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IV. Bentinck and Education1 I. Macaulay's Minute

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

Percival Spear
Percival Spear
Affiliation:
St Catharine's College, Ph.D. in the University, Leverhulme Research Fellow
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Extract

The popular mind loves the dramatic and the macabre, and so it has come about that the two events of British Indian History which the man in the street is aware of are the Black Hole of Calcutta and the Great Mutiny. When there were no Mutiny horrors to contemplate, their place was taken by the legend of Tipu Sultan; even in 1831 Ram Mohan Roy was followed about by crowds in London crying Tipu Tipu. It has been a misfortune for British Indian understanding that these two events seemed discreditable to India; for though Seraja-Daula is now acquitted of responsibility for the Black Hole, and the military revolt theory of the Mutiny generally prevails, the popular legend continues. The well of Cawnpore is remembered where the well of Ujnalla is forgotten.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , 1938 , pp. 78 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1938

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References

2 A Bibliography of the Minute will be found at the end of this article, chronologically arranged.

3 Stat. 53 Geo. Ill, cl. 155, sect. 43.

4 Sharp, H., Selections [from the Educational Records of the Government of India], 1, 24–9 (Calcutta, 1920)Google Scholar.

5 Macaulay used these actual words in 1836: “It is my firm belief that, if our plans are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes of Bengal thirty years hence.” [Sir] Trevelyan, G. O., [Life and Letters of Lord] Macaulay (ed. 1908), 329Google Scholar.

6 This evidence is to be found in the reports of the progress of the Hindu College by men including the orientalist H. H. Wilson. In 1831, the following books were studied n i the higher classes : , Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden's Virgil, Pope's Iliad and OdysseyGoogle Scholar in poetry; and in history, Russell's Modern Europe, Robertson's Charles V, and Goldsmith's classical histories. Annual Report of the G[eneral] C[ommittee] of P[ublic] I[nstruction] for 1831Google Scholar.

7 The principal documents of this controversy are to be found in the I[ndia] Pub[lic Proceedings] of 7 March 1835, nos. 7–14Google Scholar. No. 7, dated 21 Jan. 1835, gives the Occidental case, and no. 14, dated 22 Jan. 1835, gives the Oriental case.

8 Trevelyan, G. O., Macaulay, 266 seqGoogle Scholar.

9 E.g. his conduct at the time of the Vellore Mutiny, when Governor of Madras in 1806; his relations with Queen Caroline of Naples in 1812; and the Genoa expedition and constitution, 1814.

10 E.g. the case of Suttee, which each Governor-General from Wellesley onwards had denounced and tolerated.

11 , Boulger, [Lord William] Bentinck, 54Google Scholar.

12 See [Thompson's, Edward] [Charles, Lord] Metcalfe (1937)Google Scholar, chs. xv, xvi, xvn, for his relations with Bentinck generally. For education see 302, 303.

13 , Thompson, Metcalfe, 136Google Scholar.

14 Amongst the few surviving papers of Sir Charles Trevelyan's first term in India is a Note on [the meaning of the term “entire] neutrality in religion” in answer to an inquiry of Bentinck, Lord William, 20 Nov. 1834Google Scholar.

15 Smith, G., Life of Alexander DuffGoogle Scholar.

16 In clause 4 of The Resolution of 17 July 1823, setting up the G.C.P.I., the Government bound the Committee within the limits of the Act of 1813. Mr Mackenzie's, HoltNote of 17 July 1823Google Scholar made clear their intention to revive oriental learning as well as introduce “useful knowledge”. In their Despatch of 18 Feb. 1824, the Court objected to this and used the phrase referred to. See also the Governor-General's letter of 2 Jan. 1824 to the Committee with regard to Ram Mohan Roy's protest in which he speaks of the “positive obligation to promote its (Sanskrit and Arabic) revival and improvement”.

17 Lt.-Col. Morison, W., C.B., Minute of 18 Feb. 1835. I.Pub.P. 7 March 1835, no. 16Google Scholar.

18 Sir Ryan, Edward. Prinsep replied in the margin, “I am not overwhelmed by this authority”. Sharp, Selections, 1, 117–30Google Scholar, gives Prinsep's Note and the annotations.

19 Prinsep's story is given in a fragment of Ms autobiography printed by Sharp, Selections, vol., I, and also in his Minute of 20 May: 1: 83s, I.Pub.P. 3 June, 1835, no. 8Google Scholar.

