What Was the Educational Progress of South India before Independence?

East India Company, when it assumed political power in India, had no interest in the promotion of education among the masses. It was a time when in England this task was hardly regarded as a public duty: there the first Government grants for education were made only in 1833 and public provision of secondary education dated from 1902. “Education in India under the British Government” wrote Howell in 1872, “was first ignored, then violently and successfully opposed, then conducted on a system now universally admitted to be erroneous and finally placed on its present footing.”

Indigenous pathsalas and madrassas were functioning in every part of South India on individual initiative with no aid from the state where traditional system of instruction was imparted in Sanskrit, Arabic and vernacular languages. In Madras Presidency in 1822 there were about 12,498 such indigenous schools. Fisher’s Memoir (1827) shows 188,650 people under instruction out of a population of 12,850,941 in districts in Madras (Chennai) or 1 in 67.

The problems that faced educational enterprise in South India, as elsewhere, were the paucity of pupils, lack of facilities for educating girls, lack of opportunity for lower caste pupils to get admission, and the primitive nature of the instruction and discipline. These could not persuade the English Company to take initiative because England could get on without a state organization in the matter.

The earlier efforts to introduce change in the existing indigenous system emanated from missionaries, private societies and individuals the missionaries Zeigenbald, Gericke, Kiernander and Swartz were the first to start schools at Madras (Chennai), Cuddalore, Tanjore and Trichinopoly.

The Court of Directors in 1787 had specially commended the exertions of Swartz who “prevailed on the Rajah of Tanjore and the Rajahs of the great and little Maravar to establish schools for teaching English at Tanjore, Ramanadapuram and Shivaganga, the capitals of their respective countries, the two latter assigning Pagodas 300 each for the support of their two seminaries.”

These efforts, being highly significant from the point of view of enlightenment of the minds of the people and impressments of sentiments of esteem and respect for the British nation in them, were given recognition and high appreciation by the Court of Directors by authorising a permanent grant of 250 pagodas each for the three schools at Tanjore, Ramanadapuram and Shivaganga. Thus these three institutions became the first to receive the Company’s special attention; from then onward education of Madras Presidency became a concern of the Company’s Government.

In 1812 a Sunday school was established at St. Thomas Mount, “to afford elementary instruction on the Lancastrian plan to half caste and native children.” A grant of 300 pagodas was made. In 1814 when Ross, the Collector of Cuddapah suggested the establishment of a school in each district, the Government sanctioned one at Cuddapah as an experimental measure. In 1817 and 1818 Hough, a missionary started a school at Palamcottah and another at Tinnevelly.

In 1819 he asked for a grant of 25 pagodas a month which was refused. The Court of Directors, being more enlightened than the local admin­istrators, were displeased with this procedure and asked the Madras Government to explain their stand.

The private character of the school, the uncertainty of Hough’s continuance and the probable inconvenience of the precedent had determined their decision. But the Court’s intervention in such matters had a salutary effect in making the Madras Government follow a more liberal policy toward private schools in the Presidency.

In 1822 Sir Thomas Munro suggested a survey of the actual state education in the various districts under the Madras Government. “It is not my intention, “he wrote, “to recommend any interference whatever in the native schools…the people should be left to manage their schools in their own way. All we ought to do is to facilitate the operations of these schools, by restoring any funds that may have been diverted from them and perhaps granting additional ones.” The Court of Directors gave great credit to Sir Tho­mas Munro for having originated the enquiry.

In 1826 the Madras (now Chennai) Government forwarded to the Court the several returns which they had received. The statements of the district collectors show that the Raja of Tanjore supported 44 schools and 77 colleges and the Zamorin Raja of Calicut supported a college. Schools at public expense, costing Rs. 1361, were also mentioned. The number of people under instruction was (excluding Canara) 188, 650, out of a total of 12,594,193.

In order to understand the nature of the diffusion of instruction among the people, we may examine the statistics of one district, Malabar. There were 759 native schools and one college there. I the schools 2,230 Brahmin boys and five Brahmin girls were studying The number of Vaisya boys was 84 and Vaisya girls 15; Sudra boys, 3,697 and Sudra girls 707 and boys belonging to other classes 2,756 and girls of that category 343. The number of Muslim boys was 3,196 and Muslim girls 1,122. Thus there were 14,153 students in all studying in the schools of Malabar in 1,823 against a total population of 907,575. In the college there were 75 students all of whom belonged to the Brahmin community

Concerning the fees and salaries the Collector wrote: “In Malabar there is only one regular college for instruction in the sciences, but these are taught privately. The private teachers are not paid a fixed stipend but presents ware made to them by their pupils when their education is completed. The school masters receive monthly payment from each scholar from 1/4 rupees to 4 rupees independent of some remuneration, when the scholar leaves schools.

The only college which exists in this district was established and is now supported by the Zamorin Rajah who allows about 2,000 rupees annually for the main­tenance of the pupils and 200 rupees to the instructors. Some lands also appertain to it.” The ignorance of professional teachers and poverty of parents were considered as the cause’s operatively great number of teachers, the number of pupils attached to each teacher was small and the rate paid by each scholar did not exceed from four to six or eight annas. So the teachers did not earn more than six or seven rupees a month, which was insufficient to induce a man properly qualified to follow the profession.

