It has long been my own view that all work above the standard of Bachelorship in arts and science should be university work concentrated at the university centre and directed entirely by the university. It was an objection to this view that it would lower the standard of collegiate study and so lead eventually to a lowering of the college professional staff. This argument will be met in the future by increasing the number of local teaching universities. The province lends itself extraordinarily well geographically to a rearrangement of this kind. In any case, the view advocated resembles the line of advance in the West. Sir J. J. Thomson's committee is clear on the point. In America, distinction is already drawn between the disciplinary education of the college and free-ranging education of the university. This, according to one American authority, is "the most characteristic fact in the history of higher education during the past quarter of a century." "The college," he continued, "has for its object the important work of training students for the duties of citizenship, not primarily the duties of scholarship." Another eminent, American authority has outlined his idea of a university. The success of the higher work, he says, depends upon the intellectual and moral qualities of the professors, their freedom from all pecuniary anxiety, the widest publicity for their work and that of their assistants and students, and the steady improvement of libraries and laboratories. From the Convocation Address to the Allahabad University. each of the leading provinces of India, and secondly, to create new local teaching and residential universities in each of the provinces in harmony with the best modern opinions as to the right road to educational efficiency. We have already a new university in the province, the Benares Hindu University. It is not a provincial institution, but it serves a larger number of our people. Considerable funds have been collected for a Muslim University at Aligrah. May I, as an old friend of Aligrah, who had the honour of knowing Sir Saiyid Ahmed Khan and was an intimate friend of Mr. Justice Mahmud, Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk and others, appeal to my Muslim friends, who have done so well under trying conditions during the war, to close up ranks and work together for their sons and companions' sake in order that they may play their proper part in the educational development of the province. I contemplate the creation of new universities at Lucknow and later on at Agra. I shall appoint a committee to consider the establishment of these new universities as soon as the report of Dr. Sadler's committee is published. Great distinction must be drawn between the conditions that prevail in Calcutta and the conditions that prevail here, but I hope that we shall learn much from the report of that committee. We must also try to develop a teaching university in Allahabad. This will involve the separation of what may be called the internal and external branches of the university. There are rumours that Dr. Sadler's committee will make important proposals in this connection. II. THE HON. JUSTICE SIR JOHN WOODROFFE E cannot separate the question of University Education from that of Education in general. The under-graduate has already been made or spoiled in the family school, or college. Nor if we pursue the subject to the end can we avoid an enquiry into political, religi 13 said that probably in the whole world there are not two more dissimilar persons than an Englishman and a Hindu. The position is unnatural, and injurious to the true interests of this country. This control may be, and I think has been, directed by self-regarding political motives. But even if the point of view be one which primarily regards the interests of the Indian people, there is still place for conflicting theories and practice. There are some (the foremost of whom may be called Missionaries of Race) who, sincerely believing in the superiority of Western Civilisation, think that it will be for the benefit of India to impose it on the East. The product of this system is Macaulay's "Coloured Englishman." The drift of Education has been in this direction, As my friend, Mr. Havell (formerly Principal of the Calcutta School of Art) has rightly said, the fault of the Anglo Indian Educational System is that instead of harmonising with, and supplementing, national culture it is antagonistic to, and destructive, of it. Sir George Birdwood says of the system that it "has destroyed in Indians the love of their own literature, the quickening soul of a people, and their delight in their own arts, and worst of all their repose in their own traditional and national religion, has disgusted them with their own homes, their parents, and their sisters, their very wives and brought discontent into every family so far as its baneful influences have reached." Since writing the above, I have read a speech recently addressed by Sir Subramania Aiyar to the law students at Madras, in which he, pointing out that it seems to be thought that the aim and end of British tutelage in India is to westernise its children, says that the fulfilment of that aim must in the very nature of things tend to sap all true life and initiative natural to the people as a distinctly Eastern race destined to evolve on lines of its own. He also refers to a recent issue of the Journal," The Statist," to the effect that the object of the present