DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68024#0292
284
that we were acting in accordance not only with the intentions of the founder, but with the
actual wishes of the vast majority of the Muhammadan population, or at any rate of the literate
classes among- them.
3. The Government letter above-quoted was issued in reference to a pamphlet by Syed
Ameer Hossein, who advocated the closing of all the Bengal Madrasas except that of Dacca,
and the conversion of the Calcutta Madrasa into a college for Muhammadans only, teaching to
the B. A. degree. The Government orders gave expression to the opinion that the author of
the pamphlet had to some extent underrated the desire of the Muhammadans for a purely
oriental education, and that it was as yet premature to attempt any change of system. I am
bound to observe, however, that since the date of the publication of that pamphlet, events
appear to me to have tended more and more in the direction of the reforms which it advocated ;
so much so, at any rate, as to shake appreciably my own confidence in the wisdom of adhering
to the policy which has hitherto been followed. At the sittings of the Education Commission,
I was much struck with the opinions enunciated by the Hon’ble Syed Ahmed, c.s.i., on this
point. He said : “ The Calcutta Madrasa, established by the Government of Bengal long
ago, does not meet the object (that of spreading English education among the Mussulmans)
satisfactorily. It neither imparts English education to an adequate standard, nor makes that
education compulsory, and the result has been that some three hundred (yearly) of the
Muhammadan scholars reading in it have remained destitute of English education. The
Government of Bengal, too, established several schools for the benefit of the Muhammadans from
the income of the Mohsin endowment and Calcutta Madrasa funds ; but I hear that a con-
siderable number of the students of these schools have not received the benefit of English
education.” Again, in reply to a statement of the failure that had attended previous efforts
to introduce Western science into the Calcutta Madrasa owing to the indifference or the hostility
of the pupils, and to a question whether in these circumstances he was in favour of making
the study of English compulsory in the Arabic department, Syed Ahmed stated emphatically:
“ In my opinion, the Arabic department should be abolished. The system of English educa-
tion should be continued, and Arabic made compulsory as a second language. The Madrasa
then should be raised to the status of a college for Muhammadans only. And in reply to another
question, he added : “ My opinion is that, wherever, in any Madrasa, Arabic is taught coupled
with a little English, harm is done to both studies.” And lastly we have the present petition
of the National Muhammadan Association, advocating precisely similar reforms.
4. The poverty of the respectable middle classes of Muhammadans is a fact patent to every
one who will take the trouble to enquire. It is obtruded on my notice in many ways; partly
by the disappearance of Muhammadan boys from school before they reach the standard of the
entrance examination, owing to the inability of their parents to pay schooling fees any longer ;
partly by the frequent demands made upon me for aid from the Mohsin Fund in order to
enable students who have passed the entrance or the first arts examination to continue their
studies. The following figures relating to boys' schools in Bengal are eloquent: In lower
primary schools, Muhammadan pupils are to Hindus as 1 to 3 ; in upper primary schools,
as 1 to 5 ; in middle schools, as 1 to 7 ; in high schools, as 1 to 10; in colleges for general in-
struction, as 1 to 24 ; in colleges for professional instruction, as 1 to 43. The returns of the
University tell the same tale. Of candidates from Bengal who passed the last entrance exami-
nation, 35 out of 1,026, or 3| per cent., were Muhammadans; at the first arts examination,
the proportion was 12 out of 295, or 4 per cent.; but at the B. A. examination, out of 95
successful candidates, not one was a Muhammadan. It is useful to remember that Muham-
madans compose 3.1 per cent, of the whole population of Bengal.
5. I believe that the almost exclusive cause of this progressive decline in the number of
Muhammadan students in proportion as the standard, and therefore the cost of education
advances, is their poverty. It is not that they stand aloof from our system of education, for a
feeling of that kind would keep them out of even primary schools. Very considerable success
has attended our recent efforts, chiefly in Eastern Bengal, to bring the malctibs of the country
within the general system of primary education, by requiring them, as the conditions of
receiving aid, to teach arithmetic and the vernacular in addition to their traditional subjects of
study. In the Mohsin Madrasas, students who join with the object of pursuing a course of
Arabic study, show a steadily increasing desire to learn English, and in the Dacca Madrasa
there is now an independent class reading for the entrance examination. The number of
Muhammadans, whether of the higher or of the lower classes, who are irreconcileably averse to
the Government system of education, is, I am persuaded, decreasing year by year in a rapid
and remarkable degree. But along with this awakening, they find to their dismay that the
reluctance of their fathers to abandon the ancient ways has re-acted with fatal effect upon
themselves. It has not only kept them out of the race, but now, when they wish to enter it,
they cannot afford the training. The new generation is eager for better things ; but the fathers
have sinned, and the children suffer.
that we were acting in accordance not only with the intentions of the founder, but with the
actual wishes of the vast majority of the Muhammadan population, or at any rate of the literate
classes among- them.
