 |
| The front view of University of Jaffna. Pix-UoJ |
By K. Indrapala
In October this year the university in Jaffna completes its first fifty years. But the idea of establishing a modern Western-style institution of higher learning, an American-style College, was first mooted more than 200 years ago.
The American Mission
The first American missionaries arrived in Sri Lanka in 1816. When they arrived, they had not yet decided in which part of Sri Lanka to establish their mission centre. Many believe that the British colonial government in Colombo sent the Americans to Jaffna to keep them farther away from the metropolis. But the choice of Jaffna by the Americans was a deliberate one.
The first American missionary to visit Jaffna (July 1813) was Samuel Newell. He visited Jaffna and stayed in Sri Lanka for ten months. “The inquiries he made during this time”, according to the mission documents, “induced him strongly to recommend the establishment of a mission in Jaffna, the northern district of Ceylon”. In 1815, in a joint letter to the American Board of Foreign Missions, Newell urged that “Jaffna and Tranquebar are, we think, places open to missionaries, where they may come and learn an important language…”.
When the four missionaries assigned to Sri Lanka arrived in Colombo in 1816, they made further inquiries about Jaffna. They then reported to the mission authorities that Sir Alexander Johnstone (the Chief Justice) “agreed with most gentlemen, with whom we have conversed, in considering the district of Jaffna the most important missionary field on this Island.”
A College for Jaffna
Jaffna was chosen and the first group of American missionaries in Jaffna placed a high value on education. Six years after starting their Native Free Schools in various villages of Jaffna, they began to think about the future of the children who passed out of these schools and the need for an institution where some of them could receive higher education.
In their own words, their ‘conviction that something must be done, led to this design’ – a design to create a ‘College for Tamul and other youth’. A college, at that time in America, was an institution for higher learning which later adopted the name of university, like Harvard College now known as Harvard University.
In 1823, the American Mission in Jaffna drew up an elaborate plan, which they called the Prospectus, for this College to be ‘located at some convenient place in the district of Jaffna.’
The main objects of the college were ‘to give native youth of good promise a thorough knowledge of the English language’ and ‘the cultivation of Tamil literature’.
Within the few years they were in Jaffna, the missionaries had learned Tamil and realized its importance. In their Prospectus, they pointed this out: “The Tamul language, like the Sanscrit, Hebrew, Greek & c, is an original and perfect language, and is in itself highly worthy of cultivation.” In their view, an “important benefit of the College would be the cultivation of Tamul composition, which is now almost entirely neglected.”
The study of Sanskrit was also included, and the missionaries described this language as “the repository of Eastern literature, science and religion.”
In addition, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek were included as subjects for a ‘select number.’ It was also intended to teach ‘the sciences usually studied in the Colleges of the United States’.
Officers
The plan of the College included provision for the following officers: A President (as in the American colleges), “three European or American Professors, (viz.) a Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, a Professor of Greek and Hebrew Languages, and a Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic…one Native Professor of Sanscrit, and one of Tamul.”
Refusal by government
The plan sent from Jaffna was approved by the mission authorities in Boston. Fund-raising for the College had also begun. But the plan did not meet with the approval of the British government. Unlike Governor Robert Brownrigg who had given much encouragement to the American missionaries, his successor Edward Barnes was not a supporter of the Americans. The American Mission was told “that the British government would not permit any increase in the number of American missionaries.” It was made clear to the Mission that ‘the British public will supply teachers for the inhabitants of Ceylon’.
Batticotta Seminary
Though disappointed, the Mission in Jaffna did not give up its plan to establish a higher educational institution. Even before the British government rejected their plan, the missionaries had started a Central Boarding School at Vaddukoddai, “designed as preparatory to a native College” (in the manner of similar schools for colleges in America).
This school was quietly transformed into a higher educational institution, with the limited staff available, and a modified version of the original plan was implemented. Avoiding the use of the name ‘College’ or ‘Seminary’, the missionaries introduced their tertiary curriculum into the Central School. It was only in 1827 it came to be called a seminary (the name Batticotta Seminary was given in 1846).
In 1831 Governor Barnes left and was succeeded by Robert Wilmot-Horton, who, it appears, was more favourably inclined towards the American Mission. One of the missionaries was quickly sent to meet the Governor in Kandy. The Governor agreed to remove the restrictions imposed in the time of his predecessor. He then followed it up with a visit to the Seminary in 1832 and praised the work of that institution.
With the removal of restrictions, more American missionaries came and joined the staff. Among them was Dr. Nathan Ward (described as Professor of Medicine, Chemistry and Geology) and (later) Edward Cope (described as Professor of English Literature).
