William Jones helped establish the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 to promote the study of Indian culture and languages. He and other early British scholars, known as Orientalists, worked to translate ancient Indian texts to understand philosophy, law, and culture. However, over time British officials like Macaulay criticized Orientalism as unscientific. They argued for replacing traditional Indian education with one focused on English and Western ideas to civilize Indians. This led to policies prioritizing English education and marginalizing Indian languages and knowledge systems.

2.  William jones…1783 …junior judge at calcutta
 He was a linguist
 [ French,english,greek,latin,persian,arabic,skt]
 Intrested in grammar and poetry
 Studied ancient Indian text on law, philosophy,
religion, politics, morality, arithmetic, medicine, and
other sciences

4.  Jones, Henry Thomas colebrooke &
Nathaniel Halhed formed
 ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL
 and
 started a journal called
 ASIATICK RESEARCHES

6.  They had deep respect for Indian cultures
 They felt that ancient Indian civilisation had lost
its past glory
for future devt….
study ancient textbook which could reveal the
real ideas of laws of hindus and muslims

7.  They discovered many Indian texts
 Understood their meaning
 Translated them
 found out the truth
 They thought that it was usefull for others [ britishers as
well as Indians ]
 Result
 Indians would rediscover their own heritage and
understand their lost glories of past
 By all this process the british would become the guardians
of Indian cultureas well as its masters
 British started promoting the western learnings .

8.  They discovered many Indian texts
 Understood their meaning
 Translated them
 found out the truth
 They thought that it was usefull for others [ britishers as
well as Indians ]
 Result
 Indians would rediscover their own heritage and
understand their lost glories of past
 By all this process the british would become the guardians
of Indian cultureas well as its masters
 British started promoting the western learnings .

9.  Madarasa - calcutta in [1781] to promote the study
of arabic , persian , & islamic law
 Hindu college was established in benaras in 1791
to encourage the study of ancient sanskrit texts
that would be useful for the administration of
country
 Not all oficials sharedatheir views . Many were very
strong in their criticism of the orientalists.

11.  From the early nineteenth century many british
officials began to criticise the orientalist vision of
learning
 Eastern knowledge was full of errors and
unscientific knowledge
 they thought that it was just waste of money
 Many officials criticised orientalism and orientalists

13.  James mill : he was against the orientalism
 He declared that there should not be taught what the
“natives” wanted or what they respected.
 He said that the aim of of education ought to be teach
what was practical.
 So Indians should be made familiar with the scientific
and technical advances

14.  Thomas babington macaulay :He was also against
orientalism.
 He saw INDIANS as uncivilised that neded to be
civilised.
 no brach of eastern knowledge , according to him
could be compared to what england had produced.
 He thought that the language produced by england
was superior to other languages.

15.  MACAULAY said that “a single shelf of a good
european library was worth the whole native
literature of INDIAN & ARABIA.
 He urged that the british government in INDIA stop
wasting public money in promoting the oriental
language.
 MACAULY gave extra importance to english and felt
the need of teaching the INDIANS english.
 So that they could read some of the finest literature
the world had produced.

17.  So that it would make them aware of the
developments in western science & philosophy
 By following macaulays minute the english education
act of 1835 was introduced.
 They wanted to make english the medium of
instructions for higher education & to stop the
promotion of oriental institution like the calcutta
madarassa & benaras sanskrit college.
 English textbooks started producing of schools.

19.  In 1854 the court of directors of the east india
company in london sent an educational despatch to
the governor –general of india
 It was issued by charles wood.
 He was the president of board of control of the
company.
 It came to be known as WOODS DESPATCH.
 They gave more importnce to practical benefits

21.  [Commerce : commerce is the activities and
procedures involved buying and selling of the things]
 Economic : economic means concerned with the
organisation of,money,industry,& trade of a country,
region and industry

22.  Woods despatch argued that european learning
would improve the moral characters of INDIANS.
 This would make them truthfull,& honest &thus
supply the company with civil servants who could be
trusted and dependent upon.
 The literature of east could not develop the skills
required for administration.
 Educational departments of the government were set
up to extend control over all matters regarding
education.

24.  Steps were taken to establish a system of university
education.
In 1857 the universities were being established in
calcutta ,madrassa,& bombay.
 There were many attempts to bring changes in the
system of the school.

26.  WILLIAM ADAM :in 1830 william adam a scottish
missionary toured the districts of bengal & bihar.
 He did this because he was asked by the company to
report on the progress of education in vernacular
schools
 [vernacular school]: the vernacular is the language or
dailect that is most widely spoken by ordinary people
in a region or country

28.  He found that ….
 There were over 1 lakh schools in bengal and bihar .
 There were small institution with over 20 students
each.
 The total nunber children being taught in these
pathshalas were considerably over 20 lakhs.
 They were set up by wealthy people or local
community.

