# Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Letter to Lord Bentinck

MR. ADAM’S LETTER
TO
LORD W. BENTINCK,
ON
VERNACULAR EDUCATION.
From W. Adam, Esquire, to the Right Hon’ble Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, K. C. B., G. C. H., Governor General of India,—Dated the 2nd January 1835.
My Lord,—At your Lordship’s request, I have the honor to address you in writing on the subject to which my recent personal communications with your Lordship have had principal reference. Having submitted a proposal to institute an investigation into the actual state of education in this country, with a view to ulterior measures for its extension and improvement, and the object of that proposal being approved by your Lordship, I have been instructed to describe the mode in which the plan might be carried into effect, and to furnish an estimate of the monthly expense that would thereby be incurred. A brief reference to the considerations that recommend the design is requisite to render those details intelligible.
2. It is assumed that Government is desirous of encouraging education amongst all classes of its subjects, whether Christians, Mahomedans, or Hindoos, as a means of improving their condition by a better knowledge of the arts of life that minister to human wants; of purifying and elevating their character by moral and intellectual instruction; and of qualifying them at once to appreciate the benevolent intentions and salutary measures of Government, and to give to those measures the moral force derived from the support of an intelligent and instructed population. ​Without this moral force, which education only can create, Government, however benevolently administered, is but the will of the strongest which finds no response where physical power does not reach, and legislation, however wisely devised, is but a dead letter, which reposes in the statute book, is barely enforced in the Courts, and out of them is inert and unknown.
3. The object of investigation.Such being the understood objects of Government in promoting education in this country, the question arises—“What are the best means to be employed for that purpose?” Without disputing any of the answers that have been or may be returned to this question, I have ventured to suggest that a preliminary inquiry without which every scheme must want a foundation to rest upon is—“What is the actual state of education amongst the various classes into which the population of the country is divided?” When the population of a country is homogeneous, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, and having common interests, such an investigation might be the less necessary; but where the more instructed portion of the population is separated from the less instructed portion by difference of language, as in Scotland; by difference of language and religion, as in Ireland; and by the further difference, as in India, caused by the relative position of foreigners and natives, conquerors and conquered, it is indispensable. In such cases it is only by a careful attempt to map the moral and intellectual condition of a people that we can understand either the extent of their knowledge or of their ignorance, discover either what they possess or what they need, and adapt the means employed to the end we desire to accomplish. In a recent investigation into the state of education in the Highlands of Scotland, it was proved that thousands could not read, natives of a country where it had been proudly boasted that all were educated. A similar investigation into the state of education in India may perhaps show, not that the people are less, but that they are more, instructed than we suppose, and that ​they have institutions among them both for the purposes of common education and for the propagation or rather preservation of the learning they possess. The institutions to which I refer will probably be found defective in their organization, narrow and contracted in their aim, and destitute of any principle of extension and improvement; but of their existence the large body of literature in the country, the large body of learned men who hand it down from age to age, and the large proportion of the population that can read and write, are proofs. Of course, I do not mean to intimate that their existence has been hitherto unknown, but that their number, their efficiency, their resources and the possibility of employing them as auxiliaries in the promotion of education have not been sufficiently considered.
4. To whatever extent such institutions may exist, and in whatever condition they may be found, stationary, advancing, or retrograding, they present the only true and sure foundations on which any scheme of general or national education can be established. We may deepen and extend the foundations, we may improve, enlarge and beautify the superstructure, but these are the foundations on which the building should be raised. All men, particularly uninstructed and half-instructed men, attach the same importance to forms as to substance, and as forms are merely conventional, it is desirable in the work of reform to disembarrass ourselves of opposition founded on the overthrow of ancient forms, and to enlist on our side the prepossessions in favor of their continued use. Besides, there is a probability that those forms, if not at the period of their original adoption, yet by long continued usage are suited to the manners, habits, and general character of the people whom we desire to benefit, and that any other forms which we might seek to establish would in reality be less fitted to supply their place. All schemes for the improvement of education, therefore, to be efficient and permanent, should be based upon the existing institutions of the country, transmitted from time immemorial, familiar to the conceptions of the people, and inspiring them with ​respect and veneration. To labor successfully for them, we must labor with them; and to labor successfully with them, we must get them to labor willingly and intelligently with us. We must make them, in short, the instruments of their own improvement; and how can this be done but by identifying ourselves and our improvements with them and their institutions? To do this, we must first ascertain what those institutions are, their actual condition, and every circumstance connected with them that can be made to contribute to the object in view. To make this important preliminary inquiry is the service for which I have offered myself to your Lordship.
