Progress of Education in Navsari Taluka
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Progress of Education in Navsari Taluka K. M. Kapadia Navsari is a town with a population of 44, 663 according to the Census of 1951. It is a small town with all urban amenities. There are 11 Primary schools, two Anglo-Vernacular schools, six High schools, of which two are specially for girls, a college with units for Arts and Science courses and a Technical school. There are four libraries—two of them having more than ten thousand books each. Three cinema houses cater for public entertainment. There are two public hospitals, one of them being run by the Government, and five private ones, of which two are for eyes and three for general surgery. Two of the latter are equipped with X-ray apparatus. There are two public maternity hospitals, one for the Parsis and the other for the Hindus, besides three private maternity homes. Since 1923, electricity is available for the most part of the day for lighting and sundry industrial activities which require electrical power. Water supply was introduced in January 1929 and underground drainage was completed by 1934-35. There are five banks including a Land Mortgage Bank which started functioning in 1938. The town has two textile mills, one established in 1932 and the other in 1938. They provide employment to about three thousand workers. There are a 'metal works, ' two bobbin factories, two saw mills and about twenty small industrial concerns. Before the merger of States, Navsari was the district headquarter of Navsari division (prant). It was also the taluka headquarter of Navsari taluka, comprising 78 villages. After the merger of Baroda State with Bombay State, Jalalpore taluka of Surat district was merged with the old Navsari taluka and consequently the present enlarged taluka comprises 145 villages spread out on all its four sides. The nearest ones are at a distance of one mile, the farthest about fifteen miles away. Since the thirties, bus routes connect a very large number of these villages with the town. A study of rural-urban relations in this taluka is a fascinating one; and the present paper seeks to analyse one aspect of it, namely the realm of education. 17 On the initiative of some of the Parsis of Navsari living in Bombay, a school for Parsi boys and girls was opened in Navsari in Mota Falia on October 6, 1856. It was named Navsari Zarthosti Madresa. The beginning of primary education for Parsi children in Navsari had been made by Sir Jamsetji Jejeebhoy (1st Bart. ) about three ears before (in 1853) by opening two primary schools in Malesar; one for the Parsi boys and the other for Parsi girls. The Madresa besides providing primary education up to the standard fourth to children of Mota Falia, imparted instructions in English up to the third grade. The Madresa differed from the earlier primary schools in its aims and scope. As its very name suggests, instruction in the Zoroastrian religion was one of its primary aims. "That in this Madresa education of all grades and denomination be imparted to the sons of the Zoroastrian community, especially in English, Gujaratee, Zend Avesta, Phelvi, and Persian; and that instruction in the Zoroastrian Religion ought also to be given. " The Madresa authorities not merely emphasized religious instruction as a part of the Madresa curriculum but they even desired and instructed that the lessons for which material was drawn from other religions like Christianity or Islam should not be taught to the Parsi students. Orthodox and conservative as the Parsis were, they wanted their children to know only their own religion and to live it. The Parsis in Bombay had realized the importance of English and they wanted the children of the community to avail themselves of the opportunities the knowledge of English opened up. They consequently founded the institution that would help achieve this end while concentrating itself on the religious, educational and physical development of the Parsi community. The Parsis in Navsari do not, however, appear to be prepared for English education. As the reports of the Madresa Committee for the years 1886 (p. 16) and 1892-94 (p. 32) reveal, "people got immeasurably flared up with the very name of English education.... Attempts were made in the initial stages to stem the progress of the Madresa. " There were four classes in Gujarati section and three in English. Subjects in the two higher classes were taught in English. The initial strength of the Madresa was 75 which increased in the very next year to 219, of whom 158 were in Gujarati section and 61 in English section. There were 29 boys in Gujarati section between the ages of four and seven and 38 in English section in the age group of 10— 15. 