The Political Economy of English Education in Muslim Bengal: 1871-1912

Author(s): Aminur Rahim

Source: Comparative Education Review, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Aug., 1992), pp. 309-321
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Focus on Colonialism
The Political
Economy
of
English
Education
in Muslim
Bengal:
1871-1912
AMINUR RAHIM
There is a
great
deal of interest
among
social scientists
regarding English
education for Muslims in
pre-
and
postcolonial
British
India,
particularly
in Muslim
Bengal
(now
Bangladesh).'
Various sociocultural and
religious
explanations
have been offered for the lack of
progress by
Muslims in
English
education. Some
argue
that Muslims were alienated from Western
education because
they perceived
it to be a threat to their faith and a
step
toward conversion to
Christianity.2
Others
propose
that
Muslims,
wrapped up
in their ancient
glory, preferred
Islam to a secular liberal
education.3
Still others maintain that British colonial
policy destroyed
the
Muslim
aristocracy by favoring
the Hindu middle
class.4
Whatever the
reason,
the Muslim
Bengal community
became hostile to British rule and
alienated from
English
education
despite
the educational
opportunities
the colonial state
provided
to all
communities,
regardless
of
gender,
caste,
or class.
In contrast to
previous explanations,
this article will show that limited
economic
growth
under the colonial
government
created uneven devel-
opment,
which diminished the
opportunities
of
Bengali
Muslims in Western
education. I
begin
with a
description
of the backward condition of
English
education
among
Muslims,
which first came to the attention of the
raj
under Lord Minto in 1871. In
analyzing
the
impact
of
English
education
on social and economic
change
in
prepartition Bengal, primary
focus will
be on
regional
division and the
pluralistic
nature of a
society
that was
'Before
1947,
Bengal
was
part
of the British
Empire. It
had an area of
190,000
square
miles,
including tributary
states. Most of the Muslims lived in the
east,
while the Hindus were concentrated
to the west. The Radcliff
Boundary
award in 1947 divided
Bengal
between India
(West
Bengal,
its
capital
is
Calcutta)
and Pakistan
(East
Bengal
or East
Pakistan,
its
capital
is
Dacca).
East Pakistan
proclaimed
its
independence
in 1971 from the central
government
based in West Pakistan
(now
Pakistan)
as
Bangladesh.
2
Great Britain,
House of
Commons,
Parliamentary Papers,
1852-53
(Cambridge: Chadwyck-
Healey
Microfilm
Publishing
Service, 1980-82),
29:12.
3
Government of
India,
Report of
the Indian Education
Commission, 1882-83
(Calcutta:
Superintendent
of Government
Printing, 1883), 1:483; Rafiuddin
Ahmed,
The
Bengal Muslims, 1871-1906: A
Quest
for Identity (Delhi:
Oxford
University
Press, 1981),
p.
138.
4
W. W.
Hunter,
The Indian Musalmans
(London: Trubner, 1872);
A. R.
Mallick,
British
Policy
and the Muslims in
Bengal (Dacca:
Asiatic
Society, 1961).
Comparative
Education
Review,
vol.
36,
no. 3.
?
1992
by
the
Comparative
and International Education
Society.
All
rights
reserved.
0010-4086/92/3603-0003$01.00
Comparative
Education Review
309
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RAHIM
unevenly developed, creating
a
cleavage
in division of labor
along
communal
lines between the urbanized caste Hindus and Muslim farmers.
The
Raj, Colony,
and
English
Education
The
conquest
of
Bengal by
the East India
Company
in 1757 ended
the old feudal
Mughal
order and founded a new kind of socioeconomic
order with an
emphasis
on deindustrialization. The main thrust of
the
company's
rule was to create a
dependent economy
based on
production
of raw materials and
import
of manufactured
goods
from
England.
At
this
time,
the
agrarian policy occupied
a
pivotal
role in
determining
the
relations between the
raj
and his
subjects. Consequently,
a new kind of
land tenure
system
was introduced in
1793,
known as
permanent
settlement.
According
to this new
system,
the
ownership
of land transferred from
the farmers
(raiyats)
to the revenue
collector,
known as the
zamindar,
in
perpetuity,
as
long
as a zamindar made a fixed annual
payment
to the
government. By
so
doing,
the zamindar
gained
absolute control over the
land and its tillers.
On the eve of British colonization of
Bengal,
the
production system
was based on subsistence
farming. Primary producers,
whether cultivators
or
artisans,
were allowed access to the means of
production
and taxed
by
the
politicomilitary agent
of the
emperor.
This
type
of subsistence
pro-
duction relation
produced
the
following
six
categories
of social classes in
Bengal:
(1)
the
raiyat,
or
farmer,
who had
hereditary farming rights
in
the soil as
long
as he
paid
revenue to the
government; (2)
the artisan
class,
consisting mainly
of
weavers,
pottery
makers,
wood
polishers,
and
tailors; (3)
the
hereditary community
workers,
referred to as
sweepers,
cobblers, washermen, barbers,
and so
forth,
whose ancestors settled in
the
villages
but,
unlike the
raiyat,
did not
possess rights
in the soil.
