Miscellaneous. 



442 



[November, 1910. 



The first attempts to deal with indus- 

 trial education were made by mission- 

 aries, who started schools for the in- 

 struction 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 

 exclusiveness of the caste system, later, 

 to improve the hereditary methods of 

 the artisans ; the admittedly small meas- 

 ure of success they have achieved is 

 roughly proportionate to the extent 

 to which they have influenced the con- 

 servative mind of the Indian 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 edu- 

 cation 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 employment ; the rest of 

 the country did not count. All the 

 technically trained men required for 

 Government and for the industrial con- 

 cerns working on modern lines were 

 obtained from Europe; India was satis- 

 fied 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 com- 

 petition has been steadily increasing, 

 with the inevitable result that attention 

 has been turned to other spheres of 

 activity. When it was fouud that a 

 university training and a university 

 degree were no passports to an indus- 

 trial 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 dis- 

 appointment on their return. Their 

 education in India was found to be an 

 xinsatisfactory preparation for foreign 

 technical schools ; they benefited little 

 by their studies and returned to India 

 completely lacking that practical know- 

 ledge and experience which are absol- 

 utely essential to success in an indus- 

 trial career. Gradually it has become 

 evident both to the Government and to 



the educated classes in India that indus- 

 tries must precede technical instruction 

 and that any future industrial devel- 

 opment must follow on the lines whieh 

 have been so successfully pursued in 

 the case of the cotton industry in 

 Western India, the jute and mining 

 industries in Bengal, the leather and 

 cotton trades of Cawnpore and the many 

 miscellaneous industrial undertakings 

 which have been successfully established 

 « in every province of India. 



The Lack op Native Industrial, 

 Leaders. 



It is now fairly generally accepted 

 that technical colleges in India can only 

 do useful work when they train students 

 for whose services there is a demand in 

 existing industries and that the pioneer 

 work of starting new industries must be 

 undertaken by men who have acquired 

 their skill and experience in other lands 

 where those industries are carried on 

 under favourable conditions. The estab- 

 lishment of technical schools, like the 

 Victoria Technical Institute in Bombay, 

 in other parts of India is now recognised 

 as useless unless there is a correspond- 

 ing industrial development to be catered 

 for. Only in Bengal can it be said that 

 this state of things exists, the Seebpore 

 College already makes fairly adequate 

 provision for the needs of that part of 

 India. 



The increasing pressure of the edu- 

 cated classes in the more favoured fields 

 of employment can only be relieved by 

 providing new openings for them in 

 other directions and of these by far the 

 most important will be found in the 

 organisation of the immense resources 

 of India for industrial undertakings of 

 many kinds. A great deal has already 

 been done in this direction by European 

 initiative, the reason why the actual 

 benefit to India has not been greater is 

 the fact that Indiaus have, as a rule, 

 stood aloof. The original impulse, 

 capital and directive energy, came from 

 abroad, India having only furnished the 

 raw material and the labour. The pro- 

 fits have been taken out of the country 

 year by year but of greater moment is 

 the fact that there has been no gradual 

 growth of industrial experience, so that 

 today, except perhaps in the cotton 

 trade, India lacks native industrial 

 leaders. The men with capital, business 

 acumen, technical knowledge and ad- 

 ministrative capacity, who form the 

 backbone of industrial life in Europe 

 and America, are lacking and no pre- 

 paration has been made to create them, 

 Development in the immediate future, 

 as in the past, must mainly depend on 



