The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India

7/24/2019 The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India

1/9

The Decolonization of Educational Culture: The Case of IndiaAuthor(s): Joseph W. Elder

Reviewed work(s):Source: Comparative Education Review, Vol. 15, No. 3, Papers from the Comparative andInternational Education Society Conference, San Diego, California, March 21-23, 1971 (Oct.,1971), pp. 288-295Published by: The University of Chicago Presson behalf of the Comparative and International EducationSocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1187130.

Accessed: 09/08/2012 15:02

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The University of Chicago Pressand Comparative and International Education Societyare collaborating with

JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Comparative Education Review.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpresshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cieshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cieshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1187130?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1187130?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cieshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cieshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress


2/9

THE

DECOLONIZATION

OF

EDUCATIONAL

CULTURE:

THE CASE OF INDIA

JOSEPHW. ELDER

THE PROBLEM

UNDERTHETYPICAL

olonial

arrangement,

the

metropolitan power

exercises

con-

trol

over

its

colonies'

educational

culture, i.e.,

the

information, beliefs,

and

exhortations

designed

for transmission

through

the colonies' school

system.

Frequently,

in

drafting

the

curriculum and

syllabi,

the

metropolitan

power

trans-

mits

generous

quantities

of its

domestic curriculum and

syllabi

to

its

colonies.

Thus, in the early 1900's schoolboys in India and Nigeria were learning the in-

tricacies

of

Shakespeare's

Julius

Caesar and

memorizing

the lists

of

English

kings

through

the

wars of

succession,

while

schoolboys

in

French Indochina

or

West

Africa were

studying

passages

from

Moliere and

Victor

Hugo

and

point-

ing

out

on

maps

of

Paris the

correct

locations

of

the Louvre

and Notre

Dame.

When

a

colony

achieves

political

independence,

one

of

the

many

tasks

it

must

subsequently

accomplish

is

the

decolonization

of

its

educational cul-

ture.

This

decolonization

typically

means

rewriting

the

curriculum and

sylla-

bi,

if

only

to

accomplish

the

minimum of

changing

the

law-breaking

insur-

gents to the nation's heroes in the

struggle

for

independence.

Typically

it

extends

beyond

the

minimum,

involving

a

replacement

of

the

metropolitan

power's

information,

beliefs,

and

exhortations

with those

of the

newly-inde-

pendent

nation. Enmeshed

in

this

replacement

are

the new

nation's

definitions

of its

historical and

current

relationships specifically

to its

ex-metropolitan

power

but

more

generally

to

the

West.

This

paper

focuses

on

two

aspects

of

the

decolonization

of

educational

cul-

ture: 1.

How

does

a

recently-independent

nation

present

to

its

young

its

experi-

ences

under

Western

colonialism?

2.

How does

such a

nation define

for its

young

its

post-independence

relations with

the

West?

THE

METHODOLOGY

The

findings

reported

in

this

paper

are

based

on a

content

analysis

of

744

lessons

in

the

language

textbooks

from

two

sections

of

India.'

Instead of

choosing

language

textbooks,

I

might

have

chosen

the

history

and

social stud-

II

am

deeply

thankful to

the

following

persons

who

labored

long

and

carefully

to

provide

English

translations of

the

Hindi and

Tamil

textbooks:

Kausalya

Hart,

Victor

Jesudason

and Mel-

ba Jesudason, A. R. Saiyed and Vibha Saiyed, Vijai P. Singh, Bam Dev Sharda and Chanderkanta

Sharda.

On the

basis of

their

translations,

I was

able to

carry

out the

following process

of

content

analysis:

I read

each of

the

744

Lessons

and

assigned

it

to

one

of

the

following

seven

categories:

1.

Pre-colonial:

Historical

(actual

events

and

persons

in

India's

history);

2.

Pre-colonial:

Mythi-

cal

(legends,

tales,

and

myths);

Colonial

(describing

events

that took

place

in

India

during

the

period

of

European

and

especially

British

domination);

4.

