The Prebritish Annexation Educational System In The Panjab

[dalsingh101]

This one is EYE OPENING!!

http://news.ukpha.org/2010/02/when-the-wild-proved-more-educated/

When the ‘Wild’ proved more educated

By Hema on February 19, 2010

When the British conquered Lahore in 1849, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General, declared that he would educate the “wild illiterate Punjabis” in a new system of Anglo-Vernacular education. When they started the East India Company Board was shocked by what already existed.

The board was amazed to find that the literacy rate in Lahore and its suburbs was over 80 per cent, and this was qualified by the description that this 80 per cent comprised of people who could write a letter. Today, in 2010, less than nine per cent can do this, while 38 per cent can sign their name, and, thus, are officially ‘literate’. If you happen to read Arnold Woolner’s book ‘History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab’ you will come across some amazing facts we today just do not know. To understand the situation it would interest scholars to go through the ‘A.C. Woolner Collection in the Punjab University Library. My review is a scant one. But studying other similar pieces provides a picture of the educational system as it existed in Lahore in 1849 when the British took over.

The publication ‘The Marquis of Dalhousie’s Administration of British India’ provides an amazing quote (page 345): “The board discovered to its surprise that the incidence of literacy in Punjab was higher than any other place in India. In Lahore city alone there were 16 elementary schools for girls alone, and to our amazement we discovered that co-educational schools were aplenty”. Mind you we are fact is also mentioned by the great Sir Aurel Stein, a former principal of the Oriental College, Lahore, in his research on the ‘great game’ where he described the teaching excellence of the Vedas and Dharma Sutras in the Hindu educational institutions of Lahore. The Sikh schools, the Muslim ‘madrassahs’ and the Hindu schools catered to the latest developments in mathematics and astronomy, all of which assisted the Sikh rulers maintain an edge over the British in the rest of India.

We also know from the book ‘Punjabi Grammar’ compiled by Dr. Carry of Fort Williams College, Calcutta, in 1812, that it based its grammar from the farmed ‘Punjabi Qaida’, which was made compulsory for all Punjabi women to read during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. Every village ‘lambardar’ made sure that every female in every village had a copy of the ‘qaida’, which made sure that literacy was in-built into the Punjabi State at the family level. After taking over, the EIC Board allowed the ‘madrasahs’ at even the village level to continue to operate. However, to enforce the English language as the base for all State functions, which seemed the sensible thing for the English to do in order to rule effectively, central schools for higher education were set up. The model for this came, initially, in the shape of the Rang Mahal School by Ewing, and then by the Central Model School at Lower Mall.

But the most detailed study of the educational system in place in Lahore before the British took over came in the shape of the research undertaken by Dr. Leitner, the first principal and founder of Government College, Lahore and the Punjabi University. The eminent linguist described in some detail how the ‘Punjabi Qaida’ was removed from the scene, at even the village level, after the events of 1857, when it was felt that unless Punjabi was removed as the language of first choice, the ‘wild Punjabis’ would soon overcome the British. Both Leitner and John Lawrence disagreed with this strategy, while Henry Lawrence, Dalhousie and Montogomery wanted a military solution to “end Punjabi educational dominance once English was introduced”.

In the de-militarisation of the Punjab, “over 120,000 cartloads of arms and swords were confiscated”, and in the process, says Edwardes and Merville in their publication of 1867 (page 433-34) it was thought important “to make sure militant Punjabis – Sikhs, Muslim and Hindus – and their language, were crushed by removing not only all arms and swords, but more importantly their books, which were all burnt”. Sir Aurel Stein described how a wealth of books on mathematics and astronomy were lost in this ‘action’. For those still interested, samples of those books can be found in the Punjab Public Library.

But which sort of schools and ‘madrassahs’ and ‘shawalas’ existed in Lahore before the British came in 1849 to ‘civilise’ the people of this ancient city? The Muslim ‘madrassahs’ were located at every ‘guzzar’ and the madrassahs opened by the family of fakir azizuddin were considered among the most modern in the entire subcontinent. They not only taught Punjabi, Arabic, Persian and Urdu languages, they also, at the elementary level, excelled at mathematics. Thus the basics of the logical transfer of knowledge had already been laid at the basic level. It now seems that the British, against the popular belief, actually destroyed this structure, to forever dent the ‘formal learning institutions’ available to the Punjabi people.

