Page:The despatch of 1854, on General education in India.djvu/35

Rh 83. The importance of female education in India cannot be overrated; and we have observed with pleasure the evidence which is now afforded of an increased desire on the part of many of the natives of India to give a good education to their daughters. By this means a far greater proportional impulse is imparted to the educational and moral tone of the people than by the education of men. We have already observed that schools for females are included among those to which grants in aid may be given; and we cannot refrain from expressing our cordial sympathy with the efforts which are being made in this direction. Our Governor-general in Council has declared, in a communication to the Government of Bengal, that the Government ought to give to native female education in India its frank and cordial support; in this we heartily concur, and we especially approve of the bestowal of marks of honour upon such native gentlemen as Rao Bahádur, who devoted 20,000 rupees to the foundation of two native female schools in Ahmedabad, as by such means our desire for the extension of female education becomes generally known.

84. Considerable misapprehension appears to exist as to our views with respect to religious instruction in the Government institutions. Those institutions were founded for the benefit of the whole population of India; and, in order to effect their object, it was, and is, indispensable that the education conveyed in them should be exclusively secular. The Bible is, we understand, placed in the libraries of the colleges and schools, and the pupils are able freely to consult it. This is as it should be; and, moreover, we have no desire to prevent, or to discourage, any explanations which the pupils may, of their own free-will, ask from their masters upon the subject of the Christian religion, provided that such information be given out of school hours. Such instruction being entirely voluntary on both sides, it is necessary, in order to prevent the slightest suspicion of an intention on our part to make use of the influence of Government for the purpose of proselytism, that no notice shall be taken of it by the inspectors in their periodical visits.