Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 3/Chapter 1/Section 16

Section XVI.

General Remarks on the State of Domestic Instruction, including a View of the Amount and Proportion of Instruction amongst the entire juvenile Population of the teachable Age.

First.—When I was in the Rajshahi district I ascertained the number of families only in which domestic instruction was given to the children, without noting the number of children in each such family. In the localities subsequently visited, this omission, it will have been seen from the preceding section, was supplied, and the average number of children receiving domestic instruction in each family is subjoined—

City of Moorshedabad	. . .	. . .	1·388
Thana Daulatbazar	. . .	. . .	1·279
Thana„ Nanglia	. . .	. . .	1·375
Thana„ Culna	. . .	. . .	1·423
Thana„ Jehanabad	. . .	. . .	1·219
Thana„ Bhawara	. . .	. . .	1·225

I estimated the Rajshahi average at 11/2, which is in excess of all these averages subsequently ascertained, from which it may be inferred that the number of children receiving domestic instruction in that district was probably over-estimated.

Second.—The limited extent of domestic instruction will appear from a comparison of the number of families, Hindu and Musalman, in which it is, with the number in which it is not, given—

		Hindu families.			Musalman families.
		Total number.	Giving domestic instruction.	Not giving domestic instruction.	Total number.	Giving domestic instruction.	Not giving domestic instruction.
City of Moorshedabad	. . .	24,094	147	23,947	10,647	69	10,578
Thana Daulatbazar	. . .	7,058	201	6,857	5,774	53	5,721
Thana„ Nanglia	. . .	7,597	197	7,400	612	10	602
Thana„ Culna	. . .	19,047	414	18,633	4,287	61	4,226
Thana„ Jehanabad	. . .	12,549	295	12,254	2,404	65	4,339
Thana„ Bhawara	. . .	11,946	223	11,723	1,197	12	1,185

Third.—A comparison of the number of children receiving domestic instruction with the number capable from age of receiving will furnish still more precise data—

		Total number of children between 14 and five years of age, i.e., capable of receiving domestic instruction.	Number of children receiving domestic instruction.	Number of children not receiving domestic instruction.
City of Moorshedabad	. . .	15,092	300	14,792
Thana Daulatbazar	. . .	10,428	326	10,102
Thana„ Nanglia	. . .	8,929	285	8,644
Thana„ Culna	. . .	18,176	676	17,500
Thana„ Jehanabad	. . .	15,595	539	15,056
Thana„ Bhawara	. . .	13,409	288	13,121

Fourth.—One other step is necessary to arrive at a definite conclusion respecting the number and proportion of the instructed and uninstructed juvenile population, viz., by adding, together the number of children receiving domestic and school instruction, and deducting the aggregate from the total number of children of the teachable age. The number of children given below as receiving school instruction include those who in the city of Moorshedabad and in the thanas specially mentioned receive instruction whether in Bengali, Hindi, Persian, English, orphans or girls’ schools, and exclude the students in Sanscrit and Arabic schools as being generally above 14 years of age and belonging to the adult population. The students of the Nizamat College in the city of Moorshedabad are also considered as belonging to the adult population:—

		Total number of children between 14 and five years of age.	Number of children receiving school instruction.	Number of children receiving domestic instruction.	Total number of children receiving domestic and school instruction.	Children receiving neither domestic nor school instruction.	Proportion of children capable of receiving to children actually receiving instruction is as 100 to
City of Moorshedabad	. . .	15,092	959	300	1,259	13,833	8·30
Thana Daulatbazar	. . .	10,428	305	326	631	9,797	6·05
Thana„ Nanglia	. . .	8,929	439	285	724	8,205	8·10
Thana„ Culna	. . .	18,176	2,243	676	2,919	15,257	16·05
Thana„ Jehanabad	. . .	15,595	366	539	905	14,690	5·80
Thana„ Bhawara	. . .	13,409	60	288	348	13,061	2·50

