Civilising the "Native", Educating the Nation

Question 1.
Match the following:

Answer

Question 2.
State whether true or false

1. James Mill was a severe critic of the Orientalists.
2. The 1854 Despatch on education was in favour of English being introduced as a medium of higher education in India.
3. Mahatma Gandhi thought that the promotion of literacy was the most important aim of education.
4. Rabindranath Tagore felt that children ought to be subjected to strict discipline.

Answer:

1. True
2. True
3. False
4. False

Question 3.
Why did William Jones feel the need to study Indian history, philosophy and law?

Answer:

• William Jones came to represent a particular attitude towards India. He shared a deep respect for ancient cultures, both of India and of the West.
• Jones and Colebrooke felt that India had attained its glory in the ancient past. It declined later on. In order to understand India, it was necessary to discover the sacred and legal texts produced in the past.
• These texts would reveal the ideas and laws of Hindus and Muslims and would form the basis of future development.
• Jones and Colebrooke believed that their project would help the British learn from Indian culture. Indians would also rediscover their own heritage. In this way the British would become guardians and masters of Indian culture.

Question 4.
Why did James Mill and Thomas Macaulay think that European education was essential in India?

Answer:

• James Mill was the strongest critic of the Orientalists.
• He declared that the British should not teach what the natives wanted, or what they respected, in order to please them and “win a place in their heart”.
• The £pm of education should be to teach what was useful and practical.
• Indians should be made familiar with the scientific and technical advances that the West had made, and not the sacred literature of the Orient.
• Macaulay urged the British government in India to stop wasting public money in promoting Oriental learning, for it had no practical use.
• He felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature the world had produced; it would make them aware of the developments in Western science and philosophy.
• The teaching of English could thus be a way of civilizing people, changing their tastes, values, and culture.

Question 5.
Why did Mahatma Gandhi want to teach children handicrafts?

Answer:
Mahatma Gandhi wanted to teach children handicraft because of the following reasons:

• People would work with their hands.
• The craft would develop their minds.
• It would also develop their capacities to understand.

Question 6.
Why did Mahatma Gandhi think that English education had enslaved Indians?

Answer:

1. According to Mahatma Gandhi, colonial education created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians. He said it made them see Western civilisation as superior which destroyed the pride they had in their own culture.
   He said: It was sinful—it enslaved Indians—it cast an evil spell on them.
2. Charmed by the West, appreciating everything that came from the West, Indians educated in these institutions admired British rule.
3. Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect.
4. Mahatma Gandhi -strongly was in favour of Indian languages to be the medium of teaching.
5. Education in English crippled Indians and distanced them from their own social surroundings. This made them “straneers in their own lands”. Speaking a foreign tongue (language) despised local culture.
6. Mahatma Gandhi further said that western education focused on reading and writing rather than oral knowledge;
   • It valued textbooks rather than life experience and practical knowledge.
   • He said education should develop a person’s mind and soul.
   • Literacy or simply learning to read and write—by itself did not count as education.
7. People had to work with their hands and learn a craft. They should know how different things operated.

Question 7.
Find out from your grandparents about what they studied in school.

Answer:

• Urdu/Hindi language
• Mathematics
• Social study, Drawing.

Question 8.
Find out about the history of your school or any other school in the area you live.

Answer:
I study in St. Peters Acadamy. It is the oldest one in this region. It was established by a Christian Missionary in 1980. It has created many histories by achieving so many events to its credit. The Principal is always appointed by the missionary. The man of high academic repute and administrative quality is appointed here as Principal. Teachers are also of high talent. There are five thousand students. Its students always bring high laurels to school and region by achieving bright result in Board Examinations. I am proud of my school.