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Determinants of Primary Schooling in British India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Latika Chaudhary
Latika Chaudhary*
Affiliation:
Economics Fellow, Department of Economics, Stanford University, 579 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305–6072. E-mail: latikac1@stanford.edu.
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Abstract

Using a new historical data set on the availability of schools, I analyze why there was so little primary education in British India, where as late as 1911 there were fewer than three primary schools for every ten villages. The findings show that greater caste and religious diversity contributed to both low and misguided private spending. Indeed more diverse districts had fewer privately managed primary schools and a smaller ratio of primary to secondary schools. Given primary schools were correlated with subsequent literacy, local factors that disrupted primary school provision had important consequences for India's limited achievement in basic education.

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ARTICLES
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 269 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2009

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