The year 1854 was memorable for the Home Despatch which gave a considerable impetus to Vernacular Education; in the language of Lord Stanley’s Despatch of 1859, “it declared the wish of the Court of Directors for the prosecution of the object in a more systematic manner, and placed the subject on a level in point of importance with that of the instruction to be afforded through the medium of the English language. It must be admitted that, previously to 1854, the subject of Vernacular Education had not received, in every part of India, the full amount of attention which it merited:—
“The Indian Educational Code is contained in the Despatches of the Home Government of 1854 and 1859. The main object of the former Despatch is to divert the efforts of the Government from the education of the higher classes upon whom they had up to that date been too exclusively directed, and to turn them to the wider diffusion of education among all classes of the people, and especially to the provision of primary instruction for the masses. Such instruction is to be provided by the direct instrumentality of Government, and a compulsory rate, levied under the direct authority of Government, is pointed out as the best means of obtaining funds for the purpose.
“The medium of education is to be the Vernacular languages of India, into which the best elementary treatises in English should be translated. Such translations are to be advertised for, and liberally rewarded by Government as the means of enriching Vernacular literature.
“The existing Institution, for the study of the classical languages of India are to be maintained, ana respect is to be paid to the hereditary veneration which they command.“
“At a time when there were not 12,000 pupils altogether in the Government Colleges and superior Schools for general education in all India, the framers of the Code were of opinion that the efforts of Government had been too exclusively directed heretofore to the higher classes, and that all that then remained for Government to do for these classes was to establish Universities to complete the educational machinery in each Presidency. After the establishment of Universities, it was stated that—‘We shall have done as much as a Government can do to place the benefits of education plainly and practically before the higher classes of India.’ * * *
Our attention should now be directed to a consideration, if possible, still more important, and one which has been hitherto, we are bound to admit, too much neglected, namely, how useful and practical knowledge, suited to every station in life, may be best conveyed to the great mass of the people who are utterly incapable of obtaining any education worthy of the name by their own unaided efforts; and we desire to see the active measures of Government more especially directed, for the future, to this object, for the attainment of which we are ready to sanction a considerable increase of expenditure.
“Schools—whose object should be, not to train highly a few youths, but to provide more opportunities than now exist for the
