Under British rule, modern education began in India. Prior to the arrival of the British, India had its own educational systems, such as Gurukulas and Madrassas. Education is a powerful tool for unlocking the golden door of freedom, which has the potential to change the world. With the establishment of British rule in India, their policies and measures violated the legacies of traditional schools of thought, necessitating the creation of a class of subordinates. To achieve this goal, they enacted a number of laws that aimed to paint an Indian canvas with English colors through the education system. 

Background

• The East India Company, a trading and profit-making concern, had no interest in promoting education for the first 60 years of its dominion in India.
• The East India Company wanted a few knowledgeable Indians who could help them in the management of the Indian land. In addition to this, they wanted to recognize the local customs and legal guidelines properly.
• The missionaries helped in the unfolding of Western education in India in the main for their proselytizing tasks.
• They hooked up many educational centers with education as the best method to an end which was to civilize and Christianising the Indian people.

Under Company Rule

Charter Act, 1813

• The Act authorized missionaries to travel to India and spread education. According to the 1813 Charter Act, the Company had taken on a portion of the responsibility for education in India.
• A sum of not less than one lakh rupees had been set aside each year for the purpose of promoting scientific knowledge and “the revival and improvement of literature” among the people of the British territories in India.
• The amount set aside is insufficient to meet the educational needs of millions of people.
• In comparison to the magnitude of the problem, adequate funds were not forthcoming, and educational progress was rather slow.

Lord Macaulay’s Minute, 1835

On February 2, 1835, British historian and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay delivered his ‘Minute on Indian Education,’ which sought to establish the need for Indian ‘natives’ to receive an English education. Lord Macaulay’s Minute of 1835 marked a pivotal moment in India’s colonial history, advocating for the promotion of English education and shaping the trajectory of the country’s educational landscape.

Lord Macaulay wished to cultivate a group of Indians who could support and uphold British interests. This group would be “Indian by blood and colour, but English by likes, beliefs, morality, and intellect.” He believed that “Indian learning was inferior to European learning,” which was correct in terms of physical and social sciences at the time.

• British education policy in colonial India was almost non-existent at first because their sole goal was to make a profit through trade and other means.
• Gradually, the value of education was recognized, and the company began to construct a few institutes of higher learning.
• These learning centers provided instruction in Indian subjects in languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian. Persian was also the court language.
• The Charter Act of 1813 was the country’s first concrete step toward modern education. This act allotted an annual sum of Rs.1 lakh for the purpose of educating the subjects.’
• By the time missionaries were already present in the country and were involved in this field. However, they primarily provided religious education, with the primary goal of Christianizing the ‘heathen’ natives.
• Following the Charter Act, there was a schism (division) among the British over the mode of education to be provided to Indians betwwen Anglicists & Orientalists.
• Lord Macaulay arrived in India as President of the General Committee of Public Instruction in June 1834. (GCPI).
• Orientalists believed that Indians should be educated in their native languages and taught their own scriptures and texts, Anglicists believed that English education was the best type to be given.
• The famous Lord Macaulay’s Minute settled the dispute in favor of Anglicists—the limited government resources were to be devoted solely to the teaching of Western sciences and literature in English.

• Lord Macaulay arrived in India on June 10, 1834, as a law member of the Governor General’s Executive Council and was appointed President of the Committee of Public Instruction.
• In 1835, he was tasked with settling a dispute between orientalists and Anglicists.
• He presented his famous minutes to the council in February 1835, which Lord Bentik approved, and a resolution was passed in March 1835.
• The following points were emphasized by him:
  • The main goal of the British government should be to promote European literature and science among Indians, and that “all funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be best spent on English education alone.”
  • All existing professors and students at all institutions under the committee’s supervision shall continue to receive stipends, but no stipend shall be given to any students who may subsequently enter any of these institutions.
  • No funds from the government were to be spent on the printing of oriental works.
  • All funds available to the government would be spent in the future on imparting knowledge of English literature and science to Indians.

Objectives:

• Spending Only on Western Education: Macaulay wanted the government to spend money only on western education, not oriental education.
• Closure of Colleges: He advocated for the closure of all colleges that taught only eastern philosophy and subjects.
• Downward Filtration Theory: He also advocated for the government to educate only a few Indians, who would then educate the rest of the population. This is referred to as the downward filtration’ policy.
• Indian by Blood & British by Taste: He wished to create a pool of Indians capable of serving British interests and remaining loyal to them. This group would be “Indian by blood and color, but English by tastes, opinions, morals, and intellect.”

About Lord Macaulay:

• Thomas Babington Macaulay (25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a Whig politician and historian from the United Kingdom. He is widely regarded as the primary architect of India’s transition to a Western-style education system.
• As an essayist, on contemporary and historical socio-political subjects, and as a reviewer, Macaulay wrote extensively.
• The History of England was a seminal and paradigmatic example of Whig history, and its literary style has remained a source of praise since its publication, even after widespread condemnation of its historical contentions became popular in the twentieth century.
• Throughout his political and scholarly career, Macaulay consistently emphasized Western culture’s supposed superiority.
• Macaulay wrote in his February 1835 Minute on Indian Education that “a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia when we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded, and general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable.”
• Macaulay was devoted to the concept of progress, particularly in terms of liberal liberties. He was an outspoken opponent of radicalism while idealizing historical European culture and traditions.

