Abstract
This chapter elucidates the language situation in Bengal when the English East India Company landed for the first time. Translations carried by English scholars and officials were initiated to understand India and its people, facilitating the colonial administrators to penetrate into the Indian society. Analyzing the first language conflict in colonial India on the issue of medium of instruction for educating Indians, between the East India Company officials, the chapter examines British policies on education in India, specifically the Charter Act of 1813 which laid the edifice for future education policies.
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Notes
- 1.
See, Rafiuddin, Ahmed. (1981) The Bengal Muslims, 1871–1906: The Quest for Identity. New Delhi: Oxford University Press; Nilanjana Gupta. (2009) Reading with Allah: Madarsas in West Bengal. New Delhi and UK: Routledge.
- 2.
I use Orientalism as is used by Edward Said (1979) in his book Oriental ism.
- 3.
Also known as Madarsa Aliya. For a detailed analysis see Robert Ivermee. (2015) Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910. Pickering and Chatto Publishers Limited.
- 4.
William Wilbe rforce (1759–1833) was an educationist and English politician.
- 5.
Lord Minto was the Governor-General of India from 1806 to 1813.
- 6.
Present-day Karnataka, a state in southern India.
- 7.
Some prominent economists were Adam Smith (1776) Wealth of Nations, David Hume (1741) A Treatise on Human Nature; Essays Concerning Human Understanding (1748).
- 8.
Bhadralok means prosperous well-educated people, mainly Bengalis belonging to Kolkata. The term bhadra connotes gentle, well mannered and respectable.
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Sengupta, P. (2018). The Language Situation in Colonial India: Story of Bengal. In: Language as Identity in Colonial India. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6844-7_2
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