Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 3/Chapter 2/Section 8

SECTION VIII.

Houses of Industry and Experimental Farms.

My chief object in this Section is to re-call attention to recommendations proceeding from the highest authorities which do not appear to have received all the consideration they deserve.

Lord Moira, in the Minute of 1815, to which I have had occasion repeatedly to refer, speaking of the state of public tuition in the principal towns, adds—“In these towns will also be found the same medium scale of education for the class of shop-keepers, artificers, and laborers as in the country villages, but in these towns and principally in the chief station of the zillah, and in the neighborhood of our jails, will be found a numerous population which seems to call for the particular attention of Government. I allude to the offspring of mendicants and vagrants who, nurtured in idleness and vice, are destined to recruit the ranks of the professional thieves infesting all great cities. Houses of industry for the education, employment, and reformation of these infant profligates appear to he particularly needed.”

The Court of Directors in a revenue letter to Bengal, dated 15th January 1812, makes the following remarks on the means of improving the system of Indian agriculture:—“To a Government taking an interest in the improvement of the country with a view to the increase of its own revenue, it might be a farther subject of consideration whether more could not be done than has hitherto been attempted towards bettering the system of Indian agriculture. The rural economy of the Hindus we understand, generally speaking, to be wretched in the extreme. The rudeness of their implements, the slovenliness of their practice, and their total ignorance of the most simple principles of science, are said to be equally remarkable. It has, however, been stated in a late publication that the agriculture of some parts of Mysore constitutes an exception to this remark; while it shows the Hindoo farmer in certain situations to be neither stupid nor indocile. Whether the general system of cultivation be susceptible of improvement, and whether Government can successfully contribute to the accomplishment of so desirable an object, are questions, though of high moment, perhaps not easy of solution. But if an attempt at improvement is at all to be hazarded under the auspices of Government, it surely cannot be made in any way with such prospect of success as when coupled with a plan for rendering it subservient to the increase of the Government revenue as well as to the prosperity of its subjects. The nature of this attempt and the mode in which it ought to be directed would rest with those to point out whom residence in the country and an intimate acquaintance with the characters and manners of the natives may have qualified for giving advice upon such topics. It is of all things desirable to ascertain whether the rude implements and accustomed processes of the Indian peasant could be advantageously supplanted by those of Europe, and whether the establishment of experimental farms in various parts of the country hinder the superintendence of proper persons selected by Government for the purpose might not be useful, in the way of example, as a corrective of some of the vices and defects of the prevailing system. We are fully sensible that the poverty, prejudices, and indolence of the natives of India strongly operate against improvement. These are, in fact, the most inveterate enemies to improvement in all countries, but they are no where invincible when met with prudence, skill, and perseverance. We do not mean that we should vexatiously interfere with the usages of the inhabitants, or that we should attempt forcibly to change their habits,—far from it. But on the other hand, when their habits are bad, let us not plead their attachment to them as an apology perhaps for our own indolence in not endeavoring to correct them. Our efforts may for a long time be unavailing; but, if judiciously directed, we do not despair of their eventual success.”—''Selections, Vol. I., p.'' 66, ''paras.'' 99—105.

The Honourable Court points so directly, in the concluding part of the extract, to another cause than “the poverty, prejudices, and indolence of the natives of India” operating against improvement, that it is not necessary to corroborate this prescient warning except by stating without comment that a period of about twenty-three years has elapsed since Lord Moira’s proposition was made for the establishment of houses of industry at the chief station of each zillah, and a period of about twenty-six years since the Court’s proposition for the establishment of experimental farms in various parts of the country; and that there is as much necessity now for re-urging the consideration and adoption of these or similar measures as there ever was. It may be hoped that the attention of Government will now be revived to both these designs with some practical result; and when the subject shall receive full consideration, it will probably appear that the Khas Mahals afford ample scope and means for experimental farms and houses of industry with a view both to “the increase of the Government revenue” and “the prosperity of its subjects.”