Till the second half of 18th century the English East India Company did not face any dilemma about its role in the promotion of education of India. It was basically a commercial corporation, so its basic objectives were trade and profit. Before acquisition of territorial power the Company had no role in education, however, there were attempts by the missionaries to establish charity schools and to promote learning. But things began to change with the British occupation of Eastern India in the second-half of 18th century. Within the official circle as well as outside of its there was growing debate about what should be the role of the company in the promotion of learning in India.

Immediately after the acquisition of political power in India the company officials wanted to maintain neutrality or non-intervention in the sphere of religion and culture of the indigenous society. The reason behind it was partly the fear of adverse reaction and opposition to their role 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 learning.

The second important point around which the opinions were sharply divided was whether the company should promote western or oriental learning. In the initial stage the company officials patronised oriental learning. It cannot be denied that some of the Englishmen had the genuine desire to acquire and promote oriental learning.

In this context we may mention the establishment of the ‘Calcutta Madarasa’ by Warren Hastings (1781), the ‘Banaras Sanskrit College’ by Jonathan Duncan (1791) and the ‘Asiatic Society of Bengal’ by William Jones (1784). The Calcutta Madarasa and the Sanskrit College were designed to provide a regular supply of qualified Indians to help the administration of law in Company’s court and knowledge of classical languages and vernaculars was useful in correspondence with Indian States. Enlightened Indians and missionaries started exerting pressure on government to promote modern, secular, western education because enlightened Indians thought that western education was the remedy for social, economic and political ills of the country.

Missionaries thought that modern education would destroy faith of Indians in their own religions and they would take to Christianity. Serampore missionaries were, in particular, very enthusiastic for spread of education. Those who were in favour of continuation of the existing institutions of oriental learning and promotion of Indian classical tradition were called “Orientalists”

Orientalist-anglicist controversy

The Anglicists argued that the government spending on education should be exclusively for modern studies.

The Orientalists said while western sciences and literature should be taught to prepare students to take up jobs, emphasis should be placed on expansion of traditional Indian learning.

Even within Anglicists there were differences over medium of instruction-one faction was for English language as medium, the other faction was for Indian languages (vernaculars) for that purpose.

Unfortunately there was a great deal of confusion over English and vernacular languages as media of instruction and as objects of study.

The RESPONSE OF INDIANS to this debate over education policy was a mixed one. Ram Mohan Roy and others favoured introduction of Western education with the belief that it would help Indians to assimilate the knowledge of western science, rationalism, new ideas and literature. This would help in the regeneration of the country. Some other people believed that knowledge of Western education, specially the knowledge of English, would help them in getting jobs and coming close to the ruling elite. So they were in support of Western education. In opposition to this there were many conservatives who were staunch supporters of Indian classical language and culture. They had the apprehension that introduction of Western education would lead to the collapse of indigenous society and culture.

For the first time the British Parliament included in the Company’s charter (1813) a clause that the Government-General in Council is bound to keep a sum of not less than one lakh of rupees per year for education. But the company used this fund mainly to promote and encourage Indian language and literature. The importance of the Charter Act of 1813 was that the Company for the first time acknowledged state responsibility for the promotion of education in India.

Macaulay, the President of the General Committee of Public Instruction and Lord Bentinck, the Governor General, took the side of the Anglicists and Bentinck gave his ruling that

“The  great object  of the british government in india was henceforth  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.”

Some of the important points of the resolution that Bentinck announced in 1835 were as follows:

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

2.    Printing and publication of English books were made free and available at a comparatively low price.

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

Downward Filtration Theory

Government soon made English as medium of instruction in its schools and colleges and operated a few English schools and colleges instead of a large number of elementary schools, thus neglecting mass education. The British planned to educate a small section of upper and middle classes, thus creating a class “Indian in blood and colour but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect” who would act as interpreters between the government and masses and would enrich the vernaculars by which knowledge of western sciences and literature would reach the masses. This was called the Downward Filtration Theory.

Modern ideas, if not education, did filter down to the masses, though not in a form desired by the rulers, through political parties, press, pamphlets, public platforms, etc. Modern education only helped this process by making available the basic literature on physical and social sciences to nationalists, thus stimulating their capacity to make social analysis-otherwise the content, structure and curricula of modern education served colonial interests.

Schools and colleges
Calcutta Madarsah (1781)	Warren Hastings.
Sanskrit College (Varanasi) (1791)	Jonathan Duncan
Hindu College (Calcutta) (1817)	David Hare.
Vedanta College (Calcutta) (1825)	Raja Ram Mohun Roy (for synthesizing western learning with Vedantic ideals)
Bethune School (Calcutta) (1849)	Secretary Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Established by J.E. Bethure)
Three Universities (Calcutta, Madras, Bombay)	1857
One Engineering College (Roorkee)	1847
Central Hindu School – Banaras	Annie Besant – Converted to Banaras Hindu University by Madan Mohan Malviya.
Muhammedan Anglo – Oriental College (MAO) – Aligarh (1875) –	By Sayyid Ahmad Khan – Later became Aligarh Muslim University.
National Muslim University	Sayyid Ahmed Barelvi (Aligarh). Later transferred to Delhi and became Jamia Milia Islamia.
New English School (1880’s) – Bombay –	Tilak – later became Fergussan College.
National Council of Education (Calcutta) 1906 –	National College in Calcutta with Aurobindo Ghose as Principal.
SNDT Women’s University – by Maharishi Karve	established in 1916, it was first women university.