They
were
mainly given
the
right
to use sites for
establishing
their
homesteads,
to be held
only
as
long
as
they performed
their
hereditary
functions;
(4)
the landless
laborers,
whose status resembled that of the
European
serfs,
who
engaged
in corvee without
any rights
in the
soil; (5)
the trad-
ing
class,
composed mainly
of
moneylenders, grain
dealers,
and so
forth;
(6)
finally,
the
professional
class,
consisting
of
teachers, doctors,
and ac-
countants.
Although
this class did not
possess
land
rights,
its services to
the
community
were rated so
high
that it wielded considerable
power
in
the
community.
Since ancient
times,
Hindu and Muslim rulers relied on the
professional
class for civil and revenue administration. When the British took over the
state of
Bengal, they
turned to this class to form the foundation of an
incipient civil society. The trading class, in contrast by establishing close
liaisons with the
company's officials, accumulated wealth that was reinvested
310
August
1992
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ENGLISH EDUCATION IN MUSLIM BENGAL
in the land. The urban
population
was
overwhelmingly
drawn from
the
professional
and
trading
classes,
consisting
of
high-caste
Hindus
known
as bhadraloks.5
Conversely,
Muslims were the
raiyats,
the landless
laborers,
and
the
artisan classes
living
in the rural areas of East
Bengal.
A
majority
of
them
engaged
in
agriculture
and similar
pursuits.
The
pyramidal
colonial
ed-
ucation
system,
introduced in 1835 in urban
(Calcutta
and
adjacent)
areas,
was intended to create a native lower-echelon civilian
group
of administrators
to
manage
the
company's
revenue and the
judicial
branches. From
the
outset,
the colonial
system emphasized
liberal
philosophy
with a
linguistic
and
literary
orientation. The students were
mainly upper-caste
Hindus,
either from Calcutta or from district
towns.6
The
company
recruited talent
from a
particular
stratum for two reasons.
First,
in the absence of industrial
development,
civilian
bureaucracy
remained the
only
avenue for em-
ployment
of native talent-a constriction on
job opportunities
to control
social
mobility.
Second,
it was
beyond
the
company's
means to introduce
universal education
throughout
the
country.
Therefore,
the basic
principal
of colonial education was for the
higher
classes.7 It was
expected
that the
upper
classes,
in their
turn,
would
provide
education for the lower
classes,
with education
thereby permeating
down from above. The
government's
continuous meritocratic
policy
of elite recruitment for colonial administrative
and technical services
implicitly,
if not
explicitly, legitimized
the
prevailing
inequalities.
In other
words,
Western liberal education created an unfa-
vorable condition in a
pluralistic society
with
regard
to the distribution
of
opportunities.
Therefore,
only
a small
segment
of the
population,
that
is,
the
upper-caste
Hindus who lived in the urban
areas,
continued to
benefit from Western education.
Indeed,
to members of this
stratum,
British rule had
given opportunities
for
career, wealth,
and
influence,
as
well as the
possibility
to broaden their intellectual horizons
through
Western
connections.
Therefore,
as a
group, they
remained
loyal
to the colonial
state. A colonial education
system
based on
unequal opportunities
widened
the social and intellectual
gaps
between the Muslim farmers and the
upper-caste
Hindus,
in
particular,
in a
country
where the mother
tongue
was different from
English.
These
unequal
conditions and
opportunities
led to the exclusion of
Bengali
Muslims from Western education.
5
Caste Hindus were from the dominant reference
groups, namely,
Brahmans,
Kayasthas,
and
Baidyas;
their exclusive devotion to the sakti cult
separates
them from the lower-caste
Hindus,
who
are devoted to the medieval Hindu cult "Vaishnavism."
6 Irne
A.
Gilbert,
"Autonomy
and Consensus under the
Raj,"
in Education and Politics in India:
Studies in
Organization, Society
and
Policy,
ed. S. H.
Rudolph
and
I.
Rudolph (Cambridge,
Mass.:
Harvard
University
Press, 1972), p.
178.
7
William
Adam,
On the State
of
Education in
Bengal, 1835-1838,
ed. A. N. Basu
(Calcutta:
University
of Calcutta
Press, 1941),
p.
357.
Comparative
Education Review
311
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RAHIM
Early
Muslim
Response
to Western Education
The
early
reaction of the
Bengali
Muslims to
English
education was
less enthusiastic than that of the caste Hindus. The
Bengali
Muslims'
skepticism
was not due to cultural
reasons,
for
they belonged
to the
cultivating
class. Nor was it for
ideological
reasons,
that
is,
antagonism
toward British rule.
Rather,
it was due to their lack of
opportunity
to
receive education and the
government's unwillingness
to
provide it.8
Unlike
Muslims in
upper
India who were ahead of Hindus in
English
education,
Bengali
Muslims were at the lowest
rung.9
Their failure to
progress
in
Western education was due to economics and
geography.
