Besides
calling for the eradication of Sanatana Dharma during the infamous Chennai
conference on Sept. 2, Tamil Nadu Sports 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 noted 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,
stated 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 noted 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’.
Similar
statements by different leaders of Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), the movement founded
by the late EVR and the DMK are common in Tamil Nadu over the past several
decades. After all, DMK was born out of DK in 1949. Whenever the DMK comes to power
in the state such statements become more frequent. But this time there is all- out
attack against the indigenous education system, particularly after the
introduction of National Education Policy.
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 of education during the
earlier centuries by the Brahmins, who dominated the system. 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 false narrative created by the colonial rulers and the
missionaries to subjugate us. Till today the DK, DMK and the leftists have been
parroting their views to obliterate our history and divide the communities. Unfortunately,
majority of the educated people themselves are not aware of the facts, as the
education system dominated by the Congress- leftist and the DMK eco-system in
Tamil Nadu do not allow people to know the true history.
But
what is the truth? Bharat 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 by our forefathers about 2700
years earlier. Nalanda university was considered Asia’s premium university, as students from
our neighboring countries including China got their education here. There were
several other universities over the centuries.
The
first book on medicine and surgery was written here around 2600 years ago.
Chanakya wrote his Arthashashtra, the first book on politics and economics
around 2300 years before. There have been outputs of the highest intellectual
order over several centuries continuously in diverse fields. As for the Tamil
region, the great saint Thiruvalluvar wrote Thirukkural around 2100 years ago.
For several centuries continuously since the Sangam age (600 BCE -300 CE) and before, there have been continuous literary
and spiritual works of the highest order in Tamil. The authors of these works
were from different backgrounds, including women.
There
were women who devoted their lives completely for intellectual pursuits since
the earliest periods. 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 Bharat, including Tamil Nadu and other regions, could have had great scholars
making seminal contributions in diverse fields without a well-developed native
education system in place during the ancient periods?
While addressing
the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London in 1931, Mahatma Gandhi
stated that the literacy had declined in India during the 50-100 before and
said the Britishers were responsible for it, thus paving way for the “beautiful
tree” of indigenous 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 surveys, documents 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 Bharatiya
education system by the DMK and their associates. Let us take three major issues
raised by them one by one and focus on Tamil Nadu, which is at the centre of
discussion. Here we have to remember that even before the periods of the said surveys,
the decay of the Indian education had started due to the British policies and hence
the conclusions derived here relate to the periods during which India was facing
difficulties. British officials themselves admit that the indigenous education
system during the earlier periods was much better.
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 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 being caused by the Europeans, the
literacy levels were reported to be very high even during the early nineteenth
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 and associates have been repeatedly
emphasizing 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 areas under the present Tamil Nadu state, the
school students from the non-Brahmin castes in different districts were the
most dominant, averaging between 78 percent to 90 percent. The share of Brahmin
students 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 then Forward Castes) in districts averaged 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. So where is the question of education being
controlled by the Brahmins and denied to all other castes?
The third point noted 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 here 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 a few 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 that 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.
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. As a result, the native
education system underwent a sea-change. Education became costly and was thus
denied to all. By 1891, the records show that the literacy rate was just 6.1
percent. In a period of six decades, the indigenous education system
that flourished in Bharat over several centuries got completely collapsed.
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 the indigenous education
system was widespread across India giving opportunities to all the sections of
people to learn, including the so-called Sutra and other castes. Besides, the
details prove that it was the British who destroyed the Bharatiya education system,
even while making improvements to their school education in Britain.
So the criticisms being levelled against Sanatana Dharma
is completely unfounded. Clearly this is another colonial-missionary narrative
kept alive by the DMK to tarnish the image of our Dharma and Tamil culture. At
least now, the DMK and associates should try to learn the true history of Bharat
and Tamil Nadu and refrain from levelling baseless charges against Hindu
Dharma. Otherwise, they will be thrown into the dustbin of history much sooner than
their expiry periods.
(Prof. P.Kanagasabapathi is Vice President, TN BJP)
(Organiser, Sept 17,2023)
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