Efforts of Thomas Campbell Robertson

He was Lieutenant-Governor of NW Provinces (1843-53), developed a comprehensive scheme of village education through the medium of vernacular languages. In these village schools, useful subjects such as Mensuration, Agriculture Sciences were taught. The purpose was to train personnel for the newly-set up Revenue and Public Works Department.

Wood’s Despatch

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 programme of the government of India.It is known as “Magna Carta of English Education in India”.

The major recommendations of the Despatch were as follows:

1.    The creation of a department of public instruction in each of the five provinces of the company’s territory

2.    It systematized the hierarchy from vernacular primary schools in villages at bottom, followed by Anglo-Vernacular High Schools and an affiliated college at the district level affiliating universities in the presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras.

3.   Medium of instruction-English for higher studies and vernaculars at school level.

4.   Stress was laid on female and vocational education

5.   Recommended a system of grants-in-aid to encourage private enterprise.

6.    The establishment of university at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras,

7.    The establishment of teachers training institutions,

8.    The promotion of vernacular schools,

9.    The introduction of a system of grants-in-aid for financial help to the schools, etc.

In 1857 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, in fact Wood’s Despatch provided the model for the further development in education in India.

The ideals and methods of Wood’s Despatch dominated the field for five decades which saw rapid westernisation of education system in India, run by European headmasters and principals. Missionary enterprises played their own part. Gradually, private Indian effort appeared in the field.

Bethune School founded by J.E.D. Bethune at Calcutta (1849) was the first fruit of a powerful movement for education of women which arose in 1840s and 1850s. Bethune was the President of Council of Education. Mostly due to Bethune’s efforts, girls’ schools were set up on a sound footing and brought under government’s grants-in-aid and inspection system.

Agriculture Institute at Pusa (Bihar) and Engineering Institute at Roorkee were started.

Hunter education commission (1882-83)

Earlier, schemes neglected primary and secondary education. When, in 1870, education was shifted to provinces, primary and secondary education further suffered because the provinces already had limited resources at their disposal. The commission mostly confined its recommendations to Primary and Secondary education. Major recommendations:-

1.   Emphasized that State’s special care is required for extension and improvement of primary education. Primary education should be regarded as the instruction of masses through vernacular.

2.    Transfer control of primary education to newly set up District and Municipal Boards.

3.   Secondary (High School) education should have two divisions:

       Literary-leading Upto University.

       Vocational-for commercial careers.

4.   Drew attention to inadequate facilities for female education, especially outside presidency towns and made recommendations for its spread.

5.    The commission recommended that an all out effort should be made to encourage private enterprise in the field of education.

Two decades following this saw rapid growth and expansion of secondary and collegiate education with participation of Indian activity.

Also, more teaching-cum examining universities were set up namely - Punjab University (1882),    Allahabad University (1887)

Indian universities act-1904

The dawn of 20th century saw political unrest. The official view was that under private management quality of education had deteriorated and educational institutions acted as factories producing political revolutionaries. Nationalists accepted the decline in quality but accused government of doing nothing to eradicate illiteracy.

In 1902, Raleigh Commission was set up to go into conditions and prospects of universities in India and to suggest measures for improvement in their constitution and working. The commissioner precluded from reporting on primary or secondary education. Based on its recommendations, I.U. Act was passed in 1904-

1.   Universities to give more attention to study and research.

2.   Number of fellows of a University and their period in office reduced. Most fellows to be government nominated.

3.   Government to have powers to veto universities senate regulations. It could amend these regulations or pass regulations on its own.

4.   Stricter conditions of affiliation for private colleges.

5.   One good step was the provision of sanction of Rs. five lakhs per annum for five years for improvement of higher education and universities.

Curzon justified greater control over universities in the name of quality and efficiency, but actually sought to restrict education and to discipline the education towards loyalty to Government.

The nationalists saw in it an attempt to strengthen imperialism and to sabotage nationalist feelings Gokhale called it a ”retrograde measure”.

Government resolution on education policy-1913

In 1906, the progressive state of Baroda introduced compulsory primary education throughout its territories. National leaders urged the government to do so for British India (especially, Gokhale made a powerful advocacy for it in the Legislative Assembly.)

In its 1913 Resolution on Education Policy, the Government refused to recognize the responsibility of compulsory education, but accepted the policy of removal of illiteracy and urged provincial governments to take early steps to provide free elementary education to poorer and more backward section. Private efforts were to be encouraged for this.

Quality of secondary schools was to be improved.

A University, it was decided, should be established in each province and teaching activities of universities were to be encouraged.

