Figure 1.--Here we see a school in Lahore during the 1930s. We have been unable to find any description of thde chool, but believe it is a Raj public school. The children have slates. Notice theblackboard with some English wruiting. English became the ciuntry's common language. Also note the teacher's largely Western dress. We think the different headwear my suggest religion. Lashore was the capital of the Punjab, a religiously diverse area. .

Under the Raj, schools were opened and and substantial numbers of children were educated. And no only schools, but real universities were founded for the first time. The Raj' is the Hindu word meaning sovereignty and refers to the period of British Government rule in India from 1858 when the British Government took over running India from the (EIC). . The Raj, however, went much further. The EIC founded schools for the elites and to meet their needs. The British RAJ officials debated educational policy. Some saw no advantage and huge expenses in founding a public school system in India. This is not surprising as the thought had also not occurred to native Indian rulers and even in Britain itself, authorities did not begin to build a public school system until well after many other European countries, especially the Germans had begun founding public schools (1760s). The British in their own schools only began (1870s). The British colonial government began opening schools in the Raj. This went from 2,800 primary schools (1855) to 204,400 schools (1931). The number of students increased from 0.1 million to 9.4 million children during that same period. [Education Department] Secondary schiools increased from 281 (1855) to 13, 600 (1931). The number of stuents duriung this same period increased from 34,000 to 2.3 million in that same period. The Education Deoartment reports nearly 50,000 'unrecognized institutions. We believe these were schools like Mislim medrassas. Most continued to nooperare and there were still sime 35,000 of these schools (1931). Literacy rates increased from 8 to 25 percent (1881-1941). It would be much higher among a younger cohort. Female education and literacy lagged. The first modern universities were founded (1850s). There were 16 universities with 92,000 students (1931). These numbers are not large given the Indian population 393 million (1931). They are impressive, given the progress being made and the fact that fact that India was not a rich country measured in per capita income. No other non-Western country has comparable educational numbers except Japan along with the American Philippines Commonwealth and the British Palestine Mandate.

Sources

Education Department. British Government of India. This was data from the census of India. J.H. Hutton, "Census of India 1931" and William Hunter, "Report of the Indian Education Commission 1882".

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer] [School sandals]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Return to the Main Raj education system]
[Return to the Main Indian school chronology page]
[Return to the Main Indian school page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Cloth and textiles] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Topics]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 2:29 AM 8/3/2022
Last updated: 2:29 AM 8/3/2022