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Controversies between Anglicists and Classicists

Controversy History

Controversies between Anglicists and Classicists

Although Charter Act of 1813 was the first act through which the education system was formally laid down in India, yet it had created a controversy between the anglicists and classicists on the medium of instruction. Also the Charter Act of 1813 did not clarify the objectives of education and the methods for improvement of literature of the learned natives in India. The Charter Act had given stress on allotting the one lakhs rupees only; no specific regulations were granted for establishing the schools and colleges in India. The controversy arose mainly for the following reasons:

In 1823, the Governor-General-in Council appointed a “General Committee of Public Instruction”, which had the responsibility to grant the one lakh of rupees for education. That committee consisted of 10 (ten) European members, of which Lord Macaulay was the president. The committee decided to spend major portions from the grant for the improvement of oriental literature.

Interestingly, during that time, there was a rapid change in attitude towards the importance of English education, mainly due to the missionaries and the political influence of the English language. Therefore, for the Council of East India Company, the decision for granting the money faced a greater problem. The Court of Directors of the East India Company asked the Government of India to take the decision for spreading the education; however the Court of Director of the East India Company was in favor of English education.

In this way, the controversy was going on for twelve years. Even, the General Committee of Public Instruction also was not able to decide the medium of instruction by vote; because out of ten members, five were supporters of English language or Anglicist as the medium of instruction and the rest were supporters of oriental or classic language or Classicists as a medium of instruction. This is the famous Anglicists and Classicists controversy.

The Indian of the orientalists’ literature was not willing to accept European knowledge and science unless it was presented to them through the classical languages. Actually, the oriental party wanted to preserve the oriental learning from existing educational institutions while the other group of anglicist party wanted to abolish the preservation of the oriental education.

Courtesy: KKHSOU

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Charter Act 1813

Macaulay’s Minute 1835

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