discourse of dissatisfaction with education

7/27/2019 Discourse of Dissatisfaction With Education

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The discourse of dissatisfaction with Education and the call for a more

useful Education

by

M Rajivlochan, PhD

[email protected]

Keywords: bureaucratization, education, Punjab, policy.

Bionote:M Rajivlochan has been the Chief Adviser for the ICICI Foundation in its task of

preparing school textbooks. For the Rajasthan government he has authored and edited the

history textbooks for middle school that are being taught from the session beginning 2013. He is

a Professor of History at the Department of History, Panjab University, Chandigarh. Email: M

Rajivlochan AT HotMail. Com

Abstract: This paper presents some details about the continuities in the system of education,

especially as visible in Punjab and demonstrates the persisting continuities in the problems faced

by the educational system. If the problems seem to persist despite numerous reforms, it argues,

the need is for to think out of the box rather than continue to replicate the system of education

after every enquiry and corresponding reform.


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The discourse of dissatisfaction with Education and the call for a more useful Education

byM Rajivlochan

The Problem

In the light of the current concern to make education relevant and of practical utility we

look back into analogous concerns that marked the modern education system since its very

inception in India when policy making was dominated by utilitarian thinking. Could it be that

many of our currently extant problems in the educational field come out of presuming an

atavistic narrow-minded utilitarianism of the kind that marked nineteenth century British India?

Most studies of the system of colonial education focus on the creation and implementation of the

educational policy and its implications for the nation. Creation of brown sahibs, ignoring the

growth of local languages and downgrading the teacher were some of the more serious charges

made against the system of colonial education (Allender, 2006) (Seth, 2007). We take those

studies as our starting point to notice the discourse of dissatisfaction with the education system.

Our wonderment is this: if the dissatisfactions remain virtually the same over decades and

centuries without getting adequately addressedirrespective of who the ruler wasthen, could

it be that the need is to think out of the box to find solutions to the problems of the system of

education rather than continue with the same kind of solutions, within the same structures of

education? Could it be that as Krishan Kumar says so poignantly, effort after effort to reform our

system of education has merely suggested ways in which it could be replicated (Kumar, 2005)?

Might it be one then begins to wonder, that there is need to re-think the education system in its

very basics? Instead of legislating on education and trying to micro-manage the education system

the government might be better able to help the growth of education by restricting itself to the

role of legislating the broad terms and conditions on which the education system works. The

correct thing might be to allow individual communities, schools and colleges the opportunity to

take their own call on what kind of education to provide, the manner in which it has to be

provided and with what standards. Punjab of the nineteenth and early twentieth century provides

enough examples to support our contention.

The initial continuities and discontinuities: pre-colonial to colonial India


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Modern education in India, as also in Punjab, was marked out by the creation of a more

institutionalized and state regulated system of education. This was not something new for even

before the British arrived the state had been a major intervener in education. What was new was

that the English created a system that was under-pinned by a complex bureaucratic structure even

while the state actively withdrew from supporting education financially. The efforts at education

in Punjab were strongly dominated by institutions that had denominational origins for, the state

simply refused to provide enough educational opportunities for desirous students. Hindus, Sikhs,

Muslims, Christians all created some form of educational institutions, as distinct from

religious seminaries, to provide necessary services to the young of their own community. By the

end of the century Punjab was dotted with schools and colleges set up by denominational groups.

School and College names such as Khalsa College, Islamia College, DAV College,

Sanatan Dharma College became as ubiquitous as the denominationally neutral colleges with

names such as Government College that were set up by the government. Even though these

colleges and schools were set up by denominational bodies, official policy insisted that anyone

fulfilling the requisite educational (and in some cases age) requirements was free to seek

admission. To that extent the colleges were not denominational institutions but institutions of

secular learning. The secular aspect was further highlighted by the fact that the course of

instruction had to be substantially in accordance with that laid down by the concerned external

authoritiesthe school board or the university, as the case may be (Bellenoit, 2007) (Langohr,

2005). Even the so-called nationalist schools that came to be set up in the twentieth century,

despite their vehement opposition to the government, substantially followed the official courses

of instruction (Lochan, 1987)

Bureaucratization

The interesting thing to note about this upsurge in setting up educational institutions by

various non-governmental bodies was that even before the English set up government in India

education was substantially being supported by the government. Even early English officialdom

followed the Indian tradition of state support to education though on a much diminished scale.

