Who Introduced English Education In India?
Lord Macaulay, sometimes known as Thomas Babington, introduced the English language and British education to India. His extremely controversial introduction to the English language and strategy to minimize the usage of traditional languages makes for an intriguing read.
The English Education Act 1835, a regulatory act of the Council of India, brought changes to a decision made in 1835 by Lord William Bentinck, the then-Governor-General of the British East India Company, to reassign funds that the British Parliament had mandated the company to spend on education and literature in India.
Before this, they had provided limited support for traditional Muslim and Hindu education and the publishing of literature in the then-traditional languages of education in India (Sanskrit and Persian); subsequently, they were to provide support for institutions teaching a Western curriculum in English.
Together with other metrics promoting English as the language of management and of the higher law courts (rather than Persian, as being under the Mughal Empire), this eventually resulted in English becoming one of India's official languages, as opposed to merely the mother tongue of its foreign rulers.
In negotiations leading up to the Act, Thomas Babington Macaulay authored his infamous Memorandum on (Indian) Education, in which he criticized the (perceived) inferiority of indigenous (especially Hindu) culture and learning.
He maintained that Western education was superior and could now only be taught through the English language.
Therefore, it was necessary to build, via English-language higher education, "a class of individuals, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in ideas, in morals, and in intellect," which in turn might develop the means to transfer Western knowledge in the vernacular languages of India.
Macaulay suggested that the East India Company immediately cease producing Arabic and Sanskrit literature and that the company should cease supporting the education system beyond "the Sanskrit College at Benares and the Mahomedan College in Delhi" (which he considered sufficient to manage traditional learning).
However, the legislation had a less critical stance toward conventional schooling and was quickly followed by other provisions based on appropriate support for both modalities.
However, vernacular language education continued to get minimal money, although it had received little support before 1835.
Lord Macaulay's Education Minute
On February 2, 1835, the British politician disseminated Minute on Education, a treatise that provided definitive arguments for why the East India Company and the British government should spend the money on the stipulation of English language education and the promotion of European learning, particularly in the sciences, in India.
Macaulay closed his Minute with a theatrical flourish, vowing to quit if his recommendations were not approved.
The Minute became official policy when William Bentinck (Governor-General of India) was persuaded to sign the resolution around a month after its publication.
It was Macaulay's win against his opponents, particularly the Orientalists (East India Company administrators, researchers, translators, and collectors) who advocated the study and training native languages in India.
British support for Indian learning
In 1813, when Parliament renewed the East India Company's constitution for 20 years, it required the company to allocate 100,000 rupees per year "for the reawakening and advancement of literature and the inspiration of the learned natives of India, and the emergence and advancement of a knowledge of the sciences among some of the inhabitants of British territories."
It had been used to maintain traditional modes (and content) of learning, which (like their modern equivalents in England) were staunchly non-utilitarian.
In 1813, at the suggestion of Colonel John Munro, the British Resident of Travancore at the time, and Pulikkottil Dionysius II, a distinguished monk of the Orthodox Syrian Church, Gowri Parvati Bayi, the Queen of Travancore, authorized the establishment of a theological seminary in Kottayam, Travancore.
The queen awarded the 16-acre tax-free plot, 20,000, and the required building materials. The cornerstone was set on February 18, 1813, and the building was finished in 1815.
The Old Seminary Building's structure is named Naalukettu, which translates as central-quadrangle. Among the first missionaries to operate in this area, Norton, Henry Baker, Benjamin Bailey, and Fenn gave outstanding service.
Initially known as Cottayam College, the Seminary was not intended only for priestly education.
It was a center for English public schools in the State of Travancore and is recognized as the "first site to begin English education" in Kerala and the first to employ Englishmen as instructors in 1815.
Over time, it even became known as the Syrian College. The pupils were also instructed in English, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Sanskrit, in addition to Malayalam and theology.
Early in the 1820s, several East India Company administrators questioned whether this prudent use of the funds. James Mill observed that the declared intent of the Madrassa (Mohammedan College) and the Hindu College in Calcutta established by the company was "to make a favorable impression, by our encouraging words of their literature, upon on the minds of the natives"; however, he believed that the company's objective should have been to promote "useful learning" rather than oriental learning.
Private institutions imparting Western knowledge in English ("English education") had begun to appear in Bengal to service a native clientele who deemed it more vital that their kids learn English than they are taught to appreciate classic poetry.
Similar problems ('classical education' vs. 'liberal education') had previously arisen for education in England, where existing grammar schools were unwilling (or legally unable) to guide subjects other than Latin and Greek, leading to an expansion of their curricula to include contemporary subjects.
A potential issue in the Indian situation was that 'classical education' mirrored the beliefs and attitudes of the diverse traditions in the subcontinent, whereas 'English education' clearly did not, and it was feared that any withdrawal of support for them would provoke a negative reaction among the current learned classes of India.
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