The
majority
of the Muslims who lived in the rural areas had neither
access to urban areas where
English
schools and
colleges
were located
nor the means to sustain educational
expenses
for their sons. In
1872,
the vast
majority
of
Bengali
Muslims were found in the
Rajshahi,
Dacca,
and
Chittagong
divisions,
known as East
Bengal.
The
majority
of them
were tenant
farmers;
the
majority
of the zamindars were caste Hindus.10
Few Muslims
engaged
in
professional
activities
(see
table
1).
Others worked
as
tailors,
dyers,
masons,
furniture
makers,
silkworm
rearers, weavers,
and sailors. The
ignoble
social
positions
of the Muslims caused the British
civil servants to
regard
them as descendants of lower-caste Hindus. From
the
standpoint
of
education,
there was little difference between their
position
and that of the untouchable
Hindus,
to whom most of the Muslims
were
ethnically
allied."
Thus
deprived
of a middle class and without urban
connections,
the
Muslims in rural areas of East
Bengal
formed a
community by
themselves.
Rural-based
indigenous
education
barely
afforded them the
opportunity
to
participate
in the
government
and
nongovernment
services that were
available to
English-educated
natives.
By
all
indications,
the economic
condition of the
peasantry
was
deteriorating quickly
under the
permanent
settlement
system.12
Under these
circumstances,
peasant
farmers were
not able to
pay
for school fees and books out of their
meager
resources.
8
Edward D.
Ross,
Both Ends
of
the Candle
(London:
Faber &
Faber, 1943),
chaps.
9-10;
Aparna
Basu,
The Growth
of
Education and Political
Development
in
India,
1898-1920
(Delhi:
Oxford
University
Press, 1974),
p.
151.
9
Government of North Western
Provinces,
Report
on the
Progress of
Education in
Oudh,
1875-
1876
(Allahabad:
North-Western Provinces Government
Press, 1877),
pp.
6-8; Government of
North-Western Provinces and
Oudh,
Report
on the Census
of
North-Western Provinces and Oudh
(Allahabad:
North-Western Provinces and Oudh Government
Press), p.
92.
10
Government of
India,
The Census
of Bengal,
1901
(Calcutta:
Bengal
Secretariat
Press, 1902),
6,
pt.
1:485.
"
Government of
India,
The Census
of Bengal,
1872
(Calcutta:
Bengal
Secretariat
Press, 1872),
5,
pt.
1:131-35,
The Census
of Bengal,
1901
(Calcutta: Bengal
Secretariat
Press, 1901), 6,
pt.
1:165-
72. The Census
of Bengal,
Bihar and Orrisa and
Sikkum,
1911
(Calcutta:
Bengal
Secretariat
Press, 1913),
5,
pt.
1:202.
12
Great
Britain,
House of
Commons,
Parliamentary Papers (1812)
(Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey
Microfilming
Services, 1980-82),
vol. 7.
312
August
1992
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ENGLISH EDUCATION IN MUSLIM BENGAL
TABLE 1
PRINCIPAL OCCUPATIONS OF MALES BY RELIGION IN BENGAL, 1881
No. of % Muslim No. of % Hindu
Type
of
Job
Muslims Workers Hindus Workers
Agricultural
and
pasture
4,327,115
48.20 3,016,829 34.98
Professional class
82,890
.92 250,382 2.09
Commercial class
229,294
2.55 407,998 4.76
Manufacturing
and industrial
344,123
3.82 950,696 11.04
Domestic class
184,897
2.05 397,923 4.61
Miscellaneous
3,810,103
42.44 3,588,733 41.61
SOURCE.-Government
of
India,
Census
of Bengal,
1881
(Calcutta: Bengal
Secretariat Press, 1881),
3:768-81,
table 37.
The
government,
for its
part,
was
unwilling
to
pay
for
elementary
education.
School
supplies,
such as
books,
were
overpriced
in the
countryside;
a
student had to
pay
a
premium
of 108
percent
over the actual
price
for
books.'"
Consequently, pupils
were
compelled
to endure a
system
of do-
mestic instruction that was
poor
in
quality
and
inadequate
in
scope.14
Unlike in the
metropolitan
area,
Bangla (Bengali)
was the medium of
instruction in the local
indigenous
schools-students did not have access
to
foreign languages.
Recognizing
the insurmountable difficulties in
obtaining English
ed-
ucation in the rural
areas,
the Wood
Despatch
of 1854 advocated that
private enterprise
should
promote
the cause of education
among
the
disadvantaged
who failed to obtain it
by
their own financial efforts. The
despatch
also recommended "the
grant-in-aid system"
with a view to
creating
aided schools with local
management.
Since the
responsibility
for education
at the local level was
delegated
to the
upper
class in
Bengal,
the
despatch's
recommendation for aid to
support
mass education failed to materialize.
This was so because
private enterprise
took the initiative to
expand
education
only
in the urban areas where it was more
profitable.15
The failure of the
government
to extend
adequate
education for the
rural
population
is rooted in the nature of socioeconomic
change
introduced
by
the British in 1793.