Downward Filtration Theory:

• Downward Filtration Theory is a theory proposed by Lord Macaulay in his famous Macaulay’s Minutes of 1835, which were submitted to the then Governor General of British India.
• According to the theory, the British thought to educate a few upper-class Indians (to educate a small group of people who would then disseminate the knowledge to the general public). These Indians would then disseminate education to the general populace. It was thought that education would trickle down through this system.

Merits:

• Role of English in India’s Freedom Struggle: The first advantage of Macaulay’s Minutes for Indians was that it contributed to the expansion of the English language in India. It cannot be denied that English later played a significant influence in India’s freedom movements.
• Foundation for Modern Education in India: The second advantage that Macaulay’s Minutes provided to Indians was that it helped create the groundwork for modern education in that country.
• It represented a transition from the traditional indigenous educational system to a structured contemporary educational system.
• Doorway to World Literature: The fact that Macaulay’s Minutes opened a gateway to international literature was another benefit it provided. New literary genres and writing styles were created as a result.
• Served as a Model for Indians: Additionally, it served as a model for Indians to research the country’s current educational system and write reports to raise the standard of education there.

Demerits:

• Instead of resolving the issue known as “The Oriental-Occidental Controversy,” Macaulay’s Minutes was instead fueling the flames.
• Macaulay did not listen to any of the orientalists’ arguments. He aggressively insulted them in addition to rejecting their pleas.
• Although his claim that English was the key to modern knowledge was true, it was not practical to educate Indians at all levels in English at the time because it was the beginning of modern education in India.
• Macaulay’s claim that English only is used as a medium of instruction is unjustifiable. Other Indian languages have also been overlooked.
• The native people were further insulted by his comment that “a single shelf of a fine European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.”
• The controversial “Downward Filtration Theory” presented by Macaulay’s Minutes was responsible for dividing society into two groups: the educated and the uneducated. For Indians, his downward filtration theory proved to be a failure.
• The higher class never assisted the lower class in getting better education and raising the standard of living in their lives. It simply led to the development of individuals like Mohan Lal, who degraded even their wives due to their lack of knowledge.
• It is also incorrect to believe that Macaulay was responsible for the implementation of a new educational policy in India.

Difference Between Anglicists And Orientalists:

Wood’s Despatch(1854)

Charles Wood prepared a despatch on an educational system for India in 1854. This document, known as the “Magna Carta of English Education in India,” was the first comprehensive plan for the spread of education in India. Charles Wood was a British Member of Parliament and a member of the Liberal Party. From 1846 to 1852, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Later, he was appointed President of the East India Company’s Board of Control. He sent the “Wood’s despatch” to Governor-General Lord Dalhousie in 1854. 

• Sir Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control, was instrumental in the spread of English learning and female education in India.
• In 1854, he dispatched a message to Lord Dalhousie, the then-Governor-General of India.
• Woods proposed that primary schools use vernacular languages, high schools use Anglo-vernacular languages, and college students use English as their medium of instruction.
• The Despatch first sheds light on the aims and objectives of the Company’s educational policy in India.
• It prioritized the responsibility for Indian education above all other responsibilities of the company.

• To provide Indians with Western knowledge and information about Western culture.
• To educate Indian natives in order to create a class of public servants.
• To encourage intellectual development while also improving the moral character of the next generation.
• To improve the practical and vocational skills of Indians so that more and more articles can be produced, as well as to create a good market for the consumption of those goods.

• For the first time, Wood’s Despatch recommended the establishment of a Department of Public Instruction in each of Bengal’s five provinces: Bombay, Madras, Punjab, and the North-Western provinces.
• The expansion of mass education was another major recommendation of the Despatch.
• Because it was discovered that the common people lacked educational opportunities, much emphasis was placed on increasing the number of primary, middle, and high schools.
• The establishment of universities in the three Presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras was recommended by the Despatch. The universities were to be modeled after the University of London.
• Departments of Arabic, Sanskrit, and Persian, as well as law and civil engineering, were to be established at the universities.
• Wood’s Despatch advocated for the establishment of a grant-in-aid system in Indian education.
• The Wood’s Despatch emphasized the importance of teaching English while also emphasizing the importance of teaching Indian languages.
• The Despatch recommended that the government always support women’s education.
• The Wood’s Despatch recommended that teacher training schools be established in each province. Engineering, medicine, and law teachers should be trained in special schools.
• The Wood’s Despatch advocated for the establishment of a nationwide network of graded schools.

Following Charles Wood’s Despatch, the following developments occurred:

• In 1857, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta universities were established.
• Education departments were established in all provinces.
• Bethune School (founded by J.E.D. Bethune) was established for women’s education.
• An agriculture institute in Pusa (Bihar) and an engineering institute in Roorkee were established.
• The education system in British India was rapidly Westernised, with European headmasters and principals in schools and colleges.
• There were private Indian educators.