Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 1/Section 8
SECTION VIII.
The District of Dacca, Jelalpoor, including the City of Dacca.
Population.—In 1801, the total population of the district was computed at 938,712 inhabitants, one-half Hindoo and the other half Mahomedan. A portion of this population consists of slaves, and the sale of persons in a state of slavery is common throughout the district. On these occasions regular deeds of sale are executed, some of which are registered in the Court of Justice; and when an estate to which slaves are attached is sold privately, the slaves are commonly sold at the same time, although a separate deed of sale is always executed. In the cirminal calendars generally more Mahomedans than Hindoos are to be found, but in civil suits the latter from the majority. The Gaur or Bengalee language is spoken with the greatest purity in this district, but the men of rank becoming ashamed of their peculiar accent, endeavor, it is said, to imitate the less correct pronunciation of Calcutta, the modern metropolis.
A census of the population of the city of Dacca was made in 1830 by H. Walter, Esquire, Judge and Magistrate, and an abstract of the results was published in the Gleanings of Science for March 1831, vol. III., p. 84. According to Hamilton the population was estimated in 1801 by the Magistrate of that time at 200,000, in the proportion of 145 Mahomedans to 130 Hindoos; and Bishop Heber in 1823 supposed that it contained 90,000 houses and 300,000 inhabitants. The actual census shows a population of only 66,909 persons, of whom 31,429 were Hindoos and 35,238 Musalmans, the remaining 322 being Armenians, Greeks, Portuguese and French. Amongst the Native inhabitants the proportion of inhabitants to a house was 418. Of the males 10,024 and of the females 7,634 were under 16 years of age. It is considered that the population of Dacca must have fallen off very rapidly since the opening of the free trade, for the chowkeedaree tax when instituted in 1814 was levied upon 21,361 houses, and the amount collected at an average of two annas per house maintained nearly 800 police chowkeedars; whereas in 1830, the number of houses actually assessed amounted only to 10,708, and the number of chowkeedars maintained to 236. Hence in 16 years a diminution in the population of about one-half may be assumed. This falling off is mainly attributable to the gradual decrease of the manufacture of those beautiful cotton fabrics for which Dacca was once without a rival in the world. Coarse cotton piece goods still continue to be manufactured, though, from the extreme cheapness of English cloth, it is not improbable that the Native manufacture will ere long be altogether superseded.
Indigenous Elementary Schools.—Hamilton states that throughout this district there are many Hindoo schools in which the rudiments of the Bengalee language are taught. A public officer, in reply to the circular queries of the General Committee of Public Instruction, states that the only mode of instruction carried on by Natives is by means of domestic teachers employed by opulent Natives exclusively for their own families, but to whose instructions, as a favor, they admit a few of the children of their own domestics. It is added that a few of the middle ranks of society provide an imperfect education for their children by contributing a supply of rice and other articles of consumption to a domestic teacher, from whose instructions the children of those neighbors are excluded who may either be unable or unwilling to afford their share. From these statements, and from the preceding account of the depressed state of the principal manufature of district, it may be inferred that popular instruction is at a very low ebb.
Elementary School not Indigenous—For more than eighteen years an extensive circle of schools has been maintained in a high state of efficiency in Dacca, under the superintendence of Missionary connected with the Serampore mission. For a considerable time the schools were supported by a local Society in correspondence with the Directors of the mission; but for some years past their expense has been met only in part by subscriptions in Dacca, and the deficiency has been supplied from Serampore. This change is ascribed to the cause already mentioned, the gradual decline of Dacca which has fallen in importance both through the loss of trade and the curtailing of the Courts of Justice. The European society is no longer either in number or circumstances what it was a few years ago. Those who compose it however still take a lively interest in the progress of education.
The schools for Native boys are eight in number, dispersed throughout the suburbs of the city, and giving instruction to about 697 scholars who receive a useful and Christian education in the Bengalee language. At first a strong prejudice existed against the schools, but now the children crowd to them and receive Christian instruction with delight. On occasion of the last annual examination in December 1834, a gentleman, who had taken an active part in eighteen previous annual examinations of the same schools, stated that the last excelled all that had gone before, although a large proportion of the children had been admitted since the examination in 1833. The entire number of boys attending the schools has been renewed at least six times since their first establishment, and thus each set of boys must have remained at school about three years.
Indigenous Schools of Learning.—Hamilton speaks of certain schools in the district in which the principles or rather the forms of Hindoo religion and law are taught, but I have not been able to trace any further details respecting them. I find not the remotest reference to Mahomedan schools in a district remarkable for a large proportion of Moslem inhabitants.
The public functionaries in 1823 reported to the general Committee that no grants or endowments of any description for the purpose of education were known to exist in the district.
Native Female Schools.—There are eight Native female schools, in which 249 girls and young women are instructed in Bengalee. After learning to read, it would appear from the published accounts that the instruction is exclusively religious. These schools are also in connection with the Serampore mission.