Comment on the debate on education policy during the early British rule

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 in India. It was basically a commercial corporation, so its basic objectives were trade.

Before acquisition of territorial power the Company had no role in and to100 were attempts by the missionaries to establish charity schools of promote Naming. But things began to change with the British occupation western India in the second-half of 18th century.

Within the official circle as was a growing debate about what should be the role the Promotion of learning in India of political power in India the company officials 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.

The argument put forward by the Orientalists was that generally there was a prejudice among Indians against European knowledge and science, so there might be complete rejection of western knowledge.

Some of them were also interested to explore the classical tradition and culture of this ancient civilisation. But even if we acknowledge the genuine desire of some of the Englishmen for the promotion of oriental culture, there is no doubt that the Orientalists were guided by some practical considerations.

They wanted to teach the British officials the local language and culture so that they would be better at their job. This was the prime objective behind the foundation of the Port William College at Calcutta in 1800. The other motive was to develop friendly relations with the elites of the indigenous society and to understand their culture. This was the main reason behind the establishments of the ‘Calcutta Madrasa’ and the ‘Benares Sanskrit College’.

There was a strong opposition to this Orientalist approach by different groups in England-the Evangelicals, the Liberals and the Utilitarians. The new cultural ethos that developed in England with the Industrial Revolution was highly critical of the company’s monopoly trade. Post-industrial Revolution saw little of value beyond modern western culture. The Evangelicals had a firm conviction in the superiority of Christian ideas and western institutions.

Two great exponents of the Evangelical view were Charles Grant and William Wilberforce. The groups who may be called ‘Anglicists’, in general believed that Indians were in a backward stage and Western education given through English language alone was the remedy.

But education was expensive. Therefore it was better to educate a group of people who would gradually educate the rest of the society. Education would filter down from the elites to the masses. In this way it would help to develop new cultural values and knowledge in India. This was after called the ‘filtration’ theory.

The missionaries had a completely different logic for supporting the introduction of English education in India. The motive of the missionaries was to get access to the indigenous society through education and to propagate new culture’ values which would help them in conversion of people to Christianity.

The response of Indians to this debate over education policy was a mixed one Ram Mohan Roy and others favoured introduction of Western education belief that it would help Indians to assimilate the knowledge of western science, rationalism, new ideas and literature.

This would help in the regeneration ,f 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.

Thus, there were different shades of opinion among the Europeans as well as Indians about the role of the company in the development of education in India.