5. Mode of investigation.In obedience to your Lordship's orders, I have now to state the manner in which I would propose that this service should be performed. There are two descriptions of places with regard to which a somewhat different mode of investigation will be necessary, viz., first, principal towns or seats of learning, as Calcutta, Nuddea, Dacca, Moorshedabad; secondly, districts, as Jessore, Midnapore and Purneah.
6. With regard to the former—Taking up my residence at one of the principal towns or seats of learning, I would, with the aid of my Pundit and Moulavee and by friendly communication with the respectable inhabitants and learned men of the place, make an enumeration or list of the various institutions for the promotion of education; classify them according to the denominations of which they may consist, whether Hindoos, Mahomedans, or Christians; public, private, charitable; examine each institution of each class with the consent of the parties concerned, and make a memorandum on the spot of the number of the pupils; the nature and extent of the course of instruction in science and learning, the resources of the institution, whether public or private; if public, whether they appear to be efficiently and legitimately applied, the estimation in which the institution is held by the community to which it belongs, and the possibility or means of raising the character and ​enlarging the usefulness of any single institution, or of a whole class. Having exhausted the institutions of one class, I would proceed to another, and from that to a third, repeating the same process in each, until I had obtained a complete knowledge of the state of education in the whole town and neighbourhood. The memoranda thus taken down on the spot and at the instant, the fruits of personal knowledge and direct observation, would supply the materials from which a full and methodical report would be furnished to Government.
7. A somewhat different mode must be employed in investigating the state of education in a district where common schools and schools of learning are indiscriminately scattered over a large surface. In that case, fixing my principal residence at the head station of the zillah, I would diverge from it in all directions to the extreme bounds of the district, passing one, two, three, or more days at one place, according as objects of investigation of the kind connected with my immediate duty presented themselves, entering freely into communication with parents, teachers, and pundits on that subject, examining schools, both common and learned, and, as in the former ease, making my memoranda at the time for future guidance in preparing a report. After having completed the range of one district, I would proceed to another, until I had in this manner gone over the whole country assigned to my investigation.
8. The number and frequency of my reports must depend upon the greater or less abundance of the materials with which observation and inquiry may supply me. I should commence my labors with the purpose of furnishing a separate report on the state of education in each principal town and in each district as soon as it has been examined, for there may be circumstances connected with the state of education in the town or district demanding early attention either for the purpose of remedying what is evil, or encouraging what is good. It is also possible, however, that one district may be so entirely a picture of another, with reference to this particular subject, ​that a separate report for each will be unnecessary. When I shall have gone the tour of a province, as of Bengal, Behar, Allahabad, or Agra, it would seem proper that I should then furnish a general report, condensing the details of the previous district reports, confirming and amplifying or qualifying and correcting the statements and opinions they contain by the results of more comprehensive observation, and drawing those general conclusions which can be safely grounded only on an extensive induction of particulars. A general report upon school books and books of instruction, or a separate report upon those in each language, distinguishing those that are most useful, pointing out when labor and money have been misapplied, to prevent a recurrence of the same evil, and indicating the department of knowledge in which chiefly defects remain to be supplied, is also a desideratum.
9. It will be for your Lordship to determine the limits as to space and time within which this investigation is to be conducted. It may either be limited to the provinces of Bengal, Behar, and the two districts of Midnapore and Cuttack in Orissa subject to the Presidency of Fort William, or, according to the pleasure of your Lordship and the Home Authorities, it may be extended to the provinces subject to the Presidency of Agra. 7 The moral and intellectual condition of the latter is less fully and less accurately known than even that of the former. If experience shall show that the information collected regarding the Bengal and Agra Presidencies is useful, the enquiry might be extended to the other Presidencies. With regard to time, I have no other data to guide me than those which are afforded by the fact that Dr. Francis Buchanan was appointed by the Government of the Marquis Wellesley to investigate the agricultural and commercial statistics of the provinces then subject to the Presidency of Fort William, and that, according to my information, he employed the years 1805, 1806, and 1807 in his re-searches. Considering the necessity and importance of care in authenticating, and deliberation in reporting, facts on the subject of education in this country; the difficulties which may ​be reckoned on in every new attempt; and the impossibility of travelling during the height of the rains in the plains of Bengal; I do not anticipate that less time will be occupied in my inquiries, if they are directed to be extended over the same space.
