Western Education in Nineteenth-Century India :: Essays Papers

Western Education in Nineteenth-Century IndiaThis page proposes to examine the history of face language and literature in colonial India in order to cozy up why they should retain high cultural status in the comport independence years. Inevitably this was an ongoing process when results of which reflect the fusion of a wide range of social, political, and cultural influences. However, it can be seen that certain policies and publications had a particular potency and effect. Through outlining the most influential of these it will be possible to register how their reverberations continue to impinge upon the social and cultural surround of post independence India today. In the field of post-colonial studies the question of whether to write in the language of the former oppressor becomes a hotly debated subject giving hook to much difference of opinion. Crucial Events in the Shaping of a words CultureThe Charter Act of 1813 decreed that English would be taught in the Indian education system although not as a heterotaxy for indigenous languages . Instead, it was anticipated that English would co-exist with Oriental studies as a way of life by which moral law could be reinforced. The 1817 publication of John Mills invoice Of British India proved to be a defining text in the theories of how education policies should be formed (ed. Horace Hayman Wilson London, Piper, Stephenson and Spence, 1858). Mill was situated firmly in the Enlightenment tradition and disdainful of notions that Indian culture and tradition was of applicable value for an advancing nation. He dismissed cultural history on the basis that it was not primarily motivated by reason and accordingly was illogical, irrational and defunct. Relying on missionary accounts of Hindu society Mill condemned Indian behaviour as immoral in comparison to European codes of conduct. India and Indians were deemed a childish, superstitious and backward nation with a huge potential for development. In the world vi ew of Mill and others the crude emerging civilisation of India could be directed and moulded by the morally superior colonial power. Mill advocated the invention of European knowledge to counter balance Indian traits judged to be irrational. bestow ideals of reason would accordingly reform Indians by the example of Western systems of thought and outlook. The ideas contained deep down the History Of British India discredited Indian culture, language and literature up to now as its assumptions of moral superiority authorise and justified the presence of the British in India.