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The state of education in South Indian Society
 


 

 

 

   
 

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Education and the state of the society during British rule


Before the British rule, it was religious education that was mostly taught. In British rule, many subjects - science, mathematics, history, geography - began to be taught in schools. The British needed many English-knowing clerks to run the government. It is in order to create these clerks that English education was started. After a while, these clerks ran the government.

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From ancient times, all over India, including Tamil Nadu, castes had taken root. In Tamil Nadu, brahmins were less than 5%. They were generally temple
priests and teachers in the traditional schools which taught vedas and scripture. Thus they were good in the traditional Indian education. Further
they were used to understand and absorb knowledge through education for a long time. Hence they were mentally well-equipped to absorb the new education
during the British rule.

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Since those who received the new education got the government jobs, most of those who joined government jobs were brahmins. In the course of time, their
position grew from clerks to higher authorities. Their power increased. This is the reason for the higher status attained by brahmins.

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The scientists whom we encountered in the earlier essay were all created by the English education that was started to create clerks.

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The present state

Why did the other castes not show any interest in education at least after seeing the advance of brahmins?


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They fought for reservation and quota in educational institutions and jobs in the government. Through that, they got jobs, but remained backward in education.

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Therefore, the non brahmins got political power, but did not advance in education. It is brahmins who became disadvantaged caste. But they advanced by leaving Tamil Nadu. Either they went to North India or abroad.


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Schools, Colleges and Universities suffered from absence of good teachers. So students of Tamil Nadu lost good education. The standard of education came 
down drastically. 

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An important feature of the brahmin culture is their notion that knowledge must be sought for its own sake and not for the sake of its uses. They thought that
to gain knowledge was the important aim of life. This is the reason for the success of brahmins in Science.

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This view did not spread among non brahmins. Unfortunately, reservation gave jobs and economic status to the non brahmins and they did not want anything more such as Science.  
  
The original purpose of reservation was the uplift of the backward castes and it was hoped that this will lead to the disappearance of caste distinctions. This did not happen, because the non brahmin castes wanted the advantages coming from reservation permanently.

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Those who understood the connection between education and economic advance dropped the notion of knowledge for its own sake. This increased the demand for reservation. More recently, economic liberalization encouraged this tendency further. Hence Basic Science has been pushed to a back seat. So there is no wonder that scientific stars did not appear in the Indian firmament after independence.

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Compared to the British times, during our own rule, contributions of the rich industrialists towards higher education or science have come down drastically. After our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's time, the government also does not show any interest in developing Science.

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The Way Forward


 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                           
If these three steps are taken, Tamil Nadu will surely rise higher in education and Science. Science stars will appear among the majority of Tamilians.

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Reference

Subaltern Science in the South (1792-1947), MS Raghunathan and G Rajasekaran, in Science and 
Modern India:An Institutional History (1784-1947), Vol XV, Part 4, History of Science, Ed:
Uma Das Gupta, Pearson Longman, pp664-717 (2010).

 


 

 


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From my last essay "South Indian Scientists", one fact stands out. All the stars that shone from South India-Ramanujan, Raman, Chandrasekhar, Krishnan and GNR were brahmins. Except for S S Pillai and Father Racine, all the other mathematicians belonged to the same caste. From a caste which is less than 5%, how did most of the scientists emerge? What is the reason for this significant social phenomenon? In this small essay we examine this briefly.         

Tamil Nadu should have gone along the path shown by savants like Thiru V Ka |and Maraimalai Adigal. The majority of Tamilians would have advanced like  the brahmins. Instead Tamilians took the path of politics.        

 So, Tamil Nadu lost well-educated people. The affected ones are students of Tamil Nadu only.

  1. Caste-based reservation must be abolished.                                                                                                                           

  2. Students from poor or otherwise dis-advantaged families must be given extra instruction |in the lower classes and then they also must be admitted with other children in the higher|classes. If this method is followed, there will be no backward students.                                        

  3. The basic tenet that knowledge must be sought for its own sake must be inculcated in all|the children. 

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