द ब्यूटीफुल ट्री: १८वीं सदी में भारत की स्वदेशी गुरुकुल शिक्षा (धर्मपाल)

boys in school being at 35.1% is truly astonishing.57 Even
amongst the Vysees, the Soodras and the other castes in
Malabar, the proportion of girls to boys was fairly high at 15.5%,
19.1% and 12.4% respectively; the proportion of the totals being
18.3%. That two such widely separated areas (Malabar on the
west coast while Jeypoor Zamindary being in the hilly tracts on
the southern border of Orissa) had such a sociological similarity
requires deeper study.
V
The undertaking of the survey was welcomed by London in May
1825, when it wrote to Madras: ‘We think great credit is due to
Sir Thomas Munro for having originated the idea of this enquiry.’
However, after receipt of the survey information and papers, the
reply Madras received ridiculed and altogether dismissed what
had been reported to be functioning. In the public despatch of
16 April 1828, Madras was told that ‘the information sent’, while
lacking in certain respects, was ‘yet sufficiently complete to
show, that in providing the means of a better education for the
natives, little aid is to be expected from the instruments of
education which already exist.’
ADAM’S REPORT ON INDIGENOUS EDUCATION IN
BENGAL AND BIHAR
Thirteen years after the initiation of the survey in the Madras
Presidency, a more limited semi-official survey of indigenous
education was taken up in the Presidency of Bengal. This was
what is known as the celebrated Adam’s Reports, or to give the
full title Reports on the State of Education in Bengal 1836 and
1838.58
46

It consists of three reports: the first, dated 1st July 1836, being a
survey of the available existing information regarding indigenous
education and its nature and facilities in the various districts of
Bengal (pp.1-126); the second, dated 23 December 1835, being a
survey of the prevalent situation undertaken by W. Adam in the
Thana of Nattore in the district of Rajshahy (pp.127-208,
pp.528-578); and the third, dated 28 April 1838, being a survey
of the situation in parts of Murshedabad, and the whole of the
districts of Beerbhoom, Burdwan, South Behar and Tirhoot,
ending with Adam's reflections, recommendations and
conclusions (pp.209-467).
Adam's Phraseology and Presentation
In spite of the controversies which Adam's Reports have given
rise to—the most notable one being his mention of there being
perhaps 1,00,000 village schools still existing in Bengal and
Bihar in some form till the 1830s—the total impression
produced by them is one of extensive decay of these institutions.
Largely due to Adam's evangelical, moralistic tone, reading them
is a rather depressing business. Adam himself was no great
admirer of the Indian teacher, or the nature and content of
Indian education. However, as Adam started from the view that
the British Government of the day should interest itself in the
sphere of elementary and higher Indian education and also
support it financially, he seemed to have thought it necessary to
use all possible arguments and imagery to bring home this
point. Under the circumstances, it was necessary for him to
dramatise the decay as well as the relative state of ignorance of
the teachers, as well as the lack of books, buildings, etc., in
order to evoke the desired sympathetic response. Furthermore, it
is important to note that W. Adam initially had come to Bengal
in 1818 as a Baptist Missionary. Though he left missionary
activity after some years, and took to journalism instead, he
remained a product of his contemporary British times, a period
dominated by two principal currents of opinion: one which saw
the necessity of evangelising
47

