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7/24/2019 The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India
1/9
The Decolonization of Educational Culture: The Case of IndiaAuthor(s): Joseph W. Elder
Reviewed work(s):Source: Comparative Education Review, Vol. 15, No. 3, Papers from the Comparative andInternational Education Society Conference, San Diego, California, March 21-23, 1971 (Oct.,1971), pp. 288-295Published by: The University of Chicago Presson behalf of the Comparative and International EducationSocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1187130.
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2/9
THE
DECOLONIZATION
OF
EDUCATIONAL
CULTURE:
THE CASE OF INDIA
JOSEPHW. ELDER
THE PROBLEM
UNDERTHETYPICAL
olonial
arrangement,
the
metropolitan power
exercises
con-
trol
over
its
colonies'
educational
culture, i.e.,
the
information, beliefs,
and
exhortations
designed
for transmission
through
the colonies' school
system.
Frequently,
in
drafting
the
curriculum and
syllabi,
the
metropolitan
power
trans-
mits
generous
quantities
of its
domestic curriculum and
syllabi
to
its
colonies.
Thus, in the early 1900's schoolboys in India and Nigeria were learning the in-
tricacies
of
Shakespeare's
Julius
Caesar and
memorizing
the lists
of
English
kings
through
the
wars of
succession,
while
schoolboys
in
French Indochina
or
West
Africa were
studying
passages
from
Moliere and
Victor
Hugo
and
point-
ing
out
on
maps
of
Paris the
correct
locations
of
the Louvre
and Notre
Dame.
When
a
colony
achieves
political
independence,
one
of
the
many
tasks
it
must
subsequently
accomplish
is
the
decolonization
of
its
educational cul-
ture.
This
decolonization
typically
means
rewriting
the
curriculum and
sylla-
bi,
if
only
to
accomplish
the
minimum of
changing
the
law-breaking
insur-
gents to the nation's heroes in the
struggle
for
independence.
Typically
it
extends
beyond
the
minimum,
involving
a
replacement
of
the
metropolitan
power's
information,
beliefs,
and
exhortations
with those
of the
newly-inde-
pendent
nation. Enmeshed
in
this
replacement
are
the new
nation's
definitions
of its
historical and
current
relationships specifically
to its
ex-metropolitan
power
but
more
generally
to
the
West.
This
paper
focuses
on
two
aspects
of
the
decolonization
of
educational
cul-
ture: 1.
How
does
a
recently-independent
nation
present
to
its
young
its
experi-
ences
under
Western
colonialism?
2.
How does
such a
nation define
for its
young
its
post-independence
relations with
the
West?
THE
METHODOLOGY
The
findings
reported
in
this
paper
are
based
on a
content
analysis
of
744
lessons
in
the
language
textbooks
from
two
sections
of
India.'
Instead of
choosing
language
textbooks,
I
might
have
chosen
the
history
and
social stud-
II
am
deeply
thankful to
the
following
persons
who
labored
long
and
carefully
to
provide
English
translations of
the
Hindi and
Tamil
textbooks:
Kausalya
Hart,
Victor
Jesudason
and Mel-
ba Jesudason, A. R. Saiyed and Vibha Saiyed, Vijai P. Singh, Bam Dev Sharda and Chanderkanta
Sharda.
On the
basis of
their
translations,
I was
able to
carry
out the
following process
of
content
analysis:
I read
each of
the
744
Lessons
and
assigned
it
to
one
of
the
following
seven
categories:
1.
Pre-colonial:
Historical
(actual
events
and
persons
in
India's
history);
2.
Pre-colonial:
Mythi-
cal
(legends,
tales,
and
myths);
Colonial
(describing
events
that took
place
in
India
during
the
period
of
European
and
especially
British
domination);
4.
Post-Independence:
National
(describ-
288
October
1971
7/24/2019 The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India
3/9
DECOLONIZATION:
INDIA
ies
textbooks,
and an exhaustive
treatment
of the
decolonization
of
educational
culture should
certainly
include
them. But
the
language
textbooks
seemed
to
provide
a
more
open-ended
arena for the
presentation
of
educational
culture.
These textbooks are designed to train students in language comprehension and
usage;
the
subject
matter with
which
they
deal is
of
secondary
importance.
It
is
precisely
for this
reason I felt
the
subject
matter
might
be
revealing. Any
un-
usual
personal idiosyncracies
of
textbook writers
are muted
by
the fact
the
state
ministries
of
education
must
approve
all
textbooks
before classroom
adoption.
The
final
product
is
somewhat
like
a
joint
projective
test,
with the
textbook
writers
and members
of the
state ministries
of education
deciding
what
subject
matter will
and will
not
appear
in
the
language
textbooks.
The
materials I
analyzed
were the
1962-63
and
1970-71
language
textbooks
for
grades
two
through
ten2 in the cities of
Lucknow,
the
capital
of the Hindi-
speaking
state
of
Uttar
Pradesh,
and the
city
of
Madurai,
the
cultural
capital
(albeit
Madras is
the
political
capital)
of the
state
of
Tamil
Nadu. The
purpose
in
choosing
two
different
sections of
India was
to
try
to control for
regional
variations.
The
Hindi
and
Tamil
cultures differ in
important
respects.
If-de-
spite
their
differences--they
present
common
patterns
of
decolonization,
they
might
reflect
general
decolonization
processes.3
The
purpose
in
choosing
two
time
periods
was to
see if
any
substantial
changes
occurred
during
eight years-
ing
events,
persons,
or
sites of
all-India
significance
after
1947,
when
India
became
independent);
5.
Post-Independence:
Regional
(describing
events,
persons,
or
sites
of
regional
significance
within
India
after
1947);
6.
Foreign
(describing
events,
persons,
sites,
etc.
from
countries
outside
India);
7.
Miscellaneous
(stories,
prayers,
proverbs,
sermons,
descriptions
of
natural
phenomena,
etc.).
2
Both
the Hindi
and
the
Tamil first
grade
textbooks
concentrated
heavily
on
teaching
letters
and
isolated
words.
Hence,
it
was
not
possible
to
perform
a
content
analysis
on
them.
Furthermore,
in
1962-63,
the
10th
grade
Hindi
textbook
was
entirely
poetry,
and in
1970-71
both
the
9th
and
the
10th
grade
Hindi
textbooks
were
entirely
poetry.
In view
of
the
characteristically
devotional
tone
of
much
of
the
poetry,
I
decided
these
textbooks
comprised
a
different
genre
of
writing
and
elimi-
nated them
from
the content
analysis.
And in
1970-71
the
9th
and
10th
grade
Tamil
books
were
unavailable for
my analysis.
In
short,
the
content
analysis
included
only the following textbooks:Tamil
1962-63: Grades
2
through
10;
Tamil
1970-71: Grades
2
through
8;
Hindi
1962-63:
Grades
2
through
9;
Hindi
1970-71:
Grades
2
through
8.
3
In
Lucknow
the
same
textbooks
were
used in
grades
2
through
5 in
1970-71
as
were used in
1962-
63.
In
Madurai
the
same
textbooks
were
used
in
grade
2 both
times. The
figure
of
744
Lessons
includes no
double
counting.
If
the
Lessons
are counted
twice when
used
both time
periods,
the
total
comes
to
888.
The
following
table
compares
the
Lessons
in
the Hindi
and
Tamil
textbooks.
Note
the
similarity
in
the
proportions:
Hindi
Tamil
(n=470)
(n=418)
1.
Pre-colonial:
Historical
9%
14%
2.
Pre-colonial:
Mythical
20%
15%
3.
Colonial
7%
7%
4. Post-Independence:National 12% 7%
5.
Post-Independence:
Regional
7%
6%
6.
Foreign
12%
11%
7.
Miscellaneous
33%
40%
100%
100%
Comparative
Education
Review
289
7/24/2019 The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India
4/9
JOSEPH
W.
ELDER
years
interrupted
by
India's brief
but
bitter wars
with China
in 1962 and
Pakis-
tan in
1965.4
THE PRESENTATION OF THE WESTERN COLONIAL EXPERIENCE
Similarities
in
Hindi
and
Tamil Textbooks
Carryovers of
Colonial
Materials.
