From late medieval times, at least, Bengal had a system of elementary education which was supported by, and catered to the needs of, the local communities of the region. The institutions which comprised this system of elementary education, the patshalas, were not schools in the modern sense of that term. They were educational institutions which imparted practical instruction in a long-standing and well-understood way. In the later nineteenth century, this indigenous elementary education system was subjected to various measures of "reform" by the Bengal Government as the Government sought to control it; to use it for its own purposes, and to improve the type and form of instruction given in the patshalas.
This book sets out to determine the purpose of the Government's measures; and to assess the way in which, and the extent to which, the patshalas were changed by these measures. The book thus attempts to make a detailed and systematic study of change in the key sector of Bengal's indigenous elementary education system in the later nineteenth century. The book looks at the nature of instruction given in the Patshalas before and after Government involvement. To do this it examines closely the teaching process in the patshala: what was taught; and how efficiently it was taught. The curriculum followed; the background, qualifications and training of the teachers employed in patshalas; the teaching methods used; and the system of discipline followed, have all been studied and evaluated.
The first chapter presents the setting for the study. Chapter II attempts to establish the patshala as it operated before 1854. Chapters III to VI deal with the different ways in which the government attempted to extend its control over the patshalas and analyse the significance of the various reforms introduced. The concluding elementary education. Its approach is also different as it is concerned not merely with governmental policy but also with deter-mining what actually went on in these schools and how these schools were affected in their teaching and organisation by governmental reforming measures. Moreover, this study continues investigation up to 1905. To date, no work has been undertaken on the period 1882 to 1905. In this respect, the present work attempts to break new ground.
The book is focussed on the period 1854 to 1905 on account of two important considerations. Wood's Educational despatch of 1854 was a landmark in the educational history of India since it marked the beginning of direct government involvement in elementary education. Hence the year 1854 constitutes the starting point for the study. The book surveys the period up to 1905, at which date, for administrative and political reasons, Bengal was partitioned into two provinces, 'Bengal' and 'East Bengal and Assam".
The new province, Eastern Bengal and Assam, included a considerable portion of the Bengali-speaking area of the former Presidency which constituted 'Bengal Proper'. The period 1854 to 1905, therefore, allows one to examine Bengal Proper as affected by measures drawn up by one and the same education department, a procedure which is not possible between 1905 and 1912 because the new province had its own, separate educational machinery for developing its policies.
The most important documentary sources for the research were the official records of the Government of Bengal, i. e., Proceedings of departments, Original Consultations, Letters and Despatches to and from the Court of Directors and Reports of Public Instruction.
These records I have consulted at the West Bengal State Archives in Calcutta. The West Bengal Secretariat Library at Calcutta, the National Library of India at Calcutta and the Bangladesh Secretariat Library at Dhaka all have valuable collections of published material on education. For Bengali materials, the Bangiya Sahitya Library at Calcutta is a mine of information.
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