Indian moral instruction and caste problems; solutions

Preface

This little work is placed before a public engrossed in all the perplexities of a stupendous war. The reason for the intrusion is, that it is a response to an invitation to the public issued by the Government of India more than three years ago, which was incomplete, when the war. storm supervened. It concerns comparatively few of the British public ; it will, it is hoped, interest a larger number of our Indian fellow-subjects, with whose business it attempts to deal. It is hoped that amid current distractions they may find leisure to give it careful consideration, and to decide whether the proposals made are likely to cure or to mitigate the evils from which they suffer. Judging by the numbers of anarchist trials in progress in the courts in various Provinces engaged in their disposal, there is no respite from them, nor is any likely until special measures are adopted to stifle anarchy at the source, and to promote sound administration in the Department of Education.

The author regrets to find himself compelled to differ from the Indian Government in regard to a policy with respect to religion, which it has approved and has professed to follow for more than a century. He respectfully submits that the policy of neutrality in matters of religion has never been clearly explained ; that it has yielded very uncertain guidance ; that it has been constantly violated in the Department of Education and also on various important occasions ; that it is incompatible with the spirit which inspires the Royal Proclamation of 1858. He suggests its abandonment in favour of the system of mutual religious toleration, which is one of the most glorious boons bestowed by the English race on humanity. He maintains that the latter policy, by manifesting not indifference, but a favourable and respectful attitude towards all religions, would conciliate the Indian races ; that it would repress disaffection ; that it would give the Government all the freedom, at present lacking, required for obtaining the aid of the

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PREFACE yiii various religions for moral instruction in accordance with those of the pupils, without risk of involving any embarrassing religious entanglements.

The Indian system of education has to deal with children of many religions, obtaining secular instruction together in the same schools. It seems generally agreed, and this is the author’s opinion, that effective ethical instruction without the aid of religion is impossible. The pupils must be separated in order that ethical instruction in accordance with the religions of each may be imparted by agencies, entirely independent of, but working in close concert with the secular system. A practical scheme for the purpose is submitted. A separate department would be constituted for each district ; it would involve the employment of moral and religious teachers in villages where there are elementary schools (mullahs, gurus, purohits), of standing similar to that of the village revenue accountant (patwari). Officials of higher standing, to impart similar instruction to lads and students in the higher schools and colleges would be requisite ; their higher attainments would place them on an equal footing with the secular teachers in such institutions. Text-books for use in all schools, primary and secondary and for colleges have been proposed ; they would be compiled by committees of the various religious communities, appointed for the purpose, and they would be subject to approval by the various authorities, who would bear the cost of instruction. The author trusts that the scheme is practicable. He believes that it might be greatly improved by deeper spiritual insight and the opportunity of nearer and closer co-operation with the leaders of the Indian caste communities, whose young people are to be provided with an outfit for the journey of life. All such improvements he would regard without jealousy and hail with all sincerity.

A. H. BENTON.

1 llh October, 1916.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER I page

The subject points to problems of high importance to India and to the British Empire generally — Great future for India hoped for — Ethos corresponding to that of the other divisions of the Empire to be desired — Material development under British rule equal to any anticipations — Spiritual advancement more dubious — Moral instruction ignored in Despatch of 1854 — Examination system unfavourably commented on— Anarchist outrages, Political conspiracies — Extract from Government Resolution on Education, a text for comment— Some favourable omens in spite of policy of neutrality, which should never have ousted that of toleration — Moral teaching inefficacious without religious sanctions — The State experiment of Buddhism, which failed — Experiment proposed in a portion of higher schools and colleges — Information obtained as to recent educational doings in India, sketch of matters to be discussed — Exposition of the connection between the two problems for solution 1

