Empire, Civil Society, and the Beginnings of Colonial Education in India

Offers a new perspective on the making of colonial education and the history of modern schooling in India.

Jana Tschurenev (Adapted by)

9781108498333, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 May 2019

386 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.9 cm, 0.62 kg

This book tells a story of radical educational change. In the early nineteenth century, an imperial civil society movement promoted modern elementary 'schools for all'. This movement included British, American and German missionaries, and Indian intellectuals and social reformers. They organised themselves in non-governmental organisations, which aimed to change Indian education. Firstly, they introduced a new culture of schooling, centred on memorisation, examination, and technocratic management. Secondly, they laid the ground for the building of the colonial system of education, which substituted indigenous education. Thirdly, they broadened the social accessibility of schooling. However, for the nineteenth century reformers, education for all did not mean equal education for all: elementary schooling became a means to teach different subalterns 'their place' in colonial society. Finally, the educational movement also furthered the building of a secular 'national education' in England.

List of figures
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: empire civil society, and educational transformation in India
1. A colonial experiment in education, Madras, 1789–1796
2. Education of the poor, 1805–1813
3. Missionaries, empire, and the cause of universal education, 1792–1824
4. Race, class, and gender: the social agenda of education, 1809–1830
5. Rules and numbers: transforming rural education, 1814–1830
6. Intellectual conquest: education societies, 'useful knowledge', and the Bengal Renaissance, 1817–1854
7. Civil society, government, and educational institutional-building, Bombay presidency, 1819–1882
8. Teaching the marginalized: universal education and the politics of inequality, 1789–1937
Conclusion: the emergence of public elementary schooling in an imperial frame
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Schools [JNL], Educational strategies & policy [JNF], Education [JN], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Asian history [HBJF], Regional & national history [HBJ], History [HB]