Development of Education in the Colonial...

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Ph.D. Dissertation Development of Education in the Colonial Punjab: The Role of Christian Missionaries (1849-1947) Research Student Mohammad Dilshad Mohabbat Department of History University of the Punjab Lahore Research Supervisor Prof. Dr. S. Qalb-i-Abid Dean, Faculty of Arts & Humanities Chairman, Department of History University of the Punjab Lahore DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB, LAHORE

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Ph.D. Dissertation

Development of Education in the Colonial Punjab: The Role of Christian Missionaries (1849-1947)

Research Student

Mohammad Dilshad Mohabbat

Department of History

University of the Punjab

Lahore

Research Supervisor

Prof. Dr. S. Qalb-i-Abid

Dean, Faculty of Arts & Humanities

Chairman, Department of History

University of the Punjab

Lahore

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB, LAHORE

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DECLARATION

I, Mohammad Dilshad Mohabbat, hereby declare that this thesis submitted in

fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in History, University

of the Punjab, Lahore, is wholly my personal research work unless otherwise referenced or

acknowledged. The thesis has not been submitted concurrently to any other university for any

other degree.

Mohammad Dilshad Mohabbat

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CERTIFICATE BY THE RESEARCH SUPERVISOR

This is to certify that the research work described in this thesis is the original work of

the author and has been carried out under my direct supervision. I have personally gone

through all the data/results/material reported in the manuscript and certify their

correctness/authenticity. I further certify that the material included in this thesis have not

been used in part or full in a manuscript already submitted or in the process of submission in

partial/complete fulfilment of the award of any other degree from any other institution. I also

certify that the thesis has been prepared under my supervision according to the prescribed

format and I endorse its evaluation for the award of Ph.D. degree through the official

procedures of the university.

Prof. Dr. S. Qalb-i-Abid

Supervisor

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DADICATED

TO

MY

KIND AND LOVING PARENTS,

ABLE AND SINCERE TEACHERS,

CARING FAMILY

AND

BELOVED DAUGHTERS,

MINAHIL, USWA AND SANA

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply grateful to my supervisor Prof. Dr. S. Qalb-i-Abid, Dean Faculty of Arts

and Humanities, for providing invaluable guidance throughout my research work. In fact this

work would not have been completed without his kind guidance, sympathies, and

administrative support. His invaluable intellectual ebullience played a key role in hammering

out decisive arguments and clarifications regarding this research work. I am extremely

obliged to his generous contribution. I am also obliged to my kind and sincere teacher Dr.

Muhammad Iqbal Chawla whose encouraging and supportive behaviour was always a source

of inspiration for me. I owe a debt of gratitude to my respected teacher Dr. Faraz Anjum who

has always been supportive of my intellectual endeavours. He was kind enough to spare

sufficient time for me to discuss various perspectives and view points in different contexts.

His valuable instructions and suggestions helped me a lot in improving the academic quality

of my research work. I have great regards for him and shall always be grateful to his valuable

input to this work.

The valuable colonial documents at Punjab Archives, Lahore, are one of the essential

sources for my research work and I was generously facilitated here in consulting these

sources by the Librarian, Muhammad Ejaz, and his staff members. I would like to sincerely

acknowledge their kind co-operation. A special thank is due to Mr. Muhammad Abbas,

Deputy Director Punjab Archives, whose administrative support was vital in accessing the

Archives‘ Library. I would like to thank thoughtfully and warmly the generous cooperation

of Mrs. Christiana Amjad Ali, administrator Christian Study Centre Rawalpindi. The

librarian of the Christian Study Centre, Ms. Musarrat, was also very much co-operative and

introduced me to a lot of valuable Christian colonial documents. I am also thankful to Mr.

Qamar Zaman, the Director National Documentation Wing Islamabad for his generous

cooperation at NDW library. Of many librarians, I acknowledge the cooperation of Mrs.

Rahat Khan, the librarian St. John Vianney Library of Our Lady Lords Minor Seminary,

Lalazar Rawalpindi. I acknowledge the valuable cooperation of the staff of the library,

Department of History, especially that of its librarian, Mrs. Faiqa Bhatti, with a lot of thanks

and gratitude. Many thanks are also due to the staff members of Main Library University of

the Punjab, Lahore, Quaid-i-Azam Library, Lahore, Punjab Public Library, Lahore, Library

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of FC College, Lahore, Library of Rangmahal School, Lahore, National Archives, Islamabad,

for their cooperation and help. I also want to thank Mr. Manzur Gill from FC College,

Lahore, Mrs. Veeda Javed and Mr. Simon Jacob from Presbyterian Education Board, Lahore,

who cooperated with me and provided me great support in interacting within the Christian

community.

I must express my appreciation to my friend Mr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Ph.D. Scholar at

BZU, who supported me in different ways. In addition to his moral and material support, his

helping hand in dealing my official matters in education department was very vital for me

and I recognize it with great thanks. I am also indebted to the support of my colleague Mr.

Muhammad Arshad who was kind enough to share the burden of my official duties and

willingly spared me to complete my work. My special thanks are also due to my class fellows

Muhammad Ejaz, Raja Amir Hanif, Kamran Aziz Khan and Rana Khurshid Ahmed Khan

for their moral support.

Finally, I do not find words to express my gratitude to my parents and brothers for

their unyielding support. Their prayers and material help were vital for me and it was

impossible to complete this work without their support. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my

life partner and my daughters who suffered the most due to my research activities. Their

generous support, love and encouragement, during this critical period, are a memorable asset

for me and I acknowledge it with great thanks and gratitude.

MOHAMMAD DILSHAD

MOHABBAT

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Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Missionary Education; its Aims and Objectives 20

1.1 Christian Missionaries in the Punjab: A Historical Overview 21

1.2 Main Aim of Missions 33

1.3 Origin of Missionary Education in India 36

1.4 Education: A Need of the Day 38

1.5 Types of Missionary Education 41

1.6 Objectives behind Missionary Education 43

Chapter 2 Origin and Expansion of Boys’ Missionary Schools

(1849-1880) 59

2.1 Pre-British Period 60

2.2 The British Period 62

2.3 Period of Expansion 67

2.4 Expansion Abandoned 83

Chapter 3: Origin and Expansion of Girls’ Missionary Schools

(1849-1880) 95

3.1 Challenges of the field 98

3.2 Christian Missionaries‘ Objectives behind Women Education 106

3.3 Zanana Missions in the Field 113

3.4 Missionaries‘ Modes of Action 115

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Chapter 4 Missionaries’ Review of Policy and Development of

Women ‘s Higher Education (1881-1900) 135

4.1 Indian Education Commission (1882) 136

4.2 Missionaries‘ Future Course of Action 143

4.3 Initiation of Higher Education 146

4.4 Reaction and Response of the Native Population 156

4.5 Secondary Education for Girls 162

Chapter 5 Christian Missionary Education in the Twentieth Century

(1901-1947) 163

5.1 Qualitative Measures in boys Schools 168

5.2 Missionaries Endeavours in the Field of Women Education 185

5.3 Qualitative Measures in the Girls‘ Schools 187

5.4 Initiation of Female Higher Education: Missionaries‘ Contribution 194

5.5 Qualitative Measures 199

Conclusion 216

Selected Bibliography 228

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Abbreviations

AP American Presbyterian Church of America

UP United Presbyterian Church of America

SPG Society for the Propagation of the Gospel

BZMS Baptist Zenana Missionary Society

ABCFM American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

CEZMS Church of England Zenana Missionary Society

CMS Church Missionary Society

WMC World Missionary Conference

CMD Cambridge Mission to Delhi

LMS London Missionary Society

WCC World Council of Churches

FES Society for Promoting Female Education in the East

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Introduction

The history of Christian missions in the Indian sub-continent, including the British

province of the Punjab, is synchronous with the earliest period of Church history. The first

Christian community is reported to be originated in the first century A.D. It was started off

near the historical city of Taxila, under the leadership of Parthian King, Gundaphoros, who

embraced Christianity under the influence of Thomas Didymus, one of the earliest

missionaries in this land. Obviously the patronage of the King granted St. Thomas the liberty

of preaching in the length and breadth of his kingdom and the efforts of the pioneer

missionary resulted into the origination of this Christian community in the region.

The second phase of missionary activities started with the arrival of Francisco Xavier,

the founder of Jesuit missions, in the Indian sub-continent on May 6, 1542. The Jesuits

adopted the ‗trickle down policy‘1 and fancied the conversion of the Indian population

through that of their rulers. So they initiated their efforts to convert the Mughal Emperor

Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar and his son Salim, who afterwards succeeded Akbar with the

title of Nur-ud-Din Muhammad Jehangir. Although the missionaries could not succeed in

their efforts yet they were successful in seeking the favours of both the aforementioned

Mughal Emperors. The royal backing, in the subsequent years, worked for them and they

were able to build a church at the important city of Lahore. But the succession of Shahab-ud-

Din Muhammad Shah Jahan proved to be a set back for the missionaries. As he started to

impede the missionary activities and, in 1614, he was successful in ousting the whole

Christian community from Lahore to Agra.

1Trickle down policy implies that the religious beliefs of the ruling class would slowly and steadily trickle

down to the lower classes and in this way the conversion of the ruling class would ultimately affect the

religion of the masses.

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The third phase of Christian missionary activities ushered with the arrival of

Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plutschau, the first non-Catholic missionaries to enter

the Indian mission field.2 They established the first Protestant Christian mission under the

patronage of Frederick IV, the king of Denmark, in 1706. The introduction of Protestant

missions made a significant methodological difference with that of their earlier Catholic

counterparts. The latter attached greater importance to formal conversion while the former

were more concerned with the dissemination of Christian knowledge.3 Although the early

Catholic missionaries had some educational involvement yet it was declined by the end of

eighteenth century. The Protestant missions, from their earliest days in the Indian mission

field, felt the importance of education in the way of achieving of their evangelical goals and

the first principle of the strategy of the pioneer Protestants, P. Ziegenbalg and Henry

Plutschau, was, ‗Church and school are to go together.‘4

The modern phase of missionary activities is considered to be date with the formation

of the major missionary societies—the Baptist Missionary Society (1792), the London

Missionary Society (1799), the Church Missionary Society (1799), the American Board of

Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1810), the Methodist Missionary Society (1813), and

the like. William Carey‘s5 arrival in India on, November 11, 1793, is considered to be the

starting point of this phase of missionary activities.6 The pioneer Baptist missionary, William

Carey, attached great importance to education and believed that the schools were, ‗one of the

most effectual means of spreading the light of the gospel through the world‘. He therefore

2 Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, Evangelical Quarterly 69:3 (1997): 245.

3 P. Thomas, Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954), 185.

4 Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), 195.

5 The first missionary appointed by the Baptist Society to serve in India.

6 Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, translated by Sydney Moor (New York: Fleming H. Revell

Company, 1908), 131.

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established his first school in India in 1794.7 Afterwards, he became the part of ‗Serampore

Trio‘8 which, by 1818, established a network of 92 schools with about 10000 pupils on the

rolls.9 The convention of missionary schools was further strengthened by Alexander Duff, a

Scottish Presbyterian missionary who landed in Calcutta, on May 27, 1830.10

He, after the

careful consideration of the challenges of the Indian mission field, decided to act through the

‗downward filtration‘11

theory and introduced English, instead of vernaculars, as medium of

instruction in his schools.

Rev. John C. Lowrie and Rev. William Reed, the missionaries from the Presbyterian

Church of America, entered the territory of the Punjab in 1834. In addition to the

establishment of a mission station, Mr. Lowrie, started superintending ‗Ludhiana Mission

High School‘, immediately after his arrival at Ludhiana. The school was known for having

students from some distinguished families of the region—the Afghan and the Sikh.12

His

popularity as an educationist tempted Maharaja Ranjeet Singh to invite him to establish an

English school for the sons of nobility, at the capital city of Lahore but the offer was declined

due to some differences over the scheme of studies at the proposed school.13

The mission

also maintained an orphanage for girls at Ludhiana. In spite of all this, the territory of the

7 Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, 246.

8 In 1799, Ward and Marshman arrived in Calcutta to join William Carrey. Due to the critical circumstances, for

missionary work at Calcutta, they convinced Carrey to settle down at Serampore, a Dutch Settlement only 15

miles from Calcutta. The combination of these three missionaries was excellent for missionary work—Carrey

was a propagandist, Ward was a painter and Marshman was a school teacher— and is popularly known as

‗Serampore Trio‘. Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education in India, 1800-1947

(Bombay: Macmillan and Co., 1951), 35-36. 9 Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, 248.

10 Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions, 308.

11 The term refers to Duff‘s policy of aiming at educating the high class Brahmins, by using Christian education

through the medium of English, with a hope that the minority (Brahmans) would eventually affect the majority

(non-Brahmins). Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, 248. 12

John Newton, Historical Sketches of the Indian Missions of the Presbyterian church in the United States of

America, (Allahabad: Allahabad Missionary Press, 1886), 27. 13

Ibid.

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Punjab remained devoid of any other missionary society till the beginning of the second half

of the nineteenth century. But the scenario was changed considerably after the annexation of

the Punjab, in 1849, and the succession of the British officials to the helm of affairs made the

atmosphere of the province conducive for the growth of different missionary organizations.14

Consequently, the United Presbyterian Church of America, Church Missionary Society, the

Church of Scotland and the High Church Society for the Propagation of the Gospel entered in

the Punjabi mission field within the period of a decade after annexation. In this way, by the

annexation of the Punjab, the missionary education was emerged as a necessary component

of every mission and each and every mission station had a school attached to it.

The recommendations of the ‗Wood‘s Education Despatch‘15

, in 1854, also

encouraged the missionaries to enter the field of education. The Despatch suggested the

government‘s gradual withdrawal from the field of education in favour of some private

educational agency. It filled the missionaries with the hopes of commanding the whole

educational domain by presenting themselves as a substitute for the government in the field

of education.16

In addition to this the Despatch bestowed the missionaries with the claim of a

legal right to get financial aid for their educational institutions, through grant-in-aid

scheme.17

In this way it helped the missionaries in establishing an important position in the

European-led education system. The Punjab government set up its own Education

14

In the post annexation scenario, some prominent pro-missionary personalities like Henry Lawrence, John

Lawrence, Robert Montgomery, Herbert Edward and the like emerged as the pillars of new administration who

encouraged and supported the missionary enterprise to the best of their authority. 15

It is considered to be the most significant India Office education directive of the nineteenth century. Tim

Allender, ‗Anglican Evangelism in North India and the Punjabi Missionary Classroom; the Failure to Educate

‗the Masses‘‘, 1860-77‘, History of Education, 32:3 (May 2003): 274. 16

Since, in the Punjab, Christian missionaries were the only private agency involved in the diffusion of Western

education therefore they were hopeful of getting the command of the whole educational domain after the

anticipated withdrawal of government from the field. 17

The scheme was initiated to provide financial aid to the private bodies involved in the education of the

masses. In the Punjab, this scheme was considered to be meant for the missions because, at that time, they were

the only private educational agency in the province.

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Department in 1855 but the mission schooling took impetus after the rise Robert

Montgomery to the designation of Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, in 1859. The

missionaries‘ educational endeavours, in spite of the British government‘s outward pledge of

adopting the policy of religious neutrality, were well supported by the top administrative

officials in the Punjab.18

.The missionaries‘ educational endeavours in the colonial Punjab could be divided

into two phases with the dawn of the twentieth century as demarcation line between the two.

Both the phases of missionary activities were marked by two different tendencies. The first

phase of their efforts was marked by their ultimate desire of commanding the whole field of

education. 19

So, during this period, they wanted to prove themselves as an appropriate

substitute for government, after its suggested withdrawal, and tried their best to multiply their

educational institutions to expand their network in the length and breadth of the Punjab. As a

corollary, their efforts were focused on getting the numeric dominance in the field and the

quality of education was, generally, neglected at their institutions.

This period of expansion is also important because of the initiation of formal women

education in the Punjab, during this period. The missionaries are considered to be the

pioneers in diffusing Western education to the female multitude of India. In the Punjab, the

missionaries‘ endeavours for women education took impetus after the encouragement by R.

18

The most senior British men including the then Lieutenant Governor, Robert Montgomery, and his brother in

law, Donald McLeod, were actively backing the missionaries in the Punjab. Tim Allender, ‗Anglican

Evangelism in North India and the Punjabi Missionary Classroom; the Failure to Educate ‗the Masses‘‘, 1860-

77‘, 276 19

Wood‘s Education Despatch presented the ‗doctrine of state withdrawal‘ which suggested government‘s

gradual withdrawal from the field of education and thus swelled the missionaries‘ hopes of commanding the

whole field of education in the country. ―It aroused missionaries‘ hopes of a great era of expansion in which

Government would eventually withdraw from direct educational enterprise and the missionary schools,

supported by liberal grant-in-aid, would cover the whole country.‖ Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟

History of Education in India, 1800-1947, 135

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Montgomery. He as the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, conducted an educational

durbar, at Lahore in February 1862, and impressed upon the European officials and the

native gentlemen, present there, the importance of women‘s education and invited their

cooperation.20

The missionaries, along with the other communities of the society, responded

positively and initiated their efforts for the education of the girls. In addition to the

establishment of separate schools, boarding schools, and orphanages for the girls, they

initiated Zenana visiting to approach the secluded women of the society. The missionary

ladies were involved in aforementioned activities for the education of the native women.

Contrary to the missionary schools for boys, the missionary schools for girls were considered

better than all the others present in the field.

This period, popularly known as period of expansion, lasted till 1880. The subsequent

two decades, up to the dawn of the twentieth century, could be termed as the period of

transition for the missionaries because, during this period of about twenty years, they

remained busy in outlining their future course of action. Their previous policy of expansion

was unable to deliver the desired results and the condition of the field was going to change in

the future. The recommendations of the First Indian Education Commission, in 1882-83,

showed little favours for the missionaries. The Commission rejected the option of

government‘s withdrawal from the field of education in the favour of Christian missionaries.

Moreover it recommended the grant of financial support for the native private agencies,

through the scheme of grant-in-aid. The recommendations of the Commission were not

favourable for the missionaries and they sensed a different scenario of the mission field in the

future. They foresaw the future atmosphere of open competition of their educational

20

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 10.

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institutions with government schools as well as those managed by the native agencies.

Consequently, they observed the prevailing condition of the field closely and came to the

conclusion that the changed circumstances of the field as well as the failure of their previous

policy in delivering the desired results demanded a complete review of their previous policy

of establishing as many schools as possible. In addition to the missionaries‘ review of the

previous policy, this period is well known for the advent of the native societies in the field of

education, the development of private collegiate education and for the development of

secondary education of women.

With the dawn of the twentieth century, Christian missionaries started implementing

their new policy which suggested a total reversal from their previous efforts of quantitative

supremacy and recommended the initiation of those for qualitative improvement.

Consequently, the missionaries became quality conscious and abandoned their efforts of

numeric increase. They initiated their efforts to improve the quality of instruction at their

institutions and from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the colonial rule in

the Punjab, in 1947, consistently followed this policy of quality improvement. They had

special focus on the development of leadership qualities in their students. The improved

standard of instruction at their schools and colleges served for the desired object and the

missionaries were able to catch the attention of the upper echelon of the society. Most of the

people form the upper rung of the society, in spite of having serious apprehensions against

the religious aspect of missionary education, started sending their children to the missionary

schools. They were draw to the missionary institutions due to the higher standards of

education maintained by the missionary educators at these institutions. It was this period in

which the missionary educational institutions led the race and emerged as the symbol of

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excellence in the province and still in this modern age of competition they are able to

maintain it.21

Present education system of the Punjab is the legacy of the colonial education system

and Christian missionaries were one of the key players in developing this system in the

province which is still functioning in some modified form. The missionaries were considered

to be the allies of the colonial government in developing this system of education in the

Punjab. The opinion of the missionaries held a considerable weight in the decision making

process and they had enough influence to modify government educational policy according

to their desired lines. So it would be important to understand the missionaries‘ educational

enterprise to understand the complexities of the present education system. The selected

period is important to comprehend the missionaries‘ educational endeavours in the context of

different educational strategies adopted at different times by the missionaries. This research

work would be the first to conduct on this period with special reference to the missionaries‘

educational enterprise in this region.

All the Christian missionary societies, especially those of Protestant faction, adopted

education as a necessary part of their missionary labours during the nineteenth century in the

Indian mission field. This resolute involvement of missionary Societies in the field of

education is the most striking thing about the missionary strategy. It is quite appropriate to

probe ‗why these Societies involved themselves in an enterprise which had no direct relation

to their missionary goal of conversion? What was the real driving force which tempted the

missionaries to indulge in such a tiresome and expensive activity? The study also attempts to

21

Christian missionary institutions provided the majority of the leadership during Pakistan movement and most

of the leaders from the Punjab were the ex-students of missionary institutions. Even today a vast majority of the

ruling class in Pakistan is the product of the missionary institutions which shows the excellence of these

institutions.

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analyze the missionaries‘ interaction with the colonial officials of the Punjab and tries to

understand how, during 1850s, the missionaries, in spite of the government‘s outward pledge

of adopting the policy of religious neutrality, were able to establish and expand their

missionary networks in the territory of the Punjab. The work also attempts to study the

transition of missionary educational institutions from lower class educational institutions to

those of emblem of excellence in the province.

Education has been central to the building of missionary institutions and the field of

women was no exception. The missionary wives began schools for girls as part of their

natural and normal role as a missionary wife, since their inception in the Punjab.

Missionaries‘ efforts for women education in the Punjab took impetus after 1860. Their

contribution, in this field, was very vital for the initiation of some system of women

education in the province. This work attempts to study the challenges of the field and the

missionaries‘ response to meet them. It attempts to show how the Zenana missions were

introduced in the field and different strategies adopted by them to approach the secluded

women of the upper rung of the social ladder. The study also examines the role played by the

missionaries in fashioning the collegiate education for women in the province. The work

goes on to show how the missionary ladies presented the Western ideals to the native ladies

which induced them to adopt those Western models.

Review of the Literature

Unfortunately we are short of sufficient secondary sources about the missionaries‘

educational contribution in the territory of the Punjab. A lot of work has been done on the

evangelical aspect of missionary activities in the Indian sub-continent. A great deal of work

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has been done on the history of Christianity and Christian missions in India. A considerable

research work is also done on the educational activities of Christian missionaries focussing

the regions of Bengal, Madras and Bombay. Most of the writers focus on the educational

work of Serampore Trio and that of Alexander Duff. However the work done on the

educational enterprise of Christian missionaries in the territory of the Punjab is almost

negligible. The province of the Punjab was an important part of the British dominion. It was

the province which was roughly the size of England stretching from Delhi in the East to

Peshawar in the North West. The province once included both St. Stephen College Delhi and

Forman Christian College Lahore, the two prestigious missionary colleges of the sub-

continent. Moreover the province of the Punjab was considered, in the missionary circles, to

be an ecclesiastical pathway to Central Asia.22

In this context, the study of the missionary

work done in the field of education in the province of the Punjab is very important. This

research work fills the gap by fully concentrating on the missionaries‘ educational work done

in the territorial boundaries of the British Punjab. The attempted period of study is also

important because it helps in studying the missionaries‘ educational endeavours in their

proper socio-religious context.

It is important to have an overview of existing literature on this topic which contains

the works produced by different historians particularly mission historians, education

historians, social historians, historians of the gender and the like. There are some writes who

are interested in the origin and evolution of Christianity in the Indian sub-continent and

therefore tries to trace the history of Christianity and Christian missions in this peninsula,

22

Christian missionaries were convinced that the conversion of India would ultimately lead to the conversion of

Asia and they saw the province as an ecclesiastical pathway to Central Asia. Jeffrey Cox, Imperial Fault Lines:

Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818- 1940 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 26.

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from the first century A.D. Robert Eric23

, Julius Richter24

and P. Thomas25

are the typical

examples of these kind of writers. The mission historians mostly trace the history of

Christian missions and their activities in the Indian sub-continent. Eugene Stock wrote the

History of Church Missionary Society (CMS) which consists of four volumes in which he

traces the history of CMS from 1799 to 1915. He seems to be concerned, mainly, with the

religious history of CMS. Julius Richter traces the history of missions in the subcontinent.

Avril A Powell26

reveals the story of Muslim-Christian religious encounters, Manazaras27

,

before the War of Independence. The most of these religious debates took place in the Indian

region known as ‗Gangetic Core‘28

, therefore this area is the main focus of the book.

Christian missionaries, who came to the Indian sub-continent, during the colonial rule, also

wrote their experiences in book forms. These accounts, obviously, are of great historical

importance due to the missionaries‘ first hand experiences of the field. Such accounts of John

Newton and those of Andrew Gordon are important in the Punjabi context.

There are very few researchers who have attempted to work on the educational

activities of the missionaries particularly in the geographical boundaries of British Punjab.

Tim Allender is one of the same groups. He in his article Anglican Evangelism in North

23

Robert Eric Frykenberg, Christianity in India from Beginnings to the Present (New York: Oxford University

Press, 2008). 24

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, translated by Sydney Moor (New York: Fleming H. Revell

Company, 1908). 25

P. Thomas, Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954). 26

Avril A. Powell, Muslims and Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1993) 27

An Urdu term generally used, during nineteenth century, for a religious disputation or debate between the

adherents of Islam and Christianity. 28

A geographical term taken from Kenneth W. Jones, Scio-Religious Reforms Movements in British India,

Vol.II/3 (Cambridge, 1989). Avril A. Powell considered it as an appropriate encapsulation of the region within

which Muslim-missionary interaction took place. Avril A. Powell, Muslims and Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny

India, 1.

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India and the Punjabi Missionary Classroom; the Failure to Educate ‗the Masses‘‘, 1860-7729

focuses on the performance of Anglican mission schools in the Punjab from 1860 o 1877. He

tries to explore reasons behind the missionaries‘ inability to expand their educational

influence beyond their central city schools, in spite of their expansive programmes of

evangelism and conversion in the far off areas of the province. He also attempts to trace the

factors behind the sudden emergence of Anglican mission schools during 1860. The author is

also interested in bringing forth the educational problems originated from the conversion

imperative in the missionary schools. The missionaries‘ distrust on Government officials and

its ultimate impact on their future course of action is also an important part of this research

work. It also explains how the emergence of the native educational organizations, in the field

of education, brought a halt to the educational dominance of the missionary schools.

The same author analyzes Sir Robert Montgomery‘s role, as the Lieutenant Governor

of the Punjab, in initiating the campaign for women education in the province.30

He asserts

that Montgomery‘s movement in favour of women education was a politically motivated

move which was used to camouflage the failure of centralization scheme after the abolition

of Halkabandi school system.31

The same writer, in his research work titled ‗instructing the

Women: Changing State Agendas in Colonial India, 1854-1924‘32

, tries to explore the kind

29

Tim Allender, ‗Anglican Evangelism in North India and the Punjabi Missionary Classroom; the Failure to

Educate ‗the Masses‘‘, 1860-77‘, History of Education, 32:3 (May 2003): 273-288. 30

Tim Allender, ‗Robert Montgomery and the Daughter Slayers: A Punjabi Education Imperative, 1855-65‘,

Journal of South Asian Studies, 25:1 (April, 2002), 97-119. 31

A village school scheme called ‗Halkabandi‘ was set up in the Punjab, under the care of W.D. Arnold, first

Director of Public Instruction, during 1856. It was an experimental scheme evolved with a view to utilize the

indigenous resources since it aimed at learning in the local languages with classes taught by the indigenous

teachers and supervised by the indigenous inspectors. But in 1860, R. Montgomery, decided to avoid it and

directed the government and the mission schools to centralize at the urban sites and to teach in English, where

possible. Ibid, 99-101. 32

Tim Allender, ‗Instructing the Women: Changing State Agendas in Colonial India, 1854-1924‘, Proceedings

of 16th

Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia in Wollongong (26th of June, 2006).

http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-conference/2006/Allender-Tim-ASAA2006.pdf

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of relationship between women educators and the existing government. He also examines the

government‘s role in constructing these women educators and observes that the state directed

discourses, during this period of seventy years, were largely driven by other agendas. The

same writer examines the role of the colonial masters in constructing the female educational

ethics, based on race and class.33

The work of Jeffrey Cox34

is another important work on missionaries‘ activities in the

Punjab. The writer uses the metaphor of ‗fault line‘ for the problems which missionaries‘

close association with the colonial government created by and for the Christian missionaries‘

enterprise. It focuses on the missionary operations conducted in the Punjab, including Delhi,

and attempts to examine the complexity of missionaries‘ activities. He wants to evaluate the

influence of Christian missions on Indian society, within the larger imperial context, and also

the significant role of the native Indians in the mission efforts. The writer is of the opinion

that although the missionaries failed to achieve their desired objectives yet they had a

significant impact on the lives of a large number of Indians through their social service

institutions—educational and medical.

Sanjay Seth35

focuses on the educational activities of the missionaries and relates

them to their ultimate desire of conversion. His research focuses the missionaries‘

educational endeavours in the British India. He tries to prove that the missionaries‘

educational efforts were mainly originated from their longstanding desire of getting converts

33

Tim Allender, ‗ Educational Futures: Creating a Female Education Space in Colonial India, 1854-1934‘, 17th

Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia in Melbourne (1-3 July 2008).

http://arts.monash.edu.au/mai/asaa/timallender.pdf 34

Jeffrey Cox, Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818- 1940 (Stanford: Stanford

University Press, 2002). 35

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 27-43.

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from the host society and they used education as an auxiliary to achieve their ultimate goal of

evangelization. He elaborates how the missionaries introduced the Western science and

learning with a view to serve as the solvent of Hindu and Islamic beliefs ultimately paving

the way for the introduction of Christianity and how it (the introduction of Western

education), instead of producing desired results, proved to be a source of irreligion and

immorality in the Indian society.

Iftikhar Haider Malik36

tries to explore the advent of the American missionaries in

South Asia. He has examined the role and effects of the American missionaries in South

Asia. He tries to explore the interdependence of the missionaries and the British rulers by

highlighting the critical role played by the missionaries during the War of Independence, in

1857, and the governments‘ support to the missionaries after the restoration of the peace. He

is of the opinion that the introduction of modern science hastened the pace of modernization

and ushered a new social, political, educational and religious era in the existing Indian social

setting. To him the cultural interaction of the Indian and the non-Indian resulted directly into

the revivalist movements in India.

Syed Nurullah and J.P Naik37

wrote the standard history of education in the Colonial

India and discuss the progressive development of the present education system in the Indian

sub-continent. They criticize the role of British administration in suppressing the long living

indigenous education system. In addition to the destruction of indigenous education system,

the inability of the British Government in developing a national education system is their

36

Iftikhar Haider Malik, ‗The American Missionaries in South Asia, 1812-1870‘, Journal of the Research

Society of Pakistan, XIX: 3, (1982), 21-41. 37

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education in India, 1800-1947 (Bombay: Macmillan

and Co., 1951).

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major allegation on the British administration. G.W. Leitner,38

the eminent educationist of

the nineteenth century Punjab, traced the history of the prevalent indigenous education

system in the province. He discusses the existing rich infrastructure of the indigenous

education system and held the British administration responsible for the fateful demise of the

indigenous education system. H.R. Mehta39

traces the initial growth of the Western education

in the Punjab, till 1884. He has elaborated some official efforts to implant the new education

system in the Punjab. He partially discusses the role of missionaries in the development of

the new education system. Women‘s education is also discussed briefly in his work.

Muhammad Imtiaz Zafar40

, in his doctoral research work, analyzes the social impact

of the missionaries‘ educational activities in Jampur. He describes the social changes in the

Muslim society of Jampur, originated from the missionaries‘ activities. Leslie A. Fleming41

discusses the social impact of American women missionaries‘ activities and analyzes their

role as ‗change agents‘. She has described the cultural mind-set of the American women

missionaries and discussed the role that missionaries propounded for the Indian women. She

attempts to elaborate the importance of the boarding schools in remodelling the social fabric

of the society. Michelle Maskiell42

discusses the impact of higher missionary education on

the lives of the female students of Kinnaird College during the first half of the twentieth

century. She used both the quantitative analysis of the college admission registers and a

38

G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab: Since Annexation and in 1882, (Lahore:

Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2002). 39

H.R. Mehta, A History of the Growth and Development of Western Education in Punjab, 1846-1884 (Punjab

Government Record Office, Monograph No. 5, 1929). 40

Muhammad Imtiaz Zafar, Impact of Christian Missionary Activities on Muslim Society: A Case Study of

Jampur (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of the Punjab, 1996). 41

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change in

North India, 1870-1910‘, in Woman‟s Work for Woman: Missionaries and Social Change in Asia, ed. Leslie A.

Flemming (1989), 35-57. 42

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘,

Modern Asian Studies, 19:1 (1985): 55-83.

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qualitative examination of additional institutional sources, alumnae records, and personal

interviews with former staff members and students, to show the overall impact of missionary

education on the lives of the college girls.

A close examination of these works reveals the fact that they have made little effort in

evaluating the educational aspect of missionary enterprise in the British Punjab. Although

there are some researchers who have focused the same in this region yet their work does not

cover the complete period of colonial rule in this region. No doubt the period from 1860 to

the formation of first Indian Education Commission, in 1882, is important but the latter

period has its significance due to the missionaries‘ review of their previous policy of

expansion and adoption of the new policy of quality education. The first part of the twentieth

century is also important because it is the period in which the missionary institutions

emerged as the emblems of excellence in the province. This research work, in addition to its

focus on the territory of the Punjab, is important due to its proposed period which covers the

complete colonial regime in the Punjab.

Methodology of the Research Work

The researcher has employed descriptive and analytical methods to conduct his

research work and has used a variety of primary and secondary sources. As the focus of the

research was the educational aspect of missionary enterprise in the province of the British

Punjab therefore the files of the primary documents, educational reports by the Director

Public Instruction Punjab, Reports of government commissions periodically formed to

analyze and evolve educational policies, the Reports of missionary conferences, Annual

Reports of missionary societies, letters showing official communications regarding matters of

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education, and the like have been consulted. It has been tried to take care of the

chronological order of the events as they occurred but there may be some confusion at some

places as the events overlapped and the effects of the different events further affected one

another. The research is mainly conducted at the Punjab Archives, Lahore, National

Archives, Islamabad, National Documentation wing Establishment Division Islamabad,

Punjab Public Library Lahore, Jinnah Library Lahore, Main Library and the Departmental

Libraries in the University of the Punjab, Lahore, and other depositories in the Punjab.

The present study tries to locate and analyze the role and efforts of Christian

missionaries‘ educational endeavours in the province of the British Punjab from 1849 to 1947.

This work has been divided into five chapters. The first chapter traces the origin and

evolution of Christian missionaries in the Indian sub-continent. It also explores the advent of

Christian missionaries in the province of the Punjab, in the modern phase of missionary

activities. The most important part of this chapter analyzes the missionaries‘ aims and

objectives behind their educational endeavours. It attempts to explore the real driving force

which drew the missionaries in such a tiresome and expensive activity. The chapter also

attempts to discover how the missionaries, in spite of government‘s outward pledge of

adopting the policy of ‗religious neutrality‘, were supported by the top of the administrative

hierarchy and how they were able to institute and expand their missionary bases in the

different parts of the Punjab.

The second chapter cover the period from the annexation of the Punjab, in1849, to

1880. This is the most important period in the educational history of the Punjab since not

only the structure of the education system was formed but the missionaries were also

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officially admitted in the field of education and a system of grant-in-aid was devised for their

financial support. The second chapter argues that the ‗Wood‘s Education Despatch‘ paved

the way for missionaries‘ dominance in the educational domain of the province. This chapter

tries to explore how the missionaries, with the active financial and administrative support of

the top administrative hierarchy, established their network of missionary schools at different

missionary headquarters. This chapter turns on the idea that the missionaries‘ hidden desire

of commanding the whole educational domain of the province, which tempted them to

establish as many schools as they could, was seriously shattered by the government‘s reversal

from her promised withdrawal from the field of education. At the close of this period, the

missionaries, demoralised by the government‘s attitude, decided to review their previous

policy of expanding their educational network. So the missionaries abandoned their

expansion well before the formation of first Indian Education Commission in 1882.

The third chapter traces the initiation of formal female education in the province,

during the same period—from 1849 to 1880. It states the missionaries‘ objectives behind

their entrance in this socially sensitive field of missionary labour. It argues that in addition to

the missionaries‘ religious objectives the missionaries were lured in this field by Robert

Montgomery‘s campaign in the favour of female education, during 1860s. It states that

Zenana missions were introduced to approach the secluded women of the upper strata of the

society. The chapter describes the story of missionaries‘ educational institutions for women

and states how the missionary ladies used the modes of Zenana visiting, separate female

schools, and boarding schools for girls to educate the female population of the province.

The fourth chapter deals with the period from 1880 to the turn of the twentieth

century. The period is known as the period of transition for the missionaries because, during

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this period, missionaries were involved mostly in outlining their future course of action. They

analyzed their previous efforts in the context of their net outcome. The recommendations of

the First Indian Education Commission were also one of the major concerns for the

missionaries. This chapter discusses how the recommendations of the First Indian Education

Commission paved the way for the advent of different native organizations in the field of

education. The foundation of four missionary colleges at the important cities of Lahore,

Rawalpindi, Sialkot, and Delhi was an important phenomenon of this period. This chapter

also traces the initiation of female education of secondary level during this period.

The fifth chapter comprised the study of missionary education from the dawn of the

twentieth century to 1947. The major part of the chapter discusses how the missionary

institutions emerged as the symbols of excellence during this period. The study attempts to

explore what were the changes incorporated in the missionary institutions which raised the

standard of instruction at these institutions. It attempts to explore the missionaries‘ role in

the development of higher education for women. The analysis of the missionaries‘ efforts of

directing their educational activities to restructure the Punjabi society also constitutes the

major part of this chapter. The academic and social impact of the missionaries‘ endeavours in

the field of women‘s education is also discussed in this chapter.

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Chapter 1

Missionary Education; its Aims and Objectives

The missionaries came to the Indian subcontinent with a declared aim of serving the

native population and devoted their lives for the service of mankind. They initiated long term

social service programmes to lessen the sufferings of the host society. Their activities were

mainly in the areas of health and education. The missionaries‘ emphasis on the education is

one of the most striking things of their strategies. As the pioneers of private educational

enterprise, the missionary educational institutions hold an important place in the history of

education of this region. Missionary education, during the nineteenth and twentieth century,

became a useful auxiliary to the preaching of the gospel and therefore became a necessary

component of missionary operations in the Indian subcontinent. The curriculum of the

missionary schools and colleges was adapted to serve the Christian cause. Secular education,

based on the study of Western sciences and English literature, emerged as a necessary part of

missionary curriculum. This chapter tries to explore the initial growth and development of

the missionary education in the Indian subcontinent. It traces the history of missionary

education with a view to study the aims and objectives of Christian missionaries behind their

educational labours. The chapter attempts to answer the questions such as: why the

missionaries opted to chose tiresome field of social service? Why the auxiliary of education

was considered a necessary component of the missionaries‘ activities? Was betterment of the

native population their main aim or had they something else behind their social services?

What was its utility and was it a distraction from their original task of conversion by winning

the hearts and minds of the people?

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1.1 Christian Missionaries in the Punjab: A Historical Overview

The history of the Christian missions in India, including the Punjab, is synchronous

with the earliest period of Church history—from the first century A.D—when Thomas

Didymus, one of the disciples of Jesus, chose the north western territories of the Indian

subcontinent as the field of his religious labour.43

The conversion of Parthian king,

Gundaphoros, by St. Thomas was one of the landmarks in the history of Christianity in this

region. This significance development allowed the missionaries to preach the gospel

throughout the length and breadth of the Parthian kingdom.44

Consequently, the first

Christian community was reported to be originated in the first century A.D, under the

leadership of Gundaphoros and his brother Gad around his court at Sirkap, near modern

Taxila.45

The second phase of Christian missionaries‘ activities in this region of the

subcontinent started with the arrival of Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese explorer who

commanded the first fleet of ships to sail directly from Europe to India. It opened the way for

the Portuguese missionaries to the subcontinent. Francisco Xavier, the pioneer Jesuit in India,

was the first star of magnitude in this galaxy of Portuguese missionary stars. He landed at the

Indian soil on May 6, 1542 and laid the foundation of Roman Catholic Church in India.46

Due to his known friendship with the Portuguese King Joao III and the governor Martin

Afonso de Sousa, he, from the very beginning of his arrival in the subcontinent, enjoyed

43

Robert Eric Frykenberg, Christianity in India from Beginnings to the Present, 95-98. 44

Ibid, 20-24, also see P. Thomas, Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan, 20. 45

John Roony, Shadows in the Dark (Rawalpindi: Christian Study Centre, 1984), 103-105. The finding of a

cross in 1935, related with the period of Gundaphoros, from the ancient city of Sirkap also confirms the

argument. 46

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India,, 44-45.

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generous treatment from the administrative hierarchy of the Portuguese settlements. 47

He

was the founder of Jesuit missions who afterwards planned their efforts to convert the

Mughal Emperor Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar. Believing on the ‗trickle down theory‘48

,

the Jesuits fancied the conversion of the common man through that of the ruling master of the

region. They, therefore, focused their efforts to Christianize the Mughal Emperor rather than

that of his masses.49

Although the Jesuits were not successful in baptizing Akbar yet they

were succeeded in developing a close relationship with Akbar and his son Salim, who

afterwards succeeded Akbar with the title of Nur-ud-Din Muhammad Jehangir. As a

corollary, both the Mughal Emperors facilitated the missionaries, financially and officially, in

their religious preaching.50

The royal backing worked for the Jesuit missionaries and they

were able to build a Church at Lahore, with the active financial and administrative support of

the ruling sovereigns.51

In the beginning, they were successful in laying a strong foundation

for their missionary activities but the succession of Shahab-ud-Din Muhammad Shah Jahan

(1628-1658) proved to be a set back for their Christian cause. He started to obstruct

missionary activities and his policies, ultimately in 1614, led the Christian community to

migrate from Lahore to Agra.52

From that time until well into the second quarter of the

nineteenth century, we know very little about any Christian presence in the land of five

rivers.

47

Ibid., 48. 48

Tickle down policy implies that the religious beliefs of the ruling class would slowly and steadily trickle

down to the lower classes and in this way the conversion of the ruling class would ultimately affect the religion

of the masses throughout the country. 49

P. Thomas, Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan, 114. 50

Akbar permitted the Jesuits to erect a Church at Lahore and gave them funds for this purpose, as well. He also

permitted the missionaries to baptize the persons desirous of receiving baptism. Stephen Neill, A History of

Christianity in India, the Beginning to AD 1707 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 181. Prince

Salim also made a reasonable financial contribution for the construction of the Church. P. Thomas, Christians

and Christianity in India and Pakistan, 111. 51

Ibid., 110-111. 52

John Rooney, The Hesitant Dawn (Rawalpindi: Christian Study Centre, 1984), 97-98.

