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North Indian Educational Liminalities

Western Colonial Experiments and a Transitory Dialogue with “the East”

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Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia

Part of the book series: Global Education Systems ((GES))

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Abstract

This chapter places colonial education experimentation in its transnational context. It explores a dynamic collaboration in north India in the mid-nineteenth century between forward thinking and imaginative educators with Indian teachers and other cultural custodians. Using their power base, these colonialists hoped to act on the rich orientalist thought of a generation earlier to produce a sustainable East/West transferal of knowledge and praxis so to develop organically, and from the bottom up, a curriculum which was a genuine confluence of ideas that could build a sustainable and accessible future, particularly for poor village boys. The chapter excavates the remnants of traditional Indian learning in this part of the subcontinent, at least as colonial practices of rule saw them. It focuses particularly on how these colonial educators attempted to capture these often transitory sites to build new architectures of administration as gateways to deeper learning. The building of colleges for the elite who could pay was delayed so poorer Indians could participate according to ability, even more than what was on offer at the time at the metropolis.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an authoritative discussion of the very rich debate among Orientalists in the 1820s and 1830s in India, and also of the subsequent intervention of the Anglicists in this latter decade, see the lengthy introduction by the authors in Zastoupil and Moir (1999).

  2. 2.

    H. S. Reid, ‘General Report on Public Instruction in the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency 1850–1’, p. 3, Oriental and India Office Collections, British Library, (OIOC) V/24/907.

  3. 3.

    H. S Reid, ‘General Report on Public Instruction in the NWP of the Bengal Presidency 1851–2’, Appendix ii, p. 76, OIOC V/24/908. There are also ten other equally detailed appendices concerning the NWP’s traditional Indian schools attached to the report.

  4. 4.

    H. S. Reid, ‘Report on Indigenous Education and Vernacular Schools in Agra, Bareilly, Etawah, Farruckabad, Mynpoory, Muttra, Shahjahanpur for 1852–3’, p. 3, V/24/927.

  5. 5.

    H. S. Reid, ‘Report on Indigenous Education and Vernacular Schools...’, p. 2.

  6. 6.

    (Ibid., pp. 26, 31)

  7. 7.

    H. S. Reid, ‘Report on Indigenous Education and Vernacular Schools in Agra, Aligarh, Bareilly, Etawah, Farrakhabad, Mynpoory, Muttra, Shahjahanpur for 1853/4’, pp. 35–44, OIOC V/24/927. After the revolt of 1857 the number of the schools linked to Halkabandi in the NWP was reduced to 2,074 with an enrolment of 41,944 boys. H. S. Reid, ‘Report on the State of Popular Education in the NWP for 1856/7’, p. 54, OIOC V/24/908.

  8. 8.

    Court of Directors to the Governor-General, April 18, 1855, no. 43, OIOC E/4/830; ‘Extract from the Hon. Court of Directors no. 61 of 1854’, September, 13, 1854, no. 22, OIOC E/4/829. See also Sec. to the Chief Commissioner to Sec. to the Government of India December, 27, 1854, no. 45, OIOC P/201/16. The Court of Directors approved Halkabandi for the Punjab in the same letter which carried with it copies of Wood’s dispatch of 1854. Sec. to the Government of India to Sec. to the Chief Commissioner, January 26, 1855, no. 47, OIOC P/201/16. Dispatch from the Court of Directors of the East India Company to the Governor-General of India in Council, July 19, 1854, no. 49, (Richey 1920, pt ii, p. 365).

  9. 9.

    See, for example, Baly to Tucker, March 14, 1879, p. 473, SPG records, CLR51, Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

  10. 10.

    Arnold WD (1858) Oakfield (reprint 1974, Unwin Brothers, Surrey), p. 223.

  11. 11.

    William Arnold to Mrs. Thomas Arnold, August 11, 1857, ‘W. D Arnold Letters’, TCD MS 5102/55, Trinity College Library, Dublin. J. Lawrence to W. Arnold, August 3, 1858, J. Lawrence Coll., OIOC MSS Eur. F. 90, vol. 12, f 352.

  12. 12.

    Wiese L (1854) German Letters on English Education. Longmans, London [translated by Arnold WD] See especially, Letter XII.

  13. 13.

