Himalayan Times (1957)

Maroh 17, 1967

Sersn

who is so often bald res-
ponsible for most of tbe
defects in the Uliian edu
catiunal system at any
rate up to 1947 His
famous dictum that a
single shelf of a good
European Library was
worth the whole native
literature of India and
Arabia has stunk not sur-
prisingly in Indian throats
and will probably continue
to stick there long after
all the Britishers who
have truly served the
cause of Indisn eduoation
have been forgotten. But
he had his wiser moments.
Like so many of his fellow
countrymen at the time
he seems to have tried
to harmonise what we
should now call imperia-
listic ambitions with a
more liberal vision of the
ultimate responsibilities of
an imperial power. This
is wha'. lie said in the
House ofCcmmons before
he came out to Indie:
' Are we to keep the peo-
ple of India igi orant in
order that we may keep
them submissive? Or do
we mean to awaken am-
bition and to provide it
with no legitimate vent?
It may be by good go.
vernment we may educate
our subjeots into a oapa-
oity for better government,
that having become ins-
tructed in European know-
ledge they may in some
future age demand Euro-
pean institutions. Whe-
ther such a day will over

come I know not. When-
ever it comes, it will be
the proudest day in Eng-
lish history The sceptre
may pass away from us
but there are triumphs
which are followed by no
reverse There is an em-
pire exempt from all na
tural causes of decay; that
empire is the imperishable
empire of our arts and our
morals our literature and
our laws". It is comfort,
ing to think that even
amid the politioal stresses
of today enlightened In-
dians from the Prime
Minister downwards gene-
rously acknowledge the
debt which they owe to
Western learning through
the British connection.

The result of these
controversies .about the
future of higher education
in India was crystallised
in the famous despatch
of Sir Charles Wood to
the Court of Directors in
1854 This ajrain w«s a
compromise It laid down
as a general principle that
the study of Indian lan-
guage should be encoura-
ged, that the English lan-
guage should be taught
wherever there a demand
for it and that both the
English language. and the
Indian languages should
bo regarded as the media
for the diffusion of Euro-
pean knowledge. The
practical outcome of the
despatch, bo far as we
are concerned, was the
decision to establish Uni-

versities. As a result, the

existing institutions of
higher education at Cal-
cutta, Bombay and Mad-
ras were officially consti-
tuted Universities, with a
constitution based on that
of London and with au-
thority to establish pro-
fessorships in various
branches of learning, in- '"
eluding law, civil engineer-
ing and the classical Orien-
tal languages, and to grant
degrees. It was three
years after the dispatch,
that is, in 1857, before
the necessary Acts for the
establishment of these
Universities received the
approval of the Governor-
General. *

I can not describe in
any detail the develop-
ment of the three Uni-
versities between 1867 and
the declaration of inde-
pendence ninety years
later. It is a record, as
anyone who consults the
official reports will dis-
cover, of steady expan-
sion both in numbers and
in faoulties in spits of
periodical ups and downs
due to the vaci lating and
often stingy policy of the
Governments concerned.
The most impressive,
though not necessarily
important, aspect of this
expansion is the greatly
increased attention that
has been paid, parti-
cularly in reoent years, .
to the application of
soienoe for practical ends.
(Continued on page 101