rule seems intended to metamorphose the Indian into "a quasi-English breed." Such a breed, I may add, is likely to lead to half thinking, inefficient action and worse. As nothing is wholly evil, I personally believe that some benefits have been gained through the Education given, but looking upon the matter as a whole, I concur in thinking that this Education has had baneful effects. What else can be expected from a position so unnatural? Wrong Education is the cause of physical and mental strain and sapping of moral strength. It is productive of instability leading in the case of some to violence, in the case of others to a paralysing inner conflict or a sense of intolerable oppression, and in a large number of ordinary and inferior natures to imitation, automatisms, and sub-serviceable. The influences working on the student have been deracialising (if I may use the word to denote destruction of racial characteristics) devitalising, and deforming. If they have not worked their full evil, it is due to the resistance of the racial spirit defending itself against the assaults, increasing in number and strength, made upon it in recent years. Personally I should like to see the education of the Indian people in the hands of Indians themselves without any interference from Government as at present constituted. But if Government must control education, the principle on which it now proceeds should be changed. Let us recognise the strength, persistence and value of the racial characteristics of the Indian people, who have survived in a way, and to a degree, which is not seen in the case of any other country in the world. It is not necessary to enquire into the question of the respective superiority of the civilisation of East and West. It is sufficient to hold that Indian civilisation is the best for the people whose forefathers have evolved it. Let us stop all attempts, direct or indirect, whether political or religious, to impose our beliefs and practices on a people to whom they are foreign, Let us admit and give effect to the claim of the true Indian patriot that his language, history, literature, art, philosophy, religion, general culture and ideals should be given the primary place in the prescribed courses of study. If education be to educe, what can be educed from the Indian mind and character but inherited racial impressions? Is it education to neglect or suppress these and to cram it with foreign stuff? This observation does not exclude any form of knowledge Western or otherwise. Knowledge is knowledge whether it comes from East or West. An Indian student is none the less true to his type because his own cultural inheritance has been enriched by what of worth the West can give. It is directed to the positive cultivation of Indian culture, and in other matters the adoption of an attitude favourable to it. The 17th question asks whether the conditions under which students live undermine traditional morality. "Conditions" (if I understand the question rightly) indicate that the question has in view only some superficial features of the student's life. Where morality (I use the term in its general sense) has been undermined, it is due in primary degree to the alleged "neutrality" of the State as regards religion, its teaching, which ignores religion, the past attacks on the Indian religions, Hindu and Mussalman, westernising influences and the general atmosphere produced by these and other causes. How can traditional morality be preserved when the whole course of education is to ignore it and thus leave it the easier prey of sectarian attack and secular scepticism? How can the Indian student present an effective attitude to life if the source of his vitality is neglected or suppressed and his movements are cramped by foreign vestures? It is true that an increasing national consciousness has been to some extent remedying the evils of an English education on English principles by English teachers, but the necessity to remove the causes of these evils still It follows from the above views that in my BY MR. K. G. KRISHNASWAMI AYYAR, B.A. I HE ordinances laid down in the various Smrithis have to be considered in the first instance before coming to a conclusion as to the desirability or otherwise of the Marriage Bill introduced by the Hon. Mr. Patel. According to the 23rd Verse of Chapter I of Parasara Smrithi, the authoritative Smrithi for Kaliyuga is the said Smrithi, as against the Code of Manu which was the authorised Code in the Satya Yuga, the Code of Gautama which was the authority in the Tretata Yuga and the Codes of Sanka and Likhita in the Dwapara. In Verses Nos. 20-26 of Chapter IV of Parasara Smrithi, various ordinances are laid down permitting and forbidding marriages under various circumstances, but there is nothing said either for or against mixed marriages. Rules regarding parentage of children conceived under various circumstances are laid down in verses 17 and 18 of the same Chapter, but there is nothing in them for or against mixed marriages. The Parasara Smrithi, therefore, does not throw much light on this question. In Chapter X of the said Smrithi which deals with penances in cases of prohibited intercourse with women, incestuous intercourse, and intercourse with Chandala or Svapaka woman is referred to and there is nothing about intercourse with women of the four castes except in cases where the intercourse is an illicit one. In the case of female offenders, the Chapter deals with