The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c8.s1.t6: Midnapore: (pp.50-51)

c8.s1.t6.1

Hamilton states that in this district there are no schools where the Hindoo or Mahomedan laws are taught. There was formerly a Mahomedan college in the town of Midnapore, and even yet the establishment is said to exist, but no law is taught. Persian and Arabic are taught by maulavis who in general have a few scholars in their houses, whom they support as well as instruct. These Persian and Arabic students, although of respectable families, are considered as living on charity; and they are total strangers to expense and dissipation. The alleged absence of schools of Hindoo learning in a population of which six-seventh are said to be Hindoos is incredible, and denied by learned natives who have resided in the district and are personally acquainted with several schools of that description within its limits. They are not so numerous as the domestic schools of learning which prevail amongst the Mahomedan population; but they are not so few as to be wholly neglected. There are probably, I am told, about 40 in the district. It may be offered as a general remark to account for such incorrect statements, that the greater attention given by Europeans to the Mahomedan than to the Hindoo languages and literature, combined with the unobtrusive and retiring character of learned Hindoos, sometimes leads the public functionary to overlook institutions of Hindoo origin. It is probably from some such official authority that Hamilton has borrowed the statement to which I refer.