# Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 2/Section 2

SECTION II.
Elementary Instruction.
Elementary instruction in this district is divisible into two sorts, public and private, according as it is communicated in public schools or private families. The distinction is not always strictly maintained, but it is sufficiently marked, and is in itself so important as to require that these two modes of conveying elementary instruction to the young should be separately considered.
I. Elementary Schools.—These are enumerated and described in the Tables as of two denominations, viz., Hindu and Mahomedan,—there being in Nattore, of the former, 11 schools, containing 192 scholars; and of the latter 16, containing 70 scholars, which gives an average of 175/11 scholars in each of the one sort, and 43/8 scholars in each of the other. This was the only division that occurred to me at the commencement of the inquiry; but an ​inspection and comparison of the different institutions suggest that a more correct view of the state of elementary scholastic instruction will be conveyed by distributing them into four classes, according to the languages employed in them, viz.—first, Bengali; second, Persian; third Arabic; and fourth, Persian and Bengali, with or without Arabic.
1. Elementary Bengali Schools,—It is expressly prescribed by the authorities of Hindu law that children should be initiated in writing and reading in their fifth year; or, if this should have been neglected, then in the seventh, ninth, or any subsequent year, being an odd number. Certain months of the year, and certain days of the month and week, are also prescribed as propitious to such a purpose; and, on the day fixed, a religious service is performed in the family by the family-priest, consisting principally of the worship of Saraswati, the goddess of learning, after which the hand of the child is guided by the priest to form the letters of the alphabet, and he is also then taught, for the first time, to pronounce them. This ceremony is not of indispensable obligation on Hindus, and is performed only by those parents who possess the means and intention of giving their children more extended instruction. It is strictly the commencement of the child’s school education, and in some parts of the country he is almost immediately sent to school; but in this district I do not find that there is any determinate age for that purpose. It seems to be generally regulated by the means and opportunities of the parent and by the disposition and capacity of the child; and as there is a specified routine of instruction, the age of leaving school must depend upon the age of commencement.
The Bengali schools in Nattore are ten in number, containing 167 scholars, who enter school at an age varying from five to ten years, and leave it at an age varying from ten to sixteen. The whole period spent at school also varies, according to the statements of the different teachers, from five to ten years; two stating that their instructions occupied five years, one six years, three seven years, two eight years, one nine years, and one ten years—an enormous consumption of time, especially at the more advanced ages, considering the nature and amount of the instruction communicated.
The teachers consist both of young and middle-aged men, for the most part simple-minded, but poor and ignorant, and, therefore, having recourse to an occupation which is suitable both to their expectations and attainments, and on which they reflect as little honor as they derive emolument from it; they do not understand the importance of the task they have undertaken; they do not appear to have made it even a subject of thought; they do not appreciate the great influence which they might exert over the minds of their pupils; and they consequently neglect the highest duties which their situation would impose, if they were better ​acquainted with their powers and obligations. At present they produce chiefly a mechanical effect upon the intellect of their pupils which is worked upon and chiseled out, and that in a very rough style but which remains nearly passive in their hands, and is seldom taught or encouraged to put forth its self-acting and self-judging capacities. As to any moral influence of the teachers over the pupils—any attempt to form the sentiments and habits, and to control and guide the passions and emotions—such a notion never enters into their conceptions, and the formation of the moral character of the young is consequently wholly left to the influence of the casual associations amidst which they are placed, without any endeavour to modify or direct them. Any measures that may be adopted to improve education in this country will be greatly inadequate if they are not directed to increase the attainments of the teachers, and to elevate and extend their views of the duties belonging to their vocation.
The remuneration of the teachers is derived from various sources. Two teachers have their salaries wholly, and another receives his in part, from benevolent individuals who appear to be influenced only by philanthropic motives; a fourth is remunerated solely in the form of fees; and the remaining six are paid partly by fees and partly by perquisites. There are in general four stages or gradations in the course of instruction indicated by the nature of the materials employed for writing on, viz., the ground, the palm-leaf, the plantain-leaf, and paper; and at the commencement of each stage after the first a higher fee is charged. In one instance the first and second stages are merged into one; in another instance the same fee is charged for the third and fourth and in a third, the first, second, and third stages are equally charged; but the rule I have stated is observed in a majority of cases, and partially even in those exceptions. Another mode, adopted in two instances, of regulating the fees is according to the means of the parents whose children are instructed; a half, a third, or a fourth less being charged to the children of poor than to the children of rich parents in the successive stages of instruction. The perquisites of the teachers vary from four annas to five rupees a month; in the former case consisting of a piece of cloth or other occasional voluntary gift from the parents; and in the latter, or in similar cases, of food alone, or of food, washing, and all personal expenses, together with occasional presents. Those who receive food as a perquisite either live in the house of one of the principal supporters of the school, or visit the houses of the different parents by turns at meal-times. The total income of the teachers from fixed salaries and fluctuating fees and perquisites varies from three rupees eight annas to seven rupees eight annas per month, the average being rather more than five rupees per month.
