It was the Indian political leader G. K. Gokhale who described "The Report of the Indian Education Commission 1882-83" as "one of the weightiest and most interesting documents ever published in India." Long recognized as one of the most informative documents about the history of nineteenth century education in British India it has also been one of the most neglected. Overall, the eleven volumes run to some 4,200 printed pages. Like the document itself, the origins of the Commission have escaped close historical scrutiny. In this article the author examines the report's origins in detail because they were closely related to ongoing friction which surfaced after the Mutiny between the Christian missions and British government officials over the nature and implementation of British education policy as laid down originally in Sir Charles Wood's Education Despatch of 1854, and later reiterated in Lord Stanley's Despatch of 1859. The conflict arose when British evangelicals, most prominently those associated with the Anglican Church Missionary Society, were thwarted in their efforts to Christianize India by government officials in both London and Calcutta, who were apprehensive of offending Indian sensibilities and, therefore, determined to establish both a decentralized and secular Indian education system.