The new element now, however, was the bureaucratization of education. Bureaucratization of

education was almost inevitable considering that the East India Company had a strong tradition

of working in a bureaucratic manner. In fact, historians of the East India Company point out that


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bureaucratic functioning was one of the most important of reasons for the success of the

Company in its trade enterprise as also in its functioning as a state authority (Chaudhuri, 1978).

Moreover, education of Indians, for the English East India Company was strictly something that

was needed to provide service to the interests of the company. This was also much in keeping

with the European historical tradition of having strongly object driven education (Norton,

1909). Education with the specific objective of preparing the educated for a bureaucratic

profession was something new that had begun to happen in India in the second half of the 18th

century. By the mid-nineteenth century the process of bureaucratization was substantially

complete with the setting up of universities to oversee educational standards and creating the

office of the Director, Public Instruction to oversee the management of the schools. We shall see

more of this below.

The process of bureaucratization had accompanied the setting up of the English East

India Company as a state authority. It came about as a result of the East India Company trying to

find local boys who could perform various tasks for the Company. The tasks could range from

identifying and interpreting the laws of India to helping the Company collect taxes from its

Indian subjects to helping the Company in maintaining its office records. As the ambit of the

Company expanded so did the demand for educated Indians. But, there was a catch as everyone

was to discover in the years to come.

The initial schools set up by the English for Indians maintained considerable continuity

with the already existing system of education (Srivastava, 1978) (Leitner, 1882).1

Till now the

authorities of the Company had merely stepped into the shoes of existing potentates, giving

grants to various pathshalas and maktabs, schools for basic learning run by local teachers and the

religious seminaries, institutions that provided a kind of higher education focused on religious

affairs. It was in this context that Hastings sponsored the setting up of a Sanskrit College atBenares and a Madrassa at Calcutta. These two institutions were set up, informed Hastings to the

Directors of the Company, with the express purpose of training boys for purpose of employment

with the Company. The idea of the Madrassa had been given to him, wrote Hastings to the

1The Christian missionaries too set up a handful of schools to cater to European and Anglo-European children. For

the moment we keep those schools out of our ambit. Details from Srivastava 1978.


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Directors, by a considerable number of Mussulmen (sic) of credit and learning who brought to

him a stranger of the name of Mugid Odin(sic), for the instruction of young students in the

Muhammadan law. With this single preceptor in-charge, as Hastings preferred to call this

stranger, a school was set up for the instruction of the Muslim boys at Calcutta. Apparently the

teacher had a considerable reputation for soon the school was full of 40 boarders living and

studying with the master. Most were locals from Bengal but there were also students from

Cashmeer, Guzarat, and one from the Carnatic, reported Hastings. Each student was required to

complete the course of instruction in seven months. The expenses of the running of the school,

funds for the scholars and the payment to the preceptor were made by Hastings out of his

personal funds much as what a local potentate might have done.

Hastings perceived the need for sponsoring a school because, he said, with the decline of

the Mughal empire the schools of learning were in shambles in India and there was the need of

the great empire being set up by the Company to have people who were learned in the science

of jurisprudence. The fact of the school catering to the needs of the Company was important, for

on that basis Hastings, always a trader and never a potentate, demanded that the Company repay

his expenses. Within seven years of the school being set up complaints of grave misconduct

were reported and the Company government took over the management of the school

something which an Indian potentate of a pre-Company vintage would not have done.

Englishmen were appointed to look after the management of the school and a sum assigned for

its running (Srivastava, 1978, p. 6f.).

Later, with the Charter Act of 1813 the Company government formally accepted direct

responsibility of educating Indians. Funds were ear-marked for the spread of education. The

parliament laid upon the Company government the responsibility of the moral and material

development of India (Rajivlochan, 2008). However, apart from subjecting the school to

modern systems of reporting accounts little was done to change the academic profile. The

courses of instruction continued much as they had done in earlier years. The big change was in

the number of teachers. In Hastings Madrassa at Calcutta, now five teachers were employed


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against the previous one. Also a library with a modest collection of printed books was opened at

the school. Lest we come to the quick conclusion that English control over the management and

finances allowed them also to control the course of instruction and the manner in which teaching

was done, we need to notice that as late as 1822 European managers of the school were reporting

that the prejudices of the preceptors posed considerable obstacles in the way of reform.

Macaulay and the first efforts at a practical, scientific and democratic system

What was to be reformed remained a matter of debate till such time that Macaulay

penned down his criticism of the education policy being followed in India. Macaulay ended his

minute with an ultimatum to the government that amounted to saying accept my critique of the

education system in India or else do not burden me with the task of reviewing the education

policy.Macaulays position itself was the off-shoot of a long debate on educational reforms that

had been going on in England at this time. In that debate Macaulay stood with those arguing in

favour of making education more practical, scientific and democratic.