India, advocated by men like William Wilberforce; the other, its
westernisation, symbolised by men like T.B. Macaulay and
William Bentinck. As indicated earlier, both ideas were
encompassed in the Charter Act of 1813. Additionally, the
reports of Adam, although not formal official documents, were
nonetheless sanctioned and financed by the orders of the
Governor General himself. Naturally, therefore, while they may
imply many things—as do some of the reports of the Madras
Presidency collectors—they were nevertheless phrased in such a
way as not to lay the blame directly on past government policy
and action.
Varied and Valuable Sociological Data
The more important point which comes through Adam’s
voluminous writing, however, was his remarkable industry and
the detail and variety of data which he was able to collect: first,
from the post-1800 existing sources; and second, through his
own investigations. While the controversy about his 1,00,000
village schools in Bengal and Bihar is finally forgotten, the
material which he provided (regarding the caste composition of
the pupils taught as well as the teachers, their average ages at
various periods, and the books which were then in use in the
districts he surveyed) will still have great relevance.
Selections Reproduced
Some selections from Adam’s material are reproduced in the
present work (Annexure D). These include: (i) descriptions of
elementary education taken from the first and second reports; (ii)
description of higher learning, from the first report, (iii) a section
on Medical education taken from the second report, based on
investigations in Nattore, Rajshahy; and (iv), some tabulations of
the basic data for the five surveyed districts contained in the
third report. This latter tabulation is given under the following
heads:
a. Elementary Schools and caste-wise division of students
b. Elementary Schools and caste-wise division of teachers
c. Books used in Elementary Schools
d. Details of institutions of Sanskritic Learning
e. Books used in Sanskritic Studies
f. Details of institutions of Persian and Arabic Learning
g. Books used in Persian and Arabic Studies
h. Subject and districtwise duration of Study
48

The First Report: A Survey of Post-1800 Material
Adam's first report is a general statement of the situation and a
presentation of the data which he could derive from post-1800
official and other sources. His conclusions: first, every village
had at least one school and in all probability in Bengal and
Bihar with 1,50,748 villages, ‘there will still be 1,00,000’ villages
that have these schools.⁵⁹ Second, on the basis of personal
observation and what he had learnt from other evidence, he
inferred that on an average there were around 100 institutions of
higher learning in each district of Bengal. Consequently, he
concluded that the 18 districts of Bengal had about 1,800 such
institutions. Computing the number studying in these latter at
the lowest figure of six scholars in each, he also computed that
some 10,800 scholars should be studying in them. He further
observed that while the elementary schools ‘are generally held in
the homes of some of the most respectable native inhabitants or
very near them’, the institutions of higher learning had buildings
generally of clay with ‘sometimes three or five rooms’ and ‘in
others nine or eleven rooms’, with a reading-room which is also
of clay. These latter places were also used for the residence of
the scholars; and the scholars were usually fed and clothed by
the teachers, and where required, were assisted by the local
people. After describing the method of teaching in both types of
institutions and going into their daily routine, Adam then
presented and examined the post-1800 data on the subject,
district by district. Table 10 gives an abstract of this
examination.
The Second Report: Survey of Nattore Thana
The second report was wholly devoted to Adam's study of the
situation in the Thana of Nattore in the district of Rajshahy. It
was like a modern pilot survey in which Adam developed his
49

Table: 10: INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING ACCORDING TO POST-1800 OTHER SOURCES
WITH ADAM'S OBSERVATIONS
44

District or place Population Hindoo Muslim Institutions of Higher Learning mentioned in
Estimate* Ratio Post-1800 accounts with Adam's observations

Dinajpur (p.16) 30,00,000 (1808) 3 to 7 Buchanan: 16; Adam: some mistake as Districts
adjoin
Purnea (p.16) 14,50,000 (1801) 57 to 47 Buchanan: 119
29,04,380 (1810)
Calcutta (p.17) 2,00,000 (1822) Ward: (1818): 28, Scholars: 173
(Approx.)
Nuddea (p.17) 7,64,430 (1802) 11 to 5 Ward: (1818) 31, Scholars: 747, Logic, Law.
(p.78) H.H. Wilson: (1820): 25, Scholars 500-600
(p.79) Authorities: (1816) 46, Scholars: 380
(i) Koomaru Hutta (p.81) Ward: 7-8
(ii) Bhatpara (p.81) Ward: 7-8
24 Pergunnahs (p.22) 16,25,000 (1801) Hamilton: (1801): 190
(i) Juyunugor (p.22) Ward: 17-18
(ii) Mujilee Pooroo (p.22) Ward: 17-18
(iii) Andolee (p.22) Ward: 10-12
Midnapore (pp. 50-51) 15,00,000 (1801) 6 to 1 Hamilton: None, Adam: 40
Cuttack (Puri) (p.54) 12,96,365 10 to 1 Stirling: Principal Street of 'Maths'
Hugly (pp. 57-58) 10,00,000 (1801) 3 to 1 Ward: (1818), Hamilton: (1801): 150, Law
(i) Vansariya Logic: 12-14
(ii) Triveni :7-8
50

