Community Profile of Primary Education in Madras Presidency in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: Part II: 1885–1935

Abstract

In the second part of this article, we discuss the changing community profile of boys studying in primary schools in Madras Presidency during the period 1885–1935. From the annual reports of the Department of Public Instruction in Madras Presidency (RDPI), we compile the community profile of boys under instruction in the Presidency of Madras for the years 1889–90, 1895–96, 1899–1900, 1905–06, 1920–21 and 1934–35, and compare these trends with the community profile of boys studying under the indigenous education system in ca. 1825 and also under the governmental education system during the nineteenth century. Since the reports of the DPI provide us only with the aggregate data on the levels of enrolment of Vaisyas and Sudras as also of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), a nuanced understanding of the educational deprivations suffered by various communities can be arrived at only from the Census data on literacy. For this purpose, we also present a detailed analysis of the data on the literacy of selected communities as reported in the Census of 1921.