PREFACE
 

EDUCATION has always played a decisive role in the development process of a country. The place of education in the history of India's development is also of prime importance. India has had her own system of education from the time immemorial. Before the arrival of the Europeans, there had been tols, madrassas, pathashalas and seats of Arabic learning through which education was imparted. But after their arrival, the educational system has undergone radical changes. At the outset, the East India Company took no interest in imparting education to the native population. It was at a much later stage that the Company took some interest in the subject.

The origin of the present system of education can be traced back to the beginning of the 19th century. The efforts of the Christian missionaries, who came to India along with the European traders for preaching Christianity to the native population, ultimately took to teaching as well. The missionary education left an impression on the progress of education. The society-social manners and customs also underwent a change in contact with the missionaries. It was a change towards modernism. The gradual progress and reform of education in India is, thus, an inseparable part of the history of modern India.

While the missionaries were busy introducing a new system of learning, different from that already existing in the country, others were also no less anxious for a new type of education. Eminent men like David Hare, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Radhakanta Dev and others fully realised the necessity for a new pattern of education through English medium. They felt that such a new type of education would lead to the improvement of both material and intellectual condition of the people. The Hindu College was established in 1817 which inaugurated a new era in the social and intellectual history of India. The Serampore College was founded in 1818, and the Bishop College in 1820. The Calcutta School Book Society, established in 1817, produced new type of reading material for school. children. The Calcutta School Society was established in 1922.

In 1823, the General Committee of Public Instruction was brought into being. This Committee included eminent persons like H.T. Prinsep, H.H. Wilson and others who preferred oriental classical learning. But, Raja Ram Mohan Roy opposed this. This marked the starting point of "Anglicist-Orientalist" controversy.

In 1833, the funds at the disposal of the aforesaid Committee were raised from one lakh to ten lakhs rupees. There were differences of opinion among the members of the Committee-one group preferring to continue to spend exclusively on oriental education and the other preferring the restriction of expenditure on oriental classical learning. The latter group also liked to restrict education initially to the upper middle classes, hoping that ultimately it would reach the masses also. The well-known "Anglicist-Orientalist" controversy continued for several years. Now, the time came to end controversy and enunciate a positive educational policy.

At this stage, the advent of three eminent personalities, Bentinck, Macaulay and Adam changed the educational climate of India. Bentinck agreed with Macaulay in passing a resolution in 1835 in

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"favour of promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India. The resolution stipulated that "all the funds appropriated for the purpose, would be best employed on English educa- tion alone." This proposal brought about a virtual eclipse of oriental learning and education through vernaculars, although tols, madrassas and pathashalas were not totally eliminated. In the post-independence years the Government of India appointed several committees and commissions on education and acted on their recommendations.

The chapters into which the text-matter has been broken here make no attempt to give a history of Indian education. The aim of the present study is only to supply a background to the committees and commissions which were appointed by the Government of India and the state governments between 1947 and 1977.

The book contains entries on almost all important reports on Indian education in English language covering the above period. Entries from 1 to 80 contain reports of the committees and commissions appointed by the Government of India, while the remaining entries relate to reports of committees and commissions appointed by the state governments. The entries have been classified chronologically under headings `India' and `State Government'.

Full bibliographical details about the publication are given in the following order : the name of the committee, full title of the report, place of publication, the name of the publisher, the year of publication, number of pages, etc.

A comprehensive index is appended to the work. Its entries have been numbered serially.

It is difficult to claim comprehensiveness in respect of the bibliograhy appended to the first edition of a book. The possibility of some entries being left out of the bibliography to the present study cannot, for obvious reasons, be ruled out. Any suggestions from any quarter for the addition of relevant entries towards making the bibliography comprehensive will, therefore, be thankfully accepted and incorporated in the bibliography to the next edition of the book.

Calcutta A. N. PATRA.

January 1987