Introduction

CHAPTER II

PROTESTANT MISSIONS AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN MADRAS PRESIDENCY : AN OVERVIEW

Without reference to the Protestant missions, the history of the

educational developments in India during the British rule would be incomplete.

For the most part of the previous century, the Protestant missions dominated

the educational scene. In the evolution and decline of this domination

within the last century also lay the history of the Protestant missionary

endeavours to bring about the Christian conversion of India.

Till the first half of the 19th century, neither the British Indian

Government, nor the private Indian efforts were fully developed and the

Protestant missions had a near monopoly on Indian education. However, when

the Government began to build up a system of secular education from primary

to university levels, based on the Educational Despatch of 1854, the

Protestant missions initially resented it, then clamoured for a legal

recognition of their prominent place and finally joined the system with the

hope of regaining their educational supremacy. This, however, did not

happen. Instead, the missions were subordinated to the Government between

1858 and 1882 and relegat~d to the third position after the Indian Education

Commission in 1882.

The decline of the Protestant missions in the Indian educational

system witnessed one of the worst controversies between them and the

Government. Firstly, it manifested in the form of missionary agitation

over the Government's failure to honour the policies outlined in the

Education Despatch of 1854 and led to the appointment of the Indian Education

Commission. Far from reinstating_the missions,_the Education Commission

relegated them to a position subord1nate both to Government as well as Indians.

Secondly, it led to two other significant changes within the Protestant

missions. The first of these related to a revision of their perspectives

of educational activities and the second to a shift of focus of their

attention to other fields either as more comprehensive than missionary

education or as alternatives to it.

The role of the Protestant missions working in the Madras Presidency

was of crucial importance both in regard to spearheading the agitation \

against the Government as well as in regard to bringing about fundamental .

changes in the perspective of missionary educational activities. The

influence of the missionaries from the Madras Presidency in changing the

perspectives of missionary education and other activities to bring about

the conversion of India would be examined in subsequent chapters. This

chapter is devoted to give an overview-of the share of Protestant missions

in the educational system in the Madras Presidency and their efforts to

gain a prominent place.

The first section is devoted to an examination of the Government

effort~ to introduce English education in the Mad~s Presidency and the

considerable headway already made by the Protestant missions before 1850.

The second section focuses on the missionary demand for prominent place in

the future educational system and peruses the provisions of the Education

Despatch of 1854 relating to the role of Christian missionary enterprise.

The third section deals with (a) the frustrations among Protestant missions

as a result of the hostile attitude of the Government after 1858, and

(b) their agitation against the unequal competition of the Departmental

institutions which ultimately led to the appointment of the Indian Education

Commission in 1882. The fourth section notes the recommendations of the

Education Commission in respect of the issues raised by the missions. The

relegation of the missions to a subordinate position in Indian education

would be examined in the last few pages.

I. Beginning of English Education in Madras Presidency : Government Efforts

The Government's attempt to introduce Western education througn the

medium of English, in the Madras Presidency, though afoot since 1829,1 can

be dated only from 1841 when the Presidency College in Madras was inaugurated.

The history of the Madras Government's efforts to patronise popular education

was a heroic but short-lived story. It was heroic because while the Governments

of Bengal and Bombay were wavering between Oriental and Western learning for

the higher classes, Sir Thomas Munro, the then Madras Governor, made a

herculean attempt to foster popular education of the masses through the

1. As early as 1829 even when the controversy was not resolved between the Orientalists and Anglicists, the Court of Directors informed the Government of Madras not to fritter away their energies and resources in patronizing vernacular learning but to "concentrate on the spread of English Education". Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, History of Education in India during the British Period, p.93.

' . '

vernaculars, with a visjon set on improving the lot of Indians. 1 It was

short-lived because although Sir Thomas Munro weathered all storms in his

effort to introduce vernacular education to the masses from 1822, his

elaborate schemes were reversed immediately after his death in 1830, in

favour of English education. 2 So decisive a reversal seems paradoxical

because the adherence to the filtration theory appeared far stronger in

Madras than elsewhere.

ln fact, the famous protest of Ram Mohan Roy to the Governor-General

to stop the wasteful expenditure on fostering Oriental education and to

favour European knowledge and English education3 had also a parallel in

Madras, albeit late. Nearly 70,000 "native gentlemen" under the leadership

of British Civil Servant in Madras, Mr. George Norton, (Advocate-General),

bitterly complained of the Government•s indifference to their aspirations

for Western educat.ion. 4 What pained them was the fact that even though the

1. T~e renewal of the Company•s Charter in 1813 signalled its interest in education. Sir Thomas Munro, the then Madras Governor, began to ascertain from his Collectors that there were already hundreds of thousands of scholars in indigenous institutions. Munro proposed to establish schools at the Zillah and Taluk stations which could in time develop into higher institutions. Despite the reversal of Munro•s policies, the Zillah and Taluk schools continued till 1836 when it was decreed by the Directors of the Company that no further funds should be allowed for them. S. Satthianadhan, History of Education in the Madras Presidency, p.6; H. Sharp, Selections from Educational Records, Part I, 1781-1839, pp.73-81.

2. S. Satthianadhan, op.cit., pp.10-11. 3. See ·Raja Ram Mohan Roy•s address to the Governor General in H. E. Sharp,

op.ctt., pp.99-101.

