Educational Development in South India

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About the Author Dr. (Smt.) K. G. Vijayalekshmy did her M.A. in History and M.Ed. from the Kerala University. Subsequently she continued her academic pursuit by registering as a full-time researcher of the Mother Theresa Women's University. She was awarded Ph.D. Degree for her dissertation The Growth of Political Consciousness Among the Women of Kerala'.

Dr. Vijayalekshmy served as lecturer for some time in Education in the University of Calicut, under the B.Ed. programme. She has been active in the academic front and has contributed a number of research papers in all India forums of historians like the Institute of Historical Studies, South Indian History Congress and the Indian History Congress.

She is a Life Member of South Indian History Congress and very much connected with the activities of the Institute of Historical Studies and Kerala Historical Society. She has published several research articles in leading journals.

Currently Dr. Vijayalekshmy is working as Assistant Population Education Officer of the Trivandrum Branch of the Family Planning Association of India.

Foreword In this monograph, Miss K. G. Vijayalekshmy has sought to highlight the contributions made by Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar, the Dewan of Travancore from 1936 to 1947, towards the sustained and prolonged efforts of that princely state in securing for itself a place of pre-eminence on the educational map of modern India. The author has treated the subject in the proper historical perspective with focus on the role of the state and private agencies in field of education during the earlier periods. In British days, Travancore had the unique distinction of being the only part of India which accepted the education of the people as the sole responsibility of the state and spent a big chunk of its revenue towards realising the objective of free and compulsory primary education. The efforts of the state were supplemented by those of the Christian missionaries. In fact, thanks to the efforts of the state and private agencies, Travancore was far ahead of other parts of India in point of literacy and educational standards.

The period of the Dewanship of Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar was marked by the introduction of several innovative measures in the administrative, social, economic and educational fields. His controversial political role in suppressing the popular agitation for responsible government in the state has however, overshadowed his achievements in other fields and stood in the way of an objective evaluation of his work in its totality. Now that four decades have elapsed since his exit from the scene, it should be possible for a student of history to make such a reappraisal and assign to Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar his legitimate place in history. This is the task which Miss Vijayalekshmy has attempted to accomplish in this monograph with a high degree of fervour and earnestness. She developed her interest in the subject while working on her dissertation for the M. A. (History) and M. Ed. Degree Examinations of the University of Kerala and she deserves all praise for having perservered in her efforts at collecting the relevant material and given shape to this monograph even after the completion of her formal studies.