Chapter II

India's history, habits, character to be studied with a view to dealing with any malady — Early long seclusion owing to geographical position — Indo-gangetic Valleys, key to a dominant position — Aboriginal tribes of Dravidian type occupied all India — Raiyatwari tenure prevailed universally — Government position as to land ; revenue from it — Village communities and the State — Caste system and village residence — Caste not purely a religious creation — Caste a primaeval institution older than Hinduism — Benefits of caste set out — Services of caste authorities to be utilized to the utmost — Designed for adjustment of sexual relations — As old as agriculture — Area of Aryan military conquest corresponds to that of the joint village — Caste generally treated as a Hindu religious creation — Sacred character of the cow, its bearing on the origin of caste — Land tax, how established — Hindu and Buddhist propaganda — Indians value their casto and resent any interference with it — Fresh materials considered for the explanation of caste — Expositions of caste marred by joining it with religion — Reasons for not presuming to suggest improvement of the system but to leave this to Indians — Religions, especially the Hindu — Much devoted to certain fundamental problems — Too exalted for the youthful intelligence — Possible difficulty of teaching Sudras morals — Attempt to explain why Muslims are not found among the Anarchists 1 1

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter III

The Department had a fairly early start in India, as compared with other countries — Grant by Parliament of £10,000 in 1813 — Debates as to the intention of Parliament — Committee of Public Instruction appointed in 1823 — Issued its first report in 1831 — Novel desire to learn English reported — Stalemate in committee as to Oriental and Western Education — Reference to Governor General in Council for decision — Duff’s operations in Calcutta — Arrival of Macaulay, New Legal member — His Minute on the reference — The Minute commented on — Minute takes no notice of Duff’s work — Quotations from the Minute with reference to Macaulay’s notions about neutrality — Conduct explained and defended, so far as possible — Macaulay’s and DuS’s predictions compared — Governor- General’s decision in favour of the Anglicists — Court of Directors’ Despatch of 1 854 — The Despatch leaves religion and morals entirely out of account — Indigenous schooLs one result of this — In 1882 commission was appointed to determine how far the policy of the Despatch had been carried out and to make suggestions — Report very valuable but marred by the want of any finding as to the observance of neutrality in respect of religion— Proposed a moral text-book based on the principles of natural religion — Mr. Telang’s minute of dissent as regards this — Various agencies for educational work considered 33

CHAPTER IV The Relation of the State to Religion, Suitably Defined

Historic account of State Control down to the time of Henry VIH. — Troubles in English history till the Revolution when policy of toleration was initiated — Locke’s account of toleration — Toleration Act described and synopsis of contents given — Toleration system one of England’s glories —

India missed it by some accident — The Indian Government apart from orders from the Home Government is quite at liberty to adopt a policy of toleration — Under the system of toleration the Government could employ committees to teach morals in accordance with religion, if the same offer were available for all — The Government would exercise no initiative in regard to the religious ideas offered to it, but merely accept or reject them along with the moral notions suggested, if it found them as a whole unsuitable — The policy of neutrality, a doubtful one, much in need of explanation — Incompatible with the system of toleration and with the practice of the Indian Government on various occasions — Particularly the grant to the Benares Hindu University — Especially is it out of accord with the Queen’s Proclamation of 1858, the promises of which ought to be strictly observed — Suitable definition proposed and recommended for adoption as likely to promote loyalty and to afford the Government more freedom in providing safeguards likely to be efficacious 56

CHAPTER V Religion and Morality: thetr Mutual Relations

Definitions of religion and morality — Religions the sources of morality — The character of the latter dependent on the former — Direct Moral Instruction method clashes with the definition — Religion operates powerfully on human feelings and emotions — Religion dominated ancient morals —

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Philosophy of Aristotle important — Kept clear of dealing with religion — Aristotle’s analysis of the Moral Faculty — No appeal to it, being only rudimentary — Peripatetics took no account of religion — Stoic’s single God of nature — Cleanthes’ hymn to Zeus — Stoics’ system subjective — Romans favour for Stoic system — The moral sepse brought on the religious stage at Rome — Conscience a power in the Roman world —

Locus classicus of Scripture addressed to Romans — Recognition of conscience a development of Christianity — St. Paul’s acquaintance with Roman conscience, how acquired — Religion, life and breath of morals — Which predominant now, morality or religion ? — Philosophy of conscience — Government interference with religion justified as in case of Sati — The masses of Indian communities under the domination of religion SI

CHAPTER VI Moral Improvement and Reformation

Diverse moralities, how unified — They are all convergent — General agreement as to good men — Illustration from India — Principle of specific treatment recommended — Scientific principle, often at variance with religious traditions— Palliative operating in the West — Adjustment of conduct to fresh conviction — Illustration — Indian anarchists 92

Chapter VII

Comparison of results with those of the Bombay and Allahabad Conferences — Accord and verification by correspondence — Method of Direct Moral Instruction found inadequate — Many moral systems found prevailing — -Morals found included in religion according to popular views — Some scheme like that of the “ Boy Scouts ” recommended— Examination in morals and religion recommended to exorcise the examination fiend — No importance attached to these proposals, made in passing — Independent committees corresponding to the various existing communities to be established to teach morals in accordance with the religions of the pupils — Special nature of the teaching described — Reasons for the special character — Committees how to be appointed, how continued — Character of syllabus — Its preparation, a voyage of discovery — A section in syllabus devoted to local matter, folk-lore, folk-songs — Pattern Christian syllabus suggested — Suggestions for preparation and reasons — Experiment first to be made with higher schools and colleges before extension to all such and to elementary schools — Buildings in neighbourhood to be provided for the purpose — Government should meet the cost of the experiment — Advantages calculated to attend the new departure, if taken — Results of the inquiry summarised 96

Appendix

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Chapter I

The subject of this short treatise points to a political, administrative and moral problem of immense importance. Its right solution is of the deepest interest not only to India and its peoples, but also to the British Empire with all its Oversea Dominions. In short, it may even be maintained that the question is one of world-wide concern.

About a fifth of the whole human race dwell within the Indian territories. Their extent and their well-defined natural features are calculated to form a possible sphere of immense political power, when the inhabitants have been moulded by sufficient civil and political experience, and have learned to keep their ranks and to march in step with their fellow-subjects elsewhere. India lies geographically in the centre of the self-governing British Dominions, each of them in all probability destined to attain an equal rank with the Great Powers of the planet. The Overseas Dominions’ ideal is that they shall remain united to the mother country “ if not by constitutional arrangements at any rate by mutual service, mutual interests, and mutual devotion ” (Mr. Balfour’s tribute to Mr. Chamberlain, Commons, 7th July, 1914). The Indian ideal should be at some distant date the attainment of a similar position. The tide of human affairs is working steadily and powerfully in this direction. Indian troops have been employed, fighting with the utmost gallantry the battles of the Empire at the same time in five different quarters. The Indian populations under British guidance may look forward to being bound together by a common language,

a common law and a common interest in each other. Thus India

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B should firmly hope to become in the course of centuries, a mighty, self-possessed, self-governed, all but independent Power, only like the Dominions bound to a benignant Patron by devoted loyalty, hallowed in the lapse of ages. The progress of events and of the opinions and tendencies developed by the war, moreover, seems to indicate that, in order to settle the world’s peace on a sure foundation, a complete federation of the Mother country, of the Dominions and of all governments under British auspices, must be attempted and strenuously striven for without loss of time.

If the prospect just suggested is to be realised, and India is ever to have a recognised place in the comity of nations, her people as a whole must acquire a character for patience, persistence, steadfastness and moderation in the conduct of public affairs, approaching those of the peoples, with which she desires to be associated in the administration of their share of the world. It must be remembered that for well-nigh a millennium the latter have been leading all mankind in teaching themselves and others the principles of government by the people for the people, while the task is still far from complete. India’s latest conquerors have been highly successful in advancing her material prosperity. No enemy has in their time ventured to assail her from the outside. Within her bounds life and property have always remained secure save for one limited period in a single province and its neighbourhood, when the Pax Britannica was interrupted. The successful administration of justice has ever been a strong feature of British rule, in glaring contrast with the times that preceded it. In fact, Indians have been furnished not only with great facilities for obtaining justice, but they have at the same time earned for themselves a great reputation for abusing them, in order to indulge their litigious instincts, and thereby wreak vengeance on their enemies. This indicates, it may be observed, not any defect of the Courts of Justice, but rather an urgent need for improving and strengthening the general conscience, so as to curb eristic propensities, nowhere so extravagantly displayed as in the highest philosophies dealing with the problems of the Universe, God and Soul, spirit and matter, reality and illusion.

Following the example of the Roman conquerors of old in their dominions, the British were almost the first to introduce into the country grand highway communications, solidly constructed. In a modern State, however, in competition with all the countries of the world, in the age of scientific inventions, besides good roads, scores of other conveniences and appliances are demanded to meet human requirements. Without the conquest, it is hard to see how India could have secured the postal and telegraph services or the railway system extending to over 30,000 miles. She has an English and vernacular press, so vigorous as to require a certain amount of restraint and guidance. She has a complete system of agricultural land registration in connection with the land revenue administration. Municipalities and district boards have been instituted throughout the land ; they render valuable service to their communities and serve to call out the leaders of the people and to initiate them in the work of local administration. The limit has almost been reached in applying the waters of all her magnificent rivers, to increase by irrigation agricultural produce and to bring under cultivation wide tracts, which otherwise must have remained barren waste. Much attention has been given to sanitation : much thought and money have been devoted to the prevention and extirpation of many diseases, which carried off or debilitated large masses of the population. Many other material boons might be indicated, for which India is indebted to her present rulers.

In short, in developing the resources of the Indian Continent, in furthering trade, commerce and industry, in promoting the material comfort and welfare of its immense population, the Indian Government has a record which falls little short of any ideal that could have been anticipated.

That is, it is admitted, a British way of looking at the material aspect of recent advancement ; if an Indian were sketching the picture, it would doubtless be of a much more sombre character ; Indians have but scant esteem for ideals of that nature ; they would be much more readily gratified by a lively interest in their spiritual possessions and a similar strenuous effort to make the best of them.

Turning then to the spiritual sphere of development, we find ourselves in a much less comfortable region. This cannot be attributed to any lack of amenability to mental culture on the part of the people, for they are on the whole kindly, docile, alert, keenspirited, high and low one of the best-mannered peoples in the world, and they would appear to offer a very promising field for right spiritual treatment. There does not appear to be much to quarrel with for the present, all things considered, g,s tg the extent of educational facilities. Leaving female education out of account, not as unimportant, but for the sake of simplicity merely, we find that elementary education already covers something short of one-third of the ground it occupies in more advanced communities.

There is no doubt but that ethical training ought to be coextensive with secular education. The proverb, “ Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,” contains the soundest wisdom. In India we have to a very large extent neglected it. The Court of Directors’ Despatch of 1854, the Magna Charta of Indian Education, not only prohibits religious instruction in government (including municipal and board) schools and colleges, but also makes no provision for ethical training anywhere ; it relies entirely for moral progress on improvement of the intellect. We have greatly enhanced this sad defect by imposing universally a system of examination for advancement in life through the public services and for preparation for the universities. This system leaves outside its scope both religion and morals, and so effectually discourages all voluntary attention to proficiency therein. The result is a plague spot among those who have received the higher education. The Indian education problem has been pressed on public attention by the operations of anarchists, which were constantly in evidence throughout the period covered by the last Quinquennial Report (1908-1912 inclusive). The agents for perpetrating the many hideous and menacing outrages of the last seven or eight years have been chiefly, if not entirely, either Hindu students or Hindus fresh from school or college. This feature is important ; an explanation will be offered, why no Muslims appear amongst the offenders.

