Eternal India Encyclopedia

EDUCATION

Eternal India encyclopedia

EDUCATION

AN OVERVIEW Though modern education in India has its origins in the establishment of three universities - Calcutta, Bombay and Madras in 1857 - Indian education has a hoary past. Ancient Indian education with the Rig Veda and the other three Vedas as the basic knowledge sources was conducted in the Ashrams (forest abodes) of eminent sages for their own sons as well as for disciples coming from different homes in society. That education, to start with, was mostly religious and ethical. Though other mundane subjects like Mathematics, Statecraft, Ayurveda, Astronomy etc., were added later, nothing like a big centre comparable in any way to the modern college or a university, existed. It was in Buddhist times that the old Brahmanical education system was modified and great centres of religious and secular education were established on a big scale. University-type centres like Nalanda and Taxila or Nagarjunakonda and Kanchipuram developed between 300 B.C. and 5th century A.D. It was said that nearly 10,000 students stayed at Nalanda studying different subjects under hundreds of eminent scholars. Nalanda attracted students from not only other parts of India but even from far off lands. But with the revival of Brahmanism by the 5th century A.D., Buddhist centres slowly decayed and great Buddhist scholars left India for other countries. In about 1000 A.D. Muslims from the West invaded India and established their rule. They brought with them Islamic learning and other secular arts like music, painting, architecture etc. They established thousands of centres of learning called madrasas in places like Delhi, Agra, Lucknow and Lahore in the north. Muslim rulers in the South - the Bahamani Kings and Adilshah of Bijapur-established well- known madrasas in Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur and Honavar. The madrasa established by Muhammad Gawan in the Bahamani kingdom rose to great heights becoming what could be called a University of Islamic Learning. The advent of British rule, especially in the first half of the 19th century, really marks the beginning of modem Indian education. In the stormy controversy between the Orientalists and the Anglicists about the nature and medium of education in India, the Anglicists won the battle after Lord William Bentinck accepted the now famous Macaulay's Minute on Education in 1835. Accordingly Western Education with English as the medium of instruction became the basis of future education in India. With the acceptance and implementation of Sir Charles Wood's Despatch of 1854 which is called the Magna Carta of Indian education, the way to the establishment of the Calcutta, Bombay and Madras Universities in 1857 was cleared. Two more universities viz. Lahore and Allahabad, were added in the 1880s. Later with the support and encouragement of Lord Curzon and the recommendations of the University Commission of 1902-04, a further impetus was given to the establishment of colleges in various parts of India. All the universities till then established in India were based on the model of London University in the United Kingdom which was an affiliating university. A new line was struck by Ashutosh Mukneijee, the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, who introduced the concept of teaching at the post- graduate level in the university departments and introducing the mother tongue, Bengali, as an additional medium of education. Another deviation from the affiliating model was the starting of Benares Hindu University in 1916 as a unitary, residential type of university.

In Karnataka, the first University to come up was Mysore University which became possible on account of the efforts and reputation of Sir M. Visvesvaraya, then Dewan of Mysore. Though it was intended to be a unitary type like that of Benares, subsequent events in Karnataka resulted in the Mysore University becoming only an affiliating university with teaching and research added to it later. On the model of Benares Hindu University also came up the Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh which was also a unitary, teaching and residential university. A different type of innovation was introduced in the Princely State of Hyderabad where a University was established in 1918 with Urdu as medium of higher education, including medical and engineering education. This was a revolutionary step and was made possible by translating a large number of books from English into Urdu for various courses. On the dawn of Independence of India in 1947, there were 19 universities in India. ATTEMPTS AT INDIANISATION The Western education introduced and developed by the British in India was vehemently criticised as an education preparing only loyal servants for the British Government and an educated class of people who "were Indians by birth and blood but Western and Anglicised in tastes and behaviour." The idea of Indians becoming "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the alien masters was insulting. Secondly, the system uprooted Indian culture and was in no way compatible with the aspirations of the Indians for national development. As a matter of fact, the National Schools had been started in 1920-21 itself. But many of them could not survive. In the face of extreme odds and difficulties, a few shining examples at Indianisation of education stand out. Swami Dayananda Saraswati revived ancient learning and synthesised it with useful elements of Western education. He started a number of schools and colleges which are now run under the name of D.A. V. educational institutions. Swami Vivekananda spiritualised the concept of education by defining education as "manifestation of the perfection already in man." He inspired the followers of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, as a result of which a number of Ramakrishna Mission educational and spiritual centres were established all over India. Following Vivekananda's footsteps is the radiant example of Annie Besant who founded a number of institutions under the Theosophical Society and started the Central Hindu College at Benares and initiated the movement together with Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, for the setting up of the Benares Hindu University. Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi developed their own individual Indianised models of education. Sri Aurobindo enunciated the preliminary ideas for a national system of education in India which he called "integral education". It laid emphasis on the psychological, logical, practical and spiritual aspects of education. The experiment was conducted in the school at Pondicherry and later the International University at Auroville. It is also practised in the Mother School, Delhi and a number of schools in Orissa. Rabindranath Tagore worked hard throughout his life not only for the establishment and development of Santiniketan where he attempted to revive the ancient system of education in what became famous as Sriniketan. Tagore's experiment remained isolated in Santiniketan now known as the International University of Vishwabharathi. The same thing is true of the Auroville International University of Sri Aurobindo. Gandhiji's scheme of craft-centred basic