THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM 553 



required that will provide for the industrial needs of the 

 country, entirely independent of the control of the Universities. 



For the indigenous industries of the country, which are 

 entirely in the hands of illiterate artisans, it was not deemed 

 possible to make any provision. The first attempts to deal 

 with industrial education were made by missionaries, who 

 started schools for the instruction of orphan boys in their 

 charge in such trades as carpentry, weaving and blacksmiths' 

 work. Subsequently the idea was developed, chiefly by local 

 bodies, and encouraged by Government grants-in-aid. At first 

 the main object of these schools was to break down the exclusive- 

 ness of the caste system ; later, to improve the hereditary 

 methods of the artisans ; the admittedly small measure of success 

 they have achieved is roughly proportionate to the extent to 

 which they have influenced the conservative mind of the Indian 

 hand worker. As schools for the industrial training of boys 

 they have not so far justified their existence but in some 

 instances as demonstration-workshops they have had a beneficial 

 influence on the industrial centres in which they are situated. 



At first the cry for technical education in India was but a 

 feeble echo of that raised in England and awakened no response 

 from the educated classes. There was a demand for the services 

 of university graduates and they could readily obtain employ- 

 ment ; the rest of the country did not count. All the technically 

 trained men required for Government and for the industrial 

 concerns working on modern lines were obtained from Europe ; 

 India was satisfied to see its sons finding congenial careers 

 in the administrative services of the country, in the learned 

 professions and in the educational institutions, which were 

 rapidly expanding. From the early nineties onwards the supply 

 of university graduates began to exceed the demand and year 

 by year the competition has been steadily increasing, with the 

 inevitable result that attention has been turned to other spheres 

 of activity. When it was found that a university training and 

 a university degree were no passports to an industrial career, 

 a genuine demand began to assert itself for technical 

 education and it was soon found that no provision had been 

 made in the country to meet it. A few enterprising youths 

 sought in Europe what they could not obtain at home, to meet 

 only with bitter disappointment on their return. Their educa- 

 tion in India was found to be an unsatisfactory preparation for 



