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Indian Freedom Struggle (1707–1947 A.D.)

Notes (who crusaded for the cause of Western Sciences and Western literature through the medium of
English language). The statement continued till Lord William Bantinck, the Governor-General
appointed G.B. Macaulay as the Chairman of the Committee. Macaulay’s famous minute dated 2
February, 1835 advocated the Anglicists’ point of view. Lord William Bentinck’s government passed
a resolution on 7 March 1835 which declared the Government’s orders that henceforth government
funds would be utilised for “promotion of European literature and science” through the medium of
English language. A further Government notification of 1838 made it clear that henceforth no funds
would be made available for oriental learning.
Wood’s Education Despatch of 1854: In 1854 Sir Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control
and later the first Secretary of State for India, sent a comprehensive Despatch on Education to the
Government of India in which he recommended “a property articulated scheme of education from
the primary school to the University” for the whole of British India. The Despatch reiterated that
(i) the aim of education in India was to be diffusion of European languages (ii) through the medium
of both English and Indian languages. In brief, it recommended medium of instruction to be vernacular
languages at the primary level, followed by Anglo-vernacular schools at the middle and high school
levels and education through the English medium at College and University levels. It also
recommended the setting up of universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras on the model of the
London University.
The British commercial community both in Calcutta and in Britain became strong supporters of the
cause of anglicization of education in India. The English-educated Indian middle class not only helped
in exploitation of India’s natural resources but became the great consumers of British goods from
neckties to shoes.

2.3 The Regulating Act of 1773

Circumstances Leading to the Act: The first association of the British with the work of administration
under what is called the system of Dual Government (1765 to 1772) is a discreditable and shameful
page of British history, which has been summed up in a contemporary Muslim history, the Siyar-ul
Mutakherin, thus: “The new rulers paid no attention to the concerns of the people and suffered them
to be mercilessly oppressed and tormented by officers of their own appointing.” Then came the
famine of 1770 in Bengal which was one of the most appalling disasters in the recorded history of
India. The Company was not responsible for the famine but it and its agents were largely to blame for
a complete collapse of government. W.E.H. Lecky describes the plight of the people in the following
words: “Never before had the Indians experienced a tyranny which was so skilful, so searching and
so strong...”
During the twelve years preceding Warren Hastings’ administration the servants of the Company
thronged back to England loaded with wealth and what was strongly suspected of being the plunder
of Bengal. The incursion of these ‘Nabobs’ with their lavish notions and orientalized habits into the
aristocratic circles of the time is one of the most striking social phenomena of eighteenth century
England. Contemporary memoirs and letters reveal the mingled contempt, envy and hatred with
which they were regarded. While the servants of the Company were making huge profits, the Company
itself was on the verge of insolvency.
It was an ill-chosen moment for the Company to go bankrupt, especially when it had so few friends,
being hated by all and sundry. Yet that is what it contrived to do.
A blind folly had for some time past possessed the Directors and shareholders of the Company.
In 1769 when the Company was in debt to the tune of £6 millions, a dividend of 12.5% was decleared,
though the Directors had to conceal facts and falsify accounts. When news reached England of the
famine in Bengal and Haider Ali’s successful onslaught into the Carnatic, the Company’s stock showed
a spectacular decline and before long rumours got abroad of the Company’s true financial position.
The Directors in sheer desperation applied to the Bank of England for a loan of £1,000,000.

34 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY