DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITYVISAKHAPATNAM

FEBRUARY 2014

IMPACT OF WESTERN EDUCATION ON INDIAN SOCIETY

HISTORY

Submitted by:-V N S Meenakshi2013128II SemesterSection BTABLE OF CONTENTSAcknowledgment 04 Abstract 05 Introduction 06Education Policy 15Impact on traditional system 18Social reforms and movements 19Effect on various castes 21Visions of Gandhi and Tagore 23Ideology for reform 26Effect of Western Education on freedom struggle 29Conclusion 29Bibliography 30

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I, VNS MEENAKSHI, hereby declare that this Project titled IMPACT OF WESTERN EDUCATION ON INDIAN SOCIETY submitted by me is an original work undertaken by me. I have duly acknowledged all the sources from which the ideas and extracts have been taken. The project is free from any plagiarism issue.Place: Visakhapatnam

Name: VNS MEENAKSHIDate: 28/2/2014 Roll No. 2013128 Semester II B

ABSTRACT

I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.-H.S Amogh

The sun never sets on the British Empire is a very well known phrase commenting on the illustrious history of Great Britain as a colonizer of many parts of this world. Colonization impacted every aspect of peoples lives, such as their culture, work and education. Indian historical knowledge has been derived from the writings and some other valuable accounts left by the foreigners. For example, the universities of Nalanda and Taxila have been better known as some Greek or Chinese travelers had written about them centuries ago, which had survived in the form of some journals. Thus these journals provide us very useful information about indigenous education. The information about indigenous education, which is available today, whether published, or still in manuscript form in the government records, largely belongs to the 1820's and 1830's period. It is significant to emphasize that indigenous education was carried out through pathshalas, madrasas and gurukulas. These three institutions were the source of traditional knowledge systems in India and played a very significant role in the Indian education. These institutions were in fact the watering holes of the culture of traditional communities. Therefore the term school is a weak translation of the roles these institutions really played in Indian society.

INTRODUCTION

Indian society underwent many changes after the British came to India. In the 19th century, certain social practices like female infanticide, child marriage, sati, polygamy and a rigid caste system became more prevalent. These practices were against human dignity and values. Women were discriminated against at all stages of life and were the disadvantaged section of the society. They did not have access to any development opportunities to improve their status. Education was limited to a handful of men belonging to the upper castes. Brahmins had access to the Vedas which were written in Sanskrit. Expensive rituals, sacrifices and practices after birth or death were outlined by the priestly class.

As has been noted by numerous scholars of British rule in India, the physical presence of the British in India was not significant. Yet, for almost two centuries, the British were able to rule two-thirds of the subcontinent directly, and exercise considerable leverage over the Princely States that accounted for the remaining one-third. While the strategy of divide and conquer was used most effectively, an important aspect of British rule in India was the psychological indoctrination of an elite layer within Indian society who were artfully tutored into becoming model British subjects. This English-educated layer of Indian society was craftily encouraged in absorbing values and notions about themselves and their land of birth that would be conducive to the British occupation of India, and furthering British goals of looting India's physical wealth and exploiting its labour.

In 1835, Thomas Macaulay articulated the goals of British colonial imperialism most succinctly: "We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, words and intellect." As the architect of Colonial Britain's Educational Policy in India, Thomas Macaulay was to set the tone for what educated Indians were going to learn about themselves, their civilization, and their view of Britain and the world around them. An arch-racist, Thomas Macaulay had nothing but scornful disdain for Indian history and civilization. In his infamous minute of 1835, he wrote that he had "never found one among them (speaking of Orientalists, an opposing political faction) who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia". "It is, no exaggeration to say, that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England". [footnoteRef:2]

As a contrast to such unabashed contempt for Indian civilization, we find glowing references to India in the writings of pre-colonial Europeans quoted by Swami Vivekananda: "All history points to India as the mother of science and art," wrote William Macintosh. "This country was anciently so renowned for knowledge and wisdom that the philosophers of Greece did not disdain to travel thither for their improvement." Pierre Sonnerat, a French naturalist, concurred: "We find among the Indians the vestiges of the most remote antiquity.... We know that all peoples came there to draw the elements of their knowledge.... India, in her splendour, gave religions and laws to all the other peoples; Egypt and Greece owed to her both their fables and their wisdom.

But colonial exploitation had created a new imperative for the colonial lords. It could no longer be truthfully acknowledged that India had a rich civilization of its own - that its philosophical and scientific contributions may have influenced European scholars - or helped in shaping the European Renaissance. Britain needed a class of intellectuals meek and docile in their attitude towards the British, but full of hatred towards their fellow citizens. It was thus important to emphasize the negative aspects of the Indian tradition, and obliterate or obscure the positive. Indians were to be taught that they were a deeply conservative and fatalist people - genetically predisposed to irrational superstitions and mystic belief systems that they had no concept of nation, national feelings or a history. If they had any culture, it had been brought to them by invaders - that they themselves lacked the creative energy to achieve anything by themselves. But the British, on the other hand epitomized modernity - they were the harbingers of all that was rational and scientific in the world. With their unique organizational skills and energetic zeal, they would raise India from the morass of casteism and religious bigotry. These and other such ideas were repeatedly filled in the minds of the young Indians who received instruction in the British schools.

All manner of conscious (and subconscious) British (and European) agents would henceforth embark on a journey to rape and conquer the Indian mind. Within a matter of years, J.N Farquhar (a contemporary of Macaulay) was to write: "The new educational policy of the Government created during these years the modern educated class of India. These are men who think and speak in English habitually, who are proud of their citizenship in the British Empire, who are devoted to English literature, and whose intellectual life has been almost entirely formed by the thought of the West, large numbers of them enter government services, while the rest practice law, medicine or teaching, or take to journalism or business."

