CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL RETROSPECT
 

I. Higher Education up to 1857

1. Universities in Ancient India. 2. Mediaeval Universities. 3. British Period :Calcutta Madrasah and Banaras Sanskrit College. 4. Parliament Debate of 1793. 5. Grant's Memorandum. 6. Minto, Moira and Rammohan Roy. 7. Bombay: Mountstuart Elphinstone. 8. East and West : Macaulay. 9. Resolution of Bentinck and his Council 10. The work of Christian Missions. 11. The Medium of Instruction and Proposals for Universities. 12. Medical Education. 13. Education in Engineering. 14. Legal Education. 15. World's Despatch of 1854. 16. Establishment of Universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.

II. University Education from 1857to the present day

17. Development of Universities from 1857-1882. 18. Proposals for New Universities. 19. The Education Commission of 1882. 20. Expansion of Higher Education from 1882-1902. 21. The Universities Commission of 1902. 22. The Universities Act of 1904. 23. A New Political and Economic Consciousness. 24. Government Resolution on Educational Policy in 1913. 25. The Calcutta University Commission. 26. The Rise of New Universities. 27. The Inter-University Board. 28. The Auxiliary Committee of the Indian Statutory Commission. 29. The Report of the Central Advisory Board on Educational Development.

I-Higher Education up to 1857

1. Universities in Ancient India-The universities of modern India owe very little to our ancient or mediaeval centres of learning but one must not forget the existence of such centres since very early times. The parishads or assemblies of Brahmans learned in the Vedas and Dharma Sutras probably attracted a number of students desirous of acquiring knowledge like Svetaketu in the Chandogya Upanishad. Later there grew up well organised centres of learning of which the most famous were Taksasila and Nalanda. One of the Jatakas relates the story of the sixteen year-old son of the King of Banaras who went to distant Taksasila, with a thousand pieces of gold, the fee for his teacher who was to take him through the various branches of learning. The curriculum at Taksasila appears,to have included the Vedas and the Vedangas as also the eighteen arts which comprised of medicine and surgery, astronomy and astrology, agriculture and accountancy, archery and snake charming. Students at Nalanda often spent as many as twelve years studying the Vedas and the Upanishads, the works of Mahayana Buddhism and Jainism, the systems of philosophy and logic. Nalanda was a Buddhist centre but, the atmosphere and work of the institution appear to have been very similar to those of the Hindu centres, with a, close relationship of the teacher and pupil, with individual instruction

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diversified by public discussions. Taksasila probably flourished as an educational centre till the fifth century A.D. while Nalanda was destroyed towards the close of the twelfth century. Vallabhi in Kathiawad and Kanchi in the south were great centres of learning about the same time as Nalanda. Of Vikramasila and Odantapuri in Bihar we know much less, but Nadia in Bengal continues its traditions down to the present day. Here the students specialised in logic, but law and grammar were also studied.

2. Mediaeval Universities--While some of those Hindu centres of learning in the East and the South continued their work throughout the middle ages, the Mohamedan rulers encouraged the establishment of colleges (madrasahs) at places like Lahore, Delhi, Rampur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Jaunpur, Ajmer and Bidar. Sher Shah who later became emperor was a student at Jaunapur, and among, the subjects he studied there were history and philosophy, Arabic and Persian literature. The curriculum of these colleges paralleled the trivium and quadrivium of the European institutions and included grammar, rhetoric, logic and law, geometry and astronomy, natural philosophy, metaphysics and theology while poetry was a source of pleasure to all. Most of the important institutions attempted to specialize in one or more branches of knowledge as Rampur did in logic and medicine, Lucknow in theology and Lahore in astronomy and mathematics. The medium of instruction was mainly Arabic and there were many famous scholars in Arabic, teaching in the institutions of higher learning. While most of these institutions have disappeared, some still carry on the traditions of the old Madrasahs.

3. British Period : Calcutta Madrasah and Banaras Sanskrit College-When Muslim rulers were replaced by the British, the latter felt the need of doing something for the education of the people and one of the noteworthy acts of Warren Hastings, the first Governor- General, was to establish the Calcutta Madrasah which was intended "to qualify the sons of Mohamedan gentlemen for responsible and lucrative offices in the State" and the course of studies followed the traditional pattern embracing theology, logic, rhetoric, grammar, law, natural philosophy, astronomy, geometry and arithmetic. A few years later John Owen, Chaplain to the Bengal Presidency, requested the Government to establish schools for the purpose of teaching English "to the natives of these provinces." The administrators do not seem to have paid much attention to this and when the next important educational institution was established a few years later at Banaras, it was "for the preservation and cultivation of the Laws, Literature and Religion of the nation, to accomplish the

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same purpose for the Hindus as the Madrasah for the Mohamedans and specially to supply qualified Hindu assistants to European Judges."

