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“Calculated to be Offensive to Hindoos”? Vernacular Education, History Textbooks and the Waqi'at Controversy of the 1860s in Colonial North India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2013

JEFFREY M. DIAMOND
JEFFREY M. DIAMOND*
Affiliation:
College of St. Benedict/St. John's University, St. Joseph, MN, [email protected]
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 75 - 95
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2013 

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References

1 One influential study that uses this Minute to offer a grand narrative about English language education is Viswanathan, Gauri, Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India (Delhi, 1998)Google Scholar.

2 Reformers were able to utilise experiments developed in other parts of north India (see below) to formulate policy more quickly in the Punjab. Thus the Punjab serves as a ‘case study’ for wider changes in north-west India. In addition, there has been a dearth of research about the early colonial period in the Punjab, although the reforms there provided frameworks for later developments.

3 For a discussion about the effects of the Revolt in Delhi in 1857–1858, see, Gupta, Narayani, Delhi Between Two Empires, 1803–1931. (Delhi, 1998), pp. 39–58 Google Scholar. Delhi was attached to the Punjab region after 1857 and administered through Lahore, further illustrating the rise of Lahore over the one-time capital of Mughal India.

4 One important critic was G.W. Leitner, an orientalist educator and Principal of Government College, Lahore. See, Diamond, Jeffrey M., “The orientalist-literati relationship in the northwest: G.W. Leitner, Muhammad Hussain Azad and the rhetoric of neo-orientalism in colonial Lahore”, South Asia Research, XXXI, 1 (2011)Google Scholar.

5 For an analysis of the Urdu language debates in colonial north India, see Diamond, Jeffrey M., “A vernacular for a new generation”? Historical perspectives about Urdu and Punjabi, and the formation of language policy in colonial northwest India” in Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and its Neighbors. The Changing Politics of Language Choice, (ed.) Schiffman, Harold (Leiden, 2011)Google Scholar.

6 Although maktabs were not the only indigenous educational system, they were the predominant indigenous primary educational institution in the Punjab. This was confirmed by various colonial studies in the region during the 1850s. For example, see the first educational report by Arnold, W.D., the Director of Public Instruction, Punjab, in “Extracts from Mr. Arnold's first report, dated 6th July 1857”, in Bureau of Education, India. Selections from Educational Records. Part II. 1840–1859, (ed.) Richey, J.A. (Calcutta, 1922), p. 290 Google Scholar. Other educational systems included the dharamsala (which taught in the medium of Gurmukhi).

7 The main pillars of Perso-Islamic culture included Persian language and literature, Islamic (and ‘secular’) knowledge and the transmission of Persian skills and knowledge. For further details about Perso-Islamic culture in North India, see Diamond, “A ‘Vernacular’ for a ‘New Generation’?” and Robinson, Francis, The ‘Ulama of Farangi Mahall and Islamic Culture in South Asia (New Delhi, 2001), pp. 9–40 Google Scholar.

8 It was even argued that Hindus attended maktabs in “a greater proportion than the Muhammadans “Extracts from Mr. Arnold's first report, dated 6th July 1857,” in Richey, Selections, p. 290.

9 For an insight into sharif culture in the nineteenth century, see Lelyveld, David, Aligarh's First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India (Princeton, 1978), pp. 35–101 Google Scholar.

10 “Circular No. 1”, April 5, 1856, Punjab Educational Proceedings, 31 January 1857. As we shall see, Persian histories also were criticised. For a detailed examination of the debates about maktab education, see Jeffrey M. Diamond, “Developing Indigenous and European Knowledge: The Vernacular Education Movement and Neo-Orientalism in the Punjab, 1849–1870” PhD thesis (University of London, 2002) Chapter III.

11 See, Diamond, “Developing Indigenous and European Knowledge”, Chapter IV. Maktabs did not completely disappear with the establishment of colonial schools, but their significance and numbers were severely reduced (mainly through the loss of patronage).

12 By the 1860s, general knowledge formed an important section of the annual educational examinations in the Punjab. Fuller to Secretary – Government of Punjab, 10 January 1865, Punjab Educational Proceedings, A, January 1865. Although ‘ilm was associated with both religious and secular knowledge, the use of the term by education officials and the literati in the region mainly denotes secular knowledge related to colonial education: see also the discussion about ‘ilm and history below.

