Page 1
Civilising the “Native”,
Educating the Nation
6
In the earlier chapters, you have seen how British rule affected
rajas and nawabs, peasants and tribals. In this chapter, we
will try and understand what implication it had for the lives of
students. For, the British in India wanted not only territorial
conquest and control over revenues. They also felt that they had
a cultural mission: they had to “civilise the natives”, change their
customs and values.
What changes were to be introduced? How were Indians
to be educated, “civilised”, and made into what the British
believed were “good subjects”? The British could find no simple
answers to these questions. They continued to be debated for
many decades.
How the British saw Education
Let us look at what the British thought and
did, and how some of the ideas of education
that we now take for granted evolved in the
last two hundred years. In the process of this
enquiry, we will also see how Indians reacted
to British ideas, and how they developed
their own views about how Indians were to
be educated.
The tradition of Orientalism
In 1783, a person named William Jones
arrived in Calcutta. He had an appointment
as a junior judge at the Supreme Court that
the Company had set up. In addition to being
an expert in law, Jones was a linguist. He
had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew
French and English, had picked up Arabic
from a friend, and had also learnt Persian.
At Calcutta, he began spending many hours
a day with pandits who taught him the
subtleties of Sanskrit language, grammar and Fig. 1 – William Jones learning Persian
Linguist – Someone
who knows and
studies several
languages
Chap 6.indd 65 8/31/2022 5:00:41 PM
Reprint 2024-25
Page 2
Civilising the “Native”,
Educating the Nation
6
In the earlier chapters, you have seen how British rule affected
rajas and nawabs, peasants and tribals. In this chapter, we
will try and understand what implication it had for the lives of
students. For, the British in India wanted not only territorial
conquest and control over revenues. They also felt that they had
a cultural mission: they had to “civilise the natives”, change their
customs and values.
What changes were to be introduced? How were Indians
to be educated, “civilised”, and made into what the British
believed were “good subjects”? The British could find no simple
answers to these questions. They continued to be debated for
many decades.
How the British saw Education
Let us look at what the British thought and
did, and how some of the ideas of education
that we now take for granted evolved in the
last two hundred years. In the process of this
enquiry, we will also see how Indians reacted
to British ideas, and how they developed
their own views about how Indians were to
be educated.
The tradition of Orientalism
In 1783, a person named William Jones
arrived in Calcutta. He had an appointment
as a junior judge at the Supreme Court that
the Company had set up. In addition to being
an expert in law, Jones was a linguist. He
had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew
French and English, had picked up Arabic
from a friend, and had also learnt Persian.
At Calcutta, he began spending many hours
a day with pandits who taught him the
subtleties of Sanskrit language, grammar and Fig. 1 – William Jones learning Persian
Linguist – Someone
who knows and
studies several
languages
Chap 6.indd 65 8/31/2022 5:00:41 PM
Reprint 2024-25
66 OUR PASTS – III
Madrasa – An Arabic
word for a place of
learning; any type of
school or college
poetry. Soon he was studying ancient Indian texts on
law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality, arithmetic,
medicine and the other sciences.
Jones discovered that his interests were shared by many
British officials living in Calcutta at the time. Englishmen
like Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed were
also busy discovering the ancient Indian heritage, mastering
Indian languages and translating Sanskrit and Persian works
into English. Together with them, Jones set up the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick
Researches.
Jones and Colebrooke came to represent a particular
attitude towards India. They shared a deep respect for
ancient cultures, both of India and the West. Indian
civilisation, they felt, had attained its glory in the
ancient past, but had subsequently declined. In order to
understand India, it was necessary to discover the sacred
and legal texts that were produced in the ancient period.
For only those texts could reveal the real ideas and laws
of the Hindus and Muslims, and only a new study of
these texts could form the basis of future development
in India.
So Jones and Colebrooke went about discovering ancient
texts, understanding their meaning, translating them, and
making their findings known to others. This project, they
believed, would not only help the British learn from Indian
culture, but it would also help Indians rediscover their own
heritage, and understand the lost glories of their past. In this
process, the British would become the guardians of Indian
culture as well as its masters.
Influenced by such ideas, many Company officials
argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather
than Western learning. They felt that institutions should
be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts
and teach Sanskrit and Persian literature and poetry. The
officials also thought that Hindus and Muslims ought to
be taught what they were already familiar with, and what
they valued and treasured, not subjects that were alien to
them. Only then, they believed, could the British hope to
win a place in the hearts of the “natives”; only then could
the alien rulers expect to be respected by their subjects.
With this object in view, a madrasa was set up in
Calcutta in 1781 to promote the study of Arabic, Persian
and Islamic law; and the Hindu College was established
in Benaras in 1791 to encourage the study of ancient
Sanskrit texts that would be useful for the administration
of the country.
Fig. 2 – Henry Thomas
Colebrooke
He was a scholar of Sanskrit
and ancient sacred writings of
Hinduism.
Chap 6.indd 66 4/21/2022 12:18:02 PM
Reprint 2024-25
Page 3
Civilising the “Native”,
Educating the Nation
6
In the earlier chapters, you have seen how British rule affected
rajas and nawabs, peasants and tribals. In this chapter, we
will try and understand what implication it had for the lives of
students. For, the British in India wanted not only territorial
conquest and control over revenues. They also felt that they had
a cultural mission: they had to “civilise the natives”, change their
customs and values.
What changes were to be introduced? How were Indians
to be educated, “civilised”, and made into what the British
believed were “good subjects”? The British could find no simple
answers to these questions. They continued to be debated for
many decades.
How the British saw Education
Let us look at what the British thought and
did, and how some of the ideas of education
that we now take for granted evolved in the
last two hundred years. In the process of this
enquiry, we will also see how Indians reacted
to British ideas, and how they developed
their own views about how Indians were to
be educated.
The tradition of Orientalism
In 1783, a person named William Jones
arrived in Calcutta. He had an appointment
as a junior judge at the Supreme Court that
the Company had set up. In addition to being
an expert in law, Jones was a linguist. He
had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew
French and English, had picked up Arabic
from a friend, and had also learnt Persian.
At Calcutta, he began spending many hours
a day with pandits who taught him the
subtleties of Sanskrit language, grammar and Fig. 1 – William Jones learning Persian
Linguist – Someone
who knows and
studies several
languages
Chap 6.indd 65 8/31/2022 5:00:41 PM
Reprint 2024-25
66 OUR PASTS – III
Madrasa – An Arabic
word for a place of
learning; any type of
school or college
poetry. Soon he was studying ancient Indian texts on
law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality, arithmetic,
medicine and the other sciences.
Jones discovered that his interests were shared by many
British officials living in Calcutta at the time. Englishmen
like Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed were
also busy discovering the ancient Indian heritage, mastering
Indian languages and translating Sanskrit and Persian works
into English. Together with them, Jones set up the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick
Researches.
Jones and Colebrooke came to represent a particular
attitude towards India. They shared a deep respect for
ancient cultures, both of India and the West. Indian
civilisation, they felt, had attained its glory in the
ancient past, but had subsequently declined. In order to
understand India, it was necessary to discover the sacred
and legal texts that were produced in the ancient period.
For only those texts could reveal the real ideas and laws
of the Hindus and Muslims, and only a new study of
these texts could form the basis of future development
in India.
So Jones and Colebrooke went about discovering ancient
texts, understanding their meaning, translating them, and
making their findings known to others. This project, they
believed, would not only help the British learn from Indian
culture, but it would also help Indians rediscover their own
heritage, and understand the lost glories of their past. In this
process, the British would become the guardians of Indian
culture as well as its masters.
Influenced by such ideas, many Company officials
argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather
than Western learning. They felt that institutions should
be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts
and teach Sanskrit and Persian literature and poetry. The
officials also thought that Hindus and Muslims ought to
be taught what they were already familiar with, and what
they valued and treasured, not subjects that were alien to
them. Only then, they believed, could the British hope to
win a place in the hearts of the “natives”; only then could
the alien rulers expect to be respected by their subjects.
