International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/ Volume 06 Issue 2 February 2019 "Progress of Modern Education in Jammu and Kashmir during Dogra Period” Arshad Ahmad Bandh & Dr. S.k.trivedi *Research Scholar, Department of History, Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya Bhopal **Head and Professor, Department of History, Govt Hamidia Arts and Commerce College - Bhopal (M.P) Email Id: [email protected] Abstract Education is looked upon as a means form of Hinduism, Shaivism, has found some of of raising the social status of an individual in its most eloquent teachers on the banks of the various ways. The paper attempts to show the Vitasta. During the Muslim rule, Islamic progress of modern education and its influence penetrated deep into the valley. The importance in various fields and aware the Muslim rule saw the promotion of learning, both youth of Jammu and Kashmir about the qualities Persian and Sanskrit. Education was imparted and values of education and To Secure that through madrasas, maktabas and khanqas. These education should relate intimately to the were attached to the mosques. The Hindu development of potentialities of the youth, to the students were taught at the pathshalas attached national needs and to the aspirations of the, to the temples, where Sanskrit was taught. people discover talent and nurture it and also Mostly the education imparted in both Hindu exposed enquires into the stereotype of Muslim and Muslim institution was religious oriented. apathy to modern education due to their During the medieval period Kashmir stood as a religious conservatism. pioneer of progress and a beacon of enlightenment for the other parts of world. But Keywords: - missionary, activities, Role ,Progress , contribution, Development . after the period of great Mughals, it declined under the tyrannies and extortions of subsequent Introduction rulers. The valley of Kashmir remained During the rule of Dogras, Kashmir was known for centuries the home of the great Sanskrit outside chiefly for the desolation of its land and scholars, who came to Kashmir from distant misery of its people. The Dogra rulers lands in search of learning. The most influential Available online: https://pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/ P a g e | 27 International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/ Volume 06 Issue 2 February 2019 particularly Gulab Singh and his successor Missionaries made their appearance in Srinagar Maharaja Ranbir Singh paid no attention during the period of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. towards the education of their subjects. They They were cordially received by Maharaja wanted to keep them ignorant and did not like Gulab Singh, “My subjects in Kashmir are very that their subjects should develop political bad.” The Maharaja is reported to have told the consciousness. Maharaja Ranbir Singh instead missionaries, “I am sure that no one can do them of opening schools in his own state contributed a any harm. I am rather conscious to see whether sum of sixty-two thousand and five hundred Padri Sahibs can do them any good.” But this rupees for the establishment of the Punjab attitude of the Maharaja did not last long. University. It simply means that Maharaja was Though the missionary society of London not against the spread of education, but was started activities in Srinagar in the 60’s of the against the education of his subjects. However, last century, it had to face serious opposition he introduced some measures in the education of from the state authorities. At first the his subjects. But these measures were like drops missionaries thought it provident to administer of water in the sea. medical relief to the people of the Srinagar during the periods of epidemics. The useful Mostly the education imparted during the Dogra services rendered by the medical missionaries period was based on the traditional pattern. It is made them popular among Kashmiris and this to be remembered that the educational encouraged them to fight illiteracy. There was institutions that existed before the coming of the not a single school in Srinagar where the right missionaries provided mainly preliminary type of education could be imparted. Maharaja instructions; therefore these institutions could Ranbir Singh’s School established in 1874 was not be classified among the institutions engaged the only state school, but here the medium of in the promotion of general education in the instruction was Sanskrit and Persian. modern sense. It was only in the 2nd half of the 19th century that modern education began to be The proposal of the Christian missionaries to imparted in Kashmir with the advent of establish schools in Kashmir was approved by Christian missionaries. It was they who made the C.M.S in London. It was in the year 1880 pioneering efforts to educate the Kashmiri on the that first missionary school was opened in pattern of European education. Both the Hindus Srinagar by Rev. J.H. Knowles. He laid the and Muslims took keen interest. foundation of C.M.S school in the hospital Available online: https://pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/ P a g e | 28 International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/ Volume 06 Issue 2 February 2019 premises in Srinagar. Tyndale Biscoe in his The 250 students in the beginning phase were all book, ‘Kashmir in Sunlight and Shade’ says that “Brahmin Hindus” who initially refused to it was J.H.Knowles who was the founder of partake in many of the school activities modern education in Srinagar. But the official including Soccer, for touching the leather would attitude towards the mission had shown little render them unholy. The Muslim majority was change. The Government orders prohibiting the again ignored by the leaders. However, Biscoe missionaries from renting a house for a school introduced social parity and individualism to building were still in force. Thus the C.M.S had those selected students, who believe in the caste no alternative but to start the school in the system and collectivism. Biscoe served the Hospital premises in 1880. Church Mission Society Boy’s School for many decades. In 1890 there were 10 schools Historical background of modern functioning in the state on these modern lines. education There was also a regular school inspector, and the schools in Jammu and Kashmir were Education in Jammu and Kashmir was modeled affiliated with Punjab University’s syllabus and after the British education system in india. The curriculum and examinations were given every movement towards the western definition of six months. The mission school in Kashmir was education marginalized the traditional religious educating and modernizing a selected group of schools, and had a modernizing effect on the elite Brahmin Hindu class, the highest caste in population educated by western standards. The the Hindu society .In 1899, the Mirwaiz first western and modern boy’s school in (Muslim head priest of Kashmir) Molvi Rasool Kashmir was founded in “1880 by Reverend J Shah, founded an organization called “Anjuman- Hinton Knowles” in the premises of Missionary i-Nusratul Islam” (ANI) to promote religious Hospital in Srinagar, founded as the “Church education among the almost illiterate majority of Mission Society Boys School” it is now called Kashmiri Muslims. Eventually with the help of the “Tyndale Biscoe School” named after “Cecil small grants from the Dogra Maharaja, the Earle Tyndale Biscoe” a British missionary who Mirwaiz transformed the seminary in to a school became the school’s principal in 1891. Biscoe is offering both religious and secular education. often attributed with founding the modern ANI spread its network of schools throughout education system in Kashmir, through western the valley, and enabled thousands to receive modernization and rejection of local traditions. Available online: https://pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/ P a g e | 29 International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/ Volume 06 Issue 2 February 2019 education through their Is lamia Schools. Girl’s development. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, also education in Kashmir faced a more problematic known as the ‘Lion of Kashmir’, was part of the situation. In the 1890s, a girl’s school was very small educated yet marginalized Muslim started in Kashmir by one of the women from Kashmiri Community. He also feel the British Church Mission. The effort to discrimination on the grounds of education, but educate Kashmiri girls regained momentum in finally he became the first Kashmiri Muslim to 1912, when a Church Mission Society Girls have obtained masters degree in Chemistry. He School opened with17 students. The principal of then applied to the Jammu and Kashmir this school noticed .in1914 that “not a trained Government to pursue a Doctoral course in Kashmiri woman teacher is to be found in chemistry in England, but again he was rejected. Srinagar. During 1925 the education system had However by this time Abdullah was influenced made an incredible amount of progress for the by liberal and progressive ideas and became Hindu Kashmiri Pundit population that it served. convinced that feudal system was responsible There was one technical institute, two colleges, for the disparity of Kashmiri people. In 1931, two teacher training institutes, 11high schools, there was a Kashmiri uprising led by Sheikh 42 middle schools, and 583primary Abdullah and his colleagues against the Dogra schools .Two thirds of the government schools Maharaja. If the Kashmiri Muslims were were free, and followed a set curriculum and historically given equal educational standards for enrollment into Punjab University, opportunities as the Hindu elites, perhaps there so that the best students could eventually be would be a more peaceful Kashmir today.