20 This description of the indigenous system is bused, mainly on. the following: Adam's, W.Three Reports [of the State of Education, in Bengal, 1835–38.] (Calcutta, 1838)Google Scholar; Thornton's, R.Memoirs [on Indigenous Education of the N.W, Province] (Calcutta, 1850)Google Scholar, Reports [on the state of education in the. Barei By district] by Davidson, I. and Bouldeison, S. M., 1827Google Scholar. (B[engal] P[olitical] C[onsultations], 5 June 1839, ff. 327–54); Reports of Mr H. Taylor and Sir C. T. Metculfe [on Education in the Delhi City and Territory,] 1824 and 1827Google Scholar. B.P.C. 5 June 1829Google Scholar. For Madras and Bombay information in The Parliamentary reports [on the affairs of the E.I.C.] (1832), II, has teen usedGoogle Scholar.

21 When Swartz, die famous missionary, visited Tanjore in, die extreme south, of India, he conversed with the Rajah, (a Marathi) in Persian. In Baroda to-day, the herald, who precedes, the Maharajah, in his appearance at Court, pronounces a. Persian eulo-giurn..

22 This was the Muslim tradition, Scholars, themselves were rewarded, by titles and presents, at Court, and by pensions and grants of lands. Mr Thomason, in his Minute of 8 April 1841, writes, that at Delhi. “they have always been accustomed to regard these colleges as eleemosynary institutions for poor students.… Oriental Colleges have never been like die corresponding institutions in our native country, where all classes, of society assemble and, enter into general competition” Kichey, J., Selections, II, 253Google Scholar.

23 This was why the early Government Oriental Colleges, gave stipends, or jagirs to all their students. It was a fruitful source of misunderstanding with reforming Europeans from the Governor-General downwards.

24 Boulderson's, Adam's and Roberts Reports on Bareilly, Bengal and Delhi respectively, reported a tendency for the schools to increase both, in number and the variety of castes attending. See specially , Adam, Three Reports, III, 19–21 and 34–7Google Scholar.

25 Sir Metcalfe's, C. T.Report [of the Delki Territory in] 1815 gives a vivid picture of these conditions. I.O. Home Misc[ellaneous], 776Google Scholar.

26 Report of H. Taylor an Education, 7 Jan., 1824Google Scholar. Taylor recommended that one scholar, Maulana Shah Abdul.Aziz Sahib, should be the head of the new Delhi College.

27 Sir T. Munro reckoned that they were one fourth of the whole number taught in the Madras Presidency, Minute of 10 March 1826. Parliamentary Reports, 1832, 11, 505Google Scholar.

28 Bouldenon, S. M., ReportGoogle Scholar.

29 Ram, Mohan Roy was for several years the Dewsn of Mr Digby at Rungpur in Bengal.

30 The opening of the India, trade in. 1813 strengthened this tendency. Bishop Mlddleton to the Rev. A. Hamilton on 16 Nov., 1818. “A knowledge of English is found to facilitate the intercourse of the natives with the commercial part of the community, especially since the opening of the trade”. S.P.G., [Archives], Dioc. Calcutta.

31 Forbes, James, Oriental Memoirs (4 vols. Lond. 1812-1815)Google Scholar.

32 Major Scott Waring, the English agent of Warren Hastings. He was 9 protagonist in, the controversy with the Evangelicals in 1793.

33 Cornwallis correspondence, 1, 282.

34 For further details of this process in India see my “Nabobs”, ch. VII (Lond, 1932)Google ScholarPubMed.

35 [Martyn, Henry], Journal, I, 449Google Scholar.

36 Carey, William, Serampore Letters, 62Google Scholar.

37 The Calcutta Review, III, 219.

38 Observations [on the State of Society of the Asiatic subjects of Great Britain]. It written in, 1792 and printed by order of Parliament in 1813 and again in 1832. It will be found in. Appendix I of Parliamentary Reports, 1832, vol. IGoogle Scholar.

39 , Mill's, History of India was.first published in 1817Google Scholar.

40 Young, G. M., [Selected Speeches of] Lord Macaulay (Lond. 1935), 359Google Scholar.

41 Fraser's remark was quoted from a letter of his by the General Committee, 29 Nov, 1823. Taylor, H., Delhi Report, 1824Google Scholar, speaks of the people as “half-civilized” and “demi-barbarous”. ( B.P.C. 5 June 1829.)Google ScholarTrevelyan, C., Education [of India]; C. T. Metcalfe, Report of 1815, sect. 201Google Scholar.

42 Compare his various religious writings, his controversies with the Serampore missionaries and some of his Parliamentary papers with, his Letter on Education in, 1833.

