DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68024#0016
8
20. After Mr. Blochmann's proceedings have been laid before the Lieutenant-Governor
in their proper light, I doubt not that His Honor will himself be of opinion that he is no longer
worthy to remain in the Education Department of Government, but there is another officer who,
though his conduct must be placed in altogether another category, has incurred, it seems to me,
the very gravest responsibility. I allude to the Director of Public Instruction. I have made
it clear that he plainly set up his own views in opposition to the orders of the Supreme Govern-
ment ; and that in defiance of these orders he issued instructions, regardless of my urgent and
repeated protests, that rendered it a sheer impossibility for me to carry out the reforms I was
directed to make in the Arabic Department; that when he failed to carry his point by fair
means, he represented to the late Lieutenant-Governor that the institution was inefficient, and
obtained an order for Professor Cowell to report upon the College with a view to its assimilation
to the Sanskrit College ; that when Professor Cowell declined to examine the College, and my
Report of 1864 proved by figures the superiority of the English instruction given in the Madrassah,
he urged the Government of Bengal to take such measures as would cause the College Department
to “ die out,” as he expressed it; that failing to compass the dissolution of the institution in
this manner, and I having procured its affiliation to the University, be ordered me to kill the
College classes by raising the fees to a point the students could not possibly pay ; that regard-
less of financial considerations, he doubled Mr. Blochmanir’s salary in a manner which, while it
threw an additional burden on the State, destroyed the only guarantee I had for the efficiency
of the teaching of the College classes ; that failing in my presence to carry any of his plans for
the destruction of the College, he took advantage of my absence to encourage an unscrupulous
Master to prefer complaints in an under-hand and irregular manner, and to misrepresent my
management and impugn my motives to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and thus shift a
responsibility which belonged to himself on to my shoulders; and, finally, having obtained an
order from the Lieutenant-Governor for the appointment of a Committee of Enquiry which,
looking to two of the Members, has every appearance of being packed, he disappeared from the
scene, instead of coming forward and giving his own evidence like a man, if he had anything to
object to in my proceedings or management, or remaining at least close at hand to give the
Committee such assistance in eliciting the truth, which, having regard to the singular importance
of the enquiry and his position of Director of Public Instruction, it was undoubtedly his duty to
do;—all the above being in direct disobedience to the orders of the Supreme Government.
21. Looking to the state of public instruction in Bengal,—looking to the fact that
Bombay with its population of 14,000,000 has about as large a proportion of the people brought
under the Government system of public instruction, as Bengal with its 40,000,000 of people *
, „ , , „ one might suppose that Mr. Atkinson had enough to oc-
* The actual figures as taken trom ? 11 „ °
a recent return are— cupy him, and enough to answer tor m his own large do-
Bengal, 145,142 souls. main, without carrying fire and sword into that small divi-
Bombay, 133,161 souls. g-on 0£ was more immediately under my superin-
tendence. If the Government of India will call for a report upon a system of schools for the
people of Bengal written by me in October 1859, or when I was Officiating Director of Public
Instruction in Bengal, and inquire what has been done in the direction which I pointed out,
now eleven years ago, they will find how lamentably small has been the progress made towards
completing the great work which I then sketched out for accomplishment by the Director of
Public Instruction. If they examine further, they will find that since then, Imperial funds to
the amount of more than a million sterling have been credited to the Department, the major
portion of which has been expended in higher class English and University education, which
it is palpable can never be extended to the great body of the people, and which, moreover, as
concerning classes who can look after their own interests is not the most important part of a
Director of Public Instruction^ duty. And I would desire to add that I do not make these re-
marks with the view of retorting, which is perhaps the weakest of all kinds of defence, nor yet
with the view of making a bid for the Directorship myself, which it is on record that I declined
when asked to accept during the absence of Mr. Young in Europe. But I do desire to show
that I had some qualifications for dealing with educational questions in a broad and comprehen-
sive manner ; that Mr. Atkinson must have been aware of it; and that therefore it was the
more reprehensible in him to interfere in matters which from the published orders on the subject
it is plain the Government of India and the Secretary of State would hold me alone responsible
for, and which he himself could hardly assert that he possesses any special qualifications what-
ever to deal with satisfactorily.