    J. Lawrence to R. Temple, July 5, 1856, Temple Collection, OIOC MSS Eur. F. 86, vol. vii, p. 103.

  14. 14.

    W. D. Arnold, ‘Memorandum as to a Central College at Lahore’, 21 January, 1856, no. 236, OIOC P/201/53.

  15. 15.

    For detailed descriptions of both the Bengal and Bombay educational scenarios, see the published volumes of the Provincial Hearings of both Presidencies, Hunter Education Commission of 1882 (Calcutta: Government Printing, 1883), especially the preambles to both volumes.

  16. 16.

    J. Lawrence to W. Arnold, November, 11 & December 12, 1855, J. Lawrence Coll., OIOC MSS Eur. 90, vol. 8, ff. 138 & 152.

  17. 17.

    Adam W, First Report on Education … (1835) in Richey (1920), pt ii, p. 40.

  18. 18.

    ‘Statement Showing the Different Kinds of Books Read, January 31, 1850’, Enclosure no. 3, incld. in R. Montgomery to the Sec. to the Board of Administration, November 8, 1850, no. 567, ‘Series B’, National Archives of India.

  19. 19.

    H. R. James, ‘Report on the Settlement of the Peshawar District’, p. 114, OIOC V/27/314/596; R. E. Egerton, ‘Report on the Settlement of the Lahore District of the Lahore Division’, p. 5, OIOC V/27/314/567; E. L. Brandreth, ‘Report on the Revised Settlement of the District of Ferozpur in the Cis-Sutlej States’, p. 80, OIOC V/27/314/488.

  20. 20.

    Commissioner of the Cis-Sutlej States to the Sec. of the Board of Administration, November 8, 1849, nos. 68–9. ‘Press Lists of Old Records in the Punjab Civil Secretariat’, second edition, vol. xxv, OIOC V/27/37/25. G. B. Saunders to the Commissioner of Amritsar, May 28, 1850, no. 188, ‘Series B’ National Archives of India.

  21. 21.

    W. Wynyard, ‘Report on the Revised Settlement of the Southern Pargunnahs of the District of Ambala in the Cis-Sutlej States’, pp. 90–91, Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library (OIOC) V/27/314/456.

  22. 22.

    Commissioner of the Cis-Sutlej States to the Sec. of the Board of Administration, April 29, 1850 nos. 71–3. ‘Press Lists of Old Records in the Punjab Civil Secretariat…’, second edition, vol. xxv, OIOC V/27/37/25.

  23. 23.

    Leitner GW (1882) A History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab since Annexation and in 1882. ([reprint] 1971) Languages Department, Punjab University, Lahore. For a politically slanted refutation of Leitner’s view, see Hartog P (1939) Memorandum C. Some Aspects of Indian Education Past and Present. Humphrey, Milford London.

  24. 24.

    W. Arnold to ‘Inspectors of Schools 1st and 2nd circles’, March 6, 1857, no. 20/37, Punjab Secretariat Archives, Anarkali’s Tomb, Lahore, Pakistan.

  25. 25.

    Dr. J. G. Gerard, assistant surgeon, 1st Nusseeree battalion to Captain C. P. Kennedy, assistant deputy superintendent (the Hill Country), November 20, 1824, [no. procs. no.], (1911) Records of the Delhi Residency and Agency. Punjab Government Press, Lahore, p. 66.

  26. 26.

    R. E. Egerton, ‘Report on the Settlement of the Lahore District…’, p. 4.

  27. 27.

    R. H. Davies, ‘Report on the Revised Settlement of the Umritsar, Sowrian, & Turun Turun Purgunnahs... of the Umritsar District of the Umritsar Division’, p. 15, OIOC V/27/314/459; W. Wynyard, ‘Report on the Revised Settlement of the Southern Pargunnahs of the District of Ambala…’, p. 90.

  28. 28.

    Montgomery, Commissioner Lahore division, to P. Melville, Sec. to the Board of Administration, November 8, 1850, no. 367, National Archives of India, New Delhi. The estimate was for the Lahore district. The outlying districts for which there are no figures in this early period would probably have recorded a lower literacy rate.

  29. 29.

    For more detail on this category of school in India, see Shahidullah (1987), pp. 15, 25, 29, 33.

  30. 30.

