CHAPTER IV.

EDUCATION AND CHRISTIANITY.

THE

HE destiny of the Hindoo and other races of the East, under the rule of Great Britain, depends for its good or evil, less upon the form of government, the quality of legislation, or the physical welfare of the community, than upon a proper development of the intelligence, and the morals of the people,-upon the elevation of their national character. As in the more progressive countries of the western world, their future must be shaped by their schools. The safety and integrity of the state hinges upon education, as surely within the tropics as in more temperate zones. The national mind of India will advance, whatever the efforts of government. The Canutes of conservatism will in vain bid the tide of intelligence to recede-thus far shalt thou come, but no farther. The onward current of mind cannot be thus swept back. The printing-press, the steam-engine, and the railroad, are all busy at their work; the sound of their labours reaches already from Cape Comorin to the foot of the Himalayas. The spirit is abroad, and none, not even the mighty men of Leadenhall Street, can quench it. They may, however, do much more they may direct it; and as the winged lightning is guided and made the minister of good, so may the subtle thought of man, the intellect of millions upon millions of the human race, be bent, controlled, and moulded unto good for us and them.

Important though this subject be, it yet forms but an unsatisfactory chapter in the history of British Indian rule. It shews that whilst the most active and intelligent minds, the most carefully weighed schemes have been bent towards the one great bureaucratic object of wringing as much as possible from the great mass of the people, the most ordinary capacities, the smallest monetary grants have, with but a few exceptions, been deemed sufficient for ministering to the mental and social well-being of the community.

EARLY EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS.

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It shews, moreover, that if the official work has been scanty as compared with the field, the quality has been equally indifferent. The task appears to have been one of destruction rather than of reformation; to pull down rather than to build up. Heathenism has been replaced by infidelity. Brahma has been dethroned to make way for Tom Paine; the Vedas cast aside for the Age of Reason. Dagon has indeed been hewn' asunder, but the Ark has found no resting-place there. And this too by a Christian government!

Before I proceed to notice the present state of education in India, it will be well to take a survey, however rapid, of the work that has already been performed by governmental and missionary means, thus placing before my readers an epitome of the rise and progress of educational establishments within the three presidencies; and if in doing so I dwell more particularly upon the scholastic institutions of Bengal, it is that data regarding the other presidencies are most meagre and incomplete.

The nature and extent of the work yet to be done may be imagined from the substance of an official report on the state of native education, which tells us that in the most highly cultured districts only sixteen per cent of the teachable population receive any kind of instruction; in the least-cultured district, the proportion receiving teaching of any sort is about two and a quarter per cent; whilst the average of all the districts visited gave but seven and three-fourths per cent of children receiving any tuition whatever. In the same way it has been shewn, that of the adult population not more than five and a half per cent of the aggregate of the visited districts, had received any sort of instruction.

The first attempts made by Europeans to impart education in India were the results of private benevolence and enterprise, and that not to natives, but to Christian children. Rather more than a century has elapsed since a fund was formed by a few philanthropic persons of the Indian metropolis to provide board and education for indigent Christian children, the origin of the existing free school of Calcutta. It was some years later when the local government took the first step in the same direction, and strangely though it may read, that first step was made, not in behalf of the great mass of the people—the Hindoo race, but of their Mahomedan conquerors.

It was in the year 1781 that Mr. Hastings founded the Madrissa, or Mahomedan College, of Calcutta, and fourteen years later a Sanscrit College was established at Benares, for the encouragement of native

' Calcutta Review, art. Government Education in Bengal, vol. iii, p. 212.

learning. By the act, the 53d Geo. III., a lac of rupees (10,000%) was ordered to be appropriated "for the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences amongst the inhabitants of the British territories in India."

In 1816 the Hindoo college was projected, and five years later established in Calcutta, where as yet, the chief efforts in the cause of education appear to have been made. This was, and still is, by far the most important educational institution in Bengal. The celebrated Rammohun Roy was one of its most active promoters, and threw into the undertaking his entire energy. For the erection of the building 12,000l. were voted by the government, and an annual donation of 2,500l., subsequently increased to 3,000l., was granted for the maintenance of the professors, servants, &c. attached to it. Eventually larger sums were voted towards the support of this college, yet, for a long period, without having enlisted on its behalf any proportionate sympathy for the classes intended to be benefited by it, and who continued to regard it and its progress with true Asiatic indifference, so that the good resulting from its establishment has been very far from bearing a proportion to the amount of funds expended on it.

In 1830 Dr. Duff opened the General Assembly's School in Calcutta on Christian principles; and with so much ability and earnest zeal was this establishment conducted, that it very shortly rivalled the Hindoo College in the number and qualifications of its students.