51

methods and fashioned his tools for the more extensive survey
which was his primary aim. The results of this Nattore survey of
485 villages were tabulated, village by village, by Adam. Further
details were provided for some of them in another tabulation.
The population of this Thana was 1,20,928; the number of
families 30,028 (in the proportion of one Hindoo to two
Muslims); the number of elementary schools 27, and of schools
of learning 38 (all these latter being Hindoo). In 1,588 families
(80% of these being Hindoo), children occasionally received
instruction at home. The number of scholars in elementary
schools was 262, and education in them was between the ages of
8-14; while the scholars in schools of learning were 397, 136 of
these being local persons and 261 from distant places, the latter
also receiving both food and lodging. The average period of study
in these latter institutions was 16 years, from about the age of
11 to the age of 27. However, while the number in elementary
schools was so low, these 485 villages nonetheless had 123
native general medical practitioners, 205 village doctors, 21
mostly Brahmin smallpox inoculators practising according to the
old Indian method,⁶⁰ 297 women-midwives, and 722 snake
conjurors.
The Third Report: Survey of Five Districts
The third report of Adam has the most data. In this report, Adam
gives the findings of his surveys in part of the district of
Murshedabad (20 thanas with a population of 1,24,804 out of 37
thanas with a total district population of 9,69,447), and the
whole of the districts of Beerbhoom and Burdwan in Bengal, and
of South Behar and Tirhoot in Bihar. In one thana of each
district, Adam carried out the enquiries personally and also
gathered additional information. In the rest, it was done for him
according to his instructions and proformas by his trained
Indian assistants. Earlier, Adam’s intention was to visit every
village in person; but he found that ‘the sudden appearance of a
European in a village often inspired terror, which it was always
difficult, and sometimes impossible, to subdue.’(p.214) He,
therefore, gave up this idea of a personal visit to every village; in
part to save time.
Language-wise Division
The total number of schools of all types in the selected districts
numbered 2,566. These schools were divided into Bengali
(1,098),
52

Hindi (375), Sanskrit (353), Persian (694), Arabic (31), English
(8), Girls (6), and infants (1). The number of schools in the
district of Midnapore was also given: 548 Bengali schools, 182
Oriya schools, 48 Persian schools, and one English school. Table
11 gives the position, district-wise:
Table 11: NUMBER AND TYPE OF SCHOOLS
Type of Mursh- Beer- Burd- South Tirhoot Total Midna-
School idabad bhom wan Behar (p- of pore
(p.223) (p.224) (p.225) (p.226) 226) Sur- (p.222)
(part (whole (whole (whole (whole veyed (whole
Dist.) Dist.) Dist.) Dist.) Dist.) Dists Dist.)
BENGALI 62 407 629 1,098 548
HINDI 5 5 285 80 375
ORIYA 182
SANSCRIT 24 56 190 27 56 353
PERSIAN 17 71 93 279 234 694 48
ARABIC 2 2 11 12 4 31
ENGLISH 2 2 3 1 8 1
GIRLS 1 1 4 6
INFANTS 1
113 544 931 604 374 2,556 779
Four Stages of School Instruction
Adam divided the period spent in elementary schools into four
stages. According to him these were: the first stage, seldom
exceeding ten days, during which the young scholar was taught
‘to form the letters of the alphabet on the ground with a small
stick or slip of bamboo’, or on a sandboard. The second stage,
extending from two and a half to four years, was ‘distinguished
by the use of the palm leaf as the material on which writing is
performed’, and the scholar was ‘taught to write and read’, and
commit ‘to memory the Cowrie Table, the Numeration Table as
far as 100, the Katha Table (a land measure Table), and the Ser
Table’, etc. The third stage extended ‘from two to three years,
which are employed in writing on the plantain-leaf.’ Addition,
subtraction, and other arithmetical rules were additionally
taught during this period. In the fourth, and last stage, of up to
two years, writing was done on paper. The scholar was expected
to be able to read the Ramayana, Mansa Mangal, etc., at home,
as well as be qualified in accounts, and the writing of letters,
petitions, etc. Table 12 indicates the numbers, using the various
materials on which writing was done in the surveyed areas.
53