4. Parliament Debate of 1793-In 1792-93 when the House of Commons debated the renewal of the East India Company's Charter, Wilberforce, the' leader of the evangelical party carried a resolution emphasizing the adoption of such steps as would lead to the ad- vancement, in useful knowledge of the inhabitants of British India and moved that in order to attain this object the Court of Directors should be commissioned to send. out from time to time schoolmasters and missionaries. Wilberforce's move was vigorously opposed by people who urged that the Hindus had "as good a system of faith and morals as most people" and that it would be madness to give them any kind of learning other than what they possessed. One of the Directors is further reported to have observed that "they had just lost America from their folly in having allowed the establishment of schools and colleges and it would not do for them to repeat the same act of folly in regard to India".

5. Grant's Memorandum-A few years later Charles Grant who was one of the Directors of the East India Company submitted to the Company a memorandum in which he lamented the low moral conditions of the people of India and exhorted the Company to improve it by imparting to them a knowledge of the English language to serve as "a key which will open to them a world of new ideas". He referred to what had been done by the Muslim-rulers employing the Persian language and teaching their subjects to use it. To quote his words: "It would be extremely easy for Government to establish, at moderate expense in various parts of Provinces, places of gratuitous instruction in reading and writing English, multitudes, especially of the young, would flock to them and the easy books, used in teaching, might at the same time convey obvious truths on different subjects........ The Hindus would, in time, become teachers of English themselves, and the employment of our language in public business, for which every political reason remains in full force, would, in the course of another generation, make it very general throughout the country. There is nothing wanting to the success of this plan but the hearty patronage of Government."

6. Minto, Moira and Rammohan Roy-Lord Minto's Minute written in 1811 regretted the neglect of literature and science in India and suggested improvement in existing colleges in addition to the establishment of new ones. Two years later when the charter of the East India Company was being again renewed, a clause was inserted stipulating that "a sum of not less than one lakh of rupees in each year

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shall be set apart and applied to the revival and improvement of IV literature and for the introduction and promotion of knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India". shortly afterwards Lord Moira observed in a Minute that public money would be ill-spent on the existing colleges but that the tuition which was then available had to be improved and diffused in places so long deprived of this benefit. This suggestion was acted upon by a group of men led by one of the greatest Indians of the century, Raja Rammohan Roy, who formed an association for founding an institution where the Hindus would receive instruction in European Languages and Science. The Hindu College was founded in 1817 and in 818 is the Bishop of Calcutta opened an institution which was to serve the double purpose of training young Christians as preachers and of imparting a knowledge of the English language to Mohamedans and Hindus. The Proposal to establish a Sanskrit College at Calcutta elicited a vigorous protest from Rammohan 'Roy who did not want his young contemporaries to acquire "the vain and empty subtleties"of speculative men." These 'protests proved unavailing, but in a few years the Court of Directors wrote with approval of the efforts to raise up a class of persons qualified for high employment in the civil administration of India ; "As the, means of bringing about this most desirable object we rely chiefly on their becoming through a familiarity with European literature and science, imbued with the ideas and feelings of civilised Europe on the general cultivation of their understanding, and specifically on their instruction in the principles of morals and general jurisprudence"

7. Bombay : Mountstuart Elphinstone-Shortly after this in 1830 and in a the Court of Directors communicated their policy to the Governments of Madras and Bombay who had not so far done very much for the propagation of Western_ Education, in spite of Mountstuart Elphin- stone's famous Minute of 1923 urging the establishment of schools for teaching English and the European Sciences. Elphinstone expressed the same views before the Lord's Committee in 1830 and in a communication to the Commissioners for Indian Affairs he was more explicit:- "I conceive it is more important to impart a high degree of education to the upper classes than to diffuse a much lower sort of it among the common people. The most important branch of education is that designed to prepare natives for Public employment. if English could be at all diffused among persons who had the least time for reflection, the progress of knowledge, by means of it, would be accelerated in a ten-fold ratio since every man who made himself acquainted with a science through English would be able to communicate it in his own language to his countrymen". As a first stop towards this he proposed the establishment, of a school at Bombay

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Where English might be taught "classically and where instruction might also be given in that language on history, geography and science. A school on these lines had already been established by him at Bombay and in 1833 a similar school was established at Poona, lead- ing next year to the founding at Bombay of the Elphinstone College which was to be instrumental in training "a class of persons qualified by their intelligence and morality for high employment in the civil administration of India."

