Higher education in India as a colonial legacy

Higher education in India as a colonial legacy

— Dr Rajib Handique

The Education system is an important component of any society and gets affected by the societal developments. The history of higher Education has revolved around its own dynamics and has always maintained a subtle linkage with the productive forces and the society at large. Higher education is considered higher as it starts after the higher secondary (10+2) level of education, when it is expected that students would develop critical thinking and understanding of processes and phenomena.Modern higher education in India however., developed as an adjunct of the colonial system fashioned by the British colonial matters., Consequently, the motives for introducing higher education were distinctly colonial and the British used it as a device to create a set of educated people who could assist them to perpetuate their rule in India and insulate the local people against the tide of modern industrial and scientific culture. Lord Macaulay stated in 1835 replying to the arguments of the Orientalists, “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour but English in taste, opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of population...”. This premise became the bedrock on which the institutions of education in India were developed and the concept of education filtering down from the upper classes of society to the masses remained inherent in the Indian education system. This elitism particularly affected the Indian higher education system.The first modern universities of India were established in the presidencies of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras under the British rule in 1857. These universities were characterised as affiliating universities and were not full-fledged centres of higher learning. Such institutions of the colonial era emphasised on imbibing European culture and knowledge and never really encouraged a spirit of critical inquiry or independent thinking so vital for advancement of knowledge.The age-old tradition of knowledge and learning (India had universities as early in the 1000 B.C.), which sustained India for centuries suddenly got relegated to a position of neglect and oblivion. British imperialism also led to the death of many indigenous crafts, skills and professional practice. It is worth remembering that India was highly advanced in the fields of textiles, architecture, water-works and medicine. Thus, the imperial policies and the higher education system introduced by the British created a climate in which indigenous knowledge was rejected and links with traditional learning were broken. As a matter of fact, a number of educated Indians who served the British were thoroughly denationalised and looked with contempt anything that was Indian. According to Mahatma Gandhi, the British education system never taught the student to have any pride in his surroundings. What Gandhi stated as very unfortunate is the fact that our educated youths suffer intellectually and emotionally an alienation from their motherland, village, community and the nation.However, one should not lose sight of the fact that some of the educated Indians who also had higher education in the west and especially in England, created the grounds for a national awakening in India and in developing the spirit of self-respect and freedom, which subsequently helped in the struggle for independence of the country.Unfortunately, the colonial higher education system that had developed under the British rule was not reviewed to suit the needs of independent India. Of course the same was the case with almost all the other colonial laws and systems in the country. The colonial higher education system saw unscrupulous expansion, which resulted in creating a disjuncture between the system and the societal needs. Thus, even after independence and in spite of the democratic set-up, there was little change in cultural learning and the same alien notions continued with the Babus enjoying privileges of power and position, denying the same to people in the traditional sector. The most disturbing aspect of the mismatch is that the products of India’s higher education system are not adequately equipped to serve the traditional sector, which consists of occupations such as agriculture, farming, fishing, indigenous crafts, etc.. Most institutions of higher education in India today find it difficult to relate to this sector, anchored as their teachers and researchers are in western technology and thought. The preference of Indian academia for research of international import to matters of indigenous or regional relevance and their proclivity to provide data from the Indian subcontinent to international networks emerge from the same colonial mindset. Under the circumstances, indigenous knowledge of India often gets ‘discovered’ by foreign academics. At the same time the underlying colonial frames largely inhibit critical and original thinking of the higher educated Indians. Finding indigenous solutions to indigenous problems become extremely difficult under the circumstances.This colonial influence on the Indian higher education system has failed to create properly educated and skilled human resource imbued with the ideals of patriotism and national pride, which is so vital for the growth and development of a country. This insidious state of affairs is worst confounded by the machinations of the forces of globalisation. If India is to develop as a super power, higher education system shall have to be restructured and the vestiges of the colonial legacy shall have to be effaced.(The writer is the Deputy Registrar (Academic) of Dibrugarh University) source: assam tribune editorial