The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c4.s3.t2: Caste-Wise Division of Male School Students
The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c4.s3.t2
- Language
- English
Caste-Wise Division of Male School Students
c4.s3.t2.1
The more interesting and historically more relevant information, however, is provided by the caste-wise division of students. This is true not only as regards boys, but also with respect to the rather small number of girls who, according to the survey, were receiving education in schools. Furthermore, the information becomes all the more curious and pertinent when the data is grouped into the five main language areas—Oriya, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. These constituted the Presidency of Madras at this period, and throughout the nineteenth century. *Table 2* gives the caste-wise number of school-going male students in each district of the five language areas.
c4.s3.t2.2
It has generally been assumed that the education of any kind in India, whether in the ancient period, or just at the beginning of British rule was mainly concerned with the higher and middle strata of society; and, in case of the Hindoos (who in the Madras Presidency accounted for over 95% of the whole population), it was more or less limited to the twice-born. However, as will be seen from *Table 2*, the data of 1822-25 indicate more or less an opposite position. Such an opposite view is the most pronounced in the Tamil-speaking areas where the twice-born ranged between 13% in South Arcot to some 23% in Madras, the Muslims form less than 3% in South Arcot and Chingleput to 10% in Salem, while the Soodras and the other castes ranged from about 70% in Salem and Tinnevelly to over 84% in South Arcot.
c4.s3.t2.3
To make the foregoing tabulation more easily comprehensible the caste-wise data may be converted into percentages of the whole for each district. *Table 3* shows the result of such conversion.
c4.s3.t2.4
In Malayalam-speaking Malabar, the proportion of the twice-born was still below 20% of the total. Because of a larger Muslim population, however, the number of Muslim school students went up to nearly 27%; while the Soodras, and the other castes accounted for some 54% of the school going students.
c4.s3.t2.5
In the largely Kannada-speaking Bellary, the proportion of the twice-born (the Brahmins and the Vysees) went up to 33%, while the Soodras, and the other castes still accounted for some 63%.
c4.s3.t2.6
The position in the Oriya-speaking Ganjam was similar: the twice-born accounting for some 35.6%, and the Soodras and other castes being around 63.5%.
c4.s3.t2.7
It is only in the Telugu-speaking districts that the twice-born formed the major proportion of the school going students. Here, the proportion of Brahmin boys varied from 24% in Cuddapah to 46% in Vizagapatam; of the Vysees from 10.5% in Vizagapatam to 29% in Cuddapah; of the Muslims from 1% in Vizagapatam to 8% in Nellore; and of the Soodras and other castes from 35% in Guntoor to over 41% in Cuddapah and Vizagapatam.