adulturous intercourse and intercourse with a Chandala. In the seventh chapter of the said Smrithi which lays down rules regarding the time at which a girl ought to be married; the following verses occur:— A Brahmana marrying such a girl (a girl who menstruates before her marriage) through temptations of flesh, should be looked down upon as the husband of a Sudra wife (Vri Shalipati). He should neither be spoken to, nor allowed to sit at the same row with other Brahmanas at a dinner (Verse 9). A Brahmana visiting a Sudra woman even for a single night should live by begging for three years from the date, in order to be absolved from the sin thereby committed. These two verses give rise to the inference that Parasara disapproved of the marriage of a Brahmana with a Sudra. There is nothing in the Parasara Smrithi forbidding marriages between members of the various castes other than Brahmanas; and even in the case of the Brahmanas, there is nothing against their marriage with women belonging to the other twice-born castes (Kshatriya and Vaisya) and marriage with Sudra woman is looked down upon with disfavour without being actually prohibited. In Verse 19 of Chapter I of Parasara Smrithi, Vyasa is addressed by Parasara as his son and Verse 8 makes it clear that the Vyasa referred to is the son of Parasara. Parasara's son is Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa or Veda Vyasa as he is popularly known, and from Chapter 1 of Vyasa Smrithi, it will appear that the ordinances laid down in the said Smrithi have emanated from Veda Vyasa. Ordinances promulgated under the authority of Veda Vyasa have to be considered to be supplementary to those promulgated under the authority of his father Parasara; and in all matters where Parasara Smrithi is silent or is not explicit, the rules in Vyasa Smrithi ought to be considered valid and binding. In Vyasa Samhita, the following injunctions are laid down: (1) At the close of Vedic studies and having performed the rite of Avabhuta ablution, a twiceborn one, wishing to be a house holder, should seek the hands of a girl of unimpeachable birth and family (Chapter II Verse I). [N.B. It will be interesting to know how far the above is done except merely in name]. (2) The daughter of an erudite father of good conduct and having sons of his own loins and born of a family free from all blemishes or any contagious or hereditary disease and not plighted for money to any other bridegroom before, and not of the same pravara or gotra, nor related to him as sapinda in his father's or mother's side, and belonging to his own varna and social order, slender of auspicious signs, clad in silken garments and not above eight years of age and whose paternal ancestors to the 10th degree in the ascending line were all men of renown, should be solemnly wedded, if preferred, in marriage. to (3) A daughter should be given in marriage one, befitting her family in respect of learning, birth, etc., and suited to her in years according to the rites of a Brahmana marriage or according to any other regulation where the former would not avail. [N.B. It cannot be pretended that the above two rules are followed in their entirety. A reading of the rules will show that the rules are merely recommendatory instead of being mendatory. Thus even if there were sions in the Smrithi authorising intercaste no express provimarriages, these two Verses could not be regarded a conclusive authority against intercaste marriages]. Verses 7 and 8 of Chapter I of Vyasa Smrithi lay down rules for the religious rites to be done for the children born to a Brahmana by his Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra wives, to a Kshatriya by his Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra wives and to a Vaisya by his Vaisya and Sudra wives. The Brahmana wife of a Brahmana is called a Vipravinna, and the Kshatriya wife, Kshatravinna. Verses 8 and 9 will show that the marriage of a man of an inferior caste with a woman of a superior caste is reprobated. In Verse 11 of Chapter II, it is said that a Brahmana may marry a Kshatriya or Vaisya girl; a Kshatriya can take a Vaisya wife and a Vaisya can wed a Sudra's daughter, but the member of an inferior caste cannot wed a girl of superior caste. In Vishnu Samhita, there are rules similar to those found in Vyasa Smrithi allowing intercaste marriages. In Chapter XXIV, it is laid down that a Brahmana may have four wives in the direct order of castes, a Kshatriya three, a Vaisya two and a Sudra one. Wives marrying husbands of their own caste shall join their hands. In marrying a husband of a different caste, a Kshatriya girl shall take hold of an arrow in her hand; a Vaisya girl a goading stick, and a Sudra girl the skirt of her cloth. Chapter XVI lays down rules regarding the castes to which the offsprings of intercaste marriages are to be assigned, the rule being that in all cases of Anuloma marriages (marriages of women of inferior caste with men of superior caste) the caste of the issue is that of the mother and in cases of Pratiloma marriages (marriages of women of superior caste with men of inferior caste) the offsprings ought to be assigned castes inferior to that of Sudras ranging from the Ayoguva (musicians) to which the offspring of a Sudra upon a Vaisya woman is assigned, to the Chandala caste to which the issue of a Sudra upon a Brahmana woman is assigned. Chapter XXVI deals with the status of the co-wives of different castes and Chapter XVIII |