Q. Why was modern education system introduced in India?

What was its

impact on Indian social structure?

A. Indian education before 1813 had always had a very classical and
spiritual nature. The subjects taught included the scriptures, grammar,
codes of law and scientific works. The priestly class or the Brahmins and
maulvis, who monopolised education in India, imparted it mainly
inSanskrit, Arabic or Persian. The officials of the East India Company were
greatly influenced by the Oriental form of knowledge and used this for a
better understanding and governance of the country. One aspect of
Orientalism was the glorification of the ancient Indian period and that India
was governed by a set of ancient laws. The Orientals were greatly attracted
to this classical aspect of Indian culture and education and even took up the
task of translating ancient scriptures andpatronizing Indian classical
learning. Nathaniel Halhed wrote ‘A Code of Gentoo Laws’ in 1776 and
‘Bengali Grammar’ in 1778 while Charles Wilkins brought out his Sanskrit
grammar in 1779. William Jones translated Persian poetry and established
the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 to pursue research in ancient learning,
translation of manuscripts and bringing out the journal. The establishment
of the Calcutta Madrassa in 1781 by Francis and the Sanskrit College at
Benares in 1792 were also an outcome of the influence of Orientalism. But
these were mainly individual enterprises and attempts for preserving
ancient learning.It did not reflect a cohesive policy of the East India
Company towards education in India as the company followed a policy of
non-intervention in Indian social matters. These measures didhoweverdid
manage to have some impact on a group of Oriental scholars who
profoundly influenced Company policies in the future years.

In July 1813, the Charter Act was passed for the renewal of the Company’s
privileges. This allowed the missionaries to proceed to India for the
purpose of dissemination of education among the Indians. Clause 43 of the
Charter, influenced by Oriental agitation for more funds for maintenance of
institutions, laiddowndissemination of education as one of the tasks of the
British Raj. It stated that a certain sum out of the total ‘surplus territorial
revenues’would be appropriated by the government for revival of literature
and promotion of European sciences. This was the first step taken by the
British government towards formulating an education policy in India. In
1823, Holt Mackenzie, suggested establishment of new institutions for the
instruction of Eastern and Western learning. He also proposed the
establishment of a General Committee of Public Instruction for the
implementation of his suggestions. While most of his proposals were
rejected, the Governor General did accept the plan to establish a General
Committee of Public Instruction to implement what was laid down in
Clause 43. A ten member team of mostly Oriental scholars was constituted.
The activities of the Committee included establishment of a Sanskrit
College at Calcutta and several other Oriental Colleges, employment of
Oriental scholars for the purpose of translation of English texts into Arabic,
Persian and Sanskrit and recognition of the Calcutta Madrassa and the
Benares Sanskrit College. Little emphasis was given to Western sciences
because the Committee was afraid of hurting the sentiments of the natives
and was constantly taking into consideration the religious prejudice of the
people. Therefore, the education policy of the Committee degenerated by
1826 and most of its experiments remained incomplete.

The Clause 43 generated forces of resistance due to its orientation towards

Orientalism. The first such resistance came from the growing influence of
Utilitarian school of thought in Britain. The Utilitarians considered Indian
society to be decadent and stagnant. Unlike the Orientals, they saw no good
in Indian culture or values and wished to create a class of people who were
‘Indian in blood and colour but English in taste and opinion’. James Mill was
the first to give the Utilitarian view of India and along with his sonargued
that progress was possible only through introduction of Western
knowledge. The second force of resistance came from the evangelists who
believed that English education was the prelude to conversions to
Christianity in India. They felt that the immoral systems of Hinduism and
Islam would collapse with the introduction of western education.
Missionaries in India opened charity schools it with compulsory study of
the Bible. The third group was the free trading group. They demanded
government intervention to free Indian economy from the restraints of
tradition and to ensure free trade. These developments resulted in the
emergence of a group of Indians that supported such ideas and reforms.
The capital cities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras witnessed the rise of a
‘middle class’ that realised that English education was useful as it helped
them materially. Some educated and liberal minded Indians like Raja
Rammohan Roy, realised the futility pursuing of classical education as
opposed to the possibilities afforded by Western education. These groups
of Indians argued for a diffusion of European education and English
language in Indian society.

