Of Educating the Empire: A Study of Colonial Education and its

Nationalist Response in Punjab, 1890-1930

This thesis has attempted to problematize ways in which the colonial government attempted to

gain knowledge of their subjects and in the process brought about immense changes in the

structure of indigenous educational institutions. The perceived close connection between Western

knowledge and modernity is the basis of any such attempts. In the latter part of the 18th century,

despite dismissal of the barbarity of the native traditions and customs, the governments aim

was to keep intact the institutions of indigenous education already in existence. This was

particularly influenced by the Oriental policy that dominated the ideological positions of many

colonial administrators. Not only was there a need felt to keep un-disturbed the prevailing

cultures for the purposes of administrative exigencies, but it also sought to create a group of

loyal and trustworthy translators or interpreters in the form of pundits and maulvis. This was

done by creating institutions for training such people, for protecting, preserving and

translating classical texts, mainly for knowing the subject society and ruling it, for being patrons

of such projects and thus legitimizing its control over the subject society. Needless to say, this

was an exercise in administrative exigency and served very well the purposes of the colonial

rulers.

Yet, this policy of keeping intact indigenous knowledge could not be continued for a long time.

Soon, many colonial administrators began to challenge such a view and argued instead for an

Anglicist knowledge formation. The indigenous institutions were medieval institutions, they

argued, and that they were redundant in playing a valuable role in educating the society in

modern times. The wisdom propagated by these institutions was pitted against western

knowledge was the harbinger of modernity. An important assumption made by the colonial
government was that of equating western knowledge with modernity. The knowledge of English

as a subject as well as language and Western Sciences were seen as the most important aspects of

acquiring Western knowledge. One needs to analyse why this was so. English had become the

language of administration in the 1830s and therefore it had become important to teach that

language to the natives in order to create a pool of cheap labour in the lower clerical order. This

was done in the garb of improving the moral grounds of the natives.

One of the foremost impacts made by the Arya Samaj movement in northern India was through
education. The Arya Samaj sought to build up its educational institutions (both DAV College and
Gurukul Kangri) through self-help and self-reliance. The DAV College of Lahore was
established by the people, with the money of the people, for the people.1 The founders of the
DAV College refused to take government grants and thus refused to be tied down by government
shackles in the form of grants or by conducting the examinations under the aegis of the Punjab
University. In the words of Lala Lajpat Rai,

The [] principle, which also is a sort of unwritten law, imposes on the managers a sort of moral
obligation not to seek monetary assistance of any kind from the government. This principle has also
been so far acted upon, unless a petty grant of a few thousand rupees made by the University be
considered as an exception.2

Another notable point was that the teaching was done exclusively by Indians. The college taught
Sanskrit, Hindi, English, Persian, Philosophy, both eastern and modern History, Political
Economy, Logic, Elementary Physics, Chemistry, Elementary Botany, Elementary Biology and
Higher Mathematics, all taught by Indian teachers. The MA classes were given in Sanskrit by
Indian teachers unaided by any foreign agency. The students were also given training in manual
skills and handicraft and imparted education in science and technology. The DAV College also
aimed at giving free education. Though paucity of funds, and government and university
1 Lajpat Rai, Letter to the editor, The Tribune, 5 February 1890

2 Presidential Speech at DAV College Foundation Day Dinner, London, 15 June,

1914. The Tribune, 7 August, 1914
regulations rendered this principle ineffective yet the fees at the college was generally 50 percent
less than those in force in government schools and colleges. 3 The institutions run by the gurukul
party remained completely immune from government interference from their very inception.
Both of these educational institutions of the Arya Samaj were experiments in purely indigenous
enterprise which helped in developing a spirit of self-help, self-confidence and self-reliance in a
community which had lost these in due course of time as a result of prevailing circumstances and
want of opportunities. Said Lala Lajpat Rai:

It is true we have popularized university education and turned out hundreds of graduates and
thousands of other scholars, so much so that there is hardly any department of public and private
activity in Upper India in which old DAVs are not to be found doing their part creditably and
honourably.4

Among those who studied at the DAVs and the Gurukuls were found eminent public personnel:
some venturing in the literary and journalistic fields, others into pioneering trades and industries
while some holding high appointments under the government. Through these institutions, a great
impetus was given to the study of Hindi and Sanskrit, which along with developing a spirit of
self-help and self-confidence among the Hindus also created a spirit of Hindu consciousness
which manifested itself in various forms and varying degrees.

The aspect of womens education was most interesting. It was the gurukul party and not the
college party which was in favour of womens education when the idea was mooted in late
1880s and early 1890s. It is ironical that the supposedly more orthodox wing supported higher
education for women while the supposedly more progressive wing opposed it. 5 The idea of
expanding the existing primary school for girls in Jalandhar had sparked off a debate throughout
1894, between the two wings of the Arya Samaj: the mahatma or gurukul wing, supposed to
be more orthodox, to which Lala Devraj and Munshi Ram belonged, and the college wing,
supposed to be more progressive, which was responsible for the founding of Dayanand Anglo-

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Madhu Kishwar, Arya Samaj and Womens Education, Kanya Mahavidyalaya,

Jalandhar, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXI, No. 17, 1986, p. WS-10
Vedic (DAV) schools and colleges for men.. Also, it may be true that womens education under
the aegis of the Arya Samaj in late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century was
aimed at reforming women rather than reforming the social conditions that oppressed them, or
that the education that the Samaj provided to women sought to create ideal
householders/grahasthans out of women. Yet, women who did receive such an education were
able to come out of their households and express their sense of freedom in a way that was never
done before. Some of them went on to become educationists, social activists, and even small-
time politicians. Acharya Savitri Devi and Kumari Lajjawati are apt examples of this. While the
others who did not venture out into the public space, remained educated and therefore, worthy
partners of their modern educated husbands.