Schooling ‘Truant’ Tribes: British Colonial Compulsions and Educational Evolution in Chhotanagpur, 1870–1930

Bara, Joseph

doi:10.1007/978-981-32-9026-6_5

Schooling ‘Truant’ Tribes: British Colonial Compulsions and Educational Evolution in Chhotanagpur, 1870–1930

Joseph Bara²

Chapter
First Online: 10 November 2019

212 Accesses
1 Citations

Abstract

This chapter tries to examine sluggish and uneven growth of British colonial education in the tribal hinterland of Chhotanagpur in the then Bengal province despite the fact that the system was introduced as early as 1839 in the region and received attention from different quarters. First, the system received considerable impetus in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from the colonial agenda of ‘civilizing’ the ‘barbarians’. For this task, the government usually relied upon the services of missionaries. The efforts of the missionaries, their humanitarian attitude towards the tribals notwithstanding, were ineluctably marred by the constraints of their mission field and prejudiced missionary paradigm. Owing to this, the missionaries were unable to devise a pro-tribal educational policy, thus leading to the tribals receiving the faulty system on their own terms. While the tribals valorized certain aspects of the system; they were, unlike elsewhere, unable to further develop the system through indigenous initiative. The chapter takes a stock of all these issues.

Originally published in Studies in History, Vol. 26 No. 2 Copyright © 2010 Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holders and the publishers, SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 84.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 109.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 109.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
The two tribes occupied the central part of Chhotanagpur, that is, the former district of Ranchi (known as Lohardaga till 1899) or the present districts of Ranchi, Lohardaga, Gumla and Simdega.
2.
Zastoupil and Moir 1999: 8.
3.
Address by Lieutenant Governor J.P. Grant, 2 April 1862 (University of Calcutta, 1914:66).
4.
William Adam (1838) who surveyed the state of indigenous popular education in Bengal and Bihar regions for the government (1835–38), which we shortly refer below, left out Chhotanagpur. Adam (1838).
5.
In the late 1860s, the colonial state wanted to levy an educational cess in Bengal proper, especially for mass education, which was resisted by the landlord class. See Correspondence Relative to the Expediency of Raising an Educational Cess in Bengal. Shimla, 1870.
6.
Buckland 1976: 526.
7.
‘Minutes of T.B. Macaulay’, dated 2 February 1835 and ‘Resolution’ by William Bentick, dated 7 March 1835; in Sharp (1965: 107–17, 130–31).
8.
Report of the General Committee of the Presidency of Fort William for the Year 1830–40, Calcutta, 1841; appendix 1, p. 123.
9.
Despatch from the Court of Directors of the East India Company to the Governor General of India in Council no. 49 dated 19 July 1854; in Richey (1965: 376); also see Bose (1978: 161–79).
10.
Of a number of studies of this type, see in particular Bose (1978), Mandal (1975: 81–98), Palit (1975–76: 163–72) and Mukhopadhyay (1984).
11.
Jha 1979: 132.
12.
Barooah 1970: 177–78; and Barpujari 1995: 617–37.
13.
The lustre of Persian as administrative and literary language benefiting the upper classes was replaced by English. The better-off peasantry usurped the colonial local schemes as a ladder for higher English education.
14.
Kishenpur is the present-day Ranchi, Jharkhand’s political capital and the tribals’ cultural capital.
15.
Jha (1979). The new name was the result of administrative organization following the Kol Revolt (1831–1832).
16.
This gripped the nineteenth-century Western mind widely. For instance, William Adam took an out-of-way opportunity to advocate ‘moral conquest’ of the tribals of Chhotanagpur by education in his final survey report of 1838. By citing the case of Tartars’ civilization, the Macaulay’s Minutes of 1835 propounded a theoretical proposition in this respect. See Adam (1838: 221–22), Kumar (1970: 465); Letter dated 11 June 1859 from E.T. Dalton, Deputy Commissioner, Chotanagpur to W. Gordon Young, director, Public Instruction, Bengal, appended to General Report on Public Instruction in the Lower Provinces of Bengal, 1869–70, p. 48. (Hereafter GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal and respective year)
17.
Ricketts 1855: 37.
18.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1873–74: 22.
19.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1855–56, Appendix A: Report of the Inspector of Schools: 9; Educational Despatch of 1859, in Richey (1965: 450).
20.
Richey 1965: 378.
21.
Letter dated 31 July 1871 from Dalton to Rivers Thompson, Special Secretary, Government of Bengal in Roychaudhury (1959: 218). From 1863, Dalton obtained a special sanction of Rs.600 to help the Christian missionaries at his discretion.
22.
see Sherring 1884.
23.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1875–76: 37.
24.
Letter dated 31 July 1871 from Dalton to Thompson, in Roychaudhury (1959: 218).
25.
Stokes 1982: 55.
26.
Report of the Chota Nagpore Mission for the year 1863: 10.
27.
Letter dated June 1859 from E.T. Dalton to W. Young, Director, Public Instruction, Bengal, appended to GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1869–70: 48.
28.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1864–65: 244.
29.
Letter dated 31 July 1871 from Dalton to Thompson, Roychaudhury (1959).
30.
Roychaudhury 1959: 218.
31.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1872–73: 546.
32.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1872–73 & 1873–74: 22.
33.
The details of the Grant project are available in GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1862–63, Appendix A.
34.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1872–73: 515.
35.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1872–73: 515.