Elementary Education for All Sections
The first striking point from this broader survey is the wide
social strata to which both the taught and the teachers in the
elementary schools belonged. It is true that the greater propor-
tion of the teachers came from the Kayasthas, Brahmins, Sadgop
and Aguri castes. Yet, quite a number came from 30 other caste
groups also, and even the Chandals had 6 teachers. The
elementary school students present an even greater variety, and
it seems as if every caste group is represented in the student
population, the Brahmins and the Kayasthas nowhere forming
more than 40% of the total. In the two Bihar districts, together
they formed no more than 15 to 16%. The more surprising figure
is of 61 Dom, and 61 Chandal school students in the district of
Burdwan, nearly equal to the number of Vaidya students, 126,
in that district. While Burdwan had 13 missionary schools, the
number of Dom and Chandal scholars in them were only four;
and, as Adam mentioned, only 86 of the ‘scholars belonging to
16 of the lowest castes’ were in these missionary schools, while
674 scholars from them were in the ‘native schools’.
54

Teaching of Accounts
Regarding the content of elementary teaching, Adam mentioned
various books which were used in teaching. These varied consid-
erably from district to district, but all schools in the surveyed
districts, except perhaps the 14 Christian schools, taught ac-
counts. Also, most of them taught both commercial and
agricultural accounts. Table 13 gives a district-wise statement:
Table 13: ACCOUNTS TEACHING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
AND CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
The age of admission in elementary schools varied from 5
to 8 years, and, that of leaving school from 13 years to 16.5
years.
Institutions of Sanskritic Learning
The schools of Sanskritic learning in the surveyed districts (in all
353) numbered as high as 190 in Burdwan (1,358 scholars) and
as low as 27 in South Behar (437 scholars). The teachers (355 in
all) were predominantly Brahmins, only 5 being from the Vaidya
caste. The subjects predominantly taught were Grammar (1,424
students), Logic (378 students), Law (336 students) and Litera-
ture (120 students). Others, in order of numbers studying them,
were Mythology (82 students), Astrology (78 students), Lexicology
(48 students), Rhetoric (19 students), Medicine (18 students),
Vedanta (13 students), Tantra (14 students), Mimansa (2
students), and Sankhya (1 student). The duration of the study
and the ages when it was started and completed varied a great
deal from subject to subject, and also from district to district.
55

The study of Grammar started at the earliest age (9 to 12 years)
and of Law, Mythology, Tantras, etc. after the age of 20. The
period of study ordinarily lasted from about 7 to 15 years.
Institutions Teaching Persian and Arabic
Those studying Persian (which Adam treated more as a
school subject than as a matter of higher learning) numbered
3,479, the largest, 1,424, being in South Behar. The age of
admission in them ranged from 6.8 years to 10.3 years, and the
study seemed to have continued for some 11 to 15 years. Over
half of those studying Persian were Hindoos, the Kayasthas
being predominant.⁶¹
Arabic was being studied by 175 scholars, predominantly
Muslims; but 14 Kayasthas, 2 Aguris, 1 Teli, and 1 Brahmin
were also students of Arabic. The books used in Persian learning
were numerous and an appreciable number for the study of
Arabic.
Finally, as far as age was concerned, the teachers in all
types of institutions were largely in their thirties.
VI
DR G.W. LEITNER ON INDIGENOUS EDUCATION IN THE
PANJAB
Some 45 years after Adam, Dr G. W. Leitner, (one time Principal
of Government College, Lahore, and for sometime acting Director
of Public Instruction in the Panjab) prepared an even more
voluminous survey of indigenous education there.⁶² The survey
is very similar to that of W. Adam. Leitner’s language and
conclusions, however, were more direct and much less
complementary to British rule. Incidentally, as time passed, the
inability of the British rulers to face any criticism grew
correspondingly.
56

