"Explore the rich tapestry of the Malabar region, where centuries of history, culture, and tradition come together.
University of Calicut,
Edapally - Panvel Hwy, Thenhipalam,
Kerala 673635, India
The systematic introduction of the English language and related subjects into Malabar by the British rulers is known as English education in Malabar. It was introduced for the cultivation of Western ideas and values in order to secure and consolidate colonial power. The British government upheld this mission with the help of Christian missionaries, native states, individuals, and social organizations.
Background
Education before the arrival of the British was not formal, apart from the ‘Ezhuthupallis’, or ‘patasala’ and an ‘Ezuthachan’ or ‘Asan’. Here, a single teacher taught the children belonging to different age groups. Among Hindus, education was the monopoly of Brahmins, with the other castes having less access to it. Education was chiefly concentrated on the study of Vedic and other religious and Puranic texts. In the early twentieth century, almost all the schools existed on the basis of philanthropy. Teachers taught at these for no material benefit, keeping intellectual and humanitarian concerns in mind.
However, in Malabar, the upper class educated their children at home instead of sending them to village schools. Many natives in Malabar were hesitant to educate their daughters due to caste prejudices and superstitions. Various issues such as discriminatory land ownership, tenancy problems, agricultural slavery, caste regulations, untouchability, and frequent economic hardships hindered the lower castes from attending school. This caused the attendance rates in schools to decline.
The colonial intervention in education in Malabar began with missionary activities. Missionaries tried to create an influence among the local community through modern education, which they believed would lead to the spread of new cultural values. These values were thought to accelerate the conversion of people to Christianity. The Basel Evangelical Mission, a Christian missionary society from Basel, Switzerland, that came to India to conduct missionary activities under British rule, occupied a leading position in the spread of English education. It established schools at Tellicherry (1817) and at Barnasseri near Kannur, Chalat, Chowwa, and Mulil. An English school was also opened at Kallai by Rev. Huber and it allowed the native community to learn secular subjects and the English language.
The duty to conduct early attempts to spread modern education in Malabar was in the hands of the district administration. Initially, it set up vernacular schools to train young men to do service to the state as scribes and accountants. From these schools, they received instruction on how to read and write Malayalam and received training on simple accounts.
In 1826, the East India Company’s Charter Act of 1813 resulted in the establishment of three Tahsildari Schools in Tellicherry, Calicut, and Palghat, with teachers appointed by Tahsildars and Munsifs. By 1829, the British East India Company had decided to promote English as the official language of communication throughout the country. Thus, in 1835, the Tahsil and Collector schools were abolished, and educational activities were placed under the board designed by the Committee of Native Education. Eventually, there were frequent changes in educational policy in Malabar from 1836 to 1854. The Board of Public Instruction changed to the Committee of Native Education in 1836, which was later replaced by the University Board in 1841. In major towns such as Cumbaconum, Bellary, Rajamudry, and Calicut in the Madras Presidency, English medium provincial schools were established.
Wood’s Despatch of 1854, introduced by Charles Wood proposed the use of the English language for higher education in India and recommended the creation of a separate department of education as well as universities in the Presidency towns. This resulted in the establishment of Madras University, which provided higher education to the country’s southern region, including Malabar. On November 1, 1854, the Calicut Provincial School was formed on the advice of the University Board, delivering instruction up to the standard of First Arts at Madras University. English language, geography, rudimentary English, Indian arithmetic, Euclid, algebra, and trigonometry were all part of the curriculum.
The vernacular department focused on studying Malayalam grammar and translating to and from English. In line with the Woods Despatch, which aimed to open government schools and support private ones across the country, the Madras provincial government decided to establish some vernacular schools in Malabar. In 1855, a Government Anglo Vernacular School was founded in Calicut. The government also executed a plan to bring schools under its inspection and control by offering grant-in-aid.
In 1855, the Grant-in-Aid rules were established to encourage private organizations to participate in the education sector. Herman Gundert was appointed as the first inspector of schools in Malabar in 1857. According to the Madras Provincial Report of 1871, Malabar had 145 primary schools (all in the private sector), 38 middle schools (35 in the private sector), 3 high schools (2 in the private sector), and one college in the government sector. These figures indicate that progress in education, particularly in higher education, was slow. This suggests that the British government was not interested in promoting mass education or taking responsibility for it in Malabar. Furthermore, the middle and high schools in the government sector were insufficient to meet the growing educational demands of society.
British educational programmes resulted in the formation of a new sociopolitical group with a preference for modern ideas and methods. They began to identify themselves with Western liberal concepts and began to critique local, cultural, social, and intellectual practices using rational and humanistic criteria. Potheri Kunhambu was a prominent member of such a middle-class intelligentsia in Malabar who used his intelligence in a variety of social fields. Despite being born into a lower-caste family, he was the first radical intellectual who dedicated himself to charity, philanthropy, and literary activity as major tools for social mobilization.