18 Owing to the insufficiency of funds the Madresa Committee introduced on August 1, 1862 a monthly fee of annas eight in the English classes; of annas four for the boys above the age of ten and of annas two for the boys of lower age in the Gujarati classes for the children of such parents as were in a position to pay. This measure of the Committee was resented and 36 students were withdrawn from the Madresa as a mark of protest. Cowasji Jehangir thereupon do- nated Rs. 10, 000 to the Madresa authorising it to withdraw from this donation such amount as it would have collected from the fees enabling it thereby to give education free. He however authorised the Committee to reintroduce the fees if in their discretion they found it necessary in the interest of the Madresa. Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney donated Rs. 25, 000 to the Madresa in 1863, and in appreciation of this magnanimous donation, the Madresa was named after him. On Cowasji becoming a Baronet, the Madresa was renamed as Sir Cowasji Jehangir Navsari Zarthosti Madresa on April 14, 1877. It is a happy coincidence that not only the name of the Madresa but its entire character had changed in this year. It is the first milestone in the history of the present Madresa. But before coming to this momentous change in the history of the Madresa, certain developments that took place in the field of education in the town in the meantime need be recorded. Although the Madresa imparted education to both the boys and the girls, Dosabhai Faramji Camaji, on recommendation of Sorabji Shapoorji Bengali, opened a school for four Vernacular standards for Parsi girls in February 1858. The supervision of the School was entrusted to S. F. Vajifdar, the headmaster of the Madresa. The initial strength of the School was 59 which increased to 80 in the first three years of its working. The expenses of the School were initially borne by Camaji and Bengali and later on, from 1866 to 1872, by Nasarwanji Ratanji Tata. On October 8, 1872, Tata donated Rs. 7, 000 from the estate of his sister, Bai Navajbai, deceased on that day, to open a school in Navsari to impart religious instruction to Parsi girls and the School was named after her as Bai Navajbai Tata Zarthosti Girls' School. Further, in a trust-deed executed by him in 1872, Tata assigned to the School a fair contribution of the income earmarked for charitable works. On his death, his son, Jamshedji Nasarwanji Tata, donated Rs. 5, 000 to augment the School's fund. Nasarwanji Tata had also donated Rs. 20, 000 for the construction of a building to house the School and Zend Avesta Madresa. 19 The building was declared open on March 27, 1883. After 1886 when the School was placed in charge of a Committee, it was made full-fledged Vernacular school (for standards seven) by opening three higher standards. Sewing as well as the preparation of kusti* along with religious instruction were made compulsory subjects of study and they have been so till today. The community being against the teaching of English to its children in general, and to the females in particular, the Tata family promised not to introduce instruction in English in this School. The establishment of separate schools for boys and girls after the primary stage reflects the attitude of the Parsi community to coeducation. At the same time a school for girls finds ample justification for its separate existence in the attitude of the community to the English education. Both the schools, the Madresa and the Tata Girls' School, aimed at imparting religious instruction to Parsi chil-ren. In addition to it, the Madresa laid stress on preparing the Parsi boys for better employment opportunities with the help of the knowledge of English; the Girls' School, on the other hand, while accepting the necessity of educating the females emphasised that their development should be primarily in the context of home and not the world. They were mainly to be trained for their traditional arts and crafts and not for job opportunities. The educational institutions which came into existence in Navsari in the fifties of the last century made ample and convenient provision, for the intellectual development of the Parsi children of both sexes. There was, however, no institutional provision for even primary education for boys, much less for the girls, of other communities. It was in the year 1863 that Rustomjee Jamshedjee Jeejibhoy, a man of cosmopolitan outlook, donated Rs. 70, 000 to the Bombay Government for opening English schools for all communities in Nav-sari, Billimora and Bulsar. A momentous step for the non-Parsi communities and for the progress of education in South Gujarat was thus taken by the progressive outlook of a Parsi gentleman. With the opening of Rustomjee Jamshedjee Jeejibhoy school in Navsari on February 19, 1863 education was brought within the purview of all communities.