They had really begun to believe in their ‘divinely ordained’
mission in India, and other conquered areas.⁶³
At any rate, Leitner’s researches showed that at the time of
the annexation of the Panjab, the lowest computation gave
‘3,30,000 pupils in the schools of the various denominations
who were acquainted with reading, writing and some method of
computation.’ This is in contrast with ‘little more than 1,90,000’
pupils in 1882. Furthermore, 35-40 years previously, ‘thousands
of them belonged to Arabic and Sanskrit colleges, in which
oriental Literature and systems of oriental Law, Logic,
Philosophy, and Medicine were taught to the highest standards.’
Leitner went into great detail, district by district, basing himself
on earlier official writings; and, then carried out a detailed
survey of his own regarding the position in 1882. A few brief
extracts from this work, pertaining to his general statement, the
type of schools which had existed earlier, and the list of books
used in the Sanskritic schools is included amongst the
documents reproduced in this work (Annexure E).
In the documents reproduced in this work, or in those
others of the eighteenth, or early nineteenth century on the
subject of education in India, while there is much on the
question of higher learning, especially of Theology, Law,
Medicine, Astronomy, and Astrology, there is scarcely any
reference to the teaching and training in the scores of
technologies, and crafts which had then existed in India. There
is also little mention of training in Music, and Dance. These
latter two, it may be presumed, were largely taken care of by the
complex temple organisations.
The major cause of the lack of reference about the former,
however, is obviously because those who wrote on education—
whether as government administrators, travellers, Christian
missionaries, or scholars—were themselves uninterested in how
such crafts were taught, or passed from one generation to
57

another. Some of them were evidently interested in a particular
technology, or craft: as indicated by the writings on their
manufacture of iron and steel, the fashioning of agricultural
tools, the cotton and silk textiles, the materials used in
architecture, and buildings, the materials used in the building of
ships, the manufacture of ice, paper, etc. But even in such
writings, the interest lay in the particular method and
technology and its technological and scientific details; and, not
in how these were learnt.
Yet another cause for the lack of information on the
teaching of techniques and crafts may possibly lie in the fact
that ordinarily in India most crafts were basically learnt in the
home. What was termed apprenticeship in Britain (one could not
practise any craft, profession, etc., in England without a long
and arduous period under a master craftsman, or technologist)
was more informal in India, the parents usually being the
teachers and the children the learners. Another reason might
have been that particular technologies or crafts, even like the
profession of the digging of tanks, or the transportation of
commodities were the function of particular specialist groups,
some of them operating in most parts of India, while others in
particular regions, and therefore any formal teaching and
training in them must have been a function of such groups
themselves. Remarks available to the effect that, 'it is extremely
difficult to learn the arts of the Indians, for the same caste, from
father to son, exercises the same trade and the punishment of
being excluded from the caste on doing anything injurious to its
interests is so dreadful that it is often impossible to find an
inducement to make them communicate anything',⁶⁴ appear to
indicate some organisation of individual technologies at group
levels. However, to know anything regarding their teaching, the
innovations and improvisations in them, (there must have been
innumerable such instances even if these were on a decline), it is
essential to have much more detailed information on such
groups, the nature of these technologies, and what in essence
constituted a formal, or informal apprenticeship in the different
crafts. On this so far we seem to have little information.
The following indicative list of the crafts listed in some of
the districts of the Madras Presidency (collected in the early 19th
century records for levying tax on them) may give, however,
some idea of their variety.
58

