resources: education
Education and Change among the Tribal Peoples of Jharkhand
Posted on: May 25, 2005.
Modified on:
By James Toppo, S.J.
... cont'd from page 7.
The first school of Chotanagpur, known as the Kishenpur Primary School, was started at the instance of Sir Wilkinson in 1834. It developed into the Zila School in due time. Though policy-wise this school was meant to educate the local natives, the tribals, yet it first attracted the children of civil servants and army officers. Tribal children were once again nowhere.
Mandate to Wilkinson was not only to administer the area and collect revenue, but also to execute welfare schemes and projects. So, the first school of Chotanagpur, known as the Kishenpur Primary School, was started at the instance of Sir Wilkinson in 1834. It developed into the Zila School in due time. Though policy-wise this school was meant to educate the local natives, the tribals, yet it first attracted the children of civil servants and army officers. Tribal children were once again nowhere. No tribal would dare to step in the campus, which had now become a haven for the ruling aristocracy for many years to come.
Reversely, even if tribal children were to be admitted in the school, the so-called upper class society steeped in discriminatory social consciousness, would have rejected them. Indian society was a highly stratified, hierarchical and egalitarian group. (Desroches, John: Education for Social Change, p. 125)
Ahead of the arrival of the Lutheran missionaries in the tribal dominated Chotanagpur, yet another landmark in the Indian educational policy merits a mention: "The introduction of western education after Macaulay’s Minute on Education (1835) had come as a corollary to the policy of admitting Indians to the administration to the Charter Act of 1833. The Law Courts too needed trained personnel for proper functioning. In 1857 three Universities of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay were founded, schools and colleges multiplied rapidly." (Gazetteer of India, p.532) But the tribals of Jharkhand continued to be in the dark, where nothing sprouted, nothing grew. Worse still, the administration was unscrupulously callous and apathetic. To them, the natives of Chutia Nagpur were too primitive to be introduced to modern education.
(b) Opening of the Mission Schools
First batch of the Lutheran missionaries arrived in Ranchi in 1845. They established Bible Schools for boys and girls. Pupils in these schools were children of the new converts to Christianity, all tribals. Though the purpose of such schools was to enable new Christians to read the Bible, yet the fact that they would now read and write, was an achievement in itself. Henceforth not only will they read the Bible, but also the government files, notifications, land-deeds and concocted documents of mortgage. To the tribals of Chotanagpur-jungles, this was both unprecedented and unimaginable boon, indeed. It instilled in them a new sense of community.
In 1868 the Church of England established itself with the name of the S.P.G. Church, in Ranchi. Her St. Paul’s School turned into a premier institution of tribal education. It had broader horizons than those of the Bible Schools. Here too all the recruits were tribal children. St. Paul’s Boarding School functioned very well, but it could not branch out because of financial crunch.
The Jesuit missionaries started a village school in Murma in 1881. But real educational activities of the Jesuits began in 1887, when the precursor of the present St. John’s school was started in Ranchi -- a school typically meant for tribal children: It was St. Peter’s Primary School.
The Jesuits entered the tribal area in 1869. But they were caught up in the thickest jungles of the Tabo Ghat area, which was sparsely dotted with villages and was impossible for communication. With relentless perseverance they did establish four centres, but thick forests and hostile populace would prevent children from coming together for schooling purposes. However, the missionaries started a village school in Murma in 1881. But real educational activities of the Jesuits began in 1887, when the precursor of the present St. John’s school was started in Ranchi -- a school typically meant for tribal children: It was St. Peter’s Primary School.
Insofar as the British education policy for India at that time was concerned, this was a period of long-drawn debate between the Orientalists and the Occidentalists, or the Classicists and the Anglicists. Caught up in the quandary, not much interest was shown to the pioneering work of the missionaries among the tribals of Chotanagpur. The founders of the schools were left to themselves for working out a curriculum, procurement of books and so on. It was the beginning of a new era, an age of quick transformation.
By 1872, in pursuance of Sir Wilkinson’s insightful proposal to educate the local people – even if for gaining political mileage in the area – the Government came up with the Grants-in-Aid proposal so that private agencies, aided by the Government, could establish and manage schools for educating the common citizens. This suddenly gave a new impetus to start schools wherever there was a clustered population. From a single school in 1834, the number shot up within 38 years to 235 schools, catering to 5,150 pupils. Out of them 178 were Government aided and 57 unaided.
(c) The First Murmurings
The initial batches’ performance in the villages was seen as an "Entry-Pass" into the occult of the so-called educated society. In order to make the schools truly tuned to the village life, educationists of the Mission schools devised their own syllabi, inclusive of reading, writing, speaking, of Hindi and English in addition to Mathematics, History, Geography, General Science and also Ameengiri (knowledge regarding land, art of its measurement, various kinds of deeds associated with the land, rights, title deeds and so on.)
"Handiya" or rice beer in earthen pot is a popular local brew in Chotanagpur. Indeed, hardly any celebration would be complete without it. Excessive consumption of it is also a regrettably common sight.
"In addition to perpetuating the ills of Bihar, no suitable education policy to emancipate the tribals and backward classes has been worked out, despite several years of autonomy."