The Report as Social History

Abstract

Report of the Commission, Education and National Development, should be viewed as a major landmark in Indian educational history, and specifically as the latest effort of the Government of India to carry out the dictum of its democratic constitution to assist the states in providing comprehensive educational institutions and services. concept of universal education is relatively new in India; hence, the professional and practical problems in developing and integrating all educational sectors in relation to population growth and available resources are momentous. To quote from the Report, The population of India is now about 500 million, and half of it is below the age of 18 years-India today is essentially a land of youth. Over the next 20 years the population is likely to increase by another 250 million. . . . total student population which is now about 70 million will be more than doubled. . . and by 1985 will become about 170 million, about equal to the total population of Europe.1 When one adds to this (probably underestimated) projection the current 25-28% literacy rate, the magnitude of the government's responsibility is clear. Quantitative and qualitative mandates have impinged simultaneously. democratic ethic, in modern terms, is new in Indian social history. As in most nations, education until recently has been a function of elitism. What are the residues left by the three main streams of educational influence in India-gurus, Great Britain, and Gandhi? Gurukela System, in which boys generally lived with their gurus and identified with them psychologically and philosophically as they studied the great religious classics, was the Indian vehicle for teaching the humanities. Designed to enlighten and ennoble the twice-born (male Brahmins in particular), it was for these cultural elites a humanistic and pervasive induction into their society. Both the nation and its educational system, however, came to feel the impact of a changing world, in this case via the British Raj. British as early traders were indifferent to Indian education, but in consonance with developing imperialism they promoted through Macaulay in 1835 a needed educated class of intermediary bureaucrats who would presumably influence those below them via downward filtration. Some Oriental learning was permitted, but Western science and the English language were increasingly emphasized. Most significantly, a principle of lasting import was established: Since the government was deemed financially unable to