History of Education in India Under the Rule of the East India Company

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The history of education in India under British rule has yet to be properly written. It should be remembered that in the pre-British period, India was not an illiterate country. This land was far more advanced in education than many a Christian country of the West. Almost every village had its school for the diffusion of not only 3 but 4 R's-the last R being Religion or the Ramayana. That work has contributed not a little to the preservation of Hindu culture. Stress has not been laid on another fact, which is, that educational institutions were not established in this country as soon as the East India Company obtained political supremacy here. It took the Christian merchant" adventurers" just a century to come to the decision that it was for their benefit to impart education to the swarthy "heathens" of India. The battle of Plassey was fought in 1757; and Wood's Despatch, commonly called the Educational Charter of India, is dated 1854. This would show that the system of education now in vogue in this country was not introduced in hot haste but after the mature deliberations of nearly a century. The number of those English Christians who consider that it was a mistake to have introduced Western education in this country is not a small one. But they should be reminded of the fact that the mistake was committed after nearly a century's deliberation.

It should also not be lost sight of that the Indians themselves were the pioneers in introducing Western education in this country. The Hindu College of Calcutta was established long before Macaulay penned his celebrated minute or Wood sent out his Educational Despatch to India.

It was to emphasize these facts that the preparation of this work was undertaken. It appeared originally in The Modern Review in the shape of serial articles, from which it is reprinted with a few additions and alterations.

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