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History of Education Policymaking in India, 1947–2016
1
History of Education Policymaking in India, 1947–2016
. .
2
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
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First Edition published in 2017
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3
Contents
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
4
Preface
This book chronicles the history of education policymaking in India. The focus of
the book is on the period from 1964 when the landmark Kothari Commission was
constituted; however, to put the policy developments in this period into perspective
the developments since Independence had been covered in some detail. Even some
of the important policy developments during the Raj had been touched to some
extent. All in all, this book provides a fairly good idea of policy developments since
the Indian Education Commission (1882). Even in a book of this magnitude, it is
impossible to cover every conceivable topic, and one cannot help being judiciously
selective. Therefore, while this book does cover elementary and adult education it
chooses to complement the narrative in the author’s previous book The Holy Grail:
India’s Quest for Universal Elementary Education1 rather than cover everything as a
standalone book would do. In addition, the book focussed on a few major themes of
education policy. Those themes include the organization of education, the role of the
State and private actors, the role of the Central and State Governments, financing of
education and the policy levers for furthering policy objectives. A distinctiveness of
the book is that comparative and historical perspectives are brought to bear on the
narrative.
Another distinctiveness of this book lies in the attention it pays to the process and
politics of policymaking and the larger setting—or to use jargon the political and
policy environment—in which policies were made at different points of time. By
and large, education policy discourse had confined itself to an abstract debate over
what the policy ought to be simplistically assuming that if only it had political will
Government could adopt and implement the best policy. Strange but true even the
praxis of policy analysis is not anchored in policy analysis. There is often no
realistic assessment of the problem which needs to be addressed, no realistic
identification of the various alternatives, no rigorous evaluation of alternatives, and
no roadmap offered for realization of the policy objectives. Policy discourse as well
praxis often do not concern itself with how, how actually one could go about to
realize what ought to be or whether what was proposed as something that ought to
be done could indeed be done in the face of objective conditions. And further,
education policy discourse often misses out the fact that major policy issues are not
considered in isolation, and that politics and process have a vital bearing on policy
development and adoption. Education policy discourse often misses out the
ineluctable fact that Governments cannot address any major policy issue without
regard to the possible linkages of that issue with issues in other policy areas, and
further cannot disregard competing priorities and demands on limited resources
5
organizational and financial. To illustrate, public expenditure had been hovering
around four per cent of the GDP half a century after the Kothari Commission
recommended that that Central and State Governments should together expend at
least six percent of the GDP on education. The failure to implement the Kothari
Commission recommendation cannot be attributed to lack of political will, as often
it is, for there had been Governments of different political hues over the last fifty
years; one can understand the failure only through an analysis of the fiscal capacity
of the Central and State Governments and the competing demands and priorities.
Gross attributions like lack of political will, surrender to vested interests, and class
background of the ruling class have a ring of truth, but they are often devoid of
substance, and used as substitutes for a detailed analysis necessary to understand
why what was expected or promised did not materialize, or why a particular policy
and not others were chosen in a given context. And further a basic premise of
educational discourse is that ‘politics’ ought not to intrude in the hallowed area of
education. This premise is unexceptionable with politics in the sense of partisan
activities aimed at securing undue advantage for the ruling party or conferring an
undue advantage on some. However, such politics is not the be all and end of
politics. People have different, conflicting views about how the polity, the society
the economy should be organized, and these differences impact on policy issues in
all area including education. An example is the organization and financing of higher
education. Should private universities be allowed or not? Should they be allowed to
recover the cost of providing education through fees or should they not be? These
are not solely questions of education but of politics and economics as well, or more
accurately of political and economic beliefs. By its very nature, any policy entails
costs for some and benefits for some others; all those who gain do not necessarily
gain to the same extent, and vice versa. Therefore, no policy can be disassociated
from politics, whose classical definition is who gets what, when, and how. The
French word politique connotes policy as well as politics, and captures the cardinal
truth that policymaking is not just a technical exercise but is as well as a matter of
politics. For any major policy to come into being it is necessary to resolve
conflicting views and interests, and in a democracy it is the political system and
process that resolves conflicts of views and interests. Suffice to say, to think
educational policymaking can be made solely based on expert advice or that
education should be left to educationists is to live in cloud cuckoo-land. It is
imperative to always bear in mind the sagacious remark of J.P. Naik regarding the
relationship between education and politics.
