Latika Chaudhary (a1) · Cambridge Core

Abstract

Using a new historical data set on the availability of schools, I analyze why there was so little primary education in British India, where as late as 1911 there were fewer than three primary schools for every ten villages. The findings show that greater caste and religious diversity contributed to both low and misguided private spending. Indeed more diverse districts had fewer privately managed primary schools and a smaller ratio of primary to secondary schools. Given primary schools were correlated with subsequent literacy, local factors that disrupted primary school provision had important consequences for India's limited achievement in basic education.

References

Alesina, Alberto, Baqir, Reza, and Easterly, William. “Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, no. 4 (1999): 1243–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Asaoka, Hiromi. “Investing in Education in India: Inferences from an Analysis of the Rates of Return to Education across Indian States.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 2006.Google Scholar

Banerjee, Abhijit, and Somanathan, Rohini. “The Political Economy of Public Goods: Some Evidence from India.” Journal of Development Economics 82, no. 2 (2007): 287314.Google Scholar

Basu, Aparna. The Growth of Education and Political Development in India, 1898–1920. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1974.Google Scholar

Basu, Aparna. Essays in the History of Indian Education. New Delhi: Concept, 1982.Google Scholar

Becker, Gary S.Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1964.Google Scholar

Benhabib, Jess, and Spiegel, Mark M.. “The Role of Human Capital in Economic Development: Evidence from Aggregate Cross-Country Data.” Journal of Monetary Economics 34, no. 2 (1994): 143–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Blaug, Mark, Layard, P. R. G., and Woodhall, Maureen. The Causes of Graduate Unemployment in India. London: Allen Lane, 1969.Google Scholar

Chand, Gyan. Local Finance in India. Allahabad: Kitabistan, 1947.Google Scholar

Chaudhary, Latika. “Essays on Education and Social Divisions in Colonial India.” Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2006.Google Scholar

Chaudhuri, S. B.History of the Gazetteers of India. New Delhi: Ministry of Education, Government of India, 1964.Google Scholar

Cohn, Bernard S. “The Census, Social Structure, and Objectification in South Asia.” In an Anthropologist among the Historians and other Essays. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar

Davis, Lance E., and Huttenback, Robert A.. Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire: The Political Economy of British Imperialism, 1860–1912. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.Google Scholar

Dirks, Nicholas. Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.Google Scholar

DrȲze, Jean, and Sen, Amartya. India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998.Google Scholar

Easterlin, Richard. “Why Isn't the Whole World Developed?This Journal 41, no. 1 (1981): 119.'="" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Why+Isn%27t+the+Whole+World+Developed%3F&author=Easterlin+Richard&publication+year=1981&journal=This+Journal&volume=41&pages=1-19">Google Scholar

Ghosh, Suresh C.The History of Education in Modern India, 1757–1998. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2000.Google Scholar

Ghurye, G. S.Caste, Class, and Occupation. Bombay: Bhatkal Publishers, 1961.Google Scholar

Goldin, Claudia, and Katz, Lawrence. “Human Capital and Social Capital: The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America, 1910 to 1940.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29, no. 4 (1999): 683723.Google Scholar

Gounden, A. M. Nalla. “Investment in Education in India.” Journal of Human Resources 2, no. 3 (1967): 347–58.Google Scholar

Heyneman, Stephen P.Investment in Indian Education: Uneconomic?World Development 8, no. 2 (1980): 145–63.Google Scholar

House of Commons, . “Despatch to Government of India on General Education in India.” Sessional Papers, 1854, paper 393, vol. XLVII, p. 155.Google Scholar

House of Commons, . “Progress of Education in India, 1892–1897 (Third Quinquennial Review).” Sessional Papers, 1899, paper C.9190, vol. LXV, p. 501.Google Scholar

House of Commons, . “Review of Progress of Education in India, 1897/98 to 1901/02. Fourth Quinquennial Review (East India: Education).” Sessional Papers, 1904, paper Cd. 2181, 2182, vol. LXV, p. 1.Google Scholar

House of Commons, . “Progress of Education in India, 1902–1907. Fifth Quinquennial Review (East India: Education).” Sessional Papers, 1909, paper Cd. 4635, 4636, vol. LXIII, p. 1.Google Scholar

House of Commons, . “Progress of Education in India, 1907–1912. Sixth Quinquennial Review (East India: Education).” Sessional Papers, 1914, paper Cd. 7485, 7486, vol. LXII, p. 1.Google Scholar

House of Commons, . “Seventh Quinquennial Review, 1912–1917 (East India: Education).” Sessional Papers, 1919, paper Cmd. 256, 257, vol. XXVIII, p. 1.Google Scholar

India. Report of the Indian Education Commission appointed by the resolution of the Government of India dated 3rd February 1882. Calcutta, 1883.Google Scholar

India. Census of India, 1901. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1903.Google Scholar

India. Census of India, 1911. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1913.Google Scholar

India. India, district and provincial gazetteers. Zug, Switzerland: Inter Documentation, 1979.Google Scholar

Lindert, Peter. Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.Google Scholar

Miguel, Edward, and Gugerty, Mary K.. “Ethnic Diversity, Social Sanctions, and Public Goods in Kenya.” Journal of Public Economics 89, no. 11 (2005): 2325–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Mincer, Jacob. Schooling, Experience, and Earnings. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974.Google Scholar

Mukhopadhyay, Gopal. Mass Education in Bengal (1882–1914). Calcutta: National Publishers, 1984.Google Scholar

Nurullah, Syed, and Naik, J. P.. A History of Education in India (During the British Period). London: Macmillan, 1951.Google Scholar

Psacharopoulos, George. Returns to Education: An International Comparison. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1973.Google Scholar

Richey, James A.Progress of education in India, 1917–1922. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Press, 1924.Google Scholar

Schultz, Theodore W.Reflections on Investment in Man.” Journal of Political Economy 70, no. 5 (1962): 18.Google Scholar

Schultz, Theodore W.Investment in Human Capital. New York: Free Press and Macmillan, 1971.Google Scholar

Schultz, Theodore W.Transforming Traditional Agriculture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.Google Scholar

Srinivas, M. N.Village, Caste, Gender, and Method: Essays in Indian Social Anthropology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar

Vigdor, Jacob. “Community Composition and Collective Action: Analyzing Initial Mail Responses to the 2000 Census.” Review of Economics and Statistics 86, no. 1 (2004): 303–12.Google Scholar

Whitehead, Clive. “The Historiography of British Imperial Education Policy, Part 1: India.” History of Education 34, no. 3 (2005): 315–29.Google Scholar

Read the original on cambridge.org ↗