10. Estimate of expense.I have next to furnish an estimate of the expense that will be incurred in carrying this design into effect. Since your Lordship has required me to include in this estimate the sum requisite for my personal remuneration, which I should have gladly left entirely to your Lordship’s decision, I trust my suggestion on this head will be viewed with indulgence. I do not offer to engage in this undertaking merely for the sake of a livelihood, but support and provision for my family is one of the objects to which it is my duty to look, and when I mention to your Lordship that for the last six years I have had a net salary of Rupees 700 per month, for the discharge of what certainly were laborious but quiet and sedentary duties, your Lordship will probably not think me unreasonable if I propose the same monthly sum as my personal remuneration for duties still more laborious, since they will exact both much bodily toil and considerable mental activity. If your Lordship, considering the importance of the duties to be discharged, and the responsibility of the agent to be employed, that I am offering to the use of Government the knowledge and experience of mature age and the results of 17 years’ residence and studies in India, that I shall devote my undivided attention to the duty with which I may be charged—and that I ask and expect no pension and have no other resource whatever; if, considering these things, your Lordship should think the sum I have mentioned too low for my personal remuneration, I shall be thankful for any addition which your Lordship may deem proper.
11. The other principal items in the estimate consist of the establishment I must maintain and my travelling expenses. Finding it difficult to fix these in my own case, I sought to ascertain from the Civil ​Auditor’s Office the amount of Dr. Buchanan’s allowances, and I have learned that a sum of 440 Sicca Rupees was allowed him for establishment alone. This for me is unnecessarily large, and I have reduced it to the following scale:—
| One Maulavi | . . . | Sa. Rupees | 60 |
| One learned Brahmun | . . . | Sa. Rupees„ | 50 |
| One Writer or Copyist | . . . | Sa. Rupees„ | 40 |
| One Duftry at 8, Stationery 32 | . . . | Sa. Rupees„ | 40 |
| Two Hurkarus, at 6 | . . . | Sa. Rupees„ | 12 |
| Two Burkundazes, at 8 | . . . | Sa. Rupees„ | 16 |
| | . . . | Total Sa. Rupees | 218 |
I have not ascertained what were Dr. Buchanan’s travelling expenses, but it is probable that they were included in his personal allowance, which was Sicca Rupees 1,500 per month. Estimating my travelling expenses separately, and including under that item boat hire, palkee and palkee-bearers, tent and khalasees, extra pay to personal servants, and small presents for the encouragement of deserving teachers and students, I do not suppose that the whole can be less than 200 Rupees per month. I should apprehend that my travelling expenses during eight or nine months of the year will rather exceed than fall short of that sum; but on the other hand, although I shall be frequently, I shall not be always, on the move, and the saving at one time will balance the deficit at another. In regard both to establishment and travelling expenses, I avow that I write in considerable uncertainty of what is really necessary for the efficient performance of the service, and it is quite as probable that in some respects I may have over-rated as in others that I have under-rated the expense; but I trust your Lordship will be satisfied that, upon the whole, I have kept within moderate limits. According to this estimate the total monthly expense, consisting of personal allowance, establishment, and travelling expenses, will be Sicca Rupees 1,118 per month. I submit the whole to the correction which your Lordship’s better information may supply, and have the ​honor to be your Lordship’s most obedient and most humble servant.
W. ADAM.
P. S.—Since writing paragraph 9, I have had reason to believe that there is some mistake in the particular years assigned to Dr. Buchanan’s survey, which did not end but commenced in 1807.
W. A.
Minute by His Excellency the Governor General, dated Calcutta, the 20th January 1805.
As it now seems an universally admitted axiom that education and the knowledge to be imparted by it can alone effect the moral regeneration of India, nothing need be said in support of this principle. Nor will it be necessary here to advert to the various questions connected with education, which at present occupy the public mind, as to the particular languages to be cultivated, and to be adopted in the transaction of public business, or upon the various other subjects connected with public instruction, because all these questions will, I presume, at a very early period, come before Council from the General Education Committee.