With this object in view, a madrasa was set up in
Calcutta in 1781 to promote the study of Arabic, Persian
and Islamic law; and the Hindu College was established
in Benaras in 1791 to encourage the study of ancient
Sanskrit texts that would be useful for the administration
of the country.
Fig. 2 – Henry Thomas
Colebrooke
He was a scholar of Sanskrit
and ancient sacred writings of
Hinduism.
Chap 6.indd 66 4/21/2022 12:18:02 PM
Reprint 2024-25
CIVILISING THE “NATIVE”, EDUCATING THE NATION 67
Not all officials shared these views. Many were very
strong in their criticism of the Orientalists.
“Grave errors of the East”
From the early nineteenth century, many British officials
began to criticise the Orientalist vision of learning. They
said that knowledge of the East was full of errors and
unscientific thought; Eastern literature was non-serious
and light-hearted. So they argued that it was wrong
on the part of the British to spend so much effort in
encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanskrit language
and literature.
James Mill was one of those who attacked the
Orientalists. The British effort, he declared, should not be
to teach what the natives wanted, or what they respected,
in order to please them and “win a place in their heart”.
The aim of education ought to be to teach what was useful
and practical. So Indians should be made familiar with
the scientific and technical advances that the West had
made, rather than with the poetry and sacred literature
of the Orient.
By the 1830s, the attack on the Orientalists became
sharper. One of the most outspoken and influential
of such critics of the time was Thomas Babington
Macaulay. He saw India as an uncivilised country that
needed to be civilised. No branch of Eastern knowledge,
according to him could be compared to what England
had produced. Who could deny, declared Macaulay, that
Fig. 3 – Monument to Warren Hastings, by
Richard Westmacott, 1830, now in Victoria
Memorial in Calcutta
This image represents how Orientalists
thought of British power in India. You will
notice that the majestic figure of Hastings, an
enthusiastic supporter of the Orientalists, is
placed between the standing figure of a pandit
on one side and a seated munshi on the
other side. Hastings and other Orientalists
needed Indian scholars to teach them the
“vernacular” languages, tell them about local
customs and laws, and help them translate
and interpret ancient texts. Hastings took
the initiative to set up the Calcutta Madrasa,
and believed that the ancient customs of the
country and Oriental learning ought to be the
basis of British rule in India.
Orientalists – Those with
a scholarly knowledge of
the language and culture
of Asia
Munshi – A person who
can read, write and teach
Persian
Vernacular – A term
generally used to refer to
a local language or dialect
as distinct from what
is seen as the standard
language. In colonial
countries like India, the
British used the term
to mark the difference
between the local
languages of everyday
use and English – the
language of the imperial
masters.
Chap 6.indd 67 4/21/2022 12:18:04 PM
Reprint 2024-25
Page 4
Civilising the “Native”,
Educating the Nation
6
In the earlier chapters, you have seen how British rule affected
rajas and nawabs, peasants and tribals. In this chapter, we
will try and understand what implication it had for the lives of
students. For, the British in India wanted not only territorial
conquest and control over revenues. They also felt that they had
a cultural mission: they had to “civilise the natives”, change their
customs and values.
What changes were to be introduced? How were Indians
to be educated, “civilised”, and made into what the British
believed were “good subjects”? The British could find no simple
answers to these questions. They continued to be debated for
many decades.
How the British saw Education
Let us look at what the British thought and
did, and how some of the ideas of education
that we now take for granted evolved in the
last two hundred years. In the process of this
enquiry, we will also see how Indians reacted
to British ideas, and how they developed
their own views about how Indians were to
be educated.
The tradition of Orientalism
In 1783, a person named William Jones
arrived in Calcutta. He had an appointment
as a junior judge at the Supreme Court that
the Company had set up. In addition to being
an expert in law, Jones was a linguist. He
had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew
French and English, had picked up Arabic
from a friend, and had also learnt Persian.