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The modern phase of the missionary activities in India is considered to date from the

day of William Carey‘s arrival in India, November 11, 1793.53

It was a hard time for the

missionaries to start their evangelical activities in the Indian settlements of East India

Company (EIC). As at that time, EIC was holding the notion of ‗non interference‘ with the

customs and religions of the native population.54

It was extremely conscious of the political

implications of any missionary interference in the religious and social structure of oriental

society. EIC, therefore, was maintaining a policy of strict religious neutrality in its territories

and, with the ever increasing boundaries of its empire, it became more and more particular in

its policy.55

On the other hand, its policy of non-interference was not acceptable for the

missionaries in India and back home in England. The missionaries thought that the territory

of the Indian subcontinent was endowed by the Providence to the Christian world and

therefore it was their bounden duty to preach the word of God to the heathens.56

The ultimate

result was that the relations between EIC‘s officials and the missionaries became extremely

strained due to the difference of opinion between the Christian missionaries and the EIC

officials. The missionaries decided to put pressure on the Company officials to waive off the

ban on missionary activities in company administered areas. So, the first parliamentary move

on the notion of non interference was made at the time of the renewal of Company‘s Charter,

in 1793. The missionaries led by William Wilberforce and some members of ‗Clapham

53

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 131. 54

In fact, the Company was supporting missionary enterprise till 1765 but after the acquisition of its

sovereignty, it became conscious of its political considerations which led it to change its earlier likings for

proselytizing activities and adopt a policy of strict religious neutrality in its settlements. Syed Nurullah and J.P.

Naik, A Students‟ History of Education in India, 1800-1947, 37. 55

Ibid., 37-39. 56

This view was popular in the missionary ranks and was held through the ages. For details see the views of

Herbert Edwards, a Pro-missionary EIC official, in his lecture on ‗our Indian Empire‘, in Eugene Stock, The

History of Church Missionary society, its Environment, its Men and its Work, II, (London: Church Missionary

Society, 1899), 232-233.

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sect‘57

attempted to win back the independence of missionary activities through the insertion

of a missionary clause in the Charter of the Company. The missionaries proposed the

insertion of the following clause in the Charter of EIC:

Resolved, that the Court of Directors of the Company shall be empowered and

commissioned to nominate and send out from time to time a sufficient number of

skilled and suitable persons, who shall attain the aforesaid object58

by serving as

schoolmasters, missionaries, or otherwise.59

The persons like Henry Dundas, the then secretary of state for the Home department,

came with the opposite viewpoint and were able to defend it in the British Parliament. The

Charter of EIC was renewed without opening up the EIC‘s administered areas for the

Christian missionaries and the Company carried on with its previous policy of religious

neutrality in its settlements. Consequently, the missionary societies were banned to enter the

Company‘s settlements for the subsequent years. On the other hand, some missionary

societies, by the beginning of the twentieth century, were able to establish their missionary

bases in different parts of India.60

But in spite of the establishment of these centres, the

beginning of missionary operations in EIC‘s administered areas was nearly impossible due to

the hostility of the Company officials.61

It became, finally, possible in 1813, when the

missionaries, under the leadership of William Wilberforce and Charles Grant, were able to

57

A group of influential like-minded social reformers, based in Clapham London. It got prominence during

1790-1830 due to their campaign against slavery and for the promotion of missionary work at home and abroad.

Its members included William Wilberforce, Henry Thornton, James Stephen, Zachary Macaulay and the others.

Stephen Tomkins, The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforce‟s Circle Changed Britain (Oxford: Lion, 2010), 1. 58

Refers to the missionaries‘ resolution moved in the House of Commons in which they declared the gradual

advancement in the useful knowledge and the religious and moral improvement, of the inhabitants of the British

dominions in India, as their bounden duty. 59

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 149-150 60

The Baptist Missionary Society (1792), the London Missionary Society (1795) and the Church Missionary

Society (1799) were some of the major missionary societies who were able to establish their centres in the

Indian subcontinent by the start of the nineteenth century, Farheen Altaf, ‗Muslim Response to Christian

Missionaries Educational Activities in India (1757-1854)‘, Proceedings International 22nd

Pakistan History

Conference (Multan: Bahauddin Zakria University, 2010), 30. 61

Avril A. Powell, Muslims and Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India, 80.

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insert thirteenth resolution in the Charter which grants the missionaries access to the EIC‘s

settlements. The resolution ran as follows

It is the opinion of this Committee that it is the duty of this country to promote the

interests and happiness of the native inhabitants of the British dominions in India, and

that such measures ought to be adopted as may lead to the introduction among them

of useful knowledge, and of religious and moral improvement.62

That, in the

furtherance of the above objects, sufficient facilities shall be afforded by law to

persons desirous of going to and remaining in India for the purpose of accomplishing

these benevolent designs. 63

Apparently the insertion of this clause in the charter Act of EIC cleared the way for

the missionaries and it appeared as if they were ―allowed to fulfil their missionary calling

[message] in its completes and widest sense‖ but the case was, actually, different. The

Company not only made missionaries‘ entrance conditional but also tried to exert all kind of

its influence to their detriment. For instance, in stead of opening its settlements for the

Christian missionaries of the whole world, the Company confined its permission for the

British residents only. 64

As a result, the English and the Scotch missionary societies were the

only beneficiaries, during the next two decades, who were able to obtain some foothold in the

Indian settlements during this period. In addition to this the missionaries had to get a

residential permission before entering the Company‘s settlements. The license was issued

after a complex procedure of documentation and having taken the guarantee that nothing

harmful would be done to the British interests there.65

Furthermore, the missionaries were,

officially, free to enter and initiate their missionary activities for the promotion of religious

62

The term ‗useful knowledge‘ refers to the knowledge of Christianity and that of ‗religious and moral

improvement‘ implies the introduction of Christianity and Christian moral values in the Indian society. 63

J.C. Marshman, Life and Times, cited in Stephen Neill, A History of Christianity in India 1707-1858

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 153. 64

Ibid., 151. 65

Richard Lovett, M. A, the History of the London Missionary Society 1795-1895 (London: Oxford University

Press Warehouse, 1899), 47- 48.

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and moral conditions of the Indian people.66

But, in reality, their activities were obstructed in

all possible ways.67

In fact the Company accepted the missionaries‘ entrance, in its

settlements, very reluctantly and, in spite of the insertion of the missionary clause in its

Charter, it held serious concerns over the political repercussions of the missionaries‘

interference with the religious beliefs and practices of the people. So, EIC officials

consistently tried to honour their pledge of religious neutrality and showed a cold shoulder to

the missionaries‘ activities. Consequently, the missionary activities in the Company‘s

administered areas of Indian subcontinent, after 1813, were permissible but were still

considerably hampered by the frequent interference of the Company officials.68

Being an occasion for general revision of the Company‘s policy in India, the year

1833 held a significant importance. This was the time when missionary activities, in a real

sense, were allowed and the British administration started to support the missionaries‘

evangelical endeavours, in the subcontinent. The review of the Charter of EIC opened up the

Indian territories for the missionaries of the whole world and the missionaries, other than the

British citizens, were also allowed to reside and initiate the proselytizing activities among the

people of this region.69

The result was that the missionaries from different parts of the globe

rushed towards India to extend their world of Christianity. In this way the missionary

enterprise started to flourish in leaps and bounds and the subsequent years were a period of

great missionary activity throughout the Indian subcontinent. The missionary societies,

66

Julius Richter interpreted it as ―that meant that the missionaries were to be allowed to enter India and to

reside there; they might preach, found churches, and discharge all spiritual duties.‖, Julius Richter, A History of

Missions in India,151. 67

Richard Lovett, M. A, the History of the London Missionary Society 1795-1895, 48. 68

Avril A. Powell, Muslims and Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India, 80. 69

―India was thrown open to the whole world, and any and every honest man who liked might settle there. This

provision opened up India likewise to the missionary activity of other nations. It was in this year that the

missionary labours of the non-English missionary societies began in India‖. Julius Richter, A History of

Missions in India, 192.

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already working in the field, extended their networks along with the advent of the new

missionary societies.

During this period of great missionary activity, the Punjab heard the Jesus cry for the

first time in this modern phase of Christian missionary activities. The annexation of the

province, in 1849, was a pleasing occasion for the missionaries. As the persons like Henry

Lawrence, John Lawrence, Robert Montgomery, Herbert Edward emerged as the pillars of

new administration. These persons were Christian men with true Christian spirit, and were

known for their pro-missionary attitude. They believed that their victories in the Indian sub-

continent were endowed by the Providence and it was their duty to spread the word of God in

this land. John Lawrence‘s views, regarding victory of the British in the War of 1857,

depicted his true religious character. He expressed his views in the following words:

That we were eventually successful against the fearful odds which beset us was alone

the work of the great God, who so merciful vouchsafed His protection. Nothing but a

series of miracles saved us. To Him therefore, alone is the glory due.70

The strong influence of these persons, at the helm of administrative affairs, was a

positive development for the missionaries. It paved the way for a rapid growth of different

missionary societies in the province. At the time of annexation, the Presbyterian Church of

U.S.A was the only missionary agency involved in the territory of the Punjab. But in the

post-annexation conducive atmosphere, many other missionary societies mushroomed

quickly and within the period of a decade founded their missionary bases throughout the

province.71

The American Presbyterians, already present in the field, also extended their

70

Eugene Stock, The History of Church Missionary society, its Environment, its Men and its Work, II, 231. 71

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 193-201.

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network to the other parts of the province.72

As a corollary to these developments, the Punjab

was humming with missionary activities during the second half of the nineteenth century.

The following missionary societies established their missionary stations and earned a good

name in the field of education of this region.

1.1.1 Presbyterian Church of America

The Presbyterian Church was the first mission to establish its base in the Punjab, in

1834. In addition to its pioneering character, the mission is well known for its massive

educational contribution in the province. Rev. John C. Lowrie and Rev. William Reed, were

the pioneer missionaries to enter this region. The former was superintending ‗Lodiana

Mission High School‘, since his arrival at Ludhiana. The school was known for having

students from some distinguished families of the region—Afghan and Sikh.73

Rev. J.C.

Lowrie‘s popularity as an educationist tempted Maharaja Ranjeet Singh to invite him to

establish an English school for the sons of nobility, at the capital city of Lahore but the offer

was declined due to some differences over the scheme of studies at the proposed school.74

With the passage of time, the society extended its network to Rawalpindi, Lahore, Amritsar,

Peshawar, Jalandhar, Roorki, Ambala, Saharanpur, and Dera Duna.75

The Presbyterian

Church of America remained the lone missionary society to operate in the territory of the

Punjab by the start of the second half of the nineteenth century. The educational contribution

72

For instance C.W. Forman and John Newton, the first missionaries at Lahore, came here after getting the

assurance of every possible encouragement from Lawrence brothers and R. Montgomery. John Newton,

Historical Sketches of the Indian Missions of the Presbyterian church in the United States of America, 13.

C.M.S. entered the territory of the Punjab after having invited by the Christian soldiers and the statesmen of the

Punjab and were welcomed by the Lawrence brothers. Henry Martyn Clark, Robert Clark of the Punjab

(London: Andrew Melrose, 1907), 53. 73

John Newton, Historical Sketches of the Indian Missions of the Presbyterian church in the United States of

America, 27. 74

Ibid. 75

Iftikhar Haider Malik, ‗The American Missionaries in South Asia, 1812-1870, 27.

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of this society, in the Punjab, is matchless and greater than any other in the field. The society

had the privilege of having the services of some high ranked missionaries who, afterwards,

earned good name in the field of education. John Newton, James Wilson, Joseph Warren,

Charles Foreman, and Ewing were some brighter stars of this galaxy.

1.1.2 United Presbyterian Church of America

The Presbyterian Church was divided into two groups—Presbyterian Church of US

and United Presbyterian Church of US. The former was already present in the Punjab since

1854 but the latter made its first appearance by sending Rev. Andrew Gordon to the

province, in 1854. His general commission was to select a field in North India after

conferring with missionaries already in the country. The founding missionary, with his wife

and a sister, sailed from New York in September 1854 and arrived at Calcutta early in

February 1855.76

Sialkot was visited in the following August and, being an eligible and

unoccupied field, was selected as the centre of the new Mission. Rev. Ifraheem and Rev.

Opal also joined the mission in 1856.

The missionaries of United Presbyterian Church worked in collaboration with the

Missionaries of the Church of Scotland, who followed them to found a mission in the same

area, and made a significant educational contribution in this region. Immediately after the

arrival of Rev. Ifraheem and Rev. Opal, the missionaries started their educational activities

by setting up two orphanage schools—one for the girls and the other for the boys—in the city

of Sialkot.77

But the work was interrupted in 1857, by the war of independence, and one of

the mission houses was plundered during the war. The missionaries of this mission were safe,

76

Ibid., 27. 77

Comfort Jacob, ‗Aspects of the History of C.T.I‘, Shua-e-Nau, Special Issue of C.T.I. Magazine (Sialkot:

Vincent David, PEB & Manzur Gill, January 2001): 35-36.

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as they were already gone to Lahore to take refuge in the forte. After the war, the

missionaries returned to the field to resume their work. Christian Training Institution

established at Barah Patthar in 1881 is one of their significant educational institutions. The

field of the mission was extended by occupying the other important areas of the province—

Gujranwala in 1863, Gurdaspur in early 1872, Jhelum in 1876, Pathankot in 1880, Zafarwal

in 1894, Lyallpur in 1895, Sangla hill in 1901, Sargodha in 1905 and Dhariwal in 1920.78

1.1.3 Church Missionary Society

Church Missionary Society of the Church of England came into existence as a direct

consequence of the age of reason in Europe. A group of evangelical clergy met in England, to

establish a proper platform for the improvement of the prevalent erroneous social structure of

the society, in March 1799. The meeting ultimately resulted into the formation of a

missionary society, in April of the same year, named Society for Missions in Africa and the

East. The society was renamed as Church Missionary Society, in 1812. The organization is

also well known by Anglican Mission Church.79

In 1807 the Society made a grant of $ 250

for missionary work in India and sent two missionaries Rev. Brown and Rev. Buchanan

whose main function was to translate the scriptures into the Eastern Languages. The society

had a chance to enter in the terrain of the Punjab in 1840s when some English officers and

the civilians raised fund to start evangelistic work among the natives. They requested the

society to send some missionary but the request was denied, due to the financial concerns.

The society made its first appearance in the Punjab by instituting its centre at Amritsar, in

78

Annual Reports of the united Presbyterian Church of America (Ludhiana: Mission Press 1853 onwards). 79

Muhammad Imtiaz Zafar, Impact of Christian Missionary Activities on Muslim Society: A Case Study of

Jampur, 87.

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1852.80

The active support of highly influential government officials like Henry Lawrence,

John Lawrence, Robert Montgomery, Herbert Edwards and General Reynell Taylor, helped

the society to extend its network in the province.81

The society was able to establish its small

frontier stations at the key outposts of Peshawar, Multan, Dera Ismail Khan, and Bannu in

1854, 1856, 1862 and 1865 respectively.82

1.1.4 The Church of Scotland

In February, 1796, two Missionary Societies— Glasgow and the Scottish Missionary

Society— were formed in the Church of Scotland. In 1822, the latter sent Rev. Donald

Mitchell to Western India who arrived in January 1823 and occupied Poona in 1831.83

At

about 1825-26, the Church of Scotland became more thoroughly awakened in the cause of

Missions and therefore a general Mission Collection was prepared in the next year. The

general Assembly of this Society resolved to found an institution for higher education in

Bengal in 1829. A College was opened in 1830 in the Bengal and this become at once very

popular. Similarly a flourishing educational institution was founded at Bombay in 1835,

chiefly through the efforts of Mr. Wilson. During the next few years the Church sent a

goodly number of Missionaries to the different parts of India. Mr. Anderson was sent to

Madras who opened a school in this territory in 1837.84

About this time in each of the three

presidency cities promising converts were added to Missions, through educational

institutions at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.

80

Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series Punjab, II (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing,

1908), 46. 81

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 194. 82

Tim Allender, ‗Anglican Evangelism in North India and the Punjabi Missionary Classroom; the Failure to

Educate ‗the Masses‘‘, 1860-77‘, 275. 83

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 161-62. 84

Ibid., 183.

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The encouraging results, in these major cities of India, prompted the missionaries to

extend their network by approaching the Punjab. Consequently, the Punjab was accessed in

1856.85

Rev. Thomas Hunter and his wife, Jane Hunter, were the first missionaries of this

Church to enter the province.86

They landed at the port of Karachi and set their sails up the

Indus and the Jhelum to reach Sialkot. Rev. Hunter started his missionary work at Sialkot in

1857, in collaboration with the missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church of America.

Shortly after the beginning of his work, Rev. Hunter, with his wife and infant son, were

killed during the uprising of 1857.87

But this unfortunate incident could not stop the

missionaries‘ infiltration in this area and the missionary work of the Church was resumed by

John Tyler, another missionary of the same organization.88

The joint venture of the

missionaries of UPC and the Church of Scotland worked for them and both the missions

were able to extend their respective areas of field work. The Church of Scotland expanded its

field to the nearby cities of Sialkot, Wazirabad and Gujrat by opening missionary schools in

these areas.89

1.1.5 High Church Society for the Propagation of the Gospel

The High Church Society for the Propagation of the Gospel established its station at

Delhi in 1854.90

It was the time when Delhi was not included in the Punjab and was

integrated afterwards in 1858. At the same time both the Anglican missions, SPG and the

CMS, were not at good terms with each other, during 1860s and 1870s, which hampered their

85

Muhammad Imtiaz Zafar, Impact of Christian Missionary Activities on Muslim Society: A Case Study of

Jampur, 91. 86

Comfort Jacob, ‗Aspects of the History of C.T.I‘, 35 87

Muhammad Imtiaz Zafar, Impact of Christian Missionary Activities on Muslim Society: A Case Study of

Jampur, 91. 88

Comfort Jacob, ‗Aspects of the History of C.T.I‘, 35. 89

Muhammad Imtiaz Zafar, Impact of Christian Missionary Activities on Muslim Society: A Case Study of

Jampur, 91. 90

Ibid., 275.

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performance badly. Moreover, SPG mission also developed a rivalry with the Baptist

Missionaries, working also in the territory of Delhi, which did not won good name for them

and had negative consequences for their missionary work.91

In spite of the difficulties of the

field, SPG mission made good contribution to the cause of education.

Serampore missions, instituted in a Bengali town far from the Punjab, also

contributed a lot in the missionary work done in the province of the Punjab. These

missionaries, towards the end of the eighteenth century, took the work of the translation of

the Bible into Panjabi in their hands and prepared the first rough draft by 1809. This may be

said to be the beginning of the missionaries‘ relations with the Punjab. Side by side with the

work on the translation of the Bible, Dr. William Carey, in 1810, had been carrying the

grammar of the Punjabi language.92

1.2 Main Aim of Missions

During the modern phase of missionary activities, the missionaries entered the Indian

subcontinent in the fold of social service and they devoted their lives for the service of

mankind. They initiated long term social service programmes to lessen the afflictions of the

native population. Watching closely, the distressed condition of the host society, they

focused on the fields of health and education. In addition to the establishment of hospitals

and dispensaries in different parts of the country, they established dozens of missionary

schools to provide the facility of modern education to the illiterate Indian population. They

are considered to be pioneers in the field of women‘s education, due to their revolutionary

91

Ibid., 275-285. 92

Ganda Singh, ‗Christianity in the Punjab: A Bibliographical Survey‘, 372

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efforts for its initiation in the country, on modern lines. They set high standards in both the

fields of health and education and earned a good name for their institutions.

No doubt the missionaries‘ contribution in the betterment of the native life was

massive but their social service programmes were not commended by a major part of the

native population. The native people were sceptical about missionary institutions due to their

religious tilt towards conversion. They believed that missionaries‘ social service programmes

were originated from their religious obligation rather than a desire to serve the destitute. To

them, the missionaries were exploiting the distressed condition of the native population for

the fulfilment of their ultimate agenda of converting the native population to Christianity.

That is why, whenever a conversion took place in a missionary school, the people, as a

reaction, withdrew their children from the missionary institutions. Consequently, the

missionary schools remained almost empty for a long time and missionaries had to work very

hard to bring the students back to their schools.93

In fact, missionary zeal and zest had its origin in the ―great commission‖ from

Mathew the Biblical Commandment 28:19, which prompted the adherents of Christian faith

to toil the missionary hardships. It commands the Christian nation to spread in the world to

make disciples of all nations.94

So the Christian missionaries, taking it as their religious

obligation, responded positively and went to different parts of the globe to convey the

message of Jesus Christ. The great Charter of missions summed up the ultimate aim of the

missionary work in the following words:

93

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 33. 94

John Newton, ‗Preaching to the Heathen; How can it be Made More Efficacious than it has Generally been in

this part of India?‘, Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January,

1862-63 (Lodiana: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1863), 3-4.

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Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things

whatsoever I have commanded you.95

M. Rose Greenfield, the author of ―Five Years in Ludhiana‖, also identified the same

aims and objectives of founding the missions and missionary societies. In an address to the

conference of lady missionaries held at Amritsar in 1888, she declared evangelization as the

one and only objective of missions and missionary societies. Her statement ran as follows:

The one supreme aim of every missionary society, and the one all-absorbing business

of every individual missionary, is the evangelization of the heathen—the

proclamation of the Gospel to every creature. For this object societies are formed,

prayer is offered, money is collected, and lives are devoted. By whatever means we

may seek to reach the people, our aim is nothing less than this—to bring them to

know Him ―whom to know is life eternal.96

So, it is quite obvious that conversion of the native population was the ultimate goal

of all the missionary societies. They marched forward to plant the flag of Christianity in India

and other parts of the globe under the humanistic camouflage of different kind of social

service programmes. They used their social schema to establish some link with the native

population which afterwards was likely to be beneficial for accelerating the process of

conversion. So the social services of the missionaries were commenced with intent to support

their conversion agenda and the chief aim behind their social service programmes was

conversion rather than the betterment of the native population.

95

Cited in World Missionary Conference, 1910; Report of Commission III, Education in Relation to the

Christianization of National Life (Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company, n.d.), 16. 96

Greenfield, M. Rose, Education versus Evangelization, an address to the conference of lady missionaries

held at Amritsar, Punjab, 1888, 3,

http://www.archive.org/details/educationversuse00roseuoft

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1.3 Origin of Missionary Education in India

Missionary education in the modern form is considered mainly the phenomenon of

early Protestant missionaries in the subcontinent. Though, the Catholics took lead in

responding to the Jesus command of preaching the gospel to the heathen yet the teaching

aspect of the Jesus command remained almost out of their preference. Prompted by their

desire of getting more and more converts, they mostly adopted the method of direct

preaching. They were interested in getting converts but paid little attention to their

(converts‘) spiritual growth.97

Consequently, the early Catholic missionaries were, although,

reported to be involved in some educational activities yet they were found to abandon them

by the end of eighteenth century.98

The Protestants, on the other hand, were not interested

even in the preaching of gospel in their early days. The theologians of Protestant school of

thought were of the opinion that ―Jesus‘ command to preach the Gospel to the nations of the

world was addressed to his immediate disciples, and their successors were not competent

enough to continue the work‖.99

They thought it better to focus on the purification of their

own selves than to preach the Gospel to the people of the East. But the situation did not

prevail for long and some bolder spirits like Ziegenbalg and William Carey emerged with an

opposite viewpoint. 100

Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plutschau were the first Protestant missionaries to enter the

Indian subcontinent on July 9, 1706.101

These missionaries laid the foundation of first

97

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in Southern Asia (New York: Friendship Press, 1963), 33. 98

Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, 245. 99

P. Thomas, Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan, 151. 100

Ibid. 101

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in Southern Asia, 39.

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Protestant Church at Tranquebar, a small Danish settlement in South India.102

William Carey,

after his forced departure from Calcutta, took asylum of Danish governor of Serampore. He

played a key role in strengthening the base of the Protestants in Indian subcontinent and he is

considered to be the father of modern missions, due to his wide ranging missionary

activities.103

Alexander Duff was another missionary, form Protestant circle, who earned

universal respect in the missionary ranks for his contribution to the Christian cause in this

region. These early missionaries of Protestant circle started thinking of educational activities

as an integral part of their missionary enterprise. Ziegenbalg and Plutschau viewed education

as the first and foremost pillar of their missionary strategy.104

William Carrey was much

influenced by these pioneers105

and initiated educational activities through the operations of

‗Serampore Trio‘. Alexander Duff, believing on ―downward filtration theory‖106

targeted the

high-cast Brahmans through English medium education. Julius Richter saw his contribution

vital for the furtherance of Christian cause as well as for the after development of the Indian

education system.107

So the Christian Missionary education was mainly the prerogative of

early Protestant missionaries and they are, therefore, respected as the originators of

missionary education system in India.

. The territory of the Punjab although got the attention of Christian missionaries in the

early 1830s yet the real missionary activities, as stated previously, started in this region after

102

P. Thomas, Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan, 153-154. 103

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in Southern Asia, 39 104

Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions, 195. 105

Brian Stanley, The History of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792- 1992 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1992), 39. 106

The term ‗downward filtration theory‘ was introduced in 1820s by the East India Company. It had three

interpretations. 1) Only those classes of the society which had lost the most by the change of the government

should be educated. 2) The second interpretation suggested that the upper or the influential classes should be

educated first, as their culture was supposed to be trickle down to the lower classes of the society. 3) The last

interpretation of the term suggested good education for a few persons, may or may not from the upper classes,

and the education of the masses was expected through these persons. Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟

History of Education in India, 1800-1947, 82-84. 107

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 177-179.

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its annexation to the British dominion. It was the time when the idea that ―education would

be a powerful and even predominant aspect of the missions to win over souls was taking firm

roots in missionary ranks.‖108

Education of the native population was taken as one of the

necessary components of Christian missionaries‘ campaigns. Most of the missionary

societies, who entered and founded their stations in this region, were already working on

these lines in the different parts of India. These societies, following the footsteps of their

founding fathers—Ziegenbalg, Carey and Duff— were closely involved in defusing

education to the native population.109

That is why most of the missionary societies, in the

Punjab, started their missionary activities by establishing a school for the education of the

native Christian and non Christian population of the province.

1.4 Education: A Need of the Day

Missionary education originated out of the conviction that the Indian mission field

was different from those in the other parts of the world. The pioneer Protestant missionaries

in the Indian subcontinent found it a hard and relatively unfruitful field than the others in the

globe. It was a territory with a diverse population having different religious and social

beliefs. The missionaries realized the fact: ―Indians, thus, in fact, are a congregation of

nations, a crowd of civilizations, customs, languages and types of humanity, thrown together

with no tendency to homogeneity, until an external civilization and foreign faith shall and

common interest possible by educating and Christianizing them.‖110

The Hindu and the

108

Sanjay Seth, ‗Which Good Book? Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, Semeia,

88 (2001), 116. 109

The major missionary societies in the region were the Church Missionary Society of England, Anglicans

from the Church of England, Presbyterians from the Church of Scotland, and two north-American Presbyterian

denominations. 110

William Butler, The Land of the Veda (New York: n.p., 1871), 371, cited in Iftikhar Haider Malik, ‗The

American Missionaries in South Asia, 1812-1870‘, 33.

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Muslim communities were numerically dominating the others in this heterogeneous society.

The former was difficult to convert because of its unconditional attachment to the existing

illogical religious and social customs. The missionaries mostly complained about the

insuperable barriers of institution of caste and that of the natives‘ stubborn attachment to

their superstitions which made their work extremely difficult. An LMS missionary E. P. Rice

identified the obstacles in the way of the conversion of Hindu community of the nineteenth

century in these words: ‗the institution of caste‘; ‗the absence of all religious and social

liberty‘; ‗the utterly perverted standard of conduct‘; the ‗oppressive supremacy of the

Brahman class‘; ‗polytheistic idolatry‘; ‗the fear of malignant demons‘; ‗the belief in

religious merit‘; ‗pantheistic teaching‘; ‗the degradation of women‘; ‗the degradation of low

caste‘; and ‗a whole jungle of superstitious beliefs and corrupt practices‘.111

Very few

conversions, due to these kinds of impediments, were possible by the early decades of the

nineteenth century. The missionaries were unable even to touch the ―heartlands of Hinduism‖

and the modest community of converted Christians was mainly from the lower rung of the

society—low castes, outcasts and tribal groups.112

On the other hand the Muslim community

also proved to be a hard nut to grind for the missionaries. The Muslims, in missionaries‘

views, showed ‗bigoted resistance to all the new truth‘ and attributed finality to the teaching

and practices of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which were the major obstacles in their

(missionaries) way to success.113

In these circumstances, the missionaries‘ existing method of direct preaching was

unable to produce the desired results. The conventional way of street preaching was although

111

Richard Lovett, The History of the London Missionary Society 1795-1895, 4-6. 112

Sanjay Seth, ‗Which Good Book? Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, 116. 113

Richard Lovett, the History of the London Missionary Society1795-1895, 6.

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successful in drawing the audience yet it was ineffective in producing sufficient number of

conversions. Moreover, the policy of direct preaching totally failed to have any influence on

the upper echelon of the Hindu society. The review of the past missionary endeavours against

the net results produced, in terms of conversions, suggested modification in the missionary

strategies. The Christian Church, after a meticulous analysis of the existing circumstances,

suggested that in stead of ‗spasmodic attacks‘, ‗a careful, many-sided propaganda‘ should be

maintained, patiently and steadily, for a prolonged period‘ to get some good results.114

In

pursuance, the missionaries, in stead of attempting the direct preaching for conversion,

decided to adopt a, comparatively, circuitous and more time-consuming path to achieve their

ultimate aim of conversion. They decided to make progressive movement to get to their

desired end —evangelization. Preparation of the native mind, for the acceptance of Christian

faith, was recognized as the most important part of this new missionary strategy and the

missionary schools and colleges were selected to do the all important task of creating an

atmosphere conducive for the extension of Christian faith. Consequently, missionary

education, due to its anticipated versatile role at preparatory stage, emerged as an ally to the

missionaries in their quest to evangelize the Indian society. 115

It was considered a powerful

auxiliary to accelerate the work of conversion and the success of missionaries‘ new policy

was closely attached to the performance of their educational institutions. So, in the changed

circumstances of nineteenth and twentieth century, missionary education was materialized as

a compulsory component of their evangelical operations.

114

Ibid. 115

Sanjay Seth, ‗Which Good Book? Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, 114.

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1.5 Types of Missionary Education

In the above said context missionary schools and colleges were established in

different parts of the country. Due to their crucial role, each and every mission was supposed

to operate schools in its periphery.116

The curriculum of missionary schools and colleges was

carefully devised to meet the challenges of the time. The blend of Christian religious

education, based on Bible studies, and that of secular education, based on western sciences

and literature, was considered to pave the way for the Christianization of the native

society.117

Religious education was seen as a unique opportunity for the missionary teachers to

interact with the native youth. Bible studies and daily worship were considered the best

means to interfere in the religious beliefs and practices of the native students.118

That is why

Bible studies became the most important part of missionary education. Special Bible classes

were conducted at missionary schools where missionaries themselves were involved in the

teachings of Bible. Trained Christian teachers were given priority over those of non-

Christians for the teaching of Bible. The stories of Adam and Eve, of Cain and Abel, of

Joseph and his brethren, etc., were supposed to have a good impact on children. The teacher

was expected to teach this kind of material with an animated way to get desired outcome.119

116

Iftikhar Haider Malik, ‗The American Missionaries in South Asia, 1812-1870‘, 29. 117

Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, 264-265. 118

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in Southern Asia, 41. 119

C.W. Foreman, ‗Schools; How can They be Made in the Highest Degree Auxiliary to the Work of

Evangelizing the Country‘, Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and

January, 1862-63, 35.

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Although Christian study material was the only desirable teaching material at

missionary schools120

yet secular education was included in the missionary curriculum. It got

importance in the missionary ranks due to its two fold impact on the native society. On the

one hand, it was important to create a liberal image of Christian missionary educational

institutions as it helped in removing the negative image of the missionary schools and

colleges—that they were working for conversion only. On the other hand it was a proposed

remedy for the ailments of caste system, superstitious nature and the other perceived wrong

doings of native society. It was considered a associate to Christianity because of its crucial

anticipated role in preparing the ground for ultimate conversion.121

So the secular education

was included in the curriculum of missionary education with a hope that the native educated

people would ultimately denounce their religious beliefs on the basis of logic and reason. The

native religious and social beliefs and practices were considered to be in opposition with the

scientific notions therefore the diffusion of scientific knowledge was likely to pave the way

for the conversion of the native population. Professor Robertson pronounced it in the

following words:

The sacred books of the Hindus are ‗inextricably committed to a collision with the

truths of astronomy, chemistry, medicine, geography, and all the facts of modern

science.‘ Instruction in the elements of physical science and or geography not only

upsets the old notions on these subjects, but so far forth uproots the Hindu122

religious

system.123

120

Ibid., 34 121

Sanjay Seth, ‗Which Good Book? Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, 120. 122

In fact, India was regarded as Hindu in character and its religious beliefs and practices were considered to

affect the evangelicals with a deep revulsion. Therefore, most of the missionaries‘ energies were spent on the

plans to draw the Hindu population in the Christian fold. Avril A Powell, Muslims and Missionaries in Pre-

Mutiny India, 81. 123

Rev. Professor Robertson, ‗the education of the young as a regular part of mission work‘ Report II 1888,

194, cited in Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, 264.

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This notion was not only popular in the missionary ranks but was also admitted by

the officials of the Punjab government.124

So the blend of Christian and secular education

was expected to do the trick for the missionaries. The secular part was aiming at preparing

the students to denounce their faith and the Christian part of missionary education was

expected to fill up the space, created by the secular instruction, by providing them the

alternative to substitute their old religious beliefs.

1.6 Objectives behind Missionary Education

The inclusion of the western sciences and English literature in the curriculum of

missionary institutions was a vital breakthrough in the history of missionary education. In

addition to its important role in the intellectual development of the native population, it also

helped the people in improving their financial condition and social status in the society. For,

the knowledge of English language and literature was an important means to get the lucrative

jobs in public and private sector organizations. The missionary institutions also played a

pivotal role in developing the education system of the country on modern lines.125

But the

missionaries, in addition to the massive contribution for the welfare of the society and

development of modern education system, were aiming at some other aims to achieve

through their educational institutions. To them, the missionary schools and colleges were

meant to serve the following purposes.126

124

In his reply to bishop Tait, John Lawrence, the Ex- lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, said, ―It is not

possible to introduce Western learning and science into India without leading its people to throw their faith.‖

Cited in Eugene Stock, The History of Church Missionary society, its Environment, its Men and its Work, 231. 125

Iftikhar Haider Malik, ‗The American Missionaries in South Asia, 1812-1870‘, 29. 126

It is noteworthy that none of the objectives stated here is in opposition to the others. There might be the

difference of more or less emphasis on each of them but no antithesis existed between them.

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1.6.1 Conversion

As stated previously, the chief aim of missionaries‘ arrival in the subcontinent was

the evangelization of the native population. This longstanding desire was working behind the

establishment of missionary educational institutions. In fact, this was the most important

factor to prompt the missionaries to commence their educational activities and without it,

they were not likely to involve in any kind of educational enterprise.127

The originators of

missionary education, including Dr. Duff, saw education as an evangelistic agency and held

‗conversion of individual pupils and students‘ as one of their chief aims.128

William Carey

considered schools as ‗one of the most effectual means of spreading the light of the gospel

through to the world‘.129

Similarly C.W. Forman, in his essay in the PMC held at Lahore in

1862-63, suggested:

We must keep more steadily in view the conversion of our pupils, and the fitting of

them for extending still further the work of conversion, as the great end at which we

are to aim.130

Teaching of Bible was made compulsory at missionary educational institutions to

serve the purpose. Most of the missionary schools conducted a special Bible class for all

students.131

The atmosphere of a class-room provided the missionaries a unique opportunity

to preach the principles of Christianity in an efficient way to impress the attentive audience.

127

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education in India, 1800-1947, 32. 128

World Missionary Conference, 1910; Report of Commission III, Education in Relation to the

Christianization of National Life, 17. 129

William Carey to Jabez Carey, Serampore 20 August 1815. Cited in Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary

Education in British India‘, 246. 130

C.W. Foreman, ‗Schools; How can They be Made in the Highest Degree Auxiliary to the Work of

Evangelizing the Country‘, 31. 131

Ikram-ul-Haq, ‗The Punjab, 1849-83: Educational Activity‘, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan,

XVIII-III (July, 1981): 4.

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Rev. Goluknath, an American Presbyterian missionary at Jullundur, pronounced this fact at

the forum of PMC, held at Lahore in 1862-63, in the following words:

We can communicate the principles of our religion more satisfactorily to a class of

boys in our schools, than we possibly can do to a crowd of men in the bazaar.132

The secular education, side by side with the Bible studies, was taught at missionary

schools but it was modified to serve the ultimate aim of conversion. The secular studies,

especially those of history and philosophy, were suggested to imbue with a Christian spirit.133

So it is crystal clear that the foremost object of missionary schools was to get converts from

the native community and almost all of their efforts for the improvement of their schools

were to make them efficient and productive in terms of conversions.

1.6.2 Preparation

.Preparation of the ground, for the acceptance of Christian faith, was another

important aim of missionary education in India. It emerged out of the missionaries‘ new

policy of progressive development toward the ultimate goal of conversion. The preparatory

stage was the most important stage in the missionaries‘ new policy. The originators of

missionary education in India—Ziegenbalg, Carey, and Duff, considered their schools and

colleges best to serve the purpose of preparing the native mind for the acceptance of the

gospel. So the missionary educational institutions, in the new setting, became an integral part

of missionary operations. Rev. Ziegenbalg‘s schools, besides their immediate influence,

were considered to help the missionaries to reach the parents through the medium of their

132

Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January, 1862-63, 46. 133

C.W. Foreman, ‗Schools; How can They be Made in the Highest Degree Auxiliary to the Work of

Evangelizing the Country‘, 34.

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children.134

William Carrey, within one year of his arrival in India, set up a school because it

was considered to be the most effectual means to serve the Christian cause.135

In the same

way, the education programme of Alexander Duff was aiming at bringing the native youth

under the Christian influence. Julius Richter explained Duff‘s aims in the following words:

Duff firmly made up his mind within a few weeks of his arrival in India that the new

line of missionary work which he was destined to strike out was to bring the youth of

India under Christian influences by means of schools……………Duff‘s plan was to

create schools for the children of heathen parents, that the schools themselves might

be the instruments of pioneer missionary work.136

Realizing the importance of education, most of the missionary societies, by 1830s,

adopted it as an integral part of their missionary enterprise with the hope that it might prepare

the minds of the native population for the later receptiveness of Christianity. This preparatory

purpose of education dominated the missionary ranks through the ages and missionaries, time

and again, declared it as the major objective of their education. The same purpose of

missionary education was echoed in the missionary ranks at the floor of the World

Missionary Conference, held at Edinburgh in 1910. As the report of commission III of the

Conference observed:

Mission schools and colleges are to be maintained, not only for the purpose of

conversions, but even more as a preparation of the ground.137

So, during the nineteenth century, the notion ‗schools for the preparation of ground‘,

dominated the missionary ranks and educational institutions emerged as a necessary

component of missionary enterprise. The success of the missionaries‘ new policy was mainly

134

Rev. Andrew Thomson, D.D., Great Missionaries; A Series of Biographies (London: T. Nelson and Sons,

1870), 199. 135

Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, 246. 136

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 174-175. 137

World Missionary Conference, 1910; Report of Commission III, Education in Relation to the Christianization

of National Life, 20.

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dependant on the performance of the missionary schools and colleges, as the preparatory

work, done by the missionary educational institutions, was the real key to success. That is

why the missionaries were closely attached to such a laborious and tiresome task of

educating the native population. The preparatory work, in addition to its work against the

native institutions of caste, idolatry, Purdah, the natives‘ stubborn attachment to the illogical

superstitious beliefs and corrupt practices, etc., was supposed to extend the missionaries‘

influence in the society through the promotion of their image as the self-sacrificing men. The

preparation process included ‗extension of the Christian influence in the society‘,

‗intellectual development of the native population‘, and ‗diffusion of western culture in the

oriental society‘.

a) Extension of missionary influence

Caste system was thought to be an ‗insuperable barrier‘ in the way of conversion of

Hindu society. It was a stumbling block in the extension of the missionaries‘ influence in the

society. The upper rung of the Hindu community was totally out of the influence of Christian

missionaries, till the early decades of the nineteenth century.138

The importance of getting

converts from these classes was paramount because of their religious, social and political

influence in their respective communities. The missionaries, by the start of the nineteenth

century, realized that winning the people from the upper rung of the society was mandatory

to get some concrete output from their proselytizing activities. Obtaining access to these

classes was one of the great difficulties of the field, which was considered to affect the

performance of the missionaries very badly. The mission schools were considered to be the

138

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 30.

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powerful agencies to break into the strong hold of caste hierarchy and extend the missionary

influence to the higher ranks of the society. Alexander Duff, one of the pioneer missionaries

to adopt education as an integral part of his proselytizing activities, was strongly motivated

by this aspect of missionary education and therefore adopted it as a means to access the

higher echelon of the society. Julius Richter described Duff‘s aims and objectives behind his

educational enterprise in the following words:

Education, and particularly higher education, is in the civilized lands of the East a

prerogative of the highest classes. If Duff could succeed in making his schools

popular, he would thereby gain entrance to the first circles of society in the country—

and that seemed to him desirable, not only because all the methods hitherto adopted

by the different missions had failed to gain such access, but also those very classes

were in India the privileged leaders of society, the sole possessors of higher culture

and of an already developed intellectual life.139

Almost the same views about the purpose of missionary education were echoed in the

letter of Dr. Miller of Madras which he wrote to the delegates of WMC held at Edinburgh in

1910. He insisted that:

India could never be won for Christ, if it is the lower castes or outcastes who are

relied upon. The higher casts must be reached, and the only way of reaching these

classes is by diffusing Christian influence amongst them by means of education.140

Secular part of missionary education, especially that of English language and

literature, was supposed to serve the purpose best in extending the missionaries‘ influence to

the upper classes of the society. English education at mission schools was supposed to exert a

pull on students from the upper rung of the society. For, the upper classes of the society were

in demand of English education, due to the Social prestige and economic benefits, attached to

139

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 175. 140

W.H.T. Gairdner, ―Edinburgh 1910” An Account and Interpretation of the World Missionary Conference

(Edinburgh; Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1910), 122.