It was not long after the above date, that, in order to direct and systematise the labours of the professors, and superintend the disbursements of the college and other educational grants for the presidency of Bengal, a General Committee of Public Instruction was organised, from the principal departments of the local government. In 1842 this committee was superseded by the present Council of Education, consisting of civil servants of Calcutta of high grade, two natives of little influence, a Judge of the Supreme Court, all unpaid, and a salaried secretary, who is de facto the council itself. This secretary is a striking illustration of the manner and the extent to which offices are heaped upon favourites by an Indian government. Besides being a member and the secretary of the Council of Education, and having in consequence to conduct the correspondence of all the colleges and schools under the government of Bengal, he is a professor in the Medical College, the secretary of that college, Government Book Agent, Inspector of Schools, and First Physician to the new Fever Hospital.

LORD W. BENTINCK'S MINUTE.

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In this way should any professor of one of the colleges feel aggrieved at the conduct of the school-inspector, or hampered by any of his regulations, he must forward his complaints to the man who, being both secretary and inspector, has to decide upon all complaints thus brought against himself. In the same manner the sale of books by the secretary becomes a source of great evil, for this functionary not only reaps a large personal profit by the unrestricted price he places upon all books supplied to the various educational establishments, but keeps them furnished with such books as pay him best, and which are precisely those least desired by the professors. Yet to complain is out of the question, for any such matter must be submitted to the book-agent in his capacity of secretary, who would not only decide in his own favour, but in his third capacity of inspector of schools, manage to shew any such rebellious professor the exceeding impolicy, not less than the utter inutility, of raising any such complaints.

The administration of Lord William Bentinck ushered in a revolution in the tactics of government, which, although modified by Lord Auckland, paved the way for important results. Lord Bentinck's minute of March 1835 expressly declared, that inasmuch as it was the great object of the government to promote European literature and science amongst the natives of India, all the funds appropriated for educational purposes would be best employed on English education alone. The minute was acted upon, and the final result has been, that in place of the exclusive orientalism of government education, a combined instruction in the native tongue and in English has found favour in the greater part of central and eastern India; whilst in the northwest provinces, in Assam and Arracan, English has made but few friends, and the popular feeling is exclusively in favour of the verEnglish is, however, but little valued within the Sanscrit colleges of Calcutta and Benares, and the Madrassa colleges of Hugli and Calcutta, where the teaching continues of a purely oriental cha

racter.

The Hindoo College of Calcutta is conducted by six professors, of whom one is principal, and another head-master of the school department. A very inferior education is given in its upper classes to about a hundred and fifty youths, comprising English literature, history, mental and moral philosophy, mathematics, and natural philosophy, surveying, and music. In its school department nearly a thousand pupils are taught by a host of native and a few European professors.

In the lower portion of the building are carried on the Sanscrit 2 Kerr's Review of Public Instruction in Bengal, part i. p. 90.

F F

College (an institution intended to promote, amongst the natives, the study and use of their sacred language), and the upper and lower school departments of the Hindoo College itself. Connected with the Sanscrit College, there is no European officer who holds any appointment involving supervision and arrangement. On field-days, when some notability is expected-a burra-sahib, or influential personage an imposing appearance is presented by this strange institution. The "Professors" of "Vyakarana," of " Sahitya," of "Alankar," of "Jyotish," and sundry other things equally euphonious and intelligible, muster in great numbers; and, what with robes, turbans, and ornaments, make a great display, looking solid, learned, and profound, as Sanscrit professors ought to look. The students repeat amazing quantities of unintelligible lines and sentences, answer unintelligible questions with equally unintelligible answers; and the burra-sahib, profoundly ignorant of the language used, is quite satisfied with their proficiency, bows to the "professors," who bow in return, and then departs, delighted to be able to speak and listen once more to his familiar English.

On any ordinary day the visitor will see, on a table in the midst of a small room, one of the "professors" sitting in oriental fashion, after the manner of tailors; his head is bare, his shoulders are bare; the day is hot, and the roll of muslin which envelopes his body out of doors has been removed; the ample rotundity of the stomach heaves regularly above the muslin folds which encircle the loins and thighs. The shaven crown of the worthy "professor," and his broad quivering back, glow with the heat; whilst a disciple, standing behind him, plies the fan vigorously to and fro, and produces a current of wind that keeps the huge mass partially cool. Around the table are squatted numbers of dirty-looking youths, carefully enveloped in their muslin dresses, as prescribed by the rules, and droning, one by one, over a manuscript page, which is handed from one to another in succession. The majority are dozing, and well they may, for it is sleepy work-the same verses nasally intoned by one after another with unvarying monotony, and doubtless with similar errors. The "professor" seldom speaks, for he too is dozing heavily on the table, anxiously awaiting the bell that is to release him to liberty and dinner. The same scene is being repeated in other similar rooms, where other "professors" are similarly dozing and teaching, and other youths similarly shut up from the light of God's sun, which shines without; and of his soul, which should shine within them.

In the upper and lower school departments of the Hindoo Col