Macaulay's stratagem could not have yielded greater dividends. Charles E. Trevelyan, brother-in-law of Macaulay, stated: Familiarly acquainted with us by means of our literature, the Indian youth almost cease to regard us as foreigners. They speak of "great" men with the same enthusiasm as we do. Educated in the same way, interested in the same objects, engaged in the same pursuits with ourselves, they become more English than Hindus, just as the Roman provincial became more Romans than Gauls or Italian.

Much of the indoctrination of the Indian mind actually took place outside the formal classrooms and through the sale of British literature to the English-educated Indian who developed a voracious appetite for the British novel and British writings on a host of popular subjects. In a speech before the Edinburgh Philosophical Society in 1846, Thomas Babington (1800-1859), shortly to become Baron Macaulay, offered a toast: "To the literature of Britain which has exercised an influence wider than that of our commerce and mightier than that of our arms before the light of which impious and cruel superstitions are fast taking flight on the Banks of the Ganges!"

However, the British were not content to influence Indian thinking just through books written in the English language. Realizing the danger of Indians discovering their real heritage through the medium of Sanskrit, Christian missionaries such as William Carey anticipated the need for British educators to learn Sanskrit and transcribe and interpret Sanskrit texts in a manner compatible with colonial aims. That Carey's aims were thoroughly duplicitous is brought out in this quote cited by Richard Fox Young: "To gain the ear of those who are thus deceived it is necessary for them to believe that the speaker has a superior knowledge of the subject. In these circumstances knowledge of Sanskrit is valuable. As the person thus misled, perhaps a Brahman, deems this a most important part of knowledge, if the advocate of truth be deficient therein, he labours against the hill; presumption is altogether against him."

In this manner, India's awareness of its history and culture was manipulated in the hands of colonial ideologues. Domestic and external views of India were shaped by authors whose attitudes towards all things Indian were shaped either by subconscious prejudice or worse by barely concealed racism. For instance, William Carey (who bemoaned how so few Indians had converted to Christianity in spite of his best efforts) had little respect or sympathy for Indian traditions. In one of his letters, he described Indian music as "disgusting", bringing to mind "practices dishonourable to God". Charles Grant, who exercised tremendous influence in colonial evangelical circles, published his "Observations" in 1797 in which he attacked almost every aspect of Indian society and religion, describing Indians as morally depraved, "lacking in truth, honesty and good faith" (p.103). British Governor General Cornwallis asserted "Every native of Hindustan, I verily believe, is corrupt".

Victorian writer and important art critic of his time, John Ruskin dismissed all Indian art with ill-concealed contempt: "..The Indian will not draw a form of nature but an amalgamation of monstrous objects". Adding: "To all facts and forms of nature it wilfully and resolutely opposes itself; it will not draw a man but an eight armed monster, it will not draw a flower but only a spiral or a zig zag". Others such as George Birdwood (who took some interest in Indian decorative art) nevertheless opined: "...painting and sculpture as fine art did not exist in India."

Several British and European historians attempted to portray India as a society that had made no civilizational progress for several centuries. William Jones asserted that Hindu society had been stationary for so long that "in beholding the Hindus of the present day, we are beholding the Hindus of many ages past". James Mill, author of the three-volume History of British India (1818) essentially concurred with William Jones as did Henry Maine. This view of India, as an essentially unchanging society where there was no intellectual debate, or technological innovation - where a hidebound caste system had existed without challenge or reform - where social mobility or class struggle were unheard of, became especially popular with European scholars and intellectuals of the colonial era.

It allowed influential philosophers such as Hegel to posit ethnocentric and self-serving justifications of colonization. Arguing that Europe was "absolutely the end of universal history", he saw Asia as only the beginning of history, where history soon came to a standstill. "If we had formerly the satisfaction of believing in the antiquity of the Indian wisdom and holding it in respect, we now have ascertained through being acquainted with the great astronomical works of the Indians, the inaccuracy of all figures quoted. Nothing can be more confused, nothing more imperfect than the chronology of the Indians; no people which attained to culture in astronomy, mathematics, etc., is as incapable for history; in it they have neither stability nor coherence." With such distorted views of India, it was a small step to argue that "The British, or rather the East India Company, are the masters of India because it is the fatal destiny of Asian empires to subject themselves to the Europeans."

Hegel's racist consciousness comes out most explicitly in his descriptions of Africans: "It is characteristic of the blacks that their consciousness has not yet even arrived at the intuition of any objectivity, as for example, of God or the law, in which humanity relates to the world and intuits its essence. ...He [the black person] is a human being in the rough."

Such ideas also shaped the views of later German authors such Max Weber famous for his "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism," (1930) who in his descriptions of Indian religion and philosophy focused exclusively on "material renunciation" and the "world denying character" of Indian philosophical systems, ignoring completely the rich heritage of scientific realism and rational analysis that had in fact imbued much of Indian thought. Weber discounted the existence of any rational doctrines in the East, insisting that: "Neither scientific, artistic, governmental, nor economic evolution has led to the modes of rationalization proper to the Occident." Whether it was ignorance or prejudice that determined his views, such views were not uninfluential, and exemplified the euro-centric undercurrent that pervaded most British and European scholarship of that time.