4. Education Commission: Report of the Madras Provincial committee with Evidences taken before the Committee and Memorials Addressed to the Education Commission, pp.5-6. (hereafter referred to as Education Commission: Report of the Madras Provincial Committee).

Madras Pr~sidency was the first to come under, and demonstrate its loyalty

to the British rule, it was the last to enjoy the introduction of English

· education as compared to Bombay and Bengal. After stress· ing their unreserved

admiration for Western education for all the social and political benefits

it offered, they promised to do all they could for its promotion among the

1 superior classes of the country •.

The Governor, Lord Elphinstone•s response to the natives• petition

was a proposal for a collegiate institution or a "University .. with a

2 11 College 11 and High School Department as a feeder. A 11 University Boarcd"

' \'las established to carry out the scheme and in 1841 a 11 High School .. was

inaugurated, designated as the Madras 11 University 11• But no real progress

was achieved by the "Presidency Institution .. as it was called till 1854 • .

Except for a High School Department under the designation of a 11 University"

of Madras, five Provincial Schools, and two Elementary Schools, the Director

of Public Instruction found nothing else to report of the 11 0perations of

the .Government in the Education Department ... 3 Not only nothi~g worthwhile

was done in the higher stages but the education of the masses, a cause so

dear to Munro, was also totally abandoned. 4

1. S. Satthianadhan, op.cit., pp.23-24.

2. Ibid ; William Meston, Indian Education Policy: Its Principles and PrOblems, pp.5-9; Select1onsfrom the 1 Records of the Madras Government: Report ori Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency, 1855-56, pp.4-5 ~~eafter referred to as Report on Public Instruction in the Madras PFesidency ••• ); K.S. Vakil, Education in India, p.12.

3. Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency, 1855-56, pp.8-9. 4. Bhagwan Dayal, The Development of Modern Indian Education, p. 12;

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This drift was not checked even in the face of constant complaints

from the Christian missionaries who were pleading for financial assistance

to support their educational efforts. 1 Speaking of this state of affairs

till 1854, Henry Sharp wrote:

The Educational records of the Madras Government between the years 1839 and 1854 consist chiefly of minutes by successive Governors, Lord Elphinstone, Lord Tweeddale and Sir Henry Pottinger, outlining policies which were never fully adopted, or reports from the educational board submitting schemes which were never brought into effect, of orders of the local Government constituting new educational authorities each of which was short lived, together with despatches from the Court of Directors criticising the policies framed by the Governors, rejecting the schemes submitted by the educational boards and dissolving the new educational authorities constituted by the local Government. We find, for example, that the Board of Public Instruction was reconstituted in 1836 as a Committee of Native Education, which in turn gave place in 1841 to a University Board; this Board was superceded by a Council of Education in 1845, which was dissolved at the 1nstance of the Court of Directors in 1847, its duties being again undertaken by the University Board; Sir Henry Pottinger revived the Council of Education -in 1848 only to replace it by a Board of Governors in 1851, which handed over its functions to the Department of Public Instruction which was formed in 1854. In view of the constant changes both in the policy of the local Government and in the personnel of the authority whose duty it was to carry out that policy, it is a matter for surprise that the educational activities of the Madras Government were not fruitful in results or that we find in 1852 but one single institution in the Presidency founded or under the immediate control of Government.2

Christian Missionary Education till 1854 in Madras

The only relieving feature of the situation was the interest taken

by the Christian missions in education of the natives. While the Council

1. Education Commission: Report of the Madras Provincial Committee, p.20.

2. J.A. Richey, Selections from Educational Records, Part II, 1840-1859, p. 177.

of Education had accumulated an unutilised balance of Rs.3 lakhs between

1848 and 1853, no more than Rs. 8 490 appears to have been given to the

missionary educational activities even though there was. a provision to grant

R 20 000 t d t . . d 1 s. owar s gran s-1n-a1 . At their own cost, the Christian

missions were maintaining an elaborate educational network. The first

Director of Public Instruction, Sir Alexander Arbuthnot, wrote of this in

1854:

In the department of elementary instruction the operations of some of the Missionary Societies are on a very considerable scale. The SPG supports no less than 186 schools, of whom 3 835 are boys and 1 349 girls; and the amount expended by the society exceeded in 1852, Rs. 49 000 .••• 2

Similarly, the Director found that the Church Missionary Society was

conducting 1185 schools attended by 38 005 scholars in 1852. While in the

majority of these schools the course of instruction·was elementary,

Arbuthnot observed that 11 in several" of these 11 English 11 schools, in

different parts of the country, 11 a higher order of instruction is imparted 11•3

1. Education Commission: Report by the Madras Provincial Committee, 11 Education in Madras Prior to 1854 11

, pp.6-7. 2. Ibid., p.8. Julius Richter observed that "Down to 1854, the elementary.

school system, with the exception of the native school, had been completely under missionary control 11

• J.A. Richter, History of Missions in India, p.310. For details of missionary educational activities in Madras districts~see Imperial Gazetteer of India, Madras, Vol.I, pp.118-19; w. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers, South Arcot, pp.198-200; Lewis Moore, Manual of the Trichinopoly District, pp.334-35; F.R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteer, Trichinopoly, pp.205-07; F.A. Nicholson, Madras District Gazetteer, Coimbatore, pp.119-21; and Eyre Chatterton, A History of the Church of England in India Since the early Days of the East India Company, p.199.

