AN INDIAN DIPLOMA DAY

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11877, 26 April 1904, Page 8

AN INDIAN DIPLOMA DAY

CONFERRING DEGREES AT MADRAS * UNIVERSITY. Bt Beatkic- M. Harb.und, Choo_ai, Madras. That the East loves display and ceremony was fully demonstrated on the afternoon of Friday, March 18th, when a Convocation for the purpose- of conferring degrees in. connection with the Madras University was held in the Senate House, a building uniting hi its appearance the subitanco and architecture, of tlie West with tlie gorgeous colouring and decoration of the East. Tlie task of conferring degrees upon nearly seven hundred graduates was attended with all the pomp and ceremony befitting such an auspicious occasion, but the bubbling joy, the hilarity and boisterous display of spirits on the part of the students that one is so accustomed to witiKss in Western lands, was entirely wanting. From tlie visitors' seat in tlie eallery, Young India, as represented by the graduates of the Madras University, presented a bewildering array of dark faces and coloured turbans. The happy recipients of degrees were a strange mixture of age, colour, race, creed and dress. There was out-and-out Hindu, with his hair rolled up under an untidy white turban, a prominent caste mark on his forehead, and over his shoulders a tattered old gown that had done.duty for a few generations of students. There was tbe Brahmin youth, every inch a Brahmin in appearance and demeanour, and tho pale-faced Parsee boy in the tall hat of the West coast, and rich garments scarcely concealed by the academic roJ>es he wore. The "Christian student advanced to the point of having his hair cut short and surmounting it with a trencher, in place of its natural turban. There was the Eurasian, who, feeling the importance of his connection with a Western birthright, was dressed in approved European fashion. Lastly, there were the few Mohammedans who had arisen above the maial apathy and indifference that they as a race show towards the cause of higher education. Tlie seven hundred graduates who were to be presented with their degrees were arranged ih the body of the hall, each one in the gown he was entitled to wear, and holding in his hand his diploma written on parchment. At 4.30 p.m., a band, concealed in an ante-room, struck up a martial air to announce the arrival of H. E. Lord Ampthill, Chancellor of the University and Governor of the Presidency. He was accompanied by three aides-de-camps in white uniform, red cockades on their helmets, and swords at their sides, and escorted by his; fine bodv-jruard of Madras Lancers in their picturesque native costumes. His Excellency was met at the Senate House by the Rev. Dr. Millery, Vice-Chancellor of the University, and "Mr C. A. Patterson, the Registrar, and by them conducted to the Senate Room, where eighty Fellows of the University were assembled. Here some preliminary ceremonies were gone through. The Registrar placed before the Fellows the reports of the examiners and the graces of the Senate on behalf of the candidates for admission to tlie various degrees were supplicated by well-known gentlemen in the legal, medical and engineering professions. When all the graces had been passed, a procession was formed in the upper Senate Room, from which the Senate House is reached by a grand stairway leading east and west. Tlie Registrar led the way, clad in his sombre gown of office. After him came the j-'ellows in their rich black silk robes, brightened up by long stoles of rod. They walked in pairs, and it was interesting to note the combinations. Here came on English Doctor of Philosophy side side with a native Christian, Principal of a Missionary College, each in the gowns of his own University. Then walked an M.A.. of Edinburgh, alongside a Mohammedan professor of high degree. Then followed the Syndicate and Presidents of j Faculties,. the Vioe-Ohancellor and the Chancellor, who looked regally splendid in his long robe of royal purple with broad bands of gold trimming and a* purple velvet trencher on Ids head. As the slowly moving, gowned, and hooded procession reached the head of the staircase, it divided into two lines, and entered the hall from east and west to the strains of the National Anthem, played by the Governor's band. At the first sight of tlie proce-_ion tlie students rose, and remained standing until the Chancellor, Vice-Chon-N cellor and Fellows had taken their seats on the circular platform at the south end of the hall. After all were seated, the Chancellor rose and called upon all the graduates to stand forward, while he required them in a prescribed