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Eternal India
encyclopedia
EDUCATION
"In presenting this subject to your Lordship, I conceive myself
discharging a solemn duty which I owe to my countrymen, and also
to that enlightened sovereign and legislature which have extended
their benevolent care to this distant land, actuated by a desire to
improve the inhabitants, and therefore humbly trust you will
excuse the liberty I have taken in thus expressing my sentiments to
your Lordship."
STUDY OF ENGLISH
Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay , in his minute of 1823
urged the establishment of schools for teaching English and Euro-
pean sciences. In a communication to the Commissioners for
Indian Affairs, he wrote, " I conceive it is far more important to
impart a high degree of education to the upper classes than to
diffuse a much lower sort of it among the common people. The
most important branch of education is that designed to prepare
natives for public employment. If English could at all be diffused
among persons who had the least time for reflection, the progress
of knowledge by means of it would be to accelerate in a ten-fold
ratio since every man who made himself acquainted with a science
through English would be able to communicate it in his own
language to his countrymen Elphinstone proposed the establish-
ment of a school in Bombay where English might be taught "classi-
cally" and instruction given in that language in history, geography,
and science. In 1833 he set up a similar school in Poona. In 1834
the Elphinstone College was started in Bombay " to train a class of
persons qualified by their intelligence and morality for high em-
ployment in the civil administration of India."
At this time the demand for the study of English had increased
tremendously. English books were in great demand. There was
practically no demand for Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic books.
There was a controversy as to whether instruction should be given
through English or through Sanskrit, Arabic or Persian. The
Anglicists maintained that all instruction should be given through
English. The Orientalists insisted on teaching through the oriental
languages. When Thomas Babington Macaulay, the new Law
Member, was appointed President of the Committee of Public
Instruction in 1834, it was divided equally between the "Anglicists"
and the "Orientalists". The former were for imparting training and
education in English to Indians to Conduct the clerical work of the
company. The latter feared that a switchover to English would
wound Indian sensibilities and lead to a rebellion. Macaulay came
down in favour of the Anglicists with all the knowledge and
eloquence at his command.
Lord Macaulay in his famous minute which argued the case for
English said that "neither as the languages of law nor as the
languages of religion have Sanskrit or Arabic any peculiar claim to
our encouragement. It is possible to make natives of the country
thoroughly good English scholars.
"Are we to keep the people of India ignorant in order that we
may keep them submissive? Or do we think that we can give
knowledge without awakening ambition? Or do we mean to awaken
ambition and provide it with no legitimate vent ? It may be that the
public mind of India may expand under our system until it has
outgrown that system, that by good government we may educate
our subjects into a capacity for better government, that having
become instructed in European knowledge, they may, in some
future age, demand European institutions. Whether such a day will
ever come I know not. Whenever it comes it will be the proudest
day in English history ......... The sceptre may pass away from us,
victory may be inconstant to our arms. But there are triumphs
which are followed by no reverse. There is an empire exempt from
all natural causes of decay. These triumphs are the pacific triumphs
of reason over barbarism ; the empire is the imperishable empire
of our arts and our morals, our literature and our laws.
" The question before us is simply whether , when it is in our
power to teach this language- English- we shall teach languages in
which by universal confession, there are no books on any subjects
which deserve to be compared to our own ; whether , when we can
teach European science, we shall teach systems which, by univer-
sal confession, whenever they differ from those of Europe, differ
for the worse ; and whether, when we patronise sound philosophy
and true history, we shall countenance at the public expense,
medical doctrines which would disgrace an English farrier, astron-
omy which would move laughter in the girls at an English boarding
school, history abounding with kings thirty feet high and reigns
thirty thousand years long, and geography made up of seas of
treacle and seas of butter."
Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General, approved of
the minute of Lord Macaulay. A resolution was passed on March
7th
1835
that "while the colleges of oriental learning were not to
be abolished ........ all funds at the disposal of the Government of
India would henceforth be spent in imparting to the Indians a
knowledge of English literature and science."
English education received an impetus when the Governor-
General, Lord Hardinge, introduced a regulation that all public
posts would be filled by an open competitive examination, prefer-
ence being given to those with a knowledge of English. English
education became the passport to higher appointments for Indians.
But little was done to improve the system of primary education in
vernacular schools for the masses. Disproportionate attention was
paid to the middle-class gentry. The vernacular schools were in a
miserable condition.
A more ominous result was the effect of the new system on
relations between Hindus and Muslims. The advantages of
English education were reaped mostly by the middle class Hindus,
who flocked to the government and missionary schools. The
Muslims remained aloof. They resented the displacement of Per-
sian by English as the language of government and administration.
As time passed the cultural and economic gap between the two
communities widened.
Although the momentous decision of
1835
marked the begin-
ning of English education, the evolution of a comprehensive and
co-ordinated system of education took place only in
1854
during
the revision of the company's charter. A parliamentary committee
that was appointed to examine the whole subject resulted in the
memorable Despatch of Sir Charles Wood, President of the Board
of Control, to the court of Directors in
1854
which has been
described as the "Magna Carta of English education in India." It
laid the foundation on which the educational system in British
India subsequently developed.