36.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1874–75: 64.
37.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1874–75: 64.
38.
Haldar was appointed Special Commissioner by the Government of Bengal according to the Act of 1869 to survey the bhuinhari claims of the Mundas and Uraons. He carried out the survey diligently for 10 years and submitted his report to the government in 1880. Before his Chhotanagpur posting, he was involved in school inspection. See Haldar (1921: Chapter VII).
39.
Haldar 1921: 510.
40.
R.D. Haldar. Personal Diary dated 3 March 1873.
41.
R.D. Haldar. Personal Diary dated 29 March 1874.
42.
Buckland, 1976: 533.
43.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1875–76: 35.
44.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1875–76: 36.
45.
GRPI 1875–76: 36.
46.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1875–76: 36.
47.
see Mandal 1975.
48.
GRPI 1872–73: 510, 546.
49.
Buckland 1976: 470.
50.
GRPI 1872–73: 511.
51.
GRPI 1883–84:146.
52.
Hunter 1883: 511.
53.
Sardar means leader and larai means agitation. See the details of the movement in MacDougall (1985).
54.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1874–75: 111.
55.
This was a widespread phenomenon among the lower orders of the Indian society—the outcastes, backward castes and the tribes—from about the mid-nineteenth century. See, for details, Pickett (1933).
56.
Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1885, 4 and for the year 1895, 9.
57.
For an interface of the movement and Christian missions, see Bara (2007).
58.
Fr. Constant Lievens (1856–1893) came to India from Belgium in 1880. In Chhotanagpur, he began conversion work from Jamgain among the Mundas by helping them to fight their agrarian claims in the court. In 1888, after appointment as ‘moderator’ of the mission field of the district of Lohardaga, he moved to the Uraon region of Barway, where he achieved greater success of conversion. His conversion movement incited strong reaction of the landlords and the police, the exploiters of the tribals. He wrecked his health in missionary work and died young at the age of 37. See detail about his life and works in Clarysse (1985).
59.
The Indo-European Correspondence, 26 March 1890, 293.
60.
de Sa 1975: 14.
61.
see Nottrott 1903.
62.
Under this, education, especially higher education, as preparatory to conversion was supposed to ferment the recipient’s mind for spiritual change. See Dutt (1870: 330–44).
63.
Higher education for the tribals in the context of the nineteenth-century colonial Chhotanagpur meant high school level.
64.
Letter dated 31 July 1871 from Dalton to Thompson, (Roychaudhury 1959: 215).
65.
GRPI, Lower Provinces, Bengal, 1872–73: 520.
66.
Whitley 1901: 18.
67.
Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1894.
68.
The Indo-European Correspondence, 26 March 1890, 293.
69.
See Vermeire (n.d.: 56). Fr. Sylvanus Grosjean was Superior of the Belgian Jesuit Mission of Bengal, of which Chhotanagpur was a part. He sent Constant Lievens to Chhotanagpur and was responsible for establishing the mission centre at Ranchi in 1886. Later he served in the outlying mission fields.
70.
Moens 1987:4.
71.
Moens 1987:4.
72.
In the late nineteenth century, it covered the far-flung parts of tribal Chhotanagpur; from early twentieth century, it extended to the neighbouring tribal parts of the present states of Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
73.
Vermeire (n.d.: Appendix B).
74.
Vermeire (n.d.: Appendix B).
75.
Fr. De Gryse’s Report on Kurdeg Parish dated 6 July 1905, File: Kurdeg, 8. Jesuit Archives Ranchi.
76.
Hoffmann 1909: 11.
77.
Gharbandhu, dated 15 February 1890, 31.
78.
The college was the pioneering institution of science education at Calcutta under the leadership of Fr. Eugene Lafont (1865–1908); see Biswas (2001).
79.
The missionaries coming to Chhotanagpur were part of the ‘Bengal mission’ of the Belgian Jesuits.
80.
Birsa movement, led by a half-literate Munda young man, Birsa, was the last of the violent agrarian uprisings of the tribals under British colonialism. Birsa declared himself a superhuman to mobilize the masses. Details of the movement are available in Singh (1983).
81.
The act, seen as the Magna Charta of the special agrarian rights of the tribals, continues, with amendments, even now.
82.
The growth of higher education in Bihar since 1862, when Patna College was started, raised in due course a sizeable group of educated Biharis. They laid claims over the local vacancies and resisted the entrenched Bengali population.
83.
Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1894; Hoffmann 1909: 12.
84.
Whitley 1901: 20.
85.
‘Report of Babu P.K. Nundy, Assistant Master’, Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1889, 13–14.
86.
Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1894.
87.
Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1894.
88.
The DUM even joined hands at Ranchi. But the collaboration did not progress as DUM also was afflicted by the deficit of missionaries, Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1908.
89.
Though this policy is not clearly stated, individual missionaries, for instance, E.H. Whitley and Eyre Chatterton, were engaged in dialogue with non-tribals or preaching in the market places, Dublin University Mission (1897: 12) and Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1907, 3.
With the same idea of addressing the non-tribal mind, later in 1920, the SPG opened European high schools, Westcott School, one each for boys and girls at Ranchi. See Government of Bihar and Orissa (1922). Notes. Education, File No. IV, E—17. The schools came into being after transfer of Calcutta Free School to Ranchi, originally proposed by Lieutenant Governor Andrew Fraser (1905), fizzled out.
90.
Taking cue from SPG, the GEL also started a press and a journal called Gharbandhu in 1878 which continues to this day.
91.
An intimate report of the St John’s School, Ranchi of 1910 says:

