Jesuits and their contribution to education in India - a paper by FELIX RAJ SOCIETY OF JESUS

JESUIT EDUCATION
J. Felix Raj, SJ
Perhaps Jesuits impart the best-known education in India. They conduct not less than 31
university colleges, 5 Institutes of Business Administration and 155 high schools spread
throughout the country, almost all of them among its most reputed (for example: St. Xavier’s,
Calcutta, Mumbai, Ranchi; Loyola, Chennai, Vijayawada; St. Joseph’s, Bangalore, Trichy;
XLRI, Jamshedpur). In them, more than 250,000 students belonging to every religious,
linguistic and socio-economic group, receive their education.
The number of Jesuit colleges and universities in the world has now reached 114,
including 28 in the United States. Many of these universities have traditions dating back
many years. In Europe, the Gregorian University (Rome, Italy; founded 1551) is the most
famous Jesuit University
Ignatius of Loyola, with firm determination to serve God and His people, founded the
Jesuit Order, called the “Society of Jesus”. Pope Paul III approved it as a Religious Order in
1540. Ignatius was an outstanding character of the 16th century. One of his first companions
was the then professor of the Paris University, Francis Xavier, who came to India in 1542.
The Society of Jesus is the largest religious order in the Catholic Church with 20,563 Jesuits
spread all over the world. It has taken up every conceivable form of work, which may, lead to
people’s total welfare. The Jesuits, according to Ignatius, should be ready to undertake in any
part of the world, work which will be for the "Greater Glory of God" (the Jesuit motto: Ad
Majorem Dei Gloriam). The Order remembers on July 31, it’s Founding Father who died 445
years ago.2
Though nowhere in the Order’s Constitution is it stated that education is to be given
special importance, the Jesuits have come to be particularly known in the public mind for
their educational work and have acquired the reputation of being among the world’s best
educators; in every country a Jesuit school or college is synonymous with quality secular
education given in an atmosphere conducive to character formation with emphasis laid on
spiritual and moral values and the development of an integrated human personality.
India and the United States rank among the most important countries in regard to the size
of the Jesuit educational undertakings. In the USA there are no fewer than 45 Jesuit
Universities, and 75 high schools. In other Asian countries such as Japan, Nepal, Philippines,
Taiwan and Vietnam, the Jesuits conduct reputed schools and university establishments,
which make a notable contribution to the education of their youth. The situation is the same
wherever the Society of Jesus has established itself.
St. Francis Xavier opened the first Jesuit school in Goa in 1542. It was named St. Paul’s
College. Nothing exists of this institution today except its memory, but it was the predecessor
of hundreds of other schools and colleges. The first Jesuit school to be opened in Europe was
in Spain during the lifetime of the Order’s founder. As he explained to one of his close
friends, Ignatius saw in the school an opportunity to do good by initiating the young into
secular and human knowledge and simultaneously into spiritual and moral values -- the love
of God and human person. The success experienced here encouraged the Order to go in for
more and more schools and college of every kind, so that soon education came to be
considered the primary work of the Society of Jesus. Hence, the Jesuit dictum “Give us a boy
and we will return you a man, a citizen of his country and a child of God.”
Any worthwhile book on the history of education will mention the contribution made to
European educational thinking and development in the 16
th
and 17
th
centuries. It was at this 3
time that Jesuit schools were opened all over Europe and in them the newly discovered
classics of Greece and Rome were successfully used in the formation of the young. The
“Ratio Studiorum” or “Guide to Education” produced by the Jesuits at the end of the 16
th
century remains an educational classic down to our day.
Jesuit educational methods derive directly from the Order’s own spirit. There is first a
willingness to use any branch of human knowledge, modern languages, philosophy,
theology, medicine, law, media and every branch of science and technology – nothing is
taboo in Jesuit education. Secondly, there is the stress on character formation and discipline
combined with the development of freedom. Next is the continual drive towards selfimprovement, by stretching talents and abilities in every field as far as they can go. Ambition
and individual emulation are stimulated by prizes and awards; simultaneously, teamwork is
encouraged through the “house system” in schools – a Jesuit innovation.
