as bad in Political Economy. The organiser of research in such, a place is, therefore, called upon to make bricks without straw.
It is futile to argue that in many of the Universities of Europe the total number graduating every year is as small as at Patna, and yet valuable research is being done there. We should remember that in these happier European countries only the pick of the youth, the men of brain who feel a call for intellectual pursuits, go to the Universities, and research scholars from other provinces or even countries and Civil service probationers (selected by the stiffest competition) attend the lecture of the highest teachers, who thus get a fit audience though few. Not so in India, where everybody must graduate at a University before he can read for the legal, medical and even commercial professions.
Fairly large classes are also necessary for the efficiency of higher teaching, as distinct on the one hand from mere lecturing and on the other the conducting of specialised research, in the first of which the number of the audience is immaterial and in the second a hindrance. But an Honours or M. A. class must have enough boys to make it possible to hold discussions, mutual criticism of papers written by the boys, and informal exchange of ideas by students of the same “school”. In such classes the teacher’s duty is to inspire and guide, the student must do his own reading and noting, and therefore the impact of keen young mind on keen young mind is absolutely necessary to stimulate, precipitate and clarify thought. Seminar work is as essential at this stage as mere lecturing, and a Seminar implies a fairly large group of students of the same “school” (subject). Our new small Universities will fail to secure this element for several years to come, and in this respect they will tend to lower the standard and work for inefficiency of result compared with the cost,—not through any fault of the teacher, but simply through his lack of the necessary material for a ‘school’.
III. Tendency to lower the standard.
The success or failure of these new Universities must depend upon the capacity and spirit of the gentlemen ( necessarily local magnates and educationists predominantly Indian ) who form their Senates and Boards. If we remain content with duplicating the administrative machinery (miscalled University) and fail, for want of funds, to improve the Colleges, and what is even more important, the secondary schools,—then the actual teaching being nowise better than before, there will be the same heavy failure at the examinations. The representatives of the public on the Senate will year after year condemn this “massacre of the innocents”, the teachers on the Senate cannot be expected to approve of a ‘result’ which is a scathing commentary on the efficiency of their teaching. Who then can be expected to stem the tide of agitation for cheapening degrees by lowering the standard of examination or profuse liberality in ‘grace marks’? The few foreigners on the Senate? A proconsular Chancellor barricaded behind despatch-boxes? Vain hope. Therefore, the mere creation of new universities unaccompanied by the much-needed and long-delayed improvement in the prospects and quality of the college teachers and school-masters at an immense recurring expenditure, will lower the standard of education here more quickly than the overgrown federal old Universities ever did.
IV. The Pre-requisites of Research
I trust it will not be considered presumption on my part to offer advice in the matter of research. Having been engaged in the original investigation of history for over 22 years now and groped my way in the dark, unassisted, for years till I unlearnt my mistakes and found out the right method for myself,— I consider it my duty to place my dearly-bought experience at the disposal of my countrymen.
Original research presupposes the collection of materials, such as manuscripts, rare old printed books, back volumes of the journals of learned societies, antiquities, coins and prehistoric remains (which last, however, are often supplied by the
