sition. No Government can go beyond a certain stage to help any part of the people. Real progress must be from within. It cannot be imposed from outside. So for a long time the Musalmans were not able to show any appreciable sign of advance in spite of all Government aid. Whatever schools they had were merely indigenous muktabs, the least suited to a dormant community. What could one expect of a youth who at the threshold of his life is impressed with the solemn dictums, un-Islamic in nature, borrowed from a depressing philosophy about the transitoriness of life and the utter uselessness of striving for any material advantage on earth? Muslim education was at its lowest ebb.

It was when the All-India Mohammedan Education Conference came to Madras in 1901, that a new era dawned upon the Musalmans of the South. The cry for English education was for the first time effectively heard here. The Mohammedan Educational Association, the Vaniyambadi Educational Society, the Provincial Conference and various other institutions all over the Presi dency grew up. A noble band of workers imbued with the progressive spirit of Aligarh were available. It is due mainly to their activity that we owe what little progress we have made in the Presidency. The Musalmans are gradually awakening. Though in higher education they are still very backward, in elementary and secondary education they are making a fairly good progress. Institutions maintained and run by the community have come into existence, the most notable of them being the Madrasa-e-Islamiah : the High School at Vaniyambadi. It is a standing monument of what the Southern Musalmans could achieve when under some healthy influence they could but shake off a little of their lethargy. Should this spirit continue to animate them, it is not unreasonable to anticipate a bright future for the South Indian Musalmans.

If the Musalmans are anxious to achieve such

a result they should have to bear in mind a few points. Since I am here concerned with the national side of education, I shall confine myself to this aspect only. The present is a transitional stage in the educational career of the community. The munificence of certain philanthropic sections of the people has given them educational institutions of their own. Large funds have been invested in them. It should be the care of the conductors of these institutions to so use their opportunities that the largest amount of benefit might accrue out of them. Whatever form of education they might, even though tentatively, impart to their youths, the tone of it will for a long time to come govern the progress of the community; for indeed the amount of liberal culture embodied by it determines its usefulthe community and to the country

ness to

as well.

Most of the national institutions here are controlled by the donors and subscribers to their funds. In ordinary circumstances this might appear to some as but necessary. But when sometimes the donors and subscribers are mainly drawn from a class, not very educated and without the least pretension to any expert knowledge on the actual nature of the educational needs of the community; when we find these men importing their own likes and dislikes into the internal management of the schools and domineer over the poor teaching staff as best as they can, what satisfactory progress will these institutions make? Surely promotions and prizes would go by families in proportion to the support given by them to the institutions. The staff, from the highest to the lowest, will have to pander to the wishes and idiosyncracies of their employers. One can easily imagine what effect it would have on the impressionable minds of the mass of students, who as under present circumstances are drawn from the poorer classes. They resort to national institutions that they may make their

lives nobler and richer than it would be if they went elsewhere. Poor they certainly are most of them and perhaps now and then, though I am not quite sure of it, the institutions have to be run as almost free schools on their account. Still they do not expect, especially in national schools, that as a compensation for the concession they receive, they should be subjected to an indifferent treatment and their poverty hauled up for public ridicule; and if they ever inwardly smart under its indignity, it is no part of good management to mockingly tell them that what is not adequately paid for is not valued at its proper worth. It is ungraceful.

There is another serious defect in the management of our institutions. Attempts are being made to impart religious instruction side by side with secular education. Good. But there is a natural limit for everything. What nature of religious education the students should get, must be left entirely to the expert knowledge of educationists. They are expected to know better what should be done than the laymen who subsidise the institutions. Theirs is not the business to regulate class work and insist that at least two of the five precious hours every day should be devoted to religious side of education. Even Christian Missionary Institutions never spend more than three hours per week. Our orthodox donors and managers and their subservient heads of institutions carry the principle of religious education to the point of absurdity. They would like to have their teachers put on a more than solemn insipid Puritanic appearance, trim their mustaches, grow their beards, wear perhaps the same kind of dress as their managers. They would insist on these in a greater measure in the young men that go to their schools. Ritual and ceremonies should form the part and parcel of religious

mans.