29.  In these pathshalas there were no :-
 No fixed fee
 No printed books
 No separate school building
 No benches or chairs
 No blackboards
 No system of separate classes
 No roll call registers
 No annual exam
 No regular time-table

30.  These classes were sometimes held under a banayan
tree
 In other places in the corner of a village ,shop or a
temple , or at guru^s home.
FEE STRUCTURE:
 Fee was dependent on the income of parents
 The rich had to pay more than the poor one.

32.  The teaching was oral & the guru decided what to
teach
 They taught according to the needs of the student.
 All the students were sat toghether in one place
 But the the guru interacted with them seperately with
groups of children with different levels of learning.
 & this was suitable for them
 there were no schools on the harvest time when rural
children often worked in the fields
 The pathshalas started once again when the crops had
been cut and stored.

33.  This meant that even children of peasent familioes
could study

34.  Up to the mid 18 century , the company was
concerned primarily with higher education.
 It also allowed the local pathshalas to function
without much interference
 After 1854 the company decided to improve the
system of vernacular education.
 They thought that this could be done by introducing
order within the system imposing
 Routines
 Establishing rules
 & ensuring regular inspection.

35.  It appointed a number of government pandits , each
in charge of looking after 4-5 schools
 There work was to visit the schools and try to improve
the standard of teaching.
 Each and every guru was asked to submit perioudic
reports & take classes according to the time-table
 Teaching was now to be based on textbooks
 Learning was to be tested through a system of annual
exam.

36.  Students were now asked to
 Pay regular fee
 Attened regular classes
 Sit on fixed seats
 And obey the new rules of disciplin
 Pathshalas which accepted the new rules were
supported through government grants
 Those who were unwilling to work within the new
system recevied no government support.

37.  In the earlier system children from poor peasents
families had been able to go to pathshalas.
 Since the time-table was fixed the discipline of
the new system demanded regular attendence ,
even during the harvest time when children of poor
families had to work in the fields.
 Inability to attend school came to be known as
indiscipline as evidence of the lack of desire to
learn.

38.  The british officials were not the only people thinking
about education in INDIA.
 From the rarly nineteenth century many thinkers
from different parts of india began to talk of the need
for a widerspread of education.
 They said this because they were impressed with the
developments in europe.
 Some indians felt that western education would help
modernise india

39.  They urged the british to open more schools colleges
and universities and spend more money on education.
 Besides that……
 There were other indians, however who reacted
against western education.
 MAHATMA GANDHI &
 RABINDRANATH TAGORE
 Were two such individuals.

41.  Mahatma gandhi argued that colonial education
created a sense of inferiority in the minds of
indians.
 It made them see western civilisation as superior ,and
destroyed the pride they had in their own culture.
 Indians educated in these institutions beganadmiring
the british rules.

42.  Mahatma gandhi wanted an education that could
help indians to recover there self respect

During national movement he urged students to
leave educational institutes in order to show that
indians were no longer willing to be enslaved.
 Mahatma gandhi strongly felt that indian languages
ought to be the medium of teaching.

43.  Education in english crippled indians , distanced
them from there own social surroundings & and made
them strangers in their own lands.
 Mahatma gandhi said focused on reading and writing
rather than oral knowledge ; it valued textbooks
rather than lived experience & practical knowledge.
 Literacy or simply learning to read and write – by
itself did not count as education

44.  People had to work with their hands , learn a
craft , & know how different things were
operated .
 So , thought that this thing would develop their
mind and their capacity to develop their mind
and capacity to understand.
 Rather than these other thinkers also began
thinking of a system of national education which
would be different from the one set up by the
british

45.  Rabindranath tagore started the institution in 1901 as
a child tagore hated going to school.
 he found it suffocating and oppressive the school
appeared like a prison for he could never do what he
felt like doing.
 On growing up , he wanted to set up school where the
child was happy ,where she could be free & creative a
place where she could explore her own thoughts &
desires.

47.  Tagore felt that childhood ougth to be a time of self-
learning,
 outside the rigid & restricting discipline of the
schooling system set up the british.
 Teachers had to be imaginative understand the child
& help the child develop her curiosity

48.  According to tagore the exsisting schools killed the natural
desire of the child to be creative her sense of wonder
 Tagore had the view that creative learning could be
encourged only in the natural enviorment
 So, he chose to set up his school 100 km away from
calcutta, in rural setting.
 He saw it as an abode of peace [santiniketan]where living
in harmony with nature a child could cultivate there
creativity

50.  In many senses TAGORE^S & GANDHI JI’S thought
about education was similar
 But there were diffrences too.
 Gandhi ji was highly critical of western civilisation
and its worships of machine & technology
 Tagore wanted to combine elements of modern
western civilisation with what he saw best within
indian tradition.

51.  He emphassised the need to teach science and
technology at santiniketan along with art music and
dance.
 Many individuals and thinkers were thus, thinking about
the way a national educational system could be fashioned .
 Some people wanted to extend the system to invite wider
sections of people.
 The debate about what this ‘national education’ ought to
be continued till after independence.