3. Education Commission: Report of the Madras Provincial Committee, p.8; Imperial Gazetteer of India, Madras, pp.118-19; F.W. Thomas, History and Prospects of British Education in India, see the Section "Early Missionaries", pp.15-20.

After surveying the "principal" institutions imparting education in English

for both boys and girls, ~onducted by the missions all over the Presidency,

the Director said that the Roman Catholic and the various Protestant missionary

societies were conducting 697 schools with 22 362 scholars in 1854. 1

Contrasting the "higher order of instruction" given in the missionary.

institutions with what obtained in the Government institutions, the

Director said that the Government could only take credit for the none-too-

satisfactory Presidency Institutions at Madras besides the 5 Provincial

Schools. Adverting to the missions he said that each of the leading

Protestant missionary societies, nearly twenty2, had at least one "School"

imparting English education in 1850. He also found that while there was

no European missionary devoted wholly to education before 1837, the year

when John Anderson, a Scotch· missionary founded the General Assembly's

Institution at Madras, there were at least 16 Europeans mainly engaged in

education by 1850. Even though the Government could claim the credit for

introducing English education, the Director said that it was the missionaries

who laid a s~lid foundation of this field in the Madras Presidency. 3 In fact,

in certain spheres like the education of girls, the Christian missionaries

constituted the only agency almost till the last quarter of the previous

century.

1. F.W.·Thomas, op.cit., pp.16-17; Education Commission: Report of the Madras Provincial Committee, p.9.

2. Ibid. For details of individual mission society's educational activities, see J.P. Jones, Year Book of Missions in India, Burma and Ceylon, 1912.

3. Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency, 1854-55, p.5.

The ~ducation of Women: Government and Missionary Share

The British Indian Government•s interest in the education of girls

was paltry during the first half of the 19th century. Their unwillingness

to shoulder this responsibility was explained away as deference to Indian

socio-religious sentiments which were said to be unconducive to the education

of girls. Even the celebrated Education Despatch of 1854 did no moretthan

call attention to the education of women and exhort the Government to extend

1 support to the agencies at work already.

At least in the Madras Presidency, nothing significant appears to

have been done in the cause of female education by the Government. Till

the time of the Education Despatch, 1854, the Government of Madras appears

to have been preoccupied wifh the question, whether the time was ripe to

assume the responsibility of female education. Even 10 years after the

establishment of the University of Madras, the instruction imparted to the

great majority of the girls in schools, numbering 10,500,never went beyond

"a very elementary" level "productive of no permanent effect". The Director

of Public Instruction in Madras wrote of female education in 1868:

In almost all cases, the instruction conveyed was of a very elementary stamp; and in too many no· permanent effect beyond rendering pupils better disposed towards female education and so paving the way for the instruction of a succeeding generation.2

_)n Madras, as elsewhere, it was the Christian missions who pioneered

in the field of female education. In fact, in a society that was truly

1. Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., pp.212-13. 2. S. Satthianadhan, op.cit., p.74.

indifferent to its female education on socio-religious grounds, it was the

missionary perseverance which awakened the realization of need of female

education. The reports of the missionaries working in South India in early

part of the last century gi've a graphic picture of their difficulties.1

When the Government was indecisive about the education of males, the

Christian missionaries were meeting the educational needs of the girls

'through much encouragements as financial assistance and rewards, meals etc.,

to those who attended schools. In the earlier years this was invariably

the policy everywhere in India in order to evoke interest in female education.2

By 1851, when the Go~ernment was yet to consider the education of women,

the missionaries were already conducting 285 day schools with 8 919 girls

and another 2 274 in their Boarding Schools. 3 It was under such a situation

1. See the Reports of the London Missionary Society and the Church of Scotland missionaries between 1820-1840 in Norman Goodall, A History of the L:~M.S. 1895-1945, p.459; Rev. E. Storrow, Our Indian Sisters, pp.191-92; H.P. Thomson, Into all Lands: The History of the Society for Propagation of Gospel in Foreig~ Parts, 1701-1950, p.190; J.A. Sharrock, South Indian Missions, p.52; Mrs Murray Mitchell, In Southern India: A Visit to some of the Chief Mission Stations in the Madras Presidency, pp.46-49 and 196-97. For a revealing account.of the travails which the Christian missions had to face to induce the natives to send their females children to schools, see Miss Mary Carpenter, Six Months in India, Vol.!, pp.132-39. For details of the efforts made in the education of girls in Madras before 1830, see Alijah Hoole, Madras, Mysore, and the Southern India: or a Personal Narrative of a Mission to those countries •.• , p.362; Rev. Samuel Mateer, The Gospel in South India, pp.197-201. For a study of the great part played by Christian missions for the education of Indian women, see generally, Minna G. Cowan, The Education of Women in India.

2. Miss Mary Carpenter, op.cit., Vol.!, pp.132-39; J.A. Sharrock, op.cit., p.222; M.A. Sherring, The History of Protestant Mission5in India, pp.442-47.