At Calcutta, he began spending many hours
a day with pandits who taught him the
subtleties of Sanskrit language, grammar and Fig. 1 – William Jones learning Persian
Linguist – Someone
who knows and
studies several
languages
Chap 6.indd 65 8/31/2022 5:00:41 PM
Reprint 2024-25
66 OUR PASTS – III
Madrasa – An Arabic
word for a place of
learning; any type of
school or college
poetry. Soon he was studying ancient Indian texts on
law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality, arithmetic,
medicine and the other sciences.
Jones discovered that his interests were shared by many
British officials living in Calcutta at the time. Englishmen
like Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed were
also busy discovering the ancient Indian heritage, mastering
Indian languages and translating Sanskrit and Persian works
into English. Together with them, Jones set up the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick
Researches.
Jones and Colebrooke came to represent a particular
attitude towards India. They shared a deep respect for
ancient cultures, both of India and the West. Indian
civilisation, they felt, had attained its glory in the
ancient past, but had subsequently declined. In order to
understand India, it was necessary to discover the sacred
and legal texts that were produced in the ancient period.
For only those texts could reveal the real ideas and laws
of the Hindus and Muslims, and only a new study of
these texts could form the basis of future development
in India.
So Jones and Colebrooke went about discovering ancient
texts, understanding their meaning, translating them, and
making their findings known to others. This project, they
believed, would not only help the British learn from Indian
culture, but it would also help Indians rediscover their own
heritage, and understand the lost glories of their past. In this
process, the British would become the guardians of Indian
culture as well as its masters.
Influenced by such ideas, many Company officials
argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather
than Western learning. They felt that institutions should
be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts
and teach Sanskrit and Persian literature and poetry. The
officials also thought that Hindus and Muslims ought to
be taught what they were already familiar with, and what
they valued and treasured, not subjects that were alien to
them. Only then, they believed, could the British hope to
win a place in the hearts of the “natives”; only then could
the alien rulers expect to be respected by their subjects.
With this object in view, a madrasa was set up in
Calcutta in 1781 to promote the study of Arabic, Persian
and Islamic law; and the Hindu College was established
in Benaras in 1791 to encourage the study of ancient
Sanskrit texts that would be useful for the administration
of the country.
Fig. 2 – Henry Thomas
Colebrooke
He was a scholar of Sanskrit
and ancient sacred writings of
Hinduism.
Chap 6.indd 66 4/21/2022 12:18:02 PM
Reprint 2024-25
CIVILISING THE “NATIVE”, EDUCATING THE NATION 67
Not all officials shared these views. Many were very
strong in their criticism of the Orientalists.
“Grave errors of the East”
From the early nineteenth century, many British officials
began to criticise the Orientalist vision of learning. They
said that knowledge of the East was full of errors and
unscientific thought; Eastern literature was non-serious
and light-hearted. So they argued that it was wrong
on the part of the British to spend so much effort in
encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanskrit language
and literature.
James Mill was one of those who attacked the
Orientalists. The British effort, he declared, should not be
to teach what the natives wanted, or what they respected,
in order to please them and “win a place in their heart”.
The aim of education ought to be to teach what was useful
and practical. So Indians should be made familiar with
the scientific and technical advances that the West had
made, rather than with the poetry and sacred literature
of the Orient.
By the 1830s, the attack on the Orientalists became
sharper. One of the most outspoken and influential
of such critics of the time was Thomas Babington
Macaulay. He saw India as an uncivilised country that
needed to be civilised. No branch of Eastern knowledge,
according to him could be compared to what England
had produced. Who could deny, declared Macaulay, that
Fig. 3 – Monument to Warren Hastings, by
Richard Westmacott, 1830, now in Victoria
Memorial in Calcutta
This image represents how Orientalists
thought of British power in India. You will
notice that the majestic figure of Hastings, an
enthusiastic supporter of the Orientalists, is
placed between the standing figure of a pandit
on one side and a seated munshi on the
other side. Hastings and other Orientalists
needed Indian scholars to teach them the
“vernacular” languages, tell them about local
customs and laws, and help them translate
and interpret ancient texts. Hastings took
the initiative to set up the Calcutta Madrasa,
and believed that the ancient customs of the
country and Oriental learning ought to be the
basis of British rule in India.