When in 1835, Macaulay criticized the classical learning being imparted in the

pathshalas, madrassas and schools of India his concern was that even while the government was

spending funds for these hallowed institutions the people of India, those who could afford to be

educated, were flocking to the much costlier missionary schools where science was taught, the

medium of instruction was English and the effort was to train people in emerging ideas and

technologies. Even the books of classical learning Macaulay pointed out, remained unsold

despite the government subsidizing their printing. The scholarships went unclaimed for not

always were there enough classicists interested in getting classical education when there was an

opportunity to pay up and obtain some modern education. Macaulay might have been over-

stating his case a bit. But he did reflect in full the utilitarian spirit of his times. His concern also

might have emanated from the fact that coeval utilitarians found it almost impossible to impose

their own ideas in the field of education in England. India was a grand opportunity for them toindulge in social engineering (Rajivlochan, 2008).

By the 1840s the debates between classicists and utilitarians had substantially been

concluded in favour of the utilitarians. Moreover, it seemed as if the English colonial

government was now going to be in India, for better or for worse, on a permanent basis


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(Hutchins, 1967). The government had begun preparing for the long haul, as it were. The

government had by now begun to see itself in a paternal role vis--vis the people of India. In that

enterprise they were significantly supported by Indians. The mutiny of 1857 only proved to be an

exception to the rule when it was noticed that most of India did not respond to the mutineers;

rather, many went out of their way to support the colonial government. It was in this context that

the Woods Despatch (19th

July 1854), written at the behest of Charles Wood (though not penned

by Wood himself), the then President of the Board of Control of the East India Company, laid

down the broad parameters for the setting up of a formal system of education in India. The

government was now eyeing a system that covered education from the primary level to the

highest university level. The basic focus here was to provide the people of India useful

knowledge, produce a higher degree of intellectual fitness among Indians and to raise the

moral character of those being educated. This last, the despatch informed the Directors of the

East India Company, was to ensure that there were people available to enter into the service of

the company to whose probity you may with increased confidence commit offices of trust

[glosses from (Srivastava, 1978, p. 100ff.)].

The English versus vernacular non-issue

Indians have often complainedand continue to do sothat since Macaulays criticism

of classical knowledge of India the focus was on promoting English education in India. Thetruth is far from that. Woods Despatch of 1854 explained it well. The new education had to be

with English as a medium of instruction owing to the want of translations or adaptations of

European works in the vernacular languages of India and to the very imperfect shape in which

European knowledge is to be found in any works in the learned languages of the East. It further

explained that

It is neither our aim nor desire to substitute the English language for thevernacular dialects of the country. We have always been most sensible of the

importance of the use of the languages which alone are understood by the great mass ofthe population. These languages, and not English, have been put by us in the place ofPersian in the administration of justice and the intercourse between the officers of

government and the people. It is indispensible, therefore, that, in any general system ofeducation the study of them should be assiduously attended to, and any acquaintancewith improved European knowledge which is to be communicated to the great mass of

the people-- whose circumstances prevent them from acquiring a high order ofeducation, and who cannot be expected to overcome the difficulties of a foreign


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language-- can only be conveyed to them through one or other of those vernacular

languages (Srivastava, 1978, p. 102).

The insistence on giving adequate importance to local languages was something that was

repeated frequently by those in authority. Three decades years later, the Viceroy Lord

Lansdowne, the one who was credited with reforming the system of elections to university

senates, reiterated the point about indigenous languages once again. Noticing the unique

distinction of the newly set up Punjab University in focusing on the study of oriental languages

and philosophies Lansdowne had this to say:

I am also able to understand without difficulty that the founders of the PunjabUniversity should have desired to give a special prominence to oriental studies. As anEnglishman, nothing would shock me more than the thought that while we are forcingwestern knowledge upon you, we are thereby effacing or pouring contempt upon these

forms of culture which are indigenous to the soil of this country. I think, therefore, thatit was a wise and generous impulse which led the founders to determine that an attemptshould be made to rescue and to preserve here whatever is best worth preservation inEastern culture. (Times of India , December 2, 1889)

