The Great Indian Education Debate: Documents Relating to the Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy, 1781–1843 9780700711819

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The Great Indian Education Debate

Centre of South Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London LONDON STUDIES ON SOUTH ASIA 1. Caste and Christianity D.B. Forrester 2. British Policy Towards the Indian States S.R. Ashton 3. The Assamese A C. Cantlie 4. Dacca S.U. Ahmed 5. Crime, Justice and Society in Colonial Sri Lanka J. w. Rogers 6. Hindu and Christian in South-East India G.A Oddie 7. Muslims and Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India AA Powell 8. A Place for Our Gods M. Nye 9. Khizr Tiwana, the Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India I. Talbot 10. John Bullion's Empire G. Balachandran 11. Landlord Power and Rural Indebtedness in Colonial Sind D. Cheeseman 12. Krsna's Round Dance Reconsidered H.R.M. Pauwels 1 3. Ancient Rights and Future Comfort p. Robb

14. Tibet and the British Raj A McKay

15. Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India S. Bandyopadhyay 16. James Long of Bengal G.A Oddie

17. Caste, Class and Catholicism in India 1789-1914 K. Ballhatchet

18. The Great Indian Education Debate Lynn Zastoupil and Martin Moir

The Great Indian Education Debate Documents Relating to the Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy, 1781-1843

Edited by

Lynn Zastoupil and Martin Moir

I~ ~~o~~!~n~~:up LONDON AND NEW YORK

First Published in 1999 by Curzon Press Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon , Oxon OXI4 4RN 711 Third Ave nue , New York, NY, 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Editorial Matter

t

1999 Lynn Zastoupil and Martin Moir

Typeset in New Century Schoolbook by LaserScript Ltd, Mitcham

All rights reserved . No part of th is book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanica l, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record of this book is avai lable from the British Library Library of Congress in Publication Data A catalogue record for th is book has been requested

ISBN 13: 978-0-700-71181-9 (hbk)

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Contents

Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

IX

Note on Sources and Editing Methods ...................... xiii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

DOCUMENT ONE

Minute by Warren Hastings, governor-general of Fort William (Calcutta) in Bengal, recorded in the Public Department, 17 April 1781 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

73

DOCUMENT TWO

Part of a letter from Jonathan Duncan, resident at Benares, to Earl Cornwallis, governor-general in council of Fort William in Bengal, dated 1 January 1792 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

77

DOCUMENT THREE

Part of chapter IV of Charles Grant's Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain, Particularly with Respect to Morals. Written Chiefly in 1792 . . ..

81

DOCUMENT FOUR

East India Company Charter Act of 1813, section 43 (53 Geo. III, c. 155, s.43). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

90

DOCUMENT FIVE

Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to the governor-general in council of Fort William in Bengal, dated 3 June 1814, paragraphs 10 to 25. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

93

DOCUMENT SIX

Note by Holt Mackenzie, secretary to the Bengal government in the Territorial Department, dated 17 July 1823 . . . . . . . . . . . ..

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THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

DOCUMENT SEVEN

Bengal government resolution in the Territorial: Revenue Department, dated 17 July 1823 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 DOCUMENT EIGHT

Letter from Rammohun Roy to Lord Amherst, governor-general in council, dated 11 December 1823 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 DOCUMENT NINE

Court of Directors' Revenue Department dispatch to the governor-general in council of Fort William in Bengal, dated 18 February 1824, paragraphs 79 to 86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 DOCUMENT TEN

Letter from the General Committee of Public Instruction to the governor-general, Lord Amherst, dated 18 August 1824. . . . . . .. 118 DOCUMENT ELEVEN

Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to the governor in council of Fort St. George (Madras), No. 34 of 29 September 1830 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 DOCUMENT "TWELVE

Letter from J. C. C. Sutherland, secretary to the General Committee of Public Instruction, to H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the government of India in the General Department, dated 21 January 1835 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 DOCUMENT THIRTEEN

Letter from J. C. C. Sutherland, secretary to the General Committee of Public Instruction, to H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the government ofIndia in the General Department, dated 22 January 1835 .... 147 DOCUMENT FOURTEEN

Minute recorded in the General Department by Thomas Babington Macaulay, law member of the governor-general's council, dated 2 February 1835 .......................... 161 DOCUMENT FIFTEEN

Note, dated 15 February 1835, by H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the government of India in the General Department (with marginal notes by T. B. Macaulay etc.) ............................ 174 DOCUMENT SIXTEEN

Petition of the Muslim inhabitants of Calcutta to the government, (?) 21 February 1835 ....................... 189 DOCUMENT SEVENTEEN

Resolution of the governor-general of India in council in the General Department, dated 7 March 1835 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 vi

CONTENTS

DOCUMENT EIGHTEEN

Petition to Lord Bentinck, governor-general of India, from students attached to the Government Sanskrit College, Calcutta, March 1835. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 197 DOCUMENT NINETEEN

Letter, dated 20 April 1835, from J. C. C. Sutherland, secretary to the General Committee of Public Instruction, to G. A. Bushby, officiating secretary to the government of India in the General Department, enclosing a list of propositions adopted by the GCPI on 11 April 1835. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 DOCUMENT TWENTY

Letter from H. H. Wilson to the editor of The Asiatic Journal concerning the 'Education of the Natives of India,' dated 5 December 1835. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 DOCUMENT TWENTY-ONE

First draft of a Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to India (Previous Communication 1828) prepared by John Stuart Mill, assistant to the examiner of Indian correspondence, with marginal comments by the president of the Board of Control, Sir John Cam Hobhouse, c. July-December 1836 ............ 225 DOCUMENT TWENTY-TWO

Letter, dated 12 December 1836, from Sir John Hobhouse to Sir James Rivett Carnac, chairman of the East India Company, returning Previous Communication 1828, and enclosing an extract from a private letter from the governor-general, Lord Auckland, to Carnac. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 DOCUMENT TWENTY-THREE

Petition of the Muslim inhabitants of Calcutta to the governorgeneral of India in council, undated but considered and replied to on 24 August 1836. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 DOCUMENT TWENTY-FOUR

Petition of the students of Government Sanskrit College, Calcutta, to Lord Auckland, governor-general of India in council, dated 9 August 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 DOCUMENT TWENTY-FIVE

Minute recorded in the General Department by the governorgeneral, Lord Auckland, 24 August 1836 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 DOCUMENT TWENTY-SIX

Two letters from Brian Hodgson, resident in Nepal, dated July 1837 and April 1843, as reprinted in Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects (London, 1880) . . . . . . . . . . . 260 vii

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

DOCUMENT TWENTY-SEVEN

Petition from the Hindu community of Bengal to the chairman and deputy chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, December 1837IFebruary 1838 .......... 273 DOCUMENT TWENTY-EIGHT

Charles Trevelyan, On the Education of the People of India (London, 1838), chapter IV ............................. 281 DOCUMENT TWENTY-NINE

Minute about 'Native Education' recorded in the General Department by the governor-general, Lord Auckland, 24 November 1839 ................................... 304 DOCUM ENT THIRTY

Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to the governorgeneral of India in council, No.1 of 20 January 1841 ......... 332

Biographical Notes . .................................... 337 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Index . ............................................. 352

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...Preface

... a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. 1

These harsh words by a man who confessed that he could not read the literature written in the languages ofIndia and Arabia have stirred strong feelings ever since they first appeared more than a century and a half ago. Penned by Thomas Macaulay in 1835 as part of his minute on Indian education, this and other similar passages have made that document one of the most famous (or infamous) official essays in the long history of the British empire. Oft-discussed and readily available in print today, Macaulay's minute remains an important part of the history of cultural imperialism. Less famous, and certainly less accessible, are the views of those who both disagreed and agreed with Macaulay. While the context for Macaulay's minute has been thoroughly explored by various scholars and biographers, little attempt has been made to bring back into print (or, in some cases, publish for the first time) the views of British officials and private Indians who also took pen to paper to address the same heated issue that animated Macaulay in 1835. That issue, of course, was what kind of public education should the British promote in their growing Indian empire. Controversy on the matter had been brewing for some time before erupting in 1834 into a bitter debate between orientalists (who respected Indian classical education and wished to engraft western knowledge onto it) and anglicists (who saw little good in traditional Indian education and wished to modernize India by introducing English-language education as widely as possible). Macaulay's minute, while brilliant rhetorically, conveys a very incomplete and partisan impression of the complex and important arguments advanced by various participants, British and Indian alike, in a controversy whose roots extended back into the eighteenth century. Furthermore, some of the best arguments by Macaulay's opponents were developed in response to his minute and could not have been fully ix

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

anticipated by him. Among these responses are informative pieces by H. H. Wilson and John Stuart Mill, two unlikely allies in the Indian education controversy. Their challenging ideas regarding the need to preserve and rejuvenate the national literature of India by cultivating the classical languages of Sanskrit and Arabic have remained buried (to all but research scholars) in an obscure nineteenth-century journal and a fair copy of a handwritten manuscript housed in the India Office Records section of the British Library's Oriental and India Office Collections, respectively. The fact that these two leading intellectuals challenged Macaulay's ethnocentric perspective has generally been neglected by those captivated, or horrified, by the power of Macaulay's better-known prose. Wilson's piece in particular, with its suggestions of modern multiculturalism, has suffered from this neglect. Another problem with Macaulay's minute is the impression of finality that it created. John Clive exemplifies the common assumption that, despite the opposition of Mill and the orientalists and '[b]arring a few sops to Indian public opinion,' the anglicist victory was secure, and 'so it remained' in the years to follow after Lord Bentinck made his 1835 decision in favor of English-language education. 2 But a closer look at the educational policy actually pursued in the aftermath of the controversy suggests that the orientalists' struggle to preserve at least key parts of their program was more successful than Clive and most others have recognized. Rather than a complete victory for the partisans of English, the policy implemented after 1839 was a compromise one in which important orientalist measures were retained. In exposing the extent to which the orientalists successfully fought back after 1835, this volume seeks to undo the false impression that Macaulay had the last word on the matter of education. Also missing from most accounts of the controversy are the voices of Indians who both contributed to and contested British educational policy. To be sure, Rammohun Roy's 1823 letter to the Bengal authorities requesting more western education has received considerable attention in recent years, but the fact that Indians helped fashion both orientalist and anglicist thinking from the start has received scant attention. Useful here is the perspective of a growing body of scholarship that denies that Indians were passive victims of orientalist discourses and instead explores the various ways in which they participated in the construction of imperial policies and attitudes. 3 Employing this new concept of a dialogic encounter between the British and their Indian subjects in the early days of the raj makes it possible to demonstrate that what is usually assumed to be a 'British' debate actually involved a good deal ofIndian participation. From the start, Muslims and Hindus alike worked closely with British officials on both sides of the education debate, pushing British officials to acknowledge Indian traditions, contesting official interpretations, and offering ideas and suggestions - even inspiration in key cases - that x

PREFACE

influenced the course and content of the debate. Part of what Indians had to say about education survives in documentary form and is printed here (for the first time in some cases); in other cases, their contributions to this debate exist only as subtexts and marginalia in documents and essays written by British officials. Recovering as much as possible these South Asian voices is one of the major objects of this volume; in doing so, the goal is to improve our understanding of how imperial discourses arose in a process of negotiation between the colonizer and the colonized. This new edition of the most important documents pertaining to the Indian education controversy has been prepared with these various ends in mind. Many of the documents included here first appeared in a 1920 volume edited by H. Sharp and published by the British government in India. 4 Long out of print in the west, Sharp's volume was republished by the National Archives of India in 1965 as a photo litho edition; while still important for the wide range of materials pertaining to Indian education it presents, Sharp's volume contains a few errors in need of correction. Moreover, Sharp left out some crucial documents, including several of the petitions from the Indian community, the above-mentioned pieces by Wilson and Mill, a spirited defense of the reformers' position by Charles Trevelyan (who played a key role in the anglicist victory) in his 1838 book, On the Education of the People of India, and a cogent plea for vernacular education by Brian Hodgson. It is hoped that by bringing together into a single volume essays not easily obtained, long out of print, never before published, or scattered about in sundry books and journals, the imbalance created by undue attention to Macaulay's captivating minute can be redressed. Modern readers will thus be better able to judge the relative merits of the orientalist and anglicist programs - and see connections to current debates about multicultural studies - by reading otherwise neglected essays penned by important figures such as Wilson, Mill and Trevelyan. In addition, easier access to the ideas of Indians such as Rammohun Roy and thousands of anonymous petitioners will help undermine the prevalent impression that the controversy was simply an exercise in colonial power involving Europeans only. This volume has been a collaborative work in all respects. All of the major ideas, documents and editorial materials were agreed upon during the many lengthy discussions that took place over the past several years. Differences of opinion on matters of interpretation remain, of course, and readers so inclined may wish to take note of the fact that the editorial material pertaining to the documents (including textual introductions), as well as the note on sources and editing methods, the biographical notes and the glossary are almost exclusively the work of Moir, while the general introduction was mainly written by Zastoupil (although important segments - especially regarding the circumstances surrounding documents twenty-five, twenty-nine and thirty - bear equally the mark of each). xi

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

We have accumulated many debts while working on this volume. We wish to thank the following individuals and institutions for their valuable aid and advice over the past several years: Richard Bingle, Michael Drompp, Anthony Farrington, Michael Fisher, Jill Geber, Sanjukta Ghosh, David Harvey, David Lelyveld, Javed Majeed, Michael O'Keefe, Catherine Pickett, Avril Powell, Peter Robb, Dietmar Rothermund, Graham Shaw, the faculty development committee at Rhodes College, the staff of the India Office Records section of the British Library's Oriental and India Office Collections and Nancy Hunt, who prepared the index. Our spouses - Zawahir Moir and Margot Lueck-Zastoupil - require special mention for their intellectual support and technical advice on matters ranging from the meaning of Arabic terms to the proper use of modern computer technology (each deserves credit as well for enduring with great patience numerous phone conversations and endless mention of 'the education book'). And Peter Zastoupil has served as an important reminder of why education and cross-cultural understanding remain to this day vital subjects of study. Some of the ideas and information presented in the introduction were first published as part of an essay by Lynn Zastoupil entitled 'India, J. S. Mill and "Western" Culture' in Martin Moir, Douglas Peers and Lynn Zastoupil, eds., J. S. Mills's Encounter with India (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999). Finally, copies of Crown-copyright documents in the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library appear by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationary Office.

Lynn Zastoupil, Memphis Martin Moir, London

Notes 1 For the full passage from which this is taken, see document fourteen below, p. 165. 2 Clive, Macaulay, p. 399. 3 For examples of this new scholarship, see Irschick, Dialogue and History, Bayly, Empire and Information and Dirks, 'Colonial Histories and Native Informants.' 4 Bureau of Education, India. Selections from Educational Records. Part I 1781-1839. One document, number thirty, was published in the companion volume to Sharp's, edited by J. A. Richey (Bureau of Education, India. Selections from Educational Records. Part II 1840-1859) and published by the government of India in 1922.

xii

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Note on Sources and Editing Methods

Almost all the texts or documents presented in this volume have been transcribed or reproduced from archival/manuscript materials and early published works held in the British Library's Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC). In fact, in many cases the sources used are official minutes, letters, dispatches, petitions, etc. drawn from archive series originally belonging to the London offices of the East India Company and the Board of Control - the government body which supervised the company's activities between 1784 and 1858. All such archives now form part of the India Office Records (lOR) section of the OIOC. Full information about the sources for particular texts, whether archival or published, is given at the end of each textual introduction under the heading SOURCE(S). This includes the detailed references for the main source used, as well as other known copies; archival and bibliographical data affecting dating, reliability, etc.; and, where appropriate, select references to previous publications of the item(s) concerned. In making our selection of texts from the extensive body of documentation and literature originally generated by the orientalist-anglicist controversy, we initially had two general objectives in mind: firstly, to represent the broad history ofthe controversy from its origins to its partial resolution, using key contemporary materials; and secondly, to illustrate, as clearly as possible, the variety and intensity of the views held by the main participants. However, in the course of working through the documentation and preparing the general introduction, we also gradually identified a number of subthemes - thrown up, as it were, by the materials themselves and in some respects insufficiently acknowledged by various previous studies ofthe subject. These aspects included a clearer, record-based perception of the process through which the first powerful triumph of anglicist policy in 1835 was fairly quickly followed by its substantial modification. This in turn is linked to a more focused awareness of the several interrelated factors that contributed to that process of modification, viz.: the resistance organized by the British orientalists and their Indian allies; the increasing tensions xiii

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

between the ideological and security concerns of the company raj; and the divided response of the company and board authorities in London. Other more specific subthemes to emerge more clearly are the key personal contributions to the debate made through the writings of Horace Hayman Wilson, Charles Trevelyan, John Stuart Mill and Brian Houghton Hodgson. Any attempt to represent the way in which the orientalist-anglicist controversy developed cannot ignore the two pioneering volumes of documents edited by Henry Sharp (Bureau of Education, India. Selections from Educational Records. Part I 1781-1839 [Calcutta: Superintendent, Government Printing, India, 1920]) and J. A. Richey (Bureau of Education, India. Selections from Educational Records. Part II 18401859 [Calcutta: Superintendent, Government Printing, India, 1922]). Our special debt to Sharp's work in identifying many of the major documents for the history of the controversy is naturally considerable. There is also an obvious sense in which many of the documents first assembled by Sharp (and Richey) in an accessible printed form - such as Macaulay's minute of 2 February 1835, the government resolution of 7 March 1835, Auckland's minute of 24 November 1839, the Court of Directors' dispatch of 1841, etc. - can hardly be omitted from the scope of any subsequent serious documentary treatment of the great Indian education debate. At the same time, whilst many of the documents in the present volume were first brought to light in Sharp's work (and one - document thirty - was printed in Richey's volume), nearly half are either not included (documents eleven, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-six, twenty-seven and twenty-eight), or only partially printed in Sharp or Richey (documents three, five, twelve and thirteen). In fact, to the best of our knowledge, much ofthis latter material is 'new' in the sense that either it has never before been published in extenso or is now reprinted for the first time since its original publication in the nineteenth century. Its significance in illustrating the various historical subthemes explored in this book has already been indicated. One other general point needs to be emphasized in connection with those items which were previously published in Sharp's Selections. That is, whereas - as has already been mentioned - almost all the items reproduced here have been taken from sources in the British Library, Sharp's texts were largely based upon archives and publications held in India, especially in the Imperial Record Department, now the National Archives ofIndia. A useful opportunity thus presented itselffor comparing the alternative available copies. Our findings, in terms of minor verbal discrepancies and suggested reliable readings, are incorporated in the editorial notes for the texts concerned. For those unfamiliar with the richness and complexity ofthe India Office Records, the variety of archival sources used in the present volume may also come as a surprise. This complexity is particularly reflected in the existence of more than one officially attested archive copy of the same document. For xiv

NOTE ON SOURCES AND EDITING METHODS

example, for the period covered by this study, letters between the East India Company's Court of Directors in London and the British governments in India (in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay) are usually preserved in the India Office Records in at least two separate groups of documents, viz.: those maintained by the company itself (lOR: E/4) and those originally kept by the Board of Control (lOR: LIE/3, L/P&J/3, etc.). Similarly, in the case of minutes recorded by high officials in the British Indian governments, as well as letters received by those authorities from local sources, the India Office Records usually possesses two equally authentic archival copies, one entered in the relevant set of official Consultations regularly sent by ship from India to London for the information ofthe home government (lOR: P), and the other filed away in the London series known as the Board's Collections (lOR: F/4). It is interesting to note that down to 1830 this last series largely consists of copies made in London from the Consultations received from India; thereafter it comprises copies made in Calcutta, etc., and sent in advance of the regular Consultations by the authorities in India in the form of enclosures to their letters addressed to the Court of Directors. In addition to this extensive duplication of manuscript documentation, the company was also called upon from time to time to arrange for further copies of its administrative records to be printed for the use of parliament. See also Bibliography.

Transcription of Documents As regards the transcription and editing of the archival materials presented here, we have generally followed the practice of adhering as closely as possible to the form and style of the original manuscripts and printed texts. This includes retaining the original spelling and, as far as is feasible, the original punctuation. Only in a fairly limited number of cases, where the copyist's failure to provide adequate punctuation actually hinders the modern reader from grasping the sense, has it seemed necessary to make appropriate minor corrections or insertions in square brackets. Likewise, we have for the most part retained the generous sprinkling of capital letters, particularly on display in the earlier documents, except sometimes where the use of capitals merely seems to reflect the personal idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies of the individual scribes. Obvious errors in spelling or verbal omissions are indicated either within square brackets in the text or in editorial notes.

Editorial Notes and Footnotes Editorial notes have been placed at the end of documents, in contrast to original footnotes or marginal notes (i.e. those made by the original xv

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

writers), which are given as footnotes on the appropriate pages of the texts as printed here. Any necessary editorial material or comments on these original footnotes have been italicized within square brackets.

Glossary Words of Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, etc. ongm, occurring in the documents, are briefly defined in the glossary, where they are given in bold form but without diacritics.

Place and Personal Names, and Foreign Terms Place and personal names referred to in the Introduction, the textual introductions, and the editorial notes are usually given in their standard modern spellings, or occasionally in more familiar forms, e.g., Benares rather than Varanasi. In general foreign words - especially those of South Asian or Middle Eastern origin - have not been placed in italics, since most of these will be familiar to English readers, or definitions are provided either in the text or in the glossary.

Abbreviations GCPI IOR OIOC PC

General Committee of Public Instruction India Office Records Oriental and India Office Collections (of the British Library) Previous Communication

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INTRODUCTION

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Origins of the Controversy

When the East India Company came into political power in eighteenthcentury India, it did so within the confines of a well-established political and social order. If other empires have had their origins in outright conquest that resulted in the imposition of new institutions and traditions, the British raj was characterized in its founding period by shrewd adaptation to, and skillful manipulation of, existing political institutions, social customs and cultural symbols. The precariousness of British power in a distant subcontinent had much to do with this situation, but the tenuous nature of the British presence was as much an effect as cause of company policies aimed at making maximum use of indigenous resources to keep costs down while securing its burgeoning trade with India. Long before company officials had to worry about ensuring the loyalty of Bengalis by keeping up familiar judicial and revenue practices, they had learned to work with Indian merchants, bankers, rajas and soldiers, merging their own interests with those of various indigenous groups throughout the subcontinent and absorbing from these groups valuable resources as well as vital information and skills needed to function effectively in a foreign culture. 1 In a new study C. A. Bayly has provided further insights into the relationship between Indian society and the making of the British raj. Arguing for the existence of a public arena in pre-colonial north India, Bayly demonstrates that one of the major factors in British expansion was their ability to manipulate an existing and well-functioning information order. This public arena - what Bayly calls the Indian ecumene - was quite diverse, involving literate classes and learned scholars as well as itinerant bards, bazaar rumor-mongers and others operating more in the realm of oral and popular culture; it was just as capable of providing critical opposition to public policies as any modern public in the west, Bayly argues, despite the fact that printed media would not take hold until well into the nineteenth century and under European auspices. British military and diplomatic successes owed much to their ability to work with,

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

and learn from, the literate classes in the upper ranks of the ecumene, as well as their facility in using the various methods for gathering strategic information long employed by Indian rulers.2 Crucial intermediaries in this process were the munshis, or the community of writers whom Bayly demonstrates played such an important role both in the pre-colonial ecumene and the early colonial period. Mostly Muslims in north India, but often Hindus in other regions such as south and western India, these munshis were keepers of what might be called the administrative culture of eighteenth-century South Asia. Skilled in Persian language and literature - both of which were essential parts of diplomatic, court and elite culture throughout the subcontinent - the munshis were desperately needed by the British as they maneuvered their way through diplomatic exchanges and political intrigues in their rise to power. For their part, the munshis saw themselves as educating their British employers and thus keeping alive the political culture of which they were the guardians. 3 This engagement with, and indebtedness to, knowledge-rich local informants was not only crucial to the military and diplomatic successes that helped propel the British to power. It was also a vital part of the calculated attempts by the British to win popular support after they made the transition to power. This is manifestly the case with educational policy: hardly an example of Europeans imposing their views on an inert population, the first British efforts at public support of educational institutions in India are a clear example of what Eugene Irschick has called the dialogic process by which imperial policies and attitudes were constructed jointly by rulers and ruled. 4 Very dependent upon their munshis and quite accustomed to interacting with local groups of Indians whose interests often merged (if only temporarily and imperfectly) with their own, British officials were very receptive to local suggestions that it was their duty, as the new rulers of Bengal, to take up established traditions of public support for educational purposes. British engagement with the South Asian educational tradition began with Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of British India (17731785), who established orientalism as the official policy and unofficial mood of the fledgling British government in Bengal. Acutely aware of the precariousness of British power and personally sympathetic to Indian culture (he was noted for his special interest in Islamic art and literature and his patronage of scholars and poets, both Indian and British5), Hastings was instrumental in forging an imperial vision that lasted well into the middle of the nineteenth century in some circles. In this vision of empire, the British were to secure their power by trying to act like Indian rulers, accommodating themselves to Indian laws, opinions, customs and attitudes. Hastings thought this policy politically necessary both because it would be impossible to impose British laws and institutions upon India and because their Indian subjects seemed to expect the British to act like

2

INTRODUCTION

South Asian rulers. The influence of the munshi community seems apparent in the latter argument, but Hastings and his followers were already receptive to the idea of Indianizing British rule because of their own intellectual fascination with aspects of South Asian culture. Hastings promoted various scholarly enterprises, including an attempt to found a Persian professorship at Oxford, the translations of Arabic and Sanskritic legal texts into Persian and English, and the preparation of a grammar of Bengali. 6 If these and other projects both served British political interests and helped satisfy the intellectual curiosity of Hastings and the orientalist scholars whom he patronized, it is probable that the guardians of precolonial administrative culture found some satisfaction in the scholarly pursuits and early political measures of their new rulers. This latter supposition is borne out by the events surrounding Hastings' decision to found an institution of Muslim higher education in Calcutta, where the commingling of British political and intellectual interests with those of the literate classes of the Indian ecumene is apparent. In 1780 Hastings was approached by a delegation of Muslims who asked him to found a madrasa for the study of Islamic law and other traditional subjects. The surviving English abstract of their petition7 and Hastings' minute of April 1781 (the latter reprinted below as document one) indicate that the delegation advanced several reasons why the governor-general should found an institution of Islamic studies: a famed scholar was in Calcutta who could be convinced to stay and help found a madrasa; the British had succeeded the nawabs of Bengal, who had supported two madrasas during their period of greatness in the eighteenth century; the British city of Calcutta was becoming 'the Seat of a great Empire' and 'it had been the Pride of every polished Court and the Wisdom of every well regulated Government, both in India and in Persia to promote by such Instructions the Growth and Extention of liberal Knowledge'; a favorable impression would be created among the general public; the British needed well-trained individuals to assist in the judicial administration of Bengal; and Hastings was well known for his patronage of oriental learning. This appeal to Muslim tradition, public opinion, practical need and Hastings' fame as a benefactor of oriental studies was successful: Hastings advanced personal funds to help found what became known as the Calcutta Madrasa in 1780; later he convinced the London authorities to support the institution with a grant of a permanent endowment of village revenues. 8 Eleven years later Jonathan Duncan - obviously following the example set by Hastings - suggested in a letter, accompanied by a set of proposed rules (both reprinted below as document two), that the company establish what became known as Sanskrit College at Benares. The two main benefits foreseen by Duncan were similar to those suggested by the exchange between Hastings and the Muslim petitioners. First, founding such an institution would be valuable for 'its Tendency towards endearing our Government to the native Hindoos.' Here Duncan went one step

3

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

further than Hastings: while the governor-general had responded to an appeal to uphold a tradition among rulers throughout the Islamic world, Duncan argued the British should outdo their Hindu predecessors by founding the first public institution of Sanskritic learning in Benares. The second benefit foreseen by Duncan - one clearly political in nature - was that of 'preserving and disseminating a knowledge of the Hindoo Law, and proving a Nursery of future Doctors and Expounders thereof to assist the European Judges' in the administration of justice. But the scholarly fascination that Duncan shared with Hastings is also evident in his comment that the British might accumulate at little expense 'a precious Library of the most ancient and Valuable General Learning and Tradition now perhaps existing in any part of the Globe.'9 Peter Marshall has argued persuasively that Hastings' imperial vision was informed by a profound concern for reconciliation. Linking both his practical concerns for conciliating Indians and his personal scholarly activities was a systematic attempt to reconcile the people of both South Asia and Britain to the newly emerging British raj: 'Indians were to be reconciled to British rule by finding that Englishmen respected and admired their laws, their religion, and their institutions. Englishmen in India and, even more important, the British public at home were to be reconciled to Indians through a true understanding of Indian law, religion, and institutions.'lO Keeping in mind Bayly's persuasive arguments regarding the role of munshis in maintaining Indian political and diplomatic culture, it seems likely that this vision of reconciliation owed more than a little to those whose task it was to reconcile the British to South Asian culture by instructing them in its basic as well as finer points. A case in point is Ali Ibrahim Khan, an influential munshi who was personally involved in the negotiations and intrigues of the war between the British and the Marathas during Hastings' administration, who worked with Duncan in Benares and served as diplomatic intermediary there for exiled members of the Mughal court, and who was mentor to other munshis who held important posts under the British. Ali Ibrahim, as Bayly notes, viewed it as his task to educate the British into good government because the latter, as he saw it, were the servants of the Mughal emperors to whom his loyalties were firm. 11 Hastings' vision of empire gained additional support when Lord Wellesley founded the College of Fort William in 1800. Although its students were European and its aim was to train newly arrived East India Company officials, the college was steeped in the orientalist perspective that Hastings and others had helped foster under the tutelage of munshis such as Ali Ibrahim. Over the next two decades, this institution was a center of educational activities and cultural exchange, as noted scholars such as H. T. Colebrooke, William Carey and H. H. Wilson served there alongside of pandits and munshis (some of whom were connected to Ali Ibrahim and his circle of munshi contacts)12 who assisted the orientalists 4

INTRODUCTION

in their professorial and research pursuits. The college was instrumental in spreading orientalist views among the local community, both European and Indian, with its sponsorship of various scholarly activities. 13 As we shall see, several of those associated with the college, including several of its best students, would go on to play important roles in sustaining Hastings' views on public education in India. But almost from the start an alternative vision of empire challenged the general views of Hastings and the orientalists. Rooted in evangelical convictions, but finding expression later in the more secular formulations of free traders and the utilitarians, this reform movement would come to the fore in the early nineteenth century as British paramountcy in the subcontinent became apparent. Confident in the supremacy of British power, culture and religion, those who held this new imperial vision were far less concerned with reconciliation than with importing into India what was deemed to be the superior institutions, ideas and faith of Britain. Secure in the belief that they had much to teach, and little to learn from India, the proponents of this new imperialism quite naturally challenged the educational program of Hastings, especially the former governorgeneral's goal of educating both rulers and ruled through a revival of the classical languages and literature of South Asia. This is readily apparent in the case of the influential eighteenth century evangelical, Charles Grant. Grant served twice with the East India Company in India, from 1768 to 1771 and again from 1774 to 1790. In 1776, facing growing personal debt and grieving over the death oftwo of his children, Grant underwent a religious conversion in Calcutta that would eventually lead him into public prominence as a key member of the evangelical movement in Britain. His newfound religious views led Grant to active involvement in the campaign to abolish the slave trade, but also put him sharply at odds with the dominant imperial ethos established by the early orientalists and their Indian collaborators. Mter his conversion Grant could no longer tolerate the idea that the British must act like South Asian rulers, respecting and upholding Indian traditions and institutions. Instead, he was firmly convinced that India was very backward precisely because in his view the religion of Hinduism (his main concern) was depraved and acted as a brake on all social and material progress. These views are apparent in Grant's influential 1792 work, Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain (portions of which are reprinted in this volume as document three). Grant depicted South Asian religious and social life in bleak terms, deploring how the British had become 'passive spectators' of the 'unnatural wickedness' practiced by their Indian subjects. For too long the British had been preoccupied with maintaining their power and enhancing their financial position; blinded by the policy of conciliation, they had ignored the happiness and moral improvement of their Indian subjects. 'Are we bound for ever to preserve all the enormities in the 5

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

Hindoo system?' Grant asked. Answering in the negative, he recommended the introduction of Christianity and western learning as necessary steps in the improvement of the Hindu population. Grant's Observations was written as part of the evangelical attempt to persuade parliament, at the time of the debates over the East India Company's charter renewal, to require the company to open up its territories to missionary activity. Although unsuccessful in 1793, twenty years later the evangelicals were powerful enough to get the parliament both to print Grant's Observations in its entirety and to renew the company's charter on the condition that henceforth missionaries would be free to operate in British India. 14 Also part of the 1813 Charter Act was a provision for public education in India. This too bore the mark of Grant, who had argued strongly that the British were morally obligated to introduce their Indian subjects to what he saw as the superior truths of Christianity and western culture. Grant was sensitive, however, to the political concerns that had led Hastings and others to view caution on religious matters as vital to British rule. Hence Grant rejected the notion of using force to uproot caste practices or destroy religious symbols; reason and argument should be employed instead to expose the errors of Hinduism. 'The true cure of darkness, is the introduction of light' and this could best be accomplished by means of education. The Observations makes clear that Grant saw the diffusion of the English language as an essential first step: English would provide direct access to the superior ideas of western literature and science, which would in turn naturally lead to a more rational, scientific and Christian perspective. Growing familiarity with western learning, made possible by increasing knowledge of the English language, Grant insisted, 'would silently undermine, and at length subvert, the fabric of error' that held Hindu society together. The diffusion of English would also lead to significant material improvements as the people of South Asia came to learn about, and adopt, the advanced technological and agricultural practices of Britain. 15 But Grant's imperial vision also owed something to the South Asian heritage. As already noted, Persian was the language of diplomacy and political culture throughout most of the subcontinent when the British rose to power. It was the Mughals who first brought Persian language and culture to the political scene in India, but its popularity as the preferred medium of political communication and information gathering outlasted the empire; moreover, Persian also became the language of the educated elites who occupied the upper ranks of the Indian ecumene, drawing Hindus and other non-Muslim groups to the study of Persian for the literary and social, as well as political, benefits that accrued to those conversant with the language of refinement and power. Grant took notice of these facts, remarking that in these circumstances Hindus not only 'readily learnt the language of government,' but became teachers of 6

INTRODUCTION

Persian as it spread throughout South Asia. 16 Encouraged by the enduring popularity of Persian, and confident that self-interest would lead Hindus to turn to English if it became the language of government, Grant urged the British to follow the example of their Mughal predecessors and introduce a new language - their own - into public affairs. This act alone would go a long way towards diffusing a knowledge of English, and with it western knowledge, throughout the land. Important here is the fact that Grant was no less indebted than Hastings to lessons learned from the Indian ecumene for a key part of his imperial vision. As we shall see, the conclusions regarding English that Grant drew from the history of Persian in South Asia were not without merit; furthermore, later reformers would prove to be no less inspired than he by the manner in which Indians took to learning foreign languages. The two very different notions of empire and education espoused by Hastings and Grant both found their way into section 43 (reprinted below as document four) of the 1813 Charter Act. This act enjoined the East India Company to devote one lakh of rupees to public education in its Indian dominions. While the evangelicals were a powerful enough lobby to force both the opening up of British India to missionaries and a requirement that the company promote scientific education in India, they could not suppress altogether the voices of those trained in Hastings' school of empire. Hence the compromise statement of educational goals in section 43: each year the company was to set apart at least one lakh (100,000) rupees of its revenues and apply these funds 'to the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants ofthe British territories in India.' As some scholars have noted, the 1813 act thus fostered two seemingly different goals at once: the revival of traditional learning and the introduction of western science. 17 This was manifestly the result of a compromise between two competing visions of empire. It is also interesting to note that the British parliament thus required the East India Company to take responsibility for public education in India twenty years before the British government would do the same in Britain. It has been usual to attribute this simply to evangelical infiuences. 18 Such a reading, however, reinforces the notion that South Asians were the passive victims (or beneficiaries) of European ideas and rarely contributed to the evolution of imperial ideas and policies. A brief look at the Muslim tradition that Hastings drew upon in founding the Calcutta Madrasa helps correct that impression. The first principal of the Calcutta Madrasa was a graduate of the Farangi Mahall, one of the most important institutions of Islamic education in eighteenth-century India. The family who established the Farangi Mahall (named after a mansion in Lucknow) in the early eighteenth century were famous for their religious learning and had long 7

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

enjoyed the patronage of the Mughal court at Delhi, beginning with the sixteenth-century emperor Akbar. The move to Lucknow was no exception, as lands were given by the emperor Aurangzeb to endow the school. Later in the century, as Mughal authority declined and a more or less independent ruler (known as the nawab of Awadh) emerged in the region, political support for the Farangi Mahall shifted to the nawab's court at Lucknow. This trend continued throughout the eighteenth century, as religious scholars trained at Farangi Mahall increasingly sought the patronage of other regional rulers who rose in influence and stature as Mughal power waned. Financial aid was usually not difficult to obtain, since patronage of the arts and learning was valued by most Muslim rulers, such as the Pathan dynasty in Rohilkhand which at its height helped support nearly five thousand scholars. 19 As noted above, the petition by the Muslim delegation that approached Hastings about establishing a madras a (under the guidance of a distinguished scholar trained at Farangi Mahall)2o indicates that the petitioners saw the East India Company as a successor to the Muslim state ofthe nawabs of Bengal and, as such, obligated to uphold the well-established tradition of royal patronage of Islamic education. It is thus clear that early British educational efforts in India reflect the confluence of South Asian and British traditions, perspectives and needs. Accustomed to drawing upon Indian resources and working closely with various segments ofthe Indian public, including educated elites who could provide vital instruction in cultural knowledge, the British were easily swayed by the arguments of the literate members of the Indian public; even reformers such as Grant could not escape the influence of the munshis who played such an important role as cultural mediators between the British and their new imperial subjects. What needs to be kept in mind, however, is the awkwardness and uneasiness of the arrangement the instability of the mixture of Muslim and Hindu tradition, imperial needs, oriental scholarship and evangelical mission - which has led various scholars to comment upon the conflicting mandates of the 1813 act. The controversy over education in the 1830s was in many respects about discarding this particular attempt to mix South Asian traditions and divergent European perspectives in favor of a new blend, one in which the interests of a rising class of Bengali Hindus and changing British imperial needs merged to create a new educational policy predicated by a shared culture of English.

The Hey-day of Orientalism Despite the growing strength of the evangelicals, educational policy in India remained a minor concern of the East India Company until 1823 and then was largely set by the orientalists for another decade. There are 8

INTRODUCTION

various reasons for this turn of events. The College of Fort William continued to draw support from important administrators, especially Lord Moira (later marquis of Hastings), who encouraged the orientalists in their activities while he was governor-general (1813-1823).21 No less important is the fact that the British remained as dependent as ever on munshis and other literate members of the Indian ecumene during this period. Moreover, Warren Hastings' pragmatic concern to conciliate Indian opinion continued to animate company officials, as is quite evident in an 1814 dispatch to India (portions of which are reprinted in this volume as document five) sent by the London authorities to provide officials in India with guidance regarding the educational clause of the 1813 act. Citing the need 'to consult the feelings, and even yield to the prejudices, of the natives,' the Court of Directors recommended upholding various Indian traditions, including home schooling, honorific titles or public presentations of dress for distinguished scholars, and scholarships for needy students. They also advocated learning more about the 'ancient' system of education in Benares and cultivating Sanskritic learning because of the many valuable works written in that classical language. The diffusion of western science is barely mentioned, except in the hope that, through increased intellectual contact between the pandits and British officials trained in Sanskrit, 'the natives might gradually be led to adopt the modern improvements in ... [the] sciences.' This hope that traditionally educated scholars might slowly adopt western learning became known as the policy of engraftment, a key element in the orientalist educational program of the 1820s. But before engraftment could be attempted, political events in the subcontinent directed the company's attention away from educational matters. War with Nepal was the chief concern of government from 1814 to 1816. Shortly thereafter British rivalry with the Marathas, a confederacy of powerful Indian states, erupted once again into the third Anglo-Maratha war of 1817-1818. The successful termination ofthe latter war gave the company large new territories to administer and many new disgruntled subjects to placate. The British authorities in India were thus preoccupied with settling the Maratha country for several more years, leaving the matter of educational policy in abeyance until 1823. The final Maratha war had an indirect impact on the evolution of educational policy nonetheless. During and after the war a new school of British administrators rose to prominence who shared an imperial ideology that can be summed up by the phrase 'an empire of opinion.'22 Key members of this group included Thomas Munro, John Malcolm and Mountstuart Elphinstone, who occupied high offices and played major roles in the administration of India in the 1820s. The ideology they shared was in many respects an extension of Hastings' views and policies, since much attention was paid to conciliating disaffected South Asian elites, respecting local customs and institutions, promoting tolerance for 9

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

preferably friendly relations with - Indians of all classes, and generally rejuvenating what was believed to be an ancient civilization gone temporarily bad in modern times. They believed that the British empire was one of opinion, meaning that it would stand only so long as British power was unchallenged and the British could secure the good opinion of their Indian subjects. Like Hastings and the early orientalists, the empireof-opinion group worked closely with their own munshis and other learned elites who could instruct them in the nuances of local public opinion. The empire-of-opinion group contributed significantly to educational policy. Crucial here was their profound conviction that favorable impressions among Indians had to be cultivated if the raj was to last. They were distrustful of reformers and missionaries in India, viewing both as likely to offend the company's subjects. They encouraged instead respect for Indians and their culture, arguing always that the British should build their rule upon the solid foundation of South Asian traditions and institutions. While some improvements based upon western models were desirable, these were to be slowly and cautiously introduced, and only after the British had familiarized themselves with what was good and useful in established customs and institutions. On the whole, they thought the British mission was to reinvigorate, not replace, South Asian civilization. They thus strengthened the tendency to emphasize the revival of traditional Indian culture that had largely characterized the East India Company's educational policy since Hastings. Their views gave firm support as well to the notion of engraftment - of slowly and carefully introducing western ideas and practices - which was hinted at in the 1814 dispatch as a way to resolve the conflicting educational goals of the 1813 act. Munro, Malcolm and Elphinstone also played a direct role in the development of policy after 1823, when the East India Company finally turned to implementing the educational provisions of the 1813 act. Munro was governor of Madras from 1820 to 1826, while Elphinstone was governor of Bombay from 1819 to 1827, when he was succeeded by Malcolm who served as governor ofthat presidency until 1830. This period when they were in power was an unsettled time in British India. Munro, Elphinstone and Malcolm were keenly aware of the fragile nature of British power in the aftermath of the Maratha wars, and hence were much inclined to follow Hastings' policy of conciliation. Yet pressures for reform were growing throughout the 1820s, especially among those groups who were increasingly confident of western cultural, economic and political supremacy. Chief among these were the free traders and the utilitarians (especially James Mill, who emerged in the early 1820s as an important figure in the London offices of the East India Company); both of these groups became increasingly influential with their own secular version of Charles Grant's notion that the British had a duty to rescue India from a supposed depraved state by assimilating it to western civilization. 23 Furthermore, missionaries - who, after gaining entry into British India 10

INTRODUCTION

after 1813, had focused much of their efforts at founding English schools and distributing textbooks - were increasingly successful in drawing certain segments of South Asian society into their schools. The result of this was a small, but growing percentage of the local population (located mostly in the presidency cities of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay) possessing a western education. The growing conviction among many Indians too that the British were the dominant power in the subcontinent also contributed to an increased demand for the western education provided by the missionaries, as more and more families saw economic and political value in learning the language and culture of their new rulers.24 Despite these increased calls for reform and westernization, some of them voiced by segments of the South Asian population, high officials such as Munro, Elphinstone and Malcolm were mostly inclined to adhere to Hastings' imperial vision. While they could condone some gradual and cautious changes, their primary emphasis was on conciliation. Here the influence of their munshis and other learned members of the local ecumene is quite apparent. Malcolm, for example, cited favorably a Brahman in central India who suggested that it would be wise to follow the lead of the famous regent Ahilyabai Holkar, who had become a legend in Malwa for her charitable contributions in support of Hindu religious institutions and learning. 25 Such advice was heeded by the British authorities. In Bombay presidency, for instance, Elphinstone encouraged the founding of a Sanskrit college at Pune (Pune College) and continued the Maratha custom of distributing prize money (called dakshina) to Brahmans as a reward for distinguished learning. When James Mill led an attack on Pune College for its traditional Sanskritic curriculum, Elphinstone saved it with a vigorous defense. Chief among Elphinstone's motives was a desire to conciliate the Marathas by promoting the traditional Sanskritic learning they held dear. Indeed, he made clear that the local community had little desire for the kind of curriculum Mill had in mind: the choice was not whether to teach western or traditional subjects, Elphinstone noted, but 'whether we are to encourage Brahmin learning or none at all.'26 This learning had been generously supported by the peshwas, the Brahman rulers in Pune whom the British had deposed, and Elphinstone thought it politically wise to take on the peshwas' role of patrons of learning, much as Hastings had done in regard to Muslim rulers when establishing the Calcutta Madrasa. Elphinstone also saw the need to promote education as a way of drawing the local population into British administration, thus mitigating the wounded feelings of those elite groups who had formerly held political appointments under Maratha rulers. He also developed a plan for improving and extending the existing system of vernacular education in village schools. (Here Elphinstone was following in the footsteps of Munro, who favored the idea of concentrating government funds on rejuvenating the existing village schools of the Madras region).27 11

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

Apparent in these measures is an administrator with a keen ear for local opinion. But the Bombay governor's readiness to engage in dialogue with leading members of the Indian ecumene is no less apparent in his cautious support for some western learning. Elphinstone believed that the latter might be slowly introduced by various means, including using some of the dakshina funds to encourage traditionally educated Brahmans to take up the study of the European sciences; unofficially and, later directly, supporting missionary educational efforts; and establishing schools, including an advanced English one in Bombay, which would provide instruction for future teachers in the vernacular schools, who would thus diffuse the ideas of western literature and science among the general population. But this was to be done with great care and primarily through the encouragement of vernacular education in the village schools. These tentative measures in support of western education evolved from Elphinstone's consultation with wealthy members of the Indian community in Bombay who, as noted, were taking to the study of English and western learning. Elphinstone was in close contact with some of those who were actively involved in early attempts to diffuse western knowledge through a variety of educational initiatives and literary societies in Bombay, including Jagannath Shankar Shet, Jamsetji and Framaji Cowasji and Mohammed Ibrahim Makha. Some of these he worked with privately as a member of the Bombay Education Society (which promoted western education), while others he sought out for advice when framing his general policy on education for Bombay presidency. 28 But Elphinstone's support for a new curriculum was too tepid for Francis Warden, a member of the Bombay council who favored the rapid and wide-spread introduction of western learning by means of instruction in English. When Malcolm succeeded Elphinstone as governor of Bombay, he too argued with Warden, who believed that a significant demand for English-language education had emerged among their Indian subjects. As evidence, Warden cited the ease with which a group of Indians raised considerable funds to establish a school with a western curriculum to honor Elphinstone upon his retirement (the institution was eventually known as Elphinstone College). Malcolm succeeded, however, in persuading the London authorities that it would be wise to move with caution, adhering to Elphinstone's pragmatic policies rather than rapidly introducing western education as Warden urged. 29 While it appeared that the voices of conservatism had won out, this may reflect only the last gasp of the old system: Malcolm was one of the firmest supporters ofthe policy of conciliation and seemed to work especially closely with munshis and other members of the old information order. Not to be neglected in these exchanges is the fact that Indians actively promoting western education were able to get the favorable attention of important administrators on the Bombay council, including the governor, Elphinstone. The days when the

12

INTRODUCTION

British took their instruction solely from the guardians ofthe old ecumene were obviously coming to an end. But it was in Bengal, the seat of British government in the subcontinent, that the growing pressure for western education and, at the same time, official reluctance to depart from Hastings' policies were most pronounced. As in Bombay, the increasing demand for English schools in Bengal was clearly a joint production of western reformers (including missionaries) and select segments of the local community, each viewing English education as desirable from their own distinct vantage point. This was thus no simple case of cultural imperialism, of western authorities imposing their language and culture on an inert population. Rather it is evidence of the resiliency and adaptability of the Indian ecumene, as Charles Grant had suspected when he argued that Hindus would take to English as they had to Persian. The process was more complicated than Grant's hopeful reading of South Asian history indicated, as Bayly's recent investigation of the manner in which the Indian public embraced the use of printed media from the 1820s onward demonstrates. Hardly broken or rolled under by an onslaught of European culture, members of the Indian ecumene absorbed the ideas and technologies of their British rulers and used these for their own purposes, creating in the process a new public arena in which political and social issues would continue to be discussed and contested as before. Crucial actors in this process were a new class of munshis, conversant more so in English language and culture than Persian, but still working as important assistants to British officials and acting as cultural brokers between rulers and ruled. 30 The founding of Hindu College in 1816, and the careers of Ram Camul Sen and Rammohun Roy, provide excellent evidence to support Bayly's contention that the Indian ecumene did not disappear but instead reinvented itself - during the age of liberal reform. As various commentators have noted, by the early nineteenth century several groups in Bengali society had come to see English education as vital to their future well being. Chief among these were the Hindu upper castes, or the bhadralok (literally, 'respectable people'), who had traditionally supplied both Muslim and Hindu rulers with well-educated administrators. Ram Camul Sen, for example, was the son of a sheristadar (a head judicial clerk whose position demanded knowledge of Persian), who rose to intellectual prominence through his excellent command of English and his close contacts with key figures in the British community such as H. H. Wilson. Some banking and trading castes also quickly adapted to the rise of the East India Company and took up the study of English to secure their fortunes. 31 While some scholars might argue from a Gramscian perspective that these individuals and groups were collaborators in the cultural subjugation of their nation,32 there are good reasons for agreeing with those who prefer to grant a more active and positive role to Indians in their intellectual encounter with the British. 13

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

Indeed, Indians had their own agendas as they sought alliances with British merchants and administrators from the eighteenth century onward. The Tagore family, for instance, were members of an ostracized Brahman subcaste who found wealth, influence and new social status by hitching their wagon to the fortunes of the British. 33 Furthermore, the Bengali bhadralok were famous throughout the nineteenth century for maintaining a powerful attachment to Bengali language and literature alongside of their interest in English education. Dwarkanath Tagore, for example, was intimately involved in business activities with Europeans and supported the free trade movement to the point of agreeing that increased English colonization would benefit India culturally as well as economically. Yet Tagore joined the Gaudiya Samaj, established in 1823 by conservative Hindus to preserve and strengthen Bengali language and culture during the English onslaught. Likewise, Ram Camul Sen was actively involved in various projects to introduce western education in Bengal, yet he was noted for his love of Sanskrit literature and won fame for his Bengali-English dictionary which he completed in 1830. This attachment to Bengali language and culture was widespread among the bhadralok and indeed would provide the foundation for Bengali nationalism later in the nineteenth century.34 It is difficult to square this dual commitment to British and Bengali culture with Gramscian models of cultural hegemony. More compelling is Bayly's contention that the literate elites of the ecumene during this period began to shift their interests from Persian to English language and culture. The example of Sen and his father confirms that English was increasingly perceived as the language that opened the doors to status and influence; but command of that European language was not incompatible with intellectual activities clearly associated with cultural nationalism, as Sen's response to anglicist policies (discussed below) proves. The founding of Hindu College in 1816 is another case in point. A wealthy group of Hindus decided that they needed an institution of higher learning that would introduce Calcutta youth to western learning through the media of English and Bengali. Most of the founders shared a common background, which was newfound riches or status through economic involvement with the European community in Bengal. All of them had pragmatic reasons for instructing their youth in English language and culture, but it is difficult to maintain that they were helping pave the way for the cultural conquest of their nation. Radhakant Deb, for instance, was a noted educational reformer who combined staunch defense of Hindu orthodoxy with a commitment to the diffusion of English education. 35 Deb played a leading role in the administration of Hindu College for over thirty years and yet remained throughout, in the words of one recent commentator, 'almost a blind champion of Hindu conservatism,'36 leading local opposition to the British government's decision to ban sati (the ritualistic, perhaps voluntary, burning of Hindu widows on their 14

INTRODUCTION

husbands' funeral pyres) in 1829. He was also instrumental in removing the Anglo-Indian Henry Derozio from the faculty of Hindu College in 1831 because of the extreme nature of Derozio's attempt to absorb English culture, which was offensive to many Hindu families who sent their sons to Hindu College. 37 Ram Camul Sen was also an important figure in the founding and early history of Hindu College, sharing with Deb a conservative attitude towards Hinduism and contributing to Derozio's dismissal. 38 The complex activities of Deb and Sen indicate that those in the vanguard of English-language education in Bengal could be cultural conservatives. This alone should give pause to viewing the emergence of English education in India as ample proof that cultural subjugation followed political conquest. Even more compelling evidence that Indians had their own agendas in promoting western education can be found in the career of Rammmohun Roy. Roy is an excellent example of what Grant could merely guess at and Bayly has demonstrated, namely that the Indian public was flexible enough to adapt to the British presence, absorbing western culture and the English language and in the process enriching, rather than enervating, existing intellectual and cultural trends. Roy was born in 1772 into a Bengali Brahman family with a long history of service at the courts of Muslim rulers. From an early age Roy was educated to follow in the family tradition, studying Persian under a village maulawi and later, at age nine, moving to Patna, a center ofIslamic studies, to take up the study of Arabic, Persian (at a more advanced level) and Islamic law, poetry and philosophy. After three years his mother's side of the family, worried about his education, sent him to Benares where he studied Sanskrit and the religious texts in that language. But his exposure to Sufi ideas at Patna deeply altered Roy's worldview; for the remainder of his life he would be a most unorthodox Hindu, seeking to blend elements of Islam and, later, Christianity with Hinduism. His exposure to Islam launched Roy's transformation into a committed reformer. After returning from a lengthy visit to Tibet to study Buddhism, Roy found himself unable to tolerate any more what he saw as his family's idolatry, and departed in 1797 for Calcutta. In that city he quickly made a sizable fortune through various business activities. He became involved with the British in several capacities, including as money-lender to members of the East India Company, as consultant to the maulawis at the College of Fort William (established in 1800), and as envoy of the company to Bhutan and CoochBehar. He began studying English at the age of 24, first making only slow progress, but then mastering the language. Over the next several decades, Roy became a prominent (to his opponents, notorious) reformer. In religious matters, he fought against idolatry in Hinduism, promoted the idea of monotheism, worked on translating the Christian gospels into Bengali, debated the merits of 15

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

Christianity with various missionaries (Roy even converted the Baptist missionary William Adam to unitarianism with his forceful arguments against the divinity of Jesus Christ), and founded the Brahmo Samaj, a theistic reform movement. On the social front, he sought to end sati and reduce, but not eliminate, the role of caste in Indian society. Roy was also an activist in political and economic matters, opposing official efforts to curtail freedom of the press in India, to exclude Indians from British-style juries, and to restrict European settlement in India. He broke caste regulations by traveling to Britain in 1830, where he gave testimony to parliament regarding the affairs of the East India Company, supported the Reform Act of 1832, acted as envoy of the Mughal emperor, and met frequently with unitarians and reformers. He died in Bristol in 1833, wearing his sacred thread to the end. 39 The doctrine of cultural hegemony does not do justice to Roy's moral views nor to the complexity of his interaction with the British. Roy's rationalist views on religion were formed through his early and prolonged exposure to the Muslim rationalist tradition. 4o His contact with western missionaries only expanded his religious interests, leading him to appreciate parts of the Christian tradition but also to criticize elements in it he deemed irrational, especially the doctrine ofthe trinity (which led, of course, to heated debate with local missionaries). In this sense, Roy learned something from his contact with the missionaries, but did so without abandoning the critical perspective on religions that he had developed before his exposure to western culture. Roy's rational exploration of Christianity was the result of a personal agenda dictated not by foreign missionaries but by his own intellectual and spiritual needs. His complex response to the British presence in South Asia also reflected a critical and independent mind rather than one given over to abject surrender. While grateful for the benefits of British rule, including the diffusion of western ideas and technology, Roy actively opposed racist policies (such as the exclusion of Indians from British juries), fought vigorously against the press censorship reintroduced by the British in 1823, and opposed the salt monopoly of the East India Company. It is for these reasons that Roy is usually seen as laying the foundations for the moderate Indian nationalism that emerged in the last three decades ofthe nineteenth century.41 Roy typifies the process by which the Indian intellectual community absorbed and turned to its own ends the new opportunities and fresh perspectives brought by the British to South Asia. Bayly's contention that the first stirring of Indian nationalism can be found among those who could operate in the languages and cultures of both the old ecumene and Britain42 is amply borne out by Roy, whose final years in Britain saw him using his knowledge of Persian to serve as the Mughal emperor's emissary and his knowledge of English to mix with politicians and radical reformers. Roy's famous letter on education, written in 1823, is further 16

INTRODUCTION

proof that in nineteenth-century British India a new kind of public and political figure was coming into being, one capable of blending the Indian and European heritages (in Roy's case, indigenous habits of critical thought with those of the enlightenment) and willing to use new intellectual tools to contest British interpretations of India's needs. Upset by the decision of the East India Company to found another Sanskrit college, this time at Calcutta, Roy challenged the idea with a letter (reprinted in this volume as document eight) to the governorgeneral, Lord Amherst. In this letter the rationalist perspective that guided Roy in all his activities is manifest. As the reference to Bacon suggests, there is a modern European element in Roy's plea that the British devote themselves not to furthering superstition and error, but to spreading reason and science. But Roy's personal religious agenda is also quite apparent in his criticism of the plan to devote more funds to the study of 'vain and empty subtilties' and learning how to expatiate such sins as the killing of a goat. The reformer steeped in the Muslim rationalist tradition who fought idolatry, decried abuses in the caste system and challenged the doctrine of the trinity could not stand by and watch the British, themselves possessors of a vast body of modern knowledge, perpetuate what he saw as antiquated, superstitious and useless learning. But Roy's pleas fell on deaf ears. Education policy in Bengal was being set by individuals who, like Elphinstone and Malcolm in Bombay, shared the conciliatory vision of Hastings. The Bengal authorities had finally decided to begin implementing the educational provisions of the 1813 act with a resolution (reprinted below as document seven) establishing the General Committl(e of Public Instruction (GCPI) in 1823. The vagueness of this resolution reflected the general lack of knowledge about the existing educational system in Bengal and uncertainty about how to interpret the conflicting goals of the 1813 act. Holt Mackenzie, originally appointed to the GCPI, penned a note (reprinted here as document six) at the time the committee was established. Mackenzie is usually seen as a member of the emerging liberal or reformist element in British administrative circles,43 and traces of this perspective can be seen in his comments regarding the introduction of European science and useful learning. But Mackenzie was also a cautious administrator who, educated at the College of Fort William, was steeped in the Hastings school of administration and its habits of interacting with elite segments of the Indian public. One indication of this is his recommendation that his post on the committee be taken by the Persian secretary, who not only had the requisite knowledge for judging educational plans but 'what is not less important, he is immediately in the way of learning what their [Indian] sentiments are on the measures, that may be suggested or adopted.' Important here as well is his endorsement of the policy of engraftment, hinted at in the 1814 dispatch as the best way to reconcile the conflicting educational aims of 17

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

the 1813 act. Mackenzie gave flesh to the bare bones of the 1814 dispatch, arguing that it was in the natural order of things to focus on advanced education for the learned elites (rather than mass elementary education), since these elites could serve as cultural mediators between the British and their South Asian subjects. He defended this idea with arguments very similar to those advanced in other parts ofIndia by Munro, Malcolm and Elphinstone: influential elites must be won over to British plans if there is to be any hope of diffusing western learning widely; if the British fail to draw these into their educational plans, the 'influence of Europeans ... must necessarily be very confined' and western learning would become 'an act of memory, with little more of feeling or reflection than if nonsense verses were the theme.' Mackenzie concluded that it would be best to concentrate first on improving the traditional education received by these learned elites, although European science should also be gradually introduced into the curriculum, but 'without any attempt arbitrarily to supersede [oriental learning].' Mackenzie's general plans for engrafting western knowledge onto traditional learning would be given new form and meaning by H. H. Wilson, who dominated the GCPI from its founding until he left India in 1833 to take up the first Sanskrit chair at Oxford. Wilson was a noted Sanskritic scholar who examined the students at the College of Fort William in Sanskrit and Hindu law and served as secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal from 1811 until his departure for Britain. The Asiatic Society was founded by William Jones and others in 1784 with Warren Hastings' personal support. Most of its members were British officials in Calcutta and after 1804 the society enjoyed the official support of the Bengal government, working closely with the College of Fort William on various scholarly projects. Its members were active in collecting and bringing to publication scholarly information - including manuscripts, coins, inscriptions and the like - regarding the history, laws, religion and culture of South Asia. (Wilson would be succeeded as secretary of the Asiatic Society by James Prinsep, another key member of the GCPI who became famous in the 1830s for deciphering the ancient Brahmi script of the Mauryan period.) Wilson's intellectual interests were diverse, including mastering Sanskrit and producing (under East India Company sponsorship) a Sanskrit-English dictionary, collecting historical manuscripts, coins and inscriptions in order to begin writing western-style histories of various regions of South Asia, and writing works on ancient Hindu drama and medicine. Wilson, like all the other orientalists, was assisted in his researches by various Indian scholars who helped locate manuscripts and texts, validate their authenticity, translate them or otherwise assist in the gathering of this knowledge. 44 One of Wilson's most intimate Indian collaborators was Ram Camul Sen, who worked closely with Wilson at a printshop, on the staff of the Asiatic Society, at the Calcutta mint, in the rescue of Hindu College from financial ruin, and 18

INTRODUCTION

even in the management of Wilson's private financial affairs. Although Wilson thought Sen a greater scholar of Bengali than Sanskrit, he praised the latter's deep interest in the ancient language and literature of Hindus. 45 As already noted, Sen is representative of the new kind of munshis coming into existence during the early nineteenth century, munshis whose command of English rather than Persian allowed them to keep up traditional roles as cultural mediators for, and trusted assistants of, government officials. It is thus not hard to imagine why the GCPI declined to respond to Rammohun Roy's 1823 letter objecting to the establishment of the new Sanskrit College in Calcutta. This college was in many ways Wilson's pet project, since he drafted its first curriculum which included the modern sciences alongside a more traditional course of Sanskritic studies. 46 Roy's letter was passed on to the GCPI, many of whose members shared Wilson's interests (H. T. Prinsep and J. C. C. Sutherland, for instance, had won prizes for their orientalist studies at the College of Fort William),47 with negative comments by the governor-general, Lord Amherst. The committee's minutes indicate that they agreed with Amherst that there were errors of fact in Roy's letter, especially regarding the proposed curriculum of Sanskrit College and the aims of the 1813 act (which, after all, also specified that indigenous learning be encouraged). The committee also thought that Roy's views were not representative of Hindu opinion, but instead were the thoughts 'of one individual alone, whose opinions are well known to be hostile to those entertained by almost all his countrymen.'48 These last comments are revealing. Wilson worked closely with Ram Camul Sen and other Bengalis such as Radhakant Deb, who, as already noted, combined western learning with a deep attachment to Sanskritic and Bengali culture. Sen's and Deb's circle were hostile to Roy's rationalist approach to religion, which began after all with attacks on idolatry and the caste system in Hinduism; moreover, many leading members of the Calcutta Hindu community resented the all-too apparent Islamic influences in Roy's life and thought. It was these groups who prevented Roy from having a role in the founding of Hindu College, despite the fact that this institution had a western curriculum of the sort in which Roy was interested. Later, when Roy joined the campaign against sati, it was defenders of Hindu orthodoxy such as Sen and Deb who formed in 1831 the Dharma Sabha, a committee to defend sati. Wilson was apparently quite familiar with nearly all of the charter members of the Dharma Sabha, and he defended their petition protesting the abolition of sati on grounds that it had been rash to abolish this Hindu practice. 49 The GCPI's statement that Roy was an isolated individual whose opinions on education were 'discountenanced and disavowed by all the most Respectable and intelligent Hindu Residents'50 of Bengal is an important reminder of how imperial policy was influenced by both Indian 19

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

and British interests and needs. The decision to ignore Roy's demand for more western education was made by British officials such as Wilson who were deeply involved with Sen, Deb and other members of the new Indian public who shared with Wilson a passionate commitment to the preservation of traditional learning alongside an interest in English. It was only natural for Wilson to ignore the pleas of an individual whose radical views not only collided with his own, but who was despised for personal and ideological reasons by the Indians whom Wilson trusted and depended upon in his official and private activities. The argument, then, that these collaborators and colleagues (the latter was Wilson's term of choice for Sen)51 increasingly became mere 'sources or "native informants'" providing the valuable information that the British needed to run their empire is in need of some correction. 52 British educational policies were not simply imposed, but arose in a series of negotiations between segments of both the ruling and the ruled classes. As we shall see, the balance would soon shift, when a new generation of British officials would turn to radicals such as Roy for support in creating a different policy. In the meantime, Wilson and the orientalists continued to dominate the workings of the GCPI. At first they generally left existing institutions alone, allowing each to follow its own original course of studies. In time, and for reasons that will be discussed shortly, they began slowly to introduce western learning, including the study of English, into these institutions. The pace of change was slow, however: English was introduced into the Calcutta Madrasa and Sanskrit College (Benares) only in 1829. They also founded three new colleges in 1824-1825 (the Sanskrit College in Calcutta and Muslim institutions at Agra and Delhi) which were to have a curriculum blending traditional studies and the modern sciences. English studies were slow in getting off the ground at each, though Delhi College was successful in offering both traditional and scientific courses. 53 The GCPI was guided in its efforts by a strong sense that public opinion in India was an impediment to the rapid introduction of western knowledge and by a conviction that the classical languages and literature of South Asia were worthy of encouragement. 54 They were not so much against introducing a modern, European system as concerned that the ground for this had to be prepared first, as Mackenzie had suggested and their own experiences indicated. Important here were their Indian advisors, who apparently were recommending caution in dealing with public opinion: in 1835, for instance, Ram Camul Sen was appointed to a committee established by the British government to investigate the possibility of introducing a western hospital to treat fevers in Calcutta; Sen's comments that the British should devote careful attention to the fact that Indians were unfamiliar with such novel institutions - and hence generally avoided them - and needed to be persuaded of their advantages sound remarkably similar to the general argument of the GCPI that

20

INTRODUCTION

Indian opinion was not yet in favor of western learning, but could be won over if proper methods were used. 55 This cautious approach was challenged not only in Bengal by Rammohun Roy (and in Bombay by Francis Warden), but also by James Mill from the London offices of the East India Company. Mill entered the company's service in 1819 and was soon an important figure in the examiner's office, which oversaw correspondence to and from India. When the first reports of educational activity drifted in from officials in India, it was Mill who largely drafted the responses ofthe London authorities. Mill was a political radical, closely associated with Jeremy Bentham and others in various reform schemes. He gained fame, and ironically enough his post with the company, with the 1817 publication of The History of British India which reflected his enlightenment views on reducing the power of landed elites and the clergy, applying the ideas of the emerging science of political economy, and other topics. His History also contained a sustained attack on the views of William Jones, the famed orientalist who had helped launch the Asiatic Society. Using the criteria established by modern science and especially utilitarianism, Mill found little of value in either ancient or modern Hindu civilization and concluded that it was folly to seek to attempt to rejuvenate a civilization that he deemed barbaric and primitive. It would be far better use of British power, he argued, to introduce the advanced ideas and institutions of western Europe. Later, as he worked his way up the ranks of the examiner's office (he would hold the high post of examiner of correspondence from 1830 until his death in 1836), Mill also challenged the policies of the empire-of-opinion group for more or less the same reasons. Among other things, he was convinced that the idea of propping up South Asian rulers in an attempt to conciliate wounded feelings was a bad one, because it meant that the superior might of a civilized nation was harnessed to that of a barbarous one. Rather than adding to the evils of Indian despotism, the British should use their power for good by directly introducing their superior system and ideas wherever possible. 56 This argument - that the British should use their power to introduce modern (i.e., European) ideas and practices rather than to compound error by attempting to revive South Asian ones - would become a common one of British reformers in India, especially those interested in education. It is quite apparent in a February 1824 dispatch drafted by Mill 57 (portions of which are reprinted below as document nine) in response to the first reports from India on efforts to implement the educational provisions of the 1813 act. Mill argued that the GCPI's attempt to engraft modern science onto the traditional curricula at Sanskrit College and the Calcutta Madrasa had been a failure and that it would be a waste of time to pursue that plan any further. He also chastized the GCPI for its scheme (drawn up by Wilson) to combine the modern sciences and a traditional course of studies at the new Sanskrit College in Calcutta. Conceding the necessity 21

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

for caution, Mill agreed that it would be wise to use Hindu and Muslim media, but the 'great end should not have been to teach Hindoo learning, or Mahomedan learning, but useful learning.' In setting up institutions 'for the purpose of teaching mere Hindoo, or mere Mahomedan literature' the GCPI bound itself 'to teach a great deal of what was frivolous, not a little of what was purely mischievous, and a small remainder indeed in which utility was in any way concerned.' Mill's educational views were complex. He held the radical enlightenment belief that with proper education individuals and society could be made into something much better. In this area he shared much with those who were demanding that the British use their power in India to mold a new nation there. Yet Mill had little faith in the power of schooling to alter society (he thought government, by eliminating corruption and instituting a rational system of laws, could play a much larger role in shaping individuals), and thus he turned his attention to administrative reforms. In so far as he did address educational matters in India, Mill aligned himself with those who believed that the British should focus their efforts on vernacular education, rather than that conducted either in the classical languages (Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian) or modern English. He clearly disliked the orientalist emphasis on reviving the traditional system of education in India, but he was also skeptical of the large claims made on behalf of English education by various reformers. 58 In August 1824 the GCPI responded to Mill's comments with a letter (reprinted below as document ten) vigorously defending their efforts. Here the committee's concern that the ground must be prepared for the introduction of western knowledge is readily apparent. It would be oflittle value to Hindus and Muslims, they argued, 'if [the committee] had proposed to teach what neither [Hindus nor Muslims] were disposed to learn.' The committee had to work with the system of learning desired by the people of India and this was not the scientific one favored by some British officials. While the advantages of a modern curriculum might be apparent to the latter, it was not so to the pandits and maulawis who were the masters of traditional education in South Asia. The cooperation of these learned elites had to be secured before any real progress could be made in the direction suggested in Mill's dispatch, and this entailed overcoming their antipathy to European learning and evincing a conviction on their part that 'improvement is desirable.' In short, the 'actual state of public feeling is .,. still an impediment to any general introduction of Western literature or science.' In addition, there were simply not enough English teachers and books for the latter project, and thus it was imperative that the British continue 'to teach (we hope not long exclusively) Mohammadan and Hindu literature and science.' The letter concluded with a typical orientalist defense of the valuable knowledge contained in classical South Asian literature. There was also a final plea for the need to study Sanskritic and Arabic poetry because of

22

INTRODUCTION

the importance of these to the literature of South Asia and because all poetry is 'the source of national imagery [and] the expression of national feeling.' (This plea was occasioned by Mill's comment - rooted in the utilitarian conviction that poetry is useless, if not outright noxious - in his February 1824 dispatch that 'it has never been thought necessary to establish Colleges for the cultivation of poetry'; as we shall see, Wilson would return later to this issue of a national literature for India.)59 Despite the impression given by this exchange, the orientalist program of Wilson and the GCPI was not in any immediate danger. In part this was the result of the continued importance placed on conciliation and caution by high officials in India throughout most of the 1820s. It also reflects the fact that reformers such as Mill, while growing in number and influence, were not yet in a position to dictate important changes in East India Company policy. It would not be until the governor-generalship of the sympathetic William Bentinck (1828-1835) that those desiring change would have their way with such significant reforms as the abolition of sati, the opening up of judicial posts to South Asians and replacing Persian with English as the official language of government. The fact that even the reform-minded Bentinck waited until shortly before his departure from India to overturn the program of Wilson and the GCPI indicates how strongly entrenched the orientalists were. Also relevant here is the relative weakness of the local demand for change in educational policy, at least until the 1830s. It is true that the missionaries continued to draw growing numbers of students to their English schools and Hindu College in Calcutta remained popular for its western curriculum. The founding of Elphinstone College in Bombay by local notables also seeking direct access to European learning was further evidence of a growing demand for educational change. But it would not be until reformers were appointed by Bentinck to the GCPI that these indications of a desire for western education would be interpreted as representative of the general population. For the time being the GCPI, heeding the advice of key individuals such as Sen and Deb, remained convinced that it was only isolated individuals such as Rammohun Roy who were demanding radical change. Wilson and his colleagues also took some of the wind out of the sails of the reformers by making some effort to diffuse western learning in the aftermath of Mill's harsh dispatch. As already noted, the GCPI began slowly introducing modern subjects, including science and English instruction, into the curricula of the various institutions under its control after 1824. This was undoubtedly an attempt to convince the home authorities that the committee was not oblivious to the concerns raised by Mill and other reformers. This attempt to mollify their critics won Wilson and the GCPI an unlikely ally in London. John Stuart Mill, who had been brought into the examiner's office under the wings of his father, was responsible for drafting dispatches on education from about 1825 onwards. 23

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

Although James Mill had trained his son to be a good utilitarian reformer, the younger Mill underwent an intellectual crisis shortly after he assumed responsibility for drafting dispatches on his own, rebelling against the narrow views of his father and seeking out the alternate views of various romantic and conservative thinkers. As has been discussed at length elsewhere, this intellectual rebellion occurred at Mill's India House desk as well, where he increasingly turned away from his father's administrative views and took up those of the empire-of-opinion group. This change in priorities led Mill to ever more sympathy with the program espoused by Wilson and the GCPI, especially after they modified their priorities to incorporate some of the demands for more western education. This is evident especially in the separate dispatches sent out on September 30, 1830 to each of the three presidencies in India (the one to Madras is reprinted in this volume as document eleven). Mill's tone here is quite supportive of the efforts of the GCPI in the period after James Mill's attack on its early orientalist policies. The plan of slowly engrafting useful learning (i.e., western science) onto the traditional system seemed to Mill to have been successful beyond all expectation. While careful to remind the authorities in India to keep in mind the utility of vernacular education (his father's concern), for the most part Mill praised the committee and recommended that the Madras and Bombay presidencies follow the model established by the GCPI. 60 Quite apparent in Mill's 1830 dispatches was the conviction of the London authorities that the GCPI had done well in altering its policies to meet the objections raised by the home government in 1824; certainly, Wilson himself saw the 1830 dispatch to Bengal as a commendation of the GCPI's modified policies. 61 In this regard the dispatches are an important reminder that imperial policies were formed in a dialogue that involved not only British officials and Indians, but also different factions within the former group. Also important in the 1830 dispatches is a concern that the British should focus their efforts on higher education among traditional elites; the dispatch to Madras was especially blunt in its criticism of the attempt to expand elementary education. In part this reflected the pragmatic policy of conciliation urged by adminstrators such as Wilson, Elphinstone and Malcolm, who believed that the British needed to win over the natural leaders of public opinion. But also evident here was the perceived desirability of creating a pool of individuals qualified to hold 'higher situations' in the British administration. 62 In this latter concern we can see the convergence of a need to cut administrative costs (Indian clerks were far cheaper than European ones) and the growing sense that it was only natural that Indians should participate in the administration of their own country. Bentinck was animated by both considerations, but especially the latter, and took important steps to increase the number of Indians who filled higher judicial and administrative posts. It was Bentinck who insisted that the 1833 Charter Act contain a clause opening 24

INTRODUCTION

up all government posts in India to qualified persons without regard to birth, religion or color.63 While the motives for increasing 'native agency' were thus mixed, the idea would soon be taken over by the reformers as a crucial argument in favor of a change in educational policy.

The Victory of the Anglicists The 1830s saw several important changes that culminated in a new educational policy for India. First, and perhaps most important of all, the demand for western education accelerated among select groups of Indians, such as the bhadralok in Bengal and the Parsis in Bombay (a merchant class descended from Persians who migrated to India after the Islamic conquest of Persia). This was largely the result of a growing perception that familiarity with English language and culture was a valuable family asset under a British regime that not only appeared increasingly secure but also, under the guidance of Bentinck, was making English the language of government and opening up more and more government posts to western-educated Indians. 64 The increasing popularity of an English education would even win over some orientalists to the idea that a change in educational policy was necessary. But it was British reformers, both in Britain and India, who found in this development hard evidence to support their own political agenda (their main aim was to end the company's trading monopoly with China, which they succeeded in doing). When parliament took up the issue of the renewal of the East India Company's charter in 1832 and 1833, reformers used this rising demand for English instruction to rebuke the company for an improper educational policy. When Bentinck's proposal to open up all administrative appointments to qualified Indians came before parliament, Thomas Macaulay, already famous for his support of the great Reform Act of 1832, used his considerable rhetorical skills to convince the House of Commons to support the proposal, arguing that the British goal should not only be to educate Indians to qualify them for administrative posts, but to 'educate [them] into a capacity for better government, that having become instructed in European knowledge, they may, in some future age, demand European institutions.'65 The changed environment of the 1830s also reflected the educational efforts of the Scottish missionary, Alexander Duff, who arrived in Bengal in 1830. Duff developed a new English-language curriculum that proved very successful both in attracting Indian students (despite its Christian message) and in imparting a solid knowledge of English and western learning. Duffwas successful in no small part because he realized that the demand for English-language education was growing (particularly among the wealthy and influential classes) but not being met by official efforts. In establishing his school Duff relied upon an unnamed Indian who, in all

25

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

likelihood, was none other than Rammohun Roy. It was Roy who helped convince the Church of Scotland to send someone to open up an English school in Bengal. It is also certain that Roy intervened shortly after Duff's school was founded, lessening students' fears about being forced to read the Bible with assurances that he had read that work without becoming a Christian. The combined efforts of Duff and Roy were so successful that the former opened a second school outside of Calcutta in 1832, this time with the assistance oftwo wealthy Indian brothers who were Roy's friends and well known for supporting the abolition of sati. In 1835 a third school was established just outside of Calcutta, again with the support of Indians (in this case employees of a cotton factory who agreed to provide one-third of the necessary funds). By 1837 the original Calcutta school had more than tripled in size to 700 students. Indeed, the fame of Duff's Calcutta school was so great that parents were bringing their sons from distant villages to study there and other educational institutions were eagerly seeking out its graduates to fill teaching positions. 66 Not to be neglected here is the fact that this growing movement in favor of western education was just as much a joint production as was the orientalist policy that preceded it. As before, segments of the British and Indian populations came together to promote a common educational program, although with distinct needs and interests in mind, as the incident involving Roy's intervention at Duff's Calcutta school indicates. Together these groups were fashioning a new public arena for India, one where command of English and fluency in western culture were required attributes. The orientalist period, when British officials interacted with the Indian public chiefly through traditionally educated elites, was coming to an end. 1833 was the decisive year. H. H. Wilson retired to England and Bentinck appointed Charles E. Trevelyan to replace him. All of Bentinck's appointees to the GCPI were reformers, but it was Trevelyan who would orchestrate the campaign to overturn the orientalist policies of Wilson. Trevelyan came straight out of the evangelical tradition of Charles Grant, believing firmly in a British mission to Christianize South Asia. He was active in missionary educational efforts and became a friend of Alexander Duff after the latter arrived in India. It was Trevelyan who convinced his own evangelical organization (the Church Missionary Society) to adopt Duff's curriculum in its own local schools. It appears that Trevelyan also helped persuade British officials to look at Duff's curriculum for possible adoption in government-sponsored schools. Like Duff, Trevelyan also turned for support to those Indians seeking more opportunities for western education. Moreover, Trevelyan shared with Duff, and Charles Grant, the deep conviction that spreading the English language would morally and intellectually transform the subcontinent. 67 While it is tempting to see Trevelyan as simply a zealot seeking to undo South Asian culture down to its very linguistic core, one should not lose 26

INTRODUCTION

sight of the extent to which he and his missionary predecessors were engaged with the old order. While Charles Grant took inspiration from the widespread use of Persian among literate elites, Trevelyan followed Duff in associating with the new class of munshis emerging under British rule. Among those whose command of English and ability to navigate through the cultural norms of local society attracted Trevelyan's attention and patronage was Mohan Lal, a Kashmiri Brahman whose family had a long history of service to the Mughals. Lal and others making the transition from old style to new style munshis found Trevelyan a valuable patron capable not only of landing them important government posts but also of vigorously defending them against members of the old order suspicious of their knowledge of English and contacts with the British. 68 It was no doubt his familiarity with the newly emerging class of English-speaking munshis that gave Trevelyan the confidence to predict as early as 1828 that even in the Delhi area - the cultural center of the old ecumene Indian support could be readily found for building schools devoted to a western curriculum. 69 Once appointed to the GCPI, Trevelyan animated the other Bentinck appointees with his energetic work within the committee. He sang the praises of Dutrs school, characterized most of the existing institutions supported by the GCPI as 'sleepy, sluggish, inanimate machines,' and fought an orientalist proposal to introduce western medical studies by means of translations into Arabic (direct instruction in English, of course, was Trevelyan's goal). In 1834 he went public with his campaign, publishing in the Calcutta press a controversial plan to replace the various scripts of South Asia with the Roman one. Trevelyan made plain his opposition to the former policies of the GCPI, which he claimed were the result of narrow self-interest on the part of those (he no doubt meant Wilson) seeking scholarly fame and academic appointments back in Europe. The improvement of the people of India was the only interest the GCPI could rightfully have, he insisted, and this meant promoting western education by means of the English and vernacular languages. At this time Trevelyan was also privately corresponding with Bentinck, seeking to persuade the governor-general that the conditions were right for an abrupt change in educational policy. 70 In late 1834 matters came to a head. Trevelyan and his fellow reformers on the GCPI pushed ahead with various plans for reforming the curriculum at Sanskrit College, introducing English at the Calcutta Madrasa, and halting publication of Hindu texts authorized by Wilson. H. T. Prinsep, brother of James Prinsep, led the orientalist faction in spirited resistance to these changes. Since no agreement could be reached, reference was made to the governor-general for a decision on the matter. This came in the form oftwo letters written by the GCPI secretary, J. C. C. Sutherland, on January 21 and 22, 1835 (printed in their entirety for the first time below as documents twelve and thirteen). The first letter

27

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

explained the impasse and mostly summarized the position of the reformers, including their claims about the rising demand for English, the need to offer Indians the best education possible, and the advantage of English as a direct means of access to the superior ideas of the west (as opposed to the indirect access that translations offered). The second letter presented the views of the orientalists, who clearly favored the empire-ofopinion policy of conciliating Indian elites that stretched all the way back to Hastings; the second letter also defended traditional South Asian learning from the charge that it contained no useful information, posited the claim that engraftment was a successful and popular policy, and noted the ridiculousness of requiring adults, already advanced in the study of traditional subjects, to learn the rudiments of English, beginning with the alphabet and spelling books. Bentinck in turn referred the matter to Macaulay, who had arrived the previous summer to take up the post of legal member of the governor-general's council. It is now known that Bentinck had offered the presidency of the GCPI to Macaulay upon his arrival, though the latter had officially declined to participate in the committee's proceedings. But Macaulay was in close contact with Trevelyan, his future brother-in-law, whose views on education, though not religion, were similar to his own. He also shared the governorgeneral's confidence, working privately and behind the scenes to convince Bentinck to come down on the side of Trevelyan. In this he was successful, as indicated by a letter to his sister in December 1834 stating that Bentinck had already made up his mind in favor of the reformers. The charade of an official reference to Macaulay, the law member of the governor-general's council, proceeded in any event. On February 2, 1835 Macaulay penned his famous minute on Indian education and early the next month Bentinck passed the momentous resolution suspending much of the orientalist program in favor of that of the reformers. 71 Bentinck's resolution (reprinted here as document seventeen) was brief but decisive, stating that the British goal should be 'the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India' and that 'all the funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be best employed on English education alone.' Also clear was the stipulation that no new stipends would be granted for the study of oriental subjects, as was the directive to the GCPI to re-evaluate the status of any oriental professorship that might become vacant in the future. But the anglicist victory was not complete; as will be discussed shortly, an immediate outburst of opposition to Macaulay's plans led Bentinck and his council to make some important concessions to the old policy. Bentinck was one of those who came to believe that India needed to be regenerated and this entailed westernization in his mind. While he shared some of the views of reformers such as the evangelicals, free traders and utilitarians, he retained an independence of mind that allowed him to respect enlightened Hindus and emphasize the need to bring Indians ever

28

INTRODUCTION

more into the administration of their country (he worried about the effects of European monopolization of India's best jobs and surplus revenue). Bentinck also had some contact with the new Calcutta elite, meeting Rammohun Roy and appointing Radkakant Deb and Ram Camul Sen to government committees; moreover he seemed to have a strong interest in those seeking a western education, especially Derozio's students at Hindu College. By the time he left India, Bentinck wanted to get on with the grand project of rejuvenating India, and, perhaps influenced by the English-speaking community in Calcutta, he was increasing impatient with the orientalist idea that this required careful attention to India's ancient heritage. Worried that the British simply knew too little about the existing Indian educational system, and the capacity for improvement through improved education, Bentinck ordered a survey of the existing state of education in Bengal, conducted by William Adam (the Baptist missionary converted to unitarianism by Rammohun Roy). Adam's surveys remain to this day an extremely important source of information regarding the state of indigenous education in early ninteteenth-century Bengal. 72 Although Bentinck's resolution was clear in its orientation, the GCPI still faced the task of developing a set of pragmatic policies to implement it. The GCPI itself underwent change almost immediately, as some orientalists resigned in anger (James Prinsep being the most notable case) and Macaulay became its new president. In late April 1835 Macaulay and the GCPI passed on to government a set of eight propositions (reprinted below as document nineteen) adopted at the committee's April 11 meeting. The GCPI decided not to continue subsidizing the printing of orientalist books (with one exception), handing over works in progress to any private society willing to complete them (they doubtless had the Asiatic Society in mind) and abolishing the book depository, where unsold copies of books were stored. They also suggested that some funds might be withdrawn from the Sanskrit Colleges of Benares and Calcutta by not filling the office of secretary at each institution as previously (the implication being that any savings would be diverted to promoting English education). Furthermore, the committee asked for exact information about funds available for English education and recommended that 'Schools for the teaching of English literature and Science through the medium of the English language' be established in all the principal towns in the Bengal and Agra presidencies (after 1833, the Delhi area was organized into a separate but subordinate administrative unit, called the Agra presidency). This latter plan consumed most of the efforts of the GCPI in the immediate aftermath of Bentinck's resolution. Here the growing cooperation between those Indians desiring western education and British reformers was quite pronounced. The GCPI was confident about this cooperation, noting that it was going to begin establishing new English schools in the populous cities of Patna and Dacca, hoping that sufficient

29

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

funds for erecting or buying school buildings would be 'raised by the voluntary subscriptions of the wealthy inhabitants' there. By all accounts their confidence in the extent and depth of the desire for western education was justified: the number of students at Hindu College grew dramatically after 1835 as did those attending the new medical institution (with a decided western curriculum) which the British established about the time of Macaulay's minute; when a new English school (Hooghly College) was established by the GCPI in 1836, 1200 applicants appeared within three days for admission to the English department alone; over a two-year period the Calcutta Book Society sold more than 30,000 English books; and, just as the committee hoped, wealthy Indians (often working in conjunction with area Europeans) donated substantial amounts of money to help establish English schools in various towns and districts across the presidency. Working together with these local elites, the committee created a solid network of English schools throughout large parts of Bengal, with district schools feeding students to the advanced institutions in the larger towns and, especially, Calcutta. The efforts of the missionaries contributed to this explosion of attendence at English schools as well; the London Missionary Society founded in 1837 a new English school (modeled after Duff's school) at Calcutta and quickly had over four hundred students, some of whom traveled distances as great as five hundred miles to get an English education. 73 Cooperation between British reformers and Indians extended to the highest levels. On Macaulay's recommendation, two Indians were appointed to the GCPI in order to give it a 'representative' quality. The government asked the managers of Hindu College to nominate two candidates, and Radhakant Deb and Rasamoy Dutt joined Macaulay and his colleagues in 1835.74 Bentinck was keenly interested in the fortunes of Hindu College, so this move was hardly surprising; but the appointment of Deb and Dutt, two well known conservatives and prominent members of the Dharma Sabha, was obviously motivated by tactical considerations, such as winning over segments of Calcutta society less radical than Rammohun Roy.75 (Apparently Bentinck underestimated Deb, who kept up his close contacts with Wilson after the latter left India, passing on reports about the committee's activities with negative comments regarding the anglicist agenda.)76 Still, the role of Indians in forging the new policy was not insignificant, as further evidenced by the decision to replace Persian with English as the language of government. Usually seen as another sign of the decline of orientalism during the era of Bentinck and the reformers, the 1838 switch to English was made easier by western-educated Indians who, with their use of the newspapers and one significant petition, lent important support to the cause. 77 Not all of British India, however, followed this pattern after 1835. In the Agra region various factors led local officials to focus on vernacular elementary education, rather than the advanced English education found 30

INTRODUCTION

in Calcutta. In Bombay presidency, officials stuck with Elphinstone's plans for both improving vernacular education at the district level and introducing advanced English instruction at various central schools. In the south, Madras officials remained convinced that reinvigorating elementary education at the village level was the best idea, at least until 1839 when a new governor insisted on introducing in Madras the GCPI's focus on English higher education. In Bengal, meanwhile, the GCPI rejected in 1839 William Adam's suggestion, made in his final reports on the survey of indigenous education, that they should concentrate on elementary education. Instead, the committee reiterated the doctrine of downward filtration, arguing that it was best to concentrate on the education of select groups who would serve as conduits for the diffusion of western learning among the people of India. This policy was no doubt also prompted by the desire to focus on education that could provide well trained clerks, judges and civil servants for the British government. It is quite likely that the Indian groups who flocked to English schools, and plunked down their money to help establish them, were motivated by this same desire. This is certainly true of those orthodox Hindus who later, in the 1840s and 1850s, established English schools to combat the effects of the missionary schools; conceding that the demand for English education would not diminish because 'knowledge of English ... paves the way to wealth,' they deemed it wise to found their own English schools where students could get on with obtaining 'a money-making knowledge' without losing their own faith. 78

The Orientalist-Anglicist Debate Bentinck's resolution in favor of English education immediately provoked a storm of protest. While the issue was still under discussion, rumors circulating in Calcutta led some 8000 Muslims of that city to sign a petition (reprinted here as document sixteen) protesting the imminent decision, certain that it would mean the end of the Calcutta Madrasa. The petitioners reminded the British authorities of the South Asian tradition of public support for Muslim education and ofthe good reputation that 'the rulers of Inglistan' had earned for upholding that tradition 'from the very first commencement of their rule in Hindoostan and Bengal.' The petition noted that Warren Hastings had established the madrasa 'out of his love for the people under his rule ... and more especially out of his regard and high consideration for men of learning and elegant literature,' but 'now some men, utterly ignorant of the literature and science of Arabia, and blind to its beauties and advantages' had decided to destroy the madrasa and cause 'the sciences of Arabia to cease.' Hence, the general public was coming to believe that the real aim of the new policy was to promote conversion to Christianity, a conviction that was already causing turmoil in the country. 31

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

This Muslim petition was quickly followed by one signed by seventy-six students of Sanskrit College, Calcutta. This latter petition (printed below as document eighteen) was delivered in March 1835, expressing similar fears about the likely consequences ofthe new policy and appealing as well to the British to uphold ancient educational traditions. But on this last point the Hindu petitioners contested the claims of their Muslim counterparts, noting that Sanskrit education was the truly ancient tradition of India, one that even Muslim rulers had found it wise to uphold. Moreover, the Sanskrit College students bluntly staked out a claim for the supreme importance of Sanskrit for Indian cultural life, thus further challenging the supposition that it was to the Muslim community that the British should devote their attention on educational matters. Finally, the March 1835 petition pointedly reminded the British that they would lose popularity if they were to withold such small sums from poor Brahman students 'more especially when it is considered that India pays [a] large amount of Revenue to the British power in various ways.' These petitions drew a quick response from the Bengal authorities. Bentinck's resolution of 7 March did not include Macaulay's original call to abolish the Calcutta Madrasa and Sanskrit College: while clearly stating the government's new commitment to English education only, the resolution also stressed that the government had no intention of abolishing any existing institution of 'Native learning' that enjoyed popular support and that existing stipends to professors and students would be maintained. In separate letters sent later to the Muslim and Sanskrit College petitioners, the Calcutta government indicated again that while no new stipends would be created, existing ones would be respected and reiterated that they had no intention to abolish oriental institutions. 79 British educational policy was thus contested and shaped by competing Indian groups even as the anglicist party emerged triumphant in British administrative circles. Most of the British critics of the change in policy thought that Bentinck had been persuaded largely, if not solely by Macaulay's minute on education. Thus Trevelyan's early campaign against the orientalists was generally given second consideration by those stirred into action by the power of his future brother-in-law's rhetoric. Bentinck's own views on education were either unknown to, or ignored - perhaps for fear of offending this powerful official of noble birth - by those who wished to see the old policy continued. The growing demand for English education on the part of select groups of Indians was quickly dismissed as irrelevant, as we shall see, because it sprang from supposedly base motives and thus did not reflect a public attitude deserving of serious consideration. No, to those embittered by the changes of 1835, it was Macaulay who was responsible and who needed to be refuted. It is easy to see why the orientalists were so angered by Macaulay's minute. What one contemporary saw as his tendency 'to exaggerate in 32

INTRODUCTION

controversy' is abundantly evident here. 8o It manifests itself in his suggestion that the defenders of the old policy were a vested interest who, having no other defense, resorted to the tired argument that property rights were at stake. His critique ofthe failings ofthe orientalists' policy is no less problematic, suggesting that this had committed the British to the perpetuation of ridiculous myths and absurd ideas at the expense of introducing useful knowledge. The contrast between giving instruction on 'all the uses of Cusa-Grass' and teaching the latest advances in smallpox innoculation obscured the issues and belittled the more complicated story of the not altogether unsuccessful efforts to engraft western learning onto traditional curricula: accordingly to Macaulay, either one encouraged absurdity, or one taught useful science; in between, there was nothing. When he turned the discussion to the question of language, Macaulay was no less prone to hyperbole (and cultural nationalism), blithely stating that English was to be preferred as the language of instruction because, among other things, it provided 'ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations.' Also irritating to Macaulay's opponents were the serious lapses in logic in his minute. The opening paragraphs, for instance, addressed the legal issue (raised by some on the GCPl) of whether a new act of parliament would be necessitated if the reformers were to have their way. Macaulay insisted, with more passion than reason, that the comment in the 1813 act about reviving literature and encouraging 'learned natives' was never meant to perpetuate absurd theories and could be construed to mean diffusing English literature and science. Also weak is his idea that the provisions calling for the promotion of the sciences alone justified abandoning the orientalist program without recourse to new legislation. Even his most recent biographer suggests that Macaulay knew that he was on shaky legal ground and thus quickly shifted attention in his minute to the supposed failings ofthe orientalists' educational policy.81 His attempt at historical analogy was no less faulty and revealed his ignorance of South Asian history and culture. Macaulay claimed that English could do to India what Greek and Roman studies had done to renaissance Europe, namely reinvigorate learning; what he failed to recognize was that in many respects Sanskrit and Arabic were to South Asia what Greek and Latin were to Europe, and thus the project of Wilson and the orientalists was fully in accord with the idea of a rebirth of learning. 82 Macaulay was on sounder ground in attacking the premises of the policy of engraftment, though his critics were no less angered by his usual resort to rhetorical excess and doubtful analogy. He argued that the ignorant should never determine the course of their instruction. More importantly, he challenged the idea that traditional education was what the people of India desired. The people of India want western learning, he claimed, but the GCIP withholds it and instead forces 'on them the mock 33

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

learning which they nauseate.' Macaulay cited as decisive evidence the growing willingness of Indians to pay for English education, which stood in stark contrast to the fact that students had to be paid to learn Sanskrit and Arabic. The emerging logic of political economy was at work here: what people find useful or valuable they will gladly pay for (no one has to be paid to eat rice or wear warm clothes in cold weather); therefore, education undertaken only with the promise of a stipend must be patently useless. Further evidence, he argued, could be found in the pathetic petition by several ex-students of the Calcutta Sanskrit College, who complained that after years of study they could find no employment. Macaulay neglected to note that this 1834 petition had been engineered by Trevelyan in order to discredit the old policy;83 instead he used it as another fact to support his claim that the old policy encouraged young men to devote numerous years to the study of useless subjects. Macaulay was directly challenging the old idea, stretching all the way back to Hastings, that it was necessary to conciliate the people of India by upholding the learning they held dear. The rising demand for English education indicated clearly that this was a bogey created by the British themselves: the GCPI, by bribing Indians to study useless subjects, was raising up 'champions of error' who had a vested interest in perpetuating a learning that no one found useful. The more money the British invested in this policy, the more opposition there would be to change. What the people of India truly wanted was English education; only bigots created and sustained by British policy were opposed to this. Additional evidence for this could be found, Macaulay argued, in the sale of books in India. The GCPI had devoted significant amounts of money to publishing Sanskrit and Arabic books. Most of these sat unsold in a warehouse, while the Calcutta Book Society moved seven or eight thousand English books annually. Again, Macaulay suggested, the facts spoke plainly: the people of India desired western, not oriental learning; it was thus foolish to speak of conciliating people by giving them something they plainly did not want. No doubt cognizant of the strong feelings that would lead to the Muslim and Hindu petitions discussed above, Macaulay was more circumspect in addressing the issue of religion. Of course the British must remain neutral in matters of religion, but that did not mean that they were duty-bound to keep up traditional Sanskrit and Arabic learning simply because these were deemed integral parts of Hinduism and Islam. The British must abstain from public encouragement to missionary activity (Macaulay did not address what this meant for Trevelyan's very public work with the Church Missionary Society), but this hardly meant that they were committed to teaching 'monstrous superstitions' such as how to expiate the crime of killing a goat. It should not be forgotten that there is an Indian component to this critique of the policy of conciliation. As Charles Grant had been encouraged by the example of Persian education in India, Macaulay was 34