​The school at Dharail (No. 34) affords a good specimen of the mode in which a small native community unite to support a school. At that place there are four families of Chaudhuris, the principal persons in the village; but they are not so wealthy as to be able to support a teacher for their children without the co-operation of others. They give the teacher an apartment in which his scholars may meet, one of the outer apartments of their own house in which business is sometimes transacted, and at other times worship performed and strangers entertained. One of those families further pays four annas a month, a second an equal sum, a third eight annas, and a fourth twelve annas, which include the whole of their disbursements on this account, no presents or perquisites of any kind being received from them, and for the sums mentioned their five children receive a Bengali education. The amount thus obtained, however, is not sufficient for the support of the teacher, and he, therefore, receives other scholars belonging to other families—of whom one gives one anna, another gives three annas, and five give each four annas a month, to which they add voluntary presents amounting per month to about four annas, and consisting of vegetables, rice, fish, and occasionally a piece of cloth, such as a handkerchief or an upper or under garment. Five boys of Kagbariya, the children of two families, attend the Dharail school, the distance being about a mile, which, in the rainy season, can be travelled only by water. Of the five, two belonging to one family give together two annas, and the three others belonging to the other family give together four annas a month, and thus the whole income of the master is made up. This case shows by what pinched and stinted contributions the class just below the wealthy and the class just above the indigent unite to support a school; and it constitutes a proof of the very limited means of those who are anxious to give a Bengali education to their children, and of the sacrifices which they make to accomplish that object.
I have spoken of the emoluments of the teachers as low; but I would be understood to mean that they are low, not in comparison with their qualifications, or with the general rates of similar labor in the district, but with those emoluments to which competent men might be justly considered entitled. The humble character of the men, and the humble character of the service they render, may be judged from the fact already stated, that some of them go about from house to house to receive their daily food. All, however, should not be estimated by this standard; and perhaps a generally correct opinion of their relative position in society may be formed by comparing them with those persons who have nearly similar duties to perform in other occupations of life, or whose duties the teachers of the common schools could probably in most instances perform if they were called on to do so. Such, for instance, are the ​Patwari, the Amin, the Shumarnavis, and the Khamarnavis employed on a native estate. The Patwari, who goes from house to house, and collects the zemindar’s rents, gets from his employer a salary of two rupees eight annas, or three rupees a month, to which may be added numerous presents from the ryots of the first productions of the season, amounting probably to eight annas a month. The Amin, who on behalf of the zemindar decides the disputes that take place among the villagers and measures their grounds, gets from three rupees eight annas to four rupees a month. The Shumarnavis, who keeps accounts of the collection of rents by the different Patwaris, receives about five rupees a month. And the Khamarnavis who is employed to ascertain the state and value of the crops on which the zemindar has claims in kind, receives the same allowance. Persons bearing these designations and discharging these duties sometimes receive higher salaries; but the cases I have supposed are those with which that of the common native school-master may be considered as on a level, he being supposed capable of undertaking their duties, and they of undertaking his. The holders of these offices on a native estate have opportunities of making unauthorised gains, and they enjoy a respectability and influence which the native school-master does not possess; but in other respects they are nearly on an equality; and, to compensate for those disadvantages, the salary of the common school-master is in general rather higher,—none of those whom I met in Nattore receiving in all less than three rupees eight annas, and some receiving as high as seven rupees eight annas a month.
There are no school-houses built for, and exclusively appropriated to, these schools. The apartments or buildings in which the scholars assemble would have been erected, and would continue to be applied to other purposes, if there were no schools. Some meet in the Chandi Mandap, which is of the nature of a chapel belonging to some one of the principal families in the village, and in which, besides the performance of religious worship on occasion of the great annual festivals, strangers also are sometimes lodged and entertained, and business transacted; others in the Baithakkhana, an open hut principally intended as a place of recreation and of concourse for the consideration of any matters relating to the general interests of the village; others in the private dwelling of the chief supporter of the school; and others have no special place of meeting, unless it be the most vacant and protected spot in the neighbourhood of the master’s abode. The school (a) in the village numbered 4 meets in the open air in the dry seasons of the year; and in the rainy season those boys whose parents can afford it erect each for himself a small shed of grass and leaves, open at the sides and barely adequate at the top to cover one person from the rain. There were five or six such sheds among 30 or 40 boys; and those who had no protection, if it rained, must either have ​been dispersed or remained exposed to the storm. It is evident that the general efficiency and regularity of school-business, which are promoted by the adaptation of the school-room to the enjoyment of comfort by the scholars, to full inspection on the part of the teacher, and to easy communication on all sides, must here be in a great measure unknown.
Respecting the nature and amount of the instruction received, the first fact to be mentioned is that the use of printed books in the native language appears hitherto to have been almost wholly unknown to the natives of this district, with the exception of a printed almanac which some official or wealthy native may have procured from Calcutta; or a stray missionary tract which may have found its way across the great river from the neighbouring district of Moorshedabad. A single case of each kind came under observation; but as far as I could ascertain, not one of the schoolmasters had ever before seen a printed book,—those which I presented to them from the Calcutta School Book Society being viewed more as curiosities than as instruments of knowledge. That Society has now established an agency for the sale of its publications at Bauleah, whence works of instruction will probably in time spread over the district.
