CASTE, CLASS AND GENDER AS REFLECTED IN THE TEXTBOOKS OF NINETEENTH CENTURY ASSAM

A textbook is a concise source of material which helps teachers and students to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitude and values within a specific period of time. It plays an important role in shaping the future of the young minds. With the changing political scenario of Assam from a traditional mood of teaching to a specific class of the society to the advent of the colonial administration with new avenues of teaching subject lessons the dissemination of knowledge had taken a new turn. The establishment of educational institutions were directed with a motive of producing local administrative assistants with minimum wages. While the traditional mood was still prevalent, there emerged new agencies like the Christian Missionaries and the colonial government. The introduction of Bengali and English language broadened the horizon of the Assamese people on one hand and made pupils reluctant to education on the other for the language of dissemination of knowledge i.e., Bengali was unknown to most of the students. The lure for governmental jobs attracted a portion of students from the upper class to become the initial batches of students in the newly founded schools in Gauhatty (1835), Sibsagar (1841) and other village schools established during the primary days of the company rule. The study is an attempt to investigate the educational policies and the curriculum of the colonial Government in the nineteenth century. The study will be done with selected contents of some textbooks circulated in the latter half of the nineteenth century which draws a significant light into the perception of the educated writers and the students about the society.