3. Rev. E. Storrow, op.cit., pp.216-18. For details of Christian missionary educational activities for girls in the districts of the Madras Presidency, see the Madras District Gazetteers for the districts of Tanjore, p.534; Trichinopoly, p.36; South Arcot, p.41; Trinnevelly, p.47; Census of India 1891, Vol.XIII, Madras, The Report on the Census {by H.A. Stuart), p.177.

. , 'I ~ .

that the Protestant missions were clamouring not only for financial assistance

but also for a fair deal in the educational system of the country.

II. (a) Missionary Demand for Provincial Place in the Educational System

Even the Charter Act of 1813 which gave the Protestant missions

permission to come to India was careful to qualify that the Company had no

obligation to give financial assistance to their educational endeavours.

In fact, the sum of one lakh rupees was intended to enable the Company to

create rival set of institutions or patronize those of the Indians in order

that they may become 11 a reliable counterpoise, a protecting break-water

against the threatened deluge of missionary enterprise ... This object was

generally kept in vi~w between 1813 and 1853. The East India Company spent

the annual grant of one lakn of rupees (10 lakhs from 1833) in maintaining

its own institutions and only rarely did it sanction any grant-in~aid to

the mission schools. Consequently, the two systems of modern school, viz.,

(a) the mission schools with their insistence on Bib~e-teaching and {b) the

exclusively secular schools conducted by the Company gr:ew up independent

of each other between 1813 and 1853. 1 It became apparent by the 1830s and

1840s that the Company•s schools were proving serious rivals to the mission

institutions.. The former's secular character and their popularity with

Indians appeared to threaten the missionary schools whose proselytisation

and Bihle-teaching were both disliked and feared by Indians. In places

like the Madras Presidency the mission schools were by far the more numerous

1. Syed Nur ullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., p.179.

than the Company schools, even though they were maintained without much

financial assistance from the Company. But in other Presidencies the missions

did not enjoy this position. The following details bring out this position

very clearly.

Mission Institutions in 1851 1

·Bombay Bengal Madras Total

Anglo-Vernacular schools & colleges 7 22 43 91 ·for men

Pupils in Anglo-Ve~nacular schools 907 6 054 4 096 12 .401 and colleges for men

Vernacular Schools for boys 85 126 824 1 099

Pupils in Vernacular schools for boys 4 679 6 319 24 178 38 661

Day Schools for girls 31 26 217 . 285

Pupils in day schools for girls 186 690 6 768 8 919

Boarding Schools for girls 8 27 39 86

Pupils in Boarding Schools for girls 139 797 11 0 2 274

Grand Total of pupils, males and females (excluding Sunday schools) 6 975 14 568 36 939 64 043

Therefore, by the end of 1840s the Protestant missions all over India

veered round to the view that unless the competition between their schools

and those of the Company was put an end to, and unless their financial

resources were strengthened, they had no chance of survival. At least for

the sake of safeguarding the dominant position they managed to carve out for

themselves, the missions desired that the competition of the Company must be

1. M.A. Sherring, op.cit., pp.442-47. These statistics were only for Protestant missions and did not include a considerable number of schools conducted by catholic mission.

put an end to. Therefore, from the beginning of the 1850s they began to

clamour-for the following demands. (i) The Company's schools were secular,

i.e., 11 godless". Sue~ schools were positively harmful and, therefore, the

Bible must be taught in all the schools run by the Company. (ii) If this

was politically inadvisable, then the Company must withdraw from the field· . . .

of education in favour of the missions. (iii) The Company's schools were

necessarily costlier, and it would be wiser to utilize the meagre resources

as grants-in-aid to mission schools. (iv) Not only by virtue of the dominant

position held by the missions, but also by virtue of being the custodians

of the spiritual principles of a Christian power, they should have the moral

right to conduct the education of Indians, and this moral right must also be

recognized and reinforced as a legal right, backed by a clearly designed

grant-in-aid code •. (v) I~eally the Company must withdraw from all

educational responsibilities and miisionaries must be vested with the

1 previlege of providing for the educational needs of the entire country.

II. (b) Education Despatch of 1854

The Education Despatch of 1854, also known as Wood's Education

Despatch2, laid on the shoulders of the Government of India the duty of

creating and maintaining a properly articulated system of education from

primary to the university stage. To carry out this scheme, the Despatch

enjoined upon the Government firstly, the creation of a Department of Public

1. Syed Nur ullah and J.,P. Naik, op.cit., pp.179-80; T.N. Siquira, Modern Indian Education, p.49.

2. The Education Despatch is sometimes described as Wood's Education Despatch because. it was probably written at the instance of Sir Charles Wood (later Lord Halifax) the then President of Board of Control. Syed Nur ·ullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., pp.204; Arthur Mayhew, The Education of India, p.26.

Instruction in every Presidency with a staff of inspectors to undettake the·

direction and supervision of the educatio~al activities. 1

Secondly, realizing that the Government alone would be unable to

meet the task, the Despatch urged them to afford active encouragement to

private educational efforts which had already made considerable headway in

this field. This encouragement was to be given by a systematic policy of 2 grants-in-aid to those institutions which reached an approved standard.

The grants-in-aid was to be regulated by the Department of Public Instruction.

