Civilising the Native MCQ AND QUESTIONS

 ORIENTALIST -A person who studies the languages and cultures of East and Southeast Asia 

Why many British officials criticized the Orientalists?

Answer: From the early nineteenth century many British officials began to criticise the Orientalist vision of learning. They said that knowledge of the East was full of errors and unscientific thought; Eastern literature was non-serious and light-hearted. So they argued that it was wrong on the part of the British to spend so much effort in encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanskrit language and literature.

What were the provisions of English Education Act of 1835?

Answer: Measures taken by the English Education Act of 1835 were:

• English was made the medium of instruction for higher education.
• Promotion of Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College was stopped. These institutions were seen as “temples of darkness that were falling of themselves into decay”.
• English textbooks began to be produced for schools.

How Tagore’s views were different from Mahatma Gandhi regarding national education?

Answer: In many senses Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi thought about education in similar ways. There were, however, differences too. Gandhiji was highly critical of Western civilisation and its worship of machines and technology. Tagore wanted to combine elements of modern Western civilisation with what he saw as the best within Indian tradition. He emphasized the need to teach science and technology at Santiniketan, along with art, music and dance.

Why did many company officials in India want to promote Indian rather than western learning?

Answer: Many Company officials argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather than Western learning. This so because:

THey felt that institutions should be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts and teach Sanskrit and Persian literature and poetry.

The officials also thought that Hindus and Muslims ought to be taught what they were already familiar with, and what they valued and treasured, not subjects that were alien to them.

Only then, they believed, could the British hope to win a place in the hearts of the “natives”; only then could the alien rulers expect to be respected by their subjects.

Why did James Mill and Thomas Macaulay  think that European education was essential in India?

Answer: James Mill and Thomas Macaulay criticized the Orientalists.

According to James mill, the aim of education ought to be to teach what was useful and practical. So Indians should be made familiar with the scientific and technical advances that the West had made, rather than with the poetry and sacred literature of the Orient.

Thomas Macaulay felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature the world had produced; it would make them aware of the developments in Western science and philosophy. Teaching of English could thus be a way of civilising people, changing their tastes, values and culture.

What type of education did Mahatma Gandhi want in India?

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi’s views on education were:

Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect.

Mahatma Gandhi strongly felt that Indian languages ought to be the medium of teaching. Education in English crippled Indians, distanced them from their own social surroundings, and made them “strangers in their own lands”. Speaking a foreign tongue, despising local culture, the English educated did not know how to relate to the masses.

He argued that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul. Literacy – or simply learning to read and write – by itself did not count as education. People had to work with their hands, learn a craft, and know how different things operated. This would develop their mind and their capacity to understand.

What was Wood's despatch? What were the practical uses of Woods Despatch?

The Wood’s Despatch is considered as ‘Magna-Carta’ of English Education in India.

In 1854 he sent a despatch to Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor-General of India.

Wood’s despatch suggested that primary schools must Adopt vernacular languages.

High schools use anglo-vernacular medium and that English should be the medium for college-level education. 

Education departments need to be set up in different provincs.

At least one government school be opened in every district

Universities on the model of the London university be established in big cities like Bombay, Madras and Calcutta.

Systematic method of education.

Proper text books, exams, time table, building, reports and official teachers were introduced,

Maucaly Minute 1835

Lord Macaulay arrived in India as President of the General Committee of Public Instruction in June 1834. (GCPI)

In 1835, he was tasked with settling a dispute between orientalists and Anglicists.

The main goal of the British government should be to promote European literature and science among Indians, and that "all funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be best spent on English education alone."

No funds from the government were to be spent on the printing of oriental works.

All funds available to the government would be spent in the future on imparting knowledge of English literature and science to Indians.

Spending Only on Western Education: 

Closure of Colleges of Eastern Education

Downward Filtration Theory: He also advocated for the government to educate only a few Indians, who would then educate the rest of the population. 

Indian by Blood & British by Taste: 

 What was the report of William Adam about education in vernacular schools?

Adam found that there were over 1 lakh pathshalas in Bengal and Bihar. These were small institutions with no more than 20 students each. 

The system of education was flexible. There were no fixed fee, no printed books, no separate school building, no benches or chairs, no blackboards, no system of separate classes, no rollcall registers, no annual examinations, and no regular time-table. 

Teaching was oral, and the guru decided what to teach, in accordance with the needs of the students. Students were not separated out into different classes: all of them sat together in one place. The guru interacted separately with groups of children with different levels of learning.

Adam discovered that this flexible system was suited to local needs

1. Who took the initiative to set up the Calcutta Madrasa? (1781)

Answer: Warren Hastings

2. Name the two Indian who reacted against Western education.

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore

3. Who is a Linguist?

Answer: Linguist is someone who knows and studies several languages.

4. Name two individuals who sharply attacked the orientalists.

Answer: James Mill and Thomas Babington Macaulay attacked the Orientalists.

5. Who was of the opinion that Colonial education created sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians?

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi

6. By education I mean all round drawing out of the best in child and man- body, mind and spirit. Whose words are these?

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi

7. Name the places where universities were first established by the company in India?

Answer: Calcutta, Madras and Bombay

8. Who started the journal Asiatick Researches?

Answer: Jones set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick Researches.

9. What does madrasa mean?

Answer: Madrasa is an Arabic word for a place of learning; any type of school or college.

10. What does munshi mean?

Answer: The word munshi was used for a person who can read, write and teach Persian.

11. Name the Scottish missionary who toured the districts of Bengal and Bihar in the 1830s.

Answer: In the 1830s, William Adam, a Scottish missionary, toured the districts of Bengal and Bihar.

12. Which year did the East India Company decide to improve the system of vernacular education?

Answer: After 1854 the Company decided to improve the system of vernacular education.

13. Who established Serampore Mission?
Or
Who was William Carey?

Answer: William Carey was a Scottish missionary who helped establish the Serampore Mission.

14. Who were called Orientalists?

Answer: Those with a scholarly knowledge of the language and culture of Asia were called Orientalists.

15. Why was madrasa set up in Calcutta in 1781?

Answer: Madrasa was set up in Calcutta in 1781 to promote the study of Arabic, Persian and Islamic law.

16. How were Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College viewed by the British?

Answer: These institutions were seen as “temples of darkness that were falling of themselves into decay”.

17. What different languages did William Jones study?

Answer: Jones was a linguist. He had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew French and English, had picked up Arabic from a friend, and had also learnt Persian.

18. Why was the Hindu College established in Benaras?