Naturally, British-educated Indians absorbed and internalized such characterizations of themselves and their past. Amongst those most affected by such diminution of the Indian character was the young Gandhi, who when in South Africa, wished to meet General Smuts and offer the cooperation of the South African Indian population for the Boer war effort. In a conversation with the General, Gandhi appears as just the sort of colonized sycophant the British education system had hoped to create: "General Smuts, sir we Indians would like to strengthen the hands of the government in the war. However, our efforts have been rebuffed. Could you inform us about our vices so we would reform and be better citizens of this land?" to which Gen.Smuts replied: "Mr. Gandhi, we are not afraid of your vices, We are afraid of your virtues". (Although Gandhi eventually went through a slow and very gradual nationalist transformation, in 1914 he campaigned for the British war efforts in World War I, and was one of the last of the national leaders to call for complete independence from British rule.)

British-educated Indians grew up learning about Pythagoras, Archimedes, Galileo and Newton without ever learning about Panini, Aryabhatta, Bhaskar or Bhaskaracharya. The logic and epistemology of the Nyaya Sutras, the rationality of the early Buddhists or the intriguing philosophical systems of the Jains were generally unknown to them. Neither was there any awareness of the numerous examples of dialectics in nature that are to be found in Indian texts. They may have read Homer or Dickens but not the Panchatantra, the Jataka tales or anything from the Indian epics. Schooled in the aesthetic and literary theories of the West, many felt embarrassed in acknowledging Indian contributions in the arts and literature. What was important to Western civilization was deemed universal, but everything Indian was dismissed as either backward and anachronistic, or at best tolerated as idiosyncratic oddity. Little did the Westernized Indian know what debt "Western Science and Civilization" owed (directly or indirectly) to Indian scientific discoveries and scholarly texts.

Dilip K. Chakrabarti (Colonial Indology) thus summarized the situation: "The model of the Indian past...was foisted on Indians by the hegemonic books written by Western Ideologists concerned with language, literature and philosophy who were and perhaps have always been paternalistic at their best and racists at their worst.

Elaborating on the phenomenon of cultural colonization, Priya Joshi (Culture and Consumption: Fiction, the Reading Public, and the British Novel in Colonial India) writes: "Often, the implementation of a new education system leaves those who are colonized with a lack of identity and a limited sense of their past. The indigenous history and customs once practiced and observed slowly slip away. The colonized become hybrids of two vastly different cultural systems. Colonial education creates a blurring that makes it difficult to differentiate between the new, enforced ideas of the colonizers and the formerly accepted native practices."

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, (Kenya, Decolonising the Mind), displaying anger toward the isolationist feelings colonial education causes, asserted that the process "...annihilates a peoples belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves. It makes them see their past as one wasteland of non-achievement and it makes them want to distance themselves from that wasteland. It makes them want to identify with that which is furthest removed from themselves".

Strong traces of such thinking continue to infect young Indians, especially those that migrate to the West. Elements of such mental insecurity and alienation also had an impact on the consciousness of the British-educated Indians who participated in the freedom struggle.

In contemporary academic circles, various false theories continue to percolate. While some write as if Indian civilization has made no substantial progress since the Vedic period, for others the clock stopped with Ashoka, or with the "classical age" of the Guptas. Some Islamic scholars have attempted to construct a more positive view of the Islamic reigns in India, but continue to concur with colonial scholars in seeing pre-Islamic India as socially and culturally moribund and technologically backward. A range of scholars persist in basing their studies on views of Indian history that not only concentrate exclusively on its negative traits, but also fail to situate the negative aspects of Indian history in historical context. Few have attempted to make serious and objective comparisons of Indian social institutions and cultural attributes with those of other nations. Often the Indian historical record is unfavourably compared with European achievements that in fact took place many centuries later.

Unable to rise above the colonial paradigms, many post-independence scholars of Indian history and civilization continue to fumble with colonially inspired doctrines that run counter to the emerging historical record. Others more conscious of British distortions and frustrated by the hyper-critical assessment of some Indian scholars go to the other extreme of presenting the Indian historical record without any critical analysis whatsoever. Some have even attempted to construct artificially hyped views of Indian history where there is little attempt to distinguish myth from fact. Strong communal biases continue to prevail, as do xenophobic rejections of even potentially useful and valid Western constructs, even as Western-imposed hegemonic economic systems and exploitative economic models continue to dominate the Indian economic landscape and often find unquestioning acceptance.

Thus, one of the most difficult tasks facing the Indian subcontinent is to free all scholarship concerning its development and its relationship to the world from the biased formulations and distortions of colonially-influenced authors. At the same time, Indian authors also need to study the West and other civilizations with dispassionate objectivity - eschewing both craven and uncritical admiration and xenophobic scepticism and distrust of the scientific and cultural achievements made by others. [2: British Rule and Education in India http://courses.educ.queensu.ca/foci255/documents/student4.pdf, (accessed 21 feb 2014) ]