Sadler university commission (1917-19)

The Commission was set up to study and report on problems of Calcutta University but its recommendations were applicable more or less to other Universities also. It reviewed the entire field from school education to University education. It held the view that for improvement of university education, improvement of secondary education was a necessary pre-condition. Its observations:-

1.   Recommended 12 years school course. Students to enter university after an intermediate stage (rather than matric) for a three-year degree course in University. This was done to

(a)  Prepare students for University stage.

(b)   Relieve universities of a large number of below University standard students.

(c)  Provide collegiate education to those not planning to go through university stage.A separate Board of Secondary and Intermediate education for administration and control of secondary and intermediate education.

2.   Less rigidity in framing University regulations.

3.   University should function as centralized, unitary-residential-teaching autonomous bodies, rather than as scattered, affiliated colleges.

4.   Stressed extension of female education, applied scientific and technological education, teach era’ training including those for professional and vocational colleges.

In the period of 1916-21 seven new Universities came up-at Mysore, Patna, Banaras, Aligarh, Dacca, Lucknow and Osmania.

In 1920, the Government recommended Sadler report to the Provincial Governments.

Education under dyarchy

Under Montford reforms education was shifted to provincial ministries and the government stopped taking direct interest in educational matters, while government grants, liberally sanctioned since 1902, were now stopped. Financial difficulties prevented any substantial expansion but still education grew, especially under philanthropic efforts.

Hartog Committee (1929) Increase in number of schools and colleges had let to deterioration of standards. Hartog committee was set up to report on development of education. Its main recommendations were-

1.   Emphasized importance of Primary education but condemned hasty expansion or need for compulsion in education;

2.   Only deserving students should go in for high school and intermediate stage, while average students should be diverted to vocational courses after VIII standards;

3.   for improvements in standards of University education it was necessary to restrict admissions.

Wardha scheme of basic education (1937)

Based on Gandhi’s ideas published in a series of articles in weekly Harijan, Gandhi thought that western education had created a gulf between the educated few and the masses and had also made the educated elite ineffective.

The main principle behind the scheme was “Learning through Activity”.

Congress organized a National Conference on Education (October 1937) in Wardha. In the light of resolutions passed there, Zakir Hussain committee formulated the detailed scheme-

1.   Included a basic handicraft in the syllabus.

2.    First seven years of schooling to be an integral part of a free and compulsory nationwide education system (through mother tongue).

3.   Hindi teaching from class II to VII and English only after class VIII.

4.   Devise ways to establish contact with community around schools through service.

5.   Devise a suitable technique with a view to implementing the main idea of basic education-educating the child through the medium of productive activity of a suitable handicraft.

This system, rather than being a methodology for education, was an expression of an idea for a new life and a new society. The basic premise was that only through such a scheme could India be an independent and non-violent society. This scheme was child-centered and cooperative.

There was not much development of this idea, because of Second World War and the resignation of the Congress ministries (October 1939).

Sergeant plan of education

1944-Central Advisory Board of Education (Sergeant-Educational Advisor to Government) drew up this scheme.

1.    Pre-primary education for 3-6 years age; free, universal and compulsory elementary education for 6-11 years age; high school education for 11-17 age group for selected children, and a University course of 3 years after higher secondary. Higher schools to be of two types-

 (i) Academic

(ii) Technical and Vocational.

2.   Adequate technical, commercial and arts education.

3.   Recommended abolition of intermediate course.

4.   Liquidation of adult illiteracy in 20 years.

5.   Stressed teachers’ training, physical education, education for the physically and mentally handicapped.

The objective was to create the same level of educational attainment as had been in England and within 40 years. Although a bold and comprehensive scheme it proposed to methodology for implementation and the ideal of England’s achievements was erratic since that may not have suited Indian conditions.

Radhakrishnan commission 1948

In November 1948 the Government of India appointed a commission under the chairmanship of Dr.Radhakrishnan to report on university education in the country and suggest improvements. The important recommendations of the report submitted in August 1949 were as follows :

1. Twelve years of pre–university educational course.

2. The Higher education to have three main objectives: General education, Liberal education and occupational education.

3. The examination standard should be raised and made uniform in all the universities and university education placed on the concurrent list.

4. A University Grants Commission should be set up to look after university education in the country.

1835, 1836, 1838: William Adam’s reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Bihar pointed out defects in the system of vernacular education. 1843-53: James Jonathan’s experiments in the northwest provinces (UP), as the lieutenant-governor there, included opening one government school as a model school in each Tehsildari and a normal school for teachers’ training for vernacular schools. 1853: In a famous minute, Lord Dalhousie expressed strong opinion, in favor of vernacular education. 1854: Wood’s Despatch made the following provisions for vernacular education: 1. Improvement of standards. 2. Supervisions by a government agency. 3. Normal schools to train teachers. 1854-71: The government paid some attention to secondary and vernacular education. The number of vernacular schools increased by more than fivefold. 1882: The Hunter commission held that the state should make special efforts for extension and improvement of vernacular education. Mass education was to be seen as instructing of masses through vernaculars. 1904: Education policy put special emphasis on vernacular education and increased grants for it. 1929: Hartog Committee presented a gloomy picture of primary education. 1937: These schools received encouragement from Congress ministries.