The British
presence
has not
yet
com-
pletely
disappeared
from
India's educational
culture.
Indian school
children
still
read the
stories
of
Little Red
Riding
Hood,
Sleeping
Beauty,
Cinderella,
and
Aesop's
Fables
(albeit
with
accompanying
illustrations
suggesting
these
stories
might
have taken
place
in
India).
Britain's
Greco-Roman
heritage
lin-
gers
in
the
accounts of
the
Trojan
Horse,
Romulus
and
Remus,
the
Marathon
Race, King Midas, and Horatius at the
Bridge.
And Britain's
Judeo-Christian
heritage
is
apparent
in
the
legends
of
King
Solomon,
the
Prodigal
Son,
Androcles
and
the
Lion,
and
Santa
Claus. In
the
higher
grades,
Indian
students are
exposed
to
Jim
Corbett's
account of
a
tiger
hunt,
the
candlestick
scene
from Les
Misera-
bles,
and
an
abridged
version of
The
Merchant
of
Venice.
Such
Western
liter-
ary
renditions
fill
only
a
small
fraction
(3%)
of
the total number of
Lessons.
In
addition,
another
4%
present
biographies
of
Westerners,
which
will be
dealt
with in
a
later
section.
And
another
4% describe
Western
countries,
Western
achievements,
etc. All
told,
11%
of
the
Lessons
deal with
strictly
Western
sub-
jects,
reflecting
probably
a
rather
dramatic
decolonization.
De-emphasis
of
the
Colonial
Period
and
Emphasis
on
the
Pre-Colonial
and
Post-Independence
Periods.
Someone
reading
the Hindi
and
Tamil textbooks
might
almost
miss
the
fact
that India
was
a
colony
of
Britain for
a
century
and
a
half.
No
more
than
7%
of
the
Lessons
deal with
events
that
occurred
during
the
British
raj
prior
to
India's
Independence.
To
the
extent
the
colonial
era
is
presented
at
all,
it is
most
frequently
presented
in
the
context
of
Gandhi's lead-
ership
of
the
struggle
for
freedom.
Two
per
cent
of
the
Lessons
deal with
Gandhi
as father of the nation, leader of the country, India's saintly
leader,
etc.
Other
heroes in
the
struggle
for
independence
from
Britain
include
the
Queen
of
Jhansi (who
died
fighting
the
British
in
1858),
Veerapandya
Kat-
tabomman
(who
fought
the
British
in
South
India),
Swami
Vivekananda
(a
4The
following
table
compares
the
Lessons in
the
1962-63
and
1970-71
textbooks.
Again,
note
the
similarity
n
the
proportions:
1962-63
1970-71
(n=485)
(n=403)
1.
Pre-colonial:
Historical
14%
9%
2.
Pre-colonial:
Mythical
18%
18%
3. Colonial 7% 7%
4.
Post-Independence:
National
9%
11%
5.
Post-Independence:
Regional
8%
4%
6.
Foreign 11%
12%
7.
Miscellaneous
34%
39%
101%
100%
290
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7/24/2019 The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India
5/9
DECOLONIZATION: INDIA
Hindu
missionary
who
preached
in the
United
States
and
Europe),
and
Pandit
Madan
Malaviya (who
founded
Banaras
Hindu
University
to counter
the
west-
ernizing
influence of
British-directed
universities).
The
British
are
mentioned
in these Lessons.
But certain
Lessons
dealing
with
persons
who lived
during
the same
peri-
od
do not even
mention
the
British,
for
example,
the
biographies
of
Tamil
scholars
such
as
Meenakshi
Sundaram
Pillai,
Vedanayagam
Pillai,
Somesun-
dara
Bharatiya,
and
Pandidurai
Thevar. In
certain
instances,
British
contribu-
tions
to India
go
noticeably
unmentioned.
For
example,
a
Tamil
Lesson
describ-
ing
irrigation
projects
in
India
leaves
out the
large
Periyar
dam built
by
the
British
that
diverts
water
from
amply-wet
Kerala to
periodically-dry
Tamil
Nadu.