Orientalists – Those with
a scholarly knowledge of
the language and culture
of Asia
Munshi – A person who
can read, write and teach
Persian
Vernacular – A term
generally used to refer to
a local language or dialect
as distinct from what
is seen as the standard
language. In colonial
countries like India, the
British used the term
to mark the difference
between the local
languages of everyday
use and English – the
language of the imperial
masters.
Chap 6.indd 67 4/21/2022 12:18:04 PM
Reprint 2024-25
68 OUR P ASTS – III
“a single shelf of a good European
library was worth the whole
native literatur e of India and
Arabia”. He urged that the British
gover nment in India stop wasting
public money in promoting
Oriental learning, for it was of no
practical use.
With great energy and
passion, Macaulay emphasised
the need to teach the English
language. He felt that knowledge
of English would allow Indians to
read some of the finest literature
the world had produced; it
would make them aware of the
developments in Western science
and philosophy. Teaching of English could thus be a
way of civilising people, changing their tastes, values
and culture.
Following Macaulay’s minute, the English Education
Act of 1835 was introduced. The decision was to make
English the medium of instruction for higher education,
and to stop the promotion of Oriental institutions like the
Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College. These
institutions were seen as “temples of darkness that were
falling of themselves into decay”. English textbooks now
began to be produced for schools.
Education for commerce
In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India
Company in London sent an educational despatch
to the Governor-General in India. I s s u e d b y C h a r l e s
Wood, the President of the Board of Control of the
C o m p a n y , i t h a s c o m e t o b e k n o w n a s W o o d ’ s D e s p a t c h .
Outlining the educational policy that was to be followed
in India, it emphasised once again the practical benefits
of a system of European learning, as opposed to
Oriental knowledge.
One of the practical uses the Despatch pointed to was
economic. European lear ning, it said, would enable Indians
to recognise the advantages that flow from the expansion of
trade and commerce, and make them see the importance
of developing the r esour ces of the country. Intr oducing
them to European ways of life, would change their tastes
and desires, and create a demand for British goods, for
Indians would begin to appr eciate and buy things that
were produced in Europe.
Fig. 4 – Thomas Babington
Macaulay in his study
Language of
the wise?
Emphasising the need to
teach English, Macaulay
declared:
All parties seem to
be agreed on one
point, that the dialects
commonly spoken
among the natives
... 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 ...
From Thomas Babington Macaulay,
Minute of 2 February 1835 on
Indian Education
Source 1
Chap 6.indd 68 4/22/2022 11:56:33 AM
Reprint 2024-25
Page 5
Civilising the “Native”,
Educating the Nation
6
In the earlier chapters, you have seen how British rule affected
rajas and nawabs, peasants and tribals. In this chapter, we
will try and understand what implication it had for the lives of
students. For, the British in India wanted not only territorial
conquest and control over revenues. They also felt that they had
a cultural mission: they had to “civilise the natives”, change their
customs and values.
What changes were to be introduced? How were Indians
to be educated, “civilised”, and made into what the British
believed were “good subjects”? The British could find no simple
answers to these questions. They continued to be debated for
many decades.
How the British saw Education
Let us look at what the British thought and
did, and how some of the ideas of education
that we now take for granted evolved in the
last two hundred years. In the process of this
enquiry, we will also see how Indians reacted
to British ideas, and how they developed
their own views about how Indians were to
be educated.
The tradition of Orientalism
In 1783, a person named William Jones
arrived in Calcutta. He had an appointment
as a junior judge at the Supreme Court that
the Company had set up. In addition to being
an expert in law, Jones was a linguist. He
had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew
French and English, had picked up Arabic
from a friend, and had also learnt Persian.
