SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis deals with the organisation and structure, the policies and objectives of the British educational system in Bengal from 1912 to 1937, At each level, primary, secondary and mainstream higher education, it seeks to judge the contribution, financial, political and educational, of the central and provincial governments, of the professional educators in the Indian Education Service, the Directors of Public Instruction and college principals, and of their Indian counterparts, most notably such Vice-Chancellors as Asutosh Mookerjee, together with the contributions of the politicians and publicists, both Hindu and Muslim, and of their constituents, the consumers of the education so fashioned and provided. The first two chapters deal with change in the structure and organisation of higher education as Calcutta became a teaching university and Dacca, founded in 1921, emerged from its shadow. Chapters three and four examine the problems of administration and control of secondary education and relate these to the financial constraints felt by government and the social and political pressures exerted by Bengali society. Primary education forms the subject of the fifth chapter, where the problems of expansion and improvement, of quantity and quality, within a restricted budget are examined and related to the rapid enlargement in the electorate after 1919 and 1935, The last chapter deals with education, seen again at all three levels, in terms of Muslim needs and aspirations - and of Hindu fears and opposition relating these to problems of employment and of political power.