DEVELOPMENTS BEFORE

Haryana, a tiny north-western state bordering the imperial-metropolitan capital city of Delhi consists of an area of 44,000 square kilometers, with a population (1991 Census) of less than 16.5 million, of which about 78% is rural. There are more than 6000 villages which are all mainly agrarian. It was separated from Punjab on 1 November 1966. Before

1 Interview with Dr. Jitendra Prasad (20/2/95), Reader in Sociology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak 2 Sheila Bhalla (1995), ‘Development, Poverty and Policy - The Haryana Experience’, EPW, Vol. XXX, Nos. 41 and 42, 2619-2634

that, particularly during the colonial period it was a part of either United Province or United Punjab and it had no separate political identity of its own as an administrative region. Historically, ‘Haryana had been and continues to be but one part of the wider cultural and linguistic region embracing Delhi, United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) and Rajasthan’ . Before British Annexation (which was completed in 1849) it consisted of small, native princely states, some under the control of distant rulers like the Marathas and Sikhs. Although always politically tom by invasions, internal feuds and civil wars, this region too had preserved and enriched its traditional educational endowments until it was nearly destroyed by the new administrative and educational system introduced by the British after annexation. ‘There was not a single mosque, or temple or dharamshala in this region which did not have at least one learning centre of the traditional type attached to it, to which the youth generally flocked chiefly for vocational training in the 3R’s and for religious moral education’4. This education was not compulsory or highly organised on a formal basis, but was very popular. Ordinary people foimd it cheap, within easy reach and flexibly well-suited to the requirements of farm and seasonal labour.

The Punjab Administration Reports of 1854-55 and 1855-56 recognised the existence of these traditional schools. It was noted that the ‘style o f education’ in these schools was ‘primitive’, still ‘the majority of people, though ignorant, are yet not insensible to the blessings of knowledge of their children’5. The natives had not yet developed a modem and secular system of teaching and learning, particularly of science education. Their traditional reverence for learning and knowledge was quite deep-seated. The first two stages (i.e. elementary and secondary stages) of indigenous learning were directed at mundane and secular aspects of occupational, social and cultural transactions. The main patrons were the wealthy of each village, and with the help of their generous contributions, schools were run by Maulvis and Pandits who stayed there and taught students in an informal and intimate way. Many teachers and fakirs who enjoyed good reputations and had acquired wealth, maintained their own schools, but in most cases the students collected donations and contributions from ordinary villagers, usually a part of their produce. Much higher learning, for example, the study of lexicology, rhetoric, medicine, astrology and astronomy along with literary studies of epics, poetics, hymns and

3 S.P. Shukla (1985), India’s Freedom Struggle and the Role of Haryana. 18-19.

4 see Introduction in G.W. Leitner (1882), History o f Indigenous Education in the Punjab since Annexation and in 1882. (reprinted 1991). There are altogether five parts in Leitner’s book, each paginated separately. Here we refer mainly to its first part unless otherwise stated.

5 quoted in H.R. Mehta (1929), A History o f the Growth and Development o f Western Education in the Punjab 1846-1884. (reprinted 1971), 32-33

philosophy was based mainly on oral practices. Persian had been the main language of learning for some centuries among the aristocracies of Punjab and other northern and central parts o f India, particularly among the Muslims. The existing bilingual tradition among the learned people of the region allowed Persian to exert a great beneficial influence on various vernaculars like Khari-boli along with Arabic and Sanskrit6. According to G.W. Leitner, Urdu of common people’s language became a subject of study first for Europeans and later for the natives, ‘to whom it was said to come incidentally through Persian’ . Replacement of Persian by Urdu was looked upon as a limitation in education by the upper class Muslim gentry and it led its gradual disuse as a spoken and written language.

