Educational Backwardness of Punjab in British India
Although Punjab State was doing well in education during Moghul and later Sikh periods, the advent of the British Raj gave mixed signals. Persian was the language of the court for a very long time since the advent of the Muslim Rule. Even the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh kept Persian as the court language. The Panjabi language in Gurmukhi script was taught in Sikh religious places. During the rule of Ranjit Singh an educational system called “Kyada Programme" was started for the rural women. The object of the programme was to enable the women to learn Panjabi language in Gurumukhi script so that they can read and recite the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth. The Muslim people were learning Persian and Arabic in Madras’s. The purpose of learning these languages was obvious-to recite the holy book Quran. The Hindus and Sikhs were not averse to Persian language. There were several non-Muslim Persian scholars. The Persian language was indispensable for the elite classes because it was the language of the court for the last 500-600 years. The 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh was a great Persian scholar. He has several works especially, the Zafarnama and Fatehnama in Persian language.
The advent of the British made several reforms in the education system. The outlines of the British Education system were as under:
The British introduced several significant changes to education in the regions they colonized, particularly in India and Africa. These changes were often driven by the British Empire's need to create a class of natives who could assist in administering the colonies and promote British cultural and economic interests. Here are some of the key changes:
1. Introduction of Western-Style Education:
Curriculum and Language: The British introduced a curriculum that focused on Western knowledge, sciences, and literature. English became the medium of instruction, especially at higher levels, which facilitated the spread of western ideas and the English language.
2. Universities and Schools: The British established schools, colleges, and universities modeled after British institutions. In India, for example, institutions like the University of Calcutta, University of Bombay, and University of Madras were established in 1857.
3. Promotion of English Education:
Macaulay's Minute on Education (1835): Thomas Babington Macaulay's Minute argued for the promotion of English as the language of higher education in India, leading to the spread of English-medium education. This helped create a class of English-speaking Indians who could assist in colonial administration.
4. Expansion of Missionary Education:
The British allowed and encouraged Christian missionaries to establish schools in their colonies. These schools often provided basic education and religious instruction, contributing to the spread of Christianity and Western values.
5. Centralization and Standardization:
The British introduced various education acts to standardize and regulate education. In England, for example, the Education Act of 1870 made elementary education compulsory. Similar policies were implemented in some colonies.
The British introduced standardized examinations to assess students' progress and to determine entry into government service, which emphasized meritocracy in education.
6. Focus on Administrative and Clerical Skills:
The British education system often emphasized training students for administrative and clerical roles in the colonial bureaucracy. This created a workforce that could efficiently serve the needs of the British administration.
7. Neglect of Traditional and Indigenous Education:
The Local Knowledge was suppressed. Traditional systems of education, which were often oral and deeply connected to local cultures and religions, were sidelined or neglected. The British focus on Western education led to a decline in the value and transmission of indigenous knowledge.
8. Social Impact:
Creation of an Educated Elite: The British education system led to the creation of an educated elite class in the colonies, who were often more aligned with British values and culture than with their indigenous roots. This class played a crucial role in both supporting and challenging colonial rule.
9. Gender Disparities:
British education policies often focused more on educating boys than girls, although some missionary schools did provide education for girls as well.
These changes had long-lasting impacts on the societies in the British colonies, influencing their social structures, cultures, and economies even after the end of colonial rule
Muslims were not inclined to adopt English medium. Even the non-Muslims were not very aggressive to the new school system started by the British. As such Punjab remained backward compared to the other Indian Provinces especially Bengal. The Bengal Presidency was under the British since the war of Plessey (1757). British education there had already reached the University level. Most of the top administrative posts available for Indian people were monopolized by Bengali “Babus”.
The caste Hindus and Sikhs compared to the Muslims were quick to adapt to the new British education system. It helped them to occupy the top positions in the Government. However, the Persian language continued at the local levels. Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi languages were restricted to schools and the religious places.
The literacy ratio of the Muslims started dwindling due to resistance to the new education policy of the British. The non-Muslims went far ahead in the first 40 years of the annexation of Punjab in 1849.
According to 1891 census literate Muslim males were 2.25% against 9.44 % Hindus and 7.84% Sikhs. Government College Lahore was established in 1864 which prepared students for the FA and BA examinations of Calcutta University. There was no university in Punjab at that time. In the year 1882 Punjab University Lahore was established. Since, the literacy rate among Hindus and Sikhs was much more compared to the Muslims; therefore, all the Government jobs came to their share. The Majority Community, “Muslims” were left far behind. The first Muslim post graduate, Pirzada Muhammad Hussain passed the University examination in 1883.