3. The Government letter above-quoted was issued in reference to a pamphlet by Syed
Ameer Hossein, who advocated the closing of all the Bengal Madrasas except that of Dacca,
and the conversion of the Calcutta Madrasa into a college for Muhammadans only, teaching to
the B. A. degree. The Government orders gave expression to the opinion that the author of
the pamphlet had to some extent underrated the desire of the Muhammadans for a purely
oriental education, and that it was as yet premature to attempt any change of system. I am
bound to observe, however, that since the date of the publication of that pamphlet, events
appear to me to have tended more and more in the direction of the reforms which it advocated ;
so much so, at any rate, as to shake appreciably my own confidence in the wisdom of adhering
to the policy which has hitherto been followed. At the sittings of the Education Commission,
I was much struck with the opinions enunciated by the Hon’ble Syed Ahmed, c.s.i., on this
point. He said : “ The Calcutta Madrasa, established by the Government of Bengal long
ago, does not meet the object (that of spreading English education among the Mussulmans)
satisfactorily. It neither imparts English education to an adequate standard, nor makes that
education compulsory, and the result has been that some three hundred (yearly) of the
Muhammadan scholars reading in it have remained destitute of English education. The
Government of Bengal, too, established several schools for the benefit of the Muhammadans from
the income of the Mohsin endowment and Calcutta Madrasa funds ; but I hear that a con-
siderable number of the students of these schools have not received the benefit of English
education.” Again, in reply to a statement of the failure that had attended previous efforts
to introduce Western science into the Calcutta Madrasa owing to the indifference or the hostility
of the pupils, and to a question whether in these circumstances he was in favour of making
the study of English compulsory in the Arabic department, Syed Ahmed stated emphatically:
“ In my opinion, the Arabic department should be abolished. The system of English educa-
tion should be continued, and Arabic made compulsory as a second language. The Madrasa
then should be raised to the status of a college for Muhammadans only. And in reply to another
question, he added : “ My opinion is that, wherever, in any Madrasa, Arabic is taught coupled
with a little English, harm is done to both studies.” And lastly we have the present petition
of the National Muhammadan Association, advocating precisely similar reforms.
4. The poverty of the respectable middle classes of Muhammadans is a fact patent to every
one who will take the trouble to enquire. It is obtruded on my notice in many ways; partly
by the disappearance of Muhammadan boys from school before they reach the standard of the
entrance examination, owing to the inability of their parents to pay schooling fees any longer ;
partly by the frequent demands made upon me for aid from the Mohsin Fund in order to
enable students who have passed the entrance or the first arts examination to continue their
studies. The following figures relating to boys' schools in Bengal are eloquent: In lower
primary schools, Muhammadan pupils are to Hindus as 1 to 3 ; in upper primary schools,
as 1 to 5 ; in middle schools, as 1 to 7 ; in high schools, as 1 to 10; in colleges for general in-
struction, as 1 to 24 ; in colleges for professional instruction, as 1 to 43. The returns of the
University tell the same tale. Of candidates from Bengal who passed the last entrance exami-
nation, 35 out of 1,026, or 3| per cent., were Muhammadans; at the first arts examination,
the proportion was 12 out of 295, or 4 per cent.; but at the B. A. examination, out of 95
successful candidates, not one was a Muhammadan. It is useful to remember that Muham-
madans compose 3.1 per cent, of the whole population of Bengal.
5. I believe that the almost exclusive cause of this progressive decline in the number of
Muhammadan students in proportion as the standard, and therefore the cost of education
advances, is their poverty. It is not that they stand aloof from our system of education, for a
feeling of that kind would keep them out of even primary schools. Very considerable success
has attended our recent efforts, chiefly in Eastern Bengal, to bring the malctibs of the country
within the general system of primary education, by requiring them, as the conditions of
receiving aid, to teach arithmetic and the vernacular in addition to their traditional subjects of
study. In the Mohsin Madrasas, students who join with the object of pursuing a course of
Arabic study, show a steadily increasing desire to learn English, and in the Dacca Madrasa
there is now an independent class reading for the entrance examination. The number of
Muhammadans, whether of the higher or of the lower classes, who are irreconcileably averse to
the Government system of education, is, I am persuaded, decreasing year by year in a rapid
and remarkable degree. But along with this awakening, they find to their dismay that the
reluctance of their fathers to abandon the ancient ways has re-acted with fatal effect upon
themselves. It has not only kept them out of the race, but now, when they wish to enter it,
they cannot afford the training. The new generation is eager for better things ; but the fathers
have sinned, and the children suffer.