When the Education Commission was appointed, Mr. M.C. Chagla boasted that it consisted
only of academics and that he had not appointed a single politician on it. But this isolation
makes educationists blind too many aspects of the educational reality … (many issues) cannot
be solved except jointly by politicians and educationists … educationists desire full political
support without any political interference (which is their concept of autonomy) …. A situation
of this type does immense harm.2
6
In addition to politics educational discourse also ignores the fact that the process
of policy development and adoption has a decisive influence on whether a policy
comes into being and if so what are its contours. To take a trivial example, driving in
a city like Bangalore or Hyderabad is anything but a smooth process; when you
arrive at the destination and in what shape very much depends upon the path along
which you drive, what you encounter along the path and how you drive; on a day
when a mammoth rally is expected on the path one has to travel, one may as well
stay at home and give up altogether the idea of going out. And further a policy
which requires approval by the Parliament is bound to have a longer process than
that which requires approval by the executive, and whether it secures passage or not
depends upon the strength of the Government in the Parliament. Suffice to say the
political standing of the Government, the configuration of forces for and against the
policy, and the deftness with which the Government manages the policy
development and approval process are decisive factors in policymaking. Educational
development is actually a series of untidy and overlapping episodes in which a
variety of people and organizations with diverse perspectives are involved—
politically and technically—in the processes through which the policy is developed
and implemented. Hence, education policymaking is not a mere rational technical
exercise, and the how and when of policymaking are as important as the what of
policy.3 This book breaks a new path by dealing with the real world of policymaking
instead of treating policymaking as a technical exercise.
Yet another distinction of the book is its attempt to subject regulation of
education to a systematic analysis the way regulation of utilities or business or
environment had been. Regulation of education is a vast area with many dimensions
and there is no study which explores that regulation in its entirety and in depth. That
being so, it would be expedient to study regulation starting from first principles
exploring answers for the questions like what is regulation? Why regulate? Whom to
regulate? How to regulate? What to regulate? Who is to regulate? What are the
alternatives? What are the criteria to choose among the alternatives? This book
attempts to place the regulation of education in a proper perspective, outline the
evolution of the regulation of higher education, changes in the thinking on
regulation of education, evaluate the functioning of regulatory organizations like the
All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), describe the failed attempt of
the UPA-II Government to put in place a new regulatory architecture for higher
education in place and do away with established organizations like the UGC and
AICTE, and outline the proposals of the Modi Government to revamp the regulatory
architecture. Discussion of regulation, or for that matter any major policy is
incomplete without an examination of the role of judicial review and case law. In
fact, ‘the courts have tended to move from the byways onto the highways of policy
making’ as a result of the replacement of the black letter law tradition by a judicial
philosophy and interpretational activism which sanctify discerning the purpose
underlying a constitutional provision and applying the purpose so discovered to
rectify failures of public policy and governance as well as to correct wrongs of all
types. No wonder that the exercise of the power of judicial review in Yash Pal and
7
Another v. State of Chhattisgarh and others [(2005) 5 SCC 42] had led to the
metamorphosis of the UGC from an ineffective regulatory organization into a
powerful organization whose regulations bind even State Legislatures and State
Governments, not to speak of universities; a New UGC was born which is a species
different from that created by the Parliamentary statute. A Madras High Court
judgement said it all when it observed that ‘today, Albert Einstein cannot be
appointed as the Vice Chancellor of any university unless he fulfils the
qualifications prescribed by UGC’.4 True to the saying ‘ The Lord giveth, and the
Lord taketh away’ judicial review virtually demolished the power of the AICTE to
regulate degree-granting technical education institutions and universities, and
curtailed the power of State Governments to regulate the admission of private self-
financing colleges. Suffice to say a policy discourse without judicial policymaking is
like Hamlet without Prince of Denmark. This book breaks a new path by integrating
judicial policymaking with the making and implementation of education policies.
This book would not have been written but for an attempt to reflect on my
experiences and to that end place them in context. I was inspired by the counsel I
received from Chitra Naik, eminent educationist and better half of the legendary J.P.
Naik, and from S.V. Giri, Union Education Secretary with whom I was privileged to
work. While presenting me a copy of Naik’s The Education Commission and After,
Chitra Naik inscribed on the book ‘with compliments, for continuing the dialogue’.