Post-Independence:

National

(describ-

288

October

1971


3/9

DECOLONIZATION:

INDIA

ies

textbooks,

and an exhaustive

treatment

of the

decolonization

of

educational

culture should

certainly

include

them. But

the

language

textbooks

seemed

to

provide

a

more

open-ended

arena for the

presentation

of

educational

culture.

These textbooks are designed to train students in language comprehension and

usage;

the

subject

matter with

which

they

deal is

of

secondary

importance.

It

is

precisely

for this

reason I felt

the

subject

matter

might

be

revealing. Any

un-

usual

personal idiosyncracies

of

textbook writers

are muted

by

the fact

the

state

ministries

of

education

must

approve

all

textbooks

before classroom

adoption.

The

final

product

is

somewhat

like

a

joint

projective

test,

with the

textbook

writers

and members

of the

state ministries

of education

deciding

what

subject

matter will

and will

not

appear

in

the

language

textbooks.

The

materials I

analyzed

were the

1962-63

and

1970-71

language

textbooks

for

grades

two

through

ten2 in the cities of

Lucknow,

the

capital

of the Hindi-

speaking

state

of

Uttar

Pradesh,

and the

city

of

Madurai,

the

cultural

capital

(albeit

Madras is

the

political

capital)

of the

state

of

Tamil

Nadu. The

purpose

in

choosing

two

different

sections of

India was

to

try

to control for

regional

variations.

The

Hindi

and

Tamil

cultures differ in

important

respects.

If-de-

spite

their

differences--they

present

common

patterns

of

decolonization,

they

might

reflect

general

decolonization

processes.3

The

purpose

in

choosing

two

time

periods

was to

see if

any

substantial

changes

occurred

during

eight years-

ing

events,

persons,

or

sites of

all-India

significance

after

1947,

when

India

became

independent);

5.

Post-Independence:

Regional

(describing

events,

persons,

or

sites

of

regional

significance

within

India

after

1947);

6.

Foreign

(describing

events,

persons,

sites,

etc.

from

countries

outside

India);

7.

Miscellaneous

(stories,

prayers,

proverbs,

sermons,

descriptions

of

natural

phenomena,

etc.).

2

Both

the Hindi

and

the

Tamil first

grade

textbooks

concentrated

heavily

on

teaching

letters

and

isolated

words.

Hence,

it

was

not

possible

to

perform

a

content

analysis

on

them.

Furthermore,

in

1962-63,

the

10th

grade

Hindi

textbook

was

entirely

poetry,

and in

1970-71

both

the

9th

and

the

10th

grade

Hindi

textbooks

were

entirely

poetry.

In view

of

the

characteristically

devotional

tone

of

much

of

the

poetry,

I

decided

these

textbooks

comprised

a

different

genre

of

writing

and

elimi-

nated them

from

the content

analysis.

And in

1970-71

the

9th

and

10th

grade

Tamil

books

were

unavailable for

my analysis.

In

short,

the

content

analysis

included

only the following textbooks:Tamil

1962-63: Grades

2

through

10;

Tamil

1970-71: Grades

2

through

8;

Hindi

1962-63:

Grades

2

through

9;

Hindi

1970-71:

Grades

2

through

8.

3

In

Lucknow

the

same

textbooks

were

used in

grades

2

through

5 in

1970-71

as

were used in

1962-

63.

In

Madurai

the

same

textbooks

were

used

in

grade

2 both

times. The

figure

of

744

Lessons

includes no

double

counting.

If

the

Lessons

are counted

twice when

used

both time

periods,

the

total

comes

to

888.

The

following

table

compares

the

Lessons

in

the Hindi

and

Tamil

textbooks.

Note

the

similarity

in

the

proportions:

Hindi

Tamil

(n=470)

(n=418)

1.

Pre-colonial:

Historical

9%

14%

2.

Pre-colonial:

Mythical

20%

15%

3.

Colonial

7%

7%

4. Post-Independence:National 12% 7%

5.

Post-Independence:

Regional

7%

6%

6.

Foreign

12%

11%

7.

Miscellaneous

33%

40%

100%

100%

Comparative

Education

Review

289


4/9

JOSEPH

W.