But there is one very material fact still wanting to be known, the actual state of Native education, that is, of that which is carried on, as it probably has been for centuries, entirely under Native management. This information, which Government ought at any rate to possess, regards a most important part of the statistics of India. A true estimate of the Native mind and capacity cannot well be formed without it. But at this time, when the establishment of education upon the largest and most useful basis is become the object of universal solicitude, it is essential to ascertain, in the first instance, the number and descriptions of the Schools and Colleges in the Mofussil; the extent to which instruction is carried; the knowledge and sciences taught in them; the means by which they are supported, with all the particulars relating to their original foundation; and their past and present prosperity. The same enquiry will point out the dreary space, if any, where the human mind is abandoned to entire neglect. I think it very likely that the interference of Government with education, as with most of the other Native Institutions with which we have too often so mischievously meddled, might do much more harm than good. Still it behoves us to have the whole case before us, because ​it is possible that the aid of Government, if interference be carefully excluded, might be very usefully applied, and very gratefully received, and a still more important end might be attainable, of making their institutions subsidiary and conducive to any improved general system, which it may be hereafter thought proper to establish.
While writing this paper, there has passed, in circulation, a letter from the Government of Fort St. George, transmitting a report from the Board of Public Instruction at that Presidency, upon the present state of the Government Schools.
I collect from this document, that in 1823 there existed in the Madras Territories no less than 12,498 institutions for education, supported partly by the endowment of Native Princes, but chiefly by the voluntary contributions of the people. In addition to these, the Government of Madras have established 14 Collectorate and 67 Tehsildaree Schools. The annual expense is stated to be Rupees 24,920. I do not know when the Government introduced this measure; but if it took place in, 1823, as I conjecture, a sum, amounting to between twenty and thirty thousand pounds, seems to have been very needlessly expended.
The report describes these Government Schools to have been a failure, owing, in great measure, to the inefficiency of the teachers, in consequence of their being badly paid and badly selected; to the want of a due superintendence on the part of the local functionaries, under whom they were placed; and, as is said in paragraph 10, to errors in their original formation. A reform is proposed, in which will be found many judicious suggestions, the principal of which and one the best entitled to attention is the improving and strengthening the Central Presidency Institution. With respect to the Collectorate and Tehsildaree Schools, it appears to me that more has been attempted than was practicable, and that it would have been much better to have established a few good ​institutions, with well-appointed teachers of every kind, confined perhaps to the six great divisions into which the Madras Presidency is formed, where instruction of a superior order might have been obtained, and to which Natives of all ranks and classes would have gladly had recourse, as in the case of the Hindoo College, for the higher education which is there afforded.
From these would have naturally gone forth Teachers of the best kinds in all languages and sciences, and, without any further effort on the part of the Government, true knowledge must have gradually made its way.
It is not my intention to make any proposition in relation to this Report, because it will be, of course, transmitted to the General Education Committee for their remarks and suggestions.
Upon the expediency of possessing the existing state of instruction throughout our territories, there cannot, I think, be a doubt; and the point for consideration seems to be as to the mode of obtaining it, whether by calling upon the local functionaries for a report of all institutions within their districts, or to employ, as in England, a special deputation for the purpose. The first mode would be attended with no expense, but we could not expect from it that fullness of information and accuracy of detail which could lead to any safe conclusion or practical result.
​I am of opinion, however, that by a deputation can the object be alone accomplished. There happens to be an individual, peculiarly qualified for this undertaking, Mr. Adam. This gentleman came to India seventeen years ago as a Missionary, and has latterly been the Editor of the India Gazette. With considerable ability he possesses great industry and a high character for integrity. His knowledge of the languages, and his habits of intercourse with the Natives, give him peculiar advantages for such an enquiry. The paper which he drew up at my request will better show than anything I can say the correct views with which he is disposed to undertake such a commission, and the remuneration he proposes appears within reasonable limits. His report upon any one zillah or section of the territory would enable the Government at once to determine whether the task was well executed, and the information obtained worth the charge incurred for it. I should think that two or perhaps three years would more than complete the enquiry, because, the net-work of the institutions of one or more zillahs being ascertained, it is probable that there would be found so much similarity in the general outline as not to make necessary a particular enquiry into the details of every zillah, and the Commissioner, being always in communication with the local Officers, need after a period confine his examination to those institutions which might be remarkable for some peculiar distinction.
If the Council agree in this recommendation, I would propose that Mr. W. Adam be selected for this duty, with a consolidated allowance of Rupees 1,000 for all expenses, with the exception of travelling charges, for which he should make a separate bill upon honor.
W. BENTINCK.
I concur entirely in the above proposition.
H. BLUNT. A. ROSS. W. MORISON.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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