At Calcutta, he began spending many hours
a day with pandits who taught him the
subtleties of Sanskrit language, grammar and Fig. 1 – William Jones learning Persian
Linguist – Someone
who knows and
studies several
languages
Chap 6.indd 65 8/31/2022 5:00:41 PM
Reprint 2024-25
66 OUR PASTS – III
Madrasa – An Arabic
word for a place of
learning; any type of
school or college
poetry. Soon he was studying ancient Indian texts on
law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality, arithmetic,
medicine and the other sciences.
Jones discovered that his interests were shared by many
British officials living in Calcutta at the time. Englishmen
like Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed were
also busy discovering the ancient Indian heritage, mastering
Indian languages and translating Sanskrit and Persian works
into English. Together with them, Jones set up the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick
Researches.
Jones and Colebrooke came to represent a particular
attitude towards India. They shared a deep respect for
ancient cultures, both of India and the West. Indian
civilisation, they felt, had attained its glory in the
ancient past, but had subsequently declined. In order to
understand India, it was necessary to discover the sacred
and legal texts that were produced in the ancient period.
For only those texts could reveal the real ideas and laws
of the Hindus and Muslims, and only a new study of
these texts could form the basis of future development
in India.
So Jones and Colebrooke went about discovering ancient
texts, understanding their meaning, translating them, and
making their findings known to others. This project, they
believed, would not only help the British learn from Indian
culture, but it would also help Indians rediscover their own
heritage, and understand the lost glories of their past. In this
process, the British would become the guardians of Indian
culture as well as its masters.
Influenced by such ideas, many Company officials
argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather
than Western learning. They felt that institutions should
be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts
and teach Sanskrit and Persian literature and poetry. The
officials also thought that Hindus and Muslims ought to
be taught what they were already familiar with, and what
they valued and treasured, not subjects that were alien to
them. Only then, they believed, could the British hope to
win a place in the hearts of the “natives”; only then could
the alien rulers expect to be respected by their subjects.
With this object in view, a madrasa was set up in
Calcutta in 1781 to promote the study of Arabic, Persian
and Islamic law; and the Hindu College was established
in Benaras in 1791 to encourage the study of ancient
Sanskrit texts that would be useful for the administration
of the country.
Fig. 2 – Henry Thomas
Colebrooke
He was a scholar of Sanskrit
and ancient sacred writings of
Hinduism.
Chap 6.indd 66 4/21/2022 12:18:02 PM
Reprint 2024-25
CIVILISING THE “NATIVE”, EDUCATING THE NATION 67
Not all officials shared these views. Many were very
strong in their criticism of the Orientalists.
“Grave errors of the East”
From the early nineteenth century, many British officials
began to criticise the Orientalist vision of learning. They
said that knowledge of the East was full of errors and
unscientific thought; Eastern literature was non-serious
and light-hearted. So they argued that it was wrong
on the part of the British to spend so much effort in
encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanskrit language
and literature.
James Mill was one of those who attacked the
Orientalists. The British effort, he declared, should not be
to teach what the natives wanted, or what they respected,
in order to please them and “win a place in their heart”.
The aim of education ought to be to teach what was useful
and practical. So Indians should be made familiar with
the scientific and technical advances that the West had
made, rather than with the poetry and sacred literature
of the Orient.
By the 1830s, the attack on the Orientalists became
sharper. One of the most outspoken and influential
of such critics of the time was Thomas Babington
Macaulay. He saw India as an uncivilised country that
needed to be civilised. No branch of Eastern knowledge,
according to him could be compared to what England
had produced. Who could deny, declared Macaulay, that
Fig. 3 – Monument to Warren Hastings, by
Richard Westmacott, 1830, now in Victoria
Memorial in Calcutta
This image represents how Orientalists
thought of British power in India. You will
notice that the majestic figure of Hastings, an
enthusiastic supporter of the Orientalists, is
placed between the standing figure of a pandit
on one side and a seated munshi on the
other side. Hastings and other Orientalists
needed Indian scholars to teach them the
“vernacular” languages, tell them about local
customs and laws, and help them translate
and interpret ancient texts. Hastings took
the initiative to set up the Calcutta Madrasa,
and believed that the ancient customs of the
country and Oriental learning ought to be the
basis of British rule in India.