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the language of the ruling class.141

The demand was further increased after 1835, when the

British government took the decision to patronize English over vernacular education and

attached the government employments with the educational attainment of the candidates.

Christian missionaries, being aware of the extent of a teacher‘s influence on the life of a

student and his family in the oriental settings,142

fancied their access to the upper echelon of

the society through the means of the youth of these classes. So they presented English

education as an inducement to draw the youth of the upper classes of the society in the

mission schools.143

In addition to the English instruction, the scheme of studies and the atmosphere of the

missionary educational institutions were supposed to break the cast hierarchy in the society.

Missionary schools and colleges were aiming at creating a feeling of dislike against the cast

system, in the minds of native students. The blend of Christian and liberal education was

fashioned in the missionary institutions hoping that ‗it could not recognize or tolerate caste

observances within its walls‘.144

The atmosphere of these schools also accentuated the

breaking of the cast system where the students were admitted regardless of their social status.

The missionaries were prepared to admit the students from low caste or from outcastes,

despite its negative consequences on the enrolments of their schools. So the missionary

schools were working in their highest capacity to extend missionaries influence in the higher

141

English language was considered to be an influential means to get a job and enter ‗the emerging colonial

public sphere of courts, local and provincial councils, and the like‘. Sanjay Seth, ‗Which Good Book?

Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, 119. 142

Robert Clark, an eminent missionary of Church Missionary Society, described it as, ―the Gospel is carried by

the pupils into families, where otherwise it would hardly gain access; and it is very much through the means of

our heathen pupils in mission schools, that prejudice becomes disarmed, the native mind becomes accustomed

to contact with Christianity, and many of the indirect blessings of out holy religion are gradually conferred on

the people.‖ Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January, 1862-63,

44. 143

Sanjay Seth, ‗Which Good Book? Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, 119. 144

Duncan B. Forrester, Caste and Christianity: Attitudes and Policies on Cast of Anglo-Saxon Protestant

Missions in India (London: Curzon Press, 1980), 28.

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ranks of the society by breaking the system of caste hierarchy and making the upper classes

accessible for the missionaries.

b) Intellectual Development

The superstitious behaviour of the native population was considered to be a stumbling

block in the way of conversion. The missionaries felt that the native people were not in a

state of mind to analyze things on the basis of reason and science rather they were in a habit

of accepting them blindly. Especially the beliefs and religious rituals of Hindu community—

their ‗belief in the religion‘s merits to be obtained by acts of idol-ritual, pilgrimages to

supposed sacred spots, bathing in supposed sacred waters, their seductive pantheistic

teaching which wipes out the distinction between right and wrong and denies the authority of

conscience, and a whole jungle of superstitions beliefs and corrupt practices‘145

—were the

typical examples of their illogical behaviour. In these circumstances, the native community,

according to the Christian missionaries, was unable to evaluate the truth of the Christian

doctrines presented to them. So the native mind was considered to be in a dire need of an

intellectual revolution. Consequently, the missionaries aimed at the development of native

mind on scientific lines to enable the people understand the value of missionaries‘ arguments,

by exercising their power of reason.146

The missionary schools and colleges came forward to

serve the purpose and initiated their efforts in this direction. Rev. Dr. D. O. Allen termed it

one of the important factors behind the establishment of the missionary schools and

observed:

In commencing their operations, missionaries have generally seen the propriety and

importance of establishing schools. One reason for them is to educate the minds of 145

Richard Lovett, M. A, The History of the London Missionary Society 1795-1895, 6. 146

T.F. Middleton, cited in Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and

Education in Colonial India‘, 30.

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the people, so that they may be more capable of understanding and appreciating the

facts and evidences, the doctrines and duties of the Scriptures.147

Education of science was seen to sow the seed of reason and logic in the native

society. It was aiming at the intellectual development of the native mind on the lines to

analyze things on the basis of logic and reason rather than believing on them blindly. The

ultimate result of this development was seen as the denouncement of the native religious

beliefs by these educated classes of the native society, which was considered an important

and compulsory stage towards the absolute aim of conversion. So the knowledge of science

was thought beneficial to remove the superstitious behaviour of the native population and

making them able to evaluate the truth of the Christian beliefs and notions presented to them.

This preparatory work was expected to pave the way for the extension of the world of

Christianity.

c) Diffusion of Western Culture

Missions all over the world have contributed immensely to the development of the

society on Christian morals and so was the case in the colonial Indian society. Christian

missionaries aimed at making profound changes in the traditional culture of oriental society.

They were greatly disturbed by the significant aspects of the Indian culture and therefore

considered cultural change as a compulsory component of preparatory stage. The reformation

of the society on the basis of Christian models was thought to alleviate the influence of the

native social institutions of caste, Purdah, child marriage, superstitious behaviour, etc. in the

society. So they approached the Indian society with reformist intent and attempted to

incorporate major changes in the social structure of the society. They aimed at presenting

147

Rev. Dr. D. O. Allen, cited in Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education in India (1800-

1947), 32.

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western ideals to adapt the decadent social values on western lines which were expected to

ultimately culminate in the formation of a liberal society with dominant Christian morals. To

them this social and cultural change was necessary for the preparation of native mind to

achieve the ultimate goal of conversion. So, the mission boards and missionaries remained

busy in establishing social institutions in the oriental society, throughout the nineteenth and

twentieth centuries. They believed that these efforts would open the door for the conversion

of the native population.148

Furthermore, the missionaries were of the opinion that

evangelization and civilization go hand in hand in the south Asian society. Many of them

interpret ‗evangelism in the wider sense of bringing the people under the influence of

Christian social values and Christian attitudes towards life‘.149

Due to its intrinsic relation to culture, education is considered to be one of the most

powerful forces for social change. The missionaries also thought in the same vein and chose

the instrument of education to reform the traditional Indian society. American missionaries

are specially worth mentioning in this context. They were traditionally identified with the

group of missionaries who offered allegedly better civilization through the commencement of

their social service programmes—provision of educational, medical and other facilities.150

Their Women missionaries left a potent impact on the social structure of the host society.

They presented themselves as role models to the native female population and ―examples of

their own domestic arrangements, especially their conjugal marriages, their child-raising

148

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 3. 149

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in Southern Asia, 42. 150

Christensen and Hutchison, cited in Ruth Compton Brouwer, ‗Opening Doors Through Social Service:

Aspects of Women‘s Work in the Canadian Presbyterian Mission in Central India, 1877-1914‘, in Leslie A.

Flemming Woman‟s Work for Woman: Missionaries and Social Change in Asia, 35-57.

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methods, their skills in cooking and sewing, and their attention to domestic hygiene, were

considered to be powerful civilizing forces.‖151

1.6.3 Education for the Native Christian Community

In addition to the conversion of the native population and doing the preparatory job,

missionary education was also considered beneficial for the converts, in their post conversion

phase. The missionaries were very conscious about the education and training of the

Christian converts based on the Christian principles. So the education of the Christian

converts was another important factor which prompted the missionaries to carry on with their

educational venture. Education for the native Christians was aiming at ‗Development of

Reading and Writing Skills‘, ‗edification or building up of the native church‘, ‗improvement

in the financial condition of the native Christians‘,

a) Development of Reading and Writing Skills

Reading of Bible is considered to be an important motivating factor for education

since the inception of Christianity. As, each and every Christian is supposed to be able to

read the holy Scriptures. It was considered necessary due to its eternal character and positive

effect on the heart and mind of the reader. The missionaries took great care of this and

Protestant Christians are, especially, considered the people of the Book. Therefore, the

Christian missionary educational institutions aimed at enabling the Christian converts to read

the word of God, a necessary prerequisite of salvation. Rev. N. G. Clark pronounced it as,

―some degree of education must be added to enable believers to read the Word of God for

151

Ibid., 3.

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themselves in their native tongue.‖152

So, due to their contribution in making the students

able to read the scriptures, the missionary schools became a necessary part of the evangelical

enterprise of Christian missionaries.

The same purpose, providing the religious scriptures to the natives in their respective

languages, paved the way for the translation of Bible in different vernacular languages. The

missionaries took on this gigantic work and translated the sacred scriptures into native

dialects and languages. Printing press was introduced to make these translations available in

the published form for the native population. The work of the ‗Serampore trio‘ is especially

important who translated and printed the portions of Bible into about thirty one Indian

languages and dialects. M.A. Sherring observes the contribution in these words:

In no country in the world, and in no period in the history of Christianity, was there

ever displayed such an amount of energy in the translation of the sacred scriptures

from their originals into other tongues, as was exhibited by a handful of earnest men

in Calcutta and Serampore in the first ten years of the present century.153

So the development of reading and writing skills in the community of Christian

converts was an important factor behind the educational enterprise of Christian missionaries.

The missionary schools and colleges were aiming to enable the Christian converts to read the

word of God.

b) Edification

The word ‗edification‘ is used in the New Testament which suggests the divine

purpose of edifying the individual as well as the building up of the edifice—the church, the

152

Rev. N.G. Clark ―High Christian Education as a missionary agency‖ in Report of the Centenary Conference

on Protestant Missions of the World held in Exeter Hall (June 9th

-19th

) London 1888 ed. James Johnston, II

(London: James Nisbet &Co, 1889),185. Cited in Steve Bishop, ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British

India‘,. 255. 153

M.A. Sherring, The History of Protestant Missions in India (London: Trubner and Co. 1875), 75.

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Christian community.154

The term ‗native Church‘ is used to show a community of local

Christians of some specific locality.155

Edification or the Building up of a native church

rested at the heart of almost the whole Christian community. In fact the state of the native

church in India was considered to be a crucial indicator to show the success or failure of the

missionaries on the mission field. Richard Lovett termed the work of earlier missionaries as

preparatory and related the survival of Christianity in India with the state of the native

church. He described it in the following words:

Christianity in India must ultimately stand or fall by its success in building up, or by

its failure to create a living, active, self-supporting Hindu Native Church. All that has

up to the present been achieved by all the Societies, separately and collectively,

cannot be considered as more than a preparation for the great Christian achievement

of the future—an enthusiastic, aggressive, Christ-like Church, Hindu in sentiment, in

modes of thought, in presentation of theological truth, which shall present Christ to

the millions of India, not as the God of her conqueror and master, but as the loving

Saviour who has won the devotion and the consecration of her own ablest sons.156

The governing bodies and the missionaries of all the great societies, still by the

second half of the nineteenth century, considered edification—development of the native

churches on self-supporting, self-governing, and self-extending systems—as one of the major

objectives of their enterprise.157

The training aspect of missionary schools was a subject of

paramount importance for the participants of WMC held at Edinburgh in 1910. The Bishop

of Birmingham related the efficiency of the clergy class to their efficient training. He

attached much importance to the missionary schools due to the training aspect of education.

His argument ran as follows:

154

Eugene Stock, The History of Church Missionary society, IV (London: Church Missionary Society, 1916),

393. 155

Ibid., 402. 156

Richard Lovett, the History of the London Missionary Society 1795-1895, 257-258. 157

Ibid., 259.

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From the schools –with their range from kindergarten to university—come the leaders

of both Church and State in all these mission lands; the ministers, the teachers, all the

laymen who are going to lead. In these schools are educated the rank and file of the

christen communities, no less important than those, as we have seen, in carrying the

gospel to their own people. These are the men, then, who will interpret the Christian

faith to their fellow-countrymen; and therefore the whole question of education in the

mission field becomes at one of the most vital importance.158

Rev. W.L. Ferguson, an American Baptist missionary also pronounced in the same

vein and wrote:

Educational missionary work should serve to produce an intelligent Christian

community, able to read the Word of God in the vernacular, establish and maintain its

own churches, discipline and order, extend its influence in and beyond its local

habitat, and furnish a body from which leaders for church and secular life may be

drawn, this is the main purpose. Christianity cannot be said to be fully indigenous

until this is accomplished.159

Thus the training of the native Christians for the development of the native church

was one of the important objectives of missionary education. The missionary schools and

colleges took great pains to produce trained leadership for their respective churches.

c) Improvement in Social and Financial Condition

Missionaries‘ educational institutions aimed at improvement the social and financial

condition of the Christian converts. It is an obvious fact that the initial converts were from

the upper echelon of the society but they were few in numbers. The bulk of the Christian

converts, towards the end of the nineteenth century, was converted during the mass

movement. These converts were mainly form the lower rung of the society, mostly coming

158

W.H.T. Gairdner, ―Edinburgh 1910” An Account and Interpretation of the World Missionary Conference,

114-115. 159

World Missionary Conference, 1910; Report of Commission III, Education in Relation to the

Christianization of National Life, 18.

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from the classes of chuhras and chamars.160

They were generally illiterate people with

pitiable financial condition. Their financial condition became even worst after their embrace

of Christianity because of the hostile behaviour of the native community towards them. In

these circumstances the missionaries came forward and took the responsibility of improving

their sources of income. Missionary education, especially its secular part, was considered the

best means to do the trick. Missionary curriculum was modified to prepare the students for

the professional careers. In addition to the provision of the professional courses at missionary

schools the missionaries also created opportunities for their successful students within the

missionary circles. The local Christian converts, educated from the missionary institutions,

were supposed to serve in the fields of education, health, and the like in private as well as in

the government sector. The missionaries also created jobs within their missionary circle

where Christian candidates were given priority over those from the other religious

communities.161

Hence the education of these native Christian was supposed to improve the financial

as well as the social condition of the native Christians by providing them some job under

government or some missionary organization.162

The missionary educational institutions had

special focus on the professional studies and devised special courses to serve the purpose.

The missionaries came to the Indian subcontinent in the fold of social service and

devoted their lives for the service of native population. Their social service agenda comprised

mainly the services in the fields of education and health. Their focus on education is

160

R.K. Ghai, ‗Christian Conversion in the Punjab: A Critical Analysis (1849-1914 A.D.)‘, Proceedings of

Punjab History Conference, 17th

Session (October, 8-10, 1982), 181-183. 161

The native Christian were given priority over the other religious communities while filling the teaching

vacancies at missionary schools, Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and

January, 1862-63, 40-45. 162

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education in India (1800-1947), 32-33.

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considered to be the most striking things of their missionary strategy. Missionary education

was mainly the phenomenon of pioneer Protestant missionaries—Ziegenbalg, Carey and

Duff. Their major aim, same like their predecessors, was conversion of the native population

and they adopted education as a powerful auxiliary to serve their ultimate aim of

evangelization. They carried their educational venture to prepare the native mind for the

ultimate acceptance of Christian faith. This tradition of the pioneer Protestants was followed

by their successors and the missionary activities, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth

century, were dominated by the educational labours. In addition to enable the people to read

the religious scriptures the missionaries were lured to the education of the native population

due to its preparatory character. The secular aspect of missionary education was thought to

be extremely helpful in preparing the native mind to ultimately denounce their religious

beliefs and the religious aspect, based on Bible studies, was considered beneficial in

providing them the substitute for their original faith. So, the education was an ally to the

missionaries in their evangelical pursuit rather than a distraction from their ultimate goal of

extending the world of Christianity.

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Chapter No. 2

Origin and Expansion of Boys’ Missionary Schools

(1849-1880)

The services rendered by Missionaries in the field of education are of immense

importance because of their valuable contribution to the education of Punjabi folk during the

Colonial rule, and also because of their services for the development of an education system

on the present lines. Christian missionaries‘ educational venture in the Punjab could be

divided into two phases, considering the appointment of Indian Education Commission in

1882, as the dividing line between the two. During the first phase of their enterprise, they

were determined to approach all and sundry in the province and therefore showed

commitment to increase the number of their schools. The first decade after the annexation

was the period of consolidation for the British Administration as well as for the missionary

societies. Woods Education Despatch, during this period of consolidation, created room for

missionaries in the field of education by introducing the system of grant-in-aid and by

suggesting gradual withdrawal of the Government from the field of education. The

missionaries‘ educational endeavours got impetus with the rise of Sir R. Montgomery, as the

Lieutenant Governor of the Province, in 1859. Benefitted by the generous grants from the

government during this period, the missionaries started expanding their educational network.

They were preparing themselves as an agency capable of occupying the Government‘s place,

after its anticipated withdrawal from the field. Their efforts, to establish as many educational

institutions as possible, did not last long and towards the end of 1870s they abandoned their

programme of expansion. This chapter contains the study of the missionaries‘ initial efforts

of establishing and expanding their educational network in the province. The main focus of

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the chapter is the study of expansion of their educational network. It includes the

missionaries‘ temptations behind their desires of expansion and the reasons behind their

decision of abandoning the programme of extension. The critical role of the government in

encouraging the missionaries programme and afterwards that in missionaries‘ decision to

surrender their former policy of expansion forms an important part of this chapter.

2.1 Pre-British Period

Before its annexation to the British dominion in 1849, the Punjab was under the Sikh

rule. Being an outpost and an important entree to India from the North West, the previous

history of the province was mainly dominated by blood shed. Especially, during the second

quarter of the Nineteenth Century, it became the battlefield of the Sikh and the British

armies. Since the survival of their rule became the first priority of the Sikh regime therefore

the major focus of the Sikh administration remained on the enhancement of its warfare

resources. Consequently the danger of the British forces, during this period, hampered the

progress of education in the province and the education of the younger generation was

compromised in the process.

In spite of all this, the province of the Punjab, at the time of annexation, owed enough

educational traditions. It was sufficiently advanced in the field of education and was found

ahead of Agra presidency.163

There were about 3,3o,ooo pupils who could read, write, and

compute, in different types of schools. Thousands of students were studying in Arabic and

Sanskrit schools which were known for high standard teaching of law, logic, philosophy and

163

Letter from Melvill, Secretary to the Board of Administration, Punjab, to Sir Henry Elliot, Secretary to the

Governor General of India, Letter No. 613, Lahore, 20th

November, 1851. Cited in Anand Gauba, ‗Education in

Amritsar Under Sikh Rule‘, The Punjab Past And Present, IX:II ( October, 1975 ): 428.

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medicine.164

It was the obvious outcome of an ancient, deep-rooted, and wide spread system

of education popularly known as indigenous system of education.165

The term ‗indigenous‘

has generally been used in educational reports to denote the system of religious and secular

education in the sub-continent, which was existent from the time immemorial. However, an

indigenous educational institution is defined as ―an institution established or conducted by

natives of India on native methods‖.166

This system of education was, generally, in the hands

of religious authorities who were free to design their educational activities to achieve the

specific objectives set by their respective religious communities. This system had a vast

network of elementary schools as well as those of higher learning. There was no mosque, a

temple or a dharamsala without a school attached to it.167

The school was an institution

which a village community was expected to maintain as a matter of course. The tutor and the

taught were looked after by the society. The state, by encouraging and patronizing men of

light and learning, supplied the initiative and rendered material help to the village schools in

the form of freehold grants.168

A large number of people were taught, in their childhood, to

read the Scriptures of their religion by rote. They also used to receive some instructions in

morals, faith and ceremonial observances.169

The best feature of indigenous educational

164

Shyamala Bhatia, ‗Educational Change in Early Twentieth Century Punjab‘, Proceedings of Punjab History

Conference, 33rd

Session (March 16-18, 2001), 183. 165

At the time of annexation of the Punjab, in 1849, the indigenous schools were the only kind of schools which

existed in the province. The Government schools were found in the districts of Delhi which was the part of

North-Western Provinces at that time. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series Punjab, I (Calcutta:

Superintendent of Government Printing, 1908), 134. 166

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government

Printing, India, 1883), 50.

http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/dcd/page.php?record=2315 167

G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab: Since Annexation and in 1882, 17. 168

H.R. Mehta, A History of the Growth and Development of Western Education in the Punjab (1846-1884), 12. 169

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year, 1879-80, by W.R.M.

Holroyd, (Lahore: Punjab Printing Company, 1880), 2.

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institutions was that, in addition to the religious and mercantile classes, they were equally

open to the agricultural classes also.170

The indigenous education system was not devoid its of drawbacks. Although learning

was respected in this system of education yet it was limited in scope. The subjects like

history, science, and mechanics had little importance for the indigenous educators therefore

these subjects were not the part of learning scheme of a student.171

No specific curriculum or

Printed books were in vogue which hampered the growth of a systematic study in these

schools.172

Moreover the education of scheduled casts and that of women was not encouraged

in this system of education.173

The European critics considered the indigenous methods of

teaching to be imperfect. They had serious concerns over its neglect of the scholars‘

reasoning powers and the limit of the teacher‘s aim in securing a certain degree of

mechanical precision from his pupils.174

2.2 The British Period

After the annexation of the Punjab, the British Government emphatically declared its

intentions to take education of the masses in its own hands.175

But in spite of the

government‘s declared policy, its performance, in taking some practical steps towards the

education of the masses, was not up to the mark and the matter was overshadowed by the

administrative and political constraints of a newly conquered province. In the meantime the

Government of the Punjab constantly affirmed that it was their determined and immediate

170

Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series Punjab, I, 134-135. 171

Shyamala Bhatia, ‗Educational Change in Early Twentieth Century Punjab‘, 184. 172

G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab, 152-154. 173

Des Raj Grover, ‗Development of Primary Education in Punjab 1937-1947‘, Proceedings of Punjab History

Conference, 26th

Session (March, 18-20, 1994), 254. 174

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 33. 175

Ibid., 1.

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purpose to take measures for imparting the sound elementary knowledge to the people of the

Punjab. It also declared its intentions to establish a network of elementary schools throughout

the province providing every village with an elementary school.176

2.2.1 Wood’s Education Despatch

In 1853, at the time of the renewal of East India Company‘s Charter, a Select

Committee of the House of Commons was established under the chair of Sir Charles Wood

to hold a thorough review of the past educational developments and to formulate a

comprehensive policy for the educational reconstruction of the country. The Committee, on

the basis of its inquiry, presented its recommendations on 19th

July, 1854. Due to its wide

ranging implications on the education of this region, this valuable document, popularly

known as ―Wood‘s Education Despatch‖, is considered to be the ―Magna Charta of English

education in India‖.177

This document, comprising about hundred paragraphs, outlined a

general educational policy for the country. It contained recommendations dealing with the

issues like type of education, medium of instruction, superintendence, direction and

inspection, institution of universities, network of graded schools and grant-in-aid system,

training of teachers, vocational instruction and education of the women.178

Christian missionaries found some of the recommendations of the despatch extremely

beneficial for their cause. In fact they were able to exercise a definite influence in the

formulation of these recommendations, through Alexander Duff and his distinguished friend

Charles Trevelyan. As at the time of final negotiations, before the renewal of the EIC‘s

176

Ibid.,1. 177

Des Raj Grover, ‗Development of Primary Education in Punjab 1937-1947‘, 255. 178

A. Biswas and S.P. Agarwal, Development of Education in India: A Historical Survey of Educational

Documents before and after Independence (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1986), 22.

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Charter, Duff was present in England. He was frequently consulted upon this question of

highest importance because he was considered to be ―the supreme authority on Indian

affairs‖.179

Finding the document favourable for the missionaries‘ cause, he threw the whole

weight of his personality into balance in order to pass it into law.180

The recommendations of

the despatch regarding the initiation of system of grants-in-aid, the government‘s intention of

gradual withdrawal from the field of education leaving it wide open for the missionaries and

its compromising attitude towards religious instruction carried special interest for the

missionaries.

a) System of grants-in-aid

The grant-in-aid Clause lay down the principle that, ―local and private efforts should

be aided by Government‖181

. In pursuance, a scheme of financial aid, popularly known as

grant-in-aid scheme, was initiated to serve the purpose. Although the scheme was launched

for all the local private agencies yet the missionary societies in the Punjab, being the sole

private bodies involved in the field of education at that time, were supposed to be the lone

beneficiaries of this scheme. Mr. W. D. Arnold, the first Director of Public Instruction in the

Punjab, observed in the same vein that ―Such grants-in-aid consisted of assistance given to a

few mission schools.‖182

. The missionaries were in dire need of some financial assistance to

fulfil the financial needs of their educational institutions. The scheme of grant-in-aid

bestowed them with the claim of a legal right to get financial aid for their educational

institutions therefore they welcomed this scheme with open arms.

179

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 180. 180

Ibid. 181

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 4. 182

Ibid., 4.

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b) Government’s withdrawal

Closely connected to the scheme of grant-in-aid was the government‘s pledge of

gradually withdrawing from the field of education in favour of private bodies. The Despatch

of 1854 recommended the establishment and maintenance of Government schools and

colleges purely on temporary basis. Government educational institutions were recommended

to be set up in the areas where no private institutions existed and were to be maintained only

till some private body emerged to establish an institution of its own or willing to administer

that of established by the Government.183

Being a lone private body in the field of education,

the missionaries fancied to occupy the entire educational domain after government‘s

anticipated withdrawal and therefore welcomed this recommendation also.

c) Religious neutrality

The question of religious education, in the aided schools was also discussed and it

was suggested that ―the Inspecting Officer should take no notice whatsoever….. of the

religious doctrines that may be taught in any school‖.184

This clause gave the aided private

educational bodies—which, in those days, meant the missionary societies only185

—some sort

of license to impart the desired religious instruction at their schools. This issue of diffusion of

religious education was closest to the missionaries‘ heart and they were more than happy on

the inclusion of this clause in the recommendations of Woods Despatch because it solved the

matter according to their wishes.

183

H.R. Mehta, A History of The Growth and Development of Western Education in Punjab, 1846-1884, 54-55. 184

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education in India, 1800-1947, 119. 185

Ibid.

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The recommendations of the Despatch helped the missionaries to establish a strong

foothold in the field of education in the Punjab. The pro-missionary administrative hierarchy

of the province was also very keen to facilitate the missionaries in their educational pursuit

and played a good supportive role in the development of missionaries‘ educational

institutions. The system of grant-in-aid was initiated soon after the establishment of the

education department in the province which provided the government a legal framework to

release generous grants in favour of missionaries‘ educational institutions. As, contradictory

to its original objective,186

the scheme of grant-in-aid started to be considered as a support to

the missionary institutions only and the indigenous schools were aided out of the yields of

one percent cess.187

The Chief Commissioner of the Punjab, in 1856, sanctioned Rs.720 per

mensem in terms of aid to the institutions of higher class and at the end of that year ten

educational institutions, all of them missionary schools, were receiving aid from the

provincial government, under the scheme of grant-in-aid. 188

Benefitted by this kind of supportive attitude from the administration, the missionary

bodies were flourishing in the Punjab but the incident of War of 1857 hampered the rapid

growth of the missionaries‘ educational institutions. The missionary schools were burnt and

the missionaries, who were found, were assassinated during the War time. But their

operations were resumed soon after the maintenance of law and order in the country. The

transfer of power from EIC to the British Crown did not affect any fundamental changes to

the missionaries‘ activities as the new administration decided to carry on with almost the

same policy suggested in the Woods‘ Education Despatch. The British government continued

186

The scheme of grant-in-aid was actually developed to provide financial support to all the privately managed

educational institutions without any distinction of missionary or non-missionary management. 187

H.R. Mehta, A History of The Growth and Development of Western Education in Punjab, 1846-1884, 52. 188

Ibid.

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to follow the recommendations of Woods Education Despatch till the Establishment of the

First Indian Education Commission in 1882-83, under the chair of Sir W.W. Hunter. During

this period of about three decades, from 1849 to 1880 expansion turned out to be the

watchword in the missionary circles. As, the missionaries tried to expand their educational

network by establishing more and more schools during this period. Their efforts took real

impetus after the rise of Robert Montgomery as the Lieutenant Governor of the Province in

1859.189

His encouraging behaviour swelled their hopes of occupying the whole educational

field of the province and they started to expand their network by establishing their

educational institutions in the length and breadth of the province.

2.3 Period of Expansion

This is the period in which the missionaries wanted to spread their educational

network in the length and breadth of the province and tried to establish schools in different

parts of the province. The British Punjab, at that time, was divided into five administrative

units known as divisions which were further divided into twenty nine districts.190

The

Education Department had four divisions of the province called Circles. The missionaries

expanded their educational network to these areas in no time. Different missionary

organizations established their missionary stations at the major cities and towns of the

province which were immediately followed by their educational institutions in these areas.

The missionaries, at the end of the period, were having not only secondary and primary

schools for the male population but also separate schools for female multitude of the

189

Although missionary schools were multiplied very quickly, in the pre-Mutiny period, but the number of

pupils in these schools was quite insufficient. Ikram-Ul-Haq, ‗The Punjab, 1849-83: Educational Activity‘, 04. 190

Ian Talbot, Tarikh-i-Punjab, translated by Tahir Kamran (Lahore: Takhlikat, 2006), 49.

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province. Missionaries‘ efforts in the field of female education will be discussed in the next

chapter but those in the field of male education are discussed here.

2.3.1 Secondary Education

According to the uniform classification of education, adopted in 1879, Secondary

education was described as that which led up from the primary to the collegiate course. Its

higher limit was precisely defined by the matriculation standard of the universities which was

regarded as the final standard of secondary schools. 191

The middle and high schools were the

compulsory constituents of secondary education in the Punjab. The course of study, as

prescribed for the government schools, extended over three years in the middle school, and

two years in the high school.192

The scholars generally joined a middle school after passing

the upper primary school examination in English or vernacular.193

The missionaries‘

educational institutions of secondary education had English as a compulsory component of

their scheme of studies and therefore were termed as English schools. In 1879-80, at the end

of this period, the missionaries had 11 mission high schools at the key missionary stations in

different parts of the province. Here is the history of some of the missionaries‘ prominent

schools for secondary education in the province.

a) Ludhiana Mission High School

Ludhiana was the chief station for American Presbyterian Mission in India. It was a

military as well as a civil station under the jurisdiction of East India Company (EIC), during

191

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 177. 192

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year, 1879-80, by Lieut. Colonel

W.R.M. Holroyd, Director Public Instruction, Punjab,31. 193

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 44.

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the Sikh rule in the Punjab.194

The population of the district mainly consisted of the Muslim

and the Hindu communities. It was situated 6 miles south of the Sutlej, 1277 miles north-

west of Calcutta and 116 miles south-east of the capital city of Lahore. The mission-friendly

attitude of chief civil and political officers at Ludhiana tempted the AP missionaries to select

this tract of land for their early missionary operations.195

The mission, afterwards, extended

its operations to the other parts of the district and established its outstations at Khanna,

Machhiwara, Raikot and Jagraon in the district.196

Mr. Lowrie, the pioneer missionary of AP mission at Ludhiana, took the charge of an

Anglo-vernacular school immediately after his arrival. The school was previously run by

Captain Claude Wade, the political agent of the town.197

The presence of a number of

students from some distinguished Afghan and Sikh families was an important feature of this

school. In 1836, the school was transferred to Ludhiana mission and therefore was known as

the Ludhiana Mission High School.198

The school helped the missionaries a lot in accessing

the nobility of the region.199

At the time of annexation of the Punjab, it was the only mission

school existent in the territory of the Punjab. The school, along with the mission of Ludhiana

faced a set back during the War of 1857. The building of the school was destroyed by fire. Its

194

John Newton, Historical Sketches of the Indian Missions of the Presbyterian church in the United States of

America, 08 195

Ibid. 196

Punjab District Gazetteers, vol. XV. A, Ludhiana District, ( The ―Civil and Military Gazette‖ Press, 1904),

93. 197

M.A. Sherring, The History of Protestant Missions in India, 218. 198

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1864-65, by Captain A. R.

Fuller, Director of Public Instruction, Punjab (Lahore: Independent Press 1865), xxxv. 199

In addition to the presence of a number of students from the afghan and Sikh families, the missionaries, due

to their growing popularity as good educationists, were invited by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and also by a former

Afghan King Shah shooja. John Newton, Historical Sketches of the Indian Missions of the Presbyterian church

in the United States of America, 27-28.This kind of relationship with the nobility of the region was quite helpful

for the missionaries to establish their relationship with the higher echelon of the society.

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library containing a large number of valuable books, also shared the same fate.200

But after

the peace was restored, recovery process started and by 1861, the average daily attendance of

the school was gone up to 256.201

In 1864-65 there were 348 students on the roll out of which

250 were Hindus, 90 Muslims and 8 from the other religious communities.202

The school had

separate departments for the teaching of English and Persian, till 1865, but were merged into

one afterwards. The subjects of Geography, History of India and Arithmetic were also taught

at the school.203

The territorial influence of Ludhiana Mission School was broadened, in

1865-66, by opening four branch schools in different parts of the town.204

Quality of

education, at the school, was quite satisfactory at the school and it showed good results in

entrance examination of Calcutta University. Especially, in 1868-69 when it won first

position, along with Mission High school Jalandhar.205

It sent four students of whom one

passed in the first division and gained higher marks than any other student in the province.

The inspector of the Lahore circle reports very favourably of the result of Ludhiana Mission

School.206

The school went through a serious set back, in terms of massive numerical

decrease of students, in 1873-74. As large number of students were drawn towards a newly

established Hindu school in the town. The nominal fees levied on the students, at new school,

were the major source of attraction for the students.207

But the mission school recovered

reasonably within the period of a year and the number of students on the roll rose to 334 in

200

M.A. Sherring, The History of Protestant Missions in India, 221. 201

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1864-65, by Captain A. R.

Fuller, Director of Public Instruction, Punjab, LV. 202

Ibid., XXXV. 203

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1865-66, by Major A. R.

Fuller, Director of Public Instruction, Punjab, XXVI. 204

Ibid. 205

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1868-69, by Capt.

W.R.M.Holroyd, Director Public Instruction, Punjab (Lahore: Albion Press, 1869), 36. 206

Ibid., 34. 207

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1873-74, by Major

W.R.M.Holroyd, Director Public Instruction, Punjab (Lahore: W.E. Ball, 1874), 74.

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1874-75. The branch schools attached to the main school, six in number, contained 317

students, raising the number of students to 651 altogether.208

It was termed as one of the

most efficient schools of Ambala circle, in 1879-80.209

b) Rang Mahal School

American Presbyterian Mission School, Lahore, popularly known as ‗Rang Mahal

School, was the most important school of the city. Dr. C. W. Forman opened the school, in

his house, on 19th

December, 1849, with only three students. The opening of this school, in

the Punjab, was the starting point of the priceless educational contribution of Dr. C. W.

Forman. He was one of the missionaries who devoted their efforts for the education of the

people and set high standards by producing excellent results at different forums. The scarcity

of pupils, at the initial stage, tempted the founder of the school to use the payment of pice to

lure the pupils towards the school. The tactic worked in his favour and the number of

students on the roll started to rise very rapidly. As within the period of a year, 80 students

were registered and the number rose to 300 by 1851. In 1853, the building of Rang Mahal

palace, previously belonged to Said Ullah Khan of Chiniot, was purchased for the school.

The school adopted its name, Rang Mahal School, due to its close attachment with this

building.210

This pioneer institution faced some hard times during the War of Independence

but managed to survive and by 1861 it bore 428 students on the roll.211

The scheme of

studies, during 1850s, contained ‗the History of India, the History of Greece, Parker‘s Aid to

208

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1874-75, by Major

W.R.M.Holroyd, Director Public Instruction, Punjab (Lahore: W.E. Ball, 1875), 74. 209

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1879-80, by Lieut. Colonel

W.R.M.Holroyd, Director Public Instruction, Punjab (Lahore: W.E. Ball, 1880), 40. 210

S.K. Datta, The history of the Forman Christian College College selection from the records of the College

1869-1936 (Lahore: n.p., 1936), 13. 211

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1864-65, XII.

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English Composition, Natural Philosophy, Cyclopaedia of English Literature, Algebra, Urdu,

Hindi and Persian.

With the passage of the time, a large number of branch schools were opened in

connection with it to accommodate students from the outlying areas of the town. In 1864-65,

Mr. C. W. W. Alexander, the then Inspector of schools Lahore circle, observed 16 well

managed and organized branch schools attached to the school212

and termed the performance

of this school better than the Government Zillah schools.213

English was taught to all the

classes from the highest to the lowest. Study of Persian and that of Urdu was also allowed,

even from the lowest classes. Contrary to the other mission schools of the province,

Arithmetic was well taught at this school.214

The broad base and quality instruction at the

school made it a symbol of excellence and, during 1860s, it emerged as one of the largest and

one of the most popular schools of the country.215

It continued to bear the high character

throughout the ages and, at the end of this period, it was in very good condition maintained

under the auspices of Punjab Mission of the Presbyterian Church of U.S.A and the Lahore

church Council.

c) St. Stephen’s High School Delhi

St. Stephen‘s High School, Delhi, was a branch of missionary work of the Society for

the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), Delhi. The mission was founded at Delhi in 1853 by

Midgley John Jennings, a chaplain of EIC at Delhi. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hubbard, both from

the Caius College, Cambridge, came forward and established a mission school. It was opened

212

Ibid.,83-84. 213

Ibid., 6. 214

Ibid.,34. 215

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1869-70, by Capt.

W.R.M.Holroyd, Director Public Instruction, Punjab, 24.

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in a hired house at Katra Kushal Rai, Chandni Chowk, in 1854.216

The school made a good

progress in the subsequent years but the incident of the War of 1857 hampered its progress.

The mission along with the mission school was destroyed during the War. Mr. M. J.

Jennings, the founder of the mission, was assassinated with his daughter and fellow

missionaries. After the restoration of the peace, the mission and the school were re-

established by Mr. Skelton, a fellow of Queen‘s College, Cambridge. The school was again

humming with educational activities and the average daily attendance by 1860-61 of the

school was 244 at that time.217

It made excellent progress under the able superintendence of

Mr. Winter and the number of students on the roll was increased up to 367 in 1864-65.218

The

teaching staff was strengthened by the appointment of Mr. Smithwhite. He was a gentleman

having a sound European education. He introduced many changes in the scheme of studies of

the school with a view to improve the vernaculars. The school continued to hold its position

as one of the best schools among the private aided enterprise of the respective circle and

Captain W. R. M. Holroyd, Inspector Ambala Circle, acknowledged it in his annual report.219

The school also led the lot, in the Departmental examination of 1866-67 for 3rd

, 4th

and 5th

classes, by sending more students than any other Mission School of the Province. Moreover

these students secured, in some subjects, higher marks than the students of the other schools

of their ranks.220

The Inspectors of schools, time and again, expressed their positive observations about

the school and it held its good standing, consistently, among the best schools of the province

216

Official Website of St. Stephen‘s College, University Enclave, Delhi, India.

http://www.ststephens.edu/archives/history3.htm Cited on 20-03-2011 at 11-00 pm. 217

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1864-65appendix lx 218

Ibid., 61. 219

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1866-67, 20. 220

Ibid.

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till 1870. But after the lost of management services of Mr. Crowfoot in 1871, due to his ill

health, the school was unable to maintain its high mark of performance. The Inspector of the

schools repeatedly mentioned the deficiencies, especially in the teaching of arithmetic and

that of Persian, but the management of the school put a deaf ear to the directions of the

Inspector.221

As a corollary to this the performance of the school continued its downward

flight and suffered a great loss in terms of bad results at entrance examinations, conducted by

Calcutta and Punjab Universities and also at Middle standard examinations. The school also

suffered a considerable numeric loss and the number of students was decreasing day by day

towards the end of the period under consideration. By and large, at the end of this period the

school was considered to be an important school and held a good reputation among the aided

schools of the province.

d) CMS High School Amritsar

The CMS missionaries entered the Punjab with a desire to impart religious as well as

secular education to all the Christian children. In addition to this the establishment of a

school was also necessary for the teaching of Bible to the Christian and non-Christian

population.222

That is why Robert Clark, the veteran missionary of CMS opened a school at

Amritsar on April 1852. Mr. Clark found a very encouraging response from all the three

major religious communities of the town—the Sikh, the Hindu and the Muslim. As on the

first day of the school, about fifty youth, half from the Sikh and the rest from the Hindu and

221

The Inspector of Ambala circle, in 1872-73, wrote strongly about the defects in the teaching of Persian but

―little or no heed‘ was paid to his remarks and the inspector expressed his apprehensions in his report, 1873-74.

Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the year 1873-74, 74. Inspector of Ambala

circle, in 1877-78, also expressed in the same vein in his annual report when he wrote, ―After the remarks I

made last year on the teaching of Arithmetic I was certainly surprised to find the same teachers employed, and

naturally little sign of improvement.‖ Report on popular education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the

year 1877-78, 66. 222

Henry Martyn Clark, Robert Clark of the Punjab, 62.

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the Muslim communities, attended the school.223

The Mission School Amritsar played an

important role in the education of the people of Amritsar. Branch schools were established to

expand the educational base of the school and, during 1864-65, about 200 boys were found to

be studying in its branch schools.224

A reasonable increase in the number of students was

observed during the next five years and, in 1869-70, six branch schools were attached to the

main school. The increase in the number of branch schools had a positive effect on the

number of students on the roll which went up to 969.225

The quality of education, especially

at the upper level, was very good. The school showed good results at Calcutta and Punjab

University‘s Entrance Examinations. Considering the examinations of 1874-75, the school

held the highest position.226

The number of students on the roll started decreasing from 1876

and number of branch schools also decreased to 4 during 1877-78. The loss of two branch

schools had a reasonable negative effect on the total number of students. Cultivation of

athletic sports, on regular basis, was the hallmark of the Amritsar Mission School and it

possessed the strongest cricket eleven in the province during the late 1870s.227

e) AP Mission High School Rawalpindi

Mr. Morrison, in September 1856, established City Mission School Rawalpindi with

twelve students, near Raja Bazaar. It was the first school established at Rawalpindi, on

modern lines. The school, subsequently, provided the base for the establishment of Gordon

College, in 1893. It faced some difficulties in finding some good teachers, during its initial

days. But with the passage of the time the problem was solved and the school showed

223

Ibid. 224

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1864-65, L. 225

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1869-70, 25. 226

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1874-75, 50. 227

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1878-79, 62.