And
in
certain
instances
prominent
Indians
who
played
an
important
historical part in India's
adoption
of Western elements are left unmentioned.
For
example,
the
nineteenth
century
Bengali
intellectual,
Rammohun
Roy,
sometimes
referred to
by
Western
historians as
the
Father of
Modern
India,
is
not
presented
in
any
of the
Hindi or
Tamil
textbooks. His
leadership
in
the
struggle
to
abolish
sati
(widow
self-immolation)
and his
advocacy
of
an
En-
glish-medium
education
may
have
made
him
an
awkward
figure
to
handle
in
the
textbooks.
It
is
almost as
if
the
British
period
is a
source
of
embarrassment
for
the
textbook
writers
and
the
ministries
of
education,
to be
mentioned as
the
setting
for
India's
acts
of
courage,
or
not to
be
mentioned
at
all.
Where there
is a
scarcity
of
materials on
India's
colonial
period,
an
abundance
of
the
Lessons
(31%)
deal
with
India's
pre-colonial
legacy.
Of
this,
the
greater
proportion
(18%)
consist
of
materials
drawn
from
India's
religious
epics
and
mythology.
The
Hindi
textbooks
most
frequently
present
excerpts
from
Val-
miki's
and
Tulsidasa's
Ramayana
(the
banishment
of
Rama,
the
brotherly
obedi-
ence of
Bharat,
Sita's
devotion
to
her
husband,
Lakshman's
loyalty
to his
brother,
Sita's
abduction,
and
the
final
war in
Ceylon
culminating
in
Sita's
res-
cue
and
reunion
with
Rama),
the
Mahabharata
(Yudhistira's
gambling
away
of
his
kingdom, his wealth, and his wife, Arjuna's historic discussion with
his
charioteer
Krishna on
the
brink
of
the
Great
War),
and
the
life
stories of
Lord
Buddha.
The
Tamil
textbooks
draw
most
heavily
from
the
Tirukkural
(a
Tamil
scripture
dating
to
the 4th
or
5th
century
A.D.
attributed to
the
poet
Tiruvalluvar),
the
Tamil
epic
Cilappatikaram
(the
beauty,
chastity,
and
faith-
fulness
of
the
ideal
wife
Kannaki,
the
helplessness
of
her
husband
Kovalan in
the
presence
of
the
courtesan
Matavi),
and
Kampan's
Tamil
version
of
the
Ra-
mayana.
The
pre-colonial
stories
are
augmented
by
prayers,
hymns
of
praise,
and
religious
sermons
drawn
from
the
classical
heritage.
The remaining Lessons dealing with India's pre-colonial legacy (13%)con-
cern
historical
rather
than
mythical
events.
Such
Lessons
describe
the
emperors
Chandragupta
Maurya,
Ashoka,
Harsha,
Babur,
Humayun, Akbar,
and
Shivaji;
the
Chinese
Buddhist
pilgrim
Fa-Hsien's
5th
century
tour
of
India,
historical
sites
such
as
the
Buddhist
university
at
Nalanda,
the
Ajanta
Caves,
Ankor
Wat
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7/24/2019 The Decolonization of Educational Culture in India
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JOSEPH W.
ELDER
in
Cambodia,
the
Taj
Mahal,
the Courtrallam
waterfalls, and
the
Chidam-
baram
temples; great
teachers,
wits and
literary figures
like
Kumarjiv (who
car-
ried
Buddhism
to
China),
Ilango Adigal (princely
author
of the
Cilappatika-
ram), Tiruvalluvar (who composed the Tirukkural), Kalidasa (the most emi-
nent Sanskrit
poet
and
playwright),
Chekkilar
(poet
in
the Chola
court),
Tulsi-
das
(who
composed
the
Hindi
version
of the
Ramayana),
Tenali
Raman
(witty
jester
in the
Vijayanagar
court),
Kabir
(poet
who
sought
the
mutual
tolerance
of
Hindus
and
Muslims),
and
Avvaiyar
(poet
in
the court of
Adhiyaman);
the
traditional
bases
of
festivals such
as
Holi,
Diwali,
Pongal,
and
Thirukarthigai;
and
lesser
historical
figures
such
as
Prince
Parri
of
Parambu,
Rajasekara Pandy-
an of
Madurai,
Maharaja
Ranjit
Singh
and
Guru
Gobind
Singh
of the
Punjab,
Maharana
Pratab of
Rajasthan,
the
loyal
Marathi
general
Ibrahim
Gardi,
and
Rani
Durgavati,
who committed suicide when she saw her
army
being
overrun
by
Akbar's
forces.