And Giri advised me on many occasions to write about the political economy of
education. Anil Bordia, Giri’s predecessor, from whom I learnt what education was
about and who encouraged me to study the history of education, often used to pose
the question ‘what would Naik sahib say (about this issue)?’—a legitimate question
for ‘in his person he [J.P. Naik] is the quintessence of educational India … he carries
in his head not only facts and their history but also the whys and wherefores of each
educational event which he is able to conceptualize and build into a systematic and
integrated theory’.5 Without the illumination provided by the Past one cannot grasp
the Present, cannot grasp when had changed and what continues. Study of the Past
helps us to understand ‘how we got here’ which is as interesting as understanding
how different is the Present from the Past. The study of history dispels the facile
belief of many decision-makers that ‘the world was new, all problems fresh’, and
controls the tendency ‘to offer quick fixes for complex problems’.6 Quite a few of
the contemporaneous educational challenges were also addressed in the Past by
great minds and statesmen, and their thoughts and actions are of great value in
understanding the nature of contemporaneous challenges. The lessons of history
help identify promising avenues and blind alleys, and cure one of solipsism and
hubris. While the Past is a useful guide to address some of the present challenges,
one should be discerning enough to recognise that some of the changes are
discontinuities which call from a departure from Past beliefs and policy approaches.
A good example is higher education; going by the well-known schema of Martin
Trow,7 with Gross Enrolment Ratio crossing 15 per cent in 2011–12 the Indian
higher education system had transited from the elite to ‘massified’ stage. The United
8
States made that transition in 1949–50, and countries of Western Europe, United
Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea in the 1980s and 1990s. World over, that
transition was associated with systemic changes, the most important of which is the
extraordinary diversification of the purpose of higher education, financing, student
body, and content and process of higher education. Old beliefs and nostalgia for the
Past would be grave impediments to address the challenges of massification and
post-massification. The experience and policy developments of countries which
made the transition earlier would be valuable in identifying policy options. And very
importantly, apart from trying to look at the ‘Present’ from the perspective of the
‘Past’ I also attempted the converse of it, namely look at the ‘Past’ from the
perspective of the ‘Present’.
Naik’s historical writings cover educational developments during the British era
and post-Independent period till 1979. For the period subsequent to 1979, there have
been articles—may be a book or two—on some aspects of these developments
individually; however, there is no comprehensive narrative that covers developments
as a whole and place them against the backdrop of national and global political,
economic and educational developments. As one who was a witness to many of the
developments, and associated with quite a few, I felt it was incumbent on me to act
on the advice of Chitra Naik and Giri, and document the developments so that the
Great Conversation could go one uninterrupted. This book meticulously documents
the course of education policymaking from 1964 onwards. Such documentation had
a special value in a country like ours in which in spite of legal provisions public
records do not reach archives as they ought to, a fact of which I have experiential
knowledge from my stint as Secretary, Culture, Government of India whose remit
includes supervision of the National Archives.
This book is the narrative of a participant-observer. During 1988–97, I was
intensely associated with many of the policy and programme initiatives at the State,
national, and international levels. Each of these experiences was valuable, and my
experiential knowledge would have been incomplete without anyone of them.
Experience of working as State Education Secretary gave me the opportunity to
understand the challenges of implementing national policies in the field, and to gain
experience of formulating State-specific policies, of universalizing elementary
education, of vocationalizing secondary education, of managing the trade-off
between expansion of access and maintenance of quality and standards, of the heavy
burden of administering and regulating a vast education system, of setting up the
country’s first State Council of Higher Education, and of managing the delicate
interface between the Government and the universities. That experience also helped
me grapple some of the questions in the development and regulation of higher
education which loomed large later in my career, and continue to do so. What is a
university? Is a language university an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms? Should
an institution encompass almost all significant branches of knowledge, combine
teaching, and research, and be engaged in the creation of knowledge if it were to be
called a university? Can a university established with the objective of promoting
Telugu language and literature should also discharge the functions of the Sahitya,
9
Sangeet Natak, and Lalit Kala Akademies? How is a woman’s university different?
