IAS Prelims preparation 2018
Day 35 (April 27, 2017)
Topics of the day: History VIII NCERT Part II Chapter 2 key points
Linguist – Someone who knows and studies several languages.
Orientalists – Those with a scholarly knowledge of the language and culture of Asia.
Munshi – A person who can read, write and teach Persian.
William Jones along with Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed, set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick Researches.
A madrasa was set up in Calcutta in 1781 to promote the study of Arabic, Persian and Islamic law; and the Hindu College was established in Benaras in 1791 to encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit texts.
Thomas Babington Macaulay emphasized the need to teach the English
language. He felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature the world had produced.
Following Macaulay’s minute, the English Education Act of 1835 was introduced. The decision was to make English the medium of instruction for higher education, and to stop the promotion of Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College.
In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London sent an educational despatch to the Governor-General in India. Issued by Charles Wood, the President of the Board of Control of the Company, it has come to be known as Wood’s Despatch.
Outlining the educational policy that was to be followed in India, it emphasised once again the practical benefits of a system of European learning.
In 1857, while the sepoys rose in revolt in Meerut and Delhi, universities were being established in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.
William Carey was a Scottish missionary who helped establish the Serampore Mission
In the 1830s, William Adam, a Scottish missionary, toured the districts of Bengal and Bihar. He had been asked by the Company to report on the progress of education in vernacular schools.
Rabindranath Tagore started santiniketan in 1901.