Education Open to All – All
Cast, No Bar.
There is a popular notion that education in India was monopolized by the Brahmins; but the data destroys this myth completely.
This interested lie was first spread
by the missionaries and the British
rulers and the colonized mind of many Indian intellectuals still continue
to sing their tune.
But the data reveals a different story. It tells us that
out of the total number of 175,089
students, both male and female, elementary and advanced, only 42,502 were
Brahmins (24.25%); 19,669 were Vaishya students (about 11%).
85,400 were Shudras (about 48.8%);
and still 27.516 more were "all
other castes", meaning castes
even lower than the Shudras
including the pariahs (15.7%).
Thus the higher caste
students were only about 35% and the Shudras
and other castes were about 65% of
the total Hindu students.
If we also include
the Muslims who were about 7% of the total Hindu and Muslim students, then the
share of the Brahmins was even less.
The data shows that
the share of the Brahmins in certain
areas was indeed very low.
For example, in Seringapatam,
it was only 7.83% in Madura 8.67%; in North Arcot, Brahmin boys were 9.57%,
while the Shudras and "other castes" were 84.46%.
Even in higher learning, non-Brahmins were not unrepresented.
In Malabar, out of 1,588 scholars of Theology, Law, Astronomy,
Metaphysics, Ethics and Medical Science, only 639 were Brahmins, 23 Vaishyas,
254 Shudras and 672 "other castes".
Only in the Vedas
and Theology did the Brahmins have a near-monopoly, as the Shudras and the "other castes"
had in other branches of advanced learning like Astronomy and Medical Science.
In Astronomy, out of a total of 806 scholars, Brahmins were only 78, Vaishyas
23, Shudras 195, and other lower castes 510.
In Medical Science, the share of
the Brahmin scholars was only 31 out of a total of 190. The rest belonged to
the Shudras and "other castes".
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