22. Mr. Atkinson did interfere however, and the consequence has been, that the work
which I begun in the Madrassah in 1858, and which for a short time progressed favorably, in
stead of being in a fair way towards completion, is little or no further advanced than it was ten
years ago, and must now be commenced de novo, as may be said, with almost equal truth, of
20. After Mr. Blochmann's proceedings have been laid before the Lieutenant-Governor
in their proper light, I doubt not that His Honor will himself be of opinion that he is no longer
worthy to remain in the Education Department of Government, but there is another officer who,
though his conduct must be placed in altogether another category, has incurred, it seems to me,
the very gravest responsibility. I allude to the Director of Public Instruction. I have made
it clear that he plainly set up his own views in opposition to the orders of the Supreme Govern-
ment ; and that in defiance of these orders he issued instructions, regardless of my urgent and
repeated protests, that rendered it a sheer impossibility for me to carry out the reforms I was
directed to make in the Arabic Department; that when he failed to carry his point by fair
means, he represented to the late Lieutenant-Governor that the institution was inefficient, and
obtained an order for Professor Cowell to report upon the College with a view to its assimilation
to the Sanskrit College ; that when Professor Cowell declined to examine the College, and my
Report of 1864 proved by figures the superiority of the English instruction given in the Madrassah,
he urged the Government of Bengal to take such measures as would cause the College Department
to “ die out,” as he expressed it; that failing to compass the dissolution of the institution in
this manner, and I having procured its affiliation to the University, be ordered me to kill the
College classes by raising the fees to a point the students could not possibly pay ; that regard-
less of financial considerations, he doubled Mr. Blochmanir’s salary in a manner which, while it
threw an additional burden on the State, destroyed the only guarantee I had for the efficiency
of the teaching of the College classes ; that failing in my presence to carry any of his plans for
the destruction of the College, he took advantage of my absence to encourage an unscrupulous
Master to prefer complaints in an under-hand and irregular manner, and to misrepresent my
management and impugn my motives to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and thus shift a
responsibility which belonged to himself on to my shoulders; and, finally, having obtained an
order from the Lieutenant-Governor for the appointment of a Committee of Enquiry which,
looking to two of the Members, has every appearance of being packed, he disappeared from the
scene, instead of coming forward and giving his own evidence like a man, if he had anything to
object to in my proceedings or management, or remaining at least close at hand to give the
Committee such assistance in eliciting the truth, which, having regard to the singular importance
of the enquiry and his position of Director of Public Instruction, it was undoubtedly his duty to
do;—all the above being in direct disobedience to the orders of the Supreme Government.
21. Looking to the state of public instruction in Bengal,—looking to the fact that
Bombay with its population of 14,000,000 has about as large a proportion of the people brought
under the Government system of public instruction, as Bengal with its 40,000,000 of people *
, „ , , „ one might suppose that Mr. Atkinson had enough to oc-
* The actual figures as taken trom ? 11 „ °
a recent return are— cupy him, and enough to answer tor m his own large do-
Bengal, 145,142 souls. main, without carrying fire and sword into that small divi-
Bombay, 133,161 souls. g-on 0£ was more immediately under my superin-
tendence. If the Government of India will call for a report upon a system of schools for the
people of Bengal written by me in October 1859, or when I was Officiating Director of Public
Instruction in Bengal, and inquire what has been done in the direction which I pointed out,
now eleven years ago, they will find how lamentably small has been the progress made towards
completing the great work which I then sketched out for accomplishment by the Director of
Public Instruction. If they examine further, they will find that since then, Imperial funds to
the amount of more than a million sterling have been credited to the Department, the major
portion of which has been expended in higher class English and University education, which
it is palpable can never be extended to the great body of the people, and which, moreover, as
concerning classes who can look after their own interests is not the most important part of a
Director of Public Instruction^ duty. And I would desire to add that I do not make these re-
marks with the view of retorting, which is perhaps the weakest of all kinds of defence, nor yet
with the view of making a bid for the Directorship myself, which it is on record that I declined
when asked to accept during the absence of Mr. Young in Europe. But I do desire to show
that I had some qualifications for dealing with educational questions in a broad and comprehen-
sive manner ; that Mr. Atkinson must have been aware of it; and that therefore it was the
more reprehensible in him to interfere in matters which from the published orders on the subject
it is plain the Government of India and the Secretary of State would hold me alone responsible
for, and which he himself could hardly assert that he possesses any special qualifications what-
ever to deal with satisfactorily.
22. Mr. Atkinson did interfere however, and the consequence has been, that the work
which I begun in the Madrassah in 1858, and which for a short time progressed favorably, in
stead of being in a fair way towards completion, is little or no further advanced than it was ten
years ago, and must now be commenced de novo, as may be said, with almost equal truth, of