Not only are printed books not used in these schools, but even manuscript text-books, are unknown. All that the scholars learn is from the oral dictation of the master; and although what is so communicated must have a firm seat in the memory of the teacher, and will probably find an equally firm seat in the memory of the scholar, yet instruction conveyed solely by such means must have a very limited scope. The principal written composition which they learn in this way is the Saraswati Bandana, or salutation to the Goddess of Learning, which is committed to memory by frequent repetitions, and is daily recited by the scholars in a body before they leave school,—all kneeling with their heads bent to the ground, and following a leader or monitor in the pronunciation of the successive lines or couplets. I have before me two versions or forms of this salutation obtained at different places; but they are quite different from each other, although described by the same name, and both are doggrels of the lowest description even amongst Bengali compositions. The only other written composition used in these schools, and that only in the way of oral dictation by the master, consists of a few of the rhyming arithmetical rules of Subhankar a writer whose name is as familiar in Bengal as that of Cocker in England, without any one knowing who or what he was or when he lived. It may be inferred that he lived, or if not a real personage that the rhymes bearing that name were composed, before the establishment of the British rule in this country, and during the existence of the Musalman power, for they are full of Hindustani or Persian terms and contain references to Mahomedan usages without ​the remotest allusion to English practices or modes of calculation. A recent native editor has deemed it requisite to remedy this defect by a supplement.
It has been already mentioned that there are four different stages in a course of Bengali instruction. The first period seldom exceeds ten days, which are employed in teaching the young scholars to form the letters of the alphabet on the ground with a small stick or slip of bambu. The sand-board is not used in this district, probably to save expense. The second period, extending from two and a half to four years according to the capacity of the scholar, is distinguished by the use of the palm-leaf as the material on which writing is performed. Hitherto the mere form and sound of the letters have been taught without regard to their size and relative proportion; but the master with an iron-style now writes on the palm-leaf letters of a determinate size and in due proportion to each other, and the scholar is required to trace them on the same leaf with a reed-pen and with charcoal-ink which easily rubs out. This process is repeated over and over again on the same leaf until the scholar no longer requires the use of the copy to guide him in the formation of the letters of a fit size and proportion, and he is consequently next made to write them on another leaf which has no copy to direct him. He is afterwards exercised in writing and pronouncing the compound consonants, the syllables formed by the junction of vowels with consonants, and the most common names of persons. In other parts of the country, the names of castes, rivers, mountains, &c., are written as well as of persons; but here the names of persons only are employed as a school-exercise. The scholar is then taught to write and read, and by frequent repetition he commits to memory the Cowrie Table, the Numeration Table as far as 100, the Katha Table, (a land-measure table,) and the Ser Table, (a dry-measure table.) There are other tables in use elsewhere which are not taught in the schools of this district. The third stage of instruction extends from two to three years which are employed in writing on the plantain-leaf. In some districts the tables just mentioned are postponed to this stage, but in this district they are included in the exercises of the second stage. The first exercise taught on the plantain-leaf is to initiate the scholar into the simplest forms of letter-writing, to instruct him to connect words in composition with each other, and to distinguish the written from the spoken forms of Bengali vocables. The written forms are often abbreviated in speech by the omission of a vowel or a consonant, or by the running of two syllables into one, and the scholar is taught to use in writing the full not the abbreviated forms. The correct orthography of words of Sanscrit origin which abound in the language of the people, is beyond the reach of the ordinary class of teachers. About the same time the scholar is taught the rules of arithmetic, beginning with ​addition and subtraction, but multiplication and division are not taught as separate rules,—all the arithmetical processes hereafter mentioned being effected by addition and subtraction, with the aid of a multiplication table which extends to the number 20, and which is repeated aloud once every morning by the whole school and is thus acquired not as a separate task by each boy, but by the mere force of joint repetition and mutual imitation. After addition and subtraction, the arithmetical rules taught divide themselves into two classes, agricultural and commercial, in one or both of which instruction is given more or less fully according to the capacity of the teacher and the wishes of the parents. The rules applied to agricultural accounts explain the forms of keeping debit and credit accounts; the calculation of the value of daily or monthly labor at a given monthly or annual rate; the calculation of the area of land whose sides measure a given number of kathas or bighas; the description of the boundaries of land and the determination of its length, breadth, and contents; and the form of revenue accounts for a given quantity of land. There are numerous other forms of agricultural account, but no others appear to be taught in the schools of this district. The rules of commercial accounts explain the mode of calculating the value of a given number of sers at a given price per maund; the price of a given number of quarters and chataks at a given price per ser; the price of a tola at a given rate per chatak; the number of cowries in a given number of annas at a given number of cowries per rupee; the interest of money and the discount chargeable on the exchange of the inferior sorts of rupees. There are other forms of commercial account also in common use, but they are not taught in the schools. The fourth and last stage of instruction generally includes a period of two years, often less and seldom more. The accounts briefly and superficially taught in the preceding stage are now taught more thoroughly and at greater length, and this is accompanied by the composition of business letters, petitions, grants, leases, acceptances, notes of hand, &c., together with the forms of address belonging to the different grades of rank and station. When the scholars have written on paper about a year, they are considered qualified to engage in the unassisted perusal of Bengali works, and they often read at home such productions as the translation of the Ramayana, Manasa Mangal, &c., &c.