The more promising boys from the bungalow schools in Biru, Barway and Chechari were all sent to Ranchi. The journey to Ranchi was done either fully on foot with some elderly men accompanying them to carry their belongings, or partly on foot, viz. till Lohardaga, from where they took the little train … Such journeys from home to school lasted several days with halts at various mission stations along the road. (Moens 1987: 13)
92.
Whitley 1901: 7–8.
93.
The International Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910 especially deliberated upon the problems of outcast and tribal Christians, from where programmes followed under the leadership of K.T. Paul. See Popley (1938).
94.
For the factor of caste in relation to education, see Bara (2000).
95.
Sevrin n.d.: 1.
96.
In early twentieth century, a Bavarian tourist in Chhotanagpur was heard explaining his missionary companion pointing to a Munda on the roadside: ‘That fellow sitting there is either a monkey, and then I am a man, or if he is a man, and then I am god’. J. Hoffmann, Encyclopaedia Mundarica, Vol. IV: 1117. (For details on the Encyclopaedia volumes, see next footnote.)
97.
Father John Baptist Hoffmann (1857–1928) was a German Jesuit in the Bengal mission. He rose above his missionary avocation to help the tribals in their agrarian crisis. He studied the Munda land system and culture deeply in course of his missionary work. In 1908, he helped the government to draft the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act by co-authoring a note entitled ‘Special Memorandum on the Land System of the Munda Country’, which was appended to the act. Being a German, he was repatriated to Germany during the First World War. He carried the large data he collected on the Chhotanagpur tribals to Germany and, helped by Arthur Van Emelen, composed 13 volumes of Encyclopaedia Mundarica, which were published by the government of Bihar (I–XI, 1930–37; XII–XIII, 1950). For details on his life and involvements, see Tete (1986).
98.
Gharbandhu, 15 January 1909.
99.
Report of the Chota Nagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1908, 3.
100.
The repatriation of the German missionaries worsened the condition of the GEL Mission, and the SPG was adversely affected by the withdrawal of the DUM.
101.
Hoffmann 1909: 14.
102.
Sevrin n.d.: 1. Hoffmann prepared a blueprint for the tribals’ integral development, which is his Social Works in Chota Nagpore.
103.
Waelkens 1910: 1.
104.
‘A Report on the Working of Catholic Primary Schools in Chota Nagpore during the years 1913, 1914 and 1915’, Our Schools in Chota Nagpore (1910–25).
105.
Proceedings of the Meeting of the Missionaries held at Ranchi on 23 October 1916, 1.
106.
See ‘Progress of Education in the Diocese of Ranchi’ in Vermeire, n.d. and Catholic Herald of India, 23 July 1934.
107.
Proceedings of the Meeting of Missionaries held at Ranchi on 23 October 1916.
108.
St John’s High School, Ranchi: Rector’s Report for 1924; File: School Day and Prize Distribution Day/Principal’s Report.
109.
The Jesuits occasionally discussed college education but only as a sequel of discussions in the government in connection with the Patna University Bill (1913). See Note of Fr. L. Van Hoeck, S.J., Rector, R.C. Mission, Ranchi. Government of Bihar and Orissa 1916. Education Department, Education, File No. III/4.
110.
Chota Nagpore Catholic Co-operative Credit Society, Report of the Director for the Registrar, 1923; ‘Ranchi ke Sangat Walon ke Gat Varsha ka Kam’, in Nishkalanka, January 1924; and Proceedings and Resolutions of the Meeting of Missionaries, Ranchi, 12–13 November 1929.
111.
Lured by the provision of government grant, the GEL and the SPG opened their Ranchi schools to the non-tribals. The Jesuits were the last to do that in 1906.
112.
Moens 1987:11.
113.
In 1913, the Ranchi District Board helped the Jesuits to establish 60 new village schools. The government also sponsored three Guru (teacher) Training Schools, one each under the three missions, with a view to raising primary and middle school teachers from among the tribals. See A Report on the Working of Catholic Primary Schools in Chota Nagpore during the year 1913 and Government of Bihar and Orissa. Proceedings, Education, ‘A’, No. 43.
114.
Letter dated 4 September 1916 from Vice-Chairman, Ranchi District Board to Fr. Van Hoeck, Director, Education, Catholic Diocese of Ranchi, File: Correspondence with Government (misc.).
115.
Hunter 1883: 507.
116.
Letter dated 7 April 1890 from Secretary, Government of Bengal to Commissioner, Chotanagpur, Papers relating to Chotanagpur Agrarian Disputes, Vol. II.
117.
Government of Bihar and Orissa. Quinquennial Review on the Progress of Education, 1912–13 to 1916–17; in Government of Bihar and Orissa. 1917. Education Department, Miscellaneous, Nos. 1–4, File No. Em/261, 118.
118.
Gharbandhu, 1 October 1904, 150–51.
119.
Fraser 1911: 253.
120.
Fraser 1911: 253.
121.
Fraser 1911: 253.
122.
Note of Fr. L. Van Hoecke S.J., Rector, R.C. Mission, Ranchi, 1916, Government of Bihar and Orissa. 1916. Education Department, Education, File No. III/4, 37–38; Note of B.A. Collins, Director, Public Instruction dated 13 June 1925; and Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department, Education, File No. 40, 1926, 12. The prejudice was the outcome of bitter Protestant-Catholic rivalry over conversion fields in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
123.