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considerable improvement. In 1861, it had 89 students daily attending the school but number

of registered students was raised to 186, in 1865.228

The subjects of History, Geography,

Arithmetic, Algebra, along with the teaching of English, Persian, and Urdu were taught at the

school.229

In 1866-67, the school was considered to be at par with Government Zillah School

Rawalpindi and by 1869-70 it was the best Anglo-vernacular school of the circle.230

The staff

at the school was more than sufficient, numerically. The government thought it better to

leave the education of the town on the part of the missionaries and, in 1876-77, removed its

district school from the town. Consequently, City Mission School occupied the place of this

school and a considerable increase on the roll was observed during the year.231

In 1878-79

the school had three branch schools in the different parts of the city. The number of students

on the roll was 271 with average daily attendance of 225.232

In addition to these major schools, the missionaries had a goodly network of schools

in other parts of the province also. They had high schools with numerous branches of Middle

and Primary schools, at Gujranwala, Sialkot, Jalandhar, Batala and Peshawar. The High

school at Jalandhar was under the control of American Presbyterian missionaries and the

Church Missionary Society was running the Mission School at Peshawar. Both the schools

had the networks of branch schools in the different parts of their respective towns. Jalandhar

School was considered as a highly efficient educational institution and it showed some good

results at the entrance examination, in 1868-69.233

Church Mission School at Peshawar was

also a good school. It is a noteworthy fact that, at the end of this period under observation, all

228

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1864-65, 101. 229

Ibid., 101. 230

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year1876-77, 60, also see

inspector‘s report in Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year1869-70, 10. 231

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year, 60. 232

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1878-79, 62. 233

It won the first position in the entrance examination along with the Mission School of Ludhiana in 1869-70.

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the eleven private aided High schools for the natives were under the supervision of the

Christian Missionaries. American Presbyterian missionaries were leading the lot by having

six schools at the key stations of Lahore, Jalandhar, Batala, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and

Ludhiana. The Church Missionary Society had two schools at the important cities of

Amritsar and Peshawar. The SPG Mission was having a school at the ancient city of Delhi

and the Scotland Mission possessed a school at Sialkot.234

These Mission High Schools were mostly situated at the missionary headquarters in

the province. The network of missionary schools was further expanded through the

establishment of Middle Schools. The middle schools, at the end of this period, were 23 in

number and were established at the key locations occupied by the missionaries, as an

extension of their central schools.235

At the end of the period under consideration the Church

Missionary Society had eleven Middle schools at Kangra, Dharamsala, Majitha, Batala,

Narowal, Peshawar Cantonment, Multan, Shujabad, Dera Ismail Khan, and Bannu. The

American Presbyterians had five schools at Ambala City, Ambala Cantt, Jalandhar Cantt.

Lahore and Rawalpindi. The Scotch Mission also had some missionary schools of this class

at Sialkot Cantonment, Wazirabad, and Gujrat.236

These schools taught up to the elementary

level and acted as the feeder schools to their High schools.

By and large, at the end of this period 35 out of 36 aided secondary schools for the

natives were mission schools. The scheme of studies at mission schools was almost identical

with that in the government schools with an exception of compulsory Bible teaching in the

former. Moreover all the mission schools were English schools. The aided mission schools

234

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1878-79, 60. 235

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1880-81, 32. 236

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1875-76, xxxviii.

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imparted education of a similar character to that given in the government schools, at

somewhat cheaper rate. They drew their material resources mainly from the funds

contributed by the government through grant-in-aid scheme and those contributed by the

Missions, including subscriptions raised in the region. The fees contribute less than one-

twelfth of the expenditure of the schools.237

It is a noteworthy fact that the missionary societies throughout this period tried to

expand their educational network by establishing as many schools as possible and at the end

of this period they were able to establish a reasonable network of schools at different parts of

the province. Sixteen districts of the province, in 1879-80, were having one or more high

schools at their headquarters and eleven mission high schools were included in them.238

They

had schools at almost all the important district headquarters and towns of the province. But

the mission schools, in case of government‘s withdrawal from the field, were still not in a

position to substitute those of the government sector.239

2.3.2 Primary Education

The primary instruction consisted of a course of studies which extended over five

years starting from the earliest stage to the standard at which secondary education begins.

The primary education generally consisted of five classes and lasted for the same number of

years—one year for each class. So primary schools started their instruction from the first

class and terminated it with an examination called the upper primary examination.240

Before

the adoption of a uniform classification of schools, in 1879, the aided schools of this type

237

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1879-80, 35. 238

Ibid., 31. 239

Ibid.,37. 240

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission 1882-83, 80.

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were termed as the schools of lower class. A large majority of aided English primary schools

were under the management of Christian missionaries attached to the missionary schools for

secondary education.241

These branch schools, previously under the management of a central

secondary school, after the adoption of the uniform policy of classification, were termed as

primary schools.242

The primary schools were of two kinds, vernacular and English, consisting of two

divisions— upper and lower sections—in both cases. The studies of the lower section spread

over three classes while that of the upper section covers two classes. The progress of this

scheme of studies was tested by Lower Primary School Examination and Upper Primary

School Examination. The former rendered the candidate eligible for admission to the upper

division of the school and the latter indicated the standard which a primary school required to

reach and served as an Entrance examination to the schools for Secondary education.243

Moreover the vernacular schools focused at the cultivation of classical languages whereas the

English schools promoted the study of English language. The standard and the syllabus of the

examinations are attached in appendix.

The character of primary education was determined by the practical needs of the

society—agricultural as well as those of the urban community. The Despatch of 1854 defined

the scope of education as ―consisting of so much knowledge, at least of reading and writing,

and of simple rules of arithmetic and of land measurement, as would enable each man to look

after his own rights.‖244

The course of studies, for the primary schools, was desired to include

reading and writing with elementary arithmetic and mensuration. Since, in government

241

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1879-80, 54. 242

Ibid.,36 243

Ibid., 53. 244

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission 1882-83, 80.

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schools, English was not taught in the lower section and started with the promotion of the

student to the upper section therefore the studies pursued in the lower division of English and

vernacular schools were identical. But a small part of the course prescribed for vernacular

schools was omitted in the upper division of English schools.245

In aided schools for natives,

the course of instruction was similar, sometime identical, to that prescribed for government

schools. The chief point of difference was that in missionary schools the study of English

started from the lower section.246

Almost all the mission primary schools, except those

managed by Baptists at Delhi, were English schools and started teaching of English from

their lower sections.

The cost of educating each boy in the mission schools, at the end of the period under

consideration, was Rs. 8-2-0.247

A major part of this expenditure was derived from

government funds through the grant-in-aid scheme. Municipalities also provide some

financial assistance to the mission schools. School fees contributed about seventeen percent

of the total expenditure. About twenty five percent of the total expenditure was managed by

―other sources‖, mainly through the subscriptions and contributions made by English public

through various missionary societies. It is a noteworthy fact that the aided primary schools

were not much beneficial for the state but they spare her from the educational expenditure,

incurred upon this enterprise by the English community and also by different missions, which

otherwise might be defrayed from the local sources.248

The missionary primary schools were situated mostly in cities, towns or cantonments.

These schools were generally established to reinforce the influence of the main missionary

245

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1879-80, 52-53. 246

Ibid., 52-53. 247

Ibid., 55-56 248

Ibid.

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schools, established at the missionary headquarters. The Schools of Baptist Missionary

Society developed a network of these kind of schools at Delhi, during 1870s. It established a

central school at Delhi and then broadened their educational circle by establishing its branch

schools at different parts of the city as well as in the suburbs. Church Missionary Society also

established such kind of network at Kotgurrh, but not of the same intensity.249

These schools

imparted very basic instruction in the languages of English, Urdu, Hindi and Persian. The

subjects of geography, History of India, and Art were the part of the teaching scheme of these

schools. Arithmetic of very elementary level was also found to be taught here.250

During

1879-80, there were 106 aided Primary schools. A vast majority of these schools was

missionary schools.251

The following table shows the progressive expansion of missionary

schools under different missionary bodies.

249

As, by 1875-76, it had only 7 Schools at Kotgurrh, in comparison to those of Baptists Missionary Society at

Delhi, numbering 35, Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1875-76,

xxxviii. 250

Ibid., 62-63. 251

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the Year 1879-80, 52.

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Table: 2.1.Different missionary societies and the number of schools they had during the period of

expansion

Year

Missionary society

Schools of

Higher Class

Schools of

Middle Class

Schools of

Lower Class

Total

No. of

Sch

ools

No.

of

studen

ts

on t

he

roll

No. of

Sch

ools

No.

of

studen

ts

on t

he

roll

No. of

Sch

ools

No.

of

studen

ts

on t

he

roll

No. of

Sch

ools

No.

of

studen

ts

on t

he

roll

1866-6

7

American Presbyterian 06 2381 03 268 --- --- 09 2649

C. M. S. 07 1561 07 577 --- --- 14 2138

Mission of Scotland 01 90 02 197 --- --- 03 287

S. P. G 01 362 --- --- --- --- 01 362

Total 15 4394 12 1042 --- --- 27 5436

1871-7

2

American Presbyterian 06 1859 04 293 31 1850 41 4002

C. M. S. 02 348 08 851 19 982 29 2181

Mission of Scotland --- --- 04 426 01 109 05 535

S. P. G 01 181 --- --- 04--- 300 05 481

Total 09 2388 16 1570 55 3241 80 7199

1876

-77

American Presbyterian 04 1107 06 1020 36 1866 46 3993

C. M. S. 02 474 10 1337

0

14 800 26 2611

Mission of Scotland 01 285 03 559 --- --- 04 844

S. P. G 01 203 --- --- 08 649 09 852

B. M. S. --- --- --- --- 35 687 35 687

Total 08 2069 19 2916 93 4002 120 8987

The data extracted from the Reports on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies, for the

Years from 1865-66 to 1876-77.

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2.4 Expansion Abandoned

Christian missionaries carried on with their policy of expansion for about three

decades but at the end of 1870s they became extremely unhappy with the existing

government‘s policies towards them. They had serious differences with the government at

the key issues of government‘s withdrawal from the field of education, attitude of the

government officials and the like. They abandoned their efforts of expansion around 1880,

due to the following reasons:

2.4.1 Government’s Withdrawal from the field of education

The recommendations of the Wood‘s Education Despatch brought the missionaries

closer to the British administration in India. In the province of the Punjab, the supporting

behaviour of Lawrence brothers and that of R. Montgomery, during 1850s, brought the

missionaries even closer to the government. The pledge of government‘s withdrawal from

the field of education, in the favour of missionaries, was reaffirmed at times by the Officials

of the Punjab Government. R. Montgomery, the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, vowed

the same in the following words:

The Government schools and colleges, whether high or low, should be regarded not

as permanent institutions, but only as means for generating a desire and demand for

education, and as models ……….the Government, in place of using its power and

resources to compete with private parties, should rather contract and circumscribe its

own measures of direct education, and so shape the measure as to pave the way for

the ultimate abolition of its own schools.252

252

Minutes by His Honour the Lieutenant Governor in the Education Department under the date the 21st

October, 1863, cited in John C. B. Webster, ‗Competing Systems of Western Education in the Punjab, 1858-

1882‘, Proceedings Punjab History Conference, Second Session (Patiala: Publication Bureau Punjabi

University, 1966), 188.

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In spit of these kinds of assurances by the top of the administrative hierarchy, the

government, afterwards, refused to withdraw from the field. The feelings of distrust and

antagonism among the missionaries and government officials, which were developed in

subsequent years, led the government to abandon her desire of withdrawing from the field of

education. The proponents of this decision had some major apprehensions about the negative

consequences of the missionaries‘ dominance in the field. These can be discussed as follows:

a) Mission Schools Inferior to Government Schools

The performance of the missionary schools was in itself a question mark on their

desire of occupying the entire field of education. Missionaries‘ desires of numeric increase

were, to some extent, fulfilled at the stake of quality of education at mission school therefore

mission schools were considered inferior to those in the government sector.253

Their

performance, especially in the field of elementary and lower education, was not up to the

mark.254

The lower standard of education at mission schools was quite evident, especially

towards the end of this period, from the poor performance of the mission schools‘ candidates

in the examinations conducted by Calcutta and Punjab Universities.255

The following table

shows the brief history of these schools for the last six years before the end of the period

under consideration.

253

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1879-80, 36. 254

The education inspectors of different circles mentioned time and again, during this period, the inferior

quality of education at missionary schools Reports on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies

for the Years 864-65 to 1876-77. 255

Entrance Examinations were conducted, separately, by the Calcutta University and Punjab University

College. In expectation of a speedy realization of the promises held out for the grant of power of conferring

degrees, the Punjab Government instituted examinations corresponding to those of the Calcutta University. But

a difference of opinion materialized at the manner of evaluation. The Calcutta University wanted the students to

have a minute knowledge of prescribed textbooks while the Punjab University College intended to examine the

students in subjects, and came out with examining the candidates by translations rather than paraphrasing. Both

the parties stuck to their opinions and, as a corollary, a dual system of examination came into existence which

lasted for some years Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education

Commission, 1884, 19.

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Table: 2.2. Missionary schools and their results at Entrance Examinations

Year No.

of

Instit

utions

No. of

students

on the

roll

Averag

e daily

attenda

nce

Calcutta

University

Entrance Exam

Punjab University

Entrance Exam

Passed in

both

Entrance

examinat

ions No.

candidates

appeared

No. of

passed

No.

candidates

appeared

No. of

passed

1879-80 35 1021256

-- -- 08 -- 22 --

1878-79 09 2673 1998 26 14 36 32 --

1877-78 08 2273 1692 26 13 36 32 --

1876-77 08 2069 1469 26 13 34 27 11

1875-76 08 1973 1590 33 17 27 18 12

1874-75 08 2207 1615 29 15 20 12 7

The table prepared from the statistics given in the Reports on popular education in the Punjab and its

Dependencies, for the years 1874-75 to 1879-80.

The scarcity of sufficient funds, the dearth of well educated trained teaching staff and

the incomplete organization of newly established schools were some of the serious problems

of these schools which damaged the process of quality education very badly.257

The poor

performance of missionary schools was attached with the scarcity of sufficient resources for

the mission schools. This situation led the officials to conceive that the Missions did not have

the resources, especially in terms of trained and qualified staff, to hold the educational

domain of the province. The Director Public Instruction, Punjab, expressed his views in the

following words:

256

The data of aided schools was for the first time collected on the basis of secondary education which included

high as well as the middle schools. 11 out of these 35 schools were high schools which contained 144 scholars

while rest of the schools were middle schools which contained 877 students having 1021 students altogether. 257

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1879-80, 36.

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various Missions already expended as much as they are able to afford, from funds

provided in England, subscriptions raised in this country; and if any considerable

portion of the money expended on Government schools were withdrawn, its place

could not be supplied by the Missions, and there would be a corresponding decrease

in the number of scholars at present receiving Secondary Education.258

The performance of the educational institutions under the management of Education

Department, after their transfer to the missionary bodies, was even a more serious concern

for the officials of education department. Their experiences of handing over the government

schools to the missionaries at Sialkot and Jhelum, during 1860s, created some serious

questions on the performance of these institutions. The Government School at Sialkot was

transferred to the Church of Scotland Mission, as an aided school, in 1868-69. The school

was unable to flourish and a large majority of the scholars was withdrawn from the school.

The Government School at Jhelum was handed over to the Chaplain of the station but it also

shared the same fate and, after a few years, was regained by Education Department.259

On the other hand, the Government schools were considered to be highly beneficial in

the diffusion of Western education to the masses. These schools were acting as a stimulant to

attract the students towards them as well as for the missionary schools to improve their

performance, by creating an atmosphere of healthy competition.260

So the officials of

Education Department thought that the absence of these schools from the field would,

ultimately, cause a major numeric loss to the cause of education of the masses. Therefore the

withdrawal of these schools, from the field was not a healthy move towards the spread of

Western education.

258

Ibid., 37. 259

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 16-17. 260

John C. B. Webster, ‗Competing Systems of Western Education in the Punjab, 1858-1882‘, 191.

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b) Prevalent Prejudice against Mission Schools

Though a portion of the native community, especially from the lower classes of the

Hindu community and also from the higher rung of the society, had no objection to send their

children to the mission schools yet a majority of the influential section of the native

population had strong prejudices against the mission schools.261

The prejudice of the people

was quite obvious when the Government School of Sialkot was handed over to a missionary

body. The parents withdrew their boys and only 13 scholars were found on the rolls,

immediately after the transfer of the school.262

The People of the cities found themselves in

quite ease where both the government and mission schools existed. The spirit of emulation

between the schools, at these places, created an atmosphere of healthy competition which

tempted the management of both types of institutions to improve their standard of teaching.

On the other hand, the most promising scholars after the primary schools at these places,

generally neglected the mission schools and chose their competitors— government schools—

for secondary education.263

This attitude shows the extent of native prejudice against the

mission schools.

In this kind of atmosphere, the officials of Education Department were quite hesitant

to leave the field wide open for the mission schools. They thought the government‘s

withdrawal a destructive step and were of the opinion that this would be a major set back for

the education of the masses. As the people of the cities, where only the mission school

261

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1879-80, 36. 262

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 16. 263

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1879-80, 36

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occurred, opted to establish a school through their independent effort instead of sending their

children to the mission school.264

c) Religious Aspect of Missionary Education

It is an obvious fact that the missionaries started their educational venture, in India, as

a means to achieve their missionary goals. To them, education was a powerful auxiliary to

achieve their ultimate goal of extending the world of Christ. That is why their education was

mainly conversion-centric. The teaching of Bible was a compulsory component of

missionary education.265

On the other hand it was a source of irritation for the majority of the

Muslim and the Hindu communities. That is why they usually avoid the choice of mission

schools and tried their best to take their children away from these. In the absence of any

choice, when they were compelled to do so due to their desire of imparting Western

knowledge to their children, the secular aspect of missionary education remained the focus of

their attention. So, these influential people did not like the Government‘s withdrawal from

the field of education.

The pathetic condition of mission schools in terms of average daily attendance, in the

post conversion scenario, was a serious concern for the officials of education department.

The schools, generally, became empty at once after the conversion of a pupil. This kind of

situation led them (schools) to a very unstable condition which required much time and

energy to restore the previous condition of the school.266

This state of affairs, in an

anticipated post-withdrawal scenario, was considered as a major set back for the diffusion of

264

Ibid. 265

See the views of missionaries like C.W. Forman, Rev. R. Thackwell and others on compulsory Bible teaching

in the Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January, 1862-63, 31-54. 266

Sanjay Seth, ‗Which Good Book? Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, 119.

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Western education to the masses. Consequently, the increased focus on religious education at

missionary schools and the strong reaction of the native population towards this conversion-

centric attitude of the Christian missionaries tempted the government not to leave the field of

education leaving it wide open for the missionaries.

d) Mutual Distrust

Although Christian missionaries started their educational venture with the strong

backing of the administrative hierarchy of the province and a government-missionary

alliance was seemed to be working in the field with which missionary schools were

mushrooming in the length and breadth of the province yet both the parties seemed to have

feelings of distrust for each other, since early 1860s. This atmosphere of distrust played its

part in government‘s decision of denying its withdrawal from the field of education and also

in persuading the other party—Christian missionaries—to abandon their efforts of expansion.

Although the government of the Punjab assured Christian missionaries to fulfil their

pecuniary needs under the grant-in-aid scheme and, in pursuance, released generous grants to

the missionary schools,267

yet the officials of Education Department started having

apprehensions about the dominance of mission schools. That is why the proposal of closing

the Government School at Lahore, by Revd. C. W. Forman as the representative of the

missionary bodies at a meeting of Educational Committee appointed by the Lieutenant

Governor was not entertained by the Director Public Instruction, Punjab, in 1863.268

The

267

By 1868, the Punjab Government distributed 15.4 percent of its educational expenditure, to the aided

institutions. It was Rs. 16545 per month more than the average amount paid by the other provinces, in the

support of mission schools. Tim Allender, ‗Anglican Evangelism in North India and the Punjabi Missionary

Classroom; the Failure to Educate ‗the Masses‘‘, 276. 268

T. D. Forsyth Esq., Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January,

1862-63, 45.

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Government also became in direct competition with the Church Missionary School at

Peshawar, by establishing its own school at the town. Moreover, she fashioned traditional

indigenous studies—the teaching of Arabic, traditional laws of inheritance, geometry and

grammar—in the school, which was the most rare thing to do in a Government school. The

measure was taken to allure the pupils from Kabul and Kandahar. Furthermore, it enticed the

Pathan scholars by offering fellowship to them, at Lahore.269

Moreover a gradual feeling of sickness, towards the religious character of missionary

education, was developed among the officers of Education Department. As stated above the

missionary education was mainly conversion centric and the primacy of proselytizing

activities was the hallmark of the missionary schools. In fact the missionaries were striving to

establish an education system, based on Christian principles, without any distinction of aided

or Government education. Teaching of the Bible, in this anticipated system of education,

occupied an important place and was suggested to be taught as a regular, if not compulsory,

part of the daily programme.270

The primacy of proselytizing instruction in the missionary

schools was the major source of apprehension in the Government circles. The officials of

education department thought it a major hurdle in the spread of Western education. It was

also believed that this kind of conversion centric education would damage the secular face of

the Government and would, ultimately, be resulted into the loss of the support of the upper

strata of the society.271

On the other hand the missionaries also had ill feelings about the Government

Officials, since early 1860s. They were well aware of the negative feelings prevailed upon

269

Tim Allender, ‗Anglican Evangelism in North India and the Punjabi Missionary Classroom; the Failure to

Educate ‗the Masses‘, 1860-77‘‘, 283. 270

C. B. Webster, ‗Competing Systems of Western Education in the Punjab, 1858-1882‘, 191. 271

Ibid., 192.

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the official circles, towards their religious education at missionary schools. But this kind of

education was lying at the heart of the missionaries and religious aspect of their education

was the one and only source of inspiration for them in this field. Education of the masses was

not their only object but they wanted to Christianize the native population through the means

of their education. Rev. C.W. Forman declared the conversion of India as the foremost object

of their education in the following words:

We cannot be satisfied with any amount of mere civilization, enlightenment, or

general elevation of character, united with the profoundest respect of Christianity.

Our great object is the conversion of India.272

The missionaries, on the one hand, enjoyed large grants for their educational

institutions on the other hand they doubted the sincerity of the officiating inspectors. To

them, the inspectors were their rivals with the object of modifying the missionary education

according to the wishes of the administration. The authority of the inspector was considered

against the prestige of the missionaries. The system of grant-in-aid was taken as a Begali

ploy to modify missionary system of education according to the wishes of an education

officer. That is why the question of grants or no grants was frequently discussed in the

Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in 1862-63. Rev. C.W. Forman‘s views, at the

platform of the Missionary Conference, showed the lucid picture of the opinion prevailed

upon the missionary circles. He concluded the discussion in the following words:

Many good men have feared the influence of Government aid upon the religious

character of our schools…..my own opinion is, that these fears are not altogether

groundless. It is much to be regretted, that Government agents should have a right to

visit, examine and report on our schools, officially and authoritatively………. If an

undue interference with our modes of instruction, or an undue authority over our

schools is attempted it must be all means by resisted. Far better would it be, to give

272

Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January, 1862-63, 31.

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up Government aid, than thus to encourage the belief that our schools are under

Government control; or so to modify our system of education, with a view to meeting

the wishes of an educational officer, or securing a name for our schools by the

superiority of our pupils in secular knowledge, as to render them less efficient in

spreading the knowledge of Christianity, or in making converts.273

In this way the conflict of interest created feelings of distrust between the missionary

societies and the Government which proved to be damaging for both the parties. The officials

of Education Department observed the existing situation and after a meticulous analysis of

the ground realities of the region decided not to withdraw from the field.

2.4.2 Opposite View of a Missionary sect

There had been a group of people in the missionary circles, since the advent of

missionary schools in India, who considered direct preaching as the only means to serve the

missionary cause. To them, missionary schools were a distraction from the original

missionary objective. They, time and again, questioned the legitimacy of mission schools in

the field of missionary labours. They preferred preaching over teaching and were not

satisfied with the heavy cost, both in terms of manpower and operating expense incurred

upon the missionary education.274

Rev. W Ferguson belonged to the same school of thought

who, at the forum of Punjab Missionary Conference, presented his point of view in which he

regarded

Schools as the lowest form of missionary agency, and considering that there was

perfect liberty to preach everywhere, he thought schools a very questionable way of

applying mission funds.275

273

Ibid., 38. 274

Sanjay Seth, ‗Which Good Book? Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, 118. 275

Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January, 1862-63, 40.

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Similarly, a number of missionaries, at the Allahabad Missionary Conference,

questioned about the large sums incurred on missionary education. They thought it a

distraction from their main task of converting the souls to the world of Christianity.276

This

sect of missionaries, though in minority, was continuously putting pressure on their

colleagues to restrict their efforts to the direct preaching of the gospel only. Although this

group was in minority and had no considerable weight in the decision-making process yet

their voice was putting great pressure on the missionaries to abandon the missionary

educational enterprise.

2.4.3 Number of conversions

The missionaries were lured to the field of education, mainly, to get converts from the

host nations. The field of Punjab was also occupied with the same object but it did not

produced desired results. The missionary schools, situated at key locations, were mostly

filled with students but the net result, in terms of number of conversions, was negligible. As,

the majority, of the students, came there to learn European secular knowledge, in pursuit of

material benefits, attached to it.277

So, in spite of the utmost efforts on the part of missionary

educators, the conversions were not sufficient enough to satisfy the benefactors of the

missionary societies, back home. The missionaries in the field, by 1879-80, also came to the

conclusion that the conversion of the Muslim and the Hindu communities, at a large scale,

was a very hard nut to grind.278

So the Missionaries, instead of waiting for desired harvest

276

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 31. 277

Tim Allender, ‗Anglican Evangelism in North India and the Punjabi Missionary Classroom; the Failure to

Educate ‗the Masses‘, 1860-77‘‘, 277. 278

Ibid., 278.

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from the barren land of five rivers, in terms of number of conversions, turned their attention

to the other parts of the empire.

The missionary societies flourished fairly rapidly in the Punjab, after its annexation to

the British dominion. The soft corner for the missionaries, in the hearts of the British officials

lured the missionaries to launch their missionary operations in the Province. Consequently,

different missionary societies mushroomed throughout the province during the 1850s.

Encouraged by the extended support of Sir R. Montgomery and the recommendations of the

Woods Education Despatch, the missionaries set their sails to multiply their schools by

occupying the key locations in the province. The network of missionary schools was

reinforced by the establishment of branch schools, of lower class, attached with the main

school. The branch schools functioned as the feeder schools for the main schools and thus

became a source of the extended missionary influence in the town. The missionaries

abandoned their efforts of extension in 1880, and started to consider the other options. There

were different reasons behind their ending of expansion programme. In addition to the

missionaries‘ incompetence to cope with the structural problems of the field, they were

unable to deliver in terms of conversions. The major reason behind their decision was the

government‘s reluctance in leaving the field of education. The antagonistic feelings of the

persons involved in the educational venture, of both the parties, contributed to make the

government take this all-important decision.

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Chapter 3

Origin and Expansion of Girls’ Missionary Schools

(1849-1880)

Modern education system, with women education as one of its essential elements,

emerged in the Punjab under the umbrella of Colonial government, during the second half of

the nineteenth century. It was developed by suppressing the prevalent indigenous system of

education which had developed in the province through centuries past. Education of women

emerged as a necessary organ of the new education system in the province. The female

multitude of the province was considered to be entangled in some miserable social norms and

customs which were supposed to deprive them from some of their basic rights, including

education. Education is regarded as the most powerful instrument for changing the women‘s

subordinate role in the society. It not only develops the personality of the individual but also

improves their socio-economic status by qualifying them to fulfil certain economic, political

and cultural functions. Christian missionaries decided to use this all important tool to bring

about the desired social change in the favour of women of the Punjab. They were the

pioneers to enter this sensitive field. As described in the previous chapter, their efforts in the

field of education can be studied under two headings— efforts for expansion and efforts for

quality education. This chapter focuses on their efforts in the field of women education, from

the annexation of the Punjab to 1880. This period is important because it was the period

when the ground was prepared for the development of female education system. The system

of women‘s primary education was fostered during this period which paved the way for

secondary education, in the subsequent years. That is why this chapter focuses on the efforts

of Christian missionaries in the field of women education in the Punjab, during this period. It

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attempts to explore missionaries‘ objectives behind their untiring efforts in this field. It also

tries to unearth the actual outcome of the missionaries‘ efforts during the period. The chapter

focuses to bring forth the supportive role of the Colonial government in favour of

missionaries. The modes of missionaries‘ activities in the field of women‘s education also

comprised the bulk of this chapter.

The province of the Punjab has been the cradle of two ancient civilizations—the

Indus Valley Civilization and the Vedic Civilization—and in both of these the women were

respected and regarded for their good status in the society. But in the post Vedic period

certain social traditions and customs made adverse impact on the status of women and,

during the medieval period, she became, almost, footwear in the oriental society.279

Although

the plight of women became one of the chief concerns of most of the socio-religious

reformers yet nothing could prevent the society from accepting the deep rooted customs and

traditions, which were considered to be the source of humiliation of the female multitude of

the society.280

The same situation prevailed up to the British period and the customs like Sati,

Purdah, female infanticide, etc, continued to be frequently practiced in the province, during

the colonial period.281

This inferior social status of women in the society made the female population

dependant on their male counterparts—before marriage on their fathers, after marriage on

their husbands, and in old age on their sons. This kind of subordinate role mostly deprived

the women from some of their fundamental rights, including that of education. The available

279

Manju Malhotra, ‗Status of Women in the Colonial Punjab‘, The Punjab Past and Present XXXI (October,

2000): 46. 280

Ibid. 281

Census of India, Punjab, 1891, 219.

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historical sources, no doubt, suggest that there existed a tradition of women education

amongst the upper strata of the society. As, women of the nobility were given education in

their own houses by the learned ladies or old male tutors. They were mostly taught literature,

elementary arithmetic and religious scriptures.282

However it should be noted that the

proportion of these women was very meagre and they would not exceed a few hundreds.283

But the girls of ordinary classes were accepted only for the religious education. They were

allowed to join the boys‘ elementary schools, to a certain age, where they learnt to read the

religious scriptures of their sect.284

The female education at elementary level was entirely

religious in character and the girls of all the three major communities—Hindu, Muslim, and

the Sikh— were required to recite their respective religious books.285

But the doors of

secondary or secular educational institutions remained close for the Punjabi women and a

vast majority of women of the Punjab was deprived of formal education. The historical

evidence goes on to affirm that the indigenous education system of the colonial Punjab had

no specific arrangement for the formal education of an ordinary woman of that time. Punjabi

conservatism was considered the major hindrance in establishing the proper girls‘ schools.

Therefore, female education in the province remained confined to religious instruction

only.286

Here is the summary of some of the important challenges in the development of

women education in the Punjab.

282

Bhagat Singh, ‗Cultural Life in the Punjab in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century‘, The Punjab Past and

Present, XXIII: I (April, 1989): 111. 283

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 60. 284

G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab, 108. 285

H.R. Mehta, A History of the Growth and Development of Western Education in the Punjab (1846-1884), 9. 286

Ikram-ul-Haq, ‗The Punjab, 1849-83: Educational Activity‘, 3.

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3.1 Challenges of the Field

At the time of annexation, women were facing huge problems in terms of their

education, because their education was considered unnecessary, unorthodox, and

dangerous.287

Almost all the stakeholders of the three-fold indigenous education system—the

Muslims, the Hindus, and the Sikhs— looked at formal female education as against their

dignity. They thought it contradictory to their religion as well as to their social norms,

conventions and customs. The conservative character of the oriental society and its great

regards for its specific set of social values, norms, and conventions deprived the women,

even, from some of their fundamental rights including education. These social norms and

conventions were one of the major hurdles in the way of women education. Therefore, the

orthodox lifestyle of the society, customs like child marriage, Purdah and some distorted

religious beliefs were mostly held responsible for keeping women away from their education.

Let us have a look on some social and religious customs and traditions which made adverse

effects on the education of the women in the Punjab.

3.1.1 Purdah

The purdah system was not the part and parcel of ancient Indian society but its

existence is said to be synchronous with the advent of the Muslims in this region.288

No

doubt, some sort of purdah in shape of ghoonghat was observed in India, even before the

advent of the Muslims, as a mark of respect to the elder male members of her in-laws but the

elaborate and institutionalized form of purdah emerged with the advent of Muslims in this

287

Manju Malhotra, ‘Status of Women in the Colonial Punjab‘, 49. 288

Daljit Singh, ‗The Position of Women in the Punjab during Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries‘, The

Punjab Past and Present, XXXII:I (April, 2001): 50.

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region.289

The Muslim women were supposed to confine themselves to the boundaries of

their homes and stay isolated from the world of men. Free mix up of men with women was

strictly prohibited and the nineteenth Century Punjabi society was no exception to this

custom. Although the custom belonged to the Muslim code of life yet it was observed as the

mark of respectability and mannerism by all communities of the Punjab.290

The common

practice of Purdah was also adopted by the Hindu women, while going out in the public. The

adoption of this tradition by the Hindu community had different notions behind it. According

to R.C. Majumdar, ―Hindus adopted purdah as a protective measure to save the honour of

their women folk and to maintain the purity of their social order.‖291

Downward filtration theory292

was also a contributory factor and according to this

argument the Hindu women adopted the custom of purdah to imitate the ruling class.

Another point of view describes that the chief reason for the adoption of this custom by the

Hindu women was to protect the beautiful young girls from the ill-designs of rich nobles.293

Because of the prohibited mix up of the male and female members of the society, the

formal education of the latter was badly affected. Generally the Punjabi girls, till the age of

nine or ten, were allowed to attend boys‘ elementary schools and vice versa.294

It shows that

the mixed education was not prohibited at elementary level, because of the immature age of

the pupils. But at secondary or higher level, the case was not the same and we have no traces

showing the existence of mixed secondary schools in the nineteenth Century Punjabi society.

289

Ibid., 51. 290

Manju Malhotra, ‗Status of Women in the Colonial Punjab‘, 49. 291

Cited in Daljit Singh, ‗The Position of Women in the Punjab during Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries‘,

51. 292

Referred to the second interpretation of the term which suggested that the culture of the superior classes

naturally descended to the lower classes. 293

Daljit Singh, ‗The Position of Women in the Punjab during Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries‘, 51. 294

G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab: Since Annexation and in 1882, 98.

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The students, at secondary schools, were mostly grown up to the teenage and therefore the

mixed education was considered harmful due to the free mix up of these young boys and

girls. On the other hand, separate girls‘ schools were not available for the secondary

education of the female multitude of this region. Although, the Muslims and the Sikhs of

some districts of the Punjab were found to have separate schools for girls‘ education but

these were not only few in number but also involved in diffusing elementary education,

only.295

The field of secondary or higher education was totally neglected in terms of separate

girls‘ education. So the bulk of the female population of the Punjab had to finish its

education at the end of its elementary education and a large part of Punjabi women were

deprived of their higher education due to the custom of Purdah.

In this way, the institution of Purdah was considered to be the major hurdle in the

progress of women education and it was argued that the social growth of the women was

tempered due to this custom. It was thought that although the Muslim community wanted

their girls to be knowledgeable about the ‗Quran‘ and some accounting tactics but their strict

confinement within the boundaries of their homes, due to the custom of Purdah, minimized

the opportunities for them. Even, the women of one religious community were not able to

have social intercourse with the others, due to this custom. In this way the Punjabi women

were cut off from the outer world and women of different social groups developed different

ideological groups, each largely ignorant of the others.296

Seclusion of women also had its negative impact on the education of women, in terms

of insufficient supply of female teaching staff in the girls‘ schools. The supply of female

295

Ibid. 296

J.L. Nehru, The Discovery of India (Delhi: Oxford University press, 1985), 268.

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teachers for the girls was not an easy task at that time. The available female teaching staff

was scantier in quantity and was less satisfactory in quality, than that for the boys‘ schools.297

The shortage of female staff for the girls‘ schools was a major hurdle in the foundation of

separate girls‘ schools, at secondary or higher level.

3.1.2 Early Marriage

Early marriage was another major hurdle in the way of women‘s education. The

Custom of child marriage was actually a Hindu custom and the girls were married between

the ages of 10 and 15. The ancient ideal for high caste Hindu was that when children reached

the age of eight and twelve, the boys should go to school and the girls should be married.298

Moreover 63 per 1000 girls were reported to be married between the age of 5 and 10.299

But

this custom was less common among the Muslims. The custom of child- marriage created

difficulties at every step, for the promoters of women education. It actually reduced the

school going duration of the girls and thus deprived them from the acquisition of learning.

The education of the girl students was, generally, terminated with their marriage because,

after marriage, they were not allowed to attend any school due to the restriction of Purdah.

So the education of the girls was, generally, terminated at the age of nine and very scarcely

extended beyond the eleventh year.300

The indigenous educational institutions, usually, started the education of a child at the

age of five or six years.301

The Muslims, especially, celebrated the starting point of their

297

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 521. 298

Shiv Kumar Gupta, ‗Arya Samaj—A Potent Factor in the National Movement for Raising Womanhood‘,

Proceedings of Punjab History Conference, 24th

Session (March 15-17, 1991), 281. 299

The Census of India, 1911, XIV, 263. 300

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 521. 301

R.L. Ahuja, ‗Indigenous Education in the Punjab (1799-1849)‘ The Punjab Past and Present, XXIII: II

(October, 1989): 140.

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child‘s education at the age of four years four months and four days. The child, dressed in its

best clothes, was brought to the school and his education started by that day.302

This was a

common practice for the children, regardless of their gender. But the female students leave

the school at the age of nine or eleven due to their marriage as well as that of seclusion.303

It

means that the duration of the education of girl students was about four to six years and after

that their relationship with their school was terminated. After leaving the school, it was

almost impossible for a married child to have any opportunity of going with her education.304

In this way the education of the female multitude was limited to their elementary education

and the secondary education was out of bounds for them due to their early marriages.

Child widow was another problem linked with the child marriage. Since child

marriage was a religious obligation therefore child widows became inevitable and many girls

became widows even before they reached the age of puberty. There were 1208 women

reported to become widows under the age of 9 and 6778 were reported to become widows

before the age of 14, in the Punjab.305

Mostly, life became miserable for these under age

widows, as society showed a sullen attitude towards them. They themselves were supposed

to have been the cause of their husbands‘ death and were regarded as inauspicious,

unfortunate, and condemned women.306

These widows were treated inhumanly and they were

not allowed to lead a normal life. Their participation in different social activities was

abandoned and they were not allowed, even, to attend the singing party or a marriage

302

G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab: Since Annexation and in 1882, 66. 303

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 521. 304

Ibid. 305

G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab: Since Annexation and in 1882, 100. 306

Manju Malhotra, ‗Status of Women in the Colonial Punjab‘, 51.

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ceremony.307

Education of these girls remained a neglected issue in these circumstances and

their education, most of the times, was ended even before it started.

3.1.3 Utilitarian Aspect of Education

During the foreign rule, in India, education became a marketable commodity, as the

educated natives had better opportunities of having appointments than those who did not

possess this commodity. The power that office pen held over the ordinary people conferred

the clerks and high-ups an enviable status.308

Moreover, earning a livelihood became the one

and only function of education. Education, for most of the boys, merely meant employment

instead of increase of manliness and intelligence or increased fitness for the ordinary duties

of life.309

And the absence of an effective desire of earning a livelihood, on the part of

women, emerged as one of the major factors behind the miserable educational condition of

the women of the colonial Punjab.310

The foundation of Persian schools and the Mahajani schools presented the clear

evidence for the development of this materialistic approach. Persian, being the court

language since the Muslim rule, was taken as a tool of obtaining a significant post in the

helm of government affairs which may give the natives both political power and social

prestige over those higher than themselves in the Indian scale.311

Therefore, the efforts were,

made to acquire the language of the rulers to secure a monopoly of appointments and enjoy

multifarious benefits attached to these jobs. On the other hand, the Hindus belonging to trade

considered the orthodox indigenous education less beneficial for them and they were inclined

307

Manju Malhotra, ‗Status of Women in the Colonial Punjab‘, 51. 308

R.L. Ahuja, ‗Indigenous Education in the Punjab (1799-1849)‘, 144. 309

Ibid., 151. 310

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 521. 311

G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab: Since Annexation and in 1882, 17.

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towards the business studies. This professional approach towards education led to the

foundation of Mahajani schools which, instead of aiming at religious or moral education,

aimed to teach the art of daily accounts—to calculate mentally, to keep business

correspondence, to maintain ledger.312

The dominant utilitarian approach, determined money and social prestige as the major

objectives of education and women were not involved in neither of these two.313

According

to the social structure of the Punjabi society the male members of the family were

responsible for the earnings of livelihood of the family. Females were, basically, involved in

managing the domestic affairs and they were free from the worries of financial affairs, as the

male head of the family was responsible for that. Since, earning became the one and only

objective of education therefore the exemption of women from the financial affairs of the

family led to deprive them from their education. Therefore, no demand for education as a

means of livelihood among the girls and women was found in the society.314

This approach,

in addition to the foundation of Persian and Mahajani schools, also contributed in keeping

the women away from the education. Consequently, their education remained confined to the

religious education only and after elementary level they were not allowed to join any

educational institution.

3.1.4 Prevalent Socio-Religious Superstitions

The conservative Punjabi society had much regards for different kinds of

superstitions. The Hindu community, one of the largest groups of the homogeneous society

312

R.L. Ahuja, ‗Indigenous Education in the Punjab (1799-1849)‘, 149. 313

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 521. 314

Poonam Arora, ‗Role of Singh Sabha Movement in Promotion of Female Education in Punjab‘, Proceedings

of Punjab History Conference, Punjabi University, Patiala, 26th

Session (March 18-20, 1994), 210.

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of the Punjab, was marked by its social differentiation. The Brahmins enjoyed the supreme

position among the four vernas of the Hindu community.315

They made it penal to

communicate any but elementary knowledge to the servile and mixed multitude and at the

same time used different tactics to forbid the women from the acquisition of learning. In fact

the early Vedic society allowed the girls to acquire knowledge and grow into prominence but

in the later Vedic society, the orthodox Brahmins introduced blind superstitions, rituals, and

rigid customs, which forbade girls from the acquisition of learning.

A superstition of the same kind was found to be existent in the majority of Hindu

families. It was mainly cherished by the Hindu women but the men were also involved in it

by not condemning or discouraging it. According to it the conservative Punjabi society had a

common belief that the husband of the girl, who learnt to read and write, would die soon after

his marriage and the girl would become a widow.316

According to the customs of the society,

a woman observed religious practices, all her life, wishing for the long life of the male

members of her family and she never want to do anything which was harmful for them. So it

was very easy to keep her away from the world of knowledge by the introduction of such

kind of demeaning superstitions.317

Nothing but evil and danger were supposed to be the

only outcome of the revolution of women‘s education as it was assumed to girls to be more

conceited and unmanageable.318

Christian missionaries, in response, picked education as the mightiest lever for

overturning low, contemptuous and tyrannical ideas and customs concerning women in the

315

Ali-ud- Din Mufti, Ibratnama, 353. Cited in Bhagat Singh, ‗Condition of Women in the Punjab in the Early

Nineteenth Century‘, The Punjab Past And Present, XV: II (October, 1981): 354. 316

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 336. 317

Ibid. 318

Ibid.