What could be the State-level mechanism for regulation of and coordination among
universities? Given the acute scarcity of budgetary resources how should private
participation in the expansion of access be encouraged? What should be the policy
towards minority education institutions? Later in the Department of Education,
Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), as head of the policy planning
division and then Additional Secretary, I had the privilege of being closely
associated with every major education policy development during the period 1990–7
including revision in 1992 of the National Policy on Education, 1986 and its
Programme of Education, changes in the financing of IITs, IIMs, and Indian Institute
of Science, and the development of District Primary Education Programme which
along with its progeny Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was responsible for bringing the
nation to the current stage of the long march towards universal elementary
education. I was also the pointsman for managing the interface between the Union
Department of Education and external agencies including SIDA and agencies
administering British, Dutch and German development assistance, European
Commission, UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank. During 1995–7, I was one
of the six members of the External Advisory Panel, appointed by the World Bank
President to advise him on education, a member of the High Level Committee
appointed by the Director General, UNESCO to consider setting up the UNESCO
Institute of Statistics, and Chairman of a committee appointed by ESCAP to review
the Jakarta Plan of Action for human resource development. The opportunity to
interact with external agencies and their functionaries acquainted me with the
international trends in the thinking on education policy, the organizational dynamics
of major agencies as well as of country-agency relationships, and of interactions
among agencies. By happenstance, even after retirement, I was associated with the
Oversight Committee appointed by the Central Government (2006) to introduce
reservation for Other Backward Classes in Central Government educational
institutions and with the task force appointed by the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare (2009) to draw up a bill for establishing a National Commission for Human
Resources for Health. These associations helped me to update myself with the
developments in the areas of higher and professional education. I also led Missions
to review the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha
Abhiyan (National Secondary Education Mission). I was one of the select
educationists in the world invited by the East West Centre, Honolulu, to a workshop
on ‘New educational paradigms and leadership programs’, at the University of Hong
Kong (2003). I was invited by the World Bank to be a key note speaker at
workshops of African countries on capacity building for educational development at
Cape Town (July 2007) and Tunis (December 2007), and by the European Union at
a retreat of its functionaries in social sectors at Hanoi (October 2007). All in all,
these associations helped me understand key issues of education policy, the
contested terrains and the praxis of policymaking to a degree which no amount of
reading would have helped. After all, there is a certain element of truth in the
10
assertion of the eminent historiographer Giambattista Vico that those who make or
create something can understand it as mere observers of it cannot.
In writing this narrative as participant observer I tried to be as objective and self-
critical as a human being could be However, I am conscious of the fact that being
human and only all too human I did not succeed in totally eschewing my personal
preferences and prejudices, and what follows is not so much history as his-story. Yet
I think this narrative has merit by virtue of the fact that when dust settles down and a
historian could write of this period as an outsider and not as one lived through by
him he needs sources. Suffice to say this his-story would serve as a source for future
historians of Indian education.
I am grateful to Professor N. S. Gopalakrishnan and Dr P.S. Seema, Law Faculty,
Cochin Technological University, for invaluable assistance in locating the case law,
and vetting some of the chapters. However, I am fully responsible for any errors
which remain.
I would like to express my gratitude to my parents, R. V. Venkataramana Ayyar
and R. V. Seshambal, who have contributed so much to my Being and Becoming.
This book would not have been possible without the encouragement and forbearance
of my wife Seetha Vaidyanathan. For years I had been and continue to be engrossed
in writing; such engrossment is burdensome for a spouse at a stage of life when
loneliness is an ineluctable existential condition. I would also like to thank the
editorial team at Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
1 R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar, The Holy Grail: India’s Quest for Universal Elementary
Education, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016.
2 J.P. Naik, The Education Commission and After, New Delhi: A.B.H. Publishing
Corporation, 2nd edition, 1997, pp. 238–9.
3 For a full exposition of policy process and politics see R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar, Public
Policymaking in India, New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009; also see Wadi D. Haddad with
the assistance of Terri Demsky, The Dynamics of Education Policymaking: Case Studies of
Burkina Faso, Jordan, Peru and Thailand, Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1994.
4 K.Y. Jeyaraj and Another v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others, MANU/TN/0879/2014.
5 M. Adiseshiah, ‘Foreword’ to J.P. Naik, The Education Commission and After, p. viii.
6 Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History in
Decision-making, New York: The Free Press, 1985, p. xi.
7 Martin Trow, ‘Reflections on the Transition for Elite to Mass to Universal Access: Forms
and Phases of Higher Education in Modern Societies since World War II’, Daedalus, Volume
90, Number 1, 1970, pp. 1–42.
