Education in India.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14141, 26 February 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

Education in India.

DEMAND FOR RELIGION. There is.apparently in India a growing desire for the recognition of re- ,' ligious instruction in the scheme of nUational education. Nob, only Christian missionaries, but Hindus and Mahamihedans are bsginning to think that much of the present unrest is due to the;.wholly secular, character of the education at Government institutions. ; Writing on this subject-in the "Con- ' temporary"! Sir Andrew Fraser, late- : ly .Lieutenant-Governor ,of Bengal, re- ■ calls that about a year ago a large and • influential deputation of Hindu gentry asked the. Viceroy to help them in their efforts to encourage" a "spiritual religious education." Even' stronger declarations; in favour of religious instruction have.been made by Mohammedan organisations. The British Government in India. has scrupulously maintained religious neutrality and its impartiality'has been.universally recognised and appreciated/, by natives -of all classes and creeds. From all schools under Government control religion has been excluded. "Gradually, however," says Sir Andrew Fraser, "experience has led the widest thinkers amongst Government officers and the strongest ad•nnnistraWs, in ."India to recognise that : the fact that Government will not allow religion to be taught. The grants : in aid now made to Religious institu- i toons, of all .kinds, whether Christian, i Hindu;-or Mohammedan, in respect of degree of excellence of the edcuation j imparted m those institutions, indicate that■■ Government has learned to wel- I come.the co-operation of religious men : m. the educational work of the, coun-j 7-' i \K- ; , The Ti< ? ,r ' of-"neutrality, ! winch led to the secularising of Govern- i ment, has been one however far ! j' 1 *- mav have been required by the cir- ' cumstances of the case, lias undoubted- ■•• ;ly let! to very serious drawbacks in i the education x which Government has '< , found itself able to imoart. The efforts which have been made at moral training, in tße. schools and colleges have practically served for. nothing but to show how difficult, if not impossible, j it is to nave any system, of moral edu- ■ cation and training apart from A relig- .'. ion.' These words are,,of course, writ- : ten, particularly ■of India, a country whose people -have hitherto been accustomed :to regard religion as the • guide of all conduct down, to the min- ■ ptest -trifles, of., daHy', lifei The writer j is convinced that for India, at any rate, secularJ.editcation is 3 danger, since ! it, undermines., the inoral ideas of na-' tiye scholars without giving them anv- !. -W in g~ a s t * substitute,;. He asserts that among the orderly elements of Indian '; the demand for religious trainS- e j° c spipe * Christian, , Hindu, or Mohammedan, is most insistent. Officials, princes, landowenrs and. merchants feet that, at least in l their present stage of development, Indian students become anarchic and revolutionary unless thtev receive re- ' ligious aide by side with secular in- !' struction. j