Was education in India denied to lower castes for 5000 years?

Or was there no education at all before the British arrived? The British conducted extensive surveys on indigenous education in the 1820s-30s.

The truth about our forgotten past will make you rethink our very own history.

When the British arrived, there were thousands of schools known as pathshalas across the country.

William Adam, a missionary who surveyed Bengal & Bihar, estimated 100,000 schools for 150,748 villages.

British official G.L. Prendergast noted: “There is hardly a village in which there is not at least one school.”

These findings indicate that indigenous education was widespread.

Structure of these schools:
Education in these pathshalas was organized into four stages:

1️⃣ Learning the alphabet of the local language
2️⃣ Reading, writing, and basic arithmetic
3️⃣ Advanced arithmetic and problem-solving
4️⃣ Writing letters, petitions, and account keeping

While not standardized, this system helped students acquire essential skills for trade, administration, and daily life.

Only Brahmin teachers?
Teachers were mostly from certain castes like the kayasthas (writers), brahmins, aguris
But Teachers also came from other castes including Dalits (untouchable caste)

The number and castes of scholars in Tirhut, Bihar
???? SC – marked in red
???? OBC – marked in Yellow

Education was limited to only Brahmin students?

But every community was represented by the students of these pathshalas, the majority came from the lower castes.

???? In districts like Trichinopoly and Coimbatore, Shudras comprised 76-78% of students, suggesting broad participation.
???? However, higher education institutions often had a larger proportion of upper-caste students due to access to Sanskrit learning, and irrelevance to their profession.

Did casteism influence education?

???? Rev G.A. Robertson observed that students were judged by merit rather than caste in many schools. The brahmin students sat beside the other students, and each was evaluated on an equal basis.
????He also observed that, parents of upper-caste students didn’t hesitate to send their children to Dalit or Muslim teachers
????Interestingly, out of the 674 Dalit scholars in Burdwan, Bengal, 87% were in these native schools and only 13% of them were in missionary schools.

Pre-colonial schools taught in multiple languages to serve diverse communities.
Example: Bellary (Karnataka) had
???? 235 Kannada schools
???? 226 Telugu schools
???? 23 Marathi schools
???? 21 Persian schools
???? 4 Tamil schools
???? 23 Sanskrit colleges

Similarly, here is a table for different districts in Bengal.

Higher education & vidyapeeth:

India had institutions of higher learning, known as vidyapeeth, they were equivalent of colleges which taught:

???? Medicine
???? Law
???? Astronomy
???? Mathematics
???? Hindu Darshana (Vedanta, Mimamsa, etc.)

These were fewer in number, as most professions required on-the-job training rather than formal higher education.

Elementary education was imparted through the vernacular languages

Sanskrit was used for higher education.

????Certain vidyapeeths teaching philosophy (mimamsa, sankhya) and mythology in Varanasi and Navadweepum had students from all over the country, who were instructed in sanskrit.

Women’s Education:

Formal education for women was limited but not restricted.

???? Girls from certain backgrounds (e.x. Dancing girls) received training in arts & literature.

???? Some schools exclusively for girls existed which were rare, but private tuition was a more popular alternative.

While women’s education was not widely encouraged during this age in Indian history, historical records show exceptions, especially in elite and artistic communities.

How were these schools run?

Some schools charged fees and some didn’t… however the poorer students didn’t have to pay fees if they couldn’t afford them.
The institutions were funded and run by
????Local community, all sections of society donated what they could
????Local rulers, rich merchants contributed
????Even Temples contributed to the funding, classes were also conducted in the temple itself
????Teacher was supported through land grants or produce, taught for free

How British policies affected indigenous education?

The British centralized revenue collection, disrupting community-funded schools.
???? Local donations that once supported a huge network of schools were controlled and distributed by the British administration
???? Over time, traditional education systems declined, and British-style schools became the norm.The collector of Bellary writes a letter to the board of revenue (1823).

British apathy and neglect towards native education:

???? In the 1800’s, in India education was available to common people at the grassroots level.
????Meanwhile in England and the west, it was a privilege reserved for the sons of the wealthy.

Overall, this resulted in a decline in literacy among all over India, and especially the lower castes were affected.

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @itiha29 on February 19, 2025, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)