Differences
in
Hindi and Tamil
Textbooks
At
this
point
an
interesting
difference
appears
between
the Hindi
and
Tamil
textbooks. The Hindi
pre-colonial
heroes
tend to
be
political--kings,
queens,
generals,
and
heads
of
state-whose,
main
virtues
include
a
belief
in
God, tolerance for all faiths, great courage, and a willingness to sacrifice them-
selves for
their
country.
No
fewer
than 41
Lessons of
the total
360 Hindi
Lessons
present
such
heroes
(contrasted
with
36
religious
or
literary
scholar-teacher
he-
roes).
The
villains in
the Hindi
textbooks are
the
godless,
the
religiously
in-
tolerant,
the
fearful,
and
the
selfish.
To the
extent
the
West is
featured in
these
stories,
the
West
is
the
object
against
which India's
heroes
direct
their
activi-
ties.
Under
these
circumstances
it
is
difficult
for
the
Hindi
textbooks to
present
Western
heroes for
their
Indian
readers.
Only
11
(3%)
of
the
360
Hindi
Lessons
describe
foreign
heroes.
Jesus
Christ,
the
prophet
Mohammed,
and
the
Mus-
lim saint Abdul Qadir are presented as evidence of religious tolerance. Colum-
bus,
Vasco
de
Gama,
James
Watt,
and
the
Wright
brothers
are
shown
as
exam-
ples
of
perseverance.
Florence
Nightingale
and
Abraham
Lincoln
are
examples
of
sacrificial
service,
and
Tolstoy
and
C. S.
Andrews
are
presented
as friends
and
allies of
Gandhi.
The
Tamil
pre-colonial
heroes,
on
the
other
hand,
tend
to
be
scholars-
poets,
religious
teachers,
literary
patrons,
musicians,
and
artists-whose
main
virtues
include a
denunciation
of
caste
differences
and a
dedication
to
the
de-
velopment
of
learning
in
general
and
Tamil
culture
in
any
of
its
forms
in
par-
ticular. No fewer than 40 of the total 384 Lessons
present
such
cultural
heroes
(contrasted
with
26
political,
head-of-state
heroes,
14 of
whom
were
missing
in
the
1962-63
textbooks).
The
villains
in
the
Tamil
textbooks
are
the
unlearned,
those
disrespectful
of
the
learned,
those who
have
allowed
Tamil
culture to
slip
from
its
original
place
of
prominence
in
India,
and
those
who
sully
Tamil
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INDIA
with
Sanskrit
or
English adoptions.
This
Tamil
emphasis
on
learning
and
cul-
ture makes
it
easier
to
include
foreign
heroes. To
the extent
foreigners,
too,
are
dedicated to
learning,
they
are suitable
models
for India's
young.
Twenty-one
(5%)of the 384 Tamil Lessons (nearly twice as many as in the Hindi Lessons)
deal
with
foreign
heroes,
including
scientists
and inventors
like
Galileo,
Louis
Pasteur,
James
Y.
Simpson
the
anesthetist,
Thomas
Edison,
and
Henry
Ford;
explorers
such
as Marco
Polo,
Magellan,
Captain James
Cook,
David
Living-
stone,
and
Sir Edmund
Hillary;
and
literary figures
like
William
Cooper
and
George
Bernard Shaw. Even one Lesson
dealing
with
Napoleon
stresses
the
hours
he used
to
spend studying
in
the
library
or
conducting
his
voluminous
correspondence.