The reliance on non-governmental agencies was so great that the Despatch

looked forward to "the time when any general system of education provided

by the Government might be discontinued with the gradual advance of the

system of grant-in-aid'.'. 3 It even went so far as to contemplate the closure

or transfer of Government institutions to the management of local bodies

or private educational agencies under the control of, and aided by, the

State. The policy of grants-in-aid came to be the cornerstone of the

subsequent educational edifice, and the role of Government came to be confined

to the regulation of the grants-in-aid. 4

The proposal for the adoption of the grants-in-aid scheme was of

particular significance to the Madras Presidency. The Despatch itself made

1. See the main provisions of the Despatch in J.A. Richey, op.cit., pp.364-94 and also S. Satthianadhan, op.cit., Appendix C, pp.314-18.

2. J.A. Richey, op.cit., pp.378-79.

3. Ibid., p.381; Sir Philip Hartog, Some Aspects of Indian Education, PaSt and Present, p.306 .

. 4. J.A. Richey, op.cit., pp.377-78·.

this clear when it stated:

In Madras where little has yet been done by Government to promote the education of the masses of the people, we can only remark with satisfaction that the educationl efforts of Christian missionaries have been more success­mul among the Tamil population than in any other part of India; and that the Presidency of Madras offers a fair field for the adoption of our scheme~of education by founding Government Anglo-Vernacular institutions only where no such places of instruction at present exist, which might by ·grants-in-aid and other assistance adequately supply the educational wants of the people.1

Thirdly, from the point of view of the involvement of the missions,

even more important than the grants-in-aid system was the proposal of the

Despatch for the establishment of Universities in all the three Presidencies

on the London University model. The authors of the Despatch2 favoured

the London model of an examining and affiliating character· on account of

the similarity of educational situations obtaining in Lond6n and in India. 3

At least in one respect, the adoption of the London University model was

very much favourable to the Christian missions.

This was the element of variety in the type of education given in

India in the Government and private educational institutions which seemed

healthy and worthy of preservation. Even though the educational agencies

were diverse, the examining character of the University offered sufficient

scope where all these institutions could be brought and worked under the

1. Ibid., pp.391-92.

2. The'Despatch was signed by J.O. Oiphant, E. Macnaghten C. Mills, R. -Ellice, T.W. Hobb, W.J. Eastwick, R.D. Mangles, J.P. Willoughby, J.S. Astell and F. Corrie. J.A. Richey, op.cit., p.393.

3. Calcutta University Commission, 1917-1919, Report, Vol.I, p.art I, p.40.

same scheme of the London University system through an impartial mode of

testing the academic attainments. Thus, while it could bring under its

regulation, supervision and'examination of-the entire educational network,

the London University model could also give absolute freedom in regard to

the method of .teaching as well as the subjects taught by these agencies. 1

If the Government could not accept the missionary demand for the

introduction of the BibJe as a subject of university examination, then this

was the next best thing the missions could hope for. The system of

affiliation and inspection did not affect the religious instruction offered

in mission educational institutions as it was not a subject for university

examination.

Thus, the Despatch o~ 1854 had aroused hopes among Protestant missions

of an era of expansion in which Government would eventually withdraw from

direct involvement in the educational enterprise and the missionary schools

and colleges, supported by liberal grants-in-aid from Government would

cover the whole country. These hopes were belied especially after the 1857

Revolt. The first reason was the widespread belief that the Revolt of 1857

was caused by the Indian resentment against the Government policy of

encouraging the missionary enterprise which was used as an instrument of

proselytisation. It was argued that all State-assistance should be summarily

withdrawn from the mission schools. True, the Despatch from the Secretary

of State in 1859, did not propose to reverse the policy enunciated by the

Despatch of 1854 either in regard to the religious instruction imparted in

1. Ibid; T.N. Sigueira, op.cit., pp.53;_54.

missionary schools or in regard to the g'rants-in-aid extended to them. But

it did so~only after quite seriously cautioning against any deviation from

the policy of strict religious neutrality adhered to in the Government

edcuational institutions. 1 The events of 1857 and more importantly, the

emphasis laid on religious neutrality in the Queen•s proclamation 1857, the'

Despathes of 1858 and 1859, have all made the officials in India Gautious

in their dealings with the missionaries and strained the relations between

them to a considerable extent. Consequently, the Despath of 1854 which the

missionaries hailed as the Magna Charta of their educational enterprise in

India did not turn out to be true. 2

III. From Hopes to Frustration: Missionary Reaction to Government 1s Failure to Honour the 1854 Despatch

The post-1857 period ~p to 1882 was marked by an unsympathetic

attitude of the Education Department towards the mission schools. The

missionaries alleged that the officials of the Education Department made

it difficult for them to work either within the system or independent of it.

1. The Despatch of 1859 stated: .. Now though in this country there might seem but a slight difference between the liberty enjoyed by the pupils to consult their teachers out of school hours with regard to the teaching of the Bible, and the formation of a class for affording such instruction in school hours to such as might choose to attend it, it is to be feared that the change would seem by no means a slight one to the natives of India, and that the proposed measure might, in a political point of view, be objectionable and dangerous, as tending to share the confidence of the native community in the assurancesof a strict adherence to the past policy in respect to religious neutrality, which H.M. has been pleased to put forth 11

• J .A. Richey, op.cit., p.448.

2. Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., p.241.

Julius Richter portrays the hardships faced by the missionaries in working

witnin the educational system during the post-1857 period.

Whereas in the first few years the Government preferred to appoint missionaries as inspectors of schools, yet later on, especially after the great Mutiny of 1857, it turned its back almost entirely upon them, no doubt out of exaggerated religious neutrality, and chose with prediliction Englishmen indifferent to religion or non-Christian Brahmins for these positions. As the yearly grants- the hinge on which the new system turned-depended on the result of the annual visitations and examinations conducted by these gentlemen, it came about that mission schools, for instance were often in a state of very undesirable dependence on the good will or the good temper of these officials who were antagoajstic to missions. How much caprice and party spirit it was possible to exercise in the conducting of examination, the insp~ction of school buildings, and the criticism of the school staff! How much vexation and worry ·.were thereby set in motion! Since the examinations were the most important thing of all to the authorities, for through them alone they kept their hold upon the school, and since they were also most important of all to the scholars, - for they were the gates of entry to every position under the Government, - it came about that undue weight was attached to preparation for them. Teaching was more and more in danger of becoming a mere barren examination drill, and the more so when, for instance, in the Madras Presidency a fresh Government examination had to be taken on an average, every second school-year. English schools are naturally disposed to lay too much emphasis on "text-books••, but in India at this time they became a perfect plague! With their phenomenal memories the Hindus would learn entire text-books by heart for their examinations, without taking the slightes~ pains to understand them or mentally to assimilate them. And it was also a direct consequence of the uniformity aimed at by the Government - a consequence that

. also worked remarkably for the convenience of the inspectors, - that the text-books recommended by those in authority were introduced practically everywhere; these text-books were for the most part neutral as to religion even, if not directly

-· antagonistic to Christianity, and their introduction simply meant that the books compiled at great pains by the missionaries were crowded out of existence.1

1. Julius Richter, op.cit., p.308-09.

Richter also narrates the difficulties faced by those missions

which tried to work independently of the official educational system. In

the face of a policy of direct competition by the Education Department,

the missions found it simply impossible to hold out.Consequently they had

to submit to the Government if they desired to con~inue their educational

work at ~11. Julius Richter•s narration of the hardships entailed in one

such experiment explains the frustrations among protestant missioris.

Richter wrote:

They (i.e., missionary schools) now found in the rapidly developing educationalschemes of the Government an all­powerful rival. What position should they take up with regard to it? The mission school has of necessity two main objectis which the Government neither can nor will include in its programme - the dissemination of a fundamental knowledge of Christian teaching, and the training of a body of native assistants. It seemed to be the best solution of the difficulty for the two to pursue their schemes amicably but separately, and for the missionaries to endeavour to render their school system independent and up-to-date. The Basel Missionary Society after a short-lived enthusiasm for the new Government scheme, which was shared at that time by near.ly all the Societies, was the first to take action along these 1 ines. In 1860, it severed its connection .. wtth the Government system, and reorganized its schools along its own lines. The results were overwhelming. On entering upon this new policy the Basel Society had hoped, perhaps jn too sanguine a fashion, to gain possession of the whole school system in the provinces where it laboured. But instead of this the Government wrested from them the direction of all things educational, even in the midst of their main spheres of activity, Kanara and Malabar ••• In 1867 the missionaries sent an urgent request to the Missionary Committee asking for re-union with the Government educational system, and the Committee complied, though with heavy hearts·, in order that ·the missionaries might not be driven to the wall, and robbed of all influence upon the rising generati~n. Thus, an educational scheme apart from that of the Government proved an impossibility; against such rivalry it was unable to hold one•s own.1

1. Ibid., pp.312-13.

~'!

Education in Madras Presidency, 1855-56 to 1881-821

Maintainina Aaency

1855-56

Departmental

Aided and Inspected

Extra-Departmental

1970-71

Departmental

Aided and Inspected

Extra-Departmental

1880-81

Departmental

Aided and Inspected

Arts Colleges English.and. Oriental

5

6

11

14

Secondary Schools

11

25

30

81

563

159

605

Primary Schools

83

! 1 112

98

3 352

1 263

13 223

Total

101

13 766

197

3 928

12 629

1 460

13 848 .

The Education Commission itself observed 11 how unaided institutions

have been gradually transferred from the outer circle of independent

educational activity to the inner circle of departmental control and

supervision ••• But in the matter of advanced education the claims of

private effort have not received the attention they deserved. 112

In the face of these odds which reduced the missions to an unenviable

position, they started an agitation, both in England and in India demanding

that the Government should honour the policies enunciated by the Despatch of

1. Education Commission: Report of the Madras Provincial Committee, pp.32-33.

2. Ibid., p.33.

1854. It was in deference to these agitations in India and England, spear-

headed since 1878 by the General Council of Education, which led the

Government of Lord Rippon to appoint the Indian Education Commission in 1882.1

IV. Recommendations of Education Commission Regarding Missions

The Indian Education Commission also known as Hunter Commission, was

called upon to decide on most of the issues on which the missionaries were

agitated, namely, (a) the withdrawal of the Government from directo

educational enterprise in favour of private enterprise, which then meant the

missionaries as favoured by the Despatch of 1854, (b) religious education,

and (c) the Government~s policy on text-books.

