Princely State, Regional Elite and the discourse around education: Reading Golkonda Patrika and Hyderabad Samacharamu

Abstract

Late 19^th and early 20^th centuries saw discussions around ‘what should be the language of textbooks?’ The regional elite who drew their authority from religious and caste affiliations across the colonial presidencies and princely states were scrutinizing their practices of learning and investigating their principles of education to device a new language of domination. For the Telugu speaking elite in Madras presidency the conflict was between Granthika and Vyavaharika variants of Telugu. In the case of princely Hyderabad, the debates were centered around Urdu and Telugu; and the spoken Telugu which was influenced by Persian and Urdu was dismissed from these debates for being ‘polluted and impure’.

This paper attempts an archival and historical analysis to locate the differing dominant discourses around the idea of what should be the language of formal schooling by analysing the articles published in Golkonda Patrika (a popular Telugu periodical) between 1930-45 and Hyderabad Samacharamu (journal published by the Hyderabad state) between 1943-45. Golkonda Patrika published a series of articles criticizing the Hyderabad state for its education policy, alongside also published pieces that were critical of Telugu spoken in Hyderabad-Telangana. The state-run journal Hyderabad Samacharamu, responded to the critique of dominant elite and regularly published articles that elaborated on the education policy of Hyderabad. As the irresolutions around modern education, and cultural assertions around languages continue, this paper makes a conjunctural and historical analysis of what could be seen as the dominant discourse around education during the twentieth century Hyderabad state. This also becomes relevant with newer education policies still battling with questions of education in mother tongue- how mother tongue gets defined, which language/s get to enter modern, scientific and secular systems of learning.