First,
the
permanent
settlement
system produced
a
legion
of absentee
landlords,
who
paid
a fixed amount of
revenue,
thereby depriving
the state of a cumulative
surplus
that would have oth-
erwise
gone
to
defray
the cost of
expanding
education; second,
the
rapid
decline of
manufacturing
and the
emerging
dominant role of
agriculture
"13
William
Adam,
Adam's
Report
on Vernacular Education in
Bengal
and
Behar, submitted
to Government
in
1835,
1836 and
1838,
ed. Rev.
J. Long (Calcutta:
Home Secretariat
Press, 1868),
p.
32.
"4
Ibid.,
p.
158.
'5
Zahida
Ahmed,
"The
Financing
of Education in
Bengal, 1912-1937,"Journal of
Asiatic
Society
of Bangladesh
24-26
(1979-81):
133.
Comparative
Education Review
313
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RAHIM
and resultant
dependence
on the
metropolis
for finished
products
en-
gendered
a
society
that had little need for trained
manpower.
The
1911
census reveals that industrial
development
in
Bengal
was nominal.
There
were
1,466
industrial and
manufacturing
concerns
throughout Bengal,
including
mills, factories,
and mines. The total labor force was
606,305
people.
Of
these, 427,927,
or over
two-thirds,
were listed as unskilled
laborers. The
majority
of the industrial work force was
employed
in the
jute manufacturing
and
plantation
sectors,
and all these
manufacturing
concerns were located in Calcutta and its suburbs. Most of the factories
operated
on a seasonal
basis,
rather than
year-round.
Workers were hired
on an occasional basis. It was common
practice
for men to work in the
mills
during
the slack
agricultural
season and return to their
holdings
after a few
months.'16
It is
apparent
that industrial
development
was in a
primitive stage,
and a market
economy
was far from
reality.
Lack of industrial
development, accompanied by flight
of
capital
to
the
metropolis, produced
a
stagnant economy
that became an
impediment
to social
change.
As a
result,
the urban areas of
Bengal
were considered
to be South Asia's most
underdeveloped
area. The Census Commission
of 1901
observed,
"In India
generally
the urban
population
is small but
it is
particularly
so in
Bengal.
In
Madras,
the
Punjab
and the United
Provinces,
the
people
who live in towns are more than
twice,
and in
Bombay (excluding
Sind),
they
are
nearly
four
times,
as
numerous,
in
proportion
to the total
population,
as
they
are in this
province."'17
The
urban
population
of
Bengal
shows little variance between 1872 and
1911-5.35
percent
and 6.52
percent, respectively,
of the total
population.18
Underdevelopment,
or limited
growth,
had a
pernicious
effect on
public
expenditure.
The low
growth
rate failed to
generate
sufficient revenue
to
support
the
expansion
of technical
education,
as well as a demand for
skilled
manpower.
Mass
illiteracy
had an adverse social effect in the
countryside.19
With
the introduction of
permanent
settlement,
the
relationship
between the
Muslim
peasants
and the Hindu zamindars
changed radically.
Henceforth,
a tenant was reduced to a tenant-at-will without
any proprietary right.
In
the absence of standard
assessments,
the zamindar did not adhere to
any
revenue
rule;
his sole concern was to maximize his
profit.
Thus,
a
peasant
was
subject
to
rack-renting
and abwabs
(illegal taxes).
At
times,
it was not
clear how much of the zamindar's collection was rent and how much was
illegal
taxes
(cesses).20
The illiterate
peasant
could not
verify
the settlement
"16
The Census
of Bengal,
Bihar and Orrisa and
Sikkum, 1911, 5,
pt.
1:525.
"17 The Census of Bengal, 1901, 6,
pt.
1:34.
18
Government of
India,
The Census
of Bengal,
1921
(Calcutta:
Bengal
Secretarial Book
Depot,
1923), 5,
pt.
1:105.
"19
The Census
of Bengal,
Bihar and Orrisa and
Sikkum, 1911, 5,
pt.
1:551.
20
C. E. Buckland, Bengal under the Lieutenant-Governors
(Calcutta:
Calcutta &
Co., 1901),
1:544.
314
August
1992
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ENGLISH EDUCATION IN MUSLIM BENGAL
papers
that were issued
by
the zamindar's
kachari (office).
A
peasant
had
no choice but to succumb to the zamindar's
pressure,
as he was not
familiar
with the rules and
regulations prescribed by permanent
settlement.
Therefore,
it was in the zamindars' interest to
keep
the
peasantry
illiterate.2'
It is not
surprising
that the zamindars
collectively opposed
the
subsidy
of
primary
education for the
peasantry by refusing
to
pay
local
educational
taxes.22
The situation was
contrary
to the
practice
that
prevailed throughout
southern
India,
where the
responsibility
for
primary
education was
borne
by
those
having propriety farming rights.
The zamindars in
Bengal,
in
collaboration with the urban
interests,
continued to
oppose
free
primary
education for the rural messes until the
1930s,
when a Muslim
provincial
government passed
the
Bengal
(Rural)
Primary
Education Bill.
