Contextualising Colonial Education from a Historiographical Perspective in the Nineteenth Century: Institutions and Policies

Abstract

India was colonised by the British and was under the British rule for almost 200 years. During the British rule the shape of India changed and almost all aspects of life was affected. In this historical context that the paper is trying to locate the educational changes brought about not only by the British government but also by the philanthropists, missionaries in Delhi. The policies were changed to suit the needs of the colonial state and how the different sections of the society responded to those changes and apart from government run educational institutions many other institutions were set up. The controversy around the issue of medium of education that is whether it should be in indigenous language or in English language that knowledge should be disseminated to native population came up and the Macaulay Minutes, 1835 decided in favour of English as the medium of instruction. The whole process of the colonial policy change led to decimation of the existing extensive indigenous knowledge system of India.