TANKS, BUILDINGS, ETC.
Stone-cutters Wood woopers (Wood cutters)
Marble mine workers Bamboo cutters
Chunam makers Wudders (Tank diggers)
Sawyers Brick-layers
METALLURGY
Iron ore collectors Copper-smiths
Iron manufacturers Lead washers
Iron forge operators Gold dust collectors
Iron furnaces operators Iron-smiths
Workers of smelted metal Gold-smiths
into bars Horse-shoe makers
Brass-smiths
TEXTILES
Cotton cleaners Fine cloth weavers
Cotton beaters Coarse cloth weavers
Cotton carders Chintz weavers
Silk makers Carpet weavers
Spinners Sutrenze carpet weavers
Ladup, or Penyasees Cot tape weavers
cotton spinners Cumblee weavers
Chay thread makers Thread purdah weavers
Chay root diggers (a dye) Gunny weavers
Rungruaze, or dyers Pariah weavers (a very large
Mudda wada, or dyers in red
number)
Indigo maker Mussalman weavers
Barber weavers Dyers in indigo
Boyah weavers Loom makers
Smooth and glaze cloth men Silk weavers
OTHER CRAFTSMEN
Preparers of earth for bangles Salt makers
Bangle makers Earth salt manufacturers
Paper makers Salt-petre makers
Fire-works makers Arrack distillers
Oilmen Collectors of drugs and roots
Soap makers Utar makers, druggists
MISCELLANEOUS
Boat-men Sandal makers
Fishermen Umbrella makers
59

Rice-beaters Shoe makers
Toddy makers Pen painters
Preparers of earth Mat makers
for washermen Carpenters
Washermen Dubbee makers
Barbers Winding instrument makers
Tailors Seal makers
Basket makers Chucklers
Mat makers
There is a sense of widespread neglect and decay in the
field of indigenous education within a few decades after the
onset of British rule. This is the major common impression
which emerges from the 1822-25 Madras Presidency data, the
report of W. Adam on Bengal and Bihar 1835-38, and the later
Panjab survey by G.W. Leitner. If studies of the detailed data
pertaining to the innumerable crafts, technologies and
manufactures of this period, or for that matter of social
organisation were to be made, the conclusions in all probability
will be little different. On the other hand, the descriptions of life
and society provided by earlier European accounts (i.e. accounts
written prior to the onset of European dominance) of different
parts of India, and the data on Indian exports relating to this
earlier period (notwithstanding the political turmoil in certain
parts of India), on the whole leaves an impression of a society
which seems relatively prosperous and lively. The conclusion
that the decay noticed in the early 19th century and more so in
subsequent decades originated with European supremacy in
India, therefore, seems inescapable. The 1769-70 famine in
Bengal (when, according to British record, one-third of the
population actually perished), may be taken as a mere
forerunner of what was to come.
In the context of some historical dialectic, however, such a
decay might have been inevitable; perhaps, even necessary, and
to be deliberately induced. For instance, Karl Marx, as such no
friend of imperialism or capitalism, writing in 1853 was of the
view, that, ‘England has to fulfill a double mission in India: one
destructive, the other regenerating—the annihilation of the old
Asiatic society, and the laying of the material foundation of
Western society in Asia.’⁶⁵ However, it is not India alone which
60

experienced this phenomenon of deliberate destruction. Other
areas of the world, especially the Americas and Africa, seem to
have experienced such destruction to an even greater extent. The
nearly total annihilation of the native people of the Americas—
after their subjugation by Europe from 1500 A.D. onwards—is
an occurrence of equally great import. A native population
estimated by modern scholars to have been in the range of 90 to
112 million around 1500 A.D.,⁶⁶—far more numerous than the
estimated total population of Europe then—had dwindled to
merely a few million by the end of the 19th century. It is
probable that while differing in extent and numbers, similar
destruction and annihilation had occurred in different parts of
the world through conquest and subjugation at various times
during human history. Further, quite possibly, no people or
culture in the world can altogether claim innocence for itself
from any participation at one time or another in such
occurrences. Nonetheless, whatever may be the case regarding
the world before 1500 A.D., the point is that after this date,
ancient, functioning, established cultures in most areas of the
world, if not wholly eliminated, had become largely depressed
due to the expansion of European dominance. This requires little
proof. It is obvious.
During the latter part of the 19th century, impressions of
decay, decline and deprivation began to agitate the mind of the
Indian people. Such impressions no doubt resulted from
concrete personal, parental and social experience of what had
gone before. They were, perhaps, somewhat exaggerated at
times. By 1900, it had become general Indian belief that the
country had been decimated by British rule in all possible ways;
that not only had it become impoverished,⁶⁷ but it had been
degraded to the furthest possible extent; that the people of India
had been cheated of most of what they had; that their customs
and manners were ridiculed, and that the infrastructure of their
society mostly
61