INTRODUCTION

clearly inspired by the example of that ever increasing number of Indians who were seeking western education. The heart of his argument against Wilson's policy was that the people of India wanted to be taught English, not Sanskrit and Arabic. His evidence was the rising demand for English education, which to him was decisive. The people of Calcutta also provided Macaulay with the evidence he needed to rebut the idea advanced by some orientalists that Indians were incapable of acquiring more than a smattering of English. In Calcutta, he replied, there existed 'natives who are quite competent to discuss political or scientific questions with fluency and precision in the English language.' No doubt he was thinking here of someone like Radhakant Deb, who would later serve with Macaulay on the GCPI and whom Macaulay would consult on the question of stipends (he cited Deb a short while later to prove his point that 'there is not, even at Benares, a single student of the higher Sanscrit learning who is not paid').84 Macaulay also drew upon ideas previously expressed by Bengali reformers and radicals. The argument that the educational provisions of the 1813 act did not mandate the teaching of oriental learning that was mostly useless in any event had been advanced in local newspapers by Krishnamohan Banerji and Rasik Krishna Malick before Macaulay even arrived in India. Macaulay's pointed reference to the 1834 petition by former students of Sanskrit College as evidence of the folly of the GCPI's policy was also anticipated in the Bengal press. 85 But it is the particular influence of Rammohun Roy that is most apparent. Macaulay borrowed from Roy's 1823 letter two of his examples of the uselessness of traditional Sanskrit education (how the soul is absorbed into the deity, and how one expiates the sin of killing a goat). It seems clear that Roy also made it easier for Macaulay to question general policy.86 Even if the British needed to move with caution on religious matters, the example of Roy suggested that Indian public opinion was increasingly receptive to western ideas. While it was no doubt still prudent to avoid outright interference, Roy's life and thought indicated to a reformer such as Macaulay that it was no longer necessary to perpetuate questionable doctrines in order to conciliate the people of India. It is clear then that the victory of the anglicists owed much to a rising class of western-educated Indians. While Grant, Trevelyan and Macaulay provided the rhetoric, and some arguments from the new science of political economy, it was Indians who supplied the hard evidence (and some of the key ideas) that the reformers needed to make their case. One wonders if Grant would have even dreamed of teaching English on a large scale in India, if not for the history of the Persian language in India. Without the example of Rammohun Roy and other members of an emerging new Indian public before them, it is hard to imagine that Trevelyan and Macaulay would have dared to suggest that the orientalists were elitists pursuing a private agenda at odds with the interests of the

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THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

Indian public, or that Macaulay would have closed his minute with the famous statement that the British must 'do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern[-]a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.' But the orientalists were also in close contact with Indians during the controversy. This can be seen in the efforts of H. T. Prinsep, who took the lead in defending the old policy, responding to Macaulay's minute with a lengthy note of his own once the governor-general circulated Macaulay's essay among the members of the GCPI. 87 Later, Macaulay penciled various comments in the margins of Prinsep's note, and Prinsep responded in turn to a few of Macaulay's comments. Reprinted in this edition (as document fifteen) is Prinsep's original note, along with the marginal comments of both Macaulay and Prinsep. Prinsep made much of the fact that the old policy was based upon South Asian tradition. He noted that the East India Company has 'exercised towards [the Calcutta Madrasa] the functions ofWaqif or Endower which are distinct and well defined in law and by the practise of the country.' Waqf is an Arabic word usually translated as endowment and commonly used to describe gifts of money (often land revenue) given to maintain madrasas, hospitals and the like. As already mentioned, Warren Hastings had responded favorably to a petition by local Muslims asking him to assume the role of patron of learning formerly played by the nawabs of Bengal. Later, after the GCPI established Delhi College with its blend of traditional and western subjects, the nawab of Awadh greatly aided their efforts with a large waqf endowment in 1828.88 Prinsep's use of the term waqf here makes abundantly clear the extent to which the orientalists drew upon South Asian ideas and practices in devising their policies. Similar conclusions can be reached about the familiar arguments that Prinsep used regarding the need for conciliation, especially of the Muslim population. Muslims, he argued, were much more fearful of innovation in the area of religion than were Hindus, and thus the abolition of the madrasa (the logical outcome of Macaulay's minute, it seems) would produce widespread alienation, reversing the policy of conciliation and increasing Muslim apprehension of British intolerance. Prinsep's comments, written before the general public supposedly knew about the proposed changes, reflected either solid experience or recent conversations with the local Muslim community, as the Muslim petition of 1835 noted above indicates. Macaulay assumed the latter, charging that Prinsep had stirred the Calcutta community into action by leaking news of the impending changes. Prinsep and the head ofthe madras a (who had led the petition drive) both denied the charge, though Prinsep did admit to holding later a private meeting with the latter to discuss the turmoil caused by Bentinck's resolution. 89 Macaulay's accusation may be a case of psychological projection; Trevelyan, after all, had engineered a petition 36

INTRODUCTION

from unemployed students of Sanskrit College to discredit the orientalist policy. But there is no doubt some truth in what Macaulay suspected, though this truth is more complex and interesting than he ever seemed to know, as will be shown shortly. But Prinsep also directed his argument toward the European experience. Not only were endowments common in South Asia, they were deeply rooted in the western tradition as well. In reminding the government of the ancient practices of scholarships and endowments in Britain, Prinsep sought to demonstrate just how radical Macaulay's proposals were. It is not known if Prinsep was aware that Macaulay, in defending the new London University (founded by various reformers in the early 1820s), had some years before attacked the lavish endowments that supported the study of Greek, Latin and mathematics at Cambridge and Oxford. 9o But it is likely that Prinsep expected to find sympathy among most British administrators by pointing out the universal need for scholarships and endowments to support education. That the Muslim petitioners made a similar appeal is hardly surprising, given the circumstances surrounding that document. Prinsep also pointed out Macaulay's faulty logic and bad analogies, based on unfamiliarity with South Asia. The 1813 act clearly mandated the revival of South Asian literature, not the introduction of English. Furthermore, the 1813 act concerned only the one lakh rupees set aside from the general revenues; it was unconscionable to consider taking funds given for specific purposes before the 1813 act (such as the waqf for the Calcutta Madrasa) and diverting these to English studies. It was bad logic to suggest that English was to South Asia as Greek and Latin were to Europe. (The force of Prinsep's point that English was as foreign to the average Indian as was Arabic to medieval European knights was completely lost on Macaulay, who responded in the margins by claiming that English could not be more foreign to the people of India today than Greek was to the people of sixteenth-century England.) Even more telling was Prinsep's challenge to Macaulay's claim that the people of India loathed their own learning and violently desired English education. What evidence existed for this claim, he asked. The fact that stipends were used at the traditional institutions was not conclusive proof: at the Calcutta Madrasa 'the keenness of the competition and ... the proficiency of the candidates [provide] abundant evidence that the salaried scholars [i.e., those receiving stipends] are not the only persons in our Indian Empire who learn the rudiments of Persian and Arabic literature.' To this Macaulay could only note that he based his argument on the evidence of others and confess 'my own ignorance on the subject.' Mter this abject admission, it was probably only natural that he did not respond to Prinsep's pointed comment that he (Macaulay) must surely have been aware that of the nearly three hundred students who had recently taken the examinations at Sanskrit College (Benares), only 130 of these held

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THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

stipends. How fair was it, then, to conclude that the GCPI was forcing upon Indians a 'mock learning which they nauseate?' Prinsep also defended the policy of engraftment. His major argument was that most of the population, especially Muslims, were not inclined to take up the study of English in large numbers. They were still deeply attached to their own systems of learning and thus the best thing to do was to attach western knowledge slowly and cautiously onto these. Prinsep even suggested that the growing demand for English education was a reflection of the success of the GCPI's conciliatory policy.91 His main point, however, was that Macaulay and the reformers exaggerated both the demand for English education and the possibility of providing it on a large scale in the current circumstances of South Asia. Prinsep's wrote his note in hopes of dissuading Bentinck from siding with the reformers. Not only did he fail to do this, he could not even persuade Bentinck to include his dissent in the official papers sent to London. 92 This did not, however, prevent the controversy from spreading, both within India and to Britain. Two new petitions protesting the change in policies were soon submitted to the British authorities. One was signed by the unofficial wakil of the nawab of Awadh and some 18,000 Muslims of Bengal and carried a message similar to the 1835 Muslim petition noted above; it was considered by the government in August 1836 at about the same as another one (this time containing 70 signatures) from students of Sanskrit College, Calcutta. A third petition - written in Sanskrit and bearing at least 8900 signatures - was presented to the government in early 1838, though it had apparently been circulated in December 1837. 93 All three petitions are printed below (the Muslim petition as document twenty-three, the Sanskrit College petition as document twenty-four, and the petition in Sanskrit as document twenty-seven). The circumstances surrounding these three petitions are murky. There is some evidence that Macaulay may have been right in believing that British orientalists were behind the agitation. Despite Prinsep's denials about the first Muslim petition, it is clear that he and Wilson kept up their association with those Indians with whom they had originally crafted the policy of engraftment. For example, in September 1835 H. H. Wilson wrote to his trusted colleague, Ram Camul Sen, that the 'opposition made by the natives in their petition against the abolition of the Sanskrit College and Madrissa was well timed,' adding that '[i]fyou suffer them [the anglicists] ultimately to prevail, you will have yourselves to blame.' What Wilson was getting at is obvious in his remark to Sen (on the different matter of commercial regulations) that the Calcutta community should not submit to unfair measures, but agitate for change: 'You submit too quietly.... You should hold meetings and petition-petition-petition.'94 Sen and the Dharma Sabha took this message to heart, as the 1838 Sanskrit petition proves. In early January 1838 Sen wrote to Wilson that 'I have at last got up a Petition of the Hindus about Sanscrit signed by some Thousand 38

INTRODUCTION

Bengalis; it is in Sanscrit addressed to the Court of Drs.' Sen added that he would send Wilson a copy of the petition later that month. 95 Several weeks later Sen wrote another letter to Wilson forwarding with it a copy of the English translation ofthat petition which, as he noted, was the work of the Dharma Sabha and bore some ten thousand signatures (the copy presented to the Calcutta authorities apparently had only 8900 signatures). In his letter Sen mentioned the 'strong and radical' language of the petition and noted his doubts about the wisdom of addressing it directly to the London authorities, rather than the government in Calcutta. 96 While this exchange of letters might appear at first glance to bear out Macaulay's suspicions about the public uproar in Bengal, a closer reading of these and other documents suggests a much more complicated story of dialogue and mutual influence than the architect of the anglicist policy seems to have thought. Sen's claim that the public mood precluded employing the meek and humble style of most petitions is one indication of the independent thinking of the protestors. Also suggestive is Sen's comment that obtaining signatures had proved difficult because many 'Caste Hindus' regarded the petition's Sanskrit as 'trash.'97 Sen and other members of the Dharma Sabha were operating as cultural brokers, trying in this case to bridge the gap between the political culture of their British rulers and that of the Hindu community. Why many members of the latter apparently were as displeased with what they saw as the poor Sanskrit of the petition writers as they were with changes in British educational policy is open to speculation; but what is clear is that Sen and the others were, with difficulty, reaching out to segments of the Hindu community where a good command of Sanskrit was treasured at least as much as facility in drafting petitions after the style of the British. This concern to keep up cultural traditions in the face of growing British influences is quite apparent in the 1838 Sanskrit petition, as will be presently shown. Sen raised similar issues in one of his later letters to Wilson. Here he complained of the lackluster manner in which Bengali was taught at Hindu College because of the new emphasis on English education, and denounced the 'arrogant and conceited and selfish' way in which Englisheducated Indians were conducting themselves. Sen noted that he and others hoped to combat these trends by focusing on vernacular education, diffusing European knowledge among a wider audience by means of translations from English books. But, Sen went on, these efforts were being undermined by those fixated on transforming all Indians into Britons: I am sorry some obstacles are thrown in our way by persons, who I fancy from political considerations and motives want to engraft the english to it to make the natives all english men and make us entirely dependent for every thing, and thereby destroy every vestige of the Nationality. I

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can not conceive what harm there could be to allow that Natives to be taught in their own languages! and those who are able to go to the Hindu College they may avail themselves of superior knowledge and the means of acquiring it, instead of enforcing the Eng. upon the people as is the case now and if they use further hostility against our plan we shall have to go before the Court of Directors for redress and remedy. What is your opinion upon this?98 While Sen's emphasis here was on vernacular, not Sanskrit, education, the same deep anxieties about preserving national identity in the face of what was recognized to be cultural imperialism surface in this letter as in the 1838 petition. Wilson was already sensitive to this issue, as will be demonstrated below; but the bitter comments of Sen and the petitioners indicate quite clearly that they were hardly mere tools in the hands of the British orientalists. Indeed, Wilson suggested that he owed some of his ideas to Indian protestors. In his own critical essay on the new policy (discussed below), Wilson indicated that he had read the 1835 Muslim document carefully and that he had received communications from Hindus of good repute who 'have assured me that they fully participated in the fears and sentiments expressed in the Mohammedan petition.' This reference to his on-going correspondence with Sen and Radhakant Deb is significant. Deb, as already noted, was appointed to the GCPI in 1835 and sent Wilson a letter the following spring informing the latter of what had recently transpired on that committee. Parts of Deb's letter make mention of Wilson's ideas in criticizing the new policy and thus seem to confirm the idea that the public unrest was manufactured in no small part by the orientalists. But one key passage indicates a more subtle truth about the nature ofthe opposition to the new policy: The patronage of Government will not be withdrawn from the Pundits for the present, except from their Pupils, by stopping their Scholarships, which is the sole scheme of Mr Macaulay and Mr Trevelyan to abolish the study of the Oriental languages. Government could not say with propriety, why should they encourage Sanscrit as you mention, because it is the duty of the Rulers of Countries to preserve the Customs and the religions of their subjects, and the Mahommedan Governments tho' tyrannical in the extreme, were great patrons oflearning. They bestowed many Villages on the Pundits and others, for the promotion of education, & the former Rajas and Landlords actually granted rent free Lands and pecuniary aids for the purpose, and the Hindus still assist them on every religious occasion according to their Circumstances. 99 The sentence beginning 'Government could not say' is telling. Its syntactic structure is confusing, leaving unclear whether the reference to Wilson's

40

INTRODUCTION

ideas (presumably the 'you' here) was in regard to the suggestion that Sanskrit should be encouraged, the larger point that it was the duty of all governments to respect the customs and religions of their subjects, or the historical reference to Muslim rulers giving aid to Sanskritic learning. The sentence immediately following seems to suggest that the lessons drawn from Indian history were Deb's alone, but, as will be noted shortly, Wilson made a very similar point in his own critique. What Deb's convoluted prose does reveal in striking fashion, however, is the manner in which Indian and British officials fashioned together both the original orientalist policy and the opposition to the changes wrought by Trevelyan and Macaulay. As a close look at the various attempts by Indians and British officials alike to undo the anglicist policy indicates, untangling whose ideas were whose is just as difficult in regard to the various Indian petitions, Wilson's critique and John Stuart Mill's canceled dispatch as it is in Deb's letter. It was no accident that the wakil of the nawab of Awadh headed the list of those who signed the 1836 Muslim petition, which amplified the concerns of the 1835 petition. The nawab was not only the most important Muslim ruler in the region (and the oldest ally of the British), but also an important benefactor of Delhi College which, as noted above, had been founded on orientalist principles by the old GCPI. The Muslim petitioners thus appealed to the authorities to revert to the traditional policy of government support for Muslim education, a popular policy that had gained the British much good credit. This plea was a common one among all critics of the change in policy, as the earlier Muslim and Hindu petitions and Prinsep's minute evidence. Another example of an idea circulating among both Indian and British critics of the anglicist policy was the petitioners' complaint that those seeking English education were not true scholars with noble motives, but individuals 'of the very lowest description whose only object is to learn sufficient for the transaction of a little English business;' as we shall see, H. H. Wilson and J. S. Mill were making the same point in their own writings. The general point of the Muslim petitioners - that abolishing stipends for study at the madrasa was tantamount to destroying the madrasa itself - was, of course, one of Prinsep's claims and it too was proving to be a familiar one among both British and Indian critics (Deb and the 1835 Muslim petitioners, for example, had suggested the same). The 1836 Sanskrit College petition followed the 1835 Sanskrit College petition in also stressing the ancient tradition of government endowments to promote Sanskritic learning, one maintained, if imperfectly, by both Muslim rulers and British officials in more modern times. AmplifYing the complaint of other critics, the petitioners insisted that Bentinck's decision not to grant any new stipends to students 'is in fact indirectly abolishing the said institution [Sanskrit College] and eradicating that sacred language [Sanskrit] from the East.' The petitioners appealed to the new governor-general, Lord Auckland, not to neglect the important duty of 41

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

patronizing learning. The 1838 Sanskrit petition, while following the earlier petitions in stressing government's duty to support education and learning, emphasized the paucity of British support for Sanskrit education. In a no doubt unconscious challenge to Grant's argument that English might follow Persian and become the universal language of public affairs and learning, the 1838 petitioners noted that only a vernacular language could serve this purpose. Since vernaculars such as Bengali and Hindi derive from Sanskrit and 'can neither exist nor flourish without [Sanskrit,] like the branches and blossom of an unrooted tree,' the cultivation of Sanskrit must be a vital part of educational efforts in India. This argument was already in the arsenal of key critics such as Wilson and Mill, as will be presently shown. What was unique in this Sanskritic petition was the recognition of the connection between economic and cultural imperialism: 'Although independent in our natural wants we have already become in many respects subservient to the English, and to the productions of their Country, and should we be made to depend on them with regard to our reading and writing also, we shall only be rendered still more miserable.' (As already noted, similar sentiments were also privately conveyed to Wilson by Sen.) These comments, along with the bitter observations about the general lack of British support for Sanskritic education (as compared to the funds made available for Muslim education and the posts open to those holding a Muslim education), are further proof of the contested nature of these educational policies and debates. The 1838 petitioners had their own agenda, one obviously not identical to that of either the British orientalists or the Muslim petitioners; despite being allies, the three groups were entangled in a complex series of negotiations that produced a united front against the anglicist party, but that could not disguise divergent material and intellectual interests. Still, quite apparent in all five petitions is a sense of betrayal by learned elites who had grown accustomed to cooperation with British officials who, since the days of Hastings, had depended so heavily on the literate classes of the old ecumene. This sense of betrayal was shared by Prinsep and, as we shall see, other British critics of the Bentinck-Macaulay policy. In this sense the petitions make manifest the shared culture of ideas that prevailed among both Indian and British proponents of the old policy. A further example of this mutual dependence and exchange of ideas can be found in Prinsep's response to the 1838 Sanskrit petition when it was discussed by the British authorities in Calcutta. The GCPI responded to the Sanskrit petition by claiming that it had a clear plan for efficiently disseminating western literature and science to the people of India, that this plan was already producing good effects, and that the the cultivation of the vernacular (meaning Bengali) was not being neglected, as the petitioners charged. The committee also noted the government's willingness to allow some stipends or scholarships for distinguished scholars in oriental 42

INTRODUCTION

subjects. Prinsep responded to these comments by charging that the new policy was not a popular one, as evidenced by the fact that 18,000 Hindus and over 27,000 Muslims 100 had put their signatures to various petitions protesting the new policy. Repeating the old argument that the British needed to carry the Indian people with them, he noted bitterly that it was only 20 or 50 British officials who believed in the new policy, while the petitions indicated that the masses of Bengal thought otherwise. These biting remarks reveal a wounded sensibility akin to that of the Sanskrit petitioners; indeed, it is not easy to tell who was more offended by the new policy, Prinsep or the learned elites who shared his views and whom Prinsep found so easy to defend before his colleagues in Calcutta.101 Also participating in this shared ethos was H. H. Wilson, the former member of the GCPI who at the time of the controversy held the first chair of Sanskrit at Oxford. Prinsep was also one of those keeping Wilson informed of the changes underway in the GCPI,102 and when Bentinck's decision became known, Wilson defended the old policy in a lengthy article (reprinted in this volume as document twenty) denouncing the change in policy. Wilson took up many of the issues raised by Prinsep, Sen, Deb and the petitioners. The 1813 act quite plainly stipulated the revival of Indian, not the introduction of English literature. The British authorities could not in justice divert the endowments of the Calcutta Madrasa and Sanskrit College to promote English education. Stipends were akin to scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge, and even more necessary 'in the poverty and backward civilization of Hindustan.' The low esteem in which most Indians held English was a serious obstacle to the introduction of western learning and necessitated the cautious policy of engraftment. Abrupt changes were likely to produce significant public unrest, as confirmed by the petition by 8000 Calcutta Muslims and private communications from leading Hindus. The claim (advanced by Macaulay) that Indians did not venerate their own classical languages and literature was 'too contrary to all experience to merit refutation ... [and the] Mohammedan petition is reply sufficient, if reply were needed.' Wilson also amplified the argument that the British must uphold South Asian tradition, an argument once again advanced by both Prinsep and the petitioners, as well as by Radhakant Deb in his later letter to Wilson. The people have a strong 'moral claim upon the patronage of the British Government' because the British had replaced the rajas and nawabs who were 'the natural patrons of the scholars of India': we have exterminated the patrons, we have usurped their power and engrossed their wealth, and those [learned groups] who depended upon them must perish, unless we admit that the duty of providing for them devolved upon us along with the funds from which that provision was derived. 43

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

It was wise to keep in mind the vital importance of caution and appeasement. If Indian princes had at their disposal the present revenues of the British, 'there can be no doubt that native literature would be liberally encouraged.' It would be prudent, as well as magnanimous, therefore 'to avoid reminding our subjects that we still are strangers.' Here is the policy of conciliation, first enunciated by Hastings, then elaborated by the empire-of-opinion group in the 1820s, embraced by the Muslims and Hindus who signed the 1780, 1835 and 1836 petitions, and reiterated by Deb. The British must win over important segments of the Indian population by making concessions to the traditions and institutions valued by them. Bentinck's policy would do exactly the opposite, Wilson argued, turning learned elites into 'angry foes, where they might have been rendered attached and invaluable allies.' Wilson's close connections to Indian associates such as Sen and Deb is quite apparent in his arguments. The claim that the new policy was 'the first stage of a very feasible project for the annihilation of all the languages of India' was in accord with the fears of the Sanskrit College students, Deb and the 1838 petitioners that Sanskrit was going to be eradicated by the new policy, as it was with Sen's later worries about the decline of Bengali studies at Hindu College. Wilson's argument regarding the ultimate consequence of abolishing stipends and ending subsidies for the publication of oriental books is also to be found in the Sanskrit College petitions and in Deb's letter. Wilson also joined forces with the 1836 Muslim petitioners in combating the claim that the people of India clearly wanted western, not oriental education by pointing out the problematic motives and low social status of those seeking to learn English. Wilson insisted that the growing demand for English education reflected only the increased recognition among certain groups (mostly castes of writers and government clerks) that English was economically valuable. Wilson's professorial prejudices and disdain for these groups is quite apparent: why rob the great centers of learning in India to raise up an army of clerks and copyists likely to remain rooted in 'gross ignorance and inveterate superstition' and incapable of acquiring more than a mere smattering of English? No, he insisted, these groups could never serve as adequate conduits of western knowledge; only the traditional learned elites had the skills and motivation to absorb deeply the ideas of Europe and diffuse them among the general population. Wilson helped introduce one more important idea into the debate, one that would be advanced independently by the Sanskrit petitioners in 1838. Only those trained in the classics, Wilson claimed, were capable of reviving the national literature of South Asia. 'If the people are to have a literature, it must be their own,' he argued. The ideas might come from Europe, but these 'must be freely interwoven with home-spun materials, and the fashion must be Asiatic.' This required encouraging those who

44

INTRODUCTION

studied South Asia's classical languages, literature and poetry, which were the vital source of noble ideas, the moral sentiments, a sense of style, and congenial images. Teaching Indians only English language and literature, and contempt for the classical ones of India, could never produce a thriving, modern national literature. As already noted, Sen and the 1838 petitioners were also deeply concerned about preserving national identity under British rule; what distinguishes their arguments from Wilson's is a deep sense of anxiety regarding the growing economic and cultural dependence of Indians. Wilson also put forth an important idea regarding the advancement of truth. Engraftment was desirable not only because most learned elites were indifferent, if not hostile, to western learning and because it had been quite successful in enticing increasing numbers of these elites many ofthem from rural areas - to take up the study of western learning; it was also to be praised because it was the natural way to overcome error. Europe had made great spiritual and intellectual progress due to the fact that Luther and Bacon had been deeply familiar with the systems they sought to overturn. In a similar manner, one pandit or maulawi who added English to his knowledge of Sanskrit or Arabic and 'should be led to expose the absurdities and errors of his own systems ... would work a greater revolution in the minds of his unlettered countrymen' than could those who received only a western education. This was empire-of-opinion doctrine writ large. John Malcolm, for instance, had argued forcefully that it was foolish to attempt to force change upon India: 'Great and beneficial alterations in society, to be complete, must be produced within the society itself; they cannot be the mere fabrication of its superiors, or of a few who deem themselves enlightened.'103 Wilson's essay was quite likely part of an orchestrated effort by the orientalists to reverse the Bentinck-Macaulay policy. As already noted, Wilson was in private contact with Prinsep, whose February 1835 note opposing the new policy had not been included in the batch of official papers to be sent back to London. Although a later minute by Prinsep, dated 20 May 1835, would be sent to the home authorities, this important first attack on the anglicist policy - penned before Bentinck had formally decided in favor of the anglicists - was left to languish in Calcutta; Wilson's essay was thus probably intended to serve the purpose that Prinsep's February note had tried to serve in Bengal, namely challenge the new policy before it had been officially adopted by having one of the leading proponents of the old policy present a vigorous and intelligent defense of the latter, in this case to the authorities in London as they began their deliberations on the changes. Wilson no doubt expected a sympathetic hearing from the home government: the evidence strongly suggests that he regarded the 1830 education dispatch to Bengal as official approval of the GCPI's efforts in the 1820s to blend western and Indian learning;104 moreover the Bentinck-Macaulay policy had been initiated by

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THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

a faction in Bengal that quite likely did not enjoy the full support of the London authorities who had remained consistent after 1830 in their general support of the cautious efforts of Wilson and the GCPI to introduce western learning - gradually and without awakening Muslim and Hindu religious fears - by working with local elites and within established institutions. I05 In other words, Wilson probably wrote his essay as a preemptive strike designed to appeal to known orientalist sympathies among key officials in the London offices of the East India Company. If this was indeed Wilson's plan, the effort was timely and bore immediate fruit. The papers relating to the new policy reached London in January 1836,106 just after Wilson's essay was published. J. S. Mill, of course, was the person responsible for drafting education dispatches at India House and it was he who had drafted the 1830 and later dispatches praising Wilson and the GCPI's efforts before the orientalist-anglicist controversy had erupted. As already noted, Mill wrote the 1830 dispatch during a period in his life in which he was reevaluating his intellectual and administrative priorities, distancing himself from some of his father's views and absorbing conservative and romantic ideas. This period of intellectual adjustment was still in full swing when Mill was required to draft the official response of the Court of Directors to Bentinck's resolution. Indeed, Mill's father was seriously ill and away from his India House desk when Mill began his work on this matter; freed from the immediate influence of the man who had directed his unusual early education, J. S. Mill crafted a document rich with evidence of his now famous desire to re-educate himself. In this case, the ideas that Mill drew upon in amending the doctrines imparted to him by his father and Jeremy Bentham came from British Indian sources, especially Wilson. I07 Mill read Wilson's letter to the editor of The Asiatic Journal and wrote the Oxford don a note indicating his satisfaction with the latter's article denouncing the new educational policy. In addition, Mill also relied upon many of Wilson's major arguments - as well as some of those found in Prinsep's May 1835 minute - in drafting a dispatch that sought to reverse most of the changes proposed by Bentinck. The dispatch was never sent because of the staunch opposition of John Hobhouse, president of the Board of Control (the ministerial body that oversaw the affairs of the East India Company), who saw it as a partisan attempt to revive the orientalist cause. lOB (Mill's draft dispatch, with marginal notes by Hobhouse, is printed for the first time in this volume as document twenty-one.) But not only Wilson's and Prinsep's ideas found their way into Mill's canceled dispatch. The collaborative process that created both the policy of engraftment and the opposition to the anglicists had resulted in a common repertoire of ideas, as the above analysis of the five petitions, Sen's and Deb's letters, and the essays by Prinsep and Wilson indicates. Mill's intended dispatch makes plain that, in addition to familiarity with Wilson's essay and Prinsep's later minute, Mill had knowledge of the 1835 46

INTRODUCTION

Muslim petition and the agitation among the Sanskrit College students that led to their first petition. While Mill was thus not directly acquainted with all of Prinsep's arguments or the ideas that would appear in the later petitions, he was still quite familiar with most of the points being advanced in common by the Indian agitators and their British allies. In other words, the fact that most of the available textual evidence suggests that Wilson and, to a lesser extent, Prinsep had the most influence on Mill when he wrote his dispatch is misleading: the orientalist policy that Mill defended at this critical juncture in his own life was the product of a long and on-going series of intellectual exchanges and cultural negotiations between Indians and British officials; in taking up the cause of the orientalists, Mill was also giving partial voice to Indians such as Sen and Deb, the head of the Calcutta Madrasa, the Sanskrit College students and others whose opinions on education intersected with those of Wilson and Prinsep. To be sure, the views ofthese Indians are often to be found only as subtexts to British documents, as when Prinsep and Wilson gave expression to ideas formed through communication with leading Muslim or Hindu educators. In summarizing and re-presenting the opinions of their Indian associates in their own writings, British officials no doubt altered, even distorted at times, those opinions. But this does not alter the fact that what has usually been called 'British' imperial policy bears the unmistakable imprint of Indian contributors. Mill's proposed dispatch, with its attempt to save the old education policy, is no exception. The extent to which Mill was indebted to the common ideas of the orientalists is readily apparent in his proposed dispatch. The opening argument about avoiding hasty change, especially in India, is quite similar to the opening paragraph in Prinsep's February note. The long quotation in paragraph 31 ofPrinsep's defense of stipends (as presented in the latter's May 1835 minute) speaks for itself, as does the pointed reference to the unrest in Bengal that had quickly resulted in a Muslim petition (Mill meant the 1835 one) and the threat of another one among Hindus (the first Sanskrit College petition was apparently known to Mill only as something in the works when he drafted his comments). The arguments that the people of India are deeply attached to their own system of learning, and that the existence of a system of stipends is not evidence of the unpopularity of classical education, bear the mark of Wilson, Prinsep and the 1835 petitions. Wilson's influence can also be observed in Mill's claim that the rising demand for English education reflected merely the growing recognition that English was soon to be the 'passport to public employment,' and that those who pursued its study with this motive were not likely to engage in literary and scholarly activity. Mill's reference to the fact that endowments to support education were common in Europe as well as India echoes the comments of both Wilson and Pringle, while the idea that only the traditional learned elites, with their knowledge of classical languages and literature, had the 47

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

motives and skills to revitalize South Asian literature has obvious parallels in Wilson's essay. Also telling is the manner in which Mill repeats the claim of the first Muslim petition that the general population viewed the abolition of stipends as the first step toward the 'total abolition' of the madrasa. Most of these same arguments would surface of course in the two petitions of 1836 as well as the 1838 one. As such, they are a further indication of Mill's participation in the joint construction of imperial policies that marks the early British raj. The fact that Mill had entered into a public discourse being forged by segments of the Indian public and British officials in dialogue with one another, and the manner in which he too gave voice to the Indians who were helping shape this discourse, is most manifest in paragraph 13. Here Mill argued that financial aid to students was the custom in India, but that under British rule the traditional forms of providing that aid had been withdrawn 'and in place of the munificence of native patronage a few scholarships and Professorships in the Government Colleges are now the only contributions towards the literary classes ofthe Mahomedans and Hindus.' Though poor, he went on, 'the testimony of the most competent witnesses affirms that the lettered classes are still held by the people of India, in high estimation;' hence the 'degradation and extinction' of these classes would lead to popular unrest. There are obvious echoes here of the exchange that took place in 1780 when Muslim petitioners were able to persuade Warren Hastings to found a madrasa and fund scholarships for poor students. Also making their presence felt here are those unknown western Indians who convinced Elphinstone that the British should found a Sanskritic college in Pune and keep up the peshwas' practice of distributing dakshina to learned Brahmans. The encomium heaped on Hastings by the 1835 petitioners for his support of 'we poor men or in straightened circumstances, then wanting the adornments of learning and cultivated intellect' in order that '[we] might be clad in the bright garments of knowledge and enlightenment' can also be detected between the lines of Mill's paragraph, as can be the lament of the first Sanskrit College petitioners that surely the British could continue to afford a few scholarships for Sanskrit studies given the amount of revenue they collected in India. Wilson's pointed reminder that the British were strangers who had 'exterminated' the rajas, nawabs and other former patrons of learning provides another subtext for Mill's remarks. The fact that other Indians such as Deb and the 1836 and 1838 petitioners - writing later than Mill and with no way of knowing what his intended dispatch had contained - made similar appeals to the Indian tradition indicates the extent to which Mill was employing rhetorical strategies common to British officials and Indian protestors alike. What is particularly fascinating about Mill's dispatch is the manner in which the pragmatic concerns of Indian administration merge with the 48

INTRODUCTION

larger issues of European intellectual history. Mill tells us in his Autobiography that at this point in his life he was in the process of weaving anew the fabric of his thought. He suggests that this was solely the result of his reading of various western thinkers (mostly romantics and conservatives). But his canceled dispatch on Indian education reveals Mill engaged with an imperial discourse that had some influence on the development of his thought. For instance, Mill wrote that from the romantics he had learned to appreciate the positive role of sentiments in human thought and behavior, something ignored by his father and the utilitarians who emphasized the power of reason above all else. But the orientalist argument that the people of India were attached to their own systems of learning and indifferent to that of Europe - and thus had to be persuaded (by the policy of engraftment) to take up the latter - interested Mill because it coincided with his own growing concern about the need to cultivate the desire for improvement in the minds of individuals, a concern usually attributed to romantic influences. As already noted, the policy of engraftment owed as much to members of the Indian ecumene such as Ram Camul Sen as it did to officials such as Wilson. Likewise, at about the same time that he penned this dispatch Mill wrote various essays expressing dismay at the lack of culture among the commercial classes and support for S. T. Coleridge's idea ofthe need for a public endowment to support a clerisy (or intellectual elite) who were to be responsible for preserving and strengthening national culture. There are obvious parallels here to Wilson's disdain for those flocking to English-language schools in India, as well as to Wilson's notion that only the traditional learned elites of India were capable of reviving the national literature of South Asia, provided that long-standing waqfs and stipends were maintained. But Indians had been making similar arguments about preserving centers of Indian learning - and through these national identity - to British officials since the time of Hastings, and for the most part their arguments had been listened to very carefully by officials such as Wilson. The fact that Mill reiterated arguments employed by both Indian petitioners and Wilson in his canceled dispatch should give us reason to pause before accepting Mill's published claim that his ideas about a clerisy came solely from reading Coleridge. It seems more reasonable to conclude that, drawing upon both European and South Asian sources, Mill came to see the need for special measures to protect intellectual elites, the guardians of national culture, from the ravages of the market place. 109 There is need for some caution, however, in viewing Mill's proposed dispatch simply as more evidence of his use of romantic and, in this case, orientalist (and Indian) ideas to divorce himself from the narrow views of his father. It is of course impossible to determine what James Mill's response to Bentinck's resolution would have been, had not his failing health kept him away from his India House desk at the time the PC was

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drafted, but it is by no means certain that he would have disapproved of his son's draft dispatch in its entirety. Macaulay, fearing correctly that the orientalists would attempt to undo the new policy with an appeal to the London authorities, wrote a private letter to the elder Mill asking for his support. But Macaulay's biographer notes that James Mill was an unlikely ally because of his distinct preference for vernacular education and his skepticism regarding many of the claims of the anglicists. 11o Moreover, all of J. S. Mill's dispatches prior to his ill-fated PC 1828 had been drafted while his father held influential positions at India House and, in fact, his 1834 dispatch l11 praising the GCPI for its 1831 efforts had been written while his father held the position of chief examiner, with overall responsibility for supervising all branches of the department's drafting work. It is unlikely that such open praise for the GCPI could have been sent without the elder Mill's acquiescence, which in turn suggests that the portions of PC 1828 that disapproved of the abrupt departure from the previously sanctioned policy would have gained James Mill's concurrence: personally skeptical of the vast claims made on behalf of English education by the anglicists and party to the Court of Directors' prior approval of the GCPI's cautious blend of western and traditional subjects, father would probably have joined son (and the members of the Court of Directors) in protesting the sudden abandonment of a carefully wrought policy in order to pursue a radical new policy of English education only. Yet there are good reasons to suspect that James Mill would have disagreed with some portions of PC 1828, especially those that indicate his son's increasing openness to alternative points of view. Shortly after he drafted this PC, for example, J. S. Mill began to defend the policy of indirect rule (whereby various rajas and nawabs were propped up as nominal rulers while the British worked to reform their administrations from behind the scenes), a policy that James Mill had openly and heatedly denounced. 112 Indirect rule had arisen out of the same concern for conciliation of Indian elites and attention to popular opinion that had animated Warren Hastings and the others who helped fashion the policy of engraftment; moreover, the same dialogic encounter took place between British officials and select Indian groups as the idea of indirect rule gained favor in the imperial imagination. 113 Hence, when the younger Mill defended Indian traditions of scholarly stipends and took careful note of popular respect for pandits and maulawis in PC 1828, he was giving voice to sentiments that would shortly later lead him to support various Indian princes whom he and other officials saw as descendants of ancient dynasties commanding the respect and loyalty of their subjects. These orientalist sentiments were utterly foreign to James Mill, who once defended direct British rule before a parliamentary committee by claiming that Indian peasants would not care if their rulers wore 'turbans or hats' so long as their property rights were protected. 114 In short, there are 50

INTRODUCTION

ample reasons for believing that James Mill would not have countenanced all that his son wrote in PC 1828. These and other issues surrounding J. S. Mill's proposed dispatch and published writings indicate that the Indian education controversy was working its way, if indirectly, into the mainstream of British intellectual life. In 1838 Charles Trevelyan brought the issues of the debate fully into public view. In that year he published On the Education of the People of India, which included two long chapters (one of which is reprinted below as document twenty-eight) recapitulating the leading arguments of the orientalists and rebutting these with those of the reformers. Since Macaulay did not openly respond to Wilson's published essay, Trevelyan's book served as the public response to Wilson. (Mill appears to have privately sent a copy of his canceled dispatch to a friend;115 other than that limited circulation, it has remained buried in the London archives until the publication of the present volume.) Much of the argument in On the Education of the People of India is familiar because Trevelyan simply restates for the general public the issues raised by the reformers in their official and unofficial work. The purpose of the 1813 act, the self-evident superiority of European ideas, the growing popularity of English education, the capacity of Indians for absorbing western knowledge, the problematic nature of stipends, the lack of public interest in classical South Asian learning: these, and other ideas that he shared with Macaulay and Indian reformers are repeated with vigor in Trevelyan's book. Indeed, at various places he simply quotes at length long passages from favorable sources, including Bishop Heber's account of education, the 1824 dispatch from London (drafted by James Mill) and, anonymously, Macaulay's minute. He even quotes in its entirety Rammmohun Roy's 1823 letter protesting the plans to establish Sanskrit College, Calcutta, thus bringing into print for the first time this important document and giving further evidence of the extent to which the anglicists too were intellectually engaged with members of the Indian public. In giving vent to his religious convictions Trevelyan also echoed the earlier ideas of Charles Grant, as when he expressed the belief that as the English language spreads across India and, indeed, the entire globe, so too will 'our learning, our morals, our principles of constitutional liberty, and our religion.'1l6 But Trevelyan's book contributes some new ideas to the debate. Macaulay had suggested that the orientalists were a vested interest promoting private good at public expense. Trevelyan added an anti-elitist, anti-academic element to this argument: the orientalists were a group of academics and antiquarians who had subverted the 1813 act - with its clear provisions for enlightening the people of India - in order to advance their own scholarly interests; furthermore, they had raised up a new vested interest in India (the pandits who cooperated with them) who resisted all improvements; funds thus intended to enlighten and improve 51

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the general population had been hijacked by a select group of scholars who pursued narrow academic ends and strengthened the monopolistic hold of Brahmans on education.l 17 This appeal to public good versus vested interests was no doubt crafted with a keen awareness of the debates that dominated British public attention in the aftermath of the great Reform Act of 1832, especially the discussions regarding abuses in the lavish endowments of the Church of England. Written to defend the anglicist policy before the British reading public, Trevelyan's book brilliantly cast the orientalists as another sinister interest group standing in the way of the good of the many. Also new in On the Education of the People of India are some strong responses to important points raised by Wilson. The notion that the classical languages needed to be cultivated in order to improve the vernaculars was disputed by Trevelyan, who noted that all languages manage to absorb new ideas, either by using their own words or simply incorporating foreign ones if necessary. He also claimed that the policy of engraftment espoused by the orientalists had been a failure, since not one single example could be given of a classically trained pandit or maulawi who had absorbed western learning. (As noted above, this was not true; at Delhi College, for instance, the blend of traditional Islamic and European scientific curricula proved quite popular.)118 Instead, he claimed, they remained mired in the superstitions and errors of the old learning. Furthermore, the notion that the learned elites of India might eventually do what Luther or Bacon had done in Europe was based on faulty logic: Luther and Bacon had taught truth, not error, which was not the case with the pandits and maulawis supported by the old policy of the GCPI. More generally, the basic premise of engraftment, that western learning must be slowly introduced, had been exploded by the mere fact that a revolution was underway in India, as indicated by the tremendous demand for English education: the establishment of Hindu College in 1816; Rammohun Roy's articulate letter of 1823; the 1200 students who rushed to gain admittance at the new Hooghly College in 1836 - these and other facts demonstrated conclusively that the policy of engraftment was at best misguided and at worst a vain attempt by a handful of antiquarian scholars to stem the tide of progress. To Wilson's argument that the British, having succeeded Indian rulers who were the patrons of learning in South Asia, were required to uphold traditional education, Trevelyan simply replied that the British were not required to be patrons of error but to promote the welfare of the people. Here he added his voice to the growing chorus of reformers who were challenging one of the basic premises of the system erected by Warren Hastings and perfected by the empire-of-opinion group, namely that the British must adapt themselves to the local situation - orientalize their administration - in order to survive as a political power in the subcontinent. Beginning with evangelicals such as Grant, and blossoming

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INTRODUCTION

with the free traders and more secular reformers such as Mill and Macaulay, the idea increasingly took hold that the British had a mission to improve South Asia. This idea could not be squared with the prevailing policy of preserving local traditions; hence the reformers increasingly were disgusted by the sight of a civilization they assumed to be more advanced using its substantial resources to perpetuate customs and institutions they deemed primitive and harmful. In this sense Trevelyan echoed James Mill (who had argued that the policy of indirect rule meant harnessing the superior power of an advanced civilization to the cause of despotism) when he suggested that in seeking to preserve South Asian traditions 'we continued to prop up barbarism by the power of civilization,' using the enormous power of British civilization, not to improve the people of South Asia, but 'to press on the people decayed and noxious systems [oflearning], which they themselves rejected.'119 Trevelyan's book is also valuable for its evocation of the liberal dream for India. Macaulay, as noted above, had hinted in a parliamentary speech that the spread of English might one day lead to a desire for English political institutions, including the parliamentary system. Trevelyan added here a vision of a united and enlightened India emerging from turmoil and darkness as English culture spread. Later, in testimony before parliament, Trevelyan went further, suggesting that India might join Canada and Australia in following the United States down the path to political independence, while maintaining close cultural and economic ties to Britain. 120 This dream was shared by some Indians too, such as Rammohun Roy and Dwarkanath Tagore who also believed that Britons and Indians could be partners in empire, forging a new nation by cooperating in economic ventures, encouraging European colonization, and diffusing the fruits of western learning in South Asia. 121 One is struck here again by the way in which imperial ideology was shaped and shared by both the rulers and the ruled. Yet it would be foolish to deny that the British held the upper hand throughout the education controversy. Roy or Sen might indeed have contributed ideas, provided valuable evidence, even served as 'proof' of general opinion, but it was the British who made judgments about what the people wanted or did not want, determined what was ancient tradition or recent corruption, and finally decided if educational funds should go to support classical curricula or a modern and western one. Seen from this perspective, the liberal dream shared by Trevelyan and Roy is on a par with the orientalist one of Wilson and Sen: while Indians participated in the making of imperial ideas and practices, it was the British who held the very important power of interpretation. 122 The consequences of this arrangement were enormous, as one recent study of the impact of British rule on the tradition of waqf endowments has demonstrated. As the nineteenth century wore on, the British increasingly enforced their own interpretation of what qualified as a 53

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

waqf, disrupting traditional patterns of settling estates and imposing rigid definitions on an ancient and complex institution. The British judges and legal scholars responsible for these changes thought themselves qualified to pronounce on this complicated issue because they believed that they possessed an adequate knowledge of Islamic law and tradition, much as earlier officials such as Wilson and Prinsep had believed. The fact that they were creating new legal definitions, rather than upholding ancient ones, escaped these late nineteenth-century officials as they used the power ofthe British courts to enforce their interpretation ofIslamic law. 123 It is clear then that the partnership between British officials and their South Asian allies was hardly one of equality. Be that as it may, it is still useful to bear in mind the South Asian contribution to important imperial episodes such as the orientalistanglicist controversy. From those who impressed Charles Grant with their willingness to learn Persian, to the Calcutta Muslims who approached Warren Hastings in 1780, to Ram Camul Sen's close association with Wilson, to Rammohun Roy's activities on behalf of Duff's school in the early 1830s, to Radhakant Deb's correspondence with Wilson, Indians played an important role in shaping British ideas, perceptions and policies about ruling India. The extent of their influence might well be traced back to Britain itself, as indicated by the example of John Stuart Mill, who brought together South Asian ideas (filtered through the pens of British administrators) and the western intellectual tradition. There are hints of a similar process in the cases of Wilson, Macaulay and Trevelyan, and perhaps future scholarship will one day confirm what Mill's example suggests, namely that Indians not only helped fashion imperial ideas and policies, but also contributed to the development of 'western' culture. 124

The Aftermath: Auckland's Compromise The victory of the anglicists would prove not to be as complete as many thought. Bentinck passed his resolution shortly before his departure from India and left his successor, Lord Auckland, to confront the angry divisions within administrative ranks and the not-so insignificant public unrest in Bengal. Auckland played a pivotal role in persuading John Hobhouse not to allow Mill's education dispatch to be sent, convincing the president of the Board of Control that it would be unwise to reopen the bitter controversy and that Muslim opposition to Bentinck's resolution was dying down (Hobhouse cited Auckland on these points in his letter to the Court of Directors returning Mill's PC unapproved; Hobhouse's letter, with an appended part of a private communication from Auckland, is printed below as document twenty-two).125 While waiting for official word from London, Auckland was forced to respond to the two petitions of 1836 which together suggested that he had been premature in informing

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Hobhouse that local unrest was waning. Auckland's response came in the form of a short minute in August 1836 (also printed below as document twenty-five) where the governor-general gave the first indication that he was open to a compromise in the face of strong Indian and orientalist opposition. At this point the compromise Auckland had in mind was in regard to the matter of financial aid to students at institutions such as the Calcutta Madrasa and Sanskrit College: without giving in to the idea of automatic stipends for students, Auckland was willing to consider merit scholarships should the London authorities sanction these; the latter, given to the best students, would thus demonstrate that the British were not out to destroy the madrasa and college by withdrawing all aid to students, as the 1835 and 1836 petitioners had charged. Also important in this context is the earlier decision (in April 1836) by Auckland's government not to sanction the GCPI's attempt to bring all educational funds together into a single budget. 126 This meant that endowments given for the purposes of traditional Muslim or Hindu education would be kept separate from funds allocated by the British under the terms of the 1813 Charter Act. The members of the GCPI no doubt wished for all funds to be lumped together so that they could more easily use all available financial resources to further English and western learning; in denying this to the anglicists, Auckland's administration was keeping alive hopes that institutions such as the Calcutta Madrasa and Sanskrit College would remain on the same financial footing as before. Auckland's activities in 1836 are a clear indication that Indian agitation, coupled with orientalist efforts to keep the debate open, was having an impact. Bentinck's government, it may be recalled, had felt pressured by the 1835 Muslim petition to drop publicly the idea of abolishing oriental institutions; now, a year later, Auckland sought further to assuage public fears about the status of those institutions by taking steps to maintain their enrollments and ensure their financial solvency. Obviously the orientalist cause was not yet dead. In fact, the need for some kind of compromise with the partisans of the old policy became more apparent with the passage of time. The continued silence from London on the matter of education was a clear indication that Bentinck's resolution had not gained sufficient support at home: while Hobhouse had prevented the Court of Directors from dispatching Mill's pro-orientalist PC, he could not persuade them to sanction the anglicist policy either. Moreover, discontent among Indians continued to fester, evoking further debates, albeit less acrimonious ones, among British officials and between segments of the government, as is apparent in the complex discussions that took place after the 1838 Sanskrit petition was received by the Calcutta authorities. The Bengal government decided to refer the petition to the GCPI before forwarding it to London. This reference led to a prolonged exchange of views between the committee and the government regarding the demands

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set out in the petition, and by November 1838 the latter was sufficiently apprised of the GCPI's generally negative reaction to the petition - and of the growing differences between that response and its own more flexible attitude - to send a full report on the subject to the Court of Directors, along with the petition itself.127 Meanwhile, the two sides continued their internal debate, focusing in turn on several wider issues and making ever clearer the existence of a pronounced gap between their viewpoints. By July 1839 the members of the governor-general's council decided that only an overriding judgment by Lord Auckland could resolve the matter.128 To understand the main issues at stake here, it is first necessary to put on one side two particular questions raised by the Hindu petitioners, namely their calls for government encouragement for Bengali education and literature, and the restoration of the former oriental publications program. It is not, of course, that these questions were unimportant quite the contrary - but rather that the Bengal government and the GCPI both agreed to separate them from the main debate, though for different reasons. In the case of the Bengali question, the GCPI initially refused to admit that its policies were in any way anti-vernacular, claiming that it had already set in motion several measures aimed at extending the use of the vernaculars in government offices and colleges. The committee then contrived to postpone further discussion by arguing that fresh initiatives in this area would have to depend on the government's eventual response to the proposals about elementary education then being put forward in William Adam's third report.129 As regards the oriental publications program, it is clear that the GCPI was ideologically opposed to the revival of the scheme, but for various reasons soon decided to go along with the government's plan to restore the program to the extent of deputing its management to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, supported by a reduced grant specially approved by the Court of Directors in March 1838. 130 What then were the principle issues that dominated the debate between the government and the committee between February 1838 and July 1839? Essentially these issues centered on the Hindu petition's call for the full restoration of stipends and other revenues previously allocated to the Calcutta Sanskrit College, and for increased government support for Sanskrit learning in general. This amounted to a demand for the wholesale reinstatement of the orientalist program largely abandoned in 1835 (bearing in mind that the Muslim petitioners were equally anxious to regain their equivalent in funds and facilities). Faced with such a fundamental challenge (one led, it should be remembered, by the Dharma Sabha and Ram Camul Sen, who was in close contact with Wilson on the matter), it is hardly surprising to find the GCPI totally opposed to making any concessions. But to the governor-general and the members of his council the issues were far less simple and fixed. In part this attitude reflected the departure 56

INTRODUCTION

of Macaulay and Trevelyan (both had returned to Britain in 1838) and the continued presence of Prinsep, ever ready to defend the oriental colleges. While for the most part unwilling to jettison the anglicist reforms of 1835, the council members were well aware that they had still not received the home government's formal response to those policies, and they had reason to think that when it did come, that response might not be one of unqualified approval. Indeed, the government had already opened the door to compromise in Auckland's reply to earlier Indian petitions. Hence, when the council began to grapple with the practical implications of the petitioners' demands, in terms of the restoration of stipends and other funds for oriental education, the underlying tension between their views and those of the GCPI came into focus. For the GCPI, the whole future of the anglicist program seemed to depend on keeping to a minimum its commitment to the oriental colleges. Such institutions, it contended (following the 1835 resolution), were to be kept up only so long as Indian students continued to present themselves for classes. Meanwhile the committee thought itself fully empowered to cut back on student and professorial stipends at any particular institution (again as the 1835 resolution had envisaged) and to devote these new resources to the cause of English instruction anywhere in the country, not just within the college to which such funds had previously belonged. Any significant modification of this principle, the majority of the committee members believed, would only erode the limited revenues available for their great project. Hence, not only were they opposed to any restoration of stipends, but they were almost equally hostile to the new plans for offering a wide range of scholarships to the oriental academies. While a few such awards might be sanctioned, any extensive allotment of scholarships to oriental studies would be deplorable. But the majority on the Bengal government's side concluded that they were bound by a far stronger commitment to the preservation of the traditional institutions than the GCPI was prepared to admit. Not only had they recently pledged to maintain these establishments efficiently for as long as people wanted them; they were also very aware that the madras a and colleges themselves had been founded long before, largely on the basis of specific government endowments having no connection with the separate parliamentary grant. While opinions might differ as to whether these endowments should be construed as having been made in perpetuity, there could be no doubt that such solemn pledges could not be lightly broken. It had been such concerns, the government argued, that had earlier led them to disallow the committee's proposed consolidation of all the separate institutional funds in April 1836. Now, given the growing evidence of deep Indian opposition to the recent educational changes, it was also becoming politically expedient to avoid all action that might further antagonize public opinion. For all these reasons the government concluded that it was essential to handle any proposed redeployment of

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lapsed stipendiary funds with care and sensitivity, and that it was no longer wise to permit the GCPI to direct such funds to objects completely independent of the institutions to which they had been originally assigned, without submitting their proposals for prior government consideration. Similar factors also entered into the government's approach to the proposed distribution of scholarships. For example, although they agreed with the committee that student stipends should not be revived, the introduction of scholarships (which had been contemplated as early as August 1836, as already noted) was viewed in a different light. Not only did the council come to view merit scholarships as in some way helpful on the matter of satisfying the more reasonable demands of the Indian petitioners, but they also thought that if such an outcome was to be secured, then a fair quota of awards should be evenly distributed throughout the oriental colleges in proportion to student numbers and available resources. l3l In November 1839 Auckland brought a close to these debates by offering a compromise settlement in a lengthy minute on education (reprinted here as document twenty-nine). His delay in taking up this controversial subject was occasioned, he wrote, by a desire to let passions subside. Enough time had passed that Auckland now felt comfortable addressing the issue in a spirit of reconciliation; indeed, Auckland's minute stands out among the documents prepared or published during the orientalist-anglicist controversy for its appreciation of the merits of the different views on Indian education. Moreover, Auckland realized that the debate, in the end, was as much about money - who got government funds for what kind of educational purposes - as it was about abstract principles; hence, a financial compromise (in which each side received funds to promote its particular brand of education, and neither felt that the other's funds were coming at the expense of its own projects) might bring an end to the long and bitter controversy. Interestingly enough, this latter point was suggested to Auckland by H. T. Prinsep, still one of the leading proponents of orientalist education in government circles. Auckland approached the specific issues referred to him in the same broad-minded spirit of compromise and inclusiveness. This is particularly evident in his handling of the thorny issue of consolidation of funds: Auckland reached out to the anglicists by holding the door open to the possibility of some consolidation of funds originally assigned to traditional education, denying that the April 1836 resolution against consolidation was intended as 'a particular guarantee of the expenditure, wholly within each Institution, ... of the funds which might have been assigned to it'; meanwhile to the orientalists Auckland offered a restoration of the stipendiary funds - less 25 percent for merit scholarships - enjoyed by the oriental institutions before 1835, stipulating, however, that these were to be employed for general educational purposes, the latter defined as first 58

INTRODUCTION

and foremost a 'perfect efficiency in Oriental instruction.' In addition, Auckland further assured both camps on matters of vital importance to each: the anglicists that the measures taken to appease the petitioners would not lead to any reduction in the total amount of funds available for promoting western education; and the orientalists that English classes would be offered at the oriental institutions only after their primary educational goals had been met and that the April 1836 resolution requiring the GCPI to seek prior government approval for any diversion of funds assigned to a particular institution would remain in force. 132 A final important part of Auckland's great compromise was the introduction of merit scholarships at all of the institutions under the control ofthe Bengal authorities. Although a new name was employed and the idea of merit was introduced (using the example of the scholarship system at University College, London), Auckland was obviously restoring in part the stipends for traditional studies that had been the rallying cry of Indian petitioners and their British allies who together had argued forcefully that ending this financial aid for students would mean the death of oriental education in India: 'The pledge to maintain these [oriental] Institutions while resorted to by the people involves to my mind the clear obligation to maintain them with all the conditions which are judged necessary for the general efficiency of our educational Schemes.' But if Auckland managed to bring closure to the orientalist-anglicist debate through skillful compromise, his long ruminations on the issue of vernacular education shed light on the neglected fact that the debate about education was shifting to new ground and that here too the orientalists were hardly silenced. Auckland's comments were prompted first by the reports on indigenous education made by William Adam. Adam's survey, initiated under Bentinck's orders, provided a wealth of information about the kinds of schools supported by the local population throughout the reaches of Bengal and Bihar. But Adam's recommendation - that the British devote their efforts to improving the extensive system of village schools (where instruction was in the vernaculars) already in existence - had been rejected by Macaulay and the GCPI as too impractical and expensive. Besides, they already had their minds set on diffusing western learning by promoting English education among select groups. Adam's radical views may have prejudiced the committee as well. Alongside the notoriety of his conversion to unitarianism after his theological discussions with Rammohun Roy, Adam had been a prominent owner or editor of various Calcutta newspapers including the radical India Gazette where he had denounced one of the chief suppositions of missionaries and anglicists alike, namely that Indians were unlettered and uncivilized. Undoing this prejudice became Adam's mission and his reports on the state of education in Bengal and Bihar were aimed in part at demonstrating that Indian culture was flourishing due to a well established and diverse system of education. Persuaded that India could

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not be rejuvenated without first understanding what Indian society was already capable of accomplishing on its own, Adam proposed what was in effect a version ofthe policy of engraftment: 'To labour [sic] successfully for them [Indians] we must labor with them; and to labor with them, we must get them to labor willingly and intelligently with US.'133 But Auckland sided with the GCPI in his minute, sadly noting the dire need for public support for the village schools touted by Adam but concluding that the government's limited funds would be best used in support of higher education. This was the case in Europe, he argued, where solid institutions of higher learning were the first to develop and schools for mass elementary education were only recently beginning to appear. Auckland did go on to note that in the Bombay region the local authorities were supporting vernacular education in the district schools, an experiment that might prove successful, though he doubted that Indian parents would send their children to British schools unless English was being taught. 134 But it was not only Adam who was pressing for vernacular education, as Auckland knew. Lancelot Wilkinson and Brian Hodgson were two other officials pressing for using government funds to diffuse western knowledge through languages other than English or Sanskrit and Persian, and the strength of their arguments can be measured in part by the fact that Auckland had to devote long passages to developing a not entirely convincing case in favor of sticking with the GCPI's focus on English education. Wilkinson, assistant resident at Bhopal, was engaged in a prominent experimental educational scheme in Sehore during the 1830s, one that involved working closely with local pandits who were to combine traditional Indian learning with that of the west. The scheme was widely discussed, especially because of the successful way in which western physics was reconciled to indigenous traditions by pandits such as Omkar Bhatta, who published a Hindi work comparing the Siddhantic, Puranic and Copernican astronomical systems. Other works combining western and Indian astronomy and written in Indian languages were published and distributed to local schools. Not to be neglected here are Wilkinson's obvious orientalist sympathies: he began his career under Elphinstone in Bombay and one of his pursuits was translating medieval Indian tracts on astronomy; like all of his compatriots, he worked closely with Indians, but at least one of those who came to work and study under him declared that Wilkinson 'is more fit to be my gooroo (teacher) than my shishya (scholar) in mathematical questions.' Not surprisingly, Wilkinson's sympathies during the educational controversy were not with the anglicists; instead, he argued for education in the vernaculars and Sanskrit and against imposing English. For these reasons, Bayly calls Wilkinson and those who supported his efforts (including Hodgson) neo-orientalists. 135 Support for Bayly's argument can be found in Ram Camul Sen's 1839 letter to Wilson (cited above), where Sen indicated that he had turned his attention to 60

INTRODUCTION

vernacular education and vernacular translations. Moreover, Wilkinson's famous experiment at Sehore was clearly a revised version of the old orientalist policy of engraftment. Working closely with local pandits with whom he shared a genuine interest in the scientific knowledge to be found in medieval Sanskritic texts, Wilkinson was able to convince these traditionally educated elites to incorporate the ideas of Copernicus and Newton into the Hindu scholarly traditions of which they were masters and teachers. As Bayly notes, Sehore was a favorable place for such an experiment: near Ujjain (one of the Indian centers of astronomy), home to two different traditions of learned Brahmanism and under the rule of a Bhopal dynasty eager to keep up Muslim traditions of educational patronage in order to enhance its own status, this central Indian city was a 'kind of cultural crossroads' where European and Indian ideas could merge relatively freely.136 Adam's point that it was important to draw Indians into the process, to understand what they were capable of doing on their own and in cooperation with British officials, was brilliantly underscored by Wilkinson and his famed circle of Sehore pandits. Additional reasons for seeing the vernacularist and orientalist positions as linked can be found in the career and views of Hodgson. Hodgson was educated at the College of Fort William, where he studied under William Carey, the Baptist missionary and Bengali scholar who one modern scholar has described as a missionary counterpart to the early orientalists. Carey and the Serampore missionaries pursued a variety of linguistic, scholarly and educational projects, some of which involved close cooperation with the Asiatic Society of Bengal and the College of Fort William. 137 The Serampore missionaries were noted for their focus on Bengali, seeing the local vernacular as vital to advancing their religious and educational goals; on the latter score, this led to the 1816 publication of a pamphlet by Joshua Marshman (one of the Serampore missionaries) titled 'Hints Relative to Native Schools.' This tract was apparently the first statement of the vernacularist view that it was foolish to expect any great progress in India by promoting education in a foreign tongue; for this, Marshman argued, only the spoken languages of the ordinary people would dO. 138 Carey played a significant role in these efforts, publishing an important grammar of the Bengali language and eventually heading the Bengali department at the College of Fort William, where he worked closely with various Bengali pandits; while the notion that Carey deserves to be known as the 'father of modern Bengali prose' (as some claim) is highly debatable, there can be little doubt that he played a part in the resurgence of Bengali in the early nineteenth century and that his association with traditionally educated Bengalis was a prominent feature of his scholarly activities, as it was for all the orientalists. 139 As one of Carey's most brilliant students, Hodgson helped keep the orientalist spirit alive by giving it new forms. Resident at Kathmandu in the 1830s and 1840s, Hodgson wrote a series of letters critical of the new 61

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education policy (in a reprint edition of these letters Hodgson apparently made the first use of the word 'Macaulayism' to denote the anglicist program).140 His letters of 1837 and 1843 are reprinted in this volume as document twenty-six. Like Wilkinson, Hodgson had clear orientalist sympathies and was deeply opposed to the educational policy that emerged after 1835. In the preface to the reprint edition of his letters, for instance, Hodgson railed against the views of Trevelyan and Macaulay and in no uncertain terms praised the educational policies of Warren Hastings and Lord Wellesley. Hodgson's debt to Hastings is particularly apparent in a passage where he wrote of the need for 'indigenating [our sound] knowledge in India by means of vernacularisation,' thus forging bonds of loyalty between the British and the mass of their subjects. 141 If Adam and Wilkinson were out to prove that a revamped program of engraftment - one based on an appreciation of the indigenous school system and cooperation with local scholars versed in the more useful elements of traditional learning - could work successfully in diffusing European ideas among Indians, Hodgson's aim was to argue that such an effort would also create the political goodwill that Hastings and the orientalists had always maintained it would. But Hodgson's real contribution to the education debate was the deft manner in which he shifted the terms of the debate by making a passionate case for vernacular schooling. While his sympathies were with the orientalists, he abandoned the usual emphasis on the classical languages of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian as well as respect for the learned elites fluent in these languages: India, he noted, was 'absolutely saturated with dead learning; absolutely bloated with the false pride of learning' which was concealed in mysterious and exotic languages. But, ingeniously, Hodgson turned this argument against the anglicists. Trevelyan thought that the example of Latin in Europe sufficient reason to introduce English into South Asia; but Latin, Hodgson noted, had turned Christianity into 'a scandal and curse' and 'our noble liberty into slavery.' Was there any hope that English in India would escape a similar fate? But in rejecting the orientalist argument in favor of classical languages and learning, Hodgson also gave new force to the argument for engraftment as a means of intellectual and social regeneration. A true system of national education must reach the many, he argued, and it must awaken their intellectual talents and direct these to the practical problems facing the nation. These objects could not be done by randoming selecting a few individuals out of the some 70 million people of British India and giving them five or six years of training in a foreign language and literature as the anglicists proposed; indeed, Hodgson noted in the conclusion to his 1843 letter, recent measures by the British authorities 'may result in supplying the country with an able body of native functionaries, [but] they seem little calculated to meet the wants of the 62

INTRODUCTION

mass of the people, their design indeed being to meet those of the Government only.'142 Only a system of mass vernacular education, where the ideas of Europe were brought home to as many Indians as possible in familiar, not exotic, languages, could rejuvenate the nation. This required supplying India with good books and good teachers; the former, Hodgson argued, should be vernacular translations of the best of European thought, the latter products of new teacher training schools (normal schools) which had just begun to appear in Europe and which should be introduced in India as well. Implicit in all these criticisms of anglicist educational policies was the old orientalist dream of a rebirth of India through the merger of the European and Indian heritages. To be sure, Hodgson was harshly critical of traditionally educated elites and the classical languages they seemed to monopolize. But the idea of concentrating on using vernacular translations of European works in the schools was being advanced separately by noted members ofthe orientalist camp such as Ram Camul Sen; moreover, Hodgson's teacher, William Carey, and the other Serampore missionaries had shared much of the orientalist perspective while making Bengali the focus of their many projects. What Hodgson shared with the Serampore missionaries, Sen, Adam and Wilkinson, was the conviction that European ideas could never be diffused to a wide audience if India's traditions were ignored and denigrated as the anglicists had done: while Joshua Marshman pointed out that it was fallacious to hope to educate the common people of India in a language not their own, Sen complained about the attempt to force English studies onto Indians and asked bitterly what harm could be done in teaching Indians in their own languages; and while Adam gathered information to prove that Indians had a viable system of village schools (most of them offering instruction in the vernaculars) that could be the foundation of an improved educational program, Wilkinson worked closely with pandits familiar with medieval traditions of astronomy to introduce modern science to the Indian public, and Hodgson tried to create a system of national schools where western ideas and the spoken languages of India would come together to create a great body of educated individuals familiar with the best ideas of Europe but oriented to their own country's pressing problems. In seeking to establish schools that would bridge the gap between European knowledge and Indian problems, or theory and practice as he put it, Hodgson was giving new meaning to the old orientalist hope that west and east might converge in ways beneficial to the people of India. But Hodgson's critique of the languages and elites favored by earlier orientalists and his strong emphasis on introducing European knowledge with practical benefits are reminders that his position differed signifi. cantly from that of the academically oriented Wilson. In some ways Hodgson anticipated modern scholarly interest in popular culture and religion as opposed to the Sanskritic tradition that captured Wilson's 63

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

attention. More importantly, it is apparent that the debate about education was moving to new ground in the decade after Bentinck's decision, as the old critics of anglicism such as Sen and Radhakant Deb (as will be shown below) concentrated more and more on vernacular education and new critics such as Wilkinson and Hodgson turned with a keen eye to the elitist tendencies and social pitfalls ofthe anglicists' policy. The force of these new arguments is apparent in Auckland's 1839 minute, where the governor-general went to great lengths to attempt to rebut Hodgson's views on using vernacular translations to reach a mass audience and on the lack of social and political circumstances needed to make the study of English as rewarding to Indians as Latin and Greek had been to early modern Europeans; also revealing is the governor-general's mention of the claims of Wilkinson and Adam regarding the low demand for English education outside of a few large urban areas and the social isolation of English-educated Indians. While the anglicists may have carried the day with Auckland, the debate about education was obviously not yet over. One thing that Auckland's minute did do, is finally evoke a response from the London authorities. The home government had remained deadlocked over the issue of Bentinck's resolution since the rejection of Mill's PC in 1836, with the president of the Board of Control, John Hobhouse, refusing to sanction a second PC submitted by the Court of Directors in September 1839. The deadlock was broken in the fall of 1840 when the new chairman of the court, William Bayley, sent to Hobhouse two proposed responses (drafted in part by himself) to Auckland's 1839 minute and compromise settlement. Hobhouse accepted the less contentious draft and in January 1841 an official dispatch was finally sent to India on the matter of Indian education. This dispatch is reprinted in this volume as document thirty. The 1841 dispatch is noteworthy for its approval of all the main points of Auckland's compromise. Interesting, however, is the fact that the dispatch does not appear to offer any direct approval of the original anglicist policy created by Bentinck and Macaulay; indeed, the statement about forbearing 'at present' from expressing an opinion on how best to communicate European knowledge to Indians, coupled with the preference for allowing equal opportunity for orientalist, anglicist and vernacularist programs in applying for government support, was surely intended as a quiet, but nonetheless direct criticism of the 1835 resolution's pronounced emphasis on English education alone. The fact that the English language is mentioned only once in the dispatch is probably not an oversight either, while the instruction to 'give all suitable encouragement to translators of European works into the vernacular languages and also to provide for the compilation of a proper series of Vernacular Class books' suggests further that the neo-orientalism of Sen, Hodgson, Wilkinson and others was making more headway in official circles than Auckland allowed. 143 64

INTRODUCTION

Later developments bear out this reading of the 1841 dispatch. Auckland's position on vernacular mass education would soon be abandoned by the British government. In the 1850s a consensus emerged on the need for public support for education for all, not merely for elite groups. There was also a growing sense that the policy of spreading western ideas solely by means of English instruction was not working very well. These views gained some of their force from successful programs such as that developed by James Thomason in the Agra region, where the downward filtration plan of the anglicists was abandoned during the 1840s in favor of mass elementary education in the vernaculars to meet the needs of a largely rural population. 144 In addition, members of both the anglicist and orientalist camps offered their support for a change in orientation. Trevelyan and Duff, for example, gave important testimony before parliament in 1853 that English-language education had not been terribly successful while the opposite was true of the vernacular schools. 145 On the other side of the great debate Ram Camul Sen, as already noted, had taken up the cause of vernacular education by the end of the 1830s, and in 1851 Radhakant Deb gave further evidence of this trend among the orientalists: the anglicist policy, he argued, was creating social problems by weaning Indian youth away from traditional occupations through the creation of false hopes for employment in government or commercial offices; far wiser, Deb insisted, would be a thorough system of agricultural and industrial schools teaching useful skills and employing the vernaculars. 146 The fact that former opponents might find common ground in a compromise vernacularist program no doubt helped paved the way for a new educational directive in 1854. Sir Charles Wood's education dispatch, as it is commonly known, upheld the essence of Auckland's compromise: the primary goal remained the promotion of European learning and the British university system was to be introduced into India to further this goal (as well as to enable Indians to compete better for civil service appointments); but Auckland's decision to continue encouraging the study of classical languages and culture was reaffirmed (the first examinations at the new university in Calcutta, for example, allowed students to offer either a classical European or South Asian language). More importantly, Wood's dispatch committed the British to expanding their educational efforts beyond the elite groups who sought either an English or a classical education. Direct mass education in the vernaculars, rather than downward filtration, became the new focus of education. 147 All in all, Auckland's minute and the 1841 and 1854 directives indicate that the general victory of the reformers was not a complete one. The vernacularists had managed to shift the debate from its prior focus on the competing merits of classical oriental learning and western science to the failings of English-language education and the need for practical education on a mass scale. If the anglicists could support the new 65

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

measures because of the stress on modern science and the introduction of the university system in India, their opponents could find comfort in the fact that the British authorities had finally come down firmly in support of the idea that education in India had to be conducted in Indian languages: as Sen's 1839 letter to Wilson indicates, it was important to orientalists and neo-orientalists alike that the 'Natives ... be taught in their own languages!'148 To be sure, the dream of Grant that English might follow Persian in becoming one of India's many languages would prove not to be purely illusory; but the idea that this came to pass because Macaulay and Trevelyan had made a great revolution by demolishing official support for orientalism is. 149

Notes 1 For more on the role of Indians in the founding of the British empire, see Bayly, Indian Society. 2 Bayly, Empire and Information, passim. 3 Ibid., pp. 15, 69-88, 196-7, 284-7. For additional insights into the importance of Persian in elite culture during this period, see Lelyveld, Aligarh's First Generation, pp. 30-4, 51-2, and Sharar, Lucknow, ch. 15. 4 Irschick, Dialogue and History, Introduction. 5 Marshall, 'Warren Hastings,' passim. 6 Marshall, 'Warren Hastings,' pp. 245-56; McCully, English Education, p. 19; Kopf, British Orientalism, Part I; Rocher, Orientalism, Poetry, and the Millennium, pp. 48-54, 74-6, 82-3, 240-1, 245. 7 Imperial Record Department, Calendar of Persian Correspondence, p. 89 (entry no. 224). 8 Marshall, 'Warren Hastings,' pp. 247-8, 253; Cohn, 'Command of Language,' pp. 317-18. The proposed permanent grant ofland was never actually carried into effect: see Sanial, 'Calcutta Madrassa,' pp. 83-8. 9 For more on the founding of the Benares Sanskrit College, see Cohn, 'Command of Language,' pp. 318-19; for Duncan's adherence to Hastings' views, see Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 29-30. 10 Marshall, 'Warren Hastings,' p. 256. 11 Bayly, Empire and Information, pp. 81-2. 12 Ibid., p. 82. 13 These issues have been explored at length by Kopfin British Orientalism. 14 McCully, English Education, pp. 11-16; Kopf, British Orientalism, p. 27; Embree, Charles Grant, pp. 49-54, 141-57; Laird, Missionaries and Education, pp. 60-2; Clive, Macaulay, pp. 345-6; Sharp, Selections, pp. 16-18. 15 McCully, English Education, pp. 11-14; Embree, Charles Grant, pp. 150-2; Clive, Macaulay, p. 345; Sharp, Selections, pp. 16-17. 16 Grant's comments are supported by statistical evidence regarding Bengal and Bihar compiled by William Adam in the 1830s. In his third report (published in 1838) Adam noted that at the some 725 schools offering instruction in Persian and Arabic, the vast majority of students studied the former and of these Persian 'scholars' nearly 60 per cent were Hindus; moreover, a few of the teachers were Hindus and many of the

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17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

40

41 42

schools' patrons were wealthy Hindus (DiBona, One Teacher, One School, pp. 243-60). Clive, Macaulay, p. 346. Ibid., p. 345; McCully, English Education, pp. 15-18. Metcalf, Islamic Revival, ch. 1 (especially pp. 29-34). Ibid., p. 31. Kopf, British Orientalism, ch. 10. For more on this group of administrators, see Zastoupil, Mill and India, ch.3. Ibid., ch. 1; Stokes, English Utilitarians, pp. 25-80. Laird, Missionaries and Education, chs. 3-4; McCully, English Education, pp. 37-40; Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, chs. 2-3. Malcolm, Memoir, vol. I, p. 189. Elphinstone, minute on education (March 1824), in Forrest, Selections, p.109. Under Munro's guidance, educational efforts in Madras were confined throughout the 1820s largely to improving the existing system of vernacular education at the village level, including the establishment of a central training school for teachers at Madras (McCully, English Education, pp. 33-7). Varma, Mountstuart Elphinstone, pp. 230, 235-6. McCully, English Education, pp. 27-33; Ballhatchet, Social Policy and Social Change, pp. 250-96; Varma, Mountstuart Elphinstone, pp. 226-41. Bayly, Empire and Information, pp. 229-46. McCully, English Education, pp. 20-2; Mittra, Life of Sen, pp. 6-8, 41; Broomfield, Elite Confict, pp. 5-10; Kling, Partner in Empire, pp. 5-8; Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, chs. 2-3. For this kind of interpretation, see Viswanathan, Masks of Conquest and Sumit Sarkar, 'Rammohun Roy and the Break with the Past' (hereafter: Sarkar, 'Rammohun Roy'), in Joshi, Rammohun Roy, p. 47. Kling, Partner in Empire, ch. 1. Ibid., pp. 23-25; Mittra, Life of Sen, pp. 10-11; Broomfield, Elite Conflict, pp.10-13. Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 180-1, 193-6; Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 28-32. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed, 'Rammohun Roy and His Contemporaries,' in Joshi, Rammohun Roy, pp. 98-9. Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 257-9; see also Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 47-8. Mittra, Life of Sen, pp. 9-10; Kopf, British Orientalism, p. 180fn. This account of Roy's life and career is taken from Crawford, Ram Mohan Roy and Sumit Sarkar, 'Rammohun Roy.' For a different account of Roy's childhood and early education, see Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 32-4. Sarkar, 'Rammohun Roy,' pp. 49-53. Ahmed attributes the Muslim elements in Roy's thought to his close contact with the scholars at the Calcutta Madrasa, claiming that there is no solid evidence that Roy ever studied at Patna, the place where most scholars think Roy was exposed to Islamic rationalism (Social Ideas and Social Change, p. 33). Sarkar, 'Rammohun Roy,' pp. 59-60; Crawford, Ram Mohan Roy, ch. 8; Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 39-40. Bayly, Empire and Information, pp. 346-51.

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43 Stokes, English Utilitarians, pp. 94-5, 162,273; Rosselli, Bentinck, pp. 85, 195, 224, 266-71, 322; Metcalf, Land, Landlords, and the British Raj, pp. 58, 64-5. 44 Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 31-4, 69, 169fn, 170-6, 265-6. For a more critical look at the relationship between British administrator-scholars and their Indian assistants, see Dirks, 'Colonial Histories and Native Informants.' 45 H. H. Wilson, letter of 2 November 1844, quoted in Mittra, Life of Sen, pp.43-5. 46 Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 179, 183-4. 47 Ibid., pp. 98-9, 105-6. 48 Biswas, Correspondence of Roy, pp. 198-201 (quotation on p. 200). 49 Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 175, 266, 270-1; Mittra, Life of Sen, pp. 9-10; Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, p. 36. For Roy's role in the sati controversy, see Ashis Nandy, 'Sati: A Nineteenth Century Tale of Women, Violence and Protest,' in Joshi, Rammohun Roy, pp. 168-94, and Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 39, 113-14. For Roy's exclusion from the founding of Hindu College, see Sarkar, 'Rammohun Roy,' pp. 57-8; Crawford, Ram Mohan Roy, pp. 120-1; and Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, p. 36. 50 Biswas, Correspondence of Roy, p. 200. 51 Wilson, letter of 4 November 1844, quoted in Mittra, Life of Sen, p. 45. 52 Cohn, 'Command of Language,' p. 322. 53 McCully, English Education, pp. 23-6. The success of Delhi College is discussed in Metcalf, Islamic Revival, pp. 72-5. For a hostile view of Wilson's efforts, see Sirkin and Sirkin, 'Mill and Disutilitarianism,' pp. 232-4, 242-6, passim. 54 Clive, Macaulay, p. 348. For the lack of interest in western education among educated Muslims before 1857, see Lelyveld, Aligarh's First Generation, pp. 68-71, and Robinson, Separatism among Indian Muslims, pp.34-39. 55 For Sen's activities associated with this committee, see Mittra, Life of Sen, pp.21-35. 56 Zastoupil, Mill and India, ch. 1. For an excellent study of Mill's critique of orientalism in his History, see Majeed, Ungoverned Imaginings. 57 On Mill's authorship of this dispatch, see Stokes, English Utilitarians, Note D, p. 324. 58 Ibid., pp. 55-8; Zastoupil, Mill and India, pp. 8, 32-3; Majeed, Ungoverned Imaginings, pp. 140-3; Hilliker, 'English Utilitarians,' passim. 59 For a good discussion of Mill's critique of poetry (the language of passion, rather than logic and reason, as he saw it), see Majeed, Ungoverned Imaginings, pp. 163-70. 60 Zastoupil, Mill and India, pp. 26-38, and passim. 61 For more on this subject, see document twenty below, note 19. 62 Zastoupil, Mill and India, pp. 37-8. 63 Rosselli, Bentinck, pp. 201-7, 267-70; Clive, Macaulay, p. 351; McCully, English Education, pp. 63-4. 64 McCully, English Education, pp. 43-4, 59-61; Rosselli, Bentinck, p. 224; Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 147-52. For a glimpse of this same process, though at a slightly later date, in western India, see Nanda, Gokhale, ch. 3. 65 McCully, English Education, pp. 61-5 (quotation by Macaulay on p. 64); Clive, Macaulay, pp. 160-76,309-310,351.

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INTRODUCTION

66 Laird, Missionaries and Education, pp. 202-22 (Roy's role is discussed on pp. 199, 203-4, and 217); McCully, English Education, pp. 40-4; Crawford, Ram Mohan Roy, pp. 119-20. 67 Hilliker, 'Trevelyan,' pp. 279, 282, 284-5; Laird, Missionaries and Education, pp. 233-4, 237-8; Clive, Macaulay, pp. 363, 410-12, 490; Rosselli, Bentinck, pp. 184, 210. 68 Bayly, Empire and Information, pp. 230, 232. 69 Hilliker, 'Trevelyan,' pp. 281-2. 70 Ibid., pp. 282-6 (quotation on p. 282); Clive, Macaulay, pp. 353-6. For Trevelyan's letters to Bentinck, see Philips, Correspondence of Bentinck, pp. 776-7, 1238-9, 1261-2, 1393. 71 Clive, Macaulay, pp. 364-6; McCully, English Education, pp. 65-70. 72 Rosselli, Bentinck, pp. 206-25; Philips, Correspondence of Bentinck, pp. 1395-8, 1413-14. For printed copies of parts of Adam's reports, see DiBona, One Teacher, One School. 73 McCully, English Education, pp. 74-90; Clive, Macaulay, ch. 13. 74 Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 163-4. 75 Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, p. 166; Rosselli, Bentinck, p. 206. 76 See, for example, Radhakant Dev (Deb) to H. H. Wilson, 5 March 1836, in lOR: H. H. Wilson Collection, MSS. Eur. E301l2, ff. 147-8. 77 Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 147-51. 78 McCully, English Education, pp. 76-7, 90-130 (quotation on p. 91). 79 For more on the government's response to the petitions, see the textual introductions to documents seventeen and eighteen below, and Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 161-3. It should be noted that the government seemed more concerned to assuage directly Muslim fears that the new policy was an attack on Islamic literature and religion than they were concerns of Hindus about the effects of the new policy on their religion. 80 According to Clive, it was Lord Auckland who thought this (Macaulay, p.342). 81 Ibid., p. 371 (Clive here relies upon the earlier interpretation of Percival Spear). 82 This latter point has been argued at length by Kopfin British Orientalism. 83 Clive, Macaulay, p. 364. 84 See Macaulay's comment in the margin of H. T. Prinsep's note of 15 February 1835 (document fifteen below, footnote e). 85 Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 153, 159. 86 Ahmed makes a similar point, noting that Macaulay summed up the attitude not only of British reformers but also their Indian allies such as Roy (Social Ideas and Social Change, p. 158). 87 Clive, Macaulay, pp. 379-82. For Prinsep's account of events, see the extracts from his diary printed in Sharp, Selections, pp. 132-4. 88 Metcalf, Islamic Revival, pp. 72-3, 368; Kozlowski, Muslim Endowments, chs. 1-2. See also the glossary below. 89 See the extract from Prinsep's diary in Sharp, Selections, pp. 133-4. 90 For Macaulay's defense of London University, see Clive, Macaulay, pp. 111-15, 377-8. 91 Two recent studies lend some support to Prinsep's arguments about the lack of interest in western learning and the success of engraftment: see Lelyveld, Aligarh's First Generation, pp. 68-71, and Metcalf, Islamic Revival, pp. 72-5. 92 Sharp, Selections, p. 134; Clive, Macaulay, pp. 381-2.

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93 For information on the dating of these petitions, see the textual introductions to the petitions printed below. There seems to be some confusion as to whether the total number of signatures affIxed to the petition in Sanskrit was 8900 or about 10,000. 94 Wilson, letter to Ram Camul Sen, 25 September 1835, quoted in Mittra, Life of Sen, pp. 18-19. 95 Ram Camul Sen to Wilson, 4 January 1838, in lOR: H. H. Wilson Collection, MSS. Eur. E301l3, ff. 86-7. 96 Sen to Wilson, 26 January 1838, in lOR: H. H. Wilson Collection, MSS. Eur. E301l3, ff. 86-7. 97 Ibid. For an example of an Indian petition using less forceful language, see the Dharma Sabha's petition protesting Bentinck's decision to ban sati in British territories, printed in Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 176-9. 98 Sen to Wilson, 15 August 1839, in lOR: H. H. Wilson Collection, MSS. Eur. E303/4, ff. 71-4. 99 Dev to Wilson, 5 March 1836. 100 It is not clear where Prinsep got these figures. The Sanskrit petition had been signed by no more than 10,000 individuals, and the two from Sanskrit College (Calcutta) were signed by only 146 students. The two Muslim petitions bore the signatures of some 8000 and 18,000 people respectively. 101 J. C. C. Sutherland, secretary to GCPI, to H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the government of India, 31 August 1838, and minute by H. T. Prinsep, 30 July 1838, both in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77635, pp. 61-74, 75-83. 102 Wilson, letter to Ram Camul Sen, quoted in Mittra, Life of Sen, p. 14. 103 Quoted in Zastoupil, Mill and India, p. 72. 104 For more information on this matter, see document twenty below, note 19. 105 For examples ofthis approval of Wilson and the GCPI's efforts after 1830, see Public Department dispatches to Bengal No. 74 of 24 October 1832 and, especially, No. 28 of 16 April 1834, in lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/41 735, pp. 565-86 and E/4/740, pp. 895-920. In the latter dispatch Wilson is mentioned by name as the author of the 'valuable Report' of the GCPI on its educational efforts for the year 1831 (the reference is to Report on Colleges, 1831). Both dispatches were drafted by J. S. Mill (see Robson, Writings on India, p. 292). 106 For details, see the textual introduction to document twenty-one below. 107 For more on this subject, see Zastoupil, Mill and India, ch. 2. 108 Ibid., pp. 39-40. For more on the drafting of this and other East India Company dispatches, see the textual introduction to document twentyone below. 109 Ibid., pp. 41-50. 110 Clive, Macaulay, pp. 352-3, 384. 111 See note 105 above. 112 For a detailed look at this subject, see Zastoupil, Mill and India, pp. 21-3, 51-6 and ch. 4. 113 For more on this, see Zastoupil, 'India, J. S. Mill and "Western" Culture.' 114 Zastoupil, Mill and India, pp. 22-3. 115 Ibid., pp. 213-14. 116 Trevelyan, Education of the People of India, p. 89.

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117 Ibid., pp. 51-4, 84, 90-1. Comments about the Brahman's monopoly of learning can also be found in document twenty-eight below. 118 Metcalf, Islamic Revival, pp. 71-5. 119 Trevelyan, Education of the People of India, p. 93. 120 Clive, Macaulay, pp. 408-10. 121 This is the general message of Kling in his book Partner in Empire. 122 This point has been ably argued by Cohn, 'Command of Language,' passim. 123 Kozlowski, Muslim Endowments, passim. 124 For more on Mill's debt to the South Asian heritage, see Zastoupil, 'India, J. S. Mill and "Western" Culture.' Good arguments for the need to investigate the cultural influence of the colonized on the colonizers can be found in Gilroy, Black Atlantic and Said, Culture and Imperialism. 125 For more on the communication between Hobhouse and Auckland, see Clive, Macaulay, pp. 384-5, 394-5, 421-2. 126 For more information about this important rejection of one of the anglicists' proposals, see the textual introduction to document twentyfive below. 127 See government of India General Department letter to the Court of Directors, No. 36 of 19 November 1838, in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/ 1846, No. 77636, pp. 1-25. 128 H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the government of India in the General Department, to T. H. Maddock, officiating secretary to the government of India with the governor-general, 31 July 1839, in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77637, pp. 163-71. 129 J. C. C. Sutherland, secretary to the GCPI, to H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the government of India, 31 August 1838, in lOR: Board's Collections, FI 4/1846, No. 77636, pp. 61-83. For the GCPI's generally critical response to Adam's report, see J. C. C. Sutherland to H. T. Prinsep, 4 December 1838, in lOR: India General Department Consultations, No. 19 of 26 December 1838, P/186/86. 130 See document twenty-one, note 36. 131 For a full record of the correspondence briefly summarized here, see lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, Nos. 77636-7. 132 For a more detailed analysis of Auckland's compromise, see the textual introduction to document twenty-nine. 133 DiBona, One Teacher, One School, pp. 6-16 (quotation on p. 12). 134 For further discussion of the response of the British authorities to the Adam reports, see Clive, Macaulay, pp. 406-7, and McCully, English Education, pp. 76-7. 135 Bayly, Empire and Information, pp. 257-60 (quotation on p. 259). 136 Ibid., pp. 259-60. 137 Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 51-5, 70-80, 251-2. 138 Marshman, Life of Carey, pp. 117-27; Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 15560. For more on Marshman's educational efforts, see Laird, Missionaries and Education, pp. 71-2, 77-8, 91, 94-5. 139 For the interaction between local pandits and Carey, see Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 110-13 (quotation from p. 112). 140 Clive claims that Hodgson invented the term 'Macaulayism' (Macaulay, p.407). 141 Hodgson, Miscellaneous Essays, vol. II, p. 256. 142 Hodgson's reference here is to the policy eventually enacted by GovernorGeneral Lord Hardinge in the mid-1840s which gave preference in 71

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143 144 145 146 147

148 149

government hiring to Indians educated at government or missionary schools (McCully, English Education, pp. 84-5). For more analysis of the creation and content of this dispatch, see the textual introduction to document thirty. Robinson, Separatism among Indian Muslims, pp. 34-5; McCully, English Education, pp. 96-101; Lelyveld, Aligarh's First Generation, pp.68-71. Moore, Wood's Indian Policy, pp. 108-9. See the quotation from Deb in Clive, Macaulay, pp. 415-16. McCully, English Education, pp. 131-49, 168; Moore, Wood's Indian Policy, pp. 108-116; Clive, Macaulay, pp. 413-14. For more on the later history of education in British India, see Nurullah and Naik, History of Indian Education, Basu, Essays in the History of Indian Education, and Datta, Social History of Modern India, pp. 69-89, ch. 3. Aspects of the complex educational issues that arose after 1854 in different regions and among various groups are also discussed in Brown, Modern India, pp. 769, 117-23; Hardy, Muslims of British India, ch. 4; Lelyveld, Aligarh's First Generation, passim; Metcalf, Islamic Revival, passim; Robinson, Separatism among Indian Muslims, pp. 34-9; Tucker, Ranade, pp. 2833, 74-7, 92-3, 299-301; Kosambi, 'Meeting of the Twain,' passim; Zelliot, From Untouchable to Dalit, pp. 156-9; Metcalf, Land, Landlords, and the British Raj, pp. 318-27; and Baker, Politics of South India, pp.45-9. Sen to Wilson, 15 August 1839. For a contrary view, compare John Clive's assessment of Macaulay's role: 'one can hardly disagree with the judgment, brief and to the point, that [Macaulay] himself set down in his journal when, almost twenty years after he had written it, he came once more across his Minute on education: "It made a great revolution'" (Macaulay, p. 426).

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DOCUMENT ONE

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Minute by Warren Hastings, governor-general of Fort William (Calcutta) in Bengal, recorded in the Public Department, 17 April 1781

Warren Hastings' minute recorded in the Bengal Public Department Consultations, with its wholly positive response to an Indian Muslim delegation's request for his support in establishing a madrasa in Calcutta under the direction of Maulawi Mujid ai-Din, effectively defines the 'orientalist' character of British official policy towards Indian education and culture during its first formative phase. What is particularly striking is the way in which the governor-general wholeheartedly accepts the arguments apparently advanced by the petitioners, including the key notions that (a) the British government in Bengal had now assumed a natural responsibility for patronizing traditional Islamic learning (especially legal studies), and (b) that the government would require in future an adequate supply of trained jurists for the local courts. We know too from other sources that Hastings hoped that the foundation of the madrasa would help to reconcile Indian Muslims to the rapid expansion of British rule. Hastings' personal interest in oriental studies - he learned Urdu and Persian, and collected oriental manuscripts etc. - is evident here in his willingness to defray the initial cost of establishing the madrasa from his own private resources for nearly two years, before claiming reimbursement from the company, and making provision for the institution's future maintenance through an assignment of revenue. For the subsequent history of arrangements for the funding of the madrasa, see below pp. 176-7. See also Introduction, pp. 2-3.

SOURCE(S): lOR: Bengal Public Consultations, 18 April 1781, P/2/43, ff. 314-17. A copy of this minute, apparently based on the text preserved in the set of Bengal Public Consultations now held in the National Archives of India in New Delhi, is available in Bengal Past and Present, 8 (Jan.-Jun. 1914), pp. 105-7. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 7-9.

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In the Month of September 1780 a Petition l was presented to me by a considerable Number of Mussulmen of Credit and Learning, who attended in a Body for that Purpose praying that I would use my Influence with a Stranger of the name ofMudged O'den 2 who was then lately arrived at the Presidency to persuade him to remain there for the Instruction of young Students [in] the Mahomitian Law, and in such other Services3 as are 73

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taught in the Mahomitan Schools for which he was represented to be uncommonly qualified. They represented that this was a favourable Occasion to establish a Madressa or College, and Mudged O'den the fittest Person to form and preside in it, that Calcutta was already become the Seat of a great Empire, and the Resort of Persons from all Parts of Hindostan and Deccan, that it had been the Pride of every polished Court and the Wisdom of every well regulated Government, both in India and in Persia to promote by such Instructions 4 the Growth and Extention of liberal Knowledge, that in India only the Traces of them now remain, the Decline of Learning having accompanied that of the Mogul Empire, that the numerous Offices of our Government which required Men of improved Abilities to fill and the care which had been occasionally observed to select Men of the first Eminence in the Science of Jurisprudence to officiate as Judges in the criminal and assisors in the Civil Courts of Judicature, and (I hope this Addition will not be imputed to me as Ostentation on an Occasion in which the Sincerity of what I shall hereafter propose for the Public Patronage will be best evident by my own Example) the Belief which generally prevailed that Men so accomplished usually met with a distinguished Reception from myselfl,] afforded them particular Encouragement, to hope that a Proposal of this Nature would prove acceptable to the actual Government. This was the Substance of the Petition which I can only repeat from my Memory, having mislaid the Original. I dismissed them with a Promise of complying with their Wishes to the utmost of my Power. I sent for the Man on whom they had bestowed such Encomiums and prevailed upon him to accept of the Office designed for him. He opened his School about5 the Beginning of October and has bestowed an unremitted Attention on it to this Time, with a Success and Reputation which have justified the Expectation which had6 been formed of it. Many Students have already finished their Education under his Instructions and have received their Dismission in form and many dismissed unknown to me. The Master supposing himselflimited to a fixed monthly Sum which would not admit a larger Number besides day Schoolars, he has at this Time forty Boarders mostly Natives of this Province, 7 but some Sojourners from other Parts of India[.] Among them I had the Satisfaction of seeing on the last New Year's Day, some who had come from the Districts of Cashmeer[,] Guzarat and one from the Carnatic. I am assured that the Want of suitable Accommodation alone prevents an Encrease ofthe Number. For this Reason I have lately made a Purchase of a convenient Piece of Ground near the Beita Connah8 in a Quarter ofthe Town called Pudpoker, and have laid the Foundation of a square Building for a Madrissa constructed on the Plan of similar Edifices in other Parts of India. Thus far I have prosecuted the Undertaking on my own Means and with no very liberal Supplies I am now constrained to recommend it to the 74

DOCUMENT ONE

Board, and through that Channel to the Ron'ble Court of Directors for a more adequate and permanent Endowment. 9 By an Estimate of the Building which with a plan and Elevation of it shall accompany this Minute the whole Cost of it will be 51,000 Arcot Rupees, oflo which I shall beg leave to add the Price of the Ground being 6,280 Sicca Rupees. l l The Amount of both is Arcot Rupees 57,745-2-11. It shall be my Care to prevent an Excess of this Sum, which I request may be placed to the Company's Account,12 and a Bond allowed me for the Amount and that I may be enabled by the Sanction of the Board to execute this Work. I must likewise propose that a Parcel of Land may be assigned for the growing Charge of this Foundation. The present Expense is as follows:The Preceptor per Month 40 Schoolars from 7 to 513 per month A Sweeper Rouse Rent Sicca rupees

300 222 3 100 625

The day Schoolars pay nothing. In the Proportion of the above Expense an Establishment of 100 Schoolars may be estimated at 100014 Rupees per Month at the utmost. I would recommend that the Rents of one or more Mawsas or Villages, in the Neighbourhood of the Place be assigned for the monthly Expense of the proposed Madrissa and that it be referred to the Committee of Revenue to provide and make the Endowment and to regulate the Mode of Collection, and Payment in such a Manner as to fix and ascertain the Amount, and Periods of both, and prevent any future Abuses of one or Misapplication of the other. For the present an Assignment of half the estimated Sum will be sufficient. (Signed) WARREN HASTINGS, Fort William; The 17th April 1781.

Notes 1 An English abstract of this petition is printed in Imperial Record Department, Calendar of Persian Correspondence, no. 224. Peter Marshall has suggested that Hastings may even have drafted the petition himself. See Marshall, 'Warren Hastings,' pp. 247-8. 2 Maulawi Mujid aI-Din held the position of preceptor at the new Calcutta Madrasa from October 1780 until March 1791, after which he was

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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14

dismissed for mismanagement. See Sanial, 'Calcutta Madrassa,' p. 88; also Marshall, 'Warren Hastings,' pp. 242-62. The official copyist has mistakenly put 'Services' instead of 'sciences.' See Bengal Past and Present, p. 105, and Sharp, p. 8. The Bengal Past and Present copy (p. 105) has 'institution'; Sharp (p. 8) has 'institutions.' The copy of the text in Bengal Past and Present (p. 105) has 'at the beginning of October.' The Bengal Past and Present copy (p. 105) has 'the expectations which have,' whilst Sharp (p. 8) gives 'the expectation which has.' Both Bengal Past and Present (p. 105) and Sharp (p. 8) say 'these Provinces.' That is near Baithakhana Street or Bowbazar (see Ray, Calcutta, p. 87). The establishment of the madrasa was reported to the Court of Directors in paragraph 20 of Public Department letter of 15 July 1782 (lOR: Letters from Bengal, E/4I40, p. 87). Both Bengal Past and Present (p. 106) and Sharp (p. 9) give 'to' here. Prior to the establishment of the universal rupee in 1836, several different silver rupee coins were current in British Indian territories, including the Sicca rupee in Bengal and the Arcot rupee in Madras. Both Bengal Past and Present (p. 106) and Sharp (p. 9) have 'accounts.' Bengal Past and Present (p. 106) also has Rs '7 to 5,' but Sharp (p. 9) has '7 to 6.' Bengal Past and Present (p. 106) also gives 'Rs 1000,' whereas Sharp (p. 9) has '10,000 Rupees.'