However, though slowly, Urdu, and finally English, was to replace existing popular vernacular education as ‘an avenue and claim to employment under Government’ by the more clever and intelligent sections in the community, as G.W. Leitner observed that time ‘... in spite of persecution, indigenous education is still endowed with some vitality, and

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that it, practically, represents the protest of the people against our system of education’ . There were a few thousand secular schools both for elementary instruction and higher learning in this region, which were well attended by Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus9. The elementary instruction in these schools consisted of commercial ciphering and ledger- keeping (mostly in Mahajani, Chatsals 01* Baniya schools) along with reading and writing,

mental arithmetic and grammar. There were altogether 557 indigenous schools with 7,100 pupils in the Haryana region proper, as against 13,109 indigenous schools with 133,588 pupils in the whole of Punjab at the end of 19th century10. In the Haryana region these indigenous schools included the Mahajani schools, the Maktabs and Madrasas, the Sanskrit and Nagri Pathshalas which maintained a spirit of reverence for learning for its own sake and for the development of individual character and religious culture.

However, it appears that in the area of indigenous learning, the districts of Delhi and Hissar division, which comprised much of contemporary Haryana, were ‘among the least educated in the whole province of Panjab’ and in fact there the indigenous schools were ‘below the average of the better schools’11. Quality apart, there were substantially fewer indigenous schools in the Haryana region, probably because the majority of the

6 Leitner, op.cit., ii

s ibid'_{op.cit., ii and 14}

9 op.cit., i 10 ibid.

11 op.cit., 47 (Part I). For Delhi and Hissar Division, see Part - II, 1-26, The then Delhi Division included districts o f Delhi, Gurgaon, Kamal and Hissar Division included districts o f Hissar, Rohtak, and Sirsa

population there was engaged in subsistence fanning. The rich, uneducated fanners belonging to Jat and Gujjar communities maintained their dominance in lower Punjab (Haryana region) without bothering themselves with education and literacy. Education was a matter of social and occupational interest for the small community of Brahmins, the upper class of Muslim gentry, the scribe castes, and the Baniyas who lived in upper Punjab where they have been the traditional patrons of learning. The local Jats and Gujjars did not concern themselves with the growth of education until the 1920s and 30s, when inter-caste competition for political supremacy under the new administration led them to open new colleges and institutions.

In the Punjab region which included modem Haryana and Delhi, modem education introduced by the British during second half of 19th century and early 20th century was not very popular. It was popular only with traditional patrons of learning. It became more popular with trading communities who, though oppressed and despised, were clever enough to foresee the trend of historical change. For them, the English rule and system of education came as a boon. With the rest of the community, as we have seen, it remained unwelcome for a long time. As G.W. Leitner, the then Principal of Lahore College in Punjab writes, even the government remained reluctant to open new schools for them either based on the traditional or the modem system. When the first Educational Cess was levied on the local people for raising funds for Aided schools in their area, it met an enthusiastic response from the people. Later, to their disappointment, despite their contributions, the district officials did not help them open such schools for fear of wasting government money. At some places in the then north-west frontier, there followed public agitation in local communities where physical suppression by military troops was reported to have

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been used to diffuse protests, at the refusal of demands for schools .

On the whole, the majority of the population in Haryana continued to remain dependent on the subsistence economy of agriculture and animal husbandly. To participate in such a subsistence economy, they did not require literacy or education. Later some hope for the physically rough and tough inhabitants of this area came from the imperial administration when this region became a major recruiting area for the lower ranks o f the British Indian army. Every village is said to have had at least one or two junior officers in the Defence Services and there are many popular stories and jokes about a fauzi (soldier) attitude and culture which seems to have contributed something to village identity in

12 Leitner, op.cit., see Introduction

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Haryana . This contribution has added to their sense of serving the country in a way that demands strength, courage and commitment. Apart from this ‘patriotic’ identity, Haryana has also maintained a strong sense of rural identity where traditional solidarity has been jealously guarded against external infringements. English and modem education appeared to be in bad taste to the natives, particularly among the rural peasantry. Against the offensive parade of the English-educated native elites, there grew among the peasantry a defensive identity based on rural culture. This identity, bom out of an instinct for cultural self-preservation, grew stronger with time opposing not only official ridicule but also the rising influence of the new English-educated elites coming from other regions who were unmindful of the interests of the local majority culture.