This sketch of a course of Bengali instruction must be regarded rather as what it is intended to be than what it is, for most of the school-masters whom I have seen, as far as I could judge from necessarily brief and limited opportunities of observation, were unqualified to give all the instruction here described, although I have thus placed the amount of their pretensions on record. All, however, do not even pretend to teach the whole of what is here enumerated; some, as will be seen from Table II., ​professing to limit themselves to agricultural, and others to include commercial, accounts. The most of them appeared to have a very superficial acquaintance with both.
With the exception of the Multiplication Table, the rhyming arithmetical rules of Subhankar, and the form of address to Saraswati, all which the younger scholars learn by the mere imitation of sounds incessantly repeated by the elder boys, without for a long time understanding what those sounds convey—with these exceptions, native school-boys learn every thing that they do learn not merely by reading but by writing it. They read to the master or to one of the oldest scholars what they have previously written, and thus the hand, the eye, and the ear are equally called into requisition. This appears preferable to the mode of early instruction current amongst ourselves, according to which the elements of language are first taught only with the aid of the eye and the ear, and writing is left to be subsequently acquired. It would thus appear also that the statement which represents the native system as teaching chiefly by the ear, to the neglect of the eye, is founded on a misapprehension, for how can the aid of the eye be said to be neglected when, with the exceptions above-mentioned, nothing appears to be learned which is not rendered palpable to the sense by the act of writing? It is almost unnecessary to add that the use of monitors or leaders has long prevailed in the common schools of India, and is well known in those of Bengal.
The disadvantages arising from the want of school-houses and from the confined and inappropriate construction of the buildings or apartments used as school-rooms have already been mentioned. Poverty still more than ignorance leads to the adoption of modes of instruction and economical arrangements which, under more favorable circumstances, would be readily abandoned. In the matter of instruction there are some grounds for commendation, for the course I have described has a direct practical tendency; and, if it were taught in all its parts, is well adapted to qualify the scholar for engaging in the actual business of native society. My recollections of the village schools of Scotland do not enable me to pronounce that the instruction given in them has a more direct bearing upon the daily interests of life than that which I find given, or professed to be given, in the humbler village schools of Bengal.
Although improvements might no doubt be made both in the modes and in the matter of instruction, yet the chief evils in the system of common Bengali schools consist less in the nature of that which is taught or in the manner of teaching it, as in the absence of that which is not taught at all. The system is bad because it is greatly imperfect. What is taught should, on the whole, continue to be taught, but something else should be added to it in order to constitute it a system of salutary popular instruc​tion. No one will deny that a knowledge of Bengali writing and of native accounts is requisite to natives of Bengal; but when these are made the substance and sum of popular instruction and knowledge, the popular mind is necessarily cabined, cribbed, and confined within the smallest possible range of ideas, and those of the most limited local and temporary interest, and it fails even to acquire those habits of accuracy and precision which the exclusive devotion to forms of calculation might seem fitted to produce. What is wanted is something to awaken and expand the mind, to unshackle it from the trammels of mere usage, and to teach it to employ its own powers; and, for such purposes, the introduction into the system of common instruction of some branch of knowledge in itself perfectly useless (if such a one could be found,) would at least rouse and interest by its novelty, and in this way be of some benefit. Of course the benefit would be much greater if the supposed new branch of knowledge were of a useful tendency, stimulating the mind to the increased observation and comparison of external objects, and throwing it back upon itself with a large stock of materials for thought. A higher intellectual cultivation however is not all that is required. That to be beneficial to the individual and to society must be accompanied by the cultivation of the moral sentiments and habits. Here the native system presents a perfect blank. The hand, the eye, and the ear, are employed; the memory is a good deal exercised; the judgment is not wholly neglected; and the religious sentiment is early and perseveringly cherished, however misdirected. But the passions and affections are allowed to grow up wild without any thought of pruning their luxuriances or directing their exercise to good purposes. Hence, I am inclined to believe, the infrequency in native society of enlarged views of moral and social obligation, and hence the corresponding radical defect of the native character which appears to be that of a narrow and contracted selfishness, naturally arising from the fact that the young mind is seldom, if ever, taught to look for the means of its own happiness and improvement in the indulgence of benevolent feelings and the performance of benevolent acts to those who are beyond a certain pale. The radical defect of the system of elementary instruction seems to explain the radical defect of the native character; and if I have rightly estimated cause and effect, it follows that no material improvement of the native character can be expected, and no improvement whatever of the system of elementary education will be sufficient, without a large infusion into it of moral instruction that shall always connect in the mind of the pupil, with the knowledge which he acquires, some useful purpose to which it may be and ought to be applied, not necessarily productive of personal gain or advantage to himself.
2. Elementary Persian Schools.—The Persian schools in Nattore are four in number, containing twenty-three scholars, ​who enter school at an age varying from four and a half to thirteen years, and leave it at an age varying from twelve to seventeen. The whole time stated to be spent at school varies from four to eight years. The teachers intellectually are of a higher grade than the teachers of Bengali schools, although that grade is not high compared with what is to be desired and is attainable. Morally, they appear to have as little notion as Bengali teachers of the salutary influence they might exercise on the dispositions and characters of their pupils. They have no fees from the scholars and are paid in the form of fixed monthly allowances with perquisites. The monthly allowances vary from one rupee eight annas to four rupees, and they are paid by one, two, or three families, who are the principal supporters of the school. The perquisites, which are estimated at two rupees eight annas to six rupees a month, and consist of food, washing, and other personal expenses, are provided either by the same parties or by those parents who do not contribute to the monthly allowance. The total remuneration of a teacher varies from four to ten rupees per month, averaging about seven rupees. The principal object of the patrons of these schools in the instruction of their own children; but in one instance a worthy old Musalman, who has no children, contributes a small monthly allowance, without which the teacher would not have sufficient inducement to continue his labors; and in another case besides two children of the family, ten other boys are admitted, on whom instruction, food, and clothing, are gratuitously bestowed. Two of the schools have separate school-houses, which were built by the benevolent patrons who principally support them. The scholars of the other two assemble in out-buildings, belonging to one or other of the families whose children receive instruction.