Orientalists – Those with
a scholarly knowledge of
the language and culture
of Asia
Munshi – A person who
can read, write and teach
Persian
Vernacular – A term
generally used to refer to
a local language or dialect
as distinct from what
is seen as the standard
language. In colonial
countries like India, the
British used the term
to mark the difference
between the local
languages of everyday
use and English – the
language of the imperial
masters.
Chap 6.indd 67 4/21/2022 12:18:04 PM
Reprint 2024-25
68 OUR P ASTS – III
“a single shelf of a good European
library was worth the whole
native literatur e of India and
Arabia”. He urged that the British
gover nment in India stop wasting
public money in promoting
Oriental learning, for it was of no
practical use.
With great energy and
passion, Macaulay emphasised
the need to teach the English
language. He felt that knowledge
of English would allow Indians to
read some of the finest literature
the world had produced; it
would make them aware of the
developments in Western science
and philosophy. Teaching of English could thus be a
way of civilising people, changing their tastes, values
and culture.
Following Macaulay’s minute, the English Education
Act of 1835 was introduced. The decision was to make
English the medium of instruction for higher education,
and to stop the promotion of Oriental institutions like the
Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College. These
institutions were seen as “temples of darkness that were
falling of themselves into decay”. English textbooks now
began to be produced for schools.
Education for commerce
In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India
Company in London sent an educational despatch
to the Governor-General in India. I s s u e d b y C h a r l e s
Wood, the President of the Board of Control of the
C o m p a n y , i t h a s c o m e t o b e k n o w n a s W o o d ’ s D e s p a t c h .
Outlining the educational policy that was to be followed
in India, it emphasised once again the practical benefits
of a system of European learning, as opposed to
Oriental knowledge.
One of the practical uses the Despatch pointed to was
economic. European lear ning, it said, would enable Indians
to recognise the advantages that flow from the expansion of
trade and commerce, and make them see the importance
of developing the r esour ces of the country. Intr oducing
them to European ways of life, would change their tastes
and desires, and create a demand for British goods, for
Indians would begin to appr eciate and buy things that
were produced in Europe.
Fig. 4 – Thomas Babington
Macaulay in his study
Language of
the wise?
Emphasising the need to
teach English, Macaulay
declared:
All parties seem to
be agreed on one
point, that the dialects
commonly spoken
among the natives
... 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 ...
From Thomas Babington Macaulay,
Minute of 2 February 1835 on
Indian Education
Source 1
Chap 6.indd 68 4/22/2022 11:56:33 AM
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CIVILISING THE “NATIVE”, EDUCATING THE NATION 69
Wood’s Despatch also argued that European
learning would improve the moral character of
Indians. It would make them truthful and honest,
and thus supply the Company with civil servants who
could be trusted and depended upon. The literature of
the East was not only full of grave errors, it could also
not instill in people a sense of duty and a commitment
to work, nor could it develop the skills required
for administration.
Following the 1854 Despatch, several measures
were introduced by the British. Education departments
of the government were set up to extend control
over all matters regarding education. Steps were
taken to establish a system of university education.
In 1857, while the sepoys rose in revolt in Meerut
and Delhi, universities were being established in
Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. Attempts were also
made to bring about changes within the system of
school education.
Fig. 5 – Bombay University in the nineteenth century
Activity
Imagine you are living in the 1850s. You hear of
Wood’s Despatch. Write about your reactions.
?
An argument
for European
knowledge
Wood’s Despatch of 1854
marked the final triumph of
those who opposed Oriental
learning. It stated.
We must emphatically
declare that the
education which
we desire to see
extended in India is
that which has for its
object the diffusion
of the improved arts,
services, philosophy,
and literature of
Europe, in short,
European knowledge.
Source 2
Chap 6.indd 69 4/21/2022 12:18:08 PM
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