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DOCUMENT TWO

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Part of a letter from Jonathan Duncan, resident at Benares, to Earl Cornwallis, governor-general in council of Fort William in Bengal, dated 1 January 1792

Jonathan Duncan's letter to Cornwallis (governor-general, 1786-93) proposing the establishment of a Hindu college at Benares, further extends the orienta list policy instituted by Warren Hastings to include official patronage of traditional Sanskrit learning. Duncan argues his case for the college partly in terms of the political benefits to be gained from demonstrating the British government's positive support for Hindu scholarly elites, and partly by pointing to the practical advantage of securing a future body of reliable Hindu legal experts to assist in the administration of justice. Like Hastings, whose friendship he had enjoyed, Duncan took a personal interest in Indian languages and literature, in his case having learned Bengali and Persian. His growing appreciation of Hindu literature and thought, and his close contacts with Brahman scholars, are also strikingly revealed in his readiness to take the personal initiative of proposing the foundation of the college, and in his far-sighted plan for the formation of a reference library for the preservation of traditional Sanskrit learning and culture. The Benares College was opened on 28 October 1791, and Duncan's detailed proposals for its support were approved by the Bengal government on 13 January 1792.1 See also Introduction, pp. 3-4.

SOURCE(S): lOR: Bengal Revenue Consultations, Misc. Nos. 17-18 of 13 January 1792, P/52/40. Another manuscript copy is included in lOR: Home Miscellaneous Series, H/487, pp. 29-46. For a later printed copy, probably based on the Bengal Revenue Consultations held in the West Bengal State Archives at Calcutta, see Bengal Past and Present, 8 (Jan.-Jun. 1914), pp. 130-7. See also Sharp, Selections, pp.1O-12.

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My Lord, Having in View to the Surplus Revenue expected to be derived from the permanent Settlement (as reported in my address of the 25th of November 1790) and ofthe Instructions thereon passed by your Lordship in Council in February last, 2 to transmit for the Consideration of Government, my Sentiments regarding its appropriation[,] reflected 77

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frequently on the Subject; it appeared to me that a part of those funds could not be applied to more general advantage or with more local propriety, than by the Institution of a Hindoos College or academy for the preservation and Cultivation of the Laws, Literature and Religion of that nation, at this Center of their Faith, and the Common Resort of all their Tribes. Two important advantages seemed derivable from such an Establishment, the first to the British name and nation, in its Tendency towards endearing our Government to the native Hindoos, by our exceeding in our attention towards them & their Systems, the Care shewn even by their own native Princes; for altho' Learning has ever been Cultivated at Benares, in numerous private Seminaries, yet no public Institution of the kind here proposed ever appears to have existed, to which may, in a Considerable Degree be attributed the great Difficulty of now Collecting Complete Treatises (altho' such as are well known to have existed) on the Hindoo Religion, Laws, arts or Sciences; a Defect, and loss which the permanency of a College at Benares must be peculiarly well adapted to Correct, and recover by a gradual Collection and Correction of the Books still to be met, (tho' in a very dispersed and imperfect State) so as with Care and attention, and by the assistance and Exertions of the professors and Students to accumulate at only a small and Comparative expence to Government, a precious Library of the most ancient and Valuable General Learning and Tradition now perhaps existing in any part of the Globe. The 2d principal advantage that may be derived from this Institution will be felt in its effects, more immediately, by the natives, tho' not without being participated in by the British Subjects, who are to Rule over them, by preserving and disseminating a knowledge of the Hindoo Law, and proving a Nursery of future Doctors and Expounders thereof to assist the European Judges in the due regular, and uniform administration of its genuine Letter and Spirit to the body of the people. 3

• • •

The Extract of my Proceedings already referred to Contains the few Rules which have already been thought of for this Institution, and they are respectfully Submitted to Government for such Correction or addition as may be thought expedient. 4 I remain with the greatest respect etc (Signed) Jon[atha]n Duncan Resid[en]t Benares, the 1st January 1792.

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Proposed Rules for this College 1. The Governor General in Council to be Visitor, and the Resident his Deputy. 2. The stipends to be paid by the hands of the Residents, but the Pundits to have no Concern with the Collection of the Revenue. 3. The nine Scholars (or eighteen if so many can be Supported) to be taught gratis, but no others except a Certain number of such poorer Boys, 5 who[se] parents or kinsmen cannot pay for Instruction, all other Scholars should pay their respective teachers as usual. 4. The Teachers and Students to hold their places during the pleasure of the Visitor. 5. Complaints to be first made to the Resident with a power of appealing to the Visitor for his Decisions. 6. The Professor of medicine must be a Vedya and so may the Teacher of Grammar, but as he could not teach Panini, 6 it would be better that all except the Physician should be Brahmins. 7. The Brahmin Teachers to have a preference over Strangers in Succeeding to the Headships and the Students in succeeding to the professorships, if they shall on Examination be found qualified. 8. The Scholars to be examined four Times a year in the presence of the Resident, in all such parts of knowledge as are not held too Sacred to be discussed in the presence of any but Brahmins. 9. Each professor to Compose annually a lecture, for the use of his students, on his Respective Science, and Copies of such Lectures as may legally be Divulged to be delivered to the Resident. 10. Examinations of the Students, in the more Secret Branches of Learning, to be made four Times a year by a Committee of Brahmins, nominated by the Residents. 11. The plan of a Course of study in each Science to be prepared by the Several professors. 12. The Students to be Some Times employed in transcribing or Correcting Books, for the use ofthe College, so as to form in Time a perfect library. 13. The Discipline of the College to be Conformable in all respects to the Dharma Sastra in the Chapter on Education. The Second Book of Menu contains the whole System of Discipline. 7

Notes 1 Narain, Jonathan Duncan, pp. 169-77; also lOR: Bengal Revenue Consultations, Misc. No. 19 of 13 January 1792, P/52/40. 2 Although the P/52/40 text gives November 1789 as the date of Duncan's earlier report on the surplus revenues of Benares (and both Bengal Past 79

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3

4

5 6 7

and Present [po 130] and Sharp [po 10] repeat this date), it is clear that the report was actually dated 25 November 1790. See lOR: Bengal Revenue Consultations, Misc. Nos. 4-5 of 11 February 1791, P/52/26, pp. 177-388, for a copy of the report under the latter date, as well as for the instructions passed upon it by the Bengal government. Five paragraphs in Duncan's letter have been omitted here. They are concerned with various detailed financial considerations that had earlier led him to defer the college project, but which now persuaded him to pursue it. In addition to the proposed rules for the Benares college, Duncan's original proceedings of 1 December 1791, forwarded with his letter, included estimates of the expenditure involved in the project, plus a summary analysis of the main branches of Hindu literature, law, religion, etc., to be taught at the college. These latter sections have not been reproduced here. The Bengal Past and Present (p. 135) version has 'poor' here. A reference to the classic account of Sanskrit grammar by Panini (? third or fourth century BCE). The code of Manu comprises the most celebrated of the dharma-sastras or Hindu law-books.

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DOCUMENT THREE

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Part of chapter IV of Charles Grant's Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain, Particularly with Respect to Morals. Written Chiefly in 1792

Grant's Observations represent an early and vigorous expression from a rising company spokesman of the opposite policy pole to the orienta list educational program espoused by Warren Hastings, with its emphasis on the need for the company's government to adopt a positive role in reviving and maintaining traditional Indian learning and culture, both Hindu and Muslim. Grant, by contrast - and writing essentially from an evangelical Christian standpoint considered that the Hindu population (in this treatise he largely ignores the position of Indian Muslims and other minorities) was generally in a backward, immoral and superstitious state precisely because of what he believed to be the malign influence of Hinduism - its values, beliefs and practices. The East India Company therefore had a moral duty - which was also the ultimate justification for its own rule - to persuade that population to abandon most of its traditional culture in favor of what he held to be the more advanced western systems of rational and scientific thought, combined with the tenets of the Christian religion. Anticipating the anglicist position of Macaulay and Trevelyan, Grant also concluded that the best way to effect this revolution was to make English the language of government, and to spread the knowledge of English language and literature as widely as possible through a concerted teaching and printing program. Grant's Observations were mainly written in 1792 as part of his attempt (as a former company employee and a future leading member of the Court of Directors) to give a new direction to British Indian policy during the debates preceding the renewal of the company's charter in 1793, and especially in an effort to persuade the government and parliament to open the company's territories to Christian missions. Though then unsuccessful in these endeavors, Grant went on to present his treatise formally to the Court of Directors in 1797. Eventually, during the later 1812-13 debates on the further renewal of the company's charter, it was decided to print the Observations for the use of parliament, as a back-up to the now successful campaign to open India to missionary activity, and a measure of western education.l See also Introduction, pp. 5-7. SOURCE{S): Papers Relating to Indian Affairs (British Sessional Papers, House of Commons, 1812- 13, x, 282, pp. 106- 12). For an earlier manuscript copy of the whole treatise, containing a short supplementary note, see lOR: MSS. Eur. E 93. This manuscript was apparently

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copied in 1811 from a transcript of the missing original version presented by Grant to the company in August 1797. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 81-6.

--------------~-------------We now proceed to the main object of this work, for the sake of which all the preceding topics and discussions have been brought forward, - an inquiry into the means of remedying disorders, which have become thus inveterate in the state of society among our Asiatic subjects, which destroy their happiness, and obstruct every species of improvement among them. That it is in the highest degree desirable, that a healing principle should be introduced, no man surely will deny. Supposing it to be in our power to convince them of the criminality of the annual sacrifice of so many human victims on the funeral pile; of the profession of robbery, comprehending murder; of the indulgence of one class of people in the whole catalogue of flagitious crimes, without any adequate punishment; of the forfeiture of the lives of others, according to their institutes, for the merest trifles; of the arbitrary imposition of burthensome rites, devoid of all moral worth; of the pursuit of revenge, by offerings to vindictive deities; of the establishment of lying, false evidence, gaming, and other immoralities, by law; of the pardon of capital offences for money; of trying to purchase the expiation of wilful and habitual iniquity, by ceremonial observances; and of the worship of stocks, stones, impure and malevolent deities; no man living, surely, would affirm that we ought, that we are at liberty, to withhold from them this conviction. Are we bound for ever to preserve all the enormities in the Hindoo system? Have we become the guardians of every monstrous principle and practice which it contains? Are we pledged to support, for all generations, by the authority of our government and the power of our arms, the miseries which ignorance and knavery have so long entailed upon a large portion of the human race? Is this the part a free, humane, and an enlightened nation, a nation itself professing principles diametrically opposite to those in question, has engaged to act towards its own subjects? It would be too absurd and extravagant to maintain, that any engagement of this kind exists; that Great Britain is under any obligation, direct or implied, to uphold errors and usages, gross and fundamental, subversive of the first principles of reason, morality, and religion. If we had conquered such a kingdom as Mexico, where a number of human victims were regularly offered every year upon the altar of the Sun, should we have calmly acquiesced in this horrid mode of butchery? Yet for near thirty years we have, with perfect unconcern, seen rites, in reality more cruel and atrocious, practised in our Indian territories. If human life must be sacrificed to superstition, at least the more useless, worthless, or unconnected members ofthe society might be devoted. But in Hindostan, mothers of families are taken from the midst of their children,

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DOCUMENT THREE

who have just lost their father also, and by a most diabolical complication of force and fraud, are driven into the flames. Shall we be in all time to come, as we hitherto have been, passive spectators of this unnatural wickedness? It may indeed well appear surprising that in the long period during which we have held those territories, we have made no serious attempt to recal the Hindoos to the dictates of truth and morality. This is a mortifying proof how little it has been considered, that the ends of government, and the good of society, have an inseparable connection with right principles. We have been satisfied with the apparent submissiveness of these people, and have attended chiefly to the maintenance of our authority over the country, and the augmentation of our commerce and revenues; but have never, with a view to the promotion of their happiness, looked thoroughly into their internal state. If then we ought to wish for the correction of those criminal habits and practices which prevail among them, it cannot reasonably be questioned, that we ought also to make allowable attempts for this end; and it remains therefore only to consider in what manner this design may be best pursued. Shall we resort to the power we possess, to destroy their distinctions of castes, and to demolish their idols? Assuredly not. Force, instead of convincing them of their error, would fortify them in the persuasion of being right; and the use of it, even if it promised happier consequences, would still be altogether unjust. To the use of reason and argument, however, in exposing their errors, there can be no objection. There is indeed the strongest obligation to make those errors manifest, since they generate and tend to perpetuate all the miseries which have been set forth, and which our duty, as rulers, instead of permitting us to view with silent indifference, calls upon us by every proper method to prevent. The true cure of darkness, is the introduction of light. The Hindoos err, because they are ignorant; and their errors have never fairly been laid before them. The communication of our light and knowledge to them, would prove the best remedy for their disorders; and this remedy is proposed, from a full conviction, that if judiciously and patiently applied, it would have great and happy effects upon them, effects honourable and advantageous for us. There are two ways of making this communication: the one is, by the medium ofthe languages of those countries; the other, is by the medium of our own. In general, when foreign teachers have proposed to instruct the inhabitants of any country, they have used the vernacular tongue of that people, for a natural and necessary reason, that they could not hope to make any other means of communication intelligible to them. This is not our case in respect of our Eastern dependencies. They are our own, we have possessed them long, many Englishmen reside among the natives, 83

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our language is not unknown there, and it is practicable to diffuse it more widely. The choice therefore of either mode, lies open to us; and we are at liberty to consider which is entitled to a preference. Upon this subject, it is not intended to pass an exclusive decision here; the points absolutely to be contended for are, that we ought to impart our superior lights, and that this is practicable; that it is practicable by two ways, can never be an argument why neither should be attempted. Indeed no good reason appears why either should be systematically interdicted, since particular cases may recommend, even that which is in general least eligible. The acquisition of a foreign language is, to men of cultivated minds, a matter of no great difficulty. English teachers could therefore be sooner qualified to offer instruction in the native languages, than the Indians would be prepared to receive it in ours. This method would hence come into operation more speedily than the other; and it would also be attended with the advantage ofa more careful selection of the matter of instruction. But it would be far more confined and less effectual; it may be termed a species of deciphering. The decipherer is required to unfold, in intelligible words, what was before hidden. Upon every new occasion, he has a similar labour to perform, and the information obtained from him is limited to the single communication then made. All other writings in the same character, still remain, to those who are ignorant of it, unknown; but if they are taught the character itself, they can at once read every writing in which it is used. Thus superior, in point of ultimate advantage, does the employment of the English language appear; and upon this ground, we give a preference to that mode, proposing here, that the communication of our knowledge shall be made by the medium of our own language. This proposition will bring at once to trial, both the principle of such communication, and that mode of conveyance which can alone be questioned; for the admission of the principle must at least include in it the admission ofthe narrowest means suited to the end, which we conceive to be the native languages. The principle, however, and the mode, are still distinct questions, and any opinion which may be entertained of the latter, cannot affect the former; but it is hoped, that what shall be offered here concerning them, will be found sufficient to justify both. We proceed then to observe, that it is perfectly in the power of this country, by degrees, to impart to the Hindoos our language; afterwards through that medium, to make them acquainted with our easy literary compositions, upon a variety of subjects; and let not the idea hastily excite derision, progressively with the simple elements of our arts, our philosophy and religion. These acquisitions would silently undermine, and at length subvert, the fabric of error; and all the objections that may be apprehended against such a charge, are, it is confidently believed, capable of a solid answer. The first communication, and the instrument of introducing the rest, must be the English language; this is a key which will open to them a

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world of new ideas, and policy alone might have impelled us, long since, to put it into their hands. To introduce the language of the conquerors, seems to be an obvious mean of assimilating the conquered people to them. The Mahomedans, from the beginning of their power, employed the Persian language in the affairs of government, and in the public departments. This practice aided them in maintaining their superiority, and enabled them, instead of depending blindly on native agents, to look into the conduct and details of public business, as well as to keep intelligible registers of the income and expenditure of the state. Natives readily learnt the language of government, finding that it was necessary in every concern of revenue and of justice; they next became teachers of it; and in all the provinces over which the Mogul Empire extended, it is still understood, and taught by numbers of Hindoos. It would have been our interest to have followed their example; and had we done so on the assumption of the Dewannee, or some years afterwards, the English language would now have been spoken and studied by multitudes of Hindoos throughout our provinces. The details of the revenue would, from the beginning, have been open to our inspection; and by facility of examination on our part, and difficulty of fabrication on that of the natives, manifold impositions of a gross nature, which have been practised upon us, would have been precluded. An easy channel of communication also, would always have been open between the rulers and the subjects; and numberless grievances would have been represented, redressed, or prevented, which the ignorance of the former in the country languages, and the hindrances experienced by the latter in making their approaches, have sometimes suffered to pass with impunity, to the encouragment of new abuses. We were long held in the dark, both in India and in Europe, by the use of a technical revenue language; and a man of considerable judgment, who was a member of the Bengal administration near twenty years since, publicly animadverted on the absurdity of our submitting to employ the unknown jargon of a conquered people. It is certain, that the Hindoos would easily have conformed to the use of English; and they would still be glad to possess the language of their masters, the language which always gives weight and consequence to the natives who have any acquaintance with it, and which would enable every native to make his own representations directly to the Governor-General himself, who, it may be presumed, will not commonly, henceforth, be chosen from the line of the Company's servants, and therefore may not speak the dialects of the country. Of what importance it might be to the public interest, that a man in that station should not be obliged to depend on a medium with which he is unacquainted, may readily be conceived. It would be extremely easy for government to establish, at a moderate expense, in various parts of the provinces, places of gratuitous instruction in reading and writing English: multitudes, especially of the young, would 85

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flock to them; and the easy books used in teaching, might at the same time convey obvious truths on different subjects. The teachers should be persons of knowledge, morals and discretion; and men of this character could impart to their pupils much useful information in discourse: and to facilitate the attainment of that object, they might at first make some use of the Bengaleze tongue. The Hindoos would, in time, become teachers of English themselves; and the employment of our language in public business, for which every political reason remains in full force, would, in the course of another generation, make it very general throughout the country. There is nothing wanting to the success of this plan, but the hearty patronage of government. If they wish it to succeed, it can and must succeed. The introduction of English in the administration of the revenue, in judicial proceedings, and in other business of government, wherein Persian is now used, and the establishment of free-schools for instruction in this language, would insure its diffusion over the country, for the reason already suggested, that the interest of the natives would induce them to acquire it. Neither would much confusion arise, even at first, upon such a change: for there are now a great number of Portugueze and Bengaleze clerks in the provinces, who understand both the Hindostanny and English languages. To employ them in drawing up petitions to government, or its officers, would be no additional hardship upon the poorer people, who are now assisted in that way by Persian clerks; and the opportunity afforded to others who have sufficient leisure, of learning the language of the government gratuitously, would be an advantage never enjoyed under Mahomedan rulers. With our language, much of our useful literature might, and would, in time, be communicated. The art of Printing, would enable us to disseminate our writings in a way the Persians never could have done, though their compositions had been as numerous as ours. Hence the Hindus would see the great use we make of reason on all subjects, and in all affairs; they also would learn to reason, they would become acquainted with the history of their own species, the past and present state of the world; their affections would gradually become interested by various engaging works, composed to recommend virtue, and to deter from vice; the general mass of their opinions would be rectified; and above all, they would see a better system of principles and morals. New views of duty as rational creatures would open upon them; and that mental bondage in which they have long been holden would gradually dissolve. To this change the true knowledge of nature would contribute; and some of our easy explanations of natural philosophy might, undoubtedly, by proper means, be made intelligible to them. Except a few Brahmins, who consider the concealment of their learning as part of their religion,2 the people are totally misled as to the system and phenomena of nature; and their errors in this branch of science, upon which divers important conclusions rest, may be more easily demonstrated to them, than the 86

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absurdity and falsehood of their mythological legends. From the demonstration of the true cause of eclipses, the story of Ragoo, and Ketoo, the dragons, who when the sun and moon are obscured are supposed to be assaulting them, a story which has hitherto been an article of religious faith, productive of religious services among the Hindoos,3 would fall to the ground; the removal of one pillar, would weaken the fabric of falsehood; the discovery of one palpable error, would open the mind to farther conviction; and the progressive discovery of truths, hitherto unknown, would dissipate as many superstitious chimeras, the parents of false fears, and false hopes. Every branch of natural philosophy might in time be introduced and diffused among the Hindoos. Their understandings would then be strengthened, as well as their minds informed, and error be dispelled in proportion. But perhaps no acquisition in natural philosophy would so effectually enlighten the mass of the people, as the introduction of the principles of mechanics, and their application to agriculture and the useful arts. Not that the Hindoos are wholly destitute of simple mechanical contrivances. Some manufactures, which depend upon patient attention and delicacy of hand, are carried to a considerable degree of perfection among them; but for a series of ages, perhaps for two thousand years, they do not appear to have made any considerable addition to the arts of life. Invention seems wholly torpid among them; in a few things, they have improved by their intercourse with Europeans, of whose immense superiority they are at length convinced; but this effect is partial, and not discernible in the bulk of the people. The scope for improvement, in this respect, is prodigious. What great accessions of wealth would Bengal derive from a people intelligent in the principles of agriculture, skilled to make the most of soils and seasons, to improve the existing modes of culture, of pasturage, of rearing cattle, of defence against excesses of drought, and of rain; and thus to meliorate the quality of all the produce of the country! All these arts are still in infancy. The husbandman of Bengal just turns up the soil with a diminutive plough, drawn by a couple of miserable cattle; and if drought parches, or the rain inundate the crop, he has no resource; he thinks he is destined to this suffering, and is far more likely to die from want, than to relieve himself by any new or extraordinary effort. Horticulture is also in its first stage: the various fruits and esculent herbs, with which Hindostan abounds, are nearly in a state of nature; though they are planted in inclosed gardens, little skill is employed to reclaim them. In this respect likewise, we might communicate information of material use to the comfort of life, and to the prevention of famine. In silk, indigo, sugar, and in many other articles, what vast improvements might be effected by the introduction of machinery. The skilful application of fire, of water, and of steam, improvements which would thus immediately concern the interest of the common people, would awaken them from their torpor, and give 87

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activity to their minds. At present it is wonderful to see how entirely they resign themselves to precedent; custom is the strongest law to them. Following implicitly, seems to be instinctive with them, in small things as well as great. The path which the first passenger has marked over the soft soil, is trodden so undeviatingly in all its curves, by every succeeding traveller, that when it is perfectly beaten, it has still only the width of a single track. But undoubtedly the most important communication which the Hindoos could receive through the medium of our language, would be the knowledge of our religion, the principles of which are explained in a clear, easy way, in various tracts circulating among us, and are completely contained in the inestimable volume of Scripture. Thence they would be instructed in the nature and perfections of the one true God, and in the real history of man; his creation, lapsed state, and the means of his recovery, on all which points they hold false and extravagant opinions; they would see a pure, complete, and perfect system of morals and of duty, enforced by the most awful sanctions, and recommended by the most interesting motives; they would learn the accountableness of man, the final judgment he is to undergo, and the eternal state which is to follow. Wherever this knowledge should be received, idolatry, with all the rabble of its impure deities, its monsters of wood and stone, its false principles and corrupt practices, its delusive hopes and vain fears, its ridiculous ceremonies and degrading superstitions, its lying legends and fraudulent impositions, would fall. The reasonable service of the only, and the infinitely perfect God, would be established: love to him, peace and goodwill towards men, would be felt as obligatory principles. It is not asserted, that such effects would be immediate or universal; but admitting them to be progressive, and partial only, yet how great would the change be, and how happy at length for the outward prosperity, and internal peace of society among the Hindoos! Men would be restored to the use of their reason; all the advantages of happy soil, climate, and situation, would be observed and improved; the comforts and conveniences of life would be increased; the cultivation of the mind, and rational intercourse, valued; the people would rise in the scale of human beings; and as they found their character, their state, and their comforts, improved, they would prize more highly, the security and the happiness of a well ordered society. Such a change would correct those sad disorders which have been described, and for which no other remedy has been proposed, nor is in the nature of things to be found.

Notes 1 For a fuller account of the history of Grant's Observations, see Embree, Charles Grant, pp. 141-57.

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2 The copy printed for parliament in 1812-13 has a footnote here referring to p. 48 of that text (not included in the present extract), in which Grant gives examples of laws establishing distinctions in favor of Brahmans. 3 The 1812-13 text has a footnote reference at this point to p. 66 of the treatise (not included in the extract reproduced here) where a few more details of popular beliefs about eclipses are given.

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DOCUMENT FOUR

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East India Company Charter Act of 1813, section 43 (53 Ceo. III, c. 155, s.43)

The Charter Act of 1813 marked an important stage in the later history of East India Company rule in India. Thus, although it renewed the company's control over its Indian territories and revenues for a further term of years, it also abolished its traditional monopoly rights over Indian trade, and effected various other changes, especially in social and religious policy. These included provisions for the creation of an anglican church establishment in Calcutta, the opening-up of the country to Christian missionaries, and the encouragement of Indian education. Section 43 (the act's main educational clause) specifically assigned public funds for educational purposes at a time when such funds were hardly available in Britain itself. Two main goals were broadly set out, viz.: (1) 'the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India,' and (2) 'the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences.' Although these objectives are not spelt out in detail, it is sufficiently clear from the context that the clause envisages the revival of Indian literature and learning as well as the introduction of western science. It is apparent that two contrary influences lay behind the act's different objectives, though the precise routes through which each operated are hard to establish. Thus on the one side we can detect the viewpoint associated with senior company administrators in India from Warren Hastings to Lord Wellesley (governor-general. 1798-1805) and Lord Mintol (governor-general. 1807-13). which generally stressed the need to revive and support traditional Indian learning during a period of turmoil and transition; whilst on the other side there are the views of the evangelical group in and outside parliament, led by William Wilberforce and Charles Grant, for whom the introduction of western education was not only desirable in itself but also a necessary part of their plans for the promotion of Christianity in India. The fact that the legislation as drafted was reticent about how exactly these different goals were to be combined and prioritized, opened up an area for different interpretations and eventually a battleground for the opposing views of orientalists and anglicists. See also Introduction, pp. 7-8.

SOURCE(S): The Law Relating to India, and the East-India Company; with Notes

and an Appendix (London: William H. Allen, 1840). See also Sharp, Selections, p. 22.

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XLIII.

And be it further enacted, that 2 it shall be lawful for the Governor-general in Council to direct, that out of any surplus which may remain of the rents, revenues, and profits, arising from the said territorial acquisitions, after defraying the expenses of the military, civil, and commercial establishments, and paying the interest of the debt, in manner herein-after provided, a sum of not less than one lack of rupees in each year shall be set apart and applied to the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India; and that3 any schools, public lectures, or other institutions, for the purposes aforesaid, which shall be founded at the Presidencies of Fort William, Fort Saint George, or Bombay, or in any other parts of the British territories in India, in virtue ofthis Act, shall be governed by such regulations as may from time to time be made by the said Governor-general in Council; subject nevertheless to such powers as are herein vested in the said Board of Commissioners for the affairs ofIndia,4 respecting colleges and seminaries: provided always, that all appointments to offices in such schools, lectureships and other institutions, shall be made by or under the authority of the governments within which the same shall be situated.

Notes 1 The question of whether the framing of the educational clause in the 1813 Charter Act was actually influenced by the particular views of Lord Minto in favor of reviving traditional Indian learning, as set out in his wellknown minute of 6 March 1811 (lOR: Bengal Revenue Consultations, No. 13 of 6 March 1811, P/55/38), is an intriguing one, which requires further detailed research. In this connection it is interesting to note that two ofthe participants in the orientalist-anglicist controversy, James Sutherland and Horace Hayman Wilson (see below, pp. 148-9, 159, 210) certainly believed that Minto's ideas were reflected in the act's provisions, along with those of Henry Colebrooke, the noted Sanskrit scholar and member of the governor-general's council from 1807 to 1811. On the other hand, the slow-moving pace ofthe official correspondence between India and Britain during this period, combined with the delays inherent in the decisionmaking process followed by the East India Company and the Board of Control in London itself, render it uncertain whether Minto's minute would have been accessible to those involved in the preparation of the act during the first half of 1813. Thus although an official copy of the minute seems to have reached London by the end of July 1812, it was not until October 1813 that a copy was formally brought to the attention of the company chairs and the Board of Control as part of the normal process of replying to letters received from India. Copies of the document may perhaps have circulated privately before this, say between October 1812 and June 1813, or its contents may have been generally known earlier through private correspondence, but so far it has not been possible to

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establish this. For further details of this process, and of the Court of Directors' later comments on Minto's plans, see lOR: Board's Collections, F/41708, No. 19201, especially pp. 31-40; and lOR: Revenue Letters from Bengal, UE/3117, pp. 225-80; also below, pp. 93-7. 2 The first six words ('And be it further enacted, that') repealed by 51 and 52 Vict., c. 3. 3 The word 'that' repealed by 51 and 52 Vict., c. 3. 4 The board's control over the company's colleges is defined in section 42 of this act.

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Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to the governorgeneral in council of Fort William in Bengal, dated 3 June 1814, paragraphs 10 to 25

In this dispatch the company's directors provide general guidance to the Bengal government on how to develop educational policies to implement the provisions of section 43 of the 1813 Charter Act. However, the overall tone and content of the dispatch are far more in keeping with the company's traditional practice - established by Warren Hastings - of according respect and encouragement to indigenous Indian learning and culture than with the radical, westernizing agenda associated with Charles Grant and the evangelical party in England. Thus a variety of initiatives are proposed, all designed to utilize and develop the more promising aspects of traditional Indian education, ranging from fresh but culturally sensitive support for advanced personal tuition in Sanskrit studies conducted by leading pandits at centers like Benares, to the strengthening and extension of existing systems of village education. These examples are particularly interesting in that they indicate a wide concern for forms and levels of educational development other than organized higher education administered through colleges and seminaries. The dispatch also deals briefly with the spread of scientific knowledge, but advocates that this should be achieved gradually and subtly through the encouragement of regular intellectual contacts between company civil servants and technical staff and suitable Indian scholars. Focusing, for example, on the joint study of Sanskrit - especially of scientific and mathematical texts - the court hoped that 'by such intercourse the natives might gradually be led to adopt the modern improvements in those and other sciences.' Unfortunately there does not appear to be any clear evidence as to who was primarily responsible for this intriguing document. It was probably first prepared in the office of the examiner of Indian correspondence at East India House, possibly by Thomas Wharton Rundall. the assistant normally responsible for Public Department drafts, or by Samuel Johnson, the head of the office. However, especially in view of the importance of this draft, it seems possible that the company chairmen would have been actively involved in its composition, and that - given its oriental subject matter - the company's librarian, Charles Wilkins, a noted Sanskrit scholar, may also have been consulted. Finally, the draft of the dispatch underwent some alterations at the Board of Control before issue. l See also Introduction, p. 9.

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SQURCE(S): Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company: Public and Miscellaneous, etc., (British Sessional Papers, House of Commons, 1831-2, ix, 7351, pp. 486-7). For the original archive copies from which the printed version is taken, see lOR: Bengal Draft Dispatches, F/3/31, pp. 25-43; Bengal Dispatches, E/4/679, pp. 277-89; and Public Letters to Bengal, L/P&J/3/99, pp. 117-28. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 22-4.

--------------~-------------10. In our Letter of 6th September last in the Public Department,2 we directed your attention generally to the 43d Clause in the Act ofthe 53d of the King, by which our Governor-general in Council is empowered to direct that a sum of not less than one lac of rupees out of any surplus revenues that may remain shall be annually applied to the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives ofIndia. We propose in this despatch to convey to you our sentiments as to the mode in which it will be advisable you should proceed, and the measures it may be proper you should adopt with reference to that subject. 11. In the consideration of it, we have kept in view those peculiar circumstances of our political relation with India which, having necessarily transferred all power and pre-eminence from native to European agency, have rendered it incumbent upon us, from motives of policy as well as from a principle of justice, to consult the feelings, and even yield to the prejudices, of the natives, whenever it can be done with safety to our dominions. 12. The Clause presents two distinct propositions for consideration; first, the encouragement of the learned natives of India and the revival and improvement of literature; secondly, the promotion of a knowledge of the sciences amongst the inhabitants of that country. 13. Neither of these objects is, we apprehend, to be obtained through the medium of public colleges, if established under the rules, and upon a plan similar to those that have been founded at our universities, because the natives of caste and of reputation will not submit to the subordination and discipline of a college; and we doubt whether it would be practicable to devise any specific plan which would promise the successful accomplishment of the objects under consideration. 14. We are inclined to think that the mode by which the learned Hindoos might be disposed to concur with us in prosecuting these objects would be by our leaving them to the practice of an usage, long established amongst them, of giving instruction at their own houses, and by encouraging them in the exercise and cultivation of their talents, by the stimulus of honorary marks of distinction, and in some instances by grants of pecuniary assistance. 15. In a political point of view, considerable advantages might, we conceive, be made to flow from the measure proposed, if it should be

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conducted with due attention to the usages and habits of the natives. They are known to attach a notion of sanctity to the soil, the buildings and other objects of devout resort, and particularly to that at Benares, which is regarded as the central point of their religious worship, and as the great repository of their learning. The possession of this venerated city, to which every class and rank of the Hindoos is occasionally attracted, has placed in the hands of the British Government a powerful instrument of connexion and conciliation, especially with the Mahrattas, who are more strongly attached than any other to the supposed sanctity of Benares. 16. Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we desire that your attention may be directed in an especial manner to Benares, and that you call upon your public representatives there to report to you what ancient establishments are still existing for the diffusion of knowledge in that city; what branches of science and literature are taught there; by what means the professors and teachers are supported; and in what way their present establishments might be improved to most advantage. 17. In pursuit of this information they will have opportunities of obtaining a knowledge of individual characters, which may enable them to point out to your notice those natives with whom it might be desirable you should consult, and through whose instrumentality the liberal intentions of the Legislature might most advantageously be advanced. 18. The influence of such communications could not fail to be strengthened by your causing it to be made known that it is in the contemplation of the British Government to introduce and establish amongst the natives a gradation of honorary distinction as the reward of merit, either by the public presentation of ornaments of dress, in conformity with the usage of the East, or by conferring titles, or by both, as may be deemed most grateful to the natives, who should be invited to communicate their ideas to you upon points so much connected with their feelings. 19. We refer with particular satisfaction upon this occasion to that distinguished feature of internal polity which prevails in some parts of India, and by which the instruction of the people is provided for by a certain charge upon the produce of the soil, and by other endowments in favour ofthe village teachers, who are thereby rendered public servants of the community. 20. The mode of instruction that from time immemorial has been practised under these masters has received the highest tribute of praise by its adoption in this country, under the direction of the Reverend Dr. BelP formerly chaplain at Madras, and it has now become the mode by which education is conducted in our national establishments, from a conviction of the facility it affords in the acquisition of language by simplifying the process of instruction. 21. This venerable and benevolent institution of the Hindoos is represented to have withstood the shock of revolutions, and to its

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operation is ascribed the general intelligence of the natives as scribes and accountants. We are so strongly persuaded of its great utility that we are desirous you should take early measures to inform yourselves of its present state, and that you will report to us the result of your inquiries, affording, in the mean time, the protection of Government to the village teachers in all their just rights and immunities, and marking by some favourable distinction any individual amongst them who may be recommended by superior merit or acquirements; for, humble as their situation may appear, if judged by a comparison with any corresponding character in this country, we understand those village teachers are held in great veneration throughout India. 22. We are informed that there are in the Sanscrit language many excellent systems of ethics, with codes of laws and compendiums of the duties related to every class of the people, the study of which might be useful to those natives who may be destined for the Judicial department of Government. There are also many tracts of merit we are told on the virtues of plants and drugs, and on the application of them in medicine, the knowledge of which might prove desirable to the European practitioner, and there are treatises on Astronomy and Mathematics, including Geometry and Algebra, which, though they may not add new lights to European science, might be made to form links of communication between the natives and the gentlemen in our service, who are attached to the Observatory and to the department of engineers, and by such intercourse the natives might gradually be led to adopt the modern improvements in those and other sciences. 23. With a view to these several objects we have determined that due encouragement should be given to such of our servants in any of those departments as may be disposed to apply themselves to the study of the Sanscrit language, and we desire that the teachers who may be employed under your authority for this purpose, may be selected from those amongst the natives who may have made some proficiency in the sciences in question, and that their recompense should be liberal. 24. We encourage ourselves to hope that a foundation may in this way be laid for giving full effect in the course of time to the liberal intentions of the Legislature; and we shall consider the money that may be allotted to this service as beneficially employed, if it should prove the means, by an improved intercourse of Europeans with the natives, to produce those reciprocal feelings of regard and respect which are essential to the permanent interests of the British Empire in India. 25. When you have digested any plan calculated to promote the views to which your attention has been directed in the foregoing instructions, you will take the earliest opportunity of submitting it to us for our consideration, but you will not finally adopt any arrangement for carrying it into execution until it shall have previously received our approbation and sanction. 4 96

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Notes 1 The original dispatch from which these paragraphs are taken was signed by the following quorum of directors: William Fullarton Elphinstone (chairman), John Inglis (deputy chairman), John Alexander Bannerman, John Bladen Taylor, Alexander Allan, James Daniell, Hugh Lindsay, John Jackson, David Scott, John Morris, Samuel Davis, Sweny Toone, Abraham Robarts, and John Bebb. For further brief biographical details, see Philips, East India Company. 2 For this dispatch of 6 September 1814, briefly describing the act's educational provisions, see lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/4/677, p. 499. 3 Dr. Andrew Bell (1753-1832) entered the company's service in 1787 as a chaplain in Madras. In 1789 he also became superintendent of the Madras Male Orphan Society, a company institution recently established for the education of the sons of soldiers. There - apparently influenced by local Indian teaching practices - he devised a system in which the boys themselves, acting as monitors, helped to teach their juniors. After leaving India in 1796, Bell spent most of the rest of his career trying to popularize this system in British elementary schools, especially those run by anglican church authorities. Although he met with considerable success during his lifetime, the schools into which his methods had been introduced were later found by government inspectors to be inefficient and corrupt. A full account of his career is given in The Dictionary of National Biography. See also Calcutta Review, pp. 53-96; and Dharampal, Beautiful Tree, pp. 5, 24 and 259. 4 The Bengal government promised to follow up the court's instructions in their reply dated 7 October 1815 (lOR: Letters from Bengal, L/P&J/3/6, p. 563) but in the event failed to tackle the issues seriously until 1823 when the General Committee of Public Instruction was established. See below, p. 98 and Introduction, pp. 8-17.

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Note by Holt Mackenzie, secretary to the Bengal govemment in the Territorial Department, dated 17 July 1823

Preoccupied with a series of wars with the Nepalese, the Pindaris and the Marathas (1814-18), and lacking the surplus revenues needed to fund the Charter Act's educational program, the Bengal authorities were slow to respond to the home government's directives of 1813-14. It was not until 1823 that they seriously began to address the problem of developing a broad educational policy in line with the instruction received, primarily by establishing the General Committee of Public Instruction - a group of officials mainly drawn from the Bengal civil service who were specifically appointed for this purpose. Holt Mackenzie's note of 17 July 1823, setting out the role and responsibilities of the new body with an impressive blend of thoughtful, humanistic vision and administrative sense, effectively marks the opening of this more positive phase in government policy. Clearly alive to a variety of competing ideas about how best to achieve educational progress, Mackenzie cautiously favors the introduction of English language education, conceived of as the means of providing a body of Indian teachers and translators able to impart western knowledge. At the same time he is wary about making specific proposals for spreading the language, and on the whole seems more concerned to stress the advantages of what later came to be seen as some of the basic themes of orienta list discourse. These include concentration on the higher education of the learned and influential classes rather than the elementary education of the masses, the gradual engraftment of western knowledge onto traditional Indian learning, and the continued patronage (and improvement) of institutions such as the Calcutta Madrasa and the new Sanskrit College. On a more practical level, the note also sets out the administrative framework and agenda for the General Committee of Public Instruction. See also Introduction, pp. 17-8. SQURCE(S): Copy of Bengal Territorial: Revenue Consultations, No. 1 of 17 July 1823, in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/909, No. 25694, pp. 433-69. The wording of this near-contemporary copy made in East India House in London, is exactly the same as the version entered in lOR: Bengal Territorial: Revenue ConSUltations, No.1 of 17 July 1823, P/59/45, except for one very minor discrepancy described below in note 4. See also Sharp, Selections, pp.57-64.

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Government being desirous of pursuing a systematic course of proceeding in regard to public Education, and having its attention especially directed to the objects specified in the Act of the 53d of the late King, I beg leave to submit a few things that have occurred to me on the subject. The first step is to settle the ultimate object to be aimed at: for otherwise we may debate about the means without end. It is not then, I conceive, the wish of Government that the people should be merely taught what is necessary to make them expert Agents of the Civil administration of the Country as now administered. It is not desired to keep from them any species of knowledge that can enlighten their minds or improve their moral feelings. Caution indeed must be used in admitting the light to the morbid sense. But the darkness is not the less deplored: nor its ultimate removal the less sought. The probable effects, tho distant, of the more general diffusion of knowledge are not blinked. But to keep the people weak and ignorant that they may be submissive is a policy which the Government decidedly rejects. Its aim is to raise the character, to strengthen the understanding, to purify the heart; and whatever therefore can extend the knowledge of the people, whatever can give them a juster conception of the true relation of things, whatever can add to their power over the gifts of nature or better inform them of the rights and duties of their fellow men, whatever can excite invention and invigorate the judgment, whatever can enrich the imagination and sharpen the wit, whatever can rouse to steady exertion and bind to honest purpose, 1 whatever fits man to bear and improve his lot, to render his neighbour happy, and his Country prosperous; whatever in short tends to make men wiser and better and happier here and hereafter; all are desired to be given, in due season, to the people of India. Nothing therefore can be more comprehensive than the design. Its different parts must indeed be filled up gradually and with well measured steps. Its completion we must leave to our children's children. But still if the ultimate object be as I have stated, it follows that the points to be considered in fashioning any scheme for its attainment are infinitely numerous and all very important: that a good scheme can be the result only of much and anxious thought, earnestly employed with the resources of accurate and varied knowledge. It must at once be considered what the people possess and what they want, what we can give them, and what they are capable of receiving profitably, what they are and what they may become; and what their probable condition2 in the several steps of the great change which a general diffusion of true knowledge will doubtless produce. To embrace a field so extensive as that of which I have attempted to give a slight sketch, it will obviously be necessary that Government should, as it proposes, seek the aid of a Committee combining a variety of talent and acquirement, and if I have rightly stated the purposes of Government, it follows that the persons to be selected for the duty should be those, who 99

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are not only deeply impressed with the importance of the work, but are entirely free from any narrow views, that would lead them to withhold from the people the full measure of knowledge, which they are in the capacity to receive. It follows too, if there be truth and excellence in European Science, that the introduction of it among the Natives ofIndia, must necessarily be one, and an early part of the general scheme, and should authoritatively be indicated by Government as such. Ai?, to the means of instruction, they are obviously very numerous. Different Individuals will approve different plans. Some would encourage Schools for the elements of learning. Some prefer Colleges for the higher branches. Ofthese, some would encourage existing, others would establish new Institutions. Some would instruct teachers only, some would merely provide books; some would teach the English language; others would look to the introduction of English Science through translations; some would look to the learned Classes, others to the wealthy, others to the general community. In so wide a range I cannot pretend to any thing like a full conception of the subject. Indeed whatever may be my zeal for the cause (and as a Briton and a Christian it is impossible, I should regard it with indifference) I want the knowledge that would entitle me to decide with any confidence. I shall be glad to see all the instruments, I have specified, with others that have escaped me, brought into action. But my present impression is, that Government should apply itself chiefly to the instruction of those who will themselves be teachers (including of course, in the term many, who never appear as professed Masters, and also translators from European into the Native Languages) and to the translation, compilation, and publication of useful works. These objects being provided for, the support and Establishment of Colleges for the instruction of what may be called the educated and influential Classes seem to me to be more immediate objects of the care of Government than the support and establishment of elementary Schools; tho these in particular places may claim attention. To provide for the education of the great body of the people seems to be impossible, at least, in the present state of things. For the ordinary purposes of life, the means of education are not, I imagine, ill supplied, tho doubtless the native Seminaries are susceptible of much improvement, and this at a cheap rate, by assisting them, both with books and Masters. The great body of the people are, however, too poor and too anxious for service to allow their children to remain long under tuition. Moreover, the value of the Parish Schools in England, whence we derive our notions of the advantages of general education, depends greatly on the religion ofthe Country. Take from the peasant his Bible, and (if it be possible) the knowledge and sentiments that have flowed from that sacred source, and how worthless will be his lowly literature. The education indeed of the great body of the people can never, I think, be expected to extend beyond 100

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what is necessary for the business of life, and it is only therefore through religious exercises, which form a great part of the business oflife, that the laborer will turn his thoughts on things above the common drudgery, by which he earns his subsistence. Hence it is under the Christian scheme alone, that I should expect to find the laboring Classes really educated, and their station in the scale of instructed and humanized beings will, I imagine, be pretty closely proportioned to their piety. We have no such instrument, with which to work beneficially on the lower orders here. Further, the natural course of things in all countries seems to be that knowledge introduced from abroad should descend from the higher or educated Classes and gradually spread through their example. We surely cannot here, at least, expect the servant to prize a learning, which his Master despises or hates. The influence of Europeans, if they use not the influential classes of the Native community, must necessarily be very confined. What is taught in our Schools will only be thought of there. Our scholars, if of the common people, when they enter the world, will find no sympathy among their fellows, and until the lessons of the Master, or Professor become the subject of habitual thought and conversation, they cannot touch the heart, they will little affect the understanding. The acquirement will be an act of memory, with little more of feeling or reflection than if nonsense verses were the theme. Hence my notion is, that the limited classes, who are now instructed (with great labor certainly whatever may be the use) in the learning of the Country, should be the first object of attention. This, of course implies the association of oriental learning with European Science, and the gradual introduction of the latter, without any attempt arbitrarily to supersede the former. It implies too the support and patronage of existing institutions, so far at least as the furnishing them with Masters and supplying them with translations. And further, if our means suffice, it implies a more positive encouragement to learned Natives, and consists well with the resolution (supposing the funds for the first objects supplied) to establish new institutions for the instruction of Natives in the learning of the East, and of the West together. It will probably be thought sufficient to have two Sanscrit Colleges, for the encouragement of Hindoo literature, and for the instruction of Pundits for our Courts; and if the Madrissa be thought inadequate to the due diffusion of Mahommedan literature and law, one in the Western provinces3 would, I should imagine, amply supply the want. But in fact I should doubt, whether any increase in the number of Government establishments is necessary for these purposes: and the first thing therefore is, I think, to improve those that exist by the introduction of European Science. I do not imagine there will be any difficulty in doing so, if a fit instructor is provided, and proper Books supplied. Among the inhabitants of Calcutta at least there seems to be an eagerness for the boon. 101

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The encouragement of Government will also, I believe, readily induce natives to acquire the English language so as to qualifY themselves to become translators and teachers. As to instruction in the English language, it is not easy to fix the limits, to which it should be attempted. Community of language seems to be the surest means, perhaps the only sure means, of creating community of ideas; and I confess that I am disposed to think the difficulties of the attempt are generally overrated; Persian, it should be recollected, is essentially a foreign language. It may be doubted whether what is recorded in that tongue is much better understood by the generality of the parties interested, than it would be if recorded in English. To one party at least the record in English would be an essential gain: the European officer who has to decide the case. Possibly in the Suburbs Court,4 a change might be expediently attempted. It would scarcely be consistent to make any effort at general instruction in English, unless the gradual introduction of it as the official language of the country were contemplated. The question, however, like every one connected with the subject of education, is one full of difficulty. I do not presume to offer any thing except as hints, on which my own mind is quite unsettled. The necessity of appointing a general Committee of public instruction, who may prepare some well digested scheme, embracing all the different institutions supported, or encouraged by Government, and to whom the various suggestions submitted by individuals may be referred for consideration and report, has been recognized by Government. It seems clear, that in no other way can any comprehensive plan be framed, or systematically pursued: and the general funds 5 applicable to the purpose economically and efficiently appropriated. Various detached Committees ill informed of each other's projects must necessarily waste much labor. They will also probably waste much money from the want of combination. I have already stated generally the sentiments, with which it seems to me necessary that such a committee should undertake the duty. Government will have little difficulty in selecting Individuals influenced by such sentiments, and there are many, who add all other necessary qualifications. The selection should I think be made with reference to the Individuals, not (at least not solely) to the office. On the appointment of a general Committee of Education, it will probably be thought right to modify in some degree the constitution of the Committees charged with the immediate management of the several Institutions. They will all of course act, under the directions of the general Committee, furnishing to them particular reports of their operations, and submitting through them any suggestions they may see fit to offer for the improvement or wider diffusion of education. For the Seminaries at the Presidency indeed it may be unnecessary to maintain separate 102

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committees. They will perhaps best be managed by the general Committee, either collectively or by certain Members specially selected by them for the management[,] with separate Secretaries for the Musulman and Hindoo colleges to superintend the details of their internal arrangement to control and guide the masters. Without neglecting the consideration due to particular endowments, the general Committee will of course regard all the funds devoted to purposes of education as forming in a certain sense a common stock: more especially6 in whatever regards the preparation or publication of useful works. In some of these even the Hindoos and Musulmans may eventually be found to have a common interest, though at first these must necessarily constitute two great divisions, requiring distinct consideration. It will naturally belong to a Committee of public instruction, to ascertain from the different local authorities what funds have been assigned by pious, or philanthropic Individuals for the purpose of supporting Seminaries of education: how far the objects of such endowments may have been fulfilled, what means should be taken, for securing them, and what modifications in the plans originally contemplated by the founders may be legitimately adopted to meet the altered circumstances of present times. They cannot of course exercise any authority over private Schools, but their advice and encouragement to Individuals, native and European, who may be engaged in the management, or support of such Establishments will be very valuable and probably very highly valued. Their direct interposition may indeed, in some cases be sought by individuals, for the security and improvement of funds about to be devoted to purposes of public Education. In framing any rational scheme of public instruction, we must necessarily consider in a general way, at least, how far our other institutions are suited to the state of things, which the diffusion of knowledge may be expected ultimately to produce, and more immediately, how the acquirements of the Students at the public seminaries can best be rendered subservient to the public Service, and how the constitution of public offices and the distribution of employments can be made the means of exciting7 to study and rewarding merit. To those points, therefore, the attention of the Committee will be particularly directed: and I should, with some confidence, anticipate from their labors, a great accession, within a moderate time, to the number of persons, who can now be looked to as good instruments of Civil Government, of which the details must, I apprehend, tho' our service were multiplied ten fold, be left to the Natives of the Country. The several suggestions of a general nature, embraced by the report recently received from the Madrissa Committee,B will of course obtain early & particular notice. The plan of the new College which it is proposed to construct in Hastings' Place9 must be framed with advertence to any 103

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change,lO or addition likely soon to be made on the scheme of instruction or discipline. So also the Hindoo College, of which a plan and Estimate prepared by Lieutenant Buxton is still with the Military Board (the orders in regard to it having been postponed, until the new Square in the centre of the City should be cleared),11 must, I imagine, undergo some changes under the Resolution of Government to introduce European Science, even though the general scheme of Sanscrit Instruction, suggested by the Committee should still be approved: a point which may be considered open for discussion with the general Committee. The decision of Government on the proposition of the local Agents at Agra relative to the appropriation of that portion of the produce of the late Gungadhur Pundit's lands which has been set aside for public purposes, has hitherto been postponed under the desire of combining any arrangements that might be adopted in pursuance of them with some general systematic scheme for the promotion of public instruction. To the general Committee about to be appointed, the subject will of course be referred, and I will not anticipate their judgment by any remarks on the plan suggested by the local Agents. 12 It remains for me to state the immediate object of this note, which I should have explained at once and very briefly, had I not been unconsciously led into detail by the anxiety I feel for the success of a cause I am little able to promote. To the proficiency 13 of any committee such as it is proposed to establish, it appears to be very essential, that the person through whom their correspondence with Government is conducted should be one fully qualified to second their efforts, with sufficient leisure, to devote a considerable portion of time to the important and difficult subject, and with the kind of knowledge that may qualify him to supply Government with minute and accurate information on the points submitted to its judgment. I know not how the Madrissa and Hindoo Colleges got into the Revenue Department, excepting, what would justify the absorption of all other Departments that they thence drew the funds assigned for their support. Whilst however the Revenue was united to the Judicial Department, there was perhaps little to object excepting the load of business that then fell on the Secretary. For certainly nothing can be more nearly connected with the good administration of justice and the prevention of crime, than the public instruction of the people. Now, however, no such reason exists, for continuing the colleges in the Territorial Department. 14 The funds will not be the less safe, that their appropriation is controuled elsewhere. The habits, which the office necessarily induces, the constant occupation, official and demi-official, which its business gives, are all adverse to those pursuits, which should belong to the Secretary, through whom the decisions of Government on questions of public education, should pass. 104

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For myself, I feel very strongly, how little I am competent to the task, unless it were confined to the mere mechanical act of giving expression to specific directions. But independently of general qualification, I must plead the want of leisure from other work. The Record Committee, the Mint Committee, the Bank, the College Council, and the Sinking Fund Committee, altogether occupy a considerable portion of my time. It is too in the nature of a department which corresponds with four distinct boards, to say nothing of Committees, and which touches so nearly the property of Individuals (Merchants, Public Creditors, and Landholders) to have many references, that are never formally brought for decision, and, on the whole, I can safely say I have very few hours of daylight to myself. Nay what with the Loan, and other things, the absence of my Assistant or his entire employment in Police duties, I am obliged to seek indulgence for not having kept pace with my work. 15 Similar considerations will probably prevail as objections to the transfer of the whole correspondence regarding public education, to the Judicial or General Departments: although as I have already observed, the matter is one most intimately connected with the administration of Justice and Police. On the other hand, the Persian Secretary to Government has comparatively much leisure. He necessarily possesses and cultivates the kind of knowledge that best fits him to judge correctly on plans, which have for their object the instruction of the Natives and, what is not less important, he is immediately in the way oflearning what their sentiments are on the measures, that may be suggested or adopted. It is indeed a natural part of his duty to mark the origin and growth of every thing that can affect their character and sentiments. On every ground, therefore, it seems to be expedient to transfer to the Persian Department the Correspondence respecting the education of the people of India. a 16 I need scarcely add that, soliciting the present relief purely from motives of public duty I shall rejoice to afford my humble aid in any way that it can be useful, in promoting the important objects contemplated by Government. I pray only that my interference may not be such as to impede their attainment. It is in this spirit that I now submit the above remarks, though conscious how rude and meagre they may appear. I shall further observe, that though they are confined to the Musulman and Hindoo portion of our subjects, yet the object of educating properly the Christian youth of this City seems to me to be one, not less deserving the attention of Government. (Signed) HOLT MACKENZIE Secretary to the Government "[Marginal note] Note - If not thought necessary to have a separate record, the papers could of course advantageously be brought on the Judicial Proceedings.

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Notes 1 Sharp (p. 58) has 'purposes' here, but 'purpose' appears in both the official copies preserved in the India Office Records, viz.: Board's Collections, No. 25694, F/4/909, pp. 433-69; and Bengal Territorial: Revenue Consultations, No.1 of 17 July 1823, P/59/45. 2 Although the text as printed in Sharp (p. 58) has 'participation' here in place of 'condition,' the word 'condition' appears in both the official lOR copies cited above. 3 The western provinces of the Bengal presidency then comprised various territories to the north-west of Bengal proper, extending as far as Delhi and Ajmer. In 1834 these areas were formed into the separate presidency of Agra, which two years later became the lieutenant-governorship of the North-Western Provinces. 4 This is rendered as 'the Suburbs of the Court' in the F/4/909 copy but as 'the Suburbs Court' in the P/59/45 copy. The latter seems more likely to be correct, especially since the Bengal Almanack and Annual Directory, p. 37, includes a district court for 'the Suburbs of Calcutta' in its comprehensive list of Bengal district courts presided over by British judges. 5 Sharp (p. 61) gives 'price' in place of 'funds,' but the latter word appears in both the lOR official copies. 6 Sharp (p. 62) has 'essentially' here, but both lOR copies have 'especially.' 7 Sharp (p. 62) has 'exerting,' but 'exciting' appears in both lOR official copies. 8 The madrasa committee report referred to here was dated 30 May 1823, and is included in lOR: Bengal Territorial: Revenue Consultations, No. 14 of 3 July 1823, P/59/44. 9 The foundation stone for the new building for the Calcutta Madrasa (as approved by the government) was laid in July 1824, and the establishment itself opened there in August 1827. It was then located in Wellesley Square, now known as Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Street. For a fuller account see Sanial, 'Calcutta Madrassa,' passim. 10 Sharp (p. 62) has 'charge' here, but both lOR official copies give 'change.' 11 The plan to establish a new Hindu or Sanskrit College in Calcutta was approved by the government in 1821. It was not, however, until the beginning of 1824 that classes were started in a rented house, and not till May 1826 that the new building for the college (situated in College Square) was opened. Lieutenant Bailey Buxton (1796-1825) of the Bengal Engineers, whose plan is mentioned here, held the post of assistant to the superintendent of public works in the lower province of Bengal. See also Ray, Calcutta, p. 87; and Hodson, List of Officers, p. 270. 12 The General Committee of Public Instruction's proposals for endowing and establishing a new institution known as Agra College from the proceeds of Gungadhur Pundit's lands in Agra and Aligarh were addressed to Governor-General Lord Amherst on 24 October 1823, and subsequently approved. See lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/909, No. 25694, pp. 515-31; also Bengal Persian Department letter to the Court of Directors dated 27 January 1826, paragraphs 11-19, in lOR: Bengal Letters Received, E/4/117. 13 Sharp (p. 65) gives 'efficiency,' but 'proficiency' appears in both lOR official copies. 14 The subject of education had been dealt with in the Bengal Revenue Department from 1785 until 1815, under the direction of a secretary who was also in charge of the Judicial Department. In 1815 the Judicial 106

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Department was given its own secretary, whilst the revenue, financial and separate branches were put under the charge of another official, known as the secretary in the Territorial Department. Education remained with the Territorial: Revenue Department until 1823. See Foster, Guide to the India Office Records, p. 54; also International Council on Archives, p. 25. 15 Sharp (p. 64) has 'works' here, but both lOR copies give 'work.' 16 The post of secretary in the Persian Department (formally attached to the Bengal Political Department between 1801 and 1830) was principally concerned with the conduct and translation of the governor-general's correspondence with Indian rulers and other notables. Following Mackenzie's proposals, education was transferred from the Territorial Department to the Persian Department in 1823, where it remained for the next seven years. In 1830 the post of Persian secretary was abolished, and most of its traditional functions absorbed by the Political Department, although the subject of education was then given to the General Department. See Guide to Records, pp. 416-62.

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Bengal government resolution in the Territorial: Revenue Department, dated 17 July 1823

The actual text of this resolution formally establishing the General Committee of Public Instruction, which was passed by the officiating governor-general, John Adam, and his council on 17 July 1823, adds little to the information given in Holt Mackenzie's preceding note. The functions of the new committee are very briefly defined; the Persian secretary is made responsible for the future conduct of educational business vis-a-vis the committee; and the Court of Directors is assured that the government will begin to disburse the statutory sum prescribed for public education. Apart from deputing to the committee the duty of suggesting measures for the introduction of 'useful knowledge,' 'better instruction,' and moral 'improvement' in the people, no attempt is made to discuss proposed strategies for implementing the different objectives set out in the 1813 Charter Act. See also Introduction, p. 17. SQURCE(S): Copy of Bengal Territorial: Revenue Consultations, No.2 of 17 July 1823, in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/909, No. 25694, pp. 470-4. The wording of this near-contemporary copy made in East India House is exactly the same as that contained in lOR: Bengal Territorial: Revenue Consultations, No. 2 of 17 July 1823, P/59/45. See also Sharp, Selections, pp.53-4.

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In pursuance of the intention already announced in the orders passed on the report recently received from the Madrissa Committee, l the Governor General in Council resolves that there shall be constituted a general Committee of public Instruction for the purpose of ascertaining the state of public education in this part of India, and of the public institutions designed for its promotion, and of considering, & from time to time submitting to Government the suggestion of such measures, as it may appear expedient to adopt with a view to the better instruction of the people, to the introduction among them of useful knowledge and to the improvement of their moral character. 2, The Governor General in Council is also pleased to resolve that the correspondence of Government with the Committee to be appointed as 108

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above, and with the other Committees, which may be maintained for the management of Individual institutions, shall be henceforth conducted by the Persian Secretary to Government. 2 3. To that Officer therefore the detailed instructions of Government relative 3 to the constitution and duties of the Committee to be appointed as above[,] to the alterations which it may consequently become expedient to make in the constitution and functions of the several existing Committees, to the mode in which the Correspondence of Government on the subject of public education is to be brought on the records, will be communicated. 4. The Governor General in Council deems it sufficient to record in this Department his Resolution, subject of course to the approval of the Honble the Court of Directors, to appropriate to the object of public education the sum of one Lac of Rupees per annum, in addition to such assignments as were made by the British Government previously to the Act of the 53d of his late Majesty; and likewise of course exclusively of any endowments which may have been or may be made by Individuals, applicable to a like purpose. 5. Ordered that the necessary communication be made to the Persian Secretary to Government and that that officer be furnished from this and other Departments with all necessary papers, relating to the subject of public instruction. Ordered that a copy of the above Resolution be sent to the several Departments specified in the margin,a for the purpose stated in the last paragraph of it.

Notes 1 For the orders passed on the madrasa committee report, see Holt Mackenzie's letter of 3 July 1823, in lOR: Bengal Revenue: Territorial Consultations, No. 19 of 3 July 1823, P/59/44. 2 See p. 107. 3 The word 'relative' has been omitted in Sharp (p. 53), but appears in both the official lOR copies of this text, viz.: Board's Collections, F/4/909, pp. 470-4; and Bengal Revenue: Territorial Consultations, No.2 of23 July 1823, P/59/45.

apolitical Department, Judicial Department, General Department.

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Letter from Rammohun Roy to Lord Amherst, governor-general in council, dated 11 December 1823

Rammohum Roy's letter to Lord Amherst (governor-general, 1823-8) represents a vigorous challenge from an unexpected quarter to the company's policy of patronizing traditional Indian learning, and more particularly to the developing orienta list views of the newly-formed General Committee of Public Instruction. Arguing from a Hindu reformist and rationalist perspective - and greatly disappointed by the Bengal government's decision in 1821 to establish a new Sanskrit College in Calcutta - Roy seeks to convince the government that his compatriots did not stand in need of further instruction in the arcane subtleties of Hindu metaphysics and Sanskrit grammar, but of better opportunities to acquire knowledge of western science. It is not clear from this letter how far Roy was in favor of using English to transmit this knowledge. Although fluent in the language himself, he certainly had reservations about encouraging English education at the expense of the Indian vernaculars, especially his native Bengali. Roy's letter was forwarded to the governor-general through Bishop Reginald Heber (bishop of Calcutta), but not surprisingly it failed to win the acceptance of government officials, especially the members of the GCPI. Roy's views, they considered, were not typical of informed Hindu opinion, and were also based upon misunderstandings of the educational provisions of the 1813 Charter Act and the proposed arrangements for the new Sanskrit College. See also Introduction, pp. 15-7.

SOURCE(S): C. E. Trevelyan, On the Education of the People of India (London:

Longman, 1838), pp. 65-71. There does not appear to be any contemporary archive copy of this letter available in the India Office Records, but an official copy evidently made at the time for the General Committee of Public Instruction is held in the West Bengal State Archives at Calcutta, viz.: Copy-book of letters received by the GCPI, Jul. 1822-Dec. 1824, No. 15, pp. 42-50. This copy has been reproduced in Dilip Kumar Biswar, ed., The Correspondence of Raja Rammohun Roy, vol. 1, (Calcutta: Saraswat, 1992), pp. 190-5. Certain minor variations in wording between this copy and Trevelyan's text are noted below. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 99-101.

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My Lord, Humbly reluctant as the natives of India are to obtrude upon the notice of government the sentiments they entertain 1 on any public measure, there are circumstances when silence would be carrying this respectful feeling to culpable excess. The present rulers of India, coming from a distance of many thousand miles to govern a people whose language, literature, manners, customs, and ideas are almost entirely new and strange to them, cannot easily become so intimately acquainted with their real circumstances, as the natives of the country are themselves. We should therefore be guilty of a gross dereliction of duty to ourselves, and afford our rulers just ground of complaint at our apathy, did we omit on occasions of importance like the present to supply them with such accurate information as might enable them to devise and adopt measures calculated to be beneficial to the country, and thus second by our local knowledge and experience their declared benevolent intentions for its improvements. 2 The establishment of a new Sanskrit school in Calcutta evinces the laudable desire of Government to improve the natives of India by education, - a blessing for which they must ever be grateful; and every well wisher of the human race must be desirous that the efforts made to promote it should be guided by the most enlightened principles, so that the stream of intelligence may flow into the most useful channels. When this seminary of learning was proposed, we understood that the government in England had ordered a considerable sum of money to be annually devoted to the instruction of its Indian subjects. We were filled with sanguine hopes that this sum would be laid out in employing European gentlemen of talents and education to instruct the natives of India in mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy, and other useful sciences, which the nations of Europe have carried to a degree of perfection that has raised them above the inhabitants of other parts of the world. While we looked forward with pleasing hope 3 to the dawn of knowledge thus promised to the rising generation, our hearts were filled with mingled feelings of delight and gratitude; we already offered up thanks to Providence for inspiring the most generous and enlightened nations of the West4 with the glorious ambition 5 of planting in Asia the arts and sciences of modern Europe. We now6 find that the government are establishing a Sanskrit school under Hindu pundits, to impart such knowledge as is already current in India. This seminary (similar in character to those which existed in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon) can only be expected to load the minds of youth with grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions of little or no practicable use to the possessors or to society. The pupils will there acquire what was known two thousand years ago, with the addition of vain and empty subtilties since produced by speculative men, such as is already commonly taught in all parts of India. 111

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The Sanskrit language, so difficult that almost a life time is necessary for its 7 acquisition, is well known to have been for ages a lamentable check on the diffusion of knowledge; and the learning concealed under this almost impervious veil is far from sufficient to reward the labour of acquiring it. But if it were thought necessary to perpetuate this language for the sake of the portion of valuable information it contains, this might be much more easily accomplished by other means than the establishment of a new Sanskrit college; for there have been always and are now numerous professors of Sanskrit in the different parts of the country, engaged in teaching this language as well as the other branches of literature which are to be the object of the new seminary. Therefore their more diligent cultivation, if desirable, would be effectually promoted by holding out premiums and granting certain allowances to theirS most eminent professors, who have already undertaken on their own account to teach them, and would by such rewards be stimulated to still greater exertions. From these considerations, as the sum set apart for the instruction of the natives of India was intended by the government in England, for the improvement of its Indian subjects, I beg leave to state, with due deference to your Lordship's exalted situation, that if the plan now adopted be followed, it will completely defeat the object proposed; since no improvement can be expected from inducing young men to consume a dozen of years of the most valuable period of their lives in acquiring the niceties ofthe Byakarun or Sanskrit grammar. For instance, in learning to discuss such points as the following: khad, signifying to eat, khaduti, he or she or it eats; query, whether does 9 khaduti, taken as a whole, convey the meaning he, she, or it eats, or are separate parts ofthis meaning conveyed by distinctions lO of the word? As if in the English language it were asked, how much meaning is there in the eat, how much in the 8? and is the whole meaning ofthe word conveyed by these l l two portions of it distinctly, or by them taken jointly? Neither can much improvement arise from such speculations as the following, which are themes suggested by the Vedant: 12 - in what manner is the soul absorbed into the deity? what relation does it bear to the divine essence? Nor will youths be fitted to be better members of society by the vedantic doctrines, which teach them to believe that all visible things have no real existence; that as father, brother, etc., have no actual entity,13 they consequently deserve no real affection, and therefore the sooner we escape from them and leave the world the better. Again, no essential benefit can be derived by the student of the Mimangsa 14 from knowing what it is that makes the killer of a goat sinless on pronouncing certain passages of the Vedant, and what is the real nature and operative influence of passages of the Vedas, etc. 15The student of the Nyayushastra 16 cannot be said to have improved his mind after he has learned from it into how many ideal classes the

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objects in the universe are divided, and what speculative relation the soul bears to the body, the body to the soul, the eye to the ear, etc. In order to enable your Lordship to appreciate the utility of encouraging such imaginary learning as above characterized, I beg your Lordship will be pleased to compare the state of science and literature in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon, with the progress of knowledge made since he wrote. If it had been intended to keep the British nation in ignorance of real knowledge, the Baconian philosophy would not have been allowed to displace the system of the schoolmen, which was the best calculated to perpetuate ignorance. In the same manner the Sanskrit system of education would be the best calculated to keep this country in darkness, if such had been the policy of the British legislature. But as the improvement of the native population is the object of the government, it will consequently promote a more liberal and enlightened system of instruction; embracing mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy, with other useful sciences, which may be accomplished with the sum proposed by employing a few gentlemen of talents and learning educated in Europe, and providing a college furnished with the necessary books, instruments, and other apparatus. In representing this subject to your Lordship I conceive myself discharging a solemn duty which lowe to my countrymen, and also to that enlightened sovereign and legislature which have extended their benevolent care 17 to this distant land, actuated by a desire to improve its inhabitants, and 18 therefore humbly trust you will excuse the liberty I have taken in thus expressing my sentiments to your Lordship. I have the honour, etc., RAM MOHUN ROY.

Notes 1 The words 'the sentiments they entertain,' which occur in Trevelyan's text (and also in Sharp, p. 99), are omitted in the copy of the letter printed in Biswas (p. 190). 2 Biswas (p. 191) has 'improvement' (as does Sharp, p. 99). 3 Biswas (p. 191) has 'hopes.' 4 Biswas (p. 192) has 'the most generous and enlightened of the nations of the West .. .' (as does Sharp, p. 99). 5 Sharp (p. 99) has 'ambitions' here but Trevelyan and Biswas (p. 192) both give 'ambition.' 6 Sharp (p. 99) has 'We now find .. .' but 'now' does not appear in Trevelyan or Biswas (p. 192). 7 Sharp (p. 100) has 'perfect acquisition' but 'perfect' does not appear in either Trevelyan or Biswas (p. 192). 8 Sharp (p. 100) has 'those' but Trevelyan and Biswas (p. 193) have 'their.' 113

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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Both Biswas (p. 193) and Sharp (p. 100) have 'the word khaduti' here. Sharp (p. 100) and Biswas (p. 193) have 'distinct portions' here. Sharp (p. 100) and Biswas (p. 193) have 'those.' For the monist Vedanta philosophy, see Walker, Hindu World, pp. 559-60; also Brockington, Sacred Thread, pp. 106-12, etc. Sharp (p. 100) prints 'entirety' here instead of 'entity,' as in Trevelyan and Biswas (p. 194). The mimamsa system of Hindu philosophy was particularly concerned with the interpretation of the Vedic texts for ritual purposes. See Walker, Hindu World, pp. 30-1; also Brockington, Sacred Thread, pp. 104-6. Biswas (p. 194) and Sharp (p. 101) both have 'Again the student .. .' The reference is to the nyaya school of logic and philosophy. See Walker, Hindu World, pp. 142-7; also Brockington, Sacred Thread, pp. 94-6. Both Trevelyan and Biswas (p. 195) have 'care' but Sharp (p. 101) has 'cares.' 'I therefore humbly trust .. .' in Biswas (p. 195) and Sharp (p. 101).

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Court of Directors' Revenue Department dispatch to the governor-general in council of Fort William in Bengal, dated 18th February 1824, paragraphs 79 to 86

These paragraphs contain the Court of Directors' response to the educational developments reported in two Bengal government letters, viz.: Territorial: Revenue Department letter of 30 July 1819, paragraphs 230-8 (lOR: Letters from Bengal, E/4/l01); and Territorial: Revenue Department letter of 16 March 1821. paragraphs 153-80 (lOR: Letters from Bengal. E/4/106).ln these letters the Bengal government had described its efforts to improve the administration of the Calcutta Madrasa and the Hindu Sanskrit College at Benares, and had also sent details of its plan to set up a new Hindu Sanskrit college in Calcutta in lieu of an earlier scheme to establish Hindu colleges at Tirhut and Nadia. In their reply the company's directors take issue with the long-standing Bengal policy of supporting institutions dedicated primarily to teaching traditional Hindu Sanskrit and Muslim stUdies, rather than to imparting 'useful learning.' This latter term is not explicitly defined, but in the context it clearly refers principally to the kind of scientific and technical knowledge developed in Europe. Although the dispatch is at pains not to exclude education through suitable Indian language materials, where these are deemed to have 'utility,' and cautiously advises against any radical change in existing institutions, it is obviously skeptical about the value of much literature in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian, especially in the fields of science, history and poetry. This dispatch was almost certainly prepared for the court by James Mill. then assistant examiner of Indian correspondence at East India House, though it is possible that his original draft may have been altered at some stage by the company's chairs or the Board of ControLl The contrast in tone with the court's 1814 dispatch reproduced above is particularly striking. See Introduction, pp.21-2.

SOURCE(S): lOR: Dispatches to Bengal. E/4/71O, pp. 1066-79. For an early printed version presented to parliament. see Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company: Public and Miscellaneous, etc., (British Sessional Papers, House of Commons, 1831-2, ix, 7351, pp. 488-9). See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 91-3.

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79. The ends proposed in the institution of the Hindoo College,2 and the same may be affirmed of the Mahomedan, 3 were two; the first, to make a 115

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favorable impression by our encouragement of their literature upon the minds of the Natives; and the second, to promote useful learning. You acknowledge that if the plan has had any effect of the former kind, it has had none of the latter, and you add, that 'it must be feared that the discredit attaching to such a failure has gone far to destroy the influence which the liberality of the endowment would otherwise have had.'4 80. We have from time to time been assured, that these Colleges though they had not till then been useful, were, in consequence of proposed arrangements, just about to become so; and we have received from you a similar prediction on the present occasion. 81. We are by no means sanguine in our expectation that the slight reforms which you have proposed to introduce will be followed by much improvement, and we agree with you in certain doubts whether a greater degree of activity, even if it were produced, on the part of the Masters, would, in present circumstances, be attended with the most desirable results. 82. With respect to the Sciences, it is worse than a waste of time to employ persons either to teach or to learn them, in the state in which they are found in the Oriental books. As far as any Historical Documents may be found in the Oriental Languages[,] what is desirable is that they should be translated and this it is evident will best be accomplished by Europeans who have acquired the requisite knowledge. Beyond these branches what remains in Oriental literature is poetry but it has never been thought necessary to establish Colleges for the cultivation of poetry; nor is it certain that this would be the most effectual expedient for the attainment of the end. 83. In the mean time we wish you to be fully apprized of our zeal for the progress and improvement of education among the Natives ofIndia, and of our willingness to make considerable sacrifices to that important end, if proper means for the attainment of it could be pointed out to us. But we apprehend that the plan of the Institutions, to the improvement of which our attention is now directed, was originally and fundamentally erroneous. The great end should not have been to teach Hindoo learning, or Mahomedan learning, but useful learning. No doubt, in teaching useful learning to the Hindoos or Mahomedans, Hindoo media, or Mahomedan media, so far as they were found the most effectual, would have been proper to be employed, and Hindoo and Mahomedan prejudices would have needed to be consulted, while every thing which was useful in Hindoo or Mahomedan literature it would have been proper to retain; nor would there have been any insuperable difficulty in introducing under these reservations, a system of instruction from which great advantage might have been derived. In professing, on the other hand, to establish Seminaries for the purpose of teaching mere Hindoo, or mere Mahomedan literature, you bound yourselves to teach a great deal of what was frivolous, not a little of what was purely mischievous, and a small remainder indeed in which utility was in any way concerned. 116

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84. We think that you have taken, upon the whole, a rational view of what is best to be done. In the Institutions which exist on a particular footing, alterations should not be introduced more rapidly than a due regard to existing interests and feelings will dictate; at the same time that incessant endeavours should be used to supersede what is useless or worse, in the present course of study, by what your better knowledge will recommend. 85. In the new College which is to be instituted and which we think you have acted judiciously in placing at Calcutta, instead of Nuddea and Tirhoot,5 as originally sanctioned, it will be much farther in your power, because not fettered by any preceding practice, to consult the principle of utility in the course of study which you may prescribe. Trusting that the proper degree of attention will be given to this important object, we desire that an account of the plan which you approve may be transmitted to us, and that an opportunity of communicating to you our sentiments upon it may be given to us, before any attempt to carry it into execution is made. 86. The pecuniary arrangements which you think necessary for the immediate purposes of these institutions are approved.

Notes 1 The original dispatch from which these paragraphs are taken was signed by the following directors: William Wigram (chairman), William Astell (deputy chairman), John Masterman, George Smith, Charles Elton Prescott, John Baillie, John Bebb, Jacob Bosanquet, Charles Mills, John Hudleston, Campbell Marjoribanks, Sir George Abercrombie Robinson, William Taylor Money, James Pattison, John Thornhill, John Loch, Richard Chicheley Plowden, and George Raikes. For further brief biographical details, see Philips, East India Company. 2 The Hindu or Sanskrit College at Benares founded in 1792. 3 The Calcutta Madrasa established in 1781. 4 The quotation is from the Bengal Territorial: Revenue Department letter of 16 March 1821, paragraph 162. 5 The scheme to create Hindu colleges at Nadia (Nuddea) and Tirhut was originally proposed by the governor-general, Lord Minto, in 1811. However, no effective action to implement the scheme was taken during the next few years, and in 1821 the Bengal government decided to drop it in favor of establishing a new Hindu Sanskrit college at Calcutta. See lOR: Board's Collections, F/41709, No. 19202, and below pp. 148-9, 159, 255-6.

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Letter from the General Committee of Public Instruction to the governor-general, Lord Amherst, dated 18 August 1824

Whilst the GCPI had felt able to ignore Rammohun Roy's protest against its plans for the new Sanskrit College in Calcutta, it could not so easily disregard the critical views expressed by the Court of Directors in their dispatch of 18 February 1824. In the following letter the committee members seek to justify their policy of maintaining institutions for imparting traditional Hindu and Muslim learning on the grounds that by and large it was these studies, not western knowledge, that the higher, influential classes still wished to pursue, and that in any case the government lacked the requisite supply of translations and teachers to introduce western science etc. on a significant scale. More particularly, the committee also affirms its belief in the central orientalist strategies of engraftment. i.e. that by winning the confidence of the learned classes through the patronage of their traditional studies, the government would gradually be able to influence and equip them to act as informed transmitters of western knowledge. Lastly, the GCPI offers a spirited defense of the intellectual value of Indian mathematics and philosophy, as well as the practical and cultural importance of studying indigenous laws, languages and literatures, in the face of the court's harsh comments on these subjects. The letter is, of course, signed by the members of the GCPI; it may perhaps have been drafted for them by Horace Hayman Wilson, who besides being a member, also acted as the committee's secretary. Despite this strong affirmation of their preferred cautious policy, it is also clear that during the next five years the GCPI took some heed of the directors' concerns, to the extent of adding various new courses in science, medicine, mathematics and English to the traditional curricula of the madrasa and the Sanskrit College of Calcutta, and other institutions under the control of the Bengal presidency. They also sponsored translations of books on western science into Arabic and Persian, and took an active part in supervising and encouraging the English language and science courses provided by the Hindu (or Anglo-Indian) College in Calcutta. See also Introduction, pp. 22-4. SQURCE(S): Sixth Report from the Select Committee on Indian Territories; Together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix (British Sessional Papers, House of Commons, 1852-3, xxix, 897, pp. 18-20). There are a few minor verbal differences between this printed text and (a) the contemporary archive copy of the letter preserved in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/909, No. 25695, pp. 981-93, and (b) the text printed in Sharp, Selections.

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These differences are indicated in the notes below. See also Sharp, Selections, pp.93-8.

--------------~------------My Lord, We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a letter from the Persian Secretary to Government, dated the 16th ultimo, forwarding extracts of a despatch from the Honourable the Court of Directors, under date the 18th February 1821 [1824]1, on the subject of the education of the natives of British India. 2. We are happy to find that the sentiments expressed in the letter from the Honourable Court are upon the whole in unison with those principles by which the Committee of Education have hitherto regulated their proceedings. The introduction of useful knowledge is the great object which they have proposed as the end of the measures adopted or recommended by them; at the same time they have kept in view that 'in the institutions which exist on a particular footing, alterations should not be introduced more rapidly than a regard to existing interests and feeling will dictate'; and they are aware of the necessity of 'employing Mohammadan and Hindu media, and of consulting the prejudices of the Mohammadans and Hindus' in any attempts to introduce improved methods or objects of study which are calculated to be attended with success. 3. Whilst the Honourable Court have thus recognised the principles under which the existing institutions should be carried on, they have been pleased to express it as their opinion that the plans of the Hindu college at Benares and Mohammadan college at Calcutta, were 'originally and fundamentally erroneous,' and that in establishing seminaries for the purpose of teaching mere Hindu or Mohammadan literature, 'the Government bound themselves to teach a great deal of what was frivolous, not a little of what was purely mischievous, and a small remainder indeed in which utility was in any way concerned.' 4. The remarks made on former institutions of the Government may not be thought to require any comment from us, particularly as it is admitted that it is necessary to proceed with caution in introducing any modification of their system. As applicable, however, generally, and as connected with the Honourable Court's injunctions to respect native prejudices and feelings, we beg leave to offer some observations on the circumstances which have hitherto influenced, and which we are of opinion must continue for some time to regulate the constitution and conduct of2 seminaries for the purpose of native education. 5. In the first place, without denying that the object of introducing European literature and science may have been somewhat too long overlooked, it may be questioned whether the Government could originally have founded any other seminaries than those which it actually 119

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established, viz., the Madressa, to teach Mohammadan literature and law, and the Benares college, to teach Sanscrit literature and Hindu law. Those colleges were founded for Mohammadans and Hindus respectively, and would have been oflittle value to either, if they had proposed to teach what neither were disposed to learn. It may be added, what else had the Government to offer on any extensive scale? What means existed ofS communicating anything but Mohammadan and Hindu literature either by teachers or books? It was, therefore, a case of necessity; and almost all that the Government, in instituting a seminary for the higher classes, could give, or the people would accept through such a channel, was Oriental literature, Mohammadan or Hindu. Instruction in the English language and literature could have been attempted only on the most limited scale, and as they could not, we apprehend, have been at all introduced into seminaries designed for the general instruction of the educated and influential classes of the natives, the success of the attempt may well be doubted. 6. We have no doubt that these points will be evident to the Honourable Court on further consideration, and we need not further dwell upon them, at least with reference to the past. The Honourable Court, however, seem to think, that the same circumstances no longer impede the introduction of useful knowledge, and that in establishing a college in Calcutta, it should not have been restricted to the objects of Hindu learning; on this point we beg to observe, that the new Sanscrit college in Calcutta was substituted for two colleges proposed to be endowed at Tirhut and Nuddiya, the original object of which was declaredly the preservation and encouragement of Hindu learning. 4 So far, therefore, the Government may be considered pledged to the character of the institution, though the pledge does not of course extend to bar the cautious and gradual introduction of European science, in combination with the learning which the people love. It is, however, of more importance to consider, that the Government had in this, as well as in former instances, little or no choice, and that if they wished to confer an acceptable boon upon the most enlightened, or at least most influential class of the Hindu population (the learned and Brahmanical caste), they could do so only by placing the cultivation of Sanscrit within their reach; any other offer would have been useless; tuition, in European science, being neither amongst the sensible wants of the people, nor in the power of Government to bestow. 7. In proposing the improvement of men's minds, it is first necessary to secure their conviction, that such improvement is desirable. Now, however satisfied we may feel that the native subjects of this Government stand in need of improved instruction, yet every one in the habit of communicating with both the learned and unlearned classes, must be well aware that, generally speaking, they continue to hold European literature and science in very slight estimation. A knowledge of English for the purpose of gaining a livelihood, is, to a certain extent, a popular attainment; and a 120

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few of the natives employed by Europeans, accustomed to an intimate intercourse with their masters, may perceive that their countrymen have something in the way of practical science to learn. These impressions, however, are still very partial, and the Maulavi and Pundit, satisfied with his own learning, is little inquisitive as to anything beyond it, and is not disposed to regard the literature and science of the West as worth the labour of attainment. 5 As long as this is the case, and we cannot anticipate the very near extinction of such prejudice, any attempt to enforce an acknowledgment of the superiority of intellectual produce amongst the natives ofthe West could only create dissatisfaction, and would deter those whose improvement it is most important to promote, as the best means of securing a more general amelioration, the members of the literary classes, from availing themselves ofthe beneficence ofthe Government, by placing themselves within the reach of instruction. 8. The actual state of public feeling is, therefore, we conceive, still an impediment to any general introduction of Western literature or science; and although we believe the prejudices of the natives against European interference with their education in any shape are considerably abated, yet they are by no means annihilated, and might very easily be roused by any abrupt and injudicious attempts at innovation, to the destruction of the present growing confidence from which, in the course of time, the most beneficial consequences may be expected. It is much, in our estimation, to have placed all the establishments6 maintained by Government under direct European superintendence, and from the continuance of that superintendence, exercised with temper and discretion, we anticipate the means of winning the confidence of the officers and pupils of the several seminaries, to an extent that will pave the way for the unopposed introduction of such improvements 7 as we may hereafter have the means of effecting. 9. But supposing that the disposition of the native mind was even as favourable as could be desired, we know not by what means we could at once introduce the improvements that we presume are meditated. The Honourable Court admit the necessity of employing Hindu and Mohammadan media, but where are such to be obtained for the introduction of foreign learning? We must teach the teachers, and provide the books, and by whom are the business of tuition and task of translation to be accomplished? Until the means are provided, it would be premature to talk of their application, and we must be content to avail ourselves of the few and partial opportunities, that may occur for giving encouragement to the extension of a knowledge of the English language amongst those classes whence future preceptors and translators may be reared. To do this with any good effect, however, we must qualify the same individuals highly in their own system as well as ours, in order that they may be as competent to refute error8 as to impart truth, if we would wish them to exercise any influence upon the minds of their countrymen.

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10. Under the present circumstances, therefore, the still vigorous prejudices of both Mohammadans and Hindus, and the want of available instruments for any beneficial purpose of greater extent, we conceive that it is undoubtedly necessary to make it the business of Government institutions intended for those classes respectively to teach (we hope not long exclusively) Mohammadan and Hindu literature and science. 11. Without wishing to enhance the value of Oriental studies beyond a fair and just standard, we must beg further permission to state, that in our judgment the Honourable Court has been led 9 to form an estimate of their extent and merits not strictly accurate. The Honourable Court are pleased to observe, that 'it is worse than a waste of time' to employ persons either to teach or learn the sciences, in the state in which they are found in Oriental books. This position is of so comprehensive a nature, that it obviously requires a considerable modification, and the different branches of science intended to be included in it must be particularised, before a correct appreciation can be formed of their absolute and comparative value. The metaphysical sciences, as found in Sanscrit and Arabic writings, are, we believe, fully as worthy of being studied in those languages as in any other. The arithmetic and algebra of the Hindus lead to the same results and are grounded on thelO same principles as those of Europe; and in the Madressa, the elements of mathematical science, which are taught, are those of Euclid; law, a principal object of study in all the institutions, is one of vital importance to the good government of the country, and language is the ground work upon which all future improvements must materially depend. To diffuse a knowledge of these things, language and law especially, cannot, therefore, be considered a waste of time; and, with unfeigned deference to the Honourable Court, we most respectfully bring to their more deliberate attention, that in the stated estimate of the value of the Oriental sciences, several important branches appear to have escaped their consideration. 12. With respect to general literature also, we should submit that some points can scarcely have been sufficiently present to the minds of the Honourable Court when the orders in question were issued. The Honourable Court observe, that any historical documents which may be found in the original languages should be translated by competent Europeans. But without dwelling on the magnitude of the task, if Mohammadan history is to be comprehended, or questioning the utility of employing Europeans in this branch of literature, we beg leave to remark that there appears to be no good reason why the natives of India should be debarred from cultivating a knowledge of their own historical records, or why the translations of the countries in which they have a natural interest should not be deserving of their perusal. 13. Besides science and historical documents, the Honourable Court observe, 'what remains in Oriental literature is poetry, but that it never has been thought necessary to establish colleges for the cultivation of 122

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poetry.' We are not aware that any colleges in India have been established with this view, although we believe few colleges exist in any country in which poetical works are not taught to a great extent; and it would be taking a very narrow view of the objects of education to exclude them. We do not know, indeed, how any language and literature can be successfully studied, if its poetical compositions are not cultivated with considerable attention; as a part therefore, and a very important part of Sanscrit and Arabic literature, as the source of national imagery, the expression of national feeling, and the depository of the most approved phraseology and style, the poetical writings of the Hindus and Mohammadans appear to be legitimately comprehended amongst the objects of literary seminaries founded for Mohammadans and Hindus. 14. Under these considerations, and upon a deliberate view of the real circumstances of the case, we flatter ourselves that the Honourable Court will feel disposed to approve of the arrangements that have been adopted or are in progress, with the sanction of your Lordship in Council, for the improved education of the natives of this country. We must, for the present, go with the tide of popular prejudice, and we have the less regret in doing so, as we trust we have said sufficient to show that the course is by no means unprofitable. At the same time, we are fully aware of the value of those accessions which may be made from European science and literature, to the sum total of Asiatic knowledge, and shall endeavour, in pursuance of the sentiments and intentions of Government, to avail ourselves of every favourable opportunity for introducing them, when it can be done without offending the feelings and forfeiting the confidence of those for whose advantage their introduction is designed. We have, etc., (signed)l1 J. H. HARINGTON. J. p. LARKINS. W. B. MARTIN. J. C. C. SUTHERLAND. H. SHAKESPEAR. HOLT MACKENZIE. H. H. WILSON. A. STIRLING. W. B. BAYLEY. Calcutta, 18th August 1824

Notes 1 The year 1824 is obviously intended here, and indeed occurs in the original archive copy of this letter in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/909, No. 25695, p.981. 123

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2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11

Sharp (p. 94) has 'for' here but the Board's Collections copy also gives 'of.' Sharp (p. 94) has 'to' here but the Board's Collections copy also gives 'of.' See p. 117. In the Board's Collections copy of this letter (p. 986), this sentence reads, more correctly, as follows: 'These impressions however, are still very partial, and the Maulavie and Pundit, satisfied with their own learning, and little inquisitive as to any thing beyond it, are not disposed to regard the literature and Science of the West, as worth the labour of attainment.' 'Institutions' is given here in the Board's Collections copy (p. 987), and also in Sharp (p. 96). The Board's Collections copy (p. 987) also has 'improvements' here, though Sharp (p. 96) gives 'improvement.' The Board's Collections copy (p. 988) also has 'error' here. Sharp gives 'errors' (p. 96). The word 'led' appears in the Board's Collections copy (p. 989), and this is obviously correct, although Sharp gives 'let.' Sharp (p. 97) omits ' ... same results and are grounded on the .. .' from this sentence. John Herbert Harington (Bengal Civil Service, 1780-1828); John PascalI Larkins (Bengal C. S., 1796-1827); William Byam Martin (Bengal C. S., 1798-1834); James Charles Colebrooke Sutherland (see p. 341); Henry Davenport Shakespear (Bengal C. S., 1801-38); Holt Mackenzie (see p. 340); Horace Hayman Wilson (see p. 342); Andrew Stirling (Bengal C. S., 1811-30); William Butterworth Bayley (see p. 337).

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Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to the governor in council of Fort St. George (Madras), No. 34 of 29 September 1830

This document introduces another significant voice in the Indian education debate: John Stuart Mill who, as a youthful assistant to the examiner of Indian correspondence, was largely responsible for drafting this particular dispatch for the Court of Directors. I Responding here to the Madras government's reported efforts to extend elementary education at the village level through vernacular textbooks and improved teacher training, Mill can be seen to be gradually developing his own educational views, with a growing degree of independence from the opinions of his father, James Mill (who was appointed to the post of chief examiner in December 1830). Thus he argues that (a) real educational progress in Madras would be achieved not so much through village schools, as through providing more advanced education - especially in English, western literature and science - to the higher social classes, viewed as natural community leaders; and (b) that such a policy was also needed in order to equip more Indians to play an active part in administration. At the same time, whilst Mill still shares his father's strong belief in the importance of introducing 'useful' western knowledge, he also professes himself well satisfied with the recent progress made by the Bengal government and the GCPI in gradually introducing these new subjects into the higher educational institutions in Bengal, and commends their approach to the Madras government. See also Introduction, pp. 23-4.

SOURCE(S): lOR: Dispatches to Madras, E/4/939, pp. 263-83. For an early printed copy presented to parliament, see also Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company: Public and Miscellaneous, etc., (British Sessional Papers, House of Commons, 1831-2, ix, 7351, pp. 510-11).

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-------------- ------------1. In our Letter in this Department dated 16th April 1828, 2 we signified to you our approbation of the plan proposed by you for the extension and improvement of education among the Natives subject to your Presidency. 2. Since that time we have not received from you any general report on the subject of public instruction; and the scanty information which your 125

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records supply, is only sufficient to shew, that you are proceeding with the execution of the plan to which we have given our sanction. 3. We are now desirous of receiving from you a full report of the progress which has been made in carrying the plan into effect, and of the success which has hitherto attended it. 4. By the measures originally contemplated by your Government, no provision was made for the instruction of any portion ofthe Natives in the higher branches of knowledge. A further extension of the elementary education which already existed, and an improvement of its quality by the multiplication and diffusion of useful books in the Native languages, was all that was then aimed at. It was indeed proposed to establish at the Presidency a central school for the education of teachers, but the teachers were to be instructed only in the elementary acquirements which they were afterwards to teach in the Tehsildary and Collectorate Schools. 3 5. The improvements in education, however, which most effectually contribute to elevate the moral and intellectual condition of a people, are those which concern the education of the higher classes; of the persons possessing leisure, and natural influence over the minds of their countrymen. By raising the standard of instruction among these classes, you would eventually produce a much greater and beneficial change in the ideas and feelings of the community than you can hope to produce by acting directly on the more numerous class. 6. You are, moreover, acquainted with our anxious desire to have at our disposal a body of Natives, qualified by their habits and acquirements to take a larger share, and occupy higher situations, in the civil administration of their Country, than has hitherto been the practice under our Indian Governments. The measures for Native education, which have as yet been adopted or planned at your Presidency, have no tendency to produce such persons. 7. Measures have been adopted by the Supreme Government for placing within the reach of the higher classes of Natives under the Presidency of Bengal, instruction in the English language, and in European literature and science. These measures have been attended with a degree of success, which considering the short time during which they have been in operation, is in the highest degree satisfactory, and justifies the most sanguine hopes with respect to the practicability of spreading useful knowledge among the Natives of India, and diffusing among them the ideas and sentiments prevalent in civilized Europe. 4 8. We are desirous that similar measures should be adopted at your Presidency. 9. We have directed the Supreme Government to put you in possession of such part of their proceedings, and of the information which they have collected, as is calculated to aid you in giving effect to our wishes; and in order to place you generally in possession of our views on the course which ought to be pursued, we enclose (as Numbers in the packet) two 126

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Despatches which we have addressed to the Supreme Government under date the 5th September 1827 and 29th September No 39 of 1830. 5 10. We wish you to take into consideration the expediency of enlarging the plan of the Central School for the education of the teachers, and rendering it a Seminary for the instruction of the Natives generally in the higher branches of Knowledge. We wish that there should be an English Teacher at the Institution who should not only give instruction in the English language to such students as may be desirous of acquiring it, but who may likewise be capable of assisting them in the study of European Science. 11. Hereafter, when the financial embarrassments of our Indian Governments shall no longer limit, in the same degree as at present, our power of incurring even useful expense, it will be proper to consider whether, in addition to the proposed Seminary at the Presidency, it would not be desirable to establish one or more institutions, on a similar scale, at some place or places in the interior. 12. We desire that the whole subject may engage your deliberate consideration; and we hope to receive at an early period, your opinion as to the best mode of rendering accessible to the Natives the higher education which we desire to confer on them, and of encouraging them to take advantage of it. And although we are unwilling that you should without previous communication with us, engage in any plan which would commit your Government to a large annual expenditure, we are yet anxious that no time should be lost, and that you should proceed to take without delay, any preliminary steps in which, under the knowledge which you will possess of our general views from the Despatches herewith enclosed, you may confidently anticipate our concurrence. 13. You will consider yourself authorized to carry into effect the extension which we have suggested, of the plan of the Central School, without further reference to us, provided its expense[s] do not exceed the scale which we have already sanctioned at the various Colleges at Calcutta. London the 29th Sept 1830

We are Your loving Friends (Sd)6 W. Astell R. Campbell G. Smith S. Toone J. Morris J. R. Carnac C. E. Prescott J. Baillie G. Raikes 127

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J. G. Ravenshawe J. Masterman J. P. Muspratt R. C. Fergusson G. Lyall

W. S. Clarke

Notes 1 2 3 4

For Mill's authorship, see Robson, Writings on India, p. 293 (no. 1602). lOR: Dispatches to Madras, E/4/935, pp. 359-414. That is the sub-district (or sub-divisional) and district schools. At this point in the margin of the E/4/939 copy an anonymous scribe (perhaps one of the company's directors) has written in pencil: 'to drive us out of the Country!' 5 For these dispatches see lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/41720, pp. 297-372, and E/41729, pp. 357-468. The concluding part of the first dispatch was apparently drafted by John Stuart Mill, but it is uncertain how far he was also responsible for the earlier paragraphs dealing with Indian education. Mill's authorship of the second dispatch, i.e., that of29 September 1830, is however reliably attested (Robson, Writings on India, p. 291 [nos. 1553 and 1562]). In terms of the development of the orientalist-anglicist controversy, these dispatches are significant for the way in which they signal the Court of Directors' warm approval of the recently reported measures adopted by the GCPI to improve educational standards at the oriental colleges and introduce western knowledge (see above, p. 118). In conveying their approval, the court clearly regarded these measures as evidence of the Bengal government's readiness to follow up the instructions and criticisms contained in the court's dispatch of 18 February 1824 (see pp. 115-17). However, what makes these two dispatches particularly interesting is the fact that although they certainly attach central importance to all the efforts being made to initiate new courses in science, English, etc., they also accept as valid several other educational considerations and objectives that would later tend to be downplayed by leading anglicists like Macaulay and Trevelyan. For instance, they recognize the dangers of introducing the new science and English courses too rapidly; they agree to giving further substantial government support to institutions of higher oriental learning, such as the Calcutta Madrasa and the Sanskrit College, and even recognize the 'utility' of significant parts of their curricula, e.g., their courses in basic mathematics, Persian and Sanskrit; and lastly they stress the need to encourage those Indian pioneers who succeed in absorbing western knowledge through English to go on to spread that knowledge in the wider community through vernacular education. For the ways in which these dispatches, with their strong endorsement of the GCPI's educational policy in the late 1820s, continued to influence the ideas of J. S. Mill and H. H. Wilson, see pp. 45-6, 50, 223-4, 226, 241. 6 William Astell and Robert Campbell were respectively chairman and deputy chairman of the company during 1830-31. The remaining signatories were of course all company directors, viz.: George Smith, 128

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Sweny Toone, John Morris, James Rivett Carnac, Charles Elton Prescott, John Baillie, George Raikes, John Goldsborough Ravenshawe, John Masterman, John Petty Muspratt, Robert CutIar Fergusson, George Lyall, and William Stanley Clarke. For further brief biographical sketches, see Philips, East India Company.

