Annexure E
History of Education in the Panjab since Annexation and in 1882LEITNER ON INDIGENOUS EDUCATION IN THE PANJAB
(EXTRACTS)GENERAL:
I am about to relate—I hope without extenuation or
malice—the history of the contact of a form of European with
one of Asiatic civilisation; how, in spite of the best intentions, the
most public-spirited officers, and a generous Government that
had the benefit of the traditions of other provinces, the true
education of the Panjab was crippled, checked, and is nearly
destroyed; how opportunities for its healthy revival and
development were either neglected or perverted; and how, far
beyond the blame attaching to individuals, our system stands
convicted or worse than official failure. Whether it is possible to
rouse to renewed exertion, on behalf of its own education, the
most loyal population that has ever been disappointed, is a
question which the following pages will only partially attempt to
answer. Much will of course, depend on the wise adaptation of
the noble principle just propounded—of ‘local self-government’—
to a department of the Administration,—that of education,—in
which, above all others, it can be introduced with perfect safety
and the greatest political advantage.
Respect for learning has always been the redeeming feature
of ‘the East’. To this the Panjab has formed no exception. Torn
by invasion and civil war, it ever preserved and added to
educational endowments. The most unscrupulous chief, the
avaricious money-lender, and even the freebooter, vied with the
small landowner in making peace with his conscience by
founding schools and rewarding the learned. There was not a
mosque, a temple, a dharmasala that had not a school attached
to it, to which the youth flocked chiefly for religious education.
There were few wealthy men who did not entertain a Maulvi,
Pandit or Guru, to teach their sons, and along with them the
sons of friends and dependents. There were also thousands of
secular