Note of Fr. L Van Hoeck, Rector, R.C. Mission, Ranchi, Government of Bihar and Orissa. 1916, 37.
124.
Letter no. 10677-4C-12-15 dated Patna, 22 October 1925 from Director, Public Instruction, Bihar and Orissa to the Registrar, Patna University, in Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department, File No. 40, 20.
125.
Note of B.A Collins dated 13 June 1925, in Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department, Education, File No. III—40, 1926, 12.
126.
For instance, when two tribals passed the B.A. examination in 1913, the authorities proposed two scholarships for them on the model of what already existed for the ‘Biharis’ and ‘Oriyas’. In 1925 when the beginning of Intermediate classes was procrastinated, the government offered to compensate the aspirants by a scholarship of 6 rupees. See ‘Notes’, Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department. Education, File No. IE/79 1913; Government of Bihar and Orissa. ‘Notes’, Education Department, Education, File No. III E—50, 15.
127.
Government of Bihar and Orissa. Government of Bihar and Orissa. Notes, Education Department, Education, File No. IE/79, 1913; Government of Bihar and Orissa. Notes, Education Department, Education, File No. IIIE—50, 1926, 15.
128.
A full-fledged government college saw the light of the day only in 1946.
129.
Note of B.A. Collins dated 13 June 1925, in Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department, Education, File No. III—40, 1926, 12.
130.
Letter dated 30 September 1924 from Director, Public Instructions to Secretary, Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department, Education, File No. IIIE—40, 1926 No. 46, 1.
131.
‘Memorandum by the Chota-Nagpur Improvement Society’; Report of the Indian Statutory Commission: Selections from Memoranda and Oral Evidence by Non-officials (Part I) 1930, 438.
132.
Hauser 1995: 55.
133.
‘Report on the application for admission of the Ranchi Zila School up to the Intermediate Arts standard of Patna University’ dated 29 January 1926 by J.H. Thickett; see Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department. Education. File No. IIIE—40, 1926, 23. St Columba’s had started badly; the initial students comprised ‘the insoluble residue’ who had failed three or four times earlier in other colleges, ‘St Columba’s College, Hazaribagh’; Chotanagpur Diocesan Paper, 1949, 16.
134.
Hauser 1995: 52.
135.
Quoted in Report of the Chotanagpur of the SPG for the year 1902, 16.
136.
Letter dated 13 January 1935 from Headmaster, Chaibasa Zila School, to Rev. J. Van Lemberghe, Secretary to the Rt Rev. the Bishop of Ranchi; File: Education, Archbishop’s House, Ranchi.
137.
The British paternalistic attitude towards the peasantry to check the growing power of the north Indian landlord class had inspired inclusion of document reading in the curriculum of popular education. See Richey 1965, 376.
138.
see Bara 2007.
139.
The outsiders, entrenched in the government system, monopolized the public appointments, leaving hardly any scope for the tribals. See Ricketts 1855, 376.
140.
Report of the Chota Nagpore Mission for the year 1863, 10.
141.
Letter dated 19 November 1887 from C.C. Stevens, Commissioner, Chotanagpur, to Chief Secretary, Government of Bengal, Papers relating to Chotanagpur Agrarian Disputes, Vol. I, 129.
142.
‘Varshik Panchayat mein Babu Gabriel Xalxo ka Upadesh’, Part II, Gharbandhu, 1 March 1906, 39–40.
143.
Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1889, 11.
144.
‘Varshik Panchayat mein Babu Gabriel Xalxo ka Upadesh’, Part I, Gharbandhu, 15 February 1906, 31–32; ‘Deshi Karmachariyon ki Sabha ka ek Prastav’, Gharbandhu, 15 May 1911, 74–76.
145.
A Report on the Working of Catholic Primary Schools in Chota Nagpore, 1913, Our Schools in Chota Nagpore (1910–25).
146.
St John’s High School, Ranchi: Rector’s Report for the year 1925; File: School Day and Prize Distribution Day/Principal’s Report.
147.
Gharbandhu, December 1926, 158.
148.
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Missionaries of Chota Nagpore, Ranchi, 18 November 1922, 4.
149.
A survey of the educational problems of Protestant ‘mass movement’ converts in 1919 found that the tribal children of Chhotanagpur specially suffered from malnutrition; see Fraser, 1920.
150.
St John’s High School, Ranchi: Rector’s Report for the year 1921, File: School Day and Prize Distribution Day/Principal’s Report.
151.
Report of the Mission in Chotanagpur, in connection with SPG for the year ending 30 September 1894, 12.
152.
Letter to the Editor by Rufus Christoday, Gharbandhu, 1 June 1903 and 15 August 1903, 127–28; ‘Varshik Panchayat mein Babu Gabriel Xalxo ka Upadesh’, Part I, Gharbandhu, 15 February1906, 31.
153.
Memorandum of the Chotanagpur Uraon-Munda Siksha Sabha.
154.
Memorandum of the Chotanagpur Uraon-Munda Siksha Sabha.
155.
Memorandum of the Chotanagpur Uraon-Munda Siksha Sabha.
156.
Against nineteenth-century craze for English and readiness to pay for it elsewhere, the colonialists claimed to have made two special concessions for the tribals: buying attendance by penny payment (sarcastically termed ‘bribery’) and opening a vernacular (Hindi) section. Both were actually fringe concessions. The tribal cultural resources and languages were considered ‘barren’ for educational use by both the colonialists and the missionaries. The missionaries developed the tribal languages by writing down dictionaries and grammars. However, this and whatever other literature they developed were primarily geared to missionary purposes. Under the Campbell scheme, steps were taken to use tribal language among the neighbouring Santhal tribe, which were however half-heartedly implemented.