As regards the question of State-withdrawal, the Comm3ssion found

the principle laid down by the Education Despatch to be intrinsically sound

and specially suited to the situation in India. The Commission, therefore,

recommended that the "Government should not only curtail the expansion of

its institutions but should also withdraw from direct enterprise as soon as

a suitable agency, public or private, becomes available to carry on the

work". In this regard, it proposed (a) complete withdrawal of the State

from the sphere of primary education in favour of local boards and munici-

palties and (b) a gradual withdrawal from the sphere of secondary and

collegiate education in favour of private enterprise provided that such steps

ld . d 2 wou not affect the standar s.

1. For a detailed discussion of these complaints see John Murdoch, Education in India, A Letter to His Excellency The Most Honourable the Marquis of Rippon ... Viceroy and Governor General of India, etc.etc., pp.125-32; Anathnath Basu, Education in India: A Brief Review, pp.149-50.

2. Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., pp.258-59.

Lest the State-withdrawal in favour of private enterprise gave rise

to missionary hopes of regaining their monopoly over Indian education, ·the

Commission itself clarified this point. As regards their position in Indian

education, the Commission was convinced that the missionary educational

1 enterprise can only be - subordinate to that ·held by Government. In this

regard the Commission stated:

The question how far the withdrawal of the State from the direct provision of the means of higher education would throw such education into the hands of missionary bodies, held the foremost place in all the evidences bearing on the topic of withdrawal.... In a country with such varried needs as India, we should deprecate any measure which would throw excessive influence over higher education into the hands of any singl~ agency which however, benevolent and earnest, cannot cin all points be in sympathy with the mass of the community ••. At the same time we think it well to put on record our unanimous opinion that withdrawal of direct departmental agency ·should not take place in favour of missionary bodies and that depattmental institutions of the higher order should not be transferred to missionary management .•. In the point of view in which we are at present considering the question missionary institutions hold intermediate position between those managed by the Department and those managed by the people for themselves. On the one hand, they are the outcome of the private effort, but on the other, they are not strictly local; nor will the encouragement to them directly foster those habits of self-reliance and combination of purpose of public utility which it is one of the objects of the grant­in-aid system to develop .••• "2

The Despatch of 1854 had led the missionaries to believe that they

would ultimately provide for all the educational needs of the country.

But the above-mentioned recommendation of the Education Commission decided,

once and for all, that missionary activities can only have a subordinate

1. Ibid. 2. Report of the Indian Education Commission Appointed by the Resolution

of the Government of India dated 3rd February 1882, pp.452-54 (hereafter referred to as Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882).

place in the national system of education in India.

The relegation of missionary enterprise to the subordinate position

had also, in a way, settled the second issue, namely, the question of

religious education. To the missionaries the provision of the Bible in the

libraries of the Government schools and colleges and the freedom to teach

the Christian principles in their own institutions were as important as the

question of Government withdrawal from the educational system.

Seeing that there had been no deviation from the policy of strict

religious neutrality since 1858, the Commission found little justification

in calling it for reconsideration. But the Commission felt that a

reconsideration even more unripe because the religions reformists, like the

Arya Samajists in Punjab. were demanding instruction j~ pr~ciples of. Hi~duism.

The Commission was clear that a proposal to give instruction in the different

religions in India was unacceptable both on administrative and financial

grounds. Reiterating the necessity of keeping all Government institutions

on secular lfnes, the Commission, in fact, went a step further and gave

the 11 conscience clause .. , i.e., freedom to the parents to exempt their

children from religious education if there was no secular institution in

their place. However, as far as the missionary institutions were concerned,

the Commfssion decided that (i) they should be permitted to impart such

instruction as they chose; (ii) Government should ignore such religious

instr~ction, as carried on outside the class hours; and (iii) the Government

should pay grants-in-aid only on the basis of the secular education given by

private institutions. This had satisfied the missions 1 and in·.fact, became

1. Syed Nur ullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., p.248.

perhaps, the only reason to continue their educational activities within the

Government system.

The third important aspect of the missionary demand related to the

freedom to use text-books as important instruments to convey the teachings

of Christianity. If it was not possible to adopt their text-books universally,

their freedom to use their text-books in their own schools should not be

challenged. But as it tur~ed out in practice, the Government was increasingly

insisting upon uniformity of text-books, a uniformity which threatened to

crowd out the missionary text-books.

The Indian Education Commission which carefully considered this

issue proposed a Text-Book Commi·ttee in each Province to scrutinise all the

text-books and to entrust t~e supply and distribution of text-books to the

agency of private trade. Composed largely of the officials of the Education

Department, the Text-Book Committees were empowered to avoid text-books or

any portion in them which may in any way offend the religious sentiments-of

any community. It became clear that even on the question of text-books, on

which they pined their hopes of disseminating the principles of christianity,

the missionaries lost their case.

Relegation of Missionary Education after 1882

Taken together, the recommendations of the Indian Education Commission

belied the missionary hopes in respect of all the three aspects on which

they pined their hopes to regain their lost grounds. They were relegated to

the third position after the Government, and Indiaffi in the educational system.

