Orientalist-Anglicist controversy
Also called: Orientalists and Anglicists · Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Orientalist–Anglicist controversy was a debate among British officials in the early 1830s. The question was how the East India Company should spend its money on education in India. The Charter Act of 1813 had set aside ₹1 lakh a year for education, but it did not say what kind. One side, the Orientalists, wanted to support Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian learning. The other side, the Anglicists, wanted Western subjects taught in English. The Anglicists won in 1835. This shaped Indian education for more than a century.
Example
Orientalists such as H.T. Prinsep and H.H. Wilson argued for Indian classical learning. Anglicists such as Thomas Macaulay disagreed. In his 1835 "Minute on Indian Education", Macaulay claimed that "a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia". Governor-General William Bentinck then approved English education in 1835.
Don't confuse with
- Wood's Despatch (1854): this was a later plan for a full education system. The controversy only decided which language and subjects the Company would pay for.
Related concepts
- Orientalists
- Calcutta Madrasa 1781
- Sanskrit College Benaras 1791
- Charter Act 1813
- Hindu College 1817
- Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education
- William Bentinck
- Downward filtration theory
- Wood's Despatch 1854