Among the Mundas and Uraons, the first attempt to employ the Mundari and Kurux (Uraon) by the government was made only in the early twentieth century. The effort lacked seriousness.
157.
GEL Mission 1908: 26; Moens 1987: 13.
158.
St John’s High School, Ranchi: Rector’s Report for the year 1919, File: School Day and Prize Distribution Day/Principal’s Report.
159.
Our Field, August–September 1925, No. 7, 83.
160.
Gharbandhu, December 1926, 160–61.
161.
The Roman Catholic Church, a large mission-field in Chhotanagpur, attracted many educated tribals to clergymanship. Out of 53 successful matriculates of St John’s School between 1909 and 1925, 16 opted for this. Nishkalanka, No. 5, June 1925, 82.
162.
Nishkalanka, No. 5, June 1925, 82.
163.
Report of the German Evangelical Lutheran (Gossner’s) in Chota Nagpur and Assam for the year 1907, 28.
164.
Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the year 1910, 26.
165.
Lakra, Herman Life Sketch.
166.
One such official fondly remembered for this by the tribals was E.A. Gait who served as Commissioner of Chhotanagpur and later as Lieutenant Governor of Bihar and Orissa in the first two decades of the twentieth century, Gharbandhu, June 1928, 83–84.
167.
Gharbandhu, 15 May 1912.
168.
The word ‘national’ was frequently used at this stage and even ‘national’ songs were composed in tribal languages, Gharbandhu, 1 May 1912, 15 May 1912, 15 July 1913 and 1 September 1913.
169.
Kujur n.d..
170.
Kujur n.d.: 4.
171.
Tribal representatives quoted in letter dated 11 April 1925 from Mahendra Nath Sahay to Commissioner, Chota Nagpur Division; see Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department, Education, File No. III—40, 1926 No. 52, 11.
172.
Gharbandhu, 15 July 1928.
173.
Gharbandhu, 15 January 1918, 10.
174.
In 1921, S.C. Roy, representing the tribals in the Bihar Legislative Council, demanded five scholarships of 10 rupees each for the tribals from the government. The leaders also pressed the government for enhancement of the stipend rate of 6 rupees provided to the college-going tribal students. See letter dated 10 August 1925, from Bandi Ram Oraon, Secretary, Chota Nagpur Improvement Society to Chancellor, Patna University; Government of Bihar and Orissa, Education Department, Education, File No. IIIE—40 of 1926, No. 56, p. 15.
175.
Letter dated 11 April 1925 from Mahendra Nath Sahay to Commissioner, Chotanagpur, see Government of Bihar and Orissa. Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education Department, Education, File No. IIIE—40, 1926, No. 52, 11.
176.
Gharbandhu, June–July 1929, 124.
177.
Government of Bihar and Orissa. Education and Development, Education, File No. IIE—122, 1930, No. 15.
178.
‘Memorandum by the Chota-Nagpur Improvement Society’, Report of the Indian Statutory Commission, Part I, 1930, 438.
179.
Gharbandhu, June–July 1929, 134.
180.
Gharbandhu, June 1928, 84.
181.
Closely observing the situation, they noted that in 22 years between 1906 and 1928, only 9 tribals were appointed in the executive posts, Gharbandhu, June 1928, 83–84.
182.
The national education movement under the Indian National Congress in the early two decades was also preoccupied with these concerns. See the Congress resolutions and statements of the period, in Bhattacharya et al. 2003. Educating the Nation.
183.
‘Memorandum by the Chota-Nagpur Improvement Society’, 438.
184.
Even in North-east India, where educational development at the hands of the Christian missionaries was faster than other tribal regions, the first college, St Edmond’s Shillong, was established only in 1924. The college took over a decade to become a graduate level institution in 1936.
185.
In 1927, for instance, out of 91,000 pupils in class one in Chhotanagpur, 61% were repeaters, 34% for 2 years and 27% for more than 2 years; see Government of Bihar and Orissa. Quinquennial Report on Public Instruction for 1922–27.
186.
This remains a problem in post-independence India’s approach to tribal education, since the colonial idea of tribe greatly continues in public discourse.
187.
The reincarnation of CUS, the Adivasi Sabha, phrased a slogan ‘Give us education! Give us College!’ in 1939 and the Jharkhand Party (born out of the latter Sabha) in its election manifesto of 1951 voiced for a ‘residential and teaching university’ at Ranchi, Adivasi (Mahasabha special issue), March 1939, 16; also see Kujur. n.d. Jharkhand Dumuhane Par, 86.
188.
Since the colonial system uprooted the educated culturally and alienated them from the society, the tribals popularly perceived that the educated actually did not learn but were perished (or padhlak nahin podlak). Also see Bara 2005. ‘Seeds of Mistrust’, for the gap between tribal and colonial perspectives of education.
189.
Kujur n.d.: 7.
190.
The school was started at Ranchi by Julius Tigga and was carried forward by his associate, Ahlad Tirkey, who died a few years ago.
191.
Presidential speech by Jaipal Singh to All-India Adibasi Mahasabha on 28th February 1948, 14–15.
192.
Adivasi Dhumkuria Petition, ‘Chonha Nindka, Thomas Rudderford, Biharta Belay’ (in Kurux), dated Kanke, 24 July 1945.
193.
‘National mainstream’ as suggested by Ghurye 1943. The Aborigines - So-called and Their Future.

