Community Profile of Primary Education in Madras Presidency in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: Part I: 1825–85

Abstract

In this article, we trace in two parts the changing community profile of boys studying in primary schools in Madras Presidency during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. We first present a summary of the community profile of boys studying in the indigenous schools in the different linguistic regions of the Presidency as recorded in a detailed survey conducted by the Presidency government during 1822–25. We then discuss the growth of primary education in the Presidency under the new governmental education system during the period 1835–85. Our study is based on the annual Reports of the Department of Public Instruction (RDPI), which are available from the year 1855, the Census reports of 1871 and 1881, and the Report of the Education Commission of 1881. During 1883–90, the RDPI also give detailed district-level data that enables us to compile the community profile of boys studying in the primary schools in different linguistic regions of the Presidency for the year 1884–85 and compare it with the profile of boys studying in the indigenous schools in ca. 1825.