It was interesting to read The Beautiful Tree by Dharampal. But contrary to the assertion that all castes and women received education together it is clear that apart from the Muslim girls, most of the rest were not girls from homes but were 'dancing girls', presumably being trained for thier future careers as courtesans. Further, there are indications that while many sudras were getting some training, nothing is said about the untouchables. Not surprising. Draw your own conclusions. While the medium of eduction was mostly Sanskrit and many skills were also taught including numeracy, medicine, etc, nothing is said about languages other than Sanskrit. Also, it is interesting that there is not a mention of either the efforts of Savitribai and Jothiba Phule to make education accessible to girls and untouchables in Maharashtra. And not a word about the work of William Carey who did extensive work to promote the use of languages of the common people like Bengali and Marathi. The only charitable reason I can think of for this significant omission is that for a very long time Carey lived and worked not in British India but in a tiny Danish principality -Serampore - , because of the opposion of the British to his work.
Cynthia Stephen
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