Chapter 6 : CIVILISING THE NATIVE

EDUCATING THE NATION

(history)
Notes :-
Introduction
Indian history books

• The British in India wanted not only territorial conquest and control over revenues but also felt that they had
a cultural mission and had to “civilise the natives”, change their customs and values.

How the British saw Education

The tradition of Orientalism

• In 1783, William Jones arrived in Calcutta who was a linguist.

→ He had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew French and English, Arabic and Persian.
→ At Calcutta, he started learning Sanskrit language, grammar and poetry.
→ Soon he was studying ancient Indian texts on law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality, arithmetic,
medicine and the other sciences.

• Englishmen like Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed were also busy discovering the ancient
Indian heritage, mastering Indian languages and translating Sanskrit and Persian works into English.

• Together with them, Jones set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick
Researches.

• Jones and Colebrooke went about discovering ancient texts, understanding their meaning, translating them,
and making their findings known to others.
→ They believed this project would help the British learn from Indian culture and also help Indians
rediscover their own heritage, and understand the lost glories of their past.
→ In this process, the British would become the guardians of Indian culture as well as its masters.

• Influenced by such ideas, many Company officials argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather than
Western learning.

• They felt that institutions should be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts and teach Sanskrit
and Persian literature and poetry.

• In 1781, a madrasa was set up in Calcutta to promote the study of Arabic, Persian and Islamic law

• In 1791, the Hindu College was established in Benaras to encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit texts that
would be useful for the administration of the country.

• Not all officials shared these views and many crticised the Orientalists.

“Grave errors of the East”

• From the early nineteenth century many British officials began to criticise the Orientalist vision of learning.

• According to them, knowledge of the East was full of errors and unscientific thought.

• James Mill was one of those who attacked the Orientalists and declared that the aim of education ought to be
to teach what was useful and practical.
→ So, Indians should be made familiar with the scientific and technical advances that the West had made,
rather than with the poetry and sacred literature of the Orient.

• By the 1830s the attack on the Orientalists became sharper.

→ Thomas Babington Macaulay saw India as an uncivilised country that needed to be civilised.
→ According to him, no branch of Eastern knowledge could be compared to what England had produced.

• Macaulay gave importance to the need to teach the English language.

• He felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature the world had
produced.
→ It would make them aware of the developments in Western science and philosophy.
→ Thus, it is a way of civilising people, changing their tastes, values and culture.

• The English Education Act of 1835 was introduced.

→ The decision was to make English the medium of instruction for higher education and to stop the promotion
of Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College.

Education for commerce

• In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London sent an educational despatch to the
Governor-General in India come to be known as Wood’s Despatch which emphasised once again the practical
benefits of a system of European learning, as opposed to Oriental knowledge.

• It said, European learning would enable Indians to recognise the advantages that flow from the expansion of
trade and commerce, and make them see the importance of developing the resources of the country.

• Wood’s Despatch also argued that European learning would improve the moral character of Indians and
would make them truthful and honest.

• Following the 1854 Despatch, education departments of the government were set up to extend control over
all matters regarding education.
What Happened to the Local Schools?

The report of William Adam

• In the 1830s, William Adam, a Scottish missionary, toured the districts of Bengal and Bihar and asked by the
Company to report on the progress of education in vernacular schools.

• Adam found that there were over 1 lakh pathshalas in Bengal and Bihar imparting education to over 20 lakh
children.
→ These institutions were set up by wealthy people, or the local community.

• The system of education was flexible.

→ There were no fixed fee
→ There were no printed books
→ There were no separate school building
→ There were no benches or chairs
→ There were no blackboards
→ There were no system of separate classes
→ There were no roll-call registers
→ There were no annual examinations
→ There were no regular time-table.

• Adam discovered that this flexible system was suited to local needs.
→ For example, classes were not held during harvest time when rural children often worked in the
fields.

New routines, new rules

• Up to the mid-nineteenth century, the Company was concerned primarily with higher education.

• After 1854 the Company decided to improve the system of vernacular education.

• Each guru was asked to submit periodic reports and take classes according to a regular timetable.

• Teaching was now to be based on textbooks and learning was to be tested through a system of annual
examination.

• Students were asked to pay a regular fee, attend regular classes, sit on fixed seats, and obey the new rules of
discipline.

• Pathshalas which accepted the new rules were supported through government grants.
• The new rules and routines affected the children from poor peasant families negatively as new system
demanded regular attendance, even during harvest time.

• Inability to attend school came to be seen as indiscipline, as evidence of the lack of desire to learn.

The Agenda for a National Education

• From the early nineteenth century, many thinkers from different parts of India began to talk of the need for a
wider spread of education.

• Some Indians felt that Western education would help modernise India
→ They urged the British to open more schools, colleges and universities, and spend more money on
education.

• There were other Indians who reacted against Western education. Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore
were two such individuals.

“English education has enslaved us” (Mahatma Gandhi's view on Indian Education)

• According to Mahatma Gandhi, the colonial education created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians.

• It made them see Western civilisation as superior, and destroyed the pride they had in their own culture.

• Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect.

• As per Mahatma Gandhi, western education focused on reading and writing rather than oral knowledge; it
valued textbooks rather than lived experience and practical knowledge.

• He argued that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul.

• Literacy – or simply learning to read and write – by itself did not count as education.

Tagore’s “abode of peace” (Rabindranath Tagore's view on Indian Education)

• Rabindranath Tagore started the Santiniketan in 1901.

• Tagore felt that childhood ought to be a time of self-learning, outside the rigid and restricting discipline of the
schooling system set up by the British.

• Teachers had to be imaginative, understand the child, and help the child develop her curiosity.

• According to Tagore, the existing schools killed the natural desire of the child to be creative, her sense of
wonder.
• Tagore was of the view that creative learning could be encouraged only within a natural environment.
→ So he set up santiniketan, 100 kilometres away from Calcutta in a natural setting, where living in harmony
with nature, children could cultivate their natural creativity.

Difference in Gandhi and Tagore view about Indian Education

• Gandhiji was highly critical of Western civilisation and its worship of machines and technology. Tagore
wanted to combine elements of modern Western civilisation with what
he saw as the best within Indian tradition.

• Gandhiji considered work with their hands, learn a craft, and know how different things operated as
education while Tagore emphasised the need to teach science and technology at Santiniketan, along with art,
music and dance.

Extra questions answers :-

Short Answer Type Questions
1. Where were classes held under the system of pathshalas?

Answer: In some places classes were held under a banyan tree, in other places in the corner of a village shop or temple, or at the
guru’s home.

2. What type of education was given to the children in pathshalas?

Answer: Teaching was oral, and the guru decided what to teach, in accordance with the needs of the students.

3. Why were classes not held during harvest time in pathshala system?

Answer: Classes were not held during harvest time in pathshala system because rural children had to work in the fields during
harvest time.

4. What task was assigned to the pandit by the Company?

Answer: The Company assigned the pandit to visit the pathshalas and try to improve the standard of teaching.

5. How were Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College viewed by the British?

Answer: These institutions were seen as “temples of darkness that were falling of themselves into decay”.

6. What different languages did William Jones study?

Answer: Jones was a linguist. He had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew French and English, had picked up Arabic from a
friend, and had also learnt Persian.

7. Why was the Hindu College established in Benaras?

Answer: The Hindu College was established in Benaras in 1791 to encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit texts that would be useful
for the administration of the country.

8. What did Thomas Macaulay urge the British government in India?

Answer: Thomas Macaulay urged that the British government in India stop wasting public money in promoting Oriental learning, for
it was of no practical use.

9. How does Mahatma Gandhi view literacy?

Answer: According to Mahatma Gandhi literacy is not the end of education nor even the beginning. It is only one of the means
whereby man and woman can be educated. Literacy in itself is not education.

10. Why was the East India Company opposed to missionary activities in India?

Answer: Until 1813, the East India Company was opposed to missionary activities in India. It feared that missionary activities would
provoke reaction amongst the local population and make them suspicious of British presence in India.

11. What do you mean by wood’s despatch?

Answer: In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London sent an educational despatch to the Governor-General
in India. Issued by Charles Wood, the President of the Board of Control of the Company, it has come to be known as Wood’s
Despatch.

12. Why did William Jones feel the need to study Indian history, philosophy and law?

Answer: William Jones felt the need to study Indian history, philosophy and law because only those texts could reveal the real ideas
and laws of the Hindus and Muslims, and only a new study of these texts could form the basis of future development in India.

13. Why did Mahatma Gandhi want to teach children handicrafts?

Answer: He argued that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul. Literacy – or simply learning to read and write – by
itself did not count as education. People had to work with their hands, learn a craft, and know how different things operated. This
would develop their mind and their capacity to understand.

14. What does vernacular mean? Why did the British use this term in colonial countries like India?

Answer: Vernacular is a term generally used to refer to a local language or dialect as distinct from what is seen as the standard
language. In colonial countries like India, the British used the term to mark the difference between the local languages of everyday
use and English – the language of the imperial masters.
15. What do you mean by Tagore’s abode of peace?
Or
How did Tagore view his school namely Santiniketan?

Answer: Tagore was of the view that creative learning could be encouraged only within a natural environment. So he chose to set up
his school 100 kilometres away from Calcutta, in a rural setting. He saw it as an abode of peace (santiniketan), where living in
harmony with nature, children could cultivate their natural creativity.

Long Answer Type Questions

1. Why many British officials criticized the Orientalists?

Answer: From the early nineteenth century many British officials began to criticise the Orientalist vision of learning. They said that
knowledge of the East was full of errors and unscientific thought; Eastern literature was non-serious and light-hearted. So they
argued that it was wrong on the part of the British to spend so much effort in encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanskrit
language and literature.

2. What measures were taken by the English Education Act of 1835?

Or
Enumerate three features of the English Education Act of 1835.
Or
What were the provisions of English Education Act of 1835?

Answer: Measures taken by the English Education Act of 1835 were:

 English was made the medium of instruction for higher education.

