Dharampal and data on Eduation

 

Dharampals archival studies validate that ...

Education is pre British times was available to a vast cross section. "Brahmins comprised about 22% of the students".

Untouchability however is another , and unforgivable, tale.

"Ambedkar’s other statement, that Brahmins made education their monopoly, is not based on facts. Sir Thomas Munroe, who took over as the governor of the Madras in 1819, asked his collectors to make a survey of the schools and colleges in the presidency. The survey was conducted for around two years and came out with the following figures. Total number of students: 1,88,650, Muslims: 13,561, Brahmins: 42,502, Vaisyas: 19669, Sudras: 85,400 and other castes 27,518.

Brahmins comprised about 22% of the students. The percentage was naturally more because their survival depended on education. Brahmins never had political power and they did not have the ‘barrel of the gun’ with them to make anything a monopoly of their own. We tend to forget in the heat of our discussions that education as a tool of economic progress is comparatively a modern phenomenon." 

Sanjay Maharishi

Interesting. I'll read more on this.

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• Aparna Krishnan

  Please read The Beautiful Tree, Dharampal. Irrefutaable archival data. Powerful. And free from the noise and thunder one gets tired of today in todays so called 'activism'.

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• Sanjay Maharishi

  Yes. I'm doing that. Just started and it's amazing.

Lakshman Lakshminarayana

Brahmins comprises 22% of total students but what's the percentile of their total population? That will be more right?

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• Aparna Krishnan

  Maybe not ? Their survival was reading the vedas, so most of them would have learnt. The fact is that education was available to 'all', unlike is being shouted from the rooftops.

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• Lakshman Lakshminarayana

  I would like to differ here. There's a difference. Availability vs Affordability. Education was bread for Brahmins and Pride was certain other castes. Education wasn't affordable for all the castes that time.

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• Aparna Krishnan

  What about the statistics above ?

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Vijayvithal Jahagirdar

I have a different viewpoint,

In a predominantly agrarian society what use did people other than the village accountant,trader, story tellers and the headman have for literacy?

Why would anyone spend 10+ years in learning the letters if their end profession was going to be a farmer or a weaver?

In what exact way would a medieval peasant suffer