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Letter from J. C. C. Sutherland, secretary to the General Committee of Public Instruction, to H. T. Prinsep,l secretary to the government of India in the General Department, dated 21 January 1835

In the first of two long letters for the consideration of the governor-general in council, James Sutherland begins by taking up questions arising from the recent proposals of the local Agra education committee to withdraw support from Sanskrit and Arabic courses at Agra College and replace them by English instruction. Since these and similar proposals affecting studies at other institutions had brought about a deep division of opinion within the GCPI between the orientalists or conservatives and the anglicists or radicals - the committee through its secretary had determined to refer the whole controversy to the government for a policy decision on the basis of a full statement of each party's contentions. In view of their considerable interest (and the fact that they have not been fully reproduced before), these statements are worth analyzing fairly fully. In setting out the essential viewpoint of the anglicist group, Sutherland first outlines their general contention that European literature and science should largely replace traditional oriental studies in institutions funded or supervised by the government. In proposing this change, the radicals took the superiority of western culture largely for granted (as ultimately, if less aggressively, did the orientalists). Hence the only arguments they felt obliged to address were those which claimed for Indians a publicly provided opportunity to acquire an education in their traditional learning, or which at least stressed the benefit of allowing the superiority of western education to emerge freely in competition with the inferior oriental systems. To counter such arguments, the radicals asserted the government's overriding moral duty to promote western education as the best available, and to direct people towards it, given their natural prejudice in favor of their own traditions. No doubt expediency would require the continued provision of oriental stUdies in some form, but, so the radicals insisted, the people had no inherent right to demand a faulty education at state expense. The other main part of Sutherland's exposition of the radicals' case, is mainly concerned with their particular grounds for maintaining that western literature and science were best transmitted through the medium of the English language. Pointing to the success already achieved in the teaching of English by non-government bodies, they contrasted this with the apparently limited progress made through the translation of European works into the classical oriental languages - a progress hampered by the shortage of qualified teachers and translators. For western ideas to penetrate and, they believed,

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improve Indian culture, it was necessary for Indians to acquire an easy familiarity with the whole frame of European literature, and to enter into a full intellectual dialogue with Europeans; and this could only be done by making English into a common language. Thus, rejecting their opponents' strategy of engrafting western scientific concepts onto the classical languages of India and thereby effecting a gradual enrichment of the vernacular languages - as too slow and indirect a process, the radicals advocated that priority be given to instructing the educated classes in English, so that they could in turn act as guides and teachers for the community at large. Lastly, though aware of the need to proceed with caution, the radicals refused to feel bound by previous GCPI policy - too long dominated by the orientalists' agenda - and, to give an extra boost to their own program, they urged the government to declare a open preference for employing Indians with a good knowledge of English. See also Introduction, pp. 27-8.

SOURCE(S): lOR: India General Consultations, No.7 of 7 March 1835, P/l86/66, ff. 227-38. Another contemporary official copy is available in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/ 1846, No. 77633, pp. 9-36. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 104-5 (extracts only).

--------------~-------------

Sir, I am directed by the General Committee of Public Instruction to submit through you to the Right Hon'ble the Governor General of India in Council this reply to the orders of Government contained in your letter of the 28th ApriI2 which acknowledged my letter of the 21st3 on the subject of the proposed alterations in the Agra College. The delay has been occasioned by the necessity of a reference to the Local Committee and by circumstances which will be alluded to in a subsequent part of this letter. 2 My letter mentioned was in-accurate in its statement that the College of Agra is supported by the Endowment of the late Gungadhur Pundit. In this I adopted the error ofMr Wilson's Printed Report of 1831. 4 The real facts discovered after Receipt of your letter are these. 3 The Pundit who died in 1813 held certain villages in the Agra and Aly Gurh Districts rent free under some Grant for Public and Charitable purposes which lapsed at his demise. On the 5th January 1816 the Government in reply to a reference from the Western Board Resolved that 3/4 of the produce of the Estates should be applied to such purposes. 5 The Local Agents of both Districts were charged with the Management. 4 Some Correspondence and a variety of suggestions were interchanged between the Local Agents of Agra and the Board as to the application of the Funds and after much delay it was agreed that a Collegiate Institution should be established at Agra for the instruction of Natives. 5 When the General Committee was formed in July 1823 Government referred to it all the Correspondence with intimation that the Fund was to be applied to public Education and with direction to consider the subject and in particular the suggestions of the Local Agents dated 19th April

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1822.6 The Committee's propositions of the 24th October 18237 were approved by Government on the 7th November. 6 It will be seen that the General Committee recommended that provisions should be made for native Literature only. The introduction of English was postponed. 7 It thus appears that this Endowment emanated from the munificence of the British Government which possesses a discretion in directing the application of the Income to such objects as may appear most expedient. The Local Committee however in its reply ofthe 24th July which with [some?] of its former minutes is enclosed had forwarded copies of three Grants8 issued in 1204 F[asli] by Madho Rao Scindia in favor of the late Pundit and his Heirs.9 The Grants are declared to be made generally for pious purposes (Udaka Punya artha). The Grantee in his petitions cited in the Grants had specified Hospitality to travellers and in one Theological Education. 8 With reference to the 3d topick of your letter it will be observed that the Local Committee believes that the proposed change in the College is desired by those for whose benefit the Institution was established and would be agreeable to the educated Classes of Agra. This opinion is founded on observation of the tone and feelings of the inhabitants and confirmed by applications for English instructors made in vain by Thakurs and other respectable persons. 9 As evidencing a general desire for English instruction the Local Committee notices the recent Establishment of a School at Kotah 10 and a sale of the English more ready than the sale of the native publications of the School Book Society. The Local Committee however admits that the increased attention directed to English study is chiefly due to the opinion prevailing at Agra (as elsewhere) that attainments in that literature will procure public employ and thus lead to fortune and honor. 10 The reply to the 4th point of your letter (by the Local Committee blended with its answers to the 3rd) is in some degree anticipated by the preceeding remarks. Adverting however more specially to this last point the Local Committee observes that at present the English Department of the College is in an inefficient state[;] still the relative Numbersa of the College Classes substantiate the fact (not doubted by the Local Committee) that 'English instruction is preferred by the Majority of the natives interested, to instruction in Sanscrit and arabic.' The Local Committee too is of opinion that Persian literature contains less useful knowledge than the Sanscrit and Arabic Classicks and that it is only pursued as an object of study from those anticipated advantages which expectation now rather annexes to English attainments. It admits also that the Natives generally are favorable to the retention of Sanscrit and apersian, 236; English, 110; Sanscrit, 42; Arabic, 28. N.B. A later examination report gives this result: Persian, 250*; Hindie, 161*; English 98; Sanscrit, 36; Arabic (*in these N[umbersl Arabic [I] Sanscrit are [al component).

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Arabic as venerated objects of study but associated with other branches which are acknowledgedly more 'useful and valuable[.]' English is probably alluded to. 11 It is further remarked by the Local Committee that Sanscrit and arabic are within the range of all in the Seminaries peculiary native and that the present state of actual Knowledge and moral feeling to be found amongst the Educated native population affords no argument favorable to the Culture of those studies. On these grounds the Local Committee considers the encouragement of Sanscrit and Arabic Literature a waste of time and money which might be more beneficially applied to promote English learning only attainable in the Government Institutions. 12 From my letter of the 21st April the Right Hon'ble the Governor General in Council will observe that the General Committee is unanimous against the entire exclusion of Sanscrit and Arabic from the objects of instruction in the Agra College. With that exception however in regard to the views of the Local Committee the sentiments of the General Committee are divided. 13 This difference of opinion has been already intimated to the Government in my letter of the 21st April last, the proposition stated in the 4 and 5 Paragraphs of which were mentioned as proceeding from the Majority of the Committee. A like collision of views has subsequently arisen and has been the source of repeated and protracted discussions on questions of the same character, involving the essential interests of almost every important Institution confided to the Committee's superintendence. In the Mahomedan and Sanscrit Colleges of Calcutta, and in the College at Delhi as well as in that at Agra, proposals have been agitated for extensive alterations in the established systems of Tuition. As regards the first of these Institutions, a special and immediate reference would have been necessary for the orders of Government, had the interests of no other Institution been concerned. Apart also from propositions for formal Changes of system, it may be said with truth that on scarcely any question, beyond those of mere routine and detail, have the Committee been recently able to act with any harmony or effect. On recommendations for the encouragement of Translations for the publication of Books, for the arrangement of the Course of Study in existing classes of the Colleges, they have been divided into two parties, widely and often irreconcileably, at issue. They feel that these frequent differences have been carried to a very embarrassing extent, and that it has now become their first duty to solicit the final interposition and directions of the Government for their future guidance. Extending the object of the present report, therefore, beyond that of furnishing the information immediately called for in Mr Prinsep's letter of the 28th April, they avail themselves of the opportunity to submit a general Statement of their conflicting sentiments, and to represent the pressing importance of their being furnished with some definitive general instructions. 133

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14 The recurring and inconvenient discussions to which I have referred, whatever their immediate form or subject, have all had their or[i]gin in a division of opinion on a few important fundamental questions, the decision on which can proceed only from the Supreme Government. These questions may be most briefly described to be the following. The benefit and the duty of communicating the Knowledge of European Literature [and] Science, through the medium of direct instruction in the English language[;] the utility or the policy of affording encouragement to the Cultivation of the Oriental systems of learning and of the learned languages of the Mahomedans and the Hindoos[;] and the propriety or expediency (even should the advantage of direct instruction through the medium of the English language be admitted) of superseding by such instruction the course of the oriental studies in the Institutions which have been already established with an express view to the promotion of oriental Literature. 15 There are many obvious considerations of difficulty connected with the important questions above stated. They embrace, indeed when regarded in all their extent and consequences, the whole subject of the most proper means for the fulfilment[,] as far as depends on the effect of direct instruction[,] of the one great duty of England towards India[,] that of improving the minds and elevating the Character, of the Indian People. They require for their determination a full advertence alike to present circumstances and to ultimate wants and objects, and the most condensed and practical discussion of them could not fail to be very voluminous, and to include various topicks of speculative, and perhaps doubtful argument. 16 Yet however complex and extensive this discussion, it had originally been the intention of one section of the General Committee to undertake it, in its most comprehensive form, from their sense ofthe urgent necessity of electing some decisive declaration of the sentiments of the Government, from the deep conviction entertained by them that an entire change of system is required in many of the most important of existing Government Institutions, in order to render them at all efficient instruments for the objects towards which all the efforts of the Committee are professed to be directed and from the anxiety, by which they were naturally influenced, to acquit themselves in the manner which seemed to be demanded by the subject and the occasion, of the high trust confided to them as advisers of the measures sanctioned by the state in regulating its schemes of General Education. 17 Several concurring motives have now led to the abandonment ofthis intention[.] Among these a principal one has been the regret which is felt at the delay that has been already occasioned by the absence of any adequate leisure for entering on the execution of a design, requiring, in the just conception of it, much of careful thought and accurate research[.] A perseverance in the design might increase the delay to an undefined extent, for in the constant occupation of ordinary official duties there is 134

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little prospect of any period ofleisure being obtained. It has been seen also in the course ofthe discussions and proceedings ofthe Committee, that the practical questions, which now press, for early determination, may be stated and argued within comparatively narrow limits, and it may be on all accounts the most convenient and preferable course that the present reference should as far as possible, be restricted to topics of that character. 18 On the necessity of soliciting some decisive general instructions from the Government, all the Members of the Committee are agreed. The paramount value and obligation of communicating direct instruction in English Literature and Science in Seminaries for higher Education endowed and supported by the Government and the justice and expediency of modifying[,] though with all proper caution and regard to actual circumstances and claims, the systems of the Existing Government Institutions, so as to render such instruction a principal branch of the Studies prosecuted in them[,] are the immediate propositions of importance, advocated strongly by one portion of the Committee, and disputed, though perhaps on varying grounds, and in different degrees, by the other, on which it is most requisite that the sentiments of Government should be declared. 19 The questions regarding the propriety of affording any qualified and subordinate encouragement to the Cultivation of the Eastern systems of learning, or offavoring a Knowledge of the Arabic and Sanscrit Languages apart from the systems of Learning which are embodied in them, may be kept to a great extent separate from the discussion of the preceding propositions. There are distinct considerations applicable to those questions, which may be made the subject of further deliberation in the Committee, and of reports, as occasion may appear to require, to the Government, after the questions of primary importance shall be determined. 20 The decision which may be formed on the propositions referred to will indicate the general principle to be observed, as regards all the Institutions under the direction of the Committee, and the remarks which will now be submitted in support of them are offered only in reference to the general principle, leaving the details regarding particular Institutions for subsequent arrangement. Such special observations as may be at present requisite regarding the Agra College, and the Mahomedan College at Calcutta, respecting both of which Institutions special questions have been agitated, will be hereafter brought briefly under notice in the course of this address. 21 Proceeding then to the first of the propositions stated, or that which asserts the paramount value and obligation of communicating direct instruction in English Literature and Science in Seminaries of higher Education, it may be convenient to advert separately to the two separate considerations involved in it[,] the one being the obligation of communicating, through whatever Medium, instruction in English Literature 135

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and Science with a decided and habitual preference of such instruction to that in any of the Oriental systems, and the other, the advantage of conveying this instruction through the direct medium of the English language. 22 Ai3 respects the former of these considerations the view of some of the Committee who dissent from the proposition may be best expressed from the following Extract from Paras. b which have been suggested for the Draft of the General Report for 1833 of the Committee[']s operations. 'This portion of our Committee fully appreciates the importance of creating a Taste for English Science and Literature amongst the Natives, the extension of which cannot but contribute to a wider diffusion of European knowledge in the vernacular Dialects, but they deem it to be their first duty to revive and extend the cultivation of the literature of the Country, and regard the introduction of the Science and Literature of Europe as an improvement to be engrafted thereupon, rather than an object to be pursued exclusively, or with any marked and decided preference.'ll 23 Modifying, perhaps, in some degree the terms of the position laid down in the above Extract, there are others of the same division of the Committee who are generally of opinion that it [is] not necessary or advisable that the Government should manifest a preference for any particular system of learning, and who would recommend, as the most wise and becoming course for its observance, that it should afford an indifferent and equal encouragement to all systems, as instruction in them might appear to be demanded by the state of opinion and feeling among the people themselves. 24 The members ofthe Committee who on the other hand advocate the proposition, are guiqed in their opinion by a few very simple and obvious but as it appears to them, conclusive considerations. They must fully recognize the justice and the wisdom or it might be correctly termed, the necessity of watching, with a careful attention and respect the feelings of the people for whose use and benefit their plans of education are intended, but it would be their aim, and it is, they conceive, the duty of all Governments, and most especially of a Government like that of the British in India, not passively to follow those feelings, but to endeavour to form, and influence, and direct them, by every proper and well considered means, to all just and enlightened ends. It seems to them to be so clear as scarcely to require assertion, or to admit of argument, that it cannot be right to leave the promotion of their measures of improvement to be determined implicitly by the desire of a people, natural[ly] prejudiced in favor of the inferior systems of Learning with which only they are familiar. It is denied by no one that the oriental systems are imperfect and erroneous, that the European systems are highly advanced, founded on

hProposed paras. for the section of the Draft regarding the Delhi College.

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the only accurate principles of reasoning, and capable of an extension [extensive?] improvement, to which it is not possible to assign limits. It is not denied that under the operation of their systems of instruction, among the most powerful of many causes, the Nations of Europe have attained to an unquestioned Superiority in all departments of Knowledge, in individual conduct, and in public enterprise and virtue. These admissions appear to this section of the Committee to be decisive on the whole question. They would not offer to the population of India any scheme of Education of which they would not voluntarily and readily avail themselves, but the willing assent of the people being secured, they would offer to them the best which it is in their power to give. They can conceive no reason which would justify them in fostering, as of equal usefulness and merit, a sound, and an unsound System of knowledge. They would regard it as a distinct, however honest, dereliction of duty were a preference not unequivocally shown in favor of that course of study, and those habits of mental discipline, from which the European character has derived its highest advantages, and which they should esteem it to be the first pleasure and object of an English government to communicate, as far as the means at its Command might allow, throughout all classes of its Indian subjects. 25 These reasonings are directed, it may be again observed, only towards the one inference that the Government ought to act with an avowed and decided preference in favor of the European systems of Learning, and it would be convenient to notice in this place, before proceeding to other parts of the subject, a few objections to this inference, or qualifications of it, which have been advanced in the course of the discussions of the Committee. 26 These are in substance, that however the Government may declare its preference for, or endeavour to promote, the European systems, the Natives of India have a right to claim that the same full opportunities be provided for them of obtaining instruction in their own systems, while they may continue to desire it, and next, that however openly favored, the Truth should yet be allowed to make its own way, as its reception will be more honorably secured by the effect of conviction alone, than by the withdrawal of the means of instruction in the systems which it is desired to supersede. 27 To such objections the portion of the Committee whose sentiments are here stated, would urge as the answer which at once suggests itself, and is not, they think, to be refuted, that the Public Funds, to whatever amount, which may be assigned for the purposes of Education, are a sacred trust, which its administrators are bound to employ to the most useful and beneficial ends within their power, and that they cannot be diverted from those objects, without a violation of public duty, on uncertain pleas of justice or liberality of the nature of those on which the objections rest. It may possibly be expedient on other grounds of 137

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propriety or advantage to be weighed with a due and considerate attention to the circumstances of the time and to the actual condition of general feeling, to afford some means of instruction in the oriental systems, but it cannot be so because there is any inherent right in a people to demand that they be enabled to acquire a contract [?] and erroneous education at the expense of the state[.] And it surely would be the Quixotism of fair dealing to maintain a sedulous cultivation of Error, from an apprehension that the Truth might not have sufficient obstacles to outcome. The Truth can triumph by the force of conviction only, because all opinions and all systems are openly and freely canvassed, but there can be no equitable obligation to teach Error, merely that the opposition from it may be preserved and ensured. 28 To the arguments thus imperfectly stated, those of the Committee on whose behalf they are offered would respectfully refer His Lordship in Council as indicating the grounds of their [con]viction that the Government ought to forward with an avowed and active preference, the cultivation of European Learning. They are aware[,] they would here add, that a desire to favor the introduction ofthis learning has been already not unfrequently expressed, but they would point with regret to the actual state of things, to the nearly entire monopoly which in practice the oriental system continues to possess in the most important Institutions, which are supported by the funds and influence of the Government[.] A new rule of conduct, and course of measures are[,] they would submit, obviously required in order to render the principle for which they contend really operative and beneficial. 29 The important question regarding the necessity or value of communicating instruction in European learning through the direct medium of the English language is the next which calls for remark from them in the order of discussion. It is one which has been much debated by men of high character and ability, but it does not, they think, when devested of the natural prepossessions of Oriental Scholarship, and established practise, present many difficult or doubtful considerations. 30 It might indeed, they conceive be sufficient to urge that it has been already amply solved by experience and time. 31 The universal use of the English language as the medium of instruction by Teachers of European learning who are independent of the Government, and the eminent and most gratifying success which has distinguished their efforts[,] are facts of daily and familiar observation, the evidence of which, when contrasted with the barren result of all attempts at instruction through the means of Translations into the Oriental Languages, might be held to render argument on the point superfluous. 32 But it must[,] they are of opinion, be very evident that the progress to be effected through the means of a few meagre and detached Translations can be as nothing when compared with that to be gained 138

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by opening to the Student the easy opportunity of immediate access to the entire range of our Literature and science. It must too, could the means for an effectual extension of Translations be supposed to exist[,] be time, and talent, and money thrown away, to adopt a laborious and indirect, when a direct and easy process is available. In itself however the task of preparing a complete course of Translations must be regarded as nearly hopeless and it will not be contended that it could now be undertaken, by any concentration of effort or cost, with the least prospect of success within any assignable period. There are wanting both persons competent to prepare Translations and Teachers competent to give instruction in them, were they prepared. What has been yet donee towards the object can scarcely be termed even a commencement, and it is admitted that such Translations can be only of very limited, if of any use, unless a constant supply of Teachers be provided, fully conversant both with the languages of the Translations, and with the European systems of learning embodied in them. 33 These reasonings alone might be relied on as amply establishing the conclusion at which this division of the Committee have arrived, that if instruction in European learning be that which it is chiefly desired to communicate, the object can only be sought through the use of the English language. There are however other higher and more important considerations connected with this subject, to which they would more especially refer as the grounds of their strong opinion on the question. It must, they would urge, be the object of all enlarged schemes of Education for the Indian People not merely to convey a more correct Knowledge offacts, or of systems of exact Science, which might be faithfully represented by translations, but to create a new character and energy of thought in the Native minds, to a[nim]ate it by that nobler and freer spirit of moral and intellectual action, which has been the Chief source, and forms the first cThe following are believed to be all the works yet translated under the patronage of the Committee into Arabic and Sanscrit. Translated into Arabic Hooper's Anatomists vade mecum Hutton's Mathematics Vol I Crocker's Land Surveying Hooper's Physicians vade mecum Bridge[']s Algebra 112 done Anatomist Vademecum into Sanscrit

[Early editions of the English works listed here may be more fully identified in the British Library's General Catalogue as follows: Robert Hooper, The Anatomist's Vade-Mecum (4th ed., London, 1802, etc.); Charles Hutton, A Course of Mathmatics (4th ed., London, 1803, etc.); Abraham Crocker, The Elements of Land Surveying etc. (lst ed., London, 1806, etc.); Robert Hooper, Physician's Vade-Mecum (lst ed., London, 1809, etc.); Bewick Bridge, Lectures on the Elements of Algebra (later entitled An Elementary Treatise on Algebra) (1st ed., London, 1810, etc.).]

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glory and security, of European improvement. For purposes of this nature Translations must ever be an ineffectual and insufficient instrument. They can be secured only by an early and familiar conversancy with the whole frame and body of the original European Literature, and by an active community and intercourse of sentiment between the native and European races[.] Between these the first link must be the use, to the utmost extent practicable of a common language. Apart therefore from the weighty considerations of general policy into which it is not the province of the Committee to enter, which recommend that warm encouragement should be given to the cultivation by the Natives ofIndia ofthe language of their English Rulers, that encouragement must be regarded as primarily essential in any just and comprehensive view of the systems of Education de[v Jised for their benefit. 34 Of the objections which have been stated to the principle of general instruction through the medium of the English language there are but two to which it is necessary to advert specially. 35 These are first, that English acquirements, however valuable in themselves, may without other knowledge prove a source of embarrassment and loss to their possessors under the actual circumstances of the Country, the practical business of which is not, and may never be, generally conducted in English, a circumstance which may debar the more proficients in English studies from the opportunities of public employment and next, that as no one expects that English will become the general language of the Country, it is proper to embody European Science in the learned languages of the two great sections of the Indian population[,] these being the sources from which it may be supposed that the languages of the people must ultimately be enriched and improved and the vernacular tongues being at present too rude and imperfect to admit of scientific terms or ideas being expressed in them. 36 In reply to the former of these objections, it need only be said that in asserting the paramount claims of English Education, it can never be proposed to neglect in the Government seminaries any studies, which may be indispensable for the immediate purposes oflife. In whatever language it may be determined by the state that its public business shall be conducted, instruction in it may be readily communicated without weak[enJing the attention paid to English as the only real means of moral and mental improvement and similarly, whatever may be the language of business, a marked preference may be shewn and might indeed be most unobjectionably enjoined by the Government, in all selections for official employ, for those who superadd the benefit of Superior English Acquirements to the ordinary recommendations for the public service. 37 On the subject of the second of the objections, it is most fully admitted that the great body of the people must be enlightened through the medium oftheir own languages, and that to enrich and improve these, 140

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so as to render them the efficient depositaries of all thoughts and knowledge, is an object of the first importance, to be kept prominently in view. But what, it may confidently be asked, is the pressing want of the present time, and what the obvious first step in the career of National Civilization? Is it not to provide, by every most ready and effectual means available, for the Communication of true Knowledge and the most sound and enlarged course of instruction, to the educated Classes of the Community to render those Classes competent, by their own attaintments and character, to act with effect as the Guides and Teachers of their Countrymen? In the impulse given to their minds, lies the only and sure hope of general improvements. To condemn them to toil, through a course of generations, and with a scarcely perceptible progress, in partial endeavors to acquire knowledge through the imperfect and feeble medium of Translations, because at some future and unknown period, as Learning gradually becomes diffused, it may be necessary to make extensive use of Sanscrit or Arabic terms in the higher species of composition in the vernacular languages, is a course of procedure, the mere Statement of which would surely seem to render its defence impossible. The expediency and the duty have on all occasions been recognized of combining a careful and systematic cultivation of the Vernacular Tongues with direct instruction in the English Language and Literature, and we may well be assured that whatever knowledge of the Sanscrit and Arabic languages may be seen, in the course oftime and circumstances, to be really requisite for the gradual improvement of the Vernacular tongues, will always be found readily at command. There could be enjoined no attempt more vain and premature at present than to embody, for the general advantage of the people, European Literature and Science in the learned languages, which are utterly inaccessible to the great mass of the Community. To persevere in the system of Translations, the futility of which, for any great object, is shewn alike by experience and reason, would be to retard the amelioration of the Native character and intellect indefinitely. For that high purpose, an immediate familiarity with European Literature and thought in those who possess the leisure and the desire for advanced study, is the only efficient means which can be employed. It is not also, it is essential to remark, by the transfusion of an entire foreign Literature into their own tongues that the popular mind of Natives has ever become instructed. The Foreign Literature must be studied in itself, and if it be stored with superior knowledge, and capable of imparting a new vigour and capacity of thought, an indigenous and independent Literature will arise from it, and become the medium for diffusing knowledge through the body of the people, in the forms most suitable to their National Circumstances, character and wants. It is by rousing and strengthening the minds of the Educated Classes for Original efforts, that the general extension of national Education can alone be accomplished. When the power offorming enlightened and enlarged ideas, and the desire to give expression to them, 141

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shall first have been secured, a language fit for their expression will soon be framed. But apart from the certainty that the language will best be formed by those who have to mould and use it as the index of their own thoughts[,] it would be strangely to reverse the natural order of improvement were elaborate pains first bestowed on the construction of a language, the communication of the ideas, for the Expression of which it is intended, being pursued as a secondary object by a series of indirect, and tedious, and most ineffective measures. 38 For the length to which the preceding observations have been extended those of the Committee by whom they are offered can only respectfully plead the importance of the subject as their excuse. The reasons which they have assigned will, they trust, be thought sufficient to justify their opinion that the diffusion of direct English instruction ought to be the first and declared aim of all their operations. The propriety of applying this principle to existing Institutions is the last point of difference which it is necessary that they should now discuss in connection with the general questions on which the instructions of the Government are solicited. 39 Their own opinion on the point may be best expressed in the terms of the proposition which has been already stated. They would earnestly assert the justice and the Expediency of modifying though with all proper caution, and regard to actual circumstances and claim[s], the systems of the existing Government Institutions, so as to render English Instruction a principal branch of the studies prosecuted in them. 40 In many of those Institutions, oriental learning has hitherto receive[d] an almost exclusive attention, and the opinions and intelligence of the Classes of Students affected by their operations have remained stationary - if indeed the effect of their organized schemes of Tuition has not been more deeply to foster and confirm every established prejudice and error - while all around them have recently been exhibited the most cheering evidences of the rapid advancement, of which under another system the native Intellect may be made susceptible. 41 As regards these Institutions, this portion of the Committee entertains the belief which has been before stated by them, that a marked change of system is required in order to render them at all efficient instruments for the objects towards which all the efforts of the Committee are professed to be directed, the instruction and improvement of the Indian People. 42 They have already fully detailed the considerations on which they ground their conviction that in all cases in which the arrangement of a course of Education is within the discretion of the Government, it cannot be expedient to render oriental Learning a principal or preferential branch of study. 43 They further consider that the arrangement of the course of Education is clearly within the discretion of the Government, as regards 142

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all Institutions, which have been founded by the act of the Government, and are supported by it, through the means of direct grants made by it from the general Revenues of the Country. 44 They consider not only that the arrangement of the course of Education in such institutions is clearly within the discretion of the Government, but that it is the bounden duty of the Government to see that the Revenues thus appropriated by it are employed for the most useful and beneficial purposes practicable. 45 They can regard no appropriations of this description as of the nature of permanent endowments, or pledges in favor of an eroneous system of Education. There were no engagements, express or implied, with any party or section of the population, at the periods when the appropriations were made. The real and only character of the appropriations they believe to be that of grants made under supposed views of what was most expedient, or most possible, under the circumstances and feelings of the time, the regulation and management of which may now be arranged as may be thought most fit under altered circumstances, and with altered views. 46 They are of opinion that these remarks are immediately and fully applicable to the Mahomedan and Sanscrit College[s] of Calcutta, to the Sanscrit College at Benares, to the College at Agra, and perhaps also in part to the Delhi College. This last Institution is understood however to be supported to a considerable extent from the interest of a Fund assigned by a Native Nobleman for the promotion of Mehomedan Learning in Delhi, and its position they would therefore regard as distinct from that of the other higher Government Seminaries. 12 47 They have said that they would carry into effect the change of System which they advocate with all proper caution, and regard to existing circumstances and claims. They would be opposed to any harsh neglect or injury of personal interests, which have been created by and grown up under the existing systems, and they would pause and examine carefully, before directing a change, with a view to guard against the sacrifice of any objects of distinct and demonstrable utility. They would also defer all change till they might have [full?] assurance that it would be received readily by the people, and that numbers would be eager to avail themselves of the improved system of instruction which they might devise to establish. But with these precautions and qualifications, they would still contend that it is just and right that the objects of general change and improvement should be kept steadily and anxiously in view. 48 The important office which is performed nearly exclusively by the Mahomedan and Sanscrit Colleges of Calcutta, of providing Law Officers for the Courts of Justice though in itself entirely distinct from the proper objects of Institutions for General Education has not been lost sight of in these remarks. It is to be hoped that the Knowledge of the laws by which their most essential interests are regulated, will not long remain locked up 143

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from the body of the people by its being accessible only through the medium of the Sanscrit and Arabic Languages[,] but while the present state of things may continue, a full provision for the instruction of a competent body of Law Officers is one of those objects of special utility, against the Sacrifice of which it is requisite to guard. 49 It is specially worthy of notice, in concluding these observations on the general subject to which this Report refers, the prepossession in favor of the Oriental Systems of Education has been always chiefly confined to the General Committee at this Presidency. It may be said without individiousness that an earlier and greater extension of English instruction might easily have been found practicable by the Local Committee, had their efforts for that object received more warm & decided encouragement from the Superintending Body. By the Gen[eral] Committee, doubtless, the question was considered as one of established principle, on which their views were not so widely at variance as they have since become, but the circumstance is of importance as indicating that these discussions have not arisen out of mere speculative opinions, and that there is no reluctance in the people to receive a course of English Education, even at Stations widely distant from the seat of Government. 50 As the final result of these lengthened remarks and arguments, this portion of the Committee would now solicit from the Supreme Government, if the facts and reasonings which they have urged should be considered as of any weight or validity, such a general declaration of their opinion in favor of the effective though guarded and well considered extension of direct English instruction in the existing Government Institutions, which are supported by assignments from the Public Revenues, as may be sufficient to guide the Committee with certainty and confidence in its future course of proceedings - specific propositions regarding particular Institutions with a view to give effect to the principle so declared will of course be made the subject of separate explanations and reports. 51 It remains to notice very briefly the special questions which have been already agitated regarding the Agra College, and the Mahomodan College at Calcutta. 52 Regarding the first of these, it need only be said that the letter of the Local Committee of the 24th July, and the Summary of the Statements in that letter which has been offered in the earlier Paragraphs of this reference, will furnish a full reply to the queries proposed in the orders of Government of the 28th April last, and that those members of the General Committee, whose sentiments are here expressed, adhere fully to the recommendation which was submitted in my letter of the 21st April for the future regulation of the Course of instruction in the College. That recommendation they would now beg constantly to repeat, it being founded on the one great principle which, as they conceive, should guide 144

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all their Proceedings, that of rendering English Literature and Science the principal objects of study, combining with them the careful cultivation of the Vernacular Dialects. 53 They would only add on the subject that it appears to themd to be required alike by justice to the people, and by the interests ofthe Course of Education which they advocate that the Government should declare, at the earliest date at which it may be prepared to do so, what degree offavor and preference it may judge it right to extend to candidates for official employment, who possess superior English acquirements. 54 With respect to the Mahomedan College at Calcutta, the most convenient mode of placing the Government in possession of the merits of the question which has been under discussion may be by submitting as an enclosure of this report, copies of Minutes which have been recorded regarding it by the Members of Sub[-]Committee, and of the General Committee. 13 It had been determined by a Majority of the General Committee to revoke the rule which it will be observed had been passed by the Sub[-]Committee , but it was subsequently also determined by a Majority to suspend any instructions to the Sub[-]Committee with a view to give effect, to their decision, pending the receipt of orders on the present general reference. As a decisive declaration from the Government in favour of the promotion of English instruction may modify the views of some of the majority who in the first instance gave their vote for the revocation of the rule, [it is to?] that extent open to reconsideration in the General Committee when they may be favoured with orders, unless the Government should be pleased to determine the point by giving immediate and special instructions in reference to it. 55 The foregoing forty one paragraphs must be considered as containing the sentiments and views of Messrs Bird, Saunders, Bushby, Colvin and Trevelyan and though not conveyed in that form are tantamount to [a] minute recorded by them.14 Much of their views are opposed to the rest of the Committee, whose opinions and arguments I shall have the honor of submitting in a letter which I shall address you under tomorrow's date. To have embodied them in this address would have swelled it to an [un]usual size.

Fort William 21st Jan 1835

I have etc (Sd) J. C. C. Sutherland Sec G[eneral] C[ommitee] [of] P[ublic] l[nstruction]

dMr Shakespear concurs in this suggestion [Henry Davenport Shakespear (Bengal C. S., 1803-38) was a regular member of the GCPI from 1823 till his death in 1838. See also pp. 124, 159]

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Notes 1 2 3 4 5

For Henry Thoby Prinsep, see below pp. 340-1. lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77633, pp. 169-71. Ibid., pp. 165-8. Report on Colleges, 1831. lOR: Bengal Revenue Consultations, No. 39 of 5 January 1816, P/56/40. For Gungadhur Pundit, see also p. 212. 6 For the government's reference to the GCPI in A. Sterling's letter of 31 July 1823, see lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/909, No. 25694, pp. 477-83. For the local agents' letter of 19 April 1822, see lOR: Bengal (Western Provinces) Board of Revenue Consultations, No. 32 of 13 July 1822, P/94/41.

7 For the committee's proposals, see lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/909, No. 25694, pp. 515-31. 8 The local committee's letter of 24 July 1834, signed by its secretary, Barclay Duncan, is in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77633, pp. 49-54. Unfortunately copies of the three grants referred to by Sutherland are not included here; nor are they kept with a second copy of the same letter entered in lOR: India General Consultations, No.9 of7 March 1835, P1186166, ff. 242-4. 9 The dates given here pose some problems. Within the Bengal presidency Fasli year 1204 corresponds to CE 1796-7, whereas Mahadji Shinde (Madho Rao Scindia), the Maratha raja of Gwalior and effective ruler of much of northern India, died early in CE 1794. However, different reckonings of the Fasli calendar used in other parts of India would give a different date. For example, according to the system employed in Bombay presidency, Fasli 1204 would correspond to CE 1794-5. 10 The reference seems to be to Kotah, now Kota, the capital of the former princely state in southeast Rajasthan. 11 The copy of the GCPI's final General Report for 1833, as sent to the governor-general in council, omits this passage: see lOR: India General Consultations, No. 24 of 25 March 1835, P/186167. 12 For the donations made to Delhi College, see Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee, 1831-2, pp. 408-9 and 435; also below, pp. 212, 224 and Introduction, pp. 20, 36. 13 Copies of these minutes, dated April-October 1834, are included in lOR: Board's Collections, F/411846, No. 77633, pp. 55-102. 14 William Wilberforce Bird (Bengal Civil Service, 1803-42), GCPI member, 1829-42 (with some gaps in attendance); George Saunders (Bengal C. S., 1802-36), GCPI member, 1830-5; George Alexander Bushby (Bengal C. S., 1818-56), GCPI member, 1832-42 (with some gaps in attendance); John Russell Colvin (Bengal C. S., 1825-57), GCPI member, 1832-42 (with gaps). For Charles Edward Trevelyan, GCPI member, 1833-7, see also pp.341-2.

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Letter from J. C. C. Sutherland, secretary to the General Committee of Public Instruction, to H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the govemment of India in the General Department, dated 22 January 1835

In summarizing the views of the orienta lists or conservative group in the GCPI. Sutherland locates the core of their position in their perception of the committee's original responsibilities. These were based on the 1813 Charter Act's provision of resources for the revival and improvement of Indian learning, and on the administrative duties assumed by the committee in 1823 to deploy these and other relevant endowment funds for the support of oriental studies at specific institutions. In discharging these responsibilities, the GCPI had also adopted two main principles: firstly the need to win the confidence of the educated and influential classes (avoiding any hint of proselytism); and secondly the importance of concentrating their limited resources on improving higher education, rather than embarking on a broader project for elementary schooling. Behind these approaches, however, lay the wider ambition of creating an intellectual climate in which Indian scholars would be encouraged to bring about their own revival of learning and literature, whilst at the same time freely imbibing the more advanced knowledge of Europe. In the light of these aims and principles, the orienta lists viewed the anglicists' plan to divert funds from oriental studies to English courses as both a distortion of their statutory responsibilities and a betrayal of the Indian scholars whose studies they had previously encouraged. They were further convinced that not only would the new courses in English prove more expensive to run than the traditional courses in Sanskrit and Islamic studies, but that in practice they would do no more than introduce students to the bare rudiments of the language - hardly a contribution to the regeneration of literature and the promotion of science. But underlying all these differences of opinion was a more fundamental disagreement about the value of oriental learning. Thus although the orienta lists accepted the superior level of post-Newtonian western science etc., they could not accept that the whole body of traditional Indian learning especially its algebra, geometry and ethics - was so intrinsically worthless as to be immediately dropped in favor of elementary English. Finally, they were particularly outraged by what they saw as the other side's crude suggestion that the government should intervene in the debate to make it clear that it would give preference to job applicants having a knowledge of English. See also Introduction, pp. 27-8. SOURCE(S): lOR: India General ConSUltations, No. 14 of 7 March 1835, P/186/66, ff.258-66.

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Another contemporary official copy is available in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77633, pp. 103-25. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 105-6 (extracts only).

--------------~------------Sir, My letter of yesterday's date contains the reply to the enqUlnes regarding the Agra College contained in your letter of the 28th April last together with the arguments and reasonings at length, of that portion of the Committee which advocates the conversion ofthe Agra Institution into a Seminary for English Instruction and whose views proceed to the length of desiring further to make extensive changes in other Government Institutions and in particular in the Mudressa and Hindoo College of Calcutta for the conversion of them also primarily into Seminaries for teaching English. 2 There exists in our Committee as stated in that letter a wide difference of opinion on this important subject and the delay that has occurred in replying to your reference in regard to the Agra College has arisen partly from the length of these discussions and partly from the desire the Committee has entertained of taking the occasion to submit their differences for the final determination of the Government. It has been left to that portion of the Committee which advocates the necessity and expediency of change to state first the grounds on which they rest their case and it was the intention of the other members to subjoin the reasons which induce them to adhere to the established course to the same address. The Statement however of the arguments of the former has extended to such length that it seems preferable to state the opposite view in a separate letter that the Governor General in Council may have the more ready means of comparing the two Statements and of considering each separately or conjointly as he may deem most conducive to a full and fair examination of the important question which it is desired to lay before the Government. 3 It will conduce to perspicuity to premise a few considerations explanatory of the purposes for which the Committee of Public Instruction was instituted and of the course of proceeding it has hitherto pursued in order that the specific nature of the changes desired to be introduced may be more clearly seen. 4 His Lordship in Council is aware that the Charter Act of 1813 1 contains a specific provision empowering and requiring the Government to assign funds for the revival and improvement of the Literature and the encouragement of the learned Natives ofIndia. The sum to be assigned is fixed at a lakh of Rupees pr annum and the reason for the provisions having been introduced into the act is known to have been because the Court of Directors had checked the Bengal Government in a grant it had proposed to make on the proposition of Mr H. T. Colebrooke2 for the 148

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support of Sanscrit Colleges at Nuddea and Benares. 3 The British Legislature upon the proposition being laid before them deemed it expedient by a positive grant and declaration inserted in the act for the renewal of the Charter of the Company to express its decided sense of the propriety of giving this encouragement to projects tending to the revival and improvement of the then declining literature of India. 5 When the Charter Act was received in India the Supreme Government was engaged in the war with Nipal and subsequently in operations to suppress the predatory system and tranquillize Central India. The expenses these measures entailed and the financial embarrassments they produced prevented immediate attention being paid to the injunctions and declaration in respect to the literature of the Country which were contained in the Act. But these wars were no sooner concluded and the Finance of India restored than the Governor General Lord Hastings 4 made preparation to execute the declared intentions of the British Legislature in this respect. 6 The funds designated by the Act Vizt one lakh of Rupees per Annum together with the interest of a Sum equal to the accumulated arrears of this Sum since the date of the Acts taking effect were placed at the disposal of a Committee constituted and composed of such public Servants and other Gentlemen as were considered most competent to apply it effectually to the purposes indicated, and to the same Committee was assigned the task of superintending all existing Seminaries of Education maintained from the public funds or which as endowments had fallen under the controul and management of the Government. 7 Two great principles were early laid down by this Committee as fundamentally essential to the accomplishment of the purposes indicated in the act and these were First that the Committee should in all things endeavour so to shape its conduct and proceedings as to win the confidence of the educated and influential classes of the people and if possible to carry these classes with them in all the measures they might adopt for the revival and improvement of the literature of the Country. It was felt that the funds and means at their disposal were but a mite in their hands when considered with reference to the vast population whose literary and scientific improvement it had been made their object to promote and encourage that they could give direct instruction to few but if thro' the mode of conveying this instruction and by assisting and encouraging the efforts of others they should succeed in giving an impulse to the endeavours of those already engaged in the work of education throughout the Country their influence might be rendered very extensively useful and their success might then justify the wisdom of the Legislature in making the provision contained in the actL] The apprehension amongst the people that Education would be made a means of proselytism[,] that the faith of their ancestors would be assailed or insidiously undermined in Institutions supported and directed by Europeans of a different faith[,] was

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known to be the first and most powerful Source of distrust and suspicion. The Committee[']s utmost vigilance has been required to guard against the influence of this sentiment and they have in all their measures directed to this end received the unqualified approbation and support of the Government which has solely on this account uniformly refused a place in the Committee to the ordained members of any Christian Church howsoever qualified by their acquaintance with the literature of India and by their zeal in the cause of Education to take a lead in the proposed measures. It has indeed been a principle that the Committee shall be composed of persons of known liberal and enlarged sentiments on religious subjects, men acquainted with the natives and with literature, and esteemed and respected by them on that account and whose characters have afforded a pledge of the sincerity of their conduct and professions. 8 The Committee are proud to say that they have hitherto been entirely successful in winning the desired confidence of the enlightened classes of the Indian public. Of this they have many proofs and there is none more conclusive or more satisfactory than the manner in which the Hindoo College of Calcutta was placed by the spontaneous act of its managers under their fostering care and supervision. 5 If the Committee have accomplished this great object there can be no doubt that their success is owing not only to their having refrained from measures of a religious tendency but likewise to the jealous watchfulness with which they have checked in others and themselves avoided the offensive obtrusion of schemes and notions of pure European growth opposed to and uncalled for by the state of feeling amongst the people they have had to deal with. 9 They considered that so long as Knowledge was acquired the institutions or individuals who imparted it were deserving of their countenance and encouragement[.] Such a proposition as that the favors, the prizes, or the Scholarships at the disposal of the Committee should only be assigned to those who pursued one particular course of study would not in those days have been heard of and never could have been entertained for a moment. The proposition is calculated to strike at the very root ofthe first great principle above explained which requires that in all things we shall carry the people with us and devote our funds and our exertions to the encouragement of their endeavour to attain Knowledge in their own way[;] of this however more hereafter. 10 The second principle laid down by the Committee was that whereas the funds at their disposal were quite inadequate to any purpose of general and universal instruction[,] the best application that could be made of them consistently with the ends in view was to assist the Seminaries of more advanced education through which only the Committee could hope to revive and improve the literature of the Country and to encourage learned men. Reading and writing and such rudimental Knowledge as is universally obtainable in the Village Schools and thro' domestic instruction were evidently not objects requiring or admitting any 150

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aid or furtherance from the Government Committee. If literature was to be improved and the means of extensive Knowledge to be imparted these objects could only be accomplished thro the successful and lengthened studies of ardent Scholars. It is the boast and the principal use of Colleges of higher instruction that through the prizes, Scholarships and other rewards they offer to promising youths of narrow income[,] these are retained in literary pursuits instead of being compelled to seek livelihood at an early age in mechanical employments and laborious professions. But this is far from being the only ground for adopting the course persued. The discussion ofthe question was carried on in the Committee (for there were not wanting advocates for Village Schools and general instruction) and much anxious and careful consideration was given to the subject but in the end many powerful motives concurred in inducing a large majority of its members to adopt the resolution to confine the grant of pecuniary aid from the funds at its disposal to Seminaries of higher education freely extending to others its countenance and advice and every other encouragement that might not trench on the Committee[']s means of assisting the superior Colleges. The Madressa and the Sanscrit Colleges at Calcutta and Benares are essentially of this description. No person is admitted upon the foundation of the first named who has not already obtained a certain degree of proficiency in the courses of study pursued therein and the Scholarships or Jageers are given always to those who prove themselves at preliminary examinations to be the best scholars. The students are rather advanced in age and average from 18 to 20 years. In the Sanscrit Colleges the proficiency and age which qualify for admission to the Junior Classes are of lower Standard but the pupils remain to pursue the highest branches of Hindu Classical literature. 11 It was the intention of the Committee to have placed the Agra College on a similar footing and it may be remarked as a principal advantage of Scholarships distributed on the principal [sic] stated that they lead invariably to an active competition and to preparatory study beyond the walls of the institution thro' the effect of which at each examination for admissions the candidates come better prepared than at the preceding so that the character of the Institution is raised and its influence more beneficially exerted and more extensively spread every following year of its existence. 12 The above observations have been premised because it appears to be of essential importance that the suggestions and recommendations of the advocates of change should be considered with special reference to their bearing on the two principles referred to. 13 It is not easy to extract from the voluminous matter stated in the letter of the party who contend for a change of principle in the management of the Public Institutions under the Controul of the Committee of Public Instruction the specific points to which their arguments lead. They assume it however to be the paramount duty of 151

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the Committee in fulfilment of the purposes indicated by the British Legislature in the act 53 Geo. III above cited to communicate instruction in European Literature and Science thro' the medium first of direct instruction in English. They assert the Oriental systems to be replete with error and that it is the duty of the Committee therefore to withdraw from existing Seminaries the means of instruction in them[;] that instead of allowing to those systems the monopoly in practise which in all existing Institutions they possess 'and [an?] entire change of the system is required' and 'a new rule' and course of measures in order to render the principle they contend for operative and beneficia1. 6 14 Their principle is the paramount obligation to communicate instruction in European Science[.] Their means appears to the section of the Committee whose opinions I now express a misdirection of the funds now appropriated and assigned to encourage successful Students of Arabic and Sanscrit and to reward those who acquire the Knowledge imparted thro' these mediums in order that these same funds may be applied to pay teachers of elementary English and to reward exclusively those who prosecute rudimental studies in a language strange to the people requiring the devotion of years before the Student can attain the proficiency to be able to read a common book. 15 Much animadversion is bestowed on what are called the Oriental systems as if all the knowledge acquired in a course of Oriental study was necessarily mischievous and erroneous because the Newtonian philosophy has not yet been fully engrafted thereon. The section of the Committee whose views are here expressed deem it opposite [apposite] in this place to recall to the notice of his Excellency the sentiments and arguments submitted in the General Committee's letter of 18th August 1824 in reply to remarks contained in the Dispatch of the Hon'ble Court of Directors dated 18th February 1821.7 This anticipated much of the discussion now revived[.] Adopting the sentiments contained in this letter of their predecessors the members of the Committee on whose part I am now writing are far from admitting that there is little intrinsic value in Oriental learning as is supposed by their opponents. GeometryL] Algebra [-] all that can be taught to youth at College may be learned from the Khulasutool Hisab, the Arabic EuclidB or the Bija Guneta and Lilavati9 without any contamination of false philosophy; the points of divergence into error are far beyond what any of these early scholars will reach, and now that the Knowledge of the merits of the Newtonian system is so extensively spread there can be no reason whatsoever to apprehend that the youths will slide into idolatrous reverence for the Ptolemean because their Knowledge of the principles of calculation may be acquired from books written by those who believed that system. Purer morality is rarely inculcated than may be found in the doctrines of the GoolistanL]lO the Hitopadesa ll and various other oriental works and if the admixture of error is a sufficient cause for consigning to oblivion all Literature however 152

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beautiful what would have become of the splendid monuments of Greece and Rome which are to this day so carefully preserved. 16 Severe condemnation is passed on the Course of Study pursued in existing Institutions because of its tendency and not because of any errors of doctrine or practise shown to be any where taught. The objection itself seems to be a complete delusion and yet this is the most prominent argument for change indeed the only one attempted to be adduced by those who would discard the present system of proceeding and alter the character of all existing Institutions. And let it be observed into what conclusion the advocates of this objection to the existing system run. Because the Arabic and Sanscrit courses of study end in the Ptolemaic errors therefore they maintain it is the duty of the Government to teach elementary English in preference to teaching what is correct in that course up to the point of error: By teaching English they argue you make accessible a course of study complete and perfect, therefore the language is the first thing to teach and those who would learn it must begin with the Alphabet. It is not said give to the youths of the Mudressa and Hindoo College the desired course of study because it is well known that the language itself in which they would teach it is still strange to them and is enough to occupy the whole time of those who would seek it as a means of improvement. If the same course were taken in respect to Scholarships of English as in respect to those given to students of Sanscrit and Arabic[,] that is if a preliminary acquaintance with the language were insisted upon, there would be no candidates for such Scholarships[,] no previous means of instruction in English being available generally to any class of the Population. They therefore necessarily advocate merely the teaching of English and that in its rudiments and not the teaching of any Science or Literature at all. 17 The Sanscrit Colleges of Calcutta and Benarus have been endowed and established for the express purpose of educating Pundits capable of expounding the Hindoo Law. The Mudrussa or Arabic College of Calcutta was endowed by Warren Hastings 12 with the same express view in respect to Mowlavees and Kazees. The latter institution in particular is not maintained from funds which form part of the lakh of Rupees assigned in conformity with the Act of Parliament for the revival and improvement of the literature of India, but as a Government Institution established long before its superintendence was made over to the Committee of Public Instruction as the fittest organ for exercising the functions of Patron and fulfilling the purposes of the distinguished founder. It is even in such institutions as these that it is proposed to make the study of elementary English compulsory and this not with children or boys but with young men who have already made some advance in the literature and science through which they seek distinction in the profession to which their future lives are to be devoted. We humbly submit that such elementary studies are here altogether misplaced and that to render them compulsory or give 153

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them a preference therein would be a perversion of the Institutions from the purposes of their original foundation. But there are other yet more powerful motives which should lead Government to pause before sanctioning the important changes advocated by the teachers of English exclusively. To withdraw encouragement from the present Oriental courses of study as they have been called in order to confine support from the Public funds to Seminaries teaching English and the European course would be in direct opposition to the first great principle laid down for observance on the original establishment of the Committee Vizt that of aiding, encouraging and promoting the enlightened and influential Classes of the people in their own efforts to improve themselves. It is running counter to all existing feelings and prejudices on this subject and would most infallibly and justly lose for the Committee the benefit of all their past efforts to secure the confidence and good will of those whom it has been their study to lead to increased Knowledge and to improvement in all respects through their own roads and courses. But it cannot be necessary to dwell on this topic. The conservative portion of the Committee feel satisfied that the attempt to discard the ancient depositaries of learning[,] to set aside the languages in which all that is reverenced or respected in the Science and literature of the East has been recorded for ages and thro' which only the distinction and the repute of erudition can be acquired in India is a project which we trust will never find support or countenance from an enlightened and considerate Government. 18 The proposition to withdraw encouragement from Oriental courses of study in order to promote the study of English is not less strongly opposed to the other great principle above explained vizt that of conferring pecuniary aid to Seminaries of advanced studies, for as before observed all we can teach of English must necessarily be little more than rudimental. The impression left on those who witnessed the ridicule with which the readings from the English Class Books by grown up youths of the Mudressa were received by themselves and by the surrounding audience has gone far to strengthen the conviction already strongly entertained by the Seniors of the Committee of the absurdity of any attempt to seek this way of imparting even this rudimental Knowledge to such students. 19 There is another essential point that cannot be omitted in this discussion and that is the relative charge at which instruction in the rudiments of English and instruction in the higher Departments of the Oriental courses of study can be communicated to masses of the population. 20 In the Establishment that has been proposed for the Agra College where the study of English is purely rudimental the relative amount assigned to teachers of English[,] of Persian and Hindee is stated in the 29th Par. Arabic and Sanscrit are now proposed for exclusion by the Local Committee yet the instruction hitherto given in Persian and Arabic is far 154

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from rudimental and there cannot be a doubt that it is much more calculated to cultivate and improve the understandings of those who follow the course than any spelling book Knowledge that has yet been imparted by the highly paid English instructors. The number of Scholars entered for each of the classes is given in my letter of yesterday and it will there be seen that there are double and triple the number of candidates to receive education in the ancient courses of study at a total charge to the funds at the Committee's disposal of one fourth only of the expense incurred in providing teachers of the English Alphabet & spelling book. 21 Will the enlightened classes of the population ofIndia look with the same good will as heretofore on our labours and exertions for their improvement when they see professors of what they regard as polite learning starved upon decades of Rupees of monthly Salary while the teachers of the mere rudiments of English are paid by the hundreds? 22 That it is for the advantage of the people that the means oflearning English and so obtaining acquaintance with the Science and Literature of Europe should be readily presented to them no one has denied. But the teaching of English is not the purpose for which the Education fund was assigned by Government and placed at the disposal of the Committee of Public Instruction. The purposes of that assignment were the revival and improvement of the literature of the Country and the promotion of the Cultivation of Science. These surely of themselves are sufficiently worthy objects to merit the scanty provision appropriated to them. The general teaching of English if that be thought a measure calling for direct efforts for its accomplishment is a separate purpose for the prosecution of which there ought to be separate and sufficient funds assigned without robbing native literature of the tardy boon obtained for it from the British Legislature and already assigned and appropriated to its advancement. Out of that fund it is maintained only so much can be given to English and English literature without robbery and injustice as the people themselves may testify the wish to have set apart therefrom in order to open to them this language as an additional source of Knowledge and improvement. The primary object committed to the Committee was the revival and encouragement of native literature and this must surely be their first study so long as the parliamentary grant and the endowments which existed antecedently and in which that literature only has been taught constitute the means and materials with which the Committee has to deal. Let Government furnish other means and materials[,] let it prescribe the extensive and general teaching of English and assign adequate separate funds for that purpose and the cultivation of native literature may then become a secondary object because this other purpose will require a much more extensive grant than has been made for native literature and the scale of importance must depend on the extent of available means[;] but constituted as the Committee at present is constituted, as are the Institutions under its supervision constituted[,] as is the Act of Parliament 155

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under which it was appointed and in conformity with which the funds now at its disposal were set apart and appropriated[,] there cannot be a doubt in the mind of any unprejudiced person that it is and must be (to use again the words cited in the letter ofthe opposite party) 'the first duty of the Committee to revive and extend the cultivation of the literature of the Country and to regard the introduction of the Science and Literature of Europe as an improvement to be engrafted there upon rather than an object to be pursued exclusively or with marked and decided preference.'13 23 The cause advocated by the party whose sentiments are conveyed in my letter of yesterday is not that of Science and Literature at all but of rudimental English as a means of eventually pursuing the course into Literature and Science should life be long enough and the inclination last. Between these opposite views and the recommendations founded on them it is for the Government now to judge. Accordingly as the Governor General in Council may direct, the Committee will either pursue the plan it has hitherto followed of encouraging native Seminaries and native learned men, of seeking their good will and cordial cooperation in the work of education for the revival and improvement of their own Science and Literature with the advanced knowledge of Europe engrafted thereon, or reversing all the principles it has hitherto acted upon and preaching and publishing to the Natives who pride themselves on their attainments that their knowledge is ignorance, their literature a corruption of taste and their Science falseL] the Committee must commence by withdrawing its countenance and support from all existing InstitutionsL] rob them of the funds they have enjoyed for half a century and so begin upon a new course teaching nothing but English and distributing all the pecuniary means at Command in high paid Salaries to English Schoolmasters or in rewards to advanced pupils of the Spelling book and Reading Classes. 24 The Advocates of this Change avowing the purpose at which they aim admit the necessity of pursuing it with caution and seek to qualify the propositions they maintain by special temporary reservations in behalf of certain Institutions, these for a time they will allow to go on teaching Arabic and Sanscrit watching till they can render their innovations more palatable. It is right however that the full scope of the project intended should be set before the Government in order that it may not be led to sanction the views of the section of the Committee whose sentiments are stated in my letter of yesterday under the supposition that it is a mere leaning in favor of European literature and Science that distinguishes them from their opponent colleagues. The former have broadly asserted the principle that 'it cannot be expedient to render oriental learning a principal or preferential branch of study' in any of the Institutions which the Government supportL] that in all of them there shall be a fresh arrangement of studies according to their views of utility and the nature of those views has been explained to be english language teaching. 156

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25 Against such a spirit of Innovation the other members of the Committee most strongly protest and they confidently rely on the Government to support them in the maintenance of the great principles that have heretofore from the time when the Committee was first instituted guided all its measures and proceedings. 26 In furtherance of the same scheme of teaching exclusively English at the Institutions supported by Government it is proposed that the Government should declare and prescribe to its officers to allow a preference amongst candidates for the Public Employ to those who understand English. Such a declaration or any declaration that should trench at all on the board [broad?] principle of employing those best qualified for the particular duty to be performed and the most useful in their vocation would be highly impolitic and unjust. 'Detur digniore'14 is the only rule that can ever be applied or avowed by any public authority and the relative worthiness of acquaintance with the rudiments of English and the successful cultivation of the literature and Science of the East must be tested purely with reference to the nature of the situation to be conferred. The copying English Clerk must of course be from the Class of those who have learned the English Grammar and spelling book but it is not amongst these that the Government will seek either its diplomatic Agents or the candidates for its higher Judicial and revenue Situations. 27 In the above observations little account has been taken of that part of the project recommended which proposes to include the Vernacular Dialects of Hindoostan amongst the secondary objects of study to be cultivated at Seminaries supported by Government because in truth this is purely a secondary object to which small importance is attached by the advocates for English Instruction. The question for Government is whether the teaching of English is to supercede the cultivation of the literature and Science of Hindoostan or whether it will be satisfied with the gradual encouragement of the former by affording to the people such means of acquiring the language as may be practicable and as the encreasing desire for it on their part may develope itself. Ifthe decision be in favor of English it is a mere modification of that decision to require that the vernacular Dialects also shall not be wholly neglected. It is the purpose of those whose sentiments I now exhibit to point out the sacrifice of consistency and of principle at which such a change as is proposed in favor of English must be made and to contend for a continuance of the system observed hitherto by the Committee which has ever considered it to be its first duty to seek the revival and improvement of the literature of the Country, to encourage and to endeavour to produce learned natives and to introduce and promote a knowledge of European Science amongst them without any compulsory means or resorting to restrictions and disqualifications to force on any Class the learning of English. 28 We trust that on a subject of such vital Importance our Opinion may not be mistaken[;] none can be more impressed than ourselves with the 157

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superiority of British Literature, arts and Sciences and none can more ardently desire that they should be introduced into India as the surest means of promoting Civilization and its concomitant blessings[.] We differ about the means[;] we depricate any crude sudden sweeping innovation as having a tendency to defeat rather than promote the object in view[;] we doubt ifthe mere teaching the English Language would make the youth of India wiser or better[;] we would advocate the means of such Instruction being placed within the reach of all but we would not render recourse to it compulsory in any. They who would spontaneously take to it would in all probability in after life cultivate the Knowledge which it contains while they who learnt it by compulsion would imbibe along it with [along with it] feelings of disgust and hatred towards those who forced such unprofitable instruction upon their minds and thereby disqualified them in a great measure from earning their livelihood in a thousand respectable ways which are always open to learned natives among their own Countrymen. 29 The specific propositions which have to be determined and in the consideration of which the Government must be guided by one or other set of principles and views either those above explained or those advocated in my letter of yesterday are the following. First Whether for the Agra College founded by the appropriation of funds arising from a grant to a Mahrata Brahmin which lapsed about thirty years ago the Government will sanction the Establishment proposed by the Committee of that Station. The following is the distribution: Superintendent English Masters Persian Hindee Hindee Scholars English Scholarships Sundries

300 900 85 85 200 100 75

1645 Whether it shall further be avowed and prescribed that no Scholarships or Jageers or other rewards shall be granted from Funds under the controul of the Committee to Students of Sanscrit[,] Arabic or Persian at that as well in other Colleges; whether at the Mudressa of Calcutta the Government will sanction a rule for compelling all students to learn English and refusing the Scholarships and rewards of that Institution to Proficients of Arabic and Persian howsoever advanced unless they enter themselves in the English reading class. 30 Upon all these questions as well as upon a variety of others the Committee is divided and for the final decision of them it has been agreed to submit the present reference to the supreme authority and to be guided of course by the result. 158

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31 This address may be considered as conveying the general views and opinion of Mr H. Shakespead,] Mr H. T. Prinsep[,] Mr W. H. Macnaghten[,] Mr Jas Prinsep & myselff.]15

I have & c (Sd) J. C. C. Sutherland Sec G. C. P. 1.

Fort William 22nd Jan 1835

Notes 1 Copied here in the margin of the document is the bulk of section 43 of 53 Geo. III, c. 155 (see above, p. 91). 2 Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765-1837), noted Sanskrit scholar and chief judge of the Sadr Diwani and Nizamat Adalat (1805-12), president of the Bengal Asiatic Society (1807-14), and member of the governor-general's council (1807-12), etc. 3 The account given here does not quite tally with the sequence of events as recorded in the East India Company's archives. According to these sources, the plans to establish two new Sanskrit colleges in Nadia (Nuddea) and Tirhut districts (then in Bengal), and to reform Benares College, were originally proposed by the governor-general, Lord Minto, in March 1811, and concurred in by the members of his council, including Colebrooke (lOR: Bengal Revenue Consultations, No. 13 of 6 March 1811, P/55/38). The Court of Directors commented unfavorably on the general idea of establishing further public colleges in their Public Department dispatch of 3 June 1814 (see above pp. 93-7); and more specifically cast doubts on the efficacy of Minto's plans in their Revenue Department dispatch of 28 October 1814 (lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/708, No. 19201, pp. 31-40). But both these comments came well after the enactment of the Charter Act. 4 Francis Rawdon-Hastings, second earl of Moira and first marquis of Hastings, was governor-general from 1813 to 1823. See also Introduction, p.9. 5 For Hindu College (founded 1816) see Introduction, pp. 14-15. The college was placed under the supervision of the GCPI in 1824. See also lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/767, No. 20837, pp. 1-52; and Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 179-83. 6 For these quotations, see above pp. 134, 138. 7 For the GCPI's letter of 18 August 1824, see above pp. 118-24; and for the court's dispatch of 18 February 1821 [1824], see pp. 115-17. 8 Khulasat al hisab ('The epitome of arithmetic'): an Arabic work attributed to Muhammad Bahauddin (d. 1621), Persian poet, mathematician and scholar. 9 The reference is to the Bijaganita and Lilavati, Sanskrit works dealing respectively with algebra and arithmetic/geometry composed by the celebrated Indian mathematician, Bhaskaracarya (1114-60). 10 The Gulistan ('Rose-garden') ofthe famous Persian poet Sa'di (1184-1292). 11 Based on the great collection of Sanskrit fables known as the Pancatantra, Narayana's Hitopadesa ('Salutary Instruction') was probably composed in Bengal in the twelfth or thirteenth century.

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12 13 14 15

For the endowment ofthe Calcutta Madrasa, see pp. 73, 176-7, 187. See above p. 136. Detur digniori: let it be given to the more worthy. Henry Thoby Prinsep, GCPI member, 1823-24, 1826-42 (with some gaps in attendance, see also pp. 340-1); (Sir) William Hay Macnaghten (Bengal Civil Service, 1814-41), GCPI member, 1824-35; James Prinsep (Bengal Mint 1819-38, indologist and architect), GCPI member, 1832-5. For Henry Shakespear, see above, p. 145.

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Minute recorded in the General Department by Thomas Babington Macaulay, law member of the governor-generalis council, dated 2 February 1835

Macaulay's minute of 2 February 1835 (recorded in the Government of India General Department Consultations for 7 March 1835) has come to be seen as a turning point in the extended debate about the primary objectives of British Indian educational policy, comparable, if not greater in significance, to Warren Hastings' order establishing the Calcutta Madrasa in 1781, and the 1813 Charter Act's educational provisions. Formally accepted by Lord Bentinck (governor-general from 1828 to 1835) as part of the government response to the deadlocked deliberations of the GCPI (as outlined in Sutherland's two letters), the minute decisively rejects the orientalists' views in favor of giving financial support and encouragement to traditional Indian studies in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. Instead Macaulay advocates that in future official funding should be almost entirely devoted to the teaching of English - both language and literature - and the spread of western science through the medium of English. More particularly, he proposes that the printing of oriental books should be discontinued, the madrasa and Sanskrit College at Calcutta should be abolished, and that no further stipends should be given to students wishing to pursue oriental studies. The detailed arguments used by Macaulay idiosyncratically combine vigor with prejudice. l Brushing aside the Charter Act's encouragement for the revival of Indian learning with a wayward interpretation of its terms, he bases his case principally on a refusal to treat previous official pledges to fund oriental studies as 'unalterably fixed'; his low estimate of the value of Indian learning in comparison with English (and western) literature and science; and his contention that Indians themselves were eager to absorb these new subjects - even to the extent of paying for their own English education - whilst (what he considered to be) their largely useless traditional studies were artificially kept alive through government subsidy. Indeed, not only does he believe that sufficient numbers of Indians were willing and able to master the English language, and to spread the knowledge it contained to the wider population, but that it should be the ultimate aim of government policy to convert those Indians into honorary Englishmen - 'Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.' In the course of building up his main thesis in favor of concentrating resources on the spread of English education, Macaulay makes brief forays into a number of related issues with the evident intention of anticipating likely objections, whilst at the same time virtually ignoring certain other perspectives than run counter

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to his own views. For example, he tries (not very convincingly) to draw historical analogies from the European past to lend weight to his belief in the special power of English to revive the alien cultures of South Asia. Similarly, he seeks to dismiss arguments that favor the continued support of Sanskrit and Arabic education out of prudential regard for their traditional status as sacred languages or in pragmatic recognition of their utility for legal purposes. On the other hand, he fails (perhaps not surprisingly in view of the fact that he had been in India for less than a year) to engage seriously with the orientalists' complex case for engraftment, and he seems to be largely unaware of nascent Indian and British interest in the possibilities of wider vernacular education. One other significant area where Macaulay's lack of Indian experience seems to show lies in his failure to distinguish clearly between the special endowments and donations from which the main oriental colleges in Calcutta, Benares, Agra and Delhi were largely maintained, and the separate funds (including interest) available under the provisions of the 1813 Charter Act. Indeed, the way he initially sets out his views on funding seems to imply that he was under the mistaken impression that the colleges (such as the Calcutta Madrasa, which he wished to abolish) were actually paid for out of the parliamentary grant. This point was quickly seized upon by his opponents, who also used the substantive issue of the separate endowments of the colleges to halt and eventually water down the anglicist reforms. 2 Recent historical research tends to show that the minute in itself was less decisive in a number of respects than was once supposed, despite its undoubted impact on the spread of English teaching in Bengal presidency. Thus not only had Bentinck and Macaulay agreed upon the broad change of policy well before the document was written, but several of the minute's key proposals were dropped or substantially modified during the next few years, culminating in Auckland's comprehensive compromise settlement in 1839 and the educational review of 1854. That the minute has reverberated so long in the Indian and British cultural psyches has, of course, much to do with its contemptuous dismissal of Indian thought and literature, and its uncompromisingly anglocentric notion of India's future. See also Introduction, pp. 32-6. SQURCE(S): lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77633, pp. 127-46. Somewhat ironically, given the minute's praise of English, the official copyist's punctuation and spelling are erratic in places. The document also contains a number of contemporary marginal comments in pencil (not always legible) which have not been reproduced here, including some by Sir John Cam Hobhouse (president of the Board of Control. 1835-41) and (probably) other board or company officials. Another contemporary official copy is available in lOR: India General Consultations, No. 15 of 7 March 1835, P/186/66, ff. 267-74. Lengthy extracts appeared in Charles Trevelyan's On the Education of the People of India (London: Longman, 1838), but it was not apparently until 1853 that the full text was first published by Charles Hay Cameron in An Address to Parliament on the Duties of Great Britain to India in Respect of the Education of the Natives, and Their Official Employment (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1853), pp. 64-80. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 107-17.

--------------~-------------As it seems to be the opinion of some of the Gentlemen who compose the Committee of Public Instruction that the course which they have hitherto 162

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pursued was strictly prescribed by the British parliament in 1813, and as, if that opinion be correct, a legislative act will be necessary to warrant a change, I have thought it right to refrain from taking any part in the preparation of the adverse statements which are now before us, and to reserve what I had to say on the subject till it should come before me as a member of the Council of India. 3 It does not appear to me that the Act of parliament can by any art of construction be made to bear the meaning which has been assigned to it.4 It contains nothing about the particular languages or sciences which are to be studied. A sum is set apart 'for the revival and promotion of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the Sciences among the inhabitants of the British Territories.' It is argued, or rather taken for granted, that by literature the parliament can have meant only Arabic and Sanscrit literature; that they never would have given the Honorable appellation of 'a learned native' to a native who was familiar with the poetry of Milton, the metaphysics of Locke, and the Physics of Newton; but that they meant to designate by that name only such persons as might have studied in the sacred books ofthe Hindoos all the uses ofCusa-Grass, and all the mysteries of absorption into the Deity.5 This does not appear to be a very satisfactory interpretation. To take a parallel case: - Suppose that the Pacha of Egypt, - a country once superior in knowledge to the nations of Europe, but now sunk far below them, - were to appropriate a sum for the purpose 'of reviving and promoting literature, and encouraging learned natives of Egypt,' would any body infer that he meant the youth of his Pachalik to give years to the study of hieroglyphics, to search into all the doctrines disguised under the fable of Osiris, and to ascertain with all possible accuracy the ritual with which cats and onions were anciently adored[?] Would he be justly charged with inconsistency if, instead of employing his young subjects in decyphering obelisks, he were to order them to be instructed in the English and French languages, and in all the sciences to which those languages are the chief keys? The words on which the supporters of the old system rely do not bear them out, and other words follow which seem to be quite decisive on the other side. This lac of rupees is set apart not only for 'reviving literature in India,' the phrase on which their whole interpretation is founded, but also 'for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories' - words which are alone sufficient to authorise all the changes for which I contend. If the Council agree in my construction no legislative act will be necessary. If they differ from me, I will propose a short Act rescinding that clause of the Charter of 1813 from which the difficulty arises. The 6 argument which I have been considering affects only the form of proceeding. But the admirers of the Oriental system of education have used another argument, which, if we admit it to be valid, is decisive 163

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against all change. They conceive that the public faith is pledged to the present system, and that to alter the appropriation of any of the funds which have hitherto been spent in encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanscrit would be downright spoliation. It is not easy to understand by what process of reasoning they can have arrived at this conclusion. The grants which are made from the Public purse for the encouragement of literature differ in no respect from the grants which are made from the same purse for other objects of real or supposed utility. We found a Sanatarium on a spot which we suppose to be healthy. Do we thereby pledge ourselves to keep a Sanatarium there if the result should not answer our expectations? We commence the erection of a pier. Is it a violation of the public faith to stop the works, if we afterwards see reason to believe that the building will be useless[?] The rights of property are undoubtedly sacred. But nothing endangers those rights so much as the practice, now unhappily too common, of attributing them to things to which they do not belong. Those who would impart to abuses the sanctity of property are in truth imparting to the institution of property the unpopularity and the fragility of abuses. If the Government has given to any person a formal assurance - nay, ifthe Government has excited in any person['s] mind a reasonable expectation, - that he shall receive a certain income as a teacher or a learner of Sanscrit or Arabic, I would respect that person's Pecuniary interests. I would rather err on the side of liberality to individuals than suffer the Public faith to be called in question. But to talk of a Government pledging itself to teach certain languages and certain sciences, though those languages may become useless, though those sciences may be exploded, seems to me quite unmeaning. There is not a Single word in any public instrument from which it can be inferred that the Indian Government ever intended to give any pledge on this subject, or ever considered the destination of these funds as unalterably fixed. But, had it been otherwise, I should have denied the competence of our predecessors to [bindF us by any pledge on such a subject. Suppose that a Government had in the last century enacted in the most solemn manner that all its subjects should, to the end of time, be enoculated for the small pox, would that Government be bound to persist in the practice after Jenner's discovery? These promises of which no body claims the performance, and from which no body can grant a release, - these vested rights which vest in no body, this property without proprietors, this robbery which makes no body poorer, may be comprehended by persons of higher faculties than mine. I consider this plea merely as a set form of words, regularly used both in England and in India, in defence of every abuse for which no other plea can be set up. I hold this lac of Rupees to be quite at the disposal of the Governor General in Council for the purpose of promoting learning in India, in any way which may be thought most advisable. I hold his Lordship to be quite as free to direct that it shall no longer be employed in encouraging Arabic 164

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and Sanscrit, as he is to direct that the reward for killing tigers in Mysore shall be diminished, or that no more public money shall be expended on the chaunting at the chathedral. We now come to the gist of the matter. We have a fund to be employed as Government shall direct for the intellectual improvement of the people of this Country. The simple question is, what is the most useful way of employing it[?] All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India contain neither literary nor scientific information, and are moreover so poor and rude that, until they are enriched from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them. It seems to be admitted on all sides, that the intellectual improvement of those classes of the people who have the means of pursuing higher studies can at present be effected only by means of some language not vernacular amongst them. What then shall that language be[?] One-half of the Committee maintain that it should be the English. The other half strongly recommend the Arabic and Sanscrit. The whole question seems to me to be - which language is the best worth knowing[?] I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate oftheir value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanscrit works. I have conversed, both here and at home, with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take the Oriental learning at the valuation of the orientalists themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabic. 8 The intrinsic superiority of the western literature is indeed fully admitted by those Members of the Committee who support the Oriental plan of education. It will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department of literature in which the Eastern writers stand highest is Poetry. And I certainly never met with any orientalist who ventured to maintain that the Arabic and Sanscrit Poetry could be compared to that of the great European nations. But when we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasureable. It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgements used at preparatory Schools in England. In every branch of Physical or moral Philosophy the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same. How then stands the case[?] We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the 165

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languages ofthe west. It abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us, [-] with models of every species of eloquence, with historical compositions which, considered merely as narratives, have seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as vehicles of ethical and political instruction, have never been equalled, [-] with just and lively representations of human life and human nature,with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals, Government, jurisprudence, trade, with full and correct information respecting every experimental science which tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man. Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It may safely be said that the literature now extant in that language, is of greater value than all the literature which three hundred years ago was extant in all the languages of the world together. Nor is this all. In India[,] English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Govt. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas ofthe East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australasia, [-] communities which are every year becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian empire[.] Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation ofthis country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues[,] the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects. The question now before us is simply whether[,] when it is in our power to teach this language, we shall teach languages in which, by universal confession, there are no books on any subject which deserve to be compared to our own, whether, when we can teach European science, we shall teach systems which, by universal confession, wherever they differ from those of Europe differ for the worse, and whether, when we can patronize sound Philosophy and true history, we shall countenance, at the public expense[,] medical doctrines which would disgrace an English farrier, astronomy which would move laughter in girls at an English boarding school, history abounding with kings thirty feet high and reigns thirty thousand years long, and geography made of seas of treacle and seas of butter. We are not without experience to guide us. History furnishes several analogous cases, and they all teach the same lesson. There are, in modern times, to go no further, two memorable instances of a great impulse given to the mind of a whole society, of prejudices overthrown, of knowledge diffused, of taste purified, of arts and sciences planted in countries which had recently been ignorant and barbarous. The first instance to which I refer is the great revival of letters among the Western nations at the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the Sixteenth century. At that time almost every thing that was worth reading 166

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was contained in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans[.] Had our ancestors acted as the Committee of Public Instruction has hitherto acted[,-]had they neglected the language of Thucydides and Plato,9 and the language of Cicero and Tacitus - had they confined their attention to the old dialects of our own island, had they printed nothing and taught nothing at the universities but chronicles in Anglo Saxon and romances in Norman French, - would England ever 10 have been what she now is[?] What the Greek and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our tongue is to the people of India. The literature of England is now more valuable than that of classical antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanscrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors. In some departments - in history for example, I am certain that it is much less so. Another instance may be said to be still before our eyes. Within the last hundred and twenty years, a nation which had previously been in a state as barbarous as that in which our ancestors were before the Crusades has gradually emerged from the ignorance in which it was sunk, and has taken its place among Civilised communities. I speak of Russia. There is now in that country a large educated class, abounding with persons fit to serve the State in the highest functions, and in no wise inferior to the most accomplished men who adorn the best circles of Paris and London. There is reason to hope that this vast empire which, in the time of our grandfathers was probably behind the Punjab[,] may in the time of our grandchildren, be pressing close on France and Britain in the career of improvement. And how was this change effected[?] Not by flattering national prejudices: - not by feeding the mind ofthe young Muscovite with the old women's stories which his rude fathers had believed:- not by filling his head with lying legends about St. Nicholas:- not by encouraging him to study the great question, whether the world was or not created on the 13th of September:- not by calling him 'a learned native' when he had mastered all these points of knowledge. But by teaching him those foreign languages in which the greatest mass of information had been laid up, and thus putting all that information within his reach. The languages of western Europe civilised Russia. I cannot doubt that they will do for the Hindoo what they have done for the Tartar. And what are the arguments against that course which seems to be alike recommended by theory and by experience[?] It is said that we ought to secure the co-operation of the native public, and that we can do this only by teaching Sanscrit and Arabic. I can by no means admit that, when a nation of high intellectual attainments undertakes to Superintend the education of a nation comparatively ignorant, the learners are absolutely to prescribe the course which is to be taken by the teachers. It is not necessary however to say any thing on this subject. For it is proved by unanswerable evidence that we are not at present securing the co-operation of the natives. It 167

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would be bad enough to consult their intellectual taste at the expense of their intellectual health. But we are consulting neither. We are withholding from them the learning which is palatable to them. ll We are forcing on them the mock learning which they nauseate. This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our Arabic and Sanscrit students while those who learn English are willing to pay us. All the declamations in the world about the love and reverence of the natives for their sacred dialects will never, in the mind of any impartial person, out weigh this undisputed fact, that we cannot find in all our vast empire a single student who will let us teach him those dialects, unless we will pay him. I have now before me the accounts of the Mudrissa for one month [-] the month of December, 1833. The Arabic students appear to have been seventy-seven in number. All receive stipends from the public. The whole amount paid to them is above 500 Rupees a month. On the other side of the account stands the following item. Deduct Amount realized from the out-students of English for the months of May, June, and July last - 103 Rupees. I have been told that it is merely from want oflocal experience that I am surprised at these phnomena, and that it is not the fashion for Students in India to study at their own charges. This only confirms me in my opinion. Nothing is more certain than that it never can in any part of the world be necessary to pay men for doing what they think pleasant or profitable. India is no exception to this rule. The people of India do not require to be paid for eating rice when they are hungry, or for wearing woollen cloth in the cold season. To come nearer to the case before us; the children who learn their letters and a little elementary arithmetic from the Village Schoolmaster are not paid by him. He is paid for teaching them. Why then is it necessary to pay people to learn Sanscrit and Arabic[?] Evidently because it is universally felt that the Sanscrit and Arabic are languages the knowledge of which does not compensate for the trouble of acquiring them. On all such subjects the state of the market is the decisive test. Other evidence is not wanting if other evidence were required. A Petition was presented last year to the Committee by several ex-students of the Sanscrit College. 12 The Petitioners stated that they had studied in the college ten or twelve years, that they had made themselves acquainted with Hindoo literature and Science, that they had received certificates of proficiency. And what is the fruit of all this[?] 'Notwithstanding such testimonials,' they say, 'we have but little prospect of bettering our condition without the kind assistance of your Honorable Committee, the indifference with which we are generally looked upon by our Countrymen leaving no hope of encouragement and assistance from them[.]' They therefore beg that they may be recommended to the Governor-General for places under the Government, - not places of high dignity or emolument, but such as may just enable them to exist[.] 'We want means,' they say, 'for a decent living, and for our progressive improvement[,] which[,] however, 168

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we cannot obtain without the assistance of Government, by whom we have been educated and maintained from childhood.' They conclude by representing very pathetically that they are sure that it was never the intention of Government, after behaving so liberally to them during their education[,] to abandon them to destitution and neglect. I have been used to see petitions to Government for compensation. All those petitions, even the most unreasonable of them[,] proceeded on the supposition that some loss had been sustained, that some wrong had been inflicted. These are surely the first petitioners who ever demanded compensation for having been educated gratis, for having been supported by the public during twelve years, and then sent forth into the world well furnished with literature and science. They represent their education as an injury which gives them a claim on the Government for redress - as an injury for which the stipends paid to them during the infliction were a very inadequate compensation. And I doubt not that they are in the right. They have wasted the best years of life in learning what procures for them neither bread nor respect. Surely we might with advantage have saved the cost of making these Persons useless and miserable. Surely, men may be brought up to be burdens to the public and objects of contempt to their neighbours at a somewhat smaller charge to the state. But such is our policy. We do not even stand neuter in the contest between truth and falsehood. We are not content to leave the natives to the influence of their own hereditary prejudices. To the natural difficulties which obstruct the progress of sound science in the East, we add great difficulties of our own making. Bounties and premiums, such as ought not to be given even for the propagation of Truth, we lavish on false texts and false philosophy. But acting thus we create the very evil which we fear. We are making that opposition which we do not find[.] What we spend on the Arabic and Sanscrit colleges is not merely a dead loss to the cause of truth. It is bounty-money paid to raise up champions of error. It goes to form a nest not merely of helpless place-hunters but of bigots prompted alike by passion and by interest to raise a cry against every useful scheme of education. If there should be any opposition among the natives to the change which I recommend, that opposition will be the effect of our own system. It will be headed by persons supported by our stipends and trained in our colleges. The longer we persevere in our present course, the more formidable will that opposition be. It will be every year reinforced by recruits whom we are paying. From the native society, left to itselff,] we have no difficulties to apprehend. All the murmuring will come from that oriental interest which we have, by artificial means, called into being and nursed into strength. There is yet another fact which is alone sufficient to prove that the feeling of the native public, when left to itself, is not such as the supporters of the old system represent it to be. The Committee have thought fit to lay out above a lac of rupees in printing Arabic and Sanscrit books. Those books 169

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find no purchasers. It is very rarely that a single copy is disposed of. Twenty three thousand volumes, most ofthem folios and quartos, fill the libraries or rather the lumber rooms of this body. The Committee contrive to get rid of some portion of their vast stock of Oriental literature by giving books away. But they cannot give so fast as they print. About Twenty thousand rupees a year are spent in adding fresh masses of waste paper to a hoard which, one should think, is already sufficiently ample. During the last three years about sixty thousand rupees have been expended in this manner. The sale of Arabic and Sanscrit books, during those three years has not yielded quite one Thousand rupees. In the mean time, the School book society is selling seven or eight thousand English volumes every year, and not only pays the expenses of printing but realizes a profit of twenty per Cent. on its outlay. The fact that the Hindoo law is to be learned chiefly from Sanscrit books, and the Mahometan law from Arabic books, has been much insisted on but seems not to bear at all on the question. We are commanded by parliament to ascertain and digest the Laws of India. The Assistance of a Law Commission has been given to us for that purpose. 13 As soon as the Code is promulgated the Shasters 14 and the Hedaya 15 will be useless to a Moonsiff or a Sudder Ameen. I hope and trust that, before the boys who are now entering at the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College have completed their studies, this great work will be finished. It would be manifestly absurd to educate the rising generation with a view to a state of things which we mean to alter before they reach manhood. But there is yet another argument which seems even more untenable. It is said that the Sanscrit and Arabic are the languages in which the sacred books of a hundred millions of people are written, and that they are on that account entitled to peculiar encouragement. Assuredly it is the duty of the British Government in India to be not only tolerant, but neutral on all religious questions. But to encourage the study of a literature, admitted to be of small intrinsic value, only because that literature inculcates the most serious errors on the most important subjects, is a course hardly reconcilable with reason, with morality, or even with that very neutrality which ought, as we all agree, to be sacredly preserved. It is confessed that a language is barren of useful knowledge. We are to teach it because it is fruitful of monstrous superstitions. We are to teach false history, false astronomy, false medicine, because we find them in Company with a false religion. We abstain, and I trust shall always abstain, from giving any public encouragement to those who are engaged in the work of converting the natives to Christianity. And while we act thus[,] can we reasonably or decently bribe men, out of the revenues of the state, to waste their youth in learning how they are to purify themselves after touching an Ass, or what texts of the Vedas they are to repeat to expiate the crime of killing a goat[?] It is taken for granted by the advocates of oriental learning that no native of this country can possibly attain more than a mere smattering of 170

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English. They do not attempt to prove this. But they perpetually insinuate it. They designate the education which their opponents recommend as a mere spelling-book education. They assume it as undeniable that the question is between a profound knowledge of Hindoo and Arabian literature and Science on the one side, and a superficial knowledge of the rudiments of English on the other. This is not merely an assumption, but an assumption contrary to all reason and experience. We know that foreigners of all nations do learn our language sufficiently to have access to all the most abtruse knowledge which it contains, sufficiently to relish even the more delicate graces of our most idiomatic writers. There are in this very town natives who are quite competent to discuss political or scientific questions with fluency and precision in the English language. I have heard the very question on which I am now writing discussed by native Gentlemen with a liberality and an intelligence which would do credit to any member of the Committee of Public Instruction. Indeed it is unusual to find, even in the literary circles of the continent, any foreigner who can express himself in English with so much facility and correctness as we find in many Hindoos. Nobody, I suppose, will contend that English is so difficult to a Hindoo as Greek to an Englishman. Yet an intelligent English youth, in a much smaller number of years than our unfortunate pupils pass at the Sanscrit college, becomes able to read, to enjoy, and even to imitate not unhappily the compositions of the best Greek authors. Less than half the time which enables an English youth to read Herodotus and Sophocles ought to enable a Hindoo to read Hume and Milton. To sum up what I have said[.] I think it dear that we are not fettered by the Act of parliament of 1813[;] that we are not fettered by any pledge expressed or implied[;] that we are free to employ our funds as we chuse; that we ought to employ them in teaching what is best worth knowing, that English is better worth knowing than Sanscrit or Arabic; that the natives are desirous to be taught English, and are not desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic[;] that neither as the languages of law, nor as the languages of religion, have Sanscrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our encouragement; that it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars, and that to this end our efforts ought to be directed. In one point I fully agree with the Gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body ofthe people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern[-]a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of this Country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population. 171

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I would strictly respect all existing interests. I would deal even generously with all individuals who have had fair reason to expect a pecuniary provision. But I would strike at the root ofthe bad system which has hitherto been fostered by us. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and Sanscrit books. I would abolish the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College at Calcutta. Benares is the great seat of Brahminical learning; Delhi of Arabic learning. If we retain the Sanscrit College at Benares and the Mahometan College at Delhi, we do enough and much more than enough in my opinion, for the Eastern languages. If the Benares and Delhi Colleges should be retained, I would at least recommend that no stipends shall be given to any students who may hereafter repair thither, but that the people shall be left to make their own choice between the rival systems of education without being bribed by us to learn what they have no desire to know. The funds which would thus be placed at our disposal would enable us to give larger encouragement to the Rindoo College at Calcutta, and establish in the principal cities throughout the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra schools in which the English language might be well and thoroughly taught. Ifthe decision ofRis Lordship in Council should be such as I anticipate, I shall enter on the performance of my duties with the greatest zeal and alacrity. If, on the other hand, it be the opinion of the Government that the present system ought to remain unchanged, I beg that I may be permitted to retire from the chair of the Committee. I feel that I could not be of the smallest use there. I feel also that I should be lending my countenance to what I firmly believe to be a mere delusion. I believe that the present system tends not to accelerate the progress of truth but to delay the natural death of expiring errors. I conceive that we have at present no right to the respectable name of a Board of Public Instruction. We are a Board for wasting the public money, for printing books which are of less value than the paper on which they are printed was while it was blank, for giving artificial encouragement to absurd history, absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, absurd theology - for raising up a breed of scholars who find their scholarship an incumbrance and blemish, who live on the public while they are receiving their education, and whose education is so utterly useless to them that, when they have received it, they must either starve or live on the public all the rest of their lives. Entertaining these opinions, I am naturally desirous to decline all share in the responsibility of a body which, unless it alters its whole mode of proceedings, I must consider, not merely as useless, but as positively noxious. (Signed)

T. B. MACAULAY

February 2nd 1835. I give my entire concurrence to the Sentiments expressed in this Minute. (Signed) 172

W. C. BENTINCK

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Notes 1 The question of how Macaulay so quickly acquired his strong opinions on Indian education, given the fact that he had only arrived in India in March 1834, is still an intriguing one. He was, of course, already familiar with British Indian affairs before his arrival, having previously held the positions of commissioner and secretary at the Board of Control in London (1831-3), and taken part in parliamentary debates on the East India Company's affairs. As several historians have pointed out, one of his principal informants in Calcutta was the Bengal civil servant and proactive anglicist, Charles Trevelyan, who married Macaulay's sister Hannah in December 1834. In this connection it is interesting to recall the conclusion of Brian Hodgson (also a Bengal civilian, contemporary to Macaulay and Trevelyan) who noted (in Miscellaneous Essays, vol. II, p. 256) that 'Mr. Macaulay's Minute is but a second edition of Mr. Trevelyan's Treatise' (i.e., Treatise on the Means of Communicating the Learning and Civilisation of Europe to India, originally written in 1831-2 and published in Calcutta in 1834). A cursory comparison of the two texts certainly suggests that Macaulay drew upon some of Trevelyan's general arguments, especially for his historical analogies with renaissance England and modern Russia, and his comments on Indian law. See below, pp. 263, 302; also Clive, Macaulay, pp. 369-79. 2 For the details of the funding system, see below, pp. 176-8, 210-3. 3 Macaulay assumed the position of law member of the governor-general's council in June 1834. 4 For the provisions of the 1813 Charter Act see above p. 9l. 5 This last reference to 'absorption into the Deity,' plus Macaulay's later derisory reference to the recital of the Vedas as an expiation for the killing of a goat (p. 170), indicated that he was familiar with Rammohun Roy's letter to Lord Amherst of 11 December 1823 (see above pp. 35, 110-4). 6 Most other early versions of the minute (including the lOR: PI186/66 copy and the text printed in Cameron) start a fresh paragraph here. 7 The copyist has written 'find' here. However, the word 'bind' has been correctly entered in pencil at this point, probably by a contemporary East India Company or Board of Control official. 8 'Arabic' appears here in both the lOR: F/4 and P/186/66 official copies. Most later versions (including Cameron, p. 68, and Sharp p. 108) have concluded that 'Arabia' is intended. 9 Cameron (p. 71) omits 'the language of Thucydides and Plato and' here. 10 Cameron (p. 71) omits 'ever.' 11 Cameron (p. 72) substitutes 'the learning for which they are craving,' but the F/4 and P/186/66 documents, as well as Sharp (p. 112), all say 'the learning which is palatable to them.' 12 For a full discussion of the petition of the former students of the Sanskrit College, see Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, pp. 177-8; see also Introduction, p. 34. 13 The Charter Act of 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV, C. 85) had provided for the establishment of the Indian law commission, which Macaulay himself headed from 1835 to 1837. However, the penal code, for which he was then largely responsible, was not formally enacted until 1860. 14 The reference is evidently to the dharma-sastras or law-books, which, along with the Vedas, formed the principal sources of Hindu law. 15 Hidaya (lit: 'Guidance'): the title of a well-known Arabic treatise on Sunni Muslim law composed in the 12th century.

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Note, dated 15 February 1835, by H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the government of India in the Ceneral Department (with marginal notes by T. B. Macaulay etc.)

Given the radical nature of Macaulay's scheme - and the fact that he had secured Bentinck's prior backing for it - it is not surprising that opposition developed swiftly on several fronts, even before the government itself had had time to define and ratify the new policies. As secretary in the general department (which handled education), and himself a committed orientalist member of the GCPI, Henry Thoby Prinsep was well placed to playa leading part in that opposition. Alarmed by the fact that no effectively balanced critique of Macaulay's arguments had yet emerged from the council members to whom the minute had been circulated, and aware that rumors of the sweeping changes afoot had already agitated the Indian institutions most obviously threatened by them (viz. the madrasa and Sanskrit College at Calcutta), Prinsep concluded by mid-February 1835 that he was fully justified in forwarding a note directly to the governor-general, exposing what he saw as the main weaknesses in Macaulay's case. Beside demonstrating several flaws in the historical analogies adduced by Macaulay, Prinsep's note is particularly effective in (1) stressing the discrepancy between the Charter Act's undoubted intention to revive Indian learning and the anglicists' plan to demolish the institutions upon which that revival most clearly depended; (2) distinguishing the respect due to the government's prior, endowment-like commitment to institutions such as the Calcutta Madrasa, which were not (as Macaulay had apparently supposed) funded from the parliamentary grant; and (3) skillfully dissecting the cultural simplicities and unfair deductions used by Macaulay to bolster his claim that Indians themselves did not value their own learning. Throughout his note Prinsep is also particularly at pains to warn his colleagues of the dangers of alienating Muslim opinion through the proposed abolition of the Calcutta Madrasa etc. The eventual fate of Prinsep's attempted intervention illustrates the strength of the Bentinck/Macaulay/Trevelyan alliance in favor of educational change. Initially persuaded to withdraw his own note from circulation on the understanding that the GCPI would soon be given ample opportunity to debate Macaulay's proposals, Prinsep later discovered that no such opportunity had been provided before the issue was brought before the governor-general in council for final resolution on 7 March 1835 (when it was largely, though not entirely, decided along the lines suggested by Macaulay). At the same time Bentinck even refused to allow Prinsep's discordant note to be formally recorded in the government's General Consultations, on the

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grounds that the opinions of secretaries had no standing in the face of contrary conclusions reached by the governor-general in council. Hence the note only survives today in the National Archives of India in the form of a semiofficial 'Keep-with' file attached to the official General Department Original Consultations, its margins decorated with the dissenting opinions of the unrepentent Macaulay and occasional retorts by Prinsep himself. See also Introduction, pp. 36-8. SQURCE(S): H. Sharp, ed., Bureau of Education, India. Selections from Educational Records. Part I 1781-1839 (Calcutta: Superintendent, Government Printing, India, 1920), pp. 117-30. Sharp's text is taken from the original note preserved in the National Archives of India, for which see India Public (i.e., General) Original Consultations, K(eep) W(ith) to No. 19 of 7 March 1835. There is no archival copy of the note in the India Office Records. Note: A recent examination of the original NAI file shows that in a very few places Sharp's transcriptions of some of the less legible words in Macaulay and Prinsep's marginal comments are questionable. In the following text therefore any such doubtful transcriptions are italicized and fOllowed by brackets containing a question mark, plus, where possible, a conjectural correction.

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It seems to me that there are some points touched upon in the Minute of the Hon'ble Mr. Macaulayl that require to be set right by an explanation of the facts or by more clearly stating the views and principles against which the arguments ofthe minute are directed where these appear to have been misunderstood. For as the question before the Government is of the first importance and the propositions to which it leads such as if any step be taken hastily and without a thorough comprehension of the subject in its different bearings the Government may be committed irretrievably to measures hateful and injurious to the mass of the people under its sway such as it might repent afterwards when too late - it behoves every one that can contribute anything towards clearing it of fallacies or further elucidating any of the material points to bring forward what he may have to say before rather than after the Government's determination is taken. My note will be short for I propose merely to point out where in the minute before Government the opposite view has not been fully stated or where the information built upon is incomplete or incorrect. It is not my purpose to make a laboured advocacy of the cause of oriental literature; for neither my pursuits, inclinations nor acquaintance with the subject qualify me for such a task. First in respect to the legal question. It is submitted that the Act 53 Geo. lIP must be construed with special reference to the intention of the Legislature of that day . So construed there cannot be a doubt in the mind of any person that by 'the revival and promotion of literature and the encouragement of learned natives' the 175

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legislaturea did not mean to refer to any other literature than native literature nor to any other learned natives than such as were eminent by their proficiency in that literature. These were the persons then intended to be produced and encouraged and it is surely forcing the words out of their natural construction when it is argued that the revival of native literature can best be effected by abolishing all institutions for teaching the literature that then existed and that had existed for ages before and by communicating instruction only in English. With respect to the analogy to the position of the Pasha of Egypt there can be no doubt that ifhe were to talk of reviving and promoting literature in that country his meaning would be the literature and language last existing in Egypt, viz, that borrowed from Arabia and accordingly we do see him cultivating and reviving that and teaching medicine and other sciences in that. The example is worthy of imitation. There is no talk there of reviving the mummy literature of Osiris nor in India of going beyond what we found prevailing throughout but languishing for want of encouragement. With respect to rescinding any provisions of the Charter act of 1813 by a legislative Act of the Indian Government I have before argued that question and it cannot be necessary to revert to it.3 The next point is that the institutions established for communicating instruction in Arabic and Sanskrit are endowments to which funds have been permanently and irrevocably appropriated. Against this it is argued that Government cannot have pledged itself to perpetuate what may be proved noxious, that there is no right of property vesting in any body and that requires to be respected as suchb - therefore that to take these funds from these purposes and objects and direct them to other that may be thought by the rulers of the day to be more beneficial is no spoliation or violation of any vested interest but on the contrary that the annual Lakh of Rupees set apart by the act of Parliament may annually be applied to such purposes as may each year be thought most conducive to the great end the revival and encouragement of literature and the promotion and cultivation of Science. Upon this it is to be observed first that the argument as to the inviolability of endowments was never applied to any Institution paid out of the Parliamentary grant of a Lakh of Rupees. It was adduced only in behalf of the Mudrisa which was specifically an endowment made by Warren Hastings more than fifty years ago and for the support of which certain Funds, viz, the land revenue of the Mudrisa Muhal part of which is aO n [? for] the legal question I have had the opinion of Sir E. Ryan. He pronounces that there is not the shadow of a reason for Mr. Prinsep's construction. T. B. M. [Sir Edward Ryan (1793-1875) was chiefjustice of Bengal from 1833 to 1843. He was a member of the GCP] from 1835, and also its president (in succession to Macaulay) from 1835 to 1842.] I do not feel overwhelmed by this authority. [H. T. P.l bI leave my minute to defend itself on this head. [T. B. M.]