References

Secondary Sources

Bara, Joseph. 2000. Christian Missionaries and Popular Education in India. Indian Social Science Review 2 (2): 301–333.
Google Scholar
———. 2005. Seeds of Mistrust: Tribal and Colonial Perspectives on Education in Chhotanagpur, 1834–1850. History of Education 34 (6): 617–637.
Article Google Scholar
———. 2007. Colonialism, Christianity and the Tribes of Chhotanagpur in East India, 1845–1890. South Asia XXX (2): 195–222.
Article Google Scholar
Barooah, N.K. 1970. David Scott in North-East India, 1802–1831: A Study in British Paternalism. New Delhi: Munshiram Monoharlal.
Google Scholar
Barpujari, H.K. 1995. The American Missionaries and the North-East India (1836–1900AD). Guwahati: Spectrum Publications.
Google Scholar
Bhattacharya, S., J. Bara, and C.R. Yagati, eds. 2003. Educating the Nation: Documents on the Discourse of National Education in India 1880–1920. New Delhi: Kaniska Publishers.
Google Scholar
Biswas, Arun Kumar. 2001. Father Eugene Lafont of St Xavier’s College, Kolkata and the Contemporary Science Movement. Kolkata: Asiatic Society.
Google Scholar
Bose, Sheela. 1978. A Study in Mass Education Policy of the Government of Bengal (1854–1882). Bengal: Past and Present XCVII (185): 161–179.
Google Scholar
Buckland, C.E. 1976. Bengal under the Lieutenant Governors. Vol. I. New Delhi: Deep Publications.
Google Scholar
Clarysse, L. 1985. Father Constant Lievens. Ranchi: Satya Bharati.
Google Scholar
de Sa, Fidelis. 1975. Crisis in Chota Nagpur: With Special Reference to the Judicial Conflict between Jesuit Missionaries and Government Officials November 1889-March 1890. Bangalore: Redemptorist Publications.
Google Scholar
DiBona, Joseph, ed. 1983. One Teacher One School: The Adam Reports on Indigenous Education. Delhi: Biblia Implex.
Google Scholar
Dutt, Baboo Harashunker. 1870. On the Rise, Progress and Objects of the Free Church Institution in Calcutta. In The Proceedings Transactions of the Bethune Society, ed. James Long, 330–344. Calcutta: The Bethune Society.
Google Scholar
Fraser, Sir Andrew H.L. 1911. Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots: A Civil Servant’s Recollections & Impressions of Thirty-seven Years of Work & Sport in the Central Provinces & Bengal. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co.
Google Scholar
Ghurye, G.S. 1943. The Aborigines – So-called – and Their Future. Poona: Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.
Google Scholar
Haldar, Sukumar. 1921. A Mid-Victorian Hindu: A Sketch of the Life and Times of Rakhal Das Haldar. Ranchi: S. Haldar, Samlong Farm.
Google Scholar
Hauser, Walter. trans. and ed. 1995. Swami Sahajanand and the Peasants of Jharkhand: A View from 1941. New Delhi: Sage. An edited translation of Khet Mazdoor.
Google Scholar
Hoffmann, J. and Arthur Van Emleen. 1950. Encyclopaedia Mundarica, Vol. IV. Patna: Government Printing.
Google Scholar
———. 1909. Social Works in Chota Nagpore. Calcutta: Catholic Orphan Press.
Google Scholar
Jha, J.S. 1979. Education in Bihar (1813–1859). Patna: K.P. Jayasawal Research Institute.
Google Scholar
Kujur, Ignace. n.d. Jharkhand Dumuhane Par. Ranchi: Sudarsan Press.
Google Scholar
Kumar, N. 1970. Bihar District Gazetteers: Ranchi. Patna: Government of Bihar.
Google Scholar
MacDougall, John. 1985. Land or Religion?: The Sardar and Kherwar Movements in Bihar 1858–1895. New Delhi: Sage.
Google Scholar
Mandal, Archana. 1975. The Ideology and Interests of the Bengali Intelligentsia: Sir George Campbell’s Education Policy (1871–74). Indian Economic and Social History Review 12 (1): 81–98.
Article Google Scholar
Mukhopadhyay, Gopal. 1984. Mass Education in Bengal: 1882–1914. Calcutta: National Publishers.
Google Scholar
Palit, Chitrabrata. 1975–76. Vernacular Education and the Structure of Politics in Bengal (1835–1870). Quarterly Review of Historical Studies 15 (3): 163–172.
Google Scholar
Pickett, J.W. 1933. Christian Mass Movements in India: A Study with Recommendations. New York: Abingdon Press.
Google Scholar
Popley, H.A. 1938. K.T Paul: Christian Leader. Calcutta: YMCA Publishing House.
Google Scholar
Sherring, M.A. 1884. History of Protestant Mission in India. London: Religious Tract Society.
Google Scholar
Singh, K.S. 1983. Birsa Munda and His Movement 1874–1901: A Study of a Millenarian Movement in Chotanagpur. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar
Stokes, Eric. 1982. The English Utilitarians and India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar
Tete, Peter. 1986. A Missionary Social Worker in India: Fr. J.B. Hoffmann. Ranchi: Satya Bharathi.
Google Scholar
Whitley, E.H. 1901. Historical Sketches: Chota Nagpur. Westminster: The Society for the.
Google Scholar
Zastoupil, Lynn and Martin Moir. eds. 1999.The Great Indian Education Debate: Documents Relating to Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy, 1781–1843. Surrey: Richmond Curzon Press.
Google Scholar