Although in the Persian schools printed books are unknown, yet manuscript works are in constant use. The general course of instruction has no very marked stages or gradations into which it is divided. Like the Hindus, however, the Musalmans formally initiate their children into the study of letters. When a child, whether a boy or a girl, is four years, four months, and four days old, the friends of the family assemble, and the child is dressed in his best clothes, brought in to the company, and seated on a cushion in the presence of all. The alphabet, the form of letters used for computation, the Introduction to the Koran, some verses of Chapter LV., and the whole of Chapter LXXXVII., are placed before him, and he is taught to pronounce them in succession. If the child is self-willed, and refuses to read, he is made to pronounce the Bismillah, which answers every purpose, and from that day his education is deemed to have commenced. At school he is taught the alphabet, as with ourselves, by the eye and ear, the forms of the letters being presented to him in writing, and their names pronounced in his hearing, which he is required to repeat ​until he is able to connect the names and the forms with each other in his mind. The scholar is afterwards made to read the thirtieth Section of the Koran, the chapters of which are short, and are generally used at the times of prayer and in the burial service. The words are marked with the diacritical points in order that the knowledge of letters, their junction and correct orthography, and their pronunciation from the appropriate organs may be thoroughly acquired; but the sense is entirely unknown. The next book put into his hands is the Pandnameh of Sadi, a collection of moral sayings, many of which are above his comprehension, but he is not taught or required to understand any of them. The work is solely used for the purpose of instructing him in the art of reading and of forming a correct pronunciation, without any regard to the sense of the words pronounced. It is generally after this that the scholar is taught to write the letters, to join vowels and consonants, and to form syllables. The next book is the Amadnameh, exhibiting the forms of conjugating the Persian verbs which are read to the master and by frequent repetition committed to memory. The first book which is read for the purpose of being understood is the Gulistan of Sadi, containing lessons on life and manners, and this is followed or accompanied by the Bostan of the same author. Two or three sections of each are read; and simultaneously short Persian sentences relating to going and coming, sitting and standing, and the common affairs of life, are read and explained. The pupil is afterwards made to write Persian names, then Arabic names, and next Hindi names, especially such as contain letters to the writing or pronunciation of which difficulty is supposed to attach. Elegant penmanship is considered a great accomplishment, and those who devote themselves to this art employ from three to six hours every day in the exercise of it, writing first single letters, then double or treble, then couplets, quatrains, &c. They first write upon a board with a thick pen, then with a finer pen on pieces of paper pasted together; and last of all, when they have acquired considerable command of the pen, they begin to write upon paper in single fold. This is accompanied or followed by the perusal of some of the most popular poetical productions such as Joseph and Zuleikha, founded on a well-known incident in Hebrew history; the loves of Leila and Majnun; the Secandar Nameh, an account of the exploits of Alexander the Great, &c., &c. The mode of computing by the Ahjad, or letters of the alphabet, is also taught, and is of two sorts; in the first, the letters of the alphabet in the order of the Ahjad being taken to denote units, tens, and hundreds to a thousand; and in the second the letters composing the names of the letters of the alphabet being employed for the same purpose. Arithmetic, by means of the Arabic numerals, and instruction at great length in the different styles of address, and in the forms of correspondence, petitions, &c., &c., complete a course of Persian instruction. But in the ​Persian schools of this district, this course is very superficially taught, and some of the teachers do not even profess to carry their pupils beyond the Gulistan and Bostan.
In a Persian school, after the years of mere childhood, when the pupils are assumed to be capable of stricter application, the hours of study with intervals extend from six in the morning to nine at night. In the first place in the morning they revise the lessons of the previous day, after which a new lesson is read, committed to memory, and repeated to the master. About mid-day they have leave of absence for an hour when they dine, and on their return to school they are instructed in writing. About three o’clock they have another reading lesson which is also committed to memory, and about an hour before the close of day they have leave to play. The practice with regard to the forenoon and afternoon lessons in reading is to join the perusal of a work in prose with that of a work in verse; as the Gulistan with the Bostan and Abulfazl’s letters with the Secandar Nameh, the forenoon lesson being taken from one and the afternoon lesson from the other. In the evening they repeat the lessons of that day several times, until they have them perfectly at command; and, after making some preparation for the lessons of the next day, they have leave to retire. Thursday every week is devoted to the revision of old lessons; and when that is completed, the pupils seek instruction or amusement according to their own pleasure in the perusal of forms of prayer and stanzas of poetry, and are dismissed on that day at three o’clock without any new lesson. On Friday, the sacred day of Musalmans, there is no schooling. In other districts in respectable or wealthy Musalman families, besides the literary instructor called Miyan or Akhun, there is also a domestic tutor or Censor Morum called Atalik, a kind of head-servant, whose duty it is to train the children of the family to good manners, and to see that they do not neglect any duty assigned to them; but I do not find any trace of this practice in Rajshahi.
