The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c5.s20: XXII: Collector, Salem to Board of Revenue: 8.7.1823

The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c5.s20

Language: English

XXII: Collector, Salem to Board of Revenue: 8.7.1823

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*(TNSA: BRP: Vol.No.954, Pro.14th Jul. 1823, No.50, pp.5908-10)*

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1. I have the honor to submit the accompanying statement as called for by your Board in their instructions of the 25th July 1822.

2. From the statement it appears that only 4,650, persons receive education out of a population of above ten lacs—which is only a fraction more than four and a quarter per Mille—and proves the bad and contracted state of public instructions.

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3. The period which scholars usually continue at school is from three to five years according to the ability of their friends to maintain them there and their own aptitude to learn—the yearly charge to the scholars is never less than three rupees a year—in the Hindoo schools—and in the Mussulman schools the charge amounts to fifteen and twenty rupees. None of the Hindoo schools are endowed by the public—and only one Mussulman school has land yielding rupees 20 per annum allowed for it’s support—a former master of this school possessed a *Yeomiah* paid monthly by the Collector amounting to fifty-six rupees a year—on his death this allowance was discontinued by my Predecessor as it was held only on a life tenure.

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4. In the talooks of Abtoor, Namkul, Salem and Parmutty there are twenty teachers of Theology, Law and Astronomy—to the support of whom are attached Enam lands calculated to yield rupees 1,109 per annum. These lands are almost entirely under cultivation—and the possessors perform the duties for which they were originally granted.

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5. Besides the above Enam lands there are other lands yielding rupees 384, per annum, in the talooks of Raizepoor and Sankerry-Droog—which were sequestered by Tippoo the year previous to the secession of the country and which have since been included in the Revenue of Government.

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6. Considering education as the best means of preventing crimes in the people whether servants of government or otherwise (and which opinion, is strongly expressed in the 7th Para of your Board’s Report to government under date the 11th December 1815), and viewing the defective state of education in this district as the fruitful source of much crime, I shall with the sanction of your Board, be prepared to offer such suggestions and to propose the establishment of such funds—as will tend to promote education in some degree more adequate to the demand for it.

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Cutcherry of the Collector of Salem, 8th July, 1823.

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*M.D. Cockburn,* *Collector.*