द ब्यूटीफुल ट्री: १८वीं सदी में भारत की स्वदेशी गुरुकुल शिक्षा (धर्मपाल)

pay a few pice to be coached by some student. There must be more literacy in the sense of reading the vernaculars, than the numbers in schools indicate, or else how could every Bengal bazaar swarm with these frightfully printed (but cheap) texts of Ramprasad, Chandidas, Krittibas's Ramayana (before the War, according to Dinesh Sen, two hundred thousand sold every year), even of Bhadu songs (which are sung only in two divisions)? Sarat Chatterjee told me that in 1921 the twelve annas edition of his fiction had brought him in twelve thousand rupees in royalties, which I estimate to be a sale of two hundred thousand. But the semi-religious texts swarm and always have done, irrespectively of the number in schools. I will go into the matter when in India next spring. But my impression has steadily deepened that the first real advance we made—in most things—began about 1917. I do not think you will believe how stagnant officialdom was before the War. When I started in educational work in Bengal, the M.V. Schools used to pour an indescribably turbid stream into the fourth class of our high school—literate, if you like, but it would have been almost better if they were not. And the Education department was shocking. The acting Lieut. Governor was the notoriously inefficient Slack, and the D.P.I. the notoriously lazy Kuchler. I do not believe that a century ago there was widespread literacy. But neither do I believe that anything we ever did for education before about 1917 made any serious difference or improvement. We give ourselves many unjustified chits. But I will stand up for what we have done since the unfairly abused Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms. Previous to 1917, what were the figures of literacy? Four or five per cent of the population? I believe they were higher a century ago. But the only way of proving this would be by finding out what sales in the very much smaller population of that day (though the first census was 1871, was it not?) were achieved for the popular classics. Yours sincerely, Sd/- Edward Thompson (IN HAND FOLLOWING TYPED LETTER) P.S. ‘Banyan’ is a usual way of referring to ‘Banias’, in East India Company documents. I have again read carefully through your letter. It seems to me that we are in agreement. Obviously we both think that (a) 370