# Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 1/Section 4

SECTION IV.
The District of Hugly.
Population.—This district is comparatively of recent creation, being composed of sections from Burdwan, Midnapore, and other adjacent districts. A large proportion of the surface of this district is still in a state of nature. Gang-robbery and river-piracy were at a comparatively recent period prevalent in it, and the number of widows who sacrificed themselves on the funeral piles of their husbands was here always remarkably great. The inhabitants have the repute of being better acquainted with the existing laws of the country than those of most other districts. In 1801, the total number of inhabitants was estimated at 1,000,000, in the proportion of three Hindoos to one Mahomedan.
Indigenous Elementary Schools.—On the state of Native education in this district I derive many details from the records of the General Committee of Public Instruction, in some respects confirming and in others modifying the general view already given of the system of indigenous schools, both elementary and learned.
The indigenous elementary schools amongst Hindoos in this district are numerous, and they are divisible into two classes; first those which derive their principal support from the patronage of a single wealthy family; and secondly, those which are destitute of such special patronage, and are dependent upon the general support of the Native community in the town or village in which they are established. The former are the most numerous, there being scarcely a village without one or more of them. The primary object is the education of the children of the opulent Hindoos by whom they are chiefly supported; but as the teacher seldom receives more than three rupees a month from that source, he is allowed to collect from the neighborhood as many additional pupils as he can obtain or conveniently manage. These pay him at the rate of two to eight annas per month, in addition to which each pupil gives him such a quantity of rice, pulse, oil, salt, and vegetables at the end of each month as will suffice for one day’s ​maintenance. Sometimes the teacher, in addition to the salary he receives, is fed and clothed by his patron. Such schools have seldom any house built or exclusively appropriated for the use of the teacher and his pupils. The second class of schools is not so numerous as the former, but they afford a better maintenance to the teacher. In general the pupils pay him from four to eight annas per month while they write upon leaves, and from eight annas to one rupee, according to their means, when they write upon paper; in addition to which he also receives one day’s maintenance per month from each pupil. Another perquisite of the teacher is a piece of cloth from each scholar on promotion to a higher class, but this is not one of the conditions of admission, and depends upon the liberality of the parents. The number of scholars in each school of either description averages 30, some schools in populous towns having more, and others in small villages having less. The teachers are either Brahmans or Sudras. If the former are respectable and learned, they gain a comfortable subsistence; but the majority of them do not take sufficient pains to write a neat hand, and they have in general only a superficial acquaintance with arithmetic and accounts. Books are not in use in this class of elementary schools. The instruction comprises writing on the palm-leaf and on Bengalee paper, and arithmetic. As soon as the scholar is able to write a tolerable hand and has acquired some knowledge of accounts, he in general leaves school. In this district they enter school usually at the age of six and remain four or five years.
The indigenous elementary schools amongst Musalmans are for the most part private places of instruction to which a few select pupils are admitted, and the teachers being either in independent circumstances or in the employment of Government, give their instructions gratuitously. Admission is often refused and is always obtained with difficulty, and the instruction given to the favored candidates is very imperfect and desultory. At Pundua, a place formerly of some celebrity in the district, it is said to have been the practice of the Musalman land proprietors to entertain teachers at their own private cost for the benefit of the children of the poor in their neighborhood, and it was a rare thing to find an opulent farmer or head of a village who had not a teacher in his employment for that purpose. That class, however, is alleged to have dwindled away and scarcely any such schools are now found to exist.
Indigenous Schools of Learning.—The number of Hindoo schools of learning in this district is considerable. Mr. Ward in 1818 stated that at Vansvariya, a village not far from the town of Hugly, there were twelve or fourteen colleges, in all of which logic was almost exclusively studied. There were then also seven or eight in the town of Triveni, one of which had been lately taught by Jugannath Tarka Panchanan, supposed to be the most ​learned as well as the oldest man in Bengal, being 109 years old at the time of his death. He was acquainted in some measure with the veda and is said to have studied the vedanta, the sankhya, the patanjala, the nyaya, the smriti, the tantra, kavya, the pooranas and other shastras. Mr. Ward also mentions that Gundulpara and Bhudreshwuru contained each about ten nyaya schools, and Valee two or three,—all villages in this district. Hamilton states that in 1801 there were altogether about 150 private schools in which the principles of Hindoo law were taught by Pundits, each school containing from five to twenty scholars. There is no reason to suppose that the number of schools is now less, and the enquiries made in 1824 showed that there were some schools with thirty scholars. According to the reputation of the teacher is the number of the students, and in proportion to the number of the students is the number of invitations and the liberality of the gifts which the teacher receives on the occasion of the performance of important religious ceremonies in Hindoo families. The number of students has thus a double pecuniary operation. As they always derive a part of their subsistence from the teacher, they are a burden upon his means; and by the increased reputation which they confer upon him, they enable him to support that burden. Sometimes, however, students capable of living on their own means return home after school hours; and in other instances, the more wealthy inhabitants of the town or village are found to contribute towards the support of poor students whom the teacher cannot maintain. The first three or four years are occupied in the study of Sanscrit grammar, and the next six or eight years in the study of law and logic, with which the generality of students finish their education, and are thenceforth classed among learned men, receiving from the teacher when they are leaving him an honorary title which they retain for life.
