
19	Nawabganj	. . .	. . .	12	. . .	6	10
20	Ghoraghat	. . .	1	10	1	4	12
21	Hhyettal	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	4	12
22	Dinajpur	. . .	. . .	6	. . .	6	10
	Total	. . .	16	119	9	3	7