What role did the Missionaries played in the Spread of Western Education in the 19th century in India?
Answers
There existed Gurukulas and Patashalas to promote education of the caste Hindus and Madarasas and Maktabs to promote the education of the Muslim community in India.
This indigenous education gave more stress to scholarship of languages rather than science and technology and by the time the British came to India as traders, Persian was the court language and irrespective of religious faith, both Hindus and Muslims learnt Persian to obtain jobs under the rulers of pre-colonial India.
Besides Madarsas and Patashalas, there too existed advanced centres of learning in languages along with ordinary schools teaching language proficiency based on oral tradition and memorization of the texts. The British who acquired territorial control and became political masters did not interfere in the educational field till 1813. After 1813, with the cooperation or a limited number of Indians, the British colonial rulers introduced the western system of education in India.
There was a great debate among Indians and the British, known as ‘Orientalists’ and ‘Anglicists’ about the type of education needed by the Indians. For nearly more than half a century, the British followed a policy of neutrality or non-intervention in the matters of religion and culture of the indigenous people.