11
Abbreviations
13
IGNOU Indira Gandhi National Open University
IHC Indian Historical Congress
IIM Indian Institute of Management
IIT Indian Institute of Technology
IMA Indian Medical Association
IPS Institute of Professional Studies
IRAHE Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education
CISCE Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations
ISCE Indian School Certificate Examinations
ISRO Indian Space Research Organisation
ITI Industrial Training Institute
JCVE Joint Council of Vocational Education
JRM Joint Review Mission
KSSP Kerala Sastra Sahitya Praishad
KVR K.V. Ramanthan
LKA Lalit Kala Academi
MAHE Manipal Academy of Higher Education
MBA Master of Business Administration
MCA Master of Computer Applications
MCI Medical Council of India
MEA Ministry of External Affairs
MHFW Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
MHRD Ministry of Human Resource Development
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIU Manipal International University
MLL Minimum Levels of Education
MNC Multinational Corporation
MOCCs Mass Open Online Courses
MOS Minister of State
MoU Memorandum of Understanding
MP Member of the Parliament
MSDE Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
NAAC National Assessment and Accreditation Council
NARA National Accreditation Regulatory Authority
NBA National Board of Accreditation
NCERT National Council of Educational Research and Training
NCF National Curricular Framework for School Education
NCHER National Commission for Higher Education and Research
14
NCHRH National Council for Human Resource in Health
NCMEI National Commission for Minority Education Institutions
NCTE National Council of Teacher Education
NDA National Democratic Alliance
NDC National Development Council
NEET National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NIEPA National Institute of Educational Planning
NKC National Knowledge Commission
NLM National Literacy Mission
NPE National Policy on Education
NRI Non-resident Indian
NSDA National Skill Development Agency
NSDC National Skills Development Corporation
NSQF National Skills Qualification Framework
NSSO National Sample Survey Office
NSU National Science University
NTR N. T. Rama Rao
NUEPA National University of Educational Planning and Administration
ODA Overseas Development Administration
ODL Open and Distance Learning
OECD Organization for European Cooperation and Development
PAC Public Accounts Committee
PIL Public Interest Litigation
PISA Programme for International Student Assessment
PLCE Post-literacy and Continuing Education
PMO Prime Minister’s Office
POA Programme of Action
PV P. V. Narasimha Rao
QAA Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
REC Regional Engineering College
RMSA Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan
RSS Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh
RTE Act The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act,
2009
RTE Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
RUSA Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan
SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
15
SAHMAT Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust
SCHE State Council of Higher Education
SCVE State Council of Vocational Education
SIET State Institute of Education Technology
SSP Samyukta Socialist Party
TLC Total Literacy Campaign
TRIPs Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Rights
TVET Technical Vocational Education and training
UAE United Arabs Emirate
UEE Universal Elementary Education
UGC University Grants Commission
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UPA United Progressive Alliance
UPE Universal Primary Education
UT Union Territory
UWC United World Colleges
VEC Village Education Committee
Vyapam (Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board)
Vyavsayik
Pariksha
Mandali
WTO World Trade Organization
WUN World Universities Network
16
CHAPTER 1
The transition from the Raj to Independent India was marked by change as well as
continuity. It is unhistorical and unfair to characterize the Raj as a nightwatchman
State with little concern for the welfare of its subjects. The pronouncement of the
Educational Despatch of 1854 that ‘it is one of our most sacred duties, to be the
means, as far as in us lies, of conferring upon the natives of India those vast moral
and material blessings which flow from the general diffusion of useful knowledge’
(Education Despatch 1854, cited in Naik and Nurullah 1974) was not mere empty
rhetoric. Curzon’s efforts to bring about an all-round improvement in education was
not something to be scoffed at. It is not for nothing that the eminent educationist and
historian of Indian education J.P. Naik observed that Curzon ‘touched almost every
aspect of education and touched nothing that he did not reform’, and is ‘the author
of the great movement for educational reconstruction’ which started in the beginning
of the twentieth century.1 Yet, development of India and welfare of its people was
not the paramount objective but preservation of the Empire was. All in all, an
independent nation free to make or mar its destiny is a species different from a
colony. However, Independence did not mark a total break from the past; the system,
administrative structures, policies, and to some extent even the value systems were
adapted by Independent India rather than being jettisoned outright. A good example
is the encouragement of private effort for expanding secondary and collegiate
education by offering grant-in-aid. The Indian Education Commission of 1882
differentiated between primary education and schooling and collegiate education,
and held that it was the duty of the State to provide primary education. At other
stages of education private effort was to be encouraged through a system of grant-in-
aid. The grant-in-aid system is reminiscent of the modish New Public Management
prescription of private provision and public funding, and performance-linked
challenging grants. After Independence, State Governments were more willing than
during the British Raj to set up schools of their own; however, the grant-in-aid
policy continued to be relied upon to expand secondary education and collegiate
education. The result was that higher the stage of a school, higher was the
proportion of private-aided schools. Thus even in 1986–7, private-aided schools
accounted for 66.77 per cent of the higher secondary schools, 52.65 per cent of
secondary schools, 23 per cent of upper primary schools, and 7.60 per cent of the
primary schools.
17
Apart from structures and policies, one finds continuity even in the educational
discourse on grand themes such as free and compulsory education, the interse
priorities among different stages of education, the imperative of the Central
Government assisting the States for the attainment of universal primary education,
the essentiality of the Central Government coordinating the educational policies of
States, equalization of education opportunities, the dilemma of expanding access
without compromising quality, the unemployability of most college graduates, and
wasteful chasing of degrees and diplomas in the hope that prospects of employment
would thereby improve. A good example is the discourse on compulsory primary
education. While the nationalist opinion was of the strong view that Government
was obligated to expand access adequately and ensure compulsory primary
education, the official position was that while Government was committed to
expanding primary education and accord, priority to it in public spending on
education, it could not accept the principle of compulsory primary education for
financial and administrative reasons. A similar dialogue surfaced in the run-up to the
enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act
2009.