There are few Mahomedan schools of learning in this district. Omitting reference to that at Hugly, supported by the endowment of Haji Mohammed Mohsin, under the orders of the Board of Revenue, and about to be extended and improved under the superintendence of the General Committee of Public Instruction, I find mention made of only one other existing at Seetapore, a populous town, situated 22 miles in the interior of the district. It was originally supported by a grant of five rupees eight annas per diem, made by the English Government in consideration of the faithful services of Umsih-ood-din the founder. After his death, and in consequence of divisions among the surviving members of his family, who it seems had claim to a part of the grant for their maintenance, it was limited to Rupees 50 per month, which, as far as my information extends, it continues to derive from Government to the present day. According to Hamilton, in 1801, this college had 30 students who were instructed in Persian and Arabic, and according to the report made to the General ​Committee in 1824, it had 25 students who were taught only Persian. This institution does not appear ever to have come under the supervision of the Committee or of any public officer. The report of 1824 further alleges the existence of certain lands at Pundua in this district, which should be appropriated to the support of madrasas, but which have been diverted from that purpose. It is stated to be a well known fact that grants were made to the ancestors of the late Mola Mir Gholam Hyder Mutawali, attached to the shrine of Shah Sufi-ud-din Khan Shuhid at Pundua, together with Mola Myn-ud-din or Mola Taj-ud-din and Mir Gholam Mustafa, private persons who had no share in the superintendence. The grants are said to have specified certain villages or tracts of land to be exclusively appropriated to the support of three madrasas, in addition to those granted for the personal benefit of the grantees. The madrasas were kept up for a generation or two, but through carelessness or avarice were afterwards discontinued. It is added that there were persons then living so well acquainted with the circumstances as to be able to point out the estates that were specified in the grants for the support of the madrasas. The Collector, in the letter enclosing the report, intimated his intention to investigate the matter, and in the event of the alleged misappropriation being substantiated, to pursue the course directed in Regulation XIX. of 1810. The result of the enquiry I have not been able to learn.
Elementary Schools not Indigenous.—Mr. Robert May, a Christian Missionary, in 1814, established a school in Chinsura on the Lancasterian plan patronised by Mr. Gordon Forbes, the British Commissioner at Chinsura; and in 1814-15 he established other schools in and about the settlement of Chinsura to the number of sixteen, with an average attendance of 951 scholars. In the last mentioned year these schools were brought to the favorable notice of Government, and a monthly allowance of 600 Rupees, afterwards increased to 800, was granted to enable Mr. May to support and extend the system he had introduced. In 1818, when he died, he had thirty-six schools under his superintendence, attended by above 3,000 Natives, both Hindoos and Mahomedans. In the account of these schools during Mr. May’s management, it is stated that in 1816 he established a school for teachers, but in 1817 the attempt to rear teachers was abandoned altogether, as it was found that few or none of the boys were able or disposed to discharge the duties of instructors when required. Towards the end of the year 1815, Mr. May’s schools excited a rivalry among the Natives, some of whom are said to have formed similar establishments without impeding the success of those conducted by Mr. May. All the opposition that the schools received arose, not from feelings of general repugnance, but of individual interest. The old school-masters finding ​that they could not hope to prosper while the villagers could get their boys instructed without cost in the Company’s schools, were very excusably hostile to the new establishments and endeavored to obstruct or prevent them. Thus, in the only instance in which a school was violently broken up, it was done by the zemindar at the instigation of the old teacher. Mr. May at one time contemplated the probability that, when the Natives were fully convinced of the utility of the plan of education which he had established, some means might be adopted whereby every village might entirely, or at least partly, support its own school. No attempt, however, certainly no successful attempt of this kind, appears to have been made. It is doubtful also whether the rivalry which is alleged to have been excited among the Natives led to the formation of schools similar to those of Mr. May; for I find it expressly stated in a report on the Chinsura schools made in 1823, that the only independent school that had grown out of the Chinsura schools was one founded by the Rajah of Burdwan and placed under the control of Mr. May’s successor. After