curriculum, and the student who would not like to subject himself to these conditions must be bid good-bye. Very healthy restrictions indeed and noble ideals; really a revival in the method of imparting religious education which, to say the least of it, will even among the meek angels prove a big round failure. Religious education has never been taught by cudgels. Ritual should be learnt at home and not in public schools and that at the expense of two valuable hours every day. The utmost a school could do is to teach the students the broad principles of their religion and its historic side. It could never metamorphose our boys into good MusalIt is the parents and their home training that will govern their inward spiritual life and not the humdrum teachers of the present day and their spasmodic instruction for an hour or two. They cannot work in the missionary spirit characteristic of the good old days, however much they may claim to be so doing. They have no opportunity to influence the pupils' minds and their actions by a long personal contact from day to day and from morning till evening, as the teachers of yore did. It is high time therefore that the organisers of national institutions realised that in their zeal and enthusiasm to help the community, they are retarding its progress. We cannot complain of the teaching staff who submit themselves to every kind of dictation. A teacher's position in private institutions is unfortunately always uncertain. That is why we have been witnessing a lack of enthusiasm on the part of young men to serve in such schools, and a constant withdrawal of those who are already engaged in the work. This is a serious aspect of Muslim education in the Presidency, and the sooner things are rectified the better will it be for the community.

The following Joint Note by Sir William Wedderburn and Sir Krishna Gupta has been sent to the Joint General Secretaries of the Indian National Congress for submission to the All-India Congress Committee. It is a supplementary to the Note published in India of October 15, 1915:—

By Resolution XIX of the last Indian National Congress, under the heading of "Self-Government," the All-India Congress Committee was authorised to frame a scheme of reform, having regard to the principles embodied in the Resolution; and further it was authorised to confer with a Committee of the All-India Moslem League and to take such further measures as may be necessary. A report on Self-Government is to be submitted on or before September next to the General Secretaries, who will circulate it for the consideration of the Provincial Congress Committees. This action accords with the advice of Sir S. P. Sinha, the President of the Congress, who pointed out that, for the general welfare we need " a reasoned ideal of India's future such as will satisfy the aspirations and ambitions of the rising generation of India, and at the same time. will meet with the approval of those to whom India's destinies are committed ;" and it is hoped that by the method above indicated a scheme may be framed on behalf of United India, which will constitute an effective advance towards SelfGovernment within the Empire and at the same time will commend itself to the British people as being based on justice and prudence.

At the proper time, when peace is assured, it is proposed that this scheme shall be brought to England by a Deputation of the most trusted Indian leaders; and the practical question is: How should this Deputation proceed so that the case may be brought effectively before (1) the Home Government; (2) the Imperial Parliament; and (3) the British public; with a view to a settlement beneficial alike to India and the Empire?

THE METHOD OF PROCEDURE.

Naturally the first approach will be made to the Home Government. In the Government, as now constituted, both the great parties in the State are united; and fortunately even before the coalition, the leaders on both sides pledged themselves by declarations in Parliament to a generous policy towards India, promising her a worthy place in our free Empire as a partner, and not as a dependent. Mr. Charles Roberts gave this assurance speaking for the Secretary of State, and Mr. H. W. Foster was authorised by Mr. Bonar Law to say how closely the Opposition associated itself with the sentiments expressed on behalf of the Government. Futhermore, the King-Emperor has repeatedly insisted on sympathy as the keynote in dealing with Indian aspirations. There is, therefore, every reason to expect that India's representations will be received by His Majesty's Government with the careful and sympathetic attention which the vital importance of the occasion demands.

As regards the form in which the Deputation is received, we may hope that the precedent may be followed of May 11, 1914, when Delegates from the Indian National Congress were received at the India Office by the Secretary of State. On that occasion the reception was not merely a formal one. By the favour of the Marquess of Crewe, the interview took the form of a friendly conference with a free interchange of views, having for its object to meet the reasonable wishes of all concerned. In this conection reference may also be made to the prolonged interviews accorded in 1906, by Mr. Morley to Mr. Gokhale, who was thus able to place before the newly appointed Secretary of State the needs and aspirations of the Indian people. These interviews were undoubtedly a material help in so framing the Morley-Minto reforms as to strengthen India's bond of union with the Empire,