not only greater ridicule and denunciation of the Indian system;
but further, that any residual fiscal and state support still
available to the educational institutions was no longer to be
tolerated. Not surprisingly, the indigenous system was doomed
to stagnate and die.
The neglect and deliberate uprooting of Indian education,
the measures which were employed to this end, and its
replacement by an alien and rootless system—whose products
were so graphically described later by Ananda Coomaraswamy—
had several consequences for India. To begin with, it led to an
obliteration of literacy and knowledge of such dimensions
amongst the Indian people that recent attempts at universal
literacy and education have so far been unable to make an
appreciable dent in it. Next, it destroyed the Indian social
balance in which, traditionally, persons from all sections of
society appear to have been able to receive fairly competent
schooling. The pathshalas and madrassahs had enabled them to
participate openly and appropriately and with dignity not only in
the social and cultural life of their locality but, if they wished,
ensured participation at the more extended levels. It is this
destruction along with similar damage in the economic sphere
which led to great deterioration in the status and socio-economic
conditions and personal dignity of those who are now known as
the scheduled castes; and to only a slightly lesser extent to that
of the vast peasant majority encompassed by the term ‘backward
castes’. The recent movements embracing these sections, to a
great extent, seem to be aimed at restoring this basic Indian
social balance.
And most importantly, till today it has kept most educated
Indians ignorant of the society they live in, the culture which
sustains this society, and their fellow beings; and more
tragically, yet, for over a century it has induced a lack of con-
fidence, and loss of bearing amongst the people of India in
general.
What India possessed in the sphere of education two
centuries ago and the factors which led to its decay and
replacement are indeed a part of history. Even if the former
could be brought back to life, in the context of today, or of the
immediate future, many aspects of it would no longer be
apposite. Yet what exists today has little relevance either. An
understanding of what existed and of the processes which
created the irrelevance India is burdened with today, in time,
could help generate what best suits India’s requirements and the
ethos of her people.
Notes
- See Annexures, especially A(i)-(xxx), C, and D(i), (iii)-(iv)h.
- A. E. Dobbs: Education and Social Movements 1700-1850, London,
1919, p.80, quoting Oxford Commission, 1852, Report, p.19. - Ibid, p.83.
- Ibid, p.104, f.n.l. quoting 7 Henry IV, c.17.