The attitude of the British administration was ambivalent about both Oriental and English education. On the one hand, they feared that Oriental education would diminish the demand for English education, yet on the other, they feared that the spread of English education would lead to unemployment and hence growing discontent. Both these fears proved to be unfounded as, for example, the establishment of Lahore College, which also permitted Oriental education, did not diminish the demand for English education14. The government was, however reluctant not only to re-invigorate the old indigenous schools, but also to open new schools. Hence, as the old indigenous schools started dying out, English or modem education hardly made any headway into these hinterlands of Haryana15. Four English schools were opened in Sonepat Pargana by a British officer between 1816-1823 but later they were closed owing to lack of financial support16. A few Tehsildari (Zamindari) schools were also opened in some of the districts imder the ‘grant- in-aid’ system but they were essentially town-based and mainly in upper Punjab, not in the Haryana region.

The work done by the Arya Samaj in furthering the cause of indigenous education in Haryana, particularly in rural areas was of a mixed character. According to Prem Chowdhry, ‘evidence suggests that the Arya Samaj efforts in the colonial period remained

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confined to the Punjab side and could not be seen in the Haiyana region’ . The Arya Samajists were successful only in the upper Punjab region where disaffected Hindus felt threatened by the increasing influence of Christian missionaries. Also, the Arya Samaj had

13 Rajbir Deswal (1991), Wit and Humour o f Hai yana. 59, 122-27 14 Leitner, op.cit.

15 Mehta, op.cit, 52-53

16 H. Sharp (1920), Selections from Educational records. Vol. I , (reprinted 1965) 13-15

17 Prem Chowdhry (1994), The Veiled Women - Shifting Gender Equations in Rural Haryana 1880-1990. 209

drawn its leadership and cadres from ‘the ritually high castes, the trading and mercantile community of Punjab’ and hence it could hardly find any support among the Haryana

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peasantry dominated by Jats . Patriarchal and conservative as it was, the Jat community was averse to the reformist agenda of the Arya Samaj leadership, which, for example, propagated the idea that widows should be allowed to remarry and that both women and lower castes should have access to public services and education. The Jat community, which held political and social leadership in this region, became apprehensive that Arya Samaj’s re-Sanskritising efforts might interfere with the slow vernacularisation process of the day, with disturbing consequences for their own power and dominance. The Jats were apprehensive o f both the English educated elites and the reformist Arya Samaj leaders. Prem Chowdhry writes that ‘the imagined role of a “modern woman”, modelled upon the Victorian ideal of womanhood which influenced most Indian educationists o f the nineteenth centuiy, as companion and helpmate of the Punjabi urban educated male, with its emphasis on “good breeding” and “good maimers”, had 110 takers in Haiyana’19. The

Haiyana region, with its extreme poverty, could hardly appreciate the rhetoric of these liberal and reformist agendas. There were no English medium schools, only a few Government and Aided schools. With indigenous schools declining fast, the additional

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efforts of the Gurukul Shakhas under A y a Samaj ended up with little success .

Social and occupational mobility in Haryana remained low until recently. The total number of Haiyanavis in modem professions and business remained negligible, and their share continued to be low even under the Punjab state government of post-independent India, which, through an office order of 5th September 1958, had made it difficult for Haryanavis to get a government job, as knowledge of the Punjabi language was made a compulsory criterion for eligibility. Literacy in the Haryana region was as low as 15.76% for males and 2.98% for females at the time of Independence. Even after Independence, until Haryana’s separation in 1966 the Punjab state government did little for educational development in this area as most resources were allocated to the upper Punjab region. For example, in the year 1963-64 Haryana received only Rs. 483.29 lakhs (32.8%) for developing education, much of which remained unutilised, whereas Punjab was allocated Rs. 765.74 lakhs (52%) out of the total budget21. After Independence, literacy and educational provisions became political issues as budgetary priorities were manipulated by

18 ibid.

19 Chowdhry, op.cit., 210 20 ibid., also Leitner, op.cit.

21 These figures are quoted in Prem Chowdhry, op.cit., 212-213