The Political
Economy
of Education
The
Benthamites,
who
began
to
play
a crucial role in
shaping
colonial
policy
in India from the first
quarter
of the nineteenth
century,
believed
that India had entered a new
phase
of
sociopolitical
stress and attributed
that
country's
conditions to continuous domestic and outside warfare and
the
inability
of
permanent
settlement to
bring
about
improved agricultural
production.23
Permanent settlement was
contrary
to the utilitarian
principle
that considered free
holding rights
as the
"spring
of
enterprise
... and
social
progress."24
From the 1830s
onward,
British officials and missionaries
expressed
concern over the
abysmal ignorance
and
poverty
of the
Bengali peasantry,25
which
they
viewed as rooted in the absence of free
holding rights
on the
part
of the
Bengali
peasantry.26
Without such
rights,
the
peasants
had
no incentive to work hard to
produce
more than was
necessary
for sub-
sistence. Given the overall
poverty
of the cultivators
(raiyats),
an effective
entrepreneurial
class was
required
to
spearhead
the
agricultural
revolution.
Thus,
official
policy
was
shaped by
the
quasi-English
state
ideology
of
"21
Lal Behari
Day,
Govindu
Sumanta,
or the
History of
a
Bengali Raiyat (London: Macmillan, 1874),
pp.
261-62;
see also "Dacca Divisional Commissioner's Annual
Report,
Dacca for
1879-80,"
Bengal
General
(Misc.)
Proceedings, August 1880, Dacca,
file no.
38-20/26,
par.
188,
quoted
in
Benoy
Chowdhurry, "Agrarian
Relations in
Bengal, 1859-1885,"
in The
History of Bengal (1857-1905),
ed.
N. K. Sinha
(Calcutta:
University
of Calcutta
Press, 1967),
p.
289.
22
See E. C.
Bayley's
letter to the
government
of
Bengal
dated
August
24, 1867,
in
Adam,
Adam's
Report, pp. 24-25;
Tapan Raychaudhuri, Europe
Reconsidered:
Perceptions of
the West in Nineteenth
Century Bengal (Delhi: Oxford
University
Press, 1988),
pp.
14-15.
23Percival
Spear,
A
History of
India
(Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1970),
2:124.
"24
Great
Britain, House of
Commons,
Parliamentary Papers,
1857-58
(Cambridge: Chadwyck-
HealeK Microfilm
Publishing Services, 1980-82), 7, pt. 2:316.
Great
Britain, House of
Commons,
Parliamentary Papers,
1852-53
(Cambridge: Chadwyck-
Healey
Microfilm
Publishing Services, 1980-82),
vol.
28,
pars. 7438, 7451, 7469-72,
and
7489;
Adam, Adam's
Report (n.
13
above),
pp.
22-23, 45-46.
26James Taylor,
A Sketch
of
the
Topography
and Statistics
of
Dacca
(Calcutta:
G. H.
Huttman,
Military Orphan Press, 1840), p.
150.
Comparative
Education Review
315
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RAHIM
utilitarianism that
postulated, among
other
things,
that the wealth of
a
nation would filter down to the lower classes.
Given the nature of the
productive
structure in
Bengal, agrarian
relations
were molded to meet the demands of the
metropolis through
a
process
of
agricultural specialization.
The Crimean War
(1853-56)
caused
England
to turn to
Bengal
for
jute
as a substitute for Russian
hemp.
But
the
transition from subsistence
agriculture
to
export-oriented production
re-
quired
that farmers start with some
surplus
resources that would enable
them to
produce
cash
crops
in addition to subsistence
crops.
The services
of rich
farmers,
known
asjotdars,
were
required
to
expand
domestic eco-
nomic
activity. Consequently,
the
raj
decided to amend the
permanent
settlement
system
in
Bengal. Accordingly,
British officials decided to take
two
important steps: grant
the cultivators'
rights
and
actively protect
the
cause of the rich farmers. The result was the enactment of Act X of 1859.
The
primary purposes
of the act were to
give
the
raiyats
the
rights
to hold
the land and to
prevent illegal
exaction and extortion in connection with
the demands of
rent.27
One of the
important
features of Act X was that
it
guaranteed,
under section
5,
occupancy
to those
raiyats
who held land
continuously
for 12
years.
Furthermore,
sections
3, 11,
and 14
provided
special protection against
rent increases and eviction from
holdings.
But
the zamindars continued to
deny
the cultivators the
rights
recommended
by
Act X
by simply evicting
them from their
holdings just
before the
completion
of the
term.28
In this
way,
the zamindars
escaped legal
com-
plications. They
also took
advantages
of
jute
cultivation in the rich alluvial
tracts of East
Bengal
to increase rent where cultivation had been
expanded
or where the value of the
produce
had increased.29 This demand for extra
rent in the late 1860s led to
peasant
disturbances in East
Bengal
and took
on a
spectacular
dimension in 1873. It was in this
struggle against
the
zamindars that the
jotdars
became
property
conscious and
developed
a
keen sense of
personal
interest in landed
property.
The
struggle
also
made them aware of the
necessity
of
English
education as a means of
protecting
their
rights against
the
rapacity
of the zamindars in the law
courts. For the
jotdars,
then,
education was not a means to earn a
living,
but was rather a means for self-assertion
against
the
omnipotent
zamindars.
