INDIAN GRADUATES.
(TO TILE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—At this distance I cannot carry on discussion, but I hope you will let me state a few facts bearing on your views about Indian education as expressed in the latest number of the Spectator that has reached this country. You say that our "graduates are unfitted for any careers except in Govern- ment offices, and for every three of them there is even now but one appointment." It seems worth while to tell what is known about graduates from the oldest of the colleges which make up the University of Madras. Probably it is the largest college in India. It is certainly the largest in the province where education in English is most widespread and influential. Facts about its graduates must be a help in judging about Indian education generally. I take the facts from the last College Calendar, brought up to date as well as possible on short notice. I give round figures, but I vouch for their substantial accuracy.
From 1869 to 1894 inclusive, there went out from the college 880 graduates who, so far as is known, are still alive. About 90 who are known to be dead are left out of account. Of the 880, those in the employment of the British Govern- ment number 390. Meanwhile, 430 are known to be following careers outside of the service of the Government. The employment of the remaining 60 was undetermined or un- known in July, 1898, when the last Calendar was issued.
Of the 430 in independent employment, 160 are making their way in the world as lawyers of various grades. More than 100 are principals, professors, tutors, or teachers in non- Government colleges and schools. About 80 are employed in different capacities—from private secretaryships to reigning Princes downwards—by local bodies and native noblemen within, or by native States bordering upon, the Presidency of Madras. Some, though far too few, are traders or contractors on their own account. A few attend to the cultivation of their own lands. Some are engineers, medical practitioners, editors or sub-editors of newspapers, or are employed by banks and railways. Again, of the 880 graduates 130 are Christians ; of whom a third are in the service of the Madras Government, and two-thirds are otherwise employed. Of these last many are engaged in various forms of Christian effort, and among them are nine ordained clergymen, six in your own branch, three in other branches of the Christian Church. So much for the 430 who are not in the service of the Government. Of. the 390 who are employed by it, it is true that the large number of 180 are clerks or accountants in Government offices. The se are chiefly the younger men. But Government service affords many different careers. This number of 390 includes all our graduates whose salaries are paid by the Government of Madras or by the Governments of other British Presi- dencies or provinces to which some of them have found their wa y. Thus, less than half of those employed by the State, an a much less than a quarter of the whole number of our gr sduates, are "in Government offices." Scores of those in St ate employment are Magistrates, Revenue officers, and re. gistmrs or sub-registrars. Many are professors or lecturers in. Government colleges, inspectors of schools, medical men, and engineers. Not a few are police officers, forest .officers, translators, Post Office inspectors, and surveyors. government service may mean much besides clerical work in an office. Does it not seem as if there were nearly as much variety of career among our graduates as among educated men at home?
Of the 60 whose employment I cannot give, many were still, at the date of the last Calendar, students of law or medicine, or otherwise only preparing for their work in life. Many, too, must be dead, though information of their death had not come to hand. These two classes will account for at least half of the 60. I am convinced that a large majority of the other half are in creditable work of some kind, and that I am pre- vented from classing them only by want of information. It seems safe to conclude that out of nearly a thousand graduates sent out in a quarter of a century less than a score, probably not half a dozen, and possibly none at all, are at this moment unable to find work which they can do with a fair amount of satisfaction and credit.
Among these thousand graduates, and the hundreds of graduates from other colleges with whom Tam well acquainted, I have found but little of that discontent with everything except an official career which you seem to suppose to be universal. I have found among them a considerable and a growing amount of healthy readiness to set their hands to any useful work. Whether our graduates are " unfitted ' for the careers on which as matter of fact they enter is a large question. Doubtless, they might be better fitted than they are. Still, it is believed on all sides that the standard of honesty and efficiency in the public service, and in all kinds of work in which educated men engage, has risen greatly, and is rising still. Testimony to this effect was borne by the large Commission on Education in India sixteen years ago. It has been often. repeated by those best qualified to judge. It will, indeed, be universally admitted that in India, as in France, men of some culture show a greater preference than is healthy for employment under Government. And other defects may easily be detected in Indian graduates. There are defects, too, in us who instruct them, and in the system under which we work. Not a few defects in the system which were pointed out by the Education Commission have been but partly remedied, or not remedied at all. Others have disclosed themselves since the Commission sat. But even in Britain graduates, and their instructors, and the system of education, come short of perfection. I do not deny that there are many defects in Indian education. Still, it seems to me that these well- ascertained facts point to somewhat different conclusions from those at which you arrive in your article on "Three Rotten Cultures."—I am, Sir, dr.c., WILLIAM MILLER,
Of the Madras Christian College.
April 17th.
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