The most notable was the deplorable outrage on His Excellency the Viceroy on the 23rd December, 1912, at Delhi, on his formal entry into the new capital ; when a bomb was thrown which severely wounded his Excellency and killed an attendant. The years 1913 and 1914 up to the outbreak of war showed no improvement, a distressingly large portion of an Indian weekly paper being constantly devoted to anarchist crimes and trials in various places. Every week chronicled the occurrence of murderous attacks on distinguished persons and zealous public servants. The patriotic demonstrations throughout India, which the war evoked, appeared to allay the anarchic spirit for a number of months, but then there seemed to follow a vigorous recrudescence of tlie evil. During the year 1915 special tribunals presided over by three judges sat for long periods, if not continuously, occupied with the trial of cases described in the newspaper headings as “ Political Conspiracies,” in which large gangs were accused of robberies (dacoities) accompanied with murder with a view to secure funds for the overthrow of the British Government. It is not possible to ascertain from the reports that the accused had all of them been students, but the fact that some were, appears incidentally. The Lahore case, the most notable of these State trials, with sixtythree accused, was traced to a student who held a scholarship at Oxford, awarded by the Panjab Government (Times, 17th November, 1915). In February, 1916, there were three Special Tribunals sitting in three provinces. That at Lahore was occupied with a supplement to the Lahore State Trial in which there were seventyone accused and one thousand witnesses to be examined for the defence alone ( Pioneer Mail of 12th February, 1916). The pressing need for effectual action, whether in or outside the Education Department, to put an end to the source of disorders, is more than ever clearly demonstrated.

The urgency of the situation has been admitted by the government over and over again. At the opening of the Indian Imperial Council, on the 25th January, 1910, the Viceroy, Lord Minto, referred to the subject in these words : “ The present dangers we are prepared to meet ; the moral training of the rising generation our duty will no longer allow us to neglect.”

More than three years after we have a full deliverance of the Government of India on the subject of education reform in the Government resolution in the Department of Education, dated Delhi, 21st February, 1913. I think it worth while to transfer the whole passage, although of considerable length, to these pages, because it will serve for easy reference and because it enables us to understand exactly where we are, so far as the Government is concerned, where there is no enigma involved.

“Direct Religious and Moral Instruction.

“ 5. The question of religious and moral instruction was discussed at a local conference held in Bombayand subsequently at the Imperial Conference held in Allahabad in February, 1911. Grave differences of opinion emerged as to the possibility or advantage of introducing direct religious instruction into schools generally, and apprehensions of difficulty in the working of any definite system were put forward. Doubts were also expressed as to the efficacy of direct moral instruction, when divorced from religious sanctions. In the matter of moral teaching, however, the difficulties are undoubtedly less than in the case of religious teaching. The papers laid before the conference indicate that not a little moral instruction is already given in the ordinary text-books and in other ways. The Government of Bombay are engaged upon the preparation of a book containing ‘ moral illustrations,’ which will be placed in the hands of teachers, in order to assist them in imparting moral instruction. Excellent materials for ethical teaching are available in the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, portions of Hafiz, Sadi, Maulana Rumi and other classics in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and Pali. The Government of India, while bound to maintain a position of complete neutrality in matters of religion, observe that the most thoughtful minds in India lament the tendency to develop the intellectual at the expense of the moral and religious faculties. In September, 1911, they invited Local Governments, other than the Bombay Government, to assemble local committees in order to consider the whole question. Such committees are still at work in some provinces. For the present the Government of India must be content to watch experiments and keep the matter prominently in view. Enlightened opinion and accumulated experience will, it is hoped, provide a practical solution to what is unquestionably the most important educational problem of the time.”

This extract will afford a convenient text wherewith to summarise the chief points at issue and thereby give the reader a bird’seye view of the discussions that shall occupy our attention in the sequel.

