254 Substitution of the Roman [No. 8, new series. 



use of the Roman character had been introduced into all public 

 schools in the Benares district. Let the same course be adopted 

 elsewhere, and final success is sure. 



A considerable proportion of the difficulty which exists, and 

 which is alleged as a reason for regarding the change as impracti- 

 cable now, is a difficulty which is being created by ourselves, 

 and which we can put an end to whenever we think fit. Year by 

 year we are labouring for the extension of education, and undoubt- 

 edly education is extending ; but seeing that the whole of the 

 vernacular instruction that we communicate to native youth, at 

 least in this part of India, is still conveyed to them through the 

 medium of the Native characters, by perpetuating those characters, 

 we are perpetuating obstacles to education. 



In some parts of India we are going further even than this, for 

 we are introducing the Native characters where they were previous- 

 ly unknown. We are endeavouring to civilise and educate wild 

 hill tribes who never had any written character before, and w r here 

 languages are widely different from those that are spoken in the 

 adjacent plains, and yet, instead of taking the opportunity of teach- 

 ing them our own simple characters from the outset, we are puzzling 

 their brains and giving them a distaste for education, by setting 

 them to learn the complicated characters invented by their subtle 

 Hindu neighbours. Thus, we are teaching the Bengali character 

 to the Santals of the Rajmahal range, who speak a K61 language, 

 and the Malar, or " hill people, " of the same range, who speak 

 a Dravidian language. We are teaching the Uriya character to 

 the Khonds of Goomsoor, and the Nagari to the Gonds of the Ner- 

 budda, both Dravidian tribes ; and the aborigines of the Nilgher- 

 ries, peculiar Dravidian tribes, are being taught the Tamil and Cana- 

 rese characters. In these instances we appear to be going out of 

 our way to invent difficulties which must afterwards be removed. 



Perhaps the best argument in proof of the practicability, even 

 now, at this late period of Indian history, of substituting one set 

 of characters for many, is the fact of a similar substitution having 

 already been made,. The numeral characters of Europe have recently 

 been substituted for the numeral characters of India, and are now 

 rapidly winning their way to universal use. I am aware that strictly 