MACAULAY’S GHOST
Even now, over 175 years later, it is not unusual for educational discourse in India to
begin with a ritualistic execration of the infamous minute of Macaulay as being the
fountainhead of all that is wrong with Indian education. Thus the Perspective Paper
brought out by the Ramamurti Committee gave a clarion call to ‘give up forever the
legacy of Macaulay tradition, and start afresh;’2 so does the contemporaneous
Hindutva discourse on education. Shorn of the context, some of the assertions in
Macaulay’s Minute seem outrageous. It is difficult for an Indian not to revolt against
a goal of education that seeks ‘to form a class who may be interpreters between us
and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour,
but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect’ (Macaulay 1920). Nor
can one fail to be offended by the wholesale condemnation of Indian civilization that
oozes in the assertion that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the
whole native literature of India and Arabia, or that oriental languages like Sanskrit
and Arabic were ‘barren in useful knowledge’. Using Government funds to teach
them would be to teach false history, false astronomy, and false medicine, which
were in the company of a false religion. However, with the passage of time and the
Raj ceasing to be a personal experience for most Indians, it is possible and desirable
to objectively evaluate the educational policies of the Raj without nostalgia or
revulsion. The course of events culminating in Macaulay’s minute and its adoption
as official policy by Governor-General Bentinck was meticulously studied by Indian
historians, historians of education such as Naik and Nurullah, and historians of
science with ‘innate love of historical studies’ like Prafulla Chandra Ray, eminent
patriot and scientific pioneer who introduced in our country systematic and
sustained research in chemistry, and a true Renaissance Man who could wield the
18
pen with as much facility as a test tube. What unambiguously comes out from all
these studies is the fact that exigencies of administration and commercial intercourse
forced Indians, particularly in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, to cultivate the
knowledge of English in the eighteenth century. The demand for promoting English
education was led by educated Bengalis, particularly the Hindus, who understood
the nature and importance of the distinctive culture of Englishmen with whom they
came into contact, and realized the necessity of imbibing its spirit through the
knowledge of English.3 Ray contended that English education was in a manner
forced upon the Government: It did not spontaneously originate it and that Macaulay
was not ‘the prime mover, that his intervention was late and that the forces which he
represented would probably have been successful even without his singularly
tactless and blundering championship’ might be nearer to the truth.4
Notwithstanding the criticism of the education introduced after Macaulay’s
infamous minute, the demand for establishment of more and more high schools and
colleges was unremitting. Every statesman who had been suspected of diverting
sums from higher education to elementary education evoked a storm of
unpopularity. A case in point was the odium incurred by Sir George Campbel,
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, who declared in 1871 that primary education was
the chief object of his administration and assigned a sum of Rs 400,000 for
development of schools.5 Likewise Curzon’s attempt to give priority to
improvement of quality over establishment of new institutions was very unpopular
with nationalists. The often repeated accusation that English education was
introduced by the British rulers with the sole object of turning out clerks is not borne
out by historical analysis. However, the nationalist criticism that English education
was far too literal and of little practical use is absolutely valid. This was a point
made again and again by British administrators and educationists themselves.
Raja Rammohan Roy’s plea to Lord Amherst, unequivocally requesting English
education to be introduced, is well known but its context is not. Higher education—
both among Hindus and the Muslims—followed a stereotyped course during the
half-millennium ending in 1800 . . After dazzling the world with its scientific and
mathematical achievements, from the thirteenth century, India stopped growing
intellectually and more particularly scientifically. Needham questions why countries
like China and India which were scientifically ahead of Europe till the seventeenth
century failed to give rise to a distinctively modern science, or to put it more
colourfully ‘how Galilean science could come to birth in Pisa but not in Patna or
Peking’ (Needham 1971 cited in Narasimha 2002) had been explored extensively,
and a number of reasons had been adduced for India failing to stop growing
scientifically after dazzling the world with its achievements. The most important
reason was the intellectual self-sufficiency of the Hindus noted by incisive observers
like Al-Biruni, and a social rigidity which ensured that philosophers remained
philosophers and artisans thereby inhibiting cross-fertilization of ideas. The essence
of the modern scientific method pioneered by Francis Bacon in the early seventeenth
century is rejection of the use of mere logical reasoning to investigate nature, and
insistence on the use of inductive reasoning, which proceeds from facts ascertained
19
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«Vous pouvez me croire, répétait Benina, je n’ai pris qu’un tout
petit verre de vin que m’a offert M. de Ponte.