The first attempt to move away from the Oriental way of learning and
develop a modern education system was made by Charles Grant. He was
the first to advocate introduction of English education for the purpose of
introducing Christianity in India. Grant was appalled by the condition of
Indian society in the late 18th century. Religion which had been a strong
spiritual force had turned into a superstition and Brahmins were
monopolising knowledge and were imposing their interpretation of the
scriptures on people. Grant noticed that the social life had been infested
with evils such as practice of infanticide, sati or self-immolation of widows,
child marriage, polygamy, seclusion of women and the purdah system.He
felt that the only way these evils could be removed was through
introduction of Christianity and this could be done only through
propagation of European science and literature in the English language.His
suggestions, however, were rejected and the General Committee of Public
Instruction went on with its promotion of Oriental learning in India.

In 1828, Lord William Bentinck was appointed the new Governor General
of India. He was greatly influenced by the utilitarianism and at his
suggestion English classes to the Sanskrit College and other Oriental
institutions. He appointed Thomas B. Macaulay as president of the General
Committee of Public Instruction. It was Macaulay who then drew up an
elaborate minute championing the cause of English education. He argued
that only adoption of English as a medium of instruction would make the
promotion of European knowledge and science possible. He pointed out
that the dialects of India were ‘poor and rude’ and this made the translation
of valuable works into vernaculars difficult. He also argued that since
English was the language of the ruling classes it was likely to become the
language of commerce in the East. Giving the example of the overcrowding
of the Scottish Church College as compared to the Hindu College, Macaulay
reasoned that the Indians too preferred English education. He then
suggested that the government should cut the expenditure it incurred on
maintenance of Oriental institutions and promotion of Oriental learning. He
advocated the abolition of all Oriental Colleges, discontinuation of stipends
and that printing of Oriental works should be stopped.He argued for
promotion of English education and the codification of Hindu and Muslim
laws into English. His main aim was to consolidate the British Empire
through English laws and culture.

After evaluating Macaulay’s proposal, Lord Bentinck passed a resolution on

7th March 1835. The resolution contained four orders. Thesestated that
funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be employed in
English education, western literature and sciences would be taught in
English, Persian would be replaced by English as the official language and
that available funds would be used to encourage higher education rather
than elementary. It is often argued that Bentinck’s resolution was
influenced by Macaulay’s Minute. Percival Spears on the other hand points
to the fact that Bentinck was confronted with the task of economizing the
task of administration. For this purpose, he wished to introduce a higher
class of Indian subordinates in the judicial and the revenue divisions.Hence
it was desired that the natives should be versed in English. He intended a
‘downward filtration’ of English education and his policy was not meant for
the masses but for the rich and learned. Bentinck hoped that these men
would then facilitate the percolation of English downward through regional
languages. There was also a need felt to replace Persian as the official
language and in educational institutions. Bentinck also saw English
language to be the cure of all social evils that existed in the Indian society
and the key to improvement.Spears is critical of the policy as he feels that
the infiltration theory failed and that the policy was unable to ‘adapt its
social means to its cultural end’.

Historians have questioned the importance of the minute introduced by

Macaulay and it implementation. Edward Thompson in 1937, questioned
the minute and argued that it was decisive consideration behind it was the
financial economy and it was supplemented by wishes of the Indians. His
argument was that it proved cheaper to teach Indians to read English than
to subsidise translations. He says that Macaulay was only acting on the
ideas promoted by Evangelicals and Utilitarians. Percival Spear argued that
much before Macaulay arrived in India, Bentinck had already convince
himself of the value of British language and that the minute only acted as an
occasion for a change of policy that had been accepted in principle. Robert
Frykenberg asserted that the minute didn’t reflect any radical change and
he says that it’s a ‘myth’ that the minute was occasion for any change. This
was supported by the observations of Cambridge historians like Sinha and
Roselli. In 1969 D.P. SInha, pointed out that there was a sense of continuity
in education, Lord Auckland accepted the logic of the resolution of 1835 by
sanctioning abolition of stipends but then later restored modest
scholarships. John Rosselli said that apart from cutting off funds for
printing of texts, Bentinck didn’t touch existing institutions like Sanskrit
College and the Madrassa.Nationalist historians like Syed Nurullah and J.P.
Naik had accused Bentinck for imposing English education on ‘unwilling
Indians’. This has been contradicted by A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed who
pointed out that Indians willingly participated in the implementation of
English education. he showed that Macaulay suggested the addition of two
Indian members in the General Committee of Public Instructions.
Frykenberg pointed to the contribution of Raja Rammohan Roy towards
the introduction of modernisation in India. More recently John Clive argued
that Macaulay himself believed that teaching English would require
grammatical study of Indian vernaculars.