    See also (Kaur 1992), p. 147. Kaur postulates that, in the pre-British period, the Punjabi speaking Gurmukhi schools had been a means whereby Sikh gurus were able to break down the monopoly of the Brahmins, on the one hand, and of Sanskrit, on the other, in the field of education.

  31. 31.

    R. Montgomery, (Commissioner Lahore division) to Sec. to the Board of Administration, November 8, 1850, no. 567, ‘B Series’, National Archives of India.

  32. 32.

    Director to Financial Commissioner, November 19, 1858, no. 548, OIOC P/203/12.

  33. 33.

    W. Arnold, Education Report, 1856–7 [no longer extant but quoted (Khan 1932) p. 27].

  34. 34.

    D. F. McLeod to Sec. to the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab, April 11, 1856, OIOC P/201/53, no. 237.

  35. 35.

    Arnold WD (1858) The Beginnings of Western Education in the Punjab, Mr Arnold’s Report on Public Instruction for the Year 1856–7, in (Richey 1920), vol. ii, pp. 295–296.

  36. 36.

    W. W. Alexander, Lahore Circle Inspector, Punjab Education Report 1866/67, p 43, OIOC, V/24/930.

  37. 37.

    Stanley to Governor General in Council, November 11, 1858, no. 27, OIOC L/P&J/3/1035, p. 267; Governor General to Punjab Lieutenant-Governor December 8, 1858, nos. 92-4, Press Lists...(first edition), OIOC W/2180.

  38. 38.

    Chief Commissioner of the Punjab to the Governor General, July 3, 1858 in The Times, London, October 23, 1858, Burney Collection, British Library.

  39. 39.

    W. Arnold to D. McLeod, May 26, 1858, no. 127, OIOC P/202/11.

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Extracts from Mr Arnold’s second report, dated 25th June 1858 (Richey 1920) pt ii, pp. 301–302.

  42. 42.

    The Bostan and the Gulistan are two critically important texts written by Sheikh Sa’and in the twelfth century. Together they constitute the primary textbooks for any child learning Persian from the age of 5 years upward. They are also primary textbooks for training in ethics and morals with sections on a great variety of protocols such as how rulers should behave, how gardens should be tended, and how to speak and act toward others.

  43. 43.

    Extracts from Mr Arnold’s second report, dated 25th June 1858 (Richey 1920) pt ii, p. 302.

  44. 44.

    W. Arnold to the Financial Commissioner, March 16, 1858, no. 16, Punjab Secretariat Archive, Anarkali’s Tomb, Lahore, Pakistan.

  45. 45.

    None of the educational reports for the NWP or for the Punjab document this happening. However, this claim was made 30 years later in relation to the NWP. F. W. Thomas (1891) The History and Prospects of British Education in India. George Bell & Sons, Cambridge, p. 44.

  46. 46.

    ‘Extracts from Mr Arnold’s Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab 1857/8', June 25, 1858, paras. 3–9, 11, 14 in Richey (1920) pt ii, pp. 300–306. These were taken from the original mss lodged in the India Office, which it appears, like Arnold’s report for the previous year, no longer extant.

  47. 47.

    Arnold to Financial Commissioner, November 19, 1858, no. 173, ‘Press Lists of Old Records in the Punjab Civil Secretariat’, second edition, OIOC V27/37/25; Punjab Education Report 1859/60, OIOC L/P&J/3/1157, p. 6; Hunter Education Commission Report (1884) SOAS, London.

  48. 48.

    A. R. Fuller, ‘Report on Popular Education in the Provinces under the Punjab Government for the Year 1859–60’, Appendix: Table B, OIOC L/PJ/3/1157.

  49. 49.

    Arnold’s wife died in March 1858, and he was to die on the voyage back to England off the coast of Gibraltar, leaving his four young children to be raised by his sister Jane and her husband, William Forster (author of the Education Act of 1870), (Midwinter 1995) p. 46.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Tim Allender

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  1. Tim Allender
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  1. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    Padma M. Sarangapani

  2. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India

    Rekha Pappu

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  1. Brown Family Professor of South Asian History, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California, USA

    Nita Kumar

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Allender, T. (2020). North Indian Educational Liminalities. In: Sarangapani, P., Pappu, R. (eds) Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Global Education Systems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3309-5_69-1

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