No Jesuit education is complete without attention to the development of the moral and
intellectual qualities of leadership: love for the country, integrity, human relations,
understanding, hard work, organizational ability, cooperation and teamwork, and the power
of expression in speech and writing. A Jesuit school or college aims to form “men and
women for others” who will be agents of needed social change in their country. Jesuits view
their work as “the service of faith in God and the promotion of Justice in the world”. Special
and preferential treatment is given to economically poor students in terms of financial and
academic support.
To quote from Paul Johnson's History of Christianity, What in fact they did was to
provide an educational service on demand. If a Catholic prince or prince-bishop wanted an
orthodox school, college or university established and conducted efficiently, he applied to the
Jesuits; he supplied the funds and buildings, they trained personnel and techniques. They 4
were, in effect, rather like a modern multi-national company selling expert services. And they
brought to the business of international schooling uniformity, discipline, and organization
that was quite new.
Jesuit educational methods have been criticized by some as being too rigid, too
stereotyped, and geared chiefly to the elite, intelligent and the determined, owing to the
excessive stimulation of ambition. Modern Jesuits are probably more aware of their
educational approaches in the context of the national and local socio-economic realities, and
as a result there is a very different atmosphere prevailing in today’s Jesuit institutions, an
atmosphere at once more relaxed, less formal, more pluralistic and more tolerant of
individual idiosyncrasies.
One may wonder what keeps these Jesuits united or keeps them going. The answer lies
in their basic characteristics, which are, first of all the Order’s “humanism” – its refusal to
condemn anything that is human – and its willingness to use all human knowledge and
achievements in the service of God and people. Another Jesuit characteristic is obedience or
flexibility, willingness to adjust and to compromise. The only thing a Jesuit is taught to be
rigid and uncompromising about is moral evil or sin. Another mark of the Jesuit is the way of
combining stern inner discipline with maximum freedom for each individual member in
external life and in the choice of methods. Finally there is a certain typical thoroughness in
all that is undertaken. This is expressed by the frequent use of the word “magis”, “greater”,
“higher” in relation to the goals the Jesuits, as individuals and as a community, strive for.
Their age-old maxim is to aim at the greater good for the greater number of people.
On the dust jacket of his book, The Jesuits, Malachi Martin wrote: ". . . In that world
where faith and power clash, the Society of Jesus has been the most fabled and fabulous, the
most admired and reviled, in the practice of both. From its first beginnings during a 5
revolutionary time almost exactly like our own, and down the four and a half centuries of the
Society's tumultuous existence, Jesuits have been both a puzzle and a model for the rest of
the world. Friends and enemies, Catholics and non-Catholics, have all tried to unravel "the
power and the secret" of these religiously trained and devoted men who stand as giants in
every secular pursuit of mankind as well. In science and art, writing and exploration and
teaching -- and not least in world politics -- Jesuits always aimed to be the best. And they
were. They had a part to play in every major political alliance in Europe and America, in
Asia and Africa. They became shapers not only of religious history, but of world history.
Their power came to rival that of world leaders and the Roman pontiff. Even Nazi generals
dreamed of such a cadre of men; and even Lenin envied them."
"Though few in number, the basic principles that Inigo Loyola had set forth for his
Company were powerful catalysts. Once his men harnessed their energies within his
organization to the worldwide work of the Roman Church, they produced a unique
phenomenon of human history. That is why the eighteenth-century German theorist, Novalis
wrote, "Never, never before in the course of the world's history had such a Society
appeared. The old Roman Senate itself did not lay schemes for world domination with
greater certainty of success. Never had the carrying out of a greater idea been considered
with greater understanding. For all time, this Society will be an example to every society
which feels an organic longing for infinite extension and eternal duration . . ." (Malachi
Martin, The Jesuits p. 27).

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