banks of Beas free from all diplomatic or martial overtures. They
preferred their own incapacity to govern to an established order
of things where their liberty would be restrained and their
religion interfered with. The Sikh like the Hindu is essentially
devout, and his devotion always lands him on the side of
conservatism; of respect for the past, its institutions and
traditions.
So that, when the reins of government and authority
passed into the hands of the Sikhs, both from lack of initiative
and requirements of diplomacy, they left untouched all the old
village institutions. Whereas, British administrators in other
provinces were changing and modifying ancient ways and
manners to suit their own conceptions, the Sikh Sirdar was
content to let things have their own way, so long as he got the
revenue that he wanted. The result of it all was that a network of
village schools which traditions of a thousand years past had
spread all over India, was in its full strength here. If any change
was made at all, it was to add the Granthi or Bhai, to the Maulvi
and the Pandit. Instead of there being two traditional teachers of
village youth, now there became three.
The village education was an essential part of the village
administration and the provision for it was made in the village
expenses. The ‘school-master’s field’, the ‘watchman’s field’ never
disappear from the village books. There was in every village in
the Punjab, a school of some sort, in which elementary
education, having a direct bearing on the secular needs of the
pupil, was imparted either free of cost, or at a nominal rate of
monthly fee. In addition to these schools, there were spread all
over the province ‘colleges’ of various grades and denominations
in which the ancient ideals of the academies were kept alive and
potent. There were centres of advanced studies of metaphysics,
astronomy, mathematics, grammar, philosophy and other
sciences.
That much good was done to all sections of the community
by these indigenous schools and colleges, is beyond doubt a fact
recognised even by the bitter antagonists of the indigenous
system. From the advanced ‘colleges’, in which classical
education (Arabic and Sanskrit) was imparted to students of
mature age and thought, to the elementary Mahajani, Sharafi,
and Lande Schools, there was a very large variety of quasi-
classical vernacular and technical schools. The teachers always
kept in view the requirements of individual students and the
profession they were qualifying for.