Shri Ramanugrah Narayan Sinha Contribution to Urdu Language

My grand father Late Shri Ramanugrah Narayan Sinha also contributed to the Urdu literature. His book for Urdu Primary School Geography Std II-IV, entitled "Our Homeland and India Tr" is catalogued in "A Catalogue of Urdu books in Azad Collection".

Foreword

Revolutionary. Journalist. Interpreter of the holy scriptures, literatur. scholar of Islamics, and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Mohiuddin Ahmed Abul Kalam Azad, known to the world as Maulana Azad was one of the outstanding figures of India's Freedom Movement He was twice elected President of the Congress Party His mature views and sagacious opinion were given the highest consideration by Mahatma Gandhi He was the chief negotiator with the British during the crucial period between 1942 to 1946 After Independence he was India's first Education Minister and left a lasting imprint on the educational policies of the new nation

His deep understanding of religions endowed him with that rare catholicism in outlook where religion becomes a vehicle for upholding and carrying forward the ideals of nationalism in a multi-ethnic society

The Azad Collection, ie, the collection of books, which was the only asset which Maulana Azad owned and which he donated to the ICCR. IN remarkable for its range and variety

It has been drawing scholars from far and near for consultation The Council, by publishing a catalogue of the Azad collection will enhance its use many times and facilitate research on Maulana Azad life and work I congratulate Mr Gulzar Naqvi, the Librarian, the library staff and all those scholars who have contributed to this useful work

Sd/=

Meera Shankar

Director General

Indian Council For Cultural Relations

New Delhi

Gandhiji Champaran, Rajendra Prasad and Ramanugarh Narayan Sinha

S.N. SINGH, 23 4-1917.

[No. 46B.]

Note, dated 23 April, 1917, from S.N. Singh, Personal Assistant to the Commissioner, Tirhut Division

I have seen three of the gentlemen who are helping or who have invited Mr. Gandhi.

Everything was pre-arranged. Rs. 10,000 or more was collected in Motihari and the interiorof Champaran. The matter was discussed before the Congress Committee at Lucknow last year, but it was lying dormant because Messers. Madan Mohan Malviya and M. K. Gandhi had no time to come. In March last, while the All-India Congress Committee was sitting in Calcutta and most of the Behar-men such as Messrs. Haq, Sinha, and Brijkishore Prasad were there, Rajkumar Shukla of Champaran went there and narrated the (alleged) grievances of the tenants and Mr. Gandhi undertook to come alone as Malviya was busy with other work. Before leaving Calcutta, Mr. Gandhi had a very long interview with Mr. Gourlay who has promised to talk over matters again with him when he finishes his enquiry.

It is said that the Viceroy's Private Secretary has just written to assure Mr. Gandhi that he will have no more trouble in his mission.

This enquiry will take about 6 months. Mr. Gandhi may go away from Champaran now and there leaving his assistants in charge. His asistants are:--

(i) Babu Brijkishore Prasad, 

(ii) Babu Rajendra Prasad,

(iii) Babu Ramnavami Prasad, 

(iv) Babu Dharni Dhar Prasad,

(v) Babu Ramanugraha Narayan Sinha,

All pleaders who have decided to give up their practice for six months; other pleaders go now and then to assist.

Messrs. Polak and Andrews also offered their services for six months but Mr. Gandhi has told them they will not be required. They are recording the statements of witnesses and have given notice to the planters to let them see their own evidence if they please. It is said that two planters have seen Mr. Gandhi.

It is also said that Mr. K.M. Leslie will help Mr. Gandhi. Mr. Gandhi proposes to place his report after making the enquiry befors Lord Chelmsford personally."

S.N. SINGH. 

The Hindu University : A Suggestion

 

This article " The Hindu University; A Suggestion" authored by my grandfather late Shri Ramanugarh Narayan Sinha, MABL was published along with the popular story "Eyesore(ChokherBali)" by Shri Ravindra Nath Tagore in the Modern Review issue of 1914. 

https://archive.org/details/eyesore-rabindranath-tagore/page/n23/mode/2up?q=%22Ramanugraha+Narayan+Sinha%22

. 