To remedy these defects Munro suggested the endowment of schools by the Government. He also proposed two principal schools in each collectorate, one Hindu and one Muslim, and at a later stage this step should be followed up by placing one school in each Tahsildari, thus giving 15 in each collectorate the salary of collectorate teachers was to be 15 rupees and that of Tahsildari teachers 9 rupees.

In his Minute he wrote “whatever expense Government may incur in the education of the people, will be amply repaid by the improvement of the country, for the general diffusion of knowledge is inseparably followed by a taste for comforts of life, by exertion to acquire them and by the growing prosperity of the people.”

But the Government decided to start only three Tahsildari schools in each district with the local language as the medium of instruction. The teacher was to be nominated by the people of the place; his salary was fixed at Rs. 9 per mensem. The low salary, Munro explained would be augmented by the rates paid by the students: “Tahsildari school master who receives nine rupees monthly from Government will get at least as much more from his scholars and considering all circumstances his station will be probably better than that of a parish school master in Scotland.” Admission to these schools was to be free to all classes from Brahmin to Sudra but Pulayas and other untouchable classes were excluded. Later on Collectorate schools were established in different districts.

On Munro’s recommendation a Committee of Public Instruction was formed at Madras (now Chennai). A training school was established there for training teacher candidates. Civil authority in each district was to select two candidates one Hindu and one Muslim for this purpose. They were allowed a stipend of Rs. 15 per mensem. This scheme devised by Munro was later discontinued because of the change of attitude shown by the Directors.

The new Directors were not in favour of imparting education to all and sundry in the country; it should, according to them, be confined to the higher classes of the country. Improvements in education they said “which most effectually contribute to elevate the normal and intellectual condition of the people are those which concern the education of the higher classes of countrymen.” This accounts for the rise of an educated elite belonging to the upper castes of Madras Presidency and the domination established by the Brahmin community over others in all fields of activity at a later stage.

The Supreme Government in furtherance of this new policy, asked the Madras Government to withdraw the aid given to the Tahsildari schools and utilize the available funds for establishing an English college at Madras (Chennai), the surplus, if any, to be earmarked for starting English schools at some of the principal stations in the interior.

The Bengal Dispatch of 1835 which led to the abolition of the Tahsildari and Collectorate schools caused great harm to the interests of the ordinary masses of the lower castes. Thereafter educational policy changed frequently. In 1836 the Board of Public Instruction was replaced by a Committee of Native Education which again was replaced in 1841 by a University Board.

It was Lord Elphinstone, Governor of Madras (now Chennai), who set in motion a change of policy in the field of education. He set aside the recommendations of the committee for native education and elaborated a scheme of his own which had consider­able influence of the state of education in the Presidency. The most important part of his scheme was the plan for the establishment of a Central Collegiate Institution or University.

S. Sathianathan describes Elphinstone’s scheme thus: The scheme was proposed in 1839 and in the course of the following year all the preliminary measures for the establishment of the High School department of the University were carried out. For the promotion of education in the interior Lord Elphinstone proposed the formation at some of the principal towns of superior schools, which might be eventually raised into colleges, each college becoming the centre of a circle of Zillah schools. The provincial and Zillah schools were to be connected with the Madras University by the establishment of fellowships in the latter institution, to be competed for by the most advanced students of the provincial schools.

In these schools the English language was to be the medium of instruction, and an acquain­tance with it is indispensable qualification for admission, subject to such relaxation at the outset as might be requisite. He accordingly recommended the establishment of four schools in the first instance at Trichinopoly, Masulipatam, Bellary and Calicut for the benefit of the Tamil, Telugu, Canarese and Malayalam Districts respectively. The scheme for formation of a University Board was fully approved by Government and in January 1840 the first Board was constituted.

Elphinstone’s scheme was also devised for benefiting only the intellectually strong classes. This University Board was later on replaced by a Council of Education in June 1845, which lasted only for two years. University Board was revived but again gave way to the Council of Education in 1848 to look after the affairs of education in the Presidency.

Progress of education in Madras Presidency was hampered by several factors. The Company’s total unawareness of the necessity for imparting proper education to the masses was the first factor in the beginning stage of British rule. The Supreme Government had no definite policy in this regard. The result was that education depended upon individual governor’s caprice or idea of progress. Munro had a special faculty to feel the pulse of the public requirement; therefore his education policy was one that sought to cater to the intellectual needs of a traditional society.

Then came the theory that education should reach only those who possessed leisure and influence from whom, through a process of diffusion, it should reach the lower strata. “The light must touch the mountain tops before it can pierce to the levels and depths”, said the advocates of this policy.

It was followed by the controversy over the medium, whether it should be vernaculars or English and the decision of the Government in favour of English. This decision was momentous as it led to the monopolization of education by certain classes of people who became the beneficiaries of the British rule. One account of their superior qualifications they got a lion’s share of public offices. A wide cleavage in the social life was created by this educational policy of the British Government.