13 Historical analysis about Delhi College has been limited. A background and basic syllabus of Delhi College is included in Moulvi ‘Abd al-Haq, Marhum Delhi Kalij (Delhi, 1945), pp. 73–87. For a general overview, see Pernau, Margrit (ed.), Delhi College: Traditional Elites, the Colonial State and Education before 1857 (Delhi, 2006)Google Scholar.

14 This was explicitly argued by European officials as well as Muslim reformers in the Punjab and elsewhere. For example, Muslim ‘modernists’ such as Syed Ahmed Khan sought to utilise European knowledge to improve the education and social conditions of Muslims. For a general overview of Khan's ideas and Islamic Modernism, see the classic by Ahmad, Aziz, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan, 1857–1964, (London, 1967)Google Scholar.

15 Macaulay, Thomas Babington, “Minute on Indian education”, in Archives of Empire: Volume 1. From the East India Company to the Suez Canal, (eds) Carter, Mia and Harlow, Barbara ( Durham, 2004), pp. 230–231 Google Scholar.

16 However, vernacular education was not simply the imposition of Western ideas or part of a wider colonial hegemony. As we shall see, these ideas were appropriated for specific purposes. For example, the cultural authority of European knowledge was mediated by the considerations of the Indian literati who wrote many of these Urdu textbooks.

17 W.D. Arnold, the first Director of Public Instruction, began to plan this curriculum. By the 1860s, general knowledge formed an important section of the annual educational examinations. See, for example, Fuller to Secretary - Government of Punjab, 10 January 1865, Punjab Educational Proceedings, A, January 1865. Fuller is examined in further detail below with reference to his role in the controversy over history textbooks in the Punjab.

18 Most of these books were Urdu translations from English mathematics textbooks, where the explanations were translated into Urdu with the use of Arabic numerals. An example of an early textbook from the NWP is Tahrir-e Uqlidis [Elements of Euclid], (Delhi, 1853).

19 For example, Goldsmith's History of England, taught in schools in Britain, also was used in the Punjab.

20 For example, Partha Chaterjee develops a brief discussion about textbooks in Bengal to situate the later growth of the nationalist movements in the region ( Chatterjee, Partha, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton, 1993), pp. 77–94 Google Scholar). However, the situation in north-west India varied from Bengal because of the much shorter period of colonial rule in the middle of the nineteenth century.

21 Dirks, Nicholas B., “History as a sign of the modern,” Public Culture, II, 2, (1990), pp. 25–32 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 In order to detail this memory, these histories often centred on rulers and courts. For a discussion of pre-colonial imperial histories, see Sen, Sudipta, “Imperial orders of the past: The semantics of history and time in the medieval Indo-Persianate culture of north India”, in Invoking the Past: The Uses of History in South Asia, (ed.) Ali, Daud (New Delhi, 1999), pp. 231–257 Google Scholar; Nizami, Khaliq A., On History and Historians of Medieval India (Delhi, 1982), pp. 39–48 Google Scholar. My discussion does not intend to designate pre-colonial history and knowledge as simply “foils” for modernity, a common mistake for historians of modern India. Rather, I seek to illustrate some of the uses of these histories. This same concern was expressed in Daud Ali, “Introduction”, in, Ali, Invoking the Past, p. 9.

23 Religious scholars also were familiar with notions of linear history to some extent. The progression of Islamic history from Adam to Muhammad as the seal of the Prophets is an example of such an understanding.

24 For example, these histories did not provide viewpoints of rivals to the rulers, and often were limited to the history of the “court and the camp” (Nizami, On History, pp. 46–52).

25 Although the contextual use of such ‘facts’ – especially the choice about the events and ideas to include – was a matter of contention in history textbooks in England, the reliance on ‘facts’ was central to the rhetoric concerning the development of colonial Indian historiography (see below). For a review of history textbooks in England, see Chancellor, Valerie E., History for their Masters. Opinion in the English History Textbook: 1800–1914 (Bath, 1970)Google Scholar.

26 Jones's emphasis of primary sources in Persian and Sanskrit illustrated the need to find reliable sources for history ( Majeed, Javed, Ungoverned Imaginings: James Mill's The History of British India and Orientalism (Oxford, 1992), p. 139 Google Scholar).

27 Quoted from, Majeed, Ungoverned Imaginings, p. 149. As an influential author and critic, Mill's notions of history in The History of British India shaped the writing of Indian history in the nineteenth century.