Sometime back I wrote an article headed "A plea for Instruction through the Vernaculars" (The Modern Review, May, 1912), in the columns of this journal. I want in the course of this article to supplement some of the ideas expressed in that article.

Funds for the proposed Hindu University are being accumulated by and by, though as is the case with every other movement, the agitation in connection with this university has its reasons of slackness and comparative inertness. Whatever forms the University may take, it will decidedly be an element of good, for it is my firm conviction that activity, in whatever channel it is directed, is product the of ultimate advantages. It may appear paradoxical, but even a base and wicked form of activity eventually brings in its train more benefit than inert laziness. We Indians are naturally a lot of "philosophical" people, and far from having any danger of our activity being misdirected, we sadly lack activity. Our sole aim should be the throwing off of our lethargy and setting ourselves to work of any variety whatsoever.

For these reasons I repeat that the Hindu University' will be an element of good, and its promoters, notable among whom is Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, are to be warmly thanked and congratulated.

The promoters of the scheme are bent upon securing for the University a charter which will give it the hall-mark of other universities and make it a fit engine for the turning out of graduates in arts and science. They may have as their model the Muhammadan University. But if mere words and imitation have no charm, the Hindu University can do more good than by aspiring to make it an exact counterpart of the Muhammadan University. Men may be dazzled by the mention of the words "University" and "National University” and crowds may be attracted towards the electric luster shed forth by these terms. But the fact remains that unless some clear turn is taken from the avowed aims and objects of the existing universities, the Hindu University will merely add to their number. What will the bare change embodied in having additional religious education mean to the Hindu University for this easy though momentous object, simple and cheap pro- visions may be made in every town of importance by having Hindu Student's Associations. And if this is the worth of the whole change, in what material rehash shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken even the little that he hath-this is, in nutshell, the stern expression of the law governing our anxiety at present and that law has governed society from the very dawn of civilization. A vast amount of specialization is a necessary condition of social growth: and that process confines some men to physical work and some to brain work. The latter naturally get the lion's share is the product of the toils of both, for the same reason that man, by his intelligence, gets the most of Nature's bounties in spite of his inferiority in physical strength to many other animals.

We esnestly hope to nullify this unequal distribution without destroying the whole. In these days Brain power is to Body-power what Credit is to Money: it immensely increases activity and velocity. Steam engines and electrical machines are merely symbols of the enormous power of the Brain.

An Aristocracy of Brains, therefore, is and will continue to be, a necessity in the complex structure of modern society. Democracy, in the fullest sense of the term, is a mere dream. The middle class, roughly speaking, includes this Aristocracy. However that fact, by itself is not a serious evil.  Men, enter into this class, both from above and from below. The middle class is so large in extent and has such a variety of interests, that its aspirations practically coincide with those of the whole nation, Those of its members who are actuated by a spirit of philanthropy and self-sacrifice, benefit the whole nation by their efforts, even those in the direction of class interests. A wave of new ideas first affects the middle class and then in course of time is travels down to the masses. There is undoubtedly a certain amount of conflict between the interests of various classes and perhaps as an impetus it sets up useful purpose in the body politic, as friction does in the physical world-but there is also a greater amount of harmony of interests. Thus the various sectarian assemblies that have lately sprung up in India produce within the spheres of their influence is spirit of caste consciousness but in doing it they set up forces for education and thus serve a national purpose in making men think for themselves.

The writer after setting up the absurd theory that the 'rich, learned, idle men of the parasitic class’ live on the earnings of the labourers and artisans, proceeds to examine the Political, Educational and Socio-religious movements in India.

