RESEARCH IN HISTORY OF EDUCATION A TREND REPORT : APARNA BASU
Research in the history of education in India began during the decade 1941 to 1950. Since then, the number of studies in this area has grown considerably. But when this is viewed in the context of the size of the country and its long educational history, together with the multiplicity of cultural and linguistic groups, it is evident that much work still needs to be done. Research in this field has been concerned mainly with descriptive accounts of the system of education as it has developed over the years. Quite a few scholars have attempted to write an account of education in ancient India based on evidence in ancient Hindu scriptures and epics such as the Vedas, Upanishads, Smritis, Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharata as well as Jain and Buddhist sources. Work has also been done on medieval education using accounts of travelers and chronicles. The history of education in the modem period has been gathered from government reports, resolutions, legislation and charters.
The best and most comprehensive history of this kind is by Naik and Nurullah (1951). Most books since have followed more or less the same approach. They are adequate for the purpose for which they were written but with the wide variety of data now available and the new modes in and tools with which history and education are studied, a fresh look at the growth and development of Indian education seems necessary.
This trend report on research in Indian universities in the field of the history of education is based on the three earlier surveys (Buch, 1974; Buch, 1979; Buch, 1986) and also the abstracts of the 51 doctoral theses included here.
Three of the 51 abstracts are on ancient India. Pandey (1984) highlights the role of different types of educational institutions from the Vedic age to the Kushan period. The material for this study was collected from the Vedas, Upanishads, and Jain and Buddhist sources. Bhowmick (1977) alms at describing the system of moral training in ancient India. Shukla (1985) examines the financing of education in ancient India. None of these seem to break any fresh ground. As noted in the trend report in the Third Survey (1986), there are several theses concerned with ancient Indian education. Upanishadic education is dealt with by Sarmah (1975) and Mishra (1979). The nature and practice of informal popular education in ancient India and how far it was Influenced by religion forms the subject of Mukherjee's (1981) thesis. The system of education in the Jataka period has been studied by Shukla (1982). Physical education in ancient India forms the subject of a thesis by Deshpande (1977). A study of the educational system of northern India from A.D. 600 to 1200 by Devi (1966), the work on Kashmir by Kaul (1949) and Manuel on Tamil Nadu (1964) have been noted in earlier surveys.
In the period covered by this survey, there is only one thesis on medieval Indian education, by Ray (1978), It concentrates on the contribution of the Muslim rulers. Earlier surveys had mentioned some interesting theses on medieval education Quraishi (1960), Sahay (1965), Parimoo (1963), Rajguru. (1966) and Khan (1977).
Bais (1985) provides a historical survey of educational administration in India from 1600 to 1920. Why the researcher should begin in 1600 is difficult to understand as educational administration proper begins only after the setting up of the Department of Public In-
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struction in 1854. The General Committee of Public Instruction was set up in 1823 the first government body to coordinate and lay down policy. Four hundred years are surely too long a period for a thesis to cover. Similarly, Siddiqui's (1985) work on Growth of Modem Education in India from Curzon to 1947 covers too vast a period. A thesis of this nature is bound to repeat already known facts. Work has already been done on education covering 1898-1920 by Basu (1974) and a Delhi University Ph.D. thesis by Prem Prakash (1976) deals with the period 1919-47.
As noted in the last trend report, many students are moving in the direction of state-wise histories of education. The first trend report had mentioned theses on Assam (Devi, 1977), Andhra (Rao, 1968), Bihar (Jha, 1961; Prasad, 1967) and Madhya Pradesh (Bhave, 1967). The Third Survey mentioned studies done on Assam (Basu, 1966; Chakravarti, 1971), Garhwal (Budhori, 1981), Gujarat (Doctor, 1974), Karnataka (Srigirinath, 1979), Manipur (Nagar, 1975) and U.P. (Misra, 1969). We have here the abstract of a thesis on the student movement in Assam, 1916-47 (Bora, 1985). This is based not only on archival sources but also on interviews. The main aim of the study is to examine the role of the students of Assam as an organized community in bringing about cultural, educational and social changes and their role in the freedom struggle.
