Sample Material of Our IAS Mains History Study Kit

Subject: History (Optional)

Topic: Development of Education & the Indian Press

Development of Education

Warren Hastings set up the Calcutta Madrasa in 1781 for the study of Arabic and Persian. The Asiatic Society of Bengal was founded by Sir William Jones iii Calcutta in 1784. Jonathan Duncan, the resident at Benares started the Sanskrit College in 1791. Lord Welleslley started the Fort William College m 1800 for the training of Civil Servants, which the court of Directors closed in 1802.

William Carey, a Baptist missionary, set up schools and published Bengali translations of the Bible, thereby laying the foundations of English Education and Bengali prose literature. The Charter Act of 1813, was the first to provide an annual expenditure of one lakh rupees “for the revival and promotion of literature.”

David Hare and Raja Rammohan Roy were instrumental in selling up the Calcutta Hindu College in 1817. Which later developed into the Presidency College.

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 Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy and Macaulay’s Minutes

The Orientalists led by H T Princep who favoured encouragement of Oriental literature and The Anglicist who favoured the advancement of Western Science and literature. Macaulay, a member of the Executive Council wrote his Minute on Educational Policy (2. February 1833) which favoured the Anglicist viewpoint. The Macualayan system was based as the idea that limited means negated mass education, hence a minority would be educated in English, who would act as ‘class of interpreters’, thereby enriching the vernaculars such that the knowledge of Western Sciences and literature would reach the masses. Lord William Bentick, in the Resolution of 7 March 1835, accepted Macualays viewpoint which led to the promotion of European science and literature.

Sir Charles Wood Despatch (1854)

The President of the Board of Control, his scheme became the Magna Carta of English education in India. The universities of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay were set up in 1857. It was Bethune’s contribution, which helped a setting up of a number of girls schools.

The Hunter Education Commission (1882-83)

Its main recommendations were basically for secondary education. Secondary Education should be in two sectors—literary Education leading to the university entrance examination and commercial and vocational training.

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