(1) As to Political movements he maintains that the Congress, which is the typical one has clamored chiefly for Government posts and Council seats, both of which represent the aspirations of the middle class He ignores its other demands, like the reduction of the salt-tax and the expansion of irrigation. The Congress represents the whole nation and therefore it seeks to protect the interests of all classes, from top bottom. It often confines itself to the broader issues and the laying down of principles. But its feeders, the Provincials Conferences, restrict them even to matters of local interest, most of which pertain to agriculturists. Railway expansion, Irrigation, protection from the oppression of the subordinate Revenue staff, Temperance, Free primary education- these are the most important matters with which they deal, though the members of these conferences belong mostly to the middle class. It is the middle class men who attend to improvement in agriculture and help the holding of agricultural demonstrations

(2) As for Educational improvements the writer says the Dayanand College and the Fergusson College exist for the middle class and enable the poor boys of that class to find a means of living. He would have them impart primary education in villages or more as preachers like the saints of old. Now every reasonable man will admit that a highly trained body of men should impart the highest education they are capable of, and to the greatest number of men in order to give the most of the life in them; the modest work of village school instruction is for humbler but equally noble men. The higher education imparted to the middle class boys will, in time, produce village workers in the helm of education. The Depressed Classes Mission, the Seva Sadan and the Social Service League are examples of philanthropic work that is being done by the middle class for giving light and relief to the literate and the afflicted, particularly among the poor.

(3) As for Socio-religious movements the writer says that the female education propaganda and the various Samajis represent the intellectual needs of the middle class. Surely to a great extent they do. But we should remember that every movement for progress is a gain to the whole nation, however small is the sphere it finds for work; it is sure to expand in scope in the fullness of time and to set up sympathetic currents all around, often imperceptible though they are. Thus the wave of female education has reached even the so-called 'backward' classes.

In conclusion I would request the writer not to minimize the work of upheaval done by sincere and earnest men is advocating a spirit of sympathy and brotherly love towards the illiterate and the poor, to remember that sectarianism is the first step towards national unity and is a useful factor of national activity and to remember also that the Aristocracy of brains is an inevitable though perhaps regrettable necessity in the organic structure of human society.

A PLEA FOR INSTRUCTION THROUGH VERNACULARS

A PLEA FOR INSTRUCTION THROUGH VERNACULARS
by Prof. Ramanugraha Narayan Sinha, MA BL BT
(Modern Review : Jan-Dec 1912 issue)

THE two denominational Universities for which vigorous efforts are yet in progress start with the idea that the Universities under Government control are not sufficient for the needs of India. Can it be said that the Hindu and the Muhammadan Universities will remove our desideratum? To a certain extent they may. But the fact that the medium of instruction in the two Universities is still to be primarily English, makes only a little difference between them and the existing Universities. The proposed Dacca University is going to be a residential one. It may have as its model the Oxford University minus “its dead weight of the vote of the Convocation. The Hindu University may, in pursuance of the ancient Hindu ideals and following the example of the modern German Universities, aspire after the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake. The Mahomedan University may, in its turn, have a policy of its own and look to the peculiar need of the Mahomedans—a wide diffusion of knowledge among the followers of Islam. All these no doubt are moves in the right direction. But they do not obviate the disadvantages of instruction through a language foreign to us.

The Hindu and the Mahomedan Universities have the ambition of granting degrees and so they must be the prototypes, more or less, of the existing Universities. In order that they should have charters from the Government it is necessary that they should not deviate from the beaten track of the Indian Universities. Instruction through the medium of English has come to be recognised as a settled policy of the Government; and it is perhaps indispensable and unalterable at the present stage. It behoves us therefore, to supplement what we get at the Indian Universities by means of indigenous attempts in the required direction.




It goes without saying that instruction through a foreign language is very tedious. The noted men in the domains of art and science, whom India has had the good fortune of calling its own, have been produced in spite of the difficulties in their way. Given a vernacular language as the medium of instruction, there would have been ten times their number, or even more, and there would have been evidence of marked improvement in the calibre of those we already have. Instruction through a language which is not our mother tongue necessitates two proceeds: First, the learning of the language itself, and second, the learning of the subject. In the case even of the best men the first process takes almost double the time which is ordinarily devoted to the second. All this results in the meagreness of the number of original thinkers and inventors in India. Our energy is wasted in the mastery of a language and even then the language we are so enthusiastic in learning hardly becomes our own. It is an admitted fact that thought presupposes language, it follows that we cannot produce thinking men of a high standard, unless we give prominence to the language in which we usually think and in which only we can think in the best possible way. We may try to think in English and most of us even do that, but we can hardly proceed very far in this direction, and the results of our thought will at most be imperfect and second rate. I his applies equally to what we may do in the domains of History, Political Economy or Philosophy on the one hand and Chemistry, Botany or Anatomy on the other.

