1Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiti WII WIII~~ Mille .GIPB-PUNE-O 18824
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DhananJayarao Gadgll Library 1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIti WII WIII~~ millE .GIPB-PUNE-O 18824 INDIAN ·UNIVERSITIES C011~lISSION LETTERS BOMBAY rRI~TED AT THE \' TIMES OF INDIA" PRESS 190 3 LET l' E I{S ADDRESSED TO THE:: TIJIES OF J.YfJfAI ON TIlE VICE-CHANCELLOR'S VINDICATIO~ Ol- 115 I{ECOl\Il\IENDATIONS CII Il\I.\NLAL H. SETALVAD, B ••\., }~ I/v;.,.· IfII.? SJ IId'l. Bomb.,,)' Cit .. ,d ~ 'Iy BOMBAY PRINTED AT THE "TIMES OF INDI -\ ,. PR[SS 1903 T. '2..) cl I'll i A81S-' \ 58 2.Lf NOTE. "\cconllngly, we appointed a Commission, under my Hon'ble colleague, Mr. R<1.leigh, to examine IOto the question of the UntverSltIes, and we co,lsultcd the Local Governments up-:m e\'ery other feature of our plans. S1l1CC then the publIc has had the best part of a year in \\hich to expend it" energies upon diScussion-an opportunity by which no one can say that it h.\., not profited. Whether Government has profited equally by the,<,e proceedings is open to doubt, for I o!Hene that whereas a year and a half ago everyone was agreed that educatIOn in India stood most UI gently in need of reform, that it had got enttrely into the wrong groo\ e, and was gOing steadIly down-hili, dlspensing an imperfect educatIOn through Imperfect mstruments to imperfect products with imperfect results -a great many of the interested parties now meet together, and proclaim ill injured tones that they stand in no need of reformation at al1. Now let me say at once that thiS is not good business. I lay down a" oln absolute and unassailable proposition that our Educational systems in India are faulty in the extreme; and that, unless they are nformed, l'osterity wiII reproach us for the lost opportunity for generatIOns to come. I remind the public that that proposition was most cordIally endorsed byevery &hade of opinion xi years ago. SlOce then \\e have bhown a consideration for the interests of all concerned and a reluctant e to act with precipitation that have been pushed almost to extremes, and have exposed us to the charge of timidity and irresolution My object throughout has been to carry the public with us in our reforms, and to ba.. o them upon the popular assent. I am st1l1 hopeful that better counsels will prevatl, and I shall spare no effort to attain this result. Dut If e\ery reform proposed is to be overwhelmed with obloquy and criticl,<,m, because it touches some vested interest or affects some individual concern; if change of any kind is to be proscribed merely because it is change; if the appetite for reform, so strong two year.. ago, has no\v entirely died down, then I must POlOt out that the educated community will have forfeIted the greatest chance ever presented to them of aSSIsting the Government to place the future education of this cCluntry upon a better footing, and Government will be left to pursue Its task alone. I should be most reluctant to be driven to this course. I W<lOt to reform education in India, 1 will not say omnlllm C01lsensu, hecaul:>c that may be an impossible aspiration; but with the good will .mclassent of reasonable and e:ltperienced men, and I have a right to if n"k that, in so f,lr as they nre disc.athficd with the sll/tus qllll, they ~h311 fel1dcl our couri>.: not 111m e ult1icult, but morC' easy" * * * * .. " I would only say to the pubhc-Do not be impataent, nnd In not he ccn-.orlOu., Do not Impute uark conspiracies or al1..,umf' that all the II11"guIJcd men 10 the country are in:Olde the GO\'l'rnmcnt, and .111 the cnbghtened outside it \\ hat could be ea!>ier than for (.0\ ernlllcnt Ill,)t to h.we taken up educational reform at all, or even now to dwr II .dto gcther ~ All the wild talk about killing HIgher EducatlUn nnd pUl\1I1g (ducatlOn under the heel of Govelnment merely ob",-uru tIle 1~~1I(', ami paral) <;e;, actIOn. Surely there are enough of us on both ..,Ideo; \\ hI) ,.11 ~\ lor cdul.ttlOn for educatlUn's ..,ake, \\ 110 are thinking not of p.lrty triumph'!, hilt of the future of unborn gencr,lllOns, to comhlOe together ani.! {.lrn the IcquI'>lte change;, throu~h I t010not imagIne a worw rdleCl101l UpOl1 the educated c1ac;<;e;, 10 1I1llta, or a more cru-.hing condcmnatlllll0f the tr,IIl1111g- that we have g"l\'cn them, than that they shoulu b.11H.I I h, Ill "Lh c., togethl:'r to !