Topic started by Karuvayan (@ cs2417546-174.austin.rr.com) on Wed Apr 30 12:09:11 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
This is a series of posts I will make on the state of education in
India before the British and the missionaries destroyed our
traditional education. Along with this, our traditional industry was
also destroyed, thus rendering the artisans rudderless. This, in my
opinion, was what led to untouchability and oppressive jAti system in
India. Prior to this era, education was egalitarian, and the Harijans
and shudras had all access to them. The dominance of the brahmins in
academia was between 1870 - 1920, when it was terminated by Montague
Act. The government jobs that were available to the Indians was
mostly clerical. In other words, inequities in education essentially
happened in the Macaulayan British missionary India and not before.
What was it like before? Dharampal, in his thoroughly
researched "Beautiful Tree - Indigenous Indian Education in the 18th
century" has presented several statistics compiled by the British
themselves. Let me begin with just one here. In the weeks to come, I
will present more and also provide relevant information from other
sources.
Source: ibid Annexure A, pp. 226 - 233.
Primary source cited ibid: "Statement of Schools" and signed letter
from L.G.K.Murray, the Collector of Madras Cutcherry, dated 12th
February 1825. "Collector, Madras to Board of Revenue", TNSA: BRP:
Vol. 1011, Pro. 14th February 1825 No. 46 pp. 1193-94.
Statement of the number of Native Schools and Colleges Scholars in
Madras Collectorate:
Kalavai Venkat's note: Native school was a term used for our
traditional pATasAlas that imparted education to ***all the 4 varNas,
including girls***. Education covered theology, artisan training,
astronomy, astrology, medicine, mathematics, literature etc.. Native
Colleges is a term used for our traditional higher educational
institutions where most of the inscriptional and commentatorial work
was done, and where the students of the schools go in for higher
education. Most of the education here was in theology, mathematics,
astronomy, astrology and literature. (End of note)
No. of Native schools and Colleges in Madras Collectorate: 305
No. of brahmin male scholars: 358
No. of brahmin female scholars: 1
No. of vaishya male scholars: 789
No. of vaishya female scholars: 9
No. of shudra male scholars: 3506
No. of shudra female scholars: 113
No. of Harijan and avarNa male scholars: 313
No. of Harijan and avarNa female scholars: 4
No. of Muslim male scholars: 143
No. of Muslim female scholars: 0
Kalavai Venkat's note: Collectorate was an area that comprised part
of Madras metro as we know today. In those days, it included
Mylapore, Triplicane, San Thome and the Fort area. The Harijan and
avarNa class people have been categorised under Adi Dravidas
(distinct from Adivasis or Scheduled tribes) and other castes, in the
survey, but enough references have been made in many surveys about
the specific castes they belong to - for example paraiyahs.
Collectorate schools were the ones that had received mAnyam or royal
grants in the bygone era. In 1825, they still had lands, though much
of the original had been usurped by the Muslims, from which they drew
their revenue, to sustain themselves. (End of note)
No. of Charitable Native schools and Colleges in Madras Collectorate:
305
No. of brahmin male scholars: 52
No. of brahmin female scholars: 0
No. of vaishya male scholars: 46
No. of vaishya female scholars: 2
No. of shudra male scholars: 172
No. of shudra female scholars: 0
No. of Harijan and avarNa male scholars: 134
No. of Harijan and avarNa female scholars: 47
No. of Muslim male scholars: 10
No. of Muslim female scholars: 0
Kalavai Venkat's note: Charitable schools and colleges were the ones
that were still receiving private donations. They had not yet been
earmarked by the missionaries for usurpation, perhaps as they were
fewer in number. (End of note)
Students who received private tuition at home:
No. of brahmin male scholars: 7586
No. of brahmin female scholars: 98
No. of vaishya male scholars: 6132
No. of vaishya female scholars: 63
No. of shudra male scholars: 7589
No. of shudra female scholars: 220
No. of Harijan and avarNa male scholars: 3449
No. of Harijan and avarNa female scholars: 136
No. of Muslim male scholars: 1690
No. of Muslim female scholars: 0
Kalavai Venkat's note: Many teachers also visited homes to teach the
students. In return, they received nominal amounts of grains and milk
as guru dakshina or teacher's fee. It was Gandhiji's wish that all
this truth be brought out. Gandhiji had nothing but the utmost
contempt for missionary education. He strongly believed that our
traditional education was egalitarian and free, and he was right in
his belief. Jaya Prakash Narayan shared this belief of Gandhiji. It
was thanks to the urgings of these 2 great men that Dharampal set out
on this most challenging and indisputable research work. The best
part of Dharampal's methodology is that he never superimposes his
belief anywhere. He *only* quotes the official British and missionary
sources themselves, to drive home his point. The above figures would
have made it very clear that education was universal in the pre-
missionary times, and the Harijans were also extended that. This
information I have presented is just the beginning. I will present
data for other parts of India and for other time periods. I would
request the help of non-Tamils in identifying town names and caste
names.
In short, those who claim that the Harijans were denied education,
are not only ignorant of the facts, but also just furthering the
divisive false propaganda originally started by the missionaries,
thus deepening the divide in our society. Mostly, they do so
inadvertantly, but then even an inadvertant accident kills the
pedestrian. I always challenge everyone to present primary data and
evidence on almost all issues. My aim is not to show off my intellect
or range of reading, but only to help better research. Often, when we
look at primary evidences, the picture we derive is the very opposite
of what propaganda has painted.
Let me summarise the the statistical mean, rounded off to the nearest
precision, of this survey:
Collectorate schools:
Brahmin scholars: 6.8 %
Vaishya scholars: 15.2 %
Shudra scholars: 69.1 %
Harijan scholars: 6.1 %
Muslim scholars: 2.7 %
Charitable schools:
Brahmin scholars: 11.2 %
Vaishya scholars: 10.3 %
Shudra scholars: 37.1 %
Harijan scholars: 39.1 %
Muslim scholars: 2.2 %
Home schools:
Brahmin scholars: 28.5 %
Vaishya scholars: 23.0 %
Shudra scholars: 37.1 %
Harijan scholars: 13.30 %
Muslim scholars: 6.30 %
Please note that no caste was classified under the kshatriya category
during those years. These days, many OBC/MBC castes in Tamilnadu are
calling themselves kshatriya, but this is a recent phenomenon. After
the Sangam era, until recent times, the Tamil society had gone
through intermittent periods without any kshatriya presence.(End of
note)
More to follow....
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