formula to promise that. they would " in their daily life and conversation conduct themselves as became members of the University; that they would promote and support the cause of morality and sound learning; uphold and advance' social order and the. well-being of their fellowmen ; that they would never deviate from tlie straight path of honourable and just dealing, and never prostitute to base uses the -knowledge ' they had won, and for which they had obtained due recognition in tbe conferment of degrees." Probably the students gave an inaudible response to these, weighty promises required of them, but the sound that came from the lips of the whole seven hundred was faint as a bride's at the marriage altar. Then the candidates were presented in batches to the Chancellor by the heads of their respective Colleges. In what seemed an unending line of learning the graduates filed post. the Chancellor, seven hundred of them, one by one bowing low his turbaaed head, or, if in European costume, awkwardly raising his trencher in recognition of his presentation to the Governor. A Master of Laws led the way, followed closely by sixty-five Bachelors of Laws. Then came a Doctor of Medicine, whose flowing gown- of black rilk and lined hood of pale blue was almost eclipsed by the glories of a pinsilk turban veiled in shimmering gold. A Liceutiate of. Medicine and Surgery prerented a more modest appearance as became hia lower t«tata*\ Eight Bachelors of Engineering filed quickly by, with fortyseyen Licentiates of Teaching following on. Their hoods were lined with lemon-coloured silk, forming a pleasing variety to the orange hoods of the Bachelors in front of them. After the teaching profession came the Masters of Arts, who numbered only six, and then came the rank and file of the University, five or six hundred Bachelors of Arts in unassuming gowns of black, brown or green, according to the age of the garment bought or borrowed for the occasion. The hood was.very simply adorned with two bands of red. To an onlooker it was an interestitu. study in faces, figures, turbans, gowns and bows. Only once did the audience break out into anything like real applause, and that was when this solitary woman candidate for the B.A. degree passed long enough for tbe Gorernor to «cc that the brown face beneath tbe trencher belonged to a young girl and not to a man. In a moment the Chancellor became the Englishman doing honour to a brave little woman, who, against tremendous odds, had plodded steadily on shoulder to -.boulder with the men "of her country, and had gained the reward due to- her; for he rose to his feet, raised his hat and extended his hand in sympathetic -fellowship with her. Then tlie European portion of the audience broke into true English applause, which was feat feebly taken up by the twelve or fifteen hundred native student-; in tlie body of tho hall. After the prasntatiba of the degrees t.'ie Chancellor/ called on the Rev. Canon Sell, of tho C.SLS- to deliver the Convocation address, which, after the preliminary exhortation to the out-going student, dealt with the question of the development of vernacv—or literature by tlie students of Indian U_rvemtie*. He* deplored the apathy of tho Mohammedans of India with regard to the cause of higher education. He considered that an exaggerated view of their past greatnefi* tended ratijer to restful contemplation cf it than t_r stirring up the (

I spirit of emulation to riw up to, or sar-> ' pass the work of tho-*-.* who have gone ' before. He urged tin- Mahommedan*, with the advantage-- peculiar to themselves, to press toward tlie front, and not only now wipe away the reproach lying upon them, but- seek to make » most valuable and permanent contribution towards tlie full working out of the destinies of India. His concluding words were;: —"So, graduates of various races, and classes hfrre to-day. remember, that though you are 1 divided in many ways and from many causes, you are now united in one community—the University to which you bethat your complete-new aa a body depends largely upon the representative* character of its members, that the full measure of your influence can only be attained *by the harmonious development of the special gifts of each nice amongst you. Before you all lies a duty, to yoa all a privilege* is given, the duty of "fulfilling loyally the promises you nave now made, the privilege- of taking no mean share in preparing the Itrfia of your day for the enlightened progress that lies before her. ■;' In all your words and deeds then remember tlie saying of a wise man of the Ea&tt. * ' Righteousne__ exalteth a nation.'" v