A Comparative Study of Monitorial Schools in the West and Indigenous Vernacular Schools in India in the 19th Century

The Monitorial system introduced in Europe and the Americas in the 19th century to educate the lower classes was considered to have been based on Indigenous schools in India. Andrew Bell introduced it first in Britain and promoted it as an “authentic Hindoo system.” This paper looks at the working of Monitorial school models in the West and compares them with Indigenous schools of 18th and 19th-century India. It also analyses the attempt by the colonial state to introduce the Monitorial system, and its policy towards Indigenous schools throughout the 19th century. Since the Monitorial system was considered to have been modelled on Indigenous vernacular schools, this paper does not discuss the Sanskrit schools (tols and pathsalas) as well as the Arabic schools (madrasas).