Creating a system of mass education by downgrading the teacher

The already existing policy of supporting the existing system of higher education wasabandoned by the government by the 1850s for failing to reach education to the masses. The

objective of official interventions into the system of education now, it was said, was to ensure

how useful and practical knowledge, suited to every station in life, may be best conveyed to the

great mass of the people, who are utterly incapable of obtaining any education worthy of the

name by their own unaided efforts. Towards this end the government focused on increasing the

number of schools, implement instructions in the vernacular languages and promoting

universities as bodies that oversaw the quality of academics even while the government

appointed Director of Public Instruction oversaw the quality of management in the educational

institutions. Education had become the subject of a department of the government and

bureaucratic control over the education system had now begun. The teacher, from being someone

who was tasked by the local community or potentate to educate children in courses that they

thought were required now became a low level functionary of the government whose job was to


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impart instructions that had been ratified by government officials and the professors of the

university under whose jurisdiction the school or college lay. Such bureaucratization of

education had unforeseen consequences especially for the teacher in downgrading the teacher

from a position of great respect within the community to being a lowly government functionary

subject to inspections by superior officers of the government. From being a highly respected

Guruji, the teacher was reduced to being the lowliest of government employees. He was paid a

monthly salary of Rs 5, while the DPI and the School Inspector were paid Rs 2,000 and Rs 500,

respectively. Thus, the teacher lost both his income and dignity. Though, he could supplement

his income by taking up various clerical tasks for the government like collecting data for census

or by surreptitiously providing tuitions.

A tyranny of syllabus and exam began to emerge that remains with us till today. A

syllabus created by one set of bureaucrats had to be taught within a time prescribed by a different

set of bureaucrats. If the students did not perform as per expectations, the teacher was liable to be

punished severely by the government. Transfers, loss of increments, etc. were the usual punitive

measures.

The students were simply herded in the classroom and taught the same bureaucrat-

generated syllabus irrespective of their abilities, desires and aspirations. Still, Kumar explains, in

the colonial economy of India, education remained the most important pathway for upward

mobility. So, there were always enough takers for whatever nonsense was being dished out in the

name of education to justify its continuation (Kumar, 2005).

Educating Punjab

When modern education came to the Punjab region after the conquest by the East India

Company in 1849, the main contours of education had already been defined with some firmness.

Colleges and schools were set up. But they were all affiliated to the Calcutta University over a

thousand miles away.

The bureaucratic control over schools did not necessarily yield schools to which people

were always flocking. The report on Popular Education in the Punjab for the year 1872-73,

prepared by the Director of Public Instruction, for example pointed out that though the

government spending on education had gone up to Rs. 12 lakh per year, an increase of over Rs.


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1.25 lakh from the previous years, there had actually been a decline in the number of schools as

also the average daily attendance of students. Many schools had to be closed down owing to

inefficiency, failure of funds, or a decline of the local enthusiasm which led to their

establishment (Times of India, June 15, 1874). The number of students from Punjab taking the

matriculation exam of the Calcutta University too had gone down. The government at the same

time lamented that many vacancies in government employment were going abegging for want of

suitable candidates. To meet the demand we require not a limited number of academic

graduates but a large number of fairly educated men . The need, various administrators would

say, was of educated people and not of people with great learning.

Primary and Entrance class Indians was all that the government seemed to desire.

Employment was available only for people who were middle and entrance class pass. But at that

level the studentsmostly taught in the vernaculars had not yet acquired the requisite

knowledge of the English language for a government clerkship. As someone complained in the

Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore, the Indians fail miserably in spelling, and as far as

composition the results are simply excruciating; in a word, the men are found to possess only a

superficial knowledge of the English language. To the complainant it mattered little that Indians

were very good at mathematics, geometry, and kindred subjects. Knowledge of those subjects

was inessential, the complainant would explain with utmost seriousness since subjects such as

mathematics, geometry find no place in the requirements of an ordinary clerk (Times of India,

April 3, 1884). Tragically for all concerned, those who managed to study beyond the elementary

class and primary school were on the lookout for a job more superior to a mere clerkship. The

antinomy between what was taught and what the market expected continued.