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society. Considering education as the most powerful force for social change, the missionaries

decided to promote women‘s education as the only remedy for the depressed condition of the

women. To them, it was the quickest method of elevating the home life of the Eastern

society.319

At the same time, these norms and customs were the major stumbling blocks in

the way of spreading women‘s education in the province. So any kind of improvement in the

one was supposed to have its proportional implications on the other and vice versa. So the

missionaries wanted to establish maximum number of missionary schools in the province

with a view to restructure the Oriental society. Consequently, in spite of the sensitivity of the

issue, the missionaries took up the cudgels and set their efforts for the education of the

female folk of the Punjab. In addition, Christian missionaries had some other objectives

behind their pursuit for women education.

3.2 Christian Missionaries’ Objectives behind Women Education

As stated in chapter 1, the missionaries came to India chiefly for the fulfilment of

their theological obligations. During the first half of the nineteenth century, a large number

of missionaries sailed towards the subcontinent due to the sped up efforts of Europe and

America to evangelize the ‗pagan world‘.320

The Charter Act of 1813 opened India to the

Missionary societies and the period of next fifty years was one of the greatest Missionary

activities in all parts of the Company‘s dominion.321

Moreover, the ‗mission fervour‘ in

Europe, during 1850s and 1860s, also prompted the missionaries to leave their homes for the

fulfilment of their religious obligation.

319

Helen Barrett Montgomery, Western Women in Eastern Lands (New York: Macmillan, 1910), 105-106. 320

Iftikhar Haider Malik, ‗The American Missionaries in South Asia, 1812-1870‘, 21. 321

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education In India (1800-1947), 95.

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Women education, as stated above, was a sensitive area to work in the oriental social

settings but the missionaries opted for this field. They had some particular objectives behind

their entrance in this sensitive field which can be termed as follows:

3.2.1 Importance of Women in the Society

Christian missionaries, after working in the oriental society, came to the conclusion

that their ultimate goal of converting the Indian population to the World of Christianity could

not be achieved without winning the female folk of the subcontinent. Their experiences led

them to know the extent of power and authority of the Punjabi woman over her family—

acting as a mother, a wife, a sister, or a daughter. Especially, her supreme role, as a mother,

in moulding the moral and religious character of her young ones was quite critical for the

missionaries. 322

Having such an authority in the decision making process of a family,

women were supposed to play a key role in taking the all important decision of embracing a

new religion. So the Christian missionaries came to the conclusion that conversion of the

male population, in the oriental setting, was not possible without winning the female

members of the society. The evidence of a young high-cast Hindu, who had professed faith in

Christ but refused to convert for the fear of offending his wife and mother,323

was a typical

example of women‘s dominance in the decision making process. This kind of experiences

played an important role in developing this kind of thinking in the missionary ranks. Sir W.

322

Andrew Gordon, D.D., Our India Mission, A Thirty Years History of the India Mission of the United

Presbyterian Church of North America, 1855-1885, (Philadelphia: np. 1886), 471-472. 323

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U. S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 40.

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Mackworth Young, addressing a great gathering of Oxford men, briefly stated his views in

the same vein by saying ―…..Win the women of India, and you will win the men!‖324

This realization of the social influence of the female sect of the oriental society led

the missionaries to broaden their focus to the female portion of the society. C.B. Newton

expressed his views in the following words:

The incidents….show that the women of India are a power in the land, and their faith

and religious zeal are today one of the most serious obstacles to the success of the

Gospel……My conclusion then is that the work which demands the most earnest,

persistent and prayerful effort of the Church and Mission Board is Woman‘s work for

woman.325

The realization of importance of women, in a family, led the missionaries to initiate

Christian vernacular education for the female portion of the society as well. To them the

seclusion of women kept them in a state of ignorance and perpetuated their superstitions. Due

to the strict social bindings they could not go out to hear gospel nor could the missionaries

carry it to their homes. Being unable to read, they could not learn the glad tidings of Saviour

through Bible and tracts. The missionaries thought their (women‘s) isolation together with

ignorance as the most effectual barrier between them and the light.326

Girls‘ missionary

schools were established with a view to teach the women to read the Bible and bring them

into contact with Christian influence in the school and through the school to introduce to the

Zenana the living Christian worker with her Bible.327

324

Eugene Stock, The History of the Church Missionary Society, IV, 145. 325

C.B. Newton, ‗Hindu Women and Woman‘s Work for Woman‘, Woman‟s Work for Woman, 8:4 (1893): 98. 326

Andrew Gordon, D.D., Our India Mission, A Thirty Years History of the India Mission of the United

Presbyterian Church of North America, 1855-1885, 471. 327

Ibid., 472.

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3.2.2 Cultural change

Historians of American missionaries‘ activities in Asia have often characterized

missionaries as agents of profound changes in the Oriental traditional culture, due to their

major stress on the cultural change in this region. Christian missionaries were profoundly

disturbed by significant aspects of Indian culture and approached Indian society with a

distinctly reformist intent.328

Social customs and conventions of Oriental society, to them,

were the major stumbling blocks in the way of women‘s education and of conversion of the

Indian people. They, time and again, complained that the institutions of cast, purdah, child

marriage, etc, had made their work almost impossible. To them, the stubborn attachment, of

the natives, to illogical and irrational superstitions was also an insuperable barrier to the

cause of conversion.329

So, they decided to fight against these native institutions through their

educational institutions. They decided to establish educational institutions with a view to

incorporate cultural change in the Punjabi society.

Christian missionaries fancied a positive cultural change through the diffusion of

Western knowledge of science and the growth of the power of reasoning in their students.

Their institutions developed their distinct ethos, based on Western, Christian ideals330

and

aimed at fostering common characteristics in the lifestyle of their students. They focused to

develop a change in the behaviour of their students which was expected to challenge the

existing social customs and conventions. It was intended to provide an atmosphere, to the

female students, where they can live free of any social restrictions. The native institutions of

328

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U. S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 36. 329

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 30.

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 61.

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caste and purdah were the major victims of missionaries‘ cultural assault.331

To them, this

change in the thought and mind of the native people was necessary to win over their souls for

the word of God.

3.2.3 Praeparatio Evangelica

Education as a Praeparatio evangelica332

was exemplified by Duff and Miller

and it became the majority view in the missionary circles during the nineteenth century.333

The missionaries took their schools as the converting agencies and education was considered

necessary to prepare the native mind for the achievement of the ultimate goal of conversion.

In the words of E.S. Summer, ―these colleges are leavening society with Christian thought

and developing Christian feeling, and so preparing for a great harvest of conversions in the

future‘. This aim of Christian education was considered the most successful and therefore,

from about 1830s onwards, many of the missionaries came up with the provision of

education as one of their major tasks.334

The missionaries thought that the general clearing away of ignorance, folly and

superstition, by the means of education, would ultimately pave the way for the Christ‘s

spirit.335

The Missionaries decided to proceed by stages and the modification in the irrational

and illogical thinking of the people, by the power of reasoning, became their first priority in

their way for the conversion of the native population. Spread of western education among the

331

Many of the behavioural standards, at Kinnaird College, were found opposite to the concept of purdah and

that of cast in Ibid., 61-64. 332

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the missionaries considered it necessary to educate the young

to prepare their minds for the later receptiveness to the word of God and the term ‗ praeparatio evangelica‟ was

used to denote this notion. Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and

Education in Colonial India‘, 31. 333

Steve Bishop ‗Protestant Missionary Education in British India‘, 256-257. 334

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 31. 335

Ibid.

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people of India was the ultimate choice of the Christian missionaries to achieve their

aforesaid objective. They were fully convinced that education of the people would prepare

their minds for the later receptiveness to the word of God. Missionaries‘ education was to

seek ‗a change of thought and feeling, a modification of character and formation of principles

tending in Christian direction‘.336

Women education in the Punjab was also started as praeparatio evangelica. The

logical and analytical nourishment of native female mind was considered necessary first for

the rejection of prevalent socio-religious norms and customs and ultimately for the

embracement of the Christian religion. The removal of the barrier of Purdah was also

considered necessary for the extension of Christian influence in the Zenanas of the society

and missionary educational institutions were the best means to achieve this target. So the

preparatory character of education was more important for Women than that for the Punjabi

men. For the missionaries, education continued to be praeparatio evangelica and they were

fully convinced that the introduction of Western education in India would ultimately pave the

way for the triumph of Christianity, in this region of the subcontinent.337

3.2.4 Education: A Means of Social interaction

Although the missionaries entered in the subcontinent mainly due to their religious

obligations and conversion of the native population was their one and only goal yet the

education of women sprang up as the by product of their evangelizing agenda. As, the

fulfilment of their religious agenda required the development of some social interaction with

336

A. Mathew, Christian Missions, Education and Nationalism, (Delhi: Anamika Prakashan, 1988), 56, cited in

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial India‘,

31. 337

Sanjay Seth, ‗which Good Book? Missionary Education and Conversion in Colonial India‘, 120-124.

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the targeted population and the missionaries tried to establish a social link, with the native

population of the Punjab, through their social service programmes—by providing educational

and health services.338

The depressed condition of Punjabi women, especially their pathetic

educational condition, provided them the desired launching pad for social service

programmes. They dreamt to influence the kitchen as well as the kith and kin of the natives,

through their work for women‘s education.

Christian missionaries started to pinpoint some weak links of the Punjabi society

through which they might act to form some influential link with the female sect of the

society. . The subservient social status of women and the socio-religious norms and customs

governing women, provided them the required weak spot and they decided to enter the social

arena of the Punjabi society through their social work for the emancipation of women from

these restrictions. So they set their efforts in the said direction and dreamt of some

considerable influence over the society through their social work in the field of women

education.

338

Andrew Gordon shared a practical experience when they rented a building with a view to establish a girls‘

school in it but the citizens were agreed only if the Bible teaching should be excluded from the studies. The

missionaries modified their plan and opened a Zenana hospital in this building. The hospital became popular

soon and the patients started to come from the city and the surrounding villages. The people who were

previously in demand of excluding Bible from the school, now voluntarily attended the devotional exercises and

the proceedings of Sabbath-school. This mode of social service helped the missionaries in establishing a social

link with the native population and opened the doors for the missionaries. Rev. Andrew Gordon described it in

the words, ―these patients, from city and village, rich and poor, and whether living in seclusion or otherwise,

after the kind treatment they had received, were found ever ready to open their doors to those who had relieved

their bodily ailments, now when they came to visit them with Bible in hand. Among the Zenanas opened by this

means were some in regard to which other methods had long been tried in vain—even men noted for their

public opposition to the gospel, on seeing their suffering wives and daughters relieved of their painful and

dangerous maladies, gratefully welcoming to their Zenanas the missionary, their benefactress, with her Bible.‖

Andrew Gordon, D.D., Our India Mission, A Thirty Years History of the India Mission of the United

Presbyterian Church of North America, 1855-1885, 479-480.

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3.3 Zenana Missions in the Field

The female missionaries, during the first half of the nineteenth century, were not a

universally accepted group for missionary labours. Mary Ann Cooke, a thirty seven years old

former governess, was the first single female missionary in India. Her innovative step, of

participating in missionary work abroad, was an uncommon practice and was difficult to

pursue in the contemporary societies of both India and England. That is why, during 1820s

and 1830s, a scant handful of British women, mostly missionaries‘ wives, were found to be

involved in the missionary work in Indian. The Presbyterian Church of American also

followed and its Committee sent a young lady to Indian mission field in 1834. Although this

effort did not work for them and the lady was unable to proceed beyond Calcutta, due to the

discouraging circumstances of the field, 339

yet it was taken as a modest beginning in this

direction.

In spite of the discouragement situation of the field, for lady missionaries, the picture

changed dramatically in the second half of the nineteenth century. In fact it was nearly

impossible, at least in the Indian society, to achieve the missionary objectives without the

involvement of female missionaries. As, the male missionaries were denied the access of

native female population which meant about half of the population remained out of their

influence. The access of the female population was also important due to women‘s

fundamental influence within an oriental family. So the requirement of female missionaries

was felt badly and the missionaries, in response, decided to act through their female

counterparts. As a corollary, the largest missionary societies like the Society for the

339

John Newton, Historical Sketch of the Lodiana Mission, from Its Beginning, in 1834, to the Time of Its Fifth

Anniversary, in 1884, 31.

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Propagation of the Gospel, the Church Missionary Society, the London Missionary Society,

and the like established ladies auxiliary committees to recruit female missionaries, during

1851 and 1880s.340

Most of the missionaries, involved in the field of female education in the Punjab were

the female missionaries. Women missionaries, by 1930, comprised two third of the total

missionary strength in the Punjab. About 312 evangelical ladies were sent, by the SPG, to

work in the important cities of Lahore and Delhi during 1860 and 1947.341

This numeric

dominance of women missionaries over their male counterparts was the apparent outcome of

the frequent influx of a large number of women missionaries, during 1860 and 1890, not only

in the area of the Punjab but the whole Indian peninsula. This period of three decades—

between 1860 and 1890— is termed as ‗the full flowering of women‘s missions in India‘.342

It was in this period that the women missionaries emerged as a necessary organ of Christian

missions in India. The emergence of ladies in the field of missionary labours enhanced the

quality of missionary work and their presence in the field became established and took an

institutional structure. Their relationship was defined in the Punjabi socio-religious context

and was legitimized by ideologies that specified a female role in an attempt to educate and

convert the female population of the province. The missionary ladies served as college

teachers, heads of schools, and as doctors in the expanding number of medical schools. Their

efforts in the field of education are vital in the region of the Punjab.

340

Jeffrey Cox, The British Missionary Enterprise Since 1700 (New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group,

2008), 190. 341

Ibid.,188. 342

Eliza Kent, Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India, 92.

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3.4 Missionaries’ Modes of Action

Christian missionaries adopted different modes of action in the field of women

education. At the first place they, mostly, acted through the female missionaries, popularly

known as Zenana missions. They established separate girls‘ school for the female multitude

to lessen the apprehensions of Purdah in the society. Boarding schools were established to

affect the Christian lifestyle in the lives of the boarders. Observing the scarcity of the female

trained teaching staff in the separate girls‘ schools, they established female teachers‘ training

schools at different missionary stations in the province. . Furthermore they adopted the

strategy of Zenana visiting to access the women who could not be accessed at any other place

in the society. Here is a summary of their all round educational work done in the field of

women‘s education. The female missionaries used the following modes to achieve their

desired objectives.

3.4.1 Zenana Visiting

The activity that occupied most of the women missionaries was the ‗Zenana visiting‘.

The constraints of oriental social and family life prevented foreign men from easily

interacting with its women therefore women missionaries‘ access to the oriental ladies was

considered easier than that of their male counterparts. Moreover, most of the missionaries

believed that the women and the girls of the Punjabi society could not attend the schools due

to their largely dependent and domestic roles.343

Consequently, the missionaries established a

regular system of visiting in which the women missionaries, accompanied by the trained

343

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 47.

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native women, visited the secluded women at home. The women missionaries were supposed

to effect religious as well as social change, through this mode of instruction.344

The female missionaries responded positively and contribute significant efforts for

the betterment of the women of the Punjab. The missionary ladies devoted their lives for the

cause of female education through the mode of home-teaching in the native families, who

received them willingly.345

Their education was confined to the female members of the

family and, in addition to the diffusion of basic Christian teaching, it was extended to secular

subjects. As the missionaries were convinced that secular education, consisted of the

sharpening of the intellectual nature produced by exercising the mind in the ordinary subjects

of education, was necessary part of their preparation for their religious work.346

The general

clearing away of ignorance, folly and superstitions through the means of education were

considered to pave the way for Christ‘s spirit and they acknowledged secular education as

their ally in their pursuit of spreading the gospel in the oriental society.347

These Zenana visiting groups were composed of one or more European ladies, with

the trained staff of Native Christians or Anglo-Indian young women, who taught in the

Zenanas allotted to them.348

Thirty European ladies, during the third quarter of the nineteenth

century, were reported to be involved in carrying on the female education in the Punjab. 349

These ladies and their assistants offered a mixture of religious and secular education in

hundreds of houses to Native gentlemen‘s wives and daughters, who being purdah-nishin

344

Ibid. 345

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 535. 346

Ibid. 347

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 31. 348

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 535. 349

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 61.

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(secluded), could not attend the schools.350

Delhi, Ludhiana and Amritsar were the major

centres for this kind of instruction. The S.P.G Mission was receiving a grant in aid from the

Government for its Zenana teaching in Delhi and its neighbouring towns. American

Presbyterian mission and Christian Missionary Society were involved in this kind of teaching

in Ludhiana. Eight European ladies, assisted by seventeen female Christian teachers and

eight Muhammadans and Sikhs, were doing their educational work through nine schools and

130 families were visited in 1882.351

In spite of the involvement of a gigantic physical as well as mental effort, on the part

of the teacher, the pace of education in this mode of instruction was very slow and very

limited content of the course was likely to be covered, in the due course of time. In addition

to the interruption in the lessons, the Zenana mode of instruction was difficult to execute due

to the irresponsible behaviour of pupils. No serious efforts were mostly done on the part of

the pupils and they did not take much pain to improve themselves in the intervals between

the visits of their teachers.352

Furthermore, the continuity was also disrupted due to the

women‘s frequent visits back and forth between natal and in-laws‘ houses.353

All these

factors posed the serious challenges to the architects of Zenana visiting programme and the

missionaries involved in it found it discouraging and frustrating. They were mostly found

complaining as:

this is not an uncommon experience, to have one‘s heart all glow with zeal, to have

the message to carry for that morning clearly grasped, and then only to find one sick,

350

Ibid. 351

Ibid. 352

Ibid., 61-62. 353

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 47.

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another absent from home, a third perfectly heedless, a forth looking blankly as if she

did not comprehend a single word, a fifth asking, ‗what is that cut on your hand?354

No doubt, the missionaries involved in this kind of instruction, mostly, derived their

funds from the missionary societies in Europe and America. Yet they also received grants

from the education department, as S. P. G. Mission received grant-in-aid from Government

for Zenana teaching in Delhi and some of the neighbouring towns.355

But the uncertain

behaviour of the officials, most of the times, created difficulties for the missionaries and

other organizations working for the cause of women‘s education. Having regards for the

Zenana educational enterprise,

Despite the all aforesaid difficulties, the missionaries generally preferred this type of

instruction to schools356

because this mode of instruction provided them direct interaction

with the little girls as well as with the adult female members of the family. This woman-to-

woman work was vital in terms of reaching the influential ladies of the society to create

awareness among the native families about the education of their daughters. The zealous

ladies engaged in this work achieved a lot by the tact of courtesy and wise moderation.357

These women missionaries affected a huge academic as well as social impact on the Oriental

society. Contemporary scholars, in their assessments about the impact of women

missionaries in India and the rest of Asia, recognize their contribution and tended to

characterize missionaries as change-agents.358

They are considered important because of their

contribution in changing women‘s status with their emphasis on education as well as their

354

Susan R. Janvier, ‗Inside the Zenanas of Allahabad‘, Woman‟s Work for Woman, 13: 8 (1898), 216. 355

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 61. 356

Ibid., 62. 357

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission , 1882-83, 535. 358

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 36.

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demonstration of active care and concern for women which spurred Indian social reformers

to act.359

The missionary women stressed the degraded position of the Indian women and

contrasted it to the exalted position of American women. The customs of early marriage and

treatment of widow received special attention of these ladies and they often used strong

negative imagery to characterize the lives of the oriental girls.360

Troubled by the

interruption caused by early marriage, they lamented that ‗cruel custom‘ forced the girls to

soon leave their schools to be married. By the same token they were much disturbed by the

Hindu ban on widow remarriage and made serious efforts to rescue widows, by making them

economically self-sufficient.361

Critical of the early seclusion of the women and their

consequent lack of access to education, the missionary women pressed for the education of

women and the girls among both the Hindus and the Muslim communities. They took

considerable pleasure in arousing in educational interest among the women of the oriental

society.362

3.4.2 The European Training School Delhi

The European Training School Delhi was maintained by the SPG mission, with a view to supply

competent and trained teachers for Zenana work. During 1878-79, 3 girls were passed out of the

school. The Inspector of schools examined and found them competent in all subjects. They were

afterwards employed in the schools of the Society for the propagation of the Gospel mission.363

The

total expenditure was Rs. 994 and the Government grant Rs. 360. The performance of the school,

359

Glendora B. Paul, ‗Presbyterian Missionaries and the Women of India during the Nineteenth Century‘,

Journal of Presbyterian History, 62: 3 (1984): 233-234. 360

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 40. 361

Ibid. 362

Ibid., 41. 363Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1878-79, 71-72.

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during the subsequent year, was termed below merit. the inspector gives the following expression

regarding the performance of the school:

There was this year one candidate only for a certificate, and she was found to be so backward

in Arithmetic that she could not be allowed to pass. The inspector was of the opinion that the

manager was not sufficiently careful in insisting upon a fair education in the case of all

applicants for admission to the school.364

It is a noteworthy fact that in spite of missionaries‘ desire to control the educational

domain of the Punjab, they never came in the position, in terms of number of missionary

schools and number of students, to do this uphill task. No doubt they were working whole

heartedly to extend their network but the network of their schools remained too short to fulfil

their long lasting desire. Although missionary schools for girls made a progressive increase

during this period yet they, by the end of the period, remained a meagre part of the total

female educational enterprise in the Punjab. Moreover the missionary schools were located

mostly in the towns of the province and almost the whole rural side of the province was

neglected by the missionaries.

3.4.3 Foundation of Missionary Girls’ Schools

The American Presbyterian Missionaries, after establishing their base at Ludhiana,

laid the foundation of female education by opening a girls‘ orphanage at Ludhiana in 1836.365

The Church Missionary Society followed the suit by establishing a girls‘ school at Kotgurrh

in 1844.366

The wives of the missionaries involved themselves in imparting education at these

schools. But these kinds of schools did not come off with success because of the lack of

interest of the native population. Female education, generally, found no favour with any of

364Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1879-80, 77-78

365

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1864-65, XLIII. 366

Ibid.

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the religious communities of the province. The Missionaries founded schools at different

places but the number of students in these schools was alarmingly low. Only a small number

of girls from the lower rung of the social ladder were drawn to these schools through the

payment of pice, payment of clothes or both. In addition to the peoples‘ discouraging attitude

EIC‘s attitude towards the missionaries‘ activities, due to its strict policy of religious

neutrality, was also upsetting. The Court of Directors forbade ‗grants of money in aid of

education carried on in schools established and conducted by Christian Missionaries‘.367

But

this discouraging situation did not last for long in the province of Punjab and its annexation

to the British dominion brought about a positive change for the missionaries. it brought a

supportive administration at the missionaries‘ back. Moreover the Wood‘s Education

Despatch‘, in 1854, suggested the initiation of ‗grants in aid‘ scheme for the private

educational agencies, including the missionaries. The government started granting subsidies

through this scheme and the Christian missionaries became the major beneficiaries by

receiving a lion‘s share of these subsidies.368

The incident of War of Independence damaged

the missionaries‘ progress badly and a considerable time was spent for the repair work after

the restoration of the peace.

The missionaries started their fresh efforts after the rise of Robert Montgomery to the

status of Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, in 1859. Their efforts took impetus in the early

1860s when the Lieutenant Governor held a grand educational Durbar at Lahore in February

1862. He impressed upon the European officials and the native gentlemen present there the

367

Ikram-ul-haq, ‗The Punjab, 1849-83: Educational Activity‘, 3. 368

Vickie Langohr, ‗Colonial Education System and the Spread of Local Religious Movements: The Cases of

British Egypt and Punjab‘, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 47: 1, (2005): 15-16.

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importance of women‘s education and invited their cooperation.369

The appeal of the

Lieutenant Governor had magical effect on the audience and the gentlemen present there

from all the three religious communities of the province—Hindu, Sikh and the Muslim—

started working in the said direction. So the public opinion was shaped in the favour of

female education and the girls‘ schools started to mushroom throughout the province.

Christian missionaries also responded positively and decided to recollect their efforts

in the important field of women education. The atmosphere, conducive for women education,

also drew the female missionaries in the field. The missionary ladies started not only to

administer schools for the girls of lower classes but also to enter the Zenanas to teach women

and girls of the nobility, who would never venture to appear in the public.370

So the

missionary schools started to multiply in the length and breadth of the province. By 1860

there were only two missionary schools for the native girls in the province of the Punjab but

a progressive increase in the number of missionary girls‘ schools was observed in the

subsequent years. By 1864-65, the number of these schools rose to 8 with 262 students on the

roll.371

The next decade witnessed a reasonable increase in the number of missionaries‘

schools and the number of girls‘ schools, under the missionaries‘ management, was raised to

36 in 1871. The returns illustrates the further numeric increase in these schools and the

number of missionary schools stood at 56 in 1876 and at 62 in the year 1878-79.372

It is a

noteworthy fact that at that time 170 private and 113 government schools were existent in the

province but the performance of only missionary schools was satisfactory and they were

369

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 10. 370

John Newton, Historical Sketch of the Lodiana Mission, from Its Beginning, in 1834, to the Time of Its Fifth

Anniversary, in 1884, 32-33. 371

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1865-66, XXXV. 372

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 68.

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rated as first-class institutions.373

The missionaries‘ schools generally were of two types—

local day schools for young girls and boarding schools, mainly for the Christian girls.

a) Day Schools

Day schools were, generally were supervised by the missionary women. Mostly, these

schools started with 20 to 25 students, all under the age of ten. Christian women, having

mission based teachers‘ training, were generally appointed as teachers in these schools.

‗Callers‘ were also considered a necessary part of a girls‘ school. These were the widows

from the native community hired to go daily to the families in their respective areas and

gather girls into the school. In fact, it was thought improper for a native girl, above eight

years of age, to go unaccompanied outside of her home. It was a major hurdle in the progress

of girls‘ schools because the girls, above the age of eight, were unable to attend the schools

due to this social barrier. Christian missionaries hired the begging widows to cope with the

situation. Generally a widow was attached to a school who begged of the parents as a

personal favour to allow their daughter to accompany her a few hours daily to a school

opened in the neighbourhood. She ensured her responsibility for the girls during their

absence from home. For this service each widow was paid at least as much as she could

expect from her charity. 374

These schools were established, under the supervision of different missionary

societies, in almost all the important cities of the province. Presbyterian missionary society of

America, Scotland mission, SPG mission, Baptist missionary society, and Church missionary

373

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 83. 374

Andrew Gordon, our India Mission, Thirty Years History of the India Mission of the United Presbyterian

Church of North America together with Personal Reminiscences, 472-73.

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society were the missionary organizations involved in the educational work in the province

of the Punjab. All these societies opened girls‘ school at their respective areas. American

Presbyterians had girls‘ schools at Ludhiana, Rawalpindi, and Lahore, CMS at Amritsar,

Peshawar and Multan, SPG at Delhi, Baptists also at Delhi, and Scotland mission at Sialkot

and Gujranwala District.

It is a considerable fact that the missionaries‘ aim of women education was different

from that of the education of men. The missionaries did not want to impart a bulk of secular

knowledge to their female students rather they wanted to make them only able to read and

write with a view to enable them read the Bible and exert some Christian influence through

the missionary schools.375

Girls‘ schools were mainly designed to bring the gospel to the

native women, both directly in the schools themselves, and indirectly by opening up and

preparing the way for Zenana work.376

So the instruction, at these schools, was of very basic

level and the students were taught in their respective native languages. English was not

taught even as a subject, in these schools. With a slight variation at different stations, the

curricula usually comprised the Bible, the Presbyterian catechism, graded readers, simple

arithmetic, and handwork.377

These schools had very little contribution, in terms of the academic development of

the students. In spite of offering the incentives and prizes to encourage the students‘

attendance,378

the missionaries were facing difficulties to make any significant academic

contribution, through these institutions. The girls left schools for marriage, usually at the age

375

Ibid., 472. 376

Ibid., 470. 377

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 46. 378

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 60.

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of ten, which made it difficult for the missionaries to progress much beyond the graded

readers and the four simple arithmetic operations.379

Moreover the day schools were also

failed to change the lifestyle of the students. The education provided here was so basic and so

minimal that it scarcely provided any significant lifestyle changes.380

In spite of all the above said demerits of these schools, their importance cannot be

neglected. These schools were mostly staffed with the native female teachers which created

material interest in the education of women.381

The employment opportunities created in

these schools were considered to tempt the native community to educate and train their

females as teachers. The native teachers of the day schools also provided the models of

educated women for previously illiterate women, in a society that actively devalued

education for the women.382

The day schools were supposed to play an important role in

providing the missionaries‘ access to the isolated female multitude of the society. B.D.

Wyckoff in his writing to the Secretary Board of Foreign Missions characterized these

schools as follows:

The importance of these schools can hardly be overestimated when we remember that

they open the way for religious instruction and for admission to the Zenana. I believe

every house in the city open to visitation to the lady missionary has been opened by

means of these schools.383

The missionaries considered these schools to be a fitting means to achieve their

desired objectives. Importance of these schools can be seen from the fact that during the later

part of the nineteenth century each missionary station had five to ten day schools. These

379

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 46. 380

Ibid. 381

Ibid. 382

Ibid. 383

Board of Foreign Missions microfilm records, vol. 12, cc. Futtehgurh April 17, 1873, cited in Ibid., 45.

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schools were vital in bringing the school-age girls under their influence and also in accessing

the secluded women of the society.

b) Boarding schools

Boarding schools were the major tools, in the hands of the missionaries, to affect their

desired academic as well as cultural changes in the society. These schools, headed by women

missionaries and, mostly, staffed by the native Christians, had a considerable potential for

effecting significant changes in women‘s lifestyle.384

The children of the converts, in the

boarding schools for Christian girls, were given Christian education in an atmosphere totally

different from that of the conventional Punjabi society.385

The missionaries were able to

introduce new values and model attainable roles, through these schools staffed by

independent minded women.386

The boarding schools, in this way, provided a highly

conducive atmosphere in which the students were encouraged to break the shackles of the

society.

The boarding schools mostly formed a ladder of educational opportunities, with the

ablest often progressing from one rung to the next.387

. These boarding schools, collectively,

provided education from basic to the secondary level with Biblical instruction to the girls of

urban as well as far off rural areas,388

who generally did not find these facilities near to their

homes. In addition to the formal education, these institutions also had their focus on the

character moulding process. The women missionaries, through this process, strove to

384

Ibid, 48. 385

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in South Asia, 44. 386

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 36. 387

Ibid., 49. 388

Ibid.

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formulate the desired changes in girls‘ behaviour and values, through their close contact with

the resident students in communal living arrangements. Due to the high rate of success in this

kind of schools, the missionaries established boarding schools in the major cities, like

Lahore, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Sialkot, and Deyra, of the Punjab.389

The following table

illustrates the contribution of Christian missionary schools in the education system by

showing the number of students in the missionary schools and those in the non-missionary

schools.

389

John Newton, Historical Sketches of the Indian Missions of the Presbyterian church in the United States of

America, 64.

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Table 3.1: Numeric contribution of missionary schools

Data extracted from the Reports on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Years

1864-65 to 1878-79.

Year Missionary schools Government

schools

Total Aided

institutions

percentage of

missionary schools’ students

No. of

Schools

No. of

scholars

No. of

Schools

No. of

scholars

No. of

Schools

No. of

scholars

1864-65 8 262 272 5530 411 9715 1.718596

1865-66 8 277 333 6834 696 12727 1.416083

1866-67 13 360 296 6498 651 14243 1.735693

1867-68 18 512 272 5653 507 9838 3.305145

1868-69 25 629 206 4448 516 13010 3.602933

1869-70 20 637 164 3496 433 9712 4.822835

1870-71 20 624 138 3174 327 8645 5.279634

1871-72 21 582 125 2984 314 8095 5.253182

1872-73 21 589 91 2303 226 6061 7.042085

1873-74 23 736 101 2599 223 6444 8.138892

1874-75 25 843 128 3318 218 6262 8.799582

1875-76 27 1184 130 3374 213 6644 11.81873

1876-77 34 1223 134 3269 223 6576 12.42255

1877-78 50 1742 134 3270 224 7022 16.92577

1878-79 62 1869 113 3043 232 6854 18.88451

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3.4.4 Foundation of Teacher Training Schools

The provision of insufficient number of trained female teachers in the girls‘ schools

was considered as the major hurdle in the spread of female education in the Punjab. The

phenomenon of separate girls‘ schools was very much new in the province and its success

was mainly dependant on the provision of sufficient trained female teaching staff for these

schools. But finding trained female staff for these schools looked to be a Herculean task in

the existing educational and social setting of the province. At the same time the Government

was lacking in spirit and in her efforts required to cope with the problem. As she was not

interested in establishing any training institutions for women and the required enterprise was

left, mostly, to the private bodies.390

The first Normal school for the native mistresses was established by SPG mission, at

Delhi, on 1st October, 1863. The native community followed the suit and established, with

the active support of Raja of Kuppoorthullah and that of the existing provincial

Government—Rs. 100 from each— two more Normal schools at the important cities of

Lahore and Amritsar, in 1865.391

A female Normal School was opened at Sialkot in 1869,

under the management of the Deputy Commissioner.392

Another female Normal school was

opened at Jalandhar, in 1870, under the management of Indian Female Normal Schools and

Instruction Society.393

In spite of establishing all these training institutions in a quick

succession, the performance of these institutions, in terms of number of female teachers

inducted in the system through these institutions, was a big question mark on their

establishment. The following graph shows the number of girls trained in these schools and 390

H.R. Mehta, A History of the Growth and Development of Western Education in the Punjab, 77. 391

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1865-66, 21. 392

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1868-69, 137. 393

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1872-73, 36.

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the number of these trained females inducted in the system, since the establishment of

institutions to 31st march 1873.

By 1879-80, at the end of the period under consideration, there were only four Normal

schools for the native girls, with 244 scholars, in the Punjab. In each case an English lady

superintends the school but none of these answer the purpose for which it was intended. The

performance of all these schools was not up to the mark and the Inspectors of the respective

schools were not satisfied by the performance of any of these schools.394

The Lieutenant

Governor observed that ―Female Normal Schools are no more than middle class girls

schools....they were only maintained by Government scholarships, which the students

seemed to consider as a provision for life.‖395

Out of these four, the contribution of

missionaries was one, under the management of SPG mission, Delhi. Its performance was

comparatively better than the others in the province. Here is a brief history of this school

from its establishment to the end of this period:

a) SPG Mission Normal School, Delhi

The Female Normal school at Delhi was part of the great work carried on there by the

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel mission. This all important institution for the

training of female teachers was established on 1st October 1863.

396 Mr. H.W.P. Hutton, the

then inspector of Schools, had very positive views about the future of the school and was

hopeful of getting some good trained female teachers from the school in the near future.397

Not to the disappointment of its managers, several of the trained teachers of the school, by

394

Reports on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Years, 1876-1880, 395

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884. 25. 396

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1872-73, 36. 397

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1863-64, 34.

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1866-67, were found to be performing their duties as school mistresses in the neighbouring

areas of the school.398 The school comprised two separate departments providing separate

educational facilities for the Hindu and the Muslim girls. The course of studies included the

reading and writing skill of Hindi for Hindu girls and that of Urdu for the Muslim girls. The

study of geography, history of India and the elementary rules of Arithmetic and their

application were also included in the course of studies for a trainee. Women of both the

religious communities were found to be well acquainted with Geography and the elementary

rules of Arithmetic. They also knew something about the history of India. The Hindu women

were able to read and write in Hindi and those from the Muslim sect were well aware of

reading and writing in Urdu. The Muslim women belonged to the prominent families of

Delhi. They were termed as more intelligent than those of the Hindu section of the school.

The Arabic and Persian pronunciation of the Muslim women was termed as perfect to the

expectations. The Hindu women also belonged to the good caste. 399

Although the school may be considered to have answered its purpose sufficiently yet,

by 1872-73, less than a third of the women trained during the last ten years were employed as

teachers.400

The women at the S.P.G. Mission School were reported to be either too young or

too old. The work of teaching could not be done, earnestly, in both of these cases. Especially

the older candidates were not expected to attain any degree of proficiency throughout their

career. The inspector of schools, time and again, complained about the lower standard of

instruction and also about the higher ages of the pupils in the school. Consequently, the

Muslim section of the school was reorganised in 1875-76 and the elderly girls were

398

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1863-64, 24. 399

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1866-67, 47. 400

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1872-73, 37.

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dismissed and succeeded by the more advanced girls from the SPG schools. The new setup

also extended the course of studies for three years and it went up to that of the 4th

class.401

The Hindu section of the schools also needed reorganisation but was not incorporated.

The change did not work in terms of quality of education and the inspectors of the schools

continued to report negatively about the school in the subsequent years. The inspector of

schools, Ambala Circle expressed his views about the school in the following words:

The school is no more than a primary school. I am surprised that so enterprising a

body as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel can shew but such excessively

meagre results for the large sum of money expended. The expenditure amounted to

Rs. 3812 of which Rs. 1800 were paid by Government.402

The next year the report of the inspector contained the following expressions:

That it does not succeed in turning out competent teachers; though, it must be

allowed, that the difficulties to contend with, are many and great. The women in

Muhammadan department are very much below the standard that should be required

for teachers of even the most elementary schools. Those in Hindu department could

read and write well, and knew something of the map of Asia but were very backward

in Arithmetic and could scarcely work easy sums in the simple rules.403

So at the end of the period under consideration the SPG Mission Normal School, Delhi, was

not in best of its performance but it was better than the others present in the field. The school

was felt to be in dire need of some reformatory measures which resulted into the merger of

the two separate departments for Hindu and the Muslim girls in the subsequent years.

Fostering of female education system in the province is largely indebted to the

Christian missionaries‘ untiring efforts in this field. It is the harvest of their long lasting

struggle of restructuring the Punjabi society with a view to emancipate women from the

401

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1876-77, 74. 402 Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1878-79, 71-72. 403

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1879-80, 78.

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prevalent socio-religious norms and customs. That is why the Historians of Missionaries‘

activities in Asia have often characterized missionaries as agents of profound changes in the

traditional cultures of Asia.404

Christian missionaries, in their efforts to foster women

education in the province, were fairly backed by the existing British administration of the

time. With the active financial and administrative support of the top officials of the British

government, they, by 1880, were able to establish a base for the formal female education

system in the province. As, Primary education for the women of the Punjab was fashioned

during this period which ultimately paved the way for the development of secondary

education for women in the subsequent years. Although the missionaries entered in the

subcontinent mainly due to their religious obligations and conversion of the native people

was their one and only goal yet the education of women sprang up as the by product of their

evangelizing agenda. As, it is an observable fact that the missionaries are always in search of

some weaker aspect of the targeted society, to launch their social programme and the

miserable social conditions of women in the Punjabi society provided them the desired

launching pad for their social service programme. Considering education as the most

powerful force for social change, the missionaries promoted women‘s education as the

remedy for the depressed conditions of the women in society. But the fulfilment of their

religious agenda needed some entrée points in the social arena to establish social interaction

with the natives and this was mostly done through the means of social service—by providing

educational and health services. In the Punjab, the depressed conditions of Punjabi women,

especially, their pathetic educational condition provided them the desired room for social

404

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 35.

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work. They dreamt to influence the kitchen as well as the kith and kin of the natives, through

their work for women‘s education.

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Chapter No. 4

Missionaries’ Review of Policy and Development of

Women’s Higher Education (1881-1900)

Christian missionaries abandoned their efforts of expansion, by 1880. The subsequent

period of about two decades was spent in reviewing the previous policy and fixing a new

course of action for the future. The review of the previous efforts was thought necessary to

meet the new challenges of the field. As the ground realities of the field were totally changed

after the recommendations of the Indian Education Commission, in 1882. The

recommendations of the Indian Education Commission were very critical for the

missionaries‘ in formulating their future course of action. That is why the subsequent period,

of almost two decades, was spent in outlining the future course of action. After a meticulous

analysis of the field the missionaries came to the conclusion that the previous policy, of

establishing as many institutions as possible, was no more a viable option to get satisfactory

results in the future. In addition to the review of previous policy, this period is important for

the missionaries because of the advent of different missionary colleges in the Punjab, during

this period. The prestigious institutions of St. Stephen College, Delhi, the Forman Christian

College, Lahore, Murray College, Sialkot, and the Gordon College, Rawalpindi were opened

in this important period of about two decades. The establishment of these colleges was

important due to their extended influence in the field of higher education. This period is also

important due to the advent of the local organizations in the field of education. Almost all the

three major religious communities of the province—the Muslims, the Hindus and the

Sikhs—entered the field of education during this period. This chapter attempts to examine

the recommendations of the India Education Commission in the missionaries‘ context. It

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attempts to analyze the factors prompting the missionaries to review their previous policy of

expansion. The chapter also attempts to trace the initiation of the missionary higher

education. It tries to study the establishment of different missionary colleges in the province

during this period. The chapter also examines the advent of different organizations in the

field of education. It not only attempts to trace the educational efforts of these organizations

but also tries to explore the factors which drew the native organizations in the field of

education.

4.1 Indian Education Commission, 1882

The Government of India continued to follow the recommendations of the Woods

Education Despatch, till 1882-83. After that, the recommendations of Indian Education

Commission replaced those of the Despatch of 1854. Due to its wide ranging impact on the

education system of the country including that of the missionaries, the recommendations of

the Commission held high position in the educational history of India. This document, like

that of Wood‘s Despatch, had an important impact on the missionaries‘ educational

approach. . In fact, the missionaries‘ previous policy was expansion was modified mainly to

neutralize the effect of the recommendations of the Indian Education Commission. That is

why it looks quite appropriate to have a brief overview of this important document in the

context its impact on missionary education.

4.1.1 Appointment of the Commission

In addition to the fulfilment of a longstanding need of reviewing the functioning of

existing system of public instruction, the missionaries‘ agitation, especially back home in

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England, was the major cause behind the appointment of this Commission.405

The

missionaries‘ agitation was originated from their differences with the existing Government

officials of India, particularly, on the issue of Government‘s withdrawal from the field. 406

They claimed that the Government was not following the recommendations of Wood‘s

Despatch in letter and spirit of the document and pressed upon the government to look into

the matter seriously. In fact both the sides were feeling uneasy and had apprehensions about

each other. As, in addition to the missionaries‘ complaints, the government officials also had

their concerns about the missionary school managements.

The missionaries differed with the government officials on two major points. Their

foremost objection was on the Government‘s refusal to withdraw from the field of education.