Medical students
Dr. Ward gave training to some students in medicine and surgery. Some of these students later became medical assistants at the mission stations in Jaffna. The American Medical Missionary Dr. Samuel Green (who started a medical school in Jaffna in 1848) , mentions them by name in a letter sent to America: “I have with me Dr. Gould, a Native Assistant, educated in the Seminary, and taught medicine by Dr. Ward. At Batticotta Dr. S.A. Evarts provides medical care for those who seek his aid. In Oodooville, Dr. Daniel Nicholls sees patients. These two were educated in the same way as Gould. At Tillipally, Dr. S. Ropes has duties as a Physician.”
After the arrival of Dr. Green, the medical section of the Seminary was re-located to Manipay where a separate medical school was started.
Closure of the Seminary
By the 1840s the Seminary was functioning like an American college. In addition to English and Tamil, the curriculum included ‘Classical Sanscrit’ and Greek. Physiology was also introduced as a distinct study. There were some students from outside Jaffna, too. They came from Tranquebar (Tharangampadi, Tamil Nadu), Nagapatam (Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu) and Colombo. The first foreign student (for a short period) came from Beirut (Lebanon). It is recorded that there was even a Buddhist monk from Kandy.
After Governor Wilmot-Horton, several other high British officials from Colombo also visited the Seminary. One of them was Emerson Tennent (Colonial Secretary) who later wrote about the Seminary in his book and concluded that “the Collegiate institution of Batticotta is entitled to rank with many European universities”.
By the beginning of the 1850s, the American Mission authorities in Boston began to change their attitude towards the academic work of the Seminary. They sent a deputation to Jaffna to review the Seminary’s work and make recommendations.
The deputation did not agree with the objects of the mission in Jaffna in developing the Batticotta Seminary. They concluded: “Our object in sustaining a Seminary is not to educate the community at large. That we do not regard as the appropriate work of missionaries.” Though the deputation did not recommend the suspension of the Seminary, the authorities in America decided to close the institution. It was closed in September 1855 and the English schools of the mission were also abolished.
Jaffna College
Nearly forty years of American Mission work had created an intense desire for English education. The closure of the Seminary disappointed many in Jaffna. Within a few years, some of the leading men of Jaffna, especially the graduates of the Seminary, resolved to establish a successor to the Seminary. The result was the founding of Jaffna College.
Jaffna College, it must be remembered, was not a creation of the American Mission. It was the response of the English-educated Jaffna people to the closure of the Batticotta Seminary. The necessary fund was privately collected (in Sri Lanka, India and America) and the new institution was started in 1872 in the former premises of the defunct Batticotta Seminary, with the last head of the Seminary as the new principal (Dr. Hastings).
In 1857, two years after the Seminary was closed, the first universities were opened in India, in Madras (Chennai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and Bombay (Mumbai). Dr. Hastings came under pressure to affiliate the Vaddukoddai institution with Madras University. He was unwilling to do this as he objected to “the examination system on which the Indian universities laid such emphasis.” It is recorded that Dr. Hastings spoke “of the desirability of securing a university for the Island, and a committee was actually appointed to correspond with Government on the subject”.
Affiliation with Calcutta University
There was also a desire to obtain a charter from the government. A request was made to the Governor, but no action was taken. When the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) visited the Island in 1875, a petition was submitted to him for the grant of a charter. A reply was received that the Prince would not interfere with the working of the local colonial government.
Dr. Hastings retired in 1889 and the new principal, D S.W. Howland, was urged to consider affiliation with an Indian university. But the new principal, too, felt that the best solution was to establish a university in the country. In 1890, when the Governor (Arthur Havelock) visited Jaffna College, a request for a university in the Island was made in the address given to him.
While there was a growing demand for university degrees, nothing came out of the requests made to the government. Dr. Howland finally decided to affiliate the College with Calcutta University in 1891.
Pathway to Degrees
From 1891 Jaffna College provided a pathway for local students to obtain university degrees. It was first affiliated to Calcutta University and in 1906 to Madras University. From 1919, the College provided facilities for students to prepare for the examinations of the University of London.
In 1947, a separate Undergraduate Department was created for the London University’s Intermediate in Arts, Intermediate in Science, B.A. and B.Sc. classes. After the American system, a President (S.K. Bunker, the last of the American principals of the College) headed this section.
It was possible at this time for one to study from the Kindergarten to the B.A./B.Sc. class and get a university degree without leaving Jaffna. In the 1940s, there was the case of K.J. Chelvarajan who was from Vaddukoddai, who had all his education from the Kindergarten to the B.A. at Jaffna College and who became a teacher at the College soon after he passed his degree examination.
In the 1960s, Jaffna College began preparing students for the external degrees of the University of Ceylon. In 1974 the Undergraduate Department of the College was taken over by the Government to form the nucleus of the Jaffna Campus of the University of Sri Lanka. The opening of this campus, which later became the University of Jaffna, marked the fulfilment of the dream the American missionaries had in 1823.
Post a Comment