This book identifies and describes the first stage in the advent and growth of English education in India. The first schools in India were the charity schools, asylums and orphanages opened under the auspices of the Church of England for religious instruction, training and care of ‘half-caste’ or mixed-race children, the progeny of Protestant fathers from Indian women. It examines the influence of the ‘half-caste’ community and the missionaries on the growing Indian demand for English education and opportunities for employment. The well-entrenched scenarios on the pre-history of Hindoo College Calcutta are re-examined in the light of new evidence discussed here for the first time. The book further analyses the shifts in the educational policies by the British colonial administrators and the interventions by the likes of Trevelyan, Macaulay and Bentinck. Detailed and insightful, this volume will be of great interest to students and researchers of history, literature, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, colonial expansion, and South Asian studies.

This book focuses on the career of Sanskrit in British India. Europe's discovery of Sanskrit was a development of far-reaching historical significance in terms of intellectual curiosity, evangelical considerations, colonial administrative requirements, and political compulsions. The volume critically analyses this interplay between Sanskrit texts and the imperial and colonial presence in India. It goes beyond the question of what the discovery of Sanskrit meant for the West and examines what this collocation meant for India. The author looks at how the British needed Sanskrit for dispensation of Hindu civil law; how learned Pandits were cultivated; and how scholarship was developed transcending utilitarianism. He also studies the extent to which Sanskrit in pre- and non-British India had a bearing on Europe and explores themes such as Jesuit Sanskrit, Hinduism in practice, scripturism, Aryan Race Theory, seductive orientalism, and the introduction of archivalism in India. Rich in archival sources, this unique book will be useful for scholars and researchers of colonial history, modern Indian history, Indology, linguistics, history of education, Sanskrit studies, post-colonial studies, and cultural studies.

This book identifies and describes the first stage in the advent and growth of English education in India. The first schools in India were the charity schools, asylums and orphanages opened under the auspices of the Church of England for religious instruction, training and care of 'half-caste' or mixed-race children, the progeny of Protestant fathers from Indian women. It examines the influence of the 'half-caste' community and the missionaries on the growing Indian demand for English education and opportunities for employment. The well-entrenched scenarios on the pre-history of Hindoo College Calcutta are re-examined in the light of new evidence discussed here for the first time. The book further analyses the shifts in the educational policies by the British colonial administrators and the interventions by the likes of Trevelyan, Macaulay and Bentinck. Detailed and insightful, this volume will be of great interest to students and researchers of history, literature, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, colonial expansion, and South Asian studies.

This book focuses on the career of Sanskrit in British India. Europe's discovery of Sanskrit was a development of far-reaching historical significance in terms of intellectual curiosity, evangelical considerations, colonial administrative requirements, and political compulsions. The volume critically analyses this interplay between Sanskrit texts and the imperial and colonial presence in India. It goes beyond the question of what the discovery of Sanskrit meant for the West and examines what this collocation meant for India. The author looks at how the British needed Sanskrit for dispensation of Hindu civil law; how learned Pandits were cultivated; and how scholarship was developed transcending utilitarianism. He also studies the extent to which Sanskrit in pre- and non-British India had a bearing on Europe and explores themes such as Jesuit Sanskrit, Hinduism in practice, scripturism, Aryan Race Theory, seductive orientalism, and the introduction of archivalism in India. Rich in archival sources, this unique book will be useful for scholars and researchers of colonial history, modern Indian history, Indology, linguistics, history of education, Sanskrit studies, post-colonial studies, and cultural studies.