eroded. One of the statements which thus came up was that the
ignorance and illiteracy in India was caused by British rule; and,
conversely, that at the beginning of British political dominance,
India had had extensive education, learning and literacy. By
1930, much had been written on this point in the same manner
as had been written on the deliberate destruction of Indian crafts
and industry, and the impoverishment of the Indian countryside.
However, to many within the expanding strata of westernised
Indians—whether Marxists, Fabians, or capitalist-roaders, their
views on India and their contempt for it almost equalled that of
William Wilberforce, James Mill, or Karl Marx—such charges
seemed farfetched, and even if true, irrelevant.
It is against this background that, during his visit in 1931
to attend the British-sponsored conference on India (known as
the Round Table Conference), Mahatma Gandhi was invited to
address the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London. In
this address Gandhiji also briefly dwelt on the causes of illiteracy
in India. What he said seemed to have made sparks fly.
The meeting held on 20 October 1931, under the auspices
of the Institute, is reported to have been attended by influential
English men and women drawn from all parts of England, and
was presided over by Lord Lothian.⁶⁸ The subject on which
Gandhiji spoke was ‘The Future of India’. Before describing this
future, however, he dealt with several issues, like: (i) the Hindu-
Muslim-Sikh problem, (ii) the problem of untouchability, and (iii)
‘the deep and ever deepening poverty’ of the 85% of the Indian
people who lived in the villages. From this he moved on to the
problems which required urgent attention and how ‘if the
Congress had its way’ they would be dealt with. Amongst the
foremost, he placed ‘the economic welfare of the masses’ as well
as the provision of adequate occupations for those requiring
them. He also addressed possible solutions to the problems of
sanitation and hygiene, and of medical assistance which he felt
not only needed packets of quinine, etc., but more so milk and
fruit. Next, he turned his attention to education; and, from that,
to the neglect of irrigation and the need for using long-known
indigenous methods and techniques to achieve it. In conclusion,
he stated that while he had told them ‘what we would do
constructively’, yet ‘we should have to do something destructive
also.’ As illustrative of the required destruction, he mentioned
‘the insupportable weight of military and civil expenditure’ which
India
62