They were of the opinion that the Government, by not closing or transferring its schools to

the other agencies, was distracting from the recommendations of the Woods Education

Despatch. The Government was not only declining to do so but also coming into direct

competition with the mission schools. The attitude of the government officials, especially

those of the inspectors of education department, was extremely objectionable in this context.

The Government‘s attitude was not the Punjab specific rather the depiction of the whole

country. Julius Richter described the rivalry of missionary institutions with those of the

Government in the following words:

Down to 1854 the elementary school system, with the exception of the native schools,

had been completely under missionary control; almost half the scholars attending the High

Schools had likewise belonged to them, and through the scholars they had exerted a large

405

A. Biswas and S.P. Agarwal, Development of Education in India: A Historical Survey of Educational

Documents before and after Independence, 30. 406

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education In India, 135-36.

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important influence. They now found in the rapidly developing educational schemes of

Government an all-powerful rival. What position should they take up with regard to it?407

The issue of religious education was also a major contention between the missionaries

and the officials. The missionaries were against the policy of religious neutrality since the

very beginning of this policy. They thought it against the spiritual interests of the Indian

people. They believed that the Government officials backed by the policy of religious

neutrality were showing their cold shoulder to the missionary activities. Their harsh and

unsympathetic attitude, throughout the country, towards the missionaries‘ activities was a

continuous source of trouble for the missionaries.408

Missionary activities, especially those in

the field of education, were discouraged and obstructed in every possible way. The

missionaries were wary of the authoritative attitude of the inspectors and did not like their

interference in the mission schools. Rev. C. W. Forman, at the platform of PMC described

this condition in the following words:

It is much to be regretted, that Government agents should have a right to visit,

examine and report on our schools, officially and authoritatively. it seems to place us

in a false position before the native community.409

The conditions imposed by the Government for the release of funds under the scheme

of grant-in-aid were also troubling for the missionaries. They thought the examination system

of the Government as an inducement to the students for the neglect of religious studies.410

Moreover the introduction of the recommended textbooks in the mission schools was also

seen as damaging for the missionary cause. This was described by Julius Richter as:

407

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 312. 408

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education In India, 135. 409

Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January, 1862-63, 38. 410

Comments of Rev. R. Thackwell. Ibid., 46.

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The text books recommended by those in authority were introduced practically

everywhere; these text books were for the most part neutral as to religion even, if not

directly antagonistic to Christianity, and their introduction simply meant that the

books compiled at great pains by the missionaries were crowded out of existence.411

They also believed in the diffusion of religious education in all the educational

institutions, without any exception of Government or private school. Moreover, they wanted

the freedom of conducting compulsory Bible teaching at their schools.412

By 1882, the

missionaries‘ stance, about the compulsory religious education at government as well as at

private schools, was reinforced by other groups of the society also. As, different sects of the

society came up with their demand of compulsory religious education for their children in the

lines of their respective faiths. The Hindus wanted a blend of Western sciences, literature,

and their religious principles for the education of their younger generations. The Muslims

were also insisting on the teaching of ‗Quran‘ for their children.413

The missionaries stood against the existing Government, in India and back home in

England. They started agitating against its non-cooperation and termed the official moves

against the recommendations of Woods Education Despatch. They made special references to

the recommendations of the Despatch, mentioning the closure or transfer of the Government

schools to the non governmental agencies. The Government‘s irritating attitude of competing

with the missionary institutions, in contradiction to the recommendations of the Despatch,

was severely criticized and was termed as a threat to the missionaries‘ subsistence in the

field.414

Government schools were also the major victims of the missionaries‘ rhetorical

411

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 308. 412

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education In India, 138. 413

Ibid. 414

Ibid., 136

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onslaught who declared these as Godless and irreligious.415

The Government of India was

compelled to investigate the matter and therefore it appointed an Education Commission for

the careful consideration of the matter.

4.1.2 Formation of the Commission

The first Indian Education Commission, generally known as ‗Hunter Commission‘

was appointed by Lord Ripon on February 3, 1882. It consisted of twenty members under the

chair of Sir W. W. Hunter, a member of the Viceroy‘s Legislative Council and one of the

most experienced Anglo-Indians. A certain number of members were taken from each of the

Presidencies and Provinces excepting Burma and Assam. These members were supposed to

represent various races, classes, and stake holders in the field of education. Christian

missionaries had a fair representation in the towering missionary figures of Dr. Miller, the

Principal of Christian College Madras, W. B. Blacket, Principal Church Mission Divinity

College Calcutta, and Rev. A. Jean, D. D., Rector of St. Joseph‘s College Negapatam.416

The

Commission held its first meeting at Calcutta, on 13th

of February, 1882, and completed its

work on 16th

March 1883.417

The Commission came up with 222 specific recommendations

with an intention to accept these as its deliberate decisions.418

The Provincial Committee for

the Punjab of the Education Commission examined fifty three witnesses including

representatives of different literary societies. The report of the Commission was forwarded to

the Government of India on 9th

October, 1883.419

The proceedings of the Commission were

415

Ibid., 136-37. 416

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 1. 417

H .R. Mehta, A History of The Growth and Development of Western Education in Punjab, 1846-1884, 90. 418

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 1. 419

H.R. Mehta, A History of The Growth and Development of Western Education in Punjab, 1846-1884, 90.

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published in 1884, in nine folio volumes. After having a careful review of the matter, it

declared its unanimous decisions and decided the matters about missionary education

a) Government’s withdrawal

The most important and the most controversial issue, in front of the Commission,

was whether the Government should withdraw, in pursuance of the recommendations of the

Woods Education Despatch, from the field of education leaving it wide open for the

missionaries, or not? The varied opinions amongst the witnesses, examined by the

Commission, and that of the members of the Commission raised the complexity of the

matter.420

The Commission, after a careful consideration of the matter, decided not only the

matter of withdrawal of Government institutions, but also defined the missionaries‘ position

in the national system of education. Paradoxical to the recommendations of the Woods

Education Despatch, the recommendations of the Indian Education Commission, on the issue

of Government‘s withdrawal, went against the missionaries‘ hopes. On this all important

issue, the Commission discarded the option of Government‘s withdrawal from the field and

decided to avoid this option. The unanimous recommendation of the Commission went the

following way:

We think it well to put on record our unanimous opinion that withdrawal of direct

departmental agency should not take place in favour of missionary bodies and that

departmental institutions of the higher order should not be transferred to missionary

management.421

The Commission allowed the missionary bodies to carry on their work, following

their own course, under the supervision of the State. But at the same time it declared that

420 William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 451. 421

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 453.

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their educational activities would hold not more than a secondary place in the National

system of education. On the one hand, it fixed subordinate role for the missionaries‘

educational enterprise, on the other hand it encourage the native agencies to operate in the

field of education. It decided the matter in the following words:

They422

should be allowed to follow their own independent course under the general

supervision of the State;…… they should receive all the encouragement and aid that

private effort can legitimately claim…….. But it must not be forgotten that the private

effort which it is mainly intended to evoke is that of the people themselves. Natives of

India must constitute the most important of all agencies if educational means are ever

to be co-extensive with educational wants.423

b) Religious Education

The longstanding question of religious education, both at the Government and

Private schools, was also an important issue for the Commission. The commission was to

decide whether religious education should be imparted in the schools or not? If yes, then

what should be the form, subject, and conditions to allow its instruction in the schools?424

The declared policy of religious neutrality forbade the Commission to connect the state

schools with any kind of religious education.425

Administrative and financial constraints also

led the Commission to decline the demand of teaching each child in his own religion.426

So,

the Commission preferred to reiterate the necessity of keeping the Government schools

secular and decided to uphold the policy of secular education at Government schools. The

question of religious education at private schools was another problem closely attached to the

missionaries. The Commission permitted the private schools to impart religious instruction of

422

The pronoun refers to the missionary institutions. 423

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882-83, 454. 424

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education In India, 137. 425

A. Biswas and S.P. Agarwal, Development Of Education In India, 32. 426

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education In India, 138.

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their own choice and decided that Government should pay grants to the schools on the basis

of secular instruction, irrespective of the religious education imparted in these schools.427

4.2 Missionaries’ Future Course of Action

The Woods Education Despatch of 1854 was one of the most important documents,

which created room for the missionaries and helped them in cementing their strong footing in

the educational terrain of India.428

It even swelled their hopes to the extent that they, at a

time, were preparing themselves to replace the British Government, in the field of education.

But the recommendations of the Indian Education Commission, which soon became the

official policy shattered these hopes completely.429

The missionaries could visualize the

future educational scenario of the country in which missionary schools would have to

compete with those of the Government and other private bodies. The missionaries‘ belief in

the prominent position of education, in achieving religious objectives, was also diluted

considerably.

The anticipated negative consequences of recommendations of the Indian Education

Commission, the net result of missionaries‘ previous efforts in the field of education and the

views of a group of missionaries about the unimportant role of educational endeavours in

achieving the missionary goals, led them to the conclusion that their previous policy of

expansion needed a complete review.430

Their previous efforts to reach all and sundry were

considered to be inappropriate in the new scenario. The anti-education group of missionaries

was gaining importance and was pressing upon for the complete closure of missionaries‘

427

Ibid., 139 428

Tim Allender, ‗Anglican Evangelism in North India and the Punjabi Missionary Classroom; the Failure to

Educate ‗the Masses‘, 1860-77‘‘, 274. 429

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education In India, 138. 430

Ibid., 141.

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educational operations. The question, whether the missions should have schools for the

heathens or not, became the burning issue of the day and caused some animated and

elaborate discussions.431

The group of missionaries, against the maintenance of schools for

the heathen, was of the opinion that the missions had neither a call nor mandate to incur

precious missionary resources on the teaching of subjects of English literature, history,

mathematics, natural science and the like. They thought;

The results of mission schools, as regards the number of baptisms, bear no sort of

comparison with the means and strength employed; many mission schools are unable

to record one case of baptism in an entire decade.432

There were strong arguments on the other side also. They admitted their inability in

producing conversions at large scale but the small number of converts produced by the

Christian schools were declared as ―the very crown and rejoicing of Indian missions‖.433

It

was also argued that:

Missionaries held an important place in the world of Indian education and that they

ought not to lose it; that the teachings of Christ were spreading largely among the

educated Indians although only a few of them became the direct adherents of the

Christian religion; that it was a duty of the missionaries to satisfy the growing Indian

demand for knowledge; and that mission schools were the only means by which the

gospel could be parched to the upper and influential classes of society.434

The careful consideration of these factors led them to the decision of a total reversal

of their previous efforts of quantitative improvement. Influenced by the ‗downward filtration

theory‘, the missionaries shifted their focus from the education of all and sundry to that of the

privileged few. The education of the upper echelon of the society was thought to have a

431

Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, 313. 432

Ibid., 315. 433

Ibid. 434

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education In India, 142.

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trickle down effect and would have a healthy influence on the lower fractions of the social

hierarchy.

The missionaries responded positively and set their efforts to cope with the challenges of the

new century. They made a major shift in their previous policy of quantitative improvement

and came up with a new policy of qualitative improvement. They decided to make

fundamental changes in their course of action to comply with the upcoming challenges of the

new century. Therefore, they decided to review their previous efforts and formulate their

future policy in connection with the changed circumstances of the new century. So they made

a major shift in their previous policy and entered the new century with a modified approach.

Prevailed by the downward filtration theory, they substituted their previous policy of

quantitative improvement with that of the qualitative improvement.435

Therefore the

missionaries‘ educational efforts, throughout the period under consideration, were

determined by their new policy of qualitative improvement.

The Christian missionaries‘ religious objectives also played an important behind this major

change in their policy. Their previous strategy, to command the whole sphere of education in

the province, proved to be unfruitful in terms of number of conversions. The small number of

conversions forced the missionaries to change their way of action in the oriental society.

Moreover, a new party from within the missionaries arose with a view that the missionary

enterprise bore no obligation to educate the non Christians.436 The issue was discussed in

detail and the conclusion was described as, ―the missionaries should rest content with the

435

The downward filtration theory suggested the diffusion of quality education to a few persons so the

missionaries decided to abandon their previous efforts to improve the number of their schools, instead they

directed their efforts to maintain a high standard of education at their institutions. Their new policy of focusing

the quality of education is known as their policy of qualitative improvement. 436

Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, A Students‟ History of Education in India (1800-1947), 140.

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maintenance of a few efficient schools and colleges and should refrain, as far as possible,

from any large scale expansion of their educational activities.437

4.3 Initiation of higher education

This period is known for the initiation of higher education in the province.

Although, previously, some government colleges were working in the province yet the higher

education took real impetus and a number of colleges were established during this period. By

188o, there were only two Arts colleges in the province and the number was raised to 12 at

the end of this period. Christian missionaries established four colleges at different important

places in the province. Here is a brief history of Christian colleges, established during this

period.

4.3.1 St. Stephen College Delhi

St Stephen's College, the most prestigious mission college in the territory of the

Punjab, was founded on 1st February 1882, at Delhi, by the Cambridge Mission in

conjunction with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The SPG was running St.

Stephen Mission High School at Delhi since about 1854. By 1879-80, the school, with the

fresh induction of six university graduates, was reported to have a very strong teaching

staff.438 The Inspector of schools was quite hopeful about the future progress of the school

and commented that it would probably take the first place in the province.439

437

Ibid., 142-143.

438

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1879-80, 40. 439

Ibid.

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The Cambridge Mission, comprised a number of Dons from various colleges at

Cambridge University, arrived at Delhi in the 1877.440

The mission arrived India with the

plans of building a ―new Alexandria‖ on the banks of the Jumna. But the meticulous analysis

of the circumstances of the mission field tempted them to modify their initial plan foundation

of a Christian college for non-Christian students at Delhi.441

In fact the ground was prepared

for the foundation of a college by the closure of Government College at Delhi, in 1877. The

college was amalgamated with the Government College Lahore to strengthen the staff of the

Lahore College, without any increased expenditure.442

But the abolition of the Delhi College

created disappointment to the people of Delhi. The native community attempted to carry on

the college as an aided institution and promised to provide more than Rs. 60,000, raised

through subscriptions, to serve the purpose. The offer was declined by the Lieutenant

Governor considering the funds as quite insufficient. Moreover he was not willing to

reorganize annual subscription as a stable source of income. In these circumstances, the

Cambridge Mission offered to establish an aided college in the public benefit. The Mission

was well equipped with the sufficient qualified staff to conduct a college therefore the offer

was accepted by the government.443

A grant of Rs. 5400 per mensem was sanctioned through

the scheme of grant-in-aid with an additional grant of Rs. 2,000 for the purchase of scientific

apparatus.444

The Cambridge Brothers‘ initially showed reluctance to countenance

government grants but f accepted wholeheartedly afterwards. By 1885 the province was

providing 80 percent of St. Stephen‘s college budget and the Delhi municipal government

another 10 percent.

440

Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series Punjab, I, 53. 441

Jeffrey Cox, Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818- 1940, 193. 442

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 53. 443

Ibid., 60. 444

Report on the State of Education in the Punjab and Its Dependencies for the Year1882-83, 42

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The college was started in a rented building in the bye lanes of Chandni Chowk.

Afterwards it was housed in a large native house near St. Stephen‘s High school, with a

school and college club in the same building. The presence of all these institutions in the

same building provided the member students an opportunity of meeting daily for the purpose

of reading, lectures, games and the like.445

As the number of students grew, a new campus

opened on government-donated land near Kashmiri gate.446

The college moved into its own

beautiful buildings designed by Col Swinton Jacob, Chief Engineer of Jaipur State. This

building stood on both sides of the road in Kashmiri Gate, close to the historic St. James'

Church.

There were ten students on the roll at the end of the year, 1882-83. In the FA

examination of the Calcutta University, held in December 1882, the college sent 6

candidates, of whom 3 passed—1 in the 2nd and 2 in the 3rd division. The college also sent

3 candidates for the intermediate examination conducted by the Punjab University, held in

May 1883, 2 out of these 3 students were successful.447

By 1885, the students included 48

Hindus, 4 Muslims, 3 Christians and 1 Parsi and, the college remained largely Hindu with

small Muslim and Christian minorities.448

By the 1891, the college was reported to be

established its prominent position in the field. The conduct of the students was excellent.

Cricket and lawn-tennis were gaining popularity with general athletics as the weaker aspect

of the college activities. In addition to the regular religious instruction, lectures were

delivered frequently by the visitors also. A class of Shakespeare reading was initiated and it

445

Ibid. 446

Jeffrey Cox, Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818- 1940, 194 447

Report on the State of Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year,1882-83, 42 448

Jeffrey Cox, Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818- 1940, 194.

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was flourishing steadily. Another class of conversation and discussion on the social and other

related subjects was started which met with great success.449

4.3.2 Forman Christian College Lahore

The Prestigious Forman Christian College is named after its founder, Dr. Charles

William Forman. It is ranked among the best institutions of higher education in Punjab. Dr.

Forman‘s position contribution in the field of education, in the Punjab, is supreme and he

earned a prominent position through the provision valuable services in the field of education.

He started his labours by opening up the Lahore Mission School, popularly known as Rang

Mahal School, at Lahore in 1849, which was the first Anglo-vernacular school in the

Province. The school earned a good popularity and, by 1861, the school contained 428

students on the roll with a daily attendance of about 400 students.450

The establishment of

the Calcutta University, in 1857, obsessed the missionaries with a desire to prepare their

pupils for the examination of entrance into the University. It was this desired which tempted

the missionaries to add a college department in the Rang Mahal School, which was

afterwards known as Forman Christian College, in 1865.451

The College, at the end of its first year, contained 14 students. These students were

divided into two classes on the basis of the year of passing the entrance examination. The

students who passed the examination in 1863 constituted one class and those who passed the

exam in 1864 constituted the other. They were taught by the Head Master of the School and

449

Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year, 1890-91, by J. Sime, Esquire,

(Lahore: the Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1891), 38. 450

S.K. Datta, History of Rang Mahal school, 3. 451

Ibid., 4.

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the other gentlemen from the Mission.452

Although the cost of education was lower, at

Lahore Mission College, than its competitor, the government College Lahore yet the mission

college was unable to draw a sufficient number of students towards it. The long course of

study comprising four years—from Matriculation to B.A.—, lack of sufficient number of

scholarships, and the secession originating from the conversion of some mission scholars at

Lahore, were considered to be the major reasons behind this scarcity of students at mission

college.453

The following graph shows the number of students on the college roll from 1864-

65 to 1869, the year of its closure.

452

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1864-65, 83. 453

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1866-67, 18.

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Graph 4.1: Number of scholars at FC College during its first period (1864-1869)

Data extracted from Reports on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the

Years 1864 to 1869.

In addition to the scarcity of pupils, the college suffered a great set back in the shape

of the death of its principal, Revd. Alexander Henry, in 1869. The mission college, already,

suffering from difficult conditions, could not recover from the shock and was temporarily

closed in December 1869. The majority of the students of the college took admission in

Government College Lahore. The Director of Public Instruction, Punjab, termed the closure

of the college a wise move and hoped that it would work in the best of missionaries‘

3

14

15

10

9

17

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869

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benefit.454

It is a noteworthy fact that the college produced 4 F.A. and 2 B.A. passes

candidates who afterwards held some important public sector offices.455

Although the missionary management, in 1869, closed the college with a hope that it

should not be closed for a long period of time yet it took a period of about seventeen years to

reopen. As, the college was reopened with the same name, Lahore Mission College, in 1886

with a class of 22 students. The number of students on the roll rose to 68 in 1888.456

The

college was placed under the control of a Board of Directors, nominated by the Ludhiana

Mission. Dr. Forman and Revd. J. Newton were elected as the Chairman and President of the

Board respectively, in its first meeting held on 19th January, 1888.457

The Board also

considered the building plans of the college in its meeting held on the next day. The main

object of the college is stated in the annual report of the Board of Home Missions of the

Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in these words:

Its chief object is evangelistic; it is to be an agency for great good, as it is believed, in

leavening the public mind with the principles of Christianity, and in leading many

young men to Christ as their Saviour, and to his service as the work of their lives.458

After the declaration of the accommodation of Rang Mahal School as insufficient, in

April 1888, the college was authorized to rent some building for the same purpose.

Afterwards the problem of the building was solved with the effective co-operation of Sir

Charles Aitcheson, the then Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab. He not only approved grant a

land of five acres to the college but the plan of building and building operations were carried

454

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1869-70, 33. 455

S.K. Datta, The History of the Forman Christian College, 5. 456

Eighteenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of

America (New York: Presbyterian Building, 1888), 258. 457

S.K. Datta, The History of the Forman Christian College, 38. 458

Nineteenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of

America (New York: Presbyterian Building, 1889), 246.

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out by P.W.D. under the control of government Engineers. The government bears the

expenditure of Rs. 20000 for these activities.459

The new building was occupied in April

1889.

In the meantime Dr. Forman resigned from the principalship of the college, in favour

of Dr. James Carruthers Rhea Ewing popularly known as J.C.R. Ewing, who succeeded him

[Dr. Forman] in December 1888.460

The college was named as Forman Christian College

after the death of Dr. Forman in 1894. The college was the first to start F. Sc. and B.Sc.

classes in the province.461

At the dawn of the century the college was in a flourishing

condition and was rated among the first grade institution of province.

4.3.3 Murray Collage Sialkot

Murray College, Sialkot, the Alma Mater of Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal, the

greatest poet-thinker of the East, had a very modest beginning. It was originated from the

Scotch Mission High School, situated in Kanak Mandi Sialkot, in 1889. The intermediate

department of the college was opened in the school at the request of Sir Charles Aitcheson,

one of the European government officials.462

The Foreign Committee of the Church of

Scotland was requested in to open a college in Lahore in 1883, but the request was denied.

The Government again approached the aforementioned Foreign Committee to open a College

at Sialkot, in 1889 and was offered a financial grant for the purpose, by Sir James

Broadwood Lyall, the then Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab. The Scotch mission of

Sialkot, in response, started the intermediate section of the college in the school building.

459

S.K. Datta, The History of the Forman Christian College, 8. 460

Nineteenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of

America, 246. 461

S.K. Datta, The History of the Forman Christian College, 68. 462

Jeffrey Cox, Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818- 1940, 193.

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The teaching staff, at the beginning of the college, consisted of only four members.

Incidentally, all the four staff members represented the four major communities of the

province—Rev. Dr. Youngson the first principal of the college, Christian, Moulvi Mir Hasan,

Muslims, Mr. Narinjan Das, Hindu, and Sardar Harnam Singh, Sikh.

The college was reported to have an excellent start as for as the arrangements and

discipline were concerned. The inspector of Rawalpindi Circle, in his report for the year of

1890-91, had favourable remarks for the future prospects of the college. The college was

started with 11 students on teh roll and at the end of the year, 1890-91, 16 students were

reported to be on the roll—10 in the second year and 6 in the first year.463

The college, for

the first time, presented candidates for the Intermediate Examination and the showed good

results—seven candidates were passes out of 10.464

In spite of taking a good start, the college was unable to establish its excellence,

during its initial period, and the institution, till its affiliation with the Punjab University,

suffered the reputation of a ―second grade‖ institution. Most of its problems stemmed from

those regarding financial management of the institution. Although the college was

established at the instance of Sir Charles Aitcheson yet no financial support, from the

government grant-in-aid scheme, was available to the institution till its affiliation with the

University of the Punjab in 1906. At the dawn of the twentieth century, the college was not

included in the best of the institutions of the province but it flourished considerably during

the twentieth century.

463

Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1890-91, 39. 464

Ibid., 40

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4.4.4 Gordon College Rawalpindi

Gordon College, one of the prestigious and the oldest colleges of the province,

was established in 1893 at the important city of Rawalpindi.465

Like the other missionary

colleges in the province, it was also originated from a missionary high school, the American

Presbyterian Mission High School Raja Bazaar Rawalpindi. The college section was started

in the school‘s premises, by the initiation of Intermediate classes. Although the college was

an unaided institution and was not availing financial aid through the scheme of grant-in-aid

yet it was recognized for the award of scholarships in 1895.466

Its candidates showed good

results in the examinations and, in 1895-96, it was the only college in the province to show

hundred percent results in the intermediate examination.467

Initially the college was started as

an unaided college and became on the list of aided institutions in 1904.468

Initially the college section was started in the premises of the school and the same

arrangement of classes in the same premises continued up till 1902, when the college was

shifted to the new building and BA classes were introduced.469

The new building, on the edge

of the City and opposite the Municipal garden, was large enough to fulfil the needs of the

institution. The grounds provided ample accommodation for the students to play the games

such as football, basket ball, tennis, and the like. The main building included an assembly

hall, eight lecture rooms, a chemical laboratory, a well equipped biological laboratory, a

library and reading room, a staff room, and the office. The Boarding Hall contained

465

Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1893-94, I. 466

Punjab District Gazetteers , Vol. XXVIII A, Rawalpindi District (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press,

1909), 90. 467

Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year, 1895-96, by J. Sime, Esquire,

(Lahore: the Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1896), 2. 468

Punjab District Gazetteers , Vol. XXVIII A, Rawalpindi District, 90. 469

Ibid.

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accommodation for 35 men.470

By 1907, the college was transformed into a good institution

and was included in the first grade colleges of the province. It was the only college, to the

north of Lahore, involved in the studies up to the graduation level. In 1907 the college

contained 50 students on the roll of whom 11 were Christians, 15 Muslims, 8 Sikhs and 25

Hindus. For the Intermediate examination, lectures were given in English, Mathematics,

Philosophy, History, Physics and Chemistry, Botany and Zoology, Persian, Sanskrit, and

Arabic. For the Bachelor‘s degree courses were offered in English, Philosophy, History,

Mathematics Pure and Applied, Persian and Sanskrit.471

4.4 Reaction and Response of the Native Population

No doubt the Christian Missionaries came to India with evangelical intentions and

they adopted different means of social welfare to achieve their desired objectives. With their

focus on teaching, preaching, and healing, diffusion of education among the native

population of the Punjab became an important part of their activities. Having in mind the

miserable condition of the women of this region, they decided to work for the betterment of

the women especially for the spread of education among the tender sex of this area. So, on

the one hand their role was highly appreciated and accepted by a part of the native

community. On the other hand the fear of promulgation of Christian ideology led different

confrontationists to rise up against the missionaries. Sensitivity of the issue of women, in the

context of violation of social patterns, and politicization of the missionaries‘ activities also

inflamed the situation in many areas of the Punjab. Moreover the missionaries‘ agenda of

spreading the education among the female population of the province was largely against the

470

Ibid. 471

Ibid.

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social model of the Punjabi society. They saw this effort as the part of missionaries‘ cultural

assault on the Oriental social structure. Ultimately the reaction was inevitable from the

conservative forces of the society and it was shown, almost with the same magnitude, by all

the three major religious communities of the province —the Hindus, the Muslims, and the

Sikhs.

Emergence of different revivalist religious movements in the Indian society,

including Punjab, during the later half of the nineteenth century was also a reaction to the

activities of the Christian missionaries. These movements strove to save their respective

communities form the religious and cultural onslaught of the missionaries. Together with the

provision of religious protection to their respective communities, the proponents of these

movements launched different kinds of educational and public welfare programs, to bring the

people out of the influence of Christian missionaries. In addition to the reactionary spirit, the

provision of grants from the government also contributed in the multiplicaiton of natively

administered schools. Previously the missionaries were the major beneficiaries of these

grants but the 1882 Hunter Commission indicated that the government would redirect funds

to schools run by Indians.472

4.4.1 Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam

The menace of Hindu dominance and that of the proselytizing activities of the

Christian missionaries gave birth to several Muslim Anjumans (societies), at least one in

every important city and town of the Punjab, during the later half of the nineteenth

472

Vickie Langohr, ‗Colonial Education System and The Spread of Local Religious Movements: The Cases of

British Egypt and Punjab‘, 16.

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century.473

These Anjumans posed serious resistance to the missionaries‘ socio-religious

activities.474

Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, the major contributor among these, came into being

in 1884. It was founded mainly with the intention of safeguarding the interests of the Muslim

community of the Punjab.475

It devoted its efforts for the safeguard of the Muslim religious

and educational fronts. Propagation of Islam, diffusion of education to the Muslim boys and

girls, educational aid to the Muslim boys and girls, and establishment of the educational

institutions and orphanages, were the major objects of the Anjuman.476

As an educational

organization, it realized the importance of female education in the changed circumstances of

the society and inaugurated its efforts in this direction by establishing five girls‘ schools, in

1885. One hundred and sixty nine girls were reported to be on the rolls of these schools

during the first year of their existence. The number of schools was raised to ten in the next

year and was further extended to fifteen in 1894.477

Similar kinds of schools were opened by

several other Muslim societies. The schools, with the enrollment fluctuating from thirty to

fifty, were offering facilities to the families which were reluctant to send their girls to the

Government or Missionary schools. They provided only elementary education according to a

syllabus prepared to suit the needs and traditions of Muslim society.478

The Anjuman also set

up a publishing house for ‗appropriate‘ textbooks for Muslim girls‘ schools, and these were

used all over the Punjab and beyond.479

The outcome of all this effort was that Muslim girls‘

education was relatively more advanced in Lahore in the 1880s and 1890s than in Delhi or

473

Ikram Ali Malik, ‗Muslim Anjumans in the Punjab‘, Journal of Regional History, V (1984): 107. 474

Ibid., 98. 475

S. Razi Wasti, ‗Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore—A Brief History‘, Journal of Research Society of

Pakistan, III-1 (January, 1966): 64. 476

Ibid, 64-65. 477

Ibid., 69. 478

Ikram Ali Malik, ‗Muslim Anjumans in the Punjab‘, 104. 479

Sarah Ansari, ‗Winds of Change?‘ The Role of Women Activists in Lahore before and after Partition‘,

Pakistan Vision, 9-2, 2.

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Aligarh at this time, though of course many ‗respectable‘ Muslim girls continued to be

educated at home by other family members or tutors.480

4.4.2 Arya Samaj

Similar kinds of societies were also founded by the Hindu and the Sikh communities

to confront with the same kind of problems and issues. The Arya Samaj and the Singh Sabha

movement served the same purpose for the Hindu and the Sikh communities respectively.

The former, in addition to the establishment of educational institutions mostly for boys, was

actively involved in emancipating women from the existing socio-religious constraints in the

society.481

Although the Arya Samaj and the Missionaries were, to some extent, working on

the same agenda—of reforming the Punjabi society by working against the prevalent social

evils, like child marriage, sati, dowry, seclusion of women, yet both were doing with

different spirits as the former was doing it to pose an opposition to the missionaries and their

proselytizing work.482

The Arya Samaj wanted to keep their co-religionists away from the

influence of Christian missionaries. So the Samaj, with a reactionary spirit, was able to play

key role in the emancipation of Punjabi women and thus indirectly contributed a lot in the

extension of education among the women of this region.483

4.4.3 Singh Sabha

Singh Sabah movement was spurred to spread the Sikh philosophy and Sikh way of

life to their boys and girls who were drifting away from their roots. The spread of education

480

Ibid. 481

Shiv Kumar Gupta, ‗Arya Samaj—A Potent Factor in the National Movement for Raising Womanhood‘,

280. 482

Ibid., 279. 483

Ibid., 284.

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and the influence of the enlightened ideas of the West made the Singh Sabah Leaders to

realize that the education of both males and females was a healthy sign in a progressive

society.484

It spurred the consciousness of the leaders of the Movement to revolt against the

old age prejudices and practices which had led to the backwardness of women in the

society.485

So the Singh Sabah Movement started with two main objects—(a) to impart

modern education to the Sikh women, (b) to educate the Sikh women in the true principles of

their religious system and to make them conscious of their distinct identity.486

It opened

khalsa schools and colleges in the Punjab for the education of the Sikh youth, in accordance

with the Sikh philosophy of education. For the first time in the history of the Sikhs,

systematic efforts were started for the spread of education among the female folk of the Sikh

community. A highly commendable work in this field was done by Baba Khem Singh Bedi,

one of the founding members of the Amritsar Singh Sabah. He championed the cause of

female education in the Punjab by establishing a number of girls‘ schools in the province.

Besides the opening of educational institutions, the Sikh leaders stressed the importance of

education through newspapers, magazines, and tracts.487

Above and beyond the collective reaction of these local movements, the people of

the Punjab showed their response or reaction at individual level also. They thought that the

missionaries had come to their land to make them Christians. Missionary schools were seen

as the converting agents and their education as the solvent of the native religions. The

Muslims were more conscious of their religion than the other two communities and they

484

Poonam Arora, ‗Role of Singh Sabha Movement in Promotion of Female Education in Punjab‘, 210. 485

Ibid. 486

Ibid. 487

Ibid., 212.

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thought the missionary education a threat to their religious belief.488

The learning of English

language was also not favoured in the Muslim circles. So they rejected it completely and

consequently, suffered a lot, in terms of their financial condition. But the other two

communities were lured by the prestige attached to the colonizer‘s language and the material

advantages compelled them to send their children to the institutions providing this

commodity. So, most of the native Hindu parents were sending their young ones to the

missionary schools, not to make them learned ones but to give them so much knowledge of

English as would enable them to obtain a decent position in the social hierarchy.489

Material

benefits were also attached with the female education by creating posts of female teachers in

the girls‘ schools. But the material benefits attached to the female education were unable to

bring the people out of the fear of conversion. So, whenever a conversion did occur,

occasionally in some missionary institution, the school was at once emptied and its former

position, in terms of number of students, was gained after a certain period of time and with

considerable efforts in this direction.490

In 1883-84, there were only three colleges in the province including only one

missionary institution, St. Stephen‘s College at Delhi, and only 16 students graduated that

year.491

But the launching pad was founded and a rapid progress was observed in the

subsequent years. The educational certificates and diplomas became a passport to public

sector employment which tempted the students to make earnest progress in the field of higher

education. The number of colleges also increased during this period and in addition to the

488

Leslie A. Flemming, ‗New Models, New Roles: U.S. Presbyterian Women Missionaries and Social Change

in North India, 1870-1910‘, 39. 489

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 33. 490

Ibid. 491

Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series Punjab, I, 136.

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establishment of Christian missionary colleges, the native organizations also established

educational institutions of higher education for their respective religious communities.

Consequently, by 1900, the number of Arts colleges rose to 12 in the province.

4.5 Secondary Education of Girls

Initiation of secondary education of girls during the last quarter of the nineteenth

century was one of the hallmarks of this period. Female primary education was, to some

extent, fostered in the Punjab but that of the secondary education was still in abeyance. It was

this period in which secondary education, for the female multitude of the province, was

started which proved to be a footstep for the initiation of female higher education in the

twentieth century.

The census of 1881 showed 6101 females under instruction, in the territory of the

British Punjab, and only 8407 who could read and write against 8625827 who could not. The

returns of the Education Department showed 9925 girls in Government and Aided schools.492

These returns go on to conclude that one woman out of about one thousand was educated.

Nothing can show more clearly the backward condition of women education in the province.

In spite of the gigantic efforts put in by the government and the missionaries during the

previous three decades, it was only the primary education of girls which was developed, to

some extent, and the growth of secondary and higher education of women was still in

anticipation. As there were only one high and two middle schools out of 317 girls‘ schools,

492

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884,

60.

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present in the province in 1881-82.493

Moreover no native girls, up to 1881-82, even

attempted the middle school examination.494

On the other hand, in spite of the establishment of a large number of primary schools,

the standard of instruction in the existing primary schools was not satisfactory. A large

portion of the schools, in Rawalpindi and Jhelum districts, was working under the patronage

of Baba Khem Sigh Bedi, one of the chiefs of the Sikh religion having a large number of

following disciples among certain classes of Hindus. These schools accept the government

grants eagerly but with the habit of the fulfilment of official requirements in a least

satisfactory manner.495

The performance of the schools under the management of the

government or some other native body was also not satisfactory. The schools under the

management of European missionary ladies were considered to be the best in the province.496

Moreover secondary education throughout India, with the exception of Bengal and to some

extent Madras, was in the hands of missionary bodies and native managers.497

In spite of this disappointing condition there were also signs of improvement,

especially regarding primary education. The difficulties which arose from the early age, at

which girls were withdrawn from the school life, had little application at the beginning of this

period.498

Although general opinion of the native population was not in favour of the

education of their daughter and wives yet the prejudice against it was, to some extent,

removed. But in spite of these encouraging indicators, female education was still in a

493

Ibid., 61. 494

Ibid., 62 495

Ibid., 61 496

Ibid., 61 497

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, Calcutta, 531. 498

Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1890-91, by J. Sime, Esquire,

(Lahore: the Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1891), 3.

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backward condition which needed to be fostered in the province. The secondary education

needed special attention to grow from nothing. In these circumstances, government, with the

active support of Christian missionaries, initiated their efforts for the development of

secondary education for the female population of the province. By 1890-91, the number of

secondary educational institutions was raised to 10 with 2 high schools—the Alexandra

School at Amritsar and the Lady Dufferin School at Lahore. The rest 8 are middle schools

with missionaries‘ contribution of four.499

The number of secondary schools was further

increased and, in 1895-96, 14 secondary schools were found to be existent in the province.

The missionary institutions contributed about fifty percent of the total number of secondary

institutions. At the turn of the century there were 28 girls‘ secondary schools with

government contributing only the five, rest of the schools were maintained by the private

bodies.500

4.5.1 Training of Female Teachers

Provision of qualified and trained female teaching staff was the principal obstacle in

the extension of female education in the province. The supply of trained female teachers, at

the beginning of the period under consideration, was wholly inadequate to its demand. The

unavailability of the Normal schools to the nearest of the candidates was one of the main

reasons. There were only three Normal Schools for the training of female teachers, two of

which were managed by Native Committees and the third was under the management of SPG

mission. But none of these was reported to fulfil the purpose of their establishment.501

In

addition to the inefficient or insufficient number of training institutions, social constraints of

499

Report on the State of Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1882-83, 75. 500

Report on the Public Instruction in the Punjab and its dependencies for the Year 1900-01, (Lahore: the Civil

and Military Gazette Press, 1901), Appendix IV. 501

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 62.

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the society were also major hindrances in the provision of sufficient supply of trained female

teachers.

During the last decade of the nineteenth century new arrangement for the training of

the female teachers was evolved by the Punjab government. Due to the unsuitable character

of the Girls‘ Normal schools with the social norms of the society, the Government decided to

attach the training classes with the ordinary primary schools. Previously, the girls had to go

to far off areas for the purpose of training because the training classes were attached with the

secondary schools.502

The later arrangement lessened the pains of the girls, who were willing

to be trained as teachers in these schools. The missionaries also started teachers‘ training

classes with the girls‘ primary schools at different places.503

This policy came of with

encouraging results and had a healthy impact on the supply of female teachers in the girls‘

schools. So at the close of the century the department as well as the missionaries was relying

on this kind of arrangement to get some trained female teachers for the schools.504

Although the Indian Education Commission was formed to lessen the apprehensions

of Christian missionaries yet its recommendations were disappointing for the missionaries. It

recommended the issuance of financial grants to the native organizations which were

previously meant for the missionaries only and, in the Punjab, missionaries were taking a

lion‘s share from these grants. The Commission also refused to accept the missionaries

interpretation of ‗Wood‘s Education Despatch‘ according to which the government should

withdraw from the field education leaving the field wide open for the missionaries.

502

Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1890-91, 68-69. 503

By 1895, the Normal Classes were maintained in Alexandra School Amritsar, the Christian Girls‘ School,

and Mission Girls‘ School at Gujranwala. Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies for

the Year 1895-96 (Lahore: The Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1896), 46. 504

Report on Public Instruction in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1900-01, 19-20.

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Missionaries‘ demand of religious education was also not entertained. All these

developments tempted the missionaries to abandon their previous policy and form a new

course of action for their future activities. Consequently, the option of quality instruction at a

limited number of missionary schools, in stead of numeric dominance in the field, was

thought to be a better choice for the time. Under the influence of ‗downward filtration theory‘

they decided to limit their efforts to the maintenance of some well-organized institutions,

instead of many lacking in efficiency. So the missionaries, in stead of, approaching all and

sundry decided to impart quality education to the trend-setter upper echelon of the society

and thought that their education would ultimately trickle down to the lower rung of the social

hierarchy. Christian missionaries, during this period, made good advance in the field of

higher education. They established missionary colleges at almost all the important cities of

the province. Most of these colleges earned a good reputation for the missionaries in the

subsequent period. Advent of different native organizations in the field of education was

another important development. Native organizations from all the religious communities of

the province entered the field and did a precious work for the education of their respective

religious communities. Missionaries‘ increasing social and religious influence in the society

was the major source of drawing them in the field.

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Chapter 5

Christian Missionary Education in the Twentieth Century

(1901-1947)

The missionaries entered the twentieth century with the decision of adopting the

‗trickle down‘ policy in the field of education. Since their review of the previous fifty years

efforts suggested a shift in their future course of action therefore they modified their previous

policy in which quality of instruction preceded the quantity of educational institutions. So

their educational activities in this last phase—from the dawn of the twentieth century to the

end of the colonial rule in the subcontinent in 1947— were driven by their desire of

improving the quality of instruction at their institutions. They adopted different measures to

make their institutions the symbol of quality education. Their quality improvement measures

for the male missionary educational institutions comprise the establishment of Union

Institutions, improvement in the quality of training of the teachers, increased focus on the

religious efficiency, improvement in the education of the native Christians and the like. The

same policy of qualitative improvement was implemented in the field of women education.

In addition to the quality of education at missionary schools for girls, the initiation of

women‘s higher education was the major challenge for the missionaries. The missionaries

initiated their efforts to meet the challenges of the new century. They focused on the supply

of the female teachers, both in quality and in quantity, for their girls‘ schools. Separate

curriculum for the girls‘ schools was also an essential element to improve the quality of

education therefore the missionaries worked in this field also. Development of the girls‘

higher education led them to introduce co-education at collegiate level. They also established

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a pioneer institution for the higher education of the girls in the province where the students

were encouraged to adopt western ideals. This chapter contains the history of missionaries‘

educational efforts during the first half of the twentieth century. The chapter attempts to

explore the key measures, taken by the missionaries, which transformed their educational

institutions from the low class institutions to those of emblem of excellence. It also studies

the missionaries‘ role in the initiation of women‘s higher education, in the province. The

academic and social impact of the missionaries‘ endeavours in the field of women‘s

education is also discussed in this chapter. The missionaries‘ efforts in the fields of men and

women are discussed separately in this chapter.