Thus we see that comparing an-average student in India with one in England, America or Japan, the former is at a great disadvantage; and it redounds much to the credit of the former that he aspires after competition with the latter in the face of his difficulties. Can we not do something to remove this sad state of things? I do not propose to make this discourse only theoretical, but I want to give it, so far as possible, a practical turn. And viewing what I have to propose in this light, I am sure we have not much reason to lose heart.

None can gainsay the fact that noble work is being done by the Universities under the control of Government. We should of course, profit by that and do something more. If the existing Universities are passports to Government services or the bar, let us have institutions which should be passports to real and solid qualification for industrial and scientific work. Let the students of such institutions eschew current politics, for, though I may be contradicted, it is my firm belief that participation in political affairs is foreign to the avocation of a student. Institutions like these will multiply in- course of time and will be of substantial good to the country; and in order that the best possible results should be achieved in the shortest time, the medium of instruction should be a vernacular.

There are no doubt institutions in India receiving support from the Government, where scientific and industrial education is provided. For. But their number is too small. However, their necessity, at the present time, cannot be ignored. The higher branches' of training in industry and science cannot but be imparted in English for a long time to come. But the crying want of present-day India is the popularisation of. Common handicrafts. For these, instruction in a vernacular will be quite sufficient, and this process of instruction will further call forth, in an amazing manner, the national intelligence, which has so long- been in an inert and dormant condition.

I shall now discuss the difficulties so often pointed out in connection with making a vernacular the medium of instruction, and shall show that these difficulties are not such as to dishearten us. It is said that there is a lack of suitable books in even the best vernacular in India. But this assertion ignores the trite fact that books will never be forthcoming unless there is a demand for them. The writers of, books must first know that they will have readers, and assuming the demand, the supply is a foregone conclusion. Vernacular books that are written now-a-days have merely the growing desire of educated people for the encouragement of vernaculars to depend upon. The recent regulations of the universities making vernacular composition a compulsory subject, as also the unavoidable necessity of having a vernacular for primary education, have also done a great deal in. the direction. But if there are institutions in which systematic training is given through vernacular books to an ever growing number of students, the perfunctory and half-hearted manner in which books on scientific subjects are written now-a-days will give place to an earnest exertion in this behalf.

It is beyond my scope to refer here at length to the advantages which a common language for the whole of India will have in its train. Though the recent territorial changes have been welcomed by the people both of Bengal and Behar, they are apt to throw some obstacles, in the way of having a national language. However, so long as we are divided in our languages, institutions of the type forecasted above may spring up in several places and give instruction through Hindi, Bengali, or Marathi, to begin with. They will still do untold good.

Then there is the lack of suitable men for the sake of imparting instruction. America seems to be the best training ground for teachers of handicrafts and scientific subjects. There are Indians available who having already returned from America and Japan are quite capable of taking the work in hand; and if the scheme is forwarded and funds are forthcoming we may have many men of such type.' Such men training students in India will considerably curtail the expenses incurred in sending Indians to other countries for learning handicrafts. The whole thing depends upon a requisite fund for the purpose, such as that got together for the Hindu- University. Institutions having appliances for training in handicrafts, such as the Carnegie Technical Schools in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, U. S. A.) will remove a crying want of India.

I have especially referred to scientific and industrial subjects, because of their superior importance in consideration of the present needs of India. Instruction in other subjects can also be given in vernaculars, and though the students who come out after their vernacular training may not have the hall-mark of the present universities, they will surely be of far more service to themselves as well as to their country than under the present circumstances. American or Japanese diplomas do not carry much weight elsewhere, yet there are those in India who having returned with distinction from America and Japan are doing much to support themselves as also to forward their country’s welfare. It is high time that we should realize the comparative hollowness of mere diplomas and degrees, unless some substantial work is done for the country.