>tereotype exir;ting conultlon.." or to ddc..lt tIlt' (ir .. t g-cnullle attempt at reform that has heen madc for .1 {lll.Htl I 01 ., Cl'ntur}" [Lord Curzon's speech on the Financi.t1 Statement, .rsth March H)ol.1 His Excellency says that everyone was, a year ~nd a half ago, agreed that" education in India stood most urgently in need of reform; that it had got entirely into the \\ long groove, and was going steadily down-hili, dlspcnslOg an 1m. perfect education through imperfect instruments, to imperfect products, with i:nperfect results." He further says :-" I Jay down, d.S an absolute and unassailable proposition, that our Educational Systems in India are faulty In the extreme; and that unless they are reformed, posterity will reproach us for the lost opportunity for generations to come." The Indian educated community, while it has always recognised that there is room for great improvement in certain directions in our system of education, has never agreed to such a complete condemnation of Indian education. Being not endowed with that trait of Anglo-Saxon character to which 111-" Ex cellency referred in 1115 Convocation Speech of 189), 'IT;., the aptitude to be " lou:! in self..condemnation " and to "revel in the superior quality of their transgressions," the educated iii Indians have consistently refused to "join in a wholesate condemnation, which is as extravagant as it is unjust," and have preferred to agree with the sentiments expressed by his Excellency in that Convocation Speech, when he said :- "Though I am but a new-comer in tbis country, I am yet not so ignor ant of its educational system as not to know that when I c;peak of my own connection with a Univers'ty 10 England, I am speak10g of sOmethlOg \ery different from the University system which prevails here A resi uentlal teaching University, such as O\.ford or Cambridge, with its vener able bUildings, its historic associations, the clowded heallhy competition of its life, its,youthful friendships, its \ JrIle influence upon character, its t'fprlt dt' corps cannot, either jn Great Bntain or in any country, be fairly compared with an e"tamining, degree-giving University such a!o yours. Th('y arc alike in bearing the same name, in constituting part'> of a machinery by which in civilised countries all peoples work for the same ideal, namely, the cultivation of the higher faculties of man, but they are profoundly unlike in the influence that they exert upon the pupil, and in the degree to which they affect not so much his profession as his charac ter and hiS hfe. Nevertheless, inevitable and obvious as these differences are, there may yet be in an examining University-there is in such insti tution'> in some parts of my own country, and still more abroad-an inherent influence inseparable from the curriculum through wblch the student has had to pass before he can take his degree, which is not without itl> effect upon character and morals, which inspires in him something more than a hungry appetite for a diploma, and which turns hun out something better than a sort of phonographic automaton into which ha\'e been spoken the ideas and thoughts of other men. I ask myself, may such thlOgS be said with any truth of examining Universities of Indi.t? I knoV\o at first sight that it may appear that I shall be met with an overwhelming chorus of denial. I shall be told, for I read It in many newspapers and in the speeches of public men, that our system of higher education in India is a failure, that it has sacrificed the formation of character upon the altar of cram, and that IndIan Universities turn out only a discontented horde of office-seekers, whom we have educated for places which are not in existence for them to fill. Gentlemen, may I venture to suggest to you that one defect of the Anglo-Saxon character is that it is apt to be a little loud both in self-praise and in self-condem nation? 'Vhen we are contemplating our virtues we sometimes annoy other people by the almost pharisaical complacency of our transports; but, equally, I think, when we are diagnosing our faults are we apt almost to revel in the superior quality of our transgressions. There is, in fact, a certain cant of self-depreciation as well as of self-laudation. I say to my self, therefore, in the first place, is it possible, is it hkely, that we have been Cor years teaching hundreds and thousands of young men, even if iv the immcuiate object be the passing of an c"\amtnatlon or the \\ Inning of a degree, a literature ",hich cont'une:; invaluahle lc,,!>ons for (h,lf,llH'r .tll.] for hfe, and. sCience \\ I11Ch I!> Coundeu upon the rCYCIl'lIt cooh JIl plat i,lfl III nature and her truths, without Icavmg a permanent IJllrn: .....