5.1 Qualitative Measures in Boys’ Schools

The recommendations of the Indian Education Commission made the field wide open

for all the educational agencies. In this atmosphere of open competition, the missionary

institutions were supposed to compete with those managed by the non-missionary agencies,

including the government institutions. Anticipating to the challenges of the field, the

missionaries saw improvement in the quality of education at missionary schools as the best

solution to survive in the field. Consequently, they decided to improve the quality of

education at their educational institutions, instead of their numeric increase. As a corollary,

by 1902, they initiated their efforts to maintain their institutions in as high a state of

efficiency as possible.505

The improvement in the standard of instruction needed a total

revision of missionaries‘ priorities at their educational institutions. The matter was discussed

505

‗Findings of Calcutta Conference‘, in the Findings of the Continuation Committee Conferences held in Asia,

1912-1913 Arranged by Topics (New York City: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign missions, 1913),

211, also See National Conference for India in the Findings of the Continuation Committee Conferences held in

Asia, 1912-1913 Arranged by Topics (New York City: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign missions,

1913), 212.

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at different levels and the missionaries working in the field were also consulted to decide the

preferences to improve the quality of education at missionary institutions. The ‗World

Missionary Conference‘ 1910, held at Edinburgh did commendable task in this direction.506

The meticulous analysis of educational conditions of their institutions and that of the ground

realities of the time led the missionaries to incorporate some fundamental changes at their

educational institutions.

5.1.1 Provision of Trained Teaching Staff

Teachers‘ training was considered the most important area to improve the quality of

instruction at the schools. The scarcity of trained and qualified teaching staff was taken as

one of the major hurdles in the way of quality instruction at mission schools. As, the persons

equipped for educational work can produce quality education507

therefore the training of the

teaching staff was considered the best means to produce the desired results. So trained

teachers were suggested to give priority over the untrained ones at the time of new

appointments.508

These kind of considerations shifted the focus on the training of teachers

and ultimately to the establishment of Normal schools or hostels attached to the Government

training schools.509

The field of training was made attractive through the initiation of the

scheme of scholarships for the trainees. The missionary societies started to award

scholarships to induce the students towards the training institutions. The scholarships were

awarded on the conditions laid down by the Government, according to which the scholars

506

It appointed a Continuation Committee to carry forward the investigations started by the Commissions. Dr.

John R. Mott. the Chairman of WMC, visited principal Asiatic mission fields from October 1912 to May1913

and discussed different matters, including that of the measures for the qualitative improvement in missionary

educational institutions, with the missionaries in the field. Ibid., 7. 507

Ibid., 213. 508

Ibid., 211. 509

Ibid., 215.

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were bound to serve in the schools of the respective society.510

This measure was quite

helpful in inducing the students to the training and ultimately in fulfilling the teaching needs

of the respective Society.

The missionaries became conscious of maintaining a balance in the number of

teachers and that of the students at their schools. The excessive number of students in a class

was considered to mar the performance of the teacher. The ‗National Conference for India‘

recommended a sufficient increase in the number of existing teaching staff at missionary

schools. It recommended that:

The number of teachers, foreign and Indian, engaged in our colleges and schools,

should be largely increased, so that they shall not be so entirely absorbed in their

educational duties as to be precluded from close personal contact with their present

and past students.511

Maintenance of teachers‘ training institutions was one of the remedies suggested for

the disease. But the limited financial benefits, attached to the job, and lack of job security

were the major concerns of mission school teachers. As, during 1904-05, a large number of

efficient staff of Rang Mahal School Lahore was attracted by the Government school due to

the provided better package of pensions.512

Responding to this challenging situation, the

missionaries also decided to provide better packages for their teachers. Having these factors

in mind the Conference recommended to attach extra benefits with the profession of teaching

and suggested:

510

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, Sialkot,

India, October 15th

to 26th

, 1915 (Rawalpindi: Frontier Exchange Press, 1915), 448- 49. 511

Findings of National Missionary Conference for India‘, 213, 512

One Hundred and Third Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America (New York: Presbyterian Building, 1905), 151.

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That every legitimate effort be made to make the teaching profession attractive by

ensuring reasonable permanence of appointment, promotion, salary and provision of

old age.513

The missionaries were successful in drawing a sufficient number of candidates in

their training institutions. But the ever increasing number of pupils were difficult to manage

in the existing training institutions. For instance, Christian Training Institution at Sialkot was

gaining popularity and, in 1915, there were 252 students on the roll of the institution. The

boarding of the institution, which was recommended for not more than 76 people, was more

than full and there were 194 boarders residing in it. The number of students, at the boarding,

continued to increase and was gone to 209 in 1918. This type of situation confronted the

missionaries with another challenge of lack of sufficient number of institutions. The

missionaries felt the need of the day and decided to establish new training institutions in the

field. So they establish more training institutions to accommodate these teachers of the

future. The United Presbyterian Mission, following the decided policy, recommended the

establishment of a training institution at Sheikhupura, in 1918.514

5.1.2 Religious Efficiency

Religious efficiency was also considered an important component to improve the

standard of missionary school. It urges upon the creation of an efficient and strong Christian

atmosphere in the missionary schools. The presence of a strong and sufficient Christian staff

was the first and foremost requirement to achieve this end. But the scarcity of Christian

teachers, in the mission schools, was a major impediment in achieving the goal of religious

efficiency. Non Christian teachers were considered unsuitable for the teaching of Bible and

513

Findings of National Missionary Conference for India‘, 215. 514

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, Sialkot,

India, October 18th

to 26th

, 1918 (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1918), 228.

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other religious teachings. But they were holding their positions at mission schools due to the

paucity of Christian teachers in the field. The ‗National Conference for India‘ recommended

the replacement of non-Christian teachers with those of Christian religion.515

Since, the profound Christian impression, rather than a diffused Christian atmosphere

became the order of the day. The increased number of students, without having sufficient

number of Christian teachers, generally had a negative impact on the progress of a school,

especially in terms of its religious efficiency. So the choice of efficient education prompted

the missionaries to fix this important issue. The National Conference of India considered the

matter and suggested the maintenance of a suitable proportion between the number of

students and that of effective Christian members of the staff. The Lahore Conference also

observed in the same vein and declared that:

In order to attain the fullest efficiency, ……… It is further recommended that mission

schools and colleges be not multiplied more rapidly than they can be manned by

Christian teachers.516

The hostels attached to the mission schools and colleges were and effective means of

creating Christian atmosphere at their respective institution. The missionary administrative

staff at these kinds of hostels, especially the top of the hierarchy was considered to play a key

role in establishing Christian culture in the daily life of the resident students.517

In this

context, the ‗National Conference of India‘ suggested to bring all mission hostels under the

charge of Christian superintendents. Due to the extended importance of this office, the

515

‗Findings of National Missionary Conference for India‘, 213. 516

Ibid., 209. 517

Eugene Stock, The History of Church Missionary society, 200.

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superintendents should be ―thoroughly qualified by character to exert a strong spiritual

influence‖ on the resident Pupils.518

Religious teaching especially that of the Bible, was preferred at almost every mission

school. Christian teachers of mission schools conduct Bible classes daily in the schools. A

period of forty minutes, on daily basis, was specifically used for the teaching of Bible. In

addition, the other subjects were also adapted in Christian spirit and they were quite useful in

diffusing Christian spirit in the school. They were given scholarships to study religious

pedagogy, abroad, to adopt the latest teaching techniques in the teaching of Bible. The

missionaries believed that the success of students, in different examinations mainly

evaluating their secular knowledge, exerted a strong pull on the students to prefer secular

subjects to that of the Bible.519

Competitions of Bible studies, among the mission school

students were started to improve the religious efficiency and arousing the pupils‘ interest in

the Bible studies. These competitions were hoped to neutralize the attraction of secular

knowledge.

5.1.3 Union Institutions

The competitive atmosphere of the Indian education field prompted the missionaries

to unite their efforts. Previously the missionaries were overstretched by establishing more

and more institutions which made it difficult for them to concentrate on the one main school.

This lack of concentration was one of the major hurdles in the way of maintaining quality

instruction at missionary schools. Moreover the missionaries were making their endeavours

518

‗Findings of National Missionary Conference for India‘, 215 519

One Hundred and Third Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America, 151.

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separately and even with some rivalry with the other missionary societies.520

Although the

missionaries supported one another521

yet their efforts in the field of education were devoid

of cooperation. For instance, Church Missionary Society and the Presbyterian Missionaries

showed hospitality for each other and adopted the rules of missionary comity as their

working basis. They demarcated their territories and did not interfere with the work of each

other but the collective efforts, to build quality institutions, were totally missing in their

relationship. The challenges of the twentieth century made the missionaries to join hands and

put collective efforts to meet those of the changed scenario. By the start of the twentieth

century, the missionaries felt the united efforts as the need of the day and decided to unite

their efforts. The missionary bodies working in the Punjab took a step in this direction as

early as 1904. They formed a central council under the chair of Bishop, consisting of clerics,

lay men, and certain officials, to unite all their work.522

The National Conference of India,

recognizing the need of co-operation, made an appeal for co-operation to the missionaries in

the field and urged them to put their collective efforts in establishing and maintaining

educational institutions especially those of higher class. The views of the Bishop Whitehead

were typical who felt the dire need of co-operation to achieve the desired goals. At the annual

meeting of CMS, in 1914, he urged the missionaries to unite their force. He described his

experience in the following works:

When I first went to India thirty years ago I was strongly opposed to co-operation

with bodies outside the Church of England. Thirty years experience has made me a

520

Rivalry of SPG with the Baptists and the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society in the territory of

Delhi are some common examples. 521

As the Church Missionary Society came to the province of the Punjab on the invitation of C. W. Forman, a

missionary of Presbyterian Church of America. They maintained their spirit of mutual friendship in the

subsequent years. Henry Martin Clark, Robert Clark of the Punjab, 56. 522

Eugene Stock, The History of Church Missionary society, II, 201.

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complete convert…..if we are to do the work as God calls us to do it, we must have

co-operation now.523

As a corollary to these efforts the co-operation among different missionary

organizations became the hallmark of the twentieth century mission history. Efforts were put

to unite the missionary force and steps were taken to improve the standard of missionary

educational institutions. The efforts of the Punjab Christian Conference, in uniting and

inspiring a spirit of brotherhood in the Christian community, were of special note.524

The missionaries‘ efforts culminated into the development of different Union

institutions, under missionary organizations, in the twentieth century. The efforts were made,

by different missionary societies, to approach U.P Mission with a view to offer their co-

operation for Boys Industrial Home Gujranwala in making it a Union institution.525

Language

school of Landour was another good example of missionaries‘ Union institutions. As it

accepts missionaries from the other societies and train them in their desired languages.

Kinnaird College for women, Lahore and Woodstock College at Landour were the highlights

of missionaries‘ united efforts, in pursuit of establishing institutions of high standard.

5.1.4 Provision of Basic Facilities at Missionary Schools

In addition to all these measures, a special attention was focused on improving the

hygienic conditions at missionary schools. Large sums were incurred for renovation and

buildings purposed. The provision of fresh water and that of latrines got special attention of

523

Eugene Stock, The History of Church Missionary society, II, 193. 524

Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.(Philadelphia: Office of the

General Assembly, 1922), 253. 525

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, Sialkot,

October 19th

to 24th

, 1925( Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1926), 329.

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the missionaries. The Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, on his visit to the Mission High

School, Gujranwala, in 1915, admired the new building of the school in the following words:

I was glad of having an opportunity of paying a visit to the new Mission High School

building this morning. The school is an admirable one, and the new buildings are very

spacious, open, and airy. The high price of land in the vicinity prevents the expansion

which the management would desire but they are to be congratulated on having

accomplished so much for an institution which has done and is still doing excellent

work in Gujranwala.526

5.1.5 Focus on the native Christians

The education of the native Christian community also got attention of the

missionaries in the twentieth century. The major reason behind this development was the

conversion of a large number of low caste natives. The educational, social and financial

condition of these people was very poor. They were in dire need of some support from their

new co-religionists. On the other hand the establishment of native church was a longstanding

desire of Christian missionaries therefore they wanted the native congregations to establish

independent native churches. But the church needed educated leaders which were rare to find

in the native Christian community. This situation led the missionaries to take fundamental

steps for the education of the native Christian community. The missionaries suggested that

special attention should be focused on the education of Christian pupils at missionary schools

and colleges. So the Safeguard of the rights of Christian pupils became the foremost priority

of missionary educators.527

In order to improve the quality of instruction for the Christian

pupils, the National Conference of India suggested their separation from the students of other

526

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, 1915,

450. 527

‗Findings of Jubbulpore Conference‘, in the Findings of the Continuation Committee Conferences held in

Asia, 1912-1913 Arranged by Topics (New York City: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign missions,

1913), 205.

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religious communities. The idea was imported from the girls‘ educational institutions which

were imparting quality education to the Christina girls, in the separate classes. The separation

of the boys at primary stage was the most desirable priority.528

Moreover the missionaries

were suggested to pay their attention to the education of the village Christians also.529

The education of the native Christian community became more important for the

missionaries and they tried to take measures for the betterment of their everyday life. The

Christian students were encouraged to go to normal schools for training and, afterwards,

were preferred over the non-Christian candidates for appointment. Christian teachers were

given prominence and non-Christian teaching staff was largely replaced by that of Christian

teachers. The scholarships for Christian children were announced. Scholarships were also

awarded to the competent students to continue their studies at higher level. In 1915, 2

scholarships were given to the students of normal classes and 7 to the Christian students.530

U.P Mission Sialkot raised the amount of scholarships for the Christian students to Rs. 9388

in 1919 which was the largest amount it paid ever to its students.531

The Education Board of

Mission schools noted the measure as satisfactory.532

The missionaries also formed different village schools to accommodate their village

brethren in the field of education. The provision of trained teaching staff at the rural schools

was a major problem in establishing schools in the rural sites. The missionaries solved the

problem by establishing training schools in these areas. Training school at Moga was a

528

‗Findings of National Missionary Conference for India‘, 214. 529

‗Findings of Jubbulpore Conference‘, 205. 530

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, 1915,

,451. 531

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, 1919,

,228. 532

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, Sialkot,

October, 18th

to 27th

, 1920, (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1920), 380.

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typical example which was established to train the village Christians in their religion and

teaching. Training schools at Hajipura near Sialkot, was also founded to accommodate the

rural community.

Initiation of industrial training at missionary schools was a distinct decision taken

with a view to better the financial condition of the native converts. In addition to the

initiation of many types of vocational courses at missionary schools, different industrial

institutions were also established. For instance, industrial school was established at

Saharanpur and Ferozepur. The arts such as gardening, tailoring, blacksmithing,

carpentering, shoemaking, etc, were taught at these schools. The learning of these arts was

supposed to improve the financial condition of the learners. There were 175 students on the

roll of Saharanpur industrial school in 1905, with majority of these learning trades. In 1910,

32 students were learning carpeting, 5 blacksmithing, 12 shoemaking, and 7 tailoring.533

A

Boys Industrial Home was also started at Gujranwala in 1917. It was working quite

satisfactorily and the plan of its extension, to accommodate the increasing number of pupils,

was under process during 1919s. Moreover, vocational classes were started at Christian

Training Centre, Sialkot, in 1921.534

Furthermore, the U.P Mission decided to take steps for

the development of other indigenous industries—like pottery, tanning, shoemaking, basketry,

book-binding and the like.535

Rang Mahal High School at Lahore was one of the most important schools in the

province. Its presence at the cultural hub of the province and its multi directional influence

533

One Hundred and Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America (New York: Presbyterian Building, 1910), 180. 534

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, 1921.

56. 535

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Sialkot Mission of the Presbyterian Church of North America, 1919,

299.

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on the lives of the people further increased its importance. A brief historical overview of this

school during the first quarter of the twentieth century would be appropriate in

comprehending the missionaries‘ adoption and implementation of the qualitative measures in

their schools.

5.1.6 Rang Mahal High School, Lahore: A Reflection of Quality Institution

The pioneer missionary school situated in the capital of the Punjab was established by

the pioneer Presbyterian missionary C.W. Forman, in 1849. It earned a good name for its

extended network in the town during the first phase of missionary activities. During this

period it expanded its base and tried to have more and more students. In 1876-77, it was the

largest school among the entire lot of aided educational institutions. It had 22 branches

attached to the main school with the total enrolment of 1277 students on the roll.536

At the

main school, 12 out of 372 students were Christians and the teaching staff of 12 comprised 6

Christians.537

After the adoption of the policy of qualitative improvement, the school management

abandoned its efforts for expansion, in terms of number of students on the roll. As, in the

opening decade of the twentieth century, the number of students were a little lower than that

in 1876-77.538

The building of the school was although old but the hygienic conditions were

better than the others. As during the time of outbreak of the plague, the periodic and thorough

measures taken by the school management, remained it disinfected and it remained open,

536

Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1876-77, xxxvi. 537

Ibid., XXXVI. 538

There were 1136 and 1071 students on the roll in 1804 and 1809 respectively, against those of 1277 in

1876-77. See One Hundred and Third Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian

Church in the United States of America, 151 and One Hundred and Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Home

Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 188 , in comparison with the report of

popular education Report on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Year 1876-77, 74.

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whereas those of the other agencies were closed. No death on account of attending the school

was observed in this period of calamity.539

Moreover the building and the conditions of the

classrooms was improved progressively and, by 1914, all the rooms had sufficient furniture

and appliances. The inspector of schools therefore declared it ‗one of the best equipped in the

division.‘540

The school management was quite eager in maintaining a good number of teachers in

proportion to the number of students. This remains the focus of the management and the

schools were having 50 teachers for 1000 students on the role, in 1920.541

This proportion, of

one teacher for twenty students, was quite a good one for a teacher to pay individual attention

to the students. Due to the paucity of the Christian teachers, the teaching staff during the first

decade of the twentieth century was mainly dominated by the non-Christian teaching staff.

But, in spite of the flight of the best teaching staff during 1904-05, due to the better package

of pension, the school was able to maintain a sufficient number of teachers, in accordance

with the number of students.542

On the other hand, the paucity of Christian teaching staff did

not last for long and, during 1912, six Christian teachers were inducted in the staff.543

The

measure had a healthy effect in improving the standard of the school, in terms of religious

efficiency.

539

One Hundred and Third Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America 1905, 151. 540

One Hundred and twelfth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America (New York: Presbyterian Building, 1914), 204. 541

One Hundred Eighteenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America (New York: Presbyterian Building, 1920), 239 542

One Hundred and Third Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America , 151. 543

One Hundred tenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United

States of America (New York: Presbyterian Building, 1912), 237.

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The year, 1915, was marked by the increased interest, of the teachers as well as of the

students, in the teaching of Bible. The teachers spent most of their time in studying religious

pedagogy to improve their methodology of religious teaching. The students were daily taught

Bible and a considerable time was set aside for this purpose.544

The management of the

school stuck to achieve its declared objective of ―making Christ known by word and life as a

personal Saviour‖.545

By 1922 the school was using graded teaching of Bible according to the

following scheme of studies. The boys at primary section were taught the ‗Bible Lessons for

Little Beginners‘ and Bible stories from the old and new testament. The boys of the middle

section learnt ‗Heroes of Israel, a course on the life of Christ, and ‗what it Means to Be a

Christian‘ in the first, second, and third years of their studies, respectively. The High school

boys were given a complete knowledge of the life of Christ with a view of presenting him as

a Saviour. Special emphasis was focused on transforming the knowledge about the Church

membership, discipleship, missions, and about the future life.546

The civic training of the students was a distinct component of missionary education.

They were encouraged to found and manage the affairs of local societies at missionary

schools and colleges. This healthy activity was supposed to train the students in the worldly

affairs as well as to arouse their leadership qualities. Rang Mahal School, being the leader of

the lot, had a special emphasis on this aspect of missionary education. During the early

1910s, the older Christian boys of the school were encouraged to establish a fund for the

betterment of their poor brethren at school. A committee, of four students a headmaster and a

544

One Hundred Thirteenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America (New York: Presbyterian Building, 1912), 219. 545

One Hundred Eighteenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America 1920, 239. 546

Ibid.

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Principal, was formed to collect funds. The fund gained good popularity and the students

were supported in their books, fees, and clothing.547

The presence of a large number of graduates at key posts under the provincial

Government, during the second quarter of the twentieth century, shows the excellent standard

of education that the school attained in this period. Mr. K. L. Rallia Ram, the Headmaster of

the school, earned another type of honour for the school. He was elected as the member of

Legislative Council, in 1922. He was the second Vice-president of the Lahore Municipal

committee. As a member of Legislative Council, he had the honour to introduce a resolution,

in favour of Local option in the province.548

5.1.7 General Impact of Missionaries’ New Policy

The most important feature of this period was the commencement of missionaries‘

efforts to achieve the high standard of instruction at their educational institutions. Although

they abandoned their efforts of expansion yet it did not mean that the missionaries ended all

of their efforts to open the new schools. They did open new schools, but in the rural areas

with a view to accommodate the Christian village community. Being a major missionary

Society to contribute in the educational field of the Punjab, the efforts of the Presbyterian

Mission of America during 1910-1922, are worth noting. The following table tells the story

of their efforts during this period.

547

One Hundred tenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United

States of America 1912, 237. 548

Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A 1922, 239.

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Table 5.1: Number of students in the missionary schools during 1910-1922

Data extracted from the Annual Reports of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America, for the Years 1910 to 1922.

Missionaries‘ new policy of qualitative improvement had a mixed impact on the

society. It was good in improving the quality of instruction at the schools and presenting a

model for the others to follow. Previously, the missionary schools were lacking in efficiency

and the Inspectors of schools, time and again mentioned the lower standard of instruction at

these schools.549

But, the standard of missionary educational institutions was improved

considerably, in the twentieth century. The missionary educational institutions were rated as

first class institutions and most of the graduates of these institutions were successful in

securing good jobs in the Government sector.550

Rang Mahal School of Lahore along with

the Mission Schools at Ludhiana, Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Gujranwala were the typical

examples of high standard mission schools.

549

Reports on Popular Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies for the Years 1864-65 to 1876-77. 550

One Hundred Eighteenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the

United States of America 1920. , 239.

Year No. of schools No. of pupils Year No. of schools No. of pupils

1910-11 90 5655 1916-17 161 6759

1911-12 109 5665 1917-18 121 6671

1912-13 121 6442 1918-19 97 5973

1913-14 120 6326 1919-20 104 6732

1914-15 134 6530 1920-21 96 6507

1915-16 146 6523 1921-22 97 6361

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Teachers‘ training was another issue related to the efficiency of the schools. The

insufficient supply of trained teaching staff was a major problem in the previous century. In

addition to the insufficient supply, the poor quality of training was also considered to be a

major problem in attaining the objective of quality instruction. The standard of teaching was

reasonably improved due to the increasing supply of trained teachers from the missionary

training institutions.

It is a noteworthy fact that the conversions taken place during this period were mostly

from the lower classes of the society. The newly formed Christian community, consisting of

former outcasts, was mostly from the lowest rung of the social ladder. Their education at

boarding schools was quite meaningful in transforming their social habits.551

The schemes of

industrial and vocational education were started to better the financial condition of these

depressed classes of the society. These institutions tried their best and, to some extent,

fulfilled the desired objectives. But in the long run these institutions had a very little impact

on the financial and social status of the majority of the existing Christian community.552

In addition to the conversion of the people missionary institutions did a lot in

diffusing the Western social values in the society. The study of Western sciences, at

missionary schools, was quite helpful in developing the spirit of reasoning and logic in the

minds of the people. Moreover many people from the upper rung of the society were

influenced by the Christina spirit but did not come to the Christian fold. But, these people

were important because they, in spite of not losing their faith, came hard at the rites and

rituals of their religion. They spirit of scepticism, created in them by the missionary

551

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in Southern Asia, 44. 552

As at the time of partition, in 1947, and even today the Christian community is not in a position to rate

themselves as upper or middle class of the society.

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educational institutions, opened their eyes and they became sceptical of their religious

principles.553

It was termed as a great success on the part of missionary schools.

5.2 Missionaries Endeavours in the Field of Women’s Education

Education of women in the Punjab was still in a backward condition, at the dawn of

the twentieth century. Although considerable efforts were made by the Christian

missionaries, government and the native organizations, during the previous fifty years, yet a

meagre improvement was recorded in terms of increase in the literacy rate of the female

population of the province. The comparison of the returns of the census of 1901 and those of

the 1881 clearly showed the negligible progress made in this field of education. Three

women, out of one thousand, were found to be literate in 1901 against one out of thousand in

1881.554

The remarks of the Indian Education Commission also supported the argument by

stating ―it have been seen that female education is still in an extremely backward condition

and that it needs to be fostered in every legitimate way.‖555

The Director of Public

Instruction, Punjab, in 1900-1901, also observed in the same vein and described the

improvement in the field of women education in these words: ―The female education is

making slow but perceptible progress, but it is still in its infancy.‖556

In spite of the inadequate progress in the increase of women‘s literacy rate, during the

last half of the nineteenth century, some encouraging developments were also observed. The

prejudices against women‘s education were reduced to a considerable proportion and the

girls‘ schools were having not as much problems as at the time of annexation, in terms of

553

Sanjay Seth, ‗Secular Enlightenment and Christian Conversion: Missionaries and Education in Colonial

India‘, 37-38. 554

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 60 and

Census of India, 1901. 555

A. Biswas and S.P. Agarwal, Development Of Education In India, 31. 556

Report on the Public Instruction in the Punjab and its dependencies for the Year 1900-01, 4.

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strength of their students. The normal schools were also playing good role in providing an

augmented supply of female teachers consequently the supply of the female teachers for the

girls‘ schools was better than that in the previous century. So the ground was prepared and a

satisfactory improvement in the field of women‘s education was anticipated. Although the

collegiate education for women was totally non-existent in the field but the development of

school education, during the past fifty years, was expected to provide the foundation for the

former.

5.2.1 Challenges of the Twentieth Century

The challenges of women‘s education, at the dawn of the twentieth century, differ

from those in the previous fifty years. The social atmosphere of the society was changed and

the prevailing prejudices against women‘s education in the society were reduced, to some

extent. The reduction of the social prejudices against the women‘s education was resulted

into increase in the number of students at girls‘ schools. This changed situation posed serious

challenges to the proponents of the women education in the province. As, the streaming of

girls students towards the schools, as a result of this change, created some serious problems

like, the shortage of teaching staff , lack of sufficient space and buildings for these schools,

and likewise. So the changed circumstances demanded some serious planning, on the part of

the schools‘ management.

Paradoxical to the initiation of the school education, women‘s higher education, at the

start of the twentieth century, was totally non-existent in the province. The missionaries,

during the second half of the nineteenth century, were able to implant school education, with

the active support of the British government, but the matter of collegiate education was still

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in abeyance. The fostering of women‘s higher education, due to the serious social as well as

financial constraints attached to it, was a big challenge for the promoters of female education.

5.3 Qualitative Measures in the Girls’ Schools

The same policy of qualitative improvement was adopted in the field of women‘s

education also. The decision worked well for the cause of women‘s education in the region.

The missionaries‘ previous efforts of quantitative improvement were beneficial in implanting

the girls‘ education in the province. During the nineteenth century, the missionaries tried to

approach all and sundry by establishing schools throughout the province. On the other hand

the native people were not interested in the education of their girls. So the missionaries had

to work hard to bring the girls to the schools. But, the circumstances, at the start of the

twentieth century, were different and the people were willing, to some extent, to send their

girls to schools due to the motivational work done by the missionaries in the previous

century. Their efforts to bring the girls to schools became successful but their compromise on

the quality of education, during the process, was not without its grave consequences. But the

missionaries‘ decision, to focus the quality of education at their institutions, looked to be a

good decision to make amends for their previous shortcomings. They started using their

resources to deal with the problems like the shortage of trained teaching staff for the girls‘

schools, lack of separate curriculum for the girls‘ schools, lack of sufficient buildings, space

and furniture, development of higher education, etc instead of extending their network.

5.3.1 Training of the Female Teachers

Diffusion of true education depends a lot more on the personality and zeal of the

teaching staff and on their numeric adequacy than on the commodious buildings and

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expensive equipments. The provision of female trained teaching staff in the women‘s

educational institutions, in the Punjab was the major problem in the way of spreading

education among the female folk of this region. Although the level of difficulty was not as

high for the missionaries as it was for the other agencies yet the problem existed in their way

in terms of imparting quality education. As the training schools for women teachers were

mostly maintained by the missionaries‘ bodies with the object of supplying teachers to their

own schools557

therefore they had little problems, in terms of the supply of female teachers.

The review of the previous performance of missionaries‘ schools suggested that the main

reason of their poor performance, during the previous century, lay in the defective training of

the teachers. The supply of female teachers for their schools was sufficient in numbers but

the quality of training was inferior to that of the desired standards. None of the three normal

schools in the province, in 1882-83, for the training of teachers for girls‘ schools, was

reported to answer the purpose for which they were maintained.558

Consequently, to achieve

the objective of quality education, the missionaries decided to focus on the quality of training

of female teachers in their training institutions.

Most of the female training institutions were already in the hands of missionaries‘

bodies and, in twentieth century, they focused to improve the quality of their training at their

training institutions. They also increase the number of their training institutions to improve

the supply of teachers. As a corollary to their efforts their training institutions, during the

twentieth century, became the major contributors in the field of women‘s education. Kinnaird

girls‘ high school played an important role in training the women teachers for the girls‘

557

Sir Alfred Croft, Review of Education in India in 1886, with special Reference to the Report of the Education

Commission (Calcutta: the Superintendant of Government Printing, 1888), 288. 558

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 62.

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schools. Up to 1916-17, it was the only institution which offered the English teachers‘

training course of two years, very similar to that of Junior Anglo-vernacular Certificate.559

The United Presbyterian American mission at Sialkot also maintained very good classes of

Junior and senior vernacular during the first half of the twentieth century. It held the

responsibility of providing the female teachers to all the missionaries‘ schools, maintained by

that mission at different places of the province. The Church Missionary Society at Amritsar

and the American Presbyterians at Ambala also contributed by maintaining the training

classes for the women of their respective areas.560

Furthermore, the missionaries also contributed by providing trained female teachers

to the government schools. A significant increase, in the number of girls‘ schools, was

observed after the state‘s attempts to ‗decentralize‘ and ‗Indianize‘ the administration of

education, in 1919. The dramatic increase in the number of female educational institutions,

throughout India, was a reflection of the West where social and economic domestic

transformations during both world wars, and the influence of feminist thought, saw the

gradual emergence of girls‘ education as a primary objective of reformist governments.561

This increase in the number of institutions was ultimately culminated into the scarcity of

female teachers for these schools. The missionaries helped the education department in

solving the problem by increasing the supply of missionary teachers to the government

schools. They also helped in the training of the female teachers by lending their helping hand

to the government teachers‘ training institutions. For instance, Lahore Normal School for

Women was having problems in terms of the residence of its students. No suitable place for

559

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies During the Quinquennium Ending,

1916-17 (Lahore: Superintendent Government Printing, 1917), 35. 560

Ibid., 45. 561

Tim Allender, ‗ Educational Futures: Creating a Female Education Space in Colonial India, 1854-1934‘, 1.

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residential purpose was available to them. It was the Church of England Mission who came

forward and, in 1916-17, opened a special hostel under the mission‘s superintendence in

connection with the normal school.562

5.3.2 Curriculum of Girls’ Schools

The missionaries also focused on the curriculum of their girls‘ schools. They made

fundamental changes to enrich it with a view to improve the quality of their education. They

also tried to make their schools ‗change agents‘ by modifying their character to bring the

change in the traditional Punjabi society. Although the social values, which were creating

difficulties in the way of spreading education among the female multitude of the province,

were deteriorating gradually during the previous century, yet these social mores, still at the

start of the twentieth century, were existent in the society. Therefore, they initiated their

efforts to reform the conventional Punjabi society and tried to modify the curricula of their

institutions accordingly.

Up to the beginning of the twentieth century most of the girls were receiving

instruction in the same branches of general and professional knowledge as men, with the

exception of the Oriental studies, Engineering and Agriculture.563

The scheme of the studies,

in most of the girls‘ schools of the Punjab, was formed on the model of boys‘ schools. Such

instruction was almost unacceptable for the native population which was resulting into the

unpopularity of the girls‘ education in the province. As it was very unlikely for a woman in a

segregated country that the books prepared for boys would be either interesting or suitable to

the needs of the girls of the same area. Morality no doubt was the same for the both sexes and

562

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the year 1917-18 (Lahore: Superintendent of

Government Printing, 1918), 15. 563

Progress of Education in India 1902-1907, l (Calcutta: Superintendent Government, India, 1909), 212.

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for all classes still the native community did not want to see its girls advancing in boldness

and independence of spirit.564

Female education possessing a separate course of studies, with

a distinct religious and moral character along with some secular instruction, to help the girls

becoming good housewives, was the need of the day which could induce the native

population to educate their female children.

With the turn of the century, the missionaries, constrained with the considerations to

improve the quality of education, initiated their efforts to make changes in the curriculum of

their girls‘ schools to match it with the social needs of the female folk of the Punjab.

Needlework, according to the English methods, was, already taught in some of the mission

schools565

but with the beginning of the twentieth century, the missionaries made it an

integral part of the curricula of all their schools. In addition to the teaching of needlework

they also introduced the teaching of Domestic economy in some of their institutions. The

Boarding schools as compared to the day schools had ample opportunities to impart practical

training in the household work. The Christian Boarding Schools took up the subject

efficiently and consequently were able to earn a good name in this field. Practical training of

cooking, cleaning, washing and stretching the clothes, ironing, and housekeeping became the

integral part of the Christian boarding schools like those of Sialkot and Delhi. 566

Physical

training of female pupils was also the phenomenon of Christian missionaries‘ girls‘ schools.

Most of the schools, other than missionaries‘, were not having any proper arrangement for

the physical exercise of the female students due to the lack of space, equipment and that of

564

William Hunter, Report of the Indian Education Commission, Calcutta 83, 534. 565

Report of the Provincial Committee for the Punjab, of the [Hunter] Education Commission, 1884, 62. 566

Report on the Public Instruction in the Punjab and its dependencies for the Year 1900-01, 26.

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organization of the games.567

On the contrary the missionaries were very much concerned

about the physical exercise of the girls and therefore initiated their efforts in this direction.

The girls were encouraged to take part in the games especially the boarding schools had

arrangements for indoor and outdoor games, on regular basis, for their residents.

5.3.3 General Impact

The quality management measures of the Christian missionaries were quite helpful in

improving the standard of female education in the province. Although these schools were not

able to produce desired results, in terms of conversions, yet they were able to produce a

generation who was fired with zeal for the service of mankind.568

Boarding schools, where

the children of the converts were given a Christian education in an atmosphere totally

different from the existing conservative society, were meant to be the fittest means for

revolutionary change in the society. Transformation of the personal habits was one of the

glaring features of these institutions because the missionaries were able to train the students

through their communal arrangements in the hostels of these schools. In this way the

missionaries used their institutions to develop trained leadership for the Christian

community.569

The missionaries‘ schools were also helpful in influencing the students of

other communities, also. The Christian schools provided a unique opportunity for the

missionary teachers to impart instruction in the faith to Hindu and Muslim youth through

Bible study and daily worship.570

567

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab and its Dependencies During the Quinquennium Ending

1916-17, 45. 568

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in South Asia, 41. 569

Ibid., 42-44. 570

P.D. Devanandan, Christian Issues in South Asia, 41.

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The missionaries, in the nineteenth century, were able to draw, all the three major

religious communities, into the field of women‘s education. The Muslims, Hindus and the

Sikhs had some sort of educational networks for the education of their respective

communities. In the twentieth century, the missionaries created a healthy competition with

the native educational institutions, by their qualitative stress. So by their quality management

measures for their educational institutions, they drew the native individuals and organizations

in the competition and made them conscious about the quality of their respective educational

institutions. As Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, representing the Muslim community quickened

its efforts for the education of their women. Due to its serious concerns about the curriculum

of the girls‘ schools, it set up a publishing house which was involved in the publication of

books for the girls and these books were used all over the Punjab and beyond.571

Anjuman

also started secondary education for the Muslim girls and some institutions for this purpose

were founded in 1920s and 1930s.572

It established separate orphanages for men and women

where education was provided to the orphan boys and girls and children were prepared for

life.573

The Sikh reformers were also much concerned about the curriculum, taught in their

girls‘ educational institutions and this burning issue was debated in the Sikh newspapers and

periodicals of early twentieth century.574

The Sikh reformers believed that separate

curriculum for boys and girls was the need of the day and the otherwise option would be

destructive for the patriarchal oriental society. Opening of Sri Guru Kanya Maha Vidyalayia

by Bhai Takhat Singh was one of the major developments of the twentieth century, regarding

education of the Sikh women. As, by 1935, the institution singlehandedly produced 840

571

Sarah Ansari, ‗Winds of Change?‘ The Role of Women Activists in Lahore before and after Partition‘, 2. 572

S.Razi Wasti, ‗Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore—A Brief History‘, 69. 573

Ibid., 72. 574

Joginder Singh, ‗Women Education and Sikh Reformers: A Study of Sikh Newspapers and Periodicals in the

Early 20th

Century‘, Journal of Regional History, VII (2001): 79.

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Matric, 1260 Middle and around 2500 primary students.575

So, the earnest efforts made by

the native reformers, to keep their respective communities away from the missionaries‘

institutions, and the missionaries‘ quality management measures were ultimately culminated

into the improvement of quality of female education in the province.

5.4 Initiation of Female Higher Education: Missionaries’ Contribution

Fostering of higher education among the women of the Punjab was another challenge

of the new century. Development of the female education, to the school stage, was the

phenomenon of the previous century and that of the higher education was the need of the

day. In addition to the social prejudices against the higher education of women, the nature of

education at college level was also a serious challenge for the promoters of women‘s higher

education in the province. Sensing the importance of the matter, the missionaries came

forward and initiated their efforts in this field.

5.4.1 Development of Collegiate Education

As stated above the female collegiate education, at the dawn of the twentieth century,

was non existent in the Punjab. The British Government, with the active support of Christian

missionaries, was successful in establishing some arrangement for the girls‘ education to the

level of secondary education. Due to the lessening the intensity of the local prejudices against

the female education, the female education to the level of school, can be said to be in a

flourishing condition as, at the close of the nineteenth century, there were 315 primary

schools with 12103 scholars, 25 middle schools with 1845 scholars and 9 high schools with

575

Ibid., 84.

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875 scholars in the province. 576

In spite of this encouraging situation of women‘s education

at school level, the higher education was totally non-existent and, by the end of the

nineteenth century, not a single women‘s college was found in the province. But with the

turn of the century, the argument of the debate was shifted from the basic question ‗whether

the girls should be educated or not‘ to ‗how far women‘s education should go‘.577

Christian Missions, known as institution builders, responded positively to the issue of

fostering collegiate education for women in the Punjab. This uphill task in the Punjabi

society required a gigantic effort because of the conservative spirit of the society towards the

female education, which was still prevailing over the society with lesser intensity. The

prejudice against the college education of the girls was greater than that at school level and

the questions were raised about the women‘s intellectual capacity to do work and their

relevance of college experience.578

The native reformers had the strong belief that the women

were physically, mentally and spiritually inferior to their male counter parts and therefore

majority of the women were deprived of higher education. On the contrary the missionaries

stressed the intellectual equality of women and were of the opinion that men and women

should be taught the same scheme of studies. In fact the debate among the social reformers,

the provincial government and the Christian Missionaries, on the aforesaid questions,

hampered institutional development of women‘s higher education in the Punjab.579

576

Report on the Public Instruction in the Punjab and its dependencies for the Year 1900-01, 26-29. 577

David Moles, ‗Memsahibs, Goddesses and Whores: Debates over Women‘s Education in Late Nineteenth-

Century India (February, 2000): 7.

http://www.chrononaut.org/~dm/papers/education.pdf 578

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘,

56-57. 579

Ibid., 56.

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a) Co-Education

The missionaries initiated their efforts in the field of collegiate education for women,

immediately after the turn of the century. Finding themselves lacking in resources to

establish separate colleges for women, they decided for the first time to adopt the policy of

co-education. This was a risky area to work as the society was not liberal enough to accept

this mode of education for their girls. Even at school level, co-education was not acceptable

to the native community. The girls attending boys‘ schools were considered to have little

protection and were brought up in an atmosphere not conducive to the development of

qualities of gentleness, reserve, and the quiet behaviour which was inherent in the Indian

ideal of womanhood.580

The majority of the inspectresses reported that the feelings of the

people in their circles were against co-education.581

But the missionaries took the first

practical step in this direction, in 1902-03, by admitting two female students in the Forman

Christian College, Lahore.582

The F.C. College remained the only institution to provide

higher education facilities to the women of this region, till the foundation of Kinnaird

College, the first women‘s College in the Punjab. Although the performance of the college,

in the early years, was below satisfactory due to the prevailing social intolerance towards co-

education yet the missionaries, slowly but steadily, became successful in promoting this

mode of instruction in the province. As, by the start of 1930s, many girls were found

studying in boys‘ colleges and a distinct inclination towards co-education at the collegiate

stage was observed583

580

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the year 1930-31 (Lahore: Superintendent

Government Printing, 1932), 70. 581

Progress of Education in India, 1902-1907, I, 260. 582

S.K. Datta, History of the Forman Christian College, selection from the records of the College 1869-1936, 9. 583

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the year 1930-31, 71.

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b) Separate Girls’ Colleges

The experience of co-education did not proved to be successful in the conservative

society of the Punjab. The people were already not in favour of girls‘ education especially

that of higher education, and the system of co-education at higher level was extremely

unacceptable for them. Consequently the missionaries‘ efforts for the initiation of higher

education of women, through co-education, bore little fruits. So the missionaries decided to

try separate college for women and the foundation of Kinnaird College was the ultimate

result of the decision. Kinnaird College provided the real base for the girls‘ higher education

in the province. This premier women‘s educational institution was founded in 1913 by the

Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, a British Mission devoted to the work for South Asian

women.584

The management of the college was, initially, interested in increasing the

professional qualifications of the native Christian women but the missionary staff of the

college had to address the long debating issues like the competence of the women for

collegiate education and the relevance of college experience for women.585

So, in the

beginning the first Intermediate class, comprising six students, was started at Kinnaird Girls

High School with Miss Joan McDonald as Principal of the college. The girls who desired to

study beyond intermediate were obliged to study privately for degree examinations or to

attend some boys‘ college.586

Afterwards, the college was granted affiliation up to the B.A.

classes, in 1916, on the condition that the collegiate classes were held quite separately from

584

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 56. 585

Ibid., 56-57. 586

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the Year 1917-18, 17.

