Although the beginnings of English education on a sound basis are to be traced to the momentous decision of 1835, the evolution of a comprehensive and coordinated system of education had to wait for nearly twenty years till the next revision of the Charter. A Parliamentary Committee was appointed on that occasion to examine the whole subject. The result was the memorable Despatch of Sir Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control, dated 19th July, I854, which laid the foundations on which the educational system in British India subsequently developed.
The most characteristic feature of the new scheme was the creation of a properly coordinated system of education from the lowest to the highest stage. There was to be an adequate number of efficient teaching institutions such as primary schools, higher schools, and colleges, each leading to the next higher step. A regular system of scholarships was instituted to enable meritorious students to prosecute the higher course of study, and educational institutions founded by private efforts were to be helped by grants from Government funds.
In order to carry out the above objects, a special Department of Education was to be created in each province and an adequate system of inspection would be provided for by the appointment of a sufficient number of inspectors.
For coordinating higher education a University should be established in each Presidency town. It would be mainly an Examining Body on the model of the London University. But while the higher teaching would be chiefly imparted through colleges, the University might institute Professorships in Law, Civil Engineering, Vernaculars and classical languages.
Stress was laid upon the importance of mass education, female education, improvement of the vernaculars and the training of teachers. Every district was to have schools “whose object should be not to train highly a few youths, but to provide more opportunities than now exist for the acquisition of such an improved education as will make those that possess it more useful members of society in every condition of life”.
Finally it was definitely laid down that the vernaculars should be the medium of instruction.
“It is neither our aim nor desire”, so runs the Despatch, “to substitute the English language for the Vernacular dialects of the country. . . . It is indispensable, therefore, that in any general system of education the study of them should be assiduously attended to, and any acquaintance with improved European knowledge which is to be communicated to the great mass of the people can only be conveyed to them through one or other of these Vernacular languages.”
As regards religious instruction in the Government institutions, the Despatch clearly lays down that as these “were founded for the benefit of the whole population of India . . . the education conveyed in them should be exclusively secular”.
Lord Dalhousie lost no time in giving effect to the policy outlined in the Despatch. Within a few years Departments of Public Instruction were established in all the provinces. The first University in India, that of Calcutta, was founded in 1857, and between 1857 and 1887 four new Universities, at Bombay, Madras, Lahore and Allahabad, were added. But before any substantial progress could be made, the great Revolt broke out and the government of the East India Company came to an end.
The Government and Social Reform
From the very beginning the British Government in India assumed a policy of benevolent neutrality in religious and social matters. In spite of strong pressure they refused to encourage, far less actively help, the religious propaganda of the Christian missionaries in India. The same policy induced them to dissociate religious instruction from the educational institutions maintained by the Government.
On the other hand the British Government not only tolerated all the rites and customs of the Indians, but sometimes even went so far as to evoke the criticism that they honoured and encouraged them by their favour. Two specific instances may be quoted. Under the Hindu law, a convert to Christianity forfeited his inheritance and was subject to other disabilities, and this was sanctioned by the British Government. Again, extreme deference was shown by the Government to many Hindu festivals and religious ceremonies, and on some of these occasions there was even a display of troops and firing of salutes.
This benevolent attitude was, however, shortly given up. A law passed in 1832, supplemented by another in 1850, removed all disabilities due to change of religion, and instructions were issued by the President of the Board of Control in 1833 that Government should cease to show any special favour or respect to Indian religious ceremonies. These instructions, including others requiring the abolition of the pilgrim tax and official control of temple endowments, were enforced by Lord Auckland,
But even the policy of benevolent neutrality was bound to come into conflict with the humane and progressive ideas that animated liberal Englishmen. In spite of their repeatedly declared policy of not interfering with the social and religious practices of the Indians, English rulers were impelled by considerations of humanity to co-operate with advanced Indian reformers in removing some gross evils which prevailed in Hindu society under the sanction of religion or long-standing usage.
The first to be attacked was the curious practice of infanticide. It was a long-standing custom among certain Hindus to throw a child into the sea at the mouth of the Ganges, in fulfillment of religious vows. A childless woman, for example, praying for progeny, would take a vow that if she had more than one child, one would be offered to Mother Ganges. Although not very widely prevalent, this inhumanity was too glaring to be ignored by anyone whose feelings were not totally blunted by religious superstition.