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8 / Bhai Vir Singh
including the frontier areas. A catalyst had entered Punjabi
life which precipitated a vital reaction.
On the administrative plane, the British set up a secular
and egalitarian system. English penal and civil codes, with
ideas of individualism and natural rights, were introduced
andthe foundations were laid for the development of modem
legal, social and educational institutions. Communications
were improved. Land was surveyed and revenue settlement
made on relatively easy terms. Agriculture was encouraged.
The feudal orderof society eroded in the newset-up.
Increasing opportunities for trade and commerce and for
government employment led to the emergence of a middle
class whichslowly gained social recognition and dominance.
After an initial period of stringent repression, the Sikhs who
had fought the British valiantly before surrendering to them
were treated with a measure of liberality. This touched a
responsive chord and they outgrew their sullenness to join
the troops the English were raising. To their main occupation
of agriculture they took with redoubled confidence. An era of
peaceandprosperityseemedinsightpromisingrenovation of
cultural and intellectual mores.
Education became accessible to the common people as a
public system of instruction was introduced. Following the
EducationDespatchof 1854askingprovincialadministrations
to establish agencies of public instruction, the Punjab
Education Department was setup in Lahore. The Department
began with a plan of opening 30 single-teacher primary
schools in each district at a monthly expense of Rs. 15 per
school. To cover a larger area, the scheme was revised and it
was decided to open aided schools with a grant of Rs. 5 each.
ThisenabledtheDepartmentto have90schoolsineachdistrict
instead of the 30 originally planned. This was the beginning
of the end of the traditional system, generally backward and
rudimentary,underwhichtheHinduchildrenwentto Mahajan
schools to learnto read andwrite and cipherinthe mercantile
characters, Muslims to Quran schools in mosques andSikhs to
Gurmukhi schools ingurdwaras. In a fewyearsa large number
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