Impact of Colonialism on Indian Education
The British Rule in India was the exploitation of colonial rule. Their rule in India “native” population never remained the same before[1]. British culture, way of living, architecture and artistic developments paved a new, innovative path, looking towards westernisation in every sphere. However, when the British rule became ruthless and more painful, the good-hearted generals’ or lords’ positive sides were kept aside.
Ramachandra Guha[2] says that the vile interest in Gold, spices and textiles brought the British to India and later changed the life of the people forever. The British rule affected not only the political and economic condition of the Indians but also the art and daily life of the people of India.
EDUCATION
It is interesting to know how the import of the Press by the British made the Indians go back to their roots and get acquainted with their sacred texts and Western science and philosophy. This caused some to refurbish temples and mosques and vigorously celebrating community festivals, and others start schools, newspapers and discussion societies.
The education in eighteen century was given by Sanskrit “Tol” or “Madrasa”s of Muslims. Generally, no instruction was given to girls. Every village of 100 houses had a schoolmaster who taught the children of the Banias. The schools were confined only to Brahmans and Banias[3]. The education was given usually in the open air. The students sat on mats or cow dung floors. They were taught as much religion as their caste admits, reading, writing, arithmetic and accounts, and some physical and natural sciences rudiments.
Later in the 19th century, the Missionaries started their own schools in different parts of India. According to R.C. Majumdar[4], English education transformed India significantly. It brought Western ideas and formed the foundation for all the incredible progress witnessed in Bengal during British rule. Though the administration difficulties forced the Indians to learn English till the end of the eighteenth century, English was neither spoken nor understood. At the same time, some elite learnt English to read and write reasonably well. In the beginning, it is said that English schools were started for the children of British soldiers who lived in India. Slowly they were opened to elite Indians.
Those who got educated in English came to know about their own culture and realised the necessity of imbibing its spirit through the knowledge of English. One among these is Raja Rammohan Roy. From his letter, we come to know that there was some amount of money issued for the education of Indians. Governor William Pitt decided to use that money for some other purpose other than education. The same thing is mentioned in Macaulay’s Minutes of 1835.
In his letter, written ten years earlier to the visit of Macaulay t India, to the Governor-General, William Pitt, Raj Rammohan Roy[5] requests for the English education for general Indians and says that the Sangscrit schools under Hindoo pundits offered only the current knowledge, which would only load the youth with grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions of little or no practical use to the present society. The pupils acquire what was known two thousand years ago. He adds that the Sanskrit language is so complex that almost a lifetime is necessary for its perfect acquisition. He requests to employ a few gentlemen of talents educated in Europe and provide the college with essential books, instruments and other apparatus.
It seems that the amount which had been given for the development of Indian caused concerns, and Macaulay was called to decide the use of the sum in the most productive manner.
In his minutes, Macaulay[6] reflects Rammohan Roy’s views about Sanskrit and Arabic Education. He admits that he doesn’t know either of the knowledge but formed the correct evaluation by discussing their proficiency with the men and continues to say that the European library is worth the whole worth of native literature of India and Arabia. He declares that Indians cannot be educated using their mother tongue, and they do not contain either literary or scientific information and are poor and rude. He firmly says that the Indians want to learn English. He continues, why should be the money be spent on the teachers who teach Sangscrit and Arabic while the students have not paid them. So the most helpful way of using the funds allocated for the intellectual improvement of the people of India was to provide “English Education”.
The “English Education did change the Indian life, in its politics, economics, religious and moral life.
The English education enabled people to think in broader terms and understand what our scriptures are really saying. It gave them the courage to demolish the evil systems in Hindu like child marriage and sati.
EDUCATION OF WOMEN
In her[7] book “Almond Eyes, Lotus Feet”, Shalini Devi Holkar, an Indian princess, talks about the life of women in palaces. She says that the women were not supposed to do any physical work because of two reasons one, it was considered below their dignity, and the two, because of purdah. She also mentions it was not a Hindu culture but came from Muslims. The purdah was to the extent that some women boast that even the sun wouldn’t see her. Devi Holkar says if they had to get in a car, they would be in a mobile tent.
Devi Holkar says that the education of royal women was much more to do with etiquette and demeanour. They learned how to respect elders, modest speech and action and perfect execution of all the pujas or religious rituals. Apart from this, they learned solah Srinagar, the sixteen arts of beauty and adornment that every accomplished woman should know. Thus a woman’s whole youth was devoted to learning how to be an excellent wife. They had very little time for formal education as young girls. But she was lucky that she had a European teacher to teach her because both her father and father in law wanted her to have European education.
Devi Holkar also recalls how her husband prompted her to give up purdah when she got married. This is an example of how English education made the husbands train their wives.
The English educated young men spoke of the importance of women’s literacy and education and despairingly of the possibility of happiness if married to an illiterate wife. Such men joined religious reform societies and urged their wives to come out of seclusion to attend public meetings.
It is said that for urban and middle-class Indians, the “women’s” question became the burning issue of the day[8]. The Hindu woman and her domestic world were at the centre of a debate over colonial modernity and indigenous home and family life. Who should guide the woman in family life? What should be done to quiet a crying infant? What was the proper way to sweep a room or mend a sock? How should spices be arranged along the storeroom wall? All these were issues for contestation and debate. And the English educated men from different religions wrote domestic literature for women in magazines, novels and manuals in various languages. This resulted in the internal family struggles and intergenerational conflicts in which younger husbands struggled against male and female family elders over the loyalties and behaviour of young wives. This was the question of older women’s authority over family life coming to an end.
The old indigenous Hindu customs defined women as a separate and inferior class, urged their confinement to the home’s inner quarters and forbade literacy. The new patriarchy described its domestic reformulations as the companionate marriage of husband and wife. The latest thought of a shared partnership became the core of family life, which husband and wife had to accomplish as “partners”. As partners, they cared for the elders, household, servants, guests and beggars.
Though the British did not aim at providing education to the Indians, the reforms they brought in the education of India is proved to be a boon to the struggle for freedom. This very same education brought every Indian together and instilled a sense of unity among them.
[1] http://www.indianetzone.com/35/art_architecture_during_british_rule_british_india.htm
[2] Ramachandra Guha, Makers of Modern India
[3] R.C.Majumdar, The Maratha Supremacy, History and culture of the Indian people vol. 8
[4] R. C. Majumdar, British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance, History and culture of the Indian people vol. 9 pg. 34
[5] Ramachandra Guha, Makers of Modern India, pg. 43
[6]M. S. Thirumalai, in http://www.languageinindia.com/april2003/macaulay.html
[7] Sharada Dwivedi & Shalini Devi Holkar, Almond eyes, lotus feet pg.6
[8] Judith E. Walsh, Domesticity in colonial India, what women learned when men gave them advice pg. 1
Tagged education of women, English schools, History of Education, Macauley, Madrasa, Tol