Despite such criticisms, one can’t ignore the impact that the impact of these
policies. The resolution of 1835 signalled the advent of socio-economic and
political changes in India. Most of these implications were felt in the long
run but some of the most immediate results were that it paved way for the
emergence of English as the most powerful language in India as it became
the only medium of English language. It resulted in a large English speaking
professional and secretarial class. While the resolution managed to depress
Oriental learning, it also allowed for the development of vernacular
languages. The Orientals accepted the importance of Western education but
at the same time they emphasised the importance of Indian languages as
medium of instruction. The General Committee of Public instructions tried
to establish a system of vernacular instructions in the provinces and took
into consideration the plan laid down by William Adam for the
improvement of vernacular education.

Lord Auckland, who succeeded Bentinck in 1836, expressed his views on

education in the minute of 1839 and attempted to resolve the Anglo-
Oriental controversy. He restored the grants that had been previously been
sanctioned to the Oriental colleges and stated that the funds should be
appropriated first for Oriental studies and then for English instruction. He
replaced the stipends with some scholarships and ensured the
maintenance of these colleges. He also sanctioned the publication of works
in classical languages. He proposed the establishment of Central colleges in
Patna, Benares and Allahabad.Auckland’s plan was important as the
government realised the need to keep the Oriental and English education
systems separate. It was found that the Indians were not ready to sacrifice
their own system of learning and that it was not possible to spread
education through English and it had to be done through the vernacular.
Auckland’s plan for a comprehensive and graduated system of education in
every district resulted in the emergence and adoption of the first
comprehensive and real education policy. Hardinge, the next governor
general, initiated further reforms and innovations in the area of education.
Higher education advanced at rapid speed as a network of English and
vernacular education institutions were established. In 1844-45, the Council
of Education drew up a plan to establish a Central University, modelled on
the London University and offering degrees in Arts, Science, Law, Medicine
and Civil Engineering, in Bengal. Similar proposals were made by
Thomason in the North Western provinces and by Thomas Monro in
Madras.

The most significant advance in education was seen during the age of Lord
Dalhousie. It was Dalhousie who actually laid the foundations of a modern
system of education. His first initiative towards this was that he
recommended Thomason’s plan to the Court of Directors. This plan had
proposed to set up a school in every revenue district along with the
ordinary village school and to appoint a Zillah, Paragana visitors and a
Visitor General to supervise this scheme. This scheme proved successful in
eight districts and by 1850 a vernacular school literature had been created,
number of schools increased to 3400 and number of scholars increased
greatly as well. It was gradually extended to 23 districts including Bengal
and Punjab. Dalhousie agreed to set up a school (instead of a college) in
Amritsar and he suggested that English could be taught here alongside
instruction in vernaculars. He introduced elaborate reforms in Calcutta and
reformed the Hindu College. He converted the senior department at the
college into the Presidency College to distinguish it from other local
institutions. He also suggested admission of non-Muslims into the Calcutta
Madrassa. Simultaneously, Dalhousie developed the plan for technical
education as he realised the importance of training youths to meet rising
demands of department public works. He based his scheme on the models
provided by Major Maitland’s school in Madras and Thomason’s Civil
Engineering College. One of Dalhousie’s most important contributions was
his support to female education in India. He supported J.E.D Bethune’s
female school in Calcutta and marked the beginning of policy of open
encouragement in sphere of female education.