There are four theses on Bengal. Three of them cover more or less the same period-the first half of the 19th century. Acharya (1980), Ayyar (1984) and Mukhopadyay (1983) discuss the emergence of the new education in Bengal following the foundation of Hindu College in 1817 and the changes it brought about in Bengal society. Basu (1977) deals with indigenous education in Bengal from 1835 to 1882. It examines government policy and also the attitude of the Bengali in- telligentsia, towards vernacular education.
The North East, a much neglected area, is happily being explored by historians. Hluna (1986) provides a comprehensive history of the progress of education in Mizoram (the erstwhile Lushai Hills) from 1894 to 1947 and concludes that western education made remarkable progress among the Mizos due to the efforts of Christian missions. Christian education brought great changes in the life of the Mizos.
Bhattacharjee (1983) examines the `Socio-economic Strategies of Education in Nagaland', beginning with the introduction of Western education by missions in the 1930s. The study is based not only on archival records but also on the questionnaire method which was used to collect information on how far socio-economic factors affected education. Parental illiteracy was found to be one of the major factors standing in the way of education in the state during 1930-50.
The main objective of Dwivedy's (1983) study on British Education Policy in Orissa, 1803-1936, is to analyse the policy in the Orissa Division of the then Bengal Province comprising the districts of Cuttack, Pun and Balasore, from its inception to the transfer of the control of education to the newly created province of Orissa in 1936. He shows how, since Orissa was an outlying region of the Bengal province, implementation of education policies was slow, inadequate and inconsistent. Dwivedy describes the efforts of the missionaries as well as of officer's such as Wilkinson, Cockburn and Ravenshaw towards the promotion of education. Khadanga (1986) also deals with Orissa under British rule but with the management of the education system. He looks at the nature of inputs, finance and the role of local authorities and private agencies in educational management. Pati's (1984) is the third thesis from Utkal University dealing with education in Orissa during the British period. The major purpose is to study the history of primary, secondary, higher, missionary, teachers' and women's education from 1803 to 1912. There is obviously some overlapping in the three theses since they cover the same region for the same period.
Inderjit Kaur's thesis (1985) traces the development of `Higher Education in Punjab from 1882 to 1982. It attempts to examine the impact of partition and, later, of the territorial reorganization of Punjab, on higher education and reviews the problems of higher education as they varied over a century and the solutions tried.
Bhattacharjee (1986) studies the development of education in Sikkim in a historical perspective and looks at the current situation. This is a descriptive survey type of study based on questionnaires for teachers and pupils and interviews with parents and education officers. Since Sikkim is an area little researched on, the thesis should be of interest to scholars. Bhowmik's (1981) thesis aims to investigate `The Development of Social Education in Tripura and Cachar from 1500 B.C. to the present'. It is not clear What is meant by the term `social education'. The thesis also seems very ambitious in its time span, covering 3,500 years.
There are two district-level micro-studies, one by Ray (1986) on `An Assessment of Educational Enterprise of Christian Missionaries in the district of Nadia, Its Legacy and Present State' and another by Joshi (1984) which is a study of education in the tribal area of
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Dhule district from 1960 to 1981. Ray's objective is to study the nature and extent of educational activities of missionaries in the district since the 1830s when the Christian Missionary Society established schools at Krishnagar and Nabadwip. He has used archival sources, autobiographies, diaries and journals, as well as oral testimony. One of his interesting findings is that Christian mission schools were welcomed by Hindu and Muslim bhadralok. Nadia was a seat of ancient Sanskrit learning and one would have normally expected re- sistance from the local Brahmins to intrusion by missionaries.
Joshi (1984) tries to evaluate the development of education in the tribal area of Dhule and shows how inadequate provision of schools, irregular supply of incentives, transfer of teachers, high dropout rate, etc. slow down the development of tribal education in this district.