ELDER

years

interrupted

by

India's brief

but

bitter wars

with China

in 1962 and

Pakis-

tan in

1965.4

THE PRESENTATION OF THE WESTERN COLONIAL EXPERIENCE

Similarities

in

Hindi

and

Tamil Textbooks

Carryovers of

Colonial

Materials.

The British

presence

has not

yet

com-

pletely

disappeared

from

India's educational

culture.

Indian school

children

still

read the

stories

of

Little Red

Riding

Hood,

Sleeping

Beauty,

Cinderella,

and

Aesop's

Fables

(albeit

with

accompanying

illustrations

suggesting

these

stories

might

have taken

place

in

India).

Britain's

Greco-Roman

heritage

lin-

gers

in

the

accounts of

the

Trojan

Horse,

Romulus

and

Remus,

the

Marathon

Race, King Midas, and Horatius at the

Bridge.

And Britain's

Judeo-Christian

heritage

is

apparent

in

the

legends

of

King

Solomon,

the

Prodigal

Son,

Androcles

and

the

Lion,

and

Santa

Claus. In

the

higher

grades,

Indian

students are

exposed

to

Jim

Corbett's

account of

a

tiger

hunt,

the

candlestick

scene

from Les

Misera-

bles,

and

an

abridged

version of

The

Merchant

of

Venice.

Such

Western

liter-

ary

renditions

fill

only

a

small

fraction

(3%)

of

the total number of

Lessons.

In

addition,

another

4%

present

biographies

of

Westerners,

which

will be

dealt

with in

a

later

section.

And

another

4% describe

Western

countries,

Western

achievements,

etc. All

told,

11%

of

the

Lessons

deal with

strictly

Western

sub-

jects,

reflecting

probably

a

rather

dramatic

decolonization.

De-emphasis

of

the

Colonial

Period

and

Emphasis

on

the

Pre-Colonial

and

Post-Independence

Periods.

Someone

reading

the Hindi

and

Tamil textbooks

might

almost

miss

the

fact

that India

was

a

colony

of

Britain for

a

century

and

a

half.

No

more

than

7%

of

the

Lessons

deal with

events

that

occurred

during

the

British

raj

prior

to

India's

Independence.

To

the

extent

the

colonial

era

is

presented

at

all,

it is

most

frequently

presented

in

the

context

of

Gandhi's lead-

ership

of

the

struggle

for

freedom.

Two

per

cent

of

the

Lessons

deal with

Gandhi

as father of the nation, leader of the country, India's saintly

leader,

etc.

Other

heroes in

the

struggle

for

independence

from

Britain

include

the

Queen

of

Jhansi (who

died

fighting

the

British

in

1858),

Veerapandya

Kat-

tabomman

(who

fought

the

British

in

South

India),

Swami

Vivekananda

(a

4The

following

table

compares

the

Lessons in

the

1962-63

and

1970-71

textbooks.

Again,

note

the

similarity

n

the

proportions:

1962-63

1970-71

(n=485)

(n=403)

1.

Pre-colonial:

Historical

14%

9%

2.

Pre-colonial:

Mythical

18%

18%

3. Colonial 7% 7%

4.

Post-Independence:

National

9%

11%

5.

Post-Independence:

Regional

8%

4%

6.

Foreign 11%

12%

7.

Miscellaneous

34%

39%

101%

100%

290

October

1971


5/9

DECOLONIZATION: INDIA

Hindu

missionary

who

preached

in the

United

States

and

Europe),

and

Pandit

Madan

Malaviya (who

founded

Banaras

Hindu

University

to counter

the

west-

ernizing

influence of

British-directed

universities).

The

British

are

mentioned

in these Lessons.

But certain

Lessons

dealing

with

persons

who lived

during

the same

peri-

od

do not even

mention

the

British,

for

example,

the

biographies

of

Tamil

scholars

such

as

Meenakshi

Sundaram

Pillai,

Vedanayagam

Pillai,

Somesun-

dara

Bharatiya,

and

Pandidurai

Thevar. In

certain

instances,

British

contribu-

tions

to India

go

noticeably

unmentioned.