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included in the Barrackpoor park were specifically assigned. At first the Institution was left to the uncontrolled management of the Moola placed by Mr. Hastings at its head. 4 The Mukal however was under the Khas management of the Board of Revenue and the varying amount realized from it was placed at the Moolavee's disposal. Subsequently the Muhal was made over at a fixed Jama to the Raja of Nudeea when he was restored to his estates of which this formed a part. 5 Except therefore that the direct management of the lands was not in the hands of the Principal and Professors and Fellows of the College this was assuredly as complete an Endowment as any of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge or as the Blue coat school in London can boast of. The purpose was declared to be the education of Moolavees and Kazees and the cultivation of Arabic learning, and from the day of the Institution's first establishment to this present time degrees and certificates have granted entitling persons to assume the style and to exercise the functions of Moolavee and Kazee in like manner as degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor are conferred in Europe. The Government exercised towards this institution the functions of Waqif6 or Endower which are distinct and well defined in law and by the practise of the country resembling those of directing visitor but more extensive than any enjoyed by visitors in Europe. In the exercise of these powers the Government had reformed the Institution and placed it on a footing efficient for the purposes intended by the founder before the Parliamentary grant of 1813 was made. It was transferred to the Committee appointed to carry that act into execution not as an Institution established under it and paid from the funds appropriated therein to Education but because the Committee was deemed the fittest organ for the execution of the functions of visitor. The Mudrusa had before a separate Committee which merged into the General Education Committee and therein the connexion of this latter with it. The argument therefore that the Government is free to deal with its lakh as it pleases does not touch this particular Institution - the Government proceedings and determination in respect to which must be guided by specific reference to the conditions of its establishment and to its present position. If there be anything positively noxious in the existence of a seminary of this kind that of course may be an argument for correcting what is bad or if the mischief be past correction for abolishing root and branch the irredeemable evil. But surely Government is not yet prepared to put forth a declaration that such is the light in which it regards the instruction of all its subjects ofthe Mooslim faith - of this however more presently. With respect to the argument that the Government cannot be pledged to perpetuate any course of instruction for that it has created no property and there is no one that can pretend to possess a vested interest. This, in so far as it denies to collegiate institutions a right which I believe in Europe they have always stoutly asserted and hitherto maintained, is a question that may be left to be battled by the Universities in England. Nothing on

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earth can hope to be perpetual and property of every kind is of itself the most mutable of things. By the hand of time, by the act of God, by foreign violence or internal convulsion everything most prized and most valued may be swept away in an instant. To all these sources of ruin to vested interests must be added the changeful opinion of mankind and the caprices of those who rule. The Government doubtless may set up and abolish Institutions with the same facile rapidity with which it creates and abolishes offices and passes acts and Regulations. The question is one of wisdom and expediency. Is it wise and beneficial for a Government so to act as to destroy the hope that what is, and has been, will be lasting? Does not every Government on the contrary derive strength and influence from encouraging its subjects to look upon certain classes of its actions as permanent and binding upon itself and its successors? The establishment of such an Institution as the Mudrusa is most assuredly an act of this description and class - and in every part of the world when the ruling Power has made an appropriation of funds or through other means established a Seminary of the kind for Education whether it be to teach Latin and Greek or to teach English to the Catholic uneducated Irish or for any purpose of supposed utility the appropriation has been respected and held sacred by those who have followed. It is only in this country that it would be proposed not to improve and make perfect and correct errors in the Institutions already established by the liberality of those who have gone before, but upon a vague impression that the object is not beneficial wholly to abolish and dissolve them. In behalf of the Mudrusa more claim to permanency has not been asserted than is allowed elsewhere to similar Institutions and Seminaries. Let it be dealt with as a charity school or college of England liable to fall to corruption and to need the hand of the governing power to correct its abuses and reform its practise, nay even to suit it to the advancing opinions of the day. The proposition for its abolition goes a great deal further. The minute assuming apparently the Mudrusa to be one of the Institutions supported out of the Lakh of rupees appropriated by Parliament proceeds to the question what is the most useful mode of employing that fund. It is laid down that the vernacular dialects are not fit to be made the vehicle of instruction in science or literature, that the choice is therefore between English on one hand and Sanscrit and Arabic on the other - the latter are dismissed on the ground that their literature is worthless and the superiority of that of England is set forth in an animated description of the treasures of science and of intelligence it contains and of the stores of intellectual enjoyment it opens. There is no body acquainted with both literatures that will not subscribe to all that is said in the minute of the superiority of that of England but the question is not rightly stated when it is asserted to be this 'whether, when it is in our power to teach this language' - that is English - we shall teach those which contain no books of value. The whole question is - have we it in our 178

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power to teach everywhere this English and this European science? It is in doubting nay in denying this that those who take the opposite view maintain the expediency of letting the natives pursue their present course of instruction and of endeavouring to engraft European Science thereon. An analogy is drawn between the present state of India and that of Europe at the time of the revival of letters. The cultivation of English is likened to the study of Latin and Greek in those days and the grand results that have followed are held out as an example to be imitated hereby inculcating English in order that a Bengalee and Hindee literature may grow up as perfect as that we now have in England. This however is not the true analogy - Latin and Greek were to the nations of Europe what Arabic and Persian are to the Mooslims and Sanscrit to the Hindoos ofthe present population of Hindoostan and if a native literature is to be created it must be through the improvements of which these are capable. To the great body of the People of India English is as strange as Arabic was to the knights ofthe dark ages. c It is not the language of the erudite of the clergy and of men of letters as Latin always was in Europe and as Arabic and Persian are extensively in Asia. The analogy of Russia is less convincing. d It is through communication with foreigners through imitation and translations that the Russians are building up a native literature. This is the method that is specifically advocated by those who despair of making English the language of general adoption or the vehicle for imparting a knowledge of the sciences to the millions who compose the population of India. The argument would only have weight if, in the schools and colleges of Russia, German were now or had ever been the exclusive organ through which the youth of that country derived instruction which it assuredly is not and never was. But to proceed to the real arguments of the minute. It is said that in teaching Arabic and Sanscrit we are not consulting the intellectual taste of the natives but are 'forcing on them the mock learning which they nauseate.' If there were the slightest ground for believing that the great body of the Mooslims did not venerate to enthusiasm their Arabic and Persian literaturee or to believe that the Hindoos as a body were not CIt cannot be more strange than Greek [?l was to the subjects of Henry the Eighth. [T. B. M.l dNot the fact. The Russian educated class has acquired all that it knows by means of English, French, German, etc. From the English, French and German it is now beginning to imitate and to translate. This is exactly the course which I hope and trust that the educated class of our native subjects will follow. [T. B. M.l "Men may have a great veneration for a language and not wish to learn it. I have seen Rhadacant Deb* since the last council. He tells me that no body in India studies Sanscrit profoundly without being paid to do so. Men of fortune [? culturel learn a little superficially. But he assures me that to the best of his belief there is not, even at Benares, a single student of the higher Sanscrit learning who is not paid. [T. B. M.l [*Radhakant Deb (1783-1867), the noted Bengali scholar and educationalist, had been a governor of Hindu College, Calcutta since 1818, and a member of the Bengal Asiatic Society since 1832. He was an elected member of the GCPI during 1835-6. See also Introduction, pp. 14-5, 30, 35.]

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partial to their Sanscrit then of course would the whole case or [? of] those who advocate the prosecution of those studies require to be thrown up. This however is a matter of fact and of opinion that cannot be conceded to either party upon mere assertion. It is necessary to examine the grounds upon which so startling a proposition as that above stated is advanced and maintained. The minute proceeds 'This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our Arabic and Sanscrit students while those who learn English pay us ... We cannot find in all our vast empire a single student who will let us teach him those dialects unless we will pay him.' These assertions are supported by adducing from the report upon the Mudrusa of Calcutta the circumstances that there were in December 1833 seventy seven Arabic Students on that foundation receiving in the aggregate above Rs. 500 per mensem while in three months Rs. 103 were collected by the English master from out-students who paid for his instruction in that language. The contrast is dwelt upon as conclusive but a very little explanation will suffice to show that the argument is quite groundless. There are ordinarily taught in the Mudrusa between two and three hundred youths. The Government scholarships are eighty and if the President ofthe Education Committee would attend the next examination of candidates for these scholarships he would see in the keenness of the competition and in the proficiency of the candidates abundant evidence that the salaried scholars are not the only persons in our Indian Empire who learn the rudiments of Persianf and Arabic literature. I am no Sanscrit scholar and never attended the examinations of that college in Calcutta nor do I pretend to much acquaintance with its constitution or with the rules under which its scholarships are given away but only the other day the Education Committee received a report of the examinations of the Sanscrit College at Benares and it cannot have escaped the president ofthat Committee to have observed that, although the jageers or scholarships were only 130, upwards of three hundred students pressed forward for examination. In truth the jageers or monthly allowances given at the Mudrusa and in the Sanscrit Colleges and elsewhere are in all respects similar to the Scholarships of the Universities or to the foundation Scholars of the Public Schools of England. They are given not as inducements to study the language but as the rewards of successful study and in order to keep at the institution for the prosecution of further studies those who by their progress evince a love of science and the qualification to become learned men, Moolavees or Pundits. Most of those who enjoy these jageers are

rr

said nothing of Persian. I am assured that nothing deserving the name of a learned Arabic education is received at the Mudrusa by any unpaid student. I acknowledge my own ignorance on the subject. [T. B. M.l

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themselves the teachers of many pupils, teachers in the college to those who attend there for instruction and teachers at home in families of the better order to those who prefer that their sons shall be so instructed. Whether it is expedient or not to give these stipendiary provisions as rewards for ardent study and to keep students longer at their education by means of them is a question that has heretofore been argued in the Committee of Public Instruction. Something is to be said on both sides and although the Committee heretofore decided in favour of the practise it does not follow that they may not have decided wrong. But however this may be the fact that there are paid scholars on the establishment or foundation of any seminary affords no ground for assuming that none would learn if they were not paid, yet this is the argument of the minute. As well might it be assumed from the fact that there are foundation scholars at Eton and scholarships in all the Colleges of both Universities in England that no body would learn Latin and Greek if it were not for these stipendiary advantages. Be it Latin and Greek or Mathematics or Law or Arabic and Sanscrit literature or be it English the principle is the same. Scholarships are given and it is thought right to give them to reward and encourage the poor scholar and to lead as well through the excitement of competition as by lengthening the course of study to the attainment of higher proficiency. In the Mudrusa itself separate scholarships have been established for proficients in English in order to encourage the study of that language. If this be a conclusive argument that the study of English is nauseated because it requires to be paid for, then may it be applied to Arabic and Sanscrit and to Mathematics and to all other studies. All must participate in the reproach or it will evidently apply to none. But the fact remains to be explained that a sum of Rs. 103 was collected in three months from out students of English whereas nothing is shown by the accounts of the Mudrusa to have been collected from out students of Persian and Arabic. Everybody knows that with Moolavees and Pundits, for both profess the same principle in this respect, it is meritorious to give instruction gratis and sinful to take hire or wages from the pupil who receives it. The teacher's remuneration is always in the way of a present and perfectly voluntary.g The English Master on the other hand who is a Christian and who has been appointed by the Committee to the Mudrusa acts on quite different principles and not only deems it no sin to take payment for the lessons he gives but makes a special demand of it from all who appear to him to have the means of paying. The wonder is rather, considering that the teacher in this instance is a first rate instructor and gThe sum if[?] the accounts are rightly drawn up, is paid to the College - not directly to the master, so that the explanation is defective. [T. B. M.] No, the money was levied by the Master and paid over to the College Fund [?]. This is all I meant to state. [H. T. P.]

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that he gives instruction to Hindoos as well as Mooslims, that more was not realized. The fact that a sum of about Rs. 30 a month was realized when upwards of three hundred per mensem is paid from the Committee's funds to the Schoolmaster is surely no proof of the violent desire for instruction in English which is inferred from it. If again the desire of this instruction were so great how comes it to have been proposed to make the learning of English compulsory in the Mudrusa and how does it happen that of all the students now in the Mudrusa there are but two who have made progress beyond the spelling book. Undoubtedly there is a very widely spread anxiety at this time for the attainment of a certain proficiency in English. The sentiment is to be encouraged by all means as the source and forerunner of great moral improvement to those who feel its influence but there is no single member of the Education Committee who will venture to assert that this disposition has yet shown itself extensively amongst the Moosulmans. h It is the Hindoos of Calcutta, the Sirkars and their connexions and the descendants and relations of the Sirkars of former days, those who have risen through their connexion with the English and with public offices, men who hold or who seek employments in which a knowledge of English is a necessary qualification. These are the classes of persons to whom the study of English is as yet confined and certainly we have no reason yet to believe that the Moosulmans in any part of India can be reconciled to the cultivation of it much less give it a preference to the polite literature of their race or to what they look upon as such. The minute proceeds to cite a petition from certain students of the Sanscrit College complaining that their studies did not secure them an assured and easy livelihood as affording another conclusive argument against extending encouragement to such studies. 7 But surely the disappointment of the too sanguine hopes of any class of persons as to their future provision in life affords no evidence that the knowledge that they have acquired is useless. Much research and patient investigation would be indispensible before any determination could be come to on the important question to native youth at this moment how best to secure respect in after life and by what course of education to provide themselves the best chance of a comfortable livelihood. In all times and amongst all people this is an important question for youth but more especially to the youth of India at present when society with all its institutions is so evidently in the transition state. This argument again even were it sound as respects the study of Sanscrit has evidently no application to the Mudrusa and to those who study Arabic and Persian. These at least have never complained that through proficiency in their studies their means of obtaining a livelihood have not been improved nor will it be maintained hThere is no good English school for the Mussulmans; and one of our first duties is to establish one. [T. B. M.]

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that the study of both is not at this moment highly useful for this great purpose of life. But the great argument remains to be noticed and that is that by encouraging the study of native literature we create the very opposition which is adduced as the chief obstacle to the introduction of the study of English and of true science. This is a most important question but seems to involve the previous one - does or does not the prejudice exist? It is declared by those who take the opposite view to Mr. Macaulay that it does exist and that the prejudice is so general especially amongst the Moosulmans that there is no hope of our being able by the mere offer of instruction in English and English science to secure that it shall be received for its own sake. These persons say that the best chance of procuring that true knowledge shall ultimately prevail is to engraft it upon the course of education now most esteemed and to take every means of leading the youth to the improved condition in which it is desired to place them by giving them first all they respect and admire in their fathers and then besides the further instruction we have to impart. The argument on the other side is that unless we violently assail and displace the false literature that we see held up as erudition and learning we shall by continuing instruction in it create opposition to the reception of the new. Now this argument on the very face of it seems to assume that the possessors of the old literature are necessarily opposed to the new, it seems to build upon the impossibility of reconciling the two and yet in the same breath we are told that all the world is anxiously seeking the new and attaches no value to the old. On the other hand it is maintained that, if at this time the desire for European science and literature is extensively felt and is still on the increase, the cause of it is to be found in the manner in which the Government interfere with the work of education which was commenced and has hitherto been carried on, and in particular to the strict observance of the principle of encouraging every course of education that is followed by any extensive class of the population and doing violence to no existing feelings whether of prejudice or prepossession. It is maintained that by following this course we bind and perpetuate no enmities but on the contrary mitigate and reconcile opinions and doctrines that seem adverse and when we recollect that out of the philosophy of the schools the same philosophy that is the highest point of knowledge in Arabic and Sanscrit grew the very philosophy we wish to inculcate, viz., that of Bacon and Locke and Newton,i why should we despair of engrafting on the similar stock of Arabia and India a similar fruit? iMonstrous assertion! [J. E. D. B(ethune)] [The initials J. E. D. B. are those of John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune (1801-51). Bethune held the position of law member of the governorgeneral's council from 1848 to 1851. It seems from the evidence in this file that he had occasion to consult these papers in May 1848, soon after his appointment to the council.]

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With respect to the expenditure upon printing and translating in regard to which it is argued that the fact that the books of the Committee do not sell is proof conclusive that the money is thrown away and that there is no taste for the literature it was meant to encourage, I fear it must be admitted that very considerable sums have been thrown away upon works which have yielded no fruit. The translations have been the most expensive and the least profitable of these works, for they have been executed at very enormous rates of charge and in a style for the most part not popular and taking. I quite agree that the funds appropriated to revive literature ought not to be lavished on works that will not pay and that for the printing of those that will pay, there can be no need of aid from Government. But I do not admit that because we have failed to make our printing and translating a profitable speculation that therefore there is no taste for the literature. Our prices have been exorbitant and our worksi childish or ill got up. This alone accounts for their not being taken off our hands and as for the fact that private Printing establishments find a profit in printing English School Books they have had the extensive patronage of the Committee and of Mofusil institutions and more especially of Missionary schools and a growing Christian population to provide. Besides which the relative expense of printing in the native languages as compared with that of printing in English will of itself account for the difference. Our books be it observed have been mostly printed at the same press which is referred to as having thrived by its printing business and it has thrived mainly at our expense. However there is not I believe in the Committee of public instruction a single advocate for a continuance of the printing and translating business on the footing on which it has hitherto been conducted. k It has been ruinously expensive and has yielded no return but we see establishments for printing Persian and Arabic books as thriving as the English Presses and numberless books and little treatises are issued from them of which we hear nothing. The text book of the Moolavees who recently rose in insurrection is an instance in point. Although printed in Calcutta it was not heard of by Europeans until the sect broke out into rebellion. 8 If our translations and the books of our selection have not hit the taste of the reading classes or have been too dear for them to purchase it is a reason for discontinuing the provision of such but no proof that there is no taste for anything that might be provided. There are applications in abundance for our books as presents and we know not when one is issued how many copies are made from it at less cost even than that we ask to They are, I believe, among the most celebrated works in the Sanscrit language. [T. B. M.l kl rejoice to hear it. For within the last few weeks several minutes have been recorded which would have led me to form a very different opinion. [T. B. M.l If we print anything we ought to print the Surya Sidhant* and the books that have been proposed [?l but I am perfectly ready to give up all printing. [H. T. P.l [*Suriyasiddhanta, a textbook of Indian astonomy by Bhaskaracarya. See also pp. 159, 330.l

j

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compensate the charge of publication. The price too paid by the Committee for native publications is the first subscription price and the Committee is always undersold by the presses which supply them books for they sell the reserved copies at a reduced price. The minute proceeds to say that it cannot be necessary to keep up instruction in Arabic and Sanscrit because of the connection of these languages with the religion of the Hindoos and Mooslims. I have never heard this reason assigned! as an argument for a Christian Government's continuing to give the instruction. The circumstance has been referred to as both proving and accounting for the confirmed veneration these classes have for their respective literatures and because it has sometimes been denied that the natives have any respect for their own literature which is quite inconsistent with the idea that all their religion is wrapped up in it. It is on account of the connection of these languages with existing laws that the necessity of continuing instruction in them has been maintained. This argument is met in the minute by reference to what the Law Commission 9 are expected to do and what the Legislature intends should be done. m Herein however is an admission that for so long as this intention is unfulfilled the motive for continuing instruction in that which is the law, exists in full force. The nature ofthe instruction in English that will have to be imparted is the next point. Those opposed to the discontinuance of instruction in Sanscrit, Arabic and Persian maintain that in place of them the Committee would have to commence everywhere teaching the English alphabet. It cannot surely be denied that this must be the beginning. The minute dwells on the capability of the natives to attain high proficiency. This may be admitted as a result to be expected hereafter but if the teaching of English be substituted everywhere for the perfecting of youths in their present courses of education does it not follow as a necessary consequence that we shall have to substitute the teaching of the alphabet and spelling book for instruction in advanced literature? The candidates for admission into our Arabic and Sanscrit Colleges know already much of those languages and are prepared to be taught science. The students we should get for English would require to be taught to read. ll To the recapitulation at the close of the Minute I have nothing new to object. It is admitted that we must endeavour to carry the people with us in all we seek to do for their improvement. The party whose sentiments I am endeavouring to express argue to the question what are the best, lIt has been distinctly assumed. [writer unknownl

m Surely

it would be most unreasonable to educate a boy of fifteen with a view to fitting him for a state of things which we fully purpose to alter by the time that he is five and twenty. [T. B. M.l n Of course every body must begin a language at the beginning. The only question is [?l whether we may reasonably expect in a few years to make an intelligent native youth a thoroughly good English scholar. And I do not now find that this is disputed. [T. B. M.l

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'-

indeed to their minds the only means of doing this. Their opponents, looking to grand results to follow when all the desired improvements have been effected, pass over altogether the necessary consideration of means. Ofter volojubeo 10 is their policy on this great question. The abolition of the Mudrusa and Sanscrit College at Calcutta and the alteration of the character of all other Institutions supported or assisted from the Public funds is their proposition but it is submitted that there are many considerations which should protect the Mudrusa at least from any present demolition. It is the only link through which the Government has at present any connection whatsoever with the instruction of the Mooslim youth of Bengal, it is not one of the passing institutions of recent establishment for the support of which funds are assigned from the Parliamentary lack of Rupees but is an old established college endowed separately and efficiently performing the purposes of the endowment. If this be doubted let the fact be made the subject of enquiry the more searching the better will the advocates ofthis institution be satisfied. Even though the Committee of General Instruction should come to a resolution or should be desired by Government to change altogether the principles by which it has hitherto been guided in the application of the Parliamentary grant, it would by no means follow that the Mudrusa should be placed on a different footing. The Moosulman subjects of the Government are much more jealous of innovation upon their habits and their religion than the Hindoos ever were. When it was first proposed to teach them English they consulted their oracle ofthe day Uzeezooddeen of DehIe ell as to whether it was sinful to yield to the innovation. He gave them a most sensible answer and since then not only has English and English science been extensively taught but much progress has been made in instilling correct moral principles and reconciling the sect to further improvements. Such a measure at this time as the abolition of the Mudrusa would produce alienation in this wide class of the population ... 0 instead of aiding would impede if it did not prevent any further improvement. To the principle of conciliation it is decidedly opposed and will universally be looked upon as touching close upon intolerance. I have written much more than I had intended or thought would be necessary and yet feel that I have not half stated all that I have myself to urge on this important question. The cause has many advocates who also deserve to be heard before Government shall come to a final determination. There is a minute by Mr. Macnaghten 12 about to be sent up by the Education Committee which seems entitled to much attention and I am sure that not only that gentleman but every member of the Committee would wish to be heard upon any resolution passed for abolishing the Mudrusa. In the height of the discussion as to the proper course to be followed by the Committee for promoting the improvement of the °Original torn. [Sharp's note]

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education of the country such a proposition was never brought forward by anyone of those most opposed to the continuance of instruction in Arabic and Sanscrit. It is now submitted separately and it is my hope that I have shown sufficient ground to induce the Members of Government to suspend their judgment at least ... p of investigation.

H. T. PRINSEP. Sunday, 15th February 1835. I retain [not only]q unshaken but confirmed [in all my] opinions on the general question. I may have committed a slight mistake or two as to [details], and I may have occasionally used an epithet which might with advantage [have been] softened down. But I do not retract the substance of a single proposition I have advanced. [T. B. M.]13

Notes 1 See above pp. 161-73. 2 That is the Charter Act of 1813 (see above, pp. 90-2). 3 Unfortunately Prinsep does not provide any clues as to the occasion when he argued this point. None of his main minutes on educational policy as recorded in the India General Consultations back to July 1834 allude to the matter. 4 For Warren Hastings' intentions in establishing the Calcutta Madrasa, see above pp. 73-6. 5 The transfer ofthe lands to the Raja of Nadia (Nuddea) took place between 1795 and 1800. However, in general it appears that the history of the Bengal government's financial provision for the Calcutta Madrasa was rather more complex than Prinsep here suggests. Thus in 1819 officials concluded after investigation that, despite the government's original intention to do so, the Mahal had never been formally granted as an endowment for the madrasa, and that that institution had in practice been previously maintained through temporary assignments on the revenue of the Mahallands, and later as a direct charge on the treasury. To regulate the position, it was accordingly decided in 1819 to make an appropriate assignment of revenue for the madrasa equal to that which would have been derived from the Mahal lands according to the original plans. See lOR: Bengal Revenue Consultations, Nos. 11-22 of23 July 1819, P/58112; also Sanial, 'Calcutta Madrassa,' pp. 83-111, and H. H. Wilson's brief comments on p. 211 below. 6 For the practice of waqf, see Introduction, p. 36. 7 For the Sanskrit College students' petition, see pp. 168, 173. 8 This seems to be a reference to the activities of certain Muslim revivalists in Bengal during the 1830s, and perhaps in particular to an uprising

POriginal torn. [Sharp's note] qThe original is torn down the middle and the words in brackets are, conjectural. [Sharp's note]

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9 10 11

12 13

against Hindu landlords and others led by Titu Mir, which took place in Barasat district, north of Calcutta, in 1831. Titu Mir was a disciple of Sayyid Ahmad of Rai Bareilly (1786-1831), who, along with theologians like Muhammad Isma'il (1781-1831), preached jihad and a return to the purified simplicity of early Islam. Interestingly enough, the British official responsible for investigating Titu Mir's movement, John Colvin (a colleague of Prinsep on the GCPI), reported that printed editions of Muhammad Isma'il's theological works in Persian and Hindustani were widely available in Calcutta. For further details, see 'Proceedings connected with the Disturbances in Baraset etc' in lOR: Board's Collections, F/411361, No. 54222, pp. 1-483; also Schimmel, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, pp. 177-84. For the law commission, see p. 173. Volo iubeo: I want, I order. Uzeezooddeen may perhaps be identified with Shah 'Abdul'aziz (17461824), the noted Sufi theologian and philosopher, who taught at Rahimiyya Madrasa in Delhi and was held in high esteem by many Muslim scholars throughout India. Though initially hostile to the expanding company raj on theological grounds, he eventually seems to have enjoyed fairly good relations with the British authorities in Delhi, who offered his followers posts in local educational institutions etc. See lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/909, No. 25695, pp. 551-2; also Powell, Muslims and Missionaries, pp. 66-73; and Rizvi, History of Sufism, pp.259-60. The reference seems to be to a minute written by William Macnaghten on 4 January 1835, which was forwarded by the GCPI to the government on 3 March 1835. See lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, pp. 187-90. A transcription of this note made by J. E. D. Bethune in May 1848, and kept on the original file, contains a few very minor differences in wording, as follows: 'I retain not only unshaken, but confirmed, all my opinions on the general question. I may have committed a slight mistake or two as to details, & I may have occasionally used an epithet which might with advantage be softened down. But I do not retract the substance of a single proposition that I have advanced. (signed) T. B. Macaulay.'

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Petition of the Muslim inhabitants of Calcutta to the government, (?) 21 February 18351

As mentioned earlier, rumors about the government's new educational policy, and in particular the governor-general's apparent approval of Macaulay's proposals to abolish the Calcutta Madrasa and the Sanskrit College, had begun to circulate in Calcutta by the middle of February, if not before, causing much agitation in the institutions concerned. Prinsep himself mentions that about this time he was twice visited by the head of the madrasa, seeking clarification of the news, but was unable (and, one suspects, perhaps reluctant) to convince his visitor that no such plans existed. 2 The result was the Muslim petition calling for the preservation of the madrasa, signed by more than eight thousand people and presented to the government on or soon after 21 February. The petition itself - as officially considered and printed here in an English translation from the original Persian - is a skillfully drafted document, appealing both to the British sense of justice and tradition as well as to their self-interest and sense of security. For instance, the values of public benevolence and national reputation, combined with the revered spirit of Warren Hastings, are successively invoked, as are the madrasa's practical contribution to the training of jurists, and the dangerous prospect of fueling Muslim suspicions that the measure heralded an attack on Islam and the start of a proselytizing Christian mission. The effect of the petition, together with pressure from other quarters, notably the Hindu community's concern for Sanskrit College,3 are reflected in the government's eventual decision to reprieve both the madrasa and the college in the resolution of 7 March. For the resolution and the official reply to the petitioners, see below, pp. 194-5; see also Introduction, pp. 31-2.

SOURCE(S): The Asiatic Journal, 18, New Series (Sept.-Dec. 1835), pp. 95-6. Official archive copies are also available in lOR: India General Consultations, No.9 of 13 March 1835, P/186/67; and lOR: F/4/1846, No. 77633, pp. 191-8.

------------.......----------The sovereigns of former times, in all ages and of all religions, have made it a principle to encourage literature and the sciences, and to promote the cultivation of the languages of different tribes and nations, deeming their own credit and the character of their rule to be dependent thereon; but 189

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more particularly have the rulers of the British nation of past times adopted this principle. Further, it has been an object of the especial care of all [kings?], past and present, and of all rulers of cities and countries, to study the improvement of every class of their subjects, and to keep them contented and happy, deeming this course essential to the security and strengthening of their rule. They have never wilfully vexed the spirit of their people, nor have they thought it right to follow courses tending to break the hearts and hurt the feelings of those under their sway. Every one of them, in proportion as he as been actuated by these principles, has obtained the reward of fame and popularity; and the designs of their enemies have been confounded and utterly consumed like straw and stubble in the fire of their good institutions and good government. But more especially the rulers of Inglistan, from the very first commencement of their rule in Hindoostan and Bengal, studious of their good name amongst the people, have sought the affections of all classes of their subjects by showing kindness and consideration to all; and that the foundations 4 of their dominion might settle deeply, it has been their principle especially to consult the feelings ofthe Moosulmans, and to avoid by all means giving them just cause of offence and vexation. In all ways they have endeavoured to gladden the hearts of this class oftheir subjects, because it was from them and through them that they derived their dominion. On this account, in particular, the reputation of the English rulers has become resplendent as the sun at noonday, and the fame oftheir justice and equitable administration is on the tongue of the natives of all countries as a proverb and a by-word. In illustration of this, it will be sufficient to refer to the measures adopted for establishing the situation of kazee, and the practice of taking futwahs in trials;5 but a stronger sample was in the establishment of the Mudrissa for conveying instruction in the languages and literature of Islam. Accordingly, when heretofore the mournful report ofthe dissolution ofthe Mudrissa was bruited abroad, we, looking to the past line of conduct and principles of our rulers, treated this report at once as a falsity, deeming it opposed to the uniform policy of all preceding governments; but as this matter is now confirmed to us from various quarters, and though contrary to all expectations,S is yet what we have to apprehend and fear (for the intention to abolish the Mudrissa has been told over and over again, and by many) we are confounded and beside ourselves at the intelligence. It is the duty of subjects and dependents to represent humbly what may occur to them calculated to promote the welfare and reputation 7 of their sovereign; we therefore presume to submit the following few reasons why this Mudrissa should be allowed to continue. 1st. On the grounds of general benevolence and charity, the promotion of which, in the time of all past sovereigns and rulers, has been an established motive of action, and the discarding which has been repugnant to all received principles of good policy. 190

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2dly. Through the foundation of the Mudrissa, the English India Company, in all towns, cities and countries, from the east to the west, has obtained reputation and credit for well-directed charity and the support of worthy objects, as well as for the cultivation of literature. The contrary course at this present moment would lead to loss of this character in all climates and all lands. 3dly. Warren Hastings, (who was well acquainted with the excellencies of Arabic literature, and with the extent of its sciences, and who appreciated intelligent and well-informed persons, and was himself preeminent for intelligence and a highly-cultivated mind,) founded this Mudrissa of high repute out of his love for the people under his rule, (for in truth he was a father of the people, and regarded them as his own children,) and more especially out of his regard and high consideration for men of learning and elegant literature, who stood to him in the relation of respected dependants before a well-beloved superior. His8 object was, that we poor men or in straightened circumstances, then wanting the adornments of learning and cultivated intellect, might through it attain the great blessing of these accomplishments; and that we helpless wanderers in the darkness and bewilderment of ignorance, might be clad in the bright garments of knowledge and enlightenment. From this cause especially has the reputation ofthis gentleman for philanthropy and tender consideration towards the poor spread far and wide in all countries and cities, and his name is high as a promoter of science and encourager of learned men, no less than as a liberal protector of all under his rule. Every one is open-mouthed in singing praises and in offering prayers for this unparalelled9 statesman: and small and great, from the date of the founding of the Mudrissa to this day, are united in admiration of his high qualities. But now some men, utterly ignorant of the literature and science of Arabia, and blind to its beauties and advantages, have conceived the project of destroying the Mudrissa, and causing the sciences of Arabia to cease; at which all men and all subjects of the state are in a ferment of agitation and despair at what may not come next. 4th. The British authorities who established and have supported the Mudrissa, had in view only the welfare of the people, the gratification of the poor, and the teaching of the children of those in narrow circumstances. The establishment of schools and hospitals has lO no other more beneficial end than this: to destroy this institution and restrain people from the acquisition of the knowledge it imparted, and the moral and religious principles it instilled, can only produce distress, vexation, and heart-rending to all classes. 5th. Through the continuance of the Mudrissa, and the cultivation of the literature and science taught therein, the territory ofthe Company has derived lustre, and the credit of its government stands high amongst nations; if it be destroyed, and this knowledge-market be closed (that is, if the sources of instruction be dried up), and there be a dearth in 191

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consequence of men of learning and education, this bright reputation will be clouded, and the credit of the country ruined and destroyed. 6th. Through the establishment of the Mudrissa, many students are annually instructed in useful knowledge, and thence proceeding into the interior obtain high appointments in the cities and zillahs of Hindoostan. There are at this time near two hundred persons holding high offices, who have received there their education, and from their intelligence and good conduct the administration of the country derives its character. By the demolition of the establishment which is the source of these benefits, nothing but evil and mal-administration will be engendered in each and every town and zillah. 7th. From the time when the report ofthe abolition of the Mudrissa first gained ground, all classes, small and great, of the people have taken up the idea that the object and end of this measure is to eradicate the literature and religious system of Islam, in order that the measure may tend to the dissemination of the religion of the proposers and originators of the measure itself, and so the subjects of the state may be caused to become Christians. It has never been the custom of past sovereigns of esteemed reputation, to endeavour to lead their subjects to their own religion by inflictions and injuries: therefore, all persons are distressed and heart-broken, and bewildered and alarmed at the idea of the Government yielding to such a proposition. We trust and hope that, in consideration of all that has been urged above, the Government will, from motives of justice, philanthropy, and general benevolence, and to ensure its own stability, give orders for the continuance of the Mudrissa, and of the teaching and learning of the literature and science of Islam (the benefits of which are so evident and widely disseminated) on the footing on which it has so long existed, and thus relieve us from the anxiety, and distress, and alarm, the bewilderment, and state of agitation, into which we have been thrown by the report above referred to. (Signed and sealed by 8,312 persons)

Notes 1 The petition as printed in the Asiatic Journal for Sept.-Dec. 1835 is undated, as are the two contemporary archival copies in the India Office Records. However, according to the index to the India General Consultations for 1835 (lOR: Z/P/1790), the petition was dated 21 February. The information given in such indexes is usually reliable, but in this case it is also just possible that the date given may refer either to a date entered later on the English translation or perhaps to the date of the document's receipt in the government secretariat. 2 Prinsep's minute of 20 May 1835, as printed in Sharp, Selections, p. 137. 3 Only two petitions to government are recorded in the India General Consultations during the period from February to April 1835, viz. the Muslim petition of (?) 21 February (reproduced here), and a later undated 192

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4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Hindu petition in defense of students' stipends, signed by seventy-six students attached to the Sanskrit College, which was considered and replied to by the governor-general in council on 8 April (see pp. 197-200). In a much later personal memoir of 1865, Prinsep claimed that the news of Macaulay's plans almost immediately triggered 'a petition signed by no less than 30,000 people on behalf of the Madrassa and another by the Hindus for the Sanskrit College' (Sharp, Selections, p. 134). There is no trace of this petition of 30,000 Muslims in the India Office Records for the period claimed, and it is probably significant that in another but near contemporary minute dated 20 May 1835, Prinsep himself does not mention it but only refers to the two petitions entered in the General Consultations (Sharp, Selections, pp. 137-8). The P/186/67 and F/411846 copies give 'foundation.' Both the PI186/67 and the F/4/1846 copies have 'on trial' here. 'expectation' in the P/186/67 and F/4/1846 copies. 'reputation' seems correct here, though the F/411846 and P/186/67 copies give 'expectation.' The F/411846 and P/186/67 copies do not start a new paragraph here. The spelling mistake here does not occur in either of the two archival copies. 'have' mistakenly appears here in both the archival copies.

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Resolution of the governor-general of India in council in the General Department, dated 7 March 1835

The heated crisis resulting from Macaulay's minute, Prinsep's counter-attack, and the rising tide of Indian support for the Calcutta Madrasa and the Sanskrit College, reaches some kind of conclusion in the resolution approved by Lord Bentinck and his council on 7 March 1835, even though the wider educational debate would still continue. The resolution itself is a somewhat terse statement, evidently based on a rough draft prepared by Macaulay,l but including a significant modification of the proposals set out in his minute. Abandoning the 1813 Charter Act's dual commitment to the revival of Indian learning and the introduction of western science, the resolution simply declares that the promotion of European literature and science through the medium of English education should become 'the great object' of educational policy, to which all available official funds should be henceforward devoted. In addition it promises to give no further stipends to students desiring to study 'Native learning' at institutions under the direction of the GCPI; to review the continuance of oriental professorships as and when they became vacant; and to discontinue support for the printing of 'Oriental works.' At the same time, in response to the mounting pressure of Muslim and Hindu opinion - particularly the mass petition of the Calcutta Muslims - the government drew back from accepting Macaulay's original proposals for abolishing the Calcutta Madrasa and the Sanskrit College. Instead the resolution formally disclaims any intention to abolish any oriental college as long as 'the Native Population shall appear to be inclined to avail themselves of the advantages which it affords,' whilst also making it clear that in future people would have to prove this by themselves paying for that form of education, rather than relying on official stipends or grants. In this way the government indicates that it would leave the issue to be decided by market choice, except that it also thinks it already knows the outcome, in that once the 'artificial encouragement' of the stipends is removed, oriental studies would naturally be 'superseded by more useful studies.' The formulation of the resolution of 7 March 1835, with its reprieve for the madrasa, made it somewhat easier for the government to reply to the Muslim petitioners {see above, pp. 189-93}. Thus in his letter of 9 March, H. T. Prinsep emphatically denied any wish to do away with the madrasa, let alone cause any offense to Muslim opinion. The madrasa, he claimed, would continue as before, except that there would be no more stipends for its future students {or indeed for other students at all other government

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colleges), and the classes provided would take account of future demand. 2 See also Introduction, pp. 28-9. SOURCE(S): lOR: India General Consultations, No. 19 of 7 March of 1835, P/186/ 66 (2). Another contemporary official copy is contained in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77638, pp. 161-3. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 130-1.

--------------~------------I propose the following draft of an answer to the Committee.

w. C. Bentinck The Governor-General of India in Council has attentively considered the two letters from the Secretary to the Committee of Public Instruction dated the 21st and 22nd January last, and the papers referred to in them. His Lordship in Council is of opinion that the great object ofthe British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India, and that all the funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be best employed on English education alone. But it is not the intention of His Lordship in Council to abolish any College or School of Native learning, while the Native Population shall appear to be inclined to avail themselves of the advantages which it affords, and His Lordship in Council directs that all the existing professors and Students at all the Institutions under the Superintendence of the Committee shall continue to receive their stipends. But His Lordship in Council decidedly objects to the practice which has hitherto prevailed of supporting the Students during the period of their education. He conceives that the only effect of such a system can be to give artificial encouragement to branches of learning which, in the natural course of things, would be superseded by more useful studies; and he directs that no stipend shall be given to any student which may hereafter enter at any of these institutions; and that when any professor of Oriental learning shall vacate his situation, the Committee shall report to the Government the number and state of the Class, in order that the Government may be able to decide upon the expediency of appointing a successor. It has come to the knowledge ofthe Governor-General in Council that a large Sum has been expended by the Committee in the printing of Oriental works. His Lordship in Council directs that no portion of the funds shall hereafter be so employed. His Lordship in Council directs that all the funds which these reforms will leave at the disposal of the Committee, be henceforth employed in imparting to the Native population a knowledge of English literature & science through the medium of the English language and His Lordship in 195

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Council requests the Committee to submit to Government, with all expedition, a plan for the accomplishment of this purpose. I concur in [the] Governor General's proposed answer to the Committee (Signed) A. Ross3 Ordered that a Copy of the above Resolution this day passed by the Right Honble the Governor-General of India in Council on the subject referred to in the two Letters from the Secretary to the General Committee of Public Instruction dated the 21st & 22nd January last be sent to the General Committee for information and guidance

Notes 1 The editors are indebted to Dr. Avril Powell for drawing their attention to a rough draft of the resolution prepared by Macaulay, which is preserved amongst the Bentinck papers in the library of the University of Nottingham. See also Clive, Macaulay, pp. 382-3. 2 lOR: India General Consultations, No. 10 of 13 March 1835, P/186/67. 3 Alexander Ross (Bengal Civil Service, 1795-1838). In 1835 he was a provisional member of the governor-general's council.

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Petition to Lord Bentinck, governor-general of India, from students attached to the Government Sanskrit College, Calcutta, March 1835

As we have seen, Muslims had sprung to the defense of the Calcutta Madrasa with their mass petition as soon as rumors began to circulate in February 1835 that the governor-general had approved the proposed abolition of both the madrasa and the Sanskrit College. By contrast, the students at the Sanskrit College responded more cautiously to the common threat, putting forward their own petition only after the earlier rumors had given way to the news that the government no longer intended to abolish the two institutions but was still determined to withdraw financial support from their future students. Accordingly, seventy-six students of the college, all apparently Brahmans and led by Sibkissen Sorma (Shibakrishna Shamman), signed a petition addressed to Lord Bentinck calling on him to continue their allowances or stipends. This document was apparently received by the government on 19 March 1835. 1 The students' petition first dwells at some length on the central importance of Sanskrit (the language of the Vedas) in the Indian tradition. It was, they claimed, not only the source of all other current Indian languages, but the key to all morality, truth, happiness and social respect, especially vital for the education and livelihood of its traditional guardians, the Brahmans. Hence, Indian rulers, not only Hindus but even Muslims, had for centuries given land and property to Brahmans to enable them and their descendants to devote their lives to the study and the teaching of the language. For various reasons their resources had gradually diminished over the years, but even the British, after taking over Bengal. had recognized the positive need to maintain Sanskrit studies by establishing colleges in Benares and Calcutta, and providing financial support for their students. Were the government now to withdraw that support, the poor students would be forced to abandon their studies for lack of other resources, thus destroying their hopes of future livelihood. It was not, the petitioners pointedly added, as if the total support given to them amounted to much - 'even less than the salary of many a public functionary' and very little when set against the large amounts of revenue that Indians paid to the British government. In its reply to the students issued by Henry Torrens (officiating secretary in the general department) on 8 April. the government refused to reinstate the allowances, declaring that they had been withdrawn as a matter of principle from all students at all state supported colleges, whatever their language or religion. Only those students already in receipt of allowances would be exempted, and no future grants would be provided. 2 See also Introduction, p. 32.

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SOURCE(S): lOR: India General Consultations, No. 44 of 8 April 1835, P/186/ 67.

--------------~------------Most humbly Sheweth, That your Petitioners need scarcely tell, that the Sanscrit is the most ancient language of India and that its Cultivation is dated from the remotest period of antiquity. It is the fountain from whence all other dialects commonly current in this Country derived their origin. An acquaintance with the Sanscrit language enables the reader to distinguish virtue from vice and to judge right from wrong and will lead him ultimately to the path of truth and happiness. It is further to be observed that no native of this country can command respect from his fellow country men for his opinion upon any subject without possessing a knowledge of Sanscrit the Study of which among Bramins3 is the only means of their support. Such being the great importance and utility of the Sanscrit that the ancient independent Kings of India, with a view to encourage the study of this language made grants of lands and other valuable properties, to the Brahmins of the Sanscrit profession who being thus relieved of pecuniary wants, and in the easy circumstances of an independent life and amidst the honors and encouragement, bestowed on them relinquished all other thoughts and exclusively devoted their attention and time to the cultivation of the Sanscrit learning. The Brahmins kept Schools the expences attending which together with the charges for the maintenaince of the pupils were defrayed from the income of those lands which were granted to them and in this manner they rendered important service to the cause oflearning. In this state the Brahmins of former times happily spent their lives and carried on their Literary career in perfect security. Subsequently when the Government of this Country devolved into the hand of the Mahommedan Rulers they too far from withdrawing the encouragement to the cultivation of Sanscrit or doing any thing towards its downfall not only allowed the Bramins to enjoy their grants of land but also supported them with new grants. The dependent Hindoo princes of that period were not also backward in contributing their support to it. And thus flourished the study of this language among the Bramins. In the course of time, those Hindoo dependent Kings through misfortune withheld their encouragement and on the other hand in consequence of the descendants of those Bramins having multiplied to numerous families and each family dividing among themselves the ancestorial grants of land etc. the consquence was the want of support to Sanscrit literature and hence the study of that language began gradually to decline. Seeing the present state of Sanscrit learning the present rulers of the Country out of compassion took in their own hands the management of Sanscrit education and like their predecessors instead of granting lands etc. they 198

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have done well to establish Sanscrit Colleges at Calcutta and Benares4 which however insignificant in considering the vast population of the British India are doing much good to the country. The people of this country are highly indebted to the liberality of the British Government and acknowledge with the feelings of sincere gratitude the support they render to Sanscrit education and praise them for preserving their religion. A great number of poor Bramin boys coming from various distant places receive their support and Sanscrit education in the Government Sanscrit College and make considerable progress in the course of a short time. A rumour has now spread that it is in the contemplation of Government to withhold in future Scholarships or in other words the support to the Sanscrit Students. If this would be the case your Lordship's Petitioners with due submission and respect humbly solicit permission to observe that it would bring upon them a very great distress in as much as it would tend to blast their hopes oflivelihood born as they are in poverty and being the sons of Bramins who look to the study of Sanscrit as the only means of their support they apprehend that it would be impossible for them to remain in the College and persecute5 their Sanscrit learning. They have no friends or relations here upon whom they can depend for their maintainance6 and should the Government withhold them its support it will give a death blow to their progress of Sanscrit learning and consequently a deathblow to their future prospects in the world. Further Your Lordship's Petitioners have heard that the Sanscrit College was established for the education of the poor Bramins and it is their misfortune that your Lordship should have forgotten, the principles under which the foundation of that college was laid as announced in the prospectus. 7 The Student[s] ofthe College do not exceed the number of 100 and the simple food upon which the Natives of this Country are satisfied to live is acquired at a very moderate expence, it would therefore be inconsistent with justice and social policy and much less would it shew liberality of your Lordship's administration to withhold this small sum of money for the support of the poor Sanscrit Students more especially when it is considered that India pays [a] large amount of Revenue to the British power in various ways. Under the above circumstances of the case your Lordship's Petitioners pray that the support of the Bramin Students of the Sanscrit College may be continued. Your poor Petitioners trust and confidently trust that your Lordship will not refuse to commisserate upon the condition of such poor and helpless Bramin boys as your Lordship's Petitioners are by sacrificing the policy of saving a small sum even less than the salary of many a public functionary and so necessary for the education of hundreds who have no other prospects for their livelihood besides the reading of Sanscrit. That by granting upon them this favour your Lordship will erect a monument of 199

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fame in these lands which will never be effaced from the minds of the natives as long as a vestige of Sanscrit will remain in this Country. Your Lordship's Petitioners as in duty shall ever pray Signed [76 names are given in Bengali]8

Notes 1 The date of the petition is not given in the India General Consultations held in the lOR, though the reply sent by the government on 8 April 1835 mentions that it was received on 'the 19th Ultimo,' i.e., March (lOR: India General Consultations, No. 45 of 8 April 1835, P/186167). This date seems to invalidate a separate entry in the annual index to the India General Consultations for 1835 (lOR: Z/P/1790) in which 'the date of the letter' (i.e., of the petition) is given as 25 March, unless conceivably this refers to the date when an English translation was received in the General Department. Unfortunately, the Consultations do not record whether the original petition was written in English and/or Bengali (or even in Sanskrit). The copy in the Consultations is of course in English, but somewhat unusually - the names of the students who signed it are rendered in Bengali script. The style of the petition itself employs the traditional forms used in English legal documents (e.g., 'Most humbly Sheweth'), which could suggest that the students had taken expert legal advice in drafting their address. A careful investigation of the documents held in the National Archives of India might throw light on these issues. 2 lOR: India General Consultations, No. 45 of 8 April 1835. 3 The copyist erratically puts 'Bramin' and 'Brahmin' throughout the document. 4 For the establishment of the Sanskrit College at Benares in 1792, see above pp. 77-80. The Sanskrit College in Calcutta was founded in 1821 but not opened till 1824. 5 Some ink dots under 'persecute' indicate that either the copyist or some subsequent reader soon afterwards realized that 'prosecute' was intended here. 6 Similar marks under 'maintainance' indicate the need to correct the spelling. 7 The prospectus has not been traced. It appears that although it was at first considered that only Brahman students should be admitted to the college, a few students belonging to other castes were later accepted. See Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change, p. 169. 8 The first three Bengali names are those of Shri Shibakrishna Shamman, Shri Jadunath Shamman, and Shri Harinath Gustakh. Seventy-six names are given, all in Bengali script.

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Letter, dated 20 April 1835, from J. C. C. Sutherland, secretary to the General Committee of Public Instruction, to G. A. Bushby,l officiating secretary to the government of India in the General Department, enclosing a list of propositions adopted by the GCPI on 11 April 1835 Some six weeks after the government's resolution of 7 March setting out the broad principles of the new educational policy, James Sutherland's letter reports on the progress made by the GCPI (with its enlarged majority in favor of the reforms) in identifying measures to implement the new official strategy. These measures included plans (a) to suspend the printing of books in oriental languages (though with certain reservations) along with the closure of the connected book depository; (b) to effect economies in the management of the Benares and Calcutta Sanskrit Colleges; and (c) to develop a comprehensive scheme for establishing schools for teaching English and science in the main urban centers, to be financed partly through the savings made from the reduction of the former orienta list programs and partly through public subscription. It is, however, noticeable that the committee does not yet fully address the difficult detailed issues arising from the government's threatened cut-back on the future funding of students and teachers of oriental studies, and in particular the extent to which such funds could then be automatically transferred to the new anglicist projects. The government of India recorded its approval of the GCPI's proposals in a reply dated 3 June , 835, pointing out however that the committee itself was fully competent to deal with propositions 6 and 8 on its own responsibility (lOR: India General Consultations, No.7 of 3 June' 835, P/186/68). See also pp. 29-30. SQURCE(S): lOR: India General Consultations, No.6 of 3 June' 835, P/'86/68. For another official copy, see lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/'846, No. 77633, pp. 281-3. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. , 39-42.

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------------- ------------Sir, Since my letter of the 9th Instant2 which acknowledged their receipt the General Committee of Public Instruction has more fully considered the Instructions of the Supreme Government of the 7th Ultimo,3 and I am directed to submit for approval of the Hon'ble the Governor General in Council the annexed eight propositions which have been adopted by the Committee with reference to the orders quoted and to forward at the same 201

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time the Statements mentioned in the Margin a with the following explanations. 4 2. Statement A shews the oriental works under impression and their state of progress. Under the Orders of Government the Committee proposes (with reservation which will be mentioned) to suspend the further progress of these works and recommends that it be authorized to make over the unfinished copies to any Societies or persons willing and competent to finish them. 3. From this recommendation is excluded the Fatwa Alamgiri. 5 Of this voluminous and popular work of Law only about one sixth remains to be finished. The Committee, therefore, has authorized its completion under my controul in the expectation that by its sale some return of the expenditure incurred may be obtained. The Inayah 6 and the Arabic version of Bridge's Algebra 7 mentioned in the Statement, as will be observed, are differently circumstanced. The Committee will probably have occasion to address Government separately as to these works. 4. As a measure of useful Economy the Committee recommends the abolition of the Book Depository, the necessity of which is superseded by the proposition to suspend the progress of the oriental works under impression, and the decision to abstain from printing others. The Committee will hereafter submit the plan which it proposes as to the disposal of the Books in store. 5. The General Committee is of opinion that a considerable saving may be effected by providing for the performance of the duties executed by the late Secretaries to the Benares and Calcutta Sanscrit Colleges on a more moderate scale and suggests, therefore, that no appointment for those vacant offices be at present made. 6. It is in communication with the Managing Committees on the subject and will hereafter submit the arrangement which may be deemed most expedient. 7. The Government will observe that the General Committee proposes under its late orders, to the extent of its means, to institute Schools for teaching English Literature and Science in the principal Cities and towns. Enclosure B is an Estimate (in part conjectural) of the means which the measures recommended will probably place at its disposal. 8. It is intended to commence with the populous Cities of Patna and Dacca and I have opened a correspondence on the subject with the Principal Civil functionaries. The Committee hopes that a fund may be raised by the voluntary subscriptions of the wealthy Inhabitants sufficient to erect or buy School houses and contemplates the appropriation of about 6,000 Rupees per Annum from the General Fund to each of these Schools. a[Marginal note]: Statement (A) shewing the details of Oriental works under Impression on account of the Committee. Statement (B) shewing by estimate [the] financial condition of the General fund.

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9. The General Committee is of opinion that the publication of the Resolutions of the Government above 8 quoted would have a beneficial effect in exciting in the minds of the influential Classes of the Community an interest in its proceedings and begs permission to publish those resolutions for general information. I have the honor to be etc. (Sd) J. C. C. SUTHERLAND, Secretary, G.C.P.I. FORT WILLIAM: The 20th April, 1835.

Propositions adopted by the General Committee of Public Instruction on the 11th April 1835 1. That the Government be requested to permit to publish the orders lately received. 2. That the Government be requested to permit the Committee to complete the printing of the Fatawa Alemgiri. 3. That the Government be requested to permit the Committee to make over the other unfinished works which are in hand to any Society or person who may be willing and competent to complete them. 4. That the Government be requested to postpone the appointment of Secretaries to the Sanscrit Colleges of Calcutta and Benares till the Committee shall be able to ascertain whether the services of such officers be indispensably necessary or whether they may not be procured at a small expence. 5. That measures be immediately taken for breaking up the depository. 6. That the Secretary be instructed to prepare an estimate of the funds which will immediately be at our disposal for the purposes of English education. 7. That Schools for the teaching of English literature and Science through the medium of the English language be established in the principal towns under the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra9 as funds for that purpose become available and as School Masters can be procured. 8. That Sir Edward Ryan,lO Mr. Trevelyan,H Captn Birch12 and Mr. Grant13 be appointed a Sub-Committee for the purpose of ascertaining and reporting what persons duly qualified are willing to be employed as teachers of English and on what terms. (Sd) T. B. MACAULAY. March 25th 1835.

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Notes 1 George Alexander Bushby (d. 1856) was a career civil servant in Bengal and a member of the GCPI from 1832 to 1842. See also p. 146. 2 lOR: India General Consultations, No. 10 of 22 April 1835, P/186/67. 3 See above, pp. 194-6. 4 These two detailed statements (which are not reproduced here) come at the end of Sutherland's letter. As the original marginal note (see footnote a above) indicates, statement A lists various works then in the process of being printed for the GCPI, or due to be printed by other agencies with subscriptions from the committee. Some seventeen works are included, consisting largely of (a) Arabic, Sanskrit and Hindustani translations of standard English mathematical and scientific textbooks, and (b) selected classical works of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic literature, mathematics, science and law. In each case the statement shows the number of copies to be printed and the expense involved. For examples of the kind of works represented in the program, see p. 139 and editorial notes 6-7 below. Statement B sets out overall details of the original funds appropriated for the GCPI's projects, including the publications listed in statement A, plus the administrative cost of maintaining the various educational institutions controlled by the committee, e.g., the Calcutta Madrasa and the Sanskrit and Hindu Colleges at Calcutta, the Hindu College at Benares, the Delhi College, etc. Estimates are also given of the savings likely to become available for English teaching after the reduction of the committee's oriental printing program, and the implementation of other economies resulting from the government's resolution of 7 March 1835. 5 The Fatawa-yi 'Alamgiri (Arabic): a comprehensive standard collection of rulings and cases relating to Sunni Muslim (Hanafi) law compiled under the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707). 6 The Inayah (Arabic): the title of several important works of Sunni Muslim law which form commentaries on the Hidayah of Burhanuddin alMarghinani (d. 1197). See also p. 173. 7 For Bridge's Algebra, see p. 139. 8 The official writer or copyist has written 'aboved' here. The resolution(s) referred to is evidently that of 7 March 1835 cited at the beginning of the letter. 9 The presidency of Agra, headed by a governor responsible for the upper provinces of the Bengal presidency as far as Delhi and Ajmer, was created in 1834 under the terms of the Charter Act of 1833 (3 & 4 Will. iv. c. 85). It was transformed into the lieutenant-governorship of the North-Western Provinces in 1836 (following 5 & 6 Will. iv, c, 52). 10 For Sir Edward Ryan, see p. 176. 11 For Charles Edward Trevelyan, see pp. 281-303, 341-2. 12 Captain (later General Sir) Richard James Holwell Birch (1803-75) held the position of deputy judge advocate general in Bengal in 1835. He was a member of the GCPI from 1835 to 1841. 13 Dr. John Grant (1794-1862) was apothecary-general in Bengal in 1835 and a member of the GCPI from 1835 to 1842.

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Letter from H. H. Wilson to the editor of The Asiatic Joumal concerning the 'Education of the Natives of India,' dated 5 December 1835

If anyone may be said to have guided the overall operations of the General Committee of Public Instruction during its first formative decade (1823-33), it was Horace Hayman Wilson. Himself a leading Sanskritist, enjoying close contacts with Indian scholars, Wilson had acted as secretary to the committee throughout this period, developing and implementing its orientalist policy and practice, while at the same time (so his opponents alleged) shrewdly building up the bases for his future academic career. In 1833 he resigned from his GCPI post to take up the chair in Sanskrit at Oxford, and it was from there that he learned of the dramatic reversal of the government's previous educational policy, engineered by Bentinck, Macaulay and Trevelyan in March 1835. Not surprisingly, in view of his intellectual eminence and the position he had occupied, Wilson's letter to The Asiatic Journal, written in December 1835, offers perhaps the most coherent and persuasive defense of the British orientalist strategy to be represented in the present volume. With masterful clarity, he takes his readers step by step through the familiar and not so familiar aspects of the Indian educational debate, all the time building up the strength of his overall argument. In this process he is particularly successful in portraying the damage likely to ensue from withdrawal of stipends from the students of oriental courses; in showing the breach of trust involved in depriving the oriental colleges of the funds originally committed by the government itself (as well as from Indian donations) to the furtherance of their specific educational objectives; in remarking en passant how it was the British themselves who by their conquests had weakened the traditional national sources of patronage for Indian scholarship; and in pointing to the inequity of a system that would deny the possibility of spending even a fraction of the revenues collected from the Indian people on the CUltivation of their own learning and literature. However, the heart of Wilson's defense of the orientalist program lies in his contention that the long-term regeneration of Indian culture through western influence depended upon the British securing the confidence and cooperation of the Indian learned elites - the only effective agency for bringing enlightened knowledge to the mass of the population. All the previous policies pursued by the GCPI had, he argued, been designed to achieve this object, viz. the discriminating encouragement and improvement of Sanskrit and Islamic education at the seminaries, combined with the gradual introduction of English courses; the promotion of translations of the most useful works of western science, balanced by the printing of some of the key works of oriental classical

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literature - policies which in turn linked up with Wilson's favorite notion that the vernacular languages needed to be developed and improved through recourse to the classical languages of South Asia, if they were to become capable of transmitting complex western ideas to the population at large. In developing this wider argument. Wilson also at times succeeds in seeing beyond the standard features of the contemporary debate to glimpse a bleak future in which, as a result of the total deployment of the anglicist policy, the whole people would become slavishly 'dependent upon a remote and unknown country for all their ideas and for the very words in which to clothe them' - only to recognize at the same moment the utter impossibility of such a wholesale discarding of their indigenous art. religion and culture! On the whole we may also conclude that Wilson's letter is considerably stronger in its defense of the orienta list strategy than in its negative dismissal of the likely results of the government's practical program for the spread of English (in so far as these two aspects can be distinguished). In particular, like other academic orientalists, he is perhaps inclined to underestimate and despise the complex and positive outcome of teaching what he calls 'a smattering' of English to 'clerks and copyists,' who seek to acquire it merely for the purposes of employment and profit. For Trevelyan's reply to Wilson, see pp. 281-303; and for the influence of Wilson's ideas on John Stuart Mill, see pp. 226, 241. See also Introduction, pp.43-7.

SOURCE(S): The Asiatic Journal, 19, New Series (Jan.-Apr. 1836), pp. 1-16.

--------------~-------------To The Editor, Sir:- The relation which I have the honour to bear to the literature of India, and the warm interest I feel in the promotion of the education of the natives of that country, as well as the active part borne by me in the measures adopted for its advancement during the last years of my residence in Bengal, will, I trust, be considered as a sufficient apology for my expressing, personally, the sentiments which the disposition recently manifested by the Government of Bengal, to withdraw their patronage from native colleges and native literature, has inspired. The measures publicly announced,a in conformity with that disposition, appear to me to involve the most mischievous consequences: impressing upon the minds of the natives the conviction that they and their rulers have conflicting feelings and incompatible interests, - contributing to destroy their respect for the British character, which, it appears from recent melancholy events, has lost already much of its weight in native estimation, and tending to defeat the very purpose in view, - to retard indefinitely, if not altogether to prevent, the intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of the people of India. aSee the Asiatic Journal for last month [The Asiatic Journal, 18, New Series (Sept.-Dec. 1835), pp. 206-71, and the Proceedings ofthe Asiatic Society of Bengal ofthe 6th of May and 3rd of June last [The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 4 (Jan.-Dec. 1835), pp. 236-9 and 288-941.

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I have noticed for some time past repeated effusions in the Calcutta newspapers, advocating a departure from principles hitherto considered sound and just, and recommending the exclusive encouragement of English as the first stage of a very feasible project for the annihilation of all the languages ofIndia, vernacular or classical, and the universal use of our native tongue throughout the East. Ai3 long as these reveries were confined to the columns of a newspaper, they were inoffensive or even amusing;1 they assumed more importance when, in order to prepare for the extermination of the languages, the supersession of the alphabets was seriously undertaken, and Oriental works were printed in characters which the natives could not read, to the extravagant waste of time and money expended upon so sage a device; and they have grown into portentous consideration, if they have dictated to the Government of Bengal the dream of making English the sole language of its subjects, and therefore inducing it not only to withhold its aid from from the literature of the country, but to resume endowments granted for the support of its professors, and appropriate to the hopeless realization of a wild theory the funds that had been set apart for very different purposes. It appears from late accounts,b that the proceedings of the Bengal Government, in regard to native literary institutions, awakened in the people of Calcutta serious apprehensions that the abolition of those institutions was in contemplation. The Mohammedans, to use their own words, 'were confounded and beside themselves at the intelligence;' anticipating, in the suppression ofthe Madressa, not only the extinction of their classical literature, but a preliminary step to an authoritative interference with their religion. They accordingly addressed a petition to government, signed by above eight thousand persons, including all the talent and respectablity of the Mohammedan community, in which they stated their fears, in the most forcible language they could well devise, and prayed the Government, 'from motives of justice, philanthropy, and general benevolence, and to ensure its own stability,' to give orders for the continuance of the Madressa. The occurrence is unprecedented in the annals of Calcutta, and great, indeed, must have been the dismay of the people before they could have ventured to remonstrate with their rulers at all, much more to use language of the tenor employed in their petition. Although the Hindus did not come forward in the same open and resolute manner as the Mohammedans, yet letters from men of the highest character, 'men versed in public affairs, and well acquainted with the system of the British Government,'2 - men also warmly attached to it, have assured me that they fully participated in the fears and sentiments expressed in the Mohammedan petition. Whether the alarm entertained bSee Asiatic Journal for October last, p. 95 [The Asiatic Journal, 18, New Series (Sept.Dec. 1835), p. 95. See also above pp. 189-93, for the text of the Muslim petition quoted by Wilson].

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by the people of Calcutta was well-founded or not, it cannot but be deeply lamented that such apprehensions should have been excited, and it is still more deeply to be regretted that the reply of the Government was illcalculated to gain credence and to allay mistrust. The answer of the Governor-general in Council disclaims, it is true, all purpose of departure from the tolerant principles which had ever influenced the councils of the British Government of India, and declares that 'his Lordship in Council would feel uneasiness if he thought that the Government authorities had, in any part of their conduct or proceedings, afforded ground or occasion of any kind for such an apprehension to be entertained by any classes of the subjects of the state.' The petitioners, however, might have referred to the public newpapers for the grounds of alarm furnished by Government functionaries, and general professions were little likely to be credited in opposition to avowedly proposed acts. They were told, indeed, that it was not intended to abolish the Madressa, but they were told, at the same time, that it had been determined to introduce an innovation which, in their estimation, must have been equivalent to abolition. The reply stated, that 'the purpose of Government was not to abolish, but to reform;' and, that 'the reform contemplated extended only to the discontinuance for the future of the practice of granting stipends to scholars, as an inducement to them to continue their course of studies;' it also added, that this reform was to be extended to all other Government institutions. Now every person acquainted with the circumstances of India must be aware, that, to withdraw wholly the stipends of the scholars of the native colleges, is virtually to abolish them. In the Madressa, the Sanscrit college of Calcutta, the Sanscrit college of Benares, and the colleges of Agra and Delhi, a considerable portion of the students receive small monthly allowances, not 'as an inducement to continue their course of studies,' but to enable them to engage in them at all. These stipends are their chief, very often their sole, means ofliving, whilst absent from their homes, and to deprive them of these means is to banish them from the colleges. Now, in all civilized countries, a provision for poor scholars is liberally made. The stipends of the native students are the scholarships and exhibitions of Oxford and Cambridge, and if these are beneficial and necessary, amidst the wealth and social refinement of England, they are infinitely more so in the poverty and backward civilization of Hindustan. Those classes especially, which furnish the candidates for admittance to the Government institutions, - the respectable and the learned, - are least of all able to incur any expense for the education of their sons, or for their support whilst in attendance upon their studies. To deny them the help they have hitherto received, is, therefore, to exclude them from the colleges, and when the students have been driven away, the professors will be superfluous. It is scarcely credible that the Government did not anticipate this result, and at any rate it would be hard to persuade the petitioners,

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many of whom look beyond the smooth surface of professions, that the inevitable consequence of abolishing all stipendiary grants had not been foreseen, - had not been designed. The British Government will, in such case, have compromised its character not only for liberality but for truth. The discontinuance of all support to the students is the virtual abolition of the colleges; the expedience of the former, therefore, hinges upon that of the latter measure; but, even if they were not necessarily connected, if the one did not result from the other, the arrangement is in itself objectionable upon other grounds. Admitting, for the sake of argument, that students would resort to the Government institutions, even without stipends, there can be no doubt that they would be members of a particular class alone, or the sons of persons residing in the cities where the establishments are situated. If a few of the more opulent inhabitants of Calcutta, or the decently-salaried native officers of Government, may be able to dispense with pecuniary aid for their sons, whilst studying in the immediate vicinity of their parents, and living in fact at home, the same absence of necessity does not apply to the sons of persons living at a distance; they must be precluded from benefiting by public endowments, and instead of being diffused, as at present, all over India, the advantages of the Government colleges will be restricted to the capital and one or two great towns. Hitherto, the reverse has been the case, and the students have been chiefly composed of natives of the surrounding districts, of remote provinces, or even of distant regions. I have known a native of Malabar a student in the Sanscrit college of Calcutta, and a native of Badakhshan amongst the pupils of the Madressa. That it is highly desirable to encourage the resort of students from the villages and provinces is scarcely to be questioned, especially in the present circumstances of India, in which the country population has such imperfect opportunities of acquiring instruction of any sort, and has no means of becoming acquainted with the persons, character, or conduct of the ruling authorities. Hitherto, whilst receiving tuition, the best of its kind, the natives of the country, as well as those ofthe city, have been put in the way of much valuable collateral information; they have seen close at hand the principles and practice of English sway, and they have been brought into personal intercourse with many of its principal functionaries, - an intercourse which as yet has tended to dissipate prejudice, attract confidence, and beget affection, and which has sent forth hundreds of well-instructed young men to disseminate similar feelings amongst their countrymen. Even, then, if the natives be mistaken in regarding the cessation of scholarships as preliminary to the downfall of their institutions, the measure is one that cannot be vindicated upon the grounds of justice, liberality, or policy. That the abolition of all native institutions for native education is the ultimate object of Government, is, however, confirmed by the subsequent resolution to discontinue the publication of Oriental works. Undoubtedly,

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if there are no students, there is no need of books; but, without pupils and without books, there is no need of professors. It is, therefore, idle - it is worse - it is untrue - to disclaim such a purpose. The consequence is infallible, and must be generally known to be so. It were more consistent with the dignity and with the safety of the Government to avow its intention, and announce its determination to suppress the existing colleges and apply their funds to the expenses of English education alone, if it feels satisfied of the justice and wisdom of the arrangement. The first point to be considered, - the justice of applying the funds that are disbursed under the control of the General Committee of Public Instruction in Calcutta, to instruction in English exclusively, - requires some more accurate investigation into the nature and employment ofthose funds, than they appear to have undergone. From a statement printed by the Committee of Public Instruction, the annual income available for native education, in 1831, was Rs. 2,37,000, or about £ 23,700;3 a considerable part of this, or one lakh of rupees per annum, was granted under the clause of an Act of Parliament, in 1813, which directed that a sum of money to this extent should be appropriated 'to the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of learned natives of India.'4 The law was enacted, it is understood, upon a recommendation from the Governor-general in Council. In the address of the Asiatic Societyc to the Government of Bengal, it is very reasonably suggested, that the terms of the Act entitle native literature at least to a fair proportion of the grant, and although something may have been left to the discretion of the Government, yet it cannot be denied that the law provides for the encouragement of 'learned natives.' Learned natives assuredly implied 'persons cultivating Oriental literature,' - their own literature; and this is further intimated by the expressions 'revival and improvement:' revival could not apply to English, which has never formed any branch of native literature, and it would be a strange, though not, perhaps, a wholly unparalleled, interpretation of the term improvement, to argue that it signified 'annihilation.' Adverting, also, to the authors of the measure, - to the Government of India at the time, with Lord Minto, a liberal patron of Oriental literature, at its head, and that eminent scholar, Mr. Colebrooke, a member of council, 5 - there can be no doubt of the spirit of the provision; there can be no doubt that the bounty was intended to rescue the native scholars and professors of Hindustan from the state of destitution into which they had been plunged by foreign rule, and to afford them means and inducements to prosecute, with renovated vigour and hope, the cultivation of their own languages and their own literature. It was not designed to elevate upon their downfall a new race and new studies. cAsiat. Journ. for December, p. 301 [The Asiatic Society's Memorial to the Bengal Government of 3 June 1835 is printed in The Asiatic Journal, 18, New Series (Sept.-Dec. 1835), pp. 300-3].

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The annual grant has, however, been ordinarily regarded as appropriable to the general purposes of education, and a considerable portion of it, - the largest portion, or 70,000 rupees a year,d - was applied, in 1831, to the promotion of English education. The natives, therefore, had no great reason to think that the designs of the legislature in their favour had been fulfilled, or to be well-satisfied with the inconsiderable benefit they derived from the bounty of Parliament. As long, however, as the preference given to English was not exclusive, as long as those objects which they prized were not entirely overlooked, they shewed no disposition to complain. They were satisfied to be unequal sharers in the more recent liberality of the Government, as long as they were not despoiled of what former benevolence had assigned to them, as long as the cultivation of English was not extended at their expense, as long as the funds specifically appropriated to native institutions remained inviolate. This is no longer the case when the scholarships of the native colleges are to be abolished, that the sums thence saved may be expended upon a purpose foreign to their foundation, the dissemination of English. The Madressa, or Mohammedan college, of Calcutta was founded in 1781, by Warren Hastings, expressly 'to assist in preserving a knowledge of Persian and Arabic literature and of Mohammedan law amongst respectable individuals ofthat persuasion.'6 The college was endowed with lands, which were afterwards commuted for an annual money payment of 30,000 rupees. 7 This allowance maintains a certain number of professors and pupils who, according to the terms and avowed objects of the foundation, have a right to the income assigned to them. Even if the Government think it advisable to remodel the Madressa, therefore, it cannot in justice divert the funds to any purpose not legitimately connected with the objects of the institution; and the retrenchment arising from the abolition of stipends to the students should go to the enrichment of the professors, or the printing of books required for their studies. This, however, is not the end in view, and the students may, no doubt, keep their allowances, if the Madressa cannot - as in liberality and equity it cannot - be deprived of them. The Sanscrit college of Calcutta arose out of a resolution of the Bengal Government, passed in 1811, to re-establish the Hindu colleges that had formerly flurished in Tirhut and Nadiya, but which had fallen into decay under a foreign administration. An annual sum of 25,000 rupees was devoted to this purpose, and although it was ultimately deemed expedient dIt was thus distributed: - Hindu or Anglo-Indian college, 26,000 rupees: Madressa, English class, 4,800 rupees; Sanscrit college, English class, 3,000 rupees; Delhi institution, 9,600 rupees; Benares school, 9,600 rupees; Agra college, English class, 1,680 rupees; printing and books, about 15,000 rupees. The Committee's establishment, or 12,000 rupees a-year, since increased to 18,000, may also be considered as defrayed from this source; making an appropriation of 87,600 rupees, not applied to native literature or learned natives [Report on Colleges, 1831, pp. 42-3].

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to transfer the institution to Calcutta, no change was made in its character, and the endowment was designed exclusively for the encouragement of Hindu literature and of learned Hindus. 8 The Benares college was founded, in 1792, by Mr. Duncan, under the authority of the Government, declaredly 'to preserve a knowledge of Sanscrit literature and Hindu law amongst the Pundits;' 20,000 rupees ayear were assigned, from the revenues of the province, for the support of the college, and it enjoys an addition of 6,000 rupees a-year, the interest of a sum accumulated out of its income. 9 It will scarcely be maintained, that any part of the revenue of this establishment is legitimately applicable to the cost of education in English. The funds of the Agra college consist of the rents of certain villages, bequeathed by a Hindu for charitable purposes and native tuition, and the Delhi college is maintained by the interest of a considerable donation, made by the minister of the king of Oude for the promotion of Mohammedan education in the city of Delhi. There can be no question that neither Gangadhar Pundit, nor Itimad-ad-Doula, intended to provide for instruction in English, and it is a sorry encouragement to donors and testators, if no regard is to be paid to their wishes and designs in the distribution of their munificence. IO Besides these special endowments, the committee has the disposal of about 9,000 rupees a-year, the interest of donations made by Hindu gentlemen, in full reliance, no doubt, that their benefactions would be disposed of amongst those persons who had the best claim to the bounty of their country, - pundits and poor students, - or for the furtherance of that literature which they had been accustomed to venerate. Of the remainder of the lakh of rupees, after providing for English education and Committee's office, above 16,000 are appropriated to the maintenance or aid of different provincial seminaries for native tuition of an elementary character, and this would more than exhaust the grant, except that a further annual income of about 20,000 rupees arises from the interest of portions of the lakh not expended in former years. This, then, or 17,000 rupees, about £1,700, is the whole sum actually available for the general encouragement of native literature, for the expense of substituting books for manuscripts; and of preparing and publishing useful translations; and it is of too inconsiderable an amount to be withheld from these objects, even if the Government be not fully impressed with their importance. 11 From a consideration, then, of the nature of the existing resources for the promotion of native education, under the Bengal Presidency, it is undeniable that they are, for the most part, of a specific origin, and of determinate application, and that to employ them in the establishment of other seminaries, and for other purposes, is to annul the deliberate acts of former governments, and to subject the existing administration to the charge of breach of faith. That the Government has abstractly the right of

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resuming grants made by its predecessors, cannot be disputed; but it is a right that cannot be too cautiously exercised, and that the resumption in the present instance is just, politic, or generous, may safely be denied. Whilst, however, few will question the rightful claim of native literature and its professors to the whole of the grant destined for their encouragement by the Parliament of Great Britain, - whilst still fewer will dispute their right to property expressly assigned to them by successive local Governments, and recognized as their's through periods of varying duration, extending as in the case ofthe Madressa to fifty years, there can be none, I should imagine, that will deny their having a strong moral claim upon the patronage of the British Government. Why do they need it? Let us replace their nawabs and rajas in possession of the rank and revenues which they enjoyed before we seized upon their territory; let us restore to the natural patrons of the scholars of India the means of maintaining them, and pundits and maulavis will then have no reason to complain of the supercilious indifference and heartless neglect of their rulers. But we have exterminated the patrons, we have usurped their power and engrossed their wealth, and those who depended upon them must perish, unless we admit that the duty of providing for them devolved upon us along with the funds from which that provision was derived. There are some things which we cannot restore to the learned classes of India; we cannot sympathize with their tastes, we cannot appreciate their talents, we cannot delight them by our admiration nor exalt them by our applause; but we can give them bread, - we can abstain from robbing them of the pittance which the enlightened humanity of some amongst ourselves has bestowed. It is not the learned classes alone, however, who have a claim upon the revenue for the encouragement of native literature; the people at large have a right to expect that a part of their own money, a portion of the revenue we raise from them, shall be applied to the maintenance of their own institutions and the cultivation of their own literature. It has been pretended, indeed, that the natives of India entertain no veneration for their own literature and are indifferent to its extinction; but the assertion is too contrary to all experience to merit refutation. The Mohammedan petition is reply sufficient, if reply were needed. As long as the Hindu and Mohammedan religions subsist, the works in which their doctrines are enshrined must be considered by Hindus and Mohammedans as sacred, and a total revolution must take place in eastern society before many other branches of their learning cease to be held in estimation. Had native princes the disposal of the revenues of British India, there can be no doubt that native literature would be liberally encouraged, and it would be politic as well as magnanimous in us to avoid reminding our subjects that we still are strangers. It would be but prudent, as well as generous, to interest ourselves in behalf of the intellectual efforts which they delight in, venerate, or admire, until at least we can lead them, with their own 213

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concurrence, to chaster models of taste, correcter guides in science, and purer sources of religious belief. But, it is asserted, this advancement in sound knowledge is not to be expected unless the study of English is substituted altogether for the study of native literature. The experience of the last ten years proves that the opinion is unfounded. During this period, native literature has been actively encouraged; during the same period, English literature had been actively encouraged; no incompatibility between the two has been found to exist, and improvement, to an extent which the most sanguine expectations could scarcely have anticipated, has been the result. The very measure now under discussion, the very project of making English the exclusive object of study, is a proof of great and unexpected change. Ten years ago, its introduction at all into the Government institutions was regarded by competent authorities as a difficult and delicate question, and no one would have ventured to conjecture that its adoption altogether would ever be seriously proposed. That such an idea should now be entertained is evidence of an altered feeling amongst a considerable body of the people, and this altered feeling has been the work of the same Education Committee that respected ancient endowments, and fostered the literature of the country. It unfortunately happens, in India, that few public measures are subjected to a fair trial; that they are suffered to pass through a sufficient period of probation for their tendency to be unequivocally manifested; that they grow up through seasonable and healthy stages to ripeness. The individuals by whom they are commenced leave the country before they bring their arrangements to maturity, and, being succeeded by others wiser in their generation, the rash confidence of inexperience roots up the yet imperfect plant, to make room for another, destined in its turn to die and bear no fruit. Such seems to be the case at present. Individuals of undoubted talent, but of undeniable inexperience; of unquestionably good intents, but of manifestly strong prejudices, have set themselves impatiently to undo all that was effected by men, at least, their equals in ability, their betters in experience, and who can never be surpassed in an ardent desire to accelerate the intellectual, moral, and religious amelioration of the natives of India. To those acquainted with the civil service of Bengal, but a few years back, and to many interested in the temporal and spiritual welfare of the people of British India, it will be sufficient to mention the names of Harington, Martin, Larkins, Bayley, Mackenzie, and Sterling, to satisfy them that, in the Education Committee of Bengal, as it existed for several years subsequently to its first formation, there was no deficiency of cultivated talent, experienced observation, sound judgment, or enlightened piety.12 That proceedings originating with, and sanctioned by, such individuals, should merit to be condemned and reversed by such successors as those I have alluded to, is little probable, and still less likely is it that they should have overlooked or 214

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lightly esteemed the important question of extending the study of English through the presidency of Bengal. Accordingly, the minutes of the Education Committee will shew that, after collecting all of the information that was procurable regarding the state and prospects of the native education, e they entered fully into the question of communicating the knowledge of English to the people. The advantage of such instruction was at once recognized; but there were then insuperable obstacles in the way of its immediate and extensive introduction, the principal of which were the low esteem in which English, as a vehicle of knowledge, was held, and the repugnance of the natives to its acquirement. It may be doubted, even now, how much of the popularity which English enjoys is ascribable to any sense of its value as a medium of instruction, and how far the expectation of a limited degree of proficiency proving the means of earning a livelihood, alone influences the natives in their reported eagerness to engage in the study. That the learned and influential classes were inspired by no such zeal, that they looked with indifference, if not with disdain, upon the acquirement, even when they had been induced to make a respectable progress in the study, I know to have been the case when I left Bengal, and I cannot believe that their sentiments have undergone so sudden and so total a change. However this may be, the Education Committee of 1824 reported, that 'the actual state of public feeling was an impediment to any general introduction of western literature and sciences;'13 and, instead of exacerbating aversion, by forcing the study, they undertook to allay the jealousy and secure the confidence of those with whom they had to deal, before they attempted to bias their judgment and influence their tastes. The principles which actuated the Education Committee, during the period I was proud to be attached to it as secretary, were these. Feeling that the faith of the Government was pledged for the maintenance of the native colleges, and that learned natives had many claims upon the Government patronage, - convinced that the native mind might derive real benefit from the cultivation of various branches of their own literature, especially their philology, their laws, and, in the case of the Mohammedans, their history, - and satisfied that, by taking their studies ·So little does the present committee benefit by the labours of its predecessors, that a gentleman has been appointed, I understand, with a large salary, to inquire into the state of native education. All the information that can be of any necessity is to be found in their own records, as the first step of the Education Committee was to circulate queries calculated to elicit an exact view of the condition in which native education was then prosecuted. Many valuable answers were received, which might have obviated the necessity of the appointment referred to. [The reference here is apparently to William Adam, the Unitarian missionary and oriental scholar, whose three-year survey of education in Bengal was initiated by Bentinck in 1835 (see Introduction, p. 29). The original records of the GCPI, to which Wilson refers, are held in the West Bengal State Archives in Calcutta, but copies of much of the committee's correspondence are also available in the National Archives of India in Delhi and also in the lOR in London.]

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under European superintendence, many improvements might be silently introduced and many innovations quietly engrafted on the original stem, the Committee determined, in the first instance, to render the native institutions effective. They went to work in good faith and sincerity of purpose, and displayed an active and judicious interest in the well-doing of the native colleges, both Mohammedan and Hindu. The immediate consequence was, the entire confidence and cheerful obedience of the leading members of those bodies, and advantage was taken of their goodwill to give a more useful direction to the studies of the youth and new facilities to proficiency; a number of young and talented individuals have, in consequence, been reared in their own course of education, who have proved of valuable assistance in the administration of the laws, and have diffused a higher scale of acquirement and a loftier tone of intelligence throughout the country. At the same time every opportunity was also taken to introduce that branch of study which was at first so distasteful, and English classes were gradually established, and without a murmur, in all the institutions originally confined to education in the native languages amd literature alone. At the same time that an important advance had been effected by the introduction of English into the native institutions, it was expected that a combination of studies might be in time accomplished, which would not fail to be productive of the most momentous results. As long as the learned classes ofIndia are not enlisted in the cause of diffusing sound knowledge, little real progress will be made. In the history of all philosophical and religious reformation, it will be found that the most effective agents have been those who had been educated in the errors they reformed: such men alone can come fully armed into the contest, as are masters not only of their own weapons but of those wielded by their adversaries. Bacon was deep in the fallacies of the schools: Luther had preached the doctrines of the church of Rome: and one able pundit or maulavi, who should add English to Sanscrit and Arabic, who should be led to expose the absurdities and errors of his own systems, and advocate the adoption of European knowledge and principles, would work a greater revolution in the minds of his unlettered countrymen than would result from their own proficiency in English alone. There are at this moment a number of able English scholars, amongst the natives of Bengal, who are well disposed to labour for the enlightening of their fellows, but whose efforts are of little avail, because they are not masters also of the learning of their people. Such a combination is not to be hoped for under the new system, and the undue depreciation of native literature, and the unjust encroachments on its long acknowledged rights, will have converted its professors into angry foes, where they might have been rendered attached and invaluable allies. At the same time that the Education Committee steadily availed themselves of every opportunity to blend English with Oriental studies, they gave to the former, where it was prosecuted singly and to good

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purpose, the most effectual support: of this, the Hindu college is an unanswerable proof. When first associated with the native managers of this seminary, the committee found it in a state of helpless inefficiency: some fifty boys were occupied with the merest rudiments of the English language. In the course of a few years, the number of scholars was increased to four hundred, and the pupils proceeded from elementary study to a familiarity with our best authors, both in prose and verse, and at the same time were instructed in different branches of useful knowledge. At the examinations of 1830, written answers were given, with very creditable accuracy, to several hundred questions in ancient and modern history, geography, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and experimental philosophy.14 One young man has since published a volume of English poems of singular merit; another edits an English newspaper; several are in the habit of speaking at public meetings of our countrymen in Calcutta, and in a style not common amongst Englishmen; several have established themselves as English teachers and school-masters, and two at least, young men of respectable families and of more than ordinary talents, have become Christians. Such have been the effects of the encouragement of English by the Education Committee that also encouraged native literature, and all this was accomplished, without exciting any discontent or alarm, with the cheerful acquiescence and perfect good-will of all classes and all religions. From this brief notice of the objects accomplished by the first Education Committee, in the short space of eight years, it will, I think, be evident that the expectations raised by the sterling characters of those of whom it was composed were more than fulfilled, and it may be safely inferred that a few more years of the same judicious proceeding would have realized all that was really worth attempting, without violating any pledges, without invading any rights, without wounding any feelings, without doing legal or moral wrong. In considering the question of an extended study of English, it is necessary to inquire what should be proposed. No person, I presume, will think it worth while seriously to attempt the extirpation of the vernacular forms of speech in favour of our language. It is only of importance to determine whether we should seek to disseminate extensively the practical use of the English language, or a conversancy with our literature. The former is unprofitable and unecessary; the latter is impracticable. To extend a smattering of English throughout India, is to do little good. Every day's experience shows that a command of the English language, sufficient for the ordinary purposes of life, is quite compatible with gross ignorance and inveterate superstition. The Bengali sircar or kerani, who copies letters and keeps accounts, who understands all that his employer says to him, and who can communicate intelligibly to his master all that it is necessary for him to impart, is as genuine and unenlightened a Hindu 217

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as if he had never known or spoken any other than his mother-tongue. Nay, there are well-known instances of individuals of rank and education, who have acquired the elegancies of our language, and who speak and write it with purity and precision, who are not the less bigotedly devoted to their national belief. If it is expected that a knowledge of the English language, merely will work a beneficial change in the principles of the people, the end will most assuredly be disappointment. To spread a thin sheet of water over a vast tract, will generate only slime and weeds; fertility is the consequence of deep and judiciously distributed irrigation. Whilst the wide dissemination of superficial acquirements will be of little real good, it is an object on which it is quite unnecessary for the Government to bestow attention or cost. The demands ofthe public service and of private interests already offer a sufficient inducement to the natives to acquire the use of English, to an extent fully equal to all they could derive from the multiplication of petty schools at the Government charge. It is probable that the demand for English in public affairs is on the increase, and it will, no doubt, create its own supply. All the Government need attempt is to provide teachers; and one or two seminaries, like the Hindu college, in which English is well taught, will answer this purpose. At the time I left Calcutta,15 there were, it was estimated, about six thousand youths studying English, of whom only between three and four hundred were in part educated at the expense of the Education Fund. The Government of India, then, need not resort to measures of spoliation to provide funds for rearing clerks and copyists; there will be no want of them, as long as their services are in request. To produce any improvement in the notions and feelings of the natives, their education must extend to things as well as words; they must be taught knowledge, not speech. They have already the means of communicating ideas; what they want is an additional and a better stock of ideas. To furnish this through the medium of English, they must be well grounded in our literature as well as in our language; they must receive a high English education; but it is impossible to impart widely an English education of a high description, for, even if competent teachers in sufficient numbers could be salaried, their labours would be attended with a very inadequate result. The great body ofthose who are willing to engage in the study want the language and nothing more. Of the language, also, they want only as much as can be turned to profit, - as will enable them to earn a subsistence. They have not the inclination, nor, if they had the will, have they the leisure, to follow that protracted and persevering career, which alone can give them the mastery of that immense store of words, of those infinitely varied combinations and those unfamiliar and, to Asiatics, often incomprehensible allusions and imagery, which compose the unwieldy mass of the literature of England. It is, therefore, as vain to seek to extend very widely a profound acquaintance with English literature, as it is 218

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needless to disseminate a superficial use of our language. Either attempt will be a mischievous waste of labour and money, diverting them from objects of greater practicability and advantage. Although it is impossible so to extend the study of the English language, as by its instrumentality to change the whole colour and complexion of the native mind, yet it may be so cultivated as to form the basis upon which great and important changes may be founded. The leading principle in this project is that which actuated the first committee, - the principle of concentration. Instead of reducing instruction to a thin insubstantial vapour, by spreading it over the largest possible surface, the object of the committee was to condense it, in a solid and permanent form, in a few bodies favourably circumstanced for its preservation, like the Hindu college of Calcutta. The scholars thus reared are the most ready, most economical, and most effectual means of acting upon the mass, not merely by becoming their instructors personally, but by assisting in what is of more value than oral instruction, the formation of an indigenous literature. It is not by the English language that we can enlighten the people of India; it can be effected only through the forms of speech which they already understand and use. These must be applied to the purpose, either by direct translation or, which is preferable, by the representation of European facts, opinions, and sentiments, in an original native garb. In the early stages of improvement, the former mode is the only one that can be expected; hereafter, the latter would take its place, and would give to the people of India a literature of their own, the legitimate progeny of that of England, the living resemblance, though not the servile copy, of its parent. Of this most desirable result, however, the only one to which rational expectation would look forward as the consummation to be wished, there can be no prospect as long as the available funds are frittered away upon vain and delusive speculation. Indeed, already a fatal blow has been given to the institution of an improved national literature, by the suicidal act of discouraging translation. The Bengal Government, it appears, upon the recommendation, of course, of the Education Committee, has discontinued its disbursements on account of various useful translations in the course of printing. Such has been the precipitate impatience with which this mark of its disapprobation has been displayed, that works have been stopped which were on the eve of completion: thus throwing away, with very equivocal economy, all the labour and money that had been expended on their preparation. As matters of curiosity merely, a few thousand rupees, a few hundred pounds, - might, it may be thought, have been spared by a great Government for the publication of translations of Euclid, Hooper's Anatomy, Bridge's Algebra, and Hutton's Mathematics,16 or for such a work as the Khazanat-al-Ilm, an original compendium of European mathematics by a native author,17 - by a Government, too, professing an anxious desire to diffuse useful knowledge amongst its native subjects.

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Such, however, is the mischievous consequence of acting upon a theory, and diverting the funds appropriated to education from purposes of practical utility, in order to apply them to the unnecessary and unprofitable scheme of teaching English to all the natives of India. A no less mischievous measure is the suppression of the publication of original works in the classical languages of Asia, Arabic and Sanscrit. Whatever may be thought of their value to Europeans, their value to the natives ofIndia is undeniable. I do not speak of the estimation which they enjoy as the repositories of the laws and religion ofthe Mohammedans and Hindus, but of their salutary influence in maintaining amongst the people a respect for science, a veneration for wisdom, a sense of morality, a feeling of beauty, a regard for social ties and domestic affections, an admiration of excellence and a love of country. It is prejudiced and ignorant criticism that looks only for blemishes in the literature ofthe East, and is insensible to its merits and its beauties. That it has defects, may be admitted, and what literature has them not? A fair comparison between the writings of the East and West would, probably shew that there are as many foul spots in the latter as in the former; but who could, therefore, conclude that the whole should be effaced? It is much sounder policy to connect ourselves with the literature as it is, and, by assuming the guidance of native studies, direct them to a discriminating perception of what is faulty in morals and in taste. At any rate, by annihilating native literature, by sweeping away all sources of pride and pleasure in their own mental efforts, by rendering a whole people dependent upon a remote and unknown country for all their ideas and for the very words in which to clothe them, we should degrade their character, depress their energies, and render them incapable of aspiring to any intellectual distinction. But the thing is impossible; we may in time and by judicious interposition instil into the native mind of India very different notions of Government, of morality, and of religion; but we shall never wean them, nor need it be attempted, from the congenial imagery and sentiments of their poetry from the intelligible and amusing inventions of their dramatists and talewriters - from the, to them, important facts of their history, and the interesting and not uninstructive legends of their tradition. Independently of the beneficial tendency of their own literature, under judicious guidance, to maintain amongst the natives of India a high tone of civilization, there are other obvious advantages attending its cultivation. Amidst much that is erroneous in their works of pure science, there is much that is correct, and a meritorious member of the civil service, an intelligent and sincere promoter of native education, has well shewn how they might be made introductory and subservient to accurate information. f fMr. Wilkinson on the Use of the Siddhantas in Native Education. Journal of Asiatic Society for October 1834 [The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 3 (Jan.-Dec. 1834), pp. 504-19].

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The logical and metaphysical studies of both Hindus and Mohammedans, amidst all their subtleties, promote a closeness and shrewdness of argument, which might be beneficially adopted by many who look upon their own reasoning powers with ill-grounded admiration. The laws of Manu and the Koran will scarcely be set aside altogether, it is to be presumed, by the luminaries of the new legislative council. The perusal of poetry and narration, in classical compositions, is necessary for the formation of a standard of style even for the vernacular dialects, and the study of Arabic and Sanscrit philology is no less indispensable for the acquirement of those languages, than it is for the perfection of the current forms of speech and the formation of a national literature. It is in this latter particular, their effect upon the vernacular languages, that the cultivation of those considered in India as classical, is of indispensable necessity. The project of importing English literature along with English cottons into Bengal, and bringing it into universal use, must at once be felt by every reasonable mind as chimerical and ridiculous. If the people are to have a literature, it must be their own. The stuff may be in a great degree European, but it must be freely interwoven with homespun materials, and the fashion must be Asiatic. In their present state, however, the vernacular dialects are unfit for the combination; they are utterly incapable of representing European ideas, - they have not words wherewith to express them. They must, therefore, either adopt English phraseology, which would be grotesque patch-work; or, they must have recourse, as they have been accustomed to do, for all except the most every-day terms, to the congenial, accessible, and inexhaustible stores of their classical languages. Every person acquainted with the spoken speech of India, knows perfectly well that its elevation to the dignity and usefulness of written speech, has depended, and must still depend, upon its borrowing largely from its parent or kindred source; that no man who is ignorant of Arabic or Sanscrit can write Hindustani or Bengali with elegance, or purity, or precision; and that the condemnation ofthe classical languages to oblivion would consign the dialects to utter helplessness and irretrievable barbarism. If, then, the intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of the people of India, not the indulgence of vain conceit, the realization of idle dreams, or the gratification of a malignant and destructive ambition, be the end proposed, there can be little doubt that it will be most readily and effectually attained by adherence to the same system which, in the eight years that followed the appointment of the Education Committee, was found to work so satisfactorily and so well. The best advice that could be given to those now charged with the superintendence of native education, would be, - follow the example set by your predecessors; cultivate English soundly and circumscribedly, cultivate native literature liberally and judiciously, and seek to bring them into an intimate association as the joint vehicles of useful knowledge; win the confidence and secure the 221

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acquiescence, or, if possible, the co-operation, of all classes, particularly of the learned classes; encourage and enable them to cultivate their classical literature, that they may derive from it all the benefit it can bestow, and that they may be fit and willing to extend and improve their acquirements and to assist in the labour of enlightening their countrymen; abandon all theories of a universal language, and rear an indigenous literature upon the basis of western civilization. Then, and then only, will the improvement of the natives of India be achieved, and light and life be diffused throughout the East. The injurious effect of the measures of the Government of Bengal, in discontinuing the printing of Arabic and Sanscrit works, as it relates to Oriental literature in general, is of less moment than the mischief it inflicts upon native education: I shall not think it necessary, therefore, to bestow much space upon its consideration. Neither is it necessary, after the just and able strictures which it has undergone by the members of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which will be echoed, no doubt, by the Asiatic Societies of London and Paris, and by every Oriental scholar in Asia or in Europe. They can entertain but one sentiment upon the subject, and from their sentence there is no appeal. If I wished to learn the merits of a picture or a statue, I should consult a painter or a sculpter; if I desired to know the contents and character of a book which I could not read, I should ask the opinion of a qualified judge by whom it had been perused. In like manner, the merits of Oriental literature must be most accurately appreciated by Oriental scholars, and it were a strange departure from all analogy and from common sense, to reject their testimony in favour of the evidence ofthose who are ignorant of the subject. When, then, we find such men as Mill, Macnaghten, and Prinsep,18 exerting their great talents, extraordinary acquirements, and matured judgment, in vindication of the claims of native literature on the patronage of the Government of Bengal, it would be the height of absurdity to listen to those, whose only title to pronounce an opinion is a vain boast that they might have been scholars. Had they made themselves what they pretend they might have been, their opinions would have been entitled to greater deference. On this subject, however, I am not disposed to dwell; the case may be left to its own merits and to abler advocates. It is in connexion with the education of the natives of India, that the discountenance of their native literature by their European rulers is chiefly to be deplored. Whatever may be thought of my competence to form an accurate estimate of the comparative merits of different plans for the diffusion of useful education in Bengal, it will probably be conceded to me, that, during my residence in that part of the world, I was in habits of intimate intercourse with the natives, and enjoyed an influence with them rarely exercised by a European. It will, therefore, follow that I have some knowledge of the means by which their good-will may be won, and I may claim credit for having endeavoured, I trust not without success, to avail

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myself oftheir friendly disposition to promote their real welfare. It was my gratifying lot to receive, on the same day, and in the same place, the hall of the Sanscrit college, filled by hundreds of the pupils of that establishment and the pupils of the Hindu or Anglo-Indian college, addresses in Sanscrit and in English, and testimonials of acknowledgement from both classes, for the interest I had taken in promoting the studies of both institutions. Whoever had witnessed that scene, would have been convinced, that the right course had been pursued, the right principle had been adopted, by the Education Committee of that day; and that, with the feelings which sparkled in every countenance, which every tongue expressed, time alone was wanting thoroughly to amalgamate the approximating elements, and to unite the different orders of society, the different languages and thoughts of the East and West, into one race, one literature, and one religion. The altered system has clouded this bright prospect; the seeds of discord have been substituted for those of harmony; fear has succeeded to confidence, jealousy to cordiality, and hostility to affection. It is, however, to be hoped, that it is not yet too late to remedy, in some degree, the mischief that has been committed; to revert to the benevolent, prudent, and certain career which the highest talents in the Company's service, the most genuine promoters of the best interests of the people of India, originally devised - measures, too, which after trial were stamped with the sanction of the Hon. the Court of Directors, who, in a letter to the Bengal Government of the 29th September 1830,19 declared that the results of the Committee's operations had surpassed their most sanguine expectations, pronounced their warmest approbation of the general system on which all the institutions under the Committee's superintendence had been conducted, as well as of the particular improvements which they had successively introduced, and expressed their wish, that the establishments for native education should be conducted on the same principles, and receive the same support from Government, at all the presidencies. Oxford, 5th Dec. 1835.

