'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎492] (551/714)

PERSIA
manual labour, with the aid of rollers. On carts, weights up to at
least 700 kilos, would be transportable. Such an undertaking under
European control would be sure of the grandest success, enlarging, as
it would, the market range of all the cheaper products at least three
fold. The roads would doubtless require improvement, calling for out
lay of capital. But be it remembered how cheap labour is in Persia
and how the material for road repair is everywhere to be had for
nothing. 1
I have been surprised, in my studies of works on Persia, to note
how small is the attention that lias been bestowed by their writers
Persian upon the subject of the national education. With the
education consc i ous superiority of a civilised standard, it is simple
enough to expose and to denounce the abuses of an Oriental system.
But while complaining of the stupidity of the Persians for not at
once recognising the beneficent contents of the cornucopia which is
offered to them by Europe, ought not such critics to go a little
further, and to examine the foundations of the system upon
which is built up the fabric of national prejudice which it is so easy
to condemn ? Persian character may be obstinate, or retrograde, or
perfidious, but, like every other character, it is the product of a
system ; and if we are to turn our batteries upon its walls, had we
not better ascertain of what material they are made ? I have even
seen it stated—a rash generalisation from the universal existence of
education of a sort, without regard to what sort—that the lower
classes in Persia are the best educated in the East. A more
grotesque paradox could not, I believe, be uttered. A mere
ability to read and write the native language, however widespread
it may be, acquaintance in the higher classes with the Koran or
the Persian classics, carry with them no adaptation to a different
life or to liberal propensities. Amid the heroic schemes which a
hundred miracle-mongers propose for the revivification of the country
no one seems to think of the schools, or to suggest that better teachers,
a wider curriculum, different class books, are needed to make the
next generation other than the present. A familiarity with the ways
and standards of civilisation will breed an anxiety for a share in its
advantages which no amount of diplomatic manipulation can implant.
If I had any voice in the so-called regeneration of Persia. I would
not bring out a company in London, but I would organise a coiip
d'etat in the village schools.
1 Petermanris Mittheilungen, 1885, pp. 54-6.