 Promotion of Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College was stopped. These institutions were
seen as “temples of darkness that were falling of themselves into decay”.
 English textbooks began to be produced for schools.
3. Why did Mahatma Gandhi think that English education had enslaved Indians?

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi thought that English education had enslaved Indians because:

 Colonial education created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians.

 It made them see Western civilisation as superior, and destroyed the pride they had in their own culture.
 Indians educated in these institutions began admiring British rule.
4. What measures were taken by the British after issuing of Wood’s Despatch?
Or
Explain the measures introduced by the British following the 1854 Despatch.

Answer: Following the 1854 Despatch, several measures were introduced by the British.

 Education departments of the government were set up to extend control over all matters regarding education.
 Steps were taken to establish a system of university education. Universities were established in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.
 Attempts were also made to bring about changes within the system of school education.
5. How were the views of Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi on the west different?
Or
What were the differences between the educational views of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore?
Or
What were the differences between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore’s views on English education?
Or
How Tagore’s views were different from Mahatma Gandhi regarding national education?

Answer: In many senses Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi thought about education in similar ways. There were, however, differences
too. Gandhiji was highly critical of Western civilisation and its worship of machines and technology. Tagore wanted to combine
elements of modern Western civilisation with what he saw as the best within Indian tradition. He emphasized the need to teach
science and technology at Santiniketan, along with art, music and dance.

6. Why did James Mill and think that European education was essential in India?

Answer: James Mill and Thomas Macaulay criticized the Orientalists.

According to James mill, the aim of education ought to be to teach what was useful and practical. So Indians should be made
familiar with the scientific and technical advances that the West had made, rather than with the poetry and sacred literature of the
Orient.

Thomas Macaulay felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature the world had produced; it
would make them aware of the developments in Western science and philosophy. Teaching of English could thus be a way of
civilising people, changing their tastes, values and culture.

7. Why did many company officials in India want to promote Indian rather than western learning?

Answer: Many Company officials argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather than Western learning. This so because:

 They felt that institutions should be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts and teach Sanskrit and Persian
literature and poetry.
 The officials also thought that Hindus and Muslims ought to be taught what they were already familiar with, and what they
valued and treasured, not subjects that were alien to them.
 Only then, they believed, could the British hope to win a place in the hearts of the “natives”; only then could the alien rulers
expect to be respected by their subjects.
8. What measures did the Company undertake to improve the system of vernacular education?
Or
How were the irregularities of pathshalas checked by the Company?

Answer: Measures taken by the Company to improve the system of vernacular education were:

 It appointed a number of government pandits, each in charge of looking after four to five schools. The task of the pandit was to
visit the pathshalas and try and improve te standard of teaching.
 Each guru was asked to submit periodic reports and take classes according to a regular timetable.
 Teaching was now to be based on textbooks and learning was to be tested through a system of annual examination.
 Students were asked to pay a regular fee, attend regular classes, sit on fixed seats, and obey the new rules of discipline.
9. What type of education did Mahatma Gandhi want in India?

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi’s views on education were:

 Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect.
 Mahatma Gandhi strongly felt that Indian languages ought to be the medium of teaching. Education in English crippled Indians,
distanced them from their own social surroundings, and made them “strangers in their own lands”. Speaking a foreign tongue,
despising local culture, the English educated did not know how to relate to the masses.
 He argued that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul. Literacy – or simply learning to read and write – by itself
did not count as education. People had to work with their hands, learn a craft, and know how different things operated. This
would develop their mind and their capacity to understand.
10. What was the importance of Wood’s despatch?

Answer: Importance of Wood’s despatch

 One of the practical uses the Despatch pointed to was economic. European learning, it said, would enable Indians to recognise
the advantages that flow from the expansion of trade and commerce, and make them see the importance of developing the
resources of the country. Introducing them to European ways of life, would change their tastes and desires, and create a
demand for British goods, for Indians would begin to appreciate and buy things that were produced in Europe.
 Wood’s Despatch also argued that European learning would improve the moral character of Indians. It would make them
truthful and honest, and thus supply the Company with civil servants who could be trusted and depended upon.
11. What was the report of William Adam about education in vernacular schools?
Or
Write a short note on the report of William Adam regarding education system prevalent in India.

Answer: The report Adam produced is interesting.

 Adam found that there were over 1 lakh pathshalas in Bengal and Bihar. These were small institutions with no more than 20
students each. These institutions were set up by wealthy people, or the local community. At times they were started by a teacher
(guru).
 The system of education was flexible. There were no fixed fee, no printed books, no separate school building, no benches or
chairs, no blackboards, no system of separate classes, no rollcall registers, no annual examinations, and no regular time-table. In
some places classes were held under a banyan tree, in other places in the corner of a village shop or temple, or at the guru’s
home.
 Teaching was oral, and the guru decided what to teach, in accordance with the needs of the students. Students were not
separated out into different classes: all of them sat together in one place. The guru interacted separately with groups of children
with different levels of learning.
 Adam discovered that this flexible system was suited to local needs. For instance, classes were not held during harvest time
when rural children often worked in the fields.