H. H. Wilson

Notes 1 Wilson seems to be alluding here to some letters dealing with the application of the Roman script to oriental languages written by Charles Trevelyan and others to the Calcutta press during 1834. These were subsequently published together in book form under the title The Application of the Roman Alphabet to All the Oriental Languages, Contained in a Series of Papers Written by Messrs Trevelyan and Tytler, Rev. A. Duff and Mr H. T. Prinsep; and Published in Various Calcutta Periodicals in the Year 1834 (Calcutta: Serampore Press, 1836). For further details, see Clive, Macaulay, pp. 353-6; also Introduction, p. 27.

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2 This quotation, together with those in the next paragraph, are taken from the government's reply of 9 March 1835 to the Muslim petitioners (see lOR: India General Consultations, No. 10 of 13 March 1835, P/186/87). 3 For the source of this statement, see Report on Colleges, 1831, pp. 41-2. The report was actually compiled by Wilson himself. 4 For the educational clause in the Charter Act of 1813, see above pp. 90-2. 5 For the educational ideas of Colebrooke and Minto in 1811 and their possible links with the educational clause in the 1813 Charter Act, see also above pp. 91-2, 159. 6 Report on Colleges, 1831, p. 3. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid., p. 6; see also above pp. 117, 149, 159, 256. 9 Ibid., p. 17; see also above pp. 77-80. 10 For the donations to the colleges at Agra and Delhi, see Report on Colleges, 1831, pp. 28 and 33; also pp. 36, 106. 11 The exact sources for the figures given here are uncertain, but see Report on Colleges, 1831, pp. 41-3. 12 John Herbert Harington, William Byam Martin, John Pascal Larkins, William Butterworth Bayley, Holt Mackenzie and Andrew Sterling were all civil servants appointed to the GCPI in 1823, who continued to sit on the committee for most of their remaining careers in Bengal. For further brief details, see pp. 124, 337, 340. 13 See GCPI letter to Lord Amherst dated 18 August 1824 reproduced above on pp. 118-24. 14 See paragraph 23 ofthe GCPI annual report on examinations dated 1 June 1831 in lOR: Bengal General Consultations, No. 37 of9 August 1831, PI121 61. 15 Wilson left Calcutta for England in 1833. 16 For these works, see p. 139. 17 Khizanah al-ilm, a treatise on mathematics in Persian, compiled by Kanhji, the diwan of Patna. An edition of Kanhji's work was printed in Calcutta in 1835 under the auspices of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 18 For William Hay Macnaghten, see pp. 160, 242; for Henry Thoby Prinsep, see pp. 340-1. The reference to Mill is not to James or John Stuart, but almost certainly to the Reverend William Hodge Mill (?1792-1853) who, as principal of Bishop's College, Calcutta during the 1820s and 1830s, studied Sanskrit and the vernacular languages, and was generally recognized as a leading Indologist. 19 For this Public Department dispatch (drafted by John Stuart Mill), see lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/41729, pp. 357-468, and for further comments on its significance, see above p. 128. It is clear that Wilson himself attached considerable importance to this dispatch, evidently considering it to amount to a full commendation by the Court of Directors of the GCPI's orientalist policies, and his own part in their conception and direction - all the more welcome in so far as it could also be viewed as revising the earlier more critical judgement contained in the court's dispatch of 18 February 1824 (see pp. 125-9). Even much later in July 1853, Wilson again cited the 1830 dispatch as supporting evidence for the testimony he then gave on the subject of education policy to a House of Commons select committee on Indian affairs (Sixth Report from the Select Committee, 1852-3, pp. 20-3).

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First draft of a Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to India (Previous Communication 1828) prepared by John Stuart Mill, assistant to the examiner of Indian correspondence, with marginal comments by the president of the Board of Control, Sir John Cam Hobhouse, c. July-December 1836 The government of India had boldly decided to introduce its new education policy in March 1835 without prior consultation with the Court of Directors. In fact, it was not until the end of September 1835 that two letters were addressed to the court, fully reporting on the change of policy, and not till January 1836 that these letters actually reached London. Already concerned that its Calcutta administration was tending to enact important new measures without previous reference to the home government, I the court then assigned the task of preparing its detailed response to the new anglicist program to John Stuart Mill in the examiner's office, who for the last eight years or so had been largely responsible for drafting most of the company's dispatches about Indian education.2 In accordance with the company's elaborate correspondence system (largely designed to accommodate the Board of Control's statutory powers of supervision),3 Mill's initial step was to prepare an unofficial first draft - known as a Previous Communication or PC - for the approval of the company chairs (Le., the chairman and his deputy), who in turn became responsible for sending the PC to the president of the Board of Control. Normally the president would soon return the document, with a note of any alterations deemed to be necessary. The company's drafting officer, in consultation with the chairs, would then generally take account of any such proposed changes in preparing the official draft for submission to the appropriate directors' committee, the whole court, and - once again - the Board of Control, before it was finally issued as a dispatch to India. Though in most cases the company's drafts survived this lengthy process relatively unscathed, a minority of its more controversial proposals could sometimes generate a good deal of argument between the company and the board. Mill's PC 1828 was not only fated to fall into this difficult category but also to achieve the unusual distinction of being totally rejected by the board's president, Sir John Cam Hobhouse. With its powerfully sustained criticism of the new Macaulay-Bentinck educational policy, and substantial endorsement of the GCPI's previous orientalist program, Mill's PC is a complex and intriguing document. Thus in the course of thirty-odd paragraphs, he articulates in his own style many of the standard orienta list arguments already directed against the new policy, viz.: (1) the futility of abruptly overturning the GCPI's previous policy which had achieved considerable success; (2) the dangers of offending Indian religious sensitivities; (3) the mistaken supposition that Indians seeking only enough

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English to secure public employment would contribute positively to the regeneration and advancement of Indian culture; (4) in support of this last ideal. the importance of enlisting the cooperation of traditional learned elites by judiciously encouraging their classical studies as well as their potential interest in English and western science; and (5) the associated need to encourage the scholarly classes to use their knowledge of Sanskrit and Arabic etc. to improve the intellectual quality of the vernacular languages, so as to render them fit media for the transmission of western knowledge to the population at large. In the course of delivering this critique, Mill also rejects most of the key measures recently advocated by the anglicist party in India, e.g., the reduction in the number of oriental stipends and professorships; the transfer of endowment funds previously devoted to oriental studies to the teaching of English, and the closure of the GCPI's oriental publication program. Only in the case of the government's newly-established English schools, does Mill display a certain cautious optimism, though this is mainly linked to his belief that the schools might ultimately contribute towards the formation of the all-important class of Indian scholars capable of understanding and transmitting western ideas to the masses through teaching and translations. Mill's PC is not so much at variance with his previous educational drafts as some commentators have supposed. 4 For example, as we have seen, by 1830 he had strongly commended the progress achieved through the GCPI's orientalist policy of cautiously but consistently introducing western knowledge into traditional Indian courses, etc. We know too from his private correspondence in 1837 that Mill was deeply angered by the way in which Macaulay had abruptly abandoned the previously approved system without consulting the courf.5 At the same time there are some distinct elements in the tone and argument of his 1836 PC which do seem to point towards a significant development or deepening of his attitudes towards British Indian reform. The difficulty consists in defining the exact nature and extent of this development. and the reasons behind it. Some of these wider issues are explored in the Introduction (see above, pp. 46-51). Here it may suffice to suggest that the difference partly lies in the PC's extended articulation of certain themes generally associated with Mill's intellectual reaction against some (though not all) of the rationalist. utilitarian values championed by his father, James Mill (who - ironically - lay dying as his son's draft neared completion). These include the younger Mill's projection of 'intellectual and moral improvement' as the ultimate goal of social action, combined with the notion that progress towards such a goal must take account of local cultural traditions and sentiments, and the role of their custodians - in this case the Indian scholarly elites. In reaching this stronger conclusion at this particular juncture, it is also clear that Mill was deeply influenced by the writings of H. H. Wilson, H. T. Prinsep and others, especially by Wilson's recent letter in The Asiatic Journal,6 as well as by the evidence of Indian popular sentiment as expressed in the Muslim petition of 1835.

Mill's PC was apparently completed by the end of July 1836, when he himself went on leave to the continent for three and a half months.l Having secured the approval of the company's chairs, the document was submitted to Hobhouse at the Board of Control early in October.8 Though not an uncritical admirer of Macaulay (whom, like Mill, he evidently took to be the main architect of the new policy), Hobhouse firmly shared his belief in the supreme importance of encouraging the diffusion of English, and it was clearly

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impossible for him to accept the validity of Mill's largely orientalist argument. He accordingly contented himself with noting his strong opposition to it in numerous notes penciled in the margins of the PC, before finally advising the chairs to withdraw it altogether, See also below, pp. 244-6.

SOURCE(S): lOR: Revenue, Judicial and Legislative Committee Miscellaneous Papers, L/P&J/1/92, India Public Department PC 1828 (of 1836). 'Recent changes in Native Education.' Two points about the different handwritings in this document may be noticed here. Firstly, the PC itself was written out by company copyists not by Mill himself, though his original signature does appear in pencil at the top of the first page. Secondly, although virtually all the penciled comments in the margins of the PC were almost certainly written by Sir John Hobhouse, only a minority of them actually bear his intials, J. H. In certain cases too, the handwriting seems to vary a little, not to the extent of suggesting they were written by someone else, but rather apparently reflecting the speed at which the board's president was committing his strong reactions to paper. For another copy of Mill's PC, see lOR: Home Miscellaneous Series, H/723, pp. 1-113. This document does not include Sir John Hobhouse's marginal notes, though it does contain a few anonymous annotations missing from the L/P &J/ 1/92 version.

--------------~------------19 Since we last addressed you on the subject of Native Education we have received from you the following letters and paragraphs connected with that subject. Public Letter dated 20th July (No 8) 1835, paras: 74 to 76 10 Public Letter dated 2nd Sept (No 27) [1835] paras: 196 to 198 11 Public Letter dated 30th Sept (No 28) [1835]12 Public Letter dated 30th Sept (No 29) [1835]13 Political Letter dated 15th June (No 2) 1835, para: 3 14 2 With these we shall notice the following paras. from the Madras Government. Public Letter dated 22nd Nov. (No 29) 1833, para: 6 15 [Public Letter dated] 16th Dec. (No 46) 1834, paras: 1 to 4 16 Revenue Letter dated 10th June (No 14) 1834, para: 2717 3 During the whole period which has elapsed since the institution of the General Committee of Public Instruction, we have had occasion in every dispatch which we have addressed to you on the subject of Native Education, to express our warm approbation of the proceedings of that Committee; to declare our sense not only of the zeal and public spirit which has pervaded their conduct, but of the thoughtfulness, sobriety, and deliberate wisdom of their course of measures, and to congratulate you and ourselves upon the signal success beyond all reasonable anticipation, with which these measures have been attended. IS 4 It was therefore with no ordinary feelings of surprize, that we learned that the policy which had been so successful, and of which we had so frequently and so deliberately expressed our approval, has, without

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even the pretence of an emergency, been suddenly abandoned; and that without reference to us, another system has been substituted, founded on principles radically different, and leading both ultimately and immediately to practical measures in many respects the exact reverse of those hitherto adopted. 5 The late Governor General, Lord W. Bentinck, a short time before leaving India, added a considerable number of new members to the Committee. a Differences of opinion which had already manifested themselves in that body, appear to have been brought to a crisis by this proceeding. A portion of the Committee, consisting chiefly of the younger and of the new Members, entertained views tending to a complete alteration of the system previously pursued.b And although the discussions which took place were ostensibly on incidental points, they involved so complete an opposition of principle, that the operations of the Committee were paralyzed. A reference to Government became necessary.19 Government embraced the views of the new members; it immediately adoptedC measures of a decided character, founded on those views; and Messrs Macnaghten and James Prinsep, two of the most valuable of the Members of the Committee,d in consequence retired from it.2o 6 The principle which your Government has now adopted as the basis of its measures of Native Education, is the following: That all aid or encouragement bestowed by the State either upon the culture of Oriental literature and science, or upon the diffusion of European knowledge through Oriental media, is useless, or worse; and that all funds at present devoted by Government to either of these purposes, should be resumed as rapidly as is consistent with regard for vested pecuniary interests, and should be employed exclusively in teaching English, and in teaching through the medium of English. 7 Acting upon this principle, you have at once put an end to all expenditure for printing Oriental works, and for translating European books into the Oriental languages. You have carried this principle so far as even to stop the progress of works which had nearly passed through the press. You have abolished prospectively (with a reservation in favor of existing incumbents), the grant of stipends to students at any of the Government seminaries; and on the occurrence of a vacancy in any of the Professorships, the question of its abolition is to be taken into consideration. 8 In anticipation of the funds to be set at liberty by these measures, English schools have been opened at Patna, Dacca, Ghazeepore, Meerut, and Gowahatty.e21 a[J.H.J Condemns Lord W. Bentinck

h[J.HJ Condemns the new members & Mr. Macaulay

C[J.H.J again condemns the Government d[J.H.J valuable perhaps in themselves - but this praise cannot be given to them without a censure on the other party e[J.H.J The change is stated with fairness

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9 When we consider this total change of system, even apart from the circumstance of its having been adopted in opposition to our recorded opinions, and without any previous references to us, we find much in it to excite our serious apprehension and regret. 22 10 In the first place, it is a sudden change; and when not called for by a sudden emergency, the sudden change of a course deliberately adopted, is always to be deprecated.r It tends to destroy all confidence on the part of the people, in the wisdom of their rulers: and not without reason: for those who change their opinions hastily, are those who form them hastily, and without due consideration. g Precipitate changes of measures require to be more especially guarded against in a Government constituted like that of India, because in such a Government there is more than ordinary liability to them, from the small numberh of the governing body, its fluctuating character, and the absence of publicity in its deliberations: and further, because the religious and superstitious attachment ofthe Natives ofIndia especially of the Hindoos, to ancient systems and establishmentsi renders them peculiarly averse to changes affecting in any degree their predilections and their prejudices and suggests the necessity of introducing such changes with great deliberation and caution and if possible by slow and progressive degrees. We regard the prevention of such abrupt alterations of policy, as one of the purposes for which our controlling power has been entrusted to us by Parliament, and in that spirit we are determined to exercise it) 11 But if changes of policy on great questions should never be sudden, least of all should those changes be sudden which are peculiarly liable to be misinterpreted, and which even with the greatest caution as to the manner of introducing them, would involve more or less risk of exciting alarm and disaffection on the part ofthe people. Now, the points on which above all others it is important that the people of India should have the firmest reliance on the stability of our policy, are those which relate to their religion. If there be any impression which we ought sedulously to avoid exciting in their minds, it is that the tendency of our measures is to undermine their national peculiarities of religious creed and observances. That such an apprehension should be excited in some degree by our attempts to diffuse English knowledge and English ideas among them, was perhaps inevitable. We have always considered it as eminently creditable to the good sense and discretion of the former Committee, that they should have excited so little of it; yet to a certain degree they did f[J.H.J This does not at all follow - some changes are more safe by being sudden g[J.H.J this part of this homily is equally inconclusive h[J.H.l if the body were larger the liability would be greater i[J.H.l these ancient systems date from 1813 j[J.H.l brutum fulmen [a senseless thunderboltl- the thing was done in April and March 1834-1835 & you ensure this preventive power now - your lightning will reach India in six months

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excite it: a considerable falling off which has never been completely repaired, took place at one period in the number of Students at the AngloIndian College, from fears of this description;23 and they have been repeatedly stated as the principal cause which renders the Zemindars in the interior averse to send their Sons to the Government Seminaries. k And there is the less reason to expect any abatement of these apprehensions, because there is really much ground for them. We can therefore perceive few things more imprudent than suddenly to abandon a course of measures which had been carefully framed for guarding as much as possible against these alarms; and in its place to substitute another peculiarily calculated to excite them. Accordingly they have been excited, immediately and intensely.l A report went forth that Government had determined to abolish the Madrissa and the Sanscrit College at Calcutta. There was so far a foundation for the report, that one Member of the Legislature of India, Mr Macaulay, had distinctly proposed the measure which was so much dreaded. 24 In the course of two days a petition was signed by 8312 educated Mahomedans against the abolition of the Madrissa,25 and a similar petition in behalf of the Sanscrit College, was in preparation by the Hindoos. 26 The petition of the Moosulmauns distinctly stated that the general opinion ascribed the measure against which they petitioned, to views of proselytism. You have assured the petitioners that you do not contemplate the abolition of any of the Seminaries.27 It is impossible however to foresee how far the abolition of the Stipends and eventually some of the Professorships may be compatible with the continuance of the Institutions, and there can be little doubt that these measures ffi will be regarded by the Natives as preparatory to their total abolition. 12 The next remark which we have to make is, that, not only has the change been sudden, but the system which has been thereby superseded, was one which worked well n even for the very purpose which the change professed to aim at. That alleged general desire for the knowledge of the English Language, which is made the motive for abolishing the existing system, had grown up under that system, and been fostered by it. The former Committee proceeded upon the principle of not obtruding English instruction upon the people, much less holding it up as an object favored by Government at the expense of what the people (then, at least) preferred to it, but contented themselves with providing the means of satisfying the k[J.H.J This is a reason for having schools for English only land have completely subsided - see Lord Auckland's letter - JH m[J.H.J all this falls to the ground, the result being quite contrary to what is anticipated Dhow is this proved - by rearing Arabic & Sanscrit scholars who being disqualified for any useful occupation petition for pensions to keep them idle, & by printing a great number of volumes which never have & never will leave the warehouse - but then it seems in spite of this a general desire to know English has risen up and therefore this was the fruit of the old system - admirable reasoning - JH

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desire for English instruction as fast as it arose; and this quiet and unobtrusive mode of encouragement had been found effectual to a degree which would have been thought satisfactory even as the reward of far more direct efforts. English branches had been added to all the seminaries, even to those originally of a purely Braminical or Mahomedan character; these classes were well attended; considerable proficiency had been attained by many of the pupils, and a demand for other institutions ofthe same kind was springing up in one part ofthe country after another. For the purpose therefore of accelerating a progression already far greater under the existing system, than the most sanguine could have anticipated we cannot but consider it in the highest degree imprudent to expose to risk what had thus been gained by an innovation which that very success had shewn to be unnecessary. 13 Mr Macaulay28 we observe, considers it as demonstrated, first, that the people are eager for English tuition, and secondly, that they are altogether indifferent to Oriental learning. If these propositions were true, in the comprehensive sense imagined by that gentleman, the measures which you have adopted might be unattended with risk. The first however of Mr Macaulay's assertions is presented in an altogether different light, and the latter altogether denied, by those Members of the CommitteeO who have the longest experience of India. p The only proof given by Mr Macaulay for the assertion that the Natives are indifferent to their national learning is, that stipends are found necessary to induce them to study it. This however, in India, is no proof at all. Learning in the countries of the East has neither been cultivated by the people at large, nor by the opulent. It has formed, as it did in Europe, until comparatively recent times, the occupation of a peculiar body of men, for the most part indigent. Instruction was afforded to them gratuitously: their maintenance was considered as a necessary part of their education; and they were dependent for one and the other upon either the public or private endowments. Under our Government these sources of support have been withdrawn and in place of the munificence of native patronage a few scholarships and Professorships in the Government Colleges are now the only contributions towards the literary classes of the Mahomedans and Hindus. That they are more than ever in need of eleemosynary aid, the altered condition of society is sufficient to prove. Although poor, however, the testimony of the most competent witnesses affirms that the lettered classes are still held by the people of India, in high estimation, and their degradation and extinctionq cannot be O[J.H.J It is unbecoming of a master to enter into a controversy with his servant The longest experience has no more to do with settl[ingJ this or any such question, than the longest nose - The admitted facts were before Mr Macaulay as much as before Mr Prinsep - and the present state of circumstances fairly examined was the real subject for investigation q[J.H.J this is begging the question

P [J.H.J

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received with indifference by their countrymen nor submitted to without resentment by themselves. 14 That a desire to learn English is prevalent amongst certain classes of the Natives, and especially at the principal European stations, is no doubt true; but experience shows that this desire does not originate in a disinterested love of knowledge or intelligent wish for information. r It springs from no higher source than the advantages afforded by the use of English in an intercourse with Europeans, and the belief that English S is likely to become the language of public business, when a knowledge of it would be requisite as a passport to public employment. Persons studying English from such motives are anxious to get employment with the lowest possible qualification,t and, having obtained their object, seek for no further proficiency. The public service at all the Presidencies abounds with Natives, sufficiently masters of English for all the demands of their daily duties, who have no taste for our literature, no participation in our sentiments, no impression of our principles; but, in all essential respects of character, are upon a level with the rest oftheir countrymen. ll We cannot expect any extensive or solid improvement from the multiplication of this class of English scholars; and we apprehend that it is not necessary for the Government of India, to take upon itself the entire charge of promoting their increase. v As long as situations in which a knowledge of English is required are open, there will be no want of qualified competitors for them. 15 At the same time, we think it incumbent on us to declare our anxiety, that liberal encouragement should be given to the desire to learn English, even in the limited degree in which it is likely to be studied; we therefore by no means intend that the schools which you have opened should be closed: on the contrary we shall await with deep interest the result of the experience which you must by this time have had, of their success: W and if it be encouraging, we would most willingly go to the utmost length which financial considerations and the regard due to other public objects, will allow, in adding to the number of such schools, and placing them on the most efficient footing. x But we shall now proceed to state to you the reasons for which we are of opinion that institutions for English tuition are by no means sufficient, and that if the object of our measures be the intellectual and moral improvement of the people of India, institutions for the cultivation of the Oriental languages, are necessary in addition to these. r[J.H.J what does it signify? 8[J.H.J as if this was not a praiseworthy motive t[J.H.J how is this proved - or to be proved U[J.H.J I do not believe that any man or set of men who know one useful thing more than their countrymen can be said to be only on a level with them V[J.H.J It does not take the entire charge - it encourages W[J.H.J lfthe former paragraphs have any sense in them this would be nonsense, but the Court are right here X[J.H.J good also

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16 We regard it as altogether chimerical to expect that the main portion of the mental cultivation of a people can ever take place through the medium of a foreign language. What we may hope to do by means of English tuition is to teach the teachers;Y to raise up a class of persons who having derived from an intimate acquaintance with European literature the improved ideas and feelings which are derivable from that source, will make it their occupation to spread those ideas and feelings among their countrymen. But it is not everybody who feels a motive to learn English, that will also feel a motive to labour for the diffusion of English ideas; and those who do so labour, Z must employ the medium of the Oriental languages, either by oral tuition, (as teachers in the Native schools), or as writers, whether in the way oftranslation, or of original composition, or by the means of social and colloquial intercourse with their families, friends and neighbours. 17 It seems to be allowed on all hands, that the vernacular idioms of India in their present state, are not fitted for any purposes but those of every-day life,29 and that the very words necessary for treating of scientific and philosophical subjects must be drawn from the Sanscrit or the Arabic, so far as parallel terms and synonyms30 can be found in those languages; or by the introduction of new terms when none such can be found. This of itself constitutes a sufficient reason for not allowing the study of the learned languages ofIndia to drop. It is through the vernacular languages only that instruction can be diffused among the people; but the vernacular languages can only be rendered adequate to this purpose by persons who can introduce into them from the Sanscrit or the Arabic, the requisite words, and turns of expression. It is even affirmed by competent authorities that some of the vernacular languages can scarcely be written grammatically without some knowledge of the Sanscrit Grammar. It is indispensable, therefore, to keep up the cultivation of Sanscrit and Arabic as classical languages. Mr Macaulay indeed contends that if a knowledge of Sanscrit be necessary for the improvement of the vernacular idioms, that knowledge will, for this reason only, be certainly provided, without any aid from Government. aa But this inference supposes a degree of consciousness in the people, of the nature of their intellectual wants, a desire for remedying those wants, and a knowledge of the appropriate remedy, such as has never yet existed in the most civilized nations,bb & such as if it existed in India, would render any exertions of Government for the education of the people nearly superfluous. 18 Another consideration of not less importance is this: From what class of the people of India are those persons to be drawn, who having Y[J.H.J This is all that Macaulay & his friends propose to do Z[J.H.J certainly not - but he will diffuse them insensibly & without labour aa[J.H.J I own I think so bb[J.H.J the PC writer seems to know many curious facts

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imbibed European ideas and feelings from the study of English literature, are to diffuse them (either as Schoolmasters, or by writings and translations, or by colloquial intercourse) among the rest of their countrymen? 19 Mr Macaulay has correctly expressed the object to which all our endeavours should be directed: 'It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body ofthe people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the Country; to enrich those dialects CC with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclatures, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for carrying knowledge to the great mass of the population.'31 20 To form such a class should unquestionably be our object. But of whom is it to consist? Not of those who learn English for the purpose of public employment, and whose attainments cannot be expected to go beyond what is strictly necessary, or at most evidently useful for that particular purpose. Not of men of opulence; for even in countries under more favorable circumstances than India, it is not from such classes that continual literary labour and especially literary drudgery are to be looked for: Still less can they be expected to furnish the whole continent of India with Schoolmasters. The class to whom alone we can look for instruments in bringing home English ideas to Oriental comprehension, upon whom alone we can rely as our 'interpreters,' is the learned class: men of letters by birth and profession: the very class whom it is the necessary effect of your recent measures to alienate, to convert into enemies of our schemes of education, if not enemies of our rule. 21 Lieut. Colonel Morison, in the Minute which he recorded dissenting from the recent changes, gives his valuable testimony precisely in accordance with the above views. He states it as the result of his own experience, that all the English Scholars whom he has known among the Natives, - 'I mean those who read English works and enter into their spirit, and who are able to discuss in English all the public questions which have arisen in the Revenue and other Departments, have all been Sanscrit scholars.'32 22 It is difficult to foresee whether the class of learned Natives would when the support of Government was wholly withdrawn from them, become gradually extinct, or would exist the determined enemy of our measures for the instruction of the people. But it seems clear that the one consequence or the other must happen. The former would deprive us of our best if not our only instruments for the work we have in contemplation;

CC[J.H.J this quotation supersedes the necessity of inserting the previous paragraphs

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the latter would convert them from instruments, into the most powerful obstacles to our success. dd ee 23 Entertaining the views which we have now stated, it would have been our duty to withhold our sanction from the greater part of the changes which you have made, if you had not carried those changes at once into effect.if At present it remains for us to consider how we can with the least possible inconvenience, repair the error which you have committed; and at the same time promote as far as practicable the beneficial ends which you and ourselves equally have in view. 24 The course which we are anxious to adopt, is, to give every encouragement which the means at our disposal permit, to the study of English, and especially to its study as a classical language gg , for the sake of familiarity with its literature, and not merely with a view to public employment or the ordinary intercourse oflife. The encouragement to the study of English, must not however be given at the expense of the support hitherto afforded to Oriental instruction, lest the class whom we are most anxious to allure to the study should be led to regard it with jealousy and dislike. hh 25 Without entering upon a consideration (not at present called for) of the abstract right of Government to resume the endowments of any Institution which it has founded, it will not be denied that the power should be exerted with the greatest deliberation and caution, and only in cases of the most obvious expediency or unquestionable necessity. In the present instance, whatever may be urged in vindication of such a measure which might be satisfactory to European minds, there can be no doubt that it would be regarded not only by the parties interested; but by the mass of the people of India, as harsh, ungenerous, and unjust; and the end to be attained is not in our opinion of such urgent importance that, on account of it, the feelings of the people, whether reasonable or not, should be irritated or contemned,ii We must therefore positively interdict the resumption of the grants or any portion of them made by previous Governments, either from the public revenue or private benefaction, to any existing Hindu or Mohammedan College, or any Institution for Native Education.ii suppose that Sanscrit learning would be utterly extinguished unless we devote 500£, to the encouragement of it seems to me totally inconsistent with the alleged attachment of the Hindus to their ancient native literature - JH eeand it seems equally inconclusive to believe that any such love of their own learned language should make them hate & oppose the introduction of another tongue the proficiency in which according to the writer of this PC, never will reach beyond the elements - JH ff[J.H.J This is a good reason - but where is the preventive power which the PC threatened to exercise? ggquite a mistake. let the natives learn English as a vernacular & make what use of it they like JH hh[J.H.J this may be worded in a more cautious form ii[J.H.J There is no fear of this - see Auckland's letter ii[J.H.J has any such resumption been threatened? - only that where there are no scholars there shall be no school ddTo

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26 At the same time, we are most anxious that their respective funds should be applied to the most useful purposes, consistent with the nature and objects of the Institutions themselves, and with the feelings of those for whose satisfaction and benefit they were founded. We have every reason to believe from the official reports which have from time to time been submitted to us, that the course of study pursued at the several Colleges, has been mainly directed to sound practical objects and particularly to the acquirement of a critical knowledge of the classical languages of India, and an extensive acquaintance with Hindu or Mohammedan Law. These must long continue to be the legitimate objects of study, both for the eventual perfection of the vernacular languages, and for the due administration of justice. What other branches of Native Literature may be cultivated, as well as in what manner, and to what extent the association of English with the Collegiate studies may be effected, has been hitherto left, and may still be left we hope, to the judgment of the Local subCommittees, aided by the European Superintendents of the several Colleges, who should be well grounded in the language and literature taught in each Institution respectively: Such an officer being in our estimation indispensable to the efficacy of the Institution, to the preservation of a beneficial influence over the Teachers and Students, and to the unsuspected direction of their thoughts and feelings into new and improved channels. 27 One innovation we are kk disposed to sanction as an encouragement to the acquirement of English by learned Natives, vizt., that in future, upon any Professorship at a Native College becoming vacant, a preference shall be given to that candidate for the situation who to equal proficiency with his competitors in oriental learning shall add some knowledge of the English language. 28 With regard to the Stipends of the Students, we are not disposed to look upon them as exclusively either inducements or rewards. They are a part of the endowment of the College as much as the salaries of the Professors, and are designed for the maintenance of the students during the period of their attendance. Many of these Students resort to the Government Institutions from the interior of India, from places more or less remote; and, in our opinion, it is highly desirable to encourage such resort,ll as a wider range is thus given to the benefits of the public Institutions; to a feeling of gratitude towards the Government; and to a knowledge of the British character: Without money, without friends, young men from the provinces cannot subsist at the capital, where the Colleges are established. Even to those who are nearer at hand pecuniary assistance is indispensably necessary, as they have not the means of kk[J.H.J A great deal in a despatch of 200 pages ll[J.H.J I think that stipends might be given to some as in the form of poor scholarshipsbut not to all

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maintaining themselves_ The stipends of the Native Colleges in India are in lieu ofthe food, lodging, and clothing, some or all of which are furnished to poor scholars in many of the seminaries of Europe. mm It has not been found unnecessary or inexpedient in such cases to combine maintenance with education in the Western World;33 and we do not consider it unreasonable that the same assistance should be found necessary and expedient, in a Country less advanced in civilization, and amongst a class of people notoriously indigent and depressed. That the stipends of the students should not exceed the amount necessary as subsistence money, engaged the early attention of the education Committees; and we believe them to be so moderate as to admit of little if any further deduction. There is another reason why the stipends of the students of the Native Colleges should not be withdrawn. In the Anglo Indian College, scholarships are granted of more value than any ofthe studentships in the Native Colleges, and the students of the latter would have reason to complain of partiality, if whilst they were denied the means of subsistence, pecuniary rewards were bestowed upon the students of English. nn34 That those rewards have had the best possible effect in inducing and enabling young men to prosecute their studies for a protracted period, and thus attain greater proficiency we are all well aware; and, instead of withholding from the students of the Native Colleges what they are already entitled to, we should be better pleased to see the system of the Anglo Indian College extended to the other Institutions, and merit and talent enabled by additional assistance to persevere. At present, however, it is sufficient to direct that the stipends where they do not exceed a reasonable allowance for maintenance shall be continued as heretofore. oo 29 The printing and publishing Department seems to have been that in which the management of the former Committee was most defective. Mr. H. T. Prinsep admits 'that money has in several instances been spent foolishly in this Department; that the translations especially have been paid for at inordinately high rates, and have not been executed in the popular style they ought to have been: several works also have been printed or subscribed for that did not deserve such patronage and encouragement. Hence the depository of the Committee has been overloaded.'35 And it appears that for the books printed by the Committee there is hardly any sale, and that the only useful purposes to which they are applied are those of prizes, and gifts to learned individuals. pp 30 You have transferred the unfinished works to the Asiatic Society, who have undertaken to complete and publish them at their own mmYes, but not to all - JH nnThis would be obviated by granting to some and not to all a stipend - JH OO[J.H.J no - this has been done & why undo pp a totally conclusive proof of the estimation in which Oriental literature is held JH

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expense. qq And the Society have transmitted to us through you an application for an annual grant of money to aid them in 'promoting amongst the Natives at large the study of the ancient language and literature of their Country'36 by the printing and publication of the most approved works. IT The Society have not suggested any specific sum, but we have received from their Agent in Europe, Professor H. H. Wilson, a letter, copy of which we herewith transmit, in which he states that 'judging from the average expenditure of past years, about 6000 Rupees a year, or 500 Rupees a month, will probably suffice, in addition to the Society's own funds, and returns which may be expected from the sale of the books.'37 This amount we accordingly authorize you to devote to the purpose of Oriental publications, either granting it to the Society, or disbursing it under the direct control of the Committee, and in either case charging it upon the Education Fund. ss 31 As the resources which were calculated upon for the support of the newly established English Schools will now be in great part diverted from that object,tt and as we by no means wish those Schools to be abolished, if their success has been such as to warrant their continuance, we authorize you to grant specifically for their support, such further pecuniary aid as may be necessary. But we do not think that the limited funds devoted to the purpose of Education ought to be permanently loaded with any heavy charge for the support of elementary English Schools. The knowledge of English which is desired only as a means of livlihood, or of professional advancement, should at least ultimately be paid for by the parties who benefit by it, and these Schools should speedily be in a condition to defray their own expenses. The study of English which it concerns your Government to promote, is the study of English literature and science; and the best mode of affording to it pecuniary aid is to engage highly qualified teachers for the seminaries of the higher branches of English instruction,UU and to afford the aid of Scholarships and the stimulus of prizes to those who having gone through with credit the elementary courses of instruction, may be willing to prosecute their studies further, with other views than merely as a recommendation to lucrative public employment. It has been well observed by Mr. H. T. Prinsep - 'I maintain that it is only through Scholarships affording a provision and maintenance to those who devote themselves to the prosecution of Studies, that the Government can hope for any thing like erudition and high proficiency. The Scholarships are not wanted as inducements to commence study; to that, people will be incited by the usefulness ofthe thing taught; and ifthe qqthat is if the Government will assist them JH

IT[J.H.J Lord Auckland thinks this may be done.

ssThis appears right & enough to satisfy all reasonable appetite for Oriental literature JH tt[J.H.J Supposing the old stipendary system to be retained in its full vigor UU! entirely differ from the PC, JH

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course of education be not entered upon under a strong conviction of the advantage resulting from the instruction given,vv it would be better that learning should not be sought at all. But for the abstruser parts of Science, these have to be pursued from pure devotion and love of knowledge; ... it requires that he should wholly devote himself to the course of study and prosecute it for a long consecutive period, which cannot be expected of those who come to us for education unless they are incited to it by special rewards and advantages, and there is no reward equal to a permanent provision making the Student independent while so engaged. The most promising students are thus retained to pursue higher studies, instead of returning to their families, or seeking other employ to eke out their livlihood, after laying in the bare sufficiency of knowledge necessary for such a purpose. Those thus retained are the examples to others & their best instructors, and it will generally be found through them the benefits of the course of study are extensively diffused, each of them having pupils of his own, whereas without such assistance the instruction is necessarily confined to the specific classes who attend the paid Professors. Whether it be English or Sanscrit or Arabic that it is desired to teach, the result will be found the same; there will be no high attainment in any ofthose courses without a classww of stipendary Scholars; nor will the institutions thrive without them, nor attain the desired credit and reputation; for as I have said before, it is mainly through them that the discipline of such institutions is maintained, their character raised in general estimation, the benefits of instruction widely disseminated and made popular.'38 32 It is this class also that must furnish Schoolmasters for the numerous schools supported by the Natives themselves, and which are the medium through which alone we can hope to act extensively upon the Native character. To the same claEjs we must look for producing elementary books and translations, suited for the Native Schools and for the diffusion of European Knowledge and feelings among the people generally. We direct your attention to this object as one of the highest importance, although it is one in which little, we think, can be for some time effected, beyond the encouragement of independent and voluntary exertion. XX In this, however, much discretion is requisite, as original works adapted to the taste of the Natives and to their wants are scarcely to be procured; and the talent and judgment necessary to compile them and then to convert them into a form acceptable and intelligible to Native readers are still more rare. It is premature to lay down any rules for systematic translation, and the Committee in the promotion of this part of their work must rather follow than lead the demands of the Native public. VVvery well - apply this to Oriental literature - JH WWa class - but not all JH ""so that after approving Mr Prinsep's suggestion they discard the application of it to English literature & science JH

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Their especial and admirable object should be to qualify translators, to rear men who shall have a competent command of the resources of their own language and literature, as well as of the English language and literature, and they will then have little more to do in providing for the wide dissemination of useful knowledge than to afford to individual enterprise and ability, encouragement and reward. 33 On the various matters of detail which are brought to our notice in the letters and paragraphs under reply, little, after this full exposition of our general views, is necessary to be said. We observe with satisfaction that the various Colleges in the Presidencies of Bengal and Agra continue to thrive. The contrary appears to be the case at Madras, where a considerable amount of public money seems to have been expended on Native education with very little benefit.39 The deficiency of even the first elements of instruction in the Countries under that Presidency, as compared with Bengal, had led to the employment of the greater part of the funds which the Madras Government could afford to appropriate to education, in founding and maintaining elementary Schools similar to the Schools ofthe Natives themselves. It is now stated by the Madras Board of Public Instruction that these Schools are somewhat worse than those supported by voluntary contribution; and that the only class of Government Schools in which anything higher was attempted, namely, the Collectorate Schools, where in addition to the same elementary course of instruction, English was to be taught, have also extensively failed, owing to the very inferior qualifications of the Schoolmasters. This inferiority they ascribe to the lowness of the salaries; and with reason, if those salaries constitute the entire remuneration of the teachers; but when the funds were first assigned for the support of these Schools, it was expected that considerable additional emoluments would be derived from the fees of the pupils; instead of which, the instruction appears in practice to have been altogether gratuitous. 34 We approve of your having refused your sanction to the very costly plan for promoting Native Education which was submitted to you by the Madras Government. You have judiciously advised them to employ the funds at their disposal, as you have always employed yours, in supporting seminaries for the higher branches of education, rather than elementary schools. But we think you went too far in recommending the immediate abolition of the Tehsildary and Collectorate Schools. 4o Those institutions afford elementary instruction to many who apparently did not previously obtain it; and though it is to be regretted that they were ever established, they should not be abruptly abandoned except in those Districts where their place is likely to be supplied by Native Schools, or where they have so completely failed that their abolition would not be felt as any evil. Such of these Schools as it may be advisable to retain, should be placed under more vigilant superintendence; and the Madras Government should be directed to consider ofthe means by which the qualification ofthe teachers 240

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may be raised. This will not be done by a mere increase of their emoluments, if the amount of those emoluments remains independent of the teacher's exertions. Some mode should at least be devised by which the remuneration of the Schoolmaster should vary, with the number of the pupils and with their proficiency. [J.H.]: Perhaps the remarks on the Madras schools may be retained41

Notes 1 For the government ofIndia's two main reports on the new policy, see their Public Department letters to the Court of Directors, Nos. 28 and 29, both dated 30 September 1835 and referred to below in editorial notes 12 and 13. The court expressed its concern that the Indian government was tending to introduce new policies without prior consultation in a Legislative Department dispatch of 14 April 1836. For the disputed question of whether the court actually had the new education policies in mind here, see Ballhatchet, 'Home Government,' pp. 224-9 and Clive, Macaulay, p. 394. 2 See, for example, the Court's Public Department dispatch to Madras of 29 September, 1830, reproduced above on pp. 125-7. For a full list of Mill's dispatches, see Robson, Writings on India, pp. 239-308. 3 A more detailed description of the company's correspondence system is also given in Robson, Writings on India, pp. xxi-xxix. 4 See, for example, Sirkin and Sirkin, 'Mill and Disutilitarianism.' 5 Mill's anger at Macaulay's action comes across vividly in an undated private note he sent to Henry Taylor (who then occupied a similar position to Mill's at the Colonial Office) sometime in 1837. 'In any case,' he wrote, 'you will sympathize in the annoyance of one having for years (contrary to the instincts of his own nature, which are all for rapid change) assisted in nurturing & raising up a system of cautious & deliberate measures for a great public end, & having been rewarded with a success quite beyond expectation, finds them upset in a week by a coxcombical dilettante litterateur who never did a thing for a practical object in his life' (Mineka, Later Letters, pp. 1969-70). See also above, p. 128. 6 For Wilson's letter, see above pp. 205-24; and for Mill's favorable reaction to it, Robson, Writings on India, p. 30. If Mill was certainly influenced by Wilson's persuasive exposition of orientalist ideas, it is equally apparent that Wilson was happy to find a strong ally in Mill. Although this cannot be proved, it also seems likely that Wilson may have discovered around this time that Mill had been personally responsible for preparing what he (Wilson) regarded as the East India Company's definitive endorsement of the policies he had pursued as secretary to the GCPI, viz.: the court's Public Department dispatch to Bengal of 30 September 1830 (see above, pp. 223-4, and also p. 128). 7 PC 1828 (in lOR: UP&J/1/92) is unfortunately undated, but Mill himself makes it clear in the private letter to Henry Taylor (cited above in editorial note 5) that his PC was completed shortly before he left for France at the end of July 1836. In the same letter Mill also explains that before his departure he took the precaution of leaving his draft 'in hands quite capable of moderating the tone, & altering what seems polemical in its character.' In the event it does not appear that the document was

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8

9

10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

significantly altered in Mill's absence, and it is interesting to note that the company chairman, Sir James Rivett Carnac, later told Hobhouse that it was 'chiefly prepared by Mr John Mill' (see below, p. 244). The date of the chairs' approval is not known, but fortunately the board's records retain the date when the company referred the document to the president, viz.: 5 October 1836 (see the entry for that date in lOR: Register of Drafts and Previous Communications, Z/F/3/1). The initials of the then chairman, Sir James Rivett Carnac (JRC) and of the deputy chairman, John Loch (JL) appear in the space immediately above the first paragraph of the PC. It should also be mentioned here that the document's first or title page has not been reproduced. Besides giving the basic reference details of the PC, it contains Mill's own signature in pencil, plus the following penciled note by Sir John Hobhouse, president of the Board of the Control: 'I dissent from almost the whole of this PC - & see not how it is to be amended.' Hobhouse also adds a Latin tag, now barely legible, viz.: 'nulla [?] lit[?t]era potest [?] una [?] litura [? ... ].' (? no letter can only be an erasure). lOR: Public Letters from India and Bengal, L/P&J/3/26, pp. 293-4. Ibid., pp. 502-4. Ibid., pp. 555-9. The Hl723 copy notes that this letter was 'answd by No 8 d 28/3/38 (Bengal)' (now lOR: Dispatches to India and Bengal, E/4/754, pp.381-5). Ibid., pp. 567-601. The Hl723 copy notes this letter was 'answd by No 1 of 20, 1, 41' (now lOR: Dispatches to India and Bengal, E/4/764, pp. 1304-21). This dispatch is printed below on pp. 334-6. No Political Letter with this date and number can be traced in the India Office Records. lOR: Public Letters from Madras, L/P&J/3/715, pp. 387-9. Ibid., pp. 863-5. lOR: Revenue Letters from Madras, L/E/3/242, pp. 190-4. For the court's previous dispatches to India about educational policy, see lOR: Board's Collections, F/411846, No.77639, especially pp. 33-98. See also editorial note 2 above. See above pp. 133-4. James Prinsep and Will am Macnaghten's resignations from the GCPI were considered and accepted by the government of India on 1 July 1835 (see lOR: India General Consultations, Nos. 10-12 of 1 July 1835, P/186/ 68). See also p. 160, 253. Patna (Bihar, then part of Bengal presidency); Dacca (then in Bengal presidency, now of course in Bangladesh); Ghazipur (then in the NorthWestern Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh); Meerut (then in the NorthWestern Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh); Gauhati (Assam, though then part of Bengal presidency). Hl723 copy: '& displeasure' added here in marginal note. See Kopf, British Orientalism, pp. 253-63. See above, p. 172. The Muslim petition about the Calcutta Madrasa is reproduced above on pp.189-93. For the Hindu petition, see above pp. 197-200. See pp. 194-5, 197. Macaulay's minute is reproduced on pp. 162-72. Hl723 copy: 'Mr Adams thinks otherwise.' For William Adam, see pp. 29, 59-60.

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30 HJ723 copy: 'synonimes.'

31 See above, p. 17l. 32 Lieutenant-Colonel William Morison was a member of the governorgeneral's council from June 1834 until June 1839. For his dissenting minute of 18 February 1835 (quoted here), see lOR: Board's Collections, FI 4/1846, No. 77633, pp. 149-55. 33 HJ723 copy: 'Christ Hospital, [?] Charter House, [?] Tunbride, etc.' These references appear to relate to various English schools offering financial support to poorer students, viz.: Christ's Hospital (in Sussex), perhaps Charterhouse (in Surrey), and, conceivably, Tonbridge (in Kent). 34 Mill here correctly anticipates the objections raised later by the Calcutta Muslims in their petition of 24 August 1836 (see below, p. 249). 35 H. T. Prinsep's minute of 20 May 1835 is included in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77633, pp. 221-53; this quotation comes from pp.246-7. 36 For the Bengal Asiatic Society's memorial of 2 September 1835 (quoted here), see lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1658, No. 66324, pp. 35-40; the quotation comes from p. 40. The Court of Directors approved the partial revival of the oriental publications program, along the lines proposed by Wilson, in Public Department dispatch, No.8 of 28 March 1838 (lOR: Dispatches to India and Bengal, E/4/754, pp. 381-5). 37 Wilson's letter of 5 March 1836, addressed to J. C. Melvill, financial secretary at East India House, is included in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/ 1658, No. 66324, pp. 7-27 (see pp. 25-6 for Mill's quotation). This collection - which also contains another Wilson letter to the company dated 26 November 1837 - provides interesting insight into the way in which he kept up his campaign in defence of orientalist values after his return to Britain in 1833, not only by writing the powerful exposition of those values in The Asiatic Journal (pp. 205-24 above), but by skillfully using his contacts with officials at East India House (in July 1836 he was appointed the company's librarian) to help restore the oriental publications program, and incidentally exercising some influence over J. S. Mill himself (see also above p. 226). 38 The long quotation comes again from Prinsep's minute of 20 May 1835 (see editorial note 35). 39 See pp. 125-9. 40 The following comments on education policy in Madras were evidently made in response to reports contained in the Madras government letters referred to in paragraph 2 of PC 1828 (see p. 227 above). 41 End note.

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Letter, dated 12 December 1836, from Sir John Hobhouse to Sir James Rivett Carnac, l chairman of East India Company, returning Previous Communication 1828, and enclosing an extract from a private letter from the governor-general, Lord Auckland, to Carnac Hobhouse's letter to the company's chairman, Sir James Carnac, dated 12 December 1836, briefly indicates the main grounds for his rejection of PC 1828, most of which are already fully apparent in the critical notes he had entered on the document itself. In particular, there is a certain irony about the way in which Hobhouse, despite or because of his own partiality for the policy advocated by Macaulay and the anglicists, finds the PC largely unacceptable because it seemed to him to be slanted in favor of the orientalists. At the same time, in recommending that the Court of Directors should for the time being refrain from making any comments at all on the new Indian education policy, he openly expresses his desire to avoid starting a fresh argument in London, the effect of which might be to revive the bitter dispute that had already taken place in Calcutta. In support of his decision, Hobhouse cites and encloses an extract from an undated letter from Lord Auckland 2 to the chairman, in which the governorgeneral laments the 'heat and exaggeration' of the previous conflict, whilst claiming - rather too prematurely - that Indian Muslim opposition to the new policy had by then largely collapsed. The extract from the private letter also contains some small signs that Auckland (though himself lacking much sympathy for oriental learning), was beginning to see the need for some concession to Indian public opinion over the issue of government support for the printing of selected oriental works. In his own reply to Hobhouse, dated 14 December (not reproduced here), Carnac accepts the board's decision to cancel the PC etc., but also makes it clear that he still supports the PC's argument, 'chiefly prepared by Mr John Mill.' Mill, he also adds, 'was unlikely to have any extravagant prepossessions in favor of ancient orientalliterature.'3 As a result of this rather gentlemenly deadlock, the governor-general continued to lack any authoritative ruling from the home government as to the wisdom of the new policy, though regularly advised by Hobhouse through the private correspondence channel of the inconclusive course of events in London.4 This extended 'no comment' from the Court of Directors in practice provided Auckland and his advisers with a necessary breathing space, during which they could review the situation and try to work out a more balanced compromise solution to the whole controversy, under renewed pressure from Indian opinion, and in the knowledge that the company itself would probably approve that type of solution.

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SOURCE(S): lOR: Revenue, Judicial and Legislative Committee Miscellaneous Papers, L/P&J/1/92, Appendix to PC 1828 (of 1836). Another copy of this letter is preserved in lOR: Broughton (Le., Hobhouse) Papers, MSS. Eur. F213/2, p. 55.

--------------...-------------

India Board 12th December 1836 My dear Sir I must beg to return to you the P.C. of the proposed dispatch on the subject of Education. Having considered the various documents connected with the question with the attention which the controversy deserves,5 I have come to a conclusion entirely different from the writer of the dispatch. The facts appear to me to be mistated - the reasoning to be inconclusive and the decision tainted with manifest partiality towards a Party whose mode of conducting the argument was anything but decorous. If therefore I were to offer any alterations in your P.C. I should change almost every paragraph - and a debate might ensue between us as little profitable as that which occurred at Calcutta. I think it therefore preferable to return the dispatch and suggest the expediency of sending a short acknowledgment of the receipt of the Minutes, Consultations, etc. to Calcutta without delivering any opinion as to the past occurrences in reference to the Education question. In support of this view, I enclose an extract from one of Lord Auckland's letters to yourself which seems to me decisive of the propriety of the course which I recommend. I remain my dear sir truly yours, John Hobhouse [Extract from Auckland's undated 6 letter, appended to Hobhouse's letter] I shall be sorry ifby any new order you should revive the differences upon which so much heat prevailed at the beginning oflast year in regard to the application of the funds destined to the purposes of education. With the Mahomedans whatever there was of jealousy & alarm has entirely subsided. Their schools are still open & kept up for those who choose to attend them. A bounty is no longer given for scholars in branches of business comparatively useless to the common objects of life, & the schools of European Literature and science are well attended. Unhappily in the discussions upon this subject, there was much of heat and exaggeration, and in the expressions & the manner with which the measure was effected, something of roughness & of want of conciliation; but all this is nearly forgotten, except with a few, & I should be sorry to see it revived. I cannot say that I attach much importance to ancient Oriental Literature, 245

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

but nevertheless I think that assistance might fairly be given by us towards the printing in translation of any work to which interest or curiosity might be attached. At the same time I shall think it strange if you compel us to spend large sums upon those branches of literature & education, whether they should be useful or useless[,] sought after or neglected.

Notes 1 Sir James Rivett Carnac (1785-1846) joined the Madras army in 1801 and went on to serve in various political and military capacities in Bombay presidency until 1819. He was elected a director of the East India Company in 1827, and held the positions of deputy chairman from 1835 to 1836 and chairman from 1836 to 1838. He was governor of Bombay from 1839 to 184l. 2 Although the UP&J/1/92 extract from Auckland's letter is undated, the original letter preserved amongst the British Library's Additional Manuscripts shows it to have been dated 17 June 1836. For further details, see Ballhatchet, 'Home Government,' p. 227. 3 lOR: Broughton Papers, MSS. Eur. F213/2, p. 56. Carnac's comments here are revealing not only for the insight they give into his perception of Mill's attitude, but also because they serve to remind us that, for all his intellectual eminence, Mill himself was still only a company official responsible for providing Carnac with an authoritative statement of policy which would accord with the chairman's own views. In this general connection it is also interesting to note that after 1836-7 Mill drafted very few dispatches about Indian education, that task being allocated to other members of the examiner's office. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any evidence that would clearly establish a connection between this and the dramatic rejection of PC 1828. 4 For an enlightening summary of the private correspondence between Hobhouse and Auckland on these issues, see Clive, Macaulay, pp. 390-5. 5 Most of the documents to which Hobhouse refers here are preserved in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, Nos. 77633-9. 6 For the date of this letter, see editorial note 2 above.

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Petition of the Muslim inhabitants of Calcutta to the governor-general of India in council, undated but considered and replied to on 24 August 1836

Although the particular occasion or trigger for the presentation of this mass petition from the more prominent Muslim inhabitants of Calcutta is uncertain, it seems likely that both it and the parallel petition from the students of the Government Sanskrit College (see below, pp. 254-6) were prompted by the hope that the new governor-general, Lord Auckland - who had assumed office in March 1836 - might be willing to reconsider some of the educational changes introduced by his predecessor, Lord Bentinck, and subsequently accepted by Sir Charles Metcalfe, who had acted as provisional governorgeneral between Bentinck's departure and Auckland's arrival. Whatever its exact origin, the petition clearly embodies the growing awareness on the part of the Calcutta Madrasa authorities and the leaders of the Muslim community that despite the government's earlier denial of any intention to abolish the madrasa, the future of that institution was far from secure, given the fact that the new policy of withholding stipends from students was actually being implemented. Indeed, for the petitioners, that policy was now seen as a direct threat to the madrasa's existence, in as much as stipends were an essential part of 'the main design and advantage of a Mudrussa,' providing the means by which the poor majority of students could complete their studies. Hence 'to abolish the Students' pittance ... would be in fact to abolish and destroy the Mudrissa.' This is the central issue to which the petitioners continually return, at one point even vainly seeking to reconcile the official assurances they thought they had received with what seemed to them to be the inevitably fatal consequences of the withdrawal of the students' support. Besides stressing this key perception in a variety of ways, the petition deploys a number of other arguments in an effort to persuade the government to reverse its policy. For example, the British are reminded of their previous, wellestablished policy of lending support to Muslim learning, and the damage to their reputation resulting from the abandonment of that policy. Rather more effectively, the petitioners draw attention to the inconsistency and unfairness involved in the government's readiness to bestow stipends on students at the new Medical College, and to those following English courses at the Hindu College, whilst denying them to the madrasa students. Finally, with some vehemence, the Muslim citizens also remark on the ignorance of oriental languages and learning displayed by some of the newly appointed anglicist members of the GCPI, and the suspicion that they might be motivated by antiIslamic, Christian prejudice.

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For the government's response to this interesting and, at times, moving expression of the Muslims' case, see below p. 256 See also Introduction, p. 38.

SOURCE(S): lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77635, pp. 11-21. Another copy is included in lOR: India General Consultations, No. 17 of 24 August 1836, P/186/72.

--------------~------------The Humble Petition of the Moosliman inhabitants of Bengal To the Right Honorable the Governor General ofIndia in CounciP Mter Compliments, May it please Your Lordship, It was the practice of former Governors with a view to the glory of the countries subject to their rule, to disseminate various Sciences, and to cultivate the languages of the different tribes or Classes. The former Kings of England were especially intent on improving the condition, and increasing the happiness of all their subjects which conduced to their own fame and to the stability of their Government. The British rulers of India from the time of subduing Bengal and Hindoostan, have likewise been attentive to the happiness of all their subjects, including the Mossliman population, as is clearly proved by the institution of the offices of Cazee, Moofty &c by funding Mudrussas (or Colleges) for the dissemination of Moslim Science and Literature, wherefore when the report ofthe abolition of the Calcutta Mudrussa reached us, we were much astonished and distressed, and being contrary to the practice of former Governors, and at variance with the principles of our English rulers, we at once concluded it was false, as indeed it proved to be by the letter of the Governor General in Council dated the 9th March 1835. 2 But in this letter was contained an order that in future a Monthly Stipend should not be allowed to the Students, and from the perusal of this, the comfort and consolation we had received were entirely destroyed because the main design and advantage of a Mudrussa are, that each Student being free from the cares and trouble of providing for his daily expenses, and from the annoyance of attending to other Matters, may with comfort apply and devote himself to his studies, for if the anxiety of providing for daily wants[,] which is so great an obstacle and hinderance to the acquisition of knowledge[,] be allowed to exist, then all the evils consequent on the total abolition of the Mudrussa may be expected to happen; wherefore we have embodied, the grounds on which in our humble opinions the Stipends to the Students, should be continued, in the following sections. First. Ancient Kings from the remotest periods appointed monthly stipends for the students of Colleges that they might pursue their studies in competence and ease, and the rulers of all Eastern Countries still pursue the same course[,] such is the practice at the present day in the

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Colleges of Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Bokhara, Bussorah,3 Bagdad & many others. Second. The Kings and rulers of every country, in every age, but more especially the English rulers have shewn the greatest kindness and disposition to promote the spread of Science and to encourage the efforts of Students by arranging their degrees and fixing stipends according to their merits, and promoting them from one Class to another, and encreasing their Stipends and rewards[;] therefore if the very stipends be abolished and the means of living taken away, the Students will be completely broken in heart and spirit. Third. It is customary to allow Students who apply themselves to learn English in the Hindoo College a stipend according to their degrees,4 and in the new Medical College appointed for Hindoos and Mooslimans;5 the same ancient custom prevails in most other Schools[;] therefore we hope that the Government which regards all its other subjects, will also revive and render permanent this Old Regulation in the Calcutta Mahomedan College as in the Institutions of this country. Fourth. Most of the Mooslimans of this country are poor and needy[.] They have not the means of drawing money from home to support themselves when once they have left their houses, and made choice of the hardships of travel[.] The few who possess means and wealth have no taste for the acquisition of knowledge, a fact sufficiently evident from the condition of our princes, nobles &c. If the circumstances of the Students attached to the College were enquired into, there would not be found more than four or five rich youths among the whole, but there are several who came to Calcutta before the order in question was passed, in the hope of obtaining a Scholarship in the Mudrussa, and have suffered the greatest inconvenience and distress, and still pass their lives in a thousand griefs and hardships, hoping that their expectations will not be disappointed, and watching day and night for an order to re-establish the stipends for Students. In short the persons who have the greatest desire and love for knowledge are [not] of noble and respectable birth but wretchedly poor, and as most of them dwell in the surrounding hamlets and villages, they have not the means of supporting themselves decently in Calcutta, and few of the residents in Calcutta are of this disposition, wherefore in the English Schools of that city, none of the Scholars are of the better and respectable Class of Mahomedans. Nay, they are of the very lowest description whose only object is to learn sufficient for the transaction of a little English business, and this fact may be easily ascertained. Fifth. From the first Establishment of the Mudrussa it is a rule that when a Student goes on leave, he forfeits the whole of his Stipend during the period of his absence, on which account he never stays away beyond the necessary period[;] it is likewise a rule, that whoever absents himself from lecture without a sufficient cause forfeits his pay for that day; wherefore they attend without fail[.] When the stipend is abolished they 249

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will become careless and without fearL] which will injure the credit of the Colleges and impede the Students themselves in the acquisition of knowledge. Sixth. The poor who wish to acquire knowledge in their own districts, attain here and there some acquaintance with the common Persian books and with grammar, but when they wish to go on with their studies cannot find a Teacher, because one competent cannot always be had and the few who are well qualified are engaged in their own duties and have no time to lecture or instruct[;] therefore the Scholars leave their beloved homes and come to Calcutta, in the hope of being admitted to the Mudrussa, and being made happy with a subsistence and freed from the trouble and distraction of seeking daily bread, they may acquire knowledge and complete their education, but should this hope be unfulfilled, all their former pain and trouble in their preparatory studies are given to the winds and useless - they remain excluded from the higher branches of knowledge, and will retain the stain of Sorrow and affliction on their hearts to the end of life - and it will be found on enquiry that there are now in Calcutta many hundreds of these poor Scholars, who having no possibility of completing their studies without a stipend, suffered and are still suffering a thousand griefs and affliction[s] and are in dreadful distress, for they have neither the means of going away nor the power of remaining. Seventh. The kings and rulers of every clime have in various ways established charities and bestowed boons on every class of their subjects for their own honor and happiness: thus by founding Hospitables [Hospitals] and Schools and erecting bridges and making roads, digging tanks and the like - and by founding Colleges for every Class whether Hindoo or Mussulmans, the greatest celebrity, and the good wishes of the governed have reached through every country from East to West and since all these acts were performed by our former and present English Governors, merely for the happiness and comfort of their subjects, every individual of whatever class whether Hindoo or Musliman, has opened his lips in praying for the prosperity of the Company - and all both great and small in every country and province from the time ofthe English conquest, have praised and wished success to that nation[;] then to abolish the Students' pittance[,] which would be in fact to abolish and destory the Mudrissa, would spread disgrace in every clime and city, and the evil minded and the enemies of the Company would expect and imagine therefrom harsh measures that are unworthy of the Government. Eighth. The fact is one of two things, either the Company, or the Committee desire to retain and preserve the Mudrussa, or to abolish and destroy it. God forbid the latter! but if such be their wish, they are the Lords and Masters, no one has the right to say a word, or question their power to do so, but in the letter of the 9th March 1835 written in reply to the Petition of the Musliman inhabitants, it is perfectly clear that there 250

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was never the least desire to abolish the Mudrissa. 6 Since therefore it is the will and pleasure of the Government to support the institution[,] it must surely be its desire to keep it up in an efficient and respectable state, whereas if the stipends be discontinued[,] it cannot continue so as those who wish to study are poor and distressed, and without stipends, the greater part of their time must be consumed in providing for their necessary expences and from hence much confusion and detriment to their studies must arise[.] Therefore several who have gone through the preliminary course of Persian reading and evince their fitness for admission to the Mudrussa, are about 20 years of age and much of their time being previously passed in difficulties and distress, they attain a knowledge of no more than 2 or 3 branches of Science - but on obtaining a Stipend they master in a short time many different subjects with ease and in the space of 7 years they are finished Scholars - and it was on this account that Lord Warren Hastings with reference to the ascertained state of things on founding the Mudrussa[,] appointed a Stipend for each Student, and according to this each Governor successively for the last 50 years has pursued the same course. Now we do not know whether it be from our ill fortune, or that some crime has been committed by us Mooslimans, that the ruler of the day in opposition to all who have preceded him issues such an order. Ninth. The Stipends allowed to all the Students of the Mudrussa did not exceed 500 Rs. per mensem & truly this sum is like a drop in the Sea of Oman (Persian Gulf) to the illustrious Sovereigns of Hindoostan and Bengal and the Deccan, and Great Britain and other countries, and surely the Stipends of the Students of the Mudrussa and petty expenses of this nature are not worth a thought, when the lacs of Rupees are considered which are Monthly bestowed upon other charitable and useful purposes, such as Hospitals, Schools, Roads, Tanks, Bridges &ca. Yet the Honorable Company have no object or design in this immense expenditure beyond preserving their reputation and cherishing the poor, and encouraging their subjects; wherefore if from the Royal bounty and kingly favour, this trifling sum also should be disbursed from the General Treasury for the poor and wretched it would not be wonderful. Finally we hope that what we have stated above, being well considered in the way of kindness and justice, an order may be issued for the re-establishment of the Stipends to the Students of the Mudrussa on the former footing and that we may be saved from distress and distraction. Tenth. His Honor Warren Hastings was acquainted with the excellencies of Oriental literature and well informed of the state and condition of the people of this country, he was also kind and considerate to Natives[;] wherefore he founded the Mahomedan College, 7 and appointed an allowance for the Students, that the needy and distressed might acquire learning and complete their education with ease and comfort of mind & body, the fame of which noble and liberal act reached to every city and 251

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country, insomuch that Students from Badakshan, Caubul and Hindoostan and other distant parts flocked to this College to acquire knowledge, and after his time, succeeding Governors who were well acquainted with the literature of the country and the wants of the people[,] pursued the same course. Nay went beyond him in advancing learning so far as the Mudrussa was concerned and on this account when they saw that the former House was not sufficient for the accommodation ofthe people ofthe College, they expended nearly two lacks of Rupees in erecting a new Building for them 8 - but now alas! a thousand times alas! from the revolutions of fortune and our own evil destiny, the Gentlemen who possessed acquaintance with the languages current in this country, and who were well informed and had experience in regard to every thing connected with the Scholars of the Mudrussa and the people at large of this country[,] have retired from the General Committee of Public Instruction apprehensive perhaps lest if associated with the Gentlemen who now compose that Committee (many of whom are entirely ignorant of the languages, spoken and written in this country and some have but lately arrived in this city - and from non intercourse with the Natives can have no practical knowledge, nor indeed any knowledge at all ofthe people of this country except what they have derived from books, and others perhaps from a partiality to their own religion entertain a dislike and disgust for the learning and creed of others)[,] some injury or wrong should be perpetrated against us, in which they might be considered abettors and a portion of disgrace accruing therefrom might attach to them. 9 On their resignation the newly appointed Gentlemen of the Committee have passed new orders in opposition to the rules established by all former Governors, and are for lowering and destroying the Musliman Institutions. We are quite convinced that these gentlemen when well aware of the advantages of a Mudrussa will be disposed to continue and strengthen it[,] but at present our only hope is in the favour and justice of the Governor General in Council. May his prosperity be perpetual. Signed by the Oomda Raja the Vakeel ofthe king of Oudh lO and all the principal Moosulmans of Calcutta to the number of upwards of (18,000) eighteen thousand.

Notes 1 Although the official copies in the India Office Records are both undated, the petition itself was formally considered and replied to by the government on 24 August 1836, and entered in the General Department Consultations for that date, immediately before the petition of the students of Sanskrit College dated 9 August. This suggests that the Muslim petition was probably dated (or at any rate received by) the beginning of August. The General Consultations also record that the

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2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9

10

original document in Persian was presented in triplicate, with an English translation. lOR: India General Consultations, No. 10 of 13 March 1835, P/186/67. See also above p. 194. i.e., Basra. The granting of stipends to certain students studying English at the Hindu College is confirmed by Henry Shakespear's note of 23 August 1836 in lOR: India General Consultations, No. 19 of 24 August 1836, P/186172. In the case of the Medical College in Calcutta, established in January 1835, the government rules provided for the payment of monthly stipends to students who qualified as 'foundation pupils.' Since the instruction at the new college was in English it was also stipulated that 'foundation pupils' should be familiar with either English and Bengali or English and Hindustani (Urdu). For further details, see lOR: India General Consultations, No. 20 of 7 March 1835, PI186/66. See editorial note 2 above. For the foundation of the Calcutta Madrasa by Warren Hastings in 1781, see above pp. 73-6. In 1823 the Bengal government sanctioned rupees 140,537 for the construction of a new building for the Calcutta Madrasa and for the purchase of the necessary land (see Sanial, 'Calcutta Madrassa,' p. 94). In this passage the petitioners evidently have in mind the retirement from the GCPI in 1835 of two leading orientalists, James Prinsep and William Macnaghten, and also the appointment to the committee of a number of committed anglicists, including (besides Macaulay himself), Captain Richard Birch, Ross Mangles, Christopher Smith, Dr. John Grant, James Young, Charles Cameron, Sir Edward Ryan and Sir Benjamin Malkin. For further details, see Pinney, Letters of Macaulay, vol. 3, pp. 125-6. We have been unable to locate any reference to the oomda raja, apparently the title of a wakil, or legal advisor/representative, of the nawab of Awadh in Calcutta. In a private communication, Michael Fisher notes that the nawab had appointed a wakil to the governor-general's durbar in 1833, but the governor-general (Bentinck) objected and the post became a nonofficial one; from 1834 to 1837 this unofficial post was held by Moulvee Ghoolam Yaheea (who later received the additional title of zuheer ud daula). Whether Moulvee Ghoolam Yaheea also held the title of oomda raja is not known; the editors are grateful, however, for Michael Fisher's assistance in clarifying the status and name of the nawab's wakil in Calcutta during this period. For more on the nawab's waqf, or endowment, given to support Delhi College, see above, pp. 36, 212.

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Petition of the students of the Government Sanskrit College, Calcutta, to Lord Auckland, governor-general of India in council, dated 9 August 1836

This petition of the students of the Government Sanskrit College, like that of the Calcutta Muslims (see above, pp. 247-53), essentially asks the governorgeneral to reinstate the students' stipends, withdrawn under the terms of the government resolution of 7 March 1835. Moreover, whilst the style of the Hindu students' petition seems more matter-of-fact and less literary than the Muslim memorial - and the document itself is briefer - the Sanskrit students put forward several arguments which are very similar in form or substance to those contained in the Muslim petition. Thus, after reminding the governor-general of the significance of Sanskrit as the vehicle of Hindu religion and culture, and the special role of Brahmans and pandits in cultivating and transmitting the language, the petitioners proceed to invoke the long-standing traditional policy followed by all previous rulers - Hindu, Muslim and finally British - of lending financial support to those who have pursued Sanskrit studies. Also, again like the Muslims, the Hindu students clearly recognize the fundamental threat to the future of their college posed by the withdrawal of stipends: 'it is in fact indirectly abolishing the said institution and eradicating that sacred language from the East.' They also point to the partiality shown in continuing to give stipends to students at the new Medical College. One other small but interesting feature of the Sanskrit students' petition lies in the moral link it apparently suggests between their rulers' desire and duty to promote 'knowledge and reformation,' and the power of Sanskrit studies to enlighten and reform the students' own 'degenerated manners and customs.' For the government's answer to this petition, see below p. 258. See also Introduction, pp. 38, 41. SQURCE(S): lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77635, pp. 23-6. For the other copy entered in the Government ConSUltations, see lOR: India General Consultations, No. 18 of 24 August 1836, P/186/72. See also Sharp, Selections, pp. 145-6.

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The Humble Petition of the Students of the Government Sanscrit College of Calcutta, to the Right Honorable Lord George Auckland, K. G. C. B., Governor-General of India in Council. 1

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Sheweth, That impressed with the importance of cultivating the Sanscrit language owing to its being a vehicle to the sacred writings of the Hindoo[s] and containing all works which represent their manners and customs[,] the ancient kings of Hindoostan endowed grants of lands to those Bramins and Pundits who devoted themselves to its acquisition, in order that they may cultivate it without interruption, and impart it to the children of other Bramins and Pundits, who came to them for instruction from different parts of the Country. Students when found competent and deserving, received grants of lands as rewards of their merit. Since the accession of Mohamedan power, though the progress of Sanscrit language was a little retarded; yet the Mohamedan Kings notwithstanding their tyrannical measures encouraged its cultivation not only by allowing the undisturbed possession of the former grants of the Hindoos but also presenting new ones to those who most deserved them. At length 2 the English, having got possession of this Country, neglected for a long time the cultivation ofthe Orientallanguages[,] and particularly the Sanscrit. Grieved at this indifference, many natives 3 assisted by those Englishmen who appreciated the value of Sanscrit presented a petition to the Court of Directors praying for the Establishment of an institution for the purpose of preserving and propagating this Sanscrit language of the Hindus. Lord Amherst, who was then Governor General[,] established the present College in obedience to the orders of the Court of Directors,4 and greatly benefited the natives of this Country by employing good and able Pundits and allowing small stipends to the Students who resorted to it, from the different parts of the Country and prosecuted their studies with industry and success. But to your Petitioners' great misfortune and mortification, Lord William Bentinck in 1835 passed an order depriving of the newly admitted students of the Sanscrit College their stipends. 5 This measure your Petitioners feel it to be a great detriment to the progress and interest of the Sanscrit College, - it is in fact indirectly abolishing the said institution and eradicating that sacred language from the East. For your Petitioners, having none to support them in the City, cannot attend it, nor acquire that proficiency which can reform their manners and customs[.] They therefore pray that your Lordship will graciously enquire of men who have studied the Sanscrit language, its value and importance. Your Petitioners believing your Lordship to be a great patron to the civilization and reformation of the Hindus, pray that your Excellency will mercifully confer on them the little allowance they enjoyed, for, that will enable them to prosecute their studies without any inconvenience and preserve the Hindoo Shasters from sinking into oblivion. The expence the Government will incur for this purpose is at the utmost 600 Rupees a month, a sum quite insufficient and trifling for the object [for which] it is

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to be defrayed. Further your Petitioners believing that your Lordship will not forget the duties of a ruler who is the protector not only of persons and property, but also a promoter of a knowledge and reformation, Your Lordship conferring this boon on Your Lordship's Petitioners does not make only them happy but the Hindu community in general for the preservation of the sacred language. If your Lordship be of opinion that the Govt should not impart knowledge by means of allowing stipends to the students[,] your Lordship's Petitioners beg to remind your Excellency that in such a case,6 the Government would be guilty of partiality for allowing the students of the medical College that stipend,7 upon which all your Petitioners' hopes of improvement depended. However[,] your Petitioners now thrown into greatest despair pray that Your Excellency as a patron of learning, and protector of the helpless, will adopt such means as would enable your Petitioners to acquire that proficiency in the Sanscrit language which will not only enlighten them but reform their degenerated manners and customs. And your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray. Sd) by 70 Students. Government Sans[krit] College, Calcutta: The 9th August 1836

Notes 1 The official correspondence presents the petition in English and makes no mention of any Bengali original. 2 Sharp (p. 145) has 'Altogether' here, but both the archive copies have 'At length.' 3 Sharp (p. 145) puts 'Maulvees' here, but 'natives' appears in both the archive copies. 4 The establishment of the Sanskrit College in Calcutta was authorized by the governor-general in council on 21 August 1821. This decision was somewhat cautiously approved by the Court of Directors in their Revenue Department dispatch of 18 February 1824 (see above pp. 115-7), and more wholeheartedly in the court's Public Department dispatch of 5 September 1827 (lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/41720, pp. 336-41). However, there appears to be no trace in the India Office Records of any earlier Indian petition to the court calling for the establishment of the college, as stated by the petitioners. 5 See above pp. 194-6. 6 Sharp (p. 146) gives 'cause' in place of 'case' here. 7 For the stipends given to the students at the new Medical College, see p.253.

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Minute recorded in the General Department by the governor-general, Lord Auckland, 24 August 1836

As earlier suggested (p. 194), the government's planned withdrawal of stipends from students of oriental learning had aimed to provide a market mechanism which, it was hoped, would, in conjunction with other long-term measures (e.g .. legal reforms), gradually induce Indians to abandon their traditional studies in favor of more 'useful' courses in English, western science, etc. Indeed the 1835 resolution had further linked the two processes by indicating that the lapsed oriental stipendiary funds would, like other educational funds, gradually be diverted to support the grand project of anglicizing Indian education. However, unexpectedly faced by mounting public opposition (which had also persuaded it to drop Macaulay's earlier plans to abolish both the Calcutta Madrasa and the Sanskrit College), Bentinck's government had been obliged to reassure Indian opinion that it had no intention to abolish the oriental colleges, and would properly support them for as long as sufficient numbers of students continued to opt for that form of education, even though no longer entitled to stipends. Though not himself a party to the formulation of this problematic policy, Auckland had no real interest in furthering oriental learning, and (as we have seen) at first supposed that Indian (and orientalist) opposition to the new program would largely subside. The arrival of the new Muslim and Hindu petitions in August 1836, however, helped to convince him that Indian opposition was far more serious than he had previously appreciated. This conclusion, combined with the realization that the home government might not actually approve the anglicist program, led Auckland and his advisers to begin to examine ways in which the original policy could be rendered more publicly acceptable. Accordingly, in this the second of two minutes recorded after the receipt of the petitions, he is clearly trying to reach towards a partial compromise, based on drawing a distinction between automatic stipends on the one hand, and scholarships or merit awards on the other, in which the latter could be fairly offered to some of the more promising students at the leading oriental colleges without going back on the government's original decision to abolish the traditional stipends. With some political sagacity, Auckland also begins to look more to the home government (still officially silent on the issue) to give its eventual support to this sort of moderate settlement. However, to appreciate the overall trend of British Indian educational policy at this stage, it is also necessary to recall here that a few months before, in April 1836, the government had taken a crucial step by refusing to accede to the

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pro-anglicist GCPI request to consolidate all the separate college funds and endowments into a single budget - a move through which the committee had evidently planned to strengthen its control over the allotment of the lapsed oriental stipendiary funds. From the GCPI perspective, the government's refusal came close to questioning its freedom to press forward with the grand project of spreading English education with all available resources. For the government, on the other hand, it was becoming clear that the implementation of the new policy had to take some account of previous pledges and undertakings given to the oriental colleges as part of their original public and (in some cases) private endowment, as well as the more recent official assurances that the colleges would be properly maintained. It was at the very least appropriate that this significant decision should have been conveyed to the GCPI through another letter from Henry Thoby Prinsep, still secretary to the General Department. and the unyielding opponent of what he considered to be the anglicist plan to despoil the oriental colleges.! Of course, not all these currents were allowed to surface in the official reply which Prinsep was again authorized by the governor-general in council to make on 24 August in response to the two fresh petitions. 2 Thus to the Muslims, he explained that though it would then be premature to reopen the stipend issue, nonetheless the views of the petitioners would be fully taken into account by the government once the instructions of the London authorities on the subject were known. Similarly - though less explicitly - he assured the Sanskrit College students that their views would also be taken into consideration shortly, when a review of the whole policy was expected to take place. See also Introduction, pp. 54-5. SQURCE(S): lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77635, pp. 32-3. Another copy is in lOR: India General Consultations, No. 20 of 24 August 1836, P/ 186/72. See also Sharp, Selections, p. 147.

--------------~------------In declaring that I cheerfully acquiesce in the suggestion of two of the members of Council, 3 that the reconsideration of the objects of these petitions should be deferred until the expected instructions shall be received from the Court of Directors, I would wish,4 to save myself from misapprehension, to state that in my opinion a very wide distinction is to be drawn between a system of stipends and of scholarships. By the stipendiary system, I understand an undiscriminating payment of allowances to students to induce them to attend a place of instruction, and I think that it will be found to have been generally unsuccessful in all countries. On the other hand I hold5 that scholarships, limited in number given for a limited time, to the ,best students, upon fair and severe competition may be considered as amongst the best stimulants to emulation and learning; and though it may fairly be doubted, whether, for the purposes of general education, the funds at the disposal of the Committee of Public Instruction may at present be most advantageously applied to their establishment, yet to satisfy, as far as reasonably we may, the minds of numerous and respectable classes ofthe Community, I should not be sorry to see either sanction or instructions6 to this effect conveyed to

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us from the Court of Directors. 7 And in saying thus much, I am willing to hope that in this, as in many other cases, opinions apparently opposed to each other have in truth but little of essential difference. (Sd.) AUCKLAND. August 24th, 1836.

Notes 1 Prinsep to Sutherland, 13 April 1836, in lOR: Board's Collections, F/41 1846, No. 77637, pp. 21-2. 2 lOR: India General Consultations, No. 21 of 24 August 1836, P/186172. 3 The two members of the council referred to were William Morison and Henry Shakespear, who each recorded notes, dated 22 and 23 August respectively, in which they both proposed that the government's response to the two petitions should be delayed until the general views of the Court of Directors were known (lOR: India General Consultations, No. 19 of 24 August 1836, P/186172). 4 Sharp (p. 147) has 'write' here in place of 'wish,' but the latter word appears in both lOR official copies. 5 Sharp (p. 147) has 'hope,' but 'hold' is given in both the official copies. 6 Sharp (p. 147) has 'on institutions,' whereas 'or instructions' appears in both official copies. 7 Following a disagreement that took place in 1836 between the Court of Directors and the Board of Control concerning the nature of the comments to be made on the change of educational policy in India, the Court of Directors delayed sending an official dispatch on that policy until January 1841. See below pp. 322-6.

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Two letters from Brian Hodgson, resident in Nepal, dated July 1837 and April 1843, as reprinted in Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects (London, 1880)

In a series of letters and pamphlets issued between 1835 and 1848, Brian Houghton Hodgson, Bengal civilian and oriental scholar, gave informed and powerful expression to a vernacularist vision of mass Indian education and indigenized western knowledge. Hodgson was not, of course, alone in advocating vernacular education: a number of writers and officials, ranging from James Mill, Mountstuart Elphinstone and William Carey to William Adam, Lancelot Wilkinson and Ram Camul Sen, had in varying ways recognized its vital importance. However, it was perhaps Hodgson who most convincingly advanced the vernacularist thesis, whilst dissecting and challenging some of the basic assumptions that had previously dominated the debate between anglicists and orientalists. In two letters originally addressed to the editor of the Friend of India in Calcutta, dated August and September 1835, Hodgson had questioned the basis of Trevelyan's thesis that European knowledge was best conveyed to India directly through the medium of English rather than indirectly through the Indian vernaculars. l In his first letter he had argued that the vernaculars especially Bengali. Hindi and Hindustani - were really far better equipped for this process of transmission than the anglicists had made out. He had also pointed out the dangers of confining future access to western knowledge and its material rewards to a small, self-interested class of English 'smatterers,' operating at the expense of the ignorant masses. His second letter had similarly stressed the need for the British to proceed with care, compromise and conciliation if they were to stand any chance of persuading Indians to accept their alien knowledge through the vernacular medium. In particular it was essential to support the study of classical South Asian languages and literature - wherever possible using them subtly to further the ingress of western ideas - if the potential opposition of indigenous learned elites, notably Brahmans, was to be neutralized. Underlying the arguments in both letters is Hodgson's profound belief in the vital importance of vernacularized knowledge for the progress of any society or culture, energizing and combining the intellectual efforts of the few and the practical activities of the many, and bridging the gap between learning and life. In his third letter dated July 1837 (reproduced here) Hodgson sheds the pseudonym of Junius which he had employed in his previous letters, and openly challenges Trevelyan to adduce any solid grounds for rejecting the vernacularist strategy for 'the regeneration of this land [Indiaj,' whilst briefly

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dismissing the latter's claim that India could be anglicized as medieval Europe had been 'Romanised' through the 'exotic' medium of Latin. Hodgson also introduces here the key element in his strategy in the shape of the proposed educational college or school for teachers, to be funded from the parliamentary grant and dedicated to diffusing European knowledge through good vernacular textbooks and translations, and professionally trained vernacular teachers. Contrary to what the anglicists had supposed, such a program only entailed the translation of relatively few select works of western science, etc., designed to communicate not the whole detailed body of that science but 'the substance only of our really useful knowledge,' combined with 'our methods of reasoning, our mathematical and inductive processes.' And by using the vernaculars to reach out to emancipate the many, Hodgson also hoped to dislodge the deep-seated Indian contempt for the languages of the people, based upon 'false pride' in defunct and exotic media such as Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian, to which English was in danger of being added, if the anglicists had their way. Hodgson's fourth letter (also reproduced below) provides a fuller picture of his proposed educational college, conceived of as a highly professional institution for indigenating western knowledge through the Indian vernaculars, and as an essential part of a national education program to benefit the mass of the population. Thus the college itself would comprise a group of hand-picked western experts, able to transmit the essence of 'our INDISPUTABLE knowledge,' working along side locally recruited Indian and European teachers/translators, whose function would be to distil that essence into vernacular textbooks. Both groups were to be responsible for equipping selected Indian students to act as future teachers/translators thoroughout the country, and eventually to take over the management of the college. In giving priority to the spread of vernacular education and western science, Hodgson's college would also ensure that its students were fluent in English and vernaculars. Hodgson's vernacularist critique shares some common ground with the anglicist and orienta list positions, while remaining substantially independent of both. On the whole his letters are directed more against the shortcomings of anglicist policy in terms of its general inadequacy for the task of transmission, lack of realism, and negative tendency to reinforce traditional Indian social divisions. But at the same time as he deplores the crude methodology of 'Anglomania,' he appears to some degree to share the anglicists' belief in the importance of Europeanizing the Indian mind, albeit in a subtly vernacularist form. With the orienta lists he is rather less concerned, perhaps regarding them more as the defeated side in the controversy, but his comments on their philosophy are equally mixed. On the one hand he rejects it in so far as 'it made Sanskrit and Arabic the direct means, and Oriental lore the direct end of instruction.'2 On the other hand he continues to support the study of Indian classical languages and literature, partly as a conciliatory measure and partly to facilitate the enrichment of the vernaculars (as Wilson had advocated). Above aiL however, it is the vernacularist commitment that distinguishes his approach from both the anglicists and the orienta lists, with their essentially topdown, elitist notions of educational diffusion. Considered but not accepted by Lord Auckland, Hodgson's ideas did eventually have some influence on government educational policy as later defined in Sir Charles Wood's education dispatch of 1854 and the Indian Education Commission Report of 1883, though hardly in the ambitious and imaginative form that Hodgson himself had envisioned. 3 See also Introduction, pp.61-4.

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SOURCE(S): Brian Houghton Hodgson, Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects, vol. II (London: Trubner, 1880), pp. 312-24. The previous history of letters III and IV included in this collection of Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays is somewhat involved. In 1835 Hodgson, using the pseudonym of Junius, published a pamphlet entitled Two Letters on the Education of the People of India (Serampore Press), the two letters, dated August and September 1835 respectively, having been originally sent to the weekly journal, Friend of India. Two years later in 1837 another edition of the two letters was published by the Serampore Press, this time in Hodgson's own name and with an expanded title, Pre-Eminence of the Vernaculars; or the Anglicists Answered. Being Two Letters on the Education of the People of India. This edition also contains a preface by Hodgson dated July 1837. A third edition of the same work (and with the same preface) was published in 1841. A few years later in 1847 a fourth and enlarged edition of the pamphlet was issued under the title Pre-Eminence of the Vernaculars; or the Anglicists Answered. Being Four Letters on the Education of the People of India. Of these two additional letters, letter III is actually identical with the preface printed in the 1837 and 1841 editions, whilst letter IV dated April 1843 comprises a slightly revised version of a letter first published in the Friend of India on 5 October 1843. At the same time a new undated preface was also inserted. The bibliographical story is further complicated by Sir William Hunter's assertion that the version containing four letters had also appeared as early as 1843. 4 That 1843 edition has not however been traced. Hunter also says that yet another edition containing seven letters was published in 1848. This seems very probable - even though that edition has also not yet come to light - since the 1880 London edition of Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays not only contains all the four earliest letters described above (including of course letters III and IV as reproduced here) but also four additional ones on the same subject originally addressed to the editor of the Friend of India during 1848.

--------------~------------Letter III My reason for reverting to the subject of these letters5 is to be found in the following extract from the 'Friend of India:'6 'It is a truism, which we almost fear to hazard, that our only chance of effecting permanent and extensive good in India, must arise from the adoption of a system of vernacular education; and yet, viewing the apathy which prevails on this subject, it would almost appear as though this fact was not yet received into the number of truths. It is now nearly twenty-five years since Parliament appropriated a large grant for educational purposes in India, and to this moment no single effort has been made to give the great body of the people the benefit of this grant. It has been invariably applied in succession to the encouragement of some foreign language or other, the Arabic, the Persian, the Sanskrit, the English; never to that of the vernacular languages. It is a twelvemonth since the Education Board stated in their Report, that the creation of a national literature and of a national system of education, was the ultimate object to which all their labours were directed. What step has been taken to attain this ultimate

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object - what book has been translated into Bengalee or Hindustani what indigenous school erected? Of what system of education has even the foundation been laid? Mr. Adam's report 7 of his researches, which it was understood would form the basis of an educational structure, has now been before Government a twelvemonth. What single measure has grown out of his labours and researches? The answer is lamentably simple; none. The stillness of death reigns in the department of vernacular education.' This is a lamentable statement: but as I have an unabating and full confidence in the cause, so I believe that further discussion must and will eventually open the eyes of the public. With the hope of conducing to that end, I now reprint my two first letters, and add some further remarks suited to the changing and I think improving aspect of the subject, though, there is, alas, but too much room for amendment still, and for continued revertence to first principles. The letters are an answer to Mr. Trevelyan's Essays. on the means of communicating the civilisation of Europe to India. No other person has yet attempted formally to justify by argument the novel and exclusive measures of the Education Committee. Wherefore an answer to Mr. Trevelyan's Essay is an answer to all that has, thus far, been deliberately advanced in favour of Anglomania. In the last Report of the Committee there are, indeed, a few stray sentences mentioning the vernacular with respect;8 but those 'epea pteroenta'9 are so foreign to the general scope of that Report, are so signally at variance with the whole previous sayings and doings of the Committee, and are so belied by the subsequent acts and attempts (buried in the archives of the Council Room!) of that body, that charity must seek to cover these egregious sentences with oblivion. Such persons, however, as are content to be thankful for small mercies, may congratulate the vernacularists upon their having at least compelled the other party to speak respectfully ofthe languages ofthe people! Should Mr. Trevelyan feel inclined to favour me with a response, now that I avow my letters (challenging him directly to appear and answer), I would beg of him to address himself exclusively to the main topic of the letters, or the pre-eminent and overruling importance of vernacular media, universally, or in all times or places. I have assigned the largest and most pervading reasons deducible from history and from the nature of man, for that transcendent energy which I have ascribed to such media; and I have endeavored to show that, were the objections made to the vernacular languages of India, in their present state, much stronger than they really are, the reasons above alluded to would still suffice to justify a present aMr. Grant's essay on the same subject may be considered as the basis of Mr. Trevelyan's. I have studied them both. [Hodgson is apparently referring here to Charles Grant's Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain, part of which is printed above on pp. 81-9. For Trevelyan's 'Essay,' see editorial note 1 below.]

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practical preference on the part of Government of the vernaculars to English - if our object be really to renerve, and to give a right direction to, the mental vigour of this land, safely, gradually, and with a reasonable prospect of producing expansive and durable effects. Let, then, Mr. T. address himself to the express grounds and reasons upon which the paramountship of the vernaculars is rested. If the corypheus lO of the Anglicists (whose active benevolence I honour and love) can show that these grounds are less comprehensive, or less firm than I assume, well and good; but, if he cannot show it, let him be assured that less comprehensive ones, though just as far as they go, must yet leave the vital merits of this great question untouched. And let him remember, too, that the real question is the regeneration of this land, or the means of breaking its intellectual torpor by a fresh and vigorous impulsion from sound knowledge, that is, from European knowledge. As a practical measure for the immediate adoption of Government, I have no hesitation in saying that to found a college for the rearing of a competent body of translators and of schoolmasters - in other words, for the systematic supply of good vernacular books and good vernacular teachers (leaving the public to employ both, in case the Government fund be adequate to no more than the maintenance of such college), would be an infinitely better disposal of the Parliamentary grant than the present application of it to the training of a promiscuous crowd of English smatterers, whose average period of schooling cannot, by possibility, fit them to be the regenerators of their country, yet for whose further and efficient prosecution of studies so difficult and so alien to ordinary uses, there is no provision nor inducement whatever!!b Mr. Trevelyan seems to have thought it enough for his argument (see Essay passim) to cite the bare fact that knowledge has been generally communicated and spread through exotic organs. I shall not attempt at present to bring any fresh proofs that Mr. Trevelyan'S historical examples may be easily turned into solemn and fearful warnings: I shall not attempt further to show that the general history of knowledge is, 'propter hanc causam exotici medii,'ll a disgraceful and lamentable story; that (not to travel for illustrations out of the limits of Europe) it was the practically, if bNote of 1846. These have been partially afforded by Lord Hardinge. I trust the experiment may work well for the country beyond meeting the calls of the Government for native functionaries, and that these may be found sufficiently at home in the appropriate knowledge of their class in addition to their European lore. My proposed college, it will be seen in the sequel (Letter IV), makes no distinction between mental culture in the English and vernacular languages. It proposes to combine the two and to give the combination the most definite at once and most effective form with reference to the general intellectual wants of the people of India. [In October 1844 Lord Hardinge (governor-general from 1844 to 1848) passed a resolution designed to encourage the appointment of successful students from government colleges and private institutions to positions in government service. For this resolution see General Report on Public Instruction, pp. 2-4. In practice Hardinge's scheme had little immediate effect.}

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not necessarily, exclusive genius of this system of learning, which turned our beautiful religion into a scandal and curse; our noble liberty into slavery: I shall not attempt to trace the waste of time and of means generated by this adherence to foreign media; nor, lastly, to urge the very legitimate presumption that, after all, 'the strong man' was awakened in Europe from the lethargy of ages not by, but in despite of, exotic lore. All these general topics I reserve till Mr. T. appear in his justification. Meanwhile, and with express reference to his present notion that the best way of exciting the Indian intellect, and of creating a genuine literary spirit, is to scatter the small Educational fund at Government's disposal amongst the seventy millions of our subjects, by picking up at random pauper pupils, teaching them to prate English for five or six years, and then dismissing them, to regenerate their country! living themselves, I suppose, upon air, and increasing their store of this facile knowledge by certain inspirations of which it were mere impiety to doubt the probability!!! Such a plan appears to me radically and hopelessly futile; and, certainly, no anticipation of success in this method of naturalizing European knowledge in India can be drawn from the fact of the success which attended the incorporation ofthe Greek and Roman knowledge with our familiar words and thoughts. True, the difficult and inapt science of Greece and Rome was, in modern Europe, first mastered in itself, and eventually worked into our own speech and minds. But how? by the employment of means adequate to the end, and by the existence of circumstances most powerfully efficient to forward that end. A thousand predisposing causes led a mighty nobility to seek in this lore the appropriate ornament of their rank and station. A church, which monopolised a third of the wealth of the continent, called Rome its mother and Greece its foster mother: and throughout the great part of that continent, the Law, ecclesiastic and civil, was even lingually Roman. Hence the magnificent endowments and establishments and permanent inducements of all kinds by which a difficult and exotic learning was at length effectually naturalised amongst us. Hence the scholar, if he pleased, might pursue in retirement letters as a profession, assured of a comfortable provision for life; or, if he pleased, he might devote himself to the task of instructing the scions of a most influential and wealthy nobility, all of them, from peculiar associations, necessitated to become his pupils whether they profited by his lessons or not, and thereby affording him the certainty of an enduring means of livelihood; or, if he pleased, he might pass from the cloister or the college into the world, and there find the greater part of its most important concerns subservient (by virtue of special causes that had operated upon the social system since its very genesis) to the uses and abuses of his peculiar gifts. If these things be so, we see at least that, in modern Europe, due provision and inducement existed for the steady pursuit throughout a long succession of laborious lives, of Greek and Roman knowledge: in other 265

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words, means were forthcoming adequate to achieve (in the lapse of ages!!) the difficult end proposed to be accomplished. Now, unless Mr. Trevelyan can demonstrate that it is much less difficult for the people of India to master our speech and to transmute its treasures into their own, I think he will find in the total absence of those vast appliances, or those most potent favouring predispositions, by virtue of which alone Europe was Romanised, a decisive objection to his scheme of direct Anglicisation, being no less than a demonstration of the utter present and prospective futility of that scheme. Mr. Trevelyan has insisted, throughout and always, on the parallel case of European progression by virtue of dead tongues. The above is my answer, quoad his present specific plan of operations: the parallel is utterly naught; and the plan, palpably baseless. Let me add, that I take this plan in its last and freshest form, or that indicated in and by the memorable paragraphs of the Education Committee's Reporte already adverted to. And, if I make no allusions to ground-shifting between the dates of the Essay and of the Report, I may yet remind Mr. Trevelyan that the recent vernacularisation of our Court 12 has, by sundering the last possible link between sheer English learning and any material local usefulness, doubled the cogency of all arguments like that just used against the feasibility of the presently alleged plan. Neither in the associations nor in the wants of the native society, nor yet in the public or private institutions of the country, is there sufficient basis whereon to rest Mr. Trevelyan's argument and scheme. d With respect to my own suggestion of an establishment devoted to the regular supply of good vernacular books and good vernacular teachers, I have to observe that, if! have not very much overstated the overruling and absorbing importance of the vulgar tongues as media for the communication of all and any knowledge, it will follow pretty obviously, from the admission of that importance, that to inchoate and organise a system of vernacularisation must be the best employment of the small Educational fund in the hands of Government. It is obvious that any such measure as the one just suggested surpasses all individual efforts: but I am very certain that did Government, by the organisation of the college proposed, provide an enduring and wholesome stock of the appliances of popular education, there are hundreds of individuals who would hasten to use and employ that stock (a function quite within their power), in district schools of their own founding. Already and everywhere there is a call for vernacular books and teachers, in very defiance of the Anglicists! Nor need the seemingly Herculean labour of CViz. The paragraphs in which it is asserted that however exclusive the Committee's patronage of English in the meanwhile, it is all with ultimate views to the formation of a vernacular literature! [See editorial note 8 below.] dI need hardly remark that Mr. T.'s scheme is the Committee's scheme, and that those who would know what the Committee have done and purpose to do, must consult Mr. T's writings.

