Letter from J.E.D. Bethune to Governor General, March 29, 1850

Letter from the Honourable, J. E. D. Bethune, to the Marquis of Dalhousie, Governor General, dated Calcutta, the 29th March 1850.

MY LORD,

        It is known to your Lordship that in the month of May last year I established a Native Female School in Calcutta. I explained to your Lordship at that time my reasons for making this experiment on my own responsibility and was honoured by your approval of the course I adopted. I considered that my station in the Council of India and as President of the Council of Education afforded me peculiar advantages in endeavouring to discover whether my belief was well founded that the time has come when this important step in the system of education of the Natives can be taken with a reasonable hope of success. I wished the discredit of failure to rest with myself alone, if my expectation had proved abortive, and that the credit of the Government should not be pledged to the measure until its success was assured.

        The failure of every attempt to induce respectable Natives to send their daughters to a Missionary school, and the conviction which I have that the system of the Government Schools is best calculated for producing a rapid and salutary effect in the country induced me to establish my School on the same principle of excluding from it all religious teaching, though I was well aware of the additional difficulty which this restriction would cause to me for procuring efficient female teachers. English was to be taught to those only whose parents wished it, all were to be instructed in Bengali and in plain and fancy work.

        Great excitement was caused, as I expected, by the opening of my school which at first numbered only 11 pupils, and it was vehemently opposed by many of the most influential natives of Calcutta, chiefly however as I believe on the ground of mortified vanity because they had not been consulted in the matter. I had refrained from doing so, after carefully weighing all the arguments for and against that course. On the other hand I was not left without encouragement by those who were favourable to my plan.

        The three Natives to whom I desire specially to record my gratitude for their assistance are Baboo Ram Gopal Ghose, the well known merchant who was my principal adviser in the first instance and who procured me my first pupils, Baboo Dukkina Runjin Mookerjea, a Zemindar, who was previously unknown to me, but who as soon as my design was published, introduced himself to me for the purpose of offering me the free gift of a site for the school, or five beegahs of land valued at 10,000 Rupees in the Native quarter of the town and Pundit Madun Mohun Turkalunkar, one of the pundits of the Sanscrit College, who not only sent two daughters to the school, but has continued to attend it daily, to give gratuitous instruction to the children in Bengali, and has employed his leisure time in the compilation of a series of elementary Bengali Books expressly for their use. Every kind of annoyance and persecution was set on foot to deter my friends from continuing to support the school and with such success that at one time the number of enrolled pupils dwindled to seven, and on some occasion not more than three or four were present in the school. At this time the question was agitated whether or not I should offer stipends to the girls who attended, as was done on the first establishment of some of the Government Colleges and I was assured that if I would offer 5 or 6 rupees a month to each, I might count on immediately recruiting the School to any extent that I might think desirable from Brahminical families of unquestioned caste and respectability. I considered however that by administering an artificial stimulus of this kind, I should not bring fairly to the test what I was anxious to ascertain whether any real desire for the education of their daughters exists in any respectable class of the community, and I decided against it. The only allowances which I have made have been for carriage hire for those who required it and occasional presents of dresses, when any of the little girls appeared in rather too primitive a state to correspond with my notions of decency. Lately I have had a carriage built expressly for the use of the school which holds twelve children, and shall probably soon require another. We continued to keep the school open, in the face of the discouraging defection which I have mentioned, and one of our chief opponents having died, it began to revive, until the number rose to 31. On the first day that Lady Dalhousie was expected to visit the school 30 children were present and 25 on the day on which her visit was actually made.

        The eagerness of the children to learn, and their docility and quickness correspond fully with what we have seen of the Bengali boys, and in the judgment of their intelligent teachers far surpass what is found among European girls of the same age. Meanwhile I was gratified by learning that the example I had set found imitation by the Natives themselves, in different parts of the country. Just about the time of the opening of my school, Baboo Joykissen Mookerjea, a zemindan of the Hooghly District, addressed the Council of Education on a plan which he proposed for opening a female school at Ooterparah of which he professed himself ready to pay half the expenses if the Government would give it sanction to the undertaking and defray the remainder. Under my advice the Council returned a dilatory answer to this application, intimating that it would be desirable to witness the success of my experiment before the Government engaged directly in the business. On my late visit to Ooterparah, I learned that Joykissen Mookerjea is preparing to open the school at once without any further application to Government.