When the British came to India, they brought new ideas such as liberty, equality, freedom and human rights from the Renaissance, the Reformation Movement and the various revolutions that took place in Europe. These ideas appealed to some sections of our society and led to several reform movements in different parts of the country. At the forefront of these movements were missionary Indians such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Aruna Asaf Ali and Pandita Ramabai. These movements looked for social unity and strived towards liberty, equality and fraternity. Many legal measures were introduced to improve the status of women. For example, the practice of sati was banned in 1829 by Lord Bentinck, the then Governor General. Widow Remarriage was permitted by a law passed in 1856. A law passed in 1872, sanctioned inter-caste and inter-communal marriages. Sharda Act was passed in 1929 preventing child marriage. The act provided that it was illegal to marry a girl below 14 and a boy below 18 years. All the movements severely criticized the caste system and especially the practice of untouchability. The impact of the efforts made by these numerous individuals, reform societies, and religious organizations was felt all over and was most evident in the national movement. Women started getting better education opportunities and took up professions and public employment outside their homes. The role of women like Captain Laxmi Sehgal of Indian National Army (INA), Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Aruna Asaf Ali and many others were extremely important in the freedom struggle. Throughout her long history, India has been open to other cultures and styles of education. This paper has to limit itself to the two major influences that have come to us from nineteenth century Europe, and possibly make a comment on the necessity to learn from other Asian educational stylesThroughout her long history, India has been open to other cultures and styles of education. This paper has to limit itself to the two major influences that have come to us from nineteenth century Europe, and possibly make a comment on the necessity to learn from other Asian educational styles. Apart from the various colonial thrusts from the West (Portuguese, Dutch, French and British), two main currents have hit us in this century with great force--Western liberal humanism, and Western Marxist socialism. The former has definitely shaped the pattern of our institutional education; the latter has made its impact both on the educated elite, and on a vast number of workers and peasants; especially in Bengal, Andhra and Kerala.

EDUCATION POLICY

Mark Ginsburg and Vipula Chaturvedi researched the ideology of professionalism of teachers in both England and India. They found three common themes that defined professionalism between the two groups: remuneration, training and prestige.[footnoteRef:3] The British took a keen interest in introducing the English language in India. They had many reasons for doing so. Educating Indians in the English language was a part of their strategy. The Indians would be ready to work as clerks on low wages while for the same work the British would demand much higher wages. This would reduce the expenditure on administration. It was also expected to create a class of Indians who were loyal to the British and were not able to relate to other Indians. This class of Indians would be taught to appreciate the culture and opinion of the British. In addition, they would also help to increase the market for British goods. They wanted to use education as a means to strengthen their political authority in the country. They assumed that a few educated Indians would spread English culture to the masses and that they would be able to rule through this class of educated Indians. The British gave jobs to only those Indians who knew English thereby compelling many Indians to go in for English education. Education soon became a monopoly of the rich and the city dwellers. [3: Mark Ginsburg & Vipula Chaturvedi, Teachers and the Ideology of Professionalism in India andEngland]

The British Parliament issued the Charter Act of 1813 by which a sum of Rupees One lakh was sanctioned for promoting western sciences in India. But a controversy soon arose. Some wanted the money to be spent on advocating western ideas only. There were others who placed more emphasis on traditional Indian learning. Some recommended use of vernaculars (regional languages) as the medium of instruction, others were for English. In this confusion people failed to notice the difference between English as a medium and English as a subject for study. The British, of course, decided in favor of teaching western ideas and literature through the medium of English language alone. Another step in this direction was the Woods Dispatch of 1854. It asked the Government of India to assume responsibility for the education of the masses. As part of the directive given by the Woods Dispatch, Departments of Education were instituted in all provinces and Affiliated Universities were opened in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay in 1857. A few English schools and colleges were opened instead of many elementary schools. They ignored the education of the masses. But in reality, it was not sufficient to cater to the needs of the Indian people. Though the British followed a half-hearted education policy in India, English language and western ideas also had some positive impact on the society. Many reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, and Swami Vivekananda absorbed western ideas of liberalism and democracy and used it to reform some of the non-humanitarian social and religious practices of the time. Though education did not reach the masses but some ideas of anti-imperialism, nationalism, social and economic equality took root through political parties, discussions and debates on public platform and the press. The spread of English language and western education helped Indians to adopt modern, rational, democratic, liberal and patriotic outlook. [footnoteRef:4] [4: Elder, Joseph. Decolonization of Educational Culture: The Case of India. ComparativeEducation Review, October 1971.]

The British had come to India with the idea of making immense profits. This meant buying of raw materials at very cheap rates and selling finished goods at much higher prices. The British wanted the Indians to be educated and modern enough to consume their goods but not to the extent that it proved detrimental to British interests. Some of the Englishmen believed that Western ideas were modern and superior, while Indian ideas were old and inferior. This was, of course, not true. Indians had a rich traditional learning that was still relevant. By this time in England there was a group of Radicals who had a humanistic ideology towards Indians. They wanted India to be a part of the modern, progressive world of science. But the British government was cautious in undertaking rapid modernization of India. They feared a reaction among the people if too much interference took place with their religious beliefs and social customs. The English wanted perpetuation of their rule in India and not a reaction among the people. Hence, though they talked about introducing reforms, in reality very few measures were taken and these were also half hearted. New fields of knowledge in science, humanities and literature open to them. English became the lingua franca of the educated people in India. It united them and gradually made them politically conscious of their rights. It also gave opportunity to the Indians to study in England and learn about the working of democratic institutions there. The writings of John Locke, Ruskin, Mill, Rousseau and many others instilled in them the ideas of liberty, equality, fraternity, human rights and self-government. The French and the American Revolutions, and the unifications of Italy and Germany further strengthened their appreciation of these ideas. Cavour, Garibaldi and Mazzini became their favorite heroes. They began to aspire for these ideals for India. Western thinkers like Max Mueller and Annie Besant encouraged vernacular languages and literary works to instill a sense of pride in Indian heritage and culture. It enabled Indians to revive Indias cultural past. Also, the important role of press in arousing political awakening and exchange in ideas is noteworthy. The newspapers and journals gave opportunities to share ideas and problems. Similarly, novel, drama, short story, poetry, song, dance, theatre, art and cinema were used to spread views and express resistance to colonial rule. They spoke the language of the people, showcasing their everyday lives, joys and sorrows. Along with newspapers and journals, they promoted the feelings of self confidence, self respect, awareness and patriotism, thereby developing a feeling of national consciousness. The British devised several strategies to make their rule effective.[footnoteRef:5] The early British administrators in India like Warren Hastings, William Jones, Jonathan Duncan and others glorified Indias ancient past. These scholars and administrators were called Orientalists. They thought that a better understanding of Indian languages, literature and culture would make it easier for them to rule India. Important institutions that came to be identified with their efforts were the Calcutta Madarsas founded by Warren Hastings (1781), the Asiatic Society of Bengal founded by William Jones (1784), the Sanskrit College at Banaras founded by Jonathan Duncan (1794) and the Fort William College founded by Wellesley (1800). These institutions, especially the Asiatic Society and the Fort William College became the epicenter of the study on Indian culture, languages and literature. For the first time great ancient Sanskrit writers like Kalidasa became known to the world through translation of their monumental work into English. [5: Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research. The Storyof Man (History and Civics): Standard Three. Pune, 1991.]

