Besides
calling for the eradication of Sanatana Dharma during the infamous Chennai
conference, Tamil Nadu minister Udyanadhi Stalin stated that the policy of Sanatana
is that we (meaning the non-Brahmin castes) should not study. Last month during
the convocation function of a college in Thoothukudi district, TN Assembly Speaker
Appavu mentioned that during the earlier periods only seven percent people
could study in India.
The
same Appavu while speaking in a Catholic institution in Trichy during June 2022,
noted that it was the Christian missionaries who made education available to
all; they also brought social justice and the Dravidian movement is an
extension of their work. He had also stated that the Catholic missionaries are
the main reason for the growth of Tamil Nadu; it was they who laid the
foundation for the state; but for the Catholic missionaries, Tamil Nadu would
have been a state like Bihar. Later when questions were raised about his
speech, he explained that he only spoke the history.
The
main reason for the DMK leaders to speak along the above lines is to emphasize
that those belonging to no-Brahmin castes were denied education during the
earlier centuries by the Brahmins, while they dominated it. Besides, they also try
to perpetuate the impression that the process of giving education to all was initiated
only by the British.
The
impression that education was not given to all the Indians before the arrival
of the British was a myth created by the colonial rulers and the missionaries
to subjugate us. Till today the DMK and the leftists have been parroting their
views to obliterate our history and divide the communities. Unfortunately,
majority of the educated Indians themselves are not aware of the facts, as the
education system dominated by the Congress- leftist-DMK eco-system do not allow
people to know the true history.
But
what is the truth? India was a pioneer in education and had always been known
for her superior education since the ancient periods. We all know that the
first university in the world was established in our country about 2700 years
earlier. Nalanda university was considered as Asia’s university, as people from
our neighboring countries including China got their education here. There were
several other universities over the years.
The
first book on medicine and surgery was written here more than 2600 years ago.
Chanakya wrote his Arthashashtra, the first book on politics and economics,
around 2300 years. There have been outputs of the highest intellectual order
over several centuries in diverse fields. The great saint Thiruvalluvar wrote
Thirukkural more than two thousand years ago. For several centuries continuously
since the Sangam age, there have been literary and spiritual works of the
highest quality in Tamil. The authors of these works were from different
backgrounds, including women.
There
were women who devoted their lives completely for intellectual pursuits. Intellectual
giants such as Gargi and Maitreyi contributed to the Vedas. In Tamil Nadu,
Avvaiyar who lived during the Sanagam age contributed more than fifty verses to
Puranaanooru. The one who wrote Thriuppaavai that is sung in all
the Vaishavaite temple across the world, was the eighth century Tamil woman -
saint Aandal.
How
could India and Tamil Nadu have had such great giants and produced so many
books in different fields without education during the ancient periods? When we
raise such questions, we can try to go towards the answers.
While addressing
the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London in 1931, Mahatma Gandhi
stated that the literacy had declined in India during the earlier 50-100
years and said the Britishers were responsible for it, thus paving way for the “beautiful
tree” of Indian education to perish. He
was challenged to provide details, but he did not have the time to study the
issue in detail. Later the noted Gandhian Dharampal took upon himself the responsibility
of studying the Indian education system from the British documents and the
archival materials. He published his work under the title “The Beautiful Tree –
Indigenous Indian Education In The Eighteenth Century.”
The details
for his work were from the British documents, surveys and British - Indian
Govt. sources. They include the Surveys of Indigenous Education made by the
British administrators in the then Madras Presidency during 1822-25 and in the Bombay Presidency during 1820s, Report
by a former missionary William Adam on the districts of Bengal and Bihar during
1835-38 and a later work by G.W. Leitner relating to Punjab.
The
facts completely nail the false criticisms being levelled against the ancient
Indian education system by the DMK, Left and such other groups over the last so
many years. Let us take three major issues raised by the DMK one by one. Here we
have to remember that even before the periods of the said surveys, the decay of
the Indian education system had started due to the British policies and hence the
conclusions derived here are for the periods during which India was facing
difficulties. British officials themselves admit that the indigenous education
system was much better during the earlier periods.
The
first major issue is the allegation that the education system during the earlier
centuries was poor and hence education was not widespread. But what are the
facts? Thomas Munroe, who was the
Governor General of the Madras Presidency from 1820 noted that in the areas
under his Presidency “every village had a school.” Similarly, in the then
Bengal and Bihar regions, W. Adam concluded that every village had at least one
school and “there will still be 1,00,000 villages that have these schools.” He
also mentioned that there were around 100 institutes of higher learning in in
each district of Bengal, thus taking the total to 1800 for Bengal.
