Papers in the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. My
sincere thanks go to the National Library for permission and
facilities to consult these and other papers, as also to the
Scottish Record Office, the University of Edinburgh, and the
Uttar Pradesh State Archives, Allahabad, for similar permission
and facilities.
Finally, I am honoured by the Ashram Pratishthan,
Sevagram, for extending me an invitation to write this book in
the Ashram, and for providing me the necessary facilities and for
treating me as one of their own. Completing this work living near
Gandhiji’s hut has indeed been a great privilege.
* * *The title of this book has been taken from the speech which
Mahatma Gandhi had made at Chatham House, London, on 20
October, 1931. He had said:
...the British administrators, when they came to India,
instead of taking hold of things as they were, 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 per-
ished.The subtitle has also been chosen accordingly. Although
the Madras Presidency data which forms the bulk of this book
was collected during 1822-25, the educational system to which
the data pertained was much older. It was still the dominant
system during the 18th century, after which it started decaying
very rapidly. The Adam Reports reflect that decline in the fourth
decade of the 19th century.
February 19, 1981. DHARAMPAL
Ashram Pratishthan,
Sevagram.
Notes
- A.S. Altekar: Education in Ancient India, 2nd Ed., Benares, 1944.
- National Archives of India: Selections from the Educational Records,
I:1781-1839, II:1840-1859 by H.Sharp and J.A. Richey 1920, 1922
(reprinted 1965). - Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik: History of Education in India during the
British Period, Bombay, 1943. - Ibid, Preface.
- Bharat mein Angreji Raj (in Hindi). While its first edition in 1929 was
immediately banned by the British, it was again published in 1939 in
three volumes (1780 pages), and has not only been republished again,
but has become a classic of its kind, providing a detailed account (pri - S.M. Jaffar: Education in Muslim India, Peshawar, 1936.
- History of Education in India during the British period, 1943.
- W. Adam: Reports on the State of Education in Bengal 1835 and 1838,
edited by Anathnath Basu and reprinted, Calcutta, 1941.