Around the same time, the President of the Board of Control, Charles Wood
was asked to frame a general scheme of education that would be applicable
to all of British India. Woods’s secretary, Lord Northbrook, drafted the
Education despatch of 1854 on his behalf and submitted it to the Court of
Directors. The despatch abandoned the downward filtration policy
employed by Bentinck and it stated that though English would be the
medium of instruction, it wouldn’t replace the vernaculars. It created a
Department of Education in the five provinces under British and
established universities in Madras, Calcutta and Bombay which were
modelled on the London University. It decided to collect a fee from students
so as to encourage regularity, paid attention to training of teachers and
providing text books and recommended professional training schools for
Law, Medicine and Civil Engineering. Hence a shift was seen towards
elementary mass education and at the same time a boost was given to
higher education as well.

Theeducation policy in the course of its development had an impact on

Indian society and brought about changes in the social structure. While
there was an attempt to ensure general literacy, several backward groups
like the dalits were excluded from state schools in order to please the elite
sections of Indians. The colonial bureaucracy succumbed to the pressures
of conservatism and the education policy endorsed differentiation of Indian
society. A result of this differentiation was that a very small proportion of
the population actually received benefits of education. Those who were
attracted to the English education system included mainly Hindu upper
caste men belonging to either the middle or lower classes. Education
became a means of achieving economic prosperity and getting power
rather than just a path to ‘intellectual enlightenment’. When their
expectations were not met, it was the knowledge of this group that
challenged the authoritarian colonial rule. English education brought
several Indians in contact with a body of ideas and allowed them to openly
question several fundamental assumptions. They began to see their own
society as through concepts of utility, reason, progress and justice.
According to Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, there was a rise of a ‘civil society’
which was ’articulate in defending its rights while locating its identity’.
They began to question all prevalent social practices and religious notions
and saw these as backward and decadent. Science became a sign of
progress and scientific knowledge was further developed by the likes of
Raja Rammohan Roy as they set up schools to promote the same. The
attempt to translate this rational mentality into a social reform agenda
resulted in the rise of groups and movements such as Young Bengal that
posed a challenge to Hindu orthodoxy. European education gave rise to
new intellectual stirringswhich in turn created a need to reform Indian
society without rejecting Indian tradition. This class of Indians supported
the British officials in carrying out legalistic reforms such as abolition of
sati and passing of the Widow Remarriage Act. Educated Indians like Raja
Rammohan Roy and Dayanand Saraswati started reform movements like
the Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj to reform Hiduism. European
education brought to the fore the status of women in Indian society.
Welfare of women became a concern. Not only was education extended to
women, several reforms were carried out to improve their social standing.

Hence, modern education in India was initially introduced with the motive
of removing social evils and to aide in the administration of the British Raj.
Gauri Vishwanathan argues that the introduction of English literature was
meant to inculcate a proper training in morality and ethics as it was
considered to be the ‘ideal representation of English identity’. This she felt
was the main political agenda of Anglicism. In the course of development of
the educational policies, Indian society underwent great changes. A new
class of Indian intellectuals emerged and they helped bring about reforms
in the existing social structure. B.T. McCully pointed out that English
education brought Indian youth in contact with a body of thought
thatquestioned the assumptions on which traditional values rested. It
enabled Indians to question colonial policies and laws and at the same time
gain legitimisation from the colonial government for their attempts at
bringing about change. The impact of modern education, though not always
positive, was profound and was felt by all sections of society.

Bibliography:

1. Suresh C. Gosh, ‘The History of Education in India, 1757-2007’.

2. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, ‘From Plassey to Partition: A History of
Modern India’.
3. Kenneth Ballhatchet, ‘The Importance of Macaulay’, Cambridge
University Press.
4. Percival Spear, ‘Bentinck and Education’, Cambridge University Press.
5. Robert E. Frykenberg, ‘The Myth of English as a ‘Colonialist’ Imposition
upon India: A Reappraisal with Special Reference to South India.

Surbhi Bhambri
III Year
BA (Hons) History