Revisiting “The Beautiful Tree” – 9
In this concluding part of the series, read about how the indigenous system of education was fiscally kept afloat and what were the other social mechanism which kept it alive.
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Revisiting the Beautiful Tree – 8
In this article, the author discusses the other features of the indigenous education system. For in India, the formal schools were not the only way to educate the youth. Many parallel ways of education were working on.
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Revisiting the Beautiful Tree – 7
In this article, Probal Roy Chowdhury discusses what was the condition of the institutions of higher education was when the British came to rule India.
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Revisiting the Beautiful Tree – 6
Building upon the data and the tables that were discussed in the previous article, this article discusses the state of education as it was in Madras Presidency when the British started ruling it.
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Revisiting the Beautiful Tree – 5
This article discusses the data of various schools in the Madras presidency and analyzes what education was in the schools and what it meant for the boys and girls who studied there.
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Revisiting “The Beautiful Tree” – 4 – Caste Profile of the Students
The greatest of the myths about ancient Indian education system in India is that Brahmins had such a completely monopoly on every kind of education that almost all other jatis and varnas were illiterate. Dharampal in his seminal study of the 19th century education system broke this myth. Dr. Probal Roy Chowdhury in this article discusses the respective number of students that studied from a particular community.
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Revisiting “The Beautiful Tree” – 3
The number of Indians who studied before the modern age was much higher than that number in Europe. Even more than that in a survey in Madras Presidency during 1822-55 it was found that the number of those who were instructed at homes was nearly five times the number of those who were instructed in the schools. This article looks into these figures.
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Revisiting “The Beautiful Tree” – 2
Contrary to what people believe in a survey in Madras Presidency during 1822-55 it was found that there were 11,575 schools in the Madras Presidency with 1,57,195 students studying in them; the reports of the collectors of various districts also noted that there were in all 1,094 ‘colleges’ or centres of higher learning with 5,431 students studying in them. An important feature that emerged from the survey data was the wide-spread extent of the indigenous system of education, as evidenced by the number of boys who were undergoing instruction.
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Revisiting “The Beautiful Tree” – 1
In this article, Probal Roy Chowdhury introduces the idea of The Beautiful Tree which was used as a metaphor for Indian education system by Gandhi and then picked up by Shri Dharampal.
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Introducing Dharampal
In this article, Dr. Probal Roy Chowdhury introduces the major works of Dharampal and discusses what he contributed to Indian historiography. He was one of the pioneers of modern Indian history, particularly the history of Indian education and educational institutions.
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