In 1835, Lord Macauleylaid successfully the foundation of modern education in India. The sole purpose was to educate Indians in such a way that they should through western education get Anglicized in terms of both cultural and intellectual attainments.Introduction of modern education had served a double purpose for the British rulers- they got the credit for the amelioration of the Indian society.Also at the same time, through it, they devised a unique method of distribution of power, kept balance of power and prolonged their rule in India by keeping the natives busy in their in-fights.

IMPACT ON TRADITIONAL SYSTEM AND SCENARIO AT THAT TIME

After the introduction of new modern education system, the traditional Indian system of education gradually withered away for the lack of official- support. And with it, Indian people got dis-associated from traditional way of learning. Lord Macauley clearly said that, we must at present do our best to form a class, who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. The reason of introducing the modern education was that it wastoo costly andpractically impossible to import a large number of Englishmen to fill up the large and increasing number of subordinate or lower posts in administration. The emphasis of British rulers was on English medium education system. In 1844 through a Declaration knowledge of English was made compulsory for Government employment. It made English medium schools very popular. The universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were started in 1837 and higher education spread rapidly thereafter. Since the British were not much interested in scientific and technical education, only three Medical Colleges one each at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras was established by 1857. There was only one good engineering college at Roorkee.

Modern education not only provided personnel to fill the lower levels in administration, as desired by the rulers, but also produced national leaders, intellectualsand reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dadabhai Naoroji, Ferozeshah Mehta, Gokhale, Gandhi, Jinnah, Ambedkar, Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Moti Lal Nehru, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Neta Subhash Chandra Bose, Patel and many more. They took upon themselves the responsibility to build a modern, open, plural, culturally rich, prosperous and powerful India out of a fragmented, poverty stricken, superstitious, weak, indifferent, backward and inward looking society.

As was thought, modern educationoffered toIndian peopleaccess to the thoughts of many liberal thinkers, like Locke, Mill Roussseau Voltaire, Spencer and Burke. Also it familiarized Indians with the knowledge about English, French, American revolutions.Western literature and philosophywidened the mental horizons and knowledge of Indian people. At the time when modern education was introduced, the atmosphere was completely ready. Different sections of society had welcomed it wholeheartedly for different reasons. They not only welcomed, but exerted pressure on the company to encourage and promote western education in India. As hoped, British rulers found modern education very economical and convenient y the rulers. It provided personnel to fill the lower levels in administration and made it possible to keep contact with local people. Missionaries and their supporters found that modern education would encourage local people to adopt Christianity in large numbers. Christian missionaries brainwashed many people especially the poor by preaching and educating them and developed in their minds a complex about the primitiveness of Indian society, influenced them towards the alien culture and then converted them into Christianity. With the help of British rulers, Christian missionaries and religious minded Westerners like William Webberforce or Charles Grant, they succeeded in converting many persons into Christianity. [footnoteRef:6] [6: Joseph Elder, The Decolonization of Educational Culture: The Case of India, (Comparative EducationReview, Oct. 1971) 288]

SOCIAL REFORMS AND MOVEMENTS

For Indian intelligentsia, Humanitarians and intellectuals considered modern education the best remedy for social, political and economic ills of the country. The intellectual ferment was strongest in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Intellectualsand their organizations had purely an economic and social thrust. They were aware of the real issues hampering the progress of Indian society. They also got alarmed at the erosion of Indian Culture and divisible policies of the rulers. The understanding of liberal,and humanitarian ideas thought of Western World gave birth to Indian national leaders.Educatednational leaderswelcomed rationality and other good features of Modern English education. Modern education equipped them with the intellectual tools, with which they could fight the oppressive British Raj. They realized the impact of British racial discrimination and their repressive policies on the Indian people. The destructive character of British imperialism lit the fire and gave birth to national movement. Economic loot, political subjugation, assertion of lordly superiority over the subject on the ground of race, assumption of a haughty exclusiveness, persistent insulting and supercilious behavior towards all Indians, exclusion of Indians from all places of authority and responsibility and denial of their capacity for self-governance united Indians against British rule. They tried to bring social awakening and awareness amongst masses about their rights. Modern education highlighted the weaknesses, rigidity and harshness of society towards the weaker sections of the society. It had attracted the attention of the intelligentsia and reformers towards social evils, which had developed in the system. Social reformers fought against many social evils caused by ignorance, superstitions or irrationality like Sati, Polygamy, child marriage, and inhumane treatment to women, untouchablity and many superstitions prevalent at that time. They criticized the mumbo-jumbo of rituals and superstitions created by some selfish people to entangle the ignorant and poor masses. Emphasis was laid on education and science. Reformers organized people and made them aware of social evils like Brahma Samaj, founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1928, inspired the people of Bengal, UP, Punjab, Madras and other provinces, to form similar organizations and interpret religion rationally. Social Reformers advised people to remain firmly rooted to the Indian Culture. They tried to revive their own rich ancient culture and prevent the masses from being swayed away by the glamour and materialism of alien culture. They talked about thegreatness of Hindu Vedic culture and aboutVedasas the source of all knowledge and truth. Swami Vivekananda founded the Rama Krishna Mission tried to reveal to the world Indian Philosophy and culture. Organizations like Brahma Samaj (1928) in Bengal, Prarthana Samaj in Maharashtra (1867), Arya Samaj in Northern India,Rama Krishna Mission, TheosophicalSociety of India (1879), Dev Samaj in Lahore and Servants of IndiaSociety took up the jobto awaken the masses. Some reform institutes like Vivekanandas or Rama Krishna Mission or Theosophical Society of India tried to familiarize the Western World, too, to the charm and graciousness of Indian Culture.