—Oui, ce M. de Ponte me cause de graves inquiétudes, c’est un
vieux encore vert, très rusé et très gueux. Mais, en tout état de
cause, je constate que tu ne te défends qu’en te taisant.... Tu ne
songes pas que tu me trompes, hypocrite.... Au seuil de la vieillesse,
tu t’en vas en dissolution et tu perds la parole. Seigneur, que nous
faut-il voir? et quels dérèglements entraîne après lui ce maudit
vice?... Tu te tais: donc c’est certain. Non, non, tu le nierais, que tu
ne me convaincrais pas, parce que quand je dis une chose, c’est
parce que je la sais.... J’ai un œil!»
Sans donner le temps de s’expliquer à la délinquante, elle sauta
sur un autre sujet:
«Et qu’as-tu à me raconter, femme? Quelle réception t’a faite
mon parent Carlos? Comment est-il? Est-il bien? Il ne crève point
d’envie? Tu n’as besoin de me rien dire, parce que, comme si j’avais
été cachée derrière un rideau, je sais tout ce qu’il t’a dit.... On ne me
trompe jamais! Il t’a dit que tout ce qui m’arrive vient de ma
mauvaise habitude de ne point tenir de comptes. Personne n’est
capable de le faire revenir de cette niaiserie. Chaque fou a sa folie:
celle de mon parent est de vouloir tout régler avec des chiffres....
Avec eux, il a fait sa petite fortune en volant la douane et les
paroissiens; c’est avec eux qu’il espère, à la fin de sa vie, sauver
son âme, et aux pauvres il recommande sa médecine des chiffres
qui, lui, ne le sauvera pas et qui à nous ne sert de rien. Est-ce cela?
Est-ce bien ce qu’il t’a dit?
—Oui, madame, il me semble l’entendre parler.
—Et après tout ce rabâchage sur le doit et l’avoir, il t’aura
certainement donné une aumône pour moi.... Il ignore que ma
dignité s’oppose à ce que je la reçoive. Je le vois ouvrant son tiroir
comme quelqu’un qui veut et qui ne veut pas, prenant le portefeuille
qui contient les billets, en le cachant pour que tu ne le voies pas; je
le vois soupeser le petit sac et le refermer soigneusement; je le vois
retirant la clef..., puis le grand cochon fait sa cochonnerie. Je ne puis
préciser la somme qu’il t’aura remise pour moi, parce qu’il est très
difficile de suivre les calculs de l’avarice, mais je puis affirmer, sans
crainte de me tromper, qu’elle ne dépasse pas quarante douros.»
La tête que Benina fit en entendant cela ne saurait se décrire. La
vieille dame, qui l’observait avec soin, devint blême et dit après une
courte pause:
«Est-ce vrai? Est-ce que je me trompe de beaucoup? Pourtant,
quelque chiche et mesquin que soit cet homme, il ne sera pas
descendu au-dessous de vingt-cinq douros: moins, je ne saurais
l’admettre. Non, Nina, je ne l’admets pas.
—Madame, vous rêvez, répliqua l’autre en se plantant ferme
dans la réalité. Don Carlos n’a rien donné, ce qu’on peut appeler
rien. Pour le mois prochain il commencera à vous donner une paye
de deux douros mensuels.
—Menteuse et fourbe! Crois-tu me leurrer avec tes mensonges
artificieux? Va, va, je ne veux pas me rendre malade...; tu me tiens
pour de trop bon compte, et je ne suis pas pour me faire mal avec
une colère d’enfant..., tu as compris, Nina, tu as compris? Tu t’en
entendras avec ta conscience. Je m’en lave les mains. Mais tu ne
vois pas que je te confonds à l’instant et que je découvre tous tes
méfaits, et je prie Dieu qu’il te donne ta récompense! Oui, tu fais
maintenant la naïve, la petite chatte qui a manqué sa souris. Mais tu
ne vois pas que je vais te confondre à l’instant et que je devine
jusqu’au plus profond de toi-même? Allons, femme, avoue-le, ne
joins point le mensonge à l’infamie.
—Comment, madame?
