Pages From History: An Attempt At Atmanirbharta In Education In Colonial Tamil Nadu

There is a narrative regarding education in India. Political rhetoric and evangelical supremacism have been built over it. It is this:

-'Christian missionaries and British education democratised education in India'.

-'Brahmins being part of a cunning and selfish priestcraft institution usurped all benefits of the education brought by the British to themselves'.

-'In this they were helped by the superior position in the society which they had acquired for themselves. This anti-democratic social environment was the result of Hinduism'.

However, when one goes through the annals of history, one finds that the facts are vastly different. Education in India was decentralised, localised and through the network of rural communities, democratic. It was also cost-effective.

The British government, instead of upgrading this system, introduced a more centrally-controlled, capital-intensive education. This created disparities in the literacy of communities and the blame was put on Hindu society.

Yet, the Hindus fought for democratised education and upgrading of their traditional institutions, even in the colonial settings.

Here is one such instance from southern India.

Sri la Sri Siva Shanmuga Meijnana Sivacharya Swamigal (1873-1942) was the fifth head of the Thirukovilur Adheenam Thirupathiripuliyur Jnaniyaar Madalaya in Tamil Nadu.

Born in the Veera Saiva tradition, he was coronated as the Peetathipathi when he was 16. Originally, he was taught Telugu. Later he mastered Tamil from Deivasigamani Iyer and Swaminatha Iyer. He mastered Sanskrit from Sri Ramanatha Sastri. He also studied English.

He did not simply learn how to read and write but gained in-depth knowledge of each of these languages. It is said he took 15 years to master Tamil and Sanskrit, imbibing the complete knowledge of all major literary and spiritual works in them.

Known as Jnaniyar Swamigal, he was concerned about the spread of cultural and spiritual illiteracy that came with British mode of education. He also painfully saw how social stagnation was creating its own malaise in the society.

In order to change that, he went on extensive tours providing wonderful discourses, showing the richness of Tamil language and Saiva spirituality. At the same time, he took special care to create Saiva-Vaishnava harmony.

Even E V Ramaswamy (so-called ‘Periyar’) invited Swamigal to inaugurate the publishing house of the new magazine he was launching, Kudi Arasu. Incidentally, the masthead of the magazine contained a portrait of Bharat Mata with the national flag hoisted on the Trishul she holds.

Swamigal had started many institutions to bring quality and holistic education as well as cultural literacy to all sections of the society. Among them was the school he started with the financial assistance of Sri Nagappa Chettiar – a philanthropist. It was named after Sri Paadaleeswara, the Siva of Thirupathiripuliyur.

This school, 'Sri Paadaleswara Dharma Paadasalai' was specially designed to include all children, including the poorest.

School uniform was not insisted upon. Children could come in their loin cloths. However, the children had to wear either the Saivite or Sri Vaishnavite marks on their foreheads and those who had no marks would be provided with one.

Swamigal provided the children with free textbooks. The school timings were from forenoon 9 to 12 and then in the afternoon from 2 to 5. On Saturdays, only forenoon classes would be held.

There was no holiday on Sundays. But every full-moon day, new moon day and Pratima day were holidays. All Dharmic sacred days were holidays. During the festival of Sri Paadaleeswara, there would be a one-month vacation.

Any space available in the Madalaya was used for conducting class rooms in the beginning. Then they used rented building before they came up with their own buildings.

The school taught secular subjects and also sacred literature in Tamil. Every child was taught which hymns to recite before which Deity in which way when in a temple.

According to the people of the region the school was at that time the ‘Vidya Kamadenu’ for all those who wanted their children to be Dharmic. Thus, the children of affluent families sat together with children clad only in their loin clothes and studied.

But the school faced grave danger in due course of time. The government recognition for the school was not forthcoming. A Christian educational school in the area had objected to giving government recognition to this school. The colonial administration, hands in gloves with the evangelical institutions, delayed giving the recognition. This would affect the future of many children and allow Christian monopoly in education.

This is just one incident that lay buried in the annals of history of how Christian dominance in education was obtained in India. It is not a picture of selfless missionary workers propelled by the so-called Christian love bringing education to the heathen who was denied knowledge by a vile priest caste.

On the other hand, it was a systematic destruction of existing educational systems by the power of government machinery and by creating bureaucratic and other forms of impediments for Hindu attempts to rejuvenate their own institutions through their own restricted resources.

One should just think about how a celebrated seer-scholar of Tamil Nadu, working for the educational upliftment of the poor and the marginalised in his society through the resources of his own Dharmic community, could be stalled from getting government recognition because of the objection of one Christian school. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved much even after Independence.

Fortunately at that time, Sri S Krishnamurthy Iyer, who was the son of the famous judge T Sadasiva Iyer (1861-1927), was transferred as the District Educational Officer (DEO) to that region. He understood the mischief that was going on against the Swadesi educational efforts of Jnaaniyar Swamigal and the very first act he did as the DEO of the region was to give recognition to the school.

Next year is the 150th birth anniversary of the Swami. Unfortunately the school got closed despite the victory because of disunity among Swamigal's followers. If all the Adheenams of Tamil Nadu come together and open this educational institution again, it would be the most appropriate tribute to the sacred memory of this great scholar-seer.

So, here is thus a page from history which shows how atmanirbharta in education attempted by Hindu seers and saints, educationists and philanthropists, was stifled in colonial India by the combined strategies of missionaries and colonial bureaucracy.

While we attained Independence 75 years ago, similar attempts to stifle Hindu educational projects are still going on. Meanwhile, the narrative of ‘Hindus denying education to all and missionaries saving them’ still goes strong.

Every Hindu spiritual head should become a Jnaniyar Swamigal and launch projects to provide holistic education with renewed vigour.

Also Read: Evangelical Aggression In Educational Institutions In Tamil Nadu: Latest Incident And A Historic Context

[Long Read] Education Policy In India: Time For Some Uncomfortable Questions And Answers, Time For Change