SPECIAL ARTICLE Economic & Political Weekly EPW july 21, 2012 vol xlvii no 29 53 Orienting Progress? Some Aspects of Education in 19th Century Assam Madhumita Sengupta I thank Rosinka Choudhury and Lakshmi Subhramaniam for their valuable remarks on earlier drafts of this article. I am grateful for the suggestions received from the members of the faculty at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata where the paper was presented at a Staff Seminar in February 2011. I thank Partha Chatterjee, Bodhisattva Kar, Keya Dasgupta, Manavi Majumdar and Tapati Guha-Thakurta for their valuable suggestions. I am grateful to Ford Foundation for their postdoctoral fellowship. Madhumita Sengupta (madhumitasg@gmail.com) is with the department of history, Rani Birla Girls’ College, Kolkata. The unique trajectory of colonial education in Assam in the 19th century forms the subject matter of this paper which argues that the state took a conscious decision to promote education till the upper secondary level at the cost of higher collegiate education. Throughout the 19th century the state argued against the setting up of a college in the province and encouraged Assamese students to travel to Calcutta for higher education. Through an examination of the revenue records, the paper shows that this departure from the colonial state’s overall policy was uniquely designed to cater to the revenue needs of the state in a region unusually constrained on account of the deficit of labour. The palpable disregard for higher education by the administration was, however, sought to be justified by harping on the backwardness of the Assamese mind, and the consequent need for exposure to the intellectual environment of Bengal. I n 1834, Francis Jenkins, the officer-in-charge of the Assam division of the Bengal province, and the man almost universally esteemed for initiating the modern system of education in Assam, expressed his anguish at what he deemed to be the lamentable state of education in the region. Jenkins wrote: To leave this matter (education) to the people would be to commit a duty incumbent in my opinion upon us to those who are mostly inca- pable of judging themselves and who from universal poverty caused perhaps greatly by our mismanagement are unable from want of means and intelligence to accomplish any progress that would satisfy us... To leave the natives alone would approach nearly to parental neglect of children. 1 Shortly into his tenure, Jenkins had formed a poor opinion about the state of education in the region. He often remarked that education had not progressed in the province, despite sufficient encouragement provided by the erstwhile monarchs. In his words, no country could previously boast of more splendid endowments – one quarter nearly of the cultivated land having been bestowed by the Rajahs on Brahmins, Dewalies, Shhusters and other religious sects and foundations. 2 Jenkins stated that he had formed his opinion after consult- ing his officers, who, he claimed, shared his concerns in this regard. Very soon, Jenkins issued a statement expressing his utter lack of faith in the future of education in the province unless urgent measures were initiated by the state to redeem the situation: All the officers whose reports are now forwarded have agreed upon the very low state of education in this province and that it is hopeless to expect any present improvement except the Government will (be) pleased to allow of the appropriation of lands and money for the main- tenance of the school masters. 3 The tone of the declaration was ominous as it seemed to suggest that there was something intrinsic about the backward state of education in the region. It contained a subtle indica- tion that the Assamese were somehow unable to comprehend matters intellectual – that they were, to be more precise, “inca- pable of judging themselves”. 4 This note was significant as it set the tone for future policies in the domain of education in the region. Jenkins soon presented a comprehensive scheme for state- sponsored education throughout his jurisdiction. Accord- ingly, in the next few years, the state set up several schools in the Brahmaputra Valley. This paper argues that the state’s