Litner & Pre-British Education System in the Punjab

Litner & Pre-British Education System in the Punjab
Thanks to Allu din Sheikh of Qasoor, A PML (N) MPA, We are again discussing G.W.Litner  M.A., Ph.D., L.L.D., D.O.L. (14 October 1840 – 22 March 1899) who was not only established and run modern higher education institutions in the Punjab but also wrote about Pre-british education system extensively. Although some columnists wrote about him yet if your sole reference is Wikipedia then what can we say about these newspapers or columnists.  While some writers used the assembly issue against the Punjab as usual yet some emphasized on wrong or misleading facts. British Administration did not follow Litner advice and ruined old decentralized, vibrant and efficient education system based on  Perssu-Punjabi traditions. After demolishing it they constructed new education system based on Urdu/Hindi-English which had no links with previous system at all. Interestingly, Raja Ram Mohan Rai, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Devband, Islamya Schools, Khalsa Schools, D.A.V Schools, Imamya Schools, etc all followed new system of schooling one way or other in 2nd half of 19th century. Even in 20th century, from fundamentalists to progressives & anti-imperialists JUH, Communist Party, PWM, AINC, AIML failed to comprehend what Britishers had done with their generations. Although i am writing about this flip-side in my upcoming book with details yet in the piece you can smell what Litner actually said. My reference is his report published by Government of the Punjab in 1882, reprinted by Sang e meal, Lhore under the title "History of the indigenous education in the Punjab". The book is rejoinder for all those who want to understand core issues of education including medium of instruction, misuse of language, foundations of cultural superiority, misuse of religious identities etc. Here i will reproduce some points from the book. Anti federalism approach was one reason while frontier forward policy (capturing the Punjab, Afghanistan and Tibet region) was the basic motive behind adopting that centralist mindset. In love for Urdu, Hindi and modernity our intellectuals too deceived and till today are not ready to deconstruct its fatal effects. the book is a must read not only for Punjabis, Pukhtoons, Sindhies & Baluchs but also for all South Asians .Now read from the Book

• The true education of the Punjab was crippled,cheeked and is nearly destroyed
• Our system stands convicted of worse then official failure
• Torn by invasion and civil war, it (Punjab) ever preserved and added to educational endowment
• There was not a mosque, a temple, a dharamshala (khanqas, Gurdawaras) that had not a school attached to it
• There were also thousand of secular schools frequented alike by Muhammadans (Muslims), Hindus and Sikhs, in which Persian or Lunde ( One of the more then half dozen scripts in which Punjabi language was written and according to Litner, Punjabies were used three commercial scripts Lunde, Sarafa and Mahajani which was a proof of their extensive commercial activities before the raj)
• there was not a single villager who did not take a pride in devoting a portion of his produce to a respected teacher
• In respectable Muhammadan (Muslim) families husbands taught their wives and these their children
• we have changed all this
• These (English) officers were surrounded by ambitious and needy adventurers, many from the North western Provinces, whose knowledge of persso-urdu  which they shared with us, was the key to the mysteries of government and to the exploitation of the province
• Urdu and subsequently English were welcome as an avenue and claim to employment under government by the more needy in the community & by those who wished to ingratiate themselves with the authorities.
• As regard Hindi, i have already explained that Beyond Delhi, this language does not exists in the Punjab
• Urdu is now taught in several Persian indigenous schools and hindi textbooks are now used in a few Hindu schools. 
•  The teacher's seat was almost monopolised by them (Punjabi Muslims).
• The idea of education is not new to Punjabis. We find all the school phraseology ready made to our hands and chiefly supplied by the Muhammadans (Punjabi Muslims)
• In Dehli, for instance, we find that , before the annexation of the Punjab (1849), Six Public Schools for girls , were kept by Punjabi women.
• There has been a decline in female education (in the Punjab) since annexation

There are numerous facts in that report which are still useful for us. It was Litner who told administration not to use Bible in schools, it is neither in favor of Christianity nor Queen, (the same suggestion was present in Lord Macaulay's famous minutes yet under the Frontier Forward Policy british policy makers neither listen them). now u read the piece i wrote in newspaper
http://e.dunya.com.pk/detail.php?date=2013-09-09&edition=LHR&id=586715_41084209