Lessons are
devoted to
religious
figures-Christ,
Mohammed,
and Albert
Schweitzer. A
special
Lesson
is
given
to
Joseph
C.
Besche,
an
Ital-
ian Catholic
missionary,
who came to South
India,
fell in love with Tamil cul-
ture,
and authored
the
oft-quoted
Tamil
Christian
Thembavani.
The fact
that
the Tamil
textbooks stress
cultural heroes means
they
can
more
easily
draw
fig-
ures
from
the
West. The Hindi
textbooks'
stress on
political
heroes limits
the
models
they
can draw from
the
West.
Moving
from
the
pre-colonial
to
the
post-Independence
contents
of
the
textbooks,
17%
of
the
744
Lessons
deal with
post-Independence
phenomena.
In
this
category
one
finds the
lives
of
India's first
and
second
prime
ministers,
Jawaharlal
Nehru and
Lal Bahadur
Shastri,
and
her first
president,
Dr.
Rajendra
Prasad.
Nineteen
Lessons
present
the
National
Anthem and
the
flag;
other
Les-
sons extol
bravery,
self-sacrifice
for the
nation,
and
national
progress. They
de-
scribe
India
as the
Mother,
and
as the
Temple
of
All
Faiths.
Additional
Lessons
present
accounts of
modern
India-her
dams
and
hydroelectric
projects,
her
steel
mills,
her
airlines,
and
the
pageantry
of
Republic
Day
ceremonies
in
New
Delhi.
National
plans
for
village
development
are
described,
as
are
Vinoba
Bhave's
non-violent
sarvodaya
programs
for
land-redistribution
and
cottage
in-
dustries.
One Lesson
gives
an
account
of
India's
field
hockey
victory
in
the
Helsinki World Olympics. Various Lessons describe the beauties and charac-
teristics of
different
sections
of
India
such
as
Assam,
Orissa,
Kashmir,
and
Kera-
la,
major
Indian
cities
like
Delhi,
Banaras,
Allahabad,
Kanpur,
Madras,
and
Madurai,
as well
as
various
aspects
of
life
in
India's
villages.
India
is
presented
as
a
land full
of
rich
potential,
one
that
has
progressed
and
will
continue to
progress
toward
a
promising
future
for
all
her
citizens,
Hindu,
Muslim,
and
Christian,
high
caste
and
low
caste.
THE
DEFINITION OF
POST-INDEPENDENCE
RELATIONS
WITH
THE
WEST
A strict content
analysis
of Lessons
provides
little evidence for
how
the
Hindi
and
Tamil
textbooks
define
India's
post-Independence
relations
with the
West.
Aside from
several
Lessons
describing
the
United
Nations
Organiza-
tion,
no
Lessons
deal
specifically
with
India's
foreign
relations.
However,
com-
ments
interspersed
among
other
materials
seem
to
express
three
themes:
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JOSEPH
W.
ELDER
The
West is Still
Responsible
for
Lingering Difficulties
in
India
Lessons
dealing
with
cottage
industries
stress
the
importance
of
India's
being
free
from
the need for
foreign goods.
One
Lesson,
describing
the
manu-
facture
of
chocolates
and
biscuits,
tells
how
foreign
countries
bought
oil
cakes
and
ragi
(a
millet)
from India
at a nominal
price,
converted
them into
choco-
lates and
biscuits,
and sold
them back to India at a
large
profit,
thus
draining
wealth
from India. The
Lesson
asks,
How
much is our
ignorance
and
the
Westerners'
intelligence?
Another
Lesson,
discussing
child
welfare,
stresses
how British
legislation generated
the decline
of the
joint
family
system,
the
backbone of Indian
society,
with
a
consequent
rise
in
vagrancy,
desertion,
and
juvenile
delinquency.
Furthermore,
institutions
established to
relieve the
prob-
lems, funded from abroad and directed by foreigners or foreign-trained Indians
were not
suitable for our
country
and never had
any lasting
effect
in
the
minds
of the
people
of
our land. In a Lesson on
the
growth
of
the
Tamil
language,
foreigners
are
blamed for the fact that
Tamil,
once the
language spoken
throughout
India,
has been
reduced
to a
language spoken
in
only
the southern-
most
regions
today.