28 For a brief discussion of this separation, see, Naim, C.M., “Prize winning Adab: A study of five Urdu books written in response to the Allahabad government Gazette notification”, in Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian Islam, (ed.) Metcalf, Barbara (Berkeley, 1984), pp. 291–293 Google Scholar.

29 “Extracts from Mr. Arnold's second report, 25th June 1858”, in Richey, Selections, p. 301.

30 Mill believed that “nations differed less then one another in the knowledge of morality. . .than in the degrees of steadiness, with which they assign the preference to morals”(James Mill (ed) Wilson, H.H.), The History of British India, Vol. 1, (London, 1840)Google Scholar, especially pp. 416–424).

31 Marshman even states that he made use of Mill's History. Mill also may have influenced Marshman's brief discussion of Hinduism as well as the significance of ‘facts’ to write a history of India ( Marshman, John C., The History of India: From Remote Antiquity to the Accession of the Mogul Dynasty; Compiled for the Use of Schools (Serampore, 1842 Google Scholar) Preface). My references to Marshman's work will pertain to this 1842 edition unless noted otherwise. For a review of Marshman and other early Indian histories, see Avril Powell, “History textbooks and the transmission of the pre-colonial past”, in Ali, Invoking the Past, pp. 96–98.

32 Interestingly, a later expanded three-volume set of Marshman's History, developed for the University of Calcutta, also has limited coverage of the “Hindu” period ( Marshman, John C., The History of India, From the Earliest Period to the Close of Lord Dalhousie's Administration (London, 1867)Google Scholar, Vols. 1–3).

33 Marshman's text also was known as the Brief Survey of History in English. My overall discussion is limited to history texts in the vernacular, but English-language Indian histories were also used in schools. Marshman's text was read in the 1st and 3rd classes of zillah (district) schools in the Punjab. These were more advanced schools (often located in prominent towns and cities) that offered limited instruction in English to the highest classes (“Revised scheme of studies for Zillah schools in the Punjab”, in Fuller, Captain A.R., Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, For the Year 1860–61, (Lahore, 1864)Google Scholar, Addenda).

34 Before textbooks were developed in Lahore and the Punjab, many were brought from the NWP.

35 “Extracts from Mr. Arnold's second report, 25th June 1858”, in Richey, Selections, pp. 301–303. Arnold's ‘account’ of these invasions is not clear. They presumably include the many controversial invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni, detailed in textbooks such as the Tarikh-e Hind, discussed below.

36 I have located an 1856 Allahabad edition: Lal, Munshi Sada Sukh, Tarikh-e Hind. (Allahabad, 1856 Google Scholar). The Tarikh-e Hind was taught in the 5th to 7th classes of zillah schools and the 4th and 5th classes of vernacular schools in the Punjab (“Revised scheme of studies for Zillah schools” and “Revised course of study to be pursued in the vernacular schools”, in Fuller, Report on Popular Education in the Punjab. . .1860–61, Addenda). Even after the publication of a new history textbook, Waqi'at-e Hind (discussed below), it was listed for the sixth and seventh classes in zillah schools and the 5th and 4th classes of vernacular schools in Holroyd's revised Scheme (“Scheme of studies for Zillah Schools”, Punjab Educational Proceedings, A, January 1865).

37 Tawarikh-e Hind (Lahore, 1861). No author is listed on this edition except that it is published at the request of Captain Fuller, the DPI. The book was published in both the singular Tarikh and the plural Tawarikh. My references to Tarikh-e Hind in the ensuing discussion will be to this Lahore Tawarikh edition unless noted otherwise, as this edition was reprinted specifically for the Punjab Education Department – influencing later texts such as the Waqi'at-e Hind.

38 Tawarikh-e Hind, pp. 1–4.

39 For example, there was a brief review of Ashoka (Tawarikh-e Hind, pp. 5–23).

40 Tawarikh-e Hind, p. 5.

41 This arguably also illustrates the influence of Captain Fuller who sponsored the writing of the text and reviewed it.

42 Tawarikh-e Hind, pp. 24–53.

43 Tawarikh-e Hind, p. 66. The discussion of the Mughals is on pp. 54–85.

44 Tawarikh-e Hind, pp. 86–94.

45 This is one of the indications that the 1861 Lahore reprint was similar to the earlier NWP editions, as “revisions” often were kept to a minimum. The overall format of the 1861 Lahore edition is similar to earlier editions.