The last column of the preceding table expresses, as far as mere number and proportion can express, the sum and substance of this report. It shows that, in the Culna thana of the Burdwan district, where the amount of instruction is greater than in any other of the localities mentioned, of every 100 children of the teachable age, 16 only receive any kind or degree of instruction, while the remaining 84 are destitute of all kinds and all degrees of it; and that, in the Bhawara thana of the Tirhoot district, where the amount of instruction is less than in any other of the localities mentioned, of every 100 children of the teachable age, 21/2 only receive any kind or degree of instruction, while the remaining 971/2 are destitute of all kinds and all degrees of it. The intermediate proportions are those of thana Jehanabad in South Behar and thana Daulatbazar in the Moorshedabad district where there are about six children in every 100 who receive some instruction, leaving 94 wholly uninstructed; and those of thana Nanglia in the Beerbhoom district and the city of Moorshedabad in which there are about eight children in every 100 who receive some instruction, leaving 93 wholly uninstructed. While ignorance is so extensive, can it be a matter of wonder that poverty is extreme, that industry languishes, that crime prevails, and that in the adoption of measures of public policy, however salutary and ameliorating their tendency. Government cannot reckon with confidence on the moral support of an intelligent and instructed community? Is it possible that a benevolent, a wise, a just Government can allow this state of things any longer to continue?

Fifth.—It has been already shown that the schools for girls are exclusively of European origin; and I made it an object to ascertain in those localities in which a census of the population was taken whether the absence of public means of native origin for the instruction of girls was to any extent compensated by domestic instruction. The result is that, in thanas Nanglia, Culna, Jehanabad, and Bhawara, domestic instruction was not in any one instance shared by the girls of those families in which the boys enjoyed its benefits, and that in the city of Moorshedabad and in thana Daulatbazar of the Moorshedabad district I found only five and those Musalman families, in which the daughters received some instruction at home. In one of these instances a girl about seven years of age was taught by a Kath Molla the formal reading of the Koran; in another instance two girls, about eight and ten years of age, were taught Persian by their father, a Pathan, whose object in instructing his daughters was stated to be to procure a respectable alliance for them; and in the three remaining families four girls were taught mere reading and writing. This is another feature in the degraded condition of native society. The whole of the juvenile female population, with exceptions so few that they can scarcely be estimated, are growing up without a single ray of instruction to dawn upon their minds.

Sixth.—In the account given of school instruction it has been shown, with considerable minuteness, to what classes of society, in respect of religion and caste, the children belong; but in the account of domestic instruction the only distinction drawn is between Hindus and Musalmans. The following are the results at one view:—

		Families.			Children.
		Hindu.	Musalman.	Total.	Hindu.	Musalman.	Total.
City of Moorshedabad	. . .	147	69	216	195	105	300
Thana Daulatbazar	. . .	201	53	254	265	61	326
Thana„ Nanglia	. . .	197	10	207	267	18	285
Thana„ Culna	. . .	414	61	475	595	81	676
Thana„ Jehanabad	. . .	295	65	360	435	104	539
Thana„ Bhawara	. . .	223	12	235	275	13	288

The account given in the Second Report of the classes of Hindu society to which those families belong that give domestic instruction to the children is, I believe, in general correct, viz., zemindars and talookdars, shop-keepers and traders, gomashtas and mandals, pandits and priests; but I have been led to conclude that the pandits or learned brahmans constitute a much larger proportion than any other class and probably than all the other classes put together. Few of them send their children to Bengali or Hindi schools where accounts are the chief subject of instruction. Most content themselves with giving their children a knowledge of mere reading and writing at home which is the sole qualification to enable them to begin the study of Sanscrit.

Seventh.—With regard to the subject matter of domestic instruction, the mere reading and writing of the vernacular language is all that is taught in the families of brahman pandits, but in other Hindu families I have found Persian taught. Thus in three families belonging to one village I found three boys who had completed their Bengali education, receiving under the domestic roof instruction in Persian. In another village, of five children who were receiving, domestic instruction one was learning Persian and four Bengali. Again, seven boys in one village who were receiving domestic instruction were the sons of Kath Mollas, and were merely taught the formal reading of the Koran; while four Musalman children in another village were taught Bengali reading and writing. There can be no doubt that the instruction given at home is in general more crude and imperfect, more interrupted and desultory, than that which is obtained in the common schools.