CHAPTER 39- Basic Literacy Act.

August 1538, Royal Palace, Capital city, Dharanikota.

After the break, the Royal Advisory Council reconvened in the Council room again. This time, fewer people were tailing the MInisters than earlier that day. Each Advisor/Minister only had a few necessary people in their entourage.

The Education minister was missing, and the Justice minister returned after assigning the investigation task to one of his subordinates. Rudra was sure, Nyayapala wanted to handle that personally, but the man hated inefficiencies more than he hated Criminals.

There was nothing wrong with what Acharya did. No law said Nepotism was illegal and nothing prohibited the hiring of the children of influential people for political favors. It was unfair to prohibit them from employment, just because of their parent's influence. 

It was also bound to happen. There were very few educated people in the kingdom and the children of Nobles/zamindars had the easiest access to education. Even then, they make up only a portion of the educated people as a whole.

The reason he got so angry was not totally because of the staff hired by Acharya. Although it was apparent that, he filled his ranks with the children of nobles/zamindars who hoped that their children would become close to Rudra to gain his favor, he would have been alright with it, if they were at least competent. 

The constant castism, sexism, and lack of proper respect were what defined the short stint of Acharya as the Education Minister. Rudra initially hoped that, as Acharya was very capable, he could ignore this, but he realized he had too much bone to pick against such discrimination. 

Acharya was very diligent in making his department collect the data on Gurukuls, which Rudra asked for. But what use does it make, if the mindset with which the data is analyzed is wrong? 

The room was tense, and no one spoke out, waiting for Rudra to speak. He turned towards the four people left from the Education Department's delegation. "Now who among you will present the data? I want data on all the schools, not only the ones that fit your biases." 

A short man stepped forward, almost pushed forward by the other three. "I am Pradarshana, Your Majesty. I am willing to present." After Rudra's go-ahead, he continued "The initial requirement asked by the king was for any gurukuls, with greater than 5 student capacity. With Acharya sir's 'specification' we will get almost 1300, but considering the remaining, we will have almost 1700 to 1800 gurukuls." 

It was not much of a difference, as it hardly mattered whether it was 1300 or 1700. It was very low anyway. There needs to be a massive influx of funds into the education system to build more schools, but before that, many problems need to be solved. 

"How many students do each of these schools teach?" 

"They currently teach between, 6 to 13 students each, your majesty. The average time for one batch of students to leave the Gurukul is 7 years." Pradarshana answered.

That means, one of these Gurukuls takes, 7 years to educate, on average 10 students. This was not like modern schools, where there were multiple batches of students. During the whole of 7 years, these gurukuls only teach one batch. 

"That seems … inefficient. How many literate people does the kingdom have? I know we don't have any census, but what is your approximate?" 

This question was answered by Kubhera from the Treasury department." Literate people have better jobs, that can be taxed, your majesty. According to the last tax season, we have 24,352 people, whose jobs require basic education. This does not account for people leaving because of emigration, Educated Zamindar families who are taxed separately, and other cases such as tax evasion." 

That means, considering everybody, there are nearly 30,000 literate people in the kingdom. That was just over 1% of the whole population. Although the exact number is not known, it was approximated that there were 2 million people in the kingdom. That number was a lot higher than, in the old timeline, but there was also no Dharanikota kingdom at that time, 

"I want to introduce education reforms, but it is almost impossible with the conditions we have now, and If I were to listen to Kubhera, we wouldn't have the required money. But, I believe that education is something all of my citizens should have access to. A document will be now distributed to all of you, which contains the basics of my plan, to make that possible." 

One of Vasekar's assistants, distributed documents, made of paper to all of the ministers. 

"One of the first things we need is the propagation of knowledge. People should have easy access to information if they are to learn something. A printing press will easily solve this issue, but there are a few problems with that too." 

The document described what a printing press is. Even though the press was invented almost a century ago, in Europe, it has not been spread to India yet. The people still use manual copying for document duplication.

"This printing press is somewhat similar to the woodblock printing used in the lands of the Ming (China). But this press looks a lot faster. Do we need to import it from the Portuguese?" Lady Montra asked, while also adding a bit of knowledge of her own.

"Think of it as an advanced form of woodblock printing, Lady Montra. And no, we do not need to import it from the Portuguese, and that is one of the problems of the printing press." 

The Portuguese were the first to set up a printing press in India, in the original timeline, but they used it to only print Bibles and other religious books for the Indian chapter of the Portuguese Inquisition, where they forcibly converted Indians to Christianity, after destroying most of the temples in their lands.

"For the Printing press, there are two main problems, that need to be solved. The script we use for our language is not properly suitable for a Printing press, and we need a lot of paper for printing."

The languages in this timeline were slightly different from those of the old timeline, but they were similar enough that, just like in the old world, they were very difficult to print. It was possible, but to arrange each of the letters on the printing block would be too inefficient. 

"As many of you have noticed, the documents distributed to you are made of paper, and not the usual palm leaves. They were expensive to import, but I am regularly using them in my notebooks, and it will become standard with the printing press." 

The paper was not locally produced in Dharanikota, as it was not that important previously. It was only used for important letters, and most of the writing was carried out on treated palm leaves, which are perishable and cannot be stored for a long time. 

"After we solve the issues that come with the printing press, we need to make sure that people in the kingdom can read and write. This also includes all previously literate people and the common illiterate people." 

Unfortunately, creating a new script for an old language means that, all your literate people need to relearn it. But it was worth it if it meant that more people could be given access to education. 

"In the coming years, We need to start a basic education act, that provides education to all of the kingdom's citizens. It should contain courses in Math, science, history, literature, and social studies, not to mention the establishment of technical schools and Universities."

After hearing Rudra, say that, the council members had a forced smile on their faces. It was almost like they were only entertaining them, to not upset him. After all, it was common for kings to try and do something that was not reasonably possible.

"I am not a fool. I know that all of this takes time. Before we get ahead of ourselves and set lofty goals, we need to implement the First thing. Making sure all the adult citizens of our kingdom can read and speak the Language. Writing, we can implement it later." Rudra announced.

"As Acharya will be unavailable, Pradarshana, you will help me gather some language experts. Poets, writers, and other language-based artists, such people will do. After we form the new script, we need people to teach them. Call all of the Gurukuls, with a student capacity of less than five, they will help us spread it." Rudra instructed the short man. 

Rudra's order would cause these small gurukuls to stop functioning. But that did not matter much. He would have put an end to them anyway. Gurukuls were not something he wanted to be controlled by the individuals.

Rudra's main problem with Gurukuls was not their religion-based teaching methods. While he believed that education should be separate from religion, he was ok with it if it was done in moderation. 

His issue was the kingdom did not control them. If they are unregulated, they cannot control what the educated people of the kingdom think. Rudra was well aware that, education means empowerment, and it will lead to independent thought.

By controlling information, one can control the masses. He was introducing the Printing press, which would inevitably cause the rapid spread of ideas and the creation of mass media. 

By controlling schools, the children would be molded to be loyal to the country and throne. He did not want to be caught in the middle of something like the French Revolution, caused by something he introduced.

But that was something to think about in the future. 

"Kubhera, your department will take over surveys from now. Remember, I don't want any personal biases in the information gathered. How you do it, is up to you. As the tax season is coming up, it is better to conduct surveys during that time." Rudra said to the treasury minister, Kubhera.

"Now, I need all of this in writing. I want this decree passed by the end of the day." 

On that fateful day, the first draft of the "Basic Literacy Act" was passed. This law would prove to be one of the cultural foundations that would hold the then-budding Empire, together.