In 1886 Aitcheson college Lahore was founded with the admission restricted to the sons of a few rural elites of the province. It aimed at creating an educated class among the landlords with a strong sense of loyalty to the British.
The Muslims under-representation in the government services was discussed by the Aitcheson Public Service Commission in 1886. Both the Hindus and Muslims presented their cases very strongly. Lieutenant Governor James Loyal (1887- 1892) realized the necessity of shifting the policy in favor of the Muslims to maintain peace and ensure loyalty of the war like community. (Punjabi Muslim presence in British Indian Army was highest). The new policy was not made public and the officers were instructed to use ‘tact and caution’ to balance the two communities. But all these efforts proved futile. It was the Government of India Act 1909 which gave some communal representation to the Muslims both in legislature and services. But still they continued to lag behind compared to non-Muslims. Sir Seyd Ahmend Khan an enlightened Muslim reformer and Member of the Viceroy’s council was instrumental in setting up Aligarh Muslim University in United Province. He advocated study of English language for the Muslim community which was vehemently opposed by the Mullahs.
English Education and its Consequences
The mid-nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of considerable English-knowing elite especially in Bengal. In 1881 some 150,000 students were receiving western education in colleges or secondary schools; by 1901 their number swelled to over 420,000. During the same period, about 30,000 of these college boys went on to graduate from university. Although the half million or so english-educated Indians living at the turn of the century represented only a miniscule fraction of the society but they completely dominated the professions, such as the law, the public service, medicine, journalism and teaching. They became the opinion makers for rest of the country men.It was in the best interest of the British to keep this articulate and influential group happy. The policies of the British India Government were influenced by such opinion makers.
The root of the malaise lay in the education system itself. British India’s colleges and universities had, by modern standards, colossal failure rates.Out of 24,000 candidates who sat for the matriculation examination in 1881, just 11,000 passed. In 1914 the pass rates for the BA and BSc degrees were running at 62 per cent in Madras, 43 per cent in United Provinces, just 35 per cent in the Punjab. It was a great disappointment and dismay for the students. The education was coercive and painful. It was a system of learning which kept the masses away from the schools.
However, the greater problem was the increasing inability of the public service and the professions to offer suitable employment to those who had graduated successfully. At the top level, the ICS had been opened up, in principle, to Indians, by the Queen’s proclamation of 1858. However, various, impediments such as:
1. That the annual entrance examination was held in London,
2. The requirement from the 1870s for candidates to have had two years at an English University in England and
3. The lowering of the maximum age of entry during the same period from twenty-three to nineteen kept the intake of Indian civilians low until the 1920s.
In 1885 there were just sixteen Indians in a Service out of the total 900. More generally, the top positions in the Statutory and Provincial Services in the elite bureaucracy earmarked for the Indians were far too few to absorb the supply of qualified Indian graduates rolled out annually from the educational system. Many had to settle with the more poorly paid clerical jobs. And it was the same with the legal profession.
A few Indians in the late nineteenth century became extremely rich working as barristers in the chief Presidency courts. Badruddin Tyabji, an eminent Muslim lawyer from Bombay, earned 122,000 rupees from his legal practice in 1890, which was four times the annual salary of an ICS officer. But most law graduates had to content themselves by working as vakils (pleaders) in mofussil (provincial) towns. In Madras Predidency, just 267 lawyers (most of them city lawyers) were earning more than 2,000 rupees annually in 1890; of the rest, some were pulling in as little as 500 rupees a year.
As early as 1884 Lord Ripon (1880-84) saw the menace lurking on the horizon: ‘Unless we are prepared to afford these men legitimate openings for their aspirations and ambitions, we had better at once abolish our universities and close our colleges, for they will only serve to turn out year by year in ever-increasing numbers men who must inevitably become the most dangerous and influential enemies of our rule’. But the British did neither, and the problem continued to grow. For every satiated professional man at the end of the nineteenth century, a dozen others harboured feelings of disappointment and frustration, feelings that a little propaganda could easily turn into anger and resentment against the government.
Ref: India 1885-1947-The Unmaking of an Empire by Ian Copland Pp31
- T R SARANGAL