In transcribing the following paragraphs from the Internet Archive online version of The Imperial Gazetteer’s entry on British India — modern South Asia — I have expanded the divided the long entry into separate documents, expanded abbreviations for easier reading, and added paragraphing and links to material in the Victorian Web. The charts are in the original. This discussion of British India has particular importance because it immediately precedes the 1857 Mutiny and the subsequent major shift in its status as it came under the direct control of the British government rather than that of the East India Company, a private company.— George P. Landow]
Government-sponsored Educational Institutions with European Subjects
Many efforts have long been made by the Indian Government to extend a knowledge of European branches of learning amongst the natives of India, particularly in the Bengal and Agra presidencies. A few years ago six superior colleges existed in the Bengal presidency, under the superintendence of the council of education established at Calcutta; the last of which colleges was founded at Patna. within the Bengal presidency there were, by the last accounts, 51 district and other schools, including one for the Bhaugulpore hill-tribes; and the number of pupils in these, a few years since, amounted to 8203, of whom 6140 were Hindoos, and 1621 Mahometans.The total expense of these schools amounted to 675,653 rupees (65,000); and, in 1845, arrangements had been made for the establishment of 100 additional schools. The schools in the Bombay presidency are also under a board of education, consisting of three European members, one Parsee, and one Mahometan; and in this presidency, some years since, there were 120 schools, attended by 7750 pupils. At Madras is an institution termed a university; but for a long period fewer attempts were made to extend education in that than in the other presidencies. It is gratifying to observe that, in many instances, the long-stand ing prejudices of the Hindoos against certain branches of learning have been signally overcome; and that, for instance, in medical studies at Calcutta and elsewhere, Hindoo students have made distinguished progress. Religious distinctions also, although they have in India, as elsewhere, long widely separated the different sections of the population, appear to have become divested of much of the bigotry which originally characterized them. A striking instance of this is to be found in the fact that, in the Mahometan college at Hooghly, both Christians and Hindoos are admitted, and the latter constitute the greater number of the students. Of the professors of this college also, eleven are Soonees, and three of the rival Shiah sect. At Amritsir, in the Punjab, a public seminary has lately been endowed by the Government with 500 annually; and in a portion of the Lahore territories, with a population of 2,470,000, are 1835 native public schools, in which 11,500 boys receive instruction.
Education for Women and Girls
Female education is generally discouraged by the Hindoos: in the Sikh territories, however, at the city of Lahore, are 16 schools, at which female children are instructed; and in all the three presidencies are flourishing female schools, under the superintendence of the missionaries of various denominations of Christians; who, as well as the Indian Government, are diligently and success fully employed in conveying secular instruction to the natives; the tuition received in such schools being superior to that obtained in the Government schools inasmuch as in the latter religious instruction is absolutely prohibited, while in the missionary schools it professedly forms the prominent feature.
Newspapers in English, Hindustani, Bengali, and Persian Languages
The press in India is free, and, for the most part, it exhibits a tendency to liberal views. In 1848, there were published in Calcutta five newspapers in the Persian or Hindoostanee languages, and nine in Bengali; besides numerous editions of Hindoo and Mahometan works. At Delhi, many scientific works, and translations of English historical works, were published, and printing was actively going on at Bareily. The transactions of the learned societies and reviews at Calcutta and Bombay are periodicals of high merit; and English newspapers are published in the capitals of all the presidencies (seven at Calcutta), and at Delhi, and Lahore. Literary works published in India are protected by a copy right act, passed in 1847, and similar to that in force in Great Britain. Communic. to the Royal Asiatic Society, and Acts of the Government of India. [II, 1271]
Bibliography
Blackie, Walker Graham. The Imperial Gazetteer: A General Dictionary of Geography, Physical, Political, Statistical and Descriptive. 4 vols. London: Blackie & Son, 1856. Internet Archive. Inline version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web. 7 November 2018.
Last modified 5 December 2018