(_a_) lack of education, general, scientific, and technical.
(_b_) lack of encouragement by the Government which has so far
deliberately purchased most kinds of stores needed for government
requirements from England.
The agricultural deficiencies are due to the same causes plus the
poverty of the ryot and his inability to secure the capital necessary
for improvements on reasonable terms of interest. Yet, in spite of this
we find the Commission laying unwarranted emphasis upon the creation of
new posts divided into Imperial and Provincial branches for Industrial,
Agricultural, and scientific experts. One should have thought that the
first recommendation should be the immediate inauguration of general
education throughout the country with adequate provision for technical,
scientific, agricultural and commercial instruction.
The industrial development of the country needs these things: (1)
general education, (2) cheap capital, (3) skilled labor, (4) protection
against improper foreign competition. Expert advice and research are
needed very much, but no amount of research or expert advice will
advance the cause of industries unless the level of general intelligence
has been raised and some provision made for cheap capital and skilled
labor. Says the Honorable Malaviya in his separate note:
"If the industries of India are to develop, and Indians to have a fair
chance in the competition to which they are exposed, it is essential
that a system of education at least as good as that of Japan should be
introduced in India. I am at one with my colleagues in urging the
fundamental necessity of providing primary education for the artisan and
laboring population. No system of industrial and technical education can
be reared except on that basis. But the artisan and laboring population
do not stand apart from the rest of the community; and therefore if
this _sine qua non_ of industrial efficiency and economic progress is to
be established it is necessary that primary education should be made
universal. I agree also in urging that drawing and manual training
should be introduced into primary schools as soon as possible. In my
opinion, until primary education is made universal, if not compulsory,
and until drawing is made a compulsory subject in all primary schools,
the foundation of a satisfactory system of industrial and technical
education will be wanting. Of course this will require time. But I think
that that is exactly why an earnest endeavor should be made in this
direction without any further avoidable delay."
In support of his opinion he quotes the following pertinent observation
of Mr. Samuelson:
"In conclusion, I have to state my deep conviction that the people of
India expect and demand of their government the design, organization and
execution of systematic technical education and there is urgent need for
it to bestir itself, for other nations have already sixty years' start
of us, and have produced several generations of educated workmen. Even
if we begin to-morrow the technical education of all the youths of
twelve years of age, who have received sound elementary education, it
will take seven years before these young men can commence the practical
business of life and then they will form but an insignificant minority
in an uneducated mass. It will take fifteen years before those children
who have not yet begun to receive an elementary education shall have
passed from the age of 7 to 21 and represent a completely trained
generation; and even then they will find less than half of their
comrades educated. In the race of nations, therefore, we shall find it
hard to overtake the sixty years that we have lost. To-morrow, then let
us undertake with all our energy our neglected task; the urgency is
twofold--a small proportion of our youth has received elementary
education, but no technical education: for that portion let us at once
organize technical schools in every small town, technical colleges in
every large town and a technical university in the metropolis. The rest
of the rising generation has received no education at all, and for them
let us at once organize elementary education, even if compulsory."
To provide for a new department of experts on a lavish scale before
making an adequate provision for general education is putting the cart
before the horse. This has been pointed out in a very able article by
one of our premier scientists (who has taken a leading part in the
development of Indian industries) published in the _Modern Review_,
Calcutta, for March, 1919.
Says Sir P. C. Roy:
"We always begin at the wrong end. I should be the last person to
disparage the necessity for scientific research. The simple fact is,
however, overlooked that our agricultural population, steeped in
ignorance and illiteracy and owning only small plots and scattered
holdings, are not in a position to take advantage of or utilize the
elaborate scientific researches which lie entombed in the bulletins and
transactions of these Institutes. Mr. Mackenna very rightly observes:
The Famine Commissioners, so long ago as 1880, expressed the view that
no general advance in the agricultural system can be expected until the
rural population had been so educated as to enable them to take a
practical interest in agricultural progress and reform. These views were
confirmed by the Agricultural Conference of 1888. The most important and
probably the soundest proposition laid down by the Conference was that
it was most desirable to extend primary education amongst agricultural
classes. Such small countries as Denmark, Holland and Belgium are in a
position to send immense supplies of cheese, butter, eggs, etc., to
England, because the farmers there are highly advanced in general
enlightenment and technical education and are thus in a position to
profit by the researches of experts. The peasant proprietors of France
are equally fortunate in this respect; over and above the abundant
harvest of cereals they grow vine and oranges and have been highly
successful in sericulture; while the silk industry, in its very cradle,
so to speak, namely Murshidabad and Malda, is languishing and is in a
moribund condition.