—Puisque tu as succombé à la mauvaise tentation, confesse-le-
moi, et je te pardonne.... Tu ne veux point le déclarer? Tant pis pour
toi et pour ta conscience, parce que je vais te faire monter le rouge
au front. Veux-tu voir? Eh bien! les vingt-cinq douros que don Carlos
t’a remis pour moi, tu les as remis à ce Frasquito Ponte pour qu’il
paye ses dettes et puisse aller manger à l’auberge, pour qu’il
s’achète des cravates, de la pommade et une nouvelle canne.... Oui,
oui, tu vois, friponne, comme je devine tout et à combien peu servent
tes cachotteries. Maintenant tu t’es mise à protéger ce ténor
défraîchi, et tu l’aimes mieux que moi, tu as compassion de lui, et
moi qui t’aime tant, la foudre peut me frapper.»
La vieille femme se mit à fondre en larmes, et Benina, qui sentait
une démangeaison de répondre à de si grandes impertinences et de
lui donner le fouet comme à un enfant artificieux, à voir ces larmes
se sentit prise de compassion. Elle savait que les pleurs indiquaient
toujours la fin de la crise de colère, l’apaisement de l’accès et que,
pour mieux dire, quand cela arrivait, il valait mieux sourire et tourner
la discussion en plaisanterie aimable.
«Eh bien! oui, madame doña Francisca, lui dit-elle en
l’embrassant. Croyez-vous que, m’étant choisi un fiancé aussi
ravissant et si plaisant, je puisse le laisser dans l’embarras et ne pas
le couvrir de pommade?
—Ne crois pas que tu vas m’enjôler avec tes plaisanteries,
friponne, flatteuse, lui disait la dame déjà désarmée et vaincue. Je
puis t’assurer que l’usage que tu as fait de l’argent de Trujillo m’est
tout à fait indifférent, je n’aurais jamais voulu y toucher.... J’aimerais
mieux mourir de faim que de me salir les mains avec.... Donne-le,
donne-le à qui tu voudras, ingrate, et laisse-moi en paix; laisse-moi
mourir seule, oubliée de toi et de tout le monde.
—Ni vous ni moi nous ne sommes pour mourir de sitôt, parce
que nous avons encore beaucoup de combats à faire, lui dit la
servante en disposant avec empressement tout ce qu’il fallait pour
manger.
—Nous allons voir quelles saletés tu m’as encore rapportées
aujourd’hui.... Montre-moi ton panier.... Mais, ma fille, tu n’as pas
honte de porter à ta maîtresse ces affreux morceaux de viande où il
n’y a que de la peau? Et quoi encore? Des choux-fleurs? Tu
m’empestes avec tes choux-fleurs, ils me donnent des renvois
pendant trois jours au moins.... Enfin, pourquoi sommes-nous au
monde si ce n’est pour souffrir? Donne-moi cette ratatouille.... Et des
œufs, tu n’en as point apportés? Tu sais que je ne puis les souffrir
que s’ils sont extrêmement frais.
—Vous mangerez ce qu’on vous donnera, sans grogner, car c’est
offenser Dieu que d’apporter tant de si et de mais à la nourriture qu’il
nous envoie dans sa bonté.
—Bien, ma fille, comme tu voudras. Nous mangerons ce qu’il y a,
et nous remercierons Dieu. Mais mange, toi aussi, car cela me fait
peine de te voir si affairée, t’occupant de tous et n’oubliant que toi-
même et le soulagement de tes besoins. Assois-toi et dis-moi ce que
tu as fait aujourd’hui.»
Elles passèrent la moitié de la soirée, mangeant ensemble,
assises à la table de la cuisine, doña Paca soupirant de toute son
âme à chaque bouchée, exprimant ainsi les idées qui bouillaient en
sa cervelle.
«Dis-moi, Nina, parmi toutes ces choses rares,
incompréhensibles qu’il y a de par le monde, n’y aurait-il pas, par
hasard, un moyen..., un procédé..., je ne sais comment dire, un
sortilège par lequel nous autres nous pourrions, par exemple, passer
de la misère à l’abondance, par lequel ce qu’il y a de trop dans tant
de mains avaricieuses passerait dans nos mains à nous qui n’avons
rien?
—Que dites-vous, madame? Qu’il pourrait arriver en un clin d’œil
que nous passions de la pauvreté à la richesse et que, une
supposition, notre maison se trouve pleine d’argent et de tout ce que
Dieu a créé?
—C’est ce que je veux dire. Si les miracles sont des vérités,
pourquoi n’en arrive-t-il pas un à nous qui le méritons si bien?
—Et qui peut dire qu’il n’en arrivera pas, que nous ne nous
trouverons pas dans cette occurrence?» répondit Benina, dans
l’esprit de laquelle surgit tout d’un coup, avec un relief extraordinaire,
la conjuration qu’Almudena lui avait enseignée pour demander et
obtenir tous les biens de la terre.
XIX