This
outpouring
of
positive response
to education came at a time when
jute
cultivation had reached its
peak
in
Muslim-dominated East
Bengal.
27 The permanent settlement had been conceived
by
the zamindars as a
nonnegotiable piece
of
legislation,
and it
gave
them the
monopoly
to make
any
settlement
they preferred.
To the
contrary,
a
raiyat
was
supposed
to
enjoy
the
occupancy right
in the soil and could not be evicted at
any
time
as
long
as he
paid
his rent.
2fSee minutes
by
the Hon.
Justice
W. S.
Seton-Kerr,
in
Papers Relating
to the
Working
Amendment
of
Act X
of
1859
(Calcutta:
Office of the
Superintendent
of Government
Printing, 1883),
2:35-47.
29
See the
judgment
in the Rent Case
(James
Hills vs. Isher
Ghose)
dated October
12, 1863,
ibid.
316
August 1992
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ENGLISH EDUCATION IN MUSLIM BENGAL
Between 1850 and
1871,
jute exports
had increased from
?196,936 in
1850-51 to
?2,577,552
in
1871.30
It was a time of
prosperity
for
the
peasants, particularly
the
jotdars,
who became confident of their
social
power
in the rural
areas.31
The shift of
emphasis
from subsistence-based
agriculture
to
surplus
production
had
begun
to
pay
off.
Increasingly, surplus
farmers
began
to
play
an
important
role in
managing
the
village
roads and schools.
According
to the Road Cess Act of
1873,
maintaining
roads and law and order
in
the rural areas fell on the
agriculturalist
classes. In
1874,
the
aggregate
tax valuation of 16 districts amounted to
?3,631,799;
out of this
amount,
?2,422,370
came from
304,656
jotdars
on
80,951
estates.32
In other
words,
thejotdars paid
about 66
percent
of the entire valuation for these
districts.
The
rapid
rise of
thejotdar
in the
countryside
also
changed
the
power
equation
there. The
jotdar began
to
compete
with the zamindar for social
and
political power,33
and at this
stage
the cultivators
began
to show an
interest in
English
education.
Indeed,
both
peasants
and
jotdars appreciated
that even a
rudimentary
education
helped
the cultivator examine his
records and accounts and enabled him to have a
meaningful dialogue
with the
zamindar's
agent
on
property-related
issues and
protect
himself
against exploitation by
the zamindar. This
political economy explains why
the
participation
of Muslim students at the
primary
level was in
proportion
to their numerical
strength,
and,
in some
districts,
they
even outnumbered
the Hindu
students.34
According
to the
report
of the director of
public
instruction for
1871-72,
the
proportion
of Muslims to the total number
of
pupils
in schools was 14.4
percent.35
However,
they
had
yet
to catch
up
with the caste Hindus in
English
education;
out of
3,499
candidates
who
appeared
at the entrance
examination,
only
132,
or 3.8
percent,
of
Muslim students
passed.36
30J.
Geddes, "Our
Exploitation
of India, Part 2," Calcutta Review
54,
no.
111 (1873): 158.
31
For the
emergence
of the
jotdar
as a
sociopolitical
force in East
Bengal,
see Aminur
Rahim,
"Nationalism,
Class and Education in
Bangladesh" (Ph.D. diss.,
University
of
Toronto, 1986),
pp.
198-220.
32
Chowdhurry (n.
21
above),
p.
312.
33Jotdar
is a status. The census
reports
since 1872 avoided the use of
expressions commonly
employed
to describe the tenure holders
by
reference to the nature of their
titles,
such as
jotdar,
gantidar, haoladar,
and talukdar. The tables of
occupation
that were
compiled
from the census returns
had been
brought
into line with the classification
adopted
from
Europe. Therefore,
a
person's
occupation
in the
countryside
was counted whether he lived
by agriculture
or on income derived
from his land. All
jotdars, therefore,
fell into the
occupational category
of cultivator. As a
result,
it
is not
possible
to derive a
comparable
ratio of Muslim and Hindu
jotdars.
But the various census
reports compiled
since 1872 have indicated that the Muslims dominated the
agricultural
sector in
East
Bengal,
and most of the rich farmers hailed from the Muslim
community.
34
R. Ahmed
(n.
3
above),
p.
135.
35 Government
of
Bengal, Report of
the Moslem Education
Advisory
Committee
(Calcutta:
Superintendent
of
Bengal
Government
Press, 1935),
p.
51.
36
Ibid.
Comparative
Education Review
317
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RAHIM
The Politics of
English
Education
Whether it was for
political expediency
or a
genuine
concern over the
slow
progress
of Muslim
English
education,
the
government
was determined
to create a favorable environment for Muslims' education. Its
purpose
was to create a
Bengali
Muslim middle class that would
participate,
as an
equal partner,
with the Hindu middle class in the socioeconomic devel-
opment
introduced in India
by
the
raj.
That made it
imperative
that
Muslims
actively participate
in the
English
education
system.
