Agricultural improvement was a vital aspect of the 'development scheme' of the British Government in India as agriculture was the most revenue-generating industry in Bihar. From the first Famine Commission Report of 1880, there was a set agenda to improve agriculture through education. This was to be achieved through importing western science and…

In light of the focus placed on English education by the colonial government, and the petition signed by 70,000 local inhabitants of the Madras Presidency, Lord John Elphinstone, the Governor, made efforts to disseminate English education during his governorship (1837-1842). Spurred on by the petition, Elphinstone wrote two fundamental educational…

After independence India's leaders committed the country to democracy with universal franchise and to pursuing a socialistic pattern of society. As part of these interlocking projects, it was widely recognised that India's educational systems needed reform. However, with scarce resources, Indian policy-makers faced the dilemma of whether to…

This article explores two attempts to envisage a new global world, one created by the West, and to create new colonial subjects. One of these attempts was in Sierra Leone in the 1790s, the other in India in the 1830s. The two case studies are seen through the lens of a father and son, Zachary and Thomas Babington Macaulay, each a representative…

Postcolonial research has often assumed that colonial education fell victim to the forces of nationalism, like other areas of Raj governance in the early twentieth century. However, European-led education that aspired to reach the general population had already failed a generation earlier, at least in north India. This was after highly imaginative…

This article discusses the project of tribal education in the British colonial state in the mid-nineteenth century and the shape into which it developed in Chhotanagpur, an obscure area of east India under the Presidency of Bengal. Known as the "Ruhr of India", it is now the southern part of the State of Jharkhand. Up to the 1840s there…

Focuses on the dominant Anglican missionary schools in Punjab (India). States that the Anglican missions failed to fulfill their original design, but that Hindu schools were successful and played a role in India's movement for independence over British settlements in the northern region. (KDR)

Focuses on the history of women's education in western India during the nineteenth century addressing the issues of home education versus school education, gender construction and the school curriculum, and nationalism and women's education. Discusses a woman's position as a point of conflict between the patriarchal family structure and women's…

Discusses the debate on gender and imperialism in India by examining the case of Mary Carpenter, a nineteenth century English educationist and social reformer, in order to provide more information on the debate. Addresses where Carpenter stood in the discourse on imperialism. (CMK)

Describes the role of the British and Foreign School Society in organizing and administering schools for elementary students during the period of British colonial rule in India, Ceylon, Malaya, and the East Indies. Discusses the importance of religious factors and the influences of missionaries as teachers and administrators. (CFR)