Mr. May’s death the number of schools and scholars was reduced; but subsequently in 1821-22, in the reduced number of schools nearly an equal number of scholars attended. In 1824 the Chinsura schools were placed under the superintendence of the General Committee, when they were again apparently in a declining state, in consequence of which some of the members of the Committee in 1827 expressed doubts as to the utility and expediency of maintaining them. They were, however, continued some time longer, but have recently been entirely abandoned by the General Committee. An offer was made to the Calcutta Diocesan Committee of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to transfer the buildings and existing materials of such of the schools as that Committee should agree to continue, and an occasional supply of books being also guaranteed by the Committee of Public Instruction, it has been judged advisable by the Diocesan Committee to undertake the maintenance of tbe six most central among them, which appear most eligible from their locality and the numbers in attendance. The advantages resulting from the Chinsura schools do not appear to be highly estimated. The system adopted was in principle the Native one, the practice being modified according to that of Dr. Bell. The difference between Mr. May’s system and that of the Native schools is stated to be that in the latter the boys are taught chiefly by the ear, and in the former they were taught more by the eye. The number of boys under one teacher amounted in some cases to 120, and in all he was assisted by the monitors, the ablest boys being employed to teach the rest. The teachers at first received five rupees for 40 scholars and one rupee for every 20 more; and afterwards they were all allowed one rupee for every 10 scholars or ten rupees for 100, which equalled ​the amount usually gained by independent school-masters who receive from ten to twenty rupees a month for 103 or 150 boys. One case is mentioned where the teacher earned from thirty to forty rupees a month, his school containing 300 boys. In 1817, the practice was adopted of attaching a Pundit as a superintendent to every three schools, and they were all under one head Pundit. The introduction of printed books of an entertaining and instructive kind and the possible generation of some small taste for reading, seem to be the chief benefits that can have resulted from the establishment of the Chinsura schools. The system of instruction in the six schools retained by the Diocesan Committee will probably be the same as that pursued in the other schools already noticed of the same Committee.
A School Society exists at Chinsura, apparently in connection with the Bengal Auxiliary Missionary Society, whose report states that there are three schools for boys at that place having about 300 scholars in attendance. The progress of the boys is said to be very pleasing, but I have not met with any other details respecting them, as the Chinsura School Society does not appear to publish separate reports of its proceedings.
Native Female Schools.—The first attempt in Bengal, and I suppose in India, to instruct Native girls in an organised school was made by Mr. May in this district in 1818. In that year he opened a girls’ school, I believe, at Chinsura, but it offered so little prospect of success, that its continuance was discountenanced by Government.
There appears to have been formerly a Bengalee female school at Hugly, which has recently been removed to Chinsura. The number in attendance is from 21 to 25, and it is said to afford more encouragement to perseverance than any female school previously established at that station. This probably refers to the unsuccessful attempt in 1818 by Mr. May. The expense of the present school is said to be considerable, but it cannot be reduced without injury to its efficiency. Perfect confidence is not expressed as to the result. Time only, it is said, will prove whether the benefit will eventually be adequate to the sacrifice. This school appears to be in connection with the Chinsura School Society and thereby with the Bengal Auxiliary Missionary Society.
Native female schools were begun by the Serampore Missionaries at that settlement in 1823, and there are now two in operation, one called the central school containing 138 girls, and a second called the Christian village school containing 14. After being able to read, the children are exercised in the catechism and in writing on palm-leaves, and read the child’s first book, conversations between a mother and daughter, the history of the Bible, and Æsop’s fables in Bengalee. They are next taught to write in copy-books, and read the New and Old Testaments, the Indian youth’s magazine and Pearson’s geography. They are also made ​familiar with the tables of Bengalee arithmetic. Nothing is learned by rote. Recently young Christian widows, who were themselves educated in the Missionary schools, have been employed as teachers. More than half the girls of the central school are composed of very young children, affording excellent materials for an infant school.