Upon the whole the course of Persian instruction, even in its less perfect forms such as are found to exist in this district, has a more comprehensive character and a more liberal tendency than that pursued in the Bengali schools. The systematic use of books, although in manuscript, is a great step in advance, accustoming the minds of the pupils to forms of regular composition, to correct and elegant language, and to trains of consecutive thought, and thus aiding both to stimulate the intellect and to form the taste. It might be supposed that the moral bearing of some of the text books would have a beneficial effect on the character of the pupils; but as far as I have been able to observe or ascertain, those books are employed like all the rest solely for the purpose of conveying lessons in language—lessons in the knowledge of sounds and words, in the construction of sentences, or in anecdotical information, but not for the purpose of sharpening the moral perceptions ​or strengthening the moral habits. This in general native estimation does not belong to the business of instruction, and it never appears to be thought of or attempted. Others will judge from their own observation and experience whether the Musalman character, as we see it in India, has been formed or influenced by such a course of instruction. The result of my own observations is that of two classes of persons, one exclusively educated in Mahomedan, and the other in Hindu literature; the former appears to me to possess an intellectual superiority, but the moral superiority does not seem to exist.
3. Elementary Arabic Schools.—The Arabic schools, or schools for instruction in the formal or ceremonial reading of certain passages of the Koran, are eleven in number, and contain 42 scholars, who begin to read at an age varying from 7 to 14, and leave school at an age varying from 8 to 18. The whole time stated to be spent at school varies from one to five years. The teachers possess the lowest degree of attainment to which it is possible to assign the task of instruction. They do not pretend to be able even to sign their names; and they disclaim altogether the ability to understand that which they read and teach. The mere forms, names, and sounds, of certain letters and combinations of letters they know and teach, and what they teach is all that they know of written language, without presuming, or pretending, or aiming to elicit the feeblest glimmering of meaning from these empty vocables. This whole class of schools is as consummate a burlesque upon mere forms of instruction, separate from a rational meaning and purpose, as can well be imagined. The teachers are all Kath-Mollas that is, the lowest grade of Musalman priests who chiefly derive their support from the ignorance and superstition of the poor classes of their co-religionists; and the scholars are in training for the same office. The portion of the Koran which is taught is that which begins with Chapter LXXVIII. of Sale’s Koran, and extends to the close of the volume. The Mollas, besides teaching a few pupils the formal reading of this portion of the Koran, perform the marriage ceremony, for which they are paid from one to eight annas according to the means of the party; and also the funeral service with prayers for the dead continued from one to forty days, for which they get from two annas to one rupee, and it is in these services that the formal reading of the Koran is deemed essential. The Mollas also often perform the office of the village butcher, killing animals for food with the usual religious forms, without which their flesh cannot be eaten by Musalmans; but for this they take no remuneration. In several cases, the teacher of the school depends for his livelihood on employment at marriages and burials, giving his instructions as a teacher gratuitously. In one instance a fixed allowance is received from the patron of the school, fees from some of the scholars, and perquisites besides, amounting in all to four rupees ​eight annas per month, and in this case the patron professes the intention to have the scholars hereafter taught Persian and Bengali. In another the patron merely lodges, feeds, and clothes, the teacher who receives neither fixed allowance nor fees. In three instances the only remuneration the teacher receives is a salami, or present of five or six rupees, from each scholar when he finally leaves school. In two instances the teachers have small farms from which they derive the means of subsistence in addition to their gains as Mollas. They give instruction either in their own houses, or in school-houses, which are also applied to the purposes of prayer and hospitality and of assembly on occasions of general interest.
No institutions can be more insignificant and useless, and in every respect less worthy of notice, than these Arabic schools, viewed as places of instruction; but, however worthless in themselves, they have a certain hold on the Native mind, which is proved by the increased respect and emolument as Mollas, expected and acquired by some of the teachers on account of the instruction they give; the expense incurred by others of them in erecting school-houses; and by the general employment by the Musalman population of those who receive and communicate the slender education which these schools bestow. In the eye of the philanthropist or the statesman no institution, however humble, will be overlooked, by which he may hope beneficially to influence the condition of any portion of mankind; and it is just in proportion to the gross ignorance of the multitude that he will look with anxiety for any loop-holes by which he may find an entracne to their understandings—some institutions, which are held by them in veneration and which have hitherto served the cause of ignorance, but which he may hope with discretion to turn to the service of knowledge. I do not despair that means might be employed, simple, cheap, and inoffensive, by which even the teachers of these schools might be reared to qualify themselves for communicating a much higher grade of instruction to a much greater number of learners without divesting them of any portion of the respect and attachment of which they are now the objects.