43 E.g., Annual Reports of the G.C.P.I.; Reports of the Local Committees; Reports of the S.P.G. schools in Calcutta district.

44 Report of The Rev. D. Jones, iS March 183,6. S.P.G. Diac, Calcutta.

45 Mittra, P. C., [Biographical Sketch of] David Hare (Calcutta, 1877), 15ffGoogle Scholar.

46 Memorial from, the Hindu College Managers to the Government, 6 Feb., 1835. I. Pub. P. 10 Feb. 1835, no. 28.

47 Treretyan, C. E., Note…on Neutrality in ReligionGoogle Scholar.

48 Hodgson, B. H., Pre-eminence of tke Vernaculars [(in Miscellaneous Essays), Lond. 1880). This was first published in the form of Letters to the Press in 1842–3 and in book, form in 1847Google Scholar.

49 , Tkevelyan, Education, 21–6Google Scholar, quotes the official view from the Annual Report of the G.C.P.I. 1835Google Scholar.

50 Mackenzie's, Holt. Note, 17 July 1823Google Scholar(, Sharp, Selections, 1, 61)Google Scholar. Letters from the Agii Education, Committee, 24 July 1834 ( I. Pub. P. 7 March 1835)Google Scholar. Only Bishop Heber defended it ( Indian Journal, I, 270. Lond. 1828)Google ScholarPubMed.

51 Prinsep's, H. T.Minute 22 April 1835. I. Pub. P. 3 June 1835. no. 8Google Scholar.

52 Auckland's, LordMinute 24 Nov. 1839Google Scholar in , Sharp, Selections, I, 170–80Google Scholar.

53 Prinsep foresaw this danger. “To our subjects, and specially to those most capable of feeling it, the declaration (Resolution of 7 March 1835) is insulting and calculated to irritate when we ought to conciliate.…The Resolution of 7 March, contains a hostile declaration, against everything not English.” Minute of 22 April 1835Google Scholar.

54 Sir G. R. Clerk, Lieut-Gov. of the N.W. Province, wrote: on 8 Aug. 1843: “The gentry care nothing for Government schools and colleges, but still have: their sons educated privately.” , Richey, Selections, II, 233Google Scholar.

55 Prinsep also foresaw this. “The copying English clerk must of course be from the class of those who have learned the English grammar and spelling book, but it is not amongst these that the Government will seek either its diplomatic Agents or its candidates for its higher judicial and, revenue situations.” Letter to Government of India gating the Orientalist caxe, 22 Jan. 1835, sect. 26Google Scholar.

56 Kaye, J. W., [Life of Sir John] Malcolm (Lond, 1856), II, 335Google Scholar.

57 Colebxooke, T. E., [Life of Mountstuari] [Eiphinstone, (Lond. 1884), 11, 159Google Scholar. Capt. Sutherland had suggested a. Native Civil Service with an institution to train its members. Elphinstone wrote this passage in supporting it. Sir T. Munro, in his Minute of 31.Dec. 1824, has the same idea. , Arbuthnot, [Life of Sir T.] Mutro, (Lond. 1881), II, 321–2Google Scholar, See also , Kaye, Malcolm, II, 39aGoogle Scholar.

58 President of the Indian Law Commission and the council of Education, Bengal. He states on p. 64 that for its publication he was received he has “the authority of the distinguished author”.

59 This work is referred to by Sir H Sharp but I have not been able to secure a copy in London or Cambridge.

60 Inspector of Schools in Calcutta and Secretary of the Council of Fdueation The author discovered the Minutes when Secretary of the Education Council and first read selections before the Bethune Society established in 1851 in Calcutta for the con ideration and discussion of questions connected with literature and science These appeared in the Proceedings ot the Society Fifty copies of the Minutes were then prnateh printed by Woodrow tor which he received the thanks of Lord Canning and the public edition followed.

61 The book first appeared as “Letters from a Competition Wallah” in Macmillan's Magazine 1863–1864Google Scholar The Minute was printed on pp 1–6 of Macmillan's Magazine for May 1864Google Scholar under the title Letter Tweltth and Last Education in India since 1835 (with a hitherto unpublished Minute of Lord Macaulay of 2nd Feb 1835) In the book published the same year the words hitherto unpublished have disappeared Doubtless his mistake had been pointed out to the author by among others, his own father who was responsible for the first substantial publication.

62 This was the first substantial publication of the Minute Macaula's name was not mentioned, though no doubt it was well ondentood. The quotations occur in chaps II, III and IV.