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Committees superintended the provincial institutions, but were subject to the control of the General Committee.

Scope of the General Committee's Labours.

The principles which guided the proceedings of the General Committee throughout the period of their responsibility are set forth in the following extract from their annual report of December 1831 :

"The introduction of useful knowledge is the great object which they have proposed as the end of the measures adopted or recommended by them, keeping in view the necessity of consulting the feelings and conciliating the confidence of those for whose advantage their measures are designed.

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'The Committee has, therefore, continued to encourage the acquirement of the native literature of both the Muhammadans and the Hindus in the institutions which they found established for these purposes, the Madrassah of Calcutta and the Sanskrit College of Benares. They have also endeavoured to promote the activity of similar establishments, of which local considerations dictated the formation, as the Sanskrit College of Calcutta and the Colleges of Agra and Delhi, as it is to such alone, even in the present day, that the influential and learned classes, -those who are by birthright professional teachers and expounders of literature, law, and religion, Maulvis and Pandits-willingly resort.

"In the absence of their natural patrons, the rich and powerful of their own creeds, the Committee have felt it incumbent on them to contribute to the support of the learned classes of India by literary endowments, which provide not only directly for a certain number, but indirectly for many more, who derive from collegiate acquirements consideration and subsistence amongst their countrymen. As far also as Muhammadan and Hindu law are concerned, an avenue is thus opened for them to public employment, and the State is provided with a supply of able servants and valuable subjects; for there is no

doubt that, imperfect as oriental learning may be in many respects, yet the higher degree of attainments even in it possessed by any native, the more intelligent and liberal will he prove, and better able to appreciate the acts and designs of the Government.

"But whilst every reasonable encouragement is given to indigenous native education, no opportunity has been omitted by the Committee of improving its quality and adding to its value . . . .

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Again, the improvements effected have not been limited to a reformation in the course and scope of native study, but, whenever opportunity has favoured, new and better instruction has been grafted upon the original plan. . . . Whilst giving liberal encouragement to purely native education, the principle of connecting it with the introduction of real knowledge has never been lost sight of, and the foundation has been laid of great and beneficial change in the minds of those who by their character and profession direct and influence the intellect of Hindustan.

"In addition to the measures adopted for the diffusion of English education in the Provinces, and which are yet only in their infancy, the encouragement of the Vidyalaya or Hindu College of Calcutta,* has always been one of the chief objects of the Committee's attention. The consequence has surpassed expectation. A command of the English language and a familiarity with its literature and science have been acquired to an extent rarely equalled by any schools in Europe. A taste for English has been widely disseminated, and independent schools, conducted by young men reared in the Vidyalaya, are springing up in every direction."

Work accomplished by the General Committee from 1823 to 1842.

From 1823 to 1842 the General Committee was the official organ of Government in all matters connected with education. It was consulted on, and its views were adopted

* Established in 1816 (and opened on 20th January 1817) by the voluntary contributions of wealthy Hindus for the education in English of children of superior castes,

in, all important questions affecting public instruction. It was the channel of official correspondence with individual institutions. It dealt with such subjects as the system of education best adapted to meet the actual needs of the country; the preparation of text-books; the establishment of new colleges and advanced schools; the improvement and development of existing seminaries; the course of studies appropriate to each institution; the foundation of scholarships; and the introduction of tuition fees. It exercised a close supervision over each college and school, with a view to ascertaining its state of proficiency, and the character and competency of the masters-remedying defects, and stimulating the zeal of the several Local Committees. Its President and Members assisted in conducting the terminal and final examinations of the Presidency Institutions, which were under their immediate control and management.

Local Committees.

Schools in the mofussil were superintended by Local Committees composed of the Judge, the Collector, the Magistrate, the Civil Surgeon, the Principal Sudder Ameen and a few influential and enlightened natives. They were expected to take an active interest in the schools committed to them, and in the promotion of education in the whole district. The several members were required to visit the schools frequently; to assist at the public examinations; and to submit to the General Committee an Annual Report on the year's operations. Local Committees were not competent to address any communications direct to Government. All their correspondence was with the General Committee.

Local Committees not a Success.

The usual attitude of the Local Committees to their duties was one of apathy. Neither praise nor blame succeeded in stimulating them to exertion. Towards the close of 1840 their indifference was so conspicuous that in January 1841 the following order was issued:-"The

Right Hon'ble the Governor-General in Council having reason to believe that the members of the Local Committees of education do not in all instances perform their duties of superintendence with the requisite regularity and care, deems it proper to call their attention to the great importance which is attached by the Government to the zealous execution of those duties, and to require them to visit at least once in each month, in due rotation, the educational institutions with which they may be connected, and to attend and assist at all examinations when they may be present at their respective stations." Kerr makes the following comment on this mandate :-"The order was formal in every respect and was clear and definite in its aim. It had only one fault-it was not acted upon." The result of the continued indifference of Local Committees was the conviction that it was hopeless to prolong the struggle with them any longer, and that an Inspector of Schools must be appointed by the Government. An Inspector of Schools was appointed in 1844, but Local Committees were not abolished.

The Orientalists vs. the Anglicists.

In giving a connected account of the General Committee and its subsidiary Local Committees it has been necessary to disregard other concurrent events which were fraught with momentous results. As has been narrated, the General Committee of Public Instruction was constituted in 1823, among other things, to attend to "the introduction of useful knowledge including the sciences and arts of Europe." From the very outset many members of the Committee had grave doubts that this instruction to them could be reconciled with the Despatch of 1814 in which the Court of Directors had explicitly stated that the sciences to be taught were the oriental sciences - "the systems of ethics contained in the Sanskrit language." Divergence of opinion led to acrimony of debate. Soon there were two parties attempting to co-operate while estranged by irreconcilable convictions as to the principles

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which Government support to education should be extended. Half the Committee, called the Orientalists, were for the continuation of the old system of stipends tenable for 12 or 15 years to students of Sanskrit or Arabic, and of a liberal expenditure of money on the publication of books in those languages. The other half, known as the Anglicists, desired to waste no more money on lazy and stupid "schoolboys" of 30 and 35 years of age, or on the printing of Sanskrit and Arabic books which no one wanted or bought.

The Court of Directors support the Anglicists.

In their letter to the Governor-General, dated the 29th September 1830, the Court of Directors wrote:"There is no point of view in which we look with greater interest at the exertions you are now making for the instruction of the natives, than as being calculated to raise up a class of persons qualified, by their intelligence and morality, 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 civilized Europe, on the general cultivation of their understandings, and specifically on their instruction in the principles of morals and general jurisprudence. We wish you to consider this as our deliberate view of the scope and end to which all your endeavours with respect to the education of the natives should refer."

Lord Macaulay's Minute in favour of the Anglicists.

This authoritative declaration in favour of an English education for the natives might have been expected to reconcile the Orientalists to the expenditure of money upon English schools. But no; the contentions in the General Committee waxed hotter, till in 1834, its operations were brought to a standstill. So evenly were the two parties balanced that nothing could be carried by vote. At the close of 1834 arrived Lord Macaulay, who had been the

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