EFFECT ON VARIOUS CASTESThe new education system opened the doors of education for all sections of Indian society to get educated irrespective of caste or creed. Earlier Muslims were more dependent on the use of sword. Only few could get the opportunity to study in Madarsas (Muslims educational institutions). Brahmins, having learning background earlier, were quick to opt for modern education with a purpose to earn something respectfully for their livelihood. With the result, they were able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by Modern education in the job-market. Non- Brahmin communities lagged behind in matter of modern education and the opportunities offered by it. The government of Madras presidency completed a survey of Indian educational institutions in 1823-24. After that it came to be known that despite the poverty and disturbance, there were about 13,000 schools and 740 colleges under the presidency. According to this survey the original number of students in school and colleges were 1,88,650 out of which 42,502 were Brahmans and 85,400 were from the castes known as Shudras. The remaining were Vaishya, Mohammedan and from other Hindu castes. The caste-wise division of students provides the more interesting and historically more relevant information. This is true not only as regards boys, but also with respect to the rather small number of girls who, according to the survey, were receiving education in schools. Furthermore, the information be-comes all the more curious and pertinent when the data is grouped into the five main language areas -- Oriya, Telugu, Kannada. Malayalam and Tamil. These constituted the Presidency of Madras at this period, and throughout the nineteenth century.[footnoteRef:7] [7: Daniel Gold, Organized Hinduisms: From Vedic Truth to Hindu Nation, in Martin Marty andR. Scott Appleby, eds. Accounting for Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of Movements(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 534.]

Some adverse affects of modern education on Indian society

While welcomed by different sections of society, the new system of education had some adverse affects also. It had disassociated Indian people from their traditional way of learning and living, their classical roots and indigenous knowledge. Along with it faded Indian values, philosophies and traditions. Census operations started by British Government in India for administrative purposes and the purpose prolonging its rule in India along with the disparities created by modern education had divided Indian people into water-tight compartments (SCs, STs, OBCs, Upper castes and minorities etc). Modern education had loosened the bonds of caste system, which kept discipline in various sections of society and believed in inter-dependence. It also made Indians to lose their faith insocial values and systems. So much and so that some groups of Indian society considered the social practices and customs prevalent in Indiaas indefensible.

Costly nature of modern education

Though British rulers opened the doors of education to all, theywere not concerned muchabout mass education. The costly nature of education tended to make it a monopoly of the richer classes and city dwellers. Initially, it was an impoverished group of Brahmin and caste Hindus in search of livelihood, who in desire to live with dignity and honor opted for modern education. Except for a few, masses could not avail its advantages despitethe relentless efforts of missionaries with an aim to convert poor people into Christianity. [footnoteRef:8] [8: Maddison, The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India, http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/articles/moghul_3.pdf, (accessed March 21st 2014)]

Only a small number of persons could be benefitted from Modern education. The causes for which are listed below: Modern education was very costly and, therefore, unaffordable by the masses. Masses did not see any immediate use of education. It was more important for them to work and arrange two square meals day. The relentless effort of missionaries and the reformers could educate a very small number of people from amongst them. The medium of instruction was a foreign language English. English gaining importance asthe language ofelite section of society alienated the masses from them.

VISIONS OF GANDHI NEHRU AND TAGORE

In this way, the merging of the Western liberal humanist and Marxist socialist ideologies inside the head of Jawaharlal led to two different streams again in the quest for a reawakened India. For the sake of convenience, we will label one "Nehru's vision" and the other "the Gandhian vision" of India's future. There was so much in common between the two visions, that they found it not much of a problem to co-exist in the bosom of the Indian National Congress.

There were radicals on both sides. The secular-Marxist radicals later separated to form the Communist Party of India. Some fanatic religious extremists separated to form conservative religious groups like the Rashtriya Svayam Sevak Samiti. But the vast majority remained with the Indian National Congress. Within the Congress itself, however, the Gandhian vision and Nehru's vision uneasily co-existed, the latter predominating.

The Gandhian vision, inheriting the original upanishadic universalism, consisted in a Ramarajya of limited aspirations as far as consumer goods were concerned. It was anti-industrialist, anti-urbun, but not anti-capitalist. Capitalists like Birla and Tata were regarded as allies who would hold properly in trust for the people, providing funds for humanitarian purposes.

Simplicity of life, an agrarian-rural setting with a minimum of factories and cities, primacy of the spiritual, uplift of the downtrodden an omni-religious, theistic basis, work-based basic education--these were some of the planks of the Gandhian platform. Coming in the tradition of Ruskin and Tolstoy, Rousseau and Thoreau in the West, the Gandhian vision had much in common with the counter-culture syndrome now gaining ascendancy in America and other Western countries.