46 The use of Marshman's text was facilitated by its translation into vernacular languages by this time. Although the Tawarikh-e Hind offers analysis similar to that in Marshman's History, the differences (discussed below) also show that the Tawarikh-e Hind was adapted – meaning it was not only translated but also interpreted and changed by the translator (an idea I explore in Diamond, “Developing Indigenous and European Knoweldge.”). Unfortunately, there has been scant mention about Tawarikh-e Hind in secondary sources.

47 Murray's History of British India (written in 1851 and updated in 1857) reinforces the standard perceptions about the expansion of British rule in India, providing details about British battles ( Murray, Hugh, History of British India. (Continued to the Close of the Year 1851) (London, 1857)Google Scholar. Students in the 2nd and 1st classes of zillah schools read Murray's History (“Revised Scheme of Studies for Zillah Schools,” in Fuller, Report on Popular Education in the Punjab. . .1860–61, Addenda).

48 For example, during the first comprehensive examinations of government and government-aided schools in November 1861, students performed poorly in the history exams (Fuller to Secretary - Government of Punjab, 24 May 1862, Punjab Educational Proceedings, A, June 1862).

49 Fuller's scholarly works included the translation of the Shah Jahan Nama in 1851 along with his assistance to H.M. Elliot's project from 1849 to 1851. Elliot's project eventually was published in 1867–1877. See “Introduction”, in The Shah Jahan Nama of ‘Inayat Khan: An Abridged History of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Compiled by his Royal Librarian. The Nineteenth Century Manuscript Translation of A.R. Fuller, (eds.) W.E. Begley and Z.A. Desai (Delhi, 1990), pp. xxix–xxxii. Further biographical information is from, “A.R. Fuller”, British Library Oriental and India Office Collections Biographical Indexes.

50 For an analysis of 1857 and its influence on the Muslim elite, see, Robinson, Francis, “The Muslims of upper India and the shock of the mutiny”, in Islam and Muslim History in South Asia, (Delhi, 2000), pp. 138–155 Google Scholar.

51 Details about Karim al-Din's life and career before joining the Punjab Education Department may be found in de Tassy, H. Garcin, Histoire de la Litterature Hindouie et Hindoustanie. 2nd edition (New York, 1968 Google Scholar – reprint of 1870 publication), pp. 166–168. Also see Chughatai, Muhammad Ikram, “Eik nadir majmu'a mukatib: Moulvi Karim al-Din Panipati,” Urdu, LXI, 3, (1985), pp. 137–176 Google Scholar. And for Delhi College, see Avril A. Powell, “Scholar manqué or mere Munshi? Maulawi Karimu'd-Din's career in the Anglo-Oriental Education Service” in Pernau, Delhi College, pp. 203–231. The discussion below about Karim al-Din mainly analyses his efforts to compose textbooks in the Punjab.

52 For a background to Sir Syed, see, Aziz Ahmad, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan; Robinson, Francis, Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces’ Muslims, 1860–1923 (Cambridge, 1974)Google Scholar, especially pp. 84–132.

53 Karim al-Din, Moulvi, Qawa'id al-Mubtadi (Agra, 1858)Google Scholar, p. 1. Karim al-Din was a professor at Agra College when he wrote the book.

54 Karim al-Din, Maulvi, Waqi'at-e Hind (Lahore,1863)Google Scholar. This analysis situates the Waqi'at-e Hind within the context of the development of history textbooks in the Punjab, and compares it to its predecessor, the Tawarikh-e Hind.

55 Zia al-Din was a well-known maths examiner in the Punjab Education Department, including the October 1864 maths exams (Fuller to Secretary – Government of Punjab, 10 January 1865, Punjab Educational Proceedings, A, January 1865).

56 Although neither was an important Persian scholar, Ram Chandra and Muhammad Zia al-Din were the researchers who utilised Persian histories. Additional details about Chandra and Zia al-Din's role in writing the Waqi'at are in Powell, “History Textbooks”, pp. 98–99.

57 See, Powell, “History Textbooks”, p. 100. The use of Marshman for writing about this period in the Waqi'at is important, as this section became embroiled in controversy later (see below).