8. East and West: Macaulay-While these developments were taking place in Bombay and Bengal the demand for instruction in English grew more and more insistent. English books were sold by the thousand and there was practically no demand for Sanskrit or Arabic books. In order to satisfy the popular demand English classes had been attached to the Madrasah and the Sanskrit College at Calcutta as also to the Agra College (established in 1818) but those failed in their object as the students had no time to go through the additional course while doing their heavy oriental work. Hence started the controversy between those who wanted to impart instruction through Arabic and Sanskrit and those who wanted to use English. This matter was placed before the Government in 1835 by the Committee of Public Instruction and elicited a Minute from Macaulay who was then the Law Member. He discussed the Act of 1813 which povided a sum of money for the revival and promotion of literature and for the introduction of a knowledge of sciences among the inhabitants of British territories. He disputed the view that by literature Parliament could have meant only Arabic and Sanskrit literature as he had not yet found an orientalist "who could deny that a single shelf of a good European Library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia". He argued that English was the language spoken by the ruling class and it was likely to become the language of commerce "throughout the seas of the East." He therefore came to the conclusion that the Government was free to employ its funds in teaching what was better worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic, what the Indian desired to learn rather than these old languages. Further "neither as the languages of law nor as the languages of religion have Sanskrit or Arabic any peculiar claim to our encouragement " and "it is possible to make natives of the country thoroughly good English scholars" to which end efforts should be directed. The ideas expressed in this Minute were not the result of Macaulay's stay in India, as before coming out to this country he had already said in the House of Commons:-"Axe we to keep the people of India ignorant in order that we may keep them submissive? Or do we think that we can give knowledge without awakening ambition? Or do we mean to awaken ambition and to provide it with no legitimate vent?........ It may

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be that the public mind of India may expand under our system until it has outgrown that system, that by good government we may educate our subjects into a capacity for better government that having become instructed in European knowledge, the may, in some future age, demand European institutions. Whether such a day will ever come I know not. Whenever it comes it will be the proudest day in English History............ The scepter may pass away from us. Victory may be inconsistent to our arms. But there are triumphs which are followed by no reverse. There is an empire exempt from all natural causes of decay. These triumphs are the pacific triumphs of reason over barbarism: that empire is the imperishable empire of our arts and our morals, our literature and our laws".

9. Resolution of Bentinck and his Council-Macaulay's Minute was approved by the Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck and his Council. On 7th March, 1835, they passed a resolution in which they emphasised:-

(1) that the "great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science amongst the natives of India and that all funds appropriated for the purposes of education would be best employed on English education alone;

(2) that while the colleges of oriental learning were not to be abolished, the practice of supporting their students during their period of education was to be discontinued ;

(3) that Government funds were not to be spent on the printing of oriental works ; and

(4) that all the funds at the disposal of the Government would henceforth be spent in imparting to the Indians a knowledge of English literature and science."

This resolution of the Government was heartily welcomed by the leading Hindus but the feelings of the Mahomedans towards English education were not quite friendly. As the Sanskrit scholar H.H. Wilson, put it : "Upon the proposal to appropriate all the funds to English education there was a petition from the Mahomedans of Calcutta, signed by about 8,000 people, including all the most I respectable Maulvis and native gentlemen of the city. After objecting to it upon general principles they said that the evident object of the Government was the conversion of the natives ; and they encouraged English exclusively and discouraged Mahomedan and Hindu studies, because they wanted to induce the people to became Christian." In order to allay these suspicions Lord William Bentinck enunciated a policy of strict religious neutrality : "In

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all schools and colleges............ interference and injudicious tam- pering with the religious belief of the students mingling direct or indirect teaching of Christianity with the, system of instruction ought to be positively forbidden." Among the first fruits of the new policy were the establishment of a college at Hooghly in 1836, the proposal to establish a college at Dacca (and one eventually at Patna) in 1840, the transfer to the Calcutta Hindu College to the Government and its development into the Presidency College.

10. The Work of Christian Missions-The policy of religious neutrality was not accepted by the missionaries who had by this time founded a number of institutions, among the earliest of which were the products of the work of Danish Missionaries who arrived at Tranquebar in 1706. In 1716 they opened an institution for the training of teachers and next year two charity schools at Madras,one for the Portuguese and the other for the Tamil children, teaching them English and the principles of Christianity. Of the second batch of these missionaries the most famous was Schwartz who persuaded local Rajahs to open English schools at Tanjore, Ramnad and Sivaganga. In Bengal the pioneers were Carey, Marshman and Ward who started work at the Danish settlement at Serampore in 17931. Twenty years later we find the Baptists working at Dinajpore and Jessore, the London Missionary Society at Dutch Chinsura and Vizagapatam, the American Board in Bombay and some workers at Bellary. By 1820 the activities of Missionary Societies had expanded considerably but their primary aim was not educational. Even when they took up educational work they paid more attention in the beginning to the study of modern Indian languages than to English. When they started English Schools (one of the pioneers being Dr. Alexander Duff in 1830) it was mainly to have an opportunity of preaching the Gospel to the upper classes of society. By 1840 these mission workers had almost universally come to accept the view that English education would lead to the spread of Christianity ; and so institutions for the teaching of English and Western knowledge were started in all parts of the country. In Bombay Dr. John Wilson founded the college which was later named after him. At Madras Anderson and Braidwood started a school in 1837 which, under the guidance of Dr. William Miller became the Madras Christian College. In 1841 Robert Noble founded a college at Masulipatam and in IS44 Stephen Hislop opened a College at Nagpur, while the Church Missionary Society founded the St. John's College at Agra in 1853. Indian pupils came to these institutions for the