There are five theses on primary education in post-independent India and one on Bangladesh-Mandal's (1980) on Bihar, Kapadia's (1984) on Gujarat, Jain's (1985) on Maharashtra, Lyndem's (1985) on Meghalaya and Misra's (1984) on Educational Finance for Primary Education. The Third Survey (Buch, 1986) had mentioned Purkait's (1981) thesis on primary education in Bengal under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms. Forty years after independence, it is a welcome trend that scholars are assessing developments after 1947. The thrust seems to be to find out how far programmes of primary education have been implemented in these states and what the constraints are. It is well known that dropout rates are high, there is stagnation and the enrolment of rural women, scheduled castes and agricultural labourers is very low-but these facts do not seem to have been discussed.
Bangladesh's problems are similar to India's. Nurul Islam (1983) examines the reasons affecting the growth of primary education in Bangladesh since 1947 and ways and means by which a suitable and workable programme for introducing free, compulsory universal primary education might be designed. The findings are not at all unexpected. Nurul Islam does not seem to have dealt with the proliferation of maktabs or elementary schools where elementary education is combined with religious teaching imparted by local maulvis.
The study of school education in Karnataka from 1961 onwards by Nagaraju (1983) is purely descriptive. Based on plan documents and reports of the State Department of Public Instruction, the thesis examine strategies to reduce educational disparities across districts as well as population sectors, changes in the pattern of school enrolment and interaction between educational expenditure and enrolment.
The Third Survey mentioned a thesis on secondary education in Kaira by Desai (1968) and on UP by Bhargava (1955). Unlike Bhargava who dealt with the period 1904-47, Bajpai's (1984) is a study of the Administration of Secondary Education in Uttar Pradesh after Independence. `The Progress and Problems of Secondary Education in Bihar after Independence' are studied by Rai (1979) who discusses policies and performance and gives suggestions for improvement.
From primary and secondary we move to university education. The universities of Calcutta (1957) and Bombay (1957) published their histories in their centenary year. A volume was published on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of Allahabad University (1958). The history of MAO College, Aligarh, has been written (Bhatnagar, 1969; Lelyveld, 1978). Yusuf Shah has written a thesis on Aligarh as a case study of a central university (1982). The history of Banaras Hindu University has also been written (Dar and Somaskander, 1966; Chattopadhyaya et al. 1980). We have two theses, Kumaran's (1982) on the cost of education in Annamalai University during the post- independence era and Majumdar's (1979) on `A Century of Calcutta University: A Study of Administration, 1857-1957'. Neither of these study the changing structure and organization of the university, nor are they concerned with understanding the relationship of the university with society.
It is unfortunate that scholars are still concentrating mainly on policy, finance and administration rather than on the process of education itself. They do not attempt to find out what influence schools and colleges exert on the values and attitudes of students. Why do educated girls commit sati or hang themselves because their parents cannot afford dowry? Or why do college boys indulge in eve- teasing? What are we teaching them in schools and universities, not merely regarding public questions such as communalism or democracy, but also on questions of attitudes towards girls, values of citizenship and so on, needs to be critically assessed.
The history of science and technology is a neglected area. Shukla (1958) and Mangamma (1971) had worked in this area, the latter on Madras. A scholar wrote a Ph.D. thesis submitted to Delhi University on Science Education in Colonial India, 1858-1905. Barman's (1983) work on `The Origin and Development of Modem Science in Pre-independent India' seems to cover
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too vast an area, both in terms of space and time, since he presumably deals with the whole of India from the 18th century to the present.
H.L. Sharma (1984) examines the development of school science education in India over 1947-77. He finds that, between 1947 and 1952, the teaching of science was not satisfactory. Policy was neither properly formulated nor implemented. The Secondary Education Commission (1953) recommended general science courses, but Kothari Commission (1964-66) criticized this approach and said that it was formless and without structure. After analysing the various debates and shifts in policy, Sharma rightly concludes that no concerted effort at formulating a clear-cut and consistent school science policy was made in the thirty years under study.