For

example,

a

Tamil

Lesson

describ-

ing

irrigation

projects

in

India

leaves

out the

large

Periyar

dam built

by

the

British

that

diverts

water

from

amply-wet

Kerala to

periodically-dry

Tamil

Nadu.

And

in

certain

instances

prominent

Indians

who

played

an

important

historical part in India's

adoption

of Western elements are left unmentioned.

For

example,

the

nineteenth

century

Bengali

intellectual,

Rammohun

Roy,

sometimes

referred to

by

Western

historians as

the

Father of

Modern

India,

is

not

presented

in

any

of the

Hindi or

Tamil

textbooks. His

leadership

in

the

struggle

to

abolish

sati

(widow

self-immolation)

and his

advocacy

of

an

En-

glish-medium

education

may

have

made

him

an

awkward

figure

to

handle

in

the

textbooks.

It

is

almost as

if

the

British

period

is a

source

of

embarrassment

for

the

textbook

writers

and

the

ministries

of

education,

to be

mentioned as

the

setting

for

India's

acts

of

courage,

or

not to

be

mentioned

at

all.

Where there

is a

scarcity

of

materials on

India's

colonial

period,

an

abundance

of

the

Lessons

(31%)

deal

with

India's

pre-colonial

legacy.

Of

this,

the

greater

proportion

(18%)

consist

of

materials

drawn

from

India's

religious

epics

and

mythology.

The

Hindi

textbooks

most

frequently

present

excerpts

from

Val-

miki's

and

Tulsidasa's

Ramayana

(the

banishment

of

Rama,

the

brotherly

obedi-

ence of

Bharat,

Sita's

devotion

to

her

husband,

Lakshman's

loyalty

to his

brother,

Sita's

abduction,

and

the

final

war in

Ceylon

culminating

in

Sita's

res-

cue

and

reunion

with

Rama),

the

Mahabharata

(Yudhistira's

gambling

away

of

his

kingdom, his wealth, and his wife, Arjuna's historic discussion with

his

charioteer

Krishna on

the

brink

of

the

Great

War),

and

the

life

stories of

Lord

Buddha.

The

Tamil

textbooks

draw

most

heavily

from

the

Tirukkural

(a

Tamil

scripture

dating

to

the 4th

or

5th

century

A.D.

attributed to

the

poet

Tiruvalluvar),

the

Tamil

epic

Cilappatikaram

(the

beauty,

chastity,

and

faith-

fulness

of

the

ideal

wife

Kannaki,

the

helplessness

of

her

husband

Kovalan in

the

presence

of

the

courtesan

Matavi),

and

Kampan's

Tamil

version

of

the

Ra-

mayana.

The

pre-colonial

stories

are

augmented

by

prayers,

hymns

of

praise,

and

religious

sermons

drawn

from

the

classical

heritage.

The remaining Lessons dealing with India's pre-colonial legacy (13%)con-

cern

historical

rather

than

mythical

events.

Such

Lessons

describe

the

emperors

Chandragupta

Maurya,

Ashoka,

Harsha,

Babur,

Humayun, Akbar,

and

Shivaji;

the

Chinese

Buddhist

pilgrim

Fa-Hsien's

5th

century

tour

of

India,

historical

sites

such

as

the

Buddhist

university

at

Nalanda,

the

Ajanta

Caves,

Ankor

Wat

Comparative

Education

Review

291


6/9

JOSEPH W.

ELDER

in

Cambodia,

the

Taj

Mahal,

the Courtrallam

waterfalls, and

the

Chidam-

baram

temples; great

teachers,

wits and

literary figures

like

Kumarjiv (who

car-

ried

Buddhism

to

China),

Ilango Adigal (princely

author

of the

Cilappatika-

ram), Tiruvalluvar (who composed the Tirukkural), Kalidasa (the most emi-

nent Sanskrit

poet

and

playwright),

Chekkilar

(poet

in

the Chola

court),

Tulsi-

das

(who

composed

the

Hindi

version

of the

Ramayana),

Tenali

Raman

(witty

jester

in the

Vijayanagar

court),

Kabir

(poet

who

sought

the

mutual

tolerance

of

Hindus

and

Muslims),

and

Avvaiyar

(poet

in

the court of

Adhiyaman);

the

traditional

bases

of

festivals such

as

Holi,

Diwali,

Pongal,

and

Thirukarthigai;

and

lesser

historical

figures

such

as

Prince

Parri

of

Parambu,

Rajasekara Pandy-

an of

Madurai,

Maharaja

Ranjit

Singh

and

Guru

Gobind

Singh

of the

Punjab,

Maharana

Pratab of

Rajasthan,

the

loyal

Marathi

general

Ibrahim

Gardi,

and

Rani

Durgavati,

who committed suicide when she saw her

army

being

overrun

by

Akbar's

forces.