        At Baraset some of the most respectable inhabitants have already established one, now attended by more than 20 girls, chiefly Brahminical caste, and what is very remarkable, two of them being already married.

        The earnestness and good feeling with which they have undertaken this work was shown by their replying to me, when I offered to bear the expense of building a school house for them, that they would apply to me in case of need, but they hoped to raise a sufficient subscription among themselves, which I understand they have since done. Similar schools have been set on foot at Neebudhia and Sooksagur with the particulars of which I am less acquainted, and the day before yesterday I was informed of another near Jessore. In addition to these proofs of the interest which the people are beginning to take in this matter, I may mention that on occasion of my visiting the Government Vernacular school at Chota Jagooleah in the Baraset district, I found that the Native Managers had given among other prizes, a silver Medal for the best Bengali Essay on the benefits to be expected from Female Education. It must not be supposed that this movement is made without opposition on the part of those of the contrary opinion. On the contrary wherever a school has been established, there has been a repetition of the same system of persecution and attempts at intimidation which we have had to contend with in Calcutta, and frequent applications are made to me for support and encouragement, as the position I have assumed naturally marks me out as the patron of all such undertaking. I am of opinion that the time is come when all that is needed to secure their complete success is a declaration on the part of Government that it looks on them with a favourable eye. It may seem incredible after all that the Government has done in the cause of education that such a declaration should be thought necessary in order to convince the people of this fact, but among the shameless expedients to which the opponents of female education have resorted has been an unblushing assertion that the Government is not merely indifferent but actually hostile to it. I am convinced that the bold misrepresentation will not be without its effect, if some encouragement is not given to those who have put themselves forward in advancing this great work, otherwise I could have wished, in order to demonstrate more unquestionably the success of my experiment, to have continued for some time longer without endeavouring to enlist the influence of Government on the side of the schools, but I am already in a condition to assure your Lordship that the step I recommend may be taken with full confidence of carrying with it the sympathies of a great body of the people, and I believe that discouragement may follow, if it is not taken forthwith. No opposition to the declared wishes of Government is to be apprehended. The feeling excited has never been, even at the worst, so violent as on occasion of the establishment of the Medical College, and the good to be expected from the full development of the scheme cannot be surpassed by that of any institution in the country. I wish to recommend that the Council of Education be informed by your Lordship in Council that it is henceforward to consider its functions as comprising also the superintendence of Native female education, and that whereever any disposition is shown by the Natives to establish female Schools, it is to give them all possible encouragement and further their plans in every way that is not inconsistent with the efficiency of the institutions already under their management. If your Lordship in Council shall be of opinion that this course may be taken with propriety, it may be right to suggest also to the Government of Bengal that special instructions should be issued to the Magistrates calling their attention to the growing disposition among the Natives to institute female schools, and to the annoyances and persecutions by which in some cases endeavours have been made to stifle them, directing them to use all means in their power to make it known that the Government views the establishment of such schools with great satisfaction to encourage their promoters in all proper ways, and specially to intimate to those whom they shall learn to be active in opposing them that, while the Government does not desire forcibly to impose any such institutions on the people in opposition to their own wishes, it will not overlook any attempt to illtreat or intimidate those who are engaged in furthering a work which the Government considers so beneficial.

        With respect to my own school I have no other wish than to continue to defray the expense of it as I have hitherto done, so long as I remain in this country, and when I leave it, I have little doubt of being able to interest others to supply my place: but it would give me great satisfaction, and would I think show the interest taken by the Government in this movement in a marked and appropriate manner, if I could obtain your Lordship's influence with the Honourable Court of Directors in inducing them to address Her Majesty for leave to call the School by Her name and to consider it as placed especially under Her patronage. It will not be one of the least remarkable triumphs in India which will have redounded to the honor B. D. Bethune of Her Majesty's reign, that in the time of a female Sovereign a beginning should be made toward emancipating so many of Her female subjects from the degradation and misery which are now their lot. I venture therefore to make this request, in the confident hope that it will meet your Lordship's approval, and with the firm belief that those inhabitants of this country who are sufficiently enlightened to perceive the benefits they derive from their present form of Government will see therein one more proof of the earnest desire of those to whom the destinies of their country are committed to further its prosperity and happiness.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

J. E. D.BETHUNE

CALCUTTA,

The 29th March 1850

From: Bureau of Education. Selections from Educational Records, Part II (1840-1859). Edited by J. A. Richey. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1922. Reprint. Delhi: National Archives of India, 1965, 52-56.