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the school.587

So after the compliance of the condition, the B.A classes were commenced in

1917, by admitting five students in the third year class. 588

The college was started in and around Kinnaird Girls High School but, sensing the

need for more room to grow, was moved to Lake Road in 1926.589

The college administration

acquired twenty acres of land near Lahore's canal, in 1933, and new buildings were

constructed to accommodate the streaming numbers of girls studying at the college. The

college was shifted to the new building in 1938 and this twenty-acre campus was humming

with activity by 1939.590

The college remained the only institution in the province to impart

collegiate education to the female students, till the foundation of Lahore College for Women

in 1922. Both these colleges were the only women degree colleges in the province till 1939,

when Islamia College for Women was founded.

Kinnaird College was one of the major missionaries‘ institutions of the province and

it brought about major changes in the lifestyle of its students and ultimately in the social

structure of the society. This unique missionary institution performed a very critical role in

reforming the conservative Punjabi society as well as in promoting higher education among

the women of the province. The missionaries, through this institution, were able to break the

shackles of social customs and norms which, in their view, were depriving women from their

basic right of education. Although, in the beginning, the missionaries were unable to attract

the students from the Hindu and the Muslim communities but with the passage of the time

the prejudice was minimized and after 1933 the majority of the Students were found from the

587

Ibid. 588

Ibid., 17-18. 589

Official website of Kinnaird College, http://www.kinnaird.edu.pk/about-kinnaird-college, accessed on 28-

10-09 at 03-05 pm. 590

Ibid

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Hindu community. The Muslim community was also influenced, directly or indirectly, by

this institution as its popularity forced the Muslim community to establish their own college,

to prevent the Muslim girls from joining the missionaries‘ institution. The missionaries‘

effective interference, in the field of women‘s higher education, consistently tempted the

other organizations to deliver in this field. So, this college from its inception to partition of

the province in 1947, either by its quality of education or by the distinct ethos based on

western ideals, provided a permanent source of promoting higher education in the province.

5.5 Qualitative Measures

Like the other fields of education, Christian missionaries applied their qualitative

measures in the field of female higher education also. They introduced the following

measures to improve the standard of their institutions.

5.5.1 Kinnaird College: A Union Institution

The adoption of the new policy of qualitative improvement tempted the missionaries

to direct their efforts to improve the quality of their existing educational institutions rather

than increasing the number of their institutions. Acting according to their policy, different

missionary societies joined hands to make the Kinnaird College their Union Institution in

1919. The Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, the American Presbyterian Mission, the

Church Missionary Society, the United Presbyterian Mission and the Punjab Indian Christian

Conference became the members of the Association of the College. The Church of Scotland

and the Methodist Church in Sothern Asia were also found to be providing financial support

to the college in the subsequent years. The College was governed by a Board of Directors

composed of the representatives of the members of the Association and some co-opted

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members.591

The collective quality conscious efforts of the Christian missionaries bore fruits

and the college, due to its distinct quality of instruction and discrete personality building

features, achieved the status of an apex institution for girls‘ education.

The early days of the college were not without difficulties and the missionaries were

facing financial problems, due to the World War I, as well as those of students‘ strength, due

to the communal prejudices against the Christian missionaries and the higher education of

women. As only a few Hindu, Sikh and Muslim Punjabi families were willing to expose their

daughters to the influence of Christianity.592

But the missionaries faced these difficulties

judiciously and remained committed to achieve the basic object of quality instruction. So by

1920-21, only thirty eight students were on the rolls of the college but as a corollary to the

missionaries‘ qualitative stress the college started to show gratifying results. As in the same

year, Miss L. Fazal, a student of Kinnaird College, stood first in English in the University

and in addition to winning a university scholarship, was awarded the Patiala-Sime Gold

Medal. Miss Harkishen Lal, another student, also gained the Shah Din Asghari Khanum Gold

Medal for heading the list of women candidates in Urdu.593

The college also showed good

results in the co-curricular activities and carried off the gold medal for the best woman

speaker at All India Students‘ debate held at Hindu University Benares, in 1921-22.594

In a

nutshell, by 1930, the Kinnaird College acquired a reputation of standard-setting in certain

social skills. Moreover, its admission standards, teacher-pupil ratio, extracurricular activities

591

Directory of Churches and Missions in India and Pakistan (Ootacamund: the World Dominion Press, 1951),

308. 592

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 61. 593

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the Year 1920-21, 54. 594

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the Year 1921-22(Lahore: Superintendent

Government Printing, Punjab, 1922), 133.

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and fee schedule combined to set it apart as the most prestigious women‘s college of the

region.595

The missionaries introduced many kinds of novel things for the purpose of enhancing

the performance of their institutions. Here in the Punjab they, most of the times, focused on

academic as well as the personality development features of the educational institutions.

Kinnaird College, as the missionaries‘ Union institution, reflected their collective wisdom

regarding their concept of quality educational institution. Here are some of its discrete

features which won fame for the college and helped it in maintaining its distinct character

amongst the contemporary institutions.

5.5.2 Building and Social Setting

It is true that good work depends far more upon the personality and zeal of the

teaching staff and on the pupils‘ keenness to learn than on commodious buildings and

expensive equipment. But a certain minimum of accommodation and equipment, in the way,

is however a necessary factor, if really good work is desired. In its absence energy is

dissipated and enthusiasm is apt to cool. Kinnaird College was grown out from a girls‘ High

school and therefore was in need of a building, commodious enough to fulfil the needs of the

college.

The missionary management of the college sensed the need of more room to grow

and shifted on the Lake Road building. But shortly after the shifting of the college at Lake

Road, the building failed to accommodate the ever growing number of students in the

college. The girls were streaming towards the college, but Kinnaird College along with

Lahore College for Women, the only degree colleges of the province till the late 1930s, were 595

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 71.

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consistently compelled to refuse admission to many students owing to lack of sufficient

accommodation.596

The missionary administration responded positively to the needs of the

time and the Board of Directors of Kinnaird College as early as 1930 decided that the

existing compound was not large enough to fulfil the needs of the college.597

Therefore the

funds were collected in America and in England for the purchase of land and negotiations for

the purchase of site, a little outside Lahore, were proceeding.598

In 1933, a twenty acres tract

of land was acquired near Lahore‘s famous canal and new buildings were constructed to

house the ever increasing number of girls who were streaming towards this institution.599

By

1939 the college was moved to the new twenty acre campus and it started humming with

educational activity. The new campus proved to be spacious enough to fulfil the futuristic

needs of the college and the administration never faced the problem of accommodation, in

the future.

The early twentieth century Punjabi society was a collection of different religious

groups—Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, etc—each of these groups had its own social

hierarchy. Economic, linguistic and geographical factors were the indicators of social identity

in these groups. The norms of gender segregation underlying purdah were frequently

observed by almost all the three major communities—Hindu, Muslim and Sikh—which,

according to the missionaries‘, deprived the women from their basic right of education,

during the second half of the nineteenth century.600

But in the early twentieth century, the

intensity of gender segregation was lessened, to some extent, due to the development of girls‘

596

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the Year 1935-36 (Lahore: Superintendent

Government Printing, Punjab, 1937), 79. See also Reports on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the

Years 1930 to 1939. 597

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the Year 1930-31, 71. 598

Ibid., 71. 599

Official website of Kinnaird College. 600

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 58.

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schooling in the province. Women‘s dependence on their male counterparts was another

social feature of the society and this tendency was found in all the middle and high-status

Punjabi women, regardless of their communal groups.601

This dependence of a young girl

was transferred from her natal to her conjugal family through the system of ‗arrange

marriage‘. This system of women‘s dependence, in missionaries‘ views, was highly

damaging for the education of the young girls. Moreover, joint family system of the society

was also considered to be a major hurdle in the way of female education. As, members of the

family were expected to fulfil the needs of the family before fulfilling their personal desires

consequently, the extended family system sacrificed the pleasures of an individual for the

sake of others‘ satisfaction.602

In this kind of social setting, the missionaries found themselves at back foot and

decided to select Lahore as the centre of their higher education activities. Lahore was the

provincial capital of the Punjab and thus was recognized as the cultural centre of new

English-educated Punjabi elite groups. As, men of these groups secured appointments in

government service by attending the English- language educational institutions, providing the

prerequisite for the government employment.603

The missionaries highlighted the utilitarian

aspect of the education and set professional ideals to attract the female students to their

institutions. They challenged the existing social values of the society, directly and indirectly.

5.5.3 Professional and Social Idealism

Christian missionaries used the social setting of Lahore to promote higher education

by encouraging professional ideals for women, instead of their dependence on their male

601

Ibid., 60. 602

Tom G. Kissinger, Vilyatpur, 1848-1968; Social and Economic Change in a North Indian Village (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1974), 177-184. 603

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 58.

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family members. They, throughout the second quarter of the twentieth century, promoted

professional careers for educated women, through Kinnaird College. In their pursuit for

professionalism, the missionary staff of Kinnaird College overruled the provincial

government and University policies and directed students‘ life and extracurricular activities

to teach them to be informed teachers and responsible citizens instead of training them for

domestic roles.604

‗Social training‘ of the students was another feature of missionary

education at Kinnaird College. The missionary staff of the college encouraged women to

develop their ideas of what women could accomplish, in case they were inclined to assume

domestic roles as adults. The missionaries‘ stress on professionalism along with their

personality building features for women won them fame and, by 1930s, students from almost

all the religious communities of the province started to join Kinnaird College. In March

1931, 81 students were found on the rolls of the college, out of whom 39 were Christian, 20

Hindu, 12 Muslim, 8 Sikh, 1Parsi, and 1 Jain.605

The importance of the social and

professional skills was determined by the students‘ generation and natal religion.

The native Christian community of the Punjab had neither the established patterns of

seclusion nor the financial resources to keep their daughters at home until their marriage.606

Moreover, about one quarter of the first Christian community comprised orphans who were

in dire need of employment training due to non availability of families for their arrange

marriages. So the Initial Christian students, often coming from a real financial need, started

to attend the college mainly to get employment as teachers in the education department. The

missionary staff of Kinnaird College responded positively to their needs as, during 1920s,

604

Ibid, 57. 605

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the Year 1930-31, 72. 606

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 72.

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they designed college life according to the needs of the Christian majority of students and

helped Christian graduates in finding employment in the mission schools network.607

The

ever expanding network of girls‘ educational institutions created lots of teaching vacancies

for women in the province. The missionaries also offered scholarships for the education of

Christian girls and help them in seeking some employment after graduation. In this way

education of a daughter became a good investment for the family which induced the

Christian families to educate their daughters. All these factors went on to the dominance of

Christian women in the teaching profession, till 1930.608

The Hindu girls started to dominate the students‘ body of the college from 1933 till

the partition of the Punjab in 1947. The early Hindu students, contrary to those of the

Christian community, came from economically privileged families of the Hindu community.

These families did not send their girls due to any financial constraints rather for the purpose

of their social accomplishment. The parents were determined to find suitable matches for

their daughters from the professional classes of the society and socialization of the girls was

considered to be a good merit in this regards. English education and university degrees

through Kinnaird College became a social accomplishment for the Hindu girls, in this way,

the prestige of English education from the Kinnaird made it an attractive investment for

Hindu families who wanted their daughters to marry professional men. 609

The Muslim students‘ representation at Kinnaird College was found to be lower than

that of the Christians and Hindus, till 1947. In fact very few Muslim families allowed their

daughters to join Kinnaird due to their fear of Christian influence and disapproval of the lack

607

Ibid., 73. 608

Ibid., 72. 609

Ibid., 75-78.

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of purdah arrangements.610

Rather the Muslim students were attracted towards Lahore

College for women, which was a secular government college offering purdah facilities.611

The few students who joined Kinnaird College did so, on the inclination of their Western-

educated father or some other relative.

In a nutshell the missionaries, by presenting education as a professional or social

accomplishment, were able to induce the students which ultimately went on to the

development of Western ideals and the feelings of disregard for the prevailing conservative

attitude of the Punjabi society. The utilitarian factor, attached with teachers‘ training, and the

socialization of the students through English education were the glaring features of Christian

missionaries‘ higher education.

5.5.4 Western Culture

Grown out of a high school, Kinnaird College, by 1920, was able to establish itself as

a separate institution with a distinct ethos based on Western ideals. The ideals of the college

shaped a distinct philosophy of life which fostered common characteristics in the adult

lifestyle of its students, irrespective of their diverse religious identities. The Christian staff

imbued the students with moral and social values and college life influenced almost all

patterns of adult social interaction. It comprised lessening of gender segregation for educated

women, all aspects of marriage arrangements—from the age of the bride to the choice of

suitable husband and to their expectations of married life—and other aspects of life.612

610

Ibid., 79. 611

Report on the Progress of Education in the Punjab for the Year 1930-31, 71. 612

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 70.

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The dormitory of the college and the extracurricular activities were the only means to

influence the social aspect of students‘ lives. As the curriculum of the college was dictated by

the University of the Punjab and the college staff was involved only in the above said two

areas of college activities. More than half of the students of the college used to live in the

college hostel and residents students continued to comprise between half and three-quarters

of the total enrolment of the students, till 1947.613

Most of these students, during the early

days of the college, lived in a small compound with the Christian missionaries and therefore

had the opportunities of frequent interaction with the missionary staff. This interaction

developed a familial solidarity, centred upon the mission staff‘s ideals, among the staff and

resident students. They took their meals together at the college as members of one family.614

This matter of common dining room, contradictory to the Hindu caste dietary exclusiveness,

was one of the significant features of Kinnaird College‘s hostel-life.

In addition to this the Muslim tradition of purdah was also non existent at Kinnaird

College. Even day students at college were not able to spare themselves from interacting with

the male community, due to the appointment of part-time male teachers. The missionary staff

thought the students‘ training of self reliance and responsibility, by allowing them some

social freedom under guidance, as the part of the function of the college which induced the

students to give up the restriction of purdah615

. Furthermore, the college was involved in the

coeducational public debates. The students of the college were consistently showing good

results in their debating and declamation competitions with both male and female candidates

at university level. This activity of participating in the mixed debates was a serious violation

613

Ibid., 62. 614

Staff, Kinnaird college for Women, Lahore (n.p., 1923), 11-12.cited in Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change

and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 62. 615

Staff, Kinnaird college for Women, Lahore, 11-12. Ibid.

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of purdah restriction which was not without objections, even from the families which were

not observing purdah.616

I.T. McNair, the Principal of the college, enhanced the Kinnaird College‘s ethos,

developed in 1920s, by her emphasis on women‘s civic training and conviction that women‘s

education should be intellectually equal to that of men.617

The students were urged to develop

a sense of responsibility, as members of the college community, and a ‗civic spirit‘ that

would stay with them after graduation.618

For this purpose the college life was structured to

give students experience in different kinds of social settings, through the system of

committees to conduct the daily affairs of the college. The students, with the help of a staff

member, were involved in running the extra curricular activities such as debates, social

service, etc.619

As far as the intellectual equality of men and women is concerned, Kinnaird‘s

Principal McNair, in 1933, was glad to know that men‘s and women‘s colleges were to

follow the same procedure of granting degrees to their successful candidates in the university

examinations. In 1936, she strongly argued against the inclusion of domestic science in the

curriculum, in a university committee appointed by the Vice Chancellor to explore the

question of female education in reference to Indian social needs.620

The British Vice

Chancellor of the University was inclined to take in domestic science in the curriculum and

presented the matter by saying:

616

E.M. Edwards, Kinnaird College Records, 1922-23 , 9. Ibid., 64. 617

Ibid., 68. 618

I. T. McNair, KCR 1938-39,13; interview with Mangat Rai cited in Ibid., 64.. 619

Kinnaird College, Lahore; College Handbook (Lahore: the Punjab Religious Book Society Press, 1950), 2. 620

Ishwar Das to the Vice Chancellor, 11 June, 1936, cited in Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social

Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘, 67.

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Would it not be possible to make the women‘s education of a far more practical kind

than it is now, so that no woman can obtain any kind of diploma or degree without

being really well-trained for what is bound to be the main occupation of 99% of her

sex? I do not see how we can avoid the conclusion that education has got to fit people

for the battle of life, but if education is going to unfit the women for the places they

will have to occupy in life, it will become harder and harder to obtain a strong public

opinion in favour of female education.621

McNair differed fundamentally with the views of the Vice chancellor and said that

domestic science should be based on science to have some academic value. Therefore, its

introduction must be preceded by the introduction of teaching of science in the girls‘ high

schools and colleges. In fact she was against the inclusion of domestic science in the

curriculum therefore, realizing the acute financial problems in introducing the science classes

at school and college level, she attached the matter with the introduction of science.622

In this

way Kinnaird College continued its previous policy and the Vice Chancellor‘s directions

were not followed by the college administration.

5.5.5 Impact on the Society

a) Academic impact

Christian missionaries‘ educational efforts had long lasting impact on the society in

terms of educational condition of the female population of the province. They were the

pioneers in establishing their network of institutions for women‘s formal education in the

Punjab and their efforts initiated a new era in this important field of education. The

missionaries, with the strong support of the imperial government, were able to foster the

tradition of female education in this region, by the end of the nineteenth century. But their

621

D.O letter no. 372-9, F. L. Brayne, Vice Chancellor, Punjab University, to Bishop…….., Commissioner of

Rural Reconstruction. Simla, 10 June, 1936,I. copy in Kinnaird College files Ibid., 67. 622

Ibid.

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efforts, till that time, were restricted only to school education only. With the turn of the

century they started their efforts in the field of higher education and, by the end of the first

quarter of the twentieth century, they were able to fashion it in the Punjabi society. As their

foundation of the first women‘s college at the queen city of Lahore was followed by the

others and more colleges for women were founded in the province.623

It is a notable fact that although the missionaries did not have numerical dominance,

in terms of educational institutions, yet they were able to induce the others to work in the

field of women‘s education. They set high standards of quality education and, by their

effective interference, they were able to create an atmosphere of competition with the other

educational agencies. For instance the Hindu and the Christian communities responded

positively to the missionaries‘ efforts in the field of women‘s higher education but the

Muslim community reacted through the work of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam (Association for

the Service of Islam). Anjuman was working for the education of Muslim women, since its

inception in 1884, and was able to create a network of girls‘ schools and orphanages in

different parts of the province where girls were taught Urdu and the Qur‘an, as well as

mathematics, needlework and other crafts.624

By the mid 1920s, it took up the issue of

women‘s secondary or collegiate education and initiated its efforts in this field which were

culminated into the foundation of Islamia College for Women, Lahore, in 1939.625

Anjuman

was also conscious of quality of education at its institutions. It attempted to make an

623

Queen Mary‘s College and Lahore College for women started their work in this field. Furthermore,

Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam also took up the issue of secondary or collegiate education for women by 1925, see

Sarah Ansari, ‗Winds of Change?‘ The Role of Women Activists in Lahore before and after Partition‘, 2. 624

Ibid., 1. 625

Gail Minault, Secluded Scholars: Women‟s Education and Muslim Social Reform in Colonial India (Delhi:

Oxford University Press, 1998), 176.

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arrangement for the higher education for the girls according to the Islamic concept of

education and Islamia College for Women was a classical example in this context.

b) Social Impact

Education of women is considered to be one of the most powerful forces to the social

reformation. The Christian Missionaries promoted it as a remedy to the depressed position of

women in the Punjabi society. Higher education holds more important place, in this regard,

than that of the school education, because of its critical role in moulding the lifestyle of the

students under instruction. So the progressive evolution of higher education in the Punjab,

during the twentieth century, generated long lasting social impact in shaping the established

social patterns on the modern lines. Although the immediate effect of missionaries‘ efforts

was relatively smaller than it was expected yet it was enough to provide them a launching

pad in their pursuit to reform the society.

Punjabi women were performing the role of subordinate to their male counterparts,

for centuries. The women, irrespective of their class, community or religion, were heavily

dependent on their male family members and were confined to their domestic roles. A sharp

line between the roles of men and women was drawn by the restriction of purdah. The

missionaries propagated the equality of women and their slogan was well echoed in the

activities of Kinnaird College, the missionaries‘ Union institution. Some serious violations of

purdah were observed in its academic as well as extracurricular activities. Therefore the

alumnae of Kinnaird College, even from the Muslim families, were willing to drop purdah

restrictions.626

Independence of women was also dreamt through their socialization and

626

Michelle Maskiell, ‗Social Change and Social Control: College-Educated Punjabi Women 1913 to 1960‘,

69-83.

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encouragement for professional ideals. As the missionaries, through Kinnaird College,

promoted female intellectual quality and encouraged women to consider professional careers

after graduation.627

So, women‘s world was expanded from their domestic roles, as wives and

mothers, to the non-domestic by including social work and other activities beyond their kin

groups.628

Missionary institutions also attempted to develop familial relationships among the

students, irrespective of their religious identities. Although they were not fully successful in

their efforts to bring students out of their religious boundaries yet some kind of familial ties

were found to be exist among the students. They shared common educational experiences

which helped them to evolve their concepts of life. The same tradition was also found in the

other educational institutions and many of the women, who participated with vigour in the

pro-Pakistan agitation of the mid-1940s, had shared common educational experiences which

shaped their political responses.629

Furthermore English education brought about changes in all the religious

communities of the Punjab. The Christian converts, the Muslims, the Hindus and all other

communities were heavily influenced by the streaming wave of English educational

institutions. Kinnaird College, the Union educational institution of the missionaries, had

separate value for different religious communities. The Christian converts were found it

beneficial for them due to its material benefits, pouched in its teacher training activities. The

Hindus were induced to send their daughters to this institution due to its unique socialization

feature, which was considered helpful in finding suitable matches for the girls. There were

627

Ibid., 57. 628

Ibid., 83. 629

Sarah Ansari, ‗Winds of Change?‘ The Role of Women Activists in Lahore before and after Partition‘, 3.

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very few Muslim families who sent their daughters to Kinnaird College, because of its anti

Islamic social agenda.

Although the missionaries were not able to make the women equal to men and the

issue, still in twenty first century, is the centre of debate in this region, yet the missionaries,

through their educational institutions, were able to foster changes that allowed educated

women more social options than their uneducated contemporaries. Moreover, their quality

management strategy hindered their approach to all and sundry of the province and their

influence at that time was limited to the lives of the few. The results of their ‗downward

filtration‘ policy trickled down slowly and the upshot of their efforts is still pending, in terms

of social equality of women.

The missionaries entered the twentieth century with a modified policy and their

previous efforts, to increase the number of their institutions, were replaced by those to

improve the quality of education in their existing institutions. Therefore no significant

numerical increase in their educational institutions was found during the twentieth century.

The recommendations of the Indian Education Commission were the major driving force to

make the missionaries review their previous policy of expansion. The recommendations of

the Commission put the missionary educational institutions into the open competition with

those of the other agencies. The missionaries find their survival in choosing the option of

qualitative improvement as the best solution for their problem. They selected their priorities

to improve the quality of education at their institutions. The efforts for qualitative

improvement were culminated into the transformation of inefficient missionary schools into

those of the symbol of excellence. The religious efficiency of the missionary schools was

also improved by increasing the number of Christian teachers in the schools. Compulsory

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Bible teaching classes were introduced on daily basis. Moreover the secular subjects in the

syllabus of the missionary schools were also adapted according to the Christian spirit. Focus

on the betterment of the financial and the social condition of the newly converted Christian

community was the other desired objective, lying at the heart of the new policy. I brought the

native Christians the focal point at missionary schools. Scholarships were awarded to the

Christian students for higher studies as well as for the teacher‘s training courses. The

Christian teachers started to get preference over those of the other communities. The arts of

carpentering, blacksmithing, gardening, pottery, shoemaking, tailoring, tanning and the like

were taught at the industrial schools, with a view to make the Christian pupils able to earn

their living through these skills. The missionaries were successful in improving the quality of

their institutions but the objective of the betterment of the social and financial condition of

the Christian community was not fully achieved. The missionaries‘ pursuit, to institute

women‘s‘ higher education in the province, led them first to introduce co-education and then

to establish a separate girls‘ college in the province. Their policy of qualitative improvement

prompted them to make it their Union institution and collective efforts of different

missionary organizations raised the educational standard of their pioneer institution. They

used it to introduce the desired changes in the Punjabi society. The conservative ideas in the

society, especially about women, were heavily influenced by the Western liberal ideals of

life. The Western ideals of women‘s equality, their economic and social independence,

different aspects of married life for women, were promoted through this institution to bring

about the desired changes in the Punjabi society. Missionaries‘ attempts to restructure the

Punjabi society, through their educational institutions, forced the native population to

establish their own educational institutions. So the native attempts, to insulate their youth

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from the cultural onslaught of the missionaries‘, ultimately served for the cause of women‘s

education in the province. At the end of the period under consideration, the social impact of

missionaries‘ activities was in anticipation because their belief on the downward filtration

theory hindered them to approach all and sundry and the trickle down effect needed some

time to filter down to the masses.

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Conclusion

The missionaries came to the Indian sub-continent, basically, for the fulfilment of

their evangelical agenda and therefore were carrying conversion of the native population as

one and only objective of their pursuit. They entered here in the garb of social service and

devoted their lives for the service of native population. They did valuable contribution in the

fields of education and health. Their serious involvement in the field of education is one of

the most striking things of the Indian mission field. In fact, their all important objective of

conversion was the major driving force to draw them in this field of immense importance.

The early missionaries were not interested in this field rather they preferred to work on the

smooth way of getting converts through direct preaching. But the challenges of the Indian

mission field tempted them to change their course of action. The field of education got their

special attention due to its preparatory character in the way of baptizing a person.

Ziegenbalg, Carey and Duff were the Pioneers to adopt education as a powerful auxiliary to

do the desired trick. Their intensive involvement in the education of the native population

made it a compulsory organ of missionary operations. Their successors, following the

footsteps of their predecessors, adopted education as a compulsory component of their

missionary operations. Since, every mission station was supposed to have a school attached

to it, therefore the missionary educational institutions started to flourish fairly rapidly, in the

first half of the nineteenth century.

The missionary societies started to grow after the renewal of Charter of EIC, in 1813.

As the missionary clause in the Charter permitted the missionaries to reside and conduct

missionary activities in the Company‘s administered areas. But the permission was specific

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for the British missionaries therefore, only, the missionary societies of British origin were

able to establish and extended their networks in the Indian mission field. It was in 1833 that

the missionaries of the other countries also got permission and subsequently entered the

Indian peninsula. The land of five rivers, Punjab, heard the Jesus cry in 1834 when the

missionaries from Presbyterian Church of America entered in the province. This was an

important occasion because, afterwards, this mission contributed a valuable educational work

in the province.

The Presbyterian missionary society remained the lone missionary society in the

Punjab, till its annexation in 1849. The missionaries work, in the Punjab, took real impetus

after its annexation to the British dominion. The rise of pro-missionary administration, in the

post-annexation scenario, attracted some other missionary societies to the field. In spite of

the Company‘s declared policy of religious neutrality, most of the officials at the top of the

British administrative hierarchy in the Punjab, lent their supportive hand to the missionaries.

As a corollary the Church Missionary Society, the United Presbyterian Church of America,

the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Church of Scotland Missionary Society

entered the Punjab within the period of a decade after annexation. Their missionary

operations were hampered, to some extent, due to the uprising of 1857, but they consolidated

themselves rapidly after the restoration of peace. Consequently, by 1860, the networks of

different missionary societies were found to be present all over the province.

Wood‘s Education Despatch of 1854 was an important document not only in the

history of education but also in the mission history of India. It, in addition to outlining the

future education policy, helped the missionaries to hold a strong footing in the educational

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terrain of India. It suggested the Government‘s withdrawal, in favour of missionaries, from

the field of education. Moreover it recommended the initiation of a system of grant-in-aid to

encourage and draw the private agencies in this field. As the former was perceived an

important landmark in establishing missionaries‘ command over the whole field of education

and the latter was considered beneficial for the fulfilment of their financial needs. The

missionaries decided to establish a network of missionary schools, throughout the province,

which would fill the gap, after the Government‘s anticipated withdrawal form the field. The

Punjab administration was so kind, under the chair of Sir R. Montgomery, that, during 1860s,

it was dispensing much more amount on grant-in-aid scheme, than that prescribed by the

finance department. Christian missionaries, being the lone private agency in the field of

Western education, were the sole beneficiaries of these extended grants. They continued to

take a lion‘s share of these grants, till 1882.

The encouraging attitude of Robert Montgomery, the then Lieutenant Governor of the

Punjab, and the issuance of generous grants through the scheme of grant-in-aid helped the

missionaries in extending their network to the key locations of the Punjab. They established

their missionary bases at the key urban locations of the province. The rural population of the

province was mostly neglected by both the Government and missionary educators. The

extension of the missionary schools‘ network, which started with the rise of R. Montgomery,

continued to swell up till the early 1880s when missionaries abandoned their efforts of

expansion and started agitations against the existing Government. They were of the opinion

that Government was not following the recommendations of the Wood‘s Education

Despatch. For, in stead of withdrawing from the field, it was coming into direct competition

with the missionary institutions. The attitude of officiating officers was also objectionable to

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the missionaries. Furthermore, they were not happy with the conditions imposed by the

Government for the release of grants to the missionary institutions.

Practically, this was the end of missionaries‘ efforts for expansion. As, the subsequent

period of almost two decades, till the end of the nineteenth century, was spent in formulating

a new policy for future course of action. At the end of this phase of expansion, the

missionaries had a good network of schools. They had high schools at key cities of Lahore,

Amritsar, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Multan, Delhi, Gujranwala and the like. The base of these

main schools was broadened by establishing branch schools attached to these. These branch

schools functioned as the feeders for their respective main schools and impart very

elementary education to the pupils. The extended efforts of the missionaries were successful

in establishing a network but it was established at the expense of quality of education. As,

their extended desires of expansion, prompted them to compromise on the quality of

education.

The initiation of women‘s education, in the Punjab, was the hall mark of R.

Montgomery‘s regime. Paradoxical to the men‘s s education, it was a difficult and sensitive

field, due to the prevailing soc-religious customs of the Punjabi society. Robert Montgomery

encouraged the missionaries and other educational agencies to initiate their efforts in this

field. Christian missionaries were already searching for some official support to operate

freely in this field. As they were putting their efforts, in this all important field since their

arrival at Ludhiana but they were unable to draw sufficient number of female pupils in their

schools. Lieutenant Governor‘s encouragement provided the desired patronage and they

initiated their educational operations in this important field. So, Robert Montgomery‘s

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movement in the favour of women‘s education, during early 1860s, provided a boost to the

missionaries‘ enterprise for women‘s education. The movement came to naught but the

missionaries were able to get the required initiative established a strong foothold in the field.

The missionaries wanted to influence the kitchen as well as the kith and kin of the

natives, through their work in the field of women‘s education. But in their pursuit of

promoting women‘s education, they were up against the challenge of restructuring the

existing social structure of the society. The prevalent social mores like the seclusion of

women in the form of purdah, child marriage, sati, women‘s dependence on their male

counterparts, existing superstitions, etc were the major challenges in their way. The

missionaries considered promotion of education as the best remedy to eliminate these kinds

of social norms and customs. So, both the issues of women‘s education and that of social

restructuring were co-related with each other and any advancement in the one had its

proportional implications on the other. In this context the missionaries, on the one hand,

initiated their efforts to foster the school education for the girls and on the other hand they

adopted the technique of Zenana visiting to approach the secluded women of the society.

They devised their educational activities to support their religious cause and also emancipate

women from the existing social constraints of the society.

Just like the missionaries‘ in the field of men‘s education, the female missionary

educators were also striving for extension in their network. Their desire of numeric

dominance made them adopt the policy of quantitative improvement and they started to

believe that ‗some institutions of inferior quality were better than none.‘ So the missionaries,

having in mind the prevalent prejudices against the free mix up of male and female pupils,

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established exclusive girls‘ schools, boarding schools and normal schools for women,

throughout the province. The female missionaries started the tiresome scheme of Zenana

visiting to approach the grown up female population. As the movement of these ladies was

confined to the boundary of the house and they were not allowed even to attend the female

schools. The missionaries used these institutions to propagated Western religious and social

ideals. The outcome of these institutions was not according to the expectations of their

initiators, in terms of number of conversions. But the missionaries through the means of their

educational institutions especially through the Zenana visiting of female missionaries were

able to minimize the rigidity of the social taboos.

In spite of reducing the intensity of the social prejudices against the women‘s

education, the majority of the native population remained hostile towards the missionaries‘

institutions, mainly due to its fear of religious conversion. The native people were of the

opinion that the wholesale transplantation of the Western lifestyle in the Oriental society

would lead them to their moral and social chaos. So the fear of conversion along with that of

the erosion of Punjabi traditions and customs, by the introduction of western model of

education, compelled the natives to take precautionary measures. Their consequent attempts

to neutralize the missionaries‘ influence resulted in the foundation of natively managed girls‘

schools. These schools, under the native administrators, were the major development in the

promotion of western education in the oriental society.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the horizon of the people was expanded and as a

corollary to this the social prejudices against women‘s education were reduced, to a

considerable extent. The condition of education among the Punjabi women became better

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than that at the time of annexation. The primary education was well fashioned and primary

schools for girls were found in almost all the important urban areas of the province. The

secondary education had taken start but it was at its very early stage. The condition of higher

or collegiate education for women was in the most disgusting condition, which was still to

start in the province.

During the last decade of the nineteenth century, the missionaries remained busy in

reviewing their previous policy of quantitative dominance. The review was considered

indispensable in formulating a new course of action, to meet the challenges of the changed

atmosphere of the field. Although it was the need of the day and missionaries‘ previous

efforts were needed to be analyzed in terms of achievement of desired goals yet it was

intensified by the recommendations of the first Indian Education Commission in 1882. The

recommendations of the Commission changed the whole scenario of the field by rejecting the

option of Government‘s withdrawal from the field. It was a major setback for the

missionaries who, for last two decades, were preparing themselves as a substitute to replace

Government in the field of education. The recommendations not only weakened their stance

of approaching all and sundry but also made them sceptical about their belief of conducting

missionary schools as a footstep to the ultimate end of conversion. Consequently

missionaries reviewed their policy and decided to adapt it according to the changed

circumstances of the field. The missionaries, foreseeing an atmosphere of open competition

in the future, decided to put a permanent halt on the previous policy of expansion and

suggested the maintenance of a limited number of schools but with a high note of efficiency.

It was considered a best remedy to compete with the other agencies in the field.

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The missionaries stuck to their new task of improving quality of instruction at their

schools and colleges. They took a little more time in setting their priorities to fulfil the

demands of their new course of action and the process continued till the end of World

Missionary Conference held at Edinburgh in 1910. It is a noteworthy fact that this process of

setting priorities did not disturb their work of qualitative improvement. As they, instead of

putting it in abeyance due to the absence of a set of modalities for quality improvement,

continued their work in their own way to improve the quality of their institutions. After the

approval of a uniform policy, they adopted it and started to follow it in letter and spirit. Their

efforts for qualitative improvement were culminated into the transformation of inefficient

missionary schools into those as the symbols of excellence in the future.

In addition to the increased focus on quality of instruction, the native Christian

community also sought the limelight of missionaries who decided to better their financial and

social status in the society. Missionary educational institutions were considered best means to

do the trick. Consequently, missionary educators started focusing the native Christians at

their schools and colleges. The Christian teachers started to get preference over those from

the other communities. Scholarships were awarded to Christian students for teacher‘s training

courses as well as for higher studies. Industrial schools were opened in different parts of the

province where the arts of carpentering, blacksmithing, gardening, pottery, shoemaking,

tailoring, tanning and the like were taught, with a view to make the Christian pupils able to

earn their living through the means of these skills. The religious efficiency of the missionary

schools was improved by increasing the number of Christian teachers in the schools.

Compulsory Bible teaching classes were introduced on daily basis. Moreover the secular

subjects in the syllabus of missionary schools were also adapted according to the Christian

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spirit. The missionaries were successful in raising the standard of their institutions and they

were considered an emblem of excellence at the time of partition of India, in 1947. On the

other hand the objective of the betterment of social and financial condition of the native

Christian community was not fully achieved and majority of them is still living its life at the

lower rung of the social hierarchy.

The scope of women‘s education, by the end of the nineteenth century, was expanded

and the social prejudices against women‘s education were reduced to a considerable extent.

The condition of education among the Punjabi women was comparatively better than that at

the time of annexation. The primary education was well fashioned and primary schools for

girls were found in almost all the important urban areas of the province. The secondary

education had taken start but it was at its very early stage. The collegiate education of women

was in its most disgusting condition, which was still to start in the province. In this

educational setting the missionaries came up with their new policy of qualitative

improvement. They took qualitative measures to ensure the high standard of instruction at

their schools. The scarcity of trained female teachers especially at secondary level tempted

the missionaries to expand their network of teachers‘ training institutions. They encouraged

their female students to adopt professional careers, especially in the field of teaching, and

facilitated them by offering teaching employments in the missionary schools. Furthermore,

they focused their efforts to enhance the quality of training at their training schools.

Development of separate curriculum for the Punjabi girls, in accordance with the social

values of the region, was another stroke of excellence to achieve the desired goal of quality

education. The syllabus of missionary schools was modified according to the needs of the

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day and it mostly comprised not only textual knowledge but also the knowledge of cooking,

needlework and family management.

Christian missionaries started their efforts for the commencement of collegiate

education for women. Finding themselves short of resources, firstly they chose the cheapest

mode of instruction—co-education—for this purpose. But the scheme did not work and the

number of girls‘ students remained discouragingly low. Therefore the missionaries were

prompted to establish a separate girls‘ college in the province and Kinnaird College, the first

women‘s college in the province, was founded at Lahore in 1913. Sticking to the new policy

of founding Union institutions, different missionary organizations made it their union

institution and put their collective efforts to ensure a high standard of instruction at this

premier institution. They tactically chose the city of Lahore, the cultural hub of the province,

as their centre for higher education with a view to access the new English-educated Punjabi

elite groups of the society. Their collective efforts bore fruit and they were able to raise the

standard of their union institution which ultimately resulted into the introduction of women‘s

higher education in the province.

Kinnaird College set high standards of education and was successful in attracting the

students from almost all the religious communities of the province, with Christians and

Hindus forming the bulk of its students‘ body. The missionaries attempted to incorporate

significant social changes in the society by developing the personality of their students on

desired Western lines. The missionary staff of the college attempted to change the lifestyle of

the students by presenting Western ideals to them. They challenged the established social

norms like purdah, child marriage and women‘s dependence on their male counterparts. The

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missionaries propagated social and intellectual equality of women and encouraged them to

adopt the professional careers. Socialization of Punjabi women was also one of the glaring

aspects of missionaries‘ educational institutions. The quality improvement measures also

included the academic and non-academic civic training of the students. The wholesome

liberal spirit of the college persuaded the students to change their standard of living, diet,

eating, dress, accent, manners and the like.

The native population showed a mixed response to the missionaries‘ educational

activities. The society was divided into liberal and conservative groups. The former chose to

educate their daughters in the missionary institutions whereas the latter was quite conscious

of the missionaries‘ religious and social influence on the students and therefore decided to

establish their own institutions for the education of their daughters. So, they founded their

own colleges with their exclusive scheme of studies. The healthy competition, created by the

presence of different native organizations and those of the missionary Societies, prompted

the native managers of educational institutions to improve the quality of instruction at their

educational institutions. This atmosphere of competition had a valuable contribution in

improving the quality of women‘s education in the province.

In a nutshell, Christian missionaries played a vital role in the development of a

modern system of education. They, with the active support of existing colonial government,

were able to initiate the new system of education in the length and breadth of the province.

Their untiring struggle, against the existing socio-religious mores, played a key role in

fostering female education in this region. The native community also contributed in the

process and the native organizations like Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Arya Samaj and Singh

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Sabha movement had significant work on their credit. In fact, without the earnest

participation of the native community, the destination of establishing a system of education

on Western lines especially that for women would remain nothing more than a dream. But

the pioneering initiative taken in this direction, by the missionaries, was one of the most

important factors in drawing the native community in the all important field of education.

Although the results, at the end of the colonial period, were far beyond satisfaction especially

in the field of women‘s education, but the process was started and encouraging results were

anticipated in the future.

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B. Articles

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2003, 273-288.

………‗Educational Futures: Creating a Female Education Space in Colonial India, 1854-

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Malik, Iftikhar Haider. ‗The American Missionaries in South Asia, 1812-1870‘ Journal of

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Saeed, Ahmed. ‗Anjuman-I- Islamia Amritsar, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan,

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Singh, Bhagat. ‗Condition of Women in the Punjab in the Early Nineteenth Century‘ The

Punjab Past and Present, XV-II, October 1981, 353-364.

……...‗Social Structure of the Punjab during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, The

Punjab Past and Present, XVI-I, April 1982, 142-153.

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………‗Cultural Life in the Punjab in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century‘ The Punjab

Past and Present, XXIII-I, April 1989, 109-130.

Singh, Daljit. ‗The Position of Women in the Punjab during Sixteenth and Seventeenth

Centuries‘ The Punjab Present and present, October 2001, 49-56.

Singh, Joginder. ‗Women Education and Sikh Reformers: A Study of Sikh Newspapers and

Periodicals in the Early 20th

Century‘ Journal of Regional History, VII, 2001, 79-86.

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History Conference, 26th

Session March 18-20, 1994, 266-273.

Syed, Anwar. ‗No Home Grown Education Stystem‘ in Dawn, 9 November, 2008.

Walia, Amrit. ‗Education and Political Change in the Punjab‘ Proceedings of Punjab History

Conference, 32nd

Session, March 17-19, 2000, 151-158.

……. ‗Development of Education and Socio-Political Change in the Punjab, 1882-1947—A

Survey‘ Journal of Regional History, VII, 2001, 87-100.

Wasti, Razi. ‗Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore—A Brief History‘ Journal of the Research

Society of Pakistan, III- 1&2, 1966, 63-73.

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Proceedings of Punjab History Conference, Second Session, October 28-30, 1966,

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Yaqubi, Himayatullah. ‗Introduction of English Education in British India: Rhetoric and

Implications‘ Pakistan Vision, 11-2, 180-238.

C. Journals

Asian Affairs

Asian Survey

Comparative Education Review

Contemporary South Asia

Evangelical Quarterly

Journal of Gender Studies

Journal of International Women‟s Studies

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Journal of Regional History

Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan

Modern Asian Studies

Pakistan Vision

South Asian Journal

The Indian Economic and Social History Review

The International Review of Missions

The Muslim World

The Punjab Educational Journal

The Punjab Past and Present

Third World Quarterly

D. Magazines and Newspapers

C.T.I. Magazine, Sialkot

Dawn, Lahore.

Daily Jang, Lahore.

Daily Nawa-i-Waqat, Lahore.

Daily Times, Lahore.

The Nation, Lahore.

The News, Lahore.