It appears a good omen, a sign of grace, that the Government bound by neutrality was able to countenance the discussion of religious and moral instruction at two conferences held at Bombay and Allahabad in 1911. The aloofness of neutrality might well have been expected to ban all reference to religion. Another good omen is that Government is watching experiments, that it sees clearly that the education problem to be solved is “ unquestionably the most important educational problem of the time ” and that it is hopeful of a practical solution. This sums up, it seems, the whole matter of a favourable nature to be found in the pronouncement. It betokens a benevolent neutrality. The neutrality would become still more benevolent, if it were only observed in practice or if it would only take itself away to limbo and resign the place it should never have occupied to something more English, more rational. If the business in hand had any concern with war or diplomacy there might be much to be said for it ; for internal civil administration, where the business in hand is not to worst opponents by diplomatic art or somehow, where earnestness and sincerity should be the keynote, its introduction appears a sad mistake. It means literally, siding with neither of two parties. Who the two parties intended are, perhaps hardly any one knows. There are many parties and there should be kindness and goodwill to all. The most illustrious and the most talented advocate of Indian education at an important crisis, as will appear, failed to comprehend it. What can be hoped of people less capable ? What of the ignorant masses ? It originated with the Court of Directors in the Napoleonic era ( Despatch , dated 7th September, 1808. Howell, p. 9). That is some excuse for its authors. Yet it is hard to understand how even they overlooked the principle of toleration expounded by English philosophy, first won for mankind after many persecutions, after a very troubled history and great expenditure of English tears and bloodshed.

The Government of India does not appear to be bound by the principle of neutrality save by its own choice as to its expediency and by long use. Brought to a standstill, we may say, by pursuing it, it will have a fresh opportunity of considering its future adherence to it. In this connection some remarks of His Excellency the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, at laying the foundation of the Hindu University at Benares are well worth pondering. “ But I am not terrified,” said His Excellency, “ by the bogey of religious intolerance ; rather do I think that a deep belief in and reverence for one’s own religion ought to foster a spirit of respect for the religious convictions of others and signs are not wanting that the day is dawning, when tolerance and mutual good-will shall take the place of fanaticism and hatred.”

These words, it may be observed, are a worthy echo of the Royal Proclamation of 1858.

The following brief notes touch on other leading features of our text to be discussed hereafter : —

No common sense could advocate the teaching of religion in mixed schools. Both teacher and pupils would be a laughing-stock to the other spectators. Such unfortunately is human nature !

There should be no doubt as to the efficacy of moral teaching divorced from religious sanctions, in India at least. The experiment of the Buddha, which lasted for about 1500 years and failed, appears to prove quite clearly that Indians attach the highest importance to the influence of spiritual religion on human conduct and have very little reliance on the teaching of morals which lacks this support. This has a very important bearing on the value to be assigned to the direct moral teaching imparted to pupils in Government schools and colleges.

As little doubt should there be, that a teacher, not qualified to teach religion to any particular class of pupils, is not in a position to give them the special moral instruction required in accordance therewith.

The quantity of materials for ethical instruction to be found in this or that quarter is, it is most humbly and respectfully submitted, a very secondary consideration ; the special quality, having regard to the pupils concerned, is the first and most important point.

These views will be advocated in the sequel by the writer to the best of his ability ; he proposes to recommend a scheme of moral instruction in accordance with the various religions of the pupils, after it has been tested by an experiment in the Secondary Schools, where the need is most urgent, or in a portion of them.

The sphere to which the experiment would be applied, its extent and the consequent cost would be left to the discretion of the authorities concerned.

The resolution of the Government of India may fairly be regarded as containing a clear invitation to the outside public to render it assistance in solving a most baffling problem. Three years have passed, and, so far as I am aware, there has been no response whatever on the part of men of light and leading in the fields of religion, philosophy, literature, and politics, who might here find a subject worthy of elucidation by their best efforts. Is it not, I must ask myself with my comparatively slender resources, great rashness and presumption on my part, to dream of dealing with such a task ? The only excuse I can offer, is that I am attempting it, faute de mieux ; that this effort of mine may at least tempt those with the best qualifications to come to the rescue.