4. Elementary Persian and Bengali Schools.—The schools in which both Bengali and Persian are taught are two; in one with, and in the other without, the formal reading of the Koran. The two schools contain 30 scholars; one five and the other 25. The period of study is in one case stated to be from 6 to 18 years of age, making 12 years; and in the other from 7 to 23, making 16. The teachers are—one a somewhat intelligent Brahman, and the other a Kath-Molla rather better instructed than others of the same class. The remuneration of the former consists entirely of fees—one anna, two annas, and four annas being charged respectively in three grades of Bengali writing; and four annas, eight annas, and one rupee in three stages of Persian reading, the income from both sources averaging seven rupees eight annas per month. The ​remuneration of the latter is received from one person who gives a fixed allowance and the usual perquisites, amounting in all to four rupees eight annas per month. The Bengali instruction is given in writing and agricultural accounts, and the Persian instruction in the reading of the Pandnameh, Gulistan, Bostan, &c. One of these schools has a separate school-house built by the patron. The scholars of the other assemble occasionally in the teacher’s house, occasionally at that of Rammohan Sandyal, and occasionally in that of Krishna Kumar Bhaduri, the two latter being respectable inhabitants of the village whose children attend the school.
The combined study of Persian and Bengali in these schools suggests the inquiry to what extent Persian is studied in this district for its own sake, and to what extent merely as the language of the courts. The Bengali language, with a larger proportion than in some other districts of what may be called aboriginal terms, i. e., words not derived from the Sanscrit or any other known language, is the language of the Musalman as well as of the Hindu population. Even educated Musalmans speak and write the Bengali; and even several low castes of Hindus occupying entire villages in various directions and amounting to several thousand individuals, whose ancestors three or four generations ago, according to the popular explanation, emigrated from the Western Provinces and settled in the district, have found it necessary to combine the use of the Bengali with the Hindi, their mother-tongue. The Bengali, therefore, may be justly described as the universal language of the district; and it might be supposed that those who wished to give their children a knowledge of letters and accounts would seek these advantages for them through the most direct and obvious medium—the language of the district—instead of having recourse to a foreign language, such as the Persian, in which instruction is less easily obtainable and rather higher priced. In these circumstances, the considerations that lead to the use of Persian appear to be of a complex character, partly connected with the importance attached to it by Musalmans, and partly with the importance given to it in the Company’s courts.
It has been already seen that in connection with the religious and social observances of the lowest classes of the Musalman population the formal reading of the Koran in the original language is deemed indispensable; and in like manner the acquisition of a real knowledge of the language of Islam and of the learning it contains is viewed amongst the educated as the highest attainment to which they can aspire. An endowed establishment exists at Kusbeh Bagha in which it is professed to be regularly taught; and in one Mahomedan family I found a maulavi employed for the express purpose of teaching the eldest son Arabic. Now Persian, at least in India, is the vestibule through which only access is gained to the temple of Arabic learning; and even those ​who do not go beyond the porch, by association, attach to the one some portion of the respect which strictly belongs only to the other. It would thus appear that the associations, literary and religious, that connect Persian with Arabic, come in aid of the more general cultivation of the former tongue by Musalmans. But Persian in itself has attractions to educated Musalmans. The language of conversation with them is the Urdu or Hindustani which acknowledges the Persian as its parent, and although the Urdu has a copious literature, that literature is chiefly poetical, and it is only from the Persian that educated Musalmans have hitherto derived that instruction in the knowledge of accounts, of epistolary communication, &c,, to which they attach the greatest importance. They teach it to their children, therefore, because it is really the most useful language to which they have access. The recollections belonging to this language still further endear it to Musalmans. It is the language of the former conquerors and rulers of Hindustan from whom they have directly or indirectly sprung, and the memory both of a proud ancestry and of a past dominion—the loyalty which attaches itself rather to religion and to race than to country—attract them to its cultivation. These motives, or motives akin to these, it seems probable induced Dost Mahomed Khan (No. 3), Karim Ali Shah (No. 166), and Musafir-ool-Islam at Kusbeh Bagha, to promote the study of Persian in this district. But even in these cases the importance given to the Persian language in the administration of justice and police and in the collection of the revenue, has had considerable influence; and in other cases, as in Nos. 40 and 100, that consideration has probably exclusive weight. In the two latter the sole or chief patrons of the schools are Hindu landholders or farmers who have no conceivable motive to teach this language to their children, except with a view to the use to which they may hereafter apply it in conducting suits in the Company’s courts, or in holding communications with public officers; unless we take further into account the superior respectability and aptness for business which those possess who have received a Persian education—an advantage, however, which is connected with the preference given to it in the courts. Some Hindu landholders and other respectable Natives have expressed to me a desire to have Persian instruction for their children, but they apparently had no other object than to qualify them to engage in the business of life, which, unhappily in their case, is for the most part identical with the business of the courts.
Upon the whole, apart from the courts, the Persian language has a very feeble hold upon this district, and it would not be difficult not merely to substitute English for it, but to make English much more popular. Some of the considerations by which Persian is recommended might be brought with much more force in favor of English, if it could be made more accessible, and the motives derived from other considerations which are in their ​nature untransferable are not such as should be encouraged and might be gradually made to lose their influence without doing any violence to popular feeling.