The
policy
of the British
government
in the last
quarter
of the nineteenth
century
was
shaped against
the
background
of
increasing
criticism that
its
policy
in India was
un-British.37
It was a
period
when the Hindu middle
class had flourished and branched out into
every department
and
began
to wield considerable
power
and influence not
only
in the
government
bureaucracy
but also in
industry
and commerce. It
began
to assert itself
as a
powerful
social class whose interests were
antagonistic
to
imperialist
interests. It was at this
juncture
that British civil servants
began
to
express
their
sympathy
for the moribund state of the Muslim middle class. Civil
servants such as W. W.
Hunter,
in his
widely
circulated book The Indian
Musalmans,
graphically
described the state of affairs of the Muslim middle
class and blamed the
English
education
system
for its demise.
According
to
Hunter,
there were three
primary
reasons
why English
education failed
to attract the Muslim middle class: the absence of
proper language
in-
struction,
the lack of Muslim
teachers,
and the lack of a
proper
curriculum.38
To
remedy
these
shortcomings,
Hunter
suggested
state intervention on
behalf of the Muslim middle class.
Muslim
apathy
for
English
education resulted from financial and re-
gional
division
and,
above
all,
the uncertain
prospect
of
getting jobs
after
completion
of school and
college
in a constricted market
economy.
In the
last
quarter
of the nineteenth
century, prosperous
rich
farmers,
thejotdar,
who were
willing
to
perform
the role of an
incipient
middle
class,
emerged
on the
sociopolitical
scene of East
Bengal.
In
1906,
jute brought large
profits
into
Bengal
coffers,39
enabling thejotdars
to increase their standard
of
living
and
awakening
a
quest
for
English
education.40 This
change
of
attitude was reflected in the enrollment of Muslim
pupils
at the
secondary
level;
their numbers increased from
16,598
in 1881-82 to
35,831
in
"7
Dadabhaia
Naoroji, Poverty of
India
(London: Winckworth, 1888),
pp.
1-35.
38 Hunter
(n.
4
above), pp.
171-72.
39
K. L.
Datta,
Report
on the
Enquiry
into the Rise
of
Prices in India
(Calcutta:
Superintendent
of
Government
Press, 1914),
1:77.
40
See Abdul Guffor and his
associates'
petition
to the
deputy
director of
public
instruction,
eastern
Bengal
and
Assam,
dated
June
29, 1906,
requesting
state
support
and
patronage
to found
a
separate
"Islamic School" to cater to the needs and
requirements
of Muslim students in
Sirajganj
subdivision,
Great
Britain,
House of
Commons,
British Sessional
Papers,
1906
(New
York: Readex
Microprint, 1969), 81,
2d
enclosure,
no. 3:897.
318
August
1992
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ENGLISH EDUCATION IN MUSLIM BENGAL
1901-2.41
In other
words,
the
incipient
Muslim middle class entered
the
arena of
English
education as a
depressed
social class both
economically
and
educationally.
Thus,
the Hindu and Muslim middle classes had different
priorities-for
the former the colonial
government
was an
impediment
to social
change,
while for the latter the
government's patronage
was
essential for its
growth
and
development.
For the
Muslims,
English
education
opened up
a new vista and enabled them to
improve
their social
status
and become urbanized.
The
government, consequently, responded generously
to Muslim as-
pirations.
It revised its earlier
position
that Muslims were indifferent to
English
education because
they
were
virulently
anti-British and
wrapped
up
in the
glory
of the
bygone days
of Islam. The
government's
new
publications
on educational
issues,
such as the
Quinquennial Review,42
re-
flected
genuine
concerns that were close to the hearts of the Muslim
middle class. To
begin
with,
the
government pointed
out that
special
institutions,
such as
junior
madrasahs and maktabs
(religious schools)
that
combined
religious
and secular
education,
had a
regression
effect on
pupils.
In these
institutions,
they
had to learn four
languages: English,
Bangla,
Arabic,
and Urdu.
Moreover,
owing
to the
weight
of the
curriculum,
class 6 of a
junior
madrasah was
equivalent
to class 5 of an
English
middle
school. As
such,
the students lost a whole
year, leading
to
proportionately
higher
attrition
among
Muslim students than was
generally
the case in
nonreligious
schools.
It was also
suggested
that,
even if a Muslim student succeeded in
completing
the
junior grade,
there was insufficient
opportunity
for him
or her to
proceed
to the
secondary
level. The absence of
secondary
schools
in the rural areas thus forced
many
students to
give up
their dreams of
an
English
education. In
general,
Muslim masses in rural areas were
overwhelmingly poor
and lacked the means to send their children to
subdivisional or district towns where
secondary
schools and
colleges
were
located. Even
among
the
jotdars,
who could afford to send their children
to urban areas for
English
education,
there were no Muslim student
hostels
(dormitories).