,- f ..

/...~

The reiteration of religious neutrality rendered futile their hopes of -

substituting the godless secular education with Christian principles~ And.

finally, the submission of their text-books for.scrutiny also made the

prospect remote of using them as vehicles of communicating Christian principles.

These recommendations, which were approved by the Government in 1884 left no

option to the missionaries but to take stock of the whole situation, and revise

the policy of their educational enterprise in future. That such a revision ·

was already on tbe offing was also due to the new theology which made a virtue

out of the necessity will·be evident later. Suffice to note here that a new

idea emerged which while taking into consideration the changed circumstances

which rendered conversion through education difficult called for a new policy

for missionary educational enterprise. But the recommendations of the .

Education Commissjon relegating missionary educational enterprise to a

subordinate position and reiterating the secular·character of education

imparted 6y Government institution.continued irrevoked ever after. ~:The p6st-

Education Commission period is relevant only from the point of view of knowing

whether its recommendations, as approved by the Government, were adopted in

practice.

In perus.ing the development of education after 1882, two questions

would be of immediate relevance to the study. (i) How far the gradual with-

drawal of the Government, and active encouragement to private enterprise were

observed in practice? (ii) How did the emphasis on private Indian effort

affect the missions in higher education? The growth of secondary and

collegiate education clearly brings out two points, namely, (a) the Government

withdrew from the field of higher education only gradually; and (b) the

encouragement to private efforts was heavily weighted in favour of Indians.

The following details are significant in this regard:

Management of Colleges in 1882 and 19021

ManaaelllPnt India Madras Presidency

1882. 1902 1882 1893 -

Government 30 23 10 7

Committees of semi-official character

Municipalities 5

Missions 20 37 12 18

Indian 9 113 2 14

Th~ picture in respect of Secondary and Primary Schools was even more

in favour of Indians than the Protestant missions. Although detailed

information regarding the management of schools by Indians and missions is

not available beyond. 1882, it may be possible to guess the nature of the

management from two other indicat0rs. Firstly, the concentration of the

Protestant missions right from the beginning was on English education especially

at the Secondary and Collegiate levels. Secondly, even during the period

1855-18.82, the number of Secondary Schools conducted by Indians were far in

excess of those under the Protestant missions. Private enterprise in

1. S. Satthianadhan, op.cit., p.205; Syed Nurutlah and J.P. Naik, 0 p . c i t . ' p • 286 •

education in 1854 really meant missionary enterprise, but in 1882, 698

. Secondary Schools were under the management of Indians as against 418 under

th . . 1 e m1ss1ons. Especially in view of the strong recommendations of the

Education Commission in favour of Indians' educational efforts, it would not

be wrong to conclude that the large majority of aided Secondary and Pr:i.mary

Schools in 1902 were under the management of Indians. The fact that the

Fourth Decennial Missionary Conference at Madras in 1902 decided to restrict

their educational activities to the maintenance of a few educational

institutions in as high a state of efficiency as possible and abandon their

earlier hopes of dominating the whole educational field in India2 also tends

to support this conclusion.

Conclusion

The decline of missionary influence is perhaps one of the clearest

trends in the educational development in the Madras Presidency as elsewhere

in India and one may observe a dual character of the missionary response

to these educational developments, namely, an adjustment to the new situation

even while continuing the hopes and demands for the restoration of their

old supremacy.

For instance, firstly, the Protestant missionaries who clamoured for

a de jure control before 1854, entered into the Government system of secular

educatirin in the hope of recovering this position in course of time. This

was based on the hope that the policies outlined in the Education Despatch

1. Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., p.254.

2. Ibid.

h: L .• -· .......

of 1854 would be honoured in practice. Secondly, when the Government became

increasingly unsympathetic to the missions after the Revolt of 1857, the

thrust of missionary demands shifted to those issues on which the Government's

violation seemed to be most flagrant, namely, the freedom to give religious

instruction in their schools within the purview of the grants-in-aid rules,

the use of their text-books, etc. The main demand before 1854 was for State-

withdrawal from the educational system as a whole~ But after 1857 it changed

to a demand for withdrawal only from the field of higher education.

Thirdly, even when the Indian Education Commission conceded only one

out of the three major demands of the missions, they appeared to have been

satisfied in a manner similar to the situation after the Education Despatch

of 1854 and 1858. The question after 1882 was no longer a monopoly over

higher education but one of retaining the prominent place without compro-

mising the object of missionary education, namely, the inculcation of

Christian principles. The missionaries hoped that in the event of State-

withdrawal from the field of higher education in favour of private enterprise,

they would be able to regain their lost prominent place.

The Indian educational developments during the second half of the

last century, especially in the matter of government policy, showed that

the influence of the Protestant missions steadily declined from dominant to

subordinate position. The response of the Protestant missions to these

developments was one of initial resistance, subsequent submission in the

hope of regaining the lost prominence, and a reluctant continuation in the

Government educational system with an inevitable adjustment to the new

situation. Their efforts to retain the hold on the educational system

especially in the higher stages have been highlighted in this chapter. The

adjustments and changes in the perspective of their educational activities

which the Protestant missions had to make in response to the developments

in Government policy would be examined in the next chapter.