WRITTEN BY R. NANJAPPA
Post No. 8534
Date uploaded in London – – – 19 August 2020
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BOOKS INDIANS SHOULD READ- 20
Chapter 8 Part 1
THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF DHARAMPAL-3
The Beautiful Tree
Nursed by wrong information
It is the general belief among [English] educated Indians that our educational system is
a gift from the British colonial masters. Most people have been led to believe that Indians
were largely uneducated and illiterate before they came, and that whatever prevailed in the
name of education was monopolised by the Brahmins, and that the other communities
were left out or lagged behind. They believe that especially the Sudras and those
regarded below them ( the present day Dalits) were denied education, and consequently
opportunities of advancement. This has been the main theme of our politicians since
Independence, and this belief lies at all efforts at so called educational reform.
Yet how many of them have really studied “history” beyond what is provided in the
text-books controlled by the state, and the political discourse? How many of them have
taken the pain and made the effort to verify facts from original sources?
Gandhiji’s struggle
Those who have knowledge of our struggle for Independence and of Gandhiji’s part in it
would be aware that education was an important part of Gandhiji’s constructive
programme. He had his own insights and developed his own approach, culminating
in “Nai Talim”. But as one who knew the roots of India’s life and civilisation, he knew that
India had its own system of education which served it well for centuries. Speaking at
Chatham House in London on 20 October, 1931, Gandhiji said:
“I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India
is more illiterate that it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma,
because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking
hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil
and began to look at the root and left the root like that, and the beautiful
tree perished.”
Where is the proof?
Gandhiji’s claim ran counter to the popular perception of the day, (and it does to this day )
and was contested by imperial loyalists who demanded “precise references to the printed
documents.” Gandhiji was imprisoned on his return from London, and our freedom
struggle entered a critical phase which denied Gandhiji the time to take up such research
work. Unfortunately, none of his followers did any study or research in the subject.
The British rulers, for their own purposes, had caused some surveys/studies to be made
on the state of education in the areas ruled by them, but not all of this material was printed
and published. Some Indian writers had made use of some of the available material in their
books, but this material seems to have been ignored by the academic community, for
whatever reason. In any case, no one had accessed the original documents and made a
proper case to support Gandhi’s stand.
It was thus left to Dharampal to visit the archives and gather the original material in
mid-1960s. Based on them, he published his book “The Beautiful Tree” in 1971. This title
is derived from Gandhiji’s phrase. Its subtitle ran:
“Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century.”
British Surveys of Indigenous Education
Three motives prompted the British to undertake such studies/surveys.
- Administrative : to understand the indigenous systems/manners/methods so that they
could entrench themselves the better, and also obtain a veneer of legitimacy
2. Enlightenment: influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, of men like Adam Ferguson and
A.Maconochie, who were interested in learning about the arts and sciences of the people,
so that the knowledge would not be lost even if the societies declined due to colonial
conquest.
3. Projection and propagation of Christianity so that” Indians would become Christians…
without knowing it”.
Archival material
Whatever the motive, the material gathered adds up to a solid testimony to the extent,
effectiveness and practical worth of the system of education that prevailed in India.
The material gathered can be classified as:
- Survey of Indigenous Education in Madras Presidency: 1822-1825. The Madras
- Presidency then covered a huge area- the entire present Tamil Nadu, parts of Andhra, and beyond up to Ganjam, parts of Karnataka, and Malabar. It thus contained geographical and linguistic variety
- Report of Fra Paolina Da Bartolomeo of Austria “On Education of Children in India”
- 1776 to 1779 (published in Rome,1796)
– Alexander Walker on Indian Education. Literature c.1820
-W.Adam’s Report “State of Education in Bengal: 1835-38.(which then included parts
of Bihar)
-G.W.Leitner’s “History of Education in the Punjab since Annexation and in 1882.
Important Conclusions
Dharampal has included all this archival material in his book, in full, or in extracts. The
material covers different parts of the country, with much linguistic variety. Based on this,
he draws conclusions which are striking.
1. Contrary to the popular view, education was not confined to the Brahmins or the
twice born. “It was the groups termed Soodras and the castes considered
below them who predominated in the thousands of the then still-existing
schools in practically each of these areas.”[This is especially so in the Tamil
speaking areas]
2. This educational network was supported and sustained by sophisticated fiscal
arrangements of the pre-British Indian polity. Substantial proportion of the revenues had
long been assigned for public purposes. It is the collapse of this system through
centralisation of revenue that led to the collapse of education, along with social life
and economy.
3. This system of education was more advanced than what prevailed in
England at the relevant time. Indian system covered more children of the
common people than the British at that time. Some of the features of the Indian
system were in fact taken to and applied in Britain!
*** to be continued
Tamil and Vedas 