Primary Sources

Government and Missionary Reports and Correspondence/ Personal Diaries and Letters/Contemporary Writings

Adam, William. 1838. Third Report on the State of Education in Bengal. Calcutta: Bengal Orphan Press.
Google Scholar
Adivasi. 1939. Adivasi Mahasabha special issue, March 1939, Ranchi.
Google Scholar
Adivasi Dhumkuria Petition, ‘Chonha Nindka, Thomas Rudderford, Biharta Belay’ (in Kurux), dated Kanke, 24 July 1945.
Google Scholar
Catholic Herald of India, 23 July 1934 (London-based Roman Catholic weekly news paper established in 1888).
Google Scholar
Chota Nagpore Catholic Cooperative Credit Society. 1923. Report of the Director for the Registrar, 1923.
Google Scholar
Chotanagpur Diocesan Paper, Vol. 28 (110), October 1949.
Google Scholar
Collins, B.A. 1927. Bihar and Orissa in 1925–26. Patna: Government Press.
Google Scholar
Correspondence Relative to the Expediency of Raising an Educational Cess in Bengal. Shimla, 1870.
Google Scholar
Correspondence with Government. (misc.). Ranchi: Jesuit Archives.
Google Scholar
Dublin University Mission. 1897. University Mission to Chotanagpur Working under the SPG in Foreign Parts: Seventh Annual Report for the year 1896. Dublin: Archives at the RCB (Representative Church Body) Library, Dublin.
Google Scholar
Education Archbishop’s House Records: Education File.
Google Scholar
Fraser, A.G. 1920. Village Schools in India: The Report of a Commission of Inquiry. Humphrey Milford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar
GEL Mission. 1908. Report of the German Evangelical Lutheran (Gossner’s) Mission in Chota Nagpur and Assam for the year 1907. Ranchi: GEL Mission Press.
Google Scholar
General Report on Public Instruction in the Lower Provinces of Bengal for the years from 1864–65 to 1883–84.
Google Scholar
Gharbandhu. (Fortnightly periodical of the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Mission, Ranchi) for the years from 1900 to 1930.
Google Scholar
Government of Bihar and Orissa. 1927. Education Department, Quinquennial Report on Public Instruction for 1922–27.
Google Scholar
———. 1913. Education Department, Education, File No. IE/79 of 1913.
Google Scholar
———. 1913. Proceedings, Education, ‘A’, No. 43, June 1913.
Google Scholar
———. 1916. Education Department, Education, File No. III/4 of 1916.
Google Scholar
———. 1917. Education Department, Miscellaneous, Nos. 1–4, File No. Em/ 261 of 1917.
Google Scholar
———. 1922. Education Branch, Education, File No. VI E—17.
Google Scholar
———. 1926. Education Department, Education, File No. III—40.
Google Scholar
———. 1926. Education Department, Education, File No. III E—50.
Google Scholar
———. 1926. Education Department, Education Branch, File No. III E—40, No.45.
Google Scholar
———. 1926. Education Department, Education, File No. III—40 of 1926, No. 52.
Google Scholar
———. 1930.‘Education and Development’, Education, File No. IIE—I22 of 1930, No.15.
Google Scholar
Hunter, W.W. 1883. Report of the Indian Education Commission. Calcutta: Government Printing.
Google Scholar
Jesuit Archives Ranchi. Kurdeg File: Fr. Gryse’s Report on Kurdeg Parish dated 6 July 1905.
Google Scholar
Jesuit Archives Ranchi. Memorandum of the Chotanagpur Oraon-Munda Siksha Sabha. n.d.
Google Scholar
Jesuit Archives Ranchi. Proceedings of the Meeting/Proceedings of the Missionaries, 1916–30.
Google Scholar
Jesuit Archives Ranchi. Proceedings of the Meeting of the Missionaries held at Ranchi on 23 October 1916. Ranchi: Jesuit Archives.
Google Scholar