58 Fuller to Secretary – Government of Punjab, 14 May 1864, Punjab Educational Proceedings, A, September 1864. This section examines the controversy and its relation to vernacular education reforms as well as the role of the literati in developing Indian historiography; it is less concerned about the administrative debates outside of that realm.

59 Secretary – Government of Punjab to Fuller, 10 January 1865, Punjab Educational Proceedings, A, February 1865.

60 Fuller to Officiating Commissioner, Lahore Division, 7 May 1864, Punjab Educational Proceedings, A, February 1865.

61 Indian history textbooks written at Fort William College in the early nineteenth century also utilised Persian sources. For example, the first Indian history written in Bengali used Persian sources (Chatterjee. The Nation, p. 77). This continued in the creation of Indian history textbooks in Urdu in North India in the mid-nineteenth century as well.

62 This was not uncommon, as the Muslim literati rarely detailed their personal lives or reactions in great detail. For example, it also has been difficult to locate personal details about another important Urdu writer in the late nineteenth century, Abdul Halim Sharar. See the editors’ introduction to Abdul Halim Sharar (eds. Harcourt, E.S. and Hussain, Fakir), Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture (London, 1975)Google Scholar.

63 This was one of his stated purposes in writing history and literature textbooks ( Karim al-Din, Moulvi, Khat-e Taqdir (Lahore, 1864), p. 2 Google Scholar). Indeed, it is difficult to argue that Karim al-Din intended to offend Hindus, as communal grievances were not solidified at this time in the Punjab. The Khat-e Taqdir was a literature textbook written as one of the replacements to the adab literature of the maktab.

64 Powell, Avril A., “Reciprocities and divergences concerning religious traditions in two families of scholars in North India”, in Perspectives of Mutual Encounters in South Asian History, 1760–1860, (ed.) Jamal Malik (Leiden, 2000), pp. 210–211 Google Scholar. Karim al-Din's younger brother, Imad al-Din, was an influential convert to Christianity in the 1860s.

65 Fuller, Captain A.R., Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, For the Year 1861–62, (Lahore, 1864), p. 72 Google Scholar.

66 Alexander, C.W.W., “Report of Inspector, Lahore Circle”, in Holroyd's, W.R.M. Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, For the Year 1868–69, (Lahore, 1869), p. 99 Google Scholar.

67 Copies of the Waqi'at-e Hind (in Urdu and English) were published through the late nineteenth century in Lahore and Lucknow (Blumhardt, Catalogue of the Library of the India Office, p. 92).

68 These studies also help us to begin to reconsider twentieth-century histories. Thus, in a review of literature about partition, David Gilmartin argues that it is necessary for us to examine the construction of identity during colonial rule in order to understand the causes and meaning of 1947 beyond the high politics of partition ( Gilmartin, David, “Partition, Pakistan, and South Asian history: In search of a narrative”, Journal of Asian Studies, LVII, 4, (1998), p. 1073 Google Scholar.

69 Francis Robinson, “Islam and the impact of print in South Asia “, in Robinson, The ‘Ulema of Firgani Mahal, pp. 66–104.

70 For an analysis of the Anjuman-e Punjab, see Diamond, “The orientalist-literati relationship in the north-west.” Also see, Diamond, “Developing indigenous and European knowledge”, Chapters V and VI.

71 Indeed, Muslim reformers such as Shah Waliullah wrote extensively about the need to revitalise the Muslim community in the eighteenth century, and included references to Islamic traditions and early Muslim communities. For an overview, see Metcalf, Barbara, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900 (Princeton, 1982), pp. 16–63 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 See, for example, Nizami, “On the historians”, pp. 8–16.

73 For an example of this approach, see, Frietag, Sandra, Collective Action and Community: Public Arenas and the Emergence of Communalism in North India (Berkeley, 1989)Google Scholar.

74 This perhaps explains why I have not been able to locate any critical comments about the text from Indians who served in the Education Department (or elsewhere in print) up to the emergence of this controversy. If there were such voices, Pollock almost certainly would have used their writings to support his position. Instead he used the vague term “Hindoo scholars”.

75 For example, see, Chatterjee, The Nation, pp. 76–94.

76 One volume containing debates about the use of Indian history by Hindu nationalists for education in contemporary India is Communalisation of Education: The Assault on History: Press Reportagé, Editorials, and Articles (New Delhi, 2002).

77 Aziz, K.K., The Murder of History in Pakistan (Lahore, 1993)Google Scholar.