could ill afford. Regarding the former, he stated that ‘if I could
possibly have my way, we should get rid of three-quarters of the
military expenditure.’ Regarding civil expenditure he gave an
instance of what he meant: ‘Here the Prime Minister gets fifty
times, the average income; the Viceroy in India gets five
thousand times the average income.’ He went on to add: ‘From
this one example you can work out for yourselves what this civil
expenditure also means to India.’
Gandhiji’s observation on education emphasized two main
points: (i) ‘that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a
hundred years ago’; and (ii) that ‘the British administrators’,
instead of looking after education and other matters which had
existed, ‘began to root them out. They scratched the soil and
began to look at the root, and left the root like that and the
beautiful tree perished.’ He stated all this with conviction and a
sense of authority. He said that he was ‘without fear’ of his
‘figures being challenged successfully.’
The challenge came immediately, however, from Sir Philip
Hartog, a founder of the School of Oriental Studies, London,69 a
former vice-chancellor of the University of Dacca and member
and chairman of several educational committees on India set up
by the British between 1918 and 1930. After questioning
Gandhiji at the meeting, a long correspondence ensued between
them during the next 5-6 weeks, ending with an hour long
interview which Philip Hartog had with the Mahatma. In the
interview, Philip Hartog was referred to some of the sources
which Gandhiji had relied on, including two articles from Young
India of December 1920 by Daulat Ram Gupta: (i) ‘The Decline of
Mass Education in India,’ and (ii) ‘How Indian Education was
crushed in the Panjab.’ These articles were largely based on
Adam’s reports and G.W. Leitner’s book and some other officially
published material from the Panjab, Bombay and Madras.
These, however, did not seem sufficient proof to Philip Hartog,
and he repeatedly insisted that Gandhiji should withdraw the
statement he had made at the Chatham House meeting.
Gandhiji promised that after his return to India, he would look
for such material which Hartog could treat as substantiating
what Gandhiji had said, adding that ‘if I find that I cannot
support the statement made by me at Chatham House, I will give
my retraction much wider publicity than the Chatham House
speech could ever attain.’
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Another important point which, according to Hartog,
emerged during his interview was that Gandhiji ‘had not accused
the British Government of having destroyed the indigenous
schools, but [that] they had let them die for want of encour-
agement.’ To this, Hartog’s reply was that ‘they had probably let
them die because they were so bad that they were not worth
keeping.’
In the meantime, Hartog had been working and seeking
opinion, advice and views of the historian Edward J. Thompson.
Thompson agreed with Hartog that Gandhiji could not possibly
be right; and that he himself also did not ‘believe we destroyed
indigenous schools and indigenous industry out of malice. It was
inevitable.’ He felt nonetheless that, with regard to general
education, ‘we did precious little to congratulate ourselves on
until the last dozen years.’⁷⁰ In a further letter, Thompson
elaborated his views on the subject: on how little was done until
after 1918; that the ‘very hopelessness of the huge Indian job
used to oppress’ even those who had often ‘first class record of
intellect’ in places like Oxford ‘before entering the ICS.’ He noted
further: ‘I am reading old records by pre-mutiny residents, they
teem with information that makes you hope that the
Congresswallah will never get hold of it.’ Somehow the
correspondence between Hartog and Edward Thompson ended
on a sour note. Perhaps, it did not provide Hartog the sort of
intellectual or factual support he was actually looking for. At any
rate, after the interview with Gandhiji, Hartog finally despatched
his rebuttal of Gandhiji’s statement (as intended from the
beginning) for publication in International Affairs.⁷¹ In this he
concluded that ‘the present position is that Mr Gandhi has so far
been unable to substantiate
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his statement in any way'; but ‘he has undertaken to retract that
statement, if he cannot support it.’
Within a few days of reaching India, Gandhiji was put in
Yervada Prison. From there he wrote to Hartog on 15 February
1932 informing him of his inability at that moment to satisfy
him, mentioning that he had asked Prof K.T. Shah to look into
the matter. K.T. Shah’s long and detailed letter reached Hartog
soon after. In it, Shah also referred to the various known
writings on the subject including those of Max Mueller, Ludlow,
G.L. Prendergast, and the more celebrated Thomas Munro, W.
Adam, and G.W. Leitner (already referred to in the foregoing
pages). For Bombay, Shah quoted G.L. Prendergast, a member of
the Council in the Bombay Presidency (briefly referred to earlier)
who had stated in April 1821:
I need hardly mention what every member of the Board
knows as well as I do, that there is hardly a village, great or
small, throughout our territories, in which there is not at
least one school, and in larger villages more; many in every
town, and in large cities in every division; where young
natives are taught reading, writing and arithmetic, upon a
system so economical, from a handful or two of grain, to
perhaps a rupee per month to the school master, according
to the ability of the parents, and at the same time so
simple and effectual, that there is hardly a cultivator or
petty dealer who is not competent to keep his own
accounts with a degree of accuracy, in my opinion, beyond
what we meet with amongst the lower orders in our own
country; whilst the more splendid dealers and bankers
keep their books with a degree of ease, conciseness, and
clearness I rather think fully equal to those of any British
merchants.72
Knowing what Hartog considered as sufficient proof, Shah
began his letter by saying that he ‘need hardly point out that at
the time under reference, no country in the world had like
definite, authoritative, statistical information of the type one
would now recognise as proper proof in such discussions’; and
that ‘all, therefore, that one can expect by way of proof in such
matters, and at such a time, can only be in the form of
impressions of people in a position to form ideas a little better
and more scientific than those of less fortunately situated, or
less well-endowed, observers.’ Shah finally concluded with the
view that ‘the
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