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translating our knowledge into the vulgar tongues ofIndia, alarm a rational and unprejudiced person; for, it is just as certain that not one English work in 50,000 would require or even justifY translation, as that Hindustani, Hindi and Bengali (and it were folly to perpetuate more media) are competent, each and all, to sustain the weight purposed to be laid on them. e There is another consideration which, whilst it is well worthy of attention in itself, is calculated to show that the extent of necessary translation is by no means such as the enemies of vernacular media have tried to make it. In educating the people of India it should be our object, not so much to imprint in detail all our express thoughts or facts on their minds, as to instil, generally, our methods of reasoning, our mathematical and inductive processes, together with that yet small essence of indisputable truths in science, philosophy, and history, which has been eliminated by those processes, and which forms with us, and should do with them, but the starting-point of fresh and vigorous research. By the one course we should be apt to trammel the Indian intellect for several generations, if not for ever, assuming that we succeeded in conveying to it, totidem verbis, our exotic lore: by the other course, we should at once and at small cost of books set it free to take a vigorous but discriminating range over those topical idiosyncrasies of nature and experience which, in every large section of the globe, exist by God's appointment, subject only to man's modification, but not obliteration. In the most enlightened parts of Europe the general opinion now is that schools for teachers have, in the present century, created a new era in the practical science of education. Why then is Government inattentive to so noble and successful an experiment? Especially since there is about this method of normal instruction, or teaching of teachers, just that sort of definiteness which may be compassed by limited public funds, with yet a concomitant prospect of great and diffusive benefits to the country from the adoption of the measure. But workmen must have tools; and good workmen, good tools: wherefore, to a nursery for the regular supply of competent vernacular schoolmasters, should be added one for the equally regular supply of sound books in the three prime vulgar tongues of our Presidency, books embodying the substance only of our really useful knowledge, with stimuli and directions for the various sorts of mental eIn recently translating Prinsep's Transactions to Hindi, I found no difficulty arising out of the alleged poverty of this vernacular; and I suspect that those who have clamoured most about the feebleness of the Indian vulgar tongues, know as little about the express facts as they do about the inferred capabilities or rather incapabilities. [Hodgson is apparently referring to H. T. Prinsep's History of the Political and Military Transactions in India.] Dante found the Italian language cruder than any Indian vernacular now is; and yet this single man, by a single work, made the vulgar tongue of his country capable of supporting the most sublime, novel, and abstract ideas. Ex uno disce omnes. ['Ex uno disce omnes' (Latin): from one learn all.] rviz., Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali.

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exertion; so that, in the result, there might exist, for the people at large, the easy and obvious bridge of the vulgar tongues, leading from exotic principles to local practices, from European theory to Indian experience! The incalculable importance to the public weal of the bridge just adverted to, even when principles and theories have been chiefly deduced from local experience and practice, is the last and greatest discovery of Western meditation upon the many methods of intellectual culture which have been used by nations in the past 3000 years; and as whatever is exotic in theory becomes on that account less easily marriageable with home practices and observations, it is doubly incumbent upon us to indoctrinate the people of this country, that those who learn may pass from our schools to life with alert, instead of with encumbered, minds. Again, in laying the foundation of the educational regeneration of this land, it is well worthy of the attention of a forecasting Government to avoid coincidence with existing and most injurious prepossessions. Now, this land is absolutely saturated with dead learning; absolutely bloated with the false pride of learning; so much so, that there is no prepossession stronger than that which consigns to contempt all knowledge, however valuable in itself, of which the medium is the vernacular, or, as it is significantly said, the vulgar tongues. If, then, in taking our first measures, we actually, though unintentionally, countenance this prejudice, what hope that the people will spontaneously, as is alleged, lay it aside; and will, no sooner than they have imbibed, vernacularise, our lore? I see no rational prospect of the kind, and conceive that the old style of learning (through exotic media) will perpetuate the old pride of learning, be the substance of that learning Orient or Occident. I am, too, quite certain that the true mystery of vernacularisation (challenge to all minds to think, and to think purpose-like on what comes home to the business and bosoms of the community) must, in that event, continue for ages as much out of the range of Indian contemplation as it now is. I say that the solution of this mystery, in relation to the happiness and vigour of nations, is the last and noblest result of European cogitation upon the general effects of all the various systems of education that have anywhere and at any time prevailed in the world: and by so much as both the materials and the habit of such cogitations are peculiarly beyond the reach of Asiatics, by so much is it folly in us to assert any such readiness at spontaneous vernacularisation! Though no admirer of the prima philo sophia of the Anglicists, I am yet ready to admit that they are far ahead of the people they would proselyte: and since the former have not yet discovered the sublime mystery (it may well be called so) to which I allude, I cannot subscribe to the doctrine that it is level to the understanding or will of the latter. NEPAL, July, 1837.

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Letter IV You ask me to give, in a condensed form, my ideas on the general subject of education in India, together with their express application to the proposed Normal College. With regard to the general subject, from much experience of the sentiments and habits of natives, I conclude that the real uses of book learning are unknown to them; that they dream not of the great objects of arousing the many to think purpose-like on the actual business of life, and of making an easy bridge from theory to practice, so that the millions shall have a chance of producing a Bacon or a Newton from among their vast number, whilst every practical farmer, trader, and craftsman, is placed within reach of the principles lying at the bottom of his daily toil, and men following letters as a craft are made to come under the wholesome influence of common sense. These, the real objects of national education, are, I think, undreamt of in India, as they were till lately in Europe; and thus I account for the deplorable (as indubitable) fact that natives are habitually neglectful of their mother tongue, and are eager to acquire English, Sanskrit, or Persian, solely for the power or pelf, thence directly derivable by the individual acquirer of one or the other. Now, I consider that if we would benefit India by book learning, it must be as we benefit her by our government and laws - that is, by reaching the many, by discasting book lore or enfranchising it, in fact; and that, with the objects above spoken of, as the only real and sound ones, we should make knowledge the handmaid of everyday utility, and give its acquisition the utmost possible facilities. Such are my wishes, and therefore I give an unlimited preference to a vernacular medium for its facility and for its aptitude, to make the knowledge conveyed through it practically effective in a beneficial way, and also for its diffusible quality, book-knowledge being so apt to pass away from utility, or to be abused as a mere engine of selfish aggrandisement. But though I give the mother tongues of the people the first and second place, I give English the third; and in my Normal College, which is not so much an educational establishment as an indirect means of making all such establishments efficient, I would have the alumni equally versed in both tongues - their own and ours. Again, I think that to indigenate a sound literature in India, to kindle a wholesome spirit of knowledge and to fit the spoken tongues of the land for being its organs, are mighty projects that call for express systematic measures, subsidiary to education ordinarily so called, but which alone can make such education valuable and effective; and in my college I want to establish and realise such measures: I want to locate therein a set of able men of the West, who shall be competent to give to India the essence of our INDISPUTABLE knowledge; and to associate with them other men ofthis land, English and native, who, together with them, shall transfer this essence into the vulgar tongues of India in the most attractive and efficient manner, whilst both classes, as professors and originators of the

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great change, shall have under them a set of pupils, chosen from the best alumni of all our seminaries, for the express and perpetual purpose of diffusing the labours of the professors, in the capacities of teachers and of translators, and of replacing those professors gradually as heads of the college: these alumni to have scholarships and to be devoted for their lives as pioneers of a new literature; bound to translating within the college,and to teaching abroad; giving their undivided time and talents to indigenate European lore; and being to the usual educational establishments a perpetual fount for the supply of good books and good teachers. Well begun is half done, emphatically: let us once set the people of India in the right path, and they will follow it successfully. But to accomplish this we must produce the essence of our indisputable knowledge in the most attractive form, and spread it with systematic skill; the books and the teachers should be excellent: and yet we have in India now not only not either of the desiderata, but no adequate means of reaching them, except through a wasteful series of failures. No man among us is competent to select the very best books and parts of books: no man among us nor institution is competent to furnish the best translation that might be had soon on system: no man among us can set afoot on India, without system, the splendid methods of teaching now in use in Europe. As for the alumni we now raise, it is passing absurd to suppose that they either can or will put their shoulders to the wheel of a radical change in knowledge and education. We must devote a set of select instruments to that work, making them the pioneers of the new literature, providing for them for life, and binding them to teaching and translating for life. We must also give them exemplars of what is wanted and how to remedy the defect, in the professors ofthe central or Normal College, and we must choose those professors from among the really able of England and of India, so that their books and their teachings shall be first-rate, and fitted to set going the vast and noble project ofthe Europeanisation of the Indian mind. It is idle for any of us in India to fancy we are masters of anyone branch of science, or that, not being so, we can transfuse its essence into Indian tongues in the most effective mode: and it is still idler to suppose that our random pupils of ordinary schools will ever, voluntarily and unpaid, devote themselves to the profitless and painful walks of instruction and literature, either as book makers or book expounders.g Yet we must have the best books best translated; we must have a steady supply of able teachers; we must have a corps of native pioneers of the new knowledge; gThese avocations are never remuneratory till the public has become their patrons, and the public will never become so till a close reference to life and its active aims govern letters and education, a result we are just reaching in Europe, slowly and painfully. But yesterday, there, men of letters and teachers were poor and despised! Can you read my riddle now? I want to make literature and education such in India that the native public will become their munificent patrons, and thus anticipate the work of time - of ages lost in India, as in Europe, for want of rational and adequate foundation-laying.

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and the professors and the alumni of my Normal College are to furnish and to be these; the alumni being provided for well for life and bound for life to letters as their vocation and glory; and the professors, picked men of England and of India, European and native, masters of the most essential branches of knowledge, and capable of effectively transfusing its vital spirit into the spoken tongues of India, through their books and through their alumni, fully trained by them in the art and science of teaching, one of the most noble and most difficult of the arts and sciences and the handmaid of them all, yet supposed 'to come naturally' like the Frenchman's discovery of prose!13 Ecce totum! behold my college in its professors and its alumni - the latter the normal teachers of any and every school that wants them, and the heirs of the original professors in their own institution whenever fit to direct it. Abroad, these alumni are to teach in English or in the vernaculars (Hindi, Urdu, or Bengali,h and no more), as the institution which sends for them, and for the time pays them, shall please. At home they are to study the genius of both tongues, Western and Eastern, and to labour subordinately as translators or transfusers (in original works as they are able), whilst they resume their scholarship allowance, suspended so long as they were abroad; their constant, suggestive, and useful labours as translators or as teachers preventing idleness or dreamy habits, and their perpetual scholarship being liable to forfeiture for proven indolence, incapacity, or bad conduct. Let us thus systematically and adequately set to work, and we shall lay a solid foundation. Let us fiddle-faddle, as at present, and fifty years hence that foundation will have to be laid with a nearly sheer loss of all ad interim labours. - Believe me, &c., B.H. Hodgson. NEPAL, April, 1843.

P.s. You perceive that the plan above suggested has nothing exclusive about it; that it aims at establishing a really national system of education for the benefit of the mass of the people; that it has an expansive energy about it not inadequate to realise its great end, for it proposes to train only those who as teachers or translators will each of them be a certain nucleus of knowledge whence it may reach hundreds; that it proposes to supply the two great wants of good books and good teachers, and that in laying an adequate foundation for the efficient working of education all over the land, it reconciles the policy of upholding deep lore with the necessity of adequate facilities, in regard to the general diffusion of such lore by giving the learned tongues of East and West to the lifelong student, and the best fruits of their study to the many in the shape of improved vernacular instruction. Such an institution seems to deserve the attention of the hN.B. Our proposed college was suggested for what used to be called the Bengal Presidency. We would, of course, now include any other generally used vernacular.

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conductors of education: for though Lord Hardinge's measures 14 may result in supplying the country with an able body of native functionaries, they seem little calculated to meet the wants of the mass of the people, their design indeed being to meet those of the Government only.

Notes 1 Hodgson was specifically responding to the arguments put forward by C. E. Trevelyan in his pamphlet, Treatise on the Means of Communicating the Learning and Civilisation of Europe to India (Calcutta, 1834). 2 Letter II in Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays, II, p. 309. 3 See also Hunter, Life of Hodgson, pp. 310-24. 4 Hunter, Life of Hodgson, pp. 312. 5 Hodgson's two earlier letters to the Friend of India had been written from Nepal in August and September 1835. See explanatory material under SOURCE(S) above. 6 The extract quoted here comes from the Friend of India for 26 June 1837 (vol. III, Serampore, 1837, p. 139). 7 William Adam's first Report on the State of Education in Bengal was printed in Calcutta in 1835. His second Report appeared in 1836. 8 See Report on Colleges, 1836, pp. 7-9. 9 'epea pteroenta' (Greek, from Homer): winged words. 10 corypheus (Latin from Greek): leader or chief. 11 'propter hanc causam exotici medii' (Latin): on account of this cause of a foreign medium. 12 Hodgson is evidently alluding here to the government's recent decision to substitute the vernacular languages for Persian in the proceedings of the Courts of Justice and the Revenue Department - a decision formally enacted through India Act XXIX of 1837. 13 The reference is to Monsieur Jourdain's discovery of prose in Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. 14 See editorial note to footnote b above.

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Petition from the Hindu community of Bengal to the chairman and deputy chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, December 1837/February 1838

In August 1836 Auckland's government had intimated to the Hindu and Muslim petitioners that it would consider their representations once the home authorities' views on the new education policy were communicated. By January 1838 the government had still not received an official response from the Court of Directors, and an awkward gap had begun to emerge between the majority view in the government favoring compromise with Indian public opinion, and the GCPI's rigid adherence to the original policies of Macaulay and Trevelyan. Aware of some of these difficulties, a significant section of the Hindu community in Calcutta - led by the eminent Bengali scholar Ram Camul Sen and the members of the conservative Dharma Sabha determined to seize the initiative in February 1838 by delivering to the government a powerful mass petititon, in Sanskrit and English, for onward transmission to the ultimate arbiters of company policy, the Court of Directors in London.l Essentially, the new petition boldly called upon the court to introduce measures for the encouragement of Sanskrit and Bengali education and literature, to restore stipends to the students at Sanskrit College, and to reinstate the earlier oriental publication program, including the translation of western works into Bengali. The tone and the scope of the new petition are noticeably different from those used in the earlier memorial of the Sanskrit College students delivered in August 1836 (see above, pp. 254-6). In the first place, the petitioners make more effective use of the traditional mode of address from subjects to rulers, combining a formal attitude of deference with a 'fearlessly' frank articulation of their grievances. Thus, in the course of developing their case, the Hindus are not afraid to remind their British rulers of several uncomfortable home truths, ranging from broadly unfavorable comparisons with the administration of their Muslim predecessors - all the more unpalatable in view of the British claims to superior justice and efficiency - to a blunt warning that the government stipends previously given to the Sanskrit students had been virtually 'the only gift we have received in return' for the revenues of India. 2 The authors of the petition are equally adept at striking a note of evenhanded realism, on the one hand, for example, acknowledging the undoubted value of the English language for businessmen and government employees, whilst, on the other, pointing to the utter impossibility and impropriety of seeking to 'do away with the language and literature of this Country,' and replacing them with those of England.

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Finally, this petition is radically distinguished from previous Hindu petitions by (1) its strong support for the active encouragement of the Bengali language, viewed (as Wilson had also seen it) as the offshoot of Sanskrit; and (2) by its sharp insight into the negative effects upon Indians of being made 'in many respects subservient to the English,' not only in the economic and technical spheres, but 'with regard to our reading and writing also.' Altogether this remarkable document thus appears to reflect both the strongly wounded feelings of the conservative Hindu intelligentsia and the somewhat parallel responses of British orienta lists, as filtered, for example through the close association of Wilson and Sen. 3 On receipt of the petition, the government decided to refer it to the GCPI for comment before sending it on to the Court of Directors. This initial reference gave rise to a lengthy argument about all the thomy issues raised in the petition, and the extent to which any concessions should be made. Aside from the questions of support for vernacular education and oriental publications (which were eventually dealt with through other processes). the two key issues which most sharply divided the two sides were those which had already come to the fore in the government's response to the Hindu and Muslim petitions of August 1836, and which arguably had their origin in the problematic formulations of the 1835 resolution. These were (1) whether any GCPI plans to appropriate the funds and endowments attached to the oriental colleges (especially their lapsed stipendiary funds), and reallocate them to purely anglicist projects elsewhere, should be subject to prior government approval; and (2) whether the original anglicist policy of withdrawing stipends should now be modified, to the extent of allowing the distribution of a fair quota of merit awards or scholarships for the benefit of able students wishing to pursue traditional oriental courses. By November 1838 the government decided that it was time to forward the Sanskrit petition to the court in London, even though it had so far failed to settle its differences with the GCPI. Thereafter discussions with the committee continued well into 1839, but still with no agreement in sight. See also Introduction, pp. 38-42, 55-8.

SOURCE(S): lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77636, pp. 45-58. For a second English copy, with the first paragraph omitted and several variant wordings in the body of the text, see lOR: Revenue, Judicial and Legislative Committee Miscellaneous Papers, L/P&J/1 /92. In his letter to Wilson of 26 January 1838 (cited in editorial note 2 below). Ram Camul Sen mentions that the translation accompanying the Sanskrit petition 'is not a Correct one'; he also suggests that Wilson might have an opportunity to correct it, if and when the Sanskrit original reached London. We know that the government did ultimately send both versions to the court but unfortunately the Sanskrit original does not appear to have survived in the London archives. Of the two different translations extant in the India Office Records (noted above). the L/P&J/2/92 version seems on the whole more accurate, though it lacks the opening paragraph. It thus seems possible that this translation may embody some corrections eventually made by Wilson himself on the basis of the original Sanskrit manuscript. --------------~.-------------

To the High in Dignity. Afflicting enemies with the sun of powerful glory, illuminating the whole Universe with the great fame occasioned by continually cherishing 274

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the subjects like sons, the only hero in the whole compass of the Earth, the skilful in the dancing,4 of the goodness of various Sciences, the chief mansion[s] of kindness, ability and excellence, the managers of the Political affairs of India, the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Honorable Court of Directors. We the humble, poor, helpless, weak, passive and disregarded inhabitants of Bengal in the Territories of the East India Company of England humbly and respectfully make this representation. 1st After the decline of the Hindoo Dynasty in the reigns of the Mahamedan Conquerors, who [we]5 had been for a long time in many respects subject to oppression, misery, and dishonor but during the last 70 or 80 years since the commencement of the British rule, we entertained a hope from your learning, compassion, wisdom, justice and various other National virtues that we should enjoy happiness and prosperity, and be governed and preserved like other subjects of Her Majesty, the Queen of England. 2d But only few men of business without whose services the transactions of the State could not for the time being be carried on, have risen to some grandeur, while the generality, or the great bulk of people[,] being content by the mere removal of the hardships above referred to[,] have with difficulty passed their days in the exercise of their national professions. 3d It is almost impossible for us to have audience with the rulers ofthe Country to make our wishes or wants known to them, or to obtain their favours in endeavouring to do the same. The notion we have of the relation that exists between us is no other than that you receive and we pay tribute to you. 4 In many instances the hardships we undergo by the regulations enacted for the Government of the Country, and by their repeated amendments,6 and also by the incapacity of the Governors and oppression of their subordinate Officers are not inferior to those we labored under in the times of the Mahamedans. 5 We have not for many reasons made our grievances known to you by means of Memorials. 1st a notion prevails amongst us that you see and hear all these things and if seeing and hearing you do not provide remedies, what assurance is there that our petitions would induce you to do it? 2ndly We have no representative before you, and we cannot ourselves go there to submie our grievances. 8 3dly our prayers cannot be communicated but by means of English Petitions which none but Europeans can draw in due form, and by such a channel our thoughts cannot be accurately conveyed. 4thly we are afraid lest our Petitions to you should be construed as complaints against the local Authorities[.] Unless they are favorable to our cause, our wishes cannot be fulfilled, and why should they assist us in appeals 9 against their own acts? Whatever therefore they may choose to do must come to pass, we are helpless and can make no remedy.

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6th Under these considerations we have not hitherto lO preferred our complaints to you, but our silence as to the acts of Government must not be interpreted as a sign of our satisfaction and concurrence with them, we have several grievances, and if we be assured that you will through compassion upon us take them into your consideration, we will gradually make them all known to you. 7. We now beg leave to call your attention to the Resolution of Government of March 1835 11 with regard to the sanscrit sastra, which is most injurious, opprobrious,12 subversive of our professions and religion and conducive to the unpopularity13 of the Government. 8th Since the beginning of your administration to the year 1824, nothing transpired in which we can find the general good of the people of Bengal consulted, nor have the learned Brahmins received any gifts from Government, of which they might keep a grateful remembrance. You have established in Calcutta a Madressa for the Mahomedans 14 and the situations of Kazee, Mooftee, Mowlave[e?], Daroga &C are provided for them, and you have also founded a Patsalu or College at Benares for up country Hindus. 15 9th In the year 1813/14 at the time of the renewal of the Company's Charter[,] a Grant of 1,00,000 Rs. was made by Parliament for the cultivation of the literature and support of the learned men of this country,16 but for ten years since no steps had been taken towards its fulfilment[.] We had requested the late Mr Colebrook to have a public Seminary established, and he recommended one to be founded at Tirhoot and another at Nuddea[.]17 Subsequent to this during the administration of Lord Amherst the Sanscrit College of Calcutta was established,18 in which 100 pupils received stipends for their maintenance and nine or ten Pundits were entertained on small salaries for teaching the Grammar, Poetry and Rhetoric &C of this Country[,] besides ancient Books 19 were printed and Sanscrit translations from the English were in progress for publication, some pupils of that College having studied the Law, they have been appointed Pundits in the Mofussil Courts and thus a channel was opened2o to them for earning an honest livelihood, but now an impediment is thrown in the way. 10th The abolition of scholarships and the discontinuance of the publication of Sanscrit works by the Resolution of March 1835, clearly shews that you have no regard for them. Before the year 1824 no disposition of regard or disregard had been evinced on the part of Government in these respects and the learned Brahmins maintained the scholars whom they taught by begging and curtailing the expenses of food and clothes of their own families. Even the unjust and cruel Mahomedans though inimical to Hinduism[,] made various efforts and gave endowments for the preservation of our sastras or literature, instances of which may be found in the large grants of Brahmattar lands. 21 The learned men are still supported by the produce of lands

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granted for the cultivation of our literature by the former rulers, and Landholders, who have by no means done any harm in this respect. But since the commencement of the British Supremacy, no grants of any sort have been bestowed for that object as regards the natives of Bengal. The establishment of the sanscrit College, however[,] for a time displayed its regard for the same, but the late discountenancing of it has proved the contrary and done a great deal of mischief, and may ultimately lead to its destruction. 11th The Sanscrit is the original language from which the Hindee and Bengalee are derived, which can neither exist nor flourish without it[,] like the branches and blossom of an unrooted tree. Its utility to our country is infinite and the necessity of preserving it is evident from the speeches and minutes of Marquis ofWellesley,22 Lord Mint0 23 and other late Governors. 12th The lac ofRs. granted by Parliament for the cultivation ofIndian literature is now appropriated to English. The dissemination of the English language and literature is indeed necessary in an 24 English Government, and we also wish it[,] but it does not become our rulers to do away with the vernacular language and cultivate the English in its stead. 13th It is the duty of a Government to take care of the wealth, lives, honor and property of its subjects, and to encourage the literature, and reward the learned men of the Country. It is impossible at once to teach English to 40 Millions of men, and even if they succeed in learning it, it is of no great advantage to them. They may become Writers and Sircars, but the higher posts are given to the Europeans, the lower offices alone fall to the lot of the Bengallees, even which is now become hard of attainment. The acquisition of the English language is difficult, because its requisites are ofthe European production, English teache[r]s,25 English articles, and English Books, which are very expensive. The natives therefore, cannot derive so much benefit from the English, as from their vernacular tongue. The Mahomedans had ignorantly and injudiciously substituted the Persian in lieu of the Bengalee language, and writing, in their public offices,26 but nevertheless they could not make the natives well versed in their language and literature, which has been the cause of much mischief. It is therefore impossible that you should now after so long a period do away with the language and literature of this Country, disseminate those of England here difficult and expensive as they are, and thereby make all the natives learned and wise. This will rather tend to do more harm than formerly. 14th The English being the language of our rulers is particularly requisite to such amongst us as are men of business, and in the employ of Government, but it is equally necessary that the European public functionaries should likewise be acquainted with the language, literature, and usages of the people, because ifthey do not mutually understand each other's language and sastras, they cannot properly discharge their duties 277

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and consequently justice and good Government cannot be expected from them. 15th But although a knowledge of the language and literature of the people is as important to the European functionaries, and those of the latter is to the former, we see the one well encouraged while the other trampled on and its requisites evidently done away with. If the natives become averse to this, how can the European Gentlemen succeed in the27 attempt[?] Besides if in our books, the Roman Characters be substituted for those of this country,28 and Pattsalahs be abolished[,] how can our literature exist? Although independent in our natural wants we have already become in many respects subservient to the English, and to the productions of their Country, and should we be made to depend on them with regard to our reading and writing also, we shall only be rendered still more miserable. If it be said that you have no objection to the study of Sanscrit, there are Pattasalas and Pundits and whoever wishes may go and learn it there, but the pupils shall have no stipends. To this we reply that Scholars will not resort to them, under such circumstances, in no country pupils remain in a public Seminary without stipends and great prospects of future good[.] You allow stipends in the Hindoo and Medical Colleges,29 why do not you then allow the same in the Sanscrit College! There is no want of public finances, and it is the only gift we have received in return of the revenues of India for the good of the Country. The natives are very poor and cannot prosecute their studies without such help. Scholarships are therefore necessary. 16th We therefore make the following prayers. 1st That encouragement be given to the Sanscrit language and literature. 2d That measures be adopted for the cultivation of pure Bengallee reading and writing. 3rly That the Sanscrit College of Calcutta be kept in the same footing as in the time of Lord Amherst[,] that is monthly stipends be allowed to the pupils for their maintenance, and works collected. 4th That a certain sum of money be appropriated to the publication of Sanscrit and Bengallee Books, that the same sum 25,000 Rupees which was fixed for that purpose be continued to be expended and works on European arts and sciences be translated and published in the Vernacular language. 30 17th For reasons above stated we have written this Memorial in the Sanscrit language. 31 It is usual with us fearlessly to describe our grievances, feelings and prayers in our petitions to the King, in the same manner as we do to our parents[.] You will therefore be so good as to excuse any defects which may have occurred in our style or expression. We are not rebellious subjects but your obedient well wishers. We feel sorry at the diminution of your glory, therefore extend your kindness upon us by granting our prayers. Signed by 8,909 Native Inhabitants32

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Notes 1 Although the English version of the petition included in F/4/1846 (see SOURCE[S] above) is undated, the second English version preserved in UP&J/1/92 has the note 'dated Dec 1837" at the top of the first page. That the petition was originally 'got up' in Calcutta during December is also indicated by Ram Camul Sen in a private letter of 4 January 1838 to Horace Hayman Wilson (lOR: H. H. Wilson Collection, MSS. Eur. E301l3, ff. 86-7). The Sanskrit document, together with an English translation, was then sent to H. T. Prinsep, secretary to the government of India General Department, with a covering letter from'Prankisto Bidhier Saugore' (i.e., Prankrishna Bidyasagar, a noted Sanskrit scholar), dated Calcutta, 10 February 1838, requesting that the vice-president in council be asked to transmit the document to the Court of Directors in London (lOR: India General Consultations, No. 29 of21 February 1838, P/186/82). As also explained in the introduction to this document above, the petition was next referred to the GCPI for comment, and it was not actually until 19 November 1838 that the government enclosed both the Sanskrit original and the English translation in an official letter to the Court of Directors (lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77636, pp. 1-25). See also under SOURCE(S) above. 2 Ram Camul Sen's letter to Wilson dated 26 January 1838 provides a short but vivid account of the way in which the petitioners consciously chose to use 'strong and radical' language to convey their message (lOR: H. H. Wilson Collection, MSS. Eur. E301/3, ff. 94-5). 3 For Sen's contacts with Wilson, see Introduction, pp. 38-40. 4 A rather high-flown comparison is here being made with Siva Nataraja, the lord of the dance, which brings creative destruction and regeneration to the cosmos. 5 The UP&J/1I92 version has 'we' here in place of 'who'. 6 The UP&J version has 'alterations made therein' in place of 'amendments.' 7 The UP&J version has 'make' instead of 'submit.' 8 The UP&J version has 'statements' here. 9 The UP&J version has 'in our representations.' 10 'hitherto' is omitted from the UP&J text. 11 See above pp. 194-6. 12 'spiteful' is given here in the UP&J version. 13 'ill-fame' in the UP&J version. 14 For the Calcutta Madrasa, see above pp. 73-6. 15 For the Benares college founded by Jonathan Duncan, see above pp. 77-80. 16 See p. 91 17 For the proposed seminaries at Tirhut and Nadia, see above pp. 117,159. For Colebrooke, see pp. 91, 159. 18 For Sanskrit College, see pp. 255-6. 19 'works' in the UP&J text. 20 'has been open'd' in the UP&J version. 21 For similar comments about Muslim rulers and support for Sanskrit learning, see Radhakant Deb's letter to H. H. Wilson, discussed in the Introduction above, pp. 39-4l. 22 Richard Colley, Marquis Wellesley, governor-general of Bengal from 1798 to 1805. 23 Gilbert Elliot, earl of Minto, governor-general of Bengal from 1807 to 1813.

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24 'the English Government' in the UP&J version. 25 The F/4 copy has 'teaches' here, but the UP&J version has 'teachers,' which obviously makes better sense. 26 'officers' in the UP&J version. 27 'their' in the UP&J version. 28 For Trevelyan's plans to introduce Roman characters, see p. 223. 29 See also pp. 249, 253. 30 For the amount of money previously assigned for oriental publications, see also pp. 169-70, 204, 212, 219-20. 31 See also pp. 273-4. 32 The UP&J text says that the petition was signed by 'about 10,000 Hindus the Inhabitants of Calcutta and Zillas [districts] in Bengal.'

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Charles Trevelyan, On the Education of the People of India (London, 1838), chapter IV

Just as Wilson and Prinsep kept up their fight against anglicist policies after those policies had apparently triumphed in 1835. so also Charles Trevelyan. after his return from Calcutta. felt it necessary to continue to defend what he believed had then been gained in India. Thus his tract. On the Education of the People of India. published in London in 1838. was evidently designed to represent the advantages of the anglicist educational policy to a wider British public. with chapter four (reproduced here) specifically written to refute the orientalist case recently published in The Asiatic Journal by H. H. Wilson. A juxtaposition of these two pieces provides a further opportunity to compare the arguments used by the two protagonists at their most direct points of collision. Although Trevelyan's chapter is written in a vigorous style. it has to be said that many of his direct responses to Wilson's contentions merely restate fairly standard anglicist positions. For example. in opposing Wilson's views about the original educational intentions of the 1813 Charter Act. and the government's recent alleged spoliation of the funds previously assigned for the study of Sanskrit and Arabic. Trevelyan is largely content to reproduce passages from Macaulay's minute (here published for the first time). supplemented by some distinctly partial quotations from the contemporary official records. Similarly. in defending the decision to suspend students' stipends. he does little more than reiterate Macaulay's aversion to such handouts. viewed as inducements to sloth and idleness. Rather more effective are Trevelyan's arguments in favor of making English 'the language of education in India.' For instance. as against Wilson's claim that Indians seeking jobs would only bother to acquire a smattering of English. he is able to point to the impressive results recently achieved by students at the new Calcutta Medical College. adding that Indian attitudes to learning English had recently changed. with many more young Hindus eager to master the language for its mental and material rewards. He is equally confident in challenging the orientalist strategy for drawing upon the classical languages to furnish the vernaculars with the requisite words to convey the new western scientific ideas. Not only. he claims. would English words be no more new or difficult for most vernacular users than terms derived from Sanskrit and Arabic. but English would have the decided advantage of providing a direct key to the rich storehouse of western knowledge. Finally. Trevelyan. like other anglicists. is deeply skeptical of Wilson's belief in the value of enlisting the support of the Indian learned classes - the pandits

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and maulawis - in the diffusion of western knowledge. In Trevelyan's eyes these traditional groups are far too attached to their old obsolete systems to recognize the value of the new. However, the real interest of this chapter lies in several eloquent digressions in which Trevelyan reveals more of his visionary plans for the regeneration of India. Broadly speaking, these plans envisage British involvement in three major processes. Firstly, of course, comes the central program for making English into the language of higher education. This in turn involves the introduction of reforms designed to reduce the role of the classical languages in public life (especially their replacement by the vernaculars in local government offices and law courts). Following on from this, Trevelyan favors a systematic strengthening of the Indian vernaculars through increased contact with English, and especially through their open penetration by scientific English. By these means, he believes the vernaculars would ultimately become 'assimilated to the languages of Europe.' as well as 'united among themselves.' And thirdly, he identifies the traditional reluctance of the Brahmanical class to share their knowledge with the mass of the population as providing a special opportunity for the British to reach out towards the education of the Indian masses through the combined use of English and the vernaculars. Trevelyan fully accepts that all these processes must vitally depend upon the active participation of a new English-educated elite, drawn from the middle and upper classes. Freed from the obsolete knowledge embodied in the classical languages, and naturally fired with enthusiasm for western literature and science, these groups, he believes, will eventually accomplish the regeneration of India, forging a new 'national character.' and creating 'an united and enlightened nation,' with the strong, benign support of their British rulers. If Wilson's impressive defense of orientalism had nonetheless displayed a certain failure to appreciate the dynamic results of the spread of English education, it is equally true that Trevelyan's counterthesis, for all its vigor and insights, embodies an obvious blindness vis-a-vis the complex, deep-rooted attachment of millions of Indians to their own forms of life and culture especially their own languages, literatures and religions. Nowhere in this chapter does he properly recognize this factor as a powerful counterforce to his occidental vision of India's future; nor does he seem to appreciate the alienation which such a vision could produce - and was already producing, for example, in the minds of those who signed the Hindu community petition of 1837/1838. It is curious too that in the course of his linguistic investigations, he largely fails to acknowledge the central role of Sanskrit and Arabic in India's religious life - their status as sacred languages. Nor is our awareness of these factors merely an expression of contemporary perspectives, since they were clearly pointed out in the writings of Trevelyan's great opponent. H. H. Wilson. But this is perhaps only another way of stating the obvious truth that anglicists were not orientalists. 1 See also Introduction, pp. 51-3.

SOURCE(S): Charles E. Trevelyan, On the Education of the People of India (London: Longman, Orme, Green and Longmans, 1838), Chapter IV, pp. 95-142. -------------.~.-------------

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Chap. Iv. Objections answered. - Construction of the Charter Act of 1813. - Change in the Employment of the public Endowments for the Encouragement of Learning. - Abolition of Stipends. - Probability of the Natives being able to prosecute the Study of English with effect. - The alleged Necessity of cultivating Arabic and Sanskrit for the sake of improving the vernacular Languages. - The Plan of employing Maulavees and Pundits as our Agents for the Propagation of European Science. - Whether or not it is our Duty to patronise the same Kind of Learning as our Predecessors.

I shall now proceed to reply, with as much brevity as circumstances will admit, to the objections which have been urged to the change in the committee's plan of operation made in accordance with the resolution of the Indian government, dated the 7th March 1835;2 and as my object is not to write a book of my own, but to put this important subject, once for all, in a clear point of view, I shall continue to avail myself of the writings of others whenever they express what I have to say better than I could express it myself. The heads of objection will be taken from an article by Professor Wilson, entitled 'Education of the Natives ofIndia,' published in the Asiatic Journal for January 1836, which contains the most complete statement which has yet appeared of all that can be said on the oriental side of the question. 3 The first in order relates to the construction of that part of the charter act of 1813 by which a lac of rupees a year was assigned for the education of the natives of India. 4 The opponents of our present plan of proceeding contend that it was not the intention of parliament, in making this assignment, to encourage the cultivation of sound learning and true principles of science, but to bring about a revival of the antiquated and false learning ofthe shasters, which had fallen into neglect in consequence of the cessation of the patronage which had in ancient times been extended to it by the native Hindu princes. To this argument the following reply has been made; 'It does not appear to me that the act of parliament can by any art of construction be made to bear the meaning which has been assigned to it. It contains nothing about the particular languages or sciences which are to be studied. A sum is set apart 'for the revival and promotion of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories.' It is argued, or rather taken for granted, that by literature the parliament can have meant only Arabic and Sanskrit literature; that they never would have given the honourable application of a 'learned native' to a native who was familiar with the poetry of Milton, the metaphysics of Locke, and the physics of Newton; but that they meant to designate by that name only such persons as might 283

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have studied in the sacred books of the Hindus all the uses of Cusa-grass, and all the mysteries of absorption into the deity. This does not appear to be a very satisfactory interpretation. To take a parallel case: suppose that the pacha of Egypt, a country once superior in knowledge to the nations of Europe, but now sunk far below them, were to appropriate a sum for the purpose of 'reviving and promoting literature, and encouraging learned natives of Egypt,' would anybody infer that he meant the youth of his pachalic to give years to the study of hieroglyphics, to search into all the doctrines disguised under the fable of Osiris, and to ascertain with all possible accuracy the ritual with which cats and onions were anciently adored? Would he be justly charged with inconsistency if, instead of employing his young subjects in deciphering obelisks, he were to order them to be instructed in the English and French languages, and in all the sciences to which those languages are the chief keys? 'The words on which the supporters of the old system rely do not bear them out, and other words follow which seem to be quite decisive on the other side. This lac of rupees is set apart, not only for "reviving literature in India," the phrase on which their whole interpretation is founded, but also "for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories," - words which are alone sufficient to authorize all the changes for which I contend.'5 Both the court of directors and the Indian government took this view of the subject at the period when measures were first taken to carry the intentions of the British parliament into effect, and those intentions were certainly likely to have been better understood at that time than at any subsequent period. The Indian government in their instructions to the committee appointed to administer the funds made no allusion to the supposed necessity for reviving oriental literature. On the contrary, they stated the objects for which the committee had been appointed to be 'the better instruction of the people, the introduction of useful knowledge, including the arts and sciences of Europe, and the improvement of their moral character,'6 objects with which the learning of the shasters and the Koran, which it was afterwards proposed to revive, are at complete variance. The court of directors in their dispatch written about the same period are still more explicit. They emphatically state that 'it is worse than a waste oftime to employ persons either to teach or to learn the sciences in the state in which they are found in oriental books;' that 'the great end should not have been to teach Hindu learning or Mohammedan learning, but useful learning;' and that, in establishing seminaries for the purpose of teaching mere Hindu or mere Mohammedan literature, the Indian government bound themselves 'to teach a great deal of what was frivolous, not a little of what was purely mischievous, and a small remainder indeed in which utility was in any way concerned.'7 But meanwhile the administration of the fund had fallen into the hands of persons devoted to oriental studies, party zeal was excited, and the ingenuity of several

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able men was tasked to the utmost to defend a course of proceeding which had been adopted in spite of the declared sentiments of the court of directors and of common sense_ It was urged, in the next place, that it was downright spoliation to alter the appropriation of any of the funds which had previously been spent by the government in encouraging the study of Sanskrit and Arabic, but which were now directed to be employed in teaching English under the restrictions contained in the resolution of the 7th March 1835. 8 To this it was replied that 'the grants which are made from the public purse for the encouragement of literature differ in no respect from the grants which are made from the same purse for other objects of real or supposed utility. We found a sanatarium on a spot which we suppose to be healthy: do we thereby pledge ourselves to keep a sanatarium there, if the result should not answer our expectations? We commence the erection of a pier: is it a violation of the public faith to stop the work, if we afterwards see reason to believe that the building will be useless? The rights of property are undoubtedly sacred; but nothing endangers those rights so much as the practice, now unhappily too common, of attributing them to things to which they do not belong. Those who would impart to abuses the sanctity of property are in truth imparting to the institution of property the unpopularity and the fragility of abuses. If the government has given to any person a formal assurance, - nay ifthe government has excited in any person's mind a reasonable expectation, - that he shall receive a certain income as a teacher or a learner of Sanskrit or Arabic, I would respect that person's pecuniary interests. I would rather err on the side of liberality to individuals than suffer the public faith to be called in question. But to talk of a government pledging itself to teach certain languages and certain sciences, though those languages may become useless, though those sciences may be exploded, seems to me quite unmeaning. There is not a single word in any public instrument from which it can be inferred that the Indian government ever intended to give any pledge on this subject, or ever considered the destination of these funds as unalterably fixed. But, had it been otherwise, I should have denied the competence of our predecessors to bind us by any pledge on such a subject. Suppose that a government had in the last century enacted, in the most solemn manner, that all its subjects should to the end of time be inoculated for the smallpox; would that government be bound to persist in the practice after Jenner's discovery? These promises, of which nobody claims the performance, and from which nobody can grant a release; these vested rights which vest in nobody; this property without proprietors; this robbery which makes nobody poorer, - may be comprehended by persons of higher faculties than mine. I consider this plea merely as a set form of words, regularly used both in England and in India in defence of every abuse for which no other plea can be set up.'9 All the private endowments which have at different times been placed under the management of the 285

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education committee are administered with a strict regard to the intentions of the founders. A large sum of money, for instance, left by a late minister of the king of Lucknow, which was originally appropriated to the use of the oriental college at Delhi, continues to be applied to the support of oriental literature in that institution. lO Another objection which has been made is, that the abolition of the stipends formerly given to students will exclude the sons of learned men who are in indigent circumstances, as well as those of all persons living at a distance from the government colleges, the advantages of which will thus be confined to the capital and to one or two great towns. To this I answer, that, instead of two or three, there are already forty institutions scattered throughout the country; that the means of obtaining a liberal education have thus been brought into everybody's own neighbourhood; and that the number of young men belonging to every class of society, and to every part of the Bengal provinces, who now profit by our seminaries, necessarily greatly exceeds what used to be the case under the plan of having a few expensive colleges at which the students as well as teachers received salaries. Hundreds of boys are now cultivating our literature in Assam, Arrakan, Tenasserim, and other frontier provinces, which did not send a single student to the colleges at Calcutta and Benares. In India poverty is not the only obstacle to the education of children at a distance from their parents. The means of communication from place to place are slow and inconvenient; a journey of one or two hundred miles appears to a native the same formidable undertaking that it did to our ancestors in the time of Queen Elizabeth; and, above all, the mutual confidence which leads Englishmen to trust the entire management of their children to persons whom they often know only by reputation, is at a very low ebb in India. No native who could afford to give his son an education of any sort at home would think of sending him to be brought up among strangers. It was once proposed to educate the public wards at Calcutta, where the government itself would have had proper care taken of them, but the relations of the wards so unanimously and decidedly objected to the plan that it was at once abandoned. They had no objection, however, to their being educated under the superintendence of the government officers at their own provincial towns, with which they are in almost daily communication, and at which the young men might have resided, often in their own town houses, under the care of the old servants of the family. Besides this, the colleges under the stipendiary system were regarded by all classes as charitable institutions; and this alone would have prevented the native gentry from sending their sons to them. They were filled with the children ofindigent persons, a very small proportion of whom came from a distance; and these last, even if they had learned any thing worth communicating, which they did not, would have been too few, too uninfluential, and too much isolated from the rest of the community, to

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be able to induce the body of their countrymen to participate in their opinions. The animating and civilizing influence arising from the neighbourhood of a large seminary, and the daily intercourse of the people with its numerous scholars, and the tendency which this has to interest the public in the subject of education, and to lead to the establishment of new institutions, was too partial under the stipendiary system to have any practical effect. Even if the education given had been of a kind calculated to enlighten the people, instead of confirming them in their errors, it would have taken ages to make an impression on the immense population of western India by such means as these. If any class of persons be favoured by the plan which has now been adopted, it is those who are able and willing to learn, and who are in a situation to induce others to follow their example. If any be excluded, it is those who used to come to obtain food, not for the mind, but for the body, and who were too poor to be able to pursue their studies in after life. So long as we offer instruction only, we may be sure that none but willing students will attend; but if we offer money in addition to instruction, it becomes impossible to say for the sake of which they attend. These bounties on learning are the worst of bounties; they draw to a particular line a greater number of persons than that line would, without artificial encouragement, attract, or than the state of society requires. They also paralyze exertion. A person who does not want to learn a particular language or science is tempted to commence the study by the stipend; as soon as he has got the stipend he has no motive for zealously prosecuting the study. Sluggishness, mediocrity, absence of spirited exertion, and resistance to all improvement are the natural growth of this system. It is also of particular importance in such a country as India, and on such a subject as popular education, that the government should have some certain test of the wishes of its subjects. As long as stipends were allowed, students would of course have been forthcoming. Now the people must decide for themselves. Every facility is given, but no bribes; and if more avail themselves of one kind of instruction than of another, we may be sure that it is because such is the real bent of the public mind. But for the abolition of stipends, false systems might have been persevered in from generation to generation, which, with an appearance of popularity, would really have been preserved from falling into disuse only by the patronage of government. The result of the experiment has been most satisfactory. Formerly we kept needy boys in pay, to train them up to be bigoted maulavees and pundits; now multitudes of the upper and middle classes flock to our seminaries to learn, without fee or reward, all that English literature can teach them. The practice of giving stipends to students was part of the general system by which learning was confined to particular castes; this monopoly has now been broken down, and all are invited to attend who are really anxious to learn. Where formerly we paid both teachers and

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students, we now only pay the teachers; and our means of extending our operations have been proportionably increased; yet, so great is the demand for teachers, that if we could only increase their number at will, we might have almost any number of students. It is constantly urged by the advocates of oriental learning that the result of all our efforts will only be to extend a smattering of English throughout India, and that the question is between a profound knowledge of Sanskrit and Arabic literature on the one side, and a superficial knowledge of the rudiments of English on the other. Nothing can be more groundless than this assumption. The medical pupils who were declared by Mr. Prinsepll to have passed as good an examination for the time they had attended lectures as any class of pupils in Europe, acquired their knowledge entirely from English books and lectures delivered in English. Neither were these picked boys; they principally came from Mr. Hare's preparatory school,12 and from the second and third classes of the Hindu college, and they were therefore below the standard of those who go through the whole course of instruction at our principal seminaries. In their report published in 1831 the committee, speaking of the Hindu college, observe: 'The consequence has surpassed expectation; a command of the English language and a familiarity with its literature and science have been acquired to an extent rarely equalled by any schools in Europe.'a Such having been the result at the Hindu college, what is there to prevent our being equally successful in the more recently established seminaries? The same class of youth have to be instructed; the same desire exists on the part of the committee to give them a really good education; we have the same means at our disposal for accomplishing that object. A single show institution at the capital, to be always exhibited and appealed to as a proof of their zeal in the cause of liberal education, might answer very well, as far as the committee themselves are concerned; but what are the people of the interior to do, to whom this education would be equally useful, and who are equally capable of profiting by it? For their sake the committee have now established many Hindu colleges. English is a much easier language than either Arabic or Sanskrit. 'The study of Sanskrit grammar,' Mr. Adam observes, 'occupies about seven years, lexicology about two, literature about ten, law about ten, logic about thirteen, and mythology about four.'13 The course of study fixed for the Sanskrit college at Calcutta by Professor Wilson embraces twelve years, the first six of which are spent in learning grammar and composition; besides which, the boys are expected to know something of grammar before they are admitted. In three years boys of ordinary abilities get such a command of the English language as to be able to acquire every sort of aThe whole extract will be found at page 8 [For the original text, see Report on Colleges, 1831, p. 47J.

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information by means of it_ The Sanskrit is altogether a dead language. The Arabic is not spoken in India. The English is both a living and spoken language. b The Brahminical and Moslem systems belong to bygone days; a large portion of them has become obsolete; a still larger is only faintly reflected in the habits of the people. The associations connected with the new learning, on the other hand, are gaining ground every day. The English government is established; English principles and institutions are becoming familiarized to the native mind; English words are extensively adopted into the native languages; teachers, books, and schools are rapidly multiplied; the improvements in the art of education, the result of the extraordinary degree of attention which the subject has received of late years in England, are all applied to facilitate the study of English in India. Infant schools, which have lately been introduced, will enable native children to acquire our language, without any loss of time, as they learn to speak. Nine years ago, when the first English class was established in the upper provinces, C a few old fashioned English spelling books were with difficulty procured from the neighbouring stations. Nine years hence it is probable that an English education will be every where more cheaply and easily obtained than an Arabic or Sanskrit one. It is an error to anticipate the march of events, but it is not less so to neglect to watch their progress, and to be perpetually judging the existing state of things by a standard which is applicable only to past times. 'This, too, will acquire the authority of time; and what we now defend by precedents will itself be reckoned among precedents.' Native children seem to have their faculties developed sooner, and to be quicker and more self-possessed than English children. Even when the language of instruction is English, the English have no advantage over their native class-fellows. As far as capability of acquiring knowledge is concerned, the native mind leaves nothing to be desired. The faculty of learning languages is particularly powerful in it. It is unusual to find, even in the literary circles of the Continent, foreigners who can express themselves in English with so much fluency and correctness as we find in hundreds of the rising generation of Hindus. Readiness in acquiring languages, which exists in such a strong degree in children, seems to exist also in nations which are still rising to manhood. No people speak foreign languages like the Russians and Hindus. Such nations are going through a course of imitation, and those qualities of mind upon which their success depends seem to be proportionably developed. When we go beyond this point to the higher and more original powers of the mind, judgment, reflection, and invention, it is not so easy to pronounce an opinion. It has been said, that native youth fall behind at bThe familiar use of a living language is an advantage which the teachers of Latin and Greek, as well as those of Sanskrit and Arabic, might envy. cAt Delhi.

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the age at which these faculties begin most to develope themselves in Englishmen. But this is the age when the young Englishman generally commences another and far more valuable education, consisting in the preparation for, and practice of some profession requiring severe application of mind; when he has the highest honours and emoluments opened to his view as the reward of his exertions, and when he begins to profit by his daily intercourse with a cultivated intellectual, and moral society. Instead of this, the native youth falls back on the ignorant and depraved mass of his countrymen; and, till lately, so far from being stimulated to further efforts, he was obliged to ask himself for what end he had hitherto laboured. Every avenue to distinction was shut against him; and his acquirements served only to manifest the full extent of his degraded position. The best test of what they can do, is what they have done. Their ponderous and elaborate grammatical systems, their wonderfully subtle metaphysical disquisitions, show them to have a German perseverance and Greek acuteness; and they certainly have not failed in poetical composition. What may we not expect from these powers of mind, invigorated by the cultivation of true science, and directed towards worthy objects! The English, like the Hindus, once wasted their strength on the recondite parts of school learning. All that we can say with certainty is, that the Hindus are excellent students, and have learned well up to the point to which their instructors have as yet conducted them. A new career is now open to them: the stores of European knowledge have been placed at their disposal: a cultivated society of their own is growing up: their activity is stimulated by the prospect of honourable and lucrative employment. It will be seen what the next fifty years will bring forth. To return to the point from which I have digressed; it is true, that a smattering of English formerly prevailed to a considerable extent, without any beneficial result; and that English acquirements were held in great contempt. The government then encouraged nothing but Oriental learning; and English, instead of being cultivated as a literary and scientific language, was abandoned to menial servants and dependents, who hoped by means of it to make a profit of the ignorance of their masters. It was first rescued from this state of degradation by Lord William Bentinck who made it the language of diplomatic correspondence. d It was afterwards publicly recognised as the most convenient channel, through which the upper and middle classes of the natives could obtain access to the knowledge of the West; and many very good seminaries were established, to enable them to acquire it. The prejudice against English has now disappeared, and to know it, has become a dTranslations are sent, with the Governor-General's letters to the native princes, when there is any doubt as to their being understood. [For further details see Second Report from the Select Committee, 1852-3, pp. 149-50, 167-8; also lOR: Dispatches to India and Bengal, E/4/744, pp. 614-15.]

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distinction to which people of all classes aspire. There can be no doubt therefore of our now being able to make a deep and permanent impression on the Hindu nation through this medium, if sufficient means of instruction are provided. Another argument urged for teaching Arabic and Sanskrit is, that they are absolutely necessary for the improvement of the vernacular dialects. The latter, it is said, are utterly incapable of representing European ideas; and the natives must therefore have recourse to the congenial, accessible, and inexhaustible stores of their classical languages. To adopt English phraseology would be grotesque patchwork; and the condemnation of the classical languages to oblivion, would consign the dialects to utter helplessness and irretrievable barbarism. The experience both of the East and West demonstrates, that the difficulty which this argument supposes never can exist. If the national language can easily express any new idea which is introduced from abroad, a native term is usually adopted. But, if not, the word, as well as the meaning, are imported together from the same fountain of supply. This is the ordinary process; but the supply of words is not always limited to the strict measure of our wants. Languages are amplified and refined by scholars, who naturally introduce the foreign words with which their minds are charged, and which, from their being in the habit of using them, appear to them to be more expressive than any other. Hence that wealth of words, that choice of verbal signs, - some of domestic and others offoreign origin; some borrowed from cognate, and others from radically different sources, - which characterises the languages of the modern civilised nations. The naturalisation of foreign knowledge is, no doubt, a task of some difficulty; but history proves that as fast as it can be introduced, words are found in more than sufficient abundance to explain it to the people, without any special provision being necessary for that purpose. The greater effort involves the less; and this is the first time any body ever thought of separating them. Take our own language as an example. Saxon is the ground-work of it; Norman-French was first largely infused into it: then Latin and Greek, on the revival of letters; and, last of all, a few words from other modern languages. Each of these has blended harmoniously with the rest; and the whole together has become one of the most powerful, precise, and copious languages in the world. Yet Latin, and Greek, and French are only very distantly related to Saxon. It is curious that our own language, which we know to be so consistent and harmonious, had formerly the same reproach of incongruity cast on it. Klopstock14 called it an ignoble and barbarous mixture of jarring materials; to which SchiegeP5 justly replied, that although English is compounded of different languages, they have been completely fused into one and that no Englishman ordinarily thinks ofthe pedigree of the words which he uses, or is in the least offended by the difference in their origin. The same may be said, more or less, of all the 291

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modern European languages. If Bengalee and Hindusthanee ever become as well fitted for every purpose of literature and science as English and French, no person will have reason to complain of the process by which this may have been effected. A similar process has been gone through in India. Sanskrit itself was engrafted by a race of conquerors on the national languages, and very evident traces of its incongruity with them exist in the south ofIndia,e and in various hilly tracts. The Mahommedan invaders afterwards introduced a profusion of Arabic and Persian, and a few Turkish words. The Portuguese contributed the naval vocabulary and many other words, which are now so blended with the vernacular dialects as not to be distinguishable by the natives from words of ancient Indian origin. And, lastly, numerous English words have been already naturalised, and others are daily becoming so through the medium of our civil and military systems, of our national customs and institutions, and, above all, of our literature and science, which are now extensively cultivated by the rising generation. Of these auxiliary languages, the ancient unadulterated Persian is closely allied to the Sanskrit; but Arabic, with which Persian has been completely saturated since the conquest of Persia by the Arabians/ is as unlike Sanskrit as it is possible for one language to be unlike another. The Sanskrit delights in compounds: the Arabic abhors the composition of words, and expresses complex ideas by circumlocution. The Sanskrit verbal roots are almost universally biliteral: The Arabic roots are as universally triliteral. They have scarcely a single word in common. They are written in opposite directions; - Sanskrit, from left to right; Arabic, from right to left. 'In whatever light we view them,' observes Sir William Jones, 'they seem totally distinct; and must have been invented by two different races of men.'16 Portuguese and English, on the other hand, through their close connection with Latin and Greek, have a great deal in common with Sanskrit. In the face of these facts it is gravely asserted to be 'indispensably necessary'g to cultivate congenial classical languages, in order to enrich "The languages of the Peninsula, south of the districts in which Mahratta is commonly spoken, derive more than half their words from sources entirely independent of the Sanskrit. fArabic has been extensively introduced into the Indian vernacular languages, both mediately through Persian and immediately from Arabic literature. The complete union of the Arabic with the ancient Persian language, is as much a proof that the most uncongenial languages will readily amalgamate as its union with the Indian dialects. gIfthe supposed necessity really existed, our language must have been first improved by the cultivation of Anglo-Saxon philology, instead of Norman-French; the fathers of English literature must have coined words from the Teutonic dialects, to express the thoughts ofthe Greek, Roman, and Italian authors; our vocabularies of war, cookery, and dress-making, instead of being unaltered French, must first have been filtered through a German medium; and in India, every idea which has been adopted from the religion, the learning, and the jurisprudence of the Arabians, must have been translated into good Sanskrit before it could have been naturalised.

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and embellish the popular Indian dialects. Then, with a strange inconsistency, it is proposed to cultivate, for this purpose, as being a congenial language, the Arabic, which is the most radically different from the Indian dialects of any language that could be named; and, lastly, the English language, which has a distant affinity to those dialects, through the Saxon, and a very near connection with them through the Latin and Greek, is rejected as uncongeniaL When we once go beyond the limits of the popular vocabulary, Sanskrit, Arabic, and English are equally new to the people. They have a word to learn which they did not know before; and it is as easy for them to learn an English as a Sanskrit word. Numerous Arabic, English, and Portuguese terms have thus become household words in India, the Sanskrit synonymes of which are utterly unknown to the people. The first form part and parcel of the popular language: the last have no existence beyond the Shasters and the memories of a few hundred Pundits who are conversant with those old records. A gentleman, holding office in India, lately attempted to reduce to practice the theory now under consideration. In his official communications to the neighbouring courts, every word not of Sanskrit origin was carefully expunged, and a pure Sanskrit word was substituted for it. Thus Sungrahuk was thrust in the place of Collector, Sunkhuk of number, Adhesh of Hukm, Bhoomadhikaree of Zemeendar; and so on. The consequence was, that his communications were unintelligible to the persons to whom they were addressed; and it would have been better if they had been in Persian, from which we had at that time just escaped, than in such a learned jargon. 17 As it is therefore a matter of indifference from what source the vocabulary is derived, while it is admitted that English must be cultivated for the sake of the knowledge which it contains, will it not be advisable to make English serve both these purposes; to draw upon it for words as well as ideas; to concentrate the national energies on this single point? Otherwise it will be necessary for the same persons to make themselves good English scholars, in order that they may learn chemistry, geology, or mechanics; and good Sanskrit scholars, in order that they may get names to apply to what they have learned. Our main object is, to raise up a class of persons who will make the learning of Europe intelligible to the people of Asia in their own languages. An enlarged and accurate knowledge ofthe systems they will have to explain, such as can be derived only from a long course of study, will, at any rate, be necessary to qualify them for this important task. But, if they will then have to begin again, and to devote nine years more to the study of Sanskrit philology, we might as well at once abandon the attempt. Neither would it be possible for one set of persons to provide learning, and another words; and for every lecturer or writer on European subjects always to have his philologer at his elbow, to supply him with Sanskrit terms as they are required. Until the duration of human life is doubled, and means are found to maintain the literary class

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through twice the longest period now allotted to education, such complicated and cumbrous schemes of national improvement will be impracticable: and even if they were practicable, they would be useless. When the people have to learn a new word, it is of no consequence whether they learn a Sanskrit or an English one; and all the time spent in learning Sanskrit would therefore be downright waste. After a language has once assumed a fixed character, the unnecessary introduction of new words is, no doubt, offensive to good taste. But in Bengalee and Hindusthanee nothing is fixed; every thing is yet to be done, and a new literature has to be formed, almost from the very foundation. The established associations, which are liable to be outraged by the obtrusion of strange words, have therefore no existence in this case. Such refinement is the last stage in the progress of improvement. It is the very luxury of language; and to speak of the delicate sensibility of a Bengalee or Hindusthanee being offended by the introduction of new words to express new ideas, is to transfer to a poor and unformed tongue the feelings which are connected only with a rich and cultivated one. It will be time enough after their scientific vocabulary is settled, and they have masterpieces of their own, to think of keeping their language pure. When they have a native Milton or Shakespeare, they will not require us to guide them in this respect. All we have to do is to impregnate the national mind with knowledge. The first depositaries of this knowledge will have a strong personal interest in making themselves intelligible. They will speak to, and write for, their countrymen, with whose habits of mind and extent of information they will be far better acquainted than it is possible for us to be. They will be able to meet each case as it arises far more effectually than it can be done by laying down general rules before-hand. Those who write for the educated classes will freely avail themselves of English scientific terms. Those who write for the people will seek out popular explanations of many of those terms at a sacrifice of precision and accuracy. By degrees, some will drop out of use, while others will retain their place in the national language. Our own language went through this process. After a profuse and often pedantic use of Latin and Greek words by our earlier writers, our vocabulary settled down nearly in its present form, being composed of words partly of indigenous, and partly of foreign, origin, to which occasional additions are still made, as they are required, from both sources. The only safe general rule which can be laid down on this subject, is to use the word which happens at the time to be the most intelligible, from whatever language it may be derived, and to leave it to be determined by experience whether that or some other ought to be finally adopted. If English is to be the language of education in India, it follows, as a matter of course, that it will be the scientific language also, and that terms will be borrowed from it to express those ideas for which no appropriate symbols exist in the popular dialects. The educated class, through whom European knowledge will reach the people, will be familiar with English. 294

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They will adopt the English words with which they are already acquainted, and will be clear gainers by it, while others will not be losers. The introduction of English words into the vernacular dialects will gradually diminish the distance between the scientific and popular language. It will become easier for the unlearned to acquire English, and for the learned to cultivate and improve the vernacular dialects. The languages of India will be assimilated to the languages of Europe, as far as the arts and sciences and general literature are concerned; and mutual intercourse and the introduction of further improvements will thus be facilitated. And, above all, the vernacular dialects of India will, by the same process, be united among themselves. This diversity of language is one of the greatest existing obstacles to improvement in India. But when English shall every where be established as the language of education, when the vernacular literature shall every where be formed from materials drawn from this source, and according to models furnished by this prototype, a strong tendency to assimilation will be created. Both the matter and the manner will be the same. Saturated from the same source, recast in the same mould, with a common science, a common standard of taste, a common nomenclature, the national languages, as well as the national character, will be consolidated; the scientific and literary acquisitions of each portion of the community will be at once thrown into a common stock for the general good; and we shall leave an united and enlightened nation, where we found a people broken up into sections, distracted by the system of caste, even in the bosom of each separate society, and depressed by literary systems, devised much more with a view to check the progress, than to promote the advance, of the human mind. No particular effort is required to bring about these results. They will take place in the natural course of things by the extension of English education, just as the inhabitants of the greater part of Europe were melted down into one people by the prevalence of the Roman language and arts. All that is required is, that we should not laboriously interpose an obstacle to the progress of this desirable change by the forced cultivation of the Sanskrit and Arabic languages. The argument we have been considering is the last hold of the oriental party. Forced to admit that Sanskrit and Arabic are not worth teaching for the knowledge they contain, they would obtain a reprieve for them on the ground that their vocabularies are required to patch up the vernacular dialects for the reception of Western knowledge. Discarded as masters, they are to be retained as servants to another and a better system. Their spirit has fled, but their carcase must be preserved to supply the supposed deficiencies, and to impair the real energies, of the system which is growing up in their place. But, specious as the argument is, I should not have dwelt on it so long, if it had not been closely connected with a most pernicious error. The time of the people of India has hitherto been wasted in learning languages as distinguished from knowledge - mere words as distinguished from things 295

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- to an extent almost inconceivable to Europeans. This has been in a great measure unavoidable. The Mahommedan legal system was locked up in Arabic; the Hindu in Sanskrit; Persian was the language of official proceedings; English that of liberal education and of a great part of our judicial and revenue system - all of these being independent of the common colloquial languages. If, therefore, a person learned only one foreign or dead language, it was impossible for him to qualify himself to take an efficient part in public business. If he learned several, his best years were wasted in the unprofitable task of studying grammar and committing vocabularies to memory. Persons were considered learned in proportion to the number of languages they knew; and men, empty of true knowledge and genius, acquired great reputations, merely because they were full of words. As great a waste of human time and labour took place in India under this state of things, as is caused in China by their peculiar system of writing. In one country, life was exhausted in learning the signs of words, and in the other in learning words themselves. At first we gave decided encouragement to this false direction of the national taste. Our own attention was turned the same way. Oriental philology had taken the place of almost every other pursuit among our Indian literary men. The surprising copiousness, the complicated mechanism of the Sanskrit and Arabic languages were spoken of as if languages were an end to be attained, instead of a means for attaining an end, and were deserving of being studied by all sorts of people without any reference to the amount or kind of knowledge which they contain. All the concurrent systems were liberally patronised by the government, and the praises and the emoluments lavished on great Arabic and Sanskrit scholars, were shared by natives as well as Europeans. By degrees, however, a more wholesome state of things began to prevail. The government ceased to give indiscriminate support to every literary system, without reference to its real merits. Persian is ceasing to be the language of business. The study of Arabic and Sanskrit will soon be rendered superfluous by the inestimable boon which is being prepared for the people, of a complete body of law in their own language. By these changes an incalculable saving of human labour will be effected. The best literary, scientific, and professional education will be obtained at the expense of learning a single foreign language: and the years which were before painfully spent in breaking the shell of knowledge, will be employed in devouring the kernel. But if it be really true that the cultivation of the ancient classical languages is necessary to qualify the popular dialects for the reception of European knowledge, the progress of this salutary change must be arrested in the midst; the intellect ofthe country must be rechained to the heavy burden which has, for so many ages, prevented it from standing upright; and a pursuit which absorbs the time of the literary class, to the exclusion ofthose studies which can alone enable them to regenerate their

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country, must be indefinitely persevered in. It is true that neither the law, nor the administration of it, nor the established system of public instruction, any longer require this enormous sacrifice. But the philological system lately propounded by the advocates of Oriental education does require it. Such is the expense at which this theory is to be maintained. If crores, instead of lacs of rupees, had been spent in founding Sanskrit colleges and printing Sanskrit books, it would have been as nothing compared with this. The mental and moral energies of India are to be kept for ages in a state of worse than Egyptian bondage, in order that the vernacular dialects may be improved from congenial, instead of from uncongenial, sources. The ordinary terms on which the God of wisdom has accorded knowledge to his creatures are thought too easy; and new and hitherto unheard-of conditionsh are to be imposed, of such a nature as must effectually prevent the monopoly of learning, hitherto maintained in the East, from being broken in upon by the rapid diffusion of English education. Another argument used by the Oriental party is, that little real progress can be made until the learned classes in India are enlisted in the cause of diffusing sound knowledge, and that 'one able Pundit or Maulavee, who should add English to Sanskrit or Arabic, who should be led to expose the absurdities and errors of his own systems, and advocate the adoption of European knowledge and principles, would work a greater revolution in the minds of his unlettered countrymen than would result from their proficiency in English alone.'18 The first objection to this plan of reform is, that it is impracticable. An able Pundit or Maulavee can be formed only by a long course of instruction, extending far into the years of manhood. It is then too late to begin a new training in European literature and science, and even ifit were not too late, they would have no inclination for the task. Their interest, their affections, their prejudices, their pride, their religious feelings are all pre-engaged in behalf of the systems under the influence of which they have grown up, and by which their minds have been formed. Their time of change is in every respect gone by. Although the system of education advocated by the oriental party had a fair trial of upwards of ten years, no teacher of this description was produced, nor was there ever any appearance of one. A few Maulavees and Pundits may, to please us, have acquired a superficial hThe natives themselves have no idea of this alleged dependence of the vernacular languages upon the Sanskrit. Mr. Adam observes, at page 77 of his last report, 'There is no connection between the Bengalee and Sanskrit schools of Bengal, or between the Hindee and Sanskrit schools of Behar: the teachers, scholars, and instruction of the common schools are totally different from those of the schools of learning, the teachers and scholars being drawn from different classes of society, and the instruction directed to different objects. But this remark does not apply to the Persian and Arabic schools, which are intimately connected, and which almost imperceptibly pass into each other;' and to the same effect at greater length at page 59. [See Adam, Third Report, p. 77; see also DiBona, One Teacher, One School, p. 256 and pp. 240-4.]

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THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

knowledge of a few of the most obvious parts of the European systems of geography and astronomy, but none of them showed any disposition to preach a crusade against the systems under which they had been brought up, and to which they were still as much attached as any of their class. The next objection to this scheme is, that even if it were practicable, it is quite unnecessary. The object for which it is proposed to raise up teachers endowed with such rare qualifications, has been already accomplished. A revolution has already taken place in men's minds, not only among the unlettered, but what is of far more consequence, among the middle and upper classes, whose property, activity, and influence will secure the further extension, and the permanence of the change. The people are greedy for European knowledge, and crowd to our seminaries in greater numbers than we can teach them. What more do we want? Where would have been the wisdom of entertaining the 1,200 English students who besieged the doors ofthe Hooghly College 19 with lectures on the absurdities of the Pooranic system20 of the earth? They already fully admitted the superiority of our system, and came on purpose to be instructed in it; and so it is with thousands of youth in every part of the Bengal provinces. It is in vain to direct our instructions to those whose habits of mind are identified with the old system, and whose reputation and subsistence depend on its continuance. If Luther had addressed the Roman Catholic clergy, and Bacon the schoolmen, instead of the rising generation, and all who were not strongly pre-engaged in behalf of any system, we should have missed our European Reformation, both of philosophy and religion. Still less ought we to propagate the very systems, which it is our object to supplant, merely in the hope of being able to ingraft some shoots of European science upon them. Bacon did not educate schoolmen, nor Luther Roman Catholic priests, to become the instruments of their reforms. At this rate we should have been ever learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. The barren trunk and branches would have been always growing, while the exotic additions to this uncongenial stock, having no root in themselves, would have produced no fruit, however often they might have been renewed. Neither is it necessary or desirable to carryon war against the old system by direct attacks upon it, or by making offensive assertions of the superiority of our own. The ordinary effect of controversy is to excite hostility and bitterness of spirit. Ram Mohun Roy,21 who comes nearer to the idea ofthe reformed teacher of the orientalists than any body else who has appeared, was looked upon as an apostate by his party, and they were roused by his attacks to organise a regular opposition to his views. What we have to do is, not to dispute, but to teach - not to prepossess the minds of the natives with false systems, and to keep our good instruction till it is too late to be of use, but to get the start of their prejudice by educating them, from the beginning, according to our own views. We ought to cherish European learning, which has already taken deep root and begun to throw

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out vigorous shoots, leaving the trunk of the old system to a natural and undisturbed decay. The rising generation will become the whole nation in the course of a few years. They are all craving for instruction, and we may mould their unoccupied and supple minds in any way we please. The ancient system of learning is so constituted that while we have no assistance to expect, we have, at the same time, no opposition to fear, from its native professors. According to the theory of Hinduism, Law, Philosophy and Divinity, are the peculiar inheritance of the Brahmins, while the study of other branches of literature and science is open to the inferior castes. 'But practically,' Mr. Adam observes, 'Brahmins monopolise not only a part, but the whole, of Sanskrit learning. In the two Behar districts, both teachers and students, without a single exception belong to that caste, and the exceptions in the Bengal districts are comparatively few.'22 The Hindu system of learning is, in short, a close monopoly, which has been established by the Brahmins to secure their own pre-eminence. They make no proselytes, because they wish to have no rivals. Why therefore should we strive to extend this system beyond the limits which the Brahmins themselves wish? They have no notion of making it popular: their object is to confine it within the limits of the sacerdotal class. We, on the contrary, for a long time acted as if we desired to inundate the whole country with it. All the Brahmins aim at is, not to be interfered with in the exclusive enjoyment of their peculiar learning. The education of the mass of the people does not enter into their views: this great field is totally unoccupied; and we may establish on it our own machinery of public instruction, without clashing with any other interest. Our plan is based on exactly opposite principles from that of the Brahmins. Our object is to promote the extension,i not the monopoly of

iThe diffusive spirit of European learning is strikingly exemplified in the young men who are educated at our institutions. To convince others of the superiority of European knowledge, and to communicate that knowledge to them, is evidently regarded both as a duty and pleasure by them. It is a matter of course with them: their letters are full of it. Those who are rich establish, or aid in the establishment of schools: those who are poor often devote their leisure hours to giving gratuitous instruction; - they all aid in the good work to the extent of their ability. There may be something of the zeal of new converts in this, and of a desire to secure their own footing by increasing the number of the followers of the new learning: but, whatever may be the motive, the practice shows that Sanskrit and English literature inspire exactly opposite views of relative duty; and that while one is eminently selfish and exclusive, the other is benevolent and diffusive in its tendency. I believe that, in the great majority of instances, the educated natives are actuated in promoting the spread of European learning by a sincere desire to benefit their countrymen, by communicating to them that from which they have themselves derived so much pleasure and advantage. The same class of persons are distinguished by their liberal support of the public charities at Calcutta, - a duty in which the native gentlemen who have been brought up under the old system miserably fail. We shall not be surprised at this, when we recollect that our literature is deeply impregnated with the spirit of our beneficent religion; and that even the modern philosophy, which rejects religion, or professes to supply motives of action independent of it, has for its avowed object the amelioration of the condition of the mass of mankind.

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THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

learning; to rouse the mind and elevate the character of the whole people, not to keep them in a state of slavish submission to a particular sect. The laity, the great body of the middle and upper classes of native society, are now, for the first time, invited to enjoy the benefits of a liberal education. The key of knowledge has been restored to them; and they have been compensated for their long exclusion, by having opened to them fields of science with which the learning of the Brahmins is not to be compared. Wealth, numbers, influence, are on their side. The movement is becoming more and more irresistible; and the power of directing the public mind is passing from those who have exercised it for the last two thousand years to an entirely new set of men. Although the knowledge of Sanskrit is confined to the Brahminical caste, the Brahmins are by no means practically limited to a studious and religious life: the majority of them, perhaps, get their subsistence by secular pursuits. The number of persons, therefore, devoted to the study of Sanskrit is surprisingly small when it is closely examined: the number of those who study Arabic is still smaller. The following table, extracted from Mr. Adam's report,23 shows the actual number ofteachers and students of those languages, in five of the principal districts of Bengal and Behar:Arabic Teachers

Sanskrit

Students

Teachers

Students

Moorshedabad Beerbhoom Burdwan South Behar Tirhoot

2 2 12 12 6

5 55 62 29

7

24 56 190 27 56

153 393 1358 437 214

Total

34

158

353

2555

These facts are in the highest degree encouraging. In the single town of Hooghly there are as many boys receiving a good English education as the largest number of Sanskrit and Arabic students in anyone of the districts reported on by Mr. Adam. In the other four districts, the Oriental students do not exceed the average number of English scholars in those districts, in which our means of instruction have been tolerably organised. At Calcutta, where there are at least 6,000 boys learning English, the preponderance must be overwhelming on the side of European literature. If such be the relative position of Eastern and Western learning in India,i while the latter

iThe number of persons who cultivate the learned Eastern languages, is certainly much smaller in the Western provinces than in Bengal or Behar. There may be a few more Arabic scholars in some of the principal towns; but Sanskrit is generally held in no esteem, and is very little attended to. Whole districts might be named in which it would be difficult to find an Arabic or Sanskrit student.

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is yet in its infancy, how will it be when English education shall have approached its maturity? Besides the 158 Arabic students, Mr. Adam found 3,496 youths learning Persian in the five districts examined by him. But, although Arabic and Persian literature is strictly Mahommedan, the majority of the scholars were Hindus; 'Is this comparative large number of Hindu scholars' Mr. Adam continues, 'the effect of a laudable desire to study a foreign literature placed within their reach? Or is it the effect of an artificial stimulus? This may be judged by comparing the number of Hindu teachers and scholars of Persian, which, until lately, was almost the exclusive language oflocal administration, with that of Hindu teachers and scholars of Arabic, which is not called into use in the ordinary routine of government. With regard to teachers; there is not a single Hindu teacher of Arabic in the five districts: all are Mussulmans. With regard to scholars, there are only 9 Hindu to 149 Mussulman students of Arabic, and consequently 2,087 Hindus to 1,409 Mussulmans who are learning Persian. The small comparative number of Arabic students who are Hindus, and the large comparative number of the Persian scholars of the same class seem to admit of only one explanation; viz, that the study of Persian has been unnaturally forced by the practice of government; and it seems probable, that even a considerable number of the Mussulmans who learn Persian may be under the same artificial influence.'24 This is another proof, that the tendency of our system has hitherto been to encourage not English but Mahommedan learning. Persian has now ceased to be the official language; and, as it is not recommended by any other consideration, the study of it must soon die out. The inducement to learn Arabic will be greatly diminished, if it will not be altogether annihilated by the promulgation of a code. Sanskrit will, for the same reason, be cultivated by a smaller number of persons than formerly; and the study of it will be confined to those Brahmins who wish to qualify themselves to be priests and astrologers. Meanwhile the tide has set in strongly in favour of English; and the popular inclination is seconded by a system of public instruction, which is daily becoming more extended and better organised: an advantage which the old learning never had. The Brahminical monopoly of knowledge is now reacting on those for whose benefit it was established; and the national curiosity, which had for so many ages been deprived of its natural gratification, is greedily availing itself of the new opening presented to it. If this disposition of the people be only moderately gratified by the establishment so [?oi] proper means of instruction, we may reasonably expect that ten years hence the number of person[s] studying English will be in the proportion often to one to those who will be studying the learned Oriental languages. Lastly; it is urged, that as we have succeeded the native chiefs who were the natural patrons of Indian learning, we are bound to give that aid 301

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

to Oriental scholars which they would have done had they never been displaced by us. To promote the spread of knowledge among our subjects is undoubtedly one of the most sacred duties which has devolved on us as the rulers of India: but I cannot admit the correctness of the test by which the Oriental party would determine the kind of knowledge to be taught. Is it meant that we are bound to perpetuate the system patronised by our predecessors, merely because it was patronised by them, however little it may be calculated to promote the welfare of the people? If it be so, the English rule would be the greatest curse to India it is possible to conceive. Left to themselves, the inherent rottenness of the native systems must, sooner or later, have brought them to a close. But, according to this view of the subject, the resources of European skill are to [be] employed in imparting to them a new principle of duration: knowledge is to be used to perpetuate ignorance - civilisation to perpetuate barbarism; and the iron strength of the English Government to bind faster still the fetters which have so long confined the native mind. This is a new view of our obligations; and, if it be a just one, it is to be hoped that in pity to our subjects we shall neglect this branch of our duties. Fortunately for them, we have not thought it incumbent on us to act on this rule in other departments of administration. We have not adopted into our system barbarous penal enactments and oppressive modes of collecting the revenue because they happened to be favourites with our predecessors. The test of what ought to be taught is, truth and utility. Our predecessors consulted the welfare of their subjects to the best of their information: we are bound to do the same by ours. We cannot divest ourselves of this responsibility: the light of European knowledge, and the diffusive spirit of European benevolence give us advantages which our predecessors did not possess. A new class of Indian scholars is rising under our rule, more numerous and better instructed than those who went before them; and, above all, plans are in progress for enlightening the great body of the people as far as their leisure will permit - an undertaking which never entered into the imagination of any of the former rulers of India.

Notes 1 In fairness to Trevelyan, it should also be mentioned that (a) elsewhere in his book he acknowledges the earlier intellectual achievements of Indian civilization, and declares himself opposed to a public or polemical disparagement of oriental learning and literature; and (b) he had attempted to tackle some of the issues involved in persuading Indians to accept western education and culture in his earlier Treatise on the Means of Communicating the Learning and Civilisation of Europe to India (Calcutta, 1834) - the work which, as noted above (p. 173), seems to have significantly influenced the ideas in Macaulay's minute of 1835. None-

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

theless Trevelyan generally fails to appreciate the depth of Indians' attachment to their own culture, just as he overestimates the ease with which they would abandon those traditions in favor of western values. For a more revealing exposition of his attitude towards religions in India, see also the evidence that he gave to the House of Lords select committee on the Indian territories in 1853 (British Sessional Papers, House of Commons, 1852-3, xxxii, 6271, pp. 140-220). For Bentinck's 1835 resolution, see above pp. 194-6. For Wilson's article, see above pp. 205-24. For the 1813 Charter Act, see above pp. 90-2. This passage is from Macaulay's minute (see p. 163 above). For the resolution establishing the GCPI, see above pp. 108-9. For the Court of Director's dispatch of 1824 (drafted by James Mill), see above pp. 115-7. For Bentinck's resolution, see above pp. 194-6. This passage is from Macaulay's minute (see above p. 164). For more on this donation, see above, pp. 212, 224. The reference here is to James Prinsep's report on the level of English attained by the chemistry class at the new Calcutta Medical College, which is quoted on pp. 31-2 of Trevelyan's book. David Hare (1775-1842), Scottish businessman and educationalist, who established an English school in Calcutta at his own expense and played a leading part in the foundation of Hindu College in 1816-17. He also worked closely with Bengali intellectuals such as Radhakant Deb and Rammohun Roy. See also Report on Colleges, 1836, pp. 34-5 and 63. Trevelyan's limited quotation here is somewhat misleading. What William Adam actually says is as follows: 'Grammar, lexicography, and literature which include poetical and dramatic productions, although begun in succession are generally studied simultaneously and the same remark is in some measure applicable to law and logic. Taking however each branch of learning separately it would appear that the study of grammar occupies about seven years; lexicography about two; literature about ten; law about ten; logic about thirteen; and mythology about four.' (See Adam, Third Report, p. 45; also DiBona, One Teacher, One School, pp. 226-7.) Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803), German poet and critic. Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829), German writer and philologist. See Jones, Works, p. 54. The identity of Trevelyan's overly zealous Sanskritist has not been traced. This passage is from Wilson's article, above p. 216. Report on Colleges, 1836, p. 123. As represented in the Hindu scriptures known as the Puranas. For Roy's 1823 letter on education, see above pp. 110-4. The quote is from Adam, Third Report, p. 60 (see also DiBona, pp. 240-1). The following data is extracted from Adam, Third Report, pp. 61, 78, etc.; see also DiBona, One Teacher, One School, pp. 242-55. This passage is from Adam, Third Report, p. 78; see also DiBona, One Teacher, One School, pp. 257-8.

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-

Minute about 'Native Education' recorded in the General Department by the governor-general, Lord Auckland, 24 November 1839

By July 1839 it had become clear to members of the governor-general's council that the prolonged debate between the government and the GCPI about the appropriation of funds assigned to the oriental colleges and related issues, originally raised in successive Hindu and Muslim petitions, had reached a stalemate (see above, p. 274). The council accordingly decided to refer the outstanding questions to the governor general. Lord Auckland, for a final arbitrating decision. Unlike so many of the other documents included in this selection, which were primarily designed to present a distinct argument, usually either anglicist or orientalist. and/or to refute the opposing view, Auckland's minute of 24 November 1839 is obviously composed in a reconciling and inclusive spirit. Called upon to adjudicate not only on the question of funding for oriental colleges, but also on the separate proposals of William Adam for the improvement of elementary education in Bengal (see Introduction, pp. 59-60). Auckland soon realised that he had to provide authoritative rulings on all these issues, such as would draw a line under the previous bitter disputes, and, as far as possible, encourage the different parties to direct their future energies to implementing a cautious but convincing program of educational development for the whole of British India. Moreover, with the Court of Directors still unable to synthesize their official response to the Bentinck-Macaulay reforms, it also fell to the governor-general to accomplish these very difficult tasks without the court's explicit approval. though in the knowledge that he was still backed by Sir John Hobhouse, the president of the Board of Control. As soon becomes evident from reading his minute, Auckland employs two principal methods to achieve his primary objectives (leaving aside his reliance upon the briefing and advice of his able private secretary, John Colvin).1 In the first place, on the level of approach and style, he carefully avoids adopting the tone of a superior or coercive judge, preferring instead to demonstrate his broad appreciation of the widely differing points of view in the educational debate, as well as his respect for their leading spokesmen. By these means he skillfully seeks to draw the previously polarised parties into the broad framework of his compromise accords. Secondly, he shrewdly recognises that the solution to this intransigent conflict obviously needed more than fair words: in particular he saw that it required 'a principle of wise liberality,' materially expressed through the provision of sufficient extra funds to correct the previous situation in which the success of anglicist programs

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was largely seen to depend upon the diversion of assets formerly assigned to oriental education. Auckland's treatment of the crucial points referred to him provides a striking illustration of the effectiveness of his approach. Thus, in dealing with the basic issue of the future funding of the oriental colleges - put to him in terms of a request for a ruling on the implications of the government's rejection of the GCPI's plans to consolidate the separate college funds in April 1836 - he begins by diplomatically absolving the committee of any sinister intent to abolish the colleges by syphoning off their funds. He similarly concludes - again largely in the committee's favor - that the rejection of the consolidation plan did not imply that the government believed that the funds for the oriental colleges belonged permanently and exclusively to those particular bodies, or that the GCPI was in all such cases precluded from diverting portions of those funds to other educational projects elsewhere. Having in this way contrived to reassure the GCPI, Auckland moves boldly and swiftly to compensate the oriental colleges by giving them four key undertakings, viz. (1) to maintain and (where necessary) restore the full funds enjoyed by the colleges prior to the 1835 reforms (excluding a certain proportion required for the introduction of a new scholarship scheme and other special purposes); (2) to ensure that these funds should in the first instance be devoted to improving oriental education at the institutions concerned (i.e., not by reviving the former system of student stipends, but by providing better teachers, standard textbooks, etc.); (3) to confirm further that only when the oriental colleges were sufficiently improved could their funds become available for English instruction at the same institutions; and (4) to assent to the principle that the GCPI should refrain from diverting any funds thus assigned to the oriental colleges without first obtaining government consent. Finally, to secure his great object of 'our having closed these controversies,' Auckland neatly puts in place the last essential element in his carefully crafted package, in the form of a special commitment to the GCPI that it would in turn be compensated for any financial losses incurred following the 'restitution' of the oriental funds (i.e., presumably resulting from the loss of their claims to the lapsed stipendiary funds). Auckland's treatment of the oriental funding question (paras. 4-5) also needs to be linked with his subsequent detailed approval (paras. 18 and 33) of the new scheme for the introduction of scholarships or merit awards to be distributed in equal proportion to deserving students at both the oriental and English colleges. This proposal, as we have seen (p. 274). had earlier constituted another basic source of disagreement between the government and the GCPI. In finally deciding to deploy the scholarships, Auckland had thus succeeded in completing a viable overall settlement of the principal outstanding issues in the orientalist-anglicist dispute, as then understood. After this impressive display of his diplomatic and reconciling skills, Auckland's response to Adam's proposal for improving elementary and village schooling seems considerably less exciting. Of course, given the intellectual climate and the government's limited resources, it is hardly surprising to find Auckland quickly drawing back from the alarming prospect of sanctioning expenditure aimed at the mass education of a huge and illiterate peasant population. Such a program would have involved a complete departure from contemporary expert opinion, which was strongly in favor of top-down educational development, or, as the governor-general himself put it. the diffusing of 'wider information and better sentiments amongst the upper and middle classes' through a system of central colleges supplemented by minor

305

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

academies and district secondary schools. In this situation Auckland could do little more than thank Adam for his 'valuable and intelligent' work. and politely refer his findings to a range of supposedly interested bodies, such as the GCPI (already skeptical of Adam's proposals), the Court of Directors, and the Bombay government - leaving little hope of further action. The remainder of Auckland's minute (paras. 8-40) is largely taken up with a more leisurely. general review of several leading issues in British Indian educational policy. seeking in each case. often with considerable difficulty. to identify a viable future policy goal for the GCPI and the government to pursue. For example. he begins (paras. 8-19) by trying to weigh up the pros and cons of the rival strategies - orientalist. anglicist, and vernacularist - for achieving progress in higher education (defined as the most efficient way of spreading western education). Using fairly standard arguments. Auckland emerges as a tolerant. pragmatic anglicist, for whom the orienta list and vernacular systems seemed incapable of achieving sufficient progress within a reasonable time-frame, given such factors as the huge volume of translations needed and the presumed lack of commitment ascribed to the traditional learned classes. By comparison. and despite the admitted social obstacles. Auckland still sees English instruction as the most reliable option available for communicating 'a complete education in European literature. philosophy and science to the greatest number of Students.' At the same time. throughout his analysis. he is careful not to say anything that would cast doubt upon his earlier professed commitment to maintaining the efficiency of the oriental colleges. It is also apparent that he experiences some difficulties in establishing the ground for his preference for English education in the face of the contrary expert testimony of Hodgson. Wilkinson and Adam in favor of vernacular education.2 Auckland faces similar problems when he tries to reach for a clear-cut conclusion in his interesting separate discussion of the relative advantages of using English or the vernaculars in district secondary schools (paras. 19-32). In this complex area. many considerations were hard to evaluate. such as the comparative cost of each system. the local educational preferences. the effect of future employment prospects in vernacular-based district courts and offices. not to mention the lessons to be learnt from the different educational experiences of Bombay presidency. Eventually, after a balanced but rather meandering analysis. Auckland comes down in favor of maintaining and developing the existing English-medium schools in Bengal for the time being, regarding vernacular education as a very real future possibility. but one that needed to be properly planned for through the gradual provision of adequate new class-books and enough qualified teachers. In the last sections of his minute (paras. 35-9), Auckland is mainly concerned with the future funding priorities and development of the central colleges and district schools, but also with stressing the need for greater cooperation in educational policy and exchange of information with the presidencies of Madras and Bombay. See also Introduction. pp. 58-60. SOURCE(S): lOR: Board's Collections. F/4/1846. No. 77638. pp. 5-75. For another archival copy. see lOR: India General Consultations. No. 2 of 8 January 1840. P/186/92; and for a contemporary printed version. see Report of the General Committee of Public Instruction of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, for the Year 1839-40 (Calcutta: G.H. Huttman, Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1841). Appendix. pp. i-xxxvii. See also Sharp. Selections. pp. 147-70.

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DOCUMENT TWENTY-NINE

I have not hitherto, since I assumed charge of the Government, recorded my sentiments at any length on the important questions which regard the best means of promoting education amongst the Natives of India. 3 The subject is one of the highest interest, and especially calls for calm consideration and for combined effort. But unhappily I have found violent differences existing upon it, and it was for a time (now I trust past, or fast passing away) a watchword for violent dissension, and in some measure of personal feeling.4 I judged it best, under these circumstances, to abstain from what might have led me into unprofitable controversy, and to allow time and experience to act, with their usual healing and enlightening influence, upon general opinion. I may earnestly hope that we are now not very far remote from arriving at some satisfactory result in respect to our education5 controversies, and I will approach the topic, with the hope of contributing in some degree to this end. 2. Annexed to this paper will be found a Note compiled by Mr. Colvin,6 containing a condensed view of the principal facts, and of occasional notices of some considerations suggested by them, which relate to the general progress and present condition of the plans of Native Instruction as pursued in different parts of India, and of the tenor of the most important directions on the subject of public instruction which have been received from the Honorable the Court of Directors, and with reference to those facts, as they apply particularly to the progress effected in the different Presidencies, and to the circumstances which have come under my observation, when at the seat of several of our institutions in Bengal, I will endeavour to state with all fairness the conclusions to which I have brought my mind on this subject. 3. I have first however to state my opinions on two specific references connected with the question 7 which are before me from the President in Council - the one relating to the appropriation of funds heretofore assigned to particular institutions, 8 and the other to Mr. Adam's scheme for the improvement of the Indigenous Schools in the Bengal and Behar districts. 9 4. Before entering on the details of the first of these subjects, I may observe that it may in my opinion be clearly admitted, and I am glad from the papers before me to see that this opinion is supported by the authority of Mr. Prinsep,10 that the insufficiency of the funds assigned by the State for the purposes of Public Instruction has been amongst the main causes of the violent disputes which have taken place upon the education question, and that if the funds previously appropriated to the cultivation of Oriental literature had been spared, and other means placed at the disposal of the promoters of English Education, they might have pursued their object aided by the good wishes of all. In the Bengal Presidency, with its immense territory and a revenue of above 13 millions, the yearly expenditure of the Government on this account is little in excess of £24,000 or 2,40,000 307

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

Rupees,a and I need not say how in a country like India, it is to the Government that the population must mainly look for facilities in the acquisition of improved learning. There is I well know the strongest desire on the part of the authorities both in England and India to support every well arranged plan for the extension of education, and the Despatches of the Honorable Court are full of the evidence of their anxiety on the subject. I may cite in particular the declaration of a despatch of the 18th February 1824.11 'In the mean time we wish you to be fully apprized of our zeal for the progress and improvement of education among the Natives of India and of our willingness to make considerable sacrifices to that important end, if proper means for the attainment of it could be pointed out to us.' Such we may be assured is the feeling by which the Court is up to this time guided, and the difficulty has been not in any unwillingness to grant the money necessary to give effect to good plans, but in framing such plans, on principles admitted to be satisfactory, and in finding fit agents for the execution of them. I have alluded to the limited amount and to the existing appropriation of our present funds, not certainly with the slightest idea of casting reproach upon the previous course of administration, but merely as a fact which is of importance in its bearing upon former discussions. The sum immediately at command was limited. Parties wishing to promote the diffusion of knowledge in different forms contended eagerly, the one to retain, the other to gain, that sum for the schemes to which they were respectively favorable, and had fresh sums been at once procurable, no one might have objected to their employment for a full and fair experiment on the new ideas which began to prevail. The inference to which I would point from these facts and observations is that a principle of wise liberality, not stinting any object which can reasonably be recommended, but granting a measured and discriminating encouragement to all, is likely to command general acquiescence, and to obliterate, it may be hoped, the recollection of the acrimony which has been so prejudicial to the public weal in the course of past proceedings. The Honorable Court have already, as was to be expected, acted on this principle. They have made a separate grant for the publication of works of interest in the ancient literature of the country to be disbursed through

a[Marginal note]-

Parliamentary Grant Interest on Govt notes Madressa Sanscrit College Delhi Escheat Fund Benares College Agra College Endowment of village Interest of Government notes Per Mensem

308

Rs 1,175 622

8,888 3,030 2,666 2,055 250 1,701

1,797 Rs20,387

DOCUMENT TWENTY-NINE

the appropriate channel of the Asiatic Society, and this measure is one which has been hailed with universal satisfaction. 12 5. On the merits of the first of the two questions immediately referred to me, which I would consider in the spirit which I have here commended, I would at once say, on the position that the Government has given a pledge that the funds heretofore assigned to particular Institutions shall continue to be so for ever appropriated, that I cannot hesitate to express my conviction that the acts or intentions of the Government will not justly bear this very exclusive and restrictive construction. I remember the discussion of April 1836,13 and certainly I did not understand that the Resolution to which the Government then came was intended to have the force of a particular guarantee of the expenditure, wholly within each Institution (whatever might be the nature of the instruction to which they might be devoted), of the funds which might have been assigned to it. The plain meaning of the proceedings and the professions of the Government seems to me to have been that, stipends having been every where discontinued, it would do nothing towards the abolition of the ancient Seminaries of Oriental learning, so long as the community might desire to take advantage of them, their preservation as Oriental Seminaries being alone at that time within the contemplation of either party. Had it been intended to promise that, whether Arabic, Sanscrit, or English were taught, the particular institutions should at all events be retained, the meaning would surely have been expressed in much more distinct terms. My impression of the state of the case is briefly this: that the General Committee viewing the maintenance of the Oriental Colleges, on the footing to which I have referred, as prescribed and secured, proposed to consolidate all separate grants into one general fund, the savings of which, after the Oriental Colleges should have been thus provided for, should be held by them to be clearly applicable to their general purposes. The answer of the Government on 13th April 1836, after a discussion in which I in the first instance expressed a willingness to assent to the propositions of the Committee, was in these guarded terms - 'Under existing circumstances, the Government in India thinks it will not be advisable to make the consolidation into one fund of all grants, made heretofore by Government, for purposes of education, as suggested by the SubCommittee of Finance, nor does his Lordship in Council imagine that the Committee will be put to much inconvenience by drawing its funds separately as heretofore and crediting them whether derived from a Government monthly grant or from the interest of stock previously accumulated, to the particular Seminaries to which they have been assigned b leaving any excess available in any institution to be appropriated as may appear most equitable with reference to the orders

b[Marginal note] So with erasure in the original Draft.