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acquisition of modern knowledge and were willing to put up with compulsory religious instruction though they were not much attracted by the teaching of Christianity. The Mission workers realised this but were willing to carry on their educational work with the same fervor as before, provided they are allowed to continue their Bible classes. Dr. Duff was very explicit as regards the aims of these institutions: "One great object was to convey, as largely as possible a knowledge of our ordinary improved literature and science to the young persons ; but another, and a more vital object was.... to convey a thorough knowledge of Christianity with its evidences and doctrines. Our purpose was therefore to combine in closed inseparable and harmonious union, what has been called a useful secular with a decidedly religious education."

11. The Medium of Instruction and Proposals for Universities While there was this divergence of opinion about the place of religion in education in 1844 a Government Resolution enjoined that for, public employment in every case preference would be given to those who had been educated in Western science and were familiar with the English language. English had been definitely established as the medium of instruction by more than one communique of the Government typical among which were the observations of Lord Auckland "I would make it my principal aim to communicate through the means of the English language a complete education in European literature, philosophy and science to the greatest number of students who may be ready to accept it." In Bombay the policy regarding the medium of instruction changed between 1.821 and 1843. In the former year the Bombay Education. Society had observed : "In imparting to the natives useful knowledge to any extent and with the hope of any good and permanent effect it is evident that the language of the country must be the chief and proper vehicle. The English language is almost confined to the Island of Bombay and is principally to be found among these who are anxious to acquire it for the furtherance of mercantile pursuits or for facilitating their intercourse or employment with the Europeans.......... It is impossible to look with any hope of success to imparting knowledge generally and usefully in a language which must remain to the greater portion a foreign one". In 1843 the policy was radically altered and it was generally recognised that education must be imparted through the English language. In Madras the controversy did not arise because the first efforts of the Presidency were directed to the extension of primary education and it was not till 1841 that a High School was opened and. entitled "the University", a Collegiate Department being recognised in this institution about 10 years later. While Madras was content to use the title of a University in this

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fashion, the Bengal Council of Education proposed in 1845 the establishment of a University of Calcutta with a view to conferring on the products of the rapidly increasing number of new institutions " some mark of distinction by which they might be recognised as persons of liberal education". This proposal was however not accepted by the Court of Directors.

12. Medical Education-The genesis of medical education is to, be traced to the appointment of a committee in 1833 to report on the study of medical education imparted in several institutions in Calcutta. A question had been raised by the Committee of Public Instruction as to, "whether it would be expedient to confine the medical instruction to English lectures and to adopt for class books small English treatises, discarding Sanskrit medical books altoge- ther". The Committee recommended the establishment of a new insti- tution. in which "the various branches of medical sciences cultivated in Europe should be taught and as near as possible on the most approved European system". This ultimately led to the foundation of the Calcutta Medical College where in one of the early courses of lectures dissection had to be introduced. Here is a graphic account of the first attempt to dissect a dead body : "It had needed some time, some exercise of the persuasive art before Madhusudan could bend up his mind to the attempt ; but having once taken the resolution, he never flinched or swerved from it. At the appointed hour, scalpel in hand, he followed Dr. Goodeve into the godown where the body lay ready. The other students, deeply interested in what was going forward but strangely agitated with mingled feelings of curiosity and alarm, crowded after them, but dared not enter the building where this fearful deed was to be perpetrated; they clustered round the door, they peeped through the jilmils, resolved at least to have ocular proof of its accomplishment ; and when Madhusudan's knife, held with a strong and steady hand, made a long and deep incision in the breast, the lookers-on drew a long gasping breath like men relieved from weight of some intolerable suspense". The first hospital was opened in 1833 and three years later a hospital for women was added. In 1844 four students of the College in charge of Dr. Goodeve went to England to complete their medical education. The foundation stone of the present college hospital was laid in 1848 and it was opened in 1851.

In Madras the establishment of a medical school was sanctioned in 1835 and 7 years later the Board of Governors submitted a scheme for starting a Collegiate class in the Faculty of Medicine to be