Muslims also faced
difficulty
in
obtaining
accom-
modation in towns because of discrimination
by
Hindu
landlords.43
Apart
from the
problems
of
residence,
there was no
provision
for
training
and
employment
of a sufficient number of Muslim
teachers,
particularly
as
headmasters and assistant teachers. Muslim teachers would be
sympathetic
to Muslim students' needs and
provide counseling
and
psychological sup-
41 Report of
the Moslem Education
Advisory Committee,
p.
51.
42 Quinquennial Review,
published
since
1892-93, reflected the state's concerns on the backward
condition of Muslim education in India and
appeared
to be much more
objective
than
previous
government publications,
such as The Indian Education Commission
of
1882
(n.
3
above),
passim.
43
The Census
of Bengal,
1921
(n.
18
above), 5,
pt.
1:112.
Comparative
Education Review
319
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RAHIM
port,
since it was
alleged
that Muslim students were
unfairly
treated
by
their Hindu
teachers.44
The
government
noted the
inadequacy
of Muslim
representation
on the
governing
bodies of schools.
Finally,
the
government
observed that school textbooks were biased
against
Islam and
discouraged
students from
cultivating
Islamic
culture.45
In order to
encourage
Muslim students to
pursue English
education,
both the central and
provincial governments
made
provisions
for schol-
arships
and restructured the curriculum. In order to
encourage
the Muslim
students to cultivate Islamic
culture,
Farsi
(Persian)
and Arabic
languages
were introduced at the
secondary
level. At the same
time,
Farsi was included
along
with other
subjects,
such as
Sanskrit,
in
postsecondary
examinations.46
In
addition,
provision
was made for Muslim
college
students in Calcutta
to attend lectures at
Presidency College,
an
English
institution,
for their
degrees.47
Awareness of the
poverty among
the rural masses of eastern
Bengal
motivated the
government
of
Bengal
to
provide scholarships
for
those who wanted to
pursue
an
English
education.
Thus,
a
graduated
chain of
scholarships, starting
from the
primary
level and
progressing
to
the
undergraduate
level,
was established for the exclusive benefit of Muslim
students.48 Henceforth,
in order to increase the Muslim
teaching
and
inspectoral
staff,
the benefits of the Muslim educational endowment were
reserved for those Muslim students who attended
English
schools and
colleges.49
State interest in Muslim education
began
to
pay
off. In
1911,
the
Census Commission
wrote,
"A
special
return has been
compiled
of the
occupations
of
persons
in Eastern
Bengal
who were recorded both as
actual workers and as literate in
English.
The
largest
number of
persons
satisfying
this dual
qualification
is found
among
landlords,
but
they only
slightly
outnumbered the
English knowing
cultivators. The extent to which
the
knowledge
of
English
is disseminated
among
the Hindus and Musalmans
belonging
to these two classes of
agriculturists
differs
greatly,
for in the
landlord class five Hindu are literate to
every
Musalman,
whereas
among
the cultivators there are five literate Musalmans to four Hindus."50 In
"44
Bayenuddin Ahmed,
the first Muslim
university graduate
in Natore
subdivision,
narrated his
personal experience
as a
high
school student in Natore
Maharaja High
School in the
1910s to me.
He
alleged
that his Hindu teachers were
uncooperative
and
unsympathetic
whenever he
approached
them for
any
academic
help.
See also Guffor and his associates'
petition
to the
deputy
director of
public
instruction,
eastern
Bengal
and
Assam,
Parliamentary Papers,
81:13.
"45
Government of
Bengal,
Calcutta
University
Commission,
1917-19
(Calcutta:
Superintendent
of
Government
Printing, 1919),
1-2:229.
"46
Syed
Mahmood,
A
History of English
Education in
India,
1781-1893
(Aligarh,
India: Muhammadan
Anglo
Oriental
College, 1895),
p.
160.
47
A.
Croft,
A Review
of
Education in India in 1886
(Calcutta:
Superintendent
of Government
Printing, 1888),
p.
320.
48
Ibid.,
p.
317.
49
The Indian Education
Commission,
pp.
505-7.
50 The Census of Bengal, Bihar and Orrisa and Sikkum 1911
(n.
11
above), 5,
pt.
1:554.
320
August
1992
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ENGLISH EDUCATION IN MUSLIM BENGAL
1912,
the
government
of
Bengal
made the monumental decision to
establish
a
separate university
in Dacca for Muslim
students
in
recognition
of their
special
educational needs in eastern
Bengal.
Conclusion
This article has
argued
that the Muslims'
apathy
for
English
education
was more historical and structural than it was
religious. Taking religious
consciousness as a social
phenomenon
and
viewing
anti-British sentiment
as a natural
repercussion
of a
people
who lost their
empire
to an alien
ruler,
Orientalists have failed to
appreciate
the division of labor between
the Hindus and the Muslims that existed since the
precolonial period.
This division became more
pronounced
with the establishment of
English
education as the
key
element for
upward mobility. English
education
being
urban-based and elitist failed to
provide
an
opportunity
to the
Muslim farmers who lived in the
countryside. During
the last
quarter
of
the nineteenth
century,
when the British
government
formulated an ed-
ucational
policy catering
to the needs of the Muslim
community,
that
community responded enthusiastically.
Comparative
Education Review
321
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