II. Elementary Domestic Instruction.—The number of families in which domestic instruction is given to the children is 1588. These families are found in 238 villages out of 485, the total number of villages in Nattore. I omitted to note at the commencement of the inquiry the number of children in each of these families, and I cannot, therefore, state with perfect accuracy the total number of children receiving domestic instruction; but after my attention had been attracted to this omission, I found that a very large majority had each only one child of a teachable age receiving instruction, a few had two, a still smaller number had three, and one or two instances were found in which four children of one family received domestic instruction. The number of families in which two or more children receive domestic instruction are comparatively so few that I cannot estimate the total average for each family at more than 11/2, which, in 1,588 families, will give 2,382 children who receive domestic instruction. It has before appeared that the number of children receiving elementary instruction in schools is 262; and the proportion of those who receive elementary instruction at home to those who receive it in schools is thus as 1,000 to 109.9.
It is not always the father who gives this instruction, but quite as often an uncle or an elder brother. In one village I found that the children of three families received elementary instruction from pujari Brahman under the following arrangement. As a pujari or family chaplain he receives one rupee a month with lodging, food, clothing, &c., from one of the three families, the head of which stipulates that he shall employ his leisure time in instructing the children of that and of the two other families. In some villages in which not a single individual could be found able either to read or write, I was notwithstanding assured that the children were not wholly without instruction, and when I asked who taught them, the answer was that the gomashta, in his periodical visits for the collection of his master’s rents, gives a few lessons to one or more of the children of the village.
The classes of society amongst which domestic elementary instruction is most prevalent deserve attention. Of the 1,588 families, 1,277 are Hindu, and 311 are Mahomedan; and assuming the average of each class to be the same, viz., 11/2 children in each family as already estimated, then the number of Hindu children will be 1,9151/2 and of Mahomedan children 4661/2, or in the proportion of 1,000 to 243.2. This proportion, with the proportion previously established between the entire population of the two classes, affords a measure of the comparative degree of cultivation which they respectively possess, the proportion of ​Musalmans to Hindus being about two to one, the proportion of Musalman to Hindu children receiving domestic instruction being rather less than one to four. This disproportion is explained by the fact already stated that a very large majority of the humblest grades of Native society in this district are composed of Musalmans, such as cultivators of the ground, day-laborers, fishermen, &c., who are regarded by themselves as well as by others, both in respect of condition and capacity, as quite beyond the reach of the simplest forms of literary instruction. You may as well talk to them of scaling the heavens as of instructing their children. In their present circumstances and with their present views, both would appear equally difficult and equally presumptuous. Those who give their children domestic instruction are zemindars, talukdars, and persons of some little substance; shop-keepers and traders possessing some enterprize and forecast in their callings; zemindars’ agents or factors (gomashtas) , and heads of villages (mandals), who know practically the advantage of writing and accounts; and sometimes persons of straitened resources, but respectable character, who have been in better circumstances, and wish to give their children the means of making their way in the world. Pundits, too, who intend that their children should pursue the study of Sanscrit begin by instructing them at home in the rudiments of their mother tongue; and Brahmans who have themselves gone through only a partial course of Sanscrit reading, seek to qualify their children by such instruction as they can give for the office and duties of a family priest or spiritual guide.
The instruction given in families is still more limited and imperfect than that which is given in schools. In some cases I found that it did not extend beyond the writing of the letters of the alphabet, in others the writing of words. Pundits and priests, unless when there is some landed property in the family, confine the Bengali instruction they give their children to writing and reading, addition and subtraction, with scarcely any of the applications of numbers to agricultural and commercial affairs. Farmers and traders naturally limit their instructions to what they best know, and what is to them and their children of greatest direct utility, the calculations and measurements peculiar to their immediate occupations. The parents with whom I have conversed on the subject do not attach the same value to the domestic instruction their children receive which they ascribe to the instruction of a professional school-master, both because in their opinion such instruction would be more regular and systematic, and because the teacher would probably be better qualified.
It thus appears that, in addition to the elementary instruction given in regular schools, there is a sort of traditionary knowledge of written language and accounts preserved in families from father to son and from generation to generation. This domestic ​elementary instruction is much more in use than scholastic elementary instruction, and yet it is not so highly valued as the latter. The reasons why the less esteemed form of elementary instruction is more common cannot in all cases be accurately ascertained. The inaptitude to combination for purposes of common interest sometimes alleged against the Natives might be suggested; but the truth is that they do often club together, sometimes to establish and support schools, and sometimes to defray the expenses of religious celebrations, dances, and plays. In those cases in which scholastic instruction would be preferred by the parents, and I believe such cases to be numerous, poverty is the only reason that can be assigned; and in other instances, as of the zemindar and the Brahman Pundit, the pride of rank and station in the one case, and of birth and learning in the other, acting also upon circumscribed means, may prevent the respective parties from looking beyond their own thresholds for the instruction which their children need. Inability to pay for school instruction I believe to be by far the most prevalent reason, and this is confirmed by the fact that in at least six villages that I visited, I was told that there had been recently Bengali schools which were discontinued, because the masters could not gain a livelihood, or because they found something more profitable to do elsewhere. The case of the Dharail school shows the difficulty with which a small income is made up to a school-master by the community of a village. From all I could learn and observe, I am led to infer that in this district elementary instruction is on the decline and has been for some time past decaying. The domestic instruction which many give to their children in elementary knowledge would seem to be an indication of the struggle which the ancient habits and the practical sense of the people are making against their present depressed circumstances.