Bombay, two studies were carried out in 1823 and 1829. The first study was narrow in scope and relied on the collectors for the acquisition of data. The second study used district judges for the collection of data. According to this study, there were 1,705 schools with 35,153 pupils in the population of 4,681,735.

In Bengal, three studies about the Indian education system were conducted by William Adam Bentinck. The first report (July, 1835) was based on the review of earlier studies on Indian education. Adam referred to a Minute by a member of the General Committee of Public Instruction and inferred that there were 100,000 schools in Bengal and Behar, thus there would be a village school for every 400 people. The second report (December, 1835) contained a comprehensive survey of one thana in the district of Rajshahi. The third report (April, 1838) covered five of the nineteen districts of Bengal and Bihar.

There could be some statistical issues with the Madras and Bombay studies in terms of methodology. These studies did not include all existing schools and pupils, especially pupils under domestic guidance. In Bengal, at the time of the survey, the Indian local schools were on the decline because of the political anarchy and instability. Despite these issues, the reports gave a fair picture of Indian education. All the reports suggest that pre-British India had a comprehensive network of education and schools were available at the village leve Prendergast, who was a member of the Bombay Governor’s Council, in his Minute of 1821 admits that: “There is hardly a village, great or small, throughout our territories, in which there is not at least one school, and in large villages more, many in every town and in large cities in every division; where young natives are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, upon a system so economical, from a handful or two of grain, or perhaps a rupee per month to the school teacher…”

How can we compare the educational facilities available in India in pre-British times with those of European countries at that time? For this we need to refer to the Fifth Educational Report of the Bombay Society: “There are probably as great a proportion of persons in India who can read, write and keep simple accounts as are to be found in European countries.”

Sir Thomas Munro, in his report on indigenous education in Madras (1821), made such comparison and concluded that “the state of education here was higher than it was in most European countries at no very distant period.” Thus, it is just a myth constructed, strengthened and popularised by the British that pre-British India was a land of illiterate people.