In the
same manner, officials of the Bombay Presidency who studied parts of it noted
that “there is hardly a village, great or small, throughout our territories, in
which there is not at least one school, and in larger villages more.” Later the
observations made by G.W.Leitner showed that the spread of education was of a
similar extent in Punjab. Thus the Survey Reports prepared by the British officers
in different parts of the country at the district levels show that almost every
village had a school, financially supported by the villagers themselves.
While writing about the education system in the Malabar
region of Kerala, Peter Della Valle wrote in 1823 that no people appreciate the
importance of education more than the Hindus. Thus
even after repeated invasions by the aliens and the disturbances caused by the
Europeans, the literacy levels were reported to be very high at the global
level even during the eighteenth century. Author Makkhan Lal notes: “In the
contemporary world, no other country had such a high percentage of literate
population”
The
second issue is a serious criticism. DMK, DK and their associates have been
repeatedly emphasizing over the years that education was available only for the
Brahmins, while denying the same to all others, particularly those from the
backward, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities.
What
are the facts? When we take the area under the present Tamil Nadu state, the
school students from the non-Brahmin castes in different districts were high,
averaging between 78 percent to 90 percent. Even when we leave the Kshatriyas
and Vaishyas, who were considered to belong to the Forward Castes category, the
Sutras and similar castes dominated the school system. The share of Brahmin
students in different districts varied between 8.6 percent to 22 percent, averaging
around 13 percent for the state.
The number of students from the Sutra and other castes (apart
from the Forward castes) in districts formed the highest share averaging between
about 70 percent to 84 percent. The students from the Sutra families alone averaged
more than 70 percent in districts such as the then Coimbatore, Trichy, South
Arcot and Chengalpattu. The number of Muslim students averaged between 2.4
percent and 10 percent in different districts. So where is the question of education being
controlled by the Brahmins and denied to all other castes.
The third point raised by the vested interests is that it
was the Britishers (Christians - to use the words of Appavu ) who brought
education to India and there was nothing much in India earlier. Again let us
see the facts. Even during the early eighteenth century, school education was
not available to all in Britain. Dharampal notes that “School education,
especially at the people’s level was rather an uncommon commodity in
Britain.” Even that education was limited
to few sections and confined to one to three hours per day. Details show that
during the turn of the nineteenth century even the number of schools in England
was less, about half of the schools in the Madras Presidency.
So, when school education was not available to most of
the people in Britain, what expertise did they have to come here and give
education to us ? In fact, the reality is the opposite. Many of the Britishers
themselves acknowledged that they had introduced the education system prevailed
in India for centuries in their country after learning from us.
In this connection, it is relevant to note that while the
indigenous Indian education system was getting decayed, the number of schools
and students enrolled were increasing in Britain. W.Adam, Leitner and many of the district collectors in Madras
Presidency have clearly mentioned that the Britishers were responsible for the
death of the indigenous Indian education system.
Thus the British systematically destroyed the indigenous
education by removing all the support systems and income sources to the institutions.
In 1835, the Macaulay system of education was introduced in India. As a result,
the native Indian education systems underwent a sea-change. Education became
costly and was thus denied to all. By 1891, the official records show that the
literacy rate was just 6.1 percent. In a
period of around six decades, the whole scenario of Indian education changed
completely.
The Srilankan - born historian and expert on India Ananda
Coomaraswamy noted that the ‘alien and rootless’ education system introduced by
the British ‘destroyed the social balance in which, traditionally, persons from
all sections of the society appear to have been able to receive fairly
competent schooling.’ Well-known American author Will Durant observed in 1930:
“Only 7 percent of the boys and 1.5 percent of the girls receive schooling”
with school goers averaging just 4 percent. He noted that by then the schools were
extracting high fees, making it difficult for most to get education.
The above details clearly reveal that native education
system was widespread across India giving opportunities to all the sections of
people, including the so-called Sutra and other castes. Besides, the details
prove that it was the British who destroyed the indigenous system and while improving
their school education in Britain.
So the criticisms being levelled against our forefathers,
particularly the Sanatana Dharma is completely unfounded. Clearly this is
another colonial narrative kept alive by the DMK to tarnish the image of Tamil
culture and our Dharma. At least from now, the DMK, communists and their
associates should understand the true history of India and Tamil Nadu, and
refrain from levelling baseless charges. Otherwise, they will be thrown into
the dustbin of history much sooner than their expiry periods.
(P.Kanagasabapathi is State Vice President, TN BJP)
(Swarajya, Sept 9,2023)
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