The West
is
also
blamed
for
wasting
the
world's resources.
One
Lesson
describing
how calcium
can
be
recovered from
smoke and used
to
manufacture
telephones
and
television
sets
declares,
In a
year,
in
England,
calcium
worth
fifteen
million
rupees
is
wasted in
the
chimneys.
If
they
stop
this waste, the world will enjoy the fine arts.
The
West is
an
Audience
Whose
Approval
is
Sought
Frequently
in
Lessons,
when
an
important
achievement
has
been
wrought
by
an
Indian
citizen,
the final
accolade is
that
even
in
foreign
lands
so-and-so's
accomplishments
are
known
and
respected.
India's
early
knowledge
of
as-
tronomy
is
seen as
winning
admiration in
the
West.
Artistic
and
technological
achievements of
ancient
India,
such
as
her
irrigation
systems,
are
certified
by
those
foreigners
who
came
to
India
and
were
amazed at
what
they
saw.
Tiruval-
luvar,
the
poet,
is
repeatedly
described in
the
Tamil
textbooks
as one
whose
teachings
are
respected
in
the
West.
The
same is
true
in
the
Hindi
textbooks
for
Swami
Vivekananda
and
the
respect
he
earned for
India in
the
West.
And
Jag-
dish
Chandra
Bose
the
botanist,
C.
V.
Raman
who
worked on
light
theories,
R.
C.
Roy
the
chemist,
and
G. D.
Naidu
the
agricultural
engineer
are
described
as
sci-
entists
who
discovered
wonders
which
were
applauded
by
the
whole
world.
The
West
is
a
Model
for
Progress -Both
Technical
and Social
Most of the Lessons dealing with scientific or technological phenomena
hold
up
the
West
implicitly
as
the
place
where
innovations
first
occurred.
On-
ly
later
were
they
borrowed
by
India.
This
pattern
is
repeated
in
those
Lessons
describing
printing
and
the
printing
press,
the
steam
engine,
the
telegraph
and
wireless,
the
airplane,
the
cinema
and
film-making,
and
atomic
energy.
The
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DECOLONIZATION: INDIA
West
invented;
India
adopted.
Even
the
Boy
Scout
movement
is seen
as
originat-
ing
in
the West and
eventually
being
brought
into
India.
Western farm
practices
are held
up
as models
for India
to emulate.
Different
Lessons praise Russian, Danish, Swiss, British, and American farmers, their in-
dustry,
their absence
of
holidays,
and their
application
of
the
latest
scientific
techniques
to
their
farming.
One
Lesson
describes the
cleanliness, order,
and
efficiency
of
Switzerland. Another tells
of
full
employment
and
low-cost
holi-
day
resorts
in
the Soviet Union.
And one
deals
with
the customs
of
people
in
different
nations,
including
the
personal
freedoms insisted
upon by
Americans,
the
hobbies
of
Europeans
and
Australians,
and
the
corporate
rather
than
in-
dividual charities
of the
Swedes. That
Lesson
even
states
that
Westerners
sleep
less
than
Indians;
this
may
contribute
to
their
advancement.
One Lesson
goes
so far as to state that
Westerners
develop greater
powers
of
memorization
than
Indians,
and
this
may
contribute to the
West's
relative advancement and
India's
relative
backwardness.
CONCLUSIONS
In
some
respects
the Tamil
and
Hindi
textbooks reveal
an
impressive
amount
of
decolonization.
They
stress
the
cultural
glories
of
India
prior
to
her coloniza-
tion,
pass
lightly
over
the
period
of
colonial
rule,
and
focus on
the
challenges
and accomplishments of Independent India. But in a more subtle way, beneath
the
decolonized
surface,
the
Indian
textbooks
transmit to
their
students
an
awareness
of
a
West
that is still
technologically
superior,
still
to
be
blamed,
still
to
be
emulated,
and
still to be
sought
for
approval.
Comparative
Education
Review
295