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Elementary Education in 19th-century Bengal
In order to analyse the educational policy of 19th-century Bengal, two factors should be studied and evaluated critically. These are the changing notions of British imperialism and the educational development of contemporary Britain. The reasons for the neglect of natives’ education are many. These included keeping the Indians dependent on foreign rule for as long as possible, a fear that education would encourage liberal ideas and create a large class which would demand independence, or perhaps because Britain was backward in the development of education in the 19th century.
Sandra Taylor et al (1997: 45) have talked about three major components that play a key role in educational policies—context, text and consequence. While analysing the British educational policies in Bengal, one should first look into the context of it. Being a trading company, how and why did the East India Company formulate the education policy for Bengal, the most important province of British India? In doing so, two factors should be studied and analysed in depth: the changing notions of British Imperialism and the educational development of contemporary Britain. As Ramesh Chandra Dutt (1897: xii) stated:
the history of progress in England and the history of progress in India have flowed in parallel streams. Indian history, or rather the history of Indian progress under British rule, is unintelligible without a reference to the history of progress in England.
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