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of Government, 7th March 1835,14 and the pledges and assurances that may have been given to particular institutions.'15 The alteration of the word 'belong' to 'have been assigned' as marked above, will shew the spirit of compromise amongst varying opinions in which the draft was agreed to. There was here no statement that the consolidation was a thing wholly out of the question. The diversion of funds from particular Institutions was admitted as a measure which might or might not be proper, and (the circumstances of all Institutions not being before the Government) there is a reservation for the pledges and assurances 'that may have been given' to some ofthem. Under such a reservation, if a specific promise in perpetuity of a particular sum to a particular Institution could be shewn, such a promise would have of course to be respected, but otherwise by these orders of April 1836 things were left exactly as they stood before. Whilst, however, I am bound to declare that such is my distinct impression on the subject, and whilst for one I would reject the strict principle of absolute and irreclaimable appropriation, I am yet strongly of opinion that it will be best on every account to dispose of the question on the principle of a liberal consideration to all wants and claims. I see no advantage to be gained in this case by a close contest for strict constructions, and having taken a review of money estimates and of local wants, I am satisfied that it will be best to abstract nothing from other useful objects, while I see at the same time nothing but good to be derived from the employment of the funds which have been assigned to each Oriental Seminary, exclusively on instruction in, or in connection with, that Seminary. I would also give a decided preference, within these institutions, to the promotion in the first instance of perfect efficiency in Oriental instruction, and only after that object shall have been properly secured in proportion to the demand for it, would I assign the funds to the creation or support of English Classes. At the same time, I would supply to the General Committee of Public Instruction from the Revenues of the State any deficiency that this Resolution might cause in the general income at their disposal - and if they should already have partially used for other objects, the savings arising from the Seminaries supported by special funds, I would, in recalling such savings, protect the General Committee from loss on that account. The Statement in the margine will shew the contribution from C[Marginal note]-

Amount of stipends Dec. 1834 Calcutta Sanscrit College Madressa Benares College Agra College Delhi College Total Deduct

310

696 654 348 480 627

8,352 7,848 4,176 5,660 7,524 33,560 8,390 25,170

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the Revenue which this final settlement of the subject will occasion. It will be perceived that, calculating from the amount of stipends as they existed untouched in the end of 1834 and deducting 1/4th as required at all events for the Oriental Colleges under a scheme of scholarships such as I shall hereafter state that I would approve, the additional annual disbursement from the Treasury will be about 25,000 Rupees and perhaps there may be 6,000 Rupees more per annum, on account of the office, which has been abolished, of Secretary to the Sanscrit College at Benares. 16 I am well persuaded that the Honorable Court will approve of our having closed these controversies at this limited amount of increased expense. I would upon this understanding, willingly join in the direction sent to the General Committee in the letter of Mr. Prinsep on the 31st of July last, 'to avoid making any alienation' (from the assigned funds of the Oriental Institutions) 'without previously soliciting the sanction of Government.'17 They should, as I have said, be desired to appropriate the funds within the Oriental Colleges, first to Oriental and then to English Instruction. I would not, on any account, admit the extension of the system of Scholarships within these Colleges beyond the general proportion (which should be on a liberal scale) allowed elsewhere, for this would be an excessive and artificial encouragement which might be justly objected to. But I would secure the most eminent Professors for the Colleges. I would encourage the preparation, within the limits of the funds, of the most useful books of instruction, such as of the Siddhants and Sanscrit version of Euclid which Mr. Wilkinson has urged upon us,18 and I would provide, in some form, which the General Committee should be required to take into early consideration, for an improved and effective superintendence of the Oriental colleges of the North-Western Provinces, where I know that such a supervision is very obviously required. Funds that might still remain available could be doubtless to much advantage devoted to European instruction in union with those particular institutions, and I should look with very warm interest to an efficient scheme for imparting English education to Mahomedans at the Madrissa in Calcutta. 6. The other reference made to me is with regard to Mr. Adam's plan for the improvement of indigenous Schools and Teachers. I would observe upon it that it is impossible to read his valuable and intelligent report, 19 without being painfully impressed with the low state of Instruction as it exists amongst the immense masses of the Indian Population. Attempts to correct so lamentable an evil may well be eagerly embraced by benevolent minds. Yet I cannot but feel with the President in Council that the period has not yet arrived when the Government can join in these attempts with reasonable hope of practical good. When Mr. Adam enforces his views 'for the instruction of the poor and ignorant, those who are too ignorant to understand the evils of ignorance and too poor, even if they did, to be able to remove them,'20 the inference irresistibly presents itself that among these is not the field in which our efforts can at present be most 311

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successfully employed. The small stock of knowledge which can now be given in Elementary Schools will of itself do little for the advancement of a people. The first step must be to diffuse wider information and better sentiments amongst the upper and middle classes, for it seems, as may be gathered from the best authorities on the subject, that a scheme of general instruction can only be perfect, as it comprehends a regularly progressive provision for higher tuition. In the European States where such systems have been recently matured, this principle is, I believe, universally observed. There is a complete series of Universities in great Towns, of Academies in Provincial Divisions, and of small local Schools, all connected in a combined plan of instruction. The extension of the plan to the Parish or Village School has been the last stage, as must naturally have been the case, in the national progress. Mr. Adam's plan contemplated such a rise of able pupils from the village to the Zillah schools, but the suggestion could not immediately have effect. Here we are yet engaged in the formation and efficient direction of our Upper Institutions. When, indeed the series of Vernacular Class Books for our single Zillah Schools which is still a desideratum, and to which I shall subsequently refer, shall have been published and their utility shall have been established by practice, Mr. Adam's recommendations may be taken up with some fairer prospect of advantage. For the present, I would confine our measures in reference to his reports to injunctions on the General Committee that they bear in mind his particular suggestions and objects in determining on the series of Class Books referred to. I would submit the plan to the Honorable Court for the expression of their sentiments and wishes, and in the collection of information for an eventual decision I would make use of the experience which the Bombay measures of Village instruction, alluded to in the note annexed,21 will have afforded. For this purpose I would communicate Mr. Adam's report to the Government of Bombay, and ask how far the scheme which he describes is in accordance with that which is pursued in the Provinces of that Presidency, and what opinion may be formed, from the result already obtained by their village Schools, of the propriety of carrying out Mr. Adam's plans in their important parts. The encouragement to existing School Masters, which is the leading suggestion in Mr. Adam's plan, will probably have been largely tried at Bombay, and the extent to which those School Masters have reaped improvement under such encouragement will be a most interesting subject of inquiry. I learn also in the course of my inquiries regarding the previous progress of education in India, that a School Society existed for some time in Calcutta, the operations of which were directed with partial success to the amendment of indigenous Schools. 22 Mr. Hare 23 will probably be able to explain the history of this society, which drew a grant of 400 or 500 Rupees a month from Government, and to give also the causes of its extinction. I would ask this gentleman to favor Government with a report regarding that society 312

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and I would conclude upon this subject by recording my opinion that, when such a scheme as that proposed by Mr. Adam comes to be tried, the arrangements for introducing it should be on a liberal and effective scale, and that it ought not to be undertaken at all until the Government is satisfied that it has at command a thoroughly zealous and qualified superintendence. 7. Having said thus much in answer to the references made to me by the President in Council, I would proceed to record my observations upon the topics which seem to me most important, in regard to our plans of education. I strongly feel that in all that we can do, we must be prepared for much disappointment in our early efforts to satisfy the demands made upon us on this subject. By some it will be lamented that we do not at once perfect enlarged schemes for general education, by others it will be regretted that what we do for the best pupils of our few Seminaries seems to produce so partial an effect. Feeling of this nature will attend us in whatever attempts we may engage for the improvement of any branch of our Indian Government. Our governing and instructed class belongs to a highly civilized community. It is in active and increasing intercourse with the European world where, in our advanced state of society, skill and enterprize are daily gaining new triumphs. It is naturally impatient for the introduction in India of every plan which has, though probably after repeated trials and failures, been adopted with success in European countries, and the spirit of free discussion excites benevolent minds to bring forward the most extensive projects. On the other hand, we are dealing with a poor people, to the vast majority of whom the means of livelihood is a much more pressing object than facilities for any better description or wider range of study. Our hold over this people is very imperfect, and our power of offering motives to stimulate their zeal is but of confined extent. The agency which we can employ for reform is extremely narrow and liable to constant derangement. Of those who are willing to devote their energies to the business of giving or superintending instruction, oriental scholars are apt to be unduly prepossessed in favor of acquirements obtained by much labour and to which they are indebted for reputation; while mere European Scholars are liable to be ignorant of and neglect national feeling, or are at all events incompetent to make a proper use of native means for the execution of their plans. Where even the mind of our able pupil has been very greatly informed and enlightened, the knowledge gained by him may seem to produce no adequately corresponding result in after life. The student may stand alone in the family or society of which he forms a part. These can very generally have few feelings in common with him, and he may be unhappy and discontented in his peculiar position, or he may yield to the influence 24 by which he is surrounded and accommodate himself to the sentiments and practices which his reason has taught him to disapprove. Add to this, that ifhe finds that his knowledge opens to him the prospect of advancement, he will 313

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under a restricted competition, be over confident in his own powers and unreasonable in his expectations, while at the same time he will be tempted to relax in the exertions necessary to maintain or carry forward, the standard of proficiency at which he has arrived. These are circumstances of the operation of which we must all I think in a greater or less degree have had practical experience. I can only say upon them that we must neither entertain sanguine or premature hopes of general success, nor yet allow ourselves to be seriously discouraged. We must be content to lay even the first rude foundations of good systems, and trust for the rest in time, to the increasing demand of the public and of individuals for the services of educated men, to the extension which must every year take place of the Agency for instruction at the command of Government, and to the certain effects of the spread, however slow, of knowledge, and of the gradual growth of wealth and intelligence in the community. 8. I would in now offering my opinions and suggestions on the present practical directions of our plans, desire to consider the question of our educational policy as one of interest to every portion of the Empire, without minute reference to merely local and temporary discussions. I am aware that we are yet in expectation of the orders of the Home Authorities 25 on the subject of the changes in the scheme of education in Bengal, which were adopted by Government in 1835. But I would not on this account longer withhold the explanation of my own sentiments on the course which should be adopted, and I do not anticipate that, in what I shall propose, I shall be found to have deviated, in any material degree from the wishes of the Honorable Court. 9. I would first observe that I most cordially agree with the Court in their opinion, which is quoted in para. 45 of Mr. Colvin's note, that, with a view to the moral and intellectual improvement of the people, the great primary object is the extension, among those who have leisure for advanced study, of the most complete education in our power. There cannot I think be a doubt of the justice of their statement that 'by raising the standard of instruction among these classes, we would eventually produce a much greater and more beneficial change in the ideas and feelings of the community than we can hope to produce by acting directly on the more numerous class.'26 It is not to be implied from this that in my view elementary education for the mass of the people is a thing necessarily to be neglected, or postponed for an indefinite period, but it will have been seen that the hope of acting immediately and powerfully on the mass of the poor peasantry of India is certainly far from being strong with me. And the practical question, therefore to which I would before all others, give my attention is as 27 to the mode in which we may endeavour to communicate a higher education with the greatest prospect of success. 10. One mode which has been ably contended for is that of engrafting European knowledge on the studies of the existing learned classes, of the 314

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Mouluvees and the Pundits of India. I confess that from such means I anticipate only very partial and imperfect results. I would, in the strictest good faith, and to the fullest extent, make good the promise of upholding, while the people resort to them, our established institutions of Oriental learning. I would make those Institutions equal sharers with others in any general advantages or encouragements which we are satisfied ought to be afforded with a view to the promotion of due efficiency in study. I would from the funds which have been before allowed to them, assist in them, as I have already said, any judicious plans for ameliorating the course of study, as by aiding the publication of works which may seem likely to be decidedly useful to the students; nor am I at all disposed to undervalue the amount of sound education and morality which is to be acquired at these Seminaries, even without calling in the sources 28 of European science and literature. I will not profess deep respect for the mere laborious study of a difficult language, or of the refinements and subtleties of scholastic learning. But sensible as assuredly I am of the radical errors and deficiencies of the Oriental system, I am yet aware that the effect of all advanced education, and I will add, especially of a Mahomedan education, is in cherishing habits of reflection, of diligence, and of honorable emulation, that it tends also to elevate the tone of moral character, though its practical effect is unfortunately too frequently marred by the domestic and social habits of Oriental life. Judging however, from the common principles of human nature, and from such experience as is referredd to in the case of Mr. Wilkinson at Bhopal,29 it is not to the Students of our Oriental Colleges, trained, as it will be admitted that they are in a faulty system to which they are yet naturally and ardently attached, that I would look for my chief instruments in the propagation of a new knowledge and more enlarged ideas. It was not through the Professors of our ancient schools, but by the efforts of original thought and independent minds, that the course of philosophical and scientific investigation and of scholastic discipline was for the most part reformed in Europe. The process of translation, it is to be added, into the learned languages must unavoidably be so slow that on that account alone, the arguments in favor of a more direct method of proceeding appear to me conclusively convincing. 11. Another class of recommendations is that all the leading facts and principles of our literature and science be transferred by translations into the vernacular tongues. Mr. Hodgson in his Book on Education, says,30 'As a practical measure for the immediate adoption of Government, I have no hesitation in saying that to found a college for the rearing of a competent body of translators and of schoolmasters, in other words, for the systematic supply of good vernacular books and good vernacular teachers d[Marginal note] See paras 23 & 24 of Note [by John Colvin, cited below in editorial note 6].

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(leaving the public to employ 31 both, in case the Government fund be adequate to no more than the maintenance of such College) would be an infinitely better disposal of the Parliamentary grant than the present application of it to the training of a promiscuous crowd of English smatterers, whose average period of schooling cannot by possibility32 fit them to be the regenerators of their country, yet for whose further and efficient prosecution of studies, so difficult and so alien to ordinary uses there is no provision nor inducement whatever.' 12. But those who support this course overlook in the first place, the extreme practical difficulty of preparing any very extensive course of translated or adapted works. We are speaking now of the means of an advanced and thorough Education, and not of a limited series of works for the purposes of common instruction, to the compilation of which, as I shall have immediate occasion to remark, I am entirely favorable. The difficulties of translation have been illustrated by our knowledge of what has been effected at Bombay, where the object has been prosecuted with much zeal, and I have annexed to this Minute, a list of the works which have been prepared in Arabic by the European Officers attached to the service of the Pasha of Egypt, and it will be seen how very confined the number is, excepting in works of Military, Medical or other science. 33 The clear truth seems to be that works of science may, at least to some considerable extent, (their range being necessarily contracted) be rendered into other languages within a comparatively moderate period, but the translation, within any time the extent of which we could reasonably calculate, of any thing like a sufficient library of works of general literature, history and philosophy, is an impossible task. I have only therefore, to conclude on this point by stating my entire concurrence in the opinion which has been quoted in the Note from a Despatch of the Honorable Court to the effect 'that the higher tone and better spirit of European literature can produce their full effect only on those who become familiar with them in the original languages.'34 13. I would then make it my principal aim to communicate, through the means of the English language, a complete education in European literature, philosophy and science to the greatest number of Students who may be found ready to accept it at our hands, and for whose instructions our funds will admit of our providing. All our experience proves that, by such a method, a real and powerful stimulus is given to the Native mind. We have seen that, in Bombay, as at Calcutta, from the time at which effective arrangements have been made for the higher branches of instruction in English, the understandings of the Students have been thoroughly interested and roused, and that the consequences have wonderfully, to use the words of the Calcutta Committee of Public Instruction in 1831, 'surpassed expectation.'35 The difficulty which attends this course is the very important one, not of principle, but of practice namely, that the wants and circumstances of our Indian population bring

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to our Colleges so few who desire, or are able, to receive from us the complete English education, which it is our object to impart to them. Those who look with greater confidence to other methods of diffusing knowledge in this country, dwell especially upon this difficulty. Mr. Hodgson argues that we have no reasonable ground to hope here for the same wide study of English Literature, and subsequent use of the information acquired in it for the purposes of vernacular composition, as occurred in the different stages of European civilization with reference to the Greek and Roman models from which that civilization was chiefly derived. His words are 36 'True, the difficult and inapt science of Greece and Rome was in modern Europe, first mastered in itself, and eventually worked into our own speech and minds. But how? by the employment of means adequate to the end, by the existence of circumstances most powerfully efficient to forward that end. A thousand predisposing causes led a mighty nobility to seek in this lore the appropriate ornament of their rank and Station. A Church which monopolised a third of the wealth of the continent, called Rome its mother and Greece its foster-mother: and throughout the great part of that continent, the Law, Ecclesiastical and Civil, was even lingually37 Roman. Hence 38 the magnificent endowments and establishments and permanent inducements of all kinds by which a difficult and exotic learning was at length effectually naturalized amongst us. Hence 39 the scholar, if he pleased might pursue in retirement letters as a profession, assured of a comfortable provision for life;40 or if he pleased, he might devote himself to the task of instructing the scions of a most influential and wealthy nobility, all of them from peculiar association, necessitated to become his pupils whether they profited by his lessons or not, and thereby affording him 41 the certainty of an enduring means of livelihood; or if he pleased, he might pass from the Cloister or the College into the world, and there find the greater part of its most important concerns subservient to the uses and abuses of his peculiar gifts.' 14. Mr. Wilkinson has also on different occasions remarked that it seems to him that Education in English should be confined for the present to the Presidencies and to some of the principal Provincial Stations, as being the only places at which there is yet an actual demand for it. 15. Mr. Adam says of the condition of our English Scholars, 'Extraordinary efforts have been made to extend a knowledge of the English language to the Natives, but those who have more or less profited by the opportunities presented to them do not find much scope for their attainments which on the other hand little fit them for the ordinary pursuits of Native Society. They have not received a good Native education, and the English education they have received finds little if any use. There is thus a want of sympathy between them and their countrymen, although they constitute a class from which their countrymen might derive much benefit. There is also little sympathy between them and the foreign rulers of the country because they feel that they have

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been raised out of one class of Society without having a recognized place in any other class.'42 16. But I believe that in all these opinions, the practical value of superior English acquirements is very greatly underrated. A familiarity with the general principles of legislation and government, and the power of offering information or opinion upon public affairs in English Reports (which is the form in which the higher correspondence regarding the British administration in India, will of course always be conducted), must be qualifications so directly useful as (not to speak of the recommendations of an improved moral character) to ensure to the possessors of them a preference for the most lucrative public employments, after they shall have acquired that knowledge of life and of business, and that good opinion among those who have had opportunities of witnessing their conduct, which mere book-learning never can bestow. There are as yet, no doubt, circumstances of temporary operation, which will keep for a period our best English Scholars from reaping from their studies all the worldly profit which will ultimately accrue to them. Our course of instruction has not hitherto been so matured as to include any efficient and general arrangement for giving that knowledge e of morals, jurisprudence, law and fiscal economy which the Honorable Court have so wisely and earnestly insisted on,43 and which will be most directly useful in the discharge of administrative duties. There are other obstacles also which for a time may impede our young scholars in their desire to obtain public office. They may over-estimate their own pretensions, and decline to accept the subordinate situations which alone it may at first be thought right to entrust to them. The cure for such exaggerated expectations will come with time. When this class of candidates becomes more numerous, there will be a less hesitation with many of them in taking lower appointments. In the mean while, it is known that I am not disposed to adopt any special means, which could be felt as doing injustice to the rest of the community for connecting our educated English Students with the public service. This subject has been fully discussed in my Minute in the Judicial f Department of September 4th, 1838, the completion of the measures consequent on which I am anxiously awaiting. The scheme proposed by the Honorable the President in Council, to which in that respect, I assented in the Minute referred to, included, however, the appointment of a limited number of Native Assistants to some of the best of our Zillah Judges, who would be instructed in the forms and practice of office - and so far there would be an immediate opening for the employment of several of our Students. The general character of my recommendations in that Minute was however to establish a test of qualification, before selection for the honourable and e[Marginal notel See para 5 of Note [by Colvinl. f[Marginal notel Recorded in the Legislative Department. [The minute in question is entered in lOR: India Legislative Consultations, No. 19 of 8 October 1838, P / 206 / 95l.

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responsible situation of a Moonsiff, for all candidates, wheresoever and in whatever language instructed, and to procure the compilation and printing of Manuals of legal instruction, in the Native tongues as well as in English, which might be taught every where, by private Masters or in public institutions. To the principle ofthis plan I would steadily adhere. But in our Colleges I would carry instruction of this kind, further than would be the aims of these Manuals, which would be more proper for use in our common Schools. Having thus supplied suitable aids for the acquisition ofthe knowledge most requisite in public life, I would look with assured confidence to the recognition by the community of the advantages of an advanced English education, comprising those branches of study, a conversancy with which would place an instructed Native Gentleman on a level with our best European Officers. It is true, and no one has more heartily concurred and rejoiced in the determination than myself, that the Vernacular tongues, and not English, will be the future language of the Courts and the Offices in the interior of the Country. But this circumstance will in no degree detract from the force of those inducements to English study, of which, as regards the vast and most important correspondence which must ever be conducted in English, I have just spoken; nor need I dwell on the degree to which such inducements will be increased to the mere fact of English being the language of the ruling and governing Class in India. This is an encouragement to the pursuit of English that will probably greatly counter balance the want, which has been justly noticed by Mr. Hodgson, of those motives to its cultivation which would have existed in such strength had English been here, as the Classical languages were in the West, the established language of theology and of law. 17. It will be observed that I have referred chiefly to inducements connected with employment in the public Service as likely to lead Indian Students to ask admission to our Colleges. This, we may be satisfied, is the principal motive which will as yet operate to bring them to any of our educational Institutions. Excepting perhaps partially in Calcutta (and possibly, though I am not informed on the point, at Bombay) the wealthy and higher classes of India do not send their sons to Public Colleges and Schools. Those who come to us for instruction are in search ofthe means of livelihood, either in places under the Government, or in situations under individuals which in the peculiar constitution of the Indian Government and Society, bring them, in a greater or less degree, in connection with the public administration. I mention this point, as explanatory of the importance to be attached to the nature of the instruction communicated to our Students. The remark applies with equal force to our institutions for the study of the Classical learning of the East. Putting aside the money stipends which were formerly allowed, the great object of the Students in the Sanskrit and Arabic Colleges of the Government has been to rise to office as Law Pundits and Moulavees in the Courts. The knowledge which 319

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

gains for men, reputation and profit among the Native community, as great religious teachers, or among the Hindoos, as proficients in astrology, is not to be acquired at those Colleges, and will best be obtained elsewhere, from private Native Instructors. If there be not a demand for the same number of Law Pundits and Moulavees as previously, the attendance at the Colleges may be expected to decline, though in the Arabic in a much less degree than in the Sanskrit Colleges; for Mahomedan Studies fit men far more than those of Hindu learning for all the active offices of life. 18. What has been said may suffice to prove that there are weighty and daily growing inducements to the pursuit of English education, if directed with a proper attention to the wants of Scholars and to practical results. It remains that means should be furnished, at least to the most promising of the Scholars, to continue their Studies to the desired completion, as incontestible proof appears to have been given thatg their poverty would otherwise generally compel them to retire from College as soon after their leaving boyhood as an opportunity of securing a provision for their subsistence might be open to them. On this point I will immediately remark separately; but I would here again say that I am of opinion, in full concurrence with the President in Council, that whatever amount of reward and support for meritorious Students may be granted to those attached to our English, should be granted also in perfectly like proportion in our Oriental Institutions. The pledge to maintain these latter Institutions while resorted to by the people involves 44 to my mind the clear obligation to maintain them with all the conditions which are judged necessary for the general efficiency of our educational Schemes. 19. Assuming upon the preceding reasoning that our aim as regards those Seminaries of highest learning which are not, like the learned Eastern Colleges, specially assigned to other objects, should be to communicate European knowledge through the medium of the English language, it is next to be considered what should be the character of the minor academies or Schools, such as may probably be eventually established at every Zillah station. 20. I have not stopped to state that correctness and elegance in vernacular composition ought to be sedulously attended to in the Superior Colleges. This is a matter of course in the scheme of instruction. But a question may well be raised whether in the Zillah Schools, the subject matter of instruction ought not to be conveyed principally through the vernacular, rather than the English Medium. 21. I would certainly be much in favour of that course if! saw any solid reason to believe that instruction of a common order would more readily and largely be accepted from the Government in the one mode than the other. I am quite of opinion that a very valuable amount of useful

g[Marginal note] See details at the close of Para 8 and Para 10-15 of Note [by Colvin].

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knowledge may be easily conveyed, when good Class books and persons competent to teach from them are provided through the means of the vernacular languages_ And while I am satisfied that some not trivial amount of moral and intellectual stimulus and improvement is obtained from the minor English Schools at present existing, yet the Standard of proficiency in them is probably not so great as that the mass of Scholars in them would not be nearly45 as much gainers from merely Vernacular tuition_ 22. It is an argument for the use of the Vernacular Medium in such Schools, that after the first expense of preparing School books has been incurred instruction in that manner would, it may be expected, be more economical than through English, which requires the employment of an English Master on a Salary at least two or three times as high as would be adequate for a Native teacher, who had received an English education, and was at the same time perfectly conversant with his own tongue. Employment as a Schoolmaster would also be a natural and proper provision for studious young men who had gone through a complete course at the English Colleges. Such a Master would of course, be able to instruct a class attached to a vernacular school in the first elements of English learning, so as to lay a foundation for those who wished further to prosecute that study. 23. It is a deduction from the saving which the substitution of Native for English Masters in the Zillah Schools might produce that English Superintendence over several circles of such Schools would probably, for a long period, be indispensable, and a charge on that account must be estimated for. It is also to be reckoned that the cost of compiling and translating a proper series of vernacular class books is likely to be considerably greater than might at first be supposed. 24. I would speak with much respect of the authority of Mr. Wilkinson on this subject. But I will avow that I am by no means convinced of the applicability of his system or suggestions to the objects of a common education. It is at least not certain that he will in the end carry the body of Hindoo Astronomers along with him in his correction of prevalent errors. In any event, it is not the abstruse parts of the Mathematical Science which could be of use in our Zillah Schools. In fact Mr. Wilkinson's system is almost wholly dependent on his own eminent personal talents and exertions, his admirable zeal, his great knowledge, the weight of his excellent character, and perhaps also, it should not be concealed, the influence attaching to his position as the British Political Agent. It would not be safe to draw conclusion as to what may best be done by ordinary Agents within the British Provinces from what may46 have been accomplished in vernacular instruction by Mr. Wilkinson in Sehore. Some of his remarks too as to the failure of attempts at English education within foreign States are not good grounds for anticipating failure within our own Districts, where other circumstances and motives are in operation. 47 321

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

25. I do not admit into this discussion the question of promoting at the present time the formation of a body of vernacular literature. Instruction through the vernacular languages to a definite extent for ordinary purposes may possibly be, as the readiest mode to the attainment of those purposes, proper and desirable. But any thing like a body of enlarged literature can, I am thoroughly convinced, be created only with time, by the unprompted exertions of private authors, when a general demand for such literature shall have arisen among the people. The Honorable Court have in a passage, which has been quoted,h declared themselves strongly in favor of a liberal encouragement of native private authors and translators, and I would by no means dissent widely from their views, though the encouragement must be given with judgment, or the Government will be constantly in hazard of aiding mediocrity or premature and ill-directed efforts. But these are considerations apart from the settlement of the plans of school instruction on which we are now engaged. 26. I have thus stated what has seemed most important on the subject of introducing the vernacular medium in our common district schools; I mean, as to the general principle of such a change, for the measure could not be named as one for very early adoption, with no Class Books prepared or teachers versed in those Books yet trained for their duties. And as the contrary system has been actually established, it is right that, unless urgent reasons for abandoning that system demanded attention, it should be fully tried, with the improvements of which it may fairly be susceptible. We may, indeed, be said to have two great experiments in progress, one in the Bengal, the other in the Bombay Provinces, the Provincial education being in the former conducted chiefly through the English, in the latter almost, if not quite, exclusively through the vernacular languages. It will be most interesting that both experiments should be closely watched and thoroughly developed. It is possible that in Bengal, in aiming at too much, we may have withheld some facilities for acquiring knowledge which might otherwise have advantageously been left open. And in Bombay, the standard of proficiency in the Mofussil schools may have been fixed, and allowed to remain too low, with no principle, in the scheme by which they are regulated which would constantly animate exertion, and maintain a spirit of progressive improvement. 27. The immediate practical question in respect to Bengal seems to be that which I have before mentioned, namely, whether it may be reasonably supposed that a vernacular would be more readily and largely accepted in our District Schools than an English education, and on this subject I am not able, after much careful reflection, to discover any reasons which could lead me to answer the proposition in the affirmative. Native youths will h[Marginal note] See para 3 ofthe Note [by Colvin]. [For the passage referred to here, see also lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/4/729, pp. 396-402.1

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not come to our schools to be instructed in vernacular composition. This qualification is more quickly and easily to be attained from other sources. We can in those schools draw little, if any, aid from existing native literature. The desire for the new ideas and information which will be imparted at them, must, therefore, be among the great inducements to attendance; and those who are candidates for such instruction will not, I think, in any important degree be deterred by having to undergo also the labour of learning the English character and language. The fact indeed is, as it is to be presumed from the evidence which has been recordedi on the subject, that a knowledge of the English language itself, with a view to the business, however humble, of life, is one main object of most of the scholars. It is fortunate that in the pursuit of such an object, they can be led on to higher studies, and ends. For mere instruction of a general nature, (such as our Masters now give) through the vernacular medium, it may, it seems to me, well be doubted whether even the number of pupils would seek our schools, who now resort to them. 28. On the other hand, I confess that I regard it as a serious defect in our plans that we have compiled no proper series of vernacular Classbooks. It is obviously desirable that, as we have Vernacular Classes, the books used in them should not only be correct and elegant in style, but should be themselves of the most useful description. I would urge also the justness and importance of the advicei of the Honorable Court that such a series of Class books should be prepared under one general scheme of control and superintendence. Much expense will thereby be saved, and efficiency greatly promoted. The cost would equitably and willingly be divided among many parties. The works would either be selections from English books of instruction already published, or original compilations adapted for Native pupils. In either case, the charge ofthe first selection or compilation in English would be borne in part by the Education funds of Bengal, and in part by those of the other Presidencies, especially by those of Bombay where such works must be urgently required for the Vernacular Schools in the interior. The new Patsala of Calcutta, the projectors of which have proposed a good series of works, would also, of course, contribute, and aid might be expected from benevolent individuals or associations in different parts of India. The present opportunity is favorable to entering on the undertaking. When the books shall have been prepared in English, they will afterwards, as the Honorable Court have observed, be translated at each Presidency into the Vernacular languages current in it-but the first step for all the Presidencies must be the primary compilation. I would then place the body, which at present represents the Government in the direction of Native education, in communication with the Committee of Public Instruction at Calcutta, and i[Marginal notel Paras 10 to 15 et Supra [that is, the reference again to Colvin's notel. j[Marginal notel See Extract of Dispatch cited in para 36 of Note [by Colvinl.

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make it my first injunction to the latter Committee in concert with the Managers of the Hindoo College Patsala or others, to draw a definite scheme of the several sets of books wanted for instruction through the vernacular languages in Seminaries of ordinary Education, then to consider and report by what means, and at what estimated cost, to be distributed among what parties, these books can be drawn up, and with what further cost the printing of them would be attended. With this information before them, the Government can determine on the completion of the plan and on the amount of funds which can properly, independent of the usual income of the Committee, be assigned to it. 29. I need scarcely repeat that I look with particular favor on the suggestions of the Managers of the Patsala for including in the list of works, Treatises on the elements of Law, general and local, of political economy, and of morals. 30. When the series of class books shall have been printed, and especially when these further Manuals of the precedents, rules, and practice of our Courts to which my Minute in the Judicial Department of 4th September 1838,k referred, shall have been added to them, and made a part of instruction, it is more probable than at present that Students will attend the Vernacular Classes of our Zillah Schools for the sake of the general and practical knowledge to be acquired at them. In that stage of progress, it would be my second direction to the Calcutta Education Committee to relax their rule l for the discontinuance of Separate Vernacular instruction, and to allow Students to attend the English or Vernacular full course of tuition as they might themselves prefer. 31. The day however, when all this can be accomplished, may yet be distant. It is easy to wish for and to project such compilations as will be requisite for the purpose, but the means in India for the efficient execution of them are unavoidably limited, and in this respect, as in other parts of our endeavours, we must expect delays and partial disappointments. 32. Meanwhile, we have to improve the Institutions which are established, and to make the most of them for the great end sought for. My leading recommendation on this point would be so to connect our Zillah Schools with the Central Colleges as to give from the latter to the ablest Students of the Zillah Schools a stimulus that will carry them beyond the ordinary range of instruction which is reached by the mass of the Zillah pupils. Without such a stimulus we shall fall far short of the point which we must desire to gain in the promotion of national improvement. 33. This brings me to the question of pecuniary Scholarships for meritorious Students, for such a stimulus as I have spoken of is scarcely to k[Marginal note] Recorded in the Legislative Department. [See editorial note to footnote f above for the location of this minute.] i[Marginal note] See [Colvin's] Note para 6.

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be given excepting by attaching, in some form, Scholarships of that description to the Central Colleges, to which the best ofthe Zillah Scholars may be may be eligible. On the general question regarding pecuniary support to promising Students to enable them to perfect their Studies, I think that I may content myself by referring to the facts and opinions which have been detailed on this point, and I will only therefore profess my decided adoption of the principle laid down by the Honorable Court in the words which I shall again quote from their Despatch of 29th September 1830. 48 'Provided,' (they say) 'that the privilege of Scholarships is restricted to young men who have afforded proof of a peculiar capacity and industry, it appears to us to be a highly useful and proper mode of encouraging and facilitating their acquisition of high attainments.' My third present direction to the Calcutta Committee would now, therefore, be to consider and report with all expedition on the details of a scheme for assigning a certain number of Scholarships to all our higher Seminaries those in the English and Oriental Colleges being in an equal ratio. In consequence of the very general poverty of the students, I would fix the ratio on a higher scale say at 1I4th ofthe number of pupils, if that number 'should afford proof of peculiar capacity and industry.' I do not suggest Scholarships in our ordinary Schools, as the most deserving pupils of those will best be provided for in the Colleges, and the average efficiency of such Schools can well be maintained by honorary prizes or single donations of money. Ofthe College Scholarships it may perhaps be the most convenient in the first instance that some should be assigned, in regular rotation, to be competed for by the pupils of each Zillah School. The amount ought from the commencement to be enough for the decent subsistence of a Native Student, and there might be some small increase admitted after a year or two, as an incentive to continued effort. On the other hand the Scholarship should be forfeited, if a proper standard of attainment were not exhibited at each yearly examination. I would not grant Scholarships for a year only, liable to be then lost if upon the chance of an examination another competitor might stand higher on the list for the uncertain tenure of the emolument would be very unfavorable to hearty consistent study. But I would provide, by such safeguards as I have mentioned, against the growth of indolence or indifference in the Student. Four years is an ordinary period for holding such Scholarships at home, and it may be sufficient here. The following is the scheme ofthe Flaherty Scholarships in the University College, London, taken from the report of the Council of that Institution for 1838. 'They '(the Council)' have determined to apply the income of this fund towards the formation of the Scholarships to be called Flaherty Scholarships, which, at the same time that they stimulate and reward the exertions of the Students, might commemorate the zeal and munificence of this body. This donation, increased by the investment of the surplus dividends until the Scholarships are in full operation, together with the sum of £250 supplied by the Council out of the funds of

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the College, will constitute a fund producing £200 per annum which will be sufficient to create four Scholarships, each amounting to £50 annually for four years. One of these Scholarships will be vacant every year, and it is to be given in alternate years to the best proficient in Classical languages and in Mathematics and in Natural Philosophy, the first is intended to be given in the present year to the best proficient in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.'49 34. I would state to the Education Committee that it is the wish of Government eventually to bring the Medicalm College at Calcutta within our general scheme on this subject. But I would not press any immediate proposition to that effect. It will be enough to request now that the General Committee report specially in each of their successive yearly reports, whether they think that the time has arrived at which the assimilation could properly be introduced. 35. The fourth point on which I would at present give instructions to the Education Committee is as to the preference to be given to rendering the highest instruction efficient in a certain number of central Colleges, rather than employing their funds in the extension of the plan of founding ordinary Zillah Schools. I would have the places fixed, with reference to extent of population or convenience of locality at which it should be the aim gradually to build up these efficient central Colleges. I would, on a first conjecture, name for them Dacca, Patna, Benares, or Allahabad, Agra, Delhi, and ultimately, though probably at a distant date, Bareilly. At these places, as well as at the Colleges of the Metropolis the course of instruction should be carefully widened and perfected as opportunities offer. The scholarships to be established at them will provide a class of students, prepared to avail themselves of the utmost advantages which they can afford, and real progress will thus be made to the good effects of which we can look forward with reasonable hope. The Committee can act on this view only according to the actual state of circumstances from time to time. At Agra and Delhi, there is already a demand for higher instruction, which ought to be satisfied with the least delay possible. Elsewhere, perhaps the condition of the Institutions may not call for, or admit of, immediate improvement. Where there is no strong occasion for the enlargement of the existing Schools into Colleges, the founding of other Schools may occasionally be the best and wisest appropriation of the educational income. But I would point it out to the Committee that the first of these objects, when practicable, is to have a declared priority of attention. I would especially invite the Committee to report how the studies connected with Jurisprudence, Government, and Morals, may be most readily introduced into our superior Colleges, and particularly whether very early arrangements cannot be made for the purpose in the

m[Marginal notel See paras 20 & 21 of Note [by Colvinl.

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Hindoo College at Calcutta. The revision of the system of Scholarships in that College, so as to obviate the too general course of early withdrawal from instruction which is now complained of, should have early consideration. Another object in these superior Colleges ought to be to instruct the pupils, or some proportion of them, for the duties of the inferior school masters; and to this end, they should be made thoroughly masters of the class-books and legal or other manuals which are designed to be used in the lower schools, and with the branches of knowledge which relate to the subject comprised in them. Lastly, in order to make the greatest use of the advantages of the Colleges I would attentively watch the degree to which the students profit by their access to the considerable libraries which are now attached to many of our Institutions. Important deficiencies in those libraries should be promptly supplied. A regular register should be kept of the books read by each student, the advancement made in general knowledge by the perusal of these books should be tested by examination, and rewards should be given to the most proficient, and the subject of the employment made of the libraries should be one for special notice in the annual reports regarding each institution. 36. If instructions founded upon these observations, should with the concurrence of the President in Council be communicated to the Calcutta General Committee, I would be glad that it should be added to them that, if the Committee should doubt the feasibility of attaching Scholarships to central Colleges on some such general scheme as has been suggested for the improvement of the pupils of the Zillah Schools, they will then submit each other recommendations as they may think most likely to promote the object contemplated by that scheme, the advancement of the best pupils of the body of our Scholars beyond the present scale of common acquirement being regarded as a point of the first importance in our educational plans. 37. I have not more to observe on the immediate guidance of the measures of the Calcutta Committee. Before leaving the subject however, I would say that the day may come when unity and efficiency of supervision will better be secured by having a single Superintendent of our Government Seminaries with an adequate establishment than by retaining the existing large Committee of Members, acting gratuitously in the intervals of other laborious duties, and so numerous as necessarily to cause a frequent inconvenience in the dispatch of business. At present I am satisfied that the various 5o knowledge possessed by the Members of the Committee renders their services most valuable to the Government and I would gratefully retain their aid. But I should be happy to receive from them a report of their suggestions on the means of procuring an occasional local inspection of the Institutions under their charge. The experience of Sir Edward Ryan their President,51 will have convinced him that there might be great hazard of the interests of education being seriously retarded by the want of such inspection.

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THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

38. For the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, it may be convenient to place those Governments in possession of the substance of the review which has been taken of the facts relative to the progress of education in all parts of India, and to communicate to them also the Resolution which may finally be adopted by the Government, explanatory of its general views on the suggestions which I have offered, and of the orders that may be issued for the guidance of the Committee in Calcutta. 52 These Governments should be specially invited to co-operate, through the bodies charged with the control of public instruction under their superintendence, in the common object of aiding the preparation of an useful and comprehensive set of class books to be afterwards rendered into the vernacular tongues of the several Provinces. In this, as in other parts of the Government, it is a matter of high importance that there should be a thorough understanding among the different Presidencies of the principles observed and plans followed out in each, that the experience of one should be made known for the benefit of all, and that all should work together in pursuit of the desired result. The Bombay Government I would particularly request to consider the measures which I have contemplated for raising and adapting to Native wants, the instruction conveyed in the most advanced of our English Colleges. I would ask also for a distinct and detailed report on the condition of its Mofussil vernacular Schools, the precise nature and range of the education given in them whether at Sudder Stations or in the interior towns and villages, the manner in which the Teachers at either class of Schools are selected and remunerated, whether (as has been before alluded to) by superintending and rewarding the teachers of the village schools who have not been trained in any of our own Seminaries, sensible good has been effected, whether, where there is no regular European Superintendence, these interior schools are kept in a state of real efficiency, whether inducementsn in the grant of Scholarships are, and if they are not, whether they may not well be, held out to the best scholars of the Zillah Schools to prosecute their studies further, and to acquire an improving knowledge of European literature, what are the general inducements which bring pupils to the schools, and whether good conduct in them ordinarily leads, as appears to have been approved by the Honorable Court, to employment in the public service. It may be explained that under this Government there has been care to withhold any thing like a monopoly ofthe public service from the scholars of its institutions, general tests open to all candidates, and selection by local officers with regard to

D[Marginal comment by Aucklandl Note - On this point attention may be drawn to the quotation in para 41 of my Secretary's Note on the backward state of 4 boys selected from the interior schools for the West Scholarships, [that is, certain awards deriving from an endowment by Sir Edward West, chief justice of Bombay, for which students at Elphinstone College, Bombay were eligiblel.

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known character as well as proficiency in learning, being considered the proper grounds for nomination to Public Office_ If the lads from the Schools are drafted largely into official situations, opinions from the European Officers under whom they have served as to the degree of superior fitness exhibited by them would be of value. It is probable that Captain Candy, the Superintendent of the Schools in the Deckan and of the Sanscrit College,53 could condense the materials for such a report and submit it, with his own comments, without much delay. He will especially say whether the general standard of acquirement in the vernacular school is as forward as he could desire and whether he would recommend the establishment of English Schools, with a due arrangement of merit scholarships, in a few of the interior districts. He will explain also what is his system in regard to the Sanscrit College at Poona,54 what improvements through the introduction of European knowledge have been attempted and with what success, and what is the extent and promise of the English classes. 39. Of the Government of Madras I would ask for the information ofthe present state of Education under the direction and encouragement of the state, within those territories, and as to what proceedings were taken consequent on the expressed desire of the Honorable Court for the foundation of an English College at Madras. 55 The Madras Presidency is remarkable in India as being that in which knowledge ofthe mere English language is most diffused among all who are attached in public or private capacities to European officers; but comparatively little appears, in any reports before me, to have been done in order to make such a knowledge conducive to moral and intellectual advancement. 40. In concluding this paper, I have to express my regret if it should have extended to an inconvenient length. But the importance of the subject will be my excuse with my colleagues for my having treated it in this manner, with a view to the suggestion of such practical conclusions as may correct existing defects, diffuse more accurate information, and possibly have some effect in satisfying and reconciling opposite opinions.

(Signed) AUCKLAND. Delhi November 24th, 1839.

Notes 1 For Colvin see editorial note 6 below. 2 For Hodgson and Wilkinson, see editorial notes 18 and 30 below; for Adam, see Introduction, p. 59. 3 But see above pp. 255-9. 4 'feelings' in Sharp (p. 148). 329

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5 'educational' in Sharp (p. 148). 6 John Russell Colvin (Bengal Civil Service) was private secretary to the governor-general from 1836 to 1842 (see also pp. 108, 304). Colvin's undated note, to which Auckland refers, is not reproduced in the present volume, but official copies of it are included in lOR: Board's Collections, FI 411846, No. 77638, pp. 81-179; in lOR: India General Consultations, No.2 of 2 January 1840, P/186/92; and also in Report of GCP! for 1839-40, Appendix, pp. xliii-lxxxix. 7 Sharp has 'questions' (p. 148). 8 This reference was conveyed in H. T. Prinsep's letter to T. H. Maddock (officiating secretary to the government of India with the governorgeneral) dated 31 July 1839, in lOR: Board's Collections, FI4I1846, No. 77637, pp. 163-72. 9 See H. T. Prinsep's letter to H. Torrens (deputy secretary to the government ofIndia with the governor-general) dated 26 December 1838, in lOR: India General Consultations, No. 20 of 26 December 1838, P/186/86. 10 The reference is apparently to Prinsep's minute of 30 July 1838 included in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77636, pp. 77-8. 11 The relevant portions of this dispatch are printed above on pp. 115-7. 12 See p. 243. 13 For the discussion in the governor-general's council on 13 April 1836 about the consolidation of the funds, see lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, pp. 5-15. See also above pp. 257-8. 14 See above pp. 194-6. 15 For the full text of this letter, see H. T. Prinsep to the secretary ofthe GCPI dated 13 April 1836, in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77634, pp.13-14. 16 See above p. 203. 17 lOR: Board's Collections, FI4I1846, No. 77637, p. 171. 18 Lancelot Wilkinson (1805-41), a member of the Bombay Civil Service and noted Sanskritist, who held the post of political agent in Bhopal from 1836 to 1841. For more information about his teaching programs in schools and colleges in Sehore (the headquarters of the Bhopal agency), including his use of vernacular materials and Sanskrit texts dealing with astronomy and mathematics (such as the Siddhantas), see John Colvin's undated note, referred to above at note 6; and H.T. Prinsep's minute of30 July 1838 in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77636, pp. 79-80. See also p. 220, and Introduction, pp. 60-1. 19 Auckland is apparently referring to William Adam's Third Report. 20 Adam, Third Report, p.177. 21 The reference is apparently to Colvin's note (cited above in editorial note 6), paragraphs 38-42. 22 The Calcutta School Society (founded 1818) was active in encouraging and organizing elementary schools throughout the 1820s and early 1830s. See Laird, Missionaries and Education, and Kopf, British Orientalism. 23 For David Hare, see p. 203. 24 The P/186/92 copy has 'influences' here, as does Sharp (p. 154). 25 The Court of Directors' response was given in their dispatch of20 January 1841 (reproduced below on pp. 334-6). 26 The quotation comes from the court's dispatch to Madras of 29 September 1830 printed above on pp. 125-8. 27 No 'as' appears in the P/186/92 text, nor in Sharp (p. 155). 28 The P/186/92 text has 'resources' here, as does Sharp (p. 156).

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29 See editorial note 18 above. 30 For Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800-94), see pp. 260-72, also Introduction, pp. 61-3. The quotation given here comes from the preface to Hodgson's pamphlet, Pre-Eminence of the Vernaculars; or the Anglicists Answered, printed in 1837 by Serampore Press. The full text of the preface, as later reprinted by Hodgson in his Miscellaneous Essays, is reproduced above on p. 264. 31 'employ' is italicized in Hodgson's Miscellaneous Essays, but not in the F/4/ 1846 quotation. 32 'possibility' is similarly italicized in Hodgson's published text but not in the archival quotation used here. 33 See list of books published in Arabic in Egypt, appended to Auckland's minute in lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77638, pp. 77-80. 34 See Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to Bengal of 29 September 1830 in lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/41729, p. 389. 35 Report on Colleges, 1831, p. 47. 36 For this passage, see above p. 265. 37 The F/4/1846 document gives 'signally' here, but this is clearly a copyist's mistake since 'lingually' appears in Hodgson's original text as well as in the P/186/92 version. 38 Italicized in Hodgson's original text. 39 Italicized in Hodgson. 40 Italicized in Hodgson. 41 Italicized in Hodgson. 42 Adam, Third Report, p. 191. 43 See court's Public Department dispatch to Bengal of 29 September 1830 in lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/4/729, pp. 447-50. 44 Sharp has 'involved' (p.161). 45 Sharp puts 'merely' (p. 162). 46 Sharp omits 'may' (p. 162). 47 See editorial note 18 above. 48 lOR: Dispatches to Bengal, E/41729, pp. 410-11. 49 As indicated here, this account of the constitution of the Flaherty Scholarships at University College London from the proceeds of a donation from Mrs. Mary Flaherty in 1836 is taken from the Report of the Council of University College for 1838, pp. 9-10. The quotation as given is correct except the last word in the first sentence should read 'lady' (not 'body'!). 50 Sharp has 'varied' (p. 168). 51 For Sir Edward Ryan, see p. 176. 52 For the final instructions of the government of India to the GCPI (sent in December 1840, after the receipt of the latter's response to Auckland's minute of 24 November 1839), see Report of GCPI for 1839-40, Appendix, pp. cxxxvi-cl. 53 Captain Thomas Candy of the Bombay Army, was a noted linguist and educationalist, especially skilled in Marathi. He was seconded to the position of superintendent of the Hindu College at Poona [Pune] and of government schools in the Deccan in 1837. Though retired from the Bombay army in 1850, he continued to act as principal of Poona College until 1856. For his career, see lOR: Bombay Service Army Lists, LlMIU121 69, pp. 61-4. 54 For the Sanskrit or Hindu College at Pune, founded in 1821, see lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/667, No. 186622, and Introduction, pp. 14-5. 55 See above p. 127.

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Court of Directors' Public Department dispatch to the governor-general of India in council, No. 1 of 20 January 1841

The five-year delay in formulating and communicating the home government's response to the new educational policy inaugurated by Macaulay and Bentinck in 1835 reflects both the difficulties of reconciling the opposing views of the Court of Directors and the Board of Control, as well as Hobhouse's pragmatic desire to avoid making any comments that might exacerbate the dispute in India itself. The situation was further complicated by official awareness in Calcutta and London that the court's substantive comments could not be indefinitely withheld, especially in view of the government's commitment to replying to the several Indian petitions calling for the reinstatement of the previous educational policy. A close scrutiny of the relevant records of the company and the board shows how these different factors were operating against each other between 1836 and 1840, producing a kind of deadlock in the decision-making process that begins with Hobhouse's uncompromising rejection of Mill's PC 1828 in December 1836. In fact it was not apparently till September 1839 that the company's chairs made another serious effort to resolve the issue by submitting a second PC on the subject to the board's president, drafted not by Mill himself (who seems to have retired hurt from the previous conflict), but probably by his superior in the office, Thomas Love Peacock, the examiner of the Indian correspondence. Although this PC does not seem to have survived, it may be inferred that its general tone was still too critical of anglicist policy for Hobhouse to accept it, and so the document was again returned to the chairs for reconsideration. Eventually in October 1840 the new chairman, William Bayley felt obliged to make yet another and more ingenious attempt to break the deadlock, encouraged by the court's receipt of Auckland's own skillful compromise proposals of November 1839. Accordingly, this time Bayley offered Hobhouse a choice of two draft replies (in the form of 'Pre PCs'), one quite short, uncontroversial and supportive of Auckland's settlement, the other also ultimately favorable to Auckland but rather long, and in places still decidedly critical of the previous anglicist policy. Both these documents were partly written by Bayley himself (who personally inclined to the orientalist side of the argument 1), though it appears that Peacock also contributed, certainly at the more formal PC stage, and maybe earlier too. Unfortunately the full documentary evidence for these exchanges is missing, but what is available suggests that Hobhouse - not surprisingly - opted for the less contentious document. At any rate on 14 December 1840 he approved without alteration,

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what seems to have been a formal PC version of it. and by 13 January 1841 had also assented to the corresponding official draft. The resultant dispatch, which was finally issued on 20 January 1841, is printed below.2 The wording of this dispatch is largely non-controversial and self-explanatory, and one can understand why Hobhouse was ready to accept it. All the main points in Auckland's settlement. as set out in his minute of 24 November 1839 (see pp. 304-31), are one by one approved, viz.: the commitment to preserve the funds assigned to the several oriental colleges; the plans for the allotment of scholarships; the continuing commitment to the spread of western knowledge through vernacular translations and English education; the sanctioning of any necessary increase in funding for the GCPI following the decision to 'restore' income to the oriental colleges; and the new scheme to link provincial schools to central colleges through the medium of student scholarships. On the other hand a careful reading of this document also makes it clear that although the court is concerned to convey its general approval of Auckland's compromise settlement, this approval does not, and - in a sense cannot extend back to the original anglicist policy enacted by Bentinck and Macaulay. For example, the first substantive point made in the dispatch is the approval given to Auckland's commitment of funds to the oriental colleges - a measure which the court specifically justifies in terms of 'the desire which has been manifested by numerous and respectable bodies of both Mahomedans and Hindoos,' as well as 'more general considerations.' Similarly, after declaring their wish to 'forbear at present from expressing an opinion regarding the most efficient mode of communicating and disseminating European Knowledge,' the directors go on openly to record their preference for giving equal opportunities to the competing systems - orientalist. anglicist and vernacularist - to prove their effectiveness through appropriate government support. Finally, whilst the court is at pains to avoid making any comments in favor of orientalism or against anglicism, it is surely not without significance that (a) the English language itself - the banner and shibboleth of the anglicist party earns only one mention in the whole document (paragraph 7); and that (b) the court deliberately stops short at endorsing the full text of the opening radical credo of the resolution of 7 March 1835, viz. 'that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India, and that all the funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be best employed on English education alone' (see paragraph 7). Overall therefore this dispatch largely represents a cautiously flexible restatement of much of the Court of Directors' traditional approach to educational policy - an approach that now fully accepts the contribution of the new anglicist program to the spread of western knowledge, but continues to recognize the possible advantages to be gained through the deployment of orienta list and vernacularist strategies in pursuit of the same goal.

SOURCE(S): lOR: Public Dispatches to India and Bengal. L/P&J/3/1015 (no pp/ff

nos). For another archive copy, see lOR: Dispatches to India and Bengal. E/4/764, pp. 1304-21; and for a contemporary printed version, see Report of the General Committee of Public Instruction of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal. for the Year 1839-40 (Calcutta: G. H. Huttman, Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1841), Appendix, pp. cli-cliv. See also Richey, Selections, pp. 3-5.

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1. We now reply to the Letters of the dates noted in the margin,a which relate to the general arrangements respecting Native Education. 2. It will be our endeavour to express our opinions and orders upon this important subject in the briefest possible terms, purposely abstaining from any examination into the controversy to which it gave rise. 3. In reference not only to the desire which has been manifested by numerous and respectable bodies of both Mahomedans and Hindoos, but also to more general considerations, it is our firm conviction that the Funds assigned to each Native College or Oriental Seminary should be employed exclusively on instruction in, or in connexion with, that College or Seminary, giving a decided preference within those Institutions to the promotion, in the first instance, of perfect efficiency in Oriental instruction. 4. We have already sanctioned disbursement of 6000 Rupees a year through the Asiatic Society of Bengal, for the expense of printing the most esteemed works in the literature of the Mahomedans and Hindoos 3 and we authorize you to give such further encouragement as you may think desirable, to similar works or to translations into the Native Languages, or any works designed for educational purposes. 5. It is our opinion that ajust consideration for the circumstances ofthe Students requires that Scholarships should be attached to the Oriental Seminaries in proportion to their endowments, such Scholarships to be invariably bestowed as rewards for merit and to last for a sufficient term to enable the Student to acquire the highest attainments of which the Collegiate course admits but the continuance of them for any part of the term, to be always dependent upon continued industry and good conduct; and we direct you to instruct the Committee of Public Instruction to act upon this principle. 6. We consider it essential that the Native Colleges should be placed under European Superintendence of the most respectable description, both as to station and attainments. a[Marginal note]

India Public Lre dated 30 Sept No 29 1835 p[aras] 1-8 [lOR: Board's Collections, F / 4/1846, No 77633, pp. 1-7]. 18 Jany No 3 1837 p[aras] 67 to 71. [lOR: Board's Collections, F / 4 / 1846, No 77634, pp. 1-3]. 1 March No 5 1837 p[aras] 101 to107 [lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No 77635, pp. 5-7]. 12 Feby No 5 1838 p[ara] 34 [lOR: Board's Collections, F / 4/1846, No 77635, p. 9]. 19 Nov No 36 1838 [lOR: Board's Collections, F / 4 / 1846, No 77636, pp. 1-25]. 6 March No 5 1839 [lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No 77637, pp. 1-9]. 12 Oct No 33 1839 [lOR: Board's Collections F/4/ 1846, No 77637, pp. 9a-10]. Gov Gen's Letter of 12 Dec No 2 1839 [lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No 77638, pp. 1-3].

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7. It is by no means our intention that the arrangement now authorized for restoring to its original object the Fund appropriated to each Oriental Institution, should interrupt the measures in progress for the dissemination of European knowledge whether by translations in the Vernacular tongues or, by means of the English Language. On the contrary we cordially subscribe to one of the principal declarations of the resolution of the 7th March 1835 that 'it should be the great object of the British Government to promote European science, and literature amongst the natives of India' and have no hesitation in sanctioning it as a general principle for the conduct of our Indian Governments. 4 8. We are aware that the opinions which we have now expressed, favourable on the one hand to the application of the Funds belonging to the native Colleges or Seminaries to Oriental Instruction in the first instance, and on the other hand to the diffusion of European Instruction, involve an increase of expense to the State. To this we are prepared to submit concurring as we must do in the opinion which our Governor General has expressed ofthe insufficiency of the Funds hitherto allotted to the purposes of Public Instruction in India. You have therefore our authority to make up any deficiency in the income now at the disposal of the General Committee which may be occasio[n]ed by restoring the allowances of the several Oriental Colleges to the purposes for which they were originally made. 9. We forbear at present from expressing an opinion regarding the most efficient mode of communicating and disseminating European Knowledge. Experience indeed does not yet warrant the adoption of any exclusive system. We wish a fair trial to be given to the experiment of engrafting European Knowledge on the studies of the existing learned Classes, encouraged as it will [be]5 by giving to the Seminaries in which those studies are prosecuted, the aid of able and efficient European Superintendence. At the same time we authorize you to give all suitable encouragement to translators of European works into the vernacular languages and also to provide for the compilation of a proper series of Vernacular Class books according to the plan which Lord Auckland has proposed. 10. Lord Auckland's suggestion to connect the Provincial Schools with a central College so that the ablest scholars of the former may be transferred to the latter, for the purpose of securing superior instruction seems very judicious and we shall be prepared to sanction the grant of a sufficient number of scholarships for that purpose. We also entirely concur in His Lordship's proposal to render the highest instruction efficient in a certain number of Central Colleges in preference to extending the means of inferior instruction, by adding to the number of ordinary Zillah Schools. 11. You will have observed from this despatch6 we very generally concur in the view taken by our Govenor General of this interesting and important subject. The remarks of His Lordship upon the reference made 335

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to him of Mr Adam's propositions will be noticed in a separate Letter as will a variety of details which at different times you have communicated to us regarding Native Education. 7

London 20th January 1841

We are your affectionate Friends8 Sd W. B. Bayley G. Lyall H. Lindsay J Shepherd W. H. Sykes P. Vans Agnew J. P. Muspratt F. Warden J. Thornhill R. Ellice J. L. Lushington H. Willock A. Galloway J. Masterman

Notes 1 Bayley was a prize-winning student of Urdu at the College of Fort William (Kopf, British Orientalism, p. 98) and later one of the original members of the GCPI who signed the latter's 1824 letter defending its orientalist policies against the criticisms of the Court of Directors in their 1824 Revenue Department dispatch (see above, pp. 115-7). 2 The preceding account is largely based on entries contained in lOR: Register of Previous Communications and Drafts, Z/F/3/2, as well as on a letter written by Bayley to Hobhouse on 17 October 1840 in lOR: Broughton Papers, MSS. Eur. F213/3, pp. 172-3. An advance copy of Auckland's minute of 24 November 1839 was sent to the court in the governor-general's General Department letter No.2 of 12 December 1839 (lOR: Board's Collections, F/4/1846, No. 77638, pp. 1-3). 3 See editorial note 36 to document 21 above, p. 243. 4 For the original resolution of 1835, see above pp. 194-6. 5 'be' is missing here from the L/P&J/3/1015 copy but correctly appears in the E/4/764 text. 6 The E/4/764 copy (p. 1320) puts 'that' between 'despatch' and 'we.' 7 See the court's Public Department dispatch No.3 of 23 February 1842 in lOR: Dispatches to India and Bengal, E/4/769, pp. 539-56. 8 William Butterworth Bayley and George Lyall were chairman and deputy chairman, respectively, during 1840-1. For them and the other directors who signed this dispatch, viz.: Hugh Lindsay, John Shepherd, William Henry Sykes, Patrick Vans Agnew, John Petty Muspratt, Francis Warden, John Thornhill, Russell Ellice, Sir James Law Lushington, Sir Henry Willock, Archibald Galloway, and John Masterman, see the bi-annual East India Register; also Philips and Philips, 'Alphabetical List,' pp. 326-36.

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Biographical Notes

These notes summarize the careers of the main authors of the documents presented in this volume. The term 'author' is used flexibly here to cover, for example, the role of those officials within the East India Company's extended bureaucracy who may be reliably considered to have been largely responsible for preparing particular documents, even though their texts were ultimately approved and signed by higher authorities (e.g., James Mill in relation to document nine). Similarly, where such higher authorities have been attested as playing a significant part in the final formation and representation of a particular document, they too have been included in these notes (e.g., Bentinck in relation to document seventeen). Unfortunately, there is also a minority of documents where the historical evidence seems to be too scanty to identify the 'real' author(s) with sufficient certainty (e.g., documents four, five, sixteen, eighteen, twentythree and twenty-seven). The editors have, of course, used the standard published biographical sources in preparing these brief notes (e.g., The Dictionary of National Biography; C. E. Buckland, Dictionary of Indian Biography; and H. T. Prinsep and R. Doss, Register of Bengal Civil Servants). BAYLEY, William Butterworth (1782-1860)

Educated at Eton College and Cambridge University; joined the East India Company's civil service as a writer in Bengal, 1798-9; served as an assistant in the office of the governor-general, Lord Wellesley, 1803-5, and in various postings, mainly judicial, 1806-14; secretary in the Judicial and Revenue Department, 1814; chief secretary, 1819; member of the governor-general's council, 1822, 1825-30; acting governor-general, 1828; vice-president of council and deputy governor of Bengal etc., 1830; retired, 1830; East India Company director, 1833-58; deputy chairman of the company, 1839-40, and chairman, 1840-1; retired, 1858. See document thirty (also ten).

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BENTINCK, Lord William Cavendish (1774-1839) Joined the British army, 1791, serving in the Netherlands and Italy (with the Austrian army), 1794-1803; MP successively (but with intervals) for Camelford, Nottinghamshire and Lynn, 1796-1827; governor of Madras, 1803-7; commanded British forces in Portugal, Sicily and Spain, 1808-14; held no public office (except as MP) between 1814 and 1827; governorgeneral of Bengal, 1828-34; and first governor-general of India, 1834-36; returned to Britain in 1836 becoming MP for Glasgow (until his death). See document seventeen. DUNCAN, Jonathan (1756-1811) Joined the East India Company's civil service as a writer in Bengal, 1772; served in various capacities in the Bengal judicial, revenue and public branches before being appointed resident in Benares, 1787; temporarily seconded to Malabar as a commissioner for the territories ceded by Tipu Sultan, 1792; assumed office of governor of Bombay in 1795, which he held till his death in 1811. While in Bengal he translated the Code of Judicial Regulations into Bengali (1783) and was a founder member of the Bengal Asiatic Society. See document two. EDEN, George, Earl of Auckland (1784-1849) Educated at Oxford University and Lincolns Inn, London, he was MP for Woodstock, 1810-13; succeeded his father as Lord Auckland, 1814, sitting in the House of Lords as a whig; president of the Board of Trade and master of the Mint, 1830-4; first lord of the Admiralty, 1834 and 1835; governor-general of India, 1836-42 (created Earl of Auckland, 1839); again first lord of the Admiralty, 1846. See documents twenty-two, twentyfive and twenty-nine. GRANT, Charles (1746-1823) Worked as a clerk in London, 1763-7; employed in the East India Company's civil service in Bengal, 1767-70 and 1773-90, holding the positions of secretary and member of the Board of Trade, and commercial resident in MaIda; a director of the East India Company, 1794-1823, frequently acting as chairman or deputy chairman between 1804 and 1816; representing a Scottish constituency, 1802-18, he played a very active part in parliamentary proceedings concerning the company's affairs and the furtherance of Christian missions in India; a leading member of the evangelical Clapham Sect. Author of Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain (1792 etc.). See document three. HASTINGS, Warren (1732-1818) Educated at Westminster School; joined the East India Company's civil service in Bengal, 1750; a member of the council at Kasimbazar, 1755, and 338

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

resident at Murshidabad, 1757; a member of the Bengal council at Calcutta, 1761-4; returned to England, 1764; second member of council at Madras, 1769-71; governor of Bengal, 1772-4, and governor-general of Bengal (under the Regulating Act of 1773), 1774-85; returned to England, 1785 (compiling a review of the state of Bengal on the return voyage); impeached in the House of Lords for maladministration, 1787, but acquitted on all charges in 1795; made a privy councillor, 1814. See document one.

HOBHOUSE, John Cam, Baron Broughton (1786-1869) Educated at Cambridge University; succeeded to his father's baronetcy, 1831; MP for Westminster, 1820-33, and later for Nottingham and Harwich, he gradually moved from being a radical to a leading whig politician; secretary at war, 1832-3; chief secretary for Ireland, 1833; first commissioner for woods and forests, 1834; president of the Board of Control, 1835-41, and 1846-52; created Baron Broughton de Gyfford, 1851. A friend of Byron in his youth, Hobhouse published articles and poetry, as well as his memoirs, Recollections of a Long Life (1909-11). See document twenty-two (also twenty-one). HODGSON, Brian Houghton (1800-94) Educated at Haileybury College and Fort William College, Calcutta, he joined the East India Company's civil service as a writer in Bengal, 1818; appointed assistant commissioner in Kumaon, 1819; successively held the posts of assistant resident (1820), acting resident (1829), and resident (1833) in Katmandu, till his resignation in 1844; briefly visited England before returning to live in Darjeeling, 1845, to pursue his studies of the languages, literatures and religions of Nepal and Tibet etc.; retired to England, 1858. Author of Pre-Eminence of the Vernaculars; or the Anglicists Answered (1837 etc.); Essays on the Languages, Literature and Religion of Nepal and Tibet (1874), Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects (1880), etc. See document twenty-six. MACAULAY, Thomas Babington (1800-60) Educated privately and at Cambridge University; elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1824, and called to the bar, 1826; MP for CaIne, 1830, and Leeds, 1832; commissioner (later secretary) at the Board of Control, 1832-3; made legal member of the governor-general's council and president of the GCPI, 1834, and head of the Indian Law Commission, 1835 (in which capacity he was largely responsible for preparing the Indian penal code); returned to England, 1838; MP for Edinburgh, 1839-47 and 1852-6; secretary at war in Melbourne's cabinet, 1839-41; paymastergeneral in Russell's cabinet, 1846-7; made a peer: Baron Macaulay of Rothley. Author of Critical and Historical Essays (1843), History of England (1849-61), and numerous articles, essays, reviews and poems. See document fourteen (also fifteen and seventeen).

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MACKENZIE, Holt (1787-1876) Educated at Haileybury College; joined the East India Company's civil service as a writer in Bengal, 1807-8; served in various positions in the revenue and judicial administration, 1810-16; secretary in the Territorial Department, 1817-30 (with gaps); member of the council of Fort William College 1820-30 (president from 1825); member of the GCPI, 1823-30 etc.; retired to England, 1831; commissioner ofthe Board of Control, 18324; vice-president of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1847. Author of Memorandum by the Secretary Regarding the Settlements of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, 1819 (printed in 1866). See document six. MILL, James (1773-1836) Educated at Montrose Academy and Edinburgh University; employed as a professional tutor in Scotland before moving to London in 1802, where he worked as a free-lance writer and journalist, gradually establishing himself as a leading figure in a radical intellectual circle that included Jeremy Bentham and David Ricardo; appointed assistant to the examiner ofIndian correspondence at the East India Company's London office, 1819; made assistant examiner in 1823 and (chief) examiner in 1830; founded the Westminster Review, 1824. Author of The History of British India (1817); Elements of Political Economy (1821); Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1829), etc. See document nine. MILL, John Stuart (1806-73) Educated by his father, James Mill; appointed a junior clerk in the examiner's office at East India House, 1823; made an assistant to the examiner, 1828, first assistant, 1836, and (chief) examiner, 1856; edited the London Review and the London and Westminster Review, 1835-40; resigned from East India House when the company was dissolved in 1858; MP for Westminster, 1865-8. Author of Principles of Political Economy (1848); Memorandum of Improvements in the Administration of India during the Last Thirty Years (1858); On Liberty (1859); Considerations on Representative Government (1861); Utilitarianism (1863), etc. See documents eleven and twenty-one. PRINSEP, Henry Thoby (1792-1878) Educated privately and at the East India Company's college at Hertford; joined the company's service as a writer in Bengal, 1808-9; served in a number of positions in the judicial and revenue administration, 1810-20; secretary in the Persian Department, 1820, and officiating secretary in the Judicial Department, 1822; member of the GCPI, 1823; returned to England, 1824; officiating secretary in the Territorial Department, 1826; secretary in the General Department, 1827; on duty with the governorgeneral, 1830; director of the Bank of Bengal, 1832; officiating chief secretary, 1834; secretary in the India and Bengal General, Foreign and 340

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Financial Departments, 1834; temporary member of the governorgeneral's council, 1835; again secretary in General, Foreign and Financial Departments, 1835; officiating secretary in the India Secret and Political Departments, 1837; member of the governor-general's council, 1840; member of the GCPI, 1840, and president of the Council of Education, 1842; retired to England, 1843; MP for Harwich, 1850; director of the East India Company, 1850-58; member of the Council of India, 1858-74. Author of History of the Political and Military Transactions in India during the Administration of the Marquess of Hastings, 1813-1823 (1825), Origin of the Sikh Power in the Punjab (1834), etc. See document fifteen. ROY, Raja Rammohun (1772-1833) Born into a landowning Bengali Brahman family, Roy received an unusually wide education, studying Persian and Arabic at Patna and traditional Sanskritic learning at Benares; he went on to study Buddhism and Christianity as well as English, Greek, Latin and Hebrew etc. Becoming increasingly critical of many traditional Hindu practices, he gradually developed his eclectic ideas into a major Hindu reform movement, characterized by adherence to theism and rationalism, and the rejection of image worship, sati and other practices. Building a considerable fortune through private business ventures and government service, he settled in Calcutta by 1814 and was able to devote himself wholeheartedly to his religious, intellectual and social projects. In 1828 he founded the Brahmo Samaj reform movement, and in 1830 he was selected by the Mughal emperor to represent his cause in London (and given the title of raja). Though not officially recognized as an envoy by the British authorities, he was allowed to visit England and France. He died in Bristol in 1833. Roy was a prolific writer of treatises, translations, tracts, poems and letters in Persian, Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit and English, reflecting his wide-ranging interests in religious, philosophical and social subjects. See document eight. SUTHERLAND, James Charles Colebrooke (1793-1844) Educated at Haileybury College; joined the East India Company's service as a writer in Bengal, 1809-10; served in various posts mainly in the judicial and revenue administration, 1811-20; out of employ, 1820-3; member of the GCPI, 1823; again left the service for commercial employment, 1825-33; secretary to the GCPI, 1833-40; secretary to the Indian Law Commission, 1839-44. See documents twelve, thirteen and nineteen. TREVELYAN, Sir Charles Edward (1807-86) Educated at Charterhouse and Haileybury College; joined the East India Company's civil service as a writer in Bengal, 1826; served in various po stings in the political and revenue administration, including that of 341

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

assistant resident at Delhi, 1826-31; deputy secretary in the General and Financial Department, and the Secret and Political Department, 1831-5; member of the GCPI, 1833-8; officiating/additional secretary to the Sudder Board of Revenue, 1836; returned to England, 1838, resigning there in 1842; assistant secretary to the Treasury, 1840-59; governor of Madras, 1859-60; financial member of the governor-general's council, 1863-5. Author of Treatise on the Means of Communicating the Learning and Civilisation of Europe to India (1834); (with H. T. Prinsep, A. Duff, etc.) The Application of the Roman Alphabet to All the Oriental Languages (1836); On the Education of the People of India (1838); co-author (with Sir Stafford Northcote) of Report on the Organisation of the Permanent Civil Service (1854), etc. See document twenty-eight. WILSON, Horace Hayman (1786-1860) Studied medicine at St. Thomas' Hospital, London; joined the East India Company's medical service as an assistant surgeon, 1808; made an assistant at the Calcutta mint, 1808, becoming assay-master in 1816 (till 1832); secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1811-33; secretary to the GCPI, 1823-32; returned to England, 1832; appointed Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, 1833; librarian at East India House, 183660; director of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1837-60, etc. Author of A Dictionary in Sanscrit and English (1813); Essays and Lectures on the Religion of the Hindus (1862); A Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms (1855), etc. See documents ten and twenty.

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Glossary

Variant spellings of these terms, as they appear in the different documents, are given in parentheses. Linguistic origins are indicated as follows: A for Arabic; B for Bengali; H for Hindi; P for Persian; S for Sanskrit.

brahmottara (brahmattar) S: term applied to lands granted rent-free to Brahmans and their descendants to enable them to devote themselves to religious and educational duties. karor (crore) H: ten million. darogha (daroga) P: originally a provincial governor or senior official; in nineteenth-century British Indian usage often refers to an office superintendent, e.g., the head of a police or customs station. diwani (dewannee) P: civil, especially, revenue administration; often refers specifically to the Mughal emperor's grant to the East India Company in 1765 of the right to receive the revenues of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. fasli A: term applied to the 'harvest' or solar year calendar introduced into India under the Mughal emperor Akbar from 1556 (AR 903) for the purposes of revenue administration etc. fatwa (futwah) A: originally the decision of a council of learned Muslim jurists or an individual jurist on a point of Islamic law; in the courts of British India it came to signify the ruling of a Muslim law-officer or adviser on a case referred to him. See also maulawi and mufti. Inglistan P: England. jagir (jageer) P: an assignment of land or land revenue; an allowance based on land rent. kerani B: a clerk. khas A: special, particular, royal; can be used to refer to estates retained in the hands of the government. kusa (cusa) S: a type of grass, with long pointed leaves, used in Hindu rituals. 343

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lakh (lack, lac) H: a hundred thousand. madrasa (madrissa, mudrussa, etc.) A: a school or college imparting Islamic education. maulawi (mowlavee, moolavee, etc.) A: a Muslim doctor of law, more generally a learned Muslim; under nineteenth-century British administration the term came to be generally applied to Muslim law-officers responsible for delivering opinions on points of Islamic law (fatwa) referred to them by district courts. mufassal (mofusil, etc.) A: separate or particular; in the context of nineteenth-century Bengal, it usually refers to the provinces or country districts as distinct from Calcutta, the presidency capital. mufti (moofty) A: originally a learned and superior Muslim jurist responsible for delivering rulings (fatwa) to judges (qazis) on points of Islamic law; under British rule the mufti evolved into a law-officer or legal adviser, though for this functionary the more usual term was maulawi. mulla (moola) A: a Muslim cleric or school-master. munsif (moonsiff) A: a civil judge of the lowest rank. pathasala (patsalu) S: a school or college imparting Sanskritic education. pandit (pundit) S: a title applied to a person learned in Hindu philosophy, law, science, etc. qazi (kazi) A: originally a Muslim judge or magistrate appointed to administer civil and criminal justice; under nineteenth-century company rule, qazis soon lost their judicial functions and became either legal advisers, or officials responsible for registering deeds or superintending Islamic marriages and funerals. sadar amin (sudder ameen) A: under nineteenth-century company rule, a judge of middle rank. sastra S: sometimes applied widely to cover virtually all post-Vedic Sanskritic learning and religious knowledge; also used more precisely to refer to specific branches of that learning as exemplified in particular works, e.g., the dharma-sastras or law-books. sarkar (sirkar) P: a head of affairs; during the company period in Bengal the term usually applied to accountants employed in households or merchants' offices. tehsil P: an administrative subdivision or subdistrict. thakur H: lord or master; in northern India often a Rajput landholder. vaidya (vedya) S: a Hindu physician, usually belonging to one of the mixed castes. waqif A: someone who endows a foundation or creates a trust for pious uses or public charity. zamindar (zemindar) P: in nineteenth-century Bengal, usually a landholder possessing the property right to land and paying rent directly to the government. zila (zillah) A: a district or division. 344

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Bibliography

Unpublished Source Materials Detailed references to all unpublished sources used in this work are given in the text, usually either in the appropriate set of editorial notes or in the separate SOURCE(S) notes. Almost all such references are to specific documents (e.g. letters, dispatches, minutes, petitions) included in volumes belonging to regular archive series held in the India Office Records (lOR) section of the British Library's Oriental and India Office Collections. The principal series used are as follows: E/4.

Dispatches to Bengal; Dispatches to India and Bengal; Dispatches to Madras. Bengal Draft Dispatches. F/3. Board's Collections. F/4. Home Miscellaneous Series. H. Revenue Letters from Madras. LIE/3. LlMIU12. Bombay Service Army Lists. L/P&J/l. Revenue, Judicial and Legislative Committee Miscellaneous Papers. L/P&J/3. Public Letters from India and Bengal; Public Letters from Madras; Public Dispatches to Bengal; Public Dispatches to India and Bengal. p. Bengal Public Consultations; Bengal Revenue Consultations; Bengal Territorial: Revenue Consultations; India General Consultations (listed as India Public Consultations in lOR finding aids). Z/F/3. Register of Drafts and Previous Communications. In addition, the following private collections in the India Office Records have been used: Broughton Papers (MSS. Eur. F213), Grant Papers (MSS. Eur. E93) and H. H. Wilson Papers (MSS. Eur. E301). As regards unpublished source materials held in other repositories, mention should be made of the India Public Department Original Consultations for 1835, which are preserved in the National Archives ofIndia, New Delhi. This series was consulted in connection with editorial work on document fifteen (see pp.174-88).

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THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

Official Publications: Correspondence, Legislation and Reports British Sessional Papers, House of Commons. Papers Relating to Indian Affairs, 1812-13, x, 282. Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company: Public and Miscellaneous, etc., 1831-2, ix, 7351. Sixth Report from the Select Committee on Indian Territories; Together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix, 1852-3, xxix, 897. Second Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords Appointed to Inquire into the Operation of the Act 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 85, for the Better Government of Her Majesty's Indian Territories, etc.; Together with Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, etc., 1852-3, xxxii, 6271. General Report on Public Instruction in the Lower Provinces of Bengal Presidency for 1844-45. Calcutta: Sanders and Cones, 1845. Imperial Record Department. Calendar of Persian Correspondence, vol. VI, 1781-5. Delhi, 1938. The Law Relating to India, and the East-India Company; with Notes and an Appendix. London: William H. Allen, 1840. Report on the Colleges and Schools for Native Education under the Superintendence of the General Committee of Public Instruction in Bengal, 1831. Calcutta: Bengal Military Orphan Press, G. H. Huttmann, 1832. Report on the Colleges and Schools for Native Education under the Superintendence of the General Committee of Public Instruction in Bengal, 1836. Calcutta: Bengal Military Orphan Press, G. H. Huttmann, 1837. Report of the Council of University College for 1838. London: [University College], 1839. Report of the General Committee of Public Instruction of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, for the Year 1839-40. Calcutta: G. H. Huttman, Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1841.

Catalogues, Guides, Directories and Journals Asiatic Journal, New Series, 18 (Sept.-Dec. 1835) and 19 (Jan.-Apr. 1836). Bengal Almanack and Annual Directory. Calcutta, 1823. Bengal Past and Present, 8 (Jan.-Jun., 1914). British Library. General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975. London: K. G. Saur, 1983. Calcutta Review, 17 (Jan.-June 1852). The East India Register and Directory. London, 1803-44. Friend of India. Serampore: Serampore Press, 1835, 1837, 1843, 1848. Foster, W. A Guide to the India Office Records. London: India Office, 1919. Guide to the Records in the National Archives of India. Part III. New Delhi: National Archives of India, 1979. International Council on Archives: Guide to the Sources of Asian History. India, 3. 1. New Delhi: National Archives ofIndia, 1987. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 3 (Jan.-Dec. 1834) and 4 (Jan.-Dec. 1835).

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Embree, Ainslee Thomas. Charles Grant and British Rule in India. New York: Columbia University Press, 1962. Forrest, George w., ed. Selections from the Minutes and Official Writings of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay. London: Bentley, 1884. Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994. Hardy, P. The Muslims of British India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972. Hilliker, J. F. 'Charles Edward Trevelyan as an Educational Reformer in India 1827-1838.' Canadian Journal of History, 9 (1974): 275-9l. - - . 'English Utiliarians and Indian Education.' Journal of General Education, 27, 2 (1975): 103-10. Hobhouse, John Cam (Lord Broughton). Recollections of a Long Life. 4 vols. London: John Murray, 1909-11. Hodgson, Brian Houghton. Essays on the Languages, Literature and Religion of Nepal and Tibet. London: Trubner, 1874. - - . Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects. 2 vols. London: Trubner, 1880. - - . Pre-Eminence of the Vernaculars; or the Anglicists Answered. Being Two Letters on the Education of the People of India. Serampore: Serampore Press, 1837. - - . Pre-Eminence of the Vernaculars; or the Anglicists Answered. Being Four Letters on the Education of the People of India. Serampore: Serampore Press, 1847. - - (under pseudonym Junius). Two Letters on the Education of the People of India. Serampore: Serampore Press, 1835. Hodson, V. C. P. List of the Officers of the Bengal Army, 1758-1837. London: Constable, 1927. Hunter, William. Life of Brian Houghton Hodgson. London: John Murray, 1896. Irschick, Eugene F. Dialogue and History: Constructing South India, 17951895. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Jones, William. The Works of Sir William Jones. Vol. 3. London: John Stockdale and John Walker, 1807. Joshi, V. C., ed. Rammohun Roy and the Process of Modernization in India. Delhi: Vikas, 1975. Kling, Blair B. Partner in Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in Eastern India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976. Kopf, David. British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization, 1773-1835. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969. Kosambi, Meera. 'The Meeting of the Twain: The Cultural Confrontation of Three Women in Nineteenth Century Maharashtra.' Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 1, 1 (1994): 1-22. Kozlowski, Gregory C. Muslim Endowments and Society in British India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Laird, M. A. Missionaries and Education in Bengal, 1793-1837. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. Lelyveld, David. Aligarh's First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978. Macaulay, Thomas Babington. Critical and Historical Essays. 3 vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1843. 348

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351

-

...Index

Adam, William 16, 29-30, 56, 59-64, 66, 260, 263, 299-301, 304-7, 311-3,317,336 Agra 20, 29-30, 65, 104, 106(n3), 130-2,203,326 Agra College 130-1, 133, 135, 143-4, 148, 151, 154, 158, 162, 208, 212,240,308,310 Amherst, Lord 17, 19, 110, 118, 255, 276, 278 anglicists' views and policies see W. Bentinck and T. B. Macaulay and C. E. Trevelyan Arabic books 34, 169-70,172, 184,222,261 colleges 15, 130, 153, 169, 185, 319 education 34, 66(n16) 132-3, 154, 161-2, 164-5, 167, 176-7, 179,185,187,281,285,291, 296, 301 language 33-7,133-41,170-1, 178-81,216,233,239,261-2, 283, 288-9, 292-7, 301-309 classical x, 22, 62, 132,220-1,282 literature 115, 122, 133, 163, 165, 171,180-1,191,211,283,288, 301, 316 students of 152-3, 158, 164, 168, 180,182,300-1 translations of 3, 27, 118, 202, 204 Asiatic Society 18, 21, 29, 56, 61, 210, 222, 237-8, 309, 334 Auckland, Lord xiv, 41, 54-60, 64-5, 244-7,254,257-9,261,273, 304-333, 335, 338 Awadh 8, 36, 38, 41

Bacon, Francis 17, 45, 52, 111-3, 183, 216, 269, 298 Banerji, Krishnamohan 35 Bayley, William B. 64, 123, 332, 336, 337 Benares 4, 9, 15,20,29, 35, 37, 77-80, 93-4, 115, 143, 149, 151, 153, 159 Benares Sanskrit College 3, 37, 162, 180,197,199,201-4,208,212, 276,286,308,310-11,326 Bengal bhadralok 13, 14, 25 education in 3, 13-5,20,26,29-31, 36,73-5,273,300,304,306-7, 312,314,322 government x, 2, 85, 210, 214, 219, 244-5 Court of Directors and 148, 223 educational policies of 17-8, 59, 73, 93, 110, 115, 128(n5), 187(n5), 206-7, 211 GCPI and 98, 108-9, 125, 223 petitions and 32, 55-7 unrest in 39, 43, 47, 54, 186 Bengali language and literature 14, 19,42,44,63,179,260,263, 267,271,274,277-8,292,294 Bentham, Jeremy 21, 46 Bentinck, Lord W. C. 24-7, 36, 38, 43-6,49,54-5,59,197,228, 247, 304 education policies of x, 23, 25, 28-31, 194-6,205,255,257,290 Macaulay and 32, 42, 64,161,174, 225, 332-3 Bhatta, Omkar 60

352

INDEX

Bhopal 60, 61, 315 Bihar 59, 66, 299-300, 307 Board of Control xii, xv, 46, 54, 64, 75, 91(n1), 93, 115, 131, 225-6, 244, 304, 332 Bombay 13, 17, 21, 23-5, 60, 91, 306, 312, 316, 319, 322-3, 328 education in 11-3, 17,21,23-5,30, 60, 312, 322, 328-9 Bombay Education Society 12 BrahmanslBrahmanism 14-5, 27, 61, 77,79, 172 criticism of 52, 86, 260, 282, 289, 299-301 supportofll-2,32,48,158,197-9, 231, 254-5 see also Hindu law and Sanskrit and Indian learned classes Brahmo Samaj 16 Buddhism 15 Calcutta 5, 11, 42-3, 45, 74, 217-8, 281,316,319,323,326-8,332 mint 18 people of 14, 29, 35-6, 101, 182, 189,207,209,247,249-50, 254,273,286 press in 27, 184, 207, 223(n1), 260 Calcutta Book Society 30, 34 Calcutta Madrasa 47, 115, 119, 143, 174,247,257,276 proposed abolition of 31-2, 38, 189, 194,230,257 establishment of 7, 73-5, 161 financial support for 36, 43, 128(n5), 133, 143, 151, 162, 176-8, 180-1, 187(n5), 194, 257, 308-9 petition for 186, 190-2, 194, 197, 248-52 stipends and 55, 194, 257 western studies and 20-1, 27, 37, 98, 118, 135, 144-5, 148, 153, 158, 182, 311 Calcutta Sanskrit College 34, 120, 150,174,182,194,288 proposed abolition of 161, 186, 189, 194, 197, 230, 257 establishment of 17,19,115,117-8, 211 financial support for 128(n5), 133, 143,151,162,180,201-3, 204(n4), 308-9

petitions for 199, 247, 254-6, 258, 273 stipends and 56, 208-9, 273, 276-8 western studies and 21, 118, 148, 153 Cambridge 37, 43,177,208 Carey, William 4,61,63,260 Christians/Christianity 6, 15-6, 25-6, 29,31,34,52,61-2,81,90, 100-1,105,189,192,217,247 see also C. Grant and evangelicals and missionaries Church Missionary Society 26, 34 Church of England 52 Church of Scotland 26 Colebrooke, H. T. 4, 148,210,276 Coleridge, S. T. 49 College of Fort William 4,9, 15, 17-9, 61,91,203 Court of Directors (East India Company) xiv, xv, 9, 50, 54-5, 64,75,81, 92(n1), 115-7, 148, 159(n3), 223, 284-5 Auckland, Lord and 258-9, 306-8, 311-2,314,316,318 Bentinck, W. and 46, 304, 332-6 1813 Charter Act and 93-7 GCPI and 108, 118-9 Mill, J.S. and 125-9, 225-43 petitions and 39-40, 56, 255-6, 273-80 see also Board of Control Cowasji, Framaji 12 Cowasji, Jamsetji 12 cusa grass 33, 343 Dacca 29, 202, 228, 326 dakshina 12, 48 Deb, Radhakant 14-5, 19-20, 23, 29-30,35,40-41,43-44, 46-8, 54, 64, 65, 179(e) Delhi 8,20,27,29, 106(n3), 143, 161, 186, 204(n9), 212, 326, 329 Delhi College 20, 36, 41, 52, 133, 143, 162, 204(n4), 208, 212, 286, 310 Derozio, Henry 15, 29 Dharma Sabha 19, 30, 38, 39, 56 district (zilla) schools 320-8, 335 see also vernacular education Duff, Alexander 25, 26, 30, 54, 65 Duncan, Jonathan 3, 4, 77-80, 212 Dutt, Rasamoy 30

353

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

East India Company xiii, xv, 10, 18, 25,36,46, 159(n3), 244, 332 1813 Charter Act and 6, 7,9, 23-37, 55, 90, 91(n1), 93, 98, 108, 204(n9), 264, 276 anglicist interpretation of 6-7, 21,51, 110, 161-4, 171,308 orientalist interpretation of 17, 43, 91(n1), 99, 174-6, 178, 186,210-2 Hindu views of 13, 15-7,275 Mill, James and 21, 23 Muslim views of 8, 191, 250-1 ecumene in India 1-3, 6-7, 9, 11-4, 16,27,42,49 Eden, George, Earl of Auckland see Auckland 1813 Charter Act see East India Company elementary education 18, 24, 30-1, 60,65,98,100-1,125-9,240, 305-6, 311-12, 314 see also village schools, vernacular education, W. Adam Elphinstone, Mountstuart 9, 10, 11, 17,18,24,30,48,60,260 Elphinstone College 23 endowments 41, 57 anglicist views of 52, 55, 103, 132, 143, 162, 283 orientalist views of 3, 36-7,43,47, 49,73-5,147,153,155,174-7, 207,209,212,214,283 see also waqf English as language-of-government 7, 23, 30, 42, 71-2(n142), 81, 85,102 English colleges/schools establishment of 182, 202-3, 228, 232,238,249,288-9,316-17, 319-20, 329, 335 scholarships at 238-9,311,324-7, 335 engraftment (of western ideas) 93, 96, 118-9,179,183,230-1,233, 335 anglicist critique of 21, 52, 131, 136, 162, 297-8, 314-5 orientalists and 9-10,17-8,24,33, 38,43,45-6,49-50,60-2, 70(n105), 98, 101-2, 149-50, 216-7 evangelicals 5-8, 26, 28, 52, 81, 90, 93

see also Christians/Christianity, C. Grant, missionaries Farangi Mahall 7-8 Free Traders 5, 10,28,53 General Committee of Public Instruction (GCPI) 40, 55-60, 98, 103, 108-9, 247-52, 258, 262-3,266,273-4,304-6, 309-12, 316, 323-8 anglicists and 21, 26-31, 33-5, 52, 130-46, 161, 194-5, 201-5, 284,286,288 Court of Directors and 118-9, 128(n5), 225-43, 333, 335 orientalists and 17-20,36-8,40-6, 50,110,125,147-60,181,186, 210-23 Grant, Charles 5-8,10,13, 15,26-7, 34-5,42,51-2,54,66,81-90, 93, 338 see also evangelicals Greek 33,37,64,178-9,181,265, 291-4,317 Hastings, Warren 2-11, 13, 17-8, 73-6,90,338-9 critics of 34, 81, 161 empire-of-opinion and 28, 44, 52 Muslims and 31, 36, 42, 48-50, 54, 189, 191, 251 supporters of 62, 77, 93, 149, 153, 176,211 Heber, Bishop 51 Hindi Hindustani 42, 60, 86, 154, 157,179,260,263,267,271, 277,292,294 Hindu College 13-5, 18-9, 23, 39-40, 44,52,235,247,249,278,324, 327 anglicists and 29-30, 103-4, 118, 288 orientalists and 77-8, 148, 150, 153,217-9 Hindu law 4, 18, 77-8, 101, 170, 173, 185,212,220-1,236,255,276 see also BrahmanslBrahmanism, Indian learned classes, Sanskrit HindusfHinduism x, 2-3, 8, 11, 13, 15, 19, 66(n16), 94-6, 320, 333 critics of 5-6, 21-2, 27, 34, 81-7, 281-4,289-91,296,299,301

354

INDEX

educational funding and 55, 77-8, 103,105,212,231,249-50,334 petitions and 32, 38-41, 43-4, 56, 189,194,197-8,207,230, 254-6, 273-80 supporters of 28, 36, 47-8, 213 western learning and 14, 31, 46, 61, 110, 119, 134, 179, 182, 185-6, 216-7, 229 Hobhouse, John Cam 46, 54-5, 64, 225-45,304,332-3,339 Hodgson, Brian Houghton xi, xiv, 60-4,260-72,306,315,317, 319,321,339 Hooghly College 30, 52, 298, 300 Indian learned classes 163, 191, 205, 210,222,231,234-40,249, 277,301-2,335 maulawis 22, 75(n2) 121, 153, 276, 319-20,344 anglicist views of 15, 52, 282, 287,297,315 orientalist views of 45, 50, 73, 177, 180-1, 184,213,216 pandits 9,22,45,50-2,93, 104, 121, 131-2,254-5,276,278,344 anglicists views of 111,281,287, 293,297,315,319,320 orientalist views of 4, 60-1, 63, 79,101,180-1,212-3,216 see also Arabic, Brahmans! Brahmanism, Islamic law, oriental colleges/seminaries, Persian, Sanskrit Islam 15, 189-92 Islamic law 3, 15, 73-4, 101, 170, 173, 185,190,202,211,220-1,236, 248,296,319-20 see also Indian learned classes and maulawis Jones, William 18, 21, 292 Khan, Ali Ibrahim 4 Lal, Mohan 27 Latin 33, 37, 62, 64, 178-9, 181, 261, 265,291-5,317 see also Roman script London xv, 9, 59, 167, 177, 225, 244, 332 anglicists and 50-1, 55, 64

authorities in 21, 24 orientalists and 3, 23, 38-9, 45-6 London Missionary Society 30 London University 37 Lucknow 7-8, 286 Luther, Martin 45, 52, 216, 298 Macaulay, Thomas B. ix-xi, 53-4, 57, 64, 66, 273, 304, 332-3, 339 critics of 38,41-2,62, 174-88,257 supporters of 194,281 views of 25,28-30,32-7,39,43, 50-1,59, 128(n5), 161-73, 189 Mackenzie, Holt 17,18,20,98-107, 108, 123, 340 Madras 10-1, 24, 30, 67, 95,125,227, 306 education in 8, 27, 36, 38, 41, 48, 55, 57, 240-1, 328-9 madrasa(s) 3, 8, 36,41,48, 57, 101, 103,108,122,207-8,213,344 see also oriental colleges/ seminaries Makha, Mohammed Ibrahim 12 Malcolm, John 9-11,17-8,24,45 Malick, Rasik Krishna 35 Marathas 4, 9-11 Marshman, Joshua 61,63 maulawi(s) see Indian learned classes Mill, James 10-1, 21-4, 49-51, 53, 115-17,125,226,260,332,340 Mill, John Stuart x-xi, xiv, 23, 41-2, 46, 49-51, 53-5, 71(n124), 125-9,206,225-44,340 missionaries 6, 10-3, 16, 23, 25-6, 30-1, 34, 59, 61, 63, 72(n142), 81,90,149 see also Christians/Christianity and evangelicals Moira, Lord 9 Mughals 4, 6-8, 16, 27 Munro, Thomas 9-11,18 munshis 2-4, 8, 10-3, 19, 27 Muslim(s) x, 2, 8, 20, 47, 55, 61, 119, 189, 333-4 see also petitions to government anglicists and 33, 34, 85-6, 194, 289,292,296 Auckland, Lord and 244-5, 311, 315, 320 Hastings, W. and 3,7,36,54,73,81 Hindus and 13, 32, 41-2, 197-8, 273,275-7

355

THE GREAT INDIAN EDUCATION DEBATE

orientalists and 38, 46, 103, 105, 134, 231, 235 Prinsep, H.T. and 174, 177, 179, 182-3, 185-6 Roy, R. and 15-7, 67(n40) Wilson, H.H. and 207, 213, 215-6, 220-1 Newton, Sir Isaac 61, 152, 183, 269, 283-4 oriental colleges/seminaries endowments for 78, 162, 164, 194-5,201,204,226,235-6, 258,274,285-6,305,308-11, 317,334 Calcutta Madrasa 73-5, 115-6, 174, 176-8, 190-1,207, 211-12, 252-3 Sanskrit College 115-7, 197, 199,276 Hindu/Sanskrit education 8, 11, 32, 42,56,93-7, 106(n11), 115-7, 118-24, 254-6 anglicist views of 15, 17, 34-5, 55, 110-4, 130-4, 142-4 orientalist views of 3-4, 18, 40-1, 60-1, 77-80, 101, 103-4, 147-60 introduction of scholarships into 42,48,55,57-9,150-1,153, 158, 257-8, 305, 311, 324-8, 333-5 Islamic education 8, 41-2 anglicist views of 15-7,31,34, 52,55, 67(n40), 115-7, 130, 133-4, 142-5 orientalist views of 3-4, 7, 20, 48,61,73-6,81,98-107, 118-24, 147-60, 205, 212 professors at 194-5, 210-11, 213, 239,311 students's stipends 79, 193(n3), 197 anglicist views of 28, 32, 34-5, 55-9,161,168-9,172,194-6, 281-7, 305, 309, 311, 319 orientalist views of 37-8, 41-4, 47-50,205,226,230-1,236-7 madrasas and 47-8, 180-1, 194-5, 208-9, 247-58 Sanskrit colleges and 44, 47, 56, 79,197,199,208-9,254-8, 273-4, 275, 278

oriental publications 13, 56, 59, 273, 278, 334 anglicist critique of29, 34-5, 81, 86, 169-70,195,201-4,245-6, 297,308-9 orientalists and 18, 44, 60, 184-5, 205-6,219-21,228,237-8, 243(n37) translations (of European works) 27,63-4,100-1,118,121,130, 133, 138-41 orientalism 2, 30, 66 orientlists ix, xiii, 8-10, 25-6, 28, 42, 54, 56, 65 anglicist criticisms of 18-21, 50-2, 55, 58-9, 64, 161-2 views and policies of see H. T. Prinsep and H. H. Wilson Oxford 18, 37, 43, 46, 177, 205, 208 pandit(s) see Indian learned classes Parsis 25 Patna 15, 29, 67, 202, 228, 326 Persian 2, 17, 25, 86, 105, 108-9, 119 education 7, 34, 161, 251 language and literature 3, 6, 13-4, 30, 115, 118, 184, 204(n4), 250, 277 anglicist views of 23, 42, 85-6, 132, 292-3, 296, 301 orientalist views of 102, 154, 179,211,261,269 petitions to government 30, 46, 49, 54, 57, 70(n93) Hindu 19, 32, 34, 36-45, 47-8, 54-5, 168-9, 174, 182, 194, 197-200, 230, 254-8, 273-80, 282, 304 Muslim 31-2, 36, 38, 40-4, 46-8, 54-6,73-6, 174, 189-94,207, 230,247-53,257-8,273-4, 304 Prinsep, Henry T. 19,27,41-3,54, 189, 258, 340-1 anglicist criticism of 288 letters to 130-46, 147-60 orientalist support of 45-7, 222, 226 views of 36-8, 57-8, 174-88, 194, 237-8, 307, 311 Prinsep, James 18, 27, 29, 159, 228 Reform Act of 1832 16, 25, 52

356

INDEX

Macaulay, T.B. and 32,35,40-1, 66, 128(n5), 174, 205, 273 views of22, 27, 53, 65,145,281-303

Roman script 27, 207, 223, 278 see also Latin Roy, Rammohun x-xi, 13, 15-7, 19-21,23,26,29-30,35, 51-4, 59, 67, 110-4, 298, 341 Samaj Gaudiya 14 Sanskrit education 4, 9, 11, 18, 32, 77-80, 93,104,110-4,161,205 financial support for 41-2, 48, 56, 176,254,285 see also endowments language and literature x, 96, 115, 197-200, 204(n4), 274, 276, 278 anglicist views of 15, 33-5, 110, 112, 132-5, 141, 161-5, 281-303, 311 orientalist views of 3, 14, 22, 44, 61-3, 178-81, 183, 187,212, 220-2,226,233,261 see also BrahmanslBrahmanism, Hindu law, Indian learned classes Sanskrit colleges 180, 197, 199,223, 278,297,319-20,329 see also Benares Sanskrit College, Calcutta Sanskrit College sati 14, 16, 19, 23, 26, 82-3 Sehore 60-1, 321 Sen, Ram Camul13-5, 18-20, 23, 29, 38-40,42-7,49,53-4,56,60, 63-6,260,273-4 Serampore 61, 63 Shet, Jagannath Shankar 12 Sutherland, James C. C. 19, 91(n1), 123, 130-46, 147-60, 161, 201-4, 341 Tagore, Dwarkanath 14, 53 teachers training college(s) 267, 269-70 see also B. H. Hodgson Thomason, James 65 Trevelyan, Sir Charles E. xi, 34, 51, 54, 57, 203, 223(n1), 341-2 Bentinck, W. and 26, 28, 32,174,205 Hodgson's, B.H. criticism of 260, 263-6

utilitarians 5, 10, 21-4, 28, 49, 115-17,119 Ujjain 61 vernacular class books 264, 266, 270, 274, 312, 322-4, 335 vernacular education 11-2, 30-1, 42, 50, 67(n27), 90,125-9,260-72, 333,335 Adam, W. and 56, 59-64, 260-72 anglicist criticism of 27, 65, 83-4, 145,162,165,293-5,306,315, 319-24,328,333,335 Hodgson, B.H. and xi, 60-4 orientalist support for 22, 24, 39-40,157,221,233,239 see also W. Adam, B.H. Hodgson village schools 11-2, 31, 59-60, 63, 67(n27), 93, 95-6, 125-9, 150-2, 305-6, 311-13 see also elementary education, vernacular education, W. Adam waqf8,36, 37,49, 53-4,143,177 see also endowments wakil 38, 41, 253(n10) Warden, Francis 12, 21, 336 Wellesley, Lord 4, 62, 90, 277 Wilkinson, Lancelot 60-4, 260, 306, 311,315,317,321 Wilson, Horace H. 4, 20, 26, 118, 342 anglicist criticism of 33, 35, 51-2, 131,281-3,288 Deb, R. and 30, 41, 44 Hodgson, B.H. and 43,54 Mill, J. S. and x-xi, 23-4, 41-2, 46-8,226,238 Prinsep, H. T. and 43, 54 Sen, R.C. and 13, 18-20, 38-40, 44-5,49,53,56,60,66 views of 18, 33, 44, 46, 91(n1), 118-24,205-24,274 Wood, Sir Charles 65, 261

357