EHI - 5

EHI-5
Block 5
7th Part 
Q   Explain the impact of the British rule on the Indian education system.                                          20
Q   What was the British thinking on education? How did it transform education in India?                                              20
Q   What was the British Policy on education in India?       12

A    The colonial rulers discarded the indigenous system and replaced it with an education system of their own. Immediately after the acquisition of political power in India, the company officials wanted to maintain, neutrality or non-intervention in the religious and cultural matters of the indigenous society. They feared the adverse reaction and opposition by the local people. However, constant pressure from different quarters, the Missionaries, the Liberals, the Orientalists, the Utilitarians compelled the company to give up its policy of neutrality and to take the responsibility of promotion of education. 

In the initial stage, the company officials patronized oriental learning. 'Calcutta Madrasa' by Warren Hastings (178I), the Benares Sanskrit College' by Jonathan Duncan (1791) and the 'Asiatic Society of Bengal by William Jones (1784) were established by Orientalists. However, Anglicists believed that Indians were in a backward stage and Western education given through the English language alone was the remedy and can transform the society. 

By the Charter Act of 1813, the Company acknowledged for the first time the responsibility of the state for the promotion of education in India. Some of the important points of the resolution that Bentinck announced in 1835 were as follows:

# Persian was abolished as the court language and was substituted by English.

# printing and publication of English books were made free and available at a comparatively low price.

# More fund was provided to support the English education, while there was curtailment in the fund for the promotion of oriental learning.

Auckland who came after Bentinck as the Governor-General also believed in the need for the promotion of English education in India. He recommended the opening of more English colleges in Dacca, Patna, Benares, Allahabad, Agra, Delhi, and Bareilly. The next major landmark in the development of English education during this period was the Wood's Despatch of 1854. Sir Charles Wood, the president of the Board of Control, in 1854 laid down the policy which became the guiding principle for the promotion of the education program of the government of India. 

The major recommendations of the Wood’s Despatch were as follows-

# the creation of a department of public instruction in each of the five provinces of

the company's territory,

# the establishment of a university at Calcutta, Bombay a& Madras,

# the establishment of a network of graded schools-high schools, middle schools

and the elementary schools,

# the establishment of teachers training institutions,

# the promotion of vernacular schools,

# the introduction of a system of providing financial aids to the schools, etc.

In 1847 three universities were established in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. The establishment of universities and the opening of education departments in the provinces provided a basic structure to modern education in India. 

       The government promoted the English education system while neglecting the indigenous system of education in the 19th century. The spread of English education in India was a slow and long process and before 1857 it is spread and depth was limited. The new education system promoted by the government broadened the horizon of knowledge. The establishment of the printing press and easy availability of books removed the traditional barriers and made education accessible to people. The ideas of the western thinkers influenced the younger generation of the indigenous society and they began to question the existing traditional values. A new spirit of rationalism thus developed. 

      The English education system had certain drawbacks, it totally ignored the importance of mass education. In the indigenous system, the elementary schools provided basic education to a wide section of society. But in the new education, the emphasis was to educate a selected few. The Anglicists idea of filtering down education from elites to masses did not work in practice. This system did not provide equal access to education to all sections of the society and this led to the backwardness of socially backward castes and communities. The existing divisions in society further widened.

Secondly, in spite of the advocacy of western science and technology, in the curriculum

of schools and colleges, the emphasis was on western literature, philosophy, and humanities. Technology and natural science were neglected and without such knowledge, intellectual advancement, as well as economic development of a country, was hampered.  

Q  What was the indigenous system of education in India? What were the changes introduced by the British?   20

A  There were 'Madrasas' for the Muslims and 'Patshalas' for the Hindus. These ranged from the centers of higher learning in Arabic and Sanskrit to lower levels of the institution for schooling people in Persian and Vernacular languages. Lack of scientific and secular learning was one of the major limitations of the indigenous education system in those days. However, many Hindus attended Persian schools because Persian was then the court language and there were also Hindu teachers in Persian schools. Whether it was a'Madrasa' or Pathshala there were certain common features in the indigenous system of education. Schools were generally run with the help of financial aid by Zamindars or from local rich men. In the curriculum, the main emphasis was on teaching classical languages like Sanskrit, Arabic or Persian and subjects of classical Hindu or Islamic traditions like Grammar, Logic, Law, Metaphysics, Medicines, etc. Though Sanskrit learning was the exclusive domain of the Brahmans, from the reports available of the early 19th century, the non-upper castes and the scheduled castes also had the representation or attended the lower-level schools. Women were generally debarred from the formal education system.

 In the absence of printing press till the 19th century, the oral tradition and memory of the teachers formed the basis of providing knowledge and information which was supported by handwritten manuscripts. The state had little or no role in the promotion of school education through kings would patronize people famous for their learning. Besides the centers for higher learning, there was a large number of elementary schools. Most of the villages in India had these kinds of elementary schools. These were each run by an individual teacher with the monetary help of the village Zamindars or the local elite. These schools used to teach the students elementary arithmetic and basic knowledge to meet the needs of day-to-day life. Students from different sections of society, except the very backward Dis-privileged castes, attended these schools. Thus the education system that existed in India in the early 19th century had its own merits and demerits. The elementary schools provided basic education to rural people and its curriculum was secular in approach. 

Q  What was the approach of the 'Wood's Despatch' towards universalizing education? Discuss.                12                           
                     A  Auckland who came after Bentinck as the Governor-General also believed in the need for the promotion of English education in India. He recommended the opening of more English colleges in Dacca, Patna, Benares, Allahabad, Agra, Delhi, and Bareilly. The next major landmark in the development of English education in this period was the Wood's Despatch of 1854. Sir Charles Wood, the president of the Board of Control, in 1854 laid down the policy which became the guiding principle of the education program of the government of India. The major recommendations of the Despatch were as follows-

# the creation of a department of public instruction in each of the five provinces of

the company's territory,

# the establishment of a university at Calcutta, Bombay a& Madras,

# the establishment of a network of graded schools-high schools, middle schools

and the elementary schools,

# the establishment of teachers training institutions,

# the promotion of vernacular schools,

# the introduction of a system of providing financial aids to the schools, etc.

In 1847 three universities were established in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. The establishment of universities & the opening of education departments in the provinces provided a basic structure to promote modern education in India. The Wood's Despatch provided the model for the further development of education in India. 

       The government promoted this system while neglecting the indigenous system of education in the 19th century. The spread of English education in India was a long process and before 1857 it is spread and depth were limited. The new education broadened the horizon of knowledge. The establishment of the printing press and easy availability of books removed the traditional barriers and made education accessible to more people. The ideas of the western thinkers influenced the younger generation of the indigenous society and they began to question the existing traditional values. A new spirit of rationalism thus developed.