Differences

in

Hindi and Tamil

Textbooks

At

this

point

an

interesting

difference

appears

between

the Hindi

and

Tamil

textbooks. The Hindi

pre-colonial

heroes

tend to

be

political--kings,

queens,

generals,

and

heads

of

state-whose,

main

virtues

include

a

belief

in

God, tolerance for all faiths, great courage, and a willingness to sacrifice them-

selves for

their

country.

No

fewer

than 41

Lessons of

the total

360 Hindi

Lessons

present

such

heroes

(contrasted

with

36

religious

or

literary

scholar-teacher

he-

roes).

The

villains in

the Hindi

textbooks are

the

godless,

the

religiously

in-

tolerant,

the

fearful,

and

the

selfish.

To the

extent

the

West is

featured in

these

stories,

the

West

is

the

object

against

which India's

heroes

direct

their

activi-

ties.

Under

these

circumstances

it

is

difficult

for

the

Hindi

textbooks to

present

Western

heroes for

their

Indian

readers.

Only

11

(3%)

of

the

360

Hindi

Lessons

describe

foreign

heroes.

Jesus

Christ,

the

prophet

Mohammed,

and

the

Mus-

lim saint Abdul Qadir are presented as evidence of religious tolerance. Colum-

bus,

Vasco

de

Gama,

James

Watt,

and

the

Wright

brothers

are

shown

as

exam-

ples

of

perseverance.

Florence

Nightingale

and

Abraham

Lincoln

are

examples

of

sacrificial

service,

and

Tolstoy

and

C. S.

Andrews

are

presented

as friends

and

allies of

Gandhi.

The

Tamil

pre-colonial

heroes,

on

the

other

hand,

tend

to

be

scholars-

poets,

religious

teachers,

literary

patrons,

musicians,

and

artists-whose

main

virtues

include a

denunciation

of

caste

differences

and a

dedication

to

the

de-

velopment

of

learning

in

general

and

Tamil

culture

in

any

of

its

forms

in

par-

ticular. No fewer than 40 of the total 384 Lessons

present

such

cultural

heroes

(contrasted

with

26

political,

head-of-state

heroes,

14 of

whom

were

missing

in

the

1962-63

textbooks).

The

villains

in

the

Tamil

textbooks

are

the

unlearned,

those

disrespectful

of

the

learned,

those who

have

allowed

Tamil

culture to

slip

from

its

original

place

of

prominence

in

India,

and

those

who

sully

Tamil

292

October

1971


7/9

DECOLONIZATION:

INDIA

with

Sanskrit

or

English adoptions.

This

Tamil

emphasis

on

learning

and

cul-

ture makes

it

easier

to

include

foreign

heroes. To

the extent

foreigners,

too,

are

dedicated to

learning,

they

are suitable

models

for India's

young.

Twenty-one

(5%)of the 384 Tamil Lessons (nearly twice as many as in the Hindi Lessons)

deal

with

foreign

heroes,

including

scientists

and inventors

like

Galileo,

Louis

Pasteur,

James

Y.

Simpson

the

anesthetist,

Thomas

Edison,

and

Henry

Ford;

explorers

such

as Marco

Polo,

Magellan,

Captain James

Cook,

David

Living-

stone,

and

Sir Edmund

Hillary;

and

literary figures

like

William

Cooper

and

George

Bernard Shaw. Even one Lesson

dealing

with

Napoleon

stresses

the

hours

he used

to

spend studying

in

the

library

or

conducting

his

voluminous

correspondence.

Lessons are

devoted to

religious

figures-Christ,

Mohammed,

and Albert

Schweitzer. A

special

Lesson

is

given

to

Joseph

C.

Besche,

an

Ital-

ian Catholic

missionary,

who came to South

India,

fell in love with Tamil cul-

ture,

and authored

the

oft-quoted

Tamil

Christian

Thembavani.

The fact

that

the Tamil

textbooks stress

cultural heroes means

they

can

more

easily

draw

fig-

ures

from

the

West. The Hindi

textbooks'

stress on

political

heroes limits

the

models

they

can draw from

the

West.

Moving

from

the

pre-colonial

to

the

post-Independence

contents

of

the

textbooks,

17%

of

the

744

Lessons

deal with

post-Independence

phenomena.

In

this

category

one

finds the

lives

of

India's first

and

second

prime

ministers,

Jawaharlal

Nehru and

Lal Bahadur

Shastri,

and

her first

president,

Dr.

Rajendra

Prasad.

Nineteen

Lessons

present

the

National

Anthem and

the

flag;

other

Les-

sons extol

bravery,

self-sacrifice

for the

nation,

and

national

progress. They

de-

scribe

India

as the

Mother,

and

as the

Temple

of

All

Faiths.

Additional

Lessons

present

accounts of

modern

India-her

dams

and

hydroelectric

projects,

her

steel

mills,

her

airlines,

and

the

pageantry

of

Republic

Day

ceremonies

in

New

Delhi.

National

plans

for

village

development

are

described,

as

are

Vinoba

Bhave's

non-violent

sarvodaya

programs

for

land-redistribution

and

cottage

in-

dustries.

One Lesson

gives

an

account

of

India's

field

hockey

victory

in

the

Helsinki World Olympics. Various Lessons describe the beauties and charac-

teristics of

different

sections

of

India

such

as

Assam,

Orissa,

Kashmir,

and

Kera-

la,

major

Indian

cities

like

Delhi,

Banaras,

Allahabad,

Kanpur,

Madras,

and

Madurai,

as well

as

various

aspects

of

life

in

India's

villages.

India

is

presented

as

a

land full

of

rich

potential,

one

that

has

progressed

and

will

continue to

progress

toward

a

promising

future

for

all

her

citizens,

Hindu,

Muslim,

and

Christian,

high

caste

and

low

caste.

THE

DEFINITION OF

POST-INDEPENDENCE

RELATIONS

WITH

THE

WEST

A strict content

analysis

of Lessons

provides

little evidence for

how

the

Hindi

and

Tamil

textbooks

define

India's

post-Independence

relations

with the

West.

Aside from

several

Lessons

describing

the

United

Nations

Organiza-

tion,

no

Lessons

deal

specifically

with

India's

foreign

relations.

However,

com-

ments

interspersed

among

other

materials

seem

to

express

three

themes:

Comparative

Education

Review

293


8/9

JOSEPH

W.

ELDER

The

West is Still

Responsible

for

Lingering Difficulties

in

India

Lessons

dealing

with

cottage

industries

stress

the

importance

of

India's

being

free

from

the need for

foreign goods.

One

Lesson,

describing

the

manu-

facture

of

chocolates

and

biscuits,

tells

how

foreign

countries

bought

oil

cakes

and

ragi

(a

millet)

from India

at a nominal

price,

converted

them into

choco-

lates and

biscuits,

and sold

them back to India at a

large

profit,

thus

draining

wealth

from India. The

Lesson

asks,

How

much is our

ignorance

and

the

Westerners'

intelligence?

Another

Lesson,

discussing

child

welfare,

stresses

how British

legislation generated

the decline

of the

joint

family

system,

the

backbone of Indian

society,

with

a

consequent

rise

in

vagrancy,

desertion,

and

juvenile

delinquency.

Furthermore,

institutions

established to

relieve the

prob-

lems, funded from abroad and directed by foreigners or foreign-trained Indians

were not

suitable for our

country

and never had

any lasting

effect

in

the

minds

of the

people

of

our land. In a Lesson on

the

growth

of

the

Tamil

language,

foreigners

are

blamed for the fact that

Tamil,

once the

language spoken

throughout

India,

has been

reduced

to a

language spoken

in

only

the southern-

most

regions

today.

The West

is

also

blamed

for

wasting

the

world's resources.

One

Lesson

describing

how calcium

can

be

recovered from

smoke and used

to

manufacture

telephones

and

television

sets

declares,

In a

year,

in

England,

calcium

worth

fifteen

million

rupees

is

wasted in

the

chimneys.

If

they

stop

this waste, the world will enjoy the fine arts.

The

West is

an

Audience

Whose

Approval

is

Sought

Frequently

in

Lessons,

when

an

important

achievement

has

been

wrought

by

an

Indian

citizen,

the final

accolade is

that

even

in

foreign

lands

so-and-so's

accomplishments

are

known

and

respected.

India's

early

knowledge

of

as-

tronomy

is

seen as

winning

admiration in

the

West.

Artistic

and

technological

achievements of

ancient

India,

such

as

her

irrigation

systems,

are

certified

by

those

foreigners

who

came

to

India

and

were

amazed at

what

they

saw.

Tiruval-

luvar,

the

poet,

is

repeatedly

described in

the

Tamil

textbooks

as one

whose

teachings

are

respected

in

the

West.

The

same is

true

in

the

Hindi

textbooks

for

Swami

Vivekananda

and

the

respect

he

earned for

India in

the

West.

And

Jag-

dish

Chandra

Bose

the

botanist,

C.

V.

Raman

who

worked on

light

theories,

R.

C.

Roy

the

chemist,

and

G. D.

Naidu

the

agricultural

engineer

are

described

as

sci-

entists

who

discovered

wonders

which

were

applauded

by

the

whole

world.

The

West

is

a

Model

for

Progress -Both

Technical

and Social

Most of the Lessons dealing with scientific or technological phenomena

hold

up

the

West

implicitly

as

the

place

where

innovations

first

occurred.

On-

ly

later

were

they

borrowed

by

India.

This

pattern

is

repeated

in

those

Lessons

describing

printing

and

the

printing

press,

the

steam

engine,

the

telegraph

and

wireless,

the

airplane,

the

cinema

and

film-making,

and

atomic

energy.

The

294

October

1971


9/9

DECOLONIZATION: INDIA

West

invented;

India

adopted.

Even

the

Boy

Scout

movement

is seen

as

originat-

ing

in

the West and

eventually

being

brought

into

India.

Western farm

practices

are held

up

as models

for India

to emulate.

Different

Lessons praise Russian, Danish, Swiss, British, and American farmers, their in-

dustry,

their absence

of

holidays,

and their

application

of

the

latest

scientific

techniques

to

their

farming.

One

Lesson

describes the

cleanliness, order,

and

efficiency

of

Switzerland. Another tells

of

full

employment

and

low-cost

holi-

day

resorts

in

the Soviet Union.

And one

deals

with

the customs

of

people

in

different

nations,

including

the

personal

freedoms insisted

upon by

Americans,

the

hobbies

of

Europeans

and

Australians,

and

the

corporate

rather

than

in-

dividual charities

of the

Swedes. That

Lesson

even

states

that

Westerners

sleep

less

than

Indians;

this

may

contribute

to

their

advancement.

One Lesson

goes

so far as to state that

Westerners

develop greater

powers

of

memorization

than

Indians,

and

this

may

contribute to the

West's

relative advancement and

India's

relative

backwardness.

CONCLUSIONS

In

some

respects

the Tamil

and

Hindi

textbooks reveal

an

impressive

amount

of

decolonization.

They

stress

the

cultural

glories

of

India

prior

to

her coloniza-

tion,

pass

lightly

over

the

period

of

colonial

rule,

and

focus on

the

challenges

and accomplishments of Independent India. But in a more subtle way, beneath

the

decolonized

surface,

the

Indian

textbooks

transmit to

their

students

an

awareness

of

a

West

that is still

technologically

superior,

still

to

be

blamed,

still

to

be

emulated,

and

still to be

sought

for

approval.

Comparative

Education

Review

295

The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India

Documents

Transcript of The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India