Higher mathematics and astronomy, as well as chemistry and physics, not to mention history and geography, were taught in these’ madrassahs’. The Punjab Public Library has a few beautiful leather-bound books of that time period in the reference section. Just for the record, these were bound in the square opposite the mosque of Wazir Khan, now consumed by illegal structures. For those interested in the classics, you will know that the British Museum Library has ample examples of ‘Lahore Classics’, all hand-written and those edges are painted in floral designs.

The research carried out by Lord Osbourne (1804-1888) in his description of the “Court and Camp of Ranjeet Singh’ describes how well-educated his camp-followers were. The same can be seen in the article on the subject by Sir Henry Griffin. The Dogra brothers who ruled the Punjab in important positions were leaders in setting up Hindus schools, just as among the Sikhs the Majhathia Malwai and Dhanna Singh families led in the setting up of schools for Sikhs, which also admitted Muslim and Hindu students. A few of them were co-educational, which was revolutionary for their concept at that time. It seems the French influence was also a reason for this.

In the years 2010 when the teaching of history is no longer allowed, where the exact sciences are deliberately avoided in the official syllabus, and where the system of examinations have created two distinct social and economic classes – Urdu and English medium – a study of our past in terms of its educational achievements needs to be undertaken by every child, so that we can pick up where we left off almost 160 years ago.

By Majid Sheikh

Dawn, Sunday, 24 January 2010, Lahore Metropolitan Page # 16

Edited June 23, 2010 by dalsingh101

[kdsingh80]

Very nice article.It proved How sikhs were among best rulers.

[amardeep]

I think its written in the Prem Sumarag that its the job of the ruler to secure education for his subjects. Nice to see that this was properly taken care of during the raj of Maharaja Ranjit Singh

[dalsingh101]

Bump this up to remind ourselves of the loss of Panjab's education system.

[amardeep]

You can read the book now on Punjab Digital library. Its amazing!

[Guest Gurukasikh]

On 4/9/2010 at 10:10 PM, dalsingh101 said:

This one is EYE OPENING!!

 

http://news.ukpha.org/2010/02/when-the-wild-proved-more-educated/

 

 

When the ‘Wild’ proved more educated

 

By Hema on February 19, 2010

 

 

When the British conquered Lahore in 1849, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General, declared that he would educate the “wild illiterate Punjabis” in a new system of Anglo-Vernacular education. When they started the East India Company Board was shocked by what already existed.

 

The board was amazed to find that the literacy rate in Lahore and its suburbs was over 80 per cent, and this was qualified by the description that this 80 per cent comprised of people who could write a letter. Today, in 2010, less than nine per cent can do this, while 38 per cent can sign their name, and, thus, are officially ‘literate’. If you happen to read Arnold Woolner’s book ‘History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab’ you will come across some amazing facts we today just do not know. To understand the situation it would interest scholars to go through the ‘A.C. Woolner Collection in the Punjab University Library. My review is a scant one. But studying other similar pieces provides a picture of the educational system as it existed in Lahore in 1849 when the British took over.

 

The publication ‘The Marquis of Dalhousie’s Administration of British India’ provides an amazing quote (page 345): “The board discovered to its surprise that the incidence of literacy in Punjab was higher than any other place in India. In Lahore city alone there were 16 elementary schools for girls alone, and to our amazement we discovered that co-educational schools were aplenty”. Mind you we are fact is also mentioned by the great Sir Aurel Stein, a former principal of the Oriental College, Lahore, in his research on the ‘great game’ where he described the teaching excellence of the Vedas and Dharma Sutras in the Hindu educational institutions of Lahore. The Sikh schools, the Muslim ‘madrassahs’ and the Hindu schools catered to the latest developments in mathematics and astronomy, all of which assisted the Sikh rulers maintain an edge over the British in the rest of India.

 

We also know from the book ‘Punjabi Grammar’ compiled by Dr. Carry of Fort Williams College, Calcutta, in 1812, that it based its grammar from the farmed ‘Punjabi Qaida’, which was made compulsory for all Punjabi women to read during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. Every village ‘lambardar’ made sure that every female in every village had a copy of the ‘qaida’, which made sure that literacy was in-built into the Punjabi State at the family level. After taking over, the EIC Board allowed the ‘madrasahs’ at even the village level to continue to operate. However, to enforce the English language as the base for all State functions, which seemed the sensible thing for the English to do in order to rule effectively, central schools for higher education were set up. The model for this came, initially, in the shape of the Rang Mahal School by Ewing, and then by the Central Model School at Lower Mall.

 

But the most detailed study of the educational system in place in Lahore before the British took over came in the shape of the research undertaken by Dr. Leitner, the first principal and founder of Government College, Lahore and the Punjabi University. The eminent linguist described in some detail how the ‘Punjabi Qaida’ was removed from the scene, at even the village level, after the events of 1857, when it was felt that unless Punjabi was removed as the language of first choice, the ‘wild Punjabis’ would soon overcome the British. Both Leitner and John Lawrence disagreed with this strategy, while Henry Lawrence, Dalhousie and Montogomery wanted a military solution to “end Punjabi educational dominance once English was introduced”.

 

In the de-militarisation of the Punjab, “over 120,000 cartloads of arms and swords were confiscated”, and in the process, says Edwardes and Merville in their publication of 1867 (page 433-34) it was thought important “to make sure militant Punjabis – Sikhs, Muslim and Hindus – and their language, were crushed by removing not only all arms and swords, but more importantly their books, which were all burnt”. Sir Aurel Stein described how a wealth of books on mathematics and astronomy were lost in this ‘action’. For those still interested, samples of those books can be found in the Punjab Public Library.

 

But which sort of schools and ‘madrassahs’ and ‘shawalas’ existed in Lahore before the British came in 1849 to ‘civilise’ the people of this ancient city? The Muslim ‘madrassahs’ were located at every ‘guzzar’ and the madrassahs opened by the family of fakir azizuddin were considered among the most modern in the entire subcontinent. They not only taught Punjabi, Arabic, Persian and Urdu languages, they also, at the elementary level, excelled at mathematics. Thus the basics of the logical transfer of knowledge had already been laid at the basic level. It now seems that the British, against the popular belief, actually destroyed this structure, to forever dent the ‘formal learning institutions’ available to the Punjabi people.

 

Higher mathematics and astronomy, as well as chemistry and physics, not to mention history and geography, were taught in these’ madrassahs’. The Punjab Public Library has a few beautiful leather-bound books of that time period in the reference section. Just for the record, these were bound in the square opposite the mosque of Wazir Khan, now consumed by illegal structures. For those interested in the classics, you will know that the British Museum Library has ample examples of ‘Lahore Classics’, all hand-written and those edges are painted in floral designs.

 

The research carried out by Lord Osbourne (1804-1888) in his description of the “Court and Camp of Ranjeet Singh’ describes how well-educated his camp-followers were. The same can be seen in the article on the subject by Sir Henry Griffin. The Dogra brothers who ruled the Punjab in important positions were leaders in setting up Hindus schools, just as among the Sikhs the Majhathia Malwai and Dhanna Singh families led in the setting up of schools for Sikhs, which also admitted Muslim and Hindu students. A few of them were co-educational, which was revolutionary for their concept at that time. It seems the French influence was also a reason for this.

 

In the years 2010 when the teaching of history is no longer allowed, where the exact sciences are deliberately avoided in the official syllabus, and where the system of examinations have created two distinct social and economic classes – Urdu and English medium – a study of our past in terms of its educational achievements needs to be undertaken by every child, so that we can pick up where we left off almost 160 years ago.

 

By Majid Sheikh

 

Dawn, Sunday, 24 January 2010, Lahore Metropolitan Page # 16

Very impressive article but hard to believe. No race can become so in-intellectual from being so intellectual. At least, not in my way of thinking. Did you know, grandfather use to write letters to all his children in Farsi which had to be translated for his grand children and great grandchildren? 

My question is this: Who has been responsible for doing all the ar5elicking mostly? Surely it had to be done to find employment and win favours from the bosses, don’t you agree? If you didn’t lick an ar5e you would fall from favour who knows might even lose your job. Why did they give a Saropa of a gold plated sword to a very important person when she visited one of the main gurdwaras in Southall then? Is this not a fine example of  super ar5elicking of a super important person right before the eyes of the congregation?

Okay, from what I have observed it appears that a Sikh will stick up for a non-sikh in times of trouble but never for another Sikh. If you were ever standing in a “Q” anywhere, be it Disneyland, gas pump, bank or a mall, if a Sikh spots another Sikh in the same “Q” he will turn his face the other way? Why would a Sikh do this to another Sikh? Notice how I say ‘he’ for the purposes of my example. Does it mean he is deficient in something? I find this the most puzzling when I see them behave this way. If they can’t even be prepared to greet a fellow Sikh then what’s the point in being a Sikh?

[dalsingh101]

1 hour ago, Guest Gurukasikh said:

Very impressive article but hard to believe. No race can become so in-intellectual from being so intellectual. At least, not in my way of thinking.

Maybe it is your thinking that is flawed then?

 

I said before, by this stage anglos had perfected psychological techniques for colonising and enslaving communities (which they had been practicing for centuries in Africa, the plantations of the West Indies and even America). So they already had honed and pretested methods of social control in their repertoire.  It's obvious that a part of this was to make the subjects feel psychologically inferior to white men and also to control the education people received so that it didn't inspire them to have independent thought. Playing people off each was also a central strategy (aka divide and rule) - and they did this with Sikhs by boasting up uneducated and poor juts in Punjab and filling their heads up with egotistical buckwaas to turn them against all of the other Sikhs and Hindus. 

1 hour ago, Guest Gurukasikh said:

If you were ever standing in a “Q” anywhere, be it Disneyland, gas pump, bank or a mall, if a Sikh spots another Sikh in the same “Q” he will turn his face the other way? Why would a Sikh do this to another Sikh?

I do this sometimes, when I see a Sikh male in a queue that looks so emasculated and docile that it makes me sick to even look their way. What do you expect.

[Guest gurukasewak]

2 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

Maybe it is your thinking that is flawed then?

 

I said before, by this stage anglos had perfected psychological techniques for colonising and enslaving communities (which they had been practicing for centuries in Africa, the plantations of the West Indies and even America). So they already had honed and pretested methods of social control in their repertoire.  It's obvious that a part of this was to make the subjects feel psychologically inferior to white men and also to control the education people received so that it didn't inspire them to have independent thought. Playing people off each was also a central strategy (aka divide and rule) - and they did this with Sikhs by boasting up uneducated and poor juts in Punjab and filling their heads up with egotistical buckwaas to turn them against all of the other Sikhs and Hindus. 

I do this sometimes, when I see a Sikh male in a queue that looks so emasculated and docile that it makes me sick to even look their way. What do you expect.

And what about ‘Miss Marcella Sherwood” incident, have you heard of this one?  Surely, this was done to rob Sikh men of their masculinity, don’t you think? To feminize them in other words. Do you think hindu men are more masculine than Sikh men? If they are, they shouldn’t be, because they also received the same treatment at the hands on these rulers. It is very depressing when  you read about the past.

[sarabatam]

4 minutes ago, Guest gurukasewak said:

And what about ‘Miss Marcella Sherwood” incident, have you heard of this one?  Surely, this was done to rob Sikh men of their masculinity, don’t you think? To feminize them in other words. Do you think hindu men are more masculine than Sikh men? If they are, they shouldn’t be, because they also received the same treatment at the hands on these rulers. It is very depressing when  you read about the past.

Just off topic note, veer -gurukasewak please consider creating a account on here to have full benefits of sikhawareness. I am also going on vacation, will have limited access to sikhawareness to approve your messages right away so there might be delay.

[Guest gurukasewak]

What reasons do they have now to be so emasculated? Hang on a second, I shouldn’t have said this because you see them fighting amongst themselves all the time.  They also swear like hell. They are very scary when they fight. Otherwise, can they be classed as proper gentlemen when they are not fighting, I mean when they are lucid and in control of their anger? They are gentle and soft and also men, don’t you think?

[Guest gurukasewak]

8 minutes ago, sarabatam said:

Just off topic note, veer -gurukasewak please consider creating a account on here to have full benefits of sikhawareness. I am also going on vacation, will have limited access to sikhawareness to approve your messages right away so there might be delay.

Okay, thanks for letting me know. I will create an account as soon as possible.

[dalsingh101]

3 hours ago, Guest gurukasewak said:

It is very depressing when  you read about the past.

It isn't depressing. It's just lessons to learn for the whole community. So that no one ever does this stuff to us ever again. 

[dalsingh101]

On 7/23/2018 at 7:12 PM, Guest gurukasewak said:

Marcella Sherwood

In the meanwhile God knows how many African women and girls anglos had raped and groomed on their plantations. 

[dalsingh101]

A precolonial painting of a literate women composing a letter:

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.masterart.com/artworks/6381/a-maiden-composing-a-letter

[Sajjan_Thug]

On 7/23/2018 at 3:08 PM, dalsingh101 said:

Do you think if Nihang Singhs/Budha Dal were aware of what was going on in Africa they would have sent Dals to help?

[dalsingh101]

4 minutes ago, Sajjan_Thug said:

Do you think if Nihang Singhs/Budha Dal were aware of what was going on in Africa they would have sent Dals to help?

Nope. I think you see them very differently to me. Dude, it's not like Sikhs didn't have their hands full fighting Moghuls and Afghans in their homeland. The latter of whom still retain a top level military rep to this day. 

Dals might have hypothetically sent some soldiers to assist Africans if they were doing a coordinated effort against colonisers. Possibly. 

Sometimes (well more often than not) you seem to be living in some fantasy world. Be an informed realist bro.   

The nihang brothers of today aren't like the old ones in terms of contextual fighting ability. They have preserved a lot that is of historical and cultural importance though. Here's a contemporary image of the nihangs battling in NWFP:

 

 

 

[dalsingh101]

 

[Sajjan_Thug]

3 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

Nope. I think you see them very differently to me. Dude, it's not like Sikhs didn't have their hands full fighting Moghuls and Afghans in their homeland. The latter of whom still retain a top level military rep to this day. 

And have nihangs studied why that is or their just living off what nihangs did 200 years ago?  

Have nihangs taken any steps to write their own history to better understand where they succeeded and where they failed and how to correct their mistakes?

And the fact they have a weak hierarchy and not a good organization skill shows they have not put any effort into solving their own problems.
Everytime a new jathedar is elected there is massive chaos and infighting to get the gaddi.  These sort of programs should have been fixed long time ago.
 

3 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

Dals might have hypothetically sent some soldiers to assist Africans if they were doing a coordinated effort against colonisers.

Your  definitely a optimist for even entertaining that thought.

3 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

Sometimes (well more often than not) you seem to be living in some fantasy world. Be an informed realist bro.   

It's the fantasy world of the sant/babas.
 

3 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

The nihang brothers of today aren't like the old ones in terms of contextual fighting ability. They have preserved a lot that is of historical and cultural importance though. Here's a contemporary image of the nihangs battling in NWFP:

Then what purpose do nihangs have today?  Would Guru Gobind Singh Ji not want nihangs to have updated battle tactics and gear?  Also, academies where strategic thinking and history be taught? 

Organizationally how many nihangs are their and how many Dals?  Also, how far are they distributed and how far is their parchar?
 

[Sajjan_Thug]

On 7/23/2018 at 3:06 PM, dalsingh101 said:

It isn't depressing. It's just lessons to learn for the whole community. So that no one ever does this stuff to us ever again. 

We have learned nothing.  That history was documented by the colonizers not us.  Even today it's the western scholars who are writing our history of the colonial period. We still dont document our own history.  Were happy that someone else is doing the hard work.
Some of our apney have started praising the colonial period as good because the only narratives we are getting is the one written by the western scholars.  Our puratan sampradays have failed at writing history of the colonial era.
Our sant/babas are praising the west and can't wait to do "parchar" their.

Can you list the lessons we have learned?

[Sajjan_Thug]

2 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

 

Can you give the source? Is it documents relating to Bhai Maharaj Singh?

Its interesting that it mentions Akal Takhat.  Thought it was always called Akal Bunga in puratan granths?

[GurjantGnostic]

10 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

Nope. I think you see them very differently to me. Dude, it's not like Sikhs didn't have their hands full fighting Moghuls and Afghans in their homeland. The latter of whom still retain a top level military rep to this day. 

Dals might have hypothetically sent some soldiers to assist Africans if they were doing a coordinated effort against colonisers. Possibly. 

Sometimes (well more often than not) you seem to be living in some fantasy world. Be an informed realist bro.   

The nihang brothers of today aren't like the old ones in terms of contextual fighting ability. They have preserved a lot that is of historical and cultural importance though. Here's a contemporary image of the nihangs battling in NWFP:

 

 

 

So my first question was "Who's baby is this lol?" Then I found a bigger image of the one you posted, and my new question is "Where did tupac get those sweet earbuds and what he listening to?"

 

Dude behind tupac looks like he's talking into something. This picture is great on so many level, not just the rediculous. 

[dalsingh101]

7 hours ago, GurjantGnostic said:

So my first question was "Who's baby is this lol?" Then I found a bigger image of the one you posted, and my new question is "Where did tupac get those sweet earbuds and what he listening to?"

 

Dude behind tupac looks like he's talking into something. This picture is great on so many level, not just the rediculous. 

That's actually a revenge fantasy of the artist. NIhangs attacked him and nearly killed him because they thought he was smoking in Harmandir Sahib. 

[dalsingh101]

 

[HSD]

On 9/3/2022 at 3:28 PM, dalsingh101 said:

 

This was a good thread. 

[ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ]

On 4/9/2010 at 10:10 PM, dalsingh101 said:

This one is EYE OPENING!!

 

http://news.ukpha.org/2010/02/when-the-wild-proved-more-educated/

 

 

When the ‘Wild’ proved more educated

 

By Hema on February 19, 2010

 

 

When the British conquered Lahore in 1849, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General, declared that he would educate the “wild illiterate Punjabis” in a new system of Anglo-Vernacular education. When they started the East India Company Board was shocked by what already existed.

 

The board was amazed to find that the literacy rate in Lahore and its suburbs was over 80 per cent, and this was qualified by the description that this 80 per cent comprised of people who could write a letter. Today, in 2010, less than nine per cent can do this, while 38 per cent can sign their name, and, thus, are officially ‘literate’. If you happen to read Arnold Woolner’s book ‘History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab’ you will come across some amazing facts we today just do not know. To understand the situation it would interest scholars to go through the ‘A.C. Woolner Collection in the Punjab University Library. My review is a scant one. But studying other similar pieces provides a picture of the educational system as it existed in Lahore in 1849 when the British took over.

 

The publication ‘The Marquis of Dalhousie’s Administration of British India’ provides an amazing quote (page 345): “The board discovered to its surprise that the incidence of literacy in Punjab was higher than any other place in India. In Lahore city alone there were 16 elementary schools for girls alone, and to our amazement we discovered that co-educational schools were aplenty”. Mind you we are fact is also mentioned by the great Sir Aurel Stein, a former principal of the Oriental College, Lahore, in his research on the ‘great game’ where he described the teaching excellence of the Vedas and Dharma Sutras in the Hindu educational institutions of Lahore. The Sikh schools, the Muslim ‘madrassahs’ and the Hindu schools catered to the latest developments in mathematics and astronomy, all of which assisted the Sikh rulers maintain an edge over the British in the rest of India.

 

We also know from the book ‘Punjabi Grammar’ compiled by Dr. Carry of Fort Williams College, Calcutta, in 1812, that it based its grammar from the farmed ‘Punjabi Qaida’, which was made compulsory for all Punjabi women to read during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. Every village ‘lambardar’ made sure that every female in every village had a copy of the ‘qaida’, which made sure that literacy was in-built into the Punjabi State at the family level. After taking over, the EIC Board allowed the ‘madrasahs’ at even the village level to continue to operate. However, to enforce the English language as the base for all State functions, which seemed the sensible thing for the English to do in order to rule effectively, central schools for higher education were set up. The model for this came, initially, in the shape of the Rang Mahal School by Ewing, and then by the Central Model School at Lower Mall.

 

But the most detailed study of the educational system in place in Lahore before the British took over came in the shape of the research undertaken by Dr. Leitner, the first principal and founder of Government College, Lahore and the Punjabi University. The eminent linguist described in some detail how the ‘Punjabi Qaida’ was removed from the scene, at even the village level, after the events of 1857, when it was felt that unless Punjabi was removed as the language of first choice, the ‘wild Punjabis’ would soon overcome the British. Both Leitner and John Lawrence disagreed with this strategy, while Henry Lawrence, Dalhousie and Montogomery wanted a military solution to “end Punjabi educational dominance once English was introduced”.

 

In the de-militarisation of the Punjab, “over 120,000 cartloads of arms and swords were confiscated”, and in the process, says Edwardes and Merville in their publication of 1867 (page 433-34) it was thought important “to make sure militant Punjabis – Sikhs, Muslim and Hindus – and their language, were crushed by removing not only all arms and swords, but more importantly their books, which were all burnt”. Sir Aurel Stein described how a wealth of books on mathematics and astronomy were lost in this ‘action’. For those still interested, samples of those books can be found in the Punjab Public Library.

 

But which sort of schools and ‘madrassahs’ and ‘shawalas’ existed in Lahore before the British came in 1849 to ‘civilise’ the people of this ancient city? The Muslim ‘madrassahs’ were located at every ‘guzzar’ and the madrassahs opened by the family of fakir azizuddin were considered among the most modern in the entire subcontinent. They not only taught Punjabi, Arabic, Persian and Urdu languages, they also, at the elementary level, excelled at mathematics. Thus the basics of the logical transfer of knowledge had already been laid at the basic level. It now seems that the British, against the popular belief, actually destroyed this structure, to forever dent the ‘formal learning institutions’ available to the Punjabi people.

 

Higher mathematics and astronomy, as well as chemistry and physics, not to mention history and geography, were taught in these’ madrassahs’. The Punjab Public Library has a few beautiful leather-bound books of that time period in the reference section. Just for the record, these were bound in the square opposite the mosque of Wazir Khan, now consumed by illegal structures. For those interested in the classics, you will know that the British Museum Library has ample examples of ‘Lahore Classics’, all hand-written and those edges are painted in floral designs.

 

The research carried out by Lord Osbourne (1804-1888) in his description of the “Court and Camp of Ranjeet Singh’ describes how well-educated his camp-followers were. The same can be seen in the article on the subject by Sir Henry Griffin. The Dogra brothers who ruled the Punjab in important positions were leaders in setting up Hindus schools, just as among the Sikhs the Majhathia Malwai and Dhanna Singh families led in the setting up of schools for Sikhs, which also admitted Muslim and Hindu students. A few of them were co-educational, which was revolutionary for their concept at that time. It seems the French influence was also a reason for this.

 

In the years 2010 when the teaching of history is no longer allowed, where the exact sciences are deliberately avoided in the official syllabus, and where the system of examinations have created two distinct social and economic classes – Urdu and English medium – a study of our past in terms of its educational achievements needs to be undertaken by every child, so that we can pick up where we left off almost 160 years ago.

 

By Majid Sheikh

 

Dawn, Sunday, 24 January 2010, Lahore Metropolitan Page # 16

Anger..No Emoji for Anger so that is how I am showing it..just the one word