While Sharma looks at the science curriculum, Muthappan (1986) examines the history curriculum in schools in Tamil Nadu since independence and Thomas (1982) the teaching of English in India, with special reference to the Madras Presidency from 1835 to 1947. While Muthappan used the tools of the achievement test, a questionnaire for teachers and examination question papers, he unfortunately does not appear to have analysed history textbooks. Among his findings was the fact that audio-visual aids were not being used for history teaching. Thomas traces the evolution of the teaching of English in India, particularly in the schools in Madras Presidency from the days of Macaulay to the last days of British rule. He has relied on an analysis and evaluation of syllabuses, textbooks, question papers, etc. Apart from other things, the thesis examines the position of English in the school curriculum and of the teaching materials in English used in the Presidency. A study of the trends in physical education and sports in India since 1947, specially in Punjab, was undertaken by Kanwal (1985).
There are several theses on the role of Christian missions in the field of education, including Josephine (1952) on Catholic Education in Bombay, Joseph (1971), Gumashta (1969) and Coelho (1958) on Bassein. Eapen (1981) has studied the contribution of the Church Mission Society to the progress of education in Kerala. Masih's (1976) work on the contribution of foreign Christian missionaries towards education in India tackles too vast a subject. The research should have focused on a particular region or a select group of missionaries in order to throw some new light on the subject. Several books have also been published on the contribution of various Christian missions to education (Potts, 1967; Laird, 1972; Manickam, 1977).
Not enough work, however, has been done on the educational ideas and activities of Indian social reformers and reform movements. Namitadevi (1966) tried to relate educational progress in the era of Rammohun Roy, Debendranath Tagore and Keshub Chandra Sen to the religious elements of the Indian Renaissance in a rather far fetched and unconvincing manner. Kakrambe (1979) has tried to examine the impact of the rural-oriented mass education movement of Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil and the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha established by him on the politics of Western Maharashtra (1919-60). Rakshit (1985) assesses the contribution of Rabindranath Tagore to the spread of education in Bengal. The thesis, however, deals with the thoughts and activities of far too many persons, from Rammohun and David Here, through Ishwarchandra, Keshub Chandra Sen, Bankim, on to Tagore, Aurobindo and Gandhi. All these thinkers surely cannot be covered in one thesis.
There are a number of studies now on the education of scheduled castes in India in the post-independence period. Kulkarni (1985) has studied the availability of facilities such as textbooks, library, accommodation, food, medical help, etc. to scheduled caste students in Jalana district. This is a purely empirical study of 113 college students of classes XI and XII. It reveals the difficulties faced by scheduled caste students, several of whom have to walk from nearby villages because they cannot afford any form of transport. Only ten students had a separate lamp for study and four used street lamps to study. For them, India has not progressed much since the days of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar.
Not much work has been done on the education of Muslims since 1947. Bilquis Fathima's thesis on the role of private enterprise in education, with special reference to Muslim educational organizations in Karnataka (1984) looks at seven organizations which are spread over the entire state in order to find out the extent to which the administration of education at the hands of Muslim organizations had become secular and democratic, whether these organizations promoted social and national integration, and whether their financial position was satisfactory.
There are a few studies on women's education such as Mathur (1978), Misra (1961), Rai (1955) on Bengal, Vakil (1965) on Bombay, Desai (1972) on Gujarat, Naik (1949) and Dave (1971). Lakhar (1976) and Das (1979) have studied women's education in Assam. Rajlakshmi (1984) has written on the social, economic and political aspects of the growth of higher education
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of women in Madras Presidency during 1921-47. This thesis seems to make a departure from earlier studies insofar as it examines the economic background of students and the contribution made by educated women towards social legislation and in the field of politics. There are a number of problems to which researchers in the field of women's education need still to address themselves such as the debates on women's education in the late 19th century and early 20th century-what sort of education should women get; the attitudes of social reformers towards women's education; the role of women's associations in mobilizing support for women's education. Novels, short stories, biographies and autobiographies of women as well as women's magazines and histories of women's institutions and associations can be useful as source material. A volume was published on the occasion of the centenary of Bethune College but more studies should be made of women's colleges and schools.