Pop-education-colonial-records

Bengal

Historical Records William Adam’s observation (1838)

“Sanscrit learning is to a certain extent, open to all classes of native society whom inclination, leisure, and the possession of adequate means may attract to its study, and beyond that limit it is confined to brahmans. The inferior castes may study grammar and lexicology, poetical and dramatic literature, rhetoric, astrology, and medicine; but law, the writings of the six schools of philosophy, and the sacred mythological poems, are the peculiar inheritance of the brahman caste”.

  • Third Report On The State Of Education In Bengal; Including Some Account Of The State Of Education In Behar, And A Consideration Of The Means Adapted To The Improvement And Extension Of Public Instruction In Both Provinces, Calcutta, 1838, pp. 59-60.

A change observed in the North Western provinces of Bengal presidency (1844)

• “The study of the law and of the six schools of philosophy, which are the peculiar inheritance of the Brahmanical caste, is now neglected, while grammar, lexicology, poetical and dramatic literature, rhetoric, astrology and medicine, to which even Sudras were permitted access, are now monopolized by that caste.”
General Report on Public Instruction In North Western Provinces Of The Bengal Presidency, Appendix I, page lxviii.
The Sanskrit grammar books used were Saraswati, Chandrica, Laghu-Kumudi, Srutibodha.

UP

From the district of Cawnpoor (1849)
Under the ‘Sanscrit Schools’ it has been noted: “In this District there are 58 schools, containing 409 boys; Pergunnah Bithoor alone has 18 schools, and 13 of these are in the Town of Bithoor. These Schools are for the instruction of the Marahta children, whose parents either are the servants or reside in the Peishwa’s Jageer.”

  • Statistical Report Of The District of Cawnpoor; By Robert Montgomery, Esquire C. S., June 1848, (Appendix No. VIII, Copy Of Report On The State Of Education In The District Of Cawnpoor).

• Sanskrit grammar books studied at those schools: Sarussoot, Chundrika, Bulbhudree.

Punjab

Observation of G. W. Leitner in the Panjab (1882) • “As for grammar, lexicology, rhetoric, the drama and all other secular literature (not law or philosophy) the Sudras were ever allowed to study these subjects.”

  • History Of Indigenous Education In The Panjab Since Annexation And In 1882, page 90.