Extract from H.T. Prinsep's Diary (ca. 1835)

Extract from the Diary of H.T. Prinsep

        I shall not attempt to describe in detail all that was done by the Governor-General during the short period of his stay in Calcutta, after his return from Ootacamund, but shall confine myself to two or three matters of my own departments in which I was a principal actor. The first was connected with the measures for the promotion of education among the natives. The Government had commenced, as I have stated, with the endeavour to incorporate instruction in the sciences of Europe and in English literature upon the foundation of the native institutions which existed for teaching the vernacular languages and Sanskrit literature to Hindus or that of Arabic and Persian to Muhammadans. There was, however, a class of Anglo-Indians and the younger civil servants mostly joined it, who were opposed to Government's assisting to give instruction in any kind of Eastern literature or science, the whole of which they declared to be immoral, profane or nonsensical. They especially attacked the Sanskrit mythology and in this they were aided of course by the missionaries, but the use of Persian in our courts and in the correspondence of the Governor-General was also an object of their antipathy. It had been yielded to this party during Lord Bentinck's administration to require the law courts' proceedings to be recorded in the vernacular language of the several districts instead of uniformly in Persian in all districts. Several of this party were now in the Council of Education when I retook my place therein after my return from Tasmania, and I found there a contest to be raging whether in the Calcutta Madrassa and other institutions maintained by Government, English should be preferentially taught and the study of that language made obligatory on all or as hitherto be left optional under the inducement of the benefit in after life which the knowledge of it would confer. I took part of course against the innovations which this party wanted to introduce, and I carried with me the vote of the majority of the Council of Education. But when T.B. Macaulay arrived to be the new legislative member of the Council of India, his high literary reputation induced the Government to appoint him President of the Council of Education, and the English party, as it was called, entertained high hope that his influence and authority would turn the scale against me and my supporters. He was a mere silent observer, however, for some time, until Lord W. Bentinck had resumed his place at the seat of Government, then one day without mooting the matter at all in the Council of Education, he prepared an elaborate Minute proposing not only to withhold any further grant of public money from institutions for conferring instruction in native literature of any kind, but even to abolish the existing Sanskrit and Madrassa colleges to which Government had made grants many years ago, that of the Madrassa dating from the time of Warren Hastings. This Minute T.B. Macaulay gave to Lord W. Bentinck at Barrackpur, the Governor-General's country-house. Lord William sent it down to me (the Educational being one of my Secretariat Departments) with a short note written at the foot adopting it and desiring it to be put in train to be brought before Council. I accordingly circulated it in a box in the usual form. The box was returned to me without a note or memorandum of any kind from any of the Members. I accordingly considered it my duty to prepare and circulate a memorandum explaining the nature of the institutions proposed to be abolished, and giving reasons why they should hesitate to adopt the extreme views propounded by Mr. Macaulay. This memorandum I sent up to the Governor-General and it was afterwards circulated to the Members of the Council from whom it elicited separate short minutes of their opinions. These discussions of course were confidential, and were by me communicated to nobody. But somehow the report got wind that the Government was about to abolish the Madrassa and Sanskrit Colleges. The mind of the public of Calcutta was immediately in a ferment. In three days a petition was got up signed by no less than 30,000 people in behalf of the Madrassa and another by the Hindus for the Sanskrit College. T.B. Macaulay took it into his head that this agitation was excited and even got up by me. He sent for the Head of the Madrassa who of course was the recognised promoter of the Muhammedan petition, and questioned him upon the subject, I using for interpreter John Colvin, a junior civil servant, who was in the Council of Education and of the party opposed to me. He particularly asked him whether he had obtained from me or from my office the knowledge of its being the intention of Government to do anything with the Madrassa. The Hafiz (as the head teacher of the Madrassa was called) answered decidedly in the negative. After this examination he came to me to tell me what had passed: upon hearing it I asked from whom he had got the information, when he told me it was from John Colvin himself who had acted as interpreter, for he had been at Barrackpur when T.B. Macaulay presented his Minute to Lord W. Bentinck, and there learning that it was adopted by the Governor-General had come back elate at the triumph of his party, and could not help boasting of it to the people of the College.

        When the subject came under consideration in Council, there was a very hot argument between myself and Mr. Macaulay. The issue was the resolution that was published not abolishing existing colleges, but requiring them to teach English as well as native literature and making the former obligatory, also giving some encouragement to vernacular studies, but declaring that all Government pecuniary aid in future should be given exclusively to promote the study of European science through the medium of the English language. Lord W. Bentinck would not even allow my memorandum to be placed on record. He said it was quite an abuse that Secretaries should take upon themselves to write memorandums; that it was enough for the Court of Directors to see what the Members of Council chose to place on record; that what the Secretaries wrote was nothing unless adopted by the Government. Thus ended this matter for the time. The Resolution passed on this occasion was modified afterwards and made a little more favourable for the old native institutions by Lord Auckland, but English has ever since been the study preferentially encouraged by Government in connection with vernacular literature. The study of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian is, in consequence, less cultivated than heretofore, but none of the old institutions have been altogether abolished.

From: Bureau of Education. Selections from Educational Records, Part I (1781-1839). Edited by H. Sharp. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920. Reprint. Delhi: National Archives of India, 1965, 132-134.