In short, as the Viceroy Lord Lansdowne would comment flippantly in his convocation

address to the graduates of the Punjab University, education in India was not geared towards

practicalities at the cost of plain simple learning. The Viceroy, in 1889, had just come back from

a trip to the Afghan frontier where he had witnessed the successful efforts of the colonial army to

suppress the frontier Pathans. That trip, the Viceroy informed the new graduates of Punjab

University, was educational in a very practical sense. That trip taught him, the Viceroy reported

to a cheering audience composed of people who had had the privilege of being part of the

superior set of Punjab, a science which is not included in any part of your university course


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and which (would be) described as the science of frontier prophylactics. Such practical issues,

issues of practical value to the state machinery, were what were needed, the Viceroy would

argue. It is generally usual for those who are arguing on behalf of education to dwell upon the

almost boundless advantages to be derived from its spread. It has sometimes occurred to me that

in this country people go a little too far in this direction and expect almost too much from a

university education. It might be worth their while to remember that there are some things which

it is beyond the power of colleges and universities, however well organized, to achieve for those

who are members of them, or which at any rate they should not be expected to do for us as a

matter of course (Times of India December 2, 1889). I have observed a tendency no doubt, not

an unnatural one, on the part of those who have taken the pains of going through the university

course, to consider themselves personally aggrieved because they find that the public service or

the professions do not supply a sufficient number of openings for educated young men.

On the fact of university graduates not being able to find jobs with the government the

Viceroy Lansdowne had this to say:

The number of young men receiving a high education in this country is

increasing annually, and, I have no doubt whatever, will continue to increase. Thenumber of appointments open to Indian students, if it is to be increased at all, can beincreased but to a slight extent. Even if we were to assume that the British element wereto be altogether eliminated from the public service, the total number of appointments

which it contains bear an infinitesimally small proportion to the number of the youngmen who, ten years hence, will probably be receiving higher education of one kind oranother.

Since the universities, by definition, as far as the Viceroy was concerned, could not teach

anything of practical value nor were there ever enough jobs available with the government for

the graduates, the students might as well learn, he would advice the gathering, to take education

for the sake of education rather than with the idea of any preferment.

Observers noticed that in Punjab the running of the schools was substantially influenced

by the interest that the Deputy Commissioner of the district took in promoting school education.

In districts, such as Jalandhar, where the Deputy Commissioner took active interest, the school

system flourished. Otherwise, the local population, represented by the Municipal governments,

did not take as much interest in promoting education as it did, say, in the Bombay Presidency. By

the 1890s, in Punjab, some 8 percent of the school going age population was attending school.

This was way below the figure in Bombay Presidency where over 16 percent of the relevant age


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group attended school. In Bombay 3.87 percent of the girls of school going age was attending

school while in Punjab the percentage was only 1.6 percent (Times of India, 6 Jan, 1864).

The interest of the local population in funding schools and colleges remained indifferent

at best. This was best illustrated with the example of the Oriental College of Dr. Leitner. This

college was considered to be the last bastion of oriental learning in Punjab. Despite many Indians

lamenting the loss of indigenous learning in India because of the presence of the English, the

Oriental College continued to be funded almost entirely by the government, focused on the

teaching of classical languages and philosophies. Much of its monies came from government

grants. Typically, in 1893, the Oriental College had a budget of Rs. 32,778 of which only Rs.

492 came from fees. The government paid over 75% of the total outlay; the rest coming from

various gifts to the college. In the eyes of the government oriental learning as represented by the

Oriental College, was a very costly experiment whose worth was increasingly coming to be

questioned. Off and on officials wondered if it was possible to raise the fees of the college.

However, by now the college had become something of a display piece and the government

would hesitate in cutting down its contribution to the college (Hussain, 2005) (Times of India

January 16, 1894).

A further evidence of the direction in which education was moving willy-nilly in Punjab

came with the setting up of the Punjab University at Lahore. Set up with the ostensible object of

promoting classical learning in Persian, Sanskrit and Arabic, the very subjects that the

government had tried to marginalize through its reforms in the 1830s through 1850s, this

university quickly chose to marginalize oriental learning and became a bastion of practical

science education and law (Bruce, 1933) (Sethi & Mehta, 1968). The course in Law at Punjab

University was considered to be one of the toughest (Times of India, January 16, 1894). The list

of textbooks this year is far more formidable than any that has ever appeared since the law

classes have been established in Lahore, comprising as it does almost every act of the Legislative

Council of India that is in force, together with the three great codes and a vast number of

commentaries and other works of reference, complained one correspondent (Times of India,

April 3, 1884).

In Conclusion


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The simple fact was that the efforts of the government to micro-manage the education

system in the manner of a government department did not ever yield the desired results. Whether

it be the teaching of oriental learning, or the vernaculars or English education or, going beyond

the ambit of this paper, of science and technology, the government hopes always remained at

odds with what was considered worthy of being supported by the community. There seemed to

be a perpetual mismatch between the demand for a utilitarian education by the government and

the actual utility that it provided to anyone associated with it. That particular problem continues

to remain with us till today.

Bibliography

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