"Various forms of cattle plague, e.g., render pest, foot and mouth
disease, make havoc of our cattle every year and the ignorant masses
steeped in superstitions, look helplessly on and ascribe the visitations
to the wrath of the Goddess Sitala. It is useless to din Pasteur's
researches into their ears. As I have said before, our Government has
the happy knack of beginning at the wrong end. An ignorant people and a
costly machinery of scientific experts ill go together.
"The panacea recommended for the cure and treatment of all these ills is
the foundation or re-organization of costly bureaus and Scientific and
Technical services, the latter with the differentiation of "Imperial"
and the 'Provincial' Services, which are in reality hotbeds for the
breeding of racial antipathies and sedition. For the recruitment of the
Scientific Services the Commissioners coolly propose that not only
senior and experienced men should be obtained at as early an age as
possible, preferably not exceeding 25 years. What lamentable ignorance
the Commissioners betray and what poor conception they have of this
vital question is further evident from what they say:
"'We should thus secure the University graduate, who had done one or
perhaps two years' post-graduate work whether scientific or practical,
but would not yet be confirmed in specialization. We assume that the
requisite degree of specialization will be secured by adopting a system
whereby study leave will be granted at some suitable time after three
years' service, when a scientific officer should have developed the
distinct bent.' In other words, secure a dark horse and wait till he
develops a distinct bent! The writer of this article naturally feels a
little at home on this subject and it is only necessary to cite a few
instances to illustrate how, under the proposed scheme Indians will
fare. At the present moment there are four young Indian Doctors of
Science of British universities, three belonging to that of London. Two
of them only have been able to secure Government appointments, but these
only temporary, drawing two-thirds of the grade pay. One has already
given up his post in disgust because he could get no assurance that the
post would be made permanent. In fact, both of them have been given
distinctly to understand that as soon as the war conditions are over,
permanent incumbents for these posts will be recruited at "home." In
filling up the posts of the so-called experts one very important factor
is overlooked. As a rule, only third rate men care to come out to India.
The choice lies between the best brains of India and the mediocres of
England and yet the former get but scant consideration and justice....
The creation of so many Scientific "Imperial" services means practically
so many close preserves for Europeans."
In the chapter dealing with Industrial and Technical training the
Commission observes:
"The system of education introduced by the Government was, at the
outset, mainly intended to provide for the administrative needs of the
country and encouraged literary and philosophic studies to the neglect
of those of more practical character. In the result it created a
disproportionate number of persons possessing purely literary education,
at a time when there was hardly any form of practical education in
existence. Naturally, the market value of the services of persons so
educated began eventually to diminish. Throughout the nineteenth century
the policy of the Government was controlled by the doctrine of
_laissez-faire_ in commercial and industrial matters, and its efforts to
develop the resources of the country were largely limited to the
provision of improved methods of transport and the construction of
irrigation works. Except in Bombay, the introduction of modern methods
of manufacture was almost entirely confined to the European community.
The opportunities for gaining experience were not easy for Indians to
come by, and there was no attempt at technical training for industries
until nearly the end of the century, and then only on an inadequate
scale. The non-existence of a suitable education to qualify Indians for
posts requiring industrial or technical knowledge was met by the
importation of men from Europe, who supervised and trained illiterate
Indian labor in the mills and factories that were started. From this
class of labor it was impossible to obtain the higher type of artisan
capable of supervisory work."
After pointing out the lamentable deficiency and comparative failure of
the half-hearted measures so far taken by the Government to provide some
kind of technical education the Commission makes certain recommendations
for meeting the needs of the situation, which are supplemented by some
pertinent suggestions made by the Honorable Malaviya in his minority
report. The aforesaid summary concludes with the following paragraph:
"To sum up, the Commission finds that India is a country rich in raw
materials and in industrial possibilities, but poor in manufacturing
accomplishments. The deficiencies in her industrial system are such as
to render her liable to foreign penetration in time of peace and to
serious danger in time of war. Her labor is inefficient, but for this
reason capable of vast improvement. She relies almost entirely on
foreign sources for foremen and supervisors; and her intelligentsia have
yet to develop the right tradition of industrialism. Her stores of money
lie inert and idle.[3] The necessity of securing the economic safety of
the country and the inability of the people to secure it without the
co-operation and stimulation of Government impose, therefore, on
Government policy of energetic intervention in industrial affairs; and
to discharge the multifarious activities which this policy demands,
Government must be provided with a suitable industrial equipment in the
form of imperial and provincial departments of Industries."