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a knowledge of English as a qualification for the post of Extra Assistant Commissioner,
Tahsfld&r or Munsiff', and this fact has no doubt contributed in a large measure to swell the
share of these appointments held by the Muhammadans.
10. With regard to the third petition of the memorialists, namely, for the appointment
of a Commission to examine the whole question of Muhammadan education, the Lieutenant-
Governor is of opinion that the conclusions which may be framed by the Education Commis-
sion, recently appointed under the orders of the Government of India, will be applicable to
the Muhammadan community, and that no special commission need be convened. The
Punjab is perhaps the last Province where the infringement of the principle of self-help by
affording special class facilities in education by way of State aid to Muhammadans could be
justified. The reply to several of the statements made in the memorial on this head has been
anticipated in the last Educational Review of this Province, copy of which is herewith append-
ed. It is proposed to introduce in this Province the system of payments by results, capita-
tion fees at so much for each pupil passed being granted according to the results of public
examinations. Under this syetem (paragraph 16) religious education could be freely given in
Muhammadan schools, and the extension of this principle is now under the consideration of
the Lieutenant-Governor. In paragraph 7 of the Review it is shown that the object of this
Government is to remove “ artificial obstructions to the rise of natural ability from all ranks
of the people, even the lowest, without distinction of caste, race, colour or creed?'’ Universitv
scholarships (paragraph 31) have been thrown open to vernacular as to other students, and are
tenable in aided as well as in Government Colleges. In accordance with paragraph 30, the
Director of Public Instruction has devised a scheme for the award of open scholarships to boys
distinguishing themselves in the primary and middle school examinations, and the scheme
has been referred for the opinion of the Senate of the Punjab University. It is open to the
Muhammadan community to found close scholarships for Muhammadans by private subscrip-
tion. When these and other measures sketched in the Review are carried into effect, it will
be exclusively the fault of the Muhammadans themselves if any disability continues to attach
to them. It will then be open to them, if they please, to study in our schools or (if they so
prefer) to establish their own schools, receiving grants-in-aid proportioned to their merit; they
will be able to compete with others for Government scholarships, or, if they prefer, to establish
exclusive scholarships of their own.
11. Self-help is needed to remedy the condition of the Muhammadan community in
regard to education as it is sketched in the memorial; yet this remedy appears to be put out
of the question as impossible by the memorialists themselves. In connection with this
subject Colonel Holroyd observes that Muhammadan boys come to school later and leave it
earlier than Hindus. Parents send their children to learn the Koran at schools attached to
mosques, and when they have spent some years in learning passages of the Koran by rote,
they then begin their general education. If this, as appears to be the case, is one of the main
reasons for the backwardness of the Muhammadan youths in taking advantage of the oppor-
tunities for advance in education which are offered to the general public, it rests with the
Muhammadans to arrange for combining the religious education on which they justly lay so
much stress with general tuition in other -subjects. The entire postponement of general
instruction until a considerable period has been passed in purely religious education, which in
many cases forms a mere memoria technica, can hardly be deemed necessary by enlightened
Muhammadans any more than by other races of the world.
12. Passing now to the fourth prayer of the memorialists, it is only necessary to observe
that the number of Mussulman endowments in the Punjab is extremely small, and the only
case of importance is that of the Itmad-ud-Doula fund. So far as can be gathered from the
documents which exist in regard to this fund, the trust was formed for the purpose of promoting
education in the city of Delhi. The fund is devoted to the maintenance of an Anglo-Arabic
school, at nded by Muhammadans both of the Suni and Shia persuasion, but in which reli-
gious insti '.tion has not hitherto been given. The fund is managed by a Committee composed
mainly of -alive gentlemen, presided over by the Commissioner of the Division. With this
exception, \he subject of Muhammadan endowment is one which calls for no action so far as
this Province s concerned.
13. Under the fifth head I am desired to refer to the opinions of the learned Judges of
the Chief Court, from which it will be seen that the statements of the memorialists are, so far
as the Punjab is concerned, founded upon a misapprehension of facts. So far from our courts
of law having failed to appreciate the intricacies of the Muhammadan law owing to the
abolition of the office of Kazi and the non-appointment of Muhammadan Judges, it appears
that when the Punjab was annexed a great deal was done to preserve the traditions both of
Hindu and Muhammadan law, but that the Muhammadan community have largely overlaid
the-provisions of <:Shara” by custom, and as the passing of the Punjab Laws Act gave
custom the first place as the basis of decision in civil cases, the Muhammadan law has to a