Nehru's vision of a socialistic pattern of society, in contrast, based on the secular humanism of the industrial West, was openly committed to the urban industrial culture based on Western science and technology. Ideologically anti-capitalist, though unable to extricate itself from dependence on capitalist wealth and power, the India of the five-year plans had as her objective the raising of the GNP, catching up with the West, ever expanding production and consumption, increasing educational and health services, and better distributive justice through graded taxation. It is this Nehru vision, with the primacy of the economic factor, that has dominated India. Her educational system has also been idea-based (the 'banking' concept of education, to borrow a Paulo Freie term) rather than work-based. While giving encouragement to art and music, dance and drama, literature and sports, the Nehru vision had but limited interest in either the spiritual heritage of India or in a coherent vision of man and the meaning of his life. In agriculture, as in industry, in education as in research, our inspiration as well as ideas came from the West, whether socialist or capitalist.Planning, obviously, is the key to our vision, and the index of our orientation. This is something we took over bodily from the Soviet Union. But we have integrated our planning into our own "soft" system of liberal humanism. Centralized economic planning, government-controlled, does not work very well in our society, precisely because the other key element necessary for the success of a Soviet five-year plan seems to be totally lacking in our society--viz., party cadres locally organized, trained and disciplined by ideological formation, to carry through the transformation of attitudes and patterns necessary at the primary level of production and distribution, whether industrial or agricultural.[footnoteRef:9]

It was the co-ordination of party cadres and Government machinery, the former disciplining and controlling the latter, that assumed responsibility for the implementation of the plans in the Soviet Union. In our soft Indian society, there was little ideological formation of the Government personnel, and the party cadres were both undisciplined and inactive in terms of primary production. The recent Kumaramangalam Thesis is supposed to have changed all that in India, but only on paper. The persistent fact remains that no five-year plan can be implemented by a bureaucracy, unless undergirded and supported by ideological education of the masses, carried out by a corps of non-governmental but strictly disciplined party cadres.

The fundamental defect of our educational system is directly linked with the defect of the national planning system. No radical reform of education can be carried out in a nation by the production of a good report and the allotment of a fat sum for its implementation. Classroom education cannot be reformed adequately without parallel effort affecting the masses throughout the nation. Mass social education is the necessary matrix for any substantially effective institutional change in education.

The secondary defect of our educational system is its alienation from the basic primary economic relations of the people i.e., of production and distribution. The 'banking concept' of education remains untransformed, despite all statements about a work-based education. The success of the Soviet Union, especially of its great educational pioneer with a large vision, A.S. Makarenko3, depended on the concepts of work-based education and social responsibility ("proletarian duty", he called it), but the Soviet Union practically rejected Makarenko's philosophy during the Stalin days, and went in for competition with the West. The Communist system was expected to produce bigger and better steel factories and space rockets than the capitalist system was able to. Stalin's Russia forgot the basic orientation of Marxism-- the remoulding of Man, and became preoccupied with outdoing the West at any cost.

And Stalin's Russia, therefore, decided to abandon Makarenko's social-rehabilitation-oriented education in favour of Germany's industrial-production-oriented Gymnasia. But even in this adopted Western capitalist educational system utilized by a socialist society, care was taken to see that education in the schools was not divorced from education in the factories and communes. This is where the Indian system seems a total failure, and the Chinese system appears to have started off much more on the right foot than the Soviets. [9: Hayden J A Bellenoit, Missionary Education,ReligionandKnowledge inIndia http://www.wciujournal.org/uploads/files/Snodderly.pdf]

Rabindranath Tagore tried to show a third way to which India paid but scant attention. He was willing to use Western insights, but he wanted a radical reorientation of our educational system; in this he was opposed to the scientific-technological approach of Nehru.

One expression of his views can be seen in the series of addresses he delivered in his younger days at Harvard University and at the Shantiniketan. His basic thesis is a distinction he makes "between the scientific attitude to life, which he describes as an attitude of objectifying everything and bringing it under control, and the unitive approach, which seeks a vital, non-objectifying relation to reality:"India intuitively felt that the essential fact of this world has a vital meaning for us; we have to be fully alive to it and establish a conscious relation with it not merely impelled by Scientific curiosity or greed of material advantage, but realizing it in the spirit of sympathy, with a large feeling of joy and peace"Tagore argued that joy was more important than power. And joy comes from union, not from knowledge or control. Tagore accuses the Christian West of not really coming to terms with Christ's teaching on fundamental unity.[footnoteRef:10] [10: Fr. Paul Verghese, http://paulosmargregorios.in/English%20Articles/Impact_of_western_education.html, (accessed February 24th 2014)]

IDEOLOGY FOR REFORM IN EDUCATIONAL SECTORFirst, we should learn that reforms will not come from Governmental planning, but only through nation-wide cadres, ideologically oriented, strictly disciplined and coordinated, democratically organized, from a mass-base. Only such cadres can set in motion movements for genuine social and educational reform.

Second, reforms of educational institutions, without a radical process of socio-economic reform, are bound to prove frustratingly ineffective. Mass social education is the context in which a new educational system and new types of educational institutions can take shape. Such sweeping mass movements cannot be led by mercenary personnel. It must generate its own unpaid, voluntary leadership.

Third, both the mass educational movement as well as the educational institutions should develop a pattern that is related to primary relations of economic production and distribution, teaches the dignity of labour promotes creativity and inventiveness in science and technology, generates new altruistic social attitudes among the masses and their leaders.

