'REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY, FOR THE YEAR 1907-1908' [‎20r] (38/137)

1907-1908.]
SUMMARY.
xxvii
Bodies are coming to a proper recognition of their responsibilities in this respect.
The progress of education among Mahomedans is satisfactory as far as primary
education is concerned. More children are going to school, they are carrying
their studies further, and they are passing the Yernacular Einal Examination
and joining Training Colleges in larger numbers. But their poverty is a
formidable obstacle to improvement in secondary education. Among the
aboriginal tribes and depressed classes education makes a continuous, if a slow
advance. Very striking results are not to be expected until the supply of
trained low-caste teachers can be largely reinforced.
61. Eor the first time in seven years there was no overcrowding, but this Yera'vda
was due, not to any falling off in the admissions, but to a large increase in the seho rma ^ or5r
number of boys released on license. Though four of them escaped, the ° ^
system continues to give satisfactory results. There was a great improvement
in the health of the inmates. Reports of pupils discharged during the last
three years testify to the value of the training given in the school; over 90 per
cent, of those traceable and still alive are maintaining themselves honestly.
But nearly a third of the total number discharged have escaped all efforts to
follow them.
62. The total volume of literature issued, which increased by 33 per cent. Literature,
last year, decreased to about an equal extent in the year under report. The
decline affected all the principal languages except Kanarese, and all subjects
except Law and Politics. The educated community was absorbed, even to a
greater degree than usual, in the discussion of political questions, which finds
its main expression in the newspapers. Hence the low output and mediocre
quality of literature proper.
63. It is impossible to regard the condition of the Native Press during the Native Press,
year as anything but disquieting. It was not only that the worst tendencies of
the Extremist organs were markedly accentuated, so as frequently to transgress
the borderline between legitimate criticism and open sedition. What is more
to be regretted is that the class of journalism, which, in the more glaring
instances, brought its exponents within the arm of the law, was more typical
than in previous years of the Native Press as a whole. The Deccan prints, which
refuse to see virtue in any Government measure, enjoyed increased support and
influence; while the loyal Parsi organs and non-partisan papers of the class of
the Indian Spectator, Indian Social Reformer, and East and West, were more
decidedly in a minority than at any previous time. The main underlying
cause of the unprecedented virulence of the Press as a body seems to have been
the idea, arising largely from affairs in Bengal and the Punjab, that a policy of
reaction and repression was increasingly finding favour with the highest
authorities, and that there was no hope, under the present regime, of political
progress in accordance with the aspirations of the people. Whatever view may
be taken as to the importance of the Press as an expression of public opinion at
present, its influence in the formation of it is not to be denied ; and the attitude
of suspicion and hostility which it adopted towards the schemes of political and
administrative reform adumbrated during the year, is therefore greatly to be
regretted. Swadeshi, more obviously political and uneconomic than ever, was
the subject of the usual amount of vague and unprofitable journalism. It is
satisfactory to be able to record that the sentiments expressed towards
His Excellency Lord Minto, and towards Sir George Clarke the present, and
Lord Lamington, the late Governor of this Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. , were uniformly loyal and
appreciative. A more rational and unprejudiced treatment of the question of
Plague also calls for favourable remark.