Jesuit Archives Ranchi. Proceedings and Resolutions of the Meeting of Missionaries, Ranchi, 12–13 November 1929.
Google Scholar
Jesuit Archives Ranchi. Vermeire, M. comp. n.d. Fr. Lievens Documents from Contemporary Missionaries. (mimeo.) and Jesuit Archives Ranchi Vermeire Papers on Education.
Google Scholar
Jesuit Archives Ranchi. Waelkens, W. 1910. Our Schools in Chota Nagpore, Calcutta, 25 April 1910.
Google Scholar
Lakra, Herman. n.d. Life Sketch.
Google Scholar
‘Memorandum by the Chota-Nagpur Improvement Society’, in Report of the Indian Statutory Commission:. Selections from Memoranda and Oral Evidence by Non-officials Part I, London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1930.
Google Scholar
Moens, J. 1987. St. John’s School, Ranchi: A Hundred Years. (Mimeo.). Ranchi: St John’s School.
Google Scholar
Nishkalanka. (Jesuit monthly journal in Hindi), 1921–1931.
Google Scholar
Nottrott, A. 1903. Report on the Gossner Kol-Mission for the Year 1903. Ranchi: Jesuit Archives.
Google Scholar
Our Field (Jesuit journal) No. 7, August-September 1925.
Google Scholar
Our Schools. in Chota Nagpore (1910–25) (Jesuit reports on the progress of schools).
Google Scholar
Papers Relating to Chotanagpur Agrarian Disputes, Vols. I & II. Calcutta: 1890.
Google Scholar
Presidential Speech by Jaipal Singh to All-India Adibasi Mahasabha on 28 February 1948, 14–15.
Google Scholar
R.D. Haldar. Personal Diary, 1873–75.
Google Scholar
Report. of the Chota Nagpore Mission [GEL] for the Years 1863, 1907, 1908.
Google Scholar
Report of the Chotanagpur Mission of the SPG for the Years 1885–1910.
Google Scholar
Report of the General Committee of the Presidency of Fort William for the Year 1839–40, Calcutta: 1841.
Google Scholar
Richey, J.A. ed. 1965. Selections from Educational Records, Vol. II, 1840–1859. New Delhi: National Archives of India. [First Published in 1922].
Google Scholar
Ricketts, H. 1855. Selections from the Records of the Bengal Government. No. XX. Calcutta: Calcutta Gazette Office.
Google Scholar
Roychaudhury, P.C., ed. 1959. Singhbhum Old Records. Patna: Secretariat Press.
Google Scholar
Sevrin, Oscar. n.d. Village Schools in Chota Nagpur. Ranchi: Jesuit Archives.
Google Scholar
Sharp, H., ed. 1965. Selections from Educational Records, Part I, 1781–1839. New Delhi: National Archives of India. [First published in 1922]
Google Scholar
St John’s High School. Ranchi: Rector’s Report (for 1919 to 1924; File: School Day and Prize Distribution Day/Principal’s Report.
Google Scholar
The Indo-European Correspondence (Jesuit international journal). 26 March 1890.
Google Scholar
University of Calcutta. 1914. Convocation Addresses, Vol. I, 1858–1879. Calcutta: University of Calcutta.
Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Independent Scholar, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Joseph Bara

Authors

Joseph Bara
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Maguni Charan Behera

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bara, J. (2020). Schooling ‘Truant’ Tribes: British Colonial Compulsions and Educational Evolution in Chhotanagpur, 1870–1930. In: Behera, M. (eds) Tribal Studies in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9026-6_5

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9026-6_5
Published: 10 November 2019
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9025-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9026-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics