L-25 Bangladesh Political History

Development of education and the Bengali language and literature:

Before any foreign rule in Bengal, the Nawabs of Murshidadad and various local
Zamindars and chief used to promote learning by patronizing schools of various types. “”It
was generally understood that the government was not really responsible for educating the
mass and private industrials. Each community had it’s our system of education and schools.
The Hindus had their Tols system and pathsalas. The Tols represented specialized Sanskrit
literature by the Brahmin pundits. The latter were popular elementary schools where
children learnt rudimentary of education. The equivalent to these, the muslim institutions
were the Madrasa where Islamic theology and jurisprudence and the different branches of
Arabic and Persian literature were taught by learned maulvis, and the Makkabs, where
elementary schools for children. These schools and institutions were usually supported by
wealthy people for charity and piety. But the students were largely drawn from the poorer
classes. The main obstacles were that no printings of books were available to teach in the
class. The reach people’s children were taught at home by private tutors. William Adams
was appointed by Lord William Bentinck’s government in 1835, and it was found out that
there were 100000 village elementary schools in Bengal and Bihar. The children of course
were included in as boys and girls both. A part from having government apathy, European
missionaries, Philanthropic officials and various merchants within their individual
capacitances and through private societies were making serious efforts to promote and to
improve the system of education by establishing a number of schools in Calcutta and other
Urban areas. The Hindu college of Calcutta (1816) was established first. The Calcutta
schools Book society (1817), the Calcutta school society (1818) were same examples of
such non-official Indo-British Endeavour to promote education in Bengal in the nineteenth
century.

Whereas, the Hindu-College was exclusively arranged for the Hindus only and
through which English literature and science were taught to Hindu Boys, the other
institutions were meant for all communities. The main object of the Calcutta school Book
society was established in 1818 A.D. to supply at less than the cost price, useful elementary
Books for schools.

The first educational institution was established by the government was the
Calcutta Madrasah. This was founded by Warren Hastings in 1781 A.D. in response to the
request of Muslims of Calcutta. Hastings had to pay only for the price of the land on which
the taken over by the govt. Ten years later than the Benares Sanskrit College was
established to promote Sanskrit learning. In establishing these two institutions the “East
India Government” was to promote government sought to conciliate its Muslims and Hindu
subjects, which was done after ten years later. All the business and revenue administration
of Hindu and Muslim legal system were usually followed. Towards the close of the 18th
century, Charles Grant was the director of the East India Company was one of the active
supporters of the missionary movement. Charles grant emphasized in his Treatise entitled

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“Observation on the state of society among the Asiatic subjects of Great Britain, particularly
with respects to Morals and the means of improving it.” Grants over emphasized on the
“moral degradation of the Indian subjects to education”, which was “linked with Christianity
and educating Indians”. But this bill was rejected in the British Parliament. The
establishment of the college of Lord William in Calcutta in 1800 A.D. by Lord Wellesley who
was an important factor in the history of the Indian education. Between 1800 and 1805 the
College had in its staff over hundred Hindus and Muslim in oriental languages.” In July
1814, Robert May a Christian missionaries opened a school at Chinsura based on
monitorial system. This school had a great success and many similar schools were opened
in the different villages”. The fact that the establishment of Calcutta Hindu College (1816)
the Calcutta school Book society (1817), and the Calcutta school society (1818) were itself
a great step towards the educational progress non-official sector. British missionaries also
opened an elementary school to follow vernacular language based on monitorial system. In
1818 the missionaries also opened a college at Sreerampur where Christian as well Arabic
and Sanskrit literature was taught there.

By promoting education the vernacular Bengali medium was introduced. The

missionaries aimed at establishing dialogue with the common people which they believed
was the best way to spread Christianity. By 1824 the Sanskrit college was actually opened
in Calcutta and by 1830 many science subjects were introduced in Sanskrit college. The
great Bengali reformer introduced the study of English was made optioned. The great
Bengali reformer Ram Mohan Roy vehemently opposed to the opening of the Sanskrit
college which had Traditional Hindu teachings rather than modern subjects. The
development of English language was so successful, that by 1831, the Hindu college had
become the centre of a well-known intellectual activity. By this time a comparative
educational development of the Hindu and Muslims in Bengal revealed certain significant
facts. It appeared that the Muslim had not recovered from the demoralization which resulted
for the loss of their political power and consequently loss of their economic power and social
stability. It appeared that the Muslim community was rather suspicious of the British and the
educational system. TO what extent “the Muslim community had been neglecting the study
of English, that when in 1835 the Calcutta Medical College was established, not a single
Muslim candidate was available who possessed a sufficient knowledge of English for
admission”. Government decision was that no financial help or stipend/ scholarship will be
given to any Muslim students if English is not being taught in Calcutta Madrasah. However,
by 1835 government decided, out of the funds left by Haji Mohammad Mohsin the great
philanthropist, the government established a Madrasa and an English school at Hugly,
Murshidabad and Dhaka. The two schools were amalgamated in all three schools into one
where both English and Oriental languages were taught. All three colleges were brought
under the committee of public Instruction. In 1838 Persian was abolished as the language of
the court and judiciary. In its place was taken by English in the higher and Bengali in the
lower courts. However, the general committee of public Instruction was removed as council

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of education in 1842. In 1844 over a hundred vernacular schools were established in the
district. Then there was the need for a university in Bengal.

By this time the Hindu college of Calcutta in 1855 was remained as Presidency
College. In 1857 universities were established in the presidency. Presidency towns of
Calcutta, Bombay and Madras these universities were established on the model of the
London University. SO each university was to have a chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and a
Senate.

Thus, after the great uprising of 1857-58 the Muslims suddenly realized the
importance of Western education. The Mohammadan literary society of Calcutta established
under the leadership of Nawab Abdul Latif, who made significant contributions towards
breaking Muslim “Prejudices” against English education. By 1882 education commission
was appointed by Lord Ripon to make inquiry into the state of Muslim education under the
supervision of W.W. Hunter. The commission made recommendation for higher English
education, appointment of trained Muslim teachers in schools. Studentships reserved for
Muslims, appointment of Muslim inspectors of schools etc. That was the beginning of the
Muslim reawakening of the Western education and the direction to go forward as the Hindus
were taking advantage of all opportunities.

Section B: Bengali language and literature:

Bengali or Bangla is the state language of Bangladesh at present, but this

language is spoken by 20 million people in Bangladesh and the Indian states of West
Bengal, Assam and Tripura also by the immigrant’s communities in many parts of Asia,
Europe and North America. Bengali is a member of the Indo-European family of languages.
This has developed from the “Prakrit and Apabhransa”.

Bengali went through a lot of changes since its appearance. It has at 44 of its
Sanskrit Vocabularies or taken from Pre-Aryan or non-Aryan languages constitute 51.45
and foreign words add up to 4.55 which Persian is the largest contributes a then English.
There are two styles of Bengali writing – One is Sudha Bhasa (pure Bengali) and the other
was – Chalti Bhasa (common Bengali). The alphabets consisted 12 vowels and 40
consonants and later reformers dropped one each of vowels and consonants. The history of
Bengali literature has three periods: old (710-12C), Middle (13-18) and Modern (19tn
century and thereafter). . Sometimes it has overlapped literary works from old to middle and
so on. It is an arbitrary division. The earliest specimen of Bengali literature and language
are “Caryagiti”. These are Buddhist songs were found in an ‘anthology’ discovered by M.
Haraprased Shastri from the Royal library of Nepal in 1907 and other works was published
in 1909. In 1850 Arnold Blake the Dutch musicologist collected about a hundred songs from
a Nepalese Buddhist monk.Shashibhushan Das gupta identified these as Bengali songs
written after the ‘Caryagiti’ from.

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Between the 15th -18th century there appeared Bengali literature several genres.
The first of these genres was translation from Sanskrit. From the autobiographical account
“Kritivas” translation of the epic, “Ramayana” by “Valmiki”. Kritivasa was patronized by
some sultan in the later half of the 15th century. For instance, Maladhar Bose patronized by
Sultan Rukunuddin Barbak Shah who gave the poet the title of “Gunaraj Khan” author of the
“Sri Krisna Viraj” during the second half of the 15th century. The other Sanskrit epic, the
“Mahabharata” was first translated by Parameswar Das whose Sobriquet was kavidra at the
instance of Paragal Khan a general of Husain Shah and governor of Chittagong, and then
Chuti Khan another general of Husain Shah who led an expectation to Tipperah. Paragal
had asked Sikander Nandi to translate a part of Mahabharata. However, translation from
Persian, Hindu, and Awadhi formed another genre. “Yusuf-Zulaikha” was first translated by
Shah Muhammad Sagir in Bengali in the early 15th century. Daulat Qazi translated “Sati
Mayna O Lorchandani from Awadhi, but could not finish it. It was Alaol another court poet of
Arakan and perhaps the brightest poet of the 17th century, completed this work. Alaol is best
known for his translation of Padmavati a Bengali rendering of Malik Mohammad Jaisi’s
Hindu poems. Whereas Alaol translated “Saifulmulk Badiujjamal”, Sikandarnama”, Tahfa”
and “Sapta Parikar” from Persian. The other notable poet of Arakan was Qoraishi Magan
who translated “Chandravati” from Hindu.

Another notable poets were Daulat Vir Bahram khan (16th century) who
translated “Layli-Majnu”, Yusuf-Zulaikha” by Abdul Hakim (17th century) and”Madhumati” by
Mohammad Kabir (18th century). Not all translations were romances. For instance
“Navinama” a political work in two volumes by Syed Sultans “Rasul Bijoy” concentrates on
Mohammad’s life and Preaching’s. 17th century poet Mohammad Khan produced “Maktul
hosen” which tells the tragic stories of Karbala. Nasrulla Khans “Shariatnama”, Alaol’s
“Tohfa” and notable one. There was a turn to the genre local called known as ‘Mongal Kary’.

These narrative poems were in praise of local deities like ‘Manasa’ was the
goddess of serpent (snake) specially revered in the marshy land of East Bengal. This was
composed by Vijay Gupta in 1495 A.D. Similarly poetic songs were composed on
“Candimangal” for goddess ‘Chandi’ by Mukenda Chakravarty etc. There were also other
poems on various cults known as ‘Nath’ literature; genre of ‘Vaisnava’ literature owes its
origin in the religious movement of Sri Chaitanya in 1486-1533.

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