But if educational and social reform in India would merely stick to these three principles, it would still hardly be Indian. We have certain new factors to take into account in educational innovation in India: the recognized perils of consumerism and greed. the crisis of science and technology. the planetary crisis produced by population growth, resource depletion and environment pollution.It is in this context of Western civilisation gone sour that we in India need to reflect again on our own cultural heritage, so that in the context of the disillusionment of the West with an urban-technological culture's capacity to save man, we can see a new vision coming out of the depths of our own rich past and still not totally hopeless future. In that vision social justice can be only one, though a large and most significant one, of the constitutive elements.Ultimately, it seems to me, we have to take all these elements into consideration, in order to do our own pioneering. We should learn from the Chinese experiment all its valid lessons without being blinded by inherited prejudices. We should continue to make use of Marxist social analysis in so far as it has been confirmed by experience. We should continue to learn from the patterns of implementation of national plans in the Soviet Union and in Tanzania. We can still use our Western-acquired secularist liberal humanism for an evaluation and criticism of our value-system.

Three things, however, stand out as high priorities in India: 1. The relation between mass education and institutional education should be further studied, and a new national scheme for both has to be envisaged and implemented through a huge nation-wide network of disciplined and trained voluntary cadres.2. We should, as a nation, take a fresh look at our theoretical assumptions about what kind of a society we should plan for in India. Here we should look at our own three options--the Nehru, Gandhi, and Tagore visions. We should also look at the Chinese, Cuban and North Korean experiments at social reconstruction. We should examine the experience of the bourgeois West, which is raising new questions about the validity of science and technology as a way of man's relating himself to nature in the context of problems like resource depletion, urban agglomeration and environmental pollution. Only on the basis of a more adequately clarified vision of what it means to be human today in India can we proceed to a genuine program of educational reform. This is the sort of area where the Thinking Cell of the A. I. A. C. H. E. could do some pioneering.3. There can be little doubt that we have to show much more determination and discipline in making institutional education directly linked to the primary relations of production and distribution. Here there is no controversy. The industrial-capitalist, the Gandhian, and the Marxist can agree on this--one of the few points on which they agree. Only the will for implementation is lacking. This is another point at which there is scope for independent planning on the part of colleges. The question is not that students should leave their institutions in an occasional sortie to a neighboring village. What is demanded is that the village's or factories primary relations of production and distribution become the milieu in which education takes place. The village or the factory itself becomes the school rather than an isolated school building. The students live in and participate fully in the agricultural and industrial activities of society and get their training there. This is the point at which Ivan Illich's demand for "de-schooling" begins to make sense.[footnoteRef:11] [11: Fr. Paul Verghese, The Impact of Western Educational Styles on India's Struggle for Development and Justice: Some Reflections]

ROLE OF WESTERN EDUCATION ON FREEDOM STRUGGLEThe Western Education which the British had introduced inIndia, was having its impact. There was now a desire among the Indians to think and act independently. British-educated Indians grew up learning about Pythagoras, Archimedes, Galileo and Newton without ever learning about Panini, Aryabhatta, Bhaskar or Bhaskaracharya. The logic and epistemology of the Nyaya Sutras, the rationality of the early Buddhists or the intriguing philosophical systems of the Jains were generally unknown to the them. Neither was there any awareness of the numerous examples of dialectics in nature that are to be found in Indian texts. They may have read Homer or Dickens but not the Panchatantra, the Jataka tales or anything from the Indian epics. Schooled in the aesthetic and literary theories of the West, many felt embarrassed in acknowledging Indian contributions in the arts and literature. What was important to Western civilization was deemed universal, but everything Indian was dismissed as either backward and anachronistic, or at best tolerated as idiosyncratic oddity. Little did the Westernized Indian know what debt "Western Science and Civilization" owed (directly or indirectly) to Indian scientific discoveries and scholarly texts.Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Dayanand Saraswati, Keshab Chandra Sen, Annie Besant, Swami Vivekananda and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan were the leading social reformers who fought against these evil practices. They founded educational institutions on modern lines and various other Indians begun to run schools of their own.[footnoteRef:12] [12: Divyanshu Agarwal, http://divuagrawal.blogspot.in/2012/04/indas-freedom-struggle-social-reformers.html , last seen 23-3-14 at 4:15 AM]

Conclusion

Modern education did produce manpower, as desired by the rulers. But it also generated groups of visionary national leadersand reformers.The second half of the nineteenth century saw the impact of modern education on Indians. Swami Vivekananda and many others gave a call to Return to Vedas. He said, Each nation like each individual has a theme in this life, which is its center, the principle note, around which every other note comes to form the harmony.If any nation attempts to throw off its national vitality, the direction, which has become its own through the transmission of centuries, the nation dies.

Bibliography

1) www.wciujournal.org, William Carey International Development Journal Vol 2, Issue 1: Winter 2013

2) Fr. Paul Verghese, the Impact of Western Educational Styles on India's Struggle for Development and Justice: Some Reflections3) Mark Ginsburg & Vipula Chaturvedi, Teachers and the Ideology of Professionalism in India and England

4) Daniel Gold, Organized Hinduisms: From Vedic Truth to Hindu Nation, in Martin Marty and R. Scott Appleby, eds. Accounting for Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of Movements (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 534.

5) Hayden J A Bellenoit, http://www.academia.edu/2391006/Missionary_education_religion_and_knowledge_in_India_1880-1920

6) H.S Amogh, http://hsamogh.blogspot.in/2011/04/impact-of-british-education-system-on.html

7) Lata Sinha, http://latasinha.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/impact-of-modern-education-before-independence

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