“Exact thinkers and speakers have their value in all times and ages. But what India wants even more than these is a class of men who will devote themselves with heroic self-sacrifice to the regeneration of their country. Truthfulness, devotion, self-sacrifice and enterprise are the type of qualities which education in India should aim at more directly than exactness in speech and thought”.
FEBRUARY 11, 1889
Responsibilities of university education
AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW BUILDINGS FOR THE ELPHINSTONE College, in Bombay, Lord Reay made another of those remarkable speeches on education, which have contributed so much to the delight and enlightenment of Indian readers. We recently had the pleasure of reviewing his masterly speech at the recent convocation of the Bombay University, so full of lofty ideals and practical wisdom, and on the occasion we are referring to, he supplemented it by certain new observations which equally deserve the earnest attention of all those engaged in the education of Indian youths. When he said, addressing the students of the Elphinstone College, that it was for them and their successors to solve the problem of their own destinies and of the destinies of their country, he gave utterance to what might be characterized as a truism. But this truism is not kept in view always by professors and teachers, and the students do not receive a serious impression of the responsibilities they are contracting. The object that is kept in mind is the passing of the University Examinations, and in the worry and haste that accompany the process of training they forget this higher view of their future position. We believe that like all serious works, the work of national education must have some definite object in view; and although in every country higher education must be directed towards the formation of individual character, and through it of the character of the nation, still the degree of direct attention paid to this object in schools would depend on the condition of the people. In advanced countries the character of the individual and the nation is not formed merely in schools. The home and the State contribute largely to this result. Even more than the education received in schools that of the domestic influence is powerful in European countries. There are, besides, the numerous branches of the public service and respectable professions, which constantly influence and direct the tendencies of the people. The names of several great men who have left their mark in European history but who owed little or nothing to their education in schools, can be mentioned. But in India both of these two latter influences are absent and all that moral force which is necessary to regenerate the nation has to be supplied more or less by our schools and colleges. It is no doubt a serious defect which the Australian gentleman pointed among the results of our University Education. The character of the Indian mind possesses extraordinary inherited powers of memory, but according to this gentleman it was lacking in aptitude for exact thinking. This charge we must admit to be true with regard to the present generation of Hindus. But it is not certainly true of their great ancestors who were the authors of the Indian systems of philosophy and the architects of Indian civilisation. To those European scholars who have dived deep into our ancient literature, nothing in it has appeared more striking than the exactness, logical precision and boldness of their reasoning. With the decline of our political power the intellectual manliness of the nation disappeared, and two thousand years of anarchy and ceaseless revolution have not proved indeed favourable to the best cultivation of thinking powers. Times have changed, the beneficent British rule has planted the seeds of peaceful progress; and it may be hoped that the Hindus will develop those powers of mind for which their ancient sages were celebrated. Meanwhile progress; and it may be hoped that the Hindus will develop those powers of mind for which their ancient sages were celebrated. Meanwhile our Colleges and Universities have to pay, in the present state of the country, more attention to moral culture than to exactness in speech and thought. We do not say that this has been altogether neglected hitherto. On the other hand, the modern generation of educated Hindus is from every moral point of view superior to its predecessors. In every walk of life educated Hindus have distinguished themselves by their integrity and intelligence. As citizens, as public servants and as professional men, they have satisfied a high moral standard. There is indeed a disposition to cast discredit on them. As Dr. Peterson said, there is a growing distrust of the educated classes, a latent misgiving as to the wisdom of the policy of liberal education in India. But this distrust and this misgiving are not genuine but merely feigned to cover a selfish jealousy against the advancement of the people. Dr. Peterson, like the professors of our leading colleges, is fully entitled to resent the imputation that moral training has been neglected. Still, not to neglect a duty is different from discharging it in the spirit of a conviction that it is the most important and direct object of University education. Exact thinkers and speakers have their value in all times and in all ages. But what India wants even more than these is a class of men who will devote themselves with heroic self-sacrifice to the regeneration of their country. Truthfulness, devotion, self-sacrifice and enterprise are the type of qualities which education in India should aim at more directly than exactness in speech and thought. The Indian character has seldom been wanting in examples of what may be called passive virtues. Patience, personal attachment, gentleness and such like qualities have always been prominent. But for ages together, India has not had amongst her sons one like Gordon, Garibaldi or Washington. The forcing of moral text-books on University students will be absolutely fruitless. Nor is it quite enough to depend upon the Christian ethics permeating English literature. It is from the lessons of history and more especially from the biographies of those great men who, from time to time have directed the destinies of nations that this moral training in its highest sense can be achieved. Education must adapt itself to the requirements of the age; and how else can these requirements be best summarised than by condensing them in the one expression, the general reinvigoration of society? In all departments of life, the Hindus require a vigorous, manly individuality, a determination to succeed and to sacrifice everything in the attempt. A good deal is now said and written about practical education, about technical schools, and the development of industries. But all these efforts will be in vain unless the character of the nation is improved. England, Germany and Russia were at one time much poorer than India is at present, still they have made marvellous advancement in material prosperity within the last hundred years, and the only advantage they had over India was the superior character of their people. Similarly, as the basis of all social and political reform we want the elevation of the national character. In our humble opinion, the best moral code of a nation is to be found in the memorable examples of history. And more recent these examples are, the better. We should think study of modern history is a more powerful instrument of moral training than that of the histories of ancient peoples. The history of England, Germany, Italy and the United States are much more profitable studies and more fitted to influence practical life than the history of Greece and Rome. We cannot but think that sufficient importance is not attached to this most useful and interesting branch of study in our schools and colleges. There is another means of education which used to be more largely utilized some years ago than at present. The education received out of lecture-rooms and from an intercourse with the professors is as important as that received within the four walls of the college. “My friend, Sir Alexander Grant”, said Lord Reay, “used always to be ready at all times to see his pupils in his own study and he attached importance to the conversation he held there with them, almost more importance than to the influence which he exercised through his eloquent lectures.” In our Presidency too, the same is said of Mr. E. B. Powell, of Mr. Porter and generally of the earlier batch of our professors. But of late, we must say, there has been a deterioration in this respect. In the selection of professors and teachers is not exercised that degree of care which the importance of their function demands; and there is now less attachment to the work on the part of the professors. The improvement of their fortune is with them a more anxious concern than the true education of the students entrusted to their charge. A professor is not merely a professor now-a-days; in many instances he is half a dozen other things each of which brings an addition to his income. It is almost impossible that a man can prove what a professor ought to be. Leisurely conversations with the students or weekly walks with them or any manner of social intercourse, evoking the thinking powers of the students, improving their stock of knowledge, and teaching exact speaking and thinking, are out of the question. Speaking of the Elphinstone College, Lord Reay remarked. “If this College is to be in the future what many of the pages of its history show it to have been in the past, the torch lighting educated opinion in this Presidency, then we shall have to show that we are in earnest in the task which we have undertaken and I can assure you that no task to my mind is more important and more arduous than